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

From Isaiah 8:9-15

9 Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered;
And give ear, all remote places of the earth.
Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;
Strap on your armor and be shattered.
10 Take counsel together, devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
Propose your plans, but they will not stand,
For God is with us.”
11 This is what the LORD spoke to me with mighty power, and He instructed me not to walk in the way of [these faithless] people, saying,
12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that these people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
13 It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He [alone] shall be your dread.
14 Then He shall become a sanctuary [to those who trust Him], but a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, a trap and a snare to [those who do not put their trust in Him].
15 “Many will stumble over them,
And then they too will fall and be broken.
They too will even be snared and caught.”

Father, may we be found among the faithful!
May we be counted among those who fear you!
Be with us! And be our defense!
As we are members of your own body, the church, and as we are individually children chosen by you for your purpose, be our defense.
And make us to be unmistakable recipients of your steadfastness which defies earthly explanation.
Make us immovable in courage to obey you alone.
Bold but gracious in our resolve to stand in our stormy times.
Give us affection for your word.
Make us to understand it, to submit to it, to discern right courses of living and leading in light of it,
And make us to be piercing examples of those with unwavering confidence in You.
YOU are with US!

So make us faithful to fear only You...May we not be found among the unfaithful.
May we not be counted even among the decent yet godless people of our day.
May we not be distracted by the activities of evildoers, and the seeming successes of sinful ideologies.
Let us not fear what the world fears.
Make us rather to know the righteous and perfect power of yourself.
Make us to eagerly and patiently anticipate the consummation of your will.
Make us to know your holiness and perfect, loving sovereignty.
And make us to faithfully communicate your holiness and worthiness of worship to the dark world in which we live,
Giving them to know that you are alone to be dreaded and feared.

And so be our sanctuary.
Make our knowledge of you give us not to fear, but to the freedom of hope!
May we ever find deepening appreciation for your character.
And thereby, may we be given to uncommon joy, praise, and thankfulness!
Even this morning, as there is one in our body - Carol Hurley - who is slowly making her final steps out of this world and into your presence, give her and her family attitudes of gratefulness to you. Remind them of your love. And the eternal reward awaiting your own.
Make each of them, and those of us gathered here today, fervently desirous of seeing your return.
Let us not grow faint as we await to be perfectly and physically united with you: our Savior, our sanctuary, and our reward.
All these things we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.