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Sermon preached on Deuteronomy 6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/24/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
I wanted to deliver a sermon about family worship, also known as family devotions. I then realized it would be helpful to contrast family worship with the corporate worship we do at church. At that point, I decided to make this a three-point sermon and also talk about our individual devotional times that can be called private worship. Our sermon then will consider church, family, and private worship in three points.
By way of introduction, let me note that worship is not just about our singing to God. The Bible uses the language of “serving” God to describe all our various acts of worship. For example, while singing to God is worship, so is prayer, meditating on God’s Word, tithing, taking a solemn oath in his name, and more. Some acts of divine worship are only appropriate in a church worship service, such as the sacraments. But many other acts of worship are quite fitting beyond the church service and vary depending on whether it is a church, family, or private setting. Since John 4 says that God seeks worshippers, today’s message will help us think of how our whole life can be oriented around the worship of God.
Let’s begin with corporate worship, the worship we do at church in our official worship services. If you are not familiar with that word “corporate” in regards to worship, “corporate” comes from the Latin word “corpus” which literally means body. So, corporate worship is the worship the body of Christ does as the assembled church. We can tie this into our text today when we look at verse 4, “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Moses there addresses the corporate people of Israel. He calls the whole congregation to be a worshipping people. That verse was deemed so foundational to old covenant worship that it became used as a creed in synagogue services. The Bible repeatedly calls the church to worship as the assembled people of God, as Psalm 149:1 says, “Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!”
The terms used in the Bible for church highlight that its identity is related to its assembled nature. Most English translations don’t use the word “church” in the OT, but translate Hebrew words that describe it as “assembly” or “congregation”. Likewise, the NT work for “church”, ekklesia, literally means “assembly”. The church, in its chief expression, is God’s people congregating or assembling together for worship. We even call it in English a “congregation”. The church congregates for worship.
Let us recognize then that the church is a specific institution God has created. It has a defined membership, all those baptized into it in good standing, members in the covenant community. It has a defined government, with ordained officers. It has an apostolic commission to evangelize, disciple, and especially conduct formal worship services. These factors are relevant when we think out our corporate worship as a church. Elders, especially collectively, oversee the corporate worship services. The pastor is a minister of the Word and Sacrament, meaning he’s been duly ordained as an authorized spokesman for Christ’s church. In the worship services, the minister is often speaking on behalf of God, and thus ministerially delivering the Word in its authority that comes from God.
One ramification of the way God has organized the church, is that there are some aspects of worship that are inherently unique to corporate worship settings, i.e. times when God’s people are gathered together in holy assembly as the body of Christ. For example, the sacraments are only fitting in a church context because they are ordinances for the church covenant community. This is why they would ordinarily be conducted in a church worship service. Baptism is the church ordinance for bringing people into the church. The Lord’s Supper is the church ordinance for celebrating being a part of the church. In a similar way, there are certain roles that ordinarily only an ordained minister would perform, such as preaching, administering the sacraments, and pronouncing the blessings of the benediction and salutation. Those functions flow from him role as a pastor authoritatively speaking on behalf of God as a minister in the church. This is why we distinguish when say an intern is giving a message on a Sunday as part of his preparations for ministry, we refer to it as an exhortation, not a preached sermon. While that might seem like just a pedantic difference, we are wanting to recognize an authority from God that a minister brings in his public speaking ministry, as 1 Peter 4:11 says, that he speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God. These aspects that are unique to church worship settings, like the sacraments, are not something to be done in family or private worship. Similarly, those functions that are unique to ministers like authoritative preaching, pronouncing church benedictions, etc., should only be done by those duly ordained to such.
What then does corporate worship at church look like? I would refer you especially to our trifold worship bulletin for a detailed answer. There we find that ordinarily these services are conducted on the Lord’s Day. We strive for them to be biblical with an emphasis on the spiritual instead of the physical or the external. We strive for our acts of worship to be done in unity, recognizing that it is a time for worshipping together not individually. We order the service as a dialogue, a back and forth between God speaking and us responding, recognizing that worship is a meeting of God with his people. We have several elements in our worship services, including God’s speaking to us in the call to worship, scripture readings, assurance of pardon, preaching, administration of the sacraments, and the blessings. We respond in several ways including with prayer, congregational singing, attentive listening, and confession of our faith.
My application for this first point about church worship is simply to point you to the exhortation of Hebrews 10:25. It commands us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. As we’ve seen, the church conducts worship services that stand different and above any family or private worship. There is no way that family or private worship can ever be a replacement for the worship we do as a church. So, thus God commands us to not forsake this corporate worship that we do as the gathered congregations of Christ’s church. May God renew each of us in joy and zeal to gather on the Lord’s Day for corporate worship!
Let us now turn in our second point to consider family worship. Family worship involves the various acts of worship, including devotional times, that you have as a family or household. We see this general idea here in this passage when it speaks to heads of households of the environment they are to create in their homes, one where God is always in view. Verse 7 says that God and his laws are to be taught to the children in the home and in various other places, showing the principle is less about doing it just in your home. Rather, family worship, including instruction in the Lord, is to be present in a family wherever they may be. That especially includes the home since that is where families spend so much time, to the point in verse 9 that it speaks of writing God’s laws on the doorposts of the house and on the gates. Surely that is not so much about the literal act of pasting a Bible verse on the door as it is about having God’s Word present throughout the home in various ways. Down in verse 20 this is further developed by imagining the conversation that a son might have with their father about the way of the Lord, which speaks to the value of catechism in the home. Another helpful verse when thinking about the call for family worship are the words of Joshua in Joshua 24:15, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” That’s worship language, so Joshua speaks of how his house and family will be one that worships the one true God.
So then, what does family worship look like and what does it entail? Let me begin by saying that there is quite a lot of biblical freedom for how family worship might happen. We see various Scripture that tells us about the sort of worship that should happen in the home and family, but without a lot of strict requirements for the details. For example, frequency is not clearly specified. A passage like this one speaks less to frequency but rather an environment where God and his ways are continually discussed. I’d recommend a both/and approach. Families how found it helpful to generally set aside specific times in their schedule to be intentional in family worship. But that should be paired with expressions of worship that are present throughout the day. For example, pray before every family meal together and be intentional to speak of the Lord in your conversations. But then find a time that works best for the family for something more focused on family worship. Often people find the time immediately following a family dinner to be the best. You would also not go wrong if you did something both morning and evening.
The head of house, who ordinarily is the father, should take the lead on this. The rest ought to follow his lead. The head of the house should remember not to make this a burden by being overly long or something tedious. He should remember he is not a pastor and shouldn’t act like such in his leadership. He should be thoughtful when life circumstances of family members might require some flexibility to the normal schedule. He should remember this is not a formal church service, which not only means he shouldn’t have the family do things that are unique to corporate worship like the sacraments, but it also means he should take advantage of the more informal nature of a family worship setting. A more informal setting provides different opportunities for discipleship. You can get everyone involved in the reading and the praying and the discussion in a way that doesn’t happen at church, and that can be a real blessing.
What all to include in a time of family worship? First, it should involve Bible reading and instruction. Ephesians 6:4 calls fathers to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. While that is a fulltime duty, a concentrated time during a session of family worship is very helpful. I recommend having some plan here. You can read some scripture, a chapter or so at a time is a good starting place. Consider alternating which family member is reading the passage. (Make sure to give the passages with the hard to pronounce names to your kids – it’s good for them.) After the reading, you can discuss it briefly; some passages might elicit more discussion than others. Some might find a devotional helpful to guide you. If you pair your Scripture time with the Shorter Catechism or reading from the Westminster Confession, that can bring some systematic teaching to help you mature in thinking how the Bible all fits together. When using the catechism, repetition is the key, working through a question or few at a time, over a period of time. You should give consideration to the age of your children. For example, if you have very young children, you may want to use the Children’s Catechism. Whatever devotional books you may use, my main encouragement would be that they be theologically sound, and I’m happy to advise on any specific resource. Overall, there’s a lot of flexibility in this, so enjoy thinking of how to bring God’s Word into your family.
Second, in addition to Bible reading and instruction, your family worship time should involve prayer. Now, fathers, it will be natural for you to lead your family in this. But I would encourage you to foster an environment that gets everyone in your family praying. Your family worship time can discuss prayer requests that are pertinent to your family’s circumstances, and then go around the circle to pray together. Young children especially learn how to pray well by example and practice, so this provides both of that. I think of how Jesus demonstrated this, often praying with his disciples. Jesus clearly was the lead in prayer among that group, but he also got them praying too.
Third, singing to the Lord is a great thing to do in family worship. Psalm 118:15 says, “Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.” We also see that Jesus would sing with his disciples. By the way, if you are not that familiar with our hymnal, this can be a great way to learn it. You can even use the app to play the music for you. Again, if you have young ones, teach them some simple, yet scriptural, songs to get started, like “Jesus Loves Me”.
