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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] What a blessing, what a blessing to be ♪ To be here in the service of the Lord ♪

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♪ We are thankful for another to worship you ♪ ♪ We come to praise his holy name ♪ ♪ What a blessing ♪ ♪ What a blessing ♪

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♪ To be here in the service of the Lord ♪ We are thankful for another chance to worship you. We come to praise his holy name. Praise him.

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We come to praise him. We come to praise him. We come to praise him. We come to praise his holy name.

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♪ Lift Him, we've come to lift Him ♪ ♪ We've come to lift Him, we've come to lift Him ♪ ♪ We've come to lift His holy name ♪ ♪ What a blessing, what a blessing ♪

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♪ To be here in the service of the Lord ♪ We are thankful for another chance to worship Him. We've come to praise His holy name. Thank Him.

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We've come to thank Him. We've come to thank Him. We've come to thank Him. We've come to praise His holy name.

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♪ What a blessing, what a blessing ♪ ♪ To be here in the service of the Lord ♪ ♪ We are thankful for another chance to worship Him ♪ ♪ We've come to praise His holy name ♪

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♪ What a blessing, what a blessing ♪ ♪ To be here in the service of the Lord ♪ ♪ We are thankful for another chance to worship you ♪ ♪ We've come to praise his holy name ♪

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♪ We've come to praise his holy name ♪ ♪ We've come to praise his holy name ♪ Amen. In the book of Exodus, chapter 17, beginning with the third verse, are these words, "And

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And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, "Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, "What shall I do unto this people?

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They be almost ready to stone me." And the Lord said unto Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon a rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the

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the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?

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There is a passage in the New Testament, the 21st chapter of Matthew, beginning with the 28th verse. The 21st chapter of Matthew, beginning with the 28th verse. But what think ye, certain man had two sons,

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and he came to the first and said, "Son, go work today in my vineyard." He answered and said, "I will not." But afterward he repented and went.

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And he came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and said, "I go, sir," and went not. went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father, they say unto him the first. Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the

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harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. Doing what God says, doing what God says. There are times when we experience spiritual drought. We travel in desert country and the ground surrounding us is parched

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We cry out in the desire for water. We are thirsty souls seeking water. As the African American spiritual puts it, sometimes we feel discouraged.

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And we think our work is in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. The children of Israel have left Egypt. They have passed through the waters of the Red Sea. And now they travel for three days in search of water, and they find no water.

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Evidently, they had left the Red Sea thinking that in the course of the journey, they would certainly encounter some water. But now they traveled three days. And when you're in the desert, this is very serious.

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I understand that people die from thirst much quicker than they die from starvation. You can go without food much longer than you can go without water.

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This is the first encounter of the children needing water. This account is found earlier in the book of Exodus before the account which is the basis of this message. This is a journey of three days in the desert and no water, searching. No refreshment of their spirit. They are depressed, crestfallen, and they are in a state of deep

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crestfallen, their spirits are crushed because they have no water and they cry out to Moses, you brought us here in this land, left Egypt because you see the door now is shut on yesterday they can't go back to Egypt, shut, and you brought us "I'm just here to die a first in this wilderness."

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And they blame Moses. You know, we're always looking many times, it's just human when something goes wrong to find somebody to blame.

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Mayor Ron Kirk was elected as mayor of the city of Dallas When he gave his inaugural speech, he said that the blame game is over. You know, this one blaming that one for this. It's all over now, blame game.

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Now they were trying to blame Moses for the fact that they had no wife. They were ready to not only blame him but to make things as miserable for him as possible. And he took the matter to God, and God told him to put a tree in the stream when they found some water.

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And this water that they found in that early experience was bitter. He said that we could not drink the waters of Mara because they were bitter. Could not drink because they were bitter. Bitter waters.

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And the only way they were sweetened is that God directed Moses to put a tree which was nearby in the midst of the waters and that sweetened the bitter waters. Now there are some waters that we will encounter in our desert pilgrimage that are too bitter. We cannot trick you.

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I listened the other day, as possible, many of you, the news that some boys were traveling in Los Angeles and their car broke down in the gang area and members of the gang appeared and killed him. And these were boys who were doing their level best to do the right thing in life and succeed

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in life. And their parents had embraced them and they had their parents on TV, both of the parents they were different families. And their grief was almost too much for them to bear.

