Jesus Attended Church So What's Your Excuse | EP12

Hello there,

Jesus had a habit of going to church—Scripture says it was His custom. That raises a powerful question: if He made it a priority, why don’t we?

In this episode, we take an honest look at church attendance through the example of Jesus. Not with guilt or pressure—but with clarity and truth. If the One who lived a perfect life still showed up consistently at church, what does that mean for us?

We’ll also address a common point of view: “Churches and pastors aren’t perfect.” That’s true—but if it didn't stop Jesus (who was perfect) from attending, it should not stop us.

Plus, I’ll walk you through 3 key reasons church is vital to us as followers of Christ:
•  It's where the Gospel is preached
•  It's a safe environment to grow in your faith
•  It's a space to disciple and be discipled

If you’ve ever questioned whether church is necessary, this episode might challenge and encourage you in a new way.

Scriptures references from this episode:
Luke 4:16 NKJV
Acts 2:41-44 AMPC
Mark 16:15 NKJV
Romans 10:14-15, 17 NKJV
1 Corinthians 1:2-10 NKJV
1 Peter 2:1-2 TPT
Ephesians 4:11-15 TPT
Acts 2:47, 5:14, 11:24 NKJV
Hebrews 10:25 NKJV

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever said, I don't attend church, but God knows my heart. Do you claim Jesus as your example? Ever hear the phrase, what would Jesus do? I'll tell you one of the things he did. Jesus attended church. Let's talk about it. If we claim Jesus as our Lord, we should follow his example and do what he did. We should do the things that please the Father just like Jesus did. Obedience to the Lord's will is a clear indication that we love him. Jesus thought it important to attend church regularly. And of course, I've got Bible to back that up. Luke 4, 16, in the New King James Version says, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Jesus had a habit of church attendance. As the Bible says, it was his custom. So I say this as sweetly as I possibly can. If Jesus went to church regularly, why would anyone think it's acceptable not to do the same? We should not consider ourselves above his example. If Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who knew no sin, went to church, I am most certain that we should too. Many have given the excuse that they don't go to church because pastors and churches are imperfect. But I'd like to blow that excuse to smithereens. Jesus was perfect. He knew no sin and he went to church. If anyone could have given that excuse, it would have been him. And he did not. So we should not. Although he was absolutely perfect, he went to church. We then who do have imperfections have no excuse. You're welcome. I love you. Welcome to the Your God Sister Podcast, where we address life's challenges with biblical answers while enjoying our time together. A couple of constants here are what the Bible says and what the Lord speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. My name is Joy Cooper. I am an associate pastor. I am a youth minister, and through the years I've had the opportunity to mentor young ladies. But on this podcast, I'm here with you. On our last episode, we talked about the importance of having a pastor. Today's episode is a perfect part two of sorts. So if you've missed episode 11, go back and listen. Church attendance is part of God's plan for our lives. I would strongly suggest that we not reject that part of his plan. The gathering together of believers is so important. When we attend church, we receive many key benefits. But today I'll just highlight three of them. One, church is a place where the gospel is preached. Two, church is a safe environment for Christians to grow in faith. Three, church is a place to disciple new believers. Let's look at Acts 2, 41 through 44 in the Amplified Classic Edition. Therefore, those who accepted and welcomed his message were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls, and they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread, including the Lord's Supper, and prayers. And a sense of awe, reverential fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were performed through the apostles, the special messengers. And all who believed, who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ were united, and together they had everything in common. In this verse, we can pretty much see all three of our points in this one passage of scripture. The gospel was preached, it was a safe environment for Christians to grow, and disciples, new converts, were discipled at this church. This is beautiful. This is wonderful. These are the benefits, just three of them, by the way. The benefits of belonging to a local church. God's plan is perfect and it's complete. And if part of the plan is that we attend church, it's for a reason. And really, it's to bless us. Everything that God instructs us to do is for us to be blessed. He wants to bless us, but we must give him the opportunity to do so. So, number one, church is a powerful place where the gospel is preached and then disseminated throughout the world. In Mark 16, 15, Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We can think of the church as a kind of headquarters from which we go out into all the world. God isn't interested in his children being out in the world like Lone Rangers. We are to be part of a local family of believers where a pastor feeds and cares for the sheep. The local church and pastors are perfectly intertwined. We could reword point number one like this. Church is a place where the gospel is preached by a pastor and then disseminated throughout the world. Isn't that good? I know we talked about pastors last week, but this scripture came to mind as well. So I'll share it with you. It's in Romans 10, verse 14 through 15, and verse 17, and I'll read the New King James Version. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This is a great scripture. It shows you a progression of things. So if people are to receive Jesus, if they are to believe in him, how can they believe if they've not heard anything? And then how can they hear anything if there's no preacher to preach it? And how can someone preach it unless they've been called by God to do it? So you see this progression, you see how all of these things are so intertwined. God is so specific, he's so detailed, and so it just shows, I think this scripture beautifully shows the intentionality of the Father. He put everything in place so that his will, his plan, his purpose could be achieved. Now let's jump to point number two. Church is a safe environment for Christians to grow in faith. Let's look at um let's look at 1 Corinthians 1. And really the the passage that is important here is verse 2 through 10. I'll not read all of those, but you should in your own time. But I'm just gonna pick out some verses um that I think are good for us to talk on now. So to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, call to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, this is Paul talking. He's talking to a church at Corinth. So he starts to say some things that they're doing well. Um, let's see here, he says that you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you came short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end. So he's telling them that they're doing some things good, they don't come behind in any good gift, they're enriched in everything by Christ. So he's he's um let's say this way, he's encouraging their good behavior. But toward the end of these passages, he says, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So Paul had to straighten some things out in the church at Corinth. Those attending the church had some things they did well, and Paul commended them for it. There were also some things that they needed to correct. The church is a place for constant growth. We should all be growing constantly. So this is the this is what we see here in the church at Corinth. This is the place where the believers there were being edified and encouraged to keep doing things that were right, and then there were corrections for things that needed to be um needed to be fixed. Let's look at 1 Peter 2, 1 and 2. So abandon every form of evil, deceit, hypocrisy, feelings of jealousy and slander. In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intently crave the pure spiritual milk of God's word. For this milk will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life. This is the picture of the benefits of a pastor in a church. You're hearing the word of God preached by a pastor. You are growing by that spiritual milk, you're becoming mature, you're being nourished, so you could live in this life. I can't tell you how many times I've attended church and my pastor preached something that I needed in that moment, like literally in that moment. So much so you could be like, oh my gosh, like, does he know? Does my pastor know? Like you're sitting there thinking, like, who told him? Who told him? But no, it's God. It is God getting to his sheep what his sheep need through a pastor in the context of a church. And you know what's really amazing? You could have a hundred, two hundred, how many other people in a church, and each person is receiving from God something specific that they need. Even though there's one message being preached, people will hear from God what they need coming out of that pastor's mouth. It's amazing. Nobody grows alone. So we could think, oh, I'll just get all those benefits, I'll just read the word at home. Okay, but God is speaking to the pastor for the sheep. He's speaking things that need to come with the anointing of a pastor. Pastors are equipped to do a job. So just like your supervisor is equipped to lead at the workplace, a pastor is equipped to lead in a church. So just like in order for growth to happen properly for a child, a child needs food, love, protection, and many other things. Well, so do we. As God's children, we need things for growth. The pastor and the church are how we get what we need. The church is a place to practice, to grow, to mature so that we look like Jesus when we go out into the world and preach the gospel. And I want to say this here. You know how you'll be at church and you have the opportunity to serve, and you're serving on a team, and uh maybe you're serving with somebody else. Well, you know how you just might not see it the same as Sister So-and-So, and you just think, oh, if I could just do this myself. No, that's an opportunity to grow. Working with other believers in the context of a church is an opportunity for us to grow in faith and mature. Yeah, you could do it yourself, but then you wouldn't grow. You would be the same old, same old you. But if you have to work with someone who sees something differently than you do, or even has a little bit of a crunchy, crunchy attitude, you could