Genesis 11:1-9 - ”Puny Gods” - Who Are We Series

the Old Testament reading this morning

is from Genesis 11 verses

Genesis 11:1–9

1-9 now the whole earth had one language

and the same words and as people

migrated from the East they found a

plane in the land of shinar and settled

there and they said to one another come

let us make bricks and burn them

thoroughly and they had brick for stone

and bitamin for Mortar then they said

come let us build ourselves a city and a

tower with its top in the heavens and

let us make a name for

ourselves lest we be dispersed over the

face of the whole

earth and the Lord came down to see the

city and the tower which the children of

man had built and the Lord said behold

they are one people and they have all

one language and this is only the

beginning of what they will

do and nothing that they propose to do

will now be impossible for

them come let us go down and there

confuse their language so that they may

not understand one another's

speech so the Lord dispersed them from

there over the face of all the Earth and

they left off building the city

therefore its name was called

Babel because there the Lord confused

the language of all the Earth and from

there the Lord dispersed them over the

face of all the

Earth the New Testament reading is taken

from Acts 2 veres 1-13

when the day of Pentecost arrived they

were all together in one place and

suddenly there came from Heaven a sound

like a mighty rushing wind and it filled

the entire house where they were sitting

and divided tongues of fire appeared to

them and rested on each one of them and

they were all filled with the Holy

Spirit and began to speak in other

tongues as the spirit gave them

utterance now there were dwelling in

Jerusalem Jews devout men from every

nation under heaven and at this sound

the multitude came together and they

were bewildered because each one was

hearing them speak in his own language

and they were amazed and astonished

saying are not all these who are

speaking galileans

and how is it that we hear each of us in

his own native language parthians and

mes and elamites and residents of

Mesopotamia Judea and capid doia pontis

and Asia friia and pamilia Egypt and the

parts of Libya belonging to sirene and

visitors from Rome both Jews and

prelates cretans and

Arabians we hear them telling in our own

tongues the mighty works of God and all

were amazed and perplexed saying to one

another what does this

mean but others mocking said they're

filled with new

wine this is the word of the Lord thanks

be to

God well good news at least for me I'm

done

Genesis I told you that we would do it

was funny cuz I asked you guys when we

were at Genesis 1:3 I said okay so do

Genesis 1:3

you guys want me to go to 11 and I was

really hoping you say one to three but

you said to

11 so I didn't ask you notice do you

notice I'm not asking do you want me to

finish Genesis so this is it chapter 11

is a nice ending by the way for a

section within Genesis a type of writing

of the ancient creation story a certain

genre and then we're going to get into

Abraham and the style changes and if you

want to really know more go on Google

okay so to next week we're going to

start hitting Ephesians that's like for

me going back into a hot tub I got to

tell you I love the book of Ephesians

that's what I cut my teeth on at Regent

so I'm excited but we got a great story

to end on and it's a perfect story to

end on these 11 chapters it's the

perfect buildup to where you can see

what the writer is going to do but

before I get to there we need to talk

about something I have to share has

anybody remembered a guy named Oral

Roberts raise your hand if you remember

Oral Roberts okay so we do have a few

Old-Timers here because I remembered

them too but I was a kid and um do you

remember oh I got a picture of him for

you look at that it's nice looking fell

um he was what you call a televangelist

okay for those of you who don't know and

he was a what was called a pro

Prosperity preacher do you guys know

what that is all right so his basic

stick was if you have enough Faith

you're going to get money and then if

you give you're going to get more back

that kind of mentality and there was a

story that came

out goodness it must have been uh good

eight was the 80s I don't even know Jim

when when did he

ask 7980 okay so this is the story I

asked Jim because he knows this stuff

and um well well he knows the history

and uh he actually got up and he said

that if

God he he announced to his people if he

didn't get $8 million God was going to

kill

him take him

home okay now for most of us now I I've

tried that from up here it doesn't

happen I've tried

it I've said how many times if I don't

get a massage chair in my office I don't

know why you might not have

me but the craziest part is not that he

said it I mean anyone can say anything

the craziest part to me is he got the

money he got the money when I first

heard that it we actually made national

news I'm like oh don't give him the

money another crazy Christian you know

oh well the Lord took him you know he

got the

money that's

insane what kind of God

sits there and comes down and you're

having a snooze and says I'm going to

take you out if you don't get $8

million well let me get in

trouble it's a false

god it's not a God of this world and

it's not the god or sorry it is a God of

this world and it's not our God in the

Bible and this story today is telling us

exactly how how

Gods like

Mr

Roberts how they come into

