Mitchell Dalrymple - How Important is Church Attendance?

8:35PM Jul 26, 2024

Speakers:

Mitchell Dalrymple

Keywords:

local church

assemble

church

love

life

verse

saints

lord

god

church attendance

people

praise

year

brethren

tonight

heaven

worship

passage

christians

attend

Since the clock's out, though, somebody give me a five minute heads up when one of my time's getting close there. Now I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I appreciate everyone being here tonight. As he said, Maleah and Molly are my sisters, so maybe that's good, maybe that's bad. Regardless, we appreciate the congregation here at College View very much. Your stands for the truth. I appreciate it. Piney Grove in Tuscumbia, if you're ever over our way, please come and see us. We do start a gospel meeting this coming Sunday with Brian Gibson from the Prattmont church in Prattville. So,if you get a chance, we're going to be meeting Sunday through Wednesday night, Sunday afternoon at three and Monday through Wednesday at seven. Come see us. Kenny gave me my topic. After seeing some of the other topics, I was pretty thankful for my topic. I thought out of the topics given, mine was fairly easy, and one that I look forward to speaking to with you on tonight.

I was coming back from Montgomery, Alabama, yesterday, and if you've ever driven on I 65 from Montgomery, you'll recognize this sign on the right side of the interstate coming north. And as I was coming back from Montgomery, I saw that sign. I said, I've gotta get that in the PowerPoint. So, the sign says, go to church or the devil will get you. And as Brother Hibbett mentioned earlier, my topic was, how important is church attendance? I love this topic because I think this is a great topic and something I look forward to studying with you about tonight. The first question I would ask before we get into our lesson is, is church attendance necessary? Is this something that's really necessary in the long scheme of things. We see in the Scripture the practice of gathering to worship on the first day of the week in multiple locations. But I just wanted to point out in Acts 20 and 1st Corinthians, chapter 16 and verse two in both locations, when Luke's talking in Acts and Paul's talking to Corinthians, you see the line on the first day of the week as they were gathered together. We see that, and that's where we take some of our acts of worship that we practice on the first day of the week. So, we see that assembling of them together. And so what I want to do tonight is look at several reasons church attendance is so important, several reasons that it's so important. And I've picked out five. I say this a lot when I preach. You could probably think of 10 more reasons than I've selected. Eddie hears me a lot at Piney Grove, as he's been bringing his father on Sunday mornings and having to miss being with y'all. But I think there's so many lessons that we could just have an exhaustive list. And on this list tonight, I've only picked out five reasons, and that's what we're going to look at. So, if you will think about these things with me and really consider your church attendance, your attendance and the work at the local church that you're a member of. I know we have visitors tonight. Think about the grand scheme of life and where we're going after this life, and why assembling is important.

First one I picked out tonight is the reason we attend church services, and it's so important that we do is to prepare us for battles or tests of life. Now think about that for just a minute. Going to church is the easy part. I used to coach boys basketball for a little while at Moulton and when we had practice, you know, as a student athlete myself, at one time, I didn't like practice as much, Jacob, maybe you felt different. I didn't love practice. I like the games. You know, that was my favorite part. Well, we had a kid that all the time would skip practice. Well, then we'd get to the game and we're doing an inbound play, and they'd say, Coach, what play we running? What play running? And say, 3,3,3, what's that kid out here doing? Where do I go? Where do I line up? What? Who's throwing it in? You know, just no clue, because he hasn't been at practice. He doesn't know what to do. Well, as a student of God's Word and someone trying to live as a Christian on this earth, this is practice. This is where we assemble, study God's Word together, and worship and grow and learn, so that tomorrow, when you're at work, when you're at school, when the school year starts back, where we're in our homes when we're living life and we're trying to make decisions between right and wrong. This is practice. This is the easy part. If I can't get myself to faithfully attend a local church, how am I ever going to stand up to Satan and his gimmicks and try to do what's right in my daily life when I'm tempted? When the battles of life come at me and the trials and the test happens, how am I going to prepare? And likewise, as a teacher, if you're preparing all week for a test you're going to give on Friday, and the students missed all week. They show up Friday to take the test. How well are they going to do? Usually not very well. Jesus said that we understand the idea that, what? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I want to do what's right. I want to get to heaven, but boy, when those tests and battles happen, I've gotta be prepared and trying to live right with no sin and make good decisions daily is much harder. When we assemble and worship and study, we're preparing for those real battles and tests in life when our faith is going to be tested.

