Worship through Prayer

Merciful and mighty Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. We come to you filled with the Holy Spirit rejoicing in who you are. We come praising your goodness and resting in your kindness to us. We praise you that you are eternal having no beginning and no end. We praise you that your love is inexhaustible. We praise you that you do not faint or grow weary. We praise you that your understanding is unsearchable. We know that you are God and you are good.

We praise you this morning for the birth of C. Grant the W family much grace as they learn to be a family of five. Help S recover. Use our church to serve them well during these early days. Bring all the W girls – E, A, and C – to faith at a young age that they may never know life apart from trusting and treasuring Jesus Christ.

We also pray for the H family as they get ready to welcome another child into this world. Grant F good health these final few weeks. Give C the grace to serve his wife and children well. Prepare I, W, and L to welcome their sister into the world. Bring salvation to each of the H children Lord that they might testify to your goodness all their days.

We praise you for the marriage of J and L. From this day, from day one of their marriage, cause them to savor Christ above all things. Give J the grace to be a servant leader. Give L the grace to be a strong helper. Use their marriage to display the glories of the gospel as they delight in the supremacy of Jesus Christ together.

Lord we praise you this morning. And we also come pleading. Some of us are tired and weary. Some of us are discouraged and downcast. Holy Spirit, would minister specifically to our brothers and sisters who find themselves like this. Some are here with us. Others decided to stay home. Whatever the case, Lord, refresh and encourage. Give us the grace to be a church where it’s okay to not be okay. Give us the grace to be a church that trades plastic smiles for real, raw relationships. Give us the grace to be a church that bears each others’ burdens; that weeps with those who weep.

We pray for those this morning that have been grievously sinned against. Those who have been taken advantaged of and abused; those who have been violated physical and intimately. We pray for those haunted by what’s been done to them in the past by a friend, father, boss, mother, spouse or someone else. Remind us this morning Lord that you never forget us. Remind us that your mercies know no end. Remind us that even though we may never know the “why?” behind these things, we can trust you, who will restore all things in Christ. Birth in us, Lord, a deep hope of heaven. Draw our gaze to the eternal reality of paradise. All things new. No more tears, disease, death, sin. Forever in your presence with your people enjoy you and all your goodness without end. For the sake of your name, Lord, deepen our longing for our heavenly reward.

Father, as we long for heaven, we’re daily reminded of how much this world is not like that; how broken our world truly is. We turn on the news and we’re barraged with stories of violence and hate – almost too many to keep track. Holy Spirit, grant us the grace to not become calloused and dismissed. We pray for an end to racism and police brutality. We pray for an end against hatred toward police officers. In the name of Jesus, we plead for an end to mass shootings. Comfort all those grieving from the shooting at Townville Elementary School. Help that community heal. We pray for those families still reeling from the loss of loved ones in the past shootings in Orlando and San Bernardino. Use your people to a source of hope and healing; grace and compassion.

Holy Spirit, protect us from self-righteousness. Keep us from thinking somehow we are inherently better than the world around us. We confess our tendency toward pride. We confess that at times we truly think we are good enough to earn your grace. We repent, Lord. Forgive us our sins. We confess that we abuse your grace silently thinking it’s your job to forgive us. We confess that we are more aware of our unmet personal preferences rather than being thankful for all you have given us. We repent, Lord. Forgive us our sins.

We praise you that in Christ there is fullness of forgiveness and reconciliation back to you. Cause our souls to see and savor Christ above all things. Help us more fully understand what it means that we are your sons and daughters. Cause your word to be sweet to us. Give us the passion to encourage and disciple other church members; give us the zeal to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. Advance your gospel in us and through us in NW Washington, DC and beyond. We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

RKids Training

Restoration Kids volunteers,

Thank you for how you serve our church! We want to continue to encourage and equip each of you as you serve in RKids. So, if you did not have a chance to attend the most recent RKids training, please be sure to listen to it below. Also, read the newest RKids policy document, so that you are up to date on all of our newest safety policies and procedures. Finally, click here for a cheat sheet of the excellent tips that Andi and Page shared at the training about how to keep the children engaged during the lesson.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Adoration

Father, how amazingly great the Trinity is! Father, Son and Spirit - all equally God, all different and yet, one. A loving unity!

God, you are God alone. You alone hold power and glory. And yet, this power and glory doesn’t cause division, but it lives in unity. How many groups of 3 people can live in unity in this fallen world? And how many can love one another in this fallen world? The Father cares about the glory of the Son and the Son willingly submits to the will of the Father! And although the Spirit searches the depths of God, He doesn’t become proud and doesn’t try to lift Himself above the Father or the Son.

