["Pomp and Circumstance"]
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up
and we will get one for you.
And of course, the verse this week,
couple of verses, Philippians 3, 13 and 14.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press forth the mark
for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that. If you open up your bulletin,
you'll see our service time Sunday morning service,
10.30 a.m.
It's of course on Sunday morning on the Lord's Day for Church.
We have our Sunday evening service at 6 p.m.
and we're glad that you're here
for the Wednesday evening Bible study.
If you look at our soul winning times,
our main soul winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
and I want to invite you to be with us
on Saturday morning for our big soul winning rally
and we'll have about 100 soul winners here.
Lord willing, on Saturday,
and I'm teaching some lessons
and I'd love for you to be a part of that.
We have additional soul winning times, of course,
on Thursdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.
and we'd love for you to just make it
to any one of those times.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events,
we've got a lot of things going on,
especially this week,
but I hope you'll keep these things in mind.
First of all, we've got a teen activity.
That's not this week,
but we want to remind all of the teenagers
that there is an activity on Friday,
January 24th at 6 p.m.
It is a laser tag.
The address is there for you.
We're going to meet at the location.
We've got 13 to 19 year olds.
13 to 19 year olds.
You can sign up on your communication card
and, of course,
we're paying for the teens to go
and then also one parent.
If a parent wants to come and participate,
then they're welcome to.
Of course, if you've got an older teen,
they don't have to come with a parent,
whatever you're comfortable with.
Make sure you sign up because we need these numbers
so we can let the laser tag place know.
Of course, dinner will be provided.
There's a lesson challenge for the teens as well,
so please make a note of that.
Also, this Friday, January 10th at 6 p.m.
here at the church building,
we're going to have
our audio-video ministry training.
If you are interested
in participating,
learning about the audio-video ministry,
I promise I'll try not to yell at you
if you mess up.
I know. If you're new,
I won't yell at you for sure.
The guys are going to be training
on that this Friday.
If you want to learn about that,
this is a great ministry,
especially for young men.
Any man, but young people,
they've just grown up with all this technology.
If you're tech-savvy,
then please, especially if you're not serving anywhere,
we'd love for you to be a part of this.
You can come to the training
on Friday at 6 p.m.
If you have a question about that,
if you want to sign up or let somebody know
that you're coming, please let Deacon Oliver know
or Brother Shaw.
Also this Saturday, we have our Spanish service
at 5 p.m.
We're going to have a Spanish-themed potluck
after the service.
We want to encourage you, if you'd like to be a part of that,
if you're a Spanish speaker,
if you want to invite a Spanish speaker,
if you want to learn Spanish,
if you just like Spanish food,
you're welcome to come and be a part of that.
We do want to just remind the soul-winners
if you're a Spanish-speaking soul-winner,
we'll have some Spanish invitations
so in the morning, soul-winning time,
we'll have invitations for that service
at 5 p.m.
so just be aware of that.
If you want to help us with that, we'd appreciate it.
You can sign up on your communication card.
Also, we've got a wedding coming up
for Brother Adam Ritchie and Miss Emily Gessler
on Saturday, January 18th at 2.30 p.m.
and if you've not yet let them know
that you're coming, please do that
on your communication card.
Nine chapters a day, I hope you're sticking with it
and stay at it.
Be kind, just stay with it, alright?
Don't quit, stay at it
and as we get closer
towards the end of the month,
the chapters are going to get shorter
and it's going to be easier to catch up
so please don't quit.
Choir practice is on Sunday
at 5 p.m.
and homeschool group, they've got P.E. class
tomorrow, first class
back after the Christmas break.
Tomorrow, January 9th
at 10 a.m.
You're part of the homeschool group.
There's other things there for you to look at.
If you look at the back of the bulletin,
birthdays and anniversaries
for this week, we have
Yasely Diosa's birthday was on January 6th.
Brother Alex Rosala's birthday was
yesterday, January 7th
and then tomorrow is Brother Keith Rosenberg's
birthday, January 9th.
Also, Yvette Rosenberg has a birthday January 10th
and Miss Anna Mendoza
has a birthday January 10th as well.
Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things
to look at.
Also, another quick announcement is that
on Friday
morning, we're going to
be doing some work just out in the
field here, cleaning up, mainly cleaning up
these leaves but also getting some other stuff done
if we can and if you are
available, if you're a man or a young man that can
help with that, we would appreciate your help
and we're going to be here at 8 a.m.
I'm going to be here, my sons are going to be here,
the staff guys are going to be here.
I think we've got a couple others maybe
so if you can help with that, we'd appreciate it
and just let me know or again,
Deacon Oliver or Brother Shaw
and we can get you signed up
for that but if you're able to help with that, we'd appreciate
your help and I think that's
it for all of
the announcements. So let's go
ahead and take our song books
and let's go to page number 188.
Page number 188.
And we're going to sing
The Love of God 188.
This is a beautiful song, make sure you
sing it out with passion
and with purpose, alright.
188, sing it out on the
verse.
The love of God
He is the Son of the King, our Father, the Son, and the Son.
When my God shall pass away, there he falls,
and he will fall.
And when I'm here with you today,
the cross will build, and I will be strong.
And when I'm too strong, just let me go,
for there's strength and strong.
He who breaks and trains, he seeks an angel's sight.
But out of our hearts we should go,
for there's strength and strong.
We shall gather for him, he who seeks the angel's sight.
And when I'm here with you today,
the cross will build, and I will be strong.
And when I'm too strong, just let me go,
for there's strength and strong.
And when I'm too strong, just let me go,
for there's strength and strong.
And when I'm here with you today,
the cross will build, and I will be strong.
And when I'm here with you today,
the cross will build, and I will be strong.
And when I'm here with you today,
the angels' sight.
And you'll see.
Before we have the guys come up, just a real quick reminder
that we, of course, have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms
available for your convenience.
Please use those rooms as needed if you need to,
and please don't forget to turn your cellphones off,
place them on silent during the service
if they're not a distraction to anybody.
