09 06 2026 The Example of Jesus

0:00Most of us eat every day, who some of us too much, because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then? Do some of us expect yesterday's portion of Heavenly Manna, the Word of God, to keep us through today's challenges? On this program, we are going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your daily portion with your host, author speaker, L. David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is Sunday the sixth day of September, 2026. Hello, my name is L. David Harris. I am your host and this is your daily portion where we give you God's Word every single day and today is no exception. We are continuing this new weekend, our lesson study series in first and second Corinthians. And our caption for today is the example of Jesus, the example of Jesus.

1:01Before we get into that, I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you to please go over to your daily portion.com. Will you please, please join our online community? Also go ahead and click the button right down at the bottom of this part of the page. Under stop guessing what to do with your life. Discover God's design for your life. If you've been wondering like God, what do you want me to do? How like I see so many gifted people around me and I don't just, I really just don't know what to do. Could you, could you show me? And now this will be an answer to prayer. I promise you for for many of you. Okay, so go ahead and click that button and if you are so inclined also, please contribute to your daily portion ministries because we are a listener and viewer supported ministry. Let's go ahead and pray. And jump in here and get underway. Father, we thank you for giving us the perfect example of Jesus. Please help us to live like him in Jesus name I pray. Amen. And amen again.

2:03So it's likely that some people may have like gotten like sort of mental indigestion when I ask God to help us to live like Jesus because it's like, well, I'm only human. That's the thing that comes into a lot of people's minds. Like I could never be like Jesus and do you tell yourselves that which is why so many times in Bible classes and all kinds of other interactions among the faith fellowship. People are are always saying negative things about us as human beings rather than believing God. He said that we are to be holy for the Lord our God is holy and perfect. That's what the text says and they're multiple of those passages. Okay. So God is welcoming us to be like Jesus. Now let me say how I understood it finally. It clicked in my mind many years ago when as a new elder an elder came to me and he said day, listen, listen, before we are are renewed or transformed or born again, whichever

3:09word you want to use here before we are born again, Jesus is our savior. Okay. Jesus is our savior, David. I'm like, okay. Jesus is my savior. That's what the Bible says. He's my savior. He's the savior of the world. Perfect. Okay. Good. But after we are born again, he becomes our savior and our example. You see, before a human being is born again, that human being literally cannot do what God says. And so we surrender our will to God and that begins that beautiful process of renewing the world that puts us in a position where we can do whatever God says. If he says turn left, we now have the power to turn left. If he says turn right or stand still, we have the power to do that. See, he said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Guess what? He's not talking about just a response. He's saying that once his love is inside of us, he's living in us, then we are empowered

4:14by his love. We love him because he is the kind of person who is the one who is the one who is the cause of our ability to love him. Okay. So, so if we love him, he is promising us that he in our lives will keep his commandments. Through our lives, Jesus will live the life that he lived when he was on planet Earth. Let me say it another way, the same elder. He said, Dave, listen, listen, listen, listen. The same way, the same success that Jesus had from his birth until his death. We can have from our new birth until our death. I must say it one more time, the same spiritual success, the same connection with God, the same way that Jesus lived from his birth until his death. We can have from our rebirth, our new birth until we die. And I know people are like, but we make mistakes. We only make mistakes after the new birth because we choose that path.

5:14We don't have to. Not anymore. We don't have to. We're saying that we can't make mistakes. I'm saying that we don't have to make mistakes. I wish I had the time to really drill this. So what God is saying is my little children, these things right, I unto you, that ye sin not. That's what John said under the Holy Ghost. And if any one of you talking about the people who are new born, like who are new creatures in Christ, not the people who don't have that new birth experience. And if it doesn't say when, it doesn't say because you have to, he said, if any person sins, you have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's talking about specifically in that context, people who are renewed do not have to continue down that path of unrighteousness because we have a new seed living in our lives. Okay. And so let me go on now to our first lesson.

6:14I felt like a first lesson, but we're going into second Corinthians chapter eight and verse nine. Somebody's just getting what I said. You can rewind this if you're on the internet on YouTube, yep, or a podcast. Okay. So the Bible reads for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich for our sakes, he became poor that through his poverty, you can become rich. Well, what does that mean? He's using a word that sounds like plu seals. And that means abundantly wealthy possessing everything. Paul opens up this part of his letter with the richness of Christ in his careful here pre-existent glory. So before he took on his human body, eternal Jesus Christ, huh? The second one of the Godhead, the one who created you, hmm?

7:18He had everything in his glory, the one who spoke worlds into existence, the one who was worshipped by angels who shared the throne of the universe as you can see in Revelation chapters four and five. What a beautiful scene there. I wish I had the time. But then shows what he voluntarily, he voluntarily yielded for the sake of sinners. Let this mind, the Bible says being you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He didn't see the fact that he was all of that as a way to put an impediment or a block between him and you. He didn't see that and say, I need to stay like that. So I'ma let those people down there die in their sins. No, he did not. And so the teaching here is that the incarnation, that is when Jesus took on human form in order to save us from our sins, was the greatest act of financial sacrifice in the universe.

8:22I know what I just said, Jesus divested himself of infinite wealth in those moments. For 33 and a half years, he was dependent upon his father, just like you have to be dependent upon the father and through the Holy Ghost, huh? In the ministry of angels through those moments of 33 and a half years of the glory. He was, he was not in the glory. He begged his father. He was like, listen, when, when this is all said and done, father, I've done what you have said. And I have not lost any. Could you please just restore me to the way things were? Can you restore me to that former glory? And the worship, he divested himself in those moments of the worship that he had throughout the ages in the past. The prerogatives in the way that he acted on planet earth as divin. He did not, he did not use any of those divine prerogatives to make his life easier down here. Let me just say it that way. And he took on poverty of a borrowed manger, a borrowed boat, a borrowed tomb, every offering

9:26the believer gives is a small, it's just like that are a small version of that immeasurable gift. God. So Jesus is now our example. You see how he was giving this equal sacrifice, not equal giving. Come on, y'all. Let's do it. Thanks for joining us, listening friends. Always remember, we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with Ella David Harris. Make it a great day.