Why Church

After a Bride concert I deliver the message which God gives me to bring to the people. I give a call for prayer and after everyone has had the opportunity to pray I close the evening with certain instruction. I encourage everyone to read their bibles in order to know how to serve God. I also add that we must come out from the world and be separate. We are to be the light of the world. We are a walking example of Jesus on earth if he truly lives and abides in us by the Holy Spirit. The third thing I leave everyone with is to get themselves into a church. This is theme I would like to focus on in this message.

Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much more, as ye see the day approaching.

I have heard a t.v. commercial endorsing church attendance by saying "attend a church of your choice today." I believe that is an incorrect statement. I believe they should have said "attend a church of God's choice today." Many people choose a church, which makes them feel good and never receive the fullness of God's blessings. A dead church may indeed make you feel that everything is great with God in your life but it will never build your spiritual life. If the Word is not being preached by the Spirit explicitly how can faith grow? The church is "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

Other folks may claim to be Born Again Christians but never attend church. This ought not to be!

Every Sabbath day Jesus attended church. Matthew 12:9, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:16, Luke 18:10. The Apostles attended church Luke 22:52-53, John 7:14, Acts 2:46 and 3:1 Paul attended church regularly Acts 13:14.

There are many reasons and excuses given why people refuse to attend church. Some subscribe to the mindset that "everyone in the church are hypocrites." Others say that they "have had bad experiences in church" and they do better if they do not attend church. Other people have just grown tired and lazy in their walk with God. This is what the bible says about attending church and worshiping God.

Psalm 26:8 "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth." David loved to go to church! Psalm 84:10 "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked." David is saying here that the world has no place as satisfying than the house of God.

Psalms 122:1 "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." When someone invited David to church he did not come up with dozens of excuses and reasons why he could not attend. He was genuinely glad because he loved to worship God, to be in God's presence.

There is promised blessings to those who attend church! Psalms 23:6 "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalms 84:4 "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will still be praising thee. (Psalms 122:4)

We are to attend church to worship and honour God. Psalms 96:9 "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth." (Zec 14:17)

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." The early church understood the necessity to gather and assemble together as the body of Christ to receive instructions. They had church though they were persecuted and faced death to do so. It is now our privilege to attend church. We should take advantage of this freedom seeing that so many people paid with their lives to achieve this liberty. Colossians 1:18 "And he (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." Ephesians 1:22 "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."

How can a person say that he or she loves Jesus if

They refuse to go to his house, which he built by his sacrifice?

Acts 16:5 "And so the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily."

Unless the Word of God is preached and we hear it, our faith will not grow and we will not mature unto God. 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Verse 17 "So the faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

If you are reading this and do not attend church and believe yourself to be in the right place with God then obviously (you have not heard!) All throughout the bible God calls us to assemble in the name of Jesus and to worship him together in Spirit and in Truth.

I stress the point that church attendance alone will not save you. Just because you go to church does not give you a new heart. In order to have the gift of salvation one must confess their sins and surrender unto God. Then a commitment unto Christ Jesus must be made. If you truly love God you should feel compelled to go to the house of worship.

Christians are the body of Christ, the Church of the Living God (lively stones) and if we are a building then we ought not to be scattered and apart (Ephesians 2:18-22).

In Christ Jesus,

Dale Thompson