 right now and so I want to encourage you wherever you're at to be doing the same thing that this is not just a karaoke time and this is not just an agreement time yes it is an agreement time but it's a time for you to cry out I don't know where you are joining us from today but I want you as we focus on our city to focus for you to focus on your city and to really hone in on the heart of God for your city to really intercede to stand in the gap and to cry out to him on behalf of your city this morning I want to start off by reading out a Psalm 92 starting in verse one the Psalmist says it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name almost high to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night to the music of the loop in the harp to the melody of the liar for you oh Lord have made me glad by your work at the work of your hands I sing for joy Lord it is morning and we came we have risen we are here right here right now in this place at this time to declare your steadfast love just as the psalmist said it is good to do so to declare your steadfast love in the morning and so Lord here we are we have a we have risen this morning to declare your steadfast love and we say to our souls we say to our hearts we say to our minds to our ideas to our schedules that it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name God and so Lord we do that this morning with glad hearts and with expectant hearts Lord we have risen Lord to declare that you are good and to sing praises to your name to declare your steadfast love and so Lord I pray that these realities that you are good to declare that your steadfast love Lord God is good Lord I pray that it would awaken us this morning Lord God would it awaken our souls would your steadfast love shake us this morning Lord not just with goosebumps Lord God but with holy fear with your steadfast love cause us to wake up to how good you truly are Lord and Lord I pray that the reality of the works of your hands would cause us to sing for joy Lord with the reality of the works of your hands cause joy to erupt inside of us Lord regardless of what we're going through regardless of what's on our days plans Lord I pray that the reality of your incredible works would fill us with joy and that we can't keep it in Lord so here we are we declare your steadfast love we sing for joy at the works of your hands Lord God would you speak to us this morning would you move in our midst this morning whether we are in this room right now or whether we're in our car or whether we are at work or whether we're at home Lord regardless of where we are Lord God I pray that the reality of your steadfast love would wreck us and the works of your hands would would cause us to shout and sing for joy Lord here we are Lord and so right now I want you just to begin to thank him with your mouth begin to thank him for his goodness begin to thank him it is good to give thanks to the Lord begin to thank him for his goodness for his kindness for his mercy for his gentleness for his compassion for his love begin to thank him with your mouth thing to sing that put together nice and whole another thing to sing that when everything is broken falling apart barely holding on things are a mess that's really when the power of those words mean something those words come from the life of a man named Joe whose life just prior ripped from him everything he loved everything he worked for everything that he builds including loved ones have been taken away but he says those words he says the Lord has given the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord in both situations in both circumstances I choose is what Job is saying when the Lord gives I choose to bless his name when the Lord takes away I decide I make the choice to bless his name so I don't know where you're at this morning I don't know what you're going through but I just feel weight on this song I just feel them in this room on this song right now I don't know what you're going through I don't know what you've been through I don't know what you're walking into I just feel led to ask this question do you mean the words blessed be the name of Lord not just when he gives but when he takes away Lord right now from this room this is our hearts cry we make the choice to bless your name Lord we make the intentional purposeful choice to bless your name regardless of what we're going through regardless of what we've been through regardless of what we're walking into Lord we bless your name we bless your name Lord choice to bless your name ministering not just our hearts in this room but to people on the live stream right now I feel like the Lord is just comforting I see this great replacement taking place at the buddy right now where maybe you came in or you turned on the stream with a great weight upon your shoulders and I just see the Lord replacing that great weight right now with hope with joy one of David's most difficult moments when he was driven out and saw him 34 verse one and he says I will bless the Lord at all times at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth we bless you oh we bless you oh we bless you God we bless you your praise fill our mouths with your praise God fill us Lord every season in every celebration at all times Lord your praise your praise Lord it will be in our mouth Lord Lord just like when Israel was crossing the Jordan and from in the from the middle of the Jordan you said take out a stone to remember this to commemorate this to build an altar with this Lord in the middle of what we are going through right now not just after not just on the other side but right now in the middle of the pain in the middle of the tragedy in the middle of the grief Lord God we remember your name and your praise and we lift you up in the midst of it Lord may you be high and exalted in the midst of what we are going through Lord we bless your name we bless you Lord bring this to me said I am restoring the altar I'm restoring the tent I'm restoring the meeting I'm restoring wells that were once dug wells of intimacy with me deep wells of intimacy I'm restoring deep wells within my people that have been covered up by idols idols