Taking Care of God's House

(Change first few paragraphs based whose houses you are able to find.) Who can tell me whose house this is? Yes, it’s the President’s house – The White House.

Does anyone know the name of this castle? It’s a very famous castle in Germany called Neuschwanstein. It is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations which attracts about 1.3 million people annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer.

Has anyone seen this house before? This is Michael Jordan’s house. Do you all know who he is? – He is a famous basketball player who played many years for the Chicago Bulls – probably before some of you were born.

Lastly, anyone know whose house this is? This is Brett Favre’s house. We all know who he is right?

If you were to enter any one of these houses, what would you expect to see? Would it be fancy? Clean? Some might have marble floors or expensive art on the wall or beautiful furniture. Some might have a theater room or a workout room filled with exercise equipment. Outside they may have tennis courts, basketball courts, large swimming pools – Michael Jordan even has a playground for kids!

Do you think all these owners take care of their house? Sure they do. I would guess that they hire people to do most of the dirty work but they want to keep their house looking nice. After all, I’m sure they paid a lot of money for it.

Do you and your parents take care of your house? My family does. We clean, fix or replace broken things, replace items that are worn out. We like it to look nice when we have visitors.

Can you tell me another house that is important to take care of? That’s right - God’s House (or the church). We need to take care of it in two different ways. First, we need to take care of the building itself. Just like our own homes, we want it to look nice when we have visitors. That means cleaning, keeping things tidy, painting, making sure we have supplies.

Second, we need to take care of the people in God’s House. If you went to a party at Brett Favre’s house, do you think you would be ignored? Probably not. I’m guessing there would be many people greeting you, making sure you have something to eat or drink, and showing you around – in other words, they would make you feel welcome.

We need to do that here too. We need to make sure that everyone that walks through our doors feels welcome. They need to feel the warmth of God’s Love so they will want to come back to learn more. 

However, we not only have to take care of the people inside our church, we need to take care of the people outside our church. We need to be inviting as many people as we can into God’s House. If we fill up, we’ll just have to start talking about expanding the building. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we could reach 6,000 visitors a day like Neuschwanstein Castle?

Dear Lord, Thank You for giving us a place to worship You. Please help us to remember that we not only have to take care of our own houses, but we need to take care of Your house too; both the building itself and the people it serves. Amen.