Real Life Community Church Richmond, KY

Leftovers: Why God Deserves Our First and Best

• Real Life Community Church

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We challenge the common practice of giving God our leftovers rather than our best, exploring how the prophet Malachi condemned Israel's polluted offerings and what this means for modern believers.

• The Israelites were bringing blind, lame, and sick animals as sacrifices, which God called evil
• Whatever receives our best time, energy, and resources reveals what we truly worship
• We have three main resources: time, talent, and treasure – how we allocate them reveals our priorities
• The shocking truth that God would rather have the temple doors closed than receive insincere worship
• God deserves our best not because He needs anything from us, but simply because of who He is
• Everyone worships something – whatever you attribute highest value to becomes your master

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Speaker 1:

Good morning. I'd like to say a word of prayer for the sermon and the message today before I read the word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be here. We lift up Pastor Chris as he brings this word. We pray that you prepare our hearts as a soil, that your word would be fruitful in our lives and we give you ourselves as a living sacrifice In Christ Jesus' name. Amen. And if you would stand for the reading of the word.

Speaker 1:

The reading comes out of the book of Malachi, chapter 1, verses 6 to 14. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If I, then I am your father. Where is my honor? And if I am your master, where is my honor? And if I am your master, where is my fear?

Speaker 1:

Says the Lord of hosts to you, o priests who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name? By offering polluted food upon my altar? But you say, how have we polluted you by saying that the Lord's table may be despised when you offer blind to animals and sacrifice? Is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious to us With such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you, says the Lord of hosts. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain.

Speaker 1:

I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name. And a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted and its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised. But you say what a weariness this is. And then you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as an offering. Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished, for I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

Speaker 2:

Amen, the word of God for the people of God, you may be seated. Well, how many of you like eating leftovers? Yeah, all right, I generally do not, except on Thanksgiving. For some reason, thanksgiving food just tastes really good warmed up. That's what I'm going to talk about today is leftovers, and it's really interesting in staff meeting today I'm going to talk about, by the way, how God doesn't want our leftovers. But we had a little pre-service meeting with our staff and we have a large staff meeting after church and my assistant informed us that we are having leftovers from yesterday. That's what we're serving. So it shows us what we think, how much we value our staff, I guess. But you know, last week we're going through the book of Acts and last week, out of Acts, chapter 10, it was a really important point that I didn't get to spend a lot of time on that when we give and send missionaries and make Christ known amongst the nations, that we must be really generous and that we must give God our best, not the leftovers, and so I want to draw that out a little bit today.

Speaker 2:

Several years ago, there was a radio commentator you probably are familiar with him, paul Harvey, and he shared a true story about a woman and her frozen turkey. The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing a turkey for the holidays. So one woman called in to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. Yeah, and the representative told her that the turkey would be in fact safe to eat, but that she wouldn't recommend it because the flavor would have greatly deteriorated. The lady responds true story to the representative that's what I thought I'll just give it to the church. She gave to the church only that which she has. No need for, the leftovers, as it were.

Speaker 2:

How many of you know that it is really tempting for all of us not to give God the first fruits with all of our resources but to give him the leftovers, and I'm not just talking money. Today we have three main resources we have time, we have talent, we have treasure and you could say we have our heart, which God wants more than anything. What we like to say around here. I stole this from John Piper, but he phrases it like this that we must treasure Christ above all things. Amen, he doesn't take second seat in our hearts.

Speaker 2:

We're in the book of Malachi. This draws this point out. And Malachi, if you're not familiar with him, he's the last prophet the children of Israel will know for about 400 years, until John the Baptist comes on the scene and prepares the way for Jesus. So Malachi is tasked with addressing a community of Israel. Following their Babylonian exile, they've returned back to the land and they are at this point really discouraged and they are in disarray and they feel distant from God. But Malachi reveals to them it's not God's fault, it's never God's fault, it's their fault. They've got some stuff in their life that's going on. And I'll just say, if you read Malachi, it's pretty brutal, it's pretty honest. But the temple was rebuilt and they were again going to the temple and quote unquote worshiping. But their worship was heartless. You know, in the Old Testament sacrificial system, they were bringing their sacrifices, but the worst of their flock giving God the leftovers. Why is it that we give God our best? Well, he's worthy of it. I said he's worthy of it.

