Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 04 09 2024 Faithful Amid Persecution

Transcript

04 09 2024 Faithful Amid Persecution · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

• 0:01
  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
• 0:05
  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
• 0:10
  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
• 0:15
  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
• 0:19
  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
• 0:25
  to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
• 0:31
  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good
• 0:34
  morning. It is Tuesday, April nine, twenty twenty four. Hello,
• 0:38
  my name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is
• 0:41
  your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today
• 0:45
  is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series through the Great
• 0:50
  Controversy. Yes, our caption for today is Faithful a mid Persecution, Faithful
• 0:57
  amid Persecution. We will get into that in just a moment, but for
• 1:00
  inst I like to say welcome to you and ask you to please go over
• 1:03
  to your Daily Portion dot com. Please please go ahead and join our online
• 1:08
  community, pick up the Your Daily Portion book and let us know where you
• 1:12
  are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com. This is a way
• 1:18
  that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray,
• 1:22
  and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven. Thank you for this
• 1:26
  Tuesday morning, for the privilege you have given us to enter into another worship
• 1:30
  experience. Father, Please give us understanding and not just understanding. Help us
• 1:36
  to trust you with everything that we have, everything that we are, and
• 1:41
  then help others to do the same until Jesus comes in Jesus nay I pray
• 1:47
  Amen and a men again. Faithful amid persecution. Now, of course I
• 1:53
  wrote in my notes that we should be faithful, and we have the privilege
• 1:57
  of being faithful no matter or what happens or does not happen. May I
• 2:02
  say that just one more time. We have the privilege of being faithful,
• 2:09
  no matter what does happen or what does not happen, Faithful amid persecutions.
• 2:17
  From the Lesson writer. Throughout the early centuries of Christianity, the church grew
• 2:23
  rapidly despite here comes one imprisonment. People were imprisoned for their faith. By
• 2:30
  the way, despite torture and persecution. You remember I said that we're talking
• 2:37
  about being being faithful no matter what happens or doesn't happen, no matter if
• 2:40
  I'm being persecuted or imprisoned or tortured for my faith, or whether or not
• 2:46
  God delivers me from that earthly trial. Hmm. This is something serious,
• 2:53
  y'all. Listen. God is able to make us holy and to make us
• 2:58
  faithful no matter what happens or does not happen. But the question is are
• 3:01
  we willing, ready and available for God to do that kind of work in
• 3:07
  our lives? That's the question. Let me continue from the lesson. Faithful
• 3:10
  believers totally committed to Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed His word
• 3:16
  with power. Lives were changed, and tens of thousands were converted. And
• 3:23
  let me just say, the faith, the people of God, the community
• 3:27
  of Believers, grew rapidly. The lesson writer says despite imprisonment, torture,
• 3:34
  and persecution. And I agree. But I want to just add a little
• 3:37
  bonus layer to this. I would say that the people of God, like
• 3:40
  the community of faith, grew because of these challenges. May I say it
• 3:46
  just one more time? The fellowship of Believers grew because of the challenges.
• 3:53
  You have people at work right now, people in your home community, where
• 3:57
  you live. There are people even in your family or in your social media
• 4:01
  contacts list, who are watching you go through certain challenges in life and seeing
• 4:06
  that you have chosen to remain faithful to God, and because of God's faithfulness
• 4:13
  in your life, people are saying, you know, I want to be
• 4:16
  like this person, right, I want to be like fill in your name
• 4:20
  here, not because you're the one, but because when you are connected to
• 4:25
  God and He is able to make you like this a shining light in this
• 4:30
  wicked and perverse generation. When people see that God is able to keep you
• 4:34
  through all of this, they can't help. But to be meant, some
• 4:39
  people cannot help to be drawn to the same God who was doing that for
• 4:43
  you, because, after all, if he can do it for you,
• 4:46
  then he can do it for me. You see where we're going with this.
