You Should Be Committed
A husband and his wife arose one Sunday morning and the wife dressed for church. It was just about time for the service when she noticed her husband hadn't moved a finger toward getting dressed. Perplexed, she asked, "Why aren't you getting dressed for church?" He said, "Cause I don't want to go. She asked, "Do you have any reasons?" He said, "Yes, I have three good reasons. First, the congregation is cold. Second, no one likes me. And third, I just don't want to go. The wife replied, wisely, "Well, honey, I have three reasons why you should go. First, the congregation is warm. Second, there are a few people there who like you. And third, you're the pastor! So get dressed!"
While this is a humorous story--and one that is not true of your pastor--many people that claim to be saved do not attend church. The most common comment that I hear is "You don't have to go to church to be saved" or "You don't have to go to church to get to heaven". Frankly, as a pastor, I am getting really tired of hearing that. I hear all sorts of reasons why people don't go to church, and frankly most of them come down to a statement that is true of all of them: "I want God MY Way". I think that in the majority of the cases that those people that do not assemble together on Sunday mornings want a manageable God, one that fits into their lifestyle.
Now don't get me wrong. When a person is sick or has to work, I understand that. That is a reason, with a caveat: if Junior is sick that is no reason for the entire family to miss, just one parent. When there is a death in the family, well, that is a reason. But too often, I just hear excuses best explained by an old axiom: "An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie".
It seems that only over the past 30 years or so has the idea that church attendance is optional for the Christian has become a seemingly valid point to many people. I know that there have been people that over the ages have skipped out on church when they profess the faith as is obvious from reading the above passage from Hebrews. But this is not the only scripture that bears witness to the concrete doctrine of assembling with a local body of believers on Sunday.
All this being said, I feel that the real reason why people are not faithful on Sunday is because of faithfulness during the week, month and year. Our faith is so much more than just Sunday morning and that is the problem. Quite honestly, I think that the problem of the church today--and our little church is not exempt--is that we are driven to distraction. Yes, we are driven to distraction by those things that are not worth a pile of cow manure in eternity. Let's study where the problem lies this week.
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It's A Sign O' The Times...
But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people! 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (HCSB)
Let's face it, there have always been people that have professed Christ but not gone to church. It obviously was a problem back in the early church, as the writer of Hebrews mentioned in Hebrews 10:24-25.
But we should not be surprised that people are finding ways to justify not being in church. It is one of those signs of the times. People that have once confessed Christ as their Savior After all, prophecy does tell us that before the end times, there will be a great apostasy. I think that this whole wave of people not attending church is part of this great apostasy, this great "falling away":
Look around the world around us and tell me if you don't think that this scripture relates to it! By and large, our country has become this way. In fact, this passage of scripture could be used as an indictment against our society today.
Top Ten Reasons Why "Christians" Don't Attend Church
Over the years, I have heard so many excuses for people skipping the worship service. Here are the top four that I have heard that would be humorous if it wasn't such a tragic and serious issue:
"I had to mow the lawn" (the lawn has become more important than God?)
"I had to go to work at 3 PM, and had to miss" (church is at 11 AM).
"My second cousin from out of town was visiting" (couldn't you have brought him to church?).
"I had to go to the grocery store" (what about the rest of the week?)
Here are the Top Ten which are from a survey done by Lifeway Resources:
Simply got too busy - 19 %
Family/home responsibilities prevented attendance - 17 %
Church members seemed hypocritical - 17 %
Church members were judgmental of others - 17 %
Moved too far from church - 17 %
Work situation prevented church attendance - 15 %
Church was not helping me develop spiritually - 14 %
Stopped believing in organized religion - 14 %
Church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement - 12 %
Got divorced/separated - 10 %
Let's look closely at these ten reasons.
Stuffed Skins and Misplaced Priorities
Then He told him: "A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his slave to tell those who were invited, 'Come, because everything is now ready.' "But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.' "Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.' "And another said, 'I just got married, and therefore I'm unable to come.' Luke 14:16-20 (HCSB)
"I'm simply too busy".
"I moved too far from church".
"My family/home responsibilities prevented attendance"
"I stopped believing in organized religion".
Let's look at these stuffed skins, these excuses not reasons.
Busy--I hear this one possibly most of the time. People say they have no time for church. Another variant is "I work six days a week, and don't have time for church. I am just so tired." Also related is "I was sick".
I just have a hard time believing that people are so busy. It is true that some people work more hours, but here is a key question for you--who gave them the work so that they could pay the bills and buy food to put on the table? God did.
Usually, people are so busy doing other things that crowd out church. It is a matter of priorities. Mowing the lawn, going shopping, going to work at 3 PM, they are all indicative of mistaken priorities.
Here's the other thing--most people really aren't so tired. You will find them out shopping, working in the yard, playing games with their kids and so on. If you are so worn but can still do these things, then priorities are an issue.
On a related note, I had a woman that missed church on Sunday morning because she said she was so sick she couldn't come. But then I saw her at her grandson's football game at 2 PM! She said she wasn't feeling well but couldn't miss her grandson's football game. Someone had messed up priorities.
Phony baloney excuses are not new, as we see in today's key scripture.
It's all a question of commitment in many ways. If the family situation is getting in the way, sometimes that is understandable. If you have a sick child, someone should stay home with the child--but not the whole family! Does a whole family stay home from work and school because one child is sick? No.
And in regards to moving too far from the church, that answer is pretty simple--find a church closer to your new home! Makes sense to me.
The last one on this Stuffed list is "I quit believing in organized religion". Well, I have all sorts of answers to that, most of which I will show you next week. However, let's give this some thought.
People don't want organized religion, but they would have a fit if other things weren't organized. What if you went to a "disorganized hospital" for heart surgery? Also, would you want to put money in a "disorganized bank"?
The problem is a far more basic one that just fooling one's self.
Failure On Both Sides of the Fence
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Rom 12:9 NKJV
"Church members seemed hypocritical."
"Church members were judgmental of others."
"Church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement."
"Church was not helping me develop spiritually."
"Got divorced/separated."
I would say that you could separate these six into at least somewhat valid reasons. However, this is not always the case.
For a new believer, sometimes the expectations run way too high. One thing that the new believer should come to understand is that just because the people in a church are saved doesn't make them perfect. But on the other hand, we as "church people" should not put a stumbling block in their way.
The first three are issues involving the church people, and how they sometimes fail as people that are supposed to be showing the love of God. If we don't reflect the love of God to others, then we may be chasing them off!
First, we as Christians must not only talk the talk but walk the walk. If we come to church on Sunday morning and act all nice and pious, then swear like a sailor and act like a selfish idiot the rest of the week, we are being hypocritical. If you think about it, we are all hypocritical to some degree. We all talk about how we should do this or that while standing behind the pulpit or sitting in the pew, but when we cross over the threshold of the church door, are we leaving that testimony behind?
It is almost as bad to be judgmental. However, we must be careful to define judgmental. The world says "judge not, lest ye be judged!". However, if you look at that same passage in Matthew 7, you will see that we have to be on the lookout for wolves in sheep's clothing. We need to examine the fruit of the person, we need to be fruit inspectors.
We must be careful of looking down our nose and pointing "Sinner!" to those that fall. I know I fall at times, and am quite embarrassed about it. When we do need to correct someone, it must be in love and almost never in front of other people, it needs to be private.
Cliques in churches are, for the most part, shameful. It's important to recognize, however, that there are cliques and their are groups; they are entirely different things. Cliques are usually comprised of those that are power hungry, those that gossip about others that group members feel are beneath them either in the amount of money they make, the clothes they wear, the cultural or community based background and more.
Most often, cliques filled with those that they feel are beneath them; however it is natural for people in churches to gravitate toward people with backgrounds, jobs and education levels that are similar to them. That being said, we must be sensitive toward visitors at our church so that they always feel more than welcome.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 (ESV)
The last two of the top ten reasons that people do not attend church concern me greatly: "Church was not helping me develop spiritually" and "Got divorced/separated"
Our #1 priority should be discipling our new converts. It is the responsibility of the church to seek out those that are lost to present the gospel to them, but it is equally important for the church to grow them up in the faith.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus told the disciples--not just "the twelve" but a good sized group--the following: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. As a preacher I heard years ago preach, there are four commands: Go...Win...Baptize...Teach. GO...get out of your home, off your rear and make disciples (WIN)...then see that they are BAPTIZED after they are saved...then teach them. That's our job in a nutshell.
The last excuse on the list is troublesome. We need to be there for people when they go through divorce and separation. It is perhaps the hardest time that a person goes through, other than the death of a spouse. It is one thing if a man or woman leaves their spouse for another person; Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5 about that issue. This is we should talk more about, but also be willing to extend that loving hand to this group--or any people--in a time of trouble. We need to show them that we love them.
Next week, we will examine the benefits of being in church. These are benefits that the person will experience, but also the local church will experience as well. In short, give this some thought: since God gifted you with gifts and talents to be used for Him and for the enjoyment and use of others, is it not a grievous sin to withhold and misuse that gift? The man who buried the sum of gold that was entrusted to him by his master comes to mind.
However, there is an overarching concept that we will address in the third message in this short mini-series. The worship service should be the culmination of the week for the believer, one marked by prayer, study and private worship. I believe that for the most part those that do not attend Sunday worship service are not studying their Bibles, praying or offering private worship to God. The end result is a de-emphasis on the worship of God on the Lord's Day, and all the excuses that entails.
