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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] Jesus is my rock, my rock, my sword and shield. He's a wheel in the middle of the wind.

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He guides my footsteps and he wipes away all my tears. ♪ Jesus is my rock, my rock, my sword and shield ♪ ♪ My Jesus is a rock ♪ ♪ He's a rock ♪

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♪ Oh my rock, my sword and shield ♪ ♪ Oh my Lord he's a wheel ♪ ♪ He's a wheel ♪ ♪ In the middle ♪

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♪ Of the wheel ♪ ♪ Oh don't you know that he guides ♪ ♪ He guides my footsteps ♪ ♪ And he wipes away all my tears ♪

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♪ Jesus is a rock ♪ ♪ Jesus is my rock ♪ ♪ My rock ♪ ♪ My sword and shield ♪

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♪ Rock of ages ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ ♪ A cliff for me ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪

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♪ Let me hide ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ ♪ Myself in thee ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪

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♪ I'm so tired ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ ♪ I get weak ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪

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♪ I'm worn ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh I've heard in His words ♪ ♪ How He feeds the little birds ♪

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♪ Oh yes I know ♪ ♪ My rock, my sword and shield ♪ ♪ Oh when my way grows so drear ♪ ♪ Precious Lord just linger near ♪

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♪ For when the night has come and gone ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, oh be my strength, be my guide ♪ ♪ In your word, just let me hide ♪ ♪ Oh I know my rock, my Jesus is a rock ♪

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♪ Jesus is my rock ♪ ♪ My rock, my sword and shield ♪ ♪ Oh, he's a wheel ♪ ♪ He's a wheel ♪

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♪ In the middle ♪ ♪ In the middle of the wind ♪ ♪ He guides my footsteps long ♪ ♪ He guides my footsteps long ♪

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♪ And he wipes away ♪ ♪ And he wipes away all my tears ♪ ♪ My Jesus is a rock ♪ ♪ Jesus is my rock ♪

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♪ My Jesus is a rock ♪ ♪ Oh my Jesus is a rock ♪ ♪ My rock ♪ ♪ My sword and shield ♪

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- Amen. - Amen. - Amen. - Amen. - Amen. found in the book of Deuteronomy, the 34th chapter

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and the first four verses. Deuteronomy chapter 34, the first four verses. "And Moses went up from the plains of of Moab, and to the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali,

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and the land of Judah, and to the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees and zora. And the Lord said unto him,

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this is the land which I swear unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shall not go hither." Viewing the promised land, viewing the promised land. Life has

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beginnings and endings. Life has hopes and fulfillment. The words that constitute the language of our text are part of the last chapter in the historical account of the life of Moses. Moses has experienced a long and eventful life, born in a slave hut in Egypt,

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preserved in a basket on the bosom of the chaotic waters of the Nile, nurtured in Pharaoh's Court, called and anointed of God to deliver his people from bondage. For 40 years he has led God's people through the desert and now he is at the of his dreams. He is at the gate of the place God promised

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them. He stops at the gate and hears the word from beyond John saying, "You can view the land, but you cannot enter it." This is not the way we want our life story to end. So let's walk with Moses during these last moments.

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old man now, 140 years of age, but his eye is not dim. His strength is not abated. He's not old and feeble. He is energetic and vigorous. As he climbs the lower slopes, the dusty desert that he experiences the fact that before him is the land of his desires and the fulfillment

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of his dreams. The land that God promised to give his people as an inheritance, this land, which is God's gift to his servants. Far to the north Moses could see the snowy summits of Lebanon and Hermon. To the south Esdraelin, and flanked by the twin domes

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of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal shimmered the Lake of Galilee. Far to the The south was the Dead Sea, a grim reminder of the retributive justice. At the feet lay the deep tropical trench of the Jordan Valley with the wall city of Jericho. And there we see the western slope, which directly is in front of his roads to the great

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range in whose wind grieved gashes and the walls of the hill fortress of Jebus which was to be the home of the temple and the place known as the city of God. And as the moments pass, Moses probably thinks of the long and arduous struggle of 40 years in the desert with undisciplined

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tribes. He had labored hard and long to enter the land, but he gets to the gate and received the word from headquarters, "You cannot go in. Moses knows the work is not finished. There's still a hard struggle behind. The wandering shepherds of the desert would have to till the soil. These

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nomads who were descendants of Father Abraham would have to settle down as farmers. They would have to learn to live among those who worship strange gods and yet be faithful to the God of their fathers. Moses sees a land rich with opportunity. He sees a land rich with possibilities. Moses sees that which is

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yet to be realized in the life of his people just as an architect and a builder visualize the house long before it becomes a living reality. So Moses takes an upward journey. He goes up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah. And the Lord shows him all of the

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land. The last words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He says, I have seen the promised land. You know, we need eyes to see the dreams and then we need the strength to realize our dreams. Moses knows how to accept disappointment. He's gotten to

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the gate, brothers and sisters. And at the gate he hears the cannot go in." What a crushing disappointment for a man who has labored and led the people of God for 40 years. So Moses learns how to live with disappointment. And all of us in

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the journey of life have this lesson to learn, that is how to how to live with disappointment. He leads people to the gate, to a place that he is not able to enjoy, but they are privileged to go in. He leads them to a new land. As Dr. King said, "I

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seen the promised land. I may not get there, we, he said, but I have seen the promised land and we as a people will get there. It's a wonderful land that Moses sees. He has clear vision of that which he seeks to have others to realize. Dr.

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King ascended successive levels that enhanced his vision. From the plains of Moab to the mountain of Nebo and then to the top of Pisgah, from which he sees all the land from Gideon to dad, Moses gets a complete vision of the entire land. So

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we need to see in order to achieve. Many times people don't do very much because they really don't have a good vision. And after a while you hear him say, "Oh, I see now. Moses sees the land as Dr. King in his farewell words speaks of his vision of the future. I have seen the

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promised land. We will get there as a people," he says, "we will get there. The time will come when we will rise above the valley. We have many valley experiences now, experiences of unemployment,

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experiences of underemployment. We're still wrestling with affirmative action, still the valley to continue in. Still wrestling with the problem of school dropouts.

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Still wrestling with providing adequate health care for all of our people. All the problems we're still wrestling with. Still wrestling with providing adequate housing.

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So that the dream of every person sitting under his own vine and fig tree and not being afraid. That's still a dream. Still a dream.

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We can look over into the land, but Moses is not permitted to enter. And you know, brothers and sisters, it's a long way

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from slavery in Egypt to servanthood in the promised land. That's a long journey.

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It's a long journey. There are many hills, there are many valleys, there are many difficult experiences through which we must pass.

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If we would make that journey from Egypt to the promised land, it's a long journey. But first of all, we need to be able to see the land, to see what God has given, to see what God has promised.

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You know, many people never realize that the potentialities that they have that God has given, even the mind that you have, and the future that is before you that God has provided.

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Sometimes people go all the way through this life never realize it. They have eyes, but they do not see. To be able to see the land, to see what God has given, to see what he has provided for

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us in the way of our energies and our strategies, to see the opportunities that are ahead, to see our own possibilities. Too many people are so busy trying to see others' possibilities, and they never realize their own.

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See the land that God has given you. So Moses sees the land. Physical land, yes. He sees it, he sees this possibility.

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Jewish people have had, historically, through the years, they've had a problem with lands. had a problem. That was a wonderful thing when God made the promise to Abraham and his ancestors, "I will give you

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this land. Give you this land." Because many times they had to live in ghettos and were not permitted to own land, but here is the eternal saying, "I will give you this land." I was talking to Dr. Vernon Johns shortly before his death, and he

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was saying, "You know, the Lord is not making any more land. Get some land." That was his advice to us as a people. "Get some land, because the Lord is not making any more land." And do You know what, since the dawn, since 1900, in 1900 we had more

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land as a people than we have in 2003. We are becoming more and more a landless people. So in this pilgrimage of liberation, the first thing we need to do as a people is to possess some land. That's what the Jewish people are led to do through Moses. They had to possess the

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land, but first of all you have to see your possibilities. You've got to look before you leap. Be able to look and to see. So they have vision. They have a vision of your possibilities as an individual and our possibilities as a people.

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Moses here is permitted to get a view of the land and then after that, he falls asleep with his work unfinished. So not only do we need a vision,

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but we need to have the courage to venture. Vision needs to be accompanied by venture to be able to go forth and to give it our best, to give our life, short as it is, to give it our best.

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In other words, we must work on these praiseworthy goals as if they are going to be accomplished today, even though we may know that they may not be accomplished during our entire lifetime.

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That's what we're challenged to do. So God buries Moses. God himself eulogizes him. Buries him there on the mountaintop.

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People don't know exactly where he was buried so that they're not to worship Moses, but they had to follow the God of Moses, who is the God of all people.

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He's the God of the nation, he's the God of the universe. And so, God buries the workman, but victory is assured, because the God who gave the vision,

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the God who empowers us to engage in the venture, is the God who gives the victory. And the God buries the workman, but the work goes on. Buried after a view of the land, buried after giving the people

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the challenge. Dr. King says, I've seen the land. I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get there.

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And so we are still in the struggle. As we celebrate his life again, year after year, we find that we must renew our commitment to the struggle, commitment to the struggle of possessing the promised land.

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Because we have yet to possess it. We see it. We see the dreams for our people, but we have yet to possess it.

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Our parents had a dream and they struggled. Their dream was to educate their children. That was a dream. I inherited that dream with my own.

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And I said, Lord, if I can just make it with two children in college. And it's a difficult struggle, difficult struggle, The dream, fulfilling that dream.

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And when the time came, we sent out letters of application. Forms were filled out when that time came. And I went up to Boston, and I was talking with the admissions officer.

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And he said, you know, we haven't accepted in this school a student with the grade point average that your child has. I said, is that so? He said, yes.

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I said, well, you know, it was one of the days of segregation. We had integrated. I said, now, the schools that we have, the school across town, And we called, that's Waco High was what it was called.

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I said, "Now children over there take freshman college English while they're still in high school. And yet they have to compete with our kids who don't have that." And so he dropped his head.

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She was admitted and she finished with high honors. Valedictorian of her class. to struggle. Not for one, every one of us has to engage in a struggle. It's a struggle to succeed. It's a struggle to overcome. It's a struggle to fulfill the opportunity that

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God has said before us. And the struggle goes on. As one Broadway production put it, the beat goes on. It goes on. And we find ourselves as we celebrate Dr. King's birthday again, We find ourselves still looking at the land. We find ourselves sometimes seemingly farther than we were before.

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We look at affirmative action and we wonder, we wonder in an enlightened period like this why our nation was so concerned about others, helping others to live and have the full democratic experience, but we don't always provide for our own in the way that we do. And so the Walkman is us. We must commit ourselves

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again and again and look and view this great land that God has provided, a land of opportunity, a land of hope, a A land that calls for faith. A land that calls for us to fulfill the promise of God.

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This is our task. This is the journey that we have. It's a journey from slavery to servanthood. It's a journey where we enjoy the fruits of liberation.

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God buries the workmen, but the work goes on. Level after level, higher and higher until he reaches Pisgah.

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And there he receives a view of the entire land and God buries him. But the work goes on. Well, there was a skull-shaped hill called Calvary.

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And the workman is laid outside the city walls. And there he's crucified on a cross between two thieves and then he's buried. And there are those who observe it and say,

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that's the end of the dream. He stays there one day, another day, And on the third day, God raises him up. And he says, "All power in heaven and in earth

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"is in thy hand." God buries the workmen, but the work goes on. And that one who is the champion of our freedom, that one is with us.

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He walks with us, he talks with us, And he tells us that we are his own. And he's with us to enable us to ascend to higher and higher levels until we have fulfilled

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the dream that God has for his world and for his people. So I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. I think that's the testimony of Dr. King

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And that ought to be the testimony of each one of us as we remember him and the challenge that is ours today. I am bound for the promised land. And as we sing this hymn of invitation and commitment, we invite you to unite with the

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people of God here at Ebenezer. [ Music ] >> So the church is open. [ Music ]

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On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, and cast a wishful eye To Canaan's fair and happy land, where my possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land.

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Oh, who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. Oh, those wide-extended fangs that warns eternal day, their god the sun forever reigns and scatters night away.

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♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ Oh, who will come and go with me ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪

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♪ No chill in winter or summer's dread ♪ ♪ And reach the heaven's shore ♪ ♪ Sickness and sorrow ♪ ♪ Pain and death ♪

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♪ Are filled with fear no more ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ Oh, who will come and go with me ♪

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♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ When shall I reach that happy place ♪ ♪ And be forever blessed ♪ ♪ When shall I see my father's face ♪

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♪ And in his bosom rest ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ All who will come and go with me ♪

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♪ I am bound for the promised land ♪ ♪ Fly ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]