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615 | Greater Is He · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  We hear it often, greater is he that is in you.
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  It is part of a familiar verse often learned as a child, but I am afraid that
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  most of us never give thought to the truths found in this verse located in 1 John 4.4.
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  Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as we journey through
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  the scriptures, unfolding the life-giving truths revealed in 1 John 4.4.
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  Thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  We're going to talk about 1 John 4, 4, which reads like this.
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  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he
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  that is in you than he that is in the world. Let's pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious, dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this
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  opportunity to come before you.
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  Lord, we are grateful that greater are you in us than anything that we will
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  face in the world. Lord, we are grateful that there is none like you.
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  You are most powerful, all-knowing, and always present.
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  Lord, thank you for choosing to fight our battles, choosing to pay our debts,
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  and Lord, choosing to be our Father.
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  Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we just thank you.
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  We ask, Lord, that you would be in this message, that you would prime our hearts
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  and our minds to hear what you would have us to hear, that you would remove
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  me as far as the east is from the west in this message.
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  And Lord, that you would give me words to say that would penetrate our hearts
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  and our minds so that we would walk away from our time together more for you than we've been before.
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  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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  1 John 4.4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
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  because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  There are three very powerful truths that I want to discuss in your hearing,
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  that are revealed in this verse.
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  First, he reveals that you are from God.
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  Secondly, he authoritatively declares you have overcome.
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  And then he amazingly reveals to us that God in us is greater than a devil in the world.
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  These are truths that if we allow our minds and our hearts to wrap around,
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  If we place these truths as the center of our life and we live accordingly—.
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  Then we will live the abundant life that God promises each and every one of us.
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  Because it will be a life without worry.
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  It'll be a life like he talks about in Philippians 4, 6, and 7,
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  that we're to be careful for nothing.
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  But with prayer and thanksgiving, let our supplications be made known unto God,
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  and the peace of God shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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  It's a verse that if we allow ourselves to really comprehend and apply and shower
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  ourselves and our lives with it, that we'll live in peace,
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  like Isaiah 26.3 tells us, that he will keep us in perfect peace,
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  whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.
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  When we begin to look at this verse and these three verses, we can't help but trust.
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  Because we believe God is who he says he is and that he'll do what he says he'll do.
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  God speaks these truths in our lives to empower us to live the joy he wants to impart to each of us.
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  He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
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  Greater is he. Let that just roll over and over in your minds as we walk through these powerful truths.
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  This one verse isn't going to guarantee that you won't have any pain.
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  It's not going to guarantee that you won't have disappointment or hurt.
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  But what it does is it gives us something solid to lean on, something true to
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  believe in when everything else feels shaken.
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  And as we look at these three powerful truths, it's my prayer that you'll be
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  comforted and that you'll be inspired and motivated as it strengthens you.
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  And that will help you see your life with all of its trouble and its issues,
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  you'll still see it in the light of God's greater presence.
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  Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  It's time that we stopped living defeated.
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  Because the victory is ours. I've read it. I've read the back of the book. We win.
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  Hell is for the devil and his angels. It was never intended for us.
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  And because God is greater, we don't have to go there.
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  Because of God's amazing grace, incredible mercy, and the loving kindness that
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  he shows every day and every moment of every day towards each of us,
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  we don't have to go to hell.
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  But by grace, we're saved through faith in Jesus Christ, not of our works. It's a gift of God.
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  Jesus, his son, was sent by God because of the love they have for us.
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  And Jesus willingly paid a sin debt he didn't know.
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  For you and me, who had a sin debt, we couldn't pay.
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  The first truth that's revealed in this incredible passage of Scripture in 1 John 4, 4 is this.
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  You are from God. John begins this verse very tenderly with,
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  You are of God, little children.
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  Little children gives us a picture of who we are to God.
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  He's the Father, and we are His children.
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  He's a loving, good Father, whose eyes are always watching, who loves us beyond measure.
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  Nothing can separate us from His love. who ever lives to make intercession for
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  us. That's what Jesus does.
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  God blesses us daily with benefits. And this tender language of year of God,
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  little children, is speaking to believers as a loving father speaks to his children.
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  And in troubling times, it matters who you belong to.
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  It matters where you place your trust. It matters how you live your life.
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  Jesus says no good thing does he withhold from them who walk uprightly.
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  As we come to him in faith believing as we
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  follow his commandments as we walk in the
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  ways that he has prescribed as we are hand in hand with jesus listening and
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  walking to to all that he has to say to us and going in the places that he asks
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  us to go and abstaining from the places that his children don't need to go,
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  as we have this constant communication, this wonderful relationship with Jesus
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  Christ, we realize how he loves us.
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  We realize that in good times, he's who we want to be around.
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  In bad times, he's who we want to be around.
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  And praise the Lord, he never leaves us or forsakes us, so he's always with us.
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  We're not accidents.
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  We weren't created by a big bang. We aren't just a name that ends up on a tombstone with a date.
