Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Coming to Christ for All the Wrong Reasons

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Coming to Christ for All the Wrong Reasons · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We talk often about money and wealth and comfort here
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  Speaker 1: on the podcast because you send us a lot of
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  Speaker 1: great questions here and we address it a lot, because
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  Speaker 1: there's an ever present danger in thinking that Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: the means to gaining wealth in this life. That's the
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  Speaker 1: false gospel of the prosperity gospel, and it is alive
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  Speaker 1: and well in our day and a major theme in
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  Speaker 1: the podcast, as you can see in the APJA book
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  Speaker 1: on pages one of six to one thirteen. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: people come to Christ for all the wrong reasons, and
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  Speaker 1: money is not the only one. As we'll see today
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  Speaker 1: in this email from a listener named Nate pastor John
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  Speaker 1: think you for your ministry. My question ties directly into
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  Speaker 1: the concept of Christian hedonism and my joy in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: This concept was so important to me years ago because
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  Speaker 1: although I had accepted Christ, I remember deeply wrestling with
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  Speaker 1: a lack of desire for God. I didn't desire God
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  Speaker 1: in the way I wanted to, but I knew I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be happy. Christian hedonism taught me that desiring
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  Speaker 1: the Lord wasn't some bleak reality I'd never attained, but
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful, attainable reality that had direct implications for my joy.
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  Speaker 1: Desiring the Lord became less about trying to be more
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  Speaker 1: Christian and more an act of desperation to find the
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  Speaker 1: joy and fulfillment God always intends me to have in Him.
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  Speaker 1: As I reflect on how Christian hedonism helped me see
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  Speaker 1: that my longing for joy and my desire for God
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  Speaker 1: go hand in hand, my questions are are there any
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  Speaker 1: wrong reasons to come to Christ? Is coming to Him
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of finding joy truly sufficient? As I'm maturreed,
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  Speaker 1: My desire for God himself certainly has grown. I came
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  Speaker 1: to Him for fulfillment, and now I love Jesus for
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  Speaker 1: who he is. But is it biblical and appropriate to
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  Speaker 1: come to faith in Jesus for less than Jesus himself?
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  Speaker 1: Is it possible to exalt my own joy in Christ
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  Speaker 1: over Christ himself? Yeah? Loaded? WHOA?
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  Speaker 2: I think there's ten questions in that question.
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  Speaker 1: And I've been on you to keep these short, right
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  Speaker 1: ten minutes?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah? So I'm better get started here. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I'm just confessed right off that I have to be
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  Speaker 2: selected here and which questions answer and no offense really
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  Speaker 2: to nate because I might be dense, But there's some
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  Speaker 2: I just don't understand. So I'm going to do my
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  Speaker 2: best to interpret the question and then reflect on the question.
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  Speaker 2: So that's where we're going. So first, maybe we'll look
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  Speaker 2: at the I don't know three or four of these.
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  Speaker 2: He asks an easy one to start, Are there any
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  Speaker 2: wrong reasons to come to Christ? Answer? Yes, But even
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  Speaker 2: the yes, even the yes, we need to clarify because
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  Speaker 2: I'm assuming that the phrase come to Christ may not
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  Speaker 2: be authentic, like you're not really coming to Christ. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm taking it to mean make a decision and an
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  Speaker 2: outward profession that Jesus is Lord and that I'm coming
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  Speaker 2: to him to get what I can't get any other way.
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  Speaker 2: That that's the way I'm interpreting come to Christ, which
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  Speaker 2: might be real or it might not be real. And
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  Speaker 2: the wrong reason that the Bible talks about in coming
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  Speaker 2: to Christ most is money. First time is the sixty
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  Speaker 2: five Paul's speaks of depraved people imagining that godliness is
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  Speaker 2: a means of gain money. That's why I'm coming to Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: I see it working. It works for people, they get rich.
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  Speaker 2: These people have come to Christ because they think it's
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  Speaker 2: a way to get money. And Paul says that coming
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  Speaker 2: for that reason quote plunges one into temptation, into a snare,
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  Speaker 2: into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into
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  Speaker 2: ruin and destruction. For Timothy six', nine there are other
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  Speaker 2: wrong reasons for coming To, christ BUT i would just
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  Speaker 2: say in, summary any reason for coming To, christ any
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  Speaker 2: reason that doesn't Include christ himself as our supreme, treasure
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  Speaker 2: falls short of why we should come To. Christ so number,
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  Speaker 2: Two nate, says he, asks is coming To christ for
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  Speaker 2: the sake of finding? Joy truly? Sufficient Now i'm not
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  Speaker 2: sure what this. Means So i'm going to interpret two
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  Speaker 2: aspects of it so THAT i can try to. Answer,
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  Speaker 2: First i'm going to take finding joy to mean finding
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  Speaker 2: genuine joy in Who christ is and the way he,
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  Speaker 2: acts and all That christ Or god is for us in.
