Worship through Prayer
Mighty, Majestic, and most powerful God, blessed be your Name. We praise you for your infinite grace, love, and mercy. How you have existed from before time began and how you will always exist as you are from eternity. You are glorious and your righteousness is complete, lacking nothing. You are light and in you is no darkness. Most of all, Lord, you are Holy. Transcendantly Pure. High and lifted up. Even now as we pray to you, the angels sing of your glory! Oh God, teach us to call these things to mind regularly.
How easily we fall into saying these things without thinking of them. We so often live in such a way as to neglect the strength of your might! We talk of your justice, your might, your power, or your eternality as though we were talking about the weather and yet we quickly shudder at the impending loss of a job, a relationship, or the threat of someone else. Oh God, have mercy on us.
Lift our eyes up to see your Transcendant glory and rehearse it for ourselves regularly. Teach us, yet again Lord, to fear you more than we fear the trifles of this world. Grow our understanding of your strength, your justice, and your purity. Remind us of passages that teach us that we cannot hide from you. We may be able to hide from others, but we cannot hide ourselves from you. Remind us that a Day of Judgment is coming soon and it will be real and it will be total. We shudder to talk about such things as they seem so harsh, and yet, they're real.
Oh God, we rightly want to emphasize your steadfast love, your grace, your mercy, your many kindnesses, but Father, there is something within us that is hesitant to emphasize your Justice and your Holiness. There is something that wants to minimize you and make your more manageable so that we don’t have to deal with the fact that, as the Psalmist says, the mountains melt like wax before you. Or in other places of Scripture, how you look to the earth and it trembles.
May we worship you, God, yes for your tender and steadfast love. But Lord, may we worship you all the more for your Holiness.
Forgive us for the way we don’t rehearse these things. Forgive us for how casually we live as your children. Neglecting your commands and emphasizing our liberties. Forgive us for abusing grace and counting on mercy. Forgive us for the ways we lose sight of your anger in our selfish anger towards others. Forgive us for the ways we feel entitled, arrogant, or privileged when we only loom as large as ants in your presence.
Lord, I pray a dangerous thing. I pray you humble us in the midst of your glory. Make us more and more like your Son as you remind us more and more of your Strength. You tell us, that "this is the one to whom you will look, he who is humble and contrite and TREMBLES at your word." And Lord, we so rarely are contrite and we so rarely TREMBLE at your word. Lift up our eyes to you, oh God. Grant that we may not abuse the forgiveness that you so generously give us. May we fear you as you forgive us.
Thank you Lord, that you are so patient with us. Thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ who forgives us of all our sins and allows us, as we learned last week, to come into your Holy presence, clean and undefiled. Hallelujah.
Lord, I continue to pray for the men of this church. May we hear more and more testimonies of men being more and more disciplined. Waking up early to spend time with you in the word and in prayer. May we hear more and more men loving their wives and their children, diligently teaching them to know God and to love neighbor. Grant that more and more single men would join this church and have undivided devotion in making disciples. May Restoration Church be a place that is known for its love for God and its cultivation of Biblical men. A place where passivity, laziness, slothfulness, is not tolerated. And a place where responsibility, courage, and hard work is celebrated. God, grant Restoration Church to be a community that raises up godly men.
God, thank you for the many, many women that reflect Biblical femininity in this church. Where we pray for more Biblical masculinity, Lord, I praise you for the pervasive presence of so many godly women in this church. Thank you for the ways so many women in our church are spurring one another on towards Biblical fidelity. Your grace is so overwhelmingly abundant among the women of our church and we thank you.
Father, we want to praise you for the work of Haiti Love. Thank you for Pastor C, E, and N for the ways they have been training up other pastors to lead healthy churches that will serve the poor and build communities that are salt and light to their country. Lord, we thank you for the ways the Haitian people have taught us so much about what it means to be content, to be joyful, and thankful with so little in the eyes of the world. How they have shown us resilience and kindness. May the people of Haiti begin to send more and more laborers into the harvest of not only their communities but also to ours and to other nations around the world.
Finally, Father, we pray that through the ministry of Restoration Church we would see a bevy of evangelistic fruit in 2018. I thank you, Lord, for the many testimonies of this church and how they are sharing the Gospel with the lost. God, grant that we may see a harvest from our Gospel proclamations this year. May the baptismal waters stir here with new believers born unto you. We ask that you would do that especially amongst the Spanish speakers of our city. Grant that A, M, C, A, R, and B would consistently be calling those that do not believe to believe. May Iglesia Biblical Sublime Gracia be a church that grows as a result of evangelism.
