Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 468 | We Are Blessed, in Spite of Our Sin

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468 | We Are Blessed, in Spite of Our Sin · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  God is in control.
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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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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, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen 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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  God doesn't bless us because we're perfect. He blesses us because He's merciful.
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  That truth might be hard to accept, but it's also deeply comforting.
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  We stumble. We fall. We forget.
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  Yet God still loves us, still blesses us, still has plans for us.
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  Just like the Israelites, we don't always get it right.
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  They were called a stiff-necked people, stubborn, rebellious,
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  and prone to forget God's goodness.
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  But even in the face of their disobedience, God chose to bless them. Why?
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  Because of His promise, His mercy, and His great love.
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  Join us for this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast as Erica
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  Close teaches from Deuteronomy 9, focusing on verse 6.
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  Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land
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  to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.
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  Let's reflect together on the amazing truth that God blesses us not because
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  of who we are, but because of who He is.
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  I am so thankful that the Lord is merciful, and I am even more thankful that
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  we get to go in and look at His mercy in Deuteronomy chapter 9.
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  So we're starting in Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse 1.
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  Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations
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  greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven.
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  A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest,
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  and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak?
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  Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee.
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  As a consuming fire, he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face.
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  So shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee.
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  Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out
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  from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land.
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  But for the wickedness of these nations, the Lord doth drive them out from before thee.
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  Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart,
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  dost thou go to possess their land.
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  But for the wickedness of these nations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out
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  from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord swear unto
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  thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land
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  to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.
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  Remember, and forget not, how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the
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  wilderness, from the day that thou didst depart from the land of Egypt until
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  ye came unto this place ye have been rebellious against the Lord.
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  Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with
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  you to have destroyed you.
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  When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone,
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  even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you,
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  then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights.
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  I neither did eat bread nor drink water.
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  And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God.
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  And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with
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  you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the days of the assembly.
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  And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that the Lord
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  gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
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  And the Lord said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence,
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  for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
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  They are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them.
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  They have made them a molten image.
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  Furthermore, the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people,
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  and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
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  Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven,
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  and I will make of thee a nation mighter and greater than they.
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  So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire,
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  and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
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  And I looked, and behold, ye had sinned against the Lord your God,
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  and hath made you a molten calf.
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  Ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord hath commanded you.
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  And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my hands, and break them before your eyes.
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  And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first forty days and forty nights,
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  I did neither eat bread nor drink water, because all of your sins which ye sinned,
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  and doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
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  For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth
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  against you to destroy you.
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  But the Lord hearkened to me also at that time.
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  And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him,
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  and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
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  And I took your sin, the calf which he had made, and burnt it with fire,
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  and stamped it and ground it very small until it was as small as dust.
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  And I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
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  And at Tabara, and at Masa, and at Kibra Hathavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.
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  Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying,
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  Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against
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  the commandment of the Lord your God, and you believed him not,
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  nor hearkened to his voice.
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  You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
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  Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights,
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  as I fell down at the first, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.
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  I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people
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  and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness,
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  which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
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  Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  Look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin.
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  Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into.
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  What a passage! This chapter in Deuteronomy reveals to us a wonderful truth.
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  God blesses us in spite of the fact that we are sinners, because He loves us
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  and He has plans for our lives.
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  Isn't that amazing? Here I sit, a sinner blessed beyond measure because God
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  loves me and he has plans for me. Do you really understand that?
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  When we look at the Israelites in this chapter, we see terrible sin and we see
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  amazing love. Let's look closer.
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  Like so many chapters in Deuteronomy, this one begins with a command.
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  In verses one and two, Moses is telling the Israelites that they must prepare
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  because they are getting ready to pass over the Jordan River to possess nations
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  that are greater and mightier than all the Israelites.
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  They will battle giants, great.
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  And tall. They are going to possess cities great and fenced up to heaven.
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  Obviously, with walls to heaven, only God himself could win this battle.
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  Yet going into battle, Moses assures the Israelites that they will be victorious.
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  Lest the Israelites get cocky about this, however, Moses teaches them a lesson.
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  Lesson that unfortunately is so applicable to our daily lives.
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  They are warned that once they cross the Jordan in victory, they are not to
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  think that their victory is due to their righteousness.
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  No, their victory is due to the wickedness of the Anakins and God's plan to
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  fill their land with the Israelites.
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  God is going to fulfill the promise he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  In spite of the sin of the Israelites, God, in his mercy, is going to use them
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  to bring about his purposes.
