A Sign of the Self-Righteous

We have been in a study for about the better part of a year and a half focusing on the ministry of Jesus, where we are listening to, studying at, and marveling at everything Jesus did, everything Jesus said, every interaction Jesus ever had. And this morning, our study brings us to Luke, chapter 18. We’re going to look at verses nine through 14 in a little bit today as we learn a brief parable from the lips of Jesus Christ. This parable is outstanding. It’s an amazing study, but it’s also like convicting. It’s one filled with direction and information that concerns your eternal destiny. So if you came in this morning wondering about your eternal destiny, you have stumbled into the right room. This is a study about eternity. I have been the primary preacher of this congregation for almost seven years. And since I started preaching here, it doesn’t feel like a long time, doesn’t it? Since I started preaching here in that time. I’m sure that by God’s grace, some of the sermons that I have preached have been more dramatic than this sermon. Maybe more moving, more inspiring. Certainly there have been more interesting or relevant things than the sermon you’re going to hear this morning. But I cannot imagine that in all of those hundreds of sermons that I have preached at this table that I’ve ever preached any more important than this. In fact, I think of any parable that Jesus ever gave, there was no more important than the one we’re going to look at this morning. And the reason that this parable is so important and the reason that this study is so important is because it focuses on our eternal destiny and explores the nature of our fitness for the kingdom of God. It’s a pretty simple point, but it should be life defining for us.

I have taken, typically a fair bit of time at the start of a sermon to kind of rally up and get you into a point where you’re engaging with me to try to compel you to listen, because I know a lot of things are vying for your attention. But this morning I’m going to pass all of that and simply say this. Some here are going to hear, like, listen and heed the instructions of this parable and will find assurance in their eternity. But others will be tempted to reject the message that our Lord gives in this parable. So we’ll find ourselves among the doomed. Now, if you can’t be prepared to listen to a sermon about that, you ain’t got no hope. You know what I’m saying? So bear with me. Come in, follow along, because, again, this is super compelling. And my prayer for you is that you will heed the instructions that you’ll open your heart and that you’ll carefully consider the words of Jesus and then forever be changed by them.

Okay, here we go. Let’s do it. Luke, chapter 18, verse nine. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Jesus told this parable Luke tells us that Jesus directs this little parable to a very specific group of people, to people who were, quote, confident of their own righteousness. Confident of their own righteousness. What does that mean? Well, let me give you another way of saying that same idea. It’s they believed they lived good enough lives to constantly stand before God. That’s what it means. This is a parable for those who trust in their character enough, trust in their moral purity enough trust in their decision making, enough trust in their love enough or trust in their honesty or their personal integrity enough that they feel confident approaching God’s holy throne of grace and saying, look, God, I lived a good life.

It’s a parable directed to those who believe that their resume, it has enough good in it that their resume is noble, that they’re trustworthy people, and it allows them to come before God and to say, hey, God would be satisfied with how I lived my life. That’s who this parable is for. And then Jesus adds, because of that, they consequently, because of that right, their perspective of their own righteousness, they decided to judge other people. So they thought, hey, I’m righteous and because I’m righteous, I can look down on those who I perceive to be not righteous. Yes, clear. That’s who this parable is for. That’s who this sermon is for. It’s for those who are confident in their own righteousness. And you may be looking at me and go, hey, Tony, how do you know you’re confident in your own righteousness? Because I bet you if we did a show of hands, no one would raise their hand. So how do we decide?

How do you decide if you’re confident in your own righteousness? Is there some sort of like BuzzFeed quiz? Do people still do this? I don’t even know. Is there some sort of quiz that can say, yes, you are confident in your own righteousness? I don’t know. But I will give you one question. It’s a rhetorical question. Please don’t shout it out. But it’s a self evaluation question to give yourself to determine if you are the person Jesus is speaking to in this parable. Here’s the question. Here’s the question. Suppose you were to die tonight and you wake up and the resurrection has happened and you’re brought before God, and he looks at you and he says your name Joe, Phil, Anthony, Pam, Joy, Mary, whatever. David, krista? He asks you this question. This is the question. Don’t answer it. Why should I let you into heaven? How would you answer him? Just take a second. Don’t shout it out. This is for yourself. Let me pause so you can think about it. If you died tonight and you stood before God and you tell me, tell me why you should be let into my heaven. What would your answer be? Let me share some things that I’ve heard. I asked a fair bit of people in preparation for the sermon, some in the church, some outside the church, some in this congregation, some outside. I asked everybody if I could share.

I’m not going to tell their names. But many, many of the people I spoke to began with a disclaimer. They said, Look, Lord, I’m not perfect, fair like God doesn’t know that. I know there are things I’ve done. I know there are things I’ve done that I shouldn’t have done. I know there are things I haven’t done that I should have done. I’ve messed up a fair bit in my life. Others started with, hey, look, I don’t even know. I got a little bit of that. Some stated that, hey, look, I’ve messed up a lot, and then said, but I’ve tried. I did my best. I tried to live a good life. I served other people. I overcame hardship. I loved you deeply. I served you. I did my best. Someone told me about the cycle of dysfunction. They broke, they went to church, they gave offering. They did all those things. These are the answers I heard.

How did you answer? Don’t tell me, but how did you answer? Here’s what I’m going to say. If you thought anything like what I just said, if you thought in your thought process, if there was an exploring or an explaining or an excusing or a defending or a presentation of who you are, if your answer in your brain was any bit of advocacy for yourself, even in the smallest amount, then this sermon is for you. And this parable is for you.

In fact, I’m certain that there’s people in this room who are hearing me say that, and you don’t even know what’s wrong with that. And so I want to just tell you in mercy, as a friend, as a minister of this amazing gospel we have been given, please listen. I hope to explain it to you. I hope you give you a biblical pathway for repentance. Let’s read the parable, let’s study it out. And I promise you, if you had that thought, this will be life changing for you. I’m setting it up a lot. I hope it actually is life changing for you. All right, verse nine. To some who are confident in their own righteousness and look down again, they look down because they were confident in their own righteousness. Jesus told this parable, again, this is a parable directed at a type of person. A type of person. Often we get parables directed at people, to a pharisee, to the disciples, to the crowds. This is not for all people, this is for a type of person. Jesus told this parable, two men went up to the temple to pray.

One a pharisee, the other a tax collector. The parable begins by an introduction, by introducing us to two characters. The two men who are both on the same mission. They’re going to the temple to pray. And the reason they’re going there is to be before God. The Temple is a place of prayer. It’s also the cultural center of Israel. In the Temple, there are these courts. And the courts were able to segment who is more righteous and who is less righteous and who has God’s approval and who doesn’t have God’s approval. Literally in the temple, courts disallowing and allowing some people to come before God as close to God’s presence and then distinguishing between things like gentile and Jew or men and women or priest and non priests or clean and unclean. And thus the de facto kind of religious hierarchy is on display in the Temple. These two people come to pray at the Temple. One of them can get pretty close to the Holy Place. One of them is a Pharisee. A Pharisee. The other is a tax collector. And he can’t get close at all. At all. Culturally and religiously, these two people are about as different as two people can possibly be.

The Pharisees were the group of people who separated themselves from ordinary people because of their religiousness. They were singularly devoted to righteousness. They were meticulous in their obedience to the law. They were scrupulous in their daily devotion to scriptural duties. They were zealous for obedience to God. And so because of that, they were seen as the religious leaders and they were ushered in to the closest places that someone like them could go. But the parable has two characters not just the guy who could get really close, but the guy who has to stay far away. Tax collectors. Oh, boy. Brief history. When Rome conquered a people, they would impose oppressive taxes on those people. They would impose taxes on the people they conquered. And in order to collect the taxes, they would hire a person from the nation that they just ruled to collect the taxes. These people were known as tax collectors. Why? They collected taxes from Rome for Rome, I should say, from their own people. And the tax collectors got rich because they took commissions on the collections. These were the traders of the day. These two people couldn’t be more different.

