Is it a sin to not go to church?
I welcome to today's lesson and thank you so much for joining me once again, we're going
to try to answer a question that was posed by one of our beloved viewers, "Is is a sin
to not go to church?"
And obviously this viewer is wrestling with that very thing himself or herself.
Well you may have heard the story about the man how was lying in bed on Sunday morning
and his mother came into his bedroom and said, "Son get up, get up, you're going to be late
for church."
And he said, "I'm not going to church today."
She said, "It's Sunday, it's Sunday, c'mon get up, get dressed, you need to go to church,"
and he said, "I'm not going to church, I don't like those people, they don't like me, you
know, I just, I don't like going there and so I'm not going to go to church today."
She said, "You've got to go son, you've got to go," and he said, "Give me one good reason
why I got to go to church."
She said, "Well you're the pastor, that's why."
So even pastor's have their doubtful days about whether they should go to church I suppose,
but if you're finding you don't want to go church because you don't like those people
and those people don't like you, well then there's something wrong with this equation,
right?
Right.
Now, why do I say that?
Because we know we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
That's how you know, one way you know that you're born again because you love other people
who are born again.
So if you don't like hanging around born again people, that's not a good indication of where
you're at spiritually.
Now, I know people that quit going to church because they felt like the church where they
were going, there was no one there who was truly born again, or maybe the pastor was
not being faithful to the word of God.
So there are reasons and they could be legitimate reasons why people stop going to church but
they shouldn't stop looking for a church and if they can't find one where there really
are true believers in Jesus, and how do you know if they're true believers?
If they're striving to follow and obey Jesus and keep his commandments, that's how you
know and they love each other, then that's the sign of the real church.
Jesus said, "By this shall all men know you're my disciples if you have love one for another,"
right?
So it's a pretty telling sign.
So if you can't find a church, well then you just need to find some believers who are like
you and you can start getting together and I talked in some recent episodes of the lessons
of how just about any believer could start a disciple making, bible simple church that
has all the components where Jesus said, "If two or three are gathered, I'm in their midst."
Okay, so you can't be a lone ranger Christian, get that out of your brain permanently and
if you're born again I can't believe that, that thought would even be something you entertain.
Okay, now some folks will quote the scripture from Hebrews about, "Do not forsake the assembling
together of yourselves," and that's in the bible, right, I mean you can't debate, it's
in Hebrews chapter 10, that the bible admonishes us to not neglect the assembling of ourselves.
However, with that in mind, but let's just read it, okay, let's do like we often do on
Little Lessons, let's look at context to see if there's maybe something we're missing there
in what's really trying to be said by the author who was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
So Hebrews 10:25 that says, "Don't forsake the assembling together ourselves," you know
there's a verse ahead of that, Hebrews 10:24 that says, "Listen, and let us consider how
to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together."
See how could we stimulate one another to love and good deeds without seeing each other,
assembling, coming together in some way, right?
Right.
And then the author of Hebrews, I think it was Paul, sounds like Paul, but who cares,
it's the Holy Spirit, "Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some,"
so you know there's a little wagging of the finger there, "But encouraging one another
and all the more as you see the day drawing near."
Now he's not saying encouraging one another to go to church, read the context, it's the
context of we're supposed to be stimulating one another to love and good deeds and encouraging
one another obviously, not just with the good old boy slap on the back and say, "Everything's
going to be all right, you know, you'll probably get a better job someday or you know, your
kids will stop giving you trouble someday and they'll move out of your house, no, no,
no, no."
The spiritual encouragement as we're all striving to stay on the narrow path that leads to eternal
life and we all have a supreme desire to obey God because we love God.
It just helps when we come together.
Well I'm a part of a church like that myself but I don't have to go to a church per se,
a church building because I can do that, "Where two or three are gathered in Christ's name,
there Jesus is in the midst of us."
So we are considering how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds and to encourage
one another spiritually, to follow and obey Jesus Christ.
I would submit to you, that this scripture, when it's quoted by pastors in front of congregations,
and said, "Do not forsake our own assembling together," I would submit to you that those
pastors need to be a little bit more honest with the text and the context of the text
and say, "Well is this happening here?
Are people, are the saints, not just me the pastor, the sermon giver, are the saints stimulating
one another to love and good deeds and spiritually encouraging one another?"
I would submit to you that, that can not happen in the big group setting and to the people
of whom the author of Hebrews was writing, they were meeting for the most part in houses,
in smaller settings where they were participatory, interactive, spirit empowered, spirit led,
spirit manifestations, you know we read about these things in other places in the New Testament,
right?
Right.
Okay.
So, I'm not trying to say that there's no value or there's no place for the big meeting
when the pastor gives the sermon and the worship team does all that and so forth, but having
been a part of that for many, many years, couple of decades and now a part of a smaller
church that is just a handful of people, we and we're all focused on making disciples
and being disciples and making disciples who multiply.
Because that's what Jesus said we're supposed to be doing.
So we're coming together and we're looking back at our week, how did you do in obeying
Jesus?
How did you do in keeping the commitments you made last week?
You know and now let's look to God together, let's interpret the word of God together because
we have brains, God gave us brains, we have bibles, we can read, we don't necessarily
have to have a pastor give us all the nuances and find some new revelation that isn't there.
We actually ask, what is God trying to say to us?
What does he want us to do and change in our lives because of this passage?
And there's lots of passages that are good for that and then we look forward to making
commitments, to obey the scripture that we read.
So we are encouraging one another, we are stimulating one another.
When I hear a testimony of my brothers and sisters who are sharing their faith and the
successes and the challenges that they face, it causes me to examine my life.
So thank God many churches are getting the vision to make disciples, you can't do it
by, you don't make disciples by giving sermons to big groups, that may be a part of it but
you got to get people in small groups and you got to get them talking with one another,
that's the real assembly.
Don't forsake that.
So to answer the question, am I sinning if I don't go to church?
It all depends on how you define the church.
You're sinning if you're not part of a, at least a simple bible church that is focused
on following Jesus and being disciples and making disciples, yes you're sinning.
But to say I'm sinning because I don't go to the big box church, as long as you're part
of, you know, "Where two or three are gathered," that's enough.
Okay, all right, so much more to be said, I'm sure people find fault with what I've
said and they'll write negative comments and so forth.
I love you, I love you , I love you because I'm a Christian.
All right, hope I see you next time.
God bless you.