The Witness of our Worship

August 10, 2025|The Witness of Our Worship|Malachi 1:6-14

JD Cutler

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Having wrapped up the book of Haggai and before we go back to the New Testament and study the book of 1st John, I wanted to make a stop in the last book of the Old Testament. The book of Malachi serves as the book end of the Old Testament for God’s people. It is a brief and to the point book, written by an author whose name means “my messenger”. From both the situation and the subject of Malachi, it was most likely written around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah’s leadership in Jerusalem. Most likely between Nehemiah’s two terms as governor when he had returned to the king of Babylon.

In context of where we have been. The people returned from Babylonian exile, rebuilt the altar and laid the foundation of the temple. 16 years later Haggai and Zechariah called the people to finish what they had started. The temple was completed around four years later. Almost 60 years later, Ezra came with the second wave of exiles to Jerusalem and continued to lead reform, particularly in the intermarrying of God’s people with pagan nations. Thirteen years later Nehemiah brought the third wave of exiles and committed to leading the people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. Nehemiah and Ezra worked together to expose people to the law of God and call them to repentance. In the book of Nehemiah, we find after the wall had been completed and Ezra and Nehemiah had led the nation in public repentance and reform, he returned to the king, and when he returned he found that in his absence, the people had fallen back into sin. The tithes had stopped being brought in, forcing the levites and singers to go back to their fields in order to make a living, and where the offerings had once been stored, the priest had set up that room for a man who had no business living in the house of God. The people were working on the Sabbath as well as carrying on business in Jerusalem as though it was like any other day. The priesthood was a mess and the people were following into sin.

This is the situation in to which God speaks through Malachi concerning the actions and attitudes of his people. A large portion of the book deals with right worship of God, and half deals with the intermarriage of God’s people with idolatrous nations, mistreating of their first wives through divorce and failing to bring their tithes, which God calls robbing him. It ends with God talking about his coming messengers (understood to be John the Baptist and Jesus). Consequently, the book of Malachi signals the close of God’s prophetic dealings with his people until John the Baptist begins his prophetic ministry. It’s a call to repent in light of the coming day of the Lord and serves as a perfect bridge between God’s call to his people in Haggai to consider their ways and John’s letter in the New Testament that calls us to examine ourselves in light of the truth. As for the people in Malachi’s day, it seems to be that the general attitude of God’s people during this time, both the priests and the people, was it is worthless to serve God, even burdensome, especially in light of the ongoing struggles of God’s people, that were still under Persian rule. They saw those who did not worship God, those who were evil doers were prospering while they did not and all in all they thought, what’s the point? With this mindset their worship became a burden and they started making compromises in their offerings, which rather than reject, the priests accepted, leading to what God calls a polluting of his altar.

But how, how could a people who had seen God’s hand not only punish them as a nation for their disobedience, but bring them back into their homeland, give them favor in rebuilding the temple and the walls, who had previously had seasons of genuine repentance and reform end up at this place? If we are honest this is a question we have sometimes ourselves? How can someone who has experienced the goodness of God wander back into sin and away from a right relationship with God?

If we take God’s order of address to his people as any indicator, the people had stopped worshipping God as he had prescribed which ended up affecting everything from how they supported God’s servants to how they treated their wives. So God calls the priests to put a stop to this vain worship and commit to leading the people in the right worship of their God. In short, their worship of God was revealing that their relationship with God was not what it should be. The reality is that our worship of God reveals more than we often care to admit. From God’s message to his priests and subsequently his people, I want to highlight three things that our worship displays. With than in mind, today is simply an invitation to reflect on your worship in light of what God commands in the same way the people in Malachi’s day were invited to reflect on their own worship.

Three things that our worship displays. The first is…

I. OUR WORSHIP IS A REFLECTION OF OUR BELIEFS ABOUT GOD.

God begins his address to his people through Malachi by saying, ‘I have loved you’, but you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ And so begins a series of question and answers. Throughout Malachi we find this dialectical method used to communicate God’s message to his people. God often speaking for both parties, which by the way, He is certainly qualified to do since, as we saw in Haggai, he knows the hearts of men and even if they had not verbally expressed these things, God knows what is in their hearts. After a brief reminder that he has chosen them to be his covenant people, we find his first question to the people. Let’s pick up in verse 6 of chapter 1 and read the first couple of verses together.