being and how Humanity left on its own

would have those Gods every day let's

pray Heavenly Father we thank you for

your amazing truth your amazing goodness

open our eyes and our ears help us to

understand what's going on in this very

ancient text and help it to come alive

for for us and speak to us

today

amen so first thing I got to teach you

about is a ziggurat have you guys heard

of a ziggurat before now this story is

told long before Abraham long before the

Hebrew language long

before any of our other stuff so this is

being told in a culture that is not

Jewish even let alone

Christian they're living in a world

where they're coming out of the creation

narrative we already had the flood this

is the community coming out of the flood

according to the story and now they're

building this Tower well what did this

Tower mean to them understanding that

will help us understand the story of the

Tower of Babel now when you look at it

you see at the very top they've got a

little

room you see that ready for this that's

the God's

bedroom the gods had bedrooms they had a

bed in it so he could have a little

snooze and he would come down and you

would hang out in the bedroom of this

ziggurat the rest of it there was no

other inside of it by the way except for

the bedroom and then you see a long

staircase can you see it coming down the

front

there that was the staircase to go for

the god once he's had his rest to come

down and to eat and drink the food that

were

sacrificed by the people for the God so

they would be at the bottom and they

would have a little out door

barbecue for the God and then they would

take the god often over into another

part of the temple where they would

perform sexual acts for this God because

that's the kind of gods they were and

you start to listen to that they needed

sleep they needed to eat they

needed sexual uh

fulfillment there's something similar to

humans isn't it to these

Gods they're very human Gods aren't

they well they should be because what

Genesis 3 began with which is this is

the end is you can be like God

remember but what that led Humanity to

do is begin to make gods in their

image rather than being made in God's

image that's the tragedy of those first

11 chapters so the zigurat is the high

point of human beings making God in

their image

the gods are only there to be there to

protect Humanity in so much as Humanity

provides them

sleep provides them food and provides

them with their other needs including

sexuality it's a transaction think of it

that way the God says I will protect you

your city and they were City Gods as

long as you provide food for

me sleep for me and other things that's

how it worked so this is the world that

we know the Tower of Babel's being told

told around we know this because of the

type of building material that's

happening and we know this because

there's an exact story right beside it

in the Gilgamesh epic okay exact story

and it is exactly from the same time the

Assyrian World hundreds of years before

Israel hundreds and hundreds so this

story comes into place now we can

understand kind of what's going on we

have this Creator God and then we have

them creating their own God and that's

the two players here all right so it

starts out and it's not

working I might need you to move the

slide

yeah I hate that don't does anybody hate

when things like that happen I'm going

to try this

again oh this has been so good for us

this

technology what what's that now I got it

okay now the whole earth had one

language because they've just come out

of the flood and the same words and as

people migrated from the East the East

is I was moving further away from God

literarily in the Genesis story so

they're moving further and further away

they found a plane in the land of shinar

and settled there nothing new there and

they said to one another and now here's

what

you begin to see the beginning of what

we call idolatry idolatry will become

the greatest enemy of Christianity and

and Judaism and everything else since it

is the foundational problem so they come

in and they say to one another they're

not talking to God there's no worship of

God at all here for them come let us

make bricks burn them thoroughly and

they had brick for stone and bamon for

Mortar mortar what's really cool is if

you go back you can still go to the

remnants of the uh zigurat in ER do you

know ER where Abraham came out it still

exists and they still a built out of

these products back then so these things

existed so they have decided they're

going to bring a temple and they're

going to set it up but who's it

for it's for their gods that they

made because our God we know from the

Genesis story doesn't need to sleep does

he he's never asking for food and he's

never saying he needs any of his other

natural desires met these are gods that

look like

humans then they said come let us build

ourselves a city which they would put

around the temple and a tower with its

top in the heavens what that means is

that was the place it didn't mean

literally that it was in heaven because

they what it means by the heavens was

the heavens the way they use language so

we might say the heavens is the what we

see around us and let us make a name for

ourselves that's the key isn't it it's

about

them you can be like

God we'll make it for our name and

that's the foundation of idolatry it's

all about self you can make gods in your

image Who funny enough do and want you

for everything that you want and need

that's how Idols work lest we be dis

