Tag: church life

You Need Friends in the Church

pastortravislv

Do you have friends? No, I do not mean to ask you if you have people who know your name and will smile at you as you pass by. Do you have real friends? Are there people to whom your life is tightly connected? Are there people in your local church who know you inside and out, who speak truth into your life, who encourage you when you hurt, and who kick you in the pants when you need it?

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he shared a particular desire with them that speaks to us about our need for the church.

Romans 1:11-12 – 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Paul was an apostle. IN so many ways, we think of Paul as the apostle. Paul is the man who God used to take the gospel to the gentiles. In Acts, it appears that Peter fades into the background as the ministry work focuses on Paul as the book moves forward. Paul personally wrote 13 of our New Testament letters. Paul’s influence is clear in the life of Luke, and thus Paul’s fingerprints are on Luke-Acts. And though I do not think Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews, his teaching oozes from the pores of that book too. If there was a titan of the early church, a man used by God to shape the growing body of believers in the first century, it would be hard to settle on any single figure more than Paul.

Thus, it is no surprise to us that Paul would want to get to the Christians in Rome so that he could encourage them. Of course he would want to do this. Of course Paul would know that those folks needed his teaching.

What is a surprise, however, is that Paul said that he wanted to be mutually encouraged. He wanted to be strengthened by the faith of the Romans as much as he wanted to give of his own faith to the Romans. Paul saw both that he needed to go to Rome for the good of that church and he needed the Romans for the good of his own soul.

Let me say to you, dear Christian, that you are not wiser or stronger than Paul. And if Paul needed the church, so do you. If Paul needed to get himself to be with other believers for two big reasons, so do you.

You need the church in two big ways, no matter how strong and self-sufficient you think you are. You need the church to encourage your soul. You need the people of the church to challenge your thinking, to teach you truth, to encourage your heart, to test your patience, to bring about your repentance, to prod at your sanctification, to show you love, to help you to forgive, to live out the biblical “one another” commands, and so much more. You cannot live the Christian life that God commands you to live without the help of the other believers you find in a local church.

And you need to be a part of a local church so that you can do for others the very things you need others to do for you. If you are a brainy Christian, you need to help other believers understand the truths that God has gifted you to learn. You need to encourage the weak. You need to give kindly to others. You need to show compassion. You need to train up believers who are younger than you in the faith. You need to encourage and strengthen older believers. You need to grow the church as you love others in Christ with truth, mercy, compassion, grace, love, joy, and so much more.

You cannot be a faithful Christian and not connect in the church. You cannot be a faithful Christian without friends in the church. You need friends in the church whether you think you do or not. You need people that you can hurt with your words so that you can learn to temper your words and seek forgiveness when you fail—this is good for your humility. You need other Christians who will drive you nuts with their weaknesses, as this will teach you to love them as Christ loves them and gave himself for them. You need Christians who are smarter than you to remind you that your thoughts are not the best thoughts ever thought by thinking thinkers. You need Christians who can barely make themselves read a book but who put you to shame with their deep seasons of prayer and their gloriously sweet hearts to serve others, hearts you would do well to learn to imitate.  You need kind Christians who teach you not to be a jerk. You need jerky Christians to help you to be compassionate toward sinners as God has been compassionate toward you even as you participate in their sanctification.

At the end of the day, if you are a believer, you need the church. So do not disconnect. Find a body of believers. It will not be perfect. Find a place where the gospel is preached faithfully. Find a place where believers walk through life together, sometimes getting it right, often getting it wrong, but always wanting to glorify God. Find a local church and dive in. Love the people. Care for the people. Help the weaker grow. Learn that you are also the weaker and people help you grow. Obey Christ and love his church. You need this.

The Necessity of Church Attendance

pastortravislv

A believer cannot obey God without being a part of a local church. Stop, read that again. It is impossible for you or me to obey God without being an active, regular, present part of a local church. [As a disclaimer, I’m not aiming here at a person who has no local church near him to attend.]

