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 Tuesday, December thirty,
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 continuing in our new
Lesson study series uniting Heaven and Earth, christ in Philippians
and Colossians. I won't say it again. Our caption forour
today is paul In PHILIPI, paul In PHILIPI. Before we
get into that, I'd like to say welcome to everyone
joining us, especially those joining us for the very first time.
I'm asking you to go over to your Daily Portion
dot com. Please join our online community. Pick up the
Your Daily Portion Life Application Guide for Q one twenty six,
this lesson that we're just embarking upon. Please please pick
that up. You can download it now or you can
get it some other way and hard copy. Please do that.
And also please, if the Lord inclines you, please go
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the donation link there at your Daily Portion dot com.
This is one of the ways that we continue to
build faith and fellowship. Let me just say before I
pray that if the screen is hitching a little bit,
it's because my computer is under pressure right now. It's
doing something else while we are broadcasting here. Okay, so
please pardon me if I hitch a little bit. But
we're here. We're here by God's grace. Let's go ahead
and pray. Father, We thank you, Thank you for the
blessing that you are to us. Please help us to
learn from the experiences of Brother Paul and to learn
how to connect with you in such a way that
no matter in what situation we find ourselves, we too
will be content and rejoicing in Jesus' name. I pray
a man and a man again, And so we begin
now our first lesson for today by reading from the
Bible Book of Acts, the Book of Acts, chapter sixteen
and verse nine. Acts Chapter sixteen and verse nine. The
Bible reads, and a vision appeared to Paul in the
night there stood a man of Macedonia and praying him saying,
come over into Macedonia and help us. We preachers often
talk about the Macedonian call because there are some people
who are out there who really need help for the
word of God, who need a special type of encouragement
because they are wanting to live the life connected with God,
but trials and temptations overwhelmed them, and we need to
be learning like how do we serve in those situations?
And so the word for vision today is or God, Yes,
gave him a vision and appeared unto him is horama,
and it means a vision or a divine revelation. It's simple.
God revealed himself in a way where Paul knew that
there were some people who really needed him. So the
action step really simply today is to ask God to
show you where he wants you to serve today. God
directs his people. God directs his people to places where
the gospel will advance most effectively, Where do you want
me to go? Where thou leadest, I will follow God?
Where are the people most receptive? I remember my wife Simone.
She asked me, how do you know when to stop
helping people? I said, well, I stop helping him when
it's not helpful. It's like what I stop helping when
it's not helpful. See, there are people who have a
habit of rejecting. There are people who have mindsets that
are not receptive to assistance, not ready to yield or
to learn or to receive help in a way where
they are being good stewards of whatever it is that
we are sharing. Is it a new mindset, is it
a teaching is it our energy? Who knows what it is?
Financial resources? Whatever it is. And the people, in this
case the Macedonian call, those people were ready. It was
a perfect investment for Paul to direct his attention to
these folks because the revelation of God says these folks
are really ready, and that is a lesson for all
of us. Before I go into my lesson number two,
I would like to read from an article in the
Review in Herald in eighteen sixty the year eighteen sixty,
written by James White, The servants of Christ may meet trials. Yes, yes,
they may meet trials. Yet each trial is but another
step in the path of duty. Yes we will. And
from the book Desire of Ages, page two hundred and
twenty four. God never leads his children otherwise than they
would choose, if choose to be led, if they could
see the end from the beginning. That's a context for
us as we look at his story. Paul's story in Philippi.
Our lesson number two is God uses strategic locations and
prepared people to expand the mission. Going into verse fourteen
of chapter sixteen of the Book of Acts, and a
certain woman named Lydia. See God is using Lydia right
whose heart the Lord had opened. So God had opened
her heart, much like when Elijah was living on planet Earth,
and the Bible says that God prepared a widow for
him in Sidon or Zaidon. That's the same place Jezebel
came from. And then the rest is history. God prepared somebody,
and in this case, God is preparing a woman named
Lydia whose heart the Lord opened, that she attend to
the things which were spoken of Paul. Yeah, he opened
to open fully. That's what the word means dianoigeo, that
is to open fully. God opened up her mind. He
opened up her heart so that she would she would
do she would do what God had said, so the
work and the mission that God had given through the
apostle would move forward. And so the action step for
us in this regard is to pray for God to
open someone's heart through your witness. What is it that
you are doing in the Master's calling? Yeah, How do
you need the people's hearts to open? Like me? I'm
here every single day if the Lord gives me strength
as he has given me strength over many years. We've
been together thousands and thousands of days together consecutively. So
I should be praying for God to open someone's heart
through my witness. And this is not the only way,
but you understand where we're going with this. God opened
their eyes to see you. You promised God that if
we will lift Jesus up, that you would draw people
unto yourself. Would you do it for us? God? Listen?
Number three and final is. Trials are sometimes part of
the assignment God revealed from the beginning. What Yeah, Sometimes
the trials are part of the packet because sometimes I'll
just give you an example. Back in the day, God's
people liked to huddle together, huddle together, and they would
not move around the world. Sometime they would just huddle
together too much, and God was like, stop centralizing like that,
hud stop with all the huddling. And we understand in
history that God allowed persecution to hit the church, not
to destroy the church, not to cause the people to
become discouraged, not to harm or in some way imperil
the church. But he allowed some of the persecution to
come in because the persecution and what happened to the
people served as seed for the growth of the gospel.
So it dispersed the gospel. It moved the gospel out
of the little, tiny walls of the the massive edifices
that God's people were keeping, the little communities that only
had like minded people like God wanted to spread beyond
those tiny little walls of structure into all of the world,
and he allowed persecution to cause the necessary spread the advance.
There are some things going on in our world right
now where people are still trying to centralize, still trying
to hold onto the old paradigm, still trying to make
it like it was when they were building temples and
sanctuaries for God to dwell among his people. When God
is saying I need you in small pockets all around
the world, brightening the corner where you are. The people
had to undergo hardship. So commit one difficulty you face
to God and ask Him for the strength to endure
it faithfully and to spread His word wherever you are.
Make it a great day, 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,