The third of the 10 Commandments declares:
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
To take the name of the Lord in vain means to use God’s holy name as if it were cheap or worthless. How is this done? Human beings take the name of the Lord in vain when they curse God, …
EXHORTATION
If you’ve ever grown a vegetable garden, you know that certain plants make great companions. Native Americans famously planted the Three Sisters together: corn, pole beans, and squash. The tall stalks of corn made great support for the climbing beans and the low growing squash shades the ground to retain moisture and suppress weed growth.
In the same way, certain sins make great companions. One sin runs defense for another. One sin provides shade …
EXHORTATION
In 1 Thessalonians 4 the Apostle Paul gives us a trio of exhortations:
“aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands”
First, aspire to live quietly. We live in an age of “Hot Takes.” The way to get noticed it to say something crazy, and if that doesn’t work, try screaming it. But Biblical Christians aren’t seeking attention for themselves. Jesus Christ must increase, and we …
EXHORTATION
God doesn’t give us his grace so that we can go easy on ourselves. He gives us his grace so that we can be truthful with ourselves. If we know that after we’ve been completely truthful to God his grace remains, then we have every encouragement not to go easy on our sin. Good news church: where sin did abound, grace did much more abound, so let’s go to our Father and confess our …
EXHORTATION – Psalm 103:2
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
Ingratitude is what happens when we fail to give God credit and glory for the good gifts he has given us. And there are two ways that ingratitude manifests itself in our lives:
The first is to receive and enjoy all his good gifts while not acknowledging that God is the one giving them. It’s to forget that …
CALL TO CONFESSION
Romans 5:8
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
CONFESSION:
Our Father,
We you have made us to love you and to demonstrate that love through obedience. We confess to you that we have not loved you as we ought. And we know our love is lacking, because our obedience is lacking. We confess that even when we obey, we often do …
(Based on a prayer found in the Valley of Vision)
CONFESSION
Father,
As we have thought about your greatness and considered your almighty power—if we’re honest we all see places in our lives where we have diminished your greatness and inflated our own.
We confess that we have tried to live a life that satisfies ourselves without trying to satisfy you. We confess that even when we’ve tried to satisfy you, we have tried to …
CONFESSION
James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Let’s seek the grace of God together as we confess our sins.
Father,
It’s a great comfort to us that you already know our sin even before we confess it. It’s a comfort because it allows us to be honest with you, knowing we can’t conceal anything from your sight. Nonetheless, when we consider how kind you have been to us, …
