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[ Music ] Jesus saw the multitudes coming toward him, eager to touch him and have him touch them. He commanded them to be seated and sought bread

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with which to feed them. (people speaking) (upbeat music) (gentle music)

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♪ To God be the glory ♪ ♪ With lips we have cried ♪ ♪ So lovely the world that he gave us this night ♪ ♪ To give this man the triumph of sin ♪

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♪ And open the life that can all be done in ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear his voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪

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♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ All come to the garden ♪ ♪ To Jesus the Son ♪ ♪ And fill it with the joy ♪

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♪ Of great things he hath done ♪ ♪ O perfect redemption ♪ ♪ The purchase of God ♪ ♪ To Him we believe ♪

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♪ The promise of God ♪ ♪ The powerless surrender ♪ ♪ To truth in belief ♪ ♪ And moment of Jesus ♪

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♪ The Father we see ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear his voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪

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♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ Come down to your Father ♪ ♪ To Jesus the Son ♪ ♪ And live in the glory ♪

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♪ When things He hath done ♪ ♪ When things He hath done us ♪ ♪ When peace be at hand ♪ ♪ And we are rejoicing ♪

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♪ Through Jesus our son ♪ ♪ And never at higher ♪ ♪ Than later will be ♪ ♪ A wonder of testimony ♪

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♪ When Jesus be seen ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear His voice ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ Our Father, our Father ♪ ♪ To Jesus we'll serve ♪

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♪ And give Him the glory ♪ ♪ Great things He hath done ♪ Let us all say amen. Amen.

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[MUSIC - "WORD AND THE LORD"] Word and the Lord, find us and heal us. Find us and heal us.

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Jesus can help me. ♪ He loves the Lord ♪ (audience laughing) (upbeat music)

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(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (slow jazz music) (upbeat music)

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪

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♪ Give him the honor ♪ ♪ Let's give Him the praise ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give Him the praise ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪

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♪ Give him the honor ♪ ♪ Give him the praise ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give him the praise ♪

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♪ Worship Him, worship Him ♪ ♪ Worship Him, give my God the glory ♪ ♪ Give my God the praise ♪ ♪ Worship Him, worship Him ♪

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♪ Worship Him ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give Him the praise ♪ ♪ Worship Him ♪

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♪ Worship Him ♪ ♪ Worship Him ♪ ♪ Give my God the glory ♪ ♪ Give my God the praise ♪

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♪ Worship Him ♪ ♪ Worship Him, Lord God, Lord ♪ ♪ Come, let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, worship ♪

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♪ Come, let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give him the praise ♪ - Amen. - Amen.

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(piano music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)

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(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (upbeat jazz music)

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♪ How to reach the masses ♪ ♪ Men of every birth ♪ ♪ For an answer Jesus gave the key ♪ ♪ And I, if I be lifted up ♪

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♪ From the earth I'll draw all men ♪ ♪ Come in unto me ♪ ♪ Oh the world is hungry ♪ ♪ For the living bread ♪

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♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ For them to see ♪ ♪ Trust Him and do not doubt the words that He says ♪ ♪ The words that he said ♪

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♪ I'll draw all men unto me ♪ ♪ Oh lift him up ♪ ♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ Lift him up ♪

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♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ Still he speaks from eternity ♪ ♪ Oh and I, if I be lifted up from the earth ♪ ♪ I'll draw home, home in unto thee ♪

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♪ Lift him up by living as a Christian ought ♪ ♪ Let the world in you the Savior see ♪ ♪ Then men will gladly follow him ♪ ♪ Who once taught all men unto me ♪

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♪ Oh lift him up ♪ ♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ Lift him up ♪ ♪ Just take her up ♪

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♪ Still he speaks from eternity ♪ ♪ Oh and I ♪ ♪ If I be lifted up ♪ ♪ From the earth ♪

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♪ I'll call on him unto me ♪ ♪ Oh come on and lift him up ♪ ♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ Lift Him up ♪

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♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ 'Til He speaks from eternity ♪ ♪ Oh and I ♪ ♪ If I be lifted up from the earth ♪

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♪ I'll draw Him unto me ♪ ♪ One more time, just lift him up ♪ ♪ Lift the Savior up ♪ ♪ Still he speaks from eternity ♪

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♪ Oh, and I ♪ ♪ Be lifted up from the earth ♪ ♪ I'll draw a wheel unto thee ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll draw ♪

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♪ I'll draw a wheel unto thee ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll draw ♪ ♪ I'll draw a wheel unto thee ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll draw ♪

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♪ I'll draw a wheel ♪ ♪ Unto me ♪ - To me out of seer. Watchman, what of the night?

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Watchman, what of the night? Washington said, "The morning cometh, and also the night, if ye will inquire. Inquire ye, return, come."

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These words were uttered during a time of dense darkness. It was a time when the nation was in a crisis. And the leaders did not know which way to turn. Such times often occur in our national life as well as in every sphere of human activity.

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There is widespread perplexity in our world. People in all walks of life are confused and at sea in their thinking concerning the future. The predicament of the human family in a rapidly changing society has disturbed the serious as well as the fickle minded. The foundations are shaken. Old landmarks are abolished.

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Creeds considered timeless are now looked upon as obsolete. Geographical boundaries are constantly changing. The optimistic person now is one who expects anything to happen. In whatever direction we turn, we see dense darkness.

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We find it difficult to balance our national budget, our unwillingness to proportionately tax our citizens according to their ability, has put us on a course that creates an unbearable national debt for future generations. We're passing through one of the great crises of human history. It's a cultural crisis.

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We are experiencing the dying bones of a sensate culture and the birth pangs of a new ideational culture. Amazing inventions have transformed our social habits. Literary criticism and comparative religion

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have shaken the faith of believers in the authority of the Bible and the supremacy of the Judeo-Christian Christian witness. We were contented living selfish and secluded lives but we

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have awakened to discover that the world is one global village. What happens to a tiny country located in a remote part of the world affects the leading world powers. Almost everywhere we look, we see confusion and strife, civil wars, racial disturbances, religious outbreaks, man's inhumanity to man, and rebellion against the laws of God.

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Due to these deplorable conditions, our world is covered with darkness. The darkness overshadows the whole of human life, every strata of society. Our world is like a vast department store into which a madman has entered during the night.

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He has placed the high price tag on the cheap articles and the cheap price tag on the expensive articles. Increasing numbers of young people commit suicide. They see no meaning, no purpose in human existence. They're like ships without a compass.

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Disillusioned and discouraged, they meander in the darkness. Young people ask for a sense of direction. Their elders are unable to point the way because they are lost in the darkness themselves. Bewildered by the troublesome problems of human existence and bewitched by the charms of this world,

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voices inquire in the darkness, watchmen, what of the night? The times are out of joint. We lie down at night, weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care. The humdrum traffic of our daily existence

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offers no relief from our suffering. The strain is heavier than we can endure alone. We yearn for relief from this night of soul suffering. suffering. We go to bed tired and get up tired. Weary, worn, and sad, we seek a place of quiet

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rest. Unable to rest, we twist and turn on beds of affliction, crying, "Watchmen, what of the night. A good watchman has a keen sense of vision. In ancient times, watchmen were stationed on the walls of the cities, and from their towers they were able to see far into the distance. Watchman was able to look out while the inhabitants of the city were asleep.

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The good watchman was able to stand guard so that the enemy could not suddenly attack the city before the people received ample warning. Watchman's eyes and ears were used for the welfare of the people. He was able to give signals and information regarding the conduct of the enemy

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and the safety of the city. The burden of Duma, living in darkness, is a burden. It was a burden in the long ago when the events surrounding this text took place.

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Eden faced a long night of uncertainty. Babylon on whom the nation depended for support is about to be conquered by Assyria. And this sends shockwaves throughout Eden. What will happen to them?

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How will they make it? How will the change affect them individually and collectively? What's ahead? Is their future in jeopardy?

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Anxiety is about tomorrow? Troubled by what's happening today? we want to know, watchman, what of the night? What time is it?

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How much more time do I have? How much more darkness is there for me to endure? I wonder if I can make it through the night. You know, night time is identified with suffering.

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If you're having some problem, some physical ailment, it just seems it gets worse at night. And the sufferer just prays for morning to come when the pain, the aches seem to go away.

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And we use whatever means we can to try to get us through the night. Tychonol, aspirins, Jack Daniels, whatever it is we think can get us through the night.