Speaker 2:

Malachi 1.6,. The Lord, speaking through Malachi, says A son honors his father and a servant his master. If, then, I am a father, where is my honor, says the Lord, and if I am a master, where is my fear? If I am a master, where is my fear? And he says oh you, priest, who despise my name, god is making the case that you're not respecting me. You're not bringing me what you should be bringing me. You're not treating me as your father and your master. And to be sure, god is both.

Speaker 2:

To the people of Israel in the Old Testament, he's their father. In Deuteronomy 32, 6. He says do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your father? Who created you, who made you and who established you? God created Israel not only physically, but he created them as a people. He formed them out of Abraham's family. He brought them to be through Abraham, isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes, the 12 sons of Israel. It's God who formed them. It's God who brought them into his family. God chose them out of all the peoples, not because they were the strongest people, not because of their merit, but out of love and grace. He chose them and used them for his redemptive purposes. He's their father. That's amazing that they have been engrafted into his family.

Speaker 2:

And he says remember, this is a shame and honor culture that they're in. To dishonor your father or mother or anyone in authority was a grave sin. They never think about dishonoring their leaders like this, but they'll dishonor God. They never dishonor their earthly fathers like that without grave consequences, but they're dishonoring God. Not only is God Israel's father, but he's their master. 1 Samuel 15, 22,. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, listen to obey is better than what Sacrifice. Now let me just make this real for you. Let me bring this home. You know Israel was bringing offerings before the Lord, these animals, but their hearts were far from him. That's not pleasing to God. They were not being obedient even in their sacrifices and you know God isn't real concerned with.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you guys sounded great in singing to our great God today and I love that you obey the biblical command to lift your hands and to worship God joyfully. Some people when they sing I've seen many churches like this they look saved and mad about it. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord, it's all right If you can shout at a ball game. I hate when preachers say this, but I'm going to say it. If you can shout and clap at a ball game, you can sure do it for our great God. Amen, can you believe? I just said that. Listen, that means nothing. As exuberant as you are in your worship today and your singing, let's say, it means nothing if you're not walking in obedience to our great God. He is your master, so he's Israel's master, but he is our father and he is our master as well.

Speaker 2:

Romans 8, 15,. Oh, I love it, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but watch this. You have received the spirit of adoptions as sons by whom we cry what, abba, father? I mean, we've heard this so much. I mean, I grew up in a great church and I learned this from a very early age, and sometimes being familiar with something can cause you to become, let's say, numb to the beauty and the glory of that thing. Can we just meditate and revel in the fact today that God is our, not just our creator, our father who tenderly loves us, but as a father he is worthy of our respect and our honor. What would happen to you? This has changed a little bit today, unfortunately, but for those of you who are middle-aged or older. What would happen to you if you dishonored your father growing up? How many of you are like gulping right now, thinking back right, we've got to honor the Lord. God is our master as well.

Speaker 2:

The most fundamental profession of the Christian faith is Jesus is Lord. Romans 10,. If we believe in our heart that God's raised him from the dead and we profess with our mouth he is Lord, we shall be saved. With our mouth he is Lord, we shall be saved. Lord, you know it's not to be saved, it's not. I want to ask Jesus into my heart. What's I mean? That's fine to say that, but what's that mean? It's not to say Lord, I want you to come in and be my savior. Oh, that's part of it.

Speaker 2:

But to be saved, you know, in enrollment or excuse, in Acts, chapter 2, we've looked at this recently many times you know Peter preaches 3,000 men and women, plus women and children, cut to the heart. What do we do? Repent, that means get off the throne of your life. Put your faith in me, believe in me, but not intellectual belief, heart belief. Bow to me as Lord. That's what saving faith is. We are saved, to be sure, by grace, through faith in Christ.

