Psalm 5:7 – But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.”
THEME OF THE DAY. WHEN WE DON’T FEEL LIKE CHURCH. I want you to be honest. Real honest. Are there ever any Sunday mornings you don’t feel like going to church? If you were to tell me, “Nope. I have never once had a Sunday I didn’t want to go to church.” If that is you, I am envious. I cannot say that. I’ve experienced a Sunday or two when I wasn’t too thrilled about going to church. And I think each of you would be in my camp, but before I offer the strongest motivator possible to be faithful to church, week-in and week-out, I want to identify four reasons or excuses for missing church.
First, living in known sin. Be a backslidden Christian with no desire for the Lord or His Word, living in sin and spiritual indifference, and church is the last place one wants to be. The fellowship of healthy Christians will convict the backslider, and the preached Word will cut to the soul, not feeling good at all, but bringing about strong conviction.
Another cause is self-imposed fatigue. I call this “self-imposed” because it is the fatigue we brought upon ourselves by exhausting ourselves on Saturday, maybe even late into the night and we simply feel too tired to go to church. I think this happens a lot. I often want to question those who say, “I was too tired for church” with “If it were a workday, would you be absent from work for the same reason you missed church?” Be careful not to spend ourselves on Saturday making it easy to miss church on the Lord’s Day. I wonder how I can be all excited and wide awake for a three-hour basketball game but get distracted and sleepy in a fifty minute sermon only to get excited when we hear the words, “Now in conclusion” or “amen”. We should think about this cause hard.
A third excuse for missing church is worldliness. No Christians should be guilty of this. When it comes to this excuse, it is always a choice. It is the Christian choosing worldly activities over God’s desire for His people on His Day. And be equally careful with this excuse. It is never right to substitute the world for the Word. Such a choice speaks volumes of our misunderstanding, even downplaying, of the importance of the Lord’s Day and fellowship with His people. And don’t fall into self-deception by saying, “It is only one Sunday.” I don’t believe the Lord looks at it like that. We need the Lord’s Day to be exclusively for spiritual rest and refreshment. It should be a weekly non-negotiable because the health of our souls needs it. That is why God gave it to us.
A final reason for missing church is the battle of the flesh. We simply give into the “don’t want” of our flesh and compromise the day. Always remember, the Lord’s Day is a spiritual warfare day. The flesh and devil will double down their efforts to get us to justify missing the fellowship of God’s people on His Day. Be armed and fight hard to keep the flesh from winning out on the Lord’s Day.
So, how do we win out over these excuses for missing church? Today’s scripture. The only thing sustaining anything and everything in the Christian life is God’s love. We come to church to worship God and experience His abundant love. Let the thought of God meeting with us every Sunday to show us more of His steadfast love be the strong motivator keeping us faithful. And it will because He does reveal His great love to us in the corporate gathering of His people. And really, why would a Christian not want to be where God has promised to meet us? With each other in His church. Each Lord’s Day is to be a slice of heaven. Let’s ensure we are not purposefully missing the opportunity to enjoy a little heaven on earth in anticipation of heaven above.
PRAYER: “Lord, help me to see Your love is to be the strongest motivator in all I do as Your child.”
QUOTE: “Faithfulness to the house of God will be more consistent when we experience more of God’s love.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim