It does not mean go to church, I don't care who said it from the pulpit today.
It means to assemble yourselves with other Christians, no matter where you are.
Church is just a good place to be to do that.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't go to church. I'm saying that Sunday meeting at a church building is not the end all be all to being a good Christian.
If I hang around with people on a regular basis, it's going to be with people who believe and trust God as I do. It's going to be with people who can edify me and encourage me and constructively criticize me when needed in love and protection of what belongs to God.
But I find it offensive for anyone to stand up at the pulpit and say that if you don't come to church you're not doing what God told you to do. That is so wrong! That is not what the Bible says.
It is not offensive because I don't want to go to church. It is offensive because it is not what the word of God says. And to say that God's word says something that it doesn't is offensive.
If I ever go to church, it is going to be to a church that does not think I am sinning if I don't go to church on Sunday every Sunday. And it's going to be with people who will reach out and pull me out of the fire if I happen to fall in, not with people who will pray over me while they watch me burn.
I really doubt that God is going to close the gates of heaven in my face because I didn't go to church every Sunday. If He closes the Gates of heaven in my face it's going to be because I denied Him in front of my brothers and sisters. I denied the power that He has over your life and mine. I denied that He is everything and without Him we are nothing. And I denied having faith that tomorrow is going to be a better day because the Lord said so.
Praise God I would never do that!
He is my provision, my protector, and my best friend. He is my husband, my parent, and my advocate! He is everything to me. I don't need to go to church in order to tell everybody what a great God I have! I do that in my car everyday as an Uber driver!
According to my Bible, which is the same one that is preached from that pulpit in error, I am the church. My body is the Temple of Christ. Just as is everyone else's who believes and trusts in Him.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
