A Historic Move and Lessons from Balaam: Numbers 23-25

In this special edition of the Daily Bible Podcast, Pastors PJ and Rod celebrate moving into their new headquarters at Compass Bible Church in North Texas. They reflect on memories from their old office and share their excitement about the upgrade. They also announce plans for an open house to welcome visitors. The episode then dives into the Bible reading for the day, covering Numbers 23-25. Key topics include Balaam's attempted curses turning into blessings by God's intervention, Balaam's prophecy about a future royal figure from Israel, and the zealous actions of Phineas in stopping a plague caused by Israel's sin with the Moabites. The hosts emphasize the importance of God's unwavering promises and the need to maintain purity in worship.

00:00 Welcome to the New Compass Bible Church HQ (291 S Preston Rd #1030, Prosper, TX 75078)

00:14 Reflecting on the Old Office

00:45 Celebrating the Move

01:41 Getting Settled In

02:33 Open House Plans

02:56 Gratitude to Our Supporters

03:54 Daily Bible Reading: Numbers 23-25

04:01 Balaam's Oracles and Blessings

08:33 Phineas' Zeal and Righteous Anger

11:54 Closing Prayer and Final Thoughts

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to a brand new special

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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What's special about this podcast?

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This is special, in fact, historic

because we are recording this

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from our brand new Compass Bible

Church, north Texas headquarters.

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We moved into a mansion.

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At least that's what it feels like.

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It does feel that way

to us, that's for sure.

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Yeah.

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No.

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Hey, we we've been thinking a lot

about this today because moving out

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of our old place and into this place,

the, the nostalgia hits, it's like

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when you move out of the home where

your kid takes the first steps and

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you're like, oh, man, the memories

I remember when Mark took his first

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steps with us back in the old office.

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They were very big steps.

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They were surprisingly big.

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But it was so special.

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We celebrated and everything else.

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No, but.

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We are grateful for what the

Lord did in our previous offices.

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Great starting space.

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Sure are.

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But man, we are thankful to be here.

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Yes it's definitely an upgrade.

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I can put my arms from side to

side and not touch the walls.

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Not touch your walls.

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That's a big deal.

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I'm stoked by that.

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We put videos out in case you're

wondering what we're talking about.

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So if you go to our Instagram,

compass, n tx instagram.com.

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Dot com probably, that'll

probably take you there.

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Just type it into the grok.

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Or the GPT and it will take you to

our Instagram, almost guaranteed.

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Anyway, we put a lot of photos

out there, so you got to see

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some of the old photos of.

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Our what now is our last office,

and we showed you some of

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the photos of our new office.

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Pastor PG gave us a tour.

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It was real.

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In fact, you gave us a

tour on both, didn't you?

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You gave us a tour on the old

one and now the new one I did.

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Really fun.

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We are just so elated or excited.

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We celebrated with the team meal.

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We celebrated with the team Bunt Cake.

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Cake.

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We celebrated with prayer

and with dedication.

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It was like one of those days where I was

surprised we didn't bring out the ram.

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Yep.

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And the goats and all the other animals.

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If we had done that the glory of the

Lord may have filled the office and we

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wouldn't have been able to be in here.

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That's a good point.

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That's why we, that's the only

reason, and we wanna work here today.

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Yeah.

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So our Instagram handle is Compass n tx.

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So Compass, NTX.

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If you want to check out those videos,

you can find us there, but yeah, so good.

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And we're getting settled in.

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We're unpacking.

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Pastor Rod's got a new desk coming, so

we're shifting furniture around still.

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I have, I'm surprised you haven't brought

this up for everybody's amusement,

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but I have technically rearranged my

office once already and it's not even

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been like, what, three hours yet?

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Technically I built the desk yesterday.

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Okay.

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So on Monday it's, then we moved

in on Tuesday's, Monday or Tuesday.

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And it was already static.

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It was where it was gonna be.

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And then you moved it today

'cause it was Tuesday.

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No, because I just, I thought

there was a better setup.

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And it's true.

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This is a better setup.

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There's always a better setup, pastor pj.

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There's always, the grass is always

greener and the setup's always better.

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That's fair's you think about it.

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That's fair.

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Although last office, I'm just gonna

remind everybody, you, you commented

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about how long I'd kept it the same way.

