Household Worship - Part 13 - Duty

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that you've given us to worship you and pray that you bless our continued study of household worship.

In Jesus' name, amen. So I think that's the first time that I have sung that song that I've noticed the rest there right in the middle.

That's, feels unusual to just stop there halfway through that, through that measure.

Okay. All right. Yeah, thank you for passing those out.

All right, so today and next week we'll probably have a little bit different flavor than the previous lessons have.

Now that we've gone through all these different things, I really wanna summarize motivations for household worship.

So the duty of household worship and then next week the blessings of household worship.

And so in doing this, we're going to be shifting away from primarily looking at Bible verses to make proofs for things, which there still will be

Bible verses to make some proofs for things. But I really wanted you to get a taste of how older authors encouraged their folks toward this duty.

These are not necessarily the best quotes that I've come across. They're kind of just the most recent quotes

I've come across. They're also not necessarily from the names that you would recognize that would be most persuasive.

I could do that, right? You know, I was looking. There is some stuff from Luther. There is some stuff from Calvinian. Names that you would recognize that would probably be more persuasive to you.

So a lot of this is deficient in those ways. These aren't the best quotes necessarily and these aren't the best authors for the quotes, but they are some of the recent ones that I found very useful.

That, you know, I found very moving. So I'm hoping it will be useful for you to hear voices of saints in ages past encourage you toward this duty.

All right, so let's talk about the privilege of household worship, first of all, okay? Privilege, the position of a householder is an honor.

Genesis 18, 19 says, for I have chosen him that he may command his children in his household after him.

Keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

So Abraham was chosen specifically to command his children in righteousness.

Now, we know that that was to form a nation, so there's a very special way that Abraham is being chosen, but every householder, every head of household is to command his family in the way of righteousness, and is he not chosen by God for that task?

Perhaps not in such a supernatural way that Abraham was, but God decides our boundaries.

He decides the time and place where we are born, and he has put us in our particular stations, given us the particular children that we have, et cetera.

You know, Bible even describes wives as gifts from the Lord, right? Proverbs 18, 22 speaks that way.

So if these are things given by God, there is a sense in which a man is chosen for this particular task, for this particular people that he is in charge of to lead them in the way of righteousness.

It is an honor. All right, the ability to worship is also an honor. This is a quote from Oliver Haywood.

None can appoint an altar to be erected but God. Exodus 20, 24, also his book is known as The Family Altar, which is what he describes family worship as, is

The Family Altar. So no one can appoint an altar to be erected but God. Exodus 20, 24 says, an altar of earth shalt thou not, an altar of earth shalt thou make.

None hath power to order God's worship but himself alone. Men may not add or diminish at their pleasure.

Ministers much teach. Christians must observe all things. Whatsoever our Lord commandeth us, men must dedicate an altar.

It is God alone that properly consecrates or sanctifies it. Yet men are said to consecrate themselves to the

Lord, yea, and other things in a secondary way and instrumentally, but as God appoints, so himself only does authoritatively, efficiently, actually consecrate persons and things.

Let us see we have a warrant from God for what we do in his worship. So anyway, the ability to worship

God itself is an honor. The fact that we have a mediator, Jesus Christ, that we can give our worship to God and have it mediated and acceptable to him even though it is imperfect is an honor.

It's not, well, worship is accepted in all places now like it explains in John four.

There is something particular to the context or the people that you would worship with. God especially blesses when the congregation comes together.

That's what we see in scripture that the Holy Spirit dwells in the assembled church. And there's a way that families have been brought about God too.

And so we should understand that family serving the Lord together is something significant, more significant than just arbitrary people coming together outside of church context, right?

You get together with some friends at work to pray. That is less significant, less consecrated by God than the family which

God himself established, right? He did not establish workplaces as some kind of spiritual unit of fellowship, right?

He established families. He established churches, churches in a supernatural way, families in a natural way, right?

A householder can lead his home with a degree of impunity not found elsewhere. I don't know if impunity is even really the right word, but this is something that I think of often.

It was something that Richard Baxter was pointing out when I was reading him. So yeah, there's just a,

I'll read the quotes first. When you go further and would be instructing others, they will think you go beyond your call and many will,

I think that's supposed to be B, many will be suspicious that you take too much upon you until you do but gently admonish in route of such as the

Sodomites. And he's talking there not of homosexuals. He's talking about the literal people of Sodom.

