Adoration

Father, with love and authority, You speak life into being.

With mercy and grace, You freely call us out of death.

Only through the power of your word do we know life.

Only through the righteousness of Christ can we knoweternal life.

Neither man nor evil can thwart your eternal will or hold back your goodness.

With all wisdom, knowledge and faithfulness, You create new heavens and a new earth.

Only you can make and fulfill the promise of no more weeping or crying.

You have patiently listened to and heard the cries of injustice in this world, generation after generation, yet soon your complete and eternal justice will come.

You bring peace, because you are Peace.

We look to you, Father, and are glad.

 

Christ,

“You are the image of the invisible God… All things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… were created through you, by you, and for you.

You are before all things and hold all things together.  You are the head of the church.

You are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything you might be preeminent.

For in you all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through you the Father reconciled all things to himself, making peace by your blood on the cross.” [Colossians 1:15-20]

We rejoice in You, Jesus.

 

Holy Spirit,

You give us new spiritual life.  You sanctify and empower us.  You lead us to know our Father’s perfect will.  You help us to know  Christ. You help us to understand the Word. You comfort us in ways no one else can. You give us the words to speak and the heart to act when the time is right. You are our helper and our counsellor. You fill us and will not leave us.

We adore you, Spirit. “Through You we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” [Galatians 5:5]

 

Confession

As our hope is in you, Lord, we confess:

We have reflected the fallen nature of the world, rather than reflecting you and your character to those around us.

While we have repented, and put away the things of this world, this week we picked some things back up. We found them wanting.  They never do really satisfy.  Yet still we cannot completely let them go.

With impure thoughts and impure motives, we have selfishly sought our own satisfaction and our own worldly gain outside of your holiness and goodness.

We have let passion, evil desire, and unrighteous anger well up inside of us and overflow through our words and actions rather than confess our weakness and turn to you for patience, guidance, and strength.

We have desired what we do not have and let bitterness linger. This has robbed us of our contentment in You. We have been quicker to pass this discontentment on to others, than to speak of your Glory and your grace in our lives.    

Forgive us, Lord.  Quicken our repentance this week and grow our trust in You.

 Father, thank you for offering your children assurance of pardon. Again and again.

You do not leave us in our doubts.  You do not leave us on a scale weighing our works. But you look to the work of Christ on the cross, You see His righteousness and proclaim our forgiveness and our worth in Him.

“[We], who were dead in our trespasses…, [You] made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by the canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.” [Colossians 2:13-14]

Jesus, thank you!

Thank you for the victory over sin that we do know.

 

Thanksgiving and Supplication

We are grateful for the many children you have put under our care.  Thank you for the initiative and wisdom you give Kathryn and the teachers in preparing for every lesson and activity.  We thank you for the parents as they diligently seek to raise their children under your care and counsel.

We pray that each girl and boy would come to know you at an early age, and that they would make a difference in our city and our world to the glory of your name.

We pray for the unborn in our city and our country.  We pray that they would all have a path to life.  For expecting mothers and fathers in difficult circumstances, we pray that they would be able to prioritize the care of these precious lives.  We pray that they would seek and receive any support that they need.  For any children that cannot stay with their families, we pray that you would provide families that would enable them to grow up in loving homes and churches. We pray for those in our own church who are serving or seek to serve in this way through adoption, foster care or other means.  May we come around them as a church supporting them individually and corporately.

We pray for unity in diversity in our church and churches across every ward and neighborhood in the District, Maryland and Virginia.  May each local body of believers display the gospel in our diversity, such that a wondering world can only conclude that it is Christ alone who binds us together.

We thank you for Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia, encourage them through the preaching of your word this morning and their time together.

We pray for your work in the Middle East.  Continue the development of a dictionary and a translation of the Bible in their own languages.  May these efforts lead to gospel conversations and new churches worshiping you and proclaiming your name among the nations.

In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.