← Back to sermon library

This is the second part of two 
parts. So if you weren't here last time, 
the first three chapters were sort of dealt with last time. 
So we will be discussing the latter four paragraphs of this 
chapter. So I'll read it out and then 
I'll begin. Good works are only such as God hath commanded in 
his holy word, and not such as without the warrant thereof are 
devised by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good 
intentions. These good works done in obedience to God's commandments 
are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. And 
by them, believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their 
assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, 
stop the mouths of adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship 
they are created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that having their 
fruit unto holiness, they may have the end eternal life. Their 
ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly 
from the Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto. 
Besides the graces that they have already received, there 
is necessary an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work 
in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Yet they are 
not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to 
perform any duty, unless upon a special motion of the Spirit. 
But they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God 
that is in them. They who in their obedience attain to the 
greatest height which is possible in this life are so far from 
being able to supererogate and to do more than God requires 
as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound 
to do. We cannot, by our best works, 
merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God, by reason 
of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory 
to come, and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom 
by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our 
former sins. But when we have done all we 
can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants. 
And because as they are good, they proceed from His Spirit, 
and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled and mixed with 
so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity 
of God's punishment. Yet notwithstanding the persons 
of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works are 
also accepted in Him, not as though they were in this life 
wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, but that He, 
looking upon them in His Son, is pleased to accept and reward 
that which is sincere. although accompanied with many 
weaknesses and imperfections. Works done by unregenerate men, 
although for the matter of them they may be things which God 
commands and of good use both to themselves and others, yet 
because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor 
are done in a right manner according to the word, nor to a right end 
the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please God, 
nor make a man meet to receive grace from God. and yet their 
neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God. So last day, I started off with 
paragraph one. I'm just going to briefly recap. 
Started off with paragraph one, and the main emphasis here, and 
it carries throughout the chapter, is that good works are only such 
which God commands. We can't create good works ourselves, 
the church cannot create good works, or call things good works 
which God hasn't called good works. It is God's revealed commands 
in the Bible which are good works. And that's it. And a sort of 
neglect of this, or a denial of this, is where many errors 
come in. And particularly in this chapter, 
it's writing against a Roman Catholic error. particularly 
in paragraph four here, we'll deal with supererogation, which 
is a Roman Catholic error, and it really springs right from 
a neglect of good works being only what God has commanded in 
his holy word. Doing good works, there are many 
benefits, there's many things that they do. Good works in the 
believers, as you can see in paragraph two here, they evidence 
a true and lively faith, they manifest our thankfulness, they 
strengthen our assurance, they edify others, they adorn the 
profession of the gospel, they create a sort of context where 
the gospel can be heard, And they stop the mouths of adversaries. And they also, finally, they 
glorify God. Good works ultimately point to 
God and glorify him. And in the third paragraph here, 
you see that good works and believers, they require the actual working 
of the Holy Spirit. The understanding of this can 
sort of lead us into a mistake. What happens is the Holy Spirit's 
responsibility, while at the same time, we have to understand 
that God himself is at work within us, and that is part of how we 
do good works. So starting in paragraph four, 
we see supererogation, which is one of those big, fancy words 
which is sort of hard to understand. 
It's not really at all part of our common vocabulary. I can't 
remember ever really hearing supererogation other than in 
the context of the confession. It's not a common word. And it's 
also not a good word. It's not a word like trinity, 
or justification, or sanctification. It's not a good word that we 
need to embrace. It's actually a word that is capturing an error. It is contrary to justification 
by faith alone. It is contrary to all of the 
good Protestant doctrine. And it is a peculiarly Roman 
Catholic sort of idea. So supererogation. I'm going 
to read a quote by Richard Muller, just sort of explaining what 
this concept, what this word really means, and then putting 
it in its sort of doctrinal context. Supererogation, it is a concept 
in medieval and later Roman Catholic theology according to which the 
saints were believed to have performed works of full merit 
beyond those enjoined by commands of God in the law. Their further 
obedience was defined in terms of the holy life held forth by 
the councils of the gospel. It was argued that the supererogatory 
merits of the saints could be dispensed by the church from 
its treasury of merits and bestowed his indulgences on those whose 
lives did not fulfill the legal requirements of salvation. I don't know if anyone has seen 
the movie Luther, probably familiar with the general outline of Luther's 
life. There's sort of this, there's 
scenes in the movie where you see Luther is confronted with indulgences. He sees Tetzel and he sees these 
abuses. And this is sort of really talking about that very thing. 
