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Help Me Live a Genuine Life · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Authenticity is the theme of the week. Here on the
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  Speaker 1: podcast Monday, we heard from Mark, who struggled to reconcile
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  Speaker 1: how Jesus' life and death could have been fully scripted
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  Speaker 1: out by God, fully acted out by Christ, and all
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  Speaker 1: be authentically lived out by Christ too. A really interesting
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  Speaker 1: discussion we had to start the week. But today we
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  Speaker 1: look at our own authentic living authentically with our affections.
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  Speaker 1: It's a topic on the table today because we read
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  Speaker 1: Romans Chapter twelve, verses nine to thirteen together today. Here's
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  Speaker 1: the question it inspired in a young man twenty three
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  Speaker 1: year old listener named Francisco who lives in Mexico City.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, Hello to you. I desperately want to be
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  Speaker 1: the type of man who exhibits Romans twelve, verses nine
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  Speaker 1: to thirteen in his life. Let love be genuine, abhor
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  Speaker 1: what is evil, both fast to what is good. Love
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  Speaker 1: one another with a brotherly affection. Now do one another
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  Speaker 1: and showing honor. Do not be slothful and z but
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  Speaker 1: fervent and spirit serve the Lord, Rejoice and hope, be
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  Speaker 1: patient and tribulation, Be constant in prayer, contribute to the
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  Speaker 1: needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality. I
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  Speaker 1: have sought to make this the mantra of my life
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  Speaker 1: for the next year. There's a lot here to digest
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  Speaker 1: as you read this text. What stands out to you?
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  Speaker 1: Are there any keys in here that you would see
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  Speaker 1: to help me live out such a godly life, not
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  Speaker 1: from duty, but from a genuine affection inside of me?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, there are some things in this text that
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  Speaker 2: I think are going to be very helpful. At least
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  Speaker 2: they help me. I think they are designed by God
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  Speaker 2: to help all of us live the Christian life. And
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  Speaker 2: I love this question Francisco and greetings to Mexico City.
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  Speaker 2: I love this question because it gives me a chance
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  Speaker 2: to say some things about living the Christian life which
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  Speaker 2: I think are broadly relevant to virtually everybody, not just you.
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  Speaker 2: In this text, the list of thirteen come outs in
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  Speaker 2: Romans twelve nine to thirteen, thirteen short little commands presents
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  Speaker 2: us with the very common question how to go about
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  Speaker 2: obeying commands thirteen commands in a Christian way, Christian way
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  Speaker 2: not to earn salvation and not to fall into lawlessness,
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  Speaker 2: and say, oh, commands don't matter, It's all grace. You
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  Speaker 2: don't need to do anything between those two mistakes, there's
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  Speaker 2: a way to live the Christian life. So that's what
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  Speaker 2: I want to think about. From Romans twelve, the first
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  Speaker 2: thing I notice is that six of these thirteen commands
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  Speaker 2: are directed straight to the affections, the emotions, feelings, the heart,
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  Speaker 2: not to bodily action. First, don't do something rather straight
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  Speaker 2: to your heart. Let love be genuine, abhorre what is evil.
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  Speaker 2: Love with brotherly affection. Do not be slowful in zeal,
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  Speaker 2: be fervent in spirit, Rejoice in hope, and the other
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  Speaker 2: seven are really specific ways to love. And Verse eight,
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  Speaker 2: the verse just before this paragraph says that such merciful
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  Speaker 2: service all these seven ways of loving are to be
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  Speaker 2: done with cheerfulness. Let the one who does acts of
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  Speaker 2: mercy do them with cheerfulness, which is an affection and emotion.
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  Speaker 2: So in effect, all these commands, every one of them,
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  Speaker 2: involve the heart, the affections, the desires. Paul is not
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  Speaker 2: commanding outward behavior that comes from a wrong kind of heart,
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  Speaker 2: is not interested in that. That's why that first word,
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  Speaker 2: let love be genuine. And really the word is on hypocrtus,
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  Speaker 2: and you can even hear in English n hupocrtos not hypocritical.
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  Speaker 2: Let love not be hypocritical. I hate sham love. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, I don't lake outward behavior that looks Christian,
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  Speaker 2: that's not coming from a new heart. He doesn't. He
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  Speaker 2: never says just serve, but rejoice to serve. He doesn't
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  Speaker 2: say just avoid evil. He says abhor evil. He doesn't
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  Speaker 2: say just know about hopeful promises. He says, rejoice in hope.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't just say to Christians that they should love others.
