WORSHIP THE LORD!
“Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing” … “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”
—Psalm 100
ONE MARK of a true believer is delight in the worship of God. How you respond to worship on the Lord’s Day reveals what is going on in your soul. If you’d rather be some other place when the church gathers on the Lord’s Day for public worship then you reveal, at worst, a heart of unbelief, or at best, a heart of a spiritual infant. Every Sunday morning, we ought to sing these words, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” We ought to delight to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
BY GOD'S GRACE, believers are those being conformed into the very image of Jesus Christ, and Jesus was never burdened by worship. He was never burdened to hear the Word of God. Therefore, as believers, we ought to delight in the worship of God by hearing His Word on the Lord’s Day. Parents, you must teach this principle to your children. They must learn what a great joy and wonderful privilege and blessing it is to gather with a congregation that faithfully stands on the truth of God's Word. Parents, if you don’t rejoice in worshipping God, neither will your children. You must teach your children to cultivate a spirit of worship for the true and living God out of a thankful heart.
TODAY THERE IS such a famine for the preaching of God’s Word and a famine for the hearing of God’s Word. Too many “preachers” don’t preach the Word of God, and too many church members don’t desire to hear God’s Word preached, and yet they call themselves followers of Christ? The duty of a follower of Christ is to obey His Word. Jesus said in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow Me.” And the sheep hear Christ’s voice on Sunday morning when the preacher faithfully proclaims God’s Word. Therefore, every believer has a responsibility to be in a place of worship on Sunday morning where the Word of God is faithfully preached and taught in order that they might bow their necks in faithful obedience to the God who has saved their soul by the person and work of Jesus Christ. As believers, we must be seen ‘entering into His gates with thanksgiving” and we must be heard entering “into his courts with praise.”
Tuesday Encouragement: June 10, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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"Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
—Genesis 2:22-23
"There are at least five ways the Bible distinguishes between male and female. We can remember these differences using the letters ABCDE.
(2) The Body is the second difference. Where the world wants us to believe that our bodies tell us nothing permanent or obligatory about ourselves, the Bible says just the opposite. There is a fittedness to our bodily design. Part of being a man is that your body was designed for a woman; part of being a woman is that your body was designed for a man (Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:26–27). The body must not be altered to fit our own sense of identity. Our bodies are given, not identified or chosen by us, and they are given to us to be used for God’s glory (1 Cor. 6:19)."
—Kevin DeYoung
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A CHRISTIAN’S SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
HEAVENLY FATHER, I bow before You this Lord’s Day morning through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Thank You, Father, for Your amazing grace and wondrous mercy. Thank You that while I was spiritually dead in my trespasses and sins, You made me alive and created faith in my soul that I might believe the Gospel, love You, love the Lord Jesus Christ, love the Holy Spirit, and love Your Church. Thank You for creating faith in my heart so that I trust fully in Jesus for my salvation, which He obtained for me by His perfect law-abiding life and sin-atoning death. Thank You for blessing me to serve Christ by serving the Church, which Jesus purchased with His own blood.
LORD JESUS, I praise You for laying down Your life for me, and for all Your sheep. When You found us, we were miserable, blind, rebellious, wretched sinners. Not only did you lay down Your life for us, but You also lived that perfect life in our place. You alone fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law of God and have clothed Your people with Your perfect righteousness in order that we may come boldly into the throne of grace being justified by Your work which You accomplished in Your life, death, resurrection, session, and ascension. I thank You, Lord Jesus, that You imputed Your righteousness to me and to all Your people in exchange for our sins being imputed to You. Thank You that on the cross You dealt with our sins once for all time and therefore we bear our sins no more! Praise the Lord!
HOLY SPIRIT, fill me with Your presence and power, dominate my life, control my every thought, word, and action, and cause me to be obedient to that which You command of me in Your Word. Make me realize that when I am obedient to Your will, I am only an unprofitable servant who has only done that which You have commanded. Correct me when I go astray, make me humble when I obey. Holy Spirit, I ask that You open my understanding more and more in order that I might rightly understand Your Scriptures since You alone give understanding of Your Word. Strengthen me spiritually to keep on walking in Your ways of Truth. Keep me from wandering away from the God I love. As the hymn writer, Robert Robinson wrote, ♫ "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above." ♫
HEAVENLY FATHER, thank You for blessing me for I know that I don’t deserve the least of Your blessings. All Your blessings come not by my obedience but by Your sovereign grace in Christ. My obedience is always less than perfect and defiled with sin and is only acceptable to You because of the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who always lives to make intercession for the saints. Father, hear my prayer for the sake of your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in whose name and authority I pray. Amen!
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HUMBLENESS OF MIND
“…be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility…”
—1 Peter 5:5
THE WORD HUMILITY in Scripture means “humbleness of mind.” It’s a character quality that can best be summarized by Romans 12:3, “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.” An excellent example of humility is found in the words of the prophet Samuel when he addressed King Saul, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel?” (1 Sam. 15:17). “Little in your own eyes” is a wonderful description of a humble person.
HOWEVER, HUMILITY is not popular in our world because humility only thrives in a society that honors God. When God is dishonored then humility is despised and belittled, and man’s sinful pride is exalted. And because our world is hostile to God, humility is ridiculed by our society. Nevertheless, Scripture calls every believer to “be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
THIS TEXT IS completely foreign to our culture, but it’s essential in the Christian life if we are going to glorify Christ and live as salt of the earth and light for a perishing world (Matt. 5:13-14). Notice what Peter says, "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another.” One key element to a life of humility is submission. A person who is unwilling to submit to others is a person filled with pride, which is contrary to the virtue of humility. Jesus demonstrated a life of humility when He submitted to His heavenly Father. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). And the writer to the Hebrews wrote this about Jesus, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (Heb. 10:7). You see, an attitude of submission is produced by an attitude of humility, and true humility is demonstrated in at least two ways: obedience to God’s Word, and esteeming others better than yourself. On the other hand, a non-submissive, rebellious attitude is produced by pride, and pride is manifested by a person who rebels against God’s Word, and esteems other people lower than himself.
THE WORD "CLOTHED" in our text literally means to tie something on with a knot. What Peter has in mind here is the work apron of a slave, which was put on over the outer clothes to keep them clean. It became the word for putting on humble service. Peter is saying to believers, ‘Clothe yourself in a garment of humble service by putting on the apron of a slave and serving others.’ To clothe yourself with humility is to put on the attitude of lowly-mindedness, which is best exemplified by Jesus in John 13:3-5, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” And Scripture says to every believer, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Remember also the words of the Lord at Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
DEAR CHRISTIAN, are you striving to walk in humility? Are you endeavoring to keep on continually being clothed with humility, which is nothing other than Christlikeness? Pray the Holy Spirit strengthens you daily for a walk that glorifies Christ, a simple walk of humble service towards God and neighbor.
Friday Devotional: June 6, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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