 Good morning, gradient church and welcome to morning prayer. I want to invite you wherever you are to stand with us as we're going to be worshiping the Lord today together. I want to begin by reading out of Psalm chapter 73. It says, starting in verse 21, when my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before the Lord. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have taken hold of my right hand and with your counsel, you will guide me and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you will perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. And I have made the Lord God my refuge that I might tell of all your works. As we enter into the presence of the Lord this morning, I want to echo this this statement that as for me, the nearness of God is my good. The nearness of God is our good. And for us to enter in boldly into the presence, there's been made away by the blood of Christ that we can enter in boldly into the throne room of heaven today. And let it be said of us that we were near to God and God was near to us. Let it be said within our hearts. And even maybe if you need to just even like close your eyes and just even just even focus your heart in on the Lord, focus your heart in on Jesus. And just even with your own confession saying, but as for me, as for me, the nearness of God is my good. The nearness of God is my good. If I have nothing else good within my life, it is the nearness of God. That is my good, even though my heart and my flesh may fail, even though everything around me may seem in turmoil. Oh Lord, you are my good and the nearness of your presence is my good. So we invite the presence and the nearness of God here today. Lord, come and even fill this room, fill this downtown of Kalamazoo. Lord, fill up our homes right now. Lord, fill up our cars as we're driving to work. Lord, fill up our office spaces as we're as we're in the marketplace. Lord, we ask right now that the presence of God would come in a tangible way. Oh, Lord, even as you you appear to so many, so many generations and you were the Shekinah glory coming and being before the people. We ask that your presence would come and manifest here today. If everything else were to fail, if everything else were to fade away. The good that we have is the nearness of the Lord. Oh, how we need you today, Jesus. We need your nearness. We need your closeness. We need you more than the next breath that we take. Can you even in your own words right now, invite the presence of the Lord into your home, invite the presence of the Lord into this room? Come, Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on us, begin even. Maybe you need to even stir it up in the spirit. Maybe even you need to begin to just begin praying on your breath, asking for the Spirit of the Lord to come and enter in. We find rest in your presence. We find rest in your presence, Lord. The nearness of God is my good, nearness, O Lord. Continue to allow the peace of God to enter into your homes and enter into your workplaces and your cars. In this prayer room, peace of God coming to rest as we enter in to your nearness, to your closeness. Let us feel your closeness. To draw and close, to draw and close. You can feel the closeness again as I put you on the throne. Besides you, I desire nothing else on earth. Jesus, remind us of our absolute desperation and necessity of you in our lives. Even be said of us that we didn't want anything else. Jesus, I know about you. When I leave the house, I do a three-point check. I look for my keys, my wallet, my cell phone, and I can get through the day with those three things. And I felt the Lord saying, you leave the house every day without checking if my presence goes with you. And how much more necessary is it that the presence of God is with us wherever we go? And even this was the cry of Moses with the people of Israel. Do not send us out from this place lest your spirit, lest your presence goes with us. Moses wasn't about following his own path or his own presence. He was actually about following the presence of the Lord and they would wait for the cloud or the fire to move. They would wait for the presence of the Lord to move. And would there be an urgency in our hearts daily to do a check of the spirit? Are we walking in the presence of the Lord? Are we walking under the guidance and the direction of the Lord? Is the nearness of God our good today? Is the nearness of his presence our priority today? And maybe even in hearing that, maybe it's something that you're like, yes, yes, that's what I that's what I desire. That's what I long for. So yes, presence of God come and lead me today. But maybe for some of you also, you feel that that conviction, you feel that stirring of the spirit that says, I have walked out the door without being led and without carrying the presence. And maybe even today, you need to invite the presence of God into your life. You even need to confess that, Jesus, I don't need anything else today. I could leave my wallet, my cell phone, my keys. I could leave everything else at home. But if I don't have your presence, don't send me out from here. Lord, we need your presence today. We want to be a presence focus, presence centered people. Would we feel naked without the presence of God? Would we feel uncovered without the presence of the Lord? Would we walk into our offices and to our schools and have this this reality of needing the presence of God with us? I pray right now in the name of Jesus that we would experience the nearness of the presence of the Lord. Oh, like a fresh wind, a fresh fire blow in. Come in holy presence of the living God. Come and fill us up even today with the presence of the Lord. Come and wash over us. Cups overflow, presents pour over our heads today with the fragrance of the presence beyond us. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Lord, we are weak, impoverished, oh Lord. And we need your presence. We need your spirit to come and strengthen and empower us today. Lord, we pray that even when our hearts may fail, our flesh may fail. We know that you are our strength and you are our portion. So, Lord, we pray today that the portion of the Lord would be given to us today, that you would be our portion. You would be the thing that we are seeking after and desiring. Lord, we may be going into the workplace in the school, wherever we go today. Lord, would we be seeking after your strength, seeking after you? Oh, Lord, would you be the priority and the focus, the obsession of our day today? Would the presence of God be our obsession today? Would the presence of God be our focus? Lord, I pray even for those of us that are going into a hostile environment today an environment that would seem counter to the presence of the Lord. Would we be carriers of the presence of God? In the same way that the presence of the Lord permeates and enters into us, would we bring and carry the presence of the Lord wherever we go? I pray that it would be like a sweet fragrance just entering into this entire city. I pray that the presence of the Lord would be manifest and tangible, not just to us, but those around us. We need your presence to go with us, O Lord. Do not send us up from here. If we're not being led and guided by your presence, make it personal. Lead me today, presence of the living God. Lead me, presence of the living God. I don't want to go anywhere else without you. I don't want to leave the house without you. I don't want to go driving down the road without you. I don't want to go into my hostile work environment without you. I don't want to go into the marketplace without you. I don't want to go to the grocery store without you. Presence of the living God. Lead me, guide me. From you will pay, Lord, with this urgency being our hearts, that when we distance ourselves from you, when we find ourselves far from your presence, that we feel this decay within our hearts, we feel this death that enters into our hearts. Lord, I pray that when we grow close to you, that life and flourishing begins to happen. We want to be near to the presence of the Lord because in your presence, O God, that's where we find life and joy and peace and growth and flourishing. Oh, Lord, Lord, would we be a people that is near to your presence? We want to be a people that is that we have an absolute necessity of being near to the presence of God. We feel ourselves shrinking back away from your presence. We feel ourselves dying down away from your presence like a plant that is deprived of water and sunlight. Would that be what our spirits feel like away from your presence? And when we grow close and near to you, would we see that growth? Would we see that flourishing begin to happen again? Lord, I pray right now that you would even begin to reveal to our hearts the areas where we have retreated from your presence, maybe even a Lord where we have become calloused and cold to your presence of Lord. Lord, where have we developed thick skin to your presence? Where have we walked out the door and thought, well, I don't I don't necessarily need your presence today. I think I can get through my day pretty fine myself. We don't walk out the door in a blizzard without a jacket. We don't walk outside and think, man, I can get through my day without a jacket today. No, we walk outside and we put on the jacket. We put on the presence of the Lord today. We need you today. We need your presence. We need the nearness of the Lord. The presence of the living God. Fall fresh on us. Come presence of the living God. Come and fill us up, permeate within us again today. We want to be flourishing and growing in the presence of the living God today. Ephesians chapter three, we're going to be praying through this scripture starting in verse 16. And even as we've been praying for the presence of the Lord to go with us, we know that the Holy Spirit comes to strengthen and empower us and to pray as we enter into our day, enter into the start of this week, even that we would have as believers. We are not going out week in our own power and our own strength, but we are going out empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. So verse 16 says that he would grant to you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner man. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ with surpasses knowledge and that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Lord, we pray that we wouldn't go out as empty vessels, but that we would be filled up with the presence and the power of the Lord. Holy Spirit, we ask for a fresh baptism today. We ask for a fresh infilling. We are leaky, Lord, and we need more. We need you to pour out your spirit on us again. We pray that we wouldn't be a church that goes out into the world, hoping to rely on yesterday's infilling, but we need a fresh filling today. We need to be strengthened and empowered by your presence today. Strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit today. Father, I pray that even the gifts of the Spirit would be stirred up this week. I pray in radiant church, we would hear testimonies of the prophetic. We would hear testimonies of healing. We would hear testimonies of supernatural faith. We would hear testimonies of boldness to proclaim the gospel. We want to be strengthened and empowered by your Holy Spirit in our inner man. Come now, Holy Spirit. Make it personal. Strengthen me. Empower me. Holy Spirit today says that he grants to you according to his riches, the riches of his glory. Lord, we know that we do not lean on our own understanding, our own strength. We do not walk in might and power of our own, but we walk in the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit today. Lord, I pray for those moments where we feel weak. We would find supernatural strength. And those moments where we do not feel we have the words that you would give us the words. When we don't feel we have the wisdom, you would give us the wisdom. Even right now, what is it that you need Holy Spirit to come and strengthen and empower you for today? Begin to even pray out your own words of inviting the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's into a relationship. Maybe you're needing to make an important decision, but invite the Holy Spirit. Come, give me the strength. Give me the power for this today. Come and lead us, Holy Spirit. Come and be our counselor. Come and be our advisor. Come and be our friend in our leadership right now. The empowering of the Holy Spirit in our inner man today. Fight the fresh outpouring, the fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit. We say, pour in presence. Pour out your spirit on your church today, Lord. Amen, Jesus. Father, we ask that you would pour out your spirit. Pour out the Holy Spirit on us today. We do not want to be a church that walks in our own power or our own strength, but a church that is being led and guided by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, by the power and presence of the Lord. We invite your leadership today, Lord. With the presence of God, we are good today. I pray that you would remind us throughout our day, you guide us. When you say, stop, we stop. When you say, go, we go. We are led and guided by the presence of the Lord today. Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Well, thank you, church, for joining us today. Continue today just asking for the leadership and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He is faithful to do so. Be sure to join us downtown today at noon or 6.30 this evening. Otherwise, we will see you tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Have a great day.