Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 08 20 2025 Different Functions of God’s Law

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08 20 2025 Different Functions of God’s Law · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
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  Speaker 1: much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
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  Speaker 1: for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
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  Speaker 1: yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to
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  Speaker 1: keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
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  Speaker 1: going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
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  Speaker 1: today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
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  Speaker 1: vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
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  Speaker 1: author speaker, Elle David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Wednesday. It's
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  Speaker 2: August twenty, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
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  Speaker 2: David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
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  Speaker 2: Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single
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  Speaker 2: day and today is no exception. We are continuing in
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  Speaker 2: our Lesson study series through the Book of Exodus, and
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  Speaker 2: our caption for today is different functions of God's Law,
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  Speaker 2: Different functions of God's Law. Before we get into that,
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you
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  Speaker 2: to go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please
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  Speaker 2: join our online community, pick up your Daily Portion Life
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  Speaker 2: application guide, and let us know where you are in
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  Speaker 2: the world. At your Daily Portion dot com. This is
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  Speaker 2: one of the ways that we continue to build faith
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  Speaker 2: and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we
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  Speaker 2: will get underway. Father, thank you for this day and
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  Speaker 2: for giving us the truth as it is in Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Please help us to lay hold upon you, lay hold
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  Speaker 2: upon this truth and live live like Jesus lived in
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  Speaker 2: Jesus' name. I pray, Amen and Amen again. Different functions
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  Speaker 2: of God's law, and in this case we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: the Ten Commandments law. So you all don't need to
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  Speaker 2: be arguing in your Saba school classes when you're in
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  Speaker 2: person about what law is witch and all that kind
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  Speaker 2: of thing. We're talking about the Ten Commandment's law. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: So we're going right to James. The Book of James
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  Speaker 2: chapter one, Versus twenty three to twenty five. James chapter one,
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  Speaker 2: verses twenty three to twenty five, and the Bible reads,
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  Speaker 2: For if any be a hearer of the word and
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  Speaker 2: not a doer, he is like a man beholding his
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  Speaker 2: natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, or
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  Speaker 2: he gazes at himself, he sees himself, like right now,
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  Speaker 2: I can see myself on a big screen while I
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  Speaker 2: am looking where you would be I'm looking at the camera,
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  Speaker 2: but I imagine, because I've spoken in person so many
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  Speaker 2: times I can't count. I'm imagining you on the other
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  Speaker 2: end of this thing, but I can still see me.
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  Speaker 2: So it's as if I were looking at myself God forbid,
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  Speaker 2: and then straightway forgetting what manner of man he is? Yes,
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  Speaker 2: verse twenty five. But whoso looketh into the perfect law
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  Speaker 2: of liberty. So now we're very clear. This is the
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  Speaker 2: Ten Commandments law, the Decalogue, as we said the other day,
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  Speaker 2: the perfect law of what liberty. So for those of
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  Speaker 2: you who think that if in fact you submit your
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  Speaker 2: will to God or your friends, tell you this thing
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  Speaker 2: that if you know you are attached to people who
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  Speaker 2: believe that if we submit our will to God and
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  Speaker 2: then we become law keepers, that somehow we become legalists,
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  Speaker 2: that's silly, because this text in the Bible, inspired by
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  Speaker 2: the Holy Ghost, says that we are looking into the
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  Speaker 2: law of liberty. So the law of liberty liberates. I
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  Speaker 2: hate this, I know, I know, I can't use the
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  Speaker 2: same word it. The law of liberty puts us into
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  Speaker 2: a position that if we surrender our will to God
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  Speaker 2: and his law becomes a promise to us that we
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  Speaker 2: are free to do God's will. I said, free to
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  Speaker 2: do God's will, not free to just do everything, free
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  Speaker 2: to do God's will, free to do God's will. And
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  Speaker 2: the Bible continues and continue with therein he is being
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  Speaker 2: a forgetful hearer. So if you look in and forget yourself,
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  Speaker 2: you're a forgetful hearer, but a doer, Not a forgetful
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  Speaker 2: hearer part of me, but a doer of the work.
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  Speaker 2: This man shall be blessed in his deed. Let me
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  Speaker 2: say it with no commentary now from the New English
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  Speaker 2: translation of the Bible. For if someone merely listens to
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  Speaker 2: the message of God's word and does not live it out,
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  Speaker 2: he is like someone who looks at his own face
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  Speaker 2: in a mirror. He gazes at himself and then goes
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  Speaker 2: out immediately and forgets what sort of person that he is.
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  Speaker 2: But the one who peers into the perfect law of
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  Speaker 2: liberty and fixes his attention there and does not become
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  Speaker 2: a forgetful listener, but one who lives it out, he
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  Speaker 2: will be blessed in what he does. So the immediate
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  Speaker 2: question is what are you looking at?
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  Speaker 1: Like?
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  Speaker 2: What kind of mirror are you looking into? Are you
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  Speaker 2: looking at the kind of mirror that's like you grading
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  Speaker 2: your own paper and you deciding what it's going to be,
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  Speaker 2: like Lucifer did where he said, I don't need that law.
