Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 272 | The Subtlety of the devil - Resisting the devil's temptations

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272 | The Subtlety of the devil - Resisting the devil's temptations · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Music.
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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.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  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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  Living her life for Christ, she's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl.
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  The Bible tells us to be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about
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  as a roaring lion seeking to devour you in 1 Peter 5 8.
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  God even goes so far as to tell you that you war against principalities of darkness
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  and not with things of this world in Ephesians 6.12.
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  Join us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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  journey through the scriptures, equipping us with God's plan for defeating the devil.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries
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  as we take a close look at how the devil works and how subtle he is.
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  And we're going to take a look at the life of Judas and the life of Eve and
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  see how the devil just wormed his way into the open cracks that both of those
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  individuals had given him.
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  Let's pray. Lord, I just want to thank you that you have given us all that we
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  need in order to live the godly life that you've called us.
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  I want to thank you, Holy Spirit, for dwelling in every believer's heart.
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  And Lord, I ask that you give us ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart that
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  is full of your love and your mercy and your grace.
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  And Lord, that we would put you first in all things and in all ways.
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  Lord, help us to be good soldiers of the cross.
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  Help us, Lord, to be looking for the devil and allowing you to work in us and
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  through us to feed him each and every time. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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  The scripture we're going to look at is Matthew 26,
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  verses 14-16, and he says this, Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot,
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  went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will you give me,
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  and I will deliver him unto you? This is Jesus he's talking about.
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  And they coveted with him for thirty pieces of silver. and from that time he
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  sought opportunity to betray him.
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  Judas was a person who walked with Jesus all the time and I believe that Judas loved Jesus.
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  I believe that he followed Him in many ways.
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  I I believe that he cared about Him in many ways.
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  But Judas ends up selling Jesus for money.
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  And we think about that for a moment and we say to ourselves,
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  how could Judas have ever loved him?
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  How could Judas love Him and betray him?
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  And the thought I want to lay before your hearing right now is this. We love him.
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  As born-again believers in Jesus Christ, we love Jesus.
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  But I believe that every day we are faced with opportunities to betray him.
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  And I think that unfortunately there are some times that we make decisions that
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  are contrary to the love we have for Jesus.
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  And in Judas' instance, his love for money was greater than his love for Jesus.
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  And the Bible says that we're to have no other gods before him.
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  The Bible explains to us that we must love Jesus with our whole heart,
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  our whole mind, our whole soul, our whole strength, and that we must serve Him and Him only.
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  So as we look at this passage of Scripture in Matthew 26, let's get off our
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  high horses for a moment, and let's look at how things are in our own lives. lives.
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  See, I don't believe that Judas ever started out with the intent to betray Jesus.
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  In fact, I think it was just the opposite. I think that's why he hung out with
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  him, because let's face it, he probably could have had a more lucrative job somewhere else.
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  He probably could have done better somewhere else, but Judas had a problem,
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  and that is though he loved Jesus, he loved money,
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  and he loved money more than he loved Jesus.
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  And see, the devil, he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,
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  but I want you to also know he's subtle.
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  He's always on the job, and as you open up the doors of your life and your heart
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  and your mind, even just a small crack, he oozes in like lava flowing downhill. Thank you.
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  The devil wants to distract you from the truth.
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  And the devil wants to pull you away from Jesus.
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  And he certainly doesn't want you doing the Lord's work. But he's patient.
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  See, the devil will wait. And he lies in wait, trying to trip you and cause you to stumble.
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  And some of us we don't remove these
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  rocks out of our lives we just go
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  head first headlong into the world following our fleshly desires we trip up
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  over the devil and we find ourselves in need of forgiveness because we have
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  just betrayed what our heart knows is right when it comes to our our relationship with Jesus.
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  See, we all know how to treat a friend.
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  The scriptures also tell us how to treat a friend, but we know what it means
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  to love someone, that we care more for them than we care for ourselves.
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  We know what it means to love someone and we want what's best for them.
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  We know what it means to support a friend, to help a friend in need.
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  And when we set out to be a friend, that's the friend we choose to be.
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  But as time goes on and opportunities come our way that we think are better,
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  we sometimes leave our friends in the dust.
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  Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
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  And I'm afraid that there are opportunities in our life that the devil places
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  before us where we choose things that we like, things we like to do,
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  people we love love over what Jesus says to do.
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  And in Mark 8, 36, he says, for what shall a prophet a man if he shall gain
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  the whole world and lose his own soul?
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  See, Matthew walked and talked with Jesus.
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  It's safe to say that Matthew had absolutely everything that he needed.
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  It's safe to say that when he walked with Jesus, he lacked nothing.
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  For some reason, money still meant more to him.
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  And we see in John chapter 12 and verse 6, it says that Judas was a thief.
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  So Jesus knew from the start what Judas was going to do.
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  And in the upper room, Jesus knew that Judas had a devil in him,
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  yet he showed Him the same kindness that he had showed to every other disciple.
