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622 | Live as a Living Testimony · 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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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica 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 live
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  a life that is a living testimony.
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  Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. My name is Erica Close,
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  and I am here with Kim Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you so much for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  I'm excited to talk about this passage in Colossians 1, verses 9-14,
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  where the Apostle Paul is praying,
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  for the early church to basically live like a Christian.
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  Absolutely. So you talked about this passage on Monday's podcast,
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  episode 621. It was called A Life Worthy of the Lord.
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  And there were so many good points in that podcast that I really just wanted
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  to take a little bit more time to discuss those and to really dig in and apply
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  those concepts and that passage to our lives.
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  So in Monday's podcast, you talked about how our lives can be,
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  and should be a living testimony to who God is and to the power of God and to
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  the work of God in our lives and.
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  In the lives of all of our listeners.
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  And perhaps before we go any further, maybe we should read Colossians 1,
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  9 through 14. Do you have it there? I do.
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  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you,
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  and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
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  wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto
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  all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
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  and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according
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  to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness,
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  giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
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  inheritance of the saints in light,
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  who hath delivered from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,
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  in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
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  Oh my goodness, that is a power-packed five verses. Amen. There's a lot in there.
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  That's such an amazing prayer.
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  You were reading that. I was thinking, I want somebody to pray that over me.
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  Right? I want my life to look like that. Absolutely.
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  That was, it's a powerful passage. And in your message on Monday,
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  when you were talking about that passage, you talked about how it's a prayer for wisdom, right?
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  And it's a prayer for that the church would grow into what it meant to be a Christian.
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  Yeah, I believe that it's a prayer trying to get the church to live in spiritual wisdom,
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  to not let the things of this world guide them or the things of this world be
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  their center, like their north, their true north.
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  But instead let the things of God, the will of God—,
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  and the character of God be their driving force in this world,
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  because we're just pilgrims wandering through.
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  Right. So if they're doing all that, and the character of God and the power
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  of God is lived out in their lives, you talked about how they would have spiritual wisdom.
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  Which you described as basically the ability to apply God's word.
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  Correctly. to your life and to the lives of those that you get to impact.
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  And you talked about just the amazing importance of holiness.
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  And we think about lives that are worthy of the Lord.
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  Holiness is obviously a huge aspect of them.
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  And you know, we so often when somebody says to you holiness,
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  this picture comes into your mind, some 95-year-old woman.
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  But holiness is for the 18-year-old boy, the 12-year-old girl, the 30-year-old mom.
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  Holiness is for every child of God.
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  And the Holy Spirit is what enables us to do that.
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  It is not something you can just will yourself into.
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  It is something you have to submit your will to God, and He creates in you.
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  Amen. You made a statement in Monday's message, and I just loved it.
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  You said that Christ died for our sins to get rid of them, not that we would wallow in them. Right?
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  I believe you. I believe that I probably said that. You said it.
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  You did. And I wrote that down.
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  But when you said that, you know, God's plan for our lives, for our holy lives,
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  is that we would, number one, accept his son as Savior so we could be forgiven of our sins.
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  But that we would then be, like, delivered from our sins, right?
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  That we would have them no longer.
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  And delivered is such a powerful word. Yeah.
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  Delivered means they're gone. They no longer have any hold on us.
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  And scripture says sin has no more dominion over us. So if sin is affecting
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  us, we are holding on to it.
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  We are choosing. We've thrown up the white flag and said, all right, Satan, have at me.
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  I'm going to follow you. because sin has no power over the child of God who
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  is living in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  Amen, amen. You talked in Monday's message too, after you talked about spiritual
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  wisdom and you talked about holiness and you talked about the importance of,
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  gratitude for our salvation.
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  And I think that so often, unfortunately, We really do take it for granted.
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  We get used to being saved.
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  And I think we forget what it means, right? I mean, we just throw it around. I'm saved. I'm saved.
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  Yeah, what are you saved from? You're saved from hell. Right. How did you get saved?
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  This perfect, sinless Lamb of God loved me enough to take my sins upon himself,
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  because I couldn't pay the debt.
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  But I mean, it wasn't like, you know, hey, I'll pick up that cup of coffee at McDonald's for you.
