Family Worship Part 1

Family Worship as a Duty of Daily Household Life

Dear Father, I thank you this morning for giving me a lesser time to study what your word says about how we should go about our daily relationships. God, I pray that you would give me a lesser time to get to Jesus.

Amen. Alright, so I'm going to review what we're doing here. Brian's out this week and next week. I want to thank you for being so useful for that. And I'm going to do a two-parter on family worship.

First, this week is going to be basically importance of family worship. Next week is practical stuff of what should it look like. I think it would be cool if we had kids here to do an example session.

I don't know how that would work out. Next week, unfortunately, it didn't work out because Ken is out this week and so we've got some extra kids this week. But we'll see how that goes. Let me go ahead and start off with a couple of things.

We're going to build our church's documents. So, first of all, we have 2nd Limited Baptist Confession. It says, God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth. As a private family, it's daily.

It is a secret to one by himself. And then on our church compass, it says that we agree together. We will cultivate private family worship at home. Striving to attain it as a spiritual example. Helps us and our families bring up our children and nurture and admonish our children.

Trading them for the service of Christ. So, these are the things that our confession and our constitution slash church compass say. Any questions so far? Let me go ahead and ask. What is family worship?

If you haven't defined it, what is it?

It's a regular time when the Father leads the family in worship and prayer. And keeps Christ at the forefront in the tone and tenor of the family. Okay.

And not to be too picky about that definition, but what if there is a father? The leader of the family. Head of the household. Head of the household. Great. So, perhaps, yeah, family worship is important.

Because if you have families that are split across geographic regions, that family does not worship together on a regular basis. If you have a household that's more than a single family, they might worship together even though that's not a single family.

And if you have a household that's only a single person, they would worship even though they don't have in the typical sense a whole family to worship with. So, family worship might be more apt than household worship.

Basically, it's the idea that those who are together should be worshiping together. Basically, it's grace through God. And it's sanctified hearts that are drawn together to worship together. This is evident in the Lord's Prayer.

When he says, give us to stay our own way. The whole thing is in the second week. It should be the first person in the world. Where Jesus is speaking, he's saying it's not our, we, us, etc. In the Catechism, it says, this should be our excuse to pray with and for others.

Not just for us, but with others as well. And if you're together with others, you care about the Lord. Now show that you'll be drawn to prayer together with them. So, moreover, God has commanded heads of households to provide for and to protect their families.

And if this is the case, physically, how much more so is interest to your church? And your lawyer, that spiritual program, for example. Let me go ahead and go over a couple of verses. 1 Corinthians 3 -4 says, he must manage such household well above all that any king who is chosen shall miss it.

This is just talking about the requirement on the altar. But it's essentially a requirement on a good man. And the same is true of 1 Corinthians 3 -4, which speaks of the instants. Let the instants each be the husband of one wife, managing their children in their own household as well.

So God has called them to manage their household. And, therefore, if they're supposed to be doing this physically, that's what they're doing. Basically, the Spirit is for each and more so. So, this is, a lot of people would ask this.

Where is this commanded in Scripture? Where is family worship commanded in Scripture? I really like how, there's a whole picture of family worship. Some are more practical than others. If you want more of the theology behind it, big views of what to think about family worship.

There's more recent books and more practical. There's only one book from the 1800s by James Alexander called Thoughts on Family Worship. You read it from the very beginning of the book. There are some duties so lengthy that they are rather assumed than commanded in the Word of God.

And the number of such is greater than you might suppose on a superficial examination. So there are larger limits that are commanded to us, but not explicitly in Scripture. And it is the case that, as you think about it more and more, you realize just how limited the number of those commands are.

This is especially true of those duties which belong to the family and relation. As, for example, those of a mother to her baby. They are subjected to regulation and are the objects of frequent allusion, but are not incorporated into the law of commandments.

So, even if my mother says, oh mother, you have to choose your child's name, these are just assumed. This is more or less specified within the explicitness of the regularity of the duties. If you're not changing your child daily, that's going to be a problem.

If you're not nursing him daily, that's going to be a problem. And so these duties of family and relationship, while very natural, since it's obvious, aren't specifically bespoke in the Book of Mormon.

Family Worship in the Patriarchs, Passover, and Joshua

So when it comes to worshipping the Lord, as opposed to taking care of someone physically, when it comes to spiritual provision rather than physical provision, there tends to be more skepticism. And why?

