We are deep in our consideration of the manner in which we are to honor God in our worship. We have spent some time with the history of how this fellowship was brought into being by the gathering together of like-minded believers. We have never advertised or sought out those who would join this fellowship. We have just tried to give God the praise and worship and adoration that He is due. He is the One Who has moved on the hearts of those who are in this room. We never wanted anything based on human personality or charisma or intellectual stimulation. Neither have we tried to create a gathering of people who want to increase their collective social interests or be entertained. 
We have been brought together through the working power of the Holy Spirit as He has so lead and directed. Knowing this, we will be together for as long as that pleases the Lord. Accordingly, we seek to worship Him in the greater expression of our heart after that which blesses and glorifies Him in every detail of how we bring before Him praise and adoration. 
Last time, we saw the reality that we are to worship Him because He is the Lord God Almighty. The Prophet Elijah so boldly and confidently demonstrated this before all the people as they were gathered together to witness the sacrificial demonstration of to Whom they owed their allegiance and their praise. After the fire fell from heaven and completely consumed Elijah’s sacrifice, including all the water with which it had been drenched, they recognized God’s awesomeness and authority, fell to the ground, and shouted together as one, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.” 
It is because the Lord, He is God that we are drawn together in this place, at this time to bring unto Him our sacrifices of song, and scripture, and prayer, and praises, and thanksgiving, and honor, and reverence. In line with this living reality is encompassed the whole reason that we are made partakers of the life that seeks to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. This is what we want to see this morning, the veracity and certainty that we have been brought together, not by our doing, but by the manifest sacrifice of the very heart of God for you and for me. 
In Isaiah 9:6+7, we have the very familiar prophecy of the birth of Jesus Christ. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. 
In very brief detail, let us consider the fact that this birth of the promised Christ is the very intricate explanation of why we worship God. In Christ, God has made us able to worship Him at the inestimable expenditure of everything! In sending forth the Only Begotten of the Father, the triune Godhead completely emptied the storehouses of Heaven’s treasury of Grace and Mercy and Love! The very heart of God was utterly poured out in The Son’s complete obedience to that which had always been the eternal plan and purpose of The Triune Godhead. There was absolutely nothing withheld from the citizenry of this earth, past, present or future. Jesus Christ emptied Himself of all His power and authority and essence in order to be born of a woman and live on this earth in the humblest of estate. 
As we read in Phil 2:5-8, Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 
The very fact that God, Himself, would give up the every nature of His Godhead and take upon Himself the lowly place of a man who would be put to death for nothing other than coming to earth to save His created beings is beyond all comprehension. Remember that Jesus, the very Son of God, while embodying the whole essence of perfect obedience to the love of the Father, was still, in every possible sense, limited by His humanity. He was no longer Omnipotent, nor Omnipresent, nor was He Omniscient. 
We see Him growing as a boy, studying and learning both the Word and the grace of God. Luke 2:40, And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. 
Finally, as a grown man, Christ told His disciples the very truth of how He learned to function in complete obedience to the Father. John 5:30, "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 
As well, we have the following recorded in John 8:28+29, Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him."
	With regard to His Omniscience, listen to what Jesus stated in Matt 24:35+36 concerning the day of His Second Coming. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 
	As a man, He had to travel the roads and waterways which kept Him from being Omnipresent, everywhere at all times, such as we have in the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Christ was not immediately at the death bed of Lazarus, nor was He with His disciples as they were mourning His crucifixion. At that moment, He was truly dead, laid in the tomb and completely removed from the presence of the eternal Father. 
	This was the greatest cost to the Godhead that ever was and will ever be. God, the Son, experienced what God could never know except in the form of humanity. It was complete and absolute death for the sake of you and me and all who will recognize His so undeserved and unreserved defilement at the hands of those He came to save. The heavens and the earth were utterly shaken at the loss of the One by Whom they had been created. Everything was completely sundered and void of being as God the Father so devastatingly laid upon His Only Begotten Son the holy judgment and the just death that we deserved. 