Turn with me to a few passages. Start with me in Second Timothy chapter three. In Second Timothy chapter two, verse 15 it says, "study to show yourself approved unto God. A workman, need to not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." That's Second Timothy 2:15, well, I'm studying so that when those battles and tests happen, I'm ready. And in Second Timothy chapter three. Starting down there at verse 15, it says, "And that from a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ, Jesus, all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is proper for doctrine, for approved for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished and do all good works." When we assemble together, we are studying God's word. We're preparing for those moments in life where Satan's going to put us through a test or a battle or temptation. These are the moments we prepare. These are the moments we rally each other, motivate each other, encourage each other to prepare for those life situations where sin is tough. Proverbs, 27, verse 17 says what? "Iron sharpens iron, and so is the countenance of a man's friend." When I was younger, I'd go outside and shoot basketball. I didn't have a court like Anthony did down at Red Bay. I would like to have had one of those nice ones, Anthony, but we'd go out and shoot. My dad had laid us a nice concrete pad with a goal. And you know who I was beating every time I played? Right? Kobe Bryant, because I didn't like the Lakers and I didn't like Kobe. So one on one, I'm taking him to the hole. I'm scoring on him, imagining in my head I beat him. But now, if I take my four year old son, Silar out there, and I'm doing layups on him, and I lower the goal and I'm dunking on him, am I really doing anything? And here we're assembling with people that love the Lord, that fear God, that are going to sharpen us and encourage us to do what's right. And the less we are here in assembling with saints, if a neighbor were to ask, why is this important? The less we're assembling and preparing and studying and sharpening iron, the less prepared we're going to be in those battles and tests of life when Satan tries to come at us when we're tempted to look at something we shouldn't look at, say something we shouldn't say, do something we shouldn't do. These are the moments where we push each other, encourage each other, motivate each other for these battles and tests. I just want to read one verse from Ephesians, chapter six, although you could read a lot, but remember when Paul's talking to the Ephesians about Satan coming after them? He talks about putting on the whole armor of God. In Ephesians chapter six, starting at verse 11, he says, "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." And he goes through and he tells about these things. In verse 13, he talks about, "Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand." What about us? Here's a place when we assemble with saints, we can put on that whole armor of God. We can prepare for those moments in life.

Another reason that we want to make sure we understand worship, attendance, assembly with the saints is so very important, is to edify and build up our faith and the faith of others. Do you realize throughout the whole Bible, the word saints is never singular. It's always plural. Think about that for a minute. You don't see "and a saint", "the saint", it's saints because we're community, we're a congregation that works together. You can be on an island, you can be on a deserted island, and you can have hope and you can have faith, but you know what you can't have on a deserted island by yourself? Love, because you've gotta have somebody to love. Here's the thing about our faith, when we have each other, we're here to edify, to build each other up and ourselves and encourage others. That's such a huge part that so many people don't understand. They don't understand what it's like to be a part of a local church. We should consider our role in the local congregation, how we we can affect others. Turn with me, you didn't think we should get out here tonight without reading Hebrews chapter 10. Turn with me there. Obviously this is the first passage that many people think about when it comes to this topic or subject. But let's start in verse 23. The Hebrew writer says, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised. And let us consider." Listen. "Let us consider who one another to provoke unto love and the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another, and so much more, as you see the day approaching." Exhorting one another. We need to make sure that we're considering one another. Our zeal and our passion for spiritual things can be very contagious in a good way or in a bad way. We need to make sure that we understand how important it is when we assemble with the saints to edify and build up our faith, and not just ourselves, but the faith of others. One time at Piney Grove, we had some neighbors in our community that I had invited to worship services, and I remember this so very well. I go and I invite them, and the first thing they say is does so and so attend with y'all. And I said, exactly they do. They sure do. And they said, Well, I know them. I my kids go to school, and so we'll try to visit. One Sunday morning rolls around and there's that family that I've been inviting that lives near the church building here. They've shown up with their kids. They shake my hand they're talking to and say, we're so and so I said, Well, they're not here today, and I'm looking around like, Oh, I wish they'd show up. Here's a good chance. Well, lo and behold, they come back again. And they said, I thought so. And I said, I thought they attended here too, but it's not a good look for us. This isn't exactly what we were hoping would happen.