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  But what was the sin of the Israelites?
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  Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land
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  to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.
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  Deuteronomy 13.6. The Israelites were a stiff-necked people.
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  This literally means that they were hard, cruel, severe, and obstinate.
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  And their obstinance is revealed in the verses that follow.
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  The Israelites provoked the Lord to wrath in the wilderness from the day they
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  left Egypt until the day they reached the Jordan River.
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  At Horeb, the Lord was angry enough to destroy them all.
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  When Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments written with
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  the very finger of God, the Israelites corrupted themselves.
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  As Moses receives the commandments, God tells him to quickly get down the mountain
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  because his people had quickly turned aside out of the way I commanded them.
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  They have made a molten image.
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  In the 40 days and 40 nights that Moses was on the mountain,
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  the Israelites turned from God-fearing to idol-worshiping.
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  The Lord was angry enough to destroy the nation of Israel and create a new nation
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  for himself, descended from Moses.
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  Upon hearing this, Moses hurried
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  down the mountain to find the molten calf created by the Israelites.
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  In anger, he cast the two tablets to the ground and then cast himself before
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  the Lord in prayer and fasting.
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  Moses clearly saw the sin of his people, and he does all that he can to save
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  them from the punishment they deserve.
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  And what happens? The Lord hearkened unto Moses, and the Israelites were not destroyed.
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  Moses, however, destroys the golden calf, grinding it to dust and casting the
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  dust into the river that flowed from Mount Horeb.
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  We see, too, how after the Israelites rebelled against the Lord at Kadesh Barnea,
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  Moses once again casts himself before the Lord and begs for the lives of the Israelites.
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  He intercedes with prayer.
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  In verses 26 and 27, we read, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance,
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  which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth
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  out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
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  Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  Look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin.
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  The Lord answers Moses' prayer, not because of the righteousness of the Israelites,
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  but so that his mercy will be shown to all those that will see these people
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  shift from slaves to a mighty nation.
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  The Israelites were not destroyed, though that is exactly what they deserved.
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  Instead, they crossed into a land flowing with milk and honey.
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  Has anyone ever called you stiff-necked? What about hard, cruel,
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  severe, obstinate? What about just plain stubborn?
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  The last one probably rings true for many of us.
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  It's a human trait to want our own way and to desire credit for the things that happen in our lives.
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  If we learn anything from this chapter, however, we learn that the blessings
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  of God come to us in spite of our sin.
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  Those blessings come when we don't deserve them, but when the Lord has something
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  to accomplish, through them.
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  How often have you seen sin creep quickly into your life?
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  It's amazing that a single choice often snowballs into a habitual sin.
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  When this happens, we need to quickly intervene.
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  Just as the Lord had Moses quickly head down the mountain to halt the sin of
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  the Israelites, we need quick intervention to deal with the sin in our lives.
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  One of the keys to dealing with sin is revealing our sin.
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  There's nothing better than God's Word to reveal our sin. The sin of the Israelites
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  was revealed when Moses received the Ten Commandments.
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  Ask yourself, is my life in alignment with the Word of God?
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  Even now, how am I stacking up against the Ten Commandments?
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  God's Word will reveal sin each and every time.
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  What is the antidote for sin? The antidote is a confessing prayer.
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  1 John 1.9 tells us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
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  us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  The sins of the Israelites were dealt with through prayer.
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  When God reveals our sin to us, we must go to him in repentant prayer and ask
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  for forgiveness. He will forgive.
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  The last thing that I want you to remember is that just as the Israelites had
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  Moses to intercede for them in prayer, you have Jesus himself interceding for you.
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  Hebrews 7.25 reminds us, Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost
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  that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
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  Christ will forgive sins, save you from yourself, and ever lives to make intercession for you.
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  He blesses you in spite of your sin because he loves you and has great plans for you.
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  The only person who ever lived a sinless life was Jesus Christ.
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  Because we are human, we will never live a completely sinless life.
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  We can, however, strive to live a holy and blameless life, one that is aware
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  of our sin and confesses those sins regularly.
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  When we are living in blatant sin, it's very hard for the Lord to bless us.
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  We've seen that He does, but it's not because we deserve it.
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  It's because He has other purposes to perform.
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  Strive to live a holy and blameless life so that you might be in a place where
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  it is easy for the Lord to bless you. Remember that you are loved.
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  Jesus loves you.
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  Music.
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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, Happy Girl.
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  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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  Music.