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 Monday, August twenty one, two twenty two. 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, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series through the
Book of Ephesians, and our caption for today is walking as Children of Light.
Walking as Children of Light. We'll get into that in just a moment,
but first I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you to go
over to your Daily Portion dot com, join our online community, and there
we can continue to build faith and fellowship, and by all means, please
pick up the your Daily Portion book at 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 this new morning. And it is our privilege,
Lord to be in your presence. Please give us understanding, teach us to
walk as children of light in Jesus name. I pray, Amen and Amen
again. I just want to tell you, and this has always been my
reality, but I just need to say it clearer, and I want you
to be looking out for this every time I come on this camera or the
radio, whatever way you're listening or experiencing this. Right, it needs to
be about transformation. It is about transformation, because gone are the days that
we preachers, speakers, teachers, coaches and everybody else mentors are satisfied with
just transferring information from our brains into through the medium that we're using into someone
else's brains. Like information is cool, but transformation is holiness. You understand.
God wants to change us from hopeless sinners into hopeful and holy saints.
And so let's begin. Let's begin with some practical tips for walking as children
of light. Here's one. Embrace God's light. Embrace God's light. Accepting
God's truth and love into your life, allowing it, allowing him to transform
your thoughts, your actions, your intents, and all of that. Right,
it's basically saying, Lord, not my will, but thine be done.
Lord, not my mind set, but let me have the mindset of
Christ. Right embrace God's light. How about living righteously? Living righteously?
We have to make decisions all day long. Will this decision about what I
eat, what I drink, what I do? Will this decision about about
how I relate to my spouse, to my children, to someone at work,
someone on the road on the way to work or to play, Like,
will that experience be a manifestation of righteousness or runholiness? What if somebody
curses you? What if somebody assaults you? What if someone has been gossiping
behind your back? What if your spouse says or does something that you are
completely over with, Like you did not expect it and you were blindsided,
and now you're thinking some thoughts like are those thoughts based on righteousness or runholiness?
How about being honest and try parent. One of the things that keeps
us connected with God is agreement with him. We use like a theological term
called confession right, say what God has said. And so when we confess
our sins, what we're doing is agreeing with God what God's assessment of our
lives are is. And we say, okay, Lord, you are correct,
I have done X I have neglected to do. Why you are correct?
Will you transform me? So being honest and transparent, we need to
be walking in integrity, being honest with ourselves and with others. And then
of course there is love for others. Right. The first and great commandment
is love the Lord, our God with everything we have, everything we are.
The second, miraculously is like unto it, namely, love your neighbor
as yourself. And of course on these two hang all the law and the
prophets. Forgive freely? Can I just pause right here for a moment,
forgive freely? There are people right now, there are hearts that are harboring
hurt feelings from the past, and you are imprisoning yourselves if you don't learn
by God's grace. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's easy.
But if you learn by God's grace, then you will be delivered,
delivered from an unforgiving spirit, avoiding sin that is self explanatorying, being a
light to others, praying and seeking God's face, staying humble, and sharing
the great news the Gospel with as many people as possible. So these are
some indicators. These are some things for which we can look in our own
lives to say, is God transforming me? Am? I a child of
light or darkness? Right? And so what we're going to do is look
here, Paul writes, don't let anyone deceive you with empty words. Paul
has identified those whose practice is certain sins like without shame and without repentance.
I gave you sort of a sneak peaky yesterday at the end, sexually immoral
or impure, or those who are covetous. Based on Ephesians chapter five and
verse five, let me let me go there. Ephesians chapter five and verse
five, the Bible reads right here, you can be sure that no immoral,
impure, greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God.
For a greedy person is an idolator worshiping the things of this world. And
so he God, through Paul, identified those realities. And then the phrase
of the wrath of God is a challenging one because we're not looking forward to
that. That's not something that gets us up in the morning and excited and
saying whatever fill in the blank about the wrath of God. But the fact
is that the believer does not have to worry about that if you are completely
focused on God's will and recognizing that if you lose focus for a moment,
that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
As you continue to walk in the light as he is in the light,
then you know that the love of Jesus Christ, the power of Jesus
Christ, transforms you and your sin problem becomes God's problem. You don't resolve
the sin problem because you can't. I can't. But we can surrender and
must surrender our will to God, and He will transform us into children of
light. Do you understand that? And so the wrath of God is for
those who are not perfect did in love. The Bible says there is no
fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear, for fear hath torment.
Those who are perfected in love are coming boldly into the presence of God,
like boldly unto the throne of grace, where there is grace to help in
time of need. Those individuals come boldly into the day of judgment. Because
as he is Jesus being holy, so are we in this world. So
we know that we can stand in the judgment when we are perfected in love.
Why because Jesus Christ becomes the one who is our covering, we are
confessing our sins. We are forsaking our sins. We are allowing God to
transform us from the inside out. We are children of light and not of
darkness. And therefore and therefore we know that in the judgment that we will
be safe. And that's not something to take for granted. But the reality
is that as long as we are surrendered to God, we are safe,
and then of worse. The Bible reads here in verses seven through ten,
as we come to a swift clothes Ephesians chapter five, B ye, not
ye, therefore partakers with them, for ye were past tense, sometimes darkness.
But now we're talking about now, wherever day it is, whatever time
of the day it is. But now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all
goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. So
be partakers of light. Not partners of darkness, and of course as we
do so, we live walking as children of light. Of a wonderful day.
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.