Running & Weeping

Well, this morning we’re continuing our sermon series. We’ve been calling Genesis Part four. If you’re new to Shepherd’s Gate, maybe you’re joining online for the very first time. we have been going through the Book of Genesis for two years now. during certain seasons of our church, and we just happened to be on Genesis chapter four, and, we’re in some, chapters that have been really beneficial. And part of our reason for doing this is just to slow down the scriptures, to read every word of Scripture, and then to actually reflect it in our own lives. See, here at Shepherd’s Gate, we believe that we go to the Word of God, and that we allow God to dictate and to speak to us how to live life on this earth. That he’s plan in his ways, are actually the highest ways and the best ways for us, that what he has for us is actually what is best. And also that we believe that all of Scripture is inspired by God and that it’s profitable for us and it’s for our benefit. And so this sermon series in particular, we’ve been following a family and we’ve been following an individual, that’s kind of the head of the family named Jacob.

And we’ve really seen the good, bad and the ugly of Jacob, those of you, of them around you can say that. Correct. And let’s be honest, we’ve seen more of the ugly side of Jacob, have we not? I mean, he’s gotten it wrong more times than he’s gotten it right. But isn’t it interesting that as we’ve been digging into his life, we’ve gotten a front row seat to to his struggles? it also has forced us to come in contact with our own struggles. and what that honestly forces us to do is to come to terms with our own fallen, sinful nature, for God to enlighten that as we read His word, as we open His word, and then to be convicted, like being convicted by the Word of God is actually a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. Correct? And so as we are convicted by that, we confess our sins. We we realize that maybe we need to be challenged. There’s things that we need to lay at the foot of the cross. And as we do that, as we confess that God then takes that from us and instead gives us his joy and his peace and his forgiveness, and he helps us live out our vocation of being the people of God.

He’s called us to be with the time that he’s given us on this earth. Amen. Now, because we go chapter by chapter, verse by verse, sometimes we hit text that are really difficult. And what I mean by difficult is there there’s things that happen in people’s families that sometimes can really rock us. And what we’ve done during those text is we’ve actually said, you know, this morning it’s going to be a PG 13 morning. This morning is not the case. It’s going to be next Sunday. And so we’re thankful that we have kids programing at both the nine and 11 a Am services. And so, those of you that bring your kids, we love kids here at Shepherds Gate next week in particular, because of the nature of what we’re going to be discussing, we really, really strongly encourage you to put them in our kids program, so that we can continue walking through the scriptures together. And I’m just going to give you a preview. So, you know, because next week has the potential to be the hardest hitting sermon out of all of the ones that we’ve preached, which has been a lot of sermons up to this point. there’s two things we’re going to be talking about. One is sexual assault, and two, we’re going to be talking about mass murder.

So you can kind of just from those two titles, understand and feel the heaviness. In fact, we always encourage you to read the text before you come so that you know what it is that we’re going to be covering. But we believe even in those text that God has a word for us. Amen. All right. So since we’re going to handle something tough next week, we thought we should take it easy on you this week. How many think I’m serious? All right, well, let’s start with this question. Have you ever hated someone so much? Oh. Don’t worry, there’ll be more. You were convinced you could never forgive them. You’re guilty. Thank you. Think about your life. Think about all the things that have happened in your life. I’ll start by saying this as well. Relationships are messy. Navigating through this life with other people is extremely difficult. We are always prone to go our own way to do our own thing, and to put ourselves first and foremost, and to always be the one who is right. Nobody likes to be wrong. Everyone likes to be right. I’ll tell you three quick ones in my own life my college roommate.

I can go back to my college years. I live with a guy for three years, and at the end of the three years, we literally became mortal enemies. The relationship was just awful. It was so tense that at the end we just said, you know what? You’re going to go your way and you’re going to go, and I’m going to go my way. And it’s probably better that we never talk to each other again. And sadly, that’s exactly what happened. He went off and got married, ended up having two kids. I went off, got married, had two kids and we didn’t see each other until just a few years ago because one of our childhood friends died and the funeral was actually here at Shepherd’s Gate, and they asked me to do the funeral. So not only am I going to do a funeral for a childhood friend who died of cancer, I’m now having to face the reality of something that I should have reconciled a long time ago. I’ll give you another one. The last church I was at, the pastor and I were oil and water. I was a student director at the time and we couldn’t agree on anything.

