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479 | Cords of the Cross · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  God is in control.
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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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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, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more 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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  What was it that held Christ to the cross? It was not the centurion guards. It was not the nails.
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  It wasn't anything but His amazing and marvelous love that held Him to the cross.
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  Come join Kim in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as she takes us
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  on a journey through the scriptures to discover the cords that held our Savior to the cross.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries. Let's pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just pray that you
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  would settle our hearts and our minds, that you would open up our hearts and
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  that you would fill it with what you would have us to learn from the Word as we read it.
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  As I give out what you've given me, Lord, I pray that we would walk away from
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  this message we're deeply in love with you and with a greater understanding of your love for us.
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  Be in every word that is spoken and remove me, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  I believe that all of us in our lifetime have experienced a time when we doubt if we are loved.
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  I think sometimes we find ourselves, it could be a friend, it could be a rejection
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  at work, it could just be a social awkwardness that you find yourself in.
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  But there's some moment in time, and maybe it's briefly and for many it lasts
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  a long time, But you find yourself wondering if you are enough, if you're okay.
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  Does anyone truly, really love me?
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  And for all of us, that is a lie straight from the devil, that it would even
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  have us to question whether we are loved.
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  And for all of us, we need to stop for a moment and really look at how much we are loved by God.
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  And nothing proves his love any more to us than his willingly self-sacrifice
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  of his own life to pay the penalty for our sins.
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  And when we begin to think about that love, we begin to understand the true goodness of God.
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  And so I want to walk through the cords of the cross.
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  What was it that really held him to the cross?
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  It wasn't because he was friendless. If we look in Matthew 26,
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  verse 53, it says, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father,
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  and he shall presently give me more than twelve legion of angels?
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  So in the terms of thinking about him not being friendless, he says,
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  No greater love hath any man than this, than a man would lay down his life for his friends.
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  And Jesus is a friend to all.
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  But few really are a friend to him.
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  Abraham is noted as being a friend of God.
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  Mary and Martha and Lazarus are spoken about as his friends.
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  The scripture says, if you love me, you are my friends.
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  But in this context, when we think about the cross, he could have called 12
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  legions of angels to destroy the world.
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  But he chose to stay on the cross.
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  So it wasn't that he didn't have any friends.
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  And it wasn't that he didn't have a way out.
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  He was fully man and he was fully God. But it wasn't human weakness that held him to the cross either.
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  Because when we look at John chapter 10 and verse 18, it reads this,
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  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
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  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.
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  This commandment have I received of my Father.
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  So it wasn't because he could
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  not get himself down which
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  had to have been the popular opinion especially of those that were gambling
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  at the foot of his cross he had spoken about him being the son of god he had
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  spoken about the power and the might they had seen him heal people They had
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  seen him do amazing miracles,
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  such as turning water into wine, such as putting back Amalekus' ear.
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  But yet, when they saw him on the cross, beaten, despised, mocked,
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  and ridiculed, they had to have thought he was weak.
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  But I have to say that he
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  shows his power and his strength perhaps the
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  most greatest in that moment if
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  you go back and look at the account of the
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  crazy trial that they
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  put jesus through and you continually read
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  where he says he said not a word the self-control of that is overwhelming jesus
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  did not need to justify himself to man because man was beneath him. They were under him.
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  Jesus did not feel that he needed to justify himself and to defend himself because
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  the life he had lived had done that very thing all along.
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  What Jesus did was he allowed his life to demonstrate who he was.
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  And his actions never betrayed his heart.
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  And he was tempted, though, as we are, yet he was without sin.
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  When we think about Jesus on the cross, we have to know what held him there.
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  And it wasn't because he was unable to get himself down. It wasn't because he.
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  Couldn't call on somebody else to help him.
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  It was his marvelous love for you and me that held him to the cross.
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  When you think about how he held to what he knew was true,
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  how he stayed steadfast with his face during the difficult times,
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  how he didn't engage in nonsense conversations that were going to go nowhere
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  because you cannot have a godly conversation with an ungodly person.
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  You can't witness to an ungodly person.
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  You can demonstrate and show the love of God, but that individual is not going
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  to contribute godliness to you if they don't have any in them.
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  And when he stood trial by Pilate to refute what Pilate was saying was futile,
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  because there was no truth in it.
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  And Pilate knew there was no truth in it.
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  Sanhedrin always knew there was no truth in what they were saying.
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  They were always trying to trap him.
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  And Jesus said not a word.
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  There's a lot we can learn from that, friends. In his most difficult times,
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  when people were betraying him, when people were hurting him physically,
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  emotionally, even probably spiritually.
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  Jesus let his life do the talking.
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  Now, let's stop for a moment and see what story our life tells.
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  To those that are reading your life story by your actions, where does it lead them to?
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  Are they being led to the foot of the cross?
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  Are they seeing Jesus in you? Are you a peculiar person, zealous of good works?
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  Or do you blend into the world? The Bible tells us in James 4.4 that to be friends
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  with the world is to be enemy with God.
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  Brothers and sisters, we need to live a life that demonstrates Jesus dwells inside of us.
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  I liken that to communities. When you go to a very ritzy, high-dollar community,
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  there are some things there that market as that.
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  But more importantly, there are things that are omitted from there that truly market. it.
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  You're not going to go in to a
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  gated community where homes are a million dollars up and find potholes in the
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  streets or trash gathered on the lawn or grass up to the windows.
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  You're probably not going to find a 25
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  year old beat up holes in its boat on
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  a broken down trailer in front of the driveway
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  no because in that neighborhood there is a standard there is a class there is
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  an order there are expectations that you live in this neighborhood you're going
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  to look like you live in this neighborhood.
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  And they're not going to tolerate anything that detracts from the value of their
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  property and their home.
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  And so by walking through there, you could easily spot, most likely,
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  a vehicle that didn't belong.
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  Or some other activity that doesn't follow what they're asking.
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  We understand that. We have HOAs and all kinds of things to make sure that happens.
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  But it seems to me like we don't understand that very principle when it comes to living for the Lord.
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  He said to be a peculiar person zealous of good works.
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  And so you should be able to tell who our Father is.
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  You should be able to tell Jesus lives in us you should be able to tell we love the Lord,
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  just as you could tell that in Jesus as he walked on this earth so if it wasn't
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  that he didn't have anyone that could come and help him and it wasn't because he was humanly weak,
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  and it was because of his love let's look,
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  at four cords,
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  that held our Savior to the cross.
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  First of all, chord one was the chords of our sin.
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  He took the iniquity of us all upon himself.
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  Isaiah 53.5 says, But he was wounded for our transgressions,
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  he was bruised for our iniquities,
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  the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed.
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  We are told in Romans 3.23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
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  We are told in 6.23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
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  So we need to accept Jesus as our Savior.
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  If we continue to work in the world with fleshly deeds and fleshly wants and
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  fleshly desires, we're going to reap death to our soul.
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  But he took our sin upon himself. He was wounded for our transgressions and
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  bruised for our iniquities.
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  Galatians 3.13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
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  being made a curse for us.
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  For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
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  He took our penalty of sin because we are born into this world sinners in need of a Savior.
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  Hebrews 2.9 says, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
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  for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he,
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  by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
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  Because he died and rose again, and his sinless, spotless blood washes away
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  the sin of every person who believes in him.
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  Because of that, we can be set free from the debt of sin we owe.
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  By the grace of God, He took our death to sin on the cross.
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  1 Peter 3.18 says, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
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  that just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put death in
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  the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
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  The cord that held him to the cross.
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  Our sins. He became our substitute.
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  He bore the sins of all of us.
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  In Hebrews 9.28, he says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,
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  and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time,
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  without sin unto salvation.
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  1 Peter 2.24 says, Who
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  his own self bear our sins in his own body on
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  the tree that we being dead to sins should
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  live into righteousness by whose stripes you were healed just as we were told
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  in Isaiah 53 5 by his stripes we are healed the sickness of sin no longer has
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  dominion over us when we allow Jesus to wash us white as snow,
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  In 1 John 3, 5, he says,
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  And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.
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  But when we really get it down to the very bottom of the foundational root of
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  him being our substitute for sin, it is as simple as knowing.
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  John 3, 16, which says, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
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  Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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  The cord one that we are talking about is the cord of our sins.
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  He took them willingly for us.
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  The second cord, which allowed him to let the first cord hold him,
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  is that the cord of his love, our Savior's love for us, is what it held him.
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  There is no greater love than God giving his life through his son,
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  Jesus Christ, giving his life for us.
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  John 15, 13, and we've said it, but here it is in your hearing written,
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  and we're reading, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
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  And I want you to see the self-sacrifice as it unfolds in Galatians 2,
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  20. I am crucified with Christ.
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  Nevertheless, I live, yet not
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  I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now I live in the flesh.
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  I live by the face of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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  His love for us is marvelous and amazing and beyond our real comprehension.
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  But here, as we read Galatians 2.20, he says he loved me and he gave.
