Unhindered: Why We Killed Jesus (And Why It’s Still So Hard to Let Him Heal Us)

Speaker: Justin Gingrich

Date: August 30, 2026

Scripture: Acts 3:1–26

Series: Unhindered

Sermon summary

In Acts 3, Peter and John meet a man asking for money at the temple gate. Through the name of Jesus, he receives healing that reaches beyond what he expected. Justin Gingrich uses this encounter and Peter’s words to the crowd to ask how we respond when God offers more than the life we’ve learned to accept.

Disappointment can narrow our expectations. We can organize our lives around old wounds, familiar fears, or the need to prove our worth. Justin connects these patterns with the crowd’s rejection of Jesus, the author of life. What feels familiar can seem safer than the love that invites us to change.

Peter’s call to repent carries an invitation to refreshment. Turning toward God means releasing the things we keep asking to save us and receiving the goodness already offered in Jesus. The sermon asks us to notice where we resist that goodness and to take a step toward trust. The closing prayer gives thanks for a church community where people can ask questions, be known, and find belonging as they learn to receive God’s love.

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Sermon transcript

Lightly edited from automatic captions for readability. Some transcription errors may remain; the recording is the authoritative version. Select a timestamp to open that moment on YouTube.

0:08 — My name is Megan and I'm on the board of directors here at Restore. It's my great joy to read our scripture for this morning. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John.

0:46 — Then Peter said, "Look at us." So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you." In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God.

1:31 — When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful. and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, "Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you?

2:09 — Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

2:50 — We are witness of this by faith in the name of Jesus. This m this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus's name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him. As you can all see now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

3:27 — Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. You must listen to everything he tells you.

4:08 — Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people." Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. and you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, "Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed." When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.

4:46 — This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Megan. You can be seated. Let me pray for us. Well, Father, we gather this morning in need of your mercy, in need of your spirit. Father, in need of your love and in need of your care and goodness for us, Father, would you help us to trust you? Would you help us to turn towards you to repent of all the small ways that we cling to life instead of turning to the author of life?

5:25 — Father, would you have mercy on us this morning? Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you be here with us? We pray all of these things in your name. Amen. Well, good morning again. If you haven't met me before, my name is Justin. I’m one of the pastors here and and we are beginning this series on what does it mean to sing of the goodness of God regardless of where you find yourself in in life. Right? So so the the actual full title of this sermon series is through it all I will sing of the goodness of God unhindered. And so what we're going to look at this morning is people who encounter the goodness of God and go, "Well, wait a second.

6:08 — How did this happen?" And Peter will give this long explanation. It'll it'll evoke this impassioned speech from Peter and saying, "Listen to me. Look, this isn't the first time that you have stared into the face of the goodness of God, into the love of God, and not known what to do with it." And so this morning, what we're going to look at is what do we how do we actually open our hearts and receive the goodness of God? Like how do we actually open our hearts to receive the mercy of God? Okay. So So I'm going to ask you a question. and I don't I don't expect nobody answer. here here's my question. Okay. You ready? what is your greatest sin?

6:52 — As I said, nobody answer. Okay, this isn't confession time. I'm not a Catholic priest. but really like what is your greatest sin? What's your greatest sin struggle? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it. Okay. The reason I asked that and the reason I give you a few seconds to think about it is because I don't think your greatest sin is what you think your greatest sin is. Okay. So, so most of us when we go, okay, what is my greatest sin? We think of moral failure. ah got angry, let out some cuss words, flipped the bird, looked at something I shouldn't have, talked to or I did something I shouldn't have. I don't know, right? There's some moral kind of way. I I failed moral. That's my big sin struggle.

7:38 — I I want to argue this morning. I want you to hear this morning that I think our greatest sin I think what Peter's telling these people, the greatest sin is to reject the goodness that God has for you. Okay? I think every sin problem that we have, every addiction that our hearts wrestle with comes from not being able to truly receive the goodness that God has for us. Not trusting it, not believing in it, not thinking that he's actually as good towards us as he is. Okay. So, St. Ignatius of Loyola he is, if you don't know that name, he's a very old church father. I would say one of the foundational church fathers that laid a lot of Christian theology that we still teach today. This is what he said. He said, "Sin, okay, listen to his words. Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants for me is only my deepest happiness."

