Prayer & Preparation for November 20th, 2022
This Lord's Day
Hey church,
Here are some details about this week’s service. They may inform your prayers and
preparation.
Songs: “Across the Lands,” “It Was Finished Upon That Cross,” “Hail the Day,” “Show Us Christ,”
and “Before the Throne of God Above”
Sermon text: Ezra 5-6
Sermon title: “The Prosperity That Matters”
Cross-references: Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:3; Prov. 21:1; Zech. 3:5; Acts 3:19-26; 1 Tim. 2:1-7
Relevant teaching:
“Nevertheless, the best services we can render are mingled with sin, and therefore, instead of
deserving a reward, need forgiveness. The reward we shall receive will be a reward of grace,
not of debt. Were it not for the sake of Christ, nothing we do could be accepted, there being so
much sin cleaving even to our best services.”
Andrew Fuller
“I think it may be laid down as a rule, which both Scripture and experience will confirm, that
eminent spirituality in a minister is usually attended with eminent usefulness. I do not mean to
say our usefulness depends upon our spirituality, as an effect depends upon its cause; not yet
that it is always in proportion to it. God is a Sovereign; and frequently sees proper to convince
us of it in variously bestowing his blessing on the means of grace. But yet he is not wanting in
giving encouragement to what he approves, wherever it is found. Our want of usefulness is
often to be ascribed to our want of spirituality, much oftener than to our want of talents. God
has frequently been known to succeed men of inferior abilities when they have been eminent
for holiness, while he has blasted others of much superior talents when that quality [i.e.
holiness] has been wanting. Hundreds of ministers, who on account of their gifts have promised
to be shining characters, have proved the reverse; and all owing to such things as pride,
unwatchfulness, carnality, and levity…. Eminency in grace will direct your ends to the glory of
God and the welfare of men’s souls; and where this is the case, it is usually attended with a
blessing…. Eminency in grace will enable you to bear prosperity in your ministry without being
lifted up with it, and so contribute towards it…. To bear glory without being elated by it is no
easy thing for us. I am often afraid lest this should be one considerable reason why most of us
have no more real success in our work than we have; perhaps it is not safe for us to be much
owned by God; perhaps we have not grace enough to bear prosperity.”
Andrew Fuller
So guys, with these things in mind, would you please pray for our time together this Lord’s
Day?
Please pray for our focus as a church to be on Christ. Pray that this would be the case in this
particular worship service. And pray that this would be true of our church in general, moving
forward, more and more, and that God would use this Lord’s Day to make it so.
And then please pray for God to use me as one of the factors in making our church more
Christ-focused, much like he used Haggai and Zechariah and the priests in our text.
Please pray for my preaching ministry this week and every week. Pray that my preaching
would change hearts and lives as it did with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and that it would support
all those engaged in the work of the Lord (Ezra 5:2). Pray that those doing the work of the
Lord would prosper through my preaching of the Word (Ezra 5:8 and 6:14). Pray that we
would be equipped both for our own work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12) and for our own
meditation on the Word (Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:3).
Also please pray for my purity, just as the priests were purified (Ezra 6:20). This is why I
included above the second quote from one of Fuller’s sermons. I find that quote really
provocative and convicting. So please pray for what he calls “eminent spirituality” in me. Pray
that I would be “eminent for holiness” even if of “inferior abilities.” Pray for God’s gracious
rooting out, and for my diligent repentance and putting off, of sins like “pride,
unwatchfulness, carnality, and levity.” Pray for “eminency in grace,” by which I mean grace in
my character as indicated by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24), and as epitomized in
the life of Christ. In other words, please pray that God is making me, and that I am diligent in
seeking to become, more and more like Jesus. And pray toward the end that I am more useful
to God (for his glory) and to you (for the church’s good). Please pray I am “much owned by
God.”
Jeff Tague
