I’ll Tell You Why I’m Not Going!

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” (II Peter 3:18)

How many times have you heard someone say, “I’ll tell you why I’m not going to church”? The reasons go like this:

I cannot abide the preacher...the choir director...the deacons. On the front row every Sunday there are a bunch of hypocrites, who lie, steal, and cheat. Sunday they are the biggest Christians you’ll ever see, and Monday morning they are scoundrels. They are keeping me from church. I don’t want a part of God if these are His people. I’ll get more out of going to the lake than sitting in that church with that bunch of sinners calling themselves Christians. I don’t want anybody like that preaching to me or teaching my Sunday school class.

There are a few things to keep in mind. Don’t let anyone steal your joy in the Lord! Realize that these people are growing in grace. Try to see them as God sees them: through the love of Christ. Be sure that God is seeing you through the grace of Christ’s love. If you have not already claimed Christ’s saving grace through His shed blood, do so.

Turn your eyes toward Jesus and away from other people’s faults. Forgive them as you wish people would forgive you for the most stinking thing you have ever done to anybody. When you see mean-spirited persons on the front pew of the church (or even in the choir!) and you cannot help noticing them, thank God that they are in church. How much worse would they be if they were not there? How much has God already worked on them?

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Remember that they are sinners saved by God’s grace. We are all growing in the Lord, and He hasn’t finished with us yet. Pray for them and thank God for the opportunity. Be especially kind to people who have offended you. Read and reread Matthew 5, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

Go to church for encouragement from the Lord and to assemble yourselves with others to encourage them. All those other sinners saved by grace in God’s church need to see you there, where they can receive a hug and a handshake with your smile. They need to hear you say something sweet.

Did you know that there are little children who never receive kind and encouraging words except on Sunday in church? Did you know that there are elderly people who go all week without touching another human being except for the ones they hug in church?