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 seventeen,
twenty twenty six. 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. This is lesson number four in the series
Uniting Heaven and Earth, christ in Philippians and Colossians, and
our caption for today is Unity through Humility, Unity through Humility.
Before we get into that, I'd like to say welcome
to you and ask you to go over to your
Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community. Please
let us know where you are in the world. And
if you are so inclined, go ahead and click that
donate button 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 get underway. Father,
We thank you for this Sabbath morning, and I pray
that you will give us a unified mind, help us
to be unified with you and then have fellowship with
your people. In Jesus' name, I pray Amen and Amen
again unity through humility. Well, I want you to type
in the chat what does humility mean to you? What
does humility mean to you? Is it something positive? I'm
talking about how you feel about it, how you see it?
Are something other than positive? Is it negative? Is it
something like when I was growing up in New York City,
humility and being passive or whatever word you would use,
were seen as weakness. What is humility to you? Now?
For God's people, humility is a pathway of success because
when we are proud, when we are in a position
where we quote know everything, or we're trying to manage
and do everything in our own strength or own mindset,
then God is not in position to help us. He's
not in position to give us the things that we
need because we think we have it all covered already, okay,
and so unity in or through humility. Let's go ahead
and begin with a quote from Jan Laffenborough Loftborough Part
of Me from eighteen seventy five, a Reviewing Herald article.
Where humility is cherished, unity thrives, for no one seeks
a higher place, but each seeks a deeper likeness to Christ.
You see the crabs in a barrel. Mentality is antithetical
to the connection with God that He wants for us.
You see, when you have people that are all on
the same team, God has given us all the same
great commission to go ye into all the world, teach, preach, baptized,
to represent Christ, so that others can be like him too,
can be transformed and be and be in eternity with God.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But when pride gets in, then the power of the
Holy Ghost is not available to us. And without the
Holy ghosts, we can't accomplish the goals the will that
God has positioned for us in these last days. You
see where I'm going with this. Let me read, Let
me read from a quote in the Patriarchs and Prophets. Well,
it's not a quote, but it's a thought based on
the quote in chapter one. This is what I'm getting
from it. The origin of disunity is found in pride
and self exaltation of one who once stood in the
presence of God. So where did pride come from? Where
did the where did humility go down the tubes? Yeah?
With Lucifer in his heart, Christ's humility alone can restore
unity in his people. Okay, And so our lesson number
one comes in from Jeremiah chapter seventeen and verse nine.
And really, God wants us to tell the truth about ourselves.
Tell the truth about ourselves. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So
we are naturally on our own. If left to our
own devices, we are deceitful and crooked and unreliable. That is,
that is the natural reality. But true unit requires us
not to simply identify that reality. I think Christian he
speaking people are very good at identifying problems. But what
we need now is for God to transform us. So
if our problem is that we are desperately wicked, our
minds are deceitful above all things, then we surrender our
mind and will to God so he can transform us
so we're not in that same regard anymore. So true
unity requires humility, because pride is the root of all disunity.
So ask the Holy Ghost this Sabbath morning, God, reveal
one area where pride is hindering my unity in the
kinds of relationships that you want me to have. God,
if I'm supposed to be unified in that faith fellowship
that I am to attend in a couple of hours
from now, then please show me where my pride is
hindering the process. If we are to reach people outside
of the wall that facility we call church, I said facility.
I wish I had the time that we call the
church so that people can be the church. Like, if
I'm in the way, show me in what way I
am in the way, Show me in what way I'm
not yielding my will to you. Show me in what
way I need to be marching in lockstep with other
people who are serving you so that your name can
be glorified. So ask God to reveal one area where
pride is hindering unity in your relationships, especially inside the
faith fellowship. Our second lesson is unity grows when believers
think like Christ through his spirit guided thoughts. Remember, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Remember in Philippians chapter four and verse eight that God
gives us lift of a list of things. Whatsoever things
are just and honest and kind, and of good report,
if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things. So our minds need to be
yielded to God. We need to yield ourselves to God
so that his mindset will being superimposed upon our mindset,
and then we'll walk away from the sinful mindset. You see,
in the Old Testament, God promised that he would he
would do a surgery of sorts, a spiritual surgery, a
transformative procedure, where he said he would take out from
us the heart of stone and put in us a
heart of flesh. That heart of flesh is the one
that is more pliable, the one that is receptive to
the will of God. And so we want to meditate
intentionally on only things that are up in line with
the mindset of God. And so choose one christ like
thought one of the ones in the list in Philippians
chapter four and verse eight, is it of good report?
You want to do that when people are gossiping, is
the good report one the one you want to focus on,
whatever one it is, choose one and then meditate on
it all throughout the day. Sounds simple, doesn't it. It's
because it is, but it's not easy. Human beings are
bent toward destruction, and so what we're doing is saying, God,
I'm yielding my thought process to you, because without you,
I will only go down the path toward destruction. Our
third and final lesson is humility. The humility of Christ
is the anchor and model for all Christian unity. And
I said it already to you, but let me repeat
it now. It's from Philippians, chapter two and verse five,
Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus. And then the Bible writer identifies how Jesus,
in his humility, literally gave up his life. Can we
just start with the fact that Jesus, because he is divine,
had to agree to take on a human form in
order to give up his life. Before he could even
give up his life, he had to take on the
life that would feel physical pain, that would experience hunger,
that would need to rest at night, that would need
to rely on God, our Father, through the Holy Ghost,
like he is the one who created us, and yet
he assumed human flesh so he could humble himself further
and die the death, even the death of the cross.
And so we want the same attitude of Jesus Christ,
the same mindset practical moral wisdom of Jesus Christ. And
so our action as we close is to emulate Christ
today by choosing one of those humble actions, like I
said a little earlier, in a situation where you could
insist on doing things your own way.
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,