to hear and to understand and to respond in faith and trust to your word today.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 11.
We are going through the middle part of the Gospel of Luke this winter.
Today we are looking at the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12, starting at chapter 11, verse 37.
If you are looking in the Pew Bible, the page number is listed in the bulletin.
817, thanks.
So Luke chapter 11, starting at verse 37.
Let me read this passage to us this morning.
While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table.
The Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash before dinner.
And the Lord said to him,
Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
You fools!
Did not he who make the outside make the inside also?
But give his alms those things that are within.
And behold, everything is clean for you.
But woe to you, Pharisees!
For you tithe, mint, and rue, and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.
These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
Woe to you, Pharisees!
For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Woe to you!
For you are like unmarked graves.
And people walk over them without knowing it.
One of the lawyers answered him,
Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.
And he said,
Woe to you lawyers also!
For you load people with burdens hard to bear,
and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Woe to you!
For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers.
For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
Therefore also the wisdom of God said,
I will send them prophets and apostles,
some of whom they will kill and persecute,
so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world
may be charged against this generation,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,
who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
Woe to you lawyers!
For you have taken away the key of knowledge.
You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard
and to provoke him to speak about many things,
lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together
that they were trampling one another,
he began to say to his disciples first,
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed,
or hidden that will not be known.
Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body,
and after that have nothing more that they can do.
But I will warn you whom to fear.
Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.
Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not.
You are of more value than many sparrows.
And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men,
the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.
But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,
but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities,
do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,
for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.
One of the most common reasons why people leave the church
or never darken the door of a church
is because they have seen too much hypocrisy inside it.
I was talking to a small business owner recently.
He said,
the worst customer I had to deal with last year was a pastor of a Baptist church.
I lost over $10,000 because he lied and never paid what he owed.
Sadly, that's far from the worst example.
In the past few years, I can think of several prominent evangelical Christian leaders
who have stepped down or been removed from their positions because of moral failures,
often relating to money, sex, or power.
Many of these things had been going on for years before they got called out.
Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford released the list of priests
who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in the diocese since its founding in 1953.
48 priests.
Some of you have experienced these things personally or in your families.
You know the damage that can be done to human beings made in the image of God
and to the reputation of God himself
when those who claim to represent God act in deeply ungodly ways.
Jesus knows that too.
In the passage we're looking at this morning, Jesus addresses the issue of hypocrisy,
specifically religious hypocrisy.
And we see how deeply Jesus cares for those harmed by it
because of how strongly he rebuked those who perpetuated it.
These are some of Jesus' strongest words of rebuke recorded in any of the Gospels.
This morning, I want us to look at three things.
First, I want us to look at Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy.
Second, I want to look at Jesus' warning to his followers to beware of the danger of hypocrisy.
And third, I want to look at the remedy Jesus gives to counter hypocrisy.
So first, Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees' hypocrisy.
We see this in the end of chapter 11.
Now, the context for this scene is Jesus is teaching the crowds,
and a Pharisee who was listening invited him over for a meal.
Now, the Pharisees were a highly respected and widely influential group in Jesus' time.
They were a relatively small group.
Josephus, the historian, says that they numbered about 6,000,
just about 1% of the Jewish population.
But he says they were very influential among the common people.
And after Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70 A.D.,
the Pharisee movement developed into what we now know as rabbinic Judaism.
Broadly speaking, the Pharisees and Jesus would have agreed about many things.
They were committed to the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible.
They diligently studied it and sought to put it into practice.
They affirmed core biblical doctrines,
God's sovereignty and human responsibility,
the reality of angels and demons,
the hope of the bodily resurrection.
They were not a political party either.
They were willing to work with whoever was in power.
They only wanted freedom to follow God's laws as they understood them.
Now, the Pharisees were not the only Jewish group at that time.
There were also several others,
including the Herodians who were allies of the ruling dynasty,
the Sadducees, worldly aristocrats who controlled the temple,
the Essenes who went out into the desert and lived separately in communes,
and the Zealots who wanted to promote,
advocated violent revolution against the Roman government.
And so of all the Jewish groups,
you would think that Jesus and the Pharisees shared most in common.
But what we see in the Gospels is that Jesus and the Pharisees
were often deeply at odds with each other.
Jesus interacted with the Pharisees more than any of these other groups,
25 times just in Luke's Gospel.
But he also criticized the Pharisees more than any other group.
And here Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.
Verse 38,
the Pharisee was astonished that Jesus did not first wash before eating.
Now, the Pharisees were not concerned about the spread of germs.
That was not the concern back in the first century.
And they even used such a small amount of water
that it wouldn't have made a difference.
They were concerned, though, about ritual purity.
You see, the Pharisees were careful to obey not only the biblical laws,
but also the oral traditions that had developed over time
that were seen as sort of safeguards or fences
to keep someone from breaking the law by mistake.
In the case of handwashing,
the Old Testament law only required handwashing in two instances.
After a person touched a bodily discharge
or before priests ate the holy offerings.
But the Pharisees required it before all meals,
especially after interacting with crowds
who were seen as sort of suspect and unclean,
and in many other contexts.
25% of the Mishnah,
which is a later compilation of Jewish oral traditions,
is concerned with ritual washing and bathing.
So it was a major concern of the Pharisees.
And they were scrupulous about it.
Jesus did not share the Pharisees' concern
for ritual cleanliness.
See, one of the most important differences
between Jesus and the Pharisees
is that Jesus was committed to upholding the authority of the Bible,
but he was not committed to upholding all of the traditions
that had accumulated over the years around the Bible.
And Jesus' concern was that the Pharisees' emphasis
on ritual purity had undermined their commitment
and the Bible's emphasis on moral integrity.
And so Jesus publicly and provocatively confronted the Pharisees.
It's hard to overstate how provocative Jesus was
in this context.
I mean, think about it.
He's invited to somebody's house,
and he knows that it's customary to do the ritual washing,
but he doesn't do it.
And then when he sees his host's evident surprise and dismay,
he starts blasting the Pharisees for their lack of integrity.
He completely disregards the social conventions of politeness.
You look all put together on the outside,
and you're a mess on the inside, you fools.
You need a clean heart, not just clean hands.
Woe to you.
Imagine if you invited someone over for dinner,
and they started talking like that.
And then after hearing Jesus' three woes on the Pharisees,
a lawyer speaks up.
Now, he's not a lawyer like we think of,
a prosecutor or a defense attorney.
This was a scribe, a law scholar,
a scholar of the Old Testament law.
And you might say that the scribes or the lawyers,
the two words are sort of interchangeable.
They were sort of the academic prowess behind the Pharisee movement,
and the Pharisees were the ones who sort of relied on their exegesis
and study and interpretation and taught the people.
But Jesus didn't let them off the hook either.
He pronounced three woes on the scribes in verses 46 to 52.
You heap on burdens, and you don't help a bit.
You honor the prophets, but only if they're already dead,
not if they're living and speaking to you.
And instead of opening the door to God,
you are blocking it.
In each series, if you notice,
the third and final woe, verses 44 and 52,
focuses on how the hypocrisy of religious leaders
negatively impacts those who follow them
and hinders them.
Now, you might say, why did Jesus say all this?
It wasn't because Jesus delighted in creating a ruckus
and telling people off.
It wasn't because he was hungry and frustrated
and needed to vent.
No, it's because Jesus saw that something much more important
than politeness was at stake.
It's because Jesus was not only the Pharisees' guest,
he was also the Pharisees' Lord.
You see, all along, if you read the Gospel of Luke up to this point,
all along, the Pharisees and the scribes have heard Jesus' teaching.
They've seen Jesus' healing.
And all along, they've been accusing him in their hearts
and grumbling about him behind his back.
Chapter 5, verse 21 and 22,
they questioned in their hearts
when Jesus had healed a paralyzed man.
Chapter 5, verse 30,
they grumbled at his disciples
when Jesus went to Levi, the tax collector's house.
Chapter 6, verse 7,
they watched Jesus to find a reason to accuse him.
Chapter 10, verse 25 and 29,
one of them tested Jesus wanting to justify himself.
So, after forbearing with them for quite some time,
Jesus here calls them out in no uncertain terms.
You see, it's important to realize
Jesus was not just spouting angry rhetoric
against a group of people that he was ignorant of
and hadn't bothered to interact with.
There's plenty of that out in the world today,
and it doesn't please the Lord.
Neither was Jesus simply complaining
about the Pharisees behind their back.
There's also plenty of complaining behind people's backs
in our world today as well.
It is cowardly and counterproductive
to complain about someone behind their back
and refuse to address your concerns to their face.
The Pharisees questioned in their hearts
and grumbled behind Jesus' back.
Jesus challenged the Pharisees to their face,
straightforwardly, directly.
He didn't say what they wanted to hear.
He said what they needed to hear,
and in doing so, he honored their humanity
and gave them an opportunity to change.
You see, Jesus was speaking not as a cynical outsider,
but as a committed insider.
He was calling out the tragic flaws
of his very own people,
calling them to change before it would be too late.
And in this way, Jesus was like many
of the Old Testament prophets.
We read earlier from Isaiah.
But the 8th century prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah,
these prophets all warned the people of Israel
that for generations God had been patient,
and God had not brought the punishment upon them
that they had deserved.
But these prophets warned that if they continued
to persist in their wicked ways,
that God would bring a terrible catastrophe,
exile, and death upon the nation as a whole.
And Jesus gives a very similar warning
in verses 47 to 51.
Sadly, what we see at the end of the chapter
is that the Pharisees and scribes
do not take Jesus' warning and rebuke to heart.
They only become more hostile,
more intent on hunting him down.
So that's Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees and the scribes.
But the second point I want us to consider
is Jesus' warning to beware of hypocrisy.
You know, it's tempting to think that hypocrisy
is only somewhere out there.
Some other people,
some other kind of church,
some other religion,
some group with a different political affiliation.
If you're a secular person,
you might be tempted to think that hypocrisy
is only a religious thing.
I think hypocrisy is a human problem.
It affects us all.
In chapter 12, verse 1,
Jesus said to his disciples,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy.
You see, Jesus did not only confront the Pharisees,
he also warned his own disciples
that they too were vulnerable
to the danger of falling into hypocrisy.
He said it's like leaven,
like yeast,
that can creep into a batch of dough.
And at first, it's so small
that you can hardly notice it
when it's mixed in with the flour.
And only gradually over time
does it become more and more pervasive,
puffing up the whole loaf of bread.
It adds,
it doesn't add any substance.
It only changes the appearance.
Jesus says hypocrisy is like that.
It can creep in unnoticed at first,
under the radar,
under the surface,
and only over time
it corrupts everything.
Today we might say hypocrisy
is like a virus.
So small that you can't even see it,
but capable of making
an entire body sick.
And then spreading it
to an entire family.
Right?
Most of us have had sickness
running through our families
in the last month or two.
We can go with that's like.
So here's the question
we need to ask.
In what specific ways
have we allowed
or are we prone to allow
the virus of hypocrisy
to attach itself to our system?
Individually
and as a church.
Let me point out some ways
that it can begin
to take root inside us,
to puff us up,
to infect us
without us even realizing it.
One,
when we value appearances
more than reality.
Verse 39 and 40.
Some of you have told me
about churches
that you have,
where you have walked in
and people have judged you
by the clothes
that you are wearing.
And you immediately felt
like you didn't belong.
I don't think that's our main problem
here at Trinity.
But I will tell you this.
Over the years,
many people have come to me
and said something like this.
I look around the church
and everyone else in the church
seems so perfect
and I'm a mess.
