Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Eight Ways to Live Out Your Assurance

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Eight Ways to Live Out Your Assurance · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a new month. On the podcast on this
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  Speaker 1: first Monday in November. Well, last time we saw how
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  Speaker 1: finding personal assurance in Christ is essential as we find
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  Speaker 1: that cry of a trusting child to his heavenly Father
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  Speaker 1: inside of us, that Abba Father, the heartfelt, authentic cry
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  Speaker 1: of trust. That's the witness of the Holy Spirit in
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  Speaker 1: us that we are children of God, Abba Father. But
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  Speaker 1: assurance is not something that you get from just sitting
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  Speaker 1: around and thinking about assurance. Assurance is a lived out pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: So how do we do it? How do we live
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  Speaker 1: out our personal assurance? We will get to that answer
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  Speaker 1: through Chloe's question today, a question considering several Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: texts that we are looking at in the season in
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  Speaker 1: the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan. Chloe writes Pastor John, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for the ask. Pastors on podcast the keep wrestling
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  Speaker 1: with this question. How can I know for sure that
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  Speaker 1: I am truly following God and not just chasing after
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  Speaker 1: my own desires or misconceptions about Him. In John seven
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  Speaker 1: thirty seven, which we read recently, Jesus offers living water.
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  Speaker 1: But how do I know I'm really drinking from that
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  Speaker 1: well and not just from my own wells of self sufficiency.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to fill myself up
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  Speaker 1: with things that ultimately leave me unsatisfied. Second Peter one four,
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  Speaker 1: It's another one of our recent reads speaks of becoming
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  Speaker 1: partakers of the divine nature? But how do I actually know?
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  Speaker 1: This is my trajectory. I want to grow in Godliness,
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  Speaker 1: but how do I know if that's truly happening in
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  Speaker 1: my life? First John one to three, coming up in
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  Speaker 1: our reading, says Christians enjoy fellowship with God and each other.
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  Speaker 1: But how do I know if I'm part of this fellowship?
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  Speaker 1: Is it about feeling connected or is there something more
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  Speaker 1: concrete that shows I truly belong to God. I long
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  Speaker 1: for assurance, but sometimes I feel like I have no
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  Speaker 1: final answers. How can I be sure I'm genuinely following
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  Speaker 1: Christ and not just going through the motions or misled
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  Speaker 1: by my own thoughts? How do I live out confidence
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  Speaker 1: in Christ?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think there is an issue in the Christian
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  Speaker 2: life that troubles the hearts of God's children more than
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  Speaker 2: the issue of assurance. At least it seems that way
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  Speaker 2: from my experience. Chloe puts the question from several different angles.
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  Speaker 2: Can I know that I'm drinking from the right well?
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  Speaker 2: Can I know I'm partaking of the divine nature? Can
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  Speaker 2: I know I'm in fellowship with God? And those questions
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  Speaker 2: show that the temptation to doubt, doubt the reality of
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  Speaker 2: our own position in Christ can come from almost any angle.
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  Speaker 2: You can be reading the Bible almost anywhere and the
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  Speaker 2: question will pop into your mind is this real? Or
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  Speaker 2: maybe more common am I real? At this point? Which
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  Speaker 2: is why perhaps the Bible provides so many different ways
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  Speaker 2: of helping us maintain our confidence, our assurance not only
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  Speaker 2: that Christ is real, but that we are real, that
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  Speaker 2: our faith is true saving faith that will bring us
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  Speaker 2: all the way through death into God's happy, everlasting presence.
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  Speaker 2: So what I thought I would do, instead of lingering
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  Speaker 2: over just one of these assurance giving places in the Bible,
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  Speaker 2: is to simply point to eight of them, because who
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  Speaker 2: knows which of these kinds of help the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 2: will use to actually bring about the miracle of assurance
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  Speaker 2: for Chloe or for goodness, thousands of our listeners and
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  Speaker 2: for us. So first there is the straightforward exhortation, go
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  Speaker 2: after it, Go after assurance. Don't think that the pursuit
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  Speaker 2: of assurance is a defect. Here's Hebrew six eleven. We
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  Speaker 2: desire each one of you to show the same earnestness,
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  Speaker 2: to have the same full assurance of hope unto the end,
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  Speaker 2: so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of
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  Speaker 2: those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. So
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  Speaker 2: the Bible knows that assurance is not automatic. We pursue it.
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  Speaker 2: We show earnestness to go after it. So fight for
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  Speaker 2: it with the confidence that the fight is a good fight.
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  Speaker 2: That's number one. Number two. God's testimony to you that
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  Speaker 2: you are His is that He has given you spiritual life.
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  Speaker 2: You are no longer dead in trespasses and sins. You
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  Speaker 2: are alive, alive to God. Here's First John five to eleven.
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  Speaker 2: This is the testimony. Now we should ask at the point,
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  Speaker 2: what what's he going to say? What's the testimony of
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  Speaker 2: God to my soul that I am His? This is
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  Speaker 2: the testimony that God gave us eternal life. That's amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Giving us eternal life doesn't mean he gave us a
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  Speaker 2: tip or a certificate. It means He gave us life
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  Speaker 2: now and forever. He brought us from spiritual death to
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  Speaker 2: spiritual life. This is why the whole New Testament relates
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  Speaker 2: to the issue of assurance, because the whole New Testament
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  Speaker 2: describes this life, this life in Christ. So reading the
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  Speaker 2: whole New Testament can awaken in us. I'm alive. I'm alive.
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  Speaker 2: He made me alive to him. Third, we enjoy assurance
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  Speaker 2: as we abide in Christ. And the word abide simply
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  Speaker 2: means stay in him, don't run away from him, don't
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  Speaker 2: drift away from him. Stay abide means stay, keep trusting,
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  Speaker 2: keep drinking, keep close. So here's first John two twenty eight.
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  Speaker 2: And now little children, abide in him so that when
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  Speaker 2: he appears we may have confidence. So confidence comes from abiding.
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  Speaker 2: And the older I get, and I think most aging
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  Speaker 2: saints would say the older we get, the more skirmishes
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  Speaker 2: our faith has survived. And therefore the more this promise
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  Speaker 2: of abiding makes sense. Abide, abide, and your confidence will grow.
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  Speaker 2: Don't drift away. Fourth, combine theology or doctrine and prayer.
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  Speaker 2: Doctrine and prayer, theology and prayer, meditation and supplication. In
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  Speaker 2: the Book of Ephesians, Paul first gives weighty theology and
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  Speaker 2: then he prays in chapter one fifteen to the end
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  Speaker 2: of the chapter, then again heavy duty, glorious, beautiful, deep theology, doctrine,
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  Speaker 2: and then again he prays in chapter three fourteen. And
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  Speaker 2: what he prays in both of these prayers chapter one
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  Speaker 2: and chapter three is for Christians, not unbelievers, but Christians
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  Speaker 2: to really know their hope, really know the love of
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  Speaker 2: Christ experientially beyond ordinary human knowing. So copy Paul, immerse
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  Speaker 2: yourself in serious doctrinal teaching and mingle it with constant prayer.
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  Speaker 2: Oh Lord, open the eyes of my heart to know.
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  Speaker 2: The Book of Hebrews is a great example of how
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  Speaker 2: the New Testament expects theology or doctrine to produce assurance.
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  Speaker 2: For example, Hebrews four fifteen, we have a sympathetic high priest,
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  Speaker 2: therefore let us draw near with confidence. Or Hebrews eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: there is forgiveness for all our sins. Therefore we have
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  Speaker 2: confidence to enter the Holy Place. Or Hebrews ten thirty
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  Speaker 2: four we have an eternal possession. Therefore, don't throw away
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  Speaker 2: your confidence. So even if you say, and I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people would say this, even if you say,
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  Speaker 2: doctrine doesn't always have that effect for me. I know
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  Speaker 2: that we all read blankly from time to time, but
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  Speaker 2: don't give up. The Bible is insistent that truth, doctrine,
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  Speaker 2: theology is designed by prayer and the Holy Spirit to
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  Speaker 2: make you more confident. Number five, be faithful in the
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  Speaker 2: service that God has given to you. Steadfastness in your ministry.
