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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ Love that Jesus shed for me ♪

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♪ Way back on Calvary ♪ ♪ The love that gives me strength ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ I will never lose this trust ♪

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♪ It soothes my doubts ♪ ♪ And numbs my fears ♪ ♪ And it dries all my tears ♪ ♪ The love that gives me strength ♪

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♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ It will make the roof strong ♪ ♪ Oh, because it reaches ♪ ♪ It reaches ♪

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♪ To the highest mountain ♪ ♪ And it flows ♪ ♪ Through the lowest valley ♪ ♪ The blood that gives me strength ♪

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♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ It will never, ever lose its power ♪ ♪ Said again, quiet preacher ♪ ♪ It reaches to the highest mountain ♪

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♪ And it flows to the lowest valley ♪ ♪ It flows to the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ The blood that gives me strength ♪

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♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ Day to day, day to day ♪ ♪ It will never, never, never lose its power ♪ ♪ Oh, it reaches ♪

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♪ It reaches ♪ ♪ To the highest, highest mountain ♪ ♪ And it flows ♪ ♪ It flows ♪

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♪ Oh, it's magic ♪ ♪ To the lowest mountain ♪ ♪ Yes, it flows ♪ ♪ To love that is eternal ♪

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♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ Oh it will never, never, never lose its power ♪ ♪ Oh no, oh no, it never will ♪ ♪ It will never, never, never lose its power ♪

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[END PLAYBACK] Invite our prayerful attention to a passage of scripture which is found in the 32nd chapter of the book of Exodus. We have been considering this book now for a number of Sundays.

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The 32nd chapter and the first six verses. Exodus 32, verses 1 through 6. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us.

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Now this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Take off your rings of gold, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.

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So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graven tomb, and made a molten calf.

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They said, ìThese are the gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.î When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord." And they rose up early on the morrow

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and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. the subject, Worshiping the Golden Calf. In the Marmarch toward freedom, the children

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of Israel come to the wilderness of Sinai and camp there. Sinai is the holy mountain where God speaks and commands his people in ways and rules of righteousness. At Sinai, they receive rules by which the new nation is to be governed. While Moses is communing with God, receiving directions for the people, the children of Israel become restless.

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The only thing worse than being young and restless is being old and restless. So they've been in the wilderness nearly 40 years and they want to get out. They are in a hurry to get on with their life, and Moses has gone up into the mountain to commune with God, and the scripture says that he delayed.

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He was a long time up there in the mountain. He delayed and the people are troubled by the delay of Moses. They say among themselves, "We haven't seen him in days. What is he doing?

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Why isn't he here? Why isn't he on the job? He's disappeared in the mountain. We have not heard from him. We have not had a word from God through Moses lately. And

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we need to hear from God in ways that satisfy our hopes and calm our fears. Where is Moses? That strong voice of freedom that aroused us and inspired us to leave Egypt, where is Moses who sustained us with a word from God in our weakness? Where is Moses who spoke words of comfort to us in our loneliness?

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Where, oh where, is Moses? We can easily see the fickleness of the people in the face of difficulty. They attempted to give up the struggle or to travel in a different way. they were in Egypt, they heard the word concerning securing release from the rigors of bondage,

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and now they are gathered around the smoking summits of Sinai, waiting to form a new nation. Their experience had come to the point where they had leisure which they did not know how to use. In Egypt the Israelites were busy fighting Pharaoh. Now they are out of Egypt and they have leisure, they do not know how to use. And that cry is for Moses. There is

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no saying that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. So they are idle. They focus on the absence of Moses. So the people approach Aaron, his assistant, and they say, Get up, get busy. Make us gods to lead us. We do not know where this fellow Moses has gone. He disappeared, we need a new religion, a religion that we can identify with in a more graphic

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way, a religion that we can see and examine, a religion that we can measure according to our standard. So Aaron, in reply to their request, directs them to gather their earrings, their jewelry, and bring it to him.

