Heavenly Father, creator of heaven and earth, we praise you because you only are worthy of praise. You spoke and all things came to into being, and with your righteous and sovereign hand you rule over the nations and over our lives. You put leaders in their positions and your will is not thwarted even by the actions of evil men. You alone are holy. You alone are perfectly just. And you are gracious and merciful and you are Love.
Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh, one with the Father and the Spirit in eternity, we thank you and praise you for willingly humbling yourself to become a man, to live a perfect life of obedience to the Father and pay the penalty for our sins by your atoning death on the cross. Though in the form of God, you did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied yourself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Your death and resurrection accomplished for your people what we could never earn by our own merit.
Holy Spirit, you are our comfort in times of sorrow and our power when we are weak. We praise you for your constant presence with us and for the true peace and understanding we can have by your power. We praise you and thank you for the true revelation and very words of God breathed out in the Holy Bible, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
Eternal, triune God, we thank you for your body of believers at Intown Church. We thank you for our pastor and your servant Brian, and his family. We pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit you would grant him peace and joy, wisdom and perseverance, and love and compassion for those you have given to his spiritual care. We thank you for our elder and your servant Scott, and his family. We thank you for the sacrifices he makes to serve and love your people, and we pray you would grant him also peace and joy, wisdom and perseverance, and love and compassion for your people given to his care. We thank you for our deacons, Pete and Peter, our worship and children's leaders, Matt and Jillianne, and their families. We thank you for their sacrificial service and tender care of your people at Intown. Grant them strength and discernment, and joy and fulfillment in their service to you. We pray that you would bind us, your congregation, together as brothers and sisters in Christian love, united to and redeemed by Christ, standing firm on the truth of your word. We ask that by the power of the Holy Spirit we would love one another despite our differences, knowing that what we have in common is far stronger than what the world says should divide us. We pray for wisdom in discerning truth from lies, and boldness to proclaim the good news of the gospel in our worship on Sunday and in our lives throughout the week.
Provider God, who bestows on us every good and perfect gift, and fulfills all of our needs in ways we don't even recognize we need, we pray for your provision in the financial needs of our church. We pray that you would lay on the hearts of your people here at Intown and our friends who have moved away to other states, to give sacrificially for the benefit of your church and for your glory. We ask that you would provide to meet our budget in the month of September, and that you would provide a sustainable way to meet our budget every month. We pray that we would humbly use these financial gifts to glorify you in our proclamation of the gospel, in our service to people and in the mission you have set us apart for. We rest in assurance of your promises told to us in the gospel of Matthew, "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
With the apostle Paul we proclaim, "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, Amen.
— Written by Catherine Summers / Sept. 16th, 2018