All right, let's begin. We'll be in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, and we'll be
looking at the rest of the chapter, verses 18 through 32. Romans
1, 18 through 32. Now, what we'll see here as we
look at Romans chapter 1, 18 through 32, is it isn't so much
that man is denying the existence of God. It's not that man denies
that God exists. There are some people that deny
the existence of God, but most people believe that there is
a God. The issue is, the problem is,
is that man denies God as He is. He denies the true and living
God. He doesn't believe that God is
who he says he is and how he's revealed himself to us in the
scriptures. That's the problem. Our title
is Christ Restores True Worship. Christ restores true worship,
and we'll have two divisions. First, we'll see what's revealed
to natural man, and then we'll see the second part, that God
gave them up. Alright, so remember, the issue
is that man denies God as he is. Alright, so let's look at
the first verse, Romans 1 verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness." So there's two, as we've seen
in this portion of the scriptures, that there's two revelations
from heaven. One is the grace of God in Christ. That's a spiritual revelation. That requires that the living
God reveal Himself to a sinner. And God does that by, He gives
them faith, He gives them life and faith, and He reveals Himself
to that faith, to the faith which He's given to that sinner. And then they believe. They see
and they understand and they know God and grow in Him. So God reveals the righteousness
of God to the faith that He's given to His elect child. And we saw that last week. But
there's another revelation from Heaven, and that's what's spoken
of here in verse 18, that the wrath and judgment of God is is brought upon unbelievers.
They see that wrath and that judgment of God and it's poured
out upon the unbelievers. Alright, so man sees the revelation
of God about him and he's able to attribute the death and the
judgment, the wrath, the destruction is in response to the sinfulness
of man. But the revelation of God's wrath,
that doesn't enable him to know God as he is. He knows there
is a God, but he does not know God as he is. He doesn't understand
the true and living God. And if you recall Moses, he spoke
to God, he asked God, show me your glory. Show me your glory. He had to be shown the glory
of God because no man knows the true and living God. And what
did God do? God placed him upon a rock. He set him upon Christ, upon
the foundation of anyone who believes. It's upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's where he was placed,
on a rock, And I'll read a different scripture, but God said to him
that he would make all his goodness to pass before him, and he said,
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. And so man doesn't know God until
God reveals himself to that man, until he makes himself known
to that sinner. All right, now turn over to Luke
13. Luke 13, verse 1. And we see
here that, again, man can see the judgment of God. He understands
that God judges sin and pours out his wrath against sinners.
And we see this in Luke 13. 13 verse 1. It says there were present at
that season some that told Jesus of the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering
said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and
slew them, Think ye that they were sinners above all men that
dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay, but except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish." So, typically, when
man sees a horrible, horrible, gruesome death or some tragic
thing, they think, what did they do to earn that? What sinners
are they that such judgment and wrath fell upon them that they
would die a horrific death in that way? And that's just the
natural response of man, to think like that. And that's not exactly
right. I mean, yes, we know there's
a God, but the reality is we're all guilty sinners, we've all
offended God, and every one of us deserves the wrath of God. So, and Christ leveled everyone
the same. He said, you're all sinners.
Don't think that because they died that way that you're better
than them. There's only one salvation and that's through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Alright? Now, today we even see how a
lot of people blame God when they see horrific deaths. And
so, they're counseled that, well, God doesn't have control of everything.
He doesn't control all acts. He just, you know, controls most
things. And he's doing his best to hold things together and People
are just bad and the devil, you know, and that's a lie too. So
man just twists and ruins everything. So either conclusion is sinful
and evil and it's not the true and living God. We're still,
when we see it in that way, we're denying God as he is. Because
we think either we're just and they weren't, and that's not
true, or that somehow God isn't sovereign and in control of all
things. And so it's not enough to believe
that God is. That's not salvation, believing
that God is. James said in 2.19, Thou believest
that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. So it's not enough to believe
that God is, that he exists. The problem is that man denies
God as he is. He doesn't know the true and
living God. And so what we find is that wrath
doesn't bring about salvation. It simply says God is. There
is a God that's bringing men to account. And if it were just
the fact that man needed a little nudge in the right direction,
perhaps seeing wrath would help, would nudge him in that right
direction to see God. But clearly, it's not enough,
because there's wrath and judgment all around us, and people don't
believe God as He is. They deny Him as He is. And Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah,
spoke of this about wrath, and he said to the Israelites in
Isaiah 1 verses 5 and 6, Why should you be stricken any more?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, so that if a man were to be raised from
the dead, and come back from hell, no sooner would his foot
hit the pavement. He might think, oh yeah, I'm
going to be good as soon as I get back. As soon as his foot hit
the pavement, he'd run right back to those things that once
delighted him in his sin and in his flesh. And that's what
we would do. We would go right back to those
things that please ourselves. So we understand that there's,
you know, from the wrath and judgment that there is a God,
but without the Spirit of God illuminating, giving light and
giving life, giving faith and revealing himself to that faith
that he's given. we won't know the true and living
God. The best will come at it is by
nature, what we have by nature, that understanding that, okay,
there's a God and he's bringing people to account for their sin.
That's about all that we're going to get. All right, Paul continues
now in verse 19, back in Romans 1, 19 and 20. He says, because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
hath showed it unto them. And then he explains that, verse
20, for the invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. And we can look at creation. We can look at ourselves and
how we're made. We can look at how things work.
We could study the eye and be amazed at the fact that we can
actually see and how man is a reasoning creature. He reasons and has
logic. And the beasts don't have that.
They're living, but they don't have the reason that man has
and the logic that he has. They only have their nature. And we can see how we're just
right from the sun and have an atmosphere and water and all
these things and be amazed. I mean, even scientists admit
it's a wonder. It's amazing that we're alive
and that, you know, they can't even find life in other places.
They're scouring and looking and they can't even find it in
other places, but it just shows that man sees the wonder and
the power and the awe that God has created here. That this didn't
just happen by us climbing out of a goop, you know, a goop puddle
or something like that, but this is the work of an intelligent
creator, so they don't, you know, they just deny God as He is,
and that's what man does. Turn over to Acts 17, Acts 17
and verses 24 through 30, and Paul If you recall, he's talking to
the philosophers, the Greek philosophers here. And I'm bringing you here
because, you see, this is what Paul taught the Gentiles. When he first came to them, this
is how he would begin in preaching the gospel. He would bring them
to see what they know, what God has revealed to them. And it
says, Acts 17, verse 24, God that made the world and all things
therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands." And so by that he's explained
to them God is much greater than the structures that you men can
build with your granite and your marble and these amazing structures
that you build. That's not what God is pleased
with. Neither, verse 25, as you worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. In other words, that
statue of rock or gold or silver that you've made, that's not
depicting God. That's not what you're made of.
You breathe and you have flesh and you have this movement and
you can speak and look and see things, well God is the one that
created you and he can move and speak and see things. He's not
bound by a structure like you're making. And hath made of one
blood of all nations of men, all descended from Adam, for
to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the
times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. He's
declaring God is sovereign and all-powerful. He determines what
is and what isn't. He's the one who's in control.
That they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
him and find him, though it be not far from every one of us.
He's talking about, you know there's a creator, seek him.
You should be seeking him. For in him we live and move and
have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we are also his offspring. for as much then as we are the
offspring of God. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent."
God left the Gentile nations. For thousands of years he left
them in darkness, just walking by the light of nature that they
had in their own imaginations. But now that Christ has come,
God is revealing to all persons, Jew and Gentile, religious and
irreligious, he's revealing to all that this is perfect righteousness. This is the one in whom you are
to come to me. He's reconciled and made right
and set right all things that were ruined in the fall. All
the wickedness that you've done, all the evil that you've committed,
this is the one in whom you have reconciliation, in whom I am
at peace with those who come to me in the Lord Jesus Christ."
He's provided Christ as an advocate with the Father, so that's why
we're to be turned from our vain dead works and dead religion
and look to the Lord Jesus Christ, that true and living way, that
true and living faith which is revealed in Christ. So left to
himself with nature's light, man could not know God as he
is. And it took the Son of God to
come to reveal the true living God to us, to make him known
in power and in glory and in might. who the true and living
God is and how we are to worship Him and how we are to know Him
and walk before Him. God sent His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin condemns sin in the flesh. So Christ is
the very righteousness provided by God for His people to come
to Him and Christ is the very light and liberty and power whereby
we know God and know how to approach unto God. Not in my works. no
confidence in this flesh, but confident in Christ, trusting
Him, believing Him that He saves. So apart from Christ and His
Holy Spirit, man does not know true righteousness and it's not
revealed until God gives faith and reveals Himself to that faith
that He gives, reveals Himself to that man. Alright, let's go
on to the next point, God gave them up. So when men look to
creation, when they're looking at what they see and what's been
revealed to them from heaven just in a natural light, they
know that God is eternal. because he had to predate and
come before the things which he's created. If he's created
all things, well then he had to be before all things and he's
eternal. We see his power, that he's the
one who created the heavens and created the earth and all these
things that are working and going on and the balance of everything. We see his wisdom where he's
created that, the way things work and how there's this perfect
balance in all the systems that we see that man, when he tries
to replicate it, he always messes it up. When he introduces something
to combat something else in the ecology over here, he usually
messes it up and then has to introduce something else to fix
that and something else here to fix that. And we see God's
goodness We see that he sustains and provides all things and you
think about it, man is always worried that the sky is falling
and that the whole ecosystem and everything nature and everything's
all falling apart and I just read the other day you know like
they say that the temperature of the oceans is rising a lot
of times they say that and how it's killing coral reefs but
they just found a 350 mile coral reef that they didn't even know
existed in the Caribbean Ocean in the Caribbean Sea. They just
found 350 miles of beautiful coral reef there that they didn't
even know existed. healthy and vibrant and doing
well. And it just shows that man's always worried and thinks
everything's getting destroyed and yet God's provided all these
things that help. I mean, we are to be good stewards
and we don't want to overfish. ruin the land that you live in.
