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646 | Changing Directions · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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Where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the
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well in John chapter four.
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Our highest priority is making God real in your life. Whether you are listening
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in our app, in your favorite podcasting app, or on our website at watwm.org,
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we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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In today's conversation, we are chatting about what life looks like when we
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choose to live our lives putting Christ first.
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Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I am Erica, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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Hello, and thank you guys for joining us with this conversation about the Scriptures.
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Yeah, we're so excited. So today, we are going back and revisiting some of the
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things that Kim had talked about in our podcast this past Monday.
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So that would have been episode 645, Set Your Mind on Things Above. That was the title.
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And I'm so excited that we get to come back and talk about this message because
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this really was an incredibly powerful message to me.
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And the text for the message came out of Colossians, out of chapter 3, verses 1 through 4.
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So we would encourage you to go back and revisit that scripture if you haven't
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been able to do that since you may have heard Monday's message.
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But I'm excited because today what we're trying to do is talk about some of
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the things that were brought up in Monday's podcast and to look at how we can
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very practically apply them to our lives.
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One of the things that we here at Women at the Well Ministries talk about all
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the time is application of the scriptures.
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We never just learn the scriptures to know the scriptures. We never just memorize
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scriptures to memorize scripture.
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But when we learn what the scriptures say and we understand what it means,
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it's always because it applies to our lives.
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And if we ever think that some aspect of the scriptures doesn't apply to our
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lives, we're just lying and we're fooling ourselves.
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Deep trouble. We're in deep trouble and we're not fooling anyone else.
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So the reality is it all applies. And we here really are all about application. So.
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In Monday's podcast, Set Your Mind on Things Above, you talked about how when
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we become Christians and we are saved,
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you talked about how we change, but our direction changes.
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And I think that, you know, when we think about salvation, I think we have a concept of how we,
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may change, but how that operates in our lives is very much about this idea
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of how our direction changes.
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And you made the statement in Monday's message about how that impacts three things.
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And I don't think it was only three things, but three things,
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how we rest, how we operate, and how we live.
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And I think if we think about rest, operate, and live, that kind of talks about our entire day.
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Amen. Right? How we pause in our day, we rest in our day, how we operate,
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we move through the day, and then how we live.
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To me, that means how we live in our interactions with other people.
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And if our direction has changed, those three things should be different.
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So I want to go through those three things now and just talk about how,
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as a Christian, how we rest, how we operate, and how we live really should be different.
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To me, the easiest of those to probably fully understand and assimilate would be how we rest.
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When we are a sinner, ignoring the free gift of salvation that Jesus brings and God gives,
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we are walking about with the greatest asset we have as ourselves. Right.
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And all of us are frail, and all of us have limited capacity,
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and none of us are able to be present in all three phases of time,
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past, present, and future.
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So we don't know what's coming.
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We barely understand what is, and some of us didn't understand or remember what was.
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So we can't rest because we have to always be doing to provide, to protect, to be.
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But when we are saved and we are hidden in Christ Jesus, as we're told in Colossians
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3, when we're hidden in Christ Jesus,
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then he's the one that's responsible for our provision, our protection,
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and taking care of ourselves, us.
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So we can rest not only because we're not the one responsible,
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but because the one who is responsible is fail-proof.
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So when we are able to get ourselves in the mindset of the truth that Jesus
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is the supreme authority and we allow him to be all of our authority,
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then we can rest because the work is done.
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We just follow. I think it's important to remember, too, when we're talking
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about rest, that it's like our soul gets to rest each day.
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And I know that I feel like my soul gets a rest when I sit down and I spend
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time with Him in His Scripture.
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In the presence of the Lord, his power and authority is on full display.
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And when we see that and we understand we're tucked in that,
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then we cease to have to work to do the things we trust him for.
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Now, he still provides the job, which provides the money, which provides the
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things that we need. And so we work that way.
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But we're not toiling to no avail.
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We are following a prescribed direction and assignment he has given us that
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has been fully planned out and is fully equipped for us to do,
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so the negative fear of will this work the.
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Dread of, can I do it?
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And the fear of, is this enough, is all obliterated by the faith that he said,
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do it, therefore it's right.
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And I will be great because no good thing does he withhold from them that walk up rightly.
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I love that you used the phrase tucked in, that word tucked in to his presence and his protection.
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That's a place I want to be. Amen. So you talked about rest, operate, and live.
