1 00:00:01,159 --> 00:00:05,879 Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,679 is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some 3 00:00:10,759 --> 00:00:15,599 of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to keep us 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:20,199 through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all of 5 00:00:20,199 --> 00:00:25,399 that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to live 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:31,320 healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author 7 00:00:31,399 --> 00:00:35,000 speaker L David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning. It 8 00:00:35,079 --> 00:00:39,560 is Friday, All Gets twenty five, two twenty three. Hello, my 9 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,439 name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your 10 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:46,880 Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day and today is no 11 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:52,000 exception. We are continuing in our lessons study series through the Book of Ephesians. 12 00:00:52,359 --> 00:00:59,679 Our caption for today is Follow God. Follow God. We'll get into 13 00:00:59,679 --> 00:01:02,479 that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome to you 14 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,120 and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot Com. Click that 15 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:11,519 online community link. It says join, and there we can find faith and 16 00:01:11,599 --> 00:01:15,159 fellowship. And also, please, on this preparation day morning, pick up 17 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:21,239 the your Daily Portion book, which is another opportunity for us to continue to 18 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,359 grow. Hopefully you will share with me where you are in the world. 19 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:29,400 There's a little form there so that I can continue to build my map and 20 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:34,120 see from what vantage point this gospel of the Kingdom is being preached into all 21 00:01:34,159 --> 00:01:38,040 the world for a witness, because we are all looking forward to the day 22 00:01:38,079 --> 00:01:42,719 that the end will come. At your Daily Portion dot com, let's go 23 00:01:42,719 --> 00:01:47,439 ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father in Heaven, 24 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:52,200 thank you for giving us this preparation day morning. Please give us the impetus, 25 00:01:52,319 --> 00:01:57,560 give us the desire, give us the ability to follow you in Jesus 26 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:05,120 name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. One of the most known, 27 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:13,439 let's call it sayings of Paul was follow me as I follow Christ. 28 00:02:13,879 --> 00:02:16,680 So in that case, who are we really following? We're following God, 29 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:22,120 right, we're following Christ. There is another place that says that we should 30 00:02:22,159 --> 00:02:29,280 be following in God's footsteps, and the only people who can actually follow in 31 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:34,039 God's footsteps are people who are surrendering our will to him. Yeah, I 32 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:37,919 remember an elder said to me many years ago when I was in training to 33 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:44,800 be an elder he said, Dave, when we or before we submit ourselves 34 00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:50,840 to God, Jesus is our savior, right, Okay. And then he 35 00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:54,919 said, once we submit ourselves to God, then he becomes our example. 36 00:02:55,479 --> 00:02:59,919 So he's our savior and example. And I'm thinking, well, what does 37 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,960 that mean? You see, before an individual surrenders our will to God, 38 00:03:05,719 --> 00:03:10,479 we cannot do what he says. Yeah. Romans chapters seven and eight make 39 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:16,680 a big discussion of that fact. And so once we are surrendering to God, 40 00:03:17,319 --> 00:03:22,560 there is no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who 41 00:03:22,599 --> 00:03:25,080 walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So we 42 00:03:25,319 --> 00:03:31,360 learn how to walk in the spirit once we begin to surrender our will to 43 00:03:31,439 --> 00:03:36,319 God. And ye do surrender our will to God. So now we have 44 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,879 a context to whom am I speaking When I say follow God, Follow Christ. 45 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,240 I'm speaking to those who are yielding our will to God. And if 46 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:49,560 you are not surrendering your will to God, I am asking you, even 47 00:03:49,639 --> 00:03:53,639 this morning, like this twenty fifth day of the month in August, I'm 48 00:03:53,719 --> 00:03:59,000 begging you to please consider yielding to God today. Right. Choose you this 49 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,360 day whom ye will serve, Because in my house we've already chosen to serve 50 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,039 the Lord, but we want you to do the same, all right, 51 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:10,159 And so we're going now to the Book of Ephesians, chapter five. We're 52 00:04:10,199 --> 00:04:15,360 moving steadily right along here in the book Ephesians chapter five, and I will 53 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:19,560 read beginning at verse one, and the Bible says, be ye, therefore 54 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:27,680 followers of God, as dear children, yes, walk in love. As 55 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:33,639 Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us and for us 56 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:41,000 an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. And so 57 00:04:41,079 --> 00:04:45,279 we're talking about the love of God again. God has loved us. Jesus 58 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:47,800 has loved us. Right, God, our Father. For God so loved 59 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:53,360 the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him 60 00:04:53,399 --> 00:04:57,839 should not perish but have everlasting life. Right, God did not