Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 284 | God is for Me - Psalms 18

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284 | God is for Me - Psalms 18 · 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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  Life is a daily grind. No matter how hard we try, it seems that we are battled on every side.
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  People are sometimes out to get us, and at other times are just simply mean.
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  Don't lose hope. The Lord is on your side, and He is going to reach down and
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  deliver you out of the troubled waters.
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  Join Kim Miller in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries as she takes
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  us through the scriptures, gleaning the truth regarding God's providential care for you and me.
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  We're coming out of Psalms 18 today, verses 16 and 17 to be exact.
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  But I want to bring into your hearing one of my favorite verses, which is Psalms 118:6.
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  And Psalms 11:6 says, The Lord is on my side.
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  I will not fear. What can man do unto me?
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  And this is the theme that we see and we hear in Psalms 18 and Psalms 18
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  begins with him proclaiming his love for the Lord.
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  And it ends with his victory that he has through what God has done for him.
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  But 16 and 17 are of very special importance to me.
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  And when I look at them, it just screams such amazing providential care that
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  God God has for each and every one of us, if we'll just trust him.
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  You know, every day we are going through tough stuff.
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  It doesn't matter whether you're trying to do the right thing.
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  It doesn't matter whether you are even doing the right thing.
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  Troubles and problems come your way. In fact, the Bible says a man born of a
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  woman in a few days full of trouble.
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  It also tells us that you will have trouble in this world, but be of good cheer.
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  I have overcome the world.
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  Jesus has given us everything that we need to live a victorious life in him and to be holy.
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  But he's also given us everything that we need when we trust fully in him to
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  live the abundant life he promises us in John 10.
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  And David had a multitude of problems and troubles.
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  I love David because David reminds me that we don't have to be perfect because
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  we serve a perfect God. and his righteousness is imputed in us.
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  And it's not about works of righteousness, which we have done,
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  but it's by his work on Calvary that we are given eternal life,
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  that we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  And that makes me extraordinarily happy because I understand that I am striving
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  toward the prize of the high calling and that when I make a mistake,
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  he has given me, 1 John 1:9 says that if I confess my sins,
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  he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us in all righteousness.
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  So Psalms 18:16 says, He sent from above.
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  He took me. He drew me out.
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  Of many waters. Let me read that in your hearing again. He sent from above.
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  He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
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  17 says, he delivered me from my strong enemy and from them which hated me,
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  for they were too strong for me.
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  What you see here is that David is emerging from his problems and the big abyss of all of his troubles.
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  And it's not by his own skill or about any aid of another man or any self-reliance that he had.
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  David was drawn out and away from his enemies and his trouble by the hand of God.
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  Now, many theologians will attribute this that he sent angels.
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  If he did, it's still the hand of God that is dispatching help in time of need.
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  And Hebrews 14 and 4, 14 through 16, gives us a picture of how he says that
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  we could come boldly through the throne of grace, that we may find help in time of need.
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  He is always watching and he's always willing to help those who place their trust in him.
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  Things come in our path every single day that cause us heartache,
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  that cause us trouble. There are people who will attack you just because of
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  the Jesus in you. I get that, folks.
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  There are things that happen in your life that the devil is placing in front
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  of you to cause you to stumble, but you do not need to fall prey to that trap.
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  You don't have to stumble over anything the devil puts in your path because
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  greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
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  And so as we begin to look at this, I want you to realize who God is.
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  God is real, and he's amazing.
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  And he is going to be with you every step of the way.
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  So when you look at Psalms 18,
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  16 through 17, we see that God wonderfully defends and he preserves those who put their trust in him.
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  The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3:5 - 6, that trust in the Lord with all thine
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  heart and lean not into thine own understanding.
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  In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
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  This is in opposition to any earthly aid that a man could give you or any self-reliance,
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  which we often attribute our help to.
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  Jesus sends his angels. He lifts him up.
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  With his own hands. He is our deliverance. He is our deliverer.
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  And he gives us exactly what we need.
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  All aid that we have that comes in our defense is coming from heaven.
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  And it's God that dispatches it and helps us regardless of the form it manifests itself in.
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  But we are not quick to look at God.
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  We are not quick to see God as the one who is helping us.
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  We ignore that his presence is with us.
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  We ignore that his providential care is taking care of us.
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  At first sign of trouble, we just begin to kind of cocoon ourselves and isolate
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  and turn inward when we must turn upward.
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  You must learn to turn upward in every turn in your life, both good,
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  bad, ugly, or We're wonderful.
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  Jesus needs to be the center, and he needs to be the person who is directing your life.
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  And this will only happen when you acknowledge his presence in your life,
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  and you live in such a way that he is a companion to you,
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  and both of you are not awkward because you are living holy righteously, so he can bless you,
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  and you can receive the blessings that he has for you.
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  You can't control what other people say about you.
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  You can't even control what other people believe about you.
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  You are completely defenseless against lies of the enemy.
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  But you can control how you react and how you respond.
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  God drew David out of many waters.
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  And this is referring to God delivering David out of many problems.
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  I'm telling you, David was always in trouble.
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  When he looks at this and he says, he drew me out of many waters,
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  that's the waters of his problems.
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  The impetuous torments, the impetuous torments of his enemies,
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  which would have swallowed him up hundreds of times.
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  He was always in trouble. We must turn upward.
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  No power. I want you to listen to this. No power or strength of man.
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  Was able to prevent God from saving David.
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  I don't know what's in your life right now that's bothering you.
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  I don't know what is happening that is an attack on you.
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  Don't only believe that God will deliver you.
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  You need to know that God is in control and no man can stop him from delivering you.
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  They cannot stand between you and God's deliverance, but you can.
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  Because you cannot be where God can bless you. You cannot receive the blessing
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  that God has for you. You can have sin in your life that keeps you from recognizing
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  and letting the power of God run through you.
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  But I want you to know that if you're in right standing with God,
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  no man can keep God from delivering you. Nobody.
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  No thing. No power. No entity.
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  Nothing. It's not only that God will deliver you. Man can't stop it.
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  And again, we go back to Psalms 118:6. What is man that thou art mindful of
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  him, and the son of man that thou visiteth him?
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  Think about it. When David was at his most distressed, he knew that God would deliver him.
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  Although his enemies were far superior to him in both number and power, he was saved by God.
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  Look at what God delivered David from. Here's just a few. Remember Goliath?
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  He was bigger, stronger, meaner.
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  But yet he was delivered into the hand of David.
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  Saul was much more powerful than David, and he sought hard to kill him,
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  but he couldn't get it done.
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  After all of that, the Philistines and the Syrians were after David,
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  but they couldn't get him.
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  And there are all kinds of other nations whose forces were far superior unto
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  David's, and whose hatred instigated them to do all they could to destroy them,
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  but he was never destroyed because he was a man after God's own heart.
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  He followed the Lord. He wasn't perfect.
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  He slipped and sled, but he never fell off the rock.
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  He was always coming to Jesus, coming to God, and asking God to forgive him.
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  And he was always trying to do the right thing. And he knew where his help come
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  from. He understood where his strength was.
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  David knew God in an intimate, personal way. And in doing so,
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  in Psalms 18, what we're seeing is that God is rewarding David for his life with him.
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  Psalms 18:20 says, The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
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  according to the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me.
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  We read 21 through 23, and we continue going this way, and he says this,
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  For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.
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  For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
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  I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
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  I love how it says it keeps himself from his iniquity.
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  Our flesh seeks to devour us.
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  Our flesh wants to destroy us because our flesh is of the world and the bible
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  says in mark 8 36 for what shall a prophet a man if he shall gain the whole
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  world and lose his own soul.
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  David sit in the midst of trouble and stress and torment.
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  He faced battles that were bigger than him, but in no way was he ever defeated.
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  In Psalms 18:30, he says this, As for God, his way is perfect.
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  The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
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  The entire rest of the psalm is an exemplary testimony of the constant victory
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  that David received through God's help and assistance.
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  It is a testimony of the total destruction of the enemies of David.
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  Friends, I want you to know something. God has not changed.
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  He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore in Hebrews 13:8.
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  And as he treated David, he treats you and me.
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  He's no respecter of persons, we're told in Romans 2:11.
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  The only thing that matters is how we have it in our hearts.
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  Do you understand the power that works in you, as we're told in Ephesians 3:20?
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  Do you understand?
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  Not only can and will God deliver you, man cannot impede that blessing.
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  But I want you to see something. The entire triumphant procession that we read
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  about in Psalms 18 begins with Psalms 18:1,
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  and this is what David says,
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  I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
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  Friend, if it is true that you love him and that you are seeking him for your
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  strength, he's going to move all of of heaven and earth, for your sake and my sake.
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  Because he says very clearly in Psalms 18:16 and 17, he sent from above. He took me.
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  He drew me out of many waters.
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  He dispatched from above. He reached down and he brought him out of his problems
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  and he delivered him from his enemy. me.
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  I don't know what your enemy is right now, but if you're not in a problem,
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  you've just got out of a problem, or you're getting ready to go in one, that's just how life is.
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  But he's greater than your problem, and he's capable of all things.
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  But you, my friend, must believe. And Mark 9:23 says, if thou canst believe,
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  all things are possible to him that believes.
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  Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.
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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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  Thank you to the gospel group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song.
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  Happy Girl. We greatly appreciate your prayers.
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  We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you. You.
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  Music.