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This is our second heart-to-heart talk regarding the sixth chapter of Matthew.

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And we're still in that wonderful sermon, the greatest sermon ever preached,

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that masterpiece, and it was preached by Jesus himself.

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Just to refresh your memory, I will read the seven

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verses of this sixth chapter.

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Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of men,

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otherwise ye have no reward of your father,

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which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms,

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do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues in

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the streets, that they may have glory of men.

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Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms,

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let not thy left hand know what thy right hand

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doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father, which seeth

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in secret, himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest,

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thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they

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love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street,

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that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have

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their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy

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closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,

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pray to thy father, which is in secret, and thy father,

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which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray,

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use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think that

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they shall be heard for their much speaking.

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And this reads the first seven verses of the sixth chapter of Matthew.

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Now we come to another phase of that great sermon that Jesus preached that

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day.

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We now go to that part of the sermon which deals with the relationship of

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man to God. And Jesus lays down a fundamental principle.

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The principle is first applied in the matter of the giving of alms,

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and then the matter of prayer, and then the matter of fasting.

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And these three are the three great means of grace.

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I left you a little heart-to-heart talk regarding this person of the word of God

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with the first part of this section of the sermon.

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Take heed that ye do knock your alms before men,

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to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your father,

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which is in heaven. If you're going to do your good deeds,

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if you are giving just to be seen of men, just to make an impression,

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just to show your righteousness, or give proof of your goodness,

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then you will receive your reward right here and now.

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When a man slaps you on the back and calls you a good fellow because he has

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seen you do a good deed, then that slap on the back is your

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reward. You've had it.

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But with the right purpose, the correct motive behind the giving

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of the gift, if you're giving the tithes and the offerings not to be

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seen of men, but that others might know the price of

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their savior, your complete obedience unto him, the

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cause you love him enough that nothing is really a sacrifice.

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You don't care whether anybody else knows it or not. You would rather that

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no one else did know it's something just between you and your God.

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Then, beloved, he put that amount to your account

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on the books of glory. Therefore, he says, I give you a warning.

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Be careful regarding the purpose of your giving,

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the reason for your giving.

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And I repeat a statement that I made in our last Hard to Hard talk.

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The proof of our human relationship to God right here

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in this world, right here on earth, is the giving of our tithes and our

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offerings.

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Love is something you do and when you love him enough,

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when you are completely saturated with the love of God in your heart,

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when you are filled with the Spirit, to the extent that you're completely

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saturated with his love, nothing you do, nothing you give will really be

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counted as a sacrifice.

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Know that.

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You say, how do I get to that place?

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I'll tell you how. The power that creates the giving is prayer.

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I'm talking about three principles that you cannot separate.

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You cannot separate giving from prayer. Neither can you separate prayer from fasting.

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It's almost like the Trinity. The three are one.

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And these three are the great means of grace.

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And the power that creates the giving is prayer.

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And the condition that makes prayer powerful is that of fasting.

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There it is. Fasting, prayer, giving. These are the three great means of

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grace. Now when you come to fasting, there is seldom

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a week for what I am confronted with the question,

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what is fasting, Miss Kuhnman? And that's one thing I am so sold on because I have

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seen the result of fasting. In our great miracle service,

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you'll find that at least three-fourths of the crowd that feels the auditorium

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have come fasting.

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I am sold on fasting. I have seen the results.

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I know that fasting works. And yet when somebody comes to me

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and says, why fast? Why?

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It's one of the hardest things in the world to try to explain.

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You really cannot analyze it. It's just something that

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is a part of the spiritual.

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In the final analysis, I think the best answer to fasting is just this.

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It is the life, your life, my life, it is the life suffering the loss,

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even of rights, in order that it may come into more sprenuous relationship with God.

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You can pray, and prayer is the greatest power that God

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gives to men and women. But if you go the steps

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further and fast and pray,

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you will move into a relationship with God that is even deeper than just

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prayer.

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That's one of the hardest things for me to explain to you.

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But I have seen it work. You cannot fast, and I put this challenge

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out to anyone listening to me. You cannot fast even for one day

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without being conscious of the power and the presence of the Lord.

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There's something about it. Try it.

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I challenge you.

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Prayer is wonderful. I'm not belittling or even minimizing prayer.

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You begin your day with prayer. Oh, the power there is.

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The protection, the security.

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And yet with that prayer, you say, today I am fasting.

