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[ Silence ] >> The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, the 10th chapter, 17 through the 22nd verses, "Pack up your bundle to take it out of the land. O thou community which lives in a state of siege, for thus saith the Lord,

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I am about to hurl out the inhabitants of the land at this time. Yes, I will bring distress upon them so that they will melt away. subject of the message, "Pack up your bundle. Pack up your bundle." A serious threat knocks at the gates of the city.

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crisis is at hand. The time of captivity has arrived. Time and time again the word has been given that the crisis would come. Predictions, forecasts, prognostications have been given.

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But now the time is up for that. The foe is on the scene. The time is short. Action must be taken now.

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up your bundle. These words are addressed to a people who are victims of estrangement. To people who suffer the pain of alienation, people who are strangers to themselves. They're strangers to one another. They are strangers to the eternal reality. They do not feel good about themselves. They know they are not what they ought to be. They

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They are strangers, victims of estrangement. So they suffer the pain of being separated from themselves, separated from their true being, And to every person who knows the pain of alienation,

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to every person, and that includes every human being, who is a victim of estrangement, these words are addressed. Pack up your bundle. Strangement is due to perversions.

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It's when one has a perverted image of himself. The Lord God gave a command to man to eat freely of all of the trees in the garden, but one, that tree in the midst of the garden he was not to touch. But man had a perverted image of himself. He was not satisfied to occupy the role of the creature. He wanted to put himself

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in the place of the Creator. Instead of just being man, he tries to play God, and that is a perversion of his own image. He's driven out of the garden. He is to pack up his bundle and get out, and he is is condemned to an existence east of Eden, he has to pack up his bundle. He's driven by the Almighty. So the estrangement of the human family is expressed in the fact, in

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this existence east of Eden, that man is against himself. His efforts are splintered. The self is splintered and mutilated, man is the victim of distorted desires. That which is false is accepted as being true. And this estrangement is expressed in the worship of idols.

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It is man's inability to perceive that which really matters. We become confused about the eternal realities, and we come to the point that we somewhat I like those words that are uttered by the angel Gabriel in Green Pastures when Gabriel says, "Everything that was nailed down seems to have come loose." This is an expression of the human

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estrangement that we suffer. This estrangement is in the fact that we feel funny about ourselves and we feel funny about one another and we say there's something funny between us. That's the estrangement. We don't feel at home in the world. We don't feel at home with ourselves and to everyone who suffers

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from human estrangement, to every person who knows the pain of loneliness, the agony of divisiveness, to everyone who longs for union with the eternal, to all who would live courageously in a time of crisis, this word is addressed, "pack up your bundle." Now, packing your bundle is related to preparation for a long

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journey. The time for packing is brief because the enemy is already at the gates of the city. There is not much time. There's not much room for a great deal of baggage. Time and circumstance make it necessary for just a bundle, just a bag in which to carry the basic necessities. Pack up your bundle. Hurry up. Travel light.

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I remember several years ago when we were taking the first overseas trip by air and each passenger was allowed 44 pounds. Now when you're going to be gone for three weeks 44 pounds doesn't seem like a great deal. That included at that time your carry-on luggage too. The overnight kits that sometimes we put so

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much in and we weighed all that we were going to carry on the bathroom scales and we thought we were within the range but when we arrived and checked in some bags we thought we could carry on we couldn't carry on it had to go with the 44 pounds and so we had to pay for seven pounds overweight too much baggage and

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since that time I have discovered that a whole lot of things you carry on these trips when you're gonna go for three weeks you don't have to have you can reduce it and you can get by on much less than you think you can get by on when you have to. So this is a time of crisis. This is no time for excess

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baggage. Get together whatever your belongings are, whatever you've got to have because you're gonna be gone for a long time and you can't carry very much with you pack up your bundle just carry the necessities the essentials the things that are absolutely necessary no excess baggage but pack up your bundle

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because Jerusalem is under siege the enemy is attacking the Babylonian army is at the gates right now and soon the walls will be battered down and the ruthless troops will invade the city. Pack up your money in order to be prepared for the problems of estrangement, in order to be prepared for

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the pain of alienation, in order to be prepared for the agony of separation, in In order to be prepared for the idolatry of a secular society, the crisis of unbelief, and the arrogance of power, in order to be prepared for all of these things, it's necessary for every one of us right now to pack up your bundle.

