God, that we would see you starting today during this pursuit of God,

like Daniel saw you.

So clear, so beautiful, that it was nothing for him to go into a den of lions.

It was nothing for him to disobey.

Ungodliness.

We pray, Lord God, that today the power of your Holy Spirit

would baptize us and galvanize us for the days that are

ahead, that there would be nothing left of us personally, like Abraham, who struggled

atop Mount Moriah as you told him to go there and to offer up his son Isaac, as he went through all of that,

that turning the inside out of his very person, the removal of all self, to come before our almighty God

and sanctified desperation.

Our country's in trouble, our communities are in trouble,

our cultures in trouble, our children are in trouble,

we're in trouble.

And God, I pray that you would hear our prayers today as we have dedicated this day, this church, to your desire when you said, my father's house

shall be called a house of prayer. May it never be said

what you did say after that, the very next words were, but you turned it into a den of thieves.

God, may we stop robbing you of worship, of devotion, and frankly, prayer. May we understand it better.

Because Lord, from this moment forward, may we live it. We pray in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, amen.

You can be seated, everybody.

Today is a different day.

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