 

Hebrews 10:24-25 – 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 

The author of the letter to the Hebrews has spent ten chapters pointing to the glory of Jesus. Jesus is our great high priest, much greater than Moses or the Levitical priesthood. Jesus is kind and understanding. He made a single sacrifice for sins, just one, and the sacrificial system is at an end. He opened the way for the people of God to freely enter the presence of God.

 

It is in the light of such glorious things that the author of the letter then tells the church that they are to do certain things. Look at the passage in context.

 

Hebrews 10:19-25 – 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 

See all the “since” statements. Since Jesus has done all he has done and since Jesus is who he is, we are to respond in certain ways. We are to draw near to God (v 23). Would anybody rightly argue that a Christian can be what he is supposed to be without drawing near to God? We are to hold fast to the confession of our faith (v 24). Would anyone argue that someone can be a faithful Christian who does not hold fast his confession? And we are to spur one another on toward love and good deeds (v 24). And again, I point out that no Christian can be what we are supposed to be without obeying this command.

 

But how are we to obey the command to spur one another toward love and good deeds? The author makes it plain. WE do this, not by giving up meeting together. Instead, we spur one another on by continuing to meet together and encouraging one another (v 25).

 

So, let me say it again in case you think I’m not clear enough. If you have the physical capacity to attend a local church, you must do so in order to be obedient to the word of God. For a believer to be obedient, he or she must encourage other believers as we meet together. This is part of faithful, biblical Christianity.

 

Now, let’s consider what is now the common practice of American Christians. I’ll not try to prove the statistics, but you can look them up easily. American Christians tend to attend church around 2 to 3 Sunday’s per month. There are 4 Sundays in a month. Thus, there are many who claim to follow Christ who make it a regular habit of refusing to worship with other believers at least twice per month. This is disobedience to the word of God, plain and simple.

 

OK, we do not do each other any good by sitting here and bemoaning the state of American Christianity. We do no good by talking about denominations where 2/3 of church members could not be found on any given Sunday even by the combined efforts of the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Instead, let’s talk about you and me. Instead of worrying what others should or should not do, ask yourself if you are being what God calls you to be?

 

God says to you, believer in the Lord Jesus, to make sure that you are regularly encouraging other Christians. How do you do that? You do not give up meeting together with them. You keep showing up. You show up when you feel like it. You show up when you do not feel like it. You show up when you could have done something else. You show up when it is raining. You show up when it snows. You show up when it is hot. You show up when it is beautiful at the lake. You show up to take part in the worship of Christ and the encouraging of believers.

 

Again, I’m not here writing about the person who would have to walk 75 miles through mine fields just to attend a service. Nor am I putting guilt on the shoulders of a mom who has to sit at home with a little one running a fever. Nor is this supposed to hurt the heart of an aged saint who cannot leave the house. But, hear me, if you are an able-bodied believer who has a local church nearby where the gospel is preached, go. It should feel utterly foreign to you to let a Sunday go by without being gathered together with people of God you know and love for the sake of worship and encouragement.

 

“Ah,” you say, “but none of the churches near me see the doctrines of the Bible as perfectly as I do. So Obviously, I cannot attend any of them.” While it is possible that a believer is in a setting where there are simply no churches nearby of any sort of faithfulness, the more likely truth is that the person making such a claim is thinking far too highly of himself and his discernment. Go and love people. Go and encourage people. Who knows, you may actually become part of the solution to the problems you see. Or you might find out that some of the things you are elevating to 1st level issues are actually not.

 

Let’s not worry about all the what ifs that could arise here. Instead, let’s strive to be obedient. If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, regular gathering together with the people of God should be normal. Absenting yourself from such a gathering should feel as weird to you as RUNNING OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH your shoes on the wrong feet. Sure, you may have to do so in an emergency, but it will feel wrong and you will correct the problem as soon as you can.

 

Hebrews 10:24-25 – 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

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