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269 | How Is Jesus Treated in Your Home? · 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 in 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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How do you treat Jesus? At first glance, this may seem an odd question.
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But as we look at Matthew 26:6-16, let's consider the scene in the home of
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Simon the leper and contrast it with the scene in the palace of Caiaphas.
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They were radically different.
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Both scenes took place within hours of each other, revealing that who Jesus
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is and what he says has great impact.
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He cannot be ignored. ignored how is he
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treated in your home either he is believed and
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beloved or he is hated and rejected well I’m
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sure no one in your home would admit to hating Jesus neglect dismissal or unbelief
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even ignorance of him is rejection there can be no middle ground join us in
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this podcast of woman at the well ministries as Kim takes us on a journey through
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the scriptures revealing the truth about our actions.
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You know, there's a truth to the saying that you'll know a person by the way they behave.
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And as we look at Matthew chapter 26, verses 6 through 16, we're going to see
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two very different reactions to the presence of Jesus.
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And they take place in in two different homes. One is in the palace of Caiaphas,
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and that is the second one.
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And one is in the home of the leper, Simon.
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And when we begin to look at these two accounts in Scripture,
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I want you to think about how Jesus is received in your home and how the way
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you receive Him greatly impacts the way he's revealed in you.
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And it matters how you act. It matters how you behave.
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And if you say you are a child of the Most High God, your actions should lead others to Him.
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Your footsteps should take people on a journey that places them in front of Jesus.
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You should be shining your light so that others can see Jesus in you.
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And as we begin to read in Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 6,
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I ask that you pay close attention and figure out how it applies to you.
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Because God's scripture is the same today, yesterday, and forevermore.
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The lessons to be learned apply today just as they did then. And here we go.
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Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
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there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box, a very precious ointment,
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and poured it on His head as he sat at meat.
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But when His disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying,
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To what purpose is this waste?
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For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
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When Jesus understood it, He said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman?
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For she hath wrought a good work upon Me.
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For ye have the poor always with you, but Me ye have not always.
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For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
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Verily I say unto you, whosoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole
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world, There shall also this that this woman hath done be told for her, a memorial of her.
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Now, here we have the woman with the alabaster box who washes his feet and dries them with her hair.
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We read this account in further places in the scripture. But today,
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what I want to focus on is Jesus is in the house of the leper.
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First of all, I want you to see that Jesus identified with the leper.
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He was not too good to be with him. He was in no way unwilling to be with him.
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In fact, He had gone to Bethany to be with His friends and to rest.
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And one of His friends was the Simon the leper.
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And no doubt Jesus had healed him previously, obviously, but he was still identified as a leper.
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And Jesus went to his home to commune and to fellowship with him.
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And in Revelations 3:20, we are told that He is knocking on our heart's door,
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asking us to come in, that we would sup and fellowship with Him and He would be with us.
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See, but the people of that day, they were shunning the leper.
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And I'm afraid that today day, we as Christians are shunning the lepers.
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We're shunning the people who don't walk and talk like we do.
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We forget that we all come to Jesus as the woman at the well did in John chapter 4.
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We forget that we are sinners in need of a Savior,
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that we are unclean, and everything we do is as filthy rags,
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and it's only by the blood of Jesus Christ that washes us and cleanses us,
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that enables us to live a life that is pleasing to him.
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And so we judge people on the outside, and that's a whole other message,
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but you can find that in James.
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And we sometimes don't want to be associated with certain people because we
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don't want people to think we're that kind of person.
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Listen, Jesus came to you and you are a vile sinner, regardless of what you think.
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You had rejected Him and you'd been born into sin and you were as filthy rags,
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but Jesus came to you and brought you to where he was.
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That's what He's telling us. Hey, bring the people to Him and allow Him to clean them up.
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That the only one who could throw the stone, be the one that loves them and
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fixes them, and cleanses them.
