Devotions

“Worship without obedience is worthless.”

When I read that the other day, it really made me think.  Is that true?  Is there no value in worship if there is no obedience in the worshipper?  Then I remembered what Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day when they confronted Him about his disciples not ceremonially washing their hands before they ate.

He began to teach them about what truly honoring God was about and He used a quote out of Isaiah 29.  “These people,” He said, “honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Matthew 15:8, Mark 7:6)

“They worship me in vain.”  It is possible to spend an entire Sunday in a praise and worship service and offer God nothing and receive nothing from God. It is possible to worship in vain when it is done without obedience.

Worship springs from the heart and if the heart is in rebellion against our Creator and Shepherd, then there is nothing good to offer Him. It is wasted energy and wasted time.

Oh, but when the heart has been made right through the power of Christ’s salvation, when we strive with the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life of repentance and commitment to God our Father, then worship becomes what it is meant to be. It honors God and it edifies us.

Today at The Way Assembly of God we are finishing up a series out of the Psalms. I have spent a lot of time in the psalms over the years. They have taught me things. Things like, it is okay to express what is in my heart to God, He understands my humanity.  They have taught me that it is not just okay but encouraged to allow myself the freedom of praise that encompasses, clapping, dancing, singing, shouting joyfully.  They have taught me about God Himself, His compassions, protections, and presence.  They have taught me about worship.

We are finishing up our series with the second half of Psalm 95.  In the first half, the psalmist invited us to “Come.” “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout triumphantly to the Rock of our salvation…. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”  (vs 1, 6)

The second half of this song, what we are focusing on today, reminds us that there is a cost to not worshipping our God.  Beginning in verse 8, it is no longer the Psalmist encouraging us, it is God warning us. Failure to worship, hardens our hearts. God used the nation of Israel following their deliverance from Egypt as an example to us. “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” (v 10)

Worship, remember, is more than what we do during a song service on a Sunday morning.  It is what we do, who we are all the time. If we think God revolves around us, we will fail to worship Him as we should.  Our hearts will go astray and then they will grow hard against Him.  When we come to the realization that we have both a duty and a privilege to worship the Lord of Creation, the Shepherd of our soul, that will keep our hearts tender toward Him. Worship, whatever expression it takes, becomes the core of our being.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (v 8)

Last Sunday we had six children and a baby in church. I love having children and babies in church. The morning began with two little girls who ran in the door and gave me a big hug and showed me their pretty skirts and shoes. A little while later another little girl came in the back door and ran all the way to the pulpit to hug me and tell me she found her toy that she inadvertently left in the nursery the week before. Later two more children who were there for the first time gave me hugs. I love having children in the church … did I say that already?  Well, I guess I can say it again.

I love having children in the church so much that we have made them part of our mission statement: To tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.  That comes from Ps 78:4: “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

When I see these little ones come into church with their smiles and giggles, I cannot help but remember the warning Jesus gave about them. “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Matt 18:10

Should the Lord tarry, these little ones are the future of Christianity. They need to know that they are loved and welcomed in the family of God. I want them to know that they can laugh and dance and giggle and be joyful in the presence of the LORD.  And I want the adults, when they look upon these little ones, to understand that we are responsible to love them the way Jesus loved them.

I pray we have even more children next Sunday and the Sunday after and the Sunday after that …. Oh, Father, I cannot think of anything sadder than a church barren of children. Fill our place O God! Amen.

I can’t finish the month without just another peak or two at the psalms. One thing I noticed about the psalmists is their frequent mention of God as a shield. I was reading the opening verses of Psalm 91.  Two phrases grabbed my attention.  Verse 3 says the Most High, the Almighty, the LORD (YHWH) will “Himself deliver you from the hunter’s net,” or “fowlers snare.” The second phrase is in verse 4, “His faithfulness will be a protective shield.”

Two things to notice.  Sometimes God delivers us out of … and sometimes God protects us from.

God’s faithfulness protects us from the evil that abounds in this life.  If we but take refuge in Him, He will keep us from trouble. He is faithful to us. That faithfulness is like a shield of protection all around us. But, there are times when in our rebellion, or something as simple as our curiosity, we find ourselves in trouble. Perhaps we are already snared by the enemy of our soul who prowls around looking for people to catch in his net. When that happens, God “Himself” will deliver us out of that snare.

Of course, it is far better to stay behind that shield of God’s faithful protection. But when we do fail, when we succumb to the enticement and temptation of sin, it is an abundant blessing to know that God will send His Spirit to bring us to repentance, and in our repentance will come deliverance out of sin’s snare.

We are coming to the end of September. My personal emphasis this month has been in the psalms. Of course, my personal emphasis often spills over into the church (and my devotions), but that’s just the way it is with shepherds. We are coming to the end of this month and I’ve been thinking about where to go from here. What will be my emphasis in October, possibly even November? I’m leaning toward the letters of Peter.

When Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, His lambs, Jesus changed Peter’s life completely. We see that throughout the beginning chapters in the book of Acts. Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, Peter bravely standing up to the Jewish leaders, Peter opening the door to the Gentiles with his visit to Cornelius.  This shaky, often blustery man was changed by His Lord and Shepherd. What does he say to the sheep Jesus gave him?  How did Peter see his life after Jesus changed him? What better way to see the change in Peter than to read his letters.

As I opened the first letter I was struck as I always am by verse 3. “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” [Christian Standard Bible]

I could spend a month in that verse alone. Look at the concepts … Praise … God and Father … His great mercy … New Birth … Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  AND, that one that always strikes at my heart … Living Hope!

As I read and listen and watch what is going on in the world I realize if there is one word which describes our world in our time, it would be “hopeless.” The world has “no hope.” Peter came to understand that in God’s mercy, there is the offer of not just “hope,” but, “living hope.”  I think the theme of Peter’s changed life is “living hope.”  I pray that is the theme of your changed life (and mine) in Christ Jesus.

Thinning out my inbox on my personal email this morning, I ended up with these four emails in a row: 1) At Olive Garden I can get over 50 delicious combinations. 2) Shari’s Café is offering me my four favorites for less. 3) Applebees® has three courses for one amazing price, and 4) at McGrath’s Fish House I can get a free appetizer or dessert.

I have eaten at each of these places and filled out one of those club-style cards with my email address.  Sometimes I get pretty good deals this way, discounts, free birthday stuff, etc. It just seemed funny to me that all four of these places want to feed me today and all four invitations ended up one after the other in my inbox.

Following Jesus’ resurrection, Simon Peter woke up one morning and decides to go fishing. Several other disciples go with him, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John along with two others. They head out to the lake but don’t catch anything. That is until Jesus arrives on the scene. He tells them where to throw their net and immediately there is a great catch of fish. Peter, who realizes this has happened before, suddenly recognizes Jesus and bounds to shore.  They all end up having a nice breakfast together.

When they finished eating Jesus turns to Peter and asks, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?“

Peter’s response to that is “Yes,” he does love the Lord. Then Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.“  [John 21:15]

Three times Jesus will ask the same question, Peter will respond the same way, and Jesus will tell Peter three times to feed His lambs.  That’s the job of a shepherd, not a fisherman. Jesus completely changed Peter’s life. (Jesus will do that to you!) I don’t think the Scriptures ever record again that the Big Fisherman went fishing. He devoted the rest of his life caring for the Lord’s sheep.

Where I’m working as a temp they have been purging documents no longer needed to be retained in the files.  This has left mountains of paper that needed to be shredded.  Enter the temp.  Last week I probably shredded stacks of paper taller than I am. I stood at the large shredder and fed stack after stack.  It wasn’t really that bad of a job. I did it during the times when I felt my brain was on overload, or I was tired of staring at a computer screen.  It cleared my head and gave me time to think.

There was only one bad part, that was packing down the shreds of paper in the bag so I could fit more in.  Putting my hands in that paper dried them out horribly.  By the end of the week my hands were dry, scaly, and sore.  Just casual contact with that paper over one week took all the goodness out of my skin. It’s taken time, and a lot of hand cream, to get back to normal.

James asks a profound question in his letter.  “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” [James 4:4 Christian Standard Bible]

The ways of God and the ways of the world are in direct opposition to each other. The world says that we are what is important. Everything must center around us. The world says we live life to the fullest by accumulating the most, experiencing the most, striving for the most.

God says that He is our Maker; He is sovereign over all His creation. He is the center of life. God says to live, we die to self. (That means we no longer regard ourselves as the center of everything.) To accumulate, we give away. To gain, we sacrifice.

As I watched my hands lose their moisture and become dry and rough just from contact with shredded paper, I thought of how my soul experiences the same thing, just by contact with the world’s ways. “Lord, keep me centered on You!”

Last Thursday night the Cleveland Browns won a football game, one that looked like they were about ready to lose. Now that may not sound like such a big deal until you know that the Browns hadn’t won a regular season football game for about 635 days. They didn’t win at all last year and their record the year before was almost as miserable.

Thursday night the starting quarterback was having a rough night and the crowd was calling for Baker Mayfield. He is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma who was drafted No. 1 by the Browns. When the starter went out with a concussion, the crowd got their wish. Mayfield came in and led the team to a comeback. The crowd was wild. They were shouting for joy!  Finally, a win.

Psalm 95 begins, “¹ Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. ²Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” [NKJV]

See that wonderful little word “shout.” It is the same word in both verses 1 and 2. It is ruwa. It is sometimes translated as “make a joyful noise.” It comes from a root word meaning “to split the ear with sound.”  It is a word that is often used for “blow/sound the alarm.” It is what we might call an intense word. Not only that, it is a word that we’d think might be much more at home on the football field than in a church worship session.

Cleveland was alive with joy, shouting intensely in triumph last Thursday because they were winners for the first time in two years.  As children of God, we are winners every day. We won the ultimate battle when we gave our lives to the Master of our soul, Christ Jesus our Lord.  That “Let us … shout joyfully” should ring out in every church, every time we meet.

Today and next Sunday we will be studying Psalm 95 in church. This song is the introduction to a series of songs, Psalms 95-100, that center on the worship of God. Listen to the way each begins:

Psalm 95: Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalm 96: Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.

Psalm 97: The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.

Psalm 98: Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things.

Psalm 99: The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble.

Psalm 100: Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Sensing a theme here?  Maybe we can sum it up in one sentence. Worship is centered on the Great LORD (YHWH) who reigns, not on man. This is central to our health as Christians and to our worship of God.

The church too often specializes in what God can do for us, rather than dwelling on our duty to God.  When we think God has not responded to our needs the way we think He should, we become frustrated. Sometimes we get angry and simply walk away.  Or we stay, but our worship is affected by our viewpoint of how we relate to Him.

This is how we relate to our Great God:  He reigns. He is the Creator and the Center of all things. He is the LORD, YHWH, the Rock of our salvation. We serve Him. He doesn’t serve us. Everything we receive from His hand is given by His grace. To that, we must always bow our knee in worship and thanksgiving.

David was perhaps his very lowest when he penned Psalm 51. He had committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and then when he found out she was pregnant from their union, he had Uriah placed in the heat of a battle so that he would be killed. Thinking he had hidden his sin, he took Bathsheba as his wife. But sin never remains hidden and David’s found him out. Nathan, the prophet, brought God’s word to David and it was not a good word. The sword (turmoil) would become a staple of David’s family and the child conceived in adultery would die. God did not take David’s life; he would live amid the destruction brought by his sin. [1 Samuel 11-12]

It was at this lowest point of David’s life that he cried out for mercy from God in Psalm 51. David recognized that his sin was not just against Uriah, it was against the God who had been so faithful to him, who had blessed him abundantly and would have given him even more had he but asked.

The verses in Psalm 51 that always gets to me are verses 10-11, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” 

David recognized two things. First, he saw that his heart had become tainted, blackened by sin that had weakened his fervent spirit for God. No longer was he steadfast in following after God. He asked for God to create a clean, pure, heart within him, knowing that was something only God could do.

Second, David recognized that he was in a dangerous spot. If he persisted in his sin, he would find himself removed from the very presence of the God he loved so much. He was in danger of going through the rest of his life without the Holy Spirit of God leading and guiding.

Sin, if ignored, will flourish. It will stain our heart, our entire life, and move us far away from the presence of the LORD. “Create in me a pure heart, O God!