Why We Have A Corporate Prayer of Confession on Sunday Mornings

Introduction

When you hear the word “confession”, what do you think of? When I was growing up, I associated confession with someone sitting in a box and confessing their sins to a priest (like in the Roman Catholic church). I’m sure you probably have the same or similar thought when you hear the word “confession” or the phrase “confessing your sins”. Many people today think the practice of confessing sins is only for uptight religious people who take sin “too seriously.”

Recently, we implemented in our Sunday morning service a corporate prayer of confession. Either I, or one of the elders, will get up and acknowledge that we have sinned against the Lord this week. A passage of Scripture will be read, followed by a call to quietly meditate on the passage and the ways we have sinned against God. I then lead us in praying from that passage and confessing our sins to the Lord. I then close with giving us the assurance of pardon (from Scripture) which reminds us that in Christ we are forgiven of all our sins (past, present, future).

Maybe you recognize that privately confessing your sins is biblical and a good practice to do, but you may still find it strange to have a prayer dedicated to confessing our sins before the Lord in the Sunday morning service. You may think that confessing our sins is between us and God, and not something to be done at church.

With that in mind, I now want to give five reasons why we as church have a corporate prayer of confession during our Sunday morning service.

Five Reasons We Have a Corporate Prayer of Confession In Our Church Service

Reason #1: It’s Biblical

The Bible is filled with examples of and exhortations to confess our sins. James 5:16 tells us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Some may argue that these verses only point to the individuals practice of confessing sin to God and not an exhortation to have a corporate prayer of confession. Technically this is true. However, Jesus commands us to pray that our debts may be forgiven (Matthew 6:12). This implies a corporate nature of confessing our sins in prayer.

The Scriptures not only point to a Christian privately confessing their sins before God, but also to publicly declaring as a congregation of forgiven sinners that we have sinned against our God and that we need to repent of those sins.

Reason #2: We All Sin

Let’s be honest: we all sin. All of us, week in and week out, sin against God. We are forgiven in Christ and are no longer under His condemnation (Romans 8:31). Yet, we still do what displeases and dishonors Him: we blow up in anger, we say something vulgar and unkind, we look at something we shouldn’t, we harbor bitterness in our hearts, we think of only ourselves instead of someone else. The list could go on and on.

Having a prayer in the Sunday morning service dedicated to confessing our sins allows us to humbly admit that we haven’t made it yet and that we are still in progress. Lots of people shy away from the church because they think that’s where “perfect people go”. By having a prayer dedicated to confessing our sins before the Lord, we admit that we are not perfect and are still in need of God’s grace.

When I get up and offer a prayer of confession to God on behalf of the congregation, I too am saying that I sinned against God this week in a multitude of ways. Even I, as the pastor, am guilty of transgressing God’s law and not honoring Him in the way I should. I need to confess that to the Lord, along with the rest of the congregation on Sunday mornings.

Reason #3: It Unburdens The Soul

We have can have the tendency of downplaying our sin and keeping it concealed in the dark. Overtime, that will greatly affect our relationship with God and will keep us burdened by our sin. The Psalmist described that when he didn’t confess his sin, it was like his bones were “wasting away” (Psalm 32:3).

In the corporate prayer of confession, no one is going to the mic and publicly confessing their sin. Yet, the pastor or another church leader, is leading the congregation in confessing to the Lord that we have sinned in a variety of ways. That practice, in part, unburdens the soul. You can get “that sin” off your chest during the service. And guess what? Everyone else is doing that as well!

Satan wants us to conceal and hide our sin. God wants us to agree with Him that we have sinned, which leads to us unburdening our souls. And what better place do this then on Sunday mornings with in the assembly of the saints!

Reason #4: It Teaches Us to Confess Sin

All the corporate prayers made on Sunday morning should be a model for us on how we should pray. Same thing goes for the prayer of confession.

Confessing our sins privately to God may seem like a daunting task (“where do I even begin?!”). By having a corporate prayer of confession, it models for all of us something that we can be doing daily: going before the Lord and confessing the ways we sinned against Him.

When I lead the prayer of confession, I will read a passage of Scripture (rotating between the Old and New Testament), and from that passage I will pray through different points in that passage, confessing the different ways that we sinned against God.

For example, I read Philippians 4:8 and called us to meditate on the ways that we sinned against God with our thoughts. I then led us in a prayer of confessing all the ways that we did not have God-honoring thoughts that week.

By modeling this, Christians can start to implement this in their own prayer lives. Maybe they are reading through John’s gospel and are confronted with a specific are of sin in their life. They can pray from that passage and confess that sin to God. God is pleased when we use His Word to confess our sin to Him.

Reason #5: It Reminds Us Of The Gospel

I always end the corporate prayer of confession with the assurance of pardon, which is from a passage of Scripture that clearly articulates that in the Gospel we are once and for all forgiven of all our sins. I don’t want us to merely confess our sins, but I want us to be reminded that God no longer holds our sins against us! All our sins have been thrown into the sea of forgetfulness (Micah 7:19).

We need to be come face to face with the reality that we have sinned against God, but what is just as important is that we need to be reminded of the glorious news that God in Christ has taken our sins and has in exchange given us His robes of righteousness.

Corporate prayer of confession coupled with the assurance of pardon does exactly this. We are reminded together that, though we sinned against a Holy God a thousand different ways this week, we no longer stand in condemnation before Him. What great news!

Conclusion

My hope is that as we have a corporate prayer of confession on Sunday mornings, we begin to corporately acknowledge our sin before God, our need for His grace, and remind each other of the assurance of pardon we have in Christ.

