(Note: "The Quest for the King" will resume on Friday, August 17.)
Leader: God has called us and is
building us into one Body in Christ—here in this place, in this country, and
around the world.
Congregation: Together we stand with our
brothers and sisters in Christ, and together we uphold them in prayer.
Leader: God desires that every tribe and
tongue and people and nation should come to know him and join his
covenant-kingdom. He has set his love upon our hearts and has given his mission
into our hands.
Congregation: Together we cry out for
those who have never heard the Gospel, praying that they would soon come into
the knowledge of the glory of God.
Leader: God’s love for the world is
limitless, but too often our own love falls short. His passion and desire is for
his glory among the nations, while we, his chosen ambassadors, follow our own
pursuits.
Congregation: Together we confess that
we have sinned—in what we have done, and in what we have failed to do. We have
allowed sin to reign in our hearts, and we have failed to yearn and pray for
the salvation of the earth. Forgive us, O God. Break our hearts for the things
that break your heart.
Leader: Christ himself has commissioned
us to bring salvation to the nations. We have this unsurpassed joy as our
possession—of being called into the service of the everlasting God, of being
used by him to redeem all things, and of taking part in building a kingdom that
will last forever. So we declare together:
Congregation: We are your servants, O
God. With joy we affirm that wherever you send us, we will go.
Leader: And now to him who is able to
keep us from falling and to present us 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.