Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 601 | Jesus is the Beginning and The End

Transcript

601 | Jesus is the Beginning and The End · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
• 0:10
  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
• 0:14
  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:20
  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
• 0:26
  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
• 0:30
  are on our website at watwm.org.
• 0:34
  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
• 0:39
  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 1:03
  As we reflect upon our lives and determine what is important to us,
• 1:07
  it is critical that we realize that Jesus must be the center of our lives.
• 1:12
  He must be the beginning of all things and the end of all things.
• 1:16
  He can't be second place for us, and he can't be an afterthought.
• 1:20
  He must be the foundation and center from which all other things flow from our lives.
• 1:26
  Join us in this podcast as Kim Miller takes us through the scriptures and shows
• 1:30
  us God's will to have him first and foremost in our lives.
• 1:36
  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
• 1:41
  What an absolute pleasure it is to know that Jesus loves us and that he has
• 1:46
  a plan for us, that he has a desire to spend time for us.
• 1:53
  The Bible says that greater love hath no man than
• 1:56
  this that a man would lay down his life for his friends and
• 1:59
  jesus willingly laid his life down that
• 2:03
  you and i might go to heaven jesus became
• 2:07
  sin for us who knew no sin that we
• 2:10
  might be made the righteousness of god in him
• 2:13
  jesus paid a price for
• 2:17
  our sin yet he had never
• 2:20
  sinned that is
• 2:23
  amazing love and God
• 2:26
  has said thou will
• 2:30
  have no other gods before me
• 2:32
  and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit and God the Father are three in one and
• 2:41
  when Jesus came to pay our penalty for our sins he demonstrated his love for
• 2:46
  us and we love him because he first loved us.
• 2:51
  And as we begin to look at our lives and begin to think, how does our lives
• 2:57
  demonstrate or reflect any of those events that Jesus did for us?
• 3:05
  You say, well, Kim, what do you mean? I mean that when an earthly friend does
• 3:10
  something for me, my life reflects gratitude and gratefulness.
• 3:16
  People around me will know that me and that individual are friends.
• 3:21
  Conversations will take place with complete strangers
• 3:25
  to that friend but those strangers to
• 3:28
  that friend will know my friend because they know me because i have spoken of
• 3:34
  that friend see the things that we love are easily seen sports teams that we
• 3:40
  support we walk around wearing shirts and toboggans and gloves and socks.
• 3:47
  We are seen in the stadiums cheering and yelling.
• 3:51
  We are good with people knowing those people are our friend.
• 3:57
  Those teams are the ones we love. We talk of the players on the teams as if
• 4:03
  they are friends and family.
• 4:05
  And for most of us, when we're talking about pro teams, none of that is true.
• 4:10
  They're neither friend nor family.
• 4:12
  Yet the king of kings and the lord of lords who
• 4:16
  paid a sin debt for us that we couldn't pay
• 4:19
  ourselves and he didn't owe yet the
• 4:23
  savior of our souls who shed his
• 4:26
  blood and gave his life for us many of us do not speak of to anyone perhaps
• 4:33
  a select few that we go to church with that we know it's safe to speak to because
• 4:39
  they'll be in agreement and no one's going to make fun of us or no one's going to be offended.
• 4:45
  They offended our Savior when they mocked him and cast stones at him and drove
• 4:54
  his side with spears and hung him on the cross of Calvary and pressed these thorns in his scalp.
• 5:02
  And he did that with you and me on his mind.
• 5:06
  He did that because he loved us.
• 5:09
  And he said, whosoever believes on me shall be saved.
• 5:14
  And so we read in scripture
• 5:17
  that salvation is available to all of us and we see where he says come unto
• 5:23
  me as little children and so we as adults and children and young people and
• 5:29
  everybody in between begin to get an idea of what we call easy salvation.
• 5:36
  Let me clear something up for you. Salvation wasn't easy.
• 5:41
  It cost Jesus his life. It cost God his only begotten son.
• 5:47
  There was a lot of pain and turmoil and anguish and tears.
• 5:53
  There's nothing easy about salvation. The receiving of salvation,
• 5:57
  that's a different story.
• 6:00
  Because you have to believe, and he will freely give it to you.
• 6:05
  And how could you not believe in the name of the only begotten son?
• 6:08
  How could you not believe in a God that could turn water into wine,
• 6:13
  that could take four or five loaves of bread and some fish and feed 5,000 and
• 6:18
  pick up 12 baskets when the feeding is done?
• 6:21
  How could you not believe in a God that speaks and even the winds and the waves obey his will?
• 6:26
  How could you not believe in a God that provided a lamb for Abraham so that
• 6:32
  he wouldn't have to sacrifice his only son.
• 6:35
  How could you not believe in a God that kept Noah and his family safely in the ark?
• 6:42
  How could you not believe in a God that spared Daniel in the lion's den because Daniel believed?
• 6:51
  How could you not believe in a God who let a little boy named David take out
• 6:58
  a great big giant because he said the battle's not mine, it belongs to the Lord.
• 7:04
  How could you not believe in a God that broke the chains of prison?
• 7:10
  And they stood there singing praises because God was with them.
• 7:17
  Many within the sound of my voice don't believe in him.
• 7:21
  But those of you who believe in God have a responsibility to understand who he is.
• 7:29
  And from Genesis to Revelations, the greatest love letter ever written,
• 7:33
  we can know god because we can know jesus but
• 7:37
  one of the statutes in the commandments that
• 7:41
  we read is found in exodus 23 and it
• 7:43
  says thou shalt have no other gods before me he
• 7:47
  has to be your all in all but as i stated earlier how could he not be our text
• 7:54
  today comes from revelations chapter 21 verses 5 through 6 and they read as
• 7:59
  this and he that sat upon the throne said behold i make all things new.
• 8:04
  And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
• 8:09
  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
• 8:14
  end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
• 8:19
  I am the beginning and the end.
• 8:24
  Write, these things are true and faithful imagine john on the isle of patmos
• 8:31
  as he was been given all of this revelation from god and he saw the things that
• 8:36
  god was having him to write it must have been hard to take in.
• 8:41
  But I imagine there were some things that he really couldn't keep from understanding
• 8:47
  because God's love was so real and his presence was so great.
• 8:51
  And one of the things I think we as Christians, though we don't understand how we are born again,
• 8:57
  neither did Nicodemus, but we have the ability to believe through faith,
• 9:01
  and he gives us faith if we ask,
• 9:04
  but we have this faith inside of us that he continually
• 9:07
  gives us data showing that he demonstrates that
• 9:10
  he is true and that he is real and that he loves
• 9:13
  us and that his grace is sufficient but he
• 9:16
  says i am the beginning and the end if you love jesus you'll be the beginning
• 9:24
  of all you are and all you have and he will be the end of all you are and all
• 9:32
  you have You say, well, Kim, what do you mean by that?
• 9:36
  I mean that he is your all in all.
• 9:39
  That he is the center on which everything else revolves around.
• 9:43
  He is the pivotal point of all things in your life.
• 9:47
  He is the foundation of who you are.
• 9:50
  He's the foundation of how you live. His word is true, and it is faithful,
• 9:56
  and you stick to it, and you are committed to it, and you follow it and you
• 10:02
  allow him to lead you and you spend time with him, devoted time with him,
• 10:07
  scheduled time with him.
• 10:09
  He's not an afterthought or a maybe, or if I can work him in,
• 10:14
  he has distinct appointment times in your days, every day,
• 10:19
  multiple times a day for you to read his word, for you to spend time with him,
• 10:24
  for you to be still and know that he is God, for you to be able to commune with
• 10:29
  him, for you to hear what he has to say as you begin to pray and ask God to
• 10:34
  reveal to you things that you need to know.
• 10:53
  Light that I can follow. Keep me in the center of your will.
• 10:56
  He is the beginning and the end of your thoughts. He's where you go for your
• 11:01
  help. He's where you go for your joy.
• 11:03
  He's where you go for your instructions.
• 11:05
  He's where you go for your entertainment. He's where you go for your companionship.
• 11:10
  He's where you go for your comfort.
• 11:12
  He's where you go for your healing. He's where you rest
• 11:15
  your head at night as you begin to thank him for
• 11:18
  the blessings because he got you through another day
• 11:21
  not by just enduring it but you have
• 11:24
  celebrated the relationship you have with him the joy of his creation the life
• 11:30
  he has given you the calling upon it jesus loves you and you know it and you
• 11:35
  can feel it and he's the beginning of all you are he's the end of all you are
• 11:39
  and nothing in between matters,
• 11:41
  because He is everything to you.
• 11:44
  Jesus loves me. This I know.
• 11:49
  See, He says that He'll give unto them that are thirsty a fountain of water, of life freely.
• 12:00
  You can read that verse over and over and over again.
• 12:06
  And no doubt, much of that verse will speak to you in many different ways.
• 12:11
  But there's one thing he says, and he's clear, that if he's the beginning and
• 12:16
  he's the end, that when you come to him thirsty.
• 12:22
  Seeking him, wanting him, desiring him,
• 12:27
  wanting to be in the center of his will, wanting to have your heart filled with
• 12:31
  him, that he will give you the water to quench your thirst, just as he did in
• 12:37
  John chapter 4 to the woman at the well.
• 12:40
  She came with empty pots and he filled her, the overflowing.
• 12:45
  He'll do the same for you as he did for her because he's no respecter of persons.
• 12:50
  But I want you to see that it's a water of life.
• 12:54
  Do you want to know what the secret of life is? It's no secret what God can do.
• 13:02
  What he did for others, he'll do for you. It is no secret that God loves you.
• 13:09
  And when you come to him willing to make one decision every day,
• 13:15
  that is the decision to deliberately follow him.
• 13:19
  When you come to him with that in your heart and mind, then you will know the secret of life.
• 13:28
  The way to have life and to have it more abundantly because he's going to fill
• 13:32
  your thirst freely with a water that never runs dry.
