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447 | The Lord Will Fight For You · 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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  She's a happy girl There are so many times that our life feels like a battle.
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  And when the battle gets heated, it's very easy to forget all that we know the
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  Lord has done and let fear take hold.
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  In Deuteronomy 3.22, we read, You shall not fear them, for the Lord your God, He shall fight for you.
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  Join us in today's podcast of Women at the Well Ministries is Erika Close takes
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  us to the book of Deuteronomy today in chapter 3 to look at the power of remembering
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  all that the Lord has done so
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  that we will have faith enough to let go and watch God fight our battles.
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  Well, thank you all so much for joining us in this podcast. It is exciting to
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  be able to talk to you again about the book of Deuteronomy.
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  You know, so often we feel so far removed from the Old Testament.
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  Those of us who live on this side of the cross and those of us who have Jesus
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  as our Savior, the Old Testament often feels so far away and oftentimes so inaccessible.
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  But the reality is that there is tremendous truth in the accounts that we read
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  in the Old Testament and tremendous truth that still holds true for us.
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  You know, we were given the whole Bible, which means that the whole Bible holds relevancy for us.
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  And therefore, it's something that we need to look at and to understand.
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  So Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books, and it is rich in so many lessons.
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  And I'm so excited to be able to talk to you today about some lessons that we
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  find for us in Deuteronomy chapter 3.
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  Today's key verse is Deuteronomy 3.22, which says.
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  You shall not fear them, for the Lord your God, he shall fight for you.
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  So today we're going to be reading all of Deuteronomy chapter 3,
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  which is verses 1 through 29.
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  Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came
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  out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edri.
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  And the Lord said unto me, Fear him not, for I will deliver him and all his
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  people and his land into thy hand, and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon,
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  king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
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  So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan,
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  and all his people, and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
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  And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took.
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  Not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og, and Bashan.
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  All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,
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  beside unwalled towns a great many.
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  And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon,
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  utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.
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  But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took for a prey to ourselves.
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  And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the
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  land that was on this side, Jordan, from the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon,
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  which Hermon the Sidians called Syrian and the Amorites call it Shanir.
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  All the cities of the plain and all Gilead and all Bashan unto Salchai and Edri,
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  cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
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  For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants.
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  Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?
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  Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth thereof, after the cubit of Amam.
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  And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Arur, which is by the river
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  Arnon, and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.
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  And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og,
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  gave I unto the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob,
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  with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.
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  Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of
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  Gesheri and Machathi and called them after his own name, Bashan Havath Jair, unto this day.
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  And I gave Gilead unto Machir, and unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites
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  I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley,
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  and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon.
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  The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinareth even unto
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  the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashutath-pisgah eastward.
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  And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it.
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  You shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel,
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  all that are meat for the war.
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  But your wives, and your little ones and your cattle, for I know that ye have much cattle,
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  shall abide in your cities which I have given you, until the Lord has given
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  rest unto your brethren as well as unto you, and until they also possess the
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  land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond Jordan.
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  And then shall ye return every man unto his possession which I have given you.
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  And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the
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  Lord your God hath done unto these two kings.
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  So shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest.
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  You shall not fear them, for the Lord your God, he shall fight for you.
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  And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to
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  show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand.
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  For what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works
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  and according to thy might?
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  I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan,
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  that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
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  But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me.
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  And the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter.
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  Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward and northward,
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  and southward and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes, for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
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  But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over
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  before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.
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  So we abode in the valley over against Beth Peor.
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  So chapter 3 of Deuteronomy is the last of the chapters that we read in Deuteronomy
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  that is purely a review of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.
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  So many of these accounts appear earlier in one of those three books.
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  So in chapter 3 in Deuteronomy, the Israelites are facing Og, the king of Bashan.
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  And once again, the Lord gives the Israelites a promise, and they take hold of it. They really do.
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  The Lord says, Fear him not, for I will deliver him and all his people and his
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  land into thy hand, and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon,
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  the king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
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  So because they could believe, and they held on to that promise,
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  the Israelites were victorious.
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  They remembered what the Lord had done.
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  When they went out against Sihon, king of the Amorites, and that gave them faith
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  to move forward as they went into battle against Og.
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  So the land that formerly belonged to Og was then given over to some of the tribes of Israel.
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  And we read about how that land was to be distributed to the Reubenites,
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  the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
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  All of those tribes received a portion of the land that we just read about that
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  was won in this particular battle with King Og.
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  But before these tribes could take hold of their land, all the tribes of Israel
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  had to receive their land.
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  So it was promised to them, and it was on this side of the Jordan,
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  but they couldn't actually go in and possess it yet.
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  It was made clear that their lives and their children would be able to go in
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  and live in the cities that they had won in battle.
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  But until all the brethren, so all the other tribes had received their rest
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  or their place to rest, I guess we could say, the men would not be able to go
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  in and inhabit those cities.
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  We read in Deuteronomy 3.20, until the Lord hath given rest unto your brethren
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  as well as unto you, and until they possess the land which the Lord your God
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  hath given them beyond Jordan.
