Minister: Lift up your hearts!
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!
God of Resurrection Life, we praise You now in the name of our risen Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is indeed the resurrection and the life, and we confess that He is life itself, whether before His crucifixion or after. We confess that while He was on the cross, He died so that death itself would die. We confess that when Jesus came to the point of death, He did not die the way that sinners do, and that He did not lose the battle.
We pray that this coming week we would not fall into any liturgical unbelief, thinking that Jesus has somehow been lost, however temporarily. Father, if there had been a disciple back then who understood the scriptural prophecies, and who understood the explicit promises of Jesus, we know that his demeanor during those three days and three nights would have been one of barely contained excitement. We pray that as we worship You now, the only God who raises the dead, that we would be filled with the same kind of eagerness. Father, two thousand years ago, this very week, You threw down the great principalities and powers. We pray that this year, this week, You would continue to do the same with the petty principalities and powers, so that the name of Your Son would be high and lifted up—lifted up above every name.
And so, gracious Father, we worship You now through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, amen
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