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All the day long, you will not only rest in the security of the prayer that you prayed,

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but there will be a constant consciousness

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of the presence of the Lord. It's just like that.

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Somehow you have come into a more strenuous relationship with God.

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And there cannot be fasting without prayer.

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And such prayer will always hurry from the secret place to give,

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to pour out alms, to do good things,

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to give, to do, to sacrifice.

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The goodness of your life will always be the fruit of prayer and fasting.

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And there you have the three. These are the three great means of grace.

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And you cannot separate one from the other.

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And when I talk about the giving of alms,

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may I again remind you that the giving of alms may be much more than the giving of money.

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We may not have the money to give.

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I may right now be speaking to someone who actually, literally does not have the money to give.

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And yet, we may be giving God the richest gifts possible.

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A service of sacrifice. Our life. Our very blood.

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Our bodies as a living sacrifice. And that's the richest, that's the greatest gift

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that is possible for a human being to give.

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That's it.

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Go back to the first words that Jesus used in this sixth chapter,

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take heed, a warning.

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In other words, he says, don't play with fire.

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Listen. Why?

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A reason precedes every deed.

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I don't care what the deed is.

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A reason always precedes every deed.

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It may be a poor reason, but one has a reason.

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It may be a false one, but there is a reason.

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If we give to be seen, if we pray to be heard,

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if we fast to impress another of our goodness, our righteousness, our holiness,

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then, beloved, we are giving, we are praying, we are fasting with a wrong motive in our heart.

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The reason for doing so is wrong.

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All religious acting which is inspired by the opinions of men is unworthy.

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And you have your reward right now here on earth.

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Sometimes I wonder how much of our conduct is regulated by the opinions of others.

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An awful lot that we say we do in the name of our Lord and as unto him,

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if we really analyze it, we did it to be seen of men.

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I've said it so many times, you know, oh dear, I could preach 16 hours a day.

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I'd never get tired. I can tell you right now.

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You talk about Catherine Kuhnman having a breakdown.

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I'll never have a breakdown from hard work. Never.

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I'll never have a breakdown from preaching.

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I can preach two hours and leave the platform as refreshed and as strong.

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Somehow you can take all the vitamin pills that you want.

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But when I get run down and tired, all I have to do is to get the anointing of the Holy Spirit and start preaching.

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And I have had a shot of the best vitamins that you can get in the whole world.

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There's something about it.

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That's the reason I could never understand these preachers who after 30 minutes of preaching are completely exhausted.

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30 minutes sermon on Sunday and they have to spend the rest of this week, six days to rest up from the exhaustion that they suffer from 30 minutes in the pulpit Sunday morning.

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My word. If you really want a good shot of vitamins and if you want real vitality,

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you can preach an hour and a half and two hours under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

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Then you're so revived and you're so strengthened and you can lick the whole world and all the devils of hell.

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No, I'll never have a nervous breakdown from preaching or from hard work.

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But I'll tell you what does give me a breakdown.

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People just plain people with their little petty ideas.

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You deal with 200 ushers.

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You deal with 300 members of a choir.

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You deal with your personal workers.

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Maybe an ushers wife feel that her husband should usher in the main aisle.

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Or somebody in the choir thinks they should stand on the front row.

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Do you want to know what my answer?

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Invariably will be.

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Are you singing for Catherine Krueger?

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Are you singing for God?

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Are you a shrink for Catherine Krueger?

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Is your husband a shrink?

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So Catherine Krueger for God.

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Now if you're doing it for God, then you go to the throne of God and you tell him that you want your husband to be in the main aisle and see what God says.

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If you want to hand in your resignation, don't hand it in to me.

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I don't have anything to do about it.

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You walk right up to the throne of God and say here God hears my resignation.

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You take it.

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Give it to him, don't give it to me.

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Because this is not my ministry, this is not my work, you are not doing it unto me.

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You are doing it unto him.

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And it's just like that.

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What is your motive?

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What is your reason?

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Yeah?

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I ask you, that's exactly why Jesus began this part of his sermon with two words.

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Take heed.

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Here's a warning.

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Are you giving because of your love for me?

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Are you sacrificing because of your love for me?

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Are you fasting because you're hungry for a deeper walk, a closer walk with me?

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Is the only time that you pray is in public, to be heard of men, to be seen of men?

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Or is your prayer life when the door is shut and in secret?

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Take heed lest you have the wrong purpose, the wrong motive, the wrong reason.

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God bless you.