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2 Chronicles 7:15 - "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place."

In Heart, Not Just In Attendance

For the last six posts, I've been hammering the need to go to the local church. We've covered the command not to "forsake the assembly." We've seen that the place where we gather together is biblically called "the house of God." We've seen that we should not take God's invitation to church lightly; and also that He doesn't accept any excuse for neglecting His house. 

But when I teach about this, I'm sometimes accused of equating church attendance with salvation.
Let me be clear: Going to church doesn't make you a Christian. This is an obvious point - one that no one would argue with. Even the most dead, dried-up, religious churches would at least claim that you need a heart to serve God - even if they don't practice it. No one I know of is claiming that church-attendance saves you.

I've heard people argue against this imaginary point with sayings like these:
"Just because you're in a garage, doesn't make you a car."
"Just because you're in McDonalds, doesn't make you a burger." 
"Just because you're on a boat, doesn't make you a sailor."

To which I say:
This is true, but cars should be parked in a garage!
This is true, but burgers are prepared in McDonalds!
This is true, but it's impossible to be a sailor without a boat!
Of course church attendance isn't the only part of Christianity...but it is a necessary one!

I know that there are a lot of religious folks out there, attending church every week, but who have no heart for the things of God. They're stale and lifeless in their relationship with God. They are like Jacob at the end of Genesis 28 - attending God's House, but unaware of why the place is so special.

I'm also aware of a lot of supposedly spiritual folks who are claiming to be Christians, but rebelling against God's call to gather at the local church. These are included as part of the "some" in Hebrews 10:25, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some..." As we've already seen, we cannot effectively serve God this way.

BOTH of these extremes are error. BOTH of them are un-biblical. And NEITHER of these lifestyles produce strong Christians. Listen carefully; God is after your heart, and your attendance!

"Zeal For Your House"

Jesus knew this. He routinely gathered with God's people at Synagogue, which was a good equivalent of the local church in His day. Luke 4:16 tells us that this gathering was His weekly custom.
He loved the assembly:
 - Even in the Old Covenant
 - Even when they rejected Him
 - Even after at least one Synagogue tried to kill Him! 
Jesus kept showing up at the meetings!

He felt even more strongly about the Temple in Jerusalem - the place God specifically called "His house." We read this in John 2:17. "Then His disciples remembered what was written, 'Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.'" Jesus was fiercely zealous for God's house! That was the reason He chased the merchandisers out of the Temple; because they dishonored His Father's house. He was the perfect fulfillment of Psalm 69, and His disciples saw it on full display.

Let's go back to the Old Testament and see that statement in context.
Psalm 69:8-9 - "I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children; because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me."

Jesus was so passionate about the House of God, that His own brothers thought He was taking things too far. They thought His devotion to a place was strange - even alien. Because of His passion for the Temple, His family began to mock Him for it.
"Jesus, don't You think You're taking that a little too far?"
"What's the big deal, Jesus, that's just a place...You can serve God anywhere!"
"You're going back to the temple again? Weren't You just there?"
"Don't you know that James wants us at his house for dinner?"

Rest assured, my brother: Jesus knows how it feels to be reproached for His devotion to God's house.

Loving What God Loves

Why was He so passionate about that place? Why did He act in such an insensitive way He chased certain people out of the Temple? It's because His heart is in that place - and theirs was not!

God Himself said this about the Temple in 2 Chronicles 7:16 - "For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually." So Jesus' own heart was where His Father's heart was - in the House of God.

Of course, we know that Temple building was torn down. It has not held the title "House of God" for two thousand years. Jesus prophesied about this in John 2:19 - "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Verse 21 clarifies this further - "But He was speaking of the temple of His body." Right now, the Body of Christ is the church (Colossians 1:24). And 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us that the local church is the New Testament house of God!

The local church has (temporarily) taken that title away from the Temple...but Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." This means He still has the same zeal for God's house, for His churches! Acts 20:28 tells us how far Jesus' passion for the local church goes: "...shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." Jesus loves the church so much that He shed His blood to have it!

Can you see this? Our Savior loves the local church. He loves to see His people, gathered together in His name. He wants to see more of this as time goes on - not less! And according to Matthew 18:20, He has never missed a meeting. Jesus is passionate about our gatherings! 

Now let me ask you...are you passionate about it? Do you love what He loves?
If Jesus shed His blood to purchase the church...isn't it at least worth your time? 
If His heart is in the local church, then shouldn't yours be too?