Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Make a Life Plan for 2026

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Make a Life Plan for 2026 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Happy New Year's Day, twenty twenty six, and that means
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  Speaker 1: we launched this podcast into year number fourteen. Now what
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  Speaker 1: an amazing ride, all made possible by the grace of
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  Speaker 1: God and by your involvement in listening, sending us your
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  Speaker 1: questions and praying for us, and of course financially supporting
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  Speaker 1: us over all these years. Thank you to each of
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  Speaker 1: you for your role and making it all happen. You
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  Speaker 1: mean a lot to us, so thank you well. I
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  Speaker 1: bet you would agree that making a personal mission statement
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  Speaker 1: could bring focus to your life in twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 1: But where do you begin. That's today. But before we
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  Speaker 1: get there, I hope one of your priorities in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty six, at least one of them, includes a commitment
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  Speaker 1: to reading the whole Bible with us. If so, you
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  Speaker 1: might already have a blank, fresh Bible reading slate ready
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  Speaker 1: to go. I have a new one on my desk
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  Speaker 1: right now that just printed out, twelve hundred empty boxes
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  Speaker 1: ready to check off this year. Four readings per day,
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  Speaker 1: three hundred days of readings with breaks at the end
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  Speaker 1: of each month, in the fifteen minutes of reading per
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  Speaker 1: day as the commitment. Pastor John and I have made.
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  Speaker 1: Then we'll be using the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan again
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, the same plan we used last year.
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  Speaker 1: We plan to address your questions about key texts along
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  Speaker 1: the way throughout the year. So this is our invitation
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  Speaker 1: to you to read the entire Bible with us as well.
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  Speaker 1: For some of you, this will be your first attempt.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome along, if not welcome back. You can find the
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  Speaker 1: Navigator's Bible Reading Plan online by searching for it. You
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  Speaker 1: can just find the pdf, print it and join in
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  Speaker 1: with us today. It begins today in reading Genesis one
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  Speaker 1: and two someone, and then we read also from Matthew
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  Speaker 1: one and Acts one. All right, So, last time, in
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  Speaker 1: episode twenty fifteen, Pastor John gave us a broad defense
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  Speaker 1: and explanation of resolve as a general Christian practice, a
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  Speaker 1: good one. He addressed cultural views of resolutions, reframed them biblically,
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  Speaker 1: and urged us against irresolute hearts, and encouraged us in
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  Speaker 1: a constant, faith filled commitment of resolution, calling us to
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  Speaker 1: make resolutions continually. Paul does that, The Bible does that,
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  Speaker 1: and so we do it. Today we focus on creating
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  Speaker 1: personal mission statements or life plans because God himself is
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  Speaker 1: a planner, so we should plan. And to do that planning,
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  Speaker 1: we need to discern God's ultimate purpose in the universe. First. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's where you start, and we get into all of
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  Speaker 1: this from this question from a listener named Paul. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: pastor John, I thank you for this podcast. In past episodes,
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned the importance of writing out a personal mission
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  Speaker 1: statement for our lives with the aim of enhancing personal productivity.
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  Speaker 1: I agree completely and to find this task entirely daunting.
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  Speaker 1: So how do I, as an average Christian layperson, go
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  Speaker 1: about coming up with personal mission statements? Should we be
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  Speaker 1: strengths talents oriented about it, focus on roles? Should we
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  Speaker 1: most focus on spiritual needs in the church, both locally
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  Speaker 1: and globally? And how do we avoid letting the statement
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  Speaker 1: grow so broad that we get overwhelmed to the point
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  Speaker 1: that such a statement does nothing to actually help us
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  Speaker 1: focus our energies. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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  Speaker 2: When I read the Bible, I cannot escape the relentless
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  Speaker 2: teaching that God has purposes, he has goals in everything
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  Speaker 2: he does. He's not a God who is coasting aimlessly.
