Giving Glory to God in the
Church with our Families
For the sake of this message, by family we mean the basic family
unit of husband and wife, and their children. And because often there are
special circumstances in our Baptist homes, we will include any others who are
living in our household.
The Lord’s Churches are typically
made up of families, at least for the most part. So it
is important that Christian families serve the Lord, and give glory to God in
the Lord’s Church as families.
In this message I want us to consider three of the ways that
Christian families can give God glory in His Church.
1. First, Christian families can give God glory in His Church by
serving and worshiping the Lord TOGETHER as a
family…
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods
which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the
gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord.
Like Joshua and his house, Baptist families today need to be in
spiritual unity, especially when it comes to serving the Lord together in His
Church… Not in different “churches”! I've known families where the husband and
wife didn't agree on the church! And when church time came the wife went to her
“church”, and the husband went to his “church”, and the children were caught
somewhere in the middle. Beloved, that isn't the way God meant for His families
to serve Him!
Sometimes the problem was that they were unequally yoked. The
Bible warns against being unequally yoked together with unbelievers (2
Corinthians 6:14). Yet so many people ignore God's Word and marry outside of
the faith in hopes that God will change their spouse, who is either unsaved or
doesn't believe like a Bible believing Baptist. Unfortunately, it rarely works
out that way, and they end up with spiritual division in the home.
Another problem I've seen is that sometimes husbands fail to take
the spiritual leadership in their homes, but they relinquish that
responsibility to their wives. Now, I’m certainly not criticizing good, godly
wives. No, I'm not! Some great Baptist wives have HAD to take the
spiritual leadership in their homes because of their awol husbands…
and they have done a good job under the circumstances.
But too many Baptist husbands shirk their God given responsibility
to be the spiritual leaders of their homes, and their homes are left in
spiritual chaos!
Another problem is that sometimes wives
rebel against God's AUTHORITY, and refuse to submit to the spiritual
leadership of their husbands. This also results in spiritual disunity in the
home, and in the church.
But the only way for families to give God glory in the church, is
by attending the same church where they can worship and serve the Lord TOGETHER in
unity as a family.
This leads us to another thought on giving God glory in the church
as a family. The whole family needs to worship together in the
church as a family. I don't find a Scriptural precedent for “children's
church” in my Bible. Beloved, “children's church” is another one of
those modern ideas that the devil has tried to pawn off on the Lord’s
Churches…and it's a bad idea! “Children's church” takes away from the
God given place and authority of parents to train their children up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. Beloved, families need to worship the Lord
together in the same place, at the same time, and if possible, on
the same pew!
Yes, beloved, we need to make a commitment with Joshua… “but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” and give God glory in His
Church!”
So then, it is extremely important
for families to serve and worship the Lord together in unity, in a
sound Baptist Church!
2. Secondly, families can give God glory in the church by family
participation in the services…
I realize that some members of our families might not be saved.
But there are some common aspects of the church services that the entire family
can and should participate in. I want to consider a few
of these.
1) The first is, participation in congregational singing unto the
Lord…
Psalm 67:3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people
praise thee.
Psalm 98:4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth:
make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
There are numerous verses of Scripture which I believe encourage all
people to sing praises unto the Lord.
Of course, we don’t want our unsaved family members to think that
there is any saving grace or merit in singing praise to God. Yet, every living
soul has good cause to praise the Lord, even before we are saved!
God is our Creator. Jesus gave us all life. God gives us all
things in life freely to enjoy. God gave us His Word so that we can learn to
know Him, and trust in His Son Jesus for eternal salvation. Every good thing in
life that we enjoy is owing to the love and goodness of God… no matter who we
are! And so, everyone of us, saved and unsaved alike,
have innumerable reasons to thank the Lord, and to praise His glorious Name!
2) The second way that families can participate in the services is
by being attentive to the Word of God…
David said in Psalm 34:11 “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I
will teach you the fear of the Lord. ”
The entire family, children included, are invited to hear the Word
of the Lord. Notice what the Bible says in Nehemiah 8…
Nehemiah 8:2-3 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the
congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding (which
I believe it is speaking of children), upon the first day of the
seventh month.
3 And he read therein before the
street that [was] before the water gate from the morning until midday, before
the men and the women, and those that could understand (again, speaking
of children who were old enough to understand the language); and the
ears of all the people [were attentive] unto the book of the law.
All who can understand are profited by hearing the Word of God!
God's Word will make even the unsaved wiser and better people. Even if they are
never saved, the Word of God can only do them good! And who knows but what God
might be pleased to save them by His grace?
Acts 13:48 says… “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed.”
It is by hearing the “Word of the Lord” that those who are “ordained
to eternal life” are brought to repentance and saving faith in Jesus! So
then, the whole family needs to hear the Word of God if they are to be saved!
Romans 10:17 says… “So then faith
[cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Once again, saving faith in Jesus comes by hearing the gospel from
the Word of God. Bring your families without fail to the House of God,
to hear the Word of God, that they might hear and be saved by the grace
of God!
3) The third way that families can participate in the services is
by participation in prayer…
When the pastor calls for the church to go to prayer, I believe
every member of the family who is old enough to understand, should bow their
heads in reverence to God, and pray in their hearts as they are led by the Holy
Spirit. The saved men and young men can participate in audible public prayer
when called upon to do so. And the unsaved at least need to show respect to God
during prayer time.
So we've seen
three of the ways that families can participate in the worship services, and
thereby give God glory in His Church.
3. Thirdly, and finally, families can give God glory in the
church by showing proper reverence…
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of
fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in
heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words
be few.
By reverence we mean godly fear, honor, and respect for
all the things pertaining to the worship and service of God in His Church! I
want to consider five ways that families can show proper reverence for God in
His Church…
1) First, by proper preparation to go to the house…
In Genesis 35:1 God told Jacob to go up to Bethel and build an
altar unto the Lord. Beth-El means “the House of God”. I will now read what
Jacob did in response to God’s instructions…
Genesis 35:2-3 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that
[were] with him, Put away the strange gods that
[are] among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
3 And let us arise, and go up to
Beth–el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who
answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
I want us to notice a few things from this passage.
First, Jacob said “Put away the strange gods that are among you”...
It would seem that at least some of Jacob's family (or household),
was committing idolatry with the gods of the heathen around them, and Jacob was
either unaware of it, or he turned a blind eye to it!
Beloved, we also have a lot of “gods of the heathen” in our homes
today. And we also pick these up from the heathen around us in the world. But,
like Jacob, we need to remove these idols from our homes, and we definitely
need to leave them out of the House of God! Now, an idol could be anything that
takes our minds, and our hearts, and our focus off of worshipping God, and puts
them on the things of the world.
Beloved, the “vanity fair” of the world has no place in the House
of God. We are supposed to come into the House of God to give Him glory, but we
cannot do this if we bring the idols of the world into the House of God! God
will not share His glory with another! If we know of any idols in our families,
then we need to get rid of them!
Next, Jacob told them to “Be clean and change your garments”…
To “Be clean” I think means to clean up our sinful lives,
and clean up our hearts and minds before we come to the House of
God. Confess our sins to God. Go to Jesus for forgiveness and
cleansing from our sins before we come to the House of God! I feel
sure from the previous chapter of Genesis, that there were some serious sins in
Jacob's family that needed to be taken care of before they went up to the House
of God. How about our families? Beloved, we need to take the Lord’s Church
seriously. We need to approach His House with clean hearts and clean hands.
And then he said to “change your garments”. I'm sure this
could imply different things. Maybe some of them were dressing inappropriately.
They had been mixing with the world. They had taken spoil from the heathen. I
could just imagine them wearing their ungodly heathen clothes. Sad to say, beloved,
but some professing believers love to dress like, and look like the world! Why
they do, I don't understand! But when we come to the House of God, we need to
dress like, look like, and behave like children of God!
2) Secondly, families can show proper reverence for the House of
God, by showing respect for the church property…
Beloved, this is God's House! It's not my house or your house, but
it's God's House. I know that the church is the people. But this is the
sanctified meeting place that has been devoted to the worship and glory of
Almighty God. What kind of reverence and respect do you think that God, the
owner of the House, is worthy of? Families with little children need to respect
the church property. Parents, don't let your children write on the pews, and in
the hymn books, and in the Bibles. Don't let your children run around inside
the church house like wild banshees! Don't bring food and drinks into the
church house. And clean up your mess if you make one. Don't leave it for
someone else to clean up. It's God's House, so treat it with the utmost
respect!
3) Thirdly, families can show proper reverence by proper respect
for church order…
First, be at church every time - on time! And then, follow the
order of the services. The Bible says “let all things be done decently and in
order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40. God is not the Author of confusion. So then everything we do in church should contribute to the
order of the services, and not distract from it.
Parents, don't let your children run back and forth to the
bathroom during services, or talk outloud, or look
over the pews at the people behind you. It really isn't cute! Those things are
all disruptive to the services. I understand that little children sometimes are
going to disrupt the services. That can't be helped. And that's where “training
up a child” comes in.
Beloved, we've been there and done that, as they say! We raised
our four children in church. Now, the credit goes to Jo Ann, but when our little
angels were determined to cause a disturbance in church, they quickly learned
that doing so was a painful experience! I was talking to my daughter Mary about
that just the other day. She still remembers when mom took her in the back and
gave her a good training session. I'll tell you what, they learn fast!
And it didn't hurt them… Or anyway they didn't die from it! And they're still
in church!
4) Fourthly, families can show proper reverence by having proper
honor and respect for the man of God…
The Bible has a lot to say about how church members are to treat
and respect the man of God.
Beloved, your pastor is worthy of
your respect and honor for his work's sake, and above all, for the Lord’s sake!
So, show proper respect for the man of God. And let your children see you give
proper respect for the man of God. How can we expect them to have respect for
God’s man, and for the message he preaches, if we don't!
5) Fifthly and finally, families can give glory to God in the
Church by proper respect and honor for the other church members and for
everyone in attendance…
Everyone who comes to the House of God comes to worship and serve
the Lord. We all need to do everything that we can to make the
services a good spiritual experience for everyone.
We shouldn't do anything that would hinder the worship for anyone.
There are lost people in the services who need to hear the gospel. We should do
everything we can to help them be able to do so. This is an even greater
challenge for the family to keep their household in order during the services.
But, beloved, by doing so you will give God glory in His Church!
So let's all
exercise the law of kindness and love for one another. And let us all be
considerate of one another, and put others before ourselves.
Romans 12:9-10 [Let] love be without dissimulation. Abhor that
which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 [Be] kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one
another;
Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
All these things also apply to church families. Beloved, we're all
in this together, as they say. We should all have the same goal and the same
purpose for coming to the House of God, which is to give God glory in His
Church!
Conclusion…
In conclusion, families are an important part of the church. And
families, as families, can give God glory “in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end.”
And, beloved, I believe that God will bless the families that will
put these things into practice. God blesses obedience, and faithfulness, and
sincerity in our worship. It ought to be the desire of every God
fearing father and mother to give God glory in His Church with our
families, and to receive His blessings upon our families!
Hopefully this message has shown us some of the ways that families
can give God glory in the church!