The Word in Family Worship

I am the father of six progeny who range in age from 6 to 18 years. They are not all children as I treat my older sons and daughters as adults and young adults. Therefore in family worship I have a wide range of teaching opportunities. However, I have one responsibility to all of them and that is to lead them to a greater knowledge of God and themselves.

My older sons and daughters get different instruction and application than the younger, but we lead them all at the same time in family worship. I want to mention how I lead my family in worship around God’s Word from the youngest to the oldest. This is a method that I have been using with them from a very young age. When I am leading my younger children in family worship I seek to do three things when we are reading the Biblical text.

First I tell them who wrote the passage and what the passage we are going to read is generally about. I state this in one sentence. My aim in this is to acquaint them with knowledge of the Scriptures. I am not interested in them understanding what “this passage means to them”. I am interested in them being able to know God’s Word so that they can handle God’s Word in their own edification and toward the lives of others. I want them to be able to tell me where they can find Paul’s first missionary journey, an account of the Jews in exile or the creation account. But it also means when I come to the passage I may ask my older children who wrote what we are reading or what it is going to be generally about because we have been going over the Bible together for many years of their life and their knowledge is growing. This means that as their father I have to do my own preparation. I have to know who wrote what we are going to read and what the text is going to be about. Preparation may mean reading the text ahead of time, reading through an outline of the book, or standing on another’s shoulders to read about the text. In practicing this discipline with our children we are building a working knowledge of the Scriptures. But building is the key. God gives us 7 days a week and 365 days a year to build over a long period of time. Giving them a working knowledge of the Scriptures is not the end of my instruction. The knowledge of God is.

Second, I seek to lead them to the knowledge of God. My prayer for each of my children is that God would open their eyes to see great and wonderful concerning Him in His Word so that they may know and enjoy Him all their days. Therefore, I always ask them, “How is God revealing to us His glory in this passage?” I seek to help them see the glory of the triune God as He reveals Himself in multitudinous ways in the Scripture. When God shows us who He is we respond by marveling at His glory and asking, “How does having this knowledge of God affect our living as His creatures?” There may be many ways God reveals Himself, but with the younger children I seek to focus on one or two. This growing knowledge of God should be fostered in a growing environment of the enjoyment of God. Therefore you will need to teach them to respond to His glory in prayer and song with thanksgiving, praise and trust.

The third thing I seek to do with my sons and daughters when reading the Scriptures in family worship is to lead them to the knowledge of themselves. The Scriptures are clear for the knowledge of God and His salvation, but they are equally clear in revealing who man is as fallen image bearers of God. Therefore, I seek to draw their attention to what the text tells us about ourselves. This entails seeking to understand our fallen nature and what our needs are. The Scripture will lead our families to a right understanding of their whole beings. I ask my children, “What do we learn about ourselves in this text?” I may also ask, “What does this text teach us our need is, what our responsibility is, or what are we created and sustained for?” There is a need during this time to lead them to an understanding of who man is apart from Christ and who man is when he is redeemed to a living and abiding union in Christ. This continually draws their attention to the fact that man is an image bearer of God for the glory of God in the earth and not self.

In working with my younger children I have to lead them by the hand to see the truth about God and themselves. Just as I have to lead them by the hand to discover the beauty and intricacies of a flower, explaining and pointing it out. So I have to lead them to the knowledge of God and themselves trusting God to illumine their understanding. I am not waiting on them to discover this for themselves because in their fallen nature they cannot see spiritual truths without the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have a responsibility to lead them trusting in God’s sovereign grace for his saving and sanctifying work to bring them to a knowledge and enjoyment of himself. Every one of my progeny are unique, living at different ages and stages and this requires me to think, teach and nurture them accordingly. But the Word of God is given to them in their differences to bring them to the knowledge and enjoyment of the living God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, and to a knowledge of themselves who are created for His glory.

