The God of The Bible longs to bless His children. As Israel prepares to enter the Promised Land, Moses continues to give God's instruction for flourishing. You and I may not be held to the ceremonial law, but the heart of these Scriptures--holding fast to the One True God--will ever be our aim. Today we see cautions for friendships and a reminder to recall all that God has done for us to keep our hearts close to Him.

Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 11-14

Scripture Read or Referenced:

Deuteronomy 11:1-32

Deuteronomy 12:11

Deuteronomy 13:6-8

1 Corinthians 8:9

Deuteronomy 14:24-26

Ezekiel 36

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Want a pretty printable reading plan? Find our free Bible-reading Resources here: www.entrustedministries.com/podcast

Commentaries Most Referenced: Moody Commentary, MacArthur Commentary

This is the Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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And all we do, we wanna point

you to the word of God to

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guide and bless your parenting.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox.

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And I am loving

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the blessings of obedience

that we read in Deuteronomy.

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Our passage of scripture for today

is Deuteronomy 11 through 14,

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I'll start by reading chapter 11.

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You shall therefore love the Lord your

God, and keep His charge, his statutes,

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his rules, and his commandments always.

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And consider today, since I am not

speaking to your children who have

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not known or seen it, consider the

discipline of the Lord your God, his

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greatness, his mighty hand, and his

outstretched arm, his signs and his

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deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh,

the king of Egypt, and to all his land.

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And what he did to the army of Egypt,

to their horses and to their chariots.

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How he made the water of the Red Sea

flow over them as they pursued after you.

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And how the Lord has destroyed them to

this day, and what he did to you in the

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wilderness until you came to this place.

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And what he did to dayan and

ab byram, the senses of Elia.

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Son of Reuben, how the earth opened

its mouth and swallowed them up with

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their households, their tents, and

every living thing that followed

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them in the midst of all Israel.

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For your eyes, have seen all the

great work of the Lord that he did.

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You shall therefore keep the whole

commandment that I command you today,

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that you may be strong and go in and

take possession of the land that you

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are going over to possess, and that

you may live long in the land that

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the Lord swore to your fathers to

give to them and to their offspring.

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A land flowing with milk and

honey for the land that you

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are entering to take possession

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of.

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is not like the land of Egypt

from which you have come where

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you sowed your seed and irrigated

it like a garden of vegetables.

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But the land that you are going over

to possess is a land of hills and

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valleys which drinks water by the

rain from heaven, a lamb that the

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Lord your God cares for the eyes of

the Lord your God are always upon it.

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From the beginning of the year to

the end of the year, and if you will

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indeed obey my commandments, that I

command you today to love the Lord

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your God, and to serve him with all

your heart and with all your soul.

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He will give the reign for your land and

its season, the early and the later rain

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that you may gather in your grain and

your wine, in your oil, and he will give

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grass in your fields for your livestock.

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And you shall eat and be full, take

care, lest your heart be deceived and

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you turn aside and serve other gods and

worship them, then the anger of the Lord

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will be kindled against you and he will

shut up the heavens so that there will

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be no rain and the land will yield nor

fruit and you'll perish quickly off the

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good land that the Lord is giving you.

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You shall therefore lay up these

words of mind in your heart.

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And in your soul, and you shall bind

them as a sign on your hand, and they

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shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

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You shall teach them to your

children, talking of them when

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you are sitting in your house and

when you are walking by the way.

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And when you lie down and when you rise,

you shall write them on the doorposts

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of your house and on the gates that

your days and the days of your children

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may be multiplied in the land that the

Lord swo to your fathers to give them.

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As long as the heavens are above the

earth for, if you'll be careful to do

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all this commandment that I command you

to do, loving the Lord your God, walking

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in all his ways and holding fast to him.

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Then the Lord will drive out

all these nations before you

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and you will dispossess nations

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greater and mightier than you.

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Every place on which the soul of

your foot treads shall be yours.

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Your territory shall be from the

wilderness to the Lebanon and from the

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river Euphrates to the western sea.

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No one shall be able to stand against you.

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The Lord your God will lay the fear of

you and the dread of you on all the land

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that you shall tread as he promised.

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See, I am setting before you

today a blessing and a curse.

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The blessing if you obey the commandments

of the Lord your God, which I command

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you today, and the curse if you do

not obey the commandments of the Lord

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your God, but turn aside from the

way that I'm commanding you today.

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To go after other gods

that you have not known

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we read yesterday that we were to hold

fast to the Lord and we see it again

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in 1122.

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Hold fast to him.

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This verb means to stick to,

to clinging to, or to hold onto

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Honestly, it makes me want to break out

some balloons and produce some static

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and show my kids that that is how

closely we are to walk with the Lord.

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It's almost like the toddler

that won't let their parent go.

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They're holding onto their leg.

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They've gotta go everywhere with them

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, And just as we're seeing that

holding fast idea repeated,

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you're probably noticing wow.

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Moses, you seem to be saying

a lot of this over and over.

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Hmm.

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It sounds like parenting to me.

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I appreciate the repetition in

Deuteronomy because it keeps

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getting back to a few themes.

