Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.  Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And 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.  Hebrews 10:23-25 NLT

In southeast Louisiana if you run into someone that you haven’t seen in a while, they will most likely ask, “How’s your mom and ’em?”.  Translation-how are your family members doing.  If you are a Christian, hopefully you have two families.  Your biological family and your church family.  If you are like me the two are somewhat intertwined.  I have family members that attend the same church with me and family members that go to church elsewhere.  Sadly, I have family members that do not attend church.

I have often heard people tell me that they don’t go to church for various reasons.  One is that you don’t have to go to church to be saved.  This is true.  But when I think of being saved and having a loving relationship with the Lord and not going to church I think it’s kind of like ordering a hot fudge sundae and just sitting it on the table and watching it melt.  I mean why not eat it, right?  You see church is such an enormous privilege.  Serving God is a privilege that we should not take for granted.  There is a church out there that would be a perfect fit for you and it would be such a privilege for you to attend and serve there,  so why neglect it.

Others tells me that they don’t go to church because there are too many hypocrites at church.  My former pastor used to say “well, yeah but there’s always room for one more.”  If you are wondering what he meant by that, allow me to explain.  If you are sitting on your high horse calling a bunch of other people hypocrites, well that makes you a hypocrite so you may as well join the rest of them.

Others have reasons like “well, I was gonna go to church, but a friend invited me to go out on their boat.”  or “I wanted to go to church, but this is my only day off.”  What if God said, “well I wanted to give you eternal life and a place in heaven, but I decided to go fishing”,  or  “I’m sorry I didn’t prepare a place for you in heaven, I was watching the football game”.  You see God controls the entire universe.  He deals with every being on the planet, yet He still has time for you and me.  I am amazed when someone can’t give up a few hours on Sunday to spend time with God in His house.

This scripture passage is entitled a call to persevere in my bible.  Yesterday we talked about walking boldly into heavenly places. Today we are talking about sticking together as Christians, being in the family of believers, and attending worship services.

I used to be one of those people that went to church on Sunday out of obligation.  I would try to at least make one or two Sundays a month.  But I realized that when I committed myself to Christ that I had a family within my church.  I had a good family that loved and encouraged me.  I had mentors that helped me grow as a Christian.  As time progressed, I was able to encourage others.

I went from saying “if I go to church Sunday” to saying “when I go to church Sunday”.  As a child my mother made me go to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  I now choose to go on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  I love going on Wednesday night because it gives me the refresher that I need to get me to Sunday morning.

If you are not going to church, then I encourage you to find a good Bible teaching church.  Find a church with a healthy family that will encourage you to grow in Christ.  Find a church that serves the Lord with gladness.  Thom Rainer wrote a book called I am a Church Member.  This is a wonderful short book that can be read in about an hour, but it is packed full of information on how to be a good biblical church member.

If you are going to church but feel that you are not getting much out of it, then assess what you are putting into it.  Are you serving or are you sitting around waiting to be served?

Today’s scripture passage says that we are to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  Find a church that motivates you to serve the Lord and help others.

The last part of this scripture passage says that we should not neglect meeting together because the day of his return is drawing near.

None of us know when we  will meet our maker, but we know that every day we are one day closer.  I encourage you to meet with other Christians, find love and encouragement in a good Bible teaching church.  Meet with like minded individuals.  Serve in one accord.  Take full advantage of the privilege we have in church membership and serve the Lord with all your heart.

When we do this, we bring ourselves into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and we find comfort and joy in doing so.

Have a great day!