Let us turn to our Bibles to Micah chapter 6. Micah chapter 6 verse 8, and then I’ll read Galatians 6 10. Micah chapter 6 verse 8, He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Galatians 6 10, Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, may your spirit be upon us and preaching of your word, my words. Lord, hear through your words, the word of God, that we would have our hearts attuned and turned to the truth and the calling, as we are called as best we can, to do good to one another, especially the household of faith, and that God, by doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.
That we learn anew, have the truth reinforced, that this is the path of reformation and revival in our lives and the lives of our church, the best as we are able, and always dependence upon the Spirit of the living God. Be with us, God Almighty, as your people, and be with us in our efforts to preserve our family, our church, and our nation, but in all things, to put you first and your kingdom first, to glorify and honor you. We ask this by the blood of Christ.
Amen. This is our 250th year as a nation, a time of rejoicing, sustained by the Lord’s long-suffering providence upon us. If we dwell too long upon the various troubles and imperfections of our nations of late, I fear that we may slide into a morose mindset, and I don’t want that.
The problems are real, I’m not going to deny that, and deep, yet our Lord is greater and has much patience and power for his church. We look back upon our nation’s founding, we witness the great patience of our Lord and his goodness bestowed upon us, and I want to encourage us as we look to the future for ourselves, our family, our churches, and our nation, and to that end, as we contemplate and celebrate this once-in-a- We should consider our social and religious history and take some lessons and inspiration of the past for our path for the future and for future generations. Lessons of social and religious history are important for us as it evidences God’s providential care of his people.
After all, even our founding fathers, such as John Adams, acknowledged the debt we owe as a nation to our Reformation roots of Calvin and Knox, as he wrote to a friend, I love and revere the memories of Hus, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon, and other Reformers. I’ll stop right there in the quote. How many magistrates, a local judge to a mayor to the president, would ever say, I love and revere the memories of Hus, Wycliffe, Luther, and Calvin? How many church leaders? I’ll continue the quote.
I love them, how much so ever I may differ from them, and many theological, metaphysical, and philosophical points. And as you justly observe, without their great exertion and severe sufferings, the USA had never existed, end quote. This makes sense.
For the Reformation of Lutheran Calvin was not only a revival of the soul of the church or spirituality of the church, a right understanding and contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, but also the soul of other nations. The Reformation of the societies of Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, and other nations were directly impacted by the revival of truth within the church. A multitude of holy days, for example, in which they had more vacation than the average American, was of course greatly reduced.
Promiscuous priests were thrown out, wasteful papal funds were redistributed to better use such as the poor, and of course, in many cases, better laws were enacted, both within the church and without the church, that is, in society. Kings were freed from undue papal influence, and the right to resist tyrants was codified. In other words, the Great Reformation of our church hails from where that we hail from, that we come from, is a twofold Reformation, a transformation of both society and the church, of the body and of the soul of the nation.
But with a proper priority, that’s why I have Galatians 6.10 here for us. Do good to all, and that’s what a Reformation does in terms of changing society for a better end, but especially the household of faith, we read in Galatians 6.10. And that’s why it’s my second point instead of the first point. The first point is a nation, and then I will talk about the church.
Reforming Nation: Do Justly Love Mercy, Walk Humbly
And so it’s true today as well. The church is instituted by God Almighty through Christ the Son, is created in the midst of an already existing society and nation all over the world. And it began historically, as we know, as a mini society of a family, the case of Adam, and it grew to a tribe under Abraham and to a nation, beyond that under Moses.
The Great Commission does not undermine this historical pattern of earthly or natural development, but assumes it. That’s why it says, go therefore make disciples of all what? Nations. He could have used the word families.
He could have used the word individuals. Christ said nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This twofold Reformation was well established in the Old Testament.
Israel was both a nation and a church. Sometimes we forget that. Both a nation and a church.
It’s just that everyone was under both at the same time. You are. You’re part of this nation and you’re a Christian.
You’re under both jurisdictions at the same time. Our text in Micah assumes this, of course, this overlap and connection. The rest of the book reflects this fact and concern with both the worship of God and the care of his people.
The book of Micah emphasizes especially, I preached it back in, well, 2020. That’s right, 2020. Part of it, it emphasizes especially social injustices.
