Episode Transcript
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Hey.
Hey.
And welcome back to FaithFilled Woman.
This is your host, Kristen.
Today we're going to dig intowhat are we building our life on,
what is the foundation forwhich we are building.
Right.
And so that's what we're goingto dig into today.
Hey friend, are you cravingdeeper faith, renewed purpose and
more joy in your everyday life?
Welcome to Faith Healed Womanpodcast that helps Christian women
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grow spiritually pursue God'scalling and embrace the abundant
life he has for you.
I'm Kristen, an encourager andmentor, entrepreneur, wife and mom,
here to uplift, equip andinspire you with faith filled conversations
and biblical wisdom.
Subscribe now so you nevermiss an episode and join our faith
filled community for more encouragement.
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Okay, today is a shortepisode, but I just wanted to share
something with you and itreferences building our house or
our lives really on a solid foundation.
And that foundation is Christ.
And two of the biblicalreferences to this is Matthew 7:24
to 27 and Luke 6:47.
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They both talk of a similar.
They both kind of reference, right?
One house being built on afoundation and one house being built
on the ground.
I'll share one or both ofthose in a little bit.
But I wanted to share with youwhat Inside Simkin said and related
to this.
And I just thought it wasreally poignant.
But he said, let's see, hebasically says that Jesus ends his
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sermon on the Mount not with apep talk or acronym, but with a warning.
It's a warning about twohouses and two kinds of foundations.
And he says what he findsfascinating is he.
He doesn't say that the waterswon't come or there won't be a storm.
We're all going to go through storms.
We're all going to go throughhard things, right?
But what I thought wasinteresting about what he said and
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what Jesus is saying is right.
So he's, he's saying we're allgoing to experience the human condition,
which means we're going towalk through things.
Things are going to get hard, right?
But what he says is Jesus isreminding us that storms reveal what
our lives are actually built on.
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And then Ian Simpkins says, ifmy life is built on greed, platform,
materialism, sex, appearance,popularity or status rather than
on life surrendered to Jesusand his way, then that flood will
reveal the bedrock of my.
Then that flood will revealthe bedrock rock my life is built
on.
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And then he goes on to explainthe way of Jesus doesn't lead you
out of hardship, but through it.
Jesus isn't protection fromthe storm.
He's protection in the storm.
And I thought that was so good.
And so the question really is,are we building our lives on a solid
foundation?
Right?
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Are we building them on Christand what Christ stands for, what
Christ tells us to follow himin, in the way of living?
And so, you know, I thoughtthat was so strong.
So let me share with you.
Let's see.
This is.
Let's see which one I want to share.
This is Matthew 7, 24, 27.
And the section says, the wiseand foolish builder in the niv.
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It says, therefore, everyonewho hears these words of mine and
puts them into practice islike a wise man who built his house
on the rock.
The rain came down, thestreams rose, and the winds blew
and beat against that house,yet it did not fall because it had
its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears thesewords of mine and does not put them
into practice is like afoolish man who built his house on
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sand.
The rain came down, thestreams rose, the winds blew and
beat against that house, andit fell with a great crash.
Okay?
So I just thought that was sogood to remember.
Jesus isn't saying that if wefollow him, we won't go through storms.
He's not saying that if wefollow him, we won't have hard times,
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right?
That we won't experience losslike I shared in last episode.
No, he's not telling us any of that.
He's.
The Bible's never said that.
The Bible and Jesus aretelling us there's another way.
And it's the way of Jesus.
He leads us through the hardship.
He leads us through the storm.
He is our protection, right?
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He is the one that can takethose difficulties, those hardships,
that loss, that anxiety, thatchallenge that we're going through,
and he can take some of thatburden off of us.
And I just think it's soimportant to remember that we will
go through hard things.
We will experience grief.
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We will have heartbreak in our lives.
We might have healthdiagnosis, right?
At some point.
We might be walking throughthat now, but we can walk through
that with Christ, right?
We can walk through that withthe Holy Spirit.
And I thought this was.
This was really good.
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I was listening to a sermonfrom the end of April from Pastor
Mark Patterson of Nationalcommunity church in D.C.
and it was basically talkingabout praying.
And when we pray, we see withdifferent eyes.
And he also said, when I pray,things happen.
And he said, when I.
Well, of course, he's a pastor.
He's obviously someone that'svery set in his patterns of prayer
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and praying.
But he just said, like, whenhe doesn't pray, maybe as much, those
same types of things don'thappen, right?
Those divine appointments, thesupernatural synchronicity, as he
calls it, it just.
They just don't show up.
But here's the thing.
When we follow Christ, when wewelcome the Holy Spirit into our
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lives, one, we are going tosee more of that, right?
It's, you know, he explains,it's, I think it's called the reticular
activation network in our brains.
It's like when you buy a newcar and all of a sudden you see all
those same cars on the road.
Well, the same thing happensin our spiritual lives.
If we pray more, the thingswe're praying for, the scripture
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that we're meditating on,we're going to see more of that fruit
in our lives because we're one.
Our brain is focused on it, right?
We're signaled into that,whatever it is.
And so I thought that was.
That was really good.
And then he actually shares a story.
I don't remember thegentleman's name.
It's.
And someone.
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And he must be somebody that's.
I've known.
