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 Sunday, November twenty 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, and our caption for today is nebucud Nezar, nebucud Nezer.
We'll get into that discussion in jail a moment, but first I'd like
to say welcome to you and say thank you to all of you who continually
come in day in and day out. You're on TV, you're on the
radio, you are listening on watching on various online platforms and podcasting aggregator sites.
And you are spreading. You are spreading the good news of Jesus Christ
that we are sharing from day to day. And for that God is faithful
to you, because the Bible does say, how beautiful are the feet of
those upon the mountains who spread the good news that God has given us of
salvation. Right, So thank you, and I thank God for you.
Let's go ahead and pray and then we will get under way. Father in
heaven, thank you for giving us the new day that you've entrusted to us
the beginning of the week. Father, Please teach us how you can save
us in no matter what situation we find ourselves, and then we can reach
others, very powerful people in for the kingdom in Jesus name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again. So yesterday we talked about the mission to the
powerful, and I gave an example of a man here in Jamaica who is
very good at reaching powerful people. And there are so many others like that.
There are many of you who are watching or listening right now who have
that same mission. God's people as a whole have a mission to whoever God
sends along our journey. Okay, nebukud Nezar is an example of a very
powerful man. And yeah, God used some people who may not have seen
to be the likeliest candidates to reach him. But it was a weird story,
right, So let me read this real quick and then ask you a
question. Right. A striking example in the Bible of how God reaches powerful
unbelievers is the story of King nebukud Nezzar. I would say, saga,
what are a few things that we can learn from his story? Let me
just begin here. God loves us so much that he was willing to give
an understanding of future things, even to a man who did not love him.
Right. God gave nebiculd Nezzar a vision, and nebicud Nez lived way
back in the Old Testament times. Okay. He gave nebiculd Nezzer a vision
of things that were to come. And some of those things are still playing
out in our day in twenty twenty three, you see. And so when
God gave him that that dream, call it a dream, call it a
dream, he needed to know what it meant, and so he called all
of the leaders in his society that he had empowered to be like advisors and
so forth. And he said, I need you all to give me the
understanding of my dream. And of course the men that did not know God
were saying, well, just tell us the dream and then we'll give you
the understanding King. And the King was like, no, no, no,
no, no, no no no no no no no no no no,
no no no. I need you to tell me the dream and then
the understanding, because I see what you're trying to do here. Well,
nobody could do that. And the men said, no, no, there's
nobody on planet Earth that can do that. You're asking something that no king
has ever asked. And by the way, that answer belongs to the gods,
and the gods don't dwell among people. And so, to make a
long story short, God positioned his children Daniel, Hananaiah, micheel Azariah in
such a way that they could have an encounter. They could have an encounter
with the king. And to make a long story short, God interpreted the
dream for nebuchad Nezzar, and then these young men became prominent in the king's
court. Okay, that is not exactly the order, but you understand the
story now, good. So there comes a point now when God has already
revealed the succession of kingdoms, and nebukad Nezar would have been the head of
the kingdom that started the story. And God said, you are that head
of gold in this image, of this image that he was given in his
dream. And nebukud Nezar, being the proud man that he was, a
self absorbed man that he was, he was like head of gold. Hmm,
I don't want to be the head of anything. I'm going to make
an image that is entirely gold, that does not represent any kingdom coming and
supplanting mind. I'm going to be here forever. And so he erects an
idol in the plane of Dura, or a great big statue in the plane
of Dura, made of gold, which was one of the materials in the
image that God had shown him in his dream. And he commanded that everybody
from all over the region, all over the land, that they when they
heard the certain music playing from these certain instruments, they would bow. They
would bow to that idol, which was a reference to his power and notoriety.
So one, two, three, the music plays, and then everybody
bows except three people. Now we understand that Daniel was not there. Okay,
three people did not bow? Well, who were those people? They
played the music, these three did not bow, And the Bible says that
God, that that God positioned them, really, if you want to say,
to witness for him. And so the king, getting from the tattle
tales, you know, tattletales, said, King, there's some guys that
you brought into your kingdom. They did not bow. Did you not command
that when you would play the music, that this this, that everybody should
bow. Well, these men that you brought in here did not bow.
They are from the captivity. We know them as the people of God.
But they say the Israelite slaves. Okay, they come from that. And
so he's like what he brings those young men in. He says, hey,
I heard that you did not bow. So in the moment that you
hear the music, I'm gonna give you an opportunity, right here and right
now, in the moment that you hear the music, I need you to
bow. And those young men said, oh, King live forever. We
are not careful to answer you in this matter. Our God is able to
deliver us. And if he will not deliver us, we still will not
bow to your idol. Of course, they were saying they worshiped God and
God only, and so he gave him an opportunity. Boom, He has
the music played and they don't bow, and he said, well, who
was this God that's going to deliver you? Who is this God that's going
to deliver you? Yeah? Okay, Well. Bible says that he had
a fiery furnace prepared seven times hotter in order to destroy them. And when
that place was set up to destroy them, those men who threw them in
were destroyed. The fire was just so hot. The Bible says that he
threw those three young men into the fiery furnace. They were bound. Hah,
they were bound by their hands, thrown down into the fiery furnace.
And the Bible says that at a moment, he looks down into the fiery
furnace and sees that they're walking around, but they're not alone. This is
where it gets even better. They are not alone. There is a force
walking around. And Nebuchadnezer said, did we not throw in three? Behold
I see four, and one looks like a son of the gods. We
say, the son of God, Jesus Christ went into that fiery furnace with
Ha with those three young men, and the Bible says that when they came
out of that fiery furnace, they were not burned, their clothing was not
burned, they did not smell like smoke, they were not harmed in any
way. Jesus turned that place into an air conditioned resort HA because they were
worshippers of the One True and Living God, Blessed be his name, and
so the king had to recognize that the God of Heaven, the God of
Heaven, was with his children. Of course, the story goes longer where
the king lost lost his mind and forgot that moment. And then God,
because he loves him so much, took him through seven years of trial,
seven years of training, seven years of cultivating his character and teaching. And
at the end of those seven years, as we see written in the Book
of Daniel, chapter four, his testimony, he learned that the One True
and Living God, Blessed be his name, was worthy of worship and praise.
And guess who was the Who were the chief witnesses to him? Three
young men who simply kept their faith intact and did only what God told them
to do. We have a mission to the powerful 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 El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,