Tetzel is giving, he's taking money and he's giving these indulgences. 
He's springing people from purgatory faster than they would on their 
own merits. And that treasury of merit Supererogation 
is the Roman Catholic scheme, I guess, where the treasury of 
merit is filled. And I'll talk a bit more about 
that. But if you can see, that's connected with this whole system 
of indulgences, of purgatory, of the treasury of merit. It's 
connected with extra works that Roman Catholics add. And that's 
really contrary to our Protestant convictions. It's contrary to 
what the Bible says, and it's contrary to what the Confession 
says. So this is what supererogation is. It's the concept that we 
can add beyond what God requires of us. And that actual adding, 
it goes somewhere, and then God can dispense it out. That's supererogation. So I think... I'd like to use the whiteboard 
to illustrate this. You can sort of imagine, in this circle, these are the works. that God has actually commanded. 
So in this circle is all of the biblical works, everything we 
are commanded to do, love our neighbor, obey the Sabbath, not 
commit adultery, not to covet, everything is in here, positive 
and negative works, everything is in here. So this is what God 
has commanded us to do. And really, this is paragraph 
one. This is what we do. We don't 
do anything more than this. We don't bind anyone's consciences 
with anything more than this. But there's a distinction in 
Roman Catholicism between precepts, so works that are, they're required, 
they admit that they're required. And then there's these sort of 
other things, sort of councils. They come from the church. And 
this is where you get interesting things like not marrying. So, 
you know, if you give yourself into a life of singleness, you're 
actually doing something above and beyond what is required of 
you. It's sort of this extra thing. 
Or a vow of poverty, or things like this. This is this extra. And this is, in the Roman Catholic 
scheme, something entirely, you can do this. After you're regenerated, 
you can fulfill this. You cannot commit adultery. You 
just don't do it. You cannot murder. You just don't 
kill anybody. And then you get these, and you 
do these extra works. So you fulfill this, and you're 
going to heaven. And then you fulfill this, and 
this goes into the Treasury of Merit, the bank. And so other 
less awesome people than you, they get some of your works that 
can be transferred. And you can bring people out 
of purgatory. Well, the church dispenses that. And so you get 
this extra above and beyond, this super-irrigation, something 
above what is required. So this extra thing is what is 
the problem. And just quickly, you might be 
wondering why I'm a Catholic. I mean, if you're a good Protestant, 
you know your Bible, you've looked inside your heart, you realize, 
hey, there's a lot of sin in there. And I do something good, 
but really, I look back on it, and it wasn't all that good. 
I thought I was doing that generously, but actually, there was a lot 
of selfishness in that. Well, yeah, I have never committed 
adultery, but yeah, I've done a woman in plus. Or hey, I've 
never actually murdered anyone. Man, do I have an anger problem? Or these sort of things. I mean, 
we go sermon on the mount. So we're looking at our hearts, 
and we're thinking, yeah, we can't make this. This doesn't 
work. Well, the sort of Roman Catholic scheme is looking at 
it more like you would see in the relationship of a person 
in relation to the state. So if you can imagine that you're 
driving down the highway and the speed limit is 110, and you 
only drive 110, well then you sort of fulfilled that requirement. 
sort of biblically, confessionally, the requirement is not just that 
you legitimately, just on the outward appearance, fulfill it, 
but it's that your heart's in it as well. There's an actual 
joyful obedience here. You're actually doing it for 
the glory of God. There's actual reasons beyond just outward appearance. 
