Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 354 | Throwback - No Strings Attached: Embracing God's Gift of Grace

Transcript

354 | Throwback - No Strings Attached: Embracing God's Gift of Grace · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  Music.
• 0:07
  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
• 0:11
  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the
• 0:16
  well in John chapter four.
• 0:18
  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
• 0:21
  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
• 0:25
  or on our website at watwm.org,
• 0:28
  we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
• 0:33
  about God and to strengthen and your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 0:37
  Living her life for Christ, she's a happy girl.
• 0:38
  Music.
• 0:48
  She's a happy girl.
• 1:02
  God's gifts never break, wear out, go out of style, or get stolen.
• 1:07
  They are yours for eternity, and all he asks is that you receive them in childlike faith.
• 1:13
  It is an awesome reality to understand the greatness of receiving God's gifts.
• 1:17
  He chose to give them to you.
• 1:20
  He came to you, and by your acceptance of him, you can go to where he is.
• 1:25
  He has many gifts for you, but the most precious was the gift of his Son that brought eternal life.
• 1:31
  He did it all, and he paid it all. Join us in this program,
• 1:35
  No Strings Attached, as Kim Miller of Woman at the Well Ministries takes us
• 1:40
  through Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, which says, For by grace are you saved through
• 1:45
  faith, and that not of yourselves.
• 1:47
  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
• 1:52
  Hello and welcome to this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
• 1:56
  Everybody's always looking for a good deal. And you can see it in the newspapers
• 2:01
  as you see advertisement after advertisement about this sale and that sale.
• 2:06
  You can turn on the TV and you'll get an infomercial just about any time of
• 2:10
  the day trying to sell you something.
• 2:12
  And mostly trying to convince you that what they're trying to sell you is a
• 2:17
  good deal. Yet, there are no deals that will ever compare to what God has offered you.
• 2:27
  God offered you his son, Jesus, and Jesus offered you his life.
• 2:35
  And he put it on the cross of Calvary, shedding every drop of blood for the remission of your sins.
• 2:42
  For you and I had a sin debt that we were unable to pay.
• 2:47
  There was nothing that we could do that would be able to pay the debt for our sins.
• 2:56
  And we came into this world sinners.
• 2:59
  And the Bible tells us clearly that all of us, yes, you, no matter how great
• 3:04
  you think you are, no matter what you have achieved in this world,
• 3:09
  still come at the throne in need of the payment of your sin.
• 3:17
  For the Bible says in Romans 3.23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
• 3:24
  But it also says in Romans 10,
• 3:27
  13, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 3:31
  And by calling upon the name of the Lord and placing our faith in Jesus Christ
• 3:36
  and accepting that payment of sin that he gave us on the cross of Calvary,
• 3:42
  then we escape hell and inherit heaven, all because we believe.
• 3:51
  That's all it requires.
• 3:53
  It doesn't require works. It doesn't require that we are born into a certain family.
• 4:01
  It doesn't require us to have done certain things or not have done certain things.
• 4:09
  You see, if you've lived somewhat of a so-called clean life,
• 4:14
  and it looks like that you've done all the things right, and you've crossed
• 4:18
  your T's and dotted your I's, you need salvation just the same as the one that
• 4:24
  you look over and think, my goodness,
• 4:26
  how could somebody do that?
• 4:28
  You see, because in front of Jesus, we stand side by side with the same greatest
• 4:36
  need, and that's the need of salvation. And there's no strings attached to this one.
• 4:43
  He doesn't have to say there's a 60-day money-back guarantee.
• 4:47
  He doesn't have to offer free shipping. He doesn't have to offer a discounted price.
• 4:55
  For the greatest gift that you're ever going to receive was wrapped in swaddling clothes,
• 5:03
  lying in a manger, and was nailed
• 5:07
  to a cross and every drop
• 5:10
  of blood he shed was the gift he gives you in salvation you see if it was left
• 5:19
  up to us not only do we not have the means in order to pay for our sin debt
• 5:26
  because it required a sinless perfect lamb.
• 5:29
  And that's not us. Because as I said, Romans 3.23 clearly states that none of us are sinless.
• 5:36
  And even once we become a Christian and we place our faith in Jesus Christ,
• 5:42
  because we are still flesh and bone and our flesh still wants to do the wrong thing,
• 5:49
  we're never sinless, but we're always forgiven.
• 5:54
  You see, the Bible says if we confess our sins, he's
• 5:57
  faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
• 5:59
  us from all unrighteousness and so
• 6:02
  that gift of salvation that he talks about in
• 6:05
  ephesians 2 8 9 is the
• 6:09
  gift that we unwrap by faith
• 6:12
  in christ we trust jesus to
• 6:16
  be the savior of our life we come to an understanding that it is him on the
• 6:24
  cross of calvary shedding his blood that will completely eliminate our need to pay for our sins.
• 6:34
  And as we draw close to the Lord and we
• 6:37
  allow him to be part of our lives and we allow him into our heart and we allow
• 6:45
  him into our thoughts and our mind and we begin to follow after his commandments
• 6:50
  and we begin to pray and read his word.
• 6:57
  And accept that loving kindness that he is drawing us with.
• 7:03
  And we accept that pursuit that he is wooing us with, that we would come to.
• 7:08
  A relationship with him.
