I invite you to turn with me tonight to 1 Chronicles chapter 29, 1 Chronicles 29, we read verses 10 through 20, which is David's prayer, giving thanks to God that the gifts for building the temple had been gathered, 1 Chronicles 29, beginning at verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord. David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. For everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. O Lord God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the whole heart of devotion to keep your commands, requirements, and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided. Then David said to the whole assembly, Praise the Lord your God. So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers. They bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the King. Beloved, it's no secret to any of us, I trust, that prayer is a most precious gift of God given to His people. He has provided this mode of communication to Him, with Him, to those who are washed in the blood of Jesus. And that communication with God is indeed a wonderful thing, isn't it? As parents, it's a wonderful experience for us when our children begin to communicate with us in a way that's understandable. It's wonderful when they begin to express their needs and their dependence and their confidence and their trust in us as parents. And the same is true with God and His children. Proverbs 15 verse 8 says, The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him. Now we are familiar with the components or what we might call the elements of prayer, including adoration to God, confession of our sins, thanksgiving to Him, and supplication or bringing our petitions before Him. But what about the character of God-pleasing prayer? I trust this too is not unfamiliar to any of us here. We've considered this before as we've considered in the past, Lord's Day 45, And question and answer 117, question 117 talks about that character when it asks, how does God want us to pray so that He will listen to us? In other words, what is included in prayer that pleases God? And we can summarize the three parts of that answer by saying that God-pleasing prayer is faithful, it's humble, and it's trusting. And I believe that David demonstrates that three-fold character in the prayer which we just read a moment ago. And when we say, first of all, that God-pleasing prayer is faithful, we are to understand, as the Catechism says, that it comes from the heart to the one true God. Those two major elements. From the heart to the one true God. It is from the heart, first of all. From the believing heart. From a new, born-again heart that by true faith then knows and believes that God is. That God exists. That God is real. That heart believes that this God is the one and only God. That there is no other God. And that this God then hears our prayers. He's not like the idle gods that have ears but do not hear because they cannot hear. And faithful prayer is from a heart that is passionate about prayer. because that prayer understands how infinitely awesome and majestic God is. And yet, the believer feels welcome in God's presence because He Himself tells us to bring our all before Him. Again, David, I believe, demonstrates this when he says in verses 10 to 13, Praise be to You, O Lord, God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from You. You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give You thanks and praise Your glorious name. See, David gives adoration and praise to God for who He is, who God is, And David knows this from his heart. But faithful prayer is also from a heart that is obedient to God. And that heart then, in obedience to God, asks only for, yet asks confidently, for that which God has commanded us in His Word to ask of Him. And beloved, this naturally assumes then that there is faithful and there is continuous study of God's Word in order to know what God commands us to ask of Him. Namely, all that we need for body and soul. But God-pleasing prayer, beloved, is also then humble. God's people are to come before Him with a humble heart, knowing our need, knowing our misery, and humbling ourselves before His majestic presence. You see, beloved, we know that we in no way deserve to come into God's presence. We know that there is no reason in us that God should hear us and that God should answer us. Again, David understood that, I believe, as we consider verses 14 through 16. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. And we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. O Lord, our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name, it comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you. Yet because our God gives us the spiritual eyes of faith to see Him and to see ourselves clearly, we are humbled to know what an awesome privilege is ours to come before this holy God. You see, those who think that they deserve to be heard of God are not heard. But we are amazed, or we are to be amazed, that we have access to this God. You see, beloved, true prayer cannot be spiritually indifferent. It is not to be meaningless with an attitude that says that either I can get by without prayer, or the attitude that I'll pray because you know it can't hurt anything anyway, Or the attitude that says, I deserve to pray? Instead, true prayer is to be born out of humble love for and dependence on our Heavenly Father upon whom all blessings depend and from whom all blessings flow. See, God-pleasing prayer is humble, yet at the same time it's confident. Hebrews 4 verse 16 says, Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. And therefore, God-pleasing prayer is also trusting. It trusts God. We trust that God will hear our prayers, not because we deserve it, but for Jesus' sake. That's the foundation, isn't it? For Jesus' sake. Because He alone has earned that privilege or that benefit for us. And therefore, beloved, we are also to trust