8:35 — I'm going to read that quote again. Sin is unwilling to trust that what God wants for me is only my deepest happiness. And so when we look at the story that Megan read for us this morning in Acts chapter 3, we see people struggle to accept the healing and the new life and the transformation that is being offered to them. Okay? And and so the story that happens first where Peter and John and they walk up to this guy who is essentially he he's panhandling. He's asking for alms. He's asking for money and he says, "Would you give me money?"

9:17 — And Peter says, "Look at us. I don't have any money to give you, but there's something far greater that God can give you." But the man doesn't quite get that. He's asking for pocket change when God himself is offering life transformation change. Do you see that? And so he's sort of a precursor like that's these two stories are lumped together because he in many ways is a precursor to the bigger challenge the bigger story even the even the epic story that got Jesus crucified that led to his crucifixion. You ask for gold and silver right? You ask for enough to get lunch today and maybe lunch tomorrow.

9:57 — But what God is offering you is transformational change. life change that goes far beyond what you could possibly imagine that leads to you leaping for joy. And so what I want to do this morning is I want to I want us to ask this question. Where do I resist the goodness of God? Where have I perhaps made the desires that God has for me, his heart for me, his love for me less than it actually is? And and friends, as your pastor, I I want to I want to say this like I think all of us have done this. I think every single one of us has reduced the goodness of God in ways that we don't realize that we have.

10:41 — And so what I want to do this morning is I want to look at like how do we actually open our hearts to it? What is what is Peter implying and showing us in this story? So, so the first thing that happens for us is I I I think that because we live in a broken world, because we live east of Eden, we have learned, our hearts have adjusted to to expecting less from life. And so for many of us, we may not even realize this as a pastor. I'm convinced this is true. I'm at least it's true for me. I think sometimes we only ask God for what seems possible in light of the other our limitations that we've known. for this man who cannot walk getting money to feed himself is as good as it gets. So that's what he's asking for.

11:27 — There's nothing wrong with that. But in his heart, he's staring in front of life change and the thing he wants is money. And so for many of us, I think our spirits and our souls have actually adopted this mindset. I think a lot of the times we are so used to living in a fallen broken world that the things that our hearts long for, the desires of our hearts, the things that we even ask God for are are have much more to do with temporary appeasement than it does with transformational salvation than it does with the life that God has for us. So, so Rebecca Solnit, she's one of my favorite authors. she talks a lot about so she she she was a prominent author in like the 60s and 70s particularly in the women's suffrage movement and she talks about how for many people she says this instead she said I found in my own work as an author a lot of people are looking for trouble what she means by that she says go on and say it's trouble that reinforces their dismal worldview so so here is someone who sort of sat on the edge of change good change positive change and goes for many of us our hearts hearts have adopted less than she calls it dismal views of life. And so when that happens, our hearts scan and look for things that confirm that for us, that confirm the way that we feel about ourselves, that confirm what we feel about towards other people, that confirm our distrust in the world, that confirm our lack of trust in ourselves.

13:01 — And so she said, 'I have found that for many of us, this cynicism that we carry is just a reflection of our dismal world views. And yet, because we are Christians, we are in a relationship with the author of life, with the creator who hung the stars. And so our hearts wrestle with his plans versus our views of the world. This is, I think, precisely what we call faith. And it's where we wrestle with who God is and what life has made us to be. And so this man, he shows no expectation for he healing, but he asks for something. He asks for change. And so for many of us, I think we actually adjust our expectations of both what God can do for us, of both the change that can happen in our heart. I think we actually adjust our expectations based on our disappointments that we've known, even if they are actually our disappointments and who God is.

13:58 — And so so much of our time and energy and prayer life and spiritual life I I I think kind of hangs here because we struggle to understand what God is freely offering us. This happens in multiple places throughout the scriptures. I would actually say this is the primary narrative of the scriptures. When God creates Adam and Eve and places them in the garden and the serpent comes to offer the temptation, what does he say? Did God really say right embedded in that question? Whatever he says next, embedded in that question is God's holding out on you some. He hasn't told you everything.

14:36 — There are still parts of his creation and his goodness that he wants you to have limited access to. And from the very beginning of creation, I think this is the lie that has seduced humanity. This is why I think St. Ignatius says this. Sin is this inability that we have to trust that what God desires for us is truly our deepest joy. We see this in the story of God's people. So we did Exodus earlier this spring when God rescues his people out of Egypt and takes them to the promised land. This is a group of people that have watched God stare down Pharaoh, the most powerful authoritative figure in the ancient world. Pharaoh at the time was the pinnacle of power. And we've wa these people have watched God stare down Pharaoh and come out victorious.

15:27 — They have watched God rain down fire from heaven and food from heaven and guided them all throughout their journey in the wilderness. But they finally get to the promised land. They finally get to the place that they feel like God is bringing them to. And they send what happens is they actually send some spies into the land to check it out to scope it out before they move everybody in, before they move the children, right? Before they move their vulnerable populations into a potentially hostile environment, they go to the promised land to see who's there. And what we're told is those spies come back, they return, they bring two thing, they bring two things.

16:06 — It's like a good news, bad news. They bring good news and they bring bad news with them. They bring first some grapes. They bring fruit from the land. Look at the size of these grapes. this land that God is promising us with fruit that will sustain us and care for us just like the Garden of Eden. Look at it. But they go on to say also in the promised land there are giants, big people, powerful people. And they actually, here's what they say. They say compared like when we looked at those people, compared to those people, we were like grasshoppers. That's the word. We're like insects.

16:44 — We saw ourselves as insects in light of them and they saw us as insects. Do you see the downgrade that they just gave themselves? Stop and think about that for a second. They are God's chosen people that have watched God liberate them from Pharaoh's army and they get to a place where they go, there's fruit, but there's these guys. We are insects. Do you see the downgrade that happens? And just there in that moment, they're standing on the edge of the promised land. They're standing where their greatest hopes and dreams, the life that God has promised them, is standing right next to, listen, look at what's happening here, their greatest fears.

17:29 — The grapes are standing right next to the giants. The fruit is standing right next to the thing they feel they cannot overcome. And friends, I think this is life for so many of us. God's goodness and God's blessings are all around us and yet also we are keenly aware of our shortcomings and our we do what we do what they do which is we're just insects to this right I I think of I know for me even as a parent man my dream as I as I I look at my two beautiful children and some of you parents you know what this is like right and and you're like I there's so much maybe about my own childhood that I want to change or see ch you know different. And then you get into parenting and you realize, man, some of this brokenness has followed me into this and you see the beauty of your family and you see the the challenge of your brokenness, right? You're holding both the beauty that God has given you and and and the limitations of your heart.

18:28 — I think I think sometimes we do this in relationships, right? Some of us when we find someone that we trust, there's a part of us that wants to open our hearts to them and there's another part that goes, I've been hurt before. I I hear this even when we look at our world, some of us like, man, I I don't know. Like, I want to trust that things can change. I want to trust that people will do the right thing, but God, I don't know. I've been disappointed so many times before. And so like God's people, we stand everpresent with what God is doing and our greatest fears kind of stand right next to each other. and David Stubbs, he's a theologian. but he says this, it's very much in line with what St.

19:09 — Anatus said and what I'm making my case this morning is is he says that Israel rejects God. So constantly God's people, if you know the story of God's people, he loves them and then they push him away. He loves them and then they disobey. He loves them and then they rebel. like this is a constant story of him bringing them back to his love and care and provision their belovedness to him. But he goes on to say this is that Israel rejects God not because they want to be more but rather because they are willing to settle for less. This is David Stubbs’s analysis of the chief sin of God's people. This is St. Ignatius's analysis of the origin of sin for people. It is this unwillingness.

19:49 — It's not actually that we like we want God to do more for us and he doesn't show up. It's actually that we we're willing in our hearts to settle for less, less than what he has for us, less than what he desires for us. And so when that happens, I think when we settle for less, we start to build our life around less, right? We we organize our life around what we think is actually what we have and we build our lives around what I think we think will never change. Right? Maybe somebody spoke something to us and those words, what they said about us, they stick and it's been 10 years, it's been 20 years. They may not even remember the conversation, but you do.

20:33 — It says ever present in your mind and you've organized parts of your life, parts of who you are, parts of your confidence based on what somebody else said about you. We organize our life. Maybe some of us we we struggle with addiction. There's some parts of it like I don't know how this happened. I like it got control in ways and now I I don't know. I don't know if I'm ever going to be anything but this. This thing has grabbed a hold of my heart. Am I even worth healing? All right. This is why I love at the end of 12-step meetings. They say because you're worth it. But for many of us, I think actually, and Peter makes the case, I think I'm being very scriptural here. We actually sabotage our own healing because we're not quite sure we're worth it. God's people describe themselves, God's beloved children, let me rephrase that.

21:20 — God's chosen beloved children describe themselves as insects because of how little they actually think of themselves. They've been Pharaoh's slaves. They've moved as a wandering people through the desert. They've started to, I think, adopt a small identity about who they are. I, you know, so I I've watched Frozen maybe 40 or 50 times, and that number is not a joke. I've actually watched it that many times, but some of you know the song, right? The big song that got kind of put Frozen on the map. Frozen 3 is coming out next summer. along with the Bluey movie. Just letting you guys, I already know what I'm doing next summer.

21:58 — but what what is Frozen? What is Elsa's big song? Let it go. What does she say in that? The Kingdom of Isolation. Yeah, I'm not I'm not Crystal, y'all. I'm not going to sing anything. I'm sorry. Some of y'all you're waiting. Y'all were waiting for me to sing Frozen, weren't you? That's not going to happen. Never. I'm sorry. Y'all have to wait for Crystal to preach again. Or Derek. what did she say? A kingdom of isolation. And it looks like I'm the queen. Be the girl girl you always have to be. Conceal don't feel. Elsa has recognized that there is real like limit like danger in who she is or at least she thinks there's danger in who she is.

22:35 — And what happens in the movie? Anna's love for her, her sister's love pushes her away. Even though Anna's sincere love and desire is to see her sister belong and to see connection between them, because of what the things that Elsa wrestles with in her own heart, he push she pushes her away. And that's where she goes and she sings this song. I'm in a kingdom of isolation. And so conceal was her strategy, right? Anna presses in on her love for her and isolation becomes Elsa's protection. It's how she builds her life around it. She builds her life around this so that she doesn't come in contact with the kind of love that can change and open and heal and redeem and make her safe.

23:18 — And so for many of us here here's here's what happens. And Peter's going to use some of this language. I think we mistake coping for flourishing. I I think we mistake the life that the spirit has for us which is to flourish. The Acts here chapter 3 will use words like restoration a and refreshment. But for so many of us, we've we've just confused coping for flourishing in life with the spirit. We've coped, but God wants more for us. He wants flourishing for us. And so Peter will tell them here, here's the thing. Even though Peter's statement to them feels harsh, there's still grace embedded to it. So he says in 3:17, "Now fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your leader." So here's what Peter's saying. You didn't know any better. Like God was there like presenting his life.

24:13 — The author of life was standing before you and you didn't know. Like you've been in survival mode. You're you're balancing what do I do with Rome? You've balancing years of exile. Like there's all kinds of residual trauma that's come from that. You acted in ignorance. Your hearts were scared. You didn't know what to do. And yes, you you chose Barabbas. And this is the ne this is my third point is when we build our lives around less. What happens is we start to resist God's goodness for us. We start to actively resist it. And friends, I want to I look, as your pastor, I think this is the greatest spiritual danger. I'm just going to be candid with you this morning. I think it's the greatest danger to spiritual life is that we start to actively resist God's goodness. It feels like coping. It feel maybe even feels spiritual to us.

