Today, as on all Sundays, we gather in praise of a God we believe to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent He is always aware of all of us, all of the time.  He never slumbers nor sleeps.  We cannot adequately imagine such a being, and yet we are moved to bow before Him in awe and reverence.  Worship is a gift, a privilege, and also the ingestion of spiritual vitamins.  Therefore let us, with deep gratitude to Him who watches over Israel, worship God.

Sometimes it feels to us as though the earth has swallowed us up, or that we have sunk to the bottom of the sea.  In times such as that we cry out to God, hoping that He will hear us and respond to us.  When we worship, we are reminded once again that the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, and that in adversity God never forgets any of us.  Therefore, with joyful hearts and in recognition of the wondrous love of God, let us worship Him with gratitude and confidence.

“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.”  So wrote the American poet James Russell Lowell at the time of the Mexican War.  The decision of voters is made much more difficult 165 years later because we are bombarded by so many conflicting opinions on what is claimed to be television news coverage.  We need both the guidance of God and personal discipline as we struggle to determine what truly is happening around us.  Therefore, looking to God for wisdom, let us with confidence worship God.

The God who invites us into His presence in worship is the God who acknowledges us as we are, but who also compels us to become more than and better than we are currently, however and whoever we are.  But He does not make a great demand and then leave us on our own; He walks with us on our life’s journey.  We gather in praise of this God, who will never leave us or forsake us.  Therefore let us, with the confidence that He can and will improve us, worship the God of ever-new beginnings!

Our lives move from day to day and year to year, until most of us realize that we have lived perhaps much longer than we ever imagined we would live.  In the slow and fascinating process, we are reminded by countless signs along the way that God goes with us, guarding us, watching us, standing over us.  His grace and mercy never fail, and for that we are ever grateful.  Therefore let us, with the maturing confidence which only advancing age can grant us, worship God.

How do we come into the presence of God?  Most of us do so indirectly, not seeing or hearing God first-hand.  But some perceive God mystically, directly, “face-to-face,” as it were.  However we experience God, we are grateful to Him for His willingness to enter into our lives, and we realize how profoundly His presence changes us.  Therefore, let us with Christian confidence, worship the God who both creates us and skillfully encounters us by His grace.

We are a people who come and go, who appear and disappear, and never do we have exactly the same group of people on any two Sundays.  But God is always here among us, and it is to Him that we turn when we gather to worship and to praise His name.  We come far more at His unseen and unfelt bidding than through our own volition, but He receives us whether or not we ever think about that, let alone affirm it.  Therefore let us, with the confidence He graciously provides to all of us, worship God.

Every Sunday when we worship together, we become one community of faith.  We have different backgrounds, different outlooks, different economic levels, and certainly different opinions.  Yet through worship, we become one.  This remarkable unity is a gift of God, and He graciously gives it to every congregation everywhere.  Therefore let us, with the unified confidence He provides for us, worship God!

We are citizens of a great nation, with widespread economic prowess and military might and the third largest population of all the nations of the world.  Because we are so strong, God expects us also to be wise, just, and honorable in our conduct as a nation-state.  He wants to pour out His blessings on all nations who seek to do His will in His world.  Therefore let us, with the assurance of citizens committed to turn human deeds into divine directives, worship God.

Each Sunday we come together to praise a God who is pure goodness, and whose goodness permeates every aspect of our lives.  When we contemplate all the blessings we have, we are astonished at how rich and full our lives are, despite whatever adversities we may face.  Therefore we sing the praises of Him who gives us this day, and all our days.  Let us, with confidence, worship God.

We gather in praise of a God whose vision of reality is so much greater than our own, whose love for all His many children is so much deeper than our own, whose comprehension of the world and universe is so much more vast than our own.  We naively imagine that our religious thinking can encompass Him, but He benignly overlooks our naivete’.  Nevertheless by His grace He prompts us to come to Him.  Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

This past week, the heavens were telling, as never before, the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimed His handiwork in a sight never before seen by millions of Americans. We gather to worship a God so immense and mysterious that the word “God” cannot possibly do His existence justice.  Greatly limited as we may be, our Creator bids us come to Him in worship, not for His sake, but for ours. Let us therefore, with the sun eclipsed, but our faith ever-expanding as a result of it, worship God.

Easter is the most important day for the rest of our lives, because it suggests that our lives shall not end when they end. On this day Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The conviction of his resurrection propelled Jesus’ followers into establishing a worldwide Church in his name. This morning, with nearly two billion other people around the world, we give praise to God in the words of the triumphant Easter hymn, “Christ the Lord is risen today!”

It is a city which has always drawn world leaders unto itself.  They come, and look, and speak, and leave, but the city remains: eternal, gritty, tense, always politicized, even riotous.  Today a man is coming through the temple gate into Jerusalem, and a crowd is following him, singing and waving palm branches and placing their cloaks on the narrow street in front of him.  Do they really know who he is, or what he intends to be happening here?  Come, let us worship the God who ultimately planned Palm Sunday, and find out.

The God who sent Jesus calls us together in worship.  God alone is worthy of worship, and Jesus made that crystal clear in all that he said and did.  Christians are people who believe that in Jesus we see God made visible in the form of one born most fully in the likeness of God.  Both God and Jesus are worthy of our worship, and to them we now turn in thanksgiving and praise.  Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

God is God, and God is good, and ultimately it is the goodness of God which brings us together each Sunday morning.  We gather to sing God’s praises, to listen for His word, and to respond to Him as we go out to do His work in His world for the rest of the week.  This is where we receive our spiritual fuel, where we are strengthened to become the people God wants us to be.  Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God!

For most of us for most of the time, life moves forward at a steady pace, and we are inclined to say that God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world.  But sometimes we find ourselves up against it, and we wonder how we shall get through the tight places of our existence.  In such moments we look to God.  By so doing, we find the strength to move ahead against difficult obstacles.  God gives us the abilities we need to withstand all the trials we face.  Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God!

At this time of the year for many people, emotions move to the fore, as we anticipate once again the coming of another Christmas.  Our thoughts turn to days long ago, to family members now far away, to the underlying excitement which comes from hearing Christmas carols and old, familiar scripture passages.  God injects Himself into the increased pace of our activities, as a baby is born in a land far removed in every way from our own.  And so, with Christmas confidence, let us worship God.

Today the Christian world begins a time of preparation.  Advent leads up to Christmas, when once again we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Different people prepare differently, for not all believe the same things about Jesus.  However any of us individually may perceive the birth of Jesus, together we let us look forward to the hope and joy represented by his coming into the world.  Therefore let us, with Advent confidence, worship God.