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

It is an amazing thing that we can call you father. You are so far above and apart from us – holy, righteous, eternal, omniscient, unsearchable, without peer, without weakness, without limitation. 

But we are limited, our days are numbered; even at our best, our lives are mere breaths, shadows, appearing here for just a short time and then we’re gone; largely unknown while alive, forgotten after death. 

And our lives are marked by sin – we are born into sin, born of sinners, influenced by sinners, our own hearts slaves to sin. Our sin keeps us from any fellowship with you, from any intimacy with our creator. Because of our sin, we are your enemies, we are the objects of your just wrath against sin. 

On our own, how can we possibly call you father? 

Thankfully, you have not left us on our own. You have provided the means for us to truly call your father. 

It is you who renew our spirits when they are dead, you make us alive, able to see our sin, to see our need, to understand our hopelessness, and to see our hope. 

It is you who have set us free from the power of sin, who have delivered us from wrath, delivered us from the condemnation of the law, set us free to obey you with right and thankful hearts, you who have adopted us as children. 

It is you who provided our savior, the one who took on our grief, our shame, our anguish, and our punishment for sin. It is because of Jesus’ sacrifice that we can be made alive. It is because of Jesus’ pain that we can be set free from sin. It is because you offered Jesus in our place that we can now call you father. 

Surely every man’s life is a mere breath, yet you redeem and free us, making us your own children, securing us forever in your love as our father. 

Amen.