Latest / 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast / Circumcised of Heart: What Paul Really Meant in Romans 2:29 (July 15)

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Circumcised of Heart: What Paul Really Meant in Romans 2:29 (July 15) · 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast

• 0:00
  In Romans chapter 2, Paul says this in verse 29,
• 0:05
  "'No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God,
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  and true circumcision is not a cutting of the body,
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  but a change of heart produced by God's Spirit.
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  Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God,
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  not from people.'"
• 0:23
  What was he talking about?
• 0:25
  How do we get a circumcised heart?
• 0:29
  What is a circumcised heart?
• 0:33
  How do we seek praise from God
• 0:37
  and not seek praise from people?
• 0:41
  Listen in as we do a deep dive on this topic today.
• 0:46
  Welcome to the One Year Audio Bible Podcast.
• 0:49
  Today is July 15th.
• 0:51
  Now let's continue our journey
• 0:53
  reading through the entire Bible in one year.
• 0:56
  This week, we are reading from the New Living Translation
• 0:58
  for the Old Testament and for the New Testament.
• 1:06
  Numbers 23, 16 to 30.
• 1:11
  "'And the Lord met Balaam and gave him a message.
• 1:14
  Then he said, "'Go back to Balak and give him my message.'
• 1:18
  So Balaam returned and found the king standing
• 1:21
  beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab.
• 1:24
  "'What did the Lord say?' Balak asked eagerly.
• 1:28
  This was the message Balaam delivered.
• 1:30
  "'Rise up, Balak, and listen.
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  Hear me, son of Zippor.
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  God is not a man, so he does not lie.
• 1:38
  He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
• 1:42
  Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
• 1:44
  Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
• 1:47
  Listen, I received a command to bless.
• 1:51
  God has blessed and I cannot reverse it.
• 1:54
  No misfortune is in his plan for Jacob.
• 1:58
  No trouble is in store for Israel,
• 2:01
  for the Lord their God is with them.
• 2:04
  He has been proclaimed their king.
• 2:07
  God brought them out of Egypt.
• 2:10
  For them, he is as strong as a wild ox.
• 2:13
  No curse can touch Jacob.
• 2:16
  No magic has any power against Israel.
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  For now, it will be said of Jacob,
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  what wonders God has done for Israel.
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  These people rise up like a lioness,
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  like a majestic lion rousing itself.
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  They refuse to rest until they have feasted on prey,
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  drinking the blood of the slaughtered.'
• 2:38
  Then Balak said to Balaam,
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  "'Fine, but if you won't curse them,
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  at least don't bless them.'
• 2:44
  But Balaam replied to Balak,
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  "'Didn't I tell you that I can only do
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  what the Lord tells me?'
• 2:50
  Then King Balak said to Balaam,
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  "'Come, I will take you to one more place.
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  Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them from there.'
• 2:59
  So Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Peor,
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  overlooking the wasteland.
• 3:05
  Balaam again told Balak,
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  "'Build me seven altars and prepare seven young bulls
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  and seven rams for me to sacrifice.'
• 3:13
  So Balak did as Balaam ordered
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  and offered a young bull and a ram on each altar."
• 3:23
  1 Chronicles 19, 1 to 21, 30.
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  Sometime after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died
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  and his son, Hanun, became king.
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  David said,
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  "'I am going to show complete loyalty to Hanun
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  because his father, Nahash,
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  was always completely loyal to me.'
• 3:43
  So David sent ambassadors to express sympathy to Hanun
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  about his father's death.
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  But when David's ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon,
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  Hanun's advisor said to him,
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  "'Do you really think these men are coming here
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  to honor your father?'
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  No, David has sent them to spy out the land
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  so that they can come in and conquer it.'
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  So Hanun seized David's ambassadors
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  and shaved their beards,
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  cut off their robes at the buttocks,
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  and sent them back to David in shame.
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  When David heard what had happened,
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  he sent messengers to tell the men to stay at Jericho
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  until their beards grew out.
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  They were very embarrassed by their appearance.
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  Now the people of Ammon realized
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  how seriously they had angered David.
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  So Hanun and the Ammonites sent 38 tons of silver
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  to hire chariots and troops from Aram-Haram
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  and Aram-Makkah and Zobah.
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  They also hired 32,000 chariots
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  and secured the support of the king of Makkah and his army.
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  These forces camped at Medeba,
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  where they were joined by the Ammonite troops
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  that Hanun had recruited from his own towns.
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  When David heard about all this,
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  he sent Joab and all his warriors to fight them.
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  The Ammonite troops drew up their battle lines
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  at the gate of the city,
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  while the other kings positioned themselves
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  to fight in the open fields.
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  When Joab saw that he would have to fight on two fronts,
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  he chose the best troops in his army.
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  He placed them under his personal command
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  and led them out to fight the Arameans in the fields.