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What news is there? Will the dawn soon come? Watchmen, rise and tell us what's the hour of the night.

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This is a question that is being asked. The world asks this question of the church. What time is it? How much more darkness is there for us to go through?

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They ask this of every believer. You frequent the house of God. You go there Sunday after Sunday and year after year. What good news do you have to declare?

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watchman, one of the night. And the watchman says, "The morning cometh and also the night." Oh, how

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dark the nights are that we encounter in this world, sometimes it's the darkness of sickness, of some lingering ailment that you'd like to get rid of and you can't. It's like that thorn in the flesh we considered the other Sunday. It's there. Darkness over which you have no control is there. Sometimes

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Sometimes it's the darkness of disappointment, some crushing disappointment. Sometimes it's the darkness of disillusionment, darkness, darkness. Sometimes it's the darkness of discouragement, darkness. And in the midst of all of the darkness we send up the penitent play watchman.

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What of the night? What of the night? There's a poem that expresses the struggle of the man who was faced with dense darkness And he writes, "Out of the night that covers me,

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"black as a pit, from pole to pole, "I thank whatever gods may be "for my unconquerable soul. In the fair clutch of circumstance I have not winched or cried aloud.

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In the bludgeoning of chance my head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid.

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It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. It is said that William Ernest Henley had tuberculosis and with a body ravaged with disease, he had this courageous spirit, willing to face the darkness.

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And so often we are afraid of the darkness. We don't want to see night come. We don't want to walk in the dark. But there are times when night comes.

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It's so arranged that there's gonna be some night. There are times when night comes with all of its darkness and we find ourselves blundering in the darkness and we cry out, Lord, how long will the darkness last?

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What time is it? Oh, I have a watch, but I can't see the time because of the darkness. What time is it?

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What time is it? And the watchman on the wall who sees in the distance, we're down here below, and we cry to the one out there on the wall.

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What of the night and this man who sees in the distance "Gray streaks of dawn "on the horizon "speak to those below,

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"saying the morning coming." The morning coming. That's good news. Morning coming.

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You know, there's nothing we can do to take away the darkness. It's there. Nothing we can do.

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but it's sure to come morning. Sure, surely morning will come.

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God has so arranged it that darkness comes first and then comes the morning. I don't understand why

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it's like that, but it's like the evening and the morning, the first day.

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Evening and morning. And the watchman said, "Yes, I've got some good news. "The morning comes.

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"Darkness may hover over the earth "and gross darkness over the people, "but morning comes. "Weeping may endure in the night,

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"but joy comes in the morning." Morning comes, morning comes. And this is the burden of the revelation that the watchman gives. It's always a burden to be a prophet and to share the revelation.

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But morning comes. It says, "Sure to come as we are alive." that there is a brighter day somewhere. So keep on searching until you find it

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because morning will come. >> Yes. >> Morning comes. I remember earlier in our married life,

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we were staying in the city of Cleveland and we were right in the heart of the ghetto with all of the problems of the ghetto. And we stayed with, we were rooming

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with an older couple, elderly couple, sweet couple. But there were no windows to which we had access. So it always seemed like you were in the darkness, always. Our first child was born,

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And the only window we had to look outside was the window in the kitchen, and it looked out into an alley. And in the alley, everything was taking place.

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Yes. You see people out there drinking, drunk, doing this, everything. And that's where we were.

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And when you're living in conditions like that, it can be a pretty dismal life, it seems. And the only thing you have to keep you going on with your head lifted up is hope.

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That this won't last always. And that even though you have the darkness, that morning will come. The morning come.

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So there is, there is, there is a brighter day. - Amen. - There was a song that was popular many years ago. That the sun is gonna shine in my backyard someday.

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Morning will come. Morning will come. All of the demons in hell cannot keep the morning from coming.

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Morning will come. Darkness, yes! but morning will come. So, Peter denies Jesus Christ

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and he goes out and weeps in the darkness, but morning will come. Morning will come. Morning will come.

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Daring Thomas said, "Well, I will not believe until I put my hands in his side." but morning will come. No matter, no matter, no matter how long it may seem,

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there is a time when morning will come. Many of us are what we may call children of the evening. We are in the last cycle of our lives from this vantage point, but morning will come.

