In his sermon titled 'Using Knowledge Properly,' Peter Allison explores the teachings of Proverbs 15, emphasizing the profound impact of our words. He discusses how a soft answer can turn away wrath, acting as a powerful tool for peace, while harsh words can stir anger, making the tongue a potent instrument for both conflict and harmony. Allison illustrates this with biblical examples, such as Abigail's wise and gentle response to David, which averted violence. The sermon also delves into pseudo-peaceful replies like rhetorical questions and flattery, which appear peaceful but stir anger. Additionally, the tongue is likened to a medical instrument, capable of healing and bringing life, much like the Tree of Life mentioned in scripture. True wisdom, Allison argues, involves using knowledge rightly, knowing when to speak, and how to deliver words with grace and humility. Ultimately, he reminds the congregation that God sees and hears all, calling for introspection and prayer for wisdom to use words as instruments of peace.

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 15. I'd like to read this morning our text from the first four verses. A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping Watch on the evil and the good. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit." May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word. Almighty Heavenly Father, your Word endures forever.

Your Word is truth, and in it there is great light and life. We ask that you would quicken us with your word this morning. That you would convict us where we have erred. You would instruct us where we are ignorant, and that you would increase our love of your Word, our hunger for it. May it be hidden in our heart.

And Father, we ask that you would speak to us now through this word and through and set apart these lips for that end in Jesus' name, Amen. Proverbs has had a lot to say about the tongue so far. It's like the New Testament book of James. We've seen in the passages of chapters that have gone before us that what's in our heart is visible around our mouth, as those that the advertising campaign, I don't know if it's still going on, but you'd see these pictures of famous people with milk all around their mouth, seeking to promote milk. Because the implication was they had drunk the milk, and you could see It was all around their mouth.

Proverbs says, our tongue and our mouth serve in the same way, serve to reveal and show what's in our heart. Just like that milk mustache, The words reflect our heart, and so our mouth is an indicator. It talks about where there are many words that sin is not lacking. Because the tong is a very powerful instrument. It's a very powerful instrument.

And I should, Before we begin, I should, for those that like outlines, there is, .5 is missing, so if you would like to add that right now, .5, God sees the use of our tongue. So, point four and then point five if you add that when we get there. But the tongue is a very powerful instrument. One of the things my mother, I remember my mother saying once or twice, is that probably when I was complaining about somebody fighting, one of her comments is that it takes two to fight. It takes two to have a fight.

And While there may be some exceptions to that, there's a lot of truth in that. Much of the truth in that statement rests upon this verse. It's grounded in this verse. Proverbs 15 verse 1. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

A soft answer turns away wrath. That verse is simply making a statement, a simple statement about the power of a soft answer. It can turn away wrath in others. We generally don't have power, the ability to change other people. In fact, that's one of the foundational, fundamental rules of a relationship, of which marriage is an important one, that you can't change other people.

You can't change other people. And a lot of conflict happens when people are trying to change each other. But this verse says that one of the tools that can affect change in other people is in our tongue, in a soft answer. One of the tools, There's one other exception that I know of and that's where Peter tells wives that their meekness can change their husband. He can be one without a word.

Here's another exception to our ability to affect change in somebody else, and that is a soft answer. It can turn away wrath in somebody else. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. That what we do, something we do, can affect and improve a change in someone else. And that's why my mother would say, takes two to have a fight.

Because a soft answer, in many cases, could have averted that fight, that argument, that debate. A soft answer consists of gentle words that are delivered with tenderness and that show humility and deference. They're gentle words that are delivered with tenderness. They're delivered with a concern for how the other person will receive them. They are delivered out of a concern for how the other person will receive them.

They are delivered with a desire to bring something carefully and tenderly and softly. This is the kind of an answer that heaps coals of fire on someone's head, the head of an angry person in this case. Paul says that of when you show kindness to somebody who is being cruel to us, persecuting us. He said that keeps coals of fire on their head. It makes them feel out of place.

And that's what a soft answer does. It undercuts resentment. It erodes the angry passions. It breaks the back of anger. Have you ever experienced somebody giving a soft answer to you when there is agitation and anger arising?

