 Good morning, welcome to morning prayer from right here downtown in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where we are crying out from the heart of our city to the heart of God, asking him to move, seeking him to move, to heal, to restore, to do the incredible things that he does. And whether you are in this room today or you're joining us online, maybe you're in your car or you're at home or you're in your office, regardless of your location, we have the incredible privilege and the honor to awaken the day and to start our day, to bring to God the first of our day in adoration and worship and exaltation and with thanksgiving. This morning I, I want to read out of Psalm chapter five. This is, in my opinion, one of my, well this is just one of my favorite texts about what it looks like to wake up every day and to seek the Lord, starting out with the first of my day and then waiting all day long and seeking him all day long for him to answer and respond. The psalmist says in verse one, give ear to my words, oh Lord, consider my groaning, give attention to the sound of my cry. So this isn't just prayer recital. This is a man who is crying out from the depths of his heart, from the pain within his heart and he's crying out to God. He's not just bringing him words of religion, but emotion and feelings. He's bringing to him not just his day, but what is, what is hurting within him and what he needs, my King and my God, for to you do I pray, oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. When he says watch, what he, what he's saying is I, after I bring it to you and I lay it before you, what he's saying is now I wait expectedly. He doesn't just move on and go about his day, but he waits with expectation for his Lord, his God, his King to answer him. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evil doers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in fear of you. Lead me, oh Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies, make your way straight before me. Jesus, it is through the abundance of your steadfast love, not through my good deeds, not through our best efforts, not through our perfectly rehearsed prayers, it is through the abundance of your steadfast love that we are able to come into your presence and Lord, we come this morning with boldness and with great expectation because of your blood, because of your sacrifice, Lord, when all of our sacrifices fell flat, Lord, your sacrifice, your perfect sacrifice brought us back and restored us and gave us permission and access to enter, to come to you with expectation. So Lord, here we are, we come to you this morning and we start, Lord, by saying we love you and we're thankful for you. Consider our groanings, consider our requests this morning, Lord. Not because we are good people, but because you are perfectly good, because you are awesome, because you are holy, because of your steadfast love, Lord, which you consider our groanings and our words, but you give attention to the sound of our cry and our pleas today, Lord. Lord, to you, our King, our God, our Lord, our Savior, our friend, we come, we say we love you, we say we need you, we say we want you, we come to you this morning, Lord, we come to you with our requests, just speak them and walk them, walk away. We're not just going to sing them and walk away, but Lord, we are going to speak them and sing them and with great expectation, we are going to wait all day long for you to answer us. Lord, we thank you for your steadfast love. Just begin to thank him for his steadfast love, that despite what happened yesterday and last month and six months ago, that despite what's going to happen tomorrow, his steadfast love will be fast and never slows down and never backs down. Jesus, thank you for your steadfast love and what doesn't happen your steadfast love endure. It has never slowed down, it has never ceased, it has always remained. Lord, would that reality grip us this morning? Would it grip us despite what we have going on, and despite what we've walked through with that reality grip us this morning? Would it not just be words on a page or words that we sing, but would the reality of your steadfast love shatter us and shake us? Lord, your steadfast love endures forever. Lord, your steadfast love endures forever. Lord, your steadfast love, because we know that, know that to be true, we have come to worship you. We have come, that's why we're here. It's why we're up at this hour. It's why we're doing this right now. It's why we're not busy in the traffic of today. We have come to worship you. So we welcome you this morning. We welcome you. And Lord, we say have your way. Have your way. Many of us have schedules and agendas today that we have to do and meet and accomplish, but Lord, in the midst of all of that, we lay them aside and we say, Jesus, have your way. Have your way. We bless you, Lord. We have come to worship you. Come to worship you. Have your way. In this play, in this play, a song, a song, a song. Hebrews 9 verse 11 says that when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hand of this creation, he entered once for all into the Holy Places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For by the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh. How much more? How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Jesus, it is only by your and we thank you, Jesus, for your blood. We thank you, Lord. We don't take it lightly. Remind us of your blood, Lord. Remind us of your blood, the blood that you poured out, the blood that you spilled, the blood that truly cries out from the ground. Remind us, Lord, for it's only by your blood. How much more? How much more will the blood of Christ? Lord, we speak the how much more of your blood over our lives. We speak the how much more of your blood over our city, over Kalamazoo, over Richland, over Portage, over Plainwell, Otsego, Battle Creek, all the way up to Grand Rapids. Lord, we speak the how much how much more blood of Christ over Southwest Michigan, Lord. It's only by your blood, Lord. It's only by your blood and we plead your blood over Southwest Michigan. We plead your blood over our city, over our streets, over the lost, over the prodigals, Lord. Over the forgotten, marginalized, the downtrodden, the weary, the neglected, Lord. We plead your blood over Southwest Michigan, Lord. The how much more blood of Christ over Southwest Michigan, Lord. We plead your blood, blood, Jesus, over our families, over our schools, over our local government, Lord. How much more? The how much more blood of Christ? We plead your blood over our marriages, over our children, Lord. We plead your blood over our first responders, over the police officers, the firefighters, the paramedics, Lord. How much more? We'll sacrifice for all sin, sacrifice, Lord. We thank you that because of your sacrifice and their lawless deeds, no more. We hear sacrifice, Lord. There is forgiveness of sin that where there is forgiveness of lawless deeds, there is no longer because your sacrifice paid it all. It didn't pay partially pay it and paid it all, Lord. And so we thank you, Lord. We thank you for your sacrifice, which is the full embodiment of your steadfast love, which endures forever, Lord. We for our families, over our kids, over our marriages, Lord, over our parents, Lord. We plead your blood, your vice, to become a riddance away every day and remember your blood and remember your sacrifice, Lord, of your sacrifice and your cross in Jesus name. For thus says the Lord. It has a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste and I will make justice the line and righteousness the plumb line and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and waters will overthrow the shelter. Then your covenant with death will be annulled and your agreement with shield will not stand. Jesus, we thank you. You are the precious cornerstone. You are the sure foundation and all other things, ideas, ways, customs, thoughts, attempts to build our lives on anything but you and in you and our sinking sand. Lord, we thank you for your blood. We thank you, Lord. I pray that today as we go about our day that there would be a melodic melody, a melodic anthem in our hearts pleading the blood of Christ over our Christ over the crown that we walk on pleading the blood of Christ over the people that we walk by and pass by. Jesus, you are the precious cornerstone, the sure foundation. You are the one whom who has made justice the line. You are the one who has plumb lined the reality of righteousness. You are the one who is swept away by your blood, the refuge of lies that continually come at us and speak to us. You are the one, Lord, who's annulled the covenant of death and the power of death, Lord. You are the one, Jesus. You are the only you, Jesus. It is you, our precious cornerstone, Christ alone. It is you, Jesus. And we love you. We say we love you. Thank you for your steadfast love that has annulled the power of death that once gripped us and had us within its talents and it entangled us with its cords. But you, Lord, broke it. You, Lord, destroyed it. Cornerstone. Christ our cornerstone. Christ our cornerstone. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. That when the rain falls and the floods come and the existence it is you and because of only you, that the house, that our lives do not fall. It is you, it is only you. You are our rock. Again, Jesus, we plead your blood over our lives, over our families, over our city, our government, Jesus. We plead, bring us joy, place we go, and every conversation we have with your blood speak a better word over us, to us and through us. Jesus, we thank you for this day that you have made. We choose to rejoice and be glad in it. It is you and it is only you and it's because of you that we all say, to this day, to this hour, amen. Thank you for joining us online. We will be back tomorrow morning. We invite you to join us. We always want to invite you down to the prayer room to be here in person if you can make it. Otherwise, have a blessed