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, December
twenty 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 in our final week.
This is lesson number thirteen, our final week in our
lesson study series, Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and today
caption is choose this day, Choose this day. 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. Please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community 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 go ahead and pray. Father,
we thank you for this Sabbath morning, and I'm asking
you to teach us to make a decision right now,
a decision to serve you. In Jesus's name, I pray
Amen and Amen again. Let me just say that the
majority of humans statistically have brain freeze. I'm talking about
all over the world in twenty twenty five, we're approaching
twenty twenty six. The majority of humans around the world
are very given our servant or service oriented. Some of
them are just stuck and frozen. Humans stuck and frozen.
When we should be making a decision, we're reactive. We're
waiting for instruction rather than sometimes making a solid decision.
And what God is saying to us today is that
we need to choose whom we will serve. Are we
going to serve God or not? It's simple. It's a
simple decision, and we need to make it right now.
You're like, okay, okay, all right, let's go into our
lesson number one to make sense of what I just said. Okay,
and so lesson number one for today is covenant. Faithfulness
requires an informed choice. Now, the Bible reads here as
we read what Joshua said in chapter twenty four and
verse fifteen, and if it seems evil to you to
serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day. If you
have a problem with what God has been saying, you
have a problem with the way God has led us,
then today is your choice. You have to choose. Choose
this day whom ye will serve. And guess what Joshua
did after that. He led by example. He said, today
I'm choosing with my house that we're going to serve
the Lord. Let me say it in another translation, New
English translation, choose for yourselves today whom you will worship.
Sometimes we don't like the word serve and service. I
just don't have the time to deal with why that
is the case. And then he says, but as for
me and my family, that's the decision that we have
made in the household of Harris in twenty twenty five,
we will worship the Lord, okay. And so the Hebrew
word for for this term for commitment is intention and
to prefer with commitment to choose bahar. That means we
prefer with commitment and to select with intention. I said
something about in our lesson, I said something about making
an informed decision. Yeah, so we know what we need
to know about God. We know that he is good,
Blessed be his name. We know that he is loving
and kind. We know that he will in no wise
clear the guilty. We know that he has mercy for
thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments.
But again that love and hate, love and fear cannot coexist.
And so when we are with him, we are against fear.
We are against hate, we are against self aggrandizement. We're
against putting self above God God. Yeah, so today we
are in an informed way making a commitment. We're preferring
with commitment, preferring whom God, preferring to worship God. We're
selecting God with intention. He selected us with intention. For
God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish
but have everlasting life. Intentionally, he has adopted us into
his family, or as the Bible says, we are adopted
through the beloved or in the beloved. And so Joshua's
final message called God's people to a decisive personal choice.
Covenant loyalty is not inherited or automatic. I want Josiah
to make the same decision that I've made. I want
him to make the same decision that Simone has made.
And he has the best privilege or opportunity to do
so because he's seen it lived out in living color
in his own household. But it is ultimately his decision
to make. It's a decision made consciously, repeatedly, and gratefully
in response to God's saving acts. Did you get that
last part, that part about about repeatedly and consciously. So
we're not when we say yes to God. We're not
putting handcuffs somehow, We're not somehow enslaved to Him, like
we are not indentured servants or longer termed servants in
the sense of we can't leave. Like we can make
a decision today to serve God and later today choose
to serve outside of the will of God. That is
our choice because God, because God is love, then love
requires the ability for us to choose. And so today
the action step for this point is to declare your commitment.
It could go something like this, Today I choose the Lord,
and I want you to say it aloud. Like, say
it aloud and write it somewhere visible today so that
when there is a road rage potential incident today, I
choose the Lord. If you're in the airport and somebody
does something ridiculous and you really feel like you're getting
upset today, I choose the Lord. Are you seeing what
I'm saying? When your boss asks you or commands you
to do something that's outside of your the terms of
your contract, and he or she has a habit of
doing that, and you have sort of pushed back a
little bit many times, and it seems that they're not
getting the membled today, I'm choosing the Lord. H When
your spouse seems to have lost his or her mind,
your child seems to us have lost his or her
mind today, I have you see what I mean. This
is why we need to make the decision, and then
sometimes we even need to look back at it in
a visible way. Listen Number two. Remembering God's faithfulness fuels
present obedience. In the Bible reads in Genesis chapter seventeen
and verse eight. And I will give unto thee and
to thy seed. After thee the land, I will be
their God. I will give you, I will give your legacy,
and it will be that I'll give you the land,
but I'll also be your God. Now. The Hebrew word
for remember to remember you throughout the Covenant text is
a car's a car excuse me, meaning to recall with purpose,
to bring to mind for action. And so in Joshua
twenty four he recites God's faithful acts from Abraham to
the conquest to motivate God's people toward renewed loyalty. Obedience
grows when believers remember how God has led us. How
many times have I said throughout this quarter, we have
nothing to fear for the future, except we forget how
God has led us in the past. So forgetfulness leads
to compromise. Remembrance strengthens our faith and devotion. So the
action step in this regard is to write down three
ways God has led you just this week. If you
have to spread it out over the month, go for it.
If you need to do it over the last six months,
do it. Let gratitude shape your obedience today, and our
final is Finishing faithfully requires daily allegiance to God. Like
this is one of those things. It doesn't happen overnight,
it happens over the span of our experience with God.
Make it a great Sabbath. 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.