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[Silence] Moses said to his people, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curse." [Audience]

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This is life to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent Our father God which art in heaven We thank you. Oh gracious master for allowing us another privilege to assemble ourselves in this place And we pray Oh gracious father that you will invoke your spirit upon us and let us wish it be in spirit and in truth

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We pray Oh gracious father that you will accept our hymns our words of encouragement and our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ We ask let us all say Good morning, and welcome Welcome to the worship of God.

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Having done that, let us now turn to hymn number 19, "Oh God, Our Help." Let us all sing, "Oh God, Our Help." (piano music)

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[ Music ] ♪ To the mountain ages pass ♪ ♪ While so far years decline ♪ ♪ What shall surround us nor be blind ♪

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♪ But our eternal home ♪ ♪ For now the shadow of our throne ♪ ♪ Till then he comes again ♪ ♪ The nation is born of God ♪

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♪ And the living is sure ♪ ♪ The God of creation ♪ ♪ From the Lord is born ♪ ♪ We know our God has shown us ♪

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♪ Where our feet are no more ♪ - Amen. Let us be seated. you know, we are

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involved in a sermon series based on the book of Psalms a Sermon series based on the book of Psalms. We encourage you to bring your Bibles with you bring your Bibles as we consider

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This book in our preaching series today Psalm Number three the third Psalm you're turning your Bibles to the third Psalm Lord

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How are they increased that trouble me? Many there be which say of my soul There is no help for him in God But thou O Lord ought a shield for me my glory and the lifter up of mine head

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I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept, I awakened for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise O Lord, save me O my God, for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of

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the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Thus endeth the reading of our scripture. Now for our time of prayer together let assemble here around the altar as together we unite our hearts in expressing our concerns to the Heavenly Father. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour

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of prayer. What a blessed privilege is ours to pray together. Everybody ought to pray. Everybody needs prayer. So within These moments we gather as we bow our heads and close our eyes. Oh Lord God, our Father, we stand before you today to say thank you.

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We thank you, oh God, for the multitude of your mercies. you have so abundantly showered your goodness upon each one of us. You have spared our lives. You have permitted us to awaken and see the sunlight of another day. And we have been privileged to make the journey to this your house and to mingle our voices in joyous song.

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We are thankful. As we stand, Lord, You know us. Our lives are like open books before You. All hearts are open and no secrets are hidden.

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And so we confess our sins. We ask for Your forgiveness and whatever we have done wrong, we pray that You would cast into the sea of forgetfulness where it might never rise again to testify against us in the judgment thoughts we have entertained, actions we have taken contrary to your will

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forgive us, renew the right spirit within us and help us not only to worship you this day to go forth into this new week with new strength, new vitality and new determination to walk the highways of history with you as our companion.

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We pray, oh Lord, not only for ourselves and for the temptations that we confront that you would be with us to give us the victory over every temptation, but we pray, oh God,

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for the perplexing situations that we confront, for the difficult decisions that we have to make, for the obstacles and for the hardships that we encounter along this way.

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Strengthen every one of us. And we pray not only for the ones who are assembled around this altar, but we would pray for the families

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represented in this church. We would pray for those who are sick. We would pray for those who are bereaved. We pray for those who are outside the arc of safety,

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who know you not in the pardon of their sins. Oh Lord, have mercy upon us and bless us all and use us, we pray to your glory this day and this week. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we ask it, amen.

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(door creaking) [The bell is invited.] [Pause] [Music]

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[The sound of the door closing.] [The sound of the door closing.] [The sound of the door closing.] [The sound of the piano playing.]

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♪ To thee, O Jesu ♪ ♪ To thee, O Jesu ♪ ♪ Our direct mother ♪ ♪ To thee, O Jesu ♪

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To thee, my heart, to thee my humble knee. [CHOIR SINGING] To thee my heart shall offer sacrifice. To thee my thoughts, whom my thoughts only see.

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♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ To thee my soul ♪ ♪ My soul ♪ ♪ And all I give ♪

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♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ To thee I die ♪ ♪ To thee I only live ♪ ♪ To thee my heart shall offer sacrifice ♪

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♪ Shall offer sacrifice ♪ ♪ To thee, my thoughts ♪ ♪ To my thoughts only sing ♪ ♪ Only see ♪

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♪ To thee my soul ♪ ♪ My self and all I give ♪ ♪ And all I give ♪ ♪ To thee I die ♪

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♪ To thee I only live ♪ only live. Amen. Let us worship the Lord in the dedication of our gifts.

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Let every one of us give according to how the Lord has prospered you. Our church is supported through tithes and offerings. Tithe is one-tenth of one's income given to the Lord through the church We have a

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Little more to go and catching up the slack in our church budget And we encourage you to do your part in doing all that you can At this particular time in your giving Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for

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Granting unto us every good and perfect gift from above. Oh Bless us now as we worship you in our giving That we may give with hearts of love and in the spirit of sacrifice We ask in Jesus name. Amen

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[Music] You will notice the announcements in our bulletin, and I want to call your attention to the fact that this evening at 6 p.m. The fall concert of the sanctuary choir will be given here at the church. We invite you to be here,

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bring your families and your friends that we may celebrate together in this outstanding presentation. This is the first of the programs by our Minister of Music, Brother Boyd,

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Dushan Boyd, and we want not only that all of the music organizations will be here, but that all of Ebenezer family and

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friends for this occasion 6 p.m. Today. You will notice that next month we have

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the attendance, high attendance, both for the Sunday school and for the training union and we want to do all that we can in reaching the goals that have been set. On the following Sunday our

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Sanctuary Aquarium, that's on the fifth Sunday, will be going to St. John to give a program there in response to what they did some time ago. I have received a

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request from the leaders of the convention, Southern Baptist Convention, that will be engaged in a crusade,

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an evangelistic crusade in Rio and in Brazil. And they're asking for the pastor to go with the team to speak and for seven members from our church to go with him as a prayer team.

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So I hope that some of you will pray about this and if it is possible for us to join in this crusade in Rio that is being Given I

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Will talk a little more about the the dates and the like to be leaving from Dallas and That's March the 15th leaving Dallas on March the 15th and returning on March the 23rd

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So it's just about a week in Rio That this evangelistic Crusade is planned in Latin America I do not have any cards for visitors

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If there any persons worshiping with us who are not members of this church We'd like for you to stand at this time that we may recognize your presence [ Pause ] [ Music ]

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(music) Lord, help me to hold on. (music) Lord, help me to hold on.

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(music) Lord, help me to hold out For I feel my joy into the sky Lord, help me to hold out

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Lord, help me to hold out. Lord, help me to hold out. My day, my day is just gone. ♪ It may not be easy ♪

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♪ You did not say it would be ♪ ♪ But if it gets dark ♪ ♪ And I can't see my way ♪ ♪ You told me to put my trust in thee ♪

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♪ That's why I'm asking you, Lord ♪ ♪ Help me to hold out ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ Help me to hold out ♪

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♪ Lord ♪ ♪ Help me to hold out ♪ ♪ Until my change is gone ♪ ♪ My way ♪

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♪ May not be easy ♪ ♪ You did not say it would be ♪ ♪ But if it gets dark ♪ ♪ I can't see my way ♪

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♪ You told me to put my trust in thee ♪ ♪ That's why I'm asking you, Lord ♪ ♪ Help me to hold out ♪ ♪ Lord, help me to hold out ♪

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Lord, help me to hold on until my change has come. Lord, help me to hold on. Lord, help me to hold on. Lord, help me to hold on.

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Until the change has come. Amen. The third Psalm, the first four verses, "Lord,

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how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say to my soul there is no help for him in God.

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But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill."

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The subject of the message "Lord hurry to help me, Lord hurry to help me." This is a cry for help

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At emergency request SOS called a Plea for mercy a petition to God the Heavenly Father Our judge and Redeemer

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Lord Hurry To help me The third psalm is a prayer. The Psalter contains many prayers. For that reason, it is helpful

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to us in training in the devotional life and development in the spiritual disciplines. Psalms are songs and prayers in which man is talking to God. This particular Psalm expresses the plight of the prayer. It is called a Psalm of David and is associated with the period in David's life when he was in flight from his son

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Absalom, a time when King David was running for his life. First let us consider the fact that the psalmist is in trouble, serious trouble. He's bogged down in difficulties, his life is in danger. His own son Absalom is leading a rebellion against the throne. Absalom has succeeded in infiltrating the servants

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of the king's court. Servants that were loyal to the king have defected. Absalom now has spies among the palace police, those whom King David regarded as friends and faithful allies have joined the camp of the enemy. The army is divided.

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There is insurrection in the land. The king's own family has risen up against him. Soldiers that could once be depended upon to defend the king are now in the ranks of the opposition.

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is in trouble. And to think that Absalom his own son, his own flesh and blood, one whom he dearly loves, now seeks his father's throne. Not only does he seek the throne, but he seeks to take his father's life. This is serious trouble. David is up in years now and it does seem many times that as we get older our troubles seem to multiply. We have our infirmities, our aches and our pains.

