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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] [ Music ] ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪

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♪ Through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪

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♪ O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪ ♪ Our proud, true North, for sure ♪

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♪ In brimming ever-changing years ♪ ♪ Our proud, true nation, for sure ♪ ♪ In peace, true and true ♪ ♪ His face the victors did see ♪

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♪ And the world, the world, is at the sight ♪ ♪ His power, the angels sing ♪ ♪ dusk is the year ♪ - Our Scripture is based on the book of Acts

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is based on the Book of Acts. We are involved in a sermon series preaching through the Book of Acts. So we come today to Acts chapter 27, verses 27 through 29. In our text I shall read from a different translation called the book. About midnight on the 14th night of the storm, as we were being driven to and fro on the Adriatic Sea, the sailors suspected land was near. They

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They sounded and found 120 feet of water below them. A little later, they sounded again and found only 90 feet. this rate they knew they would soon be driven ashore and fearing rocks along the coast they threw out four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

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The subject of the message, praying for daybreak. Illumination is essential for a smooth and safe journey. We need light to shine on our path in order to avoid pitfalls. We need light to guide us through the darkness. It's frustrating and painful to say the least. I want to be a victim of total darkness.

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The Christmas season is considered a season of light. Streets and homes are decorated with beautiful multicolored lights. Then of course we have our lighted Christmas trees.

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We look forward to the time when the president of these United States lights the Christmas tree for our nation. Here in Austin we have

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our lighted Christmas tree in Zilker Park, which we say is the largest in the world. As a season of light, this time of the year is identified with hope and cheer, promise and fulfillment. However, this season of hope in the lives of many is overshadowed by despair. More suicides occur during the Christmas season than any other time of

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the year. The highest suicide rate is within the older generation. The rate of male suicides is several times that of female and the rate among whites is double that among blacks. The rate among youth is increasing rapidly. How strange that is. That in the season of hope that so many succumb to despair and take

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their lives by suicide. Several days ago we read or heard or saw it flashed across our screens on TV of a farmer who killed his banker, who killed his wife, and then killed himself. And as I recall some of the details of the story he had a debt of some $800,000 connected with his farm.

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He was no doubt engulfed by prolonged darkness. People give up on themselves and the world because of the inability to adjust to prolonged darkness. On the voyage to Rome, Paul and his company

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have been in complete darkness for 14 days. That's two weeks. Complete darkness, total darkness. No sun, no moon, no stars.

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Complete darkness for 14 days. Now we can hardly have the electrical current cut off for a few minutes. Things go haywire. The refrigerator isn't working, there are people who are having this and that done.

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We can't stand a few minutes. But here we're concerned about 14 days. No light for the day, no guidance for the night, no stars by which to steer the ship. They do not see their way, they do not know where they are.

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The ship is drifting in the darkness. And that's the plight of so many in our world today. We're trying to go on the journey into the future, but find themselves drifting in the darkness, engulfed by total darkness, unable to see themselves, unable to see other people

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as they are, not knowing who they are, where they are, what direction they're traveling, drifting in the darkness. And there are nations in our world that are drifting in the darkness.

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There are institutions drifting in the darkness. There are individuals drifting in the darkness. Now here they are on this ship. They had food, plenty of grain.

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In fact, they were taking food to Rome. Oh, it was a ship that was, ship that had plenty of food. But here they are with food and cannot enjoy it. No doubt the ship was well

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constructed but they have a fine ship but they can't enjoy it. And do you know my brothers and sisters that there are many people who have all of the comforts of this life so to speak but they can't enjoy it. They have food on the table. We talk a a great deal about those who do not have food, but there are many who have food on the table,

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but they cannot enjoy it, and they have fine homes, but they cannot really enjoy it. They are just drifting in the darkness, lost in the darkness during this season of light and hope. There are many who are lost and drifting in the darkness.

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They are without hope. They suffer, many, from an agonizing loneliness. An elderly woman in a New York apartment says, "Nobody cares about me anymore.

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"I stay in this room hour and hour and hour. nobody really cares about what happens to me. Nobody loves me." And she took her life drifting in the darkness. Sometimes it's a person who has a prolonged sickness. You know you hear people say, "You know Reverend, I'm not

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accustomed to being sick. I can't stand to be sick a day, but what happens when if you're sick day and day and day and day on and on? And that can happen to any one of us. I had a doctor a number of years ago and I always thought he was such a calm peaceful man. He was a member of the Episcopal Church and I'd go to

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him for my annual examination. His wife was a very faithful person in the church and she worked in the church library and I'd like to talk to her about books and she was a radiant Christian. But it so happened that those two persons, that couple, as they reached their 70s and entered their 70s that both of

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them had cancer and a short time ago they took their lives. He killed her and then shot himself. This was their agreement. What happens? What happens to people when they find themselves on the sea and the winds are blowing and the waves are raging and the ship is being tossed around for 14 long days and nights and there is no

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light. Total darkness. This is the plight. midnight and it's midnight now in our world. It's midnight and here they are trying to

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find their way. Midnight. Trying to reach goals in life at midnight. Some of us have dreams that we expect to have realized and we have seen time go on and on and we find ourselves at midnight and we're wondering about our dreams trying to reach our destination. Now those who face this midnight in South Africa it's

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midnight in the struggle for justice, in the struggle for freedom, midnight and they are engulfed by total darkness in search for peace. That can happen. So many times you think when you have all these other things that the things are all right, but they aren't. I remember a number of years ago, I had a Buick that was new.

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I went to Marshall to attend a meeting, and I had a friend along. I encouraged him to come back home with me. I left a little before midnight. Oh, I didn't think that I need to worry the car is new. It has everything, it ought to have, I can leave anytime. And so we arrived on the outskirts of

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Tyler about 15 miles before getting to Tyler and the lights got dimmer and dimmer and finally went completely out. And I said, "This car is new almost." And we were out there in the country with total darkness and it can get quite dark out in the country at midnight.

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And we were trying to find our way, waiting for someone to come along with a light at midnight, wondering about. We thought, I thought the car was in good shape and all of that, but something had gone wrong at midnight.

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this can happen no matter what you may have and what you may think that you have that prepares you in the way of material things when it happens at midnight. You find yourself engulfed by complete darkness. It's rather tragic indeed.

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It's really tragic to be lost at midnight. Midnight, crucial hour. And this is what they said at midnight. reports that we prayed. Have you ever prayed at midnight? When there was

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darkness all around and there was no sign of hope or help and you prayed at midnight. Every human prop had been removed. You pray at midnight and you get a You get a sense of futility when all those props are removed. I was on the plane the other day coming back from Nashville and we were going on toward

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Atlanta and it was rather rough and no matter what your faith is, when it starts shaking up, you begin to wonder. You begin to wonder whether this is it. never know and you think about all of the other things that have happened you

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know. And here it is at midnight the crucial hour a time of crisis and they go to God that's that's what to do they they pray at midnight but you see the wonderful thing to first to recognize some people always talk about you know how God is a God of this the God of that but the one thing to really remember

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He's a God of crises. And when you really are in a crisis, when you find yourself caught between life and death, and you're in that vice between life and death,

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the only one that you can really appeal to, who is above, who is beyond, and who yet can come right where you are and lift you out is God at midnight.

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Midnight. So you see, God is hidden in the darkness. One of the things to keep in mind, when we celebrate the season of hope

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in the midst of despair, the hope in the midst of despair tonight, or today, that God is hidden in the darkness. We can paint a great deal about the darkness in our world,

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But the good news is that God is hidden in the darkness. He's hidden in the darkness. May not see him, but he's there. We look for some sign, we look for stars

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and the sun and all of that, but God is hidden in the darkness. We celebrate the fact that a virgin is pregnant. And when one is pregnant, you don't see the child.

