Worship through Prayer
We will proclaim the name of the Lord; we will ascribe greatness to our God. “The Lord, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” We praise you this morning. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, triune God, glorious in every perfection, beautiful beyond compare, love inexhaustible, grace immeasurable, justice inscrutable. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
From shore to shore, hallowed be your name. From the unreached peoples in K to the overflowing cities in North America, may Jesus Christ be glorified. Raise up gospel laborers from this church, Lord, to advance the gospel where Jesus is not honored. Send men and women from this church to D to help bring a B church into existence. Give each one of us a gospel-advancing mindset so that whether we stay or go, we labor for the glory of Christ. Give us the boldness to walk in the light of Christ, to let our good deeds shine so that others might glorify you, our Father in heaven.
We pray for our brothers and sisters at Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia. Surprise them with your grace tonight as they gather to hear the preaching of Exodus 13-15. Remind them of your sovereign grace that brought them from life to death. We pray for the saints at 4thPresbyterian and Waterfront Church and Redeemer City and Redemption Hill. Bless the gospel labors of Del Ray Baptist, the Well, Capitol Hill Baptist, GraceDC, Central Union Baptist, and Anacostia River Church.
Lord, in your common grace, we pray that you’d grant wisdom and discernment to DC city officials, to Mayor Bowser, to council member Cheh, to school superintendent Ferebee. For the good of your image bearers in this city, grant grace to school teachers and administrators. We pray for Kimberly Martin as she leads and oversees the activities of this school. We pray for all the counselors and special education teachers at work in the schools in and around our city. Bless the teachers among our congregation as they labor to invest in the next generation.
Holy Spirit, give all of us grace to walk in wisdom making the best use of our time. We praise you for the men and women among us that so eagerly strive to honor you in the integrity of their work, in their sacrificial service to this church, in the ways they zealously disciple others, and the many ways they raise the children among us in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. Give us the grace to spur each other on in good deeds. Give us the grace to be open and honest, transparent and vulnerable with each other. Holy Spirit, make our church a place that’s safe for the abused, an earthly refuge for those marginalized and mistreated. Give us tender, wise, compassionate words of comfort to encourage each other during life’s hard times; that we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
We ask that you would continue to form a deep sense of family and belonging, meaningful friendship built upon our resurrected Lord, among the members of this church body. Do this that we might display your manifold wisdom, as we increasingly comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth, and know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Use our words and our friendship as a means of grace to change each one of us, one degree of glory to another.
We look to you, Jesus, this morning, and we’re astounded that you love us and you like us; that you call us brother and sister; that you call us friend. And we confess our outward rebellion and inward indifference. Sometimes that has manifest itself as sexual immorality, gossip, and abusing food and drink. Other times our transgressions fester in our hearts or run rampant as we entertain sin in our minds. Jesus, we’re sorry for the many times we’ve doubted your love for us. In our doubt of your goodness, we are tempted to look to material possessions to satisfy. Some of us have sinned by refusing to give of our money, others of us have sinned by giving begrudgingly, and still others have sinned by giving but self-righteously. Oh, Lord, we are sorry.
We repent. We cry out with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
Yes, Lord, lead us in the way of everlasting life. We rejoice that life is not found in us but in Christ Jesus. We praise you that he paid for our sin – every single one of them, past, present and future – and that he crushed death by raising from the grave. We praise you for our justification, that we are declared righteous, even as we hope in our glorification, when all things will be made right and new and perfect forever and ever. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Glorious and majestic are you, O Lord. We come to you this morning declaring “Holy and awesome is your name!” You are forever faithful. You are full of splendor. You are pure, holy, and altogether beautiful beyond compare. Triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit – we worship and adore you.
This morning we praise you for the 9 years Restoration Church has been a covenanted body of believers. Your faithfulness and grace and mercy to our church family is immeasurable. You have used this church to bring people from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. You have used this church to edify the saints and send workers to the unreached. You have used this church to plant a local church and build up the global church.
For 9 years you have kept our church united in the gospel. For 9 years you have used the every-day discipling of our members to help each other follow Jesus Christ. For 9 years you have kept us faithful to singing, preaching, and praying your life-giving, soul-anchoring Word. For 9 years you have used this church body to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. For 9 years you have provided financially for this church. For 9 years you have a provided a space where we could meet publicly. For 9 years you have allowed us to teach our children about the good news of Jesus. For 9 years you have given us the grace to increasingly delight in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. On this day, we praise you.
And we acknowledge the days and times we forget your faithfulness. We confess that there are many mornings when we overlook or deny that your mercies are new. We confess that we find it all too easy to hope in this world than in heaven. We repent of our sins, O Lord. We confess that we easily take your gifts and forget you are the better Giver. We confess that we neglect to remember your trustworthiness and we sinfully worry about the future. We repent of our iniquity, O Lord.
And in our repentance, there is rejoicing because of Jesus Christ. We trust in him to be forgiven our sins, pardoned our guilt, and reconciled back to you. We plead the blood of Christ that cleanses us. We trust the resurrection of Christ that secures our heavenly hope.
This morning stir our affections for heaven. Prick our hearts with feelings and emotions that overwhelm us with the supreme beauty of what lies before us – heaven on earth. Take every earthly pleasure we have – the smell of coffee, the sweetness of chocolate, the joy of laughter, the coherence of math, the beauty of waterfalls, the warmth of sun, the kindness of friendship – take all these things and give us the grace to enjoy them as we look to the greater pleasures of heaven.
As we look toward our heavenly home, make us a glimpse of heaven in the here and now. Holy Spirit, fill us afresh that we might love and serve each other as Jesus has loved and served us. Let us be quick to pray for each other and to cultivate gospel unity. Let us be eager to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Let us compassionately admonish one another tenderly bear each other’s burdens and sorrows. Let us weep with those who weep. Let us live with transparency and vulnerability. Let us be quick to speak the healing balm of the gospel to one another. Let us be quick to repent to one another and extend forgiveness to each other. Holy Spirit of God, so move us that we are radically generous with our finances and bold in our evangelism. Teach us to realize that all of God’s commands are for our joy.
For the glory of Christ, raise up men and women from this church to join our brothers and sisters in K. Advance your gospel among all tribes, tongues, nations and peoples. Bless our brothers and sisters at Sublime Gracia. Keep them faithful to Jesus. Surprise them with your grace. Bring them more financial donors and increase their self-sustainability. We pray for our brother Jeremy McClain at Mercy of Christ Fellowship. Bring him another elder-qualified man to shepherd the satins you have entrusted to their care. Bless our brothers and sisters at Covenant Life Church in Tampa and Legacy Christian Fellowship in Chicago. Give wisdom to Washington International Church as they continue to search for a pastor.
Sovereign Creator, we lament the brokenness of this world. Bring relief to those suffering from the cyclone in Mozambique. Bring relief to those enduring the floods in Nebraska. Give wisdom to first responders who rush headlong into tragic situations. We lament the injustices of this world. We grieve mass-shooting are all too common. We mourn the presence of racism, prejudice, bigotry both inside and outside the church, both at the individual and systematic level. We weep that image bears are denied the dignity to live. Cause us, O Holy God, cause us to be rightly disturbed and concerned by the tragedies so prevalent around us. Keep us from becoming insensitive or calloused. Create in us, a God-honoring mixture of tears and hope.
And yes, we have hope. For in this hope we were saved – the hope that one day all things will be restored back to flourishing and perfection. All of your people together enjoying this world as it was always meant to be, delighting in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Heaven on Earth. All made possible by Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Lord, you are the almighty God who laid the foundations of the earth. Your understanding is beyond all comprehension. Your sovereignty extends over all the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, the day and the night. You have commanded the morning since you caused the dawn to exist. You make your presence known amidst the clouds in the sky, the deeps of the ocean depths, and everywhere in between. You have existed since before time began. You bring rain and snow and sunshine. You rule over the plants and animals of the earth, and bring life to all things in the ways and timings that you have ordered and ordained.
Amidst all your majestic sovereignty Lord, you have chosen to be gracious to us and make your face shine upon us, making your ways known on the earth, and entering into the world to save nations. We praise you and sing for joy at your glory, for you judge justly, and guide well. You have provided for our needs and more, and we stand in awe at your wonder.
We confess that we are so often slow to trust in your sovereignty. We think that you are either not powerful or not good. We think that we know best what is right for our lives and lash out in anger or wallow in despair when we don’t get it. We forget that you are the provider of all that lives, and that you will surely give good gifts to your children. We confess that although you have shown compassion to us, we only begrudgingly show compassion to others, and we let our fear of man keep us from sharing the good news of the gospel.