You know, the thing is, whatever your job is, your career, whatever you're doing when you're not here you're influencing people. And so when they show up here and they see you and you see one another. It can be contagious. You could be the reason to draw them back, to help them, teach them about the Word of God or or help them grow their faith. But your lack of faithfulness is also contagious to your children, to grandchildren, to neighbors, to friends, to coworkers. So, it can go either way. So, we need to make sure we understand one of the most important things about attending a local church, and the reason it's so important is we're going to edify and build up the faith of ourselves and the faith of others.

Here's my favorite point in this lesson tonight. I thought, you know, I don't want to go in there and do the same lesson they've heard over and over about why you need to go to church. I want to see how I can think about this in my own mind from God's word, and help them to really have a good thought on this. And this is the point that if I could persuade you with this, is it, in the New Testament, Jesus was asked, What's the greatest commandment of all? What's the most important commandment of all? Jesus was asked in Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40, if you'll turn there. Matthew chapter 22 and we'll read verses 34 through 40. Now, just imagine we're standing with Jesus tonight and talking. We're literally talking to our Savior and our king. "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together than one of them, which was a lawyer asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law, Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments, hang all the law and prophets." And what he's saying there is, if you keep this commandment, you will not sin. If you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you're not going to steal, you're not going to lie, you're not going to commit adultery, you're -- any sin is covered if you keep this law. That's the goal here. Now I want to think about this when it comes to worshiping God and serving God for just a minute. If I love God with all my heart, with all my soul. If he's the king of my life and the most important thing to me is getting to heaven, assuming that's the truth, why would I not fix my schedule, make my calendar around the times the local congregation has decided we're going to assemble. For us, that would be Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday evening. Probably very similar here. Why would I not schedule my life around those moments, first and foremost?

Let me tell you what happens a lot of times now. Please follow me if you if you see this and if I'm wrong, correct me. What we see a lot of times is people make that schedule around their jobs. Well, I may not be able to make it for the rest of the year on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights because of my job or because of my pleasures in life have really taken hold of me, and so that's and I don't know anywhere in the scripture that says that's acceptable to God. I know if the ox gets in the ditch, there's an excuse there, but it doesn't happen all the time, or something's wrong. I think about all the congregations I've been able to visit and speak at over the years, and the people I've grown up with, and here's something I want to say, and I know College View is going to be one of the greatest examples. I know a lot of talented Christians. And by talented, I mean educated, smart, talented Christian people. When I look at churches, and I think about our topic tonight, and people talk about church attendance being in decline, I want to tell you what I think about. I think about businesses that are growing. I think about people that are successful and their education and their financial life, and I think about their talents and their skills. And here's what I see, the churches that are having a lot of trouble, they're full of talent, but their talent is all being used on their careers. Their talent is all being used in their daily lives, but not at the local church. You see, they're so absorbed in their careers. There's that's the most important thing, because they've worked hard to get there. They love it. They're passionate about it. There's nothing wrong with those things. But what's happened is, God has moved down a little. So, now when it comes to I need to be at the church and every time it meets. I need to have my children there. We need to invite others there. And this is going to happen, and if I have to miss work for it, instead of missing church work, I'm going to fix that. If we have to miss a ball game, we're going to change that. Whatever the case is. You see, faithful Christians, that's how they design their calendar. Now, it may take years to grow and mature, to develop, to have that mind frame, but that's loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. And that's the greatest command.

I think sometimes the fear is for so many is that Heaven's not going to be enough. They've found so much success, and they're so happy on this earth and their life that heaven's going to be boring. It's going to be a letdown, because what could it have to offer that they don't have here? We don't ever need to let that get in our mind. Assembling with the saints is one of the closest visions of heaven we have, because we're singing these phrases together to God. We're coming together worship like we see in the New Testament, as heaven as it sometimes describes. And I tell you, this is a challenge for me, because the Lord's blessed me with a business, and there's times where I could be a lot more successful if I were to sacrifice some spiritual things. And I'm sure a lot of you have that same opportunity. It may be other avenues of life, but God has to have that love, heart, soul, mind and strength. What if all of our successful Christians that were extremely intelligent and gifted use those gifts for the work of the local churches? Put that time and energy into the work of the local churches? I think it'd make a difference, and I hope that will encourage you, motivate you to think about those things. If we truly love God with all our, all that we have, we'll find a way and make a way to always be at services with the saints. Nothing will outweigh our first fruits and our love for our Creator.

Turn with me to Mark chapter four, if you will. Mark chapter four, look at verses 14 through 20. "The Sower soweth the word, and these are by the wayside -- and these are they by the wayside when the word is sown, but when they have heard Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they, likewise, which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, so endure for about a time. Afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they're offended." Now listen to this next passage. "And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the Word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful." Hey, there's a lot of people that love God, that love the church, they love truth, and it's not that they don't want to get to heaven or they don't want to serve God, but eventually what happens is they start to love the world a little more. And if you ask em, yes or no, do you love God? Well, they're going to answer it correctly. But when you look at their life, you don't see that. You know, my children can give me the right answer, should we eat ice cream before we eat our supper? No. But if you give them the opportunity, they're going to do it every time, especially a couple of my kids. And I think this idea here is we know we should be at services. We know we should love God. But then you look at our life and you say, well, am I, am I living by this, or do I just know this to be true? So, when it comes to why we need to be assembling with saints at a local church, if you're trying to get to heaven and that's your priority in life. In the Old Testament, we see the same statement love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, and we see it here in the New Testament, right out of the words of our Savior.

Another reason that I've hit upon on that last one a little is to carry out the work of the church. You know, the church doesn't run itself. You have the elders, you have the deacons, you have the people that are sitting in pews. Whatever your role is, you have a role. And when we're all here together, things can run smoothly and as best as possible. But when you're missing people, it really hurts. It really does. We worship at a smaller group right now. We run around 50 people, or a little more, with 50 to 60 on a good day, on a bad day, we'll be in the 40s. So, you take out a few of our bass singers, you take out a few of our tenor singers, and all of a sudden our singing can change dramatically, for better or worse. You take out a few of our Bible class teachers, we wouldn't have Bible class teachers. So, as a congregation of the Lord's people, we need to think about the work of that church. Because here's the thing, my career is important, my job's important, my children's success and their achievements on this earth are important to me, but the work of that church should mean something to me. How many nights sleep have you lost in your life because of something? Well, Florida got beat so, you know, I'm pretty upset about it, right, Jacob? Surely that doesn't affect any of you when your team gets beat. Or, you know, I could lose my job, or somebody's having some health problems, things that are serious. How many nights sleep have you lost? Because the people that used to sit beside you in a pew have fallen away, or because you know somebody you love and care about that's a Christian that's not living faithfully. Or maybe you're not going to have elders soon, because there's none coming up to fill those shoes and those voids, and you're looking saying, well, so and so's getting a little old, and I'm not sure they're going to better do it much longer. Who's going to fill these voids? Who's going to take their places? How many nights sleep have you lost because of that? You've gotta have a vested interest in that local church that you're part of. It's gotta mean something to you. You've gotta have some concern and care, because Jesus gave his life for that church. It's His church, it's his blood, and we're lucky enough to be a part of it because of the blessings He's given us through Christ. And we've gotta take that serious, and when we can abandon our worship services and our assembling with the saints and the work of the church, something's wrong. We've forgotten that great sacrifice and what it means to us. We've forgotten our role and how important it is to be there. It takes all of us to carry out the work of the church.

Look within a few passages. Let's start in Corinthians, at first Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians chapter 12. Look at verses, start at verse 12 and we'll go through verse 20. "The body is one and has many members. And all the members of that one body being many, or one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we're bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." But you know, there's a lot of churches where that's what it looks like. There's one or two people that do everything. "If the foot shall say, because I am not of the hand, am I not of the body? Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, am I not of the body? Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now, as God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members yet, but one body, and I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee." We'll stop there. That gets the idea here. Skip down to verses 26 and 27. "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer." Hey, if somebody here passes away, I know it affects all of you. If somebody here gets great news, I know it brings joy to all of you. If someone were to come up here tonight and obey the gospel, it would bring us all great joy. If someone were to come up here tonight and say they were leaving the church, we would all be sorely disappointed, because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have an affectionate care for our brothers and sisters. Verse 27 says, "Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular." I was watching a show today, and there was a guy on it. They said, Why do you do what you do? And he said, because I want to carry on my family's name and what I do and make my family proud. When it comes to attending a local church and being an active member and working for the church that should have you think in your mind, I'm carrying the name of Christ, and I want to make Christ proud. You think Christ is proud when I set my schedule and everything in this life can trump being at worship services or being in a Bible study? Do you think that makes Christ proud that we've chose those things over him? There's no way. And as we grow spiritually, hopefully, if we've ever done that, we look back and say, I'm ashamed of that. I regret that, but it won't happen again.

Let's read one more passage, Ephesians, chapter four, verse 16, please turn there. There's no better passage in scripture for this point than this passage. Ephesians, chapter four, verse 16. Paul, as he's writing. Ephesians says, "from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working and the measure of every part makes increase of the body into the edifying of itself and love." The whole body fitly joined together, every joint supply. The worst pain I've ever had in my life, I was in ninth grade in high school, and we went on a field trip to Six Flags Over Georgia. You know how some things scar you, and you don't forget? This is one of those memories. And we're at Six Flags on a National Junior Honor Honor Society trip, and one of my back right teeth, where is Ken Hibbett? Back there. He knows I don't have that tooth anymore. He's looked in my mouth. And that tooth abscessed. It was blue as your jacket, your hoodie. It was that blue. I could look in the mirror, and I was like, Man, this is painful. It was. And I'm on a yellow school bus four and a half, five hours from home, two days away from getting home. So, you talk about a long week that'll scar you. I get home and guess what? The dentist wasn't open on Sunday. I'm thankful for that in some ways. At that moment, I might not have been, but I got that thing pulled, and that was a great relief. One little tooth affected my whole body that much. That's how we are as a congregation. We need to think about the work of the church. Paul in the New Testament, talks about he thinks about those churches and his brethren, and how sometimes it bothered him for fear of things that could happen with false doctrine, with them being led away. He had that earnest desire, that vested interest, and I don't get, I want to go a step further. I'm not a member of College View. I know a lot of you. I don't know all of you, but you need to think about your brother in other locations, Piney Grove, Tri Cities, Belgreen, Russellville, Eastside, over in Athens, talking to some brethren from Athens earlier. I'm not going to list those, because they've got a lot of em. We need to think about our other brethren, not just the local church, because we're part of a larger group of Christians that are trying to serve the Lord. And we want to think about all our brethren and ways we can help those brethren as well, and those congregations, the men that you support here outside of College View.

