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Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too much,

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because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for

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today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect yesterday's

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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

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to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today

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and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.

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Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,

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Elle David Harris.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, Good morning. It is Sabbath, December

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twenty twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El David Harris.

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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

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today is no exception. We are in our final week.

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This is lesson number thirteen, our final week in our

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lesson study series, Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and today

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caption is choose this day, Choose this day. Before we

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get into that, I'd like to just say welcome to

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everyone joining us, especially those joining us for the very

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first time. Please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.

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Please join our online community and let us know where

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you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.

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This is one of the ways that we continue to

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build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray. Father,

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we thank you for this Sabbath morning, and I'm asking

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you to teach us to make a decision right now,

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a decision to serve you. In Jesus's name, I pray

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Amen and Amen again. Let me just say that the

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majority of humans statistically have brain freeze. I'm talking about

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all over the world in twenty twenty five, we're approaching

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twenty twenty six. The majority of humans around the world

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are very given our servant or service oriented. Some of

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them are just stuck and frozen. Humans stuck and frozen.

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When we should be making a decision, we're reactive. We're

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waiting for instruction rather than sometimes making a solid decision.

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And what God is saying to us today is that

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we need to choose whom we will serve. Are we

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going to serve God or not? It's simple. It's a

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simple decision, and we need to make it right now.

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You're like, okay, okay, all right, let's go into our

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lesson number one to make sense of what I just said. Okay,

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and so lesson number one for today is covenant. Faithfulness

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requires an informed choice. Now, the Bible reads here as

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we read what Joshua said in chapter twenty four and

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verse fifteen, and if it seems evil to you to

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serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day. If you

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have a problem with what God has been saying, you

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have a problem with the way God has led us,

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then today is your choice. You have to choose. Choose

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this day whom ye will serve. And guess what Joshua

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did after that. He led by example. He said, today

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I'm choosing with my house that we're going to serve

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the Lord. Let me say it in another translation, New

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English translation, choose for yourselves today whom you will worship.

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Sometimes we don't like the word serve and service. I

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just don't have the time to deal with why that

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is the case. And then he says, but as for

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me and my family, that's the decision that we have

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made in the household of Harris in twenty twenty five,

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we will worship the Lord, okay. And so the Hebrew

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word for for this term for commitment is intention and

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to prefer with commitment to choose bahar. That means we

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prefer with commitment and to select with intention. I said

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something about in our lesson, I said something about making

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an informed decision. Yeah, so we know what we need

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to know about God. We know that he is good,

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Blessed be his name. We know that he is loving

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and kind. We know that he will in no wise

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clear the guilty. We know that he has mercy for

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thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments.

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But again that love and hate, love and fear cannot coexist.

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And so when we are with him, we are against fear.

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We are against hate, we are against self aggrandizement. We're

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against putting self above God God. Yeah, so today we

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are in an informed way making a commitment. We're preferring

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with commitment, preferring whom God, preferring to worship God. We're

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selecting God with intention. He selected us with intention. For

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God so loved the world that he gave his only

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begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish

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but have everlasting life. Intentionally, he has adopted us into

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his family, or as the Bible says, we are adopted

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through the beloved or in the beloved. And so Joshua's

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final message called God's people to a decisive personal choice.

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Covenant loyalty is not inherited or automatic. I want Josiah

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to make the same decision that I've made. I want

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him to make the same decision that Simone has made.

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And he has the best privilege or opportunity to do

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so because he's seen it lived out in living color

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in his own household. But it is ultimately his decision

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to make. It's a decision made consciously, repeatedly, and gratefully

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in response to God's saving acts. Did you get that

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last part, that part about about repeatedly and consciously. So

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we're not when we say yes to God. We're not

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putting handcuffs somehow, We're not somehow enslaved to Him, like

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we are not indentured servants or longer termed servants in

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the sense of we can't leave. Like we can make

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a decision today to serve God and later today choose

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to serve outside of the will of God. That is

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our choice because God, because God is love, then love

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requires the ability for us to choose. And so today

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the action step for this point is to declare your commitment.

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It could go something like this, Today I choose the Lord,

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and I want you to say it aloud. Like, say

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it aloud and write it somewhere visible today so that

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when there is a road rage potential incident today, I

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choose the Lord. If you're in the airport and somebody

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does something ridiculous and you really feel like you're getting

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upset today, I choose the Lord. Are you seeing what

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I'm saying? When your boss asks you or commands you

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to do something that's outside of your the terms of

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your contract, and he or she has a habit of

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doing that, and you have sort of pushed back a

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little bit many times, and it seems that they're not

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getting the membled today, I'm choosing the Lord. H When

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your spouse seems to have lost his or her mind,

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your child seems to us have lost his or her

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mind today, I have you see what I mean. This

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is why we need to make the decision, and then

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sometimes we even need to look back at it in

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a visible way. Listen Number two. Remembering God's faithfulness fuels

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present obedience. In the Bible reads in Genesis chapter seventeen

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and verse eight. And I will give unto thee and

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to thy seed. After thee the land, I will be

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their God. I will give you, I will give your legacy,

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and it will be that I'll give you the land,

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but I'll also be your God. Now. The Hebrew word

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for remember to remember you throughout the Covenant text is

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a car's a car excuse me, meaning to recall with purpose,

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to bring to mind for action. And so in Joshua

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twenty four he recites God's faithful acts from Abraham to

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the conquest to motivate God's people toward renewed loyalty. Obedience

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grows when believers remember how God has led us. How

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many times have I said throughout this quarter, we have

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nothing to fear for the future, except we forget how

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God has led us in the past. So forgetfulness leads

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to compromise. Remembrance strengthens our faith and devotion. So the

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action step in this regard is to write down three

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ways God has led you just this week. If you

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have to spread it out over the month, go for it.

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If you need to do it over the last six months,

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do it. Let gratitude shape your obedience today, and our

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final is Finishing faithfully requires daily allegiance to God. Like

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this is one of those things. It doesn't happen overnight,

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it happens over the span of our experience with God.

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Make it a great Sabbath. Thanks for joining us listening.

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Speaker 1: Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but

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by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

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This has been your daily portion with El David Harris.

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Make it a great day. Yeah.