The Danger of Hypocrisy

to hear and to understand and to respond in faith and trust to your word today.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

We are going through the middle part of the Gospel of Luke this winter.

Today we are looking at the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12, starting at chapter 11, verse 37.

If you are looking in the Pew Bible, the page number is listed in the bulletin.

817, thanks.

So Luke chapter 11, starting at verse 37.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Let me read this passage to us this morning.

While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table.

The Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash before dinner.

And the Lord said to him,

Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

You fools!

Did not he who make the outside make the inside also?

But give his alms those things that are within.

And behold, everything is clean for you.

But woe to you, Pharisees!

For you tithe, mint, and rue, and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

Woe to you, Pharisees!

For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

Woe to you!

For you are like unmarked graves.

And people walk over them without knowing it.

One of the lawyers answered him,

Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.

And he said,

Woe to you lawyers also!

For you load people with burdens hard to bear,

and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Woe to you!

For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers.

For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

Therefore also the wisdom of God said,

I will send them prophets and apostles,

some of whom they will kill and persecute,

so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world

may be charged against this generation,

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,

who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.

Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Woe to you lawyers!

For you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.

As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard

and to provoke him to speak about many things,

lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together

that they were trampling one another,

he began to say to his disciples first,

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed,

or hidden that will not be known.

Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light,

and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body,

and after that have nothing more that they can do.

But I will warn you whom to fear.

Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?

And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not.

You are of more value than many sparrows.

And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men,

the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.

But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,

but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities,

do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,

for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

One of the most common reasons why people leave the church

or never darken the door of a church

is because they have seen too much hypocrisy inside it.

I was talking to a small business owner recently.

He said,

the worst customer I had to deal with last year was a pastor of a Baptist church.

I lost over $10,000 because he lied and never paid what he owed.

Sadly, that's far from the worst example.

In the past few years, I can think of several prominent evangelical Christian leaders

who have stepped down or been removed from their positions because of moral failures,

often relating to money, sex, or power.

Many of these things had been going on for years before they got called out.

Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford released the list of priests

who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in the diocese since its founding in 1953.

48 priests.

Some of you have experienced these things personally or in your families.

You know the damage that can be done to human beings made in the image of God

and to the reputation of God himself

when those who claim to represent God act in deeply ungodly ways.

Jesus knows that too.

In the passage we're looking at this morning, Jesus addresses the issue of hypocrisy,

specifically religious hypocrisy.

And we see how deeply Jesus cares for those harmed by it

because of how strongly he rebuked those who perpetuated it.

These are some of Jesus' strongest words of rebuke recorded in any of the Gospels.

This morning, I want us to look at three things.

First, I want us to look at Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy.

Second, I want to look at Jesus' warning to his followers to beware of the danger of hypocrisy.

And third, I want to look at the remedy Jesus gives to counter hypocrisy.

So first, Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees' hypocrisy.

We see this in the end of chapter 11.

Now, the context for this scene is Jesus is teaching the crowds,

and a Pharisee who was listening invited him over for a meal.

Now, the Pharisees were a highly respected and widely influential group in Jesus' time.

They were a relatively small group.

Josephus, the historian, says that they numbered about 6,000,

just about 1% of the Jewish population.

But he says they were very influential among the common people.

And after Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70 A.D.,

the Pharisee movement developed into what we now know as rabbinic Judaism.

Broadly speaking, the Pharisees and Jesus would have agreed about many things.

They were committed to the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible.

They diligently studied it and sought to put it into practice.

They affirmed core biblical doctrines,

God's sovereignty and human responsibility,

the reality of angels and demons,

the hope of the bodily resurrection.

They were not a political party either.

They were willing to work with whoever was in power.

They only wanted freedom to follow God's laws as they understood them.

Now, the Pharisees were not the only Jewish group at that time.

There were also several others,

including the Herodians who were allies of the ruling dynasty,

the Sadducees, worldly aristocrats who controlled the temple,

the Essenes who went out into the desert and lived separately in communes,

and the Zealots who wanted to promote,

advocated violent revolution against the Roman government.

