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I'm thinking today of Deuteronomy 18, 9.

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The Lord is talking to the Israelites through Moses, and he basically says, when you enter

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the land that the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable

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things of those nations.

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A detestable thing is a thing that God finds it easy to have a distaste for or to despise

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or to look down on.

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There are things that people in the world, other nations, other cultures, people that

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live near us do that are simply not liked by God.

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You can call them sin.

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I suppose it's sin.

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If it creates distaste in the God of the universe, then it's sin.

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But the bottom line is these are things that people fall into and they do and they do because

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it seems right to them or whatever, but they're actually detestable by God.

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And God is saying to the Israelites when they go into their promised land, their kingdom

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of God, their nation delivered by grace, that they are not to behave, not to fall into the

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trap of imitating what the others are doing, what the other nations are doing.

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And so what I'm saying to you is this, as kingdom of God members, as followers of Jesus,

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we mustn't fall into the trap of imitating the activities of those around us that God

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can easily despise.

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Rather let us be good, let us be holy, let us be kind, let us be gracious, let us be

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generous, let us be faithful worshipers and givers and servants.

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God help us stand for him today.

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We are not done yet.

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There is every opportunity to make a huge difference in this world and you can do it

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and I can do it.

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Let's do it.