Why Go to Church?
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Introduction
Introduction
There are lots of reasons not to go to church:
Some people argue; Why go to a church filled with hypocrites? Their leaders are morally bankrupt, and all they care about is social status!
Others say that church people only want to take your money and grow their church bigger and bigger — It’s just a big show
Still others struggle to find a church they like — the church is too liberal or too old or too conservative or too busy or not active enough...
The church is irrelevant — talking about ancient stuff when our world today is filled with injustice and evil that the church completely ignores.
It doesn’t seem like God is present in that church
Why go when people just ignore me or judge me?
The church service is too long — too many preliminaries, too boring of a sermon, I’m ADHD
There’s so many rules and so much judgment
People in that church have really hurt me and I can’t imagine being able to trust them again.
I don’t trust pastors
The church has changed too much to keep up with culture
The people there are too political
They don’t have stuff for my children
I’m too busy
I just don’t want to go.
There are lots of reasons not to do something you already don’t want to do. If most of us are honest with ourselves, would would say that coming to church is something we really want to do? And if not, why do it if you don’t like it?
In 2018 Pew Research did a study on why people don’t (and do) go to church. They found that the largest number of people who don’t go to religious meetings consider themselves christian, and the majority are women over 50 years old. The most cited reasons for not attending include:
I practice my faith in other ways
I haven’t found a church I like
I physically can’t attend for health reasons
Only 18% don’t attend because they weren’t a believer.
So, here’s the question, why should you attend church?
Can’t you be a christian without attending church? And what about just “doing church” at home?
Assuming you are medically and physically able to attend church, why should you? Some of those reasons people give for not attending are honest observations about the church family. I get it when people make those observations about the church. But are they good enough reasons to not participate?
Let’s look at some big-picture ideas about why the church exists and why we should regularly participate in it.
The Gathering
The Gathering
The word “church” in the NT is always translated from the greek word, Ekklesia. It means “the gathering” or “assembly.” As the church was being formed after Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible records that they were growing in numbers. Look at Acts 16:5
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
When people gave their lives to Jesus, they became part of the church and the church grew in numbers. That’s the reality of the movement Jesus started. We don’t just bring someone to Jesus and then toss them back into the wild. The gospel model is to make disciples and together we pursue a life with Jesus in the gathering of believers. Notice Romans 12:5
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
The idea of church is tied to the “body” of Jesus. According to Paul, Jesus is the head and we are the various members. Or in Peter’s terms, Jesus is the chief cornerstone of a living temple, and we are the building blocks.
But why do we gather? What’s the point of getting together to do church?
Worship
Discipleship
Outreach
These three fundamentals are at the root of most of the reasons we should go to church.
Let’s dive in a bit to each of these:
Worship
Worship
Let’s be clear about something, God invites us to worship Him with every fiber of our being. Every dollar we earn, every possession we own, every song we sing, every conversation we have is intended to be an act of worship. When we live a life of faithfulness, honestly, joy and love we are worshiping God. But that worship isn’t enough. It can’t be enough. God is too great, too wonderful, too worthy for us to just go about our lives in worship. His glory demands our audible praise, our testimonies of His goodness, and our study of His character.
The perfect angels in heaven who live every moment of their lives in perfect, loving obedience to the Father, find it pure pleasure and joy to worship Him together. Notice Revelation 4:8-11
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
This is what the church service is designed for. We gather together to study the character and truth of God, and then we worship and adore Him and cast our blessings and our needs at His feet.
Jesus said:
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
And Paul told us how we should worship God together when he said this:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Part of Christian worship has always been—from the time of Jesus till today—preaching.
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
While you need to study the word of God on your own, the Bible asks pastors to lead their congregations in study of the Bible. And the reason is clear—it cuts to our hearts and transforms us as a congregation.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Discipleship
Discipleship
let’s turn our attention to discipleship. There are several aspects of discipleship the Bible speaks to, but one of the most clear is the need for our shared experience to sharpen and hone our character and our walk with God. As we spend time with each other our character is enobled by the simple act of learning to love each other:
Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
And this interaction makes us a united force for God’s purposes:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Churches are filled with all sorts of people — big and small, old and young. The young are a special emphasis of the church community because Jesus made caring for children a really high priority:
but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
And it’s in this context of training up younger/newer believers that Paul invites us into a unique type of relationship:
Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
The need for discipleship doesn’t stop when you get older or more mature in your walk with God. You might not need someone to help you with the basics any more, but we need Christian fellowship. We only thrive spiritually when we are in connection with others:
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
Outreach
Outreach
The church experience is for corporate worship, for discipleship, and to launch us into Gospel missions. One day as they walked by a patch of ripe grain Jesus turned to the disciples and said,
Luke 10:2 (ESV)
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
God doesn’t call us into mission because He needs us. Trust me, the Holy Spirit is already at work, and the angels love to serve God in mission. But, for our own good, and for the good of the world, God asks us to join Him in the work. To accomplish this, God has given us the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Conclusion
Conclusion
The most significant reason to go to church is probably the simplest: because God said to:
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
And lastly, Because being together as a loving church family is a taste of Heaven
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
I want to sing that song of moses and the Lamb with you in heaven, but I’m so happy that I don’t have to wait that long. I can sing it with you right here, today. It’s the song of redemption that we sing in so many hymns and praise songs. It’s the story of praise that we share every week when we acknowledge the work of God in our lives.
Church fellowship is a foretaste of heaven.
Applying Worship, Discipleship and Outreach
There’s one last reason to go to church, but before I share that I want to make a suggestion. You’re not fully participating in or being blessed by this church family unless you regularly join us for worship, participate in activities of discipleship such as Sabbath School and small groups, and join the church mission in sharing the gospel with the world in some way. These are the basics of being a part of a church.
If you are a seasonal attendee, or if you’re content to sit while others serve, consider this an invitation to jump in with both feet. You won’t regret it if you do.
As we conclude, I’d like to add one more reason to participate in church. Jesus said this to his disciples during the last supper:
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
In saying this Jesus established the regular communion service as a corporate activity to remember Jesus’ loving sacrifice on our behalf. And since we’re talking about it, how about we do that now.
Footwashing
Footwashing
We will divide now for the footwashing service. Ladies are in the junior room, couples and families in the fellowship hall, men in the primary and kindergarten rooms, and there will be a group in the front near the piano for those who aren’t able to easily make it up and down the stairs.
Children’s Story
Children’s Story
Walking to town
Homeschool, strict schedule, planned a walk to town To visit church friends. Busy highway. Walked down railraod tracks, then through the woods.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Fixing a gear-shift
1990, Yellow ford ranger. A broken button on the gear shift. Tried tape, glare, epoxy… nothing seemed to work. Rode bike to pick-n-pull down the road and hunted until I found the right button. When I had the right one, it popped right in and worked like it was new.
That button was the heart of the gear shift. Without it, the truck couldn’t drive.
God designed us to love him and love our neighbor, but we’re kind of broken and our love doesn’t work that well. We try to fix ourselves—pushing ourselves to make the right choices, or punishing ourselves when we mess up. We feel shame and anger, but nothing seems to make our love Work right. The only solution is for us to get a new heart.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Communion
Communion
Jason will say a few words to begin...
Kneel together...
Jeff will pray a blessing on the bread.
Sam will pray a blessing on the grape juice.
Rise and break the bread, then pass the emblems to the deacons to hand out.
Upon returning to the table:
Jeff will read Matt 26:26 and the people will eat the bread
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
Then Sam will read Matt 26:27 and the people will drink the grape juice
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,
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We Have This Hope (214)