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And there are occasions like that when we could not drink the waters of Meribah, Mara rather, because they were too bitter. So Mara means bitterness, sorrow, grief. Cannot drink too much of the experiences of life we think are like that.

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We come to places in the desert when we encounter bitter water. Traveled a long time, expected to be rewarded with some good water. There's an incident in that story, Waiting to Exhale, where the woman is married and her husband has become a success and all of a sudden he tells her, "I don't want you anymore."

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He's got him a different wife, even of a different race. And she cuts up all of his clothes and burns up the car. You know the story. But these are bitter waters.

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We cannot, we could not drink the waters of Mara because they were bitter, too bitter. traveled three days expecting to find it and when you found the water it was too bitter to drink. Now there is another incident here in the 17th chapter where they travel a little longer. Some say this was in the second year of that

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pilgrimage and they come to again to search for water. They come to Rephidee looking for water and they come there and and they travel and they don't find any water. They don't find any water at all. First time they did find some water, bitter waters, but this time they find no water. And they're searching and

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searching for water. And when they come again this time they want to stone Moses. It's always Moses. and Moses cries out to God, "Lord, these people want to kill me!" Now he's doing God's will, and God had called Moses back there and sent him to Egypt and told him to deliver the people that he would be with him, stand before Pharaoh, tell him to set the people free. He's God's agent.

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but the people. When Moses is doing what God tells him to do, the people blame Moses for their sorrow, their pain, their grief, their disappointment, their discouragement. They blame Moses. And Moses said, "Lord, they want to stone me." And so God again intervenes.

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He says to Moses, "What do you have in your hand?" In other words, you don't need any new remedy for this situation. No new gospel. "What do you have in your hand?"

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hand. Well I have this rod. Well that's the same rod that you have been using all the time. Use it again. Strike the rock. Strike the rock. No, no, no, no water anywhere around. The sands out there in the desert will cry out there's no water in me. The open skies like brass. It too would speak saying there's no water in me.

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And there is this dull dry rock that would say there's no water in me. But God God says, "Strike the rock." Now, you know, if it were in our time, people could produce a lot of theological arguments

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why Moses ought not strike the rock. This doesn't make any sense. All this talk about miracles and the like. But Moses, he's been schooled in the higher institutions

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learning in Egypt and all that, but he does what God says, what God says, and he strikes the rock and water gushes forth. Now I want us to see these two incidents in context here, how we're going to come from bitterness, you know, to joy, from bitterness to joy. This is an experience that's in the midst of life for every one of us.

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There's always a temptation for something that happens to you to get bitter and hold it against the person. Be resentful, envious, and all of those sort of things. Bitterness. Can you see Naomi as she goes forth into a strange place and she has sons and all of that she is a person who is pleasant, she is happy, but now her husband and sons are

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and she's left there with some daughters-in-law. And she goes back to her home, and she says to them, "Don't call me Naomi anymore." You know what Naomi means?

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Pleasant. It means joy. Don't call me that anymore. Call me Mara.

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That's the same word they use, and that means bitterness. In other words, she had come from joy to a situation of grief and sorrow. Yeah, a family has the great experience of new life coming into the family, and they invite people and they gather, and they celebrate a new birth as joy.

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But then the doctor comes later and says, you know, this child is mentally retarded and will not be able to function. And that joy seems to be swallowed up by sorrow.

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We are finding it increasingly difficult In fact, they said we cannot drink the waters of Mara because they're too bitter. But God somehow is able, if we obey him,

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in both of these passages, God says to Moses on the one hand, take that tree that's nearby, put it in the water. He says in the other case, he said,

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take and smite the rock with your rod. In other words, they receive water because they do what God says. And so, you see, God is prepared

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to work a miracle in our lives if we just do what he says. So what, oh Lord, I'm just an ordinary person. I have all of my limitations.

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You could hear Moses back there saying, I can't speak, I'm not good at this. But God says, you go, and I'll go with you. You, you, you, you, you do what I say,

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and somehow when we do what God says, we become a chattel for a miracle that God works in our lives. doing what God says

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oh how can we deal with the bitter waters well by doing what God says I remember a friend of mine who had what he called a parable

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of the lemonade you know how sour lemons are? they are sour you wouldn't want to be just eating lemons all the time or drinking lemon juice all the time just with nothing else but when you take that those sour lemons take that lemon juice

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squeeze it into some water and then take some sugar and sweeten it oh that's a delicious drink so that somehow when we when we have the Spirit of God and miss all of the sour and bitter experiences of our lives. When we have the Spirit of God there placed in it,

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it makes our lives blended with beauty and pleasantness. And our lives become delicious manifestations of God's presence. You could not drink the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. we can travel from bitterness to joy.

