Amen.
Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews, the fourth
chapter.
Hebrews is toward the back of the New
Testament.
Past Thessalonians, first and second, and Timothy and
Titus.
And you will arrive after the book, the
tiny book of Philemon, you will get to
Hebrews.
Chapter four, great passage of Scripture.
Hebrews 4, verse 14.
We're going to get to a very disputed
piece of property when it comes to spiritual
warfare.
But the name of this message is, A
Dependable Priest.
Verse 14, chapter four, Therefore, since we have
a great high priest who has gone through
the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let
us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
Notice, hold firmly to the faith we possess.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who has been tempted
in every way just as we are, yet
was without sin.
Let us then approach the throne of grace
with confidence, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our
time of need.
The biggest scandal in the history of the
Catholic Church, well, at least in modern history,
has been the revealing of some very dark
and terrible secrets that people have been holding
onto inside of them.
Men, some women, mostly men, have come forward
and said that the very person that they
trusted, the priest, was the one who was
a predator, took advantage of them.
And now some are in therapy, some are
wounded.
They say beyond healing in their minds.
Parents don't know what to think.
Giving in the Catholic Church is down.
Attendance is down to mass.
I've been up in Boston twice within the
last three, four weeks, and that was the
state and that was the parish that was
hit the hardest by these revelations.
So now people are saying this, where can
you find a priest that you can trust?
But there are scandals among ministers and Protestant
ministers, Baptists, Charismatic, Episcopal.
I remember being on the Lower East Side
with my friend Pastor Maldonado some years ago,
and we were looking for some space for
his church to rent when he was working
there.
And we went into a certain church, I'll
leave out what kind it was, and the
clergy that were there, we walked into their
office, they weren't expecting us.
The secretary just told us to walk in,
and when we walked in, both of them
were pouring over, excuse what I'm going to
say now, it's not something so nice, but
they were pouring over catalogs for men's underwear,
with these male models wearing these briefs, and
there was a very, very bad vibe in
that room.
And they happened to be running when we
walked in, an after-school program, and when
I saw all those young children, those young
boys, and I checked out these two guys,
and saw those magazines, and just their uncomfortableness
with the way we walked in on them.
I said, Oh God have mercy.
Well, I want to tell you about a
priest that you can trust, and that you
can go to 24-7.
The phone line is never busy.
He never takes a vacation.
How many say hallelujah to that?
Never has off hours.
Now Hebrews was written to explain to Jewish
believers, the better covenant, and to others, but
especially Jewish believers, the better covenant that they
have through Jesus Christ, compared to the covenant
of the law.
Now, the law was given by Moses, and
was delivered through angels, so at the beginning
of Hebrews, the Bible tells us in these
passages, that Jesus is seen as greater than
angels, and He has seen the Son of
God greater than Moses.
And now, the writer of Hebrews, is going
to go and show that He's greater than
the priest.
You see, every Jewish person knew that you
needed a priest.
God had said this in the old covenant,
in the law, that the people could not
approach God, could never go into the Holy
of Holies, but somebody could represent them, to
secure pardon, and to pray for them.
And it was the high priest, who went
in to the Holy of Holies, just one
day of the year, on the Day of
Atonement.
But there were other priests, but the high
priest was the one who represented them in
the most solemn way, and when you put
your faith in Jesus Christ, Jewish people would
attack their fellow Jews, who became Christians, and
say, how could you become a Christian?
Now you don't have a priest.
You have nobody representing you.
When my grandmother, on my mother's side, my
Polish grandmother, I had a Ukrainian grandmother, and
a Polish grandmother.
When my Polish grandmother got converted, she converted
from generations of Catholicism in Poland, which is
the most Catholic country in the world, along
with the Philippines, highest percentage of Roman Catholics.
And when my mother got saved, you know,
grandmother got saved, you know Mike, that was
a huge step for her.
The neighbors threw garbage on the lawn.
They were considered radicals.
My uncles, who I talked to once I
got older, I didn't realize when I got
older, the scarring that was in their minds
from how they were treated in schools, because
in a little small Polish mining town in
Pennsylvania, you didn't leave the Catholic Church.
But one of the accusations was, to them
was this, you don't have a priest.
Now you don't have a priest.
