So, He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.     Luke 4:16 NKJV

This Scripture passage tells us it was Jesus’ custom to attend church. I love someone who leads by example. Jesus never said, “Do as I say, not as I do.” He showed us how we were to live. Ephesians 5:1 says we are to be imitators of Christ. If you want to be assured of going to heaven, just follow Jesus’ lead. After all, He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man gets to the Father except through Him.

So many people fail to go to church. They believe that this is okay because they love the Lord and believe in Him. That’s a good start, but if we truly love the Lord, we want to be in His house with others who love Him. We want to worship Him and praise Him. We want to gather with like-minded people. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us we should be concerned for our fellow Christians. It says, “And let us be concerned about one another to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Many use Sunday as a day to “catch up” on laundry, housekeeping, cooking, work, or studies. I know because I used to be one of those people. The only thing this ever did for me was make the following week more hectic. I learned that if I spent all day Saturday catching up and spent my Sunday in church, God seemed to make the following week smoother and even often gave me a little unheard of downtime at work to get caught up.

Jesus was obedient to His Father. He was obedient to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Warren Wiersbe pointed out in his commentary that Jesus did not argue about how corrupt the religious system was or that He didn’t need the instruction. He was and is “the Word” after all, according to John 1:1. But He still took His time to make His way to church on Sunday.

When we use Sunday as a day off to catch up on work, we are violating God’s command to honor the Sabbath as holy. In Exodus 20:8-11, God commanded the Israelites to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. They were instructed not to do any work on that day. He pointed out how God made the heavens and the earth and all that was in them in six days and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Since rededicating my life to Christ and making church a priority, I have come to realize that I get a whole lot more from going to church than I give. I get encouragement from my Christian friends. I get a recharge when we study God’s word. I get the benefit of sitting and listening and learning from a pastor who preaches God’s Holy Word.

So, this Sunday, when you think about all you need to do, put church at the top of that list. But I always tell people to remember that when you try to start going to church or return to church, the devil will do all he can to stop you. He will put obstacles in your way. Pray for God to walk you over and through these obstacles.

If anyone could have skipped church, it would have been Jesus, but we see from our Scripture passage that it was his custom to attend church on the Sabbath. I think we would all do well to do the same.

Have a great day!