Benito Carbone - Wholeheartedly: The Shema | 12:01:2025 1

well welcome to church this morning my

name's I am the pastor here and this is

your first time

welcome you've been here for a while

welcome

to2 I missed the picnic last week been

so thr me into pre first week back it's

actually pretty ex if someone's got

theck the bring it up I don't know

wherever but we'll get into it

2025 it's a time of renewal as we've

been talking about has been a

message that's been communicated a

little bit at Church online on Church

Facebook but we really believe that 2025

can be a time where our Spirits are

renewed in our lives see renal in our

our own lives families in those that we

um in the lives of those that we care

about

and really really simply renewal starts

to take place when we put Jesus first in

all that we do it's really simple that's

this idea of wholeheartedly January

that's this idea of wholeheartedly

following Jesus so I think to start the

year let's dig into how we can live

wholeheartedly how does that sound cool

now I'm going to pray and get into

it father we thank you for this morning

we thank you for the fact we could GA

together again what a joy it is to be in

your

presence as a community of of people

worship you as your church just pray

that you give me the words and and the

strength to communicate what you want to

say I just pray that yeah this morning

is a really special time your name we

pray amen amen so I

think sometimes when we talk about this

idea ofed throw it around quite a lot at

church but I think we take it at just

space b as meaning with our whole Hearts

we throw around the word so much in

church so why do we struggle to live out

of that conviction sometimes I think a

deeper understanding might help us to

live it out truly but before I start I

just want to I've been driving to the

church this morning in the worship it's

just been this message again and again

of just how much we need and that has to

be the starting point

word about wholeheartedness it starts

with needing God we get back to that at

the

end but and I want to give a chance

later today at the end of this to to

reaffirm that commitment to to follow

God with our whole Hearts to follow God

whole heartly so I just thought maybe

let's approach it thoughtfully before

taking that first

step that step this year into committing

to yeah giving God your whole

heart um we're gonna go way back into

ancient

Israel all right it's on um Dropbox if

you can find anyway we're gonna go

without it for a second

um assum these things happen right I've

been away a

mon my bad all right so we're gonna go

back to Asian Israel we're going to go

back three 3,000 odd 4,000 years to

pretty much um very close to start of

the Old Testament where you have these

Israelites who are trying to follow this

God they've escaped Egypt um they're

walking in the wilderness in this desert

and they're trying to figure out how to

live out their lives well how to follow

God um and perhaps it's going well

perhaps it's not this if you read

through like Exodus and the early books

of the Bible you see that there are

quite a few ups and downs and and the

UPS are quite amazing like God a red sea

and and the Israelites walk through it

and Escape Egypt and the lows are quite

profoundly bad where where thousands of

people are struck down so they don't get

it quite right but in Deuteronomy

there's this beautiful prayer it's

called the Shamar and um it's this

prayer and I I'll run through some quick

some quick facts but the sh shamay is

taught by Moses before he died to the

Israelites in the wilderness it's in

this book of Deuteronomy um it's called

the Great commandment it's the Comm God

instructed Moses with to teach to those

entering the promised land all the law

all the writings of Exodus Leviticus

Numbers The Ten Commandments all of it

boiled down to this commandment and I

wanted to surprise you with it but it's

up there already um it's a be it's a

short but beautifully put prayer um and

it goes like this here oh Israel the

Lord Is Our God the Lord alone you shall

love the Lord your God with all your

heart and with all your soul and with

all your strength

Shamar has been taught across

generations of Jews to be prayed morning

and night um some Jews still pray it to

this day and this this beautiful prayer

said by Moses which just remember Moses

was the one who at the burning bush said

to God I can't speak well I don't have

it in me I can't lead the Israelites and

and he is the one who delivered this

this beautifully put prayer who which we

don't even get to see the full like

measure of how how well it's worded

because we speaking in English and in

the Hebrew it draws out even more

understanding but just take that as an

encouragement to not limit God in your

own life and and what he could do when

you don't feel like you're good

enough so I'll read it one more time

here oh Israel the Lord Is Our God the

Lord alone you shall love the Lord your

God with all your heart with all your

soul and with all your

strength so there you have it that is

wholehearted living um and Jesus in in

Matthew 22 teach that all of scripture

hangs on this command to love God with

all our heart soul and strength Jesus

also teaches that one um one there's one

other command that all of scripture

hangs on after loving God with all your

hearts soul and strength which is anyone

know love your neighbor oh you guys are

awesome we're sharp at the start of this

year it's good all right so without

wholehearted love for God the rest of

scripture has no point um the Shamar is

the first and greatest commandment um

but without it the rest of it I don't

