Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 10 29 2023 Our Excuses- Fear

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10 29 2023 Our Excuses- Fear · 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 food
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  is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
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  of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
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  us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
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  of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
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  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 morning.
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  It is Sunday, October twenty nine, twenty twenty three. Hello,
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  my name is El 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, and today
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  is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series. God's mission,
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  my mission, and our caption for today is our excuses, and here's
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  one of them. Fear. Sometimes we use fear and an excuse. We'll
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  get into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome
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  to you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Please join our online community. Please also please also share where you are in
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  the world and pick up your Daily Portion book at your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father
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  in Heaven, thank you for giving us the privilege to open up your word
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  today. Please give us the fullness of your holy spirit, and never allow
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  fear to short circuit our faith. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen
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  and a man again. Let me just say two things very quickly. One,
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  fear is natural, but God is sovereign. He's supernatural human. Fear
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  is natural, but God is sovereign. He is the creator. He is
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  super natural. When we have fears, we surrender our fears to Him.
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  Simple as that. Now, there are examples in the scriptures of people who
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  did not allow fear to rule him. David, as he was facing Goliath,
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  when the people of God were frozen in fear, he did not allow
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  fear to subjugate his faith. Daniel, when he was to be thrown into
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  the den of lions, did not allow fear to subject his faith. Huh.
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  The young men, the three Hebrew boys, who were facing a very
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  hot trial to be thrown into the fiery furnace because they would only choose to
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  serve God, did not allow fear to short circuit their faith. And I
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  could go on and on and on. Now, fear is natural. The
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  body does have a response that God built into it called the fight or flight
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  response, where adrenaline is secreted so you can run fast if you need to
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  run fast, or become strong like in the moment, if you need to
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  become unnaturally strong, Yes, that happens, but that has nothing to do
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  with when God gives a command to move forward on a mission. If a
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  truck is barreling down on the road and you see it coming and you suddenly
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  have this natural fear and you're able to run quickly out of the way or
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  jump higher than normal, then that is a response that God put into our
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  bodies for our benefit. But if God says go and you don't go,
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  that is unholy, That is ungodly fear. This is not a physiological response.
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  This is a spiritual response. No excuses for fear. Now, let
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  me read from the book Prophets and Kings, page two hundred and sixty five
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  to give a real view of what was going on with Jonah among the cities
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  of the ancient world in the days of divided Israel. One of the Great
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  Tests was Ninevah, the capital of the Assyrian realm. In the time of
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  its temporal prosperity, Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness. Inspiration has
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  characterized it as the bloody city full of lies and robbery. In figurative language,
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  the prophet Nahum compared the Ninavites to a cruel, ravenous lion, upon
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  whom he inquired, hath not thy wickedness passed continually. That's from the Book
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  of Naom, chapter three, verses one and nineteen. That's the end of
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  the quote. So we are not going to be naive. There was reason
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  that people who struggle with faith might be fearful of the Ninavites, the Assyrians,
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  and the Ninovites in particular. I get all of that, got it.
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  But but even though they were ruthless, even though they boasted that the
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  filled streets with the corpses of its inhabitants, young and old, and relief
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  carvings found during excavations depict scenes of soldiers impaling victims. Even though that was
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  the reality, that was no excuse for God's man Jonah to do the opposite
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  of what God said. God said, go to Nineveh, cry against the
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  city, so that he could have mercy on them and not to destroy them.
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  God was sending him with a warning and an opportunity for the Ninevites to
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  turn away from sin, but he decided he was going the opposite direction.
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  And so the first thing we want to do in context of that story is
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  acknowledge the validity of fear. When I say validity, I'm saying that humans
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  are fearful at times. I'm not saying excused, okay. And so the
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  action, well, let me just read this one and verse three and verse
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  one, the full passage, Woe to the bloody City. It is all
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  full of lies and robbery. The prey did parteth not so anybody that they
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  wanted they got them. They were so wicked that anybody they wanted to destroy
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  they got them. And it was messy, got it. So the scripture
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  says very clearly who these people were and what they were about, and there
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  was so much more. You can read that in your spare time. The
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  action is, though, that we must recognize and acknowledge the fact that we
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  are afraid, yes, and that it's a human thing. But we want
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  to surrender that to God. We do not want to allow those fears to
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  hinder our obedience to God's call. Fear happens, yes, but we must
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  not allow that to hinder our obedience. Number two, embrace God's sovereignty amidst
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  the fear. We're not acting like that the thing, the danger is not
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  there. We're not acting like things are not as bad as they look,
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  because sometimes they literally are. I could give examples, but it would probably
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  get our program knocked off of the Internet. Because there are things we have
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  seen in the news for the last many years, especially all kinds of wickedness
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  that people have committed against each other. Atrocities, nasty, messy, evil
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  atrocities committed against people. We have seen it even in our day. And
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  God is saying that when I send you into those situations to speak for me
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  a warning or a way to deliver, or a judgment, thou shalt go
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  and not allow fear to hinder you. Now, the Bible says in Naom
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  chapter one and verse two, God is jealous and the Lord Revengeth. The
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  Lord Revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance and his adversaries,
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  and he that reserveth wrath for his enemy. So the action in this case
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  is, in the face of fear and intimidation, I don't care how wicked
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  people can become, how intimidating they are. Embrace the sovereignty of God.
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  Ah that becomes crucial in moving forward in the mission that he entrusts to us.
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  Number three, prioritizing God's compassion. God's compassion over our personal apprehensions,
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  and the Bible teaches us in Jonah chapter four, verse eleven, And should
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  I not pity Nineveh, that great city we're in are more than sixcore thousand
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  persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also
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  much cattle. And so while whereas the city was wicked, yes, they
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  were cruel. Yes, God said, I will have compassion. And you
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  need to be the voice of reason that brings people to a point of decision.
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  Jonah, do not let your fear, do not let your prejudice,
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  do not let your mixed up view of who God is to deter you.
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  So we must align our hearts with God's compassion. And this means prioritizing his
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  love for people over our personal fears and apprehensions, and then finally turn our
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  fear into an act of faith. Sometimes we just have to convince ourselves through
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  the Holy Ghost that since God is the one who called us, that his
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  biddings are enablings, and that He will take care of us as he sees
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  fit. And so we have some excuses, yeah, but fear that should
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  not be one of them. A wonderful day, Peace. Thanks for joining
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  us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but
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  by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your
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  daily portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,