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, March
twenty four, twenty twenty six. 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
final week of our Lesson study series uniting Heaven and Earth,
christ in Philippians and Colossians, and our caption for today
is standing perfect and Complete, Standing perfect, don't be afraid
of that word and complete. 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 please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Will you please join our online community. Pick up the
Your Daily Portion Life application guide. The new one is
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your Daily Portion dot com. This is one of the
ways 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 these great and
precious promises. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, who does
not leave us alone, who teaches us how to live
according to your principles. Father, I pray that we will
we will be perfect because you, our God, is perfect
in Jesus' name. I pray Amen and Amen again. I
just heard myself say you as perfect, So well, God
knows what I'm trying to say. Yeah, So let's go
ahead and begin with a basic concept. Though the church
has been confused over the years, I should say I'm
not saying that we continue to be but over the
years the church has been confused and arguing about what
perfection means. But I like the caption for today because
perfect and complete are connected. The real definition I would say,
if I had to oversimplify, of perfection of godly or
Christian perfection is to be complete in Christ, complete in Christ.
So if a person is lost and will be separated
from God forever and destroyed ultimately in the lake of fire,
that person is incomplete. If someone is lacking confidence and
not believing Jesus's great and precious promises, that person is incomplete.
If a person if we choose to sin, you know,
the Bible says that all have sin. But if we
do commit us sin and do not confess our sins,
then Jesus can't be faithful in the moment and just
in the moment to forgive us in that moment and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Because that qualifier or
condition of confession is not present. That means we're incomplete.
I know I said a lot of words. The only
way we can be forgiven is if we ask God
for forgiveness and turn from our sins. Is as simple
as that who's not submitted to God is incomplete, therefore
not perfect. So that's enough of my oversimplification. Somebody just
got that light bulb to come on. So let me
begin by reading a quote from Uriah Smith. Christian perfection
consists not in a claim of holiness, and listen, Uriah
lived in the era that the Church was really torn
about these issues. Christian perfection consists not in a claim
of holiness, but in a continual growth in grace and
a deeper dependence upon Christ. I love it, I love it,
I love it, I love it, type of one in
the chat. If that resonated with you, So our lesson
number one for today is God's will, is that believers
stand firm. I don't know if you've been with me
during our or Sunday morning program at eight o'clock, but
we talked about about the whole armor of God. Having
on the whole armor of God, and ultimately, once we
have those seven implements of war, including prayer and supplication,
then we can stand against the wiles of the enemy. Okay.
And so from Colossians chapter four and verse twelve, the
Bible reads a path for us. Who is one of
you a servant of Christ, saluteth you always laboring fervently
for you in prayers. So this brother is praying for
the people. He's sending greetings to them, encouraging them that
ye may what stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God. I'm grateful that Epaphras had no confusion
about that. Brother Paul did not have any confusion about that.
In fact, Paul taught in a very interesting teaching where
it talks about we press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling in Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 2: He talks about in the beginning of that discussion, he says,
not as though I have already attained to or apprehended,
but I follow after. And then it talks about him
pressing toward what God has called him to do and
to be, or to be and to do. And then
he gives a little more description, and he said, the
individuals who are perfect, even though he said, not as
though I were already perfect, but I follow after. He said,
the people who are perfect in Christ have this mindset.
And I'm like, oh, okay, God, so really you're talking
about not being self sustaining, self confident, perfect in self.
But when we are your children, then you transform us
into people who surrender our will to you and our
confidences in you. Then our strength comes from you. And
even our ability to do what you've called us to
do comes from you, because you said that if we
we are working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Yes,
but it is God that worketh in you both to
will and to do of your good pleasure. And so
I'm grateful that God has shown us a brother who said, yep,
you can be standing, perfect and complete in the will
of God. And so there's a key word of the
standing firm. The Greek for that term means to remain fixed,
to hold one's ground. Remember John said in the Revelation recording,
what Jesus would say to hold that that thou hast
that no one take your crown. Stand firm, brothers and sisters,
hold your ground in your connection with God. Remain fixed.
Standing requires grounding. Faith that stands is faith rooted in
truth and not your external circumstances. And so I want
you to please identify one truth from the scriptures you
need to anchor yourself in this week, write it down
and pray about it daily. What is it you need
more faith? Is that the truth? You need to be
more solid in your keeping of the Seventh day Sabbath
is that what it is Is it growth in grace?
Is that what it is? Whatever it is, I want
you to anchor yourself in that way through prayer and
connection with God for this week. Our second lesson for
today is Christian maturity is character huh, not a rival.
So it is the journey and not the destination. So
the word perfect in the Bible does not mean a
sinless achievement, but spiritual maturity expressed through love and obedience.
And so the action step here, I think, as we
come to a swift close yep, ask God to reveal
one area where growth is still needed. He'll show you
and then invite the Holy Ghost to develop christ like
character right there. Yeah. Make it a great day, y'all.
See you in the morning.
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,