Delighting In Our Church

1 Corinthians 14:40 “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

My husband and I have traveled all across this country, we have been to Mexico, England and Scotland. We have been in hundreds of churches and out of all the churches we have been in, there are a few that gave a bad impression to our family. Those are the churches that seem chaotic. Many church members have the respect for their pastor that they wouldn’t dare let their children be disruptive. Most church members have the respect for the house of God that they wouldn’t dare let their children run around in the auditorium. And most of the church members have the respect for God himself that they wouldn’t be distracting to the pastor or preacher.

It hurts my heart to see parents allow their children to run in church or to cross in front of the preacher while he is preaching. These children will not just “grow out of it” they must be taught. They are learning that what the preacher is saying isn’t important and they will not find church to be of importance. It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children how to treat the house of God. Are we raising our children to see the house of God as a place of worship, as an Holy place or a playground?

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Although this is talking about the previous verses in this chapter, it still states “thou oughtest behave thyself in the house of God..” It’s a shame that most adults don’t know how to behave in the house of God, much less how to teach their own children to behave. So many are disruptive and loud, during church service. I see adults and children playing on cell phones, playing with their children, talking, laughing, running in and out two and three times during service and not paying attention to the man of God. It is so sad to see those same parents allow their children to run around and play during the church service.

It is very sad to me. The man of God prays and seeks God and studies to bring the church people a message from God and he receives no respect. The least someone could do is sit and be quiet and make their children behave while he is preaching.

When there is distraction and disrespect the Lord is not pleased. I know the Holy Spirit is more powerful than a child’s cry, but when there are lost people sitting in the pews, the devil will use whatever he needs to, to keep that person from hearing the man of God. And if you allow your children to be the took the devil uses, you will have the blood of that soul on your hands at the judgment seat of Christ.

I was at a church not too long ago and the child was screaming so loud and the mother spanked the child in the church, so the baby got louder. No one around could hear the preaching. There is no way people could concentrate on the preaching when a child is allowed to be loud and disruptive. She never took the baby out, she just let her be loud until another lady came and got her, it wasn’t even her child, but she was obviously disturbed enough that she would rather take the child out than to listen to the scream. I felt sorry for the pastor and his wife, the sacrifice they make and the work they out into each service and then there is that one parent that chooses to allow their child to be a distraction. Shame on that mother!!

I understand training a child to sit in church, but you do not allow that child to be a distraction. When training my girls, if they could not behave, we went out got a spanking and came back in to service, there was no going to the nursery to play, that just makes a worse problem for later. Church members may be more passive with a child that is growing and learning, but visitors won’t be and it looks bad on the parents, but it also looks bad on the pastor, and church as well. See the reputation of the church will become, ” the church with the screaming kids” or “the church where everyone talks while the man of God is talking”. It’s a shame that Christian adults don’t know how to act in church. It is very hard to become a part of the service and connect to the preaching, as a visitor in most churches, it would be very hard for me to recommend churches like this for people to visit.. Because how can people get help, when the church members don’t take church serious. How can people get help when there is disrespect for the man of God.

Another trend I am seeing in churches is that children don’t sit in church. They are always up and down. When I was a child, you go to the bathroom before service starts and if you don’t, oh well, you have to wait until church is over.

If you were talking to me and I just walked away while you were talking, you would say I was rude, and you would be right, but somehow we justify walking out on the preacher, the man of God. He is not preaching his opinion or his personal thoughts, he is preaching the message that God has given to him. I have seen a pastor have to move over while he was preaching because he was in the way of someone walking out of the service. This should never happen in the house of a God. If you have to go out for emergency reasons, go out down the side aisle.

Another big thing is children taking care of other peoples children during church. If you have children, don’t pass them off to others, they are your responsibility and God gave them to you. You become a burden when you expect others to keep your children. My girls will not watch someone else’s children during the service unless it is their time in the nursery, because that child will be a distraction to my daughter and she will not hear what the man of God is preaching. I don’t want my child to miss getting help from God. I know I am being very blunt, but it is time that we as mothers, stop allowing our children to treat the house of God as a play ground. It is time that we look at our children and know that if we don’t train them up in the way they should go, that our children will die in their sins and go to hell. It is our responsibility to train our children to be obedient and respectful in the house of God and to the man of God. If they won’t obey us, or the man of God, they will not obey God when He speaks to them.

It’s time we teach our children to be respectful of the man of God. I have seen children hit, kick and disrespect the man of God. When parents don’t respect the man of God, your children won’t either. How your children treat the pastor is a good example of how the parents treat the man of God. We need to remember what happened to the children that made fun of the man of God.

2 Kings 2:23-24 “And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”

It may not be an actual bear, but it may just be that your children have to suffer for things you allow. Obviously the parents of those children didn’t teach them to respect the man of God. It scares me to death at the thought of my children being disrespectful to the man of God or the house of God. The bottom line is, there is no respect for God himself, when there is no respect for His house or His man.

It’s time to wake up!! It’s not a game! Church is not a daycare, it is not a playground, it’s a place of worship, it is a place for you to be renewed and refreshed and if you can’t behave or make your children behave in church, there is a spiritual problem and God is not pleased. You must control of your children, or they will burn in hell for eternity.

We must make our children understand the importance and reverence of the house of God. We must teach them to Delight in the House Of God.