"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" - 1 November 2015 AM and PM

Sunday morning:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise; in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes; most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of days; almighty, victorious, your great name we praise!

We call upon you to come, strengthen and enrich this congregation that we may grow robust and luscious in holy joy and joyful holiness. Remove from our homes all bitterness, anger, sourness, greed, and disease; and fill our households with healthiness, respect, wisdom, and delightful harmony. Help us – one and all – to have genuine love; to abhor what is evil; to hold fast to what is good; to love one another with brotherly affection; to outdo one another in showing honor; to not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit, serving you, O Lord. Bring us to rejoice in hope, to be patient in tribulation, to be constant in prayer; to contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. And  help us to promote peace with those who are at odds with us, or despise us, so that we would not be overcome by evil, but would overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:9-13, 21).

For all your people, our brothers and sisters throughout the world; The Evangelical Church in Germany; The Church of Sweden; The Evangelical Lutheran Church in India; The Presbyterian Church of East Africa; The Presbyterian Church in Korea; and The China Gospel Fellowship; Strengthen, guide and improve the godly direction and virtuous pursuits of your people; and correct, redirect, and reform the places and ways that we, your people, miss the mark all together.

On this All Saints Day, we are grateful for those believers who have lived faithfully, who have been beautiful examples of genuine Christian faith and faithfulness, who have now entered into the great cloud of witnesses that surround us (Hebrews 12.1). Of them the voice from heaven said to John, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Revelation 14:13)!

We remember our friends and loved ones who are fraught with disease, fear, worry, financial struggles, mental and emotional darkness, and other ailments….We ask you to look kindly on their needs and supply them with every good and perfect gift that may restore them and encourage their hearts, so that they may rise up and give you thanks.

Guide our magistrates and leaders that they will make good decisions and pass just laws. We also desire to see you move among the nations of this world that peace, harmony, justice and prosperity might prevail in all nations for the good of all; that your Word may run swiftly and be glorified and your Church kept safe.

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Sunday evening:

LORD, you promised that you would “raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land...And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Thank you that Jesus, Yahweh Tsidkenu, the LORD our righteousness, reigns!

Have mercy, Good Lord, on those who have strayed away from your church to pursue their own devices and desires….those who have given in to the pressures and pleasures of the world….Those who have slipped into heresy and heterodoxy….Those who have simply given up and give out….O Lord, hear our prayer.

Have mercy, Good Lord, on those who have never heard the Gospel in the Americas, India, Asia, Africa, the Middle East...cause your people in those places to reach them, and may your Spirit hover over those lands to draw in whole families, communities, tribes, and people groups, that all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you (Psalm 22:27). O Lord, hear our prayer.

Have mercy, Good Lord, on those we know and love, as well as those who despise your people, who have never confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in their hearts that you raised him from the dead (Romans 10.9-10)…May they call on the name of the Lord and be saved (Romans 10.13). O Lord, hear our prayer.

Have mercy, Good Lord, on your Church all over this round world, including Gospel Lighthouse Church; Greater New Bethlehem Temple; Linn Ave Pentecostal Holiness Church; Meeks Chapel; and Northwest Christian Center. We confess that the purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth, to worship you according to your will (Westminster Confession of Faith 25.5). We pray you to purify your Church that she may always worship you according to your will, contend for the Faith once for all given to the Saints (Jude 3), serve you with sincerity, and walk in your way with integrity. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Have mercy, Good Lord, on this congregation that we would be the blessed people, who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but our delight would always be in the law of the LORD, and on your law we would meditate day and night. That we may be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. So that in all that we do, we may prosper (Psalm 1:1-3). O Lord, hear our prayer.