As I greet you this morning, I think of something the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome: "I thank God for all of you." As I look about me here today, a swelling tide of gratitude rises within me, and I thank God for all of you.

You know the kind of world we live in; you know about the problems, the troubles, the conflicts and struggles; you know about the bad news we constantly read and hear, about the human tragedies that plague us in our society. We look upon all of this and we tremble almost.

Well, have you ever looked about you on Sunday morning? Really looked? With seeing eyes? Have you looked upon the faces of those who are with you in faith and fellowship? Who surround you in a community of caring? Who are with you, who will stand with you on your mountaintops and walk with you through your valleys?

It is an enormously enriching aspect of worship to reach out in grateful embrace of those who worship with you. Do it. Look around you. And from your heart say: I thank God for all of you.