Such a glorious season to be able to think about the incarnation of our great and mighty God, coming as a little child. As I've been praying about the next few weeks, leading up to Christmas, leading up to the choir program, I've had one word that has been strong upon my heart, and it's the word adore. And as I've been meditating on that word and praying about it and studying and thinking, it was interesting to me. I texted Sister Donna about this. I thought, well, I probably should go and see what is the choir program and just be aware of that and where they're headed in a couple weeks. And I'll be bringing a short devotional before that. And I was thinking about what was on my heart, and I saw that the focus of their choir program is adoration, and even one of the songs is called Adore. And I was like, well, that's pretty cool. And the title of the thought I wanna share this morning, and Lord willing, continue into next week, and then will just lead us into our worship as the choir sings in a couple weeks is adoration, adoration. adoring the transcendence and eminence of God. Now I know I'm dropping these five dollar words on you and I need to define those. That's part of my job description. It's not use words without explaining their meaning. So when we use the word adore, we mean to worship or honor as deity or as divine. This is coming right out of Merriam-Webster. to regard with loving admiration and devotion. The example of Merriam-Webster was like he adored his wife. Smart guy, writing that in there is a good example. Or to be very fond of, and the example was adores pecan pie. Adoration. Next word is transcendent. which means exceeding usual limits, surpassing, also extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience, being beyond comprehension, transcending or going beyond the universe or material existence. And it said contrast that with the word imminent. in the dictionary. I thought well that's good because that's where I'm heading. And this third word is imminent. Which means indwelling or inherent or being within the limits of possible experience or knowledge. Something that comes near and can be known. These three words, adoration, The first one describes what should be the attitude of our heart towards our God. The second two words describe a bit of the nature of our God. He is transcendent, which means He goes beyond everything that we can think or ask or understand. But yet, He is imminent. He can be known. We can have Him with us. We can be close to Him. And I want to take as a text that kind of covers this whole theme, Isaiah 57. We're not going to stay here, but this passage, I believe, pulls these two ideas of transcendence and eminence together in the same verse. It says in Isaiah 57, 15, for thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, it's transcendence, with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. And that is eminence. Let's pray together. Our great God and King, Lord, we are grateful for who you are. We are grateful, Lord, for your revelation of yourself all around us, and as you've made it so clear in your word. We are grateful for your revelation, Lord, in the face of your Son, Jesus Christ, who you gave to the world. though knowing the cost, and yet loving him so much, being so pleased with him, Lord, allowing him to come and to be our sacrifice. We who are wretched, fallen, wandering people, but Lord, yet you came near. You came near, and Lord, I pray For your help, I pray for this congregation today, Lord, that you would help us to worship you a little bit better. Lord, that is always gonna be our cry until one day we can see you face-to-face, Lord, and our worship will be better than it's ever been, but Lord, here in this world, Lord, help us to come and adore you. Lord, we sing this song, but Lord, it really needs to be the posture of our heart, and I pray for the help of your great spirit, Lord, to meet with us today in such a way that you may give life, to breathe life into the words of truth, that it may fill our hearts, to fill our sails, Lord. Lord, to come and to adore you in an even greater way. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this day. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your kindness and grace, Lord, that you shower on us. Thank you for the hope that's before us. Thank you for the foundation that's underneath us. Lord, just thank you for this moment's breath. Thank you for all the lives of the people around us, Lord, who have made such an impact on us, God, who have helped us and encouraged us, who told us about you at the beginning, who prayed for us, Lord, until we came to know you, and support us, Lord, as we try to walk this path to follow you. Thank you, Lord, for all the ways you show your face. We pray in the name of your Holy Son, Jesus, with whom you are well pleased, amen. I love this passage as I was studying it, Something struck me and I'm just gonna just talk about this for a moment. Because I think it illustrates the point. We think about the transcendence of God going beyond our imagination. You think about where somebody lives, if I were to give you my address, it's a small town, most of you already know where I live. But if I were to give you my address, you would think of a spatial place, a geography, right? You would think of a location, right? You know the roads, you know the area. When you think about where somebody lives, you think about it in those kinds of terms. Well, when the Lord speaks to us about where He dwells, He blows our mind right out of the gate. Here in Isaiah it says, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. That's not just talking about place, the three dimensions, spatial dimensions. That's talking about what has been called the fourth dimension, time. And the first thing it tells us out of the gate about God is He dwells in all time. I mean, He just completely blows past some location to saying He is at all times. How do I think about that? Again, that's going beyond the way that I even think about where somebody lives. And then it gives us another part of His address. It says, He dwells in the high and the holy place. And so He is above us completely in all ways. That is where this transcendent God dwells. He dwells in a place that's even beyond our imagination. Which makes sense, right? But yet with that transcendence, He says, and I also am with, I'm also dwelling with the humble one. who's broken. I'm right there with the one who is broken. The one who is contrite in spirit to revive them. If you've been saved by the grace of God, you know what it means to have God dwelling with you. You know what it means to have God present in a very real and powerful way. And He says, I live right there with the humble and broken one just as much as I inhabit eternity. Transcendence of God and yet the eminence of God. I want to take you guys through my thought process, my thought journey to what's on our heart today. We started off this year in Malachi and the great theme we saw there is God desires a people who would make his name great. across geography and across generations. That's what His desire has been. That is what has put in motion all the wheels of human history, all the things that Jesus accomplished on the cross, what the purpose of the church is. That is God's desire is for a people. that would make His name great. But for us to make His name great, we must think His name is great. Our right response to God is adoration. He wants us not just to gather and sing the songs and endure through a message and say the prayer and do the amen at the end and we all go off on our lives like that was just the thing to do. He wants our hearts, right? He wants to be worshipped in what? Spirit and in truth. He wants it to be real in us, not fake. Because He can see through fake. He already knows what you think and feel. He wants it to be real. But for that to be real, God has to do a work in us. And we participate, but God has to do a work in us for that to be real. And adoration. is born in the mind. And you say, well, isn't this a heart thing? Yes, but it starts with the mind. Nobody gets saved unless they first what? Hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. You hear the message. And as the message comes in and you start to understand and comprehend what God is saying, all of a sudden what's in your head can become lodged down in your heart. And you know the difference because there's a huge difference in just having it in your head and then having it in your heart. But it doesn't get to the heart unless it starts in the head. And the way it starts in the head is from you hearing, seeing, perceiving some truth. that God could take and they'd go from your head into your heart. My mom told me the story about my grandmother Lizzie. She, my mom's mom, she was not excited about me being born. I would be her first grandchild. I don't know what the issue was. I don't know whether it was the idea of her becoming a grandmother that she didn't like, but mom shared with me that my grandmother was very apprehensive about me until she met me. And then I'll tell you, nobody probably loved me more than my grandma. And she would remind me of it every chance she got. And she would tell me over and over, nobody will ever love you more than your grandparents and your parents. But my mom said she didn't feel that way until she saw me. Now, I don't know that it was about me, really. But it was really about she had to see it. And all of a sudden, when she saw me and she realized this was her grandchild, then it just went down into the heart, right? But there had to be that moment of it coming into her mind and realizing what it meant before it hit her heart. And so adoration is born in the mind and then it can fill the heart. So we've got to think a little bit about some things. And when it comes to Christmas, what we celebrate this time of year is the imminence of the Lord, about God coming near. He came into human flesh. We just heard some wonderful songs about that. He came near. But my friends, the miracle of the birth of Christ, the miracle of the incarnation of Christ, that miracle is made clear by understanding first and foremost that this God is transcendent. That He is beyond all things. And when we understand His transcendence, and then we understand that He came near and was imminent, it makes it so much more special, doesn't it? It's like you can watch the Olympics, and you can just watch the event, and you can see what happens, and oh, that's neat. But when you learn the backstory, when you listen before the event, and they tell you about all the things that this person or that person overcame, all the ups and downs, and you hear the story, and then you see them cross the finish line, you know, and they won, and they're shedding tears. You might even find yourself shedding a tear, too, because you understand a bit more about why that was