Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 11 24 2023 More Love, More People

Transcript

11 24 2023 More Love, More People · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

• 0:01
  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
• 0:06
  is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
• 0:10
  of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
• 0:15
  us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
• 0:20
  of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
• 0:25
  live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
• 0:31
  author speaker Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
• 0:34
  It is Friday, November twenty four, twenty twenty three. Hello, my
• 0:39
  name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
• 0:42
  Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day and today is no
• 0:46
  exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series. God's mission, my
• 0:52
  mission, and our caption for today is more love, more people, More
• 0:57
  love, more people. Pardon that sound. We'll get into that in just
• 1:02
  a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome to you and say happy
• 1:04
  happy preparation day and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com
• 1:08
  join our online community. Also, let us know where you are in the
• 1:14
  world and pick up the Your Daily Portion book. This is one way that
• 1:18
  we continue to build faith and fellowship at your Daily Portion dot com. Let's
• 1:23
  go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven,
• 1:27
  thank you for giving us this new day and the privilege that you have
• 1:30
  entrusted to us to serve you. Please teach us how to love you and
• 1:34
  to do your will. I pray that you will fill us with your Holy
• 1:38
  Spirit and have the spirit of Christ. Have the spirit of Christ, so
• 1:42
  that we can seek and to save those who are not connected to you.
• 1:47
  In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. More people,
• 1:53
  more love. I'm going to begin our discussion today by reading from the Advent
• 1:59
  Review and Sad with Harold from October fifteenth, eighteen ninety five. Wow,
• 2:04
  that was a long time ago. Let's see if it's still applicable today.
• 2:07
  And it reads men and women are not fulfilling the design of God when they
• 2:14
  simply express affection for their own family circle, while they exclude those from their
• 2:22
  love whom they could comfort and bless by relieving their necessities. Let's go ahead
• 2:30
  and push a pause right here. Yes, so, I am an introvert
• 2:34
  and many of you are also introverts. I'm not always like big and excited
• 2:40
  about large crowds and gatherings and meeting new people. But of course God has
• 2:45
  given me public gifts, and I'm whenever I go anywhere, wherever I happen
• 2:49
  to be. It doesn't matter if I'm here in Jamaica or on the airplane
• 2:53
  going somewhere else. And wherever I am, I run into people that have
• 2:58
  seen me somewhere, whether it's on the Internet or on the TV, or
• 3:02
  on some billboard somewhere who knows where Hurd on the radio. And it occurs
• 3:07
  to me that our lives are not our own. There is a responsibility for
• 3:12
  each of us. Whether your experience and my experience are identical, yes or
• 3:15
  no. The fact is that we can't focus only on our own family circle.
• 3:23
  I tend to want to do that because my family are familiar to me.
• 3:28
  It takes less energy. I don't have to get to know as much
• 3:31
  because we've been together for years. Right Ah, But God is saying that
• 3:36
  if we are going to be his children, then we have to be loving
• 3:40
  toward as many people as He gives us. The calling to be loving toward,
• 3:46
  of course, and to relieve their suffering to whatever way we can provide
• 3:54
  some of their needs. Now, he's not asking us to replat lace him
• 4:00
  somehow or become saviors, but he is saying that if we focus solely on
• 4:04
  the people in our own household, the people who we are closest to that
• 4:10
  we are most comfortable with, we are selfish. And selfishness has no place
• 4:15
  in the kingdom, right, it says, while they exclude, meaning the
• 4:19
  people who embrace their family members in their own family circle, while they exclude
• 4:25
  those from their love whom they could comfort and bless by relieving their necessities.
• 4:33
  Continuing the quote, when the Lord bids us do good for others outside our
• 4:41
  home, he does not mean that our affection for home shall become diminished and
• 4:46
  that we shall love our kindred or our country less, because he desires us
• 4:51
  to extend our sympathies. Right, but we are not to confine our affection
• 4:59
  and empathy. That sounds so restrictive, confined those right, We're not to
• 5:02
  do that. We're not to do that within our four walls and enclose the
• 5:08
  blessing that God has given us, so that others will not be benefited with
• 5:14
  us in its enjoyment. That's the end of the quote. Remember I said
• 5:19
  more love, more people. Let that settle in. So Jesus had a
• 5:25
  habit of making himself available so that people could get closer to God. Yes,
• 5:31
  we read an inspiration from the book Desire of Ages that the account we
• 5:35
  read in Mark chapter two of the man that was sick of the palsy.
• 5:40
  We talked about him the other day, God that was born of four carried
• 5:44
  to the place where Jesus was and then let down through the roof because there
• 5:48
  were just so many people they couldn't get in through the door. Yes,
• 5:51
  and then Jesus relieved his suffering by forgiving his sins and also healing his paralysis.
• 6:00
  He did all of that. He did all of that. He made
• 6:03
  himself available so that he could heal and save him. And that in twenty
• 6:12
  twenty three, this day of November, that we could receive a blessing from
• 6:16
  that, and not just a blessing, that we could be transformed by the
• 6:20
  love that is exuding from this story. You see. So Jesus made sure
• 6:27
  that he had compassion on the multitudes. It was in him to be compassionate
• 6:31
  toward the multitudes. There were times that he fed people because he had compassion
• 6:36
  on them. Yes, there were times that he healed blind eyes and broken
• 6:41
  hearts because he had compassion on them. And let me just say this one
• 6:46
  quickly, there were times that he corrected people because he had compassion on them.
• 6:50
  He could not see people going the wrong direction in their lives and to
• 6:55
  continue down the wrong pathway and then just let them do that, continue to
• 7:00
  go down the wrong pathway to their destruction. God is saying that he loves
• 7:04
  us so much. How much does he love us that he gave through Christ,
• 7:10
  his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
• 7:15
  but all should have everlasting life who do not love him. And so he
• 7:18
  wants to open the doors of love through us to other people. I think
• 7:25
  the Bible says, freely, you have received whatever it is that God gave
• 7:29
  us. He gave us reconciliation, he gave us wholeness. He gave us
• 7:32
  a deliverance from a depression. He gave us deliverance from addictions to different kinds
• 7:38
  of sin. God said, freely, ye have received. Now freely give
• 7:45
  give of yourself to the people. Okay. And so in the scriptures that
• 7:48
  are cited here in the Lesson Study Matthew chapter eight, verses twenty eight through
• 7:54
  thirty four and Mark five, verses one through twenty We basically see that we
• 8:00
  are to engage the Gospel with as many people as possible. Reflect on the
• 8:05
  instances where Jesus engaged with people from their cultures. How can you model this
• 8:13
  action in your life. I've had the privilege of growing up in New York
• 8:18
  City and then also living in the nation's capital and it's environs, as we
• 8:24
  say here in Jamaica right for decades. I did that as well. I
• 8:26
  lived in DC, I lived in the DMB, as we call it affectionately,
• 8:31
  in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, and I have live so I've
• 8:37
  lived in places where a great cross section of people also lived. We call
• 8:43
  it a melting pot, but sometimes it's more like a mixing pot. I
• 8:46
  wish I had the time, But the bottom line is, just in those
• 8:50
  two experiences, and now with a believer's mindset, I'm like, Lord,
• 8:54
  what is it that we are to do? As the truth that is in
• 9:00
  Christ comes into our lives. From that vantage point, we are to spread
• 9:05
  His love into every nation, kindred tongue, tribe and people. We learn
• 9:09
  about one another, and as we are learning about one another, we show
• 9:13
  love and deference. As the Lord gives us strength, he gives redemption to
• 9:18
  everyone who needs it as long as we yield our will to him. He
• 9:22
  wants us to continue to expand our circle of love. Step out of our
• 9:28
  comfort zones right, engage in cultural celebrations thoughtfully as God gives us strength with
• 9:35
  the aught, with the purpose of more people to love to God by his
• 9:41
  grace. A wonderful day, Peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends,
• 9:46
  Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that
• 9:50
  comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with el
• 9:54
  David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,