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11 Jul 2021

I Did It My Way! [Genesis 27]

Overview

One of Frank Sinatra's greatest hits is the song "My Way". In fact, "My Way" is the most popular song for funerals in the Philippines. People love to do things "my way". But "my way" not always the best. In the story here in Genesis 27, "my way" ends up with a terrible mess. In this sermon, we will learn about the mechanics of sin- how sin came about in all 4 of the characters in the story. We will also see the misery of sin- how the family is not helped but instead broken, by their self-centered actions. Finally, we will appreciate the majesty over sin- how sin does not ultimately foil God's plans and purposes, but that God actually and sovereignly uses sin (though He does not cause sin) for His own glory. Check out this sermon here so that you may be warned against sin, and be warmed about God's faithful love for lost humanity.


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Sermon Transcript

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You might be familiar with this singer; his name is Frank Sinatra. One of his greatest hits is that song, "My Way". The lyrics are printed here, there's this chorus, this crescendo part that he sings, "I did it my way."

People love this statement. People love to do things our way. In fact, this song is said to be one of the most popular songs played in funerals. People like to die knowing that they have done things 'my way'. But doing things my way is not always the best, in fact, it can end up in a huge mess. That's the story, story we read here in Genesis, chapter 27.

I think this is a story that displays four people singing 'my way'. Isaac, Rebekah, their sons, Jacob and Esau, all four of ... four of them together is a quartet singing, "I did it my way." All four of them I think wanted to do things that they felt were the best for themselves, but actually all it results in is a tragic mess. Because they all did things in a sinful way, and they ended up in a terrible consequence.

[1] The Mechanics of Sin

So today, we're going to look at this story of "I Did It My Way". A story of sin and mess, and without much ado, let me first introduce to you the first point in this sermon, and that is: The mechanics of sin.

We are going to see why and how they each sin. So let's start with Isaac, what did Isaac do wrong? Well, Isaac according to this story, wanted to bless his eldest son Esau. And Esau was his favorite son, and the reason he wanted to bless Esau was that he loved Esau.

But you say, "What's wrong with wanting to bless your own son?" Well, the ... there's nothing wrong in that per se, except that in this case, Esau is not the one God wanted to have the birthright. God had already specifically said, "The older, Esau shall serve the younger, Jacob." [Gen 25:23]

So this was God's will, God's declared purpose. Yes, Jacob came after Esau in the birthing process, but God had already declared Jacob will be the one blessed. So when Isaac wanted to bless Esau, He did it because he was preferentially biased towards Esau. And the reason is because, "He ate of the game of Esau." [Gen 25:28]

Now, what do you mean by ate of his game? This refers to the hunt, the meat that Esau would bring back. Esau was a hunter. And I think as men, we all understand this very well. We are all ... not we all, but I am a man who loves his meat. And it is said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and maybe this is the case for Isaac and Esau.

And again, we are told explicitly, he said, "Prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die." [Gen 27:4] So Isaac was at this point of time certainly ruled by his appetites. He wanted to satisfy his own desires, and therefore he chose to bless Esau even though God had said it would be Jacob. So he defiantly chose to do it 'my way', he wanted to fulfill his own will.

And isn't this reminiscent of Eve at the first temptation? Well, she knew that God had said, "Don't eat of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," but we are told in verse 6 of chapter 3, she was ruled like Isaac by her appetites, by her own desires, "She saw that the tree was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desired to make one wise."

And therefore, ruled by her appetites, "She decided to take it and eat it, in defiance to God's will." [Gen 3:6] Now, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, we think is a parallel here in 1st John, chapter 2:16. "For all that is in a world that desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world."

So today, this might be seen in a desire to fulfill sexual lust or a desire for money and wealth, or a hunger for power, or a longing for creature comforts. In and of themselves, these things are not wrong, but when you seek to fulfill these desires in defiance to God's will, it becomes sinful. So we see the mechanics of sin in Isaac's life, he decided to pursue his own desires, in defiance to God's explicit will.

But let's move on and look at Rebekah and Jacob. Let's look at Rebekah. The Bible tells us that, "Whilst Isaac loved Esau, Rebekah loved Jacob." [Gen 25:28] So there was this bias at home, there was this favoritism at home. The father would prefer the older brother and the mother would prefer the younger brother. And we see now Rebekah, she preferred Jacob, she wanted Jacob to be blessed above Esau.

So when she heard of Isaac's plan to bless Esau, she quickly kicked into action. She thought to herself, "Even though God said that Jacob will be the one who is blessed, she decided to take things into her own hands, she decided to make sure that Jacob will be the one blessed, not Esau."

So she hatched this scheme, she went to her son Jacob and told him, "Jacob, go get me some meat, I will cook it for your father. And I want you to put on Esau's garments and I will give you goat's skin, so that when you go to your father he wouldn't know that you are Jacob. Tell him that you are Esau, so that your father will bless you."

So what a conniving; deceitful plan she hatched! But that's what she did, because she wanted to do it her way. She wanted to make sure that the blessing will come upon Jacob. She took things into her own hands.

So we read of Jacob, absolutely cooperating in this scheme. He came to Isaac with this stew, with this meat, dressed in Esau's clothes and with goat's skin because Esau was a hairy man, he needed to have hair in a sense. So he came to his father and said to him, "I am Esau your son." [Gen 27:19]

Flat out dishonesty and lie! And when the father said to him, "How is it that you have found it so quickly?" [Gen 27:20] "How come you could catch the prey so fast." "He said, "Because the LORD your God granted me success."' [Gen 27:20] So he was not ashamed of using God's Name in vain! But he came quickly because he knew that if he waited or tarried further, Esau may come back and his ploy with Rebekah would be exposed.

So now, he said, "Are you really my son?”, Isaac asked. [Gen 27:24] "And Esau (sic Jacob) again unashamedly answered, "I am."' "And he betrayed his father with a kiss." [Gen 27:27] So Rebekah and Jacob, both of them sinned in a sense that they did it 'my way'. They did it according to their own ploys and schemes.

You see, what they wanted was actually what God wanted. God wanted to bless Jacob, so did Rebekah, so did Jacob, they wanted, all of them wanted Jacob to be blessed. But the problem with their sin here, or the problem with what they did is that they took things into their own hands. They did wrong in order to do what is right. They did it 'my way'.

And you know sin can be like this. Let me give you some specific applications for your consideration. We all want to be provided and God wants to provide for his people, isn't it? God is our Heavenly Father and He provides. But instead of trusting God's provision, there are many times, we can live in unbelief and decide to be like Rebekah - take things into our own hands.

God has already said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." "Do not worry about your future." But the problem with us is that often times we behave like Rebekah, we ... we know that God wants to provide for us but we can't quite trust Him. So we take things into our own hands, we will not seek God and His righteousness first. We say, "We must seek our career first, we must work hard first, and whatever we have left over of time and energy and effort, then we give it to God, then we give it to church ministry, then we give it to the Christian ministry."

But you see, it's the same sin Rebekah did! We will do things only 'my way'. So many Singaporeans today are stuck in workaholism. Now, working hard is not wrong, there's nothing wrong with diligent work, but there's everything wrong with an obsession to your work, with an addiction to your work, with a chaining of yourself to work, because you do not trust your God to provide.

Now, slothfulness is no good of course, but workaholism is the other extreme we must avoid because workaholism is really a sinful expression of unbelief at the end of the day. And I'm afraid, many of us are stuck in this trap.

Now, let me give you another example. Now, you want maybe your family to succeed, or specifically you want your husband to succeed. You want your husband to do well spiritually, you want your husband to do well in his job, you want your husband not to like what we say here in Singapore, 'nuah' [Hokkien dialect], just melt away, dissolve away.

You don't want your husband to amount to be no gooder, to be good for nothing, so you are anxious to help your husband. You pray for him, you encourage him, but sometimes you say, "You know, I've got to do more than that, I've got to take things into my own hands, because he's not shaping up."

And so you decide to give him a good scolding, you decide to reprimand him, to wake, or to knock some sense into him so that he wakes up. You say, "I've got to do it otherwise ..." And you know how that reasoning goes. But you know, there is a danger to that because I don't think this is in the place of a wife to do.

Now, I'm not saying that the wife must always 'kowtow' to her husband, but the biblical mandate in Scripture is very clear, that the wife is to submit to the husband, to reverence her husband. Now, she is to be the best helper, it can be in a form of constructive criticism, loving rebuke, I think that's fine. But there's everything wrong when the posturing is off, so she henpecks him, reprimands him.

And let me say this, "This is not just the wife to the husband, it works the other way as well." When the husband feels like the wife is not good enough, and he feels that it's his place to scold and reprimand the wife.

Now, I think actually the Bible tells us to focus on our own selves. The Bible does not tell the husband to scold the wife or to whip the wife up into shape. No, the Bible focuses on our own responsibilities! That the husband is to be that loving husband and it is only when you are the loving husband, that the wife can flourish and thrive. And not for us to take things in our own hands, to ... to whip our wives into shape and neglect our obedience to God in being a loving husband in the first place.

I think you get the point! We all want these things, but the way to these things must be done God's way. Can I also apply this not only just to individuals but even to the church at large, to the whole church? Because we all want more people to know Jesus Christ. Ultimately, whilst we say numbers are not the only thing, numbers are still important things, because every number represents a single soul. And so there is a desire for church people, for pastors, for leaders to see church growth in terms of numerical growth.

We want that, there's nothing wrong with that! Every single person coming in is a soul that can be reached for the Lord Jesus Christ, we are glad for that. But the problem again is how you go about church growth, in a sense. How do you get more people in? Is it because you use compromise or flashy methodologies and tactics? Is it because you dilute the Word of God, you dilute the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Now, there are many ways we can get people in, but we must always do it God's way, not fleshly methods, not humanistic manipulation, not emotionalism, not worldly ways. Well, we want growth, but let's see it God's way. So we see that Rebekah and Jacob, they sinned in a sense that they wanted 'my way'. They can't trust God. They ... they would take things into ... into their own hands. And then we see finally, Esau, he also did things my way, in that he would not trust that God would bring about justice. He wanted to exact vengeance by himself. He said, "I will kill my brother Jacob." [Gen 27:41]

So, what is sin? When you look at this quartet, singing, "I will do it my way"? What is sin? Well, sin is actually doing what I want, and doing what I think is the best way. So it really is an expression of my will and my way or if I may say, "Self-desire and self-dependence." So, at the heart of it all, sin is independence from God. That's the real mechanism! Sin is independence from God.

I can't think of a better example than when Jesus was tempted by the devil at the wilderness or in the wilderness. You remember the devil, he came with three strikes. The first strike was saying to Jesus, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones be to become loaves of bread." The second strike is, "If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down." The third strike is "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

Now, we looked at these temptations in great detail in Matthew, chapter 4, you may want to check it out, but if I may summarize, I may crystallize all these three strikes, really are urging Jesus to do what Jesus wills.

"Jesus, You must be hungry, do what you want." "Jesus, you must prove that God will protect You, so jump off." "Jesus, You want the glories of the world, so now bow down before me."

"Do what You will, what You want and do it Your way. Don't wait for God to provide that bread, turn the stone into bread. Do it your way because God's way is too slow! Do it Your way! Don't have to go to the cross! Just bow down before me right now, and I'll give You the glories of the world." So you see what the devil is doing is really tempting Jesus to live or to act independently of God, to do what He will and do what He wants. Now, that's the mechanism of sin.

I don't want to be someone who is long on diagnosis but short on treatment. What I mean by that is - I do not want to just tell you about the problem. The problem is that the heart’s sinful desire to go independent of God, and not tell you how to cure this, how to solve this.

So let me ask you, "What do you think is what we can do, or must do to fight against sin, to fight against independence from God? What's the secret sauce? What's the crux of the matter?"

Now, I know many of you will say, "I know! It's the Bible." I agree with you it's the Bible. But why? How does reading the Bible help you fight against sin? How does it work? It's almost like you have fever, and someone tells you, "Take Panadol." Well, it's helpful to understand how Panadol works. As a medically trained person, I know how it works, but it's real cool to understand how it works so that maybe it will help you taking that Panadol.

So how does reading the Bible work? It works, but I tell you it will work even better if you understand how it works, in terms of reading the Bible. What is the secret? Well, let me say that, "The secret to fighting against sin, against independence from God, is what we call, love."

