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[ Music ] [ Music ] [MUSIC - "HOLY, HOLY, HALLELUJAH"] [choir singing]

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♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I've made ♪ ♪ My burden down ♪

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[MUSIC] ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since the day ♪

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♪ Since I laid ♪ ♪ My burden ♪ ♪ Down ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪

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♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ I've been resting from my labor ♪

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♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ I've been resting from my labor ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Oh my labor ♪

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♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ I've been resting from my labor ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burden down ♪

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♪ Don't you know that I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burden down ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ All my troubles ♪ ♪ Now are over ♪

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♪ Since I laid ♪ ♪ My burden down ♪ ♪ All my troubles ♪ ♪ Now are over ♪

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♪ Since I laid ♪ ♪ My burden's down ♪ ♪ All my troubles ♪ ♪ Now are over ♪

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♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ All my troubles ♪ ♪ Now are over ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪

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♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪

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♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Lord I'm feeling so much better ♪

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♪ Since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Lord I'm feeling so much better ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm feeling so much better ♪

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♪ Since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm feeling so much better ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid those burdens down ♪

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♪ Children, I laid those burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Children, I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Every round goes higher and higher ♪ Since I lay my burdens down, every round goes high and high.

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Since I lay my burdens down, every round goes high and high. Since I laid my burdens down, every round goes high and high. Since I laid my burdens down. Don't you know that I laid my burdens down?

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Don't you know that I laid my burdens down? Don't you know that I laid my burdens down? ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Yes I did, yes I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪

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♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know that I laid my burdens down ♪ ♪ Don't you know I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burden down ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid my burden down ♪

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♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Since I laid, since I laid my burden down ♪ - The faith journey.

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Abraham, the father of the faithful. In order for the family to be the family, the family must participate in the journey of faith. And in some degree, every one of us is on a faith journey.

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So it is good for us to consider Abraham, who started this journey thousands of years ago. So faith is a journey, it's a trip charged with expectation and excitement. Several generations ago, when most of the people of this country lived in rural areas,

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going to town on Saturday was an experience to which the family looked forward. So faith is a journey toward a meaningful goal. A child who rides on the merry-go-round takes a journey. It's a delightful experience, but he's not going anywhere.

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He gets off where he got on. So we who respond to the call of God on a journey of faith are on a journey that goes from nothingness to being, from the dwelling of Abraham, so to speak, in Babylon to Canaan. It's a journey.

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People of faith are on the move, going from place to place, and it is in the midst of this movement that Abraham hears the call of God. According to tradition, Abram is with his father, Terah, in Ur of Chaldees. Ur of Chaldees is in Babylon.

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It's interesting that when we consider our beginnings, we look in the book of Genesis, We find Adam and Eve being placed in the garden, and we call it Eden. Blessedness, this is the area where we say civilization began. Tigris and Euphrates rivers, they had a wonderful life in the garden.

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It was a life where there was no pain, there was no discard, but there came the serpent who disrupted that peaceful tranquility that they were accustomed to in the garden. And so we go from Eden over several generations and we find Abraham in Babylon. It's a long way from Eden to Babylon.

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A long way. And then the garden where he had peace, where he walked with God. Now Babylon is derived from that place where there was a babbling of tongues, where men attempted to build for themselves a tower that would reach from earth to heaven.

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wanted to make a name for themselves. So here is Abraham where this discard has occurred, where there is division, where there is strife, where there is babbling. Here is Abraham who hears the call of God in Babylon. A place where there is Bedlam, Babylon, place where there is confusion, Babylon, place where there is

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wickedness, Babylon with its strange way of life, Babylon with its idol worship. From Adam to Abraham is a journey from Eden to Babylon. That is what has happened to us as a people. Black people were in Eden in Africa years ago.

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We had what is known as one of the highest civilizations known to mankind. We had our kings and our queens. The poet has written,

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what is Africa to me? Copper sun or scarlet sea? Jungle star or jungle track? Strong black men or regal black women

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from whose loins I sprang when the birds of Eden sang? One three-century removed from the scenes of his father's spicy grove and cinnamon tree, what is Africa to me?

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Well, we had a gracious, a glorious history, but we have come from Eden to Babylon. Our Babylon is our time of servitude. Several years ago, I visited a slave castle in Ghana

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on the west coast of Africa. I saw there stalls in which our foreparents were placed. Men were separated from women like cattle and put together for breeding purposes from time to time.

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They were placed in chains, marched on ships and brought to these shores as slaves. Some jumped into the ocean rather than be drowned by or eaten by sharks.

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So we have had our Babylon. We have had our time on the cross. Frederick Douglass describes the life of a slave and he says, "The daily life of a slave

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was under the watchful eye and guardianship of the master. The slave was trained from the cradle up to think and feel that their masters were superior and invested with a sort of sacredness.

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There were few who could rise above the control, which was the sentiment that was exercised at the time. Then there were the ways of celebrating holidays. Holidays that we celebrate,

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we're gonna celebrate one this week, June 19th. Well, when slaves celebrated holidays, They were encouraged to engage in reverie and boxing and in drinking and getting drunk.

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That's what the master encouraged. If a slave were found engaged in meaningful activity during the holidays, he was not considered a good slave because if he made brooms or something like that

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and succeeded in making $3 or so during the holidays, he may get the idea that he could make $300 if he were free during the year. So, a certain kind of conduct was encouraged.

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Slaves were deprived of an education. Frederick Douglass almost taught himself to read and write. He'd had some exposure from one of the mistresses of the mansion, and he snatched a little here and there from the children of the master until he was able to read and to teach others

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how to read. Well, that's just a glimpse of where we have come from as a family in Babylon. But we still have our Babylon.

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We still have the challenge of learning to get a good education. It's still looked upon when we talk about the minorities, those who are at the bottom of the test scores

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and all of that. And sometimes we contribute to that by not seeking to do our best in view of the difficulties

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and the disadvantages that we face. Abraham was satisfied in Babylon. So many people today are satisfied in Babylon. They're not disturbed about the high rate of delinquency

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that we may have, they're not disturbed. We get disturbed of course when one is mistreated, but it goes on all the time. This King case that is in the news today

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of a lady who was killed, who was already mentally deranged, There are people in so many ways are killed every day. And somehow the reason the condition prevails

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is that we are satisfied in Babylon. Abraham was. You read the scripture, he was doing pretty well. He had a good income, he had many cattle,

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And he was at ease and he had reached retirement. So whatever pension benefits we think about, he had access to them at this period of time. And yet something happened to him.

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God called him. And when God calls us, he awakens us from our slumber. Abraham, Abraham, get out of your country. Get out of your country. Get out!

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Oh, I know you're familiar with Babylon, you're familiar with the reverie of Babylon, but get out of Babylon! You're satisfied there? But get away from your kindred. You know, we have a tendency to become satisfied with that which is familiar.

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We don't want to be pushed out in something new, in something that will challenge us many times. That was Abraham. Get out. Leave your kindred to a land that I will show you.

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Abraham wanted to be great. But he says to him, I will

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make you a great father. Abram means little father. You're a little father now, but if you cause yourself to follow in the path that I lead, you will become a great father.

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Get out of this country from your own relatives and that which is so familiar to you, leave it and go to a land That I will show you you know brothers and sisters. It's so easy to get fixed in

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Babylon It's so easy to get in a rut in Babylon and a rut is just a coffin with both ends out Being content to remain in Babylon is to be satisfied with things as they are

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Satisfied to stay in your own backyard the call of God to the pilgrim of faith is to leave Babylon in

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Babylon There is a strange value system people worship the moon God Babylon is known for idolatrous worship. Inhabitants of Babylon worship gold,

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they worship homes, they worship clothes. Ours is a journey of faith. We're called to leave a land of fixity for a land of flexibility, to stretch out on our own with God. This is Abraham's challenge. This is the challenge that confronts the family today. Richard Kipling's poem, The Explorer, says, "Something lost? Go and find

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it. Go and look behind the ranges. Something lost and waiting for you." So Our faith is committing ourselves to God, committing ourselves to the God who calls us. It's taking a risk.

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Company came here some years ago and they were having a particular program for their workers and it involved taking a leap. They were making certain decisions on the basis of how persons responded when they were told to leap into the arms of someone else.

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But that's what faith is. It's taking a leap. It's taking a risk and being sure that taking that risk with God, you will be successful. So when Abraham made the decision to leave Babylon, he crushed the idol gods.

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To leave Babylon is to depart from our allegiance to a sin-saked culture. To leave Babylon is to cease being worshippers of the material and transitory. To leave Babylon is to cease to worship idols. So we need, as Abraham did,

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to hear the voice of God in the midst of Babylon. Here's a man 70 years old, has all the things he thinks he needs to survive in that culture and to do well,

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but he hears the call of God. To get out, to move to a new place, new territory, to new level in life, to get out of Babylon. That's the call of God,

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and it's the call of God to us here today. The call of God is to leave Babylon. I can imagine Abraham coming home, saying to his wife, Sarah, of many years,

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Honey, we've got to leave here. We've got to go to another country. Well, where are you going? I don't know, it's somewhere that God is going to show me.

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Well, where are you going? You don't know? Well, this God who called you, what did he say to you? Well, he said, just leave this place,

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leave my relatives and friends and go to a land. So we've got to leave. We've got to leave. Not knowing where he's going, but going out on God's,

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stretching out on God. Oh, how wonderful it is to stretch out on God. Abraham, pioneer, who leads the way for the faithful, leads the way.

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All of us need to have some models. And that's what we have in celebrating Father's Day, Christian fathers who serve as models. And they may not be your relatives,

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they might have your blood who serve in that way. I remember when as a teenager, I'd get on my bike and ride across town and hear certain men who came to town.

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And one of those I went across town to hear as a teenager was President Rhodes of Bishop College. He was speaking in a forum and I rode my bike over there and hit the bike in the bushes as a teenager

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and went in and listened to what he had to say. Well years later I went to Bishop College and years later he recommended me to my first church. It's a strange thing when you begin to look back

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across the years as to how God works when you respond to the call of God. Years, years later. And he became a model for me to follow.

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And I walked just from that being a teenager, Abraham is a model of faith. Walk before me. And Abraham begins to walk before God.

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and he is able to survive test after test because he has faith in God. And to have faith is to stand on the promises of God. To have faith is to feel the music of God's love.

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To have faith, to have that trust in him no matter what may occur in our lives, by faith. By faith we stand, by faith we learn, by faith we depend on God.

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It is by faith. And it is by faith that the elders received a good report. By faith Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going.

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And do you know when you walk with God, You really don't have to know. No, no, you don't have to know. You have your hand in the hand of one who knows.

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And so you walk with him. And he just keeps leading us. Leading us. You go on a journey from here to Dallas at night,

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you don't see all of the way from Austin to Dallas. You just see so many feet as the headlights show. And then you travel that, and then you see some more. and you travel that and you see more,

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and finally you get where you're going. And oh, how wonderful it is when we get where we are going and we are with God and we can bless his holy name. Thanks be to God that he is the father of the faithful.

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And when we get to a position where we don't know what to do or where to go or how to respond, You have Abraham's example there. He said, "Father Abraham, Father Abraham!"

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And that's enough to follow where he goes. Thanks be to God that he is with us in our struggle. I don't know where you are today in that faith journey. I don't know where you are,

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but I started that faith journey when I was just a boy nine years of age. And now I've passed through that child period, and I've passed through the adolescent period,

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and I've passed through the young adult period, and now I'm entering that period of the senior citizen. But God has been there all the way, every step of the way, to lead us,

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to comfort us, and to protect us. It's an open door. It's not reserved just for certain people. It's open to everybody.

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Everyone has the opportunity to walk with God and be guided by his spirit. So we open the door. It's a door that's really already open.

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We just announced that it's open for you to take the opportunity to have God as your eternal companion all along this life.

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Come. Before the church is open, you may come by letter, by Christian experience, or a profession of faith. Come, come.

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Come. [MUSIC PLAYING] Father, Father, I stretch my hands to thee. Father, I stretch my hands to thee.

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♪ No other help I owe ♪ ♪ If thou would draw ♪ ♪ Thyself from me ♪ ♪ Oh, where the ship I go ♪

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♪ Oh, where the ship I go ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, I know ♪ ♪ Is so in you ♪ ♪ Before I drew my breath ♪

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♪ Oh, what pain, what lame ♪ ♪ What lay, what lay ♪ ♪ For truth secure ♪ ♪ My soul from endless death ♪

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♪ Father of faith ♪ ♪ To thee I lift my weary lot ♪ ♪ King I ♪ ♪ Yes ♪

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♪ Oh may ♪ ♪ May I now ♪ ♪ Receive ♪ ♪ Thy gift ♪

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♪ My soul ♪ ♪ Without ♪ ♪ It dies ♪ Hallelujah.

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♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ain't no harm to mourn sometimes ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪

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♪ Ooh ♪ (humming) (man vocalizing) Hallelujah.

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(humming) [ Music ] Amen. Those persons who stood earlier celebrating birthdays, would you join us here at the rear

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of the sanctuary? who stood celebrating wedding anniversaries, would you come also? [Humming] Good morning. Is it? Wonderful. Wonderful.

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[Humming] [Singing] ♪ To our safe ♪ ♪ Home ♪

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- Congratulations, congratulations. Lord God, be with these, thy people, in their going out and their coming in, their down sitting and their up rising,

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their laughter and their tears, their labor and their leisure. Until that day when we shall all gather in that eternal city and behold the glory of thy face.

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- Amen. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ Amen.

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