R.C. Sproul Jr. is the founder of the Highlands Study Center in Mendota, Va., which seeks to help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives to the glory of God and for the building of His kingdom. Dr. Sproul travels extensively as a conference speaker and has written several books including Tearing Down Strongholds, When You Rise Up, Bound for Glory, and Biblical Economics.
Dr. Sproul Jr. began his message with a celebration of his daughter Molly's 7th birthday (which is tomorrow). We all sang happy birthday to her. Then Dr. Sproul Jr. took us to Exodus 3, the passage in which Moses observes the burning bush. God tells Moses to go tell Pharaoh that He, God, was the one who lifted up Pharaoh.
Executive Bible Summary?
Dr. Sproul Jr. proceeded to confess that he loves to read--anything. The back of the cereal box, the Sky Mall on an airplane, anything. He mentioned a service whereby business leaders have executive summaries written for them (for various books) as they do not have much time to read. That made Dr. Sproul Jr. wonder: "Is there a market for this? I could publish executive summaries about the Bible for Christians who are too busy to read it."
Just look at the first commandment in the Bible: "Be fruitful and multiply." Sounds like a good executive summary. Or look at Moses; he received the Ten Commandments. Sounds like a good executive summary. Or how about Micah? He got a good executive summary: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
But we're New Testament Christians. Jesus told us to "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." Or Peter got one, "Feed my sheep." So what should we do, as we have all these different executive summaries. Well, as Presbyterians, we can look to the Westminster Confession: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."
Christians of old glorified God, but not as much in their life as after they died. You see, after we die, we see God as He is, and we can truly glorify Him. We understand that glorifying God and enjoying God is one and the same thing. (As John Piper has written, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.") And we are most satisfied in Him when we are more like Him, when we revel in His glory, when we fully become what we were made to be.
Adam and Eve glorified God prior to the Fall. What was lost in the Fall? The pinnacle of Eden became the valley of the curse. In that garden we walked with God.
Two Names For God
There are two names of God given in Exodus 3. God gives as His name I AM. But He also gives this as His name: The Lord,the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You see, God is both transcendent and near. He is mighty and awesome, but He also calls us each by name.
In my family, says Sproul Jr., we don't do "family devotions." Doing "family devotions" smacks of formality and duty. Instead, says Sproul Jr., when we gather before God, we do so to worship Him. The great I AM invites us to be with Him, that He might be our God, and that He might be the God of our children. And that He might lead us into great joy.
But as moderns, we tend to refuse this. It's not practical--or so we think. Oh, but it is. One of the blessings of family worship is that it quiets our souls. It encourages our children to be still and to participate in corporate worship. This is why our children should be with us on the Lord's Day. Meeting on the Lord's Day reminds us of our identity as a family of faith. Meeting together for corporate worship as a family reminds us of our identity.
Marva Dawn tells us that worship is a "royal waste of time." What does she mean? Worship, unlike our other goals, is an end in and of itself. We don't do worship for the sake of something else. Everything else we do, we do for the sake of worship. We do it to "bring down high heaven onto our heads."
So, how do we do this?
Doing Family Worship
Sproul Jr. wants to take us through how his family does family worship, but he doesn't want to impose upon us his practice as the only way to do it. His family practices family worship right after the evening meal (they used to do it right before the children went to bed). After supper, he will ask the children, "Please gather the things for worship." A child will gather the books and present them to their father.
They begin with their catechism verse. A catechism consists of a series of questions and answers. They start with a short one (50 questions and very brief answers). When they all learned it, they all went out to ice cream. Then, they moved onto the Westminster Shorter Chatecism. When everyone learned that, they all went skiing.
They are currently working through a particular Psalm. Then they read a Scripture and Dr. Sproul Jr. gives a 20-30 second sermon. And the emphasis of the sermon is that whoever the sinner (or foolish one) was in the story, that person is like us. And then Dr. Sproul Jr. prays for his family, after which they sing some of the songs that are regularly a part of their corporate worship at church. Only one child-recommended song per night.
Not very time consuming. Not a duty--a delight.
What to do if you've not been doing this?
Fathers, gather your family and apologize for failing them in this way. Tell them that Jesus came to suffer the wrath of God for failures such as this. Pray and sing in thanksgiving for God's forgiveness for that sin.
But what if you're too busy? Then stop being too busy. What is it that could possibly be more important? The transcendent God is inviting you to walk with Him in the cool of the evening. Will you say to Him: Thanks for the invitation, but I've got an important meeting? Nobody is too busy to draw near to the living God. Nobody is too busy to give up that which is less rewarding for the Source of all joy. Our problem is, as C.S. Lewis said, that we're too easily pleased. We don't properly esteem the value and the joy of what God sets before us.
God is delighted when we delight in Him. Suffer the children to come to Him. We can do this with joy now, because we will be doing it forever.
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