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[ Pause ] >> Good morning. I don't have any announcements for you this morning. I would ask that you please read your bulletin

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for the announcements that are contained therein. I also do not have any visitors cards, but if there are any visitors in the audience, would you please stand so that our congregation can get a chance

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to meet with you after the service. Would you mind giving us your name and tell us your church home? Okay, it's very nice having you with us this morning. I hope that you'll get something from the service that will carry you throughout the

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week and will bring you back to Ebenezer next time you're in town. If you'll take the chance to meet with the pastor in the back of the sanctuary after service We'll all get a chance to shake your hand and greet you personally. Thank you We missed being here last Sunday, but we had a grand and glorious time in Tulsa, Oklahoma

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the Concord Chapel Choir did a splendid job They sang out of their hearts and thrilled the congregation. They sang both in the morning worship services and in the evening. They had a standing ovation on the

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Battle hymn of the Republic and the adult leaders, the young people and all involved in that trip Did a marvelous job young people conducted themselves in a splendid way. We had no difficulties We left Austin just about on time. We said we're gonna leave at 10

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We got away from here at 10 10 and that's pretty good for us And we said we were gonna leave there at 6 and we got away from that 6 10 minutes after 6 that's still pretty good and We were delayed in Dallas because of the bus drivers not making their switch and so we waited there for about an hour Took about almost two hours. We got there at 11 and got away around

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1 so that was their fault. We were supposed to get back here at 4 by my predictions. We got here at 430 So we would have gotten here at 330 if they had had their bus driver there But that was a problem that they had and not our problem. So we had a glorious time and we are grant Greatly indebted to all of the members for the way you supported this you will notice in the back of the bulletin a statement

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of appreciation representing the choir and All of you who made this a success. I think we had some

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$1,400 that was reported last Sunday the offering from the church in Tulsa was dollars and with the goal which we'd set in the way that you responded to the youth you've done a marvelous job and we're grateful. We are going to have

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Men's Day next Sunday the Reverend CW Black of San Antonio Texas is going to be our men's day speaker and we are asking that every member of this church will support the men's day effort. It's an effort that is scheduled at this point in our church year in order that we can catch up that slack that we have

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of some six thousand dollars and we trust that everyone will give as much as you can give above what you ordinarily give because that's the only way we're gonna catch up. We have to do more than we've been doing and with God's help we can do that. Let's support this not only with our giving but with our attendance.

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The men have been working on this program and it promises to be a good day in every way and with our help we can make it so. The State Congress is to be here. We are the guests of the end. We are to the hosts

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They're going to be the guests and the musical will be the first event that would be at st John the musical would be at st. John and that will be on Monday night at 730 be a male chorus. We want everyone to support it

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there are certain certain expenses that are related to the entertainment and for it will require our support to Do everything we can to make our entertainment what it ought to be, you know Ideas when you invite guests it costs you something

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so let's support that with our attendance as well as with our giving many of you have become patrons and We hope that you will be present and make it what it ought to be I want the ushers to come forward now with the offering plates because what I want us to do is to give an offering for the elderly there is a

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project which is Promoted here in this community for people on the east side is for the elderly While this project is promoted through the Lutherans It is for us and it's running pretty far behind and they're asking the people who are the direct

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recipients of it to help in it. So I have agreed that we would help in this offering. Sister Rosalie who is Brother Hawkins' daughter is one of the employees in this work and

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various churches in the Eastside are going to be making contributions for this effort. This is just a drop in the bucket. The government provides a certain amount and the people themselves

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Must do a certain amount and what you give is going to go for that purpose It's to help provide for the care which is being given for the elderly through that particular agency

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Good friend, dr. R.D. Douglas who was associated with me on the TSU board and any other endeavors who lived in Jefferson and

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served as a physician there with a nursing home and with the clinic passed away and was funeralized last week. He spent his life in Jefferson and having served there in East Texas,

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carved a special niche for himself by the services he rendered to that community. He died on the airplane, had a heart attack on his way home from Washington, DC, and possibly there was no place in Jefferson large enough to hold all the people except

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Recreation Center as the people gathered there to pay their respects to this outstanding citizen. He's been here with us. He's worshipped with us from time to time as an outstanding lay person in his church and leader in the community, state, and nation.

