This morning, we will draw our consideration of worship that is pleasing unto the Lord to a conclusion. This does not mean that we are finished, in any measure, with what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth. All that we have discussed in terms of the overriding question of “Do I really know that I am meeting God, Face-to-face and Spirit-to spirit?” is to be in evidence from in our united worship. We will continually encourage each other to go on in the Lord in order to honor and to please Him as His Redeemed Church. 
Accordingly, we will look at a few remaining elements  involved in setting aside anything that distracts or hinders our time with the Lord and being of service unto Him and unto each other. In Rom 12:1+2, we are so encouraged by the Apostle Paul. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 
This is the heart with which we are to regard one another. We are here, together, seeking to worship Him more fully and perfectly. We are not criticizing one another. Rather, we are holding each other up and heartening one another in the goodness and the grace and the reality of the blessedness of being among the very members of the family of God in Jesus Christ. We present ourselves, in unison unto the Lord with our living and holy sacrifice of worship. Together, with one heart, we are here to glorify and to adore the Lord God Almighty. He called you and me out of darkness and into the marvelous light of His freely offered salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, Our Savior and Lord. 
Listen to the uplifting heart of the Apostle Paul as we read together 1 Cor 1:4-10. 1 Cor 1:4-10, I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
	… but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. This is what we are after, together, in Christ Jesus. We are to live those lives that will bring pleasure to Him for all that He has completely done by the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son. Therefore, it is as we are made complete in Him, as we are guided and maintained in our fellowship together with Him, that our hearts and minds become the expression of our love unto Him. 
	He will not only have our entire priority and commitment, but He will be the One Who establishes and manifests it unto Our Heavenly Father. John 4:23+24, "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 
	This is in place as our entire being is fully under the direction of the Holy Spirit in obedience to all that He puts into our hearts and minds in the course of our worship unto the Father. It is on this very basis that we prepare ourselves to worship Him even throughout the entire week preceding our Sunday gathering. True worship entails living each day in Jesus Christ. This is not something that is solely practiced at a set time each week. It is the course of our everyday walk with Him, every moment of our lives on this earth. Our gathering together manifests the united expression of who we are now in Him. 
	As we so clearly read in Heb 10:23-25, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. 
	We are created to be together in this familial relationship wherein we are brought before the Lord in our corporate worship. We were never intended to be separated from one another, but rather to be joined together in our every expression of the totality of who we are in Jesus Christ. Consider that we are described throughout the New Testament as one body with Jesus Christ as the Head. Our hearts find fulfillment and joy in our united manifestation of the goodness and the graciousness and the majesty of Our Heavenly Father. 
As our praise rises from within us and is joined together with the praise surrounding us, our heart becomes representative of every one of those saints of God who desire to honor and to adore Him above all else. We do stimulate one another and encourage one another and support each other in our greater efforts to reverence and venerate the Lord. 
We share together, as one body, the richness and the depth of His Word and His abiding grace and His majestic presence in our midst. We see Him face-to-face as we witness His work in the Body, our fellow saints. It is very true and very real that God surrounds us with Himself in the people with whom He joins us. This is absolutely part of the joy that we experience in His presence, the joy of our fellowship with one another in Him. 
I know that we have focused greatly on the reality that we are not here to receive, but there is the indisputable fact in place that we cannot but be blessed as we bless Him. Our hearts will receive the overwhelming and overflowing certainty that He is honored by the sacrifice of our praise in the company of those with whom we bring that worship unto Him. His joy will flow forth as the river of life and refreshment that will flood our whole essence with the knowledge that He is pleased and sanctified among us. 
Fully inclusive in this sacrificial worship is the fact of how we view all the things that God brings into our lives. With regard to our sustenance, is our reliance based on our efforts or on the reality that God is the One Who meets our every need? Our viewpoint of what we have and to whom it really belongs flavors the very format of our heart’s consideration of Who God is and what He has done. If we hold possessions and riches as things that show some measure of the value of who we are and how much we have accomplished, we will be unable to truly worship God. Our hearts will be so attached to the things of this age that we will be focused singularly on holding onto and multiplying it at the very cost of our relationship with God. 
Rather, consider the example witnessed by Christ and the disciples as they observed the giving of offerings and alms in the temple. Luke 21:1-4, And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." 
This poor widow truly blessed God in her giving because she showed that her complete reliance for each day’s sustenance was entirely set upon God. She did not count anything as belonging to herself, but it was all His. In her faith in Him to supply, her sacrifice of love and worship was wholeheartedly returning everything unto Him. Her priority in giving and receiving was so focused on the Lord that she could hold nothing as her own but it all came from and was returned to God. That is the heart of worship that gives expression to unreserved and unconditional and unwavering faith and trust and reliance upon God to meet every need. Nothing is withheld from Him and nothing is counted as our own personal gain. It is recognized as flowing forth from Him and to be returned to Him in the simplest of assurance and love and reverence. 
Please consider how completely different our praise would be in focus and in depth and in energy and in deliberation if we were of this same heart? No concern for any material needs or possessions! No thoughts of the financial troubles we were facing and our seeming lack of resources! No worries about the stack of bills on our desk and the problems with our budget and the cares of this age! 
What if we just came into this place to rejoice in His fullness and His grace and His mercy, bringing the totality of our hearts and minds of love unto Jehovah Jirah, Our Provider? What if we just used this time to return unto Him everything from within us that shows our complete and unreserved trust and faith in and heart of love and adoration unto Him? How fully would we then be pleasing Him in our complete sacrifice of worship and praise?  
This flows directly into our celebration of corporate communion. There is so very much involved as we remember the unfathomable cost to God at the cross of His Only Begotten Son. We have the very familiar scripture which details why we are to partake of these tokens. They represent the body and blood of the Perfect Lamb of God sacrificed for our sins and transgressions. He bore upon Himself the shame and the guilt and the righteous penalty of death for us. 
1 Cor 11:23-26, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 
	We have this opportunity, each week, to proclaim His death and resurrection as the only means of our coming into the presence of God to so worship and adore Him for all that He has done. The key aspect which we need to continually have before us is the fact that we do so as one body. Because of the completed and perfect work of the Son of God, we are made into His body, united in heart and mind and spirit to so honor and bless Him in this remembrance.
1 Cor 10:16+17, Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 
On this basis, we are to share together in the fullness of this communion. We do so in order to shower upon Our Lord and Savior, with singleness of heart and mind, utter appreciation and reverence for Him and the salvation that is ours because of His perfect sacrifice of love! 
	Our final passages regarding this topic, hopefully, will encourage and facilitate our increasing gratitude to present unto God ever more perfect offerings of reverence and devotion. Please open to Rom 12:1-18. 
As we read this together, allow the Holy Spirit to make known what is the heart of God in our being joined together through the death and resurrection of His Son. We are part and parcel of each other, not separate entities striving after similar goals. Our hearts and minds are one in spirit and in truth and thus should evidence the reality of this passage. 
Rom 12:1-18, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. … If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
	In terms of our coming into the greater reality of worship as a fellowship, we count on the Holy Spirit to open in us that which will serve to honor and to lift up a singleness of heart that fully presents to God the completeness of the work of Jesus Christ in His Church on earth. 1 Cor 12:4-12, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 
	I pray that we each will take to heart what it means to worship God. It is at a cost, as we have mentioned continually. It is not easy. It takes preparation and it takes commitment and it takes sacrifice to bless to the utmost the Lord God Almighty. Let us strive to do so with all fervor and obedience to that which will please and bless the One Whom we are meeting, Face-to-face and Spirit-to spirit. So be it!
	Eph 3:20+21, Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 68:32-35. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; Sing praises to the Lord, Selah. To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel, And His strength is in the skies. O God, Thou art awesome from Thy sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God! Amen.