[0:00] Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 the armor of God Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities Against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes You may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand Stand from then with the belt of truth buckled round your waist With the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one
[1:07] Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God And pray in the Spirit in all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel For which I am an ambassador in chains, pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should Amen and may God bless this reading of his word Thanks Andy Now for those who are part of the congregation here on a regular basis You'll know that we've been looking at Hebrews in our morning worship for the last number of months
[2:09] And I'm taking a break from Hebrews today, possibly next week And certainly if I do next week then, if I take a break next week then it will not look at it again until the new year But this particular sermon is for the congregation and obviously we hope and pray the Lord uses it for all of us Whether we are here regularly or not and we believe that his spirit is sovereign over these things But probably on Monday and Tuesday I felt a very strong burden not to preach from Hebrews It doesn't happen very often these things but I did and preferred rather to focus on something more specifically congregational today So my apologies to those who are visiting with us but I hope nonetheless it will still be relevant to you Speaking of God in our congregational life
[3:13] Because sometimes I think it can all go along without much thought about applying God into our lives and into our community and into our work It can be quite tame I guess, quite unchallenging and easy and we can come and go from church It doesn't make any difference to our lives in many ways and to us as a community So I want to think of two things particularly today and that will be reflected in our readings The first is really about the Christian life being a battle and the second is the example that we have from Jesus for how we live together So the first is the Christian life is a battle which is obviously why Andy read these words from Ephesians 6 Which speaks about the battle that we are in that it's not against flesh and blood, it's not against people but there is a spiritual battle
[4:20] And to be prepared for that we need to have on the armour of God and we need to be praying So I want to speak for a moment about Kingdom life in St. Columbus to which all of us who come to St. Columbus belong We've seen over these last months and years a degree of God's blessing for which we are very grateful and very happy And we like to see growth, spiritual growth and have seen some spiritual growth in the congregation Not least in some of the committed membership figures over this last month But of course we are hugely imperfect and we struggle in this battle that we face So constantly as people in his wisdom and as leaders we are seeking God's wisdom, his grace and his insight To do something very simple which is fulfil the Great Commission That's what we want to do here, our small part by God's grace and with his favour to reach out with the Gospel to make and keep disciples
[5:28] That's what we're looking to do, we're wanting God to fulfil his prayer among us, your will be done, your kingdom come And we're looking for that and we've sought to do that here as God's made clear some of his purposes As we've tried to be guided by him to have a strong city centre, gathered congregation that is changing a lot all the time But hopefully where there is a focus, a grace and a Gospel focus, where there is training, where there is opportunities to serve And also from that strong core where we hope to go out with the Gospel and plant churches, particularly in communities And particularly churches for people who don't go to church We don't want to start other churches in the city that are going to be filled with Christians Yes, we want a Christian core and the church at the old school house will be an example of that It will be a city group that has gone out with that core
[6:29] But we want that church to be, and the ethos of that church has always been to be a church for those who don't go to church And to encourage them and to reach out to those who are lost with the Gospel So that we will see many people in this city coming to faith in Jesus Christ Whether it's in Morningside, whether it's in the other side of the bypass, whether it's in Craig and Tinney Or whatever it would happen to be And that is kind of fundamental to us So within that we recognise and see that the Christian life for us, as we seek to do this work with God's help And in God's strength and humbly before God, the Christian life is a battle And this is a kind of famous chapter, famous section which reminds us of that That it's not going to be easy for us in the Christian life, either personally or at a church level Because we're engaged in something significant and it is a spiritual warfare
[7:30] And we needn't think that coming to Christ is about having the peace of the graveyard, because it isn't It's about having a peace that passes understanding, usually in the midst of trouble and in the midst of difficulty Rather than apart from that Why? Because Satan all of a sudden is interested in our lives And because we are objects of God's great love and great concern and he wants that to be destroyed There is a spiritual battle going on, if we don't believe that Then we may as well just ditch the cross and ditch the atonement and ditch the concept of our need And ditch the idea of death and ditch the idea of eternity and a significant home one way or another With Christ or separate from Christ Everything goes, doesn't it, with that?
