Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #198. You Can't Be Good Enough: Why It's The Best News and Why We All Need Jesus | John 2-4

Transcript

#198. You Can't Be Good Enough: Why It's The Best News and Why We All Need Jesus | John 2-4 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is a Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox.
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  Today's chapters of John two through four are full of pivotal accounts attesting to Jesus' divinity, power, and authority.
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  But John three sixteen is the most well-known Bible verse for a reason, and because our response to it is a difference between eternal life or eternal death, that is where we'll spend the majority of our time today.
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  Quickly, I wanna remind you that there are three different tracks for this podcast.
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  First of all, you could just listen to the Dwelling Place episodes.
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  As I'm reading scripture to you and praying with you, you're still getting the Word of God in your heart.
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  But secondly, you could listen to the Dwelling Place episodes in addition to listening to the chapters of scripture each day.
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  And third, if you have a little bit more capacity, you could be reading through the chapters of scripture Along with listening to episodes, as much as possible, I would encourage you to at least try to listen or read
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  these chapters of scripture.
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  Sometimes I put the Bible app on in the background when I'm getting ready for the day or cooking a meal, and it's amazing how quickly it goes.
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  But now that you have all the background information of the Old Testament, or even if you're joining us now, it's so good how the Holy Spirit works and cements the truth in our hearts, correcting any misunderstandings we have
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  about who Jesus is, and also bringing the scripture up later when we're praying through different circumstances and wondering what to do.
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  If you want a little bit more information about these different tracks, I'm gonna link in our show notes, and you can sign up on our website to be added to our Dwelling Place mailing list.
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  Then each month when I send out the new reading plan, you'll have access to that.
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  Along those lines, I realize I've been releasing episodes later in the day than I intended to, and I truly apologize We have some other big, exciting projects in the works for Entrusted, and I have a lot of things
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  going on at home.
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  I'm trying to do my best to get these out while giving these episodes on the long-awaited Messiah the attention that they're due.
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  I appreciate your grace and hope to be back on track by next week Let's turn to John chapters two through four now.
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  We have Jesus' first sign of turning water to wine, His first cleansing of the temple when He sees people being extorted And unfairly making a profit in his father's house, his zeal for the Lord leads him to knock
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  over the tables.
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  And when the Jews challenge him, he says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
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  This foretells his coming crucifixion and resurrection, but of course, they didn't understand it at the time.
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  Then in chapter three, Nicodemus, a religious leader, comes to Jesus at night.
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  That's the account we'll focus on today.
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  And then there's an encounter with John the Baptist and his disciples.
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  Then Jesus has a providential interaction with the woman at the well, and her evangelistic impact on the people is going to provide the perfect prayer for our kids finally, Jesus understands the love of a father and he heals
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  an official's son from afar We'll begin in chapter three.
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  and I want you to listen for the rightfully infamous John 3:16.
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  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
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  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
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  Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
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  Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?
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  Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
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  Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
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  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
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  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
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  Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be?"
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  Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel, And yet you do not understand these things?
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  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
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  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
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  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
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  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
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  And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
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  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
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  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
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  After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.
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  John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized.
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  for John had not yet been put in prison.
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  Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a few over purification.
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  And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him."
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  John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
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  You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.'
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  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.
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  The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.
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  Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
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  He must increase, but I must decrease.
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  He who comes from above is above all.
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  He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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  He who comes from heaven is above all.
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  He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.
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  For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
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  The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
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  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
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  Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
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  There are two different circumstances here.
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  First, let's talk about this leader of the Pharisees, Nicodemus.
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  Jesus says to him, You, the teacher of the law?"
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  By using the definitive article, Jesus reveals that Nicodemus was one of the leading teachers of all the Pharisees.
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  He came from a particularly significant line and certainly had memorized all six hundred and thirty-two laws of the Torah and had sought to obey them his entire life.
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  He was a doer.
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  He understood what to do to follow the Word of God and yet Jesus is explaining to him something he just can't wrap his mind around, that what he needs most, he cannot do.
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  He is powerless to produce the forgiveness that he needs What's translated as born again Also means born from above.
