Alright. Here we are. Top 10 Sins and Struggles. This is lesson number 5. We
continue with our survey. Survey results taken in this congregation. Today we're
going to look at the number 6 sin. Let's go, there we go. If we count them down, 10-
laziness, 9- anger, 8- cursing and gossiping, 7- pride, coming in at number 6-
neglecting church. Neglecting church. So this is a pretty common problem. So we're
going to look at some of the reasons why brethren do this and why we need to make
an effort at attendance and service and all that good stuff. Obviously I'm
preaching to the choir, because you're here, but there's some
aspects about church attendance that sometimes we don't think about that
creep into our lives, so I think be a good thing to talk about that.
People said a variety of things in their comments about this particular struggle.
They didn't just say missing church, but neglecting church services or
neglecting to give regularly, I kind of put all that together, neglecting to
serve in some way, I'm not doing as much as I ought to do, all of
that I kind of group this under neglecting church, but all these other
ancillary things, they all start with the habit of neglecting to
come regularly to the services of the church, these other things. Note that the
Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 10:25, we always quote this scripture and
we're going to talk about it in a minute, he said, "Let us consider how to stimulate
one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as
is the habit of some." So in speaking of the worship and other gatherings of the
church, the writer here in Hebrews encourages them not to change the habit
of coming to church for the habit of not coming to church and that's what
usually happens. We have this habit of coming to church and
then all of a sudden for whatever reason we start
getting the habit of not coming to church and therein lies the answer to
the problem of neglecting worship and other problems that stem from this;
neglecting in our giving, neglecting and our serving that type of thing. So if
one can cultivate the habit of coming to church rather than the habit of not
coming to church or not attending, then the other stuff kind of falls
into place. Of course regular church attendance has always been a problem.
Like this is nothing new, if the Hebrew writer was writing about it in the first
century it means they were having the problem of people not coming to services
back in the first century, because he had to encourage them not to lose
the habit of coming to the church and believe it or not the
excuse has always been pretty much the same. So to help us become a little more
faithful in this area I've compiled ten of the most common excuses and if
there's anybody in this room who would know excuses for not coming to church
usually the preacher collects these, other people collect
stamps, I collect excuses that people gave for not coming to church, and maybe
I'll also give you ten reasons for not coming to church that people give me and
3 for actually coming to church and maybe it'll help shed the light on this,
help us to overcome some of the issues when they happen in our lives. Alright,
top 10 reasons, top 10 reasons for missing church. Number 10 - I'm Jewish.
Obviously the main reason why people don't come to church is because the vast
majority of people in the world are not Christians, so this lesson is not for you.
If you're in the room and you're not a Christian, this lesson is
not for you. If you're watching this on online or on video later on and
you're a Mormon, not a Mormon, but a Hindu or something, this
lesson is not for you. The number of believers in the world today, interesting
statistic, is about the same as it was in 1830, but the world's population has gone
from two billion to six billion. See the problem there? This is why the Great
Commission is still in force today. There are more souls to reach out to, but there
are less Christians to bring the gospel to them. So we need every Christian in
church, because we need every Christian. OK, number 9 - I'm sick. Each week someone,
somewhere among those who regularly attend are ill or they're taking care of
somebody who is ill, that's normal. Preachers would love to have one
hundred percent attendance, but it just never happens, there's always somebody
who's sick or somebody taking care of somebody who's sick. Statistics in church
surveys tell us any given time that number is five to ten percent.
Interesting that number used to be in our assemblies at any given
time eight to ten percent of the people were absent for a variety of reasons 20 [to]
25 years ago. Today it's closer to twenty percent. That's why we put in
our statistics potential attendance, that means counting all the families and
their children that count themselves as members in this
congregation; potential attendance 410, actual attendance 301, that's a hundred and
nine people that have publicly stated they've been baptized or their
children, part of a family, it's 109 of them not here. So we need to kind of keep
that in mind. Of course, the danger is that a period of illness
breaks the cycle of regular attendance and a member picks up the habit of
irregular attendance, that's the thing about being sick, especially long-term
illness or taking care of someone long term and then finally that person gets
better or that crisis is over, you found yourself for the last couple
of months kind of being spotty, skipping here, skipping there, coming only once
out of three times and pretty soon that becomes the habit. So the crisis is over,
but during the crisis while we had a legitimate reason not to
come, once the crisis is over, we we carry on with that bad habit of being
irregular. Number eight - I'm changing. Life is a continual process of change. Moving,
going off to college, getting married, getting divorced, having babies, new jobs,
having more babies, in our case haviing still more babies and with these changes
come interruptions in our routines and in our habit and as I said in the
previous reason, one habit that suffers during a period of change is usually
church attendance, just like it does when there's long-term illness. So coming to
church sometimes it gets packed away with other items that we've promised
ourselves that we're going to sort it all out once we get settled and lots of
times church attendance never gets unpacked. We kind of get settled into a
new routine, a new job, a new this,a new that and all of a sudden whoops.
