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892. Bible Study: Malachi 1 (Are we offering OUR BEST to God and Others?) · Faith by annm2705

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We are starting a new book, the Book of Malachi.
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This is the last of the prophetic books that we're
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covering. So now I've done a podcast,
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podcast on every single one. I was looking back and I
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realized that I actually did Esther twice.
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But after, we'll just get through this and then we'll
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figure out where we go next. There's still some Old Testament
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books that I haven't covered yet for the podcast, and my goal is
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to get every single book of the Bible on this podcast.
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So we're getting there. Anyway.
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Let's get started with Malachi first.
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Let's pray. Dear Lord, please be with us as
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always when we read scripture to open our minds, our hearts, our
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ears to what you have to say. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
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So in the study Bible that I have, it has an introduction
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which is really helpful because it gives you context of when it
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happens, the place, setting, and what was going on at the time
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that this prophet spoke. So I'm going to read through
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that, the introduction. So why read this book?
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Malachi holds a mirror before you, helping you assess your
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relationship with God. Do you believe he loves you?
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Does he have your wholehearted love and obedience?
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Or are you only going through the motions?
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God's questions to Israel will sneak behind your defenses and
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shake you out of mere routine to ignite renewed loyalty to Him
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who wrote the book. The name Malachi means quote my
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messenger. It is uncertain whether there
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whether this was actually the author's name or whether it was
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used as a title, since prophets in general called them called
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were called Messengers of the Lord.
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Either way, this prophet clearly sensed God was speaking through
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him. When was it written?
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Perhaps around 4:30 BC. It was written after Israel
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returned from captivity in Babylon, after the temple in
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Jerusalem was rebuilt, which was 516 BC, and after worshipped
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their lapsed into mere routine. Why was it written?
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To confront the spirit of complacency, an indifference
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that overcame the people of God. What to look for in Malachi?
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Malachi presents a word from God, followed by a complaint
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from the people, followed in turn by an answer from God.
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Look for God's passion in this exchange.
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God loves you with an unfailing, passionate love and wants you to
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return His love by demonstrating faithfulness, integrity, purity
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and justice in human relationships, especially in
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regard to the powerless. So here's what it starts out as
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chapter one, a prophecy, the word of the Lord to Israel
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through Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord.
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But you ask, how have you loved us?
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Was not Esau, Jacob's brother, declares the Lord.
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Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned
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his hill countryside into a wasteland and left his
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inheritance to the desert Jackals.
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I'm going to pause right there because when we read this, Esau
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and Jacob were brothers. But what was different about
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them is I mean the neither 1 was really good because Jacob was
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very deceptive when he received his father's blessing, Isaac's
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blessing and Esau. But Esau didn't care about his
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inheritance. He was, it was kind of like, I
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guess a literal event, but it had a lot of symbology because
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Esau was more concerned about the moment he was hungry, when
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he came back from hunting and Jacob had some Stew and Esau
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traded him. He's like, yeah, I'll give you
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my inheritance. I just want the Stew right now.
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And that's very much symbolic to all of us.
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Like, are we going to sacrifice our inheritance with God by
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putting our desires in something worldly that isn't going to last
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forever? And that's what people generally
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do. We, we have worldly things as
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our goals, as our priorities, and we don't have God as our
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priority. And, and in doing that, we
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could, if we don't wake up, we could lose our inheritance by
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not placing God as a priority, by not having the fear of God,
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by not, you know, submitting to God and repenting of our sinful
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ways. God wants to be first.
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He has a right to be first because he's the creator.
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He is the God of the universe. He made everything.
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There is no one greater than him.
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So why? Why should he be placed
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secondary to anything at all in our life?
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I mean, that's a hard thing for a lot of people to get a grip on
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because we don't see God in person.
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And so we think about all the things we can see, feel and
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touch and we think about those things.
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And sometimes we prioritize and we get things all messed up.
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Not thinking about who gave us everything that we have and who
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created us. Most importantly, like He
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created each one of us out of his love.
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Like he had a a plan for us and he had a purpose for us.
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And so he decided I'm going to make every single person that
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exists today. He says he, he made each one of
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us and he had a plan for us. Now we can choose to live out
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his plan or we can choose to go our own way because that's what
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God did. He gave us free will and that's
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what most people are exercising is their free will.
