HAPPY CHURCHGOERS
PSALM 122:1
Disclaimer: Source material for this sermon has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources whenever possible.
Introduction: Most people attend church with about as much enthusiasm as going to the dentist to have a tooth pulled. Most pastors while preaching look out at faces that are emotionless and blank. Some obviously wishing they were anywhere else but in church. David said he looked forward with eager anticipation to being in God’s house. We need that same attitude that of being happy churchgoers.
I. Church attendance ought to be a Joy.
A. It ought to lift your spirit.
1. There are times when our spirit within has grown tired and needs to be rejuvenated and lifted up.
2. Corporate worship ought to lift your spirit as you lift up your voice with others in praise and adoration to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
3. Psalm 149:1 “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints.”
4. In praising God one stops thinking about themselves. They start looking at our wonderful God and realize how good and how great and how loving He is.
5. A little singing bird was perched on a limb of a tree. The boy had the stone all ready to throw, but the bird began to sing. Slowly the stone was dropped, and the bird found its way to freedom. "Why did you not stone him?" asked a gentleman. "Couldn’t," was the brief answer, "’cause he sung so." And so for us the lesson is clear: Let us praise God! The enemy of our soul is read to "shoot" his arrows of doubt or fear. But as an unknown author penned: "The trial may be fiery, the march may seem long; let the glory in your soul sing His praise. The devil will flee. He does not like songs of praise." Gary Bowell p. 151
B. It ought to encourage your heart
1. People need people. Laurie was about three when one night she requested her mother’s aid in getting undressed. Mom was downstairs and Laurie was upstairs, and ... well. "You know how to undress yourself," Laurie’s mom reminded her. "Yes," Laurie explained, ’but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they do know how to do things by themselves." - William C. Schultz, Bits & Pieces, December 1990.
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”
3. Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
C. It ought to challenge your mind
1. A woman was talking to her neighbor over the fence. "I really don’t know what you see in the church," she said. "Oh, you really don’t know what you are missing!" said her friend. "It’s such a wonderful rest after a hard week’s work, to sit in the pews and think about nothing!"
2. It ought to draw your thoughts back to and focus them on the things of God.
3. Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
4. "I have always liked the definition of preaching given by Professor Chad Walsh, ’The true function of a preacher is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.’" - John Stott THE PREACHER’S PORTRAIT
5. 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”
II. Church attendance is Necessary.
A. It is necessary for Fellowship
1. Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
2. A number of winters ago, heavy snows hit North Carolina. Following a wet, six-inch snowfall, it was interesting to see the effect along Interstate 40. Next to the highway stood several large groves of tall young pine trees. The branches were bowed down with the heavy snow -- so low that branches from one tree were often leaning against the trunk or branches of another. Where trees stood alone, however, the effect of the heavy snow was different. The branches had become heavier and heavier, and since there were no other trees to lean against, the branches snapped. They lay on the ground, dark and alone in the cold snow. When the storms of life hit, we need to be standing close to other Christians. The closer we stand, the more we will be able to hold up. -- Carl G. Conner
3. Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is…”
B. It is necessary for Strength
1. Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
2. You’ve heard the old saying, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." This saying is applicable within the church too. In the battle for Stalingrad during World War II the Russian commanders ordered their soldiers not to give up any more ground. Any soldier who fled from the Germans was shot on the spot. The Russian commanders knew that if even a couple of soldiers fled their post the Germans would have an opening through which they could pour into the city. Likewise, when believers fail to unite within the church , Satan finds it so much easier to attack and to conquer.
3. Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic. - Vance Havner
C. It is necessary for Service
1. Ephesians 4:11-12 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
2. The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members. – William Temple
3. There are four main bones in every organization. The wish-bones: Wishing somebody would do something about the problem. The jaw-bones: Doing all the talking but very little else. The knuckle-bones: Those who knock everything. The back-bones: Those who carry the brunt of the load and do most of the work. - Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 16-17.
4. Mark 16:15 “And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
III. Why Church attendance is Neglected
A. Sin
1. People who have unconfessed sin in their lives are often uncomfortable in church as they fall under the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of God’s Word.
2. This was well illustrated by a cartoon in which a congregant after the service says: "Powerful sermons, Pastor. Thoughtful, well researched. I can always see myself in them. And I want you to knock it off." - Cartoonist Lee Johnson in Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 3.
3. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
B. Apathy (I don’t care- indifference)
1. If a Christian doesn’t meet regularly with others for fellowship, prayer, and the preaching of God’s Word, his enthusiasm for the Lord’s work will begin to wane. This leads to apathy.
2. Nehemiah 13:11 “"Why is the house of God forsaken?"
3. Out of the Southern Baptist’s 16,287,494 members, only 6,024,289, or 37%, on average, show up for their church’s primary worship meeting. In the average church you can cut the 37% Sunday morning attendance by about two-thirds or more when counting those interested in a Sunday evening service, or other gatherings held in addition to the principal meeting of the church. In 1996, the last time the SBC kept these statistics, the number of Sunday evening attendees was equal to only 12.3% of the membership (in churches that had an evening meeting). - Jim Elliff, Midwestern Baptist Theologivcal Seminary
4. Revelation 3:15-16 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”
C. Complacency (self satisfaction, self-righteousness)
1. Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course -- downhill. They draw false strength from looking back. - Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, p. 15.
2. Apathy and Complacency go hand in hand.
3. Revelation 3:17 “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”
