Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here and exciting to be part of the family and what God is doing in this congregation, through this congregation.

I feel like I'm preaching to the choir today.

You know what I mean by that?

I'm preaching on worship and it's like why would I preach to a congregation on worship

that worships the way you do?

Hands lifted and singing and all of your mouths are open and there's a smile on your

face and joy in your heart and here I come along and I'm wanting to preach on worship and it's like preaching to the

choir. But then again, you know, worship is not just a matter of outward expression, worship is a matter of the heart.

There's even one place where Jesus said you draw near to me with your lips,

with your mouth, but your heart is far away from me and therefore you worship in vain.

And it is like we can lift our hands and not be worshiping, we can sing and not be worshiping.

Only myself and the Lord knows whether I'm worshiping or not

if I'm lifting my, when I'm lifting my hands only he knows that and just because we come to a worship service doesn't mean that we're going to worship. It's good. We're going to hear the word of the Lord and we're going to be around the other brethren

and sisters and we're going to have a great time.

But it doesn't mean we're actually worshiping because worship is a matter of the heart.

And so one of the men in the Bible that I see that has been a great example to me

has been Abraham, Abraham and Sarah.

But Abraham, like a father of the faith,

you remember one of the things that said most about him is this,

that he believed, and it was what counted into him as what he believed and it was

counted unto him as righteousness a father of the faith and yet a father of the faith. And yet this father of the faith

we're going to see was a worshipper. I want to take you with me, follow with me a moment to Genesis chapter 18.

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