• 4:48
  And so the question really is will I choose? Will you choose to
• 4:55
  keep underscore underscore underscore, keep the faith? You choose to keep the faith
• 5:01
  or will you throw it away? That's the question. Will you choose to
• 5:06
  keep the faith? Now, let me tell you from the Bible some of
• 5:12
  the things that happened when people kept the faith. The Bible reads in Acts
• 5:15
  chapter two and verse forty one. So those who accepted God's message were baptized.
• 5:20
  And that day, just on one particular day, the day of Pentecost,
• 5:25
  that infamous day of Pentecost, right after Jesus went back to heaven following
• 5:31
  his resurrection. That day of Pentecost, about three thousand people were added to
• 5:35
  the people of God. Did you hear that there were three thousand people added
• 5:42
  to the Fellowship of faith in one day? Here was another one in Acts
• 5:46
  chapter four, verses four and thirty one, and the Bible reads, But
• 5:49
  many of those who had listened to the message believed, And the number of
• 5:55
  men, it just says men. You're not talking about women included. Thus
• 6:00
  men, just the males came out about five thousand, verse thirty one.
• 6:05
  When they had prayed, the place where they assembled together was shaken, and
• 6:12
  they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak the word of
• 6:17
  God courageously. You see, this is what happens when people are choosing to
• 6:25
  be unified under the power of the Holy Ghost and to keep the faith that
• 6:29
  God puts in our bosoms, no matter what does or does not happen in
• 6:31
  our lives, whether the month is longer than the money, or the money
• 6:35
  is longer than the month. Huh. Whether I am feeling well or I
• 6:40
  am sick or feeling near unto death. Yes, whatever is happening or not
• 6:46
  happening in my life. If I keep the faith, there are other people
• 6:51
  who will be encouraged to keep the faith too. There will be people who
• 6:56
  will be welcomed into the fellowship of believers because they see what God is doing
• 7:00
  in our lives. Now. Verse thirty two of Acts chapter four reads,
• 7:05
  the group of those who believed were in one heart and one mind. No
• 7:12
  one said that any of his possessions was his own. Oh wait a minute,
• 7:17
  now, the people of God, under the power of the Holy Spirit
• 7:21
  did not use mine or mine in a sentence. I need that to settle
• 7:28
  in. If you're listening on the radio, the broadcast was not cut.
• 7:30
  I am just pausing deliberately. Selah like God gave them such a power that
• 7:39
  all of their possessions were in common. But the Bible says everything was held
• 7:46
  in common. In verse forty two of Acts chapter five, the Bible reads,
• 7:53
  and every day, both in the temple courts and from house to house,
• 7:56
  they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus was the
• 8:03
  Christ. You see, this is what happens when we have the kind of
• 8:07
  faith that pleases God, like we have the kind of faith that Jesus is
• 8:11
  the author and finisher of It transforms God, excuse me, transforms us.
• 8:18
  Our faith doesn't transform us a the power of God transforms us. Faith is
• 8:22
  how we lay hold of the power of God, and so God transforms us
• 8:26
  to the degree that so many people from around the world, people may be
• 8:31
  even listening on this broadcast or watching on the television, or listening on watching
• 8:35
  on social media or YouTube stink, are starting to think, Wait a minute,
• 8:41
  are you saying that this could be me? Yes? Are you saying
• 8:43
  that this can be my life? Or I can be faithful no matter what
• 8:48
  trial I'm going through, whether I triumph or am going through tribulations, I
• 8:52
  can be faithful. Absolutely. And then I said again, just to reiterate
• 8:56
  the point that persecution at that time time the Early Church, the time of
• 9:01
  the Early Church, persecution was the seed of spiritual growth. And so spiritual
• 9:09
  persecution can act as seed and spiritual growth because it deepens our faith, it
• 9:15
  refines our character. Huh encourages reliance on God. It strengthens community bonds.
• 9:22
  It promotes witness and testimony. It fosters spiritual discipline. It clarifies our priorities.
• 9:28
  And this is how the people of God were able to continue no matter
• 9:33
  what did or did not happen in their lives. God is faithful amid persecution.
• 9:41
  Have a wonderful day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends.
• 9:46
  Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that
• 9:50
  comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with el
• 9:54
  David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah.