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 Monday, December
twenty two, twenty twenty five. 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
final week of our lesson study series, Lessons of Faith
in the Book of Joshua or from Joshua. Yes, and
our caption for today is in sincerity and truth that
is coming right out of the Bible. In sincerity and
in truth. We'll get into that in just a moment,
but first I'd like to say welcome to everyone joining us,
especially those joining us for the very first time. Please
go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join
our online community, pick up your Daily Portion life application guide,
and 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 pray, Father, thank you for this Monday morning and
for the privilege of sincerity. Like we can literally do
your will as long as you are with us. Help
us to do it. Please help us to live as
if we are finally in your presence God. In Jesus' name,
I pray Amen and amen again. Yeah I should have
said visible, We're in the presence of God. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
So our first lesson is coming in from from the
Bible Book of Joshua, chapter twenty four, Verses fourteen and fifteen.
Verses fourteen and fifteen. Let me read that. Now, therefore,
fear the Lord. Remember that phrase, fear the Lord, serve
him in sincerity and in truth. That almost sounds like
the New Testament passage to serve him or in spirit
and in truth. Those who worship him will worship him
interesting and put away the gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the river. And in Egypt,
serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you,
we said this the other day, to serve the Lord.
Choose for yourselves this day today, right now, whom ye
will serve. Whether the gods of your fathers that they served,
that were on the other side of the river, on
the other side of the river. Do you get that?
Did you get that there's a line of demarcation, There
was a line in the sand the other side of
the river, mint idolatry. The other side of the river
meant you were not fully delivered in your own mindset.
On the other side of those tracks, so to speak,
was your impoverished, enslaved mindset. You're gonna serve that time.
You're gonna serve that experience or the gods of the
Amorites and whose land you dwell. But as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. And so
our first lesson is Reverence for God shapes genuine obedience.
Reverence for God shapes genuine obedience, and so and so.
The word for fear I told you please to remember
the phrase to the fear the Lord. The word for
fear in this case is yare. It means to stand
in awe and reguard with reverence. We're in awe of God,
and we're are regarding with reverence the God of our salvation.
So Joshua called God's people to live with a conscious
awareness of God's holiness and his awe authority. True obedience
grows out of reverence, not dread, you know what I mean, Like,
we're not running away from God hoping that lightning bolts
won't strike us. Not in a real relationship with God. No, no,
no no. When the heart sees God as King and father.
And I know many of us have father issues. Some
of you don't, thank God, many of us do. And
it's like, ah, but my father wasn't there for me.
My father was there. But when he was there, he
really and then fill in the negative blank. I'm not
going to rehearse those those early childhood experiences that maybe
we're not we're not fruitful or beneficial to you, God,
our Father. That's different. Obedience comes. Let me say it
like this, when the heart sees God as King and
the good Father that we needed ha hah. Obedience becomes
the natural expression of this devotion. And so the action
in this regard is begin today by praying Lord, teach
me to see you as who you really are, so
I can serve you with a reverent heart Lesson number two,
sincerity means wholeness of heart before God. The Bible reads
in Psalm the Book of Psalms, chapter one hundred and
one and verse two, I will behave myself wisely in
a perfect way. In the New English translation it reads,
I will walk in integrity. So the word for sincerity
or perfection same word now, yes, is tanine tanine and
tamim excuse me, and it means whole, complete, undivided. God
wants us to be whole, complete, and undivided. He said
that the people who ask Wavering in the Book of
James should not believe or think that we're going to
receive anything from God because we are unstable in all
of our ways. We are like Ruben. I think it
was Reuben that was unstable as water, but whichever one
of the sons of Jacob he said, yeah, yeah, because
you're unstable, then that means, yeah, you don't believe you're
going to get anything from God. So focus. I want
you to be taen, whole, complete, and undivided. Joshua's instruction
was a call to serve God without duplicity or divided loyalties.
Just as the sacrificial lamb had to be perfect or
tomim huh, Just as the lamb had to be God
invited his people to offer themselves. Oh, I'm thinking about
Paul's writings, to offer myself as a living sacrifice. But
a living what tomim sacrifice? One that is perfect, one
that is with sincerity, one is whole, It's complete, it
is undivided. So God commanded his people to do the same,
offer ourselves with undivided hearts. God still seeks believers who
will live with integrity. So our action step is choose
one area of your life. I want you to write
this down though. Choose an area of your life where
your devotion is divided. That's your business between you and God,
where it's divided, and surrender it to God today, not tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Not.
Speaker 2: I'm still growing. God is still working with me. I'm trying.
Not that you're making a decision now, in this very moment,
in eight minutes after the hour, you are making the
decision to surrender that thing to God and your life
to him right now. Lesson number three is coming in
from the Book of Psalms, chapter one hundred and verse five.
The Bible reads, for the Lord is good, his mercy
is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. And so the Hebrew
word again for truth and faithfulness, this time is emmet,
meaning firmness, dependability, reliability. God's loyalty toward his people was constant, reliable, right,
and steady and unchanging. That resonates with me. One of
my behavior style dominant styles is is that way steady, steady, steady, unchanging, consistent.
Joshua called his people, God's people to respond with that
same unwavering or steady loyalty. Our faithfulness to God is
a reflection of his own faithfulness toward us. If you
are unsteady, unstable, then you're saying that God is unsteady
and unstable. And we know that ain't the truth. And
so our action for this today is make one choice,
one decision that reflects loyalty to God rather than ooh,
ease or commitment my God. Hmm, yeah, I'll leave it
right there. I'll leave it right there. And if the
Lord spars life, we will see you in the morning.
Make it a great day peace. Thanks for joining us
listening with 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah,