We Need the Church in Our Lives

When God breathed life into Adam something interesting happened.  After creating the rest of the universe and declaring it good, God made one man and saw that something was not good.  It was not good for Adam to be alone.

A man just does not do well by himself.  We need other people to complete us.  We need other people to protect us from ourselves and the world.  We need others to learn from and follow when we are lost.

Jesus repeatedly compares us to sheep.  He is the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep.

Have we noticed that sheep are social animals?  They like to hang out in flocks.

It is not good for sheep to go off by themselves.  They tend to get in trouble.  Whether it be walking off a cliff or getting caught in a thicket, sheep by themselves tend to do bad things very quickly.  The first thing a predator also looks for is the sheep that has set itself apart from the rest of the flock.   That sheep is usually the most vulnerable to be devoured.  A sheep by itself is a sign that there is something very wrong.  Trouble is coming for that animal whether it is aware of it or not.

God’s people are compared to sheep and it is not good for sheep to be alone.

Church can seem hard sometimes.  We can chafe from interacting with other believers.  We can get hurt by other Christians.  It can seem like torture entering into such a social environment.  But God’s picture of His people always involves us gathering together as a group.  This is the church.  His directions always contemplate the church made up of individuals living life with each other socially.  It is how we grow, learn to love like Jesus did and are protected.

It is not good for a Christian man to be alone.

Did we go to church this week?  Did we enter into some sort of relationship with God’s people?  If not, why not?  Are we setting ourselves apart as a target for the predators?

Can we make plans for next week to seek out a local body to become part of?  If no, why not?