We'll have the guys come up and help us
with the offering at this time,
and let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you,
and we thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering,
the gift of the giver.
We ask that you would meet with us
as we take time to pray to our prayer sheet.
And then, of course, as we open up your word,
as we study the Bible together.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
All right, well, let's go and take our prayer sheets tonight.
We'll go through our prayer list.
If you did not receive a prayer sheet on your way in,
just raise your hand,
and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a prayer sheet,
just put your hand up and we'll get one for you.
And of course, I wanna remind you
that the way you add a request to the prayer sheet
is through your communication card,
and on the back of your communication card,
you can write your request,
and don't forget to mark whether it's private or public.
If it's private, only I will see it.
If it's public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet.
If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out.
And of course, we add the request
in the order that they are received,
and they're removed after a couple of weeks.
There is one request that was given
after the prayer sheet was printed,
and we'd like for you to just write it in,
but for Miss Amy praying for safety for her niece
dealing with the fires in Los Angeles.
And of course, there's some big fires going on
in Southern California right now,
so be in prayer for her niece,
and of course, any other family.
I'm sure there's people that have family.
My wife has a great aunt down there,
so let's just be in prayer for all those people.
And let's go ahead and take these requests to the Lord.
I'm gonna pray out loud,
and I'm gonna ask that you pray with me
in your mind and your heart,
and let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you,
and we thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight
in prayer.
Lord, we want to bring these requests
from our church family to you, of course,
and we begin with these requests regarding health.
We pray for Miss Edith and praying for her health.
We ask that you put your healing hand over her
and help her with her health
and with the different things she's dealing with.
We also pray Brother Warren praying
for the health of his siblings,
and Brother Aldo praying for healing
for his grandmother's broken arm.
Miss Amy praying for health and peace of mind,
and Brother Matt and Miss Kimberello
praying for health and recovery for their nephew,
and Ethan White who's taken to the hospital today
for sepsis.
Lord, we pray for these individuals,
and we pray for this young man, Ethan.
You put your healing hand over him,
your wife and I know Ethan.
Lord, we pray that you help him at this time,
help him to recover.
We pray for Miss Christine Ortiz praying for health,
and Brother Salvador praying for health,
Miss Dogma praying for relief of pain,
Brother Edgar and Miss Selena praying
for Eretzi and Jonathan to be healthy and happy
despite their cystic fibrosis.
We pray for our missionary, Dave Cavantala,
for his wife, Angel, who's undergoing treatment
for breast cancer.
Lord, we pray for all of these individuals.
We ask that you put your healing hand over all of them,
that you will recover them if it's your will.
Lord, we ask that you give wisdom to the doctors,
nurses dealing with them, decisions that need to be made.
Lord, we ask that you be with them and help them.
We also pray for the ladies in our church
that are expecting Miss Antonina, Miss Katie,
Miss Aijana praying that you give them all
healthy pregnancies with no issues and no complications.
Lord, we pray for these that have requests
regarding friends and family.
Maria Elena praying for her brother, George,
and his wife and family.
Also, Miss Kimmy praying for Brother Adam
and Miss Emily's upcoming wedding and marriage.
Miss Amy Hill praying for the safety of her niece
that's dealing with fires in Los Angeles.
We pray for everyone down the road
that we just help individuals
and pray for their wife's great aunt as well
and Lord of the Spirit to give everybody safety.
We pray for Brother Aldo,
who's praying for his family's protection,
and Miss Amy also praying for her friend, Sharon,
and her son to have a good relationship.
Brother Saburo praying for his family as well.
Lord, we ask for all these individuals.
We pray that you would answer according to your will
and help them.
We also pray for these that have physical financial need
for the warrant, praying for the finances
of the siblings as well,
and asking that you would help with regards to that.
And Miss Maria Cuda Lima praying for her daughters removed.
Miss Christina Ortiz praying for the finances
for the Salvador for his finances and work.
We're asking that you would bless in these different areas
with these individuals.
We also pray for salvation requests
for the warrant praying for the salvation
of his co-workers,
and for the Aldo praying for his family's salvation
and also Miss Maria praying for Roma and Skylar's salvation.
Miss Christine praying for her family's salvation.
Miss Dogma praying for her daughter
and her family's salvation.
And Lord, we ask for all of these individuals.
We pray, Lord, that you would help them
and that you would allow the Holy Spirit
to work in their hearts,
prepare them to hear the gospel
and receive the gospel to be receptive.
We pray that a soul winner
would communicate the gospel clearly to them.
And then, Lord, we pray for this family that's grieving.
Miss Tamara praying for her friend Phoebe Campos
and his family as they grieve the loss of her sister Patty.
Lord, we just pray that you'd comfort them
and strengthen them at this time.
We also pray for these that have requests
regarding their walk with the Lord.
Brother Aldo praying for his brother and his sisters
and his sister-in-laws walk with the Lord.
And also Miss Christine praying for her faith,
for the Salvador praying for his faith.
And we'll walk with you, Lord.
We pray you to help them and strengthen them.
We also have a praise report from Miss Nicole
and just acknowledging that you have been answering
for prayers and being grateful for these prayers.
And Lord, we thank you.
This is not just a religious act,
but you really do hear and answer prayers.
You're the God that answers prayers.
And Lord, we thank you for that.
And we pray that you would help us
to continue to increase our faith in these things.
And then, Lord, we pray for these
that have unspoken requests.
Miss Kimmy having an unspoken request for the Montel.
Miss Brittany, my dad, Brother Felix,
all having unspoken requests.
Brother Salvador and Miss Docma
having unspoken requests.
Lord, you know what their petitions are.
You know what they're asking for.
We pray that you would answer according to your will.
And then, Lord, we of course pray for our church
and our missionaries,
our Missionary David Cabantel and his family in Cebu
and their ministry for Pastor Stuckey and his family
and the work they're doing in Manila and Pampanga and Bicol.
Lord, we pray for the Spanish service this Saturday
and we pray that you would bless it.
We pray for all of the things going on this week,
the audio video ministry and the work on Friday.
Lord, we just pray that you would help us
with all these things.
We pray that you meet with us tonight
as we open up your word
and as we study another psalm together.
Lord, help us to learn from your word.
Help us to draw closer to you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Please open up to Psalm 24.
Psalm 24, if you do not have a Bible,
please raise your hand
and I'm not sure you can bring your Bible.
Psalm 24, just keep your hand up,
let's roll come by.
Psalm 24,
beginning in verse number one.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
The world and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.
Who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is a generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob, seal him.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be lift up the everlasting doors.
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Even lift them up, the everlasting doors.
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory, seal him.
Let's pray.
Heavenly father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for your word, for our church.
And I say, please give us all 10 hearts
with a message tonight.
And I ask for you to pastorfully strengthen him
and from the spirit, we love you.
In Jesus name, pray, Amen.
Amen.
All right, well, we're there in Psalm 24.
And of course, on Wednesday nights,
we've been making our way through the book of Psalms
and we're studying the Psalms together.
And tonight we find ourselves in Psalm 24.
And Psalm 24 is a Psalm that has a lot of well-known verses
and some iconic verses in it.
And we're gonna walk through this.
It's not long, 10 verses.
And this Psalm is divided into three different sections
or we can study it under three different headings.
And maybe you can jot these down.
We'll just jump right into it.
And I'd like you to notice the first point
or the first heading that we see in the Psalm
is the ownership of God.
And this is kind of what the Psalm is known for.
The fact that it declares the ownership of God.
We see that in verses one and two.
You notice there Psalm 24 and verse one,
the Psalm is identified as a Psalm of David.
And then it says this, the earth is the Lord's.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein.
You've probably heard that verse quoted or read
many times if you've been around Christian people
or in church and it's a powerful verse.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein.
What we find in this verse is outlined for us
in detail what it is that God owns.
We see what he owns because this verse and the next verse
have to do with the ownership of God
and it describes what he owns.
And I want you to see it here because it's easy.
It's so beautifully written.
I think sometimes we could just read it
and it's so beautiful just the way it sounds
that we don't give too much thought
as to what it's actually saying.
It is beautifully written.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein.
But I want you to notice that not only is it poetic,
not only is it powerful, but it's actually telling us
and it's detailing for us what it is that God owns,
what he owns.
And I want you to notice there's four things
in this verse that are outlined for us
with regards to what he owns.
Number one, and maybe you wanna jot these down
in your notes as well, God owns the physical earth.
The physical earth is God's.
That's what the Bible means here
when it says the earth is the Lord's.
I want you to notice that this verse has two words
that are similar.
You use the word earth and then it uses the word world.
It says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein.
And when we see this word earth here in this verse,
in this context, what is being referred to
is the physical planet.
So the actual globe, the ball of earth,
the ball of dirt that you and I live on,
the Bible is telling us is the Lord's.
The earth is the Lord's.
Now, keep your place there in Psalm 24.
That's our text for tonight.
We're of course gonna come back to it,
but let's run some verses just real quickly.
And if you would go with me to the book of Exodus,
Exodus chapter nine, let me just give you
some cross references and some proof texts
for these thoughts.
Exodus chapter nine and verse 29.
Of course, towards the beginning of the Bible,
you've got the book of Genesis and then the book of Exodus,
Exodus chapter number nine.
And we begin with this idea of the earth is the Lord's.
And again, we're talking about the physical planet,
the ball of dirt that is flying through space
belongs to God.
The physical earth is God's, the earth is the Lord's.
In Exodus chapter nine and verse 29,
once you notice what Moses said,
of course, this is Moses speaking to Pharaoh.
This is right in the midst of the 10 plagues
that God is bringing upon Egypt as judgment.
And of course, Pharaoh's trying to negotiate with Moses
and trying to get him to stop.
I want you to notice what the Bible says in verse 29,
Exodus nine, 29, and Moses said unto him,
as soon as I am gone out of the city,
I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord
and the thunder shall cease,
neither shall there be any more hail.
I want you to notice the last part of verse 29.
Here's what Moses says to Pharaoh,
that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's.
And of course, this is what's being quoted in Psalm 24 one.
And what Moses is saying is this,
Moses is saying God is bringing hail,
God is bringing thunder,
God is bringing of course,
these natural disasters to Egypt at this time.
The river has been turned into blood
and there's been frogs and all sorts of different things.
And Moses is telling, he's negotiating with Pharaoh,
Pharaoh's asking for these things to go away.
And Moses says, when I walk out,
I always like it that he says,
as soon as I am gone out of the city.
Moses was smart enough to realize
that he needed to put some distance between him and Pharaoh
and make sure that Pharaoh didn't try to arrest him
or something after he got what he wanted.
He said, as soon as I am gone out of the city,
he said, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord.
He said, and the thunder shall cease.
Why is he saying this?
He's saying, God is the one that controls the weather.
God is the one that controls the thunder.
God is the one that controls this earth.
It belongs to him.
He says, the thunder shall cease,
neither shall there be any more hail.
And he says, and when I asked God to stop it
and he stops it, he's going to do that,
that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord.
So we see again, that the physical earth is God's.
God controls this earth.
He controls the weather on this earth.
He controls everything on this earth.
Go back to the book of Psalms if you would.
But this time go to Psalm 50.
Psalm 50, while you turn there,
let me read to you from Matthew chapter eight.
This is of course the famous story of Jesus
when he is with his disciples in the midst of a storm.
And the Bible says, but the men marvel saying,
what manner of man is this,
that even the winds and the sea obey him?
And of course, why did the winds and the sea obey him,
obey Jesus, because Psalm tells us,
because Moses tells us that the earth is the Lord's.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on it,
but I want you to notice that both in Exodus 9, 29,
and in Psalm 24, one, when it says the earth is the Lord's,
we see again that Old Testament name of God,
the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D,
that's the I am that I am, that's Jehovah's God.
What the Bible is telling us is that the earth is the Lord's.
What Moses is telling us is that God is proving
that the earth is the Lord's by his control of the earth,
by his control of weather.