such a big deal. Well, that's our heart. Our heart is for us to be able to worship and adore this wonderful, amazing thing of Christ being born into the world. But for us to really get how special that is, we've got to get a better understanding of how great and transcendent that our God is. So that is our thought journey, if you will, as I've been praying over this. And if you would turn with me to Psalm 97, I want to take our primary reading this morning from Psalm 97. And I want us to read and saturate ourselves in what it means for our God to be transcendent, for Him to be beyond. And I'm not gonna read all of this at first, we're gonna work our way through it, but let me tell you this. This Psalm, if I were to read verse one in Psalm 97, It says, the Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. That's verse one, and we get down to verse 12, and it's rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous. Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. This Psalm has as its bookends, praise. It has, as the first and the last verse of this psalm, praise and adoration, worship, real worship. These bookends of adoration, between them is some meat and some truth about why we should worship. He doesn't just want your voice, folks. He wants your heart. He wants your heart. And these verses are filled with reasons for us to have a mature hope and a mature, real, and solid worship of our God. I'll just tell you, there are lots of people today singing the songs of Zion that don't know the God of Zion. Right? There are many people singing the songs today and singing out with their voices, right? And maybe even emotionally about it. but they don't know the God of Zion. And I'll tell you, there are even people that know the God of Zion, that aren't really worshiping the God of Zion, but are sometimes worshiping a God of our imagination. what we think that he's like, or what we think that he's going to do, and we don't always have the right understanding of who he really is. But the Word of God will take us to a place, if we'll let it, to not only know the God of Zion, the true and the living God, but to grow in our understanding of Him, so that our worship of this great God is real, and not just real, but that it endures. I mean, to go see Sister Virgie and see her there on her deathbed and she is, you know, she's coughing and she's got pain, but yet at the same time she's got an unwavering hope in the Lord and she's worshiping Him. That's the kind of adoration I want in my life. Not the one that's always dependent upon my circumstances. Because it's not mature. That's not mature. So let's read about this transcendent God here in Psalm 97. Let's start with verse one. It says, the Lord reigneth, which means he rules. He's in charge. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. His reign is his rule. It simply is telling us, look, God is sovereign. He is king over everything. Everything is under His hand. Every moment is under His hand. And the entire planet is called to rejoice for this fact. Nothing is exempt. Now, I know that sometimes folks want to believe in a God that's not really in control. Because that's how they work out in their minds when difficulty, distress, hard times come. Well, it wasn't God that allowed that. That happened and now God can come along and do something about it maybe. But that's not the real God. The real God is sovereign over all things. At the same time, our God is not evil, nor does He do evil. But a sovereign God, this sovereign God will allow at times difficulties and hard things to happen and to occur, but He still reigns. He still rules. He is still in control. And while that may cause some unease in certain hearts, my friends, because of more of what we're gonna talk about, I take more joy and peace in a God that is truly in control, as this text says, than a God who is running around surprised at everything going on just as much as you and I are and trying to stick his finger in all the leaks. Because he's not surprised. because he's not surprised, and he reigns, and he rules. And as we learn more about this God, as it's gonna get unrolled for us by David, we're gonna find why we can rejoice in his reign at every moment of life, over every situation of life, not just the big things. There's not a maverick molecule in this universe, but everything is under his hand, and we should rejoice. He has a transcendent reign and He has transcendent glory. This first part of verse two says, clouds and darkness are round about Him. Now David is the one who has been referred to as the author of this psalm. And it's interesting because this psalm was quoted, I believe, by Solomon as he was praying to dedicate the temple, when the temple was built. And this imagery is meant to remind us of Mount Sinai. Now I'll tell you, when I was studying this, I kind of had a bit of a brain teaser in my head because I read this passage and it says, He is clothed in clouds and darkness, but also the scriptures tells us that He dwells in unapproachable light. It does. The Bible tells us that God dwells in unapproachable light. And here in this passage it tells us that clouds and darkness are round about Him. And that reminds us of Mount Sinai when God's presence came down to Moses and the Israelites when they were there in the wilderness. And God's presence came down and the smoke and there was fire and there was lightning and thunder and all sorts of things shaking. But the