You know then what I'm talking about, because I certainly have experienced that. And you recognize, I need to cover my mouth. I've spoken too soon. A soft answer shows mercy. It doesn't give the deserved response.

The deserved response is an answer in kind. An answer that is right back at you. An answer that has wittiness in it and repartee that just comes right back and puts you in your place. That's an answer in kind. It may be well deserved.

But a soft answer shows mercy. It offers kindness instead of an in-kind answer. And this is very powerful. This is powerful like a rod of iron power, like break bones kind of power, a crushing power. This kind of answer is very powerful, it's very persuasive.

Proverbs 25.15 says, By long forbearing a judge is persuaded. By long forbearing, by soft answers, by graciousness in the face of the raiding, in the face of stonewalling, in the face of ignoring, a soft answer. By a soft answer, A judge is persuaded by long forbearing. And a soft tongue, the other half of that proverb is, breaks bones. A soft answer.

You think about what is a soft answer. Well, if you study physics, our speech you learn is just air. It's pressurized air. It's pressure pulses that are traveling through air. You don't think of air as being a rod of iron.

You don't think of air as being a rod of iron. You don't think of air as crushing bones. You think of clubs and rocks and swords and iron safes as bone crushing things. But the Bible is saying that our answer of our mouth, the words that we speak, the air, the pressure pulses coming out of our mouth, They can crush bones. They're powerful.

The tongue is a powerful instrument for peace. The tongue, even in jest, even in joking, can do a lot of harm. Everybody may laugh about it, but the tongue can harm, even in jest, even in making people the object of our jokes. Everybody may laugh, but it's cruel. A soft answer requires humility.

It requires us to show deference, to be in submission to one another. A soft answer does not usually come, if ever, out of a proud or arrogant spirit. It's mild words, it's gentle passions, delivered with kindness and tenderness that work on effecting change in other people. Think of Abigail, Nabal's wife, who became David's wife. This is an epitome of a soft answer, turning away wrath.

It's also the epitome of a harsh answer, stirring up anger. It's actually an illustration of both. David's men, you remember, had been very careful to take care of Nabal's flocks and herds. They protected him. David had this army of unfit people, people that couldn't fit into society, outcasts that had gathered to him.

He had a band of 600 men, which is quite a big force. When you think about Abraham, a few hundred years earlier, defeating four or five nations with 318 men. So David had quite an armed force, and he protected Nabal's flocks. He preserved them, made sure that thieves didn't get them, that wild animals didn't get them. And he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.

He heard that this was the harvest. This was reaping of that work, enjoying the fruits of that labor. And he sent some representatives, you remember, to ask Nable if they might have some of the fruit of that harvest. And Nable gave a harsh answer to a request, a reasonable request, but still a request. He wasn't obligated to provide those to David.

He didn't have a contract with David to guard his flocks, But David had done this out of the kindness of his heart, and David was now asking for a kindness in return. And you remember, Nabal gave a very harsh answer. It was an arrogant answer. Who are you? You're a bunch of scoundrels.

You're basically some societal misfits that can't live in cities and you just wander around the countryside. No, I'm not going to give anything to you." And the servants came back and reported this harsh answer to David. It was Nabal's right to say no, but he did it in a harsh way. He could have done it in a more gracious way, but he did it in a harsh way. And he stirred up a lot of anger in David.

And David was incensed. And David determined at that point to take his army and instead of protecting naebol to wipe him out and That's where he headed to he was angry and naebol rec or Abigail recognized that this harsh answer of her husband, she had great wisdom in this. She recognized that this was going to stir up anger in David. She didn't have to have a report from somebody in David's camp that David was angry. She just knew because she knew that a harsh answer like that would stir up anger.

And she immediately started to act to be able to give a soft answer back to David. And you remember she gathered a lot of food, she took it, and with humility, with humility, acknowledging what David had done, she presented this gift, and she gave a soft answer to an angry man And what happened to David? Did he seek to justify himself? Did he seek to defend himself Did he get angry at her? Just the opposite, right?

