Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless. Father, you know that some of us here are maybe
dealing with a lot of shame. And Father, you know why they're feeling that, but there are many here
probably feeling a great deal of shame. And we give you thanks and praise, Father, that your Word speaks
to us, the real me, the real each of these people, the real them. And it speaks realistically, and it
speaks, Father, with compassion and mercy and hope. And so I ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would
continue to fall with gentle but penetrating power, so that we might know that you are our Father in
Heaven, that Jesus is the Savior who loves us and wants us to be His, and that you speak to us tender
words of love and encouragement and hope. And so, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring the
truths of this Word into your hearts, the hearts of everyone here. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
I don't just read nerdy political and cultural op-ed pieces. I read the newspaper. I read all sorts of
things in it. And this week, just the other day, I read part of an interview, maybe all of the
interview, at least as it was published, with one of the voice actresses, the main star, voice actress
star for the huge hit movie, the K-pop Demon Hunters. And the person who played Rumi, her name is Arden Cho.
I don't know if I've pronounced that correctly. She gave an interview.
And one of the things which was really interesting about the interview, lots of things were interesting,
but one of the things that was interesting is that she said that hopefully this movie would
hopefully really help people who feel unseen. And she implied that she herself felt unseen to be seen.
That that's one of the benefits of this movie, that those who are unseen like her can be seen.
And especially for young women who are of Asian descent, and in particular, because she's Korean,
for Korean young women and girls to actually feel seen. And I thought, wow, like,
I mean, here she is being interviewed, and I'm reading about it. And I'm not saying this is a put down.
I don't take, sorry, if I said anything to imply that, I am not saying that whatsoever. What I am saying is this.
It is a very common human problem of not feeling that you're seen.
Of going through your day and your week and your month and your years and your decade feeling completely and utterly unseen.
And she gave voice to that very, I think, very well and very articulately.
And so that the Bible text that we're going to look at today has some very profound and helpful and hopeful things to say about that phenomenon.
For those of us who feel unseen.
And feeling unseen often goes along with another experience that people struggle with.
And that's the feeling of shame.
That often we feel a deep sense of shame.
And that means that there's something fundamentally wrong with us.
There's something, it's not that we do wrong things, but that there's something that we're wrong.
It's not that we do some types of things that break relationships, but that we're broken.
It's not just that we do some things occasionally that push people away, but there's something fundamentally about us that pushes us away.
Where makes us, makes the me, the you, unseen.
And we feel deep shame around that.
And this Bible text that we're going to look at actually has some very profound and helpful things for those of us struggling with feeling seen.
And struggling, or maybe not struggling because you've just surrendered to feeling shame.
You've just accepted that you will be unseen and feel shame for the rest of your life.
There's a very profound good news in this text that we're going to look at.
Today.
So if you take out your Bibles, we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 14.
Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 14.
And just as you sort of turn to that, what we're doing is during this season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas,
we're looking at four songs of the Savior in the Gospel of Luke.
Two of the songs of the Savior are before his birth, and two of the songs of the Savior are after his birth.
So we looked at Mary's song, the Magnificat.
Then we looked at Zechariah's song, the Benedictus.
Today we look at the Gloria in Excelsis, which is the song the angels sang after the birth of Jesus.
And then next Sunday we'll look at the Nunc Dimittis, which is the song or the poetry that Simeon prayed over the baby Jesus when he came into the temple.
And so in the flow of this, and on Christmas Eve, by the way, we'll look at the text that goes just before this, the actual account of the birth of Jesus.
But this takes place just after the birth of Jesus that same evening.
So here's what happens, and it goes like this.
And in the same region, it's about a kilometer or two away.
So in the same region, probably a couple kilometers away, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
Now, just pause here.
This is a very shocking development, and it's because it's so familiar to Christians that we've lost the sense of shock.
So the first thing about that, first thing to maybe get your mind around it, and I'm a guy, so I can say this.
But when you're thinking of the shepherds, okay, they probably weren't writing love poetry or working on their Hebrew grammar or praying.
Think working class guys out in the bush with no women.
Young working class guys out in the bush with no women.
Now, for married people, I hope I didn't introduce an awkward question from your wife as to what it might have been like when you were a young man in the bush with no women spending time.
But as I said, it probably wasn't writing poetry.
They probably weren't sharing their feelings.
They were being young guys out in the bush.
And maybe even some little guys acting like young guys out in the field away from women from several days.
And so they're doing whatever young guys would do in that type of situation.
And all of a sudden, an angel shows up.
And you can see all sorts of reasons why they might be filled with fear.
They might be wondering what the angel just overheard, amongst other things, or what they witnessed before they noticed it.
They would have noticed the angel right away.
But one of the things about that, then, is if you think about it,
most of us probably, if we were giving God advice as to who the angel should show up to for this important announcement,
would not have picked these guys.
In fact, if anything, we might have said,
God, go to their wives and girlfriends and daughters and sisters, not them.
They're way more worthy.
But we wouldn't have picked these guys out in the field.
But the angel picks them.
And right off the bat, you're seeing more and more aspects of how this is a profoundly biblical and Christian story.
And so there's this big, big shock.
And one of the things, by the way, when you see here, look at that verse 9 again.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
The word glory here can also be translated as majesty.
If you think of some coronation scene, and it's just really done very, very well.
And just this sense of majesty.
I don't know how to describe it other than just say the word.
But it also would include the word beauty.
So they see, in a sense, this beauty and this glory that is, in a sense, always with God, connected to God.
And one of the things that's shocking about this,
if all of us have probably seen really stunning sunsets,
in really stunning vistas.
And if you think then of what these shepherds are seeing, they're seeing something way more than that.
But they're also seeing uncreated light.
Uncreated light.
We only live in it.
We've only seen created light.
They're seeing uncreated light.
Uncreated radiance that comes right from the uncreated God.
And they see it.
And, um...
And it's just...
It's just glory.
That's all they can say.
It's just a very, very simple word.
Now, if this is all that happened to them,
we would never have heard about the story.
Like, you can be guaranteed that they probably would have been...
had people buy them cheap wine for years to come to hear the story.
But nobody...
None of us would have heard it.
Why we've heard the story is not only the context, but what happens next.
It's the message that comes to them.
And that takes place...
Start looking at verse 10.
And in verse 10 it says,
And the angel said to them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
Now, one of the things about this is that it is good news for all the people.
It's encouraging us to talk and tell...
When we hear the good news in a moment,
that we're to tell this good news to all people.
We aren't to say,
This person is way too bad, way too wicked,
so we won't tell them this news.
We aren't to say,
This person is too completely given over to fentanyl
that we won't tell them this news.
We aren't to say,
This person is so high in the government,
or so wealthy,
or so powerful that we won't tell them this news.
This is news for all people.
Years ago,
I guess maybe not that long,
years ago,
there was a woman who came to this church
who, believe it or not,
she was the fashion advisor
to three prime minister's wives.
So she would meet with the wife of the prime minister
privately in their residence,
and she would help the prime minister's wife
pick out the clothes
that she would be wearing for upcoming events.
And they'd talk about fabrics and designers
and colors and accessories
and all of that type of stuff.
And she was a very bold woman.
She always also told the woman about Jesus.
And that's really what all of us should be like.
Not to be intimidated
by either somebody's goodness,
their evil,
their power,
their wealth,
but to be willing to tell people about Jesus,
the good news.
And that's what the all people means here.
And the other thing here,
which is really important for us to notice,
is that the,
look again at verse 10,
it says,
And the angel said to them,
Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good news.
That's the word gospel.
I bring you good news.
And I can't say it enough
because it's something which we Christians
keep falling into,
that we have good news for the world.
We don't have good rules.
We don't have good advice.
We don't have good examples per se.
We don't have good rituals.
We don't have good things like this.
It's all news.
We get to share this most wonderful news
in the world with human beings.
And it's news which is to be shared
because God wants people to hear.
And God wants people to hear this news
and want to say yes to it.
Please include me.
Please take me
to be part of what this good news is all about.
So what is the news?
Well, that's what happens
that we begin to hear in verse 11.
Verse 11,
For unto you is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
Unto you for,
this is the,
why is the news good?
Unto you is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
Now, this is the first time
that these three momentous terms
all appear together
and talking about the exact same person.
So it's not saying
that Mary had triplets.
One is Savior,
one is Christ,
and one is Lord.
No, there's just one baby.
But this one baby
is,
it can be described
as the Savior.
In fact,
in,
in the original language
there's no definite article there
so it should literally be translated.
It,
it doesn't,
it's not grammatical English.
It should literally be translated
for unto you is born
this day
in the city of David
Savior.
Savior is born.
And this Savior
is the Messiah
and this Savior
is God Himself.
The word translated here
is Lord
should be understood
as referring to God Himself.
and so Savior means
that for all of the longings
that human beings have had
that we,
that they would be delivered,
that things would be made right,
the one who we long for
was born in Bethlehem
on this night.
Christ is the word Messiah.
It's,
it's really even more deeply connected
to the longings of the human heart,
the longing of the promises of God
and of things being made right
with human beings
and with God
and things just being made right
and all of those promises
that,
that there will be good
and all of these promises
are captured in this term Messiah
and the Savior
and the Messiah
was born that evening
and the Lord
is born that evening.
God Himself
has entered into His creation
and,
and that's
who this baby is.
This baby
has come
to bring the promises
of God
to completion
and fulfillment
and to make you
right with Him
and it is God
Himself
who is doing this
in the person of His Son
and it just happened
a couple of kilometers away.
Now,
there's lots of big ideas
which I've just said
and that's why
this next bit
is really important
or we won't understand them.
Look at what it says
in verse 12
and this will be
a sign for you.
You will find,
so how are you going,
the implication is
the shepherd should go
and this will be
a sign for you.
You will find a baby
wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger.
In other words,
the implication is
you should go
and when you go,
don't look for the best house.
In fact,
don't look for a house at all.
Look for an animal shelter
and when you look
for an animal shelter
because there will be
lots of animal shelters,
look for the animal shelter
because there will only be one.
There will only be
one animal shelter
in Bethlehem
where there's a baby
lying in an animal's
feeding trough.
You have to go,
huh?
Huh?
So,
there's several things
about this
which are really important.
You see,
the thing is
our minds tend to go
in certain directions.
So,
you hear,
you know,
all this thing I said
about the mighty deliverer
that delivers from
all the different things,
you know,
whether it's,
you know,
any type of enemy,
whether enemies
in external world,
demonic enemies,
whether it's,
you know,
enemies of sickness
or disease
or,
you know,
or sin,
all of that.
There's huge,
huge ideas.
Thank you.
This person
who's going to be born
last week
in Zechariah's song
is described as God
raising up a horn
of salvation.
And I said,
in that,
what you need to think of
is you need to think of
a really big elephant
and its tusks
or a rhinoceros
with its horn
or a huge bull
with its horns
or a huge bull moose
with its horns.
And that's this image.
Okay?
And so you have
all of these things
and our minds
will move in certain
types of directions
when we hear this,
but it's not just
these songs of the Savior
are introducing Jesus
but they're not just,
you don't just take them,
the rest of the story
fleshes out
what on earth that means.
And so you hear
these wonderful titles
and it is a baby
in a feeding trough
in an animal shelter
in Nowheresville.
When you're thinking of,
and so that's the second thing,
you know,
about this.
It's in a sense
it's inviting you to see
as you go through
the whole gospel,
it's inviting you to say,
oh, okay,
well that's what
the Savior's like.
Oh, like he's going to be born,
that's really cool.
Like, that's really cool.
Like the Savior's going to,
is in a feeding trough.
Oh, like, that's really cool.
Like the Savior
casts out demons.
Oh, like,
oh, that's really cool.
Like the Savior feeds people.
Oh, that's really cool.
Like the Savior
and God himself.
This is what God is like.
The real God is like
that he's, you know,
even when there's some,
you know,
woman who's led
a completely and utterly
disreputable life
and nobody likes her
and everybody hates her
and he talks to her
and welcomes her.
That's what God's like.
That's what the Savior's like.
Oh, and that's what
the Savior's like.
That's really cool.
The Savior is like,
is Jesus,
is dying on the cross.
That's what,
you need the story
to fill in the words.