Number seven - I'm working. Remember excuses for not coming. I didn't say they
were bad excuses. I'm just saying they're excuses. Now there was a time when
industry and government recognized that this was a Christian country and working
on Sunday or irregular shifts was less prevalent. When I was younger, I used to
hate Sundays because nothing was open on Sundays, there is nothing to do on Sunday,
everything was closed, even the movie house, where I was anyways in Canada, there was
no movies, you couldn't even go to the movies on Sunday, everything was shut
down, but that's not like it is today, right? Today we live in a
multiracial, multi-religious country where people accommodate schedules and
not the other way around. So providing for family, that
it's a priority, absolutely. First Timothy 5:8, Paul tells us the
one who doesn't care for his family is worse than an infidel, so yeah, providing
for our family, that is important. It's just unfortunate that society makes that
something that interferes more and more with our spiritual lives. Sometimes
however we work because we'd rather get ahead in the world than get ahead in the
kingdom. Sometimes we don't have to volunteer for that overtime shift, we
don't have to volunteer to work on Sundays, but we just do. Number six- I'm new.
One of the most embarrassing moments for the preacher is announcing the good news
that we have a new brother or sister in Christ, they've been baptized,
and we ask them to stand up at the morning service, they're not there and
then they don't show up on Wednesday either. So young Christians, they
may know about the gospel and they may have understood how to be saved, but they
also need to be trained in Christian living and patiently taught about the
need and the rewards of regular church attendance, because they're their faith
is weak, because they're new, they don't know everything. They
need to be strengthened. So coming to church regularly is an acquired habit
developed by word and example, but it has to be taught. It doesn't come
automatically with baptism; just because somebody accepts to be baptized doesn't
mean that they automatically know about all the services that are available at
the church or automatically feel that they ought to be at all the services of
the church, they need to be taught that. Number five- I'm busy. Now there's a
difference between I'm working and I'm busy. One is need, the other is want. The
busy person, not a bad person, they're just busy. In the parable of the
sower and the seed in Matthew 4:18 and 19, Jesus describes that busy person to a
T. That person's busy concerned with problems, busy getting ahead, busy
building a place for himself here in this world, I'm busy. Of course, this
person here has a priority problem; he or she allows the urgent things in this
life to take over the important things, you've heard that before. Busy people
don't realize that God has promised that if we put kingdom things first, and
kingdom things, well, like church attendance, that's a kingdom thing, He
says if we put kingdom things first He is going to find a way to provide all of
these other things that we're so busy trying to acquire for ourselves, you know
the promise and it's a promise He makes. He says, 'You make Me first, you make the
kingdom first, you make that a priority, and all those other things that you're
sweating about: a place to live, food to eat, all those other things, I'll
make sure you get those. You know JC Penney? The Penney stores? JC
Penney, that was a real person obviously, JC Penney was a very religious man and
he said, 'If a person is too busy to worship that person is just too busy.' And
isn't it interesting Chick-fil-a, they're closed on Sundays. Doesn't seem to be
hurting their bottom line, they're the fastest growing fast food chain
in America. And look at all the bad press they got because of the
owner, the top guy, did not say anything about homosexuals or gay
marriage, he just said he favored traditional marriage, that he favored traditional
marriage. He was an old-fashioned kind of guy. They close down their stores on
Sunday because they feel it's important that families have a day, Sunday
is a day for family. He didn't push his religion on anybody and he sure
puts his money where his mouth is. Can you imagine shutting down on Sunday? And
boy did he ever take a lot of flak and I remember when that thing happened and
and people pushed back right? I mean Lise and I, we went to a
Chick-fil-a just for lunch when all of that was happening, are you kidding me?
