Read Matthew 21:12-13. Part 4
I Hate Going To Church.
Jesus mentions how the Temple of God was to be a place where people gathered and would:
1. PRAY. There were other purposes for people to gather at the Temple of God: Cheating people out of money for personal gain was not one of them.
2. GLORIFYING GOD is the greatest purpose for the church people to gather (Romans 15:6). If people gather together in church and it’s not all about glorifying God, then there is a problem.
3. MUSIC and SINGING. In I Chronicles 25:7 it mentions how there were as many as 4,000 musicians and singers praising the Lord in the Temple. Music and singing are great ways of lifting up the name of the Lord God Almighty.
4. TEACHING from GOD’S WORD. Jesus is a great example of this for he often taught in the synagogues from God’s Word (Luke 4:15). The more we can learn from the word of God, as an individual and as a corporate body, the more we understand its purpose for our lives and for reaching the world. If we aren’t mission minded then we are missing the call of God to reach lost souls.
5. TO EDIFY THE BODY OF CHRIST – the Church. 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 talk about using our gifts to bring glory to God but to edify those who go to church. Going to church is a great opportunity to be able to minister to other people and encourage them and be encouraged.
The moment you take Church fellowship out of your weekly practice is the moment you set yourself up to die spiritually.
If you have a bunch of hot coals together, it produces a fire. Take one coal out of the pile and set it by itself. It will quickly die out and quit burning. To me that’s a great picture of what happens to a believer in Christ who thinks they don’t need the church. Their spiritual walk begins to dwindle and die. They become ineffective. They always “believe” but there’s little or no fruit coming from their lives.
Let Hebrews 10:24-25 inspire us to not just get closer to the Lord but closer to one another in Church fellowship.
