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Most of us eat every day,
some of us too much because yesterday's food

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is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some

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of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly
manna, the word of God to keep

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us through today's challenges. On this
program, we are going to change all

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of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to

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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 morning.

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It is Sunday, October twenty nine, 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 our excuses, and here's

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one of them. Fear. Sometimes
we use fear and an excuse. We'll

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

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

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Please join our online community. Please
also please also share where you are in

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the world and pick up your Daily
Portion book at your Daily Portion dot com.

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

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in Heaven, thank you for giving
us the privilege to open up your word

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today. Please give us the fullness
of your holy spirit, and never allow

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fear to short circuit our faith.
In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen

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and a man again. Let me
just say two things very quickly. One,

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fear is natural, but God is
sovereign. He's supernatural human. Fear

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is natural, but God is sovereign. He is the creator. He is

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super natural. When we have fears, we surrender our fears to Him.

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Simple as that. Now, there
are examples in the scriptures of people who

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did not allow fear to rule him. David, as he was facing Goliath,

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when the people of God were frozen
in fear, he did not allow

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fear to subjugate his faith. Daniel, when he was to be thrown into

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the den of lions, did not
allow fear to subject his faith. Huh.

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The young men, the three Hebrew
boys, who were facing a very

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hot trial to be thrown into the
fiery furnace because they would only choose to

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serve God, did not allow fear
to short circuit their faith. And I

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could go on and on and on. Now, fear is natural. The

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body does have a response that God
built into it called the fight or flight

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response, where adrenaline is secreted so
you can run fast if you need to

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run fast, or become strong like
in the moment, if you need to

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become unnaturally strong, Yes, that
happens, but that has nothing to do

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with when God gives a command to
move forward on a mission. If a

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truck is barreling down on the road
and you see it coming and you suddenly

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have this natural fear and you're able
to run quickly out of the way or

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jump higher than normal, then that
is a response that God put into our

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bodies for our benefit. But if
God says go and you don't go,

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that is unholy, That is ungodly
fear. This is not a physiological response.

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This is a spiritual response. No
excuses for fear. Now, let

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me read from the book Prophets and
Kings, page two hundred and sixty five

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to give a real view of what
was going on with Jonah among the cities

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of the ancient world in the days
of divided Israel. One of the Great

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Tests was Ninevah, the capital of
the Assyrian realm. In the time of

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its temporal prosperity, Nineveh was a
center of crime and wickedness. Inspiration has

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characterized it as the bloody city full
of lies and robbery. In figurative language,

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the prophet Nahum compared the Ninavites to
a cruel, ravenous lion, upon

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whom he inquired, hath not thy
wickedness passed continually. That's from the Book

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of Naom, chapter three, verses
one and nineteen. That's the end of

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the quote. So we are not
going to be naive. There was reason

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that people who struggle with faith might
be fearful of the Ninavites, the Assyrians,

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and the Ninovites in particular. I
get all of that, got it.

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But but even though they were ruthless, even though they boasted that the

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filled streets with the corpses of its
inhabitants, young and old, and relief

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carvings found during excavations depict scenes of
soldiers impaling victims. Even though that was

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the reality, that was no excuse
for God's man Jonah to do the opposite

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of what God said. God said, go to Nineveh, cry against the

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city, so that he could have
mercy on them and not to destroy them.

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God was sending him with a warning
and an opportunity for the Ninevites to

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turn away from sin, but he
decided he was going the opposite direction.

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And so the first thing we want
to do in context of that story is

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acknowledge the validity of fear. When
I say validity, I'm saying that humans

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are fearful at times. I'm not
saying excused, okay. And so the

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action, well, let me just
read this one and verse three and verse

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one, the full passage, Woe
to the bloody City. It is all

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full of lies and robbery. The
prey did parteth not so anybody that they

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wanted they got them. They were
so wicked that anybody they wanted to destroy

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they got them. And it was
messy, got it. So the scripture

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says very clearly who these people were
and what they were about, and there

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was so much more. You can
read that in your spare time. The

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action is, though, that we
must recognize and acknowledge the fact that we

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are afraid, yes, and that
it's a human thing. But we want

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to surrender that to God. We
do not want to allow those fears to

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hinder our obedience to God's call.
Fear happens, yes, but we must

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not allow that to hinder our obedience. Number two, embrace God's sovereignty amidst

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the fear. We're not acting like
that the thing, the danger is not

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there. We're not acting like things
are not as bad as they look,

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because sometimes they literally are. I
could give examples, but it would probably

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get our program knocked off of the
Internet. Because there are things we have

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seen in the news for the last
many years, especially all kinds of wickedness

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that people have committed against each other. Atrocities, nasty, messy, evil

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atrocities committed against people. We have
seen it even in our day. And

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God is saying that when I send
you into those situations to speak for me

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a warning or a way to deliver, or a judgment, thou shalt go

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and not allow fear to hinder you. Now, the Bible says in Naom

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chapter one and verse two, God
is jealous and the Lord Revengeth. The

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Lord Revengeth and is furious. The
Lord will take vengeance and his adversaries,

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and he that reserveth wrath for his
enemy. So the action in this case

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is, in the face of fear
and intimidation, I don't care how wicked

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people can become, how intimidating they
are. Embrace the sovereignty of God.

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Ah that becomes crucial in moving forward
in the mission that he entrusts to us.

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Number three, prioritizing God's compassion.
God's compassion over our personal apprehensions,

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and the Bible teaches us in Jonah
chapter four, verse eleven, And should

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I not pity Nineveh, that great
city we're in are more than sixcore thousand

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persons that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left hand, and also

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much cattle. And so while whereas
the city was wicked, yes, they

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were cruel. Yes, God said, I will have compassion. And you

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need to be the voice of reason
that brings people to a point of decision.

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Jonah, do not let your fear, do not let your prejudice,

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do not let your mixed up view
of who God is to deter you.

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So we must align our hearts with
God's compassion. And this means prioritizing his

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love for people over our personal fears
and apprehensions, and then finally turn our

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fear into an act of faith.
Sometimes we just have to convince ourselves through

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the Holy Ghost that since God is
the one who called us, that his

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biddings are enablings, and that He
will take care of us as he sees

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fit. And so we have some
excuses, yeah, but fear that should

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not be one of them. A
wonderful day, Peace. Thanks for joining

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

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

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