Prayer Service 7-28-23

Adoration

The Love of God

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Love)

God’s love is the divine attribute that indicates God’s disposition to be self-giving and for the good of the other.

i.e., self-sacrificing love

We must remember:

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Love)

...Every divine attribute is in harmony with every other. Each attribute expresses God’s superabundant love.

This means that God demonstrates his love not only in his goodness, mercy, grace, compassion, and faithfulness, but also in his holiness, justice, jealousy, and wrath.

His love is holy, just as his holiness is loving.

1 Corinthians 13:6 (ESV)

6 ...does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Also… Very important:

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Love)

God does not exercise his love solely toward his creation, for this would imply that God was not fully actualized until he created something.

Rather, the eternal triune relations of the Father, Son, and Spirit are characterized by love.

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Love)

The God of love has revealed himself to be self-giving, self-sharing, and self-communicating.

His love is personal and relational.

He is a God who comes near to his creatures, seeking fellowship with them.

Electing Love:

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 (ESV)

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers...

Malachi 1:2–3 (ESV)

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob

3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

Sustaining Love

Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

3 ...I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Forgiving Love:

Joel 2:12–14 (ESV)

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him...

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Love)

In the New Testament, God’s love is demonstrated most poignantly in Jesus Christ’s incarnation and death, whereby God the Son exchanged heavenly glory for earthly servitude and laid down his life for the sake of his beloved enemies

The Father:

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Son:

Ephesians 5:25 (ESV)

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Undeserved Love

Romans 5:6–8 (ESV)

6 ...while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Titus 3:4–5 (ESV)

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

God’s Love is to be imitated by us:

1 John 3:16 (ESV)

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 4:7–11 (ESV)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Finally, to prod us to adoration:

Romans 8:38–39 (ESV)

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer of Adoration

Supplication

Believers in Nigeria and surrounding regions (Islamic Persecution)

The Sawyers as they begin to give reports

Ministry of Jonathan Kileteney and others back in Sekenani

Revealing of truth, and justice for both presidents.

Mercy for our Nation

Repentance for our Nation

Righteous leaders in the upcoming elections.

School teachers and administrators in the upcoming year

The youth of our nation

Protection from corrupting influences

Protection from Sexual perversion and mutilations

Our sick and suffering loved ones and acquaintances