Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 25 2025 Finishing Well

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12 25 2025 Finishing Well · 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 2: Vibrant lives.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
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  Speaker 1: Elle David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: It is Thursday, December twenty five, twenty twenty five. Hello,
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  Speaker 3: my name is El David Harris. I am your host,
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  Speaker 3: and this is your Daily Portion where we give you
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  Speaker 3: God's word every single day, and today is no exception.
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  Speaker 3: We are continuing our lesson study series Faith for or
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  Speaker 3: Lessons of Faith from Joshua. Really we only have one
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  Speaker 3: more day after this, but our caption for today, let's
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  Speaker 3: focus on today, is finishing well. How apropos. It's apropos
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  Speaker 3: that we should really press until we finish finishing well.
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  Speaker 3: We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
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  Speaker 3: I'd like to say welcome to everyone joining us, especially
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  Speaker 3: those joining us for the very first time. I'm asking
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  Speaker 3: you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Speaker 3: Please join our online community. Pick up the Your Daily
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  Speaker 3: Portion Life Application Guide. You may not have done it
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  Speaker 3: for this quarter. It's not too late. It still exists.
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  Speaker 3: You may need to refer to it. Refer to it,
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  Speaker 3: but you can also pick up the one for next quarter.
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  Speaker 3: Pick it up now because we begin in a couple
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  Speaker 3: of days here, so get both of those at your
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  Speaker 3: Daily Portion dot com. This is one of the ways
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  Speaker 3: that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's pray, Father,
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  Speaker 3: thank you, thank you for this day. Thank you for
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  Speaker 3: giving us your son Jesus Christ, to save us, to
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  Speaker 3: save us from our sins and ourselves. Please help us
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  Speaker 3: to live for you today. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen,
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  Speaker 3: and a man again finishing well, finishing well. Let me
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  Speaker 3: read from the review in Herald eighteen seventy four. It
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  Speaker 3: is not how we begin the Christian life that determines
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  Speaker 3: our crown, but how we continue by the grace of God.
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  Speaker 2: That's an article by Uriah Smith.
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  Speaker 3: It is not how we begin the Christian life that
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  Speaker 3: determines our crown, but how we continue in the grace
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  Speaker 3: of God. You know that actually echoes the thought that
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  Speaker 3: God gave the prophet Ezekiel Ezekiel as well. So I'm
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  Speaker 3: thankful that God's people agree with what God has given
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  Speaker 3: us in the prophecies. Also from the Booksteps to Christ,
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  Speaker 3: page forty four, it is not the fear of punishment
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  Speaker 3: or hope of everlasting life or reward, excuse me, that
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  Speaker 3: leads the disciples of Christ to follow him. They behold
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  Speaker 3: the Savior's matchless love. This site attracts, it softens and
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  Speaker 3: subdues the soul. What is it that attracts? What is
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  Speaker 3: it that softens the soul? The Savior's love? Beholding? What
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  Speaker 3: manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that
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  Speaker 3: we should be called the children of God? I think
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  Speaker 3: John said that in First John, chapter three, chapter three.
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  Speaker 3: I want you to fact check me on that one.
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  Speaker 3: And so the Bible is teaching us and these writers
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  Speaker 3: are agreeing that God has no interest in us being
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  Speaker 3: fearful of him or afraid of him and trying to
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  Speaker 3: do his will. Yielding to God and appreciating the work
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  Speaker 3: of Jesus Christ, which is really the manifestation of God's love,
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  Speaker 3: is the starting point. And actually the continual impetus for
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  Speaker 3: our love. And so in the context of finishing well,
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  Speaker 3: our lesson number one today is finishing well begins with
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  Speaker 3: faithfulness in the present right now Joshua. Chapter twenty four
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  Speaker 3: and verse thirty one, the Bible reads, and God's people
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  Speaker 3: served the Lord all the days of Joshua. Isn't that
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  Speaker 3: a great testimony? God's people serve the Lord all the
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  Speaker 3: days of Joshua, because quite frankly, the generation before them,
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  Speaker 3: with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, did the exact opposite.
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  Speaker 2: They did the exact opposite.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not saying there were no faithful people at all,
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  Speaker 3: but they all died in the wilderness because of a
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  Speaker 3: lack of faith, including Moses, including Aaron. And I may
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  Speaker 3: be overstating it for some, but the fact is all
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  Speaker 3: of them died in the wilderness. And Paul said it
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  Speaker 3: had to do with unbelief. And so for this generation,
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  Speaker 3: thank God to serve the Lord all the days of Joshua.
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  Speaker 3: Let me continue, and all the days of the elders
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  Speaker 3: that outlived overlived. Excuse me, Joshua. Let me read it
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  Speaker 3: from the New English translation. God's people worship the Lord
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  Speaker 3: through Joshua's lifetime, and as long as the elderly men
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  Speaker 3: lived who outlived Joshua.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't this wonderful?
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  Speaker 3: This is my desire that I will serve the Lord
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  Speaker 3: until Jesus comes. And so the book of Joshua closes
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  Speaker 3: with three burials, how many three burials Joshua Eliezer, and
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  Speaker 3: then of course Joseph's bones, because Joseph made the people
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  Speaker 3: of God make a promise to not leave his bones
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  Speaker 3: in Egypt. Right, so these burials mark the end of
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  Speaker 3: wandering and the beginning of rooted life in the Promised Land.
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  Speaker 3: They're no longer wandering, they're no longer suffering through what
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  Speaker 3: they created. And God could have taken them into the
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  Speaker 3: Promise probably if they went. If they went one I
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  Speaker 3: think Kadesh, the route through Kadesh, if I'm right, eleven
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  Speaker 3: days it could have taken them. Eleven days. I know
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  Speaker 3: we talk about forty days, but eleven days it could
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  Speaker 3: have taken them. But you know, whatever I digress, I digress.
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  Speaker 3: So the word the Hebrew word for serve avad avad
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  Speaker 3: means to work, worship or to devote oneself. So this
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  Speaker 3: is what the people of God did while they were
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  Speaker 3: being led by Joseph. So Joseph not only finished well,
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  Speaker 3: but he cultivated a generation that served well. He cultivated
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  Speaker 3: a generation that served well. True finishing begins with consistent
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  Speaker 3: faithfulness in ordinary days, every day when you're making decisions
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  Speaker 3: to do God's will or something else, and not at
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  Speaker 3: the end like our final moments. We don't wait until
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  Speaker 3: the big one or at the end of our days
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  Speaker 3: and then try to do it right so we can
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  Speaker 3: get it over the finish line. So the action step
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  Speaker 3: in that regard is ask God to help you be
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  Speaker 3: faithful with the responsibilities that you have in front of
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  Speaker 3: you today. This is what I'm teaching Josiah, Like it's
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  Speaker 3: painstaking sometimes when he sometimes and we're not talking about
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  Speaker 3: really crazy things like little little things that children do
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  Speaker 3: that determine really the trajectory of their own lives. And
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, ah, you don't understand where this leads, but
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  Speaker 3: I do. And so that's why I'm here to help.
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  Speaker 3: Finishing well grows from daily devotion. Our lesson number two
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  Speaker 3: is God's faithfulness anchors every generation. In verse forty five
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  Speaker 3: of Joshua, Chapter twenty one, there Faileth not aught any
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  Speaker 3: good thing which the Lord had spoken at all came
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  Speaker 3: to pass. Let me read it again in another translation.
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  Speaker 3: Not one of the good promises that the Lord made failed.
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  Speaker 3: Each was realized, thank God. So the closing paragraph ties
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  Speaker 3: God's people's past, present, and future together. God kept every
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  Speaker 3: promise in Joshua's day, and that faithfulness is the anchor
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  Speaker 3: for the new generation. What God promised the patriarch centuries
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  Speaker 3: earlier came to fulfillment under Joshua. The Hebrew word for
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  Speaker 3: promise dabar, also means word or matter. God's promises are
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  Speaker 3: not abstract hopes. So when God makes a promise, he's
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  Speaker 3: not like I'm gonna do I'm going to do what
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  Speaker 3: I can can for you. Well, I don't know what
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  Speaker 3: that means. I'm gonna do what I can. I don't
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  Speaker 3: know what that means. It's not abstract. They are solid
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  Speaker 3: words backed by his character. So the action is to
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  Speaker 3: write down one promise. I ha asked you to do
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  Speaker 3: this several times throughout this quarter of God. You are
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  Speaker 3: standing on and speak it aloud and prayer today our
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  Speaker 3: final lesson for today. Finishing well requires intentional choices. We
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  Speaker 3: need to be intentional, and intentionality means that we put
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  Speaker 3: one spiritual foot before the other until we attain the promise.
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  Speaker 3: Make it a great day, peace.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening.
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  Speaker 2: 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 El David Harris. Make
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  Speaker 1: it a great day. Yeah,