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  In John 3.16, it says, for God so loved that he gave.
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  Love requires giving giving of ourself giving of our time giving of our resources.
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  Giving someone else top priority
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  in our life and god says that we'll have no other gods before us and so he's
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  asking us to love him above all else and he showed us what it means to love
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  someone because he's continually and consistently giving to us.
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  Not only is the cord of our Savior's love that held him on the cross a deep
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  and everlasting love that is self-sacrificing, but it's also inseparable.
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  Nothing will separate you from the love of God.
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  Romans 8.35-39. Let's turn there and read.
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  Romans 8.35-39 reads like this.
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  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
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  Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
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  As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
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  We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
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  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
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  For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
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  nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
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  nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
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  of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
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  our Lord. Jesus loves me.
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  This I know. For the Bible tells me so.
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  The account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is all you need to know about
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  the love God has for you and the love his son Jesus demonstrated and has for you.
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  He took the penalty of our sins.
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  That was chord one that held him on the cross. Without the shedding of blood,
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  there was going to be no remission for our sins.
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  And there was no other way.
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  And so Jesus stayed on the cross so that he could shed his blood for the redemption of our souls.
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  And it was his love for us that allowed him to stay on the cross.
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  But chord three was the fact that he resigned himself to the divine will.
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  In Matthew chapter 26 and verse 42, it says this.
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  He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my father,
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  if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.
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  Thy will be done he wasn't
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  saying that he wasn't going to
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  do what god asked him to do in fact he said the exact opposite your will i'm
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  gonna do but he wanted to know if there was any other way that was the human
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  part of jesus christ he knew what the cross was going to cost him He knew it
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  was going to cost him his life,
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  that it was going to cost him physical pain,
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  emotional pain, and tremendous suffering beyond what you and I could possibly understand.
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  But if it was the Father's will, he was willing to do it.
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  God has never asked any of us to sacrifice even close to that kind of level.
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  Yet we are having trouble on a daily basis, most of us submitting to the mighty
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  hand of God and allowing him to exalt us in his due time.
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  We are following after our own ways. We follow our flesh.
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  We give in to worldly desires and fleshly lusts.
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  When he's just saying, abstain from all appearance of evil, when he is saying,
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  be holy, for I am holy, he is not requiring of you.
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  Give your life, because giving your life couldn't save anyone,
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  because we are not sinless and spotless, and we do not have the power to lay
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  our life down and to raise it again.
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  But he who could have called 10,000 angels, who could have had any one person
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  in front of him slain just with his words,
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  stayed on the cross to pay for our sins, because he loved us,
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  and because he had given his will up for the Lord,
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  was doing the work of his Father in full obedience.
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  That's the example Christ leads for each of us.
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  He leaves that to follow him in full obedience.
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  And he will never ask you to do what he's asked Jesus to do.
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  And the final chord that I want to speak of that held Jesus to the cross was
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  his loyalty to an eternal purpose.
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  Luke 19.10 says, For the Son of Man is coming to seek and to save that which was lost.
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  2 Timothy 1.9 defines that like this, who have saved us and called us with a holy calling,
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  not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
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  which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
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  Christ's purpose was to come to earth and to seek and to save those which were
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  lost by self-sacrificing his life so that his sinless,
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  spotless blood God would wash away the sins of all those who believe.
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  Friends, if you don't feel loved, take a walk through the Bible.
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  Stop in the book of John. If you don't have much time, just stay in John 3.16.
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  We owed a sin debt we could not pay, and he paid a sin debt he did not owe.
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  It wasn't the three nails that held him to the tree. It was his love for you and me.
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  It wasn't because he didn't have any other options.
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  It was because to hold to the purpose that God had called him to,
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  there wasn't another option.
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  And he had resigned himself to do the purpose God had given him to do.
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  And he was loyal to that purpose.
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  We have to do more than remember we are loved.
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  We need to do more than place our faith in Jesus Christ.
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  We need to be, as James said, we need to let our faith work out in our lives
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  so that people see our faith because they see our works.
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  And we need to love him and love others as he has loved dust.
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  When you think about how much you're loved, let your mind reflect on the most valuable,
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  important, momentous event in the history of man, and that is the death,
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  burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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  And look in the mirror and say to yourself, it was for me he died. Remember you are loved.
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  Jesus loves you.
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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 we pray today has been
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  a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through our app our website
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  or our facebook page you can find our app by searching for a woman
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  at the Well Ministries in your app store or through our website at watwm.org.
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  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm.
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving
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  our Heavenly Father, and it is through your loving and generous support that
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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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  Music.