 Good morning and welcome to morning prayer. I want to welcome those of you online as well as in the room. Thank you for being with us this morning. We're going to open this morning out of Second Chronicles 20 when an army was coming up against the tribe of Judah. The Lord raised up a prophet who gave holy strategy to King Jehoshaphat to send worshipers out before the army and to sing before the Lord. And so we're just going to open in Second Chronicles 20 verse 21. And when he had consulted with the people he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and were saying praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Now when they began to sing and to praise the Lord say ambushes against the people of Amman, Moab, and Mount Seer who had come against Judah and they were defeated. Lord we just come before you and we acknowledge that there is darkness rising up against your people. We look around as we look in the news. We read articles and there is darkness and demonic activity everywhere and so God we choose this morning to lead out into worship and to declare the goodness of God not to fight by our own strength but to fight by worshiping you or that that word from Wayne drain that warring worship. God we choose that this morning. We choose to go to war and worship looking to you not to ourselves not even looking at the the things that come against us but only looking to our God and Lord it's with that heart that we sing this morning praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Let's worship that everything would shout all hail King Jesus that every knee would bow that every tongue would confess that you are Lord and Lord of all. I want to go from this place into our first first prayer cycle into a time of intercession praying from that that verse in Isaiah 42 starting in verse 10 sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth you who go down to the sea and all that's in it you coastlands and you inhabitants of them let the wilderness in its cities lift up their voice the villages that could are in habits let the inhabitants of sailor sing let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands the Lord shall go forth like a mighty man he shall stir up his zeal like a man of war he shall cry out yes shout aloud he shall prevail against his enemies so Lord we come before you this morning in worship or hoping and praying that as we lift as we lift up praise from this end of the earth Lord from from right here in Kalamazoo that it would stir you up God that it would stir you up in your zeal stir you up like a man of war and God that you would come and you would set us free from the bondages and the principalities and powers that have inhabited this city God that have plagued your children that have taken refuge in their minds God we pray that as we worship God that you would stir yourself up like a man of war and that you would come and that you would set your children free God we're asking that you would come and that you would set them free from depression from anxiety from addictions from suicidal thoughts or from demonic experience Lord that there would be deliverance throughout this city and a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit God would you stir yourself up make yourself like a mighty man of war and God we pray in Jesus name that you would stir yourself up and fight on our behalf Lord stir yourself up Lord cry out shout aloud Lord veil against your enemies Lord to prevail against oppression prevail against anxiety prevail against suicidal thoughts what we just asked this morning that we would see the mighty man of war God that as we as we worship God just like we started out our prayer meeting with but that as we worship that you would go before us and that the enemies that stand against us would fall that there would be no place for them here that you would drive them out that you would bring in the light of Jesus Christ and that Kalamazoo would be a place where depression doesn't dwell where anxiety doesn't dwell where suicide doesn't dwell where addiction doesn't dwell God but that you would come forth and that you would drive out the darkness with your light that you would bring in the light of Jesus God that you would be worshiped and proclaimed in the streets God that there would be people who who have never heard the gospel that have a single encounter with Jesus interchange forever they would feel like their hearts are fully aligning with you like this this longing in them that didn't know was there is finally fulfilled because they've seen their Savior they've seen their Lord God we pray that you would pour out your Ephesians 1 spirit of wisdom and revelation God there would be hearts who who have never seen you never known you never heard of you that would become fully alive and in love with the man Jesus God that as you bring in your light that it would drive out the darkness or darkness doesn't drive out light light drives out darkness so would you bring in the light of Jesus and drive out the darkness in Jesus name pour out your spirit Lord pour out your spirit and open eyes to see you rightly Lord prodigal see you rightly Jesus need to see you rightly as our Father see you rightly as our friend see you rightly as our brother open our eyes Lord to see you in the eyes of our hearts God to see Jesus right yes God we need to see you rightly we need to see you rightly God even in our own hearts even in the hearts of believers God where there is a fence where there is church hurt where there is a wound Lord that is that's like like scales over our eyes God where we don't see you rightly or we see you as as distant or we see you as as mean as a as an angry slave master but I ask that you would even open our eyes God as you pour out your spirit of wisdom and revelation God that you would open our eyes to see you rightly as a father who loves us who is close who is drawing near to us before we ever drew near to you that we would you would open our eyes to remember all the works that you've done for us God that we wouldn't forget from where we came from and we wouldn't forget what you've done in our past but that you would call to remembrance God just the work of your mighty hand the acts of love that you've shown for us God that we would remember those Ebenezer stones those stones of remembrance just like Joshua had it Israel set up after they crossed the Jordan God would you bring us back to those stones of remembrance and that we would remember the works of the Lord so in Jesus name help us God help us to remember your works of old remember how you pulled us out of the pit shine your light on our past Lord so we can see you rightly so we can remember how you wrapped us up in your arms help us to see Lord would you give us would you give us a proper perspective of the past have been hurt when we may have been treated wrongly Jesus would you show us where you were in the midst of that would you show us how close you were would you show us how you saw would you show us how it how it angered you God would we see where you were would you give us a proper perspective of our past God even even the hurt places or the the good places where you were