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474 | The God of Choices · 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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  Have you ever noticed how one word can change everything?
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  Deuteronomy chapter 11 opens with the word therefore, reminding us to look back,
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  to remember what God has already done.
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  Chapter 10 showed us that God is the God of second chances, and now chapter
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  11 invites us to respond to that mercy with obedience.
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  In this chapter, we hear God's call to love him, to teach his word to the next
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  generation and to walk in his ways, not out of obligation, but out of a heart
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  that remembers his faithfulness.
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  We're reminded that obedience brings blessing, not because we earn it,
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  but because we walk closely with the one who is good.
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  This is a chapter about choices, daily decisions to follow or to resist,
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  to submit to God or to go our own way.
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  And it's a chapter about legacy. What happens when we build our lives,
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  our homes, and our families around God's Word.
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  Join us for this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  as Erica Close teaches from Deuteronomy chapter 11 and focuses on verse 26.
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  Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.
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  Let's explore what it means to live in a place God can bless,
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  and how today, just like the Israelites, we are given a choice.
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  Let's start reading in Deuteronomy chapter 11. Therefore thou shalt love the
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  Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments,
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  and his commandments, always.
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  And know ye this day, for I speak not with your children which have not known,
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  and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness,
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  his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, and his miracles,
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  and his acts, which he did in
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  the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land.
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  And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots,
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  how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after
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  you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day.
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  And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until you came into this place.
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  And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the sons of Reuben,
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  how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households and
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  their tents and all the substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel.
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  But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did.
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  Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day,
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  that ye may be strong and go in and possess the land whither ye go to possess
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  it, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swear unto
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  your fathers to give unto them and to their seed a land that floweth with milk and honey.
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  For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt,
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  from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and waterest it with thy
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  foot as a garden of herbs.
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  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys,
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  and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God careth for.
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  The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the year
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  even unto the end of the year.
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  And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments,
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  which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with
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  all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season,
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  the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and
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  thy wine and thine oil, and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle,
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  that thou mayest eat and be full.
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  Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside,
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  and serve other gods, and worship them.
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  And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven,
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  that there be no rain, that the land yield not her fruit, lest ye perish quickly
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  from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.
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  Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul,
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  and bind them as a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
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  And ye shall teach them, your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in
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  thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
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  And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house,
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  and upon thy gates, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children,
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  in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as the days
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  of heaven upon the earth.
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  For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you,
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  to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him,
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  then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you,
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  and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
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  Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours,
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  from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates,
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  even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
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  There shall no man be able to stand before you, for the Lord your God shall
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  lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread
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  upon as he has said unto you.
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  Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you
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  obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day,
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  and a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God,
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  but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other
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  gods which ye have not known.
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  And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the
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  land, whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon
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  Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal?
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  Are they not on the other side Jordan by the way where the sun goeth down in
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  the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in Champaign over against Gilgal beside the plains of Morah?
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  For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your
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  God giveth you, and ye shall possess it and dwell therein.
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  And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
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  Deuteronomy chapter 10 reminded the
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  Israelites that God is a God of second chances, for which we praise him.
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  We enter into Deuteronomy 11 with the full understanding of God's forgiveness
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  and his mercy, which is foundational, because this chapter rings with themes.
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  Of choices, good parenting, and consequences.
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  As the chapter opens, God's people are reminded of his most important commandment,
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  to love him, and in doing so, to keep his commandments.
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  This is a common theme throughout all of Deuteronomy, namely that love has results,
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  and that if we love God, we will show it by our actions.
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  The opposite is also true. If our actions are not obedient to God,
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  we may need to check our love for Him.
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  Following the commandment to love God and to keep his commandments in verse
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  1, the children of Israel receive a really targeted review.
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  Verse 2 clearly stated that Moses is not talking to the youngest Israelites,
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  but to those who've been around a while.
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  The verses sandwiched between verse 2 and verse 7 speak to events that happened in the desert.
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  Moses gives a review of God's miracles, what happened to Pharaoh and the Egyptians,
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  the events in the wilderness, and the account of Dathan and Abiram,
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  who had rebelled against Moses.
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  Moses is talking to those who have seen these events.
