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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 Sabbath, April
twenty seven, twenty twenty four. Hello,

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my name is Elle 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, the

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Great Controversy. This is Lesson number
five, that's week number five. Our

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caption for this Sabbath morning is faith
against all odds, Faith against all odds.

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

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say welcome to you and ask you
to police go over to your Daily Portion

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dot com, please join our online
community, and then also let us know

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where you are in the world at
your daily portion dot com. This is

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a way that we continue to build
faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and

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pray and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven, thank you for

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giving us this faith that we cannot
fail if we are connected to you.

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Father, I ask you now to
help us to be holy, because you're

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holy. In Jesus' name, I
pray, Amen and Amen again. Faith

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against all odds. Now, you, obviously, if you're a person of

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faith, have an inkling about what
this could be like. Faith against all

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odds, faith against maybe losing your
job if you don't comply with something that's

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not holy. You're like, come
on, Dave, who does that?

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Like nobody loses the job that way. Well, let me just say really

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quickly, right, twenty eight years
ago or so, I was a manager,

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Right, I was a manager,
a young manager and a new believer.

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And I remember that my boss wanted
me to give a report that was

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going to the state and to change
details. And I just say that really

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quickly, to change details. And
I had to go and I actually wrote,

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I put it in writing. I
put it in writing, and I

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said, I cannot do that because
that would be lying. I'm not willing

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to do that. And if that
means that I can no longer work here,

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like if that is the culture of
this place, then I guess I

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have to go. And I needed
the job, y'all. Like it wasn't

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that I that I had like a
big nest egg sitting around or was independently

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wealthy and I didn't need the work. Of course I needed the work.

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I was new to the psyche.
And thank god, thank god, I

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didn't lose my job. But even
if I had, I needed to have

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faith against all odds. And you
have your stories. There are some that

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are even more dire than simply losing
a job over truth or lies. But

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would ever challenge that God allows us
to experience. We must stand firm no

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matter what I think we understand now, So the Bible reads here in the

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Book of Psalms, the Book of
Psalms, chapter one hundred and nineteen.

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In fact, in fact, it
asks in that same chapter like how shall

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how shall a young man cleanse his
way by taking heed? Thereunto according to

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thy word? And then in verse
eleven, the Bible says, your word,

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have I hid in my heart that
I might not sin against you.

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So the only reason I knew the
right path to take, the only reason

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I could have any inkling of faith
that would stand up in the face of

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trial, is because of God's word. He has put his word in the

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hearts of the people who are yielding
our will to him. He promised that

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he would write his laws in our
hearts and on our minds. Yes,

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so that we could live according to
his principles. And of course we have

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a certain context. We're still looking
at the Reformation, more than five hundred

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years ago, the Protestant Reformation,
and the Lesson writer points out that the

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Protestant Reformers had something the twenty first
century desperately needs. What was that Paster

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Finley a purpose for their lives.
In his book The Empty Self, renowned

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American psychologist Philip Cushman discusses people who
live purpose less lives. Their beliefs are

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shallow, little for of real significance
matters to them, and they they have

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nothing worth dying for. So they
have little worth living for, little worth

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living for. But men, women, and children of the Protestant Reformation were

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dramatically different. They had an abiding
purpose worth living for. What they believed

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mattered, and they were not willing
to compromise their integrity. Their core beliefs

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were an inseparable part of them.
To deny these beliefs was to deny their

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very identity, and the face of
death itself, they had inner peace.

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I think the Bible says of people
like these, people like these that they

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they overcame the devil by the blood
of the land. Yes, and by

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the word of their testimony. They
loved not their lives, even to the

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point of death. And so God
is saying that no matter what is going

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on in your life, he will
be with you, brothers and sisters.

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It doesn't have to seem dire,
it doesn't have to be a fearful thing.

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But we know that in whatever challenge
or trial or tribulation we experience,

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whatever temptation we experience, that God
is with us. How do we know

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because He promised. Jesus said,
I'll always be with you until the end

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of the world. He said he
will never leave us. Neither will he

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forsake us. Even if we're having
challenges in our actual households, our parents,

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God forbid. Huh. If you're
a young person and you're having a

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challenge your parent wants you to do
something that is unholy, and they are

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giving you dire consequences. Stand in
faith knowing that God is with you.

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If you have a spouse in the
same circumstance, stand in faith knowing that

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the Lord is with you. If
God forbids you live somewhere where the civil

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law is in conflict with the law
of God, stand with your loin's gird

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about with truth. Stand on the
truth of God's word. And Jesus promised

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that he would be with you.
I think Daniel would a test to saying

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the three young men Hannah and Ayah, Michel, Azariah, ha Joseph would

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a test to the same, and
so many others, even highlighted in the

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Book of Hebrews chapter eleven, would
a test to the same. And so

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here are a series of thought questions. Right, why is it important to

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find joy in God's word? Why
is it important to find joy in God's

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word? Because really, the Psalm
is said in verse one hundred and sixty

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two of the Book of Psalms,
chapter one nineteen, I rejoice in your

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word or your instructions like one who
finds much plunder, meaning a treasure ha

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conquering people for treasure, like I
rejoice in your instructions. What yes,

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So we need to cherish God's word
deeply. We can ask him to teach

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us to do that and let it
be a source of our joy and strength

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as valuable as treasure. Here's another
question, how does the Holy Spirit influence

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our understanding of truth? The Bible
reads in verse thirteen of John chapter sixteen.

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But when he, the Spirit of
Truth, comes, he will guide

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you into all truths. So we're
not making up truth. We're not having

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to research and become people with PhDs
in truth and defend a dissertation on truth.

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God is saying, no, the
Holy Spirit is going to teach you

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the truth about you, which is
that you're miserable, poor, blind,

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naked, and don't even know it, by the way, hah. And

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the truth about him that he is
holy. He is holy one hundred percent

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of the time, and he loves
you despite the fact that you're miserable,

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poor, blind, naked and don't
even know it. And he is transforming

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the lives of people just like us
so that we can be guided through and

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by the Holy Spirit into the paths
of righteousness. And of course there's so

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many other things I could ask,
but this is another one. Why can't

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we earn salvation through our own efforts? I think I answered that already by

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saying we're miserable, poor, blind, naked, and don't even know it

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spiritually speaking, and so we're not
trying to earn brownie points. We are

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saved by grace through faith, and
that not of ourselves. It is the

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gift of God, not of works, lest any one of us should boast.

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So we're not able to boast and
say, God owes us salvation,

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He owes us eternity with him because
we did good. No no no no

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no, no no no. We
have the kind of faith against all odds,

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because of the power of God unto
salvation and our thanks for joining us

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listening to 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,