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  Speaker 2: And I don't mean professional ministry. I mean the ministry
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  Speaker 2: of the simplest kind. Deadfast in your ministry. That steadfastness
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  Speaker 2: is designed by God to make you confident. Here's one
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  Speaker 2: Timothy three thirteen. Those who serve well as deacons or ministers,
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  Speaker 2: you can generalize it whatever the ministry God has given you.
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  Speaker 2: Those who serve well as ministers gain great confidence in
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  Speaker 2: the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Steadfastness in ministry
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  Speaker 2: deepens your confidence in God. Number six. Hate the remaining
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  Speaker 2: sin in your life. Make war on it. You will
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  Speaker 2: never be done with this battle until you die or
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  Speaker 2: until Jesus comes. The evidence that you are a child
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  Speaker 2: of God is not that you have no sinful tendencies,
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  Speaker 2: but that you hate them and make war on them.
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  Speaker 2: Here's Romans eight thirteen. If by the speak you put
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  Speaker 2: to death the deeds of the body that's sinful, temptations
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  Speaker 2: that rise in your body. If by the Spirit you
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  Speaker 2: put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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  Speaker 2: Because all who are led by the Spirit of God,
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  Speaker 2: namely into making war on their sin, are the sons
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  Speaker 2: of God. That's the assurance. The evidence that you are
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  Speaker 2: a child of God is that the Holy Spirit leads
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  Speaker 2: you into mortal combat with your sin. Number seven, Let
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  Speaker 2: affliction of any kind have its assurance strengthening effect. None
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  Speaker 2: of your suffering is without purpose, and one of those
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  Speaker 2: purposes is not to threaten your assurance, as though God
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  Speaker 2: were against you, but to strengthen your assurance because God
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  Speaker 2: gave you grace to endure it. Here's Romans five to three.
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  Speaker 2: We re joice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
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  Speaker 2: and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. That is
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  Speaker 2: the hope that you're real. You made it, You made
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  Speaker 2: it through the affliction. You're real. And then, finally, number eight,
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  Speaker 2: embrace the promise that God will keep you.
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  Speaker 1: Believe it.
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  Speaker 2: For example, second Thessalonians three three, the Lord is faithful,
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  Speaker 2: He will establish you and guard you against the evil
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  Speaker 2: one or Romans eight thirty five, Who shall separate us
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  Speaker 2: from the love of Christ. So tribulation or distress, or persecution,
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  Speaker 2: or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword, and He
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  Speaker 2: answers no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors.
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  Speaker 2: Through Him who loved us, He will keep you. So.
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  Speaker 2: My prayer, Chloe and all of us who pursue the
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  Speaker 2: fullest assurance of faith, is that God will take one
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  Speaker 2: or more of these eight means of assurance and make
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  Speaker 2: it powerfully effective in your life.
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  Speaker 1: Man, there is a mean streak to the Christian life
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  Speaker 1: of violence against the cravings within us. That just played
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  Speaker 1: your sermon clip for a friend the other day. That
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  Speaker 1: sermon excerpt from you Yeah, that's.
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  Speaker 2: A quote from Somebody, isn't isn't it? Paulas under Somebody Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Originally from Ed Welsh. There is a mean streak to
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life of violence against the cravings within us.
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  Speaker 1: See the APG book on pages two fifty nine and
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  Speaker 1: two sixty to see how Pastor John employed the quote.
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  Speaker 1: Originally from Ed Welch's book Addictions A Banquet in the Grave.
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  Speaker 1: Check that book out to Addictions A Banquet in the Grave.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: Have a question to ask Pastor John. Find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode archive at
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  Speaker 1: the same place. Ask Pastor John dot com. Well, the
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  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul speaks of fleshly Christians. So what is a
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  Speaker 1: fleshly Christian? It's an immature believer in Christ who is
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  Speaker 1: genuinely saved but still behaves in worldly, prideful, and divisive
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  Speaker 1: ways that reflect spiritual immaturity, not spiritual maturity. Is a
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  Speaker 1: very real category for Paul, and it's our topic up
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  Speaker 1: next time. I'm Tony Ranky, will see you back here
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday.