1 00:00:01,159 --> 00:00:05,559 Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's 2 00:00:05,599 --> 00:00:10,439 food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:15,359 some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to keep 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:20,079 us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all 5 00:00:20,199 --> 00:00:25,399 that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to live 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:31,320 healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author 7 00:00:31,399 --> 00:00:34,640 speaker L. David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning. 8 00:00:34,799 --> 00:00:39,399 It is Sunday, September twenty four, two twenty three. Hello, my 9 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,119 name is L. David Harris. I am your host, and this is 10 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:46,439 your Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single day, and today 11 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:51,759 is no exception. We are continuing in our final week of our lessons study 12 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:56,880 through the Book of Ephesians, and our caption for today is we are blessed 13 00:00:57,359 --> 00:01:03,000 in Christ. We are blessed in Christ. We'll get into that in just 14 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,599 a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you 15 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:08,760 to go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community. 16 00:01:10,079 --> 00:01:12,159 Please also let us know where you are in the world. There's a 17 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:17,159 little form there that says where are you in the world? Yes, and 18 00:01:17,239 --> 00:01:22,079 also pick up the Your Daily Portion book and this is one of the ways 19 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:26,959 that we can continue to build faith and fellowship at your Daily Portion dot com. 20 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,760 Let's go ahead and pray and then we will get underway. Father in 21 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,840 Heaven, thank you for giving us this new morning and the privilege that you've 22 00:01:36,079 --> 00:01:40,200 entrusted to us this new week to open your word. And I'm asking you 23 00:01:40,239 --> 00:01:45,079 now to teach us about the blessing, the blessing that it is to be 24 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,959 in Christ, and help us to live according to principle. As a result. 25 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:53,840 In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again, we are 26 00:01:53,920 --> 00:02:00,359 blessed in Christ. Are you blessed and highly favored? I'm thinking about carry 27 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:05,480 Sales song blessed and highly favored. Let me see if I can just bring 28 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,599 up just a little bit of that. You hear that, Yeah, that's 29 00:02:09,439 --> 00:02:15,360 blessed and highly favored by carry Sales. And I think about this often because 30 00:02:16,159 --> 00:02:23,159 so few of us actually recognize the blessing that God is in our lives, 31 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:28,280 and then because we miss it, we're not as much of a blessing to 32 00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:31,039 other people as we need to be or that we have the privilege of being. 33 00:02:31,439 --> 00:02:35,879 Yeah, we're blessed, even though we are going through trials. We're 34 00:02:35,879 --> 00:02:39,599 blessed, even though people will gossip about us and back bite and backstab us. 35 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:46,560 Like even though our bodies sometimes are revolting and we are suffering through pain 36 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:53,919 and other trials, we are blessed. And so day's lesson, part of 37 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,560 me is intended, is intended to just give us a recap of much of 38 00:02:59,599 --> 00:03:04,120 what we have already studied. So let me just start here with embrace your 39 00:03:04,599 --> 00:03:12,599 selfvation, embrace the selection that God has given or put on your life from 40 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:17,240 before the world began. And in Ephesians chapter one, in verse four, 41 00:03:17,319 --> 00:03:23,439 let me read that to you. Actually, He chose us in him before 42 00:03:23,599 --> 00:03:30,400 the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before 43 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,039 Him in love. You know, many times people talk about the fact that 44 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,319 God has called us, he has chosen us, and they leave out the 45 00:03:37,319 --> 00:03:40,319 fact that he's called us unto holiness. Yes, he loves us, Yes 46 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:46,240 he has called us, He has chosen us, and he has chosen us. 47 00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:52,159 In the words of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet Isaiah, he said he 48 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,639 created us for his glory. Paul says, He chose us in him from 49 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,599 before there was a plan, before there was a world. So rejoice and 50 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:10,159 be assured that your place in God's grand plan was secured even before the world 51 00:04:10,199 --> 00:04:15,319 began. Yes, we have to decide to cooperate with him, but even 52 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:20,079 that cooperation comes from the power that He puts in us first, and then 53 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:26,959 we can experience the mountain top of salvation. The mountain top if you read 54 00:04:27,079 --> 00:04:31,199 in Ephesians chapter one, you go deeply into it. The blessing is that 55 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:36,920 the plan of God's salvation or God's salvation plan is vast, like God has 56 00:04:36,959 --> 00:04:45,360 done so many things through the peaks, through the valleys of our love of 57 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,839 our life. His love is manifest, and we can see the full manifestation 58 00:04:49,879 --> 00:04:55,399 in the fact that He redeemed us. Allow the words, though I want 59 00:04:55,480 --> 00:05:00,319 you to let the words wash over you. Sometimes we read through them. 60 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:02,600 Okay, Now get to the point. Grace be unto you in peace from 61 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,600 God our Father. Okay, get to the point, Dave like blessed be 62 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,160 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, get to the 63 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,759 point where we learn something right to the praise of the glory of his grace, 64 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:15,160 wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Okay, get to 65 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:19,399 the point. Well, those are the points. Yeah, so we should 66 00:05:19,439 --> 00:05:25,879 slow down. Let the words that we hear. Remember, faith comes by 67 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,079 hearing and hearing by the word of God. Let those words wash over us 68 00:05:30,079 --> 00:05:36,720 through the Holy Spirit and then transform our lives. We thank God for his 69 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:44,560 words, Okay, and then think about thanking God. Taking a moment. 70 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:49,279 Maybe I should have said investing a moment of gratitude giving God. Thanks. 71 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:57,000 Yeah. Paul expresses his thankfulness in Ephesians chapter one, verses fifteen through nineteen. 72 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:01,240 Can you list just three things from this chapter that make you thankful? 73 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:08,040 Okay? Ephesians one, verses fifteen through nineteen. That's where Paul identified things 74 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:12,240 for which he was thankful. Is there anything that you can see in this 75 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,800 same chapter that causes you to be thankful? Yes? And I want you 76 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:25,240 to delve deep into the mystery of God's plan of salvation. Let's go back 77 00:06:25,319 --> 00:06:30,120 to verse nine. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according 78 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:36,160 to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, what is that that, 79 00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:43,079 in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one 80 00:06:43,399 --> 00:06:47,759 all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, 81 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:57,000 even in Him. So God is bringing everything together so that we can 82 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:01,279 say, yep, I get it. Just like in Rome Revelation chapter five, 83 00:07:01,879 --> 00:07:05,839 when there was a cry, a human cry in heaven, like John 84 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,360 is crying. Like he's crying, he's weeping because it seems that no one 85 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:15,399 can open the seven seals, like to open the seals that was revealed right 86 00:07:15,439 --> 00:07:19,959 there. And I heard an angel there say weep, not weep not, 87 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:25,519 because there is the lion of the tribe of Judah, who can not only 88 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:30,720 look on, not only look into, not only open, not only reveal 89 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,519 what is there, but also take the book out of the hand of the 90 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:41,240 one who sits upon the throne. And it's these mysteries that God reveals in 91 00:07:41,279 --> 00:07:45,639 the person and work of Jesus Christ. What made him worthy in that scene 92 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,319 in Revelation chapter five was that he gave his life for us. The mystery 93 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:58,560 that we should be thankful for this mysterious plan is that we be saved through 94 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:05,639 the power that comes through Jesus's obedience, having become like a human even though 95 00:08:05,639 --> 00:08:09,160 he was fully God great is the mystery of godliness. The Bible says God 96 00:08:09,639 --> 00:08:15,759 took on human flesh in order to save us. And I want you ultimately 97 00:08:16,199 --> 00:08:20,800 to stand firm in your salvation, stand firm in it. People say, 98 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,240 are you saved? And people are afraid to say anything because sometimes it is 99 00:08:24,319 --> 00:08:28,040 self reliance. Right, we're running away from self reliance. But the fact 100 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:31,679 is that if you say you are a believer, if you say that you 101 00:08:31,759 --> 00:08:39,720 are God's child, you are automatically by default saying that you are standing firm 102 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:45,759 in your redemption. No matter what the challenges are that you face today. 103 00:08:45,799 --> 00:08:50,519 I want you to focus specifically on Ephesians chapter one, Versus twenty to twenty 104 00:08:50,519 --> 00:08:58,120 three, which states which He wrought in Christ, when he raised him from 105 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:01,240 the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far 106 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:07,919 above all principality and power, might and dominion and every name that is named, 107 00:09:07,279 --> 00:09:11,320 not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. 108 00:09:11,639 --> 00:09:15,399 And hath put on put all things under his feet, and gave him 109 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,480 to be the head over all things in the church, which is his body, 110 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:24,120 the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. See. God has 111 00:09:24,279 --> 00:09:28,759 chosen you in Christ. We are adopted in the Beloved like we are accepted 112 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:33,960 in the Beloved Jesus Christ into the family of God. And I would say, 113 00:09:33,039 --> 00:09:35,879 I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God, and for 114 00:09:35,919 --> 00:09:41,799 that reason we are absolutely blessed in Christ. Have a wonderful rest of your 115 00:09:41,879 --> 00:09:48,080 day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening to friends. Always remember we 116 00:09:48,159 --> 00:09:52,159 cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth 117 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:56,360 of God. This has been your daily portion with L. David Harris. 118 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,320 Make it a great day.