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 twelve,
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 Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and our caption
for today is Crossing the Jordan. Crossing the Jordan. Before
we get in that, I'd like to say welcome to
you and ask you to go over to your Daily
Portion dot com. Please join our online community. Please pick
up the 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 we will get underway. Father,
We thank you for this day, this new work weekend.
I pray that you will get us over the Jordan
to the land of Promise, teach us faithfulness and holiness,
and to submit our will to you. In Jesus's name,
I pray, Amen, and a man again crossing the Jordan. Okay.
And so I'm going to talk about two stories, one
during the time of Moses, one during the time of Joshua,
and see what God has to say for us in
our day. Okay. And so we're going to begin. We're
going to begin with a quote from the book Patriarchs
and Prophets, page four hundred, and it reads, before we
can stand in the presence of a Holy God, and
I want you to slow down in your thinking, slow
down in your anticipation of what I will say, even
if you know where we're going with this, but just pause.
Even as we consider the holiness of God, even as
we consider being in his presence, we need to really
sort of be in the mindset of worship. Because God
is all powerful, He knows everything. He is completely holy
in every single way, and yet he still loves us.
Yet he is still coming after us to bring us
into a relationship with him, because he wants us to
live with him eternally. So as we even consider the
concept or principle or the privilege of being in the
presence of a holy God, the Holy God, then we
need to reflect and say, God, now, why would you
be so good to me? Please teach me how to
prepare for these encounters that you've been so kind to
condescend and allow me into, to transform me, to use
me as an ambassador for you. How can I represent you?
Being such a broken human? How can I represent you God?
And then, of course, so before we can stand in
the presence of a holy God, we must first be
cleansed from all sin. We must first be cleansed from
all sin. When's the last time you spoke to God
about what may be separating you from him? Bible says
that God is really quick to listen to us. He's
quick to give us what we need, He's quick to
relate to us. Except oh, wait a minute, there are
some of us who have iniquities. Our iniquities have separated
between us and our God that he will not hear.
And so if God is not hearing you, then is
there something that you've not come clean with him about.
We've not yet confessed your sin, so he can be
faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and
to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. This is something for
you to reflect upon, not for me. It was for me, yes,
but not in your behalf. Like you have to do
it for you, I have to do it for me.
And so from the Bible Book of Joshua, chapter three,
this is what was happening, verse five. The Bible reads,
sanctify yourselves four Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you, okay.
And so this is as they're going to go over
the Jordan River. Now we're going to take some steps
back in history and realize. Oh and let me just
say the lesson is God's presence requires preparation, take time
and vest time before worship, before prayer, any major decisions.
To consecrate yourself, confess, surrender, and invite God to lead
you and then follow him. Okay. And so our second
lesson goes back in time. From the Book of Numbers,
chapter fourteen and verse forty two, and the Bible reads,
go not up, for the Lord is not among you,
that ye be not smitten before your enemies. See, the
people of God in the time of Moses were about
to overcorrect. We're going to talk about that in a second.
But but God is saying, don't overcorrect. When it's time
to repent. It's time to also pause. Okay, so don't
go up and be smitten by your enemies. We'll come
back to that in a second. Never run ahead of
God's timing. Align your actions with His presence and word
before moving forward. Okay, So, like I said, I'll come
right back to that in a second. Let's get our
third lesson and then circle back. And this one is
back in the Book of josh and again from verse
five Joshua three, let me read it again. Sanctify yourselves
for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. God
is promising something super special. And from the book Christ's
object Lessons, page three, p. Sixty three, we read when
we give ourselves entirely or wholely to God and in
our work follow his directions, he makes himself responsible. Let
me just pause. Right there, are you hearing this? When
we surrender ourselves to God. He makes himself responsible for
whatever it is that we need to accomplish. God makes
himself responsible for your name's sake. God, do this please.
I'm laying on you, asking you and begging you for mercy.
For your name's sake, God, I ask you to do
this thing please and thanks? Will you do this special
thing for me? God? I trust you. I trust you,
And he makes himself responsible. Okay, And so God prepares
his people before he gives us miracles. Let me just
say that he prepares his people before the miracles. Now,
let's go back to the Numbers text. So the people
of God had rebelled against God after hearing the SPI's
negative report, as recorded in Numbers chapter thirteen. They refused
to enter the promised land, even though Joshua and Caleb said,
God has given us this land. He's promised that this
is the way it was going to be. But the
people of God who are above age twenty, above age twenty,
they refused to enter when God told them to move forward,
and as a result, God declared that this unbelieving generation
would not enter into the promise and they would wander
for forty long years until they died till they all died.
That generation that was above age twenty that came out
of Egypt, all of them died except for Joshua and
Caleb because of some style of unbelief. Now, after hearing
God's judgment, though, some people decided like, wait, whit whoa
whoa whoa whoa whoa wha whoah. I don't like that.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, no God, Okay, okay, okaykay,
remember when you were young, Like do you see children
today when they hear what the outcome is the judgment
is going to be. Then all of a sudden, now
they or we want to correct or amend our ways.
But we are now running out ahead of the process,
like hold on, God has to go. We got to
go through this process with God first. You don't just
run out there by yourself and so and so. After
hearing God's judgment, some of the people decided to change
course and go up to fight the Canaanites. Anyway, but
here is the caveat without the presence of God, and
God is saying, do not do that, despite the fact
that through Moses God God, God warned them not to
do that. No, no, no, no, no, submit to this process.
Don't run out ahead of this thing and try to
figure it out and fix it yourself. They presumed to
go out in their own strength, as according to Numbers,
chapter fourteen and verse forty four, and the result was disastrous.
The Amalekites and the Canaanites made a mess of the
people of God who are acting presumptuously. So in short,
the Numbers passage highlights God's people's disobedience and presumption trying
to move forward without the presence of God. And in
Joshua three we see that we surrender ourselves to God. First,
let him lead us, and then we'll have victory.
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,