Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 649 | Living Like the Bride of Christ

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649 | Living Like the Bride of Christ · 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.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erika Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we're chatting about what life looks like when we choose
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  to live our lives as the bride of Christ.
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  Well, thank you for joining us, everyone. My name is Erika Close,
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  and I am here with Kim Miller. Hello, and thank you so much.
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  Yeah so we today we are coming together to have a conversation,
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  about what it means to live as the bride of christ and if you are a regular
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  listener to the women of the well ministries podcast you may have heard
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  kim on monday's podcast that would be number 648 it was called put off the old put on Christ.
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  And she talked about what happens when we become a Christian and what happens
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  when we put off our former ways and we put on our new ways.
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  We put on the ways of Christ.
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  And I will be completely honest, it was a little bit of a difficult conversation
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  because a lot of it focuses on sin and how we are to put off sin and take on.
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  A new way of living our lives. And I think that what is so important to start
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  out with is the fact that the power of the Holy Spirit, which you talked about,
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  enables us to live the lives that He has called us to live.
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  We don't have to do it on our own.
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  We can't do it on our own. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says that old things have passed
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  away. Behold, all things have become new.
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  And we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. We are a new creation.
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  So the actual moment of salvation, we are no longer what we were.
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  And we have reversed our course that was set heading straight to hell.
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  And we've done a 180, and we are now headed to heaven.
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  But more importantly, before we are saved, the Holy Spirit doesn't live in us.
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  And as soon as we make Jesus our Savior and invite Him into our heart and our
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  lives, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of us.
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  And in doing so, we have to be different. Absolutely.
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  I think I appreciate that you talked about this idea of of where we are headed
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  and how we make a change in our in our direction.
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  Because, you know, when we talk about hell and nobody likes to talk about hell,
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  but it's eternal separation from God. Right.
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  And it was never meant for us. For us. It was meant for the devil and his angels.
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  And no one has ever been sent to hell. It's a choice a person makes when they
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  choose to reject Jesus and.
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  And accept Satan. And when you reject Jesus, you are accepting Satan.
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  So it's all about what you do with this man called Jesus.
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  If you accept him, then you have eternity in heaven. If you reject him,
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  then you spend eternity in hell. You will spend an eternity.
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  It's just whether you're going to go to heaven or whether you're going to go to hell.
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  And when we accept him, like you talked about how we have the power of the Holy
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  Spirit in us, which allows us to then live out this time between our moment
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  of salvation and when we actually,
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  get to go to heaven in such a way that's pleasing to Him.
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  And I think that that's so much of what Monday's message was about,
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  was what it means to sort of put on Christ, right? Put on the new creation that He has called us to be.
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  There were so many points that you made in Monday's podcast that really struck me.
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  But one of them that you talked about is that in our lives as Christians,
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  we are managing our lives so that we're putting sin to death.
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  And you went on to talk about how death is separation. And we just talked about
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  that, right? Like hell is eternal separation from God.
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  But if we're putting sin to death, we are putting separation between the sin,
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  of our past and where we are now. And verse 5 of Colossians 3 tells us to mortify.
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  Therefore, our members which are set on the earth, like fornication and so on.
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  So mortify, kill, defeat, destroy. Yes.
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  Our sinful activities. We have to submit them to the Lord and live under His subjection.
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  And I think once we do live under His subjection, those things that, you know, once,
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  defined our past, I think you made the statement on Monday that our sins once,
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  defined us, but that is very much in the past.
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  And our sin does not define our future. Or our present. Right.
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  Because we are new creatures hidden in Christ Jesus.
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  And the things that were of sinful, wicked nature, the sins that we are forgiven,
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  we've been forgiven as far as the East is from the West to be remembered against us no more.
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  Now, we might remember them against ourselves.
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  People in our circles may remember them, but he does not. Amen, amen.
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  You know, I want to just talk about this idea of Christians and sin.
