The Church's Call to Worship

How do you choose what to prioritize? You can tell what you prioritize in life by your time, your money, and your words. What do you spend your time doing? What do you spend your money on? What do you talk about? These are the things you prioritize. If you want to know what matters most to you, look at your bank account, look at your schedule, Think about the conversations you have. The wise life is a properly prioritized life, one where we invest our best time and most time, the one where we spend our money, the one where we talk about what really matters most. As Christians, life has a purpose. Everything has a meaning. And we need to realize that we need to properly prioritize how we use the good gifts God has given us. Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. I think we could turn that on its side a little bit and say the unexamined life is simply less enjoyable. Because when we're not examining how we're living, We're going to slide into sin. We're going to not spend our best on God, who is the most worthy. Last week, we looked at the Jewish leader's response to Jesus rising Lazarus from the dead. The priests and the Pharisees, they came together and they observed Jesus and all of his miracles. If he keeps this up, Logically, everyone should believe he's a son of God. Look at what he's doing. It's evident. It's so clear. If he keeps doing these things, the only logical conclusion is that everyone will believe in him. Denying that they themselves are following through with what they see as the logical conclusion. One of them stands up, Caiaphas, the high priest. And he gives one of the great gospel declarations unintentionally. One must die to save the people in the nation. He needs to die to save us from Rome, is what he's saying. As a high priest that year, John tells us, he didn't say this on his own accord. He is declaring that Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to die for sinners. If you look in John chapter 11, if you're with us and you don't have a Bible, you can use the pew Bible in front of you will be on page 898. Let's see how the story concludes, beginning in John 11, verse 54, after Caiaphas and the high priest declare he must be arrested, we must have him dead to save the nation. Here are the consequences. Therefore, Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead, he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up to the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus. And as they stood in the temple courts, they asked one another, what do you think? Isn't he coming to the festival at all? But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so they might arrest him. We see here Jesus has a death warrant. He runs to a safe place. He is going to go into the outer area of Judea where it is safe for a time being. But as we see the whole gospel of John, it's leading up to these last six days. Jesus continues to do a miracle, say something offensive, preaching the gospel, preaching the word of God. And every time they pick up stones or every time they seek to arrest him, he withdraws because his hour had not yet come. But here we see how John has been building up the story. He's been building up Jesus' identity. He's been building up how the religious leaders are opposed to Jesus. We see this last Passover. Well, that's going to be Jesus' last week. I need to correct something I said last week. Last week I said it was the last sermon on the Lazarus event. I actually think this text we'll be looking at this morning really ends the entire Lazarus story. The reasons are we're in the same city. We have the same characters. I believe this is concluding the last sign. Most importantly, we saw Lazarus. He began as a sick man. He died. He rose again. Now he's alive. And the Jews want to kill. We see the full spectrum of Lazarus's life here. He was sick. He died. He was risen again. And now, because he's a testimony to the resurrection, he's a testimony to who Jesus is. They seek to kill him. The section there that we'll be looking at, it's showing how the time has gone by. But John is connecting things, not in a chronological history. He's not trying to give us a piece by piece what happened every single day or week or month. He's not seeming to give us a chronological history. It's a theological story. to present to us the things we need to know so that we will believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Our message this morning as we look to a dinner held in Jesus' honor is this. Our worship is purified when we see how unworthy we are and how worthy Christ is. Our worship is purified when we recognize how unworthy we are And we recognize how worthy Christ is. In short, our sin keeps us from true worship. It is our sin that keeps us from enjoying and delighting in Christ, our Savior. I want to begin our story by looking at some parallel accounts. If you turn to Matthew 26 or Mark 14, we're not going to look at these in depth. But you would actually find their accounts of the same event. They're slightly different. The one account that some people think is recording the same event, but is very different, is Luke 7. I do not think Luke 7 is recording the same event. One, it's a different time in Jesus' life. Two, it's a different setting. And three, it's a different woman. Mary, in our story, in John 12, she's a woman of great reputation. In Luke 7, it's a woman of the city where they look down upon her and say to one another, if only Jesus knew what kind of woman this is. I believe Luke 7 is different, but Mark 14, Matthew 26, and here we are in John 12, the same story. But the different authors tell it from different perspectives. You have different details. And the one thing I want you to know, there's nothing in any of the three accounts that contradict the other accounts. They all say something different, but there's nothing that contradicts one another. Matthew and Mark, they talk about how Jesus was anointed on his head. Well, that's because theologically they're declaring he's the king. In John, he really focuses not on the woman and the anointing of the head, but her washing his feet with the perfume. In Matthew and Mark, they speak generically of the apostles, of the disciples. John, he's focusing in, he's zooming in on Judas himself. And finally, Matthew, Mark, they give us a very important declaration that this woman will be remembered and her worship will be retold as part of the gospel. So there's differences, but nothing contradictory. As we look to our story, we'll see a setting. It's in Bethany. That's where Lazarus and Mary and Martha live. That's where the resurrection of Lazarus has taken place. It's just two miles outside of Jerusalem. You see Jesus getting closer and closer to death. And there are five key characters and they've all come together. It's a dinner and to honor Jesus, to thank Jesus for the life of Lazarus. The first character. Is. Jesus, he raised Lazarus from the dead. We also see he's going to be worthy of worship in our story. The second story is Martha. Martha stays true to character. She's serving dinner. Lazarus, he's reclining at table. He's there to thank Jesus. Mary, as always, she's at the feet of Jesus. She's anointing his feet with perfume. She's washing the feet of Jesus with her hair. Finally, we see Judas, who John tells us very specifically, he betrayed Jesus. And we see him wanting to say, well, how is it that this perfume would be spent so lavishly? This could have been used for the poor. Or really, he's just wanting to take the money for himself. As we walk through the story, we'll be analyzing and looking at each character. Please hear the word of God as I read our story, beginning in verse one of chapter 12. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 nari and given to the poor? He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. In having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it. Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you don't always have me. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Will you pray with me? As we look to your word, Almighty God, we pray that you would help us to see Our place in the story. Help us to see that we are sinners. Who have hearts that are full of treason? That poison our love for you. I pray that we will be purified and corrected as we see sin clearly demonstrated and corrected by Jesus by demonstrated by Judas and corrected by Jesus. We pray that we would see worship We would desire and long for a pure worship of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. First, we see Martha. She's busy serving. Look at verse two. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus honor to thank him. Martha served. Now, praise God for all the servants. Praise God for those who work and labor quietly, not wanting any recognition. Praise God for the man who gave up a Saturday to help facilitate more people to be able to sit and hear the word of God. We praise God for folks who want to use their hands and their feet to to worship God in this way. The danger, I think, for many servants and the danger we see, especially in Luke 16, we think of Martha. is that sometimes we can get so involved and focused in serving, we can forget that it's about being a disciple of Christ, sitting at his feet, hearing his word. If you're always serving, one, I want to challenge you, are you giving others the opportunity to serve? Secondly, and this is the real challenge, serving does not make you a disciple of Jesus. Believing in Jesus and obeying Him makes you a disciple of Jesus. There are many people who are serving in churches all over the world, and they're not Christians. They're busy being active, doing something, and never sitting at the feet of Jesus and resting in what He has done. So there's a warning there. We must sit under Christ. We must sit at His feet and seek to worship Him. If we're always serving, we're not hearing God's Word and what He has to say for us. A minor character in the story, Martha. The next character, also a minor character, Lazarus. Look at verse 2 again. Here, a dinner was given. Martha served. Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Now, I don't think the contrast is that Martha is a hard worker and Lazarus is lazy, just sitting there reclining. This is how they this is the word we see regularly used to describe someone when they were at the table to eat. But I'm picturing here that the the table, it's set. They're here to honor Jesus for giving Lazarus new life. Can you imagine? He's sitting there. The thoughts that have to be going through his head. He's there to praise Jesus and to thank him for the new life he has. He's sitting there looking, who is he? What has he done for me? I was dead and now I'm alive. It's something I would love to know and I look forward to finding out one day. What did Lazarus remember? As he's sitting there, does he remember being sick? I assume he does. But what does he remember about his death? How aware is he that he stopped breathing and his heart stopped pumping? How aware is he of his own particular death? What does he remember about that? More so, did he hear Jesus declare, I am the resurrection life? Did he hear the prayer of Jesus? When we assume he heard the words, Lazarus, come out. Because at that moment he was given life and he stood up and he walked out. Can you imagine how amazing this would be to reflect upon? To remember the day that you woke up in a dark tomb, hearing the voice of Jesus, Lazarus, come out. And you walk out. You were dead. You were in the darkness. And now you're standing again in the sunlight, breathing and looking at Jesus who just gave you new life. This would be amazing. How do you not run and fall at his feet and praise him? How great would it be to have that kind of experience? Now, if you were here Wednesday night and you heard the testimonies of Pat and Patty, you heard them use very similar language. The truth is, if you're a Christian, you can praise God for a new life that's actually better than the new life Lazarus received. He was given breath again. His heart started pumping again. But the new life that Jesus Christ gives us, who were dead in our sins, but alive now in Christ, that's better. How can we not sit and marvel and praise? I was once opposed to God. I was once indifferent to God. I once didn't care. I was in the darkness. And then I heard the words of the gospel. And now I'm alive. Now I can see the word of God and I know it's true. Now I hear the gospel and I know I'm forgiven. Friends, this is worth marveling over. We were dead and now we're alive. Before moving on from Lazarus, we also see his testimony was too loud and too clear. So those who hate Jesus, they hated him. This makes Lazarus a Christian. If they hated him, how are they not going to hate those who proclaim him? Christians are hated by the world because the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not like it, does not recognize it as truth. They must extinguish it. We see Lazarus is clearly a little Christ because they hated Jesus because he points to Jesus. They hated him. Now onto our main characters, Mary and Judas. Let's first look at Mary. Mary worships Jesus. Verse 3, Then Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Now, this isn't the first time like this. Again, Luke points back to Martha serving and Mary sitting at Jesus' feet and Martha's upset. Jesus, would you tell my sister to get busy? He says, no, she's doing what is proper. She's doing what is best. She has a properly prioritized life. But what we see about Mary, she's always at Jesus' feet. Luke records that account. She's there at Jesus' feet to listen. When Martha comes out to talk to Jesus, when he's approaching Lazarus, she doesn't fall on his feet, on her feet. She just says, Lord, if you had been here when Mary goes out, what does she do? She falls down at Jesus's feet. This is fairly amazing. This is this stands out in the word. Why? First and foremost, feet are disgusting. Now, that's a general statement, but in this day and age, they were considered disgusting. She's always bowing down to the most unworthy place. You see, in this day, they wore sandals and they walked on dusty roads and those dusty roads were shared by animals. Their feet were gross. The feet were so disgusting that the custom was that when you walked into someone's house, you took your sandals off and you washed your own feet. It was beneath a servant. To wash the feet of somebody. You had to wash your own feet. Here we see a woman prominent in society. She was a wealthy woman. Many from Jerusalem had come down to mourn with her. She was well known, well loved. She's lowering herself beneath the position of a servant. She's at the feet of Jesus and not just at his feet. She's washing his feet. She's taking an expensive perfume. We believe it's about 11 ounces, which is a lot of perfume. It's from the mountains of India. It's the Pure Nard. This would have cost a year's wages. It says 300 anera. That's a year's wages. She's taking a perfume that would have cost the average worker an entire year's wages. She's just there pouring it. She's pouring it on his head and now she's pouring it on his feet. Not only this, she's using her hair to wipe these feet who've been walking in the rows where the animals have been walking with them. She's worshipping. That's the only thing we can conclude here that would make such a woman bow down in such a way. She's worshipping. She recognizes she's