Father, we, we're here today because we are hungry and we need to be fed. We are no better than the world around us. If left to ourselves, Lord, we are exceedingly dangerous, a danger to ourselves and a danger to others. But by your grace, you're teaching us and you're growing us.
Our sins have been forgiven. Those of us that have believed in Christ and, and we're growing in love for you. We thank you for your word that teaches us and instructs us and sometimes rebukes us and shatters us. And yet Without some of the hard things that your word says to us, we would be utterly incomprehensible to ourselves.
And to each other. And yet this book that speaks things to us that maybe we don't want to hear speaks on the other side of that, such wonderful, rich, good news that we can embrace ourselves and be strengthened by, and that we can speak to others to give this message to a lost and a dying world full of people who are just like us who need to hear this message. I pray if there's any here in this room, Lord, who have never given up trying to save themselves, that you would overwhelm them with an awareness that they were created by you. You brought them into existence because you could not imagine your world without them in it.
And that they have a purpose to fulfill and they have fallen short of that glorious purpose because of their sin. But there's something that can be done about that. You've provided a way for their sins to be forgiven so that they might. be saved and, and be able to fulfill your loving purposes for their life....
