{"id":26058,"date":"2020-09-15T13:32:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T18:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=26058"},"modified":"2020-09-15T16:27:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T21:27:57","slug":"why-are-some-leaving-the-worship-service-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-some-leaving-the-worship-service-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are some leaving the worship service early?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Jeff,<\/p>\n<p>I have seen several brethren and different congregations who attended morning bible class and took the Lord&#8217;s Supper and afterward left without hearing the preaching, claiming that they had a plane to catch or some other excuse. Yesterday, a lady was visiting us from out of town and said that she had to check out of the hotel.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts about this?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, &#8216;I will follow You wherever You go.&#8217; And Jesus said to him, &#8216;The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.&#8217; And He said to another, &#8216;Follow Me.&#8217; But he said, &#8216;Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.&#8217; But He said to him, &#8216;Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.&#8217; Another also said, &#8216;I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.&#8217; But Jesus said to him, &#8216;No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God&#8217;<\/em>&#8221; (Luke 9:57-62).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Actions speak louder than words. These people demonstrate that listening to a teaching from God&#8217;s Word is less important to them than other matters of life. There are occasions when events happen that cause difficulty in being at the worship service, but most so-called excuses are merely a matter of not making advance plans to be at the worship service.<\/p>\n<p>All a preacher can do is teach about the importance of giving God your time so that you might reach heaven. &#8220;<em>And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?<\/em>&#8221; (I Peter 4:18).<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Good point. Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Jeff, I have seen several brethren and different congregations who attended morning bible class and took the Lord&#8217;s Supper and afterward left without hearing the preaching, claiming that they had a plane to catch or some other excuse. Yesterday, a lady was visiting us from out of town and said that she had to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[515],"class_list":["post-26058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-priorities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23931,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-jesus-say-to-let-the-dead-bury-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":0},"title":"Why did Jesus say to let the dead bury the dead?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When I read Matthew 8:21-22, I felt quite confused. It says \" And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.\" What does this mean? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60541,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/two-young-men-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":1},"title":"Two Young Men Baptized","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Willis I recently conducted a meeting in which two young men were baptized on Thursday night prior to the services beginning. It was the highlight of a good meeting. On Friday night when the meeting came to a close, as the father of the two young men came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55867,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/disciple-or-dabbler\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":2},"title":"Disciple or Dabbler?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Ward via Lost River Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 3, October 2007 In his book, Basic Christianity, John Stott wrote, \"The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half-built towers. The ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. Thousands of people still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15008,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-say-we-will-be-greeted-by-our-loved-ones-after-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":3},"title":"Does the Bible say we will be greeted by our loved ones after death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, You, so far, are the only person I trust to tell me the truth of the Bible. I am so confused trying to understand it. But, anyway, when we die does it say in the Bible if we will be greeted in Paradise by our loved ones who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":590,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happens-to-children-when-they-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":4},"title":"What happens to children when they die?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What happens to children when they die? Answer: The Bible states that children go to heaven when they die. Take a look at this example: \"So Nathan went to his house. Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19984,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-still-raise-people-from-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":26058,"position":5},"title":"Does God still raise people from the dead?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend of mine seems to think that it is possible for someone to raise from the dead now. I thought that Jesus was the last person to do that. He seems to think that I am underestimating God's power. I believe that God can do anything, but I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}