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The scripture reading of the morning is from the prophecy of Jeremiah, the 17th chapter. I begin the reading at the verse numbered 5. "Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.

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He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious

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in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the mind and try the heart to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.'" And may God bless to us and

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to our understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. All of us need at one time or another a leaning place or a leaning person. Someone who will give us some rest, some encouragement when we are discouraged,

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some respite from the difficulties of life. All of us need a leaning place, a helper or friend. And that's the reason one of the key aspects of our camping program at First Church Camp is cooperation. We try to teach our youngsters to help one another. There are camping programs which are essentially

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competitive in nature. This, we think, appeals to the selfishness in youngsters. Our program is built on the concept of cooperation. For example, we have an obstacle course made out of ropes and no youngster can find her or his way through that course, through that maze of challenges in rope, without the

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assistance of others. Sometimes whole groups must be at work. There is a challenge, for example, where there's a large wall and the group comes up to this wall and they must, by working together, get to the other side of the wall. Now at first that's very easy for them to boost up the first ones over, but

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eventually you get more on the other side of the wall than remain on the first side of the wall. And it takes a lot of planning and a lot of cooperation, a lot of leaning on each other in order to surpass that hurdle. We place then in our program a great deal of emphasis on cooperation, on leaning on each other. And

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this is good, but it is not good enough. It is not good enough. Jeremiah, of all of the Old Testament prophets, was the man most like Jesus. He lived in a conquered land. He came from a backwoods country town. He knew what it was to be rejected by his family. He was single. He never had the comfort of a

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wife. His principal form of teaching was in parables, just as Jesus, and he was very tender-hearted. He did not hesitate to weep in public as our Lord Jesus did. But the greatest similarity between Jeremiah and Jesus is not these incidental things, but rather it's the fact that Jeremiah understood 500 years

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before Christ that faith is essentially a matter of the heart. It is not a thing of procession and procedure and ritual and routine. Faith is a commitment of soul. In the seventh chapter of Mark, Jesus speaking to the Pharisees says, "There is nothing which goes into a man which can make him unclean. It is the

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things which come out of a man that make him unclean." You see, there were those in that day who believed that religion was essentially the keeping of a lot of rules and regulation, and amongst those rules and regulations were certain dietary laws. Some things you could eat and some things you could not eat, and

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they gauged the spiritual health of a person by how they complied with these dietary regulations. Jesus says, "No, there's nothing that you can put into you that will make you spiritually unclean." What makes you spiritually unclean is what comes out of you, the attitude of your heart. And Jeremiah focused on just

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this truth five centuries before Jesus. He said, "Ye shall seek God and find God when you seek for God with all your heart." Not rules and regulations, but with all your heart. Or again, "I will put my law in your inward parts, on your hearts I will write it." Jeremiah understood that faith is a matter of the commitment of

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the heart, and he also understood this, that the hearts of human beings are most often very dark and very cold. See, Jeremiah in the course of his ministry knew what it was to be searched by the Spirit of God. He knew what it was to be put to the test by the Almighty. He knew what it was to have his inner obedience

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challenged. He knew what it was to be called to conduct himself in obedience to God no matter what the cost. Jeremiah knew also that within himself his own heart struggled against these things that God called him to do, and so Jeremiah wrote, "Deeper is the heart than anything, yea, incurable it is, who can

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know it?" See, what he's saying is that while faith is a matter of the heart, the heart is rebellious. The heart is essentially incurable by man's efforts. The heart is dark and it is cold, and that is what leads Jeremiah to say, "Cursed are those who trust in man and not on God, for to rely on man, to rely on

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those who have dark and cold hearts, to rely on those whose hearts are incurable without the specific help of God, to rely on them is to rely on a shrub in the desert. It is to try to live where there is no water to exist in a wilderness." Jeremiah is quite right when he says this. So we at our First Presbyterian

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Church camp teach our kids about cooperation and about leaning on one another, but I say to you that this is not enough. It is folly to rely finally on the strength of men, for the strength of men is weakened by impure hearts. Let me give you just one example of what I mean, it ought to suffice. I think all of

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us would agree that most rational people want peace. When one thinks of the lives that are lost in war and the economic cost of conflict, one can only define war as the ultimate obscenity. No rational person wants there to be a war, and men across the generations of recorded history have labored to prevent war. But

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what has been the record? Across the 3,100 years of historical accuracy that we have with regard to the story of man, across that 3,100 years there have been only 286 years spent at peace. That means for every eight years at peace there have been nine years at war. Across history men have entered in to no less than 8,000

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treaties, and every single one of those treaties has been broken. A few years ago some people got together from all over the world in Nagasaki. They wanted to remember the 70,000 people who were burned to death either immediately or sometime after from the atomic bomb drop there. Now that bomb was a five kiloton

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bomb. Now there are 100 kilotons in every one megaton. We have bombs today that are 200 megatons in power. Contemplate the awfulness, the awesomeness of that, and add to it this, mankind has never in history invented a weapon which he did not finally use. I came across an advertisement in a Christian magazine

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the other day. I want to read it to you. I'm not altering a word. "Be prepared for the end times. Our deluxe survival kit includes long-lasting freeze-dried food to supply a family of four for three months. There are 50 gallons of purified water, a completely stocked medical case, and a .357 magnum revolver in case your

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neighbors attempt to take advantage of your Christian foresight." Think of the obscenity of that, the abysmal cynicism of that. "Blessed are the peacemakers. Here's your .357 magnum." And this in a Christian journal. So we give ourselves to the pursuit of peace, but so dark and so cold are the hearts of so many that

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we do not succeed. A few months ago we were all excited, I think, about this phonograph record which was made called "We Are the World." The leading popular singers of the day got together and made this song and they sold this record and the idea was to raise money to feed starving Ethiopians, a noble idea. I

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reread to myself just this last week the words of that song. Part of them read like this, "We are the world, we are the people, we are the ones to make a brighter day. Just you and me." Well I don't believe that people like you and me are going to make a brighter day and I don't think our children are any special edition of

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the human story. I see in our youngsters the same cynicism, the same arrogance, the same selfishness, the same belligerence that lives in us. We're part of a dark and a cold human experience. Now make no mistake, I'm not opposed to people getting together and singing a song "We are the world" and raising money for the

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hungry. I'm not opposed to Hands Across America. Count me in on these things. I'm not saying they are of no value. I heard about a father who while he was sleeping his kids came in and smeared Limburger cheese on his mustache and he wakened up and he said, "This room stinks." He went into the kitchen and he said,

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"This house stinks." He went out into the backyard and he said, "The whole world stinks." I'm not saying that the whole world stinks. I began by saying that we all need leaning places and that one of the places we find the privilege of leaning is on one another and I praised our camp for teaching cooperation and

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I'm not withdrawing a single word that I have offered but with Jeremiah and with Jesus I've got to go on and say that that is not enough. If that is all there is then that is not enough. Mankind has written some beautiful pages in the historical record but some tragically ugly chapters. I stand then with the

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prophet when he says, "Cursed are those who trust in man for to rely on man is to rely on a dying shrub. It is to live in the wilderness. The heart is desperately wicked, insurable. It is folly to rest finally in the arms of men." The arm of flesh fails but the arm of God never fails and that's the reason

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that the prophet Jeremiah immediately after these words about dying shrubs goes on to say this, "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, who put their confidence in him. They shall be like trees that are planted by the waters and their roots will go out to the streams and they are not afraid of the heat for

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they will always be green and they do not fail they bring forth much fruit." Now this word of Jeremiah that I've just shared with you, that's our camp text. On all the advertisements concerning the camp on the logo of the camp you will find these words of Jeremiah and what we're saying by these words is this, that

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yes we teach people how to cooperate and lean on each other but more than that we seek to bring those who come to the camp to finally leaning on God. I talked to a lot of alumni of the camp and you know the things they talk about. They talk about the beautiful facilities and they talk about the lovely surroundings and

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they talk about the dedicated staff and they talk about the enthusiastic young counselors and they talk about the good food and they talk about all these kinds of things but the thing that they talk about the most and the thing that affects their very countenances when they speak of it is the fact that there

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at that holy place they met God and learned to lean upon him. It's not a horizontal thing it's a vertical thing. See we try to teach kids at camp what I call the empty hand prayer. Do you know the empty hand prayer? I'm one of these people who has a tendency to try to do things all by myself so I have learned

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the empty hand prayer. When I'm confronted with some great burden I hold out my hand as far as I can stretch it toward God and notice the palm is up because you see I'm still carrying the problem in my hand and then I turn that problem over to God. I lean on God and as I do that because I'm slow and stupid

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and stubborn in heart to actualize it to myself I turn my hand over and I spread my fingers wide so I cannot hold that thing anymore. Now I don't stop thinking. As a matter of fact I'm better able to think about that problem now than I was before because you see now the problem belongs to God and I have become his

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servant in dealing with it and I'm able to think his thoughts after him and to follow his leadership. Has he not said I am a very present help in time of trouble? We all need to learn to play that empty hand prayer. You know the bookstores today are full of self-improvement books and I suppose

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some of them do some good. People by an act of will can alter their personalities to some degree I suppose but if there's to be a real change in a person, if for example a dark and cold heart is to be made into a warm and vibrant spirit that takes God. If to do that you rely on your flesh or the flesh

