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374 | A Journey Through Psalms 23: He Restores My Soul · 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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  Jesus is the good shepherd, and as such, he gives his sheep all that they need.
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  He provides countless blessings for his children who are the sheep of his pasture.
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  As his children, he ensures we have everything necessary to be holy,
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  satisfied, and productive.
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  Join us in this episode of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim continues on
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  a journey through the scriptures, revealing the blessings of Psalm 23.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us as we continue to walk through Psalm 23.
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  In our last episode, which was the first episode of Psalms 23 in this series,
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  we talked about verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
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  And we come to the point that he tells us who he is in the first part of Psalm
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  23, 1, when he says, I am the shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd.
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  And then we tell who we are in him as to whether or not we can actually say
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  with great authority, I shall not want.
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  So he tells us who he is, and he tells us that when we have a relationship with
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  him, who we are, he is our shepherd, and we shall not want.
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  In Romans 10, 9, and 10, he says this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
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  the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
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  the dead, thou shalt be saved.
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  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made into salvation.
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  Jesus is Lord to those who are saved.
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  And all it requires is that we confess we are in need of a Savior.
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  And we believe in who he is. And we acknowledge him as our Savior.
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  As I was growing up, they called it the ABCs of salvation. Acknowledge that
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  you're in need of a Savior, Romans 3.23.
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  Believe in the only begotten name of Jesus Christ, the only Son of Jesus Christ, John 3.16.
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  And confess in Romans 10.9 and 10. If you have done that, then you are a child of the Most High God.
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  It doesn't matter your education level. It doesn't matter your age.
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  It doesn't matter your status in society.
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  What it matters is, have you given your heart? Do you truly believe?
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  And have you abandoned your self-reliance and have placed your faith in the
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  only begotten Son of Jesus Christ?
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  And if you've done so, then as we walk through the rest of Psalm 23,
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  you, like me, can call him, he is my shepherd.
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  And you realize, not only does he know your name, but you know him as well,
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  as we're told in John 10, 14.
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  As we proceed through Psalms chapter 23 and verse 2, it reads this.
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  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.
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  It's interesting to me the choice of words that Jesus uses or God uses through
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  the psalmist David in Psalms 23,
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  2, when he says, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
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  At first, you could think, well, is he being harsh and is he pushing me down?
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  Is he using force to put me down? Because he says he maketh me.
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  But I believe that if you are his child, you have a relationship with him and
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  you allow the Holy Spirit to open up your heart and mind,
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  you're going to see that when he says he maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
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  that he is making a
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  way for you even when
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  there seems to be no way and the
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  way he makes for you is pleasant and plenteous
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  it's pleasant to lie down in green pastures and if you are a sheep it's plenteous
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  for all the things you love to eat and to graze on and he backs this with he
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  leadeth me beside the still waters.
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  It's hard to drink from water that's running, but they're still waters.
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  So it's easy for us to drink that life-giving water.
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  And as sheep, we need the nourishment of the pasture, and we need the life-giving substance of water.
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  But let's go a little deeper into what I believe the Holy Spirit is revealing
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  to each of us, and that is this.
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  He makes himself available.
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  If the waters were running, it would be difficult. But if you take yourself
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  back to John chapter 4 and the woman at the well, and he comes to her and he
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  says, if you drink of this water, you will never thirst again.
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  He's offering her satisfaction that the world didn't give so the world can't
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  take away. He's offering her peace.
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  That can only come from the Lord. In troubling situations, he is giving her all that she needs.
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  The good shepherd will do the same for us. If you go back to John chapter 4
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  and you begin to look at the woman at the well,
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  what you begin to see is that she comes at noonday because she is ashamed of the life she's living.
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  That's what the devil does to you. He shames you.
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  He condemns you. but jesus the
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  good shepherd when we make him our shepherd when we
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  come to him and faith believing and we allow
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  him to save us from our sins we are
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  no longer a slave to sin and there's therefore now no more condemnation to them
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  that are in christ jesus and we can walk in the newness of life a new creature
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  created in his righteousness to live the life of holiness that he said he's
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  given us everything we need pertaining to holiness.
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  Jesus loves me. This I know when Psalms 23 reveals it from top to bottom.
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  And when we are in Christ Jesus, he is making a way because he is the way.
