Our consideration of worship has been on the basis of that which should honor and delight the Lord in the gathering together of His redeemed people. We have looked at various adjustments required in our habits and our thoughts regarding what it means to worship God. In that light, we want to deliberate upon some of the other aspects affecting a more intense adulation of God, including the attitudes which we bring before the Lord. 
	The first is initially recounted for us in Ps 57:7-11, if you would please follow along. Ps 57:7-11, My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory; Awake, harp and lyre, I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to Thee among the nations. For Thy lovingkindness is great to the heavens, And Thy truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Thy glory be above all the earth.
	As we ask ourselves the over abiding question, “Do I really know that I am meeting God, Face-to-face and Spirit-to-spirit?”, do we get excited? Is there an intense anticipation and enthusiasm that swells within our spirits and hearts and minds in the truth that we are coming together with fellow saints to be in the presence of God? Are we absolutely blessed and thrilled to be here in worship? That enthusiasm and pleasure and outward anticipation of the opportunity to meet with God should be in evidence in our attitudes, our demeanor, our songs, our greetings of one another, and our delight to be chosen by God to so honor Him.
	Is this in evidence in our gathering as the people of God? I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory; Awake, harp and lyre, I will awaken the dawn! Do our hearts rejoice in our privilege to proclaim the goodness of the Lord and to awaken the dawn with His praises and with our thanksgiving unto Him?
	Do we shout joyfully to the Lord as we are so encouraged in Ps 95:1-7a? O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. 
	Is this the attitude of our hearts in the delight that we bring in the joy of our salvation? If it is, then we should be prepared to bless the Lord with all our songs and our every scripture reading. This is something that many of us might not fully comprehend in terms of the time spent getting ready for coming together to praise and to delight the Lord. There might be a misunderstanding of what it means to be lead by the Holy Spirit in the manner of choosing our songs and our Bible readings and we want to be very clear on this aspect of how we so worship God.
	Being lead by the Spirit means that we come before Him and ask Him to guide us to those verses and passages which will bring honor and adoration to Him from the hearts of all those who listen and agree with the truth of His Word. This sometimes happens on the spur of the moment as He puts a scripture in our heart while we are sitting here in praise. However, more often, it is as we are daily reading His Word and spending time with Him in prayerful consideration of what He is telling us and making real in our lives. It is then that we are given those passages which we should be freely reading together with the Body. 
What this means is that we are not just receiving the Word as we sit here on Sunday morning, but that we have received it and contemplated it and rejoiced in it during the previous week and are anxious and excited to so share it together with thanksgiving before the full assembly. These readings will always serve to highlight the character and the nature of God and the delight that is found in Him at all times. We will be excited to so proclaim Who He is and What He has done, bursting at the seams at the opportunity to offer Him the sacrifice of our praise in the Word that He has opened in our hearts and lives.
The same is true of the songs that we are lead to sing. They can be songs that The Holy Spirit puts on our minds as we are sitting here. However, they are most often those songs that He has made very real in the course of the working power of Himself day in and day out. They will be the ones that bubble forth as He proves Himself as the Lord God Almighty each day of the week. The choice of songs will be those that glorify and magnify and draw attention to Him rather than to ourselves. Ps 92:1-5, It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; To declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, And Thy faithfulness by night, With the ten-stringed lute, and with the harp; With resounding music upon the lyre. For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done, I will sing for joy at the works of Thy hands. How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep. 
	Our time together should be characterized with those joy-filled songs of rejoicing and declaring the supremacy and the majesty and the glory and the honor and the adoration of God for the sake of proclaiming His worthiness to be so praised. Too often, we are bringing before Him those choruses that are directed at our need for Him or that focus on us and our condition rather than upon Him and His exceeding splendor and incomparable magnificence. 
We should seek to bless Him with the same heart as expressed in Ps 150. Ps 150, Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! 
Another aspect of our worship, which has been detailed over and over again in scripture, is that we come together with hearts that are filled with thanksgiving. We should be so thrilled to offer the Lord God Almighty every fabric of our gratitude in recognition of all that He has done, is doing, and will continue to do to completeness in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. There should be no hesitation to declare all that He has accomplished in our lives. We should be seeking the every opportunity to proclaim, with joyful heart and soul, the magnitude of the adoration He, Alone, deserves. Ps 35:18, I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation; I will praise Thee among a mighty throng. 
