FBC Daily Devotional – September 8, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Wednesday to you. Hope your week is going well. Shorter week this week, right?

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Monday off, so this is your second day back at work, most likely, at least for most people.

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So anyway, hope your day has started well. Did you start in the Word? If so, perhaps you're following the reading schedule and read in John chapter 4.

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And what struck me in this reading today is that, you know, we can, we can often get so caught up in the, shall we say, the mechanics of worship that we end up really not worshiping.

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What I mean by that is get caught up in the, in the mechanics of place, you know, where we worship.

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And even, you know, like at our church, you know, we, we gather together in the auditorium and that's our place of worship.

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And some people can feel like, well, you know, if we're not in that room, then, you know, we can't really worship so well, like we can't worship so well outside or we can't worship so well in the fellowship hall.

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So we can get caught up in that kind of thing. Or the time, you know, like it has to be

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Sunday morning at 1030, can't be 930. It can't be noon or three o 'clock in the afternoon.

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And in a particular order, you know, like we have to have Sunday school before the morning worship and so forth.

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You know, we get so caught up in those kinds of things. And the various elements of worship.

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Now, I, you know, I hold to basically the, what's called the regulative principle of worship.

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That is we, what, what God prescribes for worship is what we incorporate in our worship.

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Things elements such as by the reading of scripture, praying, singing as a congregation, singing and the preaching of the word.

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Those are the basic elements of, of worship, but we can get so caught up in those elements that they have to be done just right in the right order, in the right way, by the right people and so on and so forth.

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So what I'm getting at is we get, we get so focused on the, the mechanics of worship that we end up not really worshiping at all.

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And I'm getting that from John four where, you know, Jesus is dealing with this woman at the well and clearly she's concerned about the mechanics of worship.

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It's on her mind anyway. I don't know how much she's really much of a worshiper when you consider how

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Jesus confronts her with her lifestyle. But nevertheless, in the course of that conversation, she finally figures out, you know,

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Jesus isn't just a, just a Jewish man who's talking to her says, I think you must be a, you must be a prophet.

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Then she says, you know, your fathers say we're to worship in Jerusalem and our fathers say here.

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So, you know, who's right, who's right. And Jesus finally says to her in verse 23, the hour is coming.

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And now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such to worship him.

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God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

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So here's the thing, the whole time while I am worshiping,

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I can do so out of a sense of routine. I can do so with sort of a critical eye as far as the components or the mechanics of worship.

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I can be, I can be doing all of that without really being, being engaged with my heart and my mind in what's going on in my role in worshiping the

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Lord. And the net result is I may go through all the mechanics just so I may cross all the

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T's and dot all the I's. But if my heart and my mind are not engaged, if I'm not worshiping in spirit and in truth, then, you know,

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God's not really being worshiped and he's not really pleased with that kind of worship.

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So you know, it's a few days until we go back to church and gather together again.

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Let's be sure that what's most important to us is the worshiping in spirit and in truth as we go through the various mechanics of worship.

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Not be so concerned with, consumed with those mechanics themselves.

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All right. Well, Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us to be worshippers that please you with how we worship.

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Worship that comes from our heart and comes from the spirit and worship that is consistent with your truth.

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I pray that these would be our concerns. We ask it in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. All right.