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[ Pause ] [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music)

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

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(piano music) ♪ King of the night ♪ ♪ I proudly bow ♪ ♪ God shall the glory be ♪

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♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ As one, oh God ♪ ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪

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♪ Yes, it is ♪ [ Music ] ♪ I know Him ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪

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♪ I know for me ♪ ♪ Weeping to have a place ♪ ♪ Holy the truth ♪ ♪ Evermost brave ♪

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♪ Tenderly born again ♪ ♪ Angels in prost ♪ ♪ One more to raise ♪ ♪ One more day in world's nice day ♪

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♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ This symphony ♪ ♪ Yes, I forget my love for him ♪ ♪ Yes, I forget my love for him ♪

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♪ He will never be ♪ ♪ To help the weak ♪ ♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ The sin of me ♪

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♪ Lest I forget ♪ ♪ The pain of me ♪ ♪ Please, last time I get ♪ ♪ My love for me ♪

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♪ Please, give me to that lovely ♪ ♪ Please, give me to that lovely ♪ [music] Hear this word recorded in the book of the prophet Amos the fifth chapter and the 24th verse

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Let justice Roll down like waters and Righteousness Like

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Ever flowing stream Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream the subject of the message, "When Justice is Damned." Recently, I visited a dam which was considered one of the marvelous sites for tourists to see.

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It was called the Cleveland Dam. It was erected in 1954 in Vancouver, British Columbia. And I stood in awe as I watched this mighty gush of water which came forth from the dam like a raging torrent.

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A dam is a barrier built to obstruct the flow of water. It is man-made. It is made of earth, of masonry. It's built across the stream

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so that the water is confined. Water is stopped up. It's blocked so that it does not flow freely. It seems to me that this is the picture which

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the prophet Amos has in mind when he speaks to the situation which he confronts in the eighth century and issues a ringing declaration. Let justice roll down like waters,

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and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Something has happened to the flow of justice. There is a blockade of the stream. Waters are choked up.

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They're hemmed in by barriers. Our world has damned the waters of justice. Waters of righteousness are stopped up. And people all over the world ponder the question,

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where can justice be found? Justice is the rule, it is the norm. It is that which is right. It is that which we ought to do.

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And every person is concerned about justice. What is the right thing? Justice is concerned with rights. It has to do with right actions in human relations.

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It is giving every person his or her just due. It is being able to aptly discern what is mine and what is thine. Where can justice be found?

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A son demands of his father, "Give me my portion of the inheritance. I want what is mine now. I want all of my rights now.

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There is a universal demand for justice, but where can justice be found? The human family is divided over the administration of justice. "My brother, divide the inheritance with me" is the plea which comes forth from an estranged family situation. Where can justice be found? Aristotle speaks of

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simple justice in which the same is given to each. He also speaks of distributive justice in which the same is given with attention to the inequalities involved. It is proportional. Where can justice be found? Justice is like a straight line, but we look and we see so many deviations, so many curves. We

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delinquents. Where can justice be fouled? Our nation is in a quandary over the Equal Rights Amendment, which is designed to guarantee women their just dues, and so over and over again the question is being asked, where can justice be fouled? We are still wrestling with the matter of providing a good education for every

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child, providing every child with the opportunity to learn according to his or her ability, the right to learn, the right to have free access to the educational process, the right to work, the right to strike, the right to property, the right to worship, the right to fair treatment, and to use the immortal words

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of the Declaration of Independence, there is still concern that we must live out these words of our creed, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are entangled over the rights of the majority versus the rights of the minority. And here in Austin we have just emerged from ten years of

