Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Living with Gospel-Sized Ambition

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Living with Gospel-Sized Ambition · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Tomorrow, we come to a
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  Speaker 1: text in our Bible reading that should compel all of
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  Speaker 1: us to be driven by a gospel sized ambition in
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  Speaker 1: this life. The text is Acts twenty twenty four. We've
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  Speaker 1: already looked at it and this huge aspiration from a
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  Speaker 1: couple of different angles, as you can see in the
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  Speaker 1: APJA book on pages sixty ninety seventy in episodes looking
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  Speaker 1: specifically at following our heart and chasing out for ambitious
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  Speaker 1: careers in this world? How do we do big ambition
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  Speaker 1: well to glorify God in our aspirations? Those apjs again
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  Speaker 1: are digested in the book on pages sixty nine and seventy. Now,
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  Speaker 1: of course, Pastor John, this glorious text comes in Paul's
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  Speaker 1: final parting words to the beloved Fijian Elders in Acts
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  Speaker 1: twenty versus seventeen thirty eight, deeply moving account that we
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  Speaker 1: read together tomorrow in our Bible reading, and a text
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  Speaker 1: on the mind of a listener named Derek. Pastor John, Hello,
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  Speaker 1: I graduate from seminary the spring, and as I prepare
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  Speaker 1: for full time ministry, I want to better understand Paul's
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  Speaker 1: claim in Acts twenty twenty four. When he says, I
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  Speaker 1: do not account my life of any value nor as
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  Speaker 1: precious to myself, if only I may finish my course
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  Speaker 1: and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: For your life as a pastor, what do you take
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  Speaker 1: from this text? What did this Pauline conviction for the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel over your life look like and feel like for you?
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  Speaker 2: I love this text x Twenty twenty four, and it's
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons that I love the apostle Paul. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm happy to meditate on it again, as I
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  Speaker 2: have so often over the years. Way back when I
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  Speaker 2: wrote the book Don't Waste Your Life over twenty years ago,
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  Speaker 2: this text, among others, had taken hold of me and
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  Speaker 2: was driving my thinking, my feeling. In fact, when I
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  Speaker 2: preached on this text at a university some years ago,
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  Speaker 2: my summary statement of the text was better to lose
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  Speaker 2: your life than to waste it. I think that's exactly
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  Speaker 2: what Paul is saying in this verse, better to lose
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  Speaker 2: your life than to waste it. So only quote the
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  Speaker 2: text with the two preceding verses, and then try to
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  Speaker 2: answer the question more specifically about its impact on my ministry.
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  Speaker 2: And now behold, Paul says, and he's speaking to the
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  Speaker 2: Ephesian elders, as he says, farewell to them, never to
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  Speaker 2: see them again. And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 2: constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to
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  Speaker 2: me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me
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  Speaker 2: in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But
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  Speaker 2: I do not count my life. This is verse twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: Now I do not count my life of any value,
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  Speaker 2: nor as precious to myself. If only this is the
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  Speaker 2: one sense in which he does value his life, If
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  Speaker 2: only I may finish my course and the ministry that
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  Speaker 2: I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
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  Speaker 2: gospel of the grace of God, which I paraphrase, better
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  Speaker 2: to lose your life than to waste it. Now Derek
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  Speaker 2: is asking what I take from this text for the
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  Speaker 2: pastoral ministry, or more specifically, what did it look like
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  Speaker 2: or feel like for me to embrace this text in
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  Speaker 2: my ministry. First, I felt the poignancy of this text
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  Speaker 2: because it is among the last words Paul speaks to
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  Speaker 2: precious friends that he'll never see again in this life
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  Speaker 2: as far as he knows. At the end of the
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  Speaker 2: passage verse thirty seven, not twenty four, but thirty seven.
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  Speaker 2: At the end of the passage, it says there was
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  Speaker 2: much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul
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  Speaker 2: and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of
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  Speaker 2: the word he had spoken that they would not see
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  Speaker 2: his face again. So when I see a Christian pastor
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  Speaker 2: or missionary, or a father taking leave of his family,
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  Speaker 2: or taking leave of a church or a people for
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  Speaker 2: the last time, knowing they'll never see each other again
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  Speaker 2: in this life, I listen. I listen because I expect
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  Speaker 2: something profound and moving, something that tries to sum up
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  Speaker 2: what's been the point.
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  Speaker 1: Of it all.
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  Speaker 2: And I want to know what the point of it
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  Speaker 2: all is. I want to know what the point of
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  Speaker 2: life is, the point of ministry, the point of the universe,
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  Speaker 2: which is exactly what we get in this verse. That's
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  Speaker 2: the first thing. Second, I have felt, as I have
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  Speaker 2: returned to this text again and again, an urgent desire
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  Speaker 2: to renounce every distraction and follow Jesus and escape the
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  Speaker 2: materialistic forces of the American dream and the dangers of
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  Speaker 2: being rich, and the temptations of comfort and security, and
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  Speaker 2: the deadening effects of worldliness that strip a pastor of
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  Speaker 2: his power. I don't count my life of any value
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  Speaker 2: or as precious to myself, it says, accept for one thing,
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  Speaker 2: and it isn't prosperity or comfort, or ease or security
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  Speaker 2: in this world. I have been given a race to
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  Speaker 2: run and a ministry to perform. It's like a marathon.
