Malachi 1:1-7 | Worship or Entertainment? | Pastor Daniel Banna

What a great name. The name of Jesus. We shall call his name Jesus, Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins. What a great name. What a beautiful name.

We have come to worship Christ. Turn with me to the book of Malachi chapter one. Verses six to 10. We have looked, about a month ago at the first part, of this chapter. But before we begin in verse six, let us review, the first few verses.

We have seen that God has given his prophet Malachi a burden, a very heavy word to deliver to his people, Israel, his people that rebelled against him, his people that broke his laws, his covenant, and his commandments. And in his last message, in his last address to his people, after almost sixteen hundred years of their history, from Abraham to Malachi, God ends the book of the Bible with that statement, I have loved you. I have loved you. Sixteen hundred years of love, of protection, of providing for you in spite of your failure and your rebellion. Did God allow his people at times to run from their enemies?

For enemies to rule over them? Yes. He did. Did he allow sometime famines and plagues? Yes.

He did. Did he allow them to go to captivity for seventy years and many of them to die by the edge of the sword? Yes. He did. And they should have expected that.

They should not have expected the blessing when they forsook God. God has told them, if you'll forsake me, these things will come upon you. They forsook God. They went to captivity. And now at this time of Malachi prophecy, Israel is back in the land from their seventy years of Babylonian captivity.

And God says to them, I have loved you. How did they respond? How do you love us? How have you loved us? We can see your love.

Look what happened to us. Look at us. We are under Persian occupation. We are few and scattered. Where is the days of Solomon?

Those those glorious days. The city is in ruin. The economy is bad. Where is the promised messiah? You tell us you love us.

How do you love us? You see, they were looking at their present condition, and they could not find anything indicated indicating that God loves them. And God answers their refutation, their objection that he loves them by saying, I have loved Jacob but hated Esau. You want a proof of my love to you? What his answer is, I have loved Jacob and hated Esau.

What answer is this? Instead of reminding them of the greatest events of their history, how he helped them in the past, He does not do any of that. He does not mention the exodus of Egypt. He does not miss mention any of his blessing. He mentioned this one thing only, I have loved Jacob and hated Esau.

But this brief statement is sufficient, is enough. The greatest evidence of my love to you is not answered prayer. My greatest evidence of my love to you is not health and wealth. My greatest evidence of my love to you is not an easy life. My greatest evidence of my love to you that I have loved Jacob, you descendants of Jacob and hated Esau.

And we have seen his love to Jacob meant election of Jacob. I have chosen Jacob. I have chosen you, you descendants of Jacob. And because I have loved Jacob and because of who I am God, I am keeping my promises to Jacob by preserving you. Wow.

That is the proof. That is the evidence of my love, that you are preserved, that you are back in your land. I have loved you, but I have hated Esau. I have rejected Esau. And then God points later to Esau and his descendants, and he tells them, just look to the other side.

You keep looking at yourself, at your condition. Look at the other side. Your condition, you brought upon yourself by forsaking me, but now look at Jesus and his descendants. What do you see? Verse three and verse four.

It says the land is desolate. They are weak and few in number. They have no future. I will destroy everything we build. And then he says, my anger is upon them for Not for seventy years, but forever.

But not so with you, oh, descendants of Jacob. Where is Edom today? Where is Edom today? Where is Amalek today? And by the way, Amalek was an Edomite.

Where is Amalek today? Genesis 36 tell Adad, verse 12, that Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau's son, and she bore him Amalek to Eliphaz. Where is Amalek today? You know, the last Edomite we hear about was Herod Antipas, the man who beheaded John the Baptist. He was the son of Herod the Great who killed the children, the babies at the time of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he was the uncle of Herod Agrippa who killed James, the brother of John, by the sword. So Herod Antipas was the last Edomite you hear about, and the memory and the name and the history of the Edomites ends forever. What about the nation of Israel? You wanna talk about my love? My love to you is proven that I have preserved you, not because you are good, but because of my promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I have kept my promises because I am a God who keeps his promises. I am a promise keeper. God. And the last section in verse five tells us, your eyes shall see this, and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. We will see this verse three more times repeated, and we'll talk about it as we get to it.