question in my mind is how is it that God dwells in unapproachable light? and yet it says clouds and darkness surround him. It's in 1 Timothy 6 that we read that He is the One who only has immortality, dwelling in light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. We also know in Scripture, we go to Revelation 21, we read that this Lord of ours, Jesus, will someday with His very presence be the light. of that holy city of New Jerusalem, right? He will be the light of that city. There will be no need for sun or moon, no need for lamps, no need for stars, because the very presence of Christ will illuminate that entire city and beyond. In fact, it speaks amazing things about eternity and what we're gonna be like, that we're gonna be able to be in His presence. when he's at full blast, full blast in all of his glory. Well, what are the clouds and the darkness that surround him? What is that about? Well, just like we saw at Mount Sinai, the reason they had the clouds and the reason for the darkness was to cover the brightness of his glory. to be a shield, if you were, if you were explained this way, a shield to us to have the darkness surrounding because of the brightness of who He is. It was to protect us. In fact, we see this in Exodus because the people stood off, afar off, it says in Exodus 20, 21, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. So Moses, when he went up on the Mount Sinai, he had to go through that thick darkness to climb up to the top of the mountain to be in the very presence of God. Now Moses didn't get to see Him, not face to face. He had that little glimpse of God's hinder parts, right, where the Lord put Him in the cleft of the rock and put His hand there and let His glory pass by and Moses could catch the backside. But what was it about Moses when he came down from the mountain? What happened? His face. like light. In fact, the people couldn't even stand to be around Moses because Moses' face had been affected by the glory of the presence of God as he went through the shielding of the darkness to go there on the inside to be there where the Lord's presence just was. It completely affected Moses. And my friend, we'll talk next week about the imminence of the Lord through Jesus Christ and we're going to see the same thing come up again. Even now, even right now, think about this. God's radiance is covered. Or else his glory could obliterate the whole universe. He is shielding Himself from His transcendent glory. He is shielding us and protecting us. And that's what the psalmist is writing about here, is that we need clouds and darkness to cover the glory of our God, because we can't stand to be in His presence, this great and glorious God. He is transcendent, it goes on, in His righteousness. Psalm 97, two, it says, righteousness and judgment. are the habitation of His throne. It means the foundation. It means His rule and His reign is built upon doing what is right and just, perfection. Everything that our God does is right. Again, this is a hearkening back to Sinai where the Lord gave, from His very presence, gave the Ten Commandments. He revealed to us what is right. And the scriptures even rejoice what people are so blessed to have such a holy law as God's people. And again, I could say today, what people are so blessed as us to have God's revelation of his truth, that he's given us his word and he's given us his spirit and he would open it up to us if we would but seek and ask and knock. He will open up to us the treasures of eternity and righteousness. The Apostle Paul in Romans 11, as he's explained how the Lord used Israel for a season and all that he accomplished through them to bring in the Messiah, to bring in Christ, and to take the gospel to the Gentiles, to the whole world, and how the Lord was keeping all of his promises. As he went and explained that, those great and meaty Heady chapters in Romans chapter 10 and chapter 11, going back to chapter 8, 9, 10, 11, these great and powerful truths. He finishes this in Romans 11 by saying this. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. The Apostle Paul, as he has been inspired by God's Spirit to write this down, he said, the greatest minds could never have thought of this. People would never have figured out what he was up to. There were so many stories, so many things being woven all together as God was preparing the world for the Messiah. He was working through the people of Israel. He was working through the lineage of David. All the different things in human history, bringing it all together that in those days, Right? In those days, the time of Caesar Augustus, there was a census that went out upon the land and all of these things came together to check every single prophecy that he had made. And to do this, not just to fulfill the prophecy, but to produce a gospel that would save the world. Oh, the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Paul was a smart guy, and he said, we could never figure this out. He was doing so many things. There are so many situations where it seemed like hope was lost, but God But God worked in the midst of tragedy after tragedy, after difficulty after difficulty, times of greatness, times of poverty, times of abundance, times of famine. God worked throughout all of this time so that in the fullness of time He might bring forth His Son, born of a virgin. Behold the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of our God. I find peace in the transcendent