Go Get The Ark - Psalm 24

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. To learn more about our church, please visit Calvary.com.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And for additional resources from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge, please visit NateHoldridge.com.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Teaching today is our worship pastor, Riley Monzo.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, good morning everybody.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Riley. If I haven't met you yet, it's great to see you here today.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Emma the kangaroo. This is one of my daughter's stuffies.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And she asked me if I could bring this... Oh, koala! What do I call it? Kangaroo?

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a koala. That's how much I know about stuffies.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Her name's Emma. And one of my daughter's stuffies, she asked me if I could bring her up here today.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So for your enjoyment and for my comfort, I'm going to put her right there.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning everybody. It's great to see you.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I am typically up here leading our music portion of the service, the worship time.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm really thankful for Pastor Matt wherever he is for leading today.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Hold your applause for one moment. One moment.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So to organize all this, you know, it takes a lot of work.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He usually is downstairs with the kids.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: But Sharon is overseeing a lot of the kids ministry today. Matt is up here.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm teaching our sound guys sick today. Sparky's here today.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of moving parts. So yeah, can we get up one time just for all the people who are serving today?

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Rearranging.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to put on a show here.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: We're just trying to arrange leaders for our Sunday gatherings.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And everybody has been so just willing to go all in to serve in different areas just to make this an experience.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to encounter God and be led by God's spirit.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for everybody who's serving today.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're in the book of Psalms today.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 24. I'm going to read from the English standard version so you can pull it up on your phones or if you have your physical Bible with you, you can pull that out too.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 24. We are in a series through the summer.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Summer through the Psalms.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to read to you Psalm 24 and then we'll pray and we'll break it down.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 24, the King of glory, a song excuse me a song of David.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The world and those who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul toward his false and does not swear deceitfully.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, such as the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Lift up your heads, O gates and be lifted up.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Who is this King of glory?

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Lift up your heads, O gates and lift them up.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Who is this King of glory?

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord of hosts.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: He is the King of glory.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Say, la and amen.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we're so thankful to be here in this place and to receive from your word.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: We're thankful for your presence that you'd be even willing to reveal your character and your nature and your goodwill towards us.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And so we want to take a moment in our hearts just to humbly submit our mind to you and ask God that you would by your strength break apart any kind of preconceptions we have about you that are not true.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And would you please mend them back together with your word so we can have a better understanding of who you are today.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: We love you God.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: We're thankful for you, for your word and for the church and pray you be honored in our time now.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's your name you pray.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, for the past few months, such have been about eight or nine months, I've been struggling with allergies, seasonal allergies.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Being a local Monterey guy, I've had them for my whole life, but the past nine months have been pretty different for me.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You guys have heard about the super bloom going on.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, I know you didn't come here to hear about my medical woes, but for the sake of the story, I've been going through this whole thing.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been having a hard time sleeping at night.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's been messy, no spray pill, the whole thing, you know, and I've tried all these different kinds of medications.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing an elimination diet right now, like taking out dairy and gluten.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It's terrible.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So we're trying all these different things and figure out what's the cause of all these allergies.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And the other night, my wife, she had this bright idea.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: She's like, I've never tried Zyrtec before and I've tried different kinds of allergy medications.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I only have tried that one, but the other ones don't work.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: She said, well, we have our daughter's emergency stash.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to have a little bit, you can have a little bit.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, cool.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll try this a little bit.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have very much hope for it, but I took just like a little shot of her liquid Zyrtec.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be dramatic, but I took it and I was immediately healed.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I could breathe again.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I could smell again.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm going to have the best night of sleeping my whole life.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not setting an alarm tomorrow.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be amazing.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And I felt like my life had changed after coming into contact with this new medication.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: There was kind of like pre-Zyrtec Riley, who was it was just, it was sad, you know, like just having a hard time with life.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's post-Zyrtec Riley and I had so much energy.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was ready to get after it in life.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's all because I had contact with that one little substance.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And today when we get into Psalm 24, I really do believe that we are encountering a text from a man who was post God's presence.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Pre-God's presence, David didn't write this Psalm.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, in ancient Israel, the Israelites had the Ark of the Covenant.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And the Ark was this container that held the Ten Commandments.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It held some manna and it held Aaron's staff.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was like this holy box where the Jewish people believe that God's presence would meet them at the Ark.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was, it was the holy place of God.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And David, he didn't want to bring it into Israel or into Jerusalem because he was a little scared of it.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: He saw somebody carrying it and touch it and they died.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And this is a whole crazy story.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, let's just put in somebody else's house for a little bit.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And so he puts in this guy's house, Obed Edom.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And the cool thing about it is that in 2 Samuel chapter 6, it says that Obed Edom's house and his household were blessed because the Ark was in their house.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And so David, he rethought things.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, okay, I'm seeing what's happening in this guy's house.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to bring the Ark back into Jerusalem.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, pre-Ark, David is, he's concerned about it.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: He's doing his thing as a king, but then he brings the Ark in.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It says in 2 Samuel that he starts dancing and singing.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: They're making sacrifices like every six steps of taking the Ark to Jerusalem.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It's this whole beautiful kind of worship ceremony almost.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And David is a whole different kind of guy after that experience.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Pre-Ark, David and post-Ark, David.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was upon bringing the Ark into Jerusalem that many people think that this Psalm was written.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: So I say that because when we read through this, we're going to see almost like a mini gospel vision of what life can be like when you come into contact with God.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm calling this message, go get the Ark.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I believe that God wants all of us to pursue him and his presence much like David did when he went and got the Ark for Jerusalem.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: So let's read verse one through two again, and we'll start breaking down our text.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Verse one, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: What I want you to see here is that God must be adored.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: David looks at creation and, you know, he's a king at this point.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: He's the king of Israel.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a small area on the map, but he looks at it and he looks beyond it.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, man, you know, I'm the king of Jerusalem.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm the king of Israel and all of this is mine.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I own this.

