Worship through Prayer

O Lord Almighty, we praise you that you are a God who is a very present help in times of trouble. Many of us have had a hard week, and we have felt your presence. Many of us have had a tough few months, and even a tough year and there have been plenty of times where we have sensed your nearness, and we know that your nearness is our good.

We praise you for Might. No weapon formed against you shall stand and nothing and no one can thwart your purposes. Lord we look forward to how you’ll help us see that even more this morning as our brother Joey preaches to us how Jesus IS Mighty God. Make it real to us this morning, we pray.

Lord we also praise you that you are from everlasting to everlasting. We are finite….here today and gone tomorrow. You have no beginning and no end. You do not need sleep and you do not tire. Lord, we praise you for your timelessness. It grounds us in these days that seem to shift with the winds.

God, we praise you that you are a God that forgives. We need your forgiveness. We thank you that in Christ forgiveness is possible and since it is, we confess our sins to you, Lord. We confess that this past week we have been lazy in cultivating time with you and your people. We are more eager to play video games, sleep, watch TV, and surf the internet than we are to turn our attention to you and the good of your people.

Forgive our prayerlessness. Forgive our lack of attention to your word. Forgive our lack of attention to meditating on your word. Forgive our lack of interest in speaking about your wonder to fellow members. Forgive us for any inattention to the covenant we made with you and one another as a church. Forgive us for the way we’ve been more interested in spending money on things we don’t need instead of funding the spread of the Gospel through this church. Forgive us for our anger...the times we did return revile for revile instead of turning the other cheek or walking the extra mile. Lord, forgive us for the fact that we have to ask your forgiveness every week for our sexual immorality. Make us hate all sin, but especially the sins of coldness towards you and warmness towards lusting after people that we are not covenantally bound to.

We plead the blood of Christ ALONE to forgive us for all these sins and the ones we haven’t just confessed. Jesus is our only hope. We do not intend to pay off our sins by our good behavior or by any religious activities. Our only hope is in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ to cleanse us of every sin. And HALLELUJAH, we praise you God that you PROMISE to make us WHITE as snow because of His sacrifice for us. Oh Lord, how good it is to know that in the resurrection we have assurance for pardon. We can boldly approach the throne of grace and not only be forgiven, but welcomed into your loving arms as children. Thank you God for grace.

Lord, we plead that you would expose our great city to this grace during the Christmas season. As people sing Christmas songs and possibly attend church services when they wouldn’t otherwise, would you use these things to draw people to yourself? Fill up the seats of other Gospel believing churches around our city--in the NW, NE, SE, and SW. Especially use our brother Jon Spallino as he labors to plant the Gospel in the Wharf area. Bless the efforts of him and the other members of Mercy Hill church.

Father, we pray for the Gospel-centered play that the team members of Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia will put on this Wednesday. Would you fill up the seats with Spanish speakers who need Jesus!? And would the message of the Gospel be CRYSTAL clear to the eyes of those people. Grant that many conversations may be born out of that play that would lead people from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of your beloved Son.

We also pray for the efforts of our brothers and sisters at Bethlehem Baptist church in Minneopolis, MN. We pray that their 25 x 25 vision that will strengthen their core ministries would prove fruitful. Bless Jason, Kenny, and Cleon, and the other elders there as they lead that church…may they have sweet times in your word this week.

Lord, we pray for our fellow TCT church planters in Tampa. We praise you Lord that they are embarking on being part of a revitalization work with Stonewall Baptist church. Give wisdom to the elders as they seek to pastor the remaining members of Stonewall…help those members work well with the saints of The Heights church as they join with one another in becoming one church.

We also pray for Craig and his wife Elizabeth as they labor to plant Legacy Fellowship in Chicago. Give them favor as they care for the daughter of Craig’s next door neighbor whose mother just died. May that girl come to see the love of Christ in the care that Legacy Fellowship provides her.

Lord be near our sister E as she mourns the loss of her mother. I pray that she would sense your nearness in this time. Bless our brother C as he cares for his new wife in the coming weeks of a hard time.

Bless the efforts of our sister M who is laboring now in the refugee camps of Bangledesh. May she give the light of the Gospel to people who have never heard the Gospel and are in desperate need.

Father, finally, I pray for the men of our church…may we be men. Biblical men. Men who consistently do hard things and lead out in the hard work of making disciples. May our men not be immobilized by shame or guilt or passivity. May the men of our church grow to be leaders in our community. Men who care for the needy, men who honor women, and men who love to serve and not wait to be served. Grant that Restoration Church would be a place where our culture’s fascination with extended adolescence comes to an end as we encourage one another to embrace commitment and affection for Christ and His church.

