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. It's
October twenty seven, twenty twenty four. 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 lessons study series themes in the Gospel of John,
and our caption for today is the setting of the encounter.
The setting of the encounter. Remember when Jesus found you?
Do you remember where you were? Do you remember the
circumstances surrounding that experience, that encounter. We'll get into that
in just a moment, but first i'd like to say
welcome to you. And ask you to please go over
to your Daily Portion dot com please join our online community. Also,
please let us know where you are in the world.
Click that number seven. I need one thousand of you
to click that number seven and subscribe 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 then we will get underway. Father and Heaven,
thank you for this day, for starting us off on
the right foot this week. Thank you for loving us
and giving us encounters close encounters of a holy kind. Father.
I pray that we will have multiple encounters every single
day with You, and that will be transformed by the
renewing of our minds, so our lives can be transformed
Jesus name, I pray Amen and Amen again. The setting
of the encounter, and I admit that I had to
be very much discipline yesterday because I wanted to jump
into the story. And I'll have to be disciplined day
by day because we're walking slowly through the story of
this experience that God gave the woman, we say, the
woman at the well. And so we begin our discussion
here in the Bible Book of John John, chapter four.
And what I need all of us to do is
to envision ourselves having an encounter with Almighty God, bless
it be his name, and what we would do if
he began to speak life into us? Would we accept it? Brother?
Would you accept it? Would you accept him? Sister? Would
you accept this life or rejected? Sister? Would you accept
this life? Life or rejected? And so, beginning at verse one,
the Bible reads when therefore the Lord knew how the
Pharisees heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Everything is always a competition with these people. Oh my goodness,
Why are humans so fixated with one upsmanship? Why are
people with the crabs in a barrel mentality? Why are
they worried about what Jesus is doing versus what John
the Baptist is doing. It's because they want to start
a problem. They want to they want to do some
kind of spiritual incursion, like they want to be rebel
rousers and cause and create a problem where there is
no problem. God's people who are working in the field,
the mission, field of his work have no competition, Like,
why is there a problem here? Oh? The problem was
in the in the hearts of the so called leaders
of God's people Verse two. Though Jesus himself baptized not
but his disciples. So he left Judea. You see, God
leaves when we are in that competitive spirit, that spirit
that says I am better than you in the work
of God, that spirit that says I am politricking so
that I can become a certain whatever in God's Church,
over and against what I know that maybe you should
be doing. But all I care about is my career.
I care about my status, I care about my retirement plan,
I care about my influence. And therefore I will politrick
and do whatever I have to do to be installed
into whatever the position is. And so this is what
these people had. These are the problems that these so
called leaders had. He left Judea, and he departed again
into Galilee. Why did he do that? So he could
go find some people who actually would accept the assistance
that he was going to give. And then the Bible
says verse four, and he must needs go through Samaria.
I love it. Jesus is on his way somewhere, He's
passing through somewhere, and as he's passing through, he is
orchestrating an encounter to transform a woman and a community
of people all at once, and the Bible continues verse five.
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is
called Psychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob
gave his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore,
being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the wall,
and it was about the sixth hour. I need you
to give keen attention to the timing here. I need
you to give keen attention to the way that God
orchestrates even through our necessary needs, even through those ten,
those ten, that hierarchy of needs that the psychologists have
been talking about for decades. Right, we all have these
certain needs, some of which have to do with our
daily activity, like we need water, we need certain health needs,
we need transcendent needs like when God is in our presence.
We're in the presence of God, we have need to
connect with God. And so Jesus is using that same
hierarchy in this situation. He needed some water, he needed
some rest. This woman needed to be transformed. He needed
and she needed. But what he needed could easily be addressed.
What she needed was a transformation of internal eternal importance.
And so he's wearied with his journey. He sat by
the well, and it was about the sixth hour, and
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith
unto her, give me to drink. Now, you have to
understand the Samaritans, whereas they were connected and related to
the Jews, that was not something that people would welcome.
I think in current society we see where the two
descendants of the two descendants of Abraham are still having
these same challenges in a lot of places and in
a lot of ways. And so Jesus is about to
level the playing field and say, this is one big, spiritual,
happy family if you choose to be transformed. And so
she is like, okay, okay, okay. So verse eight, for
his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
Then set the woman of Samaria. How is it that thou,
being a Jew, askest a drink of me? Which am
a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans. Well, she wasn't completely off base when she
said that the Jews didn't have dealings with the Samaritans,
but she was in encountering Jesus Christ, the Messiah who
came through you could say the Jews bloodline, and was
showing what he taught really and truly. I should go
there in Isaiah and Isaiah chapter fifty six. I will
go there Isaiah chapter fifty six. I didn't intend to
read from here, but the Holy Ghost is saying, we
need to go to the book of Isaiah chapter fifty
six and read beginning at verse one. Read beginning at
verse one, and the Bible reads, this is what the
Lord says, promote justice, do what is right for I
am ready to deliver you. I'm ready to deliver you.
I'm ready to vindicate you openly. The people who do
this will be blessed. The people who commit themselves to
obedience what people, everybody and anybody to observe the Sabbath
and to not defile it. Who everybody and everybody who
refrain from doing anything that is wrong. No foreigner meaning gentiles,
so called meaning Samaritans, or anybody else. No foreigner who
becomes a follower of the Lord should say that the
Lord will certainly exclude me from his people. The eunuchs
should not say, look at me, I am a dried
up tree. For this is what the Lord says. The
eunuchs who observe my sabbaths and choose what pleases me,
and are faithful to my covenant, I will set up
I will set up a place for them. I will
give them a name that is greater and I'm not reading,
I'm paraphrasing now than of sons and of daughters. I
will give them a name that will remain forever. God's
House is a house of prayer for all people.
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,