We have a priest with a turned around
collar, now you don't have a priest, and
my grandmother probably hadn't understood Hebrews yet, but
I want you all to know that we
have a great high priest, who represents us.
When Jesus died on the cross, I'm going
to, because we worshipped and praised God, and
I want to do something that was unburdened
to do today, for somebody or some people
here that need to hear this, I'm going
to speak shorter and get to that ground
that is fought over.
Jesus, when he died on the cross, rose
again from the dead on the third day,
and he spent about 40 days off and
on with the disciples, appearing, spending time with
them.
Then he ascended to the right hand of
the Father, where the Bible says, he ever
lives to make intercession for us, Allah, the
high priest.
So when we say Jesus is here, when
he says, well two or three, I gather
he's here, he means the presence of the
Holy Spirit.
Jesus himself, the resurrected Savior of the world,
he's seated in heaven at the right hand
of the Father, and we're waiting for his
return.
And in the mystery of the Godhead, we
find Jesus as a mediator, between God and
the people that belong to him.
And the writer to the Hebrews says, I
want you to know that we have a,
not a priest, you don't have just a
priest, we have a great high priest, who
is the Son of God.
A priest has his own sins to worry
about, but the priest we have has never
sinned.
He's perfectly spotless.
He's the Lamb of God.
The priest that you have here on earth,
could have a bad day, his car could
break down, he could be in a bad
mood, he could have had a fight with
his wife.
In another context, he could be a predator,
he could be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
But the great high priest that we have,
who represents us to God, who is interested
right now in not only, yes, praying for
us, and in ministering the benefits of salvation,
that's what Jesus is doing right now.
This is a thought that not too many
Christians dwell on.
Jesus lives right now to make intercession for
Carol and her daughter Susan, my daughter Susan,
and my son-in-law Brian, and for
my grandchildren.
While you were sleeping last night, Jesus was
interceding for you.
Before you even get up on the problem,
Jesus knew it was coming, and is trying
to prepare you for that problem.
Oh, how many are happy we have a
high priest?
Let's put our hands together that we have
a priest.
A priest.
Come on, let's really thank God that we
have a priest.
I have a priest today.
We have a great high priest, the Son
of the Living God.
Not some man who lives for a few
years, but the Son of the Living God
is my priest.
He not only is the sacrifice, he's the
priest that offers the sacrifice.
What a mystery.
He's everything.
He's the lamb, but he's the priest.
And this priest is so different, the writer
tells us, than the Jewish priest.
The Jewish priest, once a year, there was
a veil that separated the holy place where
the rest of the priest could go, into
the Holy of Holies.
It was a thick veil.
That's the veil that was ripped in sunder
on what day?
Anybody who gets this right gets two weeks
in Florida.
The veil that was torn, it was torn
and ripped open, and the Holy of Holies
was revealed as not having the presence of
God in it on what day?
The day that Jesus died.
And it was ripped from bottom to top
or top to bottom?
Top to bottom.
Why?
So that nobody could say, somebody came in
and cut it and ripped it.
Human.
Ripped from top to bottom, so everybody would
know God did that.
Well anyway, that veil was the veil that
the high priest, once a year, would go
in into the Holy of Holies, where above
the Ark of the Covenant, there was the
Shekinah glory, the manifest presence of God.
And he would go in, boy, sprinkling blood.
God tells him in Exodus Leviticus, don't you
ever appear without blood, for without the shedding
of blood there is what?
No remission of sin.
So on that day, the priest would come
in, one day a year, and he would
go in, his heart pounding, with bells on
the bottom of his robe.
And one of the reasons was that they
would know if he was alive or dead.
Because they had to haul some of those
boys out of there.
They went in wrong.
They got carried out horizontal.
And they would go into the Holy of
Holies, sprinkling blood, and there they would intercede,
and they would represent the people and make
atonement for the sins of the people.
And they would talk to God about the
people, in the Holy of Holies, one day
with the blood of a goat or a
bull.
So the writer to Hebrews says, we have
a great high priest.
He doesn't go through any veil in Jerusalem.
He went into the heavens of heavens, into
the Holy of Holies in heaven, of which
the earth was just a type.
Jerusalem was just a type, a symbol.
And he went in to represent us, not
in some symbolic way.
He went into the very presence of God,
representing us as our great high priest.
