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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 Tuesday, October
thirty one, twenty twenty three. Hello,

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my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this

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is your Daily Portion where we give
you God's Word every single day, and

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today is no exception. We are
continuing in our Lesson study series. God's

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mission, my mission, and our
caption for today is our Excuses. Here

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we go again. This time it's
about inconvenience. That's an excuse some Pece

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people we'll use for not doing what
God says in terms of mission inconvenience.

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We'll get into that in just a
moment, but first I'd like to say

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welcome to you and ask you to
go over to your Daily Portion dot com.

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Join our online community. Click Also
on if you're watching YouTube, click

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that notification bell and subscribe button,
and on the other platforms whatever makes sense

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so you can get the alerts.
Also in your Daily Portion dot com share

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where you are in the world.
We are still looking at where people are,

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knowing that God is spreading his word
into all the world for a witness

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so that Jesus Christ can come,
and come very soon your Daily portion dot

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com. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.

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Father and Heaven, thank you for
today. Please teach us not to use

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excuses, especially not that your work
is inconvenient. In Jesus' name, I

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pray a man and a man again. Let's clear up something just very quickly

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here. God does love us,
and he does care how we feel and

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what we think about, but not
to the degree that it will overrule His

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will in our lives. You hear
what I'm saying. He does care,

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He is concerned. He knows that
we have certain weaknesses and challenges. He

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knows that we have our everyday lives
with which to contend. All of that

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is true. But when He gives
guidance and he gives a command to go

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He therefore into all nations, and
then he gives the rest of the command.

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He's not saying, do it if
it's convenient. He's not saying do

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it if it feels good. He's
not saying, do it if you have

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any time left after you've done everything
that satisfies you. When God gives us

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a bidding, he also provides the
empowerment to do. God's biddings are enabling.

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God's biddings are enablings, and so
of course Jonah Jonah did not really

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too much find what God had to
say to be very convenient for him.

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He had a perspective about how his
ministry should run. And when God said

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go left, he went far to
the right. God said go up.

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He went way down. But of
course, because God does not easily take

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no for an answer with someone that
is he's working with, he goes in.

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If you want to say, search
of Jonah. Of course he didn't

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have to search for him. God
always knows where we are at all times.

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But God went after Jonah and let
him know that his calling on his

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life was absolute. Now Jonah could
choose to reject God fully, he didn't,

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but he could have, and that
would have been a different discussion.

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But in these moments of disobedience,
God goes to Jonah and shows him who

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God is versus who humanity is,
whose command matters versus who is there to

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receive the command? And inconvenience about
Jonah's reputation, inconvenience about whatever Jonah had

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planned to do for the next hover
long were irrelevant in this case. And

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so we want to look at the
power of an obedient witness. Now from

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the Book of Jonah, chapter three
and verse five we read, and the

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people of Ninevah believed God. This
is finally after Uah, Jonah's specially prepared

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sea creature spits him up on the
on the on the land, and then

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Jonah goes and does Finally, after
a bunch of belly aching in contention,

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he goes and does what he is
supposed to do. The Bible says,

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and the people of Ninevah believed God. They called for a fast and put

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on sackcloth, from the greatest of
them to the least of them, and

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for those who know the Bible,
some of you, because you have a

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critical nature of s and Yeah,
but they ultimately unrepented about their repentance.

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I know that sounded confusing. Some
of them turned back from their repentance,

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and then God ultimately did destroy nine
of it. But the Bible shows us

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here that there were people who repented
and that was the goal. That was

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the goal. So despite Jonah's reluctance, his obedience in delivering God's message resulted

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in an entire city. Can you
imagine put in your city in the chat?

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Like what if your city is New
York. What if your city is

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San Francisco. What if your city
is Toronto. What if your city is

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London, your city is Mbasa?
Like what if your city is Accra.

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There are cities around the world that
need the word of God. And God

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is saying that if he calls God
his people to these places to speak a

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message of hope, to speak a
message of correction, that he will empower.

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He will empower those whom He's called
to do exactly what he says.

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And the outcome is up to the
people. Will they choose yes, will

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they choose no? But God will
provide the power that they can choose yes.

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Right, And so the whole city
of Nineveh turned to God in repentance.

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Here is an action step for me. Here is an action step for

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you. Embrace the significance of obediently
proclaiming God's message. It is critical mission,

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critical right obedience of doing what God
says, and recognize that despite our

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inadequacies. You may feel like you
can't speak, you can't share, you

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can't give your testimony, you can't
sing, you can't play, you can't

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share food. Whatever it is that
God is calling you to do doesn't matter,

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because God's word will not return void
if we do what he says.

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Here's another one witnessing transcending personal prejudices. Okay, we're going to verses one

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and two from Jonah chapter three,
and the Bible reads, then the word

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of the Lord came to Jonah the
second time, saying, arise, go

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to Nineveh, that great city,
and call out against it. The message

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that I tell you here is the
action step. Here is the action step

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I want you to commit to letting
God's love and mission supersede your personal biases

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and prejudices. God, They're not
going to listen to me God. They

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come from a certain type of people
that whatever with my type of people.

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UH, ensure that your hearts,
Ensure that your hearts and minds are aligning

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with the heart of God for all
people. Did he not say in Isaiah

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chapter fifty six, verses one through
seven, ultimately that his house, God's

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house is a house of prayer for
all people. And so, no matter

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what your prejudices and bias, biases
have been, because of your socialization,

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because of your spiritual whatever, God
is saying, go and do what I

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have called you to do at the
time that I have called you to do

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so and to the people that I
have called you two Okay. Also,

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we're reading from Jonah chapter three and
verse five again, but we're going to

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cut it in half this time.
And the people of Nineveh believed God.

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We're embracing sacrifice in mission. Right. Our action step is to be prepared

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to embrace the inconveniences. God is
not going to pull up a clock and

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say, well, based on your
time zone, then this is the convenient

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way for you to do what I've
comemand you to do. Right, So

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the challenges and inconveniences in God's mission, understanding that our sacrifices can pave the

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way for divine interventions. Everything that
we do requires a sacrifice. And when

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we do what God says yielding our
will completely to him. We are just

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simply modeling the behavior of Jesus when
he was in the garden of Gethsemane,

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saying, if there is another way, God, let this cut pass from

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me. Nevertheless, not as I
will, but as thou wilt. And

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guess what that sacrifice meant, that
you and I, brothers and sisters could

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be saved. You think it was
convenient for Jesus to go on the cross.

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I think not. Every wonderful day, Peace, Thanks for joining us

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listening. Friends. Always remember we
cannot live by bread alone, but by

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every word that comes from the mouth
of God. This has been your daily

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portion with El David Harris. Make
it a great day, Yeah,