Do all this, Lord, for the sake of your glory in NW DC and around the world! Bless your name…bless your name. What JOY it is to participate in your mission! Thank you. And, God, thank you for these blessed saints that make up this church. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Majestic God, we come to you this morning as your people, rejoicing in who you are and what you have done. From the depths of our soul, we echo the words of your holy word: "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? The Lord, the Lord, our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Heavenly Father, in the journey of growing in grace, and heading toward heaven, thank you for being always faithful, forever-kind, and resolutely committed to our joy and freedom. Amen.

We will remember the deeds of our Lord. Yes, we will remember your wonders of old. This morning, we remember the wonder of the incarnation. Jesus, fully God, humbles himself to take on the fullness of humanity. Jesus, Savior, Messiah. Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts that we might behold the glory of our Lord – Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Amen.

This morning many of us are weary and broken. We have lost loved ones this week. We have fought with our spouse this week. We are exhausted from parenting. We feel alone and downcast. Our jobs demand more than we can give. We are hurt and feel like no one wants to listen. At times we want to give up. Refresh us. This morning we rest in your promises. Remind us, Lord, that the burden and pressure isn’t on us to manipulate you and claim your promises; but we are to realize how wondrously and comprehensively your promises claim us. Holy Spirit, fill us afresh today and remind us of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. All your promises are yes, in our Lord Jesus. Amen.

We pray for our church body, Lord. That we’d marvel at your glorious grace; that the one thing that would most saturate our souls would be the glory of King Jesus. We pray K, J, and T would wonder at the beauty of our Lord, and then speak of this to others. We thank you for the labors of our deacons and deaconess. Bless M, D, M, and L. We praise you for the consistent, faithful, tireless efforts of K. Give her joy as she oversees Restoration Kids, completes administration tasks, and disciples women. We rejoice for the wisdom of K, N, and C. Amen.

Lord for the glory of your name, raise up more elders and deacons and leaders inside this church. We pray for racially diverse leadership. Give us the desire and humility to learn from those who are culturally and ethnically different than us that we might model your Kingdom – that our ways are not your way, and your ways are better – full of wonder and joy. Amen.

Lord for the glory of your name, use Restoration Church as a place that models justice and compassion and righteousness. Amen. A place where radically different people love and serve each other. Amen. A place where racial differences are not just tolerated, but celebrated. Amen. A place where men are tough and tender and unapologetically godly. Amen. A place where women are strong, courageous and ferociously godly. Amen. Lord, fill us with your Spirit, that we might be a church that models conviction and kindness. Amen. A church filled with men who selflessly serve. Amen. A church where women are cherished and honored. Amen. A church that cannot be easily defined by human norms because we are so full of grace and truth. Amen. A church that protects the weak, comforts the hurting, calls back the wayward, encourages the faithful. Amen.

We praise you for the many ways all of this is happening. And we praise you that we are not the only church in DC that models your glorious grace. We praise you for Pillar Church, Veritas Church, Cherrydale Baptist, McClean Bible, Grace DC, Church of the Advent. Bless these brothers and sisters. Amen.

Heavenly Father, as we pray these things, we’re also mindful of our own hearts. We yearn for your glory, and then live to promote our own glory. We long for see people to come to faith in Jesus, yet cower in fear to share the gospel. We yearn for racial reconciliation, but battle prejudice. We want to know you intimately, but jump into the busyness of our day without giving you a passing thought. We desire purity, but give into the snares of sin – lust, greed, anger, gossip, vanity, pride, immorality, coveting, deceit, envy. We say you are enough and then hope in a job promotion or relationship or spouse or new material possession. We confess our sin. And we hope in Christ Jesus alone. Amen.

We rest in his unchanging faithfulness and lavish grace. With confident boldness, we proclaim Jesus life is our life; his sin-paying, shame-obliterating, wrath-absorbing crucifixion is our death; his Satan-defeating, heaven-bringing resurrection is our life. As your blood-bought family, as your sons and daughters, united together in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, we pray and we hope and we rejoice. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Advent Book Recommendations for Families

Here are some recommended books and devotionals for families to read over the Advent season! Click any of the titles below for more information.

Advent family devotional—

Counting the Days, Lighting the Candles

By: Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson

Advent calendar, family devotional, and book—

The Littlest Watchman

By: Scott James

Book for PreK children—

The Christmas Promise

By: Alison Mitchell & Catalina Echeverri

Book for early elementary children—

Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story

By: Sally Lloyd-Jones

Book for questions about St. Nicholas/Santa—

Just Nicholas

By: Annie Kratzsch

Christmas activity book (with the Christmas story as well as coloring pages, word searches, etc.)—

Christmas King

By: Matthias Media

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

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.

by Kathryn Feliciano