FBC Daily Devotional – December 14, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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What is this? December 14th, I think it is, so, wow, we're just a week and a half away from Christmas.

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Well, I got a couple more devotionals that I want to share related to our spiritual health, and then start focusing on some

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Christmas -related devotionals and turn our attention toward our celebration of Christ's birth.

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But here we are, starting a new week, and I hope your week's getting off to a good start. I had a good day, a good

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Lord's Day yesterday. I don't know if you were able to get to church and worship with God's people in person, or had to settle for the online experience, but whatever the case,

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I hope the Lord spoke to you and met with you as you endeavored to meet with him on the

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Lord's Day. Well, as I said, last week we talked about being concerned about our spiritual health as much as we are, if not more so, than we are about our physical health.

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There's a lot of focus on being concerned about our physical health these days with COVID and the impact of the virus in our area and so on and so forth.

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This was all stimulated by an article I read in the paper last Tuesday that included a series of things to do, sort of like precautions, to slow the spread of COVID -19.

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And some of these were just really common sense things, things you would do any time there's a flu, a big flu outbreak, like staying away from people who are sick.

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It's kind of a no -brainer. You're keeping your hands washed and things of that nature, covering your mouth, your nose when you sneeze or you cough, use a

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Kleenex, throw the thing in the trash, avoid touching your mouth, your nose, your eyes, and so on.

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Those are just really common sense things. A couple other additional things added because of COVID, the encouragement to just stay home and not go anywhere unless you absolutely have to, even if you're not experiencing symptoms, and practicing the social distancing thing, don't get any closer than six feet from it to anybody.

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Well, if you notice anything that's missing in that list, how about those preventive steps that you and I can take to help promote a healthy immune system?

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I mean, it's one thing to try to keep the virus away from us and wash it off and all that kind of stuff, but what if some viral germ gets into your body?

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You need to have a healthy immune system to be able to deal with that. And God has powerfully and miraculously built our bodies with this incredible immune system that is designed to attack diseases.

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But that immune system has to be healthy. And one of the things that really kind of frustrates me is in all of the emphasis in the last six months over trying to keep from getting

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COVID, there's been very little, very little said about having a healthy immune system and having just a healthy lifestyle, getting enough exercise, watching your diet, making sure you have a nutritious diet and things of that nature.

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They say some of the comorbidities, if you will, of COVID are obesity and things associated with that.

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So what about those things? Shouldn't we be doing something about that? And supplements, vitamins and supplements.

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I heard even Dr. Fauci of all people came out and said, you need to be taking some dietary supplements, like take extra vitamin

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C, take some vitamin D, take some zinc, and that will help to boost your immune system.

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Well, okay, all those things are well and good concerning your physical health. But remember, when

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John wrote to his friend in 3 John verse 2, he said, I'm praying that things will go well for you, you'll be prosperous, and you'll be in good health, even as your soul prospers, even as things go well with your soul.

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So there is a corollary there. There's a parallel that John makes between a healthy spiritual life and a healthy physical life.

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He doesn't get that out of balance. He doesn't say, I'm not concerned about your spiritual vitality. I just want you to be healthy physically.

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No, he says, I want you to be spiritually healthy and as spiritually healthy as you are, I'd love to see you be physically healthy as well.

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So how about our spiritual health? How concerned are we about that? What are we doing about that?

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Are we taking any vitamins? Are we taking any preventive steps to help boost our spiritual immune system so that we can better fight off the infectious diseases of sin?

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Well, what I'm thinking of here in particular are a few specific things that are mentioned in the scriptures that can be helpful to boost our immune system.

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One of those things is church. Now, you say, well, you're a pastor.

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Of course you're going to say that. It's kind of self -aggrandizing, isn't it? And self -promoting because you just want to get people to church.

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Well, I do want people to go to church, but I don't want them to go to church because of me. I want people to go to church because of the people because it's helpful.

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It's healthful for people to go to church. Now, again, there's this underlying assumption that if you're going to have spiritual vitality, you actually have to have spiritual life.

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Not everybody does. Oh, I know. In the world in which we live, everybody is spiritual.

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I'm talking about the new birth. You're a new creation created in Christ Jesus.

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And that's actually one of the verses we're going to look at in just a minute. Have you been newly created?

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Have you been born from above? Is there new life because of the work of Christ in your life?

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Have you been converted? Have you come to Christ? If so, then there is that spiritual life.

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Is it healthy? Is that spiritual life healthy? Church can actually help with your spiritual vitality.

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We know that because of what the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 10, verses 24 and 25.

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He said this, he said, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

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You notice how he's putting that in the context of a congregation, of a company of people, a community of people.

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Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Those are positive prescriptions to help ward off the diseases and destructiveness of sin.

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He goes on to say, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some is, but encouraging one another.

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And then he adds this, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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So here we are 2 ,000 years after the writer of Hebrews wrote what he wrote. The day is drawing near.

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It's nearer today than it was yesterday. And with the drawing near of the day, that is the end time when the

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Lord will return, we need to be encouraging one another. And we can't do that if we're neglecting the church.

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We need to meet together as God's people. Meeting together as God's people is a way of encouraging one another.

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It's a way that we can consider one another to stir up to love and good works. That is a good vitamin, good dose of a vitamin to help us with our spiritual immune system.

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But there's another, not only the church, but the church insofar as it is consistent with and in symphony with the word, proclaiming and teaching the word.

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And here's why. Psalm 119 verses 9 to 11 say, how can a young man keep his way pure?

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By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart, he says,

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I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

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So a second spiritual vitamin, if you will, that can help your immune system is the word of God.

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Storing it up, making much of it. I encourage this often in these devotionals to spend some time every day in God's word.

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And even if you don't memorize, actively memorize the scriptures, it's helpful.

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It's a good thing to do. But even if you don't, spending time daily in the word, it takes that word into your heart and it'll lodge there and it'll be helpful for your spiritual vitality to keep you healthy.

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And then a third vitamin that you can take would be vitamin P for prayer.

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So you've got vitamin C for church, vitamin W for the word, and then vitamin

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P for prayer. And I get that from Ephesians 6 verse 18, where that verse is the last in a series of verses where Paul is talking about the armor of the

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Christian to fight against the onslaught of the wicked one in their spiritual warfare against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and the wiles of the devil.

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And the last thing he mentions in that list is prayer. He says, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

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So that is a key component in our armory of spiritual warfare to ward off, to fight against the wiles of the devil and his emissaries who would tear us down, who would destroy us, who would infect us with spiritual disease.

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So let me encourage you, take these vitamins, take them regularly, take them consistently.

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You know, I do take supplements and vitamins and I'm on a regimen of taking them every day.

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You know what doesn't do any good to take a vitamin when you feel like it or when you think about it.

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It needs to become a routine, it needs to become part of your everyday life. Well, these things need to be a part of your routine.

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Church, vitamin C, the Word, vitamin W, and prayer, vitamin

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P. Take these vitamins to boost your spiritual immune system.

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Let's pray together and ask the Lord to help us stay healthy. Our Father and our

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God, I pray today that you would encourage us through your Word to be a people who love the church, to be a people who love your

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Word, to be a people who pray. May we take these spiritual vitamins to help us stay spiritually healthy.

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Yes, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well have a good rest of your