Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Exodus 20:4

The Ten Commandments are wonderful laws to live by, for all time, eternal and universal. When we build our families upon them, they become our strength. The first commandment tells us who to worship: “No other gods.” (Exodus 20:3) The second commandment tells us how to worship. Understanding this, we can begin learning family worship.

First, we must have a proper conception of God. Man is incurably religious; if he doesn’t worship the true God in the right way, he will worship something else. There are all kinds of false idols: we make idols of ourselves, money, family, popularity, pleasure or sex, and sports.

Exodus 20:4-5 reads, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..."

This holy, righteous jealousy of God means He will not compete with our toxic idols, for they represent our lust, greed, war, and vengeance. False worship is iniquitous; it corrupts the mind. The greatest thing we can do for our children is to teach them to worship.

2 Chronicles 26 tells the story of King Uzziah, who decided to worship God in a way that was forbidden. His disobedience led to his son’s sins, and his grandson’s sins, each one of his descendants drifting further from the correct conception and picture of God. Adrian Rogers says, “Sin never hurts just one person; understand that. We’re bound up in our humanity together. And the most hideous result of sin is its effect on the sinner’s children.”

In 2 Timothy 1:5-6, Paul said to Timothy, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.”

The law of sowing and reaping works for good, too. True worship leads to generations of believers, each as devoted to God as the last.

Apply it to your life

Do you worship the one true God? Do you worship Him in spirit and in truth? Do your children know that you love Him more than anything else?