Lord, your words are pure, like refined silver.  Your words are life and truth. You created the heavens and the earth, and everything in it and you sustain them by the power of your words.  You are worthy of praise, and great beyond our ability to fathom. You reign in majestic splendor and your works are wonderful. You are abundantly good and righteous.  You are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. You are good to all and have compassion on all your creation. Your kingdom is everlasting, and your reign is eternal.  You are merciful to the lowly and downtrodden. You are near to those who call on you in truth. We will praise you with our words and sing of your holiness. Your love is steadfast, and you have delivered the salvation you promised.  You are the ultimate answer to our longings. Our hope is in you; your Word is a delight.

We confess that we are often not careful with our words.  We speak rashly in anger, or thoughtlessly without regard for the feelings of our neighbor.  We speak to tear down, rather than to build up. We talk of frivolous things while neglecting to speak of the beauty of your Gospel.  We are so often quick to speak but slow to listen, and quick to be aroused in anger. We come to your church and hear your words and then go away unchanged, as though we had never heard in the first place.  We do not restrain our tongues and we do not sufficiently care for the disadvantaged among us. We allow the influences of the world to control our passions and desires rather than resting in you, and so we worship the gods of money, power and independence.

Thank you that you sent Jesus to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to overthrow the kingdoms of the world so that we can be freed of our fruitless strivings for worldy achievement to instead live in humble submission to you.  Thank you for the forgiveness found in Christ so that we do not need to feel the shame of guilt for the ways in which we sin, because we have been washed clean by the blood of the lamb. We pray that you would guide us as we seek to live in light of your gospel, and walk in holiness, motivated not by self-righteousness, but by worship of your good works in us.

Thank you for those who serve our church behind the scenes, who work in ways that are often unseen and unthanked.  We know that you see them, and thank you for gifting them in a variety of ways so that the body will be complete and the needs of our church will be met.  We pray that you would bless their service and use it for your glory, and that you would sustain them as the faithfully serve. And we pray that you would continually raise up people in our congregation who are seeking to serve and enable them to plug in where they are needed so they can use their talents for the advancement of your kingdom through the ministry of Restoration Church.  Thank you for the ways you are doing this already, and we pray that you would continue to do it and continue your blessings of provision on this church.

We pray for our elders who are away from us this week.  We pray that you would give them rest, and restore their souls for the work that they will need to do when they return and that you would enable them to love their wives and children well through this time of rest.  We thank you for a plurality of elders so that the burdens of ministry can be shared and our church can continue to function during periods of rest for the elders. We thank you for Chris, for bringing him into saving knowledge of you and building him up in righteousness, and gifting him with the ability to teach so that he is able to work with our other elders to shepherd us.  We pray that you would speak through him as he comes to preach to us this morning and that you would work in the hearts of us here as we listen to him, so that we would go away loving you more and serving you better.

We pray for other pastors throughout and around our city who will be preaching this morning.  We pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word at Capitol Hill Baptist, at GraceDC, at Del Ray Baptist, and at the many other faithful gospel preaching church in the area.  We pray that you would help their pastors speak about you faithfully and that you would use their sermons to see people come to know you.

We pray also for the nations.  We pray that you would bring the light of your gospel into areas where the physical terrain makes it difficult to go.  We pray that you would send workers to people groups that live in relative isolation, and that you would work among them to plant local churches in those communities.

For the sake of your name we ask these things, and pray that you would glorify yourself in Washington DC and beyond.  Amen.