Sincere Worship

Is ‘sincerity’ in worship all that matters? Whether it is in family worship where a parent is reading to their child from a ‘story book bible’, or corporate worship where those gathered participate in singing, liturgy, a sermon about something ‘interesting’ or watching a drama, is it the feeling that we are being sincere that matters? Is sincerity the measure of true worship?

When Jesus came to Samaria on His travels from Jerusalem to Galilee He met with a woman of questionable morals over a discussion concerning worship (John 4:1-26). The 1,000 year tension between Jews and half-breed Samaritans was in the back drop of this conversation. But it was not about racial reconciliation that they talked. It was about being reconciled to the living God in true and sincere worship.

The Samaritans were new school sectarians. They took as the Word of God only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Law. It was only the writings of Moses that were relative to them and their situation as worshipers who worshiped ‘God’ in Samaria and not in Jerusalem. But in their sectarianism they did not have the knowledge of God as he had revealed himself. They did not trust that God had revealed himself in the Prophets and Writings beyond the Law of Moses. Therefore, they worshiped what they did not know (4:22). Their worship was insufficient because they were worshiping God with an inadequate understanding of who God was based upon the revelation of Himself in his Word. They may have been sincere, but their sincerity did not enable them to worship God according to His will because true worship is dependent upon true revelation.

Jesus went on to tell her that the Father is seeking worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth (4:24). Therefore those who are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and worship him sincerely do so as they are filled with the Holy Spirit and worship Him in praise, thanksgiving, trust and obedience according to the truth He has revealed concerning Himself. Sincerity in worship is important, but it is not enough. Our sincerity in worship must be informed by the revelation of God in His Word.

God is concerned with sincere worship. Sincere worship is found where there is a proper response to the revelation of God in His Word. When God reveals His infinite, eternal and unchangeable nature in holiness in His Word then those who worship Him by the indwelling Spirit may be awe struck in silence (Habakuk 2:20), humbled in contrition (Isaiah 6:5), or overflowing with joyful praise (Revelation 4:9-11). When God reveals His infinite, eternal and unchangeable nature in goodness in His Word then those who worship him by the indwelling Spirit may consider others as more important than themselves in love (Philippians 2:1-11), find contentment whether in plenty or in want (Philippians 4:10-13), or offer ourselves in acceptable and reverent worship (Hebrews 12:28). I fear that today we feel sincere in worship when something has made us feel good emotionally. The style of music, the atmosphere of people we love, the feeling that we are doing something good, or the familiar words or nostalgic words of a song create a feeling of sincerity in worship. But in this ‘sincerity’ I fear we worship God in vain. We are not responding in worship towards God because of the revelation of Himself. Rather we are responding to the pleasure we have in rejoicing in self. The worship that God is pleased with is produced in us by the working power of the Holy Spirit in a sanctified response to what He reveals concerning Himself in His Word.

Try this check up in your personal, family or corporate worship. What is the condition of your thoughts and emotions as the Word of God is being read or preached in worship? Is God stirring you by the revelation of Himself in the plain reading of Scripture or the preaching of Scripture to praise, thanksgiving, contrition, trust, or obedience? I am not standing against music in worship and I think God wills worship in song when the song is according to what He has revealed concerning Himself in His Word. But I long for sincerity in worship that is truly driven, fueled, ignited by, the Spirit of God illuminating the truth about the all glorious God that comes to us in His Word. I long for God to do a work among His church as He did in Jerusalem that when the Word of God is read all His people fall down on their faces and worship Him at the revelation of Himself (Nehemiah 8).

God is concerned about the sincerity of the worship of His Name. Therefore He has given us His Word to lead us into true, spiritual and sincere worship. It is the glory of His name in the earth that He desires spread. Therefore, seek the knowledge of Him as revealed in His Word as you come to and participate in worship, respond from a Spirit filled heart of repentance and faith and let Him bring about sincere worship that is according to what He reveals concerning Himself.