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Well again today, another one of those heart-to-heart talks.

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As you well know that we are now in the study of the sixth chapter of Matthew.

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And we've come to that part of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray,

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where he says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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Now this clause has probably caused more difficulty than any other part of the entire prayer.

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And for many earnest Christians, it has been almost a stumbling block,

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because they feel, and rightly so, that God could not lead anyone into temptation.

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That God could not lead anyone into evil in any circumstances.

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And so these words for them seemingly do not ring true.

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And it is true, as you and I learned from our heart-to-heart talk,

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in the talk preceding the one today.

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God does not, God cannot, lead one into temptation.

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And yet, regardless of how deeply spiritual you may be,

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or what great spiritual experiences you may have had in your life,

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you will still be tempted as long as you are in this body of flesh,

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before this which is mortal will have put on immortality.

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And so for this reason, a number of attempts have been made to recast the wording.

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People have felt that Jesus could not have said what he is represented to have said.

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And so they look for some other phrasing which they think would be

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more in accordance with the general tone of his teaching.

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There have been those who have tried to say that in the Greek original,

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there was something different. But all of this is absolutely unnecessary.

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Don't do one thing with it. Leave it just as it is, exactly as Jesus said it.

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One thing you must remember, and that is that the Lord's Prayer,

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this prayer that Jesus taught you and taught me,

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as a pattern for our praying, covers the whole of the spiritual life, everything.

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I know it's condensed in form, and yet nevertheless,

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it's a complete manual for the development of the soul.

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And Jesus knew the temptations that you and I would have.

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He knew it. And we need to warn young converts, young Christians,

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that even though they have been born again,

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there will be temptations. You and I must be conscious of the fact

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that the enemy of our soul is very active.

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And sometimes I am prone to think that the greater the life of usefulness

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for God, the greater will be that one's temptations.

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And that is the reason we must be on guard.

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And Jesus is telling us that very thing right here in this pattern for our praying.

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I repeat again that Jesus knew only too well

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all the subtle perils and difficulties that can and do beset the soul,

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when once the preliminary stages of spiritual

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unfoldment have been passed.

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Those who are yet as a comparatively early stage

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of development in their spiritual life do not experience

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such great difficulties. They're apt to jump to the conclusion that

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this clause is unnecessary,

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but such is not the case.

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The facts are these. The more you pray, the more time you spend in seeking the Lord,

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the more sensitive you become, and the deeper you grow spiritually.

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And remember, if you are a healthy Christian,

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if there is his divine life in you, there will be a spiritual growth.

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And you will grow from babyhood to an adult in spiritual things,

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just as an infant grows. A daily growth spiritually, just as

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an infant grows from infancy to being an adult.

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Oh how well I remember something. It's as vivid to me as though it

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just happened a week ago. Of course I began

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the ministry when I was quite young. Stupid, I was so ignorant regarding

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spiritual things. The only thing that I really knew about

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spiritual things of course was being born again, accepting Christ as your

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Savior. And I think I told you before that the

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first sermon I ever preached was Zacchaeus up a tree. That was the first

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servant I ever preached in all my life. And I began my ministry in the state of

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Idaho. And I still hear from some of those precious

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folk in Wendell, Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho,

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Boise, Emmett. Oh sure, I preached in those little

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Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches, Christian churches,

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Baptist churches. But do you want to know something?

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After my fifth sermon, I remembered so well.

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After I had finished that sermon and was walking down the road to the

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little room where I was sleeping, I thought now there isn't anything more

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in the Bible to preach about. I have absolutely exhausted the supply.

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There isn't another sermon in me. I can't for the life of me think of

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anything else to preach about. I have exhausted the supply.

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I rolled and tossed all night and I thought,

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I cannot think of anything more to preach about.

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A sixth sermon can't be born. I brained the supply.

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Oh Landy, how many hundreds and thousands of sermons I have preached

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since then. And of course now the whole thing has

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opened up so beautifully, so marvelously as the Holy Spirit

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reveals the deep truths. But do you know the secret?

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I have grown. The thing was there all the time. These wonderful truths that I

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have been bringing you were there the whole time.