If I had a dollar
for every time somebody
had said that to me,
I could take my wife out
to a really nice dinner.
So if you feel that way,
you're not alone.
Are we afraid to be honest
about our brokenness,
our disordered desires,
our besetting sins
because we're so concerned
with trying to hold together
a good appearance
because we're afraid
of the shame?
Two.
When we make God's law
into a checklist.
Verse 42.
According to Jesus,
the basics of godly living
are justice.
Now, that's not just
the narrow sense of justice
as punishing, wrongdoing,
but the broad sense of justice
that we see throughout the Bible
of seeking to make things
in this world right
and whole and good
and in line with God's design.
Justice and the love of God.
Or as Jesus says in another place,
loving your neighbor as yourself
and loving God above all else.
These are the most important
commands of God
and they are all encompassing principles
that apply to every aspect of life.
There is no aspect of life
that those principles
are not relevant to.
And there are also commands
that are intended to humble us
when we take them seriously.
If you earnestly examine
every thought that you dwell on,
every word that you say,
every action that you carry out
from the time you wake up
in the morning
until the time you fall asleep
at night
and ask yourself these questions,
is the love of God
the driving force
behind all that I think,
say, and do?
And do my interactions
and relationships
and attitudes
toward other human beings
reflect a sincere desire for
and an earnest pursuit
of justice,
truth,
wholeness,
and peace.
You know,
if you take these standards seriously
and if you look at your life honestly,
I guarantee that you will be humbled
because you will begin to see
how far short you fall
every single day.
For me,
this truth hit home
when I got married.
Before I got married,
I thought I was mostly unselfish
and servant-hearted.
And then I promised
to love and cherish
just one person
in the world
without any qualifications
until death do us part
and my illusions about myself
began to be severely challenged.
It's part of what marriage
is meant to do.
It's meant to humble us
to be a mirror
that reveals
the darkest depths
of our own soul
even as it's also meant
to be a window
into the steadfast love
and kindness
of God.
You see,
the problem with the Pharisees
is that instead of focusing
on the big picture
of God's law
and being humbled by it,
they fixated on minor details
that weren't even commanded
in God's law
like tithing their herbs
and washing their hands.
And they took pride
in precisely fulfilling them.
They made the law of God
into a checklist
and prided themselves
on being able
to tick off
all the boxes.
Are we prone to that
in one way or another?
Three.
When we think we're generous
but actually we're not.
Verse 39 and 42.
In a 2016 survey,
70% of millennials
said they were very
or somewhat generous.
In the same survey,
84% of millennials
reported giving away
$50 or less
in the past year.
On average,
Americans today
give away 3%
of their income.
The percentage was higher
during the Great Depression.
And even today,
the percentage people give
generally decreases
as income increases.
We are very prone
to self-deception
in this area.
So much that we hardly notice it.
The Pharisees tithed.
That is,
they gave 10%
as the Old Testament
required.
Some of it was used
to support the priests
in the temple
who taught the people.
Some of it was used
to care for the poor
in the land,
the orphans,
and the widows,
and the foreigners.
The Pharisees even made sure
to tithe from their herbs.
Sort of like if you calculate
how much your employer
contributes toward
your life insurance premiums
and make sure to tithe
on that too.
But Jesus said in verse 39
that even though
they tithed scrupulously,
they were full of greed
and wickedness.
For some of you,
tithing 10% of your paycheck
is a great sacrifice.
It's a weekly
or monthly act
of trusting God
by resolving to give Him
your first and best
and finding a way
to get by on the rest
without irresponsibly
going into debt.
But for some people,
you can give away
10% of your income
pre-tax
without really being generous,
let alone sacrificial.
God has entrusted you
with more,
yes,
so that you can enjoy
some of it
and give thanks to Him
for it
and not always feel guilty
about that.
There is a wrong
kind of guilt there.
But also so that
you can joyfully share it
and invest it
in something
other than yourself.
invest it
in the kingdom of God.
Four,
when we love praise
and shut down criticism.
Verse 43
and verses 53 and 54.
One of the biggest challenges
I have found
in being a pastor
is guarding my heart
through both praise
and criticism.
I think we can fall
into at least three dangers
when people criticize us.
One,
being crushed by criticism
and falling into despair.
Two,
being fearful
and anxious of it
and falling into cowardice.
And three,
what the Pharisees do here
is becoming hardened
against it
and falling into pride.
criticism,
whether it's well-intentioned
or not
and whether it's
on target or not,
can expose
some of the idols
in our hearts
pretty quickly.
And so can praise
in a different way.
I've been reading
a book by Eugene Peterson
recently
and he wrote this
in a letter
to a fellow pastor.
Classically,
he wrote,
there are three ways
in which humans
try to find transcendence
apart from God
as revealed
in the cross of Jesus.
Through the ecstasy
of alcohol and drugs,
through the ecstasy
of recreational sex,
through the ecstasy
of crowds.
Church leaders
frequently warn
against the drugs
and the sex,
but at least in America
almost never
against the crowds.
Probably because
they get so much
ego benefit
from the crowds.
Jesus is surrounded
by crowds here.
So many thousands
of the people
had gathered together
that they were
trampling one another.
And Jesus taught
the crowds.
He didn't reject them.
He didn't despise them.
But he didn't chase them either.
He didn't live
for the praise
of human beings,
but for the praise
of God.
There are other
manifestations of hypocrisy
we could point out
from this list.
When we become
quick to criticize
others and slow
to help them,
verse 46.
When we admire
courageous prophets
of old,
but reject those
who courageously
challenge us
with biblical truths
in the present day,
verses 47
to 51.
Or finally,
when we lack
self-awareness
and harm others
as a result,
verse 52.
I don't think
the Pharisees
and scribes
set out
to be hypocrites.
We have no evidence
that they thought
of themselves
in that way
or that they were
malicious.
That they conspired
together
and were maliciously
intent on misleading
the people.
No,
they diligently
studied the Scriptures.
They carefully
debated matters
of theology.
They zealously
instructed others
in the law,
but their hypocrisy
distorted
their self-perception.
And in verse 44,
Jesus calls the Pharisees
like unmarked graves.
That is,
people would walk
over them
without realizing it
and become unclean
as a result.
Jesus was saying,
you're like a doctor
who's spreading
the plague
to all of his patients
without even realizing it.
You see,
our fallenness
in general
and hypocrisy
in particular
makes us unable
to perceive
ourselves rightly.
It makes us blind
to our own flaws
and offenses
and oblivious
to the ways
that we hurt
and offend others.
That's why hypocrisy
is so dangerous.
It's not just
somewhere out there.
It's right here.
It's within us
and among us.
And Jesus says,
we must beware
of it.
That's his second point.
But third and finally,
in chapter 12,
Jesus points us
to a remedy
to counteract
hypocrisy.
Chapter 12,
verses 2 to 12,
Jesus teaches us
to do two things
in order to counteract
the infectious nature
of hypocrisy.
First,
Jesus teaches us
to fear
the God
from whom
no secrets
are hid.
Verses 2 to 5
and verses 9 to 10.
Jesus says,
one day,
everything
that is currently
hidden
will be made known.
Everything
whispered in secret
will be shouted
from the rooftops.
Hebrews 4, 13
says,
nothing in all creation
is hidden
from God's sight.
Everything
is uncovered
and laid bare
before the eyes
of Him
to whom
we must
give an account.
Sooner or later,
all the facades
will come
crashing down.
All the masks
will fall off.
All the pretenses
will be taken away.
We will all stand
before God.
There will be
no running,
no hiding,
no minimizing
or blaming,
no clever rationales
and no flimsy excuses.
You can fool
other people,
you can even
fool yourself,
but you can't
fool God.
Jesus says in
verse 5,
fear God
who has authority
to cast into hell.
You see,
hypocrisy
is not just
an annoyance.