think adds up I would argue there's no

point in even trying to understand the

Bible unless wholehearted love for God

is the goal God is love he loves his

people and asks us in return to love him

as number one with all your heart and

all your soul and all your might even

loving your neighbor has no point

without this Covenant and you might see

these days online and in different

places people who break down the Bible

and anal beautiful book and there's so

much meaning drawn out of it but they

don't analyze it from a perspective of

of this of this teaching of of of what

all the scripture hangs upon which is to

love God with all the heart soul and

strength and I just um just to be wary

that to those people who perhaps aren't

coming from that perspective of loving

God because it can lead them astray but

let's look a bit more closely at these

three terms heart soul and strength

because I think there's a bit of meaning

we can draw

out and I'll just start first word in

this sh here before here Israel um is

there's a lot more going on than just

here it doesn't communicate in English

the measure of the word as it's meant to

be um understood in Hebrew and it just

gets a bit lost so I want to jump into

it so this word here in the Hebrew it's

Shar uh it's shama everyone says shama

great it shows up 1,159 times the Bible

just so you know so it's said quite a

lot and it quite simply means to hear to

listen to or to obey in ancient Jewish

language um fascinatingly enough in

ancient Hebrew there's no separate word

for aate there's no separate word to

carry out the wishes of someone to

listen and to act to listen and to obey

were two sides of the same coin it's not

some passive hearing and not responding

this isn't someone telling you to do the

dishes while tiing is on if you watch

that game

show it's ridiculous show it draws you

in I tell

you uh to hear is to listen and respond

to hear takes effort and action remember

that whenever you see the word here in

the Old Testament it's a God command

it's not a human option don't just hear

pay attention focus respond so here when

you're seeing that at the start just

remember that when into the rest of

these so heart the next word that I want

to look at the first word of these three

heart soul and strength the Hebrew word

is laab everyone say laab sounds a bit

like a heartbeat right laab laab anyway

I don't know um that'll help you

remember it right um it stands for heart

understanding or mind and traditionally

speaks uh traditionally in the Bible

speaks of three parts of us our thoughts

our minds our emotions our feelings and

our will also known as desires or our

choices um this sometimes includes the

material part of us the physical as well

but you have to think of the heart as

not just our feelings but as our

thoughts and our like our mind and our

will like as our desires or our choices

it's not um written in the Bible in the

same way we understand it in the modern

context when we talk about following

your heart and having a heart after God

things like that um the Israelites did

not have a sophisticated understanding

of human anatomy

um and that is something we very much

take for granted you can imagine back

4,000 years ago how mysterious some

parts of the human anatomy would be like

take the brain you're pulling that apart

as a as a surgeon or whatever they had

back then you just have no clue how

things work to be honest so just think

about this really simply anatomically

just as the heart pumps blood to all the

parts of the human body the heart was

understood as the center of all parts of

human existence

everything inside of us so to love God

with all a heart is to love God with

everything inside of us that's heart

let's look at Soul Hebrew word for soul

is nefesh everyone say

nefesh thank you um it stands for soul

self life creature person living being

it's used to refer to the whole person

or the whole creature you don't have in

the flesh you are in the flesh you are a

soul nefes is your whole physical

existence your life force and physical

being all that we are and we get lost in

this sometimes because Greek philosophy

teaches that soul and body are two

separate things and this is something

that came straight after the Bible and

influenced a lot of schools of thought

even in the early church so you end and

and in modern day you think of um

teachers like Plato and Aristotle and

and the impact they had on on all sorts

of philosophy so we have this um this

conf where Greek philosophy says that

soul and body are separate but ancient

Hebrew understanding believed that Soul

was the whole physical existence and

regardless of what you believe um you

have to read the Bible in that ancient

Hebrew perspective so soul is your whole

physical existence and quite similarly

to Heart how heart is seen anatomically

as um the center of all of human

existence Soul actually translates

closely to throat um and if you think

really simply anatomically as we'll do

for the last time today uh breath enters

in and out of the throat food enters in

and out of the throat we speak in and

out of the throat so without a deeper

understanding of what's going on inside

just as the heart was seen as the center

of human existence the ancient

Israelites saw the throat as the

expression of living the um a coming and

going of each part of our being

everything is kind of the the Gateway I

don't know how you want to see it but

see it as as part of

ourselves so to love God with all your

soul is to love God with all your being

everything that you have so let's look

at strength as well strength it looks a

bit funny here but it's May everyone say

may may put a bit of mustard on that it

Mayo Mayo all

right stands for strength or might or

muchness or force or abundance it also

is used actually it's most often the

used as an adverb um an adverb is

a that's a

verb what's an adverb

guys describing a verb there we go

yeah there you go but that was that was

always the one I forgot in school so I

don't blame you guys um but

interestingly it's most often used as an

adverb so if you think of Genesis when

God created the world um he looked at

his creation and saw it was very good

the word for very there is May um but

use as a noun to articulate just how

much you are to love the Lord so with

with all your strength to love God with

all our might is to love him with the

full extent of what we have all of our

like muchness all that we have and that

doesn't just involve like like all of

our effort but it's like love him with

everything that we have so every moment

every opportunity with all our ability

with all our

capacity so as we get to a summary here

here these three terms heart soul and

strength are not written alongside each

other as some um as some way to

understand like how the human functions

but together they it poetically command

a person to love God with their whole

selves with all the different parts of

you there's only one way to follow God

that is with every fiber of your

being all of your

intentions all that you are and all that

you have to give that's the Shar

and it's very cool but perhaps it

doesn't tell us um so much about why we

struggle to follow this command God

gives us to follow him wholeheartedly it

tells us what to do but not so much why

we so bad at doing it so let's dial in

to Hearts because this is what we're

talking about when we speak of

wholeheartedness and I think it's really

something interesting to draw out of the

ancient understanding of heart that we

miss in modern

culture because as I said before our

modern understanding of heart revolves

predominantly around emotions we follow

our hearts we have a heart for

others Etc but what God is asking of us

is more than just our emotions feelings

are a good start but they're not enough

God doesn't ask us for just our

feelings if the understanding of heart

also meant our thoughts and our

intentions it changes how we try to be

hard we can't just throw our passion

into it passion is great but it's not a

reliable source of of energy like for

example I love youth ministry but I

can't say I'm passionate about cleaning

or discipline and I'll quickly lose

heart if I'm driven by Passion alone and

we get some fun times at youth I was

cleaning the toilet a couple years ago

and I found a full meat pie in there

that was pretty cool had to scoot that

out and that was fun but cleaning not

that fun

so um and those who know me know I

absolutely uh do not oh I mean

traditionally I hated telling youth off

i' let them get away with too much and

I've had to learn to actually be

disciplined um and and

and give consequences when they needed

but um it's not something that's been

traditionally easy for me or fun

so even though we can't be driven by

Passion alone at the same time following

God with my mind is not enough either if

it's all intellect and thought and not

grounded in our choices and how we feel

this also leads to a conflict in

ourselves a disagreement like for

example I I really struggle with ending

up too intellectual sometimes um I feel

like sometimes I get up here at the

front and I'm preaching sermons and it's

a bit of a head exercise where I I spend

a bunch of hours preparing before

sharing for 30 minutes with you all

talking about words and tossing up ideas

and there's an element of almost

procrastinating going and living it out

because action is far more scary than

just talking about it like we could sit

here and talk about God for ages but

without the action side of it without

the response at the end of it often

enough we will just end up with God in

our heads and not anywhere else and not

out in the community around us so we

need to act and make choices too but

choices alone you guest falling short

too too often in church we act every

week we show up to church we help out we

serve because it's the dumb thing maybe

it once had purpose but it slowly

withered away after a few years of

monotonous patterns and I don't know if

this is going to play we're gonna give

it a go I've got here it's actually a

video um but I don't know if it'll play

anyway you can see a cow I went to a

Dairy when I was on the honeymoon with

Emily feels pretty good uh it's called

PE gner Dair man on the East Coast p and

means means the coming together of two

rivers or

something ni that's terrible anyway

um yeah so I will describe that in a sec

but the idea of Pana it was the first

dairy in Australia to have um automated

milking of cows so these cows would go

into this yard um these dairy cows would

walk through they would see um a little

Gap that they'd walk into and then a

machine would come use lasers to to

figure out where the ERS were um latch

on and milk the cow for however long was

needed they could get milked up to three

times a day and then once they were done

they were able to walk out uh eat some

food as a bit of a treat get a back

scratch that thing on top of it is like

a a rotating um like car wash sort of

thing that just scratches scratches

their which is really lovely so they get

a bit of a Trea and what these cows end

up doing is times a day they will walk

around the precincts walk into the dairy

the the yard they would try and do it

more but they have tags on them that

stop them from going through more than

three times but they just their life

revolves around walking uh into the

