Just like Israel, the meeting with God in corporate worship is essential if we are going to maintain our Christian identity and serve God in this world. All around us we are constantly exposed to different thoughts and ideas, different philosophies and religions that influence the way we think and use our time. At school you are taught the basics of materialism—the view that this world is a product of time and chance, and that we are free to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong as long as we do not hurt anyone else. In the wider society, this philosophy has formed the basis of the sexual revolution, which encourages us to find our identity in our sexual desires as if that is the essence of what it means to be human. At the office there will always be pressure to work late and cut down on the time you spend with family, or pressure to lie and cheat in order to maximize profits. From government, there is pressure to conform or risk persecution. We cannot escape these pressures, we cannot avoid them—the only way we can hope to make a stand is if we allow God to shape and change our desires. We need to meet with God and we need to gather with his people if we are going to serve him in this world. We simply cannot survive as a church without this meeting.