We Grow

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1578. Today's Devo is called We Grow.

Hey there, we're the Alesses, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Well, hey everybody, welcome back to the My Morning Devo. I hope you have been blessed, encouraged, and even challenged by the devotionals this week. And today we'll challenge us because I love the verse we're going to read out of. We've been talking about why we go to church. And today we're going to look at the third reason why we go, which is we grow or we go to church to grow in our knowledge and revelation of the word. 2 Timothy 3:16 says it this way All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. Well, I just want to say this as a side note before I move on to the rest of this episode. One of the reasons why this devo and some of the episodes that we might post, one of the reasons why it might challenge us or it might uh convict us is because we're reading scripture. Because this verse just told us that the scripture is profitable for rebuking, for correcting, and for training. Yes, it's for teaching, but it's for rebuking. And every once in a while we need that. And I think today's uh episode is really going to be a moment where we course correct how we view the word of God that's shared on a Sunday morning. Because one of the reasons we go to church is to hear from our pastor. And I pray that you all find a pastor that you trust and that you can lean on, an integrous pastor that has a good character, a godly character. Because that pastor, his job and his role is to step on the platform every single Sunday and to preach from the Word of God and to do it in a way that He is the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. He is to step out of the way. It's not about him, but it's about the Holy Spirit moving and speaking in that moment. He or she, whoever is speaking to you on a Sunday and leading you in that, they have a very holy position. And with that holy position comes a whole lot of weight and responsibility. And because of that, we are to trust them in the word that they're sharing. And I want us to know that one of the reasons why we come to church is to learn more about God and his word. We can't just do it on our own at home. I will read a verse. This happens to me all the time. I will read a verse at home. I'll read a chapter, I'll read a whole story, and I will think that I've interpreted it correctly. This happens more times than you'd probably want to know. But I truly believe, oh, I got the takeaway. Jesus, I know what you're saying here. God, I know what you were trying to communicate here. I'll go to church that Sunday, my dad will preach, and he'll preach about the same thing. And then I feel good about myself. Wow, look how aligned I am with my my dad and my pastor. And then he'll reveal to us that I interpreted it all wrong. You see, if I didn't go to church that Sunday, I would misinterpret the word of God. And that's something that is real for all of us believers. Not because, oh man, we don't know what we're doing. It's because if we're not careful, we can make reading God's word too much in our flesh. We can read it, we can take it away wrong. We might not even just have the knowledge of how to interpret or even translate the words correctly, and we'll take it the wrong way. And we'll believe something about God or about his word that's not correct. And that's what Sunday mornings is for. I do believe Sunday morning should be a time of correction, not to hurt the body of Christ, not to hurt one of us, no, but to bring us back into alignment. You see, the role of a pastor is to shepherd his people. And if you've ever seen a shepherd, his role and his job is to make sure all of the sheep stay together. They stay in their little pack, in their, whatever you call it, there's a word for it that I can't think of right now, but they stay together in the flock. There it is. And every shepherd has a staff that has a little loop at the at the top of it. And that little loop, it's so that if a sheep gets off and gets away from the flock, the shepherd can go back out and bring it back into alignment. That's the role of a shepherd. That's why we need to have a trustworthy shepherd and pastor in our life, because when we are off, which all of us are gonna have a day and a moment where we are off. Our pastor, our shepherd can come over to us and bring us back in to alignment with the word of God and help us teach us, correct us, challenge us, train us. That's his role. And I wanna add this too because I know this is this might be a lot of teaching and it's not really a uh devo, which is I think is good for us. But a pastor has the weight and responsibility that when he stands before God, God's not just gonna ask him about his life, but he's gonna ask how he carried and led and pastored your life. So if we ever want to judge a pastor or criticize a pastor and and believe that he has something great that we don't have, and these pastors these days, they have this and they have that. Just remember and recognize that they gotta stand before God and answer to him about every person that they led and shepherded. So if anything, I encourage all of us to pray for our pastors, whether it's your pastor or the pastors of the world, pray for them because their role, their job and responsibility is truly great and heavy before the eyes of the Lord. God puts a lot of trust in them. So, number three reason, the third reason that we go to church is because we grow in our revelation and our understanding and our knowledge of the Word of God. And that's why we go to church on Sundays. That's why it's important that we're there every single Sunday, because your pastor might be speaking something this Sunday that God has been trying to get to you, but maybe you've just missed it. And here's the beautiful thing: there is grace for those that have missed it, that have misinterpreted it, or not fully understood the word of God. Because God understands where we're at, but that's why we have his church. That's why we come on Sunday mornings to grow in our revelation and our understanding of his word. Come on, let's pray. God, we just thank you for today and we thank you for this word. We thank you for your word that we can read from and learn from that teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us, and trains us in righteousness. God, I pray that you would give us a teachable spirit. Help us, Lord, develop a hunger for your word in all of our lives, and not just a hunger for the word, but a hunger to grow in your word into the person that you have called us to be. And God, I just keep praying that you would stir up a deep desire and love for your church and every listener. That we would go to church on Sundays to hear from you, to open up your word and hear from you. In Jesus' name, amen.

So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you've found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.