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Let's talk about operating in the sense of sort of how our direction for our
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day changes. And we talk a lot about following.
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And I think that when we talk about the direction of our day,
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I think we need to realize that we may make a million plans for the day,
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but our day is really about following Him.
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It's the only thing. Your plan should be to follow Jesus.
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And there is a great relief in not having to create the plan.
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There's a tremendous peace in knowing that you're not responsible for.
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The plan being the right plan. You just got to execute the plan,
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and He gives you the strength and the power to do so, according to Philippians 4, 13, and 19.
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So you just got to follow.
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We complicate the whole thing because we just can't believe it could be that easy.
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But what we really can't do is place our faith fully in Him.
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We seem to think He still needs a few nudges of suggestion and a nod here and
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a nod there of what really should happen when he said, pick up your cross,
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deny yourself, and follow me daily. Amen.
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The last word that you talked about was live. And to me, that means how our
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direction changes in how we interact with others.
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I think it's how we interact with others. I think it's our purpose,
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like what it is that we are demonstrating to other people.
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And when we are hidden in Christ Jesus and we become part of his family,
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everything about how we live changes because we go from fleshly to holy.
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We go from self-centered to other-centered.
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We go from worry to glory.
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And the things that were important to us are no longer important to us.
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In the way that they were. Because before we have Jesus, we can't love because
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He is love and we need Him in it. So we can't love to its fullest.
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So even those we love before, we love more once we have Jesus as Savior.
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And the things that used to seem important and take our time become pretty unimportant sometimes.
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They dim because we learn what truly is important and we strive for the truth,
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and we understand that only the things we do for God will last.
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And the things that distract us and turn us away from Him or cause us to not
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be available for Him, that's something people forget, is we have to keep ourselves
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on the ready and available.
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And when we don't do that, we are not providing ourselves in its best form to
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Him to do the service he's asking us to do.
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But when we are saved, all those things shift towards the heavenlies,
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the holy, the truth, the good, the love, the mercy, the grace.
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And we no longer have the darkness in us because he places his light in us.
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And so how we live and how we demonstrate who we are, because we are no longer who we were.
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We are now his and we are changed in his likeness.
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So everything changes, how we rest, how we operate, and how we live.
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You know, you talked, this is in a podcast a few weeks ago, you made the statement
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that you can't be holy and hateful.
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And that actually got some attention by our listeners, which was really, which was really fun.
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And that is something that seems so simple, but it's really true,
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right? We're not, if we are hateful to others, we're not right.
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God is love, and he imputes his love to us.
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Therefore, we operate out of love when we are in his will.
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And if we're operating out of love in his will, striving towards the prize of
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the high calling, that's when we become holy, when we are,
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allowing the Holy Spirit to shine and demonstrate itself through our life and
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lead, guide, and direct us, and we are forsaking the things of this world.
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So holiness cannot have anything to do with hatefulness, because hatefulness is the opposite of love.
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So holiness is pure.
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In Monday's message, you talked about the verse that talks about how we set
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our affections on things above. Read to.
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And I was thinking about affections, right? Our affections, the things that
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we are affectionate towards.
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Our affections to me very much speaks to the things that I would call like our want-tos.
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And to me, that means that as a Christian, the Lord changes our want-tos.
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Absolutely i've seen that happen in my own life things that just,
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were so important or were things i just wanted to do that you know after being
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saved i just didn't want to do it anymore and i'm incredibly thankful for that,
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but let's talk about that process a little bit right we change our direction changes,
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and if we're setting our affections on things above clearly our our want Two's change.
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We are course corrected. Because without Jesus, we are headed to hell. Downward. Yeah.
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When we are looking at things above, when we are part of the family of God, when we have.
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Set our heart and our affection and our mind and our whole purpose,
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our whole being on things that are above, things that are heavenly,
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things that are godly, ways that Jesus would have us to walk,
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when that happens, then we can't be the same as we were.
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And he tells us that old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
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new, and that we're new creatures in Christ.
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There is a transformation, a course correction.
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You're headed in one direction towards hell, and you meet Jesus,
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and he is 180 degrees about face, and now you're headed towards heaven,
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and you're looking towards heaven, and you're guided by heavenly things,
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and you're holy because God is holy and he is in you, and you're directed
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and commanded to do holy things.
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They are going to look 180 degrees differently than what you did before,
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because you're headed in a different direction. Your heart is different.
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Your mind is different. Your want-tos are different.
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Your goals and purposes are different. You have changed your sinful,
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wicked ways when you handed them
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to the Lord, and He's working on you to make you what you ought to be.
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And now that is something that is moving in a heavenly, lovingly,
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graceful, merciful direction.
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And thus, our want-tos change.
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They're different. And praise the Lord. Because our insides are changed.
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Our heart is changed. It's transformed. Praise the Lord. I have been reading
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in the book of Ezekiel this week, and that's.
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One of the places in scripture where the Lord talks about, you know,
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changing out your hard, stony heart and making a new heart and a fleshly heart and a soft heart.
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And so I love that. Right. I'm so thankful that our want tos change.
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You also talked on Monday about how our priorities change.
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And I think our priorities are different than our want to's in a lot of ways,
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because I think our priorities are very much about choosing where we allocate time.
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And I know you talk about time a lot. We talk about time management a lot.
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We do talk about time. But let's talk about that for a minute,
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about how, as saved people who have set our minds on things above,
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how that's going to impact our time.
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Well, Acts 10.38 says that Jesus went about doing good.
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And as a Christian, we are to be Christ-like, which means he's the example that we are to follow.
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So there needs to be a lot of time spent doing the will of God.
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Wanting to be in His presence.
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Before you are saved, you're kind of repelled by the Word.
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And you can be— Because it's convicting. Correct. And it's not what you are engaged in.
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But when you place your faith in Him, that's the ticket. you have to be engaged
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in the service of the Lord, in the work of the Lord, in developing and growing
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a relationship with Jesus.
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And that takes time.
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And it takes more time than just being a body in a seat one or two times a week at church.
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The people who are doing the service, the people who are worshiping and singing
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and those who are involved in listening and taking notes and opening up their
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heart and their mind, they are receiving something from the Lord.
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But you can go in there and sit and get up and leave and have gotten nothing
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if you've not engaged your heart, your mind, your thoughts, anything in the process.
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And that's also, you know, like a corporate priority, right?
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That's a corporate time with the Lord.
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Obviously, we have personal encounters with the Lord when we are in services.
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But there's also the priority of one-on-one time with the Lord.
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I believe if you're going to get anything out of the corporate service for church,
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you need to have spent personal time with Jesus before you get there.
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We've talked about this before, but about how we never even consider...
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Making sure we are prayed up and prepared to go into a church service.
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If we're not like the pastor, right? Well, I know they did. And if you're not
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like the, you know, you would imagine, you would hope that people leading the
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service are prayed up and ready. But those in the congregation have just as
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much responsibility of being prayed up and ready.
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And my parents believed that. Before church, you had what felt like a little church.
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And they believe that you were responsible for what you got out of the service
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and you brought Jesus into the service and the Holy Spirit.
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So therefore, while you're there, you need to be ready to worship and hear from
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the Lord in the Lord's house.
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But we didn't just do that right before church either. I mean,
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being in the Bible and spending time with the Lord and praying was an everyday thing.
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It was not, you know, just before church service. But I think so many people
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feel like they have no responsibility whatsoever,
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If you're looking at things above, you're praying for the service.
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You're praying for the people that are going to come into the service.
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You're praying for the people who are leading the service. You're praying for
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the people who are singing.
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You're praying for the souls that are going to come that need to be saved,
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those that are burdened, that need to be relieved.
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You are speaking to the Lord on behalf of others because He says to pray you
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one for another because the effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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We have a responsibility to be,
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instant in season and out of season and ready to give an answer for the hope
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that is in us so that when we see a person in need, we don't have to spend so
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much time getting ourself ready before we can present them to the Lord.
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And coming to church should be a time when you are at your best,
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not just in your Sunday best, but at your best.
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Amen. So before we leave this idea about setting our priorities and our time.
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We've talked about the priority of time with the Lord and time in worship,
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but I want to talk about how our direction for our priorities may change in our,
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say, like in our workplace, right, where we spend our day, right?
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So if we're spending our day in our workplace, how do our want-tos,
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and I'll say our priorities, our affections and our priorities change when we're there doing a job?
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How should that change? Because we have set our mind on things above.
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Because when you're not thinking on things above and you're thinking on yourselves,
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you're going to try to be dog-eat-dog and you'll take every advantage you can
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to beat the next person beside of you.
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You'll cheat the company out of time. You'll take home paper clips that don't belong to you.
