Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 07 01 2024 A Second Chance

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07 01 2024 A Second Chance · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
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  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
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  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
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  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
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  to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
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  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good
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  morning. It is Monday, July one, twenty twenty four. Hello,
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  my name is Elle David Harris. I am your host, and this is
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  your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, even on
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  the days that I forget what day it is, and today is no exception.
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  We are continuing in our new lesson study series on the Book of Mark,
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  and our caption for today is a second Chance, a second Chance.
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  We'll get into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say
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  welcome to you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Please join our online community, pick up the Your Daily Portion book and
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  let us know where you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
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  This is a way that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's
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  go ahead and pray and then we will get underway. Father in heaven,
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  thank you for this day. Thank you for loving us enough to give us
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  chances. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for your
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  holiness. Please give your holiness to us in Jesus name. I pray,
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  Amen and Amen again a second chance. Now that is the caption for today.
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  But let me just ask you a question, because I know we have
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  all of these cliches and sayings and idioms and stuff, right. I know
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  that people say God is a god of second chances. Is that something you
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  believe that God is a god of second chances? I'm just pausing for a
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  moment so you can type it in the chat. Okay, those on the
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  radio, you just answer it as you see fit. Okay, well,
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  listen, I understand what we mean by that. But if God were a
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  god of second chances, then we would be gone like this would be it,
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  Like we would have been at the end of the end of the line,
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  the end of our ropes, like that's it, because that would mean
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  it's like the second chance and that's it. And after the second chance,
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  well you have to just get it right. And that's it. And I
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  know I'm being technical, but I want us to really be thoughtful of the
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  blessing that God is to us, because He has extended hundreds and thousands and
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  tens of thousands of chances to us in order to give us an opportunity even
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  when sometimes we reject it. And it's like, God, why are you
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  so good to us to give us an opportunity to live according to His principles,
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  to live holy, holy lives? After we have made bad decision after
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  bad decision, we've allowed ourselves to be addicted to all kinds of behaviors and
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  substances. We have allowed ourselves to be addicted to our own reflections, like
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  what we see and create on social media about ourselves. Some of us have
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  learned to worship and burn incense to that false image, like some of us
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  have learned to worship and bow down and burn incense to the false image we
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  have created of our spirituality that's not even close to the standard that God would
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  have for us. Because we're so proud, some of us, I'm saying,
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  and so I'm thankful today I just want to start with a gratefulness,
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  opportunity for all of us to say, thank you God for giving us chance
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  after chance after chance. But God, please teach us not to take you
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  for granted, not to take you lightly, as if you're always going to
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  be like that toward us. No matter what we do, we can just
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  keep falling down and getting up, falling down, getting up. No,
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  I know that at some point, at some point, it will be enough.
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  And so teach us, Father, to do what we are to do.
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  Teach us how to experience you in the fullness as we should, and
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  then live holy lives. Thank you for being a God of so many chances.
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  But we don't deliberately. I hope we don't take you for granted.
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  And so now we read from the Book of Acts, the Bible Book of
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  Acts from chapter fifteen, verses thirty six through thirty nine, and the Bible
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  reads and some days after Paul said, unto Barnabas, let us go again
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  and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached. Thank God.
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  So they were being pastoral, they were being protective. They were ready to
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  feed the flock, not just baptize the flock, not just teach the flock
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  and then just leave the flock. No, the people that God entrusted to
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  their care in all of these places, these men now are going to pour
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  into them and see how they do verse thirty seven. And Barnabas determined to
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  take with them John, whose surname was Mark. Now we know that John
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  Mark is the same person who is who has been attributed to writing the Bible
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  Book of Mark. Okay, and so his name is surname was Mark.
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  His last name was Mark verse thirty eight. But Paul thought not good to
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  take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphilia and went not with
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  them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them that they
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  departed asunder one from another. So Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus.
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  What happened at the end, Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus. And
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  so what we see now are two, let's call it two men of God.
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  Were more than two, but two men of God. In this case
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  we're talking about Paul and Barnabas. Okay, Paul and Barnabas, so two
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  men of God who do the work like they do the mission of God,
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  and they are really just knocking down doors that separate people from holiness. And
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  together they run. Thank God, John Mark has given the opportunity as well.
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  He's a part of the squad. And well, John Mark, as
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  we read yesterday, allowed discouragement, allowed fear and some other things to put
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  him like out of the fight, like this dude ran, he ran.
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  And so now Paul is saying, let's go, let's go do some more
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  work and and and Barnabas is like, okay, cool, bring bring John
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  Mark. And he's like, oh no, no, no. Paul is
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  like nope, I'm not bringing him with me. And so now you can
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  imagine the back and forth because two men of God are now like hold up.
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  One is saying, bring him, the other is saying no. The
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  one who's saying no is saying because I see how he moves and I need
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  I need somebody solid, like I need a real soldier on this team.
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  And Barnabas is like, no, but we can work with him, we
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  can work with him and John's and Paul is like, brother, not,
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  now, I gotta go. We need to work. We need to work,
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  not work with him. We need to go feed these sheep. Like
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  when we have spiritual battles, if you want to say, we need the
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  strongest soldiers on the battlefield. And so the Bible does teach us that because
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  God is good, and you want to say, well, how good is
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  he? He's so good that Barnabas took Mark. Barnabas took Mark under his
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  wing because likely his spiritual behavior style was more accommodating to working with people who
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  needed a little bit of extra help. Okay, And so I want you
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  to determine which kind of mission airy are you, Like what kind of worker
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  are you? Are you the one that's full steam ahead like lion, tigers
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  and bears don't cause you to flinch. You're like Paul, no matter what
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  if you're shipwrecked, if you have a disease, like if you have food
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  or you don't have food, You're running forward no matter what. Or you
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  like Barnabas, who may be like that in a way, but he can
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  understand like if people start to lose a little bit of focus, that he's
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  willing to work with those individuals along the way, like what kind of leader
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  are you? And so from the Seventh Day Adventists Bible commentary on verse thirty
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  seven. Determined. Determined is what we're looking at. The textual evidence attests,
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  so the reading was minded or desired. Undoubtedly it was Barnabas's family relationship
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  with John Mark. Oh wait a minute, so john Mark and Barnabas are
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  closer than we knew. Their family relationship that led him to wish to take
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  the young man. Now we know he was younger once more on a missionary
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  tour to give him an opportunity to show his fitness for service. Doubtless he
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  recognized as Paul did not, circumstances that at least in part excused John Mark's
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  former turning back from the arduous task. Paul the earnest and courageous warrior for
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  Christ. Anyone who had so acted seemed, in the Lord's own words,
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  not fit for the Kingdom of God, and was in need of discipline of
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  rejection, at least for a time to fit himself for further work. Very
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  interesting discussion. This is real life stuff. We'll talk about how this thing
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  really pans out on another day of the Lord Sphaar's life. But we see
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  that God is a god of multiple chances, and john Mark got his peace.
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  Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot live by
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  bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
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  This has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make it a great
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  day. Yeah,