Understanding Jesus’ Prayer in John 17 and the Daily Sacrifices in Numbers
In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts discuss the transition in Jesus' prayer from the third person to the first person in John 17, unpacking its theological and devotional implications. They then take a deep dive into Numbers 28-30, focusing on the significance of the routine sacrificial offerings for New Testament believers and the binding nature of vows, especially concerning male leadership and decision-making within the family unit. The episode emphasizes maintaining a genuine and relational approach to daily Bible reading and prayer rather than treating them as mere rituals.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:08 Sound Dampening and New Recording Setup
00:44 Question on John 17: Jesus' Prayer
03:26 Discussion on Daily Sacrifices in Numbers
04:51 The Importance of Regular Sacrifice
07:59 Vows and Male Leadership in Numbers 30
11:02 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer
11:56 Outro and Podcast Information
Find out more about Compass Bible Church.
Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.
Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org
Hey everybody, welcome back to a brand
new edition of the daily Bible podcast.
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:Hey, it is Friday.
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:Happy Friday, everybody.
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:What's up Friday, Friday.
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:Glad you made it.
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:We are recording again from our new digs.
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:I've got some sound dampening panels
up on my wall in the office here.
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:So I did not even notice
that until you mentioned it.
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:I'm hoping that it.
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:Deadens the sound a little bit.
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:I can still hear the echo, but you guys
likely can't because once we run it
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:through our processing software You really
don't hear a lot of difference, right?
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:But there's big walls Also, the ceiling
here is not a fake ceiling So I think in
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:our old place the drop ceiling those foam
ceiling tiles helped to absorb some of
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:the sound Oh did not even pay attention,
but this is just a regular old ceiling.
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:Okay, so We're in a box all that
to say it's a nice box and a
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:much bigger box and great box.
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:Yes.
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:Yeah, so good.
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:So good Yeah, so hey, we had a question
written in actually not about the podcast
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:but about the sermon Yeah from John 17
and this person asked she said hey why?
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:It does Jesus switch from the
third person, which he begins
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:his prayer into the first person?
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:That's a good question.
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:And I don't know that there's
a ton of significance there
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:in the actual transition.
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:What I'll say is this, I think in
the opening of his prayer, he's
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:emphasizing his relationship and
his unique relationship to God as
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:his father and his role as the son.
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:Jesus as the son of God has a lot of
obvious messianic implications to it.
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:There's a lot of weightiness to that.
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:The access to the father, this
is the high priestly prayer.
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:He's stressing his intimacy
between him and God.
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:So I think that would
have a lot to do with it.
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:And then as the prayer goes along,
he shifts into the first person
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:as he continues to pray about
specifics for the disciples.
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:So that's my take on it.
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:I don't know that there's Significant
church doctrine to be founded
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:upon such a transition, but it
is a good point and I appreciate
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:your attention to detail on that.
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:That would be my take.
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:PR your thoughts.
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:I think that there's, okay,
and this is just a speculation.
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:I'll just offer that because I haven't
studied John the way that you have.
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:But I wonder if what's happening here is
that Jesus is starting from the, I don't
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:know, the outer perimeter of prayer, so
to speak, as he draws near to the father,
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:he starts with that third person approach
where he's speaking reverentially.
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:I, I don't know.
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:I've done this on occasion where I'm
talking to the Lord and I'm saying, Lord,
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:please help your servant do your will.
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:I'm talking about myself, but I'm
doing so in third person, I guess
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:not too different from what Jesus is
doing here, perhaps by his example.
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:And as I progress in the prayer,
it's almost like I'm moving
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:closer and closer to him.
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:And suddenly I'm now using first person
pronouns and I'm talking to him almost
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:as you're making your like your way,
making your way through the tabernacle,
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:you start from the holy place and
then you move into the holy of holies
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:and now you're face to face with God.
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:So that would be, I know it's maybe that's
a stretch, but that's my thinking here.
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:He's starting with the reverential,
not that he's acting in any way.
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:It's not just piety for piety sake,
but he's starting with reverence and he
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:moves closer and closer to the father as
he begins to change his subject matter.
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:And now he's talking about his
disciples and he cares about them.
