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This one comes from Damien.
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And I'm going to move fast.
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But I love this question.
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I just love it.
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I hope there's some of you that do too.
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Damien says,
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"I love God.
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I worship Him.
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But I want to know Him more.
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I want His power to be
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pressed upon my life more.
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I want to walk with Him closer.
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I need to walk in His holy presence.
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I want to be more for Him.
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But I just feel weak.
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I try, but He does not come.
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I want to experience God more.
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How can I do that?
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How can I walk just with Him daily?
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How can I ascend the hill of the Lord
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and stand in His holy place?"
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And it sounds like he might have listened to
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the Bible study that we did about a month ago.
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Well, Damien, I come back to one verse
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over and over and over again.
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John 14:21
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Most of you have heard me quote it before.
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It's well worth quoting again.
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John 14:21
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"Whoever has My commandments
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and keeps them,
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he it is who loves Me,
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and he who love Me will be loved by My Father,
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and I will love Him, (and here it is)
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and manifest Myself to him."
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There is a manifestation of Christ
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to the soul of His people.
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And it is tied with having His commandments
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and keeping them.
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I know that A.W. Tozer, Martyn Lloyd-Jones,
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they both make comments about
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our obedience and how they relate
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to our desires to know God.
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Brethren, you know what?
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There's an Old Testament parallel to this.
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I like this one too.
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Isaiah 66:2
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Listen to this, God says,
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"This is the one to whom I will look,
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he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
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and trembles at My Word."
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Guess what?
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To have Christ's commandments and keep them?
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That's a New Testament version
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of trembling at God's Word.
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You tremble at God's Word
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when you do God's Word.
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Not when you hear it and don't do it.
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But when you hear it,
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and you tremble, and do it.
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Jesus Christ says if you have His commandments
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and you do it.
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In the Old Testament, it's if you tremble at His Word.
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God says to that man I'll look.
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What does that mean?
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There is something special in that.
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To that man I look.
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To that man Christ says I will manifest Myself.
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Those of you along with Damien,
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you have some concern about this,
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you want to excel more.
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I want to read to you a quote from Tozer.
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I'm going to end up here, pretty much,
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just reading a quote from Tozer
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and one from Spurgeon
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and we'll wrap things up.
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Listen to what Tozer said.
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Hear him well.
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These words he probably wrote, who knows,
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three or four decades ago.
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But they stand true and firm to this day.
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Tozer said this,
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"We don't need any new doctrine.
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No new movement.
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No key."
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You know how we get oftentimes?
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Well, we got to go to the new deal.
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Got to go to the new conference.
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Got to go to the new thing.
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Some new preacher over there.
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Some new program; some new thing
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up in the mountains.
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Some new thing going to have the special preachers.
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Yeah, if we could just get to that,
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we can go to that,
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then we can be the kind of Christian
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we need to be.
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You know what, that doesn't do it.
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The fact is, Tozer's hitting on it.
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You don't need a new doctrine;
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you don't need a new movement,
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you don't need a new key,
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you don't need some imported evangelist,
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some expensive course to show us the way.
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"It's before us as clear as
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a four lane highway."
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What is it?
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Have His commandments and keep them.
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He puts it this way:
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"Just do the next thing you know you should do
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to carry out the will of the Lord.
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If there's sin in your life,
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quit it instantly.
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Put away lying, put away gossip,
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put away dishonesty.
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Whatever your sin may be, put it away.
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Forsake worldly pleasures.
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Forsake extravagance in your spending.
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Forsake the vanity in your dress.
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Forsake the vanity in your car.
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Forsake the vanity in your home.
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In other words, put away your idols.
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Get right with any person you may have wronged.
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Forgive everyone who may have wronged you.
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Begin to use your money to help the poor.
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Advance the cause of Christ.
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Take up the cross, live sacrificially,
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pray, attend the Lord's services,
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witness for Christ, not only when it's convenient,
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but when you know you should.
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Look to no cost and fear no consequences.
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Study the Bible to learn the will of God
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and then do His will as you understand it.
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Start now by doing the next thing
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and go on from there."
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I'll tell you what,
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it doesn't get a whole lot simpler than that.
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We don't really need some new course,
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we don't need some new preacher,
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we don't need to go out to some new
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course work somewhere,
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we don't need the new thing, the new key,
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the new secret.
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It really comes down to that.
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You want to know the manifestations of Christ
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more fully than you've ever known them?
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You want to know what it is to have God look at you?
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You want to know what it is to be visited?
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I'll tell you what,
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God rarely visits with the people
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who run around their lives living all the way
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they want to, all extravagant, all worldly,
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all corrupt, all disobedient.
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No, they're typically not the ones that know
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the savory presence,
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the aroma of Jesus Christ in the secret place,
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in the inner parts of the soul.
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They're typically not the persons that have
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that type of visitation.
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You know what,
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He is of pure eyes than to behold iniquity.
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He chooses carefully those whom He visits.
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And I'm not ruling out what God can do,
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and I'm not wanting to put Him in a box,
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but I'm telling you this,
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you have a word to bank on
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that if obedience is a regular thing in your life
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and you are pressing on to live more and more...
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You know what?
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He said you need to die to yourself.
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You need to carry your cross.
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Do you know what carrying your cross is?
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It's that life right there.
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Carrying your cross is living according to His will.
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Have we not been talking about it in Romans 12?
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Living sacrifice.
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That's exactly what it is.
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Living sacrifice to God.
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All of it on the altar.
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Doing what His will is.
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Discerning.
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Trying what His will is.
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What is that acceptable,
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what is that good,
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what is that perfect?
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That's what you find in Romans 12:2.
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It's knowing what to do
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and doing it.
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And once you do the one thing,
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then you go on to the next thing.
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And you live your life doing
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what you know is good.
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Spurgeon says it this way.
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Now we're moving off a little bit
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from the obedience thing.
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Spurgeon hits on prayer.
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But I would say obedience and prayer life.
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But I'll tell you this,
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I have never known anybody
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mark my words,
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whether it's been myself,
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whether it's been those that I've read about,
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or those I've personally spoken to,
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I have never known a single person
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that has had great, dear, close
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extensive manifestations of closeness to God
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who have not prayed.
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They do not come to prayerless people.
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I have not known that to happen.
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Listen to what Spurgeon says,
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"The saint may expect to discover
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deeper experience,
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and to know more of the higher spiritual life
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by being much in prayer.
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There are common frames
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in the Christian life.
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There's feelings of repentance,
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there's faith, there's the joy and hope
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that are enjoyed by the entire family of God.
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But...
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there is an upper realm of rapture,
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of communion,
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of conscious union with Christ,
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that is far from being
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the common dwelling place of believers.
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All believers see Christ.
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But not all believers put their fingers
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into the prints of the nails,
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or thrust their hand into his side.
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Not all of us have the high privilege of John
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to lean upon Jesus' bosom,
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or be caught up into the third heaven
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as Paul was.
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In the ark of salvation, we find a lower,
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a second, and a third story.
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All are in the ark.
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But not all are in the same story.
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Most Christians are only up to their ankles
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in the river of experience.
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Some have waded till the stream
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is up to their knees.
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A few find the water up to their shoulders.
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But a very few find it a river to swim in.
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The bottom of which they cannot touch.
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There are heights in experiential knowledge
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of the things of God, the eagle's eye of acumen
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and philosophic thought have never seen.
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God alone can bring us there,
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but the chariot in which He takes us up,
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and the fiery steeds with which the chariot is dragged,
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is prevailing prayer."
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I read somewhere one time
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where someone said,
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we get as much of God
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as we want.
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I think there's truth in that statement.
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And those who want Him,
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those who pant after Him,
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those who hunger after Him,
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their obedience and their prayer life
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prove that they want Him.
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You cannot tell me,
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"Oh, I want Him; I'm panting after Him;
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I'm going hard after Him."
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And then your life is full of all sorts of disobedience.
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That doesn't fly.
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You can't tell me,
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"Oh, I want to know Him."
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"I want this experience. I want to find it
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a river to swim in."
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And yet my life is prayerless...
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You're not going to convince me of such things.
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You know what the Scripture says?
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I sought the Lord, and He answered me.
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You want to delve into this,
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there's got to be a seeking.
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It's when you seek, it's when you knock.
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There is a knocking and there is a banging,
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and there is a seeking and there is a praying
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and there is an asking.
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There is prayer.
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There is seeking.
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There is knocking.
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Some of that seeking is going to come
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through the obedience in your life.
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Brethren, I'll tell you, you can pray for this too.
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Scripture says that He gives the Holy Spirit
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to them that ask.
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Part of that great manifestation of God
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to the souls of His people
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is just outpourings of the Spirit of God.
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And it says if we'll ask.
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You know, the problem with people is,
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they hear a statement like that
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and they say,
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"Lord, can I have the Holy Spirit?"
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Nothing happens.
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They just go on with life.
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But there are some people,
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they say no, God has said it.
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They have the heart of David.
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"As a deer pants for flowing streams,
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so pants my soul for You, O God.
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My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
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When shall I come and appear before God?
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O God, You are my God.
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Earnestly I seek You,
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my soul thirsts for You,
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my flesh faints for You,
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as in a dry and weary land
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where there is no water."
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You know what?
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Scripture says He fills the hungry.
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You go panting after God,
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you go after Him,
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you don't give Him any rest,
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you keep knocking, you keep seeking,
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you keep asking, you keep taking these texts
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before Him, you keep going to Him
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and pressing in there,
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you, by a life of obedience, you keep after Him,
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you get to know Him intimately in the prayer place,
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and I'll tell you, it won't be long.