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I mean, those are the kind of things that you do and you don't think anything
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of it. But now that you're looking on heavenly things where you know that God provides the work.
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Provide you the job and that everything you do, whatsoever you do,
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do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men is what Colossians 3.23 says.
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When you understand that, then you're going to come to work and you're going
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to be the one that's there trying to bring a positive attitude.
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You're going to work and do the job you're supposed to do. You're going to be
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gracious to your colleagues. You're going to be helpful and maybe you were the
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person who wouldn't assist to anybody, but now you are going to lend a helping
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hand because you're the hands and feet of Jesus.
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You're not going to walk in there, most likely, especially if you want to keep
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your job, and start, you know, squalling about Bible verses and telling people
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you're going to hell, and, you know, that's not how you're going to do it.
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You're going to come in happy even when things are difficult.
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You're going to be calm during the stressful chaos.
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You're going to bring a sense of something they want, and they want to know
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how you're able to do that. And you're going to be able to then say,
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because Jesus lives in me and the peace of God rules my heart and mind.
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And that's the change that's going to be, because you probably before were one
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of the complainers, one of the murmurs, but now you're one with a solution.
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You're one coming with a joyous attitude.
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You are trying to uplift instead of destroy.
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Amen. Amen. You know, Monday's podcast I said a lot of things in it.
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And if you haven't listened to it, I really do encourage you to listen.
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But so much of what you talked about on Monday to me came down to how when our
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mind is set on things above, our choices are different, our conduct is different,
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and our attitudes are different.
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Each of those reflect Jesus and Christ's kingdom as opposed to reflecting us.
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I think that I'd like to close with that. Our choices, our conduct, and our attitudes.
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We're called into a different direction.
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And those things, all three of them, become different.
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And I think what we know is that God's Word directs us in all of those things.
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And when we are looking above, the choices that we make really do dictate how
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we live and how we conduct ourselves.
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And our choices can affect our attitude in many ways, but we are now...
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Free from the burden of the penalty of sin.
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And we are no longer enslaved to sin. And sin is death and defeating and destroying.
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And so we no longer are just relying on ourselves to make the right decisions
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because we don't know what is right.
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We are now listening to an almighty God who is present in past,
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present, and future all at once, who knows the plans that he has for us,
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who's going to equip us to do that, to strengthen us, to give us hope.
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To enable us to do what he's asking us to do.
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And we can ask him, look, this is the situation that you have allowed into my life.
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Therefore, you are with me and you have a plan to deliver me or an expected
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end for how this is going to turn out.
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So I want to follow what you have for me, Lord. So tell me what I'm supposed to do.
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And when he gives you those answers and you follow those answers and you're
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going to have the right conduct and you have the right attitude,
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but you got to have the right attitude to go to him first in order to be able
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to make the right choice. Absolutely.
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You closed on Monday with this question.
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Where's your anchor? Wasn't the actual end, total end of the message, but it was near the end.
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Where's your anchor? I want to be anchored in Christ.
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I want to be anchored to the solid rock, right? We know what it's like when
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your anchor just goes down into sand or into mud, right? If you get jostled
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around, you can pop that anchor right up.
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But when you can get an anchor that hooks tightly on a rock, the boat's not moving.
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The Anchor Holds. The Anchor Holds. What a song.
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But that's my goal, is to have my anchor,
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be so hooked on Christ that my choices, my conduct, my attitudes,
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my affections, my priorities, my decisions,
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reflect Christ's kingdom and all that he does for us.
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I think this passage in Colossians, Colossians 3, 1 through 4,
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is one that every Christian should go back and read regularly.
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It's very uplifting because it teaches us to remember that we've been created
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with Christ Jesus, so we have a new position in him to seek things that are above,
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to set our minds on eternal realities,
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to rest in our secure identity in Christ. We know who we are because we're His.
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And to look forward to His appearing. And everything about that sort of tunes
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up your walk, your talk, and your attitude. Amen. I like that tune-up.
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I'm tucked into Jesus, anchored on Christ, and thankful that I can get a daily
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tune-up whenever I need a tune-up.
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Because when Christ is in our life, our hearts should pursue him,
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our minds should be shaped by him and our hope,
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should be fixed on his return friends I pray that this conversation has been a blessing to you,
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if it has we would love for you to drop us a note you can reach out to us on
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Facebook you can reach out through our website at watwm.org,
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we would love to hear from you thank you for listening Remember,
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