Daily Devotional For Sunday, June 15, 2025

Today is Sunday. The Lord’s Day as we say. I pray as a disciple of Jesus, you will follow Him to worship today. To refuse to worship the Lord at a Bible-based church is sin and disobedience. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the excuses from so-called Christians my whole life. “I can worship God in nature.” Yes you can. “I can worship God at home.” Yes you can. Yet, the Bible says this in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, (25) not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (NASB). Genuine followers of Jesus will not disobey our Lord on this aspect of following Him to worship and fellowship with other followers of Christ.

If you travel around America and even the world, you will quickly discover that there are many pagan religions that advocate peace, salvation, a pathway to heaven and salvation, and have their own way of “following” that is not based on grace, but on works. Let me give a few examples from Christian author and pastor, David Platt:

1. If you go to India for example, there are a group of Hindus who go to the Ganges River weekly and even daily. They believe that washing in the Ganges River will wash away their sins. They also believe that the Ganges River is a pathway to the afterlife, heaven, as we call it. Therefore, they will take the cremated remains of their loved ones and scatter their ashes at the base of the Ganges River, ensuring their salvation. Some will toss the complete dead body of a loved one in the Ganges River, believing the flow of the river will carry them into instant salvation. Just like Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land will get baptized in the Jordan River and even bring back some water of the Jordan River in a container, these Hindus will bring back water from the Ganges River to use in Hindu rituals in their villages and towns. They do all of this for the Hiundu goddess Ganga that the river represents.
2. If you go to the Mid East in Muslim countries, you will hear calls to prayer at the local mosques. Muslims are required to go and bow down with their hands on their knees, and then prostrate their faces to the ground and rise after completing these prayers. All of this is to honor Allah under very detailed ritualistic stipulations.
3. If you go to Tibet, you will see Hindus there who have different requirements for salvation than their Hindu counterparts in India. They bow before statues made of gold and stone. They will walk around in circles, reciting what they call “mantras,” and spinning their prayer wheels. These Buddhists believe in following an eight-fold path that includes having the right beliefs, right aspirations, right attitudes, right speech, right actions, right intentionality, the right mental fortitude, and the right living. They believe following Buddha this way will provide them salvation that they call Narana. 
4. And finally, let’s go back to India. There is a group of people there called Sikhs. This community comes together to follow the teachings of 10 gurus as laid out in Sikhism. This means men are forbidden to cut their hair, they must wear turbans of different colors, and their women must keep their heads covered. When they come to worship, they enter and bow before the Sikh Scriptures, known as the Guru Granth Sahib. After some rituals, they eat a meal from a small bowl, sharing with others what it means to be a Sikh (Source: David Platt, Follow Me; A Call To Die. A Call To Live, pp. 51-52).

All of these four different religions have something in common – salvation by ritualistic works. Each has their own “holy book” to follow. Hindus in India have the Vedic Tradition. Muslims have the Koran. Hindus in Tibet have their eight-fold path from 10 different Hindu gurus. And the Sihks in India have their Guru Granth Sahib and Ganges River.  

In just two simple words Jesus in calling His first disciples of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew and then James and his brother John, simply said, “Follow Me.” That was it. No rituals. No mantras to recite. No incense to burn. No specific regulations to obey. No specific rituals to perform. And no rules to uphold. Just, “Follow Me!” Jesus did not tell His disciples to go and find truth from God. No In John 14:6, He said this to them: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (NASB). A literal translation of John 14:6 is this: “I am THE one and only way. I am THE one and only truth. I am THE one and only life. No one can get to God and heaven except by following Me.”

Jesus did not make salvation by following some prescribed rules or rituals or regulations. The shocking and revolutionary distinction of our Christian faith from other world religions is that we are saved not by believing certain truths or doing certain acts. We are saved by following Christ Himself. Yet in so many churches, they have reduced salvation to simply believing certain truths and doing certain acts. Let me illustrate this:

Hindus bathe in the Ganges River; Christians get baptized in church or some body of water. Muslims go to worship on Fridays and Christians go to church on Sundays. Some Buddhists recite mantras and we Christians sing hymns and praise choruses. Sikhs read their holy book and share with the poor and needy. Christians, we read our Bibles and give to missions and the poor. Now please do not misunderstand me here. Getting baptized is a command from Jesus we should do as a public profession that Jesus has given us His life. Attending worship is a command we should do. Reading our Bible is a command we should obey. Singing hymns and praise choruses we should do because singing praises to God is commanded. 

So, what is my point? We can do all of these and still not follow Jesus. We can do all of these even apart from Jesus. We can go through the motions of worship and obedience with our hearts and attitudes being somewhere else. We can read our Bibles legalistically, and not out  of following Jesus. We can be just like the religious leaders in Jesus’ day do all our Christian tasks and still be hypocritical. That is NOT following Jesus. 

That is Jesus’ point in Matthew 15:8-9, “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping Me, but they don’t mean it. They just use Me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy” (MSG). Jesus did not come to give us more rituals, rules and regulations. He came and invited us to establish a relationship with Him so that we can and will follow Him. We will look more at this on Monday.

Assignment: When you come to worship, is your heart really in it? Is your focus and attitude more on how I can praise the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? Or, are you distracted by the temperature, the comfort of the pews or chairs, the pitch of those singing on stage, the lighting in the sanctuary, the spelling in your bulletin documents or on the screens, if your church uses them? Need I remind you, in Jesus’ day He nor anyone else had these. Are you following the Lord no matter what distractions may happen? Are you just showing up, going through the motions, doing what you’re told and then go and leave unchanged, unrepented, and more ritualistic than relational to the Lord? We can’t follow Jesus in worship when we are following something else. The next time you are in a worship service, would you dare put your whole heart, soul, mind and strength into it as a way to follow the Lord?

Scripture To Meditate On: Jeremiah 29:13-14a, “When you seek Me, you will find Me, when you will seek Me with all your heart. (14) I will let you find Me, declares the Lord” (EHV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I am tired of being mediocre in my worship of You. After all You have done for me, I should worship and follow You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Please forgive me when my mind follows distractions. I know this is the devil’s trick to get me side-line rather than inline with all of heaven praising and following You. I know I have a choice in this and I choose to follow You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly