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

Gracious Heavenly Father God,

We praise you and thank you for this day that you have made for us to enjoy your goodness and rejoice in your faithfulness.

We come before your throne O Lamb of God, praising and rejoicing for you are worthy.

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” (Revelation 5:12)

We praise you, our most holy God, that we are your yours and that you are ours. We are eternally thankful for this greatest privilege of our lives.

There is absolutely nothing in us that makes us desirable. Yet, you first loved us.

• Even after you picked us up from the miry clay and cleansed us in the precious blood of your Son,
• Even after passing from death to life,
• Even after being transferred to the Kingdom of your beloved Son,
• Even after becoming slaves of Christ and Him breaking our bondages of sin,
• Even after receiving this most precious treasure of the Holy Spirit in these leaky earthen vessels,

…we still pursue fleeting pleasures of this earth over pursuing lasting eternal characteristics. Please forgive us.

If not for your purest grace and the continued work of the Holy Spirit, we will never ever be above reproach before you.

We thank you Triune God for your unending mercies and the cloak of righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Please help us to obey the commandments of Christ.
• Please help us to pursue maturity in the knowledge of Christ.
• Please help us to discern what is pleasing unto the Lord and walk accordingly.
• Please help us to keep putting to death the deeds of the flesh by your Spirit.

Father, we thank you for the role of the local body of believers in each of our lives as we cannot live our Christians lives on our own as individuals or as family units.

Thank you for ordaining our families to worship together in this local assembly. We thank you for Summit Woods Baptist Church - Christ’s blood bought Church family. Please help us to not to forsake our own assembling together.

Please graciously help us to be consistent in:

• loving one another (John 13:34)
• to be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
• to consider others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3)
• to bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)
• to encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
• to exhort one another (Hebrews 3:13)
• to stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)
• to show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
• to pray for one another (James 5:16)

…in the body of Christ. We pray this in the name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.