 Good morning. Welcome to Morning Prayer here in downtown Kalamazoo from the Radiant City Center. We're going to be ministering to the Lord, holding his beauty, inquiring in his temple, and seeking his face. I invite you to turn to Psalm 103. We're going to begin in this posture. Psalm 103 starting in verse 1. Psalm of David, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 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. I want to read that again. Let that sink into your soul this morning. 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 remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. This is the benefit of the cross. This is why Jesus came. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities because he is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. This is why we're here, and this is who he is. So let's begin just in your own words this morning. Give thanks to the Lord and bless his name. Lord, you are good. You are merciful. You are gracious. Thank you for all of your benefits. Thank you for forgiving our sin. Lord, though we deserve death, though we deserve punishment, Lord, you do not treat us as our sins deserve. Thank you for being merciful. Thank you for being gracious. Thank you for your compassion. Lord, you're a good father. You're a good father. Thank you for relating to us as children. Lord, we say we want to fear your name this morning. Would you, would your compassion rest on us today? Just continue in your own words. Give language of blessing and praise to the Lord of lords, to the king of glory. Points to Christ, oh, let his fame go the best thing. Matthew 6, 22 is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? The eye is the lamp of the body. The eye is the gateway to your soul. What you let in forms and transforms you. And that word healthy in the Greek is hapluce, and it means singular, simple, no confusion or complication. This is the one thing focus of Psalm 27 of David and of Mary in the New Testament. If your eye is healthy, then your eye is focusing on Jesus, and he is all that you have your attention on. And so right now let's enter a place, enter a posture of prayer, asking that the Lord would give us eyes to see Jesus and to see him rightly. Lord, would you help us to see you? Would you give us healthy eyes? Would you give us eyes that are not concerned with any other thing around us? Would you give us eyes that are fixed fully and completely on you? Lord, we don't want to put our attention on the world around us. We don't want to put our attention on our circumstances. Lord, we don't want to be concerned with money, with the cares of this world, with the deceitfulness of riches, with the evil and wickedness that is being released on the earth in our generation. Lord, we want to fix our eyes on you. So would you pour out grace? Would you pour out grace upon grace and give us eyes that are open to see through the natural and to see into what you're doing? God, would we see your throne? Would we see you seated on a throne as king of kings and Lord of lords? Would we see your radiance? Would we see your majesty? Would we see the light that proceeds from your face and your countenance? God, open our eyes. Draw our faces and our heads and our gaze towards the throne of grace today. Would you pour out that grace to us in Jesus' name? We're asking to see Jesus. We're asking to look upon him and I feel for some of us today, whether you're in the room or online, it's like, but I can't. Like, I don't know how. I feel like there's something hindering me from seeing him and from seeing him rightly. And I sense Hebrews 12, 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Now I want to invite you just in this moment to allow the Holy Spirit to scan your heart, to scan your mind and your soul and let him reveal anything that would hinder you from seeing Jesus. I feel like the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us today and bring to mind something hindering us, something hindering our attention. So allow the Holy Spirit just to minister to you right now and when he reveals that thing, go before him and say, I repent. I lay this at your feet, Lord. Cleanse my eyes that I would see Jesus rightly. So I just want the music to play that the singers can sing, but allow the Holy Spirit to scan your heart and mind and draw your repentance for a few moments. In Ephesians 1, starting in verse 15, praying for a revelation of Jesus and a revelation of the cross. Paul writes, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. God, we come into agreement with the apostle Paul and we ask you, Father of lights, Father of every good and perfect gift, would you give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God? Lord, we reject, we rebuke that which is earthly and worldly, we rebuke a demonic wisdom that is unspiritual in of this world. God, would you give us heavenly insight? Would you give us wisdom that proceeds from your mouth? Would you give us the substance of revelation dwelling on the inside of our hearts and minds, that we would see Jesus and that we would know him, that we would get to know him? God, would we see him rightly? Would we see him as he truly is? Lord, we say thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit, a gift and a deposit for every believer. Would Holy Spirit erupt with revelation and knowledge of the Son of man on the inside of our hearts? God, we've been saying it all morning, we've been praying it and singing it. We want to see you, so would you give us the ability, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus today? Your name hinders us from praying according to verse 18, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. God, would you enlighten the eyes of our understanding and even now would you enlighten the eyes of our understanding to see Jesus on the cross? To see you in your cross, Lord? We partner with the prayer of Paul, Philippians 3, that we would know you in your suffering that we would know you in your resurrection and in your power. So God, right now we look to the cross, we look to Calvary's hill, we look to the hill of the skull where the Son of man was pierced through and hung on a tree bearing the curse of sin for the world. God, would you open our eyes to see the cross and to see our sin on the cross? Just like in the Exodus with Moses, he made a bronze pole with a serpent on it and he raised up the pole and everyone who looked, God, we look upon the cross today. Thank you for bearing our sin. Thank you for the suffering that you endured. Thank you for taking the penalty of sin for us. Would you give us a greater understanding and a greater awareness of the price that you paid, the suffering you endured? It would you help us to walk in your footsteps? Lord, just like Simon of Cyrene who carried your cross up Galgotha's skull, up the hill of the skull, would we carry our cross well? Lord, would we see you on the cross? And would you give us grace to deny ourselves and carry our cross and walk within your footsteps of Jesus' name? Your power, the greatness of your power that was put on display. You were crucified, the sun and moon went dark, but the radiance of your glory shown, God, help us to understand, help us to comprehend. What would we know? Would we know the love of God that was displayed on the cross? The width, the length, the height and the depth, the width, the length, the height and the depth. Four different directions, four different facets of your love. God, would we comprehend your love that surpasses comprehension, the love that you displayed on the cross? God, would you show us the beauty of the blood that was spilled, the blood that you spilled in the garden of Gethsemane in the courtyard Calvary's Hill, our awareness and understanding of the price that you pay, beauty of the blood of Jesus. Right now we thank you for the blood, thank you for spilling out your lifeblood on the ground. It's our sanctification, our righteousness, our justification, our hope. God, thank you for the blood. We plead your blood over our hearts, we plead your blood over our minds, over our bodies. Give us a revelation of the blood of Jesus this morning, Jesus' precious place into our day with the heart that is recalibrated, centered on you, focused on you, ever returning back to an awareness of your presence, to an awareness of your nearness, to an awareness of your beauty and a wonder of the cross of God. Thank you. We move from this place in power, in faith and with eyes to see you in everything. All the saints said amen. Thank you for joining us today for morning prayer. We'll be back at noon 6 30 tonight and tomorrow again at 8 a.m. Bless you.