by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: I Kings 18:22-39<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. People come up with some fairly bizarre reasons for being anywhere else but at services.<\/p>\n
A. They need to be at work, attend school events, sporting practices, sporting events.<\/p>\n B. Some are just plain tired or don’t feel well – nothing specific mind you – just a\nvague discomfort.\n
C. They’re on vacation, or attending parties.<\/p>\n
D. It is apparent that just about anything is more important than being here.<\/p>\n
II. Four reasons for being absent<\/p>\n
A. Being deep in thought<\/p>\n 1. Once I get started thinking along a particular line, it is irritating to have my\ntrain of thought derailed by an interruption.\n 2. I’ll be working on a particularly difficult problem and the next thing I know\nit is time to drop everything to go to Bible study.\n
3. Then it is so hard to pick up where I left off later.<\/p>\n 4. I’m sure younger people out there feel that Bible study and worship can get\nin the way of homework. You’re working on a paper, deep in thought, and\nit is so hard to stop what you are doing.\n
5. Being deep in thought must be a good reason to miss<\/p>\n
B. Being busy<\/p>\n 1. Like most of you, I have a lot of projects going on that require my\nattention and there just isn’t enough hours in the day.\n
2. Many of them don’t require much thought, but they do consume time.<\/p>\n 3. There are repairs to do, housework, mowing lawns, shoveling snow,\nwashing cars, why we could come up with an endless list.\n 4. Sometimes you get a late start and before you know it, you haven’t gotten\nnearly enough done and it is time for services.\n 5. Now you could interrupt what you are doing, go to church, and come back\nto it later, but think of the satisfaction you can have getting that tedious\nchore done without interruption!\n
6. Being busy must be a good reason to miss.<\/p>\n
C. Traveling<\/p>\n 1. My relatives live quite a distance away. Just the last month we had to\ncarefully plot our trip and make some adjustments so that we would be\nsomeplace to worship on Sunday and attend a mid-week Bible study. It\nadded an extra two days to our trip just to be where we could worship on\nSunday.\n 2. Vacations cause other problems. There are so many places that would be\nfun to visit, but there isn’t a church nearby. I once daydreamed of hiking\nthe Appalachian trail, but it takes three months to walk and I couldn’t\nfigure out how to be sure I was near a church way out there. \n 3. Why if you are vacationing where a church isn’t close by, it must be a good\nreason to miss.\n
D. Overslept<\/p>\n 1. You know that alarm clock goes off awfully early on Sundays. I used to\nget up earlier during the weekdays to head off for work, but still on Sunday\nthat alarm would sometimes go off earlier than I wanted. Now Sundays\nare the only day that I set the alarm and these long winter nights make it\nespecially hard to get up.\n 2. But I get up and get ready to be with the saints. But I notice that a lot of\nbrothers and sisters are taking an extra hour in bed. They walk in just in\ntime for worship and make no excuses for missing the Bible study.\n 3. I guess that careless attitude could bother me, but sleeping in must be a\ngood reason to miss.\n
III. Did you know these reasons are in your Bible?<\/p>\n
A. Elijah had a showdown with the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18:22-39<\/p>\n
1. Two bulls were chosen, one for Baal and one for the Lord God<\/p>\n
2. Preparations were made and everything is ready, except for the fire.<\/p>\n
3. That was the challenge – I Kings 18:24<\/p>\n
B. Worship then began<\/p>\n
1. The priests called for Baal. They shouted, they danced, but he didn’t come!<\/p>\n
2. Elijah taunts them – I Kings 18:27<\/p>\n 3. There you have it – four reasons for a god to miss his own worship\nservices!\n C. But you see, the priests and Elijah knew that these where lousy reasons for not\nbeing there.\n
1. It wasn’t that Baal had reasons for being elsewhere<\/p>\n
2. Everyone knew that Baal wasn’t there because he didn’t exist<\/p>\nIV. But then what does it mean when Christians offer similar flimsy excuses to the one true\nGod for why they can’t spend time in worship and study of His word?\n
V. Psalm 100 <\/p>\n
\n
Based on an article by Matt Henneke<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Kings 18:22-39 I. People come up with some fairly bizarre reasons for being anywhere else but at services. A. They need to be at work, attend school events, sporting practices, sporting events. B. Some are just plain tired or don’t feel well – nothing specific mind you – just a vague…<\/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":[32],"tags":[356,608],"class_list":["post-63318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-attendance","tag-excuses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91813,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/competition\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":0},"title":"Competition","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores No parent wants their child to feel left out, unappreciated, or useless. That's understandable, but the answer for some was to stop keeping score for sporting events so there would be no winners or losers and award \"participation trophies\" to everyone who showed up. \"There, that ought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/attendance\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":1},"title":"Attendance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall \"Attendance\" is a biblical topic (Hebrews 10:25), but how we approach attendance is not always biblical! I have visited congregations where Sunday morning attendance was almost matched on Sunday nights. Usually, these are smaller groups. However, I have also seen larger groups that were very impressive.\u00a0On the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2875,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gathering-together\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":2},"title":"Gathering Together","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we talk of worshiping God, one aspect of that worship is our gathering together \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Psalm 122:1 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is this your attitude, or do you feel dragged here? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To worship God requires assembling with fellow Christians \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hebrews 10:19-27 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The writer of Hebrews discusses the conversion of a man \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus consecrated a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33197,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-feel-connected-to-god-or-other-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":3},"title":"I don’t feel connected to God or other people","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I apologise in advance for what may be a lengthy email, but I would love to hear your thoughts on my situation. I am concerned about whether I am loving God properly. I believe in God and the Bible, I am Christian and I try to obey the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8331,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-the-great-flood\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":4},"title":"When was the great flood?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm finding so many conflicting dates on when the Great Flood took place and how far after that Sargon came into power. Do you have any insight on this for me? Answer: I'm not surprised that you are having difficulty. Dating gets very difficult the further you go back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62592,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-wrong-to-stream-services-on-facebook\/","url_meta":{"origin":63318,"position":5},"title":"Are we wrong to stream services on Facebook?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! God bless the work you do always utilizing your page to study and to get answers. Great work and God bless you always. Question: Are we in the wrong in continuing to use Facebook Live for worship service on Sundays? Thanks! 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