That's where we'll start this morning, but we will be moving quite a bit. More than a year ago, I taught four sessions on Wednesday nights on the topic of family worship. Well, since then, our church has grown quite a bit, and this is something that needs to be refreshed in our hearts and minds on a regular basis. I know that's true for me. It's quite common for the world and the cares of the world and distractions, the stress that is around us to cause us to begin to put our eyes on things temporal and lose sight of the eternal. And the world makes it very easy for us to push the things that should be first and foremost in our lives to the back burner. I know that's true in my own life. It's very easy when I have many things to do on my to-do list for the day to shorten or to set aside altogether my time with the Lord. Has that ever happened to you? You think, yeah, I know I need to read the word, I need to pray, but look, I have so much to do. And it's easy to set that aside. Well, it's the same with family worship. So some of you may be in a place this morning where for some time you did practice this important discipline in the life of your family and it's fallen by the wayside. I hope that this morning will be a reminder and a help to you to begin to practice that faithfully again. But for some of you, this might be a totally new concept. This might be something that you've never really thought about before. that maybe you've heard of it but you're not sure how to do it and you might have a desire but but no confidence and there might be some that think well what's you know why what's the point of that it seems kind of weird to me seems kind of Old-fashioned. I hope to answer some of those questions and help this morning to encourage you, to spur you on to this while also laying a foundation for why it's important. So Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27 is where we'll start this morning. And then just to give you a heads up, we're gonna jump to Romans and Galatians after that. So be the New Testament after we read this passage. Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27 says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. And from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. This is what's referring to what we would call the new birth. when someone is saved. And we can think of this by way of kind of laying a foundation here to get to this idea of family worship. Let's start with laying this foundation here. There's a Latin phrase, it's called ordo salutis. Some of you might be familiar with it. Some of you may not, that's okay. It simply means the order of salvation. And the idea is that salvation is, in some ways, it's a process that God carries out, that he oversees, that he super intends. And there's a beginning point, we'd call that election, and I wouldn't say there's ever really an ending point, but we look to glorification as sort of the final phase of salvation, or being, we might say, fully saved, fully freed from sin and its effects. Well, Ezekiel 36 refers to a point in in that order of salvation. It's the point where God saves someone. And I hope that each of you can look back in your own life and say, yes, I this is whenever I can. I can see when when God did something in my life. Now, terms like regeneration, conversion, justification and adoption. We won't take the time to define all of those. I'm sure you're familiar to some degree with those. But those all happen right there. in this moment of new birth. And this is what Ezekiel is referring to. Now, I want to emphasize something here. This is when God brings a sin-dead person to life. It's not that someone is, you know, they're in the ocean and they're treading water and they're going to drown unless Jesus reaches his hand and pulls him out. That's not what it is. They're at the bottom. There's no life left in them. They're dry bones. And God gives them spiritual life. And new birth happens. But it doesn't end there, does it? We're not taken up in a chariot of fire at that point. Well, it was one, but we're not taken up and we don't go to heaven and spend eternity. We're still here. And there's a work of God in our life that has to do with salvation that continues. Does anybody know what the next phase or the next step of the Ordo Salutis is? I'm gonna give you a chance for some participation this morning. Does anybody have an idea what we call that, the technical term for it? Sanctification, excellent. You get an extra donut this morning, if there are donuts, I'm not sure. So sanctification, Romans 12, one and two, is we're gonna look at briefly, then Galatians 4, 18 through 19, just to to get you ready. I'm going to move quickly, so I want to give you a little bit of a heads up. Romans 12 1 and 2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind and by testing and by testing so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now Galatians 4, 18 and 19 says, it is always good to be made much of for a good purpose. And not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. And then Philippians 1, 6. You don't have to turn there, you know this one. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It might seem strange to say, but after someone is born again, in a sense, our salvation isn't complete. God is still saving us. He's preserving us. He is saving us. It's true that your salvation, your position is secure. I'm not saying that it is on shaky ground. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying it is still happening. You are a child of God and you will be a child of God for eternity, but there is still work to be done, right? Or are you perfect in Christ? Is Christ fully formed in you yet? I know for me that's not the case. There's three principles here. In the first verse it says, Romans 12, one through two, he mentions, he says, be transformed. In other words, there should be some change. That's the idea of sanctification. We go from one state to another, and that state is more and more like Christ, and less and less like the world, more and more love toward God, and less and less love for the world, more and more attention on things eternal, and less and less attention on things of this world, a change. What does that change look like though? It's not defined by us. It's not defined by what we see around us. It's defined by God himself. It says in Galatians, until Christ is formed in you, we are to be conformed to the image of the son, Jesus Christ. If you want to see your goal for Christian living or your goal for your spiritual life, just read the gospels. Look at Christ himself. In Philippians, there's an important principle here. It says that the work that was begun in you, he will bring it to completion. I am sure of this, that he who began will bring it to completion. So it is God who secures it. It is guaranteed. Now, this begs a simple question. How? How? How are we to be transformed? How in the world are we to be conformed to the image of Christ? How does one do that? How can we be sanctified? Is it like justification where God does all of the work? Well no, it's a bit different. Now I'm going to say this, don't jump to conclusions. Let me say this, God doesn't do all the work. Don't drag me off the stage yet, but here's the deal. He does guarantee it. He will absolutely bring to completion that which he started. Yet we are invited, in fact, we're commanded to collaborate with him in this work. So we collaborate with God, we co-labor with God for our sanctification that he does indeed guarantee. There is no credit to us, I'm not saying good job you guys, you guys are making yourself holy, I am not saying that at all. He invites us into this process to show his power. It's not that God needs our help, we're actually the handicap. You know how you say I could beat you in a kayak race with one hand tied behind my back? I'm sure you've said that before. Well, we are the proverbial hand tied behind God's back. So before we start to take credit in our collaboration in this process, let us remember that this all the more shows the power, the glory, the goodness, the mercy of God. That despite our best efforts and he invites this handicap to participate, he brings it to completion, to perfection. So back to the question, how? How does this happen? How do we be transformed? If we're invited to collaborate, what do we do? Well, think of it like this. You are a sheep and you're called to put yourself in the way of the shepherd so that he might care for you. Get in his path so that he would bump right into you. And here's how you do it. I'm going to read three verses. Let's not worry about turning there for time's sake, but you're familiar with them. Let me read them. Here's how to get in the way of the shepherd. Here are the means that God has prescribed for our sanctification. Matthew 4.4. Quoted by Jesus out of Deuteronomy. 1 Thessalonians 5.17. Ephesians 5.18-20. and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You need to remember three words when it comes to your responsibility, the means, the fundamental means that God has prescribed for your sanctification, for your preservation, for your being made holy. Read, pray, sing. That's what you need to remember. Read, pray, sing. And all of this is, of course, reading is reading the scriptures, and even the praying and the singing are scripture-centric. We pray what the scriptures tell us to pray. We pray the promises that we find in the scriptures. We're limited, we're guided, we're corrected by the scriptures in our prayer. And it's the same thing with our singing. So you're to remember three words. What are they? Excellent, excellent. So now it's time to step on some toes. And I'm going to speak especially to the heads of households here. especially you husbands and fathers. Let me read a couple of verses from Ephesians and then I want to try to draw this together with the last minutes that we have to dig down into this idea of family worship. Ephesians 5, 25 through 26 says, husbands love your wives. as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. And then just a few verses later in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes in 6.4, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. So here's where I want to make a further application of what we've learned about God saving work in our lives. We're quite familiar with this concept of we ought to have a quiet time, for example, or we ought to have personal devotions. And I'm sure you're it's clear to you. It's clear to you that I do that because, well, God commands it and it's for my spiritual good. This produces something good in me. This is something that I need. It's like eating a meal. physically gives us strength and energy for the day. It helps our bodies to be healthy. And my personal devotions are like that as well. It's like eating a spiritual meal. It makes me strong in the faith. It helps me avoid sin. It has all of these benefits. That's true. That's right. And that's good. But there is a clear teaching in scripture that we are responsible for not only our personal spiritual well-being. I know I put that awkwardly. We are responsible for other people's spiritual well-being. We're really focused, especially in our society, in our culture, really individualistic, and usually what comes to mind first is, what does this mean for me, or how can I apply this to my life? And even in our devotion to the Lord, it's very individualistic. We don't generally think of it in terms of the corporate sense. We