Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 10 2023 Mission to Regions Beyond

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12 10 2023 Mission to Regions Beyond · 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 Sunday, December ten, 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 Mission to Regions Beyond,
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  Mission to Regions Beyond. We'll get into that in just a moment, but
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  first I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you to please go over
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  to your Daily Portion dot com. Please click that join button, pick up
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  your Daily Portion book, and also let us know where you are in the
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  world at your Daily Portion dot com. Let's go ahead and grow in faith
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  and fellowship. In the meantime, let's pray and get underway. Father in
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  Heaven, thank you for giving us this new work week, and I pray
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  that you will give us understanding, teach us to go out into the entire
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  world, Lord, wherever we happen to be, and to just tell people
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  what great things you have done for us, and of course point them into
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  the way of salvation. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen, and
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  a man again. In the Lesson Study, it begins this way. We
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  read that Jesus took his disciples from Ginesah and departed to the region of Tire
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  and side, why did he take them from Galilee to these pagan places?
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  And you're thinking, come on, Dave, that's not even a good question,
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  really, is it. You know, sometimes religious people and notice I
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  said religious people. I didn't say people who are fully connected to God.
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  I did not say people who fully are engaged with and love God. Sometimes
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  religious people make it seem as if to become peculiar means to be strange,
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  to be annoying, to be argumentative. Huh. Sometimes religious people take the
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  peculiarity thing just a wee bit too far. And so it becomes a very
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  good question, because, yeah, do we have a real message to share?
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  What is the difference between being a very religious, fastidious person and someone
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  who is is like Jesus. See, Jesus would have done, had done
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  that, would have done. He did all that was necessary to lead people
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  into a right relationship with God. He didn't say, oh, well,
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  this place is too far. He didn't say these people are off limits.
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  No, he didn't say that we are separated from these people, so we
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  can only deal with these and not those. He did not discriminate, And
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  so it is a good question why did he take them from Galilee to these
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  quote pagan places? He leads his disciples on this field trip into the borders
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  of these foreign regions so that they could learn on location what they could not
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  learn so easily in Galilee. You know, there were times that the Church
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  of God, later on, later on from the time that we're reading about
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  that the Church of God was scattered around the world through persecution. And part
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  of the reason, apart from the fact that the devil hated them, hates
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  us and was causing havoc. Apart from that, it was because we become
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  too comfortable at times. Can I say that again? We become too comfortable
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  at times, and therefore God has to spread us out so we can learn
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  on location what it is not easy to learn when we are at home base
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  in our cushy benches. Yeah, and some of you live in countries where
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  you have beautiful carpet on the floor. And if you don't, you do
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  have a body of believers who are all speaking the same language, you see.
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  And so God wants this gospel to go into all the world. He
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  wanted to teach his disciples lessons that would help prepare them for their calling to
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  reach all people groups, including people in cities. And now you're wondering,
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  Dave, are you saying that we should be dwelling in cities. That's a
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  different discussion. We're talking about the people we should be reaching. Okay,
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  so let's go to the Book of Judges, the Book of Judges, chapter
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  three, and I will read beginning at verse one, the Book of Judges,
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  chapter three, and I will read beginning at verse one, and the
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  Bible reads, now, these are the nations which the Lord left to prove
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  Israel by them, even as many of Israel had not known all the wars
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  of Canaan, only that the generations of the children of Israel might know to
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  teach them war at the least such as before knew nothing thereof, namely five
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  lords of the Philistines and the Canaanites, and the Cydonites and the Hivites that
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  dwelt in Mount Lebanon from Mount bail Hermann unto the entering of Haymouth. And
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  so the lesson writer says, points out very aptly we see in this passage
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  that these ancient peoples were to be used by God to test Israel's faith.
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  Hmmm, have you gone into the work setting and your faith been tested?
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  Have you been on travels for missionary trips or even for your own leisure,
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  and then realize that there are things about connecting with God and people that you
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  did not understand before. Yeah, this is an interesting thing. Unfortunately,
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  God's people failed at the test too, at least in this instance in verse
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  six, again, they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave
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  their daughters unto their sons, and they served their gods. Thus, right
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  from the start, these people were a stumbling block to Israel. See I
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  stopped at verse three. Let's keep going verse four. And they were to
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  prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of
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  the Lord. Okay, so God sent them out. But did they hearken
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  unto the voice and the commandments of God which he commanded their fathers by the
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  hand of Moses. And the children of Israel dwelt among all of theseites,
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  right Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parazites, Hipbites, and Jebusites. And
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  then comes back again this verse six. And they took their daughters to be
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  their wives, and gave their daughters to be excuse me, to their sons,
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  and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the
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  sight of the Lord and forget their God, and served Balem and their groves.
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  So God gave the people of God the privilege of being spread out.
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  He gave the people of God the privilege that when they needed to be chided
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  and tested and proven in foreign lands, he provided the facility. And He
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  also provided the strength, the intelligence, right, the ability to surrender their
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  will to God. And yet they chose instead to assimilate. So the lesson
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  number one for today is when God sends us into the world, He's not
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  sending us into the world to assimilate the world. You see, when Jesus
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  prayed the prayer we call the mediatorial prayer in John chapter seventeen, he said,
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  I pray not that you would take them out of the world, but
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  that while they are in the world, really that you will keep them,
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  That you will make them one with us like I am one with you.
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  That you would keep them safe, you would keep them holy, that you
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  would you would guide them. That bottom line of what Jesus was saying.
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  And so when God sent you into your workplace, when God sends you into
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  those taxis, when God sends you to those exercise facilities and people are dressed
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  a certain way, and they're playing their music a certain way hah, and
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  you are experiencing some unfortunate conversation all around you. God did not send us
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  into those places to become like those who are there. We are there to
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  change the atmosphere. We are there to be like Jesus. And when we're
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  like Jesus, we brighten the corner where we are. So God has given
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  us the privilege to go to missions around the world, but to change the
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  people not to be changed by Thanks for joining us, listening to friends.
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  Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
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  from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with El David
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  Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,