It broke David's bones. It caused him to look at himself and say, wow, I was about ready to kill somebody. I was so angry. Thank you for that soft answer. Thank you for turning away my wrath." In fact, he was so impressed with Abigail and her wisdom, and the soft answer that changed his heart, took the anger right away, caused him to recognize that he was about ready to commit a great folly.

He was so impressed with her wisdom and her wise use of her tongue that he married her a little later when her husband died. How's that for changing somebody? Ready to wipe out the household to wanting to marry the lady. You see, This is simply a statement here. A soft answer turns away wrath.

It's a statement declaring to us the powerful instrument of peace that our tongue can be. It doesn't say that we ought to have a soft answer. It simply tells us what a soft answer does. But there are other passages of Scripture that tell us, that command us, to live at peace. It is our duty to live at peace with people.

Paul told the Romans in chapter 12, if it is possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. So it is our duty then to use this powerful instrument for peace. It is our duty to use it for peace. It is our duty to give a soft answer. And so turn away wrath.

Preventing others from falling into sin as well as ourselves. Because you know a soft answer can also turn away wrath in ourselves. If we find ourselves getting angry, wrath is being stirred up. A soft answer back will pacify our anger as well. On the other hand, if we give in and don't rule over that passion, don't bring it under submission to the Word of God, the tongue is a powerful instrument for war.

A harsh word stirs up anger. What does anger? Jesus talked about the words that we speak to our brother in anger are words that kill our brother. Those are words of war. When we talk about people pushing our buttons, or we say that somebody knows how to push their buttons, or push someone's buttons.

We're talking about their ability to stir up anger through words. The tongue is a powerful instrument of war. But there are ways to give a harsh answer that on the face seem to be peaceful. I'll call them pseudo peaceful answers. They're really harsh answers And they have the effect of stirring up anger.

But they can appear to be peaceful. One pseudo-peaceful answer, one class of pseudo-peaceful answers are rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions. That's asking a question to make a point, or to communicate what we want done, instead of asking a question to learn about someone else, to learn something that we don't know, and we would like to know. A rhetorical question is a question we maybe already know the answer to, or there isn't an answer to it, or we don't care about the answer to it.

We're not really asking to find an answer. We're asking to make a point, or we're asking to communicate what we want somebody to do. That is a disingenuous question. And it really can amount to, in many circumstances, a harsh answer. It's going to create tension.

It's going to begin to build anger in somebody, not turn it away. A rhetorical question is making a statement in the form of a question. It's saying, do you want to, when what we really mean is, I want you to. But we say, do you want to? As if we're asking an innocent question.

And what do you suppose that does? That's really a harsh answer, and It's going to begin to stir up anger. It's going to begin to make somebody resentful of what you're saying, of you, of the situation. An honest statement would be simply to say, I want you to. Now maybe we don't want to say that because we realize that wouldn't come across well.

And so it becomes cloaked in a question. But it's really a pseudo-peaceful answer. Another pseudo-peaceful reply is a question that imposes a disputed presupposition. A question that imposes or assumes something that may be not agreed upon, something that's not acknowledged maybe. These kinds of questions technically don't have answers if You're in a court of law and you get a question like this a good attorney will Instruct you not to answer that or to say you can't answer a question like that.

A question like that might say, when are you going to remember my birthday? There's an assumption there that you don't remember the birthday, and that it's systemic. It may or may not be true, but it imposes a presupposition to be able to answer the question. If you answer the question, you are accepting that presupposition that you forget their birthday. Or, when are you going to learn to keep your room clean?

Out of, you can just maybe sense some exasperation in a statement like that. When are you going to learn to keep your room clean? It's just a question. But it imposes a presupposition onto the question that one has to accept in order to answer the question. That is a pseudo peaceful question.

It really begins to create anger. It creates resentment in somebody when they hear a question like that. Now hopefully they don't respond with a smart aleck answer. But you can see the power of the tongue as an instrument for war, very subtly, to begin to stir up anger. That anger may not burst forth right at that moment, but It's going to start anger, an angry response.

Or questions like, why don't you? Questions that presume an answer. Why don't you do this? Or why don't you do that? Or you want to do this, don't you?

