Nobody’s Perfect
If he could, my dad would be the first to tell you that he was not perfect. If we were all honest with ourselves, we would say the same. We are not perfect. In fact, we need to remember there are no perfect church members and no perfect preachers.
Visit a church, and you will see this first-hand. One of my favorite sayings I like to use while preaching is the following: Do not believe every word I preach! I’m not perfect. If you find a church where the minister has all the answers and you question not a word spoken, RUN! The next thing you know, you’ll be asked to bunker down in a school bus buried underground, drink flavored sugar water, wait on a comet, or who knows what else.
With this said, I still encourage you to be in church for what we call Sunday school and worship. My dad did this well. He made sure his children were in church when the doors were opened. If we could not make it to church, we definitely would not be able to go anywhere else on Sunday.
Your church may not meet on Sunday. People worship at different days and times today. Most churches do offer educational opportunities for children, youth and adults. Many fine women and men have taught and teach classes week after week.
The problem is that few of them have a significant number of children, youth, and adults in attendance. Children cannot drive. Most youth are not old enough to drive. Adults can drive. So, unless adults, more specifically, parents are willing to get their family members to church, it’s not going to happen.
We worry about our future. We worry about our county, our state, our nation, and the world. Well…just keep on worrying because it’s not going to get better if we do not put God first in our lives. If we do not take time to learn about God and to worship God, then this world, as we know it, is not going to get better.
My dad always made sure we were in Sunday school and church. Even a half a century ago, lives seemed busy, just as they are today. The one time our family was together was at church. We attended different Sunday school classes, but when it came time to worship, we worshiped as a family, sitting together on a wooden, un-cushioned pew, and a church with no air-conditioning.
It would be nice to see families sacrificing a little time each week, to sit together, and to worship God as a family in one of our many cushioned, air-conditioned churches, minus all the pep-rally stuff.
Many preachers and church members have lost their focus. You can do a lot of things poorly, or you can do a few things well. The church should be doing that which no one else in the world is doing—educating and preaching the word of God.
People are not stupid. They know if your church is about entertaining or worshiping God. They know if your church is a country-club experience or a spiritual experience. They know if it is a house of gossip or a house of prayer. They know if your church is a selfish church or a selfless church. What is your church?
Imperfect as we are, we can always do better. My dad was imperfect, but he had us in church. That’s a perfect place for us to be to make ourselves better. Make your family stronger this holiday season—pick a church where you feel like you are growing spiritually, not dying spiritually. Your home will experience the difference.
The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous. Proverbs 3.33