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614 | Knowing How to Answer · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how
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  ye ought to answer every man.
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  Colossians 4, verse 6.
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  Words are powerful. They can be a weapon of destruction or a tool for building and encouraging.
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  It is important that we watch and pray, so that we speak words that are filled
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  with the love, grace, and mercy of Christ.
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  Join us in this broadcast as Kim discusses God's plan for our conversations.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  And what an absolute pleasure it is to have this time to speak to you about
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  the things that God has placed on my heart.
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  I'd like for you, if you would please, to turn to Colossians chapter 4 in verse 6.
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  We're going to spend just a little bit of time looking at this verse and seeing
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  how it really applies to our life.
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  It reads, Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,
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  that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
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  It's interesting to me how quickly we respond when someone asks us a question
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  or when someone says something to us that evokes an emotion or evokes a thought in us.
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  And I believe that oftentimes we are very guilty of speaking without thinking.
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  And the end result of that is almost always a problem we don't really understand
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  the power of our words and oftentimes we just speak the first thing that pops into our mind and if we.
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  Then perhaps we would be able to answer more effectively.
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  For you see, that conversation that you have with someone is your time to show them Jesus.
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  And be very sure that when you speak, people are learning things about you.
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  And we want everyone who comes into our presence and
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  everyone who comes into contact with us and anyone who
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  has a conversation with us to walk away from
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  that conversation seeing something godly about
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  us not every conversation will allow
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  us to bring god directly in
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  perhaps we will not have the opportunity to say do
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  you know my jesus perhaps we won't have
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  the opportunity to say do you know god
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  but we do have the opportunity to show
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  them who we are and as christians we are
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  children of god we are christ-like
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  we are new creatures the holy
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  spirit indwells in us and it teaches us and
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  the bible says that'll bring to mind those things we have need of
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  when we have need of them the problem is is
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  oftentimes we just jump off the starting gate with
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  an answer without checking it with our
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  heart first sometimes it's as
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  simple as the words we choose to use we could
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  use harsh words or we could use words that
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  are less harsh when we speak sometimes it's
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  because we react out of anger instead of
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  thinking things through and getting the full message and then
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  responding sometimes we don't even think.
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  At all and we say a bunch of idle talk and the
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  bible says that we're not to give way to idleness and to idle talk the problem
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  is is that we say so many words during the course of a day that i believe for
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  many of us the words become meaningless but what we don't understand is that when we speak.
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  They are meaningful to who hears them.
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  When we communicate with each other, the truth is that when we say something, we can't get it back.
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  It's out there. Just as real as when we hit the send button on an email and
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  we wish we had some kind of string to pull it back in because we realize that
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  we've said something we shouldn't have said or that we forgot to put something in it that we wish we had,
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  and it hits the send button, it goes off to Cyberland, and there's no getting it back.
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  My friend, the words that we speak are out there, and there's no getting them back.
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  And I'm sorry, we'll not take them back. It will begin to repair,
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  perhaps, the damage we've done.
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  But the best remedy for bad speech is to quit doing it.
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  And there's no excuse for using our tongue for anything except edifying the
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  body of Christ and encouraging others.
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  As a fountain of knowledge, for godly reproof and instruction,
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  it says that it needs to be seasoned with salt.
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  Salt adds flavor. Salt preserves.
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  Isn't it interesting that he doesn't say seasoned with pepper?
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  I believe it's very real because salt preserves.
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  And he wants our speech to be something that preserves the soul of man by giving
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  them Jesus, his love, his mercy, his grace.
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  And that little conversation that you have with a stranger could be the very
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  thing that brings that person to think about God because they see something different in you.
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  The conversation you have with the cashier at the grocery store,
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  it can be very meaningful.
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  Lots of things can take place. You can be the person who actually says,
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  Hey, have you had a good day? And stops to hear the answer.
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  You can be the person that says thank you and really mean it.
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  So that this individual looks at you and thinks what's different about you.
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  And you may, you just may have an opportunity to say something about Jesus.
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  But there's one thing for sure, your life can show who he is.
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  And something inside of you, called the Holy Spirit, can draw them to you.
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  And just by a conversation, you can begin to show them who he is.
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  It says to let our speech be always with grace, which is unmerited favor.
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  Too often when we speak to people, we are speaking to them out of judgment.
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  And the Bible says there is therefore now no more condemnation to them that
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  love the Lord and are in Christ Jesus.
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  Yet we speak words of condemnation all the time. We speak words of judgment.
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  And sometimes we do it in the name of God. the
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  bible says that our speech should be seasoned with salt it doesn't
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  say there should be a knife and a dagger destroying the
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  hearts of man breaking relationships sealing
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  off any hope you have of reaching them for jesus you
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  can tell people what they're doing isn't in
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  the will of god in a way to make them see god
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  or you can tell them what they're
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  doing is wrong in a way that makes you look holier
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  than thou and the bible says that we're
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  to be his instrument seasoned with salt and
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  always with grace there is
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  a time that you call sin sin and there
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  is never a time when sin becomes anything but
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  sin but you must always love the
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  person and hate the sin jesus came
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  for those that needed to be saved and my friends that's all of us because he
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  says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god and he reached down
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  with his grace and seasoned with salt he said you can't go to heaven if your
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  name's not found written in the lamb's book of life,
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  and i am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me,
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  and then he said i love you this much and he died upon the cross of calvary for your sins and mine.
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  But there was no guile found in his mouth as he was being condemned to die for
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  your sins and mine that is love that's grace.
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  Seasoned with salt he didn't compromise he didn't say it was his job that allowed
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  him to do this or allowed him to do that and he had to be a different person
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  there he didn't say he was above the rules,
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  he said i have come to do the
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  will of my father and for this he
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  came and he said be ye holy for
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  i'm wholly zealous unto good works a peculiar person
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  and there are no excuses and he said that we're to be a light to a lost and
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  dying world and the thing that people hear from us is our speech and i believe
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  first and foremost that you need to absolutely abstain from all profanity.
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  But just as importantly, I believe you need to stop being a condemning,
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  judgmental person with your speech and instead give them grace of Jesus Christ
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  with the salt of pointing out their need for Christ,
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  loving the sinner and hating the sin and pointing others to him and not yourself.
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  For the Bible says that if we lift him up, he will draw all men unto him.
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  We need to know how to speak and
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  we need to know how to answer and we
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  need to hear god in our hearts
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  that we might speak because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh
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  and so when people ask us questions the answer should reflect god when people
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  say something to us our response should reflect godliness.
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  When people have a conversation with us, they should see God in us,
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  regardless of how small the conversation or how long.
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  We are new creatures in Christ Jesus.
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  And the Bible says that our speech is to be seasoned with salt and always with grace.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at 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.