CHURCH: WHY BOTHER? 2

 

CHURCH: WHY BOTHER? 2

Heb. 10:19-25

One of the reasons why we should go to church and be actively involved in it is for food. In fact, it should be the main reason why we go to church. If you don’t go to church hungry, you won’t be fed. Spending less than an hour alone with God during the week will starve one’s soul to death. Being in church should be the smorgasbord. Whatever we may feed our souls during the week is merely appetizers. Our soul’s longing should be to be fed spiritual food in church. If you are not fed from God’s Word in the church you attend, change churches!

We should expect to be fed from God’s Word and settle for nothing less. Read Nehemiah 8:1-8 when the Israelites gathered together to hear God’s Word read and explained for six hours. In chapter 9:1-3, we see the Word being expounded for twelve hours. Shame on us when we murmur and complain when preachers preach for too long these days.

We should ask the Lord to feed us as we stand beneath the cross. Beneath the cross of Jesus we must stand. He is the only way we will ever stand before God. He alone is truth and life for our souls. We need Jesus; every moment of every day, we need Jesus. He alone is our wisdom, righteousness, and holiness from God. I Cor. 1:30 People try to invent all kinds of other ways to get us to God, but there is none. We cannot ever be good enough apart from Christ to make it into heaven. Feast on the riches of God’s grace that flows from Calvary and never be satisfied.

We should ask the Lord to feed us in church so we can make it through another week of life. Life is full of many highs and lows. We seem to manage well in the high times of life, but the low times often throw us for a loop. We go to church for food and fuel for our souls so we can face life in a positive way.

We also go to church for fellowship. We need to be led into fellowship with God. 22-23 If being close to God is happening in your church, then you need to look for a church where it is. We need to be in fellowship with other believers. 24-25 We must be with those who are living out their faith in daily life. We need to know that we are not alone in our struggles. We need to be encouraged and inspired to continue to live by faith. We need to experience the genuine love of Christ flowing amongst His people. We need to mutually support and learn from each other. We need to know that there is no such thing as a perfect child of God, that we all are works in progress as we prepare to leave this life to go and be with the Lord.