Perhaps they will say, this one fellow came into sojourn and he will needs be a judge.

That is, he's quoting what they said to Lot, right? When Lot was telling them not to do their evil.

But your own house is your castle. Your family is your charge. You may teach them as often as diligently as you will, right?

Your authority over your children is most unquestionable. They will dispute the authority of ministers, yea, and of magistrates and ask them who gave them the power to teach them and to command them.

But the parents' authority is beyond all dispute. They will not call you tyrants or usurpers nor bid you prove the validity of your ordination or the uninterruptedness of your succession.

Therefore, father and mother, as the first natural power, are mentioned rather than kings or queens in the fifth commandment.

You know, the reform view of the fifth commandment is that it applies to all authority relationships. His point is there is something special about fathers and mothers that would make that the quintessential example of authority relationships is that those are not questioned.

No one questions whether or not their father has authority over them as a child, right? You might later on, you know, as you grow into closer to adulthood, but no small child questions that authority, even though people question the authority of ministers, right?

They question the authority of kings. They say, oh, are you really, you know? He's pointing out, like, you know, bloodlines are questionable, that kind of thing.

But no one questions their own parents. And yeah, even though you, this is something that I've noticed, too, that when

I have difficult times in other arenas of life, whether it be work, church, or whatever,

I feel like either I've done wrong and am ashamed of myself, or I have not done wrong, but others are, but others think wrongly of me, right?

Like, knowing that I don't receive any of that similar kind of judgment from my children has always been, like, a good comfort to be around them.

Like, in the hardest seasons, I've found the most comfort in family worship. It's kind of because of that, the nature of that relationship being so unquestioned,

I've found that interesting, an interesting dynamic that I never anticipated before doing it. All right, any questions about the privilege of household worship?

All right, moving on to the responsibility of household worship. Households that recognize the presence of God recognize their duty to worship.

Exodus 20, verse three. You shall have no other gods before me. Psalm 14, when the fool says in his heart, there is no

God, they are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. Right, Exodus 23, when it talks about before me, that means in God's presence.

God is watching all things, all things are before his presence. It's the fool who says there's no

God and that God's not watching. Right, so if you recognize the presence of God, if you recognize him seeing all things, you recognize there is a duty to worship.

All right, suppose a grave and pious minister or Christian friend lodged with you. Would you not reach him a Bible and desire him to go to prayer with you?

Lest he should suspect you be prayerless at other times, it will not God's authority and presence have the like influence in all upon your spirits.

Thought that was an interesting quote. You know, there's a tendency of people to act more spiritual when they're around spiritual people.

Right, so that they aren't, so that, you know, they're communicating, hey, I'm a spiritual person too. Like, I'm reading the

Bible too, you know, that kind of thing. But at all times, you are in the presence of God who is far above, you know, any minister, et cetera, right?

Yeah, Oliver Haywood had a list of a ton of scenarios like this. If this were the case, would you not, blah, blah, blah?

If this were the case, you know, I thought it was pretty, there were a lot of, some of them were funny. There were things like, oh yeah, we'll get to, we'll get to one of these again soon.

Household worship promotes the salvation of household members. Okay, and you have a duty to their salvation, right?

Not an ultimate one, as though you have the power to save anyone, but to work toward their spiritual benefit for salvation, yes.

A father would have to take away what? Oh, I see, so like excommunication for a child.

No, no, I don't believe so. I do think there could be cause for removing someone from the home, but that, and that's the point at which that would happen.

Like the home, like that is the boundary. It's not like the family worship is a smaller boundary within the home.

So like, for example, you know, if you had, you know, imagine you're living in these times where you have servants, you know, and a servant acts unbecomingly towards your wife, like Joseph was accused of, right?

It would be right to remove the servant, so then he's no longer permitted. Or you could have,

I mean, you could have a child that could act so shamefully, right? That it would be proper to disown them.

Like a lot of people think of that as out of bounds, but I think there is, I think there is cause occasionally for either removing or on top of that, even kind of, you know, disassociating because of the great evil.

