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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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(gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING] God is a good God. God won't ever change.

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God is a good God. As far as ever, grace is great. I keep on telling you that God is a good God. ♪ I won't ever change ♪

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♪ For he's a good Lord ♪ ♪ As world ever praised his name ♪ ♪ Mm, he's captain of the ocean ♪ ♪ He's captain of the sea ♪

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♪ He rides on every windfall ♪ ♪ And he moves in every breeze ♪ ♪ I keep on telling you that God ♪ ♪ He's a good God ♪

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And he, he won't ever change. God, he's a good God. Ever. Oh, he's alpha and he's omega.

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He's the beginning and he's the end. He'll save your soul from a burning hell And he will wash away all of your sins I keep on telling you that God is a good friend

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God won't ever change ♪ Oh, he is a good man ♪ ♪ And I'll never change his name ♪ ♪ My God led the children of Israel ♪

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♪ He led them across the mighty Red Sea ♪ ♪ He led them to a promised land ♪ ♪ And he will do the very same for you ♪ ♪ I keep on telling you that God is a good God ♪

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♪ And God won't ever change ♪ ♪ Oh, God, he's a good God ♪ ♪ That's why I'll never praise him ♪ ♪ Oh, you know there's nothing too hard for my God ♪

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♪ There's nothing that my God can't do ♪ ♪ And if you are looking for a miracle, he'll make one ♪ ♪ You know he'll make one just for you ♪ ♪ I keep on telling you that God is a good man ♪

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♪ He's a good God ♪ ♪ God won't ever change ♪ ♪ God is a good God ♪ ♪ That's why I'll ever praise His name ♪

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♪ That's why I'll ever praise His name ♪ ♪ Mm, that's why I'll ever praise His name ♪ ♪ Oh, that's why I'll ever praise His name ♪ - Amen. - Amen.

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- Hear this word, recorded in Genesis, the second chapter and the eighth verse. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed.

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Three gardens. Three gardens. The book of Genesis is about beginnings. Tells the story of how the world began.

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It is the first book in the Bible. If we could understand ourselves and the purpose for which we are divinely designed, it is necessary for us to relate to our origins, the source of our being,

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and the ground of our hope. We have a rendezvous with destiny. Genesis tells us how it all got started. God planted a garden eastward in Eden.

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This is the beginning of human history. It doesn't start with a big bang or a huge hole. It starts with God. It begins with divine action.

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God plants a garden and places in it the first human family. The garden is a plot of ground where flowers, vegetables, and herbs are cultivated. Everything needed for the sustenance of the human family is in this garden.

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Eden is paradise. That blessedness we once knew. That lost organ chord we once heard. Eden is the blessedness which is God's gift to his people.

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Eden is the age of innocence. In Eden, nothing is lacking. Crystal clear rivers, fertile soil, sunshine and rain. In the garden of Eden, the Lord God

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causes to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Every person has his or her garden of Eden. Every person experiences the age of innocence. Every person has a garden of possibility.

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Garden is a place of productivity. It's a place to produce, not a place of inactivity. the human family placed in the garden is commanded to dress and keep the God. It's a place, I said, to produce. During the Civil Rights Revolution in the 60s,

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There was a great deal of emphasis on protest. And many times, we would rather protest, spend our time protesting, rather than producing. Reverend Dr. Jace Jackson had his convention

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to adopt as a motto, "From protest to productivity." from protest to productivity. And he led his convention to purchase a farm near Memphis. And that was the way he was saying we should demonstrate.

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Now, many people who had already been on the farm and called themselves freeing themselves from the farm when they came to the city did not follow this. But nevertheless, a garden is a place for productivity.

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They are to dress and keep the garden. Now, the garden God built was a place of paradise, the epitome of attractiveness, pleasantness, and goodness.

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God planted this garden and placed Adam and Eve in it. So every one of us is ushered into a garden of paradise. Everyone has his or her garden of opportunity. It's there.

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It's a garden for every one of us. Some say opportunity says they do me wrong, who say I come no more than once I knock and fail to find you in. For every day I stand outside your door

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and bid you rise to fight and win. It's a garden of opportunity. It's available. It's present.

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But there is also a test in the garden. For every person, there is a test. Main thing is, how do you develop the garden that you're given?

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Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? this understanding of silver bells, cockle shells, and pretty maidens all in a row. How does your garden grow?

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Your garden of opportunity. Your garden of paradise. Well, we're ushered into this garden that's fertile with opportunity, a garden in which we are free

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to realize our potentialities. Ushered into the garden of God's world, the soil is fertile and produces every plant that is pleasant for the sight and good for food.

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Now, they're not in the garden, Adam and Eve, just to enjoy the scenery. I said and I repeat, they are to dress and keep the garden. They're given a test.

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They're free to eat of all the trees in the garden but one. The tree of the knowledge, good and evil, that tree, they are not to eat of the fruit of it, Neither are they to touch it.

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But you know the story. Eve is beguiled by the serpent and she influences Adam. They eat of the forbidden fruit and are driven by God out of the garden. They are unable to return.

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Paradise is lost. Happiness is hidden. Blessedness is taken away. What once was is no more.

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Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul's refreshing view of Jesus and his word? Return, O heavenly dove, return, sweet messenger of rest.

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I hate the sins that made thee mourn and drove thee from my breast. Well, the Garden of Eden is lost from us. That age of innocence is no more. It's gone.

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But there is another garden in Holy Scripture that is called the Garden of Gethsemane. In that garden, Jesus found refuge during the dark night of his soul. It is in that garden that Jesus faces the greatest crises in human history. with its sturdy and stately olive trees.

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Gethsemane, where beggars gathered. Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed. There in Gethsemane is the place that typifies the struggle of the soul the soul to have peace with God in the pilgrimage of prayer.

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That's why we say, "Go to dark Gethsemane." It's a garden of prayer, Gethsemane. When the burden seems too heavy to bear, there, you can go there. Gethsemane. When the cup is too bitter for us to drink, we can go to Gethsemane. Go to

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Gethsemane when sorrows oppress and circumstances bring distress, we can go to Gethsemane, to the garden. It's interesting that this is a garden. Gethsemane is a garden. "For we will find there not only a place of refuge, but we will

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find that Gethsemane bears precious fruit in our lives. For in Gethsemane, Jesus meets us in our suffering. He's with his disciples in the garden. He leads us. He points the way. And we are privileged to walk with the Lord in the garden of

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prayer. Garden of prayer. It's called a garden because it produces fruit in our lives. And the more troubles we have, the more fruit it produces in the garden of Gethsemane. We can have fruit growing even on the hills in our garden of

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of Gethsemane. We can glow in the darkness in our garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is with us in our garden of Gethsemane. There is a garden where Jesus is waiting. There is a place that wondrously fair, for it glows with the light of His presence.

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'Tis the beautiful garden of prayer. Oh, the beautiful garden, the garden of prayer. Oh, the beautiful garden of prayer. There my Savior awaits, and He opens the gates to the beautiful Godly prayer. We go there when we face life's

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crises. And every one of us at some time, in some way, we face certain crises in our lives. Crises of disappointment, crisis illness, crisis of discouragement, crisis of just having a burden that is too heavy for us to bear alone,

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crisis of frustration and confusion, and we do not know how we're going to make it. It's a crisis. And we cry out to God to help us in our garden of Gethsemane.

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I talk about it from time to time, the crisis that I had when I was in college, but I consider

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the blessing in my life the struggle. The struggle, you see, whenever we have problems,

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we find ourselves, if we are believers in Jesus Christ, we find ourselves being

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driven to our knees, and - Never, never, never so powerful with God as when the time comes

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when we are driven to our knees and we cry out to him, "Lord, "why hast thou

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forsaken me?" And in the midst of what that dog crisis God acts in our Gethsemane,

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that's a garden. Don't shy away from Gethsemane because it's a blessing. because it's a blessing

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to go to Gethsemane. And the struggle in the darkness when those who are closest

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to you may deny you, when others may betray you and speak all that manner of evil

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against you falsely, be sure, be sure that you make the pilgrimage to Gethsemane and

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talk with God and the blessed fellowship of prayer. - Yeah.

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- So Gethsemane is a garden. There is another garden. It's the garden of the resurrection. You read over there in the book of John

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that Mary goes to the garden, but just before that it says when Jesus died in that 19th chapter in the 41st verse of the gospel of John,

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It says that Jesus died and that he was buried, placed in a tomb that was in a garden.

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And on Easter Sunday morning, Mary came to the garden looking for Jesus. She found there an empty tomb.

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And as she moved about in the garden, And she saw a man. And the scripture says that she thought

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that he was the gardener. And she spoke to him, said, "Sir, will you tell me

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where they have taken him?" And they had discovered that the one she thought was the gardener was

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- Well, he is the chief gardener in our lives. He's been working with us now, some of us for a long time.

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He's been in our hearts cultivating us. He has broken up the hard ground that was there

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and he has sent down the refreshing rains of his spirit of kindness the rain of His grace,

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the rain of His love. He has been cultivating our garden. But you see, He went through death itself. Him, to show us the way.

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He went through the worst thing that could happen, happened to Him. And they buried Him, and they said, "This is it, we've got Him now."

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called Jesus that has been disturbing us. But the scripture says that early

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that Easter Sunday morning he got up and they gathered there in the garden of the resurrection.

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Mary came down weeping but she left shouting. And God has a way through Jesus Christ of

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causing us to shout in the midst of those situations that we thought that we thought would bring us the greatest distress.

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Garden of the resurrection. That's a wonderful garden. No matter how many times you may be knocked down, the God who comes to us through Jesus Christ

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will raise us up again in the garden of the resurrection. Oh, how wonderful it is. How wonderful it is.

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The garden of the resurrection. So there is, yes, the Garden of Eden, where we lost our innocence.

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And then there is the Garden of Gethsemane, where we engage in the pilgrimage of prayer.

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Then of course there is the Garden of the Resurrection. And all of us look someday, somewhere to get up.

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Get up. When the first trumpet shall sound, We expect to get up.

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Even though we may be in some lonesome graveyard, no matter where it is, the dead in Christ shall get up. That's a glorious thought.

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To know that this is not the end, no matter how it may appear now, this is not the end. There is the garden of the resurrection.

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resurrection. But beyond, beyond, yes, beyond these three gardens, the garden of Eden, the garden of Gethsemane, and the garden of the resurrection, there is another garden. There is another garden. Beyond this veil of wrath and tears, there's

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another garden, I tell you. There's another garden. John, John, on the Isle of Patmos in his vision, gives us a view of garden. It's a garden in a city that is let down from above.

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Not built up from below, but it is let down by God. It appears so attractive that he compares it as a bride adorned for her

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husband, another garden. In this garden there is a river. There was a river in the garden of Eden, but that garden is lost

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and there is another garden with a river that flows from the throne of God.

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And then there are trees, 12 trees, on either side of the river, bearing 12 manna of fruit.

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And the leaves are for the healing of the nation. Oh, it's a wonderful garden. It's a garden

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that God creates. He created Eden and we messed it up. But there's another

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garden that we cannot mess up. It's a garden above that is eternal. It's a garden that

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God makes because he's the chief gardener. And you don't have to worry about the sun.

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You don't have to worry about the moon. Some people plant by the moon and all of that, but you don't have to worry about that. No need for sun, moon, because God himself

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is the light of the city. And there are no weeds in that garden. No weeds. No weeds at all.

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This is God's garden. There'll be no sickness. There'll be no sorrow. There'll be no tears.

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that there be no despair in that garden because God, the Lord God Almighty, is the one who rules that garden. And he has complete control.

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That's a wonderful, wonderful God. Well, John saw it and I hope someday, and I know all of us who believe hope someday to inhabit that garden.

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That garden where every day is Sunday. That's what the fathers, our ancestors once said, every day will be Sunday and Sabbath will have no end. Thanks be to God that he gives us the gardens in this life.

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Thanks be to God that he gives us the garden of Eden. Thanks be to God that he gives us the garden of Gethsemane. - Thanks be to God that he gives us the garden of the resurrection.

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- Yes. - And thanks be to God that there is a garden above all of these gardens

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that we hope to inhabit someday. But in the meantime, in the meantime,

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go to the garden with God. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the rose.

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It's still on the road. It's a good thing to come early. Early in your life to commit yourself to God through Jesus Christ

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and to be able to say He walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me that I am His own

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and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.

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It's an open door the Lord set before us. We invite you to come There's a candidate for baptism

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by letter, by Christian experience. Become a part of the family of God here at Ebenezer. As we work with God

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in the garden in which we are placed, we invite you to come. (piano music)

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♪ I come to the garden ♪ The God and the Lord ♪ ♪ My adieu is still on the roses ♪ ♪ And the voice I hear ♪

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♪ I love my heir ♪ ♪ The Son of God ♪ ♪ This Lord was with me ♪ ♪ And He walks with me ♪

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♪ And He talks with me ♪ ♪ And He tells me that I am His own ♪ ♪ And the joy we share ♪ ♪ His sweet airy breath ♪

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♪ The mother has ever known ♪ ♪ The peace and the sound of his voice ♪ ♪ Is so sweet ♪ ♪ The birds just they're singing ♪

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♪ And the melody that he gave to me ♪ ♪ Within my heart is ringing ♪ ♪ And he walks with me ♪ ♪ And he walks with me ♪

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♪ And he tells me that I am his own ♪ ♪ And the joy we share ♪ ♪ As we dare each other ♪ ♪ None other has ever known ♪

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♪ I stay in the garden with him ♪ ♪ Though the night around me be falling ♪ ♪ When he leads me home to the horse of hope ♪ ♪ His voice to me is calling ♪

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♪ I need him most ♪ ♪ With me I need God ♪ ♪ With me I need him ♪ ♪ 'Til I am his own ♪

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♪ And the joy we share ♪ ♪ Has been shared with them ♪ ♪ God of love ♪ ♪ Blessed art thou ♪

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- We bow your heads. Lord God, our Father, thou who art the great gardener of the universe, help us be faithful to your word,

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the garden of your word in which all of us are placed. Grant us the leadership of your spirit as we face the challenges of this day and the days ahead. Grace, mercy, peace be with you.

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From God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Amen. [MUSIC - "HOW FINE THE MOON IS"] Give me a brook, just to water it all the way.

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Amen, amen, amen. ♪ Amen ♪ Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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