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Surviving the Social Media Flood of Life Advice · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast on this holiday week. For
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  Speaker 1: us in the States, July fourth, Independence Day is tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: It's always good to invest some time in these flower months,
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  Speaker 1: to step back from life and to think about the
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  Speaker 1: big questions, like what is the purpose of my life
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  Speaker 1: on this planet? Why do I exist? What am I
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  Speaker 1: here to do? What does it mean to be productive?
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  Speaker 1: How do I respond when my days are not productive?
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  Speaker 1: How do I fight that lazy tendency in me that
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  Speaker 1: impedes my own productivity? All of those are super important
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  Speaker 1: questions on your minds over the years, as you can
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  Speaker 1: see in the book on pages eighty four to ninety four.
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  Speaker 1: Today we return to purpose and productivity as we enter July,
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  Speaker 1: and as we begin to read Paul's epistles to the Clautions,
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  Speaker 1: a book that brings all of this together. For a
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  Speaker 1: college student who writes in today Pasture John, I'm a
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  Speaker 1: twenty year old female college student trying to figure out
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  Speaker 1: what it means to follow Christ in all areas of life.
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  Speaker 1: I know I'm saved by grace, but I constantly feel
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  Speaker 1: sure of worldly expectations. In Cautions two twenty, Paul interrogates
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  Speaker 1: me with a question that often resonates in my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Why do you live as if you were still alive
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  Speaker 1: in the world? This question hits me especially are right
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  Speaker 1: now in a season where I feel so entangled in
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  Speaker 1: the world's values. Everything in my life seems focused on success, dating, relationships,
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  Speaker 1: and career ambitions. As a college student, I'm bombarded with
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  Speaker 1: messages about what it means to succeed, landing the right job,
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  Speaker 1: climbing the social ladder, achieving goals. But when I read
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  Speaker 1: this passage, I wonder should I even care about these things?
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  Speaker 1: What does it mean to be alive in the world
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  Speaker 1: but dead to the world? Does it mean I should
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  Speaker 1: ignore my future, my friendships or even career aspirations? How
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  Speaker 1: do I live in the world without getting caught up
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  Speaker 1: and its temporary distractions, especially when everything around me urges
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  Speaker 1: me to chase after them? Pester John, what would you
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  Speaker 1: say to this college student?
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  Speaker 2: Let me restate the key scent that I hear and
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  Speaker 2: then relate it immediately to coloutions. Here it is should
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  Speaker 2: I even care about these things? Success, dating, relationships, career ambitions?
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  Speaker 2: What does it mean to be alive in the world
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  Speaker 2: but dead to the world? Does it mean I should
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  Speaker 2: ignore my future? My friendships or even career aspirations. That's
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  Speaker 2: the key sentence, and the short answer to that last
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  Speaker 2: question about ignoring all these things is no, you shouldn't.
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  Speaker 2: But let's go to Colossians and see what it means
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  Speaker 2: to be dead. What is that reality. So here's Colossians
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  Speaker 2: three Versus one to four. If then you have been
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  Speaker 2: raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where
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  Speaker 2: Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set
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  Speaker 2: your minds on things that are above, not on things
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  Speaker 2: that are on the earth. For you have died, and
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  Speaker 2: your life is hidden. So you died, but you have
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  Speaker 2: a life. Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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  Speaker 2: When Christ, who is your life, Christ who is your life, appears,
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  Speaker 2: then you also will appear with Him in glory. So
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  Speaker 2: when God united us with Christ through our faith in Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: we died with him. His death became our death. Our
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  Speaker 2: old unbelieving self has really been dealt a death blow.
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  Speaker 2: That old self is not the true Us anymore, and
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  Speaker 2: a new self of faith has come into being. We
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  Speaker 2: rose with Christ, and the true glory of our new
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  Speaker 2: self as a child and heir of the creator of
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  Speaker 2: the universe, is hidden with Christ in God and will
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  Speaker 2: be manifested like blazing sun when he comes. So the
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  Speaker 2: question that we all ask is, how then do we
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  Speaker 2: live as those who have died to sin and unbelief
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  Speaker 2: and self exaltation. That old person is dead. The impulses
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  Speaker 2: of this fallen world are pushing at us, and they
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  Speaker 2: will not have dominion over us. Paul says in Roman six,
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  Speaker 2: how do we live as those who have come alive
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  Speaker 2: in Christ, in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what Colossians chapter three and chapter four, all the rest
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  Speaker 2: of Colossi is about. And the absolute key this is
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  Speaker 2: what I'm going to spend all my time on here
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  Speaker 2: for a few minutes. The absolute key statement that in
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  Speaker 2: those two chapters of Colossis three and four that will
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  Speaker 2: guide a college student as he or she is bombarded
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  Speaker 2: with all kinds of ideas about how to make choices
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  Speaker 2: and careers and relationships and entertainments. That absolute key statement
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  Speaker 2: is Colossians three seventeen. Whatever you do, college, dude, in
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  Speaker 2: word or deed. So whatever you say, whatever you do,
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  Speaker 2: do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Does
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  Speaker 2: somebody present you with a career path, you ask, can
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  Speaker 2: I do it? In the name of the Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: Does somebody suggest you date this young woman or man,
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  Speaker 2: You ask, can I do it in the name of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus. Somebody says you should watch this movie?
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  Speaker 2: You ask, can I do it in the name of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus. So what does that mean? To speak
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  Speaker 2: and act in the name of the Lord Jesus. I
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  Speaker 2: think it means at least three things. One, you do
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  Speaker 2: it in the strength of the Lord Jesus. That is,
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  Speaker 2: you do it by trusting that he is the one
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  Speaker 2: by his majestic and authoritative name will give you the
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  Speaker 2: help you need to do it. That's number one. Strength
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  Speaker 2: in the strength of the Lord. Second, you do it
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  Speaker 2: in the way that the Lord Jesus prescribes. You might say,
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  Speaker 2: pastor job. The Bible doesn't give me any detailed instructions
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  Speaker 2: about how to study for this history to or that
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  Speaker 2: particular guy I'm interested in, or this particular engineering path
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  Speaker 2: as a career. Well, that's true. It doesn't give detailed
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  Speaker 2: guidance for which of those things you do. But it
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  Speaker 2: does tell you many things about the way to go
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  Speaker 2: about a thing. To go about studying, to go about dating,
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  Speaker 2: do go about career choice, will you do it honestly, humbly, purely, wisely, joyfully, mercifully, lovingly, patiently, meekly, generously, thoroughly, zealously,
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  Speaker 2: and on and on. The Bible is not silent on
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  Speaker 2: the way to do a thing. That's number two. So first,
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  Speaker 2: do it in the strength that God supplies. Second, do
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  Speaker 2: it in the way the Lord prescribes. And third, do
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  Speaker 2: it for his glory. So to do something in Jesus's
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  Speaker 2: name means do it with a view to his glorification.
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  Speaker 2: That is, in order to make much of him in
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  Speaker 2: the way you do it and what you do so
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  Speaker 2: that he looks great in your life. That's your goal,
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  Speaker 2: making the Lord Jesus Christ look great. Your choices of
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  Speaker 2: relationships and entertainment and career make Jesus look great, true,
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  Speaker 2: beautiful as he really is. I remember, and you remember this, Tony.
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  Speaker 2: We've talked about it, standing in front of thirty thousand
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  Speaker 2: students back in two thousand and one one day saying
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  Speaker 2: you don't need second here myself doing it because I've
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  Speaker 2: watched that video. You don't need to know a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things in order to be a faithful Christian and
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  Speaker 2: make a great impact in your life. You need to
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  Speaker 2: know one or two or three really important things and
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  Speaker 2: be willing.
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  Speaker 1: To die for them.
