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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] ♪ Our sins and griefs to bear ♪ ♪ What a privilege to carry ♪

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♪ Everything to God in prayer ♪ ♪ All the things we have and forbear ♪ ♪ Oh, what a day ♪ ♪ What a day we've had ♪

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♪ All because we knew ♪ ♪ And everything ♪ ♪ Everything to God is well ♪ ♪ And reach royal contemplation ♪

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♪ Hills and valleys in prayer ♪ ♪ Here together we discover ♪ ♪ Taken to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ Let me find a prince of heaven ♪

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♪ Who will all my sorrows share ♪ ♪ Teach us both the heavenly ways ♪ ♪ Take me to the land of my dreams ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪

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♪ Holy, holy, Queen of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ Long have we followed her ♪ ♪ As the saints in our rescue ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪

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♪ Till the grief is passed for saving ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ Lift it up, you days of cheeriness ♪

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♪ Come, we'll find the solace there ♪ ♪ Like the solace there ♪ - Amen. Our scripture lesson, the 42nd Psalm.

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As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

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My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude.

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I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

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Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of my countenance. Oh, my God, my soul is cast down within me.

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Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizer. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

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Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and in the night. His song shall be with me. In my prayer unto the God of my life, I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten

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me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

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Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God

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[ Background Sounds ] [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music)

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(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music)

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(gentle piano music) (piano music) ♪ King of my heart ♪ ♪ I proudly call ♪

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♪ Thy child of glory be ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ Thy noble crown ♪ ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪

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♪ Let me like Mary do the work ♪ ♪ Come with the hymn to me ♪ ♪ Show to me now the way ♪ ♪ Give me to crown glory ♪

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♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ Gethsemane ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ Thy memory ♪

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♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ Thy love for me ♪ ♪ Lead me, lead me to Calvary ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪

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♪ Yes, in a year ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ My day will be ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪

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♪ Thy love for me ♪ ♪ Please lead me to Calvary ♪ ♪ Please lead me to Calvary ♪ ♪ Please lead me to Calvary ♪

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On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm leaves and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in in the name of the Lord. John, the 12th chapter and the 12th and 13th verses. The 16th chapter

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of the same book and the 33rd verse are these words, "In the world you shall have tribulation, be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Another passage of Scripture in 2nd Corinthians the fourth chapter in the eighth verse are these words we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are

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troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair. The subject of the message, "Overcoming Despair." Overcoming despair. A few days ago, a news headline carried these words, "Semen adrift in guff, despaired of

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salvation." A seaman by the name of Kenneth Eno was adrift for 23 days in the Gulf of Mexico in a tiny boat. He used up the food that he found in this boat in six days. Then he tried to feed himself by spear fishing. He scaled the fish with his penknife and he

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He ate the fish raw. He says that he caught only four fish during the 23 days that he was adrift. And that he had lost hope by the time he was rescued by an oil tanker. had lost hope. He saw ships and planes passing in the distance but he was unable

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to attract their attention. He waved to them but received no answer. Then he began to have hallucinations and illusions. He said that his religious faith helped him during this period he was adrift

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until the last day when he gave up hope and resolved never to wave his arms again. He said, "Every day I wake up believing that God would help

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me, he said, "I was still believing in God." Only at that last day, that 23rd day, had he come to the point that he had lost all hope. And he says, "I was very scared." Well, there are times when all of us are somewhat like that. When we are tempted to give up,

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when we lose hope and we say we aren't going to wave our arms anymore, we are riding in tiny life boats, the drift on the waters of human existence. And there are experiences in which we find ourselves all alone.

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We believe in God, we pray to God to help us, and we rely on Him for a period of time and God doesn't seem to come in the way we want Him to come. And oft times people become victims of despair. Despair.

