Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 381 | Living the Successful and Abundant life that Jesus Promised Every Believer

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381 | Living the Successful and Abundant life that Jesus Promised Every Believer · 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 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 a 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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A successful life is defined by many people in many different ways,
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but the truth is that the Bible gives us the recipe for a successful life,
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and it is found in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18.
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It is as simple as this.
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Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in every situation and
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in all circumstances for all things.
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Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us through
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1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18, revealing the recipe for a successful and abundant life.
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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, we come to you in faith
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believing that you are a God that hears and answers our prayers and loves us
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beyond what our mind can comprehend.
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Lord, we know that you came, that we might have life and have it more abundantly,
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and your word from Genesis to Revelations has truly given us all that we need
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to live the life that you have created for us.
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Lord, I pray that you would be with this podcast, that you would open every
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heart and mind that is listening,
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that we would hear exactly what you would have to tell us, that we might live
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the life that you would have us to live, that we would live that successful,
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abundant life found only in the center of your will.
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And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. And it's an interesting thing how people define success.
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Many people define it strictly based on their work, on their profession, on their jobs.
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And generally that's because they are defining it based on their bank accounts.
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There are others who do look at their successes of whether or not they met their goals.
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There are those who define success by whether or not they have been a good citizen.
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But as in all things that we have questions about, the scripture has a distinct definition of,
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in recipe for a successful life.
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And so we're going to turn in our scriptures into the word of God in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 18.
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But before we begin to read that text, which is the foundation of today's message.
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I want you to know why we can look at 1 Thessalonians 5,
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verses 16 through 18, and know that that is Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit
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moving us to the place in Scripture that is going to tell us exactly how to
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live the abundant life he's promised in John chapter 10 and verse 10.
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Because we are told in 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, these incredible words.
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He says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
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doctrine, for reproof, for correction.
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For instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
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thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
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God didn't just save us and then drop us.
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No, he gave us the greatest love letter ever written from Genesis to Revelations
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that we may know his will, that we may know him, his character,
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his goodness, his greatness, that we may understand the promises of God,
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that we might incorporate them into our lives so that we would be able to live
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the abundant life that he promises in John 10 and verse 10.
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We refer to that often, but let's read it today. And let me read it in your
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hearing so that you know what he has promised when he says, John 10, 10.
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In John 10, 10, this is what he says. He says, the thief cometh not,
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but for to steal and to kill and destroy. That's the devil.
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You guys that are making plans with the devil, you guys who are in cahoots with him,
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you've lost and you've lost big because he has no care or love or good thing for you.
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But instead, he wants to destroy you, to kill you, and most importantly,
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to take your soul because he doesn't want you to understand the truth.
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And the truth is Jesus Christ and
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his gospel that he came that you would
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be able to be saved because when we believe
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upon him the only begotten son of God who
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shed his blood on the cross of Calvary it is then that we are capable of having
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our sin debt paid and we have the opportunity to live forever in heaven what
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is the plan that God had for us that's it but man messed it up.
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And you will find that whenever we insert ourselves into God's plan or insert
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ourselves into the lordship of our own life, you will find that we are always.
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Interrupting God's plan.
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And when we do so, it is not for our good or his glory, but will end in a negative result.
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But he goes on in John 10, 10 and says, I am come that they might have life
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and that they might have it more abundantly.
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That's Jesus telling you that the wages of sin are no longer going to hold you,
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that sin is no longer going to have dominion over you, but I have come to set
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you free and he who is set free by Jesus is free indeed.
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And he's come to give you that living water so that you will never thirst again.
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He's come and laid his life down on the cross of Calvary so that you would have an abundant life.
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Now let's look at what an abundant life means.
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It doesn't necessarily mean that you will be wealthy in this world's goods because
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the more you have in this world,
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the more entangled you are in this world, and the more entangled you are in
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this world, the less you have for room for Jesus Christ.
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And he says, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.
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You can't love both the Lord and the devil and think that you are pleasing either one of them.
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The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, our Savior, has said this,
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you will love me above all else. I am a jealous God.
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Thou should have no other God before me. and he says you will love me and hate
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the other see jesus is the son of god and god sent him to pay for your sins.
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And to give you life because in romans 6 23 we're told that the wages of sin is death,
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but the gift of god is eternal life see the
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thing that people get so messed up on is that they somehow don't understand
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that you have eternal life you're either going to spend it in heaven or you're
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going to spend it in hell and the scriptures were given to us inspired by god
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so that we would understand the doctrine,
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so that we would understand correction, so that we would have the instructions
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we need to live as we need to live.
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He never leaves us, and we are always on his mind.
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And our image is graven in his hands, the palms of his hands.
