Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy

How To Get The Most Out Of Going To Church

7/28/04

I. Introduction

A local newspaper had a Sunday morning religion section that contained, among other things, letters to the editor about various religious issues. Most weeks these letters were pretty innocuous, but one Sunday something was printed that became quite controversial.

A man wrote:

I quit going to church this year. I decided that listening to sermons week after week was a stupid thing to do. After all, I went to church for more than 40 years and during my lifetime I probably heard 5,000 sermons. I can only remember about five of them. What a waste of time.—Bored and Busy

This sparked a fury of incoming letters. Some people wrote that sermons do make a difference, while others sided with Bored and Busy’s opinion that they were basically meaningless and unnecessary. Finally, one letter was printed that ended the debate:

I quit eating this year. Thanks to Bored and Busy’s insights, I decided that eating week after week was a stupid thing to do. After all, I have been eating for more than 40 years and during my lifetime I probably have eaten 5,000 meals. I can only remember about five of them. What a waste of time.—Starved and Stupid

Sometimes you may wonder what good it does to listen to sermons or participate in weekly Bible studies or have daily devotions. Like the first letter writer, you may feel that you’re too bored or busy for the things of God. But don’t overlook the fact that you need those things to survive.

In order to grow as a Christian, you need spiritual food. You need to feed on the Word of God. Not every spiritual meal is going to be memorable, but it will provide you with the nourishment you need to survive and thrive as a Christian.

Tonight’s message is FEEDING FRENZY: How to Get the Most Out of Going to Church. Not only is it important that you go to church, but that you know how to get the most out of it while you’re here.

II. Show Up

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NKJV 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3for you are still carnal.

The first step in getting the most out of going to church is to actually show up. You can’t get anything out of going to church if you don’t go to church. But there are people who go to church and still don’t know how to get anything out of it.

When you were a baby, you couldn’t feed yourself at all, you had to have somebody stick a bottle in your mouth and all you did was suck. As you grew older, you were able to pick up these little round cheerios and stick them in your mouth. You weren’t very coordinated, so most of the cheerios ended up on the floor. But at the same time, mom or dad was still feeding you these saucy baby foods. But still as you grew older, you learned more and more about how to feed yourself, and you were able to eat better foods. And now, most of you are at the point where you can feed yourself without wearing a bib or spilling something all over you…most of you. But if you’re not at the house when supper’s on the table or you don’t show up to the table to eat, you’re going to miss out on the food, right?

Well, just like you have to show up at the table to eat, you have to show up at church to actually get something out of it.

But it’s more than just showing up in bodily form. Everybody understand that you are a 3 part being. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. Some people think that just because their bodies are in a certain location, that the rest of them is there, too. But that’s not necessarily the case. You’ve probably experienced that in class at school. Your body is sitting in the desk and the teacher is giving a lecture, yet you’re not hearing one word she’s saying because you’re off in la la land day dreaming about what it would be like to be a bird. You’re there in body, but your soul is somewhere else.

And it can be like that in church, too. Your body’s there in the chair. Your spirit is perked up because it wants to be here and get all it can get out of the service. But your soul, your mind, is the gateway to your spirit. So, if your mind is all over the place thinking about all kinds of things, your spirit ain’t getting anything. So, you have to show up in your body, train your soul/mind to listen and pay attention, and your spirit will be happy because it’s getting to grow.