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, December six,
twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is Elle David Harris.
I am your host Dan. This is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's Word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in Lesson number eleven,
our lesson study series, Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and
our caption for today is living in the Land and
living in the Land. Before we get into that, I'd
like to say welcome to everyone joining us, especially those
joining us for the very first time. If you came
in last evening and enjoyed the worship that we had
the teaching through music, go ahead and type of one
in the chat.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 2: If you are on the radio, you're listening, you're like,
what are they talking about? That's because it only happens
on the YouTube channel. So Friday evenings, we have the
privilege of going through the lesson study the whole week
in song and Bible teaching. We invest just about an hour.
So if you enjoyed that and you were uplifted, and
more than that, if you are being transformed, then type
A two in the chat. God is transforming you and
you're learning even through music. Go ahead and type of
two in the chat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm grateful.
I'm grateful. Let's go ahead and pray and then we
will get underway. Father, we do thank you for the
privilege of being called by your name. Please help us
to live like we are your children. Right now in
Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and amen again. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Let's go ahead and jump in with our first lesson,
our first lesson for today. It's coming in from the
Bible Book of Proverbs, chapter eighteen. Proverbs chapter eighteen, and
I will read verse let's see verse thirteen. Proverbs chapter eighteen,
and I will read verse thirteen, and the Bible reads
he that answereth the matter before he hereth it, it
is folly and shame to him. Let me read it
in another version. The one who gives an answer before
he listens, that is his folly and his shame. Now
I want to use a word, a Hebrew word, which
is really a paradigm. It's a principle of the ancient
people of God. It's shama shama, and it means to
listen intelligently to heed, listen intelligently to heed. And so
how in the world are we going to begin to
move or to action a thing when we've not heard
the entire matter. This is the problem with a lot
of people. Some people run out ahead of God thinking
that they understood everything because they did not have the
patience to listen, wait and then act, or wait, listen
and act, as the case may be. Some of you
have children that are like that. Some of you are
like that yourselves. You rent out ahead and wait, wait,
come back, come back. You missed the point. And so
shama again means to listen intelligently or to heed. And
also it has built into it action, and so we
want to action only having heard, not based on assumption. Okay,
unity requires understanding and not assumption, and so and so.
The action step is before forming opinions of opinions about others,
before running and doing what you believe you are called
to do. Seek to understand the intent. If you're talking
about with others, seek to understand their intent. If you
are someone who is running the vision, running the mission
of a ministry or an area of ministry, then find
out everything you need to know before you start running.
And of course, when it comes to God, we want
to be keenly listening, understanding God's intent, and then and
then we can run. We practice listening first, speaking second,
and in the case of having our relationships with people,
judging last. Now we come in from lesson number two,
coming in from Proverbs chapter fifteen and verse one. That's
right in the lesson, A soft answer turneth away wrath,
but grievous words stir up anger. Oh wait a minute,
so this word for soft actually means tender or gentle.
True strength shows itself through calm, restraint and gracious words.
You know, the power of life and death is in
the tongue. I know a lot of people use this
to talk about manifestation. Like you, you speak a thing,
speak what you seek until you see what you say.
Shout to my baby sis Mignon Francois. I call her
the boss Lady, and that is true. I perfectly agree
with her. But some people will take that to to
to to too far. Like some people are just speaking
what they seek and that's it. But what God wants
us to do is to speak the kinds of words
that are gracious. There are times that are speaking needs
to be pulled down or pulled back as we await
the message, so that when we do speak what we
seek and we see what we have said, it's the
right thing. Sometimes people speak anger, people speak inciting. Sometimes
people speak things that are antagonistic, right instigatory things, and
then we see on the other end the fruit of
those things. So God wants us to speak with restraint.
We should be speaking gracious words. And of course I'm
saying in the context of people who are having interpersonal
experiences when misunderstandings arise. Gentleness restores peace faster than confrontation does.
Joshua Chapter twenty two shows that humility and dialogue can
save relationships that assumptions would have destroyed and so what
I want you to do, and I'm doing it often myself.
Respond to tension as the Lord gives you strength with
grace even when you feel provoked. Let your tone become
an instrument of healing and unity. Notice I said tone,
not the words only, but the tone. Let those tones
that come from your voice, your facial expression, your body
language become an instrument of healing and unity. Lesson number three,
God calls his people to collective purpose. We've been talking
about mission clarity and mission aries, right. So the Bible
reads in Ephesians chapter six and verse seven, with good will,
doing service as the law, as to the Lord and
not to men. There are times that we are in ministry.
We are doing our work in our mundane tasks every day,
even in our business where we are doing service to people. Please,
Sometimes we're just doing service in order to collect a check.
Sometimes we may use a soft answer in order to
manipulate somebody politically somehow, or that's the intent, and we
may smile nicely, but really have we have sneers and
canines showing in our character. So what God wants us
to do is to do everything that God wants us
to do with enthusiasm, as though we are serving the
Lord and not the people I have. Should I say this? Yes,
I have served individuals that were complete, depletely like off there,
I don't know. They were not on the mission. They
were not on the mission. And God said, you serve
me when you're serving him, you serve me when you
are serving her. Don't focus on them, see them as
the pathway to service. And so the word for service
is du lea I think I pronounced it right, meaning
ministry or bond service. God calls his people to focus
on our shared mission rather than our minor differences. So
serve with sincerity, serve with joy, and in every task,
whether seen or unseen, do it as an offering to God.
Make it a great day, peace.
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,