2.3 KiB
Context
Scripture Reading: Exodus 19:1-9a
Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:1-10
Song: How Sweet and Aweful Is The Place
Prayer
Our Father,
We come to You as sinners, as trespassers, as lawbreakers. Once we all were of a people utterly alien to righteousness and utterly incapable of attaining to it, and we offered nothing to merit the deliverance You have wrought for us through Your Son. You regard us, who You have called, as a treasured possession among the peoples, yet in ourselves, we were of one nature the countless who make the wretched choice. Indeed, "Why [were we] made to hear Thy voice?" Those deaf to Your voice do not provide us a favorable contrast, as there we see the same unbelief and hostility toward You that we would still hold, but for Your mercy on us.
You set us apart as a distinct people, but we, in our flesh, so easily lapse into identifying with different tribes. We often set our first identity not with Your people, but with those who vote as we vote, or who work on what we work on. We may know in our heads that our identity should orbit around Christ, and we will say as much, but we at times see our brothers as enemies and those who hate You as allies.
You have given us the riches of Your Word, but as a people, we long for a king like those of other peoples. We want to worship as they worship. We simply do not fathom the impassable chasm between the holiness that You call us to, and futility of the world You are delivering us from. Though we saw what You did to Egypt, we aspire to be like Egypt.
You have provided everyone of us here with reason to trust You, but we are quick to fall into unbelief. We are quick to cast our trust on the power of the flesh. We trust You when You act, but we do not trust You in the waiting.
We read the actions of others with malice, and we think it nothing to slander them in our hearts. We play the part of the accuser, and we dredge up and inflate the sins of those who wrong us.
We hold envy in our hearts and indict You as unjust in Your allotment of gifts.
Father, we ask that You would continue to draw from Your vast well of patience. Bring us safely home, to the rest of Your promised kingdom. For the sake of Him who did keep Your covenant on our behalf, make us a treasured people for Your own possession.
It is in the name Your righteous Son, Christ Jesus that we pray. Amen.