 Good morning and welcome to morning prayer today. It's Thursday and it's an awesome day for us to behold Jesus, to draw near to His presence, put our eyes, put our hearts, put our attention, our full attention on Him. And as we pray today, the good news is that as we behold Him, His eye is on us. His heart, His affections, His presence draws near to us when we draw near to Him. And as we just think about that idea of drawing near and giving God our full attention, the story of the Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus just comes to mind in John chapter 4. After Jesus has this encounter with this woman who has really lost everything because of decisions that she's made in life and circumstances that may or may not have been outside of her control, she encounters Jesus at the well all by herself. Normally, she would have been with the other women of the village, but she's by herself, which means she's probably been ostracized. She's there at noon, which is the worst time of day to get the water. It's probably because no one else wants to be around of her because of her reputation. But Jesus intentionally goes to the well and meets her there and ministers to her and offers her a drink from the well of eternal life of salvation. Jesus offers her the water that will satisfy her soul. And when He does it, it changes her life. And the part of the story that I love the most is it says in verse 27 down through verse 28 that the disciples are coming back, they see Jesus talking to the woman. No one said anything, but in verse 28 it says, so the woman left her water jar, which represents her loneliness or isolation, the way of her life that required her to have to daily go and get water to satisfy her day by day based on her own strength by herself. But after encountering Jesus, she left her water pot there and it says, and she went away into town and she said to people, come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Listen to the invitation in her voice. She says, come and see a man who's changed my life. That's what beholding does. It changes our life when we put our attention, our physical attention, our spiritual attention, our emotional attention on Jesus. And we allow Him to satisfy us with rivers of living water, with the fountains of life that the psalmist said are in God and God alone. What happens is it changes us. He not only knows everything about you today, beloved, but He loves you. And He's here inviting us to behold Him, knowing that as we do, the rivers of living water satisfy us and change us and fill us with hope again. Remove guilt, shame and condemnation and flood us with acceptance from the presence of the Lord. So today, as we worship and we pray, I want to encourage you, let's give God our full attention. Let's have our Bibles ready. Let's have our journals ready to hear the voice of the Lord speaking over our lives today. Let's offer Him the one thing that He doesn't already have, which is our praise. Let's give God what He wants the most and watch how He gives us what we need the most. We're going to pray and we're going to worship and I want to encourage you, even if you're at home or here in the prayer room, it's not be spectators. Let's engage, body, soul and spirit, heart, soul and mind. Let's worship, let's pray, let's intercede, let's lift up our hands even at home. Let's minister to an audience of one. We're here to behold Jesus and to be transformed by His glory. Father, we love you. We give you our hearts. We give you our time. We behold you. We fix our eyes on you, Jesus. Draw near to you and we invite you to draw near to us. You gave everything for us. We just simply say thank you. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for your absolute surrender to the will of the Father, but your love for us. And Lord, before we could ever think about the cost of the things that we surrender, Lord, we start in humility at the foot of the cross, seeing all that you surrendered, seeing all that you laid down, seeing all that you gave. Lord, before our tears matter, we look at your tears. We see the tears of one left abandoned on a cross flowing down your face. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the precious drops of blood that flowed from your brow down your face. All for us. All for love. Jesus, we see your outstretched arms fully embracing us, but yet nailed because of our shame and our sin and our transgressions. All the bruises on your body that you bore because of ours, our blows inflicted upon you, and you did it all for love. Jesus, we say thank you. Our heart cries, thank you. Behold, what manner of love is this? As we look upon your sacrifice, your perfect sacrifice where you gave everything for us. You gave up glory. You gave up heaven. You gave up dignity. You even gave up your life so that we could pick it up, so that we could breathe again, so that we could hope again, so that we could call you Father again. Thank you for your everything. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your willingness to surrender all. Well, let's just take a moment and just you to the Lord, to the heart of the Father, just thanking Him for His everything. You to the heart of Jesus, reminding your heart of the sacrifice. Stripes that you bore on your body, forever grateful. It's our joy to surrender. It's our joy to lay everything at your feet. It's our joy to offer you our tears, tears of bitterness, but even in our brokenness, to give them to you as an offering. It's our joy to give you the things that matter most to us, but to lay them down at the foot of the cross and say, not mine, but yours. Father, it's our joy to take up our cross and to follow you, Jesus, and like every other person who's followed you, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, David, to build an altar before you where we place that which costs us everything. On the altar and let it go up in flames before you as a sacrifice from the deepest place of our heart, not just in the external movement and the giving of something that doesn't cost us anything. It's not even the, it's not even the thing itself. It's the fact that our heart lets go of it and puts it on the altar in response to all that you've given. Lord, would you give us hearts of surrender this morning to put it all on the altar, to put our Isaacs on the altar. It's easy to offer the Ishmaels, but the Isaacs cost us something. And today, even the Isaacs, even the dreams, even the promises, even the things that we could have, even the things that we want to have, the things that we feel