There's actually a heart component as well. Just because you don't 
commit adultery doesn't mean that your heart is pure. It doesn't 
mean that you're all right. Just because you've never murdered 
someone doesn't mean you're all right. Just because on the outward 
sign, you don't go to Walmart on a Sunday doesn't mean you're 
really keeping the Lord's Day. There's more to it than just 
outward signs. But the Roman Catholics sort 
of look at it like that state thing. So you obey the speed 
limit. You don't actually commit adultery. 
You don't murder anybody. And because of that, this is 
sort of fulfilled. The laws of the land are fulfilled, 
and then this extra stuff, this is where the heart comes in. 
You know, you love God so much that you take a vow of poverty, 
or you devote yourself to singleness. And that's where that extra stuff 
comes in. So you're obeying the laws of 
the land, but then you just go a bit further. Not only do you 
not murder anybody, but you're nice to people. And so there's 
that extra bit. But this is a system that's contrary 
to scripture. Here, if you want to turn with 
me. Just going to get everyone to 
nod. Does that make sense? Have I labored that point enough? 
Isaac says yes. Mrs. Jones says yes. OK. If you 
want to turn with me to Romans chapter 3, verse 21 to 26. Romans chapter 3 verses 21 to 
26. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart 
from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness 
to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ 
for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all have 
sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified 
by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to 
be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness 
because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. 
It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he 
might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So you can see here in Romans 
3, 21 to 26, that we are only justified as a gift But there's also no one is righteous, 
not one. Nobody keeps the law. If you go further back in Romans, 
you can see that clearly. If you can go back a verse, go 
to Romans 3.20. For by the works of the law, 
no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the 
law comes knowledge of sin. I think that should be a verse 
that we're all fairly familiar with due to recent teaching. We don't actually keep the law. We don't merit the law. We can't 
even fulfill what's in that circle, works. So how can we fulfill 
anything extra? If the sum total of good works 
are what God has required, and we can't even do that, how does 
it even make sense that we can somehow go beyond that? If what 
God requires is complete heart obedience, complete entire perpetual 
heart obedience, good works on the outside, good works on the 
inside, right motivation, all of these things. You can see 
this in the chapter. If that's what God requires, then how can 
we say, OK, we've done that, and now we've done extra? It 
doesn't actually make sense, granted some very clear biblical 
texts, some very clear Protestant, Reformed, confessional, biblical 
understanding. It doesn't make sense. You have 
to sort of grant the, Roman Catholic position of church 
authority as well. There's some stuff beyond the 
Bible that once you no longer hold this as the standard, as 
the only standard, and you bring in the pope, you bring in councils, 
you bring in these kind of things, this sort of thing falls. And 
you get doctrines like supererogation. Some other texts. or another 
text, Proverbs 20, verse 9. You don't have to turn there, 
just if you want to write it down or remember it. Really, 
all our work's done or tainted with sin. And so given this, given how 
we fall short of the glory of God, supererogation, It really 
is a bad word. It's not a good word. That's 
what it is. It's going above and beyond what 
God has required, but we can't do that. And then I've got a 
quote here. This is Charles Hodge. He's sort of rhetorically just 
driving it home, perhaps better than I could do, just really 
rhetorically just showing how supererogation is not is not 
biblical. And so he puts it like this. 
It is only by making sin to be no sin, by teaching men that 
they are perfect when even their own hearts condemn them, it is 
only by lowering the demands of the law which, being founded 
on the nature of God, of necessity requires perfect conformity to 
the divine image, that any man in this life can pretend to be 
perfect or be so insane as to imagine that he can go beyond 
the demands of the law and perform works of supererogation. So is 
that supererogation a bad word? Not good. Very Catholic. But 
it's resting on some false assumptions. False. All right. So secondly, moving on into the 
next paragraph here, we cannot by our best works merit 
pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God. And this 
is where we get to the next point, where we can't merit works, and 
we get into merit. What does it mean to merit? Well, 
we know this, because we've heard much teaching on justification 
by faith alone. We, our good works don't earn our way to heaven. 
