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588 | Build on a Firm Foundation · 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 four.
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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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  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we open
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  the scriptures to learn more about who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
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  God is our firm foundation, and we must be careful to build our life upon Him.
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  Jesus, the rock, will never fail us or be destroyed.
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  As we develop our relationship with Jesus, it is important that we are rooted
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  and grounded in the Word of God, and that our words, actions,
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  and beliefs are in alignment with the ways of God.
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  Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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  journey through the scriptures, revealing lessons learned from Luke 6,
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  46-49, comparing the wise man to the foolish man.
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  Thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries. Let us pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this another day.
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  I thank you for the opportunity to bring your word. And Lord,
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  I just ask that you would just be in this message. I pray that you would remove
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  me as far as the east is from the west, Lord.
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  And I pray that you would prepare every heart and mind to hear exactly what
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  you have for us in this message. Lord, we ask for your presence to go before
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  us, to be with us, and to help us.
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  And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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  The vast majority of us has probably grew up listening to this song about building
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  your house upon the rock.
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  And the winds came, and the storms came, and the rock was solid.
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  So the house built upon the solid rock stood. But then there was the foolish
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  man, and he built his up on the sand.
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  And it didn't take much. Wind could blow it over, certainly adjust it,
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  and the storms could demolish it.
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  And so as we begin to look in this passage of Scripture in Luke 6,
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  verses 46 through 49, I invite you to use the lens of Hebrews 11.10 to view
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  everything we talk about from this point on.
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  And Hebrews 11.10 says this, For he looked for a city.
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  Which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
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  Abraham was looking for a city that wasn't here.
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  Abraham's mind was fixed upon the things to come.
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  Abraham lived on the earth with a heart and a mind that was longing to be with
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  Jesus in eternity, that was longing to live in heaven.
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  Abraham's value was placed
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  in things above where rust and moth does not
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  corrupt abraham had a lot of wealth in this land but his purpose was always
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  surrounding what was to come in heaven and so we learn that as we pilgrimage
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  here we are to have our hearts and our minds set on things above Colossians 3,
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  2 says that we just set our affections on things above and not on things of the earth.
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  And that's what we see in that Hebrews chapter 11, verse 10,
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  when Abraham is looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
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  And the question that we pose to you in this message is this.
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  What are you looking for to satisfy yourself?
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  What are you looking for to build your life upon? In this passage of Scripture
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  in Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49, we are told to build upon the rock.
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  And the rock is jesus christ and when the winds assail
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  you when the storms of life come you'll be
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  solid on the rock but if your
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  life is built upon the things of this world if your
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  life is built upon your own abilities and capabilities the least little shift
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  in wind or the least little thing that happens like a storm or even just a little
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  rain coming down will cause you to get off course.
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  It'll distort your life. It will ruin your footsteps.
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  So today, as we begin to look in Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49,
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  and I read it in your hearing, I want you to honestly take an assessment of
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  your life and what is the most important things to you where are you looking
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  for your roots and your grounds in this world.
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  Abraham teaches us that he wasn't rooted and grounded in this world.
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  He wasn't looking for his satisfaction. He wasn't looking for his eternity by things here.
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  He was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God.
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  Let's turn to Luke chapter 6 and begin reading in verse 46.
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  And why call ye my Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
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  Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and
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  doeth them i will show you to whom he is like
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  he is like a man which built a house and
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  dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose the stream
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  beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon
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  a rock but he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a foundation
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  built a house upon the earth,
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  against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell,
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  and the ruin of the house was great.
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  Here we see the comparison of the foolish man and the.
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  Wise man in james
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  chapter 2 and verse 26 it says for as the
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  body without the spirit is dead so faith
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  without works is dead also a firm foundation is one that when you see it you
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  can see that it's firm it's one in which when you are looking at how it was
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  built it proves that it is firm.
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  The same is with a life that is built upon Christ.
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  If our life is built upon Christ Jesus, then the people around us are going
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  to know that we are solid.
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  They're going to understand that we have a peace in the midst of the storm.
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  They understand that we have a peace that passes understanding and a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
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  When we build our house upon the rock, the rock of Jesus Christ. We are new creatures.
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  Behold, all things have passed away, and all things have become new in 2 Corinthians 5.17.
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  This concept of building on the rock gives us this picture of what we can understand
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  from an earthly mentality.
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  We build our houses that we are going to live in, that we are going to go in
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  when there's a storm, upon a firm foundation so that they are We're solid.
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  And so they'll stand, so they'll withstand the elements.
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  When we are Christians, we are only able to be a Christian because we have placed
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  our faith in Jesus Christ, and he is the rock, and that is the firm foundation.
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  And because he's created in us a new creature, when the storms of life happen,
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  people witness that you have a peace.
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  When the storms of life happen, people see that your mood,
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  your joy, isn't based on circumstances,
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  but instead is built upon the truth that Jesus Christ is the same today,
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  yesterday, and forever.
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  He's the same in your crisis as he is on the mountaintop.
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  He'll do for you what he's done for others and
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  when we trust in the lord with all that heart and we don't lean into our own
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  understanding that's when we know that peace that passes all understanding but
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  when we build our house up on the solid rock is evident to all that are around it,
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  It's obvious as you inspect what happens when storms come.
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  You see, here is an important understanding about what we're being told in Luke 6, verse 46-49.
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  Our words and our actions should match.
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  Why did I say that? because the foundation on the rock matches the results when the storms come.
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  It's solid. It's steady. You see, the person might have the right words,
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  but their actions don't match the words.
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  We all know that people who can talk, church talk.
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  They can speak, church speak. But when problems come, they're gone.
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  When it's no longer convenient for them to be at the house of God, they're gone.
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  When it's no longer convenient for them to love the Lord because they have to
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  give up a few fleshly things and a few worldly things, they don't want to do that.
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  And that is absolutely evidence that they're not on the rock.
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  Because if you're on the solid rock, those things aren't an interest to you anymore.
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  They may tempt you, but it's not bad temptation.
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  You may notice them, but the love of God and the word of God and the relationship
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  you have with God propels you forward, and your words and your actions match.
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  So when you say that you're a child of the Most High God, your life reflects it.
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  There's your foundations on the rock, and so you're not wishy-washy.
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  You've committed yourself to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and you've submitted
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  to his lordship, you've declared him to be God.
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  But we all know those like the foolish man who have declared he's God,
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  but their actions and their behaviors don't match that.
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  Some people just speak about knowing the Lord, but they don't really build their foundation on him.
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  People who have built their life on the foundation of Jesus Christ are going to be different.
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  How do I know this? Because they're new creatures.
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  The Holy Spirit now dwells in them. You cannot be the same as somebody who doesn't
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  have Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit living in you as somebody who does.
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  And so as we begin to look at this passage of Scripture, we see that the wise
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  man builds his house upon the rock, and the rains come down,
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  and the floods rise up, and the house stands firm.
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  But the foolish man, he builds his house upon the sand, and when the rains come
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  down and the floods rise up, the house on the sand falls flat.
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  So what separates the wise man from the foolish man?
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  One, I think it's important that you realize one has put their life in Jesus
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  Christ and their trust, and one hasn't.
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  Jesus is that rock that the wise man's building his house upon.
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  In 1 Corinthians 10, 4, he says, And did all drink the same spiritual drink,
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  for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
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  Jesus Christ is a firm foundation, and he's the rock.
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  When we think about that, as opposed to the foolish man who builds his house
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  upon the sand, we realize that in Psalms 53.1, the fool has said in his heart,
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  there is no God.
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  And so when we ask ourselves again, what is the difference between the wise
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  man and the foolish man there's a lot of thoughts.
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  Some people believe that it's knowledge that the wise man has over the foolish.
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  And so as we begin to think about
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  that, I want to remind you that having a Bible doesn't make you wise.
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  I want you to know that it's not enough for your Bible to be sitting on your
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  shelf or even several Bibles.
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  I believe that the difference between the wise man and the foolish man is that
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  the wise man had the Bible knowledge, and he was sticking to it.
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  I believe he didn't just possess the container. I believe he possessed the knowledge.
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  But the foolish man was basically ignorant and illiterate of the Bible.
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  He wasn't doing the things that needed to do. His actions and his words were not aligning.
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  So the foolish man who builds his house upon the rock has taken note.
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  The wise man has taken note as
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  he builds his house upon the rock of the things that God tells him to do.
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  The commandments are not suggestions to him.
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  Doing what God says is not grievously hard for him because he has sold out and yielded.
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  But the foolish man is definitely not buying in.
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  And some of you listening to this message are not buying into the truth.
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  And that is when you receive Jesus Christ, you got to put away old things.
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  You got to let new things take root in you. You got to submit to the Lord.
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  You've got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him.
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  You can't be lukewarm. You can't hang out in the world and call yourself a child of God.
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  He says to be friends with the world is to be enemies with God.