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm ruling this, but there's another king that I'm under.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And that king is the creator of Israel, the creator of this world.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And so the world he saw it was made by God and it belonged to God.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And so he's just kind of having this praise moment where he's looking out at creation and just saying, God, this is all yours.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You're much bigger than me.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_00]: You're much bigger than this kingdom.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Your vision is much more big than my vision could ever be.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And it starts to just cause him to worship a little bit, causes him to adore God.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And I love this because it shows us that God is more than just a mind.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: He is a mind.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: He has a mind.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00]: He does have thoughts.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: He is creative.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_00]: He does innovate.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_00]: He has created, but he's much more than that.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He's a creator.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I say that because, you know, in kind of secularism and, you know, if you start listening to different voices like an opera or some other spiritual gurus out there,

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll hear the word God a lot.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And when they're referring to God, a lot of times our society is referring to God as universal consciousness, universal thought.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This source that you can tap into.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, a lot of that can be said for Yahweh, the God of Israel, and for our faith.

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, yes, we can look to God and receive wisdom, right?

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: We can receive knowledge.

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: We do gain so much from his word and through prayer.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We can receive revelations from him.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So there is that dynamic to our Christian faith.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But when you take God out as creator, when he's not creator and he's just mind, you're not left with a big God.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not left with our Christian God.

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Eckert Tolle, a famous spiritual author, said that God is the infinite consciousness inside all of us.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And if we subscribe only to that kind of thought, then God becomes very, very small.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: He becomes a tool and a tool belt.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: He becomes an asset that you can pull out whenever you just need a little bit of help in your time of need.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_00]: He just becomes that little nugget of wisdom just to kind of get you through that hard conversation.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_00]: He becomes just some set of morals to kind of help you live a good life.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the God that David saw.

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_00]: David saw a much different kind of God.

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_00]: He saw God who created all of the world and created every living person.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: The world itself belongs to God, and all the life therein belongs to God.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, Dallard Willard once said,

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: the point is not that your God is too small to meet your needs, but your God is so small that you can fail to relentlessly worship and adore him.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: What he's saying here is that sometimes the way we view God is just again like as this small part of our lives.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Kind of can tuck God away, pull out just when you need him.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And that causes us to not really have a worshipful spirit inside of us.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: We have a hard time worshiping God when we view him that way because he's so small.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: But when he's put front and center, when he put him under a microscope,

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: when you pursue him as the main pursuit of your life,

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_00]: he becomes bigger, more in your sights.

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And that bigness is what compels us towards worship.

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think about going to a wedding, you know, you go to receptions and if you go to a reception where there's some dancing,

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe the DJ is like, alright get on the dance floor, let's go.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And he goes, in the music is really quiet.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not trying to move to like this quiet music that's so awkward, you know.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But when they call it out and it's like boom, boom, like my guy Silas here today when there's drumming

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's just taking up the whole room, you're just kind of like, I don't know what's happening.

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I just have to kind of move to the music, right?

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of what Dave is talking about here.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like man, I'm trying to make a big deal about God so there's no other response I can have but to worship.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So how do we cultivate that in our lives?

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think that there's so many voices in our lives are competing for God's space in our lives, competing for our attention, right?

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It might sound a little cheesy but one way to just get in touch with God's bigness is just to step outside and to look at nature.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I even look at the outside of our property, you know, all these trees and mountains and all the life that's just happening around us.

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like man, God, you're, you designed all of this.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_00]: This is incredible.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Your mind, your art, you're such an artist, such a designer.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_00]: That's one way for us to be able to see like, God, you're so big.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_00]: My wife loves to get out into nature and it just kind of helps center her on God's bigness.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Going out to point Lobos or big surriers like, wow, this is insane what God can make.

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_00]: For me, that does a lot for me too but I actually like going to cities which may cause stress for a lot of us.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: But you go to a city, what do you see?

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You see a lot of people and I look at all of you like, wow, we're also different.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, look different but kind of the same in a lot of ways.

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And God's just so creative with the way he's designed each and every one of us.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And we get into places with a lot of people you see, wow, God has designed so much individuality but also has brought us all together to worship.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And it just kind of like helps us see that God really is a big author of life and creation.

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So God, when you're post-arc, when you're in your post-arc life, God has to be adored.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So David, he takes a moment to give God praise for him being the creator and then he starts to ask a few questions.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_00]: In verse three, he says, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And who shall stand in his holy place?

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to his false and does not swear deceitfully.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_00]: David recognized that God must be recognized as holy.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He looked at God as being creator. He adored God.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_00]: He recognized that God has to be seen as holy.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_00]: When you're living your post-arc life, he is only seen as holy.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_00]: God is approachable, right?

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: But he is holy. He's unlike us.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So David here, he asks two rhetorical questions, right?

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_00]: He says, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And who shall stand in his holy place?

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He's not asking which one of y'all can do this.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_00]: He's not talking about rock climbing.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: He's not talking about, are you actually able to stand in a holy place?

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He's not saying that.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00]: He's asking these rhetorical questions to just make a point.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: None of us can approach fully this holy, holy God.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00]: This God who made everything that we know, he is like us but not like us.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_00]: He has a moral perfection about him and he just does things that we cannot do.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Who can actually even stand in his presence?

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: He's recognized that nobody can approach God by themselves

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: because God demands holiness for fellowship.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Only someone who's qualified as righteous could actually ascend to God and stand in his presence.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So, who can be holy then, right?

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And David, he answers his question in verse four.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: He says, he who has clean hands and a pure heart who doesn't lift up their soul was false

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and doesn't swear deceitfully.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty easy, right?

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, man, I feel like I've broken all those probably today.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_00]: That's unfortunate.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But David just saw here, he's like, you know, this God, he demands perfection.

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And the only people who can really reach out to him and have fellowship

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_00]: are these people who have lived a righteous life.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So, someone who hasn't hurt people with their hands,

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_00]: who has pure motives in their hearts, doesn't lift up their soul was false.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Another way of saying this is somebody who trusts in what's true

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and doesn't swear deceitfully.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not telling lies.

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the kind of person who can actually be seen as righteous before God.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So, for this time, you know, with David, he's under the old covenant relationship

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00]: with God, with Yahweh.

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And under that covenant, and just as a way of reminding,

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_00]: a covenant was instituted by God to be able to interact with the Jewish people.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But this old covenant said, hey, Israelites, you have to obey these laws I'm giving you

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_00]: because that will make you pure in my sight.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And then we have fellowship with one another.

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_00]: If you break the law, we got to do these sacrifices and all this stuff to make amends again.

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So, David is under that old covenant thinking and saying,

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: we have to earn our way into fellowship with God.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_00]: A right lifestyle is the prerequisite for relationship with God.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you look back at Deuteronomy chapter 27 and 28,

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll see it's very clear that God lays out for Israel.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, if you do these things, I will meet with you.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I promise.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And you will live a life of blessings.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to follow my law.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't, I'm going to curse you.

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty severe.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, hey, you can make some decisions.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You can do, you can follow my law or not,

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_00]: but there's consequences and blessings attached to each.

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, David is under that mindset and he's thinking about somebody who's going to send the hill of the Lord.

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you look at scripture like back in Genesis chapter 6,

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: you read about Noah who was righteous and blameless because he walked with God.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Noah walked with God.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You look at Elizabeth in Luke chapter 1.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_00]: She was considered righteous because she walked with God.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Noah walked, obeyed God.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Elizabeth walked, obeyed God.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_00]: These are people who were really trying to live by God's law and his way.

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And in scripture it says that they were seen as righteous because of what they did.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So now maybe you're thinking, you know, I'm not Elizabeth.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not Noah.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: How can I approach God?

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And for our seasoned saints in the room, you know the answers to that.

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_00]: That Jesus is our access point into God's throne room.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, the Son of God is the only person who truly lived out Psalm 24 verse 4 perfectly, right?

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had clean hands, never hurt another person in his life.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_00]: He had a pure heart.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: He faced the same temptations that you and I face and yet he went through all of it with perseverance and moral purity.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't trust in any other gods and he falls idols other than his father.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And he never told a lie.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He told the truth that all cost, the truth cost him his life.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And so when we look at Jesus, what we see is that he instituted a new covenant, not the old covenant that was instituted with the law.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus fulfilled all of that law under the old covenant.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And because he fulfilled it, he was able to go to the cross and be that sacrificial lamb that could wash away the sins of the Israelite people and extend that blessing to Gentiles.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So for me and you, the good news is that we're on this side of the cross. Amen.

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so thankful that we live today on this side of the cross because now we have this beautiful gift of faith where scripture is so clear by faith you are made righteous before God.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, right living isn't a prerequisite into holiness.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Holiness is who we are as a result of faith.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And now right living comes out of our lives and it shows God that we love him, that we're obedient to him and that we're submitting our wills and our desires to him.

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So I love David, you know, he is talking about, you know, who can live a righteous life before our God and receive the blessings and the righteousness that come from this kind of right living.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But for us today, we get to see the fulfillment of that. Amen.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And we get to see that man. Jesus did all this for me.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who can ascend the hill. And now by faith, I get to enter into all the fullness of God, my father.

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So God, he must be recognized as holy. He had a demand for moral perfection back then under the old covenant and he still has it today but satisfied now through Jesus.

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_00]: A few years ago, I went to a concert up in Santa Cruz, one of my favorite bands, an old band. They broke up. They had a reunion tour.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And so all the guys are up there, they're a little bit older. They're just kind of standing there just not moving as much as they used to.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But one of my favorite bands and I knew they were coming to Santa Cruz. So I reached out to the drummer over Instagram and I wasn't expecting to hear anything.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just like, hey, can't wait to see you guys. You're one of my favorite drummers. And he wrote me back and he was like, hey, I love to see you at the show.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Message me when you get to the doors. And I was like, okay, that sounds great. I would love to meet you.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was trying to be really cool in the text. Yeah, it might be a little late, you know, but no, I was like, I cannot wait.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So I got there and he was super cool to me. He gave me a shirt and took me backstage. I got to meet the band.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And just before he goes up on the stage to play, he has this wristband. You know, like when you go to a venue or something, you get a little wristband and it's like general admission, right?

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You get access to the floor and certain parts of the venue, but you don't get to go backstage or anything like that. It's just general admission.

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But he had the all access pass. He looked at me and he went wham and ripped it off. He handed it to me and he said, this is your pass for the whole night.

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_00]: You can go anywhere you want in the venue. Just put this up to security and it'll let you through whatever you want to go through.

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So after the concert, come find me, we'll hang out and we'll have a great night together.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, dude, it's like eight o'clock right now. I have a baby at home. I'm not going to be here for much longer, but thank you so much for the offer.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I really appreciate it. But he gave us all access pass. It gave me access to anything I wanted in the venue.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is like this. All access pass. He's just saying, will you grab ahold of it by faith? Will you grab it?

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Because when you do, you have full access to God the Father. You are seen as holy. You're part of the band. You can go backstage.

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_00]: You have full access to the entry point of God our Father. I just love this. So you know under the old covenant, right living was the precondition to fellowship with God.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Now today under the new covenant, right living is a byproduct of living with God.

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_00]: For me, I'm always trying to really get in touch with this sacrifice of Jesus.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_00]: We talk about how the cross can be so central to our lives. And for many of us it's kind of like, how is the cross central to our lives?

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_00]: How do I keep the cross and focus in my day to day life as I'm scrolling through Instagram and the news and working and family, all that kind of stuff?

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_00]: How do I do it? For me what I try to really do and I've learned this from other pastors is just every day really taking some time.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It can be a minute, it can be more than that but taking some time just to consider BC Riley before Christ Riley

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_00]: and think to you like what did God do for me when he saved me? Where was I? What was I thinking about? What was I being ripped apart from?

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_00]: What was I feeling hopeless about? What did God do when he saved me? And be able to think about that, you know, 20 years after the fact.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Always having that just fresh touch of wow God, He did that. My life's different now.

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't talk like I used to. I don't walk like I used to. I don't act like I used to because God intervened.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_00]: To be able to keep that in the rear view mirror and to occasionally just glance up at it, you know daily, wow God, that was wild.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00]: What you took me through and I can't believe we're still moving forward but we went there together one time God.

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember that and just to remember that day to day it helps bring the cross front and central into our lives today.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It humbles us, it reminds us of who he is in his saving love towards us.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So who can ascend the hill? Truly only Jesus but through Jesus that we now can as well.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So after reflecting on that, David just has to take a moment to consider the people in his kingdom and the generations to come.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He says in verse six, such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of God, of the God of Jacob, say Allah.

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_00]: God must be the desire of the next generation. He must be the desire of our generation as well because David saw here that seeking generations are blessed generations.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_00]: David believed that if people would just pursue God, if they'd go after the Ark, they'd be blessed.

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They'd receive righteousness from God and I love what he says here.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, he says the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I love that. He knew that God was holy but he's personal.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_00]: At one day he could see God's face.

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Could I be said of your life that you're seeking God's face?

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Do your habits align with seeking God's face?

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Not to put a burden on anybody, but it's just a question for us to reflect on like do I seek God's face?

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_00]: C.S. Lewis once said, a Christian society or a revival is not going to arrive until most of us really want it.

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And we are not going to really want it until we are fully Christian.

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I think what he meant by that was when we become fully Christian, you know, that means that we are fully surrendered to Jesus.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That we are coming under his authority, that our will, our mind, our desires, they're all put underneath Jesus' authority.

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And we say your kingdom come and your will be done in my life.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So like when that is happening, that's when we really want a revival.

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a question for us to think about today.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Do we really want the kingdom to come today?

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Do we want to pray that prayer that Jesus prayed?

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_00]: May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not.

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Then the question is like, man, what areas of my life can I still surrender to Jesus?

