Hope Church Prayer Book seeks to promote a worship culture from Monday to Saturday by conveying worship resources from Sundays. Worship is not a thought, but an action; not a concept, but a practice. And the more we practice, the more in shape we get - in the shape of Jesus. So sing out loud or read a responsive prayer before dinner. Each month’s prayer book will now be available on Hope’s website under the resources tab!
The Dayenu, Explained
This past Sunday we did a modern-day adaptation of the Dayenu. Dayenu, which literally translated means, “It would have sufficed” or “It would have been enough” was meant to portray the nature of a God who goes above and beyond what is necessary for His own glory. Here are some examples from the original Dayenu still prayed at Seder feasts today:
If He had split the sea for us, and had not taken us through it on dry land
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had taken us through the sea on dry land, and had not drowned our oppressors in it
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had drowned our oppressors in it, and had not supplied our needs in the desert for forty years
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
In each of these stanzas, we see that God would have been glorified in any single one of these magnanimous, unmerited acts. But He chose to complete all of them in order to deliver and establish His people Israel.
On Sunday, we used this same structure to celebrate our own deliverance and establishment as the new people of God in Christ Jesus. Much like the old, we delineated each of the elements of our deliverance and realized that God could have stopped anywhere along the way and still been glorified, even though our salvation would not have been complete:
Jesus, if you had left heaven and become human and not performed signs and wonders,
it would have been enough
If you had performed signs and wonders and not taught us the way of life,
it would have been enough
If you had taught us the way of life and had not suffered and died for our sins,
it would have been enough
But God chose to give us the same, magnanimous, unmerited favor His love has always compelled Him to give to complete the entire process for His glory AND our good.
We celebrate the full message of the gospel each time we come together as a church, and we break that up into four parts:
God in His glory
Man in His need
Christ in His mercy
The Spirit in His sending
How wonderful, how unsearchable, how mysterious that God didn’t stop at step one, but chose to fold us, His Creation, into His glory by redeeming us. As it says in Paul’s doxology in Romans 11:33-36:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Calls to Worship
Mosaic
In looking at wisdom’s take on youth and age, I’m so thankful to be a part of a community that has both. It’s very rare in a culture that tends to silo like with like and label everything else as “other”. What we miss in those scenarios is a fuller wisdom. See, the wisdom of age informs the passion of youth, AND, the passion of youth informs the wisdom of age. We need each other if we are going to both know the best thing to do AND do it.
Take it another step further, and to truly know wisdom, we have to know Jesus, our wisdom from God. But how can I know someone infinite? It’s like dipping a martini glass in the ocean. But if we’re all filled and it spills over into others (a working definition of worship) like one of those little champagne fountains, we all have a fuller picture of the God we worship. Like it stays in Ephesians 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
So let’s do the work of being filled and overflowing to each other. We need each other not just for fuller wisdom, but for fuller worship, because we see God more fully in mosaic!
Decisions
When it comes to decisions, I can’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve been so confused with a decision because all of the options seemed equally good or bad. No one can attest to this confusion better than my parents who used to draw straws for who would have to take me to buy shoes. It would literally take upwards of 2-3 hours.
I’d try on one pair and think, “ah these are so cool. Box ‘em up, these are the ones…but let me try one last pair on…ah these are so much more supportive and that’s really what matters…but this third pair is so tough…the material! I could hike in these on the weekends…but they don’t look very cool…” Round and round. To this day I don’t know why my parents didn’t just say, “You have ten minutes. Good luck.” Maybe they wanted me to wrestle.
What would have helped the most, I think, was a guiding question. “Which shoes help you play basketball the best at the best price?” All of the sudden several parameters become irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what they look like because this isn’t a fashion show, it’s basketball. It doesn’t matter if you could hike in them, they’re for basketball. Boom. 10 minutes. Done.
See, a lot of us lumber through decisions without the right guiding question, and I think that question is found in Psalm 73:17a:
Then I went into the sanctuary, and I understood
As we wrestle with big decisions – and everyone brings them into this place: from potty training to class schedules to retirement – all the options seem equal until we ask the guiding question: Which one will help me worship? Because worship is the posture where life makes the most sense.
So let’s celebrate that the biggest decisions have already been made, and I believe that will bring a fresh clarity to all the smaller ones down the line.
Come to Me
This call to worship comes from Matthew 11:28:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Seems like a straightforward process
Come to Jesus
He will give you rest
But we often fail to go through step zero: be weary, be burdened. We often try to “should” ourselves out of those states. “My life is amazing, I shouldn’t be feeling this way…other people have it worse…I wouldn’t be feeling this way if my friend would just come my way…” We try to police our feelings instead of having them, but how can we complete steps 1 and 2 without first recognizing how we’re feeling, and then feel those feelings in the presence of God? Remember, worship is the posture where life makes the most sense.
So however you’re arriving to this moment, arrive fully. Doing a little emotional inventory might help with this. Take the next thirty seconds or so to feel your feet against the floor and put your hand on your chest and ask yourself what you’re bringing into God’s presence.
Now sing from that place because true rest is on the other side of God’s presence.
Baptisms
Baptisms are an ordinance. They are not merely a tradition of the church but a command of Jesus to strengthen the faith of believers by giving them a ritual by which they declare their official beginning as disciples. Witnessing these declarations reminds us all that our journey had a beginning and it takes us back to it. Like it says in Colossians 2:6-7
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Take a moment to watch this baptism video from November 2nd. If you think of it, pray for these new believers: that even as they grow, they would remain right where they started.
Prayers
Generational Prayers of the People
The following was prayed on a Sunday where we were discussing wisdom’s take on youth and age. We asked five people to write a prayer and pray it over the generation coming after them. The prompt was to pray something over them as if you were their age, something over them as if they were your age, and bless them in the Name of the God of the Ages.
From a senior saint
Intro: Join us now as the generations of Hope Church bless and pray for each other. Let us pray
————–
Lord, we pray for the families at Hope Church with children in the home. As grandparents, we realize how fleeting these child-rearing years will seem to the young parents now when their children are grown and away from home. So we pray for these young parents now that you will give them wisdom and dedication, strength and patience as they raise their children. We especially pray for the parents to lead and train their children to follow your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray for the children to honor and obey their parents and to resist the ever present pull of the world. I bless them in the name of the God of the Ages.
From a parent
Holy Father, I lift up our young adults. Those young men and women stepping into the responsibility of upholding our communities and society. Establish them as pillars of truth, justice, mercy, and compassion. Give them dreams and visions to bring about Your Kingdom in glorious fashion. Bless the work of their hands. May they be fruitful, and may the storehouses of wisdom in this church body and in their daily lives open up to them. I bless them in the Name of the God of Ages.
From a young adult
Dear God, I thank You for our middle school and high school youth. I pray that You surround them with faithful leaders, give them diligence in school and wisdom in friendships and decisions to come. I pray You guide them in Your Word and draw near to them so they can know you, shine Your light in their various circles, and build a foundation in faith that will carry them through each next step. May You be so present in their day to day whether it may feel monotonous or too much to handle. I bless them in the Name of the God of the Ages.
From a youth
Father, for those that are young, those that are at a crucial moment in their lives to be influenced, that they would be influenced by wise and godly people. I pray that You shape them to abide by Your will. I pray that they take things they learn about You and put them into their heart so that they may apply them. I pray that they want to follow God, not just because their family or friends follow You, but because they truly want to follow and love Jesus. That they would put their faith into action and have a yearning to do God’s will. That they embrace their curiosity at this age, and they learn to think hard and lean into that curiosity and ask questions they have about You and about life. I bless them in the Name of the God of the Ages.
From a child
Please help the elders to have good healthcare and live a long life. Please help them to have fun playing games, and that they could follow Jesus. I bless them in the Name of the God of the Ages.
Lament
In a prayer of lament, we come to God, recognizing that we have no answers. We just know this is not the way it’s supposed to be. So we cry out to God. Today’s prayer is based on Psalm 13
How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
– God, we are overwhelmed by the things we have to go through, and by the things our loved ones have to go through.
– We mourn with those facing unbearable illness, and for their family and friends who face it with them
– We mourn with our young people who carry heavy burdens, and who feel a sense of hopelessness
– We mourn with those who have lost loved ones recently
– We mourn with those who have broken relationships, and who experience hurt from the people they love most
– We mourn with those who are lonely
– We mourn with those who daily battle mental health issues
– We mourn with those for whom the upcoming Holiday season will be painful rather than joyful
– How long, O Lord?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts, and every day have sorrow in my heart?
– God, we are overwhelmed with sadness by the things we see in the world
– We mourn for the destruction of Hurricane Melissa, especially in Jamaica; for the loss of life, for the pain the people are going through, for the uncertainty they now face
– We mourn for the uncertainty many experience in our country; we mourn with those who fear deportation, we mourn with those who have lost jobs or access to basic needs like food and shelter
– We mourn for the wars that continue in our world: between Russia and Ukraine; between Israel and Hamas; in Sudan. We mourn for the senselessness of it, we mourn for the lives lost, we mourn for those who remain – grieving yet unable to mourn, themselves, as they are kept from safety and security; we mourn for the leaders who place political posturing over solutions, ultimatums over diplomacy, self-preservation over saving lives
– How long, O Lord?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
– Lord, we are overwhelmed by sin and temptations
– We mourn our disordered desires
– We mourn that we are prone to wander
– We mourn our inability to choose anything else left on our own
– How long, O Lord?
Benediction
Jude 24-25
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy– to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