• 7:10
  Just as he speaks about in Revelation chapter 3, when he says,
• 7:14
  behold, I stand at the door and I knock.
• 7:17
  And if any man open up the door, I will come in unto him and I will sup with him.
• 7:21
  Just as he is doing that all the time.
• 7:25
  And we begin to know him things change in our life now our circumstances may still be stressful,
• 7:35
  but we're now no longer alone in it and we now have the king of kings and the
• 7:41
  lord of lords and the creator of all things and that all things are under his
• 7:45
  feet we now have a relationship with him and he's the father and we're the child
• 7:49
  and we can come to him in fact he says behold Behold, he says, behold,
• 7:54
  I'm knocking on your door.
• 7:57
  And he says that we can come unto him boldly to the throne of grace,
• 8:04
  that we would obtain help in time of trouble in Hebrews chapter four.
• 8:08
  And he says that he was tempted like as we are yet without sin.
• 8:12
  That's why his sacrifice will pay the payment for our sin.
• 8:17
  And he asked us to pray without ceasing. He wants to be in constant communication with us.
• 8:23
  And he loves us so much that he placed the Holy Spirit in us so that he would
• 8:28
  never be away from us. And that Holy Spirit comforts us and guides us.
• 8:32
  It helps us to understand Genesis to Revelations.
• 8:35
  It helps us to understand when we pray what the Lord wants us to know.
• 8:40
  And there's no strings attached.
• 8:42
  You don't have to worry about this gift breaking.
• 8:46
  You know, we receive many gifts a year, most of us. Birthdays,
• 8:50
  Christmases, special occasions, all kinds of different reasons.
• 8:54
  And especially as children, it's sometimes hard to remember who got you what
• 8:58
  or what you even got for certain occasions.
• 9:01
  And maybe even within a few weeks or a couple of months, that gift you got that
• 9:07
  you loved, you either decided you don't like it anymore and it's kind of lost
• 9:11
  its allure, or maybe it's even broken.
• 9:14
  But at one time, it was incredibly important to you.
• 9:18
  I promise you, that's not what a relationship with Christ is.
• 9:22
  That's not what the gift of his son is.
• 9:25
  That is a gift that keeps on giving. That is a gift that will transform you.
• 9:31
  The Bible says that old things are passed away and behold, all things have become
• 9:35
  new. We're new creatures in Christ.
• 9:37
  It is a newfound boldness in the Lord that allows you to know that you are valuable
• 9:44
  because the blood of Christ was shed for you.
• 9:49
  It is an amazing feeling to know that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords
• 9:54
  resides in your heart in the form of the Holy Spirit,
• 9:57
  talks to you daily, wants to have a close relationship with you.
• 10:03
  And there's no strings attached.
• 10:05
  You look around those of us who go to church and we see these people who seem
• 10:10
  to have such amazing peace.
• 10:12
  And you might even find yourself self-questioning every now and then.
• 10:15
  Why is so-and-so always so happy?
• 10:18
  Why do they have such peace? Why isn't that me?
• 10:22
  And if you just stop for a second and you really look at their lives,
• 10:28
  you're going to see that the difference isn't that God loves them more.
• 10:32
  The difference is going to be they love God more. They have sold out to Jesus more.
• 10:39
  There's a lot less world in them than there is you.
• 10:43
  And the Lord is sitting there pursuing you, wanting you to have that same kind
• 10:47
  of peace, wanting you to have that same kind of joy,
• 10:52
  the joy from within, the joy that doesn't depend on your circumstances,
• 10:57
  but this peace that comes from God,
• 10:59
  a peace that passes understanding and a joy unspeakable and full of glory is
• 11:05
  had by every believer who spends time with Christ because they have an understanding
• 11:11
  that transcends this world.
• 11:13
  Their hope is not in the world or in their own abilities or in their own things,
• 11:21
  but their hope is in Jesus.
• 11:24
  And they know that no matter what the circumstances are, he's still in control
• 11:29
  and he's never lost a battle and that he fights for us.
• 11:33
  You see all of the deals and negotiations and contracts that comprise your life.
• 11:41
  Will never do for you what simple belief and a God that cannot fail will do.
• 11:48
  And it will require nothing of you and give you everything.
• 11:52
  But right now at this moment in time, you need to check yourself.
• 11:57
  And you need to really take a close look at what you believe and who you believe in.
• 12:05
  If it's a man or yourself, it will surely fail and it will come up short.
• 12:11
  But when you take that leap of faith and you trust in Jesus,
• 12:18
  not only for your salvation, but for your guidance and comfort,
• 12:24
  when he is your all in all, then you will find a peace that passes understanding.
• 12:29
  The troubles of this life will not matter to you anymore. You'll go through
• 12:34
  them hand in hand with Jesus.
• 12:39
  Music.
• 12:45
  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
• 12:50
  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
• 12:53
  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
• 12:57
  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
• 13:00
  You can find our app by searching for a woman at the well ministries in your
• 13:03
  app store or through our website at watwm.org. We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash W-A-T-W-M.
• 13:12
  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
• 13:16
  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
• 13:21
  Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
• 13:26
  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
• 13:31
  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website. site.
• 13:36
  Thank you to the gospel group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
• 13:41
  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
• 13:46
  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
• 13:50
  Music.