Luke 5:12-26

Discussion Questions

1. Simultaneously fully God and fully man, Jesus understood the limitations of his humanity and regularly took time to rest, regroup and reconnect with the Father through prayer. If Jesus made time to do this, how much more so should we? In the clamor of our crowded schedules, how can we create intentional space to spend time before the Father? What difference could this make in our daily lives?
2. The command to love God and each other is at the very heart of the scriptures. Do we realize that this is also the ultimate way to glorify God? How does this knowledge affect both our mindset and our actions? Are we treating people around us—especially the least of these—in ways that bring glory to God?
3. Do we see our pain and weaknesses as a gift? What would change if we began to think of our present sufferings and shortcomings as our greatest sources of strength? How can we shift our focus to realize that our weakest places are what drive us directly to Jesus? Are we resting in the knowledge that nothing we do will ever cause Him to turn away from us?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. Shocker. And we’re going to do that today. If you’d like a paper copy to follow along with, just raise your hand, and one of our cheerful, delightful saints will hand-deliver it to you with a smile. And as always, up on our screen, there’s our Wi-Fi, the login info, the password, and the ever-present QR code, if you’d like to download the notes and quotes and all the bits from our service today. But in case you haven’t heard, we have a new app. And watch this. Let me find it here on my eight pages of apps. If you go to the Church Center app, and then you hit lower right-hand corner More, look what’s right there, Sermon notes and quotes. You don’t even have to do the QR code. Amazing. That app was such a good idea, Emily. Thanks for listening.

Okay, who knew that the QR code would be so obsolete so quickly, but it is. Just go to the app, right? Oh, and we also want to say a special hello to our friends who join us, either this morning or throughout the week, online. Good morning, friends. We’re so glad you’re with us. And last week, we had the pleasure of folks joining us from Auckland, New Zealand. That is a long way away from Nashville, Tennessee. It’s not so very far from Bacolod, Negros Occidental in the Philippines and Jakarta, Indonesia. So, welcome friends, whenever and wherever you visit and worship with us. We’re glad you’re here.

Well, okay. So, I’m curious: If I did ask for a show of hands – I’m not going to, just be comfortable – but if I asked for a show of hands, after asking, “How’s everybody doing this morning?” How many of us would say, “I got to say things are going pretty well right now. Things are humming along on that end of the spectrum.” And then how many of us would be on the other end of the spectrum that would say, “I got to tell you, I need a miracle right now. If God somehow does not show up and intervene, the bottom is going to fall out tonight.” How many of us might be in that place this morning?

In our passage today, we’re going to meet two such men, two men whose lives are so broken and so on the edge of having no hope that they’re desperately looking for an answer. And they hear of this Jesus. They’ve heard, “Man, this Jesus, He does things. He heals sickness. He drives out demons. He’s even raised a little girl back to life.” And so, they risk everything to find Him. And the question then becomes, could this Jesus work a miracle for them if they’re able to find Him? Not only, could He work a miracle, but would He work a miracle for them? These are two really great stories that we’re going to dive into. And I’m calling our passage today, “The Right Side Up.”

Almost all of us, from the strongest believer to the staunchest atheist, we can look around and say things just aren’t quite the way they should be. For those of us who’ve watched the show, Stranger Things, there’s this sense that the world we inhabit is disordered and there’s a bit of the upside down to the world that we inhabit. And the fact that all of us, even non-believers, have this sense that things aren’t quite right, that they aren’t quite the way they should be, implies that there’s also this hidden sense that says, “Okay, wait a minute, there must be a place where things are as they should be. Or maybe there was even a time when things were as they should be, not upside down, but right side up.”

And in their book, The Explicit Gospel, Matt Chandler and Jared Wilson talk about this very thing. They say the miracles of Jesus are signs of the right order of things. Jesus was not so much turning things upside down as turning them right side up, or at least giving His followers glimpses of the right side up. The miracles of healing, deliverance, provision, and resurrection all reveal that God, through Jesus, is making all things new. He is making all things… what we just sang. He’s restoring what once was unbroken. And one of the things that I love the most about the Christian faith, what I believe points to its veracity, is its honesty. The Christian faith tells us that God created everything that there is. He created it whole, complete, and unbroken, but that we as humans have pretty much messed the whole thing up, made an utter mess of it. But through Jesus, God is restoring and making things new. He’s making all things new, all of creation, reconciling it back to Him. There’s such hope in that honesty, right?

