Week of Prayer at Faith OPC

Call a Sacred Assembly

The prayer times this week have been the most helpful for me, for me personally. The practice of purposeful, extended time in prayer has been really good. Hearing the others pray has been such a great ministry. It really has. I need to remember this when I am discouraged. Our people love the Lord, His word, His worship. The burdens about evangelism and really trying to reach people have come through a great deal. Some of their confessions and urgings and very open, frank praying have been a source of meditation and help. I've been greatly blessed.

Faith OPC has been gifted with a new location for her worship in our city of 30-35,000. We have set aside this week for prayer.

Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

G. Mark Sumpter

Why Johnny Can’t Pray

For without Me, you can do nothing. John 15:5

In short, Johnny cannot pray because he’s happy with his narrow prayers; he also refuses Sabbath rest.

“Through prayer Jesus received the Holy Spirit, with wisdom for teaching and the power to do miracles. Through prayer Jesus made disciples, choosing the twelve. Through prayer Jesus did the work of evangelism, calling people to trust Him as the Christ. Through prayer Jesus glorified God, and was glorified by Him. Through prayer He carried forward the missionary work of the gospel. Therefore, if we want to see God work powerfully to change people’s lives through our own teaching, discipleship, and missionary evangelism, we need to spend time with Him in prayer. We will accomplish as much or more by praying than by all our doing.” Slightly adapted....from Phil Ryken in Luke, (commentary), p. 568.

One deep, deep root of our prayerlessness revolves around a refusal to sabbath. The Sabbath mandate reminds us that we cannot be busy 24/7. God said for us to cease, to rest, to stop from the work. Accordingly, the presupposition that gets challenged every week concerns a theology of re-creation, re-newal, re-fuel, re-charge and to re-orient. Have we repented of a theology of works? Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works; it is not by being busy. Sumpter, do you hear this? Refuse to guilt yourself into prayer; refuse to busy yourself into approval and fruitfulness in the eyes of men. Rather, waste time; stop to linger; shut it down for leisure in prayer.

Otherwise you’re dead meat, dry in the bones, and you limp along with half-baked ministry.

Go waste some good time in prayer.

G. Mark Sumpter

Gather the People

In prayer

Joel 2:16 “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes…”

There’ll be corporate prayer—summoned by the elders of Faith Church on October 24, 10:00 AM, and we’ll be praying for the church in the Northwest and around the USA for faithfulness and truth in the family, church and state.

G. Mark Sumpter

Other Prayers

A Lutheran Prayer Book, 1960

O GOD, who givest daily bread without prayer, even to all the wicked, we pray thee that thou wouldst give us to acknowledge these thy benefits; and enable us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. Amen.

O MERCIFUL, PATIENT FATHER, who dost protect and preserve us, guide us by thy grace and banish the blindness of the world and our minds, that we may apply ourselves wholly to the keeping of thy commandments, and do our work without care, like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, because thou hast promised to care for us and bade us cast all our cares on thee, who livest and reignest for ever. Amen.

THE LORD preserve us from all evil. The Lord preserve our souls. The Lord preserve our going out and our coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Amen.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Doctrine of Adoption

What used to be a lonesome doctrine in the field of applied salvation

“If you want to know how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.”


J. I. Packer, Knowing God

I am working on prayers for our congregational worship on the theme of adoption; on the subject of our standing, privileges and responsibilities in the bosom and heart of our God.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, you might have found two books on the topic of adoption, sonship and so on. But today: Peterson, Ferguson, Hoekema, Needham and the various writings of Jack Miller and his son, Paul. We're loaded for bear in our day.

I want to pull out two or three quotes from John Murray too. He surprises us. Stay tuned.

Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q34: What is adoption?

A34: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the Sons of God.

G. Mark Sumpter

Great Prayer Resources

For a way to expand your abilities to pray knowledgeably, these guides are the ticket!

In an on-again and off-again way, our family used the Operation World prayer guide around the table at home. Our first four children heard me read from this prayer resource. Also, maybe the kids will remember the map of the world on the wall next to the kitchen table. We have aimed at praying widely over the years.

We first learned of the book at an Urbana Conference years back. Then Evangelical Bible Books started carrying it, and I would talk it up in the store in Escondido.

Folks, this is good stuff. Go to the Operation World site and start making use of the current updates and newsy items---current events and evangelistic and church-related matters---for your prayer watch.

We regularly use the OPC monthly guide from New Horizons; I've missed the wider praying for missions that can be fueled by groups like Mission Network News, the Joshua Project and the Presidential Prayer Team (matters for the USA).

Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. Psalm 2:8

G. Mark Sumpter

Hope for the Haitians

The Church and Its Ministry in Such a Time as This

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church continues to update us regarding specific prayer matters and ministry needs for the Haitians, generally, and our missionaries and other servants, specifically, after the devastation from yesterday's earthquake.

OPC Pastor Steve Igo of Cedar Presbyterian of Hudsonville, MI, along with a team of 2 or 3 others, has been there for the past week or two, and here's an update from him.

Steve writes:

No doubt, tomorrow we will dig people out of the debris and help transport people to places of help. But in the midst of the overwhelming physical work, the most important thing we will do for the people of Haiti is profoundly spiritual. We will pray with them. We will listen to their stories. We will weep when they weep, and rejoice when they rejoice. And we will urge every one we meet to lift up their eyes to the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ will be present with us tomorrow, and we fully expect him to make himself known among the people we serve in His name.

May there be the gospel's steadfast hope with encouragement from our Lord's compassion...

Matthew 8:14-17

When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."

Let us pray.

G. Mark Sumpter