Thank you Lord for the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. Thank you that though we were rebels against you that you showed compassion to us by sending Jesus to die for us. Thank you that you are sovereign in your power to save and give in abundance.
We pray for our church, that you would give us a spirit of evangelism, fueled by a trust in your sovereignty. That we would place a high value on the gospel and on the knowledge of you that would cause us to delight in sharing it with others. We thank you for the ways that our church is already sharing the gospel and pray for more delight in you and more outpouring of that delight. We pray that we would be able to see several people come to faith this year through the working of Your Spirit in our church.
We pray also for our city. We pray that you would give wisdom to government officials as they do their work, and that you would incline their hearts towards justice for all the citizens under their care. We pray for road construction workers. Thank you for the work they do to clean up potholes. We pray that you would enable them to work well, and that you would keep them safe on busy streets and provide for their families.
And Lord, our hearts cry out in lament for the fifty people killed in the shootings at two Mosques in New Zealand on Friday. We pray for an end to violence and hatred in our world and an end to white supremacy and hatred of all forms. We pray for the officials involved in the aftermath that you would give them wisdom and use them to bring justice against those responsible. We pray for the families of the victims that you would comfort them, and that you would use this situation to reveal the truth of the gospel to them. We pray that Christians in the area would be a light of the gospel towards those in pain and reach out in Christlike love. We know that you are the only ultimate hope for the world so we ask Lord Jesus that you would come soon and bring peace on earth.
Thank you that you are a God that hears prayers. Thank you for the fact that you don’t stand outside the brokenness of this world, but entered into it in the person of Christ. We know that you are capable of all things, and we trust in your divine plan and provision. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Worship through Prayer
Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.
We come before you today in humble adoration – we’re in awe of your works, of the things you have made, and what you are still making. God, you are grander than any canyon, mightier than any mountain, vaster than every ocean. If all the stars of the sky were joined together, they would pale in comparison to your holy and magnificent glory. You laid the foundations of the earth, and set the boundaries of the seas. You, and you alone, control the motions of the stars, and set the earth in its celestial path. Every turn of our planet is a testament to your faithful love and awesome power.
You know the way to the abode of light, to the place where darkness resides. You store up the snow and hail, the wind and rain – you control the natural processes we’ve only just begun to understand, and we stand in awe at our helplessness against the elements you can control with a whisper of your voice.
Father God, creator of the hawk and horse and eagle and bison: we marvel at your creativity, and the world you spun into motion with a simple Let There Be… How much more do we marvel at the works of salvation you have accomplished?
When we consider our sinfulness, Father, we truly marvel that you could save such as us. Even this week, we have failed and fallen short of your standard. We have been proud, set in our own ways, and failing to consider others as better than ourselves. We have sought to store up for ourselves treasures on earth, ignoring the needs of others around us to do so. Father, forgive us. When we have acknowledged others, we have too often treated them like objects for our pleasure or convenience, ignoring the sacred truth that all people are made in your image. Forgive us, Father, for our failure to acknowledge abuse, our failure to acknowledge racism, our failures to acknowledge the needs of the most vulnerable among us. Father, bring us to full and active repentance.
Father, we acknowledge that our failures to acknowledge others extend even to you - forgive us of our clipped and forgotten prayers, of our disregard for your word, of our disdain for your commands. You have called us into joy, and we have too often spurned it for the scraps our world has to offer. Forgive us of our idolatry, in whatever and every form that takes.
Thank you, Father, for sending your Son Christ into the world, for giving us a helper and savior when we were dead in our trespasses. Thank you for calling us together as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We’re so grateful you’ve called Jew and Gentile, Black and White, Hispanic and Asian, Indigenous and Immigrant, together as one people united in the Gospel.
We thank you for local churches that exemplify this diversity, and for the diversity you’ve brought to Restoration. We thank you for faithful Gospel gatherings throughout this city, that reflect your beauty and grace in so many different ways. Thank you for Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia, and for A, M, R and B and all your other servants at IBSG. We thank you also for the saints at Anacostia River Church, and for the grace of bringing our churches together through the preaching of Thabiti last week.
