Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all.
Father, we confess to You that we are a nation of unclean lips. Our political leaders lie routinely. Our commentators spin for a living. Our entertainers abuse the truth constantly.
Our philosophers ignore the truth while pretending to chase it. Our sages write books that are vanity and chasing after wind. But Father, the crowning folly, the sin we will not repent of is the sin of refusing to confess Your Son with our lips. Forgive us for our arrogance we pray.
We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual. Father, we are called by the name of Your Son, and are called Christians. And yet, in how many Christian pulpits is the truth of the gospel boldly and honestly proclaimed. Father, we confess that the Church has led the way as our nation has become a people of unclean lips.
And so Father, we confess individual sin to You now—Selah . . . We do this in the great name of Jesus, and amen.
He who finds wisdom, finds life. He who finds forgiveness finds life. This life is now set before you. On the basis of the gospel of free grace, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!