Matthew 28:16-20 - ”Church - What’s the Point?”

The Old Testament reading is Genesis

Genesis 12:1–3

12:1-3.

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from

your country and your kindred and your

father's house to the land that I will

show you.

And I will make of you a great nation

and I will bless you and make your name

great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and him

who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you all the of the earth shall be

blessed."

The New Testament reading is Matthew

Matthew 28:16–20

28:16-20.

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to

the mountain to which Jesus had directed

them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped

him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came

and said to them,

"All authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all

nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all that I have

commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the

end of the age."

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, good morning everybody.

My name is Sean Klaassen and I'm a

recent addition to the team here in

Mountain View. My role primarily focuses

on a Sunday night offering that we call

Vivid Community Church and what's the

intention of that is to make sure that

there's a a space that we are are are

proclaiming that there's folks that are

coming that might not come to

what we might call normal church. It

doesn't mean we're abnormal on Sunday

night.

Andrew might disagree.

>> [laughter]

>> But what we try to do is offer a very

accessible um

style of service. So we start with a

meal

which is awesome. We we do 5:15, we eat

together and then at 6:00 we have music

and a message and that's all geared and

not that we're trying to

dumb down anything or simplify things,

but what we're trying to do, you know

how sometimes we who are Christians for

a long time, we've got a

many many years to build up an

understanding of faith.

And sometimes folks who are new to all

this, they need a bit of a ramp

to help them get there. And so we try to

provide that ramp and and lead people in

that direction.

And so that's what that's what we're all

about. Now we're going to be asking

well, we are asking an incredible

question this morning. You can see it on

the screen. We're asking church,

what's the point?

There was a book I read years ago called

Church, Why Bother? And this is kind of

like asking the same question. You know,

if if people were to consider church and

I know this isn't the crowd, right? This

is the crowd that says, "I think we've

already answered that. That's why we're

here."

Okay?

This is going to maybe serve as a

refresher for us.

And it's not going to be comprehensive.

So if something is missing and you're

like, "Sean, you're lacking some

ecclesiology in your message, relax.

It's not going to cover all of it. It

can't possibly cover all of it this

morning. So what I want to do just

before we get to that, I want to pray

and then we're going to dive right in.

So let's pray together. Father, we thank

you that you have called us, Lord, to be

your children.

And so we cry out to you, Father. We

thank you for loving us,

for walking with us, for instructing us.

And Lord, not from a distance, but so

close.

We thank you for Jesus who took on

flesh, became human, entered humanity in

space and time,

showing us

a beautiful picture of your love,

showing us how to live,

showing us what righteousness means and

then actually giving that to us,

exposing really what's going on inside

of our hearts and our minds as we try to

in ways run from God

and wind up in sin.

And then Jesus, you took that sin to the

cross

and died a death we should have died.

So thank you, Lord, for that sacrifice,

for substituting yourself,

for removing sin and guilt and shame

from us.

God, we couldn't do that on our own.

We need you.

We thank you that you loved your

creation too much

to let it wallow in despair.

We thank you for the hope of the gospel,

the promise of a future with you.

And God, we thank you that you are not

just the promise maker, you are the

promise keeper.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

>> [clears throat]

>> All right.

Confession time.

I

love the church.

And you might be thinking, "Okay, Sean,

that's that's good that you love the

church. You're you're a pastor. You've

been a pastor for 20 years. That's

pretty important that you love the

church." And I would say, "Yeah, good

point."

But here's a little bit about my church

background. Some of you, like me, you

might have grown up in the church. The

the the church has been like ground zero

for your faith development. You've been

in there since you can remember, since

you were a toddler. Some of you maybe

came to faith later on in life, maybe as

a a teenager or as an adult. But my

story really quick is I I grew up here

in Kelowna.

I went to a local church

where as as a as a young boy, I would go

to Sunday school and the teachers would

pour into me, sometimes have to correct

me.

And some of you might have run into

that, too. Maybe you acted out a little

bit in Sunday school. Got kicked out

from time to time. That's me.

Okay? But they nonetheless, I knew they

loved me. I knew they cared for me and

they walked with me through through many

things in life.

Later on in my teen years, I started to

become fascinated. And I hope this is

true of you guys, too. I hope you are

fascinated by the things of God.