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Victims of darkness, yes. Demons of the night, yes. But that long night of national calamity will pass away. Morning will come.

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And this is a burden of duma. Duma is a word that means silence. So God speaks to us even in the silence. That's why I like to have some silence in the church.

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Not all yakety yak yak yak, but just to sit and listen. And God speaks in the silence. And sometimes his word in the silence is stronger

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when we just sit and listen to God. Get away from all of the noise of this world and hear the silence of God speaking to our hearts. The burden of Duma.

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And you know some of the people who constitute the silent ones, and we call them sometimes the silent majority, they're people who just suffering silently.

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When I was working in Dallas in the mission field there, The people who were hurting most, I discovered, were the people who weren't saying anything. There's some people who feel that they can rip you off.

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They come to the church because they figure you're easy. They don't really deserve it, but it's sort of a racket with them to try to get as much as they can out of people, and they take advantage of their goodness.

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But then there are others who just suffer. You have to go and knock on the door and find out what their needs are. They're just suffering quietly, silently.

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So here in this long night, there is this still, small voice speaking, saying, "The morning comes, morning comes." "Oh, I know that there's darkness.

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"They don't have room for the Savior. He comes into the world and they tell him there is no room,

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he's born in a lowly cattle shed in the darkness. But morning comes. Oh, he's misunderstood,

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he's falsely accused, he is tried and condemned. and then after that he is

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crucified on a cross between two themes. - Yes, yes. - And they put him in the grave. He dies and is buried.

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And the darkness covers the earth. Darkness everywhere. And in fact, it is said that the dead got up and walked the streets of Jerusalem.

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Yes, if you wait on God, morning comes. And you know a wonderful thing I like about,

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we talk about waiting on God, but God also waits on us. For those who wait on the Lord,

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the morning comes. And there is a morning. I have to tell you that there is a morning

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that is coming that shall never, never end. There is a morning where all darkness

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fades away. And it is said of that city that there is no night there. There is no sickness,

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there is no discouragement, there is no disappointment, there is no disease, there is a morning that

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shall never, never end. The morning comes! And I'm glad about that. That the morning comes.

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Those who labor through the night shall enjoy that endless morn. Thanks be to God. The morning comes.

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And you know, in that morning that I'm talking about, there'll be no need for the stars. Be no need for the little dipper

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and the big dipper. - In the morning, you're poor. No need for none of that, because there is no night.

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No need for sun, moon, or stars, because there is no night. And the morning comes

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when God himself is the light of the city. And we abide with him forevermore.

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So as we sing the hymn of invitation, we invite you to come and unite with us.

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here at Ebenezer as the family of God. For we're not only children of the night, we are children of the morning. Thanks be to God,

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who brings that morning that can never, never be taken away. [piano music] (music drowns out speaker) I will trust in the Lord.

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In other words, trust Him with your life in the hands of God and let Him guide, guard, and govern your life. I invite you to come now.

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It's an open door, he said, to the forest. We invite you to come. Trust in Him. (soft piano music)

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♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord until I die ♪ ♪ Oh, I will trust in the Lord ♪

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♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus Lord, I will trust ♪ ♪ In the Lord until I die ♪ ♪ I'm going to swatch, fight and pray ♪

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I'm going to watch, fight and pray. I'm going to watch, fight and pray until I die. I'm going to watch, fight and pray. I'm going to watch, fight and pray.

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I'm going to watch, fight and pray until I die. ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪

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♪ Until I die ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay on the battlefield ♪

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♪ Until I die ♪ ♪ I'm going to seek God for myself ♪ ♪ I'm going to seek God for myself ♪ ♪ I'm going to seek God for myself ♪

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♪ And when I die ♪ ♪ I'm going to see God for myself ♪ ♪ I'm going to see God for myself ♪ ♪ I'm going to see God for myself ♪

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♪ When I die ♪ ♪ Good news is ♪ ♪ It's morning time ♪ ♪ Darkness comes ♪

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♪ But morning time ♪ ♪ Said if you want to see more ♪ ♪ Just keep asking ♪ ♪ If you have to ♪

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♪ It's always the same ♪ ♪ It's always morning ♪ ♪ It's the Lord ♪ ♪ For every ♪

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♪ Time ♪ [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]