Family Worship in the Old Testament

What is first and greatest commandment?

To love God with all of our being.

What are some characteristics of love?

• devotion
• closeness
• preoccupied - always thinking about the other person

What does the Church do to demonstrate that love for God?

• Missions/outreach
• Fellowship
• Worship
• Discipleship
• Ministry/Service to others

What are some signs that we don't love God the way we should?

• Don't serve Him or otherse
• Wilfully disobey - actively choosing not to do what God wants us to do.
• Don't live as believers.  Would the world know you're a Christian by your actions?
• Don't love each other - we can't hate our brother and love God.

 

First, two verses explaining how God feels when we do not offer Him the worship He desires.

Isaiah 1:11-15

11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Amos 5:21-23

21 "I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

(emphasis is from Randall)

3 Kinds of worship

1. Corporate
2. Individual - sabbath, quiet time, constant prayer
3. Family Worship, devotins, instruction

We discussed some statistics on what happens when people leave the church.  The majority of people who leave church have no plans to ever return. For college students, the stats are even worse.  So what can we do as parents to help prepare our children for leaving home and having a strong faith? Worship as a family is one helpful area.

Deuteronomy 12:18-19

18 "But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.19 "Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

Notice who is present during the gathering - the whole family (servants were considered part of the family during those days).

Joshua 8:35

35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

2 Chronicles 20:13

13 Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD.

Nehemiah 12:43

43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

Acts 2:46-47

46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church* daily those who were being saved.

In the original language, "house to house" can also be translated "in each one's house"

 

Family Worship in the New Testament

The Priority of Family Worship

Deuteronomy 32:46-47

46 and he said to them: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe-all the words of this law.47 "For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess."

Instruction to children is important because they need to have a firm foundation for their faith.  If we do not teach them the faith, they will learn exactly what we teach them - nothing (or that faith is not important and thus should not be part of our lives).  We don't let our children touch a hot stove or run into the street.  Why should we treat their faith any differently?

 

Male Headship is God's Plan

Ephesians 6:1-4

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

v1 - "Parents" is actually the word for parents, not addressed to a dad or mom, but a set of one mom and one dad.

v2 - The mom and the dad are listed separately.

v4 - The word here specifically talks to male fathers, nobody else.

So what do we do if there's no dad in the picture? Perhaps we can have a stand-in for dad to train spiritually, such as a grandfather or uncle. If no relatives are available, perhaps a close friend of the family.  If there's still nobody, the job falls to the mom, but it's implied that a male role model who is strong in his faith is important in order to bring up children in instruction of the Lord.

The Talmud says that a father is bound to teach his son. The Gentile practice in those days was for the mom or servants to teach children; fathers were normally absent from the educating role in Gentile homes.

 

Consequences of Male Passivity

Genesis 3 - the temptation and fall of man.  Adam had a chance not to follow, but did so anyway.

Discipline of children and example is important in upbringing, but we need to intervene at times:

• When kids are led astray by ideas, thoughts, images, peer pressure.
• TV is a source of bad ideas and teaching against God. Can use as teaching moments to explain why certain things aren't good for us.  We tolerate things as adults that we won't let our kids watch. However we need to be better about having similar standards as our kids.  If something is harmful for them, why is it then okay for us?

We also need to discuss our actions and those of the children "off-hours" and work together as mom and dad to raise our children and intervene appropriately.  Often one parent will not know the whole story and each can share what they know.

1 Samuel 2:29

29 'Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?'

We need to step in when the children are not honoring God. Eli did step in to rebuke his sons, but their sins were so great and flagrant that God took the priesthood from them (and their lives).

Isaiah 39:6-8

6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD.7 'And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" For he said, "At least there will be peace and truth in my days."

Men today are prone to put careers first at the expense of their families.  This is very easy as we feel that we are providing for our families, but we are not meeting their non-financial/material needs.  Wealth and possessions are of value, but not eternal value.

 

Jeremiah 44:15-19

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying:16 "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!17 "But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.18 "But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine."19 The women also said, "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' permission?"

Here, the men knew what was going on and did not put a stop to it. Women answered Jeremiah, saying that they would keep on doing as they had been, worshiping the "queen of heaven".

