Family Worship Guide
“Grace” (1918)
The leadership at Westminster is committed to serving and enabling godly families in their pursuit of truth, obedience, and sanctification. We believe that the family is God’s design for people everywhere. Because of this, we are excited to offer you this resource to assist you in family worship. Look for a new guide every week.
Family Worship Guide
Scripture Reading:
#1. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you (Psalm 63:1-3).
#2. This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us (1 John 3:23).
Prayer of Praise to God: Refer to the verses above and hymn below.
Hymn: All for Jesus
1 All for Jesus! All for Jesus!
All my being’s ransomed pow'rs,
all my thoughts and words and doings,
all my days and all my hours.
2 Let my hands perform his bidding,
let my feet run in his ways;
let my eyes see Jesus only,
let my lips speak forth his praise.
3 Worldlings prize their gems of beauty,
cling to gilded toys of dust,
boast of wealth and fame and pleasure;
only Jesus will I trust.
4 Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I’ve lost sight of all beside;
so enchained my spirit’s vision,
looking at the Crucified.
5 O what wonder! How amazing!
Jesus, glorious King of kings,
deigns to call me his beloved,
lets me rest beneath his wings.
Reading of the Law: And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 John 2:3-6)
Silent Confession of Sin/Confession of Sin: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare those, O God, who confess their sins. Restore those who are penitent, according to Your promises declared to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for His sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.
Reading of the Gospel: And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (Col. 1:21-22)
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 46
Question #120
Q. Why did Christ command us to call God “our Father”?
A. To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer what should be basic to our prayer—a childlike reverence and trust
that through Christ God has become our Father, and that just as our parents do not refuse us the things of this life, even less will God our Father refuse to give us what we ask in faith.
Question #121
Q. Why the words “in heaven”?
A. These words teach us not to think of God’s heavenly majesty as something earthly, and to expect everything needed for body and soul from God’s almighty power.
Prayer of Thanksgiving: Give thanks for our local church having two worship services on Sunday and for our musicians.
Prayer of Supplication: Ask God for help with your struggles and to help us rely more on Christ than ourselves.
Bible reading and commentary:
Read: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
Christians are beneficiaries of God’s new community. Because Jesus has been crucified we have access to the presence of God along with other believers. By the work of the Spirit, we are all being gloriously transformed. Here, Paul calls us to live lives that are in accord with these new covenant realities which are based not on external conformity to the law but on heart commitments that result in true holiness, especially in our relationship with unbelievers (6:14-16a).
The image of being yoked draws to mind two animals unsuited to work together, like a massive ox and a small donkey trying to plow side by side, or Arnold and Gary carrying a piano side by side. In the same way, believers and unbelievers have different operating principles and goals; unbelievers glorify themselves, believers glorify God. Just as Christ has nothing to do with Satan (6:15), and light has nothing to do with darkness (6:14), so the believer must not be intimately yoked and in partnership with an unbeliever. This does not mean that we are to have no relationships with unbelievers or evangelism and loving your neighbor (including enemies) as yourself would be impossible. We are not to be in partnerships that allow principles or practices contrary to Christ to control us.
The basis for obedience to this command is not moralism (living morally in order to be loved by God) but the gospel (living morally because we are already loved by God). We are to be set apart (6:17) since we have these promises (7:1). The grounds for our obedience are God’s new covenant promises that are fulfilled through Christ by the Spirit. We should refuse to identify and partner with idols because “we are the temple of the living God” (6:16), not because we are meritoriously becoming the temple of the living God. We should not touch any unclean thing because we are God’s children, not because we are able by our own efforts to achieve access to his family (6:18), it is by grace alone.
A closer look at the phrase “Do not be unequally yoked to unbelievers” may be helpful. This phrase is usually applied to marriage. 1 Corinthians 7 makes it clear that if we are already married to a non-Christian when we are converted, we have no grounds for separation from that partner. Instead, we are to try and win the spouse over to the Lord Jesus Christ. This principle should also be applied in business. Christians do not do harm to non-Christian business partners by cutting themselves off from them or by leaving the business. Leaving a business for obvious violations of God’s law may become necessary but we must consider the command to love your neighbor as yourself and not leave immediately without first trying to resolve the issue. In a situation like the Freemasons, it may be necessary to depart immediately when the person of Jesus Christ is undermined.
The call to be separate is the call to be different as a result of our new relationship to God. He is holy, and his call to us is to be holy (1 Peter 1:16). By holiness, more than anything else, we show we are God’s children. His adopted sons and daughters want to be like him. By the achievement of such a desire, we honor God.
Our appropriate response to God’s holiness and promises is to ‘cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit’ (7:1). While holiness is essentially the work of the Holy Spirit, he requires our active co-operation. If our reverence for God is in place, so will be our answer to his call to holiness. When we live lives of holiness, the honest and total commitment to God, we demonstrate that we have not received God’s grace in vain.
It is certainly true that our holiness is not what it is supposed to be and Satan will try to encourage us to despair by reminding us of this. We must remember that God’s grace does not complete its work in a day. John Newton put it very well when he said: ‘I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.’ Robert Murray M’Cheyne prayed: “Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be.’ And all God’s people say “AMEN”.
Closing Hymn: The Doxology
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heav’nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Closing Scripture: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter. 4:10-11).
The Lord’s Prayer (together): Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.