#54. Deuteronomy 15-18 | Following the Example of the Servant King

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Welcome to the Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox.

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If motherhood or just life in general,

is sometimes so much harder than you

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expected it to be, we're walking with

you chronologically through the pages of

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scripture to be reminded That dwelling

with the Lord is our greatest gift.

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Sometimes he changes circumstances

and sometimes he just changes

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us in the midst of them.

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But he has always been a God

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that desired to walk with his people.

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And we're proud of you

for walking with him.

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Today we're looking at Deuteronomy

Chapters 15 through 18.

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I'll read a couple passages and then

I'll talk about what the Lord is

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teaching me right now through them

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beginning in chapter 15, verse one.

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At the end of every seven years, you shall

grant a release and this is the manner

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of the release, and every creditor shall

release what he has lent to his neighbor.

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He shall not exact it of his

neighbor, his brother, because the

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Lord's release has been proclaimed.

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Of a foreigner.

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You may exact it,

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but whatever of yours is with your

brother, your hand shall release,

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but there will be no poor among you.

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For the Lord will bless you in the

land that the Lord your God is giving

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you for an inheritance to possess.

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If only you will strictly obey

the voice of the Lord your God,

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being careful to do all this

commandment that I command you today.

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For the Lord, your God will bless you as

he promised you, and you shall lend to

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many nations, but you shall not borrow

and you shall rule over many nations,

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but they shall not rule over you.

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If among you, one of your brothers

should become poor in any of

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your towns within your land, that

the Lord your God is giving you.

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You shall not harden your heart or

shut your hand against your poor

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brother, but you shall open your

hand to him and lend him sufficient

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for his need, whatever it may be.

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Take care.

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Lest there be an unworthy thought in

your heart and you say The seventh

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year, the year of release is near.

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And your eye look grudgingly on

your poor brother, and you give him

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nothing and he cried to the Lord

against you, and you be guilty of sin.

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You shall give to him freely and

your heart shall not begrudging

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when you give to him because for this,

the Lord your God will bless you in all

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your work and in all that you undertake.

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For there will never cease

to be poor in the land.

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Therefore, I command you.

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You shall open wide your hand

to your brother, to the needy

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unto the poor in your land.

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If your brother, a Hebrew man or

a Hebrew woman is sold to you,

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he shall serve you six years.

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And in the seventh year, you

shall let him go free from you.

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And when you let him go free from you,

you shall not let him go empty handed.

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You shall furnish him liberally out

of your flock, out of your threshing

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floor and out of your wine press as

the Lord your God has blessed you.

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You shall give to him.

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You shall remember that you were

a slave in the land of Egypt and

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the Lord your God redeemed you.

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therefore I command you this day.

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But if he says to you, I will not

go out from you because he loves you

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and your household, since he is well

off with you, then you shall take

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and now, and put it through

his ear into the door, and he

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shall be your slave forever.

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And to your female slave,

you shall do the same.

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In chapter 17,

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beginning in verse 14, when you come to

the land that the Lord your God is giving

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you and you possess it and dwell on it,

and then say, I will set a king over me

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like all the nations that are around me.

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You may indeed set a king over

you whom the Lord your God will

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choose one from among your brothers

you shall set is king over you.

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You may not put a foreigner over

you who is not your brother only.

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He must not acquire many horses for

himself or cause the people to return to

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Egypt in order to acquire many horses.

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Since the Lord has said to you, you

shall never return that way again.

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And he shall not acquire many wives

for himself, lest his heart turn

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away, nor shall he acquire for

himself excessive silver and gold.

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And when he sits on the throne of

his kingdom, he shall write for

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himself in a book, a copy of this law

approved by the Levitical priest, and

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it shall be with him, and he shall

read it all the days of his life.

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That he may learn to fear the Lord

his God, by keeping all the words of

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this law and these statutes and doing

them, that his heart may not be lifted

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up above his brothers and that he may

not turn aside from the commandment

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either to the right hand or to the left,

so that he may continue along in his

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kingdom, he and his children in Israel.

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And continuing on in chapter

18, the Levitical priests of all

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the tribe of Levi shall have no

portion or inheritance with Israel.

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They shall eat the Lord's food

offerings as their inheritance.

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They shall have no inheritance

among their brothers.

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The Lord is their inheritance

as he promised them.

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I'd like to connect the

passages that I read

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In chapter 15, the process for the

forgiveness of debt was described

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and God promised that if they obeyed

him in their financial dealings, that

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there would be no poor among them.

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Later it goes on to say, there will

always be poor among you, this was

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the acknowledgement that if they didn't

follow God's rules, there would be poor.

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God's heart was that the poor

would always be provided for

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because of our love for God.

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That overflows into our love for others,

we look at all we have from his hand

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and in our gratitude we're willing

to share it with others around us.

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But then we read about

indentured servitude.

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Though the word slave

may be used in spots.

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It's so much different

than we view slavery today.

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This was if someone had fallen into hard

times that they could employ themselves

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for a time of six years and then the

seventh year, they would be set free

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unless they found that the family they

were serving, they loved so dearly that

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they wanted to stay and then the owner

would take this servant to a public place

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that he could declare I love my master.

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And then on the doorpost.

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This is the same place , that they

would put the blood of the Lama

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Passover, would take a leather.

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Piercing tool.

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And that's where their

ear would be pierced.

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This public declaration.

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Revealed that they were being

pierced because they loved their

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master and then they would always

carry with them that piercing

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that showed I belong to my master.

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In the New Testament, the word is used, do

loss, which means servant or bond servant.

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Paul often used this in

the opening of his letters.

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Let me read a few examples.

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In Romans one, one, Paul

writes Paul, a servant of Jesus

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Christ called to be an apostle

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in Philippians one, one, Paul and

Timothy Servants of Christ Jesus

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and in Titus one one,

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Paul, a servant of God and

an apostle of Jesus Christ,

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and in Philippians two, beginning

in verse four, we read of Jesus.

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Let each of you look not only

to his own interests, but also

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to the interests of others.

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Have this mind among yourselves,

which is yours in Christ Jesus.

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who though he was in the form of

God, did not count equality with God

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a thing to be grasped, but emptied

himself by taking the form of a

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servant, being born in the likeness

of men and being found in human form.

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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to

the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Therefore, God has highly exalted

him and bestowed on him the

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name that is above every name,

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I read to you a portion of

chapter 17, which described

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the requirements for a king.

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it's truly evident that God's

requirement was that the king would

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rely on the Lord for strength.

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He wouldn't rely.

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On horses as they provided

strength for the battle.

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And even to this day, marriages

are often arranged that are

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politically advantageous, and help

spread the territory of a king.

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Or bring peace with another land.

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But yet again, God's ways and his

methods are different than the

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world, and he wants the purity of

their religion to be maintained.

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So he doesn't want his

king to acquire many wives.

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And then finally, the king is not to seek

after silver and gold doesn't this fly

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in the face of pretty much every kingdom

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that we've ever heard of but this

King's Trust was to be in the Lord.

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and as much as kings often have others

serve them, the King's requirement was to

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take this book of Deuteronomy and write

it with his own hand on his own scroll.

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And to read it all the days of his life

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and why that he may learn to

fear the Lord his God by keeping

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all the words of this law,

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and his heart is not to be

lifted above his brothers.

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God knows we're prone to wander.

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And just as the kings are to be

reminded of God's righteous rules.

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That's what we're doing too.

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We're looking to the heart

of God in these pages.

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And then chapter 18 reminds us that

God is the inheritance of the Levites.

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I see this thread woven through these

passages that prevents us from looking

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too much to accumulation of treasures

on this earth, but to serve others.

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And ultimately

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To find our delight and our

purpose in serving the Lord.

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If you think about your walk

with Christ right now and you

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being a bond servant of him.

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Maybe you look back at the past six years

and say, wow, honestly, Jesus serving

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you has been harder than I thought.

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But you can honestly take that to him.

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He went before you laying

down his rights and his will.

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That's why we can Public glee declare

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he was pierced for me

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and it's my joy and my honor.

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To follow him and to lay

down my freedom as well.

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let's pray.

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Heavenly father.

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You are our inheritance.

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We thank you that you are our

strength and that you are our example.

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You created such good

guidelines to bless your people.

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But we don't live in nations set

aside that are following your rules

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anymore, and we see the pain of

straying from you all around us.

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So we pray.

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for our nations, Lord.

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That as impossible as it may seem,

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we believe that the king's heart

is like water in your hands.

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So we ask for transformation

to happen on this earth

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that our leaders would rule

righteously, that they would

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have your heart for the people

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and Lord, when they don't, give us

wisdom and how you're calling us to act.

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We pray that we would proudly

and publicly declare that we

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serve the Lord Jesus Christ,

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and that we would realize that our master

has been good to us and he is worthy of

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all that we have help our children to see.

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That the inheritance of your presence far

outweighs any earthly comfort or pleasure,

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some trust and chariots

and some trust in horses.

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But Lord, help us to trust in

the name of the Lord our God.

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In the name of our servant,

king Jesus Christ, we pray.

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Amen.