Why should I go to church
Key Passage: Hebrews 10:23-25
Date: June 7, 2024
We are going to look at just a couple of verses this morning on this subject: Why go to church? Why should I go to church? We will look in Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 23.
Verse 23 of God’s Word this morning. Once you find it, would you say, “Amen?”
Amen. Good. That is great. We got both sides on that one there. That is pretty good. Y’all are ready to go. I like that. That is wonderful. Music today has been special. It really has been good. I like to look out and see people just singing away. I like that. It is wonderful.
I have seen some of that today for sure. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23. Would you please stand just to show the Word of God respect? Hebrews 10, verse 23. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.”
Now let me just say a word before we go to the next verse. It does not say, “Let us hold fast our faith.” You do not keep yourself saved. You did not save yourself, and you are not going to keep yourself saved. But you hold fast to your profession—your testimony, if you will.
Since he gave you that salvation, he is faithful that promised you that. We ought to be faithful to him. I did not save myself. I do not keep myself saved. He saved me, and he keeps me saved. And I ought to be faithful to someone like that. That is Tennessee vernacular. That is what he is saying there. If you would, please, look at verse 24.
“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
And that day, I believe, is the Day of the Lord or the Day of Christ, when Jesus Christ is coming back. He says, as you get closer to that, things get really bad. You are going to need it more and more. I cannot just get a couple of side notes in. If I do not get these in now, I am afraid I will forget about it. I do not like to miss anything that I think the Lord wants us to cover. But would you look there? This is amazing to me how God covered it all those years ago when he had his Word written. He says, “not forsaking the assembling.”
Now, I praise God that we have that camera back there in the back. Brother Marlins is on it. I do not worry about that because they cannot change channels. Brother Josh is on this side, controlling what comes in from the computer and what comes in from the camera. I worry about Brother Josh trying to find a good football game to put on there. I worry about that a little bit.
But I do thank God for that. I think of Ms. Jenny Fontaine in a nursing home who cannot get out. I praise the Lord, she watches YouTube. I know she watches because she told me recently. I was telling her she says she is losing weight, and I said, “Well, I am gaining weight. I will give you some of mine.” And she said, “Pastor, I watch you on that YouTube. You are not fat at all besides your belly.” Literally. So, thanks a lot, Miss Jenny. I preached it, so I know she is really watching. She knows, you know.
I thank God, there are times. One Wednesday night, I mentioned recently on our vacation, we could not find a gospel-preaching church within literally about an hour. It was very sad. We stayed in our little room and watched the service on YouTube. I am glad it is available; it is a good thing. But can I say, God said, “Not forsaking the assembly.”
It is amazing how God covered that way back then. Hey, I want more than just watching it online if there is any way possible. Get to church. Assembly. Get together with God’s people. That is good—better than nothing, we will say it that way. But, man, friend, if you are physically able and everything, man, get to church. He said, “not forsaking the assembly.” It is amazing.
Now, there is another thing I wanted to mention. I already forgot. I do not know what it was, but we will just pray. Maybe the Lord will have me to get it in later on. Amen. But let us pray. We will get going on this thing: Why should I go to church? Would you pray with me that God would work in our midst?
Father, Lord, we come to you. Lord, we sure need you. Lord, I would ask, Lord, would you make this a permanent truth in their hearts about why we should go to your house, church? Lord, help me to say everything you want me to say, or maybe some little statement you will not say. Lord, it is so true, you could do more in just a second than I can do in years. So, Lord, I pray that you would come and you would change and you would grow us for you, Lord, please. Father, we will thank you. We will brag on you, give you the credit for what you do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
How many of you had a parent, or maybe you were the parent, that every once in a while said, “Why? Why do I got to do that?” And your parent, or you, said, “Because I told you so.” Come on now. How many had a parent like that? If you had both parents, raise both your hands. If you were a parent like that, come on, raise a hand. Yeah, me too, me too. Both hands.
