It Is Important To Go To Church – Sermon Series Part 4 of 4

If you haven’t seen that, check it out in a card up here or navigate to our YouTube channel and you can find the playlist. If you’re listening on a podcast, there’s obviously not going to be a card because you’re not watching the video, so you can navigate to the YouTube channel and find that playlist or scroll up in your feed or down and go to previous episodes and you can check them.

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Start growing your faith and really engage. That’s what we’ve been talking about in this sermon series, how it’s important you must follow Jesus, not religion. Live in love, that was what Jesus did. Write that down. Live in love. That’s how to be more like Jesus.

The next week we spoke about how it’s important for you to be the church. You are the church. You’re members of one body, the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is the church. Christ is the head of the church. You are a Christian, like a company employee, or like where you live, you’re an American. You are a Christian.

You need to be the church. You’re the body of Christ. That means that you have to be part of the body. You aren’t the whole body, you’re a part of it. You need to gather with other Christians and that’s what we spoke about last week, that if you’re the church, you’re the body of Christ.

You’re one part of the body, you need to complete the body. You need to gather with other believers, gather with other Christians so that you can complete that body and fellowship with them. You’re a social being. You’re a social creature. You are created to be with others and so that’s why this week, we’re talking about how it’s important for you to go to church.

Seriously you need to be going to church. Many Christians fail to go; they’re lazy. That’s why they say, “I don’t want to drive somewhere,” “I don’t want to get dressed up to go somewhere,” “I don’t really want to see people.” Don’t let that be an excuse. Laziness is terrible. It ends in what? Slave labor, according to Solomon. Don’t be lazy. Get out there and go to church.

Now you say, “Hey I’m going to church online.” Right now you’re watching me, okay that’s great, I really appreciate that. But you need more than me. You need more than me in your life. You need Jesus. you need other believers that you can physically be with, that you can gather with. You can sing, you can worship, you can dance, you can praise God.

You need that in your life. So yes, keep watching this. This is extra material for you, but go find yourself a home church, and if you have one, attend regularly.

In today’s world regular church attendance is considered to be twice a month. Twice a month? That’s ridiculous. Regular should be at least three times a month. You should try to go every week but I understand especially in the nicer months you may be visiting someone probably once a month, so you’re out of town or you’re doing something.

Make it a goal in your family to go to church more than half of the month, three times a month. Make it a goal, try to do it as best you can. Find a church.

Remember the church has to be of the Bible. It needs to be following Jesus, not tradition. That’s important. Many people though, in today’s world, they’re still, even though I say this over and over again, they still come up with some kind of excuse. Why? What’s the excuse or what’s the root of the excuse? They’re lazy. That’s the root of the excuse.

Let’s go to Hebrews 10:24 and 25. If you have your Bible, please use your Bible, turn with me, read the verses. If you don’t have your Bible, that’s fine. The verses will be down below, get your Bible later, read them.

All right, Hebrews 10:24 and 25, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—all the more as you see the day coming.”

Don’t give up meeting together. Why? Because if you give up meeting together, you’re not encouraging one another. That’s the point of meeting together. You guys got to build each other up. Iron sharpens iron.

Build each other up, and be the church by going to church. Fellowship with others. If you’re the hand, you need the foot. You need the brain. You need all the other parts of the body. So go and be with others.

You aren’t too busy. You can take a couple hours every Sunday and go to church. If you’re working on Sunday, because our world today is 24/7, so if you happen to be working on Sunday, try to catch a later service. If that doesn’t work try to catch a Saturday night or a Sunday night. Most churches have different options. Find one. You can do it. I know it’s a lot of work to find a church where you feel like you belong, but once you do, it’s worth it, believe me.

You need to be hot in your faith. We’ve talked about this before. The message is called “Be Hot.” You can check it out if you’re watching on YouTube in a card up here. Otherwise, navigate to the YouTube channel and find “Be Hot.” It will be way down at the bottom; it’s one of our first messages.

There’s a verse that goes with that. We’re going to preview it here, Revelation 3:16, “So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Now who is about to spit you out of His mouth? Jesus, yep Jesus is going to spit you out.

He doesn’t want you. Why does He not want you? Because you are neither hot nor cold, you are lukewarm. He is going to spit you out. He doesn’t want you if you’re lukewarm. Be hot. He wants you on fire for Him. He wants you filled with the Spirit and He wants to fill you. He will give you that opportunity. He wants you to be hot.

Non-believers, they’re cold. He wants them to become believers. Christians, you are supposed to be hot. He wants you out there saving souls. People in the middle that just don’t do anything, lukewarm that is, what’s He going to do with them? Nothing. There’s no use.

We have that all over the Bible and the parable of talents, these worthless servants, throw them outside. They are worthless. Salt that loses its saltiness. Lukewarm. What’s the use? Jesus says thrown out and trampled by people. Do you want to be lukewarm, trampled by people, worthless? No. Be hot. Start going to church, ignite that fire, fuel that flame. Be hot.

Be the body of Christ, live your calling. You can do it. Don’t let it be you, to be this lukewarm unsalty salt. Be the salt. Be the light. James says, “be a doer.” Let’s go there. We’ve talked about this before on how it’s important to be a doer.

It comes up in a lot of our sermons. Why? Because I just think James is so revolutionary, the whole Bible is, but James put it bluntly. He said enough powder pieces, enough of the fluff, let’s dive in. This is what you ought to do and bam.

For that reason, a lot of people kind of don’t like it. They think that it should be a little softer, ease the blow. But James, he wasn’t pulling his punches. He said, “look this is what you got to do here. This is it, cut and dry, black and white.”

Then it’s up to us of course to kind of fluff it up to ease the people, to reach more people, but still we’re giving you the meat. This isn’t tofu here, this is the real deal.

James 1:22 to 25 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.” Alright so if you don’t have your Bible right now and you’re listening to me read it, don’t merely listen and so deceive yourselves.

When you’re done with whatever you’re doing, maybe you’re driving or working, get your Bible. Make an effort, punch up the sermon again, read the description, find the references, come back, read the Bible. Don’t merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. But then even, more than that, do what it says. Get out there and do.

You must do what it says. “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a person who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at themselves, goes away and immediately forgets what they look like.”

We talked about this in another message, again you can check it out, it will be in a card on the YouTube video, or navigate to the channel and you can find a sermon called “Remember Your Face.”

All right so check that out, for real, it’s very important that you continue learning and that you continue reading your Bible. That you really step into your role of being the body of Christ, of being the church, of gathering with others and going to church in your walk to follow Jesus and live in love.

Still not convinced you need to go to church? There was an old newspaper column back when newspapers were a thing and the columnist could write and then the subscribers could write letters back to the editor.

Then these letters could get published in discussion and this columnist, if that was their dream to have one of their columns essentially go viral and have people sending in letter after letter after letter, so that they really could just keep this going, that their job was easy.

At that point, all they had to do was publish the letters, write a little response, publish a letter, write a response and this could go on for as long as the discussion spurred. There was one columnist that he said he wanted to know if it was important to go to church.

So he asked the question of, “Hey, is going to church important?” Headline: “Is it important to go to church?” The whole column was based on one man’s letter that was sent in.

The columnist wrote this response and the letter had said that this man had been going to church for thirty years and he had heard about three thousand sermons for his life. He couldn’t remember more than a few.

He could remember bits and pieces maybe, but he couldn’t really remember what the sermon was about for more than a few sermons out of 30 years worth 3,000 sermons. So church is a waste of time, you should not go because you are not going to remember all these sermons, you aren’t going to remember everything that they say.

Hundreds and hundreds of letters came in. This discussion raged on for weeks, months, where the editor would put them in there together. The columnist would write and they would just keep this thing going. It was like a wildfire that kept spreading. Weeks and weeks and months and months building and building of people, yes go to church, no it is worthless, yes, no, yes, no. All these opinions.

Because if you can’t remember the sermons, why would you go anyway? Are they really doing anything in your life? All of a sudden the discussion stopped because one letter came in and was put in the column and that was it. Literally, that was it. No more letters, nothing.

