Elementary
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 01 November 2026
- Hebrews 6:1-3
Hebrews chapter six, Hebrews chapter six, verse one.
So we've been talking about this nursing state and this eating of meat that they are typical of certain kinds of people. Individuals who nurse have activities that are normal to them. Individuals who eat solid meat have activities that are normal to them. We're going to see in chapter six, verse one. The spiritual goal of, of.
Of Christ and his church is not to leave people in a nursing state, but rather to move them into a mature state that God's intention is meat eaters for his people. That is not detracting from the place of being fed with milk. It is not wrong to be fed with milk. It is not wrong for babies to nurse, but that is not the goal when they are 40 years old. That would be strange in Christ Church.
Equally, it's strange that individuals who have been following Christ for a number of years are still nursing.
If Paul was still nursing, I'd say, Paul, that's strange. That's strange. In Honduras, I don't know if it's like that in Guam, but in Honduras they would nurse their age or their babies pretty late. And I remember this, you know, I think it was like a five year old coming in, clambering up her mom, we were visiting with her mom, getting up on her, you know, just he's starting to nurse, like, oh, that's wonderful, right? And it's strange.
In Christ Church the goal is to move people from nursing to eating meat. That's Christ's goal for all people within his church. But that is not always the case. Individuals do not automatically move or necessarily move from that place of nursing to eating meat. In chapter six, verse one, it says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection.
Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. This nursing state, this childlike state which has its focus on repentance from dead works. A beautiful place for a Christian child to be in. It is extremely satisfying for beginning Christians to know that Jesus Christ takes away the sin burden that causes the expression of sin acts in your life. It's a wonderful thing not to be dominated by the sin sin behavior that you once were characterized by.
Someone should say, I am glad I am not doing the same things I was doing when I was in high school. I'm glad I grew up. I'm glad I'm not dominated by those things anymore. It's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing. I'm glad I don't act the same way. I did when I was 13. That wasn't nice. It is also a beautiful thing to learn to trust God, to learn that he speaks in a certain way.
His voice is always grace and peace to those who hear it. He is never condemnation and bitterness and ugly. The voice of our Father, when He calls us is of beauteous rapture. We learn to respond to that. We learn that the voice of the enemy is condemnation and death.
It is stealing and destruction. And for the Christian to learn to distinguish between the two is an amazing thing. It is beautiful to say no to the devil.
It is wonderful to finally learn I don't have to exist in a state of condemnation for my whole life, that the Father frees me as an adopted member of his family. It's a wonderful thing.
No one's denying that. But if that's all you learn as a Christian, there is something, something wrong. If all you learn is, don't do this and come to me, my child. While we don't detract that it's beneficial, it is not the goal of the Holy Spirit's work in your life that he wants to bring you on from the elementary stages to something more productive in his kingdom.
That we train soldiers, when they get off of the bus on the first day of boot camp, they experience something, don't they? They're being trained. But that's not the goal is just to quail or shake in front of an angry sounding sergeant. No, they're preparing this individual, this young man or woman to go out and to fight, to be a part of an engagement against enemy forces. It is the beginning, the elementary stages that prepare you to be useful in God's kingdom.
You should learn that when God speaks, to listen, when he says no, you should say yes, that's beginning. That's milk. It's beautiful. It's life giving. When he says go or come, you should learn to say yes, Lord.
That is the beginning stages of Christianity. But the goal here is to move on from elementary stages, to use those lessons, to be engaged with God's work that he is accomplishing in his time and in his places. So from there it says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
There's a lady that worked closely with the ministry that Stacy and I did. And she wrote several books and made, made some movies and such a very talented woman. But she also considered herself a prophet and she would go to conferences, you know, I'm not saying one way or another about this, but go to conferences in which different prophets would speak. And she said something, you know, basically, well, I'm in a good spot as a woman because when I make a mistake, I can just admit it and move on. Everyone else, when they say something wrong, you know, they stick to it because they're afraid just to say, you know, I was wrong.