there celebrating with us but also the places of hurt God would you show us I just pray right now that your holy spirit would come down and that you would give us a proper perspective of our past where there has been hurt where there has been damage done where there's been abuse holy spirit would you come in ministers of hearts would you come in open eyes to see where you were so God I pray for a fresh grace to be vulnerable with you to bring you these things to go back there even in our minds where it's painful but God that in the midst of that that you would show us where you were that you would show us how you felt about those situations that you would show us Lord where the man Jesus was that he was in the midst of that I just want to take a moment and listen listen for the holy spirit and let him show us let him show us where he was in those moments so Ben just continue to play singers feel free to sing let's take a moment and listen point us in this in this moment as he illuminates the past and as we as we let him take us back there to pray as he taught us to pray and to forgive our debtors as he has forgiven us so Lord we just we just let your holy light shine through us as you reveal the the roots of bitterness the offense that we have against brothers and sisters against those who've done us wrong against those who have mistreated us and God we come under your will and we pray as you taught us God and we forgive them we forgive them Lord we set them free and we bless them in the name of Jesus laying down our offense at your feet trusting you God knowing that you were kind to forgive us so we should forgive others but whether it be seven times or seventy seven times God we forgive and we lay down the offense we lay down the hurt at your feet where it belongs so God I just pray in this moment that you would release the holy grace to forgive those who have hurt us that you would help us where there's been years of bitterness and years of offense to take that step of trusting you knowing that what you said is good is good so God in Jesus name help us to forgive those who have hurt us back in time of worship so I just invite you to stand Lord but we we close this time of of intercession just asking Lord for for what we just saying that you would help us to forgive in Jesus name Jesus you are worthy righteous you are the king of kings and the Lord of lords and it's our heart Lord to praise you to praise you forever for all of your your good deeds all of your wonderful works we thank you that you are a holy and worthy God we're gonna take the last last 10 10 minutes or so and we're gonna shift into another time of intercession praying that the Lord would restore the corporate altar and the family altar I want to read out of 2nd Samuel 6 starting in verse 10 so David would not move the Ark of the Lord with him into the city of David but David took it aside into the house of Obed Edom the Getite the Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed Edom the Getite three months and the Lord blessed Obed Edom in all his household now I was told now I was told King David saying the Lord has blessed the house of Obed Edom and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God Lord it's in it's in your heart to restore the Tabernacle of David you promise it in Amos 9 but God first before the first Tabernacle of David was built your presence was hosted in the house of Obed Edom so God we we stand before you and we pray that you would raise up Obed Edoms fathers and mothers to be Obed Edom Lord to welcome your presence into their house and to lead their families in worshiping you and hosting the presence of God of making you the first priority God the before anything else that the presence of God would dwell in our homes they would dwell amongst our wives and our husbands Lord and and our children and that families here in Kalamazoo God would learn to prioritize the presence of God in their home that God is not something that they just go and and learn about on Sundays but that at the presence of God the manifest presence of God would be hosted in the homes of families all across Kalamazoo so God we pray in Jesus name that you would raise up Obed Edoms to host the presence of God raise up families who pray prioritize you first she would take the first place Lord increase hunger in the homes Lord raise up fathers who are hungry to see their children encounter the Lord mothers who are hungry for their children to encounter the presence of God prioritize you over everything else God the first place to be able to host you God that we would prioritize you first that sports and travel teams and extracurriculars would not take the first place though the times that have been spent together watching in tv watching movies which which aren't bad things God but that time spent in worship together as a family time spent praying together time spent reading the word would take priority over those other things God I ask specifically that you would raise up fathers God raise up fathers who resemble Obed Edom ones who have spiritual heads of the household say no the presence of God will dwell in my house my family my family will serve the Lord as for me in my house we will serve the Lord as for me in my house we will prioritize the presence of God who say as for me in my house we will be a family who worships together who prays together God where where the spirit of this age would try and make just apathetic fathers God would you make fathers who are intentional with hosting the presence of God and making sure that their families are spending time together praying spending time together worshiping God that that the time spent away on weekends on travel teams would would come down but that the time spent in worship would go up God that there would be no other thing that takes the first place in our households but you God we even we spend thousands of dollars on on massive TVs but yet we don't spend time worshiping we don't spend time praying we don't spend time reading and teaching our children how to talk to God Lord I pray in Jesus name that you would raise up fathers raise up fathers hungry for the presence of God at the first place over everything else Lord the only thing that matters would you have the first place in our lives would you have the first place in our homes would you have the first place in our families but that there would be nothing more important than you in our homes that daily time taken where family units spend time praying and worshiping and reading the Bible God that you would restore that there would be families who resemble the family of Obedetum who host the presence of God and that you would bless them God because they choose to put you first that you would release your blessing over them just thank you we thank you for this time thank you that you heard our prayers we thank you that you visited us Lord we get to worship you and it's in your almighty and we pray amen thank you for worshiping with us this morning we'll be back here at noon tonight no prayer meeting tonight at 6 30 but we hope to see you either at noon today or one of our weekend services or Monday morning here at 8 a.m thank you