Speaker 2:

Faith alone, but true faith bows at the feet of Jesus. He is our master. Everybody wants him to be Savior, but listen to me, beloved, he is not your Savior. If he is not your Lord, it means you obey him. You know the Bible talks about. Let me just read you this text Romans 6, 14. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? You get this You're slaves of whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Speaker 2:

Now we hear that word slave and it just goes all through us because of the atrocities that happened in this country. Okay, so try to look at what God's saying here. You could translate this to we are servants of God. But you know the Bible does use the word that translates slave. We are slaves of God. Now that sounds really like when you think of slavery, you know before, it's like tyranny and it's crushing and it's horrible and it's horrific. I wish we could wipe it from our history. But when you're a slave of Christ, he's not a tyrant. Serving Christ is the most privileged thing we can do. Obeying Christ is the best thing for us, and you know, when we hear this, though, even if we say servant, it doesn't sit well with Christians even. Okay, it doesn't even sit well. It certainly doesn't sit well with the world, you know the Western world.

Speaker 2:

Because what do we want as Americans? We want autonomy, we want to be free. Oh, I want my freedom, and I'm grateful, you're grateful for freedom to come and worship today, but can I tell you this there is no such thing as complete autonomy. Every one of you and this is true for me we are all slaves to something. That's what the scripture says Either to sin or to righteousness, to the enemy, satan himself. You may not think of that, but if you're not in Christ, you're his servant, so to speak, and if you're a Christian, you're a slave of Christ, which is beautiful. Whatever you attribute the highest value to in your life is your master. Did you get that? Whatever you attribute the highest value to in your life is your master.

Speaker 2:

Let me just show you how this works. Let's talk about money and possessions. I mean this country loves. I mean we've become a greedy people. Yes, and even in the church we try to balance oh, a love for Jesus and a love for the things of this world, and we've even reinterpreted the Bible to say, oh, this is what God wants. We've tried to reconcile what Jesus said could not happen. You cannot love God and money. But if money is your highest aim financial success, here's what will happen. It will become your master and you will do shady business deals that you never thought you do. You will exploit people for your own benefit. There's nothing you won't do eventually to get ahead.

Speaker 2:

What about work? Nothing wrong with money, by the way. Nothing wrong with work. But it's not meant to be your God. Those things are not meant to be your God. When career becomes most important to you, what happens is you'll become a workaholic and other things in your life will suffer your relationship with your spouse, with your children. You'll miss about every other Sunday because, oh, I just got more work to do, and you will become a slave to your career.

Speaker 2:

And then I'm going to try to say this as well. I'm just going to say it, but because it's what's in our culture and I don't mean this to be crass at all, but sexuality, that's what our culture is after that's become like the highest aim of autonomy, I can, let's say, be with who I want, it doesn't matter. And, as an individual, if it feels good, if it's what I want, then nobody should tell me that I can't do it. And so people have a problem when they come into the church and there's rules around sexuality. It's a gift within the confines of marriage, but it's a perversion and it will destroy you outside of that. But here's what happens.

Speaker 2:

If that is something you're pursuing, if that is above God and above it's used in a wicked way, it will become your master, and we see this all the time. You end up looking at things on the computer that you never thought you'd look at. You will exploit the opposite sex or, for many, the same sex, and you will. Here's what it will do. It will dehumanize people in your life. It will become your master.

Speaker 2:

I have met with so many men through the years who said I just can't control this. It has moved beyond temptation. It's because for so many years they gave into it over and over and over and they became a slave to it. Oh, beloved, there's no such thing as freedom. You are either a slave to righteousness or to one of those sins and anything, even good things in life, family, work, you know, career, all of those things it's like if they are good things, but to be enjoyed in moderation. But we are a gluttonous people and we take what God has given us for our good and enjoyment and we have turned those things into idols and the Bible has something to say about that and it's not good. Every one of you, every one of us, we are servants of something. Something is our master or someone. You can say it like this we all worship something. Atheists worship something. You can say it like this we all worship something. Atheists worship something.

Speaker 2:

There is a renowned writer, david Foster Wallace, who eloquently made this point in his now famous commencement speech at Kenyon College, and I've quoted this probably a handful of times since I've been here in 11 years and I'll continue to. I do it unapologetically because it's so powerful. He said these words at a college commencement. He said everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship, and the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God to worship listen is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are what you tap real meaning in life, when you, you will never have enough, never feel like you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before your loved ones finally plant you. Worship power and you'll end up feeling weak and afraid and you will need ever more power over others to numb your own fears. Worship your intellect being seen as smart, and you'll end up feeling stupid, a fraud. Worship your intellect being seen as smart, and you'll end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Those are powerful words.

Speaker 2:

David Foster Wallace, by the way, crafted this speech at the height of his career. He's a very successful author. At that point, he became a best-selling author. He was in no way, no way a religious man, an avowed atheist, but his success the thing that he was chasing this came from his heart didn't satisfy him and, tragically, two years after that speech, he took his own life. But he left us with the sobering words whatever you worship outside of God will eat you alive. Oh, let God be your master, nothing else. God is our father and our master.

Speaker 2:

So Israel, then, is charged with giving God leftovers, not treating him as father and master, and they have this charge against them from Malachi that they have despised the name of the Lord. Now, imagine if I were to say to you today church, you are despising the name of the Lord. You would be like we're here, we're leaving, you know? Have you not seen me lift my hands and worship? Did you not hear me singing? I read my Bible every day. I do this and this. So Israel, like you, they're perplexed. And so look at verse 6b. But you say how have we despised your name and the Lord, through Malachi says this by offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say how have we polluted you, my altar? But you say how have we polluted you by saying that the Lord's table may be despised when you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? When you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? You know the word despise there means to disdain or to count something as worthless. Instead of bringing God their best. Again, what are they doing? They're giving them what they would not even give. Malachi says they're governor. Now, their sacrifices clearly were going against Old Testament law.

Speaker 2:

Let me just read you a few verses from Leviticus. Leviticus 1.3,. If his offering, isa burnt offering from the heart. He shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted of God. Did you get that? Your offering has got to be a male without blemish. Leviticus 22. 22, animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having kind of gross a discharge or band, itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as food offering on the altar.

Speaker 2:

In Leviticus 22, after discussion of what constituted an acceptable sacrifice, moses makes the clear association with God's name. So here's verse 32 and 33 of Leviticus 22. And you shall not profane my holy name, but I will be sanctified, set apart among you. In other words, I'm not common, I transcend your earthly leaders, I transcend you, I transcend everything and my name will not be profaned. I am the Lord who sanctified you, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.

Speaker 2:

The Israelites were despising God's name by treating him as common, bringing them the leftovers, him the leftovers. And I would just ask you today, are we guilty of bringing God the leftovers? Remember I said we have three resources mainly, we have time, we have talent and we have treasure. Can I preach for a moment? Can I step on toes for a moment? For a moment, can I step on toes for a moment? I'm moving this just in case I get excited. So listen, let's think about time. You will make time for what you love most. You want to know what infuriates more than anything me more than anything when I hear come out, well, almost anything that I hear come out of a church member or regular attender. Well, I don't have time to serve, I'm too busy. Wah, you think we're not all busy. We're crazy busy and we got busy. People doing 50 jobs because you're not stepping up. People doing 50 jobs because you're not stepping up.

Speaker 2:

What about outside of the church? I mean, by the way, the average Christian now goes to church two times a week. Beloved, this is the Lord's day. It's not your day. Every day is his day. But particularly by the 90 AD, in the first century, this became the day of the Lord, where the congregations would come together, meet in houses and they would worship, and this ought to be your priority. I know sometimes we've got a lot of people out sick. Today, you're not supposed to sit online and watch something. This is the day of the Lord and you shouldn't come out of obligation. You ought to come out of celebration for what our great God has done.