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  And then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you.
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  So until all of the tribes of Israel could inhabit the promised land,
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  these three tribes, even though that land was already sort of conquered,
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  it still wasn't really accessible to them.
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  So after we get through this account of that battle and the distribution of
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  all of that land to those three tribes,
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  the chapter sort of changes gear and Moses stops talking to the people and he
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  basically starts talking to Joshua.
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  And we know that Joshua is Moses's successor.
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  So Moses tells Joshua that he needs to remember all that the Lord has done as
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  he takes the Israelites across the Jordan River.
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  So just as the Lord allowed the Israelites to conquer the two kingdoms that
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  we read about in this chapter, he promises that so he would do for all those kingdoms to come.
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  And he encourages Joshua with our key verse for today.
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  He shall not fear them for the Lord your God. He shall fight for you.
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  So after we read that verse in chapter 3, verse 22, again, we change gears in the chapter.
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  And Moses begins to have a conversation with the Lord. And he asks the Lord
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  if there is any way that he, Moses, can cross the Jordan into the promised land.
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  And we know because of Moses' disobedience, which we read about in Numbers 20
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  and verse 12, Moses was forbidden from entering the promised land.
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  Yet once again, he asks if he can go over and see the land.
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  And the Lord spoke, and the Lord spoke, and the Lord was clear.
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  And we read that it says that he would not hear Moses' plea.
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  He tells Moses that he can go to the top of Mount Pisgah and he can look into the promised land,
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  but that his job now was to encourage and strengthen Joshua,
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  for it was Joshua who would be the one that would actually take the Israelites over,
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  into the promised land.
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  So as we step back and look at this chapter, there are so many lessons here,
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  but there's one that really, really stands out to me, and that's this.
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  The Lord has a perfect plan, and He also has a perfect path for us.
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  He also has a perfect promise that if we follow closely behind Him.
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  He will clear that path ahead of us.
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  In the early parts of that chapter, we see that when the Israelites walked in
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  full obedience and that when they
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  went into battle, exactly as the Lord commanded, they were victorious.
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  They still had to go into battle, but they were victorious in that battle.
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  And this lesson was really key for Joshua because he'd be taking the Israelites
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  into many more battles, but it's also key for us, right?
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  What's truth for Joshua was also truth for us as well.
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  Our verse again, "'You shall not fear them for the Lord your God,
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  "'he shall fight for you.'",
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  We don't need to fear when the Lord asks us to step out in faith.
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  Because if the Lord asks us to step out in faith and do something,
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  He is promising to make us a way.
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  Every one of the Lord's asks comes with a promise.
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  The key is walking in step with Him so that we receive the promise that comes
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  along with what He is asking us to do.
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  In contrast to that lesson, we see at the end of the chapter what happens when we have disobedience,
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  when we don't follow the Lord's path, when we don't seek out his plan and kind of go our own way.
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  Back in Numbers chapter 20, we read the account of the Lord giving the Israelites water from the rock.
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  And we read how the Lord commanded Moses to speak to the rock,
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  right? He was supposed to speak to the rock to bring forth water.
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  But instead, Moses smote the rock. He hid it with his staff.
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  And at that time, Moses was told that he would not enter into the promised land.
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  We're told in Galatians 6, 7, that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
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  There are consequences for every one of our actions.
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  And Moses was disobedient. And unfortunately, the consequence of his disobedience
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  was that he would not cross the Jordan.
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  Moses stepped outside God's plan, and therefore he couldn't receive the full blessing of God.
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  He still received many blessings, but he did not receive the full blessing that
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  God had promised to him and the full promise that God had for him,
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  which was to enter into the promised land himself.
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  You know, the book of Deuteronomy is very much a book about obedience.
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  We see the Israelites walk in obedience, and we see them walk in disobedience,
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  and we see them swing back to obedience and we see them swing over to disobedience.
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  And it's often hard to read.
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  Because we get very judgmental and we want to say, oh my goodness,
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  can you believe they did it again?
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  But if we're honest with ourselves, how often are we disobedient?
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  How often do we do it again?
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  How often do we put things in front of the Lord and in front of what he has asked us to do?
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  How often do we make our own path instead of seeking out and following the path that God has for us?
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  You know, as Christians, we're told to obey God because it's in our obedience
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  that we show him just how much we love him.
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  Obeying God isn't a chore. Obeying God should be a response to his love.
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  And obeying God is nearly impossible if we don't know who God is and aren't
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  filled with the love that he gives us because that obedience is a response.
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  It's a response to his love. It's a response to what he did for us on the cross.
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  It's a response to how he inhabits our hearts and lives and speaks to us each and every day.
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  You know, there's no way that we can ever repay what Christ did for us on Calvary.
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  But if we walk in his ways and in obedience to his commandments,
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  we can show off our love for him.
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  And as Christians, that's what we're called to do.
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  We're called to show off our love for Him and make His love for us so incredibly
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  attractive that everybody around us wants what we have.
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  Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  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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  Happy Girl. We greatly appreciate your prayers.
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  Music.