God's Salvation

Good morning. It's good to see you all. This morning we're looking at the theme of repentance and I want to ask as we begin, what is the most loving thing someone has ever said to you? You might think, I love you. Could be that great day that we have newlyweds with us, Danny and Erin, I do. You're wonderful, you complete me. We like to think of the affirmations of love, but some of the most loving things we can hear are, no, stop it. Whenever we have a child running towards a street, what's the most loving thing you can say? Stop. This morning we're looking at repentance because God lovingly says no. And we think about this just in the big picture. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall have no graven images. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. There are boundaries. Love embraces boundaries. I was blessed to become friends with one of a visiting professor in seminary. And man, I got to be his TA so that I really just went to dinner with him every night. Great friend, great philosopher, and so as a ambitious young student, my goal was to impress him as much as possible. And so at dinner, I would try to drop philosophers' names and speak and pontificate eloquently. And at one fantastic dinner, once I finally shut up, he looked at me and said, Keith, why do you always want to be so clever? He was a loving friend. And in that moment, my life was changed. With that sweet, kind rebuke, he showed me my sin. He showed me my arrogance. And quite frankly, he put me in a whole different direction that if I did not go in, I probably would not be your pastor today. My life took a turn. Praise God for the moments that he blesses us with someone, his word, his spirit, another Christian who says, why are you doing this? Your life doesn't align with God's word. Turn to Christ. So we need to see here as we think about repentance and a relationship with God, someone who loves you expects the best of you. If they truly love you, they expect the best of you, which means there's a high bar. We want to see each other do great things, but it also means we warn each other. One of the most incredible claims in scripture is God calls us friends. Think about it for a moment. The almighty God creator calls a creature his friend. Friends are typically equals, but not in this case. And he calls us friends so that he can call us up to a higher calling. So we're looking at repentance. There's a way in which we've all sinned. We're all born in sin. Romans describes it as we have exchanged the glory of God and decided to worship and love everything else but God. Repentance is turning back to loving and worshiping God. If you think about the theme of repentance, Martin Luther, his 95 Theses, the first one is, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed the entire life of believers to wonder repentance. If you're with us, wanting to take notes this morning, the outline, I'll give you one word so you can kind of trace a little bit better, but first we'll see we need God's word. We need God's word. Secondly, God warns us. God warns us. Third, God instructs us. God instructs us. Fourth, God transforms us. And then God's son saves us. If you're looking for just a one word, repent. Warning, instruction, transformation, salvation. Repent. That is the first and most basic message. We're here in chapter three, verses one to six, and some people have hypothesized that we have the sermon text read so that I don't have to deal with those very difficult words. Maybe. We also want to hear the whole text read, but that's helpful. It's interesting. Luke, we're picking up where we left off in January. I was away for five months. We just did a short series in Genesis to give some theological foundations. Now we're returning to Luke. And Luke 3, we did over Christmas Luke 1 and then some in January Luke 2. Luke has already told us in chapter 1. He's writing so that we might have certainty. Whoever Theophilus is, we don't know, but he's writing to give certainty. He's writing a historical account, and so that helps us see why in chapter 3, verse 1, he's giving a historical setting. These are the rulers, the kings, the priests of the time of Jesus' ministry. And some pretty big names here. Herod here is not Herod the Great. This is Herod who will see Jesus on trial before his death. Pontius Pilate, the significance of Pontius in the trial, his name is in the Apostles' Creed. so that we know that is who condemned as a national leader, Jesus. Well, we see the Roman leaders, and then we see two priests, Annas and Caiaphas. Annas was the priest when Jesus was born, most likely. Caiaphas is the priest when Jesus dies. Luke has a theme, a motif that runs throughout. God resists the proud and accepts the humble. Christ is coming to pursue the poor, the weak, the vulnerable. You can see it in the declaration of Jesus as he reads chapter four, verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Luke is gonna show how Christ is more powerful than the rulers. And he is using all that power to help the weak. If you look at the historical setting, it's helpful to know that we have certainty. This is when Jesus came and when his ministry began. But verse two, simple four words, very important four words there. At that time, the word of God came. We read Malachi earlier. There was 400 years of silence. God's people still had all the Old Testament. God's Word was still with them, but he hadn't spoken for 400 years. And now John the Baptist, he comes to the scene not only to fulfill Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3, but he's now the last Old Testament prophet. He's coming, he's coming. He's a unique prophet because He's the one who gets to say, that's Him! Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If you just look back at Luke 1 when the angel is telling Zechariah who this child will be who was born to a woman who was old and did not have children. He's a miracle child. Luke 1 verse 16, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. John the Baptist is God's word coming to make ready. And then when Zechariah the baby's born, the end of his great praise, Luke 1, verse 76. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people and the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness, in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. God's words come. You shine light. God's word's come. If we look here, there's a way Luke is quoting from Isaiah, to make the path straight, to prepare the way of the Lord. The word of the Lord has come. We need this word. Now, what is the word? Notice the end of verse three. I'll just read the whole verse three. And he went into all the region around Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, baptism isn't new to John the Baptist. Baptism was something that most Israelites would perform before going into temple. Baptism was practiced religiously by many other people because it represents a, we're unclean and we need washing. Before we come before God, we need to be cleansed. His baptism, his message of baptism is of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When we hear John the Baptist, when they would hear John the Baptist, we hear the word of God that actually is nothing new here. Turn away from your idols. Turn away from your self-love. Turn away from sin and turn to God. See, we've all gone astray. We all have a twisted heart that seeks to love things in a way that God has not designed us to love them. To not love God in a way he is deserved of love. Repentance. When this happens, sin is no longer worthy. God is worthy. Sin is no longer life-giving. God provides. Sin is no longer satisfying. God is in joy. Repentance declares what we do not like to hear. Stop it. Turn away from a path of destruction and death and turn to the God who gives life. Thomas Watson is a who wrote on repentance, and he says there's six ingredients. Sight of sin, we see it for what it is. Sorrow for sin, there's a grief. Confession of sin, this is wrong. Shame for sin. Hatred for sin. And turning from sin. This is not a new message from God. What did he tell Abraham? Go. Go away from your idols and follow me. What did he tell Cain when Cain brought an unacceptable sacrifice? We learned this just two weeks ago. If you do well, will you not be accepted or forgiven? Notice the end of that Isaiah prophecy, verse six. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way with a repentance, with a declaration you can be forgiven, and notice the end result, and all flesh, every kind of human, all peoples, all nations, shall see the salvation of God. I believe the way Luke is writing, he wants us to see this salvation as historical. It happened at a certain time and place. The salvation has been driving all of history. God has been making promises from the very beginning of our sinful history, and now he's bringing them to fruition and fulfillment. Christ and his salvation is the center of history. And his salvation is for all of you. It's for all flesh. First, we need God's word, and that word is repent. Our second point. We see that message of repentance has a warning. There's a warning. This is verses seven to nine. He said, therefore, to the crowds that come out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers. Now, we need to really understand what he's saying here in case most of us don't know what a brood of vipers is. A brood of vipers is the nest of vicious, venomous snakes. You family of vipers. Now, let's just pause and make a note. He's calling them a family of venomous, dangerous snakes. That doesn't seem to be too hospitable. Right? Out of the gate, John the Baptist is confrontational And notice here in Luke, he's saying this to the crowds in general. Now Matthew tells us that when he says this, he's specifically talking to the Pharisees, the religious who are somewhat dangerous because they're supposed to be teaching Israel God's word and they're teaching their own traditions. But Luke, and it's important for us, he's speaking to all of us, the crowds, that the danger of being of the brood of vipers. Well, what's the real danger? Who warned you to flee from the wrath of God? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, this is the sin. We have Abraham as our father. The confrontation here is religious sin. And let me just be clear, This is one of the most dangerous sins. Religious sin. Oh, don't worry about us. We don't need to hear repentance. We don't need to show repentance. We can claim Abraham. You hear the Israelites, the Jewish people saying, we've got circumcision. We can go back because God promised Abraham, we are descendants of Abraham, we're okay. Father Abraham had many sons and many sons of Father Abraham. I'm one of them and you're probably not. There's a pride. We don't need to repent, because we can claim Abraham and his circumcision. Now as we look back, there's two different kinds of descendants of Abraham. There's the physical descendants, and that's very important, because God said, my Savior will be born by this specific people. First Eve, then Abraham. Then Israel, then Judah, then David. God's fulfilling to show this is the line. Which, if you look next week, we'll be looking at a genealogy. Real exciting because that's how we see the line that God promised. Physical descendant of Abraham would save the world. There's also the spiritual children of Abraham. Children of faith. Children who have repentance. Children who hear the word of God and believe. Paul makes this perfectly clear in Romans 3, 29. A true Israelite is not one who circumcised outwardly, but inwardly. A true Israelite is somebody who has faith. Romans 4. We can actually go back to Deuteronomy 10. Circumcision was pointing to an internal work that will happen. The circumcision of the heart. The cutting away of idols. Children of Abraham, true children of Abraham, are not physical descendants in salvation. No, to claim Abraham as your father, according to Christ, is to believe that he is the one physical descendant and to place your faith in him. To boast of your family lineage somehow is to refuse the message, repent and be forgiven. Now, the crowd, he says, repent. Repent of this. Well, don't say this to yourself. I wanna pause here. Children of the church, I know many of them just went out, but if you're a child of this church, if you're a child of Christian parents here with us, this warning is helpful for us right now. We all want you to hear something very important. You're not saved by your parents' faith. We long for you to hear the gospel. You have a unique blessing. You are getting to hear the promises of God. You get to hear and Lord willing, see the blessings of God's word and the gospel. But it's for you to believe. It's for you to receive by faith. Children, let me try to make this as clear as possible because he's talking about a baptism by repentance. We had a baptism last week. And the picture, is that Lindsay, when she was put into the water, she was dying with Christ and washed and rising in a new life. The water didn't do the real cleansing, it was a picture. The real cleansing only God does. You see, we all have an odor that we don't often smell among one another. It's a stench. Have you ever driven by a dead carcass on the road, a skunk especially? You kinda just wanna stop breathing for that moment, right? That stench is what we actually all have before God. That's what our sin is like to God. It's offensive. And the only way we can be saved is that's washed off. The only way your sin can be washed off is by believing Jesus Christ died and his death forgives you, washes you. And then his life is pleasing. You're now an aroma to God because Christ changes you. You must believe to be washed of your sin. Adults, what do we boast in? That there's a warning to be heard here. Maybe we don't boast of our family lineage. What do we boast in though? Verse eight's pretty terrifying. Don't say to yourselves you have Abram as your father. Notice what follows, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. That sounds just like Jesus. When the children are coming to praise him in the triumphal entry, and the Pharisees want him to stop the children from saying hosanna to his praise, stones will cry out if these children don't cry out. Parents, are we professing faith, as a regular witness. The clear point here, God is going to give a regular witness to his truth to praise him as he ought. Are we that testimony? Are we that declaration, boasting in Christ alone? It gets scarier. Verse 9, even now, The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. It's just like Romans. If you're boasting, you're gonna be grafted out. There is no boasting. When we abide in Christ, we bear fruit of repentance. When we abide in Christ, we believe in Him, and it changes us. And the Father is the master vinedresser. He cuts off every limb, every branch that does not bear fruit. This warning is found throughout Scripture. That's the warning. Now there's an instruction. And notice here there's a pattern. There's three different kinds of people. They all say the same thing. What then shall we do? What shall we do? What shall we do? And the folks are interesting. First it's the crowds. Then the tax collectors. Then the soldiers. If he was first warning the religious problem, Now he's warning the, ah, religious problem. First the crowds, when they hear this, they ask the right question. What then shall we do? He tells them, if you have two tunics, share with one who has none. And food likewise. Now, believe in God? Believe in Christ? Love the Lord your God with all your heart? That could have been what he said here, but