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Message from Him

Church Attendance

Friday, May 16, 2014 • Dr. Gary Fleetwood • Church
Why is church attendance important? Dr. Gary Fleetwood answers the question.
Church Attendance

The church is God's only ordained institution in the New Testament.  Outside of the gospels, most of the books of the New Testament are written either to churches or to pastors of churches such as Timothy or Titus.  Acts is a book written about the development of the early church.  1 Timothy 3:15 clearly states that the church is the "pillar and ground of the truth".  In 1 Corinthians 11:22, speaking of taking the Lord's Supper, Paul wrote these sharp words to those who were indifferent about God's church when he said,

17…Or do you despise the church of God….

The particular use of the word "despise" means to reckon to be of no value or importance.  It carries with it the idea of treating someone or something with a spirit of contempt and disdain.  In 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 God appointed various "gifts" for the church.  Ephesians 1:22-23 says that Christ is the "head" of the church.

22And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3:10 says,

10to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places

Ephesians 3:21 says that Christ is glorified "in the church",

21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

That verse alone is one of the greatest indictments in all of Scripture.  What it says is that if believers do not fully appreciate and love and support God's church, then in essence what they are doing is denying God the glory that He rightfully deserves to receive from His church.  By not being faithful in attendance and by not being willing to commit themselves to God's local church, in essence believers are saying that God's glory is not really that important and it is no big deal to them.  It is like saying to God, "I have other priorities in my life, other things that I want to accomplish, other places that I want to go.  I do not have time for all of this, and besides, it does not seem to have a whole of lot of value for me personally."  So, in reality the believer who forsakes assembling with their local church places their personal preferences over and above God's glory.  Why?  It is because God receives glory "in His church" when members are faithfully gathered together to fulfill His purposes together.

If an able bodied believer says that they love God, but do not faithfully attend His church, then in many ways they are sadly deceived.  Hebrews 10:25 says,

25not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner (habit - NIV, NASB, AMP, ESV, ISV) of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Greek word for "forsake" is "enkataleipo" and literally means to abandon.  The Greek word "kataleipo" means to leave behind, to desert, to forsake, or to leave.  The significance of this verse is somewhat frightening.  In fact, just to show the strength of this particular word for "forsake", it is the same exact word that Jesus used on the cross when He cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  It is the same word employed by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:10 when he said, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world."

In this verse the writer is addressing the simple fact that many within the church have disdained, disrespected, and despised God's church by abandoning the regular attendance of the local church.  God is not interested in some superficial, glib, indifferent attendance of His local church.  If some believers treated their employers the same way they treat God's church, they would be fired immediately.  If a person takes the things of God lightly and if they scorn God's ordained purpose of regularly assembling together with other believers, they are placing themselves in a grave position where they become more and more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy on both them and the members of their families.  They are removing themselves from a divinely ordained place of spiritual protection.  The church provides a type of spiritual umbrella, a kind of spiritual protection for believers, but it offers no value if unattended.  The church is a place of shelter from the full force of Satan's fury, and to just casually forsake assembling with other believers is a grave miscalculation of the enormous spiritual safety net that God has provided by consistent attendance with other believers.

So, if you want to know if someone really loves God, just look first at their commitment to the church of God.  Regularly and faithfully attending church is not a form of asceticism or some kind of sacrificial act on the believer's part.  To the contrary, it is one of the greatest privileges that God has ever given to them, and it should never be taken lightly.

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