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, February one,
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 uniting Heaven and Earth, Christ in Philippians and Colossians,
and our caption for today is Rejoice in the Lord.
Rejoicing in the Lord. Before we get into that, i'd
like to just say welcome to everyone joining us, especially
those joining us for the very first time. I'm asking
you to 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
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contribute button 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 new day,
this day that you have entrusted to us to do
your work. Please help us to serve you today. We
need you in Jesus name, I pray a man and
a man again rejoicing in the Lord. We're going to
begin by reading from the Bible Book of Philippians Philippians,
chapter three, and I will read beginning at verse one. Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. It's amazing. I've said
this to you before that our brother Paul was talking
about rejoicing in the Lord while he was locked up,
and unjustly so. But he said, you, brethren, you brothers
and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
things to you to me, indeed is not grievous, but
for you it is safe. Let me read it. Let
me read it in another translation. Finally, my brothers and
sisters rejoice in the Lord. To write this again is
no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
Beware of dogs verse two, beware of evil workers, beware
of those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision.
That just basically means we are God's people. I'll keep
that very simply. The ones who worship by the spirit
of God, exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely
on human credentials. I think yesterday I talked to you
about having no confidence in the flesh, and talk to
you about how he just really turned his back on
his own resume his own skill set, and said, I
think I'm just gonna submit my will here and accept
God's righteousness through Christ. Okay, so we don't rely on
human credentials verse four, though mine too are significant. See
what that word for significant means. Though I have reason
for confidence in the flesh. Is what that means. In
the footnote, if someone thinks he has good reasons to
put confidence in human credentials, I have more. And then
he goes on, he goes on, and so what we
want to do. I got ahead of my skis, but
I just couldn't stop at verse three. We want to
get back to rejoicing in the Lord our lesson. Number
one in that regard is that joy protects believers from deception.
Remember he said, beware of dogs, beware of all of
these people, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision,
which means mutilation, people who mutilate themselves, and people who
really wouldn't have a problem eating you up and mutilating
you spiritually in the church. Oh my, I digress. So
joy protects the believer from deception because it is rooted
in confidence in Christ and not flesh. And so the
joy that he was talking about is korra. Korra in
Greek used that word specifically. It means not based on circumstances.
Karra means that it's not based on circumscs dances, but
on Christ rather, but on Christ. And so what I
want you to do today in that in that vein
is begin with about sixty seconds of intentional rejoicing. Now
some of you are like, come on, bro, I rejoice
for hours. Well you do that. But for those of
you who are struggling, I want you to begin with
just sixty seconds of intentional rejoicing because maybe you have
a habit of complaining. I don't know. Maybe you see
the glass half empty most of the time. Maybe you
see the dark side of things. It's natural for you
because maybe it's in your DNA, maybe it's something that
you were socialized with or in. And so I want
you to do that naming three things? How many did
I say? Type it in the chat? I need you
to name three things Christ has already done for you.
He's already done three things, more than three, but just
he coord three things. Write it down. What are the
three things God has already done for you? Lessen number two?
Lessen number two. False confidence produces spiritual danger. False confidence
reproduces excuse me, spiritual danger. True believers trust Christ alone
and reject all flesh based righteousness. Ah, yes, yes, yes,
see already we read the passage in Philippians, chapter three
and verse three, and so let's go to this confidence concept.
So the word that he used for confidence, it means
trust based in something or someone. Paul rejects all self
confidence as spiritual foundation. So the action step is identify
one area where you rely on personal performance. Oh wait
a minute, for spiritual assurance. Oh wait a minute. You
have a habit of praying and then God says yes
and he answers your prayers in the way that you
anticipate many times. Yeah, don't don't listen, don't trust in
your ability to pray, trust in the God to whom
you pray, Okay, and consciously shift that trust to God.
So let me say to you, like this, we are
to have faith. The Bible says that we are to
have faith God. Jesus said when he saw the one dude,
he was like, Yo, I've never seen this kind of
faith nowhere, even among God's people. This is some special faith.
Oh my, Even Jesus said that about about that one brother, right, okay, right,
And so sometimes we get that twisted and we say,
I have so much faith, y'all want to you need
a prayer? Answer like come to me, Like, come to
me and I'll pray for you. And as a result,
you're gonna get because I know God listens to me. Well, listen,
maybe it's true that God listens to you, right, but
you're not the only one, Like, you're not special that
it's not that somehow God has endowed you with something
that is not accessible to every single human being that
Jesus died for. That would be everybody you see, and
so the focus needs to be switched from I have
so much faith and God answers my prayers to I
thank God because He's powerful, and when it is according
to His glory and to my benefit. This is what
God does like it's for your glory, for your name's sake. God,
So focus your attention there less than number three and final,
spiritual vigilance includes rejoicing in the Lord while guarding against
teachings that distort the Gospel. There are so many teachers
and false teachers, false christs, false prophets in twenty twenty six,
my goodness, and many of them are among the faith fellows.
Many of them are sprinkled in among their growing like
tears in the field of God's people. And so what
Paul is saying is to beware of those, beware of
those people, guard against teachings that distort the Gospel. Beware
means to pay attention, to stay alert, a conscious call
for spiritual discernment. Ask God for spiritual discernment. God help
me to see what I naturally cannot see. And so
the action step is to evaluate one teaching, habit or
influence in your life through the scripture alone to confirm
whether it aligns with the gospel. Make it a great day.
Thanks for joining us listening.
Speaker 1: 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,