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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,