 Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to morning prayer. So good to have those of you who are here live in the room with us. And we also want to welcome those of you who are joining us from home, wherever you're at today. We have an invitation to make this moment a prayer room in and of itself. So if it's in your living room, this is sacred space. And if you're here in the prayer room, this moment is sacred space. And what defines sacred space is not the four walls, but it's our full attention. And so I want to invite you that over the next hour or so, we're just going to give God our full attention and our full span of attention. Set our eyes upon him and gaze upon him like David said in Psalm 27 to gaze upon his beauty in his temple. Psalm 71 verse three, David's praying this prayer. And he reminds the Lord, he says, Lord, be to me a rock of refuge to which I may continually come. You've given me the command to save me for you are my rock and my fortress. God is our safe place. And the invitation that the Lord gives us is to not just come to him once. But David said, you're a rock that I can continually come back to. This can be the rhythm and needs to be the rhythm of our lives is that in the midst of every season, whether it's storms or victories, mountaintops or valleys that we have a rhythm of coming back and finding our secure and our safe place in his presence. David, one of the things that he did in every season of his life was he worshiped God. David wasn't a man who worshiped. David was a worshiper. Just who he was. It was his identity. That's what we were created to do. We were created to worship the Lord long before we ever minister to anybody else. Our first ministry is kings and priests before God is to minister to his heart. There's something in our God that loves and is blessed by us willingly choosing to give our full attention and our worship to him. So that's how we're going to start this morning. This is why the Bible encourages us to enter in through his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Our worship gives us access to his presence and our worship blesses the heart of God. So wherever you're at including this room you're living or might as well encourage us let's lift up holy hands this morning. Jesus with holy hands lifted up without wrath without doubting with our full attention span. We approach your throne of grace today by the blood that Jesus shed for us. Not by our works, not by our own qualification but because you placed the holy ephond upon us and called us priests before you and invited us out of darkness into the marvelous light of your presence and we're here to bless your heart. We say to our own soul, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Today we come to worship the living God. We come to let our breath and our words not be filled with criticism or fear or trepidation or judgments but seasoned with worship directed at the one who's on the throne. We say glory and honor and praise and dominion and might and majesty and all worth belongs to you Father. Beautiful and elevation, glorious, exalted, wonderful Savior. Jesus. All right now just fill your mouth with exaltation with praise, with praise. Event that's taking place in Grand Rapids on Saturday, it's an unprecedented gathering not just in Grand Rapids but really in the region as part of what God is doing across the nation and mobilizing, unifying and mobilizing the church, the body of Christ especially young adults towards the mission field, the great commission to prayer to the presence of God, fueling the great commission and so they're going to be gathering Saturday Grand Rapids at the van and I'll really have an anticipation and expectation that God's going to do something that's going to shift and it's going to change a generation and a region. What you join with me is we pray today Father we pray over the send event that's coming up a focus and a theme that you've marked in this time period in this season Lord across this nation, an hour of urgency and an also an hour of maturity Lord where you're pulling the attention of your church back to you, back to the first love and Lord mobilizing a generation of young adults who would give their all and say here am I send me, send me to the hardest places, send me to the four quarters of the nation, send me to my culture, send me to my college campus, send me to the most difficult cities in America and Lord in a age of intimidation and fear for so many people are for so many reasons are afraid to share the gospel or apotheos set in to our spirits that has kept us from being concerned for those who've never heard the gospel. A heart has become hardened because as long as we've got it that's all that's necessary Lord would you this weekend on Saturday do something significant do it from West Michigan Lord Lord how many prayers have been prayed over West Michigan how many intercessors have walked the streets of Michigan and walk the streets of Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids and even beyond and asked you Lord to spark a movement to spark revival Lord we've seen shadows of it and we've seen tastes of it but Lord we want the whole thing and so Lord as you're gathering people from Toronto and Ohio and Indiana Wisconsin and Michigan in one arena in one place across the spectrum of denominations church backgrounds and even ages Lord we're praying that you would come as the wood is being assembled on the altar and the stones are being put in their proper order Lord none of it matters if fire doesn't fall from heaven on the sacrifice so we're praying as it's all aligned in this arena Lord we don't see this as an arena we see this as an altar and we're praying with thousands of people gathered in this altar at the send on Saturday Lord that