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You really didn't have a lot of options.

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Yeah.

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This one is a little bit frightening.

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Once there's, once you added,

there's more options now.

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So there's at least twice the space.

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Yeah.

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And the last office had that round

table that you no longer have.

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That's true.

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So you have a lot more space

in here to move things around.

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Do jumping jacks and you could, man.

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Yeah.

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All that stuff.

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Hey.

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But we are planning an open house.

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We're date to be determined.

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But we want you to come and visit us.

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We want you to come say hi.

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Even if you're in California.

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If you're in California

or Utah on a plane, come.

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Come visit Utah.

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But we'll have cookies

and coffee and juice.

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I don't know.

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What else do you have with open houses?

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We will have the communion juice.

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Whatever's left over that we

didn't use, we will bring that.

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'cause we're not Catholic, so that's okay.

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That's true.

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Yeah.

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Anyways.

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Yeah, we will look out for that

because we will be doing that soon.

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Yeah, we're excited.

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Hey, we just wanna tell you, if you're

part of our church and you're a giver,

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you're the reason we're able to do this.

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Totally.

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Thank you so much, Uhhuh, for being

faithful to give to the Lord and his work.

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This is really, you're

building we occupy it.

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We're the ones who are working

here, but we're working for you.

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Yeah.

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Thank you so much for being

faithful to give to this operation.

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This is the Lord's Church, and we want

it to be a place that pleases him,

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and we wanna maximize as you prayed.

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Every hour that we have

this space to utilize.

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Our old pastor used to say, man,

if we don't use a space that God

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gives us, he may not allow us

to have the space in the future.

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We fully intend on maximizing the

space for the glory of Christ,

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for the good of our church.

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That is you.

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Yeah.

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Use it or lose it, right?

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's just we're just like the White House.

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The White House is the

people's house basically.

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So after you get through the

Secret Service perimeter outside,

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then you'll get to have a tour of

our offices led by somebody, and

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maybe you'll see the president.

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We do have that metal detector we

haven't installed yet, so that's

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why we want you to wait to come.

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Yeah.

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Until we have our formal open house.

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'cause then we'll have

the metal detector ready.

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Yeah, for sure.

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For sure.

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But yeah, I echo Pastor Rod's sentiments.

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Thank you for being faithful and we're

excited to, to maximize the space.

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Let's do some of that by talking about our

daily Bible reading numbers 23, 24 and 25.

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So numbers 23.

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We get into Balaam's.

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Oracles Balam, remember we just

left off yesterday, had been

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contracted by Balak to Curse Israel.

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And so we get into what's

gonna happen in 23.

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And in 23 we find that twice Blac

asks Balam to curse Israel and twice.

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Instead, God puts words of blessing in

Balaam's mouth, and so Blum's unable.

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To do what Bayla wants him to do.

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And that frustrates beak as

we're gonna see eventually

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he's gonna say, Hey, just stop.

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But for these first two rounds and it's

interesting, it's they change location.

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It's as though beak is thinking to

himself maybe if you look at them

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from over here instead of over here,

then you'll want to curse them.

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And maybe seeing a different degree

or a different place is gonna be

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better for you than the other place.

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I don't know, man.

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I it's nonsense and

yet God is superseding.

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Balu wishes here by making sure

that Baum is only gonna pronounce

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blessings upon the people of Israel.

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Anything on 23 pr.

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There's a lot here, but anything of note?

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I think two things of note number

one in verse 10 I like the fact

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that Balam is really all alluding

to the Abrahamic covenant.

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Oh, yeah.

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Totally.

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Can count the dust of Jacob or

number, the fourth part of Israel.

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Great point.

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This also speaks to the numbers.

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This could be, and there's multiple

things that could be happening here,

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but let's just take this at face value.

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There are a large body of people.

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He acknowledges that this is a.

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A call back to the Abrahamic

Covenant and God's future blessings.

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And of course, 2319 is clutch.

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We use this one all the time.

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When we're talking about God's honesty,

he says through the mouth of Baam,

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who's not an honorary character.

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He's not someone that you should

say, he's a good dude, right?

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He's not a good dude, and yet God still

utilizes him much like his donkey.

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He could speak through a donkey, he can

speak through Balam, and Balam says,

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here's something that we as theologians

will utilize to support the truth that

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God is not man, that he should lie.

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He's or a son of man, that he

should change his mind, as he said,

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and will he not do it, or has he

spoken and will he not fulfill it.

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That is what God says is true.

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It's as good as God.

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You could take it to the bank.

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God will not do anything apart

from what he says he will do.

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And what he says he will do, he will

accomplish without any flaw or failure.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, tho those are

great observations there.

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In chapter 24, as the page has

turned, again, this is balam,

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or I guess end of chapter 23.

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We get round three verses

27 into chapter 24.

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That's why I separated these out.

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But into chapter 24, though.

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You get this situation where

this time the spirit of God comes

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upon balam, which is interesting.

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Numbers 24, 2, that the spirit

of God actually anoints, balam.

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And this is to your point, pastor, I,

you just said Balam is not a good dude.

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So this is not a, an anointing of balam

because of Balaam's righteousness.

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And this is why this is different,

that the spirit works differently

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in the Old Testament than

he did in the New Testament.

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Here he's coming upon Baam

and he is anointing him.

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To pronounce another blessing upon Israel,

and so we get that in Numbers 24 2.

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This is not because balam is somehow

redeemed or saved or anything else, and

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this is gonna be a temporary anointing.

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That's the way the Holy Spirit

worked in the Old Testament.

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He would come upon people for a

period of time and then leave them.

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That's how David can pray in Psalm 51.

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Take not your spirit from me.

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That's not a prayer that

a believer makes because.

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The spirit is the guarantee

of our inheritance.

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He indwells us permanently.

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That's not how it worked here.

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So the spirit comes upon Balam number

24, 2, and Balam gives a third blessing.

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And again, just like you pointed out,

pastor Rodin in chapter 23 in, in 24 9.

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Blessed are those who bless you.

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Curse it Are those who curse you,

that, that's ripped straight out of

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the words of the Abrahamic blessing,

the Abrahamic covenant there.

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And so God is speaking through this man

and reminding the people, not just Israel,

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but the nations here, pagan nations of

how he's caring for the people of Israel.

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Bailiff gets angry and sends

Baam home without payment there.

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And then Baam has one more word round

four verses 15 through 25 before

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he leaves this final oracle here.

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Which by the way includes a

Messianic prophecy number 24 17.

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Partial fulfillment here in somebody

like David but more so this is gonna be.

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Jesus, I see him, but not now.

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I behold him, but not near.

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A star shall come out of Jacob and

a scepter shall arise out of Israel.

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And so this is anticipating even a

royalty coming from Israel during

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a time when Israel had no king.

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And so Baum is forthtelling.

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He's prophesying now.

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It's not just about the blessing,

but now it's about the what's

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coming in the future for Israel.

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And there's a messianic note

here in chapter 4 24 as well.

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Yeah.

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I love the fact that what Baam is

showcasing is that God's will cannot

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be thwarted, whom God decides to bless.

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No man can curse and

whom God decides a curse.

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I suppose also, no man can bless

What you find here is something is

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super encouraging for a Christian.

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I.

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If God has chosen to bless you,

if God has decided to save you,

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you can't undo what God has done.

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In fact, I love the phrase,

this is something that we

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quote, but not recognizing.

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It's from scripture.

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This is chapter 23, 23.

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He says, what has God wrought?

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What has God done in Israel?

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And you could say the

same for Christians today.

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God has saved us.

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What has God done?

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He has saved us.

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He secured us.

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He sanctified us.

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There's no way that you can be.

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Removed from are ripped out of the

hands of Christ, you are secure

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because God has chosen to bless

you and that's the way things are.

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You're not that different.

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Although you're not Israel, you're not

that different in the sense that when

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God calls, that call cannot be revoked.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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Number chapter 25, then we get into

one of my favorite characters in

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the Bible and there's not a lot

said about him, but there's enough

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said about him and that's Phineas.

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Phineas is on the scene here

in chapter 25 in this chapter.

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Oh, I thought you were gonna say Ziri.

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Not Ziri.

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Not ery.

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One of my favorite characters.

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Ziri and Cosby.

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Cosby, definitely not Cosby.

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Yeah, this chapter

records the era of Israel.

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So here they begin to intermingle with

the Midianites and the daughter of Moab,

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it talks about there and they end up.

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In Baal worship.

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Baal being one of the main false

idols, false gods in the Canaanite

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area and in this this timeframe

and Israel begins to worship Baal.

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Baal Iss gonna be a thorn in

Israel's side throughout the rest

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of their history, pretty much here.

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And in a particular moment, a

man brings a foreigner into the

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camp and goes to be with her.

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And Phineas gets.

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Zealous for the Lord and righteously,

indignant, righteously, angry

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and takes a spear and pins

the two of them to the ground.

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And as a result of this, a plague that

God had sent upon the people for their

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baal worship ends up being abated.

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It ends up stopping

because of Phineas Zeal.

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And Phineas is co commended

for this promised a covenant of

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peace, which is an interesting sub

covenant there within the Levitical.

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Line there where he's promised that

his line of priests will continue.

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His line of Levis will continue.

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But this is, we talk

about righteous anger.

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I think this is a great

example of righteous anger.

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Righteous anger has at its root, first and

foremost, an indignation on God's behalf.

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And that's what we see from Phineas here.

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This is anger because of what he does.

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Nobody can, I don't think, do what he

does without a little bit of anger.

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A little bit of pep in

his steps, so to speak.

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I think God commends it

for that very reason.

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It's exactly righteous anger.

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It's one of the few instances we could

say, man, God is commending this.

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Yeah.

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Angry righteously, angry

and violent action.

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Yeah.

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And it's hard to transfer that because

we might say what's the parallel here?

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If I'm righteously indignant over

the abortion clinics, should we go

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and blow up the abortion clinics?

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And the answer is no.

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But it's interesting under this kind

of warfare culture and and blood for

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blood culture that God commends this

act from Phineas that this is justice.

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There, there was no.

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Prosecutor prosecutorial system.

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There was no system of tri trial and

trial by jury and things like that.

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The law of the land, this is in

keeping with the law of the land.

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This man deserved to die.

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There was nothing keeping

him from sparing that.

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And so I think this is why we can look

at this and say it's good there, but

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we wouldn't do the same thing here

because we would trust the sword.

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The government does not

bear the sword in vain.

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We're gonna work towards seeing those

things criminalized, which is part of

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what's happened politically recently.

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Then we're gonna trust the law

to do what I law needs to do.

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This guy is sitting with the high

hand, he's not just sinning in secret,

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he's coming in, he's flaunting and

rebelling against the clear call of

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God to separate from these people.

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And so as he does this, as he flaunts

himself into the camp with his girl on his

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side he's essentially saying, I dare you.

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And Phineas is dare accepted.

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And given some of the wording

here, it seems like Phineas

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might have speared them.

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Act in the moments of their sin.

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Which I think is poetic.

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And again, to your point fitting,

this is important because we're

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gonna find out in a couple of

chapters, chapter 31 specifically,

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that who's behind this is not just

the Midians, it is actually Balam.

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Yeah.

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Who encourages bauch to say,

Hey, if you really want to get

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these guys, here's how you do it.

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You send these gals into the camp and

have them do this and that, and suddenly

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you've got them worshiping Baal, God will

then take vengeance upon them because

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he knows a little bit about Yahweh.

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Not enough to be a follower, not enough

to be saved, but enough to be dangerous.

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And that's what happens here.

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So this is a complicated story, but a

warning for us to be aware sin is sneaky

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and perhaps it may not be as effective

coming at you full frontal force, but the

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sneaky, underhanded sin is sometimes a

very sin that can trip you up and cause

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you to stumble just like Israel does here.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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Hey, let me pray and then we

will be done with this episode.

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God we are so grateful for, as we

talked about at the beginning of this

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episode, our ability to record this from

here and and we're thankful for that.

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We just pray that that we would

be able to do good ministry

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in this place for our church.

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And we're so grateful

for our church family.

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God, we pray that we would be

a pure church that we would not

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yolk ourselves to the idols of our

current culture in any way, shape,

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or form or any way flaunt our sin.

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In that you would keep us like

Zenia, zealous for you, zealous for

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your godliness and your holiness.

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Help us to be a church that

maintains a high view of you

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and does so with integrity.

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We pray in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Alright, y'all, keep reading your Bibles

and tuning again tomorrow for another

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edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Please and thank you.

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Bye.

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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.