Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Your Bible-Reading Feedback, and How to Help Us in 2025

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Your Bible-Reading Feedback, and How to Help Us in 2025 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Good morning, good Saturday morning to you for the special
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  Speaker 1: episode of APJ in this last weekend of twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: four hard to believe. Thank you for inviting Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: and myself into your life for another year, a monumental
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  Speaker 1: year for us. We reached three hundred million episode plays
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  Speaker 1: all time in mid October. You might remember us celebrating
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  Speaker 1: that benchmarket to a mind bending number three hundred million
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  Speaker 1: episode plays crazy And as we close out the year
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  Speaker 1: and look forward to twenty twenty five, we have a
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  Speaker 1: word from Pastor John today in this special APJA episode.
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  Speaker 1: But before we hear from him, a big thank you
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  Speaker 1: to you from me for the one hundred or so
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  Speaker 1: emails that you sent me recently about your experiences this
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  Speaker 1: year using the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan. Of course, we
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  Speaker 1: introduced the plan into our APGA programming about a year
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  Speaker 1: ago in twenty twenty four, when we started as a
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  Speaker 1: way to encourage you in daily reading the Bible for
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  Speaker 1: yourself through a structure of the balances readings from the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament, the New Testament, Wisdom Literature for readings per
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  Speaker 1: day to read the whole Bible in one year. It
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  Speaker 1: was also a schedule that I used as a wireframe
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  Speaker 1: to sort of organize your many great Bible questions to
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John. I just slotted your questions into the programming
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  Speaker 1: schedule as they came up in our readings, which I
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  Speaker 1: thought worked beautifully. Your feedback was confirming to me, so
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  Speaker 1: thank you. It was also encouraging to me. Seventy three
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  Speaker 1: percent of you express gratitude and requested that we reuse
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  Speaker 1: the same plan in twenty twenty five. So that's exactly
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  Speaker 1: what we're going to do. We're going to use the
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  Speaker 1: Navigator's Bible Reading Plan again in twenty twenty five for
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  Speaker 1: the same purposes that I just explained. Many of you
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  Speaker 1: wrote in to say that you appreciated the structure's balance
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  Speaker 1: in the inclusion of grace days, which alleviated the pressure
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  Speaker 1: along the way. Paul wrote to say this plan has
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  Speaker 1: been the push I needed to get back into a
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  Speaker 1: daily routine with scripture. It's manageable and refreshing. Mandy appreciated
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  Speaker 1: that flexibility I just mentioned, saying, quote, the grace days
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the month are so helpful. They
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  Speaker 1: take the pressure off without losing the flow of the readings.
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  Speaker 1: Very cool. The plan's daily variety helped many of you
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  Speaker 1: deep in your understanding of scripture. Bethany noted that reading
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  Speaker 1: different sections each day helped me see themes and connections
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  Speaker 1: across the Old Testament and New Testaments that I'd never
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  Speaker 1: noticed before. Rachel said, I'm seeing connections I missed before,
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  Speaker 1: like how themes in the Psalm sometimes mirror those in
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament. This plan's helping me put it all
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  Speaker 1: together and appreciate the whole Bible. That's wonderful to hear.
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  Speaker 1: The community aspect here is also important, you said. Jennifer said,
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  Speaker 1: it's encouraging to know others are doing this with me.
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  Speaker 1: It keeps me accountable, and it keeps me motivated. And
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  Speaker 1: by far, to me, my favorite emails have come from
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  Speaker 1: many of you who have never read the entire Bible
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  Speaker 1: in one year, but who did so for the very
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  Speaker 1: first time in twenty two twenty four. Because we walked
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  Speaker 1: alongside you and he knew that you were part of
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  Speaker 1: a community that was doing it. It was incredible to hear.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing those stories of reading the Bible
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  Speaker 1: for the first time in twenty twenty four. Now, of course,
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  Speaker 1: the other twenty seven percent of you, for you that
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  Speaker 1: the plan doesn't exactly suit your style, and that's understandable.
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  Speaker 1: Several of you prefer a chronological reading plan, you told me,
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  Speaker 1: like Rick, who said, I prefer a chronological plan to
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  Speaker 1: see Biblical history unfold. Jumping around daily isn't my style.
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  Speaker 1: Others preferred studying one book at a time, feeling that
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  Speaker 1: the Navigator structure was just too disjointed. Anna wrote, I
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  Speaker 1: like focusing on one book at a time to really
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  Speaker 1: absorb it, so Navigators felt too scattered for me. Additionally,
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  Speaker 1: some of you found the pace was just too quick
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  Speaker 1: for your reflective Bible study preferences, which is totally understandable.
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  Speaker 1: I get that. Jill said I prefer to read slowly
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  Speaker 1: and meditated in smaller passages. The multiple chapters daily feels overwhelming.
