Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 04 22 2024 Light Vanquishes the Darkness

Transcript

04 22 2024 Light Vanquishes the Darkness · 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 Monday, April twenty two, twenty twenty four. Hello, my
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  name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
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  Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today is
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  no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series the Great Controversy.
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  Our caption for today is Light Vanquishes the Darkness. Light vanquishes the darkness.
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  We'll get into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say
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  welcome, Welcome, Welcome everybody, and I'm asking you to please go over
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  to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community, pick up
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  the Your Daily Portion book and let us know where you are in the world
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  at your daily portion dot com. This is a way that we continue to
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  build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will
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  get underway. Father and Heaven, thank you for giving us this new day
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  and for the privilege we have to open up your word. I pray God
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  that you will help us to live in the light, even as you are
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  in the light. In Jesus name, I pray Amen and Amen again,
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  light vanquishes the darkness. Let's go ahead and begin by reading in the Book
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  of Jude. The Book of Jude. It's one of the last books of
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  the Bible, and it only has one chapter. So we're going to verse
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  number three and it reads, Dear friends, although I have been eager to
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  write to you about our common salvation, that is, the salvation that we
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  have in common, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to
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  contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
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  Notice now that the Bible is not saying Jude, who was the brother of
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  James, who was also the half brother of Jesus. Judas the half brother
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  of Jesus. Yeah, he's not saying that we're supposed to be having arguments
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  about the scriptures. That is not what he's saying. He's not saying that
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  we're supposed to stage a debate to prove how intelligent we are. He's definitely
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  not saying that. But we need to say, like, this is the
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  good Gospel of Jesus Christ that is transformative in our lives, to the point
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  that now when I was blind, I can now see you see where this
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  is going. Like when I was dark in my imagination and loved things that
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  God didn't love, Now I am aligned with God. I love godly things.
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  Like when I was not about committing to one woman as a husband,
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  you were not committed to one man as a wife. Now we can be
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  committed. Why because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people who
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  will try to take the faith of Christ out of your life and experience,
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  and you should contend so that does not happen. You don't lay down and
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  say, well, whatever happens happens. No, God has entrusted us with
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  a faith that cannot fail when people come in and try to mix truth with
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  error. You're in a faith community, and people mix up all kinds of
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  things and then try to feed it to the people of God. You're supposed
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  to contend and not allow that to happen. For certain men have secretly slipped
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  in among you, men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation.
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  I am about to describe ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God
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  into a license for evil, and who deny our only Master and Lord,
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  Jesus Christ. This is a clarion call, like Judas putting him out there.
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  He's not allowing these wolves in sheep's clothing to come into the fellowship of
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  believers and then spread all kinds of wicked propaganda. During the pandemic, there
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  was all kinds of wicked propaganda. And it's not the only time in history,
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  but that one is one that all of the people of God would have
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  felt for the period of time that the pandemic had its teeth sunken into our
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  skin and had its grip on us. But God is saying no, no,
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  no, no, no no. I want you to contend and earnestly
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  for the faith that was once for all entrusted to all saints. In the
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  last days, we will see all kinds of abominations creeping in We talked about
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  creeping compromise, and the lesson writer actually says this admonition meant even more to
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  the believers of the Middle Ages, after pagan practices had flooded into the Church
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  and human traditions compromised the word of God. Let me just say, not
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  compromise the word of God, but in the hearts and minds of the people.
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  It was snatched out of the hearts and minds of people for centuries,
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  many centuries, people like the walled Denscenes, and you need to look them
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  up. These people, these people when when God's people were being persecuted from
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  hither and yon like, when they were when they were challenged to either keep
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  the truth in their hearts or to yield to the way that the world and
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  the false Church had been pushing forward. The Waldensians stood, according to the
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  Lesson Writer, as champions for the truths of Scripture. They believed that Christ
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  was their only mediator and the Bible their sole source of authority. Let me
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  just pause right here. Do you still believe that Jesus Christ is the one
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  mediator between God and humanity, I'm saying, Or do you believe that there
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  was a human being that has to stand in the gap for you. I
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  know we say it, stand in the gap for me, brother, stand
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  in the gap for me, sister. And when we say it, if
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  we say it according to the way that the scriptures would approve, we're simply
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  saying, like, talk to God about me, talk to God for me.
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  Not because we can't do it ourselves, not because the person that we're
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  asking to pray for us somehow has more power with God. No intercession is
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  just another opportunity for God to hear the voices and the christ and the petitions
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  of his people on behald half of others, so that He can do what
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  his will is in our lives anyway. But sometimes people take that too far,
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  like that standing in the gap concept. They take it too far,
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  and they make it seem as if some person in a box in some room
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  has power to keep us in connection with God or out of connection with God,
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  that somehow they are able to put God into a little wafer and stick
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  him in your mouth. And I know that sounds sacrilegious, Well that's because
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  it is. We are not living on planet Earth with humans that have power
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  with God that we don't have because There's one mediator between God and humanity,
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  and that mediator is Jesus Christ, who took on human flesh. He lived
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  the life in the way that we should live it, powerfully, full of
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  the Holy Ghost, right completely surrendered to the will of his father, and
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  his his victory now can be transferred into our lives if we will just trust
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  him by faith. When Jesus lived his perfect life, he died, He
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  died in our place, but he still had his perfect record with God.
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  Yes, and then he took up his life again one beautiful Sunday morning.
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  And he took up his life having all authority in his hands, the keys
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  of hell, death, and the grave in his hands, the ability to
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  unlock those things in your mindset, my mindset, those things that have so
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  easily beset us over the generations because Grandma and Grandpa had challenges. And he
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  says, no, you can stop right here. You can stop right here.
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  The buck stops right here. You can decide to serve me. You
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  can decide no matter what your DNA or genealogy has determined, you can follow
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  me. And now a quote from the book Great Controversy, page sixty one.
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  In every age, there were witnesses of God for God, people who
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  cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man, who held
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  the Bible as the only rule of life and hollowed the truth of the Sabbath.
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  That is the end of the quote. And so we give God thanks.
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  Why do we give God thanks? Because He's able to keep us in
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  these last days. He can shine in our hearts as the light shines in
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  the darkness. Yes, and we can do what God says. Why,
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  because He's empowering us even in twenty twenty four and beyond, to do and
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  to live according to His principles. Come what may? Is that your commitment?
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  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,