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And he paid the debt before we even knew we had the debt,
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and he's the only way that it could be paid and
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he gave everything he had for it and so we
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must remember as children of god that
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he has us in his hands he's proven that he loves us and he is the only one capable
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of leading and directing us because he's the only one that knows the past present
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and the future all at once he's the only one who can supply our needs,
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So as we begin to look at 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 through 18,
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it's imperative that you understand that this is the recipe to living the successful
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life that Jesus spoke about when he said he came to give you life,
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and that you would have it more abundantly.
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1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 reads like this,
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rejoice evermore pray
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without ceasing in everything
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give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you so step
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one that we find in first Thessalonians 5 16 through 18 is this,
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to rejoice always and to delight in your faith.
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You know, the psalmist David said that if we delight in the Lord,
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that he'll give us the desires of our heart.
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When you begin to see God for who he is, when you begin to understand all he
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has done for you when he sent his son to die for you,
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when you begin to understand the magnifold magnificence of his love,
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when you begin to let that soak into your mind and your heart,
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you're going to understand that the things of this world, they're just not that important.
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That trial, that trouble, that problem,
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whatever it is you're facing right now, I don't mean to reduce it or to trivialize it,
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but I'm telling you in comparison to your soul's need for salvation,
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it can't compare because you cannot pay that sin debt.
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It wasn't available for you to pay because you don't have anything to pay it with.
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And that greatest need of yours was, it was settled a long time ago.
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You just have to go receive it.
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And unfortunately, probably even some listening to me right now,
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they've not gone in and cashed out the blood of Jesus that he's already given for the forgiveness,
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of their sins see you don't
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have to do anything to earn it it is
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the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast and
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when you understand what he's already done for you then
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you know that you have ever reason to be
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happy to be happy in your faith to
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rejoice and to always be glad-hearted because
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the king of kings and the lord of lords is
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helping you he's hiding you within himself and
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he's holding you close to him he's supplying
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your every need he's giving you strength for the journey and nothing is going
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to come to you or into your path that he hasn't already sifted through proven
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loved nail-scarred hands he has a plan for you,
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this will prosper you and to give you a hope it's a good plan.
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But you and me and most of us, we remove him from being Lord of our lives and
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take him off the throne of our hearts so he's not king of it.
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And we take things into our own matters and we make big messes.
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And we look at problems and issues and this life through the lens of our finite minds.
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We look at them through the capabilities
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of our weakened frail bodies
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but if we would take first thessalonians 5 16 at its word we would rejoice in
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the lord because we would delight in our faith we would have absolute confidence.
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Of who god is and what god can do and we would know that we are born again.
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Old things have passed away. All things have become new. And we're looking for
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a city whose builder and maker is God.
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And we're waiting for that mansion that he promises us in John chapter 14,
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when he says, in my father's house are many mansions.
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And if it were not so, I would have told you.
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I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also.
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So you can be in the presence of God right now if you choose to let yourself go to that place,
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the holy of holies, and you ask him to cleanse you from all unrighteousness,
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and you ask him to give you the mind of Christ, that he would change your want-tos.
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He would change your desires. He would give you new eyes to see what he has for you.
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He has told us that he has given us everything that we need that pertain unto
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life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to the glory
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and virtue whereby we are given 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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That's what he tells us in 2 Peter 1, 3, and 4.
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He's given us all we need to live the life he's asked us to live because he's
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given us the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us,
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that teaches us, that comforts us, that instructs us, that corrects us,
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that watches over us, that is always wanting what is best for us.
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And if we follow the whispers and sometimes the yells of the Holy Spirit within us,
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we'll be walking in the center of God's will and we'll know what it means to
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be in the presence of God, though we sit in this sinful, wicked world.
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Because my friends, we have a reason to rejoice.
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Do you get it? It's interesting to me that we have to be told that Paul has
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to say to us, rejoice evermore.
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Rejoice always. It seems almost nuts to me. But how could you not?
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When you know what he's given you and what he does every day,
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daily he loads you with benefits.
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He didn't save you and drop you. He didn't save you and leave you.
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No, he saved you and grafted you into his family and continues to take care of you.
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All because he loves you.
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So if you want to live a successful life and have the abundant life that Jesus
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came that you might have, then step one is to rejoice always, forevermore.
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Well, if our mind is centered on Christ Jesus, he keeps us in perfect peace,
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according to Isaiah 26.3.
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So check, we can do that. We can do it because his love for us is undeniable.
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His protection over us is irrefutable, and his blessings are incomprehensible,
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and they're incomparable.
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So we must discipline ourselves to follow the truth of God's word.
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And we've got to rejoice in knowing that his plans for us are his goods plans
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and we need to stay strong.
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In fact, he tells us this in 2 Corinthians 4, 15 through 18,
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he says, for all things are for your sakes,
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that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound or rebound to the glory of God,
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for which cause we faint not.