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And then you be what you should be to them, which is a person who loves the
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Lord and thereby loves them.
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Jesus has given us the commission to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
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And he didn't say your Christian neighbor either. He said, love your neighbor.
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See, Jesus healed the leper. Those people around us that aren't walking and
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talking in the way that Jesus would have them, they need a touch from the master.
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And you need to go to where they are and bring them to where He is.
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Your life needs to shine a light.
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So before we really delve into Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 6 that
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I read in your hearing, I want you to see where Jesus is. He's in the house of the leper.
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I also want you to see that Jesus went to the house of the leper that He might rest.
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He was resting. See, sometimes we get so busy that we don't rest.
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See, it's in our rest, in our quiet time, that we usually seek the Lord.
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It's when we be still and know that he is God, as we're told in Psalms 46.10,
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that we are able to be restored and renewed and refreshed, that we may continue to pour out.
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Jesus was often found praying when Jesus had hung out in Bethany to be with
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His friends so he could rest and be refreshed.
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Let's take a look at the people we know that his friends were.
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Mary and Martha and Lazarus were His friends.
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You know, He hung out with the disciples. It matters who you hang out with.
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Yes, we are to go to those who are unbelievers and bring them to where he is.
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But our confidants, the people who counsel us, the people whose lives intertwine
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with ours, the people who we model and imitate, they need to be men and women of God.
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They need to be grounded and rooted in the scripture. They need to be able to
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exhort you and edify you and to help you understand that you have to stay in the right way.
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You've got to be in the lane where Jesus is.
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You've got to be under the spout where the glory comes out. You've got to be
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walking in His ways. You've got to be following his commandments.
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You've got to be letting Him be Lord of your life and King of your hearts.
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You need accountability buddies who will point you to Him who love you enough
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to say hey let's check that action hey let's check those words hey let's get in the word together.
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Jesus amount of His time was spent in the circle of his disciples he often took
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them with him as he ministered to the people, but these were the people
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He surrounded himself with.
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The leper had been cleansed and he was part of his friend group.
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Who are you hanging out with?
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Who are you letting in your home? Who do you let in your home through your TV
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or your radio or your music?
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It's important. See, Jesus never leaves you nor forsakes you.
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And you know, it's an interesting thing. When we have guests coming to our house,
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nearly every one of us go through and we spot clean.
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We take a good look and we make sure that, you know, all the socks are not in
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the floor and the dishes are all put up and our house looks clean and neat for that guest to come in.
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I wonder if you knew that Jesus was coming to your house today.
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Do you remember Zacchaeus?
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Zacchaeus was a wee little man and he climbed up into a sycamore tree.
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And when the Lord came by, the Lord saw him and he said, Zacchaeus,
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come down from that tree for I'm coming to your house today.
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If Jesus was passing by you in the street and said, hey, I'm coming to your
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house today, What would you need to run home and change?
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Would you need to try to find your Bibles?
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Would you need to blow the dust off of them?
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Would you need to kind of put away some magazines?
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Or would you need to get rid of some CDs or kind of clear your Spotify list?
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What would you need to do so that you would feel okay for Jesus to come in?
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Because whatever that is, is what you need to do right now, because Jesus is in the house.
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If you are a believer and a Christian and part of the family of God,
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Christ Jesus dwells in you in the form of the Holy Spirit.
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And that Trinity is part of who you are.
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And He never leaves you nor forsakes you. Jesus loves you, this I know.
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So as we begin to look at this gathering of people at Simon the leper's house,
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We see that Jesus was a man with like passions, like as we are.
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We see that He needed rest and He took it. We see that He surrounded himself
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with people who were good and cleansed.
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Jesus loves us and He showed us how to live.
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And as we begin to look in these verses in Matthew 26, beginning in verse 6,
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what we see is there's a woman with an alabaster box.
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And this alabaster box is filled with a precious ointment.
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And so she begins to pour the contents of her alabaster box on Jesus.