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  Speaker 2: We can make it up ourselves because we are holy beings. No, no,
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  Speaker 2: I hope not. But if you're looking into the perfect
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  Speaker 2: law of liberty, then there are a few things that
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  Speaker 2: we need to experience. So James uses this mirror metaphor
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  Speaker 2: to show us the purpose of God's law. There are
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  Speaker 2: a few things, at least from James's account. It reveals
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  Speaker 2: what we really are. It reveals what we really are.
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  Speaker 2: It reflects our need for spiritual cleansing. So we already
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  Speaker 2: see like what we really are is somebody who needs
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  Speaker 2: God to cleanse us. So we see who we are.
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  Speaker 2: We see what we are with no filters, nothing flattering,
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  Speaker 2: nothing to tell us, well, it's not that bad. It
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  Speaker 2: just reveals the truth, and we see that we are unholy,
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  Speaker 2: we are miserable, poor, blind, naked, and sometimes don't even
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  Speaker 2: know it by ourselves that is. And God is saying, okay, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so keep looking, keep looking. You see right there. You
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  Speaker 2: need spiritual cleansing. And then the reality is it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: repair the sin. It exposes it. There's some people trying
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  Speaker 2: to wipe the law of God over our faces when
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  Speaker 2: our faces are dirty, wipe the love of God up
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  Speaker 2: under our armpits. I'm not being sacrilegious. I'm saying we
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  Speaker 2: need to see this in real life, like you're looking.
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  Speaker 2: You're looking in the mirror, right, Yeah, some people are
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  Speaker 2: trying to wipe the law of God all over and
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  Speaker 2: make it cleanse us, when in fact there is only
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  Speaker 2: one who can cleanse us, and that is God. So
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  Speaker 2: it reveals the fact that we need God. Okay, and
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  Speaker 2: so let me not go to theological with the time
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  Speaker 2: that we have left, and let's just go right in
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  Speaker 2: again to the Bible. Romans chapter seven and verse twelve.
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  Speaker 2: The Bible teaches us that it reveals God's character. He's
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  Speaker 2: holy and just and good. In verse seven it defines sin.
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  Speaker 2: Without the laws, sin cannot be recognized. And then in
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  Speaker 2: Galatians chapter three and verse twenty four, you can rewind this,
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  Speaker 2: you can rewind this one day. It points us to
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  Speaker 2: Christ as our redeemer and deliverer. And then in Genesis
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  Speaker 2: chapter two and verse seventeen, we see that it protects
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  Speaker 2: life and liberty. It sets boundaries that keeps us free
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  Speaker 2: from self destruction. And then finally in Jeremiah, chapter thirty
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  Speaker 2: one and verse thirty three, where we see the New Covenant,
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  Speaker 2: it promotes transformation when in turn it becomes rich and
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  Speaker 2: in our heart because that's what God has promised. So
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  Speaker 2: how do we apply this? How do we apply this?
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  Speaker 2: There's so much we could say and likely should say,
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  Speaker 2: but time is ticking. When you look into the mirror
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  Speaker 2: of God's law, and I'm saying this to myself. When
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  Speaker 2: you look into that mirror of God's law, don't just
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  Speaker 2: nod at what you see. Respond, well, what is the
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  Speaker 2: response like when I see that things aren't as right
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  Speaker 2: as I hoped, When I look and see that they
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  Speaker 2: are not as holy as I had hoped, or even
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  Speaker 2: maybe God forbid had convinced myself when I had the
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  Speaker 2: filter on, when I had the filter of well, at
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  Speaker 2: least I'm not as bad as person acts. God forbid.
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  Speaker 2: Now when I look, I don't just nod, I begin
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  Speaker 2: to act. How do I act? Well, don't use the
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  Speaker 2: law to measure ourselves with others or against others, use
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  Speaker 2: it to keep our own walk aligned. Well, what was
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  Speaker 2: what would be my response? What would be my own
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  Speaker 2: walk aligned principle, well, going to God and saying God,
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  Speaker 2: I feel off I'm off balance here. I can't stay
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  Speaker 2: on that line like the people who get caught for
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  Speaker 2: DUI or d wi, whatever the case may be, under
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  Speaker 2: intoxication like and they tell them to stand on this
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  Speaker 2: line and then walk forward one foot before the other,
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  Speaker 2: and they start stumbling. That is the human looking into
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  Speaker 2: the law of God without the Holy Ghost. And then
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  Speaker 2: let the Holy Spirit use the law to convict us
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  Speaker 2: and submit to the process, submit to God, and let
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  Speaker 2: Jesus cleanse us. There are so many things that we
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  Speaker 2: can learn here, but let's keep going. Make it a
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  Speaker 2: great day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends.
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  Speaker 1: Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by
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  Speaker 1: every word that comes from the mouth of God. This
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  Speaker 1: has been your daily portion with l David Harris. Make
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  Speaker 1: it a great day. Yeah,