you would fall with fire of your presence upon the altar upon the arena Lord and let your presence and the fragrance of Jesus let it be known let it be manifest God Lord that you're gonna come and you're gonna speak with clarity Lord you're gonna give dreams and visions to people that are gathered there that are gonna see for the first time their place in your call Lord I'm praying that you would stir the hearts of pastors that worship songs are gonna flow like waves over your people they're gonna flow like waves up and down every aisle in up in the bleachers and through every seed and through every crevice of that arena and Lord it's going to get on every person that's gathered there and it's gonna be multiplied by a hundred fold because of the people that that are there who impact a hundred or more people outside of that arena that this would be an occasion Lord that marks a generation and marks a region becomes a spark that ignites something significant in this generation in this region Lord we're lifting up Andy Bird and his team right now who are in the final days of preparation that are reaching out to churches with a sense of urgency to get people to gather Lord we don't want to just see numbers there for the sake of numbers but Lord we don't want anyone to miss out it's like the hundred and twenty in the upper room Jesus we don't want anybody to miss out on what you're about to do so Lord I'm praying for Andy for strength and endurance praying for favor and for wisdom over him right now for his team Taylor and for circuit riders worship and all the pastors and the leaders and the speakers Dr. Michael Brown and Brian Barcelona Kerry Job and Cody cards that all the different radiant city worship that's gonna participate Lord we're just praying for unity we're praying for anointing we're praying for strength praying for authority we're praying for clarity we declare Jesus you are Lord of West Michigan but I want you to declare that Jesus you are Lord of West Michigan your Lord of the Great Lakes region Jesus come and have your way tear open the heavens and come down sin fire of your presence God Jesus we just bind every satanic strategy of division you know how the enemy work and that religious spirit that wants to get a hold of a region and tear it apart right now we're asking that even as the enemy may come in you like a flood would raise up a standard against it oh God and that you would pour out a commanded blessing as brothers and sisters gather from multiple denominations we gather together in one place to lift up the name of Jesus and to see one mission fulfilled the Great Commission in that moment that the oil of your unified blessing a commanded blessing that cannot be thwarted would be poured over gathered in one place Lord we're praying that the praises that are gonna come out of that arena even though they're loud to the natural ear we're praying in the spiritual realm that they are piercing to the darkness that long principalities and powers of religion and legalism and arrogance and pride are gonna be broken once and for all and open up a window for heaven and for angelic ministry to be released on the streets of Grand Rapids and Southwest Michigan in a way that they've never been before we're praying that praise is gonna fill the streets Lord you said that if there will be prayer in my house there will be praise in the streets and we're praying that mighty rushing rivers of worship and praise of the anointed one are gonna flow through Monroe and down Division Avenue and 131 and m6 and 96 up and down north and south east and west throughout Michigan and along I80 corridor into Chicago Madison Wisconsin and Milwaukee and Toronto and Detroit and Toledo and Cleveland Lord that there's gonna be an outbreak of passion for Jesus because of the praises of your people come on let's ask for the Lord to release a unified blessing I want us to just put our eyes Jesus you are glorious access before you or that as we worship you draw near to you chose to love us unconditionally or today would you open our hearts even wider to receive more this morning if you have your Bibles I want you to open with me to second Thessalonians we're gonna pray for the next few moments out of this apostolic prayer this prayer that Paul prayed continually for the church specifically the church of Thessalonica verse number three of chapter one second Thessalonians Paul says we ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers as it is right because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing therefore we ourselves boast for you and the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith and all your persecutions and any afflictions that you are enduring or today we join our hearts to this prayer this desire that you put in the heart of Paul but more importantly you recorded in the pages of scripture for all times for us the saints of God to be able to see this and know that this is the longing and the desire of your heart for us and so Lord we're praying it back to you today not because you don't know what you've already said but because we're asking you if this is the longing of your heart for us then God would you do it in us but we want this to become a reality we want this to become the moorings of our heart and in the places in the moments and areas of our heart where this is not a reality we just repent before you and invite you like the gardener to come and to break up the fellow ground you said in your word in Hosea you said break up the fellow ground for its time to seek the Lord and we want our heart packed down soil of our heart that has become hardened because of the heat and because of the seasons of life that we walk through Lord we don't want our hearts to remain hard our love to grow in a bound so just as these scriptures say Lord you say that our faith is growing abundantly Lord we're asking that you would grow our faith that Lord you have said in your word that the just shall live by faith that we walk by faith and not by sight today just as the disciples said Lord how how do we grow in our faith you said if you have faith like a mustard seed a seed that's planted a seed that grows a seed that expands or today look at our faith look at our trust that we have in you and Lord would you expand it we want our faith to grow faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Lord would you stir a hunger in us for growth Lord would you provoke us that where we're at is not where you're taking us let Lord that there's more for us we want the mustard seed of wherever our faith is at to we wanted to grow Lord that only happens when you water when you breathe upon it Lord when you stir the hunger and as you said that if we hunger and thirst we will be filled you said if we seek we'll find we'll knock the door will be opened unto us if we ask we'll receive and so we're asking Lord would you take the seed of wherever our faith is at today and a water and by your Holy Spirit and begin to provoke us and challenge us and stir us that our faith might expand that our trust in you might continue to grow so that we can go from faith to faith and from glory to glory and from strength to strength just as the man said to you he said I believe help my unbelief Lord today would you help our unbelief cause our faith to grow abundant with status quo we're asking you father the great gardener to prune every area in our life where there is not fruit so that our faith might continue to grow abundantly more than those areas of our life that are stealing the life from the vine Lord would you prune so that we can bear more fruit Lord we're doubt and unbelief and disappointment and discouragement and vain imaginations have controlled our lives Lord help us to renew our minds then we might believe you that we might grow in faith abundantly if they just live by faith then Lord we want to live more we want more of your life in us we're not content with just making it to heaven Lord we want here on this side of eternity our faith to grow abundantly Lord I'm praying for every student that's going back to school this year Lord elementary school high school and college that the tactics of the enemy to deconstruct their faith would be turned upside down and Lord that there would be a Shadrach Meshach and Abenigo a Daniel calling upon their lives to grow abundantly in their faith even in the most difficult soils even where the enemy has planned to tear down Lord we're asking for your help to build up that Lord you would raise up young people that love you know you and do great exploits Lord for every mom and dad who now have that they could do all kinds of things in the morning Lord we're praying that this would be a moment where they would say God I want to grow abundantly in my faith I want to take a deeper a deeper perspective of the kingdom of God I want to join a group I'm gonna take a class I'm gonna start a small group I'm gonna get into the word Lord stir hunger in us beyond status quo and beyond apathy and just getting by so that we might want to grow abundantly and become spiritually mature that we bear fruit that brings glory and honor to your faith that is in measure would become a greater measure just hear the invitation of the Lord saying how much do you want how far are you willing to go how abandoned are you willing to be to come after me it's like the Lord saying there's an ocean before you how far do you want to swim out there's more than you could ever imagine there's more than you've ever experienced can you can't out pursuing we want more that faith to grow into love for one another you said the love of every one of you for one another is increasing Lord let this be our testimony Lord that our love is expanding as our faith is growing our love of one another not just with the cheap words not just with the outward appearance but Lord that our hearts genuinely faith is growing hope is rising love is being expressed Lord let the love that we have for you grow and let the love that we have for one another increase the God they kind of love the God kind of love the love that overlooks wrongs done the love that sees the weakness and still also believes in the potential the love that loves beyond differences the love that wants the best the love that keeps no record of wrongs done that always believes the best that's patient it's kind Lord we want that kind of love to increase and let it mark us you said in John 17 that Lord that when we're one that the world would see that you really are the Son of God we want the world to look at the church and see faith hope and love that our love for one another it's not like the world Lord where there's competition and comparison and vengeance and pettiness and gossip slander and divisions the Lord would you unite us Lord would you allow our hearts to increase in love for one another today help us to love like you'd love us you would release them back into our lives with power that the door of our prayers would be thrown open in your resources and the greater measure of faith help and love would be released in us and then it mark us as your people Lord that not only is this the longing of our heart it's the longing of yours so Father let it be done in our lives today in Jesus name hey everybody say come on listen we want to thank you for joining us this morning invite you back today at noon and tonight at 6 30 p.m. down here at the Radiant City Center we're from the heart of our city morning noon night praise worship and intercession is rising up so thank you for being a praying and worshiping church we look forward to seeing you later