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  It wasn't, you know, hey, can I help you carry your groceries in?
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  This was the only way...
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  We could be spared, saved, and delivered from hell.
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  And when is the last time you really thought about what hell was?
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  Honestly, I don't think about it all that much. I don't want to think about
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  it. And we don't have to because we're spared from it.
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  But if we understood and took some time to reflect upon hell,
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  two things would change.
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  One, we'd be telling everybody. We'd be telling everybody we knew about it in
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  a very earnest, passionate way. It wouldn't be a passive way.
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  And two, we would live with such gratitude.
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  And there would be forgiveness and love in the world because we would be very
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  well aware of how much God loves us, enough even to forgive us regularly.
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  Absolutely. You know, I had something happen just last week.
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  I was on a car trip with a colleague and then had a conversation with someone,
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  from church and ended up basically giving my testimony twice, right?
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  Telling people my salvation story and then also telling people the story about my dad getting saved.
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  And I told that twice in one week.
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  And what was so amazing to me, beyond the fact that both people,
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  were really blessed by hearing it, one who was very much saved and one who wasn't.
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  But they were both blessed by hearing those stories. But what amazed me so much,
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  was how blessed I was by hearing them. And I was the one telling the story.
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  And you'd lived it. And I lived it. I'd lived it.
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  But it was amazing to me. And I was so encouraged by it. And I think...
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  That idea of being grateful for our salvation, one of the reasons I think that
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  we are not is that we don't remind ourselves, too, of that salvation moment.
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  Like, that's a huge thing in our lives. And we don't stop and remember how it
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  happened, what God had done, where we were before, what it took to get us there.
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  What it means that we are there. Right. And it's very interesting to me because,
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  if we spent more time reflecting on really what it meant,
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  we would have such joy and peace in our lives that the things of this world
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  would truly grow strangely dim.
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  Yeah. They would not affect us. Our circumstances and our situations would be,
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  a very little impact on our true heart and mind.
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  And that's what he means in Isaiah 26, 3, when he says, I will keep him in perfect
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  peace whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.
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  When your mind is fixated on God, it's fixated on the best there is.
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  And there's no room for the circumstances and the junk to get a stronghold in
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  your mind because it's already taken. Well, there's no place for the devil.
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  Right. There's no room for it. He's been shoved out, and I think what happens
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  is a lot of times we just box God up in a small place, and we fill the rest of our.
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  Closets of our heart and our mind with the things we love,
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  which often are things we love more than the Lord.
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  And that ought not be. That ought not be. That ought not be.
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  All right. Well, I want to spend the remainder of our time together today,
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  talking about basically what you talked about in the last part of the message
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  on Monday, when you talked about what does a life that is pleasing to the Lord look like.
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  And what I'd like to do is just sort of walk us all through a little bit of
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  a self-assessment, right?
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  A self-assessment of how we can assess whether or not our lives are pleasing to God.
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  I think before you lead us through that. Perhaps you should lead us in prayer that,
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  the Holy Spirit would truly shine into our hearts and our minds and reveal to
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  us, just like the psalmist David said in Psalms 139, just reveal to us if there'd
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  be anything in there that needs to come out,
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  that He would give us the courage and the strength to actually allow Him to take it.
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  Our kind and most gracious, dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank You.
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  Lord, we thank You for the opportunity to come before You, And we thank you,
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  Lord, just for the joy that it is to sit down and to talk about you and to reflect upon,
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  who you are and what your word says and who you are in your word and how your
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  word is the truth that we need to lead and guide and direct our lives.
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  Lord, I ask that as we have this next portion of a conversation,
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  Lord, where we assess as to whether or not our lives are pleasing to you.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would give all of us just the ability to hear and the
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  ability to see and the ability to know the things
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  in our lives that are not pleasing, and that you would give us the courage,
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  Lord, that we would be able to repent of those and turn from them,
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  Lord, and to walk in your forgiveness moving forward.
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  Lord, I thank you for this gift of this podcast. We thank you,
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  Lord, for the gift that it is to be able to talk to you.
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  Lord, we love you and we praise you In your name we pray And all God's people
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  said Amen Amen So in the podcast on Monday You talked about,
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  sort of four criteria that exist in a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
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  And you talked about how we would have a life of faithful service.
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  We would have a life that is fruitful.
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  A life of godly fortitude, and then a life that includes a fellowship with the Lord.
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  And I want to talk about some ways that we could,
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  ask ourselves whether or not we had those things or what that those things really,
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  looked like in our lives so let's start with the first one which is a life of faithful service,
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  and what a life of service looks like.
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  The word faithful is crucial as it means both being faithful consistent persistent,
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  but it also means doing service for the right reason like faithful to follow
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  like you're following the right following the lord you are,
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  serving because you want to be his hands and his feet extended.
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  You want to have His eyes.
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  You want to have His ears. You're following faithfully to help others because
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  you understand the love He's given to you and that He's called you to love others with His love.
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  Because He says, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples,
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  that you have loved one for another.
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  Not that you're serving for recognition, serving because it's part of some obligation
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  your work has you to do, or serving because you're bored, or serving as a hobby.
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  Or serving as a habit.
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  Faithful service is a life that has stayed in the center of God's will of service,
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  and you've served for the sole purpose of being His hands and feet extended.
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  I really appreciate that you said not service because of a habit,
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  because I think that so often there are so many times where there are opportunities for service.
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  And if we're someone who just serves all the time, right, we're like,
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  oh, I'll go do that. I can do that. I can do that.
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  And we're not doing it because necessarily the Lord has said to do it at all.
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  And I think that there's an important lesson that sometimes that not service.
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  Not every thing that needs fixing is ours to fix. Not every assignment is your assignment. Right.
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  Right. There's also something about, like, for instance, I love to coach.
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  It really doesn't matter what it is, but I really love to coach sports. Yes. And...
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  There's a lot of service to the Lord you can do coaching, which you also can just be coaching.
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  You can also say, I'm going to coach because I no longer can play because of
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  injuries or age or whatever.
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  There's a whole lot of things. And for that to be faithful service for the Lord,
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  one, you're right, He has to have called me to do it.
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  And two, I've got to be doing it intentionally trying to show Him.
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  Now, there's nothing wrong with doing coaching just to be coaching,
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  but you can't let that take the place of service he's asking you to do.
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  So everything has to be in its proper place, but don't be crediting yourself
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  for service just because you're out doing something.
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  You got to be out doing his something. Yeah, I think that that faithful and
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  that following is just so important there.
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  So we we can look at how we're serving right to ensure that how we're serving
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  is in alignment with what god would have us do the second,
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  criteria that you talked about is living a life that is fruitful and you referenced
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  the fruits of the spirit which are in ephesians 2 10 no the galatians 5 you have.
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  I'm sorry. Ephesians 2.10 is, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
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  Jesus and the good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
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  in them. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
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  But you did talk about the fruits of the Spirit.
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  So you want to go ahead and read that? In Galatians 5, they begin being listed
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  in verse 22, and it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love,
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  joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperaments.
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  These are the things that your life is going to exhibit by default.
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  Not by default if you're not saved, not by default if you're not disciplined,
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  but you're not even thinking about them because your heart and mind has been washed by the blood.
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  You have purified your mind in Christ Jesus. You are trusting fully in him.
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  You're allowing him to lead, guide, and direct you and to change you into that,
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  new creature he wants you to be and to allow you to enjoy the life that he has intended for you.
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  And the more you hang out with him, The more you become like him,
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  and the more you become like him, the more you exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.
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  Absolutely. And what's so powerful, I think, about that passage is that there
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  is such a list, right? So if we are really trying to look at that,
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  like— It's a fruit salad.
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  Right. Okay, it's a fruit salad.
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  But, like, do I have that? So, you know, am I loving? Am I joyful? Are you patient?
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  Patient? Am I at peace? Am I gentle?
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  Do I display goodness? Do people see my faith?
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  Do you have a prod problem or are you meek? Do I have self-control? Right. Do I have that?
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  I think that if we're really honest with ourselves, we can know which of those fruits,
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  we don't have and which of those fruits that we need to talk to the Holy Spirit
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  about if we're truly trying to live a life that is a living testimony to what God has done.
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  And if you're struggling with understanding it, ask your significant other,
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  ask your best friend, ask your co-workers, hey, do you see this in me?
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  You know, do you think I'm patient?
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  Or better yet, ask them, how would you describe me?
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  What characteristics do you see? Somebody that really, really will tell you the truth.
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  And that's a wonderful litmus test for the fruit of the Spirit. Amen. Absolutely.
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  The third one that you talked about was living a life of godly fortitude.
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  And I really like this one because it talks about patience and endurance with
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  joy and thanksgiving, even in the midst of pain and difficulties.
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  And I think that this is something you may not necessarily see in your life,
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  until you've gone through something to see it.
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  And so when you were talking about this one in Monday's podcast,
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  I was just thinking of all the times in my life where the Lord has enabled me
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  to have godly fortitude.
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  It's a godly boldness.
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  And it is, I believe, this ability to believe when everything fleshly about
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  you doesn't want to. Right. and when all your.
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  People in your circle are giving you advice that is different than what you know God is saying.
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  This godly fortitude is to hear the voice of God and follow it regardless of
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  anything or anyone else.
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  Regardless of the things that are occurring, regardless of the events in our
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  lives, regardless of what you've lost.
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  Regardless of what things look like. Right. Regardless of what you've lost,
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  regardless of the diagnosis, regardless of what people have said,
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  right, regardless of all of those things,
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  it's still holding and still following and still believing and still having faith.
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  And just going on with Him. Right, right, with Him.
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  So you just said with Him, and that really leads us into the last criteria that
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  you talked about, was having a life of fellowship with God.
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  And when we think about having a life of fellowship with God,
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  I think there are probably things that are true, like, hallmarks of that,
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  right? Are people seeing us in prayer?
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  Are people seeing us having conversations with the Lord?
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  Are we spending time in His Word, which is spending time with Him?
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  That's fellowship, right?
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  Talking to people, hanging out with people. And that is greatly demonstrated,
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  by your fruit of your spirit.
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  And, you know, he's a friend that sticks close to the brother.
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  And he loves us. And he never leaves us or forsakes us. So he's always with us.
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  And he wants to have a relationship with us. And he wants us to be close and
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  to reach out to him, which is why he tells us to pray without ceasing.
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  That's why he puts the Holy Spirit in us. So he is never away from us.
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  And this fellowship idea really forces you to,
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  determine, is he your friend? Is he your best friend? Are there people you love more than him?
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  And you stop for saying, who do I spend the most time with?
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  Is it him in prayer and Bible study?
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  When someone tells me something and it's different than what I feel like God
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  says or wants, whose words get the most weight?
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  When I have free time, am I calling him up in prayer or am I scrolling Facebook?
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  You know, these are the things that if we don't stop for a moment,
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  name what we're doing and, you know, self-reflect and be self-aware,
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  we're really cheating ourselves,
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  out of an opportunity to draw closer to Him.
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  And James 4.8 says, if we draw close to Him, He'll draw close to us.
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  Amen. Amen. I think that when we want to do, you know, to assess ourselves,
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  to see whether or not we are living in such a way that our lives are pleasing to the Lord.
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  It really requires honesty and it requires a vulnerability and it requires a
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  desire to make a change, right?
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  To ensure that we're prepared to make the change that God asks us to do,
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  because you know He's talking, and you know that He wants us to draw closer to Him.
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  And if we ask Him to reveal to us what needs to change, He'll do it.
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  Because He wants us to be positioned for His blessings.
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  Absolutely, because that's what he wants to do. He is a loving,
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  faithful father. Let a prayer Paul prayed.
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  Amen, amen. Well, thank you all so much for joining us and for spending some time with us.
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  I would invite you to go back and take a look at Colossians 1,
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  9 through 14 again and sit down and really ask yourself and ask the Lord whether
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  or not your life is pleasing to him.
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  Because if we live a life of gratitude for the salvation that we've been given,
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  how could we not want our lives to reflect that gift?
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  Thank you so much for joining us. 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. If it has, please consider leaving
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