They’re on the same mission. They’re going to the temple to pray. But what they do when they get there is completely different. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. First we’ll start with the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed. First we look at the Pharisee. We see him. He walks. As we mentioned, he can get really close up there. He walks as close as he can get to the place, to the holy place. And he stands there. He raises his head to God. He raises his hand in prayer. He looks up to God. And with thanksgiving, this is what he says. Here it is. This is the prayer of the Pharisee, the prayer of the righteous man. Here it is. Or the perceived righteous man. Here is a prayer. Ready? God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers. And then he sees out of the corner of his eye, out of the corner of his eye, the tax collector who has come to pray. Or even like this tax collector, thank you Lord. He says that when I peer across this great temple square, this temple area and I pray to you, I thank you God, that I am righteous.

I’m far more righteous than the rest of this people. I do more. I am better than the robbers. I’m better than the evildoers. And the Bible says that these self righteous people shout in the temple to be heard by everybody else. So I’m shouting so that you would hear me, the adulterers. I’m better than the tax collector. Thank you God, that you made me so good. Remember, this is a parable targeted at those who trust in their own righteousness. Spoiler coming. This is the guy who trusts in his own righteousness. But I want us to look at this prayer because in his prayer we get a chance to see how self righteousness really works. And follow me for a bit because we’re going to take a dive to a place that’s really quite dirty and disgusting and we’re also going to have to do some mental gymnastics to get there. Here’s a question for you. How could anyone who has ever spent time alone think to themselves that they are righteous? Like, if you know yourself, if you spent time with yourself, if you’ve even spent time a minute with yourself in thought, you know that you are not righteous.

You know that your brain has told you some crazy things, your heart has told you some crazy things. You know you’re not righteous. Like, no one here would ever admit that you’re perfectly moral. Would you agree with that? Or perfectly pure. No one here does things right all the time. No one here is free of lust. No one here is free of selfish ambition. No one here is free of vain conceit. Not one, not a single one of us. So then how could anyone possibly trust in their own righteousness? Well, you have to do what this guy does. You participate in a con. Here’s the con, here’s the sleight of hand. Here’s a little bit of trickery. Here’s how it works. If you want to find confidence in your own righteousness, instead of comparing yourself to the definition of the word, just find someone who you’re slightly more righteous than. Then you could be confident. Then at least you’re not the least righteous person in the room. It’s like, have you ever heard this idea that if you’re like in a group of people and a dog comes to attack, you don’t have to be the fastest person.

You just have to be not the slowest person, you know what I’m saying? And then you’re good. But this is the trick with people who want to be seen as righteous. It’s a great little trick. Don’t look at the word pure to determine if you’re pure. Just find someone who struggles more than you do, who watches more than you do. I only watch porn once every month, you know what I’m saying? I’ve never gone to the strip club, though those people you’re not as terrible as the person abusing anybody. No, I’m not participating in that stuff. I’m just watching people be abused. It’s a little trick. You know what I’m saying? It’s a little trickery. Don’t look at the definition of honesty to determine whether or not you live a life of integrity. Instead, just find confidence that there is someone who lies more than you do. I only lie on my taxes. I would never lie to my spouse. That is too far. How could they do that? Those liars. Who cares about being holy as God defines holy. Or peaceful as God defines peaceful. Or loving as God defines loving. Or merciful as God defines merciful.

Or righteous as God defines righteous. Here’s the trick. Just find confidence in being slightly better than someone else. It’s a sleight of hand. Don’t compare yourself to God. That would be bad. Compare yourself to someone else. That’s what the pharisee does. Oh, thank God I’m not like a greedy tax collector. Oh, thank God I’m not as lustful as those adulterers. Thank God that I’m not as selfish as those narcissists. Thank God I’m not as materialistic as my friend Bill, who’s very materialistic. Oh, if I would live like him, oh, I could. Oh, but, man, he really needs to repent. I’m not as bad as those guys. So lord of all, I deserve heaven. But what this man misses is the main point of this whole parable. And it’s what many of us have missed and many of us have fully or have struggled to fully grasp. It’s this this is the main point of the text. It’s this comparing or measuring righteousness by comparing two sinners is not a reliable want to do you want to judge your righteousness? Do you know how you have to do it? Okay, Mr. Pharisee. You’re good. You’re wonderful.

Mr. Pharisee, you’re a wonderful man. Mr. Pharisee, you’re so wonderful, but are you as good, are you as pure, are you as honest, are you as loving, are you as merciful, are you as selfless as the God that you worship in heaven? That’s the only comparison that actually matters. Okay, maybe you’re more honest than your friend, but you are a lying, adulterous, greedy murderer before God Almighty. Are you as pure as the one made of light who has never made a single misstep in all of creation? I ask you, Church, are you are you as loving as the one who is love incarnate? Are you as selfish as the one who would die in the place of lost sinners? Are you as patient as the one who could have called down 10,000 legions of angels to destroy the Earth, but held back his fury so that people could be saved? Are you? Are you are you as morally pure as the one who is absolutely, totally free from any wickedness or sin? I think not. Tell us, Mr. Pharisee. Tell us, Mr. Self Righteous Person. Look, you can compare yourself to people. You can go for it.

Go for it. But that’s not a judgment on whether or not you’re righteous compare yourself to God, and then what you’ll discover is that you are a crummy. I am a crummy sinner, every single one of us. It’s a sign of the self righteous to compare oneself to another or to others. But it’s the sign of the humble to come to grips with the fact that compared to God, you stand condemned. You’re not a good person. You’re not. Stop. You’re not. You’re not. You’re not. Man, how many times I’m sorry. I’m about to get a soapbox. Let me get off the soapbox. You’re not a good person. No one is good. You’re not a good person. You’ve told yourself lies. You’ve told people lies. Just take the Ten Commandments. Let’s go in order, okay? Do not lie. Do not use God’s name in vain. Have no other God before him. All of that. You’re an idolater. You’re an adulterer. You’re a murderer. You are not a good person. God alone is good. God alone is good. That’s it. So do not come before God believing that somehow because of how wonderful your moral character is, that God will allow you into his glory.

What did you learn at church today? I’m not a good person. Well, the Pharisee has one more argument to justify his self. One more argument. Okay, maybe I’m not good, but will you let me in because of the good things I do? I fast twice a week. The normal people would fast twice a year, twice a month, maybe twice a week. I fast a lot, man. I serve a lot in this church, and I give a 10th of all I get. Like, I even give a 10th when someone gives me a birthday present. I do the calculations what the 10th is, and I give it in, man. If someone deserves heaven, I do. So it’s not just look at me in comparison to other people, but it’s also look at all the good things I’ve done. This is the classic salvation by works argument. You want to know what salvation by works is? It’s this. I’m going to read Ephesians, chapter two, verse eight. This is a verse we should know in our hearts. “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourself. It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.”

Most people struggle to understand how works and God’s grace play out, and I understand that. So I’m going to take a little bit of a pause from this intensity of the sermon to try to explain this. But here’s an important thing you have to understand that you don’t contribute anything really significant to your own salvation. God saves you. You didn’t do anything. God saves you, bro or sis.

Here’s how the cycle works. Let me just explain the cycle. This is helpful for you. This is works and grace. This is the way I understand it. I made this chart, as you can see, okay? You start with being poor in spirit. That’s the starting spot. I was supposed to go, but it didn’t work. You start by being poor in spirit. Poor in spirit. That’s up here. This doesn’t work either. Poor in spirit. You begin by saying a recognition of your inability to be righteous alone. You start with Romans three. No one is righteous, not even one. You start there. That’s poor in spirit. And then because you are so amazed by the God who could love you even though you’re a wretched sinner, in gratitude, you’re driven towards wholeheartedness.

So you’re like, Look, God, I will give you my whole life. I will pour out for you. I will sacrifice and self deny again and again because you have been so good to me. You have saved my life, right? Does that make sense? And you try to pursue perfection. God’s kindness has led you to repentance. And then you hear the command, be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. And then what ends up happening is that you realize you can’t do it. You tried pouring out as much as you could, and you actually still are a wretched sinner. And then it leads you to being poor in spirit again. Does that make sense? This is kind of the way it works. You start with, Man, I am so bad, so bad. How could the God in heaven love me? But he loves me anyway, man, and he makes me his child, and he gives me a name, and he gives me a destiny. He gives me a calling. I will give you my whole life, God, and I will give you everything in me, and I will follow your ways, and I will be led by your spirit, and I will lead your people, and I will help my friends and neighbors, and I will give to the poor, and I will sacrifice everything in my life.

