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[0:00] Psalm 24, if you would stand with me.

[0:18] ! We'll honor the reading of God's Word together. The psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, who dwell therein.

[0:31] For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place?

[0:42] He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.

[0:56] Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

[1:10] Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

[1:24] Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word. Would you please be seated?

[1:35] Psalm 24 describes a procession of a king from the outer provinces of his realm to a central high location as he enters through the gates of a city where those who follow him join him in worshipful celebration of his conquest and his return.

[2:06] Many biblical scholars associate the origin of this psalm, Psalm 24, with the time when David, who was serving as King of Israel, brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.

[2:20] That event is recorded in 2 Samuel 6, 12 through 19, and 1 Chronicles 13. But what I want to share this morning, what I find interesting about that event is the event that happened just before it, recorded in 2 Samuel 6, 5 through 10.

[2:36] Let's look at that together. And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

[2:47] And again, this is on their way to taking the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled.

[3:00] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God struck him down there because of his error and he died there beside the Ark of God.

[3:12] And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day.

[3:23] And he said, How can the Ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the Ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

[3:36] Why did God strike down Uzzah? To us, the punishment may not seem to fit the crime. Wasn't Uzzah just trying to do something good by attempting to keep the Ark from sliding out of the cart?

[3:57] We can ask, Why would God rain on his own parade as the Ark of the Covenant was transported in worship to him to Jerusalem? Was God having a bad day?

[4:09] We could wonder, Well, isn't God loving and merciful? Why did he seemingly snap in this moment?

[4:21] Well, God gave clear and precise instructions for the construction and the transportation of the Ark of the Covenant.

[4:32] He told his people very clearly and specifically, Only the men from the tribe of Levi, priests from the family line of Kohath were able or were permitted to transport his Ark using poles.

[4:50] Those poles were to rest on the shoulders of those specific men as they carried God's Ark. God also gave explicit warnings to his people that no one was to touch it or they would die.

[5:05] Numbers 4.15. These instructions were a means of preserving a sense of God's holiness in the minds and the hearts of his people.

[5:19] David and the people were worshiping God, but not according to his instruction as he had given it to them in his word, and that greatly displeased him. David had men, but not from the tribe of Levi, not from the family of Kohath, put the Ark in a cart pulled by oxen, completely disregarding God's instructions.

[5:48] Pragmatically speaking, David's decision made sense. This was a nine-mile journey from where the Ark was at Baal Judah to Jerusalem.

[6:00] The oxen could cover that ground quicker with greater stamina than men, but God won't receive forms of worship which compromise his holiness.

[6:13] God is displeased when we prioritize our preferences over his glory. God is angry when we show disregard for his holiness in our worship.

[6:30] Uzzah thought that he was doing good, but his actions disobeyed God's word and were an affront to his holiness. He sinned in thinking that his hand was less polluted than the dirt that the Ark may have fallen on.

[6:51] Yes, God is a loving God. Yes, God is incredibly merciful, but yes, God defends his holiness with his power. He won't receive worship that downplays or ignores the truth of who he truly is.

[7:09] As Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, God seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth. God cares about your attitude when you worship him, and that is a truth communicated through Psalm 24.

[7:30] The main idea for this morning's message, Psalm 24 conveys the right attitude for worshiping the Lord. Psalm 24 conveys the right attitude for worshiping the Lord.

[7:41] Why does this matter? It matters for Christians because if we aren't careful, we can develop pragmatic styles of worship. And by that, I mean styles of worship are ways of doing things in the church where we think the ends justify the means.

[7:57] And so we'll alter our worship styles. We'll create entertaining programs. We'll shorten the length of sermons to appeal to a broader audience in the hopes that we'll increase our numbers.

[8:13] The danger is that that success of such methods undermines obedience to God's word and compromises the integrity of our worship.

[8:29] God also cares about your worship because your worship reflects what you truly believe about Him. When those who do not believe or are unconverted, the unbeliever, the unsaved worships with us, hear our posture, our facial expressions, the volume of our singing and the attentiveness that we give to what is being preached or what is being sung or what is being prayed should convey to them that we genuinely love the Lord, that we are genuinely worshiping Him.

[9:05] We are not merely or simply going through some kind of formulaic worship thing. On our one-year anniversary, Danny and I went to St. Louis and we went to a Cardinals game and I'm from Kansas City and Royals fans view Cardinals fans as enemies.

[9:27] But the love that the Cardinals fans had for their team, the passion that they had for baseball was contagious.

[9:39] And as a result of that, I've developed a liking for the Cardinals because of how much I enjoyed watching baseball with their fans. The point being that I'm trying to make is that our worship is a witness to the God we love who's been gracious to save us, redeem us, and give us abundant and eternal life.