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  Speaker 2: I'm on it. This is why I live. This is
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  Speaker 2: what my life means. Finish the race, fulfilled the ministry.
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  Speaker 2: Don't stop, don't leave the course, don't get sidetracked, don't
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  Speaker 2: go backward. If you do, your life will be wasted.
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  Speaker 2: Paul really believed Psalm sixty three, Verse three. The steadfast
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  Speaker 2: love of the Lord is better than life. There is
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  Speaker 2: a path of life that leads to the everlasting enjoyment
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  Speaker 2: of the steadfast love of God. Better to lose your
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  Speaker 2: life than to go off that path. That's Acts twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four. Third, this text has always felt like a
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  Speaker 2: miraculous work of the spirit, not an accomplishment. Verse twenty
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  Speaker 2: two says, Behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by
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  Speaker 2: the spirit, bound in the spirit Paul wasn't a self
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  Speaker 2: reliant hero. He was a walking miracle. If verse twenty
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  Speaker 2: four happens in your life, that's what it's like. It's
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  Speaker 2: the work of the spirit. It's a miracle. Four. This
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  Speaker 2: verse felt in my ministry like the thrill and the
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  Speaker 2: test of not knowing what the future would bring. Verse
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  Speaker 2: twenty two. I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the spirit,
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  Speaker 2: not knowing what will happen to me there. If you
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  Speaker 2: have to know enough about tomorrow to feel safe in
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  Speaker 2: this world, you're going to waste your life. Five Acts
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four felt like it was a call to
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  Speaker 2: suffer verse twenty three, except that the Holy Spirit testifies
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  Speaker 2: to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
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  Speaker 2: God has said that to all of us, not just Paul.
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  Speaker 2: He says to all of us, through many afflictions, you
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  Speaker 2: must enter the kingdom Act fourteen. And if you would
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  Speaker 2: live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted.
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  Speaker 2: And he who would follow me, Jesus said, must deny
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  Speaker 2: himself and take up his cross, the instrument of death.
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  Speaker 2: The single minded devotion to the call of Jesus is
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  Speaker 2: an expectation of suffering. And finally, number six, I'll mention
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  Speaker 2: that now, at age seventy nine, this verse burns in
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  Speaker 2: my heart with the desire not to waste my final years,
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  Speaker 2: not to waste them with the worldly notion that the
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  Speaker 2: last years of our lives on earth are for leisure
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  Speaker 2: and not ministry. Come on, Paul, you're getting old. How
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  Speaker 2: about a little cottage on the aeg andc You've already
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  Speaker 2: done more in your ministry, Paul than most people do
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  Speaker 2: in five lifetimes. It's time to rest, Paul. Let the
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  Speaker 2: last twenty years of your life be for travel and
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  Speaker 2: golf and shuffle board and pickleball and puttsing around in
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  Speaker 2: the garage and digging in the garden. Paul, let Timothy
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  Speaker 2: have a chance, for goodness sake. He's young. You don't
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  Speaker 2: have to go to Jerusalem. They're gonna bind your hands
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  Speaker 2: and feet, hand you over to the Gentiles. You're an
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  Speaker 2: old man. Get out of your head. That crazy notion
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  Speaker 2: of going to Spain at your age. You're gonna get
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  Speaker 2: yourself killed. It is an American. It's not what you're
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  Speaker 2: supposed to do. So I love this verse. I love it.
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  Speaker 2: I do not count my life of any value or
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  Speaker 2: as precious to myself, if only I may finish my
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  Speaker 2: course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: What a text and what a takeaway. It's better to
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  Speaker 1: lose your life than to waste it. In Amen, and
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  Speaker 1: you can see that book. Don't waste your life. It's
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  Speaker 1: an essential book, essential reading from Pastor John. And keep
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  Speaker 1: all of this in mind that we talked about as
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  Speaker 1: you read Acts twenty twenty four tomorrow, as you think
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  Speaker 1: of a gospel sized ambition for your own life. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John. Thanks for joining us today. Have a question
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  Speaker 1: to ask Pastor John. Find a link to email us
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  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archive at askpastor John dot com. Well,
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  Speaker 1: as we read for ourselves in the Bible, baptism saves us.
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  Speaker 1: So why does the Bible say baptism saves us. It's
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  Speaker 1: a great question that we must address, and we will
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  Speaker 1: next time. I'm Tony Ranky. See on Thursday.