Extremists drive cars speed down city streets, killing and injuring innocent people in their mad plunge into infamy. In the face of such incidents, who cannot be anxious? The leader of the most powerful nation in the world continues to do and say strange and inexplicable things, and the presidency appears to totter. Who cannot be anxious? Life is filled with inequities and uncertainties, and who cannot be anxious? A soothing, encouraging voice commands us: “Do not be anxious.” Let us, despite all our human frailties, worship God.

Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. What does “love” mean? Are all forms of love the same? If they are not, what is the particular nature of the love we should exhibit toward those who vex us or hurt us or deliberately thwart us? Upon these questions we shall focus today in our life-journey of faith. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus said things that can change the world around us. They may not change the whole world, but they can change how we understand and react to the people who live in our personal world. If the whole world is to be transformed, it must begin in a series of small but significant steps. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us. Let us gather to worship the God of peace, who bids each of us to be peacemakers with our neighbors.

Most of the time in life we know what to do, and we do it. But sometimes we are uneasily uncertain, and we are genuinely perplexed about what we should do. When Paul wrote a letter to his friend Philemon, that was the situation in which he found himself. God is with us in all the situations of our lives, inspiring, commanding, nudging, and wooing us. In order to do what God wants, we need to listen for His quiet but persistent voice. Therefore let us now, with confidence, worship God.

In life we are occasionally, or perhaps frequently, faced with situations where we do not know what is the right thing to do. We might know what we want to do, but is it right? Today we shall continue to examine a situation like that which is explained in Paul’s letter to his friend Philemon. In our uncertainties, we can be certain of God’s presence with us as we seek to make correct decisions. We determine the decision, but God assists us in it by His presence with us. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

Worship is communication. We speak to God, God speaks to us, and we speak to one another. Worship is the communication of faith. God hears us and answers us, not always as we might like, but always as we have need. Today we remember people whose spirits have been diminished by the feeling that they are part of a diminishing number of faithful members of the body of Christ. We seek the power of God to inspire and uphold them in their feelings of concern or anguish. Therefore let us worship the God who alone is God.

Every now and then I feel a need to preach a sermon about the topic of prophecy. And every time I do that I feel it is necessary to state all over again what prophecy is, and what it is not. The words “prophet” and “prophecy” are two of the most commonly misinterpreted words in the English language. First, here is what prophecy is not, at least as it is properly understood biblically. Prophecy is NOT a matter of predicting the future. That cannot possibly be overstated. Prophecy is NOT a matter of predicting the future.

What does God want for us now, in our earthly life? What does God want for us in eternal life? Shall we have eternal life? If so, what will it be like? These are the questions which surround today’s worship, some of which will be directly addressed, while most will go unanswered. We gather in praise of the God who created us, who daily sustains us, and who cares for us much more than we are able to care for ourselves. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

In his most famous play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare said, “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!” Today we shall be thinking about humanity, about human beings, about you and me. Who are we, and how did we turn out as we are? As we do every Sunday, we gather to sing praise to God, but on this Sunday we particularly sing praise to God for His grace to us in creating us!

Holy Week is the most sacred season of the Christian year. Sometimes it seems as though we go through it too fast, and that important lessons are lost in the invariable rush. Today we return to the crucifixion, asking questions once again about what perhaps it does and does not mean. We do so in a quest for the deepest truths which we are capable of comprehending. Let us therefore worship the God whose spirit was crushed far more severely by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ than any of our human spirits.

On the first Good Friday morning, Jesus was on trial before the Roman governor. In his interrogation of Jesus, Pontius Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Sometimes it is very hard to discover the truth about certain factors or issues. Today we will be thinking about that quest in religious questions, but also in matters which increasingly confront us in what we have always thought of as “news” when “news” has taken on a very different meaning in recent months. Let us worship the God who is the essence of truth.

After a carefully prepared processional, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph. “Hosanna!” the crowd shouted. “Praise now! Hosanna in the highest!” As wise and insightful as Jesus was, he knew exactly what was coming, but he savored the Palm Sunday parade. He wanted all his followers who were there on that first Palm Sunday to remember how glorious it was. Then, when they looked back on it, they could record it in all its splendor. Let us worship the God who inspired Jesus to face what lay ahead of him, trusting in God’s ultimate purposes, whatever they might be.

An itinerant preacher slowly wends his way from north to south. He knows what likely awaits him in Jerusalem, but his disciples have no idea of the danger he faces. They are thinking about the growing influence of his life; he is thinking about the near-certainty of his death. One of his disciples shall forever be associated with a purported betrayal which purportedly led to the preacher’s crucifixion. Let us, with chastened spirits, worship the God who, along with us, also slowly goes to Calvary.

The communion of saints indirectly suggests that all people are ultimately God’s people, and that all, ultimately, are therefore saints. Saints come in an infinite variety of levels of righteousness, sanctity, and holiness. But because we are God’s, we are saints, and we have communion with everyone now alive and everyone who ever lived. God unites all of us by His spirit moving within us. We thank Him for the astonishing generosity of His nature, and now, together with all the saints, let us worship God.

We gather in worship today to give thanks to God for the lives of two famous and vastly influential men, one from the Bible and one from the pantheon of great American Presidents. Thinking about these two giants in the history of the human race, we are struck by how God blesses us from time to time through the extraordinary gifts and insights of individual human beings. Therefore, with gratitude for His continuing grace shown to us through the wisdom of unique and special people, let us worship God.

Do we believe God exists, or do we know He exists? Do we know the world is round, or do we merely believe it is round? Today we shall examine the difference between believing and knowing. In our certainties as well as our convictions, God goes with all of us through life, guiding, upholding, inspiring, loving, and reproving us. Let us together worship the God who leads us through life, enabling us to believe in Him until, at the last, we shall fully know Him as we believe we know one another.

Whatever else Christians are, we are Easter People, those who trust in the resurrection to eternal life. Today we shall think about the sole means by which our being raised to life eternal is made possible, the doorway we call Death. Ushering all of us through it, God grants us a new life where there is no illness or pain, no depletion or debilitation. Therefore, let us with the confidence exhibited by Christ’s Church from the first Easter onward, worship the God who leads us from life through death to life eternal.

A previous President leaves office, and a new one is sworn into office. Time marches on. But what do we, personally, do with the time we have? Is our time all the same, or do we encourage special moments, unique times, to come into our lives? Today we shall examine how the quality of our time in life differs greatly, if we allow God to grant us times of wonder and grace and transformation. In pursuit of such times, let us, with confidence in the hope of new beginnings, worship God.

Today is Martin Luther King’s birthday. In noting the date, we also note the difficult challenges he faced in attempting to create better relations among races and ethnic groups. We are confronted by demonic forces which seek to divide us and to destroy our resolve to live in harmony with one another and with the world God has given us. But God goes with us as we battle our demons, and He wills that we should conquer them. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.