But yeah, right, yeah.

Leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and come and offer your gift, from Matthew 5.

Yeah, this is, I mean, the command there is to resolve things immediately, as soon as possible, right?

Yeah, there might be cause to just pause family worship and push it back to make sure that happens. But the idea of tolerating their lack of having done that duty by like, okay, well, you can't come to family worship again until you've done that duty.

No, like we're gonna get that done now. Yeah, yeah, I would say the same for, you know, there are folks who end up, like basically excommunicating themselves, right?

Not taking communion because they are at odds with someone else and they haven't done the duty yet. The command is to do the duty.

Like just do what is necessary to be resolved with your brother and sister. Yeah, we're commanded to receive communion in a worthy manner.

We're commanded to recognize the body. And the previous chapter speaks of the bread as representing the unity of the body of Christ.

So it says contemplating the body, I don't think it's primarily, although this is included, I mean, it's all included.

It's not primarily talking about Christ's physical body. It's talking about the body of his church. We have that in context in the previous chapter.

And so if your contemplation of the body is that I don't belong or I'm not united to it, like that needs to be fixed.

That is not that if you are in Christ, you are united and you need to work toward that union. So I have, yeah,

I don't think that people should so at will excommunicate themselves in that way. Yeah, and you understand why

I say excommunicate because you are removing yourself from communion. That's, I'm just using that word etymologically, right?

Okay, so promoting the salvation of your family. Oh, how easy and clean is the way to heaven and such, sorry, some of this

OCR, I didn't clean up as much as I should. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be is the way to heaven. And such a gracious, well -ordered family in comparison of what it is to them that dwell in the distracted families of profane and sensual worldlings.

As there is greater probability of the salvation of souls in England where the gospel is preached and professed than in heathen or Mahatma countries.

So is there a greater probability of their salvation that live in the houses and company of the godly than of the ungodly?

This is obvious, right? Like no one is saying that, I mean, he's talking about in terms of probabilities.

No one's saying that you can 100 % guarantee the election of something.

You know, election happens by the will of God, not by the will of man. But, you know, he works through means.

We know what the means are. And if you're not using the means, you should not be surprised when you reap the rewards of that. Who knows what

Mahatma -tin means? Sure, some people do. Jonathan. Yeah, right, it's

Muslims, yeah. Yeah, it's talking about Muslims. All right, suppose upon every omission, it's funny because Oliver Haywood has like a ton of examples that sound a lot like this one.

He went through like 10. Suppose upon every omission of a family prayer, you should lose a limb or member of your body.

First one finger, then a toe should be cut off or torn off till all be gone and you be dismembered. Would not this force you to your duty?

And yet your precious souls, which are 10 ,000 times more worth than a limb, yea, then even the whole body are in hazard by willful neglect.

There's just the, so once again, that same thing where he's comparing like the presence of a minister to the presence of God.

You would act this way in a minister and yet you're in the presence of God. Why do you not act that way? You would act this way if your physical body were at odds, but you are the head of a body that's the household, right, or your wife, et cetera.

Like do you not, yeah, that is more precious than your own physical body to you?

Would you not do these things for them? Okay. All right, one who neglects his duty to warn another from sin has blood on his hands.

Ezekiel 3 .18, if I say to the wicked, you shall surely die and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way in order to save his life.

That wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Ezekiel 33 .6,

but if the watchman sees a sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood

I will require at the watchman's hand. Paul speaks of his own responsibility in Acts 20, 26 or 27.

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

So particular people are assigned particular tasks to warn others, right?

Ministers, prophets like Ezekiel, right? Does anybody know what happened in Ezekiel, before Ezekiel 3 when

God said this to him? Okay, so in Ezekiel 1, right?

God appears on his chariot and tells Ezekiel that he needs to go to the people and warn them about their ways.

What does Ezekiel do? It's either for a week or two weeks. He sits in the heat of his anger and doesn't do it.

He's like Jonah, basically, where Jonah goes the other way. He doesn't want to talk to Nineveh. Ezekiel doesn't want to talk to his people.

And so God tells him this, like if you do, if you sit there in the heat of your anger, blood is on your hands. It tells him to go.

