There is a feature of our worship service that can be quite distracting if you aren’t expecting it or accustomed to it. That feature is the sound of about a hundred knee-high saints. Our nation is increasingly disinterested in children, as indicated by our birth-rate. Even in the church, Christian parents have grown accustomed to dropping kids off at Children’s Church. Apparently, children are deemed to be a distraction, with all their squawks, wiggles, bathroom trips, loud whispers about the cavernous condition of their belly, and so on.
First, a word to you little ones. Children, we’re glad you’re here, and we want you to learn the songs, say “amen†with all the gusto you can, and, if you’re baptized, join us in eating the Lord’s Supper later in the service. Listen closely to the sermon each week, you may just hear about monstrous dragons, and how the King Jesus defeated them all.
Second, a word to parents, grandparents, and all the rest of us. The presence of these little saints isn’t a distraction. Of course, train your children to sit still. Work on the songs throughout the week. Pray the Lord’s Prayer regularly in your home. With a cool head, take them out to the car or restroom if they need a little, ahem, course correction.
But let me be emphatic, their presence here is necessary to our worship. We are storming the gates of hell in these prayers, these songs, this Gospel trumpet which is declared by the Word preached & eaten. These little ones are knights & handmaids of King Jesus. They aren’t an inconvenience, or a distraction, or inferior citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. Our nation thinks of children as optional add-ons. We see them as part of our weaponry in obeying Christ’s command to subdue the nations to His Gospel.
How great a judgement rests upon us as a nation that permits the slaughter of unborn babies, debases young children by bringing them to be groomed in sexual perversion at Pride Parades, and then shuffles them off to be cared for by others so as not to inconvenience the selfish lifestyle of their parents. Our Father in Heaven calls children a blessing; yet all too often, even in the church, we treat our children as a bother. Our failures to discipline, and train our children, bringing them to worship with us are all a warning light that we’ve adopted the world’s attitude towards children, not the Bible’s.
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