Message from Scripture: 12/30/2021

 

Our message from Scripture today is Luke 4:8. “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

 

In this passage, Jesus refutes the temptation of Satan to bow down before him with this quote from Deut. 6:13, which affirms two truths to us. God alone is worthy of worship, and God should be worshipped. It is similar to what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

 

As deity, God alone knows how reverence and devotion in worship should be expressed to Him. It is both interesting and sad how humanity wants to define worship in how we desire to express it, rather than how God has prescribed it. Under the new covenant era, the gospel age, worship on the Lord’s Day involves, singing, prayer, the proclamation of the word, the Lord’s Supper, and giving as we have been prospered. There are those who have said they don’t like to sing, and thus avoid it. God, however, says worship is based on what honors and glorifies Him, not what pleases us. Others say they don’t need to hear the word proclaimed, yet it is through such we learn of God and how to live for Him. All of these elements are to be engaged in for our worship to honor God and bless us.

 

As a congregation, we are to assemble on the first day of the week, the day our Lord rose from the dead. The early church understood the value of assembling together, and did so daily (Acts 2:42, 46). It is of such significance to God the Hebrew writer, by inspiration, tells us not to forsake coming together to worship (Heb. 10:25). What a blessing it offers us, and what a testimony we offer to society when we continue to do so, unlike many groups and individuals who have abandoned it, for whatever reason.

 

In accordance with God’s will, with the right attitude of heart, may we determine in the New Year to come together to please God and find strength for daily living. God bless.

 

Robert