And you know, in some ways, because I was not trained in a certain way, I have no problem admitting that I'm wrong and moving, moving on for it. I hope that's the case. And so the way I used to treat this verse, chapter six, verse one is not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith towards God. And then it was my thought, these are the things that you should move on toward. Leave those things and now let's work on the second grade or the third grade.
So this next list, I would have said these are the things that mature people would be learning. And that's in verse two of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection from the dead, of eternal judgment. I would have thought, hey, the elementary things are repentance from dead works and a faith toward God. But the things that are more advanced are the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands and resurrection from the dead and of eternal judgment. That's the way I approached it for as long as I can remember.
Who knows why, whether someone caught me or just that's what I thought, I don't, I don't know. But in a Bible study someone mentioned, you know, well, it seems to be saying that they're all elementary. That caused me to think and look at it more carefully. And I have come to the conclusion that I think that is what it's saying, that these things, the rest of these lists are also elementary things. Elementary things which once a person has learned should move on from.
These are things that are foundational, necessary, blessed, but they are something that should be grown from a position in which a mature believer can attain a position in God's kingdom that is effective.
The goal of every Christian church is to produce effective Christians, not just Christians who are dependent upon a weekly infusion of milk.
Sometimes it's easier to have that it's very much safer to have just a bunch of nursing babies. Everyone knows that when you have a house full of 13 year old boys, it's not near as safe as the nursery.
Isaiah had the wonderful thought of saying, you know, he goes to his father or grandpa's house and he was a hoarder and collector of knives. So every time he comes back from his house, he brings a pile of knives. So Isaiah had the wonderful thought, you know, whoever works hard at the apple press gets a sharp knife. Wonderful idea, right? And so now we have all these guys have, you know, the little boys, right?
We have guests, they all have knives now, sharp knives. And they're carrying them around, showing everyone, doing everything with these sharp knives, right? It's kind of dangerous to have young men. They're not always safe. Our boys went hiking the other day and I just have this kind of this ominous feeling when a bunch of young men gone hiking with guns.
After one trip to the emergency room in this hiking trip, they made it. They went to the emergency room and went back. Jeshurun shot himself through the hand or the skin of his hand, right? So this is all beautiful, like, hey, it's not safe being a young man. But some of us would rather keep people nursing.
The danger of young men is so great. We just said, you know, can you just stay and nurse a little bit longer? I don't want to risk that. Is there like a stage that goes from nursing directly to adulthood? That's the, that's the path I want old babies to men, but that's not the path that God ordains.
So in this, I would just like to look. I'm going to look at the two first two things, basics regarding these two things. We looked a little bit about repentance from dead works and a faith towards God. But now let's look at the doctrine of baptism, baptisms and of laying on of hands. Now I used to, to.
To think and have views that are slightly different than my own, but when I read about the doctrine of baptisms, it kind of had a little bit of a mysterious sound to it, right? When I heard about the laying on of hands, it felt a little mysterious to me. And I thought this must be some sort of high, high level that people attain to. I remember I went to college and was being discipled by a young man from a different college. And he asked me about laying on of hands.
And I don't know why I said that, and I'm not really sure I said, is that when someone, you know, lays their hands on you and you fall down and are standing slain in the spirit. Now I'm not even sure where it got that because that was not the, the church that I was a part of. But anyway, that's what I said. I didn't know what it was. It Seemed like something mysterious to me and this baptism.
But sometimes we take words like this and we assume things about them. For an example, I'm going to just of the doctrine of baptisms. Baptisms, that's kind of strange. We hear, we see this s on it and we begin to assume something about it. We, we begin to reach out, extend ourselves spiritually to try to find out what is this.
Different churches have run into a problem similar to this. In second Corinthians it says what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise or like baptized for the dead, what does that mean? It seems strange. And if when you don't understand something and you're assuming there must be some sort of far reaching mystical properties regarding this, you begin to build yourself a doctrine based on your feelings.
And you said, well then individuals will say, certain churches say, then if someone can be baptized for the dead, there must be a doctrine of baptizing for the dead. And it must be that maybe then I can be baptized for people who are dead. And there's a whole religious system based on finding out who your dead ancestors are and getting baptized for them. Well, that doesn't seem relative to scripture at all. We don't see any doctrine that supports that.
