Please find below the notes from the Elder's Prayer this past Sunday.

I love singing together as a church when we gather each Sunday morning. It doesn’t really matter to me who leads. Joel and Dawson both serve us so well. So it’s not about who leads but it’s about what we sing and the fact that we sing together.

It doesn’t matter what Sunday of the year it is, when we gather and lift our voices together, our minds are lifted toward God because of what we sing together and who we are singing about. We sing theological truth that makes much of God.

Consider what we just sang together. It was a single-minded expression of devotion to God that should inform all parts of our life. Our hurried lives pull us in lots of different directions but ultimately our lives should be centered on God, resting in His sovereignty and looking forward to His ultimate victory.

If you would consider Jeremiah 9:23–24 as we go to prayer:

[23] Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, [24] but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

(Prayer)

Father as we have just sung together, I pray that God indeed, you would be our vision, that you would be our guiding inspiration, that you would be our motivation, that you would be what we delight in most. Father, you call us the have high thoughts of you, to have a high vision of your Son, who is our only hope, whom you sent to us as a redeemer because of your great love for us. We praise you for your kindness, love and mercy perfectly revealed in Christ your Son.

Father we confess, instead of having high and heavenly thoughts, we are tempted in our flesh to think exhaustively about earthly things. We overestimate our wisdom and sinfully boast in it. We foolishly overrate our strength, our abilities and our influence seeking satisfaction in our own industriousness. We irrationally overvalue our possessions and our perceived security derived from wealth. Father forgive us for such sinful short-sightedness that reveals our eager willingness to believe our deceitful hearts and fill our minds wrongfully with sinful pride.

Only a true and accurate knowledge and understanding of you matters.  If we are going to boast, help us boast rightly by having confidence in the gospel. Salvation is not earned, it is a gift given to us by your gracious doing as Christ’s righteousness is imputed or credited to us even though we have absolutely no righteousness of our own to contribute. We are sanctified and redeemed by a loving and Holy God so that all glory can be attributed to the one that saves.

Help us father to know you more thoroughly and understand you more completely and delight in you more consistently. You are the Lord who practices steadfast love, you are faithful despite our foolish arrogance and unloveliness. You practice justice that is perfect and embody holy righteousness keeping all of your promises. Help us to rehearse these truths as we worship you not just in our singing in this hour but in our lives as we leave this building.