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The jewelry from the wives, from the daughters, from the sons. This particular passage of Scripture indicates that men have been wearing earrings for a long time, not a recent occurrence. So the people go to the priests.

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Aaron institutes the new religion for the new state in the new age. They thought they needed new gods for the new age. When this is brought to Aaron, this jury, Aaron, in complying with their request, makes for them a golden calf. It seems, on surface reading, that it is a reintroduction of the

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religion of Egypt. But some scholars point out that this is not altogether true, because While the Egyptians worshipped calves, they worshipped live calves. And this calf has no life. This is an idol, and it is made by them from their own hands. And they bowed by them from their own hands and

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they Bow down and worship the gods of their own creation That's so much like us

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Made by their own hands bow before them and worship them. And they say, These are the gods that brought us, not Yahweh, not the Lord of heaven and earth, not the Lord of hosts, but these are the gods. This golden calf represents the gods that have brought us out of Egypt.

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So it seems that the closer the Israelites got to Canaan, the further they get from God, the further they are from the Eternal. So they changed from worshiping the living Lord of history, the God of their fathers, to worshiping the golden calf.

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Imagine people who cried to God time and time again, bowing and worshiping gods of their own creation, gods made by their own hands. Now the bull, this golden calf, this bull is said to be a symbol of fertility. When they need help, they cry to God, and so they cry for water.

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the record they cry for bread, but now they are in less stressful days. So the church has to beware in times of prosperity, lest we find ourselves guilty of a new paganism. Preacher and pew must be careful, unless you think that--sometimes we think because our budgets are greater than we ever had before, and we have more money in our accounts, and

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more people in the pews, and we bow down and worship these things, we think that these of the standards and we've become guilty of a new paganism. One member said, "You know, I don't need to come to church. You have the tape ministry and you have the radio ministry

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and you have the TV ministry. So I don't need to come to church. Why should I come out? I can stay in bed and rest and get all the things that the church--a new kind of paganism.

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Some express it by going out on the lake in their boat, you know. They have numerous ways. then others will fill the stands in celebration of football events and project their energies into these sorts of things rather than into those things that are endearing and enduring.

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New kind of paganism. But it's not just that. This new kind of paganism is in our midst already. It is called civil religion.

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Civil religion. And in time of war, it becomes increasingly popular, civil religion. We become worshippers of the state. Every message, God bless America.

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God bless America, a new kind of paganism where we fail to give the proper allegiance and loyalty to God and we give it to ourselves and to institutions that are the creation of our own minds or the figments of our imagination. New kind of paganism.

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So this is what happens here. When they were tramping through the wilderness, having a difficult time making ends meet, they called on God, but now that they have leisure

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and things going well, they don't feel that they really need that God. They create another one and say, "These are the gods that brought us out of Egypt."

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There is a story regarding St. Francis of Assisi approaching the Pope, and the Pope was looking at the receipts that had come in from the Church, and he said to Francis, "No longer does the Church need to say silver and gold, have I none?" And St. Francis answered and said, "Neither can the church say rise up and walk."

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Sometimes we get all of these things and we lose our connection with the power that really shapes and molds our lives in a meaningful way. paganism, the worship of the golden calf, the worship of scientific progress. We have it all around us. We worship scientific progress. And not only do we have this worship order--I

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don't have time to deal with it in depth, but they have an approach with a new order of worship, new litanies, new liturgies. They have created for themselves new anthems that have no meaningful theology. You know, we select things now. We don't listen to the words, theology, what it really says about God, we just want to know whether it has a

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good jumping tune. That's what happens when we get out of the wilderness and we find ourselves with some leisure and we don't know how to use it. And so they depart from the God of their fathers. And so they find themselves what this is called the rebellion in the wilderness. Have you seen couples when they were young and they were active and loved each other

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and they were struggling and they worked together and when they get up and they both got good jobs and all that and they, well they can't get along. Can't get along. A new kind of pagan, they love the Lord and then they,

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and some have come to me and said, well Reverend I've got to leave the church. I not only can't get along with her, she says I can't get along with him,

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but I don't even want to be in the same church. These are the same people who stood at the altar and committed themselves to death as new part. A new kind of paganism has swept our land.