Thank you for all the faithful churches in the DC area: from Veritas in Georgetown to Redeemer City in NE; from Del Rey in Virginia to Altheia in Maryland. Thank you for our own church: for Joey and Nathan, Chris and Nic. We thank you for all the community group leaders: for W, D, E, A, N, J, D, M, and all the other faithful leaders and hosts.
This morning, we acknowledge that you have placed us into this world, and given us an obligation to pray for it and work in it. To that end, Father, we pray for the Gospel work going on in Central Asia right now. As we prepare to send a team to the region, we pray that you would give them peace in their hearts and prepare them to provide encouragement and speak gospel truth wherever you have opened ears to hear it. Still their hearts God, and provide them every traveling mercy and protection they require.
We pray also in acknowledgement of turmoil and strife in the world. We pray for the government of Venezuela and all those involved in the ongoing crisis: would you give government officials wisdom and a sense of justice, that they might act in a way that best cares for those you’ve placed under their care? Grant the gift of repentance where necessary, that Venezuela might know peace.
We pray for those suffering here in America as well, particularly those victims of the tornados in Alabama. Would you give state, local, and national government officials and members of the Red Cross and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief the skills and compassion needed to help build back better in the wake of disaster?
Even as we’ve prayed in the wake of difficult and tragic situations, Father, we thank you that you have provided an eternal hope through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Help us look eagerly to heaven this week: help us rest in the confidence of our salvation, and your promise of life eternal, without suffering, crying, death or pain anymore. Behold: you are making all things new.
To the glory of God the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Gracious and glorious God, we come to you this morning. We adore and praise your name. We rejoice in the sin-atoning, Satan-crushing, death-defeating, heaven-bringing blood of Jesus Christ. Saturate our souls, we pray, saturate us with a deep affection for Christ that overflows into sacrificial love for neighbor.
We thank you, O Lord, for the gospel unity we have here at Restoration Church. Holy Spirit, continue to give each one of us the grace to put personal preference below gospel priority. Let us weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Remind us, that each member of our church is a needed part of the body, as you, God, as you arranged us.
We thank you for the members that serve in Restoration Kids making disciples among our youngest. Thank you for K’s faithful labors as she organizes, equips, and trains us to serve our children. And thank you for the dozens of men and women who serve us by leading and hosting Community Groups. We praise you for the discipling relationship inside our church family. Use us to spur each other on.
This morning we ask that you would bless B and M, C, P, and D and H. Grow these brothers and sisters in grace, transform them one more degree of glory to another as they behold Christ. Holy Spirit, remind Y and A, C, J and M, and K of your great love for them in Jesus Christ. Remind them of their eternal inheritance and increasing their longing for heaven.
For the glory of Christ, use our church to advance the gospel. Use the every-day, every-member evangelism of our church to bring people to repentance and faith in Christ. Bless our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters at Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia and use them to make disciple-making disciples. We praise you for our brother J laboring in the Northeast. Bring him another elder-qualified man to help shepherd the saints at Mercy of Christ Fellowship. We pray your blessing upon Cherrydale Baptist, The District Church, 4thPresbyterian, Washington International, GraceDC and Anacostia River Church.
And we pray that the good news of Jesus spreads among the unreached Bs. Raise up an indigenous church. O Lord, would you grant wisdom and perseverance to the Bible translators. And would you bless R&E, W&C, J&J, K and L.
Father, your word commands us to pray “for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
So we pray for the government officials in Washington, DC. Give Mayor Bowser, Police Chief Newsham, Ward representatives and council members wisdom as they seek to reduce violent crimes in the District. Give these city officials a sense of compassion and justice that they might bear your image and serve your image bearers. We pray for the social workers and school administrators and teachers in our communities. In your common grace Lord, give these men and women the resources they need to effectively serve those in their care. Tear down every biased or prejudiced system that unfairly discriminates and prevents children from receiving a robust education.
We also pray for government leaders at the national level. Grant President Trump, representatives, and senators wisdom and surround them with wise counselors. Give them a deep sense of their responsibility to serve and not seek personal gain or pursue partisan political agendas. Holy, sovereign and gracious God, bend these hearts toward honesty, true justice and righteousness that that promotes the dignity of all people – men and women, all races and ethnicities, all religious backgrounds, all sexual orientations, all ages – from the womb until natural death. End the division in this country. Eradicate unjust systems and bring to light injustices against your image bearers. Grant discernment and the conviction to do what is right even among those leaders and officials who deny you.
