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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] [Music] [Music]

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Every day. Every day is a day of thanksgiving. God's been so good to me. Every day he's blessing me.

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♪ Every day is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Take the time to glorify the Lord today ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every day is a day of thanksgiving ♪

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♪ God's been ♪ ♪ God's been so good to me ♪ ♪ And every day, every day, he's blessing ♪ ♪ Every day, every day ♪

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♪ Is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Ain't that kind of glory, my good Lord, today ♪ ♪ I thank God for the moments ♪ ♪ When I worship in his name ♪

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♪ I thank him for the sacrifice of praise ♪ ♪ Now it's no mystery to say ♪ ♪ How my God is every day ♪ ♪ Making my way through clouds of dark ♪

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♪ Bringing his light into my heart ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Oh, God's been ♪

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♪ God's been so good to me ♪ ♪ And every day ♪ ♪ Every day is a happy day ♪ ♪ Every day ♪

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♪ Every day is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Take the time to glorify the Lord today ♪ ♪ Just as precious all around me ♪ ♪ When fighting Satan's descending powers ♪

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♪ That never cease to try and tear me down ♪ ♪ But I just lift my hands to glory ♪ ♪ Believing in God's redemption story ♪ ♪ Thanking him for his saving grace ♪

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♪ As he gives me power just to run this race ♪ ♪ Every day is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Oh God's been ♪ ♪ God's been so good to me ♪

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♪ And every day ♪ ♪ Every day he's coming ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every day ♪

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♪ Is a day of thanksgiving ♪ ♪ Take the time to glorify the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, he keeps on blessing me ♪ ♪ Over and over he's blessing me ♪

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♪ Oh, he opens the door that I see ♪ ♪ He's blessing, oh, good God almighty ♪ He's blessing me, over and over He's blessing me You ought to take the time to glorify the Lord

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Oh, He keeps on blessing me, over and over He's blessing me He opens the door. He opens the door. That I might enter.

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He's blessing me. Good God almighty, He's blessing me. Over and over, He's blessing me. You ought to take the time to glorify the Lord.

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Glorify the Lord. ♪ Glorify the Lord today ♪ - Amen, amen. And when thou prayest,

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thou shall not be as the hypocrites are. Now they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

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But thou, would you repeat after me, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. The subject of the message is "Shut the Door."

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Shut the door. Prayer is communicating with God. Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is a dialogue.

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It is a conversation with God. Dialogue of the finite and the infinite. These words that constitute our text are based on instructions or advice coming from our Lord. Lord when you pray. He talks about when the scribes and Pharisees pray, but now

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he speaks directly to his disciples when you pray, when you communicate with God. In other words, when you engaged in this experience of prayer, this dialogue, this conversation. You do so when you have access, access and communicate with God. When I grew up as a youngster we didn't have a telephone in our house. Whenever

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Whenever we had a message and someone wanted to get to us from a distance, we gave them the telephone number of a family that lived near us. So they would call that family and tell them and take the number and then go down to the house and return the call and of course the family that was there

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had the privilege of hearing whatever you had to say as far as your part of the conversation is concerned. Telephone was a luxury. I didn't, we didn't get a radio till I was in high school. Telephone in those days you had a party line. It was really something in fact I don't remember anybody in our neighborhood having what we

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call a straight line. So there were several parties, several families on your line, you were on the line with several families. And often you would pick up the phone and you would hear them talking, you know. And if you had an urgency you might say would you release the line please and from time to time they say no.

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(audience laughing) This is an experience that is related to having direct, immediate access to God.

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Now some people feel rather strange, you know. I grew up in a church where they just may say, brother so and so pray. No, with no notice.

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When you receive the word, then when you heard it, that request, will you give, or will you lead us in prayer? And some people feel that they

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need to rely on the preacher. call in reverend and let him pray. And, or some special person. I was on the prayer a number of years ago in Waco

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at a social agency meeting, and I was detained and arrived a little late, about five minutes late, and I came in, they said,

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we had to start the meeting without any prayer. I said, "What was the trouble?" "Just because all of you are," "No, nobody came prepared to pray."

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(audience laughing) So we like to call on Brother So-and-so who is known as a good prayer, Sister So-and-so and Pastor as a good prayer.

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Because we feel if they can talk to the Lord better than me. You know, when I was a youngster in church, we had a brother who was a layman. He wasn't a preacher. And he came and stayed, he ran what we call evangelistic services for us, with us, in

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our church, for a week. He was known as an outstanding prayer. Flyers were sent all through the community to come and hear this brother pray.

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And I can remember how I felt as a little boy when he talked to the Lord. When he got on his knees and talked to the Lord. He even told the Lord how many bones we have in our body.

