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 Wednesday, December six, twenty twenty three. 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. God's Mission,
My Mission, our caption for today is introducing a new God. Introducing
a new God. We'll get into that in just the moment, but first
I'd like to ask you to please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community if you've not already done so. Also,
please please pick up your Daily Portion book and let us know in the little
box there where you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
This is a way that we can continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's
go ahead and pray and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven,
Thank you for giving us this new day and for the privilege we have to
open up your word again. Please help us to hear from you, experience
you in the fullness, and learn to love you. In Jesus' name,
I pray Amen and Amen again. Sometimes people like me who teach the Bible
like every day or on like some frequent basis, we get concerned, like
is the message coming through clearly? Our people actually connect to God. It's
easy to talk about him. It's easy to read from the Bible and then
say something that sounds fancy, but really and truly, like, what does
it take for someone to be connected with God, transformed by God, and
then live according to the principles of this saying true and living God, blessed
be His name? And so yeah, I struggle with this, but it
occurs to me based on this lesson. Today's lesson, it's that God wants
us to know Him. And I just say that again, God wants you,
brothers and sisters to know Him. When you are sad and feeling lonely.
He wants you to know him when you are struggling with the voices of
your past, where Daddy or mommy used to say things that really hurt you,
or God forbid they neglected to say things that would help you and encourage
you. Huh. God wants you to know him even when you're in those
strange, difficult situations when you have made mistakes, you have sinned purposely,
and then you say, well, how did I get back here? And
you're starting to feel sorrow for sin and you want to do right. God
wants you to know him. He wants us to seek and find him.
The paralytic in Mark chapter two that was carried into the place where Jesus was
by four faithful men. Yes, he was found by them. The woman
with the issue of blood, He was found by her. The men in
I think it's Matthew chapter nine, who are blind. And they said,
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us. And he said,
what will you have me to do? And they said that we would receive
our site. He wanted them to find him. He wanted them to find
him. That means that he positioned himself to be found in this moment,
this moment about four minutes now, four minutes into our discussion here, God
wants you to find him wherever you happen to be in the world, in
whatever situation you're in, if it's a victorious or a defeated situation, if
you feel positive or you are feeling deflated, God wants you to know him.
And this is the good thing because in Paul's day, he was introducing
that God, the one that was not angry somewhere in outer space, looking
down for someone to destroy, someone needing to give him food and gifts in
order to appease him. They needed to meet the true and living God who
created them and wanted to save them. And so from verses twenty four through
twenty seven of Acts chapter seventeen, we read God that made the world and
all things they're in. So Paul is already making a distinction between who they
had, all all those gods, the pantheon of gods, if you want
to say lowercase g right. He was distinguishing now between the one who creates,
the one who is all intelligent, all powerful, blessed be his name,
the one who can be found if we seek after him. He's making
a distinction between this God and the false gods. That really are an impediment.
They are not an asset. They are a liability because you gotta feed
those, you gotta appease those, You gotta, you know, make up
arguments to make it make sense for those. And So God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that he is the Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Oh, like like this
one, the areopagus marines hill. No, not like this. Neither is
worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything. So all of those
gifts that you're giving to those false gods, all of those things you're doing,
flagellating, hot dancing, beating yourself, all kinds of rights and passages
in order to appease those false gods. God don't need all of that.
He doesn't need that, He says, He's neither worshiped with men's hands,
as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and
all things. He's the one that gives. He's the one that pours into
In fact, the Bible says that if he were hungry and I think it's
Psalm chapter fifty, the Book of Psalms, chapter fifty. If I were
hungry, I would not tell you, Huh, the earth is mine.
I own the cattle on a thousand hills. Yes, the earth and everything
in it is mine, Even you are mine, the Bible says, And
then the Bible continues, Uh. And verse twenty six. Hath made of
one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of
the earth. And hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their
habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might find or
feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every
one of us. Let me just end right there. So listen when I'm
going back to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, when he had the dream and wanted
the interpretation, and then he said, tell me the dream and interpret And
the men said, the ones who were really trying to pull a wool over
his eyes, the false prophets and sorcerers and all of that, they were
like. But King, nobody has ever asked such a thing. And by
the way, the answer belongeth unto the gods, and the gods don't dwell
among people. Oh, but I think that the Bible teaches us hmm,
that Jesus his name would be called Immanuel. That being interpreted is God with
us. I think that Moses received the command from God that said, have
them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. I think that
the Bible gives us the example in nebuchad Nezer's same story that when those three
young men decided that they would only worship God and not worship him, when
he threw them down into that seven times hotter fiery furnace, they walked around
loose and freely. And then the one that those soothsayers and whatever else were
saying could not connect with us, he was down in there with them.
Jesus was walking down in the space where humans are in order to change those
same humans, to transform and deliver those humans. This is the God that
Paul was introducing, the one God who loves you, the one who cares
about when your child skins his or her knee having fallen off their bike,
like the one who remembers when you used to be addicted to crack cocaine,
the one who remembers when you were in prison, and then when he spoke
to you, you decided to give your life to him. The one who
in this moment is answering a prayer that you've been praying for years, and
you're wondering, how can you see and know me? All the way down
here with all of the billions of people on planet Earth. God is the
one who has given his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. God didn't send his son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world, through him might be saved.
It's this God that Paul was introducing. In that case. He gave
those people the opportunity to look and choose and live eternally. Are you introducing
people to that God? 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,