“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does he removed our transgressions from us.”
-Psalm 103:8–12
Today, we will gather together if you haven’t already gathered together in a unique way online with the church that you’re a part of, if you don’t have a church that you are planning together with today, we invite you to join with us at mcleanbible.org but today we will gather together to celebrate the reality that Jesus has died for our sins and he is risen from the dead, which means for all who trust in him, he does not, God does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our inequities.Psalm 103:8–12 says as far as the East is from the West, He removes our transgression from us.
Drawing Near to Christ this Easter
Through Christ, our transgressions are removed as far as the east is from the west. Let’s pray that God will draw many to Himself on this Easter Sunday.
And so we’re praying specifically for requests that are sent in during these days of pandemic and I encourage you to continue to send those in radical.net/prayerrequest, but today I want you to fill in the blank, so today I’m just pleading for God to draw multitudes of people to faith in Jesus. Today in the church I have the privilege of pastoring and churches all across the United States and around the world that the gospel would be clearly proclaimed, like the message of Psalm 103:8–12 clearly proclaimed and that God would bring people to Christ.
Psalm 103:8–12 Leads Us to Pray for Those Who Don’t Know Christ
And I want to lead us to pray right now for specific names of people that we are inviting to join online in a Easter worship gathering, for us to pray specifically that God would draw them to faith in Him. So, I’m going to let you fill in the blank today.
So God, right now we come to you on behalf of these people who are in our minds, so just start to maybe say them out loud, certainly at least think about them right now, the names of people who you are inviting to an Easter worship gathering today. The names of people in your sphere of influence who don’t know Jesus.
God, we lift these names to you right now I’m thinking of the people we’ve invited. All these people that we’re around who if they were to get this virus and were to die, would not be in heaven. God we pray, God we pray right now for their salvation. God, we pray based on your mercy and your grace. You are abounding in steadfast love. Please forgive people of sins today, draw them to faith in Jesus, open their eyes.
Psalm 103:8–12 Puts Trust and Confidence in God
God we pray it would click, we pray that would click in the eyes of all these people we’re thinking about in multitudes more that don’t have anybody even brand for them right now. God, we pray that you would draw many people of faith in Jesus, today save them God, we pray save them. Remove their transgressions from them as they trust in you, Jesus. Do it today we pray. Show yourself as savior.
God, we pray you are bringing us to the end of ourselves, help us to see the end of ourselves. I was to throw aside confidence in ourselves and put our trust. So God, we pray for all of these people that we live around, that we have been communicating with. God, even people that are just seeing an invitation somewhere online to join in an Easter worship gathering, may come and may you take the blinders off their eyes, may you save them from their sins and may today change everything for all of eternity, for multitudes of people here around the world.
God, we pray, we pray, show your mercy and your grace in abundance today. This Easter Sunday, we praise you. Jesus, we praise you for your death on the cross for our sins and your resurrection from the grave. We exalt your name as savior and we pray show yourself as savior today in power.
In Jesus’ name we pray these things. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
