Word-wide (Universal) Week of Prayer Closing Service - Sunday 9th January 2022
2022 Anglican Universal Week of Prayer - Sunday 9th January 2022
OPENING HYMN: A & M 177TOPIC: ENTER HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING
TEXT: PSALMS 100:4; 149:1; 15:1-4
We thank God for His faithfulness over our lives and the grace that keeps us going from one year to another despite the challenges of life. We were not destroyed by the many destroyers that came against us last year just because of the mercies of God. Our study this year is a charge to possess the Gates. Indeed, the Lord has visited us this week on daily basis in different ways and made His plans known to us. We are now equipped to act accordingly. However, as we conclude this year's Universal Week of Prayer, the Lord wishes to remind us of the need and place of thanksgiving in our relationship with Him as His people.
Thanksgiving is both an act of worship
and an expression of gratitude to God for all we
have received from Him. There are many things to be thankful
for. If not for any other thing, you ought to be thankful to God for the gift
of life to enter another new year. Being alive is a product of God's
mercy and never by merit. Yes, the year might not have started on a good
note or the last year ended on a negative note for you, remember
it is a divine privilege to be alive in the land of the
living. Proverbs (Ecclesiastes 9:4) reminds us that a living dog is better than
a dead lion and to him, that is joined to the living, there is nope.
In everything, we are expected to give thanks to God (1
Thessalonians 5:18). Unfortunately, many children of
God tend to complain about what God has not done for
them instead of thanking God for the blessings we enjoy from God. Thanksgiving
to God should be the attitude of every child of God. PSALMS 100:4 - "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise. Be thankful
to Him, and bless His name"(NKJV)
The Scripture instructs us to enter God's gates with
thanksgiving. This means that thanksgiving should be the
first thing in our minds and mouths as we come to God.
It is spiritually abnormal to appear before God with petitions
devoid of thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). Again, it is needful to enter
2022 with thanksgiving no matter how things may be; presently. Thanksgiving
grants us access to our heavenly Father. It is a body or gate
pass into the presence of God.
The above Bible passage gives us the spiritual requirement for anyone who desires to come to God. Being a holy God, He requires that anyone who appears before Him must be Holy (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:15-16). God abhors sin and He cannot behold iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13). God does not hear one whose heart is corrupt (Psalms 66:18). And the sacrifice of a sinner is an abomination before God (Proverbs 15:8). As you enter His gates with thanksgiving in your mouth and offering in your hand, make your heart pure and your body a holy temple. We can never replace holiness with songs of praise.
God is to be praised in the beauty of holiness (Psalms 29:2; 96:9). If you have not surrendered your life to God; accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord, this is an opportune time to do so. It is best to begin the year with a salvation experience. Open your heart now and welcome Jesus. Are you a believer but still struggling with sins and weights that easily beset you (Hebrews 12:1)? It is time for total consecration. Do away with such attitudes and thoughts. Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you victory in such areas of your life. There are benefits of Thanksgiving. These include:
1. Thanksgiving brings more blessings upon your life
(Luke 17:11-19)
2.
Thanksgiving releases the power of multiplication upon you and your resources (Jeremiah 30:19; John 6:9-13)
3.
Thanksgiving provokes answers to prayers (Psalms
50:14-15)
WE THANK GOD:
•
For His
uncountable blessings upon your life and family.
•
Sing
praises and thank God for the new year and the privilege to enter another year
WE CONFESS:
• Confess your sins of ingratitude towards God in any way.
WE PRAY:
•
Declare
that thanksgiving shall not cease in your life and family this year.
•
Pray
that you will glorify God in your spirit, soul, and body throughout this year and the rest of your life
•
Commit
this year - your plans and projects into God's, hand and ask for His Presence and Provisions
•
Pray
against the plans and plots of Satan and his messengers over your life and family
Word-wide (Universal) Week of Prayer Closing Service - Sunday 9th January 2022
CLOSING HYMN: A & M 379
1.
Now thank we all our God,
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his world rejoices;
Who from our mother's arms
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love.
And still is ours to-day.
2. O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us.
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us:
3. All praise and thanks to
God
The Father now be given,
The Son, and him who reigns
With them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore.
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be ever more
THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION
In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus' birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In the light of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.
1. We rejoice in the Gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God written and to contain all things necessary to salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense; respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading.
3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
4. We uphold the Thirty-Nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God's Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the son of God, humanity's only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
7. We recognize that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal' as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.
8. We acknowledge God's creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
9. We gladly accept the Great commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptize, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God's creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.
11.We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognize the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us, which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.
14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus' coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise Him for the way He builds up His church through His Spirit by miraculously changing lives.
THE
NAIROBI COMMITMENT
We are committed to Jesus Christ as the head of the Church, the authority of His Word, and the power of His gospel. The Son perfectly reveals God to us. He is the sole ground of our salvation, and He is our hope for the future. We seek to honor Him, walk in faith and obedience to His teaching, and glorify Him through our proclamation of His name. Therefore, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
1. We commit ourselves anew to The Jerusalem Statement and Declaration.
2. We commit ourselves to support missions, both locally and globally, including outreach to Muslims. We also commit to encouraging lay training in obedience to the Great Commission to make and mature disciples, with particular attention to recruiting and mobilizing young people for ministry and leadership.