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650 | He is Faithful to Forgive · 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 well in John chapter 4.
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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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  Aren't you glad God does not require perfection? He knew we were humans and
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  as such that we would not be able to get it right all of the time.
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  Though he asks us to walk in holiness and to strive towards perfection,
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  he allows us to make mistakes if we but come to him in repentance.
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  God is faithful to forgive if only we confess our sins.
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  1 John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
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  us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  Join us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim speaks on the forgiveness of God.
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  Hello, and thanks for joining us. I think that one of the most effective tools
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  that the devil has in his arsenal is that of guilt.
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  And I believe that every single thing that we've done wrong,
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  every single thing that we've fought that was wrong, every wrong,
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  intent, anything negative that has been in our lives or around our lives that
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  has touched us directly or indirectly, I believe that the devil keeps some sort
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  of record of it and as such i believe he's able,
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  to just throw that back in our faces,
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  whenever he finds it necessary causing us,
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  to want to blame ourselves to look poorly upon ourselves to make us think that we're not worthy
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  and it keeps us from doing an awful lot of things that the god of the universe
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  calls us to do that we are fully capable of doing and that he has equipped us
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  to do, but because we don't believe we can do it,
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  or we don't believe that he would call us to do it, we don't do it.
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  And as such, then the devil keeps a whole lot of people away from doing what God wants us to do.
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  A lot of times when we're growing up, we make stupid mistakes.
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  And many of us have not found our place in God's kingdom and haven't given our
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  lives over to jesus until maybe later in life.
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  And so as a result of that we lived a lot of years as the sinner,
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  Without any grace or mercy or love of God changing us, we didn't have the power
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  of God in us to change us, completely making us a new creature.
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  And we served sin, and Satan was our master. Whether we wanted to admit it or
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  not, when we hadn't received Christ as Savior, that's what we were doing.
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  And so during those times in our lives, the devil certainly didn't want us doing
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  anything fantastic or great.
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  And just to sort of keep a hold on us, A lot of times I believe that snares
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  and traps he threw along our way and the world and just life in general did.
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  And we made poor choices.
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  Now, the Bible says that be not deceived. God is not mocked that whatsoever
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  man soweth that he shall also reap.
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  So we know that there are consequences. If you lived a life of riotness and you,
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  burned a lot of bridges and caused a lot of problems in your family or with
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  your friends and things, then you know that as you got older,
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  you still were dealing with some of those ramifications.
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  Perhaps you took a lot of illicit drugs, or you had a lot of behaviors that were not conducive to.
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  A healthy life, or maybe you were just out in the horseweeds all the time,
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  and so it's taking a toll on your body. Those kind of things you deal with.
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  But you see the thing that satan would tell you is is that that cancerous sore of sin that,
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  absolute blemish and tarnish in your life that happened years ago is still what
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  everybody sees and still what god sees the truth of the matter is maybe there's
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  some people in your life that won't let it go,
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  and maybe you made a horrible mistake committed some heinous sin sometime in
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  your past, and there's people in your life that you love and maybe admire and
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  have to be around a lot that are always bringing it up.
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  That's sort of a different situation and one of which we need to just cover
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  that with lots of prayer.
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  But the thing that causes you the most harm isn't the effects that those people have on you,
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  but it's the effects that you have on yourself when you won't let go and you
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  won't forgive yourself and you just.
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  Use that past mistake as a whipping post,
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  and you use it against yourself over and over and over again and any new opportunity
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  that comes your way any blessing that god wants to give you you just say no,
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  and you won't let go of it and it keeps you from reaching your potential in god,
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  and i'd like for you to just take a few moments with me to take a look at that
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  situation or that scenario in your own life in first john 1 9 he says,
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  that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
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  to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
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  and a beautiful verse underneath that is verse 10 and it says if we say that
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  we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us,
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  so those people around you who seem to be so self-righteous which is a sin in itself,
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  but who seem to act like they've never made a mistake they've never committed
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  a sin therefore they are just these elite part of God's kingdom
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  and they're just a couple rungs on the ladder above you and whenever God's handing
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  out the premier jobs they're gonna go to them you need to really take a close look.
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  Because first of all, God doesn't operate that way. He's not a respecter of persons.
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  He's looking at your availability. Once you become a child of the Most High
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  God, He's looking at how much of Him you're allowing to control your life.
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  And what He says to all of us is that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
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  What He says to each of us in verse 10 of this passage is that all of us have
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  sinned, and no matter how hard we try, we're going to sin.
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  This is why when Peter came to Jesus and he wanted to have his feet washed,
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  and Peter says to Jesus, wash me all over it, and Jesus says,
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  no, I've already washed you, whitest snow. I'm going to wash your feet.
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  One of the reasons he says that is, is he was getting the dust of the world
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  off of him, cleaning him up, and preparing him yet again for one more day of service.
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  When we have sin in our lives, God can't bless us.
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  Sin doesn't god does not hear the prayers of a person who's harboring sin,
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  the only prayer of a sinner that god hears is that of repentance because he
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  can't do that on the cross of calvary god cannot look upon sin that's why the
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  world went dark at midday and god said,
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  i can't look at him anymore and jesus said why hast thou forsaken me and at
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  noon day it was pitch black because as jesus took upon the sin of the world,
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  the god of the universe couldn't look at even his only begotten son.
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  So, you see, sin separates us from God, but it doesn't separate us from the love of God.
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  But he knew that there would be sin in our lives on a daily basis,
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  regardless of how hard we were trying to walk in holiness, regardless of how
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  hard we were trying to move towards the prize of the high calling.
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  So he gives us this beautiful verse in 1 John 1, 9.
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  And he says, if we confess our sin, the first thing we have to do is recognize the sin.
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  We have to understand that God has a set of laws that we are to abide.
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  There is a code of conduct for the Christian, and through his strength and by
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  his resources, we can walk therein.
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  But even at that, we're going to make some mistakes because our mind begins
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  to get caught up in our own self sometimes, and the devil knows exactly what buttons to push.
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  But praise be to the Lord of the universe, to the God of our salvation, that we're not,
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  absolutely bound to sin anymore because Romans 6 says that sin has no more dominion
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  over us and we can say hey I'm a child of the most high God I'm sorry,
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  and as we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and we begin to grow
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  in him and the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us he will speak to our heart and
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  convict us of those things that we need to confess to God
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  but when we confess to him we need to realize that he is faithful,
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  and he will forgive us.
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  It doesn't say he might forgive us it doesn't say that sometimes he forgives
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  us it doesn't say that only on sundays he forgives us
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  it doesn't say that we have to tell our sins to somebody else and then that
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  person goes to god and then he comes down with the verdict of what we need to
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  do and what kind of penitence we can make no the payment for sin was made a
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  long time ago on the cross of calvary
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  we have to claim his blood and we come to him and we say, Jesus,
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  I'm sorry. I made a mistake.
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  Forgive me of my sins. And the Bible says clearly right here that he is faithful
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  and just to forgive us our sins.
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  And you see, that's not where it stops. He forgives us and then he cleanses us.
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  If you get your hands good and dirty and there's mud all over them.
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  When you go in and you put it under water and it begins to cleanse it off and
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  you have washed your hands completely and cleanse them.
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  When I come back out, if I'm talking to someone else, They can't even tell that
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  my hands were ever muddy.
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  They have no way of knowing unless
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  I tell them I just potted a bunch of flowers and my hands are dirty.
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  No, when you are cleansed, you are absolutely cleaned and there's no trace of
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  the problem you had before.
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  There's no trace of the dirt.
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  My friend, this is the promise we have in Jesus, regardless of what sin you've
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  committed in your life, regardless of what sin you've just committed,
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  as God has made a new creature inside of you and you're striving to do the best thing.
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  Salvation and a relationship with Jesus is not a license to sin because we become
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  a new creature and old things are passed away, but we are walking on this earth
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  and the dust of the world can get on us.
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  But the key to living a holy and wonderful life in the will of god is that we
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  do daily introspection and we look at our lives
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  and we talk to jesus christ it says that we are to be instant in season and out of season
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  and that we are to pray without ceasing and we keep an inventory of our heart
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  in our life and we're looking at it all the time and when sin touches us
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  it can't stick because of the blood on us but it leaves a little mark and we
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  come to Jesus Christ and we say, Lord, I am a sinner.
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  I'm sorry. I know you told me I should read my Bible more and I'm sorry I didn't
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  do it today. Please help me to do better tomorrow.
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  And we have this promise that he will absolutely forgive us and then he cleanses
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  us and there is no more trace of that unrighteousness.
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  And we are new in him because of him and not because of us.
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  Regardless of your sin, regardless of how heinous your people around you may
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  call it or society may call it, we're the one that labels sin.
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  Jesus says that sin is sin.
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  And sin is anything that separates us from God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
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  You will go to hell by your own choice if you don't have a personal relationship with him.
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  But you don't need to live a defeated life because he said I come to give you
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  life and that you might have it more abundantly so as the sin of the world gets
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  upon you when you come to Jesus with a repentant heart,
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  you can have the full assurance that he will forgive you and he will cleanse
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  you and it's without a trace and then you are as fit for the kingdom as any Christian you know,
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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. If it has, please consider leaving
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  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.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, Jesus loves you.