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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,