How many kings have not fallen at the hand of their sons? How many princes have not fallen at the hand of their brothers? How many friends have not betrayed each other on the way to human glory? How many times have pitiful creatures not used knowledge, so-called knowledge, to lift ourselves above our neighbors?

How amazing is Jesus’ trust, love and obedience towards the Father! In good times, it is easy to love the one next to you. But Jesus loved the Father and submitted himself to the Father in the darkest of moments when there was no way out anymore. In the good times everybody is friends with everybody, we are quick to find fault when times are tough. Jesus, however, didn’t lash out at the Father even when things went really bad.

God, you are truly set apart!

Confession

We confess, Lord, that we fall so very short of this glorious standard. Lord, we fall short of consistently loving our brothers and sisters. We sometimes struggle to relate to our brothers and sisters. We make many mistakes in speaking to one another – sometimes are inconsiderate and sometimes we are too numb. Many times we forget to serve one another and sometimes think of ourselves more highly than of our brothers and sisters.

At times we have been quick to pass judgement on our brothers and sisters. And yes, Lord, we have even fallen into the temptation to not think sufficiently highly of the leaders we have.

Forgive us, Lord, for our rebellion against you and for forgetting your promises and wonderful plan and believing the lies according to which we are better than our neighbors. In stead of being a people for your own possession reflecting the glorious image of the Trinity we have allowed ourselves to believe the lies of the world.

Thanksgiving

Lord, we are grateful that in your great mercy, you forgive us and that you direct our steps to a better place. You are a loving father who puts us back on the right path. You are not out to get us and punish us. But you are out to correct us so we can enjoy your presence abundantly both individually and communally.

We are grateful Lord for your awesome grace that you have put us together in community. It is still a broken community, but your grace overpowers the brokenness and overcomes evil with good.

We are grateful, Lord, that we can meet with one another, people from so many different backgrounds, with so many different gifts in so many different stages of life. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to remind us of your promises and enable us to obey them. We thank you that we have the opportunity to serve one another and love one another both in good times and in difficult times.

And how blessed we are to have brothers and sisters not only in this church, but in other churches as well, both in this country as well as in other countries and to be part of a community of believers that spans history and which, one day, soon enough, will gather together and celebrate with you face to face your great accomplishments.

Supplication

Lord, we pray that we would live with your glorious plan in mind, trusting in your resolve and faithfulness which you displayed at the cross. Help us not believe the lies of the world, but very practically love one another.

Help us show mercy to one another and grace. Help us think how Jesus would have thought. Help us seek each other’s well being and seek ways to serve one another. Help us see your work in our brothers and sisters and our own weaknesses in them. Help us be humble and loving, respecting and forgiving one another.

Lord, glorify your name in Washington DC by bringing to you more and more people. Help your churches love one another and work lovingly with one another. We pray that your people in this city would be captivated by the glorious image of the Trinity and of Jesus and live as free people for your glory and not for sin.

In Jesus’ Name

Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Father,

We come to you as the new people that you have created in Christ. Formerly we were far away, outsiders, without hope and without God in the world. There was a gulf of separation that alienated us from you.

But now through Christ, we have been brought near to you. Reconciliation has been made through the cross. Where there was once hostility and your rightful judgement for our sin, now peace has been made. Our offenses are dealt with - Christ took the punishment we deserve upon himself.

And you have helped us not just with the vertical broken relationship - but also with our horizontal relationships. “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and were all made to drink of one Spirit’. Those of us who follow Christ now have commonality, in Christ, as the parts of His body that God has arranged as he purposes. We belong together - and all drink of His Spirit. Black and White, Male and Female, Wealthy and Poor, young and old - whatever our earthy points of difference, are not reasons for us to be divided any more - since we all have a common experience and identity in Christ. Our outward differences rather enrich and highlight the greater and deeper unity that we possess as your children. We are all sinners, saved by your grace, waiting for your coming Kingdom.

Yet Lord, as we reflect upon the past week, we know that we struggle at times to remember who we we really are. We often live superficially and allow those outward differences to impact the way we relate to one another. So often the path of least resistance is to gravitate toward and relate to only the people that look outwardly just like us. Forgive us lord for our small minded selfishness.

• Forgive us for only talking to those after church who we find it easy to talk to

• Forgive us for only being eager to meet up with people who we find easy to spend time with.

• Forgive us judging our experience at community groups on the basis of what we get out of it rather than how we might love and serve the other members

• Forgive us for the times when we have not rejoiced at others good news or suffered alongside our brothers and sisters in their times of trial

Though we are aware of our sin Lord, we also recall your promises of forgiveness to those who repent; you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This week help us especially as we seek you as a church through Fasting and Prayer. May you draw us closer together in love and unity - even as we draw close to you. May our desires for the pleasures of this world diminish and our longing for You and your eternal kingdom increase. Show us afresh how we are like flowers of the field, flourishing for a few short days and then withering. Teach us to number our days aright and to gain a heart of wisdom. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Adoration

Lord, how great, how just and how merciful you are!

You sit enthroned above the cherubim. You sit above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. You stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spread them out like a tent. Our idols we carry in our hands, our minds and our hearts. But nobody carries you – on the contrary, you lovingly carry your people!

Lord, you are so righteous and just that we can’t even comprehend the notion. Lord, you are passionate for what is right at all times and you do not compromise for the sake of comfort. We come to you with our pleas for justice and you not only provide deliverance, either in the immediate or in the expected, but you show us how much bigger your justice is. You remind us that justice is ultimately about your name which has been treated unjustly through our idolatry and short-sightedness.

O Lord, and how merciful you are! In your manifold wisdom you managed to be just to your Name and merciful to us who had rebelled against you. We seek justice Lord and desire no mercy for our enemies, but you took your enemies and lavished love and blessings and riches on them. Maybe, maybe some people might manage to forgive their enemies, but who lavishes them with blessings and hope? And all at the expense of the Lord Jesus who was treated unjustly by His own creation!

Confession

Lord, we confess that there were times over the past week when we didn’t appreciate your name, we didn’t trust your justice and we forgot your mercy. Your glory seemed abstract and distant. Our problems were bigger so we focused our thoughts on them, tossing and turning them in our minds. Praising you was hard at times and we wondered how it could possibly help us.

When people hurt us this week, we swiftly demanded justice and looked down on their faults. Your justice seemed far off, delaying a great while, so we appealed to our resumes and intelligence and moral superiority to punish them in our minds.

At times our problems seemed big this week and so we grumbled. We forgot your past mercies and your future ones and the promises we have in Jesus and wondered if it wasn’t time for us to do something. Other people seemed to be better off so we tried to rationalize our reaching out to the work of our hands to solve our problems and make ourselves feel better.

We ask Lord for forgiveness and for faith to believe your promises and for strength to move away from the lies we hear in our heads about ourselves, the world and you.

Thanksgiving

But Lord, we are grateful that in your great justice and mercy you forgive us, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you reveal our sin to us and you give us strength to repent and faith to confess our sins.

Lord, we are grateful for your daily provision of all our needs. You provide food, drink and shelter. And you provide your Word and your Spirit who keep us.

We thank you that we get to hear your word and to meet with one another. And we thank you that we can send a team to the Middle East to encourage our brothers and sisters there.

Supplication

We pray that you would save many people among the B. K. and among all the Syrian refugees in that region. We pray that the Bible would be translated into B. soon and that all your servants laboring there would see much fruit. We pray that you strengthen them and encourage them and give them unity of mind and spirit to serve you.

In particular we pray that you give N., J., J. and D. opportunities to speak the truth of the Gospel to the people they meet and that that truth would produce good lasting change.

Lord we pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters the broader Middle East region. Lord, give them grace to be faithful and bring their persecutors to you. Glorify your name by breaking the hearts of murderers and giving them faith in you.

Help us here in Washington DC not to stray from your truth under peer pressure and other types of pressures. We are tempted to believe we have a lot to loose if we speak the truth and that makes us weak. Help us put those things behind us and speak the truth in love. Would you bring sound thinking and life to the city we live in?

Lord, I pray you empower J. to preach your word faithfully and us to be transformed by it.

In Jesus’ Name

Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

A Week of Prayer & Fasting

WHAT?
Fasting is seen throughout the Bible (cf. Mt. 6:16-8; Luke 2:37; Acts 13:2). Specifically, it refers to voluntarily and temporarily abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. More broadly, it refers to choosing to forgo a physical blessing for a period of time to express humility before God and deepen hunger for God.

WHY?
We fast to corporately dedicate ourselves to God and collectively pursue him in prayer as we wait for the return of Jesus. As a church body, we fast to feast on the all-sufficiency of God, united together as we delight in the supremacy of Christ and look toward heaven.

HOW?
We encourage you to pick something you enjoy and give it up for a week. It could be a specific food or piece of technology or something else. With every craving, you awaken the taste buds of your soul remembering that you are fully satisfied only by God himself. Specifically, on the day of your Community Group we invite you to fast from food during the day then share a meal as a Community Group and spend devoted time in prayer with each other. We realize that not everyone can participate in such a fast, and that’s okay.

