By Staff
If a church service does not provide a link to eternity, its value is questionable.
A biblical church should be a group of believers in Christ banded together to carry out the purposes of God.
Church should be a place where an unbeliever can come in comfortably, but leave in consternation about their soul.
Church should be a place where every believer is both encouraged and challenged about their life with God.
The earth is a speck ruled by time, between eternity past and eternity future. God created the heavens, the earth, substance, creatures, man, and time. Everything we see and feel is temporary, but our souls will live forever somewhere.
Jesus spoke to the righteous of the eternal "somewheres" in Matthew, chapter 25, verse 34: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." In verse 41, He says to the unrighteous, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." The eternal destination of every person is a most vital subject. Where else would you expect to hear of it than in church?
If church is going to be an encounter with God, we must honor God.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked on the earth as a man. While He was here, He often went to the temple, the house of God. On one occasion reported in the gospel of John, chapter 2, verses 13-16, Jesus went into the temple and found merchandisers. There were people exchanging money for the convenience of foreign worshippers, and others literally selling animals for sacrifice within the confines of the temple. These practices could seem helpful to accommodate worship, but Jesus took exception, made a whip (John 2:15), and drove all these merchandisers out of the temple.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verses 45-46, there was another occasion when Jesus routed the merchandisers out of the temple. He said in verse 46, "'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"
For church to be an encounter with God, there must be prayer petitioning God to intervene in the affairs of men.
Many times public prayer is a ritual to facilitate a service with little or no thought to literally approaching the throne of God in humility and brokenness.
The Apostle Paul preached and taught the Word of God in church. The Word of God, ministered through the Spirit of God, is the means whereby God is given a voice in the church. Paul admonished the Corinthian church about preaching in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 21: "It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."
Paul continued in verse 23: "We preach Christ crucified." The master stroke of God to achieve the redemption of fallen mankind was the cross. Why wouldn't the message of the cross be mentioned in every church service?
God is encountered with rightful praise. One of the most often repeated commands in scripture is, "Praise the LORD!" One of the most direct and effective means of giving praise to God is the testimony of a person who has encountered God, and the result was a changed life.
Church should be filled with people who have met God and are quick to tell others of His glory and wonder.
Music is a means of worship and praise. While few could deny the testimony of a changed life, many will differ as to the effectiveness of certain styles and types of music. Because music is intrinsically more entertaining than prayer, preaching, and the average testimony, and because music is typically used to set up these other means of encountering God, music has come to rule the average church.
Church must be an encounter with God. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, "He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). If you are not hearing those things in church, you are not encountering God.