 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Monday Morning Prayer here at the Radiant City Center. Thank you for those who are here in the room with us in downtown Kalamazoo. And for those who are joining with us online, we welcome you. And if this is your first time here with us or joining us, we just want you to know that this is a corporate altar unto the Lord. We gather together with all of the saints that are here and joining us online to offer worship and our prayers before the Lord. This is not something that Radiant Church thought of on their own, that we're doing to be cool, but we are joining in with a model that's been going on in heaven for all eternity, that is we worship the Lord together with our song. As the worship team is singing, we are singing with them. We are singing the choruses and songs and phrases and even your own language that I'd be bubbling up out of you. We are agreeing with who God is. He's good. He's faithful. He's kind and He's just. He'll never leave us. That He alone is our strength and He alone can satisfy us. And as we sing that, it begins to stir our faith to press into intercede. This is a prayer meeting. This is not just a worship service. This is not just a quick hour before work, but this is a time where we can gather together and press in, stand in the gap and intercede for what's on the Lord's heart. So when we pray together, as we sing phrases, as I pray verses, we're just agreeing with what God has already says He wants to do. We're taking prayers from scriptures. We're taking the desires of His heart and we're saying, God, we agree. We agree. We know that you want to do this. And so I encourage you to not make this just a personal time before the Lord, but to really engage in a corporate way, gather together. But as we move with the rhythms of your heart and the rhythms of what you want to do, God, would you come and rest upon us in this place? So I want to just start off this prayer meeting by reading a few verses from Psalm 63. Psalm 63 says, Oh God, you are my God. And earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help and the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. For my soul clings to you in your right hand upholds me. Father, here we are gathered together, either in this place or through the power of technology, we are gathered together. One voice, one heart, one church, one body saying, God, you are God and we seek you. We need you, our heart and flesh cry out for you. You are the only answer. You are the only solution. Let your praise be on our lips. Let your praise flow out of our hearts. We behold you on your throne, your power and your glory and say, you and you alone, the lifter of our soul. It's our joy to praise you right now. It's our joy to lift our song to you right now in Jesus' name. Let's sing this chorus together. I'll praise you right now, no matter where I am. No matter what happened this morning. No matter where I'm going after this. I will praise you. I will worship you right now. I will worship you right now. Heard our praise. We all deserve our worship, our attention, our focus, our time, our eyes to the worthy one. You know our worship, I'm feeling a grace from the Lord right now to wait. There is a grace from the Holy Spirit to sit and to wait on the Lord. I feel like that grace is tied to, he wants to, in his kindness bring some things to light that are standing in the way of love. Standing in the way of your attention and your relationship and your experience of him. Not things that are hindering him from loving you, but things that are standing in the way from you to experience, fully experience everything he's freely provided for you. So let's just take a moment right now. The musicians keep playing to wait and to listen. I hear him say that thing that I shined a little bit of light on in a gracious way. Saying as you begin to worship me for this next hour, let that be the thing that you offer before me. Don't just sing a song with your arms holding it. Lay it at my feet and offer me your worship. To be grateful, to be grateful. Before we continue on, I just feel the weight of the Lord on that phrase. That is not a flippant phrase. It's not an easy thing to say. Lord, reign and rule. Lord, reign and rule over my home. Lord, reign and rule over my work, over my business. Lord, reign and rule over my city, over my school. Begin right now as we are continuing to sing and play. Declare that in your heart, but do it with intention. Don't do it if you don't want them to reign and rule. But if you truly want Jesus to be the Lord and Savior, the ruler and the king, to actually speak it out loud. Declare it to the face of your accuser. Declare it to the face of the enemy. The enemy no longer has any dominion over you, for you are under the king of kings and the Lord of lords. You are no longer under the reign of the sin of death, but under the reign of life under Jesus. So Lord, reign and rule over all. Begin over my life. We open our hearts. You're not just part of my life. All dominion is yours. Every part of me holds nothing back. I hear you. I hear your song. I know you mean it. I know that you wanted. I will give you the grace to lay it down, give you the strength to say yes, to tear down the idols. I hear your voice. I give up control. This be our song right now. You have control. Here we are, your church, your children, your body. We say you are the head, you are the king. We know that you will offer us grace, grace upon grace to say yes, strength to say yes. All you want is our weak yes. Our weak yes is more than enough. You will give us the strength. You will give us the grace. I want to lean in as we contend and pray together. I want to lean