firsted over the face of the whole earth

so they see this making one world

religion is what they're kind of saying

and if we do one world religion we'll

have power and our Gods will come and

serve now the problem with idolatrous

gods that look like you is people aren't

good you ever notice

that well besides you know Jim over

there I don't I'm just picking on you

too but the truth is people aren't good

have you read a history

book and so the problem is if we make

gods in our image what are gods that we

come up with going to be

like are they going to be

good when we're not

good and so these gods are oppressive

Gods who destroy those underneath them

and put a few people in power who happen

to be the ones and they say oh these are

the good people you're the bad people

and idolatry begins to lead to slavery

and destruction and all of those other

things because these Gods aren't good

they don't have morals you notice that

none of them say well let's listen if we

do some good things the gods will be

nice none of that happens

here what they say is if we provide

Their Food they'll protect us you hear

that so there's no morality in these

gods and thus when there's no morality

in Gods and you are trying to be like

your God there's no morality in hum

Humanity

so they're afraid of being dispersed

over all the Earth and they want to be

powerful and they want to be it about

them and the Lord came down now notice

this is a play on words cuz remember

they their gods they want to have that

room and then they come down well the

Lord comes down but not their way and he

certainly doesn't need food does

he the Lord comes down we're going to

hear this twice to look at the city to

behold the city and the tower which the

the children of man had

built and the Lord said behold they are

one

people and they have all one language

and this is only the beginning of what

they will do in other words this little

thing they built now this false god

that's going to lead to the oppression

of everyone who's not on the inside this

is just the beginning it's going to be

infinitely worse they're going to make

something so unimaginably big and they

will make a religion so dominant and so

oppressive it will destroy everyone so

God has Grace that's my argument in this

section he actually has

Grace and nothing that they propose for

them will now be impossible nothing that

they propose to do notice that not God

proposes they propose to do will be now

impossible for them they'll just keep

growing he says and create this great

monolith of idolatry of the no God who

they have made in their image who will

dominate and

Destroy so what do God

do come let us go down second time but

he doesn't come down for food or to be

worship and they confused their language

so they may not understand one another's

speech the judgment is that if they stay

together they're going to grow it this

false god this oppressive God to the

point where those will destroy and it

will be unimaginative the power of great

religion so we are going to separate

them so that they don't create such a

massive tyrannical system do you see it

that's a gift that's

Mercy

okay so the Lord dispersed them from

there over the face of the Earth and

they left off building the Temple

the temple by the way where's our God in

helping here well they don't have a god

do they so once they leave it off the

temple just falls apart because it was

always there it was always their God

therefore it was named was called Babel

you know what Babel

means

confusion you know what Babylon

means gate of the gods do you think the

writer knew what he was doing by calling

it Babel is this kind of religion

creates confusion because it's based on

yourself and the gods are ficked and

Babylon is no gate to the gods cuz they

would have had one of

these anyways because the Lord confused

the language of all the Earth and from

there the Lord dispersed them from Over

the face of all the Earth and this ends

our story now we're left with this idea

that Humanity is idolatrous humanity is

destructive and God's had mercy but

there is no no sense that they're

worshiping the Living God iser and this

is the end of chapter

11 this is why this section ends this

section ends quite depressingly by the

way but this is being set up and

beautifully told because what happens in

chapter 12 who do we run

into do you remember

Abraham and God

in this mixed up Pagan World goes to a

pagan by the way Abram was a pagan from

the land of

ER and he takes one of these dispersed

people and he says now I'm going to show

them who I am starting with you and

that's where the Old Testament goes from

here the god of Heaven and Earth brings

the Judgment then he brings the mercy by

part by picking the particular to speak

to the vast

so this is a beautiful story setting up

God's salvation story right after but

this is not meant as a good thing we're

not supposed to look at this and say hm

what could we learn from this and

there's so much you can think about you

imagine if they had the power to stay as

one and they could create one church and

one dominant system how does that work

for us when we look at the world

religions today the big ones they're

always so good aren't

they they don't oppress

anybody they

do

right Islam the Vatican these things are

powerful systems and people get crushed

on the

bottom the greatest gift that he did in

this case is he didn't allow it to

become this massive bloated

thing so what do you take out of this