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litigation in which we have been involved in a battle in the courts and spent over a decade and well over a million dollars trying to determine the rights of every child to quality education. Where can justice be found? I'm not talking about the kind of justice that is determined by whim and

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capricious chance. I'm not talking about the kind of justice in which might makes right. I am talking about that justice which is absolute and that justice which expresses itself in concrete ways, that justice which is the rule of righteousness, that justice which is deeply rooted in the moral fiber of the

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universe. Watergate reminds us of obstructions to justice and now we are concerned about what we call Billy Gate, the failure to follow certain rules that the government has provided, but the question comes leaping forth today as it has been faced in every generation, where can justice be found? Amos, the rustic

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prophet from Dekoa, a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, looks at his world and he sees that the waters of justice are damned, they are stopped up, the waters of justice are confined. It is a day of prosperity and yet the people are in war. There was political stability but the leaders are corrupt. The rich

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grow richer and the poor become poorer. The rich gain their wealth by oppressing the poor. Merchants use false weights. Unscrupulous individuals bribe the judges. The poor and needy are sold for a pair of shoes. Father and son go in to the same prostitute. And cry out in the name of justice. All persons are equal before the law. All

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persons are equal before God. All persons are equal before one another. We are all made in the image of God and every human being is sacred and the people think that they can escape the demand of justice because of their worship. Oh they make their temple sacrifices, they have their elaborate feasts, but listen to the

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word of God that thunders forth from the prophet. I hate, I despise your feasts. Yes, you bring to me your sacrifices and you have your feast days, but when you have your sacrifices I will not smell of your solemn assemblies. And though you offer me these burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept

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them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings that you make to me. Take away the noise of your songs, or they boast of the fact that they had a wonderful choir and that they sang their hymns of praise and they had their musical instruments, but

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God cries out, "Take away the noise of your songs. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Where can justice be found? God has stopped up his years.

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He does not want to hear their songs, their music. He does not accept their sacrifices. For God is concerned about justice. And the waters of justice are dammed up

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when we do not let ourselves become a channel for the doing of the right, as God gives us the light to see the right. So Amos says, "But let justice roll down like waters."

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Do not dam up the stream, do not stop it up. Remove the barriers and let the waters flow freely. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

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Let the waters of justice flow freely. Undamn the waters of justice and let justice be done through the courts and in the marketplaces. Let justice be done in our daily living. Let justice be done.

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Oh, he says, you have damned up the stream of justice by putting roadblocks in the way righteousness but let justice be done daily like fresh water that flows not a dull static experience established once and expected to automatically operate but let justice roll down like waters.

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And justice rolls down like waters whenever we in our heart of hearts are rightly related to the eternal, and that we become His instruments.

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We become instruments in the hand of God for doing God's will in his world, thinking his thoughts, speaking his words, performing his actions to let justice roll down.

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Oh, it may seem so often people say, well, I'm so small and I'm so insignificant. I'm just like a drop in the bucket. I don't matter very much.

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But we matter a great deal. Every person matters a great deal. there in a little town called Silver in North Carolina, near the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains,

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there was a little stream that trickles down the foothills of those beautiful mountains, just a little stream. And you can step over it

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for a great deal of the way you can just step over that stream it's so small but that stream just continues to flow and it continues to flow until it meets a brook called the Tucker Gee and that becomes a stream a river that meets other rivers and those rivers go on to join the mighty Mississippi and that's

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the way God wants justice to be. But somehow your life and my life and other lives little little trickling streams they may be but somehow when they join together they become rivers that meet with other rivers and empty into a mighty stream. Let justice, let righteousness, let the doing of God's will roll down like

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waters in an ever-flowing stream, not just for a moment. Sometimes people say, "Well, you know, I take a great pride about what I have done." And we begin to look back and we say, "Well, what I've done ought to take care

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of what I ought to do now." No, it's an ever-flowing stream that goes on and on. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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Because there is one who is the great judge of all the earth. There is one who makes the evaluation of all of our works, and someday he will judge. And it will be like that story that Jesus tells. When the great judge comes, he will separate the sheep from the goats.