in to what Pastor Zach was speaking on and teaching on yesterday on Sunday about the altar in our home. Brought a lot of exposure to the idols of self, of perversion and entertainment. And I want us to give us a moment right now as a church to respond to the Lord. To respond with our weak yes. The Lord in His kindness shined light on our hearts, on our homes, on our priorities, on our checkbook or our bank accounts. On the way we spend our time and our attention are the doors that we keep hidden in close. And He shined light and brought exposure to things that are standing in the way of love. Things that are perverting our home. And I want to give us a moment to respond. To lean in, to give our weak yes and let the Lord strengthen our hearts. So we're going to be praying out of Ephesians 3. We're going to start there. Verse 14 says, What is the breath and length, height and depth? To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Verse 20 and 21 says, Forever and ever amen. So Father, we stand before you as your children, as your family. I think it's significant that this verse identifies us not as workers, not as just a congregation but as a family. That your eyes are on our homes. Your eyes are on our families. That you are not just in a business, not just in buildings or services, but your eyes are on our families, on our homes. What we do Monday through Saturday, what we do even after work as we gather together. Whether it just be us as a single unit or with roommates or with a spouse or with families, with kids, grandkids, however that is, your eyes are on them. Your eyes are not just on when we gather for an hour on Sunday. That's beautiful to you. It's a significant offering to you. But you care so much about our homes and not just what we do in our homes but what we are not doing in our homes. And the Lord is highlighting those two things right now for us to say yes to. What are we doing and what are we not doing? What are we saying yes to and what are we saying no to? What are we leaning into and what are we being apathetic about? And the Lord is giving us an opportunity to lean in that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit and that Christ would dwell in our hearts. So as we've been singing for the last 30 minutes, you and you alone come and rule and reign over our hearts, over our homes. We need your glory and strength. We need your grace. As you've been exposing the idols of self, the idols of perversion, the idols of entertainment, how we spend our time and our money, in your kindness, you have shed light on areas that we have hidden, hidden either out of shame, hidden either out of apathy or maybe we weren't even aware. In your kindness you've exposed it. So God we have come and we have said yes. We ask that you would be the ruler and the king over our hearts and our homes, not just over our church, not just over a city as in a giant body but over our homes. So God we say yes, we need your strength, we need your grace for you to come and dwell in every facet, every being. In the name of Jesus, would you come, give us strength to allow you to dwell in our hearts, in our homes, your home, in our homes. It would be a resting place for your presence that you would be able to abide in our homes. Holiness and righteousness, give it up to you. We need your grace to say yes. You know and we know that we cannot do this without you. The idols that we have allowed be built up or we have built ourselves, either through apathy or through intentionality. You've exposed the ways that we have set ourselves above you. The way that we have set our own dreams or comforts above you. May that we have maybe placed you as king over some areas but over other areas we've said no. Over other areas we have said maybe not yet. The Lord is saying there's grace right now. Now is the time when things will be burnt up that are not of you. Things will be burnt up. The weeds will be burnt and we do not want to suffer loss. We want to experience everything that you have freely provided for us. We don't want things to stand in the way. We don't want culture to establish what we can experience from God. We don't want culture to tell our children what they can experience. But we want to set a standard and a precedence in our homes. We want to plan a flag and say Jesus you are worthy. Colossians 1 in verse 9. It says from the day we have heard we have not ceased to pray. Asking that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. That we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. That we would be fully pleasing to Him. That we would bear fruit in every good work. Increasing in the knowledge of God. Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints and the light. This is the verse I want to lean into. That He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and He has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. That we are no longer under the dominion of idols. The idols in our home that might feel like they have a hold over you. Specifically the idols of perversion, idols of addiction, of self gratification, pornography, alcoholism, drug addiction, entertainment, self gratification saying that that under the fear that God cannot sustain me, God cannot satisfy me. That I need to find that myself. And that shame that has held us with chains. The Lord is saying to you those chains do not hold you anymore. Those chains are broken. That you may still be acting like you are chained up but you are not under the dominion of those idols. That you have the grace through the power of the Holy Spirit to say yes right now. To shift your allegiance away from the dominion of darkness and under the kingdom of Jesus. That when Jesus through the redemption of His blood on the cross He broke those chains and there is grace to move under the the posture of an orphan, the posture of a prisoner and to move under the posture of a child of God, a family. So God we ask right now that you would give us grace to walk under a manner worthy of you and that we would walk under the kingdom of your Son in Jesus' name. Other God but you. There is grace right now as He is exposing darkness. We are tearing down idols. Push over those idols. Uncrumble of perversion, of entertainment. Light is our set on you. Strongholds that have no power over us. No grip on us. Under the dominion of darkness. We are under the rulership of Jesus. Our eyes are set on you. For these next few moments I feel strongly from the Lord that we need to pray for our fathers. Not in a way of fathers get your act together but there is a grace right now from the Lord to use the fathers in the home to be the anchor point, to be the flag planter, to be the ones to say our home is an altar of worship unto the Lord and everything we do, our home is an altar as the spiritual authority that God has placed on us. I actually want to pray for fathers. If you are a father in this room right now no matter how old your kids are I want you to raise your hand. I know there's a couple fathers. There we go, all of them are raised. I want us to gather around these fathers right now. I want you to keep your hands raised if you're a father and I want us to gather around them and I want us to pray for them. For strength. For grace. For wisdom. We still have a couple over here. Wisdom, clarity, insight that the Lord is going to use these fathers to plan a flag in their home to say this home belongs to the Lord. God, right now we lift up fathers. We lift up fathers right now as the head of the home, as the authority that you have placed over the home. We ask that you would give them grace to say yes. You would give them grace to say yes. I ask for a sharpness of mind. I ask for prophetic eyes. Almost like I see fathers walking into their home and there's this sharpness of eyes that they can see and expose idols that have taken place. They can see and expose this is an idol of darkness that the sharpness of eyes would begin to expose things that have been creeping in through open doors that they have even been unaware of. Whether it be things that they have allowed or things that they are completely unaware of or sharpness right now, I pray for prophetic vision that they would see small things that have left unchecked would become idols and strongholds in their home. And God, I then pray for strength, for boldness. I see fathers with a fire in their spirit and a hammer in their hands to say no more. We have allowed this. We have been blind to it, but no more. And them taking that hammer through the fire of the Holy Spirit inside of them and crushing and breaking down idols saying this does not stand in our home anymore. This idol of self, this idol of perversion, this idol of entertainment, of how we spend our time and our money, of what we give our speech to, of what we give our attention to and our gaze to, no more. And then the third thing is I pray for boldness and strength to begin to build up idols of worship in our homes. Idols of songs, of praise, idols of reading the, I'm sorry, alters of song and praise, alters of reading scripture together, of declaring truth, alters of encouragement, that they would be the ones to spearhead calling forth destiny in their spouse and in their children, calling forth hope that they would be ones that would say you are loved, you are seen, that they would lead the charge, you would give them grace and boldness. And then as they flag that their family would gather and rally around, we pray again for sharpness of eyes, prophetic eyes to see the idols that have crept in. We pray for a fire and a hammer to destroy those idols, and we pray for boldness to begin to build up the alters of worship, habits, alters right now in our homes. Your eyes are on these fathers and I feel like the Lord is, as you're, keep praying over them, keep praying. The Lord is saying there's so much patience and kindness in his eyes. He is not condemning you. He's not saying it's too late for you. I feel like there's some of you that have even felt like I've been allowing things for too long, my kids are too old, but the Lord is saying it just takes one crack of the hammer. It takes one crack from that hammer and those idols will crumble to the ground. They have nothing to stand upon. It takes one yes, one crack. And there's grace for you right now, Father. There's grace for you right now, man. He sees you. Continue to pray over them right now. Hold this to our eyes. Take it right now. Giving you the scepter over your home. Fees to your home. Grace right now to say yes. Grace right now. The Holy Spirit is inside of you. Give you the words to say. So Father, we say yes right now. We agree that your eyes are on our homes. Your eyes are on our hearts. As we've dedicated this hour to you, we have planted a flag. We have sown seeds. We have taken a crack with the hammer to the idols in our home and we say no more. And this is a marking point for our hearts. So as we leave this room, as we go on through our day and through our week, God, would you give us eyes to see? Boldness to arise. And allow us to build alters of worship in our homes in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for joining us here in person and online. We are going to be here 8 a.m. noon and 6 30 this week, Monday through Friday. Gathering together to offer our song and praise the Lord and to partner with him with what's on his heart. Thank you. Have a good day. God bless.