Pagan religions at this time regularly included prostitution, homosexuality, and child sacrifice as major practices of their religion.  This is despised by God, and is part of the reason behind His instructions to wipe out some of these peoples.  Israel would often get ensnared in these practices of the land they were in rather than being a holy people. When times were rough, they would try out the pagan practices rather than trust in God and fall further into them until they were as bad or worse than the pagans.

Men had not done their duty to pass on God's word to their children. When the tough times came to the next generation, the men did not have the foundation to make wise choices and let the pagan women make the choices. The faith was passed on poorly to one generation and not at all to the next one, resulting into a fall into paganism.  The book of Judges details this process in the early days of Israel, ending with the killing of most of the tribe of Benjamin and the sad phrase, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

 

Background for this verse - El is the word used for the one true God, but as pagans began to worship El, El faded into background and Bal/Asherah rose among them, eventually replacing El completely. One of these was the "queen of heaven".

 

Coming next week - Ephesians 5, 6; Deuteronomy 6

What Does God Expect of Us?

We looked at several passages where an underlying theme is that one group is approved and one is not approved.  What can we learn from these groups of people?

 

Matthew 25:31-46, Deuteronomy 23:3-4

What is expected?

• Help those in need: the stranger, the orphan, the widow. The rebuke here is against those who did not do what they were supposed to, even knowing that they were supposed to do these things.

Parable of the talents - The sin here is what the servant did not do rather than what he did. The master told the servant that he knew the ways of his master and should have done something to earn interest on the money, even if just leaving it with moneylenders.

Parable of the virgins - All members of the wedding party were initially prepared, but only the wise ones remained prepared. We need to have a similar attitude - live in preparation for Jesus' coming.

 

Ways we can help corporately:

• Pool resources to provide for needs of people.
• Local Church bodies often have a benevolence fund where a portion of the general budget (as well as designated giving) is set aside specifically to meet the real needs of people.  Steve gave a specific example recently where several families had a need to extra heaters in their house with the cold weather coming up.  This was a real need for these people and the deacons helped by providing space heaters.
• Lots of people together can help out more effectively than separately.  We can each use our gifts differently to help the Body.  Separately, our gift may not do much on its own, but when each person uses their gifts/talents in unison, we can do the work God wants us to do.

Randall reminded us that prayer is work. It is not just sitting around doing nothing.  It is essential for doing the work of God.

 

Luke 13:22-30, Matthew 7:21-23

What is expected of us?

• Enter through the narrow gate.
• Our lives as Christians are to be more than just spending time doing "church-y" things.  We are called to truly follow Jesus in all aspects of our lives.

The tradition at this time was for house doors to be open all day and locked at night. When the door is locked, it is too late to gain entry to the house.

Randall pointed out an apparent contradiction - few will be saved. Then around Matthew 8:11 - that many will come to the banquet table.

Putting this into context, the teaching of the day was that all children of Israel will be saved. However, some Jews remembered that not all of the Israelites reached the Promised Land. Jesus speaks to the Jews here when He says that not all Jews will go to heaven. This is a wake-up call for the Jews.  They have kept God to themselves rather than being the blessing to all of the nations they were called to be.

Personal Application - We need to use our time wisely. We don't know when our time is going to be over on earth. Randall brought up the idea that some people just drift along from situation to situation, going with whatever comes along.  We need to be on board with God's plan and actively working towards those goals He has given us.

 

Matthew 8:5-12

Here, a Roman Centurion wants healing for his servant.

What do we know about the Centurion?

• He is commended for his faith.  Jesus "marveled" at his faith and indicated that He did not find this faith in Israel.
• The centurion has authority because it was given to him. He understands that everything he commands is obeyed because Rome gives him authority.  However, that power is not enough over death.  He needs one who has authority over sickness and disease.
• We see that he has humility. Luke indicates that he had sent servants because he was not worthy to go himself.  He also acknowledges that all of the authority given to him is not enough to overcome this trial.
• He has great compassion for servant. Servants no longer able to fulfill their duties due to health or other concerns were normally disposed of in that day.

How can we develop some of these characteristics?

Humility - God brings trials to humble us. Circumstances in our lives reveal that we are not in control as much as we think we are.

Servant Leadership - People come into our lives as examples. Scripture is revealed to us. We are humbled in our current leadership positions.  Sometimes we are brought into a leadership position in order to learn how to serve others through the position given to us.