Presumes that the answer is yes. That's not an honest question most of the time. That's a pseudo peaceful answer. Another kind of harsh answer that stirs up wrath that actually appears the opposite is flattery. It's flattery.

It's where we strive to humor others at the expense of the truth, the loss of the truth, to the hurt of the party that is flattered. David said of people that tried to flatter him, these words, he said, the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart. That's in Psalm 5521. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Mouth is smoother than butter, but his heart is intent on war.

The words are softer than oil. Oil is very soft, soothing. The words sound soothing. But David says they were drawn swords. They're really pseudo-peaceful answers, pseudo-peaceful replies that stir up anger.

The Lord will cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things. Now again, this is simply a statement about what a harsh answer does. Sometimes there is a time for anger. Sometimes harsh words are in order. But Even when harsh words are in order, even when it is a time for anger, we can still learn to deliver that in a gracious way.

Sometimes sin calls for a rebuke from us. Moses came down from the mountain with the two tablets on which God had written His covenant, the Ten Commandments. And remember as he got near the camp they heard the sound of music. Moses recognized this was the sound of revelry, of being unrestrained. The sound of people who were unrestrained.

People who were naked. And Moses became angry. And he threw those stones that God had written with his own finger. He threw them on the ground in anger. And they broke.

And He ground up their own idol that they had made. And He threw it in the water and made them drink it. Moses was angry. Moses is described as the meekest man on the earth, and yet this was a time for anger. The people had fallen into idolatry.

They had gone a-whoring in just 40 days. And God was angry with them as well. Sometimes there is a time for anger. Sometimes sin calls for a rebuke from us. Sometimes sin calls for a complaint to lawful authority.

Sometimes sin calls for us to defend the righteous, to speak, to speak the truth. Sometimes the truth is hard. Sometimes the truth is harsh. Paul talked about all the people who forsook him and no one stood with him in his letter to Timothy. He is telling Timothy about what it was like to be in his office, in his place.

The people that should have been defending him were gone. They fled. They were afraid for their own skin. Sometimes sin calls for an answer, a defense of those who are righteous. That may be hard.

People may not want to hear the truth. Do you think all the people who were buying and selling in the temple when Jesus came in and He found them buying and selling in the temple, and He was angry? They had taken His Father's house, which was to be a house of prayer, and they'd made it a den of thieves. And he took a rope and braided it together, and he started in anger, started driving them out with a whip. They were scattering like cockroaches to get away, Cockroaches in the light to get away from Christ and His anger.

Do you think they got angry? I suppose they did. The Pharisees didn't like Jesus. He made them angry. He said hard things to them, very harsh things, like you brute of vipers.

You whitewashed supple-curse. You look nice on the outside, but inside you're full of rotting bones. He didn't say it in a cruel way, but He said it. And I imagine that they got angry at him. In fact, the Bible says they got angry at him.

So angry they wanted to kill him. And they just looked for a chance that they could kill him. Because of the truth that he spoke to them. Truth that made them angry. The tongue is a powerful instrument for good or for evil, for peace or for war.

But the tongue is also a medical instrument. We heard about needles today, and it's a medical instrument. It's a tool for healing. It's a tool for getting medicine into our body. There are lots of tools of medicine.

But the Bible says that our tongue is a medical instrument. Our tongue. That thing we have in our mouth is an instrument of medicine, an instrument of healing. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life. A wholesome tongue.

That word is healthy. In fact, most other places in the Bible where it's used in the Old Testament, it's translated directly to something to do with health. This is a healing tongue, a soothing tongue. Is a tree of life. Something that's wholesome is something which refers to something which is morally good, or It also refers to something which brings health to our physical bodies.

We talk about wholesome food. Eating wholesome and nutritious food is food that is healing and brings health to our bodies, physical health to our bodies. The Bible says that our tongue is exactly the same. It does exactly the same thing. Proverbs 12 in an earlier verse, there is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts.

There's words that are cutting, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. In the next chapter, the heart of the wise teaches his mouth and adds learning to his lips, and gracious words are as honeycomb sweet to the soul and health to the bones. So on one hand, words can break bones, but on the other hand, our words can heal bones. Literally. The Tree of Life is mentioned in three places in Scripture.

