I would like to ask if you would just take a, a minute with me to join with me in prayer. Let's ask that the Lord would ready our hearts to hear what he has for us this morning. Dear Lord, we just come before you this morning. And Father God, we wish to quiet our hearts before you.
Lord We pray that you would prepare our hearts to hear what you have in store for us. Lord, we pray that you in your grace would give to us ears to hear. And eyes to see what you want us to hear and what you want to show us here this morning. We realize, Lord, that apart from your grace, apart from the illumination of your spirit, Lord, that we in and of ourselves are unable to receive, and so we come to you this morning dependent upon you.
We approach your throne of grace with boldness, and we ask, oh God, that you would give to us the grace and the help that we need. We pray, Father, that you might see fit to minister your grace in its various forms to us this morning. For those of us who need to be exhorted and admonished and rebuked, we pray for that. For those of us who need comfort and encouragement and hope, we pray for that, Lord, above all things, we pray, Father, that you would grant to all of us a spirit of wisdom.
And of revelation in the true knowledge of Christ that you would reveal yourself to us, that you would help us to behold you, our King, high and lifted up, Lord. I pray, Father, that you would use me as your unworthy servant for the purpose of ministering grace to your people here this morning. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you. Father God, above all things, we thank you for Jesus whose blood was shed on the cross so that Father, our sins might be forgiven and that Lord, we can come to you and we can ask of you these things....