Why Go To Church?
Squirrels had overrun three churches in town.
After much prayer,
the elders of the first church determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there,
who were they to interfere with God’s will? They reasoned.
The elders of the second church,
deciding that they could not harm any of God’s creatures,
humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free outside of town.
Three days later, the squirrels were back.
It was only the third church that succeeded in keeping the squirrels away.
They baptized all the squirrels and registered them as members of the church.
Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter.
As Paul is writing here in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, he is discussing the concept of faith with his readers.
He begins his writing, by telling how the sacrificial requirements of the Law were insufficient,
because it only rolled back sin for a year.
And that Christ’s one time sacrifice was sufficient, in that it permanently removed sin.
Paul then writes, that since we have faith in the sufficiency of Christ,
we need to grow in that faith.
And the gathering together of believers, is part of that growth process.
So in this passage, he tells us, that we shouldn’t neglect going to church.
Now I am not here this morning to condemn anyone, but rather to offer encouragement,
concerning a vital link, in the building process of our faith, that
we ought not miss out on, so…
This morning we set out to answer that age old and often asked
question, why go to Church?
As we set out to answer the question of church attendance,
I first want to draw your attention to Hebrews 10:23-25.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and
good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of
doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day
approaching.
I. PAUL’S
WORD ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
A. Paul begins by telling us that we need to
“hold fast” to what we believe.
To hold to
the confession of our hope, our confessed faith in Jesus Christ.
This isn’t
always an easy thing to do, at times it’s a great trial.
We are warned, that if we quit holding fast, then we will loose that
hope that we possess.
Paul encourages us to maintain our faith, and stand firmly behind what we believe and know to be true.
If we are faithful to God, God will be faithful to us.
We will not be disappointed, if we hold fast to our confession without wavering,
because the one making that promise, can be totally relied
upon.
B. Paul next tells us that we need to stimulate one another in love and deeds.
This is to
be done, to build up one another in the faith.
To love others, as we ourselves have been loved by God (John 3:16).
In doing
this we need to take into consideration each others strengths and weaknesses.
This is done to see where our brother or sister might need support from us.
Once a need is determined,
then this is the time when the good deeds and love come into play.
These needs that Paul speaks of, are general in nature,
and can range from the physical to the spiritual.
But now we are taken from the general to the
specific
C. We
are warned by Paul not to forsake our assembling together.
The word
“forsake”
in the Greek,
means to leave a place or situation, or to carry on in a negligent manner.
Apparently some struggling believers, are beginning to be absent from the regular weekly assembly.
These people haven’t completely given up on Church,
but there was a danger, that they would, if
they continued in their absenteeism.
Church attendance is a habit.
Gareth
Reese, one of our college professors, used to say,
people are only two weeks from
being out of the Church.
Continually “forsaking” is prohibited by scripture.
The Greek here is
prohibiting an action currently taking place.
Paul is emphatically saying to his readers, “STOP
FORSAKING THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY!!!!!”
D. Paul also tells us, that we need to encourage each other to be regular attendees.
If someone is absent at Sunday services,
we should care enough about that person to find out why
they were absent.
And encourage them to return.
This goes for someone who has missed one Sunday,
or may have been gone for a long period of
time.
By Paul’s words, we see that the Christian assembly is not of little importance.
But something vital to our spiritual formation and the life of the Church.
So we see the importance, that Paul places on church attendance.
We now move on to look at some reasons why…
II. WHY SOME DON’T
MAKE CHURCH A PRIORITY.
A. There
are countless reasons why people don’t
make church a priority.
In a door-to-door survey, conducted by Willow Creek Community Church, the question was asked: if you don’t go to church, why?
The five biggest reasons:
1) Boring,
2) Irrelevant,
3) Asking for money all the time,
4) I’m too busy already,
5) I feel awkward at church.
Some of those reasons are valid, but many of them are not.
The problem of church attendance is not a problem confined to the 21st century.
The early
church experienced it just as much, if not more that we do.
So lets look at some possible reasons why people put Church attendance on the
back burner.
Back in the 1st century it could have been real, or perceived persecution.
Persecution was mainly physical in the 1st century.
But it’s alive and well today.
In our situation, most persecution comes in the form or
ridicule from our peers.
Another possibility is, that the people were
lacking spiritual growth (they were falling asleep spiritually).
Or it could have been, that they thought that they were good enough as they were,
they didn’t
need the church.
The “Gnostics” that John battled in his writings, held to this idea,
“I’m good enough with the knowledge that I have gained on my own, what I know is better than what they are teaching in church.”
The list of possible reasons is endless, and has stretched down thorough the ages,
and most of them are invalid reasons.
But there are some that are valid.
We all have things that come up in life, that are unexpected,
that keep us from being able to attend church every single week.
We are sometimes hindered by work obligations.
Or perhaps
some family crisis.
It may be that we have to be on the road, traveling to some event or gathering.
