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Oh, I just love these heart-to-heart talks with you.

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And when we're talking about the greatest thing in the world,

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this thing of prayer, conversing with God Himself,

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and He puts it all on a father and son basis.

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Oh, I tell you, this is filling to me.

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I sit here talking with you, so thrilled, and then I stop and wonder,

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are you just as thrilled about it all as I am?

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You couldn't be discouraged.

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You just could not live an hour defeated

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if you fully realized to whom you belong.

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I mean exactly that.

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Why, bless you, when I stop long enough to think that I am His child,

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that He is my Heavenly Father,

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I belong to Him, I could literally go out and lick the world.

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That's right.

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Oh, sure, I'm nothing.

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I could well be defeated on many a score.

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You see, in the first place, I know from whence I've come.

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Could any good thing come out of Missouri?

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And then Concordia at that, have you ever been to Concordia?

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Sure, it's just like that.

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And then to this very day, if you were to go through Concordia, Missouri,

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and stop and ask somebody about Catherine Kuhlman,

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I don't mean one thing to anybody in Concordia, Missouri.

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They don't give two hoots about Catherine Kuhlman.

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The first thing that they'll ask you is, do you mean Joe Kuhlman's daughter?

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Because you see, I'm nothing.

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I came from nothing.

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But when I link my nothingness with His bigness,

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I tell you I have such confidence, I could actually lick the world for God.

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That's the secret.

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Oh, that's wonderful.

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That's why at the very basis of all your praying,

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you have to fully understand what it means when you pray,

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Our Father, which art in heaven.

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There has got to be that relationship.

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You must have that security.

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It must be there.

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That's the foundation.

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You must know to whom you belong.

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Now, let's go a little further.

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How does thy kingdom come?

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Prayer is not, first of all,

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a means by which we get something for ourselves,

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but rather a method of helping God to get something for Himself.

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When they think of prayer, think of it only in terms of getting something for themselves.

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Spiritual beggars, yeah, that's exactly what it is.

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Their idea of prayer is to go with empty pockets and empty hands,

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a lot of time empty heads, and say, give me, put it in my pocket,

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put it in my hand, hand it down, Lord.

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And when you analyze their praying, it's nothing more or less than a spiritual beggar.

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Oftentimes, asking for things that if God did answer their prayer,

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it would be very harmful to them.

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We've got this thing of praying completely reversed.

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I repeat, prayer is not, first of all,

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a means by which we get something for ourselves.

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The very first thing you must realize that prayer is, first of all,

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God getting something for Himself.

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The very same law exists in another push of the word of God,

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but it relates to exactly the same thing.

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Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

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and all these things shall be added unto you.

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But all that most folks see in this wonderful promise is,

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all these things shall be added unto you, God giving to them.

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Let me stop and remind you of something else.

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You go to the word of God, take all of His wonderful promises,

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just start doing it, and you will find that without exception,

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in every promise, there is God's part to the promise and our part.

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The thing that's wrong with most folks is,

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all they can see is God's part in giving to them.

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They close their eyes and their mind to the part of the promise

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that involves them in their giving to Him, their part of that promise.

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All this promise has been so abused,

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and all these things shall be added unto you.

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And most folks are just waiting for those old things.

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They want every physical need met.

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They want every material need met.

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They want all their spiritual needs met.

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They want everything.

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They want more than any politician has ever promised to any people.

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They want it all.

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They want the best that God has.

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They want all that heaven has.

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They want all the riches.

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It's give me, give me, give me.

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All they can see in this glorious portion, the word of God is,

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all these things shall be added unto you.

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But they never recognize the first part of the promise,

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seek ye first His kingdom.

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First must come God's kingdom and then our need.

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In this pattern that God has given us for prayer,

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and remember this is our prayer.

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We say it's the Lord's prayer.

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It isn't.

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It's the way He has taught you and taught me to pray.

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First that relationship of Father and Son.

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Then before you ask for a single thing,

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you must recognize that prayer is not first of all a means by which we get

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something for ourselves.

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But it's a way of helping God to get something for Himself.

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Thy kingdom come.

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And there must first of all be God's kingdom.

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And then we can talk to Him about our needs.

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Let's pause and do something for just a few minutes.

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Let us discuss this thing of the kingdom.

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If you have followed me in previous messages,

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oh, go back, I don't know how long,

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some time in the past I brought us a series of messages on the difference

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between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God.

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They are not one and the same.

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As you study the word of God,

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it's clear from the scriptures that God is going to set up a visible kingdom

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here on this earth.

