Pastoral Prayer

*This prayer was delivered at Gethsemane Baptist Church during Lord’s Day worship on April 7, 2024.

Praise & Thanksgiving

Heavenly Father, we worship you, we magnify you, and we give you the praise that is due your name. We thank you that you are so faithful and true to your promises. You are not a God afar off, but you have drawn near to us in Christ Jesus. And by Christ Jesus, we now draw near to you in prayer to find grace to help in time of need.

We come before you with our requests to make them known to you, so help us pray as we ought. And help us to entrust ourselves to our faithful God in all these matters that we bring before you now.

Other Churches

Father, we give you thanks for what you are doing outside of our church in other faithful, gospel-proclaiming churches in our area. We think of the saints called Proclamation Church in Mount Vernon. Thank you for those brothers and sisters who are assembling this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus. Bless their gathering and give Rick your wisdom and strength as he preaches the gospel. Let that church be nourished as your Word dwells in them richly through the preaching, singing, and reading of the Word this morning.

We also pray for First Baptist Church of Johnstown and the efforts to replant that church. We pray for Sam Romine as he plans to lead the replanting of that church with the new name of Redemption Church. We ask that it would be a peaceful transition, that the few saints who are left at First Baptist would be able to see the goodness of replanting as Redemption Church, and that those who are coming for the plant would care for those older saints from First Baptist of Johnstown. We pray that you would bless their efforts to be faithful, and cause that church to grow and the gospel to burn brightly there in Johnstown.

Sanctification of the Saints

We also pray for our own church this morning, O Lord. We pray for the ministry of the Word at this church that we would find it both a joy and our responsibility to submit to whatever your Word says. Give us an ironclad commitment to obey you no matter what the cost, no matter what society deems archaic and out of date, no matter what mockery or sneering may come our way. Keep us faithful and committed to your Word no matter what.

To that end we pray that you would bless this short series on the subject of missions. Give us a heart for the nations, O Lord. Help us to long to see the gospel go to the ends of the earth so that the nations are given to your Son as his inheritance. Give us more opportunities to support foreign church planting by those who see the church as the focal point of missions. Use the ministry of the Word here and this short series on missions to kindle in our hearts a love to see your name exalted over all the earth through missions and the sending out of missionaries.

We pray in particular for John. Thank you for saving his soul. Thank you for demonstrating your love for John, in that while he was still a sinner, Christ died for him. Thank for nailing his sins to the tree, counting his trespasses against no more. Bless his life and provide for all his needs, we pray. Bless him in his job and give him favor in the eyes of his employers, and give his soul spiritual renewal as he walks in communion with you day by day. Cause his faith in the Lord Jesus to persevere and not fail. And let John glorify you and enjoy forever.

The Word

Father, may the preaching of the Word here bring you glory as we seek to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. May the words of my mouth and may the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. All this we ask in Jesus’s name. Amen!