He wrote that this man said, “I have been married for 30 years. In 30 years my wife has made about 30,000 meals for me. Well over the 30,000, for the life of me,” he said, “I can’t remember the entire menu for more than a few meals.

Sure I remember that we had spaghetti or we had steak or chicken,” and he said, “yeah that probably had a vegetable with it, whether it was green beans or broccoli or a salad.” There was probably some other part of the meal, some other course or entree. Whether it was a potato or the pasta or maybe another salad or something like that because he said his wife was a really good cook.

She liked to make sure that they were in groups of threes and usually, there might have been a salad before the meal or an appetizer or some type of a dessert afterward or maybe a glass of wine to pair with the meal.

He couldn’t remember the entire menu for more than a few meals, because those meals were his favorite. He remembered the entire menu. But for the rest, he didn’t really remember. However, those meals over those 30 years provided him the nourishment to get out there and live his physical life. He was fueled, he was ready to go, he had energy, he had what his body needed.

He had also been going to church for those 30 years, and going to church, even though he agrees he can’t remember the entire sermon for more than a few of the topics or the points, because those were the ones that really stood out, but all the rest of those sermons provided him with the nourishment and the guidance to get out there and live his spiritual life.

Therefore it’s very very important to go to church. Exactly as it’s important to eat your meals. Because the food fills your physical life and the church nourishes your spiritual life. You got to have them both nourished. Get out there and nourish your spiritual life.

Go to church. It’s very important and bring a friend. Remember you’re one part of the body. Get more people with you. Meet them. Gather with them. Discuss it with them. Be the church, get out there, and learn and talk about it with more people.

John Chapter 6 Verses 50 to 59 says, “But there is bread that comes down from Heaven, which a man may eat and not die.” Food to nourish your physical life. This is Jesus speaking. “‘I am the living bread that came down from Heaven and if anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us flesh to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

“’For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from Heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.’ He said this while teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum.”

What’s the point? You need more than your physical meals to nourish your physical life. You need spiritual nourishment and what is it? Jesus He says right there, His body, His flesh is the bread, His blood is the wine. That is what you need to feed your spiritual life. You need Jesus.

That’s why we talked about the first message in this series, following Jesus. How do you follow Jesus? You do the rest of this, you step into your role, you be the church, you be the body of Christ. You’re the church. You then you go, you gather with other believers because you’re one part of many parts. You have to complete the parts that go to church where you can together feed.

You are gonna really eat some flesh and drink some blood right here. This is the flesh, this is the blood. Of course, communion is a part of that, but that is different and we will get to that in another sermon series. This is the Word of God. This is His flesh. Feed on this, feed on it. Do not just eat your Bible, no, you internalize and digest the words.

Remember this is spiritual. Physical is eating, like consuming. Spiritually how do you consume, how do you eat the flesh and drink the blood? Reading, talking about it, internalizing, absorbing all of this Word. Talk to God. Pray. It’s very important.

So with that let’s pray. Lord, thank you so much for the great conclusion to this sermon series and I pray that that little story would hit home to people, that they would say we need to go to church because they need to feed on your flesh. God, I ask that you would fill them with a burning desire to reach lost souls.

That they would be motivated to be doers like James says. That they would hear the Word. That they would listen to the Word, then they would read the Word and start to understand it, and that they would talk about it with others. That they are one part of the body. That they would start to associate with other parts and become a whole.

That they would go to the church where there are so many more parts. That they would start to engage with them and really learn more about you. That they would feast on your flesh and your blood, the Word of God.

The Word that you have given us, that they would use that and get out there and do and be contagious. That it would spread like crazy. That their fire for you, that their spirit would be so on fire that it would spread literally like fire. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks again for being here today. I really do encourage you to please comment below, engage in some discussion, be polite, and be respectful to others. In addition, try to find some church to go to get connected to a small group. Meet with others. Gather with Christians. Be the body of Christ and follow Jesus. God bless.

“Do Christians Need To Go To Church?” – The Only Bible