Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 24 2025 The Dangers of Idolatry

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12 24 2025 The Dangers of Idolatry · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
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  Speaker 1: much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
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  Speaker 1: for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
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  Speaker 1: yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  Speaker 1: keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
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  Speaker 1: going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
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  Speaker 1: today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
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  Speaker 1: vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
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  Speaker 1: author speaker, Elle David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Wednesday, December
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  Speaker 2: twenty four, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
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  Speaker 2: David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
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  Speaker 2: Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day,
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  Speaker 2: and today is no exception. We are continuing in our
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  Speaker 2: lesson study series Lessons of Faith from Joshua. We just
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  Speaker 2: have a couple more days left, but our caption for
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  Speaker 2: today is the Dangers of the Dangers of Idolatry. Before
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  Speaker 2: we get into that, I'd like to say welcome to
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  Speaker 2: everyone joining us, especially those joining us for the very
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  Speaker 2: first time. I'm asking you to please go over to
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  Speaker 2: your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community
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  Speaker 2: pick up your Daily Portion Life Application guide for Q
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  Speaker 2: one twenty twenty six. We're going into Philippians and Colossians
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  Speaker 2: and hopefully you've already gotten that. You can either download
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  Speaker 2: it or of course, you can get the physical copy
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  Speaker 2: at your Daily Portion dot com. This is one of
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  Speaker 2: the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
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  Speaker 2: Let's pray, Father, we thank you for giving us the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to study and serve. Please help us to live
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  Speaker 2: according to your principles. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen
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  Speaker 2: and Amen again. Let me ask you. I know those
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  Speaker 2: of you on the rate won't be able to respond
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  Speaker 2: unless you go over to the YouTube channel for your
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  Speaker 2: Daily Portion, but just hold that until you can have
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity to do that. What is the problem with idolatry?
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  Speaker 1: Really?
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  Speaker 2: What is the problem with that? And I mean putting
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  Speaker 2: anything above God. It may be that some people actually
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  Speaker 2: bow to images or something like that, and there are
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  Speaker 2: others who simply replace God like put things and people
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  Speaker 2: over God in our lives. What is the problem with that? Now,
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  Speaker 2: let me just say very quickly, I want to oversimplify.
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  Speaker 2: If we idolize anything or anyone and we put them
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  Speaker 2: above God, then that means we're saying we don't need
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  Speaker 2: God and we're not responsible to the creator who created us.
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  Speaker 2: We're not responsible. This is what we're saying. We're saying
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  Speaker 2: that we're not responsible to the one who gave every
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  Speaker 2: thing so we could be recreated and made holy. So
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  Speaker 2: really we're disrespecting the relationship that God intended for us
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  Speaker 2: to have from before there was a beginning. He created
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  Speaker 2: us for a relationship with him, and we're really just
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  Speaker 2: turning our backs. If God forbid we put anything above him,
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  Speaker 2: then we're turning our backs on him and saying you
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  Speaker 2: do not matter. And I don't even want to say, like,
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  Speaker 2: I don't even want to call his name now because
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  Speaker 2: it sounds like I'm saying that. But that's what we're saying,
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  Speaker 2: and so I'm oversimplifying, But that is what comes to
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  Speaker 2: mind immediately. Okay, And so let's go to Signs of
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  Speaker 2: the Times article from eighteen eighty eight E. J. Wagoner,
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  Speaker 2: Idols of the heart are the hardest to detect. So
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  Speaker 2: you notice he's not even messing around with the ones
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  Speaker 2: that we can physically see, Like Mullick, you feel me,
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  Speaker 2: like bayl ASTROI you know what I mean? Like He's
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  Speaker 2: saying that the ones that are in our minds are
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  Speaker 2: the hardest to detect. Yet this is the good news.
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  Speaker 2: The grace of Christ alone can dislodge them and restore
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  Speaker 2: the soul to loyalty. Idols of the heart are the
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  Speaker 2: hardest to detect, and yet the grace of Christ alone
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  Speaker 2: can dislodge them and restore the soul to loyalty. All
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  Speaker 2: right from the Booksteps to Christ, page forty nine, God
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  Speaker 2: does not ask us to overcome in our own strength.
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  Speaker 2: He calls us to put away sin, and then he
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  Speaker 2: promises us the power to obey. This is the end
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  Speaker 2: of the quote. Have you ever heard his biddings or
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  Speaker 2: enablings whenever he bids us to come, whenever he commands
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  Speaker 2: or asks us to do anything within the command within
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  Speaker 2: him reasoning with us the power to actually do what
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  Speaker 2: he said. You understand. So when he asked or bade
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  Speaker 2: Peter come onto the water and walk with him on
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  Speaker 2: the water, which is impossible according to the laws of nature.
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  Speaker 2: When he bade him come in the bidding was the enablement,
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  Speaker 2: if that's the right word, for Peter to actually defy
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  Speaker 2: the laws of nature because he had the power of
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  Speaker 2: God in him. So we have in God's biddings and
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  Speaker 2: his enablement, his enablings, we have the ability to defy
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  Speaker 2: the laws of our broken human nature and to assume
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  Speaker 2: the nature that God gives us through the Holy Ghost.
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  Speaker 2: And so our lesson number one for today is that
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  Speaker 2: idle survive when we refuse to confront them. This is
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  Speaker 2: what it says in the Book of Joshua, chapter twenty
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  Speaker 2: four and verse twenty three. Now, therefore, put away, say
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  Speaker 2: he the strange gods which are among you, and incline
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  Speaker 2: your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. So Joshua
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  Speaker 2: had to repeat the same command Moses gave because the
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  Speaker 2: danger was not theoretical. Idols were already among them. The
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  Speaker 2: Hebrew word for incline natah natah, meaning to bend, to
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  Speaker 2: stretch toward, or to direct oneself. That's what that means.
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  Speaker 2: Like that that being a person who is inclining toward that.
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  Speaker 2: God's people needed to bend their desires toward God, because
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  Speaker 2: the human heart not naturally bends away from God. Idols
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  Speaker 2: persist when they are tolerated. They lose power only when
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  Speaker 2: confronted and removed. And so the action step is for
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  Speaker 2: you to name your idol. Don't type it in the chat.
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  Speaker 2: It's none of our business. Name your idol that may
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  Speaker 2: be that is competing with your loyalty to God today.
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  Speaker 2: Now listen, maybe you have put away your idols. I'm
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  Speaker 2: not going to say that everybody has an idol. I
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  Speaker 2: really don't like the way that sometimes Christianese speaking people
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  Speaker 2: say that, like they make it seem as if everybody
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  Speaker 2: is still bound, like they are literally people who are
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  Speaker 2: yielding our will to God, like Enoch did yielding our
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  Speaker 2: will to God, like Elisha yielding our will to God,
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  Speaker 2: like Abigail demonstrated, like Hulda Anna. How the Bible shows
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  Speaker 2: us that who is the person that I really really like?
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  Speaker 2: How Job yielded his will to God, How Joseph yielded
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  Speaker 2: his will to God. So I'm not going to give
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  Speaker 2: you a complex, But if in fact there is still
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  Speaker 2: something competing that, I want you to write it down,
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  Speaker 2: name it, and then confess to God and ask him
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  Speaker 2: to bend your heart toward him. Our lesson number two
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  Speaker 2: is obedience is relationship. Obedience is really relationship. And from
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  Speaker 2: the next verse Joshua, chapter twenty four and verse twenty four,
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  Speaker 2: it reads, and the people said unto Joshua, the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: our God, will we serve and his voice will we obey?
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  Speaker 2: And we talked about this the other day, where you know,
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  Speaker 2: God's people, even in this generation, made high profession. But
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  Speaker 2: Joshua was like, listen, the people back in the day
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  Speaker 2: said the same thing. Your parents said the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: But what we need to do is solidify a relationship
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  Speaker 2: with God. So God's people's answer in this case, it
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  Speaker 2: shows the heart of true obedience. Covenant was never about
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  Speaker 2: rule keeping. It never was. The phrase we will listen
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  Speaker 2: to his voice reveals their relationship and Hebrew thought listening
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  Speaker 2: and obeying are one action. I told you that for
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  Speaker 2: many years that we've been together, Shamah, to hear, to hear,
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  Speaker 2: and to do are the same thing. The heart inclines
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  Speaker 2: toward the one it loves. Obedience that flows only from
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  Speaker 2: fear never lasts. Obedience that flows from relationship in yours.
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  Speaker 2: So just ask God, really, Lord, can you help me
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  Speaker 2: to live my profession? Make it a great day? Peace?
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot
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  Speaker 1: live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
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  Speaker 1: from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
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  Speaker 1: portion with el David Harris, make it a great day. Yeah,