ought to more. It is individualistic in many ways, and that's an important aspect. But brothers and sisters, You are your brother's keeper. You are responsible for the spiritual well-being of those around you. And specifically, husbands, fathers, you are responsible for the spiritual well-being of your wife and of your children. It is not the elder's job. I'm going to qualify that. It is our job. But first and foremost, it is your job. As a husband and as a father to care for your wife's soul and to care for your children's soul. Now, I am seeing I do want to be. aware, and I am seeing some faces out there, of maybe I'm stepping on some toes a little bit. Let me say this, I should have said at the very beginning, I love you very much. And the reason I'm telling you these things is because I love you very much. And there was a time about, oh goodness, five, six years ago, when I was with a brother, a pastor from another church, we were working together to train pastors actually, I was in Kenya. And he looked at me over dinner one night, and the subject had come up, and he caught something in what I said, and he asked me straightforwardly, he said, Ryan, tell me about how you care for your family's spiritual well-being. And I didn't understand where he, I said, well, you know, we, of course, we're in church, I keep them away from evil influence, you know, we don't watch certain movies, and we pray, what are you getting at? He said, No, I want to know how you are as the pastor of your house, how you are shepherding your wife's heart and your children's heart. Wow, I was very defensive, I felt like he was calling into question my spiritual maturity and my leadership of the home, which he was in a very kind way. And something rose up in my heart, a defensiveness, and I was offended. And the reason was because I was guilty. So I was doing a poor job. I had neglected it. Once the Lord convicted me of that, and I pretty soon engaged with him in a proper way, a humble way, and he helped me to see what that truly meant. was one of the key moments in my life as a husband and a father that totally changed the spiritual climate of my house, the way that my children flourish in the gospel, the way that my wife could follow me as a spiritual leader. Practicing family worship has been probably, besides being saved, one of the most incredible spiritual experiences and changes in my life. That's why I'm telling you this. Brothers, it is your job to spiritually care for your family. And one of your initial thoughts are, I'm not sure how to do this. I feel uncertain. Now, let's go back to what we've learned thus far. This is what you need to remember. Read, sing, and pray. We're in the other order. Read, pray, sing. This is how you simply practice family worship on a regular basis with your wife and with your children. Let me give you a simple formula to start even today, to start tonight. Pick out a short psalm. Maybe a psalm that your family's familiar with, Psalm 23 is an obvious example, Psalm 8, Psalm 27, a shorter psalm. And then choose a song, a hymn that we sing a lot here in church that your family knows well, maybe Amazing Grace, and just think of the first stanza, that's all. And then decide, make a little plan for prayer. Maybe you think, okay, I'm gonna ask for prayer requests, or maybe I'm just gonna close this in prayer. And then gather your family together, in the living room, get them in a circle and talk to them about this to start out and say, family, we learned this morning that it's my job to lead you to the Lord through these means. And I realized I haven't been doing a very good job of that. And I wanna do better. Please forgive me for that. And please have patience as I learn how to do that. And tonight, we're going to start. We're going to take a few minutes and do this. So we're going to read a psalm, we're going to sing, and we're going to pray. And then do it. And I would suggest just simply having your Bible open. And if they want to have their Bibles, great. But I wouldn't overcomplicate it too much at first. Have your Bible open and say, I'm going to read Psalm 23. I want you all to listen, and then we'll Maybe we'll talk about it a little bit. So you read Psalm 23 out loud. And one thing that's very helpful, especially with smaller kids, is to ask questions directly out of the text. So you can say, OK, Johnny, this psalm says that the Lord is our what? He's our shepherd. That's good. What does a shepherd do? If the Lord is the shepherd, then what are we? Just simple questions like that to help them understand, or you don't have to comment on it at all. You don't have to ask any questions at all. At first, you could simply just read the text and let the scriptures speak for themselves. Then you say, okay, family, now we're going to sing. Now, part of the reason that I sang at the beginning this morning, one, I love to sing, but also I just wanted to show you that, you know, you don't necessarily need instruments. You don't need a track going to sing along with. You could just pick up a hymnal and, and sing a song out loud and ask your family to follow along. Uh, one of the common objections that I often receive is I can't sing from dads. I can't sing. Is that true? Is that possibly true? It's possible if you don't have a voice. But no one who's ever said that to me is telling me the truth. What do they mean when they say that? Yeah, what they need to say is, I'm a bad singer. And I might say, yeah, that's probably true. That's probably true. That's OK. That's all right. The Lord's work through sound hymns is not hindered by your poor singing voice. In fact, it might be helped. And I want you to think about it this way. Are you willing to withhold spiritual good from your family because