Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Sunday, August fourth,
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 through the Book of Mark, and our caption
for today is human traditions versus God's commands. Human traditions
versus God's commands. Get into that in just a moment,
But first I like to say welcome to you and
ask you to please go over to your Daily Portion
dot com. Please join us in 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. 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 opportunity
that you've given us to pray. Please teach us to
listen to your voice, and your voice only in Jesus name.
I pray, Amen and Amen again. Yeah, sometimes humans have
a problem, and our problem besides, you know, the really
big stuff is a really big one here. I know
what I just said. We don't listen to God's voice enough.
Some of us don't listen to God's voice at all.
And this is why we have this big contrast, like
this challenge between what God says and what humans say,
what God says and what the devil says. You see,
at the Garden of Eden, the devil tried this plan
out and it worked. You know, God had already made
himself very clear about the knowledge, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And when he goes to Eve,
he said, yeay hath God said, and then he starts
to mess around a little bit with what God says.
And then he goes in complete, diametrically opposed language from
what God said. He said, you shall not surely die,
when God said you shall surely die. And it's like, okay,
we need to listen for God's voice, and when we
hear or listen, we actually do what he says. That
is the antidote. Like if we stopped right here, if
the current cut off and the broadcast stopped right here,
we will have gotten what we need for today. Whatever
God says, we listen to it and then just do it.
Everything else has to go okay. And so the discussion
is taken up here in the Bible Book of Mark,
chapter seven, beginning at verse one, and the Bible reads
then came together unto him, the Pharisees and searching of
the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. Oh, they're coming from
they're coming from home. Base hold on. And when they
saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled that
is to say, with unwashing hands, they found fault for
the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their
hands oft eat not holding the tradition of the elders.
The what tradition of the elders? Okay? Verse four. And
when they come from the market, except they wash, they
eat not, And many other things there be which they
have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots,
brazen vessels, and tables. I went to a actually went
to a kosher pizza shop one time in Maryland, and
I saw the ritual washings even there. Very interesting. Verse five.
Then the pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk not
the disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but
eat bread with unwashing hands. He answered, and said, unto them,
Well has said essays prophesied of you hypocrites, as it
is written this people honor with me with their lips.
You see, there are a lot of people who talk
a good talk, like like I say, like you ask
somebody how they're doing. And I'm not talking about everybody
who does this. I'm talking about the people who are
actual hypocrites. How you doing? And then they use his
name he is good, and it's like, Okay, I got you.
I agree that God is good, but how are you right?
And then you find that this person is abusive to
his or her spouse, like then you find that this
person has been stealing from the treasury, And then you
find out that the sanctimonious language and outward or external
behavior of interesting long term fast and these kinds things
are in opposition to the lifestyle that they live at home.
Like I grew up in a situation like this, where
it was like, Wow, I wish I could see the
person that I hear about from that pulpit. I wish
that person lived in my house. But alas it was
not the case. And so I just want to say,
thank God that he is giving us the privilege, the
privilege to open up his word and see what God
is saying here. He said that they honor me with
their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Verse seven,
How be it in vain do they worship me teaching
for doctrines, the commandments of men, for laying aside the
commandment of God, Ye hold many other traditions of men,
as washing of pots and cups and so forth. And
verse nine, he said, unto them, full well, ye reject
the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother. And
whosoever curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, if a man say to his father
or mother. It is corbon, that is to say, a
gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he
shall be free. And he suffered them no more to
do aught for his father or mother, making the word
of God of none effect through your tradition which ye
have delivered, and so many such things. So I'm not
going to go into the details of that particular tradition
because it's not likely that wherever you happen to be
living in the world, that you're dealing with this particular one.
What Jesus was dealing with in this moment, he was
dealing with hypocrisy. That's what he was dealing with. He
was dealing with hypocrisy. He was dealing with people switching
things up in order to serve themselves, even though they
want to have people think that they're holy. So let's
deal with hypocrisy. You can study exactly what Jesus was
talking about in those details, but again, it's not something
that we can necessarily apply to ourselves, most of us.
So let's get to the root of the matter. What
is he really talking about? And so let's look at
hypocrisy and how we can avoid it. Can we agree
that we all need to agree. We need to avoid hypocrisy.
The first thing that we need to do is examine
ourselves and be honest. We need to yield ourselves to
the Holy Ghost and have self examination. And according to
the Bible Book of Tewod Corinthians, chapter thirteen and verse five,
the Bible reads, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith,
and prove your own selves. Let me say it again,
examine yourselves. I need to add my name here, David.
Examine yourself, David. Examine yourself whether I be in the faith,
and prove your own selves. Hm. Oh, so I need
to actually look in the mirror. I think the Bible
teaches us that the Law of God is a mirror,
and we need to determine whether we're going to look
into that mirror and see what it is and see
the contrast between what the law says and is and
who I am, and then ask God to actually deliver
me from the contrast. Deliver me from the hypocrisy, deliver
me from the shortcomings and shortfall here, deliver me from myself. Yeah.
Self examination regularly assess your actions and your belief systems
and see that they align with the scriptures. I'm talking
about what you believe, and now what you do. What
is in your forehead and what is in your hand?
What is in your forehead, That is what you think,
and then what you actually do. And I'm doing the
same thing Deuteronomy chapter six and in Exodus chapter thirteen.
We see that God wants us to think and to
do and have these as our reality check on a
regular basis. And then I've already said that we need
to be honest. But let me say it one more time,
transparency and honesty. In Colossians chapter three and verse nine,
lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put
off the old man with his deeds. You see in
the Shakespearean play Hamlet, we see Polonius saying to his son,
to thine own self be true, and then you won't
be able to lie to anybody else. So we need
self examination, and then we need to be honest with ourselves,
with God and with others. We need to flee hypocrisy
because God wants us to be holy. Make it a
great day, peace.
Speaker 1: 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,