for us cuz it's not really positive is

it well we got Jesus for one don't

we but let's look at the reality the

false gods are pathetic let me say this

again false gods are always quite

pathetic we think oh pagan gods they're

they're so weak they're so pathetic that

when is Isaiah God's talking to the

prophet Isaiah and he's looking at this

guy and he's saying look at this guy

down here making his Idol he says he

takes half the wood and warms himself

with it then he cooks the steak from the

wood that he has warmed and he eats it

as if it's from the

God and then he takes the other part of

the wood and he makes it into some a

bird or something else and then he

worships this God and then when Trouble

Comes this God can't help him at all

that's God mocking the

gods false gods don't exist why do we

make

them because there's something in US

Genesis 3 that wants

it we love false gods and I'm not just

saying people out there everybody loves

a false god John Calvin we are our

hearts are just creators of false Idols

we can't help

ourselves there's something so broken in

it and it's pathetic I love this uh one

here I hope you guys can read it if not

I'll read it it's two people carrying

their Idols out and it says that awkward

moment when you have to save your God

because it can't save itself and

therefore cannot save you

either can you see

that the reality is folks the gods have

done nothing for us they only cause pain

because they're made by us and here's

the funny thing we make a system where

we have to feed them take care of them

make sure they have sexual relations

with human beings or whatever else and

if we don't do it then they don't water

the land and they don't protect us so in

the end we actually ironically become

Bound by the very thing we

made that we have to provide the

sacrifices for the thing that doesn't

exist that we made because we've

convinced ourselves it

does this is what God is trying to

destroy all right now it's a good thing

that you and I don't have Idols today

right good thing our culture I mean

Idols we don't have Idols right

H let's talk about contemporary Idols

shall

we now granted we don't have temples

where gods have a snooze and then come

down and have pork CH chops or

whatever but we have Idols my

friends first of all I'm going to quote

GK

Chesterton for when we cease to worship

God we do not was worship

nothing we worship

anything let me say that again when we

cease to worship God we do not wor

worship nothing we worship

anything and the anything in our culture

is very different than theirs and it's

called the

self okay I want you to understand that

there is a God that lives right now and

you're seeing it every day and it's

called the god god of the actualized

self the authentic self it started in

the 16th

century with my friend dayart I think

therefore I am it continued to build and

build and build and people became very

concerned and by the 19th century people

like Freud looking for that authentic

self

Nichi marks what does it mean to be

truly human what does it mean to be your

authentic self it became more and more

and more part of who we are until we got

to where we are today where if you tell

somebody that what they think they are

may not be good you are going to get

backlashed because that is the god in

charge of our

culture the god in charge of our culture

is telling you that there's some true

you within you and you should pursue

that or you are not truly in touch with

the good anybody ever heard this I'm out

to go and find

my true self

right this God is a powerful God it's

everywhere and it's telling you and it

will tell you in your sexuality in your

gender it'll tell you in everything in

your business that you need to find your

identity your true

self and I'm telling you this is an idol

because Jesus said die to

right but this goes against everything

and this is why the church is never

supposed to be the popular place

everyone comes to because we actually

believe that Idol

kills all

right and in fact that Idol is no

different than the idols back then let

me make my

point there was a guy named mullik the

god mullik do you remember him and they

would bring their babies up and part of

their contract with this God is for them

to get provision to get wealthy and

protected and to live their lives better

they would give him certain things and

if the world didn't change you gave

better and better things until he

finally they by the way he doesn't have

any way of talking because he doesn't

exist but they became convinced think of

this that things aren't working out

let's take our B and guess who did that

by the

way

Israel right Israel literally started

worshiping this God somebody else made

up that didn't exist and they started

taking their babies why did they take

their babies and put them on this

because they wanted economic and social

Freedom that's why and they did

it okay

I'm going to get in trouble

now it's going

to get ready to

duck why do we kill The

Unborn

why not

everyone I did a study one time when I

was at

University

96% have abortion as a means of birth

control

96 and out of that 64 said it would

affect my life going forward and make me

more

poor and not as

safe why did they take their gods on

this mantle for protection and

wealth I'm just telling

you I'm not you

this quiet

now I want you to hear

me idolatry exists today just as much

and I'm not pointing at the women here

because the men are just as

bad why do men leave their

children they sacrifice them at the same