wisdom of God. I find peace in a God who is beyond my understanding. I find peace in a God that's bigger than I can think of or imagine in my mind, because my mind is very small. And I think of very small things, relatively speaking. But we've got a God who is so far above our pay grade, folks. I don't understand all that he's doing. I don't see, but I tell you, I've seen what he's done. And I've read the stories and I've seen the way he's worked through countless situations and difficulties to produce the greatest gift this world has ever known in the face of Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, I don't understand all of what's going on today. I don't understand all of my life. I don't understand all of your life. I see tragedies as a pastor. You know, I have to. We were talking about last night, somebody about watching a sad movie and I said, I don't need a sad movie. I don't need to watch a movie and cry. I see enough things that make me want to cry on a daily basis. Not to down good sad movies. That's just not what I'm drawn to. But the truth is, I don't have to understand all of what God's doing. Because He's not changed. He's not changed. We're gonna have to walk by faith, just like those saints of old. Can't we look back and see how brilliant and intelligent our God was? But the faithful people in those days, they were faithful, but they were ignorant, but they were faithful, right? They were being faithful to God. They didn't know what God was doing, but they were still faithful. That's why we call them faithful. God's faithful people today must be faithful. Though we are ignorant, yet we remain faithful. What? Not in our ability to figure this all out, but in a God who knows what He's doing, who has demonstrated it. transcendent righteousness. He has transcendent judgment. It says here in verses 3-5, a fire goes before Him. It burns up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlighten the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Again, this is pictures of Mount Sinai. It's talking about the justice of God and God dealing with His enemies in a final, righteous way. Now, I know that may seem harsh. It may seem harsh to talk about judgment. It may seem harsh to talk about a place called hell that God has created, not for us, but for the devil and his angels. But He sends people there if they have not been saved. It seems harsh to us, but I tell you what, our God's justice is perfect. One of the things we've been studying about in Sunday school is the flood. And if you study the flood by itself, you might think that God is just really, really, really harsh. But if you were to go back to the beginning of the story and see the fall in the Garden of Eden, and then you see Cain kill Abel, and then you see all the other things that were going on, and then one of Cain's descendants, whose name was Lamech, not the Lamech who was the father of Noah, a different Lamech, he was marrying multiple wives, he murdered a young man, and he said, just like God gave Cain a pass and didn't have him killed, nobody better touch me. for what I've done. You see the wickedness going greater and greater upon the earth. But we also understand from scriptures that the Lord had sent, even during that time, preachers of righteousness like Enoch, who was the seventh from Adam, who gave prophecy about God bringing judgment if people didn't repent. Noah, a preacher of righteousness, who in all the years he was building the ark was warning people. God was being patient. He was telling them. He was creating an ark of safety, a place where people could go, but people were not turning. They were not repenting. They were getting worse and worse. And so when God finally moved, he moved in a very definitive way, but it was absolutely just. God had been very gracious. God had been very patient. But sometimes people mistake God's patience with apathy. And the Bible tells us it'll be very much the same in the last days. People will be mockers, saying, where is the promise of His coming? But a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day with the Lord. And He will not renege on one of His promises. And when justice falls, It will be righteous, meaning it will be perfectly right, and it will be complete. And all who fall under his wrath will be without excuse. When the facts are laid open, and the hearts are laid bare, and the books of God's righteous standard are open, and all of this compared, there will be not a place where God could be found to be unjust, unright, unrighteous. He has transcendent justice, and He has a transcendent presence. The Bible goes on here and says in Psalm 97, 6, and 7, the heavens declare His righteousness. All the people see His glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all ye gods. What this is telling us is that everywhere, every place, there is evidence that He exists. There's evidence all over the place that He's real. That He's who He said He is. He's powerful. He's intelligent. That He has compassion. This evidence adorns the night sky. It adorns the sunrise and the sunset. Every tree, every flower, Every time a deer runs across the back of your yard, it's the magnificence of the squirrel runs up the tree. You see the brilliance of his design. Every drop of rain and snowflake, if you were to zoom in on it, every breath of air that we get to experience in our lungs, to breathe and expire the air and all that's happening inside of us, the