 Good morning. Welcome to the morning prayer set at the Radiant City Center downtown Kalamazoo. We're so glad you're here to worship and pray with us this morning. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Psalm 26. I just want to read just a couple verses from this Psalm, Psalm of David. Beginning in verse six, it says, I shall wash my hands in innocence, and I will go about your altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all your wonders. O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. And in Isaiah 56 verse 7, Isaiah came along hundreds of years after David and he gave definition to that house that David said he so loved and it was the house of prayer for all nations. And so as we gather at this altar this morning, we, like David, have come to proclaim the worth of Jesus Christ to enter his courts with thanksgiving and with praise. And so let's just posture our hearts to do that as we enter into worship. Lord, we love you. We love who you are and we love what you do. And like David, we've just come to this altar, this corporate altar in Kalamazoo, Michigan this morning to make much of you, to proclaim your worth before angels and demons alike, to lift high the name of Jesus in exaltation over our own hearts, over our homes and over our city and this nation. Lord, we enter in with thanksgiving for all that you have done and all that you will do. We come with adoration. We just say, Lord, there is nothing like your presence. We love your house of prayer for all nations. We love basking in your glory, beholding your beauty, partnering with you from that place of intimacy with your heart as the great intercessor. Lord, we don't take it lightly this morning. I pray for an outpouring of grace this morning on each one of us. Lord, would you just grace the singers and the musicians who are ministering to your heart, Lord, with a spirit of prophecy? Would you anoint their fingers, God, to declare things through sound and instrumentation? Would you anoint the singers, God, to release on earth what is being released in the heavenly sanctuary even now? I pray for grace to pray, grace for supplication, grace for intercession. Lord, just lead us, help us, grace us. In your name we pray. Eyes of faith this morning and we gaze by faith into an invisible realm. Jesus, you stand alone, you stand apart, fairer than the sons of men, outstanding among 10,000 beauty, incomparable, magnetic in your stunning holiness, Lord. Our hearts are moved, God, just by beauty. Oh Lord, we long to see you more, that we would love you rightly, that we would walk worthy of who you are, this beautiful goodness. We just hold that gaze corporately. We're going to shift a little bit into intercession, but we're just going to pray that, that very cry for more revelation of the beauty of the Lord, everything that Natasha was singing about changing our filters and readjusting our lenses concerning the beauty of the Lord. So I'm going to pray from Luke, chapter 24 to chapter or verses. This is where the disciples were on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And as they're walking along depressed, Jesus shows up and walks beside them, but they don't recognize him. And it will pick up in verse 27, it says, and then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going and he acted like he was not going to go further, but or he was going to go further and they urged him saying, stay with us. It's getting towards evening. So he went in to stay with them. And when he had reclined at the table, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it. He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road while he was explaining the scriptures to us. So Lord, we thank you that it is the desire of your heart to unveil your beauty and worth to your people. Lord, I thank you that it's the desire of your burning heart to ignite a flame in our weak human hearts that we would burn in love for you, God, in every chapter of our story. So we stand in the gap this morning, God, on behalf of our own personal hearts and on behalf of your church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, God, we lift our corporate hearts, our individual heart before you. And we just say, Jesus, would you draw near? Would you come and walk beside us even now, even today, Lord? And we ask for a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of who you are to be granted to us. God, all that Natasha was singing that you would just change the filters that suddenly, suddenly we would behold your beauty in the mundane, in the well-worn paths of our life, God, in the daily tasks that we do, in the pressures that we encounter. I'm asking, Lord, would you walk beside us, Holy Spirit, would you reveal to us the man Jesus Christ that our eyes would suddenly be opened, that we would see Jesus rightly, Lord? We're asking for a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of beautiful Jesus to be granted to your church today in greater measure in your name we pray, hear the revelation, adjust our ideas, your quarry comes in on us, Lord, heart, sun, fire, fight us, Lord, revelation, set our hearts on, set our hearts on fire for our sons beside us, Lord. Talk to us, Lord Jesus, that in the kindness of your heart you love to draw near, you love to speak the language of our heart, you love to lift our gaze once again and surprise us in revelation of your beauty. So Lord, I'm asking this today even now as we're in the gap as just a remnant in this city, Lord. I'm asking that you, Holy Spirit, would break in right now with the spirit of revelation, Lord, to the men and women on the business commutes or in the office already. I just pray that you would break in, Jesus, walk with them as they do their tasks, as they plan their day to the moms and caretakers, Lord, at home with little ones, even now break in, God. Break in, Holy Spirit, to moms and dads at home with little homeschooled families. God, suddenly break in with your presence, suddenly break in with spirit of recognition in the beauty of the Lord. Lord, let little eyes, the littlest ones, God gaze upon you and calls their little hearts to burn for you, to love you. We're asking spirit of recognition in the knowledge of Jesus, God, be granted to your people today. Students on campuses, break in, walk along with them, God, even as you walked with the disciples on that road to Emmaus, Lord, talking to them, suddenly revealing who you are, enlightening their minds and their hearts with the truth of the scriptures concerning you. God, I'm asking, would you do it again in this hour? Draw near to your people with the spirit of revelation. Cause the scriptures to come alive. Lord, as we just draw away today to have quiet times and