You don't want to pollute your water and do stupid things, but
God has created a system to sustain us until the end, until he's
done with it. And then we see God's justice
because he brings justice upon the wicked. He brings justice
upon the wicked and sinners are brought to be punished for their
sin. All right, so having such a knowledge
of God, what did man do? He corrupted the image of God. He interpreted God how he wanted
to because he's sinful, because he doesn't believe God. He denies
God as he is, but he didn't know the truth. He went after the
lust of his own heart. And it says there, In Romans
121, because that when they knew God, what they could understand,
they glorified Him not as God, not as God as He is. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. And so we see here in this portion
of scripture what the natural mind, without the scriptures,
without the law, without the prophets, what the natural heart
and the mind of man will go into. All the lust and the sin and
the wickedness that he'll explore and find out and practice because
it's all according to the lust which he delights in. In Romans
8, 7 and 8, Paul elaborates this further, saying, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's the enemy of God, for
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. this is what we see in chapter
one, man having his natural sight, seeing the power of the Godhead
and seeing his goodness and his eternal power and glory as much
as he could in nature, he denied it and he refused to believe
God and worship him as he is, so he went off the other direction,
retreating into the darkness and the abyss of his own imagination
and his dark heart. And so What he then did is he
changed God. He changed God. Not that we can
change God because God's immutable, but he changed his understanding
and his thoughts of God to align with his own lusts and his own
dark and evil imagination so that he could fulfill his own
lusts. And then the more man explored
this path and went further and further away from God, he became
more darkened and more foolish in his thoughts about God. In
Romans 121, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And you know, you know your own
heart, you hear others. and the way that they speak and
man thinks he's got it all together now and that he's so wise and
he's figuring things out and solving problems and doing what
he does and the Lord says they've become fools. And in Paul's day
they were called philosophers, lovers of wisdom. Philo and Sophos
or whatever is wisdom and then Philo being loved. Lovers of
wisdom is what they called themselves. And since man cannot know God's
righteousness, but through faith, man must change God. He's got
to change his understanding of God. He's got to transform that
and make God into something that he's not, because God won't be
changed by man. God is not going to give in to
man, so man's going to do his best to change the imagination
that he has of God. Look at verse 23. "...and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping
things." See how it just evolved and went further and further
down? From corruptible man to birds to four-footed beasts and
down to creeping things. And that's what man does. He
holds this corrupt view of God and so he holds the truth in
unrighteousness. He knows what God has revealed,
but he suppresses that, pushes that down, and holds it in unrighteousness,
these views of God. He doesn't want to know the true
and living God. He doesn't want to seek Him. He wants to know
the God of his own imagination and worship and serve that God.
The reality is, if we were to look to behold God as He is,
that makes us dependent on God. When we see that God's the creator,
He's the lawgiver, He's the sustainer and the provider, well wait a
minute, that means I've got to bow before Him. I've got to seek
Him and I've got to be thankful. I need to thank Him for what
I have and go to Him when I have a need. And I should be seeking
Him and worshipping Him as He is. I don't want to do that.
I'm my own God. I want to do what I want to do.
I don't want to give in to God and follow what He says and trust
Him. I'm trusting my own self, my
own strength, my own wisdom, my own thoughts. So that's where
a man gets to. He doesn't want to please God
by himself only. Look at verses 24 and 25 now.
