Father,

You are holy, holy, holy. There is none like You. The highest heavens belong to You, and You have created all things—things in heaven, things on earth, things under the earth. But the earth You have given to humanity to rule. And as we look around at what humanity has done and made, we are astonished. Pyramids and great walls and magnificent cities and huge towers, beautiful works of art and epic stories, complex economies and political structures, philosophies and machines, sophisticated computers that fit inside our pockets. Human beings, made by You and in Your image, are capable of astonishing things. In our passage today, we look at the Temple that Solomon built, and we see the same: an amazing building that reflects the ingenuity and creativity of people who are living out their calling as created beings, made to bear Your image. Those You have made, and what they have made, is wonderful and inspires us to awe.

You are holy. And You have made us for Yourself. All the astonishing things that people do—they are meant to be for Your glory. May You redeem these works and glorify Yourself in them. Because humans can use our works to glorify You or to try to bring glory to ourselves; our hands can bring healing and destruction; our tongues can give encouragement or tear others down; our bodies can be creative temples of Your presence and destructive vessels for abusing others; our eyes can see Your presence and grace or look around for others to master and control; our legs can be used to lift others up or to crush others as we climb over them; our hearts can lift us to love and self-sacrifice or lead us to wallow in anxiety, lusts, and selfishness; our lives can be bearers of life or tools of death.

Forgive us, Lord, for we have sinned. We have taken the creation that You made for good and turned it into a playground for our very worst desires. We have taken the gifts that You gave us and used them to glorify ourselves. We have used our astonishing creativity and built worthless idols. Forgive us, Lord. And take what we intended for evil and turn it into good. By Your holy grace and redemptive power, take our building projects and turn them into sites of Your presence. Take our art and infuse it with Your beauty. Take our learning and technological sophistication and turn them into icons that point us to You. Take our broken relationships and shape us into followers of Jesus who are learning to love like You do. By Your resurrection power, take the death and destruction that we have brought into Your creation and make new life, for Your glory and for the fulfillment of Your purposes. And may Your people, the Church, participate with You in seeing and working for redemption and resurrection life. Father, we have sinned, but You are making all things new.

Father, thank You for the power of prayer over the sick and hurting. Thanks for the prayers that have carried me as I have battled mono. Today, we lift up those who are unable to join us as we gather in worship. Father, we ask that You would strengthen and encourage them, help them to continue walking faithfully with You, and may Your presence fill their days with grace and joy.

Lord, thank You for the gifts of those who serve us by leading us in worship. Thanks for Julie, for her leadership, and for the ways that she points us to You. Would You continue to empower her and use her to draw us into Your presence. And thanks for Rodd, for his study and the ways that he listens to You. This morning, we ask that You might use his words to help us to encounter You as we look at 1 Kings together. And thank you for those who have prepared the communion that we will take later. This morning, as we worship You, we invite Your Spirit to shape, change, challenge, and mold us so that our lives might bear witness to Your glory and grace.

Lord, all we have is Yours. The very best of our hands is a gift from You. Even our hands themselves are gifts from You. Take this offering, which is Yours anyway, and use it for Your purposes. May You use it to proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for prisoners and sight for the blind, to set free the oppressed, and proclaim the Lord’s favor.

Lord, You are holy. The heavens declare Your glory, the earth cries out in worship, and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.