Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 678 | Not Knowing what to Say is No Excuse for not Witnessing to Others

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678 | Not Knowing what to Say is No Excuse for not Witnessing to Others · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well.
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  Ministries podcast with Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man,
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  woman, boy, and girl must come to Jesus, just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  or on our website at watwm.org,
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  The Lord tells us to be a light to the world and to tell others of His saving
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  grace. Most of us really want to do this, but just don't do it.
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  Often the excuse is that we just don't know what to say.
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  Join us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim discusses our
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  responsibility to tell others about Christ.
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  Following Kim's lesson, the staff of Woman at the Well Ministries will continue
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  this discussion looking at what the Bible tells us about witnessing to others.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  And it's a pleasure to spend the next few moments with you. And I guess what
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  we're going to talk about is something that I think all of us as Christians
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  have certainly thought about, and that's witnessing.
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  We know that we want others to go to heaven. We know that we want others to
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  see Christ. We know that we don't want anyone to go to hell.
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  But somewhere in our minds and in our hearts, something gets lost between not
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  wanting anyone to go to hell and actually doing something to try to impede someone from going there.
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  And I thought about this and I thought in my own life, the times that I had
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  opportunity to witness and sort of shied away or backed off from it.
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  And I thought about why is it that I didn't do that witnessing that I felt in my heart I should.
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  And some of the times I believe I have thought, well, you know,
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  that person doesn't want to hear.
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  And for that, I was reminded of when Jesus stood and he was walking by and he
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  looks across over and there stood Matthew, the tax collector.
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  And Matthew, the tax collector, didn't have anything to do with Jesus and everybody
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  couldn't stand him and nobody wanted anything to do with Matthew.
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  But when Christ walks over, he calls to Matthew, calls him by name,
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  and Matthew becomes one of his disciples.
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  So what i realized from that is is we become judge and jury and oftentimes we
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  don't tell somebody else about christ because somehow we've determined they don't need to know.
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  They won't hear if we tell them. And we have just sealed their doom for that
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  moment and decided they weren't worthy to hear our story.
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  But most of us don't think it through like that. Because if we did,
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  we would stop and realize that
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  he said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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  Then there's the time that we're just a little bit concerned,
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  how are they going to receive it?
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  You know, there are situations where we're a little concerned about the repercussions.
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  Maybe it's work, and if you witness to somebody at work, you could get in trouble for it.
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  And I believe that there are places that would cause you trouble if you actually
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  spoke about the Lord and come right out.
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  But I believe the Lord will give you an opportunity somewhere else to say something
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  to that individual and to allow that individual to have an opportunity to hear you talk about God.
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  I believe god gives us these these times because that's what he wants for other
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  people he wants them to know him he says that he wishes that none should perish
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  but that all should come to repentance and so i think sometimes we're ashamed.
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  What will people think of us what will people think about us how will it affect
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  us and our relationship with them but paul said i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ,
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  and the bible tells us that if we are ashamed of him that he said he would be ashamed of us.
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  So, as reasonable adults with good-thinking minds, we realize that that just isn't going to work.
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  But, you know, I think when we get down to the very bottom line of why we don't,
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  witness, I think for most of us, it's two things.
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  I think the first thing is, is I think we've lost our burden,
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  and we don't really see individuals who don't know God in hell.
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  I think we have an intellectual understanding that if you don't know Jesus Christ,
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  you're going to go to hell the bible tells us that who's so ever his name is
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  not found written in the lambs book of life should be cast into hell fire i think we get that,
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  in our mind but i don't think we get it in our heart because i believe if we had it in our heart,
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  and we really understood that that brother or that sister that neighbor that co-worker,
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  was going to go to hell if they didn't understand who christ was i believe we
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  would do everything humanly possible to witness to them and i don't think anything would stop us,
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  but somehow we have allowed ourselves to become numb to the reality that those
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  people who do not know christ as savior are going to spend an eternity in hell,
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  i think we think about god and how wonderful he is in our life,
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  and all the provisions that he gives us and the blessings of walking and talking
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  with him and i think somehow in our mind we just sort of think that those who
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  don't know him are missing that extra comforter that dwells in us,
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  i don't think we're actually seeing them burning eternity in hell so one of
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  the problems is is we have a vision problem the bible tells us in chronicles
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  that without a vision the people will perish,
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  and the truth of the matter is and until we have a vision for lost souls those
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  lost souls around us are going to die and go to hell.
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  But we can be the light of the world.
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  We can shed some light on their darkness. The Bible says that for the wages of sin is death.
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  But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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  In Matthew 5, verses 13 and 15, he says, Ye are the salt of the earth,
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  but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
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  It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot,
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  of
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  men. The,
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  Lord has placed his light in us that we might show others who he is.
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  And we must get back to that place in our lives where we have a burden for lost souls.
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  I can remember as a child growing up and before there was revivals,
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  there would be these huge
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  cottage prayer meetings where people of the church would meet in other people's
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  homes and they would pray for hours for people and name them who were in the
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  community who needed to see Christ.