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a few articles. A small bundle is sufficient. When the great Titanic was sinking and there were the lifeboats that were being provided, there was one lady on the boat, a very wealthy lady, and she was told to hurry and get in the lifeboat but on her way to the lifeboat she thought about the jewelry in her

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cabin and she turned back to go get the jewelry and that was the end of that lady she went down with the ship. You see in that crisis that jewelry no matter how valuable it was it was excess baggage it was imperative for her to heed the word then and there to pack up and to go and you know you know when you think about

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what you're packing there's a whole lot you got to leave behind hold up hold up We'd like to carry with us. We can't carry we got to leave it behind If it's necessary to to carry only that which is needed You know you some of these things when you find yourself in the crisis

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You just get out of it as some used to say about the skin of your teeth You you don't have much room and This this is the situation and the burden that we are talking about is is yourself. Not not not not not not all of the other things that you you think that

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you've got to have and I think that I've got to have but when we really really come face to face with God we are stripped of all of these things and what really makes you you is what really matters in a time of crisis and you can be stripped of all of our property and all of our titles and all these things

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that we think that make us what we are that really aren't and Viktor Frankl really discovered that in the midst of World War II that when when he thought that there were some things he just had to have he thought he was just gonna write that book and the and when the Nazi forces came they took that

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manuscript that he had put so much in and he thought he couldn't live without but he was able to do it and he says that really when they came sometimes that all they had was some very watery soup and you would be very very fortunate if you got three peas along with the other watery part of that soup

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and he said really really what matters is that what carries you through the crisis is your will to live and if you can if you really have a why if you really have a why, if you really have a reason for being and that reason is really significant that you can bear anything. So pack up your bundles, pack up your bundles. And you know

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when we look at ourselves, that's the number one problem, is me and you. And dealing with ourselves, Dwight L. Mooney says that the most difficult person he had to work with with himself and that's true of every one of us that's the bundle that we've got to pack up and and and and in packing up somehow that that the integrity of self and of really

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being the person God made every one of us to be and being true to ourselves being true to others and being true to God pack up your bottle pack up your bottle No excess baggage, you get on the plane today, the hostess says, "Well, you can't carry this on unless it can get under your seat.

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If it won't fit under your seat, you can't carry it." Whole lot of us trying to carry something won't fit. something won't fit. All of us trying to carry something in the priesthood church and trying to carry it in the priesthood life and it just won't fit there. And every now and then she comes and says, "No, I'll find a place for that but it won't fit there so you can't carry it there."

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Pack up your bottle. No excess baggage. No malice. It used to be in the old folk that would observe communion what they would do the preacher would ask you know whether you want good relations with everybody in the church because if you weren't on good relations with everybody in the church then don't sit at that

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table. That was that was a practice. You all know what I'm talking about. In other words, pack up your bundle and if you've got any excess baggage leave it out. Don't come here with that. Pack up your bundle. Well this is the word of the prophet. because this packing is necessary in order for you to take the journey and where is the journey? The journey is into exile. You must leave Jerusalem and go to

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Babylon. You must leave that which is familiar and go to a strange land, pack up your money the city is under siege you can't stay where you are you've got to go the enemy is attacking pack up your money you know some people act like they're gonna be here forever they don't ever want to think about dying but we

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all don't die it's not it's not anything sir Reverend that's morbid you're not think about that you better think about it because we're gonna die there's some people who never never take time to make a will because they never have come to grip with the fact that they got to leave here no matter how beautiful it is

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how long we like to stay we got to go and you know we'd like to stay here none of us just just want to get out right away we want to stay here long as we can There's one friend of mine said he said you know Reverend the longer I ride in this train the slower I wanted to travel I want to be here as long as I can all

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of us do. So really what happens to exile is prepared for every one of us we got to go into a strange country and and it is already waiting for us and God you see drives us out you know what Adam didn't want to leave that paradise of Eden he wanted to stay there he knew he had done wrong but he wanted to stay there God had to drive him out

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go back and read it he drove him out of the garden and and and that's what happens to most of us. He has to drive us where we in certain circumstances are already divinely arranged and God drives us out of the garden. It's so arranged. You know good health is wonderful. We'd like to be healthy and in perfect health all our days. But we're gonna be driven out. Just keep living we are driven out of that. There was a time when our steps and our vision

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and all of that was just for fun, but in the course of time we have been driven out of that God. And the word is to pack up your bundle and be prepared for life in the exile. And there's some warnings that we have, that we're given. Black people had to pack up their bundle.

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They had to leave Africa. They were under siege. Pirates were collecting human cargo to sell to American markets. And they had to pack up the bundle.

