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 live in a time when men turn naturally and readily to the state, asking man collective to deliver us from our sins or, more usually, just from the consequences of our sins. We who believe in You are sometimes tempted in the same ways. But we acknowledge that Your Word teaches that our High Priest was a man, tempted in every point just as we are. Father, we acknowledge with humility that the Lord resisted the offer that would just give Him all the empires of men without a cross. And just as He refused the offer, we confess the sin of our age, which is that of not refusing political power apart from the cross.
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 confess that we in the Church have been too often dazzled by promises of political influence or importance. We pray that we would seek to transform all things through the power of the gospel alone. Forgive us, we pray.
Father, we confess our individual sins to You now—and Selah . . . We do this in the sovereign name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and amen.
The center of our gospel declares that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. Because you are looking to Jesus for your forgiveness, I there declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!