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

Father God, we praise you for redeeming us.  You make us new creations who now find our identity in Christ and not in this world.   

As believers, our identity in Christ means we are saved.  You rescue us from the penalty of sin.  Jesus Christ knew no sin, yet you made him to be sin for our sake.  Thank you God for regarding and treating our sin as if it belonged to Christ, not to us.  Christ bore our sins, serving as our substitute, bearing the your wrath, and receiving the punishment that we earned and deserved.  Just as you imputed our sin on Christ, now you impute His righteousness to believers too.  We are forgiven as you declare and treat us if we never sin because of Christ.  We can never praise you sufficiently for your grace found in the gospel. 

Our identity in Christ not only means that we are saved but also that we are sealed and secured.  Father your gift of the Holy Spirit serves to protect and preserve our salvation.  Our current salvation and our future inheritance are certain.  We do nothing to earn our salvation nor can we lose our salvation.  Thank you Lord. Believers can’t be separated from your love.  We can’t be snatched away by the evil one.  You will never abandon us.  We are sealed as belonging to you and eternally secure in Christ.  We praise you for this comforting and stabilizing reality.  Help us to live in this truth Lord.   

Father, we praise you too that because of our identity in Christ, we are sanctified.  As new creations, our lives are transformed resulting in new behaviors, new desires, and new patterns of living.  Sin's domination of our lives is broken.  Instead of being slaves to sin, we are now joyfully slaves to Christ characterized by new patterns of obedience to your word and a consistent pursuit of holiness.  We begin loving the things that you love and hating the things you hate.  We seek what is best for others instead of always seeking to please ourselves.  I pray this will be more true in us.  This pursuit of holiness instead of pursuing sin isn’t marked by perfection but is marked by progress.  We praise you Father for changing the passions of our hearts to pursue you instead of self. 

Father, we praise you too that because of our identity in Christ, we are sent as Christ’s ambassadors.  We no longer represent ourselves but represent you.  We seek to make your appeal to the world as your envoys.  We have the privilege to preach and live out gospel-transformed lives before others and to plead with them to be reconciled to God, just as we have been reconciled to you.  I ask you Lord to speak through us to implore unbelieving sinners to repent of their sin and come to you in faith.  You enabled us to believe in Christ and we now find our identity in him.  You save us, you seal and secure us, you sanctify us and you send us.  We praise you for this remarkably undeserved favor.