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[ Silence ] [ Music ] [MUSIC] [ Music ]

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♪ For it is in thee ♪ ♪ That we retain ♪ ♪ It is in our name ♪ ♪ That we ♪

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♪ Afford them ♪ ♪ It is to take the way that we are born ♪ ♪ To eternal life ♪ - Oh, most gracious Heavenly Father,

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We thank you for this day. We thank you for watching over us last night as we slumbered and slept. We thank you for taking care of us through the night.

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We thank you for bringing us safely from the many directions that we've come this morning. We thank you for bringing us here in one piece and we ask that you would return us.

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Lord, we come to you this morning because many of us have concerns in our heart. We have come, Lord, because we trust in you and we believe in your word.

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And your word says that if we bring our burdens to the Lord and leave them there, that you are faithful and just to take care of those burdens. So Lord, I come as an instrument this morning,

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petitioning on the behalf of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. I lift up the petitions for those who have sick ones in the hospitals, for those who have family members in the rest homes,

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for those who have sick ones in their homes, for those who are sitting right here with us, Lord, with a heavy heart or with a concern that they'd like to lift up to you.

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Lord, you know the concern, you know the reason why the heart is heavy. And we're asking, Lord, that when they leave this place today, that their burdens will be lifted

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and that they will have come to you and left that burden at the very feet of Jesus. Lord, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that we have an intercessor

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who takes the very weakest prayers that we can present to you and present them to you in moans and groans that you can understand in such a way

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that you can take those moans and groans and interpret them and answer our prayer. Lord, we thank you that we have Jesus the Christ, that we have a counselor, that we have an adversary,

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that we have someone that we can go to at any time, day or night, and say, "Lord, have mercy upon me." Lord, the song says, it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord. Lord, as I stand here as an instrument,

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I sing those words to you for those many who sit in under the very sound of my voice, saying, Lord, it's me. It's me. It's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Lord, we just thank you this morning for blessing us with health and with strength, clothes, sustenance,

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the ability to get here with one piece. We thank you for our families. Lord, there are many families that aren't here that we pray for in particular that you will touch their hearts or that one of us will carry a word or say a word that will encourage them to come out and join us at another time. Lord we pray now there is special

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blessing upon the coming election. We pray Lord that first we will be committed in our minds to go and do our civic responsibility and to vote our conscience. We pray Lord for our county, for our state officials. We pray that as as we elect these officials,

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that they will be committed to the platforms that they have run. Then we pray that they have presented before us as why they should be our choice for candidate

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to hold that office. Lord, now we pray a special prayer for the pastor. And to do whatever Lord that word is needed to do in our lives. We thank you for those who have come far and near. We ask special traveling

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graces for those who are traveling further than just the outskirts of the Austin community. Now Lord, we just lift ourselves up once again as the Ebenezer family, thanking you for being the wonderful God that you are. In your darling son Jesus' name we pray it all. Amen and amen. [ Music ]

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I wanna be faithful like Jesus is to me. I wanna be faithful as loyal as can be. And when trouble comes and others turn and walk away, I wanna stand and be faithful like Jesus is to me.

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I wanna be faithful like Jesus is to me. I wanna be faithful as loyal as can be. And when trouble comes and others turn and walk away, I wanna stand and be faithful like Jesus is to me.

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Faithful is trusting when the rest of them makes wise Faithful is sharing when the rest of them don't try Faithful is working when the rest of them run and play Because real faith would never act that way

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♪ I wanna be faithful like Jesus is to me ♪ ♪ I wanna be faithful as loyal as can be ♪ ♪ And when trouble comes and others turn and walk away ♪ ♪ I wanna say and be faithful like Jesus is to me ♪

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Faithful is, faithful is falling with (guitar music) The rest of them are friends Faithful is being with the rest of them tear down

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Faithful is keeping with the rest of them throw away ♪ 'Cause real faith will never act that way ♪ ♪ I wanna be faithful like Jesus is to me ♪ ♪ I wanna be faithful as loyal as can be ♪

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♪ And when trouble comes and others turn and walk away ♪ ♪ I wanna stay and be faithful like Jesus is to me ♪ Faithful is trusting when the rest of them ask why. Faithful is starting when the rest of them don't try.

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Faithful is working when the rest of them run and play. Cause real faith would never act that way. I want to be faithful like Jesus is to me. I want to be faithful as loyal as can be.

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And when trouble comes and others turn and walk away, I want to stay and be faithful like Jesus is to me. [MUSIC] ♪ When the rest of them tear down ♪

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♪ Faithful is sharing when the rest of them don't weigh ♪ ♪ 'Cause real faith will never act that way ♪ ♪ I wanna be faithful like Jesus is to me ♪ ♪ I wanna be faithful as loyal as can be ♪

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♪ And when troubles come and others turn ♪ ♪ And I walk away and I wanna say ♪ ♪ Be grateful that Jesus is to me ♪ ♪ Be grateful ♪

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♪ That Jesus is to me ♪ (audience applauding) [ Music ] ♪ I know I've been changed ♪

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♪ I know I've been changed ♪ ♪ I know I've been changed ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven done signed my name ♪ ♪ You know that I know I've been changed ♪

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♪ I know that I ♪ ♪ I know I've been changed ♪ ♪ You know that I ♪ ♪ I know I've been changed ♪

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♪ The angels in heaven ♪ ♪ Have signed my name ♪ ♪ If you don't believe ♪ ♪ That I have been redeemed ♪

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The angels in heaven done sighed my name. Just follow me down to Jordan Stream. The angels in heaven done sighed my name. I stepped in the water.

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The water was so cold. The angels in heaven done sighed my name. ♪ It chilled my body but not my soul ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven unsung my name ♪

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♪ Oh, you know that I ♪ ♪ Know I've been changed ♪ ♪ I'm singing I ♪ ♪ Know I've been changed ♪

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♪ Oh, I know I've been changed ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven have sung my name ♪ ♪ If you don't believe that I have been redeemed ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven have sung my name ♪

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♪ Well, follow me down to Jordan Street ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven have sung my name ♪ ♪ I stepped in the water ♪ ♪ The water was so cold ♪

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♪ The angels in heaven done signed my name ♪ ♪ It chilled my body but not my soul ♪ ♪ The angels in heaven done signed my name ♪ ♪ Oh, you know that I ♪

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♪ No harm in shame ♪ ♪ I know that I ♪ ♪ Know I can change ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm singing ♪

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♪ I know I'm in change ♪ ♪ Because heaven ♪ ♪ I know that the angels ♪ ♪ Do you know that the angels ♪

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♪ Have they signed your name ♪ ♪ In the book of life ♪ ♪ Did they write your name ♪ ♪ With the blood of the lamb ♪

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♪ I'm so glad that the angels ♪ I'm so glad that the angels I'm so glad that the angels Signed my name

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[applause] [Music] There's a sweet, sweet feeling in his breath And I know that it's the spirit of the Lord

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♪ There's a sweet expression on each face ♪ ♪ And I know the gifts of Christmas all along ♪ ♪ Sweet Holy Spirit, save the maidens ♪ ♪ Sail on, sail on ♪

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♪ Sail on, dear river ♪ ♪ Let us make your love ♪ ♪ Learn for this the sea ♪ ♪ Read it the hearts in prayer ♪

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♪ And the land down below ♪ ♪ May be a merry land ♪ ♪ When we shall meet this day ♪ ♪ Say Holy Spirit ♪

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♪ Sweet heavenly love ♪ ♪ Stay right here with us ♪ ♪ Filling us with your love ♪ ♪ Our God is the same ♪

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♪ We lift our hearts in praise ♪ ♪ Without a doubt we'll know ♪ ♪ That we are made divine ♪ ♪ When we shall leave this place ♪

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- Amen. Speak to our hearts, O God, in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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I want to read a portion of our scripture lesson again using another translation, Romans 11, verses 25 through 27. So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery.

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A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, out of Zion will come the Deliverer, and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

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The subject, the mystery of our history. The mystery of our history. Peter Latham wrote, "It is the great mystery of life itself,

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"which is at the bottom of all the mysterious language we are obliged to employ concerning it. We are ushered into the realm of mystery in the Apostle Paul's profound theological treatise in his letter to the Romans.

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He discusses the mystery of salvation. We are surrounded by mystery. That on which we stand is mysterious, as well as the goal toward which we strive. We are appalled and enthralled by mystery.

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First of all, we are in awesome wonder at the mystery of creation. It's a mystery how God brooded over chaotic waters and hatched out cosmos. It's a mystery. It's a mystery how he brings order out of disorder.

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It's a mystery how the eternal creates something out of nothing. It's a mystery how out of non-being he brings forth being. It's a mystery. Earth, sky, sea belong to the realm of mystery.

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It's a mystery how God created heaven and earth. It's a mystery how he hung the sun and moon out in celestial space. It's a mystery how he put stars in their sockets.

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It's a mystery how God spoke and planets came into existence. It's a mystery how he creates every day. How darkness is separated from light on a systematic and timely schedule

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according to the seasons. It's a mystery. It's a mystery how the dry land is separated from the waters. It's a mystery how God has placed on this earth

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and in this earth everything that is necessary for the body. It's a mystery how God has given humankind dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under our feet. It's mystery.

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This is a wonderful world with many mysteries. So when we consider the mystery of creation, we consider God's creative genius as reflected in the starry heavens above and by the green Every time I take a plane ride and I look out and I see the clouds that seem to be playing leapfrog with one another and see the vast distances as the plane is flying hither and

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yon, I say to myself, "What a wonderful world God has created." Not only do we see the mystery of creation as reflected in the world around us, but we can also consider the fact that

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each one of us is a mystery. I am a mystery. A mystery how God created me. A mystery how he created you.

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A mystery how he made us all to dwell upon the face of the earth. We don't understand how it all happened. I read the other day that the pope and the Catholic Church had decided that the

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church would change its position on Darwin's theory regarding the origin of the human species. We don't know how God did it. We don't know when He did it, but we do believe He did it. It's a And that is a part of the mystery of our history,

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mystery of creation. Another mystery is the mystery of estrangement. You may call it the mystery of sin. Human estrangement is part of the mystery of our history.

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old saying puts it, "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Now, it's a mystery how this all happened. This has to do with the doctrine of original sin. It is a mystery how sin enters the human family. God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He made

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everything to grow that was good and delightful. And we read a little later, "But there was a serpent in the garden." Now, how that serpent got in the garden with all this beautiful creation? It was a mystery. Mystery. What the theologian

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Paul Tillich calls this, "Fall is estrangement." Once we were at home with ourselves, we were comfortable and satisfied, so to speak, with ourselves,

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and something happened, and we became strangers to ourselves. Not only strangers to ourselves, but we became strangers to one another.

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And even beyond all of that, the creature became a stranger to the Creator. We became strangers to God. And so we are alienated from each other, divided by gender, race, religion, region, and clan.

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Once upon a time, the human family was rightly related to the eternal. God came and walked with Adam in the garden. But man has now been driven from the garden and we are plagued because we are exiles from Eden. Paradise is lost

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and we struggle and wish and pray for paradise to be regained. We're separated from our roots. This is part of the mystery of our history. Our estrangement is manifested in the hostility that we experience, the hostility of man against nature, the hostility of brother against brother and sister against sister, the

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estrangement of nation against nation. We have perverted the image of God in idols, man is at war with himself. This, yes this, is the mystery of our history. But having considered the mystery of salvation and the mystery of estrangement, I want to focus now on the mystery of salvation because that is the

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central message that Paul gives us in this text, the mystery of salvation. Paul discovers, or discusses rather, how the divine revelation came to the Jewish people first. They were regarded at the outset as the covenant people, but in the course of time the people who are the first to receive the divine revelation

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become the last to accept it. Now this is a mystery. They rebelled against the Creator, they became the unfaithful bride and so they became the last. The order is reverse. Gentiles become the first to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Jews become the last. This is a mystery. It's part of the mystery of salvation. The

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The laborers who enter the vineyard first are the last to be paid. And those who go to work last are the first to be paid. Now this order does not really conform to the way we do things in the workaday world. We have seniority practices that we encounter there.

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But this is a part of the mystery of salvation. The Jewish people are the first to receive the divine revelation. Well, why?

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That's a mystery. How odd of God to choose the Jews. We don't know why. The Lord of the vineyard sends forth laborers into his vineyard according to his own good

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pleasure. The fact that the Jews are chosen first is part of the mystery of salvation. But Gentiles become first. The order is reversed.

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And why this change of order? have Gentiles done to deserve it? So Paul is really saying to them in this passage, "Don't you boast because the order is reversed. Don't lift up your head with pride," he says to the Gentiles, "because some of the branches on the

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olive tree were broken off so that you, a wild olive tree, might be grafted in. And so we who are Gentiles, who were outside the covenant so to speak, or somehow privileged to come into the covenant relationship with God, we are grafted in and we become a part of the tree, but we cannot boast

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because we must all depend upon the root of the tree. So you Gentiles, wild branch, but you have been grafted into the olive tree, don't boast. This is a part of the manifestation of the grace of God. Don't boast because this is an expression of God's unmerited favor

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shown to his people. Don't boast because this is a revelation of the mystery of salvation. God finds a way for Jews and Gentiles to come home and he says "Out of Zion will come the deliverer God will keep his covenant the time will come when when people of every kindred and tongue will gather on that holy hill

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called Zion. The mystery of salvation even though we read the Old Testament and we see this record of the revelation of God there as it comes through the Jewish race and we see how in the New Testament the gospel comes to the Gentiles and how the gospel has grown we see that and yet we wonder what Paul is talking

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about in this mystery how it all happened it still remains a mystery why the Jew first and how Gentiles become last and yet they become first and order is reversed. But God says in the midst of it that the day will come when we will all be together and we will all assemble at that holy hill in Jerusalem called Mount Zion.

