What is Your Attitude Towards Church

What is Your Attitude Towards Church

Isaiah 56-60

“If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy Day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting form your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (58:13-14).

                  It is not about the day; it is about the attitude and priority we give to the day. We affirm the importance of all ten commandments—except one: the command to keep the Sabbath day holy. It is true that the Sabbath day, as a legalistic requirement, was removed at the cross. No place in the New Testament do we find the early church maintaining the legal requirement to observe the Sabbath on Saturday. However, before we dismiss the third commandment, we need to ask what the purpose of the Sabbath is. The Sabbath was meant to symbolize the importance of remembering that our eternal hope is found in God. It was a day set aside from the daily affairs of life to worship God and to remind the people that he is the creator, that we are to worship him, and that he is to be our priority in life. It also pointed forward, reminding the people that the final Sabbath rest was yet to come. This would be accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection, which achieved this final rest (Hebrews 4). Therefore, the early church now set aside the first day of the week to be a time to worship and celebrate the redemptive work of Christ and the sabbath rest he brings.   In Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, and Revelation 1:10, we find that the church was to gather on the first day of the week. However, in Colossians 2:16, we are reminded that it is no longer about the specific day of the week. Instead, the focus is on our attitude and the priority we give to gathering with the saints to worship Christ (see Hebrews 10:25).

                  In Isaiah 58:13-14, we see the reason for gathering and the importance of gathering with the saints to worship God. In verse 13, we see three requirements for keeping the Sabbath, then three actions necessary to fulfill them. The first requirement is that we turn from pursuing our own agenda. In other words, celebrating the Sabbath is not a convenience; it is a priority. Too often, we attend church only when it fits our schedule rather than making it a priority. It is to be our highest priority. Second, it is a day that we are to regard as a delight and holy to the Lord. Worship should not be a duty but a joy as we set aside time to reflect upon and exalt the holiness of God. It is a time to remember the greatness of our God. It is a priority in life. To regard it holy is to acknowledge that this day belongs to God to worship him. It is not a day off from work to do our own agenda. The third requirement is that we honor the day by treating it as our delight rather than a drudgery. In our modern day, we often regard church a duty rather than a delight. Of all the activities we do, the worship of God should be the one thing that brings us the most pleasure and joy.  

                  So, how do we properly worship God? Isaiah gives us three qualifying statements we must guard against and stop doing to make the worship of God the priority. First, cease from “doing our own ways.” Sunday is not a day for us to catch up on the tasks we didn't get done or the home chores we pushed aside during the week. It is prioritizing God above all else. Second, we are to cease from seeking our own pleasure. It is not a day to rest; it is a day to reaffirm and realign our focus upon God so that he becomes our highest pleasure. Third, we need to stop speaking our own words. It is a day to listen to God. Too often in our Christian life, we tell God what we want him to do, but we do not stop to ask him what he wants us to do.  

                  When we make the worship of God the priority, then we discover the delight and blessing of God (vs 14). We discover the security that we have in him, for he will fulfill his promises to us. The first step in growing in our faith is to set Sunday and the fellowship with God’s people as our highest priority. Does the worship of God get pushed aside because of other priorities? Does the church become a convenience rather than an essential part of our lives? God desires us to enjoy him, and this starts by making him and the fellowship with his people our highest priority in life.