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
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 L. David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning.
It is Sunday, September twenty four, two twenty three. Hello, my
name is L. 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 final week of our lessons study
through the Book of Ephesians, and our caption for today is we are blessed
in Christ. We are blessed in Christ. We'll get into that in just
a moment, but first 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.
Please also let us know where you are in the world. There's a
little form there that says where are you in the world? Yes, and
also pick up the Your Daily Portion book and this is one of the ways
that we can continue to build faith and fellowship at your Daily Portion dot com.
Let's go ahead and pray and then we will get underway. Father in
Heaven, thank you for giving us this new morning and the privilege that you've
entrusted to us this new week to open your word. And I'm asking you
now to teach us about the blessing, the blessing that it is to be
in Christ, and help us to live according to principle. As a result.
In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again, we are
blessed in Christ. Are you blessed and highly favored? I'm thinking about carry
Sales song blessed and highly favored. Let me see if I can just bring
up just a little bit of that. You hear that, Yeah, that's
blessed and highly favored by carry Sales. And I think about this often because
so few of us actually recognize the blessing that God is in our lives,
and then because we miss it, we're not as much of a blessing to
other people as we need to be or that we have the privilege of being.
Yeah, we're blessed, even though we are going through trials. We're
blessed, even though people will gossip about us and back bite and backstab us.
Like even though our bodies sometimes are revolting and we are suffering through pain
and other trials, we are blessed. And so day's lesson, part of
me is intended, is intended to just give us a recap of much of
what we have already studied. So let me just start here with embrace your
selfvation, embrace the selection that God has given or put on your life from
before the world began. And in Ephesians chapter one, in verse four,
let me read that to you. Actually, He chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. You know, many times people talk about the fact that
God has called us, he has chosen us, and they leave out the
fact that he's called us unto holiness. Yes, he loves us, Yes
he has called us, He has chosen us, and he has chosen us.
In the words of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet Isaiah, he said he
created us for his glory. Paul says, He chose us in him from
before there was a plan, before there was a world. So rejoice and
be assured that your place in God's grand plan was secured even before the world
began. Yes, we have to decide to cooperate with him, but even
that cooperation comes from the power that He puts in us first, and then
we can experience the mountain top of salvation. The mountain top if you read
in Ephesians chapter one, you go deeply into it. The blessing is that
the plan of God's salvation or God's salvation plan is vast, like God has
done so many things through the peaks, through the valleys of our love of
our life. His love is manifest, and we can see the full manifestation
in the fact that He redeemed us. Allow the words, though I want
you to let the words wash over you. Sometimes we read through them.
Okay, Now get to the point. Grace be unto you in peace from
God our Father. Okay, get to the point, Dave like blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, get to the
point where we learn something right to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Okay, get to
the point. Well, those are the points. Yeah, so we should
slow down. Let the words that we hear. Remember, faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. Let those words wash over us
through the Holy Spirit and then transform our lives. We thank God for his
words, Okay, and then think about thanking God. Taking a moment.
Maybe I should have said investing a moment of gratitude giving God. Thanks.
Yeah. Paul expresses his thankfulness in Ephesians chapter one, verses fifteen through nineteen.
Can you list just three things from this chapter that make you thankful?
Okay? Ephesians one, verses fifteen through nineteen. That's where Paul identified things
for which he was thankful. Is there anything that you can see in this
same chapter that causes you to be thankful? Yes? And I want you
to delve deep into the mystery of God's plan of salvation. Let's go back
to verse nine. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, what is that that,
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him. So God is bringing everything together so that we can
say, yep, I get it. Just like in Rome Revelation chapter five,
when there was a cry, a human cry in heaven, like John
is crying. Like he's crying, he's weeping because it seems that no one
can open the seven seals, like to open the seals that was revealed right
there. And I heard an angel there say weep, not weep not,
because there is the lion of the tribe of Judah, who can not only
look on, not only look into, not only open, not only reveal
what is there, but also take the book out of the hand of the
one who sits upon the throne. And it's these mysteries that God reveals in
the person and work of Jesus Christ. What made him worthy in that scene
in Revelation chapter five was that he gave his life for us. The mystery
that we should be thankful for this mysterious plan is that we be saved through
the power that comes through Jesus's obedience, having become like a human even though
he was fully God great is the mystery of godliness. The Bible says God
took on human flesh in order to save us. And I want you ultimately
to stand firm in your salvation, stand firm in it. People say,
are you saved? And people are afraid to say anything because sometimes it is
self reliance. Right, we're running away from self reliance. But the fact
is that if you say you are a believer, if you say that you
are God's child, you are automatically by default saying that you are standing firm
in your redemption. No matter what the challenges are that you face today.
I want you to focus specifically on Ephesians chapter one, Versus twenty to twenty
three, which states which He wrought in Christ, when he raised him from
the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far
above all principality and power, might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
And hath put on put all things under his feet, and gave him
to be the head over all things in the church, which is his body,
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. See. God has
chosen you in Christ. We are adopted in the Beloved like we are accepted
in the Beloved Jesus Christ into the family of God. And I would say,
I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God, and for
that reason we are absolutely blessed in Christ. Have a wonderful rest of your
day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening to 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 L. David Harris.
Make it a great day.