And then finally, the last point I've chosen for tonight is, again you could have an exhaustive list. Is another reason we assemble saints, it's very important, is to give God the praise and honor He deserves. Think about that for just a minute. In Psalm 150, verses one and two, it says, "Praise God in the sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens." God deserves our praise and our honor. He's all deserving of our time, of our effort, our praise and our worship. I did a meeting in Tupelo a year and a half ago at the Northeast congregation in Tupelo, great group of Christians down there. And I got to spend a week with those brethren. And the first day of the meeting, they had driven back from a track or cross country meet four hours away, and they, you could tell they had worked hard to get there. It was something you would really appreciate. And one of the things he got me thinking about was how concerned I am with assembling with saints to worship and praise God. Monica and I and Macy, just a year ago, Florida was playing at College Station in Texas, A and M. Texas, A and M College Station, Texas. We never been to that stadium. We're trying to go to see all all the stadiums. So, we just decided on Thursday, let's get the car and drive out there and watch em play. And not only we go out there, but they won. So, that made it a little better after a tough year. Here's the thing. We drove about 10 and a half, 11 hours. We drive to Gainesville, it's about that, about that far all the time. How far have you driven to another group of Christians for a Bible study? How far have you driven on a vacation? I'm gonna tell you, I lose at that every time. How much time have you spent focusing on something for a test in your life, or your job, your career, or studying something that you're into entertainment value? What about the Scripture and and things with that local church and praising God and giving him that time and effort that he deserves? Because I fail at this a lot of the time.

Turn with me to a few passages, and we'll close out the lesson very soon. Let's start in Psalm 100 because the clock's out. Can anybody give me a time? I got 10 minutes? Thank you for that. Turn with me to Psalm chapter 100 and let's read these verses together, the first and only five verses of this chapter. Listen to the psalmist writer here. And here's the thing. I didn't want to put too many verses on the screen because I knew we had 40 minutes. We could turn to Psalms about 50 times, 50 different passages that talk about giving God the praise and glory and honor he deserves. In Psalm 100 starting in verse one says, "make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands, serve the Lord with all gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God, it is He that has made us and not we ourselves. We're His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter in, into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations." We sing one of our songs that says that very thing. When we assemble as Christians, and if your neighbor were to say, why is this important that we assemble with local saints at a local church, we're here to give God the praise and honor and glory He deserves. I saw that the Atlanta Braves are going to get to host the all star game next year. I believe 2025 I may have it wrong, but I think that's correct. How much will a ticket cost to that game? Jacob, how much you probably ordered yours already? Here's the thing, they won't be cheap. They won't be cheap. And you know what will happen? As many people as they can pack in that stadium. Standing room only. There won't even be standing room just like a big event. People will go to see those guys play ball. We don't charge a fee at all to assemble that these locations to praise and give glory and honor to our Creator who deserves that praise and that attention and that time, more than anything else on this earth. And as we grow spiritually, we understand that more and more. The closer we are to being with God in heaven, eternally, the more we understand that, but the sooner we can catch on to that and latch on to that and figure that out, the better for us and the better for the work of the church and local congregation.