And I don’t mean that as a social warrior stuff that we think of in politics, but in the best understanding of the Ten Commandments, as I covered a little bit in Sunday school class, as applied to society with respect to the idea of rights, for example, but also the worship of God. Micah is concerned about that. He mentions it explicitly there in the first part of his book.
And as we live in a post-Christian America, an ever increasingly pagan America, we too need a twofold Reformation. Although we do not have the same arrangements of society and church as Israel does, we must take that into account, we still have a society, we still have churches that need Reformation. And I think the passage in Micah 6a is a good summary of a Reformation goal and model that includes both society and church, because Micah is not making an explicit distinction because the two overlapped, but he knew they existed.
The priest couldn’t do the job of a king, and the king shouldn’t do the job of a priest. So this text here, I don’t believe it’s just about society, it’s about both. He has shown you, O man, the word man there is the particular Hebrew word about the basic humanness, humanity.
What is good, and what does the Lord require of you? Even the unbelievers want justice and mercy, although they may not want to walk humbly before their God. First point, reforming the nation to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God, ideally. Reforming a nation here, as I point out, Micah doesn’t specify who and what justice and mercy and humility are for and towards, but the book points to those social religious concerns as I mentioned before, even to the specificity of the poor and the middle class who were being oppressed and abused.
And of course, the pure worship of God was contaminated, as we know. Ongoing history of the Old Testament Church, and in such endeavors, of course, that is outside the worship of God. We may cooperate, I want to note here, with unbelievers, especially it seems in the second table of the law of God.
Murder, maintaining healthy marriage and marriage laws, protecting children and the like, since many good things unbelievers can recognize and work for. But it’s ideal that we do both, right? That we be, as to summarize Washington here, zealous in performing our duties as a citizen or a soldier, to have a distinguishing character of a patriot, but above all, and beyond that, to have the highest glory, he says, to add the more distinguished character of a Christian. By nation, I mean society and government.
The way these words are used in ordinary parlance, in my experience, as I hear the word, sometimes we’ll say, you know, church and state. I was asked why didn’t I use the title church and state, reforming church and state. State often thinks, in my mind, I hear, I hear government, I hear politicians, I hear laws.
I mean more than that. I mean social expectations and social actions, businesses as well, should honor, for example, the Lord’s Day. So I mean both society, that which is not government as such, although it may be impacted, influenced by government.
Laws cover all things in society. But society, historically, if you think about it more carefully, predates nations and governments. Governments can be overthrown and changed, but you still have your people, you still have your customs, you still have your language and the like.
That’s what I mean by society. Everything not uniquely religious, as well, is what I mean by society. That would be the second point I’m talking about, or the common kingdom, as I preached on before.
The kingdoms of this world in which we live and have to interact with and should do, to the best of our knowledge. Government, politics, legal matters, sometimes called the state. The church and state, of course, are separate.
That is, you don’t expect me as a pastor to run around making laws for the nation. We believe the church and the history practices this. The Old Testament Church practiced this.
Some kings got in trouble messing around in the temple, for example. It’s always been the case. So the rhetoric of separation of church and state is just that, rhetoric for them to hide their particular approach or view of that matter.
Ours is different. Let’s talk about the details. I’m going to cover a little bit here.
I’m not going to go into all of it, of course, because that’s not the point. We believe in the separation of powers and duties, but not the influence of Christianity or religion upon society. Now what does Reformation look like in society? Well, Ten Commandments.
Simple as that, the Ten Commandments. They are given not just to Israel of old in the Old Testament, but they are a summary of God’s will for what? The nations, the world. They’re called to believe in God.
They’re called to honor Him. Yes, they can’t do it unless they’re born again. I grant that, but, you know, it doesn’t change their obligation.
It doesn’t change their wit. We have this unfortunate approach, even in the churches, in which we are embarrassed about the First Table Law, perhaps, or we reduce it to Sunday-only Christianity. These First Four Commandments only apply for Sunday or something, or Christians privately in their own home.
Last I checked, the Fourth Commandment says what? Does it say you’re manservant and you’re maidservant? Yes, it does. People who are underneath you and work underneath you. Who else is included in the Fourth Commandment of honoring God’s day? Only believers we hear today.
You can’t force people against their will. They’ll be hypocrites. No, their choice to be a hypocrite is between them and God.
They’re the ones in rebellion, not us. We do this in our family all the time. I don’t tell the kid, well, I think this might make you more hypocritical.
You know, if they have that kind of a heart, you can urge them not to, but they’re gonna follow the rules of the house. And so honor. It says stranger.
Even a stranger within your gate must submit to the Lord’s day. Right there. You can’t get around it.
But there are attempts, because they want to talk about republication of the law of God, the covenant of works or something, to carve out. They’re uncomfortable, unfortunately, with their own history, with their own beliefs. We lived in early America.
We saw this ascended to a class. We would experience these things. We wouldn’t think twice about them.
And I think one way to ask your fellow Christian, if you have these discussions with them, hopefully they are congenial and not heated, is just simply, could you live in early America? Would you be comfortable living with George Washington as your neighbor? With, you know, Madison as your president, as he does a day of Thanksgiving in 1813 after the 1812 war, naming God and his mercies for protecting them? Or would they cry, run around saying, separation of church and state. This is terrible. I think we know the answer, unfortunately, in subcircles.
They’d rather live today. I’d like to live in a godly society. All the blessings on the side are secondary.
The earthly blessings. I’m, hey, I love indoor plumbing, okay. But I love God’s Word and his day as well.
And if there’s a conflict, who should I pick? God and his day and his honor and his name. That’s what we’re talking about. So that’s a good question to ask.
I gave you those handouts. If you lost them, I might have some more of those lossy handouts for you if you want to use those. State constitutions, of course.
The schools and the like. And again, Christianity is part and parcel of the common law of America. Quoted over and over again for over a hundred years.
Talk about legal precedents today. Where’s that legal precedents? I mean, it’s there from the beginning? From our first chief justices? And all of a sudden, we’re like, huh, what? I don’t want to dig that far when I go into as a chief justice of America today. I don’t want to dig that far into the past.
It’s no longer legal and relevant. Yeah, that’s sad. That’s something to pray for, but to be aware of.
And of course, the second table, which is more obvious. No more abortions, stricter divorce laws, and the like. This is what Reformation and Revival would look like in general under the Ten Commandments.
But in particular, to do justice. Justice, right? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God. Justice, just laws against murder and adultery, abortion, and the like.
It’s another way of expressing what justice is. You hear, and we use the language, and it’s fine when you understand one another. I want justice.
I want a leader who exercises righteousness and is upright. And then you ask the particulars. What does that look like? The Ten Commandments give you what? The particulars.
Murder is wrong. And consistent punishment without favoritism is another good example. I’m always reminded of this acquaintance of mine who was a Denver police officer and explained to me once where the judge let a drunk driver off because he felt sorry for him for all the centuries of racism against his kind or something like that.
Just let him off the hook. He’s driving recklessly on the wrong way down the highway I-25. That’s favoritism.
We don’t want that. That’s not justice. They’ll say it’s justice.
They twist the word justice. But it means equal weights and measure. It doesn’t matter what you are before the law of God.
Red, white, blue, or black. It’s the law of God. And you will not be a drunk driver risking everyone’s life.
Then you have social favoritism. So this isn’t the law as much of the judges, which we should pray for and be aware of as good Christians. Pray for our judges.
That they would do right. But socially as well. And you know economically and business-wise, we had social media scandals for a while.
It was very clear that they were clamping down on free right speech that we have in America. But they’re okay because it’s a business. They can trample down our rights.
No, you can’t do that. I couldn’t use the word Christianity. They were shunting down the algorithm, right? You couldn’t find these things for a while.
Maybe they’re still doing it. We’ll never know. That’s wrong as well.
That’s society and not just legal laws. There’s not a law about that per se. So that’s something a little harder to deal with.
You’re dealing with people manipulating things because they don’t want to hear about Christianity on Facebook, for example. Favoritism, right? We have Harvard has just been recently shown that they weighted differences between races so they can bring in a quota into the school, which isn’t again a law. It’s just private or semi-private.
They take federal funds. That’s still wrong. We want that change.
You got to pray to that end. We can’t do much, of course, in these matters. Maybe you can do something if you have connections to Harvard.
Love mercy. So that’s justice. Those are particular examples.
Love mercy in society. Businesses. Bosses being understanding about difficult family lives that interfere with work.
That’s mercy and compassion and making some exceptions in those cases instead of being, as it were, a hard line. Part of the problem, I grant, is that the businesses, especially the big ones, don’t know you. The boss says that you’re one of a couple dozen people, doesn’t really know you.
Maybe you’re a con artist. I grant that, but still they’re called to have some kind of compassion and understanding, however that may look like. The judges, again, they have some leeway depending on particular laws, depending on particular courts.
There’s a difference between, of course, the courts and then the civil courts. They have some leeway sometimes in implementing punishments. They’re supposed to take things into consideration and have perhaps a little mercy in exercising these things.
And lastly here in the walk humbly. What does the idea in the word humble here mean? Does that mean that you’re a doormat and you don’t get to cry out before the Lord for help? Should have Paul just said, you know, Christians are supposed to be humble. Christians aren’t supposed to exercise power.
God tells us, as one guy was trying to tell me on Facebook, you know, the greatest of you should be the least of you. So Paul should have never cried out for Caesar, because now he’s exercising power as a citizen of Rome, because it is power. He’s literally telling Caesar, you’ve got to listen to me.
And Caesar’s like, okay, I’ll do it. And he did. He worked his way to Rome, but that’s the last we heard of it.
No, of course not. As to what end do you use power and the like. So humility is more precisely understanding your place before God first and in society second.
Before God, you’re a sinner dependent upon him, you ought to be humble and grateful for the mercies bestowed upon you through Christ Jesus, and of course upon your body and the bodily considerations that we’re dealing with in the first table here, or the first point here. And then secondly, in society. I don’t want a humble president if we’re at war, if humility means I can’t exercise power to defend my nation.
I have to be a doormat and let my enemies run over us and take our women and children and whatnot. That’s not humility. There’s something wrong with that.
That’s wrong. That’s a violation of the Sixth Commandment. Preserve life.
You have power to preserve it. Exercise that power and preserve it. King, president, whoever you are, it’s a false godliness to say I’m being humble.
To know your place in society. In our place, of course, we aren’t presidents, we aren’t judges. It becomes very hard and we struggle.
We have to learn to be patient, brothers and sisters. So part of this desire we may not see in our lifetime. To do justly, to pray for our leaders to be just in society, small and large, from the smallest city to the largest nation.
To love mercy, to exercise in accordance to the revealed will of God, and to walk humbly with our God.
Reforming Church: Do Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly
To walk humbly before our God means here then to the second point, reforming the church. Because with respect to God, we still have that connection as citizens.
You’re not going to go to work Monday and take off your Christian hat. You’re still going to be offended when your co-worker or your boss curses in God’s name. I hope so.
I believe you will. Be like, I don’t want to hear this. It’s terrible.
Or whatever else. They do dirty jokes and whatnot. You don’t take off your hat.
You wear both hats. You’re still walking humbly before God, even if you’re not in church. And we want, of course, our nation and our brothers and sisters as fellow patriots, fellow Americans, to have that humility before God as well.
But if they don’t, well, that’s again in one sense between them and God. We can’t force them. We just hope they can do justly, and they can and could and have, and to love mercy and to walk humbly to understand where they are in society, even if they don’t want to do it before God.
I pray they would have that. That leads us to the second point here, reforming the church, that we are blessed, that we can acknowledge and know God, not just privately at home in our prayer closet, but before men throughout the week when opportunity arises. You’re not called to be a preacher, but you are called not to be ashamed of Jesus and the gospel hope when the issue comes up, and to stand upon what he tells us.
And another connection here, as I mentioned before, on these two points, reforming society, the nation, and the state, and reforming the church, is Galatians 6.10. Do good to all men, especially, in particular, and above all, is the idea there, the church, the living God. I want good for my society. I want good for my neighbor, for my nation, for my state.
But if there’s a conflict between that and God and his honor and his church, I’m gonna, and ought to, seek what? Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. We strive to do both, but we know we’re often limited, and we can do little, it seems, more and more, which could be, again, frustrating, in the first point of changing society. But the second point, I think we have a little more influence in God’s providence, to pick godly churches, to support godly ministries, and to stand for God’s truth in his church.
Reforming the church is the same thing, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before our God, in the context of being citizens or members of the kingdom of God in his church. Now, reforming the church, who puts things in general perspective, is twofold in the sense of public holiness and private holiness. The two should go together.
You may publicly proclaim Christ, right, if you are a child, you’ve been baptized by God’s mercy, and you’re brought into the church, and you grow up, and you profess Christ before men. Our hope and prayer and desire is that that’s a true confession. I’m not gonna nitpick you over it.
Do it. We believe. Take your word for it.
But from then on out, as a young adult, and as you adults, as you know, you ought to live it privately. If no one’s looking and watching you, are you still gonna act like a Christian? You’re gonna find exceptions, because no one’s looking at you. That’s where the rubber hits the road.
And so this picture of walking humbly before God, loving mercy, and doing justly starts in your heart, starts in your prayer closet, starts in your relationship with the Lord, praying and asking for mercy and strength and more of his spirit, reading his Bible and the like, things that we cannot do for you, should not do for you, and can’t always see what you’re doing. It’s that private realm, both within the home and family and within your own hearts. So what I’m speaking of covers both categories, public and private, and they are both part of what we are called to reform and to follow this truth.
And particularly here, the teaching and practices of the Word of God, teaching the full counsel and the glories of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, is what we are called to do, to do justly. Part of doing justice in the church is speaking the truth of God. The idea here of the word justice isn’t just merely and only, oh it’s a trial and I have to execute justice.
That’s not the word here. It’s interesting, the Hebrew, they have a number of words that overlap, and they aren’t always used that strictly or specifically. It’s just what is right.
Whether it’s in legal context, we use the word justice, or a social context, we might use the word equitable or fair in business dealings, for example. That’s what the word is about. It covers all these domains.
So it covers the Christian domain, where we are in the church as well as members of the family of God. And so teaching is part of this. That’s a fair thing to do.
It’s a fair thing to expect from a church. You have to expect that and desire that they teach the whole counsel of God and all that He’s given us, to practice the truth as well. Not just teach it and teach the whole of it about the law and the gospel, but to practice what God has given us in His Word, the means of grace that He has bestowed upon us, that we would pray and read the Bible and meditate upon those truths and apply them in our lives, to hear them preached, to feel the conviction, and to be motivated thereby.
So the first here point, the sub-point, do justly. For leaders, don’t play favoritism, of course, with other leaders. I’ve unfortunately seen this in Presbyterians, where it’s like, well, we’ll just cut him some slack.
He’s one of the good old boys. Uh-uh. It should be fair across the board, whether you like the guy or not, when it comes to being an officer in the church.
Don’t set up extra rules to protect the leadership. We see this in society, of course, and we call foul for it, and we shouldn’t put up with it in the church. Justice must be enacted among church officers, and laymen should not think nor support their favorite pastor and somehow make him untouchable.
So it leads into both responsibilities, doesn’t it? Sometimes people are like, well, of course it’s my pastor. We’re gonna give him an exception. And I’m thankful for that, in the sense of it sometimes shows a love, although a misplaced love, for the guy they like.
But if it’s clearly a problem, we ought to be objective enough to say, I’m sorry, pastor, we have to deal with this. Laymen, I’m already talking a little bit about that, you must be just, not only with respect to the leadership, but amongst yourselves, fair-minded, without playing favorites, depending on the situation at hand. Of course, you’re gonna play favorites in the sense of, I have a friend, and we do things together.
I have my family. I hope you play favorites with your family, and spend a lot of time with your family, and not with me. So that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about when the rubber hits the road, and there’s a serious problem, or conflict, or sin, we have to be fair-minded, without playing favorites. And I, I like to use this example. The pastor’s child is acting out.
I say, go ahead and treat them like other children, and deal with it. They’re acting out in public. Don’t think, oh, it’s the pastor’s kid.
They get a, they get a pass. No. Don’t turn a blind eye, of course, to gross injustices, although you may turn a blind eye to minor injustices, minor infractions, and minor sins.
The Bible is very clear about that. We carry the burden, and, of one another, and part of that carrying of the burden of one another, as Christ tells us, to turn the other cheek, even to unbelievers. And that’s true for unbelievers.
How much more for believers? Again, these are private things. These are small matters, but still significant enough, you’re like, well, that’s really offensive. Well, you really want to go down that route, or you can just say, I’ll just, I’ll just take it in the chin.
And that bleeds into the second point, loving mercy. So I’ve already talked a little bit about that there, because mercy and justice are often related to the same question at hand. Is this serious enough? Then I got to exercise justice.