I hope you're fascinated when you look

at the world around you and the universe

and just think,

"Creation is mind-blowing."

Unbelievable.

Right? The this thing exists because God

is out there and he said, "Exist."

He spoke it into being.

We know that

nothing produces nothing, right? That's

that's a fact. Nothing produces nothing.

Something has to come from something.

And so God is behind the creation of the

universe and it's mind-blowing. I'm

fascinated by the word of God.

Because not only did he say, "I will

reveal myself in creation so nobody has

an excuse to say there's no God."

Everyone can look out there and be like,

"This has to come from somewhere."

But he says, "I will actually give you

instruction and enter into the history

of humanity that I created." And so we

have scripture telling us the story of

that.

And not just that, then he comes along

in the person of Jesus Christ, relating

to all of our experiences as humans,

going through stress, anxiety,

wandering through

life with other people,

walking with them through their

uncertainties and doubts.

And which let's be honest, we have those

questions ourselves. And Jesus says

those questions are welcome and I'll

walk with you through them. So I grew up

fascinated. Church was kind of a hub of

activity for me. I was in Sunday school,

then I was in youth group.

And and in youth group there there lied

my call to ministry. That's where I

first ran into that. And basically how I

describe a call to ministry, it's it's

something like in in vocational ministry

specifically, I would say it's something

that you can't not do.

You know, I I've taken on

waitering in my past. I used to serve

tables and then I had a break in my

ministry career and I was doing IT work

for an IBM company.

And the whole time it was just like,

"Okay, you know what? The

the the pay is good, the hours are good,

but I have to do something else. I have

to go back and work with the church. I

just love love the church. I love the

Lord and what he does in his in his

people."

And so I went back to work in the

church.

You know,

church for me has offered opportunities.

When I was younger, I started playing

guitar and I'm not really well.

And I started singing and not really

well.

And my youth pastor gave me

opportunities to worship lead, not

really well.

But that was there for me. I was taking

piano lessons and the music director in

the church said, "Hey, do you want to

play for the offering one Sunday? I'll

teach you a song." Still the only song I

can play.

>> [snorts]

>> So

yeah, there was retreats. We would go

camping with the youth group, go see

amazing um

you know,

youth conferences. If you guys have ever

been to a youth conference, sometimes

they get they get kind of wild. That's a

bit of the fun of them.

Um

But I

I I have these fun fun memories of the

church where people would pour into me.

Um they would encourage me. They would

they would draw out of me things I

didn't see in myself. And what a

beautiful thing when a church community

functions like that. It's like a family.

And the church, you know, the Bible uses

different analogies for the church and

again, not being exhaustive, but it

talks about church as the family. We

have we are brothers and sisters and God

is our father. It talks about the church

as a body. All these different parts,

hands, feet, arms, legs, working

together even though there's massive

differences between all of us, working

together for the same purpose under the

headship of Christ himself. Scripture

talks about church as being a a temple

or building, something being built

together stone by stone where God

dwells.

Talks about a vine, branches, the church

as a bride, flocks of sheep, kingdoms

and citizens, fields and vineyards, and

there's so many different ways that God

says, "Here's pictures of the church."

And while we can't get into all that

this morning, I want you to know that

it's not just Shawn up here that says I

love the church. God loves the church.

And we we we we look at that and we

understand that and we think it's

something amazing. Who wouldn't want to

be a part of something like that?

But,

you also know and I also know that other

folks have other kinds of experiences

with church.

You know, sometimes it's not all

rainbows and balloons and beautiful

stuff and encouragement. I have walked

with folks from many different

backgrounds. Um one of my favorite

things to do is lead this uh exploring

faith course. It's a It's an 8-week

thing that I walk folks through. They

get to bring their questions and their

doubts and their skepticism, and we get

to talk about those things in a safe

environment.

And I've heard people because these are

folks who are coming back to church

maybe for the first time in a long time,

and they're bringing their past

experiences with them and we get to talk

about that. And so I've heard

stories and talked with people, people

like a single mom who walked into church

and she got glared at by people and

judged.

I see

uh stories of a of a girl in Sunday

school where she abandoned faith because

she was started asking questions and

they said, "You can't ask that here."

And she leaves. Like if I can't ask my

questions and have a conversation,

what's the point?

