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, October two,
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 themes in the Gospel of John, and our
caption for today is hard Hearts, Hard Hearts. We'll get
into that in just a moment, but for I'd like
to say welcome to you and ask you to go
over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please go ahead
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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
in Heaven, thank you for this new day and for
the privilege of getting us thus far into our week,
and thank you for loving us beyond belief. Please give
us a new heart in Jesus' name. I pray, Amen
and Amen again. Hard hearts. Yeah, Sometimes God's people, and
I'm speaking about God's people in particular, I'm not thinking
about people who don't know God, who have not had
the privilege of walking with God. I'm talking of about
people who have covenanted or at least said that we
are covenanting with God to live according to His will.
Sometimes we have hard hearts. So I'm going to give
you a partial understanding of the cure, because obviously we
only have a few minutes today, but I'm going to
share some things that will be helpful regarding a cure
in just a little while. But let's go ahead and
begin with the story from John chapter five, beginning at
verse ten. John chapter five beginning at verse ten, and
the Bible says, the people of God therefore said, unto
him that was cured. It is the Sabbath day. Now
we're talking about clearly the hard hearted people of God here. Aha,
it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed,
he answered them, He that made me whole, the same
set unto me, take up thy bed and walk. I
like his response, really, I love his response, because this
is something that we need to carry into our lives. Right,
whatever the one who makes us whole says, we should do,
that's what we should do. Did you get what I
just said there? Whatever Jesus, the one who makes us
whole says to do, we should do that. You see
the problem with a lot of people. Why a lot
of people who are supposedly God's people are hard hearted
is because, yeah, they have not accepted God's making them whole.
I'm talking about for themselves. If you look at the
people who would criticize someone who is being made whole,
who may not live like a tidy life like they
think they should like. As you learn, you grow, As
you grow, you learn more. You see. But there are
times that people have an intellectual understanding of some things
in the Bible and take it to the extreme. And
while people who are genuine hearted, genuine who have genuine
hearts are learning, they get criticized. And so really one
of the pathways to success in spiritual development is to
be made whole, submit your will, submit my will to God,
and actually be made made whole, made to be made
whole before God. Okay, And so anyway, he says, the
one who made me whole, the same said, unto me,
take up thy bed and walk. Then they asked him,
what man is this that said that to thee, take
up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed
with not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself
away a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth
him in the temple and said, unto him, behold, thou
art made whole? Sin No more so, Jesus is activating
him spirit, he's recreating him. He's making him a new creature.
And the one who has the power, the authority, the
compassion to make you a new creature, he is the
one that gives you the commands. He's the one that
gives you the command ments, the one that makes you whole,
the one that sets you free. Is the same one
that gives you the command mens to do his will. Oh,
by the way, go and sin no more. That is
the first command. Now, now that you're made whole, I
am empowering you. I'm bidding you to go and sin
no more. And now I am empowering you through what
I have said. My words, my biddings are enabling go
and sin no more. Oh, and by the way, less
the worst thing come unto thee verse fifteen, the man
departed and told the people of God that it was
Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the
people of God persecute Jesus. Wait a minute, it sounds
weird when I keep saying the people of God. That's
what we're talking about here. We're talking about the people
that he came unto his own, and his own received him.
Not we're talking about those same people that should have
seen and had and should have discerned the prophecies and
been waiting for the Messiah's appearance. But they were rejecting him,
the people of God. They said, all right, we're gonna
persecute Jesus, and sought to kill him, to slay him,
because he had done these things. On the Sabbath. What
did he do on the Sabbath? He healed a man,
He set a man free, He set the man free,
he made him whole, and then he empowered him to
go and sin no more in whatever it was that
caused him to be in this situation lest the worst
thing happened to him. And the people of God wanted
to slay Jesus for delivering a man from sin, from
delivering a man from human socce fring Well for having
mercy on him because he picked up his bed, He
picked up his little mat on the Sabbath day and walked.
He couldn't walk before he was delivered. Now why I
don't understand, or maybe maybe as a human I actually do.
We'll come back to that if we have a second
here verse thirty eight. And ye have not his word
abiding in you, Jesus is shooting straight now for whom
he hath sent, whom ye believe, not search the scriptures,
for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And
there they which testify of me, And ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. I receive
not honor from men, but I know you that ye
have not the love of God in you. The problem
was the people of God that were criticizing him did
not have the love of God in him in them.
The people who were criticizing Jesus for healing the man
who did not have enough compassion for themselves to seek
God's face to heal the man. Those same ones did
not receive the love of God, which is why their
hearts were hard. So be honest, and I'm asking us
all to be honest. Be honest. If you notice your
tendency of being stubborn and hard hearted, then confess that
to God. Cultivate number one humility. God is giving us
all an opportunity. This is a point of critical mass.
It's a point of transformation, of metamorphosis. God is giving
us the opportunity now to be transformed number one by
cultivating humility. Bible reads in James chapter four and verse six.
But he giveth more grace, wherefore he seeth, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace that is power, that is
unmerited favor. He giveth grace to the humble. So humble
yourself before God. If you recognize your heart is heart,
you recognize that you're stubborn, then then now is the day.
At this moment, Nuber two, engage in regular self examination.
Examine yourselves, the Bible writer says, and Second Corinthians, chapter
thirteen and verse five. Examine yourselves whether you be in
the faith. Prove your own selves, know ye not know
ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is
in you, except ye be reprobates. So assess regularly what
is your position with God? Are you in agreement with him?
Are you holy before him? Or are you still hardhearted
and running away? Make it a great day, peace. Thanks
for joining us listening. Friends.
Speaker 1: 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,