None of us is perfect (even the pastor!). We don’t have all our ducks in a row. We should admit this as a local church, all the while holding fast to the truth that we are forgiven in Christ. As Christians in the local church, we are to help one another to heaven, and having a corporate prayer of confession with the assurance of pardon helps us do that.

September 13, 2025October 28, 2025

A Prayer for Charlie Kirk’s Family and Our Nation

I wrote this prayer on behalf of Charlie Kirk’s family and our nation. I hope it’s helpful.

A Short Prayer for Charlie Kirk’s Family and Our Nation

Father, in Heaven, we are saddened by the horrific murder that took place yesterday. We are saddened that someone who was so relatively young (31 years old) and had a wife and two young children was so brutally murdered. Father, you are a Sovereign God and nothing is a surprise for you. You use all things for good, for the good of those who love you. Even so, we still grieve but not like those who have no hope.

Father, we pray for the Kirk family. We lift up his wife and two kids to you now. We ask, Father, that you would bring comfort and peace to his wife. O Father, show yourself as merciful and gracious towards her. Father, we pray that Charlie’s kids would grow up to profess that same faith that their father had. Please, Father, we ask that you would, in time, bring his children from spiritual darkness to spiritual life.

Father, we pray for our country. We ask that you, Father, would heal the division that is in our land. Father, would you please heal our land? Will you, please, restore to us a love for our neighbor despite our beliefs? Father, we ask that you would drive out the darkness and make the light of the Gospel clearly known. Father, equip Your Church to go into this world and proclaim the Gospel to a lost and dying world that has no hope apart from you.

Father, thank you for Jesus. We long for the day that He will return to make every wrong right. Thank you for the hope of heaven. Father, we are weary and saddened. Sometimes we want to just leave earth and be with you. As long as we have breath, Father, we know that you have a plan and purpose for us. Help us to be faithful. Help us to trust in you in all circumstances. Strengthen us and sustain us.

We pray all this in Christ’s name, Amen.

September 6, 2025

The glory that comes from God vs. The glory that comes from man

Introduction

All human beings, naturally, like to be recognized and praised. We like to be applauded for our achievements and successes. We like it when people talk highly of us and recommend us to others. We like to be noticed. We like to be praised.

This is a danger for us as Christians, as the glory that comes from man is no match for the glory that comes from God.

In John 12, we see the unbelief of the people and how the prophet Isaiah prophesied this would happen. We also see in verses 42 and 43, how many of the authorities believed in Jesus but did not confess belief in Him because: “they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (v.43). These individuals would have been thrown out of the synagogues, and possibly worse, if they openly proclaimed belief in Jesus. Because of that consequence, they kept silent. They loved the glory of man more than the glory that comes from God

Why We Like the Glory that Comes From Man

I think this text gives us insight into a few reasons why we would rather receive glory and praise from man rather than God:

First, glory from man is noticeable. As human beings, we tend to verbalize our praise and adoration for someone. We make it obvious that we saw them accomplish something, or that we really liked their outfit, and so on. The praise that comes from man is noticeable. Often that glory and praise from God is not clearly observed in the physical, and so we would rather receive the glory and praise from man in the here and now.

Second, the glory for man is fearful to lose. This might be a greater motivator than actually receiving glory and praise from other people. To lose other peoples praise and adoration is to be ostracized and cast off. It is to become a “nobody”. It is to be disliked, or worse, hated. And there are often consequences with losing this admiration, like being kicked out of social and religious clubs, and possibly even kicked out of ones own family. Humanly speaking, it’s a fearful thing to lose.

Thirdly, the glory from man, is often, comforting. When you’re liked and admired by others, there is a certain comfort to it. You don’t have to work very hard to continue to win over their love and praise. It’s true that you may have to do that, but often times if you just continue doing what others love to see you doing, then you won’t lose their praise and adoration for you. Their is a certain tangible comfort in people outwardly praising and welcoming us.

Your Father Who Sees in Secret

The glory that comes from God is far less noticeably. In Matthew 6, Jesus is teaching on giving to the poor, praying, and fasting. Jesus compares the giving, prayers, and fasting of the Pharisees to what God truly blesses.

In each of those sections-giving, praying, fasting-Jesus ends his instruction by saying, “and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” In other words, our giving, praying, and fasting should be done for God’s eyes only, and when we do this Jesus promises us that our Father will reward us.

Silent and unnoticed obedience is rewarded by God. God is pleased when we do good works for his eyes only, not to be seen by others. Again, this goes against our natural desires. We naturally want to be seen, praised, and rewarded by other human beings. God, however, wants us as His children to do good works for his praise alone. What is rewarded by God often will be unnoticed by others, or at worse, mocked and reviled and lead to more hardship for us. But the reward God promises is far greater than the glory and reward that man offers us.

Conclusion

Are you tempted to be swayed by the glory that comes from man? Do you seek the reward that comes from other rather than the heavenly reward that comes from God?

I know that I personally can be tempted and even find myself actively seeking the outward praise that comes from man than the glory that comes from God. One way we overcome this seeking our pleasure in God and finding His rewards more fulfilling than the worlds. There is fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore in Him! (Psalm 16:11). We set our eyes upward and do good deeds for His eyes and His approval, it doesn’t matter what others will do or say of us. We are fully devoted with pleasing Him with our lives.

The glory that comes from God is not always noticeable, but it is certain. It’s guaranteed. It’s promised to us as our heavenly reward. And it comes from God. It comes from our Father and our Lord. What could be better than that! The One that we glorify will one day glorify us with new resurrected bodies! (Philippians 3:21). We want that blessed glory over the fleeting, temporal, and false glory that comes from man.

May we continue to seek God’s glory and the glory that comes from Him rather than the glory that comes from man.