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Despair is a loss of hope. Despair is hopelessness. is that which causes hopelessness. In other words, it's when one comes to the point that one says that there's no use of striving because there's nothing worth striving for. You see,

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to have faith is to engage in hopeful striving. That's what the Christian faith is, engaging in hopeful striving. And to despair is to be without hope. So, in Kierkegaard, the renowned Danish theologian says that despair is sickness of the spirit, sickness of the spirit. despair is to become a prisoner of gloom and doom, to succumb to despondency and discouragement

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desperation. That's what it means to despair. This man fought against the overwhelming odds for 23 days. And it was the last day when he lost hope. Sometimes people stay adrift and they engage in hopeful striving for a long time, and then they come to the point where they despair.

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They lose hope. And to despair is to lose courage and ambition in facing the obstacles and frustrations of human existence.

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That's what it means to be a victim of despair. And every one of us, every one of us is threatened by despair. Make no mistake about it, despair. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,

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Despair is described as a giant, the giant despair. Pilgrim on his journey to Celestial City comes to Doubting Castle, which is owned by giant despair. And so when one is always doubting,

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One is on the territory of the giant despair. And giant despair has a wife called Diffidence. And Christian comes to Doubting Castle and is made a prisoner. cast into the dungeon by giant despair. Oh I know I know all of us understand

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what it means to be up and down. We have our ups and downs and we have what we call our down and outs. And I know that when we look many times at life it seems like we are more down, we're down more than we up. And sometimes people get down and stay down, like that old song that says, "Been down so long that down don't

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bother me," to despair. We seem so small and so insignificant on our little voyages, our being adrift in our tiny little lifeboats. We are like midgets caught up in the clutches of the giant despair. You may ask on this Palm Sunday, on this day when we celebrate Jesus' triumphal march into the city of

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of Jerusalem, why do we consider such a topic as overcoming despair? Palm Sunday is that glorious day. It celebrates success, achievement, recognition

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of honoring one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords by the multitude. It's a time when the crowd shouts "Glad Hosannas" and palm branches are waved in the air

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as Jesus rides through the throne. Tell me, what does Palm Sunday have to do with despair? For Palm Sunday is a day of triumph. Good Friday, which comes just a few days later

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And the same week is the day when Jesus is overcast by clouds of despair. An agonizing voice ascends to the vaulted skies saying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" So we cannot consider Palm Sunday without considering despair.

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We cannot live in hope without recognizing that each day we are threatened by despair. Reinhold Niebuhr says that the Christian faith enables one to build a citadel of hope on the threshold of despair. When one comes to the point of one's wits end, when one gets to the point in human existence,

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when one is prone to throw up one's arms, to throw in the towel and say, "Well, I'm through. Life isn't worth living. I want to check in."

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When one gets to that point, the Christian faith enables one right there at the very depths of despair, at the very threshold of despair rather, to build right there a citadel of hope. And if we would learn to live the abundant life, it means that we must learn how to deal

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with despair. Some have called this a century of despair. In fact, Kipling says in his poem, "If you can meet triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same," in other words, to learn how to deal with both, is a part

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of learning how to live. So on Palm Sunday we see Jesus riding a donkey, a beast of burden, a symbol of humility. He rides into Jerusalem, the holy city, in a tremendous parade. It is a citywide celebration.

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Now we may say it is a national celebration, but as he rides into the city in triumph, He is on his way to Calvary. You see, both Jerusalem and Calvary are on his agenda. And you don't have one without the other.

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Triumph, disaster, hoop, despair. So let us see in this experience something of how it may be related to our modern life. G.A. Studdard Kennedy gives us a description of how we may apply this event in the ministry of Jesus.

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It comes to us wrapped in poetic imagination. He says, "When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged him to a tree. They drove great nails through hands and feet and made a calvary. They crowned him with a crown of thorns.

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Red were his wounds and deep. were crude and cruel days the human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by. They never hurt a hair of him they only let him die. For men had grown more tender and they would not give him pain.

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They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain. Still Jesus cried, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." And still it rained the winter rain that drenched him through and through. The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see.

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And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary. And I wonder what would happen if Jesus rode into Jerusalem on this day many years ago, Palm Sunday. What would happen if he came to Austin?

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Austin? What would really happen if Jesus came to our town? What would he say if he came this morning and would be riding through the streets of East Austin? What we call the black ghetto, what would Jesus say as he would ride through the streets. How would he be received if he came to our town?

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