Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 480 | Don’t be Enticed - Deuteronomy 13

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480 | Don’t be Enticed - Deuteronomy 13 · 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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  Music.
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  Have you ever considered just how far the enemy will go to pull you away from God?
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  Deuteronomy chapter 13 is a powerful warning and a loving call to vigilance.
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  It reminds us that our relationship with God is not only precious, it's worth protecting.
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  From false prophets to familiar voices, anything that draws us away from God is a tool of the enemy.
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  This chapter opens with a warning.
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  Deception can come from anywhere, even from those closest to us.
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  But God's message is clear. Don't listen. Don't follow.
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  Cling to him. Walk after him. Fear him.
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  Obey his voice. Serve him. Love him with all your heart and soul.
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  God's instructions to the Israelites
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  may seem extreme, but they point to a truth we still need today.
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  The devil is working hard to distract and destroy, but God is calling us to
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  walk faithfully and fully with Him.
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  Sometimes that means removing things from our lives, even things that seem harmless
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  or valuable, if they're pulling our hearts away from Christ.
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  Join us for this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast as Erica
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  Close teaches from Deuteronomy chapter 13, focusing on verse 4.
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  You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments,
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  and obey His voice, and ye shall serve him and cleave unto him.
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  Let's talk today about guarding our hearts, cleaning our spiritual house,
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  and holding tightly to the one who loves us most.
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  Because obedience isn't just about saying no to sin.
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  It's about saying yes to a relationship with the living God.
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  As we enter this chapter of Deuteronomy in chapter 13.
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  We're coming to a chapter that is just all about obedience so i ask you to just
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  sit down if you are able please open up your bible and read along with me but
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  let's jump right in we're starting in deuteronomy chapter 3 and verse 1.
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  If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a
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  sign or a wonder, and if the sign or the wonder come to pass,
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  whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast
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  not known, and let us serve them,
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  thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
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  For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God
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  with all your heart and with all your soul.
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  You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments,
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  and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
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  And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death,
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  because he hath spoken to turn away you from the Lord your God,
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  which brought you out of the land of Egypt,
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  and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way
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  which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.
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  So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.
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  If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter,
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  or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul,
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  entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods,
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  which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers,
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  namely, of the gods of the people, which are round about you,
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  and nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth,
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  even unto the other end of the worth, thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him.
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  Neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him.
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  But thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him
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  to death, and afterwards.
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  The hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die,
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  because he has sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God,
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  which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
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  And all Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
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  If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there,
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  saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you,
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  and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve
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  other gods, which ye have not known.
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  Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently.
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  And behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you,
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  thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,
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  destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword.
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  And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof,
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  and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every wit,
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  for the Lord thy God, and it shall be in heap forever.
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  It shall not be built again.
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  And there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing to thine hand,
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  that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy,
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  and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee as he hath sworn unto thy fathers,
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  when thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his
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  commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.
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  Believing that our relationship with God is precious and worthy of being protected
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  is an important measure of our faith and the value we place in our faith.
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  This chapter of Deuteronomy serves as a warning to put up guards against the wiles of the devil.
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  As much as we believe in the power of God to save and protect,
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  we must be aware that the devil is doing all that he can to draw us away from Christ.
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  Deuteronomy 13 opens with a caution that the devil is at work and his goal is
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  to entice those who follow God to turn and go in a different direction.
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  This should come as no surprise to anyone as the devil is the prince of the
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  power of the air and his activities prove or test our connection to God.
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  When that happens, our goal needs to be to shut our ears and not hearken unto
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  the words of the devil or his representatives.
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  God is allowing the test to occur, but more importantly, God's power in us empowers.
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  Us not to listen to the devil and to be victorious in the situation.
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  God's desire is that we follow him and none other.
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  Verse 4 has a beautiful list of verbs for following God. We must walk after Him.
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  We fear or revere Him. We are called to keep His commandments and obey His voice.
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  We are to serve Him and cleave or cling unto Him.