 

Can we be saved by our works?

A common theme throughout many parables is that those who are cast out are told that Jesus never knew them. Deeds are not enough. Those deeds need to flow out of our relationship with Jesus. If we fail to do the good that we can and know we should do, that is sin as well. It's easy to hear the commendations, the "Well done, good and faithful servant."  But in order to get those words of praise, we need to actually follow God's commands and love others.  This is not done out of a legalistic obligation to earn our way into heaven, but done out of love and a changed heart.  The price of our sin has been paid in full and our good works should flow out of gratitude for that redemption.

 

Final Thoughts

We need to know Jesus and follow Him.  That implies the need to spend time with Him in order to know His voice and His desires.

When we hit a scripture that is not familiar, we need to take that to heart even if that is not familiar to us. We are human and often want to stay with the comfortable way of doing things.  We don't really trust God when He shows us a new, better way to live.

We will be touching on some unfamiliar scriptures in the upcoming weeks, starting with Deuteronomy 6.

Relationship with God and Others

Today's class started out with a recap from several weeks ago on Advantages and Things to Guard Against for Quiet Times/Private Worship and Corporate Worship.

Praying Without Ceasing
Advantages:

• Our focus stays on God.
• Integrates walk w/ God with mundane world. (Life is not mundane anymore because we are constantly in communication with God.)
• Changes our outlook - see things with God's eyes.
• Improves decision-making. As a Christian, our choice boils down to two options - obey or disobey.
• Can take our sanctuary with us wherever we are.
• Relieves stress.
• Fruitfulness - John 15:1-5
• Answered Prayer is promised if we abide in Jesus. (Abide usually implies a remaining or constant dwelling. This means that first we have to be with Jesus and then we are constantly dwelling with Him.)
• Potential for powerful encounters - you+God+others.

Disadvantages or Things to Guard Against

• Have to discipline yourself to do it. This doesn't come naturally to everyone. Some good starter ideas would be Frank Laubach's "Game With Minutes" tract or similar exercises to train our minds towards constantly being in communication with God.
• Have to be prepared - know God, know scriptures. If we do not know who God is, we could very well be praying to a god of our own making rather than the God who has revealed Himself through His word.
• Easy to leave out the Bible - similar to above. We can pray without taking the Bible into account.
• Opportunity for talking to self (and listening to self) rather than God.

Sabbath
Advantages

• God's gift to us, not a mandate that we have to follow.
• Rest, Recharge - sabbath means "rest".
• Receive from God, not give. As church-going Christians it is very easy to be caught up in working for God. This is our chance to rest and receive a blessing from God while preparing to minister.
• Refocus and reprioritize life. We can't help but put everything in perspective when we take time to rest.
• Concentrated time - have more time in what is available. This seems similar to the idea that we don't constantly wear out the tools/gifts/skills we have been given. If we start using an axe to chop wood, eventually that axe will get dull. If we do not rest from chopping wood to sharpen the axe, we will work harder to chop wood.
• Sanctuary - can retreat into God's presence and shelter.
• Incorporates other disciplines. We talked about this for some time. The sabbath does not automatically imply a "going to meeting" day. It is a day of resting in God's presence. We may very well incorporate other spiritual disciplines during our time of rest, but they may not all come into play.
• Strengthens relationship with God. If we are taking a day to really rest in God's presence, we can't help but strengthen our relationship with God.
• Can involve others or be done alone - this was a big point. A lot of us have family members who are around all of the time. The sabbath is not supposed to be a time when we get away from everyone just to be alone with God. We can have corporate times of rest (aka retreats), individual times of rest, or even family times of rest. I was reminded of a radio episode I'd heard called "Sunday Morning Scramble" that hit really close to home on how a lot of Christians spend their days when they have church-meetings.
• Scrambling from one activity to another, rarely resting, doing all of this "for God". However, if we were to take an extra hour and rest in His presence we would probably have a much better sabbath-day.

