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In our last of the Heart to Heart talk we were discussing the first seven verses of the sixth chapter of Matthew.

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And of course we've been in a long discussion regarding this, the greatest sermon that was ever preached.

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And it was preached by none other than the very Son of God, Jesus.

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When we were discussing the first seven verses of the sixth chapter of Matthew,

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we found that Jesus now comes to that part of his sermon that deals with the relationship of man to God.

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And he talks about the giving of alms, this matter of prayer, and the matter of fasting.

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And we see that in these three we have the three great means of grace.

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Giving, prayer, fasting.

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Do you want to know something? In the final analysis,

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the real proof of our human relationship to God in this world here and now is giving.

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The real test of love is sacrifice, is giving.

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And as long as you have a struggle with this thing of giving,

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then my friend, you have not learned to love enough.

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Now, the power that creates the giving that Jesus is talking about here is prayer.

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

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And there you have the three, and you cannot separate one from the other.

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You have the giving.

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I know here Jesus talks about alms,

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but there is a richer gift than even the giving of the alms, of the material.

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The greatest, the richest gift that any human being can give is the giving of one's self.

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And there is a place where you will so love him, there will be such a consecrated life.

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There will be such a depth of prayer life.

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There will be the true meaning of fasting in that life of yours.

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And the ultimate result will be the giving of yourself, body, soul, and spirit.

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The richest, the greatest of all giving.

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And then you'll find that automatically the material giving will just fall in line.

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But Jesus began this great truth by warning us regarding the reason for our giving,

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the motivation for our praying, and fasting.

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For remember, a reason precedes every deed.

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And Jesus began this great discourse by saying,

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take heed regarding the reason, the motive for your giving, your praying, and your fasting.

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Now, we come to this subject of prayer.

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You want to know something?

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You can go into any religious bookstore and you will find volumes written on the subject of prayer.

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It seems that every time a theologian or a pastor, a man of God, gets an inspiration for writing,

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the subject that he will choose, nine times out of ten, will be the subject of prayer.

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Until our bookshelves are loaded, literally loaded,

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with volumes having been written on the subject of prayer,

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preachers probably choose the subject of prayer for sermon matter more than any other subject.

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They talk about prayer more than any other subject.

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Prayer.

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And if you were to analyze your own desire, your own thoughts,

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you would say, oh, please, more than anything else, I want to know how to pray,

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because the great desire of my heart is to have my prayers answered.

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Do you want me to tell you something?

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This thing of prayer is so simple.

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It's sort of like faith. It's so simple that one misses it.

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You do not have to read volumes and volumes.

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You do not have to hear the great masterpieces from the lips of men regarding this subject of prayer.

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You do not have to seek further.

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All on earth that you have to do is to just take the words from the lips of the highest authority in heaven and earth,

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the one who knew more about the subject than anyone who ever walked this earth.

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Go to the authority on this subject.

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See what he says regarding this subject of prayer.

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He has given us the pattern for prayer.

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It's so simple that even a child can understand.

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Sometimes, you know, I think that many women do not want simplicity.

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They want something that is difficult because that appeals to their mentality.

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When it's too simple, they feel that there's something wrong with it.

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Jesus was absolute simplicity.

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That's the reason even this thing of living a Christian life is so simple.

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It's just a day by day proposition.

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It's one day at a time.

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It's the life.

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It isn't a struggle. It's a life.

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It's you. It's living.

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This thing of prayer is so simple.

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And Jesus, in just a few words, leaves no doubt as to how we are to pray.

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And he begins in a very practical way and tells us the real place of prayer.

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You know, we've gotten this whole thing backwards.

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That's the reason we suddenly are awakened to the fact that we've found that we are educated beyond our intelligence.

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And we're not quite sure what we believe because what we believe really hasn't worked.

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And we're not getting the results.

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And we don't understand why we're not getting the results.

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We become discouraged. Great organizations.

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We are organized to the hilt.

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Organization has not produced the results, has not produced the fruits.

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What works? The simple things of the spirit.

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And yet we bypass the entire simplicity of it all.

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All right.

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There's many a theologian who gives the impression that the place to pray is the lengthy prayer that's prayed behind the pulpit.

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And he spends a great part of the Lord's day behind that pulpit, praying that long prayer.

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Beautiful words.

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And sometimes I wonder whether that prayer goes any higher than the ceiling of the cathedral or the temple.

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I wonder if God is even listening.

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For if you would listen closely, the prayer is being prayed to those in his congregation rather than to the Father.

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You know, Jesus, in giving us the real place of prayer, tells us to go in to the secret place.

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When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door.

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It's something as personal.

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It's something between the two of you.

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It's something that is very secret.

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Alone.

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Pray to thy Father, which is in secret.

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And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

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Where is the real place of prayer?

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The prayer that gets a hearing?

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Not in public, where man can hear.

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Oh, sure, there is a place for that.

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Don't you dare misconstrue anything that I'm saying.

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There is a place for public prayer.

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But it isn't a time to pray for the whole world and everybody in the world and your own personal needs.

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The place of real prayer, the place of personal prayer, is alone with God in that secret place.

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What could be more simple than that?

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And there's no room for argument.

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When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father.

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Not the saying of prayers.

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No.

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You pray to the Father, thy Heavenly Father.

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And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do,

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for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

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Remember, God is an intelligent God.

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Honestly, the way some folk pray, you would think God was deaf.

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You would think God was a moron.

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You would think that God didn't know how to run his own affairs.

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You would think that God needed to be taught a language.

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And I mean every word that I am saying to you very sincerely.

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I mean that.

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Jesus teaches us the simplicity of prayer.

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Talk to him intelligently.

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He is an intelligent person.

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Speak to him intelligently.

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You wouldn't think of talking to me or to your pastor.

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The way some of you talk to God when you come to him in prayer.

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We wouldn't listen to him.

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When ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do,

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for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

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Now, he goes on and gives us the pattern, the real pattern for prayer.

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You need no other teaching.

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You need no further sermons.

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You do not need to read the volumes and volumes that have been written on prayer.

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If you can understand the next few words that Jesus gives as he gives the pattern for prayer.

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And in the very opening sentence, we have a great doctrine of God.

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This is not the Lord's prayer.

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This is our prayer.

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This is how Jesus taught us to pray.

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Our thoughts which art in heaven.

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And do you want to know something?

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If you really learn to pray the first six words, you need not go further.

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If really you have learned how to pray those first six words,

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you can stop right there.

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Our Father which art in heaven.

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I know there has been the teaching that God is the Father of all mankind.

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My friend, that is not true.

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He is the Creator.

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That is the one thing that all men have in common.

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The common Creator.

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God is the common Creator of all mankind.

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I don't care who that individual is.

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He may be an infidel, a skeptic.

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He may curse the very name of God.

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He may deny the deity.

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He may deny the divinity.

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He may deny the very existence of the supernatural being of God.

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But remember, God is still the Creator of all mankind.

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You and I were created in the image and likeness of Almighty God.

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That is one thing that all men have in common.

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But He is not the common Father of all mankind.

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He does not become man's heavenly Father until they have accepted

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His only begotten Son as their Savior.

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When a person accepts the divine Son of the living God,

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when a person accepts the deity and divinity of His only begotten Son,

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when you accept His Son in the forgiveness of your sins,

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then automatically God, the mighty Creator,

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becomes your heavenly Father.

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All this thing of salvation involves far more than just the forgiveness of your sins.

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That's wonderful.

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Oh, that's truly...

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When we talk about salvation, we think of it though primarily in the forgiveness of our sins,

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the blood that make up the atonement for the soul.

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But our inheritance is far greater than just that.

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There's much more involved in salvation.

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At that moment, God becomes your heavenly Father.

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For the very first time, you can look up when you pray and say, Father.

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For at the moment of salvation, of conversion,

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the new birth experience, qualified every will,

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the moment that you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior,

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you become an heir of God and a joint heir with His only begotten Son.

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That's what the scripture means.

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Now are we the sons of God.

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Now.

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Now is He your heavenly Father.

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Now you have redemption.

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You don't have to wait until death.

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Now.

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And you cannot pray, not really pray,

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until you can look up and say, Father.

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God bless you.