German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, best known for his book, The Theology of Hope, agrees with what Chandler and Wilson just said. And he says,

“Miracles are not an interruption of the natural order, but the manifestation of the true natural order as intended by God.”
Jurgen Moltmann

We get so used to the upside down, the fallen world and all that comes with it, disease, pain and death. Those things end up seeming normal to us, but they’re not. They’re the interruption of God’s true order. Pastor Jim showed this slide a couple of weeks ago talking about, what do Jesus’ miracles display? What is the human response to them in the gospels? They arouse curiosity. They draw people in to find out who this Jesus is. They display His power, power over nature, over sickness and disease, and even death itself. They reveal His compassion for the most broken among us. They affirm His identity as the Son of God. And they inspire worship by those who witness these miracles.

So, I’d ask, pay attention as we read through our passage today and see where we might see those five elements of what Jesus’ miracles instill in us. Well, let’s pray, and then start in reading our text, friends: Lord, we’re grateful for this day. Holy Spirit, I pray that You would meet each one of us at our point of greatest need and illumine Your Word in our hearts and our minds and our souls. And to that end, show us Your ways, O Lord. Teach us Your paths. Guide us in Your truth and teach us. For You, our God, our Savior, and our hope is in You all the day long. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

Okay, so Chapter 5 of Luke, starting in verse 12. “While He was in one of the cities [up in Galilee], there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately, the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but ‘go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.’ But now, even more, the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”

So, in biblical times, some 13 skin diseases were classified as leprosy. Some were infectious and some weren’t. And it’s worth reading through chapters 13 and 14 of Leviticus. Chapter 13 deals with laws concerning leprosy when you have it, what it looks like. And then chapter 14 deals with laws concerning the cleansing from leprosy. Leprosy is now called Hansen’s disease. It’s now curable and treatable when it’s properly diagnosed. It comes from a bacterium. And it primarily affects the skin, the eyes, the nerves, and the respiratory tract.

But back in biblical times, before treatment was available, gosh, a diagnosis of leprosy could have meant a very long and slow death. Because of the damage done to the nerves, I would say it was a painful death, but that’s exactly what it wasn’t. Because of the damage done to the nerves, the leprosy patient couldn’t feel pain. If you had leprosy, you might put your hand on a fire or on a hot stove and burn your hand, but you would have no sensation of your hand being burned. You might step off a stone and badly twist your ankle, but you wouldn’t feel the pain. And so, you’d keep walking on that twisted ankle, damaging it further.

And humans, we blink our eyes, on the average, 14,000 times a day. That’s crazy. But if you have leprosy, you lose this sense of feeling like you need to blink your eyes. Your eyes dry out. They’re prone to disease and infection and damage from the sun. And a lot of leprosy patients end up going blind. We tend to avoid pain as much as possible, don’t we? Just whatever form it comes in, physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain, all different types of pain, boy, as soon as we feel some pain, we’re very quick to do something to alleviate the pain, aren’t we? But the person with leprosy has the exact opposite issue. Their issue is not being able to feel pain.

Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey have this beautiful book called Fearfully and Wonderfully. Dr. Brand was a doctor. He worked with leprosy patients in Louisiana and in India, and he points out in this book what a vital role the sensation of pain does for us. And here’s what he says. “Pain, so often viewed as an enemy, is actually the sensation most dedicated to keeping us healthy. If I had the power to choose one gift for my leprosy patients, I would choose the gift of pain.” Man, the gift of pain? That’s a great sermon topic right there. We could go on for quite a while about that. Well, in addition to all of the physical things, what made leprosy, especially in biblical times, so terrible was that, if you were diagnosed with leprosy, you had to move outside of your community to a leper colony. All contact with your friends, your family, your work; it was all gone. You were totally isolated. You were outcast.

And in biblical times, the disease, it was so infectious, so contagious, that if you were out in public and you saw people coming and you had leprosy, you had to shout, “Unclean, unclean,” so they would know not to get near you. The isolation was a terrible byproduct of the disease. Well, verse 12 in our passage starts off by telling us this man was filled with leprosy. And that probably meant that he had had this disease for a long, long time. That meant that he had had no contact with his family for a long time. Having to say goodbye to them would’ve been excruciating. That probably meant a long time without close human contact. The only human contact this man would’ve had would have been with other patients, other people in the leper colony, which would’ve been a poor substitute for his family.

As he approached Jesus, he probably was clothed in bloody rags. And who knows what physical damage had already been done to his body, without getting too graphic about it? Well, somehow, our person with leprosy had heard about this man, Jesus, heard that He was coming to his town. And man, he takes a big risk, and he goes out in public and finds where this Jesus is. And he comes to Him, and he falls on his face before Him and he begs. He says, “Lord, if You are willing, if You will, You can make me clean.” Our man, he knows about Jesus. He’s heard stories about Him. So, he knows that Jesus can heal. But here’s the risk. Here’s the question. Here’s the vulnerability as he comes to Jesus: Will He heal the man? And look at how Jesus responds. I love this. Jesus always sees the immediate need of the person right in front of Him, but He also sees the deeper need of our hearts and souls. That’s beyond the immediate need.

He knows that this man has had no meaningful contact with a human who is clean. His only contact has been with others who are unclean. And so, before Jesus heals the man, He reaches out and He touches him, giving him human contact. And the word in Greek for that touch is “hapto.” And it means more of a big embrace, rather than just this reaching out to barely touch the guy. No, Jesus gives him a big hug, gives this man the contact that he’s been missing and longing for. And Jesus is unafraid of this contact.

And then, secondly, He responds to this man’s fear that, “Maybe, Jesus could heal me, but would Jesus be willing to heal me?” And that’s why Jesus says, “Oh, I will. Oh, buddy, I will. Be clean.” And we read that, immediately, the man’s leprosy is gone. Just amazing. And here’s the evidence of the right side up. Touching the unclean man didn’t make Jesus unclean. The exact opposite happened in this great reversal of Mosaic law, which stated that, if you came into contact with someone or something unclean, you would be made unclean and you had to go through this ritual cleaning process, going and making offerings and sacrifices in order to be cleansed.

That doesn’t happen. Jesus, the most holy one, is not made unclean by the leper. No, it’s the exact opposite. The holiness and power and divinity of Jesus reaches out and cleanses that man and makes him clean. But because Jesus respects the law and has come to fulfill the law, what does He do? He instructs the man to go and show himself to the priest and make the correct offerings for this cleansing to prove that he’s been healed. Man, I love that. There’s such respect for the Mosaic Law shown by Jesus here. And so, you can bet that that man, after he leaves the priest, he goes home and he opens the door and says, “Honey, I’m home.” What a reunion that would’ve been that day.

Well, verse 15, at the end of this first pericope, it tells us that news of the healing spread, which, of course, it would because this guy that had been walking around in these bloody, messy rags and was in a leper colony for who knows how long, is suddenly clean, bright; his face looks like a newborn baby. Great crowds gathered to hear him and seek healing for their infirmities. “Man, if he could do it for Fred, he could do it for me.” And then verse 16, beautifully shows us Jesus’ humanity – fully God, fully man. As Jesus spends great effort teaching, preaching, ministering and healing the crowds, He gets weary. And He balances that out by spending time alone, we read, in desolate places, praying to the Father and regaining His strength.

So, let’s keep reading at verse 17. “On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.” I’ve got to say two correlation things here before we get deeper into this pericope. The fact in verse 15, where the news of his healing was spreading abroad and all of these great crowds were gathering, all of a sudden, the Pharisees and the scribes and the teachers of the law stood up and said, “Oh, we got to start paying attention to what’s going on.” They sent guys from Jerusalem, all the way up to Galilee, to Capernaum, to come and hear what Jesus is talking about.