[8:19] It all dissolves, you know, we can't simply just have tea and cakes in the kingdom It's more than that, it has to be more than tea and cakes It's got to be a recognition of this spiritual battle And when we know God's blessing, we can almost formulaically say we will know opposition spiritually Now you can be part of that or you can walk away Individually in your own Christian life or corporately Because sometimes we would rather the easy life, wouldn't we? All of us want the easy life But with that comes spiritual death or spiritual malaise at least So the blessings that we seek and that we enjoy will not come alone And there will always be a battle and spiritually and personally that will be a battle that we strive to
[9:21] Depend on the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ to see our hearts transformed into His likeness So I simply want you to be aware of spiritual warfare in your own life and in the life of the congregation Good churches often implode Good churches often take their eyes off Jesus Christ Our battle is not against other people Our battle is against sin in our own hearts and also the opposition of the evil ones So please be aware of the spiritual dimension to every single thing that happens in your life and in this congregation life Things don't happen randomly, things aren't simply fate or chance There is a spiritual reality of battle but remember it's not an equal battle
[10:23] It's not a battle between good and evil that we're waiting to find out who will win Christ on the cross has been victorious As Christians we are taken from death to life We have victory over the evil one We seek His protection which is why Paul stresses so much That we find our strength in the Lord and in His mighty power And I want you to remember that mighty power that we don't live as a congregation Because we're nice guys, because we've gotten well, because we're just such a great bunch of people in chemistry together We survive and will survive spiritually in the power of the Lord And that is what we will do and without that we will disintegrate He is the heart changer, He's the grace giver He alone will enable us to be humble and He alone can protect us from spiritual darkness and the battle that will easily overcome us
[11:29] We're weak and small and impotent spiritually without His strength He gives forgiveness, He enables miracle to happen at a local level He is sovereign Remember these things, remember them particularly in the dark times of life, in the difficult times And in the struggles that we face That is when we often find grace in the darkness we find His light most beautifully revealed And we go to it and we seek His light and His grace and His protection and His care Remember the power of the Lord, be aware of the spirit of the Spirit as I mentioned Therefore I say and I challenge you to take up the call to prayer I don't want you to go from here and just say again, well that was good there That was pleasant or man didn't you have a grumbly voice today Or whatever it might be, I want you to respond to the challenge
[12:32] To take up the call that God gives here in Ephesians 6 to pray We will die if we don't pray, spiritually, congregational and individually I don't think it's good enough to say well I pray all the time on my own Because we're not just individuals, we're a people and we're called to pray together The great mark of the early church in Acts 2 was that they gathered together under the word for fellowship and the sacrament and prayer That is what marked them out as God's people It wasn't the clothes they wear, it wasn't the building they were in, the denomination they belonged to It was the fact that they were spiritually alert people It was a community prayed to their Father in heaven But also individual prayer, also it's the characteristic of a spirit filled individual As well as a people of God
[13:33] I'm calling you then again to remind yourself and myself to a way of life I'm not encouraging more meetings More rotas for prayer, more organized prayer That will come from the ground up But I'm asking that in every part of our church life we recognise our need of God And that everything needs to be spirit filled And needs to be spirit dependent, the practical things as well as the spiritual things That when we come to be on door duty for the morning and welcome people And lots of new people today, lots of visitors today That we have a five minute time of prayer before that So we are aware of the importance of what we will say and how we will smile Or what we will be able to converse with them about That we will pray when we lead the worship That we will pray for kids church, that we will pray an identity That we will pray for our personal lives and our relationships And it will become natural for us to be a people who are praying
[14:34] And you're not sitting waiting for something to be Objectively done so that you will pray that you're not going to be passively Just waiting for another opportunity or a meeting to pray But you will be a praying people and I will be a praying person It's a great challenge isn't it?
[14:52] So we are not praying as a people, we are playing at Christianity Whatever else we have we don't have genuine spirit filled Christ dependent Christianity And everything in our Christian lives will be connected with that dependence on prayer When we stop praying, when we are no longer in touch with Jesus Christ through prayer Everything will fall apart, it's absolutely what will happen to us Both individually and congregationally We are concerned for our souls, for the place that you play in the kingdom work here Because I don't ever want people to say I enjoy being part of your church or someone else's church We're in this together, we're part of this work together And it's not about sitting and receiving simply and going It's about being And we've had this battle before of not being a task oriented church But rather a people oriented church
[15:53] And that will involve tasks But it is about being a people who are first in relationship with Jesus Christ And with one another So I'm encouraging you, I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you I'm challenging you to rise and pray And if you have no conviction to prayer, I'm asking you to pray for one Because God will give you that conviction If you don't pray in your life, then there's no sense of need, is there?
[16:19] Have you no need for Him? Read again these verses from Ephesians 6 And recognize the armour that He is providing us with The armour of love, the armour of grace, the armour of goodness The armour that enables us to love Him and love one another It is put on by prayer Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests You can't organise that, you can't plan it Well maybe you can a little bit But generally it's about recognizing the work of the Spirit And everything that we do, take the initiative Take the initiative Use the opportunities we already have Wednesday evenings, city group, other times when we pray Multiply them, find a friend that you can pray with Find a partner, partners that you can pray with That you can learn from, that you can be accountable to
[17:20] I do believe that these are great days Potentially greater days But if we become self-reliant If there's anything in our worship, in our life, in our mentality that Promotes self-reliance Then we are on a wide road that leads to destruction We need to be a people who are prayer dependent And you need to wrestle with that You need to wrestle with it in your own life Just as much as I, as a professional preacher of the gospel Need to wrestle with that Preacher can be just as independent and self-reliant as anybody else I love C.S. Lewis's quote about prayer where he says I pray because I cannot help myself I pray because I'm helpless I pray because need flows out from me all the time Waking or sleeping, it doesn't change God
[18:22] It changes me And I think we need that same recognition of dependence as a people As leadership, as individuals That we have the great high priest who prays on our behalf constantly intercedes That's one of the great things we've learned from Hebrews, isn't it?
[18:41] And I hope that we will be inspired to take these words And become more and more and more of a praying people And if you're not a believer today Then you need to fall on your knees and pray Because it's not simply an intellectual assent of the truth Or waiting for something to fall out of the sky It's about pleading for God to redeem you And to save you and to enable you to be Not in a self-righteous, moralistic way of life Where we look down on others and think we've made our way to heaven by our goodness But rather as we see the cross That it took God to go to the cross in order to save us, redeem us That we depend on him and on his grace So that's the first point And I'm going to ask Andy to come up and read the second passage From John 13
[19:48] John 13, page 1081 He ordered the first 17 verses Jesus washes his disciples feet John 13, page 1081 From verse 1 It was just before the Passover feast Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world And to go to the Father Having loved his own who were in the world He now showed them the full extent of his love The evening meal was being served And the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power And that he'd come from God and was returning to God So he got up from the meal Took off his outer clothing And wrapped a towel around his waist After that he poured water into a basin And began to wash his disciples feet Drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him
[20:52] He came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied You do not realise now what I'm doing But later you will understand No, said Peter You shall never wash my feet Jesus answered Unless I wash you You have no part with me Then Lord, Simon Peter replied Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well Jesus answered A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet His whole body is clean And you are clean, though not every one of you For he knew that he was going to betray him And that was why he said not everyone was clean When he'd finished washing their feet He put on his clothes and returned to his place Do you understand what I've done for you?
[21:49] He asked them You call me teacher and Lord and rightly so For that is what I am Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet You also should wash one another's feet I have set you an example That you should do as I have done for you I tell you the truth No servant is greater than his master Nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him Now that you know these things You will be blessed if you do them Amen and may God bless this reading from his holy word Great, it's great to sing praise And we'll be doing that in eternity Because he's worthy I want to look just for a few moments Just at the second passage Okay, neither of these sermons are deep Theological treatises you may have noticed But nonetheless, I think sometimes
[22:52] We can't see the wood for the trees Because we choose to look and not see And sometimes what we see is very obvious And Christ is our example Just as much as the Christian life's a battle Christ is our example And that's really simple, isn't it?
