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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ For you've been his friend ♪ ♪ Each day bring the pain of guilt ♪

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♪ To him ♪ ♪ We look not to temptation ♪ ♪ For you've been his friend ♪ ♪ Each day bring we'll help him ♪

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♪ No other to win ♪ ♪ I'm dreadfully honored ♪ ♪ Confessions of you ♪ ♪ Look ever to Jesus ♪

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♪ He will carry you through ♪ ♪ You just ask the Savior to help you ♪ ♪ Soft and stricken and deep ♪ ♪ He is willing to aid you ♪

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♪ He will carry you through ♪ - We're ready. ♪ And through ♪ ♪ And through his hand ♪

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♪ Oh, then you will be free again ♪ ♪ Oh, to be free again ♪ ♪ Jesus will defend you ♪ ♪ Unwanted and cruel ♪

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♪ Lord help us to Jesus ♪ ♪ He will carry his burden ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior to help you ♪ ♪ Love your children and keep you ♪

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♪ He is coming to aid you ♪ ♪ He will carry you through ♪ ♪ To the battle coming ♪ ♪ What gives it the power ♪

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♪ To make it your combat ♪ ♪ Know our truth is strong ♪ ♪ He who is our Savior ♪ ♪ Our strength will renew ♪

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♪ Look ever to Jesus ♪ ♪ He will carry you through ♪ ♪ Ask the Savior to help you ♪ ♪ Come to strengthen and keep you ♪

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♪ He is coming to me ♪ ♪ He will carry you through ♪ - Amen. - Amen. - Let us pray.

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Speak to our hearts, O God, In the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen. The basis of the message, which was read in the New International Translation, I shall read the text in the King James, Jeremiah the second chapter, the 26th verse. "As the

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thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed. They, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets. The subject, "Ashamed of Getting Caught." This is a continuation of a series of messages based on the book of the prophet Jeremiah,

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ashamed of getting caught. We experience a sense of shame when we have done wrong, when we know in our heart of hearts that we have not done what we ought to have done. We experience a sense of shame when we fail to follow the commandments of God. We're like a little boy who raided the cookie jar and he was caught with crumbs around his

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mouth but yet he said he had not been in the cookie. still we're like a little boy who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Jeremiah compares Israel's condition to a thief who invades a dwelling and is ashamed because he is cold in the act.

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The thief is not ashamed of what he has done, rather he is ashamed because he is cold. Someone has said that there is an eleventh commandment, and the eleventh commandment is, "Thou shall not be found out." Thou shall not be caught.

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Some time ago in the Mare television show, a group of delinquent youth who were in trouble with their parents, in trouble in school, in trouble in the justice system,

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were there for a program. And while they were being delayed, so to speak, while they were waiting for the program to begin, there were some things that were accessible to them

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which they stole. And he asked those who appeared on the program, did they steal anything? Or did they know that someone in the group had stolen something?

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And none of them would confess. He said, well, you don't have to confess, because there was a camera that was there where they were. And he later showed them the camera

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and showed them stealing those articles. They were embarrassed. They were humiliated because of the irrefutable evidence that was against them.

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Shame on you. We hear that sometimes very early in life. Shame on you. The--is--this is the kind of judgment that is pronounced on

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the guilty. Often parents say to their offspring, "I think you ashamed of yourself. Israel has stolen from God. She has taken from him that which she has no right to take. She has stolen the devotion and dedication that is due God, she has stolen the authentic worship

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he commands at the division of the kingdom when Israel and Judah divided instead of remaining one united kingdom, they became two, one in the north and the other in the south. Those in the north established a new capital and had an idol cave established for the people to come and worship. And they stole from the living Lord of history that

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worship that was due to Him. As we look further at the history, we find they're going further and further away. And so the prophet is saying here today in this Word, "Shame on you. You are a thief, guilty of desecrating the holy. The gospel according to John reports that early in

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Jesus' public ministry that he went to the temple in Jerusalem and found in the temple merchants selling, found their sheep and doves, and found them engaged in the exchange of money. He made a scourge, Jesus did, of small cords and drove them out of the temple, and the sheep as well as the oxen and also the money changers. He overthrew their tables. He was

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saying to them by his action, "Shame on you. Shame on you for making my father's house a den of thieves when it is to be a house of prayer." a house of prayer. You ought to act in such a way that is commendable, but you have profaned the holy.

