Devotion and devotions - Nathan Yoder

It's a delight to greet you in the name of

Jesus Christ, our Lord tonight. Thank you brother for opening

this service with an invitation. What an appropriate invitation it

is where our Good God invites us to come and

to buy wine and milk without money and without price.

And I love that psalm you have that chapter you mentioned,

it's like a cool drink. I would agree with that.

It's one of my favorites as well. Like to encourage

us tonight to seek the Lord while he may be found,

to call upon him while he is near. I'm not

sure what all the implications of that verse are, but

it sounds as though it may not always be that way,

and so while we have the opportunity, let us put

our heart to it and seek him. And I love

the way the chapter ends as well, with that beauty

of the trees of the field literally clapping their hands

with joy when the Lord does his work in their heart.

Invite you to turn to Isaiah sixty two for our

memory portion. We continue to reflect on these verses and

we want to again read them together while you're finding it.

I'm going to read the first two verses for Zion's sake.

Will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake,

I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth

as brightness, and the salvation thereof is a lamp that burneth,

and the gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all the

kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a

new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

Now join me. Shalt also be a crown of glory

in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem

in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more

be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy Land anymore be termed desolate.

But thou shalt be called Hefzeba, and thy Land Beulah,

for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy Land shall

be married. Now I invite you to turn to Psalm

nineteen Psalm nineteen for a further opening thought and scripture reading.

There's so many passages in the Bible that I would

have to confess or favorites of mine, but this is

certainly one of them as well. I'd like to begin

tonight by considering verses seven through verse eleven of this

beautiful Psalm, And there are we find here a description

of the Word of God. Now, the brother already gave

us things to think about about God's word. He says,

so shall the Word of God be that comes and

that is ministered, that is red, that is spoken, that

goes forth. He said, It's like the snow and the

rain that descends and waters the earth and causes it

to bud and bring forth. He says, that's the way

the Word of God is. I hope that's why you're

here tonight. And that your heart is not waxed gross

so that it sheds all the water of the Word

of God off of it, or that it's like waste

soil where the seed falls and the birds of the

air come and carry it away before it has a

chance to root. But that your heart and my heart

are like good soil, where the seed falls into it

and bears fruit and grows and takes root. But here

we find a number of descriptions of the Word of God,

and I'd like to have you help me read this.

I'm going to pause at the description word and you

read the next word or phrase, as it may be.

One of them is a phrase, but most of them

are just words. Okay, So you help me and fill

in the next word verse seven, Psalm nineteen. The law

of the Lord is converting the soul. The testimony of

the Lord is making wise the simple. The statutes of

the Lord are rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the

Lord is and lightening the eyes. The fear of the

Lord is enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are

more to be desired, Are they than gold? Yea than

much fine gold? Sweeter also than honey and the honey comb. Moreover,

by them is thy servant warned. And in keeping of

them there is great reward. And would you join me

to read verse fourteen as an opening prayer? Here verse fourteen,

let the words of my mouth and the meditation of

my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my

strength and my redeemer. Amen. This These words that we

considered here tonight are very important. They're very special, and

they are unique. What are they? Well? In school? The

grammar students that are here tonight, and certainly the teachers

will recognize these words. We have degrees of words. If

I'd use the word big, that's just the basic degree,

the word big. But if we have two things and

we compare them, and we have a comparative degree, then

we'd say the one is bigger than the other one.

And so we usually add an er onto words and

we say, that's a comparative degree. Children, what do we

call it when we add an eest onto a word?

What degree is that? Come on? You know it? Superlative?

Thank you? It's a superlative degree. And now what happens

when it's bigger than that? What isn't the superlatives as

far as you can go, if something is bigger than

it wasn't a superlative. The superlative is that's the ultimate.

And some words are superlative, are in the superlative degree

just by nature of the word. For example, the word

perfect is a superlative. Something is either perfect or it

is not perfect. It can't be more perfect or less perfect.

It either is or it is not. And so it's

a superlative word. There's other words that are. The one

that I find and interesting is the word unique. Unique

is a superlative. You're not more unique than the person

besides you. You're either you're not even You're not either

unique or not unique. You are unique. Okay, that means

there's there's none other like you. You are unique, and

you're not uniquer than someone else. That that's not a word,

And it's not even more unique you either. Usually when

a superlative, I say, it either is or isn't well unique,

It just is you are, and so that's a superlative.

But one day I was pondering this portion of scripture,

and suddenly it occurred to me that all the descriptions

given here of the Word of God are in the

superlative degree. Take a look at them with me. The

first one is obvious. The law of the Lord is perfect.

And again, the word perfect is superlative by itself. It's

the ultimate of that degree. It's the ultimate of that condition.

And the law of the Lord is perfect because it

converts the soul. And then he says, and by the way,

all of these are just different descriptions of the Word

of God that we hold in our lapse. Here tonight

he says that the testimony of the Lord is sure.