Malachi 1:6–8 “6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.”

God begins by making an observation about the way things work. In the home, a father receives honor from his son, and a servant honors his master. Even non-believers understand this. Universally, we expect our kids to honor their parents in the home and although we do not operate economically the same way as these former civilizations, we still understand employees owe a certain amount of honor and respect to those over them. This is a general rule in society that those who have influence or authority in our lives are honored.

The root idea of honor in the Hebrew is weight, or heaviness. Honor can be seen then in the weight we place on someone or something. You might have experienced this growing up. For instance, my grandfather didn’t say much but when he did, his words carried a certain weight. You listened when he talked. For those of you with military experience, it is a much different thing when someone who shares your rank makes a suggestion and when an order comes down from a superior. There is a weight there.

Linked closely but stated separately is the idea of fear. A couple of weeks ago Pastor Will talked about the fear of the Lord. The Hebrew word for fear is not the same idea as what we commonly think of when we hear the word. It is the idea of awe and reverence, a holy terror. It is a recognition, whether we are talking about God or talking about a human institution or position, that there is someone above you who has some sort of power over your life. God essentially says, you know what it is like to honor your father, give weight to his words and instructions, you know what it is like to have a reverential fear of a superior, and yet…

God, speaking to his covenant people, says then if Israel is my chosen son and I his father, where is my honor? If Israel belongs to me, if they are my people, my nation, where is the reverence due my name? This is a poetic style- rhetorical question that demands the answer nowhere. It is not to be found.

This is really the heart of the matter. If God is who he says he is, and his relationship to them is what he says it is, then we should expect to find a certain amount of honor and reverence in the way that his people interact with him, particularly in their obedience to worship him as he as prescribed. Especially by those whom he has put in positions of influence and leadership. In this case, the priests. Immediately after asking where is his honor and where is his reverence, he specifically calls out the priests as those who despise his name. But they say, in this ongoing dialogue? Who us? How have we despised your name?

Of course, from our vantage point, we have read the rest of the passage, we know what they are doing, but can you for a minute, just imagine the audacity of conducting themselves the way that they have and when challenged, responding with ‘what do you mean?’ It’s kind of a ridiculous scene, isn’t it? Imagine catching your kids with chocolate all over their face and crumbs on their shirt saying, ‘what cookies?’ When you call them out for sneaking into the off limit cookie jar.

God continues, you despise my name by despising my altar through the offering of polluted food. How have we polluted you?

I can only imagine that they are trying to separate their actions from their worship here. Yes, we may have offered some less than perfect animals that your people brought, but surely that doesn’t mean we have despised you, just our responsibilities. God says every time they accept an offering from the people that is blind or lame or sick, and present that to the Lord they are despising his table and sinning against him. Despising his name. When God says his name, he is not just talking about his name Jehovah, he is talking about everything his name represents. This idea of course carries into the New Testament when we are to speak and pray in Jesus’ name.

Specifically, God says that they say (or think, or communicate by their actions) that the Lord’s table may be despised. God uses altar and table interchangeably here. In his prescribed worship there was an altar where the sacrifices were made and there was a table of showbread in the holy place as a food offering to the Lord.

Much of God’s worship revolved around food, and all the Baptist said, Amen. God invited the Israelites to have regular covenant meals, in the celebration of festivals and in the sacrifice of offerings. Many times they would offer an animal as an offering, of which the fat and some of the organs were burned on the altar to God and the blood thrown against the altar, and some of the meat would be offered to the priests and the rest was to be eaten by the one who was offering and those with him. This was the case with peace offerings as well as some other offerings. Burnt offerings were wholly offered to the Lord, sin and guilt offerings a portion was eaten by the priests.

In essence, part of their worship of God was like being invited to the table of the king where having brought the best portion to the king and providing for his servants, you were invited to sit in his presence and share that same meal. Which is essentially what God says, he says try treating your governor that way. Bring him animals that are lame, or blind, or sick, basically bring the animals you value the least and are of least use to you and see if he will be pleased with it or lift up your face. The idea of lifting up someones face is the idea of receiving them positively. Will your human lords say to you come in and sit down with joy when you bring such pitiful offerings? Of course not because they would understand that it was an indication of what you thought of them. How much more does our offerings of worship reflect what we think about God?

I have used this analogy before but what if we treated our jobs like we treat our worship?