Wherefore, because they did this, God also gave them up to uncleanness,
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into
a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen. So this self-service that
they're practicing there, what they're doing is they're now
giving into every fleshly lust, every thought and imagination,
every twisted, perverted thought that comes in their mind, they're
justifying it. And more and more, that breaks
down. very heavily back in the Apostles'
day, things I guess sort of civilized, if you will, and they tried to
suppress some of the more perverted nature, but now it's just breaking
right back out. It's right back to every bit
of wickedness so that now even homosexuality isn't even enough.
I mean, now all kinds of things are becoming more and more accepted
so that even if you hear how they're changing patterns of
speech so that it's becoming more offensive to use a gender
pronoun, he and she, like that now is offensive. It's still
being kind of held off here, but I mean there are some European
nations where a teacher could get fired if they use he and
she. They're not allowed to do that.
They have to use they or it or something like that. And so because
of where the technology is now, people can actually change their
genders. They can transform themselves. changes, and you notice that,
they're changing God, the image of God, so God's giving them
up now to greater perversions, so that they're changing things,
right? They're changing themselves,
and they're, some are changing to a different gender, some don't
want to have any gender, and then they're taught, just, you
know, you love who you love, and you know, it sounds really
nice, they sound like the sweet ones, and the loving ones, and
the generous ones, and the kind ones, don't they? They're so
gracious to say, well, we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings,
and you can't help who you love, but they're forgetting the fact
that the reason why they love a perverted, you know, another
person like themselves, a man loving a man, or a woman loving
a woman, or just flipping back and forth, is because they're
the ones that changed. They're the ones that changed
God. They're the ones that have the seed of sin in them, and
they're the ones that departed from God and changed Him. And
so God gave them up now, to where they're changing everything.
And it's not even just with sex. I mean, the technologists, they
talk about transhumanism and post-humanism. That is, transforming
ourselves of what we are and going beyond being human. And
you can hear the hiss of the serpent in that because they're
trying to get out from the thumb of God. They don't want to be
subject to the laws of God, to death and things like that. So
they change themselves in the name of space travel, right,
to be able to withstand radiation, they change themselves to be
able to withstand diseases. And I'm not saying it's wrong
to take medication, but I mean there's people changing themselves.
And they're trying to change the mind's ability to connect
to the internet and whatnot, like weird stuff, so that they
can keep up with artificial intelligence that they're also creating. You
know, because they've got to keep up so they don't get put out
of a job. They've got to be as fast as artificial intelligence.
And so it's all just to change themselves so as to be God, to
no longer be under God's creation. They don't want to be subject
to his laws and his rules, so they're going to change and transform
themselves so that they think won't be subject to God. And
so Well, that's all that part of that creation, right? And
look at verse 26 and 27. Here we see it. Because man changed
God and they will not worship him as he is revealed, it says,
for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for
even their women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving
the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving
in themselves that recompense of their error which was me."
And, you know, the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, he even said
to them, if you notice, when he spoke of them being bought
with a price, And he said, therefore glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's. And right in that whole section,
before and after that verse, he tells them, flee fornication.
Don't join yourself to a whore. and flee fornication. And you
see, that's where man goes right to his perversion. He changes
God and goes right to a perversion and sexuality and things of that
nature. So flee fornication. So in Corinth,
it was very widely practiced, a lot of what they did. When
they ended a religious service, it ended in fornication, usually
some form of fornication. going on there and so it's we
see it in our day now that they maybe don't call it religious
practice but you know you just you just listen to the radio
to music and people are calling in about their bachelor and bachelorette
parties and they say I mean I've heard things I don't know how
they got away with putting that on the air just stuff that kids
do today and whatnot it's really really sad. So the fact that
there's a God who created us means that He owns us and we
are accountable to Him. And therefore, as soon as man
found a way to deny God, that's exactly what he did. And as soon
as he began to change God, then all the society just devolved
and spins out of control and gets worse and worse and worse.
So eventually, they're telling you what's light. They're saying,
you're darkness, and this is light, and this is right. And
what you say is right and light, that's darkness. And you're wrong.