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And their free will includes rebellion to God and includes
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having No Fear of God. Now when I talk about fear of
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God, it's it's meaning the awe of God, like really
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understanding who God is not. He's not somebody that's there
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to beat us up. He, he is love.
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God is love in Scripture. He's defined as love.
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He is pure love. He is holy, He is righteous, He
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is just. So we have to, I guess we get to
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know God through Scripture, but we can't just know part of God.
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We have to know everything about God and things become revealed
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to us as we read scripture. And we see when we read
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Scripture, God is revealed and then we can get to know him more
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and more by reading scripture. And anyway, it helps when you
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see the power of God and you realize who He is.
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And at that point you will humble yourself and realize that
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I can't do this like life is. Life has a lot of challenges and
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if we try to do it on our own, we're missing out on what God
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has offered us. If if we believe in Jesus and we
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I don't know how to say it, but if we come into agreement with
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God and agree with God that what you say God is correct, is
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right, is justice, is love. If we agree with all of the
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things in the Bible, we realize that we are rebelling against
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that a lot of what's in the Bible, and we can't just do it
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on our own because it really requires the Holy Spirit.
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And when we believe in Jesus and we get to that point where we're
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like, OK, Jesus, you are Lord over my life.
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That means that you are the ruler.
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You're going to guide me, You're going to direct me, and I'm
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going to be obedient to you. And when we are willing to do
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that, God helps us. He sends the Holy Spirit to us
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and empowers us to overcome the stuff we could never overcome on
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our own. And there's a lot of people who
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don't even realize that. But there's like, the keys to
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the Kingdom are identified in the Bible.
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And when we read the Bible, we see that anyway.
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We don't want to be going back to Malachi.
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We don't want to be foolish like Esaw and focus on worldly things
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that are not going to matter in, I mean, not everything.
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I mean people will because people will exist beyond the
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time when the earth is gone, when there's a new heaven and a
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new earth that comes. But that's the only thing.
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I mean, like if we're putting our emphasis and our focus on
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building something here on the earth, the Bible clearly says
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this whole entire earth one day will be destroyed completely and
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there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
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So anything we're building here is somewhat fruitless.
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I mean, it's not fruitless. Maybe that's not the right work,
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but it's, it's just like it, it really doesn't matter.
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I mean, it's just this is our testing time that God's seeing
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what he, what we do with he's given us.
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He's watching us and seeing how we respond to the gifts that God
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has given us. And we can either choose them
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for we can either use them for good or for evil.
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And what we reap or what we sow we will reap.
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So whatever we do is going to come back to us in the end at
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the time of judgement. But we can look at these
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warnings and if we apply these to our lives, we can have a
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better outcome for sure if we apply this to heart.
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So the the main thing about Esau and Jacob, Esau didn't care
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about his inheritance. So we don't want to be like Esau
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and not care about our inheritance being able to live
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in the presence of God one day. And that's what God wants for us
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to be actually like face to face with God someday.
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And, and the only way that we can do that is by receiving the
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Holy Spirit. The only way we can receive the
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Holy Spirit is to believe in Jesus, because Jesus is
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essentially the keeper of the Holy Spirit.
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He said he receives the Holy Spirit from the Father and gives
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it to whomever he wants. So if we don't believe in Jesus,
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we will not receive the Holy Spirit.
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And that's the key. Jesus said I am the way, the
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truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except
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through me. I don't know how much clearer he
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could have made it. So we'll go back to verse 4.
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In chapter 1. Edom may say, though we have
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been crushed, we will rebuild the runes.
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Now Edom is southwestern Jordan today.
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So this is really interesting because Jordan is not really
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involved with what's going on in this.
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I mean, not essentially, I guess, and as a bystander they
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are, but they're not actively involved or in war with Israel.
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And what's really interesting is that the the Esau was really, he
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moved to Edom, which is, you know, southwestern Jordan.
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And Esau is Jacob's twin brother.
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So these are brothers that are living next to one another and
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you wouldn't even know that because there's this ancient
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hostility still between. There's this arguing over the
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Temple Mount between Jordan and Israel and and there's different
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beliefs and ideologies that are clashing.
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And yet ultimately if you go back in history, they are
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actually brothers. They are literally twin brothers
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born at the same time. So it's it's very interesting to
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see all of this in the Middle East and realize that it has
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biblical roots. Everything that's happening
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there. OK, so continuing on, but this
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is what the Lord Almighty says they may build, but I will
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demolish. They will be called the wicked
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land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.
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You will see it with your own eyes and say, Great is the Lord,
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even beyond the borders of Israel.
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A son honors his father, and a slave his master.
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If I am a father, where is the honor do me?
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If I am a master, where is the respect do me, says the Lord
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Almighty. So do we.
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Here's a question for us. Do we see God as our Father?
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I mean he created us, He is our Father, he is our Father in
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heaven. Just like the Lords prayer that
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Jesus gave us our Father who art in heaven and then he is if if I
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am a master, where is the respect due to me?
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So it's not just and we look at Jesus it's not just everybody
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likes Jesus as our savior like thank God for Jesus because of
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his self sacrificing death on the cross that we are about to
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celebrate at a time called Eastover Easter, our Passover.
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You know, that's all of when it happened, which is right around
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the corner. But you know, we we all love to
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say like thank God for Jesus what he did, but do we make him
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master over our life? Do we show God?
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Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commands.
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There are many times here that the obedience part of it is
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showing love back to God. And this is exactly what God is
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emphasizing here to the people of Israel.
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He's like you're doing these things, but and you and there
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there's a difference between doing the obedience out of love
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and respect for God or doing it just out of religious tradition.
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Because people could go to church, they could look holy and
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they could do all the things they could act out their faith,
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But where is their heart? Like God is after the heart.
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Like where where is your heart? Are you really doing this
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because you love God? Are you doing this to make
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yourself look good for in front of other people so that other
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people say, Oh, this person is a really good person?
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Because you have to remember that Jesus said no one is good,
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only God is good. So if we are trying to look good
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in front of anybody else, we're fooling ourselves because we are
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not and we won't be perfected until Jesus returns.
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And thank God when he returns one day we will have all of this
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filth removed from us. But until then, we're in this
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process of becoming more like the image of God every day that
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the Holy Spirit, every day that we allow the Lord to be Lord, to
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be master over our lives. When we deny ourselves, just
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like Jesus said, no one can follow me unless they deny
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themselves and put up their own cross.
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Are we doing that? Are we denying our fleshly
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desires and being obedient to God to show God we love him not
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to earn our way? We can't earn our way into
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heaven, into God's Kingdom. All we can do is when we obey is
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show God that we love him. That's it.
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We just show God that we love him.
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But if we are not being obedient, then if we're, you
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know, think about the opposite of that.
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If you love me, obey my commands.
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So what does it mean? Like if you don't obey his
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commands, are you showing God I don't love you?
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Do you want to show God you don't love him?
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Think about that. OK, so then he goes back to if
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I'm a master, where is the respect due to me, says the Lord
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Almighty. It is you priest who show
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contempt for my name. So God's going right after the
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head leaders of the people. And I think that even can apply
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today to people that the leaders of of churches, are they really
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showing respect for God? Are they preaching the true
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gospel? Are they preaching the words of
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Jesus, the words that are found in Scripture?
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Are they, are they giving God the honor?
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And if they are they, you know, talking to people about
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obedience again, not to do it. You know, there's obedience
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really is like loving one another and and denying to self,
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like not being selfish. Essentially.
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It's like, are you doing things out of selfishness or are you
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doing things for the better of another person?
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And that's something we all should ask ourselves.
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And I, I just have a feeling that most of us have times where
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we realize we're doing this out of selfish reasons, not because
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out of love for another person. And that's when we need to
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correct it. And I think the Holy Spirit
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gently reminds us that, hey, are you doing this for yourself?
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Are you doing this for somebody else?
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Because you know what you should be doing.
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If you're going to be an image of God, you should be doing it
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for somebody else. Your yourself should be the
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servant to another person. So anyway, God is really talking
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to the the priest here. It is you, priest, who show
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contempt for my name. But you ask, how have we shown
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contempt for your name? By offering defiled food on my
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altar. But you ask, how have we defiled
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you? By saying the Lord's Table is
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contemptible. When you offer blind animals for
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sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or
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diseased animals, is that not wrong?
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Try offering them to your governor.
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Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you, says the
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Lord Almighty? Now plead with God to be
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gracious to us with such offerings from your hands.
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Will he accept you, says the Lord Almighty?
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Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you
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would not light useless fires on my altar.
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I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will
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accept no offering from your hands.
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My name will be great among the nations from where the sun rises
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to where it sets in every place. Incense and pure offerings will
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be brought to me, because my name will be great among the
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nations, says the Lord Almighty. There is a day that's coming
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where every knee will bow to the Lord.
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The reality of Jesus as Lord, when he returns, there's going
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to be a time where where it's all going to be.
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I don't know if people were denying it right now, if they
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were blinded right now, if their eyes are open.
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But there will be a day when Jesus returns and that's going
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to be the judgement time. That's not, I mean, Jesus first
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came to save the sinners. He came for the sinners to wake
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him up, but when he comes back, he's going to judge.
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It's a very different experience.
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Like Jesus was just being selfless and a servant in order
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to bring people into the Kingdom to be to have his brothers and
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sisters in the Kingdom with the Father.
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And but then when he comes back, it's it's the time to separate
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those who put their faith in God and those who rebel against God.
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And it's really time for all of us.
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It's always time for us because we are not promised tomorrow
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that we make this decision today.
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OK, verse 12 But you profane it by saying the Lords Table is
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defiled and its food is contemptible.
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And you say what a burden and you sniff at it contemptuously,
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says the Lord Almighty. When you bring injured, lame or
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diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept
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them from your hands? Says the Lord.
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Cursed is The Who has an who has an acceptable male in his flock
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and vows to give give it then sacrifices A blemished animal to
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the Lord. For I am a great king, says the
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Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations.
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That's the end of chapter 1. So I mean, God is saying, you
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know, if you have a good animal, you're supposed to give your
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best to God, your vow. If you say like, I'm going to
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give my best to God, but then you're like, oh, well, I want to
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keep this best thing for me or for someone else or whatever.
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But then you give something that I'm just going to use this like
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messed up 1 and and put this as an offering that is not godly.
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That is not what God is after. He's not after the ritual of a
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sacrifice. In fact, he said he at some
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point in the Bible, can't remember which book it was, but
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he's like, I hate your sacrifices.
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Like he doesn't want them. God gave us sacrifices or gave
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the Israelites sacrifices in order so they wouldn't die
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because the wages of sin is death.
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And so God allowed a temporary atonement for unintentional sin.
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I just recently saw this when I was studying.
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Just check this out. Go back to Leviticus and look at
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the different types of offerings there are.
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And what I didn't realize was that all of these offerings were
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to make, I guess, restitution. I don't know.
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It wasn't like Jesus was the final sacrifice that made
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atonement for everything that happened in the past and will
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happen in the future with mankind for those who repent and
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turn to Christ and believe in Christ and believe in his death
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and resurrection. But the sacrifices, and I did go
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through the Bible and look at this, they were for
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unintentional sin, not intentional sinning.
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And like in the book of Hebrews, it says like those who you know,
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who are aware of this and keep on sinning, they can only expect
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the wrath of God. Basically.
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I'm paraphrasing that. I think it's Hebrews 10 verse
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26. Maybe that's just coming to mind
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right now. I'm not sure that's I could be
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wrong on that where that verse is located.
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But that is really a verse that we need to remind ourselves of,
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like just because we don't feel like doing something that we
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know God says is, is we need to do this.
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But then we decide, I don't really want to do that.
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I prefer to do something else. That's just like Saul.
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That's what Saul did. He was like he would get
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commands and then and he would say, well, I'll do part of it,
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but I think, you know, I'm going to use my judgement and I think
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this part is better. Like I'm going to save like the
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the best things and keep those for the Israelites.
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When God said wipe it all out, he said no, because all of it
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was corrupted. All of it was full, it was
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contaminated in some way and get God knows things that we don't
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know. And God gives us rules and laws
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to protect us, maybe not in a physical way, but in a spiritual
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way. Absolutely.
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And I think also in a physical way because I, I believe as I've
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studied more and more that when we break God's law, we're coming
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into agreement with God's enemy. And that gives God's enemy
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access to our life and can make our life hell.
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And God allows it because he wants us to come to repentance
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and turn to him. So he's like, I'll give you what
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you want. You're siding with the enemy
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here. I'm telling you, this is my, my
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law, my, you know, be, obey me and it'll go well.
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But if you choose what you choose, you're going to have
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consequences of it. But you get free will.
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You can just do whatever you want.
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And then people do it. And then people, you know, for a
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while it's good until it isn't. And then it gets bad.
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And then people are kind of at their end and they're like
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finally pleading with God, like God, please help me.
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I'm in such pain or I've had, I'm so sad or I, you know,
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whatever bad things. And then they finally come to
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God. And God in his love and grace
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and mercy, he accepts people back.
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And as long as their heart is right with him, like they're
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really meaning it. They're not just trying to be
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manipulative to God and then going through the motions and
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saying, oh God, I'm so sorry. But in their heart they're not
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sorry. Like God sees all that.
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We can't hide any of that from God.
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He knows whether we are telling him the truth or not.
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I mean, he knows our thoughts. He knows our thoughts.
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We can't hide it from him. We might be good at hiding it
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from other people, but not God. He knows it all.
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So it's not worth it. And that's the other thing too,
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that I'm learning also about what the enemy does is that, you
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know, the enemy is the accuser in front of God.
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And we'll read about that probably the next book I'll do
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is Job. And that's really relevant to
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this. Like he is the, the enemy is the
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accuser in front of God. And when it's just like such a
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manipulative thing that happens that my, I didn't realize this
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until I read through the Bible as much as I have now.
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But when the enemy gets access to you, he just, he lures you in
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with something attractive, something that sounds good.
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And so you accept that, you bite on to it and, and he may have
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even like let things go, you know, like have things really
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wonderful happen in your life. And, and so you, you get hooked
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on that and you think, well, this is good.
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And then there's a lot of people who do live righteously and they
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look at the evil people who don't live righteously and they
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think, well, why do they have all that?
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You know, why is everything going good for them?
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Why are things bad in my life? But yet in this wicked person's
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life, everything seems to be good.
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Well, that's the enemy's deceit. It's kind of like the enemy has
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a fishing line. He's out there and he hooks
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somebody with some tasty treat on the end of the hook and we're
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the fish. We bite on it and then we're
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going to be his. We're going to be destroyed.
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We're going to be cooked, but we don't know it.
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At the moment. It seems like it's pretty good.
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But then we realized we are hooked.
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We become a slave to sin. And if you've ever gotten into
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some sin or done something and not repented of it, it's gets
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easier and easier to keep on sinning when you don't repent.
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And it gets harder and harder. And so then you feel trapped.
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You feel like I can't change because you try and you can't
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get out of it. Well, you can't get out of it
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because you are trying on your own power and you're not working
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with God. You've not turned to God.
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God is the ultimate power. And when we try to do things on
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our own, we're not going to be as successful as we would with
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God. So it's, it's like we see this
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repetitious cycle of the enemy attracting people, even the
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Israelites, everybody, he attracts them somehow.
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A lot of times it's with lustful things.
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That's the way it seems like that is the easiest thing that
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he can lure people in is like something sexual, because that's
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a desire of most people. And so he'll lure them in with
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that and it all seems good. And then what he does is he
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starts to destroy their lives because the enemy doesn't care
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for you. The enemy just wants to destroy
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you. That's his whole mission.
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He wants to destroy everything that God has created because he
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hates God. He wants, he wants to be
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worshipped. He doesn't want to be the one
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who was created. He wants to be God.
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He's not. He wasn't happy with what he
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got. And so he rebelled against God
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and he was given a lot of wisdom and beauty and all these sorts
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of things and powers and, and God allows it for a certain
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time. And he was like, supposedly like
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somebody really special. But then wickedness was found in
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him, his own desires, and they overcame him.
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And and he also has other spiritual entities.
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They're angels that he's corrupted.
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Not well, they've made a choice to align with him.
