November 6-12th Family Worship Guide 2022

Bible Passage for the Week
Deuteronomy 25:1-10
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Philippians 1
Psalm 48

Verse to Memorize
Ephesians 2:8-9

Catechism Questions
Q.  What are the Five Solas?
A.   Sola Scriptura
       Sola Fide
       Sola Gratia
       Solus Christus
       Soli Deo Gloria
Q.  What do they mean?
               That we are saved by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone as taught in Scripture alone to the Glory of God alone.

People to Pray for: 
Church:  First Baptist Church Henryville
                Pastor Toby Jenkins
Ministry: Daniel Courney
Civil Magistrate: Election on Tuesday
 
Song Recommendations:

Brethren, we have met to worship
And adore the Lord our God;
Will you pray with all your power,
While we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit
Of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and holy manna
Will be showered all around.

2 Brethren, see poor sinners round you
Slumb'ring on the brink of woe;
Death is coming, hell is moving,
Can you bear to let them go?
See our fathers and our mothers,
And our children sinking down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna
Will be showered all around.

3 Sisters, will you join and help us?
Moses' sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners
Who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior,
Tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna
Will be showered all around.

4 Let us love our God supremely,
Let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners,
Till our God makes all things new.
Then He'll call us home to heaven,
At His table we'll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself, and serve us
With sweet manna all around.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Join me in glad adoration.
 
Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty will do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee,
Decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee.
How oft in grief hath not He brought thee relief,
Spreading His wings to o’er shade thee!
 
Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the amen sound from His people again,
Gladly fore’er we adore Him.

Bible Passage for the Week
Deuteronomy 25:
“The House of him whose sandal is removed.”  It would have been a shameful thing to be known as this.  It meant that you were a man who did not care to fulfill your duty to your family.  Now when we read this passage, we find this all very strange.  And it is strange because it is a command that was meant to be unique to the Old Covenant people.  If a man dies and did not have any children, his brother was to marry the widowed woman and provide her children.  This did two things.  It insured that the brother who died would still have an heir to pass on his inheritance and it in insured that the woman would be cared for.  In the Old Covenant people of God, maintaining the land inheritances in the promised land was important.  This law helped maintain it.  Now that Christ has come this law is not applicable to us but it does not mean that there is nothing to learn from it.  We do still have obligations to provide for our family members and we still have obligations to protect widows.  We also still have concern to leave behind an inheritance for our children.  Furthermore, we still see that children are a blessing.  None of these principles have changed even if this particular law is not applicable.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7
This is a foundational passage for our understanding of God, knowing what the greatest commandment is, and for our purpose in parenting.   The Jews called this the Shema Israel.  It means hear Israel.  The Lord your God is one.  There are four truths found just in that phrase.  
1. He is God. He reigns over all things.  Everyone must and will one day bow the knee to Him.  He alone has prerogative to give commands that all must obey.
2.  He is yours.    His Lord and yet He has a people.  He is a personal God.  He calls to himself a people to be his.  While He is sovereign over all, He is not some distant and unknown God.  He is near.  He chooses His people in love.   We then respond with love.
3.  He is LORD.   Now this may sound like a duplication of point one but when you read the verse in English and it says LORD, you need to know that the word translated there is Yahweh.  It is God’s covenant name.  So when the verse is talking about God, it is not talking about a generic deity but the God of the Bible.  We are talking about the God who reveals himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and onward.  We are also talking about the same God who is triune.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
4.  He is One.   There is only one true God.   There are not multiple gods, nor is God divided.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God in three persons.  While the Father is not the Son, there is a complete union between the Father and the Son.  Because God is one, we do not worship idols or any other so called gods. 
Now there is a whole lot more to be said about this passage.  But spend some time in it with your family.  Teach your children about the one and only true triune God revealed in scripture who reigns over all the earth yet is the personal God who covenants with His people.

Philippians 1
Philippians is a book about rejoicing in difficult circumstances.  The Apostle Paul was in jail and faced all kinds of persecution.  The people he was writing were also facing persecution.  Paul instructs them to rejoice in the fact that they were granted the privilege to suffer for Christ.  Now why or how could they rejoice in that?  To be clear, they are not commanded to be happy about the suffering itself but rather to rejoice through the suffering because it was a sign that they belonged to Christ.  And if they belonged to Christ, they would receive all the rewards of Christ.   Remember that Jesus said that those who suffer are blessed.   Persecution is a sign that you will be rewarded.   You can give thanks because for every time someone mocks you, insults you, or seeks to harm you for Christ, they are only piling up your rewards in heaven.  It is also Paul says a sign that your enemy is going to be destroyed. 
 
Psalm 47
This is a Psalm of praise that God is great and protects his people.  Charles Spurgeon says this about the last verse:  He will be our guide even unto death. Throughout life, and to our dying couch, he will graciously conduct us—and even after death he will lead us to the living fountains of waters. We look to him for resurrection and eternal life. This consolation is clearly derivable from what has gone before; hitherto our foes have been scattered, and our bulwarks have defied attack, for God has been in our midst, therefore all possible assaults in the future shall be equally futile.
"The church has all her foes defied
And laughed to scorn their rage;
Even thus for yes she shall abide
Secure from age to age."
Farewell, fear. Come hither, gratitude and faith, and sing right joyously.
 
Catechism/ Memory Verse
Last Monday was Halloween and Reformation day but the truths of the reformation are still vital.  Our catechism questions are designed to teach your children the foundational principles of the reformation.  These principles are foundational truths of the gospel.  We are not saved by our works but by the good grace of God which we receive by faith.  Christ Jesus is the only one who can save us.  Even the faith we have is a gift from God.  Therefore God gets all the glory.  This is the promise of God promised in His word which reigns supreme over all authorities.

People to Pray for:
It is hard to believe but it wasn’t all that long ago that we were gathering for worship in Henryville.  God has blessed us as we have moved to Jeffersonville.  We still desire that the gospel go forth in Henryville.  There are a couple of faithful churches still there proclaiming the gospel.  First Baptist Church of Henryville is one of them.  Pastor Toby Jenkins asked us to pray for him as he preaches that he will be bold to proclaim the word and the people will have tender hearts to receive it.

Daniel Courney is back in the states for a short break from his work in Asia.  He is traveling around preaching on the West Coast now.  Pray for safe travels and the Holy Spirit to give him power in his preaching.

This week is election week.  God is sovereign over all nations.  Jesus rules them with a rod of iron.  We can take comfort in this as we fulfill a good and godly duty and privilege to vote for our leaders.  Pray as you vote that you will be wise in your selection.    Do not vote for those who openly support the slaughter of children and the promotion of sexual immorality.  The democrat party is wicked.  The republican party is not much better.  It can be hard to know what to do.  My advice is to recognize that politics is the art of the possible and vote for those whom you think will make the best decisions for the good of the people and the law of God.  There are no perfect candidates.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  Even when voting for the lesser of two evils, one of the candidates will still be better than the other.  Be principled and wise.   And pray.  Pray that our nation will repent.  Pray that godly will raise up godly civil rulers who will do what is right.

Church History Spotlight
Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon missionary to Utrecht in the Netherlands
658 – November 7, 739 AD
 
Willibrord, first Archbishop of Utrecht, was one of the missionaries sent out by the Anglo-Saxon Christians about a century after they had themselves been Christianized by missionaries in the south and east of England from Rome and the Continent, and in the north and west from the Celtic peoples of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. He was born in Northumbria in England about 658, and studied in France and Ireland. In 690 he set out with 12 companions to preach to the pagans of Frisia. His work was interrupted several times by wars, and he left for a while to preach to the Danes instead.  Boniface, the man who chopped down Thor’s tree, knew Willibrord and wrote that he destroyed the Frisian pagan sanctuaries and temples as the people were converted.  He also used the “sacred” cattle that they use to worship for food and defiled the false god’s “sacred” wells by using the water for baptism.

Deuteronomy 12:2-3 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.