Prayer Guide

A guide to facilitate the Sunday evening prayer service and to help the church pray together throughout the week.

Sunday, 07 July 2024

Prayers of Praise

Prayer Item: Rescued from darkness
Details: Thank God that we have be rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. Thank God that, in him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13–14).

Prayer Item: Holiday Bible clubs
Details: Give thanks for the holiday Bible club ministry this week, which gave opportunity to minister the gospel to many children and teens. Thank God for willing workers and pray for ongoing fruit.

Members of the Week

Kyrin & Melissa van den Heuvel

Kyrin and Melissa (Lizzy) have been married for exactly one week and one day and they praise God for uniting them together as one flesh at the young ages of 21 and 19. Kyrin works for Porsche as an IT technician and Melissa is in her second year of studying physiotherapy at Wits. They met two years ago, first at Luke’s birthday party where they didn’t talk for more than a minute, then Kyra’s party where they danced together and exchanged numbers. Since then, they developed a brotherly and sisterly love in Christ, which, by God’s grace, has further grown into love as husband and wife. Kyrin was raised in BBC his entire life and praises God that the many Sunday school and Bible study lessons he had as a young child set a solid foundation upon which God worked through to allow him to accept Christ as his Saviour. Lizzy was raised in a Catholic family and church and, after meeting Kyra, attended BBC, where the Lord graciously allowed her to understand the depth of the gospel and her complete and utter reliance on Christ as the only one who can save us from our sins. They thank God for his grace in saving them and desire that their marriage will reflect the love of Christ and his church as they navigate this new journey together with the Lord and his people.

Hugo, Wendy-Leigh, Sage, & Jade van der Walt

Hugo and Wendy-Leigh were married in April 2010. They lived in Vanderbijlpark and were members of Three Rivers Baptist Church until Hugo received a job opportunity in Johannesburg at the end of 2011. They then decided to move to Alberton and joined BBC at the beginning of 2012. They started drinking BBC water in 2014: Sage, their oldest, was born in 2015; and Jade was born in 2017. Wendy-Leigh is a dance instructor and homeschool teacher to their two lovely daughters. Hugo works for Caterpillar and is an industry representative for Southern Africa. In short, he plays in the dirt with big yellow machines, which is any boy’s dream.

Prayer Requests

Prayer Item: Kyrin & Melissa van den Heuvel
Details: Pray that they will adjust well to married life and honour God through new waters. Pray that they will cling to the Lord and look to him for wisdom as they learn to handle each other in patience. Pray that Kyrin’s colleagues will come to know the Lord as their Saviour, and that God will work through him to spread the gospel through words and actions in this corporate environment. Pray that, as she studies, Lizzie will be able to balance her studies and her new role of a wife to the glory of God.

Prayer Item: Hugo, Wendy-Leigh, Sage & Jade van der Walt
Details: Pray for continued growth in God’s word and to be more Christlike. Pray for grace to teach Sage and Jade the love of Christ and the gospel’s good news and that God will save them. Pray for relief for Wendy-Leigh from headaches, which have been ongoing for more than a year. Pray for the salvation of unsaved family.

Prayer Item: Pillar sister church
Details: No Pillar church this week.

Prayer Item: Sola 5 sister church
Details: Pray for Hope Baptist Church in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, and its pastor, Sam Meda. The church thanks God for spiritual growth among church members, for unity in the church, and for recent opportunities to reach out to university students. The church further requests prayer for: (1) the development of a culture of evangelism in the church; (2) the pastor’s faithfulness and courage; and (3) the church to stand firm and not compromise the gospel.

Prayer Item: Sunday morning sermon response
Details: Pray that we will grow in our confidence concerning the resurrection of believers and in the assurance that the new creation is coming. Pray that this promise will aid us with an eternal perspective this side of our grave.

Prayer Item: Sunday evening sermon response
Details: Pray that we will so look through and beyond the afflictions of obedience to the eternal weight of glory that we will cease grumbling and disputing and live lives that adorn the gospel and draw others to Christ.

Prayer Item: Living in Christ
Details: Pray that we will continue to live in Christ, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as we are taught, and overflowing with gratitude (Colossians 2:6–7).

Prayer Item: Knowledge of God’s mystery
Details: Pray that we may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ—in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2–3).

Prayer Item: Love in deed and truth
Details: Pray that we will not merely love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Pray that we will show the love we have for one another practically and not merely pay lip service to those we love (1 John 3:18).

Prayer Item: Exercising love
Details: Pray that we will exercise and experience love that covers a multitude of offences (1 Peter 4:8).

Prayer Item: Godly wisdom
Details: Pray that we will not be wise in our own eyes but will guard against foolishness and turn to the wisdom of the Lord (Proverbs 26).

Prayer Item: Guarding against haughtiness
Details: Pray that those of us who are rich in this world, whether in wealth, talents, position, or academics, will guard ourselves from haughtiness.

Prayer Item: Growing unity
Details: Pray that our church will grow in unity, love, and service to and for one another.

Member Applicant Introductions

None this week

Member Applicants in Process

Jesse Visser—Joel Oommen
Dylan Steytler—Stephen Scholtz
Fortune Peterside—Kate Smith
Armand Willemse—Edwin Steytler
Qiniso & Khanyi Sukazi—Craig & Abby Adams
Velaphi Radebe—Banele Ndlovu
Emma Cable—Jessica Oommen
Mpfumelo Shirindi—Nathan MacKaiser
Ian Johnson—Jadyn van den Heuvel
Abella Grainger—Sunila Savage-Reid
Clynton Jones—Stuart Chase

Lord’s Day Sermons

Resurrection Image-ination (1 Corinthians 15:35–49)

When it comes to the resurrection, Christians need a biblically instructed imagination. Not in the sense of make-believe, but rather the biblically realistic ability to look at what is decaying and normally to be discarded with the eyes of faith seeing a new creation, made in the image of Jesus Christ. We will look at this passage under four headings:

1. Interrogation (v. 35)
2. Illustration (vv. 36–41)
3. Implication (vv. 42–44)
4. Image-ination (vv. 45–49)

Download Audio Sermon

The Bridled Tongue (Philippians 2:14–16)

Philippians 2:14–16 is a well-known, but underrated exhortation by the apostle Paul for believers to do all things without grumbling or disputing. We will examine this exhortation by considering:

1. A Tongue Bridled by the Gospel (v. 14)
2. A Testimony Born of the Gospel (v. 15)
3. The Impact of the Sincere Gospel (v. 16)

Download Audio Sermon

Prayer Psalm Devotional

It’s All about You (Psalm 86)

Matt Redman recounts the story of a time when apathy was widespread in his home church’s musical expression. Songs were sung, but the congregation was simply going through the motions. The pastor decided to get rid of the musicians and the sound system for a season and songs were sung acapella. As they started to sing that way, an interesting thing happened. The congregation was forced to focus on the song’s lyrics and their participation in the singing since the band was not there to carry them. Out of this experience, Redman wrote the now-famous lyrics:

When the music fades, all is stripped away,
and I simply come,
longing just to bring something that’s of worth,
that will bless your heart.
I’ll give you more than a song,
for a song, in itself, is not what you require.
You search much deeper within,
through the way things appear:
I’m looking into your heart.

The song goes on to speak of the heart of worship and continues, “It’s all about you, Jesus.” Redman came to realise that worship should be all about Jesus. For too long, he and those he led in worship were focused on other things and they needed to return to the heart of worship. Psalm 86 highlights this truth in a slightly different area.

Sometimes, we can make our faith about all sorts of important, but supplementary, things. John Piper has warned of the dangers of this: “If we make secondary things primary, they cease to be secondary and become idolatrous. They have their place. But they are not first, and they are not guaranteed. Life is precarious, and even if it is long by human standards, it is short.”

While we might not do so intentionally, sometimes we can focus so much of the benefits of Christianity—a stable marriage, obedient children, an ordered society—that we miss out on the real centre of our faith: God himself. David highlighted the need to keep God central in our thinking and our actions: “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God” (vv. 8–10). In the midst of his trials and the opposition he faced, he remembered that one thing was primary: for all peoples to come to recognise God for who he is.

Christians are called to make disciples and the essence of making disciples is telling people about God’s character and works. People will be brought to glorify God to the degree that we tell them of his greatness and his incomparable works. If we substitute the primary thing for secondary things we will have preached a different god.

It is one thing to tell of God’s great character and works when providence smiles on us. It is often quite another when providence frowns on us. But we all know the great encouragement it is when Christians praise God in the storm. And we know that we should do the same, as difficult as we find it.

So how do we cultivate an attitude of praising God in the storm? Let me briefly suggest three things.

First, be much in Scripture. “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Read and meditate on texts like Psalm 34:1 and James 5:13. This will help build your faith and cultivate your praise in the storm.

Second, actively remember what he has done for you. It is easy to be swept up in the storm of the moment and forget God’s grace to you in the past. But as you reflect on past graces it gives you reason to praise in the present.

Third, reach out of yourself and minister to others. As you take the focus off yourself and your own problems, God affords you unique perspective, which enables your praise in the storm.

As you reflect on Psalm 86, remember the truth that, in good times and bad, it’s all about God. It’s all about Jesus. Allow his praise to roll from your lips in the midst of the storm for his glory and for your good.