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, April fourteen, twenty twenty four. 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 the Great Controversy.
Our caption for today is Compromise Satan's Subtle Strategy. Compromise Satan's Subtle Strategy.
We'll get into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to
say welcome to you and ask you to please go over to your Daily Portion
dot com. Please join our online community, pick up the Your Daily Portion
book, and let us know where you are in the world at your Daily
Portion dot com. This is a way that we continue to build faith and
fellowship. And I did tell you before that the platform that we used to
house our community was sold and then everything just disappeared. And at that time
we had just more than four hundred persons. Right now i'm looking the new
way we're doing it straight through Facebook is at two hundred and fifty seven members,
and so we're building back our capacity and hopefully you will join at your
Daily Portion dot com. And this is again the way that we continue to
build until Jesus comes. Let's go ahead and pray and then we will get
underway. Father in Heaven, thank you for giving us this new morning,
for this new work week, and I ask you to give us understanding and
give us the fullness of your Holy Spirit. We really really need you in
our lives today. God in Jesus' name, I pray Amen and a men.
Again, when you have an opportunity, I want you to look up
the book Creeping Compromise. You can look it up on the Internet, Creeping
Compromise, and I think that that will be of assistance to you as you
consider what we're going to talk about today, because really and truly, as
the lesson writer would have put it, compromise Satan's subtle strategy that lets you
know how insidious compromise is. Sometimes people make tiny, tiny steps of compromise
here and there, and next thing we know we are completely separated from God.
God wakes you up in the morning and you know that it is your
privilege to speak to him right, have some time and prayer, listen for
his voice and his guidance for the day. But somehow you find something else
to do something very important. There's a leaky pipe, there is some small
thing that you need to do oops before you go to work. And then
oh, wait a minute, maybe I need to do some a little bit
of my work before I go to work, or think of a lot of
things fill in the blank. And as you compromise God forbid on your time
with God, then your connection with God begins to wane. You see where
this is going. I don't even have to go into these giant things that
people would automatically say, oh yeah, this is something that is against God.
But these little compromises, even with our dedication to time with him,
He has an appointment with us every Sabbath, the seventh day Sabbath, and
we are instructed that we should guard well the edges of the Sabbath. And
so on Friday evening, maybe you feel like you need to iron that last
little thing two minutes before sunset, like what, Or you have to clean
the toilet just before sunset, and it's like no, really, if the
listen, if it's not done already, then I'm sorry. Just keep it
pushing, because why, God is ready for his appointment and he wants our
mindsets already on him. So give it some give it an hour, give
it an hour prior to sunset, that you will not do anything that is
not worship worthy, that is not connection with God worthy, and that sixty
minutes right before before Sabbath comes, and so on and so forth. But
let me just say, in the Book of Genesis, during the creation story,
we see God created everything. It was good, good, very good.
And then at some point, we don't know how long it took.
At some point the Bible begins to show a new story. And the Bible
says that the the serpent was the most subtle beast of the field which the
Lord God had made, and so the subtlety of this serpent, whom we
now know is the dragon and the devil, right, the devil and Satan.
He comes into a tree, the only place that he was allowed to
encounter Adam and Eve. He goes to this tree. Eve is there,
and he begins to insinuate doubt when he says, yea hath God said,
and she's like, okay, she's listening, that thou shalt not eat from
every tree of the garden. God had already given his guidance. He said
that there is everything in this garden is for you, perfect environment, everything
is for you. But this one tree, thou shalt not eat of it.
In the day that thou eatest thereof ye shall surely die. And so
he said, ye shall. The devil said, ye shall not surely die.
Change one word he said in the beginning, yea have God said that
you should not eat from every tree? Wait a minute, no, God
said, you may have every tree except one. But the devil made it
seem as if because he's subtle, he changed it just a little bit in
his discussion. And now doubt is in the air. Right not believe in
God's word is in the air. And of course, through subtlety, he
deceives Eve and then she eats of the fruit that God forbade. And the
rest, my friends, is history. And so the subtle, subtlety of
the devil is what happens to people who choose not to listen to every word
of God. Okay. And so in the Book of John, chapter fourteen
and verse six, the Bible reads Jesus replied, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. And so the Father we're referencing here is God, our father.
When Jesus said, when you pray, pray ye our Father, which are
in heaven. And so we're talking about God, our Father, okay.
And then in the Book of John, chapter eight, verse forty four,
the Bible talks about how there are some people who are supposed to be leaders
of the people of God. These people are supposed to be leaders in the
fellowship, the faith fellowship of God, and those individuals, the Bible says,
we're already living a compromised life even though they were supposed to be servant
leaders of the people of God. And the Bible says that you are of
your father. The devil, he was a liar from the beginning, and
all he does is speak lies. He's speaking of his own like this lying
spirit is his. And you all have accepted that that is the life that
you have chosen to live. And so we have a contrast between God,
our father, and the Father the devil, the Father of lies. And
now a line of demarcation, brothers and sisters. Whom will we believe?
Huh, the Father of Heaven, who's throne is heaven and the earth is
his footstool, who loved us so much that he gave his only begotun son
so that we can live forever hm. Or the father of lies that insinuates
doubts, who always tells stories differently than what God would have us to believe
in order to deceive us, and so forth and then lead us along the
path of destruction. Whom will you serve? Right? And so the lesson
writer says what Jesus says is true because he's the author of truth. Truth
proceeds from the heart of all wise, all loving, and the all knowing
God. He is the foundation of reality and of the truth. In contrast,
Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He is prepared to
use lies, deceit disinformation and distortion of the truth to lead God's people astray,
and not just God's people, everybody, really and truly, he deceived
Eve by distorting the truth, creating doubt, and then blatantly denying what God
had said. And so really, the devil is all about subtlety, and
it doesn't mind if we creep into compromise. But God gives us the truth
so we can live and be honored by the truth. 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,