use that to grow in faith, grow and not being offended, grow and not being prideful. So these things, the the church context allows us a laboratory of sorts, it's a place where we could um grow in our faith muscles. This is so good. So these are the things that our Father knows, and these are part of the reason why He instructs us to attend church. So the church is a place to practice, grow, mature, so that we look like Jesus when we go out into the world and preach the gospel. We looked at uh this verse last week, but I would suggest you look at it again, the Ephesians 4, 11 through 15 verse. It's so good, and particularly in the Passion Translation. So look at that again because it tells you why God gave gifts, those ministry gifts to the church. So look at it again, okay? Now, church is a place to disciple new believers. That's our last point. Church is a place to disciple new believers. As we stated before, we can consider the church like a headquarters, it's where new recruits, so to speak, are given an orientation, it's where training occurs. The church is where skill is obtained. Ultimately, it's the place from where skilled individuals go out and do a job, which is to preach the gospel to all the world. If we are going out into all the world to preach the gospel, those who are receiving Jesus as a result of us doing that, they're being added. They're being added to the body of Christ as a new believer, then those new believers, those new Christians, should also be added to churches. So they're added to the body of Christ, yes, but they also need to be added to churches so that they can be discipled. Several times in the book of Acts, and we looked at one, um, we read how people were added to the church. So we saw that in Acts 2.41 already, and then it's in Acts 2.47, it's in Acts 5.14, and Acts 11.24. And as we go out and lead people to Jesus, we must make sure they have a good church to attend, where they can be cared for, where they can be taught, where they can be corrected. Think about it this way. It would look like abuse and neglect for a baby to be born and then expect it to fend for itself. But often this is what happens to new Christians. They get born again, but they may not uh be made aware of the importance of having a pastor in a church. They need to know it's where they hear the full counsel of the Bible, it's also where they can grow and mature. It's, I mean, you could just say it uh another basic. It's an it's a place where they'll have other people who are Christians. Can you imagine getting getting born again? And then you still only know people who aren't? You need a community, you need a community of fellow believers. So this is like a cycle, it's like all intertwined. It's it's it's the perfection of God's plan. God's plan is so uh it's so detailed, it's so intentional, it's so perfect, like all the pieces just work together and fit together. It's amazing, it's amazing how God thinks. We can never graduate from having a pastor and belonging to a church. I know sometimes people want to, they think they know enough of the word. Oh, I was raised in church. I don't need, you know, I'm good. No, no, no, no, no, no. And you know, there's a uh verse, and I don't have it here. I'm gonna look it up right now while I am online, so you're gonna have to hold on a minute because I didn't write it down. But there's a verse that talks about this in Hebrews. Hold on, yeah, I'm typing, but this is so good because I want to share this um as we end today. Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. God is so good and he loves us so much, and you know, I don't think we should view any of God's commandments as well, the Bible tells us not to, as burdensome. Whenever God is telling us something to do, it is for our benefit, it is for us to live our very best life in Him. So don't think of church. As a dread, think of it as oh, Father, how do you wish to bless me in my obedience to you in doing what you're asking me? How do you wish to bless me? So Hebrews 10:25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some. So that's interesting because before we saw that church attendance was Jesus' custom. In today's world, in today's society, it's people's custom not to go, not to go to church. They're too busy. They're too, you know, I got too many things to do. Oh, I could just watch it online. I don't have to go to church. I'm a Christian. God knows my heart. He knows I love him, but I don't have to do all that. Well, the Bible seems to suggest differently. So I just want to say that we don't, we don't ever get to the point where we don't need the things that God says he wants us to have. And two of those things he wants us to have is a pastor and a local church that we attend. So pause and think on these things until next time. Here is a direct challenge. Get connected to a church and place yourself under the guidance of a pastor. None of us are above God's instruction. If you seek God while choosing a church and a pastor, you can trust that he will guide you well. He has a church and a pastor for everyone who sincerely ask him. This week I'll include the scripture references in the description for you. Also, I think you know this by now, but new episodes are posted every Tuesday. Make sure you set your notifications so that you stay informed. We'll talk soon, but until next time, know what the Bible says and treasure what the Lord speaks to your heart.