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Jesus Christ. Please do remember the singles dinner this Friday 6 p .m. at Calvary Baptist Church there in Santa Clara and the insert in your bulletin had a song on the back of it,
Day by Day, which is what we will begin the afternoon worship with. If you'll stand with me for that song,
Day by Day. I'm sorry, that's the second song.
35 in your hymnal, Immortal, Invisible. Pardon me.
Immortal, Invisible, God only wise.
In light inaccessible, in from our eyes.
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days.
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light.
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might.
Thy justice like mountains, by soaring above.
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light.
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight.
All praise we would render, all help us to see.
Tis only the splendor of light thy deathly.
Be seated. Well, let's begin with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we again have assembled in the name of Jesus Christ.
As your church, as your people, Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, once again to hear from you in your word.
Once again, gathered for your spirit to move amongst us and bind us together as brothers and sisters in the
Lord, because of Christ Jesus. Now Father, as we once again attend to your word in the hearing and the proclamation of that word,
I pray that you would bless the preparations of preacher, the preparation of the hearts of those who would hear, and that Jesus Christ would be lifted high and glorified, that he would be exalted in this place.
We ask in his name. Amen. Well, the message this morning is based upon two verses kind of in the middle of the book of Philippians.
One of the freedoms that a pinch -hitter preacher as I have become in this church, joyfully become, is
I can sort of pick out what is interesting to me in Scripture and going through a series is a wonderful thing, but I have that freedom of whatever kind of catches my spirit.
And God willing, it will catch yours as we look at Philippians chapter 2 and verses 12 and 13. And we see how it is that the
Lord moves within the church and how the Lord bends our will to his.
And if you ever wonder how is it that I am to grow in holiness and sanctification, how is it that I become closer to Christ's image, further from sin, and nearer to the righteousness that God has revealed in his son
Jesus Christ? This is one of the answers, one of many answers in Scriptures, and just the one that we will look at this afternoon.
If you would stand for the reading, just for those two verses,
Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13. The Apostle Paul writes to the church there in Philippi and writes to us through all time.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
God bless the reading, and now the proclamation of his word. Please be seated. Let's just jump right into the text here.
We find Paul immediately says, Therefore, my beloved. We'll work on therefore in a moment.
Good homiletics always ask, what is the therefore, therefore? And we'll touch on that a bit.
But the Philippians, we need to understand first, they were Paul's beloved. He calls them beloved, uses this term of endearment with them, because he was their father in the gospel.
He had gone to Philippi and he had struggled there to found that church. In Philippi, you remember
Paul faced down persecuting Jews. In Philippi, he stood firm for Christ.
Remember when the demonized girl was prophesying and making money for her owners and he commanded the demon out of her?
Well, then they saw that their hope for a prophet was lost and they accused Paul before the magistrate.
This is all in Acts chapter 16. And what happened there? Well, he was beaten by the lictors, l -i -c -t -o -r -s.
They had lictors rods which lacerate your back. This is a terrible beating. And then what happened? He was thrown in jail and he was chained to the wall with his back lacerated, bruised back against the wall there, the stone wall, with his friend
Silas, his partner in the gospel. And there in that Philippian jail, you recall that the doors burst open, the chains fell off.
I love that from the hymn, and can it be, my chains fell off, my heart was free. But they stayed and the
Philippian jailer was converted. A beloved place for Paul.
And he wrote this letter to them from prison. The great apostle looks at this beloved church, he calls them my beloved, and he reminds them that his physical presence there was unnecessary for their obedience.
Their obedience to the therefore which will come to. And he rejoiced that he was confident it wouldn't be needed.
He wouldn't have to be there, they would obey in any case. Now isn't it a parent's dream to know that they can leave?
And that while they're gone, and not correcting in person, that the children are obeying?
I don't know how often we actually experience that, I've got a few smiles here. But wouldn't that be wonderful?
Isn't that wonderful when it happens? This is Paul's confidence there in that church. He says he knows that they will obey even as he's absent.
He was absent where? He was absent in prison once again. So let's look at the therefore for a moment.
He says, therefore, my beloved, and we should just very quickly, though that's not the core of this message, but I want us to remember what the therefore is there for.
The verses I read, therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my absence, excuse me, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation.
And he says, therefore, my beloved, you do this. And what's the therefore in that place about?
Well, it's everything that came before. Now, that's pretty simple. Verses chapter 2 or chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 is where he says, do nothing from ambition, do nothing from conceit, but in humility serve others.
That's a command he has. He says, therefore, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
That's part of the therefore. Verse 3 in that sequence could be read to stop doing things that way.
Stop doing things from your own ambition. Stop doing things from conceit and so forth.
And then verses 5 through 11, the great parabola, as we call it, as it presents to us Jesus Christ, the eternal
Son of God, who became man. He came down to earth to die for our sins.
He humbled himself to the obedience of God, even to death, even death on a cross, and therefore
God has highly exalted him. So that's your parabola, from heaven to earth and back again.
And that's verses 5 through 11. And that shows Jesus, his humility, serving others.
And it's not just an example. It's more than an example. Paul says to have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
What mind? The mind of Jesus Christ that led him to follow the
Father's will even to death on a cross. Have that mind in yourself that would serve others the way
Christ Jesus served his people. Have this mind because it's yours in Christ Jesus.
In other words, Jesus' thought process is his very way of thinking that led him to embrace the
Father's will that he should serve the Father by serving us by the cross.
Have this mind among yourselves. And that's the therefore in verse 12. He gave us more than an example.
By his Spirit and his Word, he's given us his mind. He's given us his very thought processes in the
Word of God. Now church, the call for us is the same as it was for the
Philippians. To obey the Gospel, to obey the Word of God, our behavior as Christians has to be motivated, has to be designed after our
Lord Jesus Christ and especially his obedience in the cross.
So the example of the Lord Jesus Christ is a matter of historical fact.
The Gospels are historical records. They are factual records of the life of Jesus Christ.
And sufficient as that is, and it is sufficient, sufficient as that is, the
Lord gives us more. He gives us the means to maintain our progress in holiness towards the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
He gives us this means in himself. Do you understand that as we come together as a body?
Do you understand what the means is by which we grow in the Lord, by which we are molded more and more into the image of Christ, away from ourselves and towards the image of God that he would have his people to be?
How does this happen? How does this occur? For it is
God who dwells in you both to work and to will for his good pleasure.
Now Paul's confident that they're going to obey his prohibitive command, the conceit and rivalry ambition, the things we spoke of just a moment ago that came earlier.
All that will cease. He writes from prison and so in any practical way he can't be there to monitor or enforce things.
So how is he so confident? How is he so confident that they will obey, that they will follow what he says, that they will stay in church, that they will be submissive to one another and serve one another and follow in gospel truth?
I think there's a couple of reasons here. The first is that he had seen their gospel obedience.
He had been there. When he writes, as you have always obeyed, he's drawing on actual experience. In verse 1 -5 he writes of their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
So first he's confident because he knows his people. He's seen them. He's seen their gravity towards the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's seen how seriously they take his word and with what high esteem they hold the gospel and understand that there are ethical implications of the fact that Christ Jesus died for your sins and that God gave you faith to believe that core message.
It implies something and it means something in our life and he had seen it in them firsthand while he was there.
That's the first reason he's confident that they will obey even when he's not there. And the second is that Paul's confidence is founded on a certainty that the gospel took root in them by an act of God.
Understand this, that God finishes what he began. God finishes his work.
And Paul even tells them earlier that I'm confident that he who began a good work in you will complete it at the day of Christ Jesus.
This is a confidence that Paul has. This is one of the reasons he says that he is sure that they will continue to obey even when he's not there.
God finishes what he begins. He began that work in them as he began that work in you. If you believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, it's not just, okay, I believe, what's next? It's, I believe and therefore
I now have a gospel life, a life of repentance, a life of growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, a hard life, a cross -bearing life.
There's more to it than just, I believe, now let's get on with things. God finishes what he began.
What he began when he gave you faith to believe, when he gave the Philippians faith to believe, is to work you to have worked them into the image of his
Son Jesus Christ. God finishes what he begins. We even begin the
Scripture this way. Think about this for just a moment. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God started something. That's the idea. And then at the end we have, just in that chapter, and God saw everything he made and, behold, it was very good.
God finished what he started. And that's the idea behind he who began a good work in them will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
So this is what it means. Here's how this works. Live your life according to the precepts of the gospel, growing ever further from sin and closer to God, which you are able to do.