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And the 12 disciples that are gathered there are freaking out.
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Because they're like, what are we doing here? What a waste.
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She's pouring this precious ointment on you, Jesus.
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We could sell this ointment and feed the poor forever. And so they're looking at what she's doing.
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And they're judging it. They're judging it as something that is wrong,
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something that should not be done.
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But I want you to think differently about the anointing of our Lord with the
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oil from the alabaster box.
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I believe it was an act of faith in our Lord.
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I believe she knew He was the Messiah, the anointed one. And so to signify that
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she believed in Him as God's anointed, she had set him king of her life and
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she was giving him everything she had.
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She anointed Him, giving Him that place in her life and making Him king.
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She was reverencing Him. She was giving Him everything she had.
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She was adoring Him. It was an act of love and respect. If you look back in
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Luke chapter 7, there's a reference to Him who loved and washed Him, His feet with her tears.
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She loved Him much. And there wasn't anything that she was willing to hold back.
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She couldn't give him enough.
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Nothing was too good for her Lord. She loved him, so she gave Him the most precious
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thing she had, the oil in her alabaster box.
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She knew she could have sold it for her own wealth. She understood she could
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have used it for her self-gain.
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But nothing was too good for her Lord.
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How do those words hit you? Are you stingy with your tithes?
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Are you shortchanging Him with your time?
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Have you compartmentalized your heart and gave Him just a sliver?
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Do you rationalize everything you give Him and all that you do for Him?
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See, that's what they were doing. see
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where there is true love in the heart for
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Jesus nothing will be thought too good and no one or no thing will be good enough
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to give Him but here set these individuals they were thinking it was a waste
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you got to be careful about thinking anything you give to Jesus is a waste,
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either anything you give or anyone else gives.
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See, sometimes we think, I've spent all this time telling my friend about Jesus
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and nothing's happening.
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I've just wasted my breath. I've wasted my time. Friend, that is a lie straight
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from the pits of hell. You are sowing seeds.
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You are tilling the ground of their heart. You don't know if that next time
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is going to be the one when the seed sets up and begins to take root.
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You don't know if the person right behind you is coming and is going to be able.
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To say one more thing that allows that person to know Jesus.
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You don't know if you are just setting him up or her up to be able to see Jesus
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clearly so that they can receive them.
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Nothing you do in the name of Jesus is ever a waste.
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May say to yourself, time and time again, I have given to the poor.
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They're still all around me. What good did I do? What a waste.
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I've even heard people go as far as to say, I've prayed and I've prayed and
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I've prayed and nothing has happened.
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I just wasted my breath and spent my time.
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These are all lies straight from the pits of hell.
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Jesus says in James chapter 5, verse 16, I believe it is, that the effectual
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fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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You are moving heaven when you pray. The outcome is not up to you.
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But the income, the ingoing of your prayers to the heart of God is what He asked us to do.
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He says, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God shall
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keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. He says, call unto me and I
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will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
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He says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy burdened and laden, and I will give you rest.
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He says, come boldly to the throne of grace that you may find help in time of need.
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You've not wasted one breath. You've not wasted one dollar that you have done in the name of Jesus.
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Being His hands extended and His feet.
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You cannot think that time is wasted that is spent in the service of God or
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that money is wasted which is laid out for any work of the Lord.
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Everything you give will be given back, pressed down and running over.
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When she gave the oil from the alabaster box, she simply was giving her love
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and devotion. devotion, and though it was precious, in her heart and mind,
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it would never be enough.
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What are you doing in the service of the Lord? What are you doing for him?
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If he's in your home right now, how are you adoring him?
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How are you loving him? How are you working for him? How are you serving him?
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Does your house look like Simon the leper's, where people are gathered to love him?
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Him the woman with the alabaster box is adoring him what does your actions look like,
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you see there's another part of this some of us are trained to reason we're
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so caught up in our logic the bible says in Proverbs 3:7 be not wise in thine
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own eyes depart from evil,
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we gotta trust in him and lean not into our own understanding and all the ways
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acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths in proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6.
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See the people around, they had a pretty good argument.
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They were saying it seemed wasteful.
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They could take that money and help the poor, but Jesus took that woman's part.
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Though they had what was seemingly a good argument, it wouldn't stand the test
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of she gave all she had because she loved him.
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Nothing could ever make that wrong. Be very careful about reasoning faith out of the equation.
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Jesus says without faith, it is impossible to please him.
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And you must believe that He is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
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And then what I want you to see is that there are some opportunities of doing
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good and good and good, which are just constant.
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That's what he's saying. He says, you're going to always have the poor among
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you. You'll always have an opportunity to help them and to care for them.
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But this is a rare opportunity because there are other opportunities of doing
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and getting good, which come but seldom.
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They're short and uncertain, and they require peculiar diligence,
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and they should be preferred to all the others because because it is a rare
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instance that you can give everything you have and that you can take a stance
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that says, I love the Lord, and He is king of my life, and He is sitting on the throne of my heart.
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The woman with the alabaster box full of precious ointment, she was faced with
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that opportunity, and she immediately seized that opportunity.
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She gave Him all she had, expecting nothing in return. She just was loving Him.
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It's a beautiful picture in the leper's home because He's cleansed now.
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The disciples are learning that it's greater to love and that love covers a
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multitude of sins and that there is never enough to repay God for what he's
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given us, which is why he does not require that.
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It is a gift, not of works.
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But those who have tasted and seen that he is good, those who understand who
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He is, those who love Him and have entered into a relationship with Him,
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they know that whatever they're giving isn't adequate, but it's all they have.
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And they give it with a heart that says, Lord, use me. Lord, send me. Lord, take me.
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Lord, here I am. Lord, I love you. This is all I have. But I give you myself.
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What it looks like in your home? Is that what it looks like in your life?
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Or let's pick up in verse 14 and see if it's more like a Caiaphas house, the palace.
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Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went into the chief priests and said
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unto them, what will you give me?
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And I will deliver him unto you.
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They covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver.
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And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him.
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Immediately after an instance of perhaps the greatest kindness done to Christ
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follows this instance of the greatest unkindness.
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Judas, who had walked with him and talked with him was getting ready to betray him.
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He was trying to figure out just exactly how much money he could make.
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See, I submit to you that Judas's act of betrayal wasn't because he didn't love Jesus.
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It was because he loved money more than Jesus.
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Judas had been convicted, or known, according to John 12:
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6, that he was a thief because he'd embezzled from the disciples.
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Wasn't charged with a crime because Jesus loved him.
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And I want to submit to you that in the upper room, Jesus washes Judas' feet
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just like He washed all of His other disciples, even John, the one whom Jesus
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loved, according to John.
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Even Peter, who had loved him and walked with him, and all of the others.
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Jesus treated Judas with the same respect and love as he did each and every
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one of it because Jesus is no respecter of persons and He loved Judas.
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Judas just did not love Him enough to overcome the power of His love of money.
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See, I believe it wasn't a hate or any negative feeling towards Jesus,
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but I believe it was his love of money and that nothing else mattered except
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except getting more money that caused Judas to betray Jesus.
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Now, before you jump to some quick accusations about Judas, I want you to look at your house.
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Is there anything in your house or in your life that you're putting before Jesus?
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Are you skimming off the top to get all your bills paid and all the other things
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done before you pay your tithes?
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Are you loving that golf game so much that you've gone on a sabbatical from
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church and you're spending all spring and summer learning the game?
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All your extra money is going to that.
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Are you so caught up with making sure that your family has all the greatest
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things and can keep up with all of the latest trends that you're working day
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and night and you're sacrificing family time,
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you're sacrificing your Bible time,
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you're sacrificing prayer time, you're sacrificing the assembling of yourselves
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together in heavenly places with godly people, all so you can have more money?
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How about your intelligence? intelligence?
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Are you just so called upon how cool you are and how smart you are that you're
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trying to take all matters in your own hands and you only consult God,
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well, whenever you just made a big mess out of things?
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Anything that you put in front of God is an idol. For Judas,
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it was his money and it cost him a lot.
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For you, what is it? Is it your car, your house, your job, your trophy wife,
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your incredible husband, your children, your achievements, your work,
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your reputation, your fame, your glory.
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See, the Bible says that we should let our light so shine before men that they
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may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
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It's His kingdom we're building, not our own.
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He had everything he wanted. He was welcomed wherever Jesus was.
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He needed nothing, yet his love for money caused him to open himself up and be used of the devil.
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Gave up Jesus, and it cost him everything.
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And then when you look in verse 16, he says, And from that time,
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he was looking for a way to betray him.
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Was strategizing on how to sin. I'm afraid some of you within the sound of my
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voice are strategizing on how to do the wrong thing.
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You're strategizing on how to try to circumvent the rules the Bible give us.
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You are forgetting that these are not rules to punish us.
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They are not rules to cause us to feel hemmed in.
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They are the rules and the way that we live so that we can live the life that
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is best, the life that God has intended for us so that we can have life and
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have it more more abundantly, when we stay within the boundaries of what God
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has given us, then my friend,
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we live the life that he intends for us to have, and we will be blessed beyond measure.
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We have joy unspeakable. We'll have a peace that passes understanding.
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We'll have the favor of God upon us. We may have rain that comes our way, but he's our umbrella.
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We may have problems that are obstacles, but he will move us over them,
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through them or around them. We are never alone.
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He will strengthen us. He will equip us. He will guide us.
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He will lead us. And the life that you think is not what is really good for you.
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What is good for you is from the shepherd's point of view to walk the way he
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says, because He sees tomorrow. He holds tomorrow.
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Your future's in His hand. He wants only what's good for you.
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All good and perfect gifts come down from the Father of light.
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He wants you to live a life that is abundant and full, but it can only be done
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by walking and following Him.
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The woman with the alabaster box, she held nothing back because she knew that
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she knew that she knew she couldn't out give Him.
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And He was so good, so precious and so great.
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Nothing she did give Him would ever match His amazing love toward her.
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But she gave what she had, and she gave it all.
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Friends, it's a very wicked thing to seek the opportunity to sin and to devise
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and strategize to do wrong.
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And once you commit one sin, it's easier to commit the next.
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Next, don't give yourself the opportunity to fall in that trap of sin.
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If you know you have an issue where your flesh wants to do worldly things,
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don't put yourself in a place where you can do it.
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If gambling is an issue for you, don't go to casinos. Don't vacation in Vegas.
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If you have a wandering eye, don't go places without your spouse.
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If money means everything to you, get back in the Word. Stay in prayer.
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See God for who He is because money will pale in comparison.
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Look, I don't know what it is that you would hold on to and not give back.
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I don't know what it is that you think in this world is worth losing your soul
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for because the Bible says in Mark 8:36, For what shall a prophet of man,
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if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
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The rich man could not give up his riches and he died so poor.
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Man's riches only last but a vapor, but there are eternal riches,
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eternal blessings that come to those who love him like the woman with the alabaster
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box and the ointment, so precious and so fine,
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yet she knew, paled in comparison to who Jesus was.
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Today's a new day. Give Him the rightful place in your heart.
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Follow Him and love and adore Him with everything you have and all that you
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are. Remember you are loved.
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Jesus loves you.
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Music.
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Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
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You can find our app by searching for A Woman at the Well Ministries in your
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app store or through our website at watwm.org. We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash W-A-T-W-M.
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If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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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 nonprofit 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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our ministry continues to bless others.
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To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website. site.
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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.
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Music.