there's a real evidence of faith. And that if I have plenty, and I see someone who has none, and all I say is bless them, I'm not demonstrating my faith. I'm demonstrating I have a false faith, according to James 2. How can someone who sees the generosity of God in giving us his word, giving us his son, look out and not love his neighbor? It's just a simple call to being a generous human being because you know the generous God. Then he gets a little more precise. The tax collectors who came to be baptized said, what shall we do? Collect no more money than you are authorized to do. Tax collectors are kind of an interesting figure throughout scripture, New Testament. They were Jewish people who had aligned themselves with the Roman government to collect taxes from their own people. The Israelites saw them as traitors, and they were outcast. And then, I don't know what came first, but the tax collectors, they would charge more. They would add interest. They would take more than the government had told them to, and Rome was already very demanding. The tax collectors were Jewish people who were working for the Roman government, robbing their own people because they were not honest. And notice what the repentance is. Do not take more than you've been authorized to do. Fairness. Then notice soldiers. Most likely Roman soldiers. They're put in place to keep the Jewish people fearful and in check. They are wanting to come and be baptized for forgiveness. What did he say to them? Do not exhort money from anyone by threats or by false accusations. Be content with your wages. Remember when Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 38? He says if somebody asks you to go a mile, go two. If I ask for your tunic, give me your cloak also. Those are the soldiers. They can be very demanding. Notice when Jesus is talking to the person being abused, he says go further. When he talks to the abuser, he says stop. If the soldiers want to be forgiven, they have to stop sinning. All flesh, from the Jewish crowds, to the Jewish betrayer, to the Roman people, All now get to see the salvation of God. That's the instruction. Our fourth point, God transforms us. Transformation. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, he's come to declare, repent, be ready, put away your sin, so that when Christ comes, when I declare this is the lamb, you'll see him, you'll know him, you'll be ready. But as always, there's a bit of confusion. Notice verse 15. As the people were in expectation because of his preaching, and all were questioning their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ. John answers them. I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his barn. The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. As soon as he's on the Baptist, his role, I'm not the Christ. He's coming. I'm not the Savior, but I get to proclaim to you the word of God. He is coming, and he's coming with great power. There's a famous piece of artwork, the Grunwald, Eisenhower. And it's a picture of the Old Testament, the New Testament, Christ on the cross at the center. And right next to Christ is John the Baptist with his big long finger. Because that's his only job. This is the Christ. This is who you're looking for. This is the one who's going to come and die and rise and ascend. This is who you're looking for. What's amazing about the Christian life is our job's no different than John the Baptist, except for we're pointing back. We're not pointing forward that he's coming, we're pointing back. That's it. Making disciples is simply pointing back to Jesus. Parents, it's pointing to Christ. He's the one who's worthy. Members of Jefferson Park, it's pointing to one another. He's the one who's worthy. It's pointing to your neighbor, your co-worker. He is the one who can save you. That's the job description. But notice what it means to point to Christ. You're willing to sacrifice everything. You're not self-consumed. You're not pointing at yourself. You're not looking for any kind of glory or credit. John the Baptist is a minister of Christ because of his humility. What he says here about Christ is very helpful. Who should we be looking for? Who are we going to believe in? And there's two things he says about Jesus that we have to understand. First, his worth. He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. Now this needs some kind of cultural explanation. Everyone in this culture wore sandals, no socks, all open-toed. And they walked on paths, and they shared those paths with all the animals. It's dusty. It's gross. You didn't want to touch your own feet. You certainly wouldn't let even your servant touch your feet. This is why one of the things you do in hospitality is when somebody comes to your home, we'll see this in Luke 7, you offer them water to wash their own feet. But something in this culture, a servant would not be expected to untie his master's sandals and wash them. John is lowering himself so beneath Christ. He is so great. He is so mighty. I am not even worthy to be his servant. Why would he say such a thing? Remember John the Baptist is Jesus' cousin. If we go back to chapter 1, remember John the Baptist being filled with the Holy Spirit, did some somersaults in the