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Where can I recognize his authority and fully place my faith in him?

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a little revival, I should say a little revival.

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a big revival a couple of years ago in Kentucky at a school called Asbury.

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe some of you have heard about this.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It started off just one night from a little chapel service on campus at this Christian college, Little Christian College, 20 kids and a pastor.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And the pastor told them, you guys, we can become people of love as we get into proximity with God's love.

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And his closing prayer, he said, God, would you please revive us by your love?

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_00]: If you guys know the story, you know, they start singing and praying.

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And one song turns into five songs.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Five songs turns into two hours.

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Two hours turns into three days.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Three days turns into four weeks.

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And it becomes this thing where this little sanctuary is packed.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It starts off as 20 kids.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It's packed with people from all around the world coming to see what is happening in Kentucky.

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Like God's presence, there's an outpouring of his presence here.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_00]: What is happening in the room?

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_00]: People are like giving their lives to Jesus.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_00]: They're surrendering these addictions and these habits and stuff.

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like all kinds of amazing things happening.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But why did it happen?

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get like too analytical about it, but I think that one component of it is that those 20 kids were such the generation of those who would seek God.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_00]: They sought after God's love.

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_00]: They sought after his presence.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I just think about our church.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like God is doing so much in our church.

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel so thankful to be a part of this church community, this family because so many of you are just pursuing God so wholeheartedly.

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing example to me and to my daughter, my family, to our kids and everything.

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I think God wants to do even more though.

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Would you agree?

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to take us even deeper into God's love, into desire, into pursuing him, into seeking his face.

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I just look at Monterey County.

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, God, this is like, like you're just getting started.

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_00]: There's some great churches around here, but you're just, you're just getting started.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe God wants to do so much here in Monterey.

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Pininceli, out to Salinas all around our community, but it's only going to happen when people start seeking God's face.

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So we're praying for revival.

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_00]: We're praying for is that burning desire, that desire for God, that ache for more.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the generation that's going to be blessed.

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And then as he, you know, thinks about the next generation, he then starts to praise God again in verse seven.

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He says, lift up your heads, O gates and be lifted up, O ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Who is this King of glory?

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Lift up your heads, O gates and lift them up.

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Who is this King of glory?

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord of hosts.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_00]: He is the King of glory.

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_00]: This is our last point for the morning.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_00]: God must be announced post arc Christians.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Gotta announce that God is here, that the King has arrived.

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I love this.

[00:35:46] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, David was a King and you know, he would go out to battle with his people and he'd come back to Jerusalem and Jerusalem had walls and doors.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_00]: They come to the main door and be closed and somebody would go ahead of David, a Herald and say lift up your heads, O gates.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You lifted up.

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh ancient doors.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And some of the other side would say who is it?

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And they say the King is here.

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The King is back from battle.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_00]: The King has come to celebrate and show the people that they are safe from battle.

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And so David, he's looking at God.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_00]: He's looking at his life post arc and he's saying the real King is here.

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm here but my King, he is here.

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I love that he says it twice versus seven and eight are repeated in verses nine and 10 a little bit different, but the idea is the same.

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So he's just being emphatic about it.

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a real King here and he deserves a response from us.

[00:36:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So the question for us today is will we submit to Jesus's kingship in our lives?

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm just trying to like help knock on the door of your guys as hard as I'm just at the spirit is trying to knock on the door.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You're hard to say, Hey, the King is here.

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to establish his kingdom in your life.

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And the question from you, you might be like, Well, who is God for me?

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and Jesus is trying to say, Yo, I am here.

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to establish my kingdom in your life.

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to establish peace and justice and love and righteousness for you, for your family and for your community.

[00:37:35] [SPEAKER_00]: So our question today is, man, will we respond to the King coming into our lives?

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_00]: We say yes and amen. You have all of it.

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I'm the king of my life, but Jesus, you are the king of my life.

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the question we have to answer.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus promises that when he does become our King, he provides holiness.

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_00]: He provides righteousness and he brings us into the greatest relationship with God that we could ever possibly imagine.