Daily Bible Podcast - Reflections on April Fools' Day, Killer Deals, and Judges 8-9

Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast! In this episode, Pastor Rod and Pastor PJ share their experiences from April Fools' Day before delving into some exciting deals on Kindle books from InterVarsity Press. They also explore Judges 8-9, discussing Gideon's victories, his refusal to become king, and the tragic tale of his son Abimelech. Along the way, they reflect on the enduring presence of idols, God's justice, and how justice is ultimately fulfilled through Christ. Join us for an engaging and insightful discussion!

00:00 Introduction and April Fools' Day Recap

00:36 The Tesla Robot Prank

02:19 Kindle Book Sale Highlights

05:31 Gideon's Story and Lessons

08:53 Abimelech's Rise and Fall

10:19 Reflections on Justice and Idolatry

13:18 Closing Thoughts and Prayer

Everybody welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Hello.

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It's not April 1st anymore.

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Pastor Rod, did you survive the

day everybody has been asking?

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I did not.

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I am still in that day.

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Just so we're all on the same page here.

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We are recording on that day, and I have

been bamboozled multiple times a day,

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only because I don't think about it.

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Yeah.

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It's just not top of mind.

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Yeah.

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It happened to me once today, and that

is, I, it was pretty substantial, man.

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You're making a big church life

decision and you're like, based on

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this thing right here, we're doing it.

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Yeah.

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And then everyone's but hold on.

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Where did you see that information?

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And you're like, oh thankfully, X

Thankfully they didn't accept my

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resignation and we're good to go.

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No, I I saw a post about the Tesla

robot that was pre-orders are

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available and you were bamboozled.

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I am not interested in a Tesla robot, but

I work with people who are very interested

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in the Tesla robot, and one of them in

particular was like, Hey, I'm jumping on.

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I, I wanna find this thing out.

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And he was like, wait a minute.

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It's April Fools.

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That's what got me.

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I don't know I'm not ready for a life-size

robot to come and live with my family.

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I'm ready for it to live with your family.

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You'll take the hit for me on that one.

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You'll allow me to take the,

for you, I how you take the hit.

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I, I want to know if it's worth

getting and if it's getting it for

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you and makes sense, then I would be

happy to let you take the hit on that.

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We're gonna have to wait and find out what

our, what Mark thinks about it because

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I'm not planning on doing, not doing that.

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Yeah, it would be pretty cool.

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I don't know.

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I don't know.

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Yeah, that's that's coming down

the road, but I'm, who knows?

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Who knows if it'll take off?

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I'm sure it will.

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People will buy 'em.

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They, we will have robots.

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It'll be the Jetsons.

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I remember growing up

thinking, I want that.

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And now that I'm grown up,

I'm like, I don't want that.

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I think I do.

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I think I would want it.

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It's expensive.

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If it is what we think it's gonna

be, it's gonna cost a ton of money.

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But you could argue how much will it say?

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This is the whole situation

bef the advent of the car.

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Oh, my horse work's just fine.

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Do I really wanna get a car?

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So I think we're gonna be in

that stage where at some point

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everyone's gonna have one.

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It's gonna be that whole Terminator.

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What's that Will Smith movie

where he's fighting robots?

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That one too.

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I Robot iBot.

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It's gonna be that for sure.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Meet the Robinsons.

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Did you ever watch that one?

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No, it was Disney's version.

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But it wasn't, somebody

didn't blow up there.

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Oh, I don't think I call that one.

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But they were featured in, I think

they were robots in that one.

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I don't remember.

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Who knows?

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Anyways, yeah, so happy

post April Fool's Day.

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Nobody's trying to prank you anymore

as this podcast is rolling out today.

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One thing that wasn't a prank is that

the inter varsity press publisher has

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put all their Kindle books on sale.

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I did buy several.

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Some were killer deals.

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So I don't know, by the time you

hear this, I don't know if it'll

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still be going, but I'm a Kindle guy.

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I like Kindle and I read

on my iPad all the time.

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And so this was pretty cool.

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They got John Stotts Bible studies.

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They got the Tindale, old Testament

and New Testament commentaries on sale.

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Some of them as cheap as five

bucks, which is a killer deal.

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They're great resources to have.

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Granted this is not logos.

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I prefer logo os books,

especially if it's a commentary.