You say, "Pastor, that's so generic!" But let me try to explain it to you why. Love is the key to fighting against sin. You see I have this verse of the Bible, 1 John 2:15, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." This is a fascinating verse, "If anyone loves the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, like Adam, like Eve, when you long for these things of the world, in opposition to God. If you love the things of this world, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

So, if there's a principle I like to distill from 1 John 2:15, is this simple phrase - there is only room for one in your heart. Your heart is not very big, spiritually speaking, it can only have room for one. What do you mean? Well, "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Your heart is big enough to contain only love for the world. So, if the world is in your heart, if you love the world, then the love of the Father is not in you, it cannot squeeze in.

But on the other hand, think about it, if you have the love of God in your heart, then you will not love the world. This is the logic! This is a simple principle! This is the secret sauce! How can I push out the love for the world? How can I push out independence from God? Because I love the things of the world. Now, let me tell you, "The answer is this that you have a love of God in your heart."

So, this is what Thomas Chalmers years ago said about the expulsive power of a new affection. Now, let's look at this new affection. Why is this new affection? What is new affection? The new affection here is the love for God, or if you may look at it this way, the love from God to us.

This is a new affection. It's new! You know why it's new? Because nobody is born into this world loving God. Nobody is born into this world wanting to obey God. The Bible tells us we are all sinners, we are born in sin and we are born into this world actually hating God. We don't want God, we don't know God's love, and we don't love God.

But at the point when you hear the Gospel, you repent of your sin, you believe in Jesus Christ, God now gives you a new heart, that is able to appreciate His love. Now, you're able to know His love, and because you know His love, you love Him. So that's why it's a new affection, it comes only after you repent and believe in Jesus. Whereas the love for the things of this world is an old affection, it's what we have always grown up to desire.

So Thomas Chalmers is saying, "When you know God's love, when there is this new affection, there is this power in this new love, there is this power in this new affection, there's this expulsive power, expelling the love for this world."

So he says, "We know of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our heart, than to keep in our hearts the love of God." The secret to fighting sin is the expulsive power of a new affection, "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. But if any man loves the Father, the love of the world will not be in him."

Sinclair Ferguson, a preacher of our day, he says, "You cannot destroy love of the world merely by showing its emptiness. Even if we could do so, that would lead only to despair." Because if you just tell people don't love the world, it ends up like a vacuum. And nature doesn't like vacuums, it will immediately rush to fill it.

So if you say, "Don't love the world, but you don't give it something to push that out, the love of the world will only come back." So Sinclair Ferguson goes on to say, "The first world-centered love ..." we all like I said, are born into this world to love the world. "So the first world-centered love of our hearts can be expelled, only by a new love and affection - for God and from God."

So in order to fight sin, we regularly say and pray in this church, "Drink in the Gospel." You say, "What is drink in the Gospel?" It means be reminded regularly, feed your heart, feed your soul with the message of the Gospel, the message of God's love for us. The Good News of Jesus Christ dying and rising to save us from our sins. Be regularly refreshed, drink in the Gospel, because it's the Gospel that tells us of God's love.

1 John 4:9, "In this the love of God was made manifest, that God sent His only Son into the world." You know we should not judge God's love primarily through circumstances, because they may change, and it's not always easy to interpret. But we can always know God's love from the Gospel. "This is how God's love is manifested, that He sent His only Son into the world."

Romans 5, verse 8 tells of the same thing, "God shows, God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That's why we read the Bible, folks. That's why you're attending a worship service. That's why you go for Bible studies because as you immerse yourself into the Bible, that really focuses on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit uses that to help you drink in the Gospel - to refresh your heart, to nourish your heart that you may be filled and be constantly filled with the love of God.

And it's when you know the love of God that it pushes out the love of this world. And that's why we pray, we drink in the Gospel by reading, we drink in the Gospel by praying. Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus that, "They might be able to comprehend, they may have the strength to really understand, not just hear but hear in the heart, the love of Christ, the love of God in Jesus Christ." [Eph 3:14-19]

And that's why when we say in church, "Not only must we read and pray, we must have community because we need one another to stir ourselves up to love and to good works." [Heb 10:24-25] We meet together, we encourage one another, all that to drink in the Gospel.

So the mechanics of sin is that, we choose independence from God, we want to do things 'my way', we want to do things according to 'my will'. And the real antidote to that is knowing the love of God, because when we are filled with God's love, as we are replenishing that store or that repository of God's love in our hearts through Scripture, through prayer, through community, it pushes out the desire of the flesh. And now we say, "I want to do God's will and I want to do it God's way."

