Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 342 | Conversations - Proverbs 9

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342 | Conversations - Proverbs 9 · 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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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we continue a series on the book of Proverbs,
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  and in today's podcast, we are discussing the lessons learned in Proverbs 9.
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  Well, hello, everyone. My name is Erica Close, and I am here with Kimberly Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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  I'm excited as we hit Proverbs 9 and really begin to see what wisdom does and
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  the value and the benefit of wisdom.
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  We've talked about it much all the way through the first eight chapters,
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  but there's just some verses in Proverbs chapter nine that stir the soul and change the heart.
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  And so I would just like at this time without further ado to have Erica take
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  us in through the beginning of Proverbs chapter nine, and I'll pick it up in
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  the middle. All right, here we go.
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  Verse one, wisdom has built it. Her house. She has hewn out her seven pillars.
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  She has killed her beast. The,
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  She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table.
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  She hath set forth her maidens. She crieth upon the highest places of the city.
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  Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding,
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  she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
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  Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding.
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  He that reproveth a scorner, getteth to himself shame, and he that rebuketh
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  a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
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  Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
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  Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man,
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  and he will increase in learning.
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  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
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  For by me thy days shall be multiplied, supplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
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  If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou scornest,
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  thou alone shalt bear it.
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  A foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple, and knoweth nothing.
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  For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the
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  city, to call passengers who go right on their ways.
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  Whoso is simple, bull, let him turn
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  in hither, and as for him that wanteth understanding, she sayeth to him.
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  Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,
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  but he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
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  Oh my goodness. This, you know, it's amazing.
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  I've so enjoyed spending so much time in all of these Proverbs and looking Looking
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  at the similarities and the differences among so many proverbs,
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  the examples that are used, it's amazing.
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  But this one, I was really excited about this proverb.
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  I love that in the same ways that we have spent so much time talking about how
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  sin calls out to people and entices people to follow sin and to do the wrong
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  thing and to choose the wrong path,
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  what chapter 9 says is that wisdom also cries out and wisdom calls and wisdom
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  calls in the same way that sin calls.
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  So wisdom built a house. Wisdom prepares a meal.
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  She cries upon the highest parts of the city and says, if you're simple, turn in hither.
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  Like if you want understanding, if you need understanding, turn in.
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  If you want understanding, come eat, drink. Okay.
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  Right? Forsake the foolish. That call of wisdom.
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  It's a divine call. It's a divine call on our lives to come and literally to sup with wisdom.
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  And it's promised to us. Absolutely.
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  When you look at Proverbs 2, you were talking about going back and forth.
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  When you look at Proverbs 2, verse 6, it says, For the Lord giveth wisdom out
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  of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
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  And we are told in this ninth chapter of Proverbs that we are guaranteed wisdom
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  if we turn in and ask for it. I love the turning part.
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  Turn, that's leaving behind and turning for a new way.
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  And we know that when we are saved, he says that old things are become new,
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  that all things have become new because old things are passed away.
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  And that is something we need to understand is that there's a repentance.
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  Repentance means turning from.
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  And so we turn from our self-centeredness. We turn from our self-dependence
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  and we turn from our wicked ways and allow him to change us,
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  lead us, guide us, and direct us.
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  And it starts with that turning into wisdom.
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  And when we turn into wisdom, we turn to relationship, right?
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  We turn to to sitting down and having a meal, right?
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  We turn to time spent. We turn to time for learning and for understanding.
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  It's not just we get to understand the set of rules or something like that. That's not what it is.
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  It's a divine call to have a holy understanding of how we're to live in this world.
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  And as you move further into this chapter, it talks about.
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  It's an analogy of having our thirst satisfied, having the spiritual food.
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  In other words, the wisdom, which starts with the fear of the Lord,
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  is what's going to satisfy us for the long haul.
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  It's not a bunch of sugar we burn up fast and want more than we wanted before we even ate the sugar.
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  No, this is a long lasting, fully satisfying ingestion of who God is.
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  There's a whole section here in 7, 8,
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  and 9 that I think is really interesting because it talks about how those with
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  wisdom, when they are reproving or correcting someone who doesn't know God,
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  they're really speaking like two different languages, right? Right.
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  When we try to explain or give wisdom sometimes of the holy to those who have
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  no concept of who God is, it doesn't always go well.
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  No. And we know that we are supposed to witness and be a light to them.
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  But I believe they're telling us, you know, pretty much give them the truth.
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  Allow them to know who I am because you've spoken it. But don't argue me.
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  Don't try to defend offend me. Just speak the truth and move on because they
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  have no capacity to hear and understand.
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  And I think it talks about just the foolishness of arguing the Bible.
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  Jesus didn't argue it either. He stated it and he moved on.
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  Absolutely. That passage also then goes on to talk about the value you of correcting a wise man.
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  Wisdom is being able to learn from our errors.
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  When we gain wisdom, we may make a mistake, but if we have wisdom,
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  we can learn from that error.
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  And it's talking about how we need to be spiritually receptive.
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  We need to be seeking.
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  In Matthew 6, 33, it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God,
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  and all these things will be added unto you. Seek Jesus.
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  If you look at Matthew 7, 7, he says, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find.
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  And so the reality of it is, is that we need to have a teachable spirit,
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  and the Holy Spirit is the master teacher.
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  And we need to be able to discern when people are speaking to us,
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  whether it is truth or or heresy.
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  And we need to be quick to respond to the truth of God. We need to have a spiritual.
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  Receptivity that allows us to receive what God wants to tell us.
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  We cannot be wise in our own eyes. We have to depart from evil.
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  Absolutely. So let's park for in verses 10 through 12 for a minute.
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  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
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  For by me, meaning by wisdom, thy days shall be multiplied and the years of
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  thy life shall be increased.
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  If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou scornest,
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  thou alone shalt bear it.
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  We cannot scorn the Lord, right? We gain wisdom by the fear of him and the knowledge of the holy.
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  And it's a personal responsibility, just like salvation is a personal choice.
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  We can't be saved for anyone. If we could, we'd all be saved for everybody because
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  we wouldn't want anyone to go to hell. He doesn't want anyone to go to hell.
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  He says that he wishes that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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  It is a personal choice we make to either choose Jesus and live for eternity
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  in heaven or choose the devil, and you still live for eternity, but it is in hell.
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  But it's a personal choice.
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  And no one is doomed to hell and no one gets a pass to heaven. It is a personal choice.
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  Absolutely. And it's a personal choice that comes with such blessing.
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  I love that this passage, this section just talks about wisdom and understanding.
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  I know that so many times that as I go throughout my days, I'm asking for wisdom
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  in situations. I'm asking for understanding.
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  I think that if we look at what we've read just in the first nine chapters of
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  Proverbs, we see that wisdom is something that is given to us,
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  right? Wisdom is something we can attain.
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  It is something that we can have, but we get it by fearing the Lord.
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  We get it by having the knowledge of the Holy.
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  We get it through that relationship. Amen.
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  So I think that this last section of this chapter is really going back to many
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  of the other things, right, that we've already talked about in so many of our other proverbs, right?
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  It talks about the foolish woman that is clamorous, that is clamoring and sitting at the doorway.
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  Once again, I think we're talking about that call of sin. in.
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  And here it's completely contrasted from the beginning where it's the call of wisdom.
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  And it's kind of amazing because the verses talk about the foolish woman is
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  simple and knoweth nothing, which is sin.
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  And she's sitting in her door and she's crying out.
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  And what's amazing is if you compare
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  verse 4 in chapter 9 and verse 16 in chapter 9, it's the same call.
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  Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither, right?
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  Just like we have to turn to wisdom, we have to make a choice and turn to sin.
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  And it's the same turn. It's a turn. It's not the same turn,
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  but we have to make a turn.
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  It's the same process. Right. And what I also see in this verse in 14 is is
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  that this call to sin, it's the worldly way. It's conspicuous.
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  It's the trend.
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  It's the cool thing.
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  I mean, it is always going to be something that most people are going to consider
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  right, and it's always going to appeal to the flesh.
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  But God is what appeals to the soul and the heart, and he takes care of the flesh. Oh, I love that.
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  Instead of leading with the flesh, we lead with a heart that is committed to
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  God and he then takes care of the flesh.
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  Absolutely. I notice and I appreciate that in verse 15, it talks about to call
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  passengers who go right on their ways, right?
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  Sin is coming after those who are following the Lord, like those that going
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  in the right way on the right path.
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  We need to remember that we're never immune to the call of sin.
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  The devil is always going to be calling, and he's going to call harder on people
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  who know the Lord, who are on the correct path.
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  Because it says that the devil walketh about as a roaring lion,
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  seeking whom he may devour.
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  And why in the world would you spend your energy, your effort,
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  in your time on something you already have.
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  So if they're already hooked on sin and serving him, he's not wasting any of his time on him.
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  He's going after what he doesn't have.
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  He's targeting what is a good work for the Lord because he wants to shut down the work of the Lord.
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  But greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
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  He's not going to shut it down, but he's attacking.
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  The more you do for the Lord, the more he's coming after you.
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  Absolutely. The last couple of verses just talk about how stolen waters are
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  sweet and bread eaten and secret is pleasant.
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  Sin is enticing, but we can completely contrast that with With here we have stolen water and bread.
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  But if we look at that meal that comes with wisdom, right?
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  It's, it's, there's, there's meat there. There's bread. There's,
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  you know, there's, there's wine.
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  There's all the, it's, it's a better meal than stolen water and some secret bread.
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  And, you know, there's pleasure and sin for a season and it looks sweet and
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  it looks compelling. but the truth is that it's destruction and death.
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  And the people who are already taking it, they're already in a place of death.
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  And the reality of it is, is that God come that we might live and have a very abundant life.
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  And when it says eating in the secret places is pleasant, isn't people of fleshly
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  desires and sinful, wicked ways.
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  Darkness is about them, and they are happy in the dark.
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  But the Bible says those that love darkness rather than light, their deeds are evil.
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  When you have to do it in secret, you can be sure you shouldn't be doing it. Absolutely.
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  I think we can just close with that last verse that talks about where the guests
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  of sin are, because the guests of sin are landing in the depths of hell.
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  But the guests of wisdom are in the house of wisdom, a house with seven pillars.
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  It's a big, beautiful house. They're in the Lord's house. but those that are
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  going after sin are coming to a different and very sad end.
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  Well, thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  We hope that walking through Proverbs chapter 9 with us has sparked an interest
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  in your heart to know Him better, to seek after wisdom,
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  and to remove your desires and your ways that are are sinful and wicked that
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  don't line up with the word of God.
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  And all you have to do is confess your sins and he's faithful and just to forgive
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  you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
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  All you have to do is turn to him.
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  One step toward him and he will come flooding to you because he says if you'll.
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  Draw nigh to him, he will draw nigh to you. It is our prayer that you know him today.
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  It is our prayer that you every day spend time in his word.
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  Thank you so much for joining us. And remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Music.