womb when Mary walked in, pregnant with Jesus? John the Baptist knows who he is. He's heard the stories. He knows this is the God-man. He knows this is the Messiah. He recognizes rightly his place. And most of all, he recognizes Christ is great in worth and honor. This is his answer. Don't even pretend. Get any notion of it being me out of your mind. I'm so beneath Christ. That's his worth. What about his work? When Christ comes, I'm baptizing with water Jesus, when he comes, he's going to baptize with this phrase, the Holy Spirit, and with fire. Now, some have thought this is referring to Acts 2, Acts 1, when the Holy Spirit comes down on all peoples in flames, and there's a representation of the Holy Spirit in a fire. That's possible, but I don't think that's the best interpretation. Whenever we see words like this, fire, we want to make sure we interpret it within its context first, before jumping all the way to Acts 2. We've already seen fire in our text. We've seen fire in verse 9, where a branch that doesn't have good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Verse 17, his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn and the chaff will burn with unquenchable fire. What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit with fire? Well, the interpretation is that Christ is gonna come and he's gonna separate. He's gonna separate the good fruit, right, the wheat, the fruit-bearing repentant people from the chaff. When the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit is going to come and wash us with the very blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit is going to come and is going to indwell us and remind us of the same truths of Christ. It's going to adopt us into the sonship of Christ. It's going to proclaim the very love of Christ. The Holy Spirit is going to come and is going to be transforming. Well, what about the fire? The fire represents judgment. Because the end of verse 17. For those that believe in Christ, they're gonna be separated, though the wheat is safe and stored. But those who are boasting in Abraham, or boasting in their own works, will be separated and burned with an unquenchable fire. This is referring to hell. An eternity. feeling the full weight of God's glory coming into direct contact with our sin. We don't realize it, how much grace allows us to be ignorant of, and to be blissfully ignorant of God's judgment. But when we face God, outside of grace, outside of Christ, the full weight of God's goodness and righteousness will be placed upon our sin. And this is what makes it so painful. You're gonna know it's right. You're gonna know it's good. His judgment is always right. His judgment is always good. If you're not a believer this morning, the only way to escape that unquenchable fire is believing in Jesus Christ. He came to die so that we will not suffer. He came to pay that penalty so that we will not suffer the penalty of our sin. He is the only hope of salvation. And His salvation is powerful because when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, it renews us. It transforms us. It forgives us. Our last point, salvation, salvation. This is verses 18 to 22. God's son saves us. So as many other exhortations, he preached the good news to the people. This is kind of wrapping up John the Baptist here. And notice he's giving an out of sequence commentary. But Herod, the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, and he locked up John in prison. John the Baptist isn't out in the wilderness because he's fearful. He's courageous. He's confronting a Roman governor. He's telling him you're wrong for taking your brother's wife. You didn't talk to a Roman governor that way. There's no freedom of the press in Rome. This is demanding. This would demand for Herod to imprison him or worse. We see here the courage of John, but I think the reason this is here also is to show this world is getting flipped upside down. The powerful who use their power for abuse, they'll have their day and they'll have their judgment. And that's setting up the great picture of the one who's coming with all power, who will come and have his day of mercy. Look at verse 21. And when all the people have been baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized, let's pause there. Everybody other than Jesus came with a baptism that says I need to repent. I need to be washed of my sin. I need to come because I'm wicked, I'm evil, I've gotten some sense of the stench of my sin before God, and I want to be washed. I want to be forgiven. Jesus is coming to be baptized as a perfectly righteous, sinless person. Why? because he's going to identify with our sin. He's going to identify with our unrighteousness. He's going to identify with us as sinners so that when we're baptized in him, he gives us his righteousness because he takes on our sin. And this is evidence that his baptism is so uniquely different. He's not coming because his life has been so unpleasing to God. No, look at verse 21. were opened. The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove. He's the anointed one. When they ask, is he the Christ? No, this is the Christ. The Holy Spirit has come upon him. And then a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. Whose