BIG IDEA: The duty, how to, motives, arguments, and blessings of family worship.

Question: What is meant by family worship? Answer: Family worship is the daily use of prayer, Scripture, catechism, and song by a family, led by the head of the household, to worship the one true God for His glory and their good.

I. THE DUTY OF FAMILY WORSHIP (Josh. 24:14-15)

I) You are commanded to worship the LORD in sincerity and faithfulness, putting away all your former idols (Joshua 24:14).

You and I must worship the LORD because He created us (Rev. 4:11), He deserves it (Psalm 29:2), that is the chief activity He has redeemed us for (Psalm 71:23), and because that is the reason Jesus died and was raised (Psalm 22:27).

II) Do not be deceived, you will worship something or someone (Joshua 24:15a).

III) Those who worship the LORD, should do so with their household (Joshua 24:15b).

The duty of family worship is exemplified and expected of saints many places in Scripture:

Abraham commanded His household to keep the way of the LORD and offered sacrifices to Him (Genesis 18:19). Jacob set up a family altar by God’s command and worshipped the LORD with his household (Genesis 35:1-3). Asaph, in Psalm 78, says fathers are to instruct their children in the glorious deeds of the LORD (Psalm 78:3-7). In Psalm 118, David says the LORD’s praises are in the houses of the righteous (Psalm 118:15). Paul exhorts us all not to be drunk, but to be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:18-19). Paul expects husbands to wash their wives in the water of the Word of God (Ephesians 5:25-27). Paul commands fathers to instruct their children (Ephesians 6:4). Peter expects husbands to pray with their wives (1 Peter 3:7).

Will you join with the saints and worship the Lord with your families? God deserves it!

II. THE HOW TO OF FAMILY WORSHIP (Deut 6; Job 1; Heb. 6; Rom. 6:17; Ps. 118:15-16)

Plan. Be disciplined. It will not happen if you do not plan and stay disciplined. Set a time and make it happen. Richard Cecil said, “Let family worship be short, savory, simple, plain, tender, and heavenly.”‬ It does not need to be more than 10-20 minutes. Start somewhere and improve as you go.

I) Pray, thanking God and interceding on behalf of your family (Job 1:5).

II) Read the Scriptures, explaining and applying to the best of your ability (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

III) Catechize, memorizing the most important questions and answers you can ask (Hebrews 6:1; Romans 6:17; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:15).

IV) Sing, lifting your voices in praise with a Psalm, Hymn, or Spiritual Song (Ps. 118:15-16, Eph. 5:18).

III. MOTIVES FOR FAMILY WORSHIP (Thomas Doolittle)

Thomas Doolittle (1630-1707) in his sermon “How May the Duty of Daily Family Prayer be Best Managed for the Spiritual Benefit of Every one in the Family?”

I) You should pray to God daily in your families because we receive every day family-mercies from the hand of God (Ps. 68:9). II) Because there are sins committed every day in your families (Ps. 51:3). III) Because you have many daily family-needs, which none can supply but God (Matt. 6:11). IV) Because of your families’ daily employments and labors (Ps. 127:1-2). V) Because you are all every day liable to temptations (1 Pet. 5:8). VI) Because all in your families are liable to daily hazards, casualties, and afflictions (Jn. 16:33). VII) You must pray to God in your families daily, or the very Heathen will rise up against you Christians and condemn you.

I would simply add, VIII) You must worship God daily in your families because He is worthy of worship!

IV) ARGUMENTS FOR FAMILY WORSHIP

Oliver Heywood (1630-1702) in his book “The Family Altar”:

I) Suppose a grave and pious minister, or Christian friend lodge with you, would you not reach him a bible, and desire him to go to prayer with you, lest he should suspect you to be prayerless at other times? And will not God's authority and presence have the like influence, and awe upon your spirits ?

II) Suppose your friends and relations should quite disown, and disclaim you, unless you would pray in your family, would you not make a hard shift to do something that way, rather than be accounted unworthy of human society? And shall that prevail more than God's disclaiming you, or disowning converse with you?

III) If your landlord should turn you out of your house, or your father should disinherit you, if you set not up this family altar, could you be content to suffer both, rather than do it? And shall a threatening of your Father in heaven, or great landlord, to reject or eject you out of heaven avail nothing?

IV) If a law were imposed upon you to pay five shillings every time that you neglect prayer in your family, would you forfeit that sum as oft as you go prayerless to bed ; would you not fear that would beggar you? And shall not greater losses and heavier penalties deter you from this omission?

V) If the king or a nobleman should promise you five pounds every time that you call your family together, read a chapter, sing a psalm, kneel down and pray to God, would you not strain hard to procure that money? And will not a greater profit from Almighty God prevail with you to perform this exercise to obtain a reward ?

VI) Suppose a brand were set upon your foreheads, like Cain's, or a dreadful trembling should seize upon your bodies for such a neglect…would not this shame you out of your criminal omission?

VII) Suppose the next time you go prayerless to bed, your loveliest child and darling should be snatched away by a sudden stroke of death, as it was in Egypt, when the first-born of Pharaoh and others died, and there was a great cry.* Would not this move you into a better course? Oh, but a greater evil befalls you, your own precious souls are endangered by neglect.

VIII) Suppose a red cross, with a “Lord have mercy upon us," were set upon your doors, and the pestilence were within your house, seizing on you, one after another, and you had nothing else to do but to get ready to die would you not spend some time in prayer with yourselves and families? Behold a worse plague is upon you, the plague of sin, and will you not pray?

IX) Suppose, upon every omission of family prayer you should lose a limb, or member of your body, first one finger, then a toe should be cut or torn off, till all be gone, and you dismembered; would not this force you to this duty? and yet your precious souls, which are ten thousand times more worth than a limb, yea,' than the whole body, are in hazard by willful neglect.

X) Suppose a gallows were set at your door, and you must be hanged thereupon the next time you go out of your door, when you have not prayed in your family; would you venture to be hanged rather than omit this duty? do you love your lives no better? Oh! but eternal death is far more dreadful, and are eternal torments, that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, nothing to you?* Is the second death easy?

V. THE BLESSINGS OF FAMILY WORSHIP (Selected Scriptures)

Daily family worship will glorify God, which is why you exist and therefore will bring you and your family great joy (Isaiah 43:7), soberly remind you and your family of both the sinfulness of sin and the sufficiency of Christ (Romans 6:23), constantly nourish you and your family with spiritual food (Matthew 4:4), help you and your family keep your eyes fixed on Christ and His kingdom (Colossians 3:2), instruct you and your family as to what is right and wrong, and therefore equip you to love God and neighbor in holiness (Psalm 119:105), and daily family worship will give you a clear conscience in life and death (Acts 20:26-27).

CONCLUSION: If you have not made family worship (or private worship if you are single) a daily practice in your home, today is the day. Start today.