Adoration

Father, we come to you to be with you. You are high and lifted up, but you are also the God who was slain for us.

• You always have been, and always will be, but you are with us now.
• We praise you that you are a pursuing God. You did not wait for us to find you; you came all the way to where we were to find us.
• Your love even extended to the least worthy of sinners.
• You sent your Word through Jonah to the evil city Nineveh, and today you are pursuing people from every corner of the world.
• We praise you that you are the healer–you have not left us where you found us, but you have worked in our hearts. Your healing is the healing we seek, Jesus, as we want to be made holy, as only you are holy.

Confession

But while you have offered healing that fills our hearts with you, we often sought to fill our hearts with lesser treasures. We confess that we have not wanted to follow you this week. We have not said “yes, Lord, Here I am” right away.

• You told us to obey our mom and dad, and we argued with them.
• You asked us to care for the poor, and we have worried about how we look before the rich and powerful.
• You reminded us that we can trust you to provide, as you care for the sparrows, but our minds have raced, as we’ve considered the ways in which our desires might not be met.
• Lord, help us confess the following sins to you now: Lust, prayerlessness, gluttony, sloth at work, slandering, bragging, money loving, and coveting.
• Lord, would you please show us the goodness of your commands, how your way is the best way for us right now, that we might run in your path?

We thank you that you happily forgive us with certainty.

Thanksgiving

And Because you don’t hold our sins against us, we happily come to you to give you thanks.

• We thank you that we are free in Christ.
  • We are no longer in debt because you have paid it off in full with a single payment. We are free to live abundantly.
  • We are not losers because you have defeated death and guaranteed victory. We are free to live with nothing to lose.
• We thank you for members you have brought to Restoration.
  • We thank you for CH&FH, and we pray that they would be a light for you in their neighborhood.
  • We praise you for blessing us with JW and AZ.
  • And we thank you for our children you have entrust our church with. You know I, W, L, and S; A, M and Z. We thank you for the ones who are on their way whom you already know fully.

• We give thanks for the many ways people here are serving others through fully applying themselves at work.
  • We praise you for those in legal professions, and how they protect a key fabric of our society.
  • And we thank you for accountants, and how they bring order and accountability to our world.
  • We thank you for those who do research in the medical field.

Supplication

Lord, You have given us so many reasons to be thankful, but we know you are generous, so we bring even more requests to you.

• We pray for those in our church.
  • The S family and the S family. We pray that you would bless their marriages.
  • We pray for those couples who have challenging job schedules that limit the amount of time they spend with one another
  • For N and M, and others here, who may be looking for employment.
• We pray for relationships in our congregation.
  • We pray that it would not take until heaven for us to realize what we have here today in this church.
  • Help us to treasure our sisters and our brothers.
  • Open our eyes to the imperfect beauty of the church around us, that we may treasure each other as you love us.
  • Give us hearts to hurt with those who are hurting and to rejoice with those who are rejoicing, even when we ourselves are facing trials.
  • And we pray that our time commitment to the people in this church would reflect your value of this church.

Lord, we also pray for our world.

• We pray for the rebuilding of devastated cities in the Middle East. We pray for the start of new churches, as these cities start to move forward.
• We pray for migrant workers who often live on the edge of society.
  • This morning, we pray for the tens of millions of migrant workers who move from poor countries to other developing countries.
  • We pray that these migrants would be not be preyed upon in these countries.
  • And we pray you that you would give world leaders wisdom on how to connect people born in poor countries with better job opportunities.
• We pray for victims of sexual assault.
  • We pray for healing for the many here today, and the multitudes in our city who have been victims of sexual assault, and we mourn with them.
  • We thank you that our society is increasingly bringing this sin to light, and we pray that as the dirtiness of humanity is exposed, more victims and perpetrators would seek a Savior.

• And we pray for the Ends of the Earth: there are over 1 million Songhai people in Niger.
  • As we have thanked you last month with how you granted your people access to the Scriptures through the Reformation, we praise you that this people group received the Scriptures in 2014.
  • Would you make your Word go viral in this Muslim people group, for your name’s sake?

Finally, we come back to this church. Would you please move through us this morning as you bless us with the preaching of your Word?

In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.