[23:12] We can sometimes make the gospel very complicated We can make the Christian life really complicated We can make church very difficult and complicated But Christ is our example Thinking particularly of serving one another In church and serving one another in our Christian lives And the whole concept of service as believers Again, just to be practical about our situation here We are at a stage of growing And with that comes all the challenges of growth I can speak about my son because he's not here I think I've used this illustration before But Ross sometimes has really sore limbs and legs and stuff, arms And they're growing pains And as he grows, it's painful bone stretch He gets battered about, not by his parents
[24:15] And he grows and it's painful And at some level spiritually, individually Growth is painful, you know, we can't get away from that And also congregationally, there is pain involved in growth We're at a stage where probably there's around about 150 or so people Will come to church, not very many It's a tiny number in terms of the needs of the city But we have seen growth and multiplication a little bit Of what we're doing But along with that growth comes problems Problems of disorganisation, for example That the congregation isn't what it used to be We don't know everybody I go into church and I don't know people And it's impersonal and it's not quite so easy Maybe different people with different ideas and different thinking And we may feel well, there'll be plenty of people When someone asks for something to be done Plenty of volunteers, church is full of people I don't need to volunteer We can become hugely passive and just not become involved
[25:17] Funnily enough, sometimes in a bigger church It's the fear that we're doing the most and then burn out There can be disengagement, there can be suspicions All kinds of things can involve itself Because simply more people More people from different kind of walks of life And different ways of thinking and different ideas of what church should be And simply want to think for a moment about What it means in St. Columbus to serve Because very often we make requests to serve And sometimes no one responds to that Again, wrestling with the concept of being a task oriented As opposed to a people oriented church Because that can become legalistic But if we're a people oriented church Then we'll do tasks, okay Because we care for people and we love them And we want to reach out to others as well with the gospel But there will be organisation, you see And that has to happen sometimes in opportunities
[26:20] And the bigger we are, what we probably need to see Is more people doing less You know what I mean? So that there's a broader and wider range of people involved In serving and using their gifts And that's a great thing Sometimes that's difficult to achieve of course And it's not easy But today we've got an opportunity What I've done today, because I think part of the problems for us sometimes Is how we do that Because we put out emails or something Or we make a request from the front Someone speaking from the front And everyone's listening, they're asking for something Everyone's listening, that's great, I'd love to do that I'll definitely be involved And then the service comes and cup of tea And you meet someone else And then you're back home and you forget to sign up Or you forget to speak to them And you still want to do it But it's the opportunity, isn't it?
[27:10] People don't respond to emails How many emails do you get a week? 153? 621? The church ones always get put into the bin Requests, do they? Or maybe they consider Or you don't have time to consider them all Probably emails the worst way in the world To ask about getting...
[27:28] To do that But there will be opportunities today At the end of the service, see? It's not just a theoretical service I'm going to have three people up here At the end of the service with clipboards Okay?
[27:42] And for example, there was A great presentation I wasn't here But I heard wonderful things about it From Rosie and Craig a few weeks ago About the needs of Bethany And our involvement in that And our commitment to that There was no response from that So Rosie's going to be back up here today She's mean Rosie and you don't want to But that's not the motive, is it?
[28:04] And it's not... We don't want... And I'm going to go on and say about this We don't want the motive to be guilt But what we're trying to do is give an opportunity Where you can see it And when you want to do it You can then go and...
