Wrong With Worshipping at the Lake?
- Luke 14:16
- Acts 17:2
- Psalm 122:1
- Hebrews 10:25
What’s wrong with worshipping at the Lake? Nothing – everything.
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church.
I keep it, staying at Home
With a Bobolink for a Chorister
And an Orchard for a Dome. - Emily Dickinson
We need a certain amount of relaxation. We need solitude for the development of our souls.
Jesus withdrew Himself, but He also habitually attended the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day.
My Concern: How easily we make Sunday a day for sleeping late or going to the lake or mountains, with no time or thought given to worshipping God with the body of Christ in a local church.
According to pollster George Barna:
- 40% of American adults now attend church in a typical weekend (2000)
- That figure was 49% in 1991.
- 40% of all Christians are AWOL.
- Only 6 out 10 Christians show up at church on any particular Sunday.
“The great task of the church is not getting sinners into heaven, but saints out of bed.”
“Eighty percent of life is showing up.” Woody Allen
When there is more than one Christian, what other things do you do?
Enjoying the Presence of Jesus
Matthew 18:19-20
Jesus is with us via the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 1:9 “the Spirit of Jesus”
Perhaps we’re too often like the patriarch Jacob at Bethel, who said, “Surely the Lord was in this place, but I knew it not.”
Worshipping
The disciples worshipped Jesus in the upper room following the resurrection
Music is important in our worship.
Psalms means “sound of a harp” or “songs sung to a harp.”
1 Chronicles 25
Ephesians 5
Praying
It’s important to pray alone and in private but…
Jesus said that kind of prayer alone is insufficient.
If two or three of agree on earth as touching anything, it will be done.
Reading and Studying Scripture
Ezra 8:8 “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”
This should happen every Sunday.
Fellowshipping
We love each other, share our hearts with one another, and bear each other’s burdens.
“one another” occurs nearly 150 times in the Bible.
“Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”
Evangelism and Missions
We are to be concerned about bringing others into the Kingdom, whether they are across the street or around the world.
Evangelism at home depends on a vibrant local church, and that depends on you and me, our steadiness, our consistency, and our faithfulness.
“One generation called it a holy day; the next, a holiday; to the next, it was a hollow day.”
Let’s not let that happen.
