 Good morning. Let's all stand up in the prayer room and those of you who are joining us online. Good morning. Welcome to morning prayer this Monday morning. We're just going to start with Psalm 132. Psalm 132 says, Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. I will not enter my house or get into my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. Behold, we have heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of jar. Let us go to his dwelling place and let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place. You and the Ark of your might. Let the priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy for the sake of your servant, David. This morning I just have in my heart that we remind ourselves of the vow that David made, the commitment that David made long before he even came to the throne. When he said that the ambition of my heart and the drive of my internal life is that with everything that I have and everything that I am, every ounce of my being, my strength, even my sleep, my attention, I want to give to creating an atmosphere and a space, a resting place, David called it, for the presence of the Lord. In the New Testament there's this beautiful, beautiful phrase that Paul uses when he says that we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. Which means your heart, if your body is a temple, your heart is the Holy of Holies. It's where the presence, the shekinah, the glory of God dwells. He also says that we have this treasure in earth and vessels. It's the glory of God. See, in the Old Testament David had this revelation about God having a resting place, a place where he could not just move, but a place where he could be welcomed, hosted, honored and worshiped. The New Testament reality of that is it's us. You are his resting place. The way that he finds that resting place is when we make it the desire of our heart, not just that he can dwell us, but that we experience his manifest presence. So this morning, the same bow that David made, we're going to make today in the place of prayer, whether it's our living room or a prayer room in downtown Kalamazoo or someplace else. We're saying, Lord, we want you to have the honor that's due your name. And we will give no rest. We will give no sleep to our eyes. We're not going to give anything else, our full attention, until we know that in our lives, in our house, in our city, in our church, that Jesus, you have a resting place, a place where you're honored. Lord, we don't want you to come just so that you do our bidding. We want you to come because you're worthy and we want to worship at your footstool. We want to be like Mary who threw aside the work towel and stopped giving her glances and attention to the conversations taking place in the other room. And we just sit at your feet because we recognize the moment that we have. Lord, this is a moment. And as we draw near to you, would you draw near to us and allow us the privilege and the honor of just lavishing our worship, lavishing our praise and lifting up our petitions and our supplications before you in this moment. The same vow that David made, Lord, write it as a seal upon our hearts, write it as a seal upon our lives that we are your resting place. Come, Holy Spirit, wherever you're at, I want you to just welcome him to come. He's always here, but I want you to welcome him to make himself known. And to position and posture your heart that I am a worshiper of God. I am a child of God. This is what I was created for, is to host and to welcome and to honor the presence of the Lord on earth through my life. Now is here. Worship the Father in spirit. The Father is seeking to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit. This is what God longs for. This is the deep, deep desire of his heart. Not just that we'll be locational worshippers, that we worship because we're in a place and then we stop worshipping when we're not in a place, but that we actually become the place. The resting place. That out of our hearts, even as we say, oh my soul, David said that, bless the Lord, oh my soul, that there would be a resonating desire in our hearts to worship him, but to worship him in spirit. We know from his word and what we experience by his presence that draws not. So Father, today we are asking to give us your children to worship you the way it blesses your heart. We say to our own soul today, oh soul, bless the Lord. We ask you, Holy Spirit, the abiding, indwelling presence of the triune God in every one of us as believers. Would you awaken our hearts? Just as the Psalm says, it says, I will awaken the dawn with my praise. Lord, would you awaken the dawn within our hearts this morning? You worshippers, God. The deepest thing that we were created for by you is to be worshippers, but we're so easily distracted to worship other things, or to give you our half hearted worship, or to give you intellectual ascent only. Well, Lord, we want to worship you the way you want to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. In spirit, meaning from the deepest place where we commune with you, Father, where your spirit is alive in us, where your word is active and alive. And we want to worship you in truth. We don't want to worship you only in the good moments, Lord. We don't want to worship you when things go our way. We don't want to just worship you when we are in agreement, Lord. You are true. We want to worship you. We want to praise you in truth, in spirit and in truth worship right now, here in us, in this hour, out of this city that, Lord, you would be magnified. You would be glorified from Kalamazoo, Michigan, from Southwest Michigan, Jesus. You would be worshipped, Father, that you would be worshipped, that you would look down on the land and you would see from Western Michigan, praise, spirit and truth praise is arising because you've found a people who've set their heart on a Psalm 132 reality and said, God, this is what we will give ourselves to, to be worshipers and to give you a resting place for your presence. From us, we're the clay, you are the potter. Make us into vessels of spirit and truth worship. If you are mine to worship you, every part of us, an instrument of worship to bless your heart. Lord, today we consecrate ourselves before you. Every part of us, when you said, Love the Lord, you're God, you're part of us today. We want to be a symphony, whole in spirit, to be a symphony of praise to you that blesses you in our thoughts, in our emotions, in our actions, in our songs, our songs, our hymns, our spiritual songs, in our meditation, the things that we listen to in every conversation and what we put our hands to in our profession, the places that we go. Lord, we want to give you what you want, which is worshipers, spirit. Come on, right now, make it your prayer. I want you to verbalize this to the Father, say, Lord, I want to give you what you long for out of my life. Make me an instrument of praise. I long to give you, Father, what you long for, anything else, Lord, you can long for all kinds of things. You can desire sacrifice, but you said, I don't want sacrifice. What I want is I want obedient, submitted hearts. And Lord, today we say we want to give you what you want. We want to bless your heart. We want you to be pleased. We want to see a smile on your face. We want to see you tapping your toe to the rhythm of our songs. Saying, that's what I love to hear. I love to hear the sound of the redeemed, those who were dead in their sins, but now are alive. Those that were captive to the enemy who've now been set free. I love to hear the song of the redeemed. Lord, out of our lives, let the very thing that blesses your heart arise today. Give you what you long for, chosen race, a royal session that we might proclaim the excellence. I want us to just take a moment and do this. You might be like, I can only sing songs that somebody else has written. But the Bible talks about songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Spiritual songs are the song that comes out of your own spirit, your own prayers put to melody. So you just sing. Just put a little melody to that. Take a word or an expression that's resonating in your heart this morning about who God is and how good he is or his attributes. And you begin to just sing that to the melody. And then we're going to go back and do a little, a time of worship here where the musicians are going to lead us. But take 30 seconds to a minute right now. Did you just begin to sing a melody, a lyric, a spiritual song back to God that blesses his heart? Jesus, your name is powerful. We speak the name of Jesus with boldness and authority. Knowing that the name of Jesus can break every chain, can heal every sickness and pain and bring salvation and deliverance to all. So we're going to turn our attention to Acts 4 as we pray for labors to rise up as college campuses and high schools and middle schools, elementary schools as they begin to open back up in the coming weeks. We pray for labors to rise up with boldness and authority to speak the name of Jesus. That the lost will come home. Hard hearts will soften. Broken hearts will be healed. Salvation and deliverance and healing. Acts 4, verse 29 says, And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. So Holy Spirit, we ask for boldness right now. We ask for labors to be identified, to stand up as you speak their name. With boldness, they would begin to speak your name. That as you begin to call them forth, that they would walk into their schools and their campuses, dorm rooms, classrooms, common spaces. And with boldness, begin to speak the name of Jesus, the one who has brought salvation and deliverance. Second Thessalonians says, Let the word of the Lord run swiftly and be glorified just as it has in you. That they would speak their testimony, what the Lord has done in their own hearts. And with boldness, they would speak it out. That people would hear the name of Jesus, lifted high and glorified. That there is an answer and there is a solution for their family, for their pain, for their sickness, for their brokenness. That whatever trend, whatever social media is trying to tell them, that is not the solution, but that Jesus is the solution. So right now we ask in the name of Jesus that you would grant your labors to speak your name with boldness. On young people as they enter into school, open up their mouths and fill it. In the name of Jesus, swiftly be glorified. Come release your boldness. Verse 30 it continues says, While you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. So Lord, as your labors begin to open their mouths and speak the name of Jesus, which you come and stretch out your hand over every school, every elementary school, middle school, high school and college campus. We picture them right now. We picture every school in Kalamazoo, Richland, Oshamo, Portage, Schoolcraft, Battle Creek, Comstock, every college campus in WMU. God, we ask for your hand to stretch out right now and perform signs and wonders that you would show the greatness of who you are, the power of who you are. But not just your power, but your kindness and love and salvation that you are calling those lost by name. That there is a place in your family for them, that they can turn away from their wicked ways, they can turn away from their brokenness that they've clung to, and they can return to a Father who has created them, who loves them and has a place for them. That they can lay their lives down at the feet of Jesus, offering everything they have knowing that they won't be turned away, that they're broken in contrite heart you will not deny. So God, we believe and we declare and we agree that you want to perform miracles, deliverance and signs and wonders over every school and college campus in the name of Jesus. Come against, stretch out your hands, stretch out your mighty hand over every school. It's what you want to do. Jesus, it's what you died for, it's what you longed for. It's a purified bride. Those who would turn away from the pig pit and come home to their Father's home. So we ask and pray and believe this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you for those who are joining us online and for those of us in the room. We're going to continue to pray even as we transition right now to a time of devotional prayer from 9 to 10. You can stay in the room and we're going to do a time of devotional worship and prayer. So if you want to have any conversations, if you could please take them outside of the room. For those who join us online, we'll be here every day this week, 8 a.m. and here at the Radiant City Center, noon and 6 30. God bless.