There are many, many reasons why you ought to go to church, many reasons. But can I start with this, number one, the reason why I ought to go to church? Because God told me to. Just plain and simple. Because some of these other things can kind of come and go.
Sometimes fellowship is important. We will get to that, but sometimes maybe you are at odds with some people at the church. Different things come and go, but this saying—if God told us to come to church—that does not change. Very clearly there, he said, “Hey, I do not want you to forsake.” Not even for a Sunday, not even for a service. God said, “not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.” Is that not clear from him? God wants you and I to be in church.
Someone said this, and I got a good laugh at it. They said, “I wish you folks would come to church if only for a visit, for someday they would carry you in and the Lord will say, ‘Who is it?’” I am just joking there a little bit, but I am saying, man, go to church. The doors are open. Here is the thing: Do not make a decision every time. The devil is going to do his best to keep you out. You know when the most battles are going on? Sunday morning before church. The spirit is trying to get you in church, and the devil says, “Do not go to church.” Remember your toenail, or remember your little headache, and remember this and that, and he will remind you of everything of the world. There is a battle. If you make a decision every Sunday, you are more likely to make the wrong decision. Just make one decision: I am going to be there.
Some of you have work commitments, and I understand that. But if you can, make one decision: I am going to go to church. Just that. There was never a debate at our house when I was growing up whether we were going to go to church or not. If I went to Dad and said, “Dad, are we going to go to church?” Dad said, “Boy, what is the matter? You know we are going to church.” If I tried to convince Mom to go against Dad—unless Dad was out of church—and I went to Mom, “We are going to church.” She said, “Paul, you know what your dad said. We are going to church.” I am thankful for that. How many have ever heard of me trying to get out of church on a Sunday night? You have heard of me doing that?
Some of you heard that story about Sunday night when the neighbor’s grandpa and his grandsons—a boy we liked to play with—were there. We did not want to go to church that night. How many heard this story? Oh, we have heard a lot that had not heard the story, so we will tell it anyway. If all of you had raised your hand, I would have said it anyway. It is not in my notes, though. Josh says, “I saw that one coming.” We thought, how can we get out? We cannot get out of church unless we are sick. How can we make ourselves sick? Well, the neighbor next door, the grandpa—and I am not advising you to use this, do not use this—he had this stuff called Copenhagen. It comes in this little round can, you know. I have always heard if you eat that stuff, you get sick. Anybody else ever heard that? Well, I said, we are going to put it to the test, man. The grandsons went and got it for us, you know. We said we are going to eat this stuff so we can get sick so we can stay out of church. So we got it. I have never dipped a day in my life, but I have eaten it. Yeah, my older brother and I ate some of that stuff, and we thought, man, we are ready to get sick. We were outside, ready to… I am not talking about lunch coming up or revisiting anything like that. I was not mentioning that in church. We were ready for all those things to happen, and we never got sick. I never get sick. We said, well, we have to get sick, but we are getting close to church time. So I said, I tell you what—I do not know who kept up there—well, tell you what, let us spin. If you spin, you get sick. So we spun; we did not get sick. Well, you know, if you are in an awkward position when you spin, you know. So we picked each other up on our shoulders, on the fireman’s carry, we spun each other around, right? And we set each other down. It is settled now. All right, time to… time to… This is how bad it got. We even went in and got some noodles, yeah, and some noodles, and we kind of mixed it all up with some water in there. We were making fake… you know what I am talking about? Yeah. We finally came to the conclusion that Mom and Dad would not buy it. They knew better; we would get killed. So we did not try that one. You know what? Sunday night, my brother and I were in church. About halfway through church, our faces started turning green. We were about sick as a dog, but we went to church.
