Finished and Still Being Finished
By Robert Wright • Ludden Chapel Baptist Church • August 23, 2026
Rev. Marcus Davis titled it “Let Me Reintroduce Myself,” and he meant it plainly. Standing in 2 Corinthians 5:17, he called regeneration the miracle of salvation — not reform, not rehabilitation, but recreation. Then he stopped and introduced himself by name, from Ludden Chapel, to show us what a man sounds like when he is not who he used to be.
My list filled fast. Six songs, and every one about change. But they were not saying the same thing, and that is where the work was.
Three were finished business. “Changed.” “Lord, I Know I’ve Been Changed.” “I Am Redeemed.” Past tense, settled, done. The other three were still in motion. “Make Me Over.” “Please Be Patient With Me.” “The Potter’s House.” Songs for people mid-repair.
For a minute I treated that as a decision between two piles. It is not. It is one truth in two tenses.
The identity is fixed so the formation can be honest.
Davis preached both without blinking. Old things are passed away — God finished that at the cross and settled it in the new birth. And then the charge: the greatest act of faith is not believing God for a blessing, it is trusting God to change you. Ask Him daily to make you over again. He even named the order — God has already done His part; the next move is yours.
That is not a contradiction. That is the reason the process is safe. Only a redeemed man can ask to be made over without fear of what he might find. The identity is fixed so the formation can be honest.
So I closed him out on “I Am Redeemed,” and it carried the whole thing. That chorus answers the title’s question — what you say when somebody asks who you are now. But it is also the ground a man stands on when he goes home and prays “make me over again” one more time.
The reintroduction is not the end of the work. It is what makes the work bearable. ■
SERVICE MUSIC — AUGUST 23, 2026
| SCRIPTURE | 2 Corinthians 5:17 |
| SERMON | “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” — Rev. Marcus Davis |
| MEDITATION | “Give Me a Clean Heart” — Margaret Pleasant Douroux (1970) |
| CONSIDERED | “Changed” (Walter Hawkins); “Lord, I Know I’ve Been Changed” (Traditional); “Make Me Over” (Tonéx); “Please Be Patient With Me” (Curtis Burrell); “The Potter’s House” (V. Michael McKay) |
| CLOSING | “I Am Redeemed” — Jessy Dixon (1994) |
