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 Sabbath, March one,
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, God's Love and Justice. We're in Lesson number ten.
Our caption for today is Rules of Engagement. Rules of Engagement.
We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
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 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 in Heaven, thank you
for giving us the opportunity to pray today. Thank you
for loving us and protecting us and giving us the
privilege of being called by your name. Father. I'm asking
you now to give us the fullness of your holy spirit.
Please teach us how to love and to serve you.
In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. Rules
of Engagement. So we're going to begin today from the
Bible book first John, First John, chapter three and verse eight,
and then jump right in with two feet and the
Bible reads, he who sins is of the devil. I
just need to pause for a moment. What does this mean.
It means to continue in a sinful lifestyle without submitting
our will to God. Okay, so the person who continually
sins as a lifestyle without submitting ourselves to God is
of the devil. Doesn't mean if God forbid we commit
a sin, then the Bible is saying where of the devil? Well,
the Bible says that all have sinned and comes short
of the glory of God and John resolved that in
the chapter before when he said, my little children, these
things write I unto you that ye sin not. And
if any man or any person sins, you have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. Okay. And
so it's not about committing a sin, which really is
not a small or a light matter. Please don't get
that wrong. But the Bible is saying that those who
continually or live in a lifestyle of sin without submitting
to God, those are of the devil. And the Bible
continues for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For
this purpose, the Son of God was manifest that he
might destroy the works of the devil. And so we
need to be answering and asking, like, what are the
rules are? What are the rules of engagement? The Bible
says that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. That
basically means that the devil is our real enemy. The
devil and his evil angels, those are our real enemies.
And they're not of human origin, you see. And so
since that is the case. We need the armor of God,
We need the warfare that comes from the armaments of
God's Arsenal. Bible says, the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal or earthly or human. They are they are spiritual, okay,
and so let's continue. So in the Bible, in the Lesson,
the lesson writer says, behind the Gods in Air quotes
that the nation surrounding God's people thought they were worshiping
was actually something else. See, sometimes we worship all kinds
of things. We worship money, God forbid, we worship church positions.
Sometimes we worship relationships. Sometimes we worship social media following
follower numbers and engagement numbers and analytics and our ability
to create content. And everybody's a content creator because now
artificial intelligence is there and we're collectively stupid. So everybody
thinks that they're a content creator because really the machine
is creating it. But there are few that actually are.
But regardless of that, like, people worship all of that.
I know, I said a lot right there. You're going
to have to slow it down, repeat it later, rewind,
and slow it down. But the Bible is teaching us
that there are those who are are worshiping all kinds
of filters that make our faces look pretty online, like
the desire to be famous, so many are worshiping. In fact,
there's a mogul on trial right in the moment that
because people worship that desire to be famous, he exploits
he exploited that, or he allegedly exploited that and committed
all kinds of crimes against people. And there are actual
false gods too. What does the Bible say about all
of those things that we put in place of God?
That's really what it means to worship those, to worship
like we put these things above God. Okay, so what
does the Bible actually teach us? It means according to Deuteronomy,
chapter thirty two and verse seventeen, they sacrificed to demons,
not to God, to gods that they did not know,
to new gods, new arrivals that their fathers did not fear.
And then Paul in the New Testament said in First Corinthians,
chapter ten and verse twenty, the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And
I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
So behind the quote false gods of the nations and
everything that I just mentioned, Like if we put anything
above God, we put anything before God. If even I,
God forbid put this program that supposedly in honor of God.
But if I put it ahead of God, then I'm
worshiping it. And of those things then are actually demons
in disguise. Anything I put ahead of God is a
demon in disguise, because really the devil has been searching
for an opportunity to usurp God's authority and be worshiped
like he wants to be worshiped. And so this means
then that all of the texts of scripture dealing with
idolatry and the foreign gods are cosmic conflict texts. We're
in a war, brothers and sisters, is a war in
our minds that started in heaven. The devil and his
angels were kicked out of heaven, but they were kicked
out of Heaven onto planet Earth, and for a time
they are allowed to do certain things. God does have
them under manners, he does have them on some level
of control, but what he allows is ridiculous, Like these
evil angels are ridiculous. The Devil is ridiculous. Wreaking havoc
on planet Earth, but God still has it under control,
and so the Bible write. The lesson writer wanted us
to go to First Kings, chapter eighteen and read from
verses nineteen to forty. The long story short is God's
people had lost their minds spiritually speaking. One of God's
people married. He was a king Ahab. He married a
woman that he shouldn't have married, who was not from
among God's people. So that just showed his compromise. And
during his reign bel a false god in Astroa. Both
of them were being worshiped, and then God created a
showdown experience on Mount Carmel with his man, his Prophetylijah
and those eight hundred and fifty false prophets to those
false gods. And so they're up there, and God's people
are there, and the people who supp the false gods
are there, and there's a showdown, and for a period
of time God is showing that he is is God.
But in waiting, the people who don't love God are
allowed to suck or try to cause fire to come
down from heaven. They're allowed to try to get their
false gods to pay attention. But at the appropriate time.
At the time of the evening sacrifice, the Bible says
that God shows up and shows out, demonstrates that he's
the only one, wise and true and living God worthy
of worship. There's a showdown going on now. Who is
the God your worshiping peace? Thanks for joining us listening.
Speaker 1: 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,