that even when we don't know what or don't know how to pray, we are to trust that as Scripture says, the Holy Spirit prays for us. And our Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us before the Father. What confidence, huh? What marvelous confidence belongs to you and me. Only this God can give us that kind of certainty. Again, David prayed with a trusting heart and he acknowledged that God knows the heart. As he says in the first part of verse 17, I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. And beloved, the believer's trust includes knowing that we have more than simply access to the Father. We have access, which is wonderful, but it's more than just access. But with the Father, there's an unlimited supply of divine resources. With Him, there are infinite riches and the inexhaustive resources of heaven. Only with Him, there is more than enough for our needs, freely available from a loving Heavenly Father. In Christ Jesus, the believer enjoys a boundless treasury of all spiritual blessings. There are many things included in this. We can't touch them all, but it includes the fruit of the Spirit, which Paul speaks of. It includes comfort in sorrow. It includes strength in weakness. It includes deliverance from temptation. It includes peace that passes understanding. There's not one need, congregation. There's not one need the believer has or can have that God cannot fill. And what is our Lord's commitment to His people? Philippians 4, verse 19 says, And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Again, that was David's comfort so much so that he could say in Psalm 145, verse 18, The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. And what then is our response to be for this blessing? As the psalmist says in Psalm 116, verses 1 and 2, I love the Lord, for He heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live. Beloved, may we delight in prayer. And may it be our desire to be led by the Holy Spirit to be more faithful, to be more humble and to be more trusting in prayer, knowing and believing that for Jesus' sake, our God says, my son, my daughter, I will hear you. Let us bow our hearts and minds together in prayer tonight. With one voice tonight, we acknowledge that you, O Lord God, our God most high, the maker of heaven and earth, the creator of all that is seen and unseen. And we praise you as the sustainer and governor of all that you have made by the word of your power. We worship you alone, the one true and living God. You alone, Lord, are holy. There is none like you. You alone are changeless from everlasting to everlasting. You are wise beyond measure and you know all things. You alone know and have determined the end from the beginning. Your judgments are unsearchable and your paths beyond tracing out. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so far are your ways higher than our ways and your thoughts than our thoughts. We come before you as creatures made in your own likeness, created in true righteousness and holiness, created such that we might rightly know you and love you and live with you in eternal happiness to glorify and praise you. We come before you as creatures who have rebelled against you in our sinfulness, sinful by nature through the fall of our first father, Adam, and sinful of our own accord in thought, word, and action. And we come before you as creatures that you have not left to ourselves. Once dead in our transgressions and sin, we have been made alive in Christ. Once your enemies, we have been made citizens of your kingdom and indeed have been made your children, heirs of your promises in Christ. We thank you and we praise you for demonstrating your great love toward us by sending your only begotten Son into this world to take to himself flesh so that he might fully obey all you command of us and to fully endure the wrath of your justice that we deserve by offering himself up unto death on the cross of Calvary. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were dead, you made us alive in Christ who was raised for our justification. Thank you, Father, that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. Thank you, Father, for the work of the Holy Spirit who has applied Christ's atonement to us, your people. He has given us hearts of flesh to replace our hearts of stone. He's given us faith to believe in Jesus Christ, not only that Jesus Christ not only came to accomplish redemption, but also that he came to accomplish it for each one of us who confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and who believes in his heart that you raised him from the dead. Thank you that you have declared us holy in Christ. So that we may approach your heavenly throne of grace with boldness and with confidence. Not shrinking back or hiding from you. And thank you that you are making us holy. As the Holy Spirit works in us to will and to do that which is pleasing to you. Transforming our minds by the mind of Christ revealed in the scriptures. Conforming our lives to his example. Thank you, Father, for your holy law. That measures us and exposes to us our sinful and self-serving ways. And that drive us again and again to remember the body and blood of Christ given for the complete remission of all our sins. Thank you, Father, for your holy law that now for us in Christ guides us in all of our days. Showing us the way to express our gratitude to you for the great redemption that we enjoy. Thank you that our forgiveness in Christ is so complete that even when we sin, and sin we do, Father, you promise that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness. And we do so now, this evening, each one silently before you, our Father in Heaven, as we enter into this evening of prayer. Heavenly Father, as your people called by the name of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, we come tonight as you have commanded us to come, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving to present our request to you. We come knowing that we are a needy people, knowing that every good and perfect gift comes from you, and knowing that apart from Christ Jesus we can do nothing. So we come before you in Christ's name, and in his name alone. Amen. Let's unite our hearts in prayer once again. Heavenly Father, merciful God, we come before you this evening confessing that if you should regard our merits, we'd be unworthy to approach your throne of grace. But you, O Lord, commanded us to call upon you in all of our needs and have mercy promised to hear our petitions. We take refuge in your mercy alone. We are grateful for family relationships and the blessings we experience as covenant families. We pray that you will continue to bless our homes with love and discipline and nurturing that encourages children in their faith and where we as parents fulfill our duties and covenant vows we have made before you our covenant God. Bless each family, each individual, with the desire to read your word, to seek your face in prayer daily. Bless our individual and family devotions. Thank you for providing fathers and mothers with jobs, meaningful work that provide income. Grant to fathers the desire and the wisdom to be godly spiritual leaders in their homes. Bless mothers with godly wisdom in the household tasks and teaching the children. Bless those mothers who are anticipating the birth of children, That in your providence, families can rejoice in your provision for them. Bless those who are grieving the loss of a family member. Comfort the widows and the widowers. Be near to the elderly people of our church. We thank you for their godly examples of faith. Bless those of our church who are single. May they find joy in serving you out of gratitude and thankfulness in their lives. this evening we bring before you the needs of this local church we pray your blessing on the ministers of this church we pray for pastors Voss and Donovan that you will continue to sustain them in health and strength that you will be pleased to use these men to continue to preach the gospel boldly and with conviction faithful to the scriptures bless their families with continued health and faithfulness be with the elders and deacons as they govern and oversee the life of the church and minister to the needs those in need we ask for your continued blessing in the various programs of the church that seek to encourage little ones young people and believers in their Christian life and walk we are thankful for those who teach the truth of scripture and apply them and we pray that you will raise up many young men and women of this church who publicly profess your name and participate in the life of this church. Dear Father, we pray for children attending schools. Give them strength and wisdom to meet the challenges they face in their formative years. Work in their hearts by your Holy Spirit, a desire to serve you faithfully and obediently. We pray your blessing on Calvin Christian Schools. Bless the board members, faculty, administration, and staff. May our schools be places where academic and spiritual and physical growth occur and where you are honored and respected and where Christ is in the center of education, continually guided by the truths of Scripture. We pray that you will bless our students at various other schools and colleges and universities. May they also be encouraged in faith and walk with you as they study and prepare themselves for their future life's work, whatever that might be. And we lift before you Westminster Seminary here in Escondido as it seeks to train men for ministry. We pray that the professors and the students will be faithful to their task and that the church will be edified as a result and that you will be glorified. All this, gracious Father, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our intercessor. Amen. Shall we pray? O Lord, many are the afflictions of the righteous, and you know them all. Tonight we come before you to lift up the afflictions of those in our congregation. We lift up those who are afflicted by poor health, those grieving the loss of loved ones, those struggling spiritually, and those who are persecuted for your namesake. And we pray that you bring healing and comfort and wisdom and perseverance for your saints. Sometimes, Lord, we ask why you allow these things or how long you will allow them to continue. But we know that your ways are not our ways and that you work everything for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose. As we are reminded in 2 Corinthians, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair. persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. So we do not lose heart, for this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Lord, we look forward to the new Jerusalem where we will dwell with you and be your people, and you, Lord God, will be with us. You will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away, and you, Lord, will make all things new. These words are trustworthy and true, Lord, because they are yours. Thank you for this comfort and hope. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please join me in prayer. Father in heaven, sovereign God, creator and sustainer of the universe, we come to you as a gathered body of believers. We come to you in humble gratitude for sustaining us with economic prosperity, to live in comfort, for political freedom, to worship as you have commanded. We come with gratitude for bounty in our land, for daily provisions that we take for granted, for farms and ranches, for businesses and factories, for an economic system and natural resources that you have so graciously given to us as a nation. For all these things, we give you thanks as gracious gifts from your hand. We acknowledge that everything is yours, and yet you give us not only what we need, but what we want. In our surplus, Father, as a nation, and even as your people, we have become proud and boastful. We have become complacent and self-sufficient, not sharing adequately with those in need, and not remembering and thanking the one who is the provider of every good and perfect gift. We fail to thank you not only for sustaining us with the necessities of life, but for providing us with bounty beyond the imagination of most. So along with our thanks, we come asking for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not lifting our voice in constant praise and thanksgiving to you, but also forgiveness for not living lives of true gratitude. Help us to be constantly mindful of your sovereign rule and your sustaining hand as you work with power to give us our daily bread and sustain the universe. Help us to not be proud but humble, not greedy but giving, not self-sufficient but thankful. Be also with the rulers of the lands all around the world. Be particularly with the leaders of our land, Father. Be with President Bush and those in the administration who lead. Be with our Congress and our courts. Help all who rule realize in a very conscious way that all power and authority comes from you. Help each and every one in a position of authority, in whatever capacity, also remember that he or she will someday be called upon to give an account to you, Father, for how the authority which they have been granted has been used, whether for good or evil, whether just or corrupt. While we enjoy prosperity and freedom, we also know, Father, that we are in a rapid moral decline as a world and as a nation. As a nation, Father, we are flaunting your laws, and you have told us that there will be an accounting, the time when your patience will run out, a time when your holiness and justice will be vindicated. Grant, Father, that there will be a spiritual renewal, an awakening to the need for true repentance as your people, as your church, and as a nation. Father, help us as your people in this church who have so much to be thankful for, even for our salvation, not to grow weary of speaking out as a voice for justice and holiness, in this land, and for reminding all that you are in control and will someday judge the peoples and the nations. Help us turn from evil while there is still time. Father, we can't help but notice that our economic prosperity and moral decline seem to grow together. Help us not to be complacent and ungrateful, but cause a return to righteousness and truth, and protect us from the evil one for the sake of Christ our Savior. Amen. Please join with me in prayer for our Christian ministry and missions work. Father, as we thank you for the many ministries of this church, we thank you also for your kindness and mercy, your immeasurable goodness and abundant grace to us, for your personal mercies with each of us. And most especially, we thank you for the gift of faith that you give to us to see you as our creator, as our covenant Lord, whose word is true and trustworthy. Tonight, we also thank you for this church that you have planted here in Escondido 50 years ago, and for those who worked to establish her, keeping her faithful to your word as she has grown. And we thank you for each and every person who now worships here. We thank you for the new lives in our church, some through childbirth, others that you have brought to us. Tonight, Father, we especially ask for your blessing on our pastors, elders, and deacons. As they perform in your name, preaching, teaching, guiding, and directing us in your ways. as they comfort us with your word of truth during our times of sorrow, distress, or grief. We ask that you continue to equip them to minister to us through our difficult times to turn us to you when we are confused or overwhelmed and don't know what to do, to help us to learn to look more and more to you for our comfort and hope when we grieve our losses to strengthen us and guide us when we are afraid to keep our feet on your pathways when we are tempted by the many evil things of this world things that may seem to satisfy for a moment but which lead away from you and also Father to keep us mindful of you when we should be grateful for the many joys in life that you give us so that we remember that you are the source of all life's joy, happiness, peace, and comfort. We also ask that you guide each and every one of us as we carry out our own various roles as father, mother, son, or daughter in this body so that we may be consistent witnesses for you in this community in all of our conversations, in our conduct, whether in prosperity or in adversity, accepting all your commandments as right and turning from every false way as we minister to each other and to our neighbors. May we never become complacent with our own spiritual progress. May your Holy Spirit work through the officers and all the members of this church, encouraging and teaching one another what is necessary to develop Christian character so that we become greater witnesses to you in this fallen world. We also pray tonight for our missions in the world and ask your blessing on the many ministries that this church supports. And we especially ask your blessing tonight for our mission work in Oceanside with Pastor Daniel Hyde, in Santee with Michael Brown, and in Marietta with Chris Gordon. We ask that you give us strength and wisdom to continue reaching out also to our local community, not for our own glory, but for yours, so that your word may become known to many who do not yet know you. We ask that you grant our petitions tonight, not because we think we deserve your grace and bounty. We know that our sins and inequities are without number, that we sin against you continuously in thought and deed. And yet, Father, we also know that you continuously repeat your kindness to us, for you are rich in mercy. We also know that the blood of your Son can cleanse all our sin. And for this we thank you, and in his name we pray. Amen. Amen.