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  In John chapter 14 and verse 6, he 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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  So in this second verse of Psalms 23, when he says, he maketh me to lie down
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  in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters.
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  He's telling you that daily he loadeth you with blessings. psalmist
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  david says that in in psalm 69 19 and
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  what he says to us is that jesus is the
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  good shepherd and he's providing everything that you
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  need even when you don't even know that you need it he has it there in plentiful
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  supply and he's not even making it hard because that same life giving water
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  if it was flowing and it was doing rapidly the water would still do what it
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  needed to do if you could just get to it or get it in,
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  but Jesus makes himself available to all.
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  So the water is still and it's quiet and it's refreshing, just as he says to
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  the woman at the well, when he says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that say to thee,
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  give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.
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  In verse 10, see, he tells her exactly who she is.
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  Not to shame her, not to make her feel bad, not to condescend to her,
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  but to let her know, look, I'll take you just as you are.
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  I know everything there is about you, and I love you.
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  And I want you to know that. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide
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  who you are from me because you can't.
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  I am omnipotent, and I am omniscient.
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  I'm all-powerful, and I'm all knowing and I love you just the way you are.
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  Don't worry about how you come
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  to the Lord because he is more than able to make you who you ought to be.
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  He is more than able to overcome whatever addiction,
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  whatever flaw, whatever error in your life and set you on the straight and narrow.
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  And to walk with you and to teach you and to empower you to be who he called you to be.
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  He doesn't care about your past because he holds your future and he's created
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  in you a purpose and he will see that purpose to the very end because he who
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  has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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  It's not about you. It's about him in you.
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  And when you just avail yourself to the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
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  and you come to the still waters and you drink of that fountain, here's what he says.
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  He says in verse 13 and 14 of John chapter 4, he says, Jesus answered and said
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  unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
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  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
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  But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
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  up into everlasting life.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know, and he leads me beside the still waters,
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  and he leads me into green pastures, and a life with Jesus may not be perfect
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  because we are born of a woman and a few days full of trouble,
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  but what we have is the promise that he'll never leave us or forsake us.
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  He'll give us all that we need to do all that he called.
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  He'll go before us and he will surround us. And he is our rock and he is our refuge.
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  And he's a present help in a time of need.
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  Jesus loves me. This I know.
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  And Psalms 23 spells it out from verse 1 to the very last verse.
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  Every word written is an exclamation of his love. for us.
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  Oh, my friends, how comforting it is when it's read at a funeral,
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  but how life-giving it is when it's read daily, and you see the position you
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  have with the Good Shepherd.
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  This passage was never meant to only be heard in our time of passing.
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  It's to be heard every day as we pass through this world,
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  leaving our fleshly desires and our worldly lusts behind and clinging to the
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  one who makes the way because he is the way.
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  The question before you is this, is he your good shepherd?
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  Oh, he's the good shepherd. But have you asked him to cleanse you from all unrighteousness
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  and to impute his righteousness in you so that you are the people of his pasture, the sheep.
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  In Psalms 100, verse 3, he says, Know you that the Lord, he is God.
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  It is he that hath made us, not we ourselves. That's that first submission to authority.
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  We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
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  As we move to verse 3, we read this. He restoreth my soul.
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  He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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  We are told in 1 Peter 1.16 these words.
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  Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.
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  We serve a holy God. And because we serve a holy God, holiness is a requirement.
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  It's an identifying marker that he is our shepherd.
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  It's a prerequisite to receive the blessings of God because he can't bless an unclean vessel.
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  So as we realize who the shepherd is and we proudly proclaim i shall not want
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  we are affirming that god's will and his ways and his plan for our life we're
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  on board with because we know he's god,
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  we know in jeremiah 29 11 that he
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  says i know the plans i have for you
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  to prosper you to give you a hope and
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  an expected end he has a plan for
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  you and it's a good plan and it includes all
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  that we read in Psalm 23 it is he who restores us when you're down a little
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  time in the scriptures to read what Jesus did for you it doesn't take much time
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  of dwelling on the fact that he left the splendor of heaven.
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  He was king of kings and lord of lords, and he's still king of kings and lord
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  of lords, but nobody denied it in heaven.
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  He's the only begotten son of God. He's fully man and fully God.
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  He's part of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
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  And he left all of that to walk on this earth some 33 years,
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  that he could be tempted like as we are yet without sin, that he would know
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  all the things that we would face so that when we come to him, we can confidently say,
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  he's my God.