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  Speaker 2: He says love with brotherly affection. He said just stunning
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  Speaker 2: commands straight to our emotions. Our affections are heart. One
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  Speaker 2: reason it's crucial to see the necessity of changed feelings
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  Speaker 2: is that it confronts us with the impossibility of doing
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  Speaker 2: this without God's supernatural power. That's one of the points
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  Speaker 2: you can put on a show at church. Right. You
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  Speaker 2: can make your self smile, you can make yourself seen,
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  Speaker 2: you can make yourself do stuff. But you cannot make
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  Speaker 2: yourself abhor what you don't abhor, or love what you
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  Speaker 2: don't love, or rejoice in what you don't rejoice, and
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  Speaker 2: you can't do it. And so these commands confront us
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  Speaker 2: with the impossibility of doing them without God's supernatural help.
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  Speaker 2: By commanding our emotions, Paul is signaling that we must
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  Speaker 2: have a profound change from the inside out. So the
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  Speaker 2: way to pursue obedience to these commands, Francisco is indirectly.
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  Speaker 2: We have to pursue a new heart, a new set
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  Speaker 2: of desires, and new constellation of preferences. That's the work
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  Speaker 2: of God through his word by the spirit, which then
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  Speaker 2: takes us back to the beginning of the chapter, because
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  Speaker 2: Paul knows what he's going to do here, and he's
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  Speaker 2: helping us prepare our lives to do it. So Chapter twelve,
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  Speaker 2: at the beginning, starts like this, I appeal to you therefore,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll come back to that. Therefore, brothers, by the
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  Speaker 2: mercies of God, appealing to you in all these commands,
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  Speaker 2: by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as
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  Speaker 2: a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God, which is
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  Speaker 2: your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world,
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  Speaker 2: but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that
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  Speaker 2: you approve, so that you approve what is the will
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  Speaker 2: of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. And that
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  Speaker 2: word approved docimadzo means more than test and desern That's
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  Speaker 2: why it's translated in the ESV. It means more than
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  Speaker 2: trans a test and desern. It means test and desern
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  Speaker 2: and approve. It's not just a mental calculation, it's a
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  Speaker 2: heart evaluation. Paul is saying, be transformed with a renewed mind,
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  Speaker 2: such that your mind and heart assess, evaluate, prioritize, feel
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  Speaker 2: things differently, approve of different things than the world does.
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  Speaker 2: Don't be conformed to this age. Be deeply changed, have
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  Speaker 2: new preferences, approve and disapprove of different things than the
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  Speaker 2: world does in which you once did. And then Verse
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  Speaker 2: one gives the key to how that happens. I appeal
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  Speaker 2: to you, Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, don't
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  Speaker 2: be conformed to the world. Be transformed. That is, be
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  Speaker 2: so amazed and humbled and happy and empowered by the
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  Speaker 2: unspeakable mercies of God toward you in your unworthiness. Be
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  Speaker 2: so amazed, so humbled, so happy, so empowered, that you
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  Speaker 2: are transformed with a mind and heart that have new affections,
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  Speaker 2: new desires, new preferences, new approvings and disapprovings. And then
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  Speaker 2: we notice the therefore, so that the whole chapter twelve thirteen,
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  Speaker 2: fourteen fifteen begin with therefore meaning on the basis of
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  Speaker 2: chapters one to eleven. Therefore, at the beginning of this verse,
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  Speaker 2: I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.
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  Speaker 2: That word therefore signals that Paul is saying to us
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  Speaker 2: as we consider his several dozen commands in chapter twelve,
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  Speaker 2: go back now. Go back now and review eleven chapters
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  Speaker 2: of God's stunning mercies to you. Go back review God's
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  Speaker 2: stunning mercies to you. Why does he make that connection,
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  Speaker 2: Because the way we are transformed is by seeing the
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  Speaker 2: greatness of the glory of the mercies of God toward
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  Speaker 2: us in our hopeless, sinful condition. Right chapter six, our
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  Speaker 2: old self was crucified with him in order that the
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  Speaker 2: body of sin might be brought to nothing. It's the
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  Speaker 2: truth of what happened to us in Christ that does
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  Speaker 2: away with our old affections of sin. Or verse fourteen
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  Speaker 2: in chapter six, sin will have no dominion over you.
