CHURCH IS GOOD MEDICINE!

WHY SHOULD YOU COME TO CHURCH ON A REGULAR BASIS? BECAUSE YOU WILL BURN IN HELL IF YOU DON’T COME! The late great Presbyterian evangelist Billy Sunday once made this statement to see if the hundreds of people in his congregation were listening to him. There is no scriptural evidence that staying away from church will exactly send you to hell, but there is much evidence that you are on the wrong path if you forsake assembling with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Hebrews 10:25 declares: “Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhort and encourage one another in the faith.”

When you become a Christian, you are called into a relationship with God (1 Corinthians 1:9). But I John 1:3 makes it clear that we enter a fellowship that goes two ways: with God and with other Christians. Wherever Christians are within range of each other in the New Testament, they meet. Every time the apostle Paul comes to a town in the book of Acts where there are no Christians, he wins a few converts and immediately organizes them into a small group - a little church. Acts 20:7 reveals the practice of the early church: "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them."

For Christians in every location, regular gathering was a part of life. It still is an important part of God's plan. We must be together as a church to carry out God’s mission. Coming to church Honors God, Strengthens You, and Brings Fellowship. And there are two things for the Christian that cannot happen when you live in isolation from the church:

1. USE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS - I Corinthians 12 makes it clear that God has given spiritual gifts to every Christian. And verse 7 states unmistakably that these abilities are not provided to make you feel good; they are abilities to minister that should be used for the common good! I Peter 4:10 commands us to use spiritual gifts to help each other.

2. MUTUAL MINISTRY - The church is pictured as a body in I Corinthians 12, and Paul explains that each part of the body exists to meet the needs of other body parts. In the same way, God intends each of us to meet the needs of other believers, using our strengths to help in their areas of weakness. I Corinthians 12:21 expresses it this way: "The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you." Neither can a Christian claim to be self-sufficient today. The New Testament is full of "one another" commands -- over 100 of them. We are to comfort one another (I Thessalonians 4:18), build up one another (I Thessalonians 5:11), confess and pray for one another (James 5:16), and many more.