The thunder shall cease, neither shall there be
any more hail, that thou mayest know
that the earth is the Lord's.
And then Jesus also controls these things.
And with his words, he controls the winds and the sea.
And the disciples said, the Bible says that the men marvel
saying what manner of man is this,
that even the winds and the sea obey him.
And what that shows us is proof
that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.
He is the Lord, he is Jehovah God,
he is the I am that I am.
He controls the things on this earth,
we're talking about the physical planet
and the things on this earth because he's God.
So we see the ownership of God, what does he own?
He owns the earth, the physical earth,
the globe, the planet, the ball of dirt
that you and I live on belongs to God.
Then I want you to notice secondly,
now you're there in Psalm 50,
but let me just read to you again from Psalm 24.
It says this, the earth is the Lord's, that's number one,
then here's number two, and the fullness thereof.
The fullness thereof.
The word fullness there is saying
that everything that it's filled with,
everything that's what filled it with?
The word that's used is thereof.
We're told the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
Now the word thereof means of the thing just mentioned.
The of there is what thereof means,
and it's referring to the thing that was just mentioned.
What was just mentioned?
The earth.
And again, we're talking about the physical planet,
the earth is the Lord's, but then the Psalmist tells us,
don't just think the earth is the Lord's,
also the fullness thereof,
everything that the earth is filled with,
everything that the earth is full of,
that also is the Lord's,
belongs to the Lord, is owned by the Lord.
So here's what we need to know.
The physical earth is God's, the earth is the Lord's,
and the things that fill the earth,
those are God's as well,
and the Bible says the fullness thereof.
Now there in Psalm 50,
we see a Psalm that reiterates this as well.
Look at verse 10, Psalm 50 and verse 10.
The Bible says, for every beast of the forest is mine.
This is God speaking.
Every beast, that's an animal, of the forest is mine,
and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
So God says, look, every beast in the forest is mine,
and the cattle upon a thousand hills is mine,
is the idea, verse 11.
He says, I know all the fowls of the mountains,
and the wild beasts of the field.
Notice these words, are mine.
This is God speaking, and he's telling us
that not only is the earth his, not only is the sky his,
not only is the continents, and the oceans,
and the rivers, and all those things belong to him,
but also what that earth is filled with
also belongs to him.
Every beast of the forest is mine,
and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains,
and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
Look at verse 12, Psalm 50, verse 12.
If I were hungry, I love this,
because God is gonna, and I mean this in a reverent way,
but God kinda has an attitude with us here.
He says, if I were hungry, I would not tell thee,
for the world is mine, notice the words,
and the fullness thereof.
God says, I don't need you,
and I don't need anything from you.
He says, the earth is mine, the world is mine,
and not just that, but all the fullness thereof,
everything that it's filled with.
There, when it says, and the cattle upon a thousand hills,
there's a song that says,
he owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
and the gold in every mine.
And this ought to be of comfort to you,
and it should be of encouragement to you.
If you ever find yourself praying,
and we should pray about everything,
the Bible says that we should pray about all things,
but oftentimes, the things that we pray about,
a common thing that we pray about is financial problems,
financial situations, when we need God to maybe step in.
This should be of comfort for you,
when you're praying about financial problems,
when you can pray to God.
I've literally prayed to God and said,
you own the cattle upon a thousand hills, God.
You can take care of this bill.
You can take care of this problem.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
So we see what he owns, what does he own?
He owns the physical earth, it's God's.
He owns the things that fill the earth.
They belong to God.
Then I want you to notice the third thing.
Go back to Psalm 24.
Look at verse one.
Psalm 24, verse one.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
We've talked about that.
Here's number three, the world.
The world and they that dwell therein.
Now, when the Bible says here the world in this verse,
in this verse, in this context,
there is a differentiation between the earth and the world,
and the words are being used differently.
In this context, the earth refers to,
as I've already said, the physical planet itself.
The world here signifies the systems
and the social structures that exist on earth.
See, what God is telling us is he's telling us,
I own the real estate and I own the renters.
I own the actual earth and I own the animals.
I own the minerals.
I own the resources.
And not just that, but I'm in charge
and I'm in control of the world, not just the earth,
but the world, the actual social structures,
the government systems.
He says that belongs to me as well.
Now, let me just give you, I've preached on that in the past
and I'm not gonna take a lot of time with that,
but let me just give you a cross reference for that.
Go with me if you would to the book of Daniel.
Daniel chapter number four.
Towards the end of the Old Testament,
of course, you're there in Psalms,
you go past Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
Daniel chapter four and verse 32.
This is God speaking to Nebuchadnezzar,
who at the time is the most powerful man on earth.
He's the king of Babylon and this is the nation
that is controlling, the universal nation
that's controlling the world pretty much.
And here's what God says to him in Daniel 4, 3, 2.
And they shall drive thee from men.
This is God speaking to Nebuchadnezzar.
And God is telling Nebuchadnezzar,
I'm gonna make you go crazy.
And if you don't think God does these things,
look at Joe Biden.
I mean, this is pretty much his life verse
because Joe Biden is kind of Nebuchadnezzar right now.
He's in charge of the greatest,
most powerful nation on earth.
He says, and they shall drive thee from men
and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
And they shall make thee to eat grasses, oxen
and seven times shall pass over thee.
Now, why is God doing this?
He's doing this because we're not gonna take the time
to develop it, but Nebuchadnezzar is really arrogant,
really prideful about his successes
and his government and his wealth and his kingdom.
And God says, they're gonna drive you.
He said, they shall drive thee from men
and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the fields.
They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen
and seven times shall pass over thee.
Notice these words, until thou know
that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men
and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And what Nebuchadnezzar did not understand was this,
the reason that he was in the position he was
is because God had put him there.
God had allowed them there.
And what we learn is this,
that God does not just own the earth,
he owns the social systems, the government structures,
the social structures that exist on earth.
And he tells Nebuchadnezzar, I'm gonna put you in timeout.