The line was out the door.
So here's a guy who he makes the priorities and maybe the gross
amount is less than perhaps another corporation, but really do you really
need the extra two billion if you've already got a couple of billion?
I mean. Number four, yes, I forgot I put that there. Number four- I'm hurt. Remember
reasons for not coming to church, I'm hurt. Many people come less and less to
church, because they've been genuinely hurt; hurt by another members comment or
attitude, hurt by a perceived lack of attention by the leaders or the
ministers, hurt by some things that are being done in a way that they don't
agree with, whatever that might be, hurt by the preacher or teacher in a lesson,
the preacher says something in the pulpit and they really feel 'Wow, he's
talking to me,' and they're hurt, they get their feelings hurt and
you've heard me say this I don't know how many times, there's no name on the
bullet. Preachers do not preach to 400 people just to talk to one person, unless
it's Bud, but other than that, you know what I'm saying, right? If
I have something to say as a minister to one person, I will go to that one person
and say, Brother, sister, I think this thing in your life, you need to be paying
attention.' I'm not going to waste an entire sermon just to talk to one person,
but some people actually think that the preacher's going, 'Oh man,
this is going out to you. This one's for you,' no, but some people get hurt, they
take it personally. Now it's unfortunate when this happens and I'm
persuaded that when there is an offense I don't think it's intentional and it's
sad when people leave the church and it's unfortunate when they leave for
these reasons, but there's two reasons why it's terrible that they would leave
in such circumstances; number one, leaving the church because you're offended
will not justify you before God. Jesus warned his disciples that
they would be subjected to persecution, false teachers, and sufferings of all
kinds, spiritual, physical, even environmental, and what does He say at
the end?" But the one who endures until the end, that one will be saved." So
regardless of the offense, leaving the church is not the answer, nor is it God
excuses. Sister so and so, you got crossways with sister so and so for
whatever reason and you left in a huff and never came back to church, you think
you're going to go before the Lord in judgment and He's going to say, 'Oh,
Susie that's fine. Well I was offended too. She shouldn't have said that'? No!
That's not how it works. And another reason that it's sad when somebody leaves under
these circumstances, stopping a regular attendance because we are hurt or
hurting, sometimes we're hurting because of some loss or tragedy or
disappointment and we decide to take it out on God by ignoring Him. My
child died, whatever, got hit by a car and died and that's
terrible and I'm mad and 'God, why did you do this? I'll show you. I'm never
coming back to church,' really? You're going to punish God this way? That's not
the answer. The answer is if we're offended by someone is to go to that
brother or sister one-on-one and say 'brother, sister you know when you said
this I just felt that that offended me, that hurt my feelings, so on and so forth.'
if they don't they don't accept that, bring another, bring a witness, bring
two, we have a way of handling offenses between ourselves. And if you're
hurt because of something that's happened that you feel is unfair in life,
you're mad at God, whatever, what does James tell us? Call on the elders, have
them pray with you, counsel with you, see one of the ministers, whatever,
but abandoning the church, that's never the answer to taking care of a hurt, of
hurt feelings. Number 3- I'm lazy. I've only met one person in my career
who actually sincerely acknowledged that this was the cause of many of his
problems, it was a man. Many of his problems and failures, and actually I
admired this person for at least he coughed it up, 'I'm just lazy.
I'm bone lazy. I just find it hard to make the effort you know?' Let's face it
going to church on a regular basis requires physical and mental effort. It
does. Preparation and travel. multiplied way over if you have small children.
Jesus said there's a there's a room in My Father's house for
you, there's a special spot for mothers who have brought small children
regularly to church, and that room up in heaven doesn't have any children in it. I
think that's the reward. It requires discipline to sit and to listen.