It's not just
a human foible
that we can sort of
mock and laugh at.
It is not only
something that is
at times
deeply damaging
to other human beings.
More than anything else,
hypocrisy
is at its root
and offense
against the God
of truth
and light
who made us.
some of you
are parents.
Think about
how you would feel
if you came
to the realization
that for years
your child
was living
a double life,
engaging
in some dishonorable
and destructive behavior
all the while
pretending
and appearing
to be loyal
and obedient.
be furious
and at the same time
you'd be heartbroken.
Furious
that they would
disrespect you
and think they could
pull the wool
over your eyes
and at the same time
heartbroken
that they wouldn't
trust you
and open up to you
and ask you for help.
That's only
a tiny picture
of how God
feels
when he sees
his creatures
and his very own
children
who bear
the name
of Jesus
living in hypocrisy.
Jesus teaches us
to fear
the God
from whom
no secrets
are hid.
But second,
in this very same
section,
Jesus teaches us
to trust
the God
whose grace
is always
sufficient.
Verses 6 to 8
and 11
and 12.
Right after
Jesus admonishes
his disciples
to fear God,
the righteous judge
in verse 5,
he immediately
goes on to remind
them in verse 6
that this very
same God
is also
a merciful
Father
that you
can trust.
And he has
promised to look
after us,
never to forget us,
never to forsake us.
He values us
highly,
so highly
that he was
willing to send
his one and only
son to rescue us
and bring us
home.
And look at the
promise in verse 8,
for all who publicly
confess,
who acknowledge
Jesus on earth,
the son has
promised that he
will publicly
acknowledge you
in the court
of heaven.
And finally,
verse 11 and 12,
Jesus promises
his disciples
that when they're
persecuted
and put on trial,
when they face
opposition and
intimidation,
beyond what they
can bear,
the Holy Spirit
will teach you
in that hour
what you ought
to say.
In other words,
the grace of God,
Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit
is always sufficient
for those who
trust him.
You see here
how fearing
and trusting God
are not presented
as opposites.
They're presented
as two sides
of the same coin.
Verses 4 and 5
talk about
fearing God the Father,
verses 6 and 7
talk about
trusting God the Father.
Verse 8
talks about
trusting Jesus.
Verse 9
talks about
fearing Jesus.
Verse 11
warns us to fear
the Holy Spirit.
Verses 11 to 12
tells us to trust
the Holy Spirit.
You see,
in order to really
root out hypocrisy
from our lives,
we need to both
fear and trust
the God who is
both holy
and loving.
God is
uncompromisingly
holy,
committed to truth
and righteousness,
and yet he is
unfailing love.
And extends
grace and
forgiveness
to us.
The Bible
says we're
more deeply
flawed and sinful
than we ever
dare to admit.
We better fear
the God
who is holy.
But the Bible
also says
that God
sent his son,
Jesus Christ,
and that on the cross
he took
our sin
upon himself
so that our sin
would be dealt
with,
so that we
could be accepted.
So the Bible
says through
Jesus Christ
we are more
loved and accepted
than we ever
dared to hope.
We're not only
more flawed
and sinful
than we ever
dared to admit,
but in Christ
we can also
be more
loved and
accepted by God
than we ever
dared hope
on our own.
We can trust
him.
Let us pray.
Amen.
Father,
you are the God
who sees and knows.
You are the God
of truth and righteousness.
We praise you.
We want to live in
a reverential fear
of you.
And yet we thank you
that you sent your son
into the world
to save sinners.
Oh God,
as we
look at you
in your holiness
and as we see
your mercy
and grace,
would you break
the grip
of hypocrisy
on our hearts
and lives
that we might live
genuinely,
truthfully,
honestly,
before you
and before one another.
We pray that you
would continue
to shape us
into a church
that reflects
your truth
and your grace.
That we would be
committed not to
just one of those,
but to both of those.
That we would
be shaped
by the fullness
of your character,
your holiness
and your love.
We pray all these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.