And why are you able to do it? Because it's God who is actually doing this work in you.
In you. A different preposition than among you. In you, by the very presence of his
Holy Spirit, doing this work that you should will, and others want to do something, have a desire for something, to work, to put effort, to put extreme labors into something, to will and to work towards a goal, his good pleasure.
That's what this is about here. So he says, Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, much more in my absence, and now this.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now what does it mean to work it out?
Why should they fear and tremble as they do so? Why should we, when he says fear and tremble, does it mean
I should go along in my Christian life with my hand over my head, being fearful that a lightning bolt is going to snipe me from heaven because of something
I did wrong? No, that's not the kind of fear that Paul has in mind here. That's being scared.
That's being afraid. And in Christ, that kind of terror has been taken.
No, that's not what he means at all by fear and trembling. He doesn't either have eternal salvation in mind.
He has in mind this ethical behavior of the church which has to flow out from us as a consequence of our eternity having been decided by the
Son's cross. The ethical behavior of this church towards one another primarily, primarily towards each other, that ethical behavior, because of the cross of Christ, the implications of the gospel.
That's what he means when he says, work out your salvation, work out the implications, work out the meaning, work out the life force of the gospel within yourself.
Exert your energy, your physical effort, your mental exertion, the application of all your giftedness and your skills to the work of the gospel.
And in this limited context, just these two verses, what does that work? It's amongst each other.
It's our growth together as a body, knit together, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, so that together we grow and grow into the image of Christ together as a church and as a body.
Now, too many Christians take this as an individual call, that I can do this on my own as long as I've got that salvation.
Okay, what's next? What's next is I'm just going to go along on my own trajectory, decide what I think the
Bible says, I'm going to do what I think is right and what I think makes Jesus happy, and on and on, it's just me, me, me, me, me, without the counsel of pastors, without the safety of many counselors.
Now, too many Christians take this as an individual call, and this is a problem exacerbated by the pandemic because that's when
Zoom meetings and the online meetings and all this stuff came about and people who were tending towards individualism in the first place now found a great avenue for it, okay?
Lone Ranger types found church in their screen of the laptop or on their phones or on their
PC or wherever they wanted to be. Now, I personally think Paul would be appalled at what suffices for church these days.
I think he would be appalled at it. Listen to this. You cannot grow in Christ by yourself.
You cannot grow into the image of Jesus Christ alone. If that were possible, then
Paul would have said so or John would have said so or Peter would have said so or James would have said so or Jesus would have said so if that were even possible.
It's not. You grow in holiness and knowledge of the Lord the same way that the rest of us do, the way that God intends, and we do it together.
Paul doesn't say that God works in you, individual. You, Mary Jane, or you,
John Paul. That's not what he says at all. He's speaking in plural here. We spur one another on to good works together.
We edify one another. Look at all the one anothers in the Scripture. We do this together.
We admonish one another. We rebuke one another. We speak words of truth to one another in love.
We encourage one another. We weep together. We rejoice together. It's all together that we grow.
There's a call to the church that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now by this, do we deny individual responsibility to study, to pray, to repent, to grow yourself into the image of Christ by knowing what he says in Scripture?
No, by this we don't deny it. We establish it. And here's how I think it works.
Let's take Joe, everyday Christian. And Joe, everyday Christian suddenly picks up something for easy reading like The Death of Death and the
Death of Christ by John Owen. And when he reads this book, suddenly a new vision of Christ in his cross comes to him.
And God's sovereignty just explodes into his mind as it were. And he takes a leap further into the image of Christ.
He's more awestruck by the cross. He sees more of God's love poured out on us and how that was done by Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the eternal
Son of God who came and became man for our sake. And by that, his love of God and his growth into the image of Christ is accelerated.
So Joe, everyday Christian, having done this, he grows a little bit. And now what does he do?
He goes to church and he finds John, everyday Christian. And he says, hey brother, I just read this book.
Now it's not the Bible, but it talks about the Bible and it's by this guy who died years ago, centuries ago. And he explains it to him.
And he goes, I never thought of that. What a wonderful truth. You know, you just made Jesus a little bit bigger for me.
Thank you. God bless you for that. And then maybe he goes home and in family worship he has a little bit more excitement and the children see that Jesus is a little more real.
And on it goes, and on it goes. Do you see how this works? All the pronouns that Paul uses here are plural.
It doesn't deny, it exaggerates personal responsibility to learn yourself and to you yourself to grow.
And to come here and benefit all of us by your growth so that we all go together. When Paul says work out your own, he's using plural, not singular.
He's using plural, for it is God who works in you. You, the plural, not the singular. The plural, to willing to work.
And he has in mind this mutually edifying body growing together. Again, read
Ephesians 2. And see this metaphor, this body being a building that's growing up as Jesus Christ builds his church by all of us together working out this salvation, the ramifications, the implications of it.
As we together, as a body, learn how to live as a body according to the word of God.
I learn and I grow that I might spur you on towards the upper call of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. As you do me. As that person next to you does the person across the hall or the aisle.
That's how this is supposed to work. That we come together. There's something there in verse 13 that's of key importance.
And I want to argue that this thing that is of key importance here would be impossible in virtual church.
Or any solitary lone wolf independence type of so -called worship.
Because it ain't. It's not worship that way. It's fear and trembling.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This is the manner in which we work out this mutual salvation we have.
Fear and trembling. Both of which are worth a little bit of explanation. Now just as salvation we work out is not salvation unto eternal life.
It's working out salvation speaking to those who know salvation unto eternal life. Fear and trembling here is not terror.
It's not frightful apprehension that God will destroy our body or soul in hell forever. Because that was all decided on the cross.
Rather it is the fear which is a state of awestruck wonder that we have a
God so wonderful and so wise and so just and so merciful and so holy and so other.
A God so ineffable. A God so lofty and sublime as is our God that He should be with us.
That He should actually be in us. He's in us for He's God who works in you.
No mere spectator of our worship. The Lord God by His Spirit because of the intercession of His Son Jesus Christ our
Savior. He's more than with His people though He is with us. But more than that He's in us.
Now this is a matter of fear. Work out that salvation with fear and trembling brothers and sisters.
Not fear that you're going to be condemned. Again, very important Jesus determined that on the cross.
If you believe in that cross and what He accomplished for us on that cross condemnation is a thing of the past.
Fear that is that awestruck wonder that this God would deign to come from heaven and by His Spirit be with and in us.
He's in His people and then we have to tremble. As in Isaiah chapter 66 verse 5
Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at His word and He's calling the people who tremble because they believe the word and they recognize the
God who breathed that word out to them. Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at His word.
Ezra chapter 9 verse 4 Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the faithfulness of the returned exiles gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.
They trembled because they believed that word. They were appalled because the word of God is living and active as sharper than any two -edged sword and that had pierced through them to the division of their soul and of their spirit of their joints and of their marrow and had discerned the thoughts and intentions of their heart.
Hard surgery, difficult surgery as it's often pictured to be but good work and work that we could tremble at.
Tremble not in fear that it could do me harm tremble that a God so holy and other than us would do this work in you would give you the word and by that word transform you.
It's not tremble like I'm going to get smited from heaven. Jesus will smite on your behalf.
It's trembling in this way of the awestruck wonder that I just can't wrap my mind around this.
My spirit is too small to even conceive of a God like this. It's like the old slave spiritual when they look at the cross it had the refrain oh sometimes it causes me to tremble tremble tremble.
You remember that song? I'm not going to try and sing it for you. I'd ruin it. But it's about looking at the cross were you there when they crucified my
Lord and sometimes it makes me tremble tremble tremble It's like if you look at that cross and your love expands so much for a
God who would have his son be crucified on my behalf makes me tremble with emotion makes me tremble with something deep inside that I can't even translate and I go to Romans 8 and I say
Lord God I pray to you about this and I don't even know what to say I pray the
Holy Spirit to intercede for me and to bring my prayer to you because all I can do is tremble tremble at a
God like this I don't intend my sermon to be a polemic against people who worship at home and I thank
God that we live in a day of technology so that people who cannot be here can at least participate by watching.
My wife cannot be here today because the pain from her cancer rose up last night and so she's too tired to be here but she can watch.
I know she's watching right now thank God for that thank God when we're ill we know that our brothers and sisters are tuned in and at least hearing and watching the progress but even you who we love so much and are joined to this local body
I would argue you cannot fear and tremble at the word of God from a distance the way you do when we're here face to face together physically in this place which is what
Paul had in mind, what Jesus had in mind, all the apostles that it is a gathered church that is in mind here now together we sing, together we pray together we hear the word, together we repent because of the word, together we tremble in awestruck wonder as we know
Christ's presence working in us to become like Him. And if you tell me you can do that from the other side of the world or even from the other side of town all
I can say is there's more hope for a fool now if you can't be here, please log on, please use the means that we have available to us.
Paul says to the Epicureans and the Stoics in Acts chapter 17 that God determined our times and in our times we have that technology, but don't abuse it and do not substitute the screen on whatever device you can think of for church and remember when
Paul says to work out your salvation, all of us together with fear and trembling I don't think anyone can win the argument that they actually fear and tremble from such a distance, enough of that so what then do we find at the end of our works?
What are we working towards? What's the goal of this? The upward call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, that's one way he puts it to the
Philippians and in this immediate context, chapter 2 verse 13 we work for His that's
God's, for His good pleasure. This is what we're accomplishing. This is what
God is accomplishing in us as He works in us as He travels, as He dwells amongst us and in us and bends us all to His will binds us all together as a church so that that will, that good pleasure of God is our common goal and we're all reaching out the same way to the same goal and by the diversity that we have read 1
Corinthians 12, each of us having a part to play a unique perspective, something that will bring me up a half a notch and I can bring you up three quarters of a notch and somebody brings up an eighth of a notch and then we go two notches and we all together grow like this.
It's God who's doing this. It's God who works in us to will, to transform our desires, to make us want what
He wants to will and to work now that we have God's mind, now that we have a will that is
God's will now we're ready to work our desires changed to His, the will of the heart, the desire of the flesh which were once at one time one of the same do you remember when you were by nature a child of wrath, can you look back to that time you had no conflict about the sins you committed, they were one and the same, your spirit, your heart the things you did, it was all coincided
God has changed that it was will for His good pleasure and in that He's given us a bit of a conflict, has
He not? Read Galatians 5 16 -22 and we have the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, two different words by the way, and we're not going to go into that in any detail, we have time but read that to see the conflict, here are the works of the flesh, here are the things that you desired to do, here was your will when it had no conflict with your spirit and then the fruit of the spirit it says love, joy, peace and the rest but now you're in some conflict because your flesh, your members remember the sin and every now and then make you want to reach out to it and your spirit now that new spirit, that new heart
God gave you says no, I don't want to do this, I'm going to fight against it, I'm going to resist it more and more and it's
God who's given you that conflict and it's God who is now working in you to change that will more and more to His will so we can do
His work, it was Jesus in His humanity who prayed three times and that ended in not my will but yours and that was after His third prayer now
Jesus' will and the Father's will were in perfect harmony, yours and mine need some work, do they not?
does not your will and my will need more and more to be conformed to God's, to Christ's?
no, we do need to be changed we do need God working in us to bend our will both to will and to work for His good pleasure there's work that only
God can do, it's work that God intends by the apostolic word that we have that we do together all of us together as a body lifting one another up, pulling each other along, spurring one another on to good works if your will is not bent to God's will then all that you do is what the apostle calls or what the prophet calls filthy rags,
God works in you to soften that flint hard forehead, His spirit applies to you, the redemption you have in Christ Jesus He takes out the stony cold dense heart, the heart of stone that was in the first few verses of our chapter, the one that's bent towards rivalry and conceit and self will and all the rest and He gives a heart of flesh so that we can say with the apostle and such were some of you and such was
I, but it is God working in you to change that will, it is God who gave you a heart that desires to know that will and to work towards it together with all of us as we as a body grow up into that image more and more, amen let's prepare ourselves for prayer with the hymn
I tried to announce at the beginning but this time I'm in the right order it's day by day you should have that on the back of the worksheet that we had for the morning message, there in the insert in your bulletin, day by day you may remain seated day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day day by day offered me within thy holy word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, e 'er to take us from our
Father's hand. One by one, the days of moments fleeting, till I reach the promised land.
Well, let's begin our time of prayer with a prayer of confession, the prayer that we allow our flesh to overcome the spirit that is amongst us and within us.
Our gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks again for this day of worship that you have granted us, for this time we have had together as a body in Christ.
And Father, we as a body do acknowledge that we so often do not avail ourselves of the means of grace that you have given us to grow into the image of Christ more and more.
That you have given us your word, you have given us your spirit, you have given us faith to believe as the
Apostle writes to the Philippians, you, Father, are here working in us. And yet we falter, and yet we put your word by the wayside and follow our own desires so often.
Oh, Lord, there's so much of which we must repent. There's so many times when our will is set forth as more important than your own, and we don't remember the progress that we've made in Jesus Christ.
I pray, Lord, that you would forgive these times, that you would bring them to mind to us, not just in remembrance now, but in the week to come.
Remind us that we are heading in that wrong direction again, like the dog heading to vomit, and that you would halt us,
Lord, by your spirit working in and among us, Father, that we would recognize those times, stop, look to your will, and do that which would bring you good pleasure.
So, Father, forgive us for when we fail to do this. Grant us restoration in Jesus Christ, that we may once again march along in progress towards him.
For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Please move into groups of two or three and pray that kind of prayer of confession where we allow our flesh to overcome the spirit who dwells within us.
We say we have lacked nothing.
We believe that we are deprived of things. Help us, Father, to learn from the example of those who have gone before us, those that were, in fact, in need.
Those who were, in fact. Those who were, in fact, Father, separated from the ones they loved for the sake of your word for years.
Please help us, Father, because, remember, you are the same. As you were enough for them, you are enough for us.
As they depended upon your strength, we may safely depend. You will carry us through.
And you will provide for us. Thank you, the sympathizing Savior that we have, who himself experienced all these things yet without sin.
And even as he was weak, the point of dripping blood, his will was still resolute.
Not my will, but yours. Please take this cup from me, but not if it's not your will.
Help us, Father, to be those that are testing our own thoughts and attitudes by his example.
We would not be those that fall short. What he has led for us, we pray,
Father, you would supply, knowing that you will, because you love us, because you have already supplied.
You have already given him. And you will keep your word and bring us to him at last.
We pray, Father, for those here that don't know that they mean something, that they are, in fact, in a desperate position.
Please wake them up, Father, to see while there is yet time that they may repent and come.
Thank you. You are that merciful Savior for them and for us. We thank you in his name.
Amen. Sometimes we do resist, but I'm surprised it's still right.
We do wrong, and that's not right. Like everyone does, it's not right.
It's Christian, but it's very wrong. Please forgive us for doing that.
In his name, amen. Our deacon,
John Burchett, will come now and pray for the needs that we have within the church. Please pray with me.
Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we have an advocate, one who even now is before you, pleading for us, pleading your mercy for us, reminding you, as it were, of his atoning work, and continually providing that spirit that is even now working in us.
We thank you that that advocate is sympathetic to us, not merely because we are his bride, the chosen ones that you have chosen before the foundation of the earth, but because he has experienced all that we go through, that he does not ask of us anything that he was not willing to do himself.
Help us to learn from his example, Father, that we would not fall short, those who claim allegiance to him, to endure what he endured, knowing that we have a faithful God who will provide for us, and trusting you to carry us when we cannot on our own.
We do pray, Father, you would help us to examine ourselves more thoroughly, as the hymn says, to test our thoughts, to test our attitudes, whether they are consistent with the example of our
Savior. Please, Father, give us more honesty in examining ourselves, that we might clear those logs from our eyes, that we would have clearness to see the specks in our brothers' and sisters' eyes, to be servants to them as you have been to us.
We pray, Father, as a body, as we live together, that we would be fulfilling those one another as you've given to us, that we would be, as the man
Cain once said, our brother's keeper, that we would be those who are acting as your agents here among ourselves.
We pray, Father, for the many needs that are represented here. We think especially of our sister
Sue, that you would preserve her, you would even raise her up, Father, if that's your will, that we would be as, and she would be as Jesus, saying, take this cup away, but not if it's not your will.
Give her strength, Father, to endure, and pray for those among us that are without work, those of us, or sorry, some of us that are far away.
We think especially of Quinn, and there are many others. We pray that you would provide for them and be their strength, that you would bless this body as we grow and mature together, to grow us into that perfect image that we will be as we serve you forever.
We thank you for the reminders of the hymn we studied in a little Sunday school this morning that we have not loved and served and feared you as we ought.
We pray, Father, thankfully, because we know you will answer the prayers of that hymn.
You will give us light. You will give us love as a fire in us. You will give us the zeal and the might to serve you, even in difficult situations.
