We Gather So We Can Send

There are a lot of reasons why someone might decide to get up on Sunday and "go to church." You might take a second and ask yourself, "Why do I go to church on Sunday?" Most will probably answer with some response that will sound like this, "I go to church to worship God." Maybe some would use other churchy words like, "I want to glorify God, or I want to praise God." And these are good answers for everything we do in life.

Paul said it this way, "Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." So going to church to worship God or to praise Him is a great thing, but, isn't this the reason for everything you say and do?

Could there be a better reason for you to get out of bed and "go to church" on Sunday? The answer is yes. And the Hebrew writer spells it out for us, "let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near."

Here's the reason you need to "go to church." You need the encouragement to be sent. You go to church so you can go to your world. Here's another way the Hebrew writer put it, "You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God" You would be hard pressed to read the New Testament and believe that you don't need the church. Those who say things like this, don't know a thing about God stuff.

Jesus said the most important command from God is for us to "love God and love others." But now let's talk about what that means. What does it mean to love God and to love others. What is the action plan? How do I do this? We've discussed what Jesus said in Matthew 25, that we love God and love others by serving them and blessing the needs of people. And this is definitely a part of what it means to love God and love others, Jesus said so. A lot of churches have the serve thing down, but, the Bible also says that Jesus wants everyone to be saved. He said, "I came to seek and save the lost." Jesus wants people to repent. If all we do as a church is serve the needs of folks but we don't share the Gospel of Jesus, then we haven't really loved them. We can bless people, but, we love them by sharing the message of the Gospel of Jesus with them. The Scripture we're looking at today provides us the understanding of how we love God and love others.

Romans 10:13-17, "For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, 'How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!'...faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ."

Jesus taught us that His expectations of His followers is that they will make other followers. The Bible word Jesus used is 'disciple.' The word disciple means "learner" Jesus said our job as a church is to "make disciples." If you do a word study on this phrase of Jesus in Matthew 28:19, you will make a significant discovery. This is what the Strong's Concordance says about "making disciples", "helping someone to progressively learn the Word of God to become a matured, growing disciple (literally, "a learner," a true Christ-follower); to train (develop) in the truths of Scripture and the lifestyle required, helping a believer learn to be a disciple of Christ in belief and practice."

Now, I don't know about you, but, this sounds intimidating to me. I have a responsibility because I'm a disciple of Jesus to make more disciples by helping them grow by being an example of what a follower of Jesus looks like and training them to live the same way. This is what Jesus said. The rest of the New Testament simply confirms the teaching of Jesus. Titus chapter 2 is a great example of what it means to train others to be disciples of Jesus. This is why the church gathers. This is why you, "go to church." We want to encourage you and help you to make disciples of Jesus, because this is how you "love God and love others."