What is our response to this? Our response is to give God glory and honor. If the God who created the universe, who causes the sun to shine, who made the mountains and the hills wants us and made us, then we should be thankful. With the Psalmist we should shout, “It is he who made us!!!!” We should honor him with these lives he gave us. We should lift his name up. We should make sure that people know what a great God he is. That is the proper response.

Our purpose for this church is singular: The Palermo Christian Church exists to glorify God.

But this raises a question? How can we glorify a God we don’t know? If I were to ask you this question: What is there about God that impresses you, what would your answer be? In order for us to honor God, we need to know Him. This is why Jesus said, “This is life eternal, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

How do we come to know God? We know God through creation. We know God through the Bible. We know God through Jesus Christ.

When we come to know God, we will worship Him. We will like what we see. We will be overwhelmed with who he is and what he has done for us. We will love Him for who he is and what he has done. We will worship him.
Worship has two aspects to it. First, worship is adoration. Second, worship is obedience that springs out of adoration.

This is why the purpose of the Palermo Christian Church is to glorify God through worship. We want God to know that we honor him. We honor him through song and praise. We honor him by listening to his Son. We honor him by following his commands and teachings.

So what are his commands and teachings? I want to connect two passages of scripture together in your minds this morning.

The first passage is in Matthew 22. (Mt 22:36 -39) 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

The second passage is in 1 John 3. (1Jo 3:21-23) 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

The first command in Matthew is to Love the Lord your God. The first command in First John is to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. You can’t love God if you don’t trust His Son. Rejection of Jesus is rejection of God. Acceptance of Jesus is acceptance of God.

The second command in Matthew is to love your neighbor. The second command in First John is to love other Christians. That is who the “one another” refers. John is making a plea for the Christians to love one another.

We are family. God is our Father, Jesus is our brother. We are family. We are part of the household of faith. We are to love one another. If the person next to you, in front of you, or beside you is a Christian, you are to love them. If a person is a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, if they are born again, we are called to love them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Don’t let anyone fool you. Doctrine is important. What the Bible teaches is important. But when a person is born again, our relationship with them changes. We are part of the same family. We are children of God. We will share eternity together.

Love is more than a good feeling. God has commanded us to build one another up in the faith. We call this edification. Our commitment to other believers should be very high. Why? Because if we worship God, if we love God, we will keep his commandments to love one another.

The purpose of the Palermo Christian Church is to glorify God through worship and edification. We exist to build one another up in the most holy faith. We want you and you want me to be all we can be for God. We are a mutual support group. We are not trying to build our own kingdom or to increase our own reputation. The greatest joy we have is when I see you and you see me walking strong with the Lord.

We cannot forget that the command to love our neighbor is greater than the command to love the Christian. We hold out great hope for people in this world.

In a time of war, we offer an inner peace that comes from knowing God and the promise of a day that the lamb will lie down with the lion. In a time of economic crisis, we offer a security that whatever we face is temporary, that God has better for us in the future. In a time of moral collapse, we have the hope of the day that Jesus will turn everything back over to the Father and there will be no more sin. God offers forgiveness, peace, joy, and blessing to our unsaved friends and neighbors.

Some people wonder if they should walk through our doors. They don’t belong to the church. They disagree with some of her teachings. They wonder if they would be welcome here. We answer, the door is open for all to come in. If people are willing to listen to the Bible as it is preached, are willing to observe how you interact with other people, if they want to be exposed to the Christ of Christianity, they are welcome.

The purpose of the Palermo Christian Church is to glorify God through worship, edification, and evangelism. Evangelism simply is the proclamation of Good news.
One aspect of this church that is vital is our willingness to reach out in our community to those who don’t know Christ. We do not exist for ourselves. God could have taken us to heaven if all he wanted was for us to know Jesus. But he wants us to share the good news.

This is why we are having the Journey to Bethlehem. We want people to be familiar with the Christ of Christmas. We want them to hear the gospel. That’s why we want you to invite others to come to church. We want them to hear about Jesus. This holiday season is a great time to invite others to come to church. Many of us would like to go back to one service. But if a family of four from our community cannot find a place to sit on Sunday morning, we have lost sight of our purpose to reach out.

This is why we advertise, have a website, have telephones, have this building. These are all tools to help people we love have a place and a way of finding Jesus.

How do we glorify God? We glorify God in our worship, in our edification and in our evangelism.

Three questions as we come to the end.
First, how well do you know God? What is there about God that you admire and respect?

Second, how committed are you to helping Christians? Are you willing to receive help from others?

Third, how concerned are you for those that you know do not believe in Jesus? Do you want them to hear the message? Do you want them to be saved?
If your desire is to glorify God, then worship him, help believers and talk to your friends about Christ.