Facilitated
by: Harry Skandera
(Harry Skandera)
Welcome to you all. It is both and
privilege and a blessing to be gathered here together
with you on the National Day of Prayer. The theme for
this years National Day of Prayer is “Honoring
God.” I know that Jane Bender our Mayor, blessed
the Lord this morning by the way she shared her heart
and obvious love for this city, over which she has been
given responsibility for these last two years.
There are so many ways that we can
honor God. A thematic scripture about honoring God comes
out of 1 Samuel 2:30, which is what is in all of the
literature that was printed for this years National
Day of Prayer and it states, “Those who honor
me, I will honor.”
Many of us might not remember that
that is in 1 Samuel 2, but more of us probably remember
it as the quote used in Chariots of Fire when Eric,
the English running champion, was getting ready to participate
in the 1920 Olympics. He was greatly favored to win
the 100 meter dash, but it was revealed on a boat on
the way over to France where the Olympics were to be
held, that the race that he would need to run the trials
was going to be on Sunday.
Eric, being a devoted Christian, announced
to the head of the Olympic committee and everyone else
that he was sorry, but would not be able to compete
on Sunday, because that was the Lord’s day and
that came first for him. It was a very moving movie,
but it gave a tremendous example of honoring God and
placing Him first above all else.
The other thing that struck me about
that, this is a true story of course, but when the English
Olympic team was training in France, the American team,
a great rival, showed up and one of the American sprinters
went up to Eric and passed him a note. On the note was
written, “Those who honor me, I will honor.”
The theme for this years National Day of Prayer.
That scene was always very moving to
me, because as Americans we take a lot of flack for
our insensitivity, but I think that it is a distinctively
American trait that we know the real deal when we see
it. We get distracted sometimes as a people and as a
nation, but by the grace of God I believe that God’s
promise to our nation has been true. Because we chose
to honor Him, He has honored us. So, as we participate
in this evening of prayer tonight, I hope that God will
invade your heart.
The scripture is found in 1 Samuel
2:30 and actually it is in the middle of a prophetic
word that is pronouncing judgment on a man who had received
one of the greatest promises that you could ever receive,
the priest Eli. His family had been promised by God,
from the time that the children of Israel had been in
Egypt, all the way through their generations, that there
would always be one in their family who would minister
to the Lord.
How many of us would love to have that
for our children and our children’s children?
I know that many of us have prayed that, but Eli had
the promise. Unfortunately, his son’s had fallen
away from the Lord and had despised that blessing, and
that scripture says, The Lord declared, “Far be
it from me, those who honor me I will honor, but those
who despise me, I will disdain.” The Lord had
to judge Eli’s house. He kept that promise and
has been kept to this day. In this passage, it talks
about the judgment on Eli’s home.
We see what it means to honor the Lord,
because in the 35th verse, the same prophet declares,
“I will raise up for myself a faithful priest
who will do according to what is in my heart and mind.
I will firmly establish his house and he will minister
before my anointed one always. So, the promise is extended
and it falls upon Samuel, an adopted son of Eli. We
all know the story of Samuel, but I want to leave us
with this thought tonight as we pray through and consider
America and American’s honoring God. “I
will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will
do according to what is in my heart and mind.”
The way that we can most honor the
living God is to do what is according to His heart and
His mind. As we spend this brief time together tonight,
let us continually posture ourselves before the Lord.
Let us cry out to Him.
Father, we pray that as we seek to
honor you tonight God, that you would help us to have
more of your heart and mind, and in that way God, we
will honor you. Lord, we pray that this would be so,
that you would firmly establish our hearts. That you
would firmly establish our city and let our city and
nation be a place that you are honored. In Jesus name,
Amen.
(Adam Peacock)
My name is Adam Peacock. Our first
prayer focus tonight is going to be in regards to government.
I would like to read out of 1 Timothy 2:1- 4, it reads,
First of all then, I urge that in treaties and prayers,
petitions and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all
men. For kings and all who are in authority so that
we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all Godliness
and dignity. This is good and acceptable to God our
savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth.” Would you pray with
me?
Lord Jesus, we desire that your priorities
in prayer would become our priorities in prayer. We
remember the admonition to pray for those who represent
and serve us in civil government and we entreat you
Lord, as our highest authority, to enable, encourage
and influence those in positions of authority in our
national, state and local governments, to carry out
their service in the fear of the Lord, which is the
beginning of wisdom. We pray that true to our governments,
would be, liberty to pursue righteousness and opportunity
to establish your kingdom culture in our land. We petition
you for your divine intervention in helping us to remove
institutionalized and entrenched expressions of wickedness,
such as abortion from our land.
We repent for the many private sins
and the sinful perspectives that have been allowed to
be public expressions that have become so ingrained
into the fabric of our nation. We give thanks to you
for the divine destiny of this nation, for our Godly
heritage, for a vibrant church that is awakening to
our calling as citizens of the nation in which we live,
and for every strategically placed man and women in
civil service who you are using to bring us back to
your will and way for us in the United Stated of America,
the State of California, and the cities and communities
of Sonoma County, Amen.
We are going to take the next few minutes
and just engage us all in prayer in regards to prayer
for those in government and in authority, so if I could
encourage us to gather together in maybe groups of 3
- 4 people. I encourage you to pray for those in civil
government, state government and our local community.
You may have one of those areas that you have on your
heart more specifically to pray about. Also, those in
the executive branch of those areas, the legislative
or judicial branches. Go ahead and gather into your
groups and begin to pray for these.
(Prayer)
We are a part of one of the thousands,
probably multiple thousands of prayer gatherings that
have taken place across our country today. I was struck
on the thought that these gatherings started from the
time that the sun was first rising on the East coast
and now across to the continental United States, we
are having on of the closing meetings as the sun is
setting on the West coast. Throughout the day, across
every state, there has been a prayer that has been read.
It was a prayer that Dr. Henry Blackaby put together
on behalf of our nation, and so I would like to read
that and just invite us to come into agreement with
this prayer that has been prayed for our nation today,
from the rising of the sun to it’s going down.
“Oh, heavenly Father, You have
made yourself known to us as a nation by your mighty
works throughout our history. From the beginning you
have been with us through many wars and conflicts. Your
right arm has saved us. We have been amazingly and graciously
blessed. Today, we confess our sin of not responding
to your right to rule in our lives and our nation. Too
often we have despised and rejected your will, while
imputing our own and we are now facing the consequences
of our disobedience. Draw us back to yourself, that
we may return to your ways once again. Without you,
we can do nothing. You have promised if we honor you,
you will once again honor this great nation. This is
our fervent prayer for your honor and glory we pray,
amen.
(Warren Hayes)
My name is Warren Hayes and I pastor
in various ways throughout the city. I have lived and
served here for many years and my father was a minister
here and Santa Rosa has been my home for 50 years, and
I am older than 50. I am also a law enforcement chaplain
and have been for eight years. This priestly collar
that I am wearing is merely for the purpose of identification
at a accident scene or a crime scene. Our main job is
to support the local law enforcement, the Santa Rosa
Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and
the California State Highway Patrol.
We are a volunteer organization and
we serve them in any way that they would see fit for
us to serve them and one thing that they have made known
is that the greatest service that we could provide for
them is to do death notifications. I remember several
years ago, sitting on the driveway over here on Stony
Point road with a mother who’s son had just been
shot to death. He was only 18 years old and had been
shot by one of the members of a local gang and they
were actually a group of want-a-be’s and one of
them had a gun.
We sat there for four hours. It was
a life changing experience to be with the mother in
her passion, and I was able to assist the law enforcement
to try and help her go back to her apartment. She had
two other son’s and I spent the night, along with
several other chaplains and we were able to serve the
police department in that way.
I sat with the family of a nineteen
year old boy who hung himself and was brain dead, and
I sat in the hospital room with the hospital staff as
they requested the boy’s organs from the parents
and seeing the torment of mom and dad as they were agonizing
over that decision. I had many incidences over the last
eight years and they have given me a fresh perspective
on what law enforcement has to contend with.
One of the things that I do, is I am
a chaplain for the West Coast Post Trauma Retreat, which
is a 5-day residential treatment facility in inverness
and I have learned about police culture and military
culture. We have got young men and women coming back
from Iraq who have been traumatized. When they die in
Iraq, their bodies are blown to pieces and are burnt.
It is a horrible visual and the traumatic effects in
our military and our law enforcement agencies is beyond
what most citizens understand. Tonight we are going
to pray for our military and law enforcement.
On September 11, 2001 war was declared
on the United States of America, whether we like that
or not. We didn’t have to go out to this war and
send our military, it came to our land. This war greatly
effects not only our military, but our law enforcement
services in this nations, because this enemy is on our
soil. It seems that in a war it is about good vs. evil,
but we know that it is not really, because evil cannot
win. We know by faith, that good always prevails over
evil, so why is evil on the earth?
That is a question that people and
law enforcement officers ask me. They ask, “If
there is a God why is there so much evil on the earth
and why are we seeing baby’s murdered and children
raped and killed, and why are we seeing so much horror
if there is a God?” I believe that one of the
purposes of God for evil on the earth is that the evil
brings out the good in my people. Just like when God
was talking with Satan and he said for Satan to consider
his servant Job. When an Angel came to Mary and said
that she was favored by God, she began to enter into
difficulty in life and said that a sword pierced her
heart. Evil calls forth good in God’s people.
In a few moments we are going to stand
and we are going to take a stand and take one another’s
hand and we are going to pray against the evil as we
pray for our military and law enforcement. This morning,
Mayor Jane Bender reminded us of Psalm 23, “Though
we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we
will fear no evil,” why, because He is with us.
Evil and authority is not something to be feared.
In Psalm 37 David reminds us in verse
one not to fret because of evil doers or the workers
of iniquity. Why, because they shall be cut down as
the grass and wither as the green herb. Verse 7 says
to rest in the Lord and to wait patiently for Him and
the evil doer will be cut off. Those that wait on the
Lord will inherit the earth and in a little while the
wicked will be no more.
In verse 11 it goes on to say that
the meek shall inherit the earth and we shall look carefully
for the home of the evil doer, but it will be no more.
In Romans 13:1 it says, “Let every soul be subject
to the governing authorities, for there is no authority
accept for God and the authorities that exist are appointed
by Him.
Do you want to be unafraid
of the authority? Do what is good and you will
have praise from him instead. In verse 4, “but
if you do evil, be afraid, for the law enforcement and
military, does not bear the sword in vain, for he is
God’s minister.” I want to take a stand
that God is in control on this planet today and the
evil hasn’t disappeared yet, but God is getting
good out of evil. I know that it is hard to see that,
especially if you have a loved one in Iraq or lost a
loved one.
Let’s stand and take the hand
of the one next to you. The stand against evil begins
in our own lives. How many of you know that? We are
going to start with our own hearts tonight and we are
going to proclaim good over evil.
Father, we stand unified. Many congregations,
one body in the city of Santa Rosa. Lord, we know that
our unity is your will. That our humility, unity and
willingness to stand together as the body of Christ
on the earth, is where it all starts for us. Lord, as
we stand unified, hand in hand, we stand for the authorities
and governments that we have just prayed for.
We stand especially for the law enforcement
in our area. If the officers went on strike for one
month, our lives would be in tremendous danger and our
city, our society would be in anarchy. We thank you
tonight, Father for those you have placed in authority,
the protectors of this community that drive around the
city and county tonight armed, ready, trained and prepared
for danger, that our children and our grandchildren
might have a safe place to live.
Father, we pray for our military that
has always been ready to go out and risk lives. I can’t
understand an eighteen year old boy, a nineteen year
old girl, a twenty year old young man or woman being
burnt to death in Iraq or blown away and losing body
parts. I can’t imagine the reason of why, it’s
not OK, but Lord, you are in control tonight. So, Lord
we lift up our Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy.
Father, you have used us as protectors
all over the world for many, many years and we thank
you for our military. Father, we see all authority as
being established by you for your purposes, beyond our
understanding, so we stand in faith tonight and we support
each other, we support them. Would you increase our
unity? I pray for every individual in this room, that
everyone here would understand in a deeper way that
in our seemingly mundane and small efforts, You do great
things. So, help us each to take our individual responsibility
in our own personal prayer lives to remember the military,
to remember the law enforcement in our area. We give
you thanks tonight for them, in Jesus name, amen.
(Worship)
(Harry and Carol Skandera)
Guide us in prayer for families, marriages
and youth. It is interesting as you watch the spirit
of the Lord direct a move to join hands together with
Warren as we prayed for the armed forces, it is interesting,
because I believe that that is what we are going to
ask you to do again. I really believe that one of the
things that the Lord is doing here tonight is that we
are standing for our community.
We are not just representing ourselves,
but we are honoring God as a nation and as a community.
When we stand and we join hands, we want to do that
as we represent the rest of our community here in Santa
Rosa and Sonoma County. I am going to ask my wife to
pray for us, but I am going to ask you to join in by
standing and holding hands. She is going to pray and
you will hear the prayer of repentance and when we stop,
receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit for our community
and for our sins and just let it be quiet while we stand
in His presence. After a little bit, Carol will continue
and I would like you just to stay in that place of receiving
what the Lord is releasing as we stand before Him in
prayer for our families, marriages and youth.
Would you stand please. Father, you
have fathered us. You have given us your Holy Spirit
to comfort us and to lead us and then you have even
adopted us as sons and daughters into your family, loving,
forgiving and loyal to come to us. We come before you
tonight to say thank you. Thank you for how pure your
character and your love are to be that way toward us.
When we think that just one hundred years ago our community,
as a community, sold out for you and united before you,
and we have gone so far the other way Lord. It is now
to the point where your name is disdained and your news
is disdained.
When you were a covenant keeper Lord,
we have not kept our covenants. We have divorced our
husbands and wives, we have given ourselves to other
lovers through pornography, imaginations and materialism.
Where you have been loving, we have been selfish, wanting
our own way and to do what makes us feel good about
ourselves. Being disobedient and disrespectful as children,
Lord. We have looked to our own pleasure instead of
extending our family to the widowed, the poor and the
lonely.
We ask that you would stir in us Lord,
in our hearts and our minds for our families, even for
your family, that our home would be like your home Lord,
peaceful, full of joy and purpose. Your word says that
peace is not just wishful thinking, but is the result
of righteous living and the sacrifice of our savior.
Father, we cry out to you to release your love, to release
your purpose in our homes and families, and stir in
us a reverence for you that leads us to the fulfillment
of what’s been in your heart since before we were
even born. Let it be fulfilled and complete that you
would be honored in us. May this be found true.
(Harry Skandera)
Lord, as we look to you as the author
and finisher of our faith, I pray Lord that now you
would extend our faith beyond our lifetime. Lord, that
you would bless those who come after us. Our children
and our children’s children. We pray that your
blessing would descend upon our city. Lord, that your
presence would fill our homes, unite our families in
your bonds of love. God, draw us to yourself in a one-ness
of spirit that reflects yourself, the heart of your
son and the Holy Spirit. In His name I pray, amen.
(Debbie Hooks)
Good evening. My name is Debbie Hooks
and I am representing the Pregnancy Counseling Center
this evening and am going to have us take time to pray
for the unborn. The womb is the secret workplace of
the almighty. Is it not?
Conception and life in the womb gives
us a glimpse of God’s sovereignty and God’s
involvement with us as our creator. We want to honor
God tonight by honoring what He honors. Tonight we honor
God as the creator of life and I have some scriptures
that I am going to share with you as we honor God through
His word.
Father, the creator of life. Genesis
1:27 - So God created man in his own image. In the image
of God, he created him. Male and female he created them.
Nehemiah 9:6 - You alone are the Lord. You made the
heavens even the highest heaven and all of their starry
hosts. The earth and all that is on it. The seas and
all that is in it. He gives life to everything and the
multitudes of heaven worship you. Job 12:10 - In His
hands the life of every creature and the breath of all
mankind. Job 33:4 - The spirit of God has made me. The
breath of the Almighty gives me life. Psalm 100:3 -
Know that the Lord is God and it is He who has made
us and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep
of his pasture. Isaiah 64:8 - Yet, O Lord, you are our
Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are
all the work of your hand.
God has a personal and physical involvement
with your creation and with who you are. He cause your
heart to beat when you were only 18 days inside your
mom. He caused brain waves to be recorded as early as
five weeks when you were inside your mom, let the truth
be known. You are capable of feeling pain as early as
six weeks inside your mother’s womb. Everything
that you have present sitting in these pews tonight
you had present at the beginning of the eighth week
inside your mom, everything! Eyes, ears, mouth, nose,
internal organs, stomach producing enzymes, liver, kidney’s,
all of it was there at the beginning of the eighth week.
We honor God by honoring His word and honoring what
he honors and that is his creation.
Let’s look at the reality of
our nation right now. Up until 1973, abortion was considered
in the law books as,”the taking of innocent life,”
that is how it read. In 1973 all of that changed, making
abortion on demand the legal right of every woman, taking
away personhood of the child and giving all rights over
to the mother. Where has that left us almost 33 years
later?
44 million unborn children
who have died at the hands of abortion. We
have a serious problem in our nation, but there is a
lot of hope, because we are praying people and as we
continue to honor God by honoring what he honors, then
we have hope to overcome the laws of the land. There
are several things that we can be praying for tonight.
These are things that God has impressed on my heart,
so I would like us to break up into smaller groups and
pray for tonight.
I am feeling pressed for us to pray,
and again this has been a running theme for us tonight,
but for us to pray for humility, repentance and confession
from us. We need to pray that God would forgive us and
that he would shed his mercy on me, not on those people
who are a part of the abortion movement, but on me,
who have failed to cherish and to esteem the people
who are in my own personal life. Because of Roe vs.
Wade, there has been a callousness on even believers
in the church. We need to pray against that numbness
as well.
That maybe that numbness is causing
us not to love and esteem each other as we should, so
, I would like us to begin in confession, that God would
help us to value and honor what He values and honors,
being each other and human life. From the person at
the moment of conception to the person who is sitting
right next to you, whoever they may be in relation to
you in your life.
The second thing I would like us to
pray is that the law would be over-turned and that He
would give us favor in the courts right now. There is
litigation going on in many different states and we
want to pray that God in his will, will give us patience
and understanding in how he wants to work it out and
that He would give us favor in the courts as the litigation
is out on the tables right now as we try to chip away
at the law on abortion on demand.
Lastly, I would like us to pray for
all of the women in our community and throughout America
who are currently facing crises pregnancy situations.
I would like us to pray for them, for the father’s
of these babies, that God would give them courage to
walk in strength to walk in the conviction that they
all have down deep in their hearts. That God would protect
them. Also, as I have learned in this ministry in the
last 14 years, the families need a lot of prayer surrounding
them that are in immediate crises. They need the prayer
for encouragement and strength to under gird and support
those that are in crises. That they would find their
way to the pregnancy counseling center and that they
would find the love and support that they need to make
the right choices and to honor God.
(Speaker filling in for Pastor
Fernando)
Good evening. I am here to take the
place of Pastor Fernando. I will be addressing the popular
issue of immigration and we will be praying for our
nation and community in regards to this issue. We know
and want to thank God for the beautiful life that we
have here in America and the opportunities that we have
here, but we as Christians know that the real life,
the beautiful life is found in Jesus. First of all we
need to pray for opportunity to share the Gospel with
all of the people who are here in our land. We have
the great commission and we need to keep it first importance,
so let’s pray for the salvation for all of those
present, immigrants or not to know the Lord Jesus and
to take the good news to them.
Secondly, we need to pray that the
Lord will grant wisdom to our authorities, that they
would make the right decisions. We know that there are
laws that have to be obeyed, and weather the people
have to go or stay, we want God to have his way.
We also want to be praying for the
local protest and march that will be taking place here
in our city in regards to immigration. We pray for safety
and justice for all of the people, not our justice,
but God’s. That there would be respect for all
people.
(Monty Forcamp)
I am here representing the largest
missions organization in the world, that I am a member
of. We have some real problems and issues. We are not
very organized. In fact, a lot of us are not even sure
that we are members. I am here representing the marketplace
and the businesses here tonight. Literally all of us
are involved in the marketplace in some way. I would
like us to pray for two specific things.
First I want to let you know that
Jesus did not create the business community to fund
his ministry, that is not why he created it. He created
it to be his ministry.
I would like you to pray specifically
tonight for those of us, being those of us who get up
every morning to go to work, whether you own a business
or work for a business. I say that so that we can pray
into it as the mission field that it is. That is the
mission field that God has called us to. I pray that
God would put the vision on our hearts to pray into
the business community and to see it as it really is,
a mission field. Pray that we would see the marketplace
purposefully, when we are not at church, we are not
with Christian friends, but we are out there and see
it as opportunity for Christ.
Secondly, I would like you to make
it a little bit more personal and pray for specific
people and businesses that you know. It doesn’t
matter if they are their own business, a large business,
but that you would pray for them by name, that God would
get all of their hearts to be purposeful and to see
phone conversations and daily transactions would be
treated as potential transactions for eternity for somebody’s
life.
(Steve Marshall)
Good evening. My name is Steve Marshall.
I am going to ask the worship leaders to come up and
dismiss us with a song, but first I want to dismiss
us with this perspective. Years ago, a group of people
not much larger than this gathered in a room and prayed,
and as they did and when the did, they had no idea what
was going to be accomplished by their prayers, but ultimately,
because of and through their prayers, the Lord showed
up in a mighty way. We can see that in Acts chapter
2 that they were all of one mind and continually devoting
themselves to prayer, when suddenly there came from
heaven the noise of a mighty rushing wind and it filled
the whole house and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit.
We come here this evening, I think
much like them in a humble way. Proverbs 15:33 speaks
of humility before honor. I want to commend you for
coming here this evening and for standing for what I
think that God wants us to stand for. To unite as a
nation and community and humble ourselves in prayer.
As we humble ourselves and come together as many different
congregations, that God might work mightily in us and
move by His spirit in and through us as well.
Father, we thank you. We know not
exactly how you want to manifest yourself and fill this
room with you Lord, but we know that that is your promise.
And even as those men and women centuries ago gathered
together just with a sense of anticipation and expectation,
so likewise Lord, as we pray here tonight, we do have
a sense that you are on the move Lord and that you want
to accomplish great things in this hour and in this
church and through your people God. So, release that
and mingle these prayers with the prayers of those around
the world for your kingdoms sake, we pray and ask in
Jesus name, amen.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document. |
