Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord our God, you are very great. You, Lord, are clothed with splendor and majesty. You, Almighty Lord, set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. Sovereign Lord, you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We gather here to praise your name. We come this morning to sing your praises and boast in you.
We praise you for this church. We praise you for all you’ve done at Restoration Church in just a short time. From the Christians who have been built up in their faith, to those who have come to faith in Jesus through our ministry; from the numerous times the gospel has been shared both near and far to the acts of mercy selflessly done; from the teaching of children to the serving of the elderly and widows. May your name be magnified, O Holy God.
We praise you for the growth of our body in maturity and number. As we grow, by your grace and through your Spirit, help us never to loose a sense of community, a sense of family. Cause us to always be a gospel people, hospitable welcoming friend and stranger alike. Cause us to be vulnerable with one another opening up both the triumphs and trials that our fellow members may share in them with us. Help us to be quick to seek out forgiveness when we’ve wronged others and even quicker to ask for forgiveness when we wrong someone else.
Use this church Lord to hallow your name, to advance your gospel that others might delight in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. I pray that this Christmas season each member of our church would have the opportunity to share the gospel with a friend or family member or co-worker and you would use these conversations to draw men and women to yourself. We pray that you would give us wisdom and insight in how to move forward with A; thank you for the time our body was able to spend with him and his family. Give them clarity on how you would use them to make Jesus famous. Lord, raise up a Spanish-speaking church in Columbia Heights that magnifies the worth of your name. Do this not only in Columbia Heights, but also in Duhok Iraq and Glasgow Scotland and in Kazan Russia. Hallow your name. Holy Spirit, make Jesus known in the lives of all peoples, all tribes, all nations.
We confess that too often we are fearful of man or simply don’t care enough to tell others about Jesus. Forgive us Lord. By your Spirit, help us be zealous and repent. Help Jesus be the most delightful desire and delicious thought in our lives.
We pray for Redeemer Arlington and Redemption Hill. Use these churches to continually and joyfully proclaim Christ crucified and resurrected. Grow these churches Lord that they might influence people toward Jesus. We pray for Capitol Hill Baptist and GraceDC and 4th Presbyterian. We praise you for the decades of faithful gospel ministry among these churches and ask that you would continue to grant them perseverance. We pray for the campus ministries at AU and Georgetown and George Washington University; for Campus Outreach, CRU, and Chi Alpha. Grant Dave Russell, Andrew Powars, Blane Young and all their staff workers a deep abiding joy in Christ. Use their gospel labors to help college students treasure Christ above all things. We pray for American Friends. Thank you for the leadership of our brother Kyle and the partnerships he’s developed with other local churches. For the glory of your name, use the friendships developed here to bring people to faith in Jesus and to take your gospel around the world.
We praise you Lord for this Advent season. By your Spirit, help us marvel over the truth of Christmas. That Jesus, the Sovereign Lord would take on swaddling cloths; the Creator of all things would take on the limitations of a created thing. All to ransom us from our sin and bring us back to yourself. Use the songs we sing this morning and the prayers we offer and the preaching we hear to remind us of your greatness and your humility and your worth that we might worship you.
Father, we come to you in the name of Christ. Many of us freshly convicted by your Word this morning. We come to you because in you we find rest. You, O Lord, are our rock and our refuge. Many of us are reminded afresh of the beauty and the glory found in Jesus. We praise you for this.
We come confessing our sin to you. All of us Lord, myself included, are sexually broken. We lust and commit fornication. We pursue pornography and dwell on illicit thoughts in our mind. We actively sin against you Lord. In the name of Jesus we plead for forgiveness. Fill us with your Spirit that we might turn from our sin and trust in Christ. We know because of his sacrifice there’s no condemnation for those trusting in him. We know that because of his resurrection, we can be brought back to you, the one true living God, the source of full and lasting pleasure.
We also pray this morning for those who’ve been sinned against; for those who’ve been the victims of sexual sin; for those sexually abused and taken advantage of. Grant them healing Lord. Give them a friend who can walk with them and point them to the hope found in Jesus.
And we pray for those seemingly controlled by any and every sexual desire. We pray for those fighting for sexual purity. We pray for those battling same-sex desires. Give these men and women the grace to use their sexual desires to honor you, not just to chase that which makes them temporarily happy.
Help us Lord, not to find our identity and worth in sexual desires, or in what we do or in what’s been done against us. Help us turn to Christ Jesus, the one who loves us enough to give his life for us; the one who hung naked and received the mocking of man, that he might take away all our shame and guilt; the one who paid our debt that we might be reconciled back to you.
We praise you for Christ. And thank you that Christmas is true; the Jesus came to us that we might come to you. How amazing! We marvel at you Lord God and your infinite wisdom.
We pray as we sing…
Come, Lord Jesus.
Born to set your people free,
From our fears and sins release us.
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Leaving riches without number
Born within a cattle stall
This the ever-lasting wonder:
Christ was born the Lord of all
Born your people to deliver
Born a child and yet a king
Born to reign in us forever
Now thy gracious kingdom bring!
We pray all of this in Christ’s name. Amen.