Disadvantages or Things to Guard Against

• Takes time - hard to schedule. This is one of those activities where we need to discipline ourselves to set a time aside and rest. We don't have to be legalistic about the time, but we should schedule it.
• Distractions - because this is not always a discipline, we can be distracted. In the age of always-on Internet connections, working from home, and a feeling that we are crunched for time, it is very easy to succumb to checking e-mail, doing one last task for work, or just being busy rather than resting.
• Challenge to keep extended time devoted to resting - recommend scheduling activities for that time. e.g. Pray for 30 minutes, take a walk for 25 minutes, nap for 2 hours, eat, etc. If we have a set schedule of activities to follow, we will be more likely to stick to the schedule and use our time restfully.
• Other people are involved in our lives - they factor in as well. We should take those people who are involved in our lives along with us for that time of rest. Family members and friends factor in most heavily here, but there may be others as well. Our close relations do not have to be left behind while we take a time of rest.

Sabbath - is it still a commandment? Randall answered with the idea that this is a gift more than a commandment. It is also not tied to a particular day. We had talked about this in a class a while back, but some people had missed the day we'd really discussed the Biblical Sabbath and how it is affected with the New Testament.

Priority of Relationship

[Hosea 6:3 NKJV] Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

[Jeremiah 24:7 NKJV] 'Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

We are supposed to meet together to encourage each other to be in a good relationship with God. This is one of the main reasons to gather together.

However, our fellowships tend to be just like the world's gatherings. We meet, we have small talk, we eat, we may play some games or watch a movie, we go home. The question arises of whether we are truly relating to each other the way we should be.

• We tend to hide in church activities - easy to be overloaded. It is hard to say no. When our activities are born out of relationship, they are more likely to be helpful to the Body of believers. The idea seems to be that our ministries should be tied to the relationship we have with other people - meeting their real needs in addition to (or sometimes instead of) meeting the needs we think or they feel they have. Our activities shouldn't just be some program that we do.

• We also tend to hide in "good citizenship" - our worldview vs. others. Politics will not save us as a nation. God doesn't support the Republican, Democrat, or any other party. Heart change is essential to save our nation. The idea of what we stand for rather than our relationship with God is all too easy to get caught up in. A Christian world-view is important, but we can't legislate that on others. Randall mentioned how we tried that with the Prohibition. Because there was no heart change, people broke the law often and the laws were not enforced regularly.

Jesus would brush aside political questions - focused on the important question behind the political question. When He was asked about taxes, He responded in a manner that answered the real problem rather than the political problem.

The Zealots were Jews who were extremely active against Rome. They would assassinate Romans and hide in the crowd, joining in with the general wailing. Eventually they starved Jerusalem to try to gain members; this backfired and destroyed the city. They were looking for a different sort of Messiah - one who would drive out the Romans. When Jesus appeared, they rejected Him because He didn't come as a warrior against the Roman occupiers.

[2Ch 15:2 NKJV] And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

Resolutions

Today's class started with a brief history of the modern standard calendar. Randall indicated that the later material would be a little heavy and thus he wanted to start with a light-hearted topic.

Because of the date, the discussion today centered on making resolutions, especially because so many people will make resolutions to change or improve at the start of the new year.

Here are some suggestions on things we can do prior to making a resolution.

1. Remember that this isn't my life, it's God's life.
Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us some good direction to follow. One example we discussed was that of Joseph and Pharaoh. If they had leaned on their own understanding of events, there would have been 7 years of partying followed by 7 disastrous years rather than the storing of food for 7 years that God desired for them. We spent a little time thinking about how bad things can get when we rely on our own knowledge of things. Randall discussed how as a child he could not fathom the discipline of his parents. As he grew, he knew that even when he didn't understand his parents' decisions, they were still done in his best interests. God is like that with us. We do not understand His decisions. He has a purpose for us and the world that is greater than our comprehension. As we grow in faith, we can understand that God wants the best for us and can trust His guidance even when it doesn't make sense at the time.

This tied in to a discussion on sovereignty and lordship. We are bondservants of Christ. This doesn't sit well with us in the USA because we really value freedom. Slavery is a horror to us. However, when put in the correct context, we realize that we are slaves or servants to something no matter what. God is the best master for us because He wants the best for us. Thus we can throw off the old master (as Paul puts it - being a slave to sin) and have a far better master. Then when we are under God's authority, we can exercise the authority He gives to us appropriately.

