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. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (Hebrews 12:28)
#2. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18).
Prayer of Praise to God: Refer to the verses above and hymn below.
Hymn: Psalm 6
V1. My soul is also vexed sore;
But, Lord, how long stay wilt thou make?
Return, O Lord, my soul set free;
O save me, for thy mercies’ sake.
V2. Because those that deceased are
Of thee shall no remembrance have;
And who is he that will to thee
Give praises lying in the grave?
V3. I with my groaning weary am,
I also all the night my bed
Have caused for to swim; and I
With tears my couch have watered.
Reading of the Law: Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:19-25).
Silent Confession of Sin/Confession of Sin: O most great, most just and gracious God; you are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; but you have promised mercy through Jesus Christ to all who repent and believe in him. Therefore, we confess that we are sinful by nature and that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have neglected and abused your holy worship and your holy name. We have dealt unjustly and uncharitably with our neighbors. We have not first sought your kingdom and righteousness. We have not been content with or daily bread. You have revealed your wonderful love to us in Christ and offered us pardon and salvation in him; but we have turned away. We run into temptation; and the sin that we should have hated, we have committed. Have mercy on us, most merciful Father! We confess you alone are our hope. Make us your children and give us the Spirit of your Son, our only Savior. Amen.
Reading of the Gospel: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 45
Question #116
Q. Why do Christians need to pray?
A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And also because God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking God for them.
Question #117
Q. What is the kind of prayer that pleases God and that he listens to?
A. First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, revealed to us in his Word, asking for everything God has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must fully recognize our need and misery, so that we humble ourselves in God’s majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. That is what God promised us in his Word.
Question #118
Q. What did God command us to pray for?
A. Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord himself taught us.
Question #119
Q. What is this prayer?
A. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.
Prayer of Thanksgiving: Thank God for good works he is given us to do and for the Spirit who leads us to do them.
Prayer of Supplication: Ask God for opportunities to be witnesses for him and for good health.
Bible reading and commentary:
Read: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Paul wants the Corinthian Christians to open their hearts to him (v 13), so that they can receive the grace of God immediately (vv 1-2). To accomplish this, Paul commends himself by the use of paradox. First, Paul’s circumstantial hardships (6:4-5) are evidence of the enduring strength he receives from Christ, who himself endured afflictions, beatings, and ultimately death. Second, Paul’s internal spiritual realities (v 6) stand in stark contrast to the external, “boasted mission” of the “super-apostles” who have captured the church’s attention (11:5, 12). Third, even Paul’s external displays (6:7) are spiritual in nature – all dependent upon God’s Word and power. Finally, the apparent tragedies (vv 8-10) are overshadowed by the actual victories that Paul is experiencing in the gospel.
No one wants to have “restricted” affections, but that is exactly what we find when we grow suspicious of the gospel (v 12). The result is that our present circumstances overwhelm us, our internal spiritual life becomes dull, our attention shifts to external performance, and we live by what apparently seems true rather than what actually is true. When we embrace the upside down realities of gospel by faith, all of this is set right. The gospel gives up wide-open hearts toward individuals who approach us with narrow, closed hearts (vv 11-12). We should pray for our hearts to be opened even more that they are to these upside-down, unrestricted gospel affections, as we “walk by faith, not by sight (5:7).
Paul uses an interesting phrase in verse 1, which is “not to receive the grace of God in vain.” So, what does it mean “to receive the grace of God in vain.”? The answer lies in the relationship between grace and gratitude. To receive God’s grace in vain is to fail to respond with gratitude that demands we live the rest of our lives in glad obedience to God (2 Cor. 5:15). The fitting response to grace is gratitude. Importantly, the same Greek word expresses both words, grace and gratitude. In Christianity, theology is grace and ethics is gratitude.
Gratitude should be a distinguishing feature of us, as Christians, throughout our life, not grumbling. Colossians 2:6-7 says: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Christians should overflow with thankfulness to God. The beginning verses of Psalm 103 reflect the gratitude that we declare as we understand what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. If we live gratefully to God for his Son, then we live holy lives. We impoverish our spiritual lives if we live ungratefully.
But as we all know from experience, we do not hold onto the joy we have in God’s kingdom for long. Our hearts are quick to change and memories are all too short. One reason for the establishing the Lord’s Supper, and our need to meet regularly around his Table, is to remind us of his grace and the joy that comes with the celebration of Communion with him and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, so that we resolve to live thankfully. Grace leading to gratitude destroys our natural disposition to resist God and it causes us to delight in his law in a way that non-Christians can never do. Gratitude motivates us for service to Jesus and his people. Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians not to receive God’s grace in vain is just as relevant for us today. The evidence of its reception into a Christian’s heart is that it does its work in us, not just externally, but it works in our very being to bring about thankfulness and joy that transcends all understanding.
Paul’s open heartedness is why he writes with such feelings (v 11). This direct approach rose from Paul’s and his colleagues’ love for the Corinthians. Paul longed that they would reciprocate. We can feel the tension in their relationship as in our own relationships; we can tell when people are hesitant to open up to us. The best way forward may be to open ourselves up to them, rather than simply grumbling and regarding them as a lost cause. It may cause us to feel uneasy and it may even cause them to shut down even more, but that is the path of love and the kind of behavior that honors the Lord Jesus and the new covenant. All praise, honor, and glory to our triune God.
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: He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Cor. 12:9).
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.