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  And Jesus didn't put any mark of shame or treat Him differently because he knew
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  he was a thief, as we're told in John 12, verse 6, because he embezzled from the disciples.
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  But there's no record in Scripture where he was ever in danger of being charged with this crime.
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  Jesus treated Judas like he treated everyone else.
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  And there's a lot of different things in Scripture that leads me to believe
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  that it wasn't that he hated Jesus that caused him to sell Jesus to someone
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  else, but that it was his love of money.
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  And that it wasn't anything else that made Judas a traitor. He just loved money more than Jesus.
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  And it begs this question in our lives. What truly is the most important thing to you?
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  Do you really put God in front of your family? Do you really put God in front of your finances?
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  Do you put God in front of your hobbies? Or do you have something else that
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  is at the center of your life and everything else rotates around it?
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  Those are questions that are not that difficult to answer Because if you take
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  a look at your schedule What is the thing that doesn't get moved?
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  What is the thing that everything else is planned around?
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  For many of us we work And for most of us we work around a 40-hour job A week
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  And most of us probably have set days,
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  And so because we have to take care of our family and we have to take care of
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  ourselves, we plan everything around that because we understand the importance of it.
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  But there's a whole bunch of us within the sound of my voice who work Monday through Friday.
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  And Sunday, they don't have that obligation.
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  But yet, they don't plan with the same kind of bold ink in their schedule to
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  be at church on Sunday morning.
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  Because they say, well, that's my only day for family. Really?
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  You can't give God a couple of hours on Sunday with your family,
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  the family that God gave you?
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  And we have our children and ourselves and hobbies and in things that bring us great joy.
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  And we'll often just put church aside side or serving the Lord aside to make those happen.
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  And then there's a matter of reading your Bible in 2 Timothy 2.15 that says,
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  study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
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  rightly dividing the word of truth.
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  And we do everything else all day long, but we don't spend time in the word of God.
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  How can you claim the promises of God that you do do not know?
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  How can you have faith in Jesus when you don't know who He is?
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  How can you know the answer to life's problems when you're not seeking Him in
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  Bible study and in prayer?
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  Friends, we betray our heart, which belongs to Jesus, when we do not give Jesus
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  any time in our life. The devil's subtle.
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  He'll do it one step at a time. If you would please, I ask you to turn to Genesis
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  chapter three, a familiar account in the scriptures.
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  And it begins as this. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
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  field, which the Lord God had made.
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  And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
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  And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of
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  the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden,
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  God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye dine.
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  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
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  So right here we have a situation where Eve is talking to the serpent.
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  First of all, I want you to see that she lingers. God has already told her what is true.
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  The scriptures are there for you to know what God says.
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  You can pray and talk to the Lord and He will answer you because Jeremiah
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  33 3 says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty.
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  Things which thou knowest not.
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  And the word of God doesn't change and God doesn't change.
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  And so you have the truth before you. And she knew what God had said.
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  He said, don't eat of the tree.
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  But then the serpent says, you won't die.
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  And then he he goes on to continue his lie. For God doth know that in the day
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  ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
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  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
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  to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
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  thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.
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  So look what happened. She lingers with the devil.
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  She listens to what the devil says. She opened a crack because she listened
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  to the one she should not be listening to.
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  And she allowed him to continue. She did not shut him down, and she did not
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  refute him with the word of God.
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  She did not refute him for the truth, because when she said what God said,
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  and then he said what he said, she didn't say, but God said not eat, therefore I won't eat.
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  Instead, she let him continue to talk about what he thought was the reason God wouldn't let her eat.
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  And she lingered. See, this is how sin works in our lives.
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  See, first it starts as an exposure to it.
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  And sometimes we can't help it. You might be driving down the road and see something.
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  Someone may call and talk to
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  you and immediately before you can get them stopped, they say something.
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  But what happens next, you're in full control of.
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  See, because when you start thinking about sin and you start fantasizing about
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  how you would like to do it and what it would look like and how you could get
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  it done, then you begin to desire it.
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  And when you desire it, you're sunk because you're going to do it.
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  It's just a matter of time. So we have to stop sin between thinking of it,
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  being exposed to it, or being told of it, and fantasizing about it.
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  How do we do that? With the Word of God. You know immediately when it's not right.
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  And when that Holy Spirit within you whispers in your heart and says,
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  run, danger, danger, get away, don't do it.
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  That's when you stop it and you don't allow people to talk about it and to justify
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  it. You don't justify it.
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  You don't try to figure out why it is that you want to do it.
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  You don't figure out how it would be okay.
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  You get away and you don't linger in a conversation with the devil.
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  See, the devil right there, he was subtle. He just kept talking. She kept listening.
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  See, I believe Matthew 26, 14 through 16 explains to us a little bit about what happened with Judas.
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  See, I believe Judas put himself in a place where he was around money.