2. Be a worshiper.
Job 1:20-21 - "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." We spent some time on this topic and how we can worship through the good and bad times. When we have a good relationship with God, we can worship Him no matter what happens because we know that He has our best interests in mind. He may take something away to draw us closer to Him or to enable us to minister to those who go through similar scenarios. Worship is always to be a part of our lives, no matter the circumstances.

One of our goals as a Christian is to help other people become worshipers. We can help them understand who God really is and clear up their misconceptions about Him. Once they know who God is and not who they think God is, they can begin to move towards a life where they can give Him the honor that is due.

3. Move past our pain and fears
Psalm 139:23-24 - The psalmist asks for God to search him, to know his heart, his sin, his anxieties. We talked about how people called to the ministry in some denominations or countries are questioned about sins that they are snared by. These sins are not those that happen once in a while, but regularly and often. The leaders then work with the person called into ministry to help him be free of that sin so he will be free to minister to others. This will obviously not make the person sinless, but will help that person have freedom to do the job God has called him or her to.

We then talked about some common resolutions people make at the beginning of the year and what fears those typically address.

1. Get in shape (lose weight, etc) - addresses our fears of sickness/death and rejection
2. New Job - addresses our fear of not having security

While other resolutions may be made, Randall suggests that our resolutions tend to fall into the categories of helping us ease our fears of sickness, rejection, and security. He then issued some challenges prior to making a resolution.


Put God's word to the test.
Daniel 1:8,12 - Daniel very graciously invites the king's servant to put their faith to a test. In this case, by politely requesting that they be given foods that met the criteria of the law rather than unclean foods of the land. When put to the test, they came out stronger and healthier than the other candidates.

This is not to be confused with testing God by putting ourselves in harm's way when not called to do so. However, when we are confronted with a passage in the scripture that challenges our current, familiar way of living we should go with God's word over our familiar and comfortable choices. Ideally, verify that what we see in God's word is what is actually there and that we are interpreting it correctly. However, we can put God's word to a test in our own lives in the same way that Daniel suggested - a short term test to see what God will do.


Are we addressing real issues or surface issues?

Is the church today addressing real issues or surface issues? Many conferences discuss how to get more people in the pews or how to lead different music styles or similar topics. While these are of some importance, are we neglecting the true issue of people's souls by concentrating so hard on getting people in the door? Do we compromise the gospel message in order to attract more people? Do we concentrate so hard on being [contemporary|traditional|blended|a capella] music-wise, that we may not see that some of the words we're singing contradict God's word? Do we water down the fact that we are sinners and in need of a savior because that message offends people?

Similarly, when we make a resolution are we making a choice that affects us on the surface or that will affect us for the long term? e.g. Will a new job really help us or will we just change locations? Will that job have an importance greater than that of putting in our time and going home? Is that new job where God has called us to be?


Our Conceptions
Finally, where do our conceptions come from as Christians? Our conceptions tend to originate with our Denomination, Generation, and Location. That is, those of us living in the DFW area who are Southern Baptist and in our 20's and 30's will have slightly different ideas on how to live our lives than Methodists or Lutherans in the area, or different ideas than people slightly older or younger than us, or different ideas than believers in another country.

With that in mind, we talked about some things to watch out for when considering what has been revealed to us and others.

• Other Denominations have truth as well. We still need to check that against the word of God, but one denomination may be very strong in certain areas which other denominations do not practice to the same extent.
• Other Generations have truth. We can step outside of our own generation to learn from those younger than us and those from the near and distant past. Reading through some of the sermons of preachers such as C.H. Spurgeon or George Whitefield can help us to grow in our own faith.
  
• Other Locations may have a different set of instructions than we do. China was brought up as an excellent example of a country where Christians want to spread the gospel to nations closed to American or European Christians. Those Christians are ready to lay down their lives for the gospel. They have a different location and thus have different opportunities for service.

Where do we go from here?
1. Put God's word to the test. Give God an opportunity to bless you by following His guidelines for living. Give God's word priority over the way our own understanding says is right.

2. Ensure that when making a resolution to change that you are making the right change. Don't just look for a surface change or a quick-fix. Ask God to help you get to the root of your problem and fix that.

3. Seek help from another person. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 offers some great advice on this. A wiser person or someone who does not struggle in the area you feel led to change will be a great help when you are tempted to stray from your resolution.