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The Gift Trap · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Well, Merry Christmas. It's a beautiful day when we think
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  Speaker 1: about getting and giving gifts in light of receiving the
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  Speaker 1: greatest gift in the universe in the person of our savior,
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. He really is the most precious gift
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  Speaker 1: that we have. And yet God has purposed to give
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  Speaker 1: us a lot of other gifts. And the problem, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is that we can base the experience of our lives
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  Speaker 1: on the gifts that we get or the gifts that
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  Speaker 1: we didn't get. So I'm not just talking about Christmas Day.
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  Speaker 1: I mean we can begin to think of our lives
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  Speaker 1: in terms of the roller coaster of life circumstances based
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  Speaker 1: on what we get or don't get. And if you're
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  Speaker 1: like me, we are hardwired to root our own happiness
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  Speaker 1: in life's circumstances. Happiest when things are going well, saddest
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  Speaker 1: when things are not. That's true of us, I think
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  Speaker 1: when we are four years old, twenty four years old,
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  Speaker 1: seventy four years old, than fourteen years old. Here's an
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  Speaker 1: email from a listener named Tessa, a fourteen year old
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  Speaker 1: listener to the podcast who wrote this quote. Dear Pastor John, Hello,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for this podcast and for the
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  Speaker 1: ministry of desiring God. All of it has been a
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  Speaker 1: huge blessing in my life. Recently, I have been feeling
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  Speaker 1: more and more that my happiness depends on the circumstances
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  Speaker 1: around me. Will you please offer me biblical guidance on
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  Speaker 1: how it can root my joy in Jesus instead.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I feel so thankful for this from a fourteen
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  Speaker 2: year old. Yeah, when I think back on the things
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  Speaker 2: that I struggled with when I was fourteen, I don't
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  Speaker 2: think I posed the question the way I should have.
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  Speaker 2: So let me just encourage you that your very way
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  Speaker 2: of asking this question is a sign of significant growing
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  Speaker 2: spiritual life and maturity for your age especially. So take heart.
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  Speaker 2: From where I sit, it looks to me like God
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  Speaker 2: is at work in your life, and that is always
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  Speaker 2: a wonderful miracle. Before I give you some suggestions from
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  Speaker 2: the Bible for how you can shift your circumstance dependent
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  Speaker 2: happiness on to Jesus dependent happiness, let me also say
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  Speaker 2: that this battle that you feel right now, you will
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  Speaker 2: be fighting sixty years from now, if you're still alive
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  Speaker 2: and Jesus hasn't come back. I have to address this
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  Speaker 2: issue of where my joy is rooted every day, every
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  Speaker 2: morning in battle against the devil in the world and
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  Speaker 2: the flesh, rather than letting the old nature that the
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  Speaker 2: Bible calls the flesh lure me away from Jesus to
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  Speaker 2: earthly things as more valuable. Every stage in life has
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  Speaker 2: its youth unique allurements away from Jesus dependent happiness to
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  Speaker 2: world dependent happiness. It does, so you're gonna have to
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  Speaker 2: fight this all the way to the end. So it's
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  Speaker 2: good to get a good start now and learn your
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  Speaker 2: battle strategies. So let me make four suggestions for how
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  Speaker 2: to root your joy in Jesus and not in circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: Number one, get to know God's purpose for the troubles
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  Speaker 2: in your life. God is much more committed to building
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  Speaker 2: godly joy happiness into his children than we are committed
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  Speaker 2: to finding it, and one of his ways of doing
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  Speaker 2: this is by seeing to it that we walk through
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  Speaker 2: enough trouble to make us give up on finding our
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  Speaker 2: joy in a trouble free life. Get to know the
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  Speaker 2: passages in the Bible that teach this. For example, Romans
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  Speaker 2: five to three, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
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  Speaker 2: suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
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  Speaker 2: and hope does not put us to shame because God's
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  Speaker 2: love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
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  Speaker 2: Spirit who's been given to us. In other words, the
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  Speaker 2: joy of hope is intensified when our faith endures through
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  Speaker 2: trouble or tewod Corinthian Chapter one, verse eight pulses we
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  Speaker 2: were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired
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  Speaker 2: of life itself. But that was to make us This
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  Speaker 2: was God's purpose. In other words, that was to make
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  Speaker 2: us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises
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  Speaker 2: the dead. In other words, the joy of complete reliance
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  Speaker 2: upon Jesus is God's purpose when he brings us to
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  Speaker 2: the very brink of death. So suggestion number one, get
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  Speaker 2: to know this biblical teaching for the rest of your life.
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  Speaker 2: It will serve you very well. Number two, it's a
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  Speaker 2: little unusual. Think it through with me. I suggest that
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  Speaker 2: you take all the natural pleasures that God gives you
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  Speaker 2: which are not sinful, and make the conscious effort to
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  Speaker 2: see and to savor or taste God himself in and
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  Speaker 2: behind those pleasures. In other words, the best way to
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  Speaker 2: keep a God given pleasure from becoming your God is
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  Speaker 2: to push into the pleasure and through the pleasure to
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  Speaker 2: the giver of the pleasure, who is trying to show
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  Speaker 2: you something about himself and how satisfying he is. So,
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  Speaker 2: for example, the Bible says that God's word is sweeter
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  Speaker 2: than honey, and the Bible says that Jesus is the
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  Speaker 2: light of the world, and the Bible says that he's
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  Speaker 2: like living water. So when you taste anything that is
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  Speaker 2: really delicious, or when you pass out of a scary
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  Speaker 2: darkness into some beautiful light and brightness, or when you really,
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  Speaker 2: really really are thirsty and you drink your glass of
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  Speaker 2: cold water, at every one of those points, say to
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  Speaker 2: yourself that Jesus is sweeter than honey, and he wants
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  Speaker 2: me to taste him in the gift of honey. Say
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  Speaker 2: to yourself that Jesus is brighter than this beautiful light,
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  Speaker 2: and he wants me to enjoy him in this brightness.
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  Speaker 2: And say to yourself that Jesus is more satisfying than
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  Speaker 2: this great, thirst quenching water, and he wants me to
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  Speaker 2: be satisfied in him like I feel right now with
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  Speaker 2: this water, only better. In other words, form the habit
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  Speaker 2: of finding God everywhere that there is goodness in this world.
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  Speaker 2: This will keep you from treating the goodness as God,
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  Speaker 2: and it will keep you from scorning the goodness of
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  Speaker 2: God by rejecting the gifts. All God's good gifts are
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  Speaker 2: meant not for idolatry. They are meant to give us
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  Speaker 2: a taste of the one who created them and show
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  Speaker 2: us something of himself. And I find it helpful to
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  Speaker 2: add this, since I'm a sinner and deserve nothing from
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  Speaker 2: God but judgment. Therefore, every good thing that comes to
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  Speaker 2: me as a child of God was purchased for me
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  Speaker 2: by the blood of Jesus, without which I would only
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  Speaker 2: be condemned. I would base all that on Romans A
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  Speaker 2: thirty two. Therefore, every good thing not only points me
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  Speaker 2: to the goodness of the giver, but it points me
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  Speaker 2: to the infinite price that was paid by Jesus so
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  Speaker 2: that I could have the gift and the giver. This
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  Speaker 2: helps me love Him as I ought. I hope it
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  Speaker 2: does you too. Number three, make your Bible reading every
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  Speaker 2: day very personal. Don't just think about learning how to
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  Speaker 2: live from guidelines in the Bible, which are important, but
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  Speaker 2: every day think about what you can know of Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: the Son of God, and God the Father, and God
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  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit. What you can know about them as persons.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, read the Bible to get to know
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  Speaker 2: the person of God. Always think I love a person,
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  Speaker 2: I love a person. God is admirable. God is strong,
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  Speaker 2: God is God is kind, God is patient, God is just,
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  Speaker 2: God is merciful. And as you see these traits in God,
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  Speaker 2: love him because of them. Find the person himself to
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  Speaker 2: be your treasure. Make Bible reading personal. And finally, number four,
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  Speaker 2: even though you're only fourteen, keep death regularly in your mind,
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  Speaker 2: not all the time, just regularly return to the thought
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to die. And the point of this
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  Speaker 2: is not to make you scared. It's not to make
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  Speaker 2: you sad, it's not to make you morose, just the opposite.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody is going to die unless Jesus comes back first.
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  Speaker 2: Might happen when you're fifteen, might happen when you're ninety five,
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  Speaker 2: but it is going to happen. And when that time comes,
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  Speaker 2: everything but Jesus will lose its comforting power. All our possessions,
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  Speaker 2: all our accomplishments, all our personal looks and intellect, all
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  Speaker 2: our family and friends, all of them will fail as
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  Speaker 2: a foundation for hope and joy in our dying. But
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  Speaker 2: if you know Jesus personally, the day of your death
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  Speaker 2: will not be a day of just leaving things behind
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  Speaker 2: that you're familiar with, but it will be a day
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  Speaker 2: of stepping into the presence of the one that we
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  Speaker 2: care about most. So thank you for asking such a
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  Speaker 2: very good question at age fourteen. I'm really excited about
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  Speaker 2: what God is going to do in your life between
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  Speaker 2: now and when you're twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Amen, God is more committed to building godly joy
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  Speaker 1: and happiness into his children than we are committed to
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  Speaker 1: finding it. Wow. So make it a habit to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: God's good gifts in such a way that you see
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  Speaker 1: through them to God himself, tasting his sweetness in the honey,
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  Speaker 1: his brightness in the light, his satisfaction in the water,
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  Speaker 1: so that pleasures don't become idols, but instead become windows
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  Speaker 1: to the generosity of the giver. Such a practice not
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  Speaker 1: only guards us against idolatry and ingratitude, but it deepens
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  Speaker 1: our love for Christ, who purchased every good gift and
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  Speaker 1: your ability to enjoy it through his blood, reminding us
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  Speaker 1: that every pleasure is both a taste of God and
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  Speaker 1: a testimony to His kindness to us. That is a
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  Speaker 1: wonderful reminder on this Christmas Day. I'm Tony RANKI have
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  Speaker 1: a great christ centered day in the rest of the week,
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  Speaker 1: and I will see you back here on Monday. See then,