[2] The Misery of Sin

So that's the mechanics of sin, my time is running out and let me then rush through to number two: The misery of sin. I told you, this is a story of sin, and this is a story of mess and this is a story that absolutely describes Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is the way to death."

All four of them thought that their way is the best. But again, they all end up in a mess. Can you imagine how dysfunctional this family is right now? Esau wants to kill Jacob, Jacob got to run away from home. He thought it would be for a while, but as it turned out, as you read on, he will be away for at least 20 years of his life.

I can't imagine how Isaac and Rebekah can see each other from now onwards, they must have a deep distrust of each other. And I can't imagine how Esau must think of his own mother, Rebekah who would do this to him. So they really messed up big time! Was it really worth it at the end of the day?

Isaac would say, "It was bad! It was bad to go against God!" Rebekah would think, "It is terrible for me to ... to cheat my own husband and to do this to my own son Esau!" Jacob must have regretted as he ran from his home. And Esau, well, he must also be filled with anger and dissatisfaction throughout this whole episode.

So the Bible tells us over and over again that the way of sin, the way of independence from God often leads to disaster. Numbers 32:23 tells us, "Be sure your sin will find you out." And Galatians 6:8 tell us that, "The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption."

You thought that you're doing something that will satisfy you, but God says, "It will only kill you." That's what it is, that's the way of sin! Sin promises pleasure, but it always delivers pain and misery. And again, 1 Peter 2:11, "Abstain from the passions of the flesh, because it wages war against your soul." It only hurts you.

Well, I've shown this video last time, a long time ago but I'll show it again, very interesting story we can learn from nature. Take a look.

[Video]

Just next door in an even smaller nest, the female reed warbler incubates its four eggs. One of the brood is starting to hatch. However, it is not the young weed warbler. Two weeks ago, a female cuckoo, unseen by the reed warbler, dropped her egg into this nest. Now, the young cuckoo hatches. As the first of the brood, the reed warbler did not notice the trick. But now feeds the young, as if it were its own.

The young cuckoo needs to throw the other eggs out of the nest. If it doesn't do this, then the parents will not be able to feed all the nestlings. But the first attempts are not successful, the cuckoo is still too weak. It tries again. It must push the egg above the edge of the nest, it is a big effort.

With the determination of the weak cuckoo nestling, to get rid of the competition is amazing to see. After a few hours it has another go, this time there's some success, the first egg landed in the water. When it throws out the second egg, the cuckoo almost falls out of the nest itself. Now, for the last one. Alone, at last!

The ever-open bright red beak and the constant peeping from the cuckoo prompts the reed warblers to bring it food without a break. Now, all the insects and spiders end up in its beak. With such intensive feeding, the young cuckoo reaches its adult size in just two weeks. It is so large that when it sits on the nest it must hold tight so it doesn't fall off! With strong wind, the nest may even break apart under its weight.

Although the cuckoo is by now much bigger than the reed warblers, they still treat it as if it's one of their own nestlings. Even after it has left the nest, they will still feed it. At the end of August, the young cuckoo will start its lonely journey to Africa. It will return next spring, maybe even to the same weed, and try to toss an egg into a reed warbler's nest.

[End of Video]

Watch this video, or when I watch this video, I really want to punch the cuckoo! I mean it's such a terrible kind of a bird, it lays its eggs in a reed warbler's nest and allows that to be an imposter that ultimately destroys the reed warblers' family.

Now, this cuckoo bird is ... I put this in because I'm reminded of my sinful flesh. And my sinful flesh is like this cuckoo bird, this little chick. You feed it, you thought that by feeding it, you're doing the right thing, you're bringing satisfaction and lasting joy to your life. Not knowing that the more you feed this cuckoo imposter, it kills you, it destroys your family, it pushes out all the real stuff in your nest, in your life.

And that's what happens when you feed the flesh, it wars against the soul. And so maybe today, this is a reminder of how we need to heed God's Word here, "Abstain from the passions of the flesh." [1 Peter 2:11] Don't feed the cuckoo bird because it will wage war against your soul.

Maybe some of you today are living in sin. Maybe this is a reminder for us to repent, not just because we know God's love and we love Him, but also because we know this is the wise thing to do. It is foolish to allow sin to continue to grow in our lives. So that's really a reminder about the misery of sin in Isaac's family.

[3] The Majesty Over Sin

Finally, let me move on to - The majesty over sin. As you read this story in Genesis, you would see that this family is unraveling, it's like disaster is happening to this home. But on the other hand, you don't feel like things are spiraling out of control, you don't feel like God is out of control. Because even though things are happening as it is, we know that it is way okay because we see that this is just going towards the fulfillment that God has said will happen in Genesis 25:23, "The older shall serve the younger."

In other words, all that this is doing is that God is ensuring His Word and His plan will be fulfilled. God is using, if I may say, "God is using even the sins of Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob, for the fulfilment of His Word."

Now, let's be very careful here, I'm not saying that, "God makes them sin." James 1 is very clear, "God is not the author of evil. He does not tempt men with evil, neither is He tempted with evil." So God is not making them sin, but God nonetheless, is using their sin for His ultimate purposes. That's the sovereignty, the power, the majesty of God over sin. He is above sin, but He does use sin and turn sinful things ultimately for His glory and honor.

So because of this family tragedy because of the ... the deception, the web of conspiracy, Jacob ultimately would have the birthright as God said He will. He will then father 12 sons, and from one of the sons, there will come ultimately a descendant called David, and from David will come ultimately a descendant named Jesus Christ.

So God is orchestrating, using all things including even sinful things for His glory. Now, do not be surprised, because this is not the ultimate example of how God uses sin! The ultimate example of how God uses sin might be seen in Acts 2:23 "This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

Think about it, the crucifixion of Jesus is done by both God's predeterminate will and also sinful hands! God uses sin, even though He's not the author of sin, for His own ultimate glorious purposes.

So maybe today, some of you are going through a messy situation in life, you are going through pain and cancer and job loss and relational breakdowns. Well, let me say this, "God has not lost the plot, He is still majestic, He's still sovereign over all things, even messy, sinful circumstances of life. And we can still trust that He's working all things together for good to them that love God."

And I also like to add lastly, the final statement I'd like to make is this: In this story, we see a sinful situation, but the last word of this family is not sin, the last word in this family is salvation.

You see, sin is not the ultimate thing! It is a terrible thing, but sin is not the ultimate thing, God is the ultimate thing. And His grace and His Gospel is the ultimate thing. Maybe today you have sinned against God, and you're ashamed and you feel like there is no chance for you to be saved. Let me say this, "Sin is not the ultimate thing, Jesus is, the Gospel is, God's salvation is.

And I believe God is calling you today to repent and to believe in His Son." Jesus saves. He came to die for us on the cross, so that sin will be ... will be ultimately paid for. And that all men who will repent and believe in Him will be reconciled to God, to enjoy God and to glorify God forevermore. Jesus saves and I pray this morning, you will turn and believe upon Him.

Let's come to God now in a word of prayer together.

Our Father, we thank You for this morning that as we hear the Word of God, we can rejoice You are the Sovereign God who orchestrates all things, even messy, sinful things for Your glory and for our good.

Today, we praise You because of Your love for us in Jesus Christ. We thank You for loving us, while we were yet sinners. And so this morning as a people, may all our attention and focus be on You and may all our hearts cry out in praise towards Your Name.

It is our prayer this morning that those who are gathered with us, maybe for the first time or those who are hearing Your Word, but are not yet believers, will today repent and believe in Jesus. Work in them in such a way that they will see that there is no other Name given under heaven whereby man may be saved, except the Name, Jesus Christ.

We want to pray for Your Church, that we will be a people who will regularly drink in the Gospel through the Word, through prayer, through Gospel community. So that our hearts are nourished, refreshed with the love of God, that it will then expel the love for the things of this world. I pray then that Your people will live lives of godliness, holiness, obedience to bring glory to You.

O God this morning, give us grace, that we will not continue in our sinful ways but we will be turning, repenting! Work in our hearts even right here, right now. Father, we want to pray for those who are going through mess, going through pain, going through suffering. May they not give up, but we pray that they will endure and keep looking to Jesus.

O God we pray for Your Church, even in these COVID days that we will be missional, that we would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, that we will be about the Great Commission! So I pray once more, being strengthened by Your Spirit, we might know Your love, we might drink in the Gospel, that we may then live out the Gospel, and that Your people may give out the Gospel.

Thank You for this time, we can hear Your Word. Bless Your people. We ask all this in Jesus' Name. Amen. God bless.

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