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That is in the future.

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There will be what the scripture calls the kingdom of heaven.

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It will be a visible kingdom here on this same planet on which we live,

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on the earth.

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But that is not the kingdom that Jesus is talking about

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when He taught us to pray, thy kingdom come.

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He is talking about the kingdom of God,

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the same kingdom that I referred to a second ago

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when He promised, seek ye first the kingdom of God.

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Now the kingdom of God is spiritual and is entered by the new birth.

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I must give you the scripture for everything I say regarding the kingdom of God.

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And this too is so simple that even a child can understand

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all the simplicity of the whole thing.

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But there is something that's difficult to understand.

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It is so simple.

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Read if you will please the 17th chapter of Luke,

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two verses, the 20th and the 21st verses.

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That's the 17th chapter of Luke.

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And when He was demanded to the Pharisees,

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when the kingdom of God should come,

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He answered them and said,

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the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.

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Neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there.

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For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

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Oh beloved.

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Therefore, the kingdom of God is spiritual

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and is entered in by that wonderful experience that we call the new birth experience.

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Call it anything that you want.

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Call it regeneration.

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Call it conversion.

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Use any term that you want to.

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I don't know how better to express it than to use the term that Jesus used himself.

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The new birth.

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Now it is at that time that the kingdom of God comes within you.

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The one standing nearest you at that time cannot see that transaction take place.

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It can take place right there in the kitchen of your home.

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It can take place at an altar.

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It can take place at any moment wherever you are.

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It is a definite time of looking up and saying,

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Dear Jesus, I take you as my master.

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Come into my heart.

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Be the ruler.

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Be the controller of my life.

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I surrender myself to you.

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Forgive my every sin.

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The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.

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Jesus said those words himself.

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Neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there.

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For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

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The kingdom of God is the homeland of my soul.

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Body, soul, and spirit and the kingdom of God is best described as the homeland of your soul.

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It's the soul's native air.

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It's when we find ourselves for the very first time.

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Do you want to know something?

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When Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you,

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he voiced one of the most important things ever uttered.

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I want you to just sit there for a few minutes and consider something.

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If man is made in the image of God, then sin is not natural.

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Please just consider that with me for just a moment.

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I know that the unbeliever feels that the Christian is just a little off his rocker.

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He's just a little abnormal one way or another.

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I can prove to you that it's the unregenerated man, the unregenerated woman,

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who is the one who is just a little off and is the abnormal one.

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Isn't it logical that as the mighty creator,

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God having created man in his image, that sin therefore is not natural?

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The Christian is the normal person.

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Everyone else is abnormal.

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That's the reason you'll find the person who is not a Christian, the unbeliever,

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the one who has no hope, no faith, no confidence in a higher being, a higher power,

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who is not trusting a heavenly father, is frustrated.

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Defeated.

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Worried.

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Trouble.

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All the nervous tension that permeates the very atmosphere in which we are living.

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Somebody said the other day, you know, I think the whole world's crazy.

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Well, do you want to know something?

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The fellow spoke the truth.

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Because the world is just full of human beings who are living abnormal lives.

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They're frustrated.

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This nervous tension that we feel, it's in the very atmosphere.

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Men are honestly running on borrowed time, insecure.

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There never was a time, I don't think that there was ever a generation,

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where so many people were so insecure as they are today.

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It's because they are insufficient in themselves.

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You can only find security in a power greater than your own self.

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And you've got to have faith, you've got to have confidence in something greater than yourself.

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That's the why of all the frustration.

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That's the why of all the nervous tension.

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The anxieties.

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All of these are inescapable when a man or a woman has not found himself in God.

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Let me give you an example of something that seems absolutely abnormal,

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yet it's the most normal thing in the world when one has the kingdom of God within.

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Jesus, in one of his discussions said,

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Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

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He was referring to perfect love.

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And he gave as an example, if a man smites you on your left cheek, turn your right.

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If he takes your coat, give him your cloak also.

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Love your enemies.

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You do not get rid of your neighbor by not loving him.

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By not loving him, you transform him into a problem.

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And he's back on your hands not as a neighbor, but as a problem.

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You broke the law of human relationship.

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In loving your unlovable neighbor,

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you still have a neighbor, but you have a friend and no longer a problem.

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That is why, beloved, living the Christian life is the normal life.

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And you'll find no problems when the kingdom of God is within.

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And Christ is the kingdom personalized.

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Thy kingdom come within you.

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Amen.