And then after God has addressed the people of Israel, in verse one, now he addresses the priests in verse six. Let us look together at it. 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, oh, priests who despise my name. Now God now addresses the priests. He addressed the people. Now the priests, the leaders of the people, the shepherds of Israel, the one who were in charge of shepherding the people of God, teaching them the laws of God and the commandments of God, making sure the people of God don't go astray. They are the responsible party.

That was their duty. How was the condition of those priests? They were what doing? Despising God's name. They were dishonoring God, despising his name.

How different these priests from the faithful Israel were read about. How different. Not many years past, says Ezra, probably twenty to fifty years only. And now we have people, the priests, the leaders, the shepherds, dishonoring God, despising his name. What would you expect the rest of the nation would be if the leaders are in such condition?

I remember the words of our Lord Jesus to Nicodemus in John chapter three. There, Jesus tells Nicodemus these words. He tells him, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now you know who was Nicodemus. Right?

Nicodemus was not just a rabbi. He was probably a member of the synodrine. He was a teacher of teachers, a rabbi of rabbis. Jesus is telling him, unless the one unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You know what was the response of Nicodemus?

That rabbi of rabbis. He said, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter second time into his mother's womb and be born? That sounds very childish, very immature. A man of your status, a man of such degree would not understand these basic spiritual things, and he has tells him, are you the teacher of Israel?

Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things? How can this be? He has no understanding of the very basic spiritual matters. If that was the condition of Nicodemus, who was, I believe, also a righteous man, how was the condition of the rest of Israel? How many shepherds today God would look at and say, are you a pastor of this church?

Are you a preacher? Are you a minister and you do not understand these things? How can this be? You see, those who have not experienced God's forgiveness and the Holy Spirit work of transportation and transformation in their hearts, and many preachers have not. They cannot preach with conviction.

They will not love the word of God, neither they are able to preach the truth of God. This is nothing new. We see the same things in the days of the prophet Ezekiel. And through history, throughout history, we see that. If you turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 34 verses one through three, listen to the word of the Lord to Ezekiel the prophet.

The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God, ah, or woe. The Hebrew word is hoi. Woah.

Shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the sheep? Isn't that the duty of the shepherds to feed the sheep? Isn't that the duty of the pastors to teach the word of God? Isn't it the duty of the ministers and the preacher to do that?

Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. Go to verse 10.

Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stub to their feeding. The sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths that they may not be food for them. Do you see what he says?

Do you see what he says? He says, I will rescue my sheep from their mouth. Who kills the sheep and devours them? Who does? You know what kills the sheep and devours him?

The wolves do. The wolves do. These shepherds became what? Vicious wolves. Their shepherds are their vicious wolves.

They care less for the sheep. They are in it for the wool and the meat. You clothe yourself with the wool and slaughter the fat ones. You strip naked the poor of the sheep. You don't care about their souls.

Your concerns about feeding yourself and fattening yourself. That's the condition of the shepherds of Israel then and I must say that's the condition of most of many shepherds today of God's so called church. They are in it for the wool and the meat. They strip naked the believers for their own interest. They want to get fat.

The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, if you turn with me there, please. Acts 20 verse 29. Apostle Paul warned the Ephesians pastors about those shepherds' wolves. That's what you need to call them, shepherds' wolves. He says in Acts 20 verse 29, he say, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, Not sparing the flock and from among your own selves, not just from the outside, but from within, from without and from within.

Not sparing the flock. And from among you, from your among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, that's message to us today. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years, I did not seize night and day to admonish everyone with tears. Paul was shedding tears for his church.

Be alert from this. Shepherds, wolves. Paul says, I know. I know after I depart, fierce wolves will come in among you from within and from without, and they try to deceive people to have followers. And throughout church history, we've seen many wicked men who came with false doctrines, who attracted millions behind them.

And today, those wolves continue their evil work, seducing the simple minded and those who are not careful. That's why Paul says be alert. How can you be alert? You cannot get more alert until you begin studying the scripture, to go deeper in the scripture and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And then when you hear an error, you know it's an error because you know what is right.

You know the truth. It's easy for you to see error when you know the truth. But if you don't know the truth, you'll get deceived. You will get to see be alert. Those wolves today have little interest in the study of scripture or getting deeper in the word of God.

They pray on new converts and often use Christian vocabulary, mixing truth with error in order to deceive and have many followers, promising their followers health and wealth if you just give to them generously. Right? They live themselves in multi dollar multimillion dollar houses. They own private jets. They live on the wool of the sheep and on the meat of the sheep.

This is how they got the riches. This is how they got the riches. To these leaders, God is speaking here in the book of Malachi. How these leaders were doing? They were despising his name, and they were denying it.

How do we despise your name? How are we despising your name? God begins speaking to the priests with two easy to understand comparisons. And the first one, here it is, verse six. A son honors his father and a servant his master.

If I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear? If a son honors his father who is imperfect, if a son honors his father who often sins against him, If a son honors his father who wronged him maybe many times and wronged his mother, if a son honors his father who's often not there when he needs him, how much more you should honor God the father? And if a servant and here the word by the Hebrew is not servant, it's a slave, evid. And if a servant fears his master, who's often cruel, how much more you should fear God who is merciful and just.

How much more you need to honor me if I am really your father and I am really your master and lord as you claim? If I'm a if I'm a father, where is my honor? If I'm a master, where is my fear? And, yes, the word here is fear. It is fear, f e a r, fear.

It does not mean respect. No. It does not. Modern teachers try to tell you it means respect. It does not mean respect.

It is in the Hebrew. It means fears and trembling. That's what it means. It's fear. You see, it does not make sense if God says, if I'm a father, where is my honor?

And if I'm a master, where is my honor? If fear means honor or respect means it make no sense. No. He says, if I'm a father, where is my honor? If I'm a master, where is my fear?

That's an awe. That's a worship. That's reverence, and that's really fear. God is a father, and he is also a master. He demands honor.

He demands respect. He demands reverence. He demands awe. He mean he demands fear, and he demands worship. Now let look at the first part.

If I'm a father, where is my honor? Now did the Jews call God their father? The Jews called God their father? Yes or no? Good.

That's right. Yes. In fact, even to this day, when Jews pray, this is how they start their prayer, our father and our king. So did they they did they did call God their father. Now was he really their father?

That's a different story. But did they call him a father? Was he really their spiritual father? Let us see. Let us see.

If you want to go with me to John chapter eight, and there Christ responds to such a claim that Jews made that God is their father. Gospel of John chapter eight verse 38. I speak of what I have seen with my father. Christ speaking here, my father, God. And you do what you have heard from your father.

Who is he referring to? Let us see. Verse 39. They answered him, Abraham is our father. We are the descendants of Abraham.

That Christ is not talking about their physical descendants. I know you are the descendants of Abraham. I'm not talking about your physical lineage, but his father, Abraham, your spiritual father. Ishmael also was a descendant of Abraham, if you want. Esau was also a descendant of of of of Abraham.

Why are you bragging about that? The question is, are you the spiritual descendants of Abraham? Do you have the faith of Abraham? This is what Jesus is saying here, and you are probably not. Let us see.

Verse 40. But now you seek no. Did we finish verse 39? We did not. The answer, Abraham is our father.

Then she has said to him, if you were Abraham's children, you would do you would be doing the works of Abraham did. Verse 40. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. Verse 41.

You are doing the works your father did. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. First, they said, our father is Abraham. Now I guess they understood a little bit more probably about talking Jesus talking about.