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He will say to the goats, you go on my left hand, and to the sheep, he will say, you go to my right. And he will say to the sheep, come you blessed of my father. Come and inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the foundation of the

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world. He said, "When I was sick, ye visited me. When I was in prison, you came to see me. When I was naked, you clothed me.

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When I was hungry, you gave me to eat." But they would say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry? When did we see you naked?" Somehow they just went about doing justice, doing that which was right, and they forgot

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themselves into immortality for he says in as much as you did it unto the least of these my little ones you have done it unto me. So that word comes forth to us today. It comes forth to every one of us today those who are in this sanctuary as well as those who may be in the radio audience listening to the message that

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there is this request. There is not only the word but it is a demand, it is a command. Let justice remove the obstructions, remove those things that would serve as barriers and let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Jesus I come when we relate to him who is the great

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Savior of the world, the liberator of mankind, who removes the obstructions, who enables us to walk in wisdom's way. We can come to him, and as we come, he accepts us. For there is the arm which it raised that reaches forth to beckon and to welcome us.

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It is only ours to respond. And as we sing Jesus I Come, we invite you to come now to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. Jesus I Come, hymn number 159.

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God describes it [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Jesus, I come to Thee ♪ ♪ How I serve Thee, to Thee I come ♪ ♪ How I want, and it's in my blood ♪

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♪ How to miss Thee, O Lord ♪ ♪ Hail to thee, and to thy savior ♪ ♪ Jesus, thy hope to me ♪ ♪ Thou, thy strength, O prayer and voice ♪

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♪ Jesus, thy hope, Jesus, thy cross ♪ ♪ Jesus, I come ♪ ♪ Into thy fire ♪ ♪ Stay, my heart and voice ♪

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♪ Jesus, I come to thee ♪ ♪ Come, thou storm ♪ ♪ Into thy fire ♪ ♪ Thou of thy stars ♪

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♪ And in thy power ♪ ♪ Thou of these heavens ♪ ♪ True children's hearts ♪ ♪ Jesus, I come to thee ♪

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♪ Thou of the heavens ♪ ♪ For an everlasting life ♪ ♪ Jesus, my hope ♪ ♪ Jesus, my hope ♪

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♪ Into my breast ♪ ♪ And into your heart ♪ ♪ Jesus, my hope to live ♪ ♪ Proudly I stand to heaven adore ♪

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♪ Proud of this very gift of mine own ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Jesus, I come to thee ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

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- We come now to observe that love feast, that communion meal, which Jesus commanded his disciples to observe in remembrance of him.

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It was on the night when he was betrayed that he ate this meal with his disciples, those who are faithful, those who are committed, those who walk in his train are to commune at this table.

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May we bow our heads now. Gracious God, our Father, we ask your blessings upon us. Pray that you would bless this bread, this wine representing the body and blood of our Lord.

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Forgive us of our sins and grant that we may be a channel used of you so that we may be a part of the fulfillment of this word spoken by the prophet to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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[inaudible] Those who will not be at the second service and who wish to take the supper now, would you keep your hand raised until you have been served. (coughing)

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(eerie music) [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[Bells ringing] The disciples listened to Jesus as he said to them that except you eat my body and drink my blood you cannot be my disciple. And many of them who heard that went back.

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They said, "This is a hard saying. Who can bear it?" They went back and walked no more with him. Jesus said to the twelve, "Will you also go away?"

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Simon Peter spoke and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." When we eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord, we partake of that diet of God's Word.

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Jesus Christ himself is that Word on which we feed. He is our strength. He is our guide. He is our hope.

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He is our light. He is our life. He is our everything. There is someone who should have been served, has been omitted, so would you raise your

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hand. [Silence] [Silence] Let us commune together.

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[Silence] Amen. [Silence] May we bow our heads.

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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord calls his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Lord, lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace, now and forevermore.

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Amen. [ Music ] [BLANK_AUDIO]