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. Good morning, good morning, Good morning.
It is Sabbath, June twenty nine, twenty twenty four. 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 beginning our new Lesson study series through the Book
of Mark, and our caption for today is the beginning of the Gospel,
the beginning of the Gospel. Now, let me just tell you if you've
never been here before, first of all, let me welcome you. But
for those who have been with me for years and years, every time we
start a new twelve week study, I get a little bit confused about which
study we're doing, and I got it right this morning. But when I
mess up and say that we're talking about the great controversy again, just give
me a little grace. Right. It takes me about a week to get
it right. But we are in the Bible, Book of Mark, and
our caption for today, the Sabbath morning is the beginning of the Gospel,
the beginning of the Gospel. Before I begin with prayer, I'd like to
welcome you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com join
our online community. This is where you can ask your questions and share your
comments regarding the Lesson study. Not just everything in the Bible, but the
Lesson study, and it's one of the ways that we continue to build faith
and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.
Bather and Heaven, thank you for this new Sabbath morning that you have
given us. Thank You for allowing us to come into this truth of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to those of
us who believe. I pray God that we will actually believe and live like
we do in Jesus name. I pray Amen and amen again the beginning of
the Gospel. Ah, I can't wait. We're gonna have a good time
for the next twelve weeks. If the Lord spaars life. Let's go ahead
and begin with the memory text. I don't call it that like I should,
so you can remember to remember it, right, the memory text.
Memorize it. That's what the intent is. And it comes from the Bible
Book of Mark, chapter one and verses fourteen and fifteen from the New King
James version of the Bible. The Bible reads, now, after John was
put in prison, this is John the Baptist. Jesus came to Galilee preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled.
And immediately you should be asking yourself, okay, i't I'm reading this the
time is fulfilled? Well, what time is fulfilled? And the Kingdom of
God is at hand? Repent, that is, accept godly sorrow for sin
in your own life, and accept God's power to make an about turn or
a rite about turn or about face and turn away from sin. So godly
sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. Repent and believe in the
Gospel. That is, believe in God's power to save you, to save
me through Jesus's ministry. He lived a perfect life on planet Earth before us.
Yes, under the power of the Holy Spirit, he submitted his will
fully to God. Yes, he was victorious over every temptation that the devil
could throw at him, lust of the flesh, lust of the pride of
life. He succeeded in this human form. And then he gave his life
in place of us, so that we don't have to die. We don't
have to die, brothers and sisters. Last quarter we talked about two eternities.
We talked about the eternal death penalty for those who hate love, those
who decided that they did not want to serve God. They did not want
to be in eternity with God in the bliss of holy relationship and limit less
understanding. They didn't want that. Well, the Bible is telling us here
that Jesus Christ gave his life so that we could be covered in his righteousness,
turn away from sin, and then we could live throughout the ceaseless ages
of eternity, repent and believe in the Gospel. Well, what is the
time that is fulfilled? I am so glad you asked the time is prophetic,
prophetically, Yes, there were the prophets foretold when Messiah would show up.
In Daniel, the Book of Daniel, the Bible teaches that there was
a time when when Messiah the Prince would appear. And it's like, no,
is that is that? Is that? It is that his birth?
No, I'm stuttering today, I'm stammering, is that his birth? No,
when he appears, when the Messiah appears, Messiah anointed one, When
he appears as the anointed one. That is when Jesus Christ was baptized in
the Jordan River, and you hear the voice of God, our Father,
saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased,
just like the prophecies foretold. And the Holy Spirit comes in bodily formed like
as a dove, and lights upon Jesus Christ while he, Jesus is in
the Jordan River, coming up out of the water, having been fully immersed
and baptized, coming up out of the water symbolizing victory, symbolizing coming up
out of death, being able to live for God. When that happens,
that time is fulfilled. Now we know, and knowing is just half the
battle. I got that out of something. The people my age would understand
where I got that from. And so now we know that the time is
fulfilled, and we are about to begin to see the work of God in
the Gospel, in the Gospel to save us all that he went through in
order to bring us into a right relationship with him, I thank God.
And so the writer here, John Mark, now we know his full name.
That's not to be confused with John the one who took care of Jesus's
mother after Jesus was on the cross, right, Not him, Not John
the Baptist. This is John Mark, a sometime traveling companion of Paul and
Barnabas. So there was a big blow up about John Mark when he was
fearful at a certain time, and Paul was like, you know what,
brouh Like, we can't work together right now because I'm running full steam ahead
and you're kind of iffing and button so I can't. I can't work with
you right now. And then of course something happens, and eventually Paul says,
John Mark is all together profitable, like he is okay with me.
It's just that during that time John Mark and Paul couldn't work together, right
And so this same John Mark, a sometime traveling companion of Paul and Barnabas
and later an associate of Peter. This is who we're talking about now.
This is the one who's writing here. The first step in this week will
be to learn about Mark as reported in scripture, to see his early failure
and eventual recovery. Remember, this dude is a Bible writer. He's writing
in the scriptures. That means he is saved. That means we will meet
him in eternity. Yes, but he failed, he failed at some points
of his life. Just ask you a simple question, have you ever failed?
Have you ever failed at anything in life? Now, let me ask
you another question, have you ever failed at anything big? Spiritually? Where
you drop the ball spiritually? And there were incredible implications like Abraham who dropped
the ball. He listened to Sarah. He then made Hagar his other wife.
They had a child. And now you have this conflict in the house,
You have this conflict between the suns. And in twenty twenty four,
on the twenty ninth day, this Sabbath morning, there are people right now
who are warring because of Abraham's failure. Have you ever failed and anything big
spiritually. The Bible says that we can recover from that. And I just
want to ask while you're contemplating that, I'm thankful that God has given us
this insight. I want to know, like how overcoming failure is illustrated in
the Book of Mark any places. But now I want you to just do
some discovery. I want you to go through the Gospel Book of Marks and
see how people were able to overcome failure so many places, different places.
I planned to share some Peter denied Christ three times he overcame failure m hm.
In Mark chapter five, the Bible says that that somebody overcame a lack
or a weakness of faith, Yes, and so forth. I want you
to go through and see where people overcame failure in the Gospel Book of Mark,
and keep a note of it. We'll come back to it. Make
it a great Sabbath, beeast. 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 E.
L. David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,