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:It's like his heart begins to open more
and more now, granted, these are words
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:that are hard to describe for the second
person of the Trinity because he's God.
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:He knows the father knows him.
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:So it's hard to say that there's greater
self disclosure in Christ because he's
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:fully known to the father and vice versa.
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:But from the human standpoint,
I wonder if maybe there's
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:something like that happening.
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:But again, I'm speculating, just
reading the sense of the prayer,
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:trying to wrap my mind around it.
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:That would be my two cents.
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:Yes.
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:But take that for what you will.
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:Yeah.
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:Again, remember, this is a prayer
that is both for the son and the
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:father, but it's also didactic.
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:It's Jesus's teaching through this.
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:And so I'm sure there are layers
there in which he is teaching the
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:disciples or emphasizing something
with the disciples, even as he uses
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:these terms and titles, but good job.
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:Good attention to detail,
paying attention there.
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:I appreciate the question coming in too.
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:Let's jump into today's podcast.
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:We are in numbers 28, 29 and 30.
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:And this is a section of numbers that
again can get somewhat tedious for us.
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:And it's not just this it's a couple of
chapters coming up in front of us too.
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:It's a, it can get repetitive,
it can get redundant.
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:Hello, just got stopped right
there by the Holy Spirit.
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:I will edit that out for you.
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:Thanks man, I appreciate that.
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:Anyways Yeah, it can get repetitive and
yet it's important for us to continue
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:to lean in here and in chapters 28 and
29, these are basically reminders on the
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:offerings and the celebrations as Israel
was prepared to enter the promised land.
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:So you've got a brand new generation there
and and Moses is going back over these
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:things, making sure that they understand
what's coming and what's expected of them.
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:28, nine through 10 introduces some
new offerings to be given each Sabbath.
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:And the section as a whole focuses on
the number of sacrifices required, lays
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:out the kind of number required the
minimum from the priests and the people
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:every year, not including any offerings
initiated there by the people themselves.
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:Yeah it's massive numbers and Gordon,
when he comments and he says the sheer
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:numbers of these sacrifices in these
chapters reminds us in the people of God's
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:promises to bless them in a fruitful land.
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:And so the numbers required is a
reminder that, Hey, God is going to
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:provide the animals necessary for that.
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:That's part of the blessings
that they're going to inherit as
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:they step into the promised land.
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:So there's something.
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:Anticipatory, even as we read through
all of these different things.
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:Pierre your thoughts on
some of these offerings and
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:sacrificial instructions here?
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:Yeah.
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:Nothing entirely brand new.
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:We've talked about this before, but
I think there's something really
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:important for us to see as New
Testament believers by the fact
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:that these are daily offerings.
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:Some of them are sabbatical offerings.
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:They're monthly offerings, but they're
regular routine nature of these things.
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:Think point to us the significance
that we are to be regularly
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:sacrificing something to the Lord.
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:It's the idea that we never want to come
to the Lord empty handed and not that
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:you could ever truly do that because
everything that we have is from him
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:through him and to him Romans chapter 11.
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:But I think there's something about.
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:This, that is helpful for us in that
day by day, perhaps even hour by hour,
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:there should be something that we're
saying, Lord, I want to give to you
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:at least the sacrifice of my praise.
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:The Romans chapter 12 Paul talks about
us, our lives being a sacrifice to
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:him that is pleasing and acceptable.
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:And I think this is a really
good example of how God.
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:Designed them to see that we no
longer offer bulls and goats,
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:but we do offer ourselves.
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:And there's something
really special about this.
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:We should offer ourselves
in a variety of ways.
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:Maybe you haven't thought of worshiping
the Lord in the middle of the day.
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:Put on some of your favorite worship songs
and just sing it to the Lord and letting
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:that be a time of communion with God.
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:Maybe going to your room in the middle
of the day, if you have opportunity
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:to do that and singing songs as you
pray to the Lord and seek his face.
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:Or even after you've read your Bible,
maybe there's a way for you to give
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:yourself to him in a different way.
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:That's fresh and that's sacrificial.
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:That's a good thing.
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:I think the regularness of
this teaches us something.
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:Yeah.
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:A hundred percent.
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:And we were talking actually with our
community group this week about that
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:idea of what we're doing when we're
spending time with the Lord in our
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:daily Bible reading and to piggyback
on what you're saying here, I think
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:we can sterilize it so much and we
can sterilize our time just like the.
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:Israelites could have been guilty of just
going through the motions with some of
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:these sacrifices and not remembering that
this is an extension of an expression
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:of our relationship with the Lord you're
talking about it's hard to describe
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:with the second member of the Trinity
how he can Progress or deepen or draw
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:closer in his prayer with the Lord there.
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:And I think sometimes it's hard for us
to define, but I think it's important for
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:us to remember that our relationship with
Christ is just that it's a relationship.
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:It's is dynamic.
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:It's active.
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:There's, there is something there to the
old phraseology of your quiet time, right?
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:Or spending time with the Lord.
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:And we call it DBR.
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:And I think it's helpful.
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:It's certainly plain and clear in
our terminology for it, but it can
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:also run the risk of being something
that sterilizes the process.
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:of daily Bible reading.
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:It's did you brush your teeth?
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:Your daily brushing of your teeth?
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:It's, it can fall into that trap
instead of realizing it as, no,
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:I'm spending time with Jesus.
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:When I'm reading this word, I'm
spending time with God and that's
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:that presenting myself to him.
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:That's that relational, that's that what's
going to drive us to go and worship him,
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:during the day or to put on worship music.
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:When you're driving around in your car
during the day It's a relationship.
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:It's not just the sterile kind of
going through the motions that we
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:can fall prey to if it's merely an
intellectual pursuit, which I think
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:speaks to the nature of a relationship.
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:It's built on honesty.
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:And the honesty that we have to bring
before him is that we we're not worthy.
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:We need change.
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:We need to be we need to be remade and
renewed into his image, which again,
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:it goes back to Romans chapter 12.
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:We are being transformed into his image.
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:From one degree of glory to
another is actually not Romans
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:12, but you get the idea.
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:I'm trying to help us understand
here that sacrifice is still
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:appropriate for the Christian today.
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:It just looks different.
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:Doesn't we're not bringing bulls
and goats, but we still sacrifice.
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:And that's an important feature of
the new Testament Christian life.
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:Yeah.
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:In Romans 12, we are transforming
ourselves by the renewal of our minds.
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:I was conflating that one
with Paul second Corinthians.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah then chapter 30, we get
into this chapter on vows.
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:And again, here, we've got another
situation like we've talked
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:about recently, where you have
something that might make some
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:people uncomfortable for men.
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:Men are just supposed to do what
they say they're going to do.
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:But for ladies, they're given a couple
of exceptions, a couple of outs here.
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:And if the husband said, Hey, no,
I don't want you to vow this vow.
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:I don't want you to do this.
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:Then The woman could get out of
having vowed that vow same with
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:daughters in some situations there.
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:And there, there is a, there's a an escape
clause that is provided for the ladies.
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:Whereas the men there, there really
is no escape clause for the men.
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:What they say is what
is supposed to happen.
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:They are bound.
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:Yeah.
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:And what you might think here, fathers
be good to your daughters because
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:daughters will love like you do.
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:That's a song.
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:I'm singing it in my head.
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:Girls become lovers who turn into mothers.
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:Don't listen to this song.
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:I don't even know what he's saying.
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:I love this song.
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:I couldn't help but think of it.
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:Okay.
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:You've gotten us off track.
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:Please continue.
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:I've gotten us off track.
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:Yeah.
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:for admitting it.
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:I think this is this is an
example of male hatchet.
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:of male leadership.
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:This is God's design for the husband
or the father to cover the wife or
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:the daughter in these circumstances
and to help them make wise decisions.
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:And so rather than seeing this as
something demeaning to women, I
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:think this is something that's a
challenge to men to make sure that
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:we're leading our families well.
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:Yes.
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:And and that's wise and that's good.
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:And that's right.
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:And that's our job and
we need to be doing that.
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:And that's what God wanted from
these men in Israel as well.
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:Yeah.