So maybe an author, pastor,I'm not sure.
But he.
He shares that this gentlemanwas on a trip with his family several
states away from where helives, and they stopped at a, you
know, a restaurant, you know,off the interstate on their trip.
And the family goes in to geta table, and he decides to pump gas.
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And this is obviously some.
Some time ago, this didn'tjust happen.
And he.
There is a payphone near him,right on the side of the building,
right near where he's pumping gas.
And it starts ringing.
So he looks around and he goesand gets the.
Picks up the payphone.
And let me just caveat this.
I get that we rarely seepayphones anymore, and depending
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on your age, you may havenever used a payphone or really seen
them, but in some places theystill exist, but probably in a very
limited means.
But anyways, back to the story.
So he picks up the pay phoneand the operator says, is this Ken?
I.
Like I said, I can't rememberhis last name.
And he's like, yeah.
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And so she connects the calland the woman on their line says,
you know, talks to him, andbasically she explains that she was
just praying.
She was contemplating suicideand she had thought of him.
Like I said, maybe he's an author.
And she does not know him, right?
She's never met him.
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But as she was praying, somenumbers came to her, so she wrote
them down.
And just in a final thought,she just dialed the numbers, hoping,
well, maybe, maybe I'll reach Ken.
Well, lo and behold, right?
A divine appointment.
And answered the phone.
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There's no way that she wouldhave known where he was at or the
phone number to that pay phone.
And he did not know this woman.
And yet God made that phonecall happen.
He changed her life because inprayer, she was given a divine message,
right?
Those numbers.
And she felt prompted to callhim, right?
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And both of their lives werechanged, right?
He went into his family andsaid something about that divine
moment, right?
That that could be lined upout of the.
What are the chances of that?
Probably one in hundreds, onein a million, at least.
And so I only share thatbecause once again, miracles are
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happening all around us.
You know, I've shared thatbefore, and obviously one of his
Mark Patterson's newest booksis Shoot, what is it called?
What is it?
A Million Little Miracles orsomething like that.
But they're all around us.
But if we're not praying, ifwe're not welcoming the Holy Spirit
in, we might be missing them.
If we're not present, we mightbe missing them.
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But if we want to have a solidfoundation, right?
If we want the bedrock of ourlives to be one that will withhold
every storm and every hardshipthat comes, if we want that bedrock
to be sturdy so that even inthe good days, we are showing up
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as, you know, Christfollowers, right?
We're showing up in the worldto do good, to be kind, to share
his mess.
I mean, you know, Christ'smessage of that we can live a different
way, right?
We can live as Christians.
But if you want that, then oneof the things we've got to do is
pray.
We've got to meditate on hisword and we have to take the path
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of following Christ in his wayand do our best to say no to the
path of the flesh.
And don't get me wrong, thisis hard because once again, we do
live with the human condition, right?
And we have, if you will, asinner and saint in each of us, right?
And it's kind of what will wechoose, right, in each moment, in
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each day.
The good news is each day weget to decide side again, right?
Each day is anew.
And so even if yesterday wedidn't show up as our best selves,
even if yesterday we lost ourtemper, we snapped at our spouse,
well, maybe we just made apoor choice.
Maybe we chose comfort overconnection, or we chose comfort over
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time with God, whatever itmight be, you know, I Can definitely
raise my hand that I findmyself sometimes or more than I'd
like still in that camp.
Right.
You know, because we're all awork in progress.
We're all on faith journeysand we're all at different places
in that faith journey, youknow, and how we are walking, you
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know, trying to walk closer tothe example Christ gave to us.
And so, you know, that's thething, I think one is, can we take
a little time to assess, right.
To take inventory?
Are we building our life on astrong foundation of Christ at the
center right.
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Of that foundation?
Like he said, my yoke is light.
If you follow him.
Are we following that, youknow, or are we just going through
life trying to do it on our own?
You know, that's really the question.
And so, you know, I just wantto, I guess wrap up with two things.
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This is from the sermon MarkBatterson shared.
He said, he shared what JohnTyson said and it was God goes where
he's wanted.
Right?
Which is so good.
And he then he asked thisquestion, what would my life look
like if I just gave the HolySpirit complete control?
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How can the Holy Spirit havemore of me?
Can I surrender my will to his will?
Can I surrender my thoughtsand my fears, my hopes, my dreams,
my anxiety?
And then, you know, my worldly things?
Right.
Whether that's, well,whatever, anyways.
And he said, and can I givethem back over to him and let the
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Holy Spirit take control?
So for most of us, it's anongoing decision to surrender.
Right.
Those things.
And for a lot of us, it'sreally hard to let control, to let
go of control of so many ofthose areas.
And so, you know, for me,that's just the message that I want
to share today is one, whatare we building our foundation upon?
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What are we building our life upon?
And is it Christ and is it his way?
And are we trying to controlour lives?
Are we trying to control allthe areas of our life?
Are we trying to hold on tootight to our identity, our anxiety,
our thoughts and all of these things?
Or are we willing to releasethem, to surrender them to the Holy
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Spirit and let him take control?
So that's it for today.
I hope you have a blessed weekand I will see you back here in a
couple days.
Also, I did want to mention Ihave a new five day Midlife Energy
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Thanks again for listening tothe show and if you enjoyed today's
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