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486 | Acts of Grace · 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 been amazed by how practical God's grace really is?
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  Deuteronomy chapter 15 gives us a powerful picture of what it looks like to
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  live out grace in everyday life.
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  From debt release to generosity, from caring for the poor to giving God our
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  best, this chapter calls us to let grace be visible, not just in our hearts,
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  but in our homes and communities.
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  It opens with the Lord's release, a reminder that every seventh year,
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  debts were to be forgiven, fields were to rest, and the people were to trust
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  fully in God's provision.
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  In this rhythm of rest and release, God taught his people that grace was not
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  just a concept, it was a command, a way of life.
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  This chapter shows us that when we give freely and forgive fully,
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  we reflect the heart of God.
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  We're reminded that generosity isn't a loss, it's a blessing.
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  And when we care for those around us, especially the least among us,
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  we become a living testimony of God's mercy.
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  Join us in this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  as Erica Close teaches from Deuteronomy chapter 15, focusing on verse 10.
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  Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest
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  unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all
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  thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
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  Let's discover what it means to be people who live generously,
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  give sacrificially, and love others as Christ has loved us.
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  Well, thank you so much for joining us in today's podcast.
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  We are going to jump right in to Deuteronomy chapter 15, and we're going to
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  read from Deuteronomy chapter 15, verse 1 through the end of the chapter in verse 23.
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  At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release, and this is the manner of the release.
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  Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it.
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  He shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's release.
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  Of a foreigner thou may exact it again, but that which is thine with thine brother
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  thine hand shall release, save when there shall be no poor among you.
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  For the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth
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  thee for an inheritance to possess it.
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  Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
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  to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day,
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  for the Lord thy God blesseth thee as he promised thee, and thou shalt lend
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  unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow,
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  and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
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  If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates
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  in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine
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  heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother.
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  But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient
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  for his need in that which he wanteth.
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  Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying,
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  The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy brother.
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  And thou givest him not, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be a sin unto thee.
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  Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest
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  unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all
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  thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
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  For the poor shall never cease out of the land.
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  Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother,
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  to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land.
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  And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee and
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  serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
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  When thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty.
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  Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out of thy winepress.
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  Of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him.
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  And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt,
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  and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.
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  Therefore I command thee this thing today.
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  And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee,
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  because he loveth thee in thine house, because he is well with thee,
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  then thou shalt take an all, and thrust it through his ear unto the door,
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  and he shall be thy servant for ever.
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  And also unto thy maidservant thou shall do likewise.
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  It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee,
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  for he hath been worth a double-hired servant unto thee, in serving thee six years.
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  And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
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  All the firstling males that come out of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt
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  sanctify unto the Lord thy God.
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  Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
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  Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the
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  Lord shall choose thou and thy household.
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  And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame or blind or have any ill
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  blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.
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  Thou shalt eat it within thy gates, the unclean and the clean person shall eat
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  it alike, as the roebook and as the heart.
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  Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof, thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.
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  What a chapter this is on making God's grace visible in our lives.
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  This entire chapter is a review of the ways that the Israelites were to live
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  out what grace looks like in their very lives.
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  This chapter made it personal and required that grace be prominent and visible
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  in the communities in which the Israelites dwelled.
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  This chapter opens with instructions for the year of release,
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  which was to occur every seventh year.
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  This was the Lord's release and was a specific time in which each creditor released
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  the debt at the end of six years.
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  This is often referred to as the sabbatical year or the year of jubilee.
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  This didn't apply to those among the Israelites who weren't Israelites,
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  but within the Israelite community, all debts were to be released.
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  As the sabbatical year was a year in which the crops weren't planted and the
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  Israelites were to live off of the quote-unquote volunteer crops,
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  they were instructed to be savers so that they were prepared for the time of
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  rest for themselves and the land.
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  God's desire was to bless them abundantly, but that blessing was also tied to.
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  Following God's commandments and plans.
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  The Lord promised amazing blessings for the Israelites.
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  They would be lenders to many nations and have power over many nations,
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  but they were also to take care of the poor within their gates and to give to
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  them with an open hand that even the poor would have all that was sufficient for their survival.
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  They were to give with an open hand in such a way that their gifts were given
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  without remorse and with a spirit generosity.
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  God's commandment is for generosity, and it's made clear in verse 10.
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  Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest
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  unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all
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  thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
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  God would bless the Israelites in honor that they released the debt and cared for the poor.
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  He made clear that there would always be poor among them, those for whom the
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  Israelites would always need to show grace and mercy.
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  Monetary debts weren't the only debts to be released.
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  If a Hebrew had sold themselves to be a servant or replaced into servitude by
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  their parents or were put into servitude as a punishment for a crime committed,
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  they were also to be released in the seventh year.