Download our app for a daily devotional & prayer guide.

Listen to the RC Life Podcast for episodes regarding fasting.

WHEN?
We’re setting aside the week of September 12-16 for a time of corporate prayer and fasting. Then on Friday (9/16) at 7pm we’ll gather for a night of prayer and praise at WIC (4420 River Road NW, 20016).

by Joey

Worship through Prayer

Father, this morning we rejoice: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death. We praise you for the baptism of D, C, C and A. What a joyful celebration as we remember the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Use us, Lord, use us to see many more people come to trust and treasure Jesus Christ and be baptized proclaiming the good news of all that Jesus purchased for us. For those here this morning that have been baptized, cause this day to be a day of remembering; a day of remembering your grace to them as they came to know Jesus; a day of remembering your grace to them through this church and other faithful churches that shared the gospel with them and built them up in Jesus Christ.

Holy, triune God, there is no other God beside you. You are the Lord and there is no other. You are God and there is none like you. We rest in your promises. We rejoice in the promise that in your presence there is the fullness of joy. Holy Spirit, remind us of all that we have in God and make us long for heaven all the more. We worship you this morning, Lord.

As we do, as we sing songs of praise and pray prayers of adoration, we are reminded of our divided hearts. Far too often our worship is inconsistent. Worshipping you one moment then doubting you the next. Far too often our worship is not wholehearted. Worshipping you one minute then thinking about how we can’t wait for church to be over so we can get on with our day. You have called us to set our minds on things above, yet we willfully and continually think about and find ultimate comfort in things of this earth. We forget who you are. We neglect to dwell on your promises. We pursue the fleeting pleasures of this world in food, immorality, and entertainment. We stare at screens instead of savoring your word. We repent of our folly and foolishness. We confess our sin and idolatry.

Holy Spirit, help us put to death the remaining sin in our hearts. Sever the weeds of sin that entangle us at the root. Give us bold faith that gazes at the cross longer than we linger over our own sins. Satisfying God, entice us with the good news from heaven so that our worship erupts from hearts captivated by Christ Jesus. Clear our spiritual vision; remove any blindness to sin that we might see and savor Jesus above all things.

Cause Restoration Church to be a body marked by joy and contentment. Use us to minister the gospel to each other. Use us to generously speak words of encouragement to our fellow covenant members. By your grace, help us to not grumble but to graciously serve others. For your glory, open our eyes to how we can build others up in our everyday interactions. Let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths. Grant us self-control so that gossip and slander have no place among us. Let us be quick to point out grace in each others’ lives rejoicing that this is evidence of your presence among us.

Lord we praise you for all that you are doing among us. We praise you for the selfless service of J and E as they clean up and tear down each week. We praise you for W’s desire to serve those who are new to our church. We praise you for the dozens of discipling relationships that are present within our body. Thank you for the grace of Christ that is evident among us. Help us to think about the harvest from our gospel labors that will come in due time, if we do not give up.

We thank you that we live in a nation where we can freely worship. We pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Use the murderous evil against Pastor Yohan in India to be blood-soaked gospel seeds that take bear fruit for decades to come. We pray for the wrongfully imprisoned Christians in Sudan. Give them boldness to advance the gospel even as they sit in prison cells. In your sovereign goodness, use persecution against Christians for gospel promotion. In your sovereign goodness, save those who persecute Christians and turn them into church planters. In your scandalous grace, take terrorist and turn them into pastors. As the next ISIS suicide bomber walks to his assignment, bring him to repentance and faith that he might not die, but bring others to life by spreading the gospel. Do this Lord. We plead in the bold name of Jesus. Do this for the glory of your name.

You save with everlasting salvation. You save with scandalous grace. You save for the glory of your name. You save for the eternal satisfaction of your people. Don’t let the gospel become small to us. Don't let the amazingly gracious good news of the gospel become dull to us. Awaken us. Don’t let us live comfortable, safe lives that flow down the river of the American Dream. Cause us to hope in the reality of heaven.

We praise you that your gospel is going forth through our sister church Covenant Life in Tampa this morning. As they send out D and B to plant The Heights church, bless these brothers and their wives and children. Use them to make much of Christ Jesus in Tampa and beyond.

We praise you for your word. We praise you for the book of Isaiah. Use our brother Nathan to encourage us as he helps us graze in the pasture of your word. We pray all of this in the bold, strong name of Jesus. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano