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327 | Conversations - Lessons from Proverbs 4 - Walking in Wisdom · 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 in 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 the book of Proverbs,
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and in today's podcast, we are discussing the lessons learned in Proverbs chapter
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4. Well, hello, everyone.
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I'm Erica, and I am here with Kim.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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I'm excited to talk today about Proverbs chapter 4.
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We've had a good time in the first three chapters, and there are 31 chapters
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in the book of Proverbs, and we are going to walk through every chapter together
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and hopefully together with you.
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And so it is our prayer that you are hearing from the
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Lord during these times of study and reading and that you take what you hear
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and that it motivates you and inspires you to go and do some real studying in it.
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We're just hitting the very cursory ideas and thoughts that are in each chapter
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during our podcast, but we encourage
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you to read it in depth and to really study what God has for you.
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Absolutely. All right. So we are are in Proverbs chapter 4 today,
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and I'm going to start out and read the first 13 verses.
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Hear ye, children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding.
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For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
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For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
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He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words,
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keep my commandments, and live.
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Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline Decline from the words of my mouth.
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Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. Love her, and she shall keep thee.
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Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding.
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Exalt her, and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her.
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She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
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Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many.
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I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in right paths.
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When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
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Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life.
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Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men.
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Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
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For they sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken
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away, unless they cause some to fall.
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For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
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But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
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The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble.
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My son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings,
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let them not depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart,
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for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
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Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
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Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
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Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
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Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
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Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil.
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I think we can always say that, wow, what a proverb, and it always is a really good proverb.
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I love that this one talks about how, as we're instructed to sit in here and
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listen to the instruction of a father.
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And I think that for many, understanding that correlation between your earthly
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father that's giving you instruction,
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which is the head of your household and the authority in your life as a kid
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is quite the example for how we are to take instruction from our Heavenly Father.
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And he is the authority in our life when we give him the rightful place in our
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heart to make him king of our life and lord of our heart.
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When we do that, then we give him his rightful place.
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And in doing so, we are to take instruction from him.
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And he talks about us to Solomon is explaining to us that we need to be obedient.
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Obedient, and so he teaches both obedience and instruction,
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and he tells us about how he had this from his parents, especially his dad,
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and you know, one of the things that I've known in my lifetime is those who
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are successful are those who are teachable.
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If you aren't teachable, you've gone as far as you're going to go,
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and for most people, that's not nearly the beginning of where they could be.
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And so when we first look at Proverbs 4, I think it's incredibly important that
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we first get in the right frame of mind.
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And the right frame of mind here is that when we hear good, sound instruction,
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we need to be willing to obey and to take it.
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But even before that, that we must be seeking wisdom and instruction.
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And when we get that habit and that attitude in our lives, then we are going
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to become who God wants us to be.
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I love that. You know, it makes me think, you know, there may be some that are
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listening that don't have that model of an earthly
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father that gave them wisdom and that really sat with them and that was the head of the household.
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But praise be to God, even for those that did not have the earthly father.
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They have a heavenly father that loves them,
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that wants to teach them, that wants to give them instruction,
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that wants to give them wisdom, that wants to give them all those things that
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our earthly fathers should give them.
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That is something that gives me tremendous joy for those that didn't have that growing up.
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But there is still the opportunity for us all to have that.
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And I really appreciate that you talked about what it means to be teachable.
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I think so often we think of.
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The quality of being teachable as something that's important for a young person.
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But we are always learning. There is always room for us to learn.
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There's always room for us to grow.
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There's always room for us to gain wisdom and understanding.
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And if we are walking in the center of God's will, He is the authority in our life.
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And authority is who sets boundaries and who sets the pace and who sets the direction.
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I really like that you just said pace, because I know we often talk I could
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ask the Lord to give us direction, but I think we need to be careful because
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I think sometimes the Lord gives us direction, but we run ahead of him, right?
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He needs to be the pace setter in our lives. I think because so many people
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want the Lord to come alongside them.
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Instead of running alongside their pace setter. The reality of it is,
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is we need to be running alongside him because he is the pace setter.
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He is also the way, and he is the one who should If we ask him to come alongside
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us, then we're the one who's actually just by definition have come alongside me. We're leading.
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We're the one leading. And we all know that scripture tells us that we are to
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submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time.
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So those first three verses give us that outline of being instructed to.
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And to be obedient to those who have authority over us, who are teaching us
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the truth and the right thing.
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And it begins up in verse 4. He says to let your heart retain those words and
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to keep the commandments and therefore live.
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And so many people are trying to figure out how to be successful in life,
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and there is truly nothing wrong with that.
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But the reality of it is, is true success lies in finding your place in Jesus Christ,
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in sitting in the center of His will and being okay with the directions that
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He gives us to the point that we are willing to obey.
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That is success. And He will give us uncommon favor, and He will bless us abundantly,
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and we will have the abundant life that we're told in John 10.10.
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So the key here in this first part of Proverbs to me is that we are told that we are to retain,
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not just read it, not just maybe understand it, but retain those words and keep
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those commandments that we might live.
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I love in that next verse where it talks about getting wisdom,
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like it is something that we need to seek after and acquire.
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And it says, get wisdom, get understanding, right?
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I love that wisdom comes first. We think sometimes we just need to understand
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something, but oftentimes the key to truly understanding is to have the wisdom
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to understand it, right?
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That, that greater than an understanding aspect that we get with wisdom.
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So get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, right?
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It goes back to retaining, retaining the wisdom.
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And neither decline from the words of my mouth. When God's word comes to us,
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we don't need to step back and to shrink away, right?
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We need to incline ourselves towards it. We need to seek it out, embrace it.
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Because when he speaks, whether it's directly to our hearts,
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whether it's through his word, that's what we need to go after.
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One of the things I really like in verse five, when he says wisdom first is,
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wisdom will tell you what you need to get understanding, what you don't need
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to get understanding of.
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One of the problems I think that faces many Christians and especially new believers
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is that they don't really know what they need to understand and what they don't need to understand.
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And things of the world, we need to live in this world but not be part of it.
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So we shouldn't be so deeply entrenched into fleshly desires and fleshly ways
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and fleshly activities that we are embracing them and following them.
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So things of that nature, we don't need to have an understanding of.
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There's just some things in this world that lots and lots of people understand
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that I have no understanding of all because it is not part of my world with Jesus Christ.
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I don't need to know about sorcery. I don't need to know about astrology.
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I don't need to know about tarot cards.
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I don't need to know about things that are of the dark world.
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World and yes i need to know enough to stay away
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from them you need to be able to recognize them but but i don't
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need to know the understandings and so i believe that's
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why wisdom is laid out first because we don't
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need to know everything you don't need to understand everything we need
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to know and be wise to know what god is having us to know and what is purposeful
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in our lives and what will build the kingdom give glory to the lord and honor
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us and you know in verse six i I think it makes a really good point about what wisdom does for us,
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right? When we have wisdom,
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and we don't forsake it, it preserves us, right? Wisdom preserves us.
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When we love wisdom, wisdom keeps us.
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Wisdom has an action in our own lives. It's protective.
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It keeps us safe. It preserves us.
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And I think that a lot of that goes back to what you just said.
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We don't need to have knowledge of some things.
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It's just not important. And true wisdom is of God.
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Absolutely. And God gives us wisdom as he gives us understanding of his scriptures
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through the power of the Holy Spirit, teaching us and leading us.
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But something that I find most important is that this wisdom that God gives is not earthly.
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It will get us and navigate us through the earth.
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But God's wisdom is always heavenly and spiritually inclined.
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Inclined, and it gives us life, not for just this world, but for the world to come.
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And if we love her, if we're seeking her, if that's what we want,
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it keeps us, because his wisdom keeps us in the center of his will,
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which keeps us in the place of blessing and in the place that we are supposed to be.
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Verse seven, wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom.
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I love that. Get some wisdom, right? Get wisdom. Go after it.
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And with all thy getting, get understanding.
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And verse eight goes on, exalt her, right? Exalt the wisdom that you have, right?
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The wisdom that we have that comes from the Lord is the thing that we should
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be promoting in our lives.
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If we're promoting anything. We're promoting the things that come to us from
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the Lord, not ourselves.
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And it will lift us up. As a result of us lifting up the Lord and His wisdom.
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And it says, she gives to thine head an ornament of grace and a crown of glory she delivers.
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So we're graceful and we are people who emit and distribute grace.
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We're filled with grace. grace, and we have the glory of the Lord on us.
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We all know that person who you just want to be the one you ask questions to,
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because when they answer you, they just have the answer.
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And it's always filled with grace and love and mercy and the Word of God.
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And it's like, it doesn't matter what you ask them.
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They have the answer, and it always just soothes your soul.
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That's a person who has sought wisdom over knowledge and understanding of what
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God would but have them to know to know how to use this wisdom.
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This is a person who is not leaning on their own understanding,
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as we learned in Proverbs 3, but is actually leaning on the Lord.
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And it says, you know, hear and receive what I'm telling you so that your years would be longer.
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He contrasts this often in the Bible with wisdom against foolishness.
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And foolishness always leads to peril and destruction, but wisdom leads to long life.
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And so when we get wisdom, when we become habitually seeking wisdom.
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Then we're going to find our footsteps, which he talks about a little bit later,
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in the paths that we should be. He says, I've led you into right paths.
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And Solomon is talking to his son, and yes, he has led him into right paths,
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but the Lord is our Father.
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He's our Heavenly Father, and he's always leading us in right paths.
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And he's telling us that we're not going to stumble on this path.
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That we're going to go where he says. is.
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And when we do that, we'll be able to keep our footing because he keeps us.
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And he says that we need to let
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him guide us and to hold fast to that instruction and keep her ever near.
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Keep the wisdom ever near. And again, it says we will have life.
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The Proverbs sort of changes direction here a little bit and really talks about
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not so much about having wisdom,
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but having the wisdom to not choose wickedness, to not choose evil.
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So the proverb then specifically says
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in verse 14 you know enter not into the
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path of the wicked like don't even go down the path
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of the wicked don't entertain it right
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don't go in the ways of evil men and it
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repeats this in verse 15 i love verse 15
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avoid it pass not by it turn
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from it and pass away like it just
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you know it's like four different ways to say just don't
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go there right when you come upon wicked wickedness you just turn around and
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walk away and because we know what got eve in trouble she lingered she lingered
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she did not avoid it she didn't pass by.
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She didn't turn from it and she didn't go away.
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She simply just kept having a conversation until he hooked her.
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And the way we need to use wisdom is we know where we're not supposed to be.
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The Holy Spirit will convict us.
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But somehow we pull an Eve and we linger around until we somehow justify where
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we are. And the next thing you know, we're sunk.
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But this is good advice for any temptation, any evilness, anything that doesn't
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belong to God, anything that is not part of God's plan for your life. Avoid it.
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Pass not by it. Don't even get near it. Don't get close to it.
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Because you don't want to be like the wicked.
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And turn away from it and pass away.
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Verse 16, you know, talks about the wicked. It says that the wicked sleep not
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except they've done their mischief. Like they're only up to do the mischief.
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And their sleep is taken away unless they cause them to fall.
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The wicked are trying to get those with wisdom, to get those with good,
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to do wicked things, right? To follow the path of wicked.
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In verse 17, it says, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence, right?
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It's this all-consuming wickedness that causes people to be completely down the wrong path.
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And verse 18 contrasts it back.
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It says, but the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more
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and more unto the perfect day.
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There's this immediate contrast between the wicked and those who follow the path of the just.
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In verse 19, we go back. The way of the wicked is this darkness.
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They know not at what they stumble. The way of the wicked. They don't even know
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what's causing the stumble and don't have the wisdom.
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Because what happens with wisdom is it's a light.
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And Jesus is a light into our path and a light. He's a light into our path and a lamp into our feet.
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And he gives us light and lights the way and we can see what's happening.
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And there's things we're not ashamed and we're not hiding and we're not doing anything in secret.