But when you assume something mysterious about the words, you go beyond looking at scripture to find out what it actually means. Everyone tracking. And so when I assumed baptism, I was like mind, this must be some sort of high level that I have not attained to. But if it's just something basic. So what we need to do is look, what does scripture say about baptism?
What does it say about baptism? How we understand scripture should be by scripture itself rather than building ourselves some sort of idea based on some mysteriousness we see in it. What does scripture say? So I'm going to just go through some of these things. We're going to try to make it through the first two baptisms and laying on of hands.
What are they? So I'm just going to start. First of all, it's not necessarily something that started in the New Testament, okay? These foundational doctrines, if that's what they are, are in the entire Bible. They are listed there.
They have their foundations in the Old Testament. If they have their foundations in the Old Testament, we can assume something about their character in the New Testament. If the Old Testament gives us a picture of what they are, it prevents us from going places in, in the New Testament that are not right are walls to a safeguards keeping us from veering one way or another. Keeping us on the path of what is scriptural. If these are just basic ideas within the Bible, then let's look at them.
Look at them that way. So first of all, in. In numbers, I'm just going to go over some of the ideas of baptism. We get a picture of baptism through the examples of the. The Red Sea, right?
That the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea. They were the property of someone else, and they crossed through the Red Sea and came out the property of somebody else. God was their king. It was a theocracy, right? They were slaves to Pharaoh before, but through crossing the Red Sea, their old master had died, and now they became property of a new master.
So we see some of these ideas being developed in the Old Testament. We also see that individuals who are being prepared for service are told to wash themselves. The Levites, the first thing that they do in being consecrated to God is they are told to wash their bodies right before they are to put on these new clothes. The vestments of the priesthoods, you know, the Yemen and the thumb and the ephod and the turban and the undergarments and outer garments and all this stuff. The first thing they do is they are washed.
And baptism is a picture of us being cleansed from our old nature, being transferred from the kingdom of the devil into the kingdom of the Beloved Son. So we have a picture of that happening in the Old Testament.
I'm going to go to Matthew 28, verse 19. While we're turning there, Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission. We see that baptism is a part of Christ's ministry even before he started it, right? The first thing he does is he goes down to the Jordan river and there he is baptized. That he is baptized in a certain way by John the Baptist.
He is immersed in the Jordan river, and as a result, God's Spirit comes down on him in the form of a dove. Okay? And in 28, we're given the great commission in chapter 28, 19, and 20. And we talked about this a little bit last week because we were actually. There were individuals who were coming to be baptized.
In verse 19, it says, 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 things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. So just as we see that baptism, there is a definite picture running through the Old Testament. Jesus was baptized, and then the first part of his ministry was baptizing other people and that more people came to Jesus to be baptized than were going to John the Baptist.
His baptism was more effective in the lives of the Jewish people than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet who ever lived. And their message was in this baptism, repent and turn. Repent and be baptized, and you will be saved. But now Jesus commands his followers to go in the same line or the same reasoning, the same focus, the same direction. Just as he was baptizing others and teaching them, so now his disciples, those who follow him, are also being called to do the same thing.
Okay, we see the beginning of this work in Acts chapter two. And most a lot of these are in Acts. And my reasoning for going into these just a little bit more and looking at them is we need to set a biblical idea of what baptisms are in order for us to move on from it. Okay? In Acts chapter two, this is the, the, the place after the Holy Spirit came upon the Jewish believers in the beginning.
And as a result, Peter preaches a sermon in chapter two 36 through 39.
In verse 36, chapter two of Acts, verse 36, it says, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall we do? We were the ones who were responsible for crucifying the Lord of glory. We killed the great Judge, we put him to death, we mocked him, and now he's the Lord, the one who has been appointed judge.
That's not a good position to be in. You know, in high school, students had really smart ideas. They're wise people. You know, sometimes I remember the one time you had a teacher, right, Mr. Suter, nice guy. But then a group of students thought, students of Mr. Suter thought, you know, let's have a good idea.
Let's go and toilet paper and egg Mr. Suter's house.
