Romans 15:30-33

Romans 15:30-33
30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, 32 so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

LORD, This morning I want to pray for Steve, our minister at NUC. He has a really difficult position there in the Uniting denomination which is so liberal in so many ways. The focus is so much on loving Your world and the people of the world that they have forgotten why they should be doing that - out of love and reverence for You LORD. Many of the other ministers have jumped on some bandwagon of self-realisation and completely left behind the idea that it is You who holds everything together and makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus! They have exchanged the word of God for a lie that says the Bible is just a collection of out-dated and no longer culturally-relevant suggestions when in reality it is so much more than that. Your word is not merely some guide book, Your word is Truth!

LORD, I pray that you might shelter Steve from these unbelieving people who claim to be Christians and yet who hold to a definition of Christianity which is such a pale, pale reflection of what it really is. Continue to make Steve's service to the congregation at NUC acceptable in Your sight, LORD. Nourish him with milk and meat from Your word as he reads from His Bible each day and encourage and uplift him in his times of prayer with You.

Help the people of the congregation to see and understand what he is doing on their behalf in standing between them and the extremes of the denomination. Help them to value him for what he has done and to see how much he goes through for them. And please, if it is at all possible, I pray that You will either enable him to stay on longer at NUC after his latest contract there ends. Or LORD, please raise up people within Your kingdom to work with the Chinese congregation there as well as the 9:30am congregation. LORD, where will these people go if they cannot get sound teaching when Steve leaves? Please strengthen Steve for the task that he has in making You known to the people of that community. Continue to uphold him as You have done so faithfully for so long. Guard him from the undermining efforts of those in the congregation and the wider denomination who would rather see a person with a liberal understanding of the Scriptures take over from him. Please protect this congregation, LORD, and provide other church homes for these people to go to if this does happen. Open the eyes of the undiscerning people in the congregation to see what a difference it makes when the Minister has a firm faith in Your word, which shows that the only way to be saved is through the Person and Work of Your Son, my Lord Jesus Christ.

LORD, I pray for the situation in this denomination that we will now be leaving. I am so happy not to be staying within it, yet I know there are so many people who are still sitting on pews in the buildings of this denomination and waiting for more. They are like dry, rustling autumn leaves which need to be swept out of a back corner and set alight so they can burn brightly! Please lead other people who attend this denomination within Perth to NUC or to the few other Biblically-sound U churches in Perth. Or just get these people out of there, LORD, into churches where they will constantly be fed and nurtured by hearing Your word taught and preached every single Sunday for the rest of their earthly lives! Save these people from listening to foolish controversies, LORD. Make Your name known among these "churches" and make Your name great! Refresh these people in their faith in You, O LORD. Teach them the truth of what it means to be a Christian, that it is not charity that one does nor advice that one follows, but a life that is lived with one's face uplifted in worship towards You, the God, King and Father of all mankind.

Amen.