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  Speaker 2: He's not going in circles. The God of the Bible
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  Speaker 2: is pervasively pursuing accomplishments of his own counsel. So Isaiah
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  Speaker 2: forty six, I am God. There is no one like
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  Speaker 2: me declaring my counsel shall stand. I will accomplish all
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  Speaker 2: my purpose. So there it is, I will accomplish all
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  Speaker 2: my purpose. God has purposes, He has plans Isaiah fourteen
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  Speaker 2: twenty four. As I have plan, so shall it be
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  Speaker 2: as I have purposed? So shall it stand? Plans purposes.
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  Speaker 2: I determined it long ago Isaiah thirty seven to six.
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  Speaker 2: I planned it from day of old, and I now
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  Speaker 2: bring it to pass. I don't think there would be
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  Speaker 2: any gospel, any salvation, any eternal joy if God were
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  Speaker 2: not a planner who lived with purposes and goals. Because
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  Speaker 2: Acts four twenty seven says that all the enemies of
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  Speaker 2: God were gathered together in Jerusalem at the crucifixion of
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  Speaker 2: Jesus to do whatever your hand, Oh God, your plan
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  Speaker 2: had predestined to take place. Now, when I step back
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  Speaker 2: from all of that vision of the planning, purposing God,
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  Speaker 2: the effect it has on me is to stir me
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  Speaker 2: up to really serious questions, like, well, what is God's
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  Speaker 2: ultimate goal? Then I'm sure he has millions of sub
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  Speaker 2: goals and sub purposes in everything he does. I like
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  Speaker 2: to say God's doing ten thousand things. We don't know
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  Speaker 2: anything about. Those goals and purposes are hidden from us.
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  Speaker 2: But what has he revealed as his mane or his
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  Speaker 2: ultimate purpose? Where's everything going? That's the question that has
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  Speaker 2: burned in me ever since I was twenty two years
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  Speaker 2: old and became a lover of the all ordaining, all
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  Speaker 2: planning God. And then the next question becomes, well, if
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  Speaker 2: I could desern what his ultimate goal was, how can
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  Speaker 2: I join him in it? I want to fit in
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  Speaker 2: to his ultimate purpose and I want to strive against it.
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  Speaker 2: I want to be right in sync with what God
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  Speaker 2: is pursuing in the world. Nothing seems more obviously reasonable
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  Speaker 2: to me or hopeful to me than that God's creatures
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  Speaker 2: should gladly fit into his purpose. So surely that's his
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  Speaker 2: call on us. That's what he's beckoning us to do.
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  Speaker 2: Find my purpose, join me in it? So that's my
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  Speaker 2: second question. Then is there a way I can join
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  Speaker 2: the purpose of God once I have found out what
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  Speaker 2: his ultimate purpose is? And then the question becomes, how
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  Speaker 2: do I do everything I am doing so that I
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  Speaker 2: help that ultimate goal will come about, or so that
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  Speaker 2: I can be used by God to make it come about.
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  Speaker 2: I want everything, not just a few things, but everything
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  Speaker 2: I do to somehow contribute to that purpose. So that's
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  Speaker 2: why mission statements seem helpful to me. They keep me
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  Speaker 2: focused on the great things of life. But to me
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  Speaker 2: caution us here, I think the particularities of life are
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  Speaker 2: too variable for our mission statement to be very detailed.
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  Speaker 2: I know our friend asked that it not be too general,
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  Speaker 2: and yet am I disappointing because I find big, big
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  Speaker 2: general for ris is really helpful if they're the right kind.
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  Speaker 2: So the more particularities about yourself and about your circumstances
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  Speaker 2: that you include, the more short term your statement's going
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  Speaker 2: to be. Because so much changes, right, You change, your job changes,
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  Speaker 2: you have kids, you get sick, you move. Oh my goodness.
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  Speaker 2: Life is just so variable that if you if you
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  Speaker 2: make your mission statement to include things about yourself, things
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  Speaker 2: about your circumstances that are going to change relatively quickly,
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  Speaker 2: then then you're gonna have to be changing your mission
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  Speaker 2: statement all the time, and that's that's probably not very helpful.