And so of all the Jewish groups,

you would think that Jesus and the Pharisees shared most in common.

But what we see in the Gospels is that Jesus and the Pharisees

were often deeply at odds with each other.

Jesus interacted with the Pharisees more than any of these other groups,

25 times just in Luke's Gospel.

But he also criticized the Pharisees more than any other group.

And here Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

Verse 38,

the Pharisee was astonished that Jesus did not first wash before eating.

Now, the Pharisees were not concerned about the spread of germs.

That was not the concern back in the first century.

And they even used such a small amount of water

that it wouldn't have made a difference.

They were concerned, though, about ritual purity.

You see, the Pharisees were careful to obey not only the biblical laws,

but also the oral traditions that had developed over time

that were seen as sort of safeguards or fences

to keep someone from breaking the law by mistake.

In the case of handwashing,

the Old Testament law only required handwashing in two instances.

After a person touched a bodily discharge

or before priests ate the holy offerings.

But the Pharisees required it before all meals,

especially after interacting with crowds

who were seen as sort of suspect and unclean,

and in many other contexts.

25% of the Mishnah,

which is a later compilation of Jewish oral traditions,

is concerned with ritual washing and bathing.

So it was a major concern of the Pharisees.

And they were scrupulous about it.

Jesus did not share the Pharisees' concern

for ritual cleanliness.

See, one of the most important differences

between Jesus and the Pharisees

is that Jesus was committed to upholding the authority of the Bible,

but he was not committed to upholding all of the traditions

that had accumulated over the years around the Bible.

And Jesus' concern was that the Pharisees' emphasis

on ritual purity had undermined their commitment

and the Bible's emphasis on moral integrity.

And so Jesus publicly and provocatively confronted the Pharisees.

It's hard to overstate how provocative Jesus was

in this context.

I mean, think about it.

He's invited to somebody's house,

and he knows that it's customary to do the ritual washing,

but he doesn't do it.

And then when he sees his host's evident surprise and dismay,

he starts blasting the Pharisees for their lack of integrity.

He completely disregards the social conventions of politeness.

You look all put together on the outside,

and you're a mess on the inside, you fools.

You need a clean heart, not just clean hands.

Woe to you.

Imagine if you invited someone over for dinner,

and they started talking like that.

And then after hearing Jesus' three woes on the Pharisees,

a lawyer speaks up.

Now, he's not a lawyer like we think of,

a prosecutor or a defense attorney.

This was a scribe, a law scholar,

a scholar of the Old Testament law.

And you might say that the scribes or the lawyers,

the two words are sort of interchangeable.

They were sort of the academic prowess behind the Pharisee movement,

and the Pharisees were the ones who sort of relied on their exegesis

and study and interpretation and taught the people.

But Jesus didn't let them off the hook either.

He pronounced three woes on the scribes in verses 46 to 52.

You heap on burdens, and you don't help a bit.

You honor the prophets, but only if they're already dead,

not if they're living and speaking to you.

And instead of opening the door to God,

you are blocking it.

In each series, if you notice,

the third and final woe, verses 44 and 52,

focuses on how the hypocrisy of religious leaders

negatively impacts those who follow them

and hinders them.

Now, you might say, why did Jesus say all this?

It wasn't because Jesus delighted in creating a ruckus

and telling people off.

It wasn't because he was hungry and frustrated

and needed to vent.

No, it's because Jesus saw that something much more important

than politeness was at stake.

It's because Jesus was not only the Pharisees' guest,

he was also the Pharisees' Lord.

You see, all along, if you read the Gospel of Luke up to this point,

all along, the Pharisees and the scribes have heard Jesus' teaching.

They've seen Jesus' healing.

And all along, they've been accusing him in their hearts

and grumbling about him behind his back.

Chapter 5, verse 21 and 22,

they questioned in their hearts

when Jesus had healed a paralyzed man.

