 Well, good morning everyone welcome to morning prayer if you're joining us here in the prayer room Let's stand to our feet in the presence of the Lord this morning and those of you who are joining us from home Or even joining us later Or from another country perhaps We just say welcome to you. We're so glad you're joining us today as we enter into a time of ministry to the Lord It's time of prayer The time for us to be united together by one spirit That's the beauty of the kingdom of God that no matter how far we are from the Lord or from one another That his Holy Spirit is always drawing us back to him and drawing us and knitting us together Calling us to intimacy and the closeness with him this morning Psalm 63 just reiterates That goes in my heart and it's David crying out to the Lord saying oh God you are my God and And earnestly I seek you my soul thirsts for you and my flesh faints for you as in a dry In a weary land where there is no water And so I have 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 And so I will bless you as long as I live in your name. I will lift up my hands I love this reality that David in his dry and Kind of weary place in life where he's just as he describes it almost wilderness wanderings And he knows that the only thing that can satisfy him is the Lord He talks about drawing near to the Lord in the sanctuary and the sanctuary is a designated place of prayer and worship And so in this place of debt that we've designated of prayer and worship David says When I get there I behold your power and your glory I remind myself of your steadfast love that it's better It's better than even on the best days of my life the best moments of my life outside of the sanctuary It's not to be compared to being in your presence And to behold your power and your glory and to be reminded of your goodness And what did it cause David to do it says I will sing and I'm going to lift up my hands In your presence So today no matter how dry no matter how weary no matter how thirsty you may be today no matter what circumstances May surround you today or maybe waiting for you on the other side of this moment. Let's make this moment a sanctuary We can build it with just our attention And our focus giving God Our hearts our minds our souls our eyes our songs our voices our prayers our tears We give that to the Lord this morning. He draws near to us And we remind our hearts of his goodness Let's just do what David did. Let's just lift up our hands in the sanctuary and Lord today We lift up our hands in your name and we say we will bless you as long as we live because you are the steadfast one You are the powerful god. You are the one who draws near to us. You are the one that loves us You're the one that alone satisfies us. You are the living water You're the bread of life. You're the strength of our hearts and our minds today Jesus We draw near to you in your sanctuary in this space This moment Or we just drown out all the other distractions and competitors We say this moment is a moment for us to enter in through the gates of grace To come before your throne of grace to receive mercy and help from you in our time of need and to Pray and to sing to you and as we do that it blesses your heart, but it also releases you to work in our lives So Lord we bless you today. Let's just take a moment and you just use your voice Even if you're alone in a room this morning To bless the Lord We bless you Lord we bless you We order you draw near to you brings brings the fragrance of his presence The lamb of god, Jesus your beautiful eyes burn with refiner's fire Your eyes burn with fire seal love never Ceases to burn with love purity for your bride for your people the same consuming fire Holiness air as white as snow White as wool washed Brighter than those things that are garments that are washed with the fuller soap radiating the holiness The purity doing your resurrection power the same Radiance that Peter James and john saw the amount of transfiguration that john saw the revelation. It's who you are, jesus It's not that light envelopes you it's that you envelop light Light bends at your presence You're the one who said let there be light We don't compare you to light lights compared to you And your power your splendor your glory your voice Speak it's like the sound of many waters The raging waves on the oceans are silence compared to the power An authority that comes out of your mouth when you speak galaxies exist Universes are created mountains rise up valleys lower Dead things come to life Everything that exists comes into being at your word at your voice jesus We hear you say come up here come into this place of beholding me jesus But wherever you're at. Let's just Sing that again jesus your beautiful when we see you jesus We see you rightly god Worship is our response Worthy is our response Worthy is the lamb Who is slain To receive glory and honor blessing power and forever and ever is our response jesus to who you are This is our response To what heaven sees right now in full and what we see in part Says yes, and amen This is who you are the one worthy to open the scrolls the one worthy The only one found worthy The beautiful one jesus The one who stands lamb of god slain before the foundations of the world The lamb who is slain wants you to have what's rightly yours That in this city jesus You would be lifted up over every other name Over every other authority or that your throne is exalted above every other throne And every principality and every power And every idea and every agenda And every voice And every name that can be named jesus The beautiful one he exalts you in this city city jesus Found you now with many crowds In victorious High and lifted up Jesus son of god over this city We say jesus you and you alone are worthy To receive all the blessing and all the honor and all the glory and all the might Every name bows its knee every knee bends at your name jesus From the heart of this city From the heart of this kalamazoo mall becomes insignificant every other agenda becomes insignificant Every other voice is muted every other eye is shut every other shield falls every other sword is broken Every spear melts Every agenda is dispelled all darkness is eradicated jesus. You're beautiful Jesus you're glorious Jesus you alone are worthy To receive for your separates From this city you worship you voices lift up your songs sing in this spirit Jesus in this city from your neighborhood from your living home over this city We pleaded over the households Of our children of our families The lord we're praying and we plead the blood of jesus over this generation We're asking this morning That the power of your blood that saves to the uttermost Of sin and save delivered and healed In this city lord would you release a spirit of conviction Byways in the byways in the alleyways of this city Ministry would be released in southwest michigan To push back the works of darkness and to bring and to release the kingdom of god Lord signs and wonders Lord there is no city that does not belong to you and there is no neighborhood That does not belong to you Lord when darkness encroaches in grace rises above it We're praying for an increase of the inbreaking of your kingdom In jesus break in Holy spirit or mercy and with your power to rescue And save those lord even those that have been kind of written off and said they're They're enemies of the cross Jesus I'll remind you that paul was an enemy of the cross But you encountered him on the road to namaskus lord We're praying that sols in our city would encounter the living god and be radically transformed and saved in a moment Lord we're praying for the hopeless In our community the ones who have been taken captive by the enemy whose minds have been inundated with depression And anxiety and confusion Stir spiritual hunger in our city for people to search and to seek after jesus Lord lift high the cross Jesus you said if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself lord jesus we lift you high today We pray that your name would be lifted high across the city so that all men would be drawn of this city We pray or put it on full display grow wide open in our city the door of salvation The door of jesus through you That can transform and change lives Can give hope to the hopeless healing for the sick and oppressed Mercy Mercy to the broken jesus. This is our only hope We're praying today lord and we're asking To and raise up a praying church in our city church that is captivated by the beauty of jesus across denominations across locations lord across even differences in Secondary theology, but lord that there would be a fascination with jesus That draws your people Into the place of ministry unto you prayer And worship or raise up a praying church In kalamazoo and southwest michigan united around jesus United around the beauty of the cross Fascinated with the lamb Fascinated by the spotless Lamb of god, would you stir it lord? Would you do it that as we lift you up others would see Lord as we lift you up As we link arms one with another Enemies and even those who Speak evil of us lord. We will not return evil for evil Vengeance for vengeance But lord we speak love and blessing in favor and we say lord do not hold it against them Do not hold it against them but break through with the power of your cross Save to the uttermost transform Fill churches with your glory Draw men and women to yourself jesus for your glory and for your honor and for your name Let the lamb of god receive the rewards of your suffering jesus Let a harvest Be received as only you can move in this city this city with your glory and with your presence Finish up this morning. We're gonna pray this prayer that we've been praying in conjunction with other churches in our city So if they'll put this up on the screen, I want you to pray this along with me over our city king jesus Awaken the sleeping giant of your church in our city as we pray and collaborate to seek the common good for our region Open our eyes and hands to the marginalized and our voices for the voiceless We endeavor to live such counter cultural lives that our places of work In neighborhoods will experience the beauty and the power of the gospel Give us such an unquenchable passion for you and your word that we can't help but tell others about jesus and his unstoppable kingdom For the glory of jesus and the advancement of his kingdom Amen, well, we want to thank you for praying over our city with us today The ministering to the heart of jesus the beautiful savior Being fascinated with who he is And the fact that he knows us and he sees us and our worship ascends before him I want to encourage you today To come and join us at noon and tonight at 6 30 p.m as we continue morning You tonight to minister to the heart of the lord as a praying and worshiping church and people from the heart of our city God bless you. Have a great day