Sermon text

Exodus 20:8–11

[8] “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. [11] For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (ESV)

Call to Worship

Psalm 73:21–26

[21] When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
[22] I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

[23] Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
[24] You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
[25] Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
[26] My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (ESV)

Prayer of Confession

O Lord, our holy God, Help us and heal us. We are stubborn blind people who repeatedly and willfully stray from you. In our blindness, even our ability to confess our sin has been distorted. Yet Christ has acknowledged our helpless estate and has shed his own blood for our souls. Your steadfast love surrounds us, because your steadfast love was taken away from him. Father, create in us clean hearts that are truly broken for our remaining struggles with sin, yet are utterly confident that your love is more than enough to reach the foulest sinner who trusts in you. We pray not in our own strength but in the perfect righteousness of Christ, Amen.