Even as we pray for the government, we do not hope in it. Let us, Lord, let us as Christians be a light of hope. We praise you that King Jesus is on the throne right now and forever more. We praise you that he is reigning and he is soon returning to restore all things back to perfection. We pray rejoicing and resting in his name, the name of Jesus. Amen.
A Theology of Race
In this fifteen minute video, Jemar Tisby, president of RAAN (Reformed African American Network), walks us through a theology of race.
Worship through Prayer
Father, we praise you for your great mercy and grace. Father, you created the heavens and the earth and you created us, small human beings, and brought us into your presence. But then we sinned and loved anything else but you. We betrayed you and we rebelled against you. And yet, justified as you were to destroy us completely, you worked through your plan of salvation.
And your plan of salvation and your mighty deeds to accomplish it bring you glory. We see this glory and we praise you!
We praise you for not destroying us, but working to save us, hopeless rebels. We praise you for your word which is a light for us in the midst of darkness. We praise you for your perseverance in bestowing mercy and grace. You didn’t stop at the grace provided to Noah or Abraham, but you worked day in and day out to provide mercy and grace for each one of us, over the ages. We praise you for your Fatherly care which you provide to us as a community and to us as individuals. We praise you that you welcome each one of us, tiny creatures, into your presence as sons and daughters. We praise you that you have not left us alone but provided the Holy Sprit to remind us of your love and salvation.
We praise you Father for your son, Jesus Christ, who left His glory above, the glory of the one true God, to become a small insignificant man, to be rejected by his own creation and to suffer your wrath in our stead. We praise you for his faith which he displayed as he stood rejected, accused and humiliated. And we praise you for your mighty power which you displayed in raising Him from the dead and seating him back in His place of glory.
We praise you Father because nobody has done such a thing and never will do.
Father, forgive us our forgetfulness. We have forgotten how big of sinners we are. We have minimized our sin and complained about your mercy and grace. We have forgotten how big a salvation you have accomplished, how much you forgave us and how much you have bestowed on us. We have tried to save ourselves from our circumstances in this world and we have tried to justify ourselves before you. Forgive us for doubting your faithfulness. Forgive us for our lack of faith that you will save and that you will provide.
We thank you for Jesus and for the forgiveness we have in Him. We thank you for giving us his righteousness and your Holy Spirit. We thank you for guiding us with your word and for the community of the saints you have placed us in. We thank you that you have promised to restore all things and bring us back to life with Jesus. We thank you that you treat us as beloved sons and daughters!
Father, we pray that in our struggles and pain would work for your glory. As our pain helps us grasp Jesus’ suffering for our sake, help us praise you and thank you when we struggle. Help us proclaim your goodness and the Gospel to the people around us. Even as the world around us rebels against you because of your justice and mercy and tries to find fault with you, help us show the world that you are dearer than comfort and that your people love each other sacrificially.
Father we pray we would live by faith in your great mercy and grace. We pray our troubles and pain would not extinguish our ability to grasp and see your mercy and grace. We pray we would live by hope that we will feel your glory.
When things go badly, help us Father to come to you as beloved sons and daughters knowing that you care enough to give your only son for us. Help us not be rebellious in our pain and struggles, help us not rush to judgement and accuse you of forsaking us, but help us exult in our tribulations and believe that they bring perseverance, proven character and hope.
We pray that by the Holy Spirit we would be aware of your great love in our tribulations and believe that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from your love in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
In His Name we pray, Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Father, you made the heavens and the earth! Splendor and majesty are before you, strength and beauty are in your sanctuary.
Father, we marvel at the way you made the universe and we praise you for how your creation works from the smallest particle to the largest star. You made them and us and everything fascinates us. And if the heavens we can see are so amazing, how much more do you have to be who inhabit heavens hidden from our eyes, where you reign in splendor and majesty surrounded by the holy hosts of angels. We praise you, Father, for your greatness and glory which you have in the heavens.
Had we dreamt of a God, we could not have imagined one such as you. For you, Father, are magnificent in wisdom, splendid in your righteousness, abounding in mercy and lavish in love. We praise you, Father, for the glorious and righteous character which you have displayed in your Son as he lived on this earth among us. Because you are not an impersonal force, nor a distant God, but you are a God who sent His son to live among us and to reveal to us who you are.
And you did not send your son to just live among us, but to be like us. And not only to be like us, but to carry our infirmities and sin into death and to save us from your righteousness. We praise you that although highly exalted and set apart, your Son personally saved us.
And confronted by this salvation, we confess Father, that we did not worship you, but idols which our hands and our minds created, small and comfortable idols. We longed to be like the successful people of this world and we did not marvel at you, the creator, but we marveled at ourselves and our little creations. We did not rejoice in your righteousness and justice, but we sought to accomplish justice by diminishing our neighbors who hurt us. We did not rejoice in your grace and mercy you showed us when you saved us from our sins and gave us eternal life, but wallowed in pity about how our lives are not as good as they could be. We did not jump for joy that our names are written in heaven and our sin is forgiven, nor did we pursue our neighbors to tell them of your great mercy which is still available for them in the Gospel.
Father, forgive us our practical idolatry and enable us to love you the one true God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Help us sing for joy of knowing who you are and for joy that you are just and merciful and that in Jesus we have life.
We thank you Father that in Christ our sin is covered and that you don’t hold our iniquities against us. We thank you that we can know you, the God of the universe, and that we have access to you as sons and daughters. We thank you that you are working to accomplish justice and make everything good again. We thank you that we are not fighting sin and temptation alone, but that you have put us in a community to serve and love.
We pray, Father, that we would sing for joy that you are for real, that you reign in righteousness and that in Jesus it is well with our souls. We pray that we would sing for joy that our sin is forgiven and that we will see you face to face.
We pray, Father, that we would love the appearance of Jesus Christ, when he comes back to judge the living and the dead. We pray that we would live like a people waiting to be saved and like kids waiting for their father to come back from a long trip to bring take them home.
And we pray, Lord, that we would not love the world and its comforts but love you and our neighbors enough to tell them the Good News of eternal life in Jesus. We pray, Lord, that we would appreciate men and women who live to serve you and to proclaim the Gospel. We pray we would not only long to be good professionals, but that we would long to be good disciple-makers.
We pray that you open the hearts and minds of our neighbors to receive the message of the Gospel and believe in Jesus. Please bring life to Washington DC and open blind eyes to see where majesty resides, where true life can be found and to desire them more than the immediate pleasures of sin.
Father, we pray we would rest in your justice and in your mercy. Help us love one another sacrificially and love our neighbors who do not love us back. Help us forgive those who wrong us and who have wronged us and rest in your just reign that you will make everything right. Please comfort those who have been mistreated and abused. Help all of us show understanding and love while we wait for your mighty hand to work and accomplish healing and justice.
Father, as we get ready to hear your Word preached to us, we ask that our hearts would receive it and that we would be transformed by it into people who love you and rejoice in you.
In Christ’s name, Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Lord, Let us see your holy face and move our eyes beyond just staying at ourselves. Let us feel the grossness of sin and be repulsed by it, as you are. Expose and forgive! Flood this place with refreshing and awakening joy of full pardon.
Worldly sin
- Expose outright unbelief, pleasure-seeking hedonism, idolatry, false gods, and materialism.
- Expose hearts that scoff at you, that are unwilling to acknowledge your authority, that are hateful of you because you threaten the illusion that they have a right to sit on the throne of their lives.
- Expose false religions that do not exalt Jesus Christ as your only Eternal Divine Son.
- Soften hard hearts by turning them to the goodness and joy of the truth. Give the gift of repentance, to resurrect those who are dead in their transgressions to become for the first time truly alive!
Christian sin
- Holy Spirit help us see all the hidden iniquity that we excuse as normal.
- Putting ourselves before others
- Buying something truly unnecessary for ourselves and trying to forget about the brother or sister we know about who is in true need.
- Cleaning our own clothes and dishes first, and running out of time to clean for our loved ones.
- Harboring covetous thoughts
- Adulterous thoughts; nurturing emotional and sexual fantasy yet excusing overly flirtatious behavior as “just being kind” and ignoring that we aren't as kind to those we aren’t attracted to.
- Allowing rivalry and anger toward a coworker when they get an opportunity that you weren’t given or able to successfully acquire.
- Pride
- Calling ourselves “humble” in our own minds, all the while looking down with self-exalting contempt on anyone we perceive as less gifted than us
- Forgive us for not going “all in” with our faith, but trying to “play it cool” on the sidelines because we secretly don’t really trust you.