altar you know why because of money and

self and having things better

you don't think we have Idols

today and who suffers by the

way the

children do I think that Jesus Christ is

going to come down one day and say well

gez you found your authentic self good

thing you sacrificed all these things do

you think that's what he's going to

do and we don't just do it pre-birth or

run away from our children when they're

young what we're doing now is even

crazier with this authentic self do you

know what we're doing now we're taking

children as young as four years old and

telling them who is your authentic self

and if they happen at that moment to say

a different gender we will put them on

puberty

blockers do you know what that does to

you it destroys your ability to have

children in the

future in the United States in one state

there were 475

momies of children under

13

400 we are willing to sacrifice at this

altar of authentic

self you want to see the numbers you

want to be freaked out this is the

numbers of people who say they're

transgender this is in the last and this

has gone way up since then look at that

graph do you think this God isn't

gaining a little bit of

popularity and I'm just

talking mutilation because we create

these Gods who don't exist we create

these philosophies this authentic self

which doesn't exist by the way you know

how I know cuz when I was 13 I thought I

was going to be a

cowboy did you know that I have never

been on a

farm but some guy from beaverly dressed

like a cowboy and the girls like lik him

and I thought well then I'm a cowboy I

went out and bought cowboy boots and a

cowboy hat and I put on a cowboy

shirt and my dad looked at me and he

said you're not a cowboy and you know

what he was right and I was deeply

offended for about 10

days until my friend invited me out to

be a cowboy and I realized I have no

idea what I'm doing and that's is way

too much

work but I was convinced for 10 days I

was a

cowboy because I was 13 I was

dumb

right how about all you guys when you

were that age did you not go through

phases where you thought you were this

that or something

else not

Fred Fred knew who he was since he was

two most of us had moments where we

thought something else and thank God you

had someone like my dad who said they

not a

cowboy because I'm 55 now and I'm

thaning him because I would have hated

to be able to take drugs that made me a

cowboy and changed my

body

right this authentic self is an idol my

friends it really is and it's destroying

people made in God's image are their

Idols today I assure you and they're

killing

people if you want to see something

that'll shake you up go and watch these

kids who are 16 17 years old who were

writing these D transitioning videos

where people who've had their lives and

they're in constant pain because

somebody told them at 13 their confusion

was legitimate and now they're going I

am never going to have

kids I am never going to be normal

because somebody did this to me all

because of an

idol good thing we don't have idolatry

in the church though right

should laugh even harder at

that let's go back to my friend Oral

Roberts see oral believed that if you

had enough Faith you could go and the

God would give you back so you provide

for the God and the god provides your

material wealth and well-being right how

is that different than the gods of the

zigurat what did I tell you the gods of

the zigurat basically said you give us

enough stuff and we will give you back

and it's a

contract Prosperity preaching teaches

that if you have enough faith and you

give enough then God's going to bless

you and by the way the only way it's

going to work though is if you give to

Oral

Roberts you ever noticed

that that is a huge Idol and it's a huge

Idol in our church money and power

that's a huge Idol that kills

us you know why it's a huge Idol because

our world is very rich and

powerful and if you don't kid yourself

and it's not one way by the way if you

don't think that part of the fight

that's going on in the political world

has nothing to do with Jesus and

everything to do with

power you've misunderstood how idolatry

sneaks into every aspect of Our Lives

the Prosperity Gospel has no concept of

the sovereignty of God I'll even go so

far as to say the god of the Prosperity

Gospel is not the god of the

Bible it's an

idol and we worship that Idol when we

get caught in to Prosperity thinking now

before you stop and say well I don't

give expecting return here's another way

Prosperity thinking goes

if something bad happens to you do you

think God's mad at

me that's another way of Prosperity

Gospel see the Prosperity Gospel tells

you that God likes you if you're wealthy

but it also on the flip side if things

aren't going well it's because you've

done something

wrong and how many of us myself

included have thought this way when if

there's one thing God shows in the Bible

is he doesn't pick the wealthy the

powerful

ever from the beginning right through he

picks Misfits like

me right and when you follow this God

there's nowhere where he says I'm going

to make your life easy name one

spot oh Solomon yeah that went really

well how did Solomon do read the rest of

the

chapter David oh yeah he did real well

he was smoking

and when we get to Jesus Christ the guy

who should have been the richest most

powerful he ends up with nothing I don't

even have anything I can't even pay my

bills Go Fish we'll get the we'll get

the tax out of

that what about

