Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 07 07 2024 Follow Me

Transcript

07 07 2024 Follow Me · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
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  is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
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  of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
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  us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
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  of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
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  live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
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  author speaker Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good morning.
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  It is Sunday, July seven, twenty twenty four. Hello, my name
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  is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your Daily
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  Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today is no
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  exception. We are continuing in our lesson study series through the Book of Mark,
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  and our caption for today is follow me. I was writing my notes
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  right up to the point where it was my time to come in here.
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  Follow me. I can't wait. Before we get into this, I'd like
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  to say welcome to you and ask you to please go over to your Daily
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  Portion dot com. Please join our online community, pick up the Your Daily
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  Portion book and let us know where you are in the world at your daily
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  portion dot com. This is a way that we continue to build faith and
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  fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.
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  Father and Heaven. Thank you for this new day and for the privilege that
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  we have to open your word. And I'm asking you to please fill us
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  with your holy spirit. Please teach us how to love and to serve you,
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  teach us to follow you. As soon as we hear your voice in
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  Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and amen again. Follow me. Oh,
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  let's go ahead and begin with this question. Have you left all?
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  I'm not talking about the people in the Bible. I'm not talking about people
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  in the whole body of believers as a collective. I'm talking about you.
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  Like your name here, David, that's my name. Have you followed Jesus?
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  Have you left all to follow Jesus? Pardon me? That's a question
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  now. I need to be answering that within me. Am I still following
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  myself? Am I still following the way that I lived before God called me?
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  Am I following other people? Am I following some incredible leader that I
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  found on the internet? My following people that I may have heard or read
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  a book. For am I following just some little voice in my brain.
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  That is a question that we need to be asking and answering with the power
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  of God in our minds. Okay, so we're going to Mark chapter one,
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  and we're going to see something amazing when Jesus calls these men to follow
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  him. How it happened and see if we can learn some lessons here.
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  And so in the Bible Book of Mark chapter one, we will read beginning
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  at verse sixteen, and the Bible reads, now as he walked by the
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  sea of Galilee, so we know where he is geographically and physically. He's
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  on the seaside. He's walking on the seaside, and he saw Simon and
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  Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea. Well, why would
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  these men be casting a net into the sea. A great big shout out
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  to people who live in seaside type areas or if you live on an island
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  where you understand this kind of scenario, like you can see it in your
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  mind in living color. Yes, so he's there, he sees these men
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  they are casting their nets into the sea. Why because they are fishers.
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  So now we know that these men are professional fishermen Verse seventeen, and Jesus
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  said unto them, come ye after me, and I will make you to
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  become fishers of men. Now this is very peculiar to me, Like were
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  these brothers just standing around trying to figure out, well, what are we
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  gonna do with our lives? Absolutely not. They were very clear. They
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  were fishermen. They were doing what they always did, like they were applying
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  their trade. They were fishing. So when this man comes, and we
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  know that Jesus was no ordinary man, but still when this man comes and
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  says come after me, like follow me and I will make you a fisher
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  of men, what in the world would cause them to listen to him?
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  What does that even mean? Fisher of men? Were they looking for something
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  new to do? And who is this man that is calling them? Or
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  was it that his atmosphere surrounding him, that the power that he exuded was
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  so incredible that when they heard his voice they knew they needed to follow him.
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  You see, it is not usual. It's not usual for strong men
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  to follow anybody. I'm gonna say that to you real quick, like I'm
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  not looking for anybody to follow honestly, Like we use those terms in social
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  media like share, follow, share, like follow, hit follow, and
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  then people say you're a follower of this person or that person, and I'm
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  like, now, I'm not about that, follow her, follow him life.
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  It's not my style. And I do. I do work with the
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  number one motivational speaker in the world, like six days a week, but
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  I'm not a follower because that's just not my style. Like the idea of
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  following a man is weird to me. But they recognize that this was not
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  an ordinary man. This was not some human, mere human, let me
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  put it that way. Who was looking for people to mindlessly follow Jesus the
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  god Man. Now he is, with his authority changing their lives. How
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  is he going to change their lives by allowing them to see how he lived,
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  to experience how he worked to be in the presence while his power was
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  most active, transforming people's lives hopeless sinners into hopeful saints. He is calling
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  these men to follow him, to live the way that he lived. Oh
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  wait a minute, now this is starting to make sense now Verse eighteen makes
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  sense to me. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. Can
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  I just say this, like, we're not this is not like, this
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  is not some super spiritual thing. Like these dudes left their money, they
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  left their jobs, like this is their livelihood. They're He's not asking them
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  to come follow him on a sabbath to go and feed the hungry like or
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  to clothe the naked like he is saying, like, leeve your work and
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  follow me. And they did it. They forsook their nets right where they
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  were and followed him immediately. So the lesson that I have for you right
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  now is that as soon as you know and hear the voice of God he's
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  calling you, immediately respond and immediately respond in the way that he would have
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  you to respond. He said, follow me, go follow him. No
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  delay. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and the Bible continues verse nineteen. And
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  when they he had gone a little further, thence he saw James, the
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  son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in a
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  ship mending their nets. Guess what they did for a living, same thing,
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  and straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebede in the
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  ship with the hired servants and went after him. That must have been like,
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  oh my, what in the world is going on here? Without even
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  stopping, not pausing, not thinking, just follow him. Yes, absolutely,
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  absolutely, They left the comfort of their father's care. They left the
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  authority that Daddy had over them, and in that moment they knew that the
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  highest authority of the universe was calling them, even if they did not understand
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  the details, but they knew that they needed to go and to do God's
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  will, and that was with Christ. So let me see if I can
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  give a few quick lessons, a few quick lessons before we come to a
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  swift close. Number one, immediate response. When God calls you, move
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  immediately. It doesn't get any more complicated than that. When he shows you
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  the right way out of a relationship, follow him. Some of those relationships
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  we shouldn't be in. He shows you the right way out of your dishonesty
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  in business, immediately follow him. And I could go down through a list.
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  Yes. Number two, willingness to leave everything behind is key everything because
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  what God gives in replace and to replace the things that we have is eternity
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  with Him. So the little stuff, the little accomplishments that we have had,
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  ah the trials and tribulations that some of us bathe and hold on to
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  and rock like a little baby m He's saying, leave all of those things
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  behind. And then, of course God is when he's calling you, he's
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  bidding you, He's also enabling you to do his will. He is in
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  that moment, transforming your life the lives of others when you respond to the
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  call. Respond to his call, follow me, he says, So follow
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  him peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot
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  live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
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  God. This has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make it
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  a great day. Yeah,