Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, guys, let's get into it. This week on The Daily Blade, we're addressing the growing

crisis of discernment in today's world. So using findings from the 2025 state of theology

survey by Ligonier and Lifeway will examine what self-identified evangelicals believe and then

turn to scripture to see what God's word truly teaches on these issues. So yesterday's conversation took a hard look at the notion that God accepts the worship of all religions, which is a view that is insanely held by almost half of self-described evangelicals, and we just didn't let his stand. So today we turn the page and open up on the topic of attending church. So I didn't grow up in church,

so I didn't grow up knowing a lot of the ins and outs of the whole thing. And I certainly

wasn't aware of any of the written or unwritten rules about church. But even from my

outside observation and from that position, I just assumed that if you purported to be a Christian

that at the very least, you had to go to church,

like often. I thought that was just part of the deal. So it was pretty surprising to me

after I became a Christian as a teenager, and as I got into my adult years, to see so many people

that said they were Christians, but came up with all kinds of excuses as to why being a part of a church

wasn't necessary. You know, I'd hear things like, well, God doesn't live in a building or, you know, my church is in the woods, or, you know, on the golf course, or, you know, I don't go to church. I am the church. And then you got people that are like, yeah, you know, I love Jesus, but I'm not a fan of his fan club, right? And there are many

others, but I mean, I think you guys get the point. Now, I was never really convinced by any of these

excuses, but they were, you know, used all the time all the same. And apparently, a lot of so-called

evangelicals feel the same way. So here's a statement from the 2025 state of theology survey. Every Christian has an obligation

to join a local church. So guys, only 61% of self-described evangelicals agree with that statement.

So 39% of evangelicals, which is a huge chunk, do not think that you have to be a part of a local body of

believers if you are a Christian. So let's do what we've done all week. Let's go to God's word

to see what he has to say on the matter. So in this first passage, we're going to see this topic

addressed directly. So let's go to Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. And let us consider how to stir up one another and love,

or to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging

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