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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 us

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

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

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healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to
Your Daily Portion with your host, author

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speaker Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It

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is Wednesday, April ten, twenty
twenty four. Hello, my name is

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El David Harris. I am your
host, and this is your Daily Portion

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where we give you God's word every
single day and today is no exception.

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We are continuing in our Lesson study
series through the concept the principle of the

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Great Controversy. Before we get into
that, our caption, really I forgot

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to tell you, is caring for
the community. But before we get into

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that, I would like to ask
you to please go over to your Daily

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Portion dot com. Please join our
online community, pick up your Daily Portion

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book, and let us know where
you are in the world. At your

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Daily Portion dot Com. This is
a way that we continue to build faith

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

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Father and Heaven. Thank you for
this new day and for the opportunity we

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have to open your word again.
Please give us your unusual wisdom, teach

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us how to serve you today,
and teach us what community really is like

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in Jesus name, I pray a
man and a man again caring for the

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community. And in my lesson I
actually underscored the term caring, caring for

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the community. Let me ask you
a question. Once we create community,

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and I'm speaking to people of faith, especially those who are considered to be

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leaders, like, once we create
a community, do we actually nurture and

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feed and protect the community. Let
me ask you again, do we actually

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once we are creating community? And
one of the ways that we create community

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is through what we're doing now,
Like in churches around the world, we

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have Bible schools, right and in
those same Bible schools, like you can

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actually become members there before you get
baptized into the Fellowship of Believers. You

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understand, and as we are in
these environments and people are coming into our

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fellowship through these Bible schools some of
us call it Sabbath schools. Yes,

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once they are in those are we
nurturing and feeding and protecting those communities some

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of you call them members. What
about when someone is baptized, maybe it's

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through a right a series of gospel
messages or evangelistic messages as some people call

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it. Once people come into the
community through Bible schools or through baptism or

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both, are we nurturing, are
we feeding? Are we protecting? And

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if not, the entire community is
going to be lost. I need to

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say that again. If we're not
nurturing and feeding and protecting, it doesn't

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make sense to build a community.
It does not make sense to bring people

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into our fellowship. Because Jesus the
good shepherd, and I think that's an

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understatement, Jesus the ultimate great shepherd. He nurtures and protects, and he

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feeds the sheep. Just go to
John chapter ten and see where Jesus speaks

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of that. And anybody else is
considered a hireling. Like if we are

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unsupposedly on the team with God,
if we are supposedly a part of the

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community of faith, then we should
have the same mindset that Jesus has.

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Otherwise, we are considered to be
like hired help hirelings that don't care because

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the sheep are not theirs. They
just allow the sheep to be scattered when

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the wolves come. M something to
think about. But we're talking now about

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caring. In the lesson, it
reads the early Christian Church grew not only

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because it was its members preached and
I underscored that the gospel, but because

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they lived the gospel. Let's see
an example of this from the Book of

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Acts. Chapter Let's go with chapter
six, first Acts, Chapter six,

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and I will read beginning at verse
one, and the Bible reads, now,

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in those days, when the disciples
were growing in number, a complaint

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arose on the part of Greek speaking
Jews against the native he break Jews because

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their widows were being overlooked in the
daily distribution of food. At least that's

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what the perception of it was.
I don't really have the time verse two.

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So the twelve called the whole group
of the disciples together and said,

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let me just say, this is
a practical move, this is a true

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leadership move. This is what they
did. They said, it is not

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right for us to neglect the word
of God, to wait on tables,

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that is, to take care of
these very specific practical needs. And you're

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like, but Dave, how can
you be in a community of faith,

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like a fellowship of believers and not
have those practical or felt needs handled or

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dealt with. Well, this is
not where it stopped. But carefully select

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from among you. So this is
a part of the strategy. And now

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it's going into the tactics. This
is what we're going to do to make

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sure that people are taken care of. Well, Okay, select from among

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you, brothers, seven men,
specifically seven here we go, who are

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well attested, full of the Holy
Spirit and wisdom, whom we may put

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in charge of this necessary task.
So they were practical, they were tactical,

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they were strategic. They dealt with
the felt needs in a specific way

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by selecting specific people who, by
the way ha and not incidentally, were

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to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So if our community of believers,

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right, the fellowship that we are
building, does not nurture hmm, does

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not feed, does not protect,
then we are not living up to this

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specific guide that God has given us, the example that the early Church demonstrated.

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Let me just see what else God
has to say. Here verse four,

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But we will devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the Word.

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And so there were people in this
community who were specifically set aside in

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a spiritual, practical way for the
ministry of the Word, and then others

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would manifest the ministry by what practical
hands on felt needs type nurture and care

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and protection. You see where we're
going with this, very well organized verse

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five. The proposal pleased the entire
group. So they chose Stephen, a

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man full of faith and the Holy
Spirit, with Philip and Prochorus, and

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Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas
and a gentile. Excuse me, Nicholas

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was a gentile convert to Judaism from
Antioch. Verse six. They stood these

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men before the apostles, who prayed
and placed their hands on them. So

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those who were selected ha by God
and from the fellowship to be the spiritual

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leaders, if you want to say, servant leaders, these men who were

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supposed to be ministering the Word in
a specific way. Those individuals now are

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laying hands on the people who were
now going to do some more practical hands

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on type ministry. Ah the Word
of God continued to spread. The number

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of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly,
and a large group of priests. Yes,

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those people that you thought were lost, those people that you thought Jesus

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did not love, the people that
you thought Jesus was a critic of.

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Well, it says here that even
a large group of priests became obedient to

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the faith. Why because God loves
them. He loved them, He loved

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all of the people, the leaders
and the followers, if you want to

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say, the people who seemed not
to be getting the message when Jesus would

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would cry over them, like in
Matthew twenty three. But they were people

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like Nicodemus who came. Yes,
Nicodemus came by night. But he said

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to Nicodemus, ah, you must
be born again. He said to Nicodemus,

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God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten sons so that

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Eu Nicodemus could be saved. And
so there were a great number of priests

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according to this message here Ha that
became obedient to the faith. And so

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caring for the community is not just
building a community. It's easy to build

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a community, ah, But to
care is to nurture Hm the felt needs,

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yes, and to let them know
that they belong and that God loves

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them and show it yes. And
to feed, to give them practical feeding

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and spiritual feeding, and to protect
the community otherwise the community is going to

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go right down the tube. Care
for the community you build. Have a

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wonderful day, Peace. Thanks for
joining us listening. Friends. Always remember

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we cannot live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the

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mouth of God. This has been
your daily portion with El David Harris.

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Make it a great day. Yeah,