you're too prideful to sing? All right, you can beat me up after the service if you want. Don't let that get in your way. Sing with your family. It's a means of grace prescribed in scripture. It's not just something extra. It is commanded. Sing maybe one, the first stanza, that way everyone knows it. Don't think, okay, I'm going to sing Amazing Grace, we know that well, we're going to sing it all the way through. What's going to happen is you're going to get in the middle of verse two and you're going to forget, unless you had a printout or something. But just the idea is keep it short and simple to begin with. And then after you sing the hymn, then you say, okay, family, let's pray together. One thing that I like to do with my family and my kids to allow them to participate in some way is ask them, is there anything that we can pray for? Is there anything that you're worried about? Or is there anything that you would like to give thanks for? Last night when we did this, Seth, our littlest, and you can pray for him, he asked for his bad dreams. Night, really like night terrors at night. He wakes up shaking, screaming. Happened last night several times. He asked for prayer for that. How precious is that? That a six year old has this fear in his life and he's going already to the Lord with it. That's what family worship does. That's what it teaches our children. It's what it teaches our wives and even ourselves. So have a time of prayer. If you have children that would like to pray, please allow them to pray, allow multiple people to pray if they desire to. A common question I get is, one, what if I have a little child who obviously has not made a profession of faith, they don't understand the gospel yet, but they want to pray, should I let them pray? Yes, absolutely, let them pray, let them pray. Don't give them assurance of, oh, now, Be careful not to say things like, well, you know, well, I can't think of an example here, but we want to be careful not to give little children false assurance. We're always teaching them the gospel, leading them to the gospel, but allowing them to pray as a young child before they're saved is good and right. You ought to do that. What if I have a child, a teenager, who does not want to participate at all? That's the other very common question that I get. Especially with families who start this at a later time and they already have teenagers There's some there can be some unique challenges there. What if my teenager is just Souls up and doesn't want to participate doesn't want to come out. I'd say this treat it exactly like church Yes, they must attend. They must be there. They can't be hateful or ugly they need to participate with their presence have their Bibles if that's required and But don't make them pray out loud at that point. Don't even make them read the scripture out loud if they don't want to. Don't force them to do active things if they don't want to do that. Be patient. Be a merciful pastor with your children. Now that is up to you. That's not a command from the Lord. I'm saying this is just some practical advice that I'm giving you based on what I've seen over time doing this myself and talking to other families that have done it. Here's the last thing that I want to say to you about it. If you have more questions, and often there are, please come and talk to me. If you have something to write with, go ahead and pull that out and write this down. 901-468-8676. And underneath it, write Ryan Bush's cell number. And it is. It's really my number. It's not a joke. That's Jimmy's number. He will help you. I give you permission, full permission, to call or text me. about anything, but I'm specifically referring to questions about family worship here. If I don't answer the, I'll tell you this about me, I keep my phone on silent a lot because of the work that I do. I have to do that to get anything done. I'll call you back. Really, the best thing to do is to text me. And if you prefer to talk, say, hey, can we talk? And we'll set up a time through text. I would ask this, just a personal rule of mine. Ladies, if you text me, just include someone else in it, my wife, your husband, a friend, another elder, anything like that. Just include that. I would love to share more with you on an individual basis about that. Also, I would love for your family to come to my house and practice family worship with us. You can see how simple and not polished it is. You are welcome to come and participate. in family worship with us at any point. And if you have a meal with us, if some of you have, you've probably done that because we always do it when we have folks over as a common practice because we like it, we love it, it's helpful. Okay, let me pray for us and then we'll move into our time of corporate prayer. Oh Lord, you are worthy of our worship. And Lord, you're not only worthy of my worship, but you're worthy of my wife's worship and my children's worship, and I desire more than anything that they would give you praise all of their lives, that they would walk faithfully with you, that they would know you. Lord, help us, husbands and fathers, to be faithful in this work. Lord, please forgive us, for we stumble in many ways. Oh Lord, there are days where I I just feel so low and depressed because I'm doing such a poor job at being a husband and a father because of my selfishness and my thoughtlessness, my impatience. Lord, please help me and help my brothers here. I know they struggle with different things as well. Lord, help us to do this for your glory. Lord, we love you, we worship you. Lord, thank you for our church, the body that we have here, Lord. We pray that you'd bless our time, continue to lead us and guide us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.