Look at Hebrews chapter 13 at verse 15. Hebrews chapter 13 this time at verse 15, "by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God." Listen to this next word, "continually. that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." We're studying the book of Numbers at Piney Grove right now as we're going through the Old Testament, and we've already been through Leviticus. And if you've studied that recently, or you recall those studies, you know that they offered a lot of sacrifices, goats, sheep, bulls, lots of sacrifices. Lots. Because no matter how many they made, it was never going to be enough. There would never be that perfect sacrifice until Jesus came. And through all that bloodshed and all that I look and I think Man, we've got it easy, assembling with saints, being baptized, forgiveness of our sins, trying to repent of our sins and do better as we grow closer to God. That's so much easier than what they had. If you don't believe that, you've got to talk to me after services and explain it, because I don't think anybody would disagree with that. But we live in such a modern society with conveniences, and we've become lazy and we let the standard be set by the world, so that worship services become optional and excuses grow all the time. It's sort of like the school systems. I don't know if we've got anybody here that works in the school systems, or might be principals this next year, anything. But when I was a kid, right, somebody's about to say, Amen right here, did we ever get out for tornadoes? No, we got the hall and put books on our head. Now, if the weatherman says, hey, it's going to rain tomorrow, they're letting our kids out. It's like, no, quit doing that. We're sending them. You see where I'm going, right? And that's the same spiritually, just like we look at that and say, Man, they'll do anything to let people out of school. People will do the same to justify reasons they're not part of a faithful congregation. They'll justify any reasons for missing the assemblies. Well, I'm tired. I don't feel good. I don't think Jesus felt good when he was fasting, either. When he was trying not to give in to that temptation, or when he was being scourged before He was crucified. I don't think he felt good. But he didn't say, hey, you know what? I'm going to come down from the cross. This is hurting. I, you know, we're, let's do it a different way. He had one thing in mind, his father's will. And when we assemble the saints, and we're sharpening each others iron, and we're learning God's word and we're worshiping God, we start to grow into that, and we want to give God the glory and honor and praise he deserves more and more. And so, all those excuses should wander away instead of growing Where do you stand on that? Where are you at in your life with that idea right now?

Look at Ephesians chapter five, at verse 19. We've got a very good man at Piney Grove named Jerry Suggs. I don't know how many of you know Jerry. He's in the hospital right now in the ICU, not doing well at all. And Eddie Hester's Dad, if you never met Eddie Hester's dad, he's 93, be 94 on November 22. He attends with us at piney Grove. And I've watched these two men for many years, and they love to sing. They love to sing praises to God. Look at this passage. "Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." My Bible says yourselves, meaning again, there's that plurality. I can sing by myself at home. I think I do a pretty good job. I thought about trying out, no, that's not for real. But with a group, when we blend our voices, it's an encouraging thing. I was at your lectures one night, and I got to enjoy part of the singing that night. You understand what good singing is like. This is another part of giving God that praise and glory and honor is bringing these praises through our singing to God, together. Go with me to the Old Testament. Isaiah, chapter 12. Isaiah chapter 12, look at verse four. "And in that day shall you say Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mentioned that his name is exalted." Again, a passage we see in a song we sing all the time. What about you? Do you think it's important to be here to assemble the saints so that you can give God the praise and glory and honor that we can never sufficiently give? I'm ashamed of those times in my life where I didn't see that and I didn't understand that, but hopefully, the more mature as we grow as Christians, the more these things will mean to us.

In conclusion, attending a local church faithfully is a must for faithful Christians. So when our neighbors ask, Why do I need to attend? I hope these five points give you a starting point to talk to your neighbors about. I hope that's at least a starting point. Maybe it's more than that. But as for you and yourself, before we can talk to our neighbors, we've gotta be that example. We've gotta be that leader in doing what's right. So, let's take our talents, let's take our time and our first fruits, and let's give these things to God, and let's make sure that when the doors are open, that we're committed and we're there, that that's what we care the most about in our lives. And maybe in your life, if you've grown a garden before, you know how this happens. It don't take long before a weed to shoot up. It don't take long to say, where'd my garden go? We read the parable of the sower. Maybe you need to go home and say, there's some weeds in my garden. I need to make some changes. I need to take some of these out. I encourage you to do that. We should desire to do this and prioritize being at services in our life, wherever you're a member of a local church. And tonight, I want to end with this question, are you faithfully attending a local church of the Lord's people? I didn't ask if you were a member of a local church. It's a very serious question that you've gotta be honest about. If you ask me, could I compete with Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan? I'm going to tell you Yes, but that's not being very fair and honest. That's just a bias in my head, and it's not nowhere close to true. I couldn't score on them. But you know, if you're being a faithful member of Local Church in attendance or not, and I hope this lesson motivates you to want to do that. Appreciate your attention tonight. Appreciate your faithfulness to the Lord. I think you probably are if you're here tonight. But let's take this and try to motivate ourselves to do even better in any way that we can, in serving God in the last time that we have on this earth. That's all that we got.