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[ Silence ] [MUSIC - "HOW WE PRAISE THEE"] ♪ With the light of his hand ♪ ♪ On your way he sheds a ray ♪

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♪ God in his new way ♪ ♪ Reaffirms his mercy ♪ ♪ And with all the angels stand your way ♪ ♪ Just stand your way ♪

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♪ I am no other than ♪ ♪ To the ending he's at ♪ ♪ Unto trust and obey ♪ ♪ I am she ♪

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♪ And I'll ever faith ♪ ♪ With all that he's done in the way ♪ ♪ From the hands of man ♪ ♪ And the hand of the King ♪

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♪ And to God be trust and obey ♪ ♪ Trust and obey ♪ ♪ For there's no other way ♪ ♪ Than we have in Jesus ♪

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♪ Not to trust them or fear ♪ ♪ The children of men ♪ ♪ Will serve you each day ♪ ♪ By calling you when you need them ♪

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♪ And we are all ones ♪ ♪ And friends are all friends ♪ ♪ But faithfully trust Him only ♪ ♪ Trust Him only ♪

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♪ For there's no other way ♪ ♪ To be happy in Jesus ♪ ♪ But to trust Him only ♪ The subject of the message, trust me, trust me. Our scripture is Jeremiah the

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17th chapter and the fifth through the eighth verses. A curse on him who relies on man who leans upon mere human aid turning his thoughts from the eternal. He He is like some desert shrub that never thrives, set in a solitary place in the steps in a salt solitary land.

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But happy is he who relies on the eternal. the eternal for his confidence. He is like a tree planted by a stream reaching its roots to the water untouched by any fear of scorching heat. Its leaves are evergreen. It goes on bearing fruit in days of drought and lives serene trust me says the

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politician trust me says the salesman trust me says the promoter someone is always after our trust it seems. From all areas of life we get invitations from those who want us to trust them with our finances, our possessions, our votes, our emotions and even at times our lives.

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Once trust is a valuable commodity, relationships are made and sustained through trust. Relations are often broken when someone fails to be faithful to the trust. Trust me, trust me. One's trust is a priceless possession because it has to do with dedication,

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commitment. It is to put oneself in the hands of another. Trust me, let me handle it for you. Trust me, I'll take care of it. I guess it might be said that part of learning how to live is a sense of when not to trust and to know when to trust. Trusting and sensibly not trusting must be learned together, the action of trusting becomes mindless and insensitive

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to reality. It becomes a gullible performance that has no grounding in the world of people and events. psychologist Eric Erickson makes trust the keystone of human development and he's emphasized our need to withhold trust if the situation or the person is

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inappropriate or ill-prepared for it. Trust me, trust me. In response to these words trust me the question should be asked can you be trusted? Are you able to deliver? Can I depend on you? Can I rely

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fully and completely on you when you say to me trust me? Listen again to the words of the text. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who turns his heart away from God. You know everybody needs to trust somebody. But cursed is the man who

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trust in man. This doesn't mean that you ought not trust any person that's not what the text means. But what Jeremiah is concerned about here is the kind of trust in which a person trusts only in man and does not trust in God. For the one gets into trouble when he turns his heart away from God. The kind of trust

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which brings a curse is a kind of insensible trust is when we place our our trust absolutely in that which is relative. To put your absolute confidence in something which is temporary. To rely upon the finite, that which is limited and that which is faulty and that which is

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weak to rely upon that as the means of our salvation that's dangerous and that has a curse with it you see when Jeremiah said these words there was a crisis in the land and there's a crisis now people are saying over and over again I don't know who to trust Watergate happens on the one hand shops

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town scandals here in Texas on the other hand one showing a national crisis as far as distrust in our leadership another one has to do with our state and here lately we've had another shocking revelation that not only affects our state but it affects our nation has to do with our political leaders and people

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become more and more suspicious and we say who can we trust well it was a crisis then it was a crisis in the land when Jeremiah spoke these words Judah was being attacked. There was an enemy threatening the safety and security of the people and the question was raised time and time again in whom can we trust?