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But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. How do we do that?
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We stay in his presence. We pray.
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We meditate on the word of God.
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Then he says, for our light affliction, which is but a moment,
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worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
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For the things which are seen, they're temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
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Psalms 34, 19 says, many are the afflictions of the righteous.
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But listen closely. But the Lord delivereth him out of them.
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Friends, rejoice always. There is nothing you're going to face that he isn't
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already there, isn't already prepared to take you through,
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and to give you the victory, because our victory is in Christ Jesus.
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I say it often because of things in my life over the last few months.
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I may say it repeatedly week after week because it's never going to grow stale to me.
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He did not remove the fire from the three Hebrew children.
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But praise be to God, he took them through it. And when he took them through
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it, they came out unharmed.
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But oh, what a testimony of the goodness and the greatness of God.
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So maybe some of us right now need to just shore up our faith.
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Maybe we need to just stop for a second and see what God is doing through our lives.
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Maybe we need to yield and submit to him that he may exalt us in due time.
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We need to humble ourselves unto him.
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And whatever he's doing, we need to know it's the right thing.
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And we need to just follow him. He says, my sheep know my voice and they follow me.
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Friends, our minds can't understand in any capacity what we could possibly gain
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from some of the things that we go through.
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So don't try. Just know that all things work out for your good and his glory.
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Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.
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Step two is to pray without ceasing.
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So God invites us in Hebrews 4.16 to come boldly to the throne of God that we
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may obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need.
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He's not asking you to pray and you won't receive anything he's telling you to pray.
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Showing that you have faith and an understanding in who he is and what he wants
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for you and you can be sure that when you pray in faith believing even just
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a little as a mustard seed you can move mountain.
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And you can be sure that he's hearing you if you don't hold iniquity in your
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heart and that he is capable and willing to answer your prayers.
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And you can be absolutely sure that everything that's going on,
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he's fully aware of, he goes before you through it, and he's going to carry you to the victory.
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In Jeremiah 33, 3, he says, Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee
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great and mighty things which thou knowest not.
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In Philippians 4, 6, and 7, he bids us to not worry about anything but to pray
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and let the amazing peace of God keep our hearts and our minds.
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He always is offering help to us and we need to always be offering ourselves to him.
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He loves us so much that he wants us to be in constant communication with him.
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That's why he says, pray without ceasing.
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He wants us to love him and to delight in him so that he can give us the desires of our heart.
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Jesus loves us and a successful, abundant life is dependent upon the discipline of your prayer life.
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Pray in the morning, pray in the evening, pray at night and every time in between.
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Keep your heart in an attitude of prayer and watch the peace of God overshadow
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you and his blessings pour over you like rain.
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Pray without ceasing.
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Step three is to give thanks in every situation, regardless of the circumstances.
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I love this because I think what this does is it brings us full circle to,
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Do you know me? And do you love me?
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God wants you to be thankful for whatever he allows in your path,
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whatever he gives you to rejoice, whatever lot you may have.
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He says, be content in whatever state you're in.
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And the only way one can do that is if they are focused completely upon him.
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Continually give thanks to God. Acknowledge him for who he is.
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Be thankful for the goodness of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God.
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Pray for eyes to see his presence all around you.
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Recognize the blessings and the benefits that he gives you, and especially of
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what it means to live in his presence.
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Don't be ungrateful for the amazing things God continually does for you.
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Don't let his divine presence and the amazing greatness of his presence brings
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into your life all that that brings. Don't let it go unnoticed.
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Don't take it for granted having the ability to stand in the presence of an
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almighty God who loves you, who cares for you, who listens to you,
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who helps you, and who holds you.
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That is an abundance of blessing.
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Jesus loves you daily, moment by moment. He's proving that to you.
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Live a life of thanksgiving every day of the year.
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Live with an attitude of gratitude and
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know the blessings of living
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in the will of god he hasn't given us a book
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of do's and don'ts because he's punitive he gave
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us a book of instruction a manual
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of how to live and navigate this life so that we would have the abundant life
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that he promised us and he tells us what we should do could do what we shouldn't
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do what we are not to do so that we can live within the confounds of this abundant life that he has for us.
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A successful life can be defined by many people in many different ways.
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But the truth of it is, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 tells us exactly how
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to live the abundant life.
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To rejoice always and to delight in our faith. to pray without ceasing and to
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give thanks in every situation, regardless of the circumstance. It's that simple.
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Jesus loves you, and he came to give you the abundant life, and he's allowed
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you to understand everything that you need to know to live the abundant life.
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But the choice is yours choose jesus
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choose to know him in his truth and his goodness rejoice always pray without
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ceasing and give thanks in every situation remember you are loved jesus.
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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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store or through our website at watwm.org.
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To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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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.