Psalm 67:1-7 | Kingdom-minded Prayer
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SERMON TITLE: Kingdom-minded Prayer
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 67:1-7 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 12-28-25
TURN MIC ON / WELCOME
It’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. These combined campus services are always special — it’s good to all be in one location together. And — as always — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
INTRODUCTION
Gateway, we are in for a treat this morning. For this morning our focus is going to be on Kingdom-minded prayer. As you hopefully know — our mission — here at Gateway — is to “glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ.” And our vision is that every disciple of Jesus — who’s part of our church — would be a disciple who’s a Word and Spirit Christian — who lives under the authority of the Word of God and by the power of the Spirit of God — who’s generous, who’s family, is a disciple who makes other disciples of Jesus, and — finally — who’s Kingdom-minded — meaning who desires to see the Good News of what Christ has done in his life, death, and resurrection spread all across this globe to people of all nations.
And — as I said a moment ago — this morning our focus is going to be on Kingdom-minded prayer. For — the last Sunday of the year — for a few years now — has been a time of focused prayer for us as a church. And today will be no different. What will be slightly different about today is that — instead of focusing on a bunch of different areas of life — today we’re going to focus on this value of being Kingdom-minded.
I’ll explain what that means for us today in a moment but — for now — let’s turn to our text. We’ll be in Psalm sixty-seven this morning. Psalm sixty-seven — beginning in verse one.
1 May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us. 2 May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. 3 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 4 Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world. 5 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 6 Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. 7 Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him.
This psalm is the epitome of Kingdom-minded prayer.
May you ways be known throughout the earth — your saving power among people everywhere. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Let the whole world sing for joy…
My hope for our time together this morning — is that you will be inspired and compelled to have an even greater global perspective in your prayer life in 2026. That all of our prayers would become more Kingdom-minded in this coming year.
Here’s one way to make your prayers more Kingdom-minded in the coming year.
PRAY FOR GOD’S WAYS TO BE KNOWN
Pray for God’s ways to be known throughout the earth — specifically — that his saving power would be known among people everywhere.
This is exactly what the psalmist prays in verse two.
2 May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere.
And what is the means by which God’s ways are known throughout the earth — how is God’s saving power known? Through the proclamation of the gospel and preaching of God’s Word. Thus, one way our prayers can become more Kingdom-minded is for us to pray regularly for God’s ways to be known throughout the earth — for the Good News — of all that Jesus has accomplished is his life, death, and resurrection — to spread to all people.
In past sermons I’ve shared with you two resources that can help your prayers to be more Kingdom-minded. The first is the app and website Operation World. For the first seven weeks or so of the year — you pray for the world. Then — starting on February ninth — you start praying through the nations of the world alphabetically — beginning with Afghanistan.
There’s some information on each country — but more importantly — there are prayer prompts — ways you can be praying for the people of the specific nation. Ways for you to pray for God’s ways to be known in that nation — and for God’s saving power to be known among the people living in that nation.
Would you join me — in 2026 — in praying for the nations by using the Operation World app or website?
That’s the first resource to help you be more Kingdom-minded in your prayers in 2026.
The second resource is the Joshua Project. Another app and website you can use to help your prayer be more Kingdom-minded. The difference between Joshua Project and Operation World is that — where Operation World focuses on nations — the Joshua Project focuses on unreached people groups. A nation is made up of many different groups of people — groups with differences in language, religion, history, and so on — and what the folks at Joshua Project have done is found the people groups in the world who — as of now — have little or no access to God’s ways and his saving power.
Each day a new unreached people group is highlighted — again with some basic info about the people group — in addition to ways you can pray for them.
Would you join me — in 2026 — in praying for the unreached people groups of our world by using the Joshua Project app or website?
It takes about five minutes a day to use both apps — five minutes total — to pray for the nation of the day and for the unreached people group of the day. Do you have five minutes to invest in praying for God’s ways to be known throughout the earth — for his saving power to be known among people everywhere? I believe that you do and I hope you’ll invest those five minutes in becoming more Kingdom-minded in your prayers.
THE GOAL OF KINGDOM-MINDED PRAYER
For we cannot expect the nations to praise God or for the earth to rejoice — if we don’t commit ourselves to being Kingdom-minded in our prayers.
3 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 4 Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world. 5 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you.
Nor should we expect God to answer our prayers of…
1 May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us.
And…
6 Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. 7 Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him.
CONCLUSION
Now — of course — there’s more to be done in addition to prayer. Some will be an answer to prayer by being those who go to be the ones God uses to make his ways known throughout the earth — who will go to nations and peoples where Christ is not known and tell of his saving power and work. Some folks from among us have done just that — others are in the process of being sent — we’ll get to them in a moment. But — now — we’re going to practice Kingdom-minded prayer together.
And here’s how we’re going to do so.
In a moment ____ (elder) is going to come up and lead us in a time of prayer for our local ministry partners here in Findlay.
Then ____ (elder) will come up and lead us in prayer for our national ministry partners — some of our ministry partners who are serving in our nation.
Then _____ (elder) will lead us in a time of prayer for our global ministry partners.
After that — ____ (elder) is going to interview a couple in our church who has plans to serve in the missions field in the next few years. Their ministry work may begin sooner than that — but they hope to be overseas in the next few years. But we want you to hear about their plans now — so you can begin praying for them.
Then we’ll hear about another of our members — Dorie Pierre — who recently left for Saudi Arabia — where she’ll be serving for the next year.
And — finally — I’ll come back up and interview Kelly and Becca — who we sent out earlier this year to serve in Afghanistan.
So — at this time — I’d like to invite ____ — one of our elders — who will lead us in a time of prayer for our local ministry partners.
PRAYER AND INTERVIEWS
Local partners - 3 minutes
National partners - 3 minutes
Global partners - 3 minutes
Carsten/Emily W. update - 5 minutes
Dorie video and prayer for her - 5 minutes
K and B interview - 10-15 minutes (Josh)
What's been the greatest joy this past year?
How have you seen God at work?
What's been the most significant challenge?
What's your most significant need right now?
What are you specifically praying for regarding your ministry?
How can we be praying for you?
Pray for Greens - ___ elder leads prayer
ONE MORE THING - KELLY AND BECCA DON’T GO ANYWHERE
Kelly has expressed missing the shenanigans that are part of being on staff here at Gateway.
And — Kelly — you had a birthday that was not insignificant in number this year. In fact — the rumor I’ve heard is that you were so desperate to get away from us — that Afghanistan seemed like a better option for your 60th birthday than being around here.
Well never fear — the shenanigans are about to happen. After the service — there will be cake in the cafe so we can all celebrate Kelly’s turning the big 6-0.
But how about we all sing Happy Birthday to him right now — because there’s way we’ll get that coordinated in the cafe later. Bring out the cake
COMMUNION
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise.
Leader: With joy we praise you, gracious God, for you have created heaven and earth, made us in your image, and kept covenant with us — even when we fell into sin.
Congregation: We give you thanks for Jesus Christ, our Lord, who by his life, death, and resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life. Therefore we join our voices with all the saints and angels and the whole creation to proclaim the glory of your name.
We give thanks to God the Father that our Savior, Jesus Christ, before he suffered, gave us this memorial of his sacrifice, until he comes again. At his last supper, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after supper and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this in remembrance of me.” For whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Leader: Therefore we proclaim our faith as signed and sealed in this sacrament:
Congregation: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
At this time — those who will be serving communion can make their way to the table. In a moment, ushers will begin dismissing you by rows, so you can come forward to receive the bread and the cup. Take both before returning to your seats. There are baskets — up front — for you to put your empty cups in. We also have a gluten free wafer option for those who need one. If you’re unable to come forward — raise your hand and let the usher know as they dismiss your row — and someone will come and serve you in your seat. And — if you're not coming forward for communion today — know that no one is judging you for staying in your seat. We would appreciate it if you could help those who are coming forward make their way past you. And if you have any questions about communion or what it means to follow Jesus, please stop by the resource center before you leave today.
BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)
May you go knowing that God has been merciful towards us — and has blessed us — and may his mercy and blessing compel each of us to be more Kingdom-minded focused in our prayers in this coming year. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