Simple statements like that, we get that, I think. We get 
that teaching all the time. I got this from Burkoff. There's 
sort of two senses of merit here. And I'll just quickly mention 
the difference here. There's sort of that one side 
of merit is we do something, and then there is a sort of a 
cause or an effect or something happens. And you do see this. Matthew 25, I guess, the parable 
of the talents, there's a sort of we've been faithful, and so 
God gives a reward. Now, I'm going to clarify this. 
So I'm not a heretic. there is this sort of connection 
between the two. We've done something and then God does something in 
return. That does happen, that does exist 
in a certain sense. I will heavily qualify that. 
But then there's the other merit where we do something and God 
is obligated to act in a certain way because of that. So in a 
sense, if we did from birth perfectly keep the law, no sin whatsoever, 
God would in a sense, grant us eternal life. On our own merits, 
we would get there. It's not happened. There's only 
one. It's not happened. But there's 
that sense where we would do this, and we would merit eternal 
life. There's a sort of connection between the two. Does that make 
sense? Is anyone following? OK. So the sort of informal merit, 
the parable of the talents type merit, now I don't feel qualified 
to talk about rewards in heaven. I don't even fully understand 
necessarily what that's going to look like at all. But there's 
that sort of sense where we get to heaven, and God will reward 
obedience to a certain extent. I can imagine the great saints 
in history occupying a higher place than I am. You're going 
to get Paul way above me because he's done way more. You're going 
to get the great Calvin's and Luther's and stuff like that. 
The work that they've done. God will reward that more than 
this guy right here. Not false humility, just quite 
simply, I think that's the case. I think that's biblically the 
case. I don't have as many talents as Calvin has. So you get this 
sort of informal merit where Calvin or a Luther or a Paul 
does good works. And God, therefore, rewards these 
good works. But these good works You get 
this here, great disproportion that is between them and the 
glory to come, infinite distance between us and God. And the important 
part of this sort of informal merit is that God doesn't owe 
us it. So really, the good works on 
the outside of a Paul or a Calvin or a Luther or a Steele are enough 
to send us to hell, just on the face of it. It doesn't matter 
the good works in our lives. God doesn't owe us anything but 
hell. That's justice. You can see this 
in the last part of paragraph five. They cannot endure the 
severity of God's punishment. So much weakness and imperfection. 
So while God, while our works might merit something, it's only 
grace, free sovereign grace. It's only because God is pleased 
to do so. It's nothing in our works that, 
you can't draw the line so directly between perfect obedience and 
salvation. There's a line there, but flawed obedience and reward 
in heaven can't draw that line so hard. It's not a connected 
line. I hope that makes sense. And 
then just lastly in this section, we can't profit God. You see 
this in Acts 17, 25, mortal hands. We cannot render 
any service to God. Basically, our good works. And 
here's the point that I'm trying to put down here is that God 
Doctrines like aseity, God is a part. God is within himself. He's not affected by creation. 
In himself, he's perfect. And so our good works, they don't 
do anything for God. We can't give God anything. If 
he didn't have our good works, he would be the same because 
he is unchanging. And so we really need to understand 
that this doctrine of God Don't throw away the doctrine of God 
in service of sort of applied doctrines like soteriology. God, 
aseity, hold on to that. I think it's been talked about 
recently. So we can't profit God. Our works don't add anything 
to God. And you see this in the confession 
here. We can neither profit nor satisfy for the debts of former 
sins. We can't profit God. And so, again, this goes back. What is the context of our works? 
They're stained with sin. We can't add anything to God. 
We can't profit God. So really, it really is only 
grace. It's really only grace that he rewards us. It's only grace that he's pleased 
with us. That's sort of the context of these works here. And then 
moving on to the last couple of paragraphs here. is how God 
accepts good works. And if you want to turn with 
me here to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 to 5. 
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in 
the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, 
are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, 
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus 
Christ. So I've talked about good works 
not meriting salvation. When we do good things, God doesn't 
owe us. I hope it was clear, the distinction between merits. 
But God does accept the good works of believers. They aren't perfect, ever. There 
is no good work a believer ever does that isn't stained with 
sin in some degree or isn't imperfect in some degree. But God still 
accepts them. And I think sort of if you can 
think, because everyone has seen this, the sort of pictures that 
a young child draws, you see them on the fridges. and they 
give them to their parents, and there's this two-mommy or two-daddy 
from so-and-so. And you look at the picture, 
and it could be a horse, could be a dog, could be a house. Nobody actually, I mean, it's 
not of this absolutely amazing artistic quality, it's no Mona 
Lisa. And even the parents, I think, there's no illusion there. It's 
in crayon, it's partly indistinguishable, But that's not the point here. 
There's imperfections. It's not a Mona Lisa. It's not 
any sort of thing like that. But there was a sort of a heart 
motivation in giving this to mom or dad. There's this love 
the child has for their parents. There's this motivation within 
them, this gift that makes what could be a dog, could be a cow, 
it makes that no longer part of the equation. Really, what 
it is is it's a loving expression. It's a loving gift. And that's 
really all that matters in that case. This picture on the fridge 
is actually special. And our good works are kind of 
like that in the sense that we do good works. Maybe we're generous. Maybe we are. I've used that 
example. Maybe we work really hard to 
keep the status commands. and we do so from what we try 
to be sincere. We try and we stir up emotions 
and we legitimately order our week and it's out of love for 
God that we do this. Well, there's still imperfections 
in us. And God still sees those imperfections. And he sees more 
imperfections than we can see. I talked last time about an onion 
where you're peeling the heart back and then there's more sin 
and more sin and more sin. Well, God sees right through 
that. He sees the sum total of sin and imperfection in our lives. 
But we're accepted in Jesus Christ. There is this father-child relationship 
now. There is this We're offering these crayon drawings 
to God, so to speak. And he loves that, and he accepts 
that. And really, it's through the 
work of Christ, because we've been saved. Christ died for us. Now, there is imputed righteousness. 
He expiated our sin. There's these kind of things, 
too. But more than that, when we do good things, It's as if 
the work of Christ is a filter through which our good works 
are put. So all those imperfections are 
no longer part of the point. It's our heart. It's our desire 
to please God. It's all these things. And God 
sees that, and he honors that. So there's this sort of good work here. Now, 
yes, Christ, he perfects what is lacking in our works. But 
moving on from that, the good works of believers where God 
actually is pleased with them. And he's not disillusioned. He knows what they're actually 
like, but it's through the work of Christ that he accepts them. 
But then it moves on in paragraph 7 to the works of unregenerate 
men. And if you want to turn with 
me to Titus chapter 1, And verse 15, to the pure, all 
things are pure. But to the defiled and unbelieving, 
nothing is pure. But both their minds and their 
consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but 
they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, 
unfit for any good work. And I think the confession, it speaks about 
the works of unregenerate men. They could be good. They could 
be good sort of civic righteousness. They could be good works in the 
sense of an unbeliever could, well, he could love his wife 
and not commit adultery. do good. He could be generous. I'm sure 
we all know people who profess to be atheists and they're decent 
people on the outside. It's just a reality of life. 
It really comes down to common grace. That's the source. But 
I mean, on the outside, this is the case. There are people 
from other religions. Atheists are not the only ones. 
There are decent Muslims in this sense, in the outward sense, 
where they will You know, your car, your battery's died. And then they will help jumpstart 
your car out of their day. They look busy, but they still, 
they will help you. They got the jumper cables, and 
they're taking time out of their busy day to help you out of what 
seems like the goodness of their hearts. There's this sort of 
civic righteousness. Nobody is pretending, I think, 
that within the church, we're all great. But as soon as you 
leave the building, everyone's going to throw rocks and pitchforks 
at you. that might be the case in some 
places, but people, there are people of various backgrounds 
who are just generally decent people on the outside. But where 
this, I mean, we've talked about heart motivation, about glory 
of God, about these kind of things, and that's entirely lacking in 
non-believers, in unregenerate men, in people who follow false 
religions. There is no doing this for the 
glory of God. There is no service to God. Not only that, there's no actual 
inward working of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing within them that's 
literally spurring them on to good works for the sake of God. 
There's no work of Christ in their lives perfecting what they're 
doing. they lack all these things. And so while they may help you 
jumpstart your car, while they might be nice to you, while they 
might, um, you might get the humanitarian pay for your Tim 
Hortons, the person in front of you just pays all the people 
back in line. So an atheist, just a humanitarian, but it's 
just a generous sort of kind thing to do. Um, you get that, 
but God isn't pleased with that in the same way that he's pleased 
with the good works of the regenerate because There's that lack. There's that lack of Christ, 
lack of spirit, and lack of a father-child relationship. Lack of that sincere 
desire, however imperfect, to please God. It's just not there. And I have just one last quote, 
and then pretty quickly I'll close and we'll have time for 
questions. This is from Stephen Charnock, and he says, All our 
works before repentance are dead works, and these works have no 
true beauty in them. With whatsoever gloss they may 
appear to a natural eye, a dead body may have something of the 
features and beauty of a living, but is not but the beauty of 
a carcass. Not of a man, since man, therefore, is spiritually 
dead. He cannot perform a living service. As a natural death does 
incapacitate for natural actions, so a spiritual death must incapacitate 
for spiritual actions. And really, it's sort of a harsh 
image, but really it is. I mean, men are dead in their 
trespasses and sins, and there really is this relationship where 
you've got the corpse who can't actually please God, he can't 
do good works, and you've got the living imperfect person who 
can, entirely imperfectly, always stained with sin, but God accepts 
that. God cannot accept this. So that's Stephen Charnock there. And then just as a sort of a 
brief aside, and then I'll close here. While God doesn't accept the 
good works of nonbelievers, there is a sense, and you can see it 
in the very last line here of the confession in this chapter, 
and yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing 
to God And what you get here is a sense 
that the atheist who doesn't murder people and the 
atheist who does, or the Muslim who doesn't murder people and 
the Muslim who does, there is an actual difference. We don't 
want to just level together and just bunch them together. I don't 
think God does, and I don't think he sees it here. It is more sinful, 
the person who is more sinful on the outside, the person who 
does actually murder and the person who doesn't, there is 
a difference in it. It's not a difference relating to salvation 
or anything like that, but there is a legitimate difference here. 
Sort of complexifies how we view people. We don't wanna black 
and white it so that everyone who isn't a Christian is just 
gonna be mean to me. It's not the case. There are 
decent people, outwardly speaking, civic speaking. And in the same 
sense, there are varying degrees of unrighteousness among these 
people. God actually hates the person 
who, I hope I'm speaking well here, hates the person who actually 
murders his family or multiple people more than the person who 
lives their lives quietly. There's this sort of complexity 
here. And I think, I think I will close 
with that. So just to reiterate what I've 
said here yesterday and today, good works are what God has commanded. 
There's various reasons for us to do good works. We show appreciation 
to God. We love God. Our good works towards 
God, they proceed from a sinful heart, but out of a heart that 
loves God as regenerate people. And so God actually does accept 
those through the work of Christ. And on the outside, unbelievers 
may do similar things. You may put a Christian and a 
non-Christian beside each other, and they look pretty much the 
same on the outside. But God is not pleased with the works 
of those who don't love him, who aren't his sons and daughters. 
There's this actual displeasure with those works, whereas he 
accepts the works of those whom he loves. So I'll close in prayer, 
and then we'll have a time for questions. Heavenly Father, I thank you that though our works 
are all stained with sin, though we were unprofitable servants, Lord, 
that you have seen fit to send your son. You have given us more 
than we deserve at all, Lord. You have graciously given us 
all things, Lord. So we thank you for that, Lord. 
We thank you that you are pleased with us, that you look down on 
us when we try, and you accept those things, Lord, that we do. 
And we pray that you would go with us now today, Lord, that 
you would be with Pastor as he preaches this morning and this 
evening, Lord, and that you would be with the people of God. Knit 
us together, Lord. May we receive the words and 
the teachings today, Lord, and may we dwell in unity and fellowship. And I pray this in Jesus' name.