It was never a debate. At the time, I did not always like it, but I am glad now. I am telling all these stories; I have got to hurry along. I will never forget Super Bowl Sunday. It did not matter—Super Bowl, whatever—we were going to be in church Super Bowl Sunday night. One of those boys, just before cell phones and all that, brought us a little bitty radio. We all had it planned out, teenage boys. He put that radio in the men’s restroom, and it just so happened we had to go to the restroom during the middle of service. About five or six of us boys had to stay in the restroom a little longer than typical; we were all back there listening to the Super Bowl. One of those moms knew what was going on; she is one of those smart moms. Moms just have radars; they know what is going on. That lady went back to the men’s restroom. She did not knock on the door. She just walked right into the men’s restroom and called out to us—five, six boys sitting around that radio. We froze, man. We turned the radio off, unplugged it real quick, back in the day. That mom said, “If you boys get in church and you sit down and listen to every word, I will not say anything to your mom and dad.” Man, we were out of there. My mom did not know about that until right now. I am still worried about her whipping me after church is over. That is where it ought to be, though. Kids ought to know: every time the doors are open, we are going to be there. By the way, when I let things get in front of the house of God, it is teaching a lesson to my kids.
Our kids played sports and all that, and I never forget Little League. We just got ready for it every year. It always starts off, “Well, we do not have any games on Wednesday and Sunday unless it is rainout games.” Anybody know what I am talking about? It happened so many times. We would say from the beginning, “If it is a rainout game on Wednesday night or Sunday, we are just not going to be there.” I remember one of the coaches of the Diamondbacks in Laverne saying, “Well, we got a rainout game on Wednesday.” I raised my hand. Everybody huddled around. I raised my hand. He said, “I know, Mr. Chisgar. What are you going to say? You are not going to be here. Your son is not going to be here. You are going to be in church.” And that is exactly right. My son and my daughter knew that I thought that much of God and God’s house, that we are going to obey his Word, and God is more important than baseball. Friend, listen, that baseball is going to rot, but you are going to be in heaven or hell forever. But you are teaching them.
He even says that, “and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” It is a shame so many churches are dropping off church attendance. I remember old Dr. Lee Robertson back in the day. He was tall, and he had a long—every preacher has a long finger, you know, when they point out, especially. His was long, and it was never straight; it was always a little crooked. He would always say, “Three to thrive, three to thrive.” So, I am for three to thrive: Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. A lot of churches do not even have Sunday night, do they? Does the Bible say that you have to have church three times a week? Well, actually, if you want to get technical, in the Book of Acts, they met daily. So we are cutting you a break there. Man, friend, as things get worse and the world beats on you more, we need church. We need it. There are many reasons to go to church, but let me just start off by saying, hey, God told us to go to church.
Now let me get a couple things in there. Number two, why should we go to church? Because it is where God’s people grow. It is where they grow. Would you look over in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15? 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. This puts a very important truth in here. You can point out a couple different ways, but this is the clearest. First Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. Once you find that, would you say, “Praise the Lord?” Good. Verse 15 right there, 1st Timothy 3. He says, “But if it tarry long”—Paul speaking to Timothy—“that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.”
Here is the thing: We understand from God’s Word that the church is a house of God. I have said this often: It is not my church. It is not your church. It is not the deacon church. It is God’s church. The church is a house of God.
Help me out here: when Philip and John were born, what date were they born? John, July 6th. Was that a Thursday or Wednesday? Wednesday, July 6th, they were born. I am not sure how many days later—maybe that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday—when they went home? That is a wild Saturday for twins. That is Saturday when the hospital released them. They took them to their house. At their house, they are getting love. They are getting nurtured. They are getting—unfortunately—their diapers changed, maybe too often. I will not say anything about asking somebody if they changed diapers. And they said, “Not yet.” Now, it was not Brother John. But I am like, hey, that is a good thing if you can hold out on that. They are getting all those things, and that is where those boys will grow up and learn to become good, strong men. When someone gets saved, they are born into the family of God; they become a child of God, just a newborn baby in Christ. It is so vital that they come to the house of God. There is a very slight chance that they will grow and become all God wants them to be if they do not get in church very quickly. If a baby is born and you leave that baby out in the middle of nowhere, that baby is not typically going to make it. It has got to have someone to teach it.
One day, those boys, John and Philip, are going to be at church, and Brother Frank is going to have some candy in his pocket. Whether John and Miss Marie like it or not, he is going to give them some candy. Miss Maria is going to say, “John, do not be little John. What do you say?” And he is going to go, “Thank you.” Philip, why are you saying? He is going to hang him. And Brother John, if they get a little bit older, Brother John is going to say, “All right, boys, time to cut the grass.” Brother John is looking forward to that day. I am saying that is where those boys are going to get pulled and trained and learn. That is where a Christian comes. Friend, it is so vital that a Christian is in the house of God. That is where you learn when a Christian ought to be. You learn the Bible. He says over in Titus 1:3, “He hath in due times manifested his word through preaching.” Somebody gets up there and preaches the Word of God and just kind of opens it up, and you say, “Well, I never saw that before.” That is part of church. It is vital that we come to church. We ought to go to church because that is where God’s people grow. You get trained and you learn. Can I say this? I am not against discipleship programs. We have our Foundations Class here that we try to use, and we have a solar program and all these things we try to use. I am not against all that. But the best discipleship program there is is Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. I am not against the rest of them, but, friend, you cannot bypass God’s method of church. It is God’s plan. It is God’s method. It is what he wants.
Last night I was up here, and sometimes on a Saturday night I will come up here, and I will be studying. I put my computer over here; I have it plugged in right over there, and I just try to get things tidied up for Sunday and all that. When I left, I took my computer home. I was doing more work last night and this morning on my computer, and I realized my battery started getting low, and I said, “Oh my goodness, I need my charger.” So I looked at the top part of my bag that I carried all that stuff in—it is not a purse, by the way, amen—and my charger was not there. Oh, man. Praise the Lord, my wife’s charger for her laptop works on mine. Somebody say amen right there. I left it; it was right there this morning when I came in. I put it back there for now. Here is why I say that: Church is where God’s people go and they get charged. You get plugged in.
In this whole world where it beats you down, and the world is going against you, and you have all kinds of opposition, and people are trying to get you to conform to the world, you need a church where you get your battery charged.
I am so thankful when my mom and dad got saved years ago. They got saved, and they started going to Birchwood Baptist Church in Plant City, Florida. Not a big church. It is one of those churches—I do not know about today—but back in the day it had the old cinder blocks, you know, and it had the old wooden slat pews, you know. Anybody ever see those? They had the cushions that the ladies had sewn and put on there. And it is one of those—in Florida, but still—they had the old funeral home fans. Anybody know what I am talking about? Eyes at church. Brother Mears was the pastor. He was against everything. I mean, you think pastors are bad? Brother Mears was just against it. It did not matter; he was just against it. He was straight down the line. But I have heard my mom and dad say this: They got saved, and they were getting out of the world. If they did not get into a church like that that really just pulled them out of the world, there is a good chance they would not be living for God today. They needed the church that really said, “Hey, you need to separate from the world.” Friend, that is part of church. It is just vital. I need church. All of us need to go to church.
Help me out. What is the first reason why we ought to go to church? Because who told us? God told us. Good. Number two, we said we ought to go to church because that is where we grow—yes, other places, but in church. Then let me say this: Number three, because we have good Christian fellowship there.
Keep your finger in First Timothy. I think we will go back there if we have time. Back over there in Hebrews 10, verse 24, he says, “And let us consider one another.” You ought to think about one another. D. L. Moody used to say, if you go to church, you preach a sermon a mile long every time you go to church. It just says, “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some.” Some people are going to drop out of church, but do not let that get you dropping out of church. He says, “But exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
A big part of church is fellowship. How many of you see one another? You talk to one another. You fellowship with one another. You get to see the twins for the first time at church. My wife has been talking about it. She said, “Man, when are those twins going to come to church?” She understands they have been sick and all that, but she said, “I want to see those babies.” Every lady in this church—I told her, “We need to put it in the email or something: The twins are going to come to church.” All the ladies of the church would be there that Sunday. We would have a full house. That is part of church: the fellowship, the encouragement, the excitement about it. By the way, do not go to church and be a downer. Go to church and exhort, encourage to love, not to anger and be mad and eloquent about God, provoking to love and good works. What is that? It is part of church. So important. Think about it.
Let us see here. Let us say Oscar—this is not true, but let us say Oscar—got saved, and he was a drug addict. Man, Oscar, I cannot believe that. He sold drugs in the whole house. Everybody in the house was drug dealers. That is the environment he lived in and grew up in. Let us say that boy got saved, and praise the Lord, he had a heart for God. God gave him a new heart. He is a new creature. All things are passed away; behold, all things become new. Oscar wants to live for God. That is going to be pretty tough if he just hangs around that environment all the time. He is going to need somewhere to go where there are good Christians to hang around. You see, the Bible says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” That is Proverbs 13:20. So he has got to have a good crowd to hang out with. Where do you get that from? Church.
By the way, not that we hate all the environment—the drug dealers and all that. Hopefully, Oscar gets in church and he gets on fire for God, and hopefully that light shines there, and some of them get saved. They say typically you have about six months: either you will influence some of them for the Lord, or those that will not, you can have to split from them, or else they will pull you back into it. But you have got to have somewhere to find good fellowship. It is in church. The fellowship of church is so important. A church is more than that, or else it would be just a social club, and some churches have become that. Shame on them. But fellowship is a very important part of it.
How many have ever grilled on a grill—not these modern-day gas grills like I have and you have, but on the old grills where you put the charcoal on there? Yeah. How many used it where you put the lighter fluid on the charcoal back there? The evolving of the grill, you know. Man, especially back in the day when you put them all on and you had to put the lighter fluid on there, you know. And you did not put enough on there, so later on you have to squirt it on there while it is burning, and you singed your eyebrows. Remember that? That is why you do not have any hair today. I am joking, but those things are burning. What would happen if you took one of those coals and you set it over there by itself? It is going to die. It is just going to go out. And you take your Christian out of church, where they can be in church, and friend, it is going to be mighty hard to be on fire for the Lord. You have got to have it. It is God’s plan. It works: Church.
So, number one, why should we go to church? Because who told us to go there? God did. God told us that. Number two, why should we go to church? Because church is where we grow. Number three, we go to church because there is great Christian fellowship there. Then let me say this about church. We just have about seven or eight more points. That is all. We will be done pretty soon here. Thank you. I appreciate that. The rest of you were talking; you were thinking about lunch. I know what you are thinking about. How many are having fried chicken for lunch today? Oh, we have only one. Wow, we cannot be a Baptist church unless we are eating chicken. That is the Baptist bird there, you know. All right, let us keep going. Let us keep going, because we have got to get some fried chicken. Amen.
Number four: Church. Help me out, some of you scholars out there. What is the Greek word that is translated into church? What is it? Ecclesia. That word means a called-out assembly. It is God’s people. We are called out of the world over here to this assembly. We are called out. Can I word it this way? It is to be a haven for Christians to find in the midst of this messed-up world. It is separated; it is different from the world. It is to be a shelter from the world. That is very important because of a lot of things going on in this world. Sometimes, all of us Christians get hurt in this messed-up world. Everybody gets hurt.
Let me just say a word about this. I was talking to a lady yesterday, a very kind, sweet lady who works at a restaurant. I was trying to encourage her. She said she used to go, and she had been going to church, and she said this has happened: She has had a lot of deaths in her family. I was trying to encourage her, “Do not turn away from God; turn to God. Man, you need to get in church.” She was receptive. I do not try to push things down anybody’s throat. She was receptive to it. She said, “You are right,” and I said, “Oh, you need to find a good church.” She said, “I do, I do.” Now, here is the thing: Church ought to be a haven, kind of like a spiritual hospital.