I'm gonna let you go insane for a little while
until thou know that the most high ruleth
in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Bible says that promotion coming from the north.
Bible says that God puts some people up
and he brings some people down.
He is the one that is in charge.
So there's the political and social systems of the world
and they are owned by God.
Now let me just say this.
The Bible does teach that the devil
is the God of this world,
the lowercase G God of this world
and that he has control over this world at this time.
The rulers in the darkness of this world.
But even that is only because God allows it.
It's because God has permitted him
to have work and ministry on the earth at this time.
Now keep your place right there in Daniel four.
We're gonna come right back to it or don't even leave it.
But let me read to you the fourth thing
that's outlined in this verse
about what God owns in verse one.
The earth is the Lord's, that's the globe, the planet.
The fullness thereof, everything it's filled with.
The world, that's the social structure,
the societal structures, the government structures,
God owns that.
And then he says this, they that dwell therein, that's us.
Every human being that lives on earth, God owns.
Those who live on earth belong to God.
And Daniel highlights this as well.
Now in verse 32 we read these words.
Until thou know that the most high ruleth
in the kingdom of men
and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
That shows that God has control
over the government social structures of this world.
But look at verse 35, Daniel 4.35.
This is after Nebuchadnezzar gets his mind back
and gets right with God.
Daniel 4.35, he says this,
and all the inhabitants of the earth,
that's they that dwell therein,
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand.
Look, you oughta really consider what you're reading here.
These are beautiful words about our God.
None can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
The idea is this, that if someone was reaching out
to do something that you did not want them to do,
they were reaching out to grab something or take something
that you did not want them to,
that you would then take your hand
and try to hold their hand back.
And that's what you and I might do as human beings.
But the Bible says that about God,
that none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what doest thou?
You might question someone and say, why are you doing that?
But you can't question God.
A potter cannot say to the creator, what doest thou?
And the idea is this, that all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what doest thou?
So what do we learn?
That God owns everything.
God owns the earth you live on.
God owns all the resources on this earth.
He owns the governments and the political structures
that we live under.
And he lives, he owns all the citizens of every nation,
every human being, he owns it all.
That's what this one verse tells us.
And then in verse two,
if you can make your way back to Psalm 24.
In verse one, we're told what he owns.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein.
And then in verse two, we're told why he owns it.
So you say, I wanna see the deed.
I wanna see why is it that God owns me?
Why is it that God owns us?
Here's why.
For he has founded it upon the seas.
He's founded what?
The earth.
For he had founded upon the seas
and established it upon the floods.
Why does God own everything?
Real simple answer, because he created it.
Because he's the creator, he owns everything.
The earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof.
He says the world and they that dwell therein
for he had founded upon the seas
and established it upon the floods.
Now let me just give you a cross reference
for this wording of founding it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods.
In Psalm 136 in verse six, the Bible says this,
Psalm 136 in verse six,
to him that stretched out the earth above the waters
for his mercy endureth forever.
This is a theme that's brought up throughout scripture.
Psalm 136 says, to him that stretched out the earth
above the waters.
2 Peter 3.5 says this, for they willingly,
you don't have to turn here, I'll just read this for you.
For they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God,
the heavens were of old and the earth standing
out of the water and in the waters.
And of course we know that God is the one that founded it
upon the seas, established it upon the floods.
So we see that he is the owner thereof.
Go back to Psalm 24, Psalm 24.
So we see the ownership of God, verses one and two.
What does he own?
Everything, the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof, the world
and they that dwell therein.
Why does he own it?
Because he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods,
because he is the creator, therefore he owns everything.
We see the ownership of God.
Then in verses three through six,
we see the companionship of God.
Now here's what's interesting about this Psalm,
is that what the Bible's about to tell us is this,
that the God who created everything,
who created you and who created me,
also desires to have a relationship with us.
He desires to walk with us.
He desires to have companionship with us.
I want you to notice that for the rest of the Psalm,
there's a series of questions asked
and I'll highlight them for you as we go.
But we find the first question here in verse three
and the question is this,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in his holy place?
And of course, with scripture,
there's often multiple applications.
There's a primary application, a secondary application,
and an argument could be made that this is messianic
and it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ
and I wouldn't argue that,
but I just want to highlight for you
the practical application.
There's a practical application here
about those who can ascend into the hill of the Lord.
And of course, when David is writing this and he says,
who shall stand in his holy place?
The holy place would be a reference to the tabernacle
or to the temple, to the holy.
Of course, if you remember,
the tabernacle was divided into two rooms.
There's a bigger room that is called the holy place
and then there's a smaller room
where the Ark of the Covenant was kept,
which is called the Holy of Holies or the holiest place.
And it's where they had the Ark of the Covenant,
which represented the presence of God.
The idea is that someone was gonna go up to the tabernacle,
go up to the temple and dwell with God,
have companionship with God.
And the question is this, who?
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Because we, of course, know that the tabernacle was placed
and the temple was built upon Mount Moriah
and it was, excuse me, not Mount Moriah,
but on Mount Zion and it was built on this hill.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord
or who shall stand in his holy place?
Now, in verses four and five,
he explains to us and he answers the question of who.
And we're gonna come back to that in a minute,
but I want you to notice in verse six,
he explains, what does that mean?
When he says, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord
or who shall stand in his holy place,
what does he mean by that?
And what he means by that is found in verse six.
This is the generation of them, notice these words,
that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, Selah.
And what we're being told here is this,
that God created everything.
God created all of us.
God created the earth, he created the animals,
he created you and I, he even instituted government,
he owns it all, it all belongs to him.
Here's what the interesting thing about this is,
that his creation, most of his creation, does not seek him.
We're talking about human beings now.
They don't seek the Lord.
They have all gone out of the way.
They are not looking for him, they are not desiring him.
And when the question is asked,
who shall ascend into the holy hill of the Lord
or who shall stand in his holy place,
the answer is them that seek him, that seek thy face.
The word seek means to search after.