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But other books that are more pop level.

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Or books that don't necessarily

need all the tools that logos brings

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to the table they're worth having.

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And they're just so good to, even for

reference purposes, they're just so good.

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All of the they're terrible covers,

but it's the Biblical theology series.

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They got all these biblical theology books

on sale for five or six or seven bucks.

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Such, such a good deal.

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Yeah.

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You said killer deal

twice in that killer deal.

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Two minute.

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I don't know.

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I killer.

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I chased a rabbit hole.

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I wasn't really paying attention

to what you were saying people

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were saying for these, but you

and I already talked about it.

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Yeah, I just, I'm trying to figure out

where the earliest known use of the noun

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killer deal is in the 1930s apparently.

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So there you go.

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1930s.

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That's where it came from.

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Is that what you were

doing while I was talking?

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Yeah.

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'cause I'm like, why do we

call something a killer deal?

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Because it is, it's man I

would die for that deal.

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And this is one of those

times to die for those deals.

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I guess they're good, man.

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I'm looking at some of the books on here.

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I'm like, oh, maybe I'm

not done buying stuff yet.

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There's just some cool stuff here.

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Okay.

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Here's one on a if you want a multi-view

series spectrum, multi-view series, or

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are Not bad, there's one on the atonement

that I think is also on sale, but let's

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just find out the nature of the atonement.

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Four views.

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So if you're a nerdy.

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Theological type.

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This one's on sale for six bucks.

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Let's see what it nor let's see.

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I can't easily see what it normally

goes for, but I know for this series

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you're looking at about $20 for a book.

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This is IVP academic.

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Yeah.

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Some good stuff out here.

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Yeah.

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I would caution us on the

four views that if you're.

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Unsure if you're, if you haven't really

delved into an area and you don't really

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know where you stand as far as your

convictions go, just be careful with the

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four views series because it's, it is

just that, it's four people, different

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authors that embrace each of these.

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Different views that are out there

and they write on the views and

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they present their view with the

strongest arguments that they can't.

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And now granted, there's usually responses

in those books from the people that

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don't hold those views, but even those

responses aren't gonna be from people that

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we necessarily would say are biblically

faithful and accurate and they're in.

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And so just be careful with those because

you're gonna encounter views that are

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some of them aberrant, some of them

heterodox, even outside the bounds of what

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we would consider orthodox Christianity.

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Some of them are just gonna be

variances here and there, but some

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of them are gonna introduce concepts

that we would say, no, that's.

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That's not just wrong, that's Unbiblical

in the holding of that position.

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We're friends of, or fans of

at least of Trumper Longman.

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He's got a couple good books on sale too.

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How to read Proverbs, how to Read

Ex Exodus how to read the Psalms.

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Trumper Longman is a good

author worth considering.

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So lots of good things out there.

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Of course there's exceptions to the rule

in terms of what you can get the deals.

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The price may still be overpriced for

some of the authors, I'm sure, but

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over overall, this looks like a really

good a really good sale if you're.

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If it's still April 1st, when you hear

this, it's a kid in the candy store.

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Alright, let's jump into

Judges eight and Judges nine.

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Our daily Bible reading for the day.

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We are continuing with

the story of Gideon.

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And Gideon is continuing the fight.

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Remember, this is the fight that God said

we're gonna deliver you guys with 300

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people and these are the people that are

gonna drink like dogs from the stream.

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This is who Gideon's got.

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The fight is continuing and as it's

continuing and as he's pursuing these

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Canaanite kings, he stops at these two

places at KO and at penal along the

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way to seek rations for his weary men.

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And both of these cities refuse,

and Gideon ends up punishing

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them after he returns it.

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Victorious.

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After the win, the people want Gideon to

rule over them as king, but he refuses.

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He says, no, we're not gonna do this.

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I'm not the king.

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God is king.

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And instead he makes a golden ephod.

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So he goes from a high point

to a really low point there.

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And this golden ephod you

can think of Aaron's calf.

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In some ways, that becomes an

idol for the people in the chapter

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then ends with Gideon's death.

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Chapter eight.

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N not, you've got high points but some low

points for Gideon and chapter eight here.

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Yeah, those two cities that you

just mentioned, just for the sake

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of reference here, those cities are

part of the trans Jordan tribes.