prayer times and Bible studies, home work for students, God, I'm asking, let open minds and unlock hearts to find Jesus in the written word. Holy spirit, do what you love to do. Take your favorite subject and make it our favorite. Draw us, draw us with revelation to Jesus in the scriptures and in creation and in conversation and in the mundane. We're just asking for more of Jesus, more of Jesus, more revelation of His beauty, goodness, kindness, we pray in your name, illusion, even as you drew near just our filters, you still cause our ears to hear your to understand. And Lord, you cause the one who is an all consuming fire to touch our hearts and to cause cold hearts to begin to burn again, passion for Jesus, to hit the heart of your church even now, would you let the fire that you possess got the fire of your love, the seal of your love to be set upon the heart of your church in this city, got from leaders to the little ones in diapers and everything in between, break in with the fire of your passion, cause hearts to begin to burn once again in your name we pray. Do it again. I just want to burn for you, I just want to burn for you, to set me apart, to burn to those who have felt. I just want to burn for you, to set me apart, to burn for you, I'm going to go back into a time of worship. So I just invite you all just to stand, just kind of reset. to stay. It never gets older. Your beauty on display got the beauty of your mercy in catastrophic circumstances. God, we gaze again. We say thank you for the cross. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for love. Thank you for rescuing us. Love you Father. We love you Jesus. We love you Holy Spirit. Just stay in that posture of Thanksgiving. Remembering the love of God and we're just going to broaden the scope a little bit to our brothers and sisters. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse one says let love of the brethren continue and in verse three the Lord commands us. He says remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill treated since you yourselves also are in the body. We started our prayer set this morning by just remembering that the Lord said his house, his habitation would be called or function as a house of prayer for all nations and part of that is our remembering in the place of prayer our brothers and sisters who live in areas of the world the nations that are hostile to the gospel and so in obedience to the word of God this morning we're just going to step into the gap as intercessors and we're going to pray for our brothers and sisters who live in areas where they are persecuted and even martyred for their faith and and I'm going to go ahead and open but we're going to shift them and we're going to go into a small group prayer at the very end and just call out those nations where our brothers and sisters dwell where they are suffering for the sake of Christ and so Lord I just thank you I thank you that your inheritance will be from among the nations every tongue and every tribe Lord will be on that sea of glass like crystal I thank you Lord for purchasing every people group God with your blood and we thank you Lord in remembrance and in obedience to your word for our brothers and sisters who are holding fast the testimony of Jesus even right now God across the time zones and across the terrain Lord and across the nations they are holding fast the testimony of Jesus in just in great persecution and in great fire of oppression and Lord we remember them and we hold them up before you right now as if we were in the prison cell with them as if we were in the shackles with them God I lift before you our brothers and sisters all throughout the Middle East and I pray Holy Spirit that you would rain down your grace even now all throughout the Middle East God our brothers and sisters who are suffering today even the very staples of life being denied them because they love you who are in hiding because they love you who are widowed because they love you and orphaned because they love you God I'm asking that you would take note of the threats against them that you would stretch out your right arm of power or that you would be their defense that you would be their provider that you would be their healer that you would be their comforter I pray that you would draw near to the broken hearted and that peace despite all the circumstances that they face would rain in their hearts right now peace of God in our brothers and sisters all throughout the Middle East Asia India God all throughout North Korea all throughout the nations of Africa God that are opposed to the gospel that are rooted in Islam and animistic religions we just say all the father remember them even as we prayed for the church in Kalamazoo that you would walk with them and open their eyes and strengthen us Lord I pray the same for every persecuted believer Lord you know the hair upon their head draw near to them Lord with peace with hope and with faith we pray in Jesus name oh just be the brother brothers and sisters who suffered today and now we're just gonna uh just go ahead and gather in groups of out specific nations people groups whatever the Lord lays on your heart we just want to pray those things peace hope faith protection provision and then we'll just re gather as we close out in just a minute or two but you would just sing over our brothers and sisters in these hostile regions the songs of deliverance we pray that you would deploy angels even now to bear them up to strengthen them to minister to them in every circumstance and pressure that they are facing we declare the hope of God over each heart we declare the peace of God faith ever being renewed perseverance and endurance we thank you Father we thank you for your faithfulness and Lord we just thank you for all that has transpired this hour at the altar and we end right where we started just declaring we love your habitation God we love your presence we love your house of prayer we love partnering with you Lord concerning your kingdom purposes in our city and in the earth and I ask that all that has transpired right here Lord that it would be multiplied many times over in this very room at this very altar across our city across our nation and the nations of the earth Lord we just say build your house of prayer God raise up the intercessors raise up the prophetic singers and musicians Lord that you would find on earth as it is in heaven a mirror of the heavenly sanctuary perpetually declaring the worth of Jesus we love you Lord and we bless you in Jesus name amen and amen well thank you all for coming out this morning thank you for joining us on the live stream we are back here in this room at this altar at noon and at 6 30 tonight God bless you