have filled in these deep wells and I am uncovering those wells I am restoring ministry unto me within my people I literally have this picture of I didn't see faces but I saw hands I saw legs moving and I saw hands holding things ideas ideologies preconceived notions wish lists other people and I saw them being gripped in hands as they were walking and then I saw hands opening up and then dropping those idols and I saw those idols literally in a stone form and when they hit the ground they shattered and became dust Lord would you restore the wells of intimacy Lord would you restore the altar the tent the meeting would you restore God what it looks like for us to truly minister to you to live these words out that you are our delight and our lives would exemplify that oh God that when you return you would not find a prim and a proper bride but that you would find a purified consecrated holy unto you bride God devoted delighting in you God made that be the bride that you find when you return Lord so Lord catch us up today captivate us Lord return the fascination of you to our hearts and our minds that we would no longer be lured away by the idols of this world that we would no longer point at everyone else's idols but Lord God that we would see the things and the people and the ideas that we make idols up and that we would not just merely drop them but then we would throw them far away from us as we delight in you God light catch yourself God nation captivate us God with your presence oh that we would truly taste and see that you are good that we wouldn't just say or sing about it but that we would actually taste and see your goodness our petition this is our cry this is our desire Lord that our lives that everything about us would bring glory to you Lord would honor you and bless you Lord not just our songs and our prayers but our very lives the thoughts we have the actions that we make the choices we make Lord God that every area of our lives would glorify you and Lord we even we want to redirect almost in a way Lord that what we just saying and what we just cried out for toward our city oh Lord that you would be the joy and the delight of Kalamazoo that you would be the joy and the delight of Southwest Michigan Lord that you would be the joy and the delight of Portage and Three Rivers Lord God and Vicksburg oh that you would be the joy and the delight of Plainwell and Ossego and Battle Creek Lord God oh that you would be the joy Lord God across this entire region Lord that you would be the joy and the delight Lord that you would be the joy the delight in our last remaining moments with that same focus I want to I want to read from Nehemiah chapter one and really be intentional with their last moments in regards to intercession says now it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year that I was in this Suza the citadel that Hannah and I one of the one of my brothers came with certain men from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped who had survived the exile and concerning Jerusalem so regarding the people in the city and they said to me the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed as soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying for God of heaven Lord right now the walls of the people of our city are broken down they're full of despair loss grief shame Lord the walls have been broken down and so Lord right now we as your sons and daughters as your people we take our stand as Nehemiah's to this city and Lord we ask for you to restore to restore Kalamazoo God would you bring restoration to Kalamazoo Lord would you bring restoration to people who are depressed and broken who are being overshadowed and clouded by shame Lord would you restore people who are caught up in drugs and addiction Lord Lord would you restore them God Lord would you restore hope back to this area Lord would you bring hope back to Kalamazoo would this city be known as a city of hope as a city of hope God the streets in the alleys of Kalamazoo Holy Spirit and fill the hurting the dying the addicted the depressed the forgotten the marginalized God would you fill them with hope Lord Lord would you restore marriages in Kalamazoo would you restore broken families in Kalamazoo would you restore shattered homes in Kalamazoo God the walls are broken down great trouble there Lord would you restore that which has been broken down and destroyed God would you restore it Lord we are are taking our place as Nehemiah's right now and saying Lord would you restore our city to marriages to people Lord you got the walls rebuilt and order reestablished to the city says this in Nehemiah chapter 12 which is what i want to end our time together on in a prophetic way it says in verse 43 of chapter 12 it says and they offer great sacrifices that day and rejoiced for God made them rejoice with great joy the women and children also rejoiced and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away Lord we prophesy right now that the joy of Kalamazoo would be heard from far away not because of our doing but because you restoring joy and peace and hope to our city so Lord God again we prophesy that across the world that the joy of Kalamazoo would be heard of and would be and that people would come to receive joy because of your presence here Lord so may it be heard from far away Lord so Lord i pray that it would start with us may you fill us with joy and Lord God everywhere we go would we leave residue of joy joy your joy Lord God everywhere we go with every person we touch and talk to Lord may we leave a residue a remnant of joy with them Lord that the joy of Kalamazoo may be heard from far away for you have restored us for you have restored us Lord we love you this is the day that you have made that we choose to rejoice and be glad in it thank you for this day we love you we thank you for this our Lord i pray that we would go and be the people that you have us to be in the world that you so love that you gave your life in Jesus name amen amen thank you for joining us today we will be back in the prayer room at noon and at 6 30 otherwise we'll catch you on the live stream tomorrow morning have a blessed and joyful day