When you go there, you get hurt, you get wounded, and then you get inside there, you get the fellowship of one another, and that is encouraging while you are being uplifted there. Then you sing the songs of Zion and God’s songs, and that is encouraging. Music is very important. Then the preacher—sometimes the Holy Spirit gets involved through the preaching—and the Holy Spirit comes in there, and it is almost like he does surgery on your heart, and he says, “Hey, you need to get this right.” It ought to be a spiritual hospital where you can come and get help and encouragement, nourishment. Church ought to be a haven. You know the Bible talks about—do not look it up, please—but it is Romans 12:2. It says, “And be not conformed to this world.” The world is always trying to conform you into its image.
How many of you—be honest now, I know all you macho men do not want to admit it—played with Play-Doh back in the day? Come on, Brother Bill, you know you did. I got to give you heart today. And how many ate Play-Doh when you were little? Probably me too, I do not know. How many ever had one of those Play-Doh sets where you would put the Play-Doh in there, and you had this arm you pushed down, and it had this slide? That slide, one of them looks like a star, and if you put it on the star and you push that down, it conforms that Play-Doh into a square or rectangle, whatever it may be. When I read that verse, I often think that is what the world is always trying to push you into its image. It is trying to conform you into its image. They are loud and proud, and if you do not match up just with them, they are kind of on you because you look different, you talk different, and they are always trying to conform you to their image.
It is amazing how they do it. Have you ever seen it? This guy has about 250 rings all over his face, you know. He has psychedelic colored hair that is about down to his hips. His breeches are about ten times too big for him, and they are hanging down. Has anybody ever wanted to take a BB gun and just shoot, “Bing, bing, bing”? I need to come to the altar later on. I am not trying to be mean, and I love that individual. I am not thinking of one person. But that is what they have going on, and they say, “You Christians are so weird.” Who is the weirdo here? I am saying they are always trying to conform us to their image. It is very important that I have a haven to come to. None of us are perfect—besides my wife. I am joking, I am joking. That was meant good, babe, not bad, babe. Now, I am about to get in trouble. But you need a haven. We are not perfect, but we are trying to live for the Lord, where you are hanging around other people. It is kind of normal, if you will, to try to live for the Lord. You need that, because this world is just bombarding you with their philosophy and what is right and what is wrong and how to dress and what to listen to. All that is just booming on you all the time, and you need church. It is a haven. It ought to be a haven away from the world, and they are pushing on you.
I think about my preacher for years, Brother Howes. His dad was an alcoholic and he left the home, and his mom was a single mom. When he was a little boy, she would say, “Hey, I want you to go to church, and I want you to look at Brother So-and-so, Mr. So-and-so, and Brother So-and-so, and I want you to watch those men so you will know what a good, godly man looks and acts like.” That is a wise mom. It is part of church. We need that. By the way, America needs a whole lot of homes just raising their kids in a good, godly church. Not everything, but it is a great part of it.
So why? Why go to church? Number one, because who told us to go to church? God. Number two, we go to church because we grow there. Number three, we go to church because we have great Christian fellowship there. Number four, we will just say this way: Church should be a haven from the world. Just a thought or two more. We are done.
Number five: Church, it is God’s FOB in the world. Now you say, what are you talking about? Some of you military men know what I am talking about. FOB stands for Forward Operating Base. When we went to Afghanistan in different places, we would set up these operating bases in those other countries. I heard a guy talking about going “under the wire,” going outside the wire. I asked, “What do you mean by going outside?” He said, “Well, these FOBs, they have wire protection, and sometimes you have to go outside the wire to do missions.” God sees this world; he created it all. But then, he gave man dominion over it all. Remember Adam and Eve when they sinned? In some ways, they temporarily gave the title deed to the devil. That is why the book of Corinthians calls the devil “the god”—not capital G, but it calls him the god of this world. That is why Ephesians 2 calls him the prince of the power of the air. That is why when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, he said, “Hey, if you just do this, I will give you all the glory of what is going on around here.” For him to tempt Jesus, there had to be some truth to that, or else Jesus would have wasted the temptation; Jesus knows everything.