[28:18] Rather than forgetting Because that's what we so often do And I do it more than anyone else Asking about the Cresce Because we're probably at that stage Where we've got about 20 kids And so we need more help And I think she's going to say I want to sign you up for the weekend away And I think there's going to be another person With a clipboard as yet undefined With opportunities for you to sign up Remember that sheet we handed out a few weeks ago With a list of things to sign up to that We've got seven or eight back From a congregation of about 150 So we're looking for some feedback from that Okay, enough said about that Briefly, this passage We are His disciples We are Jesus' disciples And Jesus in this passage Is reminding us of some very important truths He's showing them, as we're told In this passage in verse 1, the full Extent of His love Now that's God That's God the Son That's God the Son
[29:20] Who's showing the full extent of His love Not just a little dribble But the full extent of His love He shows it in this passage That's what Holy Scripture that is inspired says Now we know that there's a deeper Extent and full extent of His love It's not simply washing feet It's more than that Because He talks about cleansing And it's as He goes towards the cross And He says to Peter You know, if you're not cleansed by me We have no part in me And that's not just about washing Smelly feet, it's about Something much deeper, it's about the cross And it's about His work that He's about to do So He recognised that the full extent Of His love involves that And that Jesus Christ in Matthew 20, 28 says that The Son of man came Not to be served, but to serve And give His life a ransom for many So it's linked in with that as well That whole idea of service and giving His life As an atonement for our sins and a sacrifice for us So we recognise that And that's very important because that Therefore, as we talk about serving
[30:22] And washing one another's feet It is in the background of a motive That we have to do so, which is The love of Jesus Christ for us That we are clean That we are right with Him That we have been touched by His grace That we've been accepted It's the whole prodigal, Son concept That we've enjoyed And experienced as believers And that's what motivates us to serve So there's this whole idea of love Being the focus and the motivation For then going on to serve And that's hugely significant Because most of our service If we're honest with ourselves May well be driven by guilt Or driven by a sense of duty Which we'll sometimes come into I'm sure Or for whatever reason But the purest and the best motive That Christ Jesus wants us to have Is gratitude And love for Him And as we see, have love for Him And are touched by His grace And receive the Holy Spirit We therefore have love for other people
[31:24] And want to serve them That is radically counter cultural for us Absolutely In our lives Transformation is from the inside Out It's not about earning Or guilt Anything else Or obedience even Well, it is obedience But the motive Is the grace of God Serving God By serving others I think very often in churches And in our own thinking we are Gift driven when it comes to service We think we serve in a way That we can because we have the gift To do so And it's absolutely right both for leadership To recognise people's gifts And use them and for people with gifts To offer them to God But I don't think it's the whole picture In fact, I don't even think it's half the picture Because this big story here is about Love is doing the stuff And serving
[32:26] In doing the things That nobody else wants to do And nobody else sees Jesus washes the disciples feet here That's the lowest of the low Task It's simply unimaginable for us to understand How miserable and Unacceptable it was for A Spiritual leader to do what he did In washing the disciples feet in this way The lowest slave would be the one Who did this. It's insignificant Service for us Will often be insignificant It's not glamorous Serving Christ by serving One another and I'm thinking particularly in the Christian Community we have here, it's costly It's Unimpressive, it's below most of us Can I say that again, serving is Below most of us We would rather do other things We would rather use our time in different ways We would rather use our multifarious gifts But service for most of us Is beneath us And yet God is saying here Jesus Christ
[33:28] Says you don't need special Ability and gifting to love And to put other people first And to wash one another's feet However that looks for us in our life today Sacrificial and it's humbling And so for this community For example to function Even on a Sunday when we come together We need that servant spirit But much more than that We need a servant spirit with one another In our relationships With one another So that there's a multitude of Serving and gifting There's a multitude of Serving going on that nobody sees That's not rotted Or organised Or on the board at the back Or that anyone knows about Because we are simply doing it for God's Glory because we have seen And responding to need Need that takes us out of our own lives And say oh that is so harsh My life is so difficult and I need People to look after me and serve me That will be the case in life Often do we not find
[34:30] That it's when we serve others That we come out of our own selves And recognise how much we have to be Thankful for And how much God has given to us And how pleasurable it is To serve others, to see the response And to see their love and to see their Gratitude for what we are doing Doing the washing the disciple Doing the ugly and unnoticed and simple Things that we don't have time To do and aren't committed to The love of Christ, the cross What Jesus does here, it speaks of commitment It speaks of real commitment You know at any point during this process We recognise With all the mystery of the divinity That God, Jesus could have turned back He was tempted to turn back He cried out so greatly That blood Poured from his capillaries He knew they were forsaken As if they were not He knew they were forsaken As if the Father was committed to us Took him all the way to his love And his grace took us all the way to the cross
[35:32] It speaks about commitment and commitment There's a terrible fear of commitment In the society in which we live today In Western world and here In the lives we live For whatever reason, whatever cost Is involved We fear the idea of commitment And I think We need to take ourselves back To the foot of the cross Because this congregation I'm saying needs you And we need each other And I'm not just talking about All the formal things Talking about the acts Of service That we need in our lives And I think it brings cleansing and grace Into our community I just want to say In conclusion with related to this Two very important things One, think of who is serving here In the story of washing the disciples feet Think who is doing this washing Of the disciples feet
[36:34] Think about who he is This is Christ, the most spiritually gifted individual Who ever walked the earth This is Christ, the most theologically astute person Who ever walked this life Who had perfect understanding Who was spiritually aware Who was insightful, who was visionary Who was perfect and good And holy and pure And his legacy to us What is it? This greatest of all people His legacy to us is A cross for cleansing And a basin for service That's what he's left us This great King of Kings And Lord of Lords, a cross This is our God The servant king Cross for cleansing and a basin for service That's a totally remarkable thought
[37:35] And it ought to reflect our emphasis And our understanding of church And of Christianity And of what God wants from us This is what he chose to reveal As the full extent of his love Not just a kind of sideshow He wasn't distracted or not thinking straight Because of the cross This is what he wanted the church to have As a model, as a blueprint for Christian living The cross and all that flows from that And the basin for service Think of who it was then Who did this and also Can I just finish with the thought Think of who he's serving Can I leave you with that thought?
[38:26] Think of who he's serving, his disciples Who denied him Who were about to betray him Who were blind to his teaching Who were divisive, who were proud Who were ignorant Who must have in a perfectly holy way Frustrated him That is whose feet he was washing We don't have the 12 perfect church members Before the throne here Before Jesus Christ We have people who didn't understand And who were full of error and mistake And blindness That's who he's served So often is it not our services Predicated on the worthiness of the recipients Or on us doing other people a favour To ingratiate ourselves to them Or the church or God I'll only do it if I'm appreciated
[39:29] Here is a Christ who does it For these people In other words, there's self-forgetfulness in this As we serve, it's not about us It's about Christ And it's about the need that we see in front of us Matthew 25 Backs up really what Jesus is doing When there's goats standing before him in heaven And the king will say to those who are right, come, you are blessed My father take inheritance I was hungry and gave me something to eat I was thirsty and gave me something to drink I was a stranger and invited me and I needed clothes And you closed me I was sick and you looked after me I was in prison and you came to visit me And so on, you know That's the gospel And we've turned it on its head so often That's what impresses Jesus Because he sees himself from our hearts out of it
[40:32] He sees grace He sees the mirror of that washing of the feet every time We have the same self-forgetfulness in our grace and our motives That we have low standards for how other people act But high standards for our own action before the living God Because our motive is his grace and his goodness And we're forgiving and we're like The father who comes for the prodigal child With his arms open and running towards him Not like the elder brother Who served with grumbling and complaining And ingratitude to what he had So may the challenge be for me and for us today That we remember Christ as our example And that we also recognize the Christian battle And in it all, that his provision is there for us Everything, what we need, we simply go to him Everything is there for us
[41:33] It's just a win-win situation But it takes our responsibility to go to him And to rely on him and be children of God Because remember, no, don't remember anything Because I haven't said it, but I'll say it tonight I'm talking about being a child of God tonight And the responsibility of that Remember that we are children of God That's our heads in prayer Father, we ask and pray that you would help us We recognize and know that without you We can't do anything of any value spiritually That we can be nice to one another at a human level And we absolutely don't decry these human blessings To one another and the care and love and friendship That we can offer one another And we hope that we have a responsibility to love Because Christ's first love does And to rely on Christ Because Christ is worthy And because our motives are always imperfect
[42:37] And we seek to find our motives in Jesus And to follow him So bless as we pray as we seek to serve you here We again remember Brunsfield We remember Christ's church in Creigantinie And the encouragement that they've seen and known And protect them, we pray, as we need protection ourselves We pray with and for one another Maybe we focus our eyes on what is eternal Not on what is temporary Maybe not be filled with self-remembrance and grumpiness But help us rather to be committed Not out of guilt, not out of mere ritual And not out of religious ceremony or self-righteousness But because of grace And may we find it in As we've been looking at in our evening services For the young people also We find it in our freedom and our newness For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen