What is worship?  Have you ever truly thought about that question?  It is helpful to know that the origin of the word refers to worth or more specifically the acknowledgement of worth.  The reason we worship God is because He is worthy.  The reason we should worship Him alone is because He alone is worthy.  Nothing else compares to Him.  We all have times in our lives when we find it difficult to worship God.  The answer to that struggle is not to look inwardly, but rather focus on God Himself and to see His infinite worth.

Do you ever struggle with knowing your place in the world?  Who are you?  What is your purpose?  These are fundamental questions that all of us have to wrestle with.  And your answers to these questions greatly affect the way you view life and the world.  But what is even more important than our answers to these questions is how God answers them.  When we understand correctly how God views us, that changes everything.

Why does the Bible keep telling us to “Praise the LORD!”?  What is the point of praise?  One of the reason why we hear this refrain so often in the Psalms is because it come from a God who is truly praiseworthy.  Another reason is because it comes from a God who wants our good and who knows that, unless we are directed to praise Him, we will inevitably seek people to praise us.  Praise the LORD, who delivers us from ourselves!

The Psalms are a great place to spend time learning more about ourselves and about our God.  Our “Summer Psalms” series will explore some of the different types of Psalms so that we can see many of the ways that God invites us to come and bring our complex thoughts and feelings before Him.  Today we will be reminded that we all crave a champion, a sort of superhero, to come and solve all of our problems.  The Bible calls that person a king, and God has declared, “I have set my King on Zion.”

The Psalms are a great place to spend time learning more about ourselves and about our God.  Our “Summer Psalms” series will explore some of the different types of Psalms so that we can see many of the ways that God invites us to come and bring our complex thoughts and feelings before Him.  Today we will be reminded that we all crave a champion, a sort of superhero, to come and solve all of our problems.  The Bible calls that person a king, and God has declared, “I have set my King on Zion.”

It's been said that the best sound in the whole world is hearing someone say your name.  What will it be like when we hear Jesus finally and audibly call our name?  What does it mean that He has our name "written on the palm of His hand" (Isaiah 49:16)?  Please welcome Tom Mirabella, a friend and missionary to Japan, as he reminds us of the blessing of God knowing our name, and us knowing His.

As Paul concluded his letter to the Romans (and as we conclude our series in Romans), he returns to the same themes he outlined at the beginning of his letter.  God’s purpose through the preaching of Jesus Christ is “to bring about the obedience of faith” from among all the nations (1:5; 16:26).  God’s purpose is to bring about your obedience of faith and my obedience of faith.  God’s purpose is make His Gospel your Gospel and my Gospel.  May He get glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!

The great thing about the Church is, as Paul demonstrates through all of his greetings in Romans 16, we are brought into a family of faith where people are for us.  The hard thing about the Church is, as Paul warns us in Romans 16, we are brought into enmity with the world, the flesh, and the devil.  God’s holy Church and the sinful world are not friends, and so we can’t be friends with both.  Our enemies are active.  Are you?

I call you that every week—“saints”.  Do you know why?  People have different ideas about what is a saint and who is a saint.  Are you really a saint?  When Paul addressed the church in Rome, he called them saints (16:15) and he wrote that they were “called to be saints” (1:1).  The Gospel declares us to be saints and it transforms us into saints.  We are called to be who we are in Christ.  And we can’t do this alone.

Maybe you’ve noticed that our culture has a bit of a debate raging about gender.  What does it mean to be male?  What does it mean to be female?  Are there any differences between the two?  If so, how do we respect those differences, especially in the Church, where the Gospel ensures our equal worth and dignity before our Creator and Redeemer?  Let’s turn to Paul’s greetings in Romans 16 to get some answers…