There is so much value in family worship, creating the environment that we see described in today’s passage. One where God is worshipped in various ways, throughout the day, and even in more concentrated moments. Family worship reminds us that worship is not just a Sunday thing or at church. It can help establish a pattern and rhythm of daily and weekly worship as you attend to both church and family worship. It helps buttress our faith against all the lies that we will hear when we go out of our homes into the world. For young children, family worship also helps train them to sit in a church service as they learn to do that first in your times of family worship. Lastly, you surely won’t find yourself very mature in the faith if your only Bible instruction all week is the Sunday sermon. While the weekly sermon is very important, we all need to daily be fed by God’s Word in some way.
I hope this encourages you to have family worship, if you haven’t been doing so. Realize, you don’t need kids in the home to have family worship. If you are struggling to fit it into your schedule, a good starting point is Sunday afternoons as a way to further sanctify the Lord’s Day. If you need help on more resources or ideas, I recommend using “The Family Worship Book” by Terry Johnson or “Family Worship” by Joel Beeke for such.
Let’s now turn in our third point to consider private worship. An older term to describe this is “secret worship”. A newer term is “quiet time”. Whatever you call it, I am referring to the individual times of personal devotions you do as an individual. Now, obviously if you are in a household of one, your family worship will be your private worship. That is perfectly fine. But if you are in a household that practices family worship, I would like to strongly encourage you to not see that as a replacement for also times of individual, private worship.
This passage reminds us of how our worship has an individual aspect too. After addressing the assembly of Israel in verse 4, Moses then switches to speak in the second person singular, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your might.” Again, in verse 13, he speaks in the second person singular, “It is the LORD your God you shall fear, him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.” That is worship language there. When he speaks, I believe metaphorically, in verse 8 that we should bind God’s laws on our forehead and our hands, that speaks to the individual. Individuals have lots of way they are to personally and even privately worship God. Indeed, we can remember Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that emphasized especially the secret nature of such worship, so that your worship is only seen by God and not men. Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time for public expressions of worship at church and with your family. But it does teach there is an important part of a healthy relationship with God that you engage in secret or private acts of individual worship.
This private worship generally especially involves prayer along with Scripture study and meditation. Singing is certainly appropriate too. We see various examples of the private worship life of the saints. The psalms show people like David in private worship morning and night and throughout the day. Daniel’s example was three times a day. Jesus took extended times of solitude for prayer both in the evening and the morning (e.g. Matt 14:23 and Mark 1:35). For many of us, even just briefly once a day would be a big improvement. If trying to fit this in alongside your family worship, try doing something right from your bed, when you first wake up, and again, right when you go to bed. You could add something into your lunch break for a third time. Again, it need not be a burden, or overly long, but I’m sure most of us could be encouraged to more regularly practice our private worship. Again, we have devotional tools to help you. I encourage you to see how prayer and Scripture reading can come together in meditation as you talk through God’s Word and turn it into prayer to God and look for personal application.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, today we’ve reflected on three important venues for worship, church, home, and in private. These different settings of worship all contribute to that chief goal in life, seeking to glorify God and to enjoy him. May we strive for faithfulness and diligence in each of these.
As we conclude our message, I want to remind you of our motivation in our ongoing worship. We don’t worship in order to be made right with God. We worship because we have already been made right with God through faith in Jesus. Don’t replace “justification by grace through faith” with “justification by if I’ve done enough quiet times lately” or “justification by how faithfully I attend church.” Yes, you should faithfully attend church, but not in order to be justified. Yes, our homes should be engaged in family worship, but not order to earn salvation for anyone in it. Yes, a healthy Christian should pray and meditate on the Word regularly, but not in order to be justified. Christ died for all the ways we fall short in our duties, including in our duty of worship. Our worship should not be motivated to make God accept us. Our worship should be motivated because we have already found divine acceptance by being saved in Christ Jesus.
Yet, it does seem right to point out that your faithfulness to worship God will surely have an effect on your spiritual health. When we worship, we are making use of God’s means of grace. If you aren’t diligently using those means of grace, you will surely find your soul negatively impacted. Yet, if you are diligent to worship, it will be good for your soul. I love that worshipping God is not only our duty but it is also a blessing. Let’s indeed seek to worship him, at church, home, and in private, for his glory and our good.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