voice is that? If he calls him a son, it's God the Father. This is the first public demonstration of the full Trinity. People are there to witness it. The Father has declared, this is my son. The Holy Spirit has come upon him. This is the Christ. And then, with you I am well pleased. Jesus is unique because he is the one who has lived the perfectly righteous life. He is unique because he alone is the God-man who can die and rise again and give us forgiveness. The life he pleased God with was for our sake so that we can now walk in his grace. As we conclude, I wanna go back to Thomas Watson in his work on repentance. He said repentance has an inward humility, but visible reform. Those six ingredients again. Think about these, talk about these at lunch or with your family later, with friends. The six ingredients of repentance. Sight of sin. We see it as it is. How do you see sin as it is? By looking internally? Now we see sin as it is as we look into our lives and compare it to what God's righteous word instructs. We need God's word to see sin as it is. Second, sorrow for sin. Our feelings change. Instead of enjoying sin, there's a sadness of it, there's a brokenness. When we see sin for what it is according to God's word, we don't keep rejoicing, we have a sorrow. Third, a confession of sin. I, God, against you and you alone, have sinned. I need washed, Father. I have not worshiped you the way you are. I have kept back from being a good steward. I've not been grateful. I've not used my words. It's clear. It declares this is what I've said, thought, done, or not done, and it's wrong. The fourth ingredient, shame for sin. There's a real embarrassment to it. And we need to be careful here. When we sense the fullness of sin, there's a shame that necessarily comes along with it. As we looked at in Genesis 3 and 4, the shame isn't meant to help you retreat further inwardly. No, the shame is meant for you to go to God and confess courageously. Shame is an instrument of God, not to hide in, but to be invited out of. Then there's a hatred for sin. There's a recognition of what it is and how destructive it is, and a turning away from it. The last ingredient, turning from sin. Repentance, by definition, is a promise. It means I'm looking at what I am convinced is wrong, and I'm saying I've done wrong, and then it's saying I promise. Lord, I wanna trust your grace to turn away from it. It doesn't mean you're never gonna turn to it again, but it's a promise. I want your grace to turn away from this sin. If you're not a Christian, I wanna give you a warning. I grew up in a culture that I just thought Christians were people who didn't do a number of things. There's a long list of don'ts. There's all the things I wanted to do, so it didn't make any sense to me. I appreciate how he does have some don'ts. But realize, what God is saying, is you can turn away from the things that are destroying you, and you can turn to him who is most loving, who's most glorious, who's the greatest blessing. He's not robbing you from anything that's of actual joy. He's inviting you to true joy himself. What God is giving you isn't a list of rules, it's himself. Turn away from idols, turn to the true God. Christian, we too often look back at times of repentance and I want us to reflect for a moment, when was the last time we repented? When was the last time those ingredients were involved in a day of our lives? And was that the last time you sinned? How long ago was it that we've repented, felt the sorrow, confessed the sin, felt the hatred, and in turn, and is that really the last time we've sinned? I read earlier Luther's declaration in the 95 Theses. The Christian life is one of repentance. Regularly depending upon grace. regularly asking for forgiveness, regularly receiving it. I think one of the most amazing things is when we come to faith, God never shows us all of our sin at once. Praise God. But he walks with us. He changes us. He transforms us graciously and kindly as a loving father. The call this morning, believe in Christ and be united with him. We're reunited with him if there's fruit. There's repentance that bears fruit and that might be rejoicing in the grace of God. It might be repenting and confessing sin today. But do not leave here fearful of confessing sin. Leave here finding someone eager to talk to you about the gospel so that you might believe, be forgiven, and rejoice. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us to figure out this life on our own. You've given us your word that tells us who you are, tells us how you designed us, tells us what we've done wrong, and tells us what you expect of us. Father, we thank you for your word that tells us you've not spared even your own son We thank you for the clear declarations of your goodness, your love. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that transforms us. We pray now for the illuminating power of the Spirit to help us see sin, to fill the sorrow of sin, to confess boldly in the name of Christ, seeking the forgiveness of sin, to not hide in the shame, to hate the sin. Thank you that we can turn from it and turn to you, our good God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.