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.
Speaker 2: Vibrant lives.
Speaker 1: Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 3: It is Tuesday, December twenty three, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Hello, my name is El David Harris.
Speaker 3: 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, and our caption
for today is free to Serve, Free to Serve. We'll
get into that in just a moment, but before we do,
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 pick up
your Daily Portion Life Application Guide. I want you to
pick up the one for the coming quarter. Like, we're
almost there. We're just a couple of days away, so
you have time to download it there or pick up
the physical copy and have it delivered to wherever you
are 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,
We thank you, Thank you for this day and the
privilege you have given to us to serve you and
to do your will. Please please help us to take
this freedom that you have given to us seriously and
actually serve you. Thank you in Jesus name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again. Free You're free. You're free to serve,
serve God. Yes, all right, So we're going to the
review in Harold March seventh, eighteen seventy eight. It's interesting
to see what the pioneers were. We're thinking about God's
word back in those days. Okay, and so here is
the quote. Choice is the crown of humanity? Where are
crowns set on our heads? The crown of humanity? God
sets life before us and then bids us choose it,
not by compulsion, but by conviction. God is saying I've
set two ways before you. That's the end of the quote.
By the way, here are the two pathways. Here are
the ways that I'm setting before you, life and death,
blessing and cursing. Let me just tell you the answer
to this test. Choose life like that's the right answer.
That's the right choice. From the book Steps to Christ's
page forty three, it reads God never forces the will
or judgment of men. He takes no pleasure in a
slavish obedience. You understand that it's not love when people
are bound in handcuffs and said you're gonna love and
you're gonna do no. God is saying you're free. You
can do whatever you choose to do, and you will
receive the blessing or the negative consequences of your choices.
He doesn't want slavish obedience. Can you imagine being married
to someone who was trying to force you to love?
Speaker 2: Some of you?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately or God forbid, are already in that kind of
a situation where you feel like a slave more than
you are the spouse that he or she chose and
may covenant with. Let me continue before I go too
far afield. He desires that the creatures of his hands
shall love him because he's worthy.
Speaker 2: Of the love. You See, God doesn't like compulsion. Nope.
Speaker 3: Number one, God honors your freedom to choose him. Again,
I'll read from the book of Joshua, because what repetition
deepens the impression Joshua chapter twenty four and verse sixteen.
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we
should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Okay, and
so that word, that word for choose, for choose is bahar.
I said it to you the other day, to select
with intention and with preference. Joshua reminded the people of
God that's serving God has never been a coercion. We
see a lot about that in the news. Yeah, coersion. No,
it's never been that. God elects his people to love.
So he does that, and yet he never forces loyalty. See,
God had a choice. He could have chosen not to
love us, but he chose to love us. He could
have chosen to forsake us, but he chose never to
leave us nor forsake us. So he does not force loyalty.
God's people had the freedom or liberty to say yes
or no. And Joshua wanted there yes to be real
and thoughtful. God grants his people the dignity. I love
that word and the decision because love cannot coexist with compulsion,
or it cannot exist without freedom. And so our action
step is to tell God plainly today I choose you.
That's what I'm begging you all to do. Like I'm
making the decision myself today. Today I choose you, God,
and to make that choice the starting point of every
major decision you face. When you have more month than money, God,
I choose you. When somebody is saying some things that
are not true about you and it's getting under your skin.
Speaker 2: God, I choose you, huh.
Speaker 3: When you have an opportunity to do something dishonest in
order to propel yourself into a level of a higher
level in your mind, in your mind, a higher level
of success. Lord, I choose you. You see, when somebody
is acting a fool on the road and they are
doing like somebody did to me in rush hour traffic,
to quote, invite me out of the vehicle in the
most vile way he wanted. He acted like he wanted
a little violence, he wanted smoke from me. And I
was like, God, I choose you. I rolled up that
window and I pressed on the gas. Because I have
a violent past. I'm not interested in exercising that on
some What do you call it being out of control?
One of the tentacles of the fruit of the spirit
is self control under the holygos. So zuip roll up
the window, boom, lock the door, and zuump hit the gas.
Because God, I choose you today, I do not choose
unnecessary violence lessen Number two, commitment to God must be thoughtful,
not based on emotions or can we say principle base
like he t always says. Eric Thomas always says, it
needs to be It needs to be principle based, principle driven,
and not emotions driven. The Bible reads in Joshua, chapter
twenty four and verse nineteen, he cannot serve the Lord,
for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God.
He will not forgive your transgression nor your sins. Like
what Joshua seemed to contradict their enthusiastic pledge. He was
not discouraging faithfulness when he said that, he was exposing
their shallow promises. You remember the first generation said the
same thing. Whatever the Lord said, that shall we do?
And the next thing. They're serving an idol almost immediately,
it didn't even it didn't even take them a couple
of months. Well, like they were all doing the wrong thing.
So Joshua said, I've seen this movie before. We're not
accepting that kind of stuff here. God's people had declared
obedience before and failed almost immediately. Right in my notes,
Joshua wanted them to see the weight of their words.
Serving a holy God is not a quick and emotional response,
but a lifelong covenant grounded in God's strength, grounded in
his strength, not in the feeling of the moment. When
they're playing the Hammond and they're saying, who will be
the first? Will you yield yourself to God today? Look
at what He's done on the cross to save you
from your sins, And all you need to do is
give me your hand, give God your heart. And the
music is playing, No, don't do it that way today,
not today. People of God, make your decision based on
principle and not based on how you're feeling in the moment.
And so the action step is to pause before you
make spiritual commitments. Pray, Lord, give me a heart that
keeps what my lips declare. Help me to do what
I say, Help me to do what I say? And
less than number three. Finally is serving God is about
relationships with God. Relationship, excuse me with God. I want
you to invest five minutes today today, or more five
minutes today recounting how God has delivered you in the past.
This is a recurring thing, I know. Let gratitude draw
you into obedience. Let gratitude for what God has done
for you, draw you into gratitude. Make it a great
day or our obedience.
Speaker 2: 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,