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So you think about the half tribe of

Manas, GAD GAD in particular actually

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is where these two cities are located.

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And so they're kinsmen, they're friends.

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They're supposed to be able to help

and say, yeah, we got your back.

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We'll supply you.

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And so the fact that they didn't

does not bode well for them.

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And then Gideon doesn't

like it, so that's why.

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That's why this is in there.

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They should have responded favorably

to that because they're working

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against common enemies and they're

like you haven't won yet, buddy.

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We're not sure we're gonna support you.

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Yeah.

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And yeah, so it's the countrymen

that are not supporting there.

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Yeah.

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Not a good look for them.

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Not a good look for Gideon with that

e thought at the end, that becomes

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the no, the snare to the people.

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That is a, that is problematic.

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Yeah.

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I don't know what he's up to with that.

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It's like Aaron, I just, the people,

I just took their gold and threw

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it into the fire and out came this.

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This calf.

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I don't know what happened.

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God.

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Yeah, I guess so.

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That's a bad, that's a bad excuse.

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Yeah, it is.

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I was talking with somebody this

week about in Sunday sermon I just

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mentioned the fact that there's a lot

of Islamic temples that are, or mosques

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rather, that are popping up all over.

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I'm gonna be talking about that a

little bit again, even this Sunday.

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But he mentioned that there was

a plan for a gigantic monkey god

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statue in Frisco that got overruled.

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Thankfully.

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And he said what would we do if there

was this gigantic, false statue of a

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false God across the street from the

church and march around it seven times.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And here we've got, the golden ephod we're

gonna get into later on the, the idol

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that, that Micah makes and everything.

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And what we have to understand

is these false gods are here.

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They're in our midst.

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They're just not as easily identifiable

as they were during this day.

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In some ways it's true.

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The giant monkey God statue

is easier for us to go.

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Don't worship that thing.

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That thing's a fault.

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God.

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We're too sophisticated for that anyway.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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So instead we carry our

gods in our pockets.

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We carry our gods in our.

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Apps on our phones, or we carry

our gods on our bank accounts with

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our numbers or whatever it is.

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And so the false gods are there.

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So we read something like this

and we're like, how can they be

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so dumb to worship a golden eod?

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And yet.

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We have our own idols still that

are more acceptable because they're

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more cloaked, they're not as obvious

as they were back in that day.

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And even though we might shake

our heads at this let's not be

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too quick to judge and let's

examine our hearts and go, God is.

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Or maybe let's be quick to judge, but

let's be quick to judge ourselves.

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As well as judging Gideon

for what he does here.

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Such a good word.

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I think one of the best and highest

qualities that any Christian can pursue

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as he or she reads the Bible is humility.

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If we could read the Bible with

humility, that would really impact

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the way that we understand the text

and the way that we apply the text.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, on chapter nine, we get into

the descendants of Gideon here.

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And ab Bialek, who's one of

Gideon's sons conspires against his

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brothers in a power play and ends

up killing all but one of them.

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And after this, the people of

Shechem there make him king.

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And so quite a contrast.

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Gideon, after delivering the

people refuses to be king.

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Here's a bialek.

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One of his sons who kills all his

brothers except for one, and then

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agrees and says, yeah I'll be your king.

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I'll be your leader instead.

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The surviving son, his name is Ham, and

he is he confronts the people of Schechem

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and tells them this parable about trees

seeking a king and settling on bramble

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in the end, which is not a very noble.

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Noble Bush or noble Tree.

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And then he issues a challenge saying

that if they had acted treacherous

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in this fire, would come out and

consume these leaders and ab bialek.

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And then after saying

this, Jonathan runs away.

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So Jonathan is not as bold as we might

like him to be, but he does confront

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the error, confront the wrong here.

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And then in, in the rest of Chapter

nine here, AB Bialek initially

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enjoys some success in his battles

against surroundings people against

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surrounding peoples, though not

without the considerable help of

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Yahweh, but he needs a tragic end.

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And he humiliating.

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And when a woman from a tower that he

was attacking throws this millstone

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down from the tower, that crushes his

skull and ends up killing ab bialek

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there in a pretty shameful way.

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He actually asked his armor

bear to thrust him through.