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  he needs the help of God above to awaken this spiritual change One of my key takeaways as we studied the Old Testament this year was how hopeless it was to live a righteous life, was how hopeless it was
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  to try to live a righteous life without the Holy Spirit.
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  We saw character after character fall into sin, and it was rare that someone walked their talk for a lifetime of faithfulness and in this exchange with Nicodemus and Jesus, A word comes up in the Greek That's really important.
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  It's dunamis, which means power over and over.
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  It's brought up as Jesus reveals you need this power from above.
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  You don't have the power in you for your salvation.
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  You need the Son of God.
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  Then Jesus points to an example in Israel's history.
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  If we go back to Numbers 21, we read a story right after God gave the Israelites a victory over the Canaanites.
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  the people began complaining once again about the food that God was providing for them.
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  They say they loathe the worthless food.
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  Side note, I like to remind my kids that God is not okay with us complaining about what He's provided for us to eat.
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  God's response to their ungrateful hearts is to send fiery serpents.
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  They begin biting the Israelites, and people are dying.
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  Moses inquires of the Lord what to do, and instead of God taking away the presence of the snakes, He tells Moses to make a fiery serpent out of bronze and set it on a pole so that whenever someone
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  is bitten, they can look to it and live God gives the people an opportunity to express their faith and obedience in Him By looking to this snake on a stick this picture of physical salvation is a picture of
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  Jesus' future spiritual salvation and the people can say, "God, I trust in you for the healing that I need from this lethal snake bite."
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  Jesus brings up this situation to tell us that looking to Him is a way to be spiritually saved.
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  There is no other way.
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  We cannot do it in our own strength.
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  And this is the most important decision you will ever make.
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  Will you look to Jesus Christ to save you from your sins?
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  News headlines and the daily occurrences in our homes show us that we are all sinners.
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  Don't you find yourself falling short every single day?
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  We need the grace of Jesus Christ, and we need His Holy Spirit to empower us to live lives to glorify Him.
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  And His salvation is available to everyone who believes.
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  If you do not believe, you are condemning yourself to judgment and to hell because He willingly died for you.
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  And why did God send Jesus to sacrifice Himself for us?
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  Because God loved the world I heard a pastor explain that some people have a misunderstanding that God is a judgmental, harsh father, and Jesus is his gracious son that wanted to sacrifice for us.
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  That's fully inaccurate.
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  Jesus is the perfect picture of the Father.
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  God's love for us produced the cross.
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  The cross did not produce God's love for us.
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  It's the love of God the Father, who we've read is merciful and slow to anger, that allowed His Son to die an excruciating death to pay the payment for your sins and mine.
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  I want to ensure you understand Jesus is the only way.
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  He declared He is the way, the truth, and the life, and these gospels were written that you would understand and believe He is the Son of God.
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  There's no other way to the Father if you want to gamble with that truth, you're gambling with your very eternity.
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  Also, if you attempt to teach your children that they are already worthy and enough is like allowing your child to have one of these poisonous snake bites and not taking them to the hospital to be healed.
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  The most loving thing we can do for our kids is to point them to their need for a savior.
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  If we pretend that they don't have a sin problem, we're deceiving them and setting them up for a life of self-sufficiency.
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  Instead, we can humbly acknowledge that we are sinners and that the grace of Jesus has changed our lives We get to model for our kids what a blessing it is to know that we can't do it.
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  We cannot save ourselves.
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  We are powerless, but Jesus has power over all.
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  And that reality produces true joy and satisfaction.
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  How beautiful is it that in the next account John the Baptist humbly declares that he wants Jesus elevated over all.
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  This is a man that gets Jesus' mission and messiahship John's followers are concerned because the crowds aren't coming to him as much anymore.
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  They're flocking to Jesus and his disciples.
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  And John is like, what did you miss?
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  The entire time I've said I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes.
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  My whole job was to prepare the way for the Lord.
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  This was the goal.
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  Here he is."
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  Just as in ancient times, people would go before the king to make sure that the road was prepared for his journey, that was John's role, and he understood it.
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  Next, John gives a picture of a groom and his best man, and apparently this role has changed radically from the time of Christ because when Jesus and John walked the earth, the friend of the bridegroom played a pivotal
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  role in the wedding ceremony.