That's a bad idea. But especially when he's the one giving you your grades. Everyone tracking with what I'm saying, it's even worse to kill the one who is to be your judge. That's even worse. Now these people are said, what should we do?
Peter says in verse 34, then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here those individuals who are convicted we are told again, repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We see continuing on, the Ethiopian eunuch was in a spot and he was reading the words of Isaiah the prophet, and Philip the evangelist came by him and explained to him the words he was reading. And straight away, the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized. There was water there and was baptized.
It is a foundational thing to receive baptism. It's no great, mysterious thing. It's one of the elementary things in the kingdom of God that we're called to demonstrate obedience to Jesus Christ by being baptized and repenting for our sins. It's not mysterious. It's the first thing.
Just as there are first words that a father says to their son and he calls them to do something. It's a beautiful thing when they do that first thing. But that's not the goal of life, repent and be baptized. It is a foundational thing. We see also in the Philippian jailer the first thing that when Paul was in jail with Silas and Barnabas and they were singing hymns and there was an earthquake, and then the Philippian jailer says, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And he immediately, repent and be baptized, you and your family. So all of him and his family were baptized. It's interesting to see this kind of continue through. First for the Jews and then two other groups of people. If you remember, there, Peter also had an experience with Roman citizens, with Cornelius, and he went to his house and preached the Gospel and the Holy Spirit fell on those individuals, and then him and his family were all baptized as a sign of confessing Jesus Christ and repenting from their old lifestyle, way of life, their old gods, they had begun a new life.
They were baptized. It is absolutely a beginning concept for Christians to make the stance, I want to repent from my sins. Make a public confession of baptism. If you cannot make this confession before men, there's a problem. But there's also a problem if you cannot move on from there.
A beginning concept. We're going to go back to. Back to Hebrews. It says, for this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the first principles.
The next thing we're going to look at is the laying on of hands. Now, I think you and I probably have had some experience with the laying on of hands, right? I told you that, man. My thought, you know, just drawing from not much wisdom at all, is when everyone lines up in the front and, you know, I'm not very dramatic, but, man, those nice come Guy. And they're just like ow.
And they're just like one after another, just falling down. We think, wow, laying on a hand. This must be something marvelous. And we draw, I think, false conclusions rather than looking. What does the scripture say about laying on of hands?
Is this a basic thing or is it some marvelous spiritual grand growth that people have? So we're going to look at it and start in the Old Testament again, the laying on of hands in numbers 8, 9, 12. Let's start there. Numbers 8, 9 and 12, chapter 8, 9 and 12, it says in numbers 8, 9, 12, it says, and you shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting. And you shall gather together the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
So you shall bring the Levites before the Lord and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord like a wave offering from the children of Israel that they may perform the work of the Lord. Here we see even in the Old Testament, individuals are set apart for ministry by the laying on of hands. They are being recognized for a certain position and a certain work by the laying on of the hands. We see that this enables them something, having had the hands laid upon them.
It says in verse 12, then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the young bulls, and you shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. As a result of the congregation laying the hands on these Levites, the Levites were then able to perform a spiritual work. We see similar thing happening when we get to Moses dying and Moses the prophet of the Lord, when he explains that another prophet is going to rise. And that prophet, you need to make sure that you obey. He's talking about Jesus, but when he's about to die, he lays his hands on Joshua.
He is signifying that, that anointing, that authority for that calling which Joshua has, has been placed upon him. In moving, moving on from there. In Acts chapter 6, verse 6, or even, even before there, we see that one of the apostles, of course Judas, had betrayed Jesus and there needed to be another one. And Matthias was chosen. And then later on, when there needed to be deacons in addition to the apostles to continue the work of preaching, it said seven were chosen and they laid their hands on them.
They put their hands on them, indicating that they were raising them up for a specific purpose, that the anointing, the. The direction of the congregation was to place them in a certain position for ministry. And as a result of having had the hands laid on them, they excelled in their work. The laying on of hands, it appears, gives individuals the ability to accomplish what they are called to. We see in Acts 8, 14.
I know that maybe at least some of us have had some experience or maybe still hold to Pentecostal or Charismatic teaching. I'm not trying to deny that, but we view the gifts of the Holy Spirit being given as the result of laying on of hands. And I'm not going to argue one way or another. But it is interesting to see that there are the laying on of hands with the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. But it is interesting that those are given first of all to the Jews, right?
And the Great Commission is going to all the world into Judea and then Samaria. The next place we see that the laying on of hands is a resulting gift of the Holy Spirit is to the Samaritans. Interesting, but the laying on of the hands. Now we see the Samaritans have the Holy Spirit. Later on we see that the Holy Spirit is given to the Gentiles in large only three times.
It happens to the Jews, to the Samaritans, and then to the rest of the world, all in a similar way. Paul preys on them after he lays his hands on them, after he realized they do not have the Holy Spirit. But after that we don't see any indication that that's the normal. Okay. We see in Acts chapter 13:1 through 3, as a result of fasting and ministering to the Lord, Barnabas and Saul are appointed.
They are given the the charge to go out and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Prior to them going and preaching, guess what happens? The elders come together, lay their hands on them, giving them the anointing and the blessing, so that their work that they will do will be more effective. Over and over we see that this is happening. In First Timothy.
We see a young man, it has talked about how it kind of actually works in First Timothy. Let's see if I can get there. And Paul just mentions it matter of factly in First Timothy chapter four.
All right. In chapter four, verse 14, it says, do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Here Timothy was recognized to have a certain gift, or at least the elder saw it that way. They laid their hands on Timothy, commissioning himself him to that work.
And as a result they are asking Timothy to perform a certain way because you are invested with the laying on of the hands of the congregation. There is an expectation that you will accomplish something that you would not have done done if you were still singled out in your singularity. It's kind of a strange way to word it, but I'm trying to say without the laying on of hands, the motivation that Timothy had would have been different than he had then when the elders laid his hands on him. Later on we see that Paul encourages himself second Timothy the same way that he was the one who is a part of this laying on of a hands and encouraged Timothy to go and be strong, be courageous. Hey look, don't you remember I laid my hands on you.
I anointed you, I appointed you. You are being called to this. Remember it. Don't get distracted. Remember the hard working farmer.
Remember that no one is crowned unless they run according to the rules. Hey, continue Timothy. This continues in chapter 5, verse 20 through 22. We are told that we need to be careful in the laying on of hands. It says in 5:20, those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest may fear.
He says, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure. Here we see that this anointing, this desire to place something on an individual, cannot be something that done hastily. Not just laying your hands on everybody, but recognizing the gifting that is in individuals and being a part of encouraging that work.
I like the thing in, in. In first Timothy, second Timothy, it talks about the deacons gaining good authority as a result of being called deacons. They gain in verse 13 for those who have served well as deacons. It says, obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Jesus Christ. As a result of being dedicated for service.
It enables you to accomplish something with your life that you would not otherwise have been able to. A soldier who puts on a uniform, a police officer who puts on a uniform and wears a badge, should act differently than when they're in civilian clothes. So an individual who has had hands laid upon them recognize that authority has been entrusted to them to do and live differently, to fulfill their gifting. To finish, I would like to say that these are things which are foundational. Foundational, a normal part of the first grade of Christianity.
To be entrusted and understand that you have been anointed with A ministry that you have a heavenly calling on your life to accomplish something with it.
In the military, they have Moses. You know that when you sign up. I'm not just going in there to hang out. The purpose of my four years is not to have a good time. No, I have a calling.
I have an mosquito. I have something to accomplish within the ministry. Some people think that the organization in the Christian church is vastly inferior to the ministry. We feel like the church is just a place where people hang out and no one has responsibilities. Do you really think that Jesus Christ, the commanding officer, calls people into his kingdom and doesn't give them a position?
You guys just go mix it up there, Think about it. Maybe you'll get something right. No. Every individual has been called with a holy calling to accomplish something within the kingdom of God. If you don't know what that is, there's a real problem.
The first grade is knowing what Christ has called you to do. Respond to it in baptism, to have your anointing recognized by a group of people, to be encouraged. Now, yes, perform it. There's people believing and supporting you. You have something to do.
This is the elementary things of Christ.
Now, if I were to ask you and say to you, you know, look, we're going to sort people according to mathematical knowledge here. We're going to grade people. We're going to see who's in calculus, who's in algebra, who's in geometry. There might be people who don't even know how to add. And we're going to have to sort classes.
Some of us would be like, pick on someone else first. Right? Don't ask me the questions, the hard ones. Well, in a similar way, I'm not trying to get down on people, but we need to be able to answer first grade questions if we're in the first grade. If we want to move on past the first grade, we need to gain understanding of what's required in the first grade.
Lord, I need to have responded to you in baptism. I need to understand that you call people with a holy calling and invite them to walk with the commanding officer and be entrusted with responsibility for that responsibility, that gifting, to be recognized within a body and entrusted by a group of people to accomplish something. That's the first grade. So many people are trying to solve the world's problems and engage in a spiritual doctrine, giving understanding to whether we should be this kind, or is it free will, or is it, you know, all these things which people are, you know, struggling with. We're trying to teach professors when we're still haven't got the first grade down.
Put away that other stuff. Let's learn the first grade and move on. It says this we will do if the Lord permits. We're going to look at the other two next, next week. But the Lord is permitting.
He wants people to grow up. And I pray that this church, us, me would grow up. And I pray that growing up we'd become a vital force in this community accomplishing what the Lord desires for the lives of the people around us. We're going to pray and then we're going to have communion. And so let's pray first.
Oh Father. Lord, we do come to you thanking you for entrusting us with basic things, Lord. But give us a desire, Lord, to make sure the basics are accomplished before we try to go into the higher things. These things first, then later, more. Lord, we're just grateful for this time.
In Jesus name, amen.
In communion it says that many are weak and sickly among you because you take communion in a unworthy way.
That is quite, quite, quite a thing. It says many among you are weak and sickly as a result of participating in a spiritual reality. When the, in a. In a spiritual thing without the reality being true has spiritual consequences and does say that an individual is to examine themselves first and then come and take the bread and wine. It is essential to avoid condemnation that we examine ourselves that to prepare ourselves from the reality that there are spiritual consequences to saying something in the Lord's house that is not true, that there should be an examination in that.
I would like to at least make a bold statement that in this church there are people who sin.
I know that might be a wild guess, but there's some thought that at least I could shoot it out there. Someone maybe has sinned in that. It gives a responsibility to us as a congregation. It says confess your sins to one another. We have a group of people who we would say have committed sin.
But the unwillingness to confess sin has one or two roots. Either you as a person are not willing to confess your sin, or we of a congregation have a culture that makes it impossible.
That's tremendously bad. Imagine going into a hospital and every time there you got infected. You came out with mrsa, you went in to get a stitch and you came out with mrsa. That's a very bad thing. That's something that needs to be rectified.
A hospital is a place of healing, not of contamination. If individuals, if many are sick and weakly among you because there's a culture in A church that refuses to allow people or encourage people to repent of sins. And as a result of not repenting, many are weak and sickly. That's something spoken against the body. That's wrong.
How horrid would it be if every time you went to the doctor they hurt you? Some people are avoiding church for the right reasons.
Can I ask forgiveness first? Father, I am so sorry I'm wrong.
Forgive our church, God. Lord, we want to move on from childish behavior.
Change has got a world is dying, hurting and has no physician, no balm of Gilead. The doctor's not at home.
O God, I cry from the weakest part of my being. From a place of flickering faith. Can you do something here? Can you? Can you move us on to perfection?
Could you? Could you take hearts as hard as ours and accomplish something beautiful? Lord, we believe that you are the master. That you take sinful people and make things that are beautiful. Lord, please breathe something into our lives, Lord, Our days are a flower, fleeting shadow, Lord Smoke vanishing before the wind.
Lord, our days are almost expired. One more and then the grave, Lord, before it's too late if there's still hope. Accomplish something. Do something. Rise up like a mighty man who arises out of his sleep Like a drunkard who shakes himself off and accomplish something beautiful.
Lord and I pray in our hearts, if not publicly. Lord, would we confess our sin to you before we take communion? Prevent us from keeping people sick. In Jesus name, Amen.