unworthy. She recognizes Jesus is worthy. There's a couple of things about her worship that just are startling. She valued Christ more than her own reputation. She valued Christ more than her reputation. Can you imagine what her friends are saying? Mary, you're making quite a scene here. Mary, calm down. Get up. You're embarrassing yourself. You look worse than a slave. You're high society, Mary. Why would you bow down in such a way and make such a spectacle of yourself and add to yourself this disfilth? She's valuing Christ for the reputation she sees. She's unworthy and he is worthy. He's the one whose reputation matters. It's his name. Notice also, she values Christ above her wealth. This is probably a family heirloom. This is probably passed down from generation to generation. Or it was bought at a very expensive price to be used for someone's special burial. Maybe her own. But what she has, the most expensive thing she has in the home, most likely, he's worthy of. He's worthy of the perfume. He's worthy of the anointing because he's God. She values Christ more than her own comfort. She's wiped his feet with her hair. She's now going to have gross elements in her hair. She's going to have the filth that was on his feet in her hair. Why would she do this? She's gotten a glimpse of Christ's glory. And she's realized what he is worth. She has seen Jesus, she knows him, she believes in him. Friends, as we see Mary over against the disciples, she's a picture of what worship supposed to be. Unabandoned love. Lavishing in the worthiness of Christ, we should see Mary and we should be challenged to see I'm supposed to Appreciate and adore Christ above my reputation, above my wealth, above my comfort. You see, when we see who Jesus is, the son of God. He's worthy, he's the one who came down to die for us, he's he's the one who demonstrates God's love, God's love for us. When we see this, we'll abandon our reputation, our wealth and our comfort. We'll see them not as the world sees them. The world says, why would you give up your comfort, your wealth, your reputation? Why would you give that up for this man? Well, they only see him as a man. The world would see it as foolish. But we don't even see it as a sacrifice. He is worthy. The anointing points us to two events. First, it points us to Jesus' death. This is his burial anointing. Mary must get it, or at least God has given her this designed plan, this ointment, this perfume was set aside for his burial. This took place according to the plan of God to prepare him for what would take place, and that is his death on the cross. John has built up this story so beautifully. Jesus proclaims the glory of God. He shines the light. The darkness hates it. He keeps withdrawing and then coming and preaching and then withdrawing. And here it's coming to a climactic end. And a woman whose act of worship will forever be remembered according to Scripture, according to God's plan, because she recognized what was taking place, I believe, and anointed him in in recognition of who he was and what he was going to do. You see, friends, this is the gospel. If you're not a Christian this morning, this is the gospel. Jesus Christ came to die for every kind of sinner. Jesus Christ came because we are sinners and God's wrath is just and righteous against us. And the only way we can be forgiven, the only way for that wrath to be removed, is for a perfect man to die in our place and take the sin we have on himself and the wrath of God on himself. No man was found available. No man was found good enough. So God himself came down. took upon our own likeness in every way except sin so that when he died he could take the sin of all who believe on him on himself and therefore be punished for our sin so that we would be free and forgiven. The second thing this anointing points us to is Judas and his betrayal. Look at verse 4, a sudden change of the story, but one of his disciples. Notice how John makes that very clear. But one of the guys has been with him from the very beginning. Judas, who was later to betray him, objected. Why wasn't this sold for the poor, he says. Our final character, Judas, we see he's full of betrayal and treason, he's full of greed. Judas will betray Jesus. He will hand him over to the authorities. And that's the reason I think the story is all connected, because you begin with Lathras, you end with Lathras, and then in the middle of it, you have Caiaphas and Judas. The bookends of Jesus' betrayal. Caiaphas plans it, Judas executes it. Jude Caiaphas is the one who has ordered it from the authorities of Israel. But Judas, he reveals a sinful heart. He's the one who executes the plan. We see these two together. Both, out of their own hearts, are too perverse and too dark to see the light of Jesus Christ. Both are too corrupt and committed to their own sin to worship and serve Jesus Christ. Both are instruments of the evil one seeking to destroy the glory of God. As we continue, let's look at verse four again. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 Neri and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Mary did not see herself as worthy of reputation, wealth or comfort, so she bowed down before Jesus and gave him what was best in her life. Look at Judas. He says, I'm worthy of that perfume. Mary recognizes my best. He's worthy of it. Judas looks over with disdain and says, No, I'm worthy of that. I want that wealth. He's full of selfishness and greed. He's a thief. He wanted to pretend to sell that for the good purpose of the poor, but then he was going to help himself to the proceeds. It's amazing. It reminds me, there's a great play on words in Hebrew. If you go to 1 Samuel, remember Eli, the priest, he's made himself fat with the sacrifices of God. Those sacrifices were meant to glorify God. The same Hebrew word is used for glory and fat. It's a beautiful picture of how we take God's good gifts and they're supposed to be for his glory. When we glorify ourselves, we're supposed to be showing the greatness of God. We choose them for our own greatness. Judas is doing the same thing. He looks at that beautiful worship and all he can think about is, if I had that money, what could I do with it for me? He considers himself more worthy than Christ. Now, there's a great scary challenge here. Judas should make us all very afraid. He was a disciple of Jesus Christ. He had been with Jesus for the three years of his ministry, he had seen every miracle, he had heard every teaching, he had seen it all, heard it all. But he did not believe. He served, he had an official position, he was a treasurer. He had been around the holy things of God, he had been around the Holy One of God, just like Caiaphas. And his heart remained dull. One of the great fears, one of the great challenges, if you've been in church your entire life, but have not truly believed. I am a sinner who needs grace and Jesus Christ is that only is only the means by which that grace comes to me. You're built around self-righteousness and you'll never see the righteousness of Christ. Your assurance cannot be in how long you've been in a church building on Sunday morning. Your assurance cannot be on how many titles you've held in that church building. Your assurance cannot solely be in the fact that your name is somehow on a membership role somewhere. Your assurance is that you rest in Jesus Christ, what he has done for you, and that you are currently now revering and loving and worshiping him. It's scary. Judas, he's been around the holy things of God and has never penetrated his heart. Friends, ask yourself, where is your assurance? Is it that you've been at church your whole life or has it been that Jesus Christ has been the Lord of your life? Our final character. Jesus. Look at verse seven. Jesus said. Leave her alone. God protects sheep. The good shepherd is protecting his sheep. He sees the evil of Judas. He recognizes his evil intent and he sees that he's going to interrupt her worship. Leave her alone. It was intended. that she would save this perfume for the day of my burial. This was intended. This was appointed. God has declared, there is an hour in which I will die. That hour is coming. This perfume was set aside to anoint and appoint me for that death. Leave her alone. He then declares, you're not always going to have me. This is important for this particular time. There's a timeliness to worship. At every different stage of God's plan, worship has been slightly different. At Sinai, they couldn't draw near. Today, we get to draw near. At this time, they weren't quite clear. Well, I think Mary gets it. I don't think any of the disciples actually get it quite yet. What Jesus is saying, you have a unique window of worship right now to the disciples. I'm going to go away. I'm going to go away. You have a unique opportunity to worship me right now. You need to take advantage of it. And they all failed. Peter denies Jesus while he had the opportunity to praise him there in the flesh. We recognize there's a timeless to our worship. There's a timeless right now to our worship. We can worship today in a way that's going to be unique, that you will lose when you die. And this is what's unique and timely about our worship right now. Today, you can choose to love God over against your sin. The beauty of when you die and you're a believer or Christ comes again, you're given a whole new body and a whole new nature and you will not be able to sin again. Now, we look forward to that day. We long for that day. But today is your one opportunity to actually say, I'm going to choose against my sin to love Christ. We recognize that this time period, our time right now, it's a unique time to worship Christ in a unique way. You will have forever to worship Christ without sin. But it's right now that you can worship Christ over against sin. A real fear is if you're holding off worship till you don't have sin. If you actually think, you know, I'm going to just live in this world, I have all of eternity to worship Jesus Christ. Friends, I'm afraid you will be sorely disappointed. Your knee shall bow, your tongue will confess, but if you think worship is going to wait, you do not know Jesus Christ. He is either worthy of worship now, or you do not know him and you will be worshiping him in judgment. As we conclude, and as we're about to send our Mercado team out, I want to look at this last word of Jesus. For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me. Notice Jesus doesn't point to Judas's sinful intent. He's actually taking his word as if it were true. He's working with the words that Judas has said. You will always have the poor with you. This actually seems rather cold towards the poor. What Judas is saying is actually quite startling and should shake us a little bit. It's better to pour out a year's wages on my feet than to feed the poor with that money that could have been bought with a perfume. My feet are more worthy of this lavish expression of worship than it would be to feed the poor with this. This is pretty amazing. This challenges us to think about who Jesus is. Because if there was a philanthropist And he was trying to raise money to feed the poor, and you found out he had five mansions, 10 boats and was just burning through money. You're not going to work with that guy to feed the poor. You're going to think you're kind of abusive and selfish. But here Jesus is saying it's more worthy of my feet than to feed the poor. This challenges us to recognize who Jesus is. He's not just some other guy. He has no sinful intent. He's God. He's worthy of worship. Either he is worthy of all worship and the greatest gift, or he's just a mere man. This points us to the fact that worship is the most important thing we do. The mission of the church is not to end poverty. The mission of the church is not to end poverty. The mission of the church is the glory of God. The mission of the church is to proclaim him, to exalt him, to lift him up. Now, one of the ways we exalt God is by caring for orphans and widows and those who are in need, but the church is not tasked with ending poverty. The church is called to exalt Christ. Mercado team. The purpose of your trip is not to feed and care for the poor. To be frank, we'd be more effective in this to not send you, but to send the money that we're sending you with. If we wanted to feed the poor, we would not spend thousands of dollars to send you. We would put it in an envelope, we would put it in the mail, and then we would hope that somebody could feed the poor with that money. It would be more effective. No, we're sending you because you have something we can't put in an envelope. It's the glory of God. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the only the only way it can be shared is face to face and meeting and caring with other human beings. You are going because you're worshiping Jesus and you want to take that worship somewhere where they do not know that worship. That's the only reason you're going. Yes, we hope you will care for the poor. Yes, we hope you're going to care for these orphans and you're going to show our love for them. And we're so abundantly blessed. Yes, we're going to care for them financially and fiscally and physically. You're going to spread the glory of God. We can't put that in an envelope. You are going to share that. If this is not why you're going, it's not too late for you not to go. That's why you go. You're so moved by the glory of God to worship him that you want to spread the worship of God. Yes, we're going to care for him physically, but that's not the primary goal. The second thing I want us to think about, we're only sending a few. I want to ask those of us who are not going, why are we going? If the purpose is to glorify God, do we not want to glorify God there in Ethiopia? Now, we did set a limit on the number, so everyone couldn't go. I also believe not everybody is called to go. There's numerous opportunities to go. But I ask, if you were thinking this is merely a feeding the poor ministry, I get it. People came back with Hepatitis A last time. Not sure if that's risking it. Susan came back with something. We don't even know what it was, but it almost killed her. Not sure if that's worth risking going and feeding the poor. But if you see that this is how we're worshiping Jesus Christ, it's worth going. And it's worth the danger. It's worth losing your life to go and enjoy the worship of God and spread the glory of God. That is worth going. If you're fearful, of getting sick, if you're fearful of dying, if you're fearful of harm, you didn't get the purpose. It's the glory of God that is worth losing everything for. Friends, as we conclude, we think about the story. First, recognize Judas. That's who we identify with. We're full of betrayal, we're full of greed, We think we're worthy. The beautiful thing about Mary that we should long to be like we need to realize how unworthy we are. And how he had lavished upon us every good and perfect gift in Jesus Christ, and that is why he is worthy of praise. We pray with me. Forgive us, almighty God. For thinking too much of ourselves and not enough of you. We are all guilty. Of not worshiping you as you are worthy. We are all guilty of indifference to your glory and your infinite worth. Please humbly bow down before you. And thank you for your mercy. That saves us from our sin. that calls us now to enjoy your glory anew in Christ. Help us, Lord, to be thankful for that good gift you've given us in Jesus Christ. Amen.