In the end of verse 17, the power of the Lord was with Him to heal. I think that directly correlates to all of this time that He spends in solitude, praying to His father. I think there’s something there. When we spend time alone with God, the presence of God goes with us as we go back out. Okay, moving on, verse 18. “And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. But finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’ And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

“When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, ‘Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, rise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the man who was paralyzed – ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And immediately, he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all and they glorified God.”

That whole crowded house was rocking, glorifying God. And “they were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today.’” Well, let’s set this scene up. Jesus is teaching in a house. It could have been Peter’s house; we don’t know for sure. But that house is jam-packed with people from the village and then also all of these teachers of the law and these pharisees, crowd is probably spilling out into the courtyard, and the inside just had to be wall-to-wall people listening to what Jesus was teaching. Well, enter these four friends, who had a fifth friend, who we’re going to call Eddie, who’d been paralyzed since childhood. Maybe, this is a little bit of interpretation, but maybe the story went something like this.

Maybe three of those buddies are, after work they’re having coffee at the village Starbucks, and the fourth friend runs in out of breath and he’s like, “Guys, guys, I just heard that that Jesus guy is in town. I think He’s over at Peter’s house. I think He’s teaching. I think we need to get Eddie and take him to Jesus to see if he will get healed.” And so, they run to the corner where Eddie’s lying on his mat, where he gets taken by his parents to beg every morning. They pick Eddie up and run with him around the corner to Peter’s house. And Eddie’s on his mat, going, “Guys, what are you doing? What are you doing? Don’t drop me.” Well, they come around the corner to Peter’s house, and boom, reality hits because they see this crowd spilling out into the courtyard. And they just go, “Man, it ain’t happening today. Eddie, so sorry, we can’t get you to Jesus.”

But one in the group gets a little wild-eyed look, and he says, “Guys, come with me. I’ve got an idea. We’re going to take Eddie up on the roof. Just trust me.” So, that’s what they do. They pick Eddie up. And I don’t know how they did it because they were climbing the stairs. The guys in front would have to be holding low, the guys in back holding high. They get Eddie up onto the roof, and then the friend explains what they’re going to do. They’re going to start tearing a hole in the roof. “Sorry, Mr. Homeowner.” They probably aren’t even thinking that far. They’re going to tear a hole in the roof and lower Eddie down.

And one of the guys, maybe he’s the most engineering-oriented of the four, he goes, “You know what? I think this will work. Let’s do this and this and this.” And he starts getting ideas and instructing them. And they start pulling tiles off and the thatch off. And pretty soon, they get a hole big enough to put Eddie down through. Well, for the people’s experience in the house, they’re listening to Jesus teach. And then, all of a sudden, they hear all this commotion up on the roof. Then they start seeing some trickles of dust. Like, “What is going on?” And all of a sudden, bigger chunks of things start falling down. And all of a sudden, there’s a hole, and there’s four bearded faces peering in the hole. And they say, “Yes.” And then they see this guy obviously paralyzed being let down on a mat right in front of Jesus’ feet.

And then what happens? Jesus looks at Eddie, and He says the weirdest thing. He looks at Eddie and He says, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And you can almost hear one of the guys from up on the roof saying, “No, it’s his legs. It’s his legs.” And the room just erupts in noise. And then you can see that the Pharisees, they’re reacting to what Jesus said. They’re saying, “This guy’s uttering blasphemy. Who can forgive sin but God alone?” Well, duh. They’re speaking the truth, and they don’t even realize that Jesus is God in the flesh, and He does have the ability to forgive sins. Well, then, when they say that, the room gets quiet again and Jesus looks at them and He says, “Why are you questioning this?” And then He goes on to explain, He says, “Okay, what’s easier, forgiving someone’s sins, which is not visible to the naked eye, or healing someone’s paralysis, which is visible to the naked eye?” And He says, “Look, just so you know that the Son of Man does indeed have authority on earth to forgive sins,” He looks over and He goes, “Eddie, pick up your mat and go home.”