And then you do it, and you do it well, and it’s amazing. And then you realize, man, I can’t do it perfectly. That’s a sober estimation, because all of a sudden, you start getting confidence that you’re like, wow, I am a good guy. This is incredible. And then you start going, Actually, you know what? I’m not. And it leads you back to being poor in spirit. And it goes again and again and again and again and again. But that’s not really the main point of the parable. The main point of the parable isn’t to figure out how grace and works work. It’s more to figure out this idea that there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s mercy. None of this earns God’s mercy. There’s nothing you can do to earn God’s mercy. You aren’t owed mercy. You aren’t owed grace. You aren’t owed your justification. Fair is giving you death. That’s what’s fair. The wage of sin is death, but the gift of God, it’s eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. But the Pharisee doesn’t get it. He tips his hat to God. In his final analysis, he’s standing up next to the holy place.

He is supremely confident in his own righteousness. That’s one man. How about the other guy? But the tax collector stood at a distance. He’s as far away as he could possibly be. He doesn’t even want to get close to God. He would not even look up to heaven. But he beat his breast and said, god, have mercy on me, a sinner. He stands by the door, as far away as he possibly can be. He is in fear and trembling on the outer courts. He doesn’t even lift his head. He doesn’t even lift his eyes. Stand afar off. Stand far away. Lord, be merciful to me. I’m a sinner. He had nothing to bring. He doesn’t go through his resume. He has no accomplishments in his hand. He doesn’t acknowledge anything except his own sinfulness. He has a contrite and receptive heart. He’s in desperate need of a God who can remove his guilt. All he has is shame, guilt and despair. He doesn’t excuse his sinfulness. He doesn’t justify his own faults. He doesn’t present himself as some sort of victim. It’s because, Lord, I’m sorry that I sinned, but if my mom hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t be a sinner.

He doesn’t do any of that. He just comes and said, Lord, I am a sinner. Be merciful to me. He gets what 1 Peter, chapter three, verse 18 gets, “For Christ also suffered once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” It’s very simple. It’s a simple idea. God is holy and you are not. God is righteous and you are not. He is worthy of honor and glory and praise. And so we should live every day trying to give him honor, glory and praise. We are not worthy of those things, but we give it to him. And then Jesus makes the point as though it wasn’t clear, crystal clear. I tell you, this man this man the tax collector the tax collector rather than the other. The pharisee went home. Justified before God. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. What’s the message god humbles the proud and gives grace to the humble. God lifts those who are lowly, but those who are proud, he crushes. Humble yourself and you will be lifted up. Do you get it?

Does it make sense? God imputes or he counts the righteousness of Jesus? To those who are willing to humble themselves to be poor in spirit, to those who are being poor in spirit. God is willing to give his righteousness, the righteousness of his Son to them, those who put no trust in themselves, those who humble themselves in their own self assessment, those who stand afar, those rather those who stand afar, god will then bring near. God gives grace to the humble, but to those who stand alone, they will stand alone. They will have no mercy. They will have no grace. They will have no ability to be righteous before God. The only way to stand before God is to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That’s it. That’s all.

I heard an old preacher story. There’s a preacher who finished a sermon on sin. And after the service he was greeting people at the door like one of those old churches, shaking everybody’s hand. Maybe we should do that, I don’t know. Very uncomfortable. This little proverbial little old lady came up to him and he said, pastor, you have been talking a lot about sin. When you talk about sin, you make me feel like a sinner and you make me feel like an evildoer. And she repeated to the pastor these two lines you make me feel this big, this big. And the pastor smiles, smiled at her. And he looked at her and he said he said this that’s far too much, this much, that’s far too much.

Look, when we come to grips with our own sinfulness, we shouldn’t look to ourselves to become the source, to bring ourselves comfort from our sin. We shouldn’t look to ourselves to be the source of our own joy or mercy or peace. Instead, we should come to Christ in humility, understanding that I am nothing, I have nothing. God, I beg you, Lord, for mercy. And I don’t need to do it in some pomp and circumstance way where I’m ripping my shirt and going I beg you for mercy, God, so that other people will then think that I’m humble. But in our quiet, quiet, desperate moments, we get on our knees and we go, god, I’m nothing. I am a mess. I really am. Like me personally, Tony Fernandez is a mess.