I mean, we were constantly at each other’s throats. And this particular time, he pulled me into his office and he had a sheet of paper he was holding, and he was really getting ready to go through everything that he wanted to correct in my life and these things that I needed to fix if I was going to continue working there at the church. And I knew that I was coming, I knew that he had prepared this list. And before he read one word of the list, I just looked at him and said, look, you’ve been here longer than I have. You’re the senior pastor of this church. We don’t need to do this. I’ll resign. I’ll back away. I’ll go find another job. I’ll go find another church ministry. Whatever it is, we need to part ways. And I’ll never forget that. Because he looked at me. He paused in that moment, and thankfully he took that piece of paper and he put it into the shredder that was right next to his desk, and I left. I’ll give you a third one. There is a family that my family was close to here at the church.

I mean, we were so close with these people. We spent holidays together, every single week. We were at each other’s homes when all of a sudden they just up and left and they moved out of the state. And it was this weird thing where we just got cut off from their lives, like. Like we didn’t exist anymore and we had no history with them. And it hurt. It hurt for a long time. In fact, it wasn’t until two years later that I flew out to where this person was, and we were finally able to sit across from each other at a restaurant and reconcile. Relationships are tough, aren’t they? I’m telling you, relationships that I’ve had have been tough. What if you flip this whole thing and you ask the question this way? Have you ever hurt someone so much you wondered if they could ever forgive you? Think of that for a moment. I’ll go again. I’ve had relationships that have gone south and where you’re battling, really battling emotionally and spiritually with this other person, and you know that this is not what God wants. You know that that being at war with somebody is not actually what is best in what he’s called fellow Christians to do with each other.

And one particular relationship. We separated, they went their way, I went my way. And a couple of years later, we ran into each other and we were talking to each other in a hallway. And we were exchanging, just going back and saying, hey, you know, we need to forgive each other. We need to let go of this. And I’ll never forget this, because his wife came over and grabbed him by the arm and said, you’re done. And she walked him away from me because she didn’t want to forgive, because she didn’t think that I was worth having forgiveness. And those are tough times, are they not? They’re tough. When you actually start being honest with yourself about the relationships that you have. And isn’t it interesting that so often in these relationships, they happen with people in your family? Yes. And they happen in the church, which people would think they should never happen in the church if God is the one that modeled forgiveness for us, why is there still followers of Jesus that are at each other’s throat, that refuse to sit down and have conversations and offer forgiveness to one another? Well, let’s look at our character, Jacob.

Jacob deceived his father, but yet the two of them reconciled. Before he left town. De Jacob actually deceived his brother, his twin brother Esau, not once but twice. And he saw was so enraged at him that he that he said he would kill him the next time he saw him. So Jacob had no choice but to leave town. He actually deceived and was deceived by his father in law Laban, which is what we’ve been covering the last several weeks. But yet they came to a point where they were finally, after all the deception back and forth, able to reconcile with each other. And if you were here last week, we saw how Jacob was alone for the second time in his life. He’s alone and God comes to him. And what does he do with God? He gets in a fight with God, a physical alteration. He wrestles with God until daybreak. This guy so stinking stubborn until God actually caused him physical pain. And this is where we left off last week. It said the sun rose above Jacob as he passed Peniel, and he’s limping because of his hip. This pain that God brought, he is now going to carry with him. And what God was doing in that moment was he was stripping him down to his core so that he could build him back up again. Now, all of this has been leading to the moment where Jacob is trying to get to his brother Esau. It’s been two decades, 20 years, folks.

Think about that. 20 years. He hasn’t seen his brother, and he’s the last piece of this whole reconciliation. He knows he needs to make peace with Esau. And so the last few weeks we’ve been building up, building up, building up, building up. And it finally comes because here it is the next day. Jacob looked up and there what did he see? And not just Esau, but Esau is coming with 400 man. Jacob knew this because he had already sent some servants ahead to scout, so he knew a whole army was coming with his brother. And so once again he divided the children among them Leah and Rachel, his two wives, his two female servants of which he’s had kids with. He puts the female servants and their children in front Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph in the rear. What is he doing here? He’s still playing favoritism, even after an encounter with God the night before. He’s still ranking his family in a certain order because the scriptures tell us he loved Rachel more than anybody else. And of course, Rachel only produced one kid for him at this point, Joseph. And so he loves Rachel and he loves Joseph the most. Now, we looked at the last week about how he divided his family up in case his brother came early and attacked, that he would only be able to attack one family and he could rescue the other family.

And as he’s cowardly hiding behind both families, it’s just unfathomable what is going through Jacob’s mind this week. Finally, he ends up. Finally he does what what he actually should do. And it says that he himself went ahead and he bowed to the ground seven times as he’s approaching his brother. I mean, you can see the posture of humility that this guy is, is showing. I mean, just he wants his brother to see how sorry he is and 20 years of this going on and how much he wants to reconcile this relationship. And what I find so fascinating is when people are genuinely contrite that their physical response actually mirrors their mental and emotional response. I mean, think about that in your own life. When someone realizes that what they have done is wrong, or they hear you say that what you have done to them is wrong, what usually follows? Tears. Sometimes people shake their there’s a part of us as human beings that that we can’t just be stoic. We can’t just keep it all inside that. That when true forgiveness is offered, something in the physical takes over. Now here he is, seven times bowing down to his brother, hoping his brother’s not going to kill him, hoping this isn’t his last day on earth. What do you expect? What do you think Esau did?

This is how I know. If any of you read the text before you came here this morning. Does anybody know? What would you do after 20 years? You knew that he stole your birthright and your blessing, and you finally got him back home, and you finally got him within reach. Smack him around at least, right? Make him punish, get your finger out, and finally have your vengeance. And finally tell him you screwed up. And why did you do this? And why did you leave? And you’re a coward and you’re this and you’re that and you’re that and you’re that. Look what he saw does. He ran to meet Jacob. He embraced him. He throws his arms around his neck and he kissed him. And they wept together. What? What? Does anybody else surprised? It’s not how this is supposed to end. That’s not how you get vengeance. That’s not how you get back what was stolen from you. Sidenote up to this point, we don’t know anything about Esau. His face, other than he’s never worshiped God. He’s never built an altar. He has multiple wives from different tribes which would include different religions and worshiping false gods. So pretty much Esau, here he is, this guy that’s not a follower of the one true God. I want you to lean in that for a moment, because sometimes people will hold on to unforgiveness of their family members or their neighbors or their friends because they’re not followers of Jesus. And they say, well, I can’t have reconciliation or I can’t forgive him, or I can’t sit at a table and have the difficult conversation because they don’t get it.

This scripture would say, that’s wrong. Esau, who’s not a follower of God, somehow has the ability to forgive his brother and not only forgive him, but forgive him to the levels that you’re about to see. But before we do that, I want you to think of this. I want you to think of your life and the society that we live in. Why are people so stubborn? Selfish? It’s been the theme of this whole Genesis part for it, hasn’t it? Pride, which we know is the root of all sin. How do you respond if someone comes to you and says, hey, we were at this function, or we were at this dinner table, or we were in this conversation and I saw you interacting with this other person, and I feel that maybe you were a little too intense with them. I feel like maybe they didn’t fully understand. Or maybe you were being sarcastic and didn’t come across correctly. And so I really think that maybe you should go and you should talk to them. I really think that your relationships are important enough to have that conversation and just check in on them, make sure that everything’s okay, and make sure that they actually understood what you were trying to get across, and that you don’t really want to harm them with your words. When someone approaches you and has that conversation, how do you respond? I’ve been offended. Yes. You disagree. You push back. You see? No way. Let me ask a second one. Parents in the room, your spouse comes to you and they said, hey, I think you were a little rough with one of our kids. I think your tone and your body language, you really you got your message through.

But I think they’re starting to question your love for them. And I really don’t want them to go to bed with with that fear in their heart. And so is there any way that maybe you would be willing to go into their bedroom and have that discussion and remind them that you love them and you want what’s best for them, but you needed to call this area out in their life moms. Dads. How many of you like that when your spouse brings that up to you? What’s your first reaction in those circumstances? And when you do it to her, what’s her response? I give you one more before we move on. What if your one of your pastors comes to you, whether it be me then or Craig, and says, hey, we love our church, we love the body of Christ. We were in a circumstance where maybe there was a conversation that was taking place and maybe the other person didn’t fully understand, but it just by their body language, the way that I was reading it and the way that you came across, maybe it would be good to just go have that conversation with that person, because we don’t want to give the devil a foothold in our church. We don’t want the devil to be able to come in and do anything divisive with what he is doing here, in the exciting things that are taking place, how do you think you should respond? If one of your pastors says a.

Are we the shepherds of the church? Are we responsible for for the spiritual well-being of our people? I’m just asking the questions because here’s the thing the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants nothing more than to break every human relationship we have on this planet. And he will start with you as an individual. Then he won’t attack your marriage. Then he will attack your family. Then he will attack your surrounding and immediate and extended family and you better believe he wants nothing more than to wreak havoc with our church. He wants people at, in battle and at war with each other. He wants you at war with me, and he wants me at war with you. Did you know that? That’s what he does best. He causes division among people and among relationships. This is why God tells us that we should do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, here’s how we’re to live our lives as follower of Jesus in humility, value others above ourselves. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do that. My sinful nature does not want to do this. Verse. Our society does not teach us to put other people first. Those of us that have our kids on travel sports teams, we are not taught to put other kids and their abilities above our own kids. Are we in every facet of life your work, your neighborhood, your family, and even the church?

And that’s what Jesus does, is he flips the script and he said, that’s not how followers of mine are going to live. In fact, people will know that you are my followers. If you want, if you love one another, if you genuinely love one another, other people will be amazed. Wow, this is incredible. There’s this church on 23 mile called Shepherds Gate and you’re not going to believe it.

But they actually are willing to give up their time and go and serve others. They’re willing to give their money to go and bless others. They want to see more and more people come to know Jesus. They’re crazy. I don’t know what’s gotten into them, but when you’re around them, they’re just really happy and they’re just really genuinely involved in people’s lives and they care about you and they want what’s best for you. Here’s the reality pride is your greatest enemy. Humility, if you figure this out, becomes your greatest friend. And we need a whole lot more people who walk in humility on this planet. Amen. And it starts with us, and it starts with our church. In fact, God also put it this way whoever loves disciplined loves knowledge. How many of you like to be disciplined kids in the room? How many of you like to be disciplined? Do you realize discipline is good for us? Not only discipline, but whoever hates correction is. I don’t even like that word. I look this word up in four different versions of the Bible, and every single one of them had the word stupid. Nobody likes discipline. Nobody likes to be corrected. But yet, oddly enough, God says that’s actually what’s best for us. That’s actually good for us, that we have people that are willing to speak the truth in love into our lives.

And again, always going back to the relationships we have with each other. Look at our text again. He saw, he looks up and he sees the women and children who are there. He’s like Jacob, who are these people? And Jacob says, these are the children God has graciously given your servant. So awesome. He points to the one true God recognizes there a blessing from him. The female servants and their children approach, and they bow down. Next, of course, Leah and her children. They come and they bow down. Last of all, Joseph and Rachel, his favorites. They come and they bow down to Esau says, by the way, what’s the meaning of all these gifts that you sent on ahead? Where did all these flocks and herds that I met? And Jacob says this was to find favor in your eyes, my Lord. It wasn’t just enough for me to be able to reconcile with you, to be able to hear you accept forgiveness from me. I feel like I have to do something tangible. I have to give you back what I stole from you. Here’s another response from Esau. He says, I already have plenty, my brother, keep what you have for yourself. Is that not incredible? He stole his blessing. Jacobson. $600,000 worth of livestock ahead of them to try to appease his brother. And his brother doesn’t even need any of it. All that planning, all of that, stressing all of the ways in which he was trying to soften the blow, and Esau in one stroke, is like, that’s not what’s important to me.