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  You would go to church and you would show up an hour or so before the church
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  would start because the men and women of the church would be gathered all throughout
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  the church and they would be praying for souls to be saved and they'd be specifically naming names.
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  I'm afraid that for many of us, a revival is just a time that we can hear good
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  singing, perhaps hear a different preacher.
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  I don't think we understand that it is a time for the community and the church to be revived.
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  It's a time where we can get lost souls in that otherwise wouldn't go to church.
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  There are times there in those revivals that there are special singing,
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  and maybe you can get someone to come out to hear someone sing,
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  but then they're going to be faced with the word of God in song and they're
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  going to be faced with the word of God from the preaching and
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  hopefully everybody in the church has been praying and they've prepped the hearts
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  and the place for Christ to come and for the Holy Spirit to have free reign
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  and for some soul to be saved.
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  We've lost that. Some of us are just so hurriedly getting to church that we
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  aren't even prepared when we get there.
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  Going to church is hard work and that's a whole different lesson.
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  But it's a whole lot more than getting dressed and showing up and sitting on a pew.
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  No, our hearts need to be in tune with God, and we need to be in prayer.
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  And it's our jobs as people in the congregation to lift up the minister in prayer
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  and to be praying for the Lord to anoint him and to be praying for the Holy
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  Spirit to have free reign.
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  And it's our jobs as members of the congregation to make sure that our lives
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  are honored to God and that we are a vessel that is clean and able to be blessed.
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  But for most of us, we just tumble out of bed, toss our hair,
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  get our clothes on, stumble up the steps, sit down.
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  20 minutes into the service, we have awakened.
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  And that's even on Sunday nights because a lot of people take those naps in the afternoon.
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  We've forgotten about souls going to hell.
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  But perhaps the really, the excuse that we use most often and we hear most often
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  is that we just don't know what to say.
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  I would ask so-and-so if they know Christ, but I just don't know what to say.
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  The Bible says that we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God,
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  a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
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  The Bible says that we are to pray without ceasing.
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  If we have done our prayers and we have done our study, Tom,
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  then we have put inside of us all that we need to get the message out.
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  The Bible tells us in Luke chapter 12, verse 12, which is the verse of the crux
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  of this lesson, he says, For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour
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  what ye ought to say. It's not about you.
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  First of all, I'd like to introduce you to the truth.
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  If you know Christ as Savior, you have a story to tell.
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  Because you once were lost, but now you're found. You once was blind, but now you see.
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  You once were hell-bound, wretched sinner, and now you are saved by His grace.
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  And you now got your reservations made in heaven, and there has been a life-transforming
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  change in you. You no longer are a servant of the devil.
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  Sin no longer hath dominion over you, but you now serve a living,
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  loving Savior who is risen and coming again.
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  And each of you have come there through and by Jesus Christ.
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  But we've all taken different journeys to get to the place where we stood at
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  the foot of the cross and we nailed our heart and we received Jesus as Savior.
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  You have a story it's probably different than my story woman at the well ministries
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  has three people that make it up and all three of us have different stories,
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  my story and best story are a little bit more alike than either of ours and erica's,
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  but there is one thing that runs supreme in all three stories and that's that
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  we knelt at the throne of god and we repented of our sins and we received his grace.
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  It had nothing to do with me. It had nothing to do with Erica.
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  It had nothing to do with Beth.
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  Therefore, it had nothing to do with our upbringings. It had nothing to do with
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  our families. It had nothing to do with the time that we were there.
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  It had to do with the finished work of Calvary, the conviction of our sins by
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  the Holy Ghost, and the repentance of the same by each of us.
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  Now, there's no doubt about it. Raised in the Christian home where the Bible
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  was preached, taught, modeled, lived, and spoke all the time,
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  made it much easier for me to see him than in a home where that didn't happen.
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  Growing up in a church where Christ was preached made it easier to come to the
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  saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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  But the three of us still had to come the same way. And we all have a story.
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  The story to tell how we came to Jesus.
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  We all know how to be saved if we've been saved. we know what we did to to make christ our savior,
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  as a result of that we need to tell others and we not we don't need to be so
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  convinced about what words we're going to say we don't need to be caught up
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  about how we're going to get it out what we need to do,
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  is simply pray and trust and be a light and tell others who he is,
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  because let me tell you the holy spirit has said that he would teach us what
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  we ought to say when we come to the point we need to say it.
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  So my challenge to you is this. Who can you tell others about Christ?
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  And who are you going to tell them about? And when are you going to tell them?
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  And who are you telling about Christ?
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  You have no excuses. He said in Mark chapter 16 and 15, go ye into all the world,
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  and preach the gospel to every creature.
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  He said he would supply your needs and you could do all things in his strength.
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  And he said the Holy Spirit would teach you.
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  Go forth and witness. It is your love and your obligation to God.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
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  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org.
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  And on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message and the Bible Bit Podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus is a Christian.