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Your blessings. In the course of my 50 years in the ministry, I guess I've preached over 3,000 sermons and most of the passages in the scripture I have preached on at some time. I've preached on this one a number of times, but as I grow older

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I come to the passage and I get a revelation that I didn't get in all the other times and Most of the time I don't even look at the sermons that I have preached at other times So this revelation that has come to me from this reading

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is entitled how to keep your blessings, how to keep what you've got. We are in a constant struggle in this country and in the world

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between the haves and the have-nots. Someone said that one percent of the wealth is owned by one percent of the people owned, eighty percent of the wealth. I don't know whether those figures are accurate,

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but a small percentage of people in this country own most of the wealth of this country. And there's been a great deal of talk in our Congress and

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in recent months and over the years, in fact, about what we call capital gains tax. If you sell your house for $50,000 and you bought it for 25,000,

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you can subtract the expenses and if you've made 10 or $15,000 profit on that, Then the government asks you for a certain percentage of that. It's tax.

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They call it capital gains tax. And more and more people want to keep more and more of that tax that the government is taking. And that's one of the problems.

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So we get in a Congress that favors a certain group getting more capital gains. They're keeping more of what they've got. All of us like to keep as much as we can of what we've got. Too much of it, we think, gets away from us.

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We're not able to keep it. So what is it that we are able to keep, not only when it comes to the capital gains, but what is it that we're able to keep as a nation, as individuals, as institutions? they had completed the Constitution, the Constitutional Congress, was through with its work, one of

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the founding fathers came out and he was asked a question, "What have you all done?" And he said, "We have given you a republic if you can keep it." We have given you a republic if you can keep it. We like to keep as much as we can.

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When I was a little boy, playing marbles, we got to the place, my mother had told me not to, but we did some of that. We played for keeps.

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You know, when you're just playing for fun, You put all the marbles out there, and you play, and whoever wins, you talk about that, and when it's all over, you take your marbles home,

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and they take their marbles home. But when you play it for keeps, it's not like that. You know, what you win is yours, and you keep it. It's for keeps.

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So, here is the problem of our times. In fact, this problem was brought to Jesus about getting and keeping, getting and keeping. And one in the crowd said,

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"Master, make my brother give me my potion of the inheritance." And Jesus said, "Man, who made me a divider? "You're bringing me into this subtlest dispute.

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"Who made me an arbiter? "Who made me the one to divide whatever is to be given?" So, first of all, we're concerned about getting what is ours and then keeping it.

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We need to be sure it's ours. Do you know there are so many controversies that go on among us that have to do with the estate, the will, the will.

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Oh, every year I spend a month talking about make your will, make your will. But so often people don't take time to make the will when they're in their right mind

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and then when they get in their other mind, (laughing) Then somebody else tries to make what they want, what they think that they should have done.

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And so there emerges a conflict. So this one wants to get this, and this one wants to get this, and both of them can't have it,

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and it has to be divided. A great deal of money is spent with attorneys and court action because we haven't learned really how to in a peaceful way divide the inheritance.

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So how do we get and keep our blessings? Lord is blessing us all the time. blessing us all the time and someone says the Lord is in the blessing business but now what about us how do we get these blessings and how do we keep these

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blessings now they were bringing this dispute to Jesus we want to be sure and and get what is ours. Be sure to get what is ours. You can't always be sure that what you're getting

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is yours sometimes. I remember our oldest daughter, Marva, went away to school the first year and she came back and we picked her up at the airport

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with her bags and we went home. And after we arrived at home, we discovered that she opened the bag, that it wasn't her bag.

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It was a bag that looked just like her bag. In fact, she opened it just like she'd opened her bag, but it wasn't her bag. So we spent three or four days, you know, in farming the airline and we finally got her bag.

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But the point I want to make with us here today, be sure that what you get, the bag that you get has your name on it. You know, I have a bag, and I picked it up yesterday when I got off the airline, went to the baggage department, and I have, their bags look just like my bag. But I have to always take and open up

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where I have my name identification to see when I take it off the rack, look at, be sure this is Marvin C. Griffin's bag. So what you're getting, be sure it has your name on it.

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Be sure that this is the blessing that God intends for you to have. Too many of us want somebody else's blessings.

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You know, we see someone, well, we want, we see this lady, we want the dress she has on.

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We want the husband she has, the wife he has. We want somebody else's blessings.

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But be sure, be sure that the blessing that you get has your name on it, that this is the blessing.

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the blessing that God intends for you to have. Be sure it is yours. Well, what is mine is mine. We all feel strongly about that. What is mine is mine. And the next thing that we need to keep in mind is that we ought to be sure that it is acquired in the right way. You know, you can get things and you can get pretty well off by getting

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it the wrong way. There are those who are making large sums of money and they take it and they put that money in Swiss banks where there's no record here and they're beginning to catch up with much of that and some have had this, they're using drug money and they take it and have it laundered here and the banks here and they get it and amass fortunes

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but it is gotten in the wrong way. And when the government catches up with it, they take it all, they confiscate it. But what I'm concerned about today

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is how do we keep our blessings? How do we keep, how do you keep your blessings? How do you keep what is yours? Well, now this rich man, this rich farmer,

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He had worked out a way to keep his blessings. Jesus tells this story, said this man, this farmer, said his ground brought forth plentifully. He had a bumper crop and more than usual, ground brought it forth. And when the harvest came and he saw how much he had, he said, "My goodness, what shall

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I do with all this stuff? I don't know what to do with it." He said, "Well, wait a minute." He thought.

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He said, "My barns are too small. I'm going to tear down these old barns and I'm going to build greater barns and then I'll just sit down. That's what a lot of people work to the point

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where they can sit down. That's the blessing. I'll just sit down and I'll take it easy. And I'll say to my soul, take it easy.

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You have much good stored up for many years. Eat, drink, be merry, have a good time. That's what he wanted to do with his blessings. That's the way he's gonna keep 'em.

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In other words, he's gonna keep all his blessings in his bond. That's what he planned to do. Well, he had worked hard, he had acquired it.

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They were his. He fulfilled these first two things I'm talking about. Be sure it's yours, be sure you've acquired it in the right way.

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He met those tests pretty well. But the next thing is, and the third thing, how to keep your blessings here, is be sure that you share your blessings with others.

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Now that's where he fell off. Be sure that you share. In other words, you can't really live your life all to yourself.

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In other words, I really can't be me all by myself. We have to live in community. We have to learn, as Harold Lukac says, we have to learn to take the journey from I to we.

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Some people never take that. They stop with I, and that's what this man did. He stopped with I. You have nothing about we in the entire past.

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It was all I. I will say to myself, I will do this. Never we. And you can't live your life.

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He who builds by yourself, he who builds a wall around himself, shuts out more than he shuts in. So you can't keep your blessings all to yourself.

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The way to keep your blessings is to share. Be sure that you share, that you're able to say that what is mine is thine. Share it.

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Share it. that others benefit from what you are doing. There was a man, some thought him mad. The more he gave, the more he had.

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Sharing. In other words, when you're sharing, long, long after you're gone, people are still reaping the benefits of your blessings.

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You're extending yourself, you're investing in others, you are sharing. So you keep your blessings. See what I gave away, when you give yourself away,

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your blessings are being kept because when you do that, you're just not looking for rewards here on earth, but you are establishing a relationship that will bring rewards in heaven.

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So the Bible paraphrase said that a person is a fool. That's the way it's translated, that a person is a fool. If you think that you can have rewards and riches in heaven when you confine your concerns to this earth.

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So the last thing is, and this is the word for every one of us, if we would keep our blessings, be sure that you're rich toward God. There are a lot of things you can't be sure of, but be sure that you're rich toward God. In other words, it is God that invades the situation when this man has made all

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of these plans about how he's gonna keep his blessings and he hadn't thought about God. He hadn't thought about other people, he hadn't thought about God. And the Lord spoke to him that very night and said, "Thou fool, thou fool, this night Your soul is required of you, then who shall these things be?

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The best way to keep our blessings is to invest them in ways that are pleasing to God. And what we do for God lives on long after we are gone. So the way to keep them, be sure that the blessings are yours, be sure that you've acquired them in the right way, and be sure that you share them with others, and then be sure.

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You know you can do all these things, and you can do them for the wrong reasons. You can share what you've got, and all that, and you could have gotten it the right way and all that you still can do some of these things for the wrong reason but when you are rich toward God you're being led by the Spirit of God and and

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and and when we look at Lazarus we look at a person who was who was poor in the things of this world he was in rags but he was before diabetes gates diabetes didn't even see him there, but Lazarus was rich toward God and when he died he went on to be at Abraham's bosom and divies went to hell and divies in

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hell with all of his riches was crying out to Lazarus in heaven said just just just just dip your finger in water and let it touch my scorching tongue. Lazarus was rich toward God. Well, you may not have much money.

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You may not have anything in the stock market. You may not have the ability to have much in what is called capital gains, but all my brothers and my sisters,

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every one of us can be rich toward God. And he can preserve our blessings. That's the important thing. He opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessings

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upon us, so much so that there's not room enough to receive it. Be sure that you are rich toward God, because he's able. Paul says, he's able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

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So whatever you do for God, he's able to keep it. Don't have to worry about it. Others may try to get it, but nobody can get your blessings. He's able to keep it.

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When I was down at Texas Southern as a member of the Board of Regents, we had a night watchman who would make rounds. And we'd had a football game.

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And instead of taking the money down to the bank as it should have been, those who were handling those matters took the money and put it in the college safe. And the night watchman made his rounds,

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they figured it was safe, he made his rounds, and he punched the clock like he was supposed to. But there were some persons who timed the night watchman as he made his rounds.

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And between the time he got where this office was located, they were able to go in and take an acetylene torch and diagonally cut all the way down that vault and go in and get some $50,000. And we never found out who got it. They're very true criminals. They got it. Got it out of the safe deposit place. Many of us may

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think it's safe, but and some have safe deposit boxes in their homes but it's not really safe. In other words, you can never never be sure, but with God you can be sure. Paul said I know, I know yes, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, I I know in whom I have believed and I know that he's able to keep that which I

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have committed unto him against that day. So when you put your hand and all that you have in the hands of God you can rest assured that the future is secure. You can say like Paul I know because he is your eternal shepherd and you don't have to worry about anything because he's able to keep it and that's why the

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psalmist is able to say surely surely surely surely surely surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So let us all learn how to keep our blessings. Let us be sure that they are the blessings that God has designed for us, that our name is

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on it. Let us be sure that we have acquired it in the right way. Let us be sure that we are sharing these blessings with others who are members of the human family and above all let us be sure that we are rich, told God. Rich. As we sing now the hymn of invitation we extend the privilege to become a part of the family

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of God here at Ebenezer. If you are living here without a church home, if you've never made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, we invite you to come now by letter, by Christian experience for restoration as we sing I need thee every hour. I need thee. We need to be rich toward him. I need thee. Oh I need

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Oh bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee. We invite you to come

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this morning. It's an open door he sets before us. (gentle music)

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♪ I need thee every hour ♪ ♪ The most gracious Lord ♪ ♪ The dearest of all my life ♪ ♪ The peace of all ♪

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♪ I need Thee, O I need Thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need Thee ♪ ♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior, who I come to Thee ♪ ♪ I need Thee every hour, stay thou nearby ♪

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♪ Temptation moves them on without night ♪ ♪ I give thee, O I give thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need thee ♪ ♪ O blest name of my Savior ♪

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♪ I come to thee ♪ ♪ I give thee every hour ♪ ♪ Give joy of faith ♪ ♪ Come quickly and you'll find ♪

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♪ A life is made ♪ ♪ I need thee, O I need thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need thee ♪ ♪ O bless me now, my Savior ♪

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♪ I come to thee ♪ ♪ I need thee every hour ♪ ♪ Most holy one ♪ ♪ O make me, I need thee ♪

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♪ Thy blessed son ♪ ♪ I need thee, O I need thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need thee ♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

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I need Thee, Lord, I need Thee. ♪ Every hour I need Thee ♪ ♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior ♪ ♪ I come to Thee ♪

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[music] [BLANK_AUDIO]