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Daily Devotions with Pastor John - Genuine love for your family in Christ · LifeAudio

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your
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  Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at BibleStudyHeadquarters.com. You're listening
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  Speaker 1: to Daily Devotions with Pastor John. I'm John Stonge, and
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  Speaker 1: today's devotion is inspired by Ephesians 1, verses 15 and 16,
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  Speaker 1: which says, For this reason, because I have heard of
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  Speaker 1: your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward
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  Speaker 1: all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks
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  Speaker 1: for you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul wrote this
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  Speaker 1: letter to the church at Ephesus years after the church
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  Speaker 1: had been planted. There were many people who were now
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  Speaker 1: part of the church that he had never met personally,
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  Speaker 1: but the reputation of the church was rather good. In
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  Speaker 1: multiple ways, the people of the church were displaying Christ-likeness
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  Speaker 1: in how they were responding to one another and to outsiders.
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  Speaker 1: For this, Paul was thankful and he would regularly remember
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  Speaker 1: them in his prayers. The very things that Paul was
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  Speaker 1: praying for on behalf of the Ephesian church are things
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  Speaker 1: that we should be praying for in regard to ourselves
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  Speaker 1: and our church family. In essence, Paul was praying that
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  Speaker 1: the church would become more and more Christ-like as their
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  Speaker 1: faith matured. So what does Christ-likeness look like and how
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  Speaker 1: can we begin to practice it? Growing in Christlikeness involves
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  Speaker 1: genuine faith in Jesus and genuine love for our Christian family.
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  Speaker 1: As our faith matures, we rely on the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: for wisdom. We come to know God in a deeper way.
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  Speaker 1: The eyes of our hearts are enlightened to God's truth.
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  Speaker 1: We grow certain of the hope we have in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and we recognize that the Lord has an inheritance for
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  Speaker 1: us in His kingdom that is far greater than what
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  Speaker 1: this world can offer us. Are you growing in Christ-likeness?
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  Speaker 1: Do you love Jesus, delight in Him, and desire to
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  Speaker 1: reflect His heart and likeness more and more in your
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  Speaker 1: daily life? Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word,
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  Speaker 1: and we thank You for the privilege that it is
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  Speaker 1: to be able to read this portion of Scripture together
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  Speaker 1: today from the book of Ephesians. And Lord, as we
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  Speaker 1: look at what the Apostle Paul testified to here, we
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  Speaker 1: see some things that we as modern-day church members should
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  Speaker 1: be noticing and putting into practice. We see that as
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  Speaker 1: Paul was speaking to the church at Ephesus, he told
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  Speaker 1: them that he was hearing about their growing faith in
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and their love for one another. And hearing
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  Speaker 1: this good news of the ways in which their faith
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  Speaker 1: was progressing inspired him to continue to give thanks for
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  Speaker 1: this church and to remember them in his prayers. And
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  Speaker 1: it's very obvious that these were some things that he
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  Speaker 1: was quite grateful for. Father, we pray that in our
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  Speaker 1: context that you would help us to continue to grow
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  Speaker 1: in Christ's likeness as well, that we would display that
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  Speaker 1: to one another, that we would show genuine concern for
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  Speaker 1: one another, that the mindset and the heart attitude of
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  Speaker 1: your son that we've seen demonstrated throughout the scriptures would
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  Speaker 1: would be something that we would adopt as our own,
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  Speaker 1: and that your Spirit would empower us to do so. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: we pray that in all areas we would learn to
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  Speaker 1: love you more, that we would delight in you, that
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  Speaker 1: we would reflect your heart and likeness more and more
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  Speaker 1: in our daily lives, and that we would give others
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  Speaker 1: a glimpse of your heart as you accomplish your work
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  Speaker 1: within us. We thank you, Lord, for this reminder from
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  Speaker 1: your word today, and we commit this day to your care.
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  Speaker 1: And pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.