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  Speaker 2: So if you if you want your mission statement to
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  Speaker 2: last more than a few years, it will need to
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  Speaker 2: be high level and general. And that's mainly what I
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  Speaker 2: have in mind when I think of my own statements
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  Speaker 2: that guide my life. I need to be reminded regularly
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  Speaker 2: about the big picture of life. What's everything about? What
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  Speaker 2: goals can I have that are in sync with God's
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  Speaker 2: goals and are so clearly biblical that they don't change.
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  Speaker 2: So let me give you a whirld win process of
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  Speaker 2: arriving at such a statement, and then you can adapt
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  Speaker 2: it to your situation. In those crucial years of discovery
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  Speaker 2: for me, life changing years twenty two to twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: what I saw and could not deny and have never
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  Speaker 2: changed my mind on since, was that God was infinitely
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  Speaker 2: full of every perfection and could not be improved, and
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  Speaker 2: was the sum of all excellence, all beauty, all worth,
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  Speaker 2: all greatness, so that his purpose never included people counseling
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  Speaker 2: him or adding to him, or improving him, or providing
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  Speaker 2: for his needs, since he doesn't have any. Rather, what
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  Speaker 2: I saw was that God was the kind of God
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  Speaker 2: whose ultimate aim was that his fullness, his completeness, his perfection,
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  Speaker 2: would overflow with the communication of all his satisfying greatness
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  Speaker 2: and beauty and worth and excellence to me. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: God's ultimate purpose is to be seen and savored and shown.
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  Speaker 2: Those are my three favorite words for describing it. God's
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  Speaker 2: ultimate purpose is to be seen and savored and shown
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  Speaker 2: as infinitely glorious. That's his ultimate purpose. This is not megalomania,
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  Speaker 2: by the way, because the communication of Himself in all
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  Speaker 2: his glory is what the human soul was made to
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  Speaker 2: be satisfied by. So God is the one being in
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  Speaker 2: all the universe, and he's the only one for whom
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  Speaker 2: self communication and self exaltation is the highest virtue and
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  Speaker 2: the most loving act. So Isaiah forty three to six,
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  Speaker 2: bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends
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  Speaker 2: of the earth, everyone who is called by my name,
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  Speaker 2: whom I created for my glory. And so the very
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  Speaker 2: first thing that he teaches us to pray over and
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  Speaker 2: over is hallowed be your name. That is glorified, treasured, loved, honored, praised, admired, enjoyed.
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  Speaker 2: Hallowed be your Name. That's the first and foremost cry
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  Speaker 2: of every saint. Every day. Make me a means, God,
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  Speaker 2: Please make me a means of the communication and the
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  Speaker 2: display of your beauty and your worth and your greatness.
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  Speaker 2: That is, may others hallow your name because I exist.
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  Speaker 2: That's why we come into being. That's the essence of
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  Speaker 2: every biblical personal mission statement, I think if it ties
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  Speaker 2: into God's ultimate purpose. So that's that's where I start.
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  Speaker 2: And then the question becomes how, And the Bible seems
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  Speaker 2: that is, how can I How can I live that way?
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  Speaker 2: How can I join in to that accomplishment of that purpose?
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  Speaker 2: And the Bible just seems to offer countless answers, like
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  Speaker 2: whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory
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  Speaker 2: of God, give thanks to the glory of God, Confess
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  Speaker 2: Jesus to the glory of God, do good deeds that
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  Speaker 2: God may be glorified, Welcome one another to the glory
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  Speaker 2: of God God, be generous to the poor for the
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  Speaker 2: glory of God, and on and on. I have other
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  Speaker 2: texts listed here, but they're all over the place. Everything
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  Speaker 2: we should be doing with our bodies and our minds
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  Speaker 2: and our hearts should be something that makes God look
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  Speaker 2: glorious because he really is. We're helping people see him,
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  Speaker 2: savor him, show him for what he's really like. So
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  Speaker 2: finally the question becomes, is there a common denominator that
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  Speaker 2: runs through all of those deeds, all those attitudes, all
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  Speaker 2: those words that turn them into god glorifying acts. How
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  Speaker 2: does everything I do become worship? How does everything I
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  Speaker 2: do become a display of God's greatness and beauty and worth?
