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I hope that today's little heart-to-heart talk will mean an awful lot to you.

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This, of course, is the third talk that we've had together on this thing regarding

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the material things of life. And of course, that affects all of us.

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Oh, you know, we've come to the place where I believe that this generation

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knows more about life than any generation has ever lived. And yet, we know so little about how to live.

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I mean that. And I was just thinking the other day, as I too am learning,

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I would give anything in the world if I had only had all the knowledge that I have

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regarding this thing of how to live when I was 16 years of age.

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And, oh really, as it is now my word, I'm, well, I'm not going to tell you how old I am, but anyway,

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here I am just beginning to learn how to live, and it won't be long before I will have lived my life,

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and the whole thing here on earth will have been accomplished.

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Therefore, I only pray that as I bring you the word today, regarding something that's very practical,

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so understandable, that you'll just be honest enough to look yourself,

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your problems, your weaknesses directly in the face, and then come and throw yourself on God's side

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and live according to his laws for living. If you do, I promise you, you won't miss.

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All right, I shall read the previous scriptures just to lead you up to our third in a series of messages.

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Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt,

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and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

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where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

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For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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I'm going to stop right there before I go on with the next three verses.

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For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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In the morning, I knew that I was going to speak on this subject in one of our evening services,

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and I said, Maggie, now just before I go in to pray about my sermon tonight,

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let's just go down the street and get a bowl of soup.

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And we did, walking out of the restaurant, going down the street.

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And this happened the same day that I was to preach on this subject.

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We had not gone more than a block when something happened

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that touched me so deeply. And in the incident, I saw the true meaning,

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God's spiritual interpretation of this familiar portion of the word of God.

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Maggie and I were talking, walking very rapidly, and I heard a voice.

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Maggie and I were talking, walking very rapidly.

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When suddenly I realized a precious colored woman had just passed me.

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As I looked up, she was even with me, but going the opposite direction.

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And as I looked into her face, I realized that she recognized me.

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And knowing that the colored lady recognized me, I just stopped.

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And when I turned around, sure enough, she had turned completely around.

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Perhaps it was the very first time that she had ever seen me on the street,

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had ever seen me in street clothes. Perhaps the only time she had seen me was,

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as I stood behind the pulpit, and she stood there startled.

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And her first words were, Kathleen Coon.

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I said, yes, honey, that's right, I'm Miss Coon.

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And she just looked at me. Her face just smiled.

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Just smiled. She was too awed to say anything further, just that.

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But she did something so quickly, it was so spontaneously,

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she had no time to think whatsoever. It was not premeditated.

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She reached her hand out. I thought she was going to reach her hand out to shake hands with me,

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but it wasn't that. In that hand, she was holding something,

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and in reaching her hand out, she placed it in my hand.

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Here, she said, I want you to have this. God bless you.

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And she turned around and continued walking down the street.

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Do you want to know what she had placed in my hand? One nickel and two pennies.

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I'm not ashamed to tell you. With those three coins in my hand pressed very tightly in my hand,

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I continued down the street crying.

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Tears just wouldn't hold back.

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I saw love in those three coins. I saw a depth of consecration. I saw a spiritual life.

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I saw the heart of a Christian in those three coins.

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You say, Miss Crumen, it was only a nickel and two pennies. It was only seven cents. How can you say

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that? Beloved, it wasn't the amount that she had placed in my hand. It was the love that prompted

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the giving of the gift. It was what those three coins represented.

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The gift was not premeditated. It was spontaneous.

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She was not really giving them to Kathleen Crumen. It was the one that I represented to her.

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I represented the Lord to her. I represented the Christ that she loved.

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And you cannot love without giving. You can't do it. It's as impossible, beloved,

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it's as impossible to love without giving as it is for you to stand in the middle of the streets the

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middle of noonday and try to argue the sun out of the heavens. You can't do it. There's something

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about it. We're constructed that way. God made us like that.

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When you really love enough, I'm talking about honest to goodness, the sincere loving,

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not the surface stuff. When it comes from the very depths of your being, love is something you do.

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It goes way back to the time when Jesus so loved lost many women that he offered himself

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through the Holy Spirit to be given of the Father. And the Father so loved that he gave,

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he has only begotten Son. It's the love that he gave to the Father.

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He gave, he has only begotten Son. It's the whole principle of living, of life,

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the foundation for the whole works.

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I represented

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Christ to that precious colored woman as I passed her on the street.

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The first thing she did because she loved him

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was to give.

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It was not premeditated.

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It was spontaneous, but it was as natural for her to give as it was for her to breathe.

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For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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Love, obedience, giving are all wrapped up in the same bundle.

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You cannot separate one from the other. It's like that. When you love the Lord enough,

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you will put Him before the material things.

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And they will be in the same bundle.

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You will put Him before the material things. And then when you put God first,

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when He is the center of your thinking, your living, everything else revolves around that.

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In other words, you get your spiritual sight first. Make the spiritual the center of your life.

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Make the spiritual the center. And all these things shall be added unto you.

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If you put the material first, then all these other things, security,

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everything else in life shall be subtracted from you because you have your addition all wrong.

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You're living contrary to God's laws and rules for living.

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It's just that simple. All right, now watch it. I continue with the next three verses.

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The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,

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thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil,

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thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,

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how great is that darkness.

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What in the world is Jesus saying? Remember, every word that left His mouth was important,

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vitally important. And He's talking about something that is important to every one of us.

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If you are a part of humanity, this is something that's most important to you

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because we cannot exist and live without the material. And He's still talking about the

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material. He has just said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now, in using the

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eye here, the eye symbolizes spiritual perception. I told you before I began this series of messages

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that people usually do exactly what they want to do. I can preach until I'm blue in the face.

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I can give you the word of God. I can tell you about God to you. I can tell you about

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God's laws. I can give you God's rules. And even after presenting them to you, I know

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that I'm perfectly helpless in forcing you to follow these laws, to follow His rules.

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And God Himself will not force any human being to comply with His rules or His laws.

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Should you break them, you will suffer. You cannot live contrary to any one of God's rules,

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any one of God's laws without suffering. You are the one who will pay the price.

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He has made the laws. He has given the rules. But man is also born as a free moral agent.

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And you are absolutely free to live contrary to the laws or you are free to accept them.

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In a true sense, it is your life. You can do with it whatever you want.

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You can be a failure or you can be a success. You can live a life of defeat or you can live a life

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of victory with the assurance of complete security. But the only person in the whole world

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who is absolutely secure and has a complete sense of security is the man or the woman who is secure

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in his God and is secure in spiritual things. All these things are the laws of God.

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And is secure in spiritual things. All these people who are so frustrated,

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I don't care what the outward appearance is. The person who spouts off the most,

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the man or the woman who is usually the loudest, the one who tries to impress you the most,

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is really the one who is the least secure. They're just coming up. That's all.

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I say it again. The only person in the whole world this hour who has honest and goodness security

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for this life and the life to come is the man or the woman who is secure spiritually.

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Now the eye here symbolizes spiritual perception.

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Whatever you give your attention to is the thing that governs your life.

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And every life is being governed by something. I don't care who you are listening to me just now.

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I don't care whether you're poor, you're rich, I don't care what your status in life might be,

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whether you live in a mansion or a little old Abbey group.

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Every person this very hour is being governed. Your life is being governed by something.

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Just tap a minute. I know what governs my life.

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I know exactly what I put first in my life. It controls me completely,

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controls my every action, controls my every thought, controls me seven days a week.

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I'm a servant to it. It is my master. Think just a minute. What governs your life?

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What governs your life? You say, Miss Koeman, I'm not quite sure. What do you put first?

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Now your free will lies in the direction of your attention.

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And this thing is the thing that will dominate your life.

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If God comes first with you, then your eye is single and your whole body will be full of light.

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That's exactly what Jesus said. The light of the body is the eye.

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If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

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If your eye is focused upon the spiritual, if your eye is focused on God,

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do you want to know why the material things are so important?

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Do you want to know why the material things are dominating the lives of the majority of people?

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It's because their eyes have been focused on the material things here on earth.

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Earthly things, the getting, the getting. That's the reason your wife really drives you mad

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is because her eyes are upon the material things. Just right, everyday living.

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Lift your eyes up, see Jesus, and when you get the right perception, the right perspective,

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the whole body shall be full of light, Jesus said. There's a new light, new light.

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With God first, all these things shall be added unto you, and you cannot miss. God bless you.