 This morning I was just pondering our different expressions before the Lord and how there's a time when we just sit in His presence and we just soak and we're still and we know that He's God. And there's times when we're just quieted in His love as He sings over us. But more often than not in the Scriptures we're exhorted to make a sound, aren't we? To sing to the Lord, to shout to the Lord, to play upon countless instruments to the Lord, to dance and to pray and to say and proclaim and declare and all of those things imply a sound that we bring as our offering. And so I just want to start right there. That's something that we get to do for all of eternity. But on this side of heaven and this morning we get to bring our offering, our sacrifice of sound and praise and agreement with Jesus as the great intercessor. So I just encourage us, let's just stand and posture ourselves just in sort of that participatory stance for worship and praise. I'm just going to read a couple Scriptures from Psalm 103. It says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. There it is again, that beautiful imperative. Bless the Lord. Say something. Play upon the instruments in blessing. Some of us may have come in this morning and just think, you know, I don't have much in my all tank. It's okay. Your all is your all. Bring our all to the Lord and the beautiful thing about Jesus is that as we bless Him with even just a small all, He does this transaction where suddenly His all becomes our all. The fullness of Jesus just begins to fill our hearts and empower our blessing. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. We could just start right there this morning just with those action words, Lord, you pardon, you heal, you redeem, you crown, you satisfy, and you renew. Jesus, we love you. Father, we love you. Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place this morning. We just say we remember. We remember who you are. We remember what you have done and we will not be silent. O bless the Lord, O my soul, I remember Abba. You are the God who draws near to the brokenhearted. You are the one who lavishes mercy upon us time and time again. You edit our stories with your tenderhearted mercies. You are the God who heals our diseases, the sickness of our bodies, the sickness of our hearts time and time again. We remember, Lord, and we bless your name. You've redeemed us, God. You've reached down with your right arm and you saved us from the mirey pit of sin and despair over and over again. We bless you, Jesus. You have crowned us with your very righteousness and your glory as sons and daughters. We walk as royalty in the earth. We bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. You renew our strength, your strength for our weakness. We bless you, Lord. Just begin to lift our voices. Begin to pray in the spirit. Begin to ask Him. We bless you, Jesus. We bless your name this morning, your beautiful name. The name of Jesus. Name above all names. We bless you, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. We thank you for stirring up hunger in our hearts for more of you this morning. We're just going to go into a time of intercession now. This is where we want to lean in, not sit back. The Lord said, I'm never silent as the great intercessor. And so we're just shifting a little bit, keeping our hearts postured in that place of blessing the Lord, in that place of worship. But we're going to lean in to the heart of the intercessor and just keep going after more of Jesus. If you have your Bibles, you can open to Matthew chapter 6. And we're going to pray from portions of one of the greatest apostolic prayers recorded in Scripture that the Lord Jesus Himself prayed when He was mentoring the disciples around Him. Beginning in verse 9. This is a timeless prayer. It's an eternal prayer. And when we begin to step into it, we're agreeing with the heart of Jesus. And there's different applications. There's that personal application. And then we expand the scope a little bit more for our families and then a little bit more for our churches and a little bit more for the cities represented in this room and on the live stream. And so Father, we just say, Holy is your name. And we ask you even now, Holy Spirit, that you would do what you love to do. That you would open up the eyes of our hearts, our individual hearts, the eyes of our family members, God, the eyes of this next generation, the eyes of the congregations across this city, Lord, to behold your holiness in greater measure. Lord, that we would see what the burning ones see when they sing, Holy, Holy, Holy, endlessly before you. That we would know what the elders know, God, as they fall again, endlessly, ceaselessly, awed by your holiness. We pray, Holy Spirit, would you open the eyes of our spirit to see our Father, to see the Lord Jesus, this dazzling and radiant God, like a diamond shining in holiness, transcendent in other than this. We're asking, Lord, would you just give us, baptize us again with a fresh revelation of the holiness of Jesus, that we would hunger for this place of awe and wonder, that we would bow again in the presence of holiness. We ask, in Jesus' name, open our eyes, Holy Spirit, in holiness, Lord. Park us with your holiness, that we would gaze upon you, Lord, and we asking for eyes to see, to behold the beauty of the Lord, captured over and over. You would set our gaze, Holy Spirit, individually as families. He's across the city of Kalamazoo, and the city's represented on this livestream. God, that there would be a corporate gaze of your bride. Moved again and again, riveted, struck again and again by the beauty of holiness. We would sing that anthem of heaven, Holy, our eyesight to behold in Jesus' name. This is our cry. Jesus, give us grace, set our eyes like the dove, on this man Christ Jesus. Your kingdom come, your will be done, as it is in heaven. Father, we thank you for the coming of your kingdom when the sky's split and Jesus returns to the earth again. But we thank you today, God, for every advance, for every increase of your kingdom now on earth. And we stand, Lord, and we ask you for the increase of your kingdom, your righteousness, your peace, and your joy in our own individual hearts and in our homes. Across this city, God, in the next generation, we stand in agreement with your heart with the great intercessor. When you mentored your disciples, you said, pray in this way. Ask for my kingdom to increase now and then. So, Lord, here we are. Here we are hungry for the advancement of your kingdom, for the prevailing of your kingdom in our hour of redemptive history, in our own hearts. God, I'm asking for an increase of your righteousness in every individual heart, in my heart, in my home. We're asking for an increase of your righteousness, God, in the sons and daughters of this next generation. An increase, an expanding of your righteousness through the city of Kalamazoo and the cities represented. Lord, where there's wickedness, where there's injustice, where there's iniquity, God, would begin to increase and expand all across the spheres of society, God. In your church, let righteousness increase. In leadership, let righteousness increase. In government, in education, we're crying out for the expanding and the increase of the kingdom of God in this hour, on earth as it is in heaven. Let your righteousness go forth in Jesus' name. Let your righteousness go forth in our city. Increase your kingdom. Yes. Let your righteousness go forth in our city. Let your righteousness go forth in our city. Your kingdom comes. Let your righteousness go forth in our city. Your righteousness, let your righteousness go forth in our city. Over every home, over every protocol, over every campus, let your righteousness go forth in our city. Understanding. Lord, where there's storms in individual hearts, we declare peace. Your kingdom expanding in the manifestation of peace. Where there's fear and anxiety, we declare peace as vessels of peace this morning. Lord, as your kingdom increases, as your kingdom expands on earth as it is in heaven, we just say let your peace roll through our city. Let your peace, God, manifest in every home. Let your peace come to every heart right now, troubled, weighed down, disillusioned, the discouraged, got the broken, the tormented. We just say let your kingdom be manifested as peace in our city, as peace in our family's God. Where there's the tempest God of strife, we declare peace this morning over families, peace over marriages, peace over teenagers. God, let your peace flood, saturate homes this morning. Let your peace fill individual hearts. God, those even the mommies at home today, Lord, just weighed down, facing another day of sick little ones, the turbulence. God, we just speak peace, the peace of God into the hearts, peace of God into the home, peace of God into the dorm rooms, peace of God into the corporate conference rooms, peace of God into the court rooms, the locker rooms, the cafeterias, the peace of God through the streets of our city, overriding all circumstance, driving out fear and anxiety, depression and despair, peace, we declare it. Just begin to open your mouth and just begin to speak peace over the storms that even you are aware of. Maybe it's in your own heart. Maybe it's in your face. It matters. Your kingdom come as it is in heaven. Let the peace of God go forth in Jesus' name, fractions of the world. The peace of God into the storm. We speak peace. Be still. Pression has to stop. Every storm into every fracture, into every injustice, peace, into every contention, in our own hearts, in our own homes, among racial lines, across the city, peace. We speak peace. The kingdom of heaven coming, manifesting as peace. We agree with you, Jesus. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The prevailing of peace. We're just going to expand our scope a little bit. We're just going to lift up the Ukraine right now as we're praying for peace, as we're declaring peace, as we're crying out for an increase and expanding of the kingdom of God. Let's just remember our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine this morning. So Lord, we just turn in agreement with your heart for the nations, your very inheritance, Jesus. And as we are asking and seeking for the manifestation of your kingdom, in our own hearts and homes and city right here, Lord, we lift before you the Ukraine. And we just say, Lord, let your kingdom increase. Let peace go forth into the war, into the storm and the chaos. We just say, Lord, would you release angels even now to bring your peace into situations, God? To bring your peace into war. We pray for our brothers and sisters there, God. We pray that peace would increase in their hearts, even as we stand at this corporate altar in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Would you hear our cries, God, and would you release peace to our brothers and sisters? Peace that goes beyond all comprehension, peace that overrides all of the external circumstances and pressures that we cannot even imagine. We speak peace. Walk upon the waves, God. Meet our brothers and sisters, still the storm within, still the storm without. Bring your peace, God, to the hearts of your people, Ukrainian and Russian alike, God. Bring your peace into the battle zones. Bring your peace, God, to the little ones. Bring your peace, God, to the women and children separated from husbands and dads. Bring your peace, God, to the refugees. Bring your peace to those who have stayed, God, to stand in the resistance. We speak strength. We speak peace to every individual heart. And we pray for your church, God, that you would steady her. Your church and your reign, God, would you steady your bride? Would you fill her with new strength and fortitude in the inner man? God, that in this hour of trial and tribulation that she would stand firm and fast in the testimony of Jesus, that the gospel and the message of redemption would be ready upon the lips of your people, God, in the refugee camps and those on the battlefield, Lord. We pray that what the enemy meant for evil in the destruction of lives and chaos, God, that you would turn it for good and that many souls would be added to the kingdom, Lord, that there would be the expansion and the increase of your kingdom in the Ukraine, Lord, through brothers and sisters born into the kingdom of light. Lord, we thank you that your ways are not our ways. We thank you that nothing is impossible for you and that what the enemy meant for evil, you mean for good. And as we close Holy Spirit, we thank you for your ministry. We thank you for the outpouring of your grace. I ask that all that is transpired this hour, God, that it would be sealed in the books and that, Lord, you would increase it across this city and the cities represented that there would be prayer fires burning that the name of Jesus would be exalted in the place of worship all across this city, all across this state and region and nation and the nations of the earth. We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Well, thank you for joining us. We're going to be back here at noon today, 6.30 tonight. God bless you.