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 seventeen, twenty 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, but today is no
exception. We are continuing in our lesson study series through the Book of Ephesians,
and our caption for today is the Church a unified army, the shirt
a unified army. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
I'd like to just say welcome, Welcome, Welcome to everyone joining us,
especially those who are joining for the very first time. Please go over to
your Daily Portion dot com and click the joint budget so you can join our
online community. Also, pick up the Your Daily Portion book and type into
the little form where you are in the world, so that we can continue
to build faith and fellowship. And again the web addresses 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 the blessing of being together by fellowship
through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving us the power that we need
to endure. I pray that we will be unified in You, and that
we will be saved, and we will bring as many people into holiness and
salvation as possible. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and men again.
The Church a unified army. Now, it's interesting that people can be
unified on all kinds of things. I wish I could really start to get
into some of the evil that people have been unified on. But it may
trigger some of you and it may get you distracted too. But we have
seen in a dark and evil way many things in the news over the last
several years, and really many years, but over the last several years where
people would come together and decide that they were going to enact and do so
much darkness, and they were successful. Why because they unified. Really,
they unified. Now in the Bible, we can go there with no triggers,
right, and think about the time of Daniel when the people who were
despising Daniel's leadership, right, they were supposed to be on the same team
in Babylon, and they all came together, the presidents and the you know
all of the big words that they used for the people who led who served
the king, and they went to the king with a cooked up plan and
said, we have all unified. We have said that no one should worship
any other god, but you, o King. Well they were lying in
one sense because Daniel didn't agree with that. He knew nothing of it.
But anyway, they on their evil side unified, made up this plan.
The king signed it into law, and then Daniel, who was a consistent
worshiper of God, got caught in that net. But thank God God delivered
him and the king dealt with those wicked men the next day. Right.
So it's a blessing to know that there is a kind of unity, a
brand of unity that leads to holiness, It leads to success, it leads
to positivity, It leads ultimately to salvation and the defeat of the enemy's kingdom.
And so we are in a war. We have said it so many
times before. The great controversy is continuing, and I want to look at
the Church as a unified army through the lens first of Jesus. When Jesus
was on earth, he prayed a prayer we call the Christ the high priestly
prayer. We can find it in John chapter seventeen. But one of the
things he wanted above all things as he was praying to its father, was
that people God's people would be one, even as God the Father and Jesus
Christ are one. That's what he wanted above all things. Right, And
so in that vein we can see these takeaways we're reading now from Ephesians chapter
six and verse ten, because the weapons of our warfare are not are not
carnal, but they're holy. Right. We are not fighting again enemy that
we can see. And so in verse ten of Ephesians chapter six, the
Bible says, finally, my brethren, so we know to whom Paul is
speaking. He's speaking to people who have said yes to God. Right,
they are in the fellowship of believers. Right, Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You get
that our strength as believers, we want to get This takeaway lies not just
an individual resilience. He didn't say, my brethren, in your personal time
and your personal challenges and trials, be strong. He said, my brethren.
He wants to show that this is an entire body of believers. In
this case from Ephesus, our strength is not just an individual resilience, but
in our collective unity in the Lord. Our unity in the Lord. Remember
Jesus, Terry, here, Terry and Jerusalem. Until the Holy Spirit has
come upon you. Right in the Book of Acts, we see the outcome
of that. So it's about the collective. It's about the body. It
is about the entire fellowship and not about us as individuals. And in that
same mindset, we're talking about a shared battle front. The Bible reads in
verse eleven of Ephesian six, put on the whole armor of God, that
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So the
takeaway here is every member of the family of believers is called to be equipped.
All of us. He was speaking to all of us to be equipped
for the battle against evil, highlighting the collective nature of warfare. Yep,
they say united we stand, and divided we You can type in the chat
fill in the blank. United we stand, and divided we fall. Okay.
Number three praying for one another. The Bible reads in verse eighteen of
Ephesians chapter six, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and
watching their runto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And the takeaway
here is in the face of evil, continuous prayer for and with fellow believers
fortifies our unity and strength in battle. There are times that people used to
come to my wife and I and they still do. But there was a
time that the battle seemed extra hot, right, couples who were suffering in
their relationships, And one of the questions that we would always ask, and
really at the beginning of our discussions, was how is your worship life?
We were talking about personal worship, yes, but even more so, how
is your family worship going? Because as they say, it almost sounds cliche,
but I agree, the family that prays together stays together, right,
So it is a united front. We have to unify and know that there
is power there is strength and unity when we are running with God. The
Bible does say whether two or three are gathered together in His name. He
is in the midst of us. So when we are unified, he has
promised his presence. You see why this is important, right, So a
unified to be unified against all cosmic powers is our next focus. From verse
twelve of Ephesians chapter six. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. So the takeaway here is the churches or
the Fellowship of believers fight is not against earthly entities ha, but against cosmic
powers, necessitating the unyielding unity of all believers in this spiritual warfare. M.
This is not against earthly entities, but cosmic powers. That means that
we have to focus our attention on serving God and allowing him to fight our
battles and a wonderful thing peace. 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 l David
Harris, make it a great day,