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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Welcome to the Daily Blade. This week we are gonna do a deep dive on John, chapter 4, the woman at the well. We'll pick it up in chapter 4, verse 1. The Bible says now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John which, by the way, that is a total worldly way to look at the ministry of Jesus and John the Baptist Only the world would pit them against one another as if it was a competition. Verse two although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples which, by the way, is just a reminder it doesn't matter who baptizes you, it matters in whose name you were baptized. In fact, about a month ago, as we were baptizing people at the beach here at 1122, the two primary people in my line that did the baptizing was our very own Kyle and my brother Russ. Neither ordained pastors, but that doesn't matter.

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Verse three when Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee and here's the verse I want to hang out on and Jesus had to pass through Samaria, and the question is did he really have to pass through Samaria? So he came to the town of Samaria called Sychar and the question is did he really have to pass through Samaria. So he came to the town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour Now. The reason I asked did Jesus have to? Is because technically, geographically, to get from where Jesus started to where he's going, he did not have to. Is because, technically, geographically, to get from where Jesus started to where he's going, he did not have to go through Samaria.

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Maybe you've heard this before, but the Jews and Samaritans did not get along. It had to do with things that had happened far in the past, that when the Jewish people were exiled, there's some people that were left behind. They began to intermarry, and it wasn't so much the intermarrying that was the problem. It was that they began to adopt the customs and worship practices of some pagan people and they kind of started really their own version of Judaism, their own different religion, and that's where the real rub came from. And so what most Jewish people would do maybe you've heard this before is that they would go around Samaria as to avoid those people, adding a couple of days to their journey.

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And yet my Bible says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Well, why did Jesus have to? Well, the reason that Jesus felt like he had to, and the reason that he did, is because he had a divine appointment with this Samaritan woman. In the next chapter, John, chapter five, verse 19, the Bible says so. Jesus said to them truly, truly, I say to you the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing, for whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. In other words, Jesus says I had to go through Samaria because my father had an appointment for me in Samaria, and Jesus just did not have a category in his mind where he would disobey the father.

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So let me ask you this so what do you have to do? What is that thing that God is telling you to do? And it's going to be hard, and it's going to take a long time, and it's going to take a lot of courage, and it may go against the norms of our society. But what is the thing that God is telling you to do? And you may say, well, I don't know. Well, let me tell you some things. I know God is telling you to do. He is telling you to make disciples. This is the core of the Great Commission, of the Great Commission, and so if you are not making disciples, then you're not being a follower of Jesus. He is telling you to forgive the forgiven people, forgive people. He is telling you to put away sin. He is telling you to be generous with your money. These are general things that are true to every single one of us.

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Now, what about, specifically to you? What is he telling you to do? And you may say, well, I don't know. Well, let me just tell you this I would highly encourage you to pray and then, ultimately, you just got to guess and go highly informed by the scriptures. This is why we do the Daily Blade. This is why it's not enough for you to listen to me and Kyle and our friends talk to you about the Bible, that you need to read it yourself and do what it says. And the more that you are trustworthy and faithful with the general principles of the scriptures that God has called us all to, then maybe God will trust you with more and more and more specifics about your own life.

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John, chapter 2, verse 5, is one of my favorite Bible verses about what we, as believers, are supposed to do. Mary looks at the servants, with Jesus standing right there, and she says these words do whatever he tells you to do. So what is it that he is telling you to do? Let me ask you one more question that somebody asked me a long time ago, a guy that mentored me named Doug Fields. He asked this if you could do anything for the glory of God and you knew it wouldn't fail what would that be? And the moment you have that answer, the next question is then why aren't you doing it? Men, I want you to hear this Go and do whatever it is that the Lord has told you to do. As followers, we have to do that thing.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.