What if we treated our marriages like we treat our worship?

What if we only went to work when there wasn’t something else for us to do?

What if we literally put every hobby and activity on our list of priorities as more important than our job?

What if whole seasons of life saw us skipping work for baseball or football, traveling or relaxing in the pool?

What would our boss conclude about what we thought of him and our job?

What if we only spent one day a week at home with our wives and families?

What if when it was time to give our wife a gift for her birthday, we took a hundred dollars, spent almost all of it on ourselves buying for ourselves and then spent a few bucks on a gas station card that we presented to her like it was something special? What would our wife conclude that we thought of her or our family?

You have heard it a thousand times over your lifetime, so help me out, actions speak louder than words.

If we believe that God is our creator, redeemer, sustainer, and eternal Lord, if we believe he is worthy of our best and deserving of our love and devotion, our worship will reflect that.

Conversely, if we believe that God is relatively unimportant in our lives and Lord in name only, that we are they most important being in our lives, our worship will reflect that.

For the Israelites in this period, it meant bringing animals that were far short of what God had prescribed. In Leviticus 22, God speaks to Moses so that Moses will speak to Aaron and his sons (the Levitical priesthood), and all the people of Israel. When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD, 19 if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. 20 You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. 21 And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. 22 Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the LORD or give them to the LORD as a food offering on the altar. 31 “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. 32 And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD.” God ties the perfect, blemish-less, nature of the sacrifices to the sanctity of his name. Their response to a holy and perfect God was to bring their very best offering in worship.

What about for us in the New Covenant, who have placed their faith in the perfect spotless lamb, Jesus Christ, our Lord?

What does our worship look like?

Let me give you a few scriptures.

Romans 12:1 “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

1 Peter 2:4–5 “4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Hebrews 13:15–16 “15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, glorify God in your body, offer spiritual sacrifices, continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, do good, share what you have. In short, orient your whole life around God. Friends, this is so much bigger than attending church on Sundays.

Yes, we are commanded not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together in corporate worship on the first day of the week, but that should be a reflection of a life lived in worship of God all week long.

God occupies the center of our lives.

Listen, anything less than that, if you are living life with anything else at the center of your life, your are offering polluted food on the altar of the Lord.

For just a second, let’s deal with the most easily identified part of our lives that correspond to our worship. The gathering of God’s people.

If you look back over the last year, how many times did you forsake the assembly for lesser things? How many times did you choose something else as more important or of higher priority than gathering to exercise your responsibility and privileges as members of the household of God?

...if you are living life with anything else at the center of your life, your are offering polluted food on the altar of the Lord.

If your worship was judged on just that, what would you say it reflected about what you believe about God? Who God is to us will be expressed in our worship of him.

The challenge is to think about what our lives are reflecting in terms of how much honor we think God deserves and how much reverence we have for who he is. True worship begins with true reverence.

What we believe about God will be evident in our worship. The second thing our worship displays is…

II. OUR WORSHIP IS A REPRESENTATION OF OUR OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

Let’s pick up in verse 9 where the previous thought of verse 8 carries over.

Malachi 1:9–10 “9 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.”

In verse 8 God called the people to think about their relationship with their human leaders. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.”

Of course not, as we noted it would be a reflection of what you though about that leader, but it would also be an indication of how much you were willing to obey them. God says, you are coming before me to entreat my favor, that I might be gracious to you and yet the gift in your hand betrays you.

One instance of this is recorded from around 14th century BC.

Around then, during the reigns of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Egypt maintained an empire stretching into Canaan and Syria. The rulers of these regions were technically vassals of Egypt and were expected to send regular tribute—often luxury goods like gold, precious stones, fine textiles, or exotic animals—as a sign of loyalty. Archeologists have found letters written during that time that reveal Pharaoh’s frustration when certain vassals sent meager or poor-quality offerings. In this diplomatic culture, the gift was a public symbol of loyalty. A subpar tribute was seen as a hint of rebellion, disrespect, and a reflection of a growing disobedience among those who sent it, sometimes triggering military intervention or a replacement of the vassal ruler.

In the same way our worship of God is representative of our obedience to God. A refusal to worship God in the way he has commanded, is in itself disobedience, but it is often simply a representation or a symptom of a heart of disobedience.

As I mentioned in the introduction, far more than their worship through sacrifice had been affected.

It seems that it was common practice to divorce the wife of your youth, who belonged to the covenant nation of Israel, in order to marry someone outside of the covenant nation. We are not told why they are doing this, it could have been simply lust, or it could have been seen as a way to gain power and influence now that Israel was a small nation among so many larger ones. They had also begun calling evil good and questioning God’s justice, saying that God delights in evil people and is injust to good people. They were inverting God’s character and blaspheming him. They were practicing sorcery, committed adultery, swearing falsely, oppressing the workers, the widows, the fatherless, and the sojourners. They were not bringing their tithes, which as we saw earlier was causing the levites and the temple singers to resort to abandoning their God given responsibility so they could feed their families. All of this was characterized by their attitude summed up in Malachi 3:14

Malachi 3:14; 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

Vain here means empty or worthless.

The people where basically saying they didn’t get anything out of serving God.

We do not worship God in order to get something, we worship God because he has already given us so much!

Can we just take a moment and address something that we hear from time to time?

You may have heard it or even said it, I didn’t really get anything out of worship today, or I didn’t get anything out of church this morning? Is there really any difference in that attitude and the one on display here in Malachi?

We do not worship God in order to get something, we worship God because he has already given us so much!

Think about it, these are the covenant people who God had made into a nation, provided for, protected, chosen, and even through all their disobedience, had never forsaken them and yet they are saying, we don’t get anything out of serving God?

By the way, I don’t think this is completely the fault of the people, listen to the way the priests respond to God’s accusation that they have profaned his name by polluting his table. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts.'

This is the only time this particular word is used in the OT, brings two words together (how weary is this) (what a trouble all this is!)

You snort at it, possible the idea of sighing in contempt or huffing about it.

If you are a parent, you know what this sounds like!

If those responsible in leading the people in obedience to God view their responsibility as burdensome, how are the people going to view obeying God?

Which leads us to one of the most challenging statements in the totality of the letter. God says, 10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!

The ‘oh that’ is a conjunction that carries the idea of ‘Isn’t here one among you?!’

We can understand this in one of two ways.

One, doesn’t any one of the priests see how disgraceful and disobedient this worship is?

Two, isn’t there anyone among you that is brave enough to just shut the doors instead of carrying on this pitiful and burdensome responsibility?

The temple was supposed to be the seat of God’s presence with his people, the center of their lives, where they would worship God and receive instruction from his word through the priests. They were living disobedient lives, evidenced in their disobedient sacrifices, so why keep pretending?

God seems to imply that it would be better for them to shut the doors and cease their activities all together than to keep offering unacceptable sacrifices. God makes it pretty clear that it is indeed worthless for them because he takes no pleasure in them or their sacrifices. They can keep doing it, but it won’t be for God.

God seems to imply that it would be better for them to shut the doors and cease their activities all together than to keep offering unacceptable sacrifices.

Friends, what a horrible place to be as the people of God, busy with going through the motions of worship and yet bringing no pleasure to the God you claim to be worshipping.

What a gut check. A life full of disobedience produces worship that dishonors God, a worship he would rather not have, even if you are going through the right motions with the wrong motivations.

The reality is for these Israelites and for us, if our worship is half-hearted and bare-minimum it is a pretty good indicator that our obedience in the rest of our lives is the same.

Similarly, according to what we read of the new covenant, our obedient lives are our spiritual sacrifices in Christ.

Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, glorify God in our bodies, offer spiritual sacrifices, continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, doing good, sharing what you have.

Obedience in the new covenant is not simply gathering on Sundays, but can I say, your willingness and dedication to participating in the local body, and especially your unwillingness and ease at which you decline to, is a pretty good indicator of your level of obedience in the rest of your lives. That is not to say that simply showing up every Sunday is proof of an obedient life, but it is certainly an indicator.

But other than God’s displeasure, what else does our worship display? This brings us to our last area.

III. OUR WORSHIP IS A ROOT OF OUR WITNESS FOR GOD.

God is going to do something in these verses that is both surprising and illuminating. In the midst of his condemnation of the priests for their sacrifices, God begins to talk about his name among the nations, those not a part of the Hebrew nation. Let’s pick up in verse 11.

Malachi 1:11–14 “11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”

If we remove the context of the priests and their actions for just a minute, listen to what we have. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts…For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”

God describes a time when his name will be known among all the nations, a time where people will rightly worship him as King and revere his name.

We often focus on God’s electing choice of Abraham and his subsequent promise to make him a great nation, but we can miss that God had given his people a mission among the other nations.

Now, there is debate on whether they were to be active witnesses or passive ones.

That is, where they supposed to go out and serve as missionaries propagating truth to the surrounding nations?

There are certainly some passages that would seem to indicate so, but whether you land there or not, one thing we see clearly is that they were at the very least to serve as a passive witness.

That is, as they served the Lord faithfully as his mediatory covenant-people in the midst of the nations, their worship would be a testimony to God’s character, wisdom, and reign to the surrounding people.

You see our worship communicates volumes about who God is to those around us who do not know him.

They were supposed to be worshipping in such a way that people would see attributes of God. The world is watching us and those who know we claim to be a follower of Christ will learn from our lives what that means.

If on Sunday morning we are sitting next to them at the ball-field, or in the boat, or on the golf course, we will be saying, that following God really doesn’t have to affect our lives all that much.

If our families don’t operate any differently than they do, if we don’t work with a different attitude than they do, if we don’t lead with integrity and honesty, if we don’t organize our lives around the Lord, we are communicating that following God is not all that important.

If we ever get to the point of verbally witnessing about Christ, it will be so drowned out by our lives that they may not even hear us.

The root of our witness is not our words, but our lives.

Didn’t Jesus say they will know us by our words? No, he said all people will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another, and not just any love, love that mirrors the way Christ loved.

John 13:34-35 (ESV) 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Obedience to Christ will be a testimony that we belong to Christ and the foundation of our witness.

Let’s go back to the people in Malachi’s day, using our sanctified imagination for a minute.

Imagine if you lived in Jerusalem, and you knew your neighbor was a worshipper of God and you saw him time after time dragging lame, or blind, or diseased animals to the temple to sacrifice, what would you think about his or her god?

If you overheard a group of priests talking about how tired they were of all this temple stuff, what would you think about their god?

If your neighbor, the Levite, had to move back to his hometown to farm because the temple quit paying him because no one was bringing their tithes to the temple, what would you think about their god?

Now, is any of that actually a reflection of who God is?

Of course not, but it is a collective witness to who his people apparently think he is.

The nation of Israel was supposed to lead the nations in the worship of God and the recognition of his great name, and yet God says they profane his name and despise his worship. Rather than declaring God is worthy of worship, they say, what a weariness this is and huff. They were supposed to bring the very best of the flock and yet they brought what had been maimed, or born lame, or sick, and they call this an offering fitting for their God.

Worse they vowed to bring their best, they paid lip service to it, and then when it came down to it, they offered to the Lord what was blemished.

They were supposed to be a light to the nations, leading people into acknowledging who God was and into right worship of Him, and instead, by their worship they were profaning the name of God. Half-hearted and bare-minimum worship hindered their witness, just as ours will today.

As we reflect on what God says His people’s worship in Malachi’s day displayed about their beliefs about him, their obedience to him, and their witness for him, may we be reminded that our worship displays these things as well.

Is there a difference? Absolutely.

We no longer have to bring sacrifices to God, because Christ Jesus lived a perfect life and willingly laid his life down as the perfect, spotless lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. God sent the True Worshipper who knew the Father perfectly, obeyed him perfectly, and represented him perfectly. We can now draw near to God in a way previously impossible through the sacrificial system, our worship perfected by the perfect worshipper.

But, are there similarities? Absolutely.

Just like the people were commanded to bring their very best, we are commanded to lay our whole lives down before Christ. This, by the way is what it means to surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior. May we not be people who vow it and yet bring what is blemished.

Here is the good news. We grow in this not by our might or by our strength, or even by sheer determination. Our lives will be conformed to the image of Christ the more we fully understand just how much God has done for us, and just how much he loved us in sending a savior.

This has always been the way, by the way.

When God began his message to the people through Malachi, he began with “I have loved you.’ In their response ‘in what way have you loved us?’ they showed the real reason for their pitiful worship, they had failed to grasp God’s love for them as their covenant God.

Our worship displays many things, but perhaps the greatest display of our worship is that it shows how well or how poorly we have grasped the great love of God. May God give us a greater understanding of his love this morning so that our worship may be a powerful witness to one another and to the world.

Let us pray.