10/19/2026
Did you know skipping church when it’s inconvenient was already a problem two thousand years ago? I know that sounds strange. I know you think it’s a modern thing. But stay with me for a second.
Hebrews 10:24 and 25. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.
Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. That was written to the early church. People were already skipping. The writer of Hebrews saw it and said, don’t.
And I get it. Some Sundays, with four kids and a ranch and a week behind us that didn’t go well, the easiest thing in the world is to stay home. We’ve done it. But here’s what the verse says church is for. To spur one another on. To encourage. Which means the Sundays you least want to go are exactly the Sundays somebody else needs you there, and exactly the Sundays you need somebody else.
We still go on the Sundays we don’t feel like it, and that’s most of the reason we’re still standing.
Here’s what the Word says about showing up.
Is church about what you get or what you give? First Corinthians 14:26 says when you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction. Each of you has. You’re bringing something. So say it like this: “I’m not going to church to be fed. I’m going because somebody there needs what I’ve got.”
Does your presence matter to the body? First Corinthians 12:21 says the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you. The body needs the parts. So say it like this: “If I’m not there, the body is missing a part. I’m going.”
Is God present differently when believers gather? Matthew 18:20 says where two or three gather in My name, there am I with them. There. In the gathering. So pray it like this: “Lord, You’re going to be in that room this morning in a way You won’t be in my living room. I’m not going to miss it.”
Do you feel the difference? One family goes when it’s easy. The other goes because somebody there needs them, and that’s exactly when it’s hardest.
The church isn’t a building. It’s a bunch of tired people deciding to show up for each other anyway. And the showing up is the thing. Not the sermon, not the music. The deciding to be there when staying home would be easier.
The enemy would love for you to decide that church is optional in the hard seasons. Because the hard seasons are when you’re most alone, and he’d rather you stay that way. He doesn’t need you to leave the faith. He just needs you to stop gathering with it.
Now hear me clearly. There are seasons where you can’t go. Sickness, a new baby, a job that works Sundays. God knows. This isn’t about guilt. This is about the habit of not going when you could have, and what that habit does to a family over time.
So we go. We drag the kids. We walk in late. We sit in the back some weeks. But we go, and more than once somebody there has said the thing that got us through the week.
So this morning, if you’re on the fence, get off it and go. Somebody there needs you.
Did you go this morning? And if it was hard to, what got you out the door?
Show up, sister. The body needs the part.
CASEY GRAHAM RUSSELL