Otherwise,
we'll go in all of these
different directions.
And you see,
that's why this story
is such a profoundly
Christian story.
You would never see
a story like this
in the Quran
or the Hadiths.
On one level,
Allah doesn't even
really like people.
Do you know that
the Quran teaches
that everybody who dies
goes to hell?
Truth.
Everybody who dies
in the Quran,
everybody who dies
goes to hell.
And then Allah
picks some people
out of hell
to go to his heaven.
Allah doesn't even
speak directly
to Muhammad.
Allah speaks
to an angel.
There's always
intermediaries.
It is,
in a sense,
an offensive idea
to think that Allah
would be
in a feeding trough.
It is a denial
of his glory
and his majesty.
And if you think
about our friends,
maybe not at the
very folk level
of Hinduism and Buddhism,
but at the more
philosophical levels
of Hinduism and Buddhism,
a story of God himself,
of the Savior himself
coming and being born
is not a story
that they would tell
because the whole hope
of Hinduism and Buddhism
at a higher level
is that you will
undertake these exercises
so that you will
no longer be born.
That's the hope,
that you will
no longer be born.
And so this is a story
telling you the exact
wrong stuff.
And in paganism,
while the gods,
if they come,
they're going to come
as fully,
full, big men
and women
and do all sorts
of types of things
and maybe they'll be
hidden for a bit,
but it's not the way
they would tell the story.
And of course,
in secular world,
you know,
we would automatically
think that if things
like this were going
to happen,
it should be somebody
more powerful,
more important,
more connected,
more prestige,
more followers,
all of that type of thing.
This is a profoundly
Christian and Jewish story.
The Old Testament,
what our Jewish friends
call the Tanakh,
we call the Old Testament,
is filled with
David is the youngest son,
not the oldest son.
It's filled with this surprise
and it culminates
in how God is going to save
in a profoundly Christian story
that's only Christian
and that even in our culture,
when we resonate
with stories like this,
whether our culture
realizes or not,
it is breathing
in the air
of Christianity.
And it's also,
of course,
touching us
at a point
of our deep longings
and yearnings,
that God would take
the lowly.
God would take
the lowly.
Now we come
to the actual song,
right?
They say,
verse 12,
and this will be
a sign for you.
This will be
a sign for you.
You will find
a baby wrapped
in swaddling clothes
lying in a manger.
And suddenly,
there was with the angel
a multitude
of the heavenly host
praising God
and saying,
just before I say that,
this is more
an in-house thing
for those who have
been Anglicans
for a long time,
or Roman Catholics
and Lutherans.
If you see a lot
of liturgies
that have been written
since the 70s
up until today,
a lot of liturgies
get rid of the phrase
the Lord God of hosts.
And you know why
they get rid of that phrase?
Because hosts
means angel armies.
And so the people
writing the liturgies
think it's too militaristic
and imperialistic,
and so they get rid of it
even though it's
in the Bible.
And just they gong
the word,
because they don't like
something that
might imply armies.
But that's when it says here,
and suddenly verse 13
was with the angel,
the heavenly host.
That means angel armies.
Angel armies
praising God
and saying,
glory to God
in the highest
and on earth
peace among those
with whom he is pleased.
Or quite literally,
glory to God
in the highest
and on earth
peace among those
men and women
of his good pleasure.
That's what it's saying.
That's the song.
Glory to God
in the highest
and on earth
peace among
those men
and women
who are of
his good pleasure.
And the word glory
here means that
we're to brag about God,
we're to talk about God,
we're to be unashamed
about the triune God,
we are to hope
in the triune God,
we are to extol him,
we are to adore him,
we are to praise him,
and we are to do it
with our minds
and with our lips
and with our time
and our body.
And for those of you
who are very creative
with dance,
with plays,
with poetry,
with music,
and no matter
how much we praise
the triune God,
he is still even more,
even more.
You read the Narnia Chronicles,
I just finished
listening to them
on audio,
the Ottawa Public Library,
seven fantastic versions
of the Narnia Chronicles.
If you haven't read them,
take them out of the library,
listen to them in order,
and further up
and further in,
further up and further in,
we'll never exhaust
the glory of God.
And that's what it's saying here.
And peace,
it's not referring to wars,
it's not referring to emotions.
How do you understand that?
Well, you understand that
by reading the rest of the story.
By reading the rest of the story.
The rest of the story
tells you what this peace means,
and it means peace with God.
It means peace with your creator.
It means peace with the one
who will save,
can save you.
It means peace with the one
who will be the final judge about you.
It means peace with goodness itself,
justice itself,
mercy itself,
beauty itself,
love itself.
It means peace with God,
given as a gift.
And it's a type of
an ontological type of thing.
For those of you who are here
and you've been considering
the Christian faith,
there comes a point in time
to be a Christian
is not to kiss your mind goodbye.
It's not you think
and you reason,
but at some point in time
you need to just say,
God, you know,
I think I know enough
and I realize right now
that there's a part of me
in my flesh
that will always want to know
a little bit more,
think a little bit more,
try to answer a little bit more
of the questions,
but there comes a point in time
when you just say,
I'm in.
I'm yours.
Take me.
You know,
that's why,
are you born again?
That's what this peace with God is.
You're born again.
And you're made right with God.
You have peace with God.
And there's a really interesting interview
that I just saw
with the guy
who's a really good friend
with a guy,
he has an important podcast
called The Diary of the CEO.
He's a guy worth
tens and tens of millions of dollars.
His name is Andrew Scott Logan.
He lives in Dubai.
Young,
good-looking,
creative entrepreneur
who just became a Christian
within the last year and a half or two.
And he became a Christian
in the most surprising way
because he became a Christian
not because his life
was in the pits,
but because he was
unbelievably successful.
And he came to start
to say to himself,
is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
And he ends up giving his life to Christ.
And one of the things
which he says
is really interesting
in the interview
is that he said
on one hand
he had a profound sense of peace
that comes from being at peace with God.
But he also said,
honestly,
to Glenn,
the interviewer,
it's actually harder
being a Christian
than it was being a non-Christian.
And Glenn says,
well,
why is that?
He said,
well,
on one hand,
there's peace,
but on the other hand,
I mean,
God convicts me
that I shouldn't do certain things
or that I have to apologize
or,
you know,
maybe I should be doing
something different in my life.
And there's this constant
sense of unsettling,
but all of this unsettling
just creates this deeper type
of harmony with God
because that's partially
what this,
this is,
is being talked about.
The Peace is a harmony with God,
a balance with God.
And even the fact that this peace
is talking about harmony,
that's so,
that's so wonderful
because,
you know,
when you have harmony,
you have harmony,
you have a,
you know,
you have a male voice
and a female voice
and you have different,
you have different baritones
and basses
and you have all these different,
all coming together
and it's not a monotonous sound.
It's not a,
it's not just the sound
of crashing and banging
and like dump trucks
doing things
and jackhammers.
It's,
it's music,
it's beautiful,
it flows,
it's active
and it brings together
these things
which would be discordant
all by themselves
and brought together
to sound like a harmony
and that's what God wants
to give to human beings
and what he's doing
through the birth of his son
that moment,
that,
that night
in Bethlehem.
Now I said I would talk
about being seen and unseen
and I need to do that
with my last few minutes
which are here.
Let's look at the text again,
glory to God in the highest,
and on peace,
and on earth peace
among those
with whom he is pleased
or literally,
glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace
among those
men and women
of his good pleasure.
Now this is an idea
that lots of people
find scary.
It's the doctrine
of election.
It's the doctrine
that God chooses you
before you choose him
and there's lots
of Christians.
I for a long time
didn't like the idea.
I resisted it
even though it's
all the way through
the Bible
and,
but that's what it's saying
and of course
the fear is
that when you hear that,
those of you
who are here
and you hear that
and you say,
well George,
now that explains
why I'm not a Christian.
You finally explained it.
All my life
I'm not getting chosen.
I don't get the jobs.
I don't get the promotions.
You know,
I don't get the kids.
I don't get the goodies.
I don't get all
these types of things.
I'm unseen
and nobody cares about me
and George,
if I was completely honest
with you,
one of my great fears
is that I will get
to a certain age
and I will spend
my entire life alone
because I am unseen
and this is just
another example.
Nobody sees me.
God's not going to see me
and all I have to say
is that is two things.
First of all,
God is not the mean girls
because in the mean girls,
you have the mean girls
show up to a group
of six people
to just invite two
of the six
in front of the other four
so the other four
are completely
and utterly humiliated.
That plays me
to the second thing.
You just heard this?
That means he's calling you.
I just read it to you.
You just heard the invitation.
He's calling you.
You're not unseen.
And look at the way
he describes being seen.
It's so interesting
in this particular text.
It describes,
what does it say again?
And on earth,
peace,
that's harmony
or peace with God,
harmony with God
among those men
and women
of his good pleasure.
For those of us
who are dealing with shame,
God looks right
into the very center of you
and he describes
that he wants you
to be his
and he describes you
as the woman
or the man
of his good pleasure.
I mean,
for those of you
who struggle with shame,
you should take this
out of his good pleasure
he called me
and put it up
beside the mirror.
I don't recommend tattoos.
I'm not against them either.
You're going to get a tattoo?
Put it on the inside
of your arm.
I am a woman
of his good pleasure.
I'm a man
of his good pleasure.
That's what the gospel is.
He wants you to say yes
to Jesus
because he has pleasure
in you
and he wants you
to know his glory
and his love
and his splendor
and his pleasure.
And even this thing here again
in terms of you
and you know,
you think,
there's something wrong with me.
Isn't that the whole idea here
of peace
and his harmony?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
You know,
John Ortberg,
the book was only,
was all right,
but the title's spectacular, right?
Everyone is normal
until you get to know them.
Then you realize
you're actually pretty weird.
But this isn't saying
God's goal
is to make everybody vanilla,
make you all the same.
No, no, no.
God's going to take
those quirkiness,
those really weird things,
those broken pieces
and he's going to start
to heal them together
and he makes
this beautiful harmony
out of you
and your uniqueness
and you are a person
of his good pleasure.
And then the final thing
to take from it
is you get a vision of heaven.
Oh my,
what is heaven going to be like?
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace
to those men and women
of his good pleasure
and it's being sung
by the angel armies
and it's being heard
by shepherds in the field
and you get this vision of heaven
that this news of harmony
that even now
throughout the entire planet,
whether we were in the Congo
or whether we are in Singapore
or in Taiwan
or Nigeria
or Manhattan
or Venezuela
or Colombia,
there are people
who are singing
God's praises today
and we are all one
redeemed humanity
in Christ
and our future
is to be in harmony
with angels
and archangels
and all the company
of heaven
and we will behold
the uncreated light,
the beauty
and the glory
of the triune God
and we will sing
his glory
and we will be filled
with joy.
that is your future
in Christ.
Not because I say it
but because this says it.
Give your life to Christ
if you haven't
and if you struggle
with being unseen
and maybe you are unseen
by everybody
but God sees you
and he sees you
as his person
of good pleasure.
That's what he's calling you to.
Let's stand
and close in prayer.
Good grief,
what else can I say?
People who know me,
I'm actually very shy
and not very demonstrative.
I didn't,
somebody was just telling me
that speakers choreograph
this stuff
and I said,
no, I don't choreograph anything.
I never know actually
how I'm going to bring it across
when I start speaking
but I just,
that was how I had to say that today
because it's so glorious.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
if there are any here
who have not yet given
their lives to Jesus,
may you help them right now
to call out to you
and say,
Father,
this good news,
I want it to be for me.
Take me,
take me.
I desire to submit to you
to be in this harmony
and peace with you
and Father,
for all of us
who at different times
struggle with being unseen
and all of us struggle
at different times
with shame,
Father,
we ask that you bring
this good news of Jesus
deep into our hearts
that this might be
the story that forms us.
This might be the story
that we stand on.
This might be the story
by which we filter,
that with which we hear.
This might be the story
by which we see the future.
This might be the story
by which we see other people
and that even how we see
our communities
and our culture
and what we desire to do,
that they might all know
the glory of God.
We ask,
Father,
in your mercy
that you would bring this story
deep into our hearts
and form us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus
and all God's people said,
Amen.