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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, the

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Speaker 2: podcast that examines one verse each day to learn more

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Speaker 2: about God and his will for our lives. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one of our sponsors,

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Speaker 2: we will continue with today's verse. Today's verses found in

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Speaker 2: Hebrews Chapter four, Verses fifteen and sixteen. For we do

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Speaker 2: not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize

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Speaker 2: with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been

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Speaker 2: tempted in every way just as we are, yet was

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Speaker 2: without sin. Let us then approach the throne of Grace

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Speaker 2: with confidence, so that we might receive mercy and find

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Speaker 2: grace to help us in our times of need. In Alive,

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Speaker 2: Loved and Free, I write a lot about my wife's

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Speaker 2: diagnosis with cancer and about how some people in our

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Speaker 2: community just didn't know how to respond. Some would offer

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Speaker 2: an explanation for my wife's illness, trying to describe what

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Speaker 2: the divine plan was behind everything. But this made it

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Speaker 2: seem like my wife's pain and our fears as to

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Speaker 2: what might be coming next was inconsequential. Others would tell

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Speaker 2: us what to do in response to the diagnosis, how

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Speaker 2: about how we should be praying more, or what medications

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Speaker 2: to take, or what we should do if we really

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Speaker 2: wanted to have her healed. But then there were the

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Speaker 2: people who would sit with us. They would pray with us,

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Speaker 2: They gave us meals, they helped around our house, and

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Speaker 2: they mowed our lawn. More than anything, these were people

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Speaker 2: who sympathized with us. They offered more than just words

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Speaker 2: or trite responses. They offered their presence out of their

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Speaker 2: love and affection for us. They felt the pain that

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Speaker 2: we felt. They lended their tears to ours. They mourned

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Speaker 2: and grieved as we did. Sympathy is an amazing thing.

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Speaker 2: It's an empowering thing. When we have people who sympathize

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Speaker 2: with us, we are lightened in our burdens and struggles.

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Speaker 2: Our journey through times of needs become that much easier

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Speaker 2: when we know that there are people who understand our feelings,

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Speaker 2: our hurts, and struggles. The knowledge that we do not

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Speaker 2: walk our world alone, as much as we often feel

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Speaker 2: that we do, lifts us from the darkness of depression

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Speaker 2: and despair. Yeah, sympathy is one of the greatest blessings

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Speaker 2: that we can receive from each other. How great it

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Speaker 2: is that we have a savior who sympathizes with us.

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Speaker 2: In this astounding verse, the writer of Hebrews declares that

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Speaker 2: Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses. Jesus doesn't just look upon

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Speaker 2: us from afar, pershed on some pedestal of holy perfection,

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Speaker 2: get us, who bark orders to us from a holy cloud.

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Speaker 2: Jesus stands with us in our weakness and in our frailty.

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Speaker 2: The word sympathy literally means to be touched with the

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Speaker 2: feelings of another. Jesus, the incarnate one, the one who

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Speaker 2: donned flesh and walk the dusty ground of this earth,

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Speaker 2: has taken the frailty of our humanity upon himself. There

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Speaker 2: is nothing that we can go through that Jesus has

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Speaker 2: not experienced. He's walked through pain and sadness. He's felt

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Speaker 2: hunger and anguish, He's been hurt and rejected in the

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Speaker 2: most painful of ways. He's been tempted in every way,

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Speaker 2: and he has walked through the veil of death. This

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Speaker 2: is the heart of the incarnation. But the difference is

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Speaker 2: that Jesus has not sinned. Jesus stands with us as

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Speaker 2: a savior. This means that Jesus has the power to

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Speaker 2: reveal God's love and mercy during anything that we find

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Speaker 2: ourselves with Jesus, the sinless one, holds authority over every

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Speaker 2: space of life, and so we can approach God's presence

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Speaker 2: and confidence. We can pray our most gottural and heartfelt

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Speaker 2: prayers because the mercy, the peace, and the compassion of

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Speaker 2: God is assured for us. Jesus has borne witness to

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Speaker 2: that on the Cross. Now, for some reason, many have

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Speaker 2: a faulty belief that Jesus doesn't sympathize with us. Jesus,

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Speaker 2: it is believed, is distant and unapproachable, and so our

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Speaker 2: cries remain forewind, our hurts are unacknowledged, and our sadness

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Speaker 2: remains hours alone. But here in scripture we have this

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Speaker 2: wonderful reminder of the truth that stands at the center

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Speaker 2: of our faith, that God, the creator of all, entered

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Speaker 2: the frailty and weakness of human life so that we

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Speaker 2: could find his liberating and transforming power for our times

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Speaker 2: of need. And so we approach God in confidence. Now,

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Speaker 2: the word often translated as confidence is the word patresia,

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Speaker 2: and it means boldness, outspokenness, or frankness of speech. What's

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Speaker 2: being communicated is an invitation to present to God exactly

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Speaker 2: what is going on in our lives. We don't need

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Speaker 2: to pretend, We need no masks and frank outspokenness. We

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Speaker 2: can say, Jesus, this is exactly what I'm going through

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Speaker 2: and what I feel. And Jesus welcomes that. Jesus understands that.

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Speaker 2: And in that divine sympathy, Hey, Jesus gives us the

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Speaker 2: grace that we need to traverse the journey of ours.

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Speaker 2: This is the Lord that we have. So wherever you

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Speaker 2: are today, may you be comforted by the assurance of

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Speaker 2: Jesus constant presence. He pours grace upon you in your

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Speaker 2: time of need. He stands with you, he cries with you,

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Speaker 2: he prays for you, and groans that words cannot express.

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Speaker 2: And because of all of this, you can trust that

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Speaker 2: He is working in ways beyond your understanding or imagination.

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Speaker 2: This is the great sympathy of Jesus in which you live.

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Speaker 1: Hey, friends, it's Kelly from Life Audio. We just launched

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Speaker 1: and a little community all in one place. No ads,

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Speaker 1: We built the Good Word based on the audience survey

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Speaker 1: so many of you filled out a few months back.

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