Family Worship Guide

Scripture Reading:
#1. Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” (Psalm 66:1-4)

#2.: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:25-26)

Prayer of Praise: Great God (Psalm 95:3), God of gods (Psalm 136:2), Living God (1 Timothy 3:15)

Hymn: Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Reading of the Law: And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)

Silent Confession of Sin/Confession of Sin: Holy Lord, we have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find your mind in your Word, of neglect to seek you in our daily lives. Our transgressions and short-comings present us with a list of accusations, but we bless thee that they will not stand against us, for all have been laid on Christ.

Reading of the Gospel: And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 47

Q. #122

Q. What does the first petition mean?

A. “Hallowed be your name” means: Help us to truly know you, to honor, glorify, and praise you for all your works and for all that shines forth from them: your almighty power, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and truth. And it means, Help us to direct all our living— what we think, say, and do— so that your name will never be blasphemed because of us but always honored and praised.

Prayer of Thanksgiving: Thank God for the blessing he bestows and for his promises that will come true.

Prayer of Supplication: Ask God to bring salvation to those who are close to you who do not Christ as their savior and for help for those who are in need both spiritually and physically.

Bible reading and commentary: 2 Corinthians 7:2-16

In this section of Paul’s letter, he shows that he is comforted by the Corinthians’ response to the gospel. His earlier descriptions of comfort in affliction (1:3-11) are true in his own life. It is the change that he sees in their lives that brings Paul much comfort (7:7, 13). This transformation is characterized by their response of godly sorrow and repentance (vv 9-10) to Paul’s difficult letter (v 8).

These verses give an excellent example of grace in action. Paul receives comfort in his affliction from Christ (1:5). This gives him the confidence and grace to write a difficult letter to the Corinthians in which he speaks the truth in love (7:8; 2:1-11). Their response is godly sorrow that leads to repentance (7:10). Their repentance leads to a renewed zeal for godliness (v 11). As they are energized by the Spirit they become a source of refreshing joy to their leaders through their obedience to the gospel (vv 13, 15). Subsequently, Titus experiences rejuvenation, which causes Paul to rejoice even more (v 13). The gospel transformation is personal and interpersonal. Paul passes on the comfort he has received from Christ to the church and the effect is a furtherance of the grace he received (v 10), which is cause for both comfort and rejoicing vv 13, 16). This should be the regular consequence of Christians meeting and enjoying fellowship. The good things Paul has reported to Titus about the Corinthians before his visit had proved true. Titus was impressed by their prompt obedience, and careful and sensitive hospitality (v 15). Paul could not have been more proud of them.

The sorrow that God uses to bring us to repentance and salvation (v 10) is not like the sorrow of the world. Usually the cause of the sorrow of the world is more about being caught in a sin. Being sorry for being caught will not lead to repentance or salvation. Biblical repentance has three main components: contrition, confession, and conversion. It brings benefit and never loss (v 11).

Distress, whether deserved or not, may drive us to God. It then brings immeasurable gain. Such profit was great and evident in the Corinthian church. Their godly sorrow served to prove the genuineness of their spiritual life. They became more earnest and were eager to clear themselves. At every point they showed themselves eager to put things right.

The apostle Paul practices a fundamental principle of good relationships. If we always see the best in people and not the worst in them, then we are showing them Christian love. We are called to love even our enemies; therefore we must find the good in them. Since God is perfectly good and all humans are made in his image then there must be some good in all. This is not saying that there are good people because the Scriptures teach that there is no one good, no not one. But there is good to be found in all. It is easy to find faults in everyone, but that should not be our focus. God loved us while we were still sinners. Again, we need to show the love of God to others by doing good to all, especially the household of faith.

In our day and age we are taught by the culture that love is a feeling. If we love someone we would never disapprove of them or what they do. But the Bible makes it clear that love is costly. John 15:12-13 says: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. In that passage, Jesus emphasizes the cost of love. Having told us to abide in His love (John 15:1–11), Jesus begins to unfold what abiding in His love looks like. Love means loving others as Jesus has loved us, particularly in laying down our lives for our friends (vv. 12–13). Our Savior obviously makes an allusion here to His atoning death on the cross that turns away the wrath of God (Rom. 3:21–26), and this means we must first consider what laying down our lives for our friends does not entail. After all, none of us is the spotless Lamb of God sent to save sinners, so none of us can lay down our lives in exactly the same manner as Jesus. We cannot love others as Jesus has loved us in the sense of atoning for their sin; however, there are other ways in which we can imitate the love of Christ. For example, Christ loved us so much that He was willing to leave His place of glory with the Father in order to pay for our sins on the cross (Phil. 2:5–11). We, likewise, can refuse to exploit our privileges in order to meet the needs of others. Furthermore, Jesus spent His life in service to others, healing the sick and teaching God’s truth. Similarly, we can spend our lives in service to others, helping even those who seem the least deserving of our assistance and pointing people to Christ.

Closing Hymn: The Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. Amen.

Closing Scripture: When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously (Dan. 6:10).

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