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The rebellion in the wilderness. Rebellion, yes, against God, against the eternal, against the best friend that we have, rebelling against him in the place where we need him most.

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You know, it's not only when you're having a hard time that you need God, when you're prosperous, that's the most dangerous time for many. Prosperous, prosperous, prosperity. This golden calf represents fertility and

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prosperity. So the most dangerous times, many times for the church, are those times of prosperity. So we rebel against God. We fight against God. And really, our arms, as the poet says, are too short to box with God. We can't win that battle.

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Here God is there in the mountain, communing with his servant Moses, fashioning the laws that are to guide them for future and they are here rebelling against him making a golden calf and so God comes down you know we're celebrating the Advent season and we

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like to talk about God coming in such quiet peaceful ways but he comes in in other ways too. God comes down, God comes down the mountain and as he comes down the mountain,

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Joshua says, "There's a strange noise." These are not the anthems we used to sing, strange noise. You know, we've sort of gotten away from, "Nobody knows the trouble I see."

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There were a few people trying to preserve that Dr. Quentin and those things. And we don't want to hear that. When I was in seminary and people come,

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we would like to hear one of your spirituals. We don't want to hear that. We can sing some anthems. We don't want to hear that.

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Rebellion in the wilderness. Rebellion. And God comes down the mountain, and God is angry. He's angry.

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His divine anger is kindled against us when we rebel against his goodness. So Aaron is asked, he's called into question, "Aaron, when did you let take place? Why are we away? What happened?

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What's this all this strange noise that I hear coming from the choir? What did you--what happened? What happened?

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"Well, well, Moses, while you were away, the people--" Listen to this. Listen to this. "The people came to me."

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The leader, the priest who was supposed to lead the people said, "Now, Moses, while you were away, the people came to And they asked me to create for them a golden calf. And I just did what the people wanted me to do.

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Most dangerous thing is to have a church of the people. And so Moses wants to hear the story. Aaron tells him so. Aaron does it because he wants to be popular with the people.

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Most dangerous thing that can happen in our lives as Christians is to seek to be popular with the people. Now there's some people who never want to take a stand on anything.

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I see them sometimes in business meetings, to look back to see how the others are voting before they vote. No convictions of their own, no depth.

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Rebellion in the wilderness. Well, God is angry. And he makes up his mind. See, this is expressed in anthropomorphic terms

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so we can understand it. Don't let this disturb your concept. But he makes up his mind he's gonna destroy them and Moses said Lord, please don't do that Because if you destroy the word will go out

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Did you have done this and and we'll get a bad name all over The country don't don't do that and in fact I'd rather surrender my life than for you to take the life of the people and God changes his mind

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Scripture says he repents which means he changes his mind. That's language we can understand And we go to God so often with things that seem to be stacked against us and we plead with God and somehow It seems that God Relaxes what he was going to do and gives us another chance

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That's the goodness of God That's the grace of God and this is what happens well This rebellion in the wilderness is To create a new church

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I'll read another day about a church to a one one theologian says he calls it the solid church and the lick and the liquid church You can decide

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which one we may be. Solid church Just like anything that's solid you you can't get it get through it is solid. It's solid solid

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No holler in it solid It's it's it resists any pressure that may be put against it because it's solid But the liquid church, you know how liquid is it just runs down

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oozes out leaks all that's the liquid and We have to decide whether we're going to be a solid church In a solid society Or whether we're going to be a liquid church

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in the liquid society And so they worship--they made the decision, and they worshiped the golden calf. And they rebelled against God, and they are fortunate in

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receiving God's forgiveness. And God calls the Israelites a stiff-necked people. They are arrogant. They think more highly of themselves

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than they ought to think. And they do not know how to use freedom. They're on a march toward freedom. And to be free isn't to do whatever you want to do.