We love you, Lord. And we thank you for the privilege of being your children. We thank you for the hope of heaven and we thank you for the joy of making disciples. May we lean into all of these things as we display your glory in the church, your Bride. Blessed be your great name. Amen.
Worship through Prayer
God of steadfast love, abundant mercy, and loving kindness, we come to you this morning with thankful hearts. Thank you for your grace to us in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the indwelling Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin and changes us, degree by degree in holiness. Thank you for the Bible, for the gift of music, for the fellowship of the saints. Thank you for the sun, clear blue skies, for rain, for snow, for the changing colors of leaves, for different seasons. Thank you for children and for laughter. Thank you for food and clothing. Thank you for the hope of heaven and the promise of world restored back to perfection.
We praise you this morning. We praise you that you are God and we are not. We praise you for your glory and grace, for your majesty and mercy. We praise you for you are worthy of all adoration – all dominion, authority, and power are yours before all time and now and forever.
We gather as your people this morning to remember and rehearse the good news of Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the hope of our salvation – that you have saved us not because of our good works and religious deeds, but through the perfect life, sin-paying death, and Satan-crushing resurrection of Jesus.
We confess our sin. We confess that we have rebelled against you in word, thought, and deed; in what we have done and what we have left undone. We confess using our words not to build up but tear down. We repent. Forgive us, O Lord. We confess the greed in our hearts that longs to receive more than to give. We confess our immorality – by looking at screens and physically engaging in acts dishonoring to you. We repent. Forgive us, O Lord. We confess disobeying our parents and being mean to our siblings. We confess discipling our children out of anger and using harsh words. We repent. Forgive us, O Lord. We confess holding grudges and bitterness toward fellow church members. We confess loving our prideful personal preferences more than the clarity and proclamation of the gospel. We repent. Forgive us, O Lord. We confess our own prejudices that causes us to think we are better than others because of our ethnicity or race. We confess our dullness toward evil not hating what you hate and loving what you love. We repent, O Lord. Forgive us, we pray.
And we rejoice, that none of this defines us. We rest in the truth of who we are in Jesus Christ. Redeemed. Declared righteous. Pure. Holy. Blameless. Adopted sons and daughters. Father, in heaven, “Abba, Father” we come to you resting assured that in Christ Jesus we are loved and cherished and nothing – not the stain of sin, not the power of Satan, not the circumstances of life – nothing can separate us from your love.
We pray for those of us who are struggling. For those who are weary and want to give up on following Jesus. For those who feel alone and isolated. Father, grant us tangible reminders of your grace. Encourage us with timely words from a fellow church member. Bring to mind a specific Scripture that warms our soul. We pray for those of us struggling from the shame and guilt and feelings of unworthiness because of how we have been violated and taken advantage of. Heal us, O Lord. Holy Spirit, minister to our souls and remind us that we are washed clean in Christ – that he bore our shame on the cross that we might be pure and holy. Give us tender words to speak to one another that we might bring the healing hope of the gospel to each other in times of vulnerability. Use our church, O Lord, as a place of hope and healing for the marginalized and hurting. We pray for those of us secretly struggling with chronic patterns of sin – substance abuse, habitual lying, financial deceit, pursuing immoral relationships, physically or virtually – bring us people who will lovingly and patiently walk alongside of us as we battle the desires of the flesh with the truth of the gospel.
We pray that you would use us to bring the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. Give us opportunities to share the hope of the gospel with our friends, co-workers and classmates. Lord, for the glory of your name, use us to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit use Campus Outreach, FCA, our ministries at Friendship Terrace, Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia to make disciples that delight in the supremacy of Jesus. We pray for the spread of the gospel in the Middle East. Grant R, E, J, J, K and L faithfulness and perseverance as they seek to advance the gospel among the unreached. Magnify your name in us and through us, O Lord. Give us holy boldness that proclaims the gospel and radical generosity that supports the spread of the gospel. Make us jealous for the glory of your name.
Do this while reminding us this world, as it is, is not our home. Give us the grace to journey alongside one another as we sojourn toward heaven together, where we’ll enjoy you together with all your people, forever and ever. Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Loving Lord, we come to you this morning trusting fully and only in the name of Jesus Christ. We come rejoicing in the glorious grace of the gospel. We come longing for heaven, for the restoration of all things. We come in our weakness that we might find strength in you.
We praise you for all that you are doing in our church body. We praise you for the gospel unity we have. We praise you for the many ways the gospel bounces from one person’s lips to another's ears. We praise you for all the Community Group Leaders and Hosts that tirelessly prepare and lead and serve the members of this church.
For the glory of your name, triune God, continue to grant us the grace to be honest and vulnerable with each other. Give us the grace to openly talk about our struggles and sins. Give us the grace to carefully and humbly speak the hope of Jesus to each other. Give us the grace to weep with those who weep. Give us the grace to rejoice with those who rejoice. Root out any self-righteousness and jealously and bitterness among us. Holy Spirit, help us walk alongside each other humbly, intentionally serving and caring for one another.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray for those who are especially weary and downcast; we pray for those battling anxiety and hopelessness. Holy Spirit, in your unthinkable mercy bring the balm of the gospel to wounded, aching souls this morning. Remind those who have been abused or grievously sinned against that they have good Father in heaven through Christ Jesus, and in him they are loved and secure and cherished. Remind those who face illness and circumstantial hardship that because the tomb is empty hope is always before us; darkness gives rise to light; suffering always comes before glory. Remind those who have sinned grievously and are struggling to forgive themselves that there is no condemnation for those trusting in Christ Jesus. Make the gospel real to us this morning Lord. Grant us gospel refreshment; and grant us repentance, Lord, reminding us the truly good life is the life treasuring Christ and joyfully obeying all that he has commanded.
We praise you for other gospel churches in and around DC. Use the ministry of Redeemer Arlington, Falls Church Anglican, Fourth Presbyterian, and the Well to magnify Christ Jesus. We pray for Redeemer City and Christ our Shepherd and Church of the Resurrection and Capitol Hill Baptist and Waterfront Church. Use these brothers and sisters to proclaim the wonders of your word.
And as we turn our hearts toward you word this morning, work in us. Meet with us. Holy Spirit, use the word to soften our hearts, to shape our thoughts and affections that we might love our God supremely and each other sacrificially. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Father,
How big is your might and how amazing your love!
You created the heavens and the earth and you gave them rules! You created man and gave him breath! You split the sea in half when you carried your people out of Egypt. You brought them out with signs and miracles and you carried them through the desert into the promised land. You provided food and drink in the wilderness for forty years! When, by your eternal wise plan, your Son died a man’s death for our sin, you brought him from the dead back to life, never to die again! You took wretched sinners and enemies and turned them into holy sons and daughters. You took the ones who were not a people and turned them into your family. O Lord, how powerful you are.
Father, your love is so amazing! Your love for Jesus is pure, selfless, right seeking, righteous, enduring, other seeking and steadfast. Out of own sheer generosity you loved man like you loved Jesus. We don’t love other people as much as we love our children. We don’t love our enemies as much as we love our children. We don’t love ants as much as we love our children. And yet you loved us, fragile, weak and rebellious creatures enough to give your son for us to become part of your family!
Father we confess we forgot your power and love. We were greedy for money, for status and for comfort. We sought to ensure our well-being as if you didn’t exist. We worried and we schemed. We planned as if you were an afterthought. We told ourselves we needed to take care of first things first and you were at best second. We looked at our neighbor with envy and asked for justice.
Father, forgive us our rebellion and the dishonor we brought unto you by our evil thoughts, deeds and through our ingratitude and lack of faith.
Father, thank you for your love that you bestow on us every day as you give us our daily bread. Thank you for the forgiveness you have provided in Jesus. Thank you for the promise of a blessed, plentiful future in your presence. Thank you for your word which is a lamp unto our feet and for your church which is our family.
We pray for faith to believe that you love us and that you are powerful enough to provide for us what we need and carry us through our trials. We pray Lord, to be conformed to your son Jesus and not to the world. We pray that we would love for the thresholds of your house more than the tents of wickedness. We pray that we would long for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Father, we pray that this coming week you provide the daily bread and that we not worry about it. We pray that we would seek to help our poor and needy neighbors.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Emotions - Further Resources
BOOKS ON TRUTH, EMOTIONS, AND IDENTITY IN CHRIST
Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal our Deepest Questions about God by Dan Allender & Tremper Longman
“All emotion―whether positive or negative―can give us a glimpse of the true nature of God. We want to control our negative emotions and dark desires. God wants us to recognize them as the cry of our soul to be made right with Him. Beginning with the Psalms, Cry of the Soul explores what Scripture says about our darker emotions and points us to ways of honoring God as we faithfully embrace the full range of our emotional life.”
Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life by Brian Borgman
“In Feelings and Faith Brian Borgman draws from his extensive biblical knowledge and his pastoral experience to help readers understand both divine and human emotions. After laying a biblical foundation he moves on to practical application, focusing on how Christians can put to death ungodly emotional displays and also cultivate godly emotions.”
You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions by Tim Chester
“It's about heart change, not behavior change. That's the conviction of Tim Chester as he seeks to help everyday Christians ‘connect the truth about God with our Monday-morning struggles.’ This interactive book, laid out in workbook fashion, is for newer Christians struggling with sin and for more mature Christians who have plateaued in their faith as they seek to find victory over sin in their lives.”
Who Am I? Identity in Christ by Jerry Bridges
“Best-selling author Jerry Bridges asks perhaps the most fundamental question of existence: ‘Who am I?’ He then turns to Scripture to unpack for the Christian eight clear, interlocking, illuminating answers: I am a creature; I am in Christ; I am justified; I am an adopted son of God; I am a new creation; I am a saint; I am a servant of Jesus Christ; I am not yet perfect. Who Am I? demonstrates for believers in Christ that they can and should rightfully claim for themselves an unshakeable, lifelong, personal foundation of confidence in one thing and one thing alone: the gospel of a victorious, resurrected Savior.”
A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love by Milton Vincent
“God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving us everything we need for life and godliness. Here is a valuable tool to preach the gospel to yourself daily to strengthen your faith and define what you believe and why.”
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RESOURCES FOR CHANGING LIVES BOOKLETS
(available here)
- A.D.D.: Wandering Minds and Wired Bodies
- Anger: Escaping the Maze
- Angry at God? Bring Him Your Doubts & Questions
- Bad Memories: Getting Past Your Past
- Depression: The Way Up When You Are Down
- Domestic Abuse: How to Help
- Forgiveness: I Just Can’t Forgive Myself
- God’s Love: Better than Unconditional
- Guidance: Have I Missed God’s Best
- Homosexuality: Speaking the Truth in Love
- ‘Just One More’: When Desires Don’t Take No for an Answer
- Marriage: Whose Dream?
- Motives: Why Do I Do the Things I Do?
- OCD: Freedom for the Obsessive
- Pornography: Slaying the Dragon
- Pre-Engagement: 5 Questions to Ask Yourselves
- Priorities: Mastering Time Management
- Procrastination: First Steps to Change
- Self-Injury: When Pain Feels Good
- Sexual Sin: Combatting the Drifting
- Stress: Peace amid Pressure
- Suicide: Understanding and Intervening
- Suffering: Eternity Makes a Difference
- Teens & Sex: How Should we Teach Them?
- Thankfulness: Even When It Hurts
- “Why Me?” Comfort for the Victimized
- Worry: Pursuing a Better Path to Peace
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OTHER RESOURCES
- Feelings: Emotion and Devotion—This is a really great booklet from another church that walks you through engaging your emotions in the psalms! It is written for their CG leaders but could easily be used at the individual level.
- Sunday School series from Alasdair Groves on a “Theology of Emotions”
- CCEF National Conference on Emotions
Helpful Articles:
- “What Do I do with My Feelings? Engaging Your Emotions”
- “Talk to God about Your Anxiety”
- “Does Trusting God Remove Anxiety”
- “Trust the Means of Grace: 8 Rules for Growing in Godliness"
- “What Is Shaping You?”
Worship through Prayer
Father,
How great you are Lord! Your name alone is worthy of worship and glory! Father, Son and Holy Spirit united in true love and true glory reigning from eternity past to eternity future – you alone are worthy of glory.
Father, you create out of nothing. You turn the sea into dry land, you turn the storm into calm, you provide for everyone on earth, and you heal the sick and comfort the weary.
You hate sin and evil and fight against it with everything you’ve got. You sent your one and only Son to die for sin and create a righteous people. You brought Him into the grave, Him who was truly worthy of life. You rose him from the dead and with him you turned us, who were truly worthy of death, into your people and your children.
How mighty and loving and glorious you are!
Father, blessed be your name because of Jesus. He embraced everything we run away from, everything we fear, everything we want to forget and deny. Although He was rich, He became poor. Although He was strong, He became weak. Although he was respected, He became reviled. Although He was beautiful, He became ugly. Although He gave life to human life, He died a human death. And by your great power He came victorious on the other side.
How awesome you are Lord! How great sinners we are!
Father, we saw your glory and we tried to run away from it. We worked diligently for our glory and for our respect. We claimed that our actions were for your sake and for the sake of justice, but we did it because we wanted to be somebody and WE wanted to make a difference.
Father, we saw your goodness and it was too much to bear. We did not love our neighbors and tried to find excuses. We told ourselves they were unreasonable, selfish, mistaken. We looked down on their weaknesses while silencing our consciences by pursuing good deeds and reminding ourselves of our past right actions and moral superiority.
Father, we saw Jesus’ humility and we despised it. We saw that you might call us to be less than we wanted to be and serve more than we felt we could serve. And we despised that and looked for ways to make ourselves feel better, be stronger and be somebody. All the while justifying it by a desire to do all things as best as we can for YOU.
Father, save us from our sin! Forgive us and give us a new heart and a new mind and a new soul that we singlehandedly fell, think and live for your glory. Transform us Lord!
We thank you Lord, that in your great mercy, you provide grace!
Thank you that you do not leave us prey to our sinful desires. Thank you that you are committed to our deliverance from sin and death.
Father, we thank you that you provide for us from A to Z. You not only provide help with our sin, but you provide food and clothes and everything else. We thank you that we have put us in a community where we can hear your word. We thank you for the cloud of witnesses that remind us of our calling and of your power to save, witnesses of old like Abraham or Paul and witnesses of new like our brothers and sisters that are currently suffering for your name. We think here Lord of P from Kazakhstan who was imprisoned for preaching your word and whose imprisonment you used to bring almost 100 people to you. We think of D who was imprisoned in Eritrea for his Christian witness.
We pray Lord that you glorify your name and that you transform our hearts to be fearful for your glory rather than our own, to be passionate for your name, rather than our own, to live in freedom from the worries of this world and to chase Jesus for Jesus’ sake.
We pray that you take care of our brothers and sisters these countries Pakistan, Sudan, Eritrea and Kazakhstan and to enable them to preach the Gospel and to love one another in the midst of great opposition and persecution.
We pray Lord that you enable us to love our neighbors here in Washington DC. Enable us to be bold and effective testimonies for the Gospel. Turn the hearts of the people around us to you. Soften the hearts Lord! Remove our unbelieving neighbors from their self-made idolatrous delusions about their present and their future. Shine your light on them and on us and let us all be transformed.
Blessed be your Name!
Amen
Worship through Prayer
Holy Father, worthy is your name to be praised. You are above all things and in you all things exist. You separate the light from the darkness; you made the heavens and the earth we stand on. You constructed the tiny cells that constitute our bodies and you created Mount Everest, Mt. Kilimanjaro, along with the vast Pacific Ocean and all of this in comparison to you is nothing. The entire galaxy cannot contain your glory. Your majesty is so magnificent that a symphony of the greatest order would not be able to play beautifully enough to communicate your infinite worth. And wonder of wonders, you have made us for yourself!
We thank you God that you have made us to know you. Unlike animals, trees, clouds, and insects; you have made us to know something about you. We thank you for that Lord. How incredibly dull our world would be if we could not see you through the beauty of sunsets and mountain ranges-acts of charity or the simple love of a family.
We thank you also for the love this church enjoys. How kind of you Lord to have granted this church to this community almost 7 years ago. Thank you for our brothers and sisters that have moved on from this church that helped create a community for those of us that are here now. Thank you for the ways you are using not only this church but dozens of other churches around DC to be salt and light to their surrounding neighborhoods. Your infinite wisdom is on display in the creation of the church.
Lord, thank you for the elders and deacons of this church that sacrificially give of their time and treasures to make disciples that delight in the supremacy of Christ. Thank you for the Community Group Leaders, as well as those that open up their homes every week for this same intention of making disciples.
Thank you for hospitals, policemen, firemen, Advisory Neighborhood Committees that all labor to serve this community and make it a place that is a pleasure to live. Most of all, thank you for your redeeming love. How you hate sin and made a way for sinners through Christ is the best news we could ever know or hope for…and it is real! We praise you that you are a God that is all that we would hope for and more! Glory to YOU in the highest and glory to you in this place.
As we consider your Holiness and the throngs of things we have to be thankful for. We not only thank for your redeeming love, but we thank you for the redeeming love that offers us forgiveness of our sins-and boy do we need forgiveness.
Forgive us for the ways we treasured things above you this week. Forgive us for the times we treasured money and possessions above the glory of your son by buying things we didn’t need or by wagering money away at gambling tables. Forgive us for treasuring our relationships with other people more than our relationship with you by our giving time to Facebook, a lunch or dinner with a friend when we’ve not even thought to spend a moment with you. Forgive us for our indifference towards you. Our lives are more oriented to the news cycle than they are our place in Redemption. Forgive us for the times some of us sought out pornography and made sexual intimacy something ugly when you made it good. Forgive us for the ways we objectified men or women this week in our sensual sins. Forgive the husbands that used their tongues to tear their wives down instead of using them to build their wives up. Forgive the wives that hope more in their earthly husbands than they do your Son, their heavenly husband. Forgive the ways we have complained about fellow brothers or sisters in Christ, forgive the ways we gossiped about our co-workers, and forgive us for when we have spoken with filthy language or laughed at crude jokes. Our lives are all too often conformed to the patterns of the world instead of being conformed to the patterns of our heavenly home…and we gather together in this place because we believe that you are a God that forgives sinners who walk in repentance and not lean into these sins.
We praise you and join the voice of the Psalmist when he said that with you there is Forgiveness! Thank you that in Christ we can be made whiter than snow. How good it is to know, Lord, that all of our righteous deeds are like dirty rags before you, but our feeble faith in Christ and His Redeeming work on the Cross and in the Resurrection can free us from our slavery to sin and onto glad hearted obedience.
Lord, as we ask you for forgiveness, we pray that you would also grant this church a few things. Would you supply this church with more godly men that could lead this church as elders? Would you mature the men that are here and providentially provide other men to move into our surrounding communities that are willing and able to lead your church?
And would you also supply us more ethnic diversity? Fill this church up with people from different backgrounds and various nationalities for the purposes of expressing your manifold glory. Grant us socio-economic diversity as well. May we find those that are poor sitting next to those that are rich, next to those that are neither.
And Father, grant that you would also fill this church with new believers. We plead that you would so move in Tenleytown, American University, Georgetown, UDC, Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights and Woodley Park in such a way as to bring those that are far from you near to you. Bring the doubters, the skeptics, the wounded, and those from false religions to the saving knowledge of Christ.
Open the eyes of those that think themselves to be Christians but aren’t understanding the Gospel and all of its implications. Have them count the cost and be willing to walk the narrow road to the narrow gate and know the everlasting joy that is found in Jesus! Make the 133 members of this church your hands and feet that will go and get them. Give us boldness and courage to speak the Gospel in apartment buildings and in our jobs so that others may come to know the hope that we have in our heavenly home with you.
Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in the Treasuring Christ Together network that are laboring towards these same ends. Bless Bethlehem Baptist and Jubilee Church in Minneapolis. Grant J and the church family at Harvest Fellowship in Little Rock endurance in the Faith, and move in the community of East St. Louis as K and his precious wife try and bring the hope of the Gospel to that neglected community.
Father, we also pray for laborers to join A, M, R, and B as they try and form a team in the next few months to plant the Gospel amongst the Hispanic of Washington, DC.
Finally, Lord, we thank you for our brother J and all the ways that he labors so faithfully and so diligently week in and week out. He is a gift to all of us. Bless our brother as he comes in a moment to preach your word to us. Help us more fully understand this Son that has been given to us.
Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Father, we praise you this morning…as servants of the Lord we praise you, we offer you blessing, honor, and ALL glory…for you alone are worth it, Lord. We bless your Name from today as we will do forever more in the New Jerusalem. And we ask that your name and your Glory be heralded from the rising of the sun to its setting.
You, Lord are high above all nations…and your glory is above the heavens. As we are in the throws of an election year here in our own country we are mindful that you are not elected and you are the ultimate ruler of all that are elected.
Who is like you, oh Lord our God? You raise the poor from the dust and you lift up the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes. Blessed is the man who fears you for fearing you…being in awe of you…gladly sitting beneath you as our authority is the beginning of wisdom.
And yet we oftentimes do not do that. Though we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord our lives do not match up with that confession. Have mercy on us Lord. How thankful we are to know that you are a God that forgives. So forgive us…
Forgive us for our cold and dull hearts, forgive us for apathy. We take the name of Christ and yet all too often we are enamored by the world. We say we love Jesus and yet we don’t enjoy communing with Him in prayer. We say we love your word, and yet we often don’t memorize and/or meditate on it. We claim to be changed by His love and yet we are often more guided by lesser loves. We are not as prone to discipleship & evangelism as we ought to be and we are slow to even bring up the name of Jesus in our personal conversations amongst fellow brothers and sisters. We are too prone towards gossip, sexual immorality, greed, and laziness. We often are guided by the passions of our flesh more than we are guided by your good, pleasing, and perfect will. We often stumble into our days hardly taking any notice of your Redemptive rule, not only in this world, but in our lives. We are so clumsy with our faith, Lord…have mercy on us in our sin. Forgive us for our cold, dull, and oftentimes apathetic Hearts and grant us deeper convictions born out a deeper love to you and cause us to live as those that are guided by the Truth and not be blown about in this world by every wind of doctrine. Or worse, be blown about by whatever it is that pleases us the most.
Father, how thankful we are for forgiveness…oh how freshly we are reminded of our need for it. And with you Lord, there is forgiveness. And how glad we are to know that not only do you grant forgiveness, you grant ABUNDANT forgiveness to sinners like us! Lord you sent your Son to not only pay the penalty for our sins, and not only to remove our sins, and yes, not even to only purchase us out of our sins…but you sent your Son to wash ALL of our sins away as white as snow in order that we might be received into glorious presence as sons/daughters. We are the prodigal that has been welcomed back home after running from you…we are the ones that have received a robe when we should have received ridicule…we are the ones that received a ring, when we should have received your scorn. We are the ones that are received back as family with a room in your house, when we should have been banished, left to find a home of our own. Your Grace is abundant! Your Love is astounding and therefore we hope in you Lord. Our hope is in you…its not in us, its not in the world, its in you.
So, we pray that you would grant wisdom to the leaders of our country. Be they governmental leaders, emergency personnel, educational leaders, or even parental leaders. Please, Lord, move in them in such a way as to accomplish your will. Grant that they would strangely move in accordance with the beauty of your character in order that peace might be had in a world that so desperately needs it. Help us to know our role in that great endeavor.
Work in the midst of business leaders in places like Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti, and give them diligence and insight to build a sustainable food industry that would be able to supply the people and not need outside support.
Work in the midst of the leaders of local churches to call their people to pray and labor towards a kind of harmony that would go on to eradicate racism that exists here in America, but also around the world. Give those of us that exist in the dominant cultures around the world to understand the experiences of those that struggle in the minority cultures so that we can learn to be compassionate and see a world that doesn’t make value judgments based upon the color of one’s skin or the cultural or family background of an individual.
Oh Lord, plant churches and strengthen churches to be the beacon of light around the world that might serve as a picture of what life is supposed to be like--free from prejudice and full of pleasure in the all satisfying love of Christ, our hope and great reward.
Thank you for the many that are so faithfully being these kinds of people in this church. We are encouraged and inspired by the example of the many couples that are pursuing adoption because they have seen their adoption in Christ. We are encouraged by those that are caring for foster children because they have understood how Christ has taken them in. Thank you for the many faithful saints pursuing Christ in discipleship here at Restoration Church and grow us ALL to lean into the harvest of Tenleytown, Cleveland Park, Cathedral Heights, Friendship Heights, American University, Georgetown, & GW.
Thank you Father for the ways M has done that for now 5 years. How she has sacrificially given of her time, talents, and treasures so that others might come to DELIGHT in your Redemptive Rule. Oh Father how good it was to receive our sister here as a co-laborer. You have used her and you have manifested your manifold beauties through her. Go before her and do as you did here as she leaves to serve you there.
And thank you Father for M & L. These two have served as pillars in the life of our church for years. They have served you by serving us as Community Group leaders, disciplers, children’s ministry leaders, and encouragers to the leadership of this church. Grant that they would continue pursuing Christ as they leave this place. Go before them and provide a church where they can serve and be served. Let them not grow weary in doing good, but may we soon learn that they are thriving all the more where they are.
Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for Jesus…He is all we have…were it not for Him we would be colossal failures…but with Him we can do all things. Thank you again for Grace, for Mercy, and for Love. We praise you Father…we praise you.
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Worship through Prayer
We come to you this morning God, praising you for the joy of salvation. We praise you for good news of great joy that is for all the people. We lift our hearts with the heavenly host saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” We praise you Holy Spirit because you open the eyes of our hearts that we might know the hope of the glorious riches found in the gospel; what we might hope in the Christ-savoring joys of heaven. Yes, Lord, we praise you this morning for you who you are.
And we pray for those around the world who do not know you. We pray for the BKs who do not even have a published Bible to read about you. Give the workers and translators wisdom and favor and faithfulness and perseverance as they work on bring this Bible to completion. We pray for the 1.2 MM Bedouin people of Saudi Arabia and the Yazidi people in Syria and Iraq. Send workers to labor for the gospel among these unreached people groups.
We pray this morning for our friends and family members and classmates and coworkers who do not know or trust in Christ for salvation and satisfaction. Use us, Lord, use us to boldly proclaim the joy of salvation found in Christ. Use the members of Restoration to advance the gospel to those who don’t yet know Jesus. Give us the grace to live risky lives for the gospel. Help us renounce the idols of comfort and safety and the American Dream. Give us the grace to walk across the street and go across the seas to make much of Christ.
Inflame our hearts with such a deep joy in Christ and unquenchable passion for the fame of Jesus that we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Holy Spirit, shape us, mold us, change us that we might herald the excellencies of Jesus with every fiber of our being. We pray that you’d also use Redeemer City Church and All Nations DC and National Community Church and Christ our Shepherd to make much of Christ Jesus. We praise you for other churches in this city that make much of Jesus.
Father, we come to you confidently this morning, not because of our goodness, but because of your grace to us in Christ. Jesus, our wonderful Savior, we thank you for the wondrous grace and love in bearing our sin in your own body on the cross. May your cross be to us the tree that sweetens every bitterness in our lives; the rod that blossoms hope and beauty; the vine that connect us to you our only source of strength. We confess our sin to you this morning; we confess that we struggle to live joyful, faithful, obedient lives. Selfishness is in the very fabric of our flesh, and we struggle to choose love for others over pleasing ourselves.
Father, forgive us for the self-gratifying and self-exalting lives we lead. Forgive us for the greed that surfaces this time of year as we think more about what we’d like to receive than what we already have. Forgive us for withholding forgiveness when you have so freely forgiven us. Forgive us for our attitude toward you, finding you dull and boring only because our sin has numbed us to truly enjoy who you are.
We praise you for the forgiveness we have in Christ. Increase our joy in the cradle, cross, and crown of Christ. Increase our wonder and admiration for all that was accomplished in the life and death of Jesus. Melt our hearts with the wonders of the incarnation and crucifixion and resurrection until our self-exaltation gives way to delight in blood-bought salvation.[1]
We pray for the children among us Lord. Help us raise them in the instruction and discipline of the gospel. Give us the grace to model what it looks like to follow Jesus not just in our obedience, but also in our repentance. Keep us from being too proud to ask our children for forgiveness when we sin against them. Father, if there are parents here this morning that need to do just that today, give them the grace to do so. Help the young ones among us trust and treasure Christ from an early age. Use them to teach us to not be become old and crusty and too rigid. Cause their laughter and fun and joy to be contagious that we might smile at the simple beauties of life.
We pray for those here this morning struggling with fear. Help them look the Christ and your faithfulness knowing that you are a God who always answers your promises. We pray for those here this morning dealing with shame and guilt. Point them to Jesus who took every bit of their shame as he hung naked on the cross and drank the cup of wrath dry that they might be clean and pure and loved by you, our eternal Father. We pray for those who are tired and weary. Give them rest in Christ reminding them the hardest work of all, our salvation, is already complete.
As we continue to think about Christ this Advent season, help us joyfully anticipate Christmas Day and the wonder of the “fullness of God in bodily form.” Fill us, we pray, with hope, peace, joy and love. We pray all of this in the name of our glorious Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.
[1] Previous two paragraphs, adapted from and spurred on by Prone to Wander, 142-43.
