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Make your presence real, I pray.

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Be our teacher as we study the Word.

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Amen.

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In our last heart-to-heart talk together, we were discussing this wonderful matter of prayer.

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And you will remember that I told you that literally volumes have been written regarding prayer.

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You can go into any religious bookstore and you'll find on the shelves scores of books written by theologians,

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ministers, pastors, laymen on this subject of prayer.

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And yet, when the greatest authority in heaven and earth on this subject of prayer gave the pattern,

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the real true pattern for prayer, he gave it in just a few words.

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So simple that even a child could understand.

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And so I'm asking you to forget everything that you've ever read on the subject of prayer.

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And let's come as little children to the great authority on this subject, Jesus himself, and see what he has to say.

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Oh, the very simplicity of it all is so wonderful, it's so thrilling.

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It'll be the greatest day of your life.

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It will be your greatest experience if you as a Christian learn the secret of real praying.

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And in our last little heart-to-heart talk, as we studied the Word of God, as found in the sixth chapter of Matthew,

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we saw that Jesus left no doubt whatsoever in our minds as to how we are to pray.

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He gave it in such detail that he began with the real place of prayer.

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When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.

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And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father.

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There's your place.

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A child can understand those words.

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The next step that he takes in teaching us how to pray is the simplicity of the words that we pray.

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

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No. When you pray, you talk to God, just as you would to any intelligent human being.

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I don't say when I listen to some people praying.

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When I hear their screaming, when I hear their loud crying,

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a really intelligent person wouldn't listen to them.

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They could never get an audience with a really intelligent person.

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And if that one was really intelligent, they would just stand before them and say,

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Now look, now just calm down a little bit. Now come on now, just be quiet.

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Be reasonable. Remember, God is intelligent.

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Treat him as an intelligent person.

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When you pray, for praying is nothing more or less than talking to God.

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Talk to him, speak to him intelligently.

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Use not vain repetition. Use not vain babblings.

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Speak to him, and in turn he will speak to you intelligently.

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And you'll know exactly what he has said when he speaks to you.

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And when you speak to him, be definite in that which you have to say to him.

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Now, Jesus after giving us the place of prayer, instructing us regarding the simplicity,

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in our speaking to him, he gives us the pattern.

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And begin if you will please with the ninth verse in the sixth chapter of Matthew.

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In the opening sentence, we have a great doctrine of God.

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We're to begin, first of all, with our Father who art in heaven.

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And when I left your home in our last little heart to heart talk,

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we had discussed this matter of our relationship.

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And I told you at that time, if you really learn to pray the first six words,

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you need not go any further.

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Our Father.

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You know, for many the word Father means imperfection.

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There's many a youngster, you go to that little youngster and you speak to him of his Father.

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And immediately you will think of one who has been cruel to him, perhaps a resentment in his heart.

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Speak to another youngster regarding his Father.

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And in his mind he has an image of a man who comes home in a drunken condition.

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Someone he fears. Even to hear the footsteps of his Father, fear fills his every being.

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For many a youngster, for many an adult, thinking of their Father, they think of one with imperfections.

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That's the reason, beloved.

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You'll never make me believe that when Jesus gave us his pattern for prayer and said that we were to pray,

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our Father which art in heaven, he did not add those words, which art in heaven, as a means of location.

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I do not believe that because you and I know that the Father is seated upon his throne.

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In heaven there is a throne, upon that throne and from that throne there rules the mighty God of this universe.

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But in teaching us how to pray, Jesus did not add the words, which art in heaven, as a means of location,

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because in reality God is everywhere.

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Our poor little minds cannot fathom it, but it is true.

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The very presence of God, the very eyes of God, the very ears of God, the very person of God is literally everywhere.

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And Jesus did not use these words to pinpoint a certain location.

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He used those words, the Father, our Father, your Father, my Father, which is in heaven,

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to show us that the Father to whom we pray is the only truly perfect Father there is.

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He used it in expressing perfection.

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Oh sure, I could almost swear that I had as wonderful a Father as ever lived.

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But you go to Concordia, Missouri, and they will tell you that Joe Kuhnman was highly esteemed of men everywhere,

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but he was not perfect. That's right.

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Oh, believe me, in my own mind, in my own thinking, I thought he was perfect.

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But I'm sure that Joe Kuhnman wasn't perfect.

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Joe Kuhnman had his faults, I'm sure.

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There will be those who could point them out very readily and tell you all his faults.

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But there's one Father in whom there is no imperfection.

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That one Father who is absolutely perfect is our Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father.

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Do you remember when I said, to begin my little heart-to-heart talk the last time I was in your home,

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that if you really knew the true meaning of these first six words,

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you would never have to go any further into this prayer?

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Consider with me something that is vitally important.

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Your Heavenly Father is absolute perfection.

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He is perfect in wisdom. He is perfect in knowledge.

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He is perfect in His guidance. He is perfect in His choices.

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He is perfect in His love. He is absolute perfection.

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He cannot lie. His words cannot fail.

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He knows no such thing as failure.

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Do you really believe that?

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Do you believe that with every atom of your being?

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As you think of it, you very readily say, yes, of course I do.

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It's a simple question to answer. Of course I do.

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Are you sure? Are you dead sure you really believe it?

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Do you remember it hasn't been very long ago when something happened and you couldn't understand why it happened?

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Maybe death came and took the choicest member of your family, perhaps in the springtime of youth.

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And through blinding tears in your soul, you said, why?

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Why did he have to take my child? Why did he have to take my young son?

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Why did he have to take my husband? He was so young. He had such a promising future.

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Here is an old reprobate over here. He's not good to himself. He's not good to anybody else.

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Why wasn't he taken? And my loved one could have been left.

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Remember something.

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Do you just think you believed that your heavenly father was absolute perfection, perfect in his wisdom, perfect in his knowledge?

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It is impossible for him to make a mistake.

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Therefore, you must believe that he knows all things best and he has not made a mistake.

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Or when you can say, my father, and can really say it in its fullest meaning, you'll never question his dealings with you.

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You'll never question his will for you. Never.

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You'll never question complete obedience unto him.

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A perfect father knows that.

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Oh, that's thrilling. That's marvelous. Doesn't that do something to you?

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If you can ever get to a place where you have that perfect and that complete confidence in your father, you'll lean very heavily on his arm.

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And you'll find that through those dark days, the water is about to overflow.

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In that moment of temptation, when you're tempted beyond your own physical strength, underneath are those everlasting arms, those strong arms, those arms that cannot fail.

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Surrounded by his love, his perfect love.

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In his care and in his keeping, you can know no defeat.

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For your father is a perfect father, perfect in strength, perfect in power, absolute perfection.

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Now, that's glorious. That's marvelous.

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That's his part of it.

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But remember, if you are his child, he is your heavenly father.

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You're enjoying a wonderful relationship of father and son.

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You are a son. And always the father has the right of command.

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Just like that. Always.

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The Bible teaches that in our earthly life, right here in the flesh.

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Always the father has the right of command.

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That's one of God's ten rules that governs the life of men.

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Honor thy father and thy mother. Honor.

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In every instant, the Bible teaches that the father always has the right of command.

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Oh, somebody said, Ms. Kuhnman, why didn't you just leave us away up here in the heaven, Lace?

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Where you had it a few minutes ago, the perfection of father and the glorious truth that he makes no mistakes, that we are in his care and his keeping.

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But remember, this relationship works both ways.

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You must get to the place where you will surrender your will to the father.

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Mm-hmm. Jesus did.

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Sure.

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Jesus gave us the greatest example of what I'm trying to say right here. That we have in all the world.

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Jesus gave us the example of that relationship between son and father.

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That relationship that I have as an heir of God, a son of God, and my heavenly father.

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Those closing hours, and remember something, Jesus had a will of his own.

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A will separate and apart from the will of the father.

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You must understand that to get the full impact of what I'm trying to say.

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Jesus had a will that could have been exercised completely apart, separate from the will of his heavenly father.

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But he had to come to the place where he yielded his will to the will of his father.

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And that's why we have the record of him looking up and saying, Father, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.

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Sure. When you pray, oh, I'll tell you, there's many a person who spends hours and hours in prayer.

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But do you want to know why that one has to spend so many hours in prayer?

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It's because he's trying to bring God's will down to his will.

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He's trying to break the will of God.

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He's trying to get God to see his way.

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Analyze your own praying sometimes. Just stop.

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You're trying to change the mind of God. You're trying to change the will of God.

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You're trying to get God to see something your way.

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You'll never do it. You will never in the thousand worlds ever be able to bring the will of God down to your will.

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You get the answer.

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When you go to the secret place, shut the door, and the first thing that you do is to look up and pray, Father, I have no will of my own in this matter.

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Not my will, but thine be done.

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Beloved, that's the hardest thing in the world to do.

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I promise you something.

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But when you get to that place in the spirit, you will never miss God's will.

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And we get ourselves in so much trouble and into such a mess because we demand our will rather than his.

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I pray that our little heart-to-heart talk today will prove most profitable to you in your praying. God bless you.