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It's hidden. In the womb hidden in darkness, but you know it's there It's there, it's present. It's hidden and yet it's present. God is hidden in the human situation, but don't forget He's present

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He's very present He's a very present help in times of trouble. He's there and And so they pray at midnight

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They pray to God and and and and They hope for land. They hope that they can reach land. They hope for day to come. They hope for day to come. They hope for the day. You know what life is? Life is

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hopeful striving. It's hopeful striving. Where you get where you don't strive with hope you no longer alive. It's hopeful striving. No matter what happens I just keep hoping and everybody just keeps hoping and that's what life is it's it's hopeful striving. And so they the darkness all around but but they

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they pray and they hope for the day. That's wonderful. With all the darkness all the illness, all the disappointments, all the reverses that we may face, all of the darkness that hovers around us, but in spite of it all, pray and hope for the day, hope for daybreak.

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Because somehow God is hidden in the darkness, hidden in the darkness. during the Christmas season so many things are hidden some of you hit listening to me now I've already gotten your gifts and you haven't hidden somewhere haven't hidden you have them there in the house somewhere but they're

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hidden and as a little child I can remember how I would go to sleep on Christmas Eve and looking forward for Christmas morning. You go to sleep that night and sometimes the older folk would say you you best keep your eyes closed because the sandman will come and put sand in your eyes and you can't see when

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Santa Claus comes and when you went to sleep that night you just could hardly wait for daybreak. And early, early you'd wake up the moment that there's a crack of dawn you'd wake up and go to see what's under the Christmas tree. You'd be hoping, you went to sleep that night hoping for daybreak to come soon. And somehow in the midst of the darkness as they prayed and hoped, you see while they

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were praying they were also struggling. See I said hopeful striving, while they were praying they were also struggling because Luke tells us that they sounded, they found out that they had, the ship was in 120 feet of water and they tested again and

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they found out they were in about 90 feet of water and they said we must be close to land. They were struggling. They were still trying to get the ship to land.

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They were doing everything they could. But they prayed and hoped for daybreak. They prayed and hoped for daybreak. You know, there's nothing you can do to bring the dawn.

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When you find yourself in complete darkness, as they were for 14 days, there's nothing they could do but pray, struggle with the ship, and hope for the day. We don't bring the dawn, God brings the dawn.

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God himself pushes back the curtain of the night and causes the day to break and pierce the darkness so that the shadows of the evening and the shadows that are hovering about us somehow are chased away. pushes back the darkness. God himself does that and causes the morning light to come. And remember that no matter how dark it may be that there is a morning. The morning will come. Somehow God will pierce the darkness and push back

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that curtain of night and we'll be ushered into the dawn of a new day. That's the hope by which the church lives that a new day will come. No matter how heavy the burden may be as we travel through the night, there's a new day adorning.

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And we go on with that touch of hope in our hearts that day will come. Someday somewhere a new day will dawn. There's a great deal of injustice in the world today, but we look forward to that time when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream we

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we pray for daybreak. That there's a great deal that that goes astray when it comes to people who don't believe in God and all of that but we look forward to a day when the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea that daybreak will come. And the older people would often

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say that we look forward to the day when every day will be Sunday and Sabbath will have no end. We look forward to a new day and thanks be to God he gives a new day. If we struggle through the darkness with him he brings a new day and somehow in the midst of it all that though there may be darkness all around

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us we ought to have the light of hope in our hearts and that light of hope continues to shine in the darkness because there's no darkness that can put it out. And thanks be to God we ought to be able to say to him shine on me, let the light from the lighthouse shine on me. We extend the invitation of the church now.

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Are you accepting? Jesus, maybe you're drifting in the darkness. Maybe you're living in awe of the Lord. [Music] I heard the voice of Jesus saying, "Come unto me." ♪ We ♪

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♪ Unrest ♪ ♪ Lay down ♪ ♪ Thy weak ♪ ♪ Pray one ♪

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dawn, thy head upon my breast. Let it shine on me every day, Lord. ♪ Shine on me ♪ ♪ Let the light from the lighthouse ♪

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♪ Shine on me ♪ Shine on me, Lord. Shine on me. Let the light from the lighthouse

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♪ Shine on me ♪ ♪ With pitting eyes ♪ ♪ The breath of peace ♪ ♪ of peace ♪

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♪ Behold ♪ ♪ I have ♪ ♪ just grief ♪ ♪ God's Son ♪

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♪ I know ♪ Amazing love He came to our relief Let it shine! [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]