Please find below the notes from the Elder's Prayer this past Sunday.

You are the god of light, the god of compassion, the god of justice and mercy, the god of wrath and of grace.

And you are the god who never changes. As all things around us change – through birth and death, through sickness and health, through tearing down and building up – you remain the same. The one who formed the mountains and named the stars remains the same through all of the change that we see and feel, through all of the changes that bring sorrow and joy.

And you, unchanging God, hear our prayers.

You are the god who carries us from our birth. You give us our families, our circumstances, our identities. You mold us and shape us through all of our experiences, continually making us more like Christ.

You have carried us through all of our mistakes. Even when we fail, you are there, never leaving us alone, helping us to grow in wisdom and maturity, preserving us through the mistakes and sometimes the suffering that comes with them.

You have carried us through all of our sin. Even before we knew you as savior, you were there – guiding, forming, bringing about circumstances that led to us hearing the gospel, where we understood and believed that your son saves us from our sins.
You are God and there is no other. There is no one like you in all creation. There is no other god like you.

You know the end from the beginning, declaring from ancient times things which have not been done.

You establish your purposes and accomplish all your good pleasure. What you speak, you bring to pass; what you planned, you will surely do.

You are the god who carries us through our old age. As we physically and mentally fade and fail, you carry us, you preserve us, you bear us through, you deliver us fully from our sin, keeping the gospel promises you made long ago to remove all of our sins, to cleanse us white as snow, to never let us go.

You are the god who never changes. You are our god.
Amen.