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 Sabbath, January four,
twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is Elle 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. This is Lesson number two under the theme
God's Love and Justice, and our caption for today is
covenantal Love. Covenantal Love. What does that mean to you?
We'll get into that in just a moment, But first
I like to make you aware of your Daily Portion
dot com. I want you to go over there and
sign up in our community. Make sure you have the
Companion Guide. The Companion Guide. You'll see it there big
red link. And also let us know where you are
in the world at your Daily Portion dot com. This
is one of the ways that we continue to build
faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray and then
get underway. Bather, We thank you for this Sabbath morning
and for the privilege that we have to open up
your word and to consider the covenant of love that
you have given to us. I pray now that we
will live in covenant with you, that we will keep
our end of the bargain, that we will yield our
will to you in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen, and
a man again, Well, what does covenant to love look like? Well,
immediately we go to the lesson writer's focus here in
John chapter fourteen and verse twenty three, what does covenantal
love look like? And Jesus answered and said, unto him,
if anyone loves me, so we already have this conditional.
Jesus is showing us the details, like what is on
his mind where covenantal love is concerned. Okay, Jesus answered
and said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
This is what covenantal love looks like keeping God's word
because when we love him, when we surrender our will
to God, we love him with his cause, him being
the cause of our ability to love him in return.
We love him because he first loved us. When we
love him in return, then we have the capability and
the ability to love God back. You see, the only
way that we can keep his word is if we
love God, and God gives us the ability to love
him and to keep his word. Yes, I said it
a few times, a couple of ways, because it bears repeating,
what else, what else? And my father will love him?
And so we see this circle of love. God loves us.
We have now the ability to love him in return.
The manifestation manifestation of that love. Now we can see
in how we keep his word. Okay, and God will
love him. God, our father will love him and will
come to him and make our home. Wait a minute,
and we will come to him or her and make
our home with him. So God is making a promise
that if you yield your will to me, you can
love me. You will learn to love me because my
love will empower you to love You love him back,
and then you will have the ability to keep God's word,
and then we will see the love of God our
Father in this way where Jesus Christ and God our
Father will tabernacle with us. The Bible says in the
Old Testament, and God was speaking to Moses, he said,
have them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell
among them. He wants to abide with us. He wants
us to abide with him. In fact, in the next
chapter of John, Jesus said, abide with me, abide in
me and I in you. And if that person asks anything,
he will then then we will have it. So God
wants to live in our lives. And I will say
that the best sermon that I have ever heard on
the subject of love was from doctor Martin Luther King Junior,
titled Loving Your Enemies. Look that sermon up, Look that
sermon up on the internet. There is audio that we
can still listen to today. Well, even though he's resting,
has been resting a whole long time. Loving Your Enemies
by Martin Luther King Junior. And so the lesson writer
points out something very very interesting. He points out the
fact that that, well, let me read it. Many have
been taught that the Greek word a goape refers to
a love that is unique to God, while other terms
for love, such as phileo phileo right like philadelphia phileo,
refer to different kinds of love a more deficient than
a gope. Some claim too, that a goape refers to
unilateral love, that is, love that only comes one way,
like I love you in spite of what you do,
and God is the one that does that. A love
that only gives but never receives, a love entirely dependent,
independent of human response. The lesson writer says here, however,
careful study of the divine love throughout scriptures shows that
these ideas, though common, are mistaken. And then it goes
into some details. And so we can see in the
Book of two Timothy, chapter four and verse ten, for
Demas had forsaken me, having loved that term as agape.
Wait a minute, what yeah mm hm, For Demus has
forsaken me, having loved this present world and departed unto thessalonaika,
and so forth, wait a minute. And then in the
New English translation it says it this way, for Demus
deserted me, since he agape he loved the present age.
And then the Bible continues with where he went et ce.
So we can see that that love was misguided, even
though we see in the Greek term gape a love
that people have mistaken. Now Fileo interestingly is used in
John chapter sixteen, beginning at verse twenty two. And ye
now therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man
taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask
me nothing. Verily I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall
ask the Father in my name, he will give it
to you. Hitherto we have asked nothing in my name.
Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs. But
the time cometh when no one, when I shall no
more speak unto you in proverbs. But I shall show
you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall
ask in my name. And I say not unto you,
that I will pray unto the Father. For the Father
himself phileo mm hmm. For the Father himself loveth you,
because he hath loved me, and he hath believed that
I am come out of Him or from God. So
what I need you to do? Really and truly. We've
said a lot is to be careful with word studies
in ancient languages. There's some people who because you were
told somehow that if you know the very details of
the ancient language, then somehow you will be able to
build more of a foundation. Well, I don't know that
God would would lock or change the truth into a
language that the people don't speak, right, So don't build
an entire case around them. Read in your language, right,
pray and then look at the context for true understanding.
God would not lock the truth up in a language
that you are not able to read. It's fine, you
have a concordance, you have a dictionary, use it, but
do not build doctrine on what you learn in terms
of word studies. Covenantal love is this. God loves us
so much that he gave us all of heaven in
one gift. And whether it's fileo or agape, whichever love
God is showing to us, it empowers us to love
Him in return and to have a covenant with him.
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,