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. It is Sunday. It's
the twenty second day of June in 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 lesson study series how to
Study Bible Prophecy. This is our final week of thirteen
and our caption for today is the Reluctant Profit, The
Reluctant Profit. Before we get into this, I'd like to
just say welcome to you and ask you to please
go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join
our online community. Please pick up your Daily Portion life
application guide and let us know where you are in
the world 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 get underway. Father,
We thank you for this day, thank you for the
beginning of our work week and the strength that you
have already provided us so we can do your will.
Help us to do it willingly. In Jesus' name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again. It's the willingness to serve God
that matters, and then we do it. Of course, it's
the willingness that matters, but then we actually do God's will.
So this again the caption the reluctant Prophet. Listen. When
Jonah was on planet Earth as a prophet of the
Most I God, Blessed be his name, God came to
him and said, Jonah, I need you to go to
Nineveh and I need you to preach this message, this
specific message. Remember I said that Jonah was a prophet
of God. That means that he had already signed up
for and been anointed to be the mouthpiece of God.
And the Bible says that instead of going exactly where
God said, go and speak the message exactly as God said,
speak it. Jonah decided that he knew more than God.
I know, maybe you've not heard it contextualized in that way,
but Jonah said, nope, I'm not going there. I'm going
the opposite direction. I'm getting on a boat and I'm
going to Tarshish. I'm not going nowhere near Ninevah. First
of all, they need to die. They deserve whatever judgment
you have planned God. But by the way, I know
that you're not about to destroy them. So what will
be the purpose of me going to Nineveh to say,
turn around, live the life that God is giving you
the opportunity to live, and then know that God, you
are merciful God, and you will not destroy them. They're
going to see me as a false prophet. This is
what Jonah was dealing with. But really, if I were
to say it in just a few words, Jonah was
dealing with a lack of holiness, a lack of submission.
See all of that goofy discussion that he was having
in his mind. I know what I just said, All
of that discussion that he was having in his mind
and going round and round the bush about what if
I do this, and what if I do that and
God says, go left, I'm going right because I don't
want to be seen as a Okay, all of that
is resolved by simply admitting to God. And so my
question to you is, what has God called you to do?
What has he directly commanded you to do on this day,
this Sunday morning in twenty twenty five. What has He
said that you need to be doing? And I'm talking
about even some of those things that you don't necessarily
desire to do, you may be afraid to do. You
may have some sort of reservations, or you have seventy
five questions to decide if you're going to sign the
contract with God to do exactly what he said. Okay,
let's resolve that for you too. Simply submit. I've been
in the situation where God says do this, and I'm
just ah, my mind is spinning, spinning, spinning, But I
have to make the same decision that you do. And Joana,
of course, we know his story. He decided to do
the opposite. Ultimately, he went but I'm not going to
fast forward the story. It was a mess the love
of God and how God did what he did in
order to get Jonah to do what he needed to
do in order to get the message message to the Ninovites. Ah,
what a mess. The Bible says here in Matthew, chapter
twelve and verse forty, retelling of this experience. For as
Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly,
so shall the son of Man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. And so
the lesson for us in this case is Jonah's experience
was a prophetic symbol of Jesus's death. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. So he was in the belly of the
of the beast. Let's call it. Okay, maybe that's melodramatic.
In one Testament, in the Old Testament it says a fish.
In the New Testament it says a whale. It was
a sea creature, full stop. Translators don't always get that
thing just right, okay, But a sea creature, and this
was a this was it was as good. He felt
like he was as good as dead in the belly
of this sea creature. But this was a symbol of
Jesus's death burial. And then Jonah, when it was just
the right time, was thrown up or regurgitated upon the
earth again, and he went to do what he was
supposed to do in the first place. So the action
for me is every single time that I think about Jonah,
I need to remember, and you do too, the ultimate cost,
or I should say, value of your salvation. Jesus came willingly.
Jonah did not. He ran. Don't run from God? Does
it make sense to run from God when he has
given you your calling? And in Jonah chapter one and
verse three we see but Jonah rose up to flee
unto Tarshish. I said that already from the presence of
the Lord. I did not mention that when I said it. So,
going the opposite direction of where God has called you
to go is really like turning your back on God
and fleeing from his quote presence. Remember, Adam, where are you?
God is going into the garden of Eden. After Adam
jumped into sin, Eve was deceived and fell into sin.
Adam he jumped into sin, the very first man, the
one that was created in the image of God, in
a way that we had never will We have not
seen since that man jumped into sin. And when he
had jumped into sin, and God came to get an
account from him. He said, Adam, where are you? I
need you to know where you are. Adam, he said,
I was naked and ashamed, and I hid myself. I
was naked, ashamed and afraid. I hid myself. Who told you, Jonah? Whoops?
Who told you? Fill in your name here? If you
have a tendency to run? Who told you, Adam that
you were naked? Did you eat from the fruit of
the tree that I commanded that thou shouldest not eat?
Then of course he plays the blame game. I wish
I had the time to deal with men blaming their
wives for sinning. But I just don't have the time. Men,
stand up and own your responsibility. Own your responsibility. And
I'm speaking to me, I'm a man, say so in
this case. In this case, we're not looking to flee
from God. Like Jonah. Some people hesitate to deliver the
hard truths to go on the assignment that God has
given us, especially in these last days. But let me
just say to you, when God gives you a spiritual assignment.
In every assignment that God gives you is spiritual because
it's God that's giving it to you, move in obedience immediately.
I don't know I don't know. I don't know, sister Patrese,
if you're watching, But Lisa a Smith, she often says,
it's about radical obedience, and I agree. So move radically
in obedience and immediately pray daily for the courage to
do God's will. And of course in the last days
there was a call. There was a call for us
to preach. We see in eighteen, chapter eighteen of Revelation
and verse four, a call that God has given to
his people to speak to those who are not his
that are not really walking in the path that God
would want them. He's giving them a warning. And just
like Jonah's message to Nineveh, our call to people who
are in Babylon spiritual Babylon demands repentance, which many resist.
Expect rejection, but don't let that deter you. Do exactly
what God says when he says, and He will be
with you.
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,