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  This commandment was given in Exodus 21.2, and this chapter of Deuteronomy serves
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  as a reminder and adds a little bit to it.
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  When servants were released, they weren't released empty-handed.
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  Instead, they were to be furnished with cattle from the flocks and crops from the field.
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  Whatever they were blessed with was to be given to those being released.
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  The Israelites were never to forget that they were slaves in Egypt and that
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  the Lord himself moved to free them from bondage.
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  This chapter does include the caveat that a servant may not want to leave at the end of six years.
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  Verse 16 says that they may not want to leave because they love quote-unquote thee and thy family.
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  This isn't slavery, but a choice, and a choice that would be marked with the piercing of an awl.
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  This chapter also includes an important phrase in verse 17, and unto thy maidservant do likewise.
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  God's plan here was provision for all. When this section continues in verse
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  18 to say that when a servant, male or female, was sent away or set free at
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  the end of six years, they were sent out, set up, to live freely.
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  Literally, they were set up to live independently with no debt and with what
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  they needed to start a household.
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  This is grace and mercy in action.
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  This chapter closes with the discussion of giving God the best that the Israelites had.
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  The first or the best of the herds and the flocks were to be sanctified to the
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  Lord. They were to be the ones that were sacrificed or given to the Lord.
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  The cattle with blemishes were still to be used, kept, and eaten,
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  but they weren't to be used for sacrifice.
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  God himself was only given the best.
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  The very last verse of this chapter closes with a reminder not to eat the blood.
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  This was very important to God. like we learned in chapter 14,
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  the set the Israelites apart.
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  God's desire is that they were set apart.
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  What a model for the incredible grace that God bestows on us through his son, Jesus.
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  This chapter is all about dealing with debt and credit and tithing and cattle
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  and meat, but the lessons for us on God's amazing grace are so clear throughout.
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  As this chapter begins, we see how the Israelites required, in every seventh
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  year, to release debt and to let the land rest.
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  Every seventh year was the year of the Lord's release, and it was in that time
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  that debts were forgiven and grace was bestowed.
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  In doing so, the Israelites learned how the Lord would continue to provide,
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  even though they were no longer receiving payments on the debt.
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  The Israelites learned that the Lord would provide, even though they weren't growing crops.
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  In this lesson, the Israelites were to learn that by giving to the poor and
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  taking care of those in their community, they would still have enough.
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  Verse 10 reminds us that when we are generous, the Lord will bless us in the work that we do.
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  In being generous, we give ourselves the opportunity to live like God would have us to live.
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  By giving others grace and forgiving them, whether it be forgiving them for
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  something they have done against us or forgiving them a debt,
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  we act toward others the way God acts towards us.
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  When we trust in the Lord to provide for us and not take our provision to our
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  own hands, we gain the eyes to see all the myriad ways that the Lord works.
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  This chapter teaches us an amazing lesson on how we are to treat others.
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  While there may be just one verse in this chapter about the fact that a servant
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  might choose to stay with the family they are serving because they love them and their family,
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  we can learn that it is possible to be good enough to those we work with or
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  those who work for us for them to want to call us family.
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  This chapter ends not just with a discussion on tithing, but a discussion on
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  giving God the best, the very best of the herd, and the very best of the flocks,
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  and the very best of the grain were all to be given to the Lord.
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  So often in our world today, we give to the Lord what we have left over.
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  Our minds are often tuned to think of Sunday as the very end of the weekend,
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  and we think that we are giving to Him the last bit of freedom that we have.
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  We so often wait to give a tithe until the end of the week.
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  We so often give to others what we have left over or what we don't need or what
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  we don't value or what we don't cherish, rather than giving Him from our best.
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  We need to give God our best.
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  This chapter calls us to be generous. It calls on us to be forgiving.
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  It calls on us to be good to our communities and to value our communities.
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  This chapter calls on us to care for the least of these in our communities.
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  Then the New Testament reminds us that when we're caring for the least of these,
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  we are caring for Jesus himself.
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  Before we close, I'd like to call your attention to Deuteronomy 15,
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  where we read, And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land
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  of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God redeemed thee.
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  Therefore I command thee this thing today.
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  If we get up each morning and remember that we were once a sinner,
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  not yet saved by grace, that we were once someone who did not know the love
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  of God, and that we were once someone who was not provided for out of the abundance of God's blessings,
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  then I believe that out of thanksgiving for what Jesus did on the cross,
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  we will likely become someone who is willing to give grace to others,
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  someone who shares the love of God,
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  someone who provides for the needs of others, and someone who lives generously.
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  Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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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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  We pray today has been a blessing, and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
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  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
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  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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  Like sunshine on and in the sky.
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  Music.