All right. Okay, quote from, this is from the preface of the

Second London Baptist Confession. Okay, so yeah, this is not, yeah, in most editions that you would get of the confession, it won't include this preface, but this is the original preface that was written by the authors of the confession.

Verily, there is one springing cause of the decay of religion in our day, which cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of, and that is the neglect of the worship of God and families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed.

May not the gross ignorance and instability of many with the profaneness of others be justly charged upon their parents and masters who have not trained them up in the way wherein they ought to walk when they were young, but have neglected those frequent and solemn commands which the

Lord has laid upon them so to catechize and instruct them, that their tender years might be seasoned with the knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the scriptures, and also by their own admission of prayer and other duties of religion in their family, together with the ill example of their loose conversation, have inured them first to a neglect and then to a contempt of all piety and religion.

By the way, conversation refers to manner of life, typically, in older literature. It doesn't refer just to the way you talk.

And then also, inure means like to grow accustomed to something bad, right?

Like if you live in a pig farm, you get inured to the smell, right?

Yeah, to a contempt of all piety and religion. We know that this will not excuse the blindness or wickedness of any, but certainly it will fall heavy upon those who have thus been the occasion thereof.

They indeed die in their sins, but will not their blood be required of those under whose care they were, who yet permitted them to go on without warning, yea, lead them into the paths of destruction?

It will not the diligence of Christians with respect to the discharge of these duties in ages past rise up in judgment against and condemn many of them, who would be esteemed as such now?

That last part meaning basically that a lot of people are considered like the most godly. You take the most godly people of any church, but then you take the more godly people of 100 years ago, right?

And you would compare them. And so if you're comparing yourself to your contemporaries, that gives you one kind of standard, but that's not even, of course you should be considering yourself to perfection, to Christ, right?

But if you are going to compare yourself to others, it makes more sense to think about the history of Christian practice than to just compare yourself by your contemporaries, because your contemporaries may be very off the mark, which is, they were claiming was even the case in their own time.

All right. Okay. Those who have the opportunity to warn others and don't will have great regret.

This is Machain. Anybody familiar with the Machain reading plan? This is what a lot of people, a lot of the

Bible in a year plans are following the Machain plan. Dear believers, be wise.

Surely if anything could mar the joy of heaven, it would be to see your children lost through your neglect. Dear unconverted souls, if one pang can be more bitter than another in hell, it would be to hear your children say, father, mother, you brought me here.

So he addresses both those who will go to heaven and those who will go to hell. And he tells them that, you know, both of these, it is not good to neglect.

All right. I have now done with, this is Oliver Haywood again. This is like his final statement at the end of his book,

The Family Altar. I've now done with persuasives to the important exercises of family worship.

Whether all that I have said will prevail, I know not. So he's saying, I don't know if I've convinced you. But loath

I am that all this should be in vain. It is a pity so needful a practice should fall to the ground.

And all that I have said should rise up in judgment against you. So in other words, now that you've heard these lessons, like a greater weight lays on your shoulders.

And now you cannot plead ignorance or want of direction. I have, according to my ability, reached out my hand to help you.

Your way is lined out. Some have even written down my words, written down words in forms of prayer to assist you.

And you have pious ministers to whom you may repair for further direction. And if you still willfully live in the neglect of this known duty, your blood will be upon your own heads.

The blood of your families will also be required at your hands. God Almighty make you willing and able to discharge your relative duty.

But if after all this, you will not speak a word to God for your poor, languishing, perishing, dying families to keep them out of hell,

I leave you to that justice which will shortly plead with you at another rate than we poor ministers can do and will take vengeance on you for your willful neglect and disobedience to the calls of God.

Okay, he also says, at a different place, how will you answer the charge against you? Do not your children cry out, oh pity us, pray for us, cruel parents.

You have brought us sinful creatures into a sinful world. Help us out of this willful state. But alas, you have not a word to say for them or with them.

You regard their precious souls no more than as an ox or a horse. Their blood will be required at your hands. How will they curse you in hell?

Their language will be, oh woe is me. If I had lived in a praying family, I might have been converted and saved. I never heard a word of God except blaspheming his name.

How will this grind your ears and grieve your hearts another day? So a lot of sobering stuff, a lot of moving stuff about this duty.

Yeah, I hope it, yeah, I hope these things are not discouragements to you and any past failures along these lines, but I hope they are encouragements to you in the future to understand this, yeah, the importance of this.

Okay, generational curses and blessings. Okay, let's go through some things about what the

Bible says about generational curses and blessings. The consequences of sin have substantial effect for several generations.

Numbers 14, 18, the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, meaning that sins have a cascading effect, right?

Sins have a cascading effect that ends up harming children, et cetera, right? Yeah, you make a significant, you know, families build stuff up over time, right?

And you can throw all that away. You know, my grandfather was very poor.

I mean, like Derek poor, right? Just thinking in terms of wealth, you know? And he built up something, gave my father something more.

My father built up something more, gave me something more. I'm building up something more, giving my kids something more. That's true spiritually as well.

I've built up that my grandfather was the first to be saved in the family, and that line, at least, you know, to our knowledge.

And something has been built up. But if you throw that away, there's a, it takes a while to get pulled up out of that hole.

All right, Jeremiah 32, 18. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them.

Oh, great and mighty God, whose name is Lord of hosts. You repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them.

There are consequences. This is not to say that, yeah, the guilt of, this is not to say that God does not, yeah, honor repentance.

We'll get to that in a minute, actually. But, yeah, we'll get to that in a minute.

Lamentations 5, 7. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities. Okay, the consequences of righteousness have substantial effect for numerous generations.

And in Lamentations, Jeremiah is saying that, not ironically or anything, right? This is not the, you're probably familiar with how the

Bible addresses the saying, our fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth are set on edge. Right, and a lot of people point to that as, oh, no, these generational blessings and curses don't happen.

That's not what that means. We'll talk about that in a minute. But these things are real.

You know, the fact that sin has cascading consequences is obvious, like it's just obvious.

You don't need the Bible to tell you whether or not that's true. It's obvious this is the case, right? Same thing is true with righteousness.

Those who do good, God blesses that.

There's cascading effects of blessings. All right, know therefore that the

Lord your God is God. The faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, right?

So remember before it was talking about three or four generations, but righteousness has effects for thousands of generations.

Like God is far more prone to bless than he is to curse. Psalm 103, 17 through 18.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep covenant and remember to do his commandments.

So there it talks about children's children. All right, Proverbs 27. The righteous who walks in his integrity blessed are his children after him.

So all these passages talking about how there are cascading effects to righteousness as well, down generations.

All right, the generational consequences of sin and righteousness are particularly juxtaposed in the context of worship.

All right, so these things about blessings and curses, while they are about sin and righteousness in general, they particularly apply in scripture when it comes to right and wrong worship.

Exodus 20, verses five through six. This is in the 10 commandments. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I am the

Lord your God. I am jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those that love me and keep my commandments.

So why shouldn't you engage in false worship, worshiping idols? Well, because he will visit that iniquity on the children.

But he is also a God that shows steadfast love to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments.

In other words, engaging in right worship, right? That's a positive path of this command. So there are generational blessings to right worship.

Exodus 34, six through seven. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a

God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the children's children to the third and fourth generation, right?

Exodus 34 is also talking about the, yeah, it's the context of idolatry and worship, right?

Deuteronomy five. I don't think this is all nine through 10, or maybe it is actually. Same thing, you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

It's talking about, it's talking about idolatry. It's talking about worship. Yeah, so maybe,

I mean, maybe it's the case that you are. Yeah, you come from a particular line and your parents before you didn't go to church and you recognize there's some kind of significance to you having started off in a good way, repenting before the

Lord, gathering with the saints, teaching your children that is right, right? A lot of people recognize that they're starting off something good that God may bless and cascade, right?

For church attendance. A lot of people recognize that, but this is true with family worship too.

Like you could be the first in your line to do this and to make sure that like something good happens for many generations, right?

Like in heaven, when you see the effects of your obedience, there could be thousands before you who are all blessed by your choice to begin that then, right, to repent of your father's neglect and to do this.

So in Ezekiel 18, 19 through 20, it addresses this. Yet you say, why should not the son, why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?

Yet when the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. So while there are generational consequences for sin, the point of this is that a lot of those consequences happen as the successive generations continue in the sin, and that God is especially merciful if any one of those generations turns from it.

Okay, so this is saying that if a righteous person says, well, I'm in this pitiful, poor condition because, or if a person says,

I'm in this pitiful, poor condition because of my parents, even though I'm righteous, God's response is, no, if you were righteous,

I would lift you out of this, right? Like, I am merciful, I am forgiving, I will bless you.

So what this is addressing is not saying that these generational cascading effects of righteousness or sin don't exist.

What Ezekiel is saying is that God, yeah, if anyone turns from that way in one direction or the other, the consequences will be felt very swiftly, whether it be to turn from an upward trajectory of righteousness, right?

If you throw that away, that will be felt very swiftly. Or if you turn from a downward trajectory of sin from previous generations, those effects will be felt very quickly.

God will be very merciful to those who turn from their father's ways of wickedness. All right, any questions?

All right, household worship as a preparation for greater duties. Yeah, in thinking about duties, do you think about how this affects future ones, both of you as the leader of household worship and as you as one who participates in household worship?

So if you're a leader or if you're a follower, this has implications both ways. And lastly, make them instrumental and serviceable to the public good as good neighbors in towns, good members of churches, good subjects in the state.

And some of them, good officers in church or state. For that rule of the apostle here holds well.

He that cannot rule his own family, how shall he govern the church or commonwealth? So Daniel Cawdry is saying that in leading household worship, you are preparing yourselves for greater duties.

Okay, if you lead well, you will be more fit to be an officer in the church or an officer in the government.

And yeah, so this is fitting you for greater duties as well. All right, participating in family worship prepares members of households for greater duties.

Richard Baxter says, but oh, what a blessing to the world would they be that some shall come prepared by a holy education to places of government and subjection.

And how happy is that land that is ruled by such superiors and consisteth of such prepared subjects as have first learned to be subject to God and to their parents.

So yeah, in other words, and he's talking in this section about just how tyrants,

I mean, they're almost always just the results of poor upbringing, right? But nations are blessed by people who had a good upbringing, who were taught the ways of God, taught to be subject to God and to their parents through family worship.

That's what he's talking about. All right, all believers look forward to greater duties of stewarding rewards in heaven.

So this is not just if you will one day be president. This is not the only circumstance you need to be thinking about here.

Yeah, if you are to be in the internal state with Christ, there will be greater duties.

Matthew 25, 21 says, his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little,

I will set you over much and enter into the joy of your master. Hebrews 11, six, and without faith it is impossible to please him forever.

Would draw near to God, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him, right? Seeking him, referring to worship.

That language of seeking God and the Bible refers to worship. Those who would seek him, those who would worship him will have a reward.

Those who are faithful with little will have much, right? And so the more faithful you are with things, there will be implications for your eternal state, right?

This is preparing you for duties in heaven. And if you are very faithful, you will be given very great duties in heaven.

If you are not very faithful, you will not be given as great duties in heaven. So this is not just for, oh, well, that only applies if I wanna be a pastor one day or that only applies if I wanna be president.

No, it applies to all of us. Yeah, okay. Do you have a question? Okay. All right.

Great. All right, we are divinely empowered for the duties that God has given us, especially on this front.

Okay. The Lord is able to build up your home, Psalm 127 .1. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

And remember, this is the same Psalm that talks about children being a blessing from the Lord. Like it's not just talking about the physical building of the house, it is talking about the household, right?

So God must build the house. The Lord will work through you to accomplish his purposes.

Philippians 2 .13, for it is God who works in you with the will and to work for his good pleasure. The Lord leads his people,

Isaiah 48 .17. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

The Lord gives a religious utterance to those who need it. So in other words, you know, if you're leading family worship and you don't know what to say and yeah, you're not sure.

Psalm 51 .15, oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. You can ask God to open your lips.

The Lord will answer prayers for strength in your struggle. Psalm 10 .17 through 18.

Oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

You hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. So if you're, right, if you find the task too difficult, right, or very difficult, you can pray to God.

He will give you strength. The Spirit intercedes for us in our weakness. Romans 8 .26

says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we offer. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Yeah, I do wonder sometimes where my, you know, my blessings come from because I feel like I did not pray for this.

This is not. Maybe my parents did. And I realize, you know, the Spirit's praying for me too.

That's where, yeah, he's praying for us also. For the

Holy Ghost's sake, who is moving you to duty, suggesting good things to your minds and will help your infirmities.

Oh, do not quench or grieve the Spirit. That was Oliver Haywood. So do not quench or grieve the

Spirit. And that's what you would do if you would neglect the task. And as you do it, like he will, he will strengthen you more for it.

He produces results from our efforts. First Corinthians 3 .7. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only

God who gives the growth. So you should trust that as you are faithful in what God has commanded, he will provide whatever growth he wishes to provide and you just need to be faithful in it.

A lot of people will, like, put the burden on themselves real heavy so that, oh, if I'm not doing this, as well as somebody else can, this will not be blessed.

No, all you're responsible to do is as well as you can do it. And God is the one who provides the growth. So it doesn't rely on your own strength, it relies on his, yes.

So to quench the Spirit here refers to neglecting. Like if the

Spirit is the one who gives us the impulses to good works, then to quench the

Spirit is to suppress those impulses. Yeah, yeah, that's from 1

Thessalonians 5 .19 where it says, do not quench the Spirit. It says, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

So a lot of people would connect that exclusively with the latter part. Do not despise prophecies. That's how you're quenching the

Spirit basically is just by rejecting prophecies that would be given. But even the giving thanks and rejoicing, like neglecting that would be ways to quench the

Spirit. Like the Spirit is communicating to you. The Spirit is blessing you. The Spirit is leading you to good things.

He gives you the heart of thankfulness that would cause you to cry out, Abba, Father. Right, rejecting any of these things.

It's connected to the whole context. It's not just to the latter context about prophecy. Okay, next quote is from Heywood again.

Yeah, this is just one of the more recent books I read. But you read a lot of these books. They have kind of similar quotes.

Very eloquent, very heartfelt pastoral pleadings for faithfulness in this.

By using and exercising little grace, improving small ability to pray, you will increase it and will more comfortably carry on the exercise.

So our Lord informs us, to everyone that has, that is by employing it, he shows that he has, for otherwise the unprofitable servant has a talent also, shall be given and he shall have abundance.

So in other words, he's saying it's not just to everyone who has something at all, because the one servant who had got it taken away, he's talking about the one who has from using it, he will have much more.

Sick persons whose appetites are weakened by eating provoke and recover them, one morsel alluring to another.

You'll find this true in spiritual things, right? Like someone who's very sickly, doesn't have the strength to eat, right?

The more they eat, the more they desire to eat, because they have the strength for it.

The same is true in this. You build up the spiritual muscle. It becomes something that's much more natural, something much more desirable.

Okay, and so this is, because this is a great duty, we should have a great resolve toward it, despite anything that would discourage you.

So these are various kinds of discouragements that I'm gonna go through here. The neglect of the populace should not stop you from household worship.

You look around the world, you see nobody else is doing this. Like not even other Christians are doing this. Joshua 24, 15, and if it is evil in your eyes to serve the

Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river, the gods, the

Amorites, and whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I've brought up this verse 100 times at this point.

You know, serving is talking about worship. It is, you know, a lot of people would call household worship evil, right?

I mean, I had my, I had a family member at one time, you know, observe my home, and this is probably back when

I was only doing it once a day and not in the morning and the evening. And the family member said, and don't, aren't you afraid that your kids are gonna feel like really burdened by this and run away from God because you're making them do all this stuff every single day?

Like, you know, a lot of people will look at this as something evil, like something bad for your family. Like you will face those kinds of discouragements even from other

Christians, right? Don't let the neglect of the populace stop you from the task.

Guilt should not stop you from household worship. So a lot of, something that really inhibits worship is guilt, right?

Obviously, your relationship with God has to do with the forgiveness you have in Jesus Christ.

And if you, and while you are forgiven by his blood and that is fixed, you know, if you're under his hand of discipline because you, his fatherly, you know, his fatherly discipline, there's another word

I'm looking for that I can't find. His fatherly disfavor, there's something. There's a word that confession uses.

Because you have not repented of a particular known sin, or maybe you have but have not necessarily contemplated how the gospel applies to this such that you have the mercy of God, that can stop your lips from speaking as they ought.

You'll sing quieter than you ought, et cetera, you know. Guilt should not stop you from household worship.

Psalm 51, 14, you know, this being after David's sin with Bathsheba, deliver me from blood guiltiness.

Oh God, oh God of my salvation, my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Difficult providences should not stop you from household worship.

Habakkuk 3, 17 through 18, though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of olive fail, and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the

God of my salvation. There's a temptation to be angry at God if you're in a hard season of life, and you might feel bitter towards him and not desire to rejoice in him.

They may not feel like there's a lot to rejoice in, but you are still to rejoice in the Lord. Do not let difficult providences stop you from worship.

All these apply to corporate worship too, but we're talking about them in the context of family worship.

You can make applications both ways. Health struggles should not stop you from household worship.

Second Corinthians 4, 16 through 17, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

I'm not saying that if you break a limb and you're in the hospital, still gotta figure out a way to make that happen.

I understand there are providential hindrances, but people can make excuses out of their health condition, like I've, you know, yeah,

I'm just really tired these days or things like that, right? Don't let, like make this a priority, right?

If it's not, if you aren't truly being providentially hindered, don't claim that you are. All right, weariness should not stop you from household worship.

Isaiah 40, 31, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. We're gonna, I'm gonna preach on this passage next week.

God gives strength to those who need it, to those who are growing weary. So yeah, the weariness in the task, finding it difficult, don't let that discourage you, trust in the

Lord. Worldly anxiety should not stop you from household worship. Matthew 6, 31 through 33, therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?

And the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. How? Primarily through worship, when essentially through worship.

Seek first the kingdom of God and these other things will be added to you. Yeah, a lot of people, what's your excuse for not having family worship?

Oh, I've got too many tasks I need to get to today. I have too much I need to get to in the morning, gotta go to sleep, got too many, you know, et cetera.

Right, and these are considered legitimate excuses, right? People, those are very respectable excuses that people give for not engaging in household worship.

But what does it say? Seek first the kingdom of God. All those other things that you're worried about will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God.

All right, last quote from James Alexander, whose books is one of my favorite, but that was one

I read a long time ago, and so that's part of why I haven't had a lot of quotes from him in years, because most of these were recent quotes.

Thus far, it may be said to some that you have pursued the tenor of your way and utter neglect of family worship.

So this is an encouragement to those who have not done the duty, but are hearing these things, you know.

To you, the message is simple. Fly at once with your household to the throne of grace. Cease to consider it as a matter of indifference or an affair of variable custom, right?

Just, oh, well, you know, to each family, they can decide how to do this, and it doesn't really matter. The neglect is most serious.

It is your loss and the loss of your offspring. It is your sin. It calls for repentance and for reformation, which is the criterion of repentance, meaning, you know, without, you can't claim that you're repentant if there's no reform.

Like, that is, to reform is to repent. Instead of lingering meditation on the expediency of the work, right?

Thinking, hmm, how should I go about this, et cetera, right? You should begin now. To him that knoweth to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin, all right?

So a lot of heavy things today, but yeah,

I'm hoping it is a good encouragement to everyone whether you've been very faithful in it or you've not been.

This would be an encouragement to do those duties, especially hearing some eloquent words from those who've gone before us on the matter.

Any questions about any of this? Yes? It's displeasure, displeasure.

It's fatherly displeasure, right? So God is not wrathful toward us, but there is a notion of fatherly displeasure, yeah.

He still loves us, but just as a father can be displeased with his child who's disobedient, right?

God can be as well, yeah. Any other questions?

All right, I hope you get to the task. If anybody wants to report anything either, you know

I've asked in the past if anyone wants to report anything they've reformed or been blessed by in their own family worship, that would be encouraging to share.

All right, well, let's go ahead and close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great privilege that we have to worship you in our households, and it is a great responsibility.

We thank you that you give us divine strength and enablement to the task, that you especially bless the task and bring growth in faithfulness.

Pray that you would, and that you would be pleased to see a real reformation in our day when we live in a culture that has strayed so far from practices of our fathers, so the practices described in Scripture and the priorities described in Scripture.