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Set Apart — The Traditions That Shape God’s People
Lesson 2, Part 2 — What God Requires  ·  June 10, 2026  ·  ▶ Watch

Opening Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you, Lord, so much for this day. We thank you for… The many blessings you’ve given us, all the things that came together so that we could be here this evening and share in this time of fellowship and study. Lord, we’re truly grateful and we ask your blessings upon each and every person who is here and those online. We ask, Lord, that you be with us and help us to have open hearts and minds as we consider these things. And how they apply to our lives, Lord. We want to draw closer to you and better understand what it means to set our hopes and our focus on you, Lord. We take this time, Lord, to lift up to you each and every person who was mentioned here this evening. We ask, Lord, for your blessing, for your healing. We ask for your watchful care over them. For those who are traveling, or going to be traveling, we ask that you watch over them, Lord. Be with them, Lord. Help them to be safe. Lord, we just, we thank you so much for all the many blessings, all the good things you do in our life, and we just, we can’t say enough about how good you are to us. Lord, we’re just so grateful. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

Class Discussion

All right, so Leviticus 22. And we’re going to start at verse 23. We’re going to deal with the exception. The exception. So, the standard is starting at verse 17, and. God talks about this is what is acceptable. This is the standard for sacrifices. It has to be the very best that you have. You can’t just bring any old thing to God and Him accept that. You have to bring your very, very best. And that’s true for anyone, your sojourners, the priest, anyone that is going to offer a sacrifice to God has to. Take into consideration who they’re worshipping. and offer something in accordance with that. And I think that’s a huge idea for us to really grasp is, you know, when we come to worship our God. We have to worship and offer to him something. worthy of him. Our God deserves so much more than… just what we have in the moment. You know, He deserves. Preparation, planning, effort. And a lot of times, we’ll give them that. we get busy, we get caught up living life, and we just bring whatever. You know, I know we don’t do sacrifices the way they did sacrifices. But our whole lives are sacrifices to God. everything we do, but especially our worship times, our Bible study times, those are times when we’re really bringing to God something. and presenting it to him as worship. And if we bring just any old thing. If we’re our attitude is casual about it. Then are we truly recognizing who we’re worshiping? And what he deserves. I mean, it’s a huge question. so that really is the standard. God says if you make a promise, you make a vow, you better fulfill that vow. If you’re gonna bring an offering, you better bring the best you have. But then he offers an exception. So let me read verse 23 for us. You may, however,

Kathy Ledford: You may present a bull or a lamb that has a part too long or too short for a freewill offering, but for a vow offering it cannot be accepted. (Leviticus 22:23)

Leviticus 22:23 – The Exception

Jeff: Okay, so right in the middle of all these really strict requirements, God makes room for something unexpected. A bull or a lamb? That’s not perfect, with some minor deformity that would normally disqualify it. Does that make sense? Fair enough. Okay, so the burnt offering, and that’s really where we’re at, is he’s talking about the burnt offerings, the main sacrifices, and those were, they were offered every day, at morning and at evening, so dawn and dusk. Is ideally the time. So this is the most common one. Good. I have no idea where we’re at. Leviticus 22, verse 23. Thank you for asking. Leviticus 22, verse 23. I would much rather you ask than not know. I’m curious, how many albums did they make in? Restocking. One, I mean, I’m assuming everybody in Edinburgh. Give me this. Give me this. You know, I’ll have to look that up. I’m not exactly certain. Does anybody have a certain, you know, a more definitive answer, I guess? The burnt offerings were offered every day, and Scripture always refers to them as offerings, so I’m assuming they were plural. There were more than one, but… Can you imagine the kind of person being able to offer a sacrifice every day? Yeah, I know. I can’t see that being the case either. That’s fine. Yeah. Dale? Excuse me, sir. Weird for the library meetings. It wasn’t every single person that offered the same sacrifice. A lot of it was a community group. They’re a family, an extended family to get together and talk to. So it wasn’t like that really. Every 10th. awesome to have every day. It’s. Yeah. Okay. That’s that’s helpful. It’s 2 to 4. Continue. Continual, like every day. Alright, so what’s the difference in the burnt offering and the freewill offering? Because that’s kind of where we started. That’s the question. What’s the difference? Anybody want to venture a guess? All right, so I’ll give you my take on it, and then I want to hear what Google says, too. so the freewill offering is like offering a gift. It is, God has blessed me with something more than normal. I’ve had a good harvest. uh… a family member has gotten better. You know, they were sick and close to death, and we want to thank God for that. We want to offer him something. So, a free will offering was not required. It was. Anytime I felt truly blessed by something, I could offer a sacrifice to God and thank Him for it. that was what the freewill offering was supposed to be. it would be the same thing today as saying, you know, praise the Lord. You know, we’re not offering an animal, but every time we feel truly blessed, we’re gonna thank God for it. We’re gonna express that, or at least we should. we should want to tell people about it, and that was ultimately what they were doing, was, you know, this is an acknowledgement to everyone that God has blessed me. more than normal. Above and beyond. Google says exactly. So the primary difference between an offering and a freewill offering, often referred to as a will offering in the Bible, is the purpose and method of consumption. with the burn offering representing total dedication to God, while the free offering, freewill offering, was a voluntary act of Thanksgiving for celebrations. And a key difference too, and I didn’t mention this before, a burnt offering. And a burnt offering was you burned the whole animal on the altar. It was completely consumed. With a freewill offering, you didn’t actually burn the animal. You killed the animal, but then you had a feast.

Discussion: Burnt Offerings and Freewill Offerings

Jeff: And ate the animal. Um, so it was more like… I hate to say party. That sounds wrong. A feast. Yeah. Oh, maybe it’s volunteer meetings. Yeah, celebrate. Yeah, because I always think of, you know, it would be similar to, you know, we’re going to have a celebration and just celebrate, you know, somebody got better. you know, we had a family member that was really sick, and all of a sudden they’re better, and now everybody’s gonna get together and celebrate. that’s really what a freewill offering was supposed to be, because it emphasized. connection in the community. It thanked God for that, but, you know, it focused on. the horizontal relationships, where the burnt offering really focused exclusively on God, the vertical. So, what God says is, you know, when it comes to that freewill offering. You know, it doesn’t have to be perfect if you’re thankful. If you’re coming to God for a thanksgiving, to praise Him, to glorify Him, then it doesn’t have to be perfect. God is willing to take something a little bit less. So, the freewill offering was spontaneous, it was grateful, and minor imperfections are acceptable. I mean, you couldn’t just offer your trash to God. But this teaches us some things really important. Because not everybody can offer a bull or a goat or a lamb every single day. Not everyone can afford that. There’s repeated instances in the book of Leviticus where he talks about the poor can offer two turtle doves. which was, you know, a pair of small birds, a male and a female. do you know what had to be a payer? Wouldn’t that give us a complete picture? Mm-hmm, mm. I could see that. But the connection… the sacrifice… you remember back in Genesis, when Abraham offers a sacrifice to God, and it says that he offered the animals, and then God came down in the appearance of, like, a lamp. And he walked through between the animals. it’s Genesis 15, 17, something like that. It’s right after God made a promise to Abraham. Abraham makes his sacrifice. So, ultimately, what a sacrifice was. was this… oath between two parties. So you would take an animal, you would cut it in half, lay it open, and both parties would walk through between the dead animal. And with the oath that if we break our promise to each other, then we’ll become like this animal. So that’s the the history or the the. The tradition of a sacrifice was… it was more like an oath or promise. So when it was two turtle doves, there had to be two pieces. A turtle does too small. to be halved and walk between, so there had to be two of them, and you could still separate them and walk between them. and the promise is, the oath is, if I break my word, then it’s death for me. And the very fact that God makes those kinds of promises to us, that He binds Himself to an oath to us. Because every sacrifice, every promise, God is binding Himself to us as well, just as much as we are binding ourselves to Him. So this exception teaches us some really important things. God always cares about the poor. He always wants everyone to be included. The allowance here… really reflects the reality that people are poor. The majority of people in Israel are going to be really poor. They’re not going to be able to afford the best of the best. There’s times when a handful of flour is acceptable. Over everything else, because that’s all you could afford. I always think about the widow’s two mites, when Jesus talks about the offering. He sits across from the offering box in the temple, and he watches these wealthy people come in and throw all this money. He watches this widow walk up with two mites, which is, like, half a penny.

Jeff: And she drops those two in, and Jesus says, you know, she’s given more than everyone else, because she gave her all she had. Absolutely. And how much we live before it’s sucked in. So. Very straightforward, didn’t you? Yeah. Until it hurts, absolutely. So, here’s something we need to remember, is God doesn’t design His worship, even under the Old Covenant, so that it is accessible to only those people who are wealthy. to only those people who have means. God is accessible by everyone. The posture of the heart matters more than the gift itself. So to the wealthy, God wants, you know, the… the firstborn, the male, the very best of the animals that you have. But to the poorest of the poor, a handful of grain is enough. Two birds are enough. Yeah, it is. I’d never made it in connection to the level of sacrifice that we give to God, but that is a really good connection, actually.

Kathy Ledford: I couldn’t hear what they said, but uh…

Jeff: Sorry about that.

Kathy Ledford: Something. I’m thinking…

Jeff: All right, let me… let me say what was said, was Scripture says, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ And the connection to what we offer and sacrifice to our God is pretty profound. Because, you know, if God’s blessed us with a lot, He expects us to do more. the same thing with talents, you know, the parable of the talents. Jesus says, you know, if he’s given you more, then he expects more. He’s given you little. He expects you to use faithfully what you’ve got.

Kathy Ledford: And doesn’t it go back to, Cain and Abel?

Discussion: God Meets Worshipers Where They Are

Jeff: But…

Kathy Ledford: Because Abel gave what, you know, the best, Cain just didn’t.

Jeff: I think so. I think Cain gave… Oh… what he could, or what he had available at the moment. And Abel gave his best, the firstborn of his flock. Now, I think there’s more to that story than we know, because God had to have specified to these boys. what he expected. because, you know, to just qualify, God rejected Cain’s sacrifice because it was from the fruit of the ground, not from the herd. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. when, you know, Scripture really emphasizes that He’ll take a handful of flour… Yeah. over, you know, the firstborn bull from the herd. I think so. I think it’s a matter of, you know, Cain didn’t offer the best he had.

Kathy Ledford: Okay.

Jeff: No matter what the best was, he didn’t offer from the heart the best that he had.

Kathy Ledford: Bye.

Jeff: and I think that’s what God expects of us, you know, if… if on Sunday morning, the best I can give is a dollar bill in the offering plate. I think God’s pleased with that.

Kathy Ledford: Oh, yeah.

Discussion: The Offering as a Statement of Faith

Jeff: Now, if the best I could get would be $100, and I gave a dollar, I think God’s going to be a little more disappointed in that. I know people in Tennessee. that, you know, the best I could give was… I’ve seen them drop a million dollar check in the bank… in the plate. No joke. Oh. But for them. that was, you know, a sacrifice. It was still a sacrifice, but it was, you know, to anyone else’s impossible. And there’s very few of those kinds of people around. Um, but I think God looks at the heart, and… when we bring the best we have, God is good with that. That’s what this exception really does for us.

Kathy Ledford: Yep. Exactly.

Jeff: And… I think it preserves integrity here in a sense that God meets us where we’re at. How’s it even make a gift of a million dollars if it’s not living? With the light. Florence. Mm-hmm. And saying, I’m going to give as much as I can. Or that in my. Yeah. Because I saw it happen, but this guy… would have never brought any attention to himself at all. He had just sold a business. That, made a really large profit for him, and… He was giving what he could. Ah, to the church at that point, I saw what happened. because I was the person right after him, so I saw him drop the check, and then I saw the check. I’m like, whoa! you know, I dropped my $5 bill in there, and it was… I felt kind of lame, but, you know… Well, I’m expecting something in return with the wrong gift. Yeah. Because I’ve seen, I’ve heard people donate lots of money, but then turn around and expect elders to fall in line and beat them. Oh, yeah. it, it’s… I won’t get into that, but I’ve seen it happen a lot too. We won’t go down that path. The big thing with this exception is we need to remember that God meets us where we’re at. He holds us accountable for where we’re at. In other words, you know, if the best we have is $1 bill, then that’s what God expects, the best we have. And He expects us to do so willingly, not under compulsion. He expects us to be a sacrifice, absolutely, but. to be an act of worship, to be a heartfelt expression of how we feel about Him. And who we’re worshiping. What it is and how much it is is not nearly as important as the heart. And we we’ve all heard. in 1 Samuel 15, where, you know, the prophet Samuel is told, you know, God looks at the heart, not at the outward appearance. when Samuel expected one of the older brothers of David to be the new king. But he wasn’t. That’s not who God chose. He chose the young boy out in the field that… was so insignificant that even his dad didn’t think to bring him in from the field for this. So, here’s the principle that I think we need to look at, and this is verses 24 through 25. The offering is a statement of faith. I believe you are untouched by the world, by the brokenness and sinfulness of this world. That’s a statement of faith toward God. that we believe He is above and beyond all that, so we give Him the best that we have. If we were willing to just give God our broken. Our… mangled our worst. Then it’s a statement about who we think he is and what he deserves. Think about any relationship you’re in. When you offer a gift to someone. And you give them just. The least that you can possibly get by with. What does it say about how you feel about the relationship? It’s cheap. It’s cheap. I probably wouldn’t have used the word cheap, but I think that’s perfect, actually. it’s invaluable to you, but if you go out of your way. And you give the very best that you have. You sacrifice for this. It’s an expression of how you feel. When I was younger, I always thought a young man spending thousands of dollars on an engagement ring was just foolishness. I mean, I really did. I just thought it was the craziest thing ever. Of course, I was really poor and, you know, spending a lot on an engagement ring was just not possible. but as I’ve gotten older, I see this as the same idea. It is… it is a promise of how valuable do I see this person? How valuable do I see the potential relationship here? How much am I willing to spend? How much am I willing to give? the thing that’s most true for us in relation to God is… Do I really value it or not? That’s the principle. It is a statement of faith.

Malachi 1:6-9

Jeff: If God is holy, completely, fully, unbroken, holy, what we bring to Him ought to reflect that. Whether it be, you know, our dollar bill, our $100 bill, or our million dollar check. It really doesn’t matter. It still ought to reflect that to me. This is my God. perfect, holy, deserving of the best that I can give him. Anything less than that says. I don’t think he is. That’s why Malachi’s rebuke is such a big deal here. I want somebody to read Malachi chapter 1 verses 6 through 9. I thought I had a slide for that, but… Malachi Chapter 1… Verses 6 through 9. Somebody read verse 6, somebody else 7, and then we’ll take turns and read the four verses. I’ll start us off. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of Hosts to you? O priest who despised my name. But you say, how have we despised your name? By offering defiled food in my altar. But by offering the final food with my author that you asked. How can we define food? I say the Lord’s table is contented. When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? When you offer those that are lame and sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you and show you favor? Says the Lord of Hosts. Now I treat the favor and die. That he may be gracious to us, for such a gift from European would be favorable to any of you. There’s the order page. Now, the honesty in Malachi’s statement here is pretty profound. God says, if I’m your father, and I’m your master. Then why do you disrespect me with the worst you have? They weren’t just cutting costs. They were saying something about their God. Whether they even realized it or not, they were saying, this is what I think about God. They’re giving him their worst, their discards, the things that weren’t good enough to keep for themselves. The offering revealed what the worship had become. But it’s the same. Paul talking to the church in Corinth about how they were desecrating the Lord’s Supper. And that to me would be the test for the first one. But it would be. Very clumsy, you know. Yep. Let me go back. It’s hard to relate to. Burning animals and giving animals, you know, we’re just going to do that. And we also have a significant charge if we do that. Right. celebrating the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection, we need to bring the best attitude, we need to bring the best respect. They need to bring the best knowledge of what it means and not just create meaning, you know. You have a meal or whatever. You know. I mean, I think that’s what he means in 1 Corinthians 11, when Paul says, you know, if you don’t regard the Lord’s body and blood. that you’re actually sending, you’re bringing… death upon yourself. What, what do you, he’s, what is the word he uses? Damnation. Yeah, he uses the word damnation to describe it, but then he uses the word, I’m gonna have to turn there and look at it right quick. He says, let a person examine himself.

Jeff: that’s not it. in an unworthy manner. There we go. He says, whoever therefore, this is verse 27, whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. So, let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. I don’t think he’s talking about sinfulness. I don’t think he’s talking about… I need to have lived a… good life for God that week, and I should determine, you know, am I good enough to take the offering? we’re never good enough for the body and blood of the Lord. We’ll never be good enough for that. What he’s saying is, is when you come to do this, are you truly worshiping Him, and honoring Him in doing so? That’s what matters, and if you’re not truly discerning that. then you are eating judgment on yourself. You are drinking judgment upon yourself, because you’re going through the motions. And that’s exactly what these sacrifices teach them as well. Ah, is God expects the best. He expects our horse, our. Our moms… Everything we have. um… Malachi says it’s despising him, despising his name. Polluting him. Um… And then, verse 9, I think verse 9 of Malachi chapter 1 is so profound. He says, Entreat the Lord that he may be gracious to us. That’s what he wants. Offer a sacrifice to the Lord in such a way that he’s going to show favor. that He’s going to be gracious to us. Give Him something that’s going to make Him think good of you. He says. with such a gift as that from your hand? If that’s what you’re going to offer God, would He show favor to you? Would He really bless you? And the question is so profound is, what am I giving to God? And do I really expect Him to bless me because of that? Push. Yeah. Should we expect that? Well, I mean… I don’t think we should ever act. with this. I have to apologize. Exactly. We shouldn’t be acting in a way that we expect God to offer something good to us in return. But if we’re giving God the. Bare minimum. Why would he bless us? Why would he do anything good for us? If you’re treating your job that way, you’re giving your job the very least that you can give it, barely there, barely present, barely doing your job, what’s eventually going to happen? And you should get fired, right? because you’re not really putting any effort into this. The same thing’s true of relationships, whether it be boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife. Friends, best friends. If what you’re giving them is the bare minimum, it’s not going to work out for you.

Kathy Ledford: Or, or, I believe that… what you do when the Lord tells you to do it, and you think, oh, no, okay, I don’t have enough, God’s gonna supply that, and don’t begrudge. Even for grads, what you’ve done for a person, because God is telling them to do it.

Discussion: The Lord’s Supper, Grace, and Giving Our Best

Jeff: Yes. So, this brings up another question, though. If God requires perfection. If God’s standard is holiness, complete, unblemished. then… What are we supposed to do with that? If God’s standard was, I want the very best that you have. I want the best animal you have, your whole heart, I want everything. If it is complete and perfect and holy, what God expects. Then what are we supposed to do with that? Because we can’t be those things. That’s what Jesus is. That’s why Jesus came. That’s God allowing to. Being the supreme and looking sacrifice. And what a sacrifice for our seed and our yield. That’s very misleading and breaking. I think that is exactly the idea is there’s not really a tidy answer to this. You know, what does God expect of us? I mean, the standard is always above what anything we could accomplish. It’s always more than we could ever achieve, and there’s an element of grace involved in this. I don’t want to take that away, you know, God is gracious and loving and kind. and that he accepts from us… the exceptions instead of the standard, more often than not, he accepts just. A willing heart and the best we can give. But then, go ahead. Well, when the offering was being, the burn offerings were being offered, there had to be a particular mindset, a heart set. of, what this meant, and, just like we come, to church on Sunday, you know, most of us are putting our halos back on. But we have to recognize that. totally recognize and remember, the sacrifice that was done for us. And it is interactive, and it’s more like an action board than it is… You know, this. But I’m sitting back and. Letting it flow into you. Yeah, but I mean, that’s a really good point. So if God’s standard is perfection, and we can’t be perfection. Then there’s an element of mercy and grace. And… Dare I say tolerance? If we can’t offer the best. They’ll be cleaner. Or if we can’t offer him what he deserves, obviously. And then we don’t offer the best we can. Agreed. Because a lot of times that’s kind of what we do is. we use it as an excuse to not do anything, is I can’t give the very best. I can’t drop a million dollar check in the plate. You know, I don’t think that’ll ever happen. unless, you know, God willing, I win the lottery, then… Well, yeah, I’d have to play it first. Maybe I should say Publishers Clearinghouse, you know. I don’t play that either, really, but… if I won, you know, a bunch of money, inherited a bunch of money, then it could be possible. But if I… if I just use the excuse, I can’t give God the very best, so I don’t do anything, then… that’s even worse. I should give God the best that I can. And that’s what you see in the exception, is I’m trying to give God the best that I can. Mom, I’m doing this on me. There’s no way. It’s not going to be the perfect thing that God wants with us, Jesus with me. But if I give you my heart. Not too different from your previous last name. And I have to have faith that he’s going to be with us. I I like how you said that that more than just he’ll accept it. He’ll make it what He wants it to be. And ultimately, that’s what we’re going to talk about in the next class, is we can’t give God truly what He deserves. so he gave it for us. And we’re gonna get more into that. We’re gonna get more into the sacrifice of Christ, and really what that meant. because… When you look at the whole history of the sacrifice, and, and that’s kind of what we’ve done, we started at this is the standard, this is the exceptions, but we’ve also seen that, you know, we could never quite measure up. That’s what the sacrifice always pointed to was.

Jeff: You could never quite measure up. You could never quite be good enough. You could never offer anything that was going to make God say, okay, you’re good. So he did himself. Exactly. When Abraham gave Melchizedek 10% of everything that he had. which is. Our standard, the world of standard now, 10% is… Is that bare minimum, or is that what we should strive for? And I know we’re rehashing it, but a lot of people say, you can’t tell me. You haven’t mentioned any time. You know, in today’s world, a tithe, a tenth of what you bring in before everything else is hard to do. I mean, you know, we gotta be honest about that, because under the Old Covenant, a tithe was required. they had to give a tenth, but they also… they had to give a tenth of their food, their herbs, their spices, their animals. They… they had to give a tithe a tenth of… Everything. And we kind of limited to our paycheck. And that’s still hard to do. After taxes, yeah. And, you know, let’s be honest, it’s still hard for working-class people to give a tenth. It’s hard. I think that’s why the New Testament says, God wants you to give freely from the heart the best that you can. And ultimately, that’s what the sacrifices have pointed to all along. is that you’ll never be able to give God truly what He deserves. Or expects. So He’s gonna do that for you. But in the meantime, He expects you to do the best that you can with what you have. there’s… when, the woman breaks that alabaster… alabaster box of ointment and anoints his feet, they’re… they’re all… all the disciples are complaining because she… they could have taken that and sold it and used that money to help people, or whatever. I think there’s some ulterior motives there involved as well, but… Jesus says, leave her alone, she’s done what she could. And I think that is one of the most beautiful messages we need to remember is, what does God really want from me? Do the best you can with what you have. Yes. you know, it’s not gonna be perfect, and it’ll never be perfect enough. That’s why Jesus came. That’s why God offered the perfect for us. But that doesn’t excuse us to do nothing. We still have to do the best we can with what we have, whether it be… the offering, whether it be the Lord’s Table, whether it be our attendance. our good works. God expects us to do the best that we can with what we have. Guys, thank you so much for your time. I hope it was a good class. Yes. Before next class, I want you to spend some time honestly assessing… what you’re really bringing to God. Your time, your attention, your preparation. Not in a sense to judge yourself or condemn yourself. I don’t want you doing that. We beat ourselves up enough. you know what I’m saying? We beat ourselves up enough. We hold ourselves to a standard that’s just not hardly attainable, and then we feel horrible about ourselves because we can’t reach that. I don’t want you to do that. What I want you to do is say, hey, I want you to really consider, what am I bringing God, and am I giving Him the best that I can? And just spend some time thinking about that, because I think it’ll really improve. what we’re doing for the Lord, what we’re giving to Him. because there’s times when I have to step back and say of myself, you know, did I really give the Lord the best I could this week? Not really. I didn’t. But there’s other times when I can say confidently, yeah, I gave them the best I could. It wasn’t much. But it was the best I could handle in that week or that day or that moment. But there’s also other times when I have to say, no, I didn’t really. Um, so just spend some time thinking about that, and, you know, offer, some time to God to really think about that. Is there anything else before we end? I just wanted to say one thing. along with what you’re saying. And I purposely am not turning around because I don’t want to catch anybody’s eye because I’m not thinking of anybody in particular. If anything, I’m thinking of myself.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank you so much for this time here this evening. We acknowledge, Lord, that you are holy and good, and we are not. We confess that we don’t always bring you our best. Forgive us for those times, Lord, when we treated you as someone who would accept. our leftovers. Help us to become the people who truly act in accordance with what we say we believe. We trust that you’re not finished with us yet, and that you will help mold and shape us into those people. Lord, we ask that you watch over us and forgive us. We lift up to you once again those who are mentioned here this evening, and we ask for your blessing and healing for them. Go with us, Lord, and watch over us. In Jesus’ most holy name, Amen.