Paul Paul beaten whipped Shipwrecked how

many times did he get beaten like four

times the very Christian message is that

Prosperity is not what God's on about

he's on about us and our character and

our Eternal

wealth John Piper said if God love for

his children is to be measured by our

health wealth and comfort in this life

the god hated the Apostle

Paul

right one of the things that is hardest

for Western Christians and hardest for

me to preach is that God really isn't

sitting there going hm are we going to

have a enough money this

week am I going to have enough for

another

trailer he's not even sitting there

going oh I'm not going to let nothing

bad happen to you CU I like you in fact

it says suffering leads to endurance and

character doesn't

it that stuff's hard to hear when you're

a western like

me but it's

truth and you know how I know it's truth

because of this

the

Incarnation you see in this case in this

story the reason the failure happens and

every Pagan story since including what

was going on in

Rome it's because we don't know who this

God is so we make gods in our image and

then God came and said I'll show you who

I

am we couldn't bear God's image we made

gods that beared our image CU we didn't

know really who he was and in Jesus

Christ he came and he showed he who he

is and I'll tell you he's nothing like

these pagan gods he comes

down as an

infant

needy not needing for us but making

himself needy to us to show us

humility he comes down and shows us and

he walks around with the wrong people at

the wrong time he shows us that God's

nothing like what you think he's

gracious to The Prostitute he loves the

tax

collector our world doesn't like that

cuz it's about power and

wealth he loves those who are

outcasts and he gets killed by those who

are run the

Inn blae Pascal oh many moons ago said

not only do we not know God except

through Jes Jesus Christ we do not know

ourselves except through Jesus

Christ the truth is they wanted their

God to come down and eat their food so

and do whatever they needed because they

wanted protection our god did come down

but he came down to save us not because

he needed

us and to show who he

was do you remember that a fantastic

text out of Philippians have this mind

among yourself which is yours in Christ

Jesus who though he was in the form God

did not count equality with God a thing

to be grasp but emptied himself by

taking the form of a servant or a slave

as it may have been translated being

born in the likeness of men even though

they were meant to be in his

likeness and being found in human form

he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death even death on the

cross that's the god that comes down all

the way to the Cross that's who the real

God is he's not some God that wants

power and wealth he wants to give you

life by abandoning

self and I'm telling you what this is

why he's the only thing that can save

this

world because every other

God including Islam by the way they want

Power

they want wealth they oppress they're

all

false this is the one who showed who he

is and he says I am

real therefore God has highly exalted

him and bestowed him on him the name

that is above every name so that the

name of Jesus every knee should bow in

heaven and on Earth and under the Earth

and every tongue confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord to the glory of the

father

that's where the glory comes from is the

emptying it's the coming down that he's

brought up do you see

that what about us as a church today

what so

what well we get to live in light of

Jesus Christ Noah's family didn't have

that the bab family didn't have it but

we

do we have a choice because we're full

of places where people are still

building temples and having their gods

come down that are made in their image

and are destroying themselves even in

the church and we have a chance to walk

along the one who's already come down

and emptied himself and to follow

him the problem with the church I've

said it again and again is that we just

love to look like the

world and that world is death

if we only got together and asked

ourselves can we look like Jesus oh my

goodness I think these places would be

packed because you know what these gods

are so terrible that this world's living

in Carl Bart said in Jesus God Wills to

be true God not only in the height but

also in the depth in the depth of human

creatureliness sinfulness and

mortality he's our God he's the only God

who's worthy of

worship he's the only God that's not

like these other

gods let's go after

him let's start to look like him and

pray cuz I think if we do I think if we

take this serious and reject the gods

around us

people will come and say this these

people have been with

Jesus and I believe the power of the

spirit will move just as much today as

any others but it's our

choice are we going to em embrace the

gods of this world which are very

popular or Embrace Jesus

Christ who promises you eternal life but

in this world suffering

let's

pray Heavenly Father you are amazing you

are gracious you have come and showed us

who you truly

are you are not the God who needs our

money you're not the God we make

contracts with for good things to happen

you are The God Who is always merciful

always

giving help us to see you in Jesus

Christ help us to take that serious and

help us to turn from the powers of this

age and embrace your one true power

which is the only Power that's going to

be for eternity Resurrection

Life in jesus' name amen

to