You know, the reason that is and you've

probably maybe even got a story in your

past, I do for sure, where church hasn't

been what scripture would have it be,

what God wants it to be. It gets to be

something else. Why is that? It's

because church is largely relationships.

And if you know anything about those

relationships, relationships can get

messy.

Anybody ever experienced a messy

relationship?

Hands down liars.

Okay.

You know, it's

it's important that we understand that

church isn't always the place that it's

pictured to be in scripture. Church is

damaging for some people. And so they're

away from church. Maybe you've got a

loved one in your life that hasn't yet

come back because of that kind of

damage, because of that kind of hurt.

You know, it's it's a tough thing to

understand because that comes with all

sorts of things. You know, you think,

"Oh, well that person shouldn't blame

all the churches for the damage they

experienced from one person."

Yeah, maybe not.

But why are we blaming that person? Why

don't we say, "Hey, sit down. Just tell

me your story.

What happened? What was that experience

like?

You know, do you do you still walk with

God in some way? And what does that look

like?"

And then slowly build relationship, like

I said, because relationships can get

messy and we got to understand that and

unpack that with people. You know,

someone sent me something recently um

about

church hurt. There's this guy Frank

Turek. He's a He's an apologist,

which means he's a he's a great defender

of the faith. He goes to university

campuses. He's got a ministry called

Cross Examined. And um and this is

something he says. He says this. He

says, "And And this is a little blunt,

and I would not go to a person who's

been hurt by the church and say this,

but I like the the thought of it."

He says, "News flash, Christianity is

not Christians.

Christianity is Jesus.

When someone plays Beethoven poorly, who

do you blame?

You don't blame Beethoven, you blame the

player.

Right? You don't blame Christ, you blame

the people that play Christ, and none of

us play Christ perfectly. He says,

"We're all fallen. That's why we need a

savior. So don't skip church because

it's full of hypocrites.

We could always use one more."

Right? God has something else in mind.

Right? When he says, when we ask the

question, "Why bother with the church?

Or what's the point?" We must strive to

see the ideal that God puts forth. And

so that's what we're trying to do. You

know, if I could rewind this back to

when we're talking about creation,

what does God do? God creates a paradise

for people that he loves to live in and

walk with him in perfect harmony.

It's creation. And then the next leg in

that story is the fall. Man, we screwed

that up.

And if you think like, "Oh, it's You

know what? The the those two in the

garden, man, we can blame it all on

them." I would guarantee if you were in

that garden experiencing the same

things, it'd be the same result. This is

the universal human experience.

We we we see God in front of us and we

want to walk with him and we get tempted

by something else and we get sidetracked

and we fall.

So there's creation, there's fall, but

God wouldn't leave it at that, would he?

He says, "I have something

to cure that, redemption." He brings in

redemption and restoration. This is a

beautiful fourfold piece of the

scripture story. It's creation, it's

fall, it's redemption in Christ, and

then it's restoration, which we look

forward to. God is going to make

everything whole and perfect again. And

we long for that, don't we? Don't you

long for a world without the effects of

the fall?

Ah.

Without sin, without death,

without grief, without tears,

without everything wrong in the world.

That's how God wants it to be and we

will get there.

>> [snorts]

>> And you can see this in our Genesis

passage because this is after the fall.

God goes to a guy named Abraham and says

something incredible. This is from

Genesis 12. He says, "Now the Lord said

to Abraham or to Abram, go from your

country."

In other words, I am sending you.

Why?

Go from your country and your kindred

and your father's house to the land that

I will show you, and I will make of you

a great nation, becomes Israel. And I

will what?

Bless you.

And make your name great so that you

will be a

blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and to

him who dishonors you, I will curse. And

here's the kicker, in you, Abram, all

the families of the earth shall be

blessed."

Not just the nation, Abram, that I'm

making of you. Not just Israel. All

the nations and families of the earth

shall be blessed. And we know the story

goes sideways from there

in so many ways.

But then you flip a few pages down to

this beautiful thing called the New

Testament.

And enters Jesus.

That's where things are ultimately

fulfilled. When God promises Abraham all

the families, all the nations of the

earth will be blessed

because of what I'm doing through you,

Jesus is the fulfillment of that

beautiful promise.