It's mentioned in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter 3 after Adam and Eve had sinned, God said, Behold, man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take from the tree of life, and eat and live forever." This tree of life, if Adam and Eve had eaten of it, God is saying their bodies would have lived forever. Therefore, the Lord sent him out of the garden to till the ground from which he was taking, so he drove man out and placed cherubim. Those are scary angels, powerful beings with flaming swords at the east of the garden to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

God said if they had eaten of this tree, they would live forever. The second place that we see the Tree of Life is in the end of the Bible, in the book of revelation. The Tree of Life is that tree that grows beside the river that flows from God's throne. And what does this Tree of Life do? It brings healing, its leaves bring healing to the nations.

The Tree of Life is bringing healing to the nations. Health. And that's exactly what we see the Tree of Life doing here in Proverbs. Wisdom in Proverbs, wisdom is a tree of life, chapter 3. Righteousness is a tree of life.

Hope that is realized, a realized hope is a tree of life. And a wholesome tongue, A healing tongue is a tree of life. That's saying a lot about the power of the tongue to bring healing. You see the tongue through which words are spoken can comfort the sorrowful. Your tongue and how you use it can comfort people that are in sorrow.

Paul told the Corinthians that they should comfort those with the same comfort that they had been comforted with. And they're doing that with the words that they speak. The tongue can encourage the dejected. It can encourage those who are discouraged. Words of encouragement are very powerful.

They bring healing. They bring health to people. Physical health. Words can calm the fearful. Ever seen words calm somebody who is afraid of something?

You can bring knowledge that they didn't know before. You can bring an assurance that power will be exerted for them on their behalf to protect them. And you can comfort people and improve their physical health. Words can edify. Words can build up.

And Paul told the Ephesians in chapter 4 that those are the kinds of words that we should be speaking to each other. It says, let No corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification. Words that edify, that build up, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Our words are to be those that are seasoned as it were with salt, that edify, that build people up. Not flattery, but true edification.

True building people up, affirming the good that they're doing, encouraging, comforting, calming. Our words can even bring love. The wise says that you rebuke the wise and they won't love you. That's a form of edifying. But also our words can bring merriment.

Words can bring laughter. Words can bring cheer, especially humor. And so laughter, the Bible says, does good like a medicine. And it's real. And its effect is real upon our bodies.

I remember back when I had cancer a number of years ago, I went down to a clinic in Tijuana. One of the things that just struck me about this clinic in Tijuana was how healing it was to be there because of their words. Because they brought hope, they brought encouragement that I didn't have in the American setting, in the American hospitals and clinics. But down there, just Being there, their whole conversation was different. And it was healing.

It was good. It was calming. It was encouraging. And it just made me feel different about the whole experience. And I think that's what this is talking about here.

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life. The tongue is a medical instrument that brings healing, healing to our body when it's rightly used. But rightly using the tongue takes wisdom. Wisdom is not simply how much someone knows. It's not just knowing a lot of things.

But wisdom is knowing what to say and when to say it and how to say it. There was a time that I had a secretary who dealt with our customers, who were parents. And that's some of the hardest customers to deal with, because it's their children. And she was having a difficult time. She was a very gracious southern lady.

But I could see that she was getting near the end of her patience. And I was thinking, what can I do? I recognized the challenge in what she was dealing with. And so I was thinking, what can I tell her? What can I tell her?

And I found something, actually I modified something. And I said, To be a Christian is to be a lion and a lamb, a reed and a cedar, a serpent and a dove. But being a saint is knowing when to be what. I use the word saint there in not the technical sense as one who is holy in God's sight, which is how the scripture uses it, but in our vernacular English sense of a person who is wise and good. A saint is knowing when to be what.

Sometimes we have to give, sometimes we have to stand strong, sometimes we have to be very gentle, and sometimes cunning is called for. Sometimes we have to be like a lamb and sometimes like a lion. But knowing when to be what is wisdom. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly. Uses knowledge rightly.