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we have our notes of discard, our difficulties on the job, conflicts among friends. On and on it goes as we get older. Here David is in trouble. But you see trouble is not peculiar to David. trouble knocks on every door. There is trouble all over this world. Job the classic Old Testament example of a man in trouble says, "Man is born unto trouble

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as the sparks fly upward. Man is of a few days and full of trouble. There is trouble all over this world. There is an old saying, "Don't trouble trouble if trouble doesn't trouble you." The truth is that trouble troubles us whether we like it or not. There is trouble in our personal lives, troubles in the family

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circle, troubles all around us, troubles in the church, troubles in the government, troubles in the world, injustice in the courts, hunger, the constant threat of war, conflicts within and dangers without. Everywhere we turn trouble confronts us. Some of our troubles come because we think we can

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break the moral law without having to face the consequences. Some people think that it does not matter what we do, but it does. We cannot do wrong and get by. When we do wrong it comes back to haunt us up the road. David is the king. He's the powerful ruler of the nation. He thought no doubt that he was above the

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law, that he's big enough to do what he wants to do and to get by with it. So he takes Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, and sees to it that Uriah is killed in battle. On the surface it seems that he has committed the perfect crime, but there is God. God who sees all and knows all, God who is the judge, and so sin comes to

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heart David in the troubles that develop because he breaks the moral law. His son Absalom is leading an army against him. He's threatened with the loss of his throne and the loss of his life. There is a loud chorus speaking against him. The number against him continues to increase and he wonders why.

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Lord, why do my enemies increase in number and in power? Why? Oh, I feel so all alone. Many have risen against me. I am left alone in the struggle. Those who are against me taunt me saying your God is not going to help you. Have you ever felt tantalized by the troubles of human existence?

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Here in the life of the Psalmist, people are saying there is no help for him in his God. They are boasting of the fact that God is not going to help David in his struggles. And David says, "Lord, hurry to help me. Come to my rescue right now."

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To use the language of the song, if there was ever a time when he needed the Lord, it sure was then. We say, "If ever I needed you, Lord, I sure do need you now. Lord, hurry, hurry to help me."

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Crises have a way of driving us to the throne of God. When we are in trouble, we don't know what we have that we can depend on and what we do not have. We don't know who is with us many times and who is against us.

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And in this situation, David is led even to question God. And in his difficulties, in the agonies of his spiritual life, in the tarnment of his soul, he cries out, "Lord, are you with me now? If you're really with me then, hurry, hurry to help me.

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to my rescue. It's an old story of a man who was out in the woods and he was being chased by a bear and as he was chased by the bear he began to pray, "Lord help me, Lord help me." He said, "But Lord if you don't help me, please don't help this Well this is sort of the sense that David feels, this is his experience as he finds himself

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surrounded in difficulty. He says, "Lord hurry to help me." In his prayer is a request that the weapons of the enemy be rendered ineffective. These weapons that they have to destroy me, see to it that they really don't work. Because Lord you are my shield, you are my protection against the fiery darts of the wicked, you are my shield against the

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arrow that flies by day, the destruction that wastes at that noonday, and the pestilence that walketh in the darkness. Lord you are my defense. Lord make haste to help me, protect me from the onslaught of my enemies. And those that are with us rise up against us. Times when we have no dependable human resources to which to

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such a time as this that the psalmist finds himself when his own son Absalom the pride and joy of his heart is leading the rebellion soldiers have have joined the ranks of the enemy. And those who once shouted long live the king

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now say let Absalom reign as king. When every human prop is removed and we are led by the very circumstances surround us to cry out to God, Lord, hurry to help me. Oh when we cry to God as

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helpless victims of rebellion and reproach, when we are bogged down in hopeless despair, when we can look up in the darkness of the night and discover that there is a star of hope shining out of the depths of depravity we can ascend to the lofty heights and experience the nearness of God. This cry

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"Lord hurry to help me" is the cry of faith. It's the cry that comes from the blessed assurance that God will hear us when we cry. The old warriors used to say when I was a boy that if you pray and pray right the Lord will hear you. The Psalmist believes that the Lord will help him and that he will do it right

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early. In our distress he hears our cries, he pities our groans, and here is a sufferer. Oh we can identify with the Psalmist because every one of us knows what it is to suffer. Every one of us knows what it is to be hemmed in, to somehow have ourselves confined and certain limits established for us and to find ourselves

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prisoners of certain circumstances. We know what that is. To be oppressed. The psalmist here turns to God who administers justice. And he says, "You are my shield. "I'm depending on you.

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"You are the lifter up of my head." And somehow, even though they have pushed me down and they expect me to drown, Lord, I know you. I know that you are the lifter up of my head

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because I've been with you before in some difficulties and you've gotten me out of them. Yeah, I really feel good about right now. And I'm calling upon you again.

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Lord, hurry, hurry to help me. Then he says, I slept, I slept. When you really commit your way into the Lord,

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You can sleep on it. A whole lot of people can't sleep. They have to have pills to go to sleep and pills to get them going every day, pills, pills for this and pills for that.

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Still awake tossed on their beds of affliction at night and unable to sleep. But here is one who is baffled about by all of the difficulties of life and he says I took it to the Lord and he said I slept on it.

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See you can rest in the Lord yes you can you can rest in him you can say well I've taken it to the Lord and I've rested there and I'm resting in his goodness and I'm depending on his word. He said I slept on it. I slept and he said when I got up the next morning I I was awakened and I found that I had been sustained all through it, in the midst of

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all of it. Some people wonder how some others can go through such great difficulties and have such great calmness. They've been able to sleep on it.

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To be able to sleep on it and to find that God sustains us in our difficulties. And when he looks back over that experience, he says, "So I'm not going to be afraid." He said, "Though ten thousand," you read it, he said, "Though ten thousand of people should rise against me, Lord, I'm not afraid because I know you've come to my rescue.

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You have lifted me up. You've helped me over hills and through valleys. You've heard every time I've called. So I'm not afraid."

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10,000 although they may think I'm alone I'm not afraid but though 10,000 should rise against me because you're with me that's what he's saying that's what he's saying you know some people as soon as the Lord helps them gets them out of difficulty they forget how they got out you've heard that story I tell sometimes

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times about the man who was working on a roof on a house and he was about to fall off the roof and he cried out, "Lord, help me!" And then as he started down the roof he was caught by a nail and he said, "Now that's all right now, Lord," said, "the nail got me."

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people are so quick to forget how they were rescued and where their help came from. But the Psalmist remembers. He remembers and so he said I'm gonna call on you Lord whenever things go wrong, whenever things aren't right, whenever there's a need. And it's just not this. You know some people just want to call on the

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Lord in case of emergency. But he's not just talking about emergencies, but he's talking about a way of life. He's gonna call on the Lord and if you've got the Lord with you when things are going well, he's gonna be with you when things aren't going well. And so he doesn't forget. And to show you that he doesn't

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forget, when it's all over, when he has come through the darkest night and somehow he has been rescued from the flood and from the contrary wind where he has come through it all and many years later we have it because he he took time to sit down and write it and it's preserved in a song that he

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could sing about it. That God had helped him so much, that God had been so good to him in the midst of as difficult as that a song came out of the night. That's the experience of a psalmist. That God will help us. If you don't think about that, then you can identify with the psalm that God will help us. You can say, "Yes, I know that he will help because he

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has helped me. He has helped me time and time again. He's helped me in my despair. He's He's helped me in my sickness. He's helped me when I didn't know which way to turn. He has shown me the way to go.

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The Lord has helped me. Oh, that right other hymn expresses it so beautifully because as he has been helped time and time again, his love for the Lord has increased

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and he's able to say, "I love the Lord." heard my cry and pity hath regrown long as I live and trouble rise I'll hasten to his throne and then he goes on to say I love the Lord he bowed his ear and chase my grief away. Oh let my heart no more despair while I have strength to

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pray. Come down. For those who identify with this experience of the Psalmist, if you're willing to hook up with the Eternal who will guide you, who will sustain you, who will rescue you. You come now while we sing together Jesus, lover of my soul. We invite you to come. The door is open, the invitation is extended.

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♪ Jesus, lover of my soul ♪ ♪ Led me to the bosom flood ♪ ♪ While the nearer waters rolled ♪ ♪ While the deepest deep ♪

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♪ He's our ♪ ♪ Our hero, our savior, our God ♪ ♪ Till the storm of war ♪ ♪ Clears the path ♪

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Safe into the haven gone, Holy Spirit of my heart. Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, oh leave me not alone. Still support and comfort me.

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For my trust in thee is made. ♪ Oh, my God, how meagerly ♪ ♪ Cover my defenseless head ♪ ♪ With a shadow of thy grace ♪

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♪ Plenteous grace with thee is found ♪ ♪ Grace to cover all my sin ♪ ♪ Let the healing streams abound ♪ ♪ Make and keep me pure with thee ♪

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We did. [MUSIC - "THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER"] ♪ Spring thou up within my heart ♪ ♪ Rise to eternity ♪

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- Amen. Let us pray. Lord God, our Father, Time and time again we find ourselves up against it,

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surrounded by trouble, and we feel so helpless and so hopeless, and we send up the penitent cry to heaven, Lord, hurry to help me.

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We thank you that you're always here, the cries of your servant, that you redeem, that you've done it time and time again, and that you'll do it again and again.

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So bless us as we go forth this day with that blessed assurance that help from heaven is available. The Lord bless you and keep you.

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The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. Amen.

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Amen. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]