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And there were those who considered the matter and the advisors to the King, the State Department officials met and after looking at the situation they advised the King Zedekiah look King you can rely on Egypt don't don't don't don't become too disturbed about Babylon and the threat that Babylon offers to the nation

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you can rely on Egypt see Egypt has horses calvarymen and chariots you can really depend on Egypt to come to your aid so make an alliance with Egypt and if you make an alliance with Egypt you won't have anything to worry about so So there were those who represented Egypt and said to Judah trust me, trust me.

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So Zedekiah made an alliance with Egypt. He ignored the words of the prophet. Jeremiah had tried to warn the nation time and time again. He had spent his entire life trying to tell the people to trust in God.

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here they turn away, the nation turns away from trusting in God and begins to trust in Egypt. I said well the prophet doesn't know what he's talking about politics is politics and religion is religion let him utter his words from the pulpit he has no business trying to deal with statecraft he's out of his

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field. Well the truth of the matter is that Zedekiah had not been a good student of history for had he been a good student of history he would have remembered the words of Isaiah that had been spoken about a hundred years before to another king. He said woe unto them who go down to Egypt for help who

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who stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are strong, and look not to the Holy One of Israel, for the Egyptians are men and not God,

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their horses are flesh and not spirit. Cursed is he who puts his trust in man and leans not toward the eternal. Cursed is he. In other words it's saying that that individual is an evil doer.

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And the suggestion here is that you are to separate yourself from that person. In other words, do not permit yourself to be influenced by one who does not trust in God, who does not trust in that which is eternal, who does not have allegiance to truth, who does not seek to somehow have an alliance with that which is just.

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is he who leans not to the eternal for that person is like some desert shrub stunted surrounded by an atmosphere which is negative you see that curse means to withdraw any protection there is no deliverance and so the person is is a victim of misfortune and divine judgment. For the individual's existence

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is like a desert shrub in a salt solitary land, shrub that never thrives, there is no growth. If our life develops the way it should, it means that we've got to trust. We've got to engage in trustful relationships. We've got to trust each other. And if there's anything that one really would need to say in a message like this is possibly

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we don't trust one another enough. But there is also the danger in just trusting completely in in that which is mortal because that which is mortal has its limitations and that somehow in the process of trusting that we must reach higher to to that force which is beyond ourselves to that force that somehow is over all of us and

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has control of our lives for in order to develop, in order for us to be ourselves we need to be like a plant that is a tree rather planted by the rivers of water with deep roots. Roots that penetrate into the depths that somehow a drawing from rivers of water and roots that somehow nourished in the midst of

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all that may be happening around us. It means to open ourselves, to yield ourselves, to have that openness to life. That's really what it means to trust. So you see this word Hebrew, this Hebrew word trust seems to be derived ultimately from the word that really means lying on the ground in other words

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having that kind of relationship and that firmness that one can't fall so when God when that which is eternal is is really the ground of our being when When we really somehow anchor our lives on something that will stand the test of time, one can really respond to the words, "Trust me, trust me."

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So often we have what is called misplaced confidence. trusted father Jones gave him their life's possessions he said trust me and they believed only as we could see later that the kind of trust they gave was misplaced confidence so Jeremiah is saying here cursed is the person who

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leans only on mere human aid but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Mayor Madeline O'Hara who resides in our town has been concerned about removing everything that has to do with any testimony to God. She wants to proclaim the gospel of atheism everywhere.

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She wants to have the words, "In God we trust," removed from our coins and our currency. "In God we trust." But those words, "In God we trust,"

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express that kind of faith upon which this nation has been built. Trust in God. Not in ourselves but recognizing that beyond ourselves there is that which is over us to which all of us have to answer. That's what really what it means. It's expressed in the words of the Declaration of Independence that all men

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are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and this somehow recognizes that there is that one who is over us, the Creator, and we must all answer to Him that God is the one who is the great judge of all the earth and has every

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right to say to us trust me and to really trust in the Lord is to take a leap of faith. It's to trust in that which is eternal, to trust in that which stands the test of time, it's to trust in truth, to trust in justice, to trust in love to trust in mercy is to trust in a firm foundation that which is the ground

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of being. Well that's how we make it that's how we make it through difficult times that's how we've made it as a people trust in God. Someone has called it the Jesus bag and the the Christian religion was given to us as a people given to black people in this country sort of make them content in their

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servitude but we took it and somehow we took it and we found the reality that was there and we gave greater witness to that than our masters did because we somehow learned what it really means to trust in the eternal and so when one really trusts in the Lord, derive a great measure of satisfaction. When I was a

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boy I couldn't understand what my grandmother was talking about when she was talking about well something would happen go wrong so well I'm just gonna trust in the Lord. Things would be going all wrong and somehow I'm going to trust in the Lord. Unable to pay the rent, no food, and yet somehow to still have faith

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I'm going to trust in the Lord. Means that in spite of what may be the circumstances that person who trusts in the Lord is happy. There is a measure of satisfaction when you know in your heart of hearts that you have committed yourself to righteousness and even though wrong may prevail around you when

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you're doing right that there is a certain sense of satisfaction you feel good about it. Happy is he who trusts in the Lord. For that person shall be like a tree, like a tree that's planted by rivers of water and even though there is the scorching heat of the desert that that tree goes on living with leaves

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that are evergreen their trees dying all around the leaves turn brown and the the trees die but here is a tree that's planted by the rivers of water trusting in that which is eternal and it lives on and bears fruit. It's because the person who trusts in the Lord takes a leap of faith, a leap of faith, a leap of faith.

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Well there is a story of a family whose house caught fire in the middle of the night and the parents were able to get out of the house with the children but one of them a little five-year-old after getting out of the house turned and ran back into the house. The parents recognized it later. They saw that little

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five-year-old on the second floor at a window. Smoke was all around and the father said jump and the little boy said daddy I can't see you but the daddy said I can see you you just jump that's what God says to us smoke house on fire Christ sees all around but jump. Father I can't see but yes I know what your

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situation is but you jump. Father I stretch my hands to thee no other help I know if thou withdraw thyself from me oh whether shall I go jump for in that jump is your salvation. In that jump is your hope. In that jump is your happiness. Jump. What happens to those who take that leap? They land safely in the arms of

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the eternal. Now that's the testimony that I bring to you. It's nothing new. Oh you've heard it time and time again. It's nothing new and yet it's it's as fresh as this morning's newspaper because every day we are called upon to take a new leap, another jump, the faith. The Father says to us jump. And what's the

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answer? Even for those of us who've been on the journey the pilgrimage of faith for a long time, what's the answer? Well it's an answer that only you can give. It's an answer that I can make for myself but you've got to make it for yours. And it's the kind of answer that was expressed many years ago in the words of

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this spiritual, "I will trust in the Lord." I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord till I die. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord. What's your answer? The invitation is extended and the word comes from the Father. Trust me. Jump. Trust me. When you answer I will trust in the Lord to those of the

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church are open the invitation to join with the family of God here at Ebenezer. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪

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♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ 'Til I ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪

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I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord till I die. I will stay on in faith. I will stay on in faith.

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I will stay on the maintain heels I will stay on the maintain heels 'Til I die I will stay on the maintain heels

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I will stay on the maintain heels ♪ I will stand on the hill of faith ♪ ♪ Till I die ♪ ♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪

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♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪ ♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪ ♪ Till I die ♪ ♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪

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♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪ ♪ I will watch, fight and pray ♪ ♪ Till I die ♪ Let us pray.

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Gracious God our Father, help each one of us to respond to the word which you give to us saying, "Trust me in loving commitment, in deep, devout dedication, that we may open ourselves to you knowing full well that you will accept us bless us and strengthen us now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present

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you faultless before his glorious presence with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Father be glory and majesty dominion and power now and forevermore amen [BLANK_AUDIO]