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 Wednesday, December
twenty four, 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
lesson study series Lessons of Faith from Joshua. We just
have a couple more days left, but our caption for
today is the Dangers of the Dangers of Idolatry. Before
we get into that, I'd like to 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 for Q
one twenty twenty six. We're going into Philippians and Colossians
and hopefully you've already gotten that. You can either download
it or of course, you can get the physical copy
at your Daily Portion dot com. This is one of
the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
Let's pray, Father, we thank you for giving us the
opportunity to study and serve. Please help us to live
according to your principles. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen
and Amen again. Let me ask you. I know those
of you on the rate won't be able to respond
unless you go over to the YouTube channel for your
Daily Portion, but just hold that until you can have
an opportunity to do that. What is the problem with idolatry?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: What is the problem with that? And I mean putting
anything above God. It may be that some people actually
bow to images or something like that, and there are
others who simply replace God like put things and people
over God in our lives. What is the problem with that? Now,
let me just say very quickly, I want to oversimplify.
If we idolize anything or anyone and we put them
above God, then that means we're saying we don't need
God and we're not responsible to the creator who created us.
We're not responsible. This is what we're saying. We're saying
that we're not responsible to the one who gave every
thing so we could be recreated and made holy. So
really we're disrespecting the relationship that God intended for us
to have from before there was a beginning. He created
us for a relationship with him, and we're really just
turning our backs. If God forbid we put anything above him,
then we're turning our backs on him and saying you
do not matter. And I don't even want to say, like,
I don't even want to call his name now because
it sounds like I'm saying that. But that's what we're saying,
and so I'm oversimplifying, But that is what comes to
mind immediately. Okay, And so let's go to Signs of
the Times article from eighteen eighty eight E. J. Wagoner,
Idols of the heart are the hardest to detect. So
you notice he's not even messing around with the ones
that we can physically see, Like Mullick, you feel me,
like bayl ASTROI you know what I mean? Like He's
saying that the ones that are in our minds are
the hardest to detect. Yet this is the good news.
The grace of Christ alone can dislodge them and restore
the soul to loyalty. Idols of the heart are the
hardest to detect, and yet the grace of Christ alone
can dislodge them and restore the soul to loyalty. All
right from the Booksteps to Christ, page forty nine, God
does not ask us to overcome in our own strength.
He calls us to put away sin, and then he
promises us the power to obey. This is the end
of the quote. Have you ever heard his biddings or
enablings whenever he bids us to come, whenever he commands
or asks us to do anything within the command within
him reasoning with us the power to actually do what
he said. You understand. So when he asked or bade
Peter come onto the water and walk with him on
the water, which is impossible according to the laws of nature.
When he bade him come in the bidding was the enablement,
if that's the right word, for Peter to actually defy
the laws of nature because he had the power of
God in him. So we have in God's biddings and
his enablement, his enablings, we have the ability to defy
the laws of our broken human nature and to assume
the nature that God gives us through the Holy Ghost.
And so our lesson number one for today is that
idle survive when we refuse to confront them. This is
what it says in the Book of Joshua, chapter twenty
four and verse twenty three. Now, therefore, put away, say
he the strange gods which are among you, and incline
your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. So Joshua
had to repeat the same command Moses gave because the
danger was not theoretical. Idols were already among them. The
Hebrew word for incline natah natah, meaning to bend, to
stretch toward, or to direct oneself. That's what that means.
Like that that being a person who is inclining toward that.
God's people needed to bend their desires toward God, because
the human heart not naturally bends away from God. Idols
persist when they are tolerated. They lose power only when
confronted and removed. And so the action step is for
you to name your idol. Don't type it in the chat.
It's none of our business. Name your idol that may
be that is competing with your loyalty to God today.
Now listen, maybe you have put away your idols. I'm
not going to say that everybody has an idol. I
really don't like the way that sometimes Christianese speaking people
say that, like they make it seem as if everybody
is still bound, like they are literally people who are
yielding our will to God, like Enoch did yielding our
will to God, like Elisha yielding our will to God,
like Abigail demonstrated, like Hulda Anna. How the Bible shows
us that who is the person that I really really like?
How Job yielded his will to God, How Joseph yielded
his will to God. So I'm not going to give
you a complex, But if in fact there is still
something competing that, I want you to write it down,
name it, and then confess to God and ask him
to bend your heart toward him. Our lesson number two
is obedience is relationship. Obedience is really relationship. And from
the next verse Joshua, chapter twenty four and verse twenty four,
it reads, and the people said unto Joshua, the Lord,
our God, will we serve and his voice will we obey?
And we talked about this the other day, where you know,
God's people, even in this generation, made high profession. But
Joshua was like, listen, the people back in the day
said the same thing. Your parents said the same thing.
But what we need to do is solidify a relationship
with God. So God's people's answer in this case, it
shows the heart of true obedience. Covenant was never about
rule keeping. It never was. The phrase we will listen
to his voice reveals their relationship and Hebrew thought listening
and obeying are one action. I told you that for
many years that we've been together, Shamah, to hear, to hear,
and to do are the same thing. The heart inclines
toward the one it loves. Obedience that flows only from
fear never lasts. Obedience that flows from relationship in yours.
So just ask God, really, Lord, can you help me
to live my profession? Make it a great day? 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,