He's right now in heaven, interceding, caring, keeping
his eye on us.
And when you start to wobble, he knows
about your wobbling.
And when you're struggling with something, he knows
about it.
He's there as a priest to apply these
benefits of the salvation.
And he didn't offer the blood, hallelujah, he
didn't offer the blood of some animal.
He offered in some mysterious way his own
blood.
And if God said in the Old Testament,
when I see the blood, I will pass
over you.
What do you think he says when he
sees the blood of his own son?
Oh my.
Let's praise him again together.
Hallelujah.
For the blood that washes away all our
sin.
So, when the devil accuses you about sin,
you're not being humble by listening to it.
If you let the devil accuse you about
sins you've repented of, that's not humility.
That's the devil accusing you of stuff that
the blood of Jesus has washed away.
You are demeaning the ministry of Christ as
Savior and as priest.
If you and I dwell on sins that
we committed this morning or last week or
last year.
When it's under the blood, it's all over.
Not only forgiven, but forgotten.
Do I get a witness from the congregation?
I don't care what you did.
I don't care if you killed somebody.
When it's under the blood, it's under the
blood.
That's the battle my friend David Berkowitz is
going through, son of Sam.
Been saved since 87.
He killed nine girls as that serial killer.
Became a Christian in 87.
Went into prison in late 70s.
And he told Carol and I, I have
a picture with me in my briefcase that's
with me today.
Two pictures of Carol and I with him
in the slammer there where we visited him
upstate.
And he said, Pastor, that's what the devil
does.
He never gives up.
He keeps trying to bring those accusations against
me because think of the terrible things I
did possessed by the devil.
Shot people I didn't know.
The .44 caliber killer.
Paralyzed this whole city.
And he said every week, every couple days,
every month, the devil comes and tries to
bring that all up to bring me under
guilt and condemnation.
And I have to stand and say, I
plead the blood.
I plead the blood of Jesus.
It's under the blood.
Christ died for my sins.
They've been washed away.
Satan, I resist you.
You want to know how to fight the
devil?
You got to fight him through the blood
of the Lamb.
And through the high priest that we have
who lives to make intercession for me.
He went into the heavens to appear for
us.
Let me bring this to a close.
It's an exhortation this morning.
Now, the Bible tells us in this passage
that he's not only a great high priest,
but he is a compassionate high priest.
That he's not some otherworldly Jesus, glorified, eternal
Son of God, but he's Jesus who became
flesh, who is the Son of God, Emmanuel,
God in the flesh.
But he lived here on the earth.
Why did he live here on the earth?
Well, it later tells us, he had to
live there so he could be a sympathetic
high priest.
When Carol has a battle going on in
her life, or when I have failed the
Lord, the Bible says that if it was
an absolutely other than human, glorified, supreme being
kind of Jesus, which he is, but if
he was only that, we would find it
hard to approach him because he could never
understand how weak we are and how the
devil works here on earth to drag us
down.
But the Bible says here that we not
only have a great high priest, but we
have a compassionate high priest who was tempted
like you and I are in every way.
Listen, brother and sister, in every way.
Did you hear what the Bible said?
In every way, but without sin.
He knows what it is to fight against
temptation.
You think the devil attacks you?
You think you got a rough road?
How do you think the devil and his
horde swarmed on Jesus?
Some people think he only was tempted in
the wilderness.
No, no, you didn't read one of the
gospels.
It says, and the devil left him until
there came a more convenient season.
Jesus was tempted.
He knew what it was to be let
down by people.
He had to fight off heartaches.
He was tempted by evil thoughts.
They were presented to him.
He never embraced one of them.
He was spotless.
But to be tempted, you have to feel
it.
And the Bible says that's what's so great
about our high priest.
When you and I are going through it,
we can run to Jesus and he sympathizes
with our weakness.
He knew what it was to be flesh
and blood like you and I are.
He knows how weak we are.
He knows how cunning the devil is.
I'm not excusing sin now.
I'm telling you what the Bible says.
That we have a high priest who sympathizes
with our situation.
He has compassion on us.
He has a fellow feeling, the Bible says.
He is not unable to sympathize.
He is able to sympathize, for he has
been tempted in every way just as we
are.
So we have an eternal Son of God,
Jesus Christ, high priest, who right now, while
I'm speaking, represents me to the Father.
We receive that by faith.
We can't figure out that and see it
spatially in our minds.
We receive it by faith.
Jesus Christ is a priest, the great high
priest for me and you.
See these babies that we gave to him?
He's interceding for these babies even now.
How many say amen?
Oh yes he is.
He's a faithful high priest, always available.
You know sometimes when Roman Catholics they have
an accident and somebody's dead, they make believe
they're not dead.
So they can call a priest for the
last rites of the church.
The boy is dead.
But they pretend he's not dead, he has
to get the last rites.
But sometimes the priest gets caught up in
traffic.
But we have a high priest.
He's as close as the mention of his
name.
When you say his name, he is on
the case.
Come on, let's put our hands together one
more time.
He's on the case, just saying Jesus.
Okay.
Now, in every battle, you know, Neil lives
now in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
And near Chattanooga, he used to live in
Nashville and in Nashville there were some of
the greatest battles of the Civil War.
In fact, more generals died in those battles
in Nashville than any battles that were fought
in the Civil War.
Now, near Chattanooga, there's Lookout Mountain and some
of these other places where there was some
nasty fighting between the North and the South.
And one of the reasons why it took
so long, well, there was bad generals that
the North had, but one of the reasons
it took so long for the North to
overcome the South, beside possible divine reasons, that
God was visiting the sins of slavery on
the country as a whole.
But militarily speaking, is that the Confederates always
seemed to get the high ground.
They would get positions that were just so
tremendous for defense.
And back in those days, they didn't fight
guerrilla warfare, they just charged at each other
like a bunch of crazy people.
And the Yankee soldiers were thrown into the
battle in some of these really terrible things,
Chico Magua and some of these other battles
that you'll read about.
I mean, they were cut down, they were
cut down faster than you could imagine.
And even, and the Southerners charged sometimes unwisely,
like at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania,
and some of the soldiers who killed them
said, we almost, we almost got compassionate for
the enemy because it was so insane.
You couldn't fire and not kill somebody.
They were just coming at you.
But that was the way they fought that.
So who got the ground, the high ground?
Who got the important ground?
Determine who won.
Because if you got the low ground and
you were crazy enough to fight, you're going
to lose.
That's what happened at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Northerners for once, for one of the
few times, got the high ground.
And Robert E.
Lee and the other generals probably made a,
historians say, a very unwise decision to go
at that station, those station Union troops.
Well, in the battle of spiritual warfare, in
the battles that involve spiritual warfare, here's the
ground that's most fought over.
Listen to me and then I'll let you
go.
But let's visit it before we go.
Therefore, since we have such a great high
priest, seeing that all these things are true,
he shed his blood for us.
He represents us to the Father.
He's compassionate.
He never sleeps.
He never slumbers.
Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne
of grace.
No, every time you see therefore in the
Bible, you always ask, wherefore?
In other words, therefore is building on something.
So what went before it?
Because we have such a great high priest
who went into the heavens for us, the
Son of God, who has compassion because he
walked on earth for 33 years.
He was human in the mystery of the
incarnation.
Because of all of that and because of
God's love for us and because of who
Christ is and what he stands for, let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace.
The action, the ground that's fought over in
spiritual warfare is the devil tries to keep
us from the throne of grace.
Jesus is a high priest trying to draw
me every single day to the throne of
grace.
He's trying to draw you today to the
throne of grace because that's where the action
is.
That's where you get mercy.
You don't get mercy by going to church.
You get mercy experienced by going to the
throne of grace.
You don't get grace operating in your life
by listening to a gospel album.
You get it only if the gospel album
motivates you and inspires you to get to
the throne of grace.
So listen.
Let us therefore, us, us is first person
plural.
The writer is saying him too.
Let us therefore, therefore let us, let us
come or go boldly.
That means movement.
What kind of movement?
Not with your body, with your heart.
Us.
Whether you're a preacher, whether you're Billy Graham,
whether you're up in the balcony, whether you're
downstairs, whether you're in the choir, whether you're
Neal Joseph, no matter who you are, you're
part of the us.
You need to move to the throne of
grace.
You gotta go there.
It's not a place that stays with you.
You gotta go there.
You gotta approach it.
You gotta make visits.
