Reading of the Law of God
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, Jesus said
to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8.34-35
Confession of Sin
Our Father, we know what Jesus requires of us. We hear His
call to discipleship. But we don’t like self-denial. We find cross-bearing too
hard. In this we are so very like our neighbors. In this we sin. We humbly ask
that You would forgive us. We ask that You would change our hearts some more by
Your Holy Spirit. We ask this only because of Jesus, our faithful Savior. Amen.
Declaration of Pardon
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that
in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21