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We forget sometimes that we live in community.

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People live in a city because they're supposed to take care of their neighbors and so on.

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We live near water because we all need the water.

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We need safety.

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We need protection from one another, by one another, for one another and so on.

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In Deuteronomy 23, 25, it says,

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when you enter your neighbor's standing grain,

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then you may pluck the heads with your hands,

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or you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.

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Basically, what they're saying was,

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it's okay for us to profit off of one another.

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It's okay for us to be generous toward one another.

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It's okay for others to consume some of our resources.

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But the bottom line is,

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they should come intentionally with a sickle to carve deep into our sustenance.

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Using a sickle is a more purposeful taking of that which doesn't belong to you.

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Basically, the difference between taking something along the way,

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like Providence, etc.,

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is different than purposefully taking that which does not belong to you.

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So if you have somebody who comes to your house,

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it's okay to be generous toward them, practice hospitality or so on.

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If you have somebody who comes into your life,

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it's okay to give them minorly here or there or whatever,

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whatever you can help them with.

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That's as if they were picking the grain a little bit with their hand.

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But if they come intentionally trying to take from you,

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intentionally taking more than what's reasonable,

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then that's where you have to say,

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no, that's not acceptable.

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This is the sustenance with which God has given me,

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and I will bless others with it,

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but I'm not going to allow you to take it from me or to misuse me.

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God wants us to be wise in all things,

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and we can prosper along the way, and that's fine.

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But misusing others or being misused by others is not acceptable.

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God bless you today. Stand firm.