FBC Daily Devotional – December 1, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, happy December, first day of December, and off we go to the final month of the year.

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I hope your Wednesday has started off well for you. We've been able to get into God's Word yet today, and perhaps read the passage in our

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Bible reading plan, this two -year Bible reading plan. We're actually coming up on the end of the first year of that.

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So, January, we'll be heading into the second half of that two -year

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Bible reading plan. And today, we're in Acts chapter 10 again. It's really the completion of the story of Peter ending up being called to go to visit

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Cornelius the Gentile, you remember. And there is a, as Peter enters

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Cornelius's house, there's an incident that happens here that I think would be very, very helpful for a lot of a lot of individuals in the ministry to to take in and really let them take it to heart.

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So, Peter follows these, this delegation that's come to get him and bring him to Cornelius's house.

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He follows them, he gets to Cornelius's house. We read in verse 24, it took him a day to travel to Caesarea from where he was.

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It says they followed the next day, they got to Caesarea, and Cornelius was waiting for them.

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And he had called together his relatives and close friends. So, he really wanted to hear what is this Peter going to say?

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And he must have some really great message, and he must be somebody really, really special that God would have me call that man.

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So, he has a great deal of respect for Peter, and he's really elevated him.

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Cornelius's house has really elevated Peter in his mind and in his heart. So, it says as Peter was coming in,

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Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. Now, that's pretty heady stuff if you're

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Peter. To have this guy, you know, fall down at your feet and worship you, like, wow, you know, man,

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I mean, I know I'm somebody then, you know. I've got people falling at my feet and worshiping me. And that can really go to the head.

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And I think there is something of that, that can happen, and it has happened in the church, broadly speaking, where there is a sort of Christian celebrityism with certain speakers, certain preachers.

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So, I mean, I go to conferences as a pastor, and I kind of observe and see how people respond to different preachers and pastors and speakers.

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And sometimes I get a little, I get a little uncomfortable with the, you know, the attitudes that are expressed.

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I remember one time going to a conference where the speaker was introduced with this glowing introduction, and he got up to speak.

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When he came to the platform, all kinds of people in the congregation, the audience, they started to applause.

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And, again, that's heady stuff. So, the speaker got up to the podium, and as soon as the applause died down, he said something to the effect,

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Please, please don't ever do that again. I'm just a man.

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I'm just a servant of the Lord. I'm just, I'm just called to give this message today.

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Please, you don't, don't, don't applaud me. I know you mean well. I know it's a way, a means of expressing gratitude, but, but please don't applaud.

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Just a man. And I thought, wow, that's, that's good.

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That's good. I appreciated that, because I've been to other places and conferences and, and people have, you know, really spoken of certain speakers in a way that I think has given them the big head, the speaker, you know, that can kind of come across in their speaking and their attitudes and so forth.

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But, anyhow, I appreciate Peter's response, and Peter gives us some insight in how to handle the cult of celebrityism.

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Cornelius bows down at Peter's feet and begins to worship him, and Peter responds, in verse 26, it says,

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Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up. I myself am also a man. I'm just,

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I'm just a man. Don't worship me. I'm just a man. Yes, as are we all.

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Just a man. Doesn't matter how many people listen to a guy's radio broadcast or television broadcast.

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Doesn't matter how big his mailing list is on his ministry, his ministry thing.

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Doesn't matter how many hits he gets on his website. And how many conferences, doesn't matter how many conferences he gets invited to and so forth.

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How many people are members of his church. That's no justification for getting the big head and think

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I'm deserving of the worship, of the adoration, of the applause. We have seen far too many preachers in the last generation that have gotten that big head and been worshiped and held up like they're model preachers, they're model pastors or whatever.

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And they got the big head and then they crashed and burned and showed they're just men.

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They're just men. So for those of us who are never going to be celebrities, we need to be careful that we don't worship other men.

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We can appreciate their ministry. We can thank God for their ministry and express that appreciation and that's all well and good.

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But we must not, we must not elevate them to some position that's above everybody else as if there's something, there's somebody great.

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They're just men, just like the rest of us. So let's bear that in mind. So our

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Father we do thank you today for this this challenge in humility. Thank you for Peter's display of humility.

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What a good example it is for anyone who might be in a position of being applauded and exalted in an unworthy, unnecessary way.

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And I pray that that heart of humility that Peter demonstrated would be the heart that we all have.

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And I pray that we would be careful. We would be careful not to contribute to this cult of celebrityism that permeates our day.

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And I pray that you would bless those who minister the word faithfully and keep all of us, keep all of us humble, recognizing that we're just clay pots.

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We're just people, like anybody else. So Lord, I pray that we would all keep the proper perspective on who we are and who those are who minister your word.

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And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, I hope