You gotta camp out near it.
You never get too far from it.
Why?
Because it's the source of strength and power
and grace for the Christian.
This is where Jesus is trying to woo
me.
If he could only get my attention and
cure me of my cardinality and my unbelief.
Therefore let us come boldly.
Don't come creeping.
Come boldly.
Don't come saying come boldly.
Therefore let us come boldly.
Why?
Because you're not coming in your name.
If you had to come in your name,
don't even go.
But we're coming in the name that's above
every other name.
We're coming in the name of Jesus.
God receives us in the name of Jesus.
He is my high priest.
He's the one inviting me.
Let us come boldly to the throne of
grace.
What does throne stand for?
Power.
Sovereignty.
Supreme power of God ruling the universe.
But what kind of throne is it?
Therefore let us come boldly to the throne
of grace.
Say it with me.
Throne of grace.
Say it.
Throne of Say it louder.
Throne of grace.
God rules for the believer from a throne
of grace.
Not a throne of judgment.
That's a lie.
It's a lie.
God doesn't want to judge you.
He wants to help you.
That's why he calls it a throne of
grace.
If he wanted to kill you, he would
have done it by now.
It's a throne of grace.
What does grace mean?
Grace is the expression of God's love and
his loving kindness to us.
It's always reaching out to help someone.
It's a mother picking up a kid who
keeps falling down as he learns to walk.
It's a dad helping out a son or
a daughter who can't meet their bills.
It's a doctor over a patient bringing healing
and restoration to their body.
Grace is always moving out to help the
object that it loves.
So the Bible says therefore let us come
boldly to the throne of grace to receive
mercy.
Why would we need mercy?
Because we sin.
This is why this is the most hotly
contested spot in the universe when it comes
to spiritual warfare.
If the devil can keep John or Mike
Ford or Pastor Hammond from the throne of
grace, they are cooked.
They will live in guilt for months or
years because the only way you get rid
of the guilt is by going to the
throne of grace where you get mercy.
Mercy runs at the throne of grace.
Oh how many are happy we have a
throne of grace.
That God, listen, God is inviting us to.
Let us come boldly.
Jesus, our high priest, is saying come daughter,
come son.
Everything you need is at my father's throne.
I'm wooing you, I'm drawing you, I've made
the way so you can enter in boldly
to receive mercy.
Sins, yeah, Christians sin.
If any of you here don't sin anymore,
God bless you.
But I sin.
I sin.
Since I'm a Christian I've made mistakes.
I make daily mistakes.
I say things I shouldn't say.
I don't say things I should say.
I make mistakes as a husband.
I make mistakes as a father.
I make mistakes as a grandfather.
I spoil my grandkids.
I need mercy.
And you're not angels either.
Don't look at me like mine.
I didn't think you were like that.
You're not so hot.
How many need God's mercy every day?
Come on, wave your hand at me.
We need God's mercy.
Where do you get the mercy?
At the throne of grace, praying to God,
calling on God.
It doesn't come automatically in a bottle or
in a vapor.
It comes at the throne of grace.
That's why this is so contested.
You know, when you're playing basketball and you're
a big man, these guys will understand what
I'm talking about, some of the girls too.
But when you're tall and you're big and
you have to guard another guy, the coach
will yell at you and sometimes a guy
would take me underneath the basket and go
low post.
And the whole fight is with your lower
body and your legs to push him away
from the basket before he gets it.
Because once Shaquille O'Neal catches the ball
just five feet from the basket, you're toast.
So Armand Gilliam, my friend, is a Christian.
The hammer, they called him.
He played in the league for 12 years
and he told me because he was only
6'10", only.
But he would guard 7'2", 7'3",
players.
So he one time told me, Pastor, all
year, all the off season, I work on
a stair master and I just lift weights
and I don't play much ball because you
don't know the physical battle because when Shaq
would just lean back on me, he would
say, what does Shaquille go about, 3'40",
3'60"?
Heavy.
He'd say, when he would just lean back,
he said, everything, you need everything, hold him
back, don't let him get the spot.
Once he gets the spot, you lose.
That's the throne of grace.
Once we secure the throne of grace, the
devil is cooked.
Come on, let's put our hands together.
The throne of grace.
Why?
Because we receive mercy and grace.