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So it wouldn't be said that ab bialek was

killed by a woman, although it's recorded

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in scripture pretty much for the rest of

time that he was indeed killed by a woman.

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So good try.

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But it doesn't happen.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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I the last line in this chapter nine,

verse 57, God also made all the evil

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of the men of shek and return on

their heads, and upon them came the

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curse of Ham, the son of j Romeo.

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So here's something I think that

would be worth noting and highlighting

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in your own brain is that, and it's

that God is just on his timetable.

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Here in the situation with the bialek,

God took care of him eventually.

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This wasn't an immediate an

immediate judgment on him, but it

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was an eventual one, and that's

the case for most of us today.

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The reason that we can overlook sin

and offer forgiveness is because God

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will ultimately judge those who commit

evil, and that's true for everybody

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unless Christ becomes their substitute.

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So as you go throughout life and

you experience situations like

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a Bilac, I'm sure or yeah, I'm

sure that during his timeframe.

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People were saying that this is a tragedy.

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How could he get away with this?

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God, where are you?

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Why aren't you responding to us?

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You touched on this on Sunday, pastor

pj, talking about the fact that

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suffering comes to all Christians

talk about Jesus and how he fits

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into Ju Judges chapter nine.

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I'm suggesting here that God is gonna be

the just judge of all the Earth at some

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point eventually, even though he delays.

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Is there anything else that you

might wanna offer up to us as we

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think about this from the vantage

of the New Testament and Christ?

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As far as justice coming

for Christ Justice coming.

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Yeah.

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Through Christ.

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Yeah.

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Justice, being satisfied in Christ.

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All the angles, whatever

you wanna highlight, right?

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Yeah.

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And that's, that is hard when we have

been wronged and I did talk on Sunday

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a lot about surrendering our sense

of justice to God's sense of justice.

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And we think to ourselves, man.

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This is wrong and this is what needs to

happen to the person that wronged me.

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And when we surrender our sense

of justice to God, it's more than

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saying, okay, God, you're gonna

cause that person to burn in hell.

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And so I can find some comfort there

because what if that person repents from

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their sins and puts their trust in Christ?

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Has justice not been done?

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And the answer is justice has been done.

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Justice was done at the cross,

though, not in eternity, in hell.

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And just like for all the sins that

you've committed, justice is not gonna

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be done on you in eternity in hell.

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And you're thankful for that, and

you're grateful for that, right?

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For that person, that repents who

wronged you that then ultimately the

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offense, which is more against God than

against you, is gonna be dealt with

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or was dealt with retroactively at the

cross and not in an eternity in hell.

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So yeah, justice ultimately is either

displayed in eternity, in suffering,

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or at the cross in the suffering

that Christ bore on our result.

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Or our behalf.

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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Two chapters today not a ton.

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Beyond that kind of the story of

Gideon and then his offspring, I,

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ironically the name of Bialek Pastor

Rod, what does the name of Bialek mean?

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My father is King, right?

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And here we had Gideon who said, Nope, I.

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I'm not gonna be king.

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Yeah.

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And his son like but yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You were, and I'll be king too.

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And it's, there's a lot of, there's a

lot, there's multiple aex in scripture

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and so it's possible that this was,

his name was something else, and he

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took this name on himself in a posture

to try to gain this poi position in

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this prestige amongst his brothers.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Not a good dude.

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Don't name your kids a Bialek, probably a.

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Bad idea.

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Don't see great things for yourself.

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Yep.

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Let God be the one to

give you the great things.

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There's the greatness that you

should pursue is the greatness

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that lasts beyond the grave.

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Yep.

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And that's the greatness that's permanent.

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That's the greatness that will

ultimately be valuable in the next life.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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Let's pray and then we'll

be done with this episode.

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God, give us a passion for just that,

for not building our empire here our

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riches here worshiping even the idols

that we were talking about earlier here.

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But.

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But keeping our focus on you, worshiping

you, and being willing to count the

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cost of living a life here that may not

look exactly the way we want it to, but

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knowing that this is a life that honors

you and pleases you, and that's worth it

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because in the end, we'll be with you.

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So keep our focus and affections

and attention upon you as

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we navigate this world.

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We pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Keep reading your Bibles.

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Tuning again tomorrow for another

Daily Bible podcast edition.

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Bye bye.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Bible Church in north Texas.

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391

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