That’s not actually what I need to hear from you. Jacob, I just wanted to see you again. I just wanted to have this interaction again. And sometimes this is the mode we get in where we feel like the forgiveness isn’t enough, that we have to pay for our sins, or we have to pay for our wrongdoings. And so Jacob is like, no, please, I have found favor. Your eyes. Please accept these gifts for me. Just seeing your face is like seeing the face of God. Now that you have received me favorably, please accept the present that was brought to you. For God has been gracious to me, and I have all I need. But because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it. What’s so fascinating is this word present in the text is the same exact Hebrew word that is used for blessing earlier in our text. And so when Jacob steals the blessing from Esau, it’s the same, same exact word. Please accept the blessing he’s trying to square up. He’s trying to make things right. You might remember there’s another guy in the Bible that had this same encounter. His name was. The key is when he went up in a tree and Jesus went to his house, and after he received the grace and mercy of Jesus, his next immediate response was, I need to square up with all the people that I fooled.

I need to square up with those that I have wronged. Here’s what he saw says next, let us be on our way. I’ll come with you. Does anyone expecting this response from Esau forgives them, doesn’t need, doesn’t, tells me he doesn’t need to pay them back, and now wants to rebuild the relationship that has been lost. I mean, you talk about a powerful picture of forgiveness.

Hey, let’s start doing life together again. Hey, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been doing the last 20 years? I want to get to know you and your wives and your children. My nieces and nephews. We can do this. We can figure this out. And for some reason, Jacob kind of just is pushing it off. And he’s like, my Lord knows that the children are tender, that I must care for the youths and cows that are nursing their young if they are driven hard. Just one day, all the animals will die. So let my Lord go on ahead of his servant while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me. And the pace of the children. Isn’t it always the easiest to blame the kids when you want to get out of something? Until I come, my Lord, in Seir? And he was like, okay, well then let me leave you. Some men let me support you. I’m just so glad that you’re home. I want you to establish your home. I want to I want to establish this relationship that’s been lost again. And Jacob began giving him the stiff arm. Why do that? Just let me find favor in the eyes of my Lord.

And so Esau starts on his way back to Seir. Jacob, however, went to to south, where he built a place for himself. He makes shelters for his livestock. And this is why the place Esau called shuck off well, after Jacob came from Pan Am around. So that’s where he started. That’s where he was for 20 years. He’s now arrived safely at the city of Shack coming canoe, and he’s camping within sight of the city. He’s made it home. And even though Abraham was promised this land, and Abraham actually built an altar to God and worship God in this land, they still didn’t own it. Abraham had a pay to bury his wife in this land, and now Jacob’s going to have to pay 100 pieces of silver from the sons of Hamar. The father of shack, on the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. And this is so cool. He did the same thing Abraham does. He sets up an altar and he calls it Israel, because that is the name that God had given him when he wrestled with God in the night. All of this, all of the stress, all of the worry, all of the things that he was trying to calculate within his own power and his own reasoning, he finally returns home and he finally returns to worshiping the one true God.

Amen. Imagine how peaceful he must have slept that night. Do you know that God wants you to sleep peacefully at night? Do you know that God doesn’t want you to go to bed every night because of broken relationships, because of hardships, because of infighting with relatives or neighbors, or even close friends that have broken relationships with you. God is always after reconciliation. God is always after his children coming together and working it out. By the way, does this story sound like anything else that you’ve ever heard in Scripture? That elicit any other thoughts as you were hearing the way that Esau was responding to Jacob? Some of you were saying it, see, when Jesus walked the earth, the way that he would teach people oftentimes was through parables. And the parable is a made up story. So he would make up stories to make his point. And in one such account, he’s teaching people, and he tells a story of a man that had two sons, and the one son was sick and tired of working on the family farm.

And so he went to his father, which is very highly offensive to do. And he said, dad, I don’t want to be part of your family anymore. I don’t want to be part of your estate anymore. Can you please give me my inheritance and just let me go? And the father reluctantly granted the son his wish, and the son left town and took his inheritance and lived this wild, crazy lifestyle. Did everything that you wanted to do. You walked away from God, did everything to make himself happy, put himself first in every area of his life until he finally hit rock bottom and he had nothing left. He was completely depleted. And so as he sitting literally in his own filth in mass, he says these words to himself, I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven, so it’s against God in you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. I get that I’ve already broken the relationship with you. I get that there’s no way you would let me back in this family. But man, could I just be one of your servants? Could I just come in and work the family farm once again?