The number one battle in our lives, in
my life, is keep me from the throne
of grace.
Keep us in guilt.
Keep us in condemnation.
Keep us with that kind of somber moaning,
no joy, no victory, no sense of, I'm
clean.
That only comes at the throne of grace.
And when you slip as a Christian and
you do something, say something, get involved in
something you shouldn't, the devil sends every demon
he can to keep you, not in a
physical place, but to keep you away from
the throne of grace.
He knows if you make it there, it's
all over for him.
His accusations won't mean anything, because you'll be
glorifying God for the blood that washes away
all of your sins.
Carol, if you're playing, one last thing.
It's not just mercy which tells us, humbles
us, that we need, imagine Christians, including the
apostle who wrote this, said, let us come
boldly to the throne of grace.
If you're here today and you don't feel
your need for mercy, God really has to
do something in your life.
No matter how long you walk with the
Lord, you always feel your need of mercy.
Come on, do I get a witness here
from everyone?
You never get to the place where you
look down at somebody else and say, my,
what's wrong with that person?
Because you know, they're but for the grace
of God alone.
But not just receive mercy, but obtain grace.
What's grace?
Mercy takes care of the past tense.
Grace helps me in the present tense challenges.
Neil needs grace to help him with wisdom
to do the ministry he's involved in.
I need grace to face the challenges, to
face the financial challenges that we have here.
I need grace.
You need grace just to ride on the
number three train.
You need grace.
Come on, do I get a witness here?
You need grace just to go to work,
to face a lot of the junk that
you have to go through.
You need grace.
Help.
Energy.
Wisdom.
Endurance.
Purity.
Name it.
It's grace.
Whatever you need now, today, you can get
it at the throne of grace.
The devil will block you.
He'll tell you you don't need it.
He'll tell you it's too late.
He'll tell you you've done too many things
wrong.
He'll tell you that you're not ready.
That's the biggest lie because you'll never be
ready if you wait till you're ready.
You come just the way you are because
it's a throne, hallelujah, of grace.
No matter how soiled you are, you can
come.
Listen, these are the great battles.
These are the great battles that go on.
Whatever happens in Iraq, that's going to be
a child's play compared to the great battles
that go on spiritually.
In the spiritual realms, the devils, the demons,
Satan, trying to block people from one.
Just don't let them get to the throne
of grace.
That's the way the devil does it.
Come on, how many have ever been blocked?
He tries to block you, yeah?
Tries to get your mind on something else.
Tries to do anything because he knows once
you get there and mercy starts flowing and
grace from God, our high priest, oh, I
want to just preach.
Sylvia, get about five of your, get about
five brothers to just come in.
If you're here today and say, pastor, symbol
of that message is like medicine.
I want, the devil's been messing.
He comes like the accuser of the brethren.
He comes as the condemner.
He tries to get me down, depressed, feeling
guilt, and hear Jesus died that I wouldn't
live that way, that I would have peace
and joy.
So I want to visit the throne of
grace and I might need some help.
And they'll, they'll pray you, they'll help you
there.
See, sometimes you need a little encouragement to
get there.
Or maybe you're here battling and you, I
mean, the devil has just thrown the kitchen
sink at you.
If you feel sorry for yourself, you're doing
absolutely well
symbolically.
Don't anyone else move?
That's it.
Choir members, balcony people.
When the devil comes in, the enemy comes
in like a flood.
The Lord raises up a standard.
But where's that standard raised up?
At the throne of grace.
In the day of trouble, call upon me
and I will answer you.
And I will show you great and mighty
things.
Freedom from guilt.
Cleansing through the blood.
Encouragement and strength.
Let it all roll.
All has its place.
Put your hands, start to talk to God.
Talk to God.
Tell Him.
He knows.
Come on.
Open your mouth up and praise Him.
Lord, if there's anyone here who doesn't get
saved at the throne of grace.
The gook and the junk and the dirt
that we collect as we walk through life.
You are not unsympathetic.
We ask not just for mercy, but for
today.
Help us to live now day by day.
God, you can't give me grace for next
week because I don't have for today, Lord.
We all need grace for just the day
we're living in.
Give us this day our daily grace.
Help us as a church and as individual
people to live more.
Sit there in your presence, Lord, after mercy
and grace have been dispensed.