 Good morning. Welcome to morning prayer from downtown Kalamazoo from the radiant city center, the heart of our city, the heart of our area where we are crying out to the heart of God for him to move, for him to heal, for him to restore, for him to do the incredible miraculous things that he does among his people, among all people, to reveal himself so that people may know him, so that people may experience him and so that people may be changed and transformed by him. We as a church, we are coming out of this season, if you will, this seven day season of seeking and sending as a church going into the school year together. And I just want to, I just, I really want to emphasize this morning as even though the initiative on the calendar has ended, seeking and sending has not, this was not a finish line, this was a launching pad into our pursuit of the Lord, into us leading our families daily to cry out to God, to leading our children, to go into their schools and to be the witnesses that God for has them to be, for them to be prayer warriors in their schools. So this isn't just a season, this is a lifestyle for us as the people of God. And on my way in this morning, I couldn't shake God's heart in all of this. I could not get it off of my mind, I could not get it out of my head how he wants this and he desires this from us every day. For us to passionately wake up and come to him. For us to with excitement and expectation cry out to him. Not in vain repetition, but in holy expectation that he is the God who answers our prayers and comes through a miraculous and mighty ways. And he does the things that we read about him doing. And as I couldn't shake that, I was reminded of one of the ways, one of the central cheap ways that the Lord tells us to come into his presence. And it's very clear woven into the fabric of the entire canon of scripture. We see this happening over and over again. We see this invitation from the Lord about how to come to him, how to enter into his presence. And so I want to begin by looking at Psalm 100 together. In verse one it says, Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name, for the Lord is good. It's not just that he does good, but that he is good. It is out of whom he is that he does that, which he does. His steadfast love endures forever in his faithfulness to all generations. I want to pray through two parts of that as we open up. I want to begin by praying verse one. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing. One of the cheap ways that we come into his presence is by ministering to him with a glad heart. And so right now I want us to take 30 seconds and with a very joyful, gladful, expected heart minister to the Lord. With hope on the forefront of your mind, with joy cascading out of the crevices of your heart, begin to minister to the Lord. Joyful noise, Lord. We minister to you, God. We bless your holy name, Lord. It is with smiles on our faces that are really reflections of our hearts, God, that we come to you this morning with joy and with praise, God. Verse four says, enter his gates with thanksgiving in his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, Jesus. We enter. We enter into your gates today, God, with thanksgiving. We are so thankful that in this room and in our cars and everywhere we were where we intentionally sought after you, God. And right now we enter in again. We are so thankful. We are so thankful for you. We are thankful for your salvation. We are thankful for your love. We are thankful for your hearts. We are thankful for your compassion. We are thankful for your kindness. We are thankful for your goodness. We are thankful for your holiness. We are thankful, God, that you are a God who does not change. We are thankful. we are thankful and so we enter in and we we enter into your courts with praise God Lord I pray that praise would come pouring forth from our lips this morning God praise of worship praise of thanksgiving praise of joy praise of wonder praise God we praise you this morning we minister to you we come into your presence now in Jesus name allow us to enter the courts for us to enter the gates to allow us to do it for you but I feel this sweet invitation from the Lord today where he is saying to us I want to hear from your mouth with your lips what you are thankful for oftentimes we think that it has to be this life-changing transforming thing that we have to bring to him to be grateful for and to express our thanksgiving for and sometimes this is just something is Lord I'm thankful for the shoes on my feet thank you Lord I thank you for the clothes on my back thank you I thank you for the roof over my head or I thank you Lord even though my marriage is not steady I thank you for my spouse and begin to thank the Lord for your spouse and Lord I thank you for my kids and I thank you just begin to allow your heart to open up to the Lord with vulnerability of the things that you are grateful for that you often overlook that you often forget is the genuine thankfulness that we bring to God that ushers us most closely into his presence so just begin to thank him thank you for the breath in your lungs thank him thank him for the sunrise of this morning thank him though you're overlooked at your place of work thank him that you have a place to call work thank him thank him thank him we join that chorus around your throne that picture that glimpse that we have in revelation for that is happening day and night and has been happening for all of eternity and will never cease we are in agreement that you are holy holy holy Jesus we are in agreement that you are worthy worthy worthy in agreement and so Lord I pray right now that it would be your holiness that would overwhelm us that it would be your holiness that consumes us Lord I pray that it would be your holiness that that takes over our minds that it would not be a flippant word that we throw out left and right here and there but Lord God that truly your holiness motivate us and move us and stir us to seek after you to desire you at greater levels and greater depths like never before Jesus Lord I pray that it would be your uniqueness your holiness your one of a kindness your other than this Lord that would drive us to your throne God that we would not just say you are holy and not understand what it truly means but that your holiness that you would give us a revelation of your holiness and that it would drive us to seek after you more and more and more every single day all throughout the day with our words with our minds with our actions with our songs with our lifestyles with our choices in our homes in our places of work even in the car God I pray that it would be your holiness that drives us you are so holy God Lord you are so worthy you are so worthy God overwhelm us this morning earn us today this morning here is the wood God would you light us a place you are holy holy holy you are worthy worthy worthy 27 and 28 just yesterday you know it's something stuck out to my wife that she brought up to me and then it's been it's the first two verses of Acts 28 it says after we were brought safely because they had just been through a storm and shipwrecked so after they've been brought safely through that we then learned that the island was called Malta showed us unusual kindness welcomed us all because it had begun to rain and it was cold now verse three when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire I want to stop there I don't want to read the rest because what stands out is that someone started a fire for Paul and these people but Paul and these people had to keep the fire burning themselves and we just spent a week building altars building fires building places of worship in our homes and in our lives and I feel like the Lord is saying to us today yes a fire was kindled for you last week but are you going to gather stick and are you going to gather wood and are you going to bring it to the altar today are you going to do it and so Lord we come to you today and we bring fresh wood to this altar to the altars of our lives to the altars of our homes Lord we want this fire to keep burning this fire that was started Lord I pray for homes where altars were built God would you like them ablaze this morning would you light them ablaze when the fire not go out may it burn continually as your word says the fire must not go out and so Lord I want to start by praying for men and I want to start by praying for husbands and fathers Lord I pray that they would be Paul's in their homes and that every single day that they would be men who go outside when it's cold and when it's rainy and they would gather wood for the altar in their home to burn for their wives for their spouses and for their kids God I pray that they would be excited about it I pray that their passion and their zeal for you would consume them God and they would wake up early in the morning not just before they had to go to work but early in the morning and they would gather wood and they would bring it to the altar so the fire would not go out in their homes God would you stir up the men to build and to continue to build altars of worship and praise unto you in their homes in Jesus name fathers would leave their children to the altar Lord I pray that the altar in the home Lord God would be fortified and strengthened by the men in the home and the husbands in the home and the fathers in the home Lord Lord I pray that you would agitate men Father I just ask right now for for the women leading their household Lord that you would just I just pray anxiety gone depression the things that may plague a woman where she's tending for her home caring for home I pray encouragement for her Lord just encourage her I speak joy and life encouragement for her to be a strength to her husband and to her family for women Lord that are the single moms out there Father I just pray that you are are everything to her you're her comfort her peace her love Lord her husband her father I just pray Father for the children Lord in these homes I ask Father that you become vibrant in the home Lord that you become so tangible to children at such even young ages Father and so I just thank you for what you're doing in homes with wives with mom Lord and Lord I pray for the single women out there Father that are or the barren women out there Father that you would just encourage them speak to them Father prepare their hearts that they can be spiritual mothers to those around them Lord the spirit of comparison would be broken on men to Lord but I pray that the Pinterest comparative mindset will be broken off of us Lord God and that we would be led to your altar every single day with fresh wood in Jesus name Lord I pray that the altar's times that they begin to build this week that they would take those into their schools Lord God whatever age they are at Lord I pray that their altars they would carry their altars with them God Lord I pray for a Josiah generation to raise up in this hour and in this day a Josiah generation that burns for you and your righteousness and your word and your truth God Lord I pray that they would stand firm Lord at the age of eight at the age of nine at the age of ten Lord they would stand firm upon your precepts and they would bring revival renewal and and and a reconstruction of their generation according to your word Lord Lord I pray for safety over our kids I pray for protection over our kids I banish the spirit of bullying away from our kids now you have no place in their lives to intimidate them or to make them cower into the corner their altars into their school I see them putting a a spiritual altar into their backpack every single day throughout their day Lord would you ignite our kids would you comfort our kids Lord would you break the spirit of anxiety off of our kids Lord would you break the spirit of fear off of our kids that they may burn for you zealous passion in their schools Lord burning the altars that we have built over the last week would be altars that stand for generations to come Lord I pray that husbands would keep building upon the altar which they started building this week I pray that men would be would continue to keep building the altars Lord I pray that fathers would keep altars Lord God not just for them but for generations to come Lord I pray that we as men as husbands and fathers would leave a true legacy for generations to come altars of praise altars of worship altars of thanksgiving unto you God not altars and shrines under ourselves and our accomplishments and our salaries and our purchases and our jokes and our humor altars of worship Lord for generations yet to be born Lord God that this would not just be a season that comes and goes but this would be an operation for the rest of our lives that this would be our lifestyle of us coming to the altar and glorifying you Jesus crying holy holy holy crying worthy awesome is the Lord Lord would you fill our homes with your presence said the train of your robe built the temple god I pray that right now presence would fill the space that we are occupying that will continue to fill the space that we are occupying throughout the rest of the day as we continue to seek you that we are not just seeking you for this hour but we are seeking you for the entirety of our lives with every breath with every action Lord I pray that it would be worship directed to you directed to you for we love you and we need you and we trust you I just can't shake that song right now that listening to and shaking Lord there's nothing there's nothing there is nothing there is no one there is nothing that compares to you nothing there's nothing there's nothing and so Lord I pray that you would turn our graves into gardens the graves of our city the graves of our places of work the graves of our families the graves of our past Lord I pray that you would turn them into gardens today God Lord I pray for resurrection to come into our lives that we would become fascinated with resurrection with you turning graves into gardens Lord would you fascinate us with resurrection power today would you overwhelm us with with resurrection power the same way that Paul was consumed with resurrection God would you consume us Lord may not be an idea of our minds but may it be a reality in a longing that we have every single day fascinate us God with resurrection power fascinate us Lord with resurrection power fascinate us continue to come to the altar fire must go must not go out it must burn continually would not be memorial stones of yesterday but they would be altars for today your presence where we encounter you where we cry out to you where we sacrifice our desires our ambitions our wants all to you Lord we love you we thank you for this day in Jesus name joining us this morning we will be back at noon and at 6 30 here in the prayer center otherwise we'll see you tomorrow on the live stream at 8 a.m. have a blessed day keep