Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Sunday. It
is October five, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is
El David Harris. I am your host, and this is
your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every
single day and today is no exception. We are continuing
in our lesson study series Lessons of Faith from Joshua,
and our caption for today is Second Chance, Second Chance.
Before we get into that, I'd like to say welcome
to you and ask you to go over to your
Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community, pick
up your Daily Portion Life application guide, and also let
us know where you are in the world at your
Daily Portion dot Com. This is one of the ways
that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's go
ahead and pray, Father, we thank you for giving us
so many chances. Please teach us not to take you
for granted. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and amen again.
Second chance, second chance. And so we're going to the
Book of Joshua, chapter two and verse one. Let's just
go ahead and begin the discussion there. The lesson writer
said to read Joshua to verse one, along with numbers thirteen,
verses one and two, twenty eight and twenty five to
twenty eight, thirty three, and numbers fourteen one through twelve. Now,
this is the question, why would josh Yesha start the
mission of conquering the Promised Land by sending out spies.
That's what we're after here. Why would he do that?
And the Bible reads and Joshua, the son of Noon
sent out of Shittim two men to spy, secretly saying,
go view the land even Jericho. And they went and
went into a harlot's house named Rayhab, and they lodged there.
And then the Bible, of course continues to talk about
that in the rest of the scriptures. And so why
did Joshua do this to learn from the past. To
learn from the past, we have no fear for the future,
except we forget how God has led us in the past.
So Joshua remembered the disaster at Kadesh Barnia in Numbers
chapter fourteen. The people had listened to fear instead of faith.
They saw themselves as tiny little ants, and they saw
the enemies of God as giants. How can I see
myself as a tiny little ant and God is on
my side? You see, that was the mistake that they made.
They listened to their fear instead of their faith. And
this time he sent out two trusted men. Remember the
last time, Joshua and Caleb were the two men that
came back with a holy report, with a faithful report.
And so this time the man of God is saying,
let me send out two dudes that are faithful to God,
and we're going to get the wisdom here to act
in wisdom and faith together. God had already promised the land,
but Joshua still had a duty to prepare strategically, you
know what I'm saying, Like he could have moon walked
into the land, like they could have backflipped into the land.
They could have just run up on the land. They
could have just skipped the going around the walls of
Jericho thirteen times, like they could have done that. Wait,
Minutody just realized that it was thirteen times, not seven. Anyway,
I wish I had the time to deal with that one.
That was like something I had to wrestle with from
the scriptures for a long long time. But they could
have just skipped that right. Well, No, God wanted them
to move strategically. Spying Jericho wasn't about doubting God's promises.
God wanted his people to cooperate with him. Okay, so
to test the readiness of Canaan. This is what was happening.
Joshua wanted first hand knowledge of the land, especially Jericho,
the fortress city guarding the way. Their reconnaissance confirmed both
the fear of the Canaan knights and the opening God
was creating. If you go into Joshua chapter two, verses
nine through eleven, to prepare the people, this is another
thing that God wanted him to do. Prepare the people,
bring back a unified testimony God's faithfulness. In contrast to
those ten dudes, well multiple dudes. When the ten spies
went in with it, and they came back with negativity.
Joshua was building Israel's confidence before the conquest. So what
is the lesson? Number one? Faith works in preparation. The
Bible reads in Proverbs chapter twenty one and verse thirty one,
somebody just heard me. Faith works in preparation. The horse
is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is
of the Lord. So we prepare fine, but our safety
is in the Lord. Do your part in planning, but
God is the one in whom we rest for the outcome.
Go ahead and lock your doors. Go ahead and observe
the speed limit. Don't go over it too far because
it's there's danger on the other end. Read the signs
on the roads, that's say the bridget or detour or
street closed or road closed, or don't back up, or
this will shread your tires. But trust God, okay for
the outcome. Lessen number two, don't repeat the past mistakes.
I did say to you. There is no need to
fear for the future, but to forget except that we
except we forget how God has led us in the past.
And so in Hebrews chapter three and verse nineteen, the
Bible records, so we see that they could not enter,
that is the promise, because of unbelief. Those millions of people,
including Moses and Aaron, besides Joshua and Caleb, that first
generation of freed slaves from Egyptian captivity, all perished in
the wilderness because of unbelief. So we learn from yesterday's failures.
We make today's decisions based on faith and not based
on fear, not based upon failure lesson number three. In
this case and final, God honors courage and obedience from
Joshua chapter one and verse nine. Be strong and of
good courage, Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For
the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Did not Jesus say, Lo, I am with you all way,
even unto the end of the age. Did he not say,
through the man of God Paul, that he has not
given you the spirit of fear, but of power and
of love and of a sound mind. Did he not
teach us to be of good courage too? So step
into opportunities you might want to march into. You might
want to run into these opportunities with boldness, knowing that
God has already gone before you. God has already gone
before you, and so we're going to make some parallels.
If you scroll down in your lesson. Scroll down in
your lesson, it says, what parallels do you discover between
the second chance given to God's people as a nation
and to Peter as an individual. We're not going to
be able to read the passages because we don't have
enough time, but let me just show what some of
those parallels would be. Both failed at the edge of
the promise. Jesus was about to give his life for
the people of God. He was giving his life also
for the entire world, so that whosoever believeth in him
would not perish but have everlasting life. And God Christ
told Peter that he was going to fail if he
would not yield his will. He said, but I have
prayed for you that your faith fail you not. But Peter,
he was to do it, was just too proud God,
I'm not going to do that. What you mean well?
Both failed at the edge of promise. Israel failed at
Kedosh Barnia when unbelief crept in before entering Canaan. Peter
failed in the courtyard when fear kept him from confessing Christ.
Both moments seemed final, but God gave them another chance.
Both were restored through grace. Yes, there was grace in
the Old Testament. The Bible says that Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Israel was led again
to the border of the Promised Land under Joshua, this
time to victory. Peter was led back by Jesus himself,
who gave him three opportunities to confess his love for him,
matching his three denials. And there is so much more
I could say, but no time. Listen. God is so
faithful that he gives us the chances we need to repent. Peace.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with El David Harris, make it a great day. Yeah,