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[Pause] ...verse, Exodus the fourth chapter, the 18th through the 31st verse as our scripture. [Pause] "And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said unto him,

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"Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life." And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass and he returned to the land of Egypt

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and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand.

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but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go and thou shall say unto Pharaoh thus saith the Lord Israel is my son even my firstborn and I will say unto thee let my son go that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him go behold I will slay thy son even thy firstborn and it came to pass

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by the way in the end that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet and said, "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." So he let him go and he said, "A bloody husband art thou because of the circumcision." And the Lord said to

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Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." And he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him and Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel and

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Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction then they bowed their heads and worshipped. May the Lord bless to us

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the reading and hearing of his holy word. Our hymn of praise and consecration is is hymn number forty one to god be the glory as we turn to this him

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let us stand and sing to god be the glory [ Music ]

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[MUSIC] [Music] ♪ He is risen now, and now no man of sin ♪ ♪ And all the world at His hand, all will know Him ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear His voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪

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♪ O come to the Father, good Jesus the Son ♪ And give him the glory, great King Teuton. O pray, this petition, the virtues of love, To every believer that promise of love.

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The vow is a thing that was firmly made, ♪ Where lo, his world's heat of sun-bottom receives ♪ ♪ And the love, and the love ♪ ♪ That the earth here withholds ♪

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♪ When the love, when the love ♪ ♪ That the people rejoice ♪ ♪ O come to the cross ♪ ♪ And heal the son ♪

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♪ And give him the glory ♪ ♪ Everything's in the power ♪ - Gracious God, our Father, we need you.

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We need you to give us strength in the midst of our weakness. We need you to give us light, to shine in the darkness. now thy word to our hearts. Grant that your people may hear.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (dramatic music) [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[Music] The Lord said unto Moses in Midian, "Go return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life." Moses took his wife and his sons, set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt.

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Moses took the rod of God in his hand From exile To Exodus from exile to Exodus Moses

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Is in exile Away from the land where he was born his native country. He has left Egypt in order to escape the wrath of Pharaoh. He He has come to Midian for safety and for seclusion.

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It was a place of quiet rest. He felt secure in Midian. he had met the seven daughters of Jethro, who was a priest in Midian. And there for some 40 years, Moses has engaged in the quiet contemplative life of a keeper of sheep in

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exiled in Midian. Moses had been in Egypt. He was born in Egypt. He was born during a rather critical period in the history of God's people. He was born during a time when the establishment had decided that the Hebrew race would not prosper in Egypt. But we are told that there had risen a ruler that knew not Joseph,

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was not concerned about the kindness that had been done by Joseph and had decided that all of the boy babies would be killed. This word had been given to the midwives. There were two midwives whose primary responsibility was to serve as

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and as agents in delivering the Hebrew babies. And they were given the command to kill all of the boy babies. And whatever happens to a people is always determined by what happens to the children.

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You can look at what happens to the children and you can tell what happens to a community. You see a community where all of the children grow up and move away, you'll see a dying community. You'll see a community or an institution that that does not give attention to the rearing of the young and the protection of the young and you will see

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a decadent society. What happens to the children? And you see, whenever there is a ray of hope, it is always expressed in the what happens to the young. And when God moved to give a concrete expression of hope to his people in Egypt, as they cried out to him for deliverance, as they suffered under the rigors of hard taskmasters,

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Heaven answered their prayers and there was a child born and hidden among the bulrushes on the Nile. You know God moves in a mysterious way. And it just so happened that when Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe herself she saw this strange sight and had a servant to bring it to her and she saw in this ark

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that floated upon the bosom of the Nile this little baby, this Hebrew boy baby, and she became very attached to it and she had made the decision in her own heart to keep it even though she was Egyptian and this was a Hebrew child. And it so happened that the child's sister volunteered to get someone to keep the child

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and secured that child's mother. And the word that was given by the Egyptian princess was take and take good care of this child and I will pay thee thy wages. And I think this is something of what God says to each one of us. You know, take good care of the children, of every child, and I will pay thee thy wages. You know, sometimes I think

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I think people want to have children just because other people have them. And it seems to be the good thing to do. You get a certain income tax deduction,

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and some people say, "Well, I'm paying too much "to the government, I'll get me a child." Some people don't really assume the full responsibility of children.

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They see other young people with them, and so they feel that society will look down upon them they don't have them people say you don't have any children and they have guilt feelings because they don't have but I think if we really understood what

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God is saying to us as to be a channel of his grace and hope in the birth of children and bringing them into the world and caring for them that we would hear this word, "Take good care of this child and I will pay thee thy wages." Well, Moses was drawn out of the waters of the Nile. That's why he was given the name.

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The very waters that were known to destroy, waters of destruction, became a means of salvation, God moves in a strange and mysterious way. And as Moses is taken and reared in Pharaoh's court, one day as he has grown up now, the young manhood, he recognizes that even though he's in Pharaoh's court in Egypt, that he

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has a different heritage even though he has learned the wisdom of the magicians he has attended the institutions and he's a member of the palace family he recognizes that he belongs to that oppressed group that he has he has a different heritage in other words he's sort of multicultural he has both the

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culture of the Egyptians and then he has the culture of the Hebrews. And he identifies with the oppressed, those that were being beaten with with heavy stripes by cruel taskmasters. Moses somehow recognizes the fact that even though he's a young prince in Egypt that these are his brethren. One day he is out

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in the field and he sees an Egyptian oppressing an Israelite and he becomes filled with righteous indignation and he slays the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. He thought surely that they would appreciate this, his own countrymen so to speak the Hebrews. But he was out on another day and he saw that there was a

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disturbance between two Israelites, two Hebrews, and he sought to arbitrate the matter telling them not to fight, that they were brothers, and one of them said you mean to do unto me as you did to that Egyptian? You killed him and buried him in the sand and Moses became aware of the fact that not only was this

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discussed as among his brethren but that the word had come to the ears of Pharaoh and he had to leave. He had to get out of Egypt. He had to get out of Egypt for his own safety, for his own security, he felt that he had to leave Egypt. And so we find him in Midian. Well there's something about Egypt where there's

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oppression, where there is misery, there's something about Egypt that would cause us to want to leave Egypt. All of us somehow want to leave Egypt. We'd like to get away from poverty, we'd like to get away from ignorance, and some of us purposed long ago in our lives that we were going to do everything we could to

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get out of Egypt, to get out of the Egypt of ignorance, to get out of the Egypt of poverty, to get out of the Egypt of oppression, and Moses is now in Midian. And we as a people have had our Egypt and we've had various ways of getting out of Egypt Egypt of

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discrimination segregation There are several ways we had of getting out When I was a boy you people talked about passing, you know, if you were light enough a certain color you try to pass You know go for being white if you could get by and that was one way of trying to get out

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And some of the books were saying that if the black people keep marrying light people and marrying lighter and getting lighter and lighter After a while, they'll no longer be black and the color problem will go away. That's what some people were saying back in those days well We know that that just isn't the case. Neither should that be the way

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But we found various ways some some tried the way of economics of getting enough money and becoming secure As getting out of out of Egypt, but Egypt is not only a matter of ignorance. It's not only a matter of

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poverty Getting out of Egypt is an experience of the mind We can be in bondage as far as the mind and spirit are concerned

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getting out of Egypt. And I've seen a number of people who have gotten in Midian like Moses, seclusion, quiet contemplative life and they

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forget about the cries of the brothers and sisters back in Egypt. I remember once I was on to give a prayer for a regional teachers meeting And in the prayer I prayed for all the children

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Those that were in the suburbs and the well-to-do Families there as well as those that were in the ghettos that were suffering from deprivation in the like And one of the teachers who was dressed in fine or I say, you know Reverend mentioned that he said that's what we trying to

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get away from. We didn't want to be reminded of that. So sometimes we would like to get away from suffering, and even the need of others as being reminded of it. Buddha was like that. He wanted to have a sheltered life, to get away from all of that. Here Moses is in Midian, away from all of that, but somehow in the midst of his contentment, in the midst

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of his quiet and peaceful life, he hears the voice of God. And God calls him and tells him in an experience where he sees a burning bush, and in the dialogue that occurs God tells him to go to Egypt, return to Egypt, go back to the place where from whence you've come, go back to Egypt, that all of those who sought to take your

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life are now dead, that Pharaoh is dead, you may go back now and you may take your children, been in this strange land, you've suffered, go back to Egypt. I think that's a message to us as a race. I think there's a message to us for us not only as a people but as Christians, as a church here at Ebenezer, and as a message

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for us here individually. Get out, leave Midian, go to Egypt. That's a message for us. Because I think we all suffer from kind of temptation to be content in Midian. I talked to young people today and while they're getting their education they say, "Oh, I want to do something about the struggle. I want to dedicate myself to helping in the struggle and

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someone says to them well you really have that kind of dedication or is it that you when you get some of the things you want get become middle class that you'll be just like the other middle class people get in midian and be content and so often that's what happens. Richard Wright, James Baldwin, those are

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some of our leaders that had that same feeling, that same desire, expatriates. They were people who were so depressed, they had come to the point of despairing in the midst of the struggle.

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Richard Wright, after having written several books and becoming successful as a writer, he wanted to get away from all of the segregation and all of the misery here in this country.

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And he went to France, Paris, France, and lived out his days in Midian, in Midian. James Baldwin also went to Europe, lived in Paris and in Switzerland in Midian

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to get away from all of the struggle that you have to bear because of the inhumanities that we've suffered as a minority in this country. But finally James Baldwin said,

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"Well, America is my home and I ought not be away from the struggle." And he heard the call to return and James Baldwin returned and became involved in the struggle. This happens over and over again, the call to leave Midian and come to Egypt. It comes to us as a church. It's not enough to accept Jesus Christ as the

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Lord of your life to come to church every Sunday, to be in Sunday school, to be in training union, to sing in the choir, to be faithful. You can do that and be a median. You know what it struck me the other day more and more you know we have Egypt right around us Egypt right around Ebenezer you drive

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down 11th Street you get a good good sight of Egypt you can drive right around the corner of the church and we have this challenge we come the preacher preaches and we sing and we talk about how good God is and we can drive right around the corner and we can see prostitutes standing on the corner saying

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may I help you? Egypt right there. And we come and we can go on and on and on and live out our lives with all of the deprivation not only in that way as far as their spiritual lives are concerned but with all of the poverty and with all of the challenges to overcome the educational disadvantages and the deprivement that we suffer right here in Egypt. The school district gave

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us about $20,000 when I was chairman of the committee of subcommittee of 15 just to tell them what we thought needed to be done in the education of minorities. Well we found out that that wasn't easy we can talk about what isn't being done but when it comes to really having a positive solution to the problem we

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found that very difficult. But that's the challenge, we have all of these problems that weigh upon us, that here we are in Egypt with ignorance, with poverty, with spiritual deprivation and disadvantages, and yet the voice comes to us to leave Midian and to return to Egypt. Well, that's pretty difficult for

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for us many times after we've heard the call of God and after we say yes Lord here's my life I'm willing to go and we say that and we we sometimes make a start and then after working for a while something happens and we stop again that's what happened to Abraham he got to Aaron he heard the voice of God in

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But when he got to Haran he stopped and Moses heard the voice of God and he started on the way to Egypt And after he got a certain place he stopped And the scripture says that God came upon him and that he would have killed him Sometimes God has to almost kill us

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To get us to do what we know we ought to do Now we hear a lot of preachers talking about how the Lord did, but God just doesn't work with preachers that way, He works with us. And many, many other things that we ought to do that we do not do. Sometimes when we put our hands to do this, something happens and nothing just doesn't seem to work right for us because we're not doing what God wants us to do.

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And so in this rite of circumcision which is ministered to Moses' son, the symbol of sacrifice, Moses then makes the decision to make the sacrifice of his life and he goes to Egypt. He responds to God's word, his command and he goes to Egypt and what does he have as he goes? He has the rod

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of God in his hand that's all. The rod of God in his hand. Not necessary to have everything at our disposal some people are waiting until they have everything that they need. Some people are waiting to become a Christian until everything is working favorably in their lives and if you wait for that you'll

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never become. But Moses somehow steps out in faith with the rod of God in his hand. It's the rod which is a symbol of power. It's the rod which is a symbol of authority. He has the rod of God in his hand that's what the shepherd used in caring for the sheep the shepherd had the rod and that rod was like a club to beat away the wolves. Somehow God

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said to him Moses what do you have? He said what do you have in your hand? He said oh Lord all I have is just a rod. He said well cast it down Moses cast it down and that rod turns to a serpent and he says pick it up and he picks up the serpent and the serpent becomes a rod again. You see you can't really serve God, go to Egypt, you can't really tackle the difficult problems of

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life until you have the authority of God. Somehow the rod of God in your hand to have enough faith to even pick up serpents and to somehow discover that in handling those serpents the power of God is supreme to enable you to overcome. A stout club to beat away the wolves.

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