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There are blessings for obedience,

consequences for disobedience.

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Encouragement for us to love the Lord

with all that we are and to honor others.

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Can you think of any other repeated

themes that you're hearing or seeing?

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Moses had commanded the people you

shall love the Lord your God with

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all your heart and with all your

soul, and with all your might.

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This command came up again

in our reading in chapter 11.

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In the New Testament, when Jesus says,

you shall love the Lord your God with

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all your heart, all your soul, all

your mind, and all your strength.

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He's not adding anything.

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The way that the Greeks understood

the heart, required an additional

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word compared to how the

Hebrews understood the heart.

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We're called to love the

Lord with all that we are.

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He is a God willing to

sacrifice all for us.

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And he wants some relational reciprocity.

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You and I are the same way in

our relationships, aren't we?

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Whenever I think of Egypt, I think of

the Nile River for irrigating the land.

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But that required people to work very

hard and it needed a lot of human effort

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but God says he's bringing them into

a land that he watches over, that he

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provides the rainfall all year long.

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He gives it just what he needs.

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To make it a land flowing

with milk and honey.

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It is hard to read that these

people did every abominable act

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that the Lord hates even burning

their sons and their daughters.

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Does it make a little more sense why after

years and years the Lord is saying, I

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cannot allow them to continue in this way.

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And God wanted their places of worship

wiped out as well, so that the Israelites

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wouldn't be tempted to follow in their

example, even after they were gone.

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In chapter 12 in verse 11, then to

the place that the Lord your God will

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choose to make his name dwell there.

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There you shall bring all that I

command you, your burnt offerings

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and your sacrifices, your tithes,

and the contribution that you

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present that you vow to the Lord.

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And you shall rejoice before the Lord your

God, you and your sons and your daughters,

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we read a couple chapters ago when they

wiped out the Midianites, they were

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left with an abundance of livestock,

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God had provided exactly

what they needed to obey him.

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It reminds me of how he provided

the silver and the gold for the

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tabernacle everything that they

have God has provided for them.

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And there's a portion of it that

he asks them to give back to him

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in chapter 13.

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We're warned if your brother, the son of

your mother, or the son of your daughter

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or the wife you embrace, or your friend

who is as your own soul entices you

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secretly saying, let us go and serve

other gods, which neither you nor your

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fathers have known some of the gods of

the peoples who are around you, whether

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near you or far off from you, from

the one end of the earth to the other.

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You shall not yield to him or listen

to him, nor shall your eye pity him.

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Nor shall you spare him,

nor shall you conceal him.

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What are the gods of our culture?

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That we get tempted to chase after,

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This enticing

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makes me think of how important it is

for us to encourage our kids to have

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friends that help them stand for the Lord.

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But also to be the kind of friend

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that helps others stay

true to their convictions

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As Paul warns in the New

Testament, we don't wanna be

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stumbling blocks to our brothers.

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in chapter 14,

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God talks about bringing a tide.

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To the attentive meaning,

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and I really love how

understanding the Lord is

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in his requirements of us

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And if the way is too long for you.

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So that you are not able to carry the

tithe when the Lord your God blesses

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you, because the place is too far from

you, which the Lord your God chooses

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to set his name there, then you shall

turn it into money and bind up the money

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in your hand and go to the place that

the Lord your God chooses and spend

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the money for whatever you desire,

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and you shall eat there

before the Lord your God, and

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rejoice you and your household

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God is gracious in understanding, saying

if it's too far away, I'm not gonna

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make you carry it the entire journey.

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But he says to stop and enjoy it with your

family, to rejoice you and your household.

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We're not just making

sacrifices onto the Lord.

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We are praising him for his faithfulness

in our lives, and that should produce joy

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In 1124 when it said, every place

your foot touches or every place

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your foot treads, that is an amazing

promise and it'll be repeated

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and the first chapter of Joshua,

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but even in the conquering

of the promised land.

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God gave them choices, whether they

would obey all of his commands or

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just some, and unfortunately, they

never completely conquered all of

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the land the Lord told them to.

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And Ezekiel 36 promises that it will be

fulfilled in the future Kingdom of Christ.

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I.

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I'm so thankful that we

have much to look forward to

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When we dwell with Jesus Christ forever.

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Let's pray.

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Speaker 3: Heavenly Father,

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Speaker: We thank you for your goodness

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and your faithfulness to us

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we pray you would help us to hold

fast to you, to cling to you

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and Lord, when we get

anxious or discouraged.

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Or wrestle with so many emotions.

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Help us to see them as opportunities

that we'd be quick to run to you.

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To be our help and our guide,

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As we're warned that some might try to

draw us away from you to serve other gods.

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we pray our children would be discerning,

that they wouldn't be tempted by

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friends, and that they wouldn't be

a temptation or a stumbling block

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for our kids that are lonely,

what do you fill that void?

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And also bring them friends that would

point and encourage them in their faith.

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but we pray for strong

bonds in our families

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and ultimately that each

of us would be able to say

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that our greatest source of

fellowship is you, Jesus.

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It's in your name we pray.

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Amen.