Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 10 22 2023 The Gift of Hospitality

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10 22 2023 The Gift of Hospitality · 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
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  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
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  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
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  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
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  to 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
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  morning. It is Sunday, October twenty two, twenty twenty three. Hello,
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  my name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this
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  is your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and
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  today is no exception. We are continuing in our lesson study God's mission,
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  My mission, and our caption for today is the gift of hospitality. The
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  gift of hospitality. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
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  i'd like to say welcome to you and ask you to go over to your
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  Daily Portion dot com join our online community, and then also click that button
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  to pick up the Your Daily Portion book. And let's let us also know
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  where you are in the world at your daily portion dot com. Let's go
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  ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven,
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  thank you for giving us this new morning and for the privilege we have to
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  be hospitable to entertain strangers, because we may be entertaining angels unawares. Please,
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  Father, give us that gift and teach us how to serve you with
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  everything we have and everything we are. In Jesus name, I pray,
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  Amen and Amen again the gift of hospitality. Well, listen, Sometimes let
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  me just say it this way. I want to say this in a way
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  that makes sense. Sometimes church people, I want to be very careful.
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  Church people like me, like you are impractical. Sometimes it's it's pie in
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  the sky, right. Uh. Do you realize that one of the the
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  the what do we want to call it ministries inside the Fellowship of Christ is
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  to be a bishop or an elder, right, we use elder in our
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  culture. And there is an actual job description, like in the Bible.
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  There's an actual job description. It's not it's not just to be spiritual,
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  which is number one, like we have to be holy. Uh. But
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  but there's a job description and a part of the job description is that elders
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  are supposed to be hospitable. We're supposed to be given to hospitality. I
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  just wanted to put that in there, right right here, because sometimes we
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  we lead the people of God, but we're not hospitable. And I say
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  we because I'm an elder. I've been an elder a long time. That
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  was free, by the way. So practically speaking, God gives specific guidance
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  to those particular leaders, and he adds to that description that we should be
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  hospitable. Well, what does that look like? Of course? Now,
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  in Genesis chapter eighteen, verses one through fifteen, we see the story.
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  We read the story of three messengers coming to Abraham right before Sodom and Gomora
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  are destroyed. One of them, we know now is what we call the
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  pre pre incarnate Christ, so Jesus, before he came through the womb of
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  Mary, before he was born of a woman, so Jesus, manifesting himself
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  in the human form, prior to when Mary had him as a baby.
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  And he comes down with two angels and Abraham. Because of his culture and
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  also because of his holiness, he entertains them. He is hospitable toward them
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  and thankfully. Thankfully, he was successful because remember the Bible says, and
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  I'll read it again in a moment that we are to entertain strangers, there
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  are times that God is doing something very, very special. So when we
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  are well, let me read this quote before I get into our action steps.
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  I'm reading from the Book Education, page one hundred and eighty seven.
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  Abraham's great household consisted of more than a thousand souls, many of them heads
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  of families, and not a few but newly converted from Heathenism. Such a
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  household required a firm hand at the helm. No weak, vacillating methods would
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  suffice. Abraham's influence extended beyond his own household. Wherever he pitched his tent,
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  he set up beside it the altar of sacrifice and worship. When the
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  tent was removed, the altar was removed, and many a roving Canaanite whose
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  knowledge of God had been gained from the life of Abraham his servant, tarried
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  at the altar to offer sacrifice to Jehovah. That's the end of the quote.
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  Blessed be his name. Okay, so listen, God used Abraham as
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  he moved throughout the earth with this hospitable temperament and mission, Yes, to
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  lead people to worship. There was a goal, like there was a purpose
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  in it. As God moved him about the earth and he pitched his tent
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  and he erected an altar. There were people who did not know the Lord
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  until they had that encounter with him through Abraham's experience and example along with his
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  family, and that was a way or a pathway for people to get closer
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  to God. Listen to me, when people come to your church, people
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  come to your worship center, your temple, when people come to your home,
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  When people encounter you on the road, at work, at the gym,
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  at school, or somewhere else, are they encountering God to? Are
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  they encountering God to? Or do you just represent yourself? That's a question
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  that we all need to be asking. Do I just represent myself? Or
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  am I being hospitable to people around me representing God? Oh? So much
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  to say. Let's get some guidance here some actions. In the Book of
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  Hebrews, chapter thirteen and verse two, the Bible says, be not forgetful
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  to entertain strangers. Now you know where I got it from, For thereby
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  some have entertained angels unawares, and we see in this story in Genesis eighteen
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  the fact, and so our action is to regularly look for ways to be
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  hospitable. We have to look for ways to be hospitable and extend kindness to
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  both strangers and friends. Offer your time, offer your resources or listening ears
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  for those who would be in need. Okay, so we have that action
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  step. Let's also read from the Book of Matthew, chapter ten and verse
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  forty two, and the Bible reads, and whosoever shall give a drink unto
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  one of these little ones a cup of cold water, only in the name
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  of a disciple. Verily I say unto you, he shall, she shall
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  in no wise lose his reward. And so God is saying that we should
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  be sharing comfort and sustenance, willing to willingly to those who come our way.
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  Share Meals used to have a ministry in church years ago called koyna Nia
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  was from a Greek term. But share meals offer a place of rest,
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  be a source of refreshment to weary souls. Like there are times that God
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  sends people your way, like he did when he told Elijah, I have
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  a woman. I think it was in zidone. Yes, I have a
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  woman. She's ready to entertain you. Basically, she's there ready because God
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  called her. And it's interesting that she came from the place where Jezebel came
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  from, and yet she listened. She had a heart toward God. And
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  therefore we have a very incredible story about how God preserved her, preserved her
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  son, preserved the prophet and so forth. And we get encouragement from her
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  story even today. What did she have the gift and calling of hospitality?
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  Let's read from Acts chapter ten and verse thirty four, and the Bible reads
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  and then Peter opened up his mouth instead of a truth, I perceive that
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  God is no respect of persons. Yes, God was teaching him how to
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  lead people to God, even the gentiles, right, people that you would
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  consider to be unclean. God is saying that nobody should be considered unclean when
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  He is there to clean them clean us Ah. But the question is should
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  we be extending our hospitality with respect for persons, like should we be partial
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  and only be hospitable to certain kinds of people? Of course, the obvious
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  answer is no, So we should be inclusive. We should be looking for
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  whoever the least of these, God said my brethren, so that we can
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  do it unto God, so extend hospitality irrespective of any detail of a person's
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  life. Peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we
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  cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
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  of God. This has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make
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  it a great day. Yeah.