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Sometimes when we're young, we think, if I can get out on my own, if I can get off under the roof of my family, I'll be free.

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And I'll get to be 18, I'll be free. I can do what I want to do. When we were young, we said, I can read, I can write, I can smoke my daddy's pipe.

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I'm free. Free as a wandering breeze. But this is not real freedom. Real freedom is to do what is right.

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Only when you're doing what's right are you free. You're doing what's wrong, you're in bondage. So they want to be free, but they do not know how to use their freedom because they have disobeyed

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the eternal friend. Now our ancestors understood that. They understood that. They understood it very well.

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Here these youngsters, this is a new generation that has grown up here in the desert, and they want to get away from the religion of their fathers. They want to get away. They have new exposures. I went off to seminary, and I had my degree from college, and I had my degree from Oberlin, and I came back into this humble community where nobody had a degree.

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I had never finished college from my church. And some of the other ministers wanted me to leave my church and come and assist them. Now I'm not good enough for these poor people

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who took offerings when I was in college and said, "Help me get through." And I remember talking with my mother about this. Well, it was good enough for her.

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I stayed there until I went to pastor church. I stayed there and worshipped in that humble church. Sometimes we can get hurt. What my mother used to say, "Two big five britches."

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Two big five britches. But he says, "This new religion, this new paganism that you developed in the wisdom, this will not do. Give me that old time religion.

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Give me that old time religion, the religion of our fathers, the religion of our mothers, the religion of our ancestors. Give me that old time religion. It's good enough.

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- Yes. - Belief in God, trust in him. And he will lead us safely through. For those who will follow that way, there is room.

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Plenty good room. There's room at the cross. Him 166 I believe it is, the door of the church is open. Come, by letter, by Christian experience, on profession of faith.

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The room at the cross. ♪ And the cross from which Jesus died ♪ ♪ Is a shelter in which we can hide ♪ ♪ And His grace for me is sufficient for me ♪

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♪ And He gives you a mountain as wide as the sea ♪ ♪ Let room and a cross for you ♪ ♪ Let room and a cross for you ♪ ♪ Though millions have come ♪

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♪ There's still room for one ♪ ♪ Yes, there's room ♪ ♪ That abhors for you ♪ ♪ The millions have found him, our friend ♪

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♪ And a turn from the sins that he has sinned ♪ ♪ But here, as he awaits ♪ ♪ To open the gates ♪ ♪ And welcome a sinner ♪

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♪ Before it's too late ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪ ♪ Though years have come ♪

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♪ There's still room for one ♪ ♪ Yes, there's room and a cross for you ♪ ♪ The head of my Savior is strong ♪ ♪ And the heart of my Savior is long ♪

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♪ Through sunshine or rain ♪ ♪ Through those starry days ♪ ♪ The pommels from Calvary ♪ ♪ To cleanse every stain ♪

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♪ That grew at the cross for you ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪ ♪ The beavers have come ♪ ♪ There's still room for one ♪

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♪ Yes, there's room at the cross for you ♪ - That's great. our Father, we are your people. We're your family. We're sheep of your pasture. By your grace, we have been led out of bondage

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in Egypt. By your grace, we have crossed the Red Sea. By your grace, we have received bread in a starving land and water in dry places. Now we gather around your table to thank you for the leadership of your spirit. We come to have our spirits renewed.

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We pray your blessings upon the bread representing the body of our Lord and upon the cup representing his shed blood. Strengthen us, give us the spirit of love and sacrifice as we face the challenges of our tomorrows. We ask in Jesus' name,

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Amen. [AUDIO OUT] [ Silence ] [ Silence ]

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