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  But you know, the real difference between the foolish man and the wise man isn't
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  that one has knowledge and one doesn't.
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  There are three things that this passage of scripture reveals to us that the
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  wise man has according to his actions.
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  In Luke 6, 47, we find the key to what the true difference is between the wise man and the foolish man.
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  In Luke 6, 47, it says, Whosoever cometh to me, that's Jesus,
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  and heareth my sayings, that's the commandments, the words of the Bible,
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  and doeth them, I will show you to whom he's like.
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  And the next verse he says he is likened to a wise man that builds his house
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  upon the rock so the three things we're going to talk about the first one is
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  the wise man comes to jesus,
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  i believe that he's probably talking about coming to jesus for salvation but
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  i believe he's also telling us that we have to come daily to him deny ourselves and follow him,
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  We don't get saved every day, but daily we have to wash the things of the world
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  from us, and daily we must commit to do what God is asking us to do.
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  Are you coming to Jesus every single day and allowing him to lead God and direct you?
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  If you want to weather life's storms the way that God intends for you to.
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  Living the abundant life he promises in John
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  10 10 then you're going to have to
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  come to Jesus for instruction and training and righteousness
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  every day if you don't it's not going to be long until your house falls because
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  you're going to step off the foundation you're going to step away from what
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  is holding it up and it's going to come down crashing like a straw hut in a hurricane,
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  It amazes me how many Christians think that they can live the Christian life
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  without ever coming to Jesus for their daily bread.
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  Without ever doing any kind of work for the Lord, James tells us that faith without works is dead.
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  There's a change. And I believe those people who build on the sand and their
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  house on the top looks like the people who's on the rock, I believe they know they build it on sand.
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  But they wanted the fleshly way out. They wanted the worldly way out.
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  They wanted the easy way. but that's
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  the devil that's convinced him that it's easy because trying to navigate this
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  world without jesus supplying your every need without jesus giving you the strength
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  to do it without the constant companionship of jesus trying to do that is definitely the hard road,
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  Do you want to know why so many Christians turn away from God?
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  It's because they're easily tempted.
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  Because they're not deeply rooted and grounded. They're new babes.
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  If they've given their life to him at all. See, the solid rock is sure and steady.
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  The sand is shifting, unreliable, risky.
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  And coming to Jesus in faith is not a risk you take. It is the best decision you'll ever make.
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  And in doing so, you will have the opportunity to know the assurance of being
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  in the ark of the safety of Jesus Christ.
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  The wise man comes to Jesus for his help, his daily needs, his directions,
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  his blessings, for all things.
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  That's what the wise man does.
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  The foolish man often finds themselves, depending on their own capabilities,
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  trying to figure out how to do it themselves.
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  Refusing to submit or yield to God. So the first thing we see about the wise
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  man that is different than the foolish man is that the wise man comes to Jesus.
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  The wise man is building on the rock.
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  The second thing we see is that the wise man hears Jesus.
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  In verse 47, he says that the wise man hears him.
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  He says, he heareth my sayings. So he comes to the Lord and,
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  That's where he's looking for his help. That's where he's going to get his information.
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  That's where he is looking for instruction.
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  And then he hears him.
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  Now, this is more than just hearing a sound.
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  This is hearing to understand, hearing for comprehension.
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  That's what hearing really is. when we hear what God has to say,
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  that means we have understood it, we've absorbed it, we've got it coming in.
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  But what I want you to also see is that the foolish man hears the same thing.
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  But instead of acting upon this, instead of doing what it says,
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  the foolish man ignores it.
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  And some of you listening to this lesson
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  right now are going to choose to ignore
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  the heating from god who's saying it's time to stop playing it's time to stop
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  acting like we're a christian it's time to stop having one foot in the world
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  and one foot after me it's time to do real business.
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  This is what the wise man who builds on the rock does. He hears what he has to say.
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  That foolish man, he may have been a well Bible-read person.
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  I worked with a man who knew the Bible pretty much as well as I did,
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  yet didn't believe at all.
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  Knowledge will not get you anything.
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  You've got to believe. You've got to take hold.
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  So one of the differences we see is that the wise man heard what Jesus had to say,
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  and I have to believe that the foolish man didn't comprehend it or understand it.
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  He clearly didn't believe it.
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  But the last thing that makes it different...
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  Is that the wise man does the sayings of Jesus. He comes to Jesus,
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  he hears what Jesus says and comprehends it and understands it,
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  and then he applies it to his life.