I am saying this world right now is somewhat in the devil’s control, and he is making a wreck of it all. Satan will get God blamed for every problem in this world, the blame that really belongs to the devil. Every messed-up problem in this world, the devil is behind it all, not the Lord. He is a master receiver, and he will get God blamed for every bad thing when really, you can blame the devil. Let me finish this thought. One day Jesus is going to come back and is going to put his feet on the Mount of Olives, and it is going to split, and he is going to say, “Hey, this is my world. Get out of here, devil.” But for the time being, we are somewhat living in a world where the devil is controlling it. God says, “I have a FOB, a Forward Operating Base, in this world. It is called the church.”
God says, “I have my people that are assembling together in these bases all over, down there in that sin-cursed world, and it is the church.”
Look, Brother Richard—seventeen years in the military and did a lot of different things—were you in Afghanistan? You were all over the place a lot, but you were in Afghanistan some? Brother Richard, what would you think if our government said, “Listen, we need 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. Here is the money, fellas. Go buy your ticket and fly over there, get your ammunition, get everything, and you just go over there and win the war for us”? You would think, man, those guys are going to get slaughtered. There was a plan. There was an organization. There was headquarters. People working together to make it happen to win that war. And God says, “I have a plan. It is called the church.”
Church in the world, not the world in the church, but I want the church in the world to reach out and make a difference. That is church. I have already mentioned that in the fall we are about to start our soul-winning campaign back up. I am excited about that. Next month, I will give you a sneak preview. Next month, we are having new tracts made right now. We are working on them; we have not gotten to the printer yet, but we are working on that. We are going to pass out 5,000 tracts in the month of September from our church. You are going to be a part of it. Everybody is going to be a part of it. You can pass out 10 tracts. We are going to get everybody involved. Man, we are going to have a mission. That is part of church: God’s people getting together and saying, “Oh, let us go do something for God.” By the way, America needs some good, strong churches across the board. That is the need of the hour. So vital.
Gladstone used to say, “Tell me where the young men of England are on Sunday morning, and I will tell you the future of England.”
Let me just get these two things in here. We will be done. There was a young soldier being interviewed by ABC, Sam Donaldson. He was about to go to Desert Storm. Sam Donaldson asked him, “How do you think the battle will go? Are you afraid?” The soldier said, “Well, we will do okay. We are well trained.” The soldier said, gesturing towards his fellow G.I., “And I am not afraid because I am with my family.” The other soldier shouted, “Tell him again! He did not hear you.” The soldier repeated, “This is my family. We will take care of each other.” Friend, you need that in this old world. The devil is shooting at you all the time. You have a family; it gives you strength—the church family.
Now, the last thing, and I am done. Friend, I do not want to be deceiving: Church will never take anyone to heaven.
You can go to church for 30, 40 years, never miss a service, and die and go to hell. Church never has, never will save anyone. There was a man who came to Jesus named Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was one of those guys who would be at church every time the doors were open, and he was bragging on Jesus. Jesus cut to the chase. He said, “Hey, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless you are born again.” Friend, this church and no other church will take anybody to heaven. Jesus is the only thing that takes you to heaven. You come to a time you realize, “I am a sinner. No church, nobody, not even myself can save me. Jesus, I need you. You are my only hope.” When you turn, you call out on Jesus, you put your faith in Jesus to pay for your sins and save you, he will save you. He will make you a part of the family of God, born into the family.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Our heads are bowed, eyes are closed. If you hear this morning and say, “Preacher, I just want to go ahead and make a decision. I am going to stay faithful in God’s house. I am pretty good there, but I am going to have to make the decision because you will be tested; Satan will do everything he can to keep you from church.” But you said, “Preacher, I am going to make a decision. I am going to stay faithful in the house of God.” God has spoken to my heart. I want to stay faithful. If that is you, lift your head up. I want to stay faithful. God bless you. Hands up. My hands up. Many, many hands. That is wonderful. Thank you very, very much. You can put your hands down.
