Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 458 | You Must Do More Than Just Know Jesus. You Must Have a Relationship With Him.

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458 | You Must Do More Than Just Know Jesus. You Must Have a Relationship With Him. · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  God is in control.
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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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  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 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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  We all know people who attend church regularly, but the teachings of Jesus and
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  the ways of God's people simply don't exude from them.
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  They play church, if you will, but they don't really allow God to penetrate
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  their hearts or be Lord of their lives.
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  No doubt these people know a lot about God, but they don't have a relationship with Him.
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  Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries, as Kim takes us on
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  a journey through the scriptures, revealing how we can truly know God by having
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  a personal relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.
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  Come join us as we receive the blessings of having a personal relationship with
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  Jesus and being part of the family of God.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries. Let's pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, I just pray that you would
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  remove me from this message, that the Holy Spirit would lead God and direct,
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  and Lord, that you would speak through these lips of clay.
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  I pray that you would prepare the hearts and the minds of those that are going
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  to hear it, and Lord, that we would receive exactly what it is that you would
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  have us to receive from that which you have given me.
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  Lord, teach us to walk in your ways. Teach us to delight in your word.
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  Help us, Lord, to desire you more than anything. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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  Today, I want to bring to your attention a truth that is hard to talk about.
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  It's hurtful. It's painful.
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  But the truth is, there are many people today who we rub elbows with,
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  and we go to church with, and we go to Christian events with,
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  who simply don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  They're good people, perhaps, but goodness does not get you to heaven.
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  Scripture says that there's only one that is good.
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  That was God, his son Jesus.
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  So when we think about our good deeds, Isaiah said that all of our good works are as filthy rags.
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  There is none righteous, no, not one.
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  We can't work our way into heaven. We're told that in Ephesians 2.8.9,
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  where he says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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  So it's not about what we've done, but it is about the finished work of Calvary
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  and what Jesus himself did because of the love of God who gave his son to die for our sins,
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  as we read about in John 3.16,
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  which says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son,
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  that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
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  have everlasting life the scripture says
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  in john 14 6 i am the way the truth and the life and
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  no man cometh unto the father but by me these are words by jesus and so there
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  are those who walk in the church house there are those that pay money to the
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  church there are those that or kind to the poor and kind to the sick.
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  But they are not Christians because they've not placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
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  As we begin to look at this, I would like for you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3.
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  And here we're going to talk about what God says.
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  And you're going to see that Paul experienced those who walked in carnality,
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  and he warned them against the perils of going their own way.
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  See, Scripture says in Romans 10, 13, that whosoever shall call upon the name
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  of the Lord shall be saved.
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  It's through and by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary,
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  the sinless, spotless Lamb who shed his blood, that our sins are washed away.
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  But he will not wash away your sin if you do not ask him to do so and you do.
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  Not place your faith in him.
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  Going to church doesn't save you. No more than going to the hospital makes you a surgeon.
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  Doing good things doesn't save you.
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  No more than eating Chinese food makes you from China.
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  It has to be a conscious effort, a conscious decision.
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  Deuteronomy, we read, it's put like this, choose you this day whom you will serve.
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  We have to choose Jesus.
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  Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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  The question remains today. Do you know Jesus?
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  Do you have a relationship with him? It's not enough to know about him.
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  It's not enough to be able to spout fact after fact after fact.
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  It's great to hide his word in your heart so you don't sin against him.
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  That's what the psalmist David told us to do.
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  It's fantastic to combat the devil with the word of God. That's what Jesus showed us to do.
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  But we have an opportunity from Genesis to Revelations to understand the character
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  of God, to know him because we know Jesus, his son.
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  In John chapter 14 and verse 7, he said it like this, If ye had known me,
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  you should have known my father also.
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  And from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
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  What he's saying is, if you know me, this is Jesus speaking,
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  If you know me, you know God.
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  And you know him because you've seen him in me.
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  And the entire New Testament is devoted to showing us the works and the acts of Christ.
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  And the Old Testament is telling us the prophecies that are fulfilled through him.
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  We learn of him, and we see them fulfilled, and we see him all in Scripture.
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  And to know Jesus is to know God.
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  But you've got to know him. You can't know of him.
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  I've always been a huge sports fan.
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  And I know a lot of facts and figures about the sports stars that I really like.
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  I know things about their wins and their losses. I know where they're from.
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  Often know who their coaches were.
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  I know their names. I know their playing styles. I can talk to you about them a lot.
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  But I don't know them at all. I can't call them up.
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  If you ask them, who's Kim Miller? They have no clue.
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  So talking about them may make you think that I know them, but the truth of
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  the matter is I don't know them any more than you know them.
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  I just know facts about them.
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  Today, I want us to really reflect on, do you know him?
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  Do you have a relationship with him?
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  Because you got to know more than just him, more than just about him.
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  You've got to know him. You've got to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  Let's turn, if you will, to Philippians 3, beginning in verse 7.
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  Here's what Paul is saying. He says, But what things were gained to me,
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  those I counted loss for Christ.
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  One of the first characteristics that you'll see of a child of God is that their
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  works glorify the Savior.
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  In Matthew 5, in verse 16, he says that we're to let our light so shine before
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  men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
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  Our words and our actions, they point people to Jesus.
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  That's a characteristic of a child of God.
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  Jesus pointed everybody to God, the Father.
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  He was the Savior of the world, yet he gave all attributes to God.
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  In verse 8, it goes, Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
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  excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
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  for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
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  Christ, he is saying, I have given up everything there is within me to know
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  Christ, to have knowledge of who he is, but to know him,
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  to have a personal relationship with him.
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  I've suffered loss and anything else that is different than that was about my
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  relationship with Jesus Christ, I don't count that as a win.
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  He is plain in saying that his desire, his motivation, his inspiration,
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  his energy, his effort, his goal, his purpose, his determination is to have
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  a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  Could that be said of you?
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  Are you playing the role as a Christian, and you kind of just put it on and take it off?
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  On Sunday mornings, and maybe even Sunday evenings,
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  and perhaps even Wednesday, you put on that cloak of Christianity,
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  and you walk in that door, and everybody sees you smiling and laughing,
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  and you know all the buzzwords,
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  and you put the money in the plates, and you hug the widows,
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  and you show up to mow the grass.
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  But do you know him? What's your purpose and motivation for all of those things?
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  Do you have a personal relationship?
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  Have you been willing to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him?
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  Is he worth giving up your wants?
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  Is he worth giving up your desires, your dreams, your hopes,
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  to follow the one and only true living God. He's worth it, friend.
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  But do you understand that he's worth it?
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  In verse 9, it goes on, Be 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 righteousness which is of God by faith.
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  He's clearly stating that he's
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  made a choice to give up
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  self and to have the righteousness of
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  god imputed into him by the regeneration
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  of ourself to be born again created new creatures in christ jesus by believing
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  in the only begotten son of god that he died on the cross of calvary that he
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  is the way and the only way and that when i place my faith in him and let him
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  be lord Lord of my life and King of my heart,
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  and I give up self-reliance,
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  then I know that He is my Savior.
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  And it's His righteousness by faith.
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  Faith in a God that cannot fail. Faith in a God that you give top priority.
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  Faith in a God that you serve, not that you are co-fellowers of the gospel,
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  but that he is God and you are his servant, you are his child.
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  Friends, do you know him in a personal way?
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  Paul says he does all of this in verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
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  Wow. Paul makes a bold statement.
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  He gives it all up and places his faith in Jesus Christ, that he may know him.
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  We read in John 14, 7, that to know Jesus is to know God.
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  He gives it all up and places his faith in the Lord and allows the Lord to impute
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  his righteousness, to give him his righteousness.
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  So when God looks upon the hearts of Paul, he sees the blood of Christ and he
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  sees the forgiveness of his sins to be remembered against him no more as far
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  as the east is from the west.
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  Paul says he does this that he may know him. and the power of the resurrection.
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  The resurrection was so powerful that it brought the dead to life.
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  I'm telling you, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and when we place our
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  faith in Jesus Christ, we are brought to life.
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  He said that he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly,
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  only through and by the power of Jesus Christ and his resurrecting power to
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  forgive us of our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
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  to turn us around so that we are walking and we are a lively hope in Jesus Christ.
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  Only Jesus can do that. This is the power of the resurrection.
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  And then he says, I've given it all up to be fellowship of his sufferings.
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  Look, we're told in James to be friends with the world as to be an enemy with God.
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  The things that used to bring you pleasure, well, they don't do that anymore.
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  Because the scripture says in John 14, verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments.
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  Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ follow after his ways, and the things of
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  the world are no longer attractive.
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  The things of the world are no longer got a hold on them.
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  Sin no longer has bondage over us. We are no longer slaves to sin.
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  We have been freed by Jesus Christ, and who Jesus sets free, they are free indeed.
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  Do you know him? Do you have a personal relationship?
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  In verse 11, he says, If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of
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  the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
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  but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
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  He's seeking to be like Christ.
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  Those who know Jesus as personal Savior, they are drawing close to him.
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  And he says, if you draw close to him, he'll draw close to you.
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  They are seeking to be more and more like him.
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  They are submitting more and more of themselves to him that he may feel them to overflowing.
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  There is a difference in the child of God.
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  You should look different, act different, speak different.
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  There should be a holy glow about you. The Holy Spirit indwells you,
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  and a person who is not saved doesn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
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  You should be different, and he creates in you a new creation,
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  he tells us in 2 Corinthians 5.17.
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  He tells us in verse 13, I count not myself to have apprehended or to know,
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  but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
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  forth into those things which are before,
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  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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  Paul is saying, I've left it all behind. There's nothing there for me.
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  When you know who Christ is, when you understand the character of God and you
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  understand that he died for you and you place your faith in him and you begin
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  a relationship with Jesus Christ that is personal.
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  Abraham was called the friend of God. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus.
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  Mary and Martha, he called us friends.
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  If we love him and follow after him.
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  He says, greater love hath no man than this, than a man would lay down his life for his friends.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
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  And as a born-again Christian with a personal relationship in Jesus Christ,
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  one who is embracing him, embracing his ways, can't get enough of his word because
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  the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
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  And when I read his word, I am sitting in his presence. When I pray,
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  I am praying to God, and I am praying to Jesus, and I'm understanding that there's a conversation.
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  And when he says, Be still and know that he is God, he's speaking into my heart.
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  The Holy Spirit is bringing to my mind those things that I have remembrance of.
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  The scriptures are flying through my mind. My heart is conditioned to hear him when he whispers.
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  And my eyes are fixed upon him.
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  And the things of this world grow strangely dim, and I'm following him,
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  and I want to be closer to him.
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  The more I know him, the more I want to know him.
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  The closer I get, the closer I want to be.
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  He says that those who have been perfected in Christ Jesus, they need to be of one accord.
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  He's telling us we need to walk the way God and Jesus would have us,
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  to do the things of Christ.
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  He's saying, be followers of me, not to worship him, but to let him be the example,
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  to be an example for others.
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  Here's the crux of the message.
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  He says for many walk whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping
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  that they are enemies of the cross of Christ.
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  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, their own way,
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  the way they've satisfied themselves, the way that they think they've taken care of themselves.
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  See, they are attributing the provisions of God, the strength of God,
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  the blessings of God, the rewards they are given to God's children.
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  They are attributing those things to themselves when the truth of the matter
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  is we are nothing without Christ Jesus.
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  Everything that you have and everything that you are is because of the love,
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  grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.
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  It's a love without end. And you say, well, that doesn't seem right to me because people go to hell.
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  It breaks his heart because none were meant to go there.
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  He says that he wishes that all would come to repentance.
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  Hell was not created for human beings to be there, but we choose it.
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  Because we don't choose Jesus.
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  We have to choose.
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  In 1 John 5.13, he says this, These things have I written unto you that believe
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  on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know,
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  that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
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  In verse 19, when he talks about those who don't walk in the way of Christ,
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  They mind earthly things.
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  Are the things of this world more important to you than the things of God?
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  Do you make time for everything except prayer or reading?
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  When you go to church, are you listening to what God has to say?
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  Are you reading his word and allowing him to convict your heart and to change your ways?
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  Or are you marking a box off?
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  Using it as a social event on your calendar. In John chapter 14 and verse 21,
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  he said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
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  And he that loveth me shall be
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  loved in my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
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  Jesus is seen in the actions, the words, and the life of those who call him Savior.
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  Jesus is more than facts and figures to those who've yielded their life to him.
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  In Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 17, we read this,
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  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
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  Genesis to Revelations, that tremendous love letter written for each of us so
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  that we would have knowledge of who he is.
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  That the Spirit of God would give
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  us wisdom and reveal to us who God is so that we would believe on him.
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  In verse 18, it says, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
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  that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the
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  glory of his inheritance in the saints.
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  We are given all that we need to live righteous and holy lives.
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  Eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard what lies in store for them that love
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  the Lord. You haven't even thought about it.
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  That's how much he loves you.
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  Verse 19 of Ephesians 1, he says, And what is the exceeding greatness of his
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  power to usward who believe?
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  According to the working of his mighty power. Philippians said that we might
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  know the resurrection power.
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  Ephesians is telling us, according to the working of his mighty power,
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  which we wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and sent him at
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  his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power
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  and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
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  not only in this world, but also in the world which is to come.
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  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all
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  things of church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
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  That void you're feeling right now, that hole in your life that drugs doesn't
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  seem to occupy for any length of time, that booze won't help you forget,
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  that nothing gets rid of that longing, that is Jesus Christ's place.
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  You were created in his image, and he is reaching out to you,
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  beckoning you to accept him.
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  Turning away. You're choosing hell over heaven.
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  Some of you are doing it looking so good, but only those things done for Christ will last.
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  And he's not expecting anything from you other than you believe in him and submit yourselves to him.
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  That you accept that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, that you confess
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  that He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior of the world,
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  and that you believe in Him,
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  and that you come alongside and confess Him.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
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  Every word testifies to His love for you and me. It's not found in the church.
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  It's not found in the bottle.
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  And it certainly isn't found in ourselves. Nope.
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  Psalms 37, verse 4 says, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give
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  thee the desires of thine heart.
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  Peace is found in Jesus. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
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  whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26.3.
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  Joy, unspeakable, and a peace that passes all understanding is yours for the
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  taking if you but put your faith in Jesus.
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  It's hard to sit in church trying to fake it. You got to be careful what you're
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  saying, what you're doing.
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  But for the child of God, it's a place of rest. It's a place of worship.
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  He said, these children, these things I've written that you may know and believe.
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  You're not fooling anyone. You don't even fool yourself. You know whether you believe or not.
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  Porture has one of the scariest accounts when he says, there'll be those that he says, depart from me.
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  I never knew you, you workers of iniquity.
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  It's time you stop playing the game, because he stands with his arms open wide.
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  It requires a personal relationship, a personal commitment, a personal faith.
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  You don't get saved on the faith of your family.
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  You don't get saved on the faith that is expressed in your church house.
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  You don't get saved because you read a book, raise your hand,
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  or squeeze someone's hand.
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  You get saved because you believe in Jesus Christ, and you deny yourself,
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  and you place all your faith in a God that cannot fail.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
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  Remember you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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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. If you visit our website,
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  you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and
• 28:31
  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 Woman 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. You are loved.
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  Music.