Father, Your Word summons all nations everywhere to listen to the voice of Your faithful Son, Your faithful Servant. We confess that as a nation we have wanted to assume that the residual moral capital of former generations is good enough, and that we can somehow pretend to know the difference between right and wrong without reference to Jesus Christ. We confess this as a very great folly.
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.
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We confess now that we in the Church have been too ready to develop theologies that flatter unregenerate and unconverted men, leaving them room for their conceits. We confess our cowardice to You.
Father, we confess our particular and individual sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
You have confessed your sins, willing and obedient, and so, in accordance with the gospel, you shall eat the good of the land. As a minister of the gospel of grace, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!