 Good morning, welcome everybody. Welcome into the prayer room this morning. And those of you who are joining us from home today or wherever you are, we want to welcome you to morning prayer. This morning, I want to just read a portion of Psalm 123. I'll read this and let me just encourage all of us that if you're doing something else, let's finish that up. Let's grab our Bibles or journals, coffee, give our full attention here to the presence of the Lord as we draw near. Psalm 123 says unto you, I lift up my eyes, O you who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of a servant looks to the hand of their masters, is the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress. So our eyes look to you, the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Have mercy on us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt, our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease with the contempt of the Lord. Psalm 23 is a very short Psalm, but such a powerful message for us today to lift up our eyes to Jesus. Sometimes we can look to men and we can look at them as the answer and the solution. Sometimes we can look at people that have influence or power or have decision-making ability over our lives and we can have our eyes zeroed in on them and focused on them, but we need to have our eyes lifted up to the Lord. We need a higher perspective. We need to remind our hearts that Jesus is faithful. Jesus is always watching over our lives super intending. I love this idea where as a servant looks to a master. That's exactly who we are. We're sons and daughters of God, but we're bond servants to the Lord. Just like every servant has their eyes fixed on the desire of their master. What we need more than anything is to have our heart wide open, focused on Jesus and every nudge and every impression and every glimmer in his eye. Say, Lord, what is it that you want? I was actually created to serve you, created to worship you. This is where I find my joy. This is where I find my safety and my security is in you, in a midst of a world that is filled with contempt and disappointment and discouragement and battles and enemies that are raging and things that wanna steal our peace. There is a place and there is a person that we can run to that we can set our eyes on and we can be secure, safe and centered in on it and the eternal truth that he is good and that person and that place is Jesus. So this morning, I want us to just lift up our eyes and even in the room and at home, let's just lift up our hands as well. Lord, today we lift up our eyes, we lift up our hands, we lift up our hearts to you. And we say, Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on us in the midst of battles. Have mercy on us in the midst of storms. Lord, have mercy on us when everybody else disappoints us. Lord, we long for you, the Lord our God and we long to serve you and to please you. Our eyes are fixed on you, the author and the finisher of our faith. Jesus, this morning as we begin with worship, as we awaken our hearts and enter into your presence, Lord, meet us in this place and awaken our hearts to who you are. Jesus, now. Jesus, I, Jesus, I, Jesus, I, Jesus, I, Jesus, I, Jesus, I, Jesus, I, the center. Image of the invisible God, the first form of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Jesus, we pause right now and we just say, we love you. We love you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus, for the blood that was shed on the cross. Lord, in areas that we have put other people and other things and other ideas and other agendas and Amazon wish lists and clicks and subscriptions and all the things that distract us, Lord God, that we have put before you and in front of you, Lord, we repent and we cast them down and we say, Jesus, you be at the center, the center of our attention. Lord, the center of our affections, the center of our agenda, the center of our wish list, Lord God, you are our desire and we repent of putting other things in front of you and before you, Lord God, you are the preeminent one. You are the preeminent one, Lord, and we have wandered, we have strayed and so, Lord, we return, we turn back to you right now. Jesus, be at the center. Be at the full center of our attention, Lord. Fascinate us, Lord, once again. Lord, would you return us to fascination with you, with desire to that place, a place right now, the center, be at the center, Lord, of my mind, the center of my affections. It's easy for us, Lord, to get wrapped up in our appointments and our to-do lists. Oftentimes, we find it hard just to sit at your feet, minister to you and thank you and worship you and exalt you for who you are, Lord, right now. We intentionally put down the busyness of our lives, the busyness of our day, the things that we know that we're walking into and the things that we don't and we just say, Jesus, you are our priority. We want to stay in this place. We want to be in this place and you are worthy for us to sit at your feet and adore you and worship you and like the psalmist ascribes you glory and honor and exaltation and praise. Jesus, you are our priority. You are, Lord. Lord, would you return your church back to this place? Would you call your bride back to your feet, Lord God? Back to your feet. Those who break the flask who don't hold onto it and lavish you with praise and honor and glory that's due to your name, worship with adoration, Lord. Would we not just wait for 30 minutes on a Sunday, Lord God, but would the entirety of our lives be filled with ministry at your feet? One, you are our priority and we love you and we thank you, Lord. In verse 21, Paul continues, he says, in you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he being Jesus has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before him. Lord, we thank you for what you have done. We once were pushed away, alienated, hostile toward you but now because of your blood, now because of the cross, now because of what you have done, we are those who are reconciled, reconciled, Lord. And so, Lord, I pray that a holy reverence would fall over your church, it would fall over us, Lord God, that we would see you for who you are, that we would see what you have done and it would make us fall to our knees, that we would be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the cross, that we would not just see it as a symbol, holy, spotless, that we would truly be above reproach, that we would not walk away from the line of sin, that we would hate sin, Lord God, that we would be despised and detested, that it would be a putrid smell to our nose and a putrid taste to our mouths, Lord. Sinaitis, grip us again, return us back to the fear this way and to think this way, return us, Lord, back to that place, return us, Lord. Back to the finished work of Christ, work of Christ, back to the finished work of Christ, take us back to the finished work of Christ, back to the finished work of Christ, and you bless back to the fake us, back to the finished work of Christ, take us back to the finished work of Christ, Back to the finished work of the finished work of the cross Therefrom, when death says you, fear says you O shame and insecurity That is in your blood, that speaks of better things Old Testament, that all pointed forward in time Accomplish on the cross the shedding of your blood For the redemption of