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What is the most dangerous state to live in? Well, we could look at all of the United States according to the statistics from 2020. California had the highest number of homicides in United States with 2197, according to the FBI Report. [USAFacts] The highest rate of crime, including all types of crime was Alaska, with violent and property crimes the highest of all the states. But today I want to talk to you about the greatest spiritual crime of all. It is the abandonment of God's house, the church. Reachrightstudios.com reports these facts and figures about stay-at-home Christians. 44 percent of people prefer to pray from home. 53 percent of practicing Christians stream their church services online. 33 percent of church attendees first found their church online. 17 million still watch church websites. This seems like a very positive thing. But what it has done is allow the church pews to become empty. During COVID, the only way for a pastor to reach his congregation for the first several weeks was to preach online. I still preach online for a multitude of shut-ins, people too sick to come but still need to hear the Word of God. What has happened is that most people staying home to watch church do not get the full effect of the church service. The song service is not the same when you are watching it at home. People are getting up at home getting coffee, getting breakfast and missing a good proportion of the service. Parishioners do not get to engage in the church service through singing. They cannot give a testimony and praise God for the wonderful things that he has done. They also cannot offer their services by helping with teens and children and having a one-on-one with them by helping them to develop solid Christian practices.
Praying at home is a wonderful thing, but something that is so much better, is coming up around an altar at the front of the church. Then having other people pray for you by laying hands on you according to God's Word. For healthy, able-bodied people to stay home and not serve in the Kingdom of God is the most dangerous state of all.
Another dangerous state for us to live in is that we don't care that the church closes. Some people would be happy to take their duty of going to church off their list. We have replaced going to church with more fun stuff like drinking beer, watching ball games, and going to the lake or camping. All these things become more important than God. We are teaching this generation that school events, sports events, going to birthday parties, shopping, going to the movies, etc., are all more important than God. When the church closes because of lack of support, volunteers, and finances, we will be living in the most dangerous state of all. This is a state without God. God is already a dirty word to most people in the United States. At one time, Christianity was considered to be 87 percent or even higher in our nation, but that number has now shrunk to 64 percent. The sad part about this is we are doing it to ourselves. We also have a conglomerate of so many beliefs that no one knows where to go or what to believe. Here is my advice. Find a Bible believing, Bible teaching church. It will state that all sin will send you to hell. There is only one way to heaven and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ and repentance from sin with your heart. The church will believe in the Holy Spirit, God, and Jesus Christ and the full values of the Trinity. It will not teach you to sin everyday but to strive for a personal relationship with God. It will teach you to assemble together to glorify God not to be entertained. It will teach you how to connect to a deep relationship with Him. God is not your magic genie. He is the Creator of the universe, the almighty God. He deserves all of our respect and adoration. Go to the church that teaches you to surrender all to God and let Him run your life. Then you will have a life richly blessed.
May you find a church,
Dr. Brian Brown
Lisbon Nazarene Church