Chapter 5, verse 30,

they grumbled at his disciples

when Jesus went to Levi, the tax collector's house.

Chapter 6, verse 7,

they watched Jesus to find a reason to accuse him.

Chapter 10, verse 25 and 29,

one of them tested Jesus wanting to justify himself.

So, after forbearing with them for quite some time,

Jesus here calls them out in no uncertain terms.

You see, it's important to realize

Jesus was not just spouting angry rhetoric

against a group of people that he was ignorant of

and hadn't bothered to interact with.

There's plenty of that out in the world today,

and it doesn't please the Lord.

Neither was Jesus simply complaining

about the Pharisees behind their back.

There's also plenty of complaining behind people's backs

in our world today as well.

It is cowardly and counterproductive

to complain about someone behind their back

and refuse to address your concerns to their face.

The Pharisees questioned in their hearts

and grumbled behind Jesus' back.

Jesus challenged the Pharisees to their face,

straightforwardly, directly.

He didn't say what they wanted to hear.

He said what they needed to hear,

and in doing so, he honored their humanity

and gave them an opportunity to change.

You see, Jesus was speaking not as a cynical outsider,

but as a committed insider.

He was calling out the tragic flaws

of his very own people,

calling them to change before it would be too late.

And in this way, Jesus was like many

of the Old Testament prophets.

We read earlier from Isaiah.

But the 8th century prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah,

these prophets all warned the people of Israel

that for generations God had been patient,

and God had not brought the punishment upon them

that they had deserved.

But these prophets warned that if they continued

to persist in their wicked ways,

that God would bring a terrible catastrophe,

exile, and death upon the nation as a whole.

And Jesus gives a very similar warning

in verses 47 to 51.

Sadly, what we see at the end of the chapter

is that the Pharisees and scribes

do not take Jesus' warning and rebuke to heart.

They only become more hostile,

more intent on hunting him down.

So that's Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees and the scribes.

But the second point I want us to consider

is Jesus' warning to beware of hypocrisy.

You know, it's tempting to think that hypocrisy

is only somewhere out there.

Some other people,

some other kind of church,

some other religion,

some group with a different political affiliation.

If you're a secular person,

you might be tempted to think that hypocrisy

is only a religious thing.

I think hypocrisy is a human problem.

It affects us all.

In chapter 12, verse 1,

Jesus said to his disciples,

beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,

which is hypocrisy.

You see, Jesus did not only confront the Pharisees,

he also warned his own disciples

that they too were vulnerable

to the danger of falling into hypocrisy.

He said it's like leaven,

like yeast,

that can creep into a batch of dough.

And at first, it's so small

that you can hardly notice it

when it's mixed in with the flour.

And only gradually over time

does it become more and more pervasive,

puffing up the whole loaf of bread.

It adds,

it doesn't add any substance.

It only changes the appearance.

Jesus says hypocrisy is like that.

It can creep in unnoticed at first,

under the radar,

under the surface,

and only over time

it corrupts everything.

Today we might say hypocrisy

is like a virus.

So small that you can't even see it,

but capable of making

an entire body sick.

And then spreading it

to an entire family.

Right?

Most of us have had sickness

running through our families

in the last month or two.

We can go with that's like.

So here's the question

we need to ask.

In what specific ways

have we allowed

or are we prone to allow

the virus of hypocrisy

to attach itself to our system?

Individually

and as a church.

Let me point out some ways

that it can begin

to take root inside us,

to puff us up,

to infect us

without us even realizing it.

One,

when we value appearances

more than reality.

Verse 39 and 40.

Some of you have told me

about churches

that you have,

where you have walked in

and people have judged you

by the clothes

that you are wearing.

And you immediately felt

like you didn't belong.

I don't think that's our main problem

here at Trinity.

But I will tell you this.

Over the years,

many people have come to me

and said something like this.

I look around the church

and everyone else in the church

seems so perfect

and I'm a mess.

