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[inaudible] [inaudible] He pointed out to me a river of pure water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the land,

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coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew trees of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month.

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The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. There shall be nothing in the city which is evil, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there. His servants will worship Him, and they shall see His face,

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and His name shall be written on their foreheads. There shall be no night there, no need for lamps or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

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We stand as we sing together one stanza of I need thee every hour, and repeat the refrain, I need thee every hour. [ Music ]

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[ Choir singing ] I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee, O blessed be Thou my Savior, my God, true. [MUSIC] >> We seek your guidance, O God.

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We wait to receive a word from you. Speak that word, grant that we may receive it, that Jesus may [silence] Amen.

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I'm going to read that passage which was just read from the Living Bible paraphrased. Again, another version of it, which is slightly different. He showed me the river of the water of life shining like a crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the land in the midst of the city street. And on either side of the river was a tree of life, which produced, well, kinds of fruit, rendering its fruit according to each month.

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And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Healing health for all people. Healing health for all people. There is in Africa a tree called the bread tree. This tree is significant in the life of the people

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because of the fact that it not only provides fruit, which may be enjoyed, which may be used by the strength of the body, but it also may be used for medicine, for the healing of the body.

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Here in this work, John focuses on healing the hurts of all people. In the New Jerusalem, the holy city that John envisions, cure is provided for all manner of sickness and disease. For in the midst of the city is the panacea for all ills.

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There is healing health. Now this is good news. John has given a vivid description, which we considered on last Sunday,

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dealing with the exterior of the New Jerusalem, the walls, the gates, the beauty of the security that is provided for the Holy City. And now he permits us to look at the interior,

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how the New Jerusalem looks from the inside. He tells us that beautifully situated in the city is a river which flows from the throne of God in the midst of the city street.

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On either side of the river is the tree of life, which produces 12 kinds of fruit, rendering its fruit according to each month, and the leaves are for the healing of the nations.

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I say this is good news because all of us suffer from some kind of sickness. None of us here has perfect health. Our bodies contain certain disease germs.

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We're constantly in a struggle against human infirmities in order to stay alive. So don't let it surprise you when I tell you that the church is made up of sick people.

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Something is wrong with all of us. Something is wrong. Some may have arthritis, some bursitis, some neuritis, some rheumatism, some heart trouble, some sinus,

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some with failing eyesight, some with one ailment or another but make no mistake about it, there's something wrong with all of us. So this is not only true of the body,

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but it is also true of the spirit. For the spirit suffers from weakness. The spirit suffers from wounds. We have a term which is psychosomatic medicine. It's deals with the relation of the body and the spirit in sickness. Sometimes we may have a sickness of the spirit that affects the body.

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And then it may be that it is a sickness of the body that affects the spirit. So we suffer not only because of the body but the spirit as well. Now sometimes we suffer because of hurt feelings. Someone hurts our feelings.

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We are wounded in spirit by the words that someone says. Our spirit is crushed, oftentimes, by circumstances. We are disappointed and discouraged with our achievements. We suffer insult and injury by what is said and done. Sometimes these wounds that we may suffer may be self-inflicted. Sometimes we cut ourselves.

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We may slam the door on our finger. We may be hammering and hit our hand. Some of the wounds that we suffer may be inflicted by ourselves. Things that we do to ourselves, many times this may be the main problem in some of the illnesses from which we suffer.

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Some of us bleed rather easily. The least of the things that may be said, our feelings are hurt. Some of us are overly sensitive. We are easily insulted and our feelings are injured when we think that some remark is aimed directly at us,

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when probably the person did not even have us in mind. But this is often what happens in the course of human existence. Some sicknesses are due to the body, some sicknesses are due to the mind. There are many people whose minds are out of order.

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There are those in our world today who suffer from a kind of persecution complex. There are those who feel that the world is against them and that there is nothing that they can do to set it right. There are others who suffer from a kind of ailment that they may be classified as being neurotic. They feel that everything must begin and end with them.

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And if they don't start it, if they haven't conceived of it, if you don't get their permission, if you don't come by them, they feel that it really doesn't matter. Then there are many who are burdened with guilt, who have a sense of failure, because somehow they have not measured up to their abilities. They know that they have not done what they ought to have done. They know that they are not what they should be, and so they have a deep sense of guilt. And so, in a sense, all of us are suffering from some kind of sickness and stand in need of healing. Our society is called the insane society because everybody suffers from human brokenness, a sickness that affects both the church and the world.

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But God causes the church to suffer even to be blessed, even in ill health. Somehow, even though we suffer from ill health, God blesses the church and causes the church to prosper. so that many of us who may have some ailment, God enables us to keep on keeping on, even in spite of the ailment, that we are able to continue to carry on. Apostle Paul had some dreadful malady. He said it bothered him from time to time. It was a thorn in the flesh that he wanted to get rid of.