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  And Lord, these are the things I'm dealing with.
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  And we can come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find help in time of trouble.
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  Because we are fully aware that he knows exactly what we're going through.
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  He knows what it feels like.
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  He understands the troubles.
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  Yet he never sinned. But he gives us grace and mercy so that when we as mere
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  mortals step left or right at the center of his will, he forgives us.
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  He gave us 1 John 1.9 to remember that.
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  He doesn't expect perfection but he
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  expects the intention of walking towards the prize
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  of the high calling that he may give us
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  all that he's planned for us as
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  we walk in his righteousness because we were bought for the price know ye not
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  that your body is the temple of god i read in your hearing first peter 1 16
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  but 1 15 says but as he which hath called you is holy so be holy in all manner of conversation.
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  Your behavior matters.
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  Does your behavior testify that he's your shepherd?
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  See, I need you to understand that he's your shepherd.
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  He is the good shepherd. Nothing you do will change the fact that he's the good shepherd,
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  and nothing you will do according to Romans 8 38
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  and 39 will separate you from his love but
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  my friends don't give it lip service there's 18 inches between religion and
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  salvation because the average person has 18 inches between their brain and her
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  heart you can know all there is to know about scripture but unless you've allowed
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  it to be in your heart unless you've believed it.
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  You will die in your religion and you will not be saved. But all you have to do is believe.
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  In Mark chapter 9 and verse 23, it says, If thou canst believe,
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  all things are possible to him that believeth.
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  Jesus came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
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  So when we come to him, he restores our soul.
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  And if you're struggling with negativity and you're struggling with bad thoughts
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  and you're struggling thinking you're unworthy, Think about what God gave up
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  when he gave his son and what Jesus gave up all because he loved you.
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  And if you were the only person ever born, he would have still come because
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  it would have required his blood to make you worthy, to make you pure,
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  and to wash away your sins that you might spend an eternity in heaven.
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  Jesus loves me. This I know. And Psalms 23 verses 2 and 3 explain it.
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  It's his righteousness.
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  It's not of works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy jesus.
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  Saved me now i know the greatest gift we've been ever given is the gift of salvation
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  we learn in ephesians chapter 2 8 9 for by grace are you saved through faith
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  in that not of yourselves else.
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  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's a gift of.
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  And it's a gift that demonstrates how much he loves us. And daily he loads us
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  with benefits, and that's a demonstration of how much he loves us.
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  He forgives us, not just for salvation, but daily as the world gets on us,
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  and we walk through this world, and we're not really part of it,
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  but still yet it gets on us.
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  When we come to him, he washes us again, not to save our sins.
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  We are saved, but to get the world off of us.
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  If you think of it in times of Bible, they walked around on sandy dirt roads
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  and they had to wash their feet just to get the sand and the dirt off.
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  The Holy Spirit renews us and restores us as we come and we confess our sins
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  and we ask him to forgive us because today was not our best day.
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  And we ask him to help us be better be more
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  for him tomorrow and daily we we we live
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  in his presence and and we
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  seek him more this is the affirmation of the second part of psalm 23 1 because
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  he's all i want and he satisfies me but i need to be holy and walk in his righteousness
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  and accept what he has for me.
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  Psalms 23 is beautiful.
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  Verses 1, 2, 3 say this, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
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  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters.
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  He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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  We see in the first three verses, the first half of Psalm 23,
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  that the shepherd is holy and he expects us to be holy.
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  And he satisfies when we surrender ourselves wholly to him.
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  If you find yourself with one foot in the world and one foot in spiritual,
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  holy things, then I want you to know that he said you can't straddle the fence.
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  You either serve God or you'll serve man.
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  You'll either serve the world or you'll serve him.
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  So today, as you reflect back on the first three verses of Psalm 23,
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  it is my prayer that you allow him to desert your heart,
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  to cleanse you from all things, that you'll open every room of your heart and
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  just let the Holy Spirit have free reign.
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  Let him do a house cleaning, that you will commit 100% of your life and your heart to him.
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  Then you will know the satisfaction of living in the presence of Jesus, following in his way,
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  fulfilling his purpose that you would have an abundant life,
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  and understanding the satisfaction of having Jesus, your all in all.
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  Remember you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  Remember that God loves you, you.
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  Music.