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It's all out and open for others to see Jesus in us and to come to know him
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through the life that we live.
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But you contrast that against things that are done in the dark.
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Evil stuff is done in secret because if you're found, you go to jail.
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Evil stuff is done in secret because it's not the right thing to do.
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And it's not socially acceptable in most cases.
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Evilness and wickedness is done where only those who are partaking can see.
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And they don't even know why they're doing it. Like they don't have the wisdom
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to see, this is a bad deal. This is not what I should be doing.
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It's the wisdom of God that lights, shines its light in our heart that takes
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away the wickedness by the blood of Jesus Christ, who through his righteousness has washed that away.
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And so we walk in the light of Jesus and have his wisdom guiding us.
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And those who do not have Jesus as their Savior, their heart is deceitfully wicked.
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And they don't have the opportunity to even understand because their understanding is darkened.
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There's no light for that. When we get to verse 20, I think we go back to this
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reminder, right, of what we are supposed supposed to do with the words we are
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given, with the wisdom that we're given.
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We read, my son, attend to my words, right? Pay attention to my words.
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Keep them in the midst of thine heart.
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Earlier in the proverb, in verse four, we talked about let thine heart retain
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my words. It's the same thing, right?
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Incline thine ear unto my sayings, attend to my words.
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Let them not depart apart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart.
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It's all about the heart. It's all about what we do with God's word and God's wisdom.
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For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
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There is life and health that comes from God's word.
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And then in verse 23, I think this is an incredibly important and an incredibly
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powerful verse, and I don't want us to miss it.
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Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
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You know, the Bible says the heart is deceitfully wicked and who can know it?
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And given to our flesh, we are going to walk in darkness.
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But he says keep with diligence. That means seek the wisdom.
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Turn your heart and your life over to Jesus Christ and allow him to lead you
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and guide you and to fill you with light that shoves out the darkness because
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that's where you're going to find what you need and the instruction you need
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and the commandments to live by that will give you the abundant life he promises.
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And then he says in 24 to put away these things,
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perverse lips and don't let them be near you and to don't be like this overbearing
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individual that is just spitting out hatred and evilness and wickedness.
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But instead, remember, we had a crown of glory and we had grace upon our head.
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Remember, we are to be gracious and loving and kind.
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We are to go about doing good as Jesus went about doing good.
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We are to show other people who Jesus is.
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And in Matthew chapter five, it says we're to be the light of the world because
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the wisdom of God is in us and he has given us his light through his righteousness
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and people can see the error of their ways by looking at Jesus in us.
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Absolutely. You know, this passage closes out with, I think,
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a description that we are called to live basically in the straight and narrow, right? Amen.
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So like 25, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
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Keep your eyes going straight.
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Ponder the path of thy feet. Look at where you're going and let all thy ways be established.
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Follow the Lord, right? Go straight ahead and follow the Lord.
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Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left, and remove thy foot from evil.
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The last three verses are all about walk correctly.
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Walk down the path that God has for you. Don't go to the right. Don't go to the left.
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Don't let your eyes look at the right. Don't let your eyes look at the left. Just keep going.
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Follow the path of wisdom that God has given you.
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Not somebody else's path, yes. Or not the path that somebody Somebody else tells
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you you should go down, but follow
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the path that Jesus has laid before you because that's where he's at.
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That's where the blessings are. If you purpose your heart and your mind to do
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God's will and let him have full control and authority in your life,
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it is then that you are going to live the life that God intends for you to live.
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You can't be worrying about somebody else's. In fact, he says,
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be content with whatsoever things you have, for I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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And that is more than enough.
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Well, Erica, I think we have had a wonderful journey down Proverbs chapter four,
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and I can't wait to get the Proverbs chapter five.
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And it is our prayer that you have been inspired and motivated to study the
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Proverbs more deeply than perhaps you have before, and certainly a little more
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deeper than we are doing in our podcast.
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But thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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And we look forward to being with you again as we open up the Word and share what God has given us.
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It is always our prayer that you know Him personally.
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And we ask that you would just remember that you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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Music.
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Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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Music.