Speaker 2:

What about daily devotions? Well, you know I got a lot going on with family and work. I just don't have time. You will make time for what you love, you spend. If you're an average American, do you know what the average time is on spending time on cell phones? Now, anybody, it's scary, I think. It's like eight hours a day, it's over four. Okay, let's be conservative. Four hours a day, four hours a day. What's that? 20% of your day, point something right. 22% of your day you spend on the phone. But I can't find time to pray, to commune with you God, to read the Bible. Give him our leftovers, lord. If I have time at the end of the day, as I'm falling asleep now, you should pray at nighttime. It's a great thing to do before you go to bed, but that's the only time you're communing with God, like if I have time when I'm most tired and least alert. I'll give you that the leftovers.

Speaker 2:

What about talent? I won't spend too much time here because you guys serve in excellence and I'm grateful for that. But you know, sometimes there's a common saying I've heard through the years it's kind of a joke now, but it's good enough for church. You know Bob, before becoming a Christian he played all over in you know rock bands, classic rock. He played all over the place and I remember I knew of him and they had a. I worked at a radio station and your band had a little practice facility. I could hear it. It was so loud I could hear it in the radio station or when I walked outside, but they would practice the same songs over and over and over again. And what I appreciate about Bob, he led the music here for nine years and he put the same amount of work into this. Because here's the thing Church music ought to be the best in the world and here's why we ought to be just as rehearsed. Plus you add the anointing on top of it. It ought to be awesome, amen. But I'm so grateful I don't have to spend a lot of time here because those of you who volunteer, you do things in excellence and I thank you.

Speaker 2:

What about treasure? Oh, here we go. I just can't afford to give Translation. I can't afford to give and keep getting Starbucks every day and go out and buy a $75 meal after church. I just can't give and get a new boat in a brand new vehicle. I just can't give and continually get in debt like I want to be, so I can get stuff that I don't need to impress people I don't like. Again, you can do whatever is you can give to, you can serve whatever is most important to you. Are you awake? Are you mad? All right, here we go. Look at God's response.

Speaker 2:

Some argue today that it's better to bring God something rather than nothing. So this is shocking, verse 10. Oh that there were among you who would shut the doors of the temple. That you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord. This is brutal and I will not accept an offering from your hand. He says here that it would be better to close the doors of the temple to offer God your leftovers, sacrifices and things. Do you know what he's saying? Let's just bring this home. You know what? Real life, if we're going to come in and we're going to give God half-hearted worship, if we're going to leave here and go do whatever we want, that we say we love God, if we're going to leave here and walk in disobedience. We might as well shut the doors, because this is not pleasing to God at all. All this is entertainment, and you've got more entertaining things you could do today.

Speaker 2:

Let me read you a quote from Francis Chan. This comes from the book Crazy Love. This is so good. He's speaking about this text and he says the priest of Malachi's day. They thought their sacrifices were sufficient. They had spotless animals, but they chose to keep those for themselves and give God their less desirable animals. They assumed God was pleased because they had sacrificed something. Listen to this. God described the practice as evil. Leftovers, he writes, are not merely inadequate from God's point of view. Unless we forget, his view is the only one that matters Evil. So here's what Francis Chan, here's his last line. Here let's stop calling it a busy schedule or bills or forgetfulness. It's called evil.

Speaker 2:

Are you glad you came to church today? What's our motivation for giving God our best? It's not that the Lord needs anything. This is not a debtor's ethic, a payback. You know, god, you've done so much for us. We want to bring you our best to pay you back. It's all his anyways. He owns the cattle of a thousand hills. He said if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. It's his money. You're not holding your money back from him. Your time back from him, it's all his. It's all his. So we don't give him to try to pay back, because every day you are further indebted to his grace. You can never in a million lifetimes pay him back. All the money in the world couldn't do it. We don't serve him first and give him our first fruits, because that buys his love. Beloved, he loved us while we were yet sinners. He gave his life for us, even when we were enemies of God. He gave Christ the apex demonstration of love so that we could be saved. No, this is not about earning his love, but it has had to do with divine power and blessing working in my life. He talks about that. It's powerful. Here's what verse 9 says. Think about that.

