Call to Confession: 

Each Sunday we take a moment to confess and repent alongside one another, it’s a way we regularly take seriously our sin and lay it before God. Let’s prepare our hearts by hearing these words from Ephesians 4:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Prayer of Confession: 

Dear Lord, our Holy God,

We don’t always find it easy to come to you with our brokenness, with the ways we have distanced ourselves from you and from one another. We would often rather turn a blind eye to our sin or try to overcome it on our own. But you have called us to confess, repent, and come to you.  

Help us not to speak these words of confession out of fear or hopelessness, but out of confidence that you love us and have invited us into your blessing of forgiveness. Where we have failed to approach you with honest words or ignored the ways we have sinned against you this week, forgive us. Create in us hearts that trust in the abundance of who you are and who you’ve called us to be in light of that. We seek you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: 

In the scriptures we find assurances of our forgiveness and encouragement in our walk.  So hear the continuation of these words Ephesians 4 and rest in their truth for us:

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.