You shouldn't be talking like that. And that's offensive. What
we see is that the revelation of God, to know God as He is,
to know the true and living God, He's the one that's got to reveal
Himself to the sinner. Because without His revelation,
we don't know how to approach God, we don't know how to worship
Him, we don't know what pleases Him, because we've so corrupted
and changed who the true and living God is. And we're corrupted,
and so changed ourselves. We're so far from the truth. The Lord God, he reveals himself
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He shows us Christ. He brings
us to know that our righteousness and our hope of ever knowing
the true and living God is through Jesus Christ because we can't
figure it out. We're just corruptors. And so
it's in Christ now that we see that we're at peace to know I
don't have to change God. I don't have to bring God down
to the level that I'm capable of achieving because Christ has. He's the one that reconciled
me to the true and living God. He's done everything necessary
so I don't have to fight against God and deny the true and living
God to make him fit my own imagination because now there's a way. It's
through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's perfect. He is the righteousness
of God and by Him we are accepted and made pleasing to the living
God. Alright? So the wickedness that
we see described in this text, it's a picture of the carnal
mind in total darkness. It's the mind of us all, every
one of us here, by nature. That's where we are until the
Lord saves us and brings us to see, just trust me, you've come,
you have faith, Believe me and come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'll produce all the fruit. I'll produce everything. I've
done everything. You just come to me through Christ. And Romans
128 says, And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those
things which are not convenient. And so the thing to see there,
there's some people that teach that God's out there just reprobating
people and just like going before they do anything, just reprobating
them. And everywhere in scripture that you see it's because of
the practices and what man does that God is reprobating. Man
is the one that changed God. Man is the one that did wickedly
and therefore God reprobated. God gave him up and turned him
over to these things. And so then we see here at the
end from verses 29 through 32, this is the resulting sin that's
all a manifest token, the result of our descent into darkness. Look at it there in verse 29
and 32 and we see our own works here. This is what we are by
nature. being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful, knowing the judgment of God that they
which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do
the same but have pleasure in them that do them." And, you
know, the The foolishness of preachers today to stand in the
pulpit is that they're out there now preaching morality and telling
men, you've got to stop doing this and you've got to start
doing this better. And they've got it completely
wrong. That's not the problem. The problem
is men deny God as he is. They refuse to worship the true
and living God that's revealed here in the scriptures. So to
tell people, you've got to fix this and that and get this straightened
out, that's impossible. And that just only creates that
enmity in the flesh that people say, I don't even want to hear
that anymore. I'm done with this. I'm not going to sit and listen
to this thing and you just tell me what an awful person I am
and then expect me to fix it. I'm not. I don't want to fix
it. I don't want to do anything except what I want to do. But we declare
Christ because Christ is the one who writes our understanding
of God. It's Christ that restores that
true worship of God. It's Christ that makes it known
to us, I don't have to change God. It's because I am a sinner. I can't. I can't fix myself. But coming to God through Christ,
having Him revealed to us, and we know the true and living God,
and we worship Him, and you know what? All that fruit that God
is pleased to bring forth in His people He's the one that
brings it forth. He's the one that gives us spirit
and keeps us growing and falling in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if there's things that he's going to remove that are sinful
and wicked, he's going to remove them. He's going to teach it.
He'll give us a heart for it. He will give us a heart. It won't
just happen. He'll give us a heart and we'll
seek him for it. But that's what it is. So even homosexuals, a
person that's twisted and perverted, Christ is able to save them.
He's able because he's gracious and he's kind. We see ourselves in these last
few verses here that listed sins, we've practiced some of them
and do or did and struggled with many of them because we can't
fix ourselves. We're sinners and need Christ as well and so
I wouldn't tell a gay person you need to fix that first. And
then come to Christ. Preach Christ, because Christ
will teach them. He'll deliver them. If they're
His, He's going to reveal Himself and show them the true and living
God. And let Him instruct them, just like we're dependent on
Him to instruct us. Let Him instruct them. You just
preach the living God. You preach the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't have to change Him. We come to Him, we worship Him
as He is, as He's revealed Himself, and He does that through His
Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Then what do we do? We
stop changing God and we're thankful. We bow before him. As it says,
I'll close with Hebrews 13, 15, where it says that, by him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name. So that's how true worship of
God is restored in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in Christ. All right,
I pray the Lord will bless that. Let's pray our gracious Lord
father. We thank you Lord because We know you and worship you as
you are in the Lord Jesus Christ, as you've revealed yourself to
us through your Son, who is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we have nothing to boast
in of ourselves. The light that we have, the deliverance
from darkness, Lord, is purely by your mercy and grace and compassion
upon us. Lord, help us to preach and exalt
the Lord Jesus Christ because He alone is the one that restores
true worship. He alone is the one that teaches
the sinner, that turns them from darkness, that turns us from
trying to change God and pervert God and alter the true and living
God. We don't have to do that anymore
because that's why you sent Christ. so that we come to the true and
living God as you are. Lord, help us to bow before you.
Help us to yield to you and serve you and cry out to you for mercy
and help and deliverance from our sin. Lord, we pray this in
the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.