We thank you that our Savior has gone before and that your promise stands firm, that the
Lord knows who are his. And we pray we'd fulfill the remainder of that verse, that those who are yours would depart from evil.
We pray that you'd send him to us quickly, that we might be rid of all the sin and misery that is around us and inside of us, and that you'd bring us at last to his kingdom, that we might love and serve and fear you as we ought.
We pray in his name. Amen. We pray,
Father, that this would be a witness, if not, sadly, seemingly beyond sensing, that it would be a witness to those for whom they serve, those doctors, caregivers, many others that see them, that it would be a witness for our faithfulness in your command to honor
Father and Mother. We pray you'd give them strength, Father, to bear up day after day that we would not forget them, as we so easily get absorbed in our own things, distracted by the trifles and losing sight of your power to work.
Thanksgiving, on behalf of Conley and Sebastian, that you preserve their lives.
Amen. We pray for this man that hit them, Father, that you'd have mercy on whatever caused him to do what he did.
We pray, Father, that they might even have an opportunity to speak to him and tell him of your love that you came for people just like them, that we are among them, that your power is not limited.
We pray for those among us that have children, have mercy on each one of their souls.
We pray, Father, that they would give them ears to hear, not merely on the outside, but in their hearts, that they would see that these things that are taught to them are not for other people, that they have hearts just like ours.
And that you have mercy that they will submit to you. We pray you'd have mercy on them,
Father, upon us, as we are so familiar with the things of God.
Grant us more, Father, a sight of what we are, of who you are, that we would marvel as we have as much reason as they, because we know our sin, because we know how much about us, ourselves, that others don't know, and that perhaps we don't even know ourselves.
We thank you that you know us, excuse me, that you have loved us just the same.
We pray, Father, you'd give us to have mercy upon others as we see them struggle. We would be those who do as you did, and come alongside us to help, even at the expenditure of ourselves.
We pray you'd help us to show mercy, just as you have shown to us, and not to forget from where you pulled us.
We pray you'd make us to be an example to others, not merely in how holy we live, but in how merciful, how gentle, how appeasable we are.
We would be those that put others first, above ourselves, and live in a way that is like our
Savior. I'll ask
Pastor Conley to come up and pray for the ministries of our church, to pray along the lines that we would do
God's will, that we would will to do God's will. So if Pastor Conley would come up.
Let's see. And here's a letter from our from our association.
This week the prayer requests are from Christ Fellowship of Kansas City. I say thank you for praying.
Here are a few needs we are concerned about. We are growing in our congregations, and we need some additional pastors.
This is a fairly urgent request. We would love to see our ladies have an outstanding retreat this week.
They work hard as wives, mothers, and servants to others. This would be such a good thing. We have a missionary helper from our church in a dangerous area of the world right now.
Please pray for her safety. We're celebrating our 20th anniversary this week. Please rejoice with us.
Good fruit is coming from the small but intense fire conference Jim Elliff led a few days ago.
Please pray for even more. Thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this group of congregations in Kansas City.
We ask that you would watch over them and that you would continue to spiritually provide for them and mature them.
We pray especially for their ladies who are going to a retreat. I ask a retreat.
I pray that would be a spiritual blessing to them. They would be well -equipped for the days and years ahead as mothers and wives.
And we also pray that you would watch over their missionary helper in some other part of the world that remains undisclosed.
We ask that you would assist them in whatever condition they're in, whatever the dangers are.
You know them. We do not. We ask that you would provide for them. And God for our own church, we ask that we would have a strong desire to do your will.
We pray that you would fill us with a zeal for your work and that whether it be the food pantry, the door -to -door evangelism, the
Areopagus Forum, the singles ministry, the weekly services, we ask that you would give us a zeal to do your will and that we would do it with all humility and submission to Christ.
We pray that you would bless not only your own people who are part of the fold already, but even those elect who remain outside of the fold currently.
We ask that through these ministries you would bring them in. We pray for all these ministries involving some proclamation of the word.
We ask that your word would go forward. Also for the sidewalk ministry in front of Planned Parenthood where your word goes forward to those who are contemplating abortion.
We pray that you would save children and women, that you would save their souls from the fire that awaits those who are murderers and are unrepentant.
We pray that you would pull many from the flames through the preached word from these various ministries.
We ask that you would encourage us in all these things that we might continue doing your will and desiring to do so.
In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
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