And it's really interesting
and a little bit of a play on words,
but it's interesting because if you consider
what the Bible teaches about these things,
the Bible teaches this,
that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
That we were lost and that he came to seek us.
He came to bring us salvation, he sought us.
But do you understand that once he sought us
and we were found, now there is an expectation
that we would seek him, that we would search for him,
that we would try to find him.
And what the Bible is telling us is this,
those who seek God find him.
Look, the truth is this,
that you can have as close a relationship to God
and as close a walk to God as anyone else,
as any character in the Bible, Abraham, Moses, Paul,
you have access to the God of the universe,
the creator Lord, the Lord who owns everything.
And we will often talk about having friends in high places
and that'd be nice to have friends in high places.
And if you just had some friends that had some money
or had some friends that had some connections
or had some friends that could maybe pull some strings
and do you some favors,
wouldn't that be great?
Hey, you've got the friend in the highest place of all.
You've got access to the God who owns the earth
and the fullness thereof, the world,
and all they that dwell therein.
And he says, if you seek me, you'll find me.
If you search for me, I will be found.
Who shall ascend into the holy hill of the Lord
or who shall stand in his holy place?
Them that seek him.
God says, I want to fellowship with you.
I want you to ascend to my presence.
I want you to stand in my presence.
I want to walk with you and talk with you.
And I understand that what I'm saying to you
might just sound like preacher talk or sermon talk,
it's just sermon talk, but I'm telling you,
the Bible is telling you and the Bible is telling me
that the God of the universe desires to spend time with you.
And he says, I sought you, but now I want you to seek me.
So there's a question.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in his holy place?
What that means is found in verse six,
them that seek him, that seek thy face.
But the answer to the question, the who,
is found in verses four and five.
Let's look at it real quickly.
Here's the answer.
He doesn't tell us a name.
He gives us characteristics,
because this can apply to anybody.
But it has to apply to people
who want to do certain things.
I want you to notice there's three things
here in this verse.
Number one, he highlights for us what they do.
The people who are going to ascend up to the holy hill,
the people who are gonna stand before the Lord,
they do certain things.
They seek the Lord.
What does that look like?
What does that mean?
What does it mean to seek the Lord?
Well, here's what they do.
Verse four, Psalm 24, verse four.
He that hath clean hands.
I want you to see how consistent this is in scripture.
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.
There's two things being highlighted here.
The clean hands represent the exterior.
We actually talked about this on Sunday morning.
The exterior, but the pure heart represents the interior.
And you know what God wants is someone
who's clean and pure from the inside out.
You say, well, what if I have clean hands,
but I don't have a pure heart?
Well, that's heart where you end up
with what we talked about on Sunday,
being this holier than thou Pharisee.
I mean, literally, that's what the Pharisees were.
Jesus said about the Pharisees
that they're whited sepulchres.
You understand what a sepulcher is?
Where you keep corpses.
And he says, you're whited sepulchres.
He said, on the outside, you're beautiful and decorated.
You're painted, you're beautiful on the inside.
On the outside and the inside,
you're full of dead men's bones.
That's what it means to be a Pharisee.
God says, if you want to come close to me,
yes, you have to have clean hands, no doubt about it.
He that hath clean hands, exterior,
but don't forget about the interior and a pure heart.
Your interior has to be pure.
Now, we've seen this verse a lot recently,
and I don't mean to keep bringing you to this verse,
but I think God does
because he keeps bringing us to this verse.
But I want you to see how this correlates
to James chapter four and verse eight.
If you would, just real quickly,
James chapter four and verse eight.
If you start at Revelation and head backwards,
you got Jude, 3rd and 2nd and 1st John,
2nd and 1st Peter, James.
James chapter four and verse eight.
And remember the context.
The context of Psalm 24 is verse three,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
What does that mean?
This is the generation of them that seek him
and seek thy face.
How do we get there?
You need to have clean hands and a pure heart.
James 4, eight, draw nigh to God.
That's the who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,
or who shall stand in his holy place.
Draw nigh to God, that's seek after God.
And when you seek after God, he will draw nigh to you.
But when you do that, look at it,
you must cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
So notice there's this exterior cleansing
and also this interior cleansing.
Look, God's all for the exterior being clean.
The Bible says that when men pray,
it talks about lifting up holy hands.
And God is interested with the things we do with our hands
and the things we do in the exterior.
He wants us to make sure, look, you can't go to God,
you can't ascend up to the holy hill of God
when your hands were just stealing something
or fornicating or holding alcohol or holding drugs.
But if you think, well, I'll just get my hands clean
and then that'll solve the problem.
No, it must come from a pure heart.
See, when your heart is right,
you don't need a lot of lists.
This is what the Bible says.
The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, faith, temperance.
And then he says this, against such there is no law.
And when you and I are filled with the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit actually is producing its fruit in us,
then you don't need somebody to tell you,
hey, don't go there, don't do that, don't look at that,
don't drink that, don't act that way.
You don't need somebody to tell you forgive, love, be kind.
You don't need all these rules if the Holy Spirit of God
is controlling you from the inside out.
So we see that there's an exterior cleansing
and there ought to be an exterior cleansing
of the hands and it comes from a pure heart.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
purify your hearts, you double-minded.
In Matthew five and verse eight, you don't have to turn there
but Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount,
he said these words, blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God.
See, I don't feel like God's close to me.
I don't feel like I've ever experienced God or seen God
and you're not gonna see God physically.
We're not talking about that.
But the Bible says when you are pure in heart,
you'll get to see God.
You'll get to see him work in your life.
So we see what they do, what do they do?
Go back to Psalm 24 if you would.
They have clean hands and a pure heart.
Then I want you to notice what they don't do.
We find that in the last part of verse four.
What they do, he has clean hands and a pure heart.
Number one, exterior, which flows out of,
number two, interior.
Then we're told this.
Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity?
You know what the people who are going to ascend
up to the holy hill, who are going to stand before God,
who are going to seek God, who are going to seek God,
you know what they do?
What they do is they have clean hands and a pure heart.
But you know what they don't do?
Is they do not allow themselves to be lifted up,
his soul lifted up unto vanity.
What is that talking about?
It's talking about pride.
And what it's telling us is this.
Here's what they don't do.
They don't allow themselves to get
a wrong view of themselves.
This person has the right view of themselves.
They're not lifted up with pride.
Because look, all of our problems
pretty much come from pride.
I mean, even Adam and Eve would not have been tempted
by a serpent in the garden if that serpent hadn't said,
I shall ascend unto heaven, I shall be like the most high.
Pride is what has brought all conflict and all problems
and all issues and what this person does.
Look, here's what the Bible is telling you.
If you want to get close to God,
and if I want to get close to God,
we need to practice on purpose humility.
We cannot allow ourselves to get lifted up.
We cannot allow our hearts and our souls
to be lifted up unto vanity.
We must have a proper view of ourself.
You say, how do I get a proper view of myself?
Well, go back to verse number one.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
He belong and the inhabitants,
the world and the inhabitants thereof,
get a proper view.
You are a possession, you belong to God.
So don't get lifted up in your soul to vanity.
So notice they have the right view of self,
but number two, they have the right view of others
who have not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor, look at these words, sworn deceitfully.
What does that mean?
It means they treat people right.
It means that they don't do people wrong.
It means that they don't swear deceitfully.
They don't try to get away with things.
They don't try to hurt people.
They don't try to get ahead.
So what do they do?
They have clean hands, exterior, a pure heart, interior.
They do not allow themselves to be lifted up,
proper view of themselves,
and they do not swear deceitfully
proper treatment of others.
Look, the Bible's not that complicated.
These are all just different ways of saying the same thing,
but over and over and over, the Bible,
God says the same things.
Clean your hands, purify your heart,
humble yourself, and treat people right.
It's really not that complicated.
We like to make it complicated.
It's not that complicated.
Then I want you to notice what they get.
We saw what they do.
We saw what they don't do.
But then, in verse five, we're told,
here's what they get.
He, who, this person,
this person who's going to ascend up to the holy hill,
who's going to stand before the holy God,
who's going to clean his hands and purify his heart,
who's going to have the proper view of self
and not be lifted up, who's going to treat people properly,
this person, the Bible says in verse five,
he shall receive the blessings from the Lord.
He got his friend in high places.
He shall receive the blessings from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Look, I don't know about you,
but I'd sure like to keep the God who owns everything happy
and have the God who owns everything want to help me.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord.
Now, I want blessings from God.
We'll follow the steps.
He that hath cleaned hands and a pure heart,
who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity
nor sworn deceitfully, draw nigh to God
and he'll draw nigh to you.
So we see number one, the ownership of God.
We saw that in verses one and two.
And then we see the companionship of God.
You say, I want to be friends with God.
Great, verses three to six, it outlines it for you.
Then I want you to notice in verses seven and 10,
we see the kingship of God.
This is again where it gets,
maybe it's easy to draw the,
to not focus on what's being said here
because just the beauty of the language.
Verse six says, this is the generation of them
that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, see love.
We've talked about that, look at verse seven.
Then the Bible says this,
lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Now it's interesting because here's the thing about gates,
they don't have heads.
Gates don't have heads to lift up.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.
Doors do not have heads to lift up.
You understand, the idea is lift up, like pay attention.
They're saying look up, pay attention.
But who's he talking to?
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.
These are objects that are being personified.
We're being told that the gates should look up
because we're about to be told that someone's coming.
And when this person comes, even the gates,
even the doors should wake up and pay attention.
Now you might say well this is poetic
and I do believe it's poetic.
I do think it's a personification
and I don't know that it's literal.
But let me just say this.
What we're going to see here is a description
of the king coming in.
Look at it again, verse seven.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
Now you might say well this is just poetic
and this is not literal and I would agree with you.
I think it is poetic, but let me just go ahead and say this.
When the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the king of kings,
who is the Lord of Lords, entered into Jerusalem
and they began to praise him and they said,
Hosanna, Hosanna, and they praised his name as he came in.
Remember the Pharisees got all bent out of shape
and they said, forbid them, stop them
from saying these things, and Jesus said,
if I were to stop them, the rocks themselves would cry out.
The rocks would open their mouths
and begin to speak and say,
Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Here we're being told that the gates
should lift up their heads, that the everlasting doors,
why, because when the king comes,
he's not just coming for you and I.
Praise God he's coming for you and I,
but he owns the whole earth.
He owns the whole world.
He owns all the real estate and all the buildings
and all the government, and listen,
when he comes, yes, you and I,
like we're told in the gospels,
need to lift up our head for our redemption draweth nigh,
but every animal will be looking up as well,
and even the doors and even the gates
and even the rocks will be excited, why?
Because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
It all belongs to him.
The sad thing is that I think he says
the gates and the doors should get excited
because there might not be that many people who are excited.
In fact, Jesus asked the question,
he said when the son of man returns to the earth,
he said he wondered if there would be any faith.
So we see here that the king is coming.
Lift up your heads, oh ye gates,
and be ye lift up your everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
Now let me just give you this,
and you can write this down for your notes if you'd like.
This Psalm, Psalm 24, is actually the third part
of a trilogy of sorts.
In fact, there's been three Psalms in a row
that have all been characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember Psalm 22?
We were in Psalm 22 on Christmas Day.
Christmas happened to fall on a Wednesday this year,
and we're in Psalm 22.
Do you remember what Psalm 22 was all about?
It was all a descriptive prophecy
of the crucifixion of Christ.
Remember that?
Psalm 22 highlights the cross.
And then of course you have Psalm 23.
What is Psalm 23 all about?
The Lord is my shepherd.
Jesus said I am the good shepherd.
In Psalm 23, if you wanna give it an alliterated title,
Psalm 22 deals with the cross,
Psalm 23 deals with the crook.
And a crook of course is like a staff
or a cane for a shepherd,
if you can envision those canes
that had like the hook on the top.
Psalm 22 describes the crook, the cross.
Psalm 23 describes the crook, the shepherd.
