Importance of Family Worship

 

By Pastor Nick Bibile

 

 

Psalm 96:7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;  tremble before him, all the earth!

 

 

Churches are formed of families. When families are strong in the Lord the church is strong in the Lord. When families are weak in the Lord, the church is weak in the Lord.

 

God ordained marriage

 

Gen 2: 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

 

Beginning of family worship

 

Abel and Cain both brought a sacrifice to God.  (Gen 4) Abel’s sacrifice is true worship of God.

God saved a family during the worldwide flood. Noah and his family.  God blessed Noah’s family after the flood. (Gen 9:1)

God’s promised to Abraham. The blessing and the curse to the families of the earth.

 

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 

God’s commandment to the families, worship of God to be passed on from one generation to the other generation

 

Deut 4:“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children.

10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

 

When God repeats it is of most importance.

 

Deut 6: 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

 

Deut 11:18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

 

Deut 12: 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

 

Deut 31:12 Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

 

But Israel neglected family worship.

 

Judges 2:10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

 

Today we see Satan has declared war against the families. If the enemy can break the families that will destroy the purity of the churches. The goal of the enemy is to over power and to destroy the word of God.  Here are the results of enemy’s warfare.

 

Families are more influenced of the media, T.V and radio than the word of God. The media has become the final authority not the word of God. Our families, societies are influenced by TV rather than the word of God. Television is the brainwashing device unleashed upon the families. Television controls 90% of the average persons thinking and behavior.  Families are addicted to TV and not to the word of God and family worship. TV should not be your master but your slave.

 

What God calls sin is not called sin today but weakness. What God calls homosexuality is called gay rights or an alternative lifestyle. What God calls perversion is called adult entertainment or pornography. What God calls immorality is called new morality. What God calls cheating is called abnormal social development.

 

Choose whom you will serve

 

Joshua 24:14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

We need to go back to the Bible to the basics of family worship. God is called, ‘our Father’ which shows Father children relationship, God relates to our family.

 

During the time of the puritans there was family worship morning and evening and the whole family was blessed. During those times the difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestanism was, Protestants had family worship. Spurgeon said, “Happy is the household where the altar burns day and night with the sweet perfume of family worship!” 

 

Timothy’s family had family worship.

2 Tim 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

 

Job prayed for his children.

Job 1:His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

 

Eli’s sin was that he honored his sons above God. 

 

New Testament church started with family worship. Jesus very often taught in homes, remember the how he taught in Mary and Martha’s home. Jesus had fellowship at homes; he had fellowshipped in Zacchaeus home. Jesus ate and had fellowship at homes. After the resurrection of Christ the church, believers met at homes to worship God. The true church is the home church; later on as the home churches grew they constructed a building where all the believers can gather together in the name of the Lord to worship him. But family worship was not neglected.

 

When there is family worship, there is affection, love and an attachment to the family members. There will be confessing of sin in prayer, there is sanctification, holiness and the fear of the Lord. Sin is driven away from the homes, families become strong and as a result the church becomes strong in the Lord, they invite their friends and true discipleship begins. Matthew Henry the old puritan commentator said, They that pray in the family do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; but they that pray, and read, and sing do best of all.” There is a completeness in that kind of family worship which is much to be desired

 

 

 

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