We are Part of The Plan

A group of us were talking about a sermon that we heard during Christmas.  It was on hope.  The sermon had impacted us all, differently.  I love how God works, we all heard the same sermon but we all received personal messages that were very different.  The responses were from hope after losing someone this year, having hope in this broken world to know God is in charge, having hope that Jesus is coming back and to having hope that no matter what your past was you can have a future with Jesus.  I thought of my Granny and how she always said, “I wish all my people could have heard that sermon.”  A sermon on hope, that no matter our circumstances, we can have hope.  

I saw this posted on social media and have to agree with it.  “As church attendance numbers fade across the nation and online services become very convenient it’s important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much.  You can’t serve from your sofa.  You can’t have a community of faith on your sofa.  You can’t experience the power of a room full of believers worshiping together on your sofa.  Christians aren’t consumers.  We are contributors.  We don’t watch.  We engage.  We give.  We sacrifice.  We encourage.  We pray by laying hands on the hurting.  We do this life together.  The church needs you.  And you need the church.”  This was all obvious at our revival!  Engaging, giving, encouraging, worshiping!  

I am thankful for an online church service for those who need it! The church was God’s idea. God loves His church and refers to it as the bride of Christ, the household of God, the body of Christ and God’s house. It is something that must be a top priority in the lives of believers. Hebrews 10: 25, “...not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” We are reminded in Titus 2: 1-8 that it is at church where we can find older, godly mentors. God designed His church to make disciples. The last thing Jesus said to His disciples is in Matthew 28: 19. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”