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  Because you made a really neat statement where you said that Christians are
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  people who are no longer comfortable with sin. We don't tolerate it in our lives.
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  But we're not people who no longer sin, right? We're still not perfect.
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  We're not perfect, but when we sin, there's remorse and repentance.
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  Whereas before, it was the normal way of life. And it was comfortable.
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  I love that when we have the Holy Spirit living in us, There's this dissonance,
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  right, when we're not doing what we're supposed to do. We know it.
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  I often think of having the Holy Spirit. You know, we have a conscience, right, when we're born.
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  But when we have the Holy Spirit, we have every bit of a conscience we could
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  ever have. Well, the conscience is under subjection to the Lord.
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  And so the Spirit tells us and makes us so uncomfortable.
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  Right. that we recognize our sin.
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  And I think that's something to think about, too. If there's something that,
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  you know, we don't have, some aspect of our lives that we don't have under subjection,
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  to the Lord, if we ask Him to enable us to bring it under subjection or to help us to understand,
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  you know, where that sin is coming from, He's going to tell us.
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  The Holy Spirit will let us know.
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  And I believe it's Psalm 139 where the psalmist David implores the Lord to search
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  him and see if there be any wicked way in him and allow him to know what needs
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  to be removed from his heart, his mind, and his life.
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  I think that that is an incredible practice that every Christian should do on
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  an absolute regular basis.
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  And I believe that is important because there's a difference between doing something
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  that is not right, but not understanding that it's not right,
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  and willfully doing something.
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  But we want our lives to be pure, and we want our lives to reflect Jesus in all aspects.
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  So we need to ask the Lord to sweep our hearts.
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  To your point about having our lives reflect Jesus, one of the things that you
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  talked about on Monday was how our obedience flows from our identity.
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  So if our identity is as a born-again, saved individual, our obedience will flow from that.
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  But if we are not fully identified with Christ, we will struggle with being fully obedient to Him.
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  And I think a lot of that is something, you know, we talk about this a lot,
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  about how when we are saved, we get all of Jesus, we get all of the Holy Spirit.
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  But through that process of sanctification, we give Him all the other parts of us.
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  And until we're fully, we've given it all, there's always going to be points
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  of struggle in our level of obedience.
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  You know, one of the points on Monday that you talked about was that we don't
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  behave like a Christian to be loved by God, but that the love of God motivates
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  us to behave like a Christian. Right.
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  We're motivated by his love.
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  You know, I think that's something really important. I think so often we think
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  that we do all these things so that God will love us.
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  But I think what happens is, is people think you can earn salvation.
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  And it's a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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  He says that he loves us.
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  In fact, he's clear about it all through scriptures.
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  But he says, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved.
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  We have made it. Amen.
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  When we choose Jesus and he cleans us from the inside out.
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  And we don't have to do or be anything for him to save us.
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  But when we are saved, it's the love of God in us that constrains us,
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  according to Paul, that helps us stay in the boundaries of what God has commanded.
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  He says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
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  God is saving us because of his grace and his mercy, and he gives us his son,
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  Jesus Christ. And Jesus loves us and wants to do the will of the Father to such
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  an extent that he gives himself for us.
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  And that kind of love commands love in return.
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  I love that.
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  I think when we fully understand his love, we cannot help ourselves but to obey.
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  I don't know how you wouldn't just fall instantly in love with him.
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  Scripture says in John that, in the little Johns, first, second,
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  or third, it says, we love him because he first loved us.
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  And John 3.16, big John, says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only
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  begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting love.
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  That kind of love he speaks about. Jesus himself says, No greater love has any
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  man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends.
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  He says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And Jesus said,
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  I don't call you servants.
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  I call you friends.
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  There is a personal, special, loving relationship between every person of mankind and God.
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  But whether or not you reciprocate that love is going to depend upon whether
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  you receive His free gift of salvation.