I got to confront the person in the church, and bring my concerns to them, and if that’s not dealt with, we know, Matthew 18, you bring it to the leadership, and you bring it to the courts, and you work your way through that. There’s a time to do that kind of justice, and it ought to be done, especially when it’s a gross, serious matter that becomes public, or very dangerous, and the like. But all the other ones, often the answer is simply, turn the other cheek.
And that’s an act of mercy towards them, because you didn’t, maybe they’re in the wrong. I’m assuming in this case, they’re in the wrong, and you’re being merciful towards them, saying, I’ll just let them be in the wrong. It’s just not worth it.
I want to maintain the peace of the church, and this isn’t a matter serious enough in this situation. And in both cases, to do justly, and to love mercy in the house of God, the world is watching us. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Young and old, this is our calling. I’m talking to the kids as well. Now, this mercy here, gentleness, it’s one way to express mercy.
I have an example in my mind here of people who are new to the Reformed faith, to be more patient with them, to be considerate, as we say sometimes. Those who grow up without much influence of Christianity in their life, and this is gonna happen, it’s happening already. People joining the church that grew up in a broken home, that had little to no Christian influence at all, let alone Protestant influence.
The latest poll came out a few weeks ago, where the majority of the younger generation, was it 25 or under, 18 or under, didn’t even know what a Protestant was. And this is just going to get worse in that perspective. It’s just gonna grow.
And so, they’re gonna be saved, some of them. This is great. They’re gonna come into our churches.
We need to have a little compassion and mercy upon them. It’s gonna take a lot of time sometimes to teach them what it means to be a Christian, because what many of us who grew up with and understood these things, and even if we weren’t at home, a Christian home, we knew some of this stuff. They’re not learning it.
How to act, how to think as a Christian, or talk, especially the acting and the teaching they’re in. So, it takes patience and long-suffering to help the younger generation as they are among us. Justice, mercy, and then of course, lastly, to walk humbly before our God, whether publicly in society and reforming our society as we can, and certainly within the church, both publicly and privately.
To walk in humility before him, which of course is first and foremost a state of the heart. Humility before God is knowing our station and our position before him in particular, and our place in Providence as well, rich or poor, or something in between, well-educated, not well-educated. All these are different ways of describing your position, your status.
For children, it means being children and not trying to be adults when it’s not time yet. For men, that means leading and protecting and not avoiding responsibility. And for women, it means submitting and to loving their families.
To walk, of course, means to live, and it reflects, therefore, our humility should be reflected in our walking, by our actions and obeying the law of the land, if it isn’t contrary to God’s law explicitly, or executing godly laws as we can if we have some position within the church and the officership and not our own pet peeves. Being a father or mother, a son or a daughter, those are your duties and your responsibility. That’s the place that you walk and dwell and continue to move, and should do so in humility as a child, as an adult, and use what you can, by God’s grace, to be helpful to one another.
That’s being humble, being prideful and arrogant, going beyond that and thinking you can do more when you cannot. Being impatient is another way of expressing not being humble sometimes. You want it done now, and God’s shut all the providential doors, and there’s very little you can do.
I know it could be very frustrating. You’re called to simply be humble and to do what you can, no matter how limited it is, as a mother, father, child, member of the church, and a citizen of this nation. Many issues in the church, I contend, would be minimized or eradicated if we were more humble.
Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. That sound familiar? Those are particular ways to express humility. All this assumes, of course, that we are walking humbly before the gospel of Jesus Christ, readily acknowledging our sins and transgressions, quick to repent, deter and renew our faith in Jesus Christ, zeal for Christ’s glory and his gospel and his word, and know that our desire to reform our country and our churches all depends upon the Lord’s sovereign will and grace.
All this assumes divine priorities, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Our love for our country, our city, our community, should never be greater than our love for Christ and his glory. Let us examine ourselves to see if Christ’s kingdom is our goal and that the reformation that we desire for our country and for our church is done in the context of doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly before our God.
May our Lord in heaven grant us and our nation a two-fold reformation, both of society and especially for the churches of our living Lord, let us pray. Spirit of life and truth, continue to work in our lives and those around us and our sister churches and denominations and those who love our Lord and Savior, that they would be strong and be alive to a dying world, and even as God, we exercise our duties as civilians, our citizens of this nation, and grant us the wisdom and insight we need for proper voting and proper actions in these things, and above all, humility to recognize, as much as it may be hard, our limitations thereby, but in all things, both in society and the church, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before you, our living Lord and Savior. We pray, amen.