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  Speaker 2: And I feel this very strongly because I personally, just
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  Speaker 2: like the typical college student, I think tend and have
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  Speaker 2: tended for fifty years, to feel overwhelmed at the number
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  Speaker 2: of things that come at me telling me how to
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  Speaker 2: do everything. Oh, my goodness, everybody and his brother has
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  Speaker 2: an idea for what you should be eating and exercising
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  Speaker 2: and reading and watching and doing with your life. And
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  Speaker 2: I have survived as a Christian for seventy years, more
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  Speaker 2: than seventy years now. I was saved when I was six.
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  Speaker 2: I have survived as a Christian under that tidal wave
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  Speaker 2: of advice by saying to myself, I don't need to
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  Speaker 2: know a lot of things, but I know one thing,
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  Speaker 2: absolutely everything in my life I should do in the
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  Speaker 2: name of Jesus my Lord, or if you want to
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  Speaker 2: call it, I need to know three things. Then it's
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  Speaker 2: in everything I do. I should trust Him for the
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  Speaker 2: strength to do it. I should do it in the
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  Speaker 2: way he prescribes. I should do it in order to
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  Speaker 2: make him look glorious. So, oh, my dear college student friends,
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  Speaker 2: this will serve you well. You do not need to
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  Speaker 2: feel like you are drowning in an ocean of conflicting advice.
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  Speaker 2: It is an ocean and they are conflicting, and you
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  Speaker 2: don't need a drown You know one great, all decisive fact.
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  Speaker 2: God made you and everything for the glory of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: So when this college co ed says I'm bombarded with
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  Speaker 2: messages about what it means to succeed, I respond, that's true,
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  Speaker 2: and now you don't need to feel overwhelmed, because you
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  Speaker 2: know exactly what it means to succeed is you do
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  Speaker 2: you do. Success, which simply means achieving your goals, is
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  Speaker 2: doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Success
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  Speaker 2: is trusting him for his help, doing things his way,
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  Speaker 2: doing it for his glory. Nothing else ultimately matters. I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to say that again. I'm saying it with confidence
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  Speaker 2: because of what the Bible teaches nothing else ultimately matters.
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  Speaker 2: That's what you will be judged for on the last day.
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  Speaker 2: Did you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: With that single truth, it will become obvious to you
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  Speaker 2: what paths in life are off bounds. On those paths
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  Speaker 2: you would be ashamed to ask for his help his strength.
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  Speaker 2: He will make plane what paths you can't take and
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  Speaker 2: act in his way. You will see what you can't
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  Speaker 2: do for his glory. There are things that don't glorify him.
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  Speaker 2: He would be dishonored, not glorified if you went on
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  Speaker 2: that path. So I urge every teenager and every college
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  Speaker 2: student to nail this down. Why do you exist? Nail it,
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  Speaker 2: get it, settle it. If it takes a year, settle it.
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  Speaker 2: It's the most important thing you can settle. Why do
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  Speaker 2: you exist? And I'm saying that the Bible answers you exist. Indeed,
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  Speaker 2: the universe exists, so that ever everything would be done
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  Speaker 2: in the name of the Lord Jesus, by his strength,
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  Speaker 2: in his way, for his glory. Let that be the
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  Speaker 2: load star of your life.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, Thank bestor John. Indeed, we talked about that two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and one conference message or what has been simply
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  Speaker 1: called the Seashells Servant infamously. For summary of those conversations
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  Speaker 1: that we had in the past, seed the APG book
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  Speaker 1: on pages four twenty nine to four to thirty one.
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  Speaker 1: And while you're there, to check out the section on purpose,
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  Speaker 1: what's my purpose on this planet? Why do I exist?
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  Speaker 1: How do I respond to my most unproductive days? How
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  Speaker 1: do I fight lazy tendencies that impede my productivity? All
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  Speaker 1: those super important questions summarize for you in the book
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  Speaker 1: on pages eighty four to ninety four. A big thank
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  Speaker 1: you for joining us today. If you have a question
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  Speaker 1: to ask Pastor John, find the link to email us
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  Speaker 1: at askpastor John dot com. I'm Tony Rank. You have
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful Fourth of July week, and we will see
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  Speaker 1: you back here on Monday.