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[ Silence ] [ Music ] [Song] ♪ You build on nothing less ♪

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♪ And keep us, blood and righteousness ♪ ♪ I dare not trust the sweetest praise ♪ ♪ Thou art holy, lead on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ On earth the solid rock I stand ♪

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♪ All of the ground is drinking sand ♪ ♪ All of the ground is drinking sand ♪ ♪ In darkness filled his lovely face ♪ ♪ I rest on his unchanging grace ♪

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♪ In every high and stormy gale ♪ ♪ I ain't no fool within the veil ♪ ♪ For Christ was born in Rockleshed ♪ ♪ All of the ground is sinking sand ♪

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♪ All of the ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ Here's all his power, now he's mine ♪ ♪ Come, put me in the welding plug ♪ ♪ When all around my soul gives way ♪

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♪ Leave it is all my hope and stay ♪ ♪ On Christ the Son in progression ♪ ♪ All around me sleeping stand ♪ ♪ All other ground will sink instead ♪

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♪ When he shall come with trumpet sound ♪ ♪ Oh, may I then in him be found ♪ ♪ Rest in his righteousness alone ♪ ♪ How blessed to stand before the throne ♪

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On Christ the solid rock I stand, All of the ground is sinking sand. All of the ground is sinking sand. Amen. You may be seated. It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

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It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Listen to me, listen to me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. God my Father, God my Father, God is free, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

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♪ God, my father, God, my father, God, it's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ It's me ♪ ♪ It's me ♪

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♪ It's me ♪ ♪ It's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ Oh, it's me ♪

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♪ It's me ♪ ♪ It's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Standing in the need of ♪ [choir singing]

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We're ready to hear the prayer request for this. Holy Master and Creator of Life, we praise you, O God, and our praise truly humbles us.

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We marvel at the work of your hands. Your creation never ceases to amaze us with excitement and wonder. We bow in awe before you because you are full of power and glory. Assembled here in your presence for worship, we ask that you send now your Spirit upon us,

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that we may embrace all that you have prepared for our hearts today. Lord God, thank you for your daily walk with us. It fills us with confidence in your love for us and lets us know that we can always rest in you.

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(Audience Agrees) Lord, we know that you hear our faintest prayers and will answer in your own wise and merciful way. (Audience Agrees)

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Be with those whose souls and bodies need your soothing touch and your healing power. (Audience Agrees) You know our needs and we know that you will not deny us

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your tender compassions. (Audience Agrees) When we don't have answers for our problems, you give us greater faith and wisdom. When we are burdened or in despair, you allow us to drink from your never-ending fountain of hope.

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Strengthen us so that our souls will not break beneath our burdens, but that we grow even stronger while carrying the heavy loads. Master of all creation we pray that this world and its leaders will envision a new reality the reality of the kingdom of God We want this to be a world where hate gives in to love and where weapons are turned into

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tools and where enemies become allies We pray that today the government of every nation will hear your voice and yearn for peace The kind of peace that only you can give Oh God we confess that we have neither loved nor served you as we should

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Forgive us we pray grant that we will embrace you as Lord and Master in all that we say and do and Forgive us when we give of ourselves only superficially for we know dear Lord that the gifts of our hands are no substitute for the loyalty of our hearts

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You have called to us to speak of salvation to those who yearn for truth that the world cannot give. Help us to be a light to the lost and grant that we may lift our voices for the cause of justice and righteousness.

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And gracious Master, we ask your blessings upon Ebenezer. As people of color, help us to remember your guidance and protection in our historic struggle for justice and equality. Make us one with you and with one another.

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Renew our faith and strengthen our unity. We unite our hearts this day and join with all others who call upon your holy name. Bless our pastor and his wife to serve tirelessly and faithfully this congregation you have given to their care.

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God it is your power that changes us and we thank you that you stand at the door and knock and that you carry with us until we open that door. Lord teach us to love more dearly in the power of the Holy Spirit. We draw near to you in the precious name of Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.

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[ Music ] Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my home. He is my strength from day to day. Without him I would fall.

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When I am sad to him I go. ♪ There is no other one ♪ ♪ That fills me so ♪ ♪ When I am sad ♪

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♪ He makes me glad ♪ ♪ He's my friend ♪ [Music] Jesus is all the world to me, and true to Him I'll be.