These things happen, but they are not the purposeful abandonment that Paul is
speaking of.
B. It should be pointed out, that attendance at Sunday morning services, IS an act of worship.
It is part of our commitment to God.
That is why Paul places as much emphasis on it as he does.
Commitment is hard to maintain, especially with outside forces
pressing on us.
And this struggle isn’t
anything new.
This is true even of
people who were learning at the feet of Jesus himself.
We read of one event in particular (Luke 9:57-62)
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
It was just after the feast of Tabernacles, and during this feast Jesus has created quite a stir.
Some have
come to love Jesus, and others have come to hate Him.
He now leaves Jerusalem for a preaching tour of Judea,
and many
people follow him as he goes.
We see these three people in particular, who desire to follow Jesus, but with
strings attached.
They struggled with commitment to Jesus, just as we do
ourselves sometimes
C. Even when
it’s hard to do so, we need to be committed to Church attendance.
Lets face it, we all have times in life, when
Sunday morning rolls around, and we really don’t
want to go to Church.
Maybe we had a late night before for some reason, or a really draining week.
Its when situations like this arise, that Satan kicks into overdrive,
to convince
us that we don’t need to go to church.
We see excuses like:
No one will
miss me
One Sunday gone wont hurt anything
Everyone
plays hookey from time to time
The excuses go on and on.
A husband and his wife woke up one Sunday morning and the wife dressed for church.
It was just about time for the service,
when she noticed her husband hadn’t moved a finger toward getting dressed.
Perplexed, she asked, “Why aren’t you getting dressed for church?”
He said, “Cause I don’t want to go.”
She asked, “Do you have any reasons?”
He said, “Yes, I have three good reasons.
First the congregation is cold.
Second, no one likes me.
And third, I just don’t want to go.”
The wife replied, wisely, “Well honey, I have three reasons why you should go.
First the congregation is warm.
Second, there are a few people there who like you.
And third, you’re the minister!
So get dressed!”
This struggle is one that requires encouragement from others to overcome.
This warning that Paul gives us about not forsaking the assembly,
implies that people who deliberately and persistently abandon the Christian assembly,
are in danger of abandoning Christ himself.
Missing worship is a perilous habit, it was in Paul’s day, it is in
our own.
We have seen Paul’s word about church attendance.
And looked at some reasons why some people don’t make church attendance a priority.
We will conclude this morning’s message by looking at the positive…
III. POSITIVE
RESULTS OF CHURCH ATTENDANCE
A. The
first result is, that we find encouragement.
This is one
of the greatest gifts that we can give one another
Encouragement come in many forms,
but in particular is found in public worship.
That encouragement comes through the edification of the believers (1Corinthians 14:26):
26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you
come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a
tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of
the church.
The
“BIG QUESTION” – Can I be a Christian without attending services?
Yes and No!
While it’s true, that we can worship God individually at home,
this cannot and should not take the place of fellowship and participation,
with other believers in the regular public assembly.
When we miss the public assembly we miss out on its benefits.
Edification is the Golden rule of the Christian assembly.
B. The second
result is that we find power.
The power to live our daily lives for God.
The power that was promised to us by God (Acts 1:8).
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Early church father IGNATIUS wrote: “when ye frequent, and in numbers meet together, the powers of Satan are overthrown”
Satan
may seem powerful, he may win a few battles, but he looses the war!
C. The third result is that we find the opportunity to serve others.
It’s interesting to note, that the emphasis in this passage about church attendance,
isn’t placed so much on what we can get out of the assembly,
but moreover, what we can add to it.
Vs. 25 tells us that we need to assemble.
Vs. 24 tells us why we should assemble.
It’s the idea of mutual edification, to give and receive simultaneously!
To worship
God, edify our brothers and sisters, and grow in our faith.
That is what this assembly is for!
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I share with you the comments of one minister,
discussing church attendance with his congregation.
Football in the fall.
Basketball in the winter.
Baseball in the spring and summer.
This pastor has been an avid sports fan all his life.
He said: But I’ve had it! I quit this sports business once and for all.
You can’t get me near one of those places again.
Want to know why...
Every time I went, they asked me for money.
The people with whom I had to sit didn’t seem very friendly.
The seats were too hard and not at all comfortable.
I went to many games, but the coach never came to call on me.
The referee made a decision with which I could not agree.
I suspected that I was sitting with some hypocrites --
they came to see their friends,
and what others were wearing, rather than to see the game.
Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home.
The band played some numbers that I had never heard before.
It seems that the games are scheduled when I want to do other things.
I was taken to too many games by my parents, when I was growing up.
I don’t want to take my children to any games,
because I want them to choose for themselves
what sport they like best.
This morning we have looked at the scriptural teaching concerning church attendance.
And answered the question “why go to church?”
My encouragement this morning, is the same that Paul gave in Hebrews:
Make church attendance a priority!
Don’t forsake assembling together.
Don’t miss out on the benefits of that most important fellowship.