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I know this for a fact.
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God will not let His people go on like that
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without eventually coming to him.
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I remember being at the one and only
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HeartCry Conference that I went to,
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and I remember Charles Leiter told me there,
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he knew of a pastor friend that took that text
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in Luke 11:13 that said if we then being evil
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know how to give good gifts to our children,
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how much more will our Father in heaven
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give good gifts to those who ask.
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And he said he had a pastor friend
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who took that verse and he began to plead it.
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And he was pleading it for years,
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and finally God came.
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Brethren, you want to walk on that holy place?
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You want to walk on God's mountain?
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It's not going to be something that
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you're just going to live your life
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sitting in front of a television,
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not going to be living your life sitting
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in front of a computer that's going to take you there.
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You're going to need to know God
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in the secret place of prayer.
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You're going to need to know God
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and know His commandments
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in the place of obedience.
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I'm telling you, any of you out there
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you're hungry?
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And you have that same heart of David?
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And you're heart is panting after God?
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Press on, brethren. Press on right there.
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Do the next thing you know how.
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Go to God's Word. Study it.
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You see it there. Apply it.
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Put it to practice in your life.
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Live it.
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And learn what it is to pray.
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And it's not something I can teach you.
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Prayer is not taught.
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Prayer is something you learn out there
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in the fields, out there in the closet,
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out there leaning on your bed.
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It's something you're going to learn as you pray.
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Yes, there's theory
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and there's theological realities,
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and there's verses in the Bible
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that we can take to.
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But just doing a study on
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the theology of prayer
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isn't want teaches prayer.
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You've got to come to know God
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in the midst of it.
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Brethren, listen to this.
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I want to end with this.
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So often this text is misused.
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So often, and you probably know the one
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if I say enough about it where I'm going with this.
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There is a text in the Bible that is so
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often misused as an evangelistic text.
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It is not an evangelistic text.
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It is a text that is for God's people.
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God's covenant people.
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You may know where I'm talking about.
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Revelation 3:20
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This is what Christ says,
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"Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
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If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
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I will come into him and eat with him and he with Me."
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I'll tell you this,
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the picture in the Jewish mind of eating with somebody
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was intimacy.
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You know what Christ was saying?
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He's not saying this to lost sinners.
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So many people want us to believe that.
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He's speaking to a church.
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And He says this,
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I stand at the door and knock.
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And if you'll open to Me...
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Oh, brethren.
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What is it to open that door?
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And that text just rings of one
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from the Old Testament.
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Song of Solomon 5:2
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"I slept, but my heart was awake.
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A sound! My beloved is knocking."
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Is that not a picture of exactly
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what we find there?
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Our Beloved is knocking.
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He tells us that.
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Christian, you can stand there and wonder...
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well, if I go hard after Jesus,
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am I going to find Him?
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He says to churches,
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"I stand at the door and knock."
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If you'll open.
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I'll come in and sup with you.
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You say what's that?
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I'll guarantee you this,
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it's worth having.
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"My beloved is knocking."
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You know he says?
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"Open to me, my sister, my love,
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my dove, my perfect one.
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For my head is wet with dew,
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my locks with the drops of the night.
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I'd put off my garment.
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How could I put it on?"
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That's what she's saying.
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"I bathed my feet, how could I soil them?
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My beloved put his hand to the latch.
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My heart was thrilled within me."
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and if you know the story,
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He left.
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She finally got up and she went over.
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You know with that,
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that's a picture right there.
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What happens?
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The Lord, my love, He's at the door.
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He's beckoning to me.
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Lord, not right now.
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I've got to check my email.
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Not right now.
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I'll get there though.
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Oh, you know my favorite show's on
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right now, Lord.
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Not just now.
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Oh, the guys are coming over, Lord.
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We need to hang out.
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Your Beloved is at the door.
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And we do the same thing.
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By the time she got up,
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by the time she got around to it,
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he was gone.
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If you have a heart,
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run when He beckons you.
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And He beckons you in the Word.
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Go there.
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You say can I find Him?
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You can find Him.
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If He says He's at that door
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and He's knocking,
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you say, what does it mean to let Him in?
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Oh folks,
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you're very familiar with what it is
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to keep Him out.
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We don't have to dig too deep
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to know what it is.
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There's a thousand things in this life
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that pull our hearts away,
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that pull us away from Him.
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There it is.
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Obey.
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Pray.
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He beckons you to come.
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He beckons you to open.
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Open.
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Well, there it is.
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There are my four.
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Let's pray.
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Father, teach us all
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what it is to open that door.
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I know not what else more
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to pray right now.
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Just teach us, Lord.
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Give us a generation of men and women
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that are quick to open that door.
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I pray in Christ's name,
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Amen.