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, October
twenty six, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is Elle
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 Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and our
caption for today is the cana knits Iniquity. The Canaan
nits Iniquity. Before we get into that, I'd like to
just say welcome to you and ask you to please
go over to your Daily Portion dot com listen when
we have our Friday evening worship experience and I'm teaching
the lesson through music. Many of you keep asking where
can I get this music? You can get it right
at your Daily Portion dot com www dot your Daily
Portion dot com. And 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 under ray.
Father in Heaven, thank you for giving us this privilege
to come into your presence. Now, please help us to
invest the time well be transformed by you. In Jesus' name,
I pray, Amen and Amen again. And so we begin.
We begin with the Bible Book of Genesis Genesis chapter
fifteen and verse verse sixteen, as we get our discussion started.
And then I'll give you at least three lessons that
you can you can use as you continue to study
God's word for today. Okay, and so the Bible reads,
but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again,
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Is not yet full. Now the lesson is going to
come in from this text and Leviticus chapter eighteen and
verse twenty five, where it reads and the land is defiled.
Therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it and
the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. And so what
we're going to do is is look at the concept
of how God's mercy always comes before his condemnation or
what we would call judgment, okay in this case, because
in judgment there are two possible outcomes. There's one where
the people are seen as not guilty or I should say,
actually innocent, as if we had never sinned. And then
there is the other option, which God forbid anybody listening
to me this morning should choose, which is condemnation. And
so we're talking about God's mercy coming before condemnation, like
there is no reason for any human being to be
condemned because God has made every provision through Christ for
us to be seen as if we had never sinned.
We can confess our sins because God is faithful and
just to forgive those that confess and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. But sometimes people just really are hard headed.
And so the lesson is also that God waited for generations,
you know how long that is, especially back in the
Old Testament times, before allowing the condemnation to come upon Canaan.
The delay was mercy. I think the Bible writer says
that God's long suffering is salvation. The fact that Jesus
has not yet come is and people who are scoffing,
people who are supposedly God's people are saying, ah, what
is the delay for? What is the delay for? Like
the same stuff that we see now is what's been
happening since our fathers fell asleep. And God told us
through the Bible writer that no, no, no, no, no no,
God is not slack concerning his promise, and his long
suffering is salvation. When you see God waiting and pausing
and then eventually you see condemnation, now you know it
was because he was holding out the hand of mercy.
The Lord gave the Canaanites, even the Canaanites ample time
to repent through the witness of Abraham Isaac Jacob, when
they persisted in rebellion. We're not talking about missteps, we're
not talking about in oops. We're talking about iniquity and rebellion.
That means they knew that God was watching. They knew
that God was exercising patience, but did not care. God's
justice acted to protect future generations from their corruption. That's
the whole point. When God has to meet out judgment.
A lot of times it's related to the fact that
if he doesn't, then others will suffer. Others will suffer,
people will become emboldened in their sin, and others will suffer.
And so for me, the action step is to view
every delay in divine condemnation HM as mercy. When God waits,
he's giving space for repentance. God is not slack. Let's
move to lesson number two. False worship breeds moral collapse.
Let me just say that it's not necessary for us
to worship other gods. And I know in twenty twenty five,
for most of you, I would say probably about seventy
percent of you listening to me, maybe thinking, but yeah,
we don't bow to other gods. But I would say
the remaining portion live in cultures where people are visibly
still bowing to other gods. Regardless of any of that.
There is a modern day way of people putting other
things other gods before God. Some people put our paychecks
or lack thereof, before God, making our problems bigger than
our God, worshiping what we hope to be one day,
rather than putting that into God's hands and asking him
how do we get from step one to step two
to step three and onward. Sometimes we worship people that
we wish we had good relationships with. We worship sometimes
God forbid the aspirations we have in our job to
get to that next promotion. Sometimes we worship our political
parties God forbid. Sometimes we worship our own intellect and
think that nobody else can be can be as wise
as us, as intelligent as us, like our answers always right.
There are so many ways that we can put other
gods before God. And in Deuteronomy, chapter eighteen and verse ten,
the Bible reads, there shall not be found among you
anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire. This had to do with, you know,
sacrificing God forbid children to other gods. There are people
who were sacrificing our children to television, sacrificing our children
to well, we just can't bother take our children where
they need to go. So we just, you know, let
them do things on their own, and we sacrifice them
to the streets. And when they get themselves in trouble,
then we tied them because well you knew better. And
it's like, yeah, but you didn't cover your child. Yeah,
sometimes people are sacrificing our children to all kinds of
strange paradigms in society, helping them to keep up with
the modern the modern things that are happening, as if
our children are not called by God to be peculiar
people too. And so the Canaanites gods were mirrors of
their corruption, LUs, greed and cruelty. Is that the reality
for you, God forbid? If it is today's your day
to repent, I promise you now is the moment their
religion justified immorality, even child sacrifice worship shape's character, and
by adoring evil spirits disguised as deities, they became just
like them. When nations lose the knowledge of the true God,
moral decay follows. I wish I had the time, but
I do not want to get on a soapbox. There
are times that people say that they are in Christian nations,
but they are behaving as heathens. People who say that
they are living in Christian nations, but they are behaving
like people who couldn't care less what God thinks. But
let me move on before I go on a soapbox.
Guard your worship. What you honor will shape who you become,
stay rooted in the word of God to protect you
from cultural idols. And our final one is that judgment
protects the promise. There are times that God has to
do what he has to do, and he roots wickedness
out by root and branch, and then he has now
given us the privilege of living at peace with Him
and peace within our societies. I'm looking forward to the
ultimate one 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,