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Oh, how could I, this friend deny, when he's so true to me? Following Him, I know He watches over me day and night. Following Him by day and by night, He's my friend. ♪ Jesus is all the world to me ♪

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♪ I want no better friend ♪ ♪ I trust him now ♪ ♪ I trust him with my sleeping baby ♪ ♪ The cleaning day shall be ♪

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♪ Beautiful life ♪ ♪ Is such a friend ♪ ♪ Beautiful life ♪ ♪ That has no end ♪

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♪ Eternal life ♪ ♪ Eternal joy ♪ ♪ Is mine ♪ ♪ Jesus is all the world to me ♪

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♪ Is mine ♪ ♪ Jesus is all the world to me ♪ ♪ Yes, my Jesus is all the world to me ♪ ♪ 'Tis all the world to me. ♪

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[Music] Gonna lay down my burden down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside. Gonna lay down my burden down by the riverside. 'Til study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, ain't gonna study war no more.

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Ain't gonna study war no more Ain't gonna study war no more Ain't gonna study war no more Ain't gonna study war no more

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Gonna try on my sword and shield Down by the riverside Down by the riverside, down by the riverside, gonna try on my sword and shield. Down by the riverside and study war no more.

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I ain't gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more.

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Ain't gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more. War no more. Gonna try on my starry crown down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside.

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Gonna try on my starry crown down by the riverside. [singing] [Music] [choir singing]

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"And they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." Would you repeat after me? And they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. The subject is "The Rock in the Wilderness."

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We communicate messages through symbols. Wherever we see the U.S. flag, we know what that means. That's a symbol. Likewise, we have symbols in our faith, the Judeo-Christian faith.

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We see the five-point star, we know that it has reference to the people of God associated with Judaism. And then when we see the cross, we know that represents for us the Christian faith. Paul uses imagery involved in the wilderness journey of the people of God in his discourse

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to the Corinthians, describing the nature and function of the Church. He addresses them with these words, "I want you to know, fellow Christians, that all our fathers were baptized under the cloud and passed through the sea and did all eat of same spiritual meat and did all drink of the same spiritual drink and they drank

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of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. All our fathers who under the cloud all passed through the sea, all ate the same spiritual meat, all had the same drinking, and they drank of that spiritual rock that was Christ.

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It's good to know facts concerning our yesterdays, because yesterday serves as a model to follow today. Someone has said that we have no way of judging the future but by the past.

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Well, there's some truth in that. When we know the facts, we can better appreciate our past. So the Apostle Paul addresses the Corinthians, saying, "I would not have you ignorant, brethren. I do not want you to be in the dark, as the older people would say.

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I want you to be informed. Many of us are prone to cast the past aside as if it is something that should be forgotten. Let the dead past, bury the dead.

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What is relevant is important, but it's not the only thing that is important in the present. What is relevant in the present is here and now. Our present must be connected with our past

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if we are to live meaningfully. Some ask, why celebrate black history for a month, for a week, or even for a day for that matter? Why celebrate black history?

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It's necessary to recognize the outstanding achievements of people of color as well as other races. In so doing, we recognize and express appreciation for the contributions of the people of God,

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some who have gone on and made their contribution and on the other side of the river. But why celebrate the achievements of any people? Our race has made significant contributions as other races have done,

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so we need to celebrate those significant contributions wherever they occur in whatever race. So, Paul speaks to this issue when he says to the Corinthians regarding those who've passed on, "All our ancestors." And we need to recognize that as we assemble here today, that we stand on the shoulders

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of those who have gone on before us. all our ancestors. And we share a common heritage. He says, "All our ancestors were under the cloud."

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I don't need to tell you that all of us, not only in the past, but we're still under a cloud. All our ancestors, he said, were under the cloud. And all passed through the sea.

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Listen to his imagery here. All under the cloud, all passed through the sea. And all of us have had our experience of passing through the sea on dry land.

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And he wishes that the Corinthians would have unity, that they would have that togetherness that characterizes the people of God, that they would be workers together, workers together with God. This is Paul's heart's desire that they would be together. But they're not really together as they should be. Some of them are talking about the fact that they choose, that

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they would choose one preacher over another. Some say, "I belong to the Paul party. I like the way Paul preaches. Another says, "Well, I'm for Apollos. He sounds better than Paul. He has a good voice and he knows how to put those words together. I'm for Apollos." Another said, "Well, I'm for Peter, Cephas. He's evangelistic. He appeals more to my emotions,

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So I'm for him. And others, well I'm not for any of those, I'm just really for Christ. And so here are all of these groups in the same church. And they are divided.

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And Paul says, "Is Christ divided?" In other words, we ought to learn to appreciate our diversity because our diversity ought to contribute to our unity. So he says, "All our ancestors," the one in the cloud, "All our ancestors passed through

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the sea, all our ancestors did eat of the same spiritual meat, and all our ancestors did drink of the same spiritual drink that came from that rock, and that rock is Christ. We have shared some of the same experiences as people of color. We've had a lot in our city in recent days about black profiling as far as the police

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are concerned. But that may be news for those of another group, but that's not really news to us. We grew up knowing that. I knew if a policeman stopped me along the way,

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particularly in a certain neighborhood, I had to account for why I was there, where I was going, what I'd been doing, and what are you doing out here?

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So we share the same experiences. Now here is the community quarreling among themselves, divided among themselves, and they are quarreling over differences. They are at war with one another because of their diversity, and oh how foolish this is.

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Their diversity is their strength, as I said earlier. The Apostle Paul gives the Church a history lesson. And history is good for us to consider because there are many lessons that history provides. It is said, however, that one lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from

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history. We just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. So the problem is also that some of us are ashamed of our history. Some of us are ashamed of our history.

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I can remember some graduate students, people would ask, "We would like for you to sing some of your songs, some spirituals, like we've heard here today. Wonderful music." We don't hear much of it now.

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We hear a lot of other kinds of music. The music of our ancestors, wonderful music. A few years ago, when I came here 35 years ago, this piano was back on the stage covered with dust.

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It's the best piano the church has. And you know who bought it? Our ancestors. - That's right.

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- Out of the nickels and dimes and chicken dinners what have you, they were able to buy the best piano that even we have not surpassed in a hundred years. They had a deep appreciation for music.

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They wouldn't have bought it if they hadn't. And I had a hard time getting it repaired. - Yes, Lord. - Hard time.

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Some people, "I really don't think we should spend that much money." But they thought that if we had something here and the church for God, it ought to be the best.

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- Yes. - That's a lesson. - That's right. - It's a lesson.

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It's a history lesson. If we would but listen. So, Paul says to them, here is a lesson from our fathers,

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because they all, they all were under the same cloud. We're in a cloud. James Baldwin puts it this way, nobody knows my name. They call me, hey boy, uncle, preacher,

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anything else but Mr. and Mrs. Some of us can remember. I used to, you could read the column of vital statistics and tell who got married, who was black and who was white because they always called the white person who got married Mr.

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and Mrs. That's right. And they never addressed us as Mr. and Mrs. We are the same cloud.

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That's right. Don't think that you're in some other cloud. We're in the same cloud. Same cloud.

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We had a man who was an African American in Dallas a number of years ago who was rather successful. And he was a bondsman. And he made a good salary, income, through the years. And he thought he was sort of above us.

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Even though he was one of us, he thought that he was different. Until he got in a crisis. He was spending most of his time on the other side of town until he got in a crisis and he found out that they treated him just like they treated us.

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We are all under the same cloud. And see, see in the scripture here represents trouble and we all have the same troubles as the sea there and all of us confront that sea that we need to pass through. And so some of us are ashamed, as I was saying, of our history.

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We don't want to sing our songs. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. And I hope some say, "We don't want to sing those songs." We don't want to sing those songs. We feel that that refers to our servitude.

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It refers to a period that we want to forget. But that's our history. That's right. That's our history.

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One of our teachers gave a black history program that involved some of our members some years ago and depicted things where we were being beaten, and some of the white children in the classroom weren't very inactive on stage like this was.

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And then we heard them tell their mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers were up in arms, fearing that such would be depicted in the classroom. But brothers and sisters, that's our history.

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That's our history. And we have lived courageously in the midst of all that we've suffered under the lash of cruel taskmasters. And we've survived. We don't need to be ashamed of our history.

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We need to thank God that he led us under the cloud, through the sea, and in the midst of the wilderness, we were given meat and drink. And that rock that followed us was Christ.

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That's wonderful. That rock was Christ. So shall we forget? Shall we?

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Cast aside yesterday, in other words, the Holocaust, one of the most terrible events and experiences in modern time. Eight million Jews killed. Shall we forget it?