Will you at least just accept just a little bit of me? And in that, maybe I can pay for the lifestyle that I have chosen. And so this son gets up and he goes back to his father, and Jesus is telling the story. He says, listen while he’s off. Long way off. The father sees him. And when the father sees them, he’s not full of anger and he’s not full of animosity. He’s not full of I can’t believe he’s back. So men go out, so men go out there and tell them to turn around and go the other way. Instead, he’s full of compassion, and he goes and he runs to his son, running toward him, wraps his arms around him, and he kisses on and he says to his dad, I screwed up. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I’m so sorry. Is there any way that you would forgive me? What is the father? Do? Says you’re right. You are a screw up. Here’s all the things that you did wrong. Here’s your past. Here’s how you’ve lived your life. What were you thinking? Why would you even come back here? No, no.

He turns to the servants and he says, quick, bring the best robe and put it on, and put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate, because this son of mine who is dead is alive again. What was lost is now been found. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is God running toward you in your sin, in your filth, in your shame and your unforgiveness and saying, I love you. I want to restore the relationship that was lost between you and me. I want to wrap my arms around you. I want you to be so close to me that you can feel me, and I can kiss you, and I can remind you once again how much you are loved and valued by me. Man. The forgiveness of our God sometimes is so hard for us to imagine. A God that can take our sins and our past and separate them as far as the East is from the West. Hear me this morning and remember them no more. The God that when they screwed up in the garden, the very first words out of his mouth when they were hiding is, where are you?

He pursued them. He went to them where they were at, lost and dead in their sin. This is the God that stretched out his arms on a cross, and his people are spitting and mocking on him, and taking our sins upon his body somehow was able to utter these words, father, forgive them. They don’t even realize what they’re doing. Unbelievable. Listen, folks, we got some heart surgery to do, don’t we? I know this is a wake up call for some of you. This is God speaking through his word to you. Some of you have been holding on to unforgiveness for far too long. Some of you have weaponized unforgiveness in your relationships. And God this morning is saying to you, no more. It ends now and you know what’s going to prevent you from pursuing reconciliation with that person? It will always come back to two things. One, you’re going to have to deal with your pride. And number two, you’re going to have to deal with fear. Here’s what he said this side of eternity. This is how we are to interact with each other, bear with each other. I love those four words. I think we should just do a sermon series on bearing with each other. It’s really hard to bear with people, is it not? It’s really hard to be married sometimes. It’s really hard to have close friends that drift away, or they turn your back on you. Sometimes it’s hard to be part of a church community when people say or do or even jokingly say or do things, and relationships get fractured.

But he said, we are to bear with each other. We’re to recognize that nobody’s perfect, and not only do we bear with each other, what do we do? Forgive. And oh, by the way, if someone has a.

You still with me this morning? You got a grievance. You should hold on to it for two years. Well, pastor, you did wasn’t right. How much more time has to go on, folks? How many more sleepless nights have to take place? Forgive. Well, by the way, the reason you forgive is because the Lord forgave you. And he forgave me. So as we close this morning, here’s the challenge. Are you Esau or are you Jacob? is there someone in your life that you need to have a conversation with? You need to invite out the coffee. You need to call when you get home today, and you need to purposely pursue reconciliation. Or maybe there’s someone that you need to talk to, and you need to confess that you are in the wrong because the Holy Spirit’s convicting you in this moment. And is it going to be easy? No. Is it going to be painful? Yes. But at the end of the day will be absolutely worth it. Because it’s not your strength. It’s the Holy Spirit’s strength in his power that’s at work within you, and the release that will come when you get that out of your life and you begin to live.

Redeemed child of Almighty God. Amen. We’re going to close with a song this morning. It’s called I Belong to Jesus powerful song. And our desire as we sing this song is that this would be a confession, first and foremost, to admit that maybe there’s some broken relationships that we need to pursue. Secondly, it’s going to deal with fear. But God, we’re not going to want to do this. When we get in the car, the devil is going to come back into our head and say, don’t listen to the pastor. That’s great. He’ll be on to something next week. You don’t need to do that because you don’t think it’s not worth it. And yet God will be coming to you in saying it’s absolutely worth it. This is what I want you to do. And so as we sing this song, as we open our souls and our mouths to him, let this be our confession and let this be our declaration of the life that God has called us to live with our time on this earth. Amen.