The word sure is a superlative concept. Something's not more

or less sure. It's either sure or it is not sure.

And the Word of God is sure in the superlative

degree to the ultimate. It makes the simple people wise.

The statutes of the Lord are right, and something that

is right is right. It's not partly right or mostly right.

It either is right or it's not. It's in the superlative.

And the word of God is that pure. The same

way the commandment of the Lord is pure. The fear

of the Lord is clean. And I know that when

there we could we could argue. I suppose we could

put that in a comparative degree and say, something is

cleaner than this, This towel is cleaner than that towent.

I understand that. The point that it is here, though,

is that it is clean. And in the superlative. Something

is either cleaner, it's not clean. It's clean. If it

is tainted in any way, it's not clean. But the

Word of God is clean, the fear of the Lord

is clean, and it's not tainted in any way. It's

a superlative. And the judgments of the Lord are true

and righteous. And there again it's it is in the

ultimate degree. So tonight as you, as you hold these

words and we ponder them and we refer upon them,

we begin to understand the importance of the Word of

God to us, and the fact that it is inerrant,

and it is all different people have spent time in

our statement of faith. We went through it some time ago,

and we tried to improve it and make it more

relevant and so on. And as we were working on

a description of the Word of God, it's interesting. We

call it plinary, we call it in errant, we call

it true, we call it and it's hard to really

come to words that define it the way that I

that it should be defined, because words are limited. The

Word of God is not. It will stand forever. It

changes men's hearts, it does its holy work in our

hearts if we allow it to do so. That's the

power of the Word of God. So we know. I

believe each one that is here tonight knows that it

is important that we have a regular intake of the

Word of God. And I find that as we travel

about that time and again it is confessed as a need.

My prayer life has cooled off. My intake of the

Word is not what it should be. I really need

to spark up on that. I need to do better

with my diet of the Word of God, and it

should be confessed. It is a if it's a problem,

it's something that we should bring before the Lord and

make an effort to change it. I'm amazed how many

people have not read the Bible through. I wonder if

you have. Have you read this book from one cover

to the other. And there's many people who call them

selves Christians who have read here, and they've read there,

a verse here, and a verse there, and a chapter

here and a chapter there, but they've never read the

entire book here. Just a few weeks ago, there were

a group of youth in our church, and I'm not

sure where the idea came from for sure, but they

decided they're going to sit down and read the Bible

from cover to cover, not in one setting, but pretty close.

And now there's people that feel that it would take

you about two or three years to read the Bible

all the way through. I mean, it's a thick book

and there's a lot of words, and how long would

it take to read it? No, it doesn't, it's really not.

It doesn't take so very long. Well, it does take

a while. But they did the math and they read,

and they had decided how much time to set aside,

and they started at Wednesday noon and they read orally.

It was a group of seven young people and they

they drew aside to a little cabin where there was

no internet access, and therefore the Wi Fi didn't beep.

And they had already decided before time that the phones

weren't going to come along there, and they were going

to sit and read the Word of God. And they did,

and they started in Genesis one, and they took turns

and they read this orally a chapter at a time,

and they read from Wednesday noon until Wednesday night, and

then they started again. They read till about nine o'clock

Wednesday evening, and they started again at five thirty Thursday morning,

and then they read till about nine o'clock Thursday night,

and they started again Friday morning, and so on. Maybe

it was Thursday they started on then even sure now

Sat Sunday afternoon, about two o'clock, three o'clock something like that,

they read Revelation twenty two. And they finished reading the

King James version of the Bible in those three and

a half days. That's about what it takes if your

serious about it. And I blessed them for it. My

wife and I took lunchep for him and sat and

enjoyed and read with them. I got to read one

of my favorite chapters when this came around. I read

Ezekiel chapter thirty seven. I thought about preaching out of

that tonight. I love Ezekiel thirty seven. But we call

this process this aspect of our life devotions, and we

ask ourselves, have you had your devotions? Do you have

family devotions? You should have a time when the family

is together and we read and meditate on a Bible

story or a Bible truth, or a Bible doctrine, or

something that draws our hearts toward God. I wonder if

you would compare your spiritual diet tonight with your physical diet.

How would it compare? You know, we partake of our

physical food on a pretty regular basis, don't we. Now

there's times we set aside at a time of fasting

and prayer and so on, and we don't eat for

a time, and that's just fine. But we don't do

that real long until we again eat, don't we. We

can't go without food, and indeed, we would suffer physically

if we went without food for a long period of time.

You and I can probably fast longer than you think.

Some people think if they skip a meal, they're going

to be in bad shape by the time the next meal.

Draws near, and that's not the case. You can fast

for a day or a week and you'll be just fine.

For most of us anyway, Unless you have some kind

of a blood sugar issue, perhaps there would be a problem.

But most of us could fast for a week or

two and we'd be the better for it. I didn't

say we wouldn't get hungry. But back to the thought regularity.

Is your spiritual diet as regular as your physical diet?

What about the quality? What about the quality? I'm in

a group of people that I know enjoys quality food,

and it's already been evidenced. But is your spiritual intake

the kind of quality that you appreciate with your physical food?

What about the quantity? What about the quantity? Now, a

lot of people think that as long as they just

get a verse, they just have a verse to meditate

on during the day, that's really all it takes. Well,

certainly one verse is better than none. But today we

were at brother Dan and Barb's place and she hadn't

fixed a wonderful meal there, and we had potatoes and

meat and salad, and I was so thankful. The quality

was fabulous, but I was glad. I didn't just get

a half inch cube a poor man's state quality. Notwithstanding,

I wanted a chunk of it. I wanted some quantity

with it, and there was quantity. There was ample quantity there.

Did you know? In the Parable of the Sower, it

says that even in the good ground there was some

that brought for thirty some sixty, some one hundred. There

was a variety of harvest, even in the good ground.

And I've often pondered why was that? Why are there

people who have good soil in their hearts, but they

only produced thirty percent or sixty in some one hundred?

Why the difference? And I don't know. I'm not going

to make a doctrine of this, but I've wondered already.

If it hasn't didn't have to do with the quantity

of seed that was sown. I didn't see many cornfields

around here. I don't know if many, if there's much

corn grown in the valley here or not. But I

did see a lot of grass, and I saw some trees,

a good number of trees. Now I wondered, what would happen.

I'm sure it's expensive to plant a field of nut trees,

and so let's not waste so much money. Let's just

put one tree per acre instead of I don't know

how many trees you put in an acre? Do you

put fifty or a hundred? How many trees do you

put in an acre? Approximately? Any ideas? Come on? We

got nut farmers here, I'm sure, well, well, guess we'll

say we got a hundred trees to the acre. I

don't know if that's high or low, but let's just

say that that's the typical planting rate. But they cost

money to plant. And so let's just put one tree

per acre, and instead of putting a hundred trees in there,

we'll put one. But we'll take very good care of

that tree, and we'll fertilize it daily, and we'll water

it hourly, and we'll take good care. It's so much

easier to take care one tree than a hundred trees

in that acre. Are we going to get the production?

Are we going to get the bushels of nuts? As

if we had a hundred trees in that acre? Even

a child knows the answer, of course, no, we wouldn't.

Why not? The same thing is true? I believe in

our spiritual intake. If we just shorten our spiritual intake

down to an occasional revival meeting and occasional verse Now

and then you might stay alive spiritually, but you're certainly

not going to bear fruit. As one who has a

good intake of the Word of God on a regular

basis thirtyfold, sixtyfold, I'd encourage you to be a one

hundredfold person. And the results are amazing as well. Now

today I was hungry when it was lunchtime, and I

was My hunger was well rewarded. But how long does

it take for that food to do you good? Just

takes minutes hours if you please, I mean, you take

it in and you feel good right then and there, right.

And the Word of God is like that. There's times

we read in the Word of God and oh it

blesses our soul, and we find a promise, and we

find a truth and we hang on to it and

it strengthens us, and it encourages us, and it blesses us.

And this is good. But there's also another aspect of

the Word of God in the Parable of the Sower

in Luke, chapter eight and verse eleven, when Jesus gave

the commentary to the Parable of the Sower, he said,

the seed is the word of God. The seed is

the word of God. Now, when you plant seed in

your field, do you get a harvest the next day?

Do you get a harvest within the hour, Well, of

course not. How about the next day, the next week? No?

Probably not. Even then when you plant an acorn, it

might be twenty five years until you get a crop

of acorns from those trees. Now, most of the crops

that we're familiar with, it comes quicker than that. You know,

we plant a seed of corn, we plant a tomato stalk,

and maybe within three months, six months, there's a harvest.

The point that I want to make is the Word

of God is like seed, and it made. The results

may not be evident right away, but we keep on

taking it in, we keep on reading it, we keep

on learning, we keep on meditating on it. And maybe

a month from now, six months from now, a year

from now, there's a crisis in your life, and something

that you learned back at Bible school, something that you

heard in a revival meeting, some truth that impressed your

heart in your morning watch, comes back to our heart

and it strengthens us and it takes us through that

difficult time. That's the word of God. It's like seed

that bears fruit in the future. I may share a

little personal situation in my own life. That's why I

don't get it real excited about emotional invitations. My goal

this week isn't to get thirty two people to the altar.

It would be okay if there would be that. I

wouldn't be offended at all, if there would be a

public response to the invitation. But that's not really, that's

not my goal. My goal is that somehow, as the

word of God is preached, that it will touch hearts

in such a way that a year from now, five

years from now, a relationship that is strained will be

healed because of the word of God. There would be

feet that were heading the wrong direction and they turned

and went right because of the impact of the word

of God where there was immaturity in a life and

wavering their stability and maturity. And we say, thank you Lord,

that's what we want when we are preaching and teaching

the word of God. That that's the beauty of the word.

And that's the goal of my heart as we as

we think about these truths. Now, having talked about the

idea of devotions for some time tonight. I hope you'll

never forget the importance of devotions. It's vitally important. But

did you know that there's something that's far more important

than that? There's something that's more important than your devotions.

What could it be? What could it be? Well, Jesus

quoted a scripture that was stated fifteen hundred years prior

in Deuteronomy six. I invite you to turn, though, I'll

look at the New Testament portion in Mark chapter twelve.

Would you turn there with me? And let's see what

Jesus said is more important than our devotional life. In

Mark chapter twelve there was discussion. There were people, the

scribes and Pharisees, had come to Jesus, and they were

trying to back him in a corner. They were trying

to tempt him and see if they could trip him

up in the things that he was teaching. And they

were having a hard time doing that. Of course, we

know they really could never back Jesus in a corner,

but they certainly were trying. And then verse twenty eight

of Mark chapter twelve, he says, in one of the

scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving

that he had answered them well, asked him this was

to Jesus, Now, which is the first commandment of all?

What's the most important thing? What is the first thing

that we must remember? And Jesus answered him, the first

of all the commandments is hero Israel. The Lord, our

God is one lord. And thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.

This is the first commandment. And the second is like

namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There

is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe

commented on that, and he said, wow, well, yes, I

have to agree with you. As the essence of what

he said in one of the other gospels. I think

it's in the Gospel of Matthew where this conversation took place.

Jesus said, on these two commandments hang all the law

and the prophets. There is nothing more important than that. Now,

as we look at this the whole idea of love,

he says, the most important thing is that we love

God with all of our heart and soul and mind

and strength. I'm going to call that devotion. That's what

devotion is. Devotion is to be devoted to something, to

love it with our whole being. And so from those

two ideas I come up with the possibility of a

title for the message tonight. I jotted it here so

that you can ponder and reflect upon it as we

continue to preach. And that is devotion or devotions? Which

one is it? And I hope this becomes clear as

we go along. Now, the whole thing of devotional life

or devotional time can easily be misunderstood because there are

people who look at their devotional life like a luck charm.

They say, well, if I didn't have my devotional life,

then I know I'm going to have a bad day.

I'm sorry, that's not the case. Now, you might have

a bad day. You might feel guilty if you didn't

have your devotional life, and you should. If that makes

a bad day, then I guess so it is. But

our devotional life isn't a luck charm. It's not. If

I read my Bible this morning, then everything's going to

go good today and I'll have plenty of sales. And

if I didn't read it this morning, then probably the

battery will go dead on the car. That's not what

our devotional life is for. That's not what it's about.

The devotional life life is to impact our heart and

change us for the glory of God and to make

us into the person that Jesus wants us to be.

It's to conform us into the image of His son.

That's the purpose of our devotional life. But as I

think of this comparison of devotions and devotion to God,

there is a fundamental truth that I don't want you

to forget, and that is that our good God is

far more concerned about our devotion than about our devotions.

I believe that. I think that's what Jesus was saying

here in Mark chapter twelve, where he says that the

first commandment, the most important thing, is that we are

devoted to God with our whole heart and soul and

mind and strength. You see, devotion is the reason for

our devotions. It's our love to God that causes us

to get into the Word of God. When you are

when your heart is not after God, this becomes a

dry book, It becomes a form we go through. It

becomes so many words on paper that if we hold

a match to will burn. It's just another book. But

when the spirit of God is in our heart and

our devotion to God is what it should be, then

suddenly these words live, and it is a love letter

between our God and us, and we look forward to

meeting him. It's like I said last night, beyond the

Sacred Page, I seek the Lord. We look for a

relationship with Him as we read these beautiful words. I

believe that God draws near to those who are devoted

to Him. But there is no mechanical situation. There's no

Bible reading program or devotional guide that will change our

hearts if our heart is not first devoted to God.

And so that's the important thing now as we think

about devotion and the whole idea of loving God with

our whole heart, I'd like to look at four simple ideas,

four simple concepts tonight in just exploring this principle. The

first one I'd like to look at is in our

devotion as a response, devotion as a response. And the

second one is our devotion as a commitment, devotion as

a commitment. The third idea we want to explore tonight

is some things that hinder our devotion, that tend to

minimize our devotion and steal it and kill it and

destroy it. And the fourth idea, we want to consider

how devotion needs to be fed and built and so on.

Let's consider first of all, our devotion as a response.

Some of these ideas can relate well to the relationship

between husband and wife. And for those of you that

are not married, you'll need to look on and listen.

I'm sure there's things in your life that you love

as well. But if for the men that are here

who have a wife that they dearly love, do you

have to work at that wells that could be a

trick question. We'll look at that maybe more in the

second point. But ideally there would be the kind of compassion,

there'd be the kind of passion if you please and

love one for another, that we just love each other,

that there is a an automatic response, as it were,

and that's the way ideally it is between us and

our God. Could what fosters that? What makes that well?

Have you considered recently? Have you pondered the things you've

been delivered from? When you think of the of God

having taken you from heading toward hell and turning you

around and putting your feet on a solid rock where

you were in the mirey clay, and he lifted you

out of that terrible pit and set you on a

solid rock and established your goings. Doesn't that fill our

heart with thanksgiving? I was thinking of Psalm one oh three.

It's a beautiful psalm where David says, bless the Lord,

oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless

his holy name. Then he says, bless the Lord, oh

my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. And

then he begins to name them, and he says, who

forgiveth all thine iniquities? Have you reflected on that recently,

the whole idea of forgiveness. I think it was last Sunday.

I don't know if you're following the Christian Lights study

program in Sunday School, but we talked about forgiveness and

we read Psalm thirty two and blessed is the man

whose transgression is forgiven and his sin is covered. And

I was reflecting on that. What a what an incredible

privilege is ours? And as we reflect on that, we say,

thank you Lord for forgiving my iniquities. Who healeth all

thy diseases, who redeemeth your life from destruction, Who crowns

you with tender mercies and loving kindness. Thank you, Lord,

and our heart as we reflect on those things, there's

a devotion and a love that rises up within us.

There's many songs that would that have that same idea.

One songwriter says, there is someone who daily my needs

doth supply. These good things don't just happen. There's someone

on high. Through his mercy and grace, he allows me

to live. He deserves all the thanks I can give.

I have someone to thank for every new day. I

have someone to thank all along the way, don't you?

And as we are thankful for that, our heart welds

up with gratitude. Nature around us. Tonight the brother mentioned

the trees and the blooming and the springing fourth of Spring.

I was thinking of a song again along that line,

and it's a very familiar song. But the songwriter says,

Oh Lord, my God, when I an awesome wonder, consider

all the world's Thy hand have made. I see the stars,

I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.

And then the chorus is the response, what happens when

you see that? He says, then sings, my soul, my

Savior God to thee, How great thou art. There's a

response of devotion. And the second verse talks about being

on the mountains, which you have on either side here,

and he says, when I'm up in the mountains and

I feel the see the brook, hear the brook, and

feel the gentle breeze, then sings my soul. There's a

response of devotion. And the third verse says, and when

I think, and when I think and just reflect on

the fact that God his son not sparing, he says,

he sent him to die. He says, I scarce can

take it in that on the cross, my burden gladly

bearing it. Says he bled and he died to take

away my sin. And then he says, then sings my soul,

my Savior God to THEE, How great thou art. And

he concludes that song, when Christ shall come with shout

of acclamation and take me home, he says, what joy

shall fill my heart? Then I shall bow in humble

adoration in their proclaim, My God, How great thou art?

Then sings my soul. That's a response of devotion to

the goodness and mercy and greatness of God. Is your

heart filled with devotion tonight. Somebody once said that you

can tell the maturity of a Christian between the time

or the distance of time between when a difficulty happens

and we say, help me, Lord, or something wonderful happens

and we say thank you Lord. We're not talking about

waiting till the end of the day, when you kneel

beside your bed and you say, let's see, thank you Lord,

and we name off thirteen things that we thank him for,

and then help. No, that's okay to do that. But

may our heart be in such tune with God that

when there is a need, we say, help me Lord

with this situation, and when there is a blessing, thank

you Lord. We don't have to wait till we're kneeling

at bedside. There can be a communication and a devotion

all day long. In fact, in Deuteronomy five, he says, Oh,

that there was such a heart in them that they

would fear me always, and that they would love me

and serve me, and that their heart would be turned

toward me in a response of adoration and devotion. I

love the way first John I think it's Chapter three says,

behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon

us that we should he called the sons of God.

He says, the world doesn't realize what's going on, but

he says, we know that when he shall appear, we

shall be like him, for we shall see him as

he is devotion. Remember, God's primary concern is not with

our devotional life. It's with our devotion. And there's of

course many things that add to that devotion. How can

we be devoted if we do not have a pure heart.

I believe that devotion to God, that the kind of

love and devotion that I'm talking about tonight, only springs

from a heart that has been cleansed by God, that

is free from sin, where there's communion and fellowship, and

we love to be near Him and we love to

have him speak to us, and we enjoy that relationship

with him. That's the kind of devotion that I'm talking about.

The psalmasas who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,

who shall stand in his holy place, He that hath

clean hands and a pure heart. He goes on to say,

it's that kind of a person that experiences devotion. A

person that wants to have devotion must have the fear

of the Lord in his heart. There's many characteristics we

could look at. We don't have time to look at

many of them. Maybe one more. Yet, the Bible says

in Psalm one, blessed is the man that walketh not

in the council of the ungodling, or standeth in the

way of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scornful.

But what's the next verse say? It says, his delight

is in the law of the Lord, and in his

law doth he meditate day and night. I love the

way that that brings devotion and devotions together. It says

that his delight is in God, and he delights to

look into the Word of God. And when that delight

is there, there's a beautiful coming together, a harmonizing of

those two ideas. But what do we do when we

don't feel devotion? What do we do when our heart

is down cast? What do we do when there's discouragement?

What do we do when there's a trial. What do

we do when the deer runs out in front of

the car and inverts the front end? What do we

do when we wake up at night and we smell

smoke and we realize the barn is burning down as

it was for our dear friend in Canada. Just the

other morning. We got pictures and I know of several

people in Pennsylvania who had chimney fires and their house

burned down and was a total loss. What do we

do when we're in that kind of a situation? Do

we feel devotion in that way? We don't feel very loving?

Did God forget us? How do we have devotion when

we're in the midst of a crisis and a deep

dark valley and a trial is upon us? Well, those

are good questions, and I'm not going to be glib

about it. It's sometimes it's challenging to be devoted, it's

challenging to feel loving. But there's a couple of words

that stand out to me. I read them. I don't

know if you heard them, but I'm going to emphasize

them now. There where Jesus was talking about that, and

he quoted from Deuteronomy is six, and you can go

back and find it there yourself. But in Deuteronomy is six,

and in Mark twelve, and in Luke and in Matthew

he says, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God

with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. The word

shelt is in there. You do it, and the idea is,

whether you feel like it or not, thou shalt love

the Lord thy God. I think is that reasonable? Is

that possible? Is that how it really works? Let's take

an example between husband and wife on that. Now. I

know that. I'm sure the husbands that are here tonight

they just love their wife because they love their wife

and they feel loving at all times. And husbands and wives,

it just kind of it's just the way it is,

and it's beautiful and we don't have to work on

and it's automatic. And maybe the preacher should get more realistic, right,

because there are times when the feelings are not as

near the top as would be ideal. Well, what do

we do? Then? We love anyway, don't we? Thou shalt

love thy wife, Thou shalt love thy husband. It's because

we have committed ourselves to it. I often think of

that when these two innocent lives stand up front in

front of the bishop. They don't have a clue really

what they're promising, but they do it anyway, and the

bishop asks them, are you willing to take this sister

by your side to be your wedded wife? And then

he has a row that he asked this man. He says,

will you love and cherish her through tough times, in

sickness and in health, and adversity and prosperity, and share

with her the joys and the what the sorrows of

wedded life, And in the midst of those dark and

deep and difficult times, will you still promise to love her?

And the man says, I will, no problem. Let's get

on with this thing and get to the reception, you know,

and again not thinking for a minute, really the weight

of what we are committing ourself too. And that's fine.

There's time for maturity, I guess during the honeymoon or afterwards.

But be that as it may. Did you know it's

that way in serving God we can glibly promise I

will follow THEE all the way. I'm going to love

you until the end. And then the tree falls on

the house or the whatever, and sometimes we don't feel

very loving or very devoted at that time. It's in

those times that we can say, with the songwriter, I

believe in God even when I can't see him, even

when he is silent, I know he is there, and

I know that sometime the clouds are going to move

away and let the sun shine through again. And blessed

is the man that can be devoted to God even

in the midst of those difficulties. And there's even a

higher level that I think of in that I was

thinking of the children of Israel gathered on the side

of the Red Sea, and they were so happy to

be out of Egypt. They had left there and traveled

and finally they were free from these whippings and bondage

and the terrible treatment they had received. And they were

so thankful to be away from Egypt. And here they

were down by the river. I suppose there were some

question marks in some of their minds. What's Moses up

to now? And then the Egyptians are pursuing, and all

those feelings of gratitude evaporated like the morning mist, and

they were gone. And suddenly they were grumbling and they

were chiding with Moses. Why did you bring us out here?

Why did you bring us down here against this red sea?

Why did you bring us into a place where there's

mountains on one side and there's a sea in front,

and there are the enemy is behind us. You let

us ride into a trap. And they were very angry.

There was no devotion going on there at all. And Moses,

of course cried out to the Lord, and the Lord

told him what to do, and they got over to

the other side. And then what did they do there? Oh,

they had a party. Miriam came out with the timbrels

and the dances, and they shouted and they praised the Lord,

and rightly so they should have been thankful as they

saw the Egyptians drowned in the sea. I think they

should have been thankful. On the other side the Red Sea,

they should have been in a position where they said,

I don't know how God's going to pull this off,

but I know my God, and he's big and he's

powerful and he's good, and I don't know what's going

to happen. But I'm thankful already for his salvation. I'm

thankful that he's going to see us through. I'm thankful

that he's going to make a way of escape. I'm

thankful that he knows the situation that we are in

right now. I wonder if you and I can do

that when you're up against a red sea and there's

mountains on either side and the Egyptians are moving in

from behind. I'd like to encourage you to love the

Lord your God with all your heart's, soul, mind and strength,

and be filled with gratitude. Right then, God knows exactly

where you are. God knows the things that are happening

in your life right at that time. That's devotion. Let's

consider some things that destroy devotion. I will introduce this

with a story. It's from John twenty one. The disciples

had been following Jesus and had been taught by him

for three years, and as time went on, they learned

to love Jesus and trust Jesus. They knew finally the

Messiah had come, the deliverer of Israel. Their king was

with them, and they were so grateful, they were so excited.

They were so happy that this was the case. And

then things began to close in on Jesus and they

couldn't believe it. And Peter went so far as one

time when Jesus said that he was going to be

delivered to the chief priests and they were going to

kill him. Peter said, no, no, be it far from

the Lord. This is not going to happen to you.

I'll stand in the way. I'm going to protect you.

This is in my own words, of course, and Jesus said,

get thee behind me, Satan. You don't understand what's going on,

And of course Peter didn't, how could he. But anyway,

you know, they were still hopeful, and they were still

excited about the Messiah being here. And then as that

circle got smaller and smaller and out there in gethsemine,

he was arrested, and then he was taken to Pilot's hall,

and there he was tried. And then they saw him

hanging on the tree there from a distance, of course,

they didn't want to get too close, but there was

Jesus on that cross, and they saw him bow his

head and die, and they just couldn't believe it. They

were absolutely devastated. They were crushed. Their king was dead,

their hope was gone. That which they had depended on

was now not there at all. How could we have

been so mistaken? We thought he was the deliverer, We

thought he was the king. We thought he was going

to chase the Romans out, And here he's on the

cross and he's dead. And a couple days later, Peter says,

I'm fishing, and the rest of the disciples says we're

going with you, and I'm going to put some of

this on my own words, and I hope that it

is accurate to scripture. But they were out there one

night fishing in the boat, and it was a tough night,

and there was no fish. Reminds me a little bit

of when we were on the Sea of Galilee several

years ago. And the fellow threw out his net to

show us how the game was played back even in

Peter's day, And he worked on the one side the

boat and he didn't catch anything, and then he tried

it on the other side and he didn't catch anything there.

He said, folks, you're going to have to eat pizza.

There's no fish today. And he didn't catch anything. And

that's the way it was that night. They fished all night,

there was no fish, and the morning was just starting

to dawn. And here they saw somebody up on the

a silhouette up on the shore, and a man was

walking along the sand there beside the sea, and suddenly

he calls out over the waves and he says, children,

do you have any meat? And have you caught any fish?

And they said no, we didn't catch anything, and he says,

throw your nets on the other side. The men said,

we fished all night, we didn't catch anything, but at

your bidding, we will, and they threw their net on

the other side. And now they caught such a big

swarm of fish. They couldn't they couldn't hardly drag it

into the boat. There was that many fish in the net.

And Peter said, right away, that's got to be the

Lord up there on the shore. And so he gets

himself dressed a little bit better, and he jumps into

the into the lake and begins to work his way

up toward the shore there where Jesus was, and the

other disciples they came dragging their fish. And when they

got up on the on the shore there, the sun

was starting to come up. And lo and behold there

was Jesus, and he had a fire going, and there

was already fish on the fire. Where did those fish

come from, I don't know, but Jesus apparently had either

caught them or manufactured him or something. But there there

was fish on the fire, and the disciples they bring

their fish up there, and they sit down and they

have breakfast together there on the shore, and they're recounting.

I'm sure some of the events of the past days.

I'm not sure what all went on in that conversation

to be so interesting to know. But finally breakfast was

over with and they were just kind of relaxing there

around the fire, and then Peter turns. Jesus turns to

Peter and he says, Simon, son of Jonas. He says,

do you love me? Is your devotion toward me? And

Peter says, yes, I'm devoted to you. I love you,

And Jesus pauses for a bit and then he says, Simon,

love me more than these And Peter was taken aback

that Jesus would ask him this the second time, and

he says, yeah, Lord, you know that I love you.

And then after a bit, Jesus says it the third time, Simon,

son of Jonas, do you love me? And there Peter

was smitten in his heart and he says, Lord, you

know my heart, you know that I love you. And

Jesus told him to feed his sheep and so on.

But something was a miss, something was wrong with Peter's

devotion with his love to his Lord. And I wonder

how it is in your heart and mind tonight. The

first question there that Jesus asked, he said, do you

love me more than these? And I've often wondered what

did Jesus point to when he said these? Did he

point to the fish and on the grill? Did he

point to the fish in the net? Maybe? Did he say?

Did he point to the other men that were around there?

Do you love me more than these? Maybe? I don't know,

And there may well have been other things there that

Jesus pointed to when he said, do you love me

more than these? In a sense, I'm glad I don't know,

because the these in my life are different from the

these in your life. But tonight I think Jesus would

ask you and me do you love me more than?

And then you need to fill in the blanks. You

need to finish the sentence for your own experience. Do

you love me more than these? And I don't know

what these is in your life. It can be so

many things that can take the place of a heart

that's devoted to God as it ought to be. It

could be a hobby. It can be a vehicle, it

can be technology, it can be it can be anything.

It might be a friend. It might be you know,

anything that is more that that we care more about

then we care about our Lord? Do you love me

more than these? It might be worldliness, maybe there's some habit,

Maybe I don't know what it is. The Bible simply

says love not the world, neither the things that are

in the world. If any man loved the world, the

devotion is not there. The love of the Father is

not in him. He says. If there's something in our

heart that we love, it will stifle, it will eliminate

our devotion to God. Timothy lamented the fact Paul did

to Timothy that Demus hath forsaken me having loved this

present world. Do you love this world? You know? The

whole thing of relationships can be a hindrance. Jesus said,

if you bring your gift to the altar and there,

remember that there's a conflict with a brother, that there's

a conflict with a sister, that there's a difficulty in relationships.

He says, don't come make a sacrifice. He says, leave

there your gift before the altar, and go your way. First,

be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer

your gift. That's the way it needs to be. If

we are devoted to God. It could be materialism, it

could be a time factor. There's so many things. Do

you love me more than these? What is the these

in your life? Tonight? Let's look at our fourth idea

yet in conclusion, but the idea that devotion must be fed.

Devotion that isn't fed starves, Devotion that isn't fed dies.

You know that's true in a marriage relationship. Anybody here

that in any that has friends knows that friendship must

be fed. Relationship must be taken care of or it diminishes.

You know, we could say, well, so if I'm devoted

to God like I should be, then my devotions are

not important, because the preacher said it's devotion that's important,

not the devotions. Well, that's like saying, if I truly

love my wife, then I don't need to express it.

I don't need to show it to her because I

I just love her. Right of course, that's foolishness, because

a devoted heart will express itself in action. It just

works itself out in that way, and that's the way

it is spiritually. But as we think about feeding devotion,

there's another favorite verse of mine that explains that in

a beautiful way. It's from Revelation three and verse twenty,

where Jesus says to the revelators there to the church,

he says, I think it was the church at Leadicia.

He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

And then he says, if any man opened the door,

I will come in to him and sup with him,

and he with me. And there we have devotion being fed.

We have devotion being built in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And you know, sometimes we think we have to do this,

and we have to do that, and we have to

go find Jesus and we have to you know, read,

or we have to we have to do this or

that to try to No, no, no, it's not that

way at all. All we have to do is open

the door. He says, if any man opened the door,

I will come in. I will come in to him

and fellowship. I will come in to him and sup

with him, and he with me. What is your attitude

toward that? Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness? To Jeremiah,

Jeremiah said, thy words were found, and I did eat them,

and thy word was unto me. The joy and rejoicing

of my heart. That was his attitude, towards relationship, towards fellowship,

towards devotion. There are many verses that we could look at. Ezra,

the Bible tells us had prepared his heart to seek

the law of the Lord and to teach it and

to do it. And in doing that there's relationship. There's devotion.

Now as we bring these things together, indeed, devotion. In fact,

I think we ought to change the title because it

really shouldn't be devotion or devotions. Let's use that for

the title instead, because we really need both, don't we.

We need devotion and devotions. And if the devotion is

the way that it should be, then we have the

devotions will follow that devotion and devotions. I'd like to

pray tonight and just ask the Lord to minister to

our hearts. And then I am going to give an

invitation if there's someone here that would like special prayer

right here in the auditorium, you can show that by

raising your hands. Let's pray our Father in heaven. You've

been so kind and so gracious and so good to us.

How can we ever not love you? And yet, Lord,

we confess tonight that there are times when both our

devotion and our devotions are not like they ought to be,

where some thing of bitterness or something of the world

has crept into our heart and stifled our devotion to you.

And we confess that tonight we desire Lord, to have

a heart that is totally devoted to you. And then, Lord,

as we ponder what these things might be for each

one of us, Lord, I pray that tonight there would

be commitments made in personal hearts to deal with whatever

you have laid your finger on in each of our hearts,

on what those things would be that draw our devotion

away from you? And Lord, give us a passion again,

reignite the fires of love in our heart for your

word and for your will and your way in our heart,

and we promise to give you the honor and glory

in Jesus' name. Amen, I invite you to continue with

heads bowed.