For God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the intricate detail and the extreme cost of our salvation is utterly beyond any scope of measurement or our ability to understand. Nothing will ever compare to the outlay and expenditure required from God to make salvation freely available to mankind! 
Yet, because of that unfathomable payment of the entire treasury of heaven for you and for me, the salvation offered in Jesus Christ is simple and is unreservedly available to all. John 3:16+17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 
	As we are so encouraged by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:16-19, we need to listen and to obey that which is offered to us by this tremendous act of God’s so gracious love. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased" — and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 
	The whole crux of why we worship God rests in the fact that Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby and grew and developed into the perfect man. He set aside His position as God in order to die on the cross for your sins and for my sins. In the power of His resurrection from the dead, we are given the greatest gift of eternal life if we will but appropriate that salvation as declared in Rom 10:8-13. 
Listen, hear, and obey this most simple, yet vital call put forth to us by the Living Word of God. Rom 10:8-13, But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"— that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." 
	To heed this call is to freely receive the greatest gift that ever was and ever will be given, eternal life in Jesus Christ. James 1:16-18, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures. 
	In such awe of what God has done for you and for me, and in seeking to give Him all praise and adoration and glory, let us join our hearts with that which is written for us in 1 Peter 1:3-9. 1 Peter 1:3-9, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 
	This is why we come together in worship! This is why we want to bring unto Our Lord and Savior the very best that we have. We want to delight His heart in the work that He has done through His so great Love and mercy and grace! The entire basis of why we worship Him is because He so loved us unto Himself. If we truly took this to heart, there would be some major changes in the way in which we approach our time of worship before Him.
	First of all, we would not come to church with the attitudes that many of us carry in our hearts and minds, and I fully include myself in this admonition. At the very forefront is that which we read in Ps 5:7, But as for me, by Thine abundant lovingkindness I will enter Thy house, At Thy holy temple I will bow in reverence for Thee. Please let this sink into our innermost beings with the full deliberation that it deserves. But as for me, by Thine abundant lovingkindness I will enter Thy house, At Thy holy temple I will bow in reverence for Thee. 
	This entire week, let each one of us ask the Lord if this is a true statement of how you and I come together on Sunday morning. Because of His abundant lovingkindness, keeping Him and His so great sacrifice which made salvation available to you and me, do we come before Him in the most serious truth of reverence? Are we gathered together to honor Him or are we here to get something for ourselves? 
Do we truly enter this room with a heart that has been rent before Him in prayer and longing and searching out all that in us which does not reverence and honor Him? Do we really and truly know that we are coming into the direct presence of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and earth? He is the I Am, and are we prepared to honor Him with our hearts cleansed from the every measurement of how we stack up against those with whom we come together? Is this time before Him the absolutely greatest and most monumentally anticipated hour of our lives to date? It should be!
	At the supreme cost of everything, God has given us the freedom to enter into His direct presence through the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son! We have been taught this and yet you and I take our salvation so for granted that we often come together in sloppiness and sleepiness and distractedness. We may find ourselves here, not in the utmost joy to be in God’s presence, but as an obligation to our parents, to our spouses, to our traditions, or to some sense of duty as Christians. 
Forgive me, but I will make this very personal. I do not prepare my heart, my mind, or my soul to reverence the Lord as I should and as He deserves! To truly reverence God requires that the every fabric of who I am and what I do and how I think and how I conduct myself is utterly that which He deserves because of Who He is and What he has done! Anything less than absolute and complete surrender to Him in my attitudes, in my thoughts, in my time, in my behavior, in my plans, and in my priorities is an affront to My Lord, My Savior, My God! Pray about this and beseech the Holy Spirit to search out the innermost recesses of your heart as I am seeking for Him to do in my heart! So be it!
	But as for me, by Thine abundant lovingkindness I will enter Thy house, At Thy holy temple I will bow in reverence for Thee. Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is Jude 24+25. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.