 Good morning, welcome to morning prayer on this beautiful morning that the Lord has made that we get to choose to rejoice and be glad in it. This morning, I want us to really focus our attention on the goodness of God, how good he is, who he is, that he is a refuge in the midst of everything that we are going through, that he is a strength, that he is our strength in the midst of the weakness in the midst of the weak times that we have in the midst of the weak trials that we go through. And so here, from the heart of our city, we're crying out to the heart of God, asking for him to move, asking for him to do the things that he does in our lives, in our city, in our streets. I want to turn our attention to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, verse 28, the Psalmist says, "'But for me, it is good to be near God. "'I have made the Lord God my refuge "'that I may tell of all of your works.'" This morning, I want us to really fix our attention, to fix our heart's attention on God being our refuge. I don't know about you, but there's a lot of stuff happening, a lot of heaviness on a lot of people. And we often turn to wrong places to seek wrong things and put ourselves in wrong places. And I feel like this morning in the midst of all of it, I feel like we need to decree, we need to declare, God, you are good. And it is good for us to draw near to you that you are our refuge. And so right now, with your words from your heart, from the depths of your heart, in the midst of what you are going through, I want you to vocalize. Don't wait for us to vocalize it. I want you to vocalize. Lord, this is what I'm going through. This is what is heavy on me, Lord. And I give it to you. You are my refuge, God. You are my strength. You are, Lord. You are it. And so just begin to vocalize that to the Lord that He is your refuge, that He is your strength, that He is your help in midst of troubled times, in the midst of troubled times, not just after troubled times, in the midst of troubled times. Just begin to vocalize that to Him. Lord, you are our refuge. Lord, you are my refuge. You are my strength. You are my strength, God, our portion, God. You should be conscious, breathe life into us. Idea this morning, that theme that runs throughout the scripture of the desire of the nations, Jesus, the one whom the Father has appointed, the blessed hope of the church, the blessed hope of God's people is the soon return of our coming King, Psalms two. This is why are the nations in such an uproar and the people devising a vain thing. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take their counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. But He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain. That will surely tell of the decree of the Lord when He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations to you as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod. You will shatter them like earthenware. The kings show discernment, take warning for judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the sun. Bath may soon be kindled. How blessed are those who take. Hey, we take refuge in you. In the midst of the storm though we're surrounded by the conspiracies of the enemy and the powers of darkness on full display. Lord, our confidence is not in the circumstances that are taking place in the earth today. Our confidence is found in the one who's enthroned in heaven today. Jesus, Son of God, first born from the dead. Only begotten of the Father, the one whom on your resurrection day said to you, ask of me and I will give the nations as your inheritance. Jesus, desire of all nations. Oh how the earth longs for you. Even the nations long for you. We your people, we grown and we long for you. We long for your return, for you to make all things that are wrong right, for you to bring justice to the earth, for you to bring righteousness to the nations. Even creation groans for you. Creation longs for the manifestation, the sons of God, for the kingdom to come in its full strength and power. Lord, today we your people, we take our refuge, we find our safety and our hope and our shelter in you, Jesus. And we say you will have your inheritance in the nations, that which you died for on the cross, that which you shed your blood for. Jesus, you're gonna have a full expression from every nation, every tribe, every tongue who are gonna say, Maranatha, even so Lord Jesus come, who long for you, who cry for you, and when they see you, they will weep for you as those who have regained their own son. We're gonna behold the one with pierced hands and pierced feet, and we're gonna cry for you and long for you, Jesus, we cry out to you for your return and for your victory, for you to receive the rewards of your sufferings. We never want our heart to stop saying, come Lord Jesus, we wanna be the bride that you described and Matthew 25 that's, has our lamps filled with oil for him to come. And we don't wanna be those who run out of oil, that run out of zeal. Even when the night grows dark, even when it seems longer than we anticipated, we wanna keep our heart. You're gonna present to yourself a church in all of our glory, a spotless church, a church without any wrinkle, with no spot or any such thing, but holy and blameless, a people prepared for the coming king, bride ready. The Lord we're praying today that you would do that in your church in this hour, this hour of darkness, let it become an hour of the light, glory of God being seen upon your people. We're praying that right here in Kalamazoo and we're praying it beyond in every nation on the face of the earth that you would prepare a people with just one cry that have one focus, one affection, even like a bride who's waiting for the day of her wedding. She can't think about anything else. Everything is in preparation mode too. It come one with her bridegroom and Lord, we want that for the church, that we would not be distracted, but our hearts would be in preparation mode and that your Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who is in us and with us, the great Paraclete would help prepare us for the return of the king, for the return of our bridegroom, that our heart would truly cry, Marinatha, Lord Jesus come, that the Lord is coming, that this would be emblazoned upon our hearts and it would be our focus that there's coming a day, Jesus, when you, the great and thrown one are gonna step back out of heaven and into time and space and be seen and return for your bride. Lord, we wanna be ready. We wanna be ready. We want the glory of the Lord to be seen upon us. We want the wrinkles to be ironed out. We want the stains to be removed and the glory of God to be seen upon us. We want our hearts to be longing for you and the oil to be full inside of us. Lord, would you perfect your church? This is your work. You're preparing a place for us, but you're also preparing us for the place. So Father, would you work by the power of your spirit in your church to prepare your church to be ready for the days that are to come, build it into us. You ask of me and I will give you the nations, the Gentiles as your inheritance in the very ends of the earth as your possession. So Father, today we come into agreement with you that the nations belong