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:So what you see here in the New Testament,
then as husbands are called to lead
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:their wives, Ephesians chapter five,
you see this all the way back into the
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:earliest part of the Pentateuch, the
book of numbers, you saw this before,
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:actually back in the beginning of
creation, Genesis chapters one, two,
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:and three, Adam failed in his call to
lead her into love her and consequently
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:catapulted all of the human race into sin.
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:Thank you guys.
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:But here it's reiterated and it's
just highlighted the patriarchy
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:as it's often called today.
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:Okay.
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:Is looked down upon and sneered
at as being something inherently
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:evil, but that's not the case.
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:God designed the patriarchy and its
fullest and best representation to be
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:a protective life giving covering for
the people that were underneath it,
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:which of course included the young men.
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:It doesn't say anything here about
young men, but I would suspect they
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:would also be under a similar covering
under their father's leadership unless
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:and until they came to a certain
age where they were considered men.
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:And I know it's a different
conversation, but they're not mentioned.
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:I think that would still
apply to them as well.
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:Yeah.
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:And notice too, that men were to
make these decisions with conviction.
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:There was a time limit on these things.
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:It wasn't like the man was free
to go let me think about whether
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:or not this is going to be wise.
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:And let me give me a couple of weeks
and then I'll make my decision that
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:they need to make the decision in
the shadow of the vow being made.
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:They needed to be ready to lead
and ready to guide on this.
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:And so there was a, on the day,
verse 12 says, yeah, decisiveness.
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:So men, next time you're getting in
the car to go out on a date and your
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:wife says, Hey, where should we go?
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:Pastor PJ's house.
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:Yeah.
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:No, I'm guilty of that.
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:My wife's probably listening to
this right now going, wait a minute.
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:Yep.
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:Yeah.
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:Preach to yourself.
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:That's the danger of recording a
podcast that our wives listen to.
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:Dude, that's a danger
of preaching God's word.
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:Period.
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:Yeah.
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:You teach them the word of God.
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:You're going to be pointing fingers
at yourself a lot of the time.
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:Yep.
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:Yeah.
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:And that happens a lot
of the time in the study.
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:That's right.
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:Yeah.
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:All right, men and ladies and
everybody listening to this children
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:don't know where it was for a second.
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:All people forgot all
creatures of our God and King.
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:Not aliens though.
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:Not the UF.
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:Depends on what you mean by aliens.
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:Illegal, legal.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:Christians.
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:Hey let me pray for us and
we'll be done with this episode.
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:God, help us to be as I've so
often prayed a church of strong
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:male leadership and a headship.
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:We want that.
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:It's so important to the
health of our church.
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:But as we were talking about earlier,
for all of us, God, we want to be
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:those that have a genuine relationship
with you, not just a sterile going
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:through the motions, a relationship.
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:That's the danger of the
sacrificial system for Israel.
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:That's what.
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:It's going to happen.
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:God is going to condemn them eventually
saying, this people honors me with their
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:lips, but their heart is far from me.
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:He's going to say, I
detest your sacrifices.
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:I hate your feasts because they
have put their faith and trust
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:in a relationship with him in
these things that they're doing.
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:And so God help us to guard against that,
whether it be reading our Bible every
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:day or praying a rope prayer that, that
we pray over and over again, God, we
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:want a genuine, Relationship with you.
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:We want to spend time with you as we seek
your face every single day And so give
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:us that humility that drive that desire.
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:We pray in Jesus name.
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:Amen Amen, keep reading bibles
tune in again tomorrow for another
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:edition of the daily bible podcast.
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:We will see you then.
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:Bye y'all
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:Speaker: Hey, thanks for
joining us for another episode
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:of the daily Bible podcast.
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:We hope and pray this has been a blessing
to you and your time in the word.
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:If it has, if you would subscribe to this
podcast, leave a like, leave a comment
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:and share it with some friends and family.
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:That would be awesome.
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:If you need more information about
Compass Bible Church here in North
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:Texas, you can go to compassntx.
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:org.
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:Again, that's compassntx.
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:org.
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:And we'll be back with you
tomorrow for another episode
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:of the daily Bible podcast.