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And how God is going to get us all together is another mystery. It's a mystery. That's a part of the mystery of our history, that God is above us and yet he is down here with us, that God permits himself to be killed on a cross between two themes. But God suffers the greatest humiliation buried in a tomb.

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He remains all night Saturday, all night Friday, all night Saturday. But early, early on Sunday morning, on Easter morning, he gets up.

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He raises up his only begotten son. And he says, "All power is in my hand." Now that's a mystery. Now you say, "Well, Reverend, what are you talking about,

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"the mystery of salvation?" Well, every one of us, every one of us who has experienced salvation knows that it's a mystery.

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You cannot really explain it. It's a mystery. One of my professor friends said, that when you develop your system,

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your philosophical system, he said, go ahead and develop it. He said, but always leave some room in there for an element of mystery.

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You look at a couple, you say, well, I wonder why she married him, or I wonder why he married her. It's a mystery.

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Marriage itself is a mystery. It's a mystery how two people can somehow meet each other and have different backgrounds and all of that and yet somehow come together in a marvelous union.

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That's a mystery. It's a mystery that somehow God has arranged in his creation. It's a mystery.

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It's a mystery of God. God permits us to live with all of our faults, with all of our failures, and yet somehow have fellowship with him.

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That's a mystery. It's a mystery that happens through Jesus Christ. It's a mystery. And God himself is the greatest mystery of all.

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greatest mystery of all. That when you somehow have a romance with God that you have hooked up with the greatest mystery of all, God himself, the tremendous mystery that you're hooked up with him. Well, William Cowper was a very depressed man and he had decided that possibly he would commit suicide and he had

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instructed his chauffeur to take him for a ride and he planned to do it in the course of the journey but somehow it's a mystery that the chauffeur took him a different route from what he had directed him to do and brought him back to his home. And later, Capa wrote these words, "God moves in a mysterious way. His

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wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the sea and rides up on the ye fearful saints fresh courage take the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break blessings over your head judge not the Lord by feeble sense but trust him for his grace behind a frowning providence he hides a

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smiling face blind unbelief is sure to air and scan his work in vain God is his own interpreter and he shall make it plain I don't understand it you don't understand it. We just embrace, we just embrace the mystery. I don't understand how he creates a way out of no way. I just know he does it and he

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doesn't just do it once but he does it over and over again. I don't know how he somehow guides us even with a cloud he guides us on our wilderness journey. I I don't know how he does it, but I just know he does it. In fact, I really don't understand this watch,

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how it operates, but I just know it operates, and it gives me the time. And that's enough for me that God, in the midst of all that happens, that somehow when I embrace him,

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that I embrace that mystery. I don't know why some people die before others, and why this happens in the family, and this other thing happens.

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I don't understand it all. But when I embrace God, I embrace the one who understands and who's able to equip us in such a way that we can embrace the cross.

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And that's the wonderful thing, because the cross means that we can embrace all of the discontinuities of life, all of the reverses of life,

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all of the sacrificial experiences that we are called upon to make, that we embrace the cross, that we are able to emerge victorious. That's good news. So as we sing "Room at the Cross" we extend this morning the invitation to Christian discipleship

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to accept this mystery in your life. If you have accepted God and you've moved to Austin, you don't have a church home, we invite you to unite with the people of God

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here at Ebenezer, others who have embraced this tremendous mystery that is with us all along life's way. We invite you to come.

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I invite you to come. The door of the church is open. There is room at the cross. (music)

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♪ The water of His Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Is the shelter in which we may find ♪ ♪ And His grace so free ♪ ♪ Is the vision for me ♪

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♪ And He is as mountain and high as the sea ♪ [music] ♪ At the cross for you ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪

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♪ No misery in the town ♪ ♪ There's still room for one ♪ ♪ Yes, there's room at the cross for you ♪ [MUSIC]

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♪ And a child from the sins they had sinned ♪ ♪ The Savior still wait to open the gate ♪ ♪ And welcome the sinner before his tomb gate ♪ There's room at the Falls for you.

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There's room at the Falls for you. Though millions have died, there's still room for love. ♪ Yes, that truth has a voice for you ♪ ♪ The hand of my Savior is strong ♪

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♪ And the love of my Savior is long ♪ ♪ Through sunshine or rain ♪ ♪ Who lost for his name ♪ ♪ The battle was unhappy ♪

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♪ To his every stain ♪ ♪ Let Rome have the halls for you ♪ ♪ Let Rome have the halls for you ♪ Oh, millions have come, there's still room for one.

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Yes, there's room at the cross for you. (orchestral music) (gentle music) (choral music)

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(chanting) (chanting) (choral music) (chanting continues)

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(chanting) (choral music) [Music] [Music]

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[ Silence ] [ Silence ] (silence) [ Silence ]

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[ Pause ] There. [Music] [ Silence ]