Gracious Heavenly Father, what a joy it is to gather before your throne this morning, Lord, to worship YOU for who you are and to celebrate, and delight in, Christ, our risen Lord and Savior! Yes Lord, we have reason to celebrate this morning for, though we were once dead in our trespasses and sins, YOU, gracious Father, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which you loved us, made us alive together with Christ! Yes, by GRACE we have been saved, not because of anything that we did, but because you’re a merciful and gracious God and because Christ was willing to humble himself to the point of death, that He might reconcile us to you. Yes, praise be to Christ for his humility! And praise be to you, Heavenly Father, for your grace and mercy! Yes, Lord, as we sing, pray, give, fellowship, and listen to your Word being faithfully proclaimed, Lord, we pray that you would be gloried and that Christ would be exalted!

Adoration. Heavenly Father, hallowed be your name in this place this morning, for you are deserving of ALL of our worship and praise! Yes, YOU who laid the foundations of the earth and determined its measurements, YOU who created the seas and told the waves ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,” YOU who commands the morning and causes the dawn to know its place, YOU who brings the rain to make the ground sprout with grass, YOU who gives wisdom and understanding to the mind, YOU whose love is steadfast and never failing, YOU whose word is always right and true, YOU who is perfectly righteous, perfectly just, perfectly loving and perfectly faithful, YOU who is holy, YOU who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Yes, Lord, YOU are deserving of our adoration!

Thanksgiving. And Father, we thank you for the kindness you have displayed to us in so many ways over the last month. We thank you for how you’ve continued to draw more and more visitors through our doors, that they might hear your word faithfully proclaimed and delight in Christ along with us. We thank you for growing our community groups both in spiritual maturity and also in number, such that many groups are on the verge of needing to birth new groups. Praise be to you, Father! We thank you, Lord, for how you orchestrated and used the Engage Conference to fuel our desire to reach the nations with your Gospel and to connect us with other local church bodies who are laboring alongside us. And we thank you for your Word, for the way it convicts us, encourages and transforms our hearts. We pray it would continue to do so this morning!

Confession. But Lord, we must also confess that, despite your goodness and faithfulness to us, O Lord, how often we question your sovereignty and trustworthiness. Sometimes we do this by not praying with confidence that you will answer, but more often, we do this by simply not praying at all. Lord, forgive our faithlessness. Forgive our thinking that you would sacrifice your only son to adopt us into your family, only to then leave us to fend for ourselves.

Petitions. So Father, this morning we come to you with confidence, knowing that you are willing and able to answer our prayers. And so, we pray for our children’s ministry this morning. We pray that your word would be clearly and faithfully proclaimed to those young minds, that the children would understand and retain what they’ve heard, that the teachers would be filled with much grace, love and patience, and ultimately, that you would give spiritual sight to those young children that they might be adopted into your family. We pray that as a body we will be faithful to carry-out our covenant with one another to responsibly steward our spiritual gifts to the service of this church and the community at large. Lord, please show us the gifts we have and give us a burning desire to put them into action for your glory and for the good of our church and community! We pray for our brothers and sisters at Washington International Church, that they too would be nourished by your word, would grow in humility and unity, would seek to make much of Christ in all that they do, and would be eager to make disciples who delight in Jesus. We pray for The Porch ministry, for increased attendance by the youth, for meaningful relationships to be established between the youth and the leaders, that the leaders would be filled with much grace and patience, that your Gospel would be made clear and that it would transform the hearts of many youths. We pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are at this very moment experiencing persecution for the name of Christ. We pray you would grant them peace which surpasses all understanding, and we pray you would restrain their aggressors and bring them to repentance and salvation. Lastly, we pray for Deholo as he preaches. We pray that you would help him to be faithful in proclaiming your word, bold, articulate and clear, and that you would you speak through him to grow our affections for Christ. For the glory of your name and the exaltation of Christ we pray these things in the name of Christ, Amen.