Tonight we will gather as a church to pray and to close out this time of prayer and fasting.  Please join us at 7:30 as we pray for our church.  We continue to be grateful for all who have fasted with us (in some form) over the last three days.  With the many things that we’ve been praying for, I was encouraged this morning by this:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  (Romans 8:26-27)

How wonderful to know!

See you toinght,

Eric

This morning we began three days of prayer and fasting as a church.  I want to thank all who are participating with us and encourage you to expect God to meet you in powerful and even new ways.  As you can imagine, there are many things to pray for and we would never want to limit our prayers to a few items, but we did want to provide some specific ways to pray for our church over the next few days. You can pray (for):

…that the Lord would make us a people zealous for holiness

…the transforming power of the gospel to be at work in us and through us (in our lives, our marriages, families, relationships, etc.)

…unity in our church in the coming year as we walk through important situations in the life of our church

…our search for a pastor. Specifically, that the Lord would lead us in this search and help us identify our new pastor

…the Lord’s wisdom as we walk through the release of information pertaining to Sovereign Grace Ministries

…the Lord’s favor on us as we launch the Ghent care group and various outreach efforts in Ghent

…the active presence and power of the Holy Spirit among us during times of gathering as a church (Sunday mornings, Care Groups, Access, 316…)

…that Christ would receive much glory in the city of Chesapeake through evangelistic effort of our members/church

Finally, we want to remind you about our Corporate Prayer Meeting on Wednesday night at 7:30 at the church.  Please plan to join us.  And for all of the singles involved in Access, there is a prayer meeting tonight at the church as well.

Grace to you this week.  May the Lord richly bless your time of prayer and fasting.

Eric

Last Sunday night at our Family Meeting, we called the church to participate with us again in three days of prayer and fasting for our church.  This is something we did last year and something we hope will be a part of the beginning of every year in our church.  Our corporate fast will begin on Monday and will continue through Wednesday of next week.  We will close out this time with a corporate prayer meeting at the church on Wednesday night at 7:30.  We are asking our church to join us for this important meeting as we seek the Lord and pray about our church in the year to come.

Also, we wanted to give you some brief information about fasting (the same information we gave last year).  First, what is fasting?  In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Donald Whitney writes, “A biblical definition of fasting is a Christian’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.  It is Christian, for fasting by a non-Christian obtains no eternal value because the Discipline’s motives and purposes are to be God-centered.  It is voluntary in that fasting is not to be coerced.  Fasting is more than just the ultimate crash diet for the body; it is abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.”

In my experience, fasting has been a way to deny my flesh for the purpose of crying out to God for spiritual requests through prayer.  In fasting, we are saying to God that we want Him to speak, move or act more than we want food itself. Fasting is a way to say to God that we hunger for Him even as our bodies hunger for food, and it’s the very hunger we experience that reminds us how much we need God.  Hunger also reminds us to pray.

Second, why should we fast?  The Scriptures provide a variety of reasons for why God’s people should fast and John Piper has cataloged some those reasons here.  The reason we are calling a fast is for the purpose of prayer for our church and all that is ahead in 2012.  We believe we are desperate for God for all that we desire for Him to do in our midst.  We don’t have the power in ourselves to carry out God’s plans among us.  Only He can give power, only He can bring change, only can produce fruit, only He can save and make His gospel powerful and effective among us, in our lives, in our marriages, in our families, in the ministries of the church and in the way we reach our world.  As we look ahead to all that God has for us, we know that we need His help, power, mercy and grace.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”  (Ps. 127:1)  Our desire is to cry out to the Lord together as we begin this year.

We plan to give specific prayer requests for our church in the next couple of days, but also recognize God may use this fast in a very specific and personal way for you.  Times of prayer and fasting are key times in our lives.  We believe the Lord is going to do many diverse and powerful things among us during this time.

So, would you please participate with us in some form during this time of prayer and fasting?  You can fast one meal, one day, one meal each day, two days or all three days.  Please make sure you are aware of any medical conditions or considerations as you think about how to participate. If you are interested in a comprehensive study of fasting, you can download John Piper’s book called A Hunger for God here.   It is a wonderful treatment of the practice and power of Christian fasting.

Again, we plan to give more information on Sunday regarding next week, but thank you for considering this and we look forward to all that God is going to do among us next week and in the year to come.

On behalf of the pastors,

Eric

I trust you had a wonderful Christmas!  I wanted to thank everyone who joined us for our Christmas Eve service and our Christmas Day service.  Both went very well.  We even had to set up an extra 5 rows of chairs on Saturday night to accommodate everyone!  My biggest hope is that the seed of the gospel that was sown will bear fruit and grow in all who heard!  Thanks for bringing family and friends to join us, and for all who were out of town – we missed you!

As we mentioned leading up to those services, we were planning to take an offering at these two services since these would be the last services in 2011 to give.   However, there is still opportunity to give prior to the end of the year and for that contribution to be included in your 2011 tax deductions.  Here are the important things to realize:

1.  Checks DATED December 31st are NOT tax-deductible in  2011 if give on January 1st or later.

2.  Sunday falls on January 1st this year. According to IRS rules, checks given in the offering on Sunday, January 1st, must be counted as a gift in 2012 even if you put a December 2011 date on the check.

3.  If you would like for your contribution to be included in 2011, you can drop off your offering at the office this week.  Our office will be open normal hours Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  You can  also mail your offering, but again, according to IRS rules, envelopes must be postmarked by December 31st in order to be tax deductible in 2011.

If you have any questions please feel free to call Christine in the church office (757-436-7264).

As always, we are grateful for your giving and support of the gospel here at Sovereign Grace Church.

Grace to you this week,
Eric

PS:  We didn’t have a chance to announce this past weekend, but I wanted to let you know that Mike Napier will be preaching God’s word to us this Sunday!  Last year Matt Hennessey did a wonderful job serving us and we are looking forward to Mike instructing and encouraging us this year.  We’ll see you in the New Year at 10:00 Sunday morning at the corner!

Our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service is this Saturday at 7:00. Cookies and coffee after! See you there!

Many of you may recall that recently on a Sunday morning, one of our care group leaders, Ken Hulme, shared about an upcoming trip to Africa.  We had a chance to here about the plans for the trip and hold Ken up in prayer while he was gone.  Well, as Kirk mentioned this past Sunday, Ken has returned from that trip and will be sharing about his experiences tomorrow night here at the church. Ken will be telling some amazing stories, including stories of miracles, and providing an update about his friend Cyprien’s mother’s journey to heaven.  If you’re interested in hearing more, please join Ken in the Spurgeon Room on Thursday, December 15th, at 6pm.