amazing chemistry that God designed, looking into the eyes of another person and being able to share the gift of friendship and to be able to communicate with one another. I mean, all of these things, another image bearer of God that we get to interact with. I mean, all of these things scream of the presence of a powerful and wise and compassionate God. We can see His Majesty through the telescope. We can see His Majesty through the wide-angle lens. We can see His Majesty through the microscope. Everywhere, everywhere speaks of this great God. And this passage is just telling us, look, if you don't see it, it's not His fault. It's sin. It's our own blindness that keeps us from seeing what should just have us on our knees, at least in our hearts, constantly in adoration of this transcendent God and his presence everywhere at all times. And those who would chase after lesser gods in the face of this great transcendent present God, Foolish. They're called in this passage, confounded. Confounded, which means put to shame. To one day stand before this God, and again, all the evidence so clear, and yet you didn't believe. Yet you didn't trust me. When all of these things were there, you will be put to shame. And in fact, that shame is yours today. If you don't see and you don't believe and you don't trust, because all should bow down, all should worship His inescapable presence. In fact, this last part of the Psalm turns to God's people. And it talks about transcendence and worship in verses eight and nine. Zion, God's people, that's who Zion is. Zion is God's people. God's people heard and were glad. And the daughters of Judah rejoiced. This adoration, because of thy judgments, O Lord, for thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods. Again, what a blessing. As we think about the greatness of our God, what a blessing to know him. I mean, we are weak and wandering people. I still rejoice when I think back about what God did to save me as an 18-year-old boy. Oh, just like his patience, his patience and the way he worked in my life and even though I didn't even understand what was going on, how he was drawing me to him, is perfect, so perfect, so kind. And I'm so unworthy of that in all the ways that he's worked in my life and that he's doing things right now, that if he showed me what he was doing, I couldn't even stand it. but he's doing good things. Folks, we should be a people who still rejoice over his majesty and what a blessing for us to worship such a great God. We are so blessed, so blessed. There is a direct connection between our esteem of God and our worship. What you think about God is directly tied to how you worship him. What do you think about your God? What do you really think about him? How big is he? Is he beyond your imaginations? How do you respond to that? And not just our worship, but our holiness. It goes on and says in verse 10, ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. All of this God, our adoration should motivate us to holiness, to shun what He hates because it's the opposite of Him. That's what evil is. That which is contrary to His character. And it tells us, look, He's worked in our lives. God has poured His transcendence into us. You think about all the resources that God has pulled from Himself to be able to work in your life. God held nothing back of His person, of His character, of His power, of His wisdom, of any of those things in order to save your soul and to work in such a sovereign way in your life. He has used all the resources at His disposal to do great and mighty things in your life. How then shall we live? How then shall we live before such a God who has done so much for us? Should that not move us to want to trust Him and to turn from evil and to do what would be pleasing in His sight? And then finally, transcendence and hope, verses 11 and 12. It says, light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. When it says light is sown, that means light dawns. There is goodness and glory ahead. There is a direct connection between what you think about God and your hope. Isn't there? There's a direct connection between what you think about your God and the hope that you carry every day in every circumstance. When you hit a bump in the road at work, a challenge, when you're doing this or that or the other, to remember that you've got a God who reigns over all. He is everywhere. He is all powerful. He's all wise. His love knows no bounds. And this sovereign God has allowed this thing to happen, and He will work in it. Folks, that affects my hope. That affects my attitude. Every day, in every situation, what you think about your God, it matters so much, this great and transcendent God. And we'll close our message there, but as we do, I want to give an invitation this morning. I want us to sing, I want us to worship, but I also want to invite anybody, God's dealing in your heart today, and you know that this great and transcendent God, is working right here. And He's working on you. And He's trying to draw you to a place of surrender and to seek Him. And my question to you is, would you humble yourself? Would you humble yourself, not before me and not before these people because we frankly don't matter at all, but before a holy God who is working in you to draw you to Himself because He is above and beyond all things, but yet He's also near He's imminent in the heart of any who would humble themselves and seek His face. As we stand and sing.