FBC Daily Devotional – June 24, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Hey, good Thursday to you. How's your week going thus far? Got three -fifths of your work days done?

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I'm gathering, for most of us anyway. We work those five -day weeks. Hope your week's going well, and you're getting a lot accomplished.

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Seeing some fruit for your labors, I trust, in the week so far. But here we are on Thursday, and read a relatively short passage today in the

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Gospel of Luke, chapter 8. Just, what, about 17, 18 verses? And in those verses, the

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Lord says something that may be a bit enigmatic. Here's what

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I mean. He says in verse 16, No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.

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Now, that's a logical thing. You know, I have right now in my study here, as I'm doing this recording,

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I have a couple of lights to help me see better and so forth, and, you know, I don't turn the lights on and then cover them up.

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I turn the lights on so that I can see what I'm doing, and so, you know, that you can actually see what's going on in this recording.

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So, you know, light's sort of a purpose of revealing. So then he goes on to say, in verse 17,

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Nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.

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Now, I think sometimes that verse is taken out of context, and it's applied in a way to kind of, you know, trick our consciences and make us feel guilty because of, you know, secret thoughts or whatever that may go on in our lives, and it's kind of like, you know what?

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God's gonna let everybody know what that is, all that secret stuff that goes on in your heart and mind.

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That's really not what he's saying here. That's not what he's getting at. If you look at the context, Jesus has just told the parable of the seed and the soils, and then he has explained that parable to his disciples, and then he says that nothing is secret that will not be made known, and what he's talking about is what he just did.

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The truth that Jesus just communicated in that parable had been, shall we say, hidden.

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People didn't know that truth. It was one of the secret things of the Lord that is now being made known.

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So he says there's nothing of God's revealed truth that is going to remain hidden.

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It's going to be a secret. It's going to be made known. The problem is, and this is where he goes from here in verse 18, he says, take heed how you hear, for whoever has to him more will be given, and whoever does not have even what he seems to have will be taken from him.

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So the key, Jesus says, is that when this which is secret is made known, then you need to pay attention how you're hearing.

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Because if you don't pay attention, then that which you have just received is going to be taken away from you. You're going to lose it.

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It's not going to stick with you. And so what I want to zero in on is this statement at the beginning of verse 18 where he says, take heed how you hear.

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Take heed how you hear. So here's the thing. Every time that you and I hear the word, either as it's taught in a

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Bible study time or preached from the pulpit, or I hear the word in the reading of the scriptures and I'm paying attention to it, every time

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I hear the word, I need to pay attention how I'm hearing. Am I hearing the word with a sincere desire to understand?

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Or am I hearing it passively? I'm, you know, like I find myself in the church service and, you know, part of the church service is the guy gets up there behind that desk and he talks for, in our church in our case, 40 minutes or so, and he just talks and and yeah, you know,

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I hear what he has to say, but but do I pay attention to how I hear? See, am

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I listening with a sincere desire to understand? Am I hearing with an implicit understanding that what is being said of the

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Word of God is true? Am I listening with a heart of surrender and submission to that word so that even if even if I hear something that I don't like,

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I accept it anyway. If I hear something that steps on my toes, I say ouch and thank you, and I respond in a way that I need to.

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Repentance or change of heart or whatever. Do I listen? Am I hearing with a absolute readiness to change?

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Am I hearing with a humble spirit, with a humble heart, with a teachable spirit?

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See, I need to pay attention to how I hear. Not only to hear itself, but how am

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I hearing, you see? Jesus says take heed how you hear.

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Because if you don't, then what goes in one ear is just going to come right out the other. It's going to be gone.

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It's going to be like the birds come and take it up from the hard soil. It's going to be like the the weeds that crowded out and choked out the the good stuff that you've been hearing.

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Take heed how you hear. Take heed how you hear. And furthermore, interestingly, the next thing that happens is

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Jesus has some relatives that show up and they want to take him away from his teaching ministry because he's been working too hard.

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They're very concerned about it, but they can't get to Jesus. And so a message comes and says to Jesus, your mother and your brothers are outside and Jesus responds this way, who are my mothers?

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Who is my mother and my brothers? Who are they? And then he, you can see him, wave his hand to those who are sitting in front of him who are listening, who are really hearing him.

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And he says this, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word and do it.

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They take care how they hear and they respond with obedience. They hear the word and do it.

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So my friend, let's pay attention to how we're hearing the word every time we're confronted with it.

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Shall we not? Father in heaven, give us ears to hear, give us hearts to receive, give us minds to understand, give us a will to obey.

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This we pray in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your