It's wisdom that teaches us when to be gentle and when to be harsh, When to give way, when to yield, when we turn the other cheek, and when we need to stand on principle. And when we do stand on principle and we don't give way and we speak strong words, Wisdom teaches us how to say those strong words in the most peaceful way possible. But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly. Not only is there knowledge there, that's something that wisdom brings, knowledge.

But wisdom also brings the ability to use it appropriately and to make those judgment calls. Sometimes silence is called for, sometimes soft answers are needed, sometimes a harsh answer. How do we know what's the difference? Well, one, certainly not the only criteria, but one important criteria is to ask ourselves whose glory and honor is at stake here? Is it mine?

Is it my personal pride that will be wounded here? Is it my honor that's being assaulted? Or is it someone else's? Is it someone else's honor? Is it the Lord's glory?

Is it the Lord's honor that's being questioned or challenged? Is someone's soul or well-being at stake here? Galatians 6 teaches us that we need to go to restore others, but we need to do it in a spirit of gentleness so that we don't also fall into the same trap that they did. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly. It is by hearing that faith comes.

It's by hearing the Word of God. As people bring the Scriptures to others, that faith comes. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Wisdom knows how even to use this knowledge rightly.

And there is wisdom there. Many people have unnecessarily offended their family or their close loved ones because there has not been wisdom in how to use that precious knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how to speak it in the right time and the right place. Wisdom uses knowledge rightly. And lastly this morning, God sees the use of our tongue. Remember sometimes the use of our tongue proceeds from thoughts of our heart that nobody else can see.

They may have a sense that they can't see them, But God does see them. The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. That means they are watching when nobody else is watching us. They are watching us when it is dark and nobody else can see us.

God's eyes are watching us even in the thoughts of our heart that nobody else can know, because God's eyes are in every place. God takes notice of the words that we say. Sometimes the words we say are little things. Throughout the day there are a lot of words. There are a lot of interactions.

Some better than others. Some we stumble into unintentionally. Some the Lord gives us more grace and we do better. We have better wisdom in our interaction. And sometimes I'll think back on the things that have been said in the day.

I could have done better there. I could have said this a little differently. I shouldn't have said that. I should have let that go. I should have spoken up.

These are the little things. Sometimes we think, well, nobody notices. That may be true. I've gone to confess saying something to somebody that I shouldn't have, And they say, well, I didn't even know about that. They didn't notice.

But God does. God notices. God takes notice of the words that we say. And He knows the whole context. He knows the words that were well-intentioned and didn't come out right, as well as the words that sounded good but were not well-intentioned.

And God judges rightly, keeps watch on the evil and the good. His eyes are in every place. How do you see those eyes? Are you like Adam that want to hide from those eyes? Because you know that you've sinned against the glory of God with the words.

Or do you pray like David did in Psalm 139 where he prayed these words, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. Lord, look, come look in my heart. What is there? See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

David is inviting God's eyes to come and look at his heart. Sometimes that's hard to pray. You ever had that? I don't know if I can pray that Lord. I know what's in my heart.

It's not good. But we need to pray like David prayed. God's eyes are seeing it, whether we want it or not, whether we ask or not. The question This morning is, do we ask God to search our heart, to try us and see if there is any wicked way in us and to lead us in the everlasting way. Wisdom, wisdom seeks the Lord's eyes upon our heart.

Let's pray. Almighty Father in heaven, We stand before you as those who are open. There is nothing that hides us from you. There is nowhere we can go that you are not present, that your eyes do not see, though we often deceive ourselves into thinking that you are not there, that your angel is not watching over us, or that this is too little for you to notice. But your word tells us that your eyes are everywhere, that they see everything.

Father, will cry out to you for wisdom, to use knowledge rightly, to use our tongue as an instrument of peace. The words that flow from it might be wholesome. And where we have failed we ask your forgiveness. We ask that you would cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That you would search us and know us if there be any wicked way in us.

We do confess that to you and trust in your blood and in your righteousness, and in your forgiveness, and in your justice in doing so. Thank you Father, for saving us, for loving us, and for speaking peace to us through Jesus Christ, our great Prophet, Priest and King. In His name, Amen.