Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 03 2023 A Hebrew in Athens

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12 03 2023 A Hebrew in Athens · 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 three, 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 a Hebrew in Athens.
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  Very interesting. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first I'd
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  like to say welcome to you. I would ask you to go over to
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  your Daily Portion dot com click and join our online community. Click also to
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  say where you are in the world. There's a box there in particular in
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  that setting and I get messages all day every day about where people are in
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  the world, and also pick up the Your Daily Portion book at your Daily
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  Portion dot com. This is how we continue to build faith and fellowship.
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  And I can't wait to see you in that setting. Let's go ahead and
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  pray, and then we will get to underway. Father and Heaven. Thank
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  you for giving us the privilege of opening up your word. And I ask
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  you to please give us your Holy Spirit teach us how to serve you and
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  to love you. And I pray God that we will learn from Paul's experience
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  how to witness in various different settings to lead people so they can love you
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  and live with you forever as well. In Jesus' name, I pray Amen
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  and Amen again a Hebrew in Athens. Let me just say, the people
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  in Athens were among the most intellectual of the world, right, And so
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  yeah, when you come and you try to reason with them, you have
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  to come with your a gain or maybe it's better if you come with the
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  power of the Holy Ghost. Yeah, that's really our context. That's our
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  context. So well, let me read as much as I can from this
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  chapter Acts Chapter seventeen, beginning at verse one and see what lessons we can
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  learn here. Okay, And really the first question is how did Paul wind
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  up in Athens and how did he respond to what he found there. That's
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  a simple question. After they traveled through Ampiphilus and fipple Us I get it
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  mixed up, and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonika, where there was a
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  Jewish synagogue. Paul went to the Jews in the synagogue as he customarily did,
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  and on three Sabbath days he addressed them from the scriptures, explaining and
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  demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying
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  this Jesus, I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. And so he's
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  sharing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those many, many prophecies of
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  scripture that pointed to the Messiah who was to come. Okay, some of
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  them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large group of
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  god fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But the Jews became jealous,
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  talking about those specific ones and gathering together some worthless men from the rabble
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  in the marketplace, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.
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  They attacked Jason's house, trying to find Paul and Silas to bring them
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  out to the assembly. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason
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  and some of the brothers before the city officials, screaming, these people who
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  have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too, and Jason and
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  was welcomed, and Jason has welcomed them as guests. This is going really
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  badly, very quickly. They are all acting against Caesar's decrees, saying there
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  was another king named Jesus. You see, they're really, really, really
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  trying to play a game to get these men destroyed by stirring up the pride
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  of the prevailing government. That's a crazy way to do it, but that's
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  what they were trying. Verse eight. They caused confusion among the crowd and
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  the city officials who heard these things. After the city officials heard these after
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  the city officials had received bail from Jason and the others, they released them.
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  Verse ten. The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once
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  during the night. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue, and
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  the people who were there were open minded more open minded than those in Thessalonaika,
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  for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to
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  see if these things were so. So they were preaching the gospel in a
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  setting where it was brand new to the people. They had heard about it,
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  but they hadn't fully experienced it from the apostle's lips, right, Okay,
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  So these people were engaged, and they said, you know what,
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  let us see, let us see what things are true, and if there
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  are any things that are not true, let us see that. They didn't
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  just take people's word for it, and then the Bible continues. Therefore,
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  many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek men and women.
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  But when the people of theessala Nika heard that Paul had also proclaimed the
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  word of God and Beria, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the
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  crowds. Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast at once, but
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  Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. Those who accompanied Paul escorted them as far
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  as Athens, and after receiving an order from Silas for Silas and Timothy to
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  come to him as soon as possible. They left verse sixteen and final.
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  While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because
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  he saw the city was full of idols. We're going to talk about that
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  in a little bit more detailed tomorrow with just about three or four verses,
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  right, but can we just start right here? What is your commitment level
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  when you have great news? Your commitment level when you have great news about
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  what God is able to do to transform us from hopeless sinners to powerful and
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  holy saints, like, what is your commitment level? There are times that
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  it becomes difficult. Some of your co workers may not be too excited when
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  they see their friends turning their lives over to God, because, after all,
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  maybe they were accustomed to the happy hours and the going into parties and
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  doing other things that are not holy, things that lead away from God,
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  and it seems that you're removing their friendship core, or maybe you're challenging some
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  of their historically held beliefs that they got from their family members and they're like,
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  yo, you're messing my life up. You're messing up my relationships.
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  Or maybe it's even closer to the example that we saw here where it goes
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  against the prevailing culture in the particular locale where people live. But the truth
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  is, if you have something that can transform someone's life to the point that
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  they no longer have to be subject to imminent eternal death, would you share
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  it or keep it a secret? Like if somebody's drowning, do you keep
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  from helping them because maybe in the moment that you are helping them, it's
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  a little rough, or maybe it offends someone who could have helped, but
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  they chose not to. See Paul and Silas and others, Jason and others,
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  Timothy, these individuals were so committed to the cause that they said,
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  you know what, I Am going to do whatever it takes under the power
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  of the Holy Spirit in order to lead people to life. Now, I
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  want you to recognize that there are cultural idols. There are cultural idols.
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  There are things that people hold in high esteem. They're paradigms, thought processes,
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  right mindsets, and actual idols in some places in the world where people
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  are more willing to go that direction than to come into the light the transformative
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  power of God. But I want you to recognize those and examine, examine
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  the society in which you live. It could be materialism, it could be
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  celebrity worship, it could be it could be a lot of things. And
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  then ask God like, how do we address those things? And also I
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  want you and I I want us to develop compassion. Develop compassion. Right.
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  There are people like in the Bible it says here say unto them,
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  as I live, saith the Lord. I have no pleasure in the death
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  of the wicked, So turn yourselves and live. There are people who think
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  that there is an angry God in heaven looking for someone to destroy whoever disagrees
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  with him. But I want you to develop compassion. Follow Paul's example and
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  then give compassion and show compassion, and show that God's goal. God's determination
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  is that as many people as possible have life and have it abundantly. Give
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  the right view of God, develop compassion. We'll talk more about this in
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  the coming days. Peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always
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  remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from
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  the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with el David Harris.
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  Make it a great day. Yeah,