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We didn't come here with much, no excess baggage, just a bundle. Just a few fragments here and there of our heritage, whatever we could bring, just a little of it,

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and we brought it here. And we were to sojourn in a strange land. Our nation is in the midst of a recession. The administration predicts that things will get worse

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before they get better. But that's not anything new. The pilgrim of faith lives on the move and knows how to travel light.

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And if we travel successfully and courageously as pilgrims into the exile, our dwelling place there, We must pack up the bundle, get our house in order.

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There's some dark days ahead. There are steep mountains to climb, but pack up your bundle. Not only is this true of the exile,

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people are to go into hard times. It's also a word about exodus. It's a word about estrangement. It's a word about the exile.

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It's a word about exodus. In other words, he's saying, "Prepare to leave this city. This is the city of man, but there is the eternal city. There is another city.

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Pack up your bundle. Travel light. Prepare to leave. Get your bundle together."

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Jonah was on that ship in the midst of the crisis when the storm was raging. You know what they did? They began to look around and they discovered that they had too much cargo on the ship and they began to throw it off and they threw it off to lighten the load. In other words if you would travel you must travel light.

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In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the pilgrim who hears the word "free from the wrath to come" runs and tells his family, but the family turns deaf ears, and he just takes a bundle and begins his journey towards Celestial City. And not that that bundle of being faithful to God's commands, that bundle of being ourselves,

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pack it up and travel light. The word that is addressed to persons here living in the cities of this world, to pack up the bundle is addressed because the city in which we live, the cities where we live are under siege. Days here are numbered. It's a difficult journey ahead

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but you can make it if you pack up your bundle and you're prepared to travel light and that's Jesus advice to his disciples travel light take no excess baggage don't take anything that you don't really need take no staff no script no bread no money in your purse he says just wear some sandals don't

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even carry two coats. Travel light. Travel light! No, no hostility, no malice, no being wed to the material, the crass materialism of our times. Don't let that weigh you down. Travel light! Travel light. Travel light. Well, our foreparents knew what it was to travel light. And if we wouldn't make the journey

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successfully, if we would be able to live courageously in the midst of the exile experience, we've got to follow the example and they knew what it was to sort of travel light. There's a song say, "You know on my journey now, Mount Zion, on my journey now, Mount Zion, well I wouldn't take nothing from my journey now." And there's a

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a part of me, I say you can talk about me just as much as you please, but when I talk about you, I'm going to get on my knees. That's what it means to travel light. No matter, no matter what happens, no matter how great the weight of the opposition may

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be out there, that you're going to travel light. On my journey now, Mount Zion, on my journey now, Mount Zion, well I wouldn't take nothing for my journey now. Well, there is a journey before us.

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All of us have got to pass through the exile, through death, into that life which has no end. We must cross the burning sands of the desert. There are raging waters.

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There are bitter streams. There are poisonous serpents. There are foes to face. So travel light, travel light and be ready for the journey into the exile, be ready now

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to make your exodus. Pack up your bottom, pack up your bottom. That's the word, that's the word to every one of us, pack up your bottom, get ready for whatever crises life may have before you, pack up your bottom.

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And the one who says, "Pack up your bottle," is the one who goes with us. He'll not only tell us what to do, but he'll come in and help us pack. He'll come in and he'll tell you what to put in that package. He'll tell you what to put in your bag.

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Say, "No, no, you don't need this. Put this in." You have some high mountains to climb. Pack up! You know what it is when you see mountain climbers? They don't carry a whole lot of baggage. You got to have that Lord regulated and it has to be a Lord that's conditioned for what

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you've got to do and that's our task. That's our task, climbing up the mountain, children, because we didn't come here for to stay. And if I never more meet you again, I'll meet you at the Judgment Day.

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Pack up your buggers. Are you ready? That's the task. Well, there is one who comes to get us ready, to prepare us for the journey that awaits us,

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who helps us in the task to pack up the bundle. And as the choir sings now, we invite you to make that decision to pack up your bundle, to make the necessary preparation for life here and hereafter. And you do that right now. Pack up your bundle.

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If you want to be ready for the unknown experiences, for the uncertainties, for the exile, you want to make that exodus now from death into life eternal. Pack up your bundle. We invite you to come.

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This is a time of decision, time of Christian commitment, time of discipleship, Christian discipleship. So I'm going to pack up, I'm going to follow in the steps of the Master. Won't you come now as we extend the privilege of the church to pack up your bundle, to get

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right with God, to get ready to travel with Him. (piano music) [MUSIC PLAYING] (piano music)

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(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) [Music] I have lived...

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[ Silence ]