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  He left the rest of the army
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  under the command of his brother Abishai,
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  who was to attack the Ammonites.
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  If the Arameans are too strong for me,
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  then come over and help me, Joab told his brother.
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  And if the Ammonites are too strong for you,
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  I will help you.
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  Be courageous.
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  Let us fight bravely to save our people
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  and the cities of our God.
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  May the Lord's will be done.
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  When Joab and his troops attacked,
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  the Arameans began to run away.
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  And when the Ammonites saw the Arameans running,
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  they ran from Abishai and retreated into the city.
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  Then Joab returned to Jerusalem.
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  The Arameans now realized
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  that they were no match for Israel,
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  so they summoned additional Aramean troops
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  from the other side of the Euphrates River.
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  These troops arrived under the command at Shobach,
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  the commander of all Hadadezer's forces.
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  When David heard what was happening,
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  he mobilized all Israel, crossed the Jordan River
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  and positioned his troops in battle formation.
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  Then he engaged the enemy troops in battle
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  and they fought against him.
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  But again, the Arameans fled from the Israelites.
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  This time David's forces killed 7,000 charioteers
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  and 40,000 foot soldiers,
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  including Shobach, the commander of their army.
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  When the servants of Hadadezer realized
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  they had been defeated by Israel,
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  they surrounded, they surrendered to David
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  and became his subjects.
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  After that, the Arameans were no longer willing
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  to help the Ammonites.
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  The following spring, the time of the year
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  when kings go to war, Joab led the Israelite army
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  in successful attacks against the towns
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  and villages of the Ammonites.
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  In the process, they laid siege to the city of Rabah
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  and destroyed it.
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  But David had stayed behind in Jerusalem.
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  When David arrived at Rabah,
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  he removed the crown from the king's head
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  and it was placed on David's own head.
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  The crown was made of gold and set with gems
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  and it weighed about 75 pounds.
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  David took a vast amount of plunder from the city.
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  He also made slaves of the people of Rabah
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  and forced them to labor with saws, picks, and axes.
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  That is how he dealt with the people
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  of all the Ammonite cities.
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  Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
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  After this, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer.
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  As they fought, Sibachai from Husha killed Saph,
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  a descendant of the giants,
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  and so the Philistines were subdued.
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  During another battle with the Philistines,
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  Elhanan, the son of Jeor, killed Lami,
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  the brother of Goliath of Gath.
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  The handle of Lami's spear was as thick as a weaver's beam.
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  In another battle with the Philistines at Gath,
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  a huge man with six fingers on each hand
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  and six toes on each foot,
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  a descendant of the giants, defied and taunted Israel,
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  but he was killed by Jonathan,
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  the son of David's brother, Shimei.
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  These Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath,
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  but they were killed by David and his warriors.
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  Satan rose up against Israel and caused David
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  to take a census of the Israelites.
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  David gave these orders to Joab and his commanders,
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  take a census of all the people in the land,
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  from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north,
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  and bring me the total so I may know how many there are.
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  But Joab replied,
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  may the Lord increase the number of his people
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  a hundred times over, but why, my Lord,
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  do you want to do this?
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  Are they not all your servants?
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  Why must you cause Israel to sin?
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  But the king insisted that Joab take the census,
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  so Joab traveled throughout Israel to count the people.
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  Then he returned to Jerusalem
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  and reported the number of people to David.
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  There were 1,100,000 men of military age in Israel
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  and 470,000 in Judah.
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  But Joab did not include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin
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  in the census because he was so distressed
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  at what the king had made him do.
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  God was very displeased with the census
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  and he punished Israel for it.
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  Then David said to God,
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  I have sinned greatly and shouldn't have taken the census.
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  Please forgive me for doing this foolish thing.
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  Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer.
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  This was the message.
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  Go and say to David, this is what the Lord says.
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  I will give you three choices.
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  Choose one of these punishments and I will do it.
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  So Gad came to David and said,
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  these are the choices the Lord has given you.
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  You may choose three years of famine,
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  three months of destruction by your enemies
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  or three days of severe plague
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  as the angel of the Lord brings devastation
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  throughout the land of Israel.
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  Think this over and let me know
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  what answer to give the Lord.
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  This is a desperate situation, David replied to Gad,
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  but let me fall into the hands of the Lord
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  for his mercy is very great.
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  Do not let me fall into human hands.
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  So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel
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  and 70,000 people died as a result.
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  And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem.
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  But just as the angel was preparing to destroy it,
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  the Lord relented and said to the death angel,
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  stop, that is enough.
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  At that moment, the angel of the Lord
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  was standing by the threshing floor
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  of Arunah, the Jebusite.
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  David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord
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  standing between heaven and earth
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  with his sword drawn, stretched out over Jerusalem.
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  So David and the leaders of Israel
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  put on sackcloth to show their distress
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  and fell down with their faces to the ground.
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  And David said to God,
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  I am the one who called for the census.
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  I am the one who has sinned and done wrong,
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  but these people are innocent.
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  What have they done?
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  Oh Lord, my God, let your angel fall
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  against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.
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  Then the angel of the Lord told Gad
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  to instruct David to build an altar to the Lord
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  at the threshing floor of Arunah, the Jebusite.
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  So David obeyed the instructions
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  the Lord had given him through Gad.
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  Arunah, who was busy threshing wheat at the time,
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  turned and saw the angel there.
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  His four sons who were with him ran away and hid.
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  When Arunah saw the king approaching,
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  he left his threshing floor
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  and bowed to the ground before David.
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  David said to Arunah,
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  let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price.
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  Then I will build an altar to the Lord there
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  so he will stop the plague.
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  Take it, my Lord, and use it as you wish,
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  Arunah said to David.
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  Here are oxen for the burned offerings
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  and you can use the threshing tools
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  for the wood to build a fire on the altar.
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  And take the wheat for the grain offering.
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  I will give it all to you.
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  But the king replied to Arunah,
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  no, I insist on paying what it is worth.
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  I cannot take what is yours and give it to the Lord.
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  I will not offer a burnt offering that has cost me nothing.
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  So David gave Arunah 600 pieces of gold
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  in payment for the threshing floor.
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  David built an altar there to the Lord
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  and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings.
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  And when David prayed,
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  the Lord answered him by sending fire from heaven
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  to burn up the offering on the altar.
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  Then the Lord spoke to the angel
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  who put the sword back into its sheath.
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  When David saw that the Lord had answered his prayer,
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  he offered sacrifices there at Arunah's threshing floor.
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  At that time, the tabernacle of the Lord
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  and the altar that Moses made in the wilderness
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  were located at the hill of Gibeon.
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  But David was not able to go there to inquire of God
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  because he was terrified
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  by the drawn sword of the angel of the Lord.
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  Romans 2, 25 to 3, 8.
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  The Jewish ceremony of circumcision is worth something
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  only if you obey God's law.
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  But if you don't obey God's law,
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  you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile.
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  And if the Gentiles obey God's law,
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  won't God give them all the rights and honors
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  of being his own people?
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  In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles
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  who keep God's law will be much better off
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  than you Jews who are circumcised
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  and know so much about God's law but don't obey it.
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  For you are not a true Jew
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  just because you were born of Jewish parents
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  or because you have gone through
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  Jewish ceremony of circumcision.
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  No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God.
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  And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body
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  but a change of heart produced by God's Spirit.
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  Whoever has that kind of change
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  seeks praise from God, not from people.
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  Then what's the advantage of being a Jew?
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  Is there any value in the Jewish ceremony of circumcision?
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  Yes, because a Jew has many advantages.
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  First of all, the Jews were entrusted
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  with the whole revelation of God.
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  True, some of them were unfaithful.
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  But just because they broke their promises
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  does that mean God will break his promises?
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  Of course not.
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  Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true.
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  As the Scriptures say,
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  he will be proved right in what he says
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  and he will win his case in court.
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  But, some say, our sins serve a good purpose
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  for people will see God's goodness
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  when he declares us sinners to be innocent.
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  Isn't it unfair then for God to punish us?
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  That is actually the way some people talk.
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  Of course not.
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  If God is not just, how is he qualified to judge the world?
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  But, some might argue,
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  how can God judge and condemn me as a sinner
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  if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness
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  and brings him more glory?
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  If you follow that kind of thinking, however,
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  you might as well say that the more we sin, the better it is.
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  Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.
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  Yet, some slander me by saying this is what I preach.
• 16:17
  Psalm 11, 1-7
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  I trust in the Lord for protection.
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  So why do you say to me,
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  fly to the mountains for safety?
• 16:27
  The wicked are stringing their bows
• 16:31
  and setting their arrows into the bow strings.
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  They shoot from the shadows at those who do right.
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  The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
• 16:40
  What can the righteous do?
• 16:43
  But the Lord is in his holy temple.
• 16:47
  The Lord still rules from heaven.
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  He watches everything closely,
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  examining everyone on earth.
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  The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
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  He hates everyone who loves violence.
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  He rains down blazing coals on the wicked,
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  punishing them with burning sulfur and scorching winds.
• 17:11
  For the Lord is righteous and he loves justice.
• 17:15
  Those who do what is right will see his face.
• 17:22
  Proverbs 19, 10-12
• 17:25
  It isn't right for a fool to live in luxury
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  or for a slave to rule over princes.
• 17:31
  People with good sense restrain their anger.
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  They earn esteem by overlooking wrongs.
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  The king's anger is like a lion's roar,
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  but his favor is like dew on the grass.
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  I want to speak to you today from our reading from Romans 2.