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And then there's I guess what I've learned about demons Are
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that a theory at least? I don't know.
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I don't know if anybody really knows, but the theory is that
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demons are actually the disembodied spirits of the
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Nephilim. I don't know if that's true or
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not, but that's what it, it's a theory that's out there.
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So you have these like evil things that are in the world and
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they're all kind of like just looking at destruction.
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They were all like part of a plan to destroy mankind.
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And that's really ultimately what they're doing.
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And then humans are so naive to this, are so ignorant to this
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that they don't realize this, this attractiveness of
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manipulation is really leading them to eternal death.
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So when your eyes are open to this and you see that you have a
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spiritual enemy that is not looking for your good, but God
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is out for your good. And God has this wonderful
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inheritance planned for you in the end, but you need to wake up
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and get rid of the enemy before you can experience God.
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And, and there's just so much kind of deception that the enemy
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gives people. And it's all in the Bible.
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So when you read the Bible, you'll find out that what I'm
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saying is true. And hopefully if you've been
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manipulated, you can change that today and ask God to be asked
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Jesus to be your savior, savior and ask for the Holy Spirit.
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Turn away from all the stuff that the enemy was leading you
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into, that's not right, that God doesn't agree with.
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And just return to God and God will.
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God will do what needs to be done.
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And God is good. He's always good.
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And I guess that's really all I have to say.
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Oh, there's like questions and answers.
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I'm going to read through those for chapter 1 and let's see.
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OK, I'll read through that and then we'll wrap up.
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So how can God hate? Hate is used here as a covenant
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term to contrast it with God's loyal love for Jacob, who was
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chosen to be the instrument of redemption.
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Esau and Jacob were twins of Isaac and grandsons of Abraham.
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Only one of them could provide the family line through which
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the Messiah would come. The point of this verse is
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primarily that God chose or He made a covenant with Jacob, not
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Esau, for that special role. And you can go to Genesis
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chapter 28 verses 10 through 22 and Romans Chapter 9 verses 10
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through 16 to read more about that.
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Who was Edom? Edom was the nation that
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descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob.
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You can read about that in Genesis 25 verses 19 through 34.
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Jacob and Esau were rivals as brothers and their descendants
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continued to compete as nations. Edom occupied the mountainous
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region of the Dead Sea. Why would God destroy Edom?
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Even a God of love will act in judgement against an evil
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nation. When people like the Edomites
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deliberately continue to reject God's ways, they inevitably end
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up in ruin. Was Edom's behavior any worse
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than Israel's? Israel sometimes behaved as
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wickedly as Edom, but Israel also periodically reported and
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returned to God. Malachi wanted Israel to grasp
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that God's love for Israel was undeserved.
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Was there any way for Edom to repent and be forgiven?
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The Bible teaches that any Sinner who repents will be
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forgiven. However, Edom consistently
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defied defied the Lord's ways without relenting or giving any
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indication of repentance. Even when God crushed the
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nation, Edom rose up in defiance to rebuild.
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God finally destroyed Edom completely.
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How do we bring blemished offerings to God?
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A blemished offering is something less than a full,
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complete offering, like giving God only an hour on Sunday
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morning and then following our own desires the rest of the
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week. The blemished offerings,
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condemned by the prophets long ago are still a problem for
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God's people today. They just look a little
34:43
different. Why would God prefer no offering
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to a blemished? 1A person's offering reveals the
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person's attitude toward God offering God a second.
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Offering God's second rate goods when we have first rate goods to
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offer indicates we don't think much of God.
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Has this prophecy been fulfilled?
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Yes and no, because even in Malachi's day, some Gentiles who
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weren't expected to offered more sincere worship than many
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apathetic Israelites. And no, because we still wait
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for the whole world to worship the living God.
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How does God curse? Sometimes God brings
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catastrophe. Other times he lets disobedient
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people experiences the consequences of their ungodly
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choices. We reap what we sow Galatians 6
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chapter or chapter 6 verses 7 through 8.
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So that will wrap up Malachi one.
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And if you found this beneficial, please share it with
35:47
others. If you have not subscribed,
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please do so as we cover a chapter a day as often as
35:53
possible. And thank you for listening.