You know, a guy named Tim Keller

passed away a number of years ago. He

talks about God entering the story of

humanity and he talks about it like I I

like um in Hamlet, Shakespeare would

write himself into that story. He talks

about a an author, Dorothy Sayers, who

wrote a popular series of detective

novels featuring a character named Lord

Peter Wimsey.

Later in the series, a new character

named Harriet Vane appears who Peter

eventually falls in love with and

marries. But this is what happens.

Dorothy Sayers, writing this story, she

comes to she creates this world that she

loves, this this character that she

loves in Lord Peter Wimsey,

and she sees though his brokenness. He's

lonely, a broken man. And so she writes

herself into the story to rescue.

And Keller says that's what the

incarnation is all about. God created

this whole world. He wrote this whole

thing, every person in it.

And then sees the brokenness

in our lives, the sin in our lives, and

then he writes himself into it and in

comes Jesus.

And I think what a beautiful picture of

the incarnation.

Jesus enters human history to do what?

To redeem,

to atone for sin, to take our place,

and to give us a righteousness. See, the

perfect life of Christ, that's the

righteousness that we wear.

If we were to wear our own dirty robes

covered in sin in front of God, it

wouldn't be any good. God wipes the sin,

gives us new robes to wear.

This is what Jesus says because he loves

so much. He says this. He says, "I will

build my church." Whose church is it?

It's Jesus's.

You know, God forbid a pastor comes on

stage and says, "This is my church." No,

uh-uh, you better be careful. This is

Jesus's church.

"I will build my church," Jesus says,

"and the gates of hell shall not prevail

against it." In other words, death

itself can't stop it.

Jesus said that 2,000 years ago, and to

this day,

can we say is he right?

I think he was right.

Jesus' promise

is kept.

Now the word for church there,

church.

Sounds like a harsh word. Is that

German?

Here we Here we go. Church, that word is

actually ecclesia. If we can have that

on screen. Ecclesia, interesting word.

It does not mean and you guys probably

know this, it doesn't mean building or

structure or corporation organization.

You know, as much as us Presbyterians

love our organization, that's not what

church means.

It means assembly.

It means gathering. It means the people.

So, in other words, Jesus is saying, "I

will build my group of people. I will

build my gathering.

And nothing's going to get in the way of

that." You're here as a testament to

that promise.

So, if he's going to build a gathering

of people, a people around what purpose?

You know, we're asking, "What's the

point?"

Now, whether or not you agree with the

entire theology of this next pastor, I

think this is a great statement he makes

that he says this. He says, "The goal of

the church, what? What's the purpose?

The goal of the church is one anothering

one another."

You know, scripture

New Testament specifically

has around like 59 to 60

one another statements.

Something important is to look at.

Whenever you go through scripture and it

says one another, that's talking about

what we do as a gathered group of

people. Now, I'm not going to go through

every single one of those, but here are

a few. It says, "Love one another with

bro- brotherly affection." Is that

visible? It is, that's great. It just

looks way smaller on that screen.

Um it says, "Outdo one another in

showing honor. Live in harmony with one

another. Love each other. Let us not

pass judgment on one another. Welcome

one another as Christ has welcomed you,

etc. Forgive one another. Be kind to one

another. Address one another in Psalms

and hymns and spiritual songs. Submit to

one another out of reverence for Christ.

In humility, count others more

significant than yourself. Do not lie to

one another. There are so many. Bear

with one another."

If anyone has a complaint against

another, forgive each other. Now, as you

hear these, let them wash over you. As

you read them, imagine what it would be

like if the church embodied that.

One anothering to one another.

Encourage one another. Build one another

up.

Stir [snorts] one another to love and

good works. Unbelievable stuff. All this

stuff that we're supposed to be involved

in with

each other.

1 Peter 4:10 is, "Each has received a

1 Peter 4:10

gift. You have a God-given ability to do

something to contribute something in

this faith community. As each has

received a gift, use it to serve

one another."

And then some of you might not be

comfortable with the 1 Peter 5:14 one,

1 Peter 5:14

"Greet one another with a kiss of love."

It's a cultural thing. Maybe we want to

embrace that again.

Maybe not.

Now, when the uh

>> [laughter]

[gasps]

>> You know,

that is a ton of one anothering and what

I would say is

again, like if if we took all of those,

we might use it to to do a bit of

self-check.

