FBC Daily Devotional – July 1, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:06

Well, happy July. Welcome to the month of July, the first day of a new month, and we are officially halfway through the year 2021, and thank the

00:19

Lord for all He's done this year and how He's provided and met our needs and shown

00:25

His faithfulness new each day. We can look forward to the latter half of the year and see how the

00:31

Lord will prove Himself faithful in these months ahead. So off we go into this new month.

00:37

I hope it goes well for you. Where do we learn how to worship the

00:45

Lord? What should guide our worship practices?

00:53

That's an important question, actually, because in the church world, and of course, it's the world in which

01:01

I live, in the last couple of decades, I would say maybe three or four decades at the most, there has been this, we call it the church growth movement, and in that church growth movement, there have been some gurus who have encouraged an idea that essentially says this, if you want to build a growing concern as a church, you want to build a growing church, then what you need to do is you need to kind of survey your community and find out what they want, what they like, find out the style of music, the dominant style of music in your community, and find out what kind of art stuff do they enjoy, and so on and so forth.

01:52

And then what you'll want to do is you'll want to accommodate your worship to those preferences of your community, and so there have been churches that have built their whole ministry around that very philosophy.

02:09

Well, there are two different perspectives on what's allowable in the worship of God.

02:19

One of the views is called the regulative principle of worship, and the other view,

02:26

I can't remember the official title of it, but it takes a different perspective. The regulative principle of worship basically says this, that true worship incorporates only what

02:40

God has commanded. False worship incorporates things that he has not commanded.

02:48

Others who don't accept that view, they say this, they say that true worship is whatever

02:55

God commands plus anything that we want that he doesn't expressly forbid, and false worship only includes things that he expressly prohibits.

03:08

Do you see the difference there? Now the reason I bring all that up is because of the passage we read in Deuteronomy 18, if you're following the

03:17

Bible reading plan, because in verse 9 and following, God takes up this very issue about the worship of his people, and he says in verse 9, and of course this is

03:29

Deuteronomy, now remember the book of Deuteronomy was written by Moses and the timing is just prior to the children of Israel crossing into the promised land, crossing the

03:43

Jordan River and going into the promised land. So Moses is preparing them for that event and for life in the promised land.

03:52

And he says, the Lord says, when you come into the land which the Lord your God shall give you, is giving you, he says this, now listen, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of the nations.

04:05

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

04:23

In other words, what what God is saying is, you are not to take your cues on how to worship me from the pagans that live in the land of Canaan.

04:34

I will give you instruction on how to worship me, and that's how you are to worship me.

04:42

God is establishing the regulative principle of worship, if you will.

04:48

So I contend that a modern or contemporary application of that would be, no,

04:54

I don't go to the community and ask the people in the community, what kind of music do you like?

05:01

Are you into theology? Do you like heavy theological music? Do you want to hear scripture read?

05:08

I mean, I know churches that have completely abandoned the public reading of passages of scripture, because people don't want that, people don't want that.

05:22

And yet, in the New Testament, Paul tells Timothy, don't neglect the reading of scripture. He's talking about the public reading of scripture.

05:29

Do it. Do it. And same with prayer. You know, there's some churches you can go into, and the praying would be very brief, almost trite, and so forth.

05:44

And yet, you know, we're commanded to pray, and the God's people, when they gather together, to come together and pray.

05:52

So the practical application of this Deuteronomy 18 passage for the

05:58

New Testament Church is, we discover what God what

06:04

God proscribes in worship, what God likes in worship, and that's how we worship

06:10

Him. And we don't worry whether or not it's liked by the rest of the world.

06:16

We're not worshiping for the liking of ourselves or the rest of the world. Our worship is to honor our

06:23

God, is to be pleasing in His sight. And He's told us how to worship in a way that pleases

06:31

Him. So we would be advised to to follow His prescriptions, His regulations for worship.

06:40

And let me take this a step further in application with this passage, because of some of the things that the

06:48

Lord brings out when He says, you know, you're not to tolerate anyone who practices witchcraft, a soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, one who calls up the dead, because the

07:04

Lord says those who do these things are an abomination to the Lord. They're an abomination to the

07:10

Lord. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, and not partake in any of those things. So, practical application.

07:19

The believer in Christ has no business whatsoever going to a fortune teller, having somebody read their tarot cards, or their tea leaves, or the lines on their palm.

07:33

Have no business even messing around reading the horoscope in the newspaper, if it's in there.

07:40

I don't even remember. I don't even look at it, but no business looking at reading a horoscope.

07:46

No business, you know, playing the Ouija board game as if it's just an innocent little game.

07:52

No, no, these are all things that are tied to pagan occultic practices, and God says, no, they're an abomination to me.

08:02

Leave them alone. And if you're trusting in God, why would you even consider those things?

08:11

Whom really do you trust? Let's worship the Lord in the way He tells us to worship, and be satisfied in it, and rejoice in it.

08:21

Let's do that. Our Father in Heaven, we do thank you for giving us direction and guidance in how to worship you, worship you in a way that brings you pleasure.

08:32

I pray that it would also bring us pleasure, knowing that our worship, done the way you want us to worship, is a delight to you.

08:43

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, have a good rest of your