Family Worship

Three Minutes in Theology, I'm Pastor Alan Nelson, pastor of Prairieville Synagogue Church in Central Arkansas.

Today, we want to talk about the subject of family worship. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4 says this, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord. That's a command written to a local church at Ephesus and Paul commands the dads in the church to raise their children up in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord. Now, how is that accomplished? Some may think, well, you just accomplish that by, you know, just randomly talking about God at times with your kids and, you know, when you're taking them fishing or when you're changing the tire or you're cleaning, you just kind of talk about God and those sorts of things.

And those are wonderful and I don't want to discount those things at all. However, to bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord, in my opinion, requires a more formal time of family worship, a regular time of family worship with your children.

Now, what does this look like? First of all, this stems not just from the

New Testament, but even the Old Testament. If you read the Shema and Deuteronomy chapter 6 and how it says,

Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And then it goes on talking about how you're to teach these truths to your children.

So God having families teach their children the things of Yahweh, the things of the

Lord is not a new concept. So what does family worship look like in the home?

Well, it's going to look different. There's not a one -size -fits -all for every family, but there are some basic aspects of worship that ought to be included in family worship.

They are these. First, prayer. Secondly, singing. Third, Bible reading.

That's it. That could take sometimes five minutes and then there's been times that might take upwards of an hour, depending on the conversations and things.

If your kids are young, you pray with them, read them a short passage from the Bible, maybe even just a verse, maybe a chapter, half a chapter.

Talk about it. Sing a song. I remember we wore out when our kids were young. Jesus loves me.

But you obviously can sing even better songs than that. And as your kids get a little older, you can incorporate the

Baptist catechism in that or incorporate catechism. It's a very, very simple aspect and a very, very simple concept, but it's profound.

And it's a necessary aspect of faithfully obeying Ephesians 6 .4, raising your children up in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord. And so whatever this looks like in your family, you need to be intentional and you need to be regular in teaching your children the truths of the