Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 28 2025 Paul, the Prisoner of Jesus Christ

Transcript

12 28 2025 Paul, the Prisoner of Jesus Christ · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: author speaker, Elle David Harris.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is Sunday, December
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: twenty eight, twoenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and today is no exception. We are continuing in our
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Lesson study series. Oh wait a minute, Uniting Heaven and
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Earth Christ in Philippians and Colossians. For those of you
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: who have been with me for years, you know, the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: first couple of weeks in a new quarter mixes my
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: brain up. And I've been saying for ninety days straight
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: something else, So if I mix it up, just bear
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: with me again. The first week is usually the challenging one.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: But I'll get it, I promise you I will. I digress. Yeah, so,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: our caption for today is Paul the Prisoner of Christ.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: And before we get into it, i'd like to say
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: welcome to everyone joining us, especially those joining us for
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the very first time. Please go over to your Daily
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Portion dot com. Please join our online community and pick
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: up the your Daily Portion Life Application Guide, type of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: one in the chat. If you've got you the new
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Life Application Guide from your Daily Portion, I'm not talking
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: about the quarterly everybody. I'm talking about the one where
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: we have the four ways to apply the Lesson Study.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And yeah, so if you've already gotten it, go ahead
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and type a one in the chat. If not, please
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: go over to your Daily Portion come and pick it up,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: because it's a way to really really draw you closer
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to God and apply the Lesson Study. Let's go ahead
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: you for loving us, Thank you for showing us examples
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: through other humans who've connected to you, how we can
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: live even in adverse circumstances. Please help us to live
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: for you no matter what. In Jesus' name, I pray,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Amen and Amen again Paul is the prisoner of Christ.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I think we've already sort of you know, drilled that
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: a touch a touch. So let's jump right in, jump
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: right in with our first lesson for today. Actually, you
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: know what, let me read a quote before we get
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: into that particular lesson. Okay, thoughts from the epistles. This
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: one is by Eiah Smith. Truth may be bound in
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the body of its messenger, yet its influence moves freely.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna say that when again, those guys in A
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: teen hundreds were serious when they wrote stuff. Truth may
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: be bound in the body of its messenger, and yet
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: its influence moves freely. Yeah, yeah, you let that settle in.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to interpret that. Ask God what that means.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: This one is good. Now, let me go from the
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Desire of Ages, page one hundred and ninety five. Every
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: true disciple is born into the Kingdom of God as
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: a missionary. Everybody who's born into the Family of God.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I have my actual missionary credential if okay, so I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: got my missionary credential after it was it ten years
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of service in my faith fellowship. I think it was
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: during my time at the university. I have that. But
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: God is saying no, no, no, it's not a credential.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: It's not a credential. Missionary service has to do with
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: being on the mission for Christ, the great commission. Go
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: ye into all the world, make disciples and let them
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: know I love them, so I can transform them, hm
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: baptizing them and the name of the Father, Son and
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the Holy Ghost like do that? Do that? Everybody who's
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: born into the family of God becomes that and a
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: prisoner of Christ. Really, and so now our lesson number
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: one from Paul is that he viewed his imprisonment as
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: belonging to Christ, not to his imprisoners. Is that a
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: word I keep making up? Words? Not to Rome. Paul
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: viewed his imprisonment as belonging to Christ and not Rome.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: The Bible says in Ephesians, chapter three and verse one.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: For this cause, I Paul the prisoner of Christ. Did
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you hear that? Prisoner of Christ. He's locked up, He's
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: in a Roman prison, and he's saying, no, I'm a
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: prisoner of Christ. And the reason is for you Gentiles.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: I still don't understand why God sent Paul to the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Gentiles and not to the Jews, but he did because
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: God knows exactly what he's accomplishing. And so he's saying
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: that for your sake, you people who were once considered
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: to be strangers and of outcasts and people who couldn't
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: be saved. That's what people considered them to be. That
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: was never the reality. But I am sent to you,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I am imprisoned or bound to Christ for your benefit.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: And yes, there is a human element. There is something
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that went wrong here on planet Earth where these guys
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: feel like they can lock me up and keep the
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: gospel tied up because I'm in prison. But I think
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Eiah Smith said that the truth may be bound in
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the body of its messenger, and yet its influence moves freely.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five, going into twenty twenty six, the
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: message that God has given the truth that God taught
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: through Paul is reverberated throughout the earth. Still I'm teaching
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: what Paul taught in twenty twenty five, going into twenty
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: twenty six. How many centuries millennia ago was Paul teaching
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: this stuff? You see where this is going. Okay, okay, okay.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: And so the word for prisoner in Greek in this
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: case is one who is bound take this in service
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: so even the term the way that Paul communicated his reality,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: he was saying, I'm bound in service. I'm not imprisoned.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I'm not a slave like the people were bound in Egypt.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Not that, not that. I am one who is bound
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: in service. And so the action step this Sunday morning
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: is is to declare today, this is what I should
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: be saying today. My life belongs to Christ, regardless of
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: the circumstances. Let's run on to lesson number two for
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: this morning. Paul continued his mission even when movement was restricted.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I think that's an understatement, isn't it restricted movement? Come on?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: In Phi Phileiman chapter one or Philema one, it reads Paul,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brother. Okay,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: what yeah, yeah, yeah, So this is what he's saying, like,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I am an ambassador of Christ. I'm moving around in
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: the earth as an ambassador. I represent Christ. Oh and Timothy,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of course our brother does too. But what we want
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: to do is find somebody like a Timothy Paul and Timothy.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Paul and Timothy, identify one person you can serve today
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: from your current position. He was still pouring into his
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: son in the Gospel, no matter what was going on
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in his life, he poured into young Timothy. Isn't that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: a blessing? So find somebody that you can serve today,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: no matter where you are, what you are doing, or
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: what your status in air quotes is lesson. Number three,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: God placed Paul where influential people could hear the gospel.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: The Bible reads in Philippians, chapter one and verse thirteen,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the palace and in all other places. I already said
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: to you that it's reverberating to the point that we're
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: talking about what God showed Paul all the way down
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: here in our time. But he was in palaces, prisons
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: and other places. No matter where he was. The Bible
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: says that he wanted the truth of Christ. He wanted
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: the manifestation of the Gospel to happen wherever he was,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: even under imperial guard, no matter what. And so today
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I want us to pray, to pray, pray, Lord, show
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: me the purpose of this place. Is it your place
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: of employment? Is it the office where somebody gives you
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: a pink slip in America, a pink slip? You know
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: met colloquially that you were being fired or let go.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say it in a nice way.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about the kind of way that feels offensive
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to you in that moment. Why is God having you there?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: You see what I'm saying. Yeah, So, wherever we are, Lord,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: show me the purpose of this place, and look for
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: one open door and walk into it for His glory peace.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,