It requires work if you're teaching; imagine, you have to prepare your class
that you're going to be teaching, Sunday school, whatever, and then
after that taking care of your own kids and then after that there's the service
and huh and that's multiplied even more if you happen to be if it's a
sister, she's married to a man who's not
a member of the church and who doesn't come to church, whoa! Then she has to
get home at a reasonable time. She wants to make lunch, keep him happy as
well. Not easy, not easy at all. And then of course mental effort. I mean it's a
it's a Bible class, you're learning stuff and spiritual effort that comes with the
continual adjustments and changes demanded by not the preacher, but by the
Holy Spirit as He molds us into a Christ-like image. I want to be like
Christ, but I tell you one thing the transformation from Mike Mazzalongo
as he is naturally into a more Christ-like human being, that's a very
painful process because I have to, as you do too, overcome my flesh and I say to my
flesh, 'From now on we're going to be doing this,' and my flesh says, 'Over my dead
body you will,' right? So the definition of a lazy person according to the
dictionary is "one who dislikes physical or mental effort." Proverbs says
it this way, "The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; He is weary of bringing it
to his mouth again." Proverbs 26:15. What is he saying here? Well he's saying the lazy
man won't even feed himself, that's how lazy he is. So the Lord provides for the
nourishment of the only thing that will survive this world and that is a person's
soul and what the writer here is saying is that laziness keeps so many people
from actually feeding themselves on a regular basis, not talking about just
regular food here, he's saying the lazy man's soul, they won't even... The word is
there, the teachers are there, they won't even take the food into their
spirit. So the Lord provides the nourishment of the only thing that will
survive this world, a person's soul, and yet laziness keeps so many from feeding
themselves on a regular basis. So the best way to deal with laziness is to
acknowledge it as sin and ask God's help to overcome every day, especially on
Sunday. Number two reason- I'm worldly. One of the saddest stories in the Bible is a
reference to Demas in Colossians chapter 4 verse 14 and in Philemon verse 24,
Demas is counted among Paul the Apostle's helpers and as a faithful disciple of
the Lord and then in his very last letter from Rome, Paul refers to Demas,
but this time he says, "for Demas having loved this present world has
deserted me and gone to Thessalonica," Second Timothy 4:10. Isn't it amazing you
have a guy who's helping one of the inspired apostles, observing the miracles,
part of the work, mentioned in an inspired letter, this is a
guy, he's a disciple, he's one of us and then a couple of epistles later
the same apostle speaking about the same guy says he's abandoned me, he's gone
back to the world. Wow, that is sad. So some Christians they don't come
regularly, because, well, they love the the world just more
than they love the Lord. They love the smell of money more than the smell of
sacrifice of praise, they love the activity and the allurements and the
pleasures of this world more than the activities and pleasures and promises of
the next world. John says it this way in John 3:19, "This is the judgment, that the
Light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the Light,
for their deeds were evil." Some people say, 'Why do so many people
reject the gospel? Why won't my uncle accept the gospel?' And usually the
answer is well because he likes sin more than he likes the gospel, period, he likes
the darkness more than he likes the light. So when we're involved in
some kind of a sin of some kind, especially if it's a Christian and
this is your secret life of sin, if you have no desire to let go
of that sin, then you have less and less desire to come to church, because when
you come to church, what happens? Well the big flood lights go on and
they're shining on your life, all of our lives, and they're exposing the darkness
and people who want to maintain that secret sin, they don't like the darkness
being exposed and so they just come less and less and less. It's not a nice
experience for them. So worldliness is such an insidious vice because
it eats away at our spiritual life quietly and without pain until we're
cold and dead in Christ, but we don't even realize it
until it's too late. We just keep making one little concession to the world after
another until we're no longer of the kingdom, but of the world and usually the
first thing to go is regular church attendance. Satan's number one point of
attack is to diminish your exposure to the Word of God and your exposure to
other Christians and he does that by finding all kinds of reasons to take you
out of church. And then the number one reason for not coming to church, number
one excuse, well, you fill in the blank. That's your excuse, your reason for not
being faithful to all the services of the church, whatever reason that may be. It
could be any of the nine that I just mentioned or one I haven't mentioned, but
it's the number one reason if it keeps you out of services. Maybe you don't
think you need to be here every time. Maybe you're not convinced the Lord
wants you to be at all the services. Maybe you don't get anything out of
church services, whatever. You fill it in. So whatever the reason, Satan
has managed to find an opening in your spiritual defense and convinced you
somehow that not coming to church well that's OK. Well in the last section of
this lesson I want to give you three reasons why you should come. So those are
some of the common excuses, so let me give you three reasons why you should come.
Some people ask and I get this question, 'Well, do I have to be there Sunday and
Wednesday? Do I have to come to all the services?' And if you're expecting an
answer from me, this is the answer I give when they ask me that question. If you
ask this question, your problem is not church attendance, your problem is love
and gratitude and respect for the Lord, that's your problem, and we'll deal with
that later. For now, three reasons to come regularly.
Reason number one - it pleases God. God is pleased. In Psalm 69, the writer says, "I
will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving. And it
will please the Lord better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and
hoofs." God has always desired that His people gathered to worship Him and that
they do it often. He's always wanted that. Isaiah 56 says, "Also the foreigners who
join themselves to the Lord, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds
fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful
in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be
accepted on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the
peoples." God was always very specific about keeping the people true to the day
of worship and He was pleased with those who kept it and He's saying here, Isaiah
one day God will bring everybody to His house, it won't be just exclusively for the
Jews, everybody will have that privilege and God wants that from everyone.
Ephesians chapter 5 Paul says, "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the
will of the Lord is." So if you're parsing this sentence
here, this this little sentence here, you realize what he says, right?
"understand what the will of the Lord is," period. So he's now going to explain what
is the will of the Lord. Well here it is. "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is
dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit," that's what the Lord wants and
then he says, "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,"
that's what the Lord wants, "singing and making melody with your heart to the
Lord;" that's what the Lord wants. So God desires that we be involved in this type
of activity when we are together rather than worldly pursuits. You have
a choice of activities on Sunday, on Wednesday, whatever. The Bible
says but this is what God wants you to choose. Hebrews 13 says, "Through Him then,
let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of
lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for
with such sacrifices God is pleased." God is pleased to see us offering His praise,
He loves to see it and God is the same in the Old and the New Testament. If you
think for a second, OK? What God deserves is that we worship Him 24 hours
a day, non-stop, every day of our life, that's what He deserves. That's how great
God is. That's how, there's no word for it. That's how awesome God is. He is worthy
for us to be praising Him continually all the time. He's worth it. The problem
is we just can't do that. We neither have the strength nor the spiritual ability to
be able to do that and so we select times when we offer a portion of what we
ought to be offering and by offering Him a portion of what we ought to be
offering, He blesses us and permits us to continue living in this world without
continually worshiping and worshiping Him instead of by praise and song and so
on and so forth, we worship him by doing our jobs properly, loving our wives
properly, and taking care of our children and all in His name and depending on Him.
So pleasing God is what our life is really about. To know and glorify Him is
the essential meaning of life. When we worship Him, we know we are doing the
right thing. When we worship we have reached the zenith of what life is all
about, the highest thing. Not coming to church requires an excuse, good or bad,
but being here never requires an excuse. Have you ever had to have an excuse that
you're here studying or worshiping? Our conscience is clear because we are doing
the absolute right thing tonight. Absolutely. You want to please someone
you love, this is the plain truth, then being here and being here every time
pleases God and demonstrates our love for Him. Now the problem many times is
that we would rather please ourselves or make church attendance we'd
rather make that convenient and fun and easy and pleasant so on and so forth, but
we need to remember that the object of worship is to please God, not us. I'm not
here to please me, I'm here to please Him. So number one reason, why should we come?
God loves it when we come. He wants us to come. It's not a 'thou shalt be here,'
it's not that, it's 'I love when you're with Me. I love when you're talking to Me.
I love when you're praising me. I love this and I'll bless you for this.' Number
two, being here strengthens our faith. When people have problems and you ask
them what they need aside from physical help, usually they say, 'Would you pray
that I have more faith? Ask God to help me have a stronger faith so I can get
through this thing,' whatever that thing is. The apostles, they witnessed
the miracles and yet when it came time to ask Jesus for something, what did they
ask Him? They said, 'Lord please increase our faith,' Luke 17:5. So faith is not
only necessary for salvation, but it's also necessary to be able to persevere
through the ups and downs of life so we can obtain that salvation. You
know such an important thing, faith, how do you acquire it? How do you
strengthen it? What Paul says in Romans 10, he said, "Faith comes from hearing," what
kind of hearing? Well, "hearing by the words of Christ." So all the activities in
the world combined do not add a single drop to your faith, but
hearing and sharing and learning God's Word, this sparks faith and it helps it
to grow. So what you're able to do in the name of the Lord, whether it's to resist
sin or persevere in suffering or to do good or to bear spiritual fruit, whatever,
all of these things are based on the strength of our faith and the strength
of our faith is proportional to our exposure to God's Word and God's people.
I mean there are no shortcuts. Weak attendance usually equals weak faith
which usually equals a weak Christian and very little fruit. I mean I've seen
it over and over again. Strong faith is usually a result of much teaching and
for most Christians that only comes through regular attendance. Some of you, I
know some of you, great Bible students, I mean what you get here, maybe one thing a
week during, but you're at home reading your Bibles, you've got to study plan,
some of you even teaching your own children, of
course. Some will inevitably ask if I only come to Sunday morning worship
and skip the rest can I still go to heaven? And my personal answer to this,
'Probably not, but not because you don't come regularly, but because your question
tells me that you're a legalist and a Pharisee, that's why.' Doing only
what you have to do. You know the kid in class, the teacher says, 'Alright, we
want you to write a you know an essay about to go to Crystal Bridge,
and write an essay,' and there's always one guy right? Just one
sheet of paper? Does it have to be written on the back too? Right away you
know that guy's got a problem right? Not the right attitude.
Well that's exactly the attitude we have with God when we say, 'Do I have to come
to the other days too?' People who are legalists they do the minimum, they want
to know what the minimum is and they want to do that and
I say to you if that's your attitude, you've fallen from grace and trying to
get to heaven through religious works and minimum religious works at that; at
least if you saw coming to church three times a week
was like a work, well at least you're doing a good work, but the person
who asked this question he wants to do the least amount and get to heaven and
that's just not the way is it? It's not the most or the least. This kind of
question usually shows a lack of knowledge regarding the faith. You need
to come to church, not to increase your attendance level, you need to come to
church so you can learn about God's grace and be free from the law. If you
keep this attitude, no amount of church attendance will save you. I'm not saying
if you don't go to wednesday Bible class, you're going to hell, that's not what I'm
saying, I'm saying that if this is your attitude, you're more of a legalist.
You're trying to be saved through works rather than through faith. We're saved by
faith. We see by faith. We walk by faith. We can cast mountains into the ocean by
faith. And that faith is conceived and nourished every time we come here to
this place, every time we come to church. Why? Because every time we leave, we leave
with a faith that is stronger and that's what we need in this life. I don't know
about you, but when I'm on my death bed I want my faith to be at its strongest
level, not its weakest level. Number three, being here builds the church. Hebrews 10,
again, I read it, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering,"
in other words I believe in Jesus, I believe He died for my sins, I believe I
am saved because He died for me, not because I'm good, not because I've done
anything good, no, that's the hope that I have despite my imperfection I am
saved, why? Because I believe that the Lord has saved me. So "Let's hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;" Jesus is
faithful, "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and
good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of
some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near."
The problem was that there were Jewish Christians, this passage here,
there were Jewish Christians who were weak in the faith and they were being
tempted to return to Judaism and their absence contributed to this weak faith
that they have and they're weak faith would not sustain them under pressure. So
in addition to this and I'm talking about the people that the Hebrew writer
is writing to here, in addition to this their absence was hurting other people.
This is why the writer encourages them not to abandon the assembly and he
exhorts them to give an example and a word of encouragement to who? To the
other people. So your presence at all services is critical in the building up
of the church because through regular attendance at all services, here are some
of the things that happen. First of all, you're proclaiming Christ to each other
and the community. First Corinthians 11:26. When I come to church, the reason I'm
coming to church is why? I believe in Jesus. I may not be up in the pulpit
preaching, I may not be doing anything except sitting and listening, but it
doesn't matter, my family, my friends, my people, my whoever they are, they know
Wednesday night, 'You coming bowling Wednesday?' 'Is it in the
afternoon?' 'No, no. It's Wednesday night at seven.' 'Sorry, we have a class. We've got church.' 'Oh okay okay.'
Have you preached the gospel to them? No. Have you explained the details
of salvation? No. What have you done? You've just separated for yourself, you
said, 'Yeah, this is my priority,' why? Because I'm a Christian, that's why. Secondly
you're providing an example to other people. What do you think your absence
says to the children and the younger Christians in this congregation? Well it
says, 'Boy, when I grow up or when I'm an experienced saint, it'll be okay for me to
skip church too because this guy over here he says he's been a Christian for
30 years, but he only comes like on Sunday morning, I
never see him Sunday night, so I guess that's the reward when I
grow up and I'm a big strong Christian, I'll be able to stay home to on Sunday
night. I won't have to come.' Well it's not OK, and your example is one of weakness
and immaturity, not strength. It also contributes towards the needs of the
saints, First Corinthians 16:1. Not just money, but knowing who needs help
and learning how we can serve. Can you imagine, you're not here tonight, you
didn't hear that dear brother Mike M. died suddenly, well he'd
been sick a while, but he just died and you run into his widow at
Target, she happens to be going in there to get some things, 'Hey, how's it going
Nell?' Big smile on your face. 'So how's Mike?' 'You didn't hear?' 'Well, hear what?' I
mean I'm taking a real out of left field example, but you know, can't build up the
church if you don't know what's going on in the church. Again, it's not
just about money, who needs the help? How can we help? How can we serve? Alright,
need to move quickly here. Number four, and of course, we support the church
leadership. In Montreal, right, the church leadership decided we don't have Sunday
night service. Why? Because the majority of our people take public transportation.
So it takes them an hour and a half to get to church, many of them, Sunday
morning for 9:30, so they leave at eight o'clock to get to church at 9:30,
and church is over around 11:30, noon, and they don't get back home
till two with their kids on the subway in the winter, yeah. And so the church, we
didn't have elders, but the men's meeting, they said you know what?
This would not be a good thing to ask people to by the time they get home
at two in a half hour or so to turn around and come all the way back; that
doesn't make any sense for what we are, urban church, downtown, public
transportation type congregation. So we don't have church on Sunday night, that's
fine. We decided that. Well in this congregation many years ago, the elders
decided we are going to have a Sunday evening service and we are going to have
a Wednesday night service, we think this is a good tradition, Wednesday nights,
but it's a good one, it's a healthy, spiritual one and this is what we've
decided to do and we're going to do it. And the rest of us by attending are
saying to our leaders, 'We agree. We're following your lead.' They're here, we're
here. So we support the leaders of the church. The Bible says we must submit to
those whom the Lord has set over us in Christ. Hebrews 13:17. Church attendance is
a way that we support their leadership. We've built the building with wood and
brick, but faithfulness to all services is the cornerstone upon which the
building of the congregation rests. I'll tell you something, why do you think
people are so excited, there's such a sense of excitement when we have those
congregational sing-along things at the beginning of the year? Two years ago it
was here. 450 people in this building on a Wednesday night, man a lot of people
were pumped, the singing was awesome, people were red-cheeked. It was
just so great to have so many people and then the following week we went
back to being maybe a quarter of the congregation here. And we didn't
do anything different, nothing different. We sang the songs that are familiar,
somebody prayed, somebody preached a really great lesson, we offered an [invitation], we
do exactly what we do every single Wednesday, what was the difference?
Everybody was here. Everybody was pumped. Everybody was encouraged. So as I close I
want to say to all those who put down church attendance as a problem,
that their struggle is nothing new, OK? So don't feel like 'Whoa, this is just me.'
It was there when the church was established, we read about it in Hebrews
10, and the Bible says it will be there until the end of the world.
Matthew 24:12 Jesus says, "In the end the love of many will grow cold." The solution
then now and in the future has always been and will always be the same. Number
one, begin to cultivate the habit of regular attendance to all services.
Number two, get involved in the work of the church. And number three, realize
that coming to church is always the best choice and God will reward you for it.
I've never met anybody who got poorer because they decided to attend all of
the services of the church. I never met anybody, no one, in 38 years has ever come
up to me and say, 'You know, well, I tried that coming to church all the time and
boy my total income dropped by twenty-five percent.' Never, not one person.
I'm still waiting for that guy. Alright, so that's number six, neglecting church.
We move on to number five next week. Thank you for your attention.