If you have made the effort to be faithful to your local gathering at church for very long at all, you can relate to the struggle of doing so every Sunday.
One Sunday morning, as a woman went to go wake her husband up for church, he informed her, "I'm not going."
"Why not?" she asked.
"I'll give you two good reasons. One, they don't like me; and two, I don't like them."
His wife replied, "Well, I'll give you two good reasons why you should go to church then. One, you're fifty-four years old; and two, you're the pastor!"
At some point, every single one of us have have faced this struggle with going to church. More so than any other day of the week, Sunday always seems like the hardest day to get up and to get going. Why is this? Because sleeping in, relaxing, having a "mental health day," watching church online, fishing, golfing, having family time, doing chores or just about any thing else seems more appealing on any given Sunday. Yet, when you miss gathering together with your local church, you miss so much more than you realize.
In my past couple articles, we have walked through some biblical reasons for why the gathering of the church is so significant. These are reasons that ought to compel you to not want to miss out on a single gathering at your local church. These reasons have included the preaching of God's Word, fellowship with God's people and the opportunity to serve and be served by others.
In this final post, allow me to share with you one more thought on what you miss when you miss church.
The Worship of God
One of the most precious privileges we as believers have been afforded on this side of eternity is to be able to worship God personally. Because Jesus has finished the work of our salvation, we can now come before God to worship Him fervently, freely and fully. In light of this fact, the Bible gives us this exhortation, "By [Jesus] therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." (Hebrews 13:15) Jesus desires for us to take advantage of the freedom He has given to us to approach God's throne by using it worship God continually.
First and foremost, God desires us to do this personally. He has given every believer this freedom so that we would use it every day to worship God with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength. In fact, Jesus informed us that God desires for such individuals to worship Him. (John 4:23-24)
However, here is where so many get off-track on this matter. Too many use their personal worship to minimize the importance of corporate worship. They reveal their faulty thinking by making statements like this, "I don't need to go to church. I can worship God anywhere," or "I don't feel close to God in a church building. I prefer to worship God up on mountain." While it is true you can worship God anywhere and that being out in nature is a unique way to sense the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-3), these facts do not mean that personal worship can replace corporate worship. Scripturally, both are important to God.
When we gather as the church, we come together to worship God not only personally, but corporately. So many passages in the New Testament instruct the church to worship the Lord together. Consider just a couple examples.
"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" (Ephesians 5:20-21)
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Colossians 3:16)
When the church gathers, we gather to worship the Lord. We do so by singing. We do so by giving. We do so by serving. We do so by praising. We do so by praying. We do so by observing the Lord's Supper and baptism. And we do so in so many other ways. But, the point is, the church ought to gather to worship together.
One of my favorite things to do when we gather corporately as the church is to worship. There is nothing quite as sweet as hearing God's people resound the choruses of God's praise. (It just doesn't get any better than hearing a group of believers sing out It Is Well or Behold Our God.) It is one of the closest things to heaven on earth when God's people gather to worship. (So, if you don't like corporate worship, you won't like heaven very much because we will be worshipping God corporately throughout eternity!)
When you miss church, you miss out on this wonderful, God-ordained opportunity to worship God corporately with other believers. You miss the opportunity to have your heart stirred by the truth of God's Word expressed in song. You miss the chance to pour out your heart in a love song of praise to God.
It was Jesus who said, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." (Hebrews 2:12) Suffice it to say, if Jesus made corporate worship a priority, we certainly should as well.
It Just Isn't the Same
When COVID-19 came upon us in 2020, we chose to move to online services for almost two months. For the first time in many of our member's lives, they were forced to not gather physically at church for a significant amount of time. Do you know what people told me they missed the most? Worshipping in person. Time after time, I would hear them say, "I just isn't the same."
It just isn't the same. You may not think it is a big deal missing church, but you don't know what you are missing. There are so many reasons why God gave us the command to not neglect to gather together as the church. (Hebrews 10:24-25) You can try to do so online. You can try to "do church" at home. But, it just isn't the same. This is because God has already ordained how He wants His body to function. You can't improve on what God has already instituted.
Whatever reasons may have been keeping you from church, they pale in comparison with what God has provided for you through the local church. So, may I encourage you one last time: go to church. You don't want to miss out on what God has for you.
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