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You have polluted the divine. Shame on you. There's no question about your guilt. You're caught in the act. The nation is guilty.

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In time of crisis, we can so easily lose our integrity and resort to what is expedient and profitable. We only have to watch this election and the various ways it's going from here to there to show how people surrender their

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integrity in a time of crisis. And Jeremiah is saying here, "Shame on you." The entire nation is guilty. Shame on you. Shame on you, Judah. Shame on you, Israel. And I think that this Word also speaks to our country today, saying, "Shame on

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on you, America. You send out the Word, "Give me your tard, your pool, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, bring these to me, the tippets tossed. I'll light my lamp beside the golden door."

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And yet, we turn away Haitians who try to take refuge in this country and we send them to a watery grave. Shame on you, America. Shame on you.

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Shame on you, Texas. boast of your progress and the high percentages you make in education to toss tests and all of that and yet we have an unprecedented wave of dropouts among minority students. Shame on you. Shame on you, Texas.

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We also talk about how we extol the sacredness of human personality, while at the same time we lead the nation in executing people at the death chamber. Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on the kings. Shame on the governors, those who have not been praiseworthy models. They

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have been persons who have said one thing with their lips, and on another with their lives. Shame on you. Instead of being models of justice, they have been mockeries of justice. Shame on you. Shame on the kings. Shame on the princes. Shame on

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you. You say, as we look at our city, "Shame on you, Austin. Shame on you. Look at East Austin, with all of its deficits in housing, in unemployment, in economic development. Shame on you. Priests and prophets, shame on you. You build magnificent

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cathedrals, sanctuaries on every hill, churches on every corner. still fail to follow the commands of God. Shame on you. The prophet Jeremiah addresses his words to a people who are primarily takers. He calls them thieves. You're like a thief.

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You know a thief is always on the tape, always looking at some way to take. Malcolm X in his autobiography talks about the time when he was engaged in stealing and he gives some hints for people who are involved in stealing to know when to steal, when it's somewhat safe to steal.

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He said, first of all, he would advise people to leave their lights on, even when they aren't there, to leave their lights on, 'cause they'll think somebody's there. >> Oh, yes.

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>> And he gives a number of others, but to be a thief is to be on the take, trying to take. And imagine trying to take from God. Imagine that.

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How stupid. - Yes, yes. - The very idea of trying to take from God rather than to think of orienting our lives

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in such a way that we try to give all that we are and hope to be to God. So this thief that Jeremiah talks about is ashamed of being caught. So is the house of Israel ashamed.

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The kings, the princes, the priests, the prophets, they're ashamed of being caught. And God comes as a thief in the night. We're in the midst of facing the celebration of what we call the Advent season, the coming of our Lord.

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And we need to be reminded that God comes, but he comes as a thief in the night. We know not when he comes or how he comes, so we must be ready for his coming at all times.

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like a thief in the night. So the prophet says, shame on you. As a thief suddenly and unexpectedly comes, so he comes.

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There was a man who got up in the night. He thought he heard a thief in the house. And he went around to check things out. And behold, he did find the thief.

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And he said to the thief, come with me. I want to introduce you to my wife, because she's been expecting you for 20 years. Sometimes we're always expecting.

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Some people sleep with a weapon under their pillow, because they think the thief is coming. The thief is coming. Well, this judgment that is pronounced by the prophet Jeremiah is to remind us here,

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even though it is a prophecy given thousands of years ago, it is to remind us that God is coming to be ready for His coming in the 21st century. Jesus says that we do not know because He may come at any moment. And there's an element of surprise. And you know

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there's an element of surprise whenever God comes. But don't be caught like a thief who thought he had committed the perfect crime only to find that he was apprehended and they had a photographer there to check him out and to turn it

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over to. So there's no question about what he did. Shame, shame. God comes, yes, with an element of surprise. We don't know when He's coming. We don't know how He's coming. We only know that coming. And to be found by God is to be caught by God, to be

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caught by God. We said, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found." That "am found" is being caught by God. And it's a wonderful thing to be caught by God.

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The problem with many of our churches is that we have people who are taught but who haven't been caught. We know many things. We've been taught

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but haven't really been caught by the Spirit of God. And that's why it's so easy for some of us to drift away. can say one little word and you can drop out of the choir. One little word and you can drop out from the class.

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One little word, drop out from the group. Shame on you. Shame on you. For God is calling for followers who are caught by His Spirit.

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where you just, you know, no matter what you do, you know, you had what some call the can't help it. (audience laughing) You know, people do this and people do that,

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but you can't help it, just keep coming on. Keep carrying on because you're caught by the Spirit of God. And you see, the wonderful thing is,

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is that God is constantly on our trail. - Yes, yes. - Yes. - He's constantly on our team.

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He's chasing us. - Yes. - Francis Thompson talks about it in the Hound of Heaven. He said, "I fled him, I fled him,

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"I fled him all down through the years." But he was there. God is like the Hound of Heaven tracking down the souls of men

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and converting them to his saving truth. You can't get away from God. Jonah tried it, others have tried it, but there's no escape from God.

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So it's a surprise for us, so often it is, to find ourselves pursued by God. The recalcitrant sinner falls into the hands of an angry God. And the repentant sinner--

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Father penitent sinner is one who falls into the hands of the merciful and gracious God. So we may try to run from God, but we can't hide. The prodigal may go as far as he can go in a far country, but the Father is at home waiting, until he comes to himself, waiting until he makes that change, waiting until he turns.

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God is the one who gives us courage. Some are not ashamed because they have that which is pleasing in his sight. And I hear the apostle Paul as he speaks to us through the Roman the Roman letter saying, "I'm not ashamed." - No, no.

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- I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of salvation. And I'm not ashamed of what God has done

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and what God is able to do. - Yes, yes. - I'm glad that God so loves us that no matter who we are, that he reaches out to us,

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no matter how far we have drifted, God comes and lifts us up, puts our feet on a solid rock, takes them from the clay and puts them on a solid rock and gives us a new song to sing. And I'm glad about that. I'm glad about it. Well, this coming

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the thief is a surprise and God comes to us as a surprise and he gives us the courage, gives us courage to face the difficulties and the impossible circumstances of this life. He's always there chasing us and caressing us and telling us that he loves us everywhere we go and that's so wonderful he's there in his justice in spite of all of these

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things that are happening and in spite of all of the shame of Israel God sends Jeremiah to remind them that they are engaged in shameful actions and and that and that he's there and they have to answer to him he's still there and he He still has people today, pastors, prophets, and teachers

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calling attention to His presence, His goodness, His judgment, His mercy. He's still on the scene. And I'm glad that I met Him one day. I was just a boy, nine years of age, but somehow in the Sunday school class

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I listened to the teacher and I listened to the preacher and one day it happened in my own heart of hearts and I And I understood what they were talking about and God finds us wherever we are He finds us he lifts us To a new level of life

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And gives us the courage to be ourselves As we sing the hymn of invitation we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, to have that relationship that you're not ashamed of, that you're glad about. The door of the church is

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open for those who come by letter, by Christian experience, or on profession of faith. We invite you to come and unite with the people of God here at Ebenezer. As we say, "Just as I am." He takes us just as we are, and then he makes us the kind of person that he wants us to

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be. Come. The door of the church is open. [MUSIC - "JUST AS I AM"]

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(SINGING) Mm. Just as I am, without one plea. But that thou's blood was shed for me, ♪ And at ♪

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♪ Thou be'st ♪ ♪ Me come ♪ ♪ To thee ♪ ♪ O Lamb ♪

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♪ Of God ♪ ♪ I come ♪ ♪ I come ♪ ♪ Just as I am ♪

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♪ And waiting not to read ♪ ♪ Sing not to rid my soul of one dark blood ♪ ♪ To thee whose blood can cleanse the world ♪ ♪ What can cleanse each spot ♪

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♪ O Lamb of God ♪ ♪ I come ♪ ♪ I come ♪ ♪ I come ♪

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♪ Just as I am ♪ ♪ Thou wilt receive ♪ ♪ Wilt welcome upon us ♪ ♪ Oh cleanse and receive ♪

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♪ Because thy promise ♪ ♪ Oh how I believe ♪ ♪ O Lamb of God, I come ♪ ♪ I come ♪

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(audience applauding) Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]