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of someone else that's a dying shrub but if you rely upon God that is green that is fruitful. And this is where my hope lies for the world. Sure I hope for peace and I hope that we'll discover the cure for cancer and I hope that the family will become strengthened again and be the bulwark of society but I know these

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things won't be accomplished by us no matter how much we cooperate with each other. What we have to do is also come to God and he with regard to these and all other things will make us more than conquerors. Martin Luther once wrote a letter to a young son in the faith named Philip Melanchthon. Now Luther you've got

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to remember was a rough and tough person. He didn't pull any punches and so in his note to Philip Melanchthon he said "I am against these worrying cares which you are always talking about and which are taking the heart out of you. Why do you make God a liar? He tells us to cast our cares on him. Does he simply throw away

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his words to the winds? He who has been our father will continue to be our father. I do not tolerate such matters. Neither should you." That's the plain and the simple of it. You know there are times when I stand in this pulpit or in other pulpits and as I am preaching I suddenly become aware of a great silence

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of a profound hush and your faces are all lighted so that I can see them. It is as if time stops though of course it does not and as I look at you I feel the power of your eyes. You have very beautiful eyes you know. Surely you're aware of the fact that when people are deeply serious about something the beauty

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of that shows in their eyes and when your eyes are so focused on me I hear you say not loudly but with a kind of urgent whisper, "Please say something to me. Please give me some help. I don't want words. I want answers." And when I hear the urgency of that I know that any measly words that I might offer will be

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of no effect, altogether inadequate. And so what I say is this, "After Jesus come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and you will find rest unto your souls. Or after Jeremiah, trust not in your own understanding for the heart is deceitful

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above and beyond all things. Trust in the Lord then you shall bring forth fruit." What I try to do is to give you God's telephone number. You know God's telephone number? Jeremiah 33 3. That's God's phone number. It reads, "Call upon me and I will answer you and I will show you great and wonderful things that you know not of."

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So one day this last summer I went up to the camp and the youngsters were standing around in the outdoor chapel and they were singing that old hymn, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." It's a great camp song. And I wondered as I watched them if they knew the story of that hymn. Back in 1858 there was a great

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evangelical revival in Philadelphia and one of the leaders of it was a young Episcopal clergyman by the name of Dudley Ting. He was a great preacher. On one occasion he preached to 5,000 men in Jane Hall and 1,000 of them fell on their knees when were converted by the work of God's Spirit. Well after the

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revival this young priest of the Episcopal Church, Dudley Ting, went out one day into the country to see a new corn shelling machine and he got too close to it and it caught his arm and literally tore his arm from his body. Now today medical science could deal with that but not then. And as he lay dying

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Dudley Ting said to his father who was bending near, "Tell him to stand up for Jesus." Now one of the friends of Dudley Ting was a Presbyterian clergyman named George Duffield and he preached the sermon in honor of his friend the next Sunday built on the text from Ephesians 6 verse 14, "Stand therefore having girt

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your loins with truth." And at the end of the sermon he read a poem which he had dedicated to his deceased friend and that poem was later set to music and became the hymn "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." And I wonder if you've ever noticed that in the third stanza of that hymn the words are very specific. "Stand up,

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stand up for Jesus. Stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you." Thinking you see about the death of his friend. "The arm of flesh will fail you. Ye dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor. Each piece put on with prayer. Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there." That's the gospel.

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That the arm of flesh will fail you and you dare not trust your own, but in the strength of God through Jesus Christ you can stand. So if you're looking for a leaning place, my friends, follow the words of another old camp song. "Be leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms."

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Let us pray. Oh God our Father, lead us away from dependence upon self. Lead us away from final dependence upon each other and make us, we beseech thee, always dependent upon thee that we might grow and bear fruit in all seasons. We pray it in Jesus name, amen.

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[music] [music] [music] [music]

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♪ Long live the wrestleman's glory day ♪ ♪ Each as a man has certainly built a handsome home for the wise ♪ ♪ Where ev'ry crisis may be soothed ♪ ♪ And to referrals rare and kind ♪

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♪ The strength of Jesus, strength in His strength alone ♪ ♪ We are the wrestlemen, we are the wrestlers ♪ ♪ For God the Lord is the Lord of the world ♪ ♪ Where we will be of good faith, we will be of good heart ♪

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♪ And glory evermore ♪ ♪ The strength of Jesus, strength in His strength alone ♪ ♪ We are the wrestlemen, we are the wrestlers ♪ ♪ For God the Lord is the Lord of the world ♪

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♪ Where we will be of good faith, we will be of good heart ♪ ♪ And glory evermore ♪ Transcription by ESO; translation by —