You know, when I go to church, what am I

doing? Am I there and and do I leave

complaining about stuff?

Oh, I didn't like how the guy preached.

Oh, I didn't like, you know, he was too

excitable.

You know, I I I didn't like maybe some

of the how the prayers were worded.

Oh, I didn't like the the songs. I

didn't like the worship set. Well,

that's okay, you didn't like the

worship. It ain't for you anyway.

It's for him.

You know, we can get kind of persnickety

persnickety about our preferences in the

church.

And focus on that, you know, because our

culture definitely teaches us. Did you

know this? You probably did. Our culture

teaches us to be consumers.

Go to a thing.

See if you like it. If you don't, leave

it.

That's not God's best for the church.

That's not even close. It's actually

antithetical to what God wants for the

church.

This is not an event to consume. Church

is a a community to be experiencing and

to be invested in.

That's why all those one anothers are

there.

Now, Jesus

obviously says, "I will build my

church." So, number one, let's remember

it is his church.

Then what does he want this group of

people to actually do? Yes, a lot of one

anothering, but also

there's echoes of Genesis 12

in the last chapter of Matthew. Let's

get to it. The 11 disciples went to

Galilee, likely

a group of others as well with them. To

the mountain to which Jesus had directed

them. And here's

what it says. When they saw him, when

all this group of disciples, not just

the 11. When they saw him, they

worshipped him, but

some doubted.

Some doubted.

Can you imagine doubting after a

resurrection?

You know, James, the brother of Jesus,

we have this book of James in our Bible.

Jesus' lifetime wasn't convinced of of

stuff that Jesus was saying about

himself.

What did it take for James to believe?

Well, imagine this. Imagine you had a

brother

going around saying claiming the things

that Jesus said and claimed.

That he was God in the flesh. Anybody

here have a brother?

What would it take for you to believe

that brother?

For James, it took a resurrection. I'm

guessing for you, it might too.

So, let's cut James some slack.

All right.

Um

resurrection [clears throat] happens,

people still doubt. And people still

doubt today. You know, I don't know if

you guys are watching any podcasts

lately, but I have seen this

this professor go around talking about

the Shroud of Turin.

I encourage you to look it up. The

Shroud of Turin used to be like pieces

of it were dated back to the Middle

Ages.

And they're like, "Oh, okay. I guess

it's some kind of forgery or something

like that." More recent developments in

the last few years have shown it to be

something

older than that, dating back to the

exact time of Christ.

And there's so much interesting stuff

like the amount of radiated radioactive

power that they can detect in that when

that kind of technology did not exist.

Obviously, 2,000 years ago.

Interesting interesting stuff

is coming to light

and proving once again what God said

about humanity, about redemption, about

the resurrection.

So, some doubted.

So, now Jesus comes to them. And Jesus

came to them and he This is what he

said.

All

authority

in heaven and on earth has been given to

me.

That's God language.

Lest there be any doubt about who Jesus

claimed to be.

All authority has been given to me. Then

what?

Because he's got all authority, he's

going to give you now something to do.

Go, therefore.

Do you hear echoes?

Genesis 12? When God comes to Abraham?

Go.

You're a sent people to do what? Genesis

says to to be a blessing.

You have been blessed so you can be a

blessing. Jesus brings that into the

picture as well. Go, therefore, and make

disciples of all nations. Disciple, what

is that? You can translate that word as

a as a learner or a student.

In this context, best understood as an

apprentice. What does an apprentice do?

An apprentice follows this master or

teacher and not only tries to absorb

information,

but lives a life differently because of

that teaching and who that person is.

So, the church does not exist just to

dispense knowledge.

Knowledge is good.

It can be helpful, but if you're not

living

or following what you know,

especially when it comes to Jesus,

it's kind of useless.

>> [snorts]

>> So, that's what a disciple is. A

learner, a follower, someone who does

the way of Jesus like he laid out life

to be lived. Um disciples of all

nations, he says, "Baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and

the Holy Spirit, the Trinitarian God.

Teaching them to observe or obey

all that I have commanded you."

And then you get this beautiful promise.

You're not alone

is the promise. And behold, I am with

you to the end of the age.

Why do we obey Jesus

as a church?