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And yet because of the fact that I was so young spiritually,

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just a newborn child spiritually,

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I did not see the full depth of meaning in His Word. I had to grow

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and as I grew the Holy Spirit revealed the deep truths to me. And as He revealed

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the deep spiritual truths to me, I grew. It was bred to my soul. It fed my

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soul. I developed. I grew spiritually just as

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a baby grows when it is given the right food. First the milk

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and then food a little more substantial. And then it isn't long before the

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potatoes and the meat and then it isn't long before the youngster sits up

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on the side of his dad and says, Daddy I want steak just like you're

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eating. That's it. The secret is growth.

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And it is true.

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Those my friend and these are facts that I'm giving you. The more you

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pray, the more time you spend in meditation,

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the more sensitive you become to the Spirit.

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And if you spend a great deal of time working on your soul in the right way,

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you become very sensitive. This is excellent. This is marvelous. But

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like everything else in the universe, it works both ways. The more sensitive

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and spiritual you become, the more powerful and effective are your

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prayers. The better work you do for him, the more

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you'll be used of him and you will advance

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in spiritual things. But for the same reason you also become

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susceptible to forms of temptation that simply do not be set those at an

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earlier stage when it comes to their spiritual growth

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and the spiritual life.

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If like that, there has been a stage in your life, in my life,

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just as I felt that I had exhausted the supply,

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there wasn't another sermon to be preached.

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I had drained the supply after my fifth sermon.

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Also in my life, I felt that I had surrendered everything to God.

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In those early years, if someone had told me

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that I was not completely surrendered to him,

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I would have wept bitterly. But as I look back now,

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it was some of self and some of him.

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Later in my life, there came that time when it was

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less of self

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and more of him.

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Today, I can take you down a road

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in a certain town, in a certain state.

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It's a dead-end street. But my friend, it was the opening

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of the greatest day of my life. When walking down that

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dead-end street that day, I surrendered everything,

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body, soul, and spirit to him. I remember it. The tears streaming down

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my face. A full surrender for the first time

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in my life. It was none of self and all of him.

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But with that surrender, came a responsibility,

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a great responsibility. It was when I made that full

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and complete surrender to him of everything,

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that the Holy Spirit took the empty vessel.

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And that's all that he asks.

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If the only vessel that he's looking for are golden vessels or silver vessels,

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he never in a thousand worlds would have chosen me.

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You just don't realize where I came from.

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Nothing.

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Nobody.

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Stupid.

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Really no natural talent. Not really.

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It isn't golden vessels. It isn't silver vessels.

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Empty vessels. The word says he uses the weakly,

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the base thing, the things that are not wild, that no

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flesh should glory in itself. That's one thing he'll not share with

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any human being. That's the glory.

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He feels what we surrender to him.

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I had no real ministry. Not really.

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Until I walked down that little road, that dead end street and

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surrendered to him everything. And I became an empty vessel.

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And he filled that empty vessel with the Holy Spirit.

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But with that filling, a responsibility that was so tremendous

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that many a time since, I've looked up and almost wished.

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I was back again as a small town girl in Concordia, Missouri.

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But watch it.

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The greater the yieldedness, the greater will be the responsibility

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that is ours. And along with it, the greater will be

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the temptation.

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It's like that. As we advance, new and powerful temptations await us

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on the path. They're there.

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Every turn of the road, there's temptations.

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There's temptations to work for self-glory.

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There are temptations for personal honors and distinctions.

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There's a temptation for material gain.

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I'm just laying bare my soul to you.

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Watch it.

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There's temptations to allow personal preference to hold sway.

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There are temptations to take the advice of folk in the world

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that you feel are so much better educated than you and that perhaps have a greater knowledge

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and perhaps greater wisdom in dealing with a thing than yourself.

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And yet, when one is called a God, one is to look to Him, the one who has called you,

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for wisdom, for guidance, for leadership.

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And it's just like that. I repeat,

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one becomes susceptible to forms of temptation that simply do not reset those

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who are less spiritual or less used to God.

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And I think the worst temptation of all is the temptation to spiritual bigotry.

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That's so easy. All the deadly sin of spiritual pride,

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of spiritual bigotry.

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I'm just telling you

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why Jesus included this part of the prayer that He taught us to pray.

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Great knowledge brings great responsibility.

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The greater the knowledge, the greater will be the responsibility.

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And the responsibility misused brings terrible punishment.

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Don't pray, just stand in my shoes.

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Please do not.

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There's one thing I am very aware of, and that is if I misuse that which God has given to me,

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my judgment, my punishment will be far greater than the judgment of one

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to whom this great responsibility had not been given.

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One's knowledge of truth is a sacred trust and must not be violated.

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That leads us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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Amen.