entitled to, that we deserve, Jesus, when we stare at the cross, the question cease. And we just put it on the altar willingly, joyfully. And we say everything for Jesus, everything for Jesus, the bottled up tears, the boxed up questions, the hidden scars, Jesus we surrender, all to him we freely give. Jesus have it all, have our hearts this morning that scattered all over the earth during a season of lent, which is a season of reflection leading up to the cross and the resurrection. Praying today that there would be a breakthrough, revelation of the beauty of your cross, the Lord, the power of religion, the power of even ritualism that would dare to hide the beauty of the cross behind just mere observation, going through the motions, even marking dates on a calendar that Lord, that the varnish of that would be peeled back and we, as your believers, across every denomination and every continent of the face of the earth, would have a fresh revelation of the beauty of the cross of Jesus. The beauty of the cross, 1 Corinthians chapter one says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Lord, right now there are those who look at the cross and say, what an ugly figure it is, why would anyone want to serve a God who would die such a terrible death? Isn't that defeat? Isn't that weakness? Isn't that ignorance? But yet we look at the cross today and instead of ugliness, we see beauty because it's love on full display and instead of weakness, we see strength. Jesus, you could have called down legions of angels at any moment, but love kept you on the cross. The strength of your devotion to the Father kept you on the cross. And when the world looks at the cross and says, foolish, we look at the cross and say, wisdom. We see the manifold wisdom of God redeeming us or pour out a fresh, fresh revelation, wisdom and understanding of the beauty of the cross. The beauty of Jesus, our sacrifice at the cross that He bore, open our eyes to the beauty and the wonder of the cross. Lord, the gospel message would not just be glossed over or hidden. Every time we look at the cross, we see our great poverty of spirit, that Lord, we could not save ourselves. We could not fix ourselves, but you came for us. Every time we look at the cross, we see love on display, the kind of love that doesn't keep a record of wrongs done, the kind of love that shows mercy, the kind of love that doesn't send someone else to do it, but God, you came running to our rescue. Lord, I'm praying that this Easter and this Lent season as churches celebrate that and fast and even sacrificially give things up, Lord, that it would be more than just some ritualistic observation. It's what we do every year. But Lord, this would be a window of time where you're peeling back all the layers of religion, all the layers of selfishness and reminding us of our deep need that was only met when Jesus died on the cross for us. God, I'm praying that in churches in our city, of every denomination, of every background, of every style that name the name of Jesus, that this year would be a year that the gospel would proclaim with might and with strength and with beauty that a generation who runs to church on Easter this year would be confronted with the beauty, but also the mystery and the wisdom, the foolishness in the eyes of the world of Jesus on the cross and be confronted with our own sin and the need of salvation. Jesus, we're praying that you would put the cross on display like never before, not just on the top of our churches or on the back walls of our sanctuaries, but you would put it in the pulpits of every church. And Lord, it would be emblazoned on the hearts of all of your followers, just like we're just saying we will follow the Lamb. God, let that be more than a mantra. Raise up, raise up followers that more than name the name of Jesus, but literally bear the cross of Jesus and follow the Lamb wherever he goes, sacrificially, unapologetically, unashamedly that we follow Jesus in the way of the cross. Put your cross on full display. We pray Jesus' name for giving trespasses and disarming the enemy. You did at the cross, Jesus. Cancelled all of the debts that we owe. You tore in half those legal documents of accusation by the accuser of the brethren that were written up to separate us from you. You cancelled them. And Lord, the enemy was perfectly disarmed through the cross. How wonderful, how beautiful is your cross. Oh, the wonderful cross. Lord, I'm praying that as the revelation of your cross begins to unlock people's hearts, that it would produce greater salvation. Lord, greater freedom and greater liberty in the hearts of people, that the enemy's weapons would be dismantled, that the devil's accusations would be cancelled, that our trespasses would be washed as white as snow as the message of the cross goes forward. This year, this spring, in every pulpit in this city, God, we're praying, elevate the cross in this city. High above every other name, let the name of Jesus be exalted. Above every trophy, let the cross stand front and center. Let the beauty and the wonder of the cross bid us come and die to find that we might truly live in Jesus. Let life, let life be birthed out of your death, Jesus. And the power of the resurrection begin to transform and change lives because of the beauty of the cross. Lord, we're praying for boldness as the message of the cross is proclaimed. And we're praying for altars to be full of people receiving new life, all because of your perfect sacrifice, Jesus. And we finish like we started. We say, thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross, Jesus. Thank you for the cross, the mighty cross. Open our eyes to see the beauty of it, afresh and anew. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Joining us, those of you at home as well, and as always, invite you to come and join us in person today at noon, tonight at 6.30 p.m. as we continue to pursue the Lord, let hunger stir in your heart. Don't ever allow the hunger for more of the presence of God to ever be satisfied. Draw near to him and let him draw near to you. We pray. And for those of you who are in the prayer room, we want to also let you know we're about to shift in to a devotional set. So you're welcome to stay. You're welcome to just spend some time in the presence of the Lord, meditate on the beauty of the cross, listen to his voice, be saturated in that. If you're going to talk and catch up, that's great. We're just going to ask that you would quietly leave today as you came in and join us as we pray and enjoy the presence of the Lord.