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  Moses is making it clear that if you saw all these events occur,
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  you have no reason not to believe.
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  But remembering is key.
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  So he reminds them to remember.
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  After the review of all that the Lord had done, the Israelites get another therefore.
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  Moses was saying for this reason, because of all God has done,
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  you need to keep his commandments.
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  Moses sets up a condition in verse 8. If you keep the commandments,
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  then you'll be strong and go in and possess the land.
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  If you keep the commandments, your days in the land promised your forefathers will be long.
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  Moses clearly makes the point that blessing is tied to obedience.
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  He goes on to describe that land as one that stands in stark contrast to Egypt.
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  It's one where the Israelites would not be worked as slaves,
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  a land that is lush and well-watered, a land created...
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  For the Israelites, by God himself, a land upon which his eyes are always set.
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  Moses continues with another charge toward obedience.
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  If the Israelites listen to the Lord, love him, and serve him only,
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  then he will provide abundantly with rain, crops, vineyards,
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  olive groves, and pasture for cattle.
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  This blessing is contrasted in verse 14 where Moses makes it clear that if the
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  Israelites do not obey and they turn to other gods,
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  then the Lord's wrath would be kindled, the rain would not come,
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  and the people would perish.
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  With all this information, the Israelites received the next and most important commandment.
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  Beyond just keeping these commandments
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  themselves, the Israelites were to teach them to their children.
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  God's word was to be bound up in their hearts and in their souls.
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  God's word was to be taught to the children when they were sitting in the house,
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  walking along the road, lying down at night and rising in the morning.
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  God's word was to be written upon the doorposts of the house and on the gates.
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  The lives of the Israelites and their families were to be covered in God's word.
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  And if that happened, the Lord would bless the Israelites with long days.
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  By diligently keeping God's commands, the Israelites would be able to possess
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  the land chosen for them with no fight needed.
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  Moses set before the Israelites a choice, a blessing or a curse.
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  The blessing was tied to obedience and the curse to disobedience.
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  Moses spoke the will of God over the Israelites as he closed the chapter.
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  In Deuteronomy 11.32, he says, And ye shall observe, to do all the statutes
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  and judgments, which I set before you this day.
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  God set before the Israelites a land that was completely prepared for them,
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  a land of blessing, ready for the taking.
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  It flowed with milk and honey. It was a land that God's eyes had been set upon for years.
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  While they were in captivity, God was preparing it for the Israelites.
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  It was as rich and fertile as it could be because God himself was preparing it for them.
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  And yet he cautions them, saying, don't get into the promised land and go after
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  other gods because if you do, I'll stop the flow of rain or milk and honey.
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  He set before them a blessing and a curse. God gave them a choice.
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  God's desire for his people is obedience. It always has been and it always will be.
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  In this case, God asks his people to write his commandments on their hands that
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  they would always see them.
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  He asked them to write them on their doorposts, that they would see them as
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  they go in and out each day.
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  He asked that they teach them to their children all the time that no matter
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  where they are, God is being taught and on display.
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  Lastly, God teaches his people about faith. It's so easy to lose our faith when
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  our circumstances begin to swirl and storms and all we can see are the circumstances.
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  But we are called to a faith that rises above the circumstances,
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  a faith that doesn't despair, that doesn't falter, that digs in its heels and
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  says, no, Satan, you can't get me.
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  I will believe and I will trust.
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  God asks his people to believe with a faith that constantly harkens back to
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  the things it's seen God do.
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  Just as God called the Israelites to obedience, to cleave to him,
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  to follow him, to take in his word and to live it out, he wants the same for us.
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  Just as God prepared the promised land for the Israelites, he has prepared a future for us.
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  And just as the strength of the Israelites was tied to their obedience to God's
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  commandments, our obedience to an almighty God gives us strength to live victoriously in this world.
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  We're given a choice each day. We get to choose between blessing or curse.
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  It's a choice between obedience and disobedience. It's a choice to follow or to lead.
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  It's a choice to submit or to resist.
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  We can choose to live in a place God can bless or to live in a place where the devil reigns.
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  Choose you this day whom you will serve. God is asking you to serve and to follow him. Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
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  website. 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.
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  Music.