For the World

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Matthew 16:24-27

I wouldn’t miss it for the world! How often have we heard those words spoken?

Yet, one day we will stand before God, as Christians, and our lives will be judged for what we did for God. No, If we’re saved, we won’t miss heaven, but when God gets ready to pronounce a judgement on what I did for the Lord, I don’t want to stand with my head bowed knowing there was so much more I could have done. I want to stand before my Lord with a life that was spent in appreciation for what He did for me. We ‘get it’ in every other area of our lives. We don’t miss work, we don’t let our kids lay out of school unnecessarily, we make sure they’re at the practices or rehearsals for their chosen extracurriculars… but when it comes to the one thing that we have in our lives that will actually count in the next, we shrug our shoulders and admit we just have other things we’d rather be doing.

If you attend every church service available for the week, you’re typically spending 4 1/4 hours in church. To put that in perspective, that is 2.5% of our available hours for the week. 2.5% is such a tiny little amount. I know when my kids were playing ball, I spent far more time at the ball park each week, when my son was shooting competitively, I spent up to 15 hours a week at the shooting range. My oldest and his love for airplanes had me at Civil Air patrol for hour 10 hours a month, and many more hours preparing outside of those. We easily spent 14 hours a week at the Dixie rehearsing for theater performances during the season. All of those things were good and fun and even beneficial for my kids growth, but nothing would have helped them more as adults than if I’d been a truly consistent church member, showing them the importance of serving our Lord. Not just studying a devotional at home, not just praying, not just attending worship meetings, but serving: contributing to the service, speaking when moved, singing with abandon, studying ahead for a Wednesday Night study, affirming the pastor during a sermon, praying actively for each service before and during that service. What if we were all as actively involved in worship of the King of the Universe as we are when a 4 year old is playing teeball? We get excited to see those sweet little ones play, but in church we are paying homage to the one who sacrificed Himself for our failures… is that not worthy of praise?

And yet, church attendance continues to dwindle. In almost every church, Sunday Night and Wednesday Night services are sparse. However, they’re my favorite services. Why? Because the congregation is made up primarily of church members, our lessons are about things that can help us grow. Deeper lessons about biblical truths are thought provoking and can be very fun to discuss. I can’t help but wonder how much more enjoyable they would be if we had more people there to discuss things. How awesome would it be if there were 10 or 15 people who wanted to comment on a topic instead of the usual 1 or 2. How much more growth would we see if all of our church members were there for studies that point us toward changing the community around us for Christ, or turning the world upside down. Or if all of us were there for sermons about dealing with the tempter, the joy of giving and receiving, dealing with doubt, or secret prayer. What if we all were there to hear God-given messages from a God-called preacher? That’s what our under-shepherd is, you know… we like to justify ourselves by talking about our home devotions, and that’s good - we’re called to do them, but each church is given an elder who is tasked, by God, with the growth and wellness of his flock. How would a coach feel if his team only showed up for games, but decided that practicing at home was enough other than the 1 big game of the week? How would an orchestra sound, if they only showed up for the concert? How would a surgeon perform if he only walked in for the actual surgery? How much would students learn if the only showed up for tests and tried to do the work alone the rest of the time?

We have a responsibility as saved people, but even more so as church members, to exhort one another, to lift one another up, to provoke each other to good works. With that, I issue a challenge. It’s the beginning of summer. Take the next couple of months and put God to the test. Commit to attending every service your church has for you. Try Him. Test His faithfulness with an open mind and trusting heart. Go, with your heart expecting to learn something. See if He doesn’t surprise you. This old world has a lot of pretty shiny things to offer us, to tempt us, to catch our eye, but I doubt any of it can hold a candle to what the Lord has waiting for us. Don’t waste your time chasing hay and stubble, when we could be winning incorruptible crowns to lay at the feet of our Savior.