cattle yard getting milked walking back

out sitting in the plane for a little

bit and walking and getting milked and

then walking out and then it's um it's

really interesting how these cows have

just got this programmed way of living

but times I think church can be a little

bit like that especially on a Sunday

morning which is not just church itself

but um we end up just coming and going

and and getting through the week and

coming and going and getting through the

week and if that's faith I don't really

want to be a part of it I got to be

honest with you um if we act on the

basis of of just cause that's not what

God is asking of us either and

eventually you probably get sick of it

and and leave anyway faith has to be

more than that talk about following

Jesus's journey and this adventure and

that's because every day of following

God should be different every day is a

different challenge it's a different

opportunity to love someone it's a

different chance to bring his kingdom

into this world and that's a huge

opportunity and a huge blessing and

privilege to be a part

of

so bring it back our heart biblically

speaking is made up of our feelings our

minds and our choices to be is to bring

all three together for one thing to

follow him it's the greatest Journey

it's the greatest challenge it's the

most

lifegiving commitment a person can make

and we're in here in this first service

in this building of 20125 and gathered

together to worship god with um hearts

and souls and minds and um it's we're

talking about 2025 as a real opportunity

for Renewal and renewal as we said to

take place when we put Jesus first in

all that we do and I reckon 90% of

people in this room would say yeah

Bonito I'm going to put God first this

year I feel like that's the intention I

feel like if I talk to people if they

have any business being part of this

community called the church it's kind of

what we're here to do we're here to seek

God

wholeheartedly but if I can reflect on

example of our lives and my own and

those around me our motivations and our

intentions so of don't become our

reality and it's not that we don't try

it's that that we

fail it's like there's a conflict in our

hearts and it's really interesting

because um just quickly the Bible speaks

of the heart in so many different ways

you talk um there's a proverb that talks

about guarding your heart for it's where

Life Starts and Jeremiah says that the

heart is dangerous he says that the

heart is deceitful Above All Things who

can understand

it but

conflict of our hearts that we so often

experience in this broken World in this

world that we have

sinned maybe we can understand what

causes us to stumble when we try again

this year maybe just maybe we can do a

little bit better and a really good

analogy of how this plays out it's

actually in the parable of the S so I'm

going to jump to Matthew um Jesus is

teaching Parable here to his followers

and um this Parable is written as an

example of the different responses to

hearing the gospel but I firmly believe

that in the same way the conditions of

our hearts continue to shape how you

receive Jesus and respond to him and

Jesus explains this himself soon after

so let's read it

here sorry thank you all right so the s

that same day Jesus went out of the

house and sat by the lake such large

crowds gathered around him that he got

into a boat and sat in it while all the

people stood on the shore then he told

them many things in Parable saying a

farmer went out to sew his seed as he

was scattering the seed some fell along

the path the birds came and ate it up

some fell on Rocky places where it did

not have much soil it sprang up quickly

because the soil was shallow but when

the sun came up plants were scorched and

they withered because they had no root

other the seed fell among Thorns which

grew up and choke the plants

other seed fell on good soil Where It

produced a crop 160 or 30 times what was

sewn Whoever has ears let them

he now just so we're clear the condition

of the soil in this Parable refers to

the condition of our

hearts and we have four examples of

conditions of soil and um and what ends

up happening when the seed is is is

scattered the seed being the message of

of of Jesus the kingdom of heaven so the

first one obviously when um and Jesus

I'll actually read it how Jesus explains

it a bit later on which he was so kind

to do because it's nice that we get a

clear interpretation from Jesus himself

about what this Parable means but it

says when anyone hears the message about

the kingdom and does not understand it

the evil one comes and snatches away

what was sewn in their heart this is the

seed sewn along the path and some people

hear the message of of the Kingdom but

don't let it penetrate their hearts they

are like the hard earthy path and the

seed get snatched away and these are

those who hear about Jesus and do

nothing and nothing changes in their

hearts some pretty pretty black and

white the second example is a bit more

is a bit more layered and Jesus says the

seed falling on Rocky ground refers to

someone who hears the word and at once

receives it with joy but since they have

no root they last only a short time

trouble or persecution comes because of

the world they quickly Fall Away some

people hear the good news and receive it

with joy we see it all the time but the

root and the depth and the

thoughtfulness isn't there like the sun

external pressures wither away their

faith and um in the context of of what

we're talking about today these are

people who hear the word and receive it

but perhaps it's all feelings and

emotions and it's not there's no there's