Why is that? I think it's because there's a spiritual resistance to thinking about the daily duties that are required of our to care for one spiritually. That just doesn't exist for physical law. So there are, however, the Bible does speak to this matter a great deal, even if it's not with an explicit proof-tent.

It says, thou shalt worship God as a household, daily, daily, etc. And we can see that in a lot of narratives. I'm going to walk through a lot of narratives here. I thought about putting them on some slides, but I decided not to.

At any point, please raise your hand and ask a question. We'll also look at them and talk about them. And then you can pass the message. So in Genesis 4, 3 -2 -4a, it says, In the course of time, King brought the Lord an offering of the fruit from the ground, and he will also draw upon the first person's flock, and of the five horses.

So it speaks to Cain and Abel bringing offerings. And the Lord rejects one and accepts the other. And they appear to be doing this together. And why is it that they are doing this together? It seems that this family is worshiping God together.

We have other passages like this. In Joseph 18 -19, speaking of Abraham, God says, For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him, to 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 he chose Abraham to command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.

So what does it mean to keep the way of the Lord? God has commanded worship.

He has commanded a private worship. He may be meditating on his Word, or he may be praying. And if one was to command his children in this, how would he command? How do you teach children except by example?

This is something called selecting experience. It's not enough to just say, oh, you should do these things, and never require the Lord to do these things, never actually show them how to do these things.

That's not how anything else is taught to children. You see, did Jacob worship the Lord with his household? Genesis 35 to 53 says, Jacob said to his household, and to all who obeyed him, Put away the work of God's hands, and you will purify yourselves, and they will change your hearts.

And then let us arise and go to Bethel, Bethel, so that I may make there your altar. God, who answers you today, but has stressed us, and has made you aware of our problems. So he calls these people to purify themselves, so that they can go, and he can make an altar as they worship.

And then Passover is observed by families, Acts 12, verse 36. Now all the congregation of Israel, that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall hate one another, according to their father's house, a lamb or a household.

Right, so yeah, Passover, Passover is a family. Going to the cross, God says, and there you shall be shown before the Lord your God, you know, eating before the Lord your God. That is, when it talks about the presence of God, or seeking His face, being before Him.

These are statements, basically, of Samaritan worship. And so, there you shall be shown before the Lord your God, and you shall be joyous in your households, and all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God shall bless you.

This is the household, which is the speech before the Lord your God. The Psalms are being engaged in as households. And then in speaking of money, that is reserved for worship, you know that in the time of Israel, there was also additional, there were also additional things that had to be stored up.

And some of it was for those persons to use in worship, to use in feasting. It says, you shall be shown before the Lord your God, you shall be joyous in your households. So once again, worship or feasting is supposed to be done in the household.

And then it speaks of the firstborn, the flock that is born, to be brought to Him in 1520. You shall be shown, you and your household, before the Lord your God, once again, before God,.

To be in worship. Year upon year, by their place, place, the Lord will choose you. He loves and cares for you. Joshua 24, 15, this is one of the more popular ones. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua is dictating to me, that not only himself, but he has authority to command all his people to serve, all his household to serve the Lord. And what would that look like, if not worship, which obviously is his.

As he is his, required people to do it individually, naturally. He would require that, by having everybody do it. Acts 10, says, Jesus says, and fear God with all his household. You know, why is it, why is it significant to fear God with his household?

You know, he is bringing his household into the fear of God. He is hearing God alongside with them. This is not, each of them living their independent lives, fearing God independently, right? This isn't fearing God together, as he does.

He gives all his generously to people, and praying continually to God. So those are passages, that tend to hit at family worship, right? Speaking of men, worshiping God together with their families, that are serving God with their families.

And the implication is, that if one believes that we are to serve God, by worshiping him, then they will be worshiping God with their families. It's also a logical implication, of commands that we have to have.

For example, the Lord commands parents, to teach their children how to serve the Lord. It's necessary, like I said, to teach by example. Deuteronomy 6, 7 says, that these words, that I command you today, shall be upon your honor.

You shall teach them diligently, with children, and shall talk with them, when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 11, 18 -19 says, You shall therefore, lay these words upon your heart, and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign, on your hand, and you shall teach them to your eyes, you shall teach them to your children, and talk with them, while you are sitting in your house, when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down.

