"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
It's always convenient to isolate Bible verses and get excited about what we read. We hang inspirational plaques and posters with encouraging Scripture like the one given above and we serve our god for the day.
I've noticed frightening dialog take place in church almost every week. It may seem trivial, but the phrase that haunts me is, "Good sermon this morning, Pastor, I really enjoyed it." The reason it haunts me is because I hear it so often, but I see very little response. It seems like for a lot of people that has become the goal of the preacher - to make me enjoy his sermon. My intentions in saying this are not to be judgmental by any means, I'm just offering my perspective on something that's been bothering me for quite some time. I have no idea what most people are doing on a daily basis or the depth of their relationship with God, I simply notice things at church. And at church, very rarely do you have someone ready to work at a moments notice at any given time for the church. When most people are asked to help out or volunteer with something in the church, the first thing that takes place isn't a resounding "YES!", it isn't even always, "I'll pray about it." Most of the time the response is, "I'll see..." or "I'll check my schedule and get back to you." In other words, "Give me a little time to weigh these options out and see which is really my top priority."
Whether anyone will admit it or not, we all know that the church we attend has a lot to do with:
1) The pastor - no one wants to sit and listen to a preacher that doesn't keep them
interested. We "Need to be fed," because God forbid we have to study a little on
our own time.
2) The programs - what does the church have to offer me to do.
3) The music - "I just don't like that new stuff." or "Those hymns are so dumb...who even talks
like that?"
There are other factors that go into choosing which church we want to be a part of, but for the most part, those are the three big factors. Very seldom do you hear someone say they attend a church because the power of God is there. It's always "What's beneficial to me?" And quite frankly (while I'm being frank), when I have heard someone talk about attending our church because they "sense the Spirit" - I'm lucky to see them at more than one service a week. I'm a man who prides himself in common sense, so my question is this: if the Spirit of God is there, why wouldn't you want to be in that Church every time there is a light on? You're tired from work? You've had a hard week? Your son has a ballgame? There's a special singing that night, so it's OK if you miss?
The bottom line is this: "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..."
Not who you're going to try to serve for the rest of your life. Not who you're going to serve tomorrow. Not who you served yesterday or last week.
Who are you serving today?