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  I want to zoom in on verse 29.
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  In context, Paul is talking about circumcision,
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  and he's having a discussion here in this chapter
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  about the Jewish people who have their males circumcised
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  and how they sometimes brag that they are so holy and righteous
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  and set apart because they are circumcised.
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  But Paul is saying this is a matter of the heart,
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  that you can have Gentiles who are not circumcised
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  but who are obeying God's law,
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  and they are more righteous than a Jewish person
• 18:28
  who is circumcised but is not obeying God's law.
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  So in verse 29, it says,
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  No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God,
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  and true circumcision is not a cutting of the body
• 18:44
  but a change of heart produced by God's Spirit.
• 18:48
  Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God,
• 18:53
  not from people.
• 18:56
  So I want to do a deep dive on this
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  and look at a couple of other verses that we find in the Bible
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  that talk about the circumcision of the heart.
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  And we're going to begin in Deuteronomy 10,
• 19:10
  and we'll start in verse 15.
• 19:13
  The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them,
• 19:17
  and he chose their descendants after them,
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  you above all peoples, as it is this day.
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  Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart
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  and be stiff-necked no longer.
• 19:33
  So here we're being exhorted in Deuteronomy
• 19:37
  to circumcise our heart,
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  to cut the foreskin of our heart.
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  Basically, it's the idea that you're cutting away the flesh,
• 19:48
  not literally, but spiritually,
• 19:51
  and that you're saying,
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  Instead of following my own selfish desires and my own flesh,
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  I'm going to follow hard after the Lord.
• 19:58
  I'm going to let his Holy Spirit be in charge,
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  and I will follow his lead.
• 20:03
  Another verse that talks about this
• 20:05
  is found in Deuteronomy 30, verse 6.
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  And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart
• 20:15
  and the heart of your descendants
• 20:18
  to love the Lord your God with all your heart
• 20:21
  and with all your soul that you may live.
• 20:25
  And so here's yet another verse from Deuteronomy
• 20:29
  that's talking about circumcision of the heart,
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  that it's not just an outward circumcision in the body,
• 20:35
  but a circumcision of the heart.
• 20:38
  And finally, in Ezekiel chapter 36,
• 20:41
  we have a verse here that talks about a new heart.
• 20:45
  Ezekiel 36, starting in verse 25.
• 20:48
  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
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  and you shall be clean from all your filthiness
• 20:54
  and from all your idols will I cleanse you.
• 20:58
  A new heart also will I give you,
• 21:01
  and a new spirit will I put within you,
• 21:04
  and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
• 21:08
  and I will give you a heart of flesh.
• 21:12
  I will put my spirit within you
• 21:14
  and cause you to walk in my statutes,
• 21:17
  and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
• 21:21
  So when God gives us a new heart,
• 21:23
  he takes out the heart of stone,
• 21:25
  and he gives us a heart of flesh.
• 21:27
  Our heart, so to speak, is circumcised.
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  Then when his spirit is dwelling within us,
• 21:33
  there's a desire put there inside of us
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  to want to obey God, to walk in his ways,
• 21:40
  and to keep his statutes.
• 21:42
  And this is truly what God is after.
• 21:44
  So coming back into Romans chapter 2,
• 21:48
  one of the things that sets apart the Jewish people,
• 21:51
  a set-apart people, is they keep the Sabbath,
• 21:55
  they eat clean, biblically clean,
• 21:58
  they don't eat pork or shellfish,
• 22:01
  they don't eat pig,
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  and also they circumcise their males.
• 22:05
  And so because of these practices,
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  they've been a set-apart people.
• 22:11
  But God is not just after outward behavior,
• 22:15
  such as circumcision of the flesh,
• 22:17
  he's after our heart.
• 22:19
  And we've unpacked some verses about that.
• 22:22
  So, Father, today I pray
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  that if there are any people listening today
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  who've never had that heart change,
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  that they would take a moment to pray
• 22:34
  and to ask you, Jesus,
• 22:36
  to take out our heart of stone,
• 22:41
  to remove it, to do heart surgery,
• 22:44
  and to put in a heart of flesh,
• 22:46
  that we would die to ourselves,
• 22:49
  repent of our sins,
• 22:52
  confess our sins,
• 22:53
  and acknowledge them,
• 22:54
  repent of them,
• 22:56
  to turn away from our sins
• 22:58
  and to turn to you, Jesus,
• 23:00
  that you would come and dwell within us,
• 23:04
  that we would truly be born again,
• 23:07
  and that your heart and your spirit
• 23:09
  would be implanted within us
• 23:11
  so that we can follow after you
• 23:13
  all the days of our lives,
• 23:15
  so that we could be pleasing to you,
• 23:18
  to walk in your light,
• 23:20
  your love, and your truth.
• 23:22
  In Jesus' name, amen.