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Overcoming Spiritual Laziness · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, how do we overcome half heartedness, spiritual laziness. That's
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  Speaker 1: the question today and on Thursday as well this whole week,
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  Speaker 1: And speaking of zeal for God, I should first mention
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  Speaker 1: again that this October we're celebrating the Reformation, Martin Luther's
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  Speaker 1: great stand against the pope and against Rome's spiritual abuses
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  Speaker 1: and theological errors. But Luther didn't stand alone. Other men
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  Speaker 1: stood for this very same cause both before and after him.
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  Speaker 1: People like John Wickliffe, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox,
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  Speaker 1: and John Calvin, and many other lesser known names paid
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate price in the Reformation, men and women, even teenagers,
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  Speaker 1: who stood against Rome and who were bled and burned
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  Speaker 1: and drowned for it. These stories of sacrifice are our
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  Speaker 1: focus in the month ahead, in a thirty one day
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  Speaker 1: tour you can complete in just five to seven minutes
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  Speaker 1: each day. It's called Here We Stand. You can subscribe
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  Speaker 1: to the email journey today by going to Desiring Good
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  Speaker 1: dot org forward slash stand, or just go to Desiring
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  Speaker 1: Good dot org and click on the link on the
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  Speaker 1: top of the way, and I hope you'll join us
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  Speaker 1: in remembering the price paid for the spiritual blessings and
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  Speaker 1: the religious liberties that we enjoy as Christians today. Speaking
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  Speaker 1: of church history, this Saturday marks Jonathan Edwards's birthday, his
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty first. To be exact, It's not
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  Speaker 1: a monumental year, but certainly a monumental man in your
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  Speaker 1: life and theology. Pastor John Edwards was a pastor and
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  Speaker 1: a theologian in New England during the first grade Awakening.
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  Speaker 1: His god entrance, theology and preaching became a powerful influence
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  Speaker 1: in your life over fifty years ago. And evidently that
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  Speaker 1: is still the case because you just this last spring
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  Speaker 1: you delivered a commencement address at Bethlehem College and Seminary,
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  Speaker 1: and there again you quoted Edwards as a key example
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  Speaker 1: of what you're trying to get across to those students
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  Speaker 1: in that message all about zeal zeal. Revisit that message
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  Speaker 1: for us here and tell us what Edwards teaches us
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  Speaker 1: about overcoming spiritual laziness.
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  Speaker 2: Ji Packer wrote a blurb in nineteen eighty for the
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  Speaker 2: cover of the first edition of the book Desiring God,
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  Speaker 2: and it said this Jonathan Edwards, whose ghost walks through
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  Speaker 2: most of Piper's pages, would be delighted with his disciple. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I really like that endorsement very much, But it's an
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  Speaker 2: open question to me whether Jonathan Edwards would be delighted
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  Speaker 2: with me as his disciple. But what's not an open
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  Speaker 2: question is that he walks like a ghost through all
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  Speaker 2: my pages. That's true. And in fact, the origin of
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  Speaker 2: that message that I gave at Bethline College and Seminary
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  Speaker 2: was not first from Edwards. I'll get to Edwards in
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  Speaker 2: just a minute, but here's where it came from. That
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  Speaker 2: message on zeal came from some morning meditation, maybe fifteen
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  Speaker 2: minutes of meditation on Romans twelve six to eight, where
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  Speaker 2: Paul says, having gifts that differ according to the grace
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  Speaker 2: given to us, let us use them. And then you
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  Speaker 2: list gifts and the last three go like this, the
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  Speaker 2: one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads in
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  Speaker 2: zeal the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
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  Speaker 2: And I read that, and I turned to my wife,
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  Speaker 2: who's sitting with me in the living room there, and
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  Speaker 2: I said, Noel, what's the common denominator between contributing generously,
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  Speaker 2: leading zealously, and showing mercy cheerfully. What's the basic point
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  Speaker 2: in saying, do what you do generously, do what you
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  Speaker 2: do zealously, do what you do cheerfully. And she said, well,
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  Speaker 2: you really want to do it. You're not being forced,
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  Speaker 2: you're not half hearted, You're all in. And I thought that, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's it. That's it. The transformed mind from verse one
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  Speaker 2: of chapter twelve not only deserns what is the will
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  Speaker 2: of God? What is good, acceptable, and perfect? It really
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  Speaker 2: wants to do the will of God. It's all in,
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent with the will of God. It's not
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  Speaker 2: a half hearted doing of the will of God. If
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  Speaker 2: God's will for you is to contribute, do it generously.
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  Speaker 2: If God's will for you is to lead zealously. If
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  Speaker 2: God's will for you is to do mercy, so mercy,
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  Speaker 2: do it cheerfully, not begrudgingly. So what Paul is getting
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  Speaker 2: at is that the renewed mind, the mind of Christ
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  Speaker 2: in Christians, this transformed mind is not only able to
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  Speaker 2: recognize what is the will of God, but also is
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  Speaker 2: inclined how to do it, how to go about the
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  Speaker 2: will of God. God's will is not simply that we
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  Speaker 2: do the right thing, but that we do it with
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  Speaker 2: all our heart, with all our soul, and all our might.
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  Speaker 2: That's the point of those verses. That's what got me
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  Speaker 2: thinking about Zeal. So it's not surprising then that the
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  Speaker 2: very next verse nine, verse nine in Romans twelve says,
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  Speaker 2: let your love be genuine abhor what is evil, In
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  Speaker 2: other words, really love and really hate. Don't let your
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  Speaker 2: love be half hearted and unreal, and don't let your
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  Speaker 2: recognition of evil simply be a mild disapproval. Abhorrence. It's
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  Speaker 2: a very strong words. The only place it's used in
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  Speaker 2: the New Testament. It's the way Zeal responds to evil abhorrence.
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  Speaker 2: And then, to make it crystal clear what he's so
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  Speaker 2: concerned about, one verse later, verse eleven, he says, do
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  Speaker 2: not be slothful in zeal same words up in verse eight,
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  Speaker 2: be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. So the great
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  Speaker 2: object of the lives of believers is the Lord. Serve
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. Seek to magnify the worth and the greatness
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  Speaker 2: and the beauty of the Lord in all that you do.
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  Speaker 2: But what burns in Paul's heart, as far as I
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  Speaker 2: can see, is that we serve the Lord in a
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  Speaker 2: certain way, namely, that we not be lethargic or slothful
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  Speaker 2: or lazy or half hearted, or sluggish or lukewarm in
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  Speaker 2: the way we serve the Lord, the way or the
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  Speaker 2: way we do everything. For that matter, So that phrase
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  Speaker 2: be fervent in spirit literally means boil, boil in the spirit.
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  Speaker 2: That in fact, the word fervent is the Latin word
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  Speaker 2: for boil, and Paul is saying you don't get a pass.
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  Speaker 2: If your personality is phlegmatic, that's the don't word. If
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  Speaker 2: you were born passive, this kind of a couch potato
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  Speaker 2: type person, you don't get a pass. This is not
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  Speaker 2: a comment on your personality. This is a command for
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  Speaker 2: all Christians. Whatever your personality, make it work for you.
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  Speaker 2: When you know the will of God and you resolve
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  Speaker 2: to do it, which is what Christians do, be all in,
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  Speaker 2: do it all the way, Do it with all your
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  Speaker 2: might and all your soul. Do it with zeal ardor fervency, eagerness.
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  Speaker 2: Pray that your spirit boil with zeal for the will
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  Speaker 2: of God and the glory of God. Now here we
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  Speaker 2: come edwards. Now after those, it was about fifteen minutes
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  Speaker 2: of meditation in Romans twelve, making notes in my little
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  Speaker 2: little journal that I keep beside my chair, I realized
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  Speaker 2: there's a ghost walking through my mind. He's really there. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's the Apostle Paul. Yes it's the Holy Spirit. There's
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  Speaker 2: another ghost, and his name is Jonathan Edwards, and he
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  Speaker 2: wrote seventy resolutions when he was nineteen. I read those
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  Speaker 2: resolutions decades ago, and only one of them could I
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  Speaker 2: quote verbatim to this day. Only one, because they's short,
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  Speaker 2: but it's also very important. Resolution number six resolved to
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  Speaker 2: live with all my might while I do live. Let
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  Speaker 2: me say it again, resolved to live with all my
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  Speaker 2: might while I do live. Every time I read that sentence,
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  Speaker 2: my heart rises up with zeal and says, yes, yes,
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  Speaker 2: Oh God, don't let me waste my life with lukewarm,
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  Speaker 2: half hearted efforts to do anything. Whatever your hand finds
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  Speaker 2: to do, do it with all your might. Ecclesiastes nine ten.
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  Speaker 2: I think that resolution is gimpy. It's just a paraphrase
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  Speaker 2: of Ecclesiastes nine ten or Colossians three twenty three. Whatever
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  Speaker 2: you do, work heartily from the soul as to the
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  Speaker 2: Lord and not to men. Unlest we think that this
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  Speaker 2: resolution to live with all my might while I do
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  Speaker 2: live was simply kind of an overstated nineteen year old
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  Speaker 2: expression of youthful energy. Seventeen years later, as a pastor
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  Speaker 2: in Northampton, Edwards preached a sermon entitled Zeal, an Essential
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  Speaker 2: Virtue of a Christian. I just reread it a few
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  Speaker 2: days ago, just to stoke my engine on this, and
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  Speaker 2: the text was tied us two fourteen. Christ gave himself
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  Speaker 2: for us to purify for himself a people who are
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  Speaker 2: zealous for good works. He didn't die simply to make
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  Speaker 2: us able to do good works. He died to make
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  Speaker 2: us passionate about doing good works. That's what it says,
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  Speaker 2: not half hearted. So in conclusion, the booster rocket that
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  Speaker 2: sends zeal for good works, in fact zeal for everything
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  Speaker 2: we do into orbit. This booster rocket is Christ died
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  Speaker 2: for this. He died for this. Christ gave himself on
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  Speaker 2: the cross to create a people with zeal, zeal for
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  Speaker 2: good works, zeal for the glory of the Lord. This
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  Speaker 2: is what pleases the Lord. He died for it. So
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  Speaker 2: I pray that all of us will on Jonathan Edwards
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  Speaker 2: and say, resolved to live with all my might while
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  Speaker 2: I do live.
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  Speaker 1: Think about john and speaking of living with all our
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  Speaker 1: might while we do live, be sure to check out
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  Speaker 1: the stories of men and women and teenagers who did
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  Speaker 1: this very thing in our series called Here We Stand.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe to the email journey right now by going to
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  Speaker 1: Desiring Good dot org forb slash stand, or just go
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  Speaker 1: to Desiring Good dot org and click on the link
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  Speaker 1: at the top of the website. We're back to look
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  Speaker 1: at zeal And our joy in God. Next time, I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. See you on Thursday.