Psalm 24 describes the crown.
These are all characteristics of Jesus.
He is coming.
He came for a cross.
He shepherds us now with a crook.
But you know when he comes back,
he's coming back with a crown.
Lift up your heads, oh ye gates,
and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
So we see that the king is coming,
but then I want you to notice verse eight,
we see that the king is the Lord.
Because remember there's a series of questions
and they're being asked here.
Verse eight, here's the next question.
Who is the king of glory?
So you're saying hey, the king is coming.
The king of glory is coming.
Oh ye gates, lift up your heads,
oh ye gates, be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
And then the question is asked,
well who is the king of glory?
And then the answer is given.
Look at these beautiful words.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty.
The Lord, mighty in battle.
Look, he came as a lamb, he's coming back as a lion.
Who is the king of glory?
They're gonna say you're not gonna be able to miss him.
It's the Lord, capital L, capital O,
capital R, capital D, Jehovah God,
the great I am that I am,
strong and mighty.
The Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, oh ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of hosts.
The word hosts means army.
He is the king of glory, Selah.
And if you remember Daniel,
you don't have to turn back there,
but let me just read it for you.
In Daniel chapter four and verse 35,
it said this, and all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he, the Lord,
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven.
So heaven is described as an army.
He is the Lord of hosts.
He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth.
So when he comes back, he's coming back
as a great king, as a great general,
as a great warrior king.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty.
The Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, oh ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors,
and the king of glory shall come in.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of hosts.
He is the king of glory, Selah.
Let me just give you a couple of verses real quickly
just for application, and we'll finish up.
But if you would, go with me to the Old Testament book
of 1 John, 1 John chapter three.
Let me give you just a little bit of application.
We've seen God's ownership and we've seen God's kingship.
And we've seen the fact that this owner king is coming back.
And when you and I understand,
when we properly understand the ownership of God
and the kingship of God,
what I like about this psalm is that it really highlights
how God owns you.
How does he own you in so many ways?
He owns you just because you're his creation.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
But then he also owns you because he's your king.
Because when you got saved,
you were brought into the kingdom of God.
Remember, the kingdom of God is in you.
And you are his subject.
You are his citizen.
So when we understand God's ownership through creation
and God's kingship, which could be creation as well,
you could apply it there,
but I think the application here is through salvation.
And when you understand that he's coming back,
then it helps us with our stewardship.
His ownership, our stewardship.
His kingship, our accountability.
You say, what do you mean?
1 John 3, look at verse two.
1 John 3, two.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
And it does not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when he shall appear.
Lift up your heads, you gates.
Doors, look up.
The king is coming when he shall appear.
You see, we don't know.
We know that we're the sons of God.
It does not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him.
Why?
Because this mortal will put on immortality.
This corruption will put on incorruption,
will be transformed and changed in the twinkling of an eye.
When he shall appear, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Isn't that beautiful?
Look at verse three.
And every man that hath this hope.
What hope?
The hope that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Every man that hath this hope in him,
look at these words, purifieth himself,
even as he is pure.
See, a proper understanding of the ownership
and the kingship of God, and that Jesus is the owner
and the king of everything, including you and me,
and he's coming back, it should create in us
this idea of stewardship, that when he comes back,
he's going to want to know what I did with my life.
And every man that hath this hope in him,
purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Let me just read to you from Matthew 24,
and if you'd like to go there,
you can just go there quickly.
First book of the New Testament, Matthew 24.
I'll just read this for you, and we'll finish up.
Here's the idea.
God owns everything, and he's coming back one day,
and he's going to judge you, and he's going to judge me.
And if we're mindful of that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is,
and every man that hath this hope in him,
purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
If you and I are mindful of that,
then we're going to seek him, we're going to clean our hands,
we're going to purify our hearts,
we're not going to allow ourselves
to get lifted up with pride,
we're going to treat people right,
we're going to do all those things
with the understanding that one day the king is coming.
And he's going to hold us accountable.
Matthew 24, verse 42, just another passage
that kind of highlights the same thing.
Matthew 24, verse 42, Jesus said this.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what your Lord,
excuse me, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the good man of the house had known
in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched and would not have suffered
his house to be broken up.
Therefore, here's what Jesus says,
be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not,
the son of man cometh.
The king is coming.
And then, excuse me, verse 45,
who then is a faithful and wise servant,
whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household,
to give them meat and dew season.
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord,
when he cometh, shall find so doing.
Verily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler
over all his goods.
And the idea is this, God owns everything,
he's coming back.
So we need to be faithful and wise servants.
We need to make sure that when he comes,
that the Lord, when he cometh, shall find you and I
so doing.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.
And we thank you for the Psalm,
and just the beauty in it, the power in it.
It's beautiful poetry, of course.
But also, Lord, help us to
look at the things that it's actually saying.
Help us to remember the ownership of God,
the companionship of God,
the kingship of God,
and the stewardship of man.
We're gonna be held accountable, Lord,
help us to remember these things.
We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, we're gonna have Brother Moses come up
and lead us in a final song.
Just wanna give you a couple reminders, if you don't mind.
First of all, don't forget, if you can help,
if there's any men out there, young men,
that want to help this Friday morning,
we could use your help with cleaning out here.
And if you're able to help, just see me
or see one of the staff guys and let us know.
Also, Friday evening, we're having
the audio-video ministry training,
so just don't forget about that.
If you'd like to participate with that,
again, let one of us know.
And this Saturday is the Spanish service,
so if you'd like to participate in that.
Of course, we have Soul Wedding on Saturday.
We'd love for you to be a part of that.
But on Saturday at 5 p.m., we have the Spanish service,
and we'd love for you to participate with that as well.
If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know.
We appreciate you being here tonight.
We'll have Brother Moses come up and lead us in a final song.
Turn in your song books, page number 389.
Page number 389.
We're going to go ahead and sing,
Bring Them In.
That's page number 389, Bring Them In.
And let's go ahead and sing that out on the first verse.
Bring them in.
And let's go ahead and sing that out on the first verse.