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  What a demonstration each of these actions is of the love called for in verse
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  3, that the Lord may know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
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  Each of these verbs can measure that love.
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  God's desire is that we also put away or destroy the things that are enticing us to sin.
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  The Israelites and their culture were told to put the dreamer of dreams being
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  used by the devil to death.
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  The instruction was the same for the families of the Israelites that under the
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  influence of the devil were enticing them away from following God and enticing
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  them to worship the gods of those that were near in the promised land.
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  This chapter refers to the sons of Belial, who in this case was not a specific
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  person, but this meant the sons of wickedness and worthlessness.
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  These wicked people had gone out and enticed the inhabitants of their city to serve other gods.
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  The Israelites were instructed to locate the activities of these sons of wickedness
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  and worthlessness, and if found, to utterly destroy the city and all that was within it.
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  Even the valuables, the spoil of the city, were to be utterly destroyed.
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  None of the cursed things were to be taken into the Israelites' possession.
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  This act of obedience would cause the Lord to turn from His anger and show the
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  Israelites His mercy and compassion and allow the Israelites to multiply and to prosper.
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  Prosperity for the Israelites was dependent upon their listening and their obedience.
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  God wanted to be the only God in their lives, and he knew that the Israelites
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  required drastic obedience for that to happen.
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  When we read the Old Testament, so often it seems like a laundry list of do's and don'ts.
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  But all the commands have a singular purpose, to keep God's people focused on
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  Him and in right relationship with Him.
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  Our relationship with God is precious and must be protected.
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  As we opened up this chapter, it became clear that the devil was working against
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  God's singular purpose, because he has a purpose all his own,
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  that is, to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
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  As Christians, we live on this side of the cross. But we live in the world where
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  the devil is the prince of the power of the air.
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  Therefore, the devil is going to do all that he can to turn God's people in a different direction.
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  The devil is going to do all that he can to gain a foothold in your faith that
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  he can chip away at it piece by piece until it is no more.
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  What can we do to protect ourselves and our faith?
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  First, we need to not listen to the devil. When thoughts come into our minds,
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  we need to take them captive.
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  2 Corinthians 10.5 tells us to cast down imaginations and every high thing that
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  exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every
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  thought to the obedience of Christ.
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  The devil's greatest playground is our mind. A simple thought can become an
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  action if it's not stopped in its tracks.
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  God's instructions to the Israelites were so seemingly extreme because it took
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  extreme action to prevent the worship of other gods from literally invading the camp.
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  The Israelites needed to protect their hearts and their minds,
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  but also the objects they had around them.
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  Their neighbors worshipped small statues of their God and kept these small statues in their homes.
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  They had objects that reminded them of their gods.
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  When the Israelites were enticed towards other gods, it was often the objects
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  in their homes that the devil used.
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  Everyone around them had these same gods. Why wouldn't they?
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  Why would they choose to worship differently.
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  God's desire is that we don't have things in our lives that will draw us away from Him.
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  That may be objects in our home or in today's world. It may be subscriptions,
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  apps, social media accounts.
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  It may be hobbies that prevent us from attending church. It may be habits that
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  keep us from reading God's Word.
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  There are so many things that the devil can use to entice us away from God.
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  Just as the Israelites were to not take any cursed thing into their possession,
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  no matter how valuable they were, I think God is calling us to clean house.
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  We're called to identify the things that entice us away from our walk with Christ.
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  Once we've identified them, they need to be moved out of our lives.
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  If this chapter teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that God is supreme and
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  that he is the supreme authority.
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  Anything that pulls us away from him instead of drawing us towards him is of the devil.
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  No one wants to think about the devil being at work in their lives,
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  but it's incorrect to think he isn't.
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  1 Peter 5.8 tells us to be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil
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  is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
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  Being enticed isn't an Old Testament problem. It's a humanity problem.
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  Check your house and your habits. Ask the Lord to reveal to you what he wants removed.
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  He will make it clear because he loves you enough to equip you to live close to him.
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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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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song,
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  Happy Girl. we greatly appreciate your prayers we are praying daily for our
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  listeners remember that God loves you.
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  Music.