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But somehow even though he went to God in prayer about it, that it remained. And he, in the midst of his encounter with God, came to understand that God could manifest his power in a more glorious way by leaving that farm there. God revealed to Paul how powerful he could be.

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Even in the midst of all of Paul's human weaknesses, God was able to leave that pond in the flesh there and work wonders in the life of Paul. So the Bible presents to us here in the very closing chapters of the last book, we get a view of a stream and a tree that has fruit on it for every month in the year and leaves that are for the healing of all people. And so that includes not only that generation, it includes every generation,

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for it is true that all of us need healing help. And it's a wonderful thing when you sort of put this in perspective, because the Bible opens with a garden, the Garden of Eden, And the Bible seems to close with a garden scene there in John's vision in Revelation.

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In the garden of Eden there is a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The man is told that he is not to eat of the fruit of that tree, neither is he to touch it. He is forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know the story.

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You know how Adam disobeyed God. And then how Adam was driven out of the garden because the scripture says he would not be permitted to eat of the tree of life and live forever. of that God drove him out so he could not eat of the tree of life and live forever.

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But how strange it is that we come to the last of the Bible and we have here this scene of a tree with fruit for every month, for every season, and leaves, and here man is to eat freely of the fruit of this tree of life. Well, there is a difference here.

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This is somehow the mystery of our history. Man sins in the garden. He suffers from sickness. He injures himself.

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He injures not only his relationship with himself. He injures his relationship with others. He enters his relationship with his God, the Eternal Father. And here he is with a poison that has affected his system, a poison that has affected every dimension of human existence.

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Here is man in the garden, driven out of this garden, but he, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, is given the privilege of entering the garden again and eating of the fruit of the tree of life. Not only eating of that fruit, but using its leaves that may be used for the healing health

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of all people. Now John is closing his work, closing his book. And he's writing to people who are having a hard time. Many of them are suffering.

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They're suffering from the cruel clutch of circumstance inflicted upon them through the Roman government. They are being persecuted. And that's a good word for us because to be a Christian is to be persecuted.

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To really be a Christian is to be living in such a way that you are ready for people to say hard words to you and still be kind to them. That's what it means to be a Christian. It means that somehow you are able to permit nails to be driven through your hand.

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That means that when you are doing good, that you can be misunderstood and you won't let it get you down. To be a Christian means that when you are having fellowship with sinners, that somehow when you are out there trying to help the fallen and you are criticized for it, that you can be persecuted for righteousness' sake and you can somehow be glad because you're serving the Lord. Now that's what it means to be a Christian. It means that you can be hurt, it means that you can be bruised, it means that you can be beaten, and still have a conquering spirit. That's what it means to be a Christian.

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Now, now, it's quite easy when someone, you know, if you think just a moment, if there's somebody that rubs you the wrong way, you know somebody in the world that just rubs you the wrong way. Maybe you don't have anybody like that, but if there is somebody that just rubs you the wrong way, no matter, no matter whatever you may say that may be right, that somehow when it comes to them it's always wrong. You know, an experience like that. Now how can you deal with, in a redemptive way, with someone like that?

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You know, I knew a lady once, first she didn't want me as the pastor of the church. And so nothing I could do was ever right. I could never preach a good sermon. I could never say something to her in the best way because she always took it the other way because somehow nothing I could ever do was right.

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And you have some people like that somewhere in the world that you come across. Now the point is, how do you live a Christian life, you know, when you have that kind of problem? Now, there's one way you can do as a pastor, you can just go on and ignore her and act like she doesn't exist. That's the way some people do, you know, something comes between them, comes between you and me, just avoid each other.

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You know, that's one way to do that, you know, instead of coming directly and having a confrontation, you just go around each other. She's coming down this aisle, go down that aisle. You know, that's the way to do that. If they're shaking hands and it comes time and you get nearby, you just turn and look the other way as if nothing's really happened.

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You know, that's one way of doing it. But the Christian way is to have a kind of healing holiness. So that when a person says a cruel word that stabs you in your heart, that you can have some healing that takes place. That even though the blood runs from the wound, that you have some healing.

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Now that's the mystery of life. I don't know how it happens, but you know, if you have, we used to have people dying from a lot of the diseases, like yellow fever and smallpox. People used to die from those things. But medical science found a way by which they could take the disease and inject it in your system, and you could fight against the disease and be alive with some of it in your system.

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Now that's a mystery. I don't thoroughly understand how all of it happens, But every so often I go and get one of those, you know, inoculations for something, yellow fever, this or that, and get that disease, and you feel the pain of it. Sometimes you have fever one day or two, but you know that you have won the victory over yellow fever. And really what I'm talking about is to have a relationship to that tree.

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And that tree for the Christian that's in the midst of the crowded ways of life is the cross. Is to have a relationship to the cross. That though you are pierced in your hands, and though you are stabbed so to speak, and your spirit is crushed, to have the healing help that comes.

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and you can say that's all right. In other words, whenever you have an unfriendly relationship with somebody else, the best way to deal with that is, first of all, through prayer. If something has come between you and somebody else,

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something has crushed your spirit and there's a kind of sickness that exists in that relationship one of the ways to deal with it is it for that person you be sure and pray and don't pray as one fellow said I always pray for my enemies I pray that the Lord will trick 'em up. Always trick 'em.

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There's something gonna happen, go wrong in their lives. No, no, not that kind of prayer. But to somehow lift them up before God and say, "Lord, here I have a problem here, and I don't know. I'd like to work it out. I don't know what the problem is, but you know, and I want you to remember so and so. And to wish well that particular person. Remember them in your prayer. And to really love them, no matter what they do.

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And if somehow you can't do that, no matter if they come back and stand here again and again, you can say, can say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And that healing help just doesn't come by ourselves. It comes through one who is on that cross.

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It comes from one who was pierced in his hands, and it comes from one who had nail prints in his feet. It comes from one who was wounded for our transgressions. It comes from one who loves us.

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And so that tree that grows on both sides, whether one is redeemed or unredeemed, somehow he has access to this tree. And no matter when the time, there is fruit. No matter how weak you may get. Sometimes you get weak and wounded along the way, but you can always have access to the fruit of that tree.

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Sometimes it may be in the winter months, or in December and January and February, the cold winter months, when you have to deal with the chilly winds of indifference, when you have to deal with the snow and ice of criticism, When you have to deal with deceit and rejection, the coldness of winter, the fruit is still there. You can get the strength that you need from that tree.

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And in March, and in April, and in May, the springtime, when you're having pleasant days, you still need God's strength. And you can get the fruit from that tree. It's available there. And even in the summertime and the scorching and the heat of the rain and the sunlight, then even there, when there is no shade, you still have fruit.

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It's still there in the summer months of June, July, and August, and then when fall comes, when the seasons begin to change, When somehow we find ourselves passing into the evening of our lives, when change and decay all around we see,

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and then we can cry, "Oh, thou who changest not, abide with me." So that when sorrow comes our way, we can take from the leaves of that tree, and we can find comfort when there is defeat. all kinds of reverses in our lives, we can go to that tree and the leaves are there for the healing of the nations.

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And the wonderful thing about it is that there is healing. There is healing. It's available for every person. When you look sometimes you see a scar that's on your hand and you can't really remember when that scar got there many times. The measure has long been gone because it has healed. And that's the way God does, you know,

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we may have signs of his presence in our lives of how he has delivered us from certain crises, but he gives us to know that always there is his eternal presence and there is this fruit.

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And the leaves of this tree ever with us in the new Jerusalem, which belongs to every Christian, has been redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. As the choir sings now, we extend the privilege of the church

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to accept Jesus as Lord of your life, the one who is the healing help of all people, the one who was wounded for our transgressions. This is the one who speaks for,

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for every person to come, to accept him. [ Music ] When peace by the river at midnight flies away, When sorrow and fear below throne,

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[MUSIC] ♪ Jesus wells, in His well ♪ ♪ In His well with my soul ♪ ♪ In His well, in His well ♪

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♪ With my soul, with my soul ♪ ♪ Give it well ♪ ♪ Give it well ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪

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♪ O say does that star-spangled ♪ ♪ Banner yet wave ♪ ♪ Let in the first dew from sun's glow ♪ ♪ And rise as we go ♪

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♪ In quietness of day ♪ ♪ Unmasked in the blood of my soul ♪ ♪ In his breath ♪ ♪ In his breath ♪

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♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ In his breath ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ Live my soul ♪

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♪ In His love ♪ ♪ In His love ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪

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♪ In His love ♪ ♪ Give him rest in thy throne ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ And prayer together ♪

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♪ All our days ♪ ♪ May that one ♪ ♪ Come that day ♪ ♪ With our praise to you ♪

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♪ And sing to you ♪ ♪ All, O Lord ♪ ♪ Ever since our beginning ♪ ♪ Let us pray ♪

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♪ Why together ♪ ♪ On our faith ♪ ♪ Let us pray ♪ ♪ Why together ♪

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♪ For the living ♪ ♪ When I call upon the name ♪ ♪ With the praise to God in song ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪

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♪ Heaven and earth sing ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ [ Music ] ♪ Let us praise God together ♪

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♪ Lord of living God ♪ ♪ In Thy power all my being ♪ ♪ In Thy grace to my victims ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪

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(congregation singing in foreign language) ♪ Amen ♪ [MUSIC ENDS] [ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]