Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 605 | The Pursuit of Godliness

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605 | The Pursuit of Godliness · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  2 Peter 1, 3-4 tells us that God has given us everything we need to live godly
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  lives in this present world.
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  2 Peter 1, 6 informs us that we are to pursue godliness with all diligence.
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  As we pursue godliness, it becomes evident that we are going to display certain
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  godly characteristics.
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  Join us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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  journey through the scriptures, revealing what the godly characteristic temperance
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  has to do with living a godly life.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us
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  in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as we take a close look at,
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  at 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through 8.
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  We're going to pretty much just talk today about chapter 1 and verse 6,
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  but let's read the entire passage in its entirety.
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  Simon Peter, a servant and an
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  apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained, like precious faith,
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  with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ,
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  grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus
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  our Lord. And here's where we pick up.
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  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
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  life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue,
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  whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises,
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  that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
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  corruption that is in the world through lust.
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  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to your
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  virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience,
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  and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness,
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  and to brotherly kindness charity.
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  For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither
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  be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, remove me from this message.
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  Open up our hearts and our minds that we would hear what the Holy Spirit has to say.
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  Lord, walk with us and talk with us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  So we see in verse 3 that God has given us everything that we need in order
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  to walk in this world, living a godly life.
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  See, it tells us that we're to give diligence to godliness.
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  It's not that it just suggests that we should be godly, but if we're going to
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  be a Christian, we are going to be Christ-like.
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  And it says that this isn't a feat you have to try to do on your own.
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  This isn't some superpower you pray for.
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  This is what happens when you place your faith in Jesus Christ and allow him
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  to be the king of your life and the Lord of your heart.
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  He gives you everything that you need in order to be godly.
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  In verse 6 of this chapter 3, in chapter 1 of 2 Peter, what we see is that we
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  are to add to this knowledge, which we have talked about earlier.
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  Temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness.
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  So everything's predicated upon our faith in Jesus.
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  And as we get our faith settled and focused in Jesus Christ,
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  then we are to add temperance.
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  As Christ begins to do a work in
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  me, you're going to see a change in my self-control and my self-restraint.
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  See, temperaments can best be understood by us as thinking about self-control and self-restraint.
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  And we are the clay, and he is the potter.
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  And as we increase our faith, as we begin to learn more about who God is,
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  which will make us want to trust him more.
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  And when we trust him more, it'll be easier for us to obey him in all things.
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  As we begin to let him conform us to his will and his way and transform us from
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  the ungodliness of the sinful life we had before we become Christians,
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  when we surrender our will to him, we will begin to see a huge change in how
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  we display our self-control and how we practice self-restraint.
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  In our pursuit of godliness, we see that we specifically need to be diligent in these endeavors.
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  We have to be diligently, purposely, intentionally trying to live a godly life.
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  And the Bible says in that verse 3 and 4 that he's given us exceeding promises.
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  To help us achieve that and he has given us
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  all by his divine power we need to do so so as we pursue godliness we're going
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  to be holy and these godly traits are going to be built upon our foundation
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  of faith and people are going to begin to see that we are a new creature in
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  christ like we're told in corinthians 5 17.
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  See, we have to understand that as Christians, we just can't live like the devil.
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  We can't serve ourselves.
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  We have to put God first. We have to understand that he said, be holy for I am holy.
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  As we begin to look at what it means to be self-controlled, to practice self-restraint,
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  let's look at what Titus 2.12 says.
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  See, Titus 2.12 says this, Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly
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  lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
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  See, we are to deny self. We are to deny ungodliness.
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  We are to deny our sinful worldly lusts.
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  We are not to seek the things of this world, but we are pilgrims looking for
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  a city whose builder and maker is God.
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  We are to set our affections on things above and not on things of the earth.
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  We are to have a desire to know him and to abide in him, and his commandments
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  are not grievous to us, but we love walking in the ways of the Lord.
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  We love being close to him. We love reading his word.
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  We love hearing him speak to us. We love praising him and worshiping him.
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  We are grateful for the blessings that he has given us. We are new creatures.
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  And the things of this world, they don't hold any desire for us.
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  They now no more have any condemnation upon us for the things we did in the
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  past because old things are passed away and all things are become new.
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  We are to live holy and godly in this world.
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  We've got to practice self-control and self-restraint. We've got to ask the Lord to empower us.
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  We've got to ask the Lord to deliver us from any ideas and thoughts that make
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  captivating our mind to want to do things that are contrary to him.
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  We've got to say, Lord, here I am. Fill me with your goodness.
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  Help me, Lord, to be able to hand you all of who I am.
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  Fill me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet with a desire to know
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  you, to love you, to walk with you, to serve you. Let you be my all in law.
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  Teach me, Lord, how to see you for who you are, how to feel you for what you
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  give to me, Lord, how to know that your presence is ever abiding with me.
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  Help me to understand that you are all I'll ever need, that you are sufficient,
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  that your joy is complete, that you love me beyond measure, that there is nothing
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  that will separate me from you.
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  Help me to get a glimpse of the amazing relationship that you desire to have
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  for me. Hold me in the cleft of your arms.
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  Give me, Lord, a glimpse of who you are and who I can be in you.
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  And then the whole idea of self-constraint and self-control really becomes easy to defeat.
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  For I am nothing without Jesus.
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  His ways are higher than my ways. What he wants for me is bigger than my imagination.
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  But with my inability to control, my impulses, I put something between me and him.
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  He can't bless an unclean vessel. With my stubbornness and my unwillingness
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  to surrender my soul and my will and my freedom of choice to him,
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  then I put me in a place where he can't use me to my fullest and I don't have
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  what it takes to receive the blessings because my vessel is unclean.
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  I don't know where you are right now and maybe 15 minutes ago you were hanging
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  out in the world but he says if you confess your sins he'll forgive you.
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  He says, if you come to him, he'll receive you unto himself.
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  See, sometimes we go to the doctor and we hope to see the doctor,
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  but we see the PA and that's great, but clearly we came to see the doctor.
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  And for many reasons, that doctor may pass you on to somebody else.
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  But he says, if you come unto me, I'll receive you unto myself. He doesn't pass you on.
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  He doesn't sit and look and say, oh, you're a third string, so you're a bencher.
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  I'm not going to spend any time with you today.
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  He doesn't look at you and say, you know, I told you a couple times not to do that.
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  You keep doing it, so I'm going to pass you over here to angel number 321. He doesn't do that.
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  He says he'll receive you unto himself, because from the greatest to the least,
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  you're all precious in his sight, and he's no respecter of persons,
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  and he can look beyond your faults and supply your every need.
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  He'll wash your sins away white as snow.
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  You see, you just can't do everything you want to do.
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  You can't behave any way you want to behave. You can't live however you want to choose.
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  You must at all times remember that you've been commissioned by Jesus to let
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  your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
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  your Father which is in heaven.
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  You got to give your dreams to Jesus and then see what he really has for you.
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  Because eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard what lies in store for them that love the Lord.
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  You see, our job as children of God is to let others see Him through us.
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  That's your whole purpose. That's your entire job.
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  You're to live sensible, upstanding, and godly lives, striving for spiritual maturity.
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  See, we're not waiting to get to heaven to get the new body to be holy.
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  We need to choose to live holy lives now.
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  And by the power of the Holy Spirit and the enabling of Jesus himself,
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  by the word of our testimony and the word of God, we have the ability to live godly lives.
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  Because 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4 told us that.
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  So it's time that you embrace God's command found in Leviticus 27.
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  He says, sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God.
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  Do you believe him? He said he'd make you holy. He'd give you godly.
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  You can't lead people to Jesus when the only place you're going is to the devil's
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  homes and the devil's recreation places.
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  You can't lead somebody in a place you're not going to. If I follow you,
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  I'm going to end up where you are.
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  Your job is to let others see him in you.
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  So I guess it comes down to this, how you live, well, it matters.
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  It matters not only to you, it matters to those around you.
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  And it matters to God. Your actions, choices, and beliefs, they have eternal
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  consequences, both for you and for those that God has placed in your life.
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  And right now, today, it's time you own your actions.
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  See, Matthew 6.24 says it best.
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  No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
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  or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
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  You cannot serve God and mammon. The choice is yours.
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  Pursuing holiness to live a life of godliness is obtainable through and by the blood of Jesus.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at WMT.
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  At watwm.org and on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support.
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  Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.