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  He's the one that went and got the bride and brought her to the groom John says my whole goal was to point to Jesus Christ and bring his bride to him.
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  I love his attitude when he says, This joy of mine is now complete.
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  He must increase, but I must decrease."
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  And it's such a good heart reset for us.
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  Instead of you and I trying to be all things for our kids Attempting to hop on every self-improvement plan, we can say, You know what, Jesus?
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  I am so much weaker than I want to acknowledge.
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  I struggle to have two productive days in a row.
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  My to-do lists rarely get crossed off, and I lose my patience more than I care to admit.
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  I want comfort and provision more than I want to sacrifice for others.
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  I need you to transform me.
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  I must decrease, and you must increase in me, Jesus."
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  Praise God that that's exactly who we serve, a God who knows how weak we are, that we are dust, and He does not condemn us.
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  In fact, we're condemned if we reject Him.
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  And in chapter four, it's the woman at the well that gets transformed by the truth that Jesus the Messiah is now here Time permits us from diving fully into the story, but I need you to understand a couple
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  things about the Savior.
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  First, Jewish men never walked through Samaria.
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  And the Jews looked down upon the Samaritans, particularly women.
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  They were considered the lowliest people in existence to a Jewish man.
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  But here, our Savior chose this path that would take Him right through Samaria so He could have this encounter with the woman.
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  Instead of ignoring her, He asks for a drink of water, and then reveals Himself to be the source of living water.
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  In order for her to understand just who was talking to her, He shares that He knows she's been divorced five times, and she's now living with a man that is not her husband.
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  Certainly, this woman's life has not gone how she wanted it to.
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  Her life has probably been riddled with disappointment, rejection, compromise, and sin.
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  But that's exactly who Jesus came for.
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  He Himself said, I didn't come for the healthy.
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  I came for the sick."
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  Your sin does not disqualify you from the grace of Jesus Christ.
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  It qualifies you, tara-Leigh Cobble has an interesting theory that this woman may have been barren.
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  It was considered the greatest shame if a wife could not produce children, and Jewish men were permitted to divorce their wives when this was the circumstance.
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  It's possible that this woman's five divorces are a result of that, and not just immorality.
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  Clearly, there is sin as well in her story But if this barrenness is the case, can you imagine a woman who's been rejected over and over, and now the Messiah specifically comes and chooses her?
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  Jesus provides her hope that a time is coming when people don't just worship in the temple he wanted followers who would worship Him in their hearts, in spirit, and in truth God was coming to dwell with the people,
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  not just in a building.
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  she has the honor of becoming one of the very first evangelists.
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  She runs into town and says, Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did."
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  Many Samaritans believed because of her testimony.
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  And I love, love, love praying this verse over my kids.
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  The people say to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world Heavenly Father, we are
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  in awe of the goodness of Your Son.
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  We thank You that He is the perfect image of the unseen God, and that all of the goodness and the love that You have has been revealed through Your Son, Jesus Christ.
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  We thank You that through Him, we can better understand the Old Testament.
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  We see You are a God merciful, forgiving, and slow to anger, and we recognize a sacrificial God continually reaching out to a people who reject Him.
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  and a God that is relentless in His love.
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  I pray in Jesus' name that anyone listening to this podcast that has not fully submitted their lives to You, Lord Jesus, that they would understand how deeply loved they are by You, and that they would not reject You
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  anymore, but would say, I have no hope in living life my own way.
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  I need you, Jesus."
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  And I pray for every child represented by these moms, that they wouldn't just hear us speak of your goodness, God, but that they would believe it for themselves.
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  Just as these people said to the woman at the well, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the
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  world."
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  we pray that faith for our kids.
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  We also ask like John that we would decrease and you would increase in us, Lord.
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  As we train and instruct our kids, allow us to speak your words.
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  Give us the Spirit without measure.
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  We long to be faithful to testify to you to the watching world just as this woman did.
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  Thank you, Jesus, for the perfection of your love, the depth of your sacrifice, and your relentless pursuit of us.
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  It's in your name we pray, amen