Proverbs 22, 6 says, to train your child, in the way he should go, even though he is old, and not hard for him. Ephesians 6, 4, Our call is to you, to devote your children to anger, and to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Right? So how, how are these people to be brought up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, unless they are brought up in the actual practice of the fear of the Lord, the most quintessential of these practices, which is worship, which is worship, which is worship, which is worship.

That is, that is an unnecessary way of going about this. To just, just to say to your child, you must worship the Lord, is not actually, you should not do it. There is not a bringer about doing it. Especially when God has, has said that we are to pray with Him for others.

If you have multiple people in your house, who are trying to serve the Lord, and you are demanding that your children serve the Lord, the necessary invitation is that you pray with them. And speaking of marriage, you know, if you look at our, our confession, our confession says the purpose of marriage is, I'm going to, I'm going to forget the rest of this.

So you might remember there's three things that it says that marriage is a force of glory. Marriage is a gain, a mutual help, a blessing in the lifeline for the increased reach of mankind with the legitimate offspring of the Spirit and for the perpetuation of unaccountable sins.

Okay, so, with legitimate issue, that's speaking of, you know, not children without fathers and things like that. So marriage is, marriage is important. But Malachi 2 .15 says something even more, more specific.

It's not just legitimate offspring of the Spirit. It says God's offspring of the Spirit. Malachi 2 .15 says, did He not make me one with a portion of the Spirit therein that you need? Speaking of that, and what was and what God seeks, God will be all of us.

So guard yourselves in the Spirit and let none of you be faithless the life of one human being. So if, if marriage is a force of glory and God will be all of us, then, family members, nurseries of religion, right, talking about a sadist is not just obeying him in some way, but it is in particular about worship, worship of the Lord.

And so family members, if they are assigned to be these nurseries of religion, as they've been called by, I, I did that sentence on a dated phrase because it is, but as they've been called by, by people in the past, does that not mean that, doesn't that mean that they should worship one another together?

I, yes, yes, they absolutely should. Here's, here's another text that speaks of the importance of praying together. Now, this isn't going to be obvious to me, so maybe you'll, I hope maybe you can disagree with this, but maybe you'll disagree with this fact, but that's okay, I take it.

I do, I do, I do advise, 1 Peter 3, 7, it says, likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to your women, women, to the woman as your vessel, since they are your servants, with you gracefully, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Alright, so, your prayers, plural, now, it would be pretty natural in the first passage to use this as speaking of husbands, because it's likewise to do this, so that your prayers are not hindered, so that the husbands' prayers are not hindered.

However, think about the immediate context of this, the reason, showing honor to the woman as your vessel, since they are your servants, with you gracefully, okay, they are, they are, they are joint heirs, to the grace of the wife, it says in translation, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Now, the focus is on the jointness of husbands' life, and if they're both believers, being heirs together of the grace of their life, and it's talking about that unity being necessary, in order that prayers may be heard, whose prayers is it talking about?

I think it's quite likely that it's talking about husbands' life, their prayers together, rather than husbands' prayers, on their own. And, yeah, great quote from Calvin, Calvin says it just sounds a lot like what the Bible says.

For, hence, we may observe that family marriage is an incumbent on the presence of religion, and great prayer should be given, that it may not be neglected and hindered. So that speaks to that passage there.

And then, in Colossians, this one's pretty interesting, I didn't write this one down, I had to pull it out. In Colossians 33, it says, word of Christ is one of rich religion, sins together, these are things that we worship together, and then, immediately follows after this is, he's speaking to the church as a congregation as a whole, or is he speaking more particularly of any union the church gathers together, whether it be together as a whole, in small groups, or in families.

What we see immediately after this is his instructions to households. So keep in mind, these paragraphs are so brief, right, they're all flowing together, and he's telling them, this is what you're supposed to do together, now let me tell you policies, you're supposed to act together, wives, sons, husbands, wives, children, are they your parents, fathers, mothers, children, if they are not yours, these are all household commands, and so should those households be so divided from the previous that the right way of applying those doesn't apply to households, we should be teaching and admonishing one another in households, we're trash actually richly in households, so it's not one single text, but what is the why would one resist this idea that it's necessary to.