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  Speaker 2: Him So i'm taking finding joy as genuine finding joy
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  Speaker 2: In christ. Himself so then the question, becomes is coming
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  Speaker 2: To christ for the sake of finding joy In him
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  Speaker 2: and his ways and all That god is for us in?
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  Speaker 2: Him is that? Sufficient and NOW i have to ask?
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  Speaker 2: Sufficient for what what does sufficient mean? Here so let
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  Speaker 2: me Interpret does it mean sufficient to save? Us or
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  Speaker 2: does it mean sufficient in the sense that you don't
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  Speaker 2: need to come To christ for anything. Else if you
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  Speaker 2: come To christ for joy In. Christ, NOW i think
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  Speaker 2: answering the second one will probably also answer the first.
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  Speaker 2: One so let's try. This this is. Complicated put on
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  Speaker 2: your thinking cap or slow down the, audio or read
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  Speaker 2: the head. Script should you come To christ for the
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  Speaker 2: sake of finding something more than joy In? CHRIST i
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  Speaker 2: think you should come To christ in order to Find
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  Speaker 2: christ himself as the essential cause of your joy and
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  Speaker 2: your thankfulness and your admiration and your trust and your.
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  Speaker 2: Hope and that list could go. On but if you
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  Speaker 2: are joyfully Embracing christ for all that he, is then
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  Speaker 2: your joy is in those very attributes Of christ which
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  Speaker 2: give rise to thankfulness and admiration and trust and. Hope
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  Speaker 2: WHEN i speak of coming To christ for the sake
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  Speaker 2: of finding, joy that joy is an essential element of
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  Speaker 2: all genuine spiritual thankfulness and admiration and trust and. Hope
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  Speaker 2: if you took the element of, joy try this in
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  Speaker 2: your own. Thinking if you took the element of joy
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  Speaker 2: out of, thankfulness joyless, thing if you took it out
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  Speaker 2: of thankfulness and admiration and trust and. HOPE i don't
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  Speaker 2: think any of them would be spiritually. Real you would
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  Speaker 2: have hollowed them. Out there would be nothing left that
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  Speaker 2: would Glorify god in your. HEART i think joyless, thankfulness joyless,
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  Speaker 2: admiration joyless, trust joyless hope are all. Contradictions if you
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  Speaker 2: take joy In christ out of, thankfulness take joy In
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  Speaker 2: christ out of admiration Of, christ take joy In christ
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  Speaker 2: out of trust In, christ take joy In christ out
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  Speaker 2: of hope In, christ you've destroyed them. All you don't
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  Speaker 2: have spiritual Biblical christ, honoring, thankfulness or, admiration or trust
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  Speaker 2: or hope. Anymore and if that's, right then coming To
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  Speaker 2: christ for the sake of finding that all pervading joy
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  Speaker 2: In christ is sufficient in both. Senses it is there
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  Speaker 2: in all the other spiritual. Affections so to pursue it
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  Speaker 2: is to pursue them all and being there as part
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  Speaker 2: of all the other necessary. Affections that's a crucial. Statement
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  Speaker 2: let me say the, end because somebody's gonna pick at.
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  Speaker 2: THIS i, mean there's a level of scholarship that's gonna
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  Speaker 2: pick at. THIS i, know And i'm, saying being this,
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  Speaker 2: joy being there as part of all the other necessary,
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  Speaker 2: affections it is sufficient for salvation that's number. Two, Third nate,
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  Speaker 2: says is it biblical and appropriate to come to faith
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  Speaker 2: In jesus for less Than jesus? Himself and the precise
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  Speaker 2: answer is, no it's not. Appropriate it's not. Biblical it's
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  Speaker 2: not biblical or appropriate to think you have come To
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  Speaker 2: christ in a saving way if you have come for
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  Speaker 2: less Than jesus. Himself but, oh how CAREFUL i want
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  Speaker 2: to be here BECAUSE i believe there are many acts
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  Speaker 2: of saving faith which are defective because they're, immature and
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  Speaker 2: yet our. Saving for, example many of us were scared
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  Speaker 2: of hell when we were six or eight or, ten
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  Speaker 2: and that was a big part of our coming To.
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  Speaker 2: Christ we came in order to have a cool heaven
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  Speaker 2: and not a hot, hell and we would have been
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  Speaker 2: hard put at age eight or nine to explain anything
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  Speaker 2: other than we Wanted, jesus Because jesus got us into
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  Speaker 2: heaven and eternal. Life, now THAT i think is quite.
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  Speaker 2: Defective But i'm saying it is possible that beneath that
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  Speaker 2: inadequate reason for coming To, christ there was for many of.
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  Speaker 2: US i believe it's true for, me there was for
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  Speaker 2: many of us a genuine spark of Treasuring. Christ for
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  Speaker 2: who he. Is in other, words a child or an
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  Speaker 2: adult for that, matter may have a better faith than
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  Speaker 2: they are able to. Articulate god Sees god knows the.
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  Speaker 2: HEART i want to be very careful not to write
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  Speaker 2: off a child or another person because of defective ways
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  Speaker 2: of saying or Seeing. Christ so WHEN i say you
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  Speaker 2: must come To christ For jesus, HIMSELF i don't mean
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  Speaker 2: there aren't other, motive AND i don't mean that there's
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  Speaker 2: no spark of authentic embrace Of christ himself for who he.
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  Speaker 2: Is and, Finally nate, says is it possible to exalt
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  Speaker 2: my own joy In christ Over christ? Himself? Again i'm
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  Speaker 2: just not quite sure what that, Means But i'm going
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  Speaker 2: to answer it with a saying from my longtime Associate Sam,
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  Speaker 2: crabtree WHICH i think might get at what this is.
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  Speaker 2: Asking and in any, case it's just a great saying
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  Speaker 2: THAT i found tremendously helpful over the. Years sam said
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  Speaker 2: to me years ago that he's concerned that in worship
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  Speaker 2: services some people may love Loving god more than they Love.
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  Speaker 2: God people may love Loving god more than they Love.
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  Speaker 2: God and what he meant was they enjoy singing happily
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  Speaker 2: About godd with other people On sunday morning and may
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  Speaker 2: not be connected To god at all in a real love.
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  Speaker 2: Relationship so if that's What nate is getting, at then,
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  Speaker 2: no don't exalt the act of, worship joyful. Worship don't
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  Speaker 2: exalt the act of worship over the person. Worshiped So,
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  Speaker 2: nate thanks thanks for pressing and with me to try
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  Speaker 2: to make our treasuring Of christ as authentic and pure
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  Speaker 2: in christ like as it can.
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  Speaker 1: Be, yeah thank. You best For. John people may love
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  Speaker 1: Loving god more than they Love. God that's a sobering.
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  Speaker 1: Word if that sounds, familiar it's because this is the
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  Speaker 1: fourth time you've Mentioned sam's phrase on this. Podcast and
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  Speaker 1: if you're listening and it just struck a chord with
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  Speaker 1: you when you hear people may love Loving god more
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  Speaker 1: than they Love. God see those three other episodes see
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  Speaker 1: apja's three twenty, six three forty, five and fourteen thirty.
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  Speaker 1: Four just go to ask Pastor john dot com to
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  Speaker 1: find them abj's three twenty, six three forty five and
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  Speaker 1: fourteen thirty. Four just type them in the search bar
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  Speaker 1: and to find. Them but, again the number one wrong
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  Speaker 1: reason why people come To, christ according to frequency in The,
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  Speaker 1: bible is that they come To christ for, Money The Prosperity,
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  Speaker 1: gospel the False gospel of The Prosperity. Gospel for more
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  Speaker 1: on that spiritual, danger see The Aspectial john book for
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  Speaker 1: a digestive what's been covered on the podcast over the
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  Speaker 1: years on pages one oh six to one thirteen of
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  Speaker 1: THE apj. BOOK a lot has been, covered AND i
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  Speaker 1: want you to catch up with us and see the
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  Speaker 1: ground that we've. COVERED i don't want you to miss anything.
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  Speaker 1: Important that's WHY i wrote that. Book thank you for.
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  Speaker 1: Listening I'm Tony. Ranky we will see you back here On.
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  Speaker 1: Thursday see, then