FBC Morning Light – May 16, 2022

Well, good Monday morning to you. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. You were able to gather with God's people yesterday, enjoyed good fellowship, and learned something from God's Word. And then in some way, it helped you to grow in your Christ-likeness and your walk with Him and so forth.

I just hope you had a good day on the Lord's Day. And it's also good to be back in my home environment for these broadcasts. I'm glad I was able to do these last week, even though I was gone at a conference and so forth.

But there's nothing like doing them in the surroundings that you're more comfortable with, just a better environment. Well, anyway, enough of that. Today, our scripture reading is in two different passages, in 2 Corinthians 8, as well as in Psalm 50.

The Danger of Religiosity Without Heart Change

I want to focus on a few of the verses in Psalm 50. You know, one of the things that's easy for us to do, even as Christians in our Christian life, and even as Christians who've been believers for quite a lengthy period of time, it's easy for us to fall into the trap of religiosity.

That is, just counting on our religion and taking great pride in our religious practices. Here's what I mean by that. It's perfectly, it is absolutely essential that we attend church together with God's people.

We were commanded to do that. But we can take great pride in our faithfulness in going to church. And we can take such pride in that, that we actually look down upon and become critical of those who aren't as faithful and consistent in attending all the services of the church as I am.

Now, certainly, many of God's people could benefit greatly if they would attend more regularly and more faithfully and take advantage of some of those different services. But there is a danger of becoming proud of your faithfulness or my faithfulness in being in God's house, every time the doors are open kind of a thing.

It's certainly a good thing to give to God's work. And doing so with a tithe is a basic starting point for that. It's a wonderful thing. We're exhorted to give to God's work and to be generous and to give as God has prospered us.

But there's also the danger of becoming quite proud in how much we give and how faithfully we give and what percentage of our total income we give. And likewise, we can become very critical and look down upon those who don't give as much as we give.

So that's a danger. And it's right, and it's right for us to be in God's word on our own, to open God's word and read it and study it and meditate on it and to be in prayer, having daily devotions. That's a very commendable thing.

It's a very helpful thing. But again, we can take great pride in how faithfully we do these things. And you know, I've read through the Bible every year for the last 15 years or something like that. Or I haven't missed a day of devotions in the last 25 years.

And again, in our pride, we can become very critical of those who aren't as faithful as we are. So don't misunderstand. I'm not in the least bit critical of any of those practices. They are good disciplines, and we ought to practice those things.

However, the flesh is tricky. The heart is deceitful. But of all things, it's desperately wicked. And it is very prone to pride and to misappropriating the value of these things and looking at those things, those practices, as that which should please God and be sufficient for God.

Thanksgiving, Vows, and Dependence in Trouble

Well, here's why I say all that. In Psalm 50, in verse 7, the Lord says to his people, here, O my people, I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. I'm going to testify against you. You're doing some things that are wrong.

I am God, your God, he says. Now, what are they doing wrong? Well, what they're not doing wrong is the religious practices. He says, I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are continually before me.

I'm not going to take a bull from your house or goats out of your folds. You're giving plenty. I have no quibble with that. Your religious practices, as far as the sacrifices and so on and so forth, they're impeccable.

You're good to go on that. But he goes on to say, in verse 14, offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

In other words, what the Lord is doing is, he's saying, you know, you've been very faithful and diligent in practicing your religion, some of these religious practices of offering sacrifices and so forth, but you've also been very negligent in developing and exhibiting a heart of gratitude.

You haven't offered me thanksgiving. You haven't been expressing gratitude to me for all that I have done for you. You've also not been faithful to your commitments. You've made vows, but you haven't kept those vows.

He says, pay your vows to the Most High. This is what the Lord is speaking against his people for. They have, in times of difficulty, perhaps, made vows to the Lord, or maybe in times of prosperity, made vows to the Lord, and they haven't followed through on those things.

And, you know, we can be prone to that, right? Get ourselves in a bind, and so we cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, if you will just get me out of this thing, if you'll deliver me from this thing, if you'll provide this thing that I need, then I will blank.

You fill in the blank. And the Lord does. The Lord does. And it comes time to pay that vow, but the storm passes, and time passes, and you kind of forget about it. But in the meantime, you're still going to church, you're still giving in the offering plate, you're having your devotions every day, but you haven't paid your vows, you see.

And then he also says, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. In other words, they have also neglected, and been suspicious of, and mismanaged, or worse, their trials, their difficulties, their troubles.

Just trying to manage things on their own, trying to solve problems on their own, come upon a crisis and a difficulty, and think, well, you know, I can handle it. That's a real tendency for us Americans, isn't it?

Us rugged individualists, you know, we come into a difficulty, and we think we can handle it. We can handle it. I see that as a pastor from time to time, when, you know, people have struggled through a need, and they never said anything about it.

They never called for help, they never asked for any help, and they just struggled, and struggled through something that they really didn't need to, if they just would have asked for help. Yeah, we can be inclined not to do that.

There's a bit of pride in that, isn't there? You know, I don't need anybody's help, I can handle this. And this is the problem that the Lord confronts his people with. He says, you face your days of trouble, but you're trying to handle them on your own.

Call upon me, I will deliver you in those times of trouble. So, in other words, the Lord, he looks at the religious practices, and he says, you're fine in the religious practices, but you're neglecting some deeper issues, and you need to correct those things.

Looking Beneath Outward Religious Practice

So, I want to encourage us today to look beneath the surface practice of our faith, at the outward things that we do, that we so often look to and take pride in. Look deeper. Do I have a heart of gratitude?

Have I been faithful to fulfilling those commitments that I've made to the Lord? Do I try to handle everything on my own, pull myself up by my own bootstraps, and neglect dependence upon the Lord? See, these are bigger issues that need to be addressed.

Well, let's have a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, I pray today that we would take stock and inventory of these other things. Deliver us from the pride of our religious practices, and help us to pay attention to deeper things, to deeper issues.

Speak to us about these things, that we may be corrected in them. And this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Monday, and I hope your week gets off to a great start.

Good day. God bless.