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  And Judas knew that money meant a lot to him. And Judas knew that he had a love for money.
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  And so instead of removing the temptation from himself, he buried himself right
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  in it and become the one who was in charge of the money for the 12 disciples.
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  And with time, he chose to do the wrong thing.
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  And as Judas continued to think about money, which had to be his driving force,
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  he had everything he wanted.
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  He was welcomed wherever Jesus was. He didn't need anything.
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  Money caused him to open himself up and to use Jesus as a commodity,
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  as a way to make money, to betray him and sell him.
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  It all started with his love of money.
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  In fact, Judas takes the first offer that he has because it looked good to him.
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  And he was in gain. He was making money.
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  Friend, I don't know what it is that tempts you.
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  But if you open up that crack, he's going to come in.
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  If you give the devil an inch, he's going to become the ruler of your life.
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  You see, he's patient.
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  He doesn't have to win the battle because he's going for the war.
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  And his philosophy is if he just keeps coming around, that you'll just keep
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  entertaining him until he wears you down and he's in the door.
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  And once he's in the door, once you have that crack and let him in,
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  he's going to bound that door right down.
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  And he is full-fledged in your life.
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  And our flesh wants the lies of the devil.
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  And the next thing you know, you are fully entrenched in betraying Jesus and serving Satan.
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  But God understands that Satan's coming after you, so he's given you everything
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  that you need. In 1 John 4, 4, he says that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  He also explains that when we come to Him as children, seeking Him as Savior,
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  asking Him to be king of our life and the ruler and Lord of our hearts,
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  that sin no more has dominion over us.
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  He explains that old things are passed away and all things are become new.
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  But that's when we focus on Jesus.
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  That's when we allow Him to rule in our hearts and our minds,
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  and we have to make a decision to choose Jesus and not the world.
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  The Bible tells us that Jesus said to deny yourself and take up your cross daily.
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  We are saved by the sinless, spotless blood of Jesus Christ,
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  and no man can pluck us out of his hand, according to John 10, 28.
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  We are safe and secure in Jesus, but we have to make a decision every day to
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  choose to live for Jesus.
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  The Bible says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us
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  our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  The devil is patient, but you've got to be strong.
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  And Jesus in you is stronger than him, and the light of life lives in you,
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  and it pushes out all darkness, but you've got to choose him.
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  You've got to choose to live for Jesus. You can't serve two masters,
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  for either you'll hate the one and love the other, or you'll hold to the one and despise the other.
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  Scripture says in Matthew 6, 24, that you can't serve God and mammon.
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  Revelation 3, 16 says that because you were lukewarm, you were neither cold
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  or you were neither hot, you neither would cling to Jesus or not,
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  that he'll spew you out of your mouth.
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  See, if you don't choose Jesus, you've chosen the devil.
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  And he's given us all that we need to defeat him.
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  It starts with choosing Jesus.
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  And in Ephesians chapter 6, we're given the beautiful armor of God,
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  where we have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth,
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  the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, and covering our feet with the gospel of peace.
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  He's never lost a battle, and he's not going to begin by losing yours.
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  But you've got to understand, like
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  little David did, that the battle's not yours. It belongs to the Lord.
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  See, when David was faced with the giant, he did not hang out and talk to the giant.
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  No, he went to Jesus.
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  He used what Jesus had given him. He didn't use the things of the world because
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  it didn't fit. That's why he didn't use the world's armor.
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  But he took his stones and his slingshot.
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  And in the name of the Lord, he shot the slingshot, hits the giant in the forehead,
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  and the giant falls forward.
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  You know why? Because it wasn't David's slingshot that slew the giant. It was Jesus.
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  It was God. God and David is
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  triumphant because he walked
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  through the battle of his giants in the
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  name of the Lord covered with what God had covered Him in purposed in his heart
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  to follow what God said do he didn't have any time to linger with the devil
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  he didn't pay any attention to what anyone else said.
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  He simply walked with Jesus and God.
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  He didn't have the Holy Spirit living in him, and you do.
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  So every day you face this world, you are facing it with the Holy Spirit in
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  you if you are born again Christian, with Jesus praying for you and leading you and guiding you.
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  With God being the great I am for you. Friends, you need to know that Jesus loves you.
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  And even though opportunities arise, you don't seize the opportunity to do wrong,
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  but you live each moment in faith in Jesus Christ,
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  in his mercy and his grace, being the light of the world, letting your.
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  Daniel's light was so bright that even when his circumstances turned bleak and
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  he was thrown in the lion's den, those around him said,
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  We need to spend time in the Word of God.
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  We need to suit up for the
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  battle with the devil that's coming with full
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  confidence that greater is he that is in us than he
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  that is in the world we are just pilgrims passing through this world is not
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  our home and unless you throw up the white flag open up the door for the devil
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  to get in the victory is yours because the battle belongs to the Lord.
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  Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  Music.