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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 Bible Study Headquarters

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Speaker 1: dot com. You're listening to Daily Devotions with Pastor John.

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Speaker 1: I'm John Stanghy, and today's devotion is inspired by First John,

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Speaker 1: Chapter two, verses fifteen through seventeen, which says, do not

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Speaker 1: love the world or the things in the world. If

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Speaker 1: anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is

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Speaker 1: not in him. For all that is in the world,

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Speaker 1: the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes,

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Speaker 1: and the pride in possessions, is not from the Father,

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Speaker 1: but is from the world. And the world is passing

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Speaker 1: away along with its desires. But whoever does the will

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Speaker 1: of God abides forever. Even if we believe in Jesus

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Speaker 1: and are looking forward to an eternity in his presence,

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Speaker 1: it can be difficult to avoid being tempted to overvalue

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Speaker 1: the fleeting things of this world. Sometimes we treat temporary

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Speaker 1: things like they are permanent realities. We might even start

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Speaker 1: to place our sense of hope or security in the

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Speaker 1: things of this world that have no capacity to last

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Speaker 1: beyond this brief season of time. Jesus loves the people

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Speaker 1: of this world, but he doesn't love the mindset or

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Speaker 1: values of this world. This world invites us to covet

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Speaker 1: what we don't possess. The mindset of this age teaches

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Speaker 1: us to desire things that compete with our affections. For

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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, the worldview many people we love have embraced

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Speaker 1: is a worldview that drags them down and doesn't build

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Speaker 1: them up. Instead of embracing the mindset of this world,

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Speaker 1: Jesus invites us to be transformed through faith in Him.

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Speaker 1: As transformed people, the love of God the Father is

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Speaker 1: shown to be present in our lives. Let's pray, Lord,

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Speaker 1: we thank you for your word, and we thank you

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Speaker 1: for the privilege that it is to be able to

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Speaker 1: look at this portion of scripture from the Book of

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Speaker 1: First John. And Lord, we know that we're surrounded by

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Speaker 1: things that tempt us. There are all sorts of things

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Speaker 1: vying for our attention, and at times we have devoted

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Speaker 1: our affections to the things of this world that have

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Speaker 1: no lasting value. We think they'll fill a void in

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Speaker 1: our lives, and sometimes after we've obtained them, we start

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Speaker 1: to take pride in our possessions. But Lord, your word

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Speaker 1: cautions us not to love the things of this world,

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Speaker 1: because this world is passing away. The things of this

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Speaker 1: world are not permanent. The mindset and the attitudes and

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Speaker 1: the values of this age don't last forever, and they

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Speaker 1: certainly don't reflect your heart. But Lord, we're grateful that

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Speaker 1: as we trust in you, you change our desires. You

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Speaker 1: give us a new focus, you give us a new mindset.

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Speaker 1: You help us to see things in a new way,

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Speaker 1: and we begin to value things like you value things,

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Speaker 1: and you foster within us a desire to do your will.

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Speaker 1: And again, that's the opposite of what this world is preaching.

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Speaker 1: So Lord, we're grateful for this challenging reminder from your

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Speaker 1: word today, and we're grateful for the fact that you

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Speaker 1: help us to understand things from your perspective so that

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Speaker 1: our minds don't get all locked up in the perspective

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Speaker 1: that this world embraces. We pray that the mindset that

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Speaker 1: you've given us is something that would continue to be cultivated,

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Speaker 1: and that this new perspective would be something we would

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Speaker 1: share with others as well, both in our words and

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Speaker 1: in how we model it. Thank you again for this

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Speaker 1: challenge from your word today. We pray this all in Jesus'

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Speaker 1: name Amen