And Eddie just does that. He straightens out these legs that have been curled up for so long. He straightens those legs out. Man, he stands up and he looks around the room and he rolls up that dirty mat that he’s been lying on. And he takes off out the front door, headed for home, glorifying God. His friends have to run after him, and all of a sudden, they can’t keep up with Eddie. And he chucks that dirty mat in the nearest dumpster. And then he gets home. And he knocks on the front door, and his mom answers. And this is probably the first time in, who knows how long, they’ve looked at each other eye to eye. And what a moment that was.

And back at the crowded house, the whole room is erupting in glorifying God and just saying, “What have we seen here today? This is amazing. This is extraordinary. This is the right side up.” Wow, what two great stories revealing God’s heart towards us. Well, what does this passage mean for us in 2024? If we’re followers of Jesus, if we have glimpses of living in the right side up, what do we take away from this passage? What effect does this have on our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with each other?

Now, I say the first thing is, how are we living in light of the Gospel, in terms of living in the right side up? My question for us, in a horizontal sense, how are we treating the outcasts and the isolated among us? Somebody that makes us uncomfortable, are we trying to keep them at arm’s length? When we interact with someone in their brokenness like the leper, are we trying to keep them at a comfortable distance? Are we just using the smallest amount of human contact necessary? Or are we fully embracing them like Jesus did with the leper? Is our posture, “There’s something wrong with you. I don’t want to get near you in case it’s contagious, whatever that is, physical, mental, spiritual, addictive behavior?” Is that our response and posture to someone among us who’s broken and outcast?

Or is our response more like Jesus, to embrace them and say, “I see you. I’m going to be with you and walk with you right where you are right now. I’m going to walk alongside you. I’m going to encourage you. I’m going to carry your burden with you, if you’ll let me. And oh, hey, I’d really like to introduce you to my friend, Jesus, because He’d really like to help you carry that burden.” Is that our posture towards those among us who are outcast and isolated in their brokenness?

John Piper says it like this:

“Love means doing all we can, at whatever cost to ourselves, to help people be enthralled with the glory of God.  [Showing God’s beauty and light and love to others.] When they are, [when others are enthralled with the glory of God] they are satisfied and God is glorified. Therefore, loving people and glorifying God are one.”
John Piper

Like the friends of the paralytic man, are we desperate to bring our friends to Jesus, for whatever reason they need to be brought to Jesus? Are we living in that? Are we desperate to bring our friends to Jesus, to take a risk, to find a way to get them there? And I love how Luke 5 phrases it. It said, these men, they were “seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.” Man, that’s great. The friends, they weren’t trying to save or heal their buddy on their own. They just knew that, if they got him to Jesus, there would be a chance that he would get healed. They were living expectantly. And we can live expectantly, too, with our friends and our loved ones. As we bring them to Jesus, we can trust that God is at work.

And here’s how Eugene Peterson says it in his book, On Living Well. He says: “Christians should live on tiptoe. Alert. Joyful. Affirmative. Wide-eyed. Ready… In expectation of Christ, we should prepare ourselves to participate wholeheartedly in God’s next move.” That’s my question for us. Friends, are we living on tiptoe? Are we leaning in, waiting to see what God is going to do, and then waiting to see how we might get to participate in His action along with Him?

Well, then the second thing that’s really stuck out to me in this passage about living in the right side up is that Jesus is aware of all our sins, past, present, and future. And friends, He is not afraid of any of them. He’s not afraid of our sins. Nothing that we’ve already done, good or bad, nothing that we’re going to do today, tonight, tomorrow, next week – none of that drives Jesus away from us. He is not afraid of that. None of that will keep Him from fully embracing us when we come to Him.

Dane Ortlund says it like this in Gentle and Lowly: “The dominant note left ringing in our ears after reading the Gospels, the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces and forgive those who least deserve it yet truly desire it. God runs to us in our brokenness.” He doesn’t move away from us. He moves towards us. Our brokenness does not gross Him out. It doesn’t drive Him away. He’s not put off by it. He’s not surprised.

Joni Eareckson Tada talks about this, and here’s what she says:

“Nothing is a surprise to God; nothing is a setback to His plans; nothing can thwart His purposes; and nothing is beyond His control.”
Joni Eareckson Tada

Friends, God, He’s not surprised, either by our victories or our failures. He rejoices with us in our victories, and He weeps with us in our failures, but He’s not surprised by either one. He knows our every step, and He works all things together for good in His plan.

Our brokenness will not defeat Him. Jesus is greater than our sin. Typically, we try not to double-quote people in our sermons. But while I was searching for that first quote by Joni Eareckson Tada, I ran across this next one. And man, I thought it was just so perfect for this. She says,

“My weakness – that is my quadriplegia – is my greatest asset because it forces me into the arms of Christ every single morning when I get up.”
Joni Eareckson Tada

Are we living there? Is that where we’re living in the morning when we get up? I know we all walked in through the door this morning in different places. And I don’t know where each of us are in our lives at this moment. But I do know this: Jesus is not running from you this morning. He is running and moving towards you. You may feel like the leper, outcast and isolated by your brokenness.

Jesus is moving towards you. He’s ready to embrace you and heal you. You may feel like the paralytic in our passage who is unable to move on his own. He needed his friends’ help just to get to Jesus. You might feel like that this morning, like you’re in a place where you just cannot move. And to be honest, somebody this morning might not even be wanting to move towards Jesus. Maybe, you’re just wanting to move towards Jesus. Maybe that’s all you have this morning. And you know what? Jesus is moving towards you at this very moment, too. And you may be at a place of knowing about Jesus, but not quite knowing Him personally yet. And there may be some doubt or question in your mind, “Yeah, I know. I hear all this talk that Jesus can forgive me. He can move towards me. He can embrace me. But will He?” And I want to encourage you that Jesus is moving towards you this morning, too, saying, “I will. I meet you. I will save you. I will make you whole.”

So, friends, no matter where we are this morning, Jesus is moving towards each one of us and inviting us in. I’ll close with this Keller quote, reminding us that the right side up, which we just get glimpses of right now; it will come in its fullness, and we can hope in Jesus who will bring that to pass. Keller says,

“The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that He has power, but it’s also a foretaste of what He is going to do with that power.”
Tim Keller, The Reason for God

Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts that the world we all want is coming. Amen.

Let’s pray, Church: Heavenly Father, O we thank You for Jesus who is moving towards us and is so unafraid of the worst we can offer, who loves us for everything we have done and for everything we have left undone. His love never changes. And we thank You for that love. We thank You for that touch from Jesus that makes us whole. And He is unafraid of that. Lord, we come to You this morning, fall at your feet and just say, “Jesus, if you’re willing, You can make us clean. You can make us whole.” And we trust in You, knowing that You are ready and willing and able to do that very thing. We lift this up in Your name. Amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“Grace Greater Than Our Sin“ by Julia H. Johnston
“He Is Making All Things Right” by Ben Shive, Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson
“Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me“ by Jonny Robinson, Michael Farren, and Rich Thompson
“He Is“ by David Crowder, Hank Bentley, and Jeff Pardo
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship: Make a Joyful Noise

Leader: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
All: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God While I have my being.

Leader: Believers in Christ, bless the Lord; Let all that is within you Bless his holy name!
All: My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, For his steadfast love endures forever! Amen!

Confession: The Providence of God

Leader: What do you understand by the providence of God?
People: Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that: leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

Leader: How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?
People: We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature will separate us from his love…

Source: Heidelberg Catechism, Questions 27 & 2

Classic Prayer: Cornelius Plantinga

O God, your people give you hearty thanks for your matchless grace…Rescuer of the shamed, you reach into human pits to lift the fallen. We sink into addiction, and you come to heal. We sink into folly, and you come to correct. We sink into corruption, and you come to sanctify. Refuge of all who suffer, we look for shelter in the shadow of your wings. Rain and hail and wind beat on your wings, but they do not fold. They are spread like Jesus’s arms on the cross, spread out to protect all who seek shelter beneath them. O God, wondrous in love for sinners, we give you thanks for your saving grace.

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