 Welcome. That's our blessing now and privilege to enter into the worship of Almighty God. Amen. Amen. Well, as you're being seated, take a moment, turn in your Bibles with me to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10, we'll begin at verse 12 there. And this is a time during our worship service for a call to worship where we, through the Bible, through the Word of God, orient our heart and mind to the worship of God. We have to come in through the doors as it were and leave the cares of this world out on the street. Amen. Out in the parking lot, out in the car. And when we come into here, we want to have our minds, our hearts focused on the worship of God. And so that's the purpose of the call to worship. Now, as we work through the calls during our order of service, we'll do a call to worship, we'll do a call to repentance, and then a call to worship the Lord through our tithes and offerings, our giving. And each of those from a book in the Bible, this week, we find ourselves once again in the book of Deuteronomy. And through our calls each week, we'll work through the Bible, desiring that the Word of God should be central, should be the focus of our worship together. So this morning, we turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10, beginning in verse 12. Now, as we discussed last week in our call to worship, the book of Deuteronomy, in many ways, is a book of reminders. The title of the book, Deuteronomy, is from the Greek words Deuteronomy, meaning second and Namas, meaning law, referring to a second or a repetitive giving of the law. The book of Deuteronomy then calls the Israelites to look back, so to speak, as they move forward now to the promised land. Now, they were to go back, look back at God's covenant faithfulness to them as they wandered in the wilderness. They're to look back at all the good that God had done for them. They were to look back at their own covenant unfaithfulness as they attempted to serve him in the wilderness. And they were to look back at all the misery that that disobedience had caused. And as they look back in preparation to go forward, they were to remember as they prepared to enter the promised land, all that God had done for them. And remembering, the remembrance of these things was to shape how they loved the Lord. It was to shape and mold how they lived for him, how they worshiped the Lord in the present. Remembering these things then, how were the people of God to respond? Look at verse 12. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandment of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today for your good. Now notice with me in these opening verses, notice all the infinitives. Are you grammar folks? Infinitives. We are to fear. Repeated 19 times in the book. We are to walk. Repeated 10 times in the book. We are to love. Repeated 12 times in the book. We are to serve. Seven times. We are to keep or to observe or to obey. 35 times repeated in the book. And the fact that these things we are to do with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind repeated at least 22 times in the book of Deuteronomy. These are reminders, amen? In other words, our love, our devotion, our obedience, our faith, our worship is not to be half-hearted. Not to be half-hearted. Notice verse 13. That is for your good. It's for our good that our worship, our service, our devotion to him is not half-hearted, that we do all these things. What he has commanded is not for his own good as though he needed anything. Paul said in Acts 17, God's not worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything from us since he alone gives to all life, breath, and all things. No, these things are commanded, verse 13, for our good. The Lord would later say that so that it may go well with you. It's for our good. And that's repeated eight times in the book, that it may go well with you. Now, why should we do this? Why should we do this? One, because God owns it all, including you. Verse 14. Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. And secondly, because God graciously chose you. A rebellious, sinful, undeserving, stiff-necked people. Verse 15. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them. And he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day, even those who are of the faith of Abraham. Therefore, verse 16. The Lord says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Be stiff-necked no longer. In other words, Paul would later say, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Four, verse 17. The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome. That word awesome lost a lot of its meaning in our day. We use it all the time. Everything's awesome. Everything is awesome. It means fearsome. The word means fearsome. God is fearsome, awesome. He shows no partiality, nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow. He loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore, we then love the stranger, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. You and I were strangers alienated from God by wicked works, and he has brought us near to himself. Verse 20. Therefore, you shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. He is your praise. Can you say that this morning? He is our praise. He is our God, and he has done for us these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Verse 22. Your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude. At that time, that physical nation of Israel, simply a foreshadowing, simply a type, a shadow of that which you and I are today, the people of God, innumerable of every tribe, tongue, and nation. Peter says that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. John says a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. And that great deliverance of that great people has a purpose. That you may proclaim the praises of him, the one who is our praise, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Brothers and sisters, half-hearted worship will not do. Amen. Half-hearted worship is not worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, not worthy of our God. We should come into worship whole-hearted, whole-sold, all of our minds focused, energized, enthusiastic toward the worship of our God who has done great and wondrous things for our good. Amen. Let's pray together and let's worship the Lord. Father in heaven, we come to you now to extol your great name. You are our praise and our God and we worship you. Thank you Lord for the great salvation to which we have been delivered. You have rescued us from out of bondage in the iron furnace to our own sin. You have delivered us with a mighty hand out of bondage to sin. And now setting us free, you've made us slaves of our God, given us freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we praise you and worship you for that great deliverance, this great salvation. I pray, Lord, that we would not worship as though that were a common thing, that we would not live or pray or hear your word or act or obey as though that were a common thing. But Lord, knowing that we weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from the tradition of our fathers, but we were redeemed with incorruptible and precious thing, namely the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then may we now worship you with grateful hearts, worship you with love, worship you with adoration and devotion. Now as we sing praises to your name, as we heed your word to us, be with us now by your spirit. Help us to do just that for your glory, Lord. And we know that is for our good, by your grace and mercy to us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray all these things. Amen.