The Apostle Paul encourages us with this in Eph 5:1-10, if you would please turn to it. Eph 5:1-10, Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 
That is what we are after! We are trying to learn what is utterly pleasing to the Lord in the greater and ever truer measure of the worship that we bring unto Him!
The Apostle continues with this encouragement to be thankful in verses 17-21, So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Look at the presented picture of what should be in complete evidence within the gathering together of the saints of God. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks… trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord…filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father… 
In all sincerity, is this the manner of our gathering together in worship each time we are so honored to enjoy the fellowship of the saints in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we consider our time of worship to be so valuable as to manifest utmost thanksgiving and joy and complete refreshment in the Holy Spirit? Do we come together with a song in our heart, making melody before the throng of the assembly, rejoicing with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? 
Are we ever so overwhelmed with the joy and the opportunity that we find ourselves singing His praises even in our cars on the way to worship? How often are we so focused on worshiping the Lord together, that we find ourselves recounting the gloriousness of God to our spouses and our children as we drive to this place? Shouldn’t the delight and the elation of coming here to declare the beauty of the Lord be even so evidenced on our faces basking with delight in and gratitude unto The Lord?    
As well, our time together should be filled with the utmost efforts on our part to bring honor and glory to the Lord. We know that we will not be perfect in this tremendous endeavor, but we should have that desire to be more and more perfect in the celebration of Our Lord God Almighty! In our consideration of Him, let us ever recount the place that God has in our hearts and minds in joining together with the Psalmist, as in Ps 113. 
Psalms 113, Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high, Who humbles Himself to behold The things that are in heaven and in the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, And lifts the needy from the ash heap, To make them sit with princes, With the princes of His people. He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord! 
	This room should rebound with praise and adoration from every heart and being! We are here to rejoice and to celebrate and to honor and to adore the One Who is daily becoming more and more the very love of our life! 
Ps 148, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, Sea monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; Mountains and all hills; Fruit trees and all cedars; Beasts and all cattle; Creeping things and winged fowl; Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; Both young men and virgins; Old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven. And He has lifted up a horn for His people, Praise for all His godly ones; Even for the sons of Israel, a people near to Him. Praise the Lord! 
	We are not looking for formulas. We are not trying to institute gimmicks. We are not trying to force something that is not truly in our hearts and minds. Our prayer is that the Lord will so work on us, individually and corporately, that we will evidence the reality of the honor that we have to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. 
As we so come together, I pray that we will each seek after the Lord to teach us to set aside our worries and our frustrations, our fears and our anxieties, our burdens and our woes, and just lose ourselves in the fact that we are His Redeemed saints! We are brought here by the blood of Jesus Christ and at the direction of the Holy Spirit! We are here to declare His glory and His goodness and His majesty and His grace and His love! Everything else should be set aside for this time in His presence! 
Our preparation to worship begins right now, even at this very instant as we ask the Lord to teach us how to worship Him. This entire week should be filled with asking the Holy Spirit to prepare us to honor and to praise Him when we gather together next week. This time of worship should be the focal point of our week, filled with the excitement and the anticipation that we can come together to bless the Heart of the One Who has made us His very own people. He is our Creator! He is Our Savior! He is Our joy! He is Our Life! Oh let us hail His wonderful and mighty name and fill the whole of His creation with the expression of our love and thanksgiving for Who He is and What He has done! 
	Lord willing, we will bring this focus on worship to a conclusion next time. However, just because we will be going back to our reading of Exodus does not mean that we should neglect all that the Lord is showing us and working into our hearts. Our honor and praise of Him should be enhanced and more and more vibrant as we realize that we do come here to meet Him face-to-face and Spirit-to-spirit. So be it!
	My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory; Awake, harp and lyre, I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to Thee among the nations. For Thy lovingkindness is great to the heavens, And Thy truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Thy glory be above all the earth. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Neh 8:6. Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Amen.