If I had a dollar

for every time somebody

had said that to me,

I could take my wife out

to a really nice dinner.

So if you feel that way,

you're not alone.

Are we afraid to be honest

about our brokenness,

our disordered desires,

our besetting sins

because we're so concerned

with trying to hold together

a good appearance

because we're afraid

of the shame?

Two.

When we make God's law

into a checklist.

Verse 42.

According to Jesus,

the basics of godly living

are justice.

Now, that's not just

the narrow sense of justice

as punishing, wrongdoing,

but the broad sense of justice

that we see throughout the Bible

of seeking to make things

in this world right

and whole and good

and in line with God's design.

Justice and the love of God.

Or as Jesus says in another place,

loving your neighbor as yourself

and loving God above all else.

These are the most important

commands of God

and they are all encompassing principles

that apply to every aspect of life.

There is no aspect of life

that those principles

are not relevant to.

And there are also commands

that are intended to humble us

when we take them seriously.

If you earnestly examine

every thought that you dwell on,

every word that you say,

every action that you carry out

from the time you wake up

in the morning

until the time you fall asleep

at night

and ask yourself these questions,

is the love of God

the driving force

behind all that I think,

say, and do?

And do my interactions

and relationships

and attitudes

toward other human beings

reflect a sincere desire for

and an earnest pursuit

of justice,

truth,

wholeness,

and peace.

You know,

if you take these standards seriously

and if you look at your life honestly,

I guarantee that you will be humbled

because you will begin to see

how far short you fall

every single day.

For me,

this truth hit home

when I got married.

Before I got married,

I thought I was mostly unselfish

and servant-hearted.

And then I promised

to love and cherish

just one person

in the world

without any qualifications

until death do us part

and my illusions about myself

began to be severely challenged.

It's part of what marriage

is meant to do.

It's meant to humble us

to be a mirror

that reveals

the darkest depths

of our own soul

even as it's also meant

to be a window

into the steadfast love

and kindness

of God.

You see,

the problem with the Pharisees

is that instead of focusing

on the big picture

of God's law

and being humbled by it,

they fixated on minor details

that weren't even commanded

in God's law

like tithing their herbs

and washing their hands.

And they took pride

in precisely fulfilling them.

They made the law of God

into a checklist

and prided themselves

on being able

to tick off

all the boxes.

Are we prone to that

in one way or another?

Three.

When we think we're generous

but actually we're not.

Verse 39 and 42.

In a 2016 survey,

70% of millennials

said they were very

or somewhat generous.

In the same survey,

84% of millennials

reported giving away

$50 or less

in the past year.

On average,

Americans today

give away 3%

of their income.

The percentage was higher

during the Great Depression.

And even today,

the percentage people give

generally decreases

as income increases.

We are very prone

to self-deception

in this area.

So much that we hardly notice it.

The Pharisees tithed.

That is,

they gave 10%

as the Old Testament

required.

Some of it was used

to support the priests

in the temple

who taught the people.

Some of it was used

to care for the poor

in the land,

the orphans,

and the widows,

and the foreigners.

The Pharisees even made sure

to tithe from their herbs.

Sort of like if you calculate

how much your employer

contributes toward

your life insurance premiums

and make sure to tithe

on that too.

But Jesus said in verse 39

that even though

they tithed scrupulously,

they were full of greed

and wickedness.

For some of you,

tithing 10% of your paycheck

is a great sacrifice.

It's a weekly

or monthly act

of trusting God

by resolving to give Him

your first and best

and finding a way

to get by on the rest

without irresponsibly

going into debt.

But for some people,

you can give away

10% of your income

pre-tax

without really being generous,

let alone sacrificial.

God has entrusted you

with more,

yes,

so that you can enjoy

some of it

and give thanks to Him

for it

and not always feel guilty

about that.

There is a wrong

kind of guilt there.

But also so that

you can joyfully share it

and invest it

in something

other than yourself.

invest it

in the kingdom of God.

Four,

when we love praise

and shut down criticism.

Verse 43

and verses 53 and 54.

One of the biggest challenges

I have found

in being a pastor

is guarding my heart

through both praise

and criticism.

I think we can fall

into at least three dangers

when people criticize us.

One,

being crushed by criticism

and falling into despair.

Two,

being fearful

and anxious of it

and falling into cowardice.

And three,

what the Pharisees do here

is becoming hardened

against it

and falling into pride.

criticism,

whether it's well-intentioned

or not

and whether it's

on target or not,

can expose

some of the idols

in our hearts

pretty quickly.

And so can praise

in a different way.

I've been reading

a book by Eugene Peterson

recently

and he wrote this

in a letter

to a fellow pastor.

Classically,

he wrote,

there are three ways

in which humans

try to find transcendence

apart from God

as revealed

in the cross of Jesus.

Through the ecstasy

of alcohol and drugs,

through the ecstasy

of recreational sex,

through the ecstasy

of crowds.

Church leaders

frequently warn

against the drugs

and the sex,

but at least in America

almost never

against the crowds.

Probably because

they get so much

ego benefit

from the crowds.

Jesus is surrounded

by crowds here.

So many thousands

of the people

had gathered together

that they were

trampling one another.

And Jesus taught

the crowds.

He didn't reject them.

He didn't despise them.

But he didn't chase them either.

He didn't live

for the praise

of human beings,

but for the praise

of God.

There are other

manifestations of hypocrisy

we could point out

from this list.

When we become

quick to criticize

others and slow

to help them,

verse 46.

When we admire

courageous prophets

of old,

but reject those

who courageously

challenge us

with biblical truths

in the present day,

verses 47

to 51.

Or finally,

when we lack

self-awareness

and harm others

as a result,

verse 52.

I don't think

the Pharisees

and scribes

set out

to be hypocrites.

We have no evidence

that they thought

of themselves

in that way

or that they were

malicious.

That they conspired

together

and were maliciously

intent on misleading

the people.

No,

they diligently

studied the Scriptures.

They carefully

debated matters

of theology.

They zealously

instructed others

in the law,

but their hypocrisy

distorted

their self-perception.

And in verse 44,

Jesus calls the Pharisees

like unmarked graves.

That is,

people would walk

over them

without realizing it

and become unclean

as a result.

Jesus was saying,

you're like a doctor

who's spreading

the plague

to all of his patients

without even realizing it.

You see,

our fallenness

in general

and hypocrisy

in particular

makes us unable

to perceive

ourselves rightly.

It makes us blind

to our own flaws

and offenses

and oblivious

to the ways

that we hurt

and offend others.

That's why hypocrisy

is so dangerous.

It's not just

somewhere out there.

It's right here.

It's within us

and among us.

And Jesus says,

we must beware

of it.

That's his second point.

But third and finally,

in chapter 12,

Jesus points us

to a remedy

to counteract

hypocrisy.

Chapter 12,

verses 2 to 12,

Jesus teaches us

to do two things

in order to counteract

the infectious nature

of hypocrisy.

First,

Jesus teaches us

to fear

the God

from whom

no secrets

are hid.

Verses 2 to 5

and verses 9 to 10.

Jesus says,

one day,

everything

that is currently

hidden

will be made known.

Everything

whispered in secret

will be shouted

from the rooftops.

Hebrews 4, 13

says,

nothing in all creation

is hidden

from God's sight.

Everything

is uncovered

and laid bare

before the eyes

of Him

to whom

we must

give an account.

Sooner or later,

all the facades

will come

crashing down.

All the masks

will fall off.

All the pretenses

will be taken away.

We will all stand

before God.

There will be

no running,

no hiding,

no minimizing

or blaming,

no clever rationales

and no flimsy excuses.

You can fool

other people,

you can even

fool yourself,

but you can't

fool God.

Jesus says in

verse 5,

fear God

who has authority

to cast into hell.

You see,

hypocrisy

is not just

an annoyance.

It's not just

a human foible

that we can sort of

mock and laugh at.

It is not only

something that is

at times

deeply damaging

to other human beings.

More than anything else,

hypocrisy

is at its root

and offense

against the God

of truth

and light

who made us.

some of you

are parents.

Think about

how you would feel

if you came

to the realization

that for years

your child

was living

a double life,

engaging

in some dishonorable

and destructive behavior

all the while

pretending

and appearing

to be loyal

and obedient.

be furious

and at the same time

you'd be heartbroken.

Furious

that they would

disrespect you

and think they could

pull the wool

over your eyes

and at the same time

heartbroken

that they wouldn't

trust you

and open up to you

and ask you for help.

That's only

a tiny picture

of how God

feels

when he sees

his creatures

and his very own

children

who bear

the name

of Jesus

living in hypocrisy.

Jesus teaches us

to fear

the God

from whom

no secrets

are hid.

But second,

in this very same

section,

Jesus teaches us

to trust

the God

whose grace

is always

sufficient.

Verses 6 to 8

and 11

and 12.

Right after

Jesus admonishes

his disciples

to fear God,

the righteous judge

in verse 5,

he immediately

goes on to remind

them in verse 6

that this very

same God

is also

a merciful

Father

that you

can trust.

And he has

promised to look

after us,

never to forget us,

never to forsake us.

He values us

highly,

so highly

that he was

willing to send

his one and only

son to rescue us

and bring us

home.

And look at the

promise in verse 8,

for all who publicly

confess,

who acknowledge

Jesus on earth,

the son has

promised that he

will publicly

acknowledge you

in the court

of heaven.

And finally,

verse 11 and 12,

Jesus promises

his disciples

that when they're

persecuted

and put on trial,

when they face

opposition and

intimidation,

beyond what they

can bear,

the Holy Spirit

will teach you

in that hour

what you ought

to say.

In other words,

the grace of God,

Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit

is always sufficient

for those who

trust him.

You see here

how fearing

and trusting God

are not presented

as opposites.

They're presented

as two sides

of the same coin.

Verses 4 and 5

talk about

fearing God the Father,

verses 6 and 7

talk about

trusting God the Father.

Verse 8

talks about

trusting Jesus.

Verse 9

talks about

fearing Jesus.

Verse 11

warns us to fear

the Holy Spirit.

Verses 11 to 12

tells us to trust

the Holy Spirit.

You see,

in order to really

root out hypocrisy

from our lives,

we need to both

fear and trust

the God who is

both holy

and loving.

God is

uncompromisingly

holy,

committed to truth

and righteousness,

and yet he is

unfailing love.

And extends

grace and

forgiveness

to us.

The Bible

says we're

more deeply

flawed and sinful

than we ever

dare to admit.

We better fear

the God

who is holy.

But the Bible

also says

that God

sent his son,

Jesus Christ,

and that on the cross

he took

our sin

upon himself

so that our sin

would be dealt

with,

so that we

could be accepted.

So the Bible

says through

Jesus Christ

we are more

loved and accepted

than we ever

dared to hope.

We're not only

more flawed

and sinful

than we ever

dared to admit,

but in Christ

we can also

be more

loved and

accepted by God

than we ever

dared hope

on our own.

We can trust

him.

Let us pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Father,

you are the God

who sees and knows.

You are the God

of truth and righteousness.

We praise you.

We want to live in

a reverential fear

of you.

And yet we thank you

that you sent your son

into the world

to save sinners.

Oh God,

as we

look at you

in your holiness

and as we see

your mercy

and grace,

would you break

the grip

of hypocrisy

on our hearts

and lives

that we might live

genuinely,

truthfully,

honestly,

before you

and before one another.

We pray that you

would continue

to shape us

into a church

that reflects

your truth

and your grace.

That we would be

committed not to

just one of those,

but to both of those.

That we would

be shaped

by the fullness

of your character,

your holiness

and your love.

We pray all these things

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.