Obey God's Worship Commands

Well, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 12, the first 14 verses. We're gonna have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Oh, that's empty. Here, you wanna have some of my coffee? All right, that's good, that's good, that's good. Drinking the very last drop there. What am I gonna do with you? Well, you know what I didn't do? I didn't check. Okay, yep, that's all good. All right, Deuteronomy chapter 12.
Let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. Father, please help us to read you as we read your word. that you would let us understand it. Thank you so much for the blessing it is to get to read your word together. Please, Lord, give us your Holy Spirit to teach us in Jesus's name. Amen.
All right. Here we go, Elbow. Deuteronomy chapter 12, the first 14 verses, right? These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord, your God of your fathers, is giving you to possess. All the days that you live on the earth. All right, so we're getting into a new area, okay? These are going to start talking about specific laws and commands. You ready for it? Okay.
You shall utterly destroy all the places from where the nations which you shall dispossess serve their gods on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things, but you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling place.
And there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hands, you and your household, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do, or you shall not at all do as you are here today, every man doing what is right in his own eyes. For as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you, But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so you shall dwell in safety, then there will be at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates.
And since he has no portion nor inheritance with you, take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord chooses. In one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
All right, so they're about to go into the land. So we need to talk about what this is about. So, A, what is this about? Your second voice of life is ringing. Oh, you're being silly. All right. So, you got something on your face there, sweetie. So, you have the Lord, and he's going to bring them into the land. And are there people who already live in the land? Mm-hmm. Daddy, when you say W-I-S-P-E-N-D-Y-T-E, that's my first name. Nope, you had something on cheek. So they're gonna go into the land. Are there people in the land over there already? Mm-hmm. And guess what those people have Ellie idols And God says you're not to worship me with those idols. Mm-hmm.
No, no No, when you go in guess what they're supposed to do with all the idols Break them down if they're made out of wood burn them up if they're made out of stone Break them if they're made out of metal melt them down. I No idolatry. You can't worship the Lord with idolatry. They're not allowed to worship the Lord however they want, but they need to go to where God chooses and worship the way God does. Does that make sense? Not at all. So they're in, they're in the desert. Yep.
And they're going to go in the promised land. they're going to take over the promised land. God's given them the promised land. But they're not to act like the pagan people who are there worshiping idols. But they're to worship God in the special way that he's commanded them.
Does that make sense? No, not at all. Well, do you think God Do you think God cares about how we worship him? Yeah. Yes. That's what God's telling them. I care about how you worship me and you're not going to worship me however you want. But you're going to worship me how I've told you to. So you can have joy. And it goes well with you. Oh, that's not weird. It's good. Well, best verse to summarizes, I think. I don't think it's weird. Best verse to summarizes. I am going to say I have verse two and verse four underlined. Well, let's talk about C calling. I am not listening. You're not listening to me. Oh, OK, good. What do you think after you've heard this? What do you think that means for you in your life? Do you need to go find the tabernacle? Do we need to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem? I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so. Nope.
I think God calls us together as a living temple. Yeah, I think the church is the new temple now, and the Holy Spirit is in us. So, the Palm Stand is in us? Well, it's not that the promised land is in us. The promised land was pointing towards even a better land, a new heavens and a new earth that we get to inherit.
And when you die? Well, when Jesus returns. What does that mean? Jesus is going to come back someday, and he's going to judge the living and the dead, and he's going to usher in the new heaven and the new earth. Like if you'd be walking down the street and dead people would be coming out? Yeah, someday. Yeah, there's going to be a resurrection of the dead. That's right. You mean walking down a road? You might be. Yeah, and when Jesus returns, that's what's going to happen.
But the point is, can we worship God how he wants to be worshiped? No. Oh, yeah, we can. Oh, yes, we can. Because we can worship in spirit and in truth. OK, let's calm down, right? Don't be silly. Okay, okay Yeah, if we believe in Jesus He promises promises us to give us the Holy Spirit And we can worship him in spirit And how his word has told us in truth So we can worship him as the one true living God. Mm-hmm OK, you ready to pray? OK.
Lord, please help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you for your spirit that dwells in us. God, we pray that we would not look like the rest of the nations around us. But Lord, we pray that you would please let us love you and follow after you in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God bless you and may you follow him all the days of your life. We'll see you next time. You want to say bye? Bye. You're silly.