to Jesus, that the blood that Jesus shed on the cross is more than enough, more than enough to save and to deliver every man, woman and child in every nation on the face of the earth. Jesus has paid the full price for all the nations that they would be his full inheritance. Your word, Jesus, even in Matthew, you said this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations even before the end comes. So Lord, today we stand in agreement that the nations belong to Jesus and that there is an inheritance among all nations on the face of the earth that belong to Jesus and there is no legal claim to the nations by hell or man alone any longer. So Lord, we, your church, intercede today for the nations of the earth that they would surrender and submit to Jesus. We're praying that this gospel in the hour in which we live in, the hour that is accelerating towards the return of Jesus, that the nations would hear the gospel and they would rejoice and be glad at the good news. So we speak to the nations of the earth and we say submit to the sun, rejoice and be glad for your king has died and has been resurrected and is soon to return. So we're just gonna take a few minutes and we're gonna pray for the nations of the earth, for the gospel to go forward and for the full inheritance that Jesus paid for to come. Lord, we pray for the nations. Lord, we pray right now that the gospel would go forward, the good news of the cross would go and penetrate the darkness. The kings of the earth may conspire and put their plans together to break off the fetters and the restraints of the king, but you are the rightful king. So we speak to the nations and we speak to those obstacles and walls that man builds and we say give up the lost in the name of Jesus. Give up the inheritance that belongs to Jesus. We say harvest, it's time, it's time for you to come in. We speak right now to China and we say China, you will be saved. We speak to the Middle East. Right now, the place where Islam has dominated and we say Jesus has paid the full price for every man, woman and child to not just hear the gospel, but to be saved in this hour. We speak to Africa, North and South Africa and we say Africa, Jesus is your rightful king. We speak to Central and South America and we say the blood of Jesus has redeemed you. North America, you're not so intellectual, you're not so sophisticated that you can break off the constraints. We say America shall be saved. Australia and the South Pacific Islands, Jesus has a right to you as his full possession. Lord, release the spirit of grace and conviction across the nations of the earth where you are claiming your rightful inheritance today in Jesus' name. Suffering up the church in the nations of the earth. Church prepared, a church, business of the sun. We're gonna see your inheritance come in. You said that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. We're praying today. You said pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up laborers. So throughout all the nations of the earth, we're praying that your church would not just be those who are gathering in buildings, but those who are gathering in the harvest. Lord, we're praying for you to pour out your spirit on your church oppression anew that mobilizes believers on every continent to do the work of evangelism. Today, we're zeroing in on the Middle East and we're saying, Lord, this last vestige, this great principality of Islam that has built a barrier between millions and millions of people from hearing the gospel. Lord, there are no walls to keep you out. But even in nations like Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Jordan. Lord, you have a people in Syria and Lebanon. You have a people even though they'd be oppressed, even though they'd be persecuted. Lord, you have a people. And we're praying right now for the spirit, the Holy Spirit to release power, unity, vision, direction, provision and endurance in this hour on our brothers and sisters, your church in the Middle East that in every house church, in every secret meeting, and even in those places where they openly worship that Lord, you'd begin to pour out your spirit oppression anew in this hour, raise up leaders, raise up apostle Paul's that come out of deep hatred of Jesus, but have encountered Jesus and are saved and become apostles to the Islamic world. Raise up prophets out of the Islamic world, those who encounter you, who believe in you and have radical conversions. God, we're praying that in places known and unknown in the Middle East today, you would pour out the spirit of grace and supplication on your church and that a great harvest would come from the Middle East. You deserve an inheritance of a billion souls from the Middle East. We're asking Jesus, receive your inheritance today in Jesus' name. For even North America right now that you would release an Elijah anointing upon the church, John the Baptist came in and said that he came to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. And Father in America with so many blessings and resources at our disposal, there's a tendency to become distracted and complacent church. And so we're praying as we're approaching urgent crisis hour that you would raise up four runner voices, Elijah voices who would come before the great day of the Lord that would call the church to be a people prepared. Raise that Elijah mantle upon your church in America, prophetic voice in this hour to stir your covenant people to action. Lord that you would raise up a student movement in America like you have in times past of young people who've encountered the Lord and rushed to the mission field. Lord that churches once again would begin to become passionate about reaching the nations with the gospel, even our own nation. That Lord you would strip away all the veneers, all the idols out of the house of God. And there would be a purity of worship and presence in the American church. Lord when the American church is lit on fire the nations will tremble. The principalities and the powers will crumble and the gospel will go unhindered. The greatest mission sending nation that the world has ever seen. And we know that the gates of hell want to do everything in our power to stymie and to suppress that sleeping giant from ever waking up. But Lord we're praying that you would breathe a fresh upon the bones of the American church. Wake up the men of war. Wake up the sleeping giant of the American church with an Elijah calling to go and to confront the powers of Baal and to send the gospel to the nations of the earth. Lord do it in this hour we pray. Jesus we long for that day. When we see your face it's all going to be worth it. Every tear that's been shed, every prayer that's been prayed, every know that's been yielded. It's going to be worth it all that day when we see you Jesus. It's going to be worth it. But so our heart cries out, Maranatha even so Lord Jesus come. For joining us, if you're at home thank you for joining us. So let's keep our hearts zeroed in on Jesus our true North Star. Keep our hearts anchored in his soon return and be busy doing the work of the King. Bless you, we invite you to come and join us as always. Morning, noon and night here from the heart of our city, the prayer room and the city center.