I still struggle with stuff in my own character. I’ve changed a lot. But compared to God, I’ve done nothing. Done nothing over time, there are moments when I’ve thought to know, and certainly in my worst moments, I’ve thought god deserves to give me favor. I’ve really worked hard for him, God. And all those moments I was wrong and still am wrong. And what I need to know. Is that any bit of self righteousness is far too much. It’s far too much. So there’s a prayer I go back to. It’s a prayer I’ve been recycling and reciting that I want to show you. It’s from a book called in the Valley of Vision. It’s a longer prayer, but this is just one part of it. It says, no poor creature stands in need of divine grace more than I do. Do you believe that about yourself? And yet none abuse it more than I have done and still do. He goes on to say, I cannot boast when I think how dependent I am upon thee for every act of grace you have given me. It’s true, there is no creature in the world that deserves, or rather that is in need of grace more than you are, and there is no one who abuses it more than you do.

No one. So how should you come before God? How should you come before God? Don’t come as the person who’s kind of thought they figured it out. Don’t come that way. Instead, be the man. Be like the man who couldn’t even look up to heaven, who comes to the holy place in fear and trembling, who comes in sackcloths and ashes and who repents of their sin, plead to God for mercy. Throw yourself at the pity of the court who is Christ our Lord. Throw yourself down. And like the tax collector, like the tax collector, you too can be justified. Now, here’s the closeout question for you as we wrap this thing up. I presume there’s one more question. Considering that I imagine that most of you guys are going home today, I presume that most of you will be leaving here and then driving home. And so I want to ask you the question that stirred in my heart as I was thinking about what Jesus said. Will you be going home justified? If you’re sitting in this building today and your life is a mess, I want you to know you’re welcome here. Certainly.

And also you’re the perfect candidate for justification. Don’t leave here until you are able to at least begin the process of telling the Lord God omnipotent that you are a sinner, that you can’t stand apart from his mercy and grace and then act in faith. Learn to die to yourself. Destroy your sinful nature, follow the example of Paul and wash your sins away, and then walk in obedience to Him. If you were to die tonight and you stood before God, and God were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven? I want to tell you what I would say. I would say something like this god, I don’t deserve to go into your heaven, but only by the grace of Jesus Christ and the blood that he spilled on the cross for me. God, why am I allowed to get to heaven? Only because of Jesus Christ. Only because of Jesus Christ. He’s my only hope. I put my trust in him. Everything else everything else is sinking. Sand today we get to end our time by seeing someone get baptized. Yesterday, we saw a guy named Alejandro Ramirez get baptized. He’s somewhere in this congregation.

He acknowledged his own sinfulness and begged God for his mercy. And today we get to see someone participating in death to self. It’s this vital kind of action called baptism, where we participate in the death of Christ, and then we’re raised with Christ anew. I’m excited to see Liza. Let’s give our attention to the stage.

We’re going to transition our time into communion. And I just want to read a psalm. This is Psalm 51 says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to Your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desire faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom that in the secret places. Cleanse me with hisop, and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be wider than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sin and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a pure heart God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your way so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God. You who are God, my Savior and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare Your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You did not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You, God, will not despise. Lord God, we just want to say thank you for this moment. Thank you for the moments where we get to reflect on our own sinfulness and in that same place that we get to respond and reflect on the work that You’ve done in us so that we can come before you as righteous people. God, we are so grateful for the cross of Christ. We are so grateful for the blood that was spilled on the cross. We are so thankful for the body that was broken on the cross. And we thank you that because of his amazing act of righteousness, that we too can be accepted into Your kingdom.

Oh, how good you are, Jesus Christ. Thank you, God. Thank you for giving us this moment of reflection through the communion where we take the bread and the juice that represents Your body and Your blood. I pray, God, that as we take it, we’ll remember that we are not really much, that we are actually quite little, and that you, God, will take those who are little and make them into much. God, we love you. Dad, we thank you for this time. We praise your holy name. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.