Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 300 | Conversations - The Armor of God 2

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300 | Conversations - The Armor of God 2 · 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
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  well in John chapter four.
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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,
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  we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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  about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living her 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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  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 continue a series on wearing the armor of God as
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  we journey through your life.
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  In today's podcast, we continue our study of Ephesians 6, 10-17 and chat about
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  wearing the breastplate of righteousness.
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  Well, hello, everyone. My name is Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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  Hi, thank you so much for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries
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  as we move beyond the helmet of salvation, which we did the last time we were
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  talking together, other.
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  And we are now in the breastplate of righteousness.
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  I believe of all the pieces of armor, I love the breastplate of righteousness the most.
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  Well, I can't wait to hear why that is so. But before we hear that,
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  I'm going to read us our passage. That's fantastic.
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  Out of Ephesians 6, 10 through 17.
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  Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
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  Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
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  against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
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  against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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  Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
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  in the evil day and having done all to stand.
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  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate
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  of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench
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  all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword
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  of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
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  So we are working our way through the armor of God, and we're starting at the head.
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  We're not going in the order that they are presented in the Scripture,
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  but in the order with which we wear these pieces of armor, starting with our
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  head and moving down towards our feet.
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  So if you joined us in our last podcast, you heard us talk a little little bit
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  about why we need the armor of God.
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  And that's pretty clear here in Ephesians chapter 6, where we talk about who
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  we are actually fighting against, right?
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  We're not fighting against flesh and blood, but we're fighting against principalities,
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  against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
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  We're fighting against spiritual wickedness. And if we're fighting against spiritual
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  wickedness, we need a spiritual armor in order to be able to fight that battle.
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  So God himself has created for us the armor of God, which is all of these different
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  pieces that represent all of the many gifts that we are given in our relationship with God.
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  And last week, we talked about the helmet of salvation, salvation being the
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  most precious gift that comes to us through Jesus' death on the cross.
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  And we talked about how a helmet protects the mind.
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  It protects our brain, and we talked about the brain being the control center
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  of our whole body and of who we are.
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  So salvation is fundamental to our very existence, to our very life,
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  and the helmet of salvation covering us demonstrates how salvation covers us completely.
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  But now I'd like to ask Kim, why is the breastplate of righteousness your favorite?
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  It because it is the blood that covers our sins.
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  And though our sins were a scarlet, they are washed white as snow by the sinless,
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  perfect blood of Jesus Christ.
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  And it is the heart that pumps the blood.
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  It's the heart that distributes the blood.
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  And I love that this This breastplate that covers my heart, that has been washed
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  white as snow, has imputed into me his righteousness.
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  I am made righteous because of who he is.
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  And because when he enters into me by my accepting his payment for my sin through
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  faith in him, Him knowing that He loved me,
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  knowing that He made Himself to be sin for me, who knew no sin,
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  that I could be made the righteousness of God in Him, which we learn of in 2 Corinthians 5.21.
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  This is why I love the breastplate of righteousness, because it covers the entire core of His love for me.
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  And my redemption. And I am no longer a sinful, wicked creature,
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  but I have his righteousness in me.
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  And he gives it to me through faith, and then he protects it with his breastplate.
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  I love that. I love that protection, because the protection that we have with
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  the breastplate of righteousness, you know, goes back to what we read in the
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  beginning of Ephesians.
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  But when we accept Jesus is our Savior, we put on that breastplate of righteousness,
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  we're protecting our entire body, right, from the fiery darts of the enemy.
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  A breastplate is going to cover, like you said, the whole core.
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  And anything coming at the core is going to be stopped by it.
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  So we protect our heart and our entire being from the control and the hurt that
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  the devil could try to throw at us.
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  You know when the heart beats it
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  pushes the blood and we
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  are covered by the blood and asked to
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  go out and preach and teach the gospel and to tell everyone we know that jesus
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  saves that's pushing the blood out that's distributing the blood of jesus that
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  is in us to those that are around us i love that i love that and that's what
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  we've been called to do distribute the blood And if it was not,
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  if it was not covered and protected by God and his righteousness.
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  Then evilness could creep in and the things of the devil.
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  And I love it because in Matthew chapter six and verse 21, he says.
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  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So.
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  And what he's saying is what you absolutely adore is going to be what comes through your heart.
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  And as Christians, we should absolutely adore the one and only true God,
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  the living Jesus Christ that is in us, that was made flesh and dwelt among us,
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  that lives in us in the form of the Holy Spirit, that we might have our heart
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  pure because of who he is in us.
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  And we don't have to worry about in our sleep something happening,
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  the heart becoming deceitfully wicked and who can know it, because he has put in us a clean heart.
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  He's changed and transformed it, and then he covers it with his breastplate
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  and says, get away from me, devil.
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  You can't touch me because Jesus is holding.
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  That washed us white as snow, cleansed from all unrighteousness,
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  heart that is now soft that was once hard,
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  that is now pure that was once unclean, that now is pumping the love of Jesus to everybody I see.
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  I love that. I love that idea of righteousness, the righteousness that comes to us by faith.
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  Philippians 3, 9 and 10 says, And being found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
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  which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
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  The law without Jesus would never give us a breastplate that would cover us.
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  And we'd be sunk. We would be sunk.
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  But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
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  God by faith. And then verse 10.
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  We get to know Jesus. And knowing Jesus.
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  In our lives, is marked in our lives by the breastplate of righteousness,
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  by the righteousness that is imputed to us through his death, by the covering.
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  It's also marked by our love for others.
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  He says, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples because you have loved one for another.
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  And symbolically speaking, the heart is love.
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  And he has filled our heart with himself. So we are filled with love.
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  And the more we know him, as we're told in that passage you just read,
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  the more we have the power that have raised him from the dead is working in our lives.
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  And Ephesians 3.20 says that we can do exceeding abundantly above all that we
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  ask or think according to the power that works in us.
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  We have the ability to change hatred into love.
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  We have We have the ability to change darkness into light.
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  We have the ability to bring peace where there is chaos.
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  We have the ability to give love where there is hate.
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  We have the ability to make things right, not because of who we are,
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  but because of whose we are and the love that is in us that has been sealed, sent,
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  and delivered by the breastplate of righteousness that he's imputed into every
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  true born-again believer.
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  And when a true born-again believer
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  goes out into this world wearing the breastplate of righteousness.
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  It's a completely different experience than walking into the world without it, right?
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  When we accept Christ as our Savior, we are given this position of righteousness.
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  We are made righteous. We are told that we are righteous.
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  We are made righteous by Christ and his blood.
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  But when we walk out the door with our breastplate of righteousness on,
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  we get what we might call a practical righteousness that causes us to be able
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  to win all of our spiritual battles.
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  Without the blood of Jesus in my life, I would not win the small daily battles that come at me.
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  Without the blood of Jesus covering my life, I would not be successful to avoid
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  the traps that the devil puts in front of me.
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  Which is why we have to continually renew our minds so that we have a fresh
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  spiritual attitude to start each day and resist the devil.
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  Because daily, we have to choose in our minds to resist the devil.
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  And James 4, 7 says, the devil will flee from us. but when we fail to live out
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  our righteousness, we become an easy target for the enemy.
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  John 10 10 says, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy,
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  but I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
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  When we accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and we put on
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  the breastplate of righteousness, when we are are made righteous.
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  We're able to live in that peace, in that joy of knowing that the battle isn't
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  ours, that the battle belongs to the Lord, right?
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  We get to allow the peace of God to rule in our hearts and in our minds.
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  And with that breastplate of righteousness on, we're allowed to understand where
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  we are positionally with Christ. We're made righteous.
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  We get to be near him, right? We get to be eventually in heaven with him.
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  We get to live with him in this world.
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  So we get to experience his goodness each and every day.
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  That breastplate of righteousness demonstrates the victory that we're given each and every day.
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  And it gives us the abundant life that he has promised.
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  We are undeserving.
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  We can't earn it. We couldn't buy it. We can't build it.
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  We can't lose it.
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  Because he says no man will pluck us out of his hand. But friend,
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  it's the free gift that keeps on giving.
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  And it is a choice we have to choose. Every day to put God first,
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  to draw closer to him, to live in the righteousness that he so freely imputed in us.
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  Thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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  It's our sincere prayer that you are putting on the breastplate of righteousness
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  that you know him personally, that you walk with him closely,
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  and that you remember you are loved.
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  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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  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
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  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
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  store or through our website at watwm.org.
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  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm.
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  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
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  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
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  To learn how to partner with Women at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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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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  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you.
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  Music.