no depth to it

feelings are great don't get me wrong we

have to feel deeply in order to live

well but here is a warning from Jesus

that how we feel has to lead to more

when our head and our heart figuratively

speaking is in sync it plays out in the

choices that we make each

day and we that brings us to the third

example the seed um falling on the

thorns and Jesus says the seed falling

on the Thorns refers to someone word but

the worries of life and the

deceitfulness of wealth CH the world

making it

unfruitful and in context I think it

simply means these some people discover

Jesus but never allow the call to follow

him to take hold in their life and as

the priority of their life the Warriors

and commitments of life and the

temptation to put other things above God

wins out ultimately

just another side note Jesus uses this

word deceitfulness and just so we clear

here if someone is deceived that person

does not know it so take note that these

Thorns are subtle and silent and we

could all be facing them and we could

all be experiencing them in our own

lives even when we don't know it seed

falling among the Thorns refers to

someone who hears the word but the

Warriors of life and the deceitfulness

of wealth choke the word making it

unfruitful that person does not reject

the word that person does not not

believe that Jesus is Lord but that

person does not Place Jesus on the

throne of their hearts that person does

not make Jesus the priority of their

lives and when you don't do that

everything else is going to BU for that

priority on your life and it's

ultimately going to choke the faith that

you did

have so often we don't put God first

because quite frankly we do not shape

our lives in a way that puts him first

maybe it's and what I mean by that is

perhaps your lifestyle is built in such

a way that it is impossible to put God

first without changing a few things

maybe you're just distracted maybe

there's too many other things going on

and you're not putting God first and

let's be real even when we've created a

lifestyle that allows us to seek God

wholeheartedly and our choices match our

intentions and everything should be

great we fail to do

so why because maybe there's a part of

us that simply just doesn't want to

we're trapped by another snag the worst

of them all and that is sin plain and

simple sin that this part of us like we

all have sin and this part of us doesn't

want us to have our choices defined by

what brings us closer to God's will for

our lives is part of us wants control

the sinful side of us Wants to Rule our

lives and that's why we will always fail

because there is no way to break out of

sin in this world

but there's good news and that good news

is that the farmer never stops

scattering

seed for as long as this Earth keeps

turning the father never stops loving us

with his whole being and so long as he

loves us there will be opportunity it

will be Revelation it'll be a chance to

do things over so have hope the farmer

remains scattering seed no matter the

condition of the soil offering himself

no matter the state of our hearts his

love for us is equal and

unmeasurable so we have this fourth

example of soil and just remember that

there are those who receive the seed and

understand it with open hearts and in

this version of the story of the parable

of the sorus in mark it says that they

hear the word and accept it this is the

shama this is listening and hearing and

obeying with all your being emotions

mind and will

but let's talk about how this plays out

in our lives

ourselves who's responsible with money

here those close to me will know that

I'm not um but I do really try I really

try um and what's the first step to

trying to save

money after admitting you have an

issue mom said marrying Emily it's

actually pretty good um a budget is what

I was gonna say so once you've decided

you're sick of leaving paycheck to

paycheck and you want to figure things

out a budget is a Savvy First Step take

stock of the bigger picture of your life

and and move things around to make it

easier to manage and save money and I

would say that's us engaging our minds

engaging our our thoughts to help us

save money using Our Brands um but who

knows that making a budget alone does

not stop the issue if you really want to

spend money you will spend money I've

learned that

numbers on a page Aren't Enough

day-to-day choices are required of you

choosing not to get Milo cereal even

though it's un

special that's Emily sorry um resisting

the three for three for10 deal on

chocolate blocks um yeah if you've made

it this far and you've managed to make a

budget and you've cut out the bad

choices honestly credit to you you're

you're doing a great job this is us Mak

in choices to save money but who has

made it a few days into a commitment

like this before throwing it away not

because of some need to spend money but

purely because you felt like it we

couldn't control our desire to buy

something it's hilarious how many times

I've made the intentional decision to

save money eat healthier make my own

lunch avoid the cafe skip the

Panini only to use that choice to

justify getting pizza the same night

I'll say to M I'm so stoked we cook

dinner tonight instead of going out want

to go get ice

cream in the same

sentence I think this is us letting our

emotions decide what we

do see wholehearted living requires all

aspects of our being to work together

single-mindedness so choosing to eat

more healthily or be more responsible

with money these are Lifestyles will

quickly look to prioritize but just

choosing to prioritize them and even

making the necessary changes to

accommodate them to accommodate these

priorities it doesn't often stop us from

failing to live them out um sin and

Brokenness are actually not easy

obstacles at all and that's okay because

there's good news the good news the seed

is that we have the Savior ready to help

us I might get the band back up because

we we spend some more time in worship

today and I really think it's important

for us start the year but something I am

learning lately and I've learned this

morning and I've learned for like every

time I go back to God and talk to him is

the importance of having a really deep

understanding of just how much we need

Jesus the first purpose of the Shamar

was for the Israelites to acknowledge

the Lord Yahweh as their God their deity

their creator their

sustainer and the one that they depend

upon the Lord Is Our God until our need

for him in all that we

do and discover an urgency and a

desperation to know him who will always

struggle to follow Jesus well and put

him

first there you never get to a point in

life where you don't need God like you

used to you never get to a point in life

where you and God are kind of peers

sitting at a lunch table talking about

the world together we're never equals

with God we never get to a point where

we're like oh thanks God for helping me

out there I'm I'm doing good now I don't

need you the same way as I did before

and so often we actually believe that

lie that that we we need that we've

God's helped us and then one morning we

wake up and we feel like we're doing

pretty well ourselves we don't need God

but it's not

true we need God in every step of our

journey I truly believe that in order to

follow Jesus whole heartedly we have to

accept that we wholeheartedly need Jesus

in every

way when we recognize our Brokenness and

our need and offer this to God he can

work with

it what's the point of a pudget if

you're in denial of needing

it we are all broken and we all live in

a broken world so often when we fail we

feel unlovable

worthless incapable we

cowardly we've all been there and sin

prays on these feelings by tempting us

with a temporary Escape an alternative

to following Jesus's way but these

escapes Don't Last Only Jesus can free

us permanently and how would argue that

even when like there are moments where

we fail and we see we need God but what

about the moments that we don't fail and

we still need God every

t i s sat here this morning driving to

church just blown away

by the amount that I just relied on God

even to prepare this message we need God

to follow God we need God um before we

can actually take this step to

wholeheartedly follow

him and in that when we recognize our

need for God when we choose to seek

Jesus sin will do whatever it t whatever

it can to stop Jesus to stop ask from

seeking Jesus

wholeheartedly the Thorns will try to

choke the will Scorch us the rocks will

prevent his word from taking root and

from us from having good soil but in

good soil God can reveal and God Can

Transform so to offer God our whole self

is to not only hand him our broken self

at the altar which we might do

today and to offer God our whole self is

to not hand him The Smiling front that

we show everyone else it's our it's all

that we are it's our broken tired being

it's the person who sees the joys of

life and celebrates with those

around whole hearted commitment to God

is all of

this so let's bow our heads this

morning today if you want to prioritize

Jesus

wholeheartedly let's start at the bottom

let's start by taking a moment to reveal

to yourself how much you need God

we all need him all the Brokenness

inside all the suffering you're

facing perhaps just in the regular

moments of life that we actually can't

do without

God only when all this stuff is offered

to Jesus can he be your savior and take

it tend to the soil of your heart look

at the the condition of your heart and

what condition it's

in is your soil getting hard is it like

hard-heartedness plaguing your

heart is your is your heart shallow is

there a lack of depth this

year or are there Thorns that are trying

to choke out what you believe and what

you're

about final encouragement before we

worship this morning you are going to

sin it's inevitable so don't let that

worry you faith is defined by our

willingness to seek God in our failure

time and time again so this is your

chance to try

again I'm going to

pray and um worship and take the

opportunity to stand to kneel to lift

your hands whatever however you want to

offer yourself to God if you wish to do

that this do

that I just ask if you are going to take

that step to follow God wholeheartedly

this year give him your whole heart give

him everything your your mind your your

emotions and your

choices hold this year with open hands

and say God I'll actually let you do

whatever you want to do with

it renewal takes place and we put God

first in all that we do

so let me pray and then we'll spend some

time in worship I don't want to rush

this space to worship Peters take your

time

father we believe in you we believe that

your will for us is

good please help us to try again please

help us this year to seek you

wholeheartedly with everything that we

have

that though our heart can be in Conflict

at times and that we may fail God that

we continue to seek you and that we seek

like we ask for your help in the very

first step Lord that we know that

without you we are

nothing but that with you there's so

much for us so much joy so much in life

for us to

experience let us sit in your Pres this

morning let us rest in you let us see

what you have for us and let us receive

you with open hearts

Lord we pray in your name amen