We praise you God, creator of earth and heaven. You are so big, so powerful, so glorious, you are incomprehensible to us and our little brains. Even when we are gathered here to sing your praise we are distracted by our own worries. Help us to lift our minds to you. To try and take in the God whose glory is like thunder over a raging ocean; whose voice breaks huge trees and shakes the earth; who sits enthroned as a King and all in his temple shout GLORY. We praise you because you deserve and demand it, you aren’t a God we can ignore when it suits us. You have reached down to the low. You have worked a great salvation throughout all of history and all over the world. For you are good and your love endures forever. Your faithfulness continues through all generations.
As for us. We are born dead in sin. Captive to our selfish sinful natures. No amount of religion or being nice people would bring us anywhere near the perfection of your glory. By Jesus alone, by believing in him and trusting in his perfect life and accepting his sacrifice to save us, we have relationship with you, our Father. Nothing more or less than Jesus, who is over all and through all and in all.
Show us how to be like Jesus. Show us the twisted remains of our sinful natures that still fight with us, and the layers of lies we don’t even know about yet. Bring us to grieve and repent of them. We confess times that we are yet selfish, proud, self-righteous, cowardly, gossipy, mean or resentful. We are sorry for the people we have hurt or the good works we have avoided. Please continue to change us by your holy spirit to make us fit for every good work. Fill our minds with whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable.
Father, there are good things we want to thank you for now. We think of other local churches. Hunter Bible Church in newcastle who supported us in the early days of our church plant and have been faithful to the gospel for over 20 years. We pray for the brothers and sisters there to be humble in unity and in seeking to welcome others.
We also thank you for other churches in Maitland and in particular Real Life Church, and ask that in your strength and wisdom they are faithful to the gospel, active in doing good, and shining brightly to the lost. And we thank you for our own church, and in particular we thank you for our senior high youth, The Vine. We thank you for the faithfulness of those leaders and for young people taking time each weekend to think about how to read and obey your word. Thank you for the ways they serve us by setting up dinner tables and helping pack up after church.
And now we ask you Father for your help. We pray for our community street party, and T and those organising it. Please bring together all the skills and materials needed to make it run well and please bring people from our community together to hear about you and see a gospel community in action.
We pray for a world that needs Jesus. A world of sin, hate and brokenness, separated from God. We ask you for more opportunities to speak about Jesus’ love, for the holy spirit to change hearts, and for patience to wait until Jesus returns and makes all things right.
We Pray for the nation of Pakistan. Christians in Pakistan often face extreme persecution from radical Islamic groups, their own government and even friends and family. There are laws preventing people from speaking against Islam, which make it dangerous to proclaim Jesus. Christians are imprisoned, attacked and given only menial jobs. There have been several attacks on churches and Christian homes have also been destroyed. Hundreds of Christian women have been targeted for sexual harassment and assault. You see all these things. We pray now for
- Christians who have suffered violence as a result of their faith, that God would bring them peace and healing.
- the many Christians who are fleeing Pakistan, that they would have safe passage to peaceful nations.
Finally. Please help R preach in your strength tonight and think clearly despite being a little sick. Help us to listen and consider your truths as he speaks and be convicted by the Holy Spirit to change our lives to be more like Jesus.
We bring everything to you in Jesus name, Amen.
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