They say, we have one father who is god. And then he they told him, we are not born of sexual immorality. I think Daniel pastor Daniel referred to that a couple of weeks ago. This is a blasphemous accusation. That's a blasphemous accusation.

What they are trying to say here we know who's our father is, but we don't know who is your father, Jesus. And by the way, up to this day, the Jews, many of them say that Jesus was illegitimate, so they are still blaspheming the name of Christ. There's nothing new. Then and now. Verse 42, Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. That's it.

You claim that God is your father, but I tell you who is your father. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. He's telling them you are of your father, the devil.

You can claim all what you want. And many people today, they can claim whatever you want, whatever they want, but is really God truly your father? And what is the test if God is your father or not? Is if God is your father, you would love me. There's a test.

If God is your father, if God is your father, you would love Jesus. If God is your father, you would love his church, his body, his bride. If God is your father, you will obey the commandments of the Lord, Jesus Christ. This is a true test if you are a child of God, if God is your father or not. Do you know how many people woke up today?

How many people called God today father? You know how many people today prayed saying, our father who art in heaven, and God says to them, you are of your father, the devil? That's harsh. It is harsh. But I'm telling you, even today, millions of people prayed, our father who art in heaven, and god says to them, you are of your father, the devil.

It doesn't matter what you claim. The question is, do you love Jesus? Do you obey Jesus and his commandments? Are you a follower of the Lord? Your father, either God or the devil, one or the other.

This is what Christ is saying here. Now if I'm a father, Christ says again, where is my banner? Now if you ask Christians today, what does mean to you that God is your father? What do you think the answer would be? Any help here?

What does it mean to you that god is your father? Provider? I'm sorry? Shares his nature. Shares his nature?

Okay. He loves us as his children. He loves us as his children. What else? Creator.

Creator? Creator? We are obedient to him. People? Obedient.

Obedient. Okay. Like, we obey him. Right? Yes.

Beautiful. He disciplines us. He disciplines us. Alright. Good.

All these are good things. But you see, most answer would be when I think or when we think about God as a father, we think about his relationship to me. What benefits I get from him? Correct? He provides to for me.

He protects me. He loves me. He he But not often we think about our relationship to him as a father. What God is saying here, if I'm a father, where is what? Where is my honor?

You are as a children what I expect from you as a children. It's not what you expect from me as a father. I am the provider. I'm everything. But what I expect from you as a children.

If I'm a father, where is my honor? And here we see that honor means to respect, to revere, to obey, to do what he tells us to do. God is not asking Israel here. Oh, if I'm a father, where is your loud music for me? He's not asking for that.

He's not saying, oh, Israel, where is your high emotions toward me? No. What he asked him say, if I'm your father, where is my honor? Does God want us to have deep feelings toward him? Of course he does.

Of course he does. But honor him means everything, not just our emotions. What does it mean to love the lord your god with all your soul, mind, strength? What does it mean? That means every particle of your life, you love him.

You love him with your intellect. You love him with your heart, your emotions. You love him with every particle in your being. You obey him. That what means to honor him.

It was the commandment to Israel. Hear, oh, Israel. That what means to honor him. Now do you remember the fifth commandment? What is the fifth commandment?

Which is the first in prom with promise. Honor your father and your mother. Right? Now do you know the punishment of the one who does not honor his father? The one who let us strikes a father or the one who curses a father?

Yes. Wow. It's death. In the Old Testament, God commanded children to honor their their parents, and the punishment for striking a father or a mother or cursing a father or a or a mother is what? Is death.

If this what god standard is toward an earthly father or a mother, how much do you think his standard toward him as a father? So when he says honor me, he expect us to truly honor him. God is asking us, we who call upon his name today, do you honor me? Maranatha Bible Church, do you honor me? Do you honor me in your life?

Do you honor me in your home? Do you honor me in your school? Do you honor me in your job? Do you honor me in your walk and conduct? Do you honor me with your words?

