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 Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

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 If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

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 Thank you for joining us today.

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 Okay, so tonight, number 17, we're going to pray first, but it's Aaron's Rod. I'm sure some of you

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 guys or all of you have heard this passage before. Really cool. I feel like there's a ton to it that

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 we can even go get into in the small groups that I may have, you know, there's so many facets of it,

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 so there's things that I think we'll draw out in our small group time that I don't even have

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 prepared here. But one thing that I thought was really interesting and was cool was while I was

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 preparing for this, there's this tree next to my deck that is kind of like dying, has had to miss

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 you some termite stuff. And so it blooms in the spring and has purple flowers. It's actually really

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 pretty. And then, but this one branch was kind of dead because I had some termite damage. And

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 then this past week, while I'm getting ready for this message, this dead looking branch decides to

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 bloom, like seven months too late. And so the rest of the tree is losing its flowers. And this

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 has some green leaves and shoots and purple flowers. I took a picture we can look at in

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 my small group. I'm like, what are the chances? We're talking about Aaron's rod, which was a dead

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 stick, growing flowers, and here's this dead stick on a tree deciding to bloom seven months too late.

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 So I'm sure there's a scientific explanation, but I also think God was involved in that. So

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 let's let's pray and just ask the Lord to speak through his word. Jesus, we just thank you so

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 much that you're here, God. I thank you, and we worship you, Lord, because you're holy, God,

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 you're so loving, and you're so present in our lives, God. And I just thank you for your word,

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 Lord. Thank you that it feeds our soul. Thank you that it gives us what we desperately need,

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 Lord. It teaches us about you, Lord. It cuts through and removes the things that aren't meant

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 to be there, Lord. And it fills us with just an awe and wonder of you. And I pray that tonight,

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 as we read this passage, that, yeah, we would just be in awe and wonder of how amazing you

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 are, God, and how you are just written and hidden, Lord, throughout the whole entire entirety

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 of Scripture, God. And we love you, and we worship you and pray this in your son's name,

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 Jesus. Amen. All right, so if any of you guys have been here over the last few weeks, you know

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 that Moses has had a pretty bad month. Seems like anything that can go wrong does go wrong.

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 They got all these rebels challenging him and his authority every single step of the way,

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 and anyone with young kids feels the same way, right? I feel like my little kids will challenge

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 my authority and everything, every boundary I set all along the way. So Moses, I'm sure,

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 feels like a dad of a bunch of brats that aren't listening. And so we see here two opposing spirits

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 that are just in every story. We see the flesh, and we see the Spirit of God. We see

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 the flesh that has pride and selfish ambition and wanting to be first and best.

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 At the same time, lacking faith in God and being full of fear. And then the other side is the

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 people who are submitted to the Spirit of God, and they're filled with humility. They're filled

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 with faith and courage. And so every single one of these stories, these true stories we're reading

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 in the Old Testament, you can see the battle between the two spirits. And I think about

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 Galatians 5, 17, it says, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit,

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 and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other. And we see this

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 happening time and time and time again. And I want to run through some of these examples

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 that we've read over just to kind of set the stage for what we're coming into here.

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 We saw Aaron and Miriam, which are Moses' own brother and sister, challenge his authority and

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 his leadership. They said, has the Lord only spoken to Moses? Is he the only one that he speaks to?

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 He speaks to us too. And right away, suddenly the Lord says, come out here, come to my temple.

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 And his presence comes down, and he just lays down the law and says, yes, I speak to you,

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 but I speak to him differently. I've chosen him. And then the presence of God lifts, and there's

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 Miriam, his sister, with leprosy. And Moses could have been like, ha, that's what happens when you

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 mess with me, you know? And instead, he falls on his face and he prays, and Miriam is healed

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 after seven days of leprosy. So we see this rising up, hey, I want to be a leader too.

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 And then Moses on the other side falls on his face and asks for mercy for them.

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 And then we see all of Israel believing the bad spies saying, hey, we can't take the

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 Promised Land. It's too hard, right? And they say, we wish we died in Egypt. We wish we died in the

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 wilderness. Literally, like, we don't even want what you have to offer God. We wish we were dead.

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 That would be better than being your people right now, because, you know, this is too hard

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 for us. We're basically dead. And they try to find a new leader. Again, let's get rid of

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 Moses. We need a new leader. Let's go back to slavery in Egypt. So God gets angry. He's about

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 to wipe them out. What does Moses do? He falls on his face. Humility and asking for mercy.

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 And God relents. He doesn't kill them. But he says, you're not going to enter the Promised

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 Land. You didn't want it. You didn't have faith. You're not going to walk into it,

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 but your kids will. And then last week, Danny Jackson shared on the Korah rebellion, which is

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 one of the craziest chapters. I recommend you listening to his teaching. It was awesome.

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 And Korah was a tribe that, like, did Levitical things. They're like,

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 but they weren't the priests. They served in the tabernacle.

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 And that wasn't good enough for them. So they come to Aaron and Moses and say,

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 aren't we all holy? Isn't every single one of the people in the tribe and, you know,

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 of Israel holy? Doesn't the Lord speak all of us? Isn't he with all of us?

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 Why do you make yourself leaders over us? And they wanted to be priests too.

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 They said everybody should be able to be a priest. And what does Moses do?

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 He falls on his face, it says, right off the bat. And then he says, let's let the Lord decide it.

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 And sure enough, there's judgment. The land opens up and swallows all of them.

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 And in that same exact chapter, you'd think, okay, that's settled. Like,

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 people should stop messing with Moses, right? And with Aaron. All of Israel comes and says,

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 you killed the people of the Lord. Like, Moses did it. Like, I don't think he can make the land

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 open up and swallow them. And so then God says, okay, like, you still don't believe me. You still

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 are rejecting me. I'm going to wipe you out. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces and pray.

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 And as the plague starts, there is Aaron, the high priest, and he runs out and stands in the

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 middle between those dying and those who are still alive. And with incense, he makes atonement,

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 and the plague stops right at him. And what a beautiful picture of Jesus, right? He comes out,

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 like Jesus comes down in the flesh, and he stands in between the penalty that we deserve

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 and makes atonement. And the penalty of sin is death, and it stops at him because he paid for it.

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 Aren't you glad that we serve a God who came down? A God who stands in between the living and the

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 dead and pays for the penalty? And so now, after all of that, there's rebellion, rebellion, rebellion.

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 We don't want what you have to offer Moses and Aaron. In reality, they're actually rejecting God

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 because in the Lord says in Numbers 14, in the midst of all this, he says, how long will these

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 people reject me? And I think that speaks a lot to authority, especially in the church,

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 but authority in general, that if there is an authority put in place by God and we

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 don't respect it, we push it away, we think that we should be equal and the leaders of everything,

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 and our opinion matters most, and we're rejecting what God has set up, we don't realize that in

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 many ways we're actually rejecting God and what he says. And so the Lord, instead of bringing

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 judgment and more wrath and more punishment, he gets ahead of it and wants to do a miracle of

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 grace. He wants to say, let's just put all of this behind us, let's settle it once and for all,

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 not through wrath, but let's bring about a miracle of grace to prevent further sin

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 so that they can just trust in Aaron as the high priest and everything he's going to do,

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 that God wants to do through him and for God. And so this is where we jump in. After all that

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 rebellion, after everything just falling apart, God says, let's settle this once and for all.

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 So let's hop into Numbers 17.

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 All right.

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 And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and get from them a rod

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 from each father's house, all their leaders according to their father's houses.

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 Twelve rods, write each man's name on his rod, and you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi.

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 For there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house.

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 Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the testimony where I meet with you,

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 and it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom.

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 Thus I will rid myself of the complaints of the children of Israel which they make against you.

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 Now, rods are important. There's a reason that God chose rods. He could have chosen stones or,

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 you know, sacrifices or whatever, but he chose rods. And rods are always a symbol of authority,

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 a symbol of leadership. You know, elders back then, the people who were leading these tribes,

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 they had rods, you see. Kings had scepters, which is a form of rod. Shepherds had staves,

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 which is another form of a rod where they guide the sheep. It's a symbol of leadership

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 and authority. And God is saying, take those symbols of leadership and authority,

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 bring them to me, and I'll tell you whose leadership and authority I'm going to bless.

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 So they wanted to see who would be the high priest. And I think about it like,

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 if I were Aaron, I would be like, okay, can't you just tell them who it is? Do we have to

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 do this test where maybe I'm not going to get it? Like, wouldn't you think that like, my rod's

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 in there with all of theirs, I guess there's a chance I could not, it might not blossom. Like,

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 who knows? He already messed up with the golden calf. There were things that he did that weren't

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 right. Like, is there a chance it's not going to blossom and there's somebody else who's going

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 to get it? So he's sitting there. I believe he had faith, but you just never know. I mean,

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 doubt can creep in. He could have been upset that his rod was just like all the others in

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 there. He could have been stressed. He could have been angry. And the other interesting thing is,

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 all these other people of the other tribes, you don't see them fighting and saying like, hey,

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 we shouldn't do this. This isn't a good idea. God already told chose Aaron. Like, we should just

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 trust what he says. They all bring their rods in and they're all happy to do it, it seems like.

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 And I think all of them were probably thinking it could be me. Like, this could be my shot.

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 Like, I'm a better speaker than Aaron. He's not too good at this. Like, finally,

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 it's my time to shine. Or maybe they thought he doesn't have the best personality traits for

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 leadership. And all these thoughts could have been going in their heads of like,

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 this is my time. I'm going to shine. And we don't know. Like, Aaron, we don't know how

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 good of a leader he was in his own flesh, in his own abilities. There may have been better people

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 from the world's perspective that were fit for this role. Right? I mean, we even see that with David

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 when he was anointed king. But his brother, all his brothers looked like they would have been

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 better kings. But the Lord chose him because the Lord doesn't look at the outward appearance,

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 but looks at the heart. One thing that I will point out though, is we don't see Moses say

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 anything. He doesn't say a thing. He doesn't try to argue with everybody. He doesn't try to point out

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 his track record. He doesn't try to show how he really is the best and puff himself up to maintain

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 control and power. But he was just quiet. And I think that shows a level of trust in God.

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 That he didn't have to defend himself. He knew that this moment, if God said it,

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 he's going to do it. If God appointed him and called him, then he's going to bring it to pass.

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 And I think that's important for all of us in our lives. Right? We're not the high priest, or

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 we might not have the highest place of authority in our life, in our job, in the church,

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 whatever it is. But God has called us, all of us, to something. Something that's very important.

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 And we need to trust God that he'll bring it to pass. We need to stay silent and not respond

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 to every accusation and try to prove ourselves, but just rest in what he said and trust that he'll

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 bring it to pass. And realize that, just like Aaron, it's God's choice. It's not our own

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 abilities, usually, that we walk into God's calling for us. And we know that God's gifts

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 and callings are irrevocable, even though Aaron messed up with the whole golden calf,

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 he was still called his high priest. So God's favor and choice on you is based on him,

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 not on you. So you don't have to fight for your place in the kingdom of God,

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 you just have to walk in it. So this whole test is to show whose authority will be blessed.

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 And the way that the authority is being blessed, this rod, is really profound.

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 It's not the dead ones that are blessed with authority, it's not the sticks that go into

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 the presence of God and just remain the same with zero change. It's the ones that go into

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 the presence of God and come to life. It's the one branch that, in the presence of God,

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 will respond, come to life, and bear fruit. It wasn't the people that, in pride, said,

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 yeah, throw my stick, throw my name in the hat, I could do this, this is my time to shine.

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 Essentially rejecting what God originally said, the people who wanted to steal this authority.

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 But it was the guy who was silent, this one who trusted God and put his branch in there.

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 And I think that these branches really are a reflection of their hearts.

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 I believe that these people who were so hardened to God, were so prideful,

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 never even heard what he was saying, never even heard the warning of the Holy Spirit,

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 don't do this. Instead, we see Aaron, who loved God, trusted God, ministered to God,

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 and we see in the presence of God, in the ark, his is going to blossom and come to life.

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 And that is a great rule, I believe, for good leadership, whether it's leadership in your home,

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 as parents, as in work, whatever it is, the best leaders are not hard and prideful,

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 but have a soft, responsive heart to God, soft, responsive heart to his presence.

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 That when we hear him, that just thing inside of you just turns on.

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 Your heart just almost feels like it's on fire a bit when you hear him speak,

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 when you read his word and you just feel something rising up in you.

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 Those are the types of people that God really wants to use, and anybody can be that.

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 It's not special, it's not unique, it's not your own ability.

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 It's really just a heart posture, saying, God, I don't want to be hard.

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 Forgive me where I've been hardened, Lord. Give me a soft heart.

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 And it says, he will take out a heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.

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 That is his promise. And so that's what good, Godly leadership looks like.

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 It's the person who is soft before him, and when he speaks, we walk in it and it produces fruit.

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 And I think about Psalm 84, 10. All of you guys probably know this one.

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 It says, it says, better is one day in your courts.

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 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

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 I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

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 Look, not even a good position. I would rather just stand at the door and be near you, God.

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 For the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor.

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 No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

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 And I just think that is such a picture of Aaron in this chapter, that it was the Lord's favor and

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 honor that was going to come upon him, and that he just wanted to be in God's presence.

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 Now, let's read verses 6 through 11.

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 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod of peace,

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 for each leader, according to their father's houses, took twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among

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 their rods. And Moses placed the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.

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 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,

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 and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds,

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 had produced blossoms, and yielded ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the rods from before

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 the Lord to all the children of Israel, and they looked, and each man took his rod. And the Lord

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 said to Moses, bring Aaron's rod back before the testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels,

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 that you may put their complaints away from me, lest they die. Thus did Moses just as the Lord

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 had commanded him. So he did. Now, Aaron's staff blossomed and produced fruit. A lot of people

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 believe that it was actually not that it went through all those stages, but that it had all

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 those stages at the same time, which is extremely rare, that it would have sprouts, and buds, and

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 blossoms, and fruit all at the same time. And the reasoning for that is that it is even beyond

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 the fact that it's a rod that has blossomed and brought forth almonds and had a name on it,

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 the fact that it would have all those at the same time is impossible to replicate. You can't go out

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 and cut off a branch from an almond tree. It would have all the same stage, all at the same time,

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 either it's just shoots, or it's just a bunch of blossoms, or all flowers, or all of it has

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 almonds. But it would never have all of them across the branch at different times, because

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 that would happen at different times of the year. So this is an infallible proof that God

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 had did a miracle and proved that Aaron was the high priest. And the other interesting thing is

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 since it's coming back to the ark to be an example and a testimony against the rebels who

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 might challenge it again in the future, it's pretty clear that these would have lasted continually

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 in the ark, in the presence of God, that the flowers would not wilt, the branch, the rod

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 would not die again, and there would still be almonds on there, fresh almonds. And there's a lot

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 of depth there that we're going to get into. But when I read this, especially in light of

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 this past Sunday with Jesus being the high priest, the Order of Melchizedek,

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 I see Jesus all over this, and I see the gospel all over it. Because we know that Jesus is

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 truly the high priest. We know that Aaron and all of this Levitical work and everything,

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 the sacrifices, the Bible says it is a shadow of the heavenly things. It is a foreshadowing

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 of what was going to come and be done by Jesus, and then everything would come to light and it

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 would all make sense. So we know that Jesus was truly the high priest, the chosen one.

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 And so just like Aaron was accused of not being, he shouldn't be the high priest,

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 you know, is this truly like the one that should be doing this? He didn't answer a word.

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 He didn't say a thing. He waited for God to vindicate him, and we see Jesus

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 accused of blasphemy, accused of all types of things that he didn't do, accused of sinning

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 all this stuff, and did he defend himself? He was silent, says like a lamb being led to the

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 slaughter. He didn't defend himself, didn't try to prove himself right. He was quiet,

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 and he waited for the Lord to vindicate him through his resurrection to prove his legitimacy

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 as the true high priest. And the other thing I see is that the rods, there were a bunch of rods,

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 and Aaron was just one of the rods in there, that he was essentially numbered with the rebels.

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 And we know Jesus was numbered among the sinners, numbered among the rebels on the cross. He was

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 surrounded by two sinners. He looked like, from the worldly perspective, just another one of those

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 guys, right? And this piece of wood that's the rod that sprouted new life, so we see Jesus on his

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 cross of wood brought new life to all of us. And just like that rod sitting in the secret place

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 before God's presence, right, overnight we see Jesus resting in the grave.

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 And in the morning when the rod was pulled out and showed unto everyone, proving the legitimacy

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 of Aaron, so in the morning on the third day Jesus rose again, showing himself to this followers,

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 proving that he is actually God, the Son of God and the high priest. And just like that rod

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 stayed blossomed and had eternal fruit inside the Ark of the Covenant, so we see Jesus is

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 forever risen. He didn't rise, it's not past tense, it's current when we say he is risen,

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 and he is seated at the right hand of the Father in his presence and glory. And the fruit that

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 lasts forever is the fruit of salvation, it's me and you, our souls. Just like those almonds

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 that will never wither and die, so are you and I because of his work on the cross. It continues,

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 the good news of Jesus and his ministry as high priest continues eternally to bear fruit

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 in souls that are now in his presence. And I see that like Jesus's words mean even more when I

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 think about this passage when he says, abide to me and I and you and you'll bear much fruit,

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 that he is the true vine and we are the branches. And just like that branch that there's no way it

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 should have blossomed, there's no way it should have bear fruit, but it was the presence of God

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 that made it happen, so are you and I who really don't deserve it. We're like dead in our sin and our

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 trespasses, all of it, just like the rebels, right? If we abide in him, the true high priest

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 that brings life, if we just surrender to him and live with him and honor him, he'll bear fruit

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 through us, eternal fruit for salvation. And this miracle for all of Israel is really just pointing,

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 he's the high priest, really it's saying through the high priest is life, through this sacrificial

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 system, you will live not because of the sacrifice, but because of the coming sacrifice of Jesus.

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 And he's saying your ways are death, your ways are dead, your rods will never come to life,

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 your authority will never do anything good, but the authority of Jesus brings about life,

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 the authority of Jesus frees you. And so these last couple of verses 12 and 13,

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 very interesting, it says, so the children of Israel spoke to Moses saying, surely we die,

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 we perish, we all perish. Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die,

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 shall we all utterly die? A lot of dies, a lot of perishes, very negative. They totally missed it,

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 like here is the gospel put before them and God is essentially saying, just don't follow your

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 own ways anymore, follow mine and you're gonna live. And instead they're like, well,

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 we're gonna die, we're dead, we're just gonna always die. So when you read this,

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 some people take it as repentance, like, oh, they're aware of their sin. Other people say,

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 this is just them kind of saying God is a harsh God and he's gonna kill us at some point.

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 And I like to read this guy Matthew Henry, his commentary, it's a little hard to get

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 through sometimes, but he's from the 1600s and so it's really great to read people that are

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 nowhere near your time zone so you don't have like common modern era stuff influencing it.

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 So this guy is from the 1600s and this is what he says about it and I really liked it. He said,

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 the Israelites here seem to speak despairingly. So they're discouraged, you know, despairingly

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 they're speaking about God as if he was a hard master. They sought that would seek advantage

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 against them and that as if he took all occasions to pick quarrels with them so that

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 if they even took a misstep, they would die by his wrath and that's why they're

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 basically insinuating that God would never be satisfied with their blood and ruin.

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 They completely miss the gospel and I think about it, isn't that everyone today though?

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 Like you could hear the good news of Jesus where John 3 16, God so loved the world that

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 he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

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 for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through

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 him. People will hear that gospel and somehow take it as if God is a mean God. Oh, he's the

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 only way. Oh, people have to perish? There's hell? Like not realizing that we're sending

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 ourselves to hell through our own sin and God himself, the judge of the world,

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 literally stepped down and took the penalty upon himself. Like that's the type of God,

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 that's the judge that they think is harsh is the one who actually took the penalty we deserved on

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 himself. And so that is what we run into every day when we share the gospel. Either the Holy

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 Spirit opens their eyes and they say, man, I don't deserve this. I deserve death and they

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 repent. Or they see just a God, a misconception of the God that we truly know, thinking he's

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 wrathful and they don't want to love and worship him. But I think it's important, the best way

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 really to share the gospel is not to eliminate, you know, the hard truths of it. And it's,

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 but it's very important to also share the entirety of it, that it's not like a picket

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 sign saying you're going to hell and sin is, you know, if you're sinning, you're the worst

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 person in the world. It's like, no, it's to say for all of sin to fall short of the glory of God,

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 but he came and did this for you and I in love. So I'm just so thankful though, that like,

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 as we, as we study the Old Testament, we, we can see the gospel through all of it,

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 that this was not just a plan B, but it was the only plan all along. And I just wanted,

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 I do have some questions that I want to run through in a small group. I think we have,

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 we could put them up, but I just want to pray to close this out and just let me see. Yeah,

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 let's pull up the questions. Let's pray and close this out. So Lord, we thank you so much

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 just for your love for us, God. We thank you that you are the one who mediates the new covenant,

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 God. Thank you that you desire, Lord, mercy, Lord, you desire to bring grace into our lives, Lord,

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 through your son. And I just pray that as we read your word, Lord, and as we talk tonight,

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 that we would just worship you, Lord, because you're holy, Lord, worship you because you're worthy,

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 and that we would give you all the honor that's due your name, God. And I pray that you just

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 bless this time and this conversation and that it be encouraging to us and to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

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 Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.

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 Don't forget to join us for Worship Live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern

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 on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day!