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 Thursday, January
twenty nine, twenty twenty six. 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 uniting Heaven and Earth, Christ in Philippians
and Colossians, and our caption for today is hold such
men in esteem, Hold such men in esteem. Before we
get into that, I'd like to say welcome to everyone
joining us, especially those joining us for the very first time.
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very very special welcome. As you will see people who
are here with us on a regular basis are quick
to welcome you, and so I'm very grateful that you
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the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
Let's pray, Father, thank you for giving us your holy spirit.
Please help us to live according to your principles and
keep you in high regard and your people in Jesus name,
I pray, Amen and Amen again hold such men in esteem.
I don't know if I if I don't recall if
I announced our caption. And so we're going into the
Bible Book of Philippians Philippians Chapter two, and we will
read Versus twenty five to thirty Philippians, chapter two, and
we will read beginning at verse chapter verse twenty five,
and the Bible reads Yet I suppose let me read
it from another another translation, new English translation. But for
now I have considered it necessary to send a pa
Pphforditis to you, for he is my brother, co worker
and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to me
in my need. So he's already elevating. When I say elevating,
I'm talking about in terms of service. He's elevating Epaphroditis
in the sight of the people to say, if you
need a servant who will stick by you, look no
further than Epaphroditis, like he becomes now the gold standard
of a fellowship, companionship, etc. Indeed, verse twenty six, he
greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you
heard that he had been ill. So we see now,
of course he was ill. But besides that, you can
see that Paul is saying, not only do I care
for you, not only do I have your best interest
at heart, but so does Epaphroditis, even to the degree
that when he is not well, he's still thinking of you.
Do you have anybody like that with you, that when
you're ministering, they think as you do in terms of
the well being of the people to whom you minister
verse twenty seven. In fact, he became so ill that
he nearly died, but God showed mercy to him, and
not to him only, but also to me. Now we
see the care and love and compassion of Paul saying
that not only was our brother spared, but I was
spared too, in a sense, because what would I do
without him? What would I do without him? And not
to him only, but also to me, so that I
would not have grief on top of grief verse twenty eight. Therefore,
I am all the more eager to send him so
that when you see him again, you can rejoice and
I can be free from anxiety. So welcome him in
the Lord with great joy and honor people like him,
since it was because of the work of Christ that
he almost died. Now we see that he didn't get
hit by a stage coach. I know they didn't exist
back then, but he didn't get run over by a camel.
You feel me like he didn't drop out of a
tree while he was picking something to eat for the day.
It was because of the work of Christ that he
almost died. He risked his life so that he could
make up for your inability, oh to serve me. Did
you get that last part? He risked his life so
that he could make up for your inability to serve me. WHOA,
Now that is interesting. Let's go ahead and get to
some of our lessons for today. Lesson number one. Christian
character is seen in sacrificial service Epaphroditis's services. His service
was clearly seen, So it's not in our status or position,
but it was what because of his service? I'll read
it in the King James verse twenty nine again, receive
him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold
in such reputation. And that word actually means high honor,
high value, esteem due to proven worth. What was the
standard for the worth his service? His service to God
and service to people. I think that's what the great
commandments are. Love the Lord your God with everything you
have and everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.
And of course he took the great commission very seriously.
So what I want you to do is to identify
one selfless person. I don't know if it's somebody who
comes with you to your daily portion in the mornings
or in the evenings. I don't know if it's that
person or someone else in your church community, and express
intentional gratitude. I see most of the time it's people
on Facebook, on Facebook, on the various platform on Facebook
that really greet one another every morning. And I see
the list of people whose names you are identifying, So
I don't know is it one of those people, but
express gratitude intentionally to affirm their ministry Lesson number two,
faithfulness is proven through reliability under pressure, even at personal cost.
Do we really need to highlight the fact that this
brother almost died and he was sick and almost died,
and that whatever it was was related to his service
to God? Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah. So he put himself
to risk, to hazard and exposed himself to danger for
another person's sake. That's with the word I can't pronounce
it has too many syllables one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven syllables in Greek. That identifies the kind of service
that this brother had. And so the action step, the
action step is to choose one area of ministry where
you can step forward with deeper commitment nobody's asking you
to try to climb up on a cross, because Jesus
already did that to save us from our sins. Jesus
already did that. We're not looking for a way to
punish ourselves to prove that somehow we are filling the
blank positive, that's not it. But I still want you
to choose one area of ministry where you can step
forward with deeper commitment, because remember, he was there because
the people somehow were not able to serve Paul even
when it demands sacrifice less A number three. In Final
God calls the people of God to esteem those whose
lives reflect the humility of Christ and of course, of
course talking about the kind of humility that Jesus showed.
And so the action step for this is to pray
specifically for fellow soldiers ah in your spiritual circle and
ask God to help you honor them through encouragement and unity.
And we thank God. Let me see if I can
get a quote in very quickly from James White in
eighteen sixty A mena of sacrificing self, sacrificing devotion are needed.
People who will hazard ease and life itself for the
cause of truth. Such servants heaven will honor. Yeah. Make
it a great day. We'll see you in the morning
of the Lord Spear's life. 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,