• 13:39
  See, he will freely give you a life that is not attached to bondage anymore
• 13:44
  because those that love the Lord, there is therefore now no more condemnation
• 13:48
  to them that are in Christ Jesus.
• 13:51
  So the things of the world don't hold you anymore.
• 13:54
  You're no longer a slave to sin. You are free with the water of life that he
• 14:00
  gives to those who are thirst to follow and seek after him.
• 14:05
  He says, Behold, all things are passed away, and all things are become new,
• 14:08
  and we are new creatures in him. We are new in him.
• 14:12
  Sin has no more dominion over us.
• 14:16
  Now, we live in the world, and the devil is the prince of the power of the air,
• 14:21
  but we are told that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world in 1 John 4.
• 14:27
  We have a power within us to overcome anything the devil has to throw after us.
• 14:36
  But it requires a couple of things in matthew
• 14:40
  22 37 jesus said unto him thou shalt
• 14:43
  love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all
• 14:46
  thy soul with all thy mind you gotta love him above all else and above anyone
• 14:52
  else he has to be first and foremost in your life so that you can be given that
• 14:58
  free living water that will give you the life of abundance in him and the joy unspeakable.
• 15:06
  He is the greater yes. You may say no to the thing after thing of the world.
• 15:11
  You may have to say no to the flesh every day because of some addiction you
• 15:15
  might have, but he will be the greater yes.
• 15:18
  He will fill you to overflowing and he will
• 15:21
  give you what you cannot give yourself and you
• 15:24
  cannot out give him you cannot out sacrifice him
• 15:27
  he will see the things that you do and those things done in secret he will bring
• 15:32
  out into the open because jesus loves you and he wants to give to you and if
• 15:37
  you seek him you will find him and he will bless you abundantly for the life
• 15:43
  that is lived in love and devotion to him.
• 15:48
  Oh, how he loves you, and oh, how he loves me. And if people you love here on
• 15:53
  earth who are mere mortals give you things because they love you,
• 15:57
  open doors of success because they want to help you,
• 16:00
  who want good things for you, how much more will the Father of lights give you
• 16:05
  according to his riches and his glory, the things that are specifically maintained
• 16:11
  and created just for your use and your enjoyment.
• 16:15
  He knows the plans that he has. stick with him, and he will bless you abundantly.
• 16:22
  He'll give you the desires of your heart when you delight yourself in him.
• 16:26
  But it requires, as we begin to close this lesson down, that you seek him first.
• 16:33
  In Matthew 6.33, he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness
• 16:39
  and all these things shall be added unto you.
• 16:42
  When you get hooked up with Jesus and you couple up with him.
• 16:50
  And you align yourself with his will for your life, then everything else is going to fall in place.
• 16:58
  Because that's his promise.
• 17:01
  You don't have to figure anything out. You just get up every morning saying, Jesus, I choose you.
• 17:07
  I choose you over the world. I choose you over my pride. I choose you over myself.
• 17:14
  I choose the circumstance that you have for me to walk through today.
• 17:19
  Because I am so committed and my faith is so strong that I believe and that
• 17:25
  I know that all things work together for the good to them that love the Lord,
• 17:29
  to them that are called according to his purpose, as Romans 8, 28 says.
• 17:34
  And as I begin to put on the armor of God and I use it effectively as a tool
• 17:40
  against the devil because it's what you've given me.
• 17:43
  And as I walk hand in hand and side by side to you and I begin to look at Luke
• 17:48
  4, 8, I'm going to say, just as you did, get thee behind me, Satan.
• 17:52
  For it is written that thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
• 17:59
  So, Lord, right now, as we are listening to your words through me,
• 18:05
  reading straight out of your scriptures.
• 18:07
  I pray that you would give us a desire to serve you,
• 18:12
  to wrap ourselves inside of
• 18:16
  your loving care and allow you to wrap yourself around us and to hold us and
• 18:22
  to lead us and to guide us and to lose ourselves in you that we may truly find who we are meant to be.
• 18:33
  Lord, you are the beginning and you are the end.
• 18:36
  You created me and you will keep that which I have committed unto you against that very day.
• 18:41
  And at the end of life here it will be hello god.
• 18:46
  I have made my calling and election sure and it is my prayer that you have done
• 18:50
  so too and in doing so not only will he be the beginning and the end of all that you know here,
• 18:58
  he is the end in which you will wait in my father's house are many mansions
• 19:04
  and if it were not so i would have told you i go to prepare a place for you
• 19:08
  that where i am you may be also and if i go to prepare a place for you,
• 19:12
  I will come again and receive you unto myself.
• 19:15
  You got nothing to fear because perfect love casts out all fear.
• 19:20
  And Jesus loves you. This I know.
• 19:25
  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
• 19:30
  references from this episode in the show notes.
• 19:32
  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
• 19:35
  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
• 19:41
  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
• 19:45
  You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
• 19:51
  and on Facebook and Instagram.
• 19:53
  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
• 19:57
  Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit Podcast.
• 20:02
  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.
• 20:11
  She's a happy girl.