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  This is the key to weathering life's storms.
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  The wise builder that comes to Jesus hears his word, and then he does what Jesus says.
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  He comes to Jesus for instruction, he hears what he says, and then he goes and he does it.
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  The difference between the wise man and the foolish man comes down to the fact
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  that the wise man was obedient to the word,
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  and being obedient to the word keeps your life safe and well-protected in all
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  of life's events, in the deepest and baddest and worst of storms.
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  Being true to the word, being committed to follow the Lord, being tucked up
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  in the shadow of the Almighty,
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  this act of trust and full and complete faith to come,
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  hear, and do is what gets you through the storm.
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  Where would Noah be if he had heard God,
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  got the instructions but then didn't do them what if noah modified them he did
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  it part way but he didn't obey them completely what if he decided to make the ark smaller.
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  What if he didn't put that last sealant on it.
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  Noah would have perished along with everyone else.
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  Because John 14, 6 says, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
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  and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
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  1 Samuel 15, 22 says it's better to obey than to sacrifice.
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  When you think of the differences between the man building his house on the
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  sand and the wise man building his house on the rock,
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  there's also three very descriptive terms that we can see here for the construction of their homes.
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  And the wise man is getting his instruction from the Lord. First, you got to dig deep.
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  A foundation digs away all the rubble and the things.
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  And it takes some time and it takes some effort.
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  Sometimes the things which God asks us to do, well, they're not exactly fun.
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  380 days in a dark arc probably wasn't fun.
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  They're not always flashy. The jobs and the tasks and the assignments you were
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  given, they're not always the ones that are noticed.
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  Sometimes you don't even want to do it, and people will even criticize you.
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  They sure made fun of Noah, but you can't let those things dissuade you from
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  digging deep because it's the deep roots that hold on during the times of drought.
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  A tree is only as good and strong as the depths of its roots.
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  In a drought, it can get water from a long way. In the wind,
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  it's got a firm foundation.
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  Don't let people pressure you into building too fast.
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  You've got to dig as deep as God is asking you to dig.
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  And you've got to follow what God is asking you to follow.
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  And you must lay a firm foundation.
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  In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 11, he says, for other foundation can no
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  man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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  After you dig the hole and all the stuff is removed, then you can lay the foundation.
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  The foundation has to be laid upon the rock, which is Jesus Christ.
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  He's the cornerstone in which the whole church is built.
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  He's the rock and he's the foundation. He's the rock that was already there
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  in the ground that you're building upon because he's already there.
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  We learn that from Peter.
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  He's in the midst of a storm and he looks out and there's Jesus.
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  You don't lay down the rock. You build on the rock. It's pure.
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  Untouched. It's the material that is going to hold up everything else.
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  And that, my friend, is Jesus.
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  When you lay that foundation upon it, it becomes one with the rock.
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  But the foundation is something you lay on top of the rock.
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  When you lay your life on the rock, you're laying your foundation on the rock.
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  It's the same way with a house. You take your concrete and you pour it into the hole you dug.
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  When you dig the hole, you remove things from your life.
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  Things like sin.
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  Things like fleshly desires. Things that don't fit with the Lord.
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  And you fill those holes with Jesus, with his word.
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  In John 1.14, he says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
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  You take the time that you used to spend watching things you shouldn't watch
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  and you fill your heart and your mind with scripture.
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  You read about Christ. instead of wasting time and frivolous activities that are just sinking sand.
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  You now are laying up treasures in heaven, again, where rust and moss does not corrupt.
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  You used to sleep a little longer. You get up a little earlier so that you can
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  spend time meditating on the Lord.
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  The house that you're building is your life, and it must be built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
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  And when you do, it will be good, and it will be firm, and it will be strong,
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  and it will be solid because it's Him who is a good, firm, solid foundation.
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  It'll be built up as you follow the blueprints God has for you.
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  From Genesis to Revelations, we are giving all that we need to live godly lives.
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  And in fact, Peter says everything we need to be godly in this present world
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  has been revealed and given to us.
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  And it's the wise man who does what Christ says. And when the storm comes,
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  they don't even rock him, shake him, or make him slide.
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  But pretty much the wind before the storm will wipe out that which is built on sinking sand.
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  Because, my friends, there are no deep roots.
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  There's not a firm foundation. And there's nothing to trust.
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  So be like the wise man. Build your house on the firm foundation of God.
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  Remove sinful, wicked things from your life and humble yourselves under the
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  mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
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  Remember you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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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 Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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  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. Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.