Why do we observe all that he said?

God is the designer of life.

If God is the designer of life, then

he's probably got a pretty good idea of

how to best live it, right? I would

think.

And so, when he says, "Okay, you know

what? I'm not just going to tell you how

to do it. I'm actually going to come

down here and show you." Jesus shows us

the way.

And initially, early Christians called

themselves followers of

the way.

Right? Not just

people in a classroom learning

information.

No, we live life differently because God

said, "This is how I designed it. And

here it is in the flesh in Jesus Christ.

Here's how to live it."

That's what a disciple is. And a

community of disciples, that's what they

do. Now, again, just to wrap up here.

I want us to imagine

if church was like that.

Imagine if it felt

like we were actually family.

Ideal family, not a not a messed up

family. Well, all the church is kind of

a messed up family, let's be honest, but

if we embodied the best of what family

is supposed to be. Imagine if church was

a place where different parts of the

body, very different people,

functioned at their fullness to work

together

instead of complain and bicker and

gossip and slander behind each other's

backs. Imagine if it was functioning at

our fullness working together

to reach more disciples,

to build more disciples. So, imagine if

the if this place functioned as like a a

temple where God dwells and is actually

known.

God wants to be known. He's not being

distant. He's not the giant clockmaker

that winds it up and just walks away

from it. He's intimately involved with

his creation and with his people.

Imagine if church was a connected

community

where those one anothers that we looked

at was was truly lived out.

Imagine

if this church and other churches

embraced

the power of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine if it was a place where we all

learned and apprenticed this way of

Jesus.

Now, I don't deliver messages like this

at all

to beat people up.

You know, but if there's stuff in your

life maybe that I've mentioned that

you're like, "Oh, that kind of hits."

That's God just saying, "Get it out of

there."

If you've been complaining or gossiping

about the person in the pew next to you,

just

enough.

Enough.

Let's do this unity thing in the church

as best we can. If you want a beautiful

picture of a of a letter written to a

church to encourage unity and to get rid

of the junk and to build in the good,

read Philippians. Joy-filled letter.

Again, Sunday nights

we offer this different expression of

Mountain View called Vivid.

That's a bit of our

look.

Um

And so if if you know somebody like that

is

been hurt by the church in the past and

maybe needs to come back. And you're

like, "Well, I could invite them to

Sunday morning." For sure you could.

You could also invite them to to Sunday

night

to walk with, to eat with around the

table.

We've got this statement that we like to

use of what we're all about on Sunday

[clears throat] nights, which you know,

we just looked at something at the end

of Matthew 28 called the Great

Commission.

And when churches build mission

statements or vision statements, chances

are they just reword that a little bit.

And so this is how we've done that. This

is our goal. Our goal is to help people

find life in Jesus.

That's what the word vivid means. It's

Latin for life.

And not just existence. That's

different.

We actually mean this abundant life John

Jesus talks about John 10:10. I've come

John 10:10

to give life and life to the

Amen. Amen. Let's live as a church in

that kind of life. Let me pray.

Lord, we thank you for the call on our

life.

Not just to gather, but to embrace

this community that you've described in

scripture.

This one anothering one another. And

God, it's it's hard cuz life is busy

and sometimes we've got a lot on the go,

different stresses going on.

And sometimes, Lord, in those moments we

need to be one anothered by someone else

where they bear our burdens.

And God, maybe it's a season of life

we're in where where things are like

simpler or easier

and we need to be doing that for

somebody else.

God, whatever it is that we've looked at

this morning, and I pray right now that

you would by your Holy Spirit speak to

each person here about what it is that

they need to get rid of

in the church, in their lives,

and what they need to bring in to help

build this thing up.

God, it's such a beautiful picture of

what people should be like living

following the way of Jesus in community

with each other.

And God, we admit full on we are messy

and broken and sinful and that

hinders

all of this.

But Lord, I pray that as we keep on

confessing that,

as we keep on exploring what it is to

remove and what it is to build in,

that this thing will shape up so

beautifully. Lord, we want this bride to

be gorgeous for you.

Jesus, this is your church.

We pray that we would

take that seriously, that we would do

everything in the church to honor you

and to glorify you, the author and

perfecter of our faith. Lord, we pray in

your name. Amen. Amen.