send his 61 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,480 son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him 62 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,839 might be saved. And we also see that, of course Jesus, Jesus 63 00:05:04,879 --> 00:05:10,959 has given all voluntarily. He laid his life down for us and took it 64 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,600 up again, and now is ministering in heavenly places for us, so that 65 00:05:15,639 --> 00:05:20,439 we can be saved because he loved us. He loves us. Yeah, 66 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:28,360 the Bible does say we love him, meaning we love God because he first 67 00:05:28,639 --> 00:05:36,000 loved us. We love him because he first loved us. His love is 68 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:42,360 the cause of our ability to love him in return. Okay, And so 69 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,079 this is why when it says here that we are to walk in love for 70 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:50,800 Christ hath also loved us. That is the empowerment that we receive. God's 71 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:59,319 love empowers us to do his will. God's love empowers us to love him 72 00:05:59,759 --> 00:06:06,839 in return. Okay, let's continue. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, 73 00:06:08,519 --> 00:06:12,199 let it not be named among you. You see, there are so 74 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:17,560 many faith communities that have to struggle with this fornication concept. And pause for 75 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:23,439 a moment. Some of you think that fornication and adultery is like so totally 76 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:28,800 different, because adultery supposedly is for people who are married and fornication is for 77 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,199 people who are unmarried. Really, when the Bible discusses this stuff, it 78 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:39,879 is from a word that sounds like porno, porn nea, pornnia, and 79 00:06:39,959 --> 00:06:44,639 that means all sexual impurity. So whether you call it fornication, you call 80 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,399 it adultery. Whatever it is. If it's something that you're doing to yourself, 81 00:06:47,439 --> 00:06:53,040 like self abuse, or you're doing by yourself by watching stuff that you 82 00:06:53,079 --> 00:06:58,000 shouldn't watch, or hearing and listening to things that have sexually explicit content, 83 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:03,959 like, all of those things fall into that immorality or sexual impurity space. 84 00:07:04,639 --> 00:07:11,120 So God is saying, put away all of that, all uncleanness, all 85 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:15,560 covetousness, and let it not be named among you. Well, why is 86 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,600 he able to say that, because we've already said that. When God perfects 87 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:24,199 us in love, when we are surrendering our will to him, we are 88 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:30,319 now empowered to reciprocate love and to do his will. So God doesn't just 89 00:07:30,439 --> 00:07:33,800 go to the street where people are not yielding to him, who are not 90 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:38,720 surrendered to him, have not made a decision to follow him and say, 91 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:44,759 don't do uncleanness. It's not that his commandments change for those who don't love 92 00:07:44,879 --> 00:07:49,240 him. But there is another approach that he takes its repentance right follow me, 93 00:07:49,319 --> 00:07:53,839 he's saying. He's saying repent, he's saying, confess your sins. 94 00:07:54,199 --> 00:07:58,040 Agree with me. But when we are his children, he just comes to 95 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:03,480 us directly because he's already empowered us and say, flee, fornication, flee. 96 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:09,240 According to the rest of this verse four, filthiness, foolish talking, 97 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:15,360 jesting, huh, but rather giving of thanks. He wants us to have 98 00:08:15,439 --> 00:08:18,639 a different mindset. No more foolishness, brothers and sisters, right, no 99 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:26,000 more silliness, no more believing lies, no more fornication, no more idolatry. 100 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:28,800 And that's okay, And it's more than okay because Jesus didn't do it. 101 00:08:30,279 --> 00:08:33,639 Yeah, we are free to do everything Jesus did. We are free 102 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:37,120 to live in the way that Jesus lived. Remember, Paul said, follow 103 00:08:37,159 --> 00:08:41,960 me as I follow Christ. Who's the best example, Jesus Christ. Okay, 104 00:08:41,039 --> 00:08:45,960 let's keep going verse six. Let no man deceive you with vain words, 105 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,759 because for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the 106 00:08:48,799 --> 00:08:52,919 children of disobedience. So I'm not going to palliate you this morning. Neither 107 00:08:52,919 --> 00:08:56,360 am I going to palliate myself. I'm not going to make us feel good 108 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:01,679 in our sins like God loves you so much that and then somehow take responsibility 109 00:09:01,759 --> 00:09:05,440 from us. No, the wrath of God is coming to anyone who does 110 00:09:05,519 --> 00:09:11,440 not repent. H does not repent I don't have another way of saying that. 111 00:09:11,879 --> 00:09:16,759 But be ye, therefore partakers, not with them. For ye were 112 00:09:16,879 --> 00:09:22,360 sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the world. Walk as children 113 00:09:22,399 --> 00:09:28,759 of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness 114 00:09:28,759 --> 00:09:33,279 and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord Final Verse. And have 115 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:39,200 no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Bible 116 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:45,320 is giving us clear indication about how God's people can follow him today. Thanks 117 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,679 for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, 118 00:09:50,039 --> 00:09:52,879 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has 119 00:09:52,879 --> 00:10:00,320 been your daily portion with l David Harris. Make it a great day.