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  His love is there for you even if you step over it and go to hell,
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  even if you refuse to allow Him to,
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  course-correct you so that you can live the abundant life He promises in John
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  10.10 by equipping you and helping you and leading you and guiding you to,
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  live the intended life,
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  that He created for you in His plans He speaks of in Jeremiah 29.11.
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  When we're talking about the love of God, I think it really leads us into one
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  of the central points of Monday's message.
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  When you talked about what it means to be the bride of Christ and this idea
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  of us as the bride of christ stems from.
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  Scripture when we are told that as when jesus returns he will be returning,
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  to get his bride right and the body of christ all those that have been saved, that are Christians,
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  are that bride.
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  And I think that's sometimes uncomfortable,
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  for some people to think of themselves as the bride of Christ.
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  I actually got to teach a little bit of part of my Sunday school lesson on Sunday
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  was about this and explaining to a bunch of middle school boys that they were
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  part of the bride of Christ was a little bit of a challenge for them.
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  The middle school girls, they seem to get it, but the boys struggled a little
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  bit with themselves as the bride.
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  And our lesson was about John the Baptist and he was talking about essentially
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  what it meant to be the friend of the groom.
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  But this idea that we are the bride of Christ, cherished and loved,
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  and that he is coming back for us is huge.
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  And it really behooves us to get that because the entire topic we're talking
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  about is putting off the old man and putting on the new man when we become Christians.
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  And James 4.4 tells us that, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity
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  with God. And he opens up that verse with, ye adulterers and adulteresses.
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  It's strong language saying you're betraying your commitment to Christ.
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  You are the bride, and you have now taken your eyes off of him and are now,
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  cheating on him by giving your allegiance, your love, your attention,
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  your time, your energy, and your money to something other than him.
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  And what's really hard for adults and children alike to understand is that the
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  thing you may be putting in front of God itself may not be sinful.
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  However, because it replaces God's rightful position in your heart and in your life,
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  It becomes a tool of the devil, and it becomes something that moves you away
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  from your relationship, and you are cheating on God with it.
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  That was the point on Monday that I think struck one of the biggest chords with me.
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  When you talked about that, when you literally talked about sin as really cheating on God.
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  And it can happen very innocently. I was very young and very blessed to be extremely
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  successful as a tennis player, and,
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  the amount of time and the amount of the effort and all of the success and all
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  of the attention and all of the,
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  earthly rewards that it was affording me was,
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  making me more interested in playing than reading Scripture,
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  more proud of my ability to hit a forehand down the line than to memorize scripture.
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  It was taking up an enormous amount of real estate in my mind and heart.
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  And with each inch that it acquired, it was taking away from me.
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  The part of me that God had. And there is nothing sinful, wicked, and wrong about tennis.
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  But when it becomes your little G-O-D, when it becomes your idol,
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  when it becomes your identity, then there's a problem.
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  Because as Christians, our identity must be in Christ Jesus. We are hidden in Him.
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  And we are His ambassadors. And He says that we're the light of the world.
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  And in Matthew 5, 16, he says that we have to let our light so shine before
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  men that they see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
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  You know, I think that this idea of tackling sin is one that we don't give enough attention to.
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  It's certainly not a fun conversation. right it's certainly not something fun
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  to think about but i think if we go back and we look at.
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  The concepts that come out of this idea of putting off,
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  our old man and putting on Christ, putting on the new man, I think we can see,
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  a number of points, a number of things that we can focus on and things that
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  we can ask the Lord to help us with because He promises us He'll answer.
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  We've talked about how the Lord will reveal to us and make us uncomfortable
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  comfortable with our sin.
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  We've talked about how the Lord will constrain us.
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  And assist us when we ask Him to, and ensuring that we're not going,
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  helping us ensure that we're not going to commit the sin that is in front of us.
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  And then I think that if we ask the Lord to transform our hearts and our minds
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  and help us to see ourselves truly as the bride of Christ.
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  It will allow us to see that place that we have in Him, and that the things
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  that are pulling us away from Him are the very things that we need to step away from.
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  And as He tells us in Colossians 3 these things to get rid of,
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  He also tells us things to put on,
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  like kindness and mercy and grace and humbleness and meekness and long-suffering and forgiveness—.
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  And if you look at these things in Colossians, it's awfully familiar to us,
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  the wording, because it's the fruit of the Spirit.
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  If you have the fruit of the Spirit, you are definitely going to be able to dress yourself in Him.
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  And if you're hidden in Him, that's what's going to be available for you to put on.
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  The problem is, is we position ourselves in places we do not need to be,
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  in circumstances we are never meant to be, and in situations that are not conducive
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  to us walking the Christian life.
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  If we stayed hidden in Christ, under the feathers of the Almighty,
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  at the foot of the throne, in His Word, worshiping and praying,
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  I promise you, it would be extremely easy for us to be meek in temperament.
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  It would be easy for us to be able to crucify our flesh.
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  We would be able to have patience, and we would be able to have peace and joy
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  and long-suffering and love and gentleness and goodness and faith.
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  All these things are provided for us.
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  But just like when we get dressed in the morning and we open up our closet,
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  we have to reach in and grab what it is we're going to put on.
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  It doesn't just jump on us, but Christians try to live as if it's just going
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  to jump on us, and then they don't even get in the right closet.
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  Because we made one decision.
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  Right, and they don't even get in the right closet.
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  They're out here in the world thinking they're going to put on holiness. It's ridiculous.
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  It's ridiculous, and yet, how common is it? So true.
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  Oh, my goodness. Well, we've had quite the conversation just about sin.
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  So before we go, I'd like to pray. Amen. Because, you know, sin is hard to talk about,
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  but it's a whole lot harder to live in sin than to live covered in Jesus himself.
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  Sin will take you further than you want to go, cost you more than you want to
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  pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.
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  Don't avoid conversations about sin because the repercussions are far harder
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  than the conversation that prevents you from choosing incorrectly. Amen. Let's pray.
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  Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, for hard conversations. I thank you,
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  Lord, for the fact that we can confidently talk about sin because we know who you are.
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  I thank you, Lord, that we know that there is a way of escape and that you promise
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  us that, and that when we get in a situation where we are facing sin,
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  that you have provided a way for us to turn and walk away from it.
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  Lord, like we talked in this message, I pray, Lord, that for each and every
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  one of our listeners, that you would reveal to them, to each of us,
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  to all of us, Lord, any sin that's in our lives that you want rid of.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would make us so uncomfortable in places that we would
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  be able to understand that it's a place that we don't need to be.
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  I pray that you would make us uncomfortable in activities that we're not supposed to be in.
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  And I pray, Lord, that you would make us uncomfortable in situations where we're
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  around people or we're in a place that's just not where we're supposed to be.
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  Lord, I ask that you would.
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  Constrain us. I pray, Lord, that your love would constrain us.
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  Lord, that the power of the Holy Spirit in each and every one of us would constrain
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  us in such a way that we would not be able to do, Lord, the things that we're
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  not supposed to do, but we would be constrained by your love.
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  And lastly, Lord, I just ask that you would give us all a clear picture of what
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  it means to be the bride of Christ.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would give us all an understanding of what that means,
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  that you would allow us to see how our actions, when we choose to sin.
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  Are essentially cheating on you.
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  And Lord, when we think of it like that, I am certain that none of us would want to do that.
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  Reveal to us, Lord, whatever it takes to allow us to see the sin in our lives.
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  And Lord, that's a scary prayer.
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  But I pray, Lord, that you would allow us to see it, that you would give us
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  what we need to step away from it, that you would make the way of escape clear.
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  And Lord, most importantly, we thank you for your promise that in 1 John 1,
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  9, that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our
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  sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  Lord, we thank you for salvation.
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  We thank you for forgiveness. Lord, we thank you for loving us so much that
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  you would send your Son to die on the cross for us.
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  Lord, we love you. We praise you and we thank you. In your name we pray. Amen.
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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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