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And even when we get to the point where you travel for days and days and days and find no water. And we've had that experience as a people. No water for us.

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And when there was water, there was a special water fountain you know, with colored marked over there, white marked water. And one person came and they were looking.

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This child thought that there would be some colored water coming out of that fountain over which was the sign colored. This is the experience that Moses has with God, a miracle that is performed because he

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does what God tells him to do. Even when things get worse, they cannot get so bad that God isn't there to help us if we just talk with God. Well you say, "Brother Pastor, what does this mean for me today? Well Jesus says in his parable that a man says go out and work to two of his sons. One says I ain't going. Stubborn. Now you know how you would feel

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as a parent and someone responds in that way but there are people who look and listen to word of God and they say I'm not doing that, no that's not for me. And a little later he decides to go. And another answer, well yes I'll go. And he goes on and on and on and and he does not go. Which one is rewarded of the Father? They said it's the one who

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said he wasn't going and went. And that's the group we have we call Jesus said the publicans and sinners will get in because they said they weren't going but they repented. That was genuine repentance and they came. And so it's It's doing what God says that really matters.

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When it's all said and done with all of the accolades and the decorations that we would receive, the most important thing is being a servant of the Word of God, doing what God says.

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And somehow when we do what God says, He'll provide water. And we can drink the water, no matter what the water may be, no matter how bitter the waters may be, if we do what God says, he enables us to drink the water. In the midst of afflictions that may rage around us, we can drink the water.

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So we can say, the water, the water that God provides, drink it! Drink it no matter how it may be, where you may find it, if God provides you direction for the journey, He will provide you the water that you need for the thirst that you encounter. Drink the water. Drink the water. The living water. Stoop down and drink and live. As we sing now the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.

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For you see, He is the living water. He is the living water that quenches the thirst, the desires, and the agonies, and all of that. cleanses us and satisfies our needs as we journey through this desert. You'll enable us to have our lives sweetened even by the bitter experiences. We invite you to come as we extend the opportunity to be a member of the family of God

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identified here with Ebenezer. The door is open, we invite you to come. (piano music) ♪ Glory ♪

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♪ Dear Lord ♪ ♪ A cross I'll bear ♪ ♪ And I'll go anytime ♪ ♪ Anywhere ♪

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♪ I'll not falter from ♪ ♪ Far from the weight of woe ♪ ♪ If you'll lead me, dear Lord ♪ ♪ I will go ♪

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♪ Dear Lord ♪ ♪ You've done ♪ ♪ So much ♪ ♪ So much for me ♪

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♪ Many things ♪ ♪ That the world ♪ ♪ Cannot see ♪ ♪ In my heart I yearn ♪

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♪ Thy love to return ♪ ♪ For thee, dear Lord ♪ ♪ The fire always burns ♪ ♪ Oh, use me Lord ♪

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♪ Use me Lord, I'm coming ♪ ♪ Oh, use me Lord ♪ ♪ Every tear that I shed ♪ Help me tell the story.

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Make the willow lay. I'll go all the way. Use me, oh Lord. ♪ And pray ♪

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♪ Not for fame ♪ ♪ Or name ♪ ♪ That the world ♪ ♪ Might see ♪

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♪ But the glory ♪ ♪ Lord, I'll be true ♪ ♪ Just give me work to do ♪ ♪ And I'll run, I'll run all the way ♪

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♪ I'll run all the way ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ Oh, you ♪ ♪ Freeborn ♪

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♪ Oh, you ♪ ♪ In love and glory ♪ ♪ You, freeborn ♪ Help me tell my story.

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Help me. Help me. I'm here for you. Use me.

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I'll go all the way. Use me, oh Lord, I pray. [ Music ] ♪ Use me Lord ♪

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♪ Use me Lord ♪ ♪ By glory ♪ ♪ Oh just use me ♪ ♪ Lord ♪

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♪ Help me tell ♪ ♪ Help me tell the story ♪ ♪ One day ♪ ♪ You'll see ♪

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♪ Just you, me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ I pray ♪ ♪ To speak of love ♪ ♪ I pray ♪

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- Amen. May we bow our heads. Use us, oh Lord. Even amid the desert experiences,

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