In coming to church this morning, you are responding to an invitation, and I do not mean merely the invitation of the church, although the church does, of course, invite you. In coming to church, you are also coming to worship, and the service of this hour is merely the context in which you do this. The church may invite you to the service, and it does, but it is God who invites you to worship. It is he whom you worship; it is he to whom you come; it is he before whom you bow; it is he to whom you pray. And you do all of this because he invites you to do it: he has said, "Come unto me," and this morning you do this, you come to him. And he bids you welcome.

As you come to the Lord, in your heart you are saying:

Here I am, Lord; it is I again;
I present myself before you.
Consider me mercifully, I ask,
And look on me as tenderly as you can.
Touch me as gently as is proper,
And give me, not what I deserve,
But what your love wishes me to have.

And God meets you, and you will go away from here this morning knowing that in your heart you have been in touch with him.

Many invitations may come to you from many sources over many years, but no invitation that comes can ever have a loftier meaning for your life than the invitation that comes from God, the invitation which reads, "Come unto me," the invitation to which you make response in your heart just now.