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And many of us youngsters were just fascinated. In fact, the people were too when he told the Lord that. We always, he prayed every night and he always said that in his prayer. We waited for that time.

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We said, "Man, that is something." But Jesus is talking to his disciples. If we are disciples of Jesus, if we are followers of Jesus, if we are learners of Jesus, if we are walking in his steps. He says when you pray, not the preacher, not the deacon,

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but all of his disciples, when you pray do not be as the hypocrites. They like to talk, to talk, but they do not want to walk. To walk. They are actors. They say it with their lips, but their hearts are far from it. So be not as they are. You see, we We have a tendency to be concerned about externals.

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And that has its place. It's important. And many times we make significant judgments based just on externals.

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But God is concerned not only with the external, but he's far more concerned about that which is internal. He is concerned about our motives. What is your motive? Why are you making this request? Is it for some selfish reason? Is it that we're asking God to do

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something to somebody because we don't like them and we ask God to do this you know we're glad when they get sick glad when they have something because we don't like them God through Jesus Christ is speaking to us not only concerning what we ought to say, what we ought to do, and what we ought

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to be in relationship to Him. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites engaged in vain babblings. You know, a lot of words but no sincerity when you pray. Now he not only talks about the significance of prayer as an an avenue of spiritual power.

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But he talks about the place. When you pray, they stand in the streets, they stand on the corners, they want to be seen.

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But when you pray, go to your secret closet. Your secret closet when you pray. Now all of us, most families have a closet.

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And you would not want everybody who comes into your house or comes by to see you walking into your closet. In fact, I have a closet and my wife has a closet. And I expect her to stay in her closet with her things.

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And she expects me to stay in mine. In other words, what were you doing putting this over here in my closet? It's very, very private. Very personal. This is private.

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And he's talking about private prayers. Sometimes we have things in the closet that are hidden away. In fact, I've heard the rumor, I don't know whether it's true or not, I've heard a rumor that some wives would buy things, you know, and hide them in the closets

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and come out with them and their husband say, "Well, when did you get this?" "Oh, I've had this a long time." You know, hidden in the closet. And it's interesting that what Jesus does here is He, He goes with us into the closet. He said, now when you pray, you go into the secret closet.

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And there, these secret things. You know, there are a lot of things nobody knows how you feel about it but you. Not even the closest person, husband, wife, children,

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nearest to you and dearest to you they really don't know. So go into your secret closet, into your inner chambers there and there in secret and in solitude, commune with the Heavenly Father when you pray. It's a wonderful thing. We sang earlier in the beautiful garden of prayer. There the Savior awaits as he opens the gate. Beautiful relationship

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with God. And in this closet it's not a chatterbox, just rambling with some words to hear yourself, you're in the closet. You're not in the living room. You know, the living room is a place where we invite the guests to come

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and we socialize and all of that and we talk about a lot of things. And some things we have, one piece that you may call a conversation piece, it's just to have a talk about. Where did you get this?

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Well, we got this when we so-and-so, you know. But we want to get out of the living room. And we want to get into the deep recesses of our souls where there are things that are there that are troubling us

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that we have not shared with anybody. When you pray, go into your secret closet. Burdens that you are carrying. When you pray, go into your secret closet.

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And there, in that secret place, commune with the Heavenly Father. I'm talking about, my brothers and sisters, the sanctity of the secret place.

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That's a wonderful thing. If you really understand what I'm talking about, the sanctity of the secret place. Where do you pray?

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There are a lot of things that come up in our lives. We ought to always have that secret place. Minister may not be there, deacon may not be there, your circle leader and all of that

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may not be around anywhere, but you need to talk with God. And you need to do that on a regular basis to have this visit into the sanctity of the secret place when you pray.

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So, it's a place that we can find safety in time of storm, safety in time of storm. you have some storms. Storms on our job, storms in our families, storms in the church, storms in the community, storms all around us. Storms. Storms. We read a lot about these hurricanes. They named some of them after the women and some of them

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and they've been after the men. Storms, winds blowing. Storms. We had a tornado a number of years ago when we were in Waco.

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And I was going to run a revival in Dallas at Mung Avenue. I think I had left on the train. My wife was teaching and she came in and the wind was beginning to rage.

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And she just arrived at home and was trying to shut the door. The wind was strong and she was pushing and finally got the door shut and got inside. Jesus says when you get into your secret closet, shut the door. You don't need to share with everybody else, just shut the door. When you shut the door, you shut out certain concerns.

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There are certain things that are worrying us, worldly concerns. Shut the door. Shut the door. There are a lot of rumors that may be circulating, the winds that are howling that disturb you and keep you from doing your best. and Jesus says to us, "Shut the door." Shut it. Shut the door when you pray. Shut the door. You see, when you shut the door,

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you shut certain things in and you shut other things out. And in the secret place you can commune with God there's no interruptions shut the door someone comes in to my office and I say sit down shut the door they can say whatever they don't want to say, shut the door. And there God the Father who sees

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in secret. You don't have to tell him, you don't have to tell him about how many bones in the body, he knows he made the body. You don't have to tell him any of these things. Just shut the door. He knows what's in your hearts. He knows. He understands. Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the

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falling of a tear, the upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near. Shut the door. You know sometimes we don't really pray because we get in the closet but we don't shut the door. You know we have some grudges, we have some jealousies, we have some things that are in there with us

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that should be shut out and the command the word is shut the door shut the door I must hasten on here shutting the door is is important because it's the place Where you're safest there in the closet with God. You don't have to worry about anybody spreading the news about what you said when you're in there. You shut the door. The safest place in our home is a little place like a closet, little enclosure.

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You almost walk by it, but my wife told me that in case of a tornado, this is the safest place. The closet. Troubles that we have, safest place is the secret closet with God.

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The heaviness that we have of spirit, the best place is with God. So shut the door. Shut out worldly concerns and shut in our spiritual concern with God. The number of years ago in the 60s in fact

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when Robert Weaver had been appointed as head of the housing department, which we now call HUD, and I had occasion to go to a meeting and we were having some problems in the city regarding housing patterns. They were becoming more and more segregated

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And we wanted to do something about it. So in connection with the meeting that I was to attend I wrote to Secretary Weaver's office and Got an appointment to meet with him Well, I got to Washington my meeting elsewhere was over and I went to the office of

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Secretary Weaver. They ran me around the bureaucracy of Washington almost all day. And finally around five o'clock in the evening, I found myself in the office of Secretary Weaver. He shut the door.

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He sat down at his large desk and looked me straight in the eye and said, "What are they doing to us?" And I told him what was happening, how they were trying to develop more and more segregated housing in the city. He said, "Now I can help you. You go back, keep your mouth, and I'll take care of the situation." In a few days the city had received a notice from Washington that a grant of some

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quarter of a million dollars that they had thought they had in hand was being held up until they met with us, until they reached some agreement with us. Well that that happened because we were in touch with the top person in the department and

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He we shut the door And focused on him and he had the power to make the changes we need Well, there's a there's a man much higher And that in fact there is a God that that's always over all of this

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He has the whole world in his hands and and he's able To do whatever is necessary to change our situation He's able to make us strong when we are weak He's able to lift us when we fall and he's the one who speaks to us in this word through Jesus

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Say shut the door Shut the door And the Father Who sees in secret

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We'll reward you openly. Isn't that a wonderful thing that when you go to God, when you really take it to God, there's nobody who can stop Him? Whenever God decides to reward you, He has all kinds of ways to snip it to you. So shut the door. Don't worry, don't worry about difficulties here and there. Don't worry

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about the howling of the wind. Don't worry about all of those who are trying to look into your closet. Just shut the door. And God, when we commune with Him in sincerity and in truth, will handle the situation and make it right. So as we sing the hymn an evening prayer. No matter what you've done, no matter how

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much wrong you've done, how many mistakes you may have made, shut the door and take it to God and he'll take it from there. He'll carry the burden when we shut the door and commune with him in secret. So door of the church is open. We invite you to come by letter, by Christian experience, or profession of faith. Maybe you're

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living in Austin without a church home, this is a wonderful time to unite with the people of God here at Ebenezer. You may come by letter, by Christian experience, or profession of faith. We invite you to come. The door of the church is open. Come.

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[ Music ] ♪ If I have wounded in it all today ♪ ♪ If I have felt myself in love last day ♪ ♪ If I have walked in my own way ♪

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♪ The way is here, Lord, for me ♪ ♪ If I, if I could die to earn your praise ♪ ♪ If I, after death's last call ♪ [Choral singing]

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ God's praise ♪ ♪ Hear the one ♪ ♪ Who for me ♪

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♪ He and I have His purpose ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ ♪ He and I have the worship ♪

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♪ Forgave the fool ♪ ♪ When thou hadst given me the Lord ♪ ♪ To call him Lord ♪ ♪ Forgive ♪

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♪ Forgive the sin that I have committed ♪ ♪ Who cares to be forgiven ♪ ♪ The secrets in my youth have seen ♪ ♪ Oh, kindly and dear have I been ♪

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♪ Have been ♪ ♪ Dear Lord ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ - Bill on help.

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