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  We're not defined only by what happens between our birth and our death.
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  My friend, we are from God.
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  That is an identity that we can claim, that is a truth we can build our life
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  upon, that is comforting words that we can live by.
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  For those who belong to Christ, this means that we were created by God,
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  we are loved by God, and we are known by God fully, completely, and personally.
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  Every person is from God. Before any of us were born or before we were known by anyone, God knew us.
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  God saw our first breath, and God will be with us at our last.
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  When trouble comes and it really says man is born of a woman and a few days full of trouble.
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  He tells us to be a good cheer because he has overcome the world.
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  So when trouble comes, we often feel shaken. We feel confused.
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  There's a sense of uneasiness about us.
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  We feel as if the world has shifted and that we're no longer standing on solid ground.
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  But I have good news.
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  This verse, it reminds us that we stand in God's hands.
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  We are on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Christ, we come from him,
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  and praise God, we are held by him.
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  In your struggle, remember this.
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  You're not walking through this as someone abandoned or forgotten.
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  You are from God. He knows your name. He knows the number of hairs on your head.
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  He even knows the true color of the hairs on your head. He sees your questions.
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  He understands the ache that words just can't express.
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  And he calls you my child. My friends, you are from God.
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  He says to us in 1 John 4, 4, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them.
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  You have overcome.
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  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them.
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  Now, in its original context, when you're looking at the scripture,
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  John is speaking about spiritual battles, false teachings, the pressures of
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  the world, the forces that stand against God's truth.
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  And all of that is correct. and all of that comprises some elements of our struggle
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  but today i want you to understand that as we struggle we can see a wider truth
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  in christ god gives his children victory that is deeper than anything this world can take from them,
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  It's stronger than any foe can come against.
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  Greater is he that is in you. Ye of God, little children, and have overcome them.
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  The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, 37, that we are more than conquerors
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  through him who loved us.
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  Now, in the midst of your struggle, in the darkness of night,
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  But in the midst of all your pain and the middle of your anguish,
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  your life may not feel like you're overcoming.
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  You may feel tired and weary and maybe even defeated, but God says something very different.
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  Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 4, 6-9, For God, who commanded the light
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  to shine out of darkness, have shined in your hearts to give the light of the
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  knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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  But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power
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  may be of God and not of us.
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  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
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  We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken,
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  cast down, but not destroyed.
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  The child of God has something in them, and it's called the Holy Spirit who's
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  leading us and directing us and guiding us, and he's greater than any problems in the world.
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  He's greater than any issues that come into our life, but we must believe and trust in the one and only.
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  True living God. But without faith, it's impossible to please Him,
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  and you must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
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  Let's look at this in 2 Corinthians 4, 6-9, as we begin to learn of the character
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  of He who lives in us that is greater than anything else, who gives us the victory,
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  and who makes us an overcomer.
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  First of all, we see that He commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
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  and that it shines in our heart.
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  Every crevice, every piece of your body, everything that you are willing to
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  allow God to shine his light into will be changed and transformed.
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  When we get saved, we get all of Jesus, but it's a process for him to get all of us.
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  We have doors that are locked with double locks on them, triple locks sometimes,
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  We just hold him so closely, sins that we don't want to give up,
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  hurt that we can't get over.
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  But he continues to knock on our hearts. So he says that he stands and he knocks at the door.
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  And if you'll open it up, he'll come in into you. And this verse in 2 Corinthians
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  chapter 4 tells us that the light of the knowledge of the God is in the face
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  of Jesus Christ shown into our hearts.
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  And it exposes the bad, but not to condemn us, because there's therefore now
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  no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
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  No, he shines the light so that he can clean it up.
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  And then he tells us this, that the power of God is what works in us.
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  So we're troubled on every side. We have all kinds of problems.
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  We live in a world that is sinful and wicked, but we're not distressed.
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  Why? Because we have God in us.
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  We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. Why? Because greater is the God that is in us.
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  We're persecuted, but not forsaken, because the battle's not ours. It belongs to the Lord.
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  Just look back at 1 Samuel 17, when a little ruddy little boy took down a giant
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  that grown men were afraid of.
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  But he didn't go in on it on his own.
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  He went in with the Lord.
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  But we're cast down, but not destroyed. See, we live in this world,
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  and trouble's going to come.
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  But the question remains, how are you going to handle the problem?
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  If you handle it with Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit as your guide,
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  and God the Father equipping you, then you're going to be victorious.
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  Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world,
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  and you've overcome because of who is in you.
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  God in you cannot be defeated if you unleash it on your problem and on your issues.
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  In Ephesians 3, verse 20, we read these words, Now unto him that is able to
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  do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
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  That same power is what he's talking about when he says that the excellency
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  of the power may be of God and not of us.
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  But we have to open the door for the power of God to enter and then to come out in full force.
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  But too often we don't open the door
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  at all other times we just crack it open because we've got one foot in the world
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  and one foot with god and he says that he'll spew you out of your mouth you
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  can't serve two masters you either serve him or you serve the devil and if you're serving the devil.
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  You don't have the power of God in you. So if you're not feeling like an overcomer
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  today, perhaps you're not opening the door for the power of God to do his work.
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  Because he's no respecter of persons. And in 1 John 4, 4, he says,
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  You're of God, little children. You're of God.
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  He's talking to the ones who know him, his children, those who've placed their
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  faith in him and have overcome them.
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  Because the God in you can't lose.
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  The God in you has never lost a battle and he's not going to start with yours.
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  You are an overcomer. Whether you exercise this right or not, you can be an overcomer.
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  Because you're designed to be an overcomer, not because of your strength,
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  not because you are perfect, but because you're trusting the one true living
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  God who conquered death on the cross and rose again,
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  paying a penalty, a penalty for sin, by willingly shedding his sinless,
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  spotless, precious blood on the cross of Calvary to pay our sin debt.
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  This is what makes you an overcomer. You have yielded to the Lord and given
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  him full reign of your life.
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  You have made him Lord of your life and King of your heart.
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  You've submitted under the mighty hand of God, and in due time he will exalt you.
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  From where we sit, we often just see the brokenness, the struggle.
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  We become very fixated on our issues and our problems.
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  But from where God sits, he sees an opportunity for blessings and growth.
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  He's on the scene. Friends, this situation that you are in, it's just positioning
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  you for a front row seat to experience a miracle in heavenly proportion.
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  You're not facing any of this alone. And when you come to that realization, Thank you.
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  That greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  When you come to that realization that you're an overcomer through Christ Jesus,
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  who strengthens you and provides all of your needs, then you just crawl up in the cleft of his hands,
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  under the shadow of the feathers of the Almighty,
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  and you just watch him work.
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  Because he who is in you is greater.
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  Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  This is the heart of the entire verse.
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  It's the reason believers overcome is not because we are strong,
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  but because he is strong.
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  He who is in you, God's own spirit living in his children, is greater than anything
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  or anyone that stands against us.
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  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall
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  rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the
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  servants of the Lord, and the righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
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  Isaiah 54, 17.
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  This God that is greater than he that is in the world, what is he greater than?
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  He's greater than your sin.
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  He's greater than your fear. He's greater than your suffering.
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  He's greater than even death.
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  God's word whispers and shouts this truth. God is greater.
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  There's an enemy in this world, the devil, and he walketh about as a roaring
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  lion seeking whom he may devour.
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  John calls him he who is in the world. Death, brokenness, evil,
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  pain, these are all real.
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  And nobody's pretending otherwise. But they're not the ultimate.
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  They're not the final say-so. They're not the victor.
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  When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he did not only sympathize with
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  our suffering, but he defeated the very power behind it.
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  On the cross, he took our sin.
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  In the tomb, he laid death like a defeated enemy.
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  When he rose, he announced forever, I am the resurrection and the life.
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  He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. John 11, 25.
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  So what does that mean for me and you today? It means the God who is greater
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  than all and all situation is with you in your struggle.
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  It means you do not have to carry your sorrow alone. God is with you to bear your burden.
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  It means that even when your heart is breaking, there is a hope beneath the
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  pain that cannot be taken away.
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  This hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.
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  Greater is he that is in you. If you belong to Christ, God himself lives in you by his Spirit.
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  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in your weakness,
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  in your tears, in your questions, in your problems, and in your struggles.
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  You may not feel like you can face tomorrow, but God says, I am greater than tomorrow.
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  You may feel like your heart is too shattered to ever be whole again.
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  God says, I am greater than your brokenness.
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  You may fear the future, perhaps your own mortality, perhaps the uncertainty of life.
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  God says I am greater than your fear.
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  What does that mean for you?
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  Brings us to a place where we have to decide, what are we building our life upon?
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  1 John 4.4 is not just comfort for today or wisdom to get you through this particular struggle.
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  It's an invitation for every day.
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  Are you living as someone who is from God, belonging to Him,
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  trusting Him, walking with Him?
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  People see him in you? Have you received the victory that Christ won over sin
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  and death by trusting in him as your savior?
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  Do you know the one who is greater that is living in you? God loves you.
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  He proved that time and time again,
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  but he proved it by sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins
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  and to rise again so that all who believe in him would not perish,
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  but have eternal life, John 3, 16.
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  Jesus wants to be your hope. He is your hope.
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  He doesn't promise you a life without pain, but he does promise his presence
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  in every valley and eternal life beyond this world.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. if you have never entrusted
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  your life to Christ, this moment's a good time to consider it.
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  He's greater than your past, greater than your shame,
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  greater than your doubts, and He invites you with nail-scarred hands and open arms to come to Him.
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  Remember you are loved. Jesus loves you. Greater is He that is in you.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at w-a-t-w-m.org
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  and on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit Podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember.