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, August fourteen,
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 Lesson
study series through the Book of Mark, and our caption
for today is who is the Greatest? Who is the Greatest.
We'll get into that in just a moment, but before
we do, I'd like to ask you to play. Please
go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join
our online community, pick up the Your Daily Portion book,
and let us know where you are in the world.
At your Daily Portion dot Com. This is a way
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 giving us this new day
and for giving us your spirit to teach us. Please
teach us and instill in us humility in Jesus name,
I pray, Amen and Amen again. Who is the greatest.
We're gonna go ahead and jump right into the Bible
book of Mark Mark chapter nine, and I will read
beginning at verse thirty Mark chapter nine, beginning at verse thirty.
Hopefully you have your bibles to follow along with me.
The Bible reads. Then they went out from there and
passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know,
for he would teaching his disciples and telling them the
son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.
They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.
But they did not understand his statement and were afraid
to ask him. Very interesting what happens next verse thirty three.
Then they came to Capernaum. After Jesus was inside the house,
he asked them, what were you discussing on the way.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: When Jesus asks such a question like Adam, where are you? Huh?
What were you discussing along the way? Or when the
prophet asked King Saul, what meaneth the bleating of the sheep?
This means that God already knows what he's dealing with.
He's giving you, he's giving me an opportunity to agree
with him, to confess what is actually happening. But let's
just see what the men. What the men did. But
they were silent, for on the way they had argued
with one another about who was the greatest. They were
silent because they were arguing about who should be the greatest.
Now you're in the presence of the most humble being
in the universe, the one who created everything, the things
that you can see in the things that you cannot see, right,
the one who commanded and it stood fast, The one
who said, let there be light, and there was light.
The one as he took on human flesh and walked
planet Earth. The one who could have called twelve legions
of angels to do what anything he asked that could
have defended him, that could have destroyed his enemies. The
one who, when he did finally get on the cross,
he actually allowed death to take him his divinity could
have resisted death, but he did not allow his divinity
to resist death, and then he did allow his humanity
to die. Like Jesus, the most humble being in the universe,
is right in front of you, and you are arguing,
as his followers, who's the greatest. Something's really wrong. But
Jesus understood their thoughts, and the Bible says Verse thirty six, No.
Thirty five. After he sat down, he called the twelve
and said to them, if anyone wants to be first,
he must be last of all and the servant of all.
He took a little child and had him stand among them,
Taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever
becomes or welcomes excuse me, one of these little ones,
these children in my name, welcomes me. And whoever welcomes
me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me. So,
if you're welcoming children, if you're in a humble state
of mind to where you notice even the little children,
you're welcoming Jesus into your life. Yes. And if you
are welcoming Jesus into your life, you are welcoming God,
our Father, into your life. Do you see how this goes?
There are times that we wield power. Sometimes people God forbid.
But sometimes people wield what authority. They're authoritarians, not authority figures.
Sometimes people usurp authority. That's a long story. Lucifer attempted
to usurp authority. But of course now we know that
he's cast down, like there was no space found for
him in heaven anymore, because he refused to repent. And
these men are going down the same path that Lucifer
went down. Who is the greatest? Who is the greatest?
And Jesus taught them that we need to be followers
of Jesus, welcome even the children, and in by welcoming them,
we are welcoming Jesus and God our father. And the
Bible says here in verse thirty eight, jod said, and
John said, unto them, Teacher, we saw someone casting out
demons in your name, and we tried to stop him
because he was not following us. And Jesus said, don't
stop him, because no one who does a miracle in
my name will be soon able afterward to say anything
bad about me. For whosoever is not against us is
for us. Verse forty one. For I tell you the
truth whoever gives you a cup of water to drink
because you bear Christ's name, will never lose his reward.
Oh there's so much there. But what I want to
do now is go down through just about seven life
lessons based on what we have already read. Okay, so
number one, I want you to understand the sacrifice that
Jesus has given for us. Jesus humbled himself. The Bible says,
even to the death, unto the cross, and so he
taught disciples that he was going to humble himself to
the degree that others could be saved. So how can
I be looking for authority? How can I be looking
for being up above my fellow humans when the one
who created everything is humbling himself to the point that
he's giving his life, choosing to become guilty on our behalf,
the one who never sinned, Yes, the one who has
the power to destroy this earth and start all over again.
He is humbling himself in order to save us. How
can we be arguing about who is the greatest? How
could we be vying for attention? How could we in
the church be polititricking to see who will get the
greatest and largest paying position in the church. Oh my,
So Jesus is showing us how to be humble through
his sacrifice. And of course we want to redefine greatness.
Number two. Redefine greatness. The Bible again says in verse
thirty five of the same chapter. And he sat down
and called the twelve and said, unto them, if any
man desired to be first, the same shall be last
of all, and the servant of all. So servitude is
the pathway to God's style leadership. Can I say that again?
Servanthood or servitude is the pathway to God style greatness
or leadership. So we diminish ourselves, we decrease that God
may increase, and that is the pathway to godly leadership.
Number three Acceptance of the lowly. With children, we see
that sometimes people say they need to be seen and
not heard with elderly people. With some people who are
dejected and rejected in so society, we put them last naturally,
And God is saying, no, servant leadership. Seize these people
and honors them. They see these people and honor them
as if they're honoring Jesus, as if they are honoring God,
our father. So those who receive the least of these
his brethren, they're receiving him. Acceptance of the humble or
the lowly. Inclusivity is another way to look at it.
We include those that the world excludes, positioning them to
hear the word of God and be transformed. We can't
get through our entire list of seven. I'll put it
into the community for those who are in it, and
you can see what was on my mind at the time.
Speaker 1: Make it a great day, peace. 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,