Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 04 20 2024 Standing for the Truth
Transcript
- 0:01Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
- 0:06is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
- 0:10of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to keep us
- 0:15through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all of
- 0:20that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to live
- 0:25healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author
- 0:31speaker Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning. It
- 0:34is Sabbath, April twenty, twenty twenty four. Hello, my name is
- 0:40El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
- 0:44where we give you God's word every single day, and today is no exception.
- 0:47We are continuing in our lesson study with lesson number four on Great Controversy
- 0:54under the caption standing for the Truth, Standing for the True. We'll get
- 1:00into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome to
- 1:03you and ask you to please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
- 1:07You can join our online community there and also please let us know where you
- 1:11are in the world at your Daily Portion dot Com. This is a way
- 1:15that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray,
- 1:19and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven, thank you for giving
- 1:23us this new day and for giving us the privilege to stand stand for your
- 1:27truth. Please help us to actually do so. In Jesus' name, I
- 1:32pray, Amen and Amen again. So the truth is, and I know
- 1:38I'm probably going to say the term truth multiple times today, but the truth
- 1:44is that we need God. And the blessing is that He knows it,
- 1:48and he is what he is making provisions so that we can always have him
- 1:53in our lives. And I say that again, we need God, and
- 1:59he is so kind to give himself to us. In fact, in fact,
- 2:05the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his
- 2:09only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him, who should not perish
- 2:14but have everlasting life. God didn't send his son into the world to condemn
- 2:19the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And so
- 2:23right before that passage of scripture though, is verses fourteen and fifteen of the
- 2:30Book of John chapter three, and it reads as Moses lifted up the serpent
- 2:36in the wilderness. I want somebody to go ahead and type in the chat
- 2:39antidote antidote, and I know it's like, well, how do you spell
- 2:44that antidote? Okay, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
- 2:50even so must the son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in
- 2:57him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus minimally is the antidote,
- 3:07and you're like, the antidote for what, the antidote for eternal death,
- 3:12the antidote for the consequences of sin ah, the antidote for eternal separation from
- 3:17God. Jesus is the antidote from the deadly, deadly disease of fear and
- 3:27condemnation. You see, the Bible says in first John chapter four that there
- 3:32is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear
- 3:38hath torment. Those who are perfected in love are bold. We stand bold
- 3:44in the time of judgment. Why because we are transformed by His love.
- 3:52The same one who is love. God is Love, is the same one
- 3:55who is the Way, the truth, and the life. And so when
- 4:00we have God in our lives, through Christ in particular, we are able
- 4:04to stand for truth. We're able to stand for truth. Now, the
- 4:09lesson writer used this passage in John chapter three. It's very interesting, I
- 4:14said, Jesus is the antidote. You see, the people of God had
- 4:17been disobedient by show of hands, who has been disobedient here? Anybody listening
- 4:24on the radio, podcast, on the internet, on television, have you
- 4:29ever been disobedient? And then the people of God in the particular case here
- 4:35we're bitten by serpents, and they were dying and dying and dying and dying.
- 4:40It was terrible. It was a fearful time in the history and lives
- 4:43of the people of God. And so what God said is, what I
- 4:46need you to do is to put a brazen serpent on a pole, and
- 4:50I need you to give clear instruction that if you have been bitten, you're
- 4:58about to die. If you have been bitten, lift up your eyes,
- 5:02look at the serpent by faith and live. And you're like, but hold
- 5:09on, why what God use the same us a symbol of the same thing
- 5:15that was killing them in order to save them. Well, that's a very
- 5:17good question. I wish I had the time. But the antidote all often
- 5:24has it has a little bit a touch of what has been working against us.
- 5:30It is used in a way that works for us. So the serpent
- 5:35biting the people, they're fearful, and God is taking the bite out of
- 5:40the serpent. Even in twenty twenty four, he's taking the venom out of
- 5:44the serpent. He is causing people to say, Okay, if I look
- 5:48to God in faith, then I will be saved. What does that even
- 5:54mean? Yes, when I embrace the blessing that God is, I'm no
- 5:59longer fearful of the things that used to hurt me. I'm no longer fearful
- 6:01of the lies that the devil has told me. I'm no longer fearful of
- 6:05those things that used to separate me from God, my Father. Now I
- 6:10am looking to God to live. And when I'm looking to God to live,
- 6:15that means my relationship with God is a life giving relationship. And so
- 6:20Jesus wasn't on a pole, he wasn't in the form of a serpent,
- 6:25but he took the curse of the Roman cross and turned it into the antidote.
- 6:30Because Jesus now at the time, was raised up and he gave his
- 6:36life on the cross. So that you can live eternally. Brothers and sisters,
- 6:41all of those mistakes and those deliberate things that you have done to separate
- 6:45yourself from God, because now by faith you can turn away from those things,
- 6:50because you can now confess your sins and be holy, and that means
- 6:57agreement with God. So you can look to Jesus and live. You can
- 7:02look death in its eyes and say, but Jesus has the keys of hell,
- 7:05death and the grave, and he has victory all in his hands,
- 7:10and he's giving that victory to me. When the devil says you have sinned,
- 7:14you can say, yes, I have sinned, but Jesus came to
- 7:18save sinner. Stand for the truth, even when the devil tries to throw
- 7:24in your face the times that you fell or a lie. And so what
- 7:28we want to do, what we want to do is believe God. Believe
- 7:31God for eternal life, because he said whoever believes in Him will not perish,
- 7:38but have eternal life. So that is our step number one today.
- 7:41Believe God for his word. Also, there is a message of salvation that
- 7:46we want to share. He wants us to share. As we receive the
- 7:50truth, we need to stand for it and share it. In Romans chapter
- 7:55ten and verse nine, the Bible reads that if thou shalt confess with thy
- 7:58mouth that Jesus Christ his Lord, and shall believe in thine heart that God
- 8:03has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. So commit to
- 8:07sharing the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ with as many people as possible.
- 8:13Now, truth is that there are some people who have lost their lives for
- 8:18the sake of truth, that who have to wait until the coming of Jesus
- 8:26Christ to receive the reward that he has promised, because now they're resting in
- 8:31their graves. They lost their lives at the hands of cruel people who did
- 8:35not love God. And what God teaches us is that there are historic examples
- 8:41in the Bible, biblical figures of people who did just that, they gave
- 8:48their lives for the cause of Christ, and God is going to give them
- 8:52their reward. God is going to give them reward. And in the Book
- 8:56of Revelation chapter two and verse ten, the Bible says, fear none of
- 8:58those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of
- 9:03you in prison, that you may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation
- 9:07for ten days. Of course there is a specific context. Yes, but
- 9:13be thou faithful to death, and I will give you a crown of life.
- 9:18So whether we live or die, we need to know, whatever trials
- 9:22we go through, whatever tribulations we go through, if we will stand for
- 9:26truth and we will continue to surrender our will for God to God, then
- 9:31we will have a crown of life. There is so much more, but
- 9:35we need to be courageous in our faith and choose today. And as for
- 9:39me and my house, as for you and your house, we're gonna serve
- 9:41the Lord. A wonderful day. Peace. Thanks for joining us listening.
- 9:46Friends, Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word
- 9:50that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with
- 9:54El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,