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  Speaker 2: That means Chapter twelve is gonna come true for you,
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  Speaker 2: since you are not under law but under grace. You're
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  Speaker 2: under these mercies of God that are laid out in
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  Speaker 2: chapters one to eleven or chapter eight, verse three. By
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  Speaker 2: sinning his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
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  Speaker 2: and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in
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  Speaker 2: order that the righteous requirement of the law might be
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  Speaker 2: fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh,
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  Speaker 2: but according to the spirit. So when Paul says in
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  Speaker 2: Chapter twelve, Verse twelve, rejoice in hope, he's referring to
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  Speaker 2: what he's referring to, the Great Eight, the Great Romans eight.
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  Speaker 2: He who did not spare his own son, but gave
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  Speaker 2: him up for us all. How will he not with
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  Speaker 2: him graciously give us all things. Who will bring any
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  Speaker 2: charge against God delect It is God who justifies, who
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  Speaker 2: is to condemn. Christ is the one who died. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, nobody can separate us from the love of
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  Speaker 2: Christ or the love of God. So these chapters one
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  Speaker 2: to eleven, these are the mercies of Romans twelve to one.
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  Speaker 2: I appeal to you there, for brothers, by the mercies
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  Speaker 2: of God, be transformed before you try to put on
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  Speaker 2: a show of outward godliness. This is the transforming power
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  Speaker 2: of the mercies of God. They take away fear, they
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  Speaker 2: take away craving greed for the world, They take away
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  Speaker 2: craving for revenge. They make us deeply confident and happy
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  Speaker 2: in the care of God, and that changes everything, so
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  Speaker 2: that the thirteen commands of Romans twelve nine to thirteen
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  Speaker 2: describe who we are, not who we ought to be,
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  Speaker 2: but really who we have become in the mercies of God,
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  Speaker 2: as we die with Christ and rise with Christ and
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  Speaker 2: in dwelt by the spirit, become what you are is
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  Speaker 2: what Paul says several times in his letters, and Tewod
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  Speaker 2: Corinthians three eighteen puts it like this, beholding the glory
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  Speaker 2: of the Lord, that is, in this case, the glory
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  Speaker 2: of these precious mercies. Beholding the mercies. We are being
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  Speaker 2: transformed from one degree of glory to another. So Francisco,
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  Speaker 2: the key to obeying these commands in Romans twelve is
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  Speaker 2: to come at them indirectly through the doorway of Romans
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  Speaker 2: twelve one and two and all the glorious mercies of
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  Speaker 2: God in chapters one to eleven. Immerse yourself in these.
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  Speaker 2: Let these be your treasure. God will transform you into
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  Speaker 2: the kind person that can gladly obey these verses in
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  Speaker 2: chapter twelve. From your heart, think best. John.
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  Speaker 1: It's always great to hear you talk about Romes eight
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  Speaker 1: thirty two. He who did not spare his own sign,
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  Speaker 1: but gave him up for us all, how will he
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  Speaker 1: not also with him graciously give us all things. Romes
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  Speaker 1: eight thirty two is absolutely precious to us on the podcast.
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  Speaker 1: It's now appeared in fifty episodes. This is episode number fifty,
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  Speaker 1: which is that text has appeared, a text that Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John has called the most prominent promise in my heart
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps my favorite verse in all of the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Big Claims. And see more about this text see the
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  Speaker 1: Ask Pastor John book on page forty four, and then
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  Speaker 1: see how Pastor John applies Romans eight thirty two to
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  Speaker 1: the hardest seasons of personal suffering on pages two sixty
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  Speaker 1: five to sixty six three ninety four oh three Pastoral
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  Speaker 1: Masterclass on applying a Precious Promise to all of We're
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  Speaker 1: not doing Bible trivia here, as Pestor John is not
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  Speaker 1: about Bible trivia. These are texts for life and speaking
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  Speaker 1: of beautiful promises from God for life. We start next
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  Speaker 1: week looking at this seven promises God has used to
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  Speaker 1: keep John Piper from drifting away. I'm Tony Ranky, see
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  Speaker 1: you on Monday.