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  Speaker 2: And the answer is given for example, there are other
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  Speaker 2: places Verse Peter four eleven. Let the one who serves
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  Speaker 2: serve in the strength that God supplies, so that in
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  Speaker 2: everything God may be glorified. So if everything you do
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  Speaker 2: is a service, then he says, let the service be
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  Speaker 2: by relying on the all sufficiency of God's grace in
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  Speaker 2: your life, so that when you accomplish what you just
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  Speaker 2: attempted to do, it's done in His strength, so that
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  Speaker 2: He gets the glory. You get the enablement and the
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  Speaker 2: power and the guidance and the strength, and He gets
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  Speaker 2: the glory. So when we joyfully rely on God in
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  Speaker 2: all that we do in the service of others, God
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  Speaker 2: looks glorious in our lives. Same thing in second Thessalonians
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  Speaker 2: one eleven. Let every work be a quote work of
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  Speaker 2: faith by God's power, so that the name of our
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  Speaker 2: Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. That's second Thessalonians
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  Speaker 2: one eleven and twelve, same point as first Peter four.
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  Speaker 2: We do what we do in glad reliance upon God
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  Speaker 2: for everything we need in order to love people. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, we live by faith in the promises of
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  Speaker 2: God in the service of love. So I would say
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  Speaker 2: build your life mission statement by thinking through this much
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  Speaker 2: before you get to the details of your own gifting
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  Speaker 2: and your own calling. God is infinitely glorious. God means
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  Speaker 2: to communicate that glory to his people, to see it,
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  Speaker 2: savor it, show it. He means for us to join
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  Speaker 2: him in that purpose that applies to absolutely everything we do,
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  Speaker 2: and we do it in humble reliance upon His grace
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  Speaker 2: and power which comes through Jesus Christ in the service
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  Speaker 2: of others that will make him look great. Then and
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  Speaker 2: when you have crafted an overarching mission statement built on
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  Speaker 2: those purposes of God, then you can make some short
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  Speaker 2: term mission statements. Say for a year, you're going to
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  Speaker 2: write a book, are you going to change jobs, or
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  Speaker 2: you're going to pursue marriage, or whatever some short term
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  Speaker 2: that then draws particularities up into that mission statement according
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  Speaker 2: to the season of your life.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, personal mission to appreciate God as a planner to
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  Speaker 1: rely on his grace and all that we do, so
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  Speaker 1: that through seeing, savoring, and showing His infinite glory to
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  Speaker 1: the world, I may delight in Him as I fulfill
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  Speaker 1: his ultimate purpose of being glorified in all things, and
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  Speaker 1: working that aim out in each season of my own life,
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  Speaker 1: trying to make that my life goal being God's goal.
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  Speaker 1: And speaking of daily habits, every Christian should make a
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  Speaker 1: daily devoted engagement with sure high priority reading the Bible, meditating, understanding,
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  Speaker 1: memorizing it. It's really a non negotiable habit because scripture
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  Speaker 1: is the means by which God saves us, sanctifies us,
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  Speaker 1: strengthens us, protects us, fills us with joy and peace,
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  Speaker 1: nourishes our spiritual life, equips us to overcome sin and
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  Speaker 1: satan at falsehood. All of those reminders from Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: are so good for us to fulfill our calling in
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  Speaker 1: this world. We need God's Word and we need it daily.
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  Speaker 1: Next time, how do we maximize our daily time in
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  Speaker 1: the Word so that it accomplishes all of those things
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  Speaker 1: in our lives? And with that resolution on our minds
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  Speaker 1: The Navigator's Bible Reading Plan. Download the pdf online, print
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  Speaker 1: it and join us in reading the Bible today. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. We'll see you back here on Monday.