Speaker 2:

You wonder why things may not be going okay. Let me add a caveat here. I am not saying that if you give god your best, that you're going to have everything your heart wants. But if you feel distant from god, that's what israel's feeling and things are going really bad in your life. You know you just can't get ahead. It's asking. I'm not saying this is always the case, but it's worth asking. Is God's defined favor been removed from me Because I'm not treasuring him first? So it's just a question worth asking.

Speaker 2:

The primary reason, though, that we give him our best is just because who he is Verse 11,. From the rising of the sun to though. That we give Him our best is just because who he is Verse 11,. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord will be great among the nations, and every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations. Saith the Lord. It's about His name. It's about who he is. It's not about even what he does. He's worthy because of who he is Verse 14,. I am a great king. Saith the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. It will be so. Do you mind to come up?

Speaker 2:

If I were to ask you what is most important to you today? If I were to ask you that question, most of you in here would say oh God, let me just get you to think about something. Does the way you spend your time, talent and treasure reflect that answer? We can say it of your heart. You know really the heart of Christianity is to when you repent and you turn to Christ in faith. You know really it's saying to make Jesus Lord is to say Lord, you are supreme in my life, you are my treasure, you're everything. I'll go where you want me to go, do what you want me to do. I'll obey you, not begrudgingly but gladly, because Jeremiah said if you're truly saved, he said, he prophesied that God's going to take the heart of stone and give you a multiple heart that's bent towards his law, you can delight in the law of God. It's beautiful.

Speaker 2:

So I would ask you today, even as Christians, you know we're tempted on a daily basis, on a daily basis, to put something else before God, to love something else more than God, even good things, again, family work, to prioritize other things before God and to be sure you can glorify God at your work, in your eating and drinking. Paul said do it to the glory of God. But you do need communion time, focused time with God every single day. And I want to challenge you just be consistent. You're here today, okay, and I'm glad. Be consistent in coming on Sundays. I have about what 25% of our people out every single week. Sometimes it's sick and travel, I get that, but sometimes it's just like. You know. It should never be a conversation on Saturday night.

Speaker 2:

Are we going to go to church tomorrow? No, it's the Lord's day. He's priority, first day of the week, day Jesus was resurrected. It's saying before Lord anything else, this is what you say when you come to the house of God and worship Lord, it's you. That's first in my life, so I'll close with this.

Speaker 2:

We're going to right now prepare our hearts for communion as we sing one more song, and in Malachi it says you've despised the Lord's table, the Lord's table. You know we don't make sacrifices anymore like they did in the Old Testament, but the Lord's table is the communion table now. And we remember when we come to the table that we don't have to offer those animal sacrifices, because the perfect Lamb of God died to take away the sins of the world, died to take away the sins of the world and as the Israelites, the people of Judah were dishonoring God by profaning his table. 1 Corinthians 11 says that we can do the same thing when we take what we're doing here lightly Again, when you come in and, oh Lord, we're coming to your table, but we go out and live like the devil all week long, chasing the things of the world.

Speaker 2:

So I want to sing one song before Hunter leads us in taking the Lord's Supper, a song called Everything, and I want you just to reflect. Matter of fact, dylan or Wendy up there, do we have the prayer of confession by chance? Can we put that up? Can we say this together? I'm going to pray for us and we're going to say this confession together. God, if there's one here that doesn't know you today that you've never been the treasure of their life, lord, let this be the day of salvation For all of us, god, who have not put you first, even as Christians, that you know. We want to put you first, but we just struggle because there are many other things in our lives that are always vying for our worship. Help us today, lord, to get back on the path. Thank you for your mercy that you do not deal with us according to our worship. Help us today, lord, to get back on the path. Thank you for your mercy that you did not deal with us according to our sins.

Speaker 2:

This is not a message to beat people up. It's a message to call them to prioritize you, which is the best thing we can do in life. It's where joy comes from. It's where peace comes from. It's where satisfaction comes from. Let us remove any idols from our life. Reveal them to us by the Holy Spirit. We pray it in Jesus' good name. Would you stand with me? Let's say this together.

Speaker 2:

This comes from the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. And apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent According to your promises. Declare to all people in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and grant, o most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous and sober life to the glory of your holy name. Amen.