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In fact, the Jews are resolved that we will not forget. We will not forget. We will not forget. Shall we forget what happened in South Africa under the apartheid system?

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Shall we forget? Nelson Mandela said in his inaugural speech, "Never again." Never again! In other words, that there is a memory here, a cherished memory.

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That's what history is about, the memory of the race. Lest we forget that it was God who was in that rock, Jesus Christ in that rock that followed us. That's all the strange images out in the wilderness.

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Out there where there is burning sands, out there where very little vegetation may be seen. That there is a rock that follows us. We like the imagery of the shepherd who leads the sheep.

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And that's a good image for us to remember. But I like this because we have a tendency to wander, To go places we ought not go, to do things we ought not do, but there is a rock that follows us wherever we are.

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Rock that provides for us water, let me fix it. A rock that provides for us food, for our strength. And that rock is Christ. That's good news.

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- Yes, Lord. - I'm talking about that spiritual rock that satisfies our spiritual needs. That rock is Christ.

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As we came to church this morning, there were those near 60 people that had to be crossed, 35 poor, that put me through daily.

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Outside was like this. We moved outside, covered wherever they could cover with. No home, we called them the homeless. Most of us got up this morning, we had heat,

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we were warm, those of you who wanted it, we had a good breakfast, but we're out there in the cold, homeless without a home.

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And Frost says that home is a place that when you go there, they have to take you in. Yes, sir. [laughter] And we have three daughters and they come, and one of them in particular has a key.

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I don't have a key, we don't have a key to her house. [laughter] And we have a key to our house. Because she feels that that's home.

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Home, home, place where you can go. And they have to take you in. Well, think of a home that follows you wherever you are. - Yes Lord.

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- Some have a motto, "A home away from home." - Yeah, well there is in the wilderness. In the wilderness of despair, in the wilderness of hunger, in the wilderness of starvation and thirst.

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In that wilderness, there is a home. A hope in the wilderness, rest along the way, and protection from the noontide heat. A presence with us all through the day. That's good news. And it's a rock.

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That means that you don't worry about it becoming, decaying, suffering from decadence. You don't worry about that. It's a rock in the wilderness.

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A rock, a rock that follows, follows us wherever we go. In sickness and in health. And in the midst of the changes of this life, that rock is present.

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That's good news, I say. I say. Depend on Christ. That's what Paul is saying Don't don't don't get beside yourself because you're in cholera for great commercial city

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Don't don't get beside yourself because of the great knowledge that you think you possess Don't get beside yourself because of your degrees and your prosperity because all our fathers were under the cloud And

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They were Cared for they were provided for they were protected by the rock That rock was the shelter in time of storm that rock

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was Leading them all the way All the way from Egypt to Canaan that rock was there and Christ Was that rock

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May I have much, but if you have Christ you have everything. Yes Lord. And when you read the history of our church and the struggle that we were in, you can see how it was just faith in Christ.

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Oh yes. With little that we have and one of the few things that we have now that survived the struggle that we've been engaged in is the church. Yes.

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Church. Well, we had some banks, but they faded away and We we build schools and we're gradually losing those

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but the one thing Is Christ? Yes And and I can hear I can hear my mother saying now Marvin. Don't forget God That's right. You can get a lot of things, but don't forget God because he's the one that brought you where you are

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And he's the one that will guide you along the way. So don't forget Christ. On Christ, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name, on Christ. That's the one that has brought us and that's the one that will carry us through.

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As we sing now, the rock of ages. Many changes, but there is this rock that remains. We invite you to come by letter of Christian experience. (gentle piano music)

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(audience applauding) (soft piano music) (piano music) (piano music)

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(soft piano music) (piano music) (piano music) ♪ Of the wages cut for thee ♪

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♪ Let me hide myself in thee ♪ ♪ Let the wonder and the blood ♪ ♪ From thy wounded side withdraw ♪ ♪ We are sand, the double tune ♪

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♪ Saved from breath that make me new ♪ ♪ Could my tears no longer flow ♪ ♪ Could my tears no longer flow ♪ ♪ Deeds of sin could not atone ♪

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♪ Thou must save and thou alone ♪ ♪ In thy hand, O Christ, I bring ♪ ♪ Send me to thy cross, my King ♪ [ Music ]

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[AUDIO OUT] ♪ And behold, beyond thy throne ♪ ♪ Rock of Ages, clap for me ♪ ♪ Let me up ♪

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[BLANK_AUDIO]