- Hidden tendencies to racism
- Religious pride, more like the pharisee than the tax collector
- Putting ourselves before others
- Holy Spirit, in addition to hidden sin, many of us have sinned in obvious ways.
- Help those trapped in the clutches of sexual sin, addictions to lust, addictions to substances, addictions to money.
- Help those wallowing in guilt, and give forgiveness!
- Help us see the futility of hiding the sin we are so potently aware of and hate to think about.
- Help us to realize that we cannot hide from you
- Help us! Speak psalm 32 into the cave of hidden guilt and help us realize that the only thing tying us to the emotional anguish of shame is our fear!
- Show us that covering our sin is death, but exposing it is life because you are the only one who can truly cover it.
- Holy Spirit, apply the blood of Jesus to cover our sin so completely that we let it go and cling to you, and nothing else.
We praise all of this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Praise is rightfully yours, O God. Although we are full of iniquities you hear our prayer. You are the God who atones for rebellious sinners and blesses unclean people. You give happiness to those who you choose, and satisfy them with your holiness. Your works inspire awe, in particular your work of salvation through the cross of Christ. You are powerful over the mountains, the seas and the nations. And yet despite your power you gave your only begotten Son for rebellious sinners, fully satisfying your perfect divine justice and perfect divine mercy.
We confess that unlike you we are sinners in need of that mercy. We are so quick to cry out for justice when we are wronged, but flee from it when we are the ones who wrong others. And while we know of the plights of many in the world who need justice, we so often find it easier to sit in the comfort of our homes rather than fight for the rights of the oppressed. We do not love our neighbor as we ought and the good that we know we should do towards our fellow man we leave undone.
We confess our pride and self-centeredness. We consider ourselves more important than those around us. Because of our religious deeds we think that we have earned your favor - that we are more deserving of your love than those we perceive as morally inferior. We judge ourselves arrogantly seeing the flaws in others and our own strengths, all while keeping our focus on man and not on you because we could not possible measure up to your divine holiness.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that despite being fully and completely one of us, you are not like us in our pride. Though you are fully and completely God you humbled yourself in descending to earth, taking the form of a servant, obeying the will of the Father and dying a disgraceful death for our sakes.
Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for your creative word as you spoke the earth into being, your written word in the form of the scriptures and your incarnate word in the form of Jesus. Thank you for the variety of ways in which you have revealed yourself to us and made your glory known in our world.
Thank you for the blessings you have given us. Thank you for choosing us before the foundation of the world and justifying us in Christ to be holy and blameless before you. Thank you for adopting us as your sons and daughters through Jesus according to the purpose of your will. Thank you for redeeming us from our sins through the blood of Christ and lavishing the riches of your grace upon us. Thank you for revealing your plan of the gospel through the person of Jesus and the ministry of the apostles. Thank you for the unity of believers in the universal church as a result of the gospel and in particular for the ways you have allowed us to be united as a body here at Restoration Church. Thank you for giving us an inheritance, guaranteeing it with the Holy Spirit.
Lord we pray for our church that you would continue to help us see the ways that you have blessed us and are continuing to bless us. We pray that you would enable us to fix our eyes on you and to delight in your law and mediate on it day and night. Thank you for the ways that it already happening in our church and we pray for ever more joy in Christ. We pray that you would use our church for your glory and for the good of the broader community in Washington DC. We pray that you would enable and equip us for good in our city that we would provide support to those in need and share the love of Christ with everyone, and that people would come to know you through the ministry of Restoration Church.
We also pray for the many organizations working to do good in our city like DC 127, Central Union Mission and others. We thank you for their work, and the ways they serve the needy in our city and pray that you would bless them and enable and equip them to continue their work. We pray for the homeless of our city, that you would protect them amidst the cold of winter and provide shelters, food, clothing and appropriate medical treatment, that you would enable them to overcome all the challenges associated with homelessness to find work and housing, and most importantly that you would enable them to hear your gospel and that those that do not know you would come to know you and be adopted into the family of God.
We pray also for the world, we pray for those affected by large scale violence in their countries, that you would provide political and social stability, and protect those affected by chaos and wars. We pray that you would hasten the day of your return to bring an end to all war and violence forever.
Lord, we pray that you would do these things for the glory of your name. Amen