CHURCH – WHO NEEDS IT
Bob Marcaurelle homeorchurchbiblestudy.com
“We must not give up assembling together as some people are in the habit of doing. We should encourage one another especially since we see the day (Of Christ’s coming) drawing near.”
(Heb. 10: 25)
Even in NT times some believers had given up on the church. They felt they did not need it to live the Christian life. In fact they may have felt the church hindered their walk with Christ. Many of us have felt this way.
One Pastor admitted, “I have been so busy going to the Bible for sermons that I don’t have time to go for food for my own soul.” In my early years at a growing church, because of the stress of the demands on my time, I felt the church was a hyge wedge driving me further away from God.
My first ministerial staff member and I, weary of church games, used to say, “We could work in a gas station; hand out tracts and win more people to the Lord than we do now keeping the church machinery running.
WHY PEOPLE DON’T GO
. Someone said, “The church is like Noah’s ark. If it weren’t for the storm on the outside, we couldn’t put up with the stink on the inside”. Why
It is often HYPOCRITICAL. It talks the talk but does not walk the walk. We see this every four years in our Country at election time when men invoke the name of Christ and make promises we know they will not keep.
We see it every day in business. I have heard over and over, if a business claims it is Christian then go somewhere else unless if you want to get cheated. I don’t know if it is true, I've seen it once or twice, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard for 50 years.
One reason is far too many Churches FIGHT. Looking through the window of the First Baptist Church of Corinth Paul said he was afraid that if he came to them he would find (2 Cor. 12:20 TEV):
“quarreling, jealousy, hot tempers, selfishness, insults, gossip, pride, and disorder.”
The church often EMBARRASES us. One TV pastor said the earthquake that hit Haiti last week causing tens of thousands to lose their homes, and many others to lose their lives, was punishment from God because the country made a pact with the devil decades ago.
One of our past presidents of our national convention made headlines when he said, “God will not answer the prayer of any Jew”
It RESISTS CHANGE Jesus told the Jewish Church, “For the sake of your traditions you set aside the word of God” (Matthew 15:6).
Baptists in their past have stood up against Sunday Schools; using any version other than the King James; baptizing in a man- made pool; using tapes in church; and having couples classes for married adults.
Rural churches are dying all over our county and they would rather die than combine with other Baptist churches nearby.
It often MISTREATS OUTSIDERS. It becomes like a country club. James 2 warned against welcoming the wealthy and snubbing the poor who come to worship. The church knows how to keep undesirables at arm’s length.
Author Tennessee Williams and his sisters visited a little church and the kids made fun of their clothes. Never again, he said, was he even tempted to go to church.
This is especially true in our treatment of the UNSAVED. Baptists talk about “loving souls” but they forget that “souls” means “people”. We don’t have souls like we have gall bladders; we are living souls. Instead of investing time and effort into loving these people, we usually “witness” to them once or twice and then write them off as unreachable.
When I was in seminary in Texas, a pastor showed me a “visitation” card from his church’s past that he had framed on his desk. The card had the name and address of prospects that had been visited. The church visitor had written under, “Remarks” “They showed no interest in our church and it might be best if some other church tried to reach them.” Then the Pastor told me that was the family of Lee Harvey Oswald
A prostitute found Christ in an AA meeting in a church basement. She asked to join the church. The Pastor told her to think about her conversion and come back in a week. She did so and he told her to read her Bible and come back in a week. She did and he told her to pray and come back in a week. She never came back.
One day the Pastor saw her and asked why. She said I did what you said. I prayed and the Lord told me not to worry about it, He had been trying to get into your church for the last 20 years.
Note: There is another side to this. One reason for Baptist growth in America was that we provided neighborhood churches where everyone was from the same economic level. My mother made me go to a “downtown” church, and I hated it because everyone there had more than I did. I went back to my mill hill church.
This didn’t mean that city church did not care for me. I had a Sunday School teacher there who took a personal interest in me and wrote me encouraging letters. I remember his name to this day. The church in Texas, if it cared, should have put another church in touch with them, but 99 out of 100 churches don’t do this. They throw the card in the trash and forget them.
The church BORES US. Churches have long prayer lists on Sunday morning that include people with bad colds; it has children’s sermons and long announcements that eat up too much time; it has church conferences on Sunday morning; and we wonder why visitors don’t come back.
WHY SHOULD WE GO
The Bible TELLS US TO. Jesus founded the church and he called it, MY church. We need to support it and its work because it is His work. The creation of local congregations of believers all over the Roman world who ministered to the people in their area was not a “good idea” thought up by the Apostles. Jesus told His disciples, “I will build my church.” (Mt. 16:18). Failure to support it is failure to follow Him. Hebrews 10:25 is not a suggestion it is a command.
When people tell me they are Christians but don’t go to church, my answer is, “I didn’t know we had a choice.” We cannot pick and choose the commands we like and will obey and call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ. That is like calling yourself a soldier and not putting on the uniform or joining any branch of the military
We need to HELP OTHERS through it. Jesus commissioned His followers to preach “repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all nations” (Luke 24:46) and baptize and teach them his commands (Matthew 28
18-20)
There is no way they could have done this as individuals, or even families. They had to ban together, elect leaders, and assign responsibilities, even though it would cost them their lives (Acts 7 and 12).
People selfishly say they don’t like “organized religion”. A “Lone Ranger” Christian may live a good life, but he cannot do alone, what God wants done.
They don’t like organized religion, but they like organized “everything else”. They like organized health care; organized schools; organized police; etc. To do what needs to be done, we must have organization. And the church is in the same boat.
We need to go to HELP OURSELVES. We need to be supported by it. Hebrews says we can “encourage” each other. In church we are TAUGHT THE RIGHT BOOK Nowhere else in society will you be taught and expected to believe the Word of God and live by it. Even if you don’t agree with your Pastor or SS Teacher, at least you are thinking about the Word. The word makes us strong and gives us guidance.
Lone Ranger Christians are easy prey for this sinful, seductive world. Out there we are bombarded all the time with the world’s philosophy and ways- make money, look out for number one, have fun, don’t take anything off of anybody, etc.
It HAS THE RIGHT PEOPLE to encourage and inspire us. It has some of the worst people on earth. Many of us have the scars to prove it. If you were Satan wouldn’t you put your best (worst) workers where they can do the most harm?) But it also has some of the best.
Last month I visited a high school friend who is in the last stages of MS. He had been bedridden for years and had to be hoisted out of bed with a lift. We sinned together as friends in High School, but when I returned there to Pastor, he had accepted Christ and was a member and worker of my church. When I left that day. I asked him what he wanted me to pray for him. He wept and said, “God has been so good to me. Just thank Him for that”.
Folks I need to be around people like that. My children and grandchildren need to be around people like that. They say in Africa it takes a village to raise a child- you are my village; and I thank God for every one of you.
