Why Go to Church?

My pastor asked yesterday, “Why do we worship?” I thought about writing this post about worship, but I wanted to broaden the topic just a bit.

So, WHY DO YOU GO TO CHURCH?

Do you go:

  • to make “contacts” for a business?
  • to be seen?
  • to fellowship?
  • to get something from God?
  • to sing?
  • to learn the Word?
  • to be prayed for?
  • because it’s the right thing to do?

Some of these are admirable, but why SHOULD we go to church?

  • Tradition? Not good enough.
  • We were brought up that way? Still not good enough.
  • It’s expected? Nope.

I think (read: my opinion. Yours may vary.) God told us not to forsake getting together with other believers because we need it, but also because we need to give to others and to God.small-names-meme

Let me back up just a second and go back to my pastor’s question. What is worship? I can tell you what it’s not. It’s not singing. Singing is a PART of worship, but that’s not what worship is.

The first definition at dictionary.com (the others are similar) makes it clear.  Worship is reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.

Worship is in the Bible a lot. People throughout the Old and New Testaments fell on their faces and worshiped on a regular basis.

Something Jesus said came to my mind, and I did a search for it. Pay close attention to verse 40 in the following passage found in Luke’s account of the Triumphal Entry in chapter 19.

37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38 saying:

‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’[d]
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

40 But He answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (emphasis mine)

Now, back to my original question. WHY GO TO CHURCH?

I think (here it is again, my opinion) we should go to church to give. To God. To others. There are times when we go to receive, but those should be few and far between. When we go with the mindset of giving of ourselves to others and to worship God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we will always get something back. Our spirits will be lifted. Our hearts will feel joy in giving.

We’ve all heard the old saying, “It’s more blessed to give than receive.”

Did you know it’s not just a random quote? Acts 20:35, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

When you go to church this week, make it a point to GIVE of yourself to someone else. And when you go into the service to sing and listen to the sermon, remember to worship your Creator, your Savior, and your Comforter. Don’t let the stones do what we were created to do.

Blessings,

Blog sig white

 

 

 

PS. This post was for me as much as it was for you. God has a way of doing that. 🙂

Share

2 thoughts on “Why Go to Church?

  1. Ginger, this was terrific. I am so disappointed with people going to church to fulfill requirements. Church is just another activity to cross off their lists. We need to get back to basics to worship, grow, fellowship, etc. Wake up America! We are only going to see revival if our hearts are right with the Lord! Blessings to you, friend.

Comments are closed.