Maybe you say, “I have gotten out of church, but I am going to get back faithful.” I am going to get back faithful. I am going to get back faithful. I am going to say, “I am going to get back faithful.” God bless you. That is so important. Oh, that is vital. God bless you. I am going to get faithful. I am going to get back in there. I know it is God’s plan. God bless you. Thank you. That is wonderful. God bless you.
You hear this morning and say, “Preacher, I need to get involved.” These missions you are talking about, whatever it may be—maybe you work in the nursery, maybe you come cut the grass, maybe you are going to get some tracts next month and pass them out, just some way, somehow. Maybe you are just going to be faithful greeting everybody. That is important. “I am going to get involved in God’s house.” God has spoken to my heart. I want to be involved in God’s house. That is you this morning. You slipped in, Preacher, when we say, “Get involved in this house.” That is vital. Every church must have that. They are so limited if we do not have you being involved. Thank you for letting the Lord work. That is so vital. God bless you. Amen.
One last question, Preacher, at the end. You talk about being saved and going to heaven. I am not saved. There must be a time when you are born again. I do not have a time I look back on when I went to Jesus and I was saved; I was born again. “Preacher, I need to get saved first of all, so I am becoming part of the family of God. I need to get saved. I need to get born again.” God spoke to my heart. “I need to get saved so I can go to heaven one day.” God spoke to my heart. If that is you, with our heads bowed and eyes closed, lift up your hand. “I need to get saved.” Anybody like that? Anybody like that? Hey, we are God’s people. Man, let us be involved in this church. Would you please stand right where you are? Would you please stand just a moment? I am going to have a quick word of prayer. Would you come? Maybe just come and pray for your church. Maybe you will come and say, “Lord, help me to fulfill this commitment to be involved, to be faithful in church.”
We have been asking for four things for our church lately: People get saved, family trees to be saved, young couples getting to church, and people get baptized. Maybe you come and pray for those things. Would you do that? We are going to pray. We will not be long. You come right away, spend some time at the Lord’s old-fashioned altar. Thank you, Lord, for speaking to our hearts. Help us to respond, Lord, and be obedient to you. Bless our people. Thank you for this church you have given us. It is awesome. You did it, Lord. Thank you for it. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Would you come spend some time with the Lord as we sing? Would you do that? Lord, help me to be faithful. Help me to be involved. Pray for the church. More people get saved. More family trees to be changed. More young couples. Every church needs that. That is the life of the church. People get baptized. Oh, we need that. It is vital that a church has prayer warriors, people just praying. That powers the church. It runs the church. Maybe I say, “I need to get involved and just be a prayer warrior at the church.” I covet people that pray that God will bless it, move, and work at this FOB, this Forward Operating Base, in this old world. We need good, strong churches. America is needing them. I am going to list a prayer for you. Whatever it may be, would you pray for God in this church as we sing other words? Would you pray for someone you say is good people, but they just need to get in church? They need to get back. Would you pray for them? As we sing this next verse, would you pray for them? “Lord, help them to get back in church.” Would you do that as we are singing another verse, “Trusting only in thy may…”
…in God’s house this morning. He is so pleased with you. He is proud of you. I am thrilled to have you here too and just glad to have you in church. Do not forget tonight: 5 o’clock choir practice, 5:20 prayer meeting in the office, and 6 o’clock service. Looking forward to God working in hearts and lives again tonight. I am so glad every person is here today, and we are thrilled to have you in God’s house. What a blessing you are, and we praise the Lord for it. I tell you what, it is just good to have the Caseys back with us, and we praise the Lord for what a blessing. Brother John, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer, please, sir?
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - Why Should I Go To Church - Sunday AM 08142022