sins Shedding of your perfect blood That is the blood of the Lamb over the doorposts Of our house, of our home, of our heart The blood that cleanses us, the blood that is alive That speaks life over us today So today, Father, we come before you Like the priests would enter into the Tabernacle with the blood Sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, Lord Today it's your blood, Jesus, that releases the mercy of God into our lives today So we appropriate that today Say, Jesus, it's by your blood that we come before you In a new and a living way, Lord, it's by your blood that we stand Forgiving, forgiving the righteousness of God to Jesus Today it's your blood that we plead for the forgiveness of our sins The mercy that we need And it's by your blood that we know we are accepted We are recognized, we are welcome in your presence So, Jesus, we thank you today for the power of your... This morning I want to direct our attention in the last few moments that we have To Deuteronomy chapter 6 Shema, the commandment of the Lord That God gave to his people and Jesus reiterated Matthew 21, where he was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What's the ultimate thing that God is looking for? What's the desire of his heart for man? God spoke it in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 when he said, Hero is real The Lord our God, the Lord is one You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart With all your soul and with all your strength It's the great commandment, the first commandment In fact, everything else in the scripture can be summed up in this one commandment This is what God wants more than anything for us It's why he shed his precious blood It's why Jesus came to give us the ability to love him The way he wants to be loved So today we're just going to take the next few moments that we have together We're going to position our heart in a first commandment, posture For today we come before you and we say, here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one Father, you are one, you are perfect You are complete, there's nothing lacking in you And we remind our hearts today that our love for you is only as strong as the love that you have for us Our righteousness is only as righteous as your righteousness that you impute to us is Lord, you are one It's more than just a reference to the fact that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell in perfect unity It's talking about perfection, completeness, sufficiency, eternality Lord, this is who you are We remind our hearts today, even as we say, here, oh Israel, we're saying that's the covenant people of God Remember, be reminded today Give your full attention to this today Sit your eyes firmly today upon this God who is perfect and holy Lord, awaken our hearts just as we prayed a moment ago to the fascination, to the wonder that you who are holy would invite us, who are foreigners and strangers and sons of sin to draw near to you and to even have an opportunity to know you Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, God, you are holy You are perfect, spotless, wonderful, complete, sufficient, lacking nothing And our hope today isn't you, Jesus God, give us an undivided heart Lord, we confess that our heart is so deceptive, so vulnerable Lord, we're so distracted by so many different things And in our weakness, Lord, we allow our hearts to be divided, compartmentalized The Lord today, we're returning and we're saying, God, give us undivided hearts that we can love you with all of our hearts We can only love you because you first loved us Lord, would you remove everything from our hearts that hinders love Every obstacle to all hearted devotion Every sin that so easily besets us Every fear that wants to paralyze us Every distraction that wants to deceive us Every lie that we've believed That causes us to want to hide from you, some part of us Lord, we're coming back We turn our face towards you, shine upon us Give us whole hearted devotion to give you what you long for, God A united heart with yours Abiding in you and loving you Lord, this is our desire It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him alone shall you serve Of idols that we would sit next to you Anything that we would place before you That is not worthy of who you are Rude those things and give us, return us back to a heart of worship Lord, would you break up the fellow ground? The places in our minds, you said to worship you not just with our heart but with our soul With all of our mind, all of our will and all of our emotions Lord, break up the hard, packed down soil in the places where we've become familiar with you Where we're not moved by you anymore Where we don't tremble at your name anymore Where it's become common, your name is common to us, Lord We want no mixture of holiness and profane in our lives Lord, we want undivided hearts that shake and tremble in awe of who you are Our hearts to be moved, we don't want to stand in worship services Or in the place of prayer, or read your word and not have it move us Lord, would you break up the fellow ground so that our heart is like it was in the beginning Our first love would you restore, our first love so that we can worship you Undivided heart with all of our mind decisions would be so motivated to please you Out of the place of obedience, joyful obedience Lord, with gladness, Lord, we don't want to serve you out of obligation We want it to be the overflow of a heart that is undivided Help us to worship you with all of our mind Raised us up from the dead, it's your love that washed us white as snow God, it's your love that's redeemed us, brought us into your family It's your love that's given us a new name and broken the chains of darkness Hopefully the love of God can help us to love God Lord, today would you release a greater capacity in our hearts as we draw near to you And our eyes are fixed on you, would you expand our hearts today? Or expand our hearts to be able to love you with all of our heart, soul and strength? Every part of us, our mind, our thoughts, our actions, everything that we put our hands to today In the way that we love others, Lord, we want to be baptized in your love So Lord, you said that we have not because we ask not and today we're asking for that That we might be able to give you what you deserve so much We thank you that when we ask we receive So today, thank you for the oil of intimacy It's flowing in a greater way in our lives today Strengthen us by your love, we pray in Jesus' name We want to thank you for joining us and invite you, those of you who are home and here in the room as well That we pray morning, noon and night and we want to invite you to come and join us in person Today at noon, tonight at 6.30 p.m. as we worship the Lord together We pray that the love of God will go with you into the rest of your day If you're here in the prayer room, we're going to continue on into a devotional set We're just going to minister to the heart of the Lord, continue to And a reflective and focused way just on the goodness and the nearness of the Lord So we just ask if you're going to have conversations, please take those outside of the room But you're pleased, you're welcome to stay if you'd like to just soak in the presence of the Lord And just reflect on his goodness, please stay and join us for that God bless you