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Aging with Joy · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We're talking about aging today. The fears that come with aging.
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  Speaker 1: We hear from an older Christian who opens up to
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  Speaker 1: us in complete honesty. They're terrified, terrified of growing old,
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  Speaker 1: terrified of feeling useless, terrified of the indignities of a
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  Speaker 1: failing body, terrified of death too, even though they believe
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  Speaker 1: in heaven. So here's the struggle. How do you finish life?
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  Speaker 1: Finish out the final unknown stretch of this race while
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  Speaker 1: being increasingly humbled, and to do it all without becoming
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  Speaker 1: fearful or bitter. Pastor John, Hello to you and thank
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  Speaker 1: you for this program that I listen to every week
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  Speaker 1: on the radio. You might be asking, what is that.
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  Speaker 1: Let me just take a moment. This listener is talking
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  Speaker 1: about the Family Radio network across the US about seventy
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  Speaker 1: FM radio station broadcasts asked Pastor John episodes each week.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're listening on your local Family radio station
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  Speaker 1: right now, hello, and thank you for listening to us
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  Speaker 1: on the radio. All right, back to the anonymous question. So,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, what would you say to someone who is
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  Speaker 1: terrified of aging and who feels increasingly useless as their
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  Speaker 1: strength fades, or panicked about death even though they believe
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  Speaker 1: in heaven. That is my struggle. How can an older
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  Speaker 1: Christian finish their life not with fear or bitterness, but
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  Speaker 1: with joy, dignity, and hope in Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Let's begin with Abraham. Hebrews eleven eight says by faith,
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  Speaker 2: Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to
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  Speaker 2: a place that he was to receive as an inheritance,
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  Speaker 2: and he went out not knowing where he was going.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know whether we will be totally alone on
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  Speaker 2: the day of our death, with no loved ones around us.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know whether we will have lost so many
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  Speaker 2: powers and resources that we will be professionally useless. We
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  Speaker 2: don't know if it will be a moment of great
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  Speaker 2: suffering and pain. We don't know if our faith will
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  Speaker 2: be RESTful or terribly embattled by the evil One. We
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  Speaker 2: don't know if our finances will have run out, or
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  Speaker 2: some crisis in the market will have caused our resources
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  Speaker 2: to vanish. We don't know whether dementia will have robbed
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  Speaker 2: us of all of our Christian memories and even our
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  Speaker 2: scripture memory. We don't know how old we will be,
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  Speaker 2: or where we will be living, or whether it will
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  Speaker 2: be sudden or long or drawn out between now and
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  Speaker 2: the moment we die. We are walking into an unknown country.
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  Speaker 2: No matter how many steps you have taken to make
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  Speaker 2: it feel secure, It's not not in this world. Now,
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  Speaker 2: how do we do that? How do we enter that
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  Speaker 2: unknown with joy and dignity and hope. That's the question
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  Speaker 2: that's being asked, And to be honest, it may be
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  Speaker 2: impossible to do it with dignity. Here's what the apostle
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  Speaker 2: Paul says about the body as it approaches death. He
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  Speaker 2: describes it like a seed sown in the ground. What
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  Speaker 2: is sown, he says in one Cristains fifteen forty two.
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  Speaker 2: What is sown is perishable. This is first Crintain's fifteen
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  Speaker 2: forty two to forty three. What is sown is perishable.
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  Speaker 2: What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor,
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  Speaker 2: it is raised in glory, It is sown in weakness,
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  Speaker 2: it is raised in power. Now here's a paraphrase. This
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  Speaker 2: isn't my paraphrase of those three words. Perishable, dishonor weakness, perishable,
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  Speaker 2: rotting like fruit with mold in a warm refrigerator, dishonor
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  Speaker 2: undignified and pathetic like an old man curled up in
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  Speaker 2: a fetal position with a diaper who soils himself, weakness, helpless,
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  Speaker 2: totally dependent on others for everything. That's Paul's picture of
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  Speaker 2: the typical process of dying in his day, and very
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  Speaker 2: common in our day. We have no promise in the
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  Speaker 2: Bible that the Christian life will end any other way
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  Speaker 2: than like this, perishable, dishonorable, undignified weak But that does
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  Speaker 2: not mean that we have to succumb to bitterness and joylessness. Oh, no,
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  Speaker 2: dignity we may have to surrender. But joy in Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: joy and hope, joy in suffering. We can fight for
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  Speaker 2: these to the end. Paul said, in all our affliction,
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  Speaker 2: I am overflowing with joy. That's amazing. In all his affliction,
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  Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? It was indescribable, overflowing with joy.
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  Speaker 2: Or Second Corinthians six' ten sorrowful yet always, rejoicing, always
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  Speaker 2: no matter the, sorrow Or romans five' three we rejoice
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  Speaker 2: in our Tribulations or james one two counted all joy
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  Speaker 2: when you meet various Trials Or second corinthians. TWELVE ten
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  Speaker 2: i am content, with, weaknesses, hardships Calamities or hebrews ten
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  Speaker 2: thirty four you joyfully accepted the plundering of, Your property
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  Speaker 2: and on and on the text go about joy in,
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  Speaker 2: suffering dignity we may have. To surrender but in all
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  Speaker 2: our undignified weakness, and suffering may we be found fighting
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  Speaker 2: the good fight of joy all the way to, the
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  Speaker 2: end and saying with The, apostle paul in all our
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  Speaker 2: afflictions are. Aging afflictions we are overflowing. With joy now
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  Speaker 2: how do we? Do that we do it the same
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  Speaker 2: way we have, done it the same way we have
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  Speaker 2: fought the fight for joy all the. Way along we
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  Speaker 2: live by faith in, future grace or another way to.
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  Speaker 2: Put it every day we get up get out, of
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  Speaker 2: bed standing on the Promises. Of god the Promises of
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  Speaker 2: god are the sword of the spirit by which we
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  Speaker 2: put to death the sins. Of unbelief trusting the Promises
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  Speaker 2: of god is the shield of faith by which we
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  Speaker 2: quench the fiery darts. Of joylessness so when the fiery
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  Speaker 2: dart of loneliness threatens, our joy we quench it with,
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  Speaker 2: THE promise i will be with you always to the
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  Speaker 2: end of. THE age i will never, LEAVE you i
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  Speaker 2: will never. Forsake you so we can confidently Say the
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  Speaker 2: lord is. MY helper i will. NOT fear i need not.
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  Speaker 2: Be afraid what can anyone do? To Me that's hebrews
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  Speaker 2: thirteen five. And Six in matthew twenty, eight twenty when
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  Speaker 2: we're threatened with the fear, of uselessness we quench the
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  Speaker 2: dart of that threat with the promise that the slightest
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  Speaker 2: good done, by us even if it's only a whispered
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  Speaker 2: prayer on, our deathbed that good deed will not be forgotten,
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  Speaker 2: in heaven but will be rewarded By the lord if
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  Speaker 2: he's in. Six eight when we are threatened with the
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  Speaker 2: thought that the miserable loss of our abilities and our
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  Speaker 2: strength and our beauty have no good purpose, at all it's,
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  Speaker 2: all goodtuitous it's. All pointless when we feel that we
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  Speaker 2: quench that dart with the promise that this wasting away
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  Speaker 2: is in fact working for us and eternal weight of
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  Speaker 2: glory beyond, all comparison it is not Pointless two corinthians.
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  Speaker 2: Four sixteen when we're threatened with the fear that our faith,
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  Speaker 2: may fail we quench that dart with the promise that
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  Speaker 2: he who began a good work in you will bring it.
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  Speaker 2: To completion he took hold, of you and that's why
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  Speaker 2: you can take hold. Of him you don't, Initiate this he.
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  Speaker 2: Initiates this he will hold. Me fast he will hold,
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  Speaker 2: me fast for my savior, loves me so he will hold.
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  Speaker 2: Me fast and on, and on the promises go to
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  Speaker 2: match every fiery dart that the devil shoots. At us
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  Speaker 2: that's how we fight the fight for joy through all
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  Speaker 2: the indignities. Of, aging so dear, aging, Friend look. I'm
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  Speaker 2: eighty being eighty means you're in your eighty. First year
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  Speaker 2: this is all really relevant. For, me so dear, aging
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  Speaker 2: friend let us cultivate a Nearness. To god let us
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  Speaker 2: Keep the lord always. Before us let us bring into
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  Speaker 2: focus every day afresh the sight of his glory through.
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  Speaker 2: The scriptures let us drink every day from the river of,
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  Speaker 2: his delights which he is so eager to. Give us
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  Speaker 2: let us remind ourselves every Day that he is a
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  Speaker 2: treasure greater than anything this world has. To offer let
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  Speaker 2: us answer out loud his Question, to peter do you?
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  Speaker 2: Love me with THE words i, LOVE you i, LOVE
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  Speaker 2: you i. Love, you jesus let us put to death
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  Speaker 2: every sin and keep our. Hearts pure blessed are the
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  Speaker 2: pure in heart or they Shall. See god and while,
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  Speaker 2: we can while we, still can let us help others
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  Speaker 2: do this. Same thing that's what it means To.
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  Speaker 1: Know, God yeah christians face death, with joy, not fear
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  Speaker 1: By trusting god's promises of, future grace fighting every indignity
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  Speaker 1: of aging and dying. With Faith the, christ's presence his
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  Speaker 1: reward and resurrection glory far outweigh all of. The losses
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  Speaker 1: if you want more on the fears, of aging, on, weakness, loneliness, uselessness,
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  Speaker 1: dementia death all, those Things See pastor john's twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: three sermon which is Titled Not Dead yet Fighting nine
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  Speaker 1: Fears Of Old Age Their pastor john encourages aging believers
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  Speaker 1: to live by Faith in god's ongoing promises to, find
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  Speaker 1: joy freedom and purpose And glorifying christ until the very end.
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  Speaker 1: Of life and of course see the end Of The
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  Speaker 1: aspect john book as well in that section Titled, on
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  Speaker 1: retirement snowbirding and finishing well for more, as well and
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  Speaker 1: for an image that has always stayed with me on
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  Speaker 1: page four. THIRTY nine i think it is about the
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  Speaker 1: dignity of an elderly man or an elderly Woman in
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  Speaker 1: christ who is on the brink, of glorification a. Profound,
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  Speaker 1: image well speaking, of suffering, sorrow sadness there's a, holy
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  Speaker 1: lament a, holy lament and there is a. Sinful lament
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  Speaker 1: can you tell the difference between. The Two pastor john
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  Speaker 1: will explain the difference between a holy lament and a.
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  Speaker 1: Sinful lament, Next Time I'm. Tony rinky we'll see You.
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  Speaker 1: On thursday