25:00 — But in fact, what we were doing is resisting the goodness of God. And this is what Peter says. He before you was presented Barabbas the murderer. so let's read Acts 3:14-15. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses to this. Here's what Peter is saying. You had Barabbas, you Jesus. Pilate, if you know the story of the crucifixion, Pilate's like, "Which one do you want me to free?" I don't find anything wrong with Jesus. Barabbas murder. He was a revolutionary. So, we talked a little bit about empire last week. Here, here's here's the thing. Barabbas feels familiar to them. So, later in Acts, actually, they'll talk about there were all these other leaders that were kind of like Jesus in the sense that they were promising deliverance of their people and they would gather an army, a small usually band of men, like four or three, 400 men and they would go against Rome. Then the guy would get killed and then the followers would scatter. Acts will talk about this. This is who Barabbas was.

25:58 — Barabbas was a revolution. He was one of those guys that was revoling against Rome. He probably had a following. Rome empire came down hard. He's now he's now their prison. Right? So now they have to decide what do we trust? Do we trust Barabbas? He's violent. He's revolutionary and gets things done in the way that we're familiar with in the ancient world. Right? He uses violence. That's the currency in the ancient world. Power and violence or Jesus. Do we trust what's familiar? We we've built a a life around understanding the way the world operates. And Barabbas and the world and the world operates and the way that we've made sense. Barabbas makes sense. So we choose Barabbas.

26:42 — And Peter will use these escalating verbs. You disowned. You went from disowning to killing the author of life. And I always think I imagine as the crowd is standing before as Jesus and Barabbas are standing there, how do you think Jesus looked at those people? The love in his eyes. I'm going to ask you to use your imagination for a second. I always read that story right before that. Jesus is before the high priest and the high priest slaps him standing in love. Do you think Do you think Jesus was acting defensive in a way that made the guy No. Here's what I think happened. I think the high priest stood looking at the love that he was supposed to recognize and then help other people recognize and slaps it right across the face.

27:30 — I think as Jesus stands before the people and Pilate goes, "Do you want Barabbas? Do you want Jesus?" I suspect there was real tenderness, even sadness in Jesus's eyes. And yet, here's what happens. The author of life is standing before them. Peter says, "You picked Barabbas because that's what's familiar. The limitations of your world, the brokenness, the exile, the pain that you carry. He seems to make sense. Maybe he can deliver you. Maybe this time he gets 1000 follow, you know, I don't know, thousand followers. Maybe that's enough this time. Maybe this time it will deliver you." And I think it's so much of our lives are we these things that are not Jesus, we turn them maybe this time it'll work. I've shared this before, some of you guys know this about me. It's very much how I'm like I'm I am wired to produce, right? It's how I find my value. And I remember I was having lunch with a mentor. these were the kind of the beginning of day of of Restore, like I don't know if we're going to make it. And I I I was there was another it was me and a couple of mentors and and and you know I was I was I was griping about everything. It was stressful and and he was like look if it doesn't work out look at the bright side. you you can go get you can go back and get another job that you can spend way more time with your family. And just kind of instinctively and almost defensively I blurted out. I remember it was kind of awkward. I was like, "You don't understand. If Restore doesn't make it, I'm nothing." I told him that just came out because I grew up I grew I know like for me producing that's how I show up.

29:03 — That's how I value. That's how I matter. And so oh my whole life I've done that. I have run myself into the ground. I have burnt myself out. I have tried to disappear inside of a bottle to deal with the stress of burning myself out, right? And I've done this over and every single time I'm like, "This time I'll get successful enough to feel like I matter." And every time Restore hits a benchmark, I'm like, "Now I matter." And then a couple weeks later, I'm back at it again. And that's what this is what we do every We're like, I this time it'll deliver me. This time it'll make me say, "This time I'll finally feel like I've made it." Right? Every benchmark restore hits, I feel that am. And a couple weeks later, I'm I'm back trying to produce in order to prove that I matter, that I'm not nothing. But every single one of us has something like this that we turn to other than Jesus.

29:49 — And I remember for me, this summer was really where I actually really found some freedom for that. was really beginning to realize, spirit, you have you've bestowing your goodness on us constantly, and yet I'm still trying to produce, so I matter. And yet, you're already here, and you're guiding, and you're redeeming. He's been so good to us. And so what our hearts have to do is they have to start shifting to resisting God's goodness to being able to receive it. And so Luke Peter will finish this as I invite the band to come back up to the stage and we wrap up for this evening.

30:28 — Acts 3:19-21. he says this, "Then repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that the times of refreshing may come and that you may send the Messiah, he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets." And so what Peter says is repent and turn these things that you have been clinging to. They make you feel safe for a little while and you're back at it again. But the author of life, your author of your life is here. The time of refreshing is here.

31:17 — Okay. So I I get look I get sad when some of us have been taught that we need to repent in order to avoid God's judgment. I don't I look my personal opinion just in the story of scriptures judgment never brings repentance. There were people that watched God rain down fire from heaven didn't bring about their change in their hearts. Not until the author of life comes and offers mercy does their hearts begin to change. do they begin to find life. And it's this turning away. That's what repentance is. It's a turning away from things that are hard on our souls to what is refreshing. That that's what the spirit is offering is times of refreshment. That's the language that he uses. Turn. Turn not so that you will you you'll avoid judgment. Turn so you can find yourself refreshed in the life and the goodness that God has for you.

32:17 — So, what we're going to do over these next eight weeks, as I said, is we're going to do two things. We're going to journey through this book of Acts, and we're we're going to look at Hannah's prayer. So, if you were here last week, Hannah was the mother of Samuel, who was the first prophet. He's the prophet who anoints David, who is in the line of Jesus. And Peter mentions here in Acts three, he brings up Samuel. All of this started with Samuel who's prophesied about God's anointed king coming. But I think Samuel started with the prayer of Hannah who like Paul is on this road that I don't think that she saw coming or would have picked for herself or her people. So Hannah prays this prayer right after the book of Judges. If you know anything about the book of Judges, it is the most it's like the lowest point for God's people. They push God out. They are turning to all kinds of things that are unhealthy. So, she she prays this prayer in the midst of great suffering, in the midst of great rebellion, and the midst of mate great brokenness. But like Paul, she sings unhindered of the goodness of God.

33:30 — She holds with eager expectation that God is coming. her spirit, like Paul's, stays sustained by the spirit of God. And so each week, I'm I'm adapting Hannah's prayer. It's really specifically for our story as restore over these next eight weeks. But we're going to pray this. So I'm going to pray this over you guys as the band comes back up and we'll finish with worship for this morning. But this comes from Hannah's prayer. We're going to pray a little bit. I've dissected into eight parts. But this is the first part that Hannah prays right at kind of this low point of God's people. She's like, "This is low, but I know that he's not finished yet." This is really kind of what she's doing. Just like Paul, she's been on a road of suffering, a road of hardship.

34:10 — We read in in chapter 2 of Samuel, verse two, "Then Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord, and in the Lord, my horn is lifted high, my mouth boast over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance." Let me pray for us. God, through it all, we will sing of your goodness. We have known great joy in knowing you. Here you have lifted even the lowest parts of our lives into your presence at restore. Where we have known rejection, here you have brought embrace.

34:50 — Where we have known loneliness, you have given us some of our closest friends. Here, for many of us, church may have been a place of pain, here you have taught us that church can also be a place of safety. Where we have carried shame, you have given us second chances. And where we believe the parts of ourselves that have had to remain hidden, you have showed us how to be surrounded by people who love us and stay. You have given us a table where we don't have to earn our place. Father, what others have meant for evil, you have brought goodness from it here.

35:28 — What others have taken, you have rebuilt with beauty. With when uncertainty caused us to fear that this was over, you have always begun something new with us. Even when a worldwide virus put distance, great distance between us, you taught us not to give up on one another. Through five years of uncertainty and change and plans succeeding and plans falling apart, you have kept bringing us back to one another. And we are overjoyed by the freedom that we have found here. The freedom to ask questions without fear. The freedom to be known without pretending.

36:08 — The freedom to disagree and still call one another friend. The freedom to belong before we've had everything figured out. We are safe in your acceptance of us. And through it all, we will continue to sing of your goodness to us. We pray all of these things in your name. Amen.