3. "I go to church; doesn't that please God?"

This answer may shock you , but if you are not in a personal relationship with Jesus but are merely attending church or taking communion to satisfy a religious requirement, then God is not pleased with your church attendance -- in fact -- He hates it! This was Jesus’ rebuke to the religious leaders of His time who practiced religion outwardly but their hearts were never surrendered to Him. He called them whitewashed tombs, full of dead man’s bones. This is what He said in Matthew 23:27-28, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” God is not interested in outward acts of religion; He wants your heart! He wants to have a real, living relationship with you.

Look at it this way; suppose the person you loved to be with the most in this world didn’t really like to be with you. Your heart aches and longs to be with him or her all day, every day, but the most they will give you is an hour or two once a week, and this they do out of duty. There they sit on your couch, anxious for this dutiful time to be over, speaking a few monotone words to you, unmoved at your even being in the room. Would this be pleasing to you? As your heart was aching to hold them, love them and share everything with them, wouldn’t their attitude toward you cause you more pain than joy? My friend, this is how God is often treated! He loves you and wants to be a part of every detail of your life. He anxiously longs for you to glance His way with a heartfelt, “Jesus, I love you so much.” He died for you! For God’s sake, He died so that He could be in relationship with you! He wants your heart. Jesus said in Mark 7:6-7, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me...” Jesus wants your heart 24/7 and will settle for nothing less. He wants to be so near you that He insists on living inside of you! Outward dutiful religious practices dishonor Him and deceive you into thinking that you are OK, but inside you are dead if Christ does not dwell within you. If your church going is merely a family tradition or a weekly ritual that makes you feel better about yourself, then you would be better off staying at home so that you would have no false hope to trust in. This may sound harsh, but it is Jesus you need to save you. The act of going to church or having communion apart from the act of receiving Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior will save no one. Trusting completely in what Jesus did for you on the cross is your only hope.