Do you honor me? Do you honor me? If I'm a father, where is my honor? But secondly, if I'm a master, where is my fear? There's one of the thing that's completely missing in many churches today, from many pulpits today that talk about the fear of the Lord.

We've talked about it a lot here because we believe in the fear of the Lord. And we see that very evident in their practices, in their so called worship, in their entertaining preaching. You'll see that in their ministry, unfortunately. You see that ministry is very often man focused, man glorifying, beautiful music, but not through worship, emotionally driven, loud voice, but without substance. Often, and I saw a lot of that, they make fun of the grace of God.

They make fun of the holiness of God with their acting and stage performance, pretending miracles of healing, falsifying testimonies, entertaining the crowds with jokes and uncontrollable laughs, and they call that you know what they call that? Manifestations of the spirit, but it's not the spirit of God. The fear of the Lord is not in their heart. You call me master. You call me lord, but your actions, your conduct, your fruit show otherwise.

Not everyone who says to me, lord, lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes, awake keeping his word, awake keeping his commandments, awake loving his word, awake, faithful to do his work. And what is the response when he said, if I'm a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear? They respond, oh, how have we despised your name?

He said, you despise my name my name, you priest. How do we despise your name? Are you really talking to us? Are you talking really to us? Maybe you're talking to to the Edomites.

They are you sure are you sure about that? Us? Are we really despising your name? Yes. You are.

Oh, but we are a good people. We are the chosen people. We need the worship. We offer sacrifices. We all we do all these things where we think we are good, and that's a problem.

Right? We think we are good. We're good in our own eyes. We're doing the right things in our own eyes. Have how have we despised your name?

And here God's answer in verse seven. He tells him by offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, how have we polluted you? By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. They are okay with despising the Lord's table.

Then he tells him, when you offer blind animals in sacrifices, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present it. Present that to your governor. Will he accept it?

Your Persian governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? Says the Lord of hosts? How did we despise your name? And God says, you offer polluted food on my altar, number one.

Number two, they are justifying it, and they are saying the table of the Lord may be despised. That's their attitude toward God and toward his table. They have no sense of any wrongdoing. They were offering the blind, the lame, the sick, not just that. If you look at verse 13, look at verse 13 what they were offering.

It says they were taking they were offering yeah. Things were or the animals were taken by by violence. What they were doing, they were stealing the lambs to offer them for sacrifice. So they were offering the lame, the sick, the blind, not just that. They will go and steal a lamb from a poor man to offer it for a sacrifice, and they are okay with it.

Wow. I don't know if you remember in Mark seven, Jesus confronting there the Pharisees. And in verse six, the Lord Jesus Christ tells the Pharisees these words. Mark seven six. He said to them, well did Isaiah the prophecy of you hypocrites as it is written.

These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. The worship was what? In vain, teaching the doctrine as doctrines the commandments of men. You lead the commandment of God and hold the tradition of men.

And he said to them, listen to this, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. What is this fine way? For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever revives father or mother must surely die. But you say, you hypocrites, you priests, but you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is, I will explain it in a minute, that is given to God. What it means really, what I have supposed to give to my mom and dad, what I did, I gave it to God already.

Then verse 12 is it, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do. They were supposed to help their parents financially. What they did, they come to his dad or or his mother, tell him, you know, I was really planning, I was really thinking to give you an offering, but, you know, I give this offering to God already, so I don't really have to give you anything. And the priests were encouraging such things, such traditions. As long as you promise to give to God something, you don't have to give your parents anything else anymore.

So we're changing the word of God for their own benefit. What God calls this? What God calls this? God's called this, verse six, despising God's name. Verse seven, God's called this polluting his table.

God's called this in verse seven again evil. And what did they call it? You know what they called it? They called it worship. They called it worship.

God calls it evil, and they call it worship. This is not worship that is acceptable to God. It's a worship that is hated by God. In Proverbs twenty one twenty seven, we need a sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. When you visit Jerusalem and go and visit if you get chance, had a chance to live there and work there for for a few months, you will feel something that probably you will not feel anywhere else in the world, I believe, and that is the spirit of worship.

But don't get so excited. False worship. False worship. The spirit of religion. On one side, Muslims who deny the cross and the resurrection.

On the other side, the Jews who deny that Christ is the Messiah and bless him his name. And then you have many Christian denominations who worship stones and building. It's not the experience of most Christians who go there in a group of 20 or 30 for ten days praising the Lord together, and that's really wonderful. So I encourage you to go with the group. But if you live there, you feel that.

You know it's there. That is the spirit of worship that is evil. It is dark. That's why God says that the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord. God hates God hates such worship.

False religion is dark. Giving God the blind, the lame, the sick, the stolen as a sacrifice, this is a careless worship. This worship cost the worshiper nothing. The word Hebrew in Hebrew, here is. You offer what is.

You offer what costs you nothing. Worship according to your taste, not according to God's likings. Worship to please the audience, not to please God. Worship for the enjoyment of people, not for the dissatisfaction of the heart of God. It's not how we feel about it if how God receives it.

Is it pleasing to God or not? What caused such an acceptable unacceptable worship? Look down to verse 11. We sang last song about the great name of God, and that's the point in this verses we'll make. Verse 11, God says, from the rising of the sun to its sitting, my name will be great among the nations.

And every place in sin will be offer to my name and a pure offering, for my name will be great among the nations, says the lord of hosts. And, again, in verse 14, look, he says, curse the cheat, verse 14, who has a male in his flock and vows it, and he has sacrificed to the lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nation. Did you see this did you notice that repetition? My name will be great.

My name will be feared among the nations. The problem, my friend, of this careless worship, they have failed to see the greatness of God. When you fail to see the greatness of God, your worship becomes worthless, careless. True worship begins when we begin to understand and acknowledge who God is in all of his greatness, his power, and his majesty. When you recognize who God is, your worship becomes true worship.

Otherwise, it is not but a careless and worthless worship. How is our worship? Many years ago, I was at the conference. They asked a woman to pray. It was a breakfast.

And I remember she stood and she started this way. Hey, God. I was thinking to myself, if you have an idea who God is, you would not say that. If you have an idea who god is, you don't act this way. Oh, he's my friend.

Yes. He is your friend, but he is the king of kings and lord of lords friend. He's not one among equal. He's one above all. He is the lord Jesus, and he's always the lord Jesus.

Christ is looking today for people who worship him in a spirit and truth. And unless you recognize the greatness of God, your worship would not be true. This message, I believe, mostly to outsiders because I believe here in this church, we love God. We worship God in the spirit and in the truth. But that's our obligation, our duty to alert others, to alert others, to speak of the greatness of God.

And we, as God's servants, as God's representatives in this earth, we must honor him, and we must fear him. Honor him as a father and fear him as a master. If we want God to continue to bless us as a church, God demands honor. God demands reverence. God demands respect.

God demands fear. God's demand all. God demands all of that. We are at the end of one year going to another year, and I can hear God tells me today and telling us, I have loved you. Look at your past.

I can tell you I have loved you. I have loved you. And the evidence that I am preserving you. And I'm preserving you to share my truth to others. I'm preserving you to be my witnesses to all nations.

Let us pray. Our God and father, with a great God we have. You are our creator, but also you are our friend. We thank you, our God, that we can call you father. And we had that intimate relationship with you as our father.

And we can truly pray our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thank you that through Jesus Christ, we became children, adopted children. We pray, God, that you help your children to remain faithful to your word, to remain faithful to your cause, to honor you. Lord, we want others to see how your church honors Christ. We want people to see what we put you first above all.

Help us God live for you. Help us God speak your truth. Help us abide in your word. Help us never turn back. Yes, Lord.

Your name is great. Your name is great. Your name is your name is great above all names, and worship that great name of God. Amen.