“Where’s the Heart?” – FBC Morning Light (7/19/2024)

Well, a good Friday morning to you, coming to the end of another week and looking forward to the Lord's Day, gathering together with God's people, hope you are looking forward to that, and that you will be greatly blessed as you gather with your church family.

Well, this is, I just thought of this this morning, this is Morning Light Devotional Stewardship Week. I've been mentioning all week the opportunity to give to help support this work of producing these daily broadcasts and making them available to anybody, anywhere, really, around the world.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, started this during COVID and have been, you know, basically producing these things ever since. Just took a brief hiatus for a few weeks last year when I went to hike the long trail, tried to, started to, but anyway, the point is that I've just been doing this, and our church family has been very generously supporting this work, providing all the resources necessary, the equipment, the streaming services, and so forth, so that these devotionals can come to you, whether you're watching on YouTube or Facebook Live, or through the church website, or sermon audio, or through the email links that you get, however you're getting to watch this.

Our church has made this possible, and it's thought for the sake of our church stewardship of resources, as well as the benefit of those who are benefiting from this ministry. It would be prudent to give the opportunity of others to help support.

So if you can do so, Lord bless you. If you can't, that's fine. This is for you, nevertheless, and you don't have to feel a tinge of guilt about it. This is a ministry that we just want to make sure continues for as long as possible.

So if you can help out with that, just follow that link in the lower left-hand corner of your screen, and go to the church website, the giving page, and click on the morning light tab, and it'll walk you through how to make a contribution.

So, Lord bless you if you can, Lord bless you if you can't. And I promise that I'll not keep harping on this all next week. I'll keep the banner up for a while, but no more appeals at the beginning of each devotional.

All right, listen, today we're reading Isaiah 29 -31. I want to focus on just a couple of verses in chapter 29, with this question to lead into it. Why do you do what you do when it comes to your religion?

Why do you go to church? Why do you give, whether it's to this ministry or to your local church? And I hope that before any other place you give to your local church. But why do you do that? Why do you read the Bible, if you read the Bible?

Why do you watch these devotionals? Why do you do what you do in relationship to your religion? You know, the grave danger with any practice of the faith is that it's just lip service routine. In other words, I'm doing what I'm doing, I'm saying what I'm saying, but my heart really isn't in it.

It's not that I have a heart for it, I just feel like I have to do it. It's expected of me to do it. I go through the motions because I think God will be impressed if I do so. All of those are grave errors of thinking.

And this comes out in our reading today in chapter 29, verse 13, where the Lord says, Inasmuch as these people draw near me with their mouths and honor me with their lips. Okay, look, they're drawing near to the Lord.

They're going to the sacrifices. They're going and participating in the religious festivals. They're drawing near to the Lord. They're honoring me with their lips. They're honoring the Lord. They're saying that our God is the only God.

He is over all. He is exalted, etc., etc., etc. They're honoring me with their lips. But, here's the but, right? They have removed their hearts far from me. They've removed their hearts far from me. They're going through the motions.

They're giving lip service. But the heart isn't really in it. The heart is elsewhere. The heart is consumed with other loves and other desires and other ambitions and other thoughts. And this, I think, is a modern danger as well.

I think of maybe too many people who just go to church every week, just about every week, and make a contribution and think they're good and think God is pleased and God is impressed with that. But is he?

Is he? To these people, the Lord says, Behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder. And you might say, wow, okay, God must be impressed. He's going to do some great, marvelous, miraculous work.

But not every marvelous wonder of a work is one that is desirable and delightful. Because listen to what he goes on to say. He says, In other words, what the Lord is saying is, this is the marvelous work I'm going to do.

I'm going to remove the wise and the prudent from them. In other words, the Lord is saying, I'm going to bring judgment on these people. I'm going to bring chastening and punishment. So let this be an encouragement to us that, yes, practice the spiritual disciplines, read your Bible, pray, go to church, give to the local church, give to the work of the ministry, and memorize Scripture, witness to others.

But yes, yes, practice the spiritual disciplines. But always monitor the heart. Always monitor the heart with the question, why am I doing this? Is it because I love the Lord? Am I expressing my love for him through these activities?

I trust that that is the case. And I want that to be the case in my life. And I want it to be the case in your life as well. I want to be involved in these things so that, by God's grace, I might grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he might truly be exalted and joy in his people.

Well, our Father and our God, I pray that, indeed, our hearts in all of our expressions of faith and trust in you and work for you and so forth, our hearts would truly be in it. We would do so because we love you.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, listen, have a great rest of your Friday, a wonderful weekend. Do get together with God's people and worship the Lord together on the Lord's Day because you love him.

May it come from your heart. God bless.