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  Speaker 1: The same sentiment from Steve, who enjoys using Bible commentaries
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  Speaker 1: while he reads, and who noted that the Navigator's pace
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  Speaker 1: simply didn't allow enough time for him for in depth
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  Speaker 1: of research and study. But all in all, the reading
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  Speaker 1: plan worked well enough to use again at twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: so print out a fresh reading list, which you can
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  Speaker 1: find online to search for Navigator's Bible Reading Plan pdf
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  Speaker 1: Navigator's Bible Reading Plan PDF. It's a two page reading list,
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  Speaker 1: so you can print it out. There's no obligation, of course,
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  Speaker 1: you can listen and get a lot of value from
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  Speaker 1: ABJA episodes in twenty twenty five even if you don't
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  Speaker 1: follow the Bible Reading Plan with us. So, first off,
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to say thank you for all those emails.
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  Speaker 1: Is very helpful for me to hear from you. And secondly,
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  Speaker 1: I'm here today with an update for you as we
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  Speaker 1: plan and prepare our ministry operations in the new year
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  Speaker 1: ahead twenty twenty five begins in just a few days,
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  Speaker 1: and as we change out the calendar, we're dreaming of
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  Speaker 1: what we can do next as we expand our ministry
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  Speaker 1: labors across the globe. And with that, here's Pastor John.
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  Speaker 2: In Philippians, chapter two, verse twenty seven, the apostle Paul
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  Speaker 2: says something amazing about his friend Epaphroditis. He was ill
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  Speaker 2: and near to death, and it says, but God had
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  Speaker 2: mercy on him, and not on him only, but on
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  Speaker 2: me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Even
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  Speaker 2: though Paul said in the previous chapter to die is gain, well,
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  Speaker 2: if to die is gain Why is it a mercy
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  Speaker 2: to be kept alive? That's the key question, and surely
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  Speaker 2: the answer is Epaphroditis gets another day to magnify Christ
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  Speaker 2: in his body, and Paul gets another day to be
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  Speaker 2: loved by a precious friend. And that's what I feel
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  Speaker 2: here at the end of the year, at my age.
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  Speaker 2: To be alive and to be loved by so many
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  Speaker 2: people who support desiring God to magnify Christ in our bodies,
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  Speaker 2: another day on earth is a very precious mersey. It's
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  Speaker 2: compounded by the fact that I get to do my
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  Speaker 2: favorite thing here at Desiring God. I studied the Bible.
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  Speaker 2: I apply it to people's lives. I do look at
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  Speaker 2: the book and ask Pastor John, look, the book has done.
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  Speaker 2: All the letters of Paul are done except Romans. So
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  Speaker 2: you can pray with me about Romans. And Tony and
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  Speaker 2: I have been doing as Pastor John for over ten years,
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  Speaker 2: two thousand episodes, three hundred million plays. A privilege to
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  Speaker 2: be a part of this ministry and looking at the
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  Speaker 2: Bible over and over again, day after day. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: not the only one right. Our team has produced what
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  Speaker 2: five hundred and seventy resources ten million views this year
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  Speaker 2: for the team. I love being a part of the
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  Speaker 2: team production at Desiring God. And maybe even deeper than
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  Speaker 2: that is my happiness by satisfaction in the global mindset
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  Speaker 2: that all the teams here have. We want to be
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  Speaker 2: a means of resourcing places that don't have as many
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  Speaker 2: resources as we do. I think we have eight hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty completed translation projects that we are done, one
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  Speaker 2: hundred more in process. So the implication is that we
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  Speaker 2: need to make this available, and we do make it available,
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  Speaker 2: and we've made it available for thirty years without any
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  Speaker 2: cost to the people that use our resources. We don't
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  Speaker 2: sell anything, we don't charge anything. It is all free
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  Speaker 2: to people all around the world. And I just want
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  Speaker 2: to say thank you to those of you who've made
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  Speaker 2: that possible. And if you are a beneficiary of Desiring God,
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  Speaker 2: if you love our message, God is most glorified in
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: us when we are most satisfied in Him. Would you
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  Speaker 2: consider becoming a monthly support order, a monthly partner of
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  Speaker 2: our ministry. That would mean a great deal to me,
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  Speaker 2: to us in general. And I thank you so much
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  Speaker 2: for considering it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Amen, thank you for considering it. The bulk of
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  Speaker 1: our financial support comes directly from grateful friends like you
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  Speaker 1: who give monthly to our ministry. To show thanks and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to invest in our future work, consider giving just ten
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  Speaker 1: dollars a month. That ten dollars a month adds up
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to help support everything that we do, our work in
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  Speaker 1: the United States among English speakers, and our work globally
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  Speaker 1: as we serve the needs of the world through eight
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty completed translation projects in forty eight different languages,
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  Speaker 1: incredible numbers that are growing daily because of the sport
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  Speaker 1: that we get from friends like you. You can invest in
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  Speaker 1: our work by setting up monthly giving right now at
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: give dot desiring good dot org. That's give dot desiring
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  Speaker 1: good dot org at ten dollars a month. Your support
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  Speaker 1: is put to great use. Thank you for considering it.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening, for watching, for reading, and for
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: sharing our resources with friends and family and people you
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  Speaker 1: know in your church, and for helping us make this
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  Speaker 1: entire ministry possible in twenty twenty four and possible for
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  Speaker 1: us to look ahead to twenty twenty five. For sharing
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  Speaker 1: and praying and giving for all of it, we say
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  Speaker 1: thank you. We'll see you again soon.