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Almighty God, our sure hope, our great joy and our enduring treasure, you alone are worthy as our great and eternal end, aim and ambition.  Thank you for giving us these intense and yearning hearts which are so desperate to be satisfied.  We confess with joy this morning that these hearts you have made in each of us can only be satisfied by you, your steadfast love.  Would you convince us this morning through your Word and the power of your Spirit that all of creation will leave us hallow, longing and dead.  Would you show us again the great joy of knowing Christ?  That we might find our deepest longings and thirsts filled in Him.  Help us this morning, Father, repent of our laying up treasure on earth and by faith begin laying up treasure in heaven which is our eternal reward.  Amen & Amen.

Title: Kingdom Living: Heavenly Treasure

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Almighty God of our every delight, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so cause our souls to pant for you this morning, Father.  O God, you are our God, cause us to earnestly seek you, cause our souls to thirst for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  May our hearts and souls confess, “One thing we ask of the LORD, that will we seek after, that we may dwell in the house of the LORD all our days and gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.  Indeed, the LORD is our shepherd and in him we shall never have the least hint of want.  Thank you, Lord for gathering us here this morning to relish together the truth of who are through singing, praying, reading, preaching and receiving your Holy Word.  May we be careful to hear this morning that we may not miss the glorious joy and delight of seeking your face, your presence, together this morning.  Stir our hearts to rejoice in the hope of heaven and to revel in our faith in Christ and to enjoy our love for one another all of which you have given to us through the gospel as a gift.  Thank you Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank you for the wondrous gift of fasting.  Turn our weary, mundane, settled, complacent hearts to consider fasting as a provided path to incite our souls to fan into flame again our longing for abiding, joyous, communion with our God through Christ by your Holy Spirit.  Come now and arouse our interest, our affections, our joy, our satisfaction in Christ that we might see the passing pleasures of this world for what they are & to seek with all ambition your presence, your face.  Amen & Amen

Title: Kingdom Living: When You Fast

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Almighty gracious Father in heaven, slow to anger, merciful and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty because you are just and faithful.  You have not forsaken us.  Your anger has not lingered but you turned from your anger, you withdrew your wrath, and forgave your people by covering our sin with the shed blood of Jesus Christ our Savior and LORD.  You deserve all praise, glory, honor and worship.  Thank you, LORD.  Thank you for this great salvation.  Thank you for your abundant and astonishing mercy, your compassion is higher than the heavens and more sure than the mountains.  Grant us this morning, Father, by your Spirit firm faith not in our own efforts or obedience but in that righteousness which comes by faith and that is not our own but from God because of Christ’s obedience.  Grant us a pining hope which longs for that glorious and assured day when we will see you face to face and know the gift and joy of our forgiveness unhindered by sin, doubt and weariness of the journey.  Grant us this morning an abiding and sacrificial love for one another as we linger over this glorious truth, the forgiveness of sins, and by your grace demonstrate the same kind of love, compassion and mercy you have shown us.  We ask these things of you, Father in heaven, because we do not find these eternal, necessary things in our own hearts and we are unable to do them apart from your Spirit empowering us.  So accomplish these for your name’s sake, Lord Jesus.  Amen & Amen.

Title: Kingdom Living: Why Forgive?

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Our Father in heaven, thank you for granting at great cost the blood of Jesus Christ, that we might be able to call you Father.  I ask the when we pray, Lord, that we would be careful to acknowledge and affirm that just the very ability for us to call upon your Name and to know your character and your nature is an unfathomable blessing.  And in the midst of that you tell us that we can call you ‘Father’, and that you, as a good Father, desire to hear from us, long to have us come to you, and to listen.  Thank you.  Thank you for being our Father who is in heaven, one who is mighty and strong, one who is not weak and equal in power and strength to ourselves, but you are one who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Father in heaven.  Your Name indeed deserves to be hallowed.  Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is indeed filled with his glory.  Father, we confess that we are so busy with the transient, temporary stuff of this world, we seldom stop and pause and reflect, ‘Hallowed be your Name.’ Father, our hearts are quick to doubt and to question and to be bewildered, for it seems that there are kingdoms being built all around us; kingdoms and authorities that are seeking to oppress and to hurt and harm humanity.  Father, it is a comfort to know that in the midst of all of the confusion and struggle, your Kingdom is coming, your will will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  We ask, Father, that you would do this for your Name’s sake.

Grant us your provision, Lord.  Would you give us our daily bread?  Would you give us our daily provision?  Would you help us see that nothing comes to us except by your hand?  Grant us hearts of stewardship, thankfulness and gratitude, instead of our hearts that so often grumble and complain because of what we don’t have.  And Father I ask that you will forgive us, for even this morning, Father, even this morning, as early as it is, we have sinned.  We have fallen short of the glory of God. Our hearts have insisted on our own will, our own desire, our own way, our selfishness, our aims, our longings, and we have not been careful to look to you and ask, ‘What is it, Father, that you’d have us to do?’  How can we live for your, for your purpose and aim and, Father, we confess that we need forgiveness.  So, forgive us, Father, I pray.  And as we approach this text this morning, Father, I ask that you would help us, for we are indeed a people who are tempted. We are tossed to and fro.  We struggle, we stumble, we are broken.  We confess, Father, that this world allures us, our hearts deceive us.  The evil one is so powerful.  So, this morning we come, asking that you will ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’, that we can indeed say with our hearts and our lips and our lives, ‘Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.’  May it be, Lord Jesus.  And all of God’s people said, amen & amen.

Title: Kingdom Living: Lead Us and Deliver Us

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Holy Father, you have saved us through your trinitarian nature, by the power of your holy Being. You have commanded the faith you give us to result in good works, through which you are glorified.  We pray that you glorify yourself in revealing to your people more of your holy character, which includes your saving mercy toward all who believe in Jesus Christ.  We thank you, God, for your abundant blessings toward us, who before your grace we at enmity against you.  Amen & Amen.

Title: The Righteous Father Provides

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