[10:01] Unbelievers, when they gather with us, when they see us worship, they should see a reverent, joyful attitude in our worship.

[10:14] Not just going through the motions, but truly delighting in our Lord. Maybe you are here today because someone forced you to come.

[10:26] Maybe you're here today because going to church is part of your tradition. Maybe you're here to socialize and see your friends. Maybe you're here because you fear what could happen if you're not here.

[10:41] But maybe not. I hope not. Hopefully you're here because you desire to obey the Lord who saved you. But whatever the case, your attitude in worship matters to God.

[10:54] it matters to others and it should matter to you. On a deeper level, maybe you are saved, but your worship feels ritualistic.

[11:09] It feels empty. Let me ask you some questions. how often do you pray for our time together as a church when we worship the Lord?

[11:23] How often do you pray for Pastor Tyler as he leads us in worship? How often do you pray for me during the week as I prepare to preach a sermon to you?

[11:37] How often do you pray for the people in the pews sitting next to you that they would be prepared to come ready to worship with you on Sunday? How often do you pray for yourself?

[11:50] Just asking God to prepare your mind, your heart, your spirit for worship on Sunday morning.

[12:03] How often do you pray that God will sanctify those who he's been gracious to save and save those who aren't saved? Through Psalm 24, the Lord will challenge our attitudes toward him in worship.

[12:19] It matters to him and thus it should matter to you. I think part of having the right attitude in worship is preparing ourselves to worship.

[12:34] If you're here this morning and you are not saved, you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I tell you this in love that what we read about God and his word, what he's revealed to us is that he will not receive all forms of worship.

[12:52] All roads don't lead to heaven. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. And so what you'll see today as we go through this psalm is the truth about God and what he's done to make that one way possible for you to be saved from your sins through faith in Jesus Christ, his son.

[13:21] I have prayed for you and I'm glad you're here. Psalm 24 conveys the right attitude for worshiping the Lord. How do we worship the Lord with the right attitude?

[13:32] Well, Psalm 24 provides three answers to that question. The first answer, how do we worship the Lord with the right attitude? It starts with acknowledging the Lord as creator.

[13:44] Acknowledge the Lord as creator. The right attitude of worship begins with the right understanding of God as creator. Again, verses 1 through 2, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

[14:02] In the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, we are told that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. He created everything below the earth, he created everything on the earth, he created everything in the earth, he created everything above the earth.

[14:19] And the pinnacle of his creation was man. Genesis 1, 26 through 31 says, then God said, let us, we see the Trinity there, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

[14:44] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

[15:04] And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food and every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food and it was so.

[15:26] And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Genesis 2 provides additional details about how God created Adam, the job that he gave Adam and the parameters that he established for Adam as his steward of his creation.

[15:50] Genesis 2, 7 says, then the Lord formed the man out of the dust, out of the dirt, from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.

[16:02] Genesis 2, 15 through 17, the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat it for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

[16:26] God created all things. God owns all things. There is no realm, there is no territory, there is no corner, there is no crack, there is no crevice, there is no creature or creation that God doesn't have full ownership and sovereignty over.

[16:48] The right attitude towards God in worship begins with an acknowledgement in worship that God is the owner, he is the creator of all things.

[17:01] The life you have, the air that we are breathing right now, it belongs to God. We all entered this world with nothing and we will all exit this world that God created with nothing.

[17:16] God owns all things and all things live in submission to him. Sin has completely ruined our understanding of this, of God, his position of authority over us and our role as stewards, not owners of his creation.

[17:41] In Genesis 3, Satan took the form of a serpent tempting Eve to doubt God's word, to doubt his trustworthiness and believe that in disobeying God she would actually become like God.

[17:55] She and Adam ate, sin entered the world. Every person ever since is born with a sin nature, a desire to sin, a desire to be our own authority, to reject God as that authority, a nature to do our own thing, to determine our own truth, to take ownership of what really belongs to God.

[18:24] As a parent, I find myself often reminding my kids, who I love very much, that they don't own anything in our house. They don't own any of it.

[18:38] They don't pay the bills. They don't keep the electricity on and the water running. They don't buy the groceries that they eat, the food that goes on their table.

[18:49] We give them a room. We give them a space in our house, but it's not really their room. It's not their own separate kingdom with a different set of rules than the ones that we've established for our house.

[19:07] It doesn't work if they go into their room and say, well, in this room, we don't have to clean. In this kingdom, we can stay up as late as we want. No, that's not how things work.

[19:20] They don't own it. We do, and technically, God does. Well, God doesn't technically. He does. And there are punishments if the rules of the house are disobeyed.

[19:35] it's no different with God. And it's silly that we would think that it is. God created all things and his status as creator, as owner, gives him the right to make the rules for those whom he has created.

[19:57] And those who break his rules, his commands, are accountable to him. They will face his judgment. There were severe consequences for Adam and Eve's sin.

[20:08] God banished them from the Garden of Eden. He blocked their entrance, their way back. And all of creation again fell under the curse of sin, meaning again that we are all born with a nature, a desire to sin.

[20:24] We reject God's position of ownership and authority over what he created, including our own lives. people worship Mother Earth.

[20:36] Some people give a land acknowledgement, acknowledging the indigenous people who once owned the land that they're currently meeting on. All of this to say that people acknowledge the earth sometimes in worship.

[20:52] They acknowledge other people as owners of the earth, but altogether they are rejecting the reality that all things belong to God.

[21:03] Why do people do this? Romans 1, 18 through 20 says this, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness they are suppressing the truth.

[21:17] For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse.

[21:32] The sin nature compels people to reject the evidence God gives of his existence in what he's made. As Christians we've been reborn, we've been transformed by the Holy Spirit who renews our minds and our hearts but until we reach the final state of our salvation which is glorification the sin nature remains and we must daily go to war with it seeking to kill sinful attitudes that lead us to think that we own what God has given us to steward.

[22:06] A couple of weeks ago after our worship service I was walking down the stairs to my office with Hazel and she asked me, do you own the church?

[22:17] And I told her, no, I don't own the church. And she said, well who owns it? I said, well God owns it. And I could tell that she needed some more details.

[22:31] I said, well God has given this building and these ministries to our church members to steward. He owns it all and we act as his stewards.

[22:45] We take good care of it for him using our church, our building, our ministries to do what he wants us to do. And she heard that and she said, well, all my friends still think you own the church.

[22:59] And I said, well tell your friends they're wrong. But invite them to come to church where we can explain more. I think hopefully we all agree that God owns the church.

[23:11] God owns the people of the church, that is the true church. God owns all the resources that the church has been given by him. But if we're honest, sometimes our attitudes don't reflect that, do they?

[23:26] When it comes to our giving, we keep what God commands us to give. When it comes to a ministry we've been asked to serve in, sometimes we feel threatened by others who might take our place or sit in my pew.

[23:44] And we dig in to protect our kingdom, our territory, forgetting that we aren't owners. We're stewards. Sometimes our involvement in church isn't to serve others but to protect our place or our position.

[24:02] And that's not the right attitude to have. It's not the attitude of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself, the Bible tells us.

[24:13] He took the form of a servant to die for our sins. redeeming us from our sins and restoring our relationship with God that sin severed.

[24:26] This is the encouragement Paul gives to the Philippian church in chapter 2 to have the mind of Christ, to have the attitude of Christ.

[24:38] As it pertains to our worship, the right attitude begins with acknowledging the Lord as creator and the owner of all things, including your life that he's given to you. We should all come with this attitude when we gather in this place.

[24:54] And that attitude should begin at the latest Saturday night. Pray for our Sunday school teachers. Pray for our nursery workers.

[25:09] Pray for those who will be on this stage to lead in worship. Pray for Tyler. pray for me. Pray for our praise team. Pray for those who are in the pews next to you.

[25:22] That we would all worship in spirit and in truth. That the Lord would be pleased with what he sees. Pray for yourself. That you will wake up eager to gather with your church family and worship God and hear his word and pray that you will obey it.

[25:44] This acknowledgement affects the way we approach the Lord in worship. Which goes to the second answer now. How do we worship the Lord with the right attitude? We approach the Lord in righteousness.

[25:59] We acknowledge him as creator. We approach the Lord in righteousness. In verse 3, David asks, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? In other words, he's asking who can come before God.

[26:12] What kind of person will he admit into his presence in heaven? God is holy, which means he is completely and he is totally without sin.

[26:23] The Bible tells us that unlike us, God is eternal. He is preeminent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He was, is, and forever will be.

[26:35] He is self-existent. He is ageless, tireless, and faultless. He is knowable, but beyond our ability to fully comprehend because he is God. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[26:53] Romans 6.23 says that the wages of sin is death. God is the creator. He is the giver of life. Sin separates us from him and the wages of sin is death.

[27:06] In Ephesians 4.18, it describes the unbeliever. It describes the unrepentant. It describes those before they were saved by faith in Jesus Christ. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

[27:24] Sin separates us from God and it hardens our heart and it affects our attitudes towards him. Colossians 1.21 says that sin makes us hostile towards God.

[27:35] The separation exists because God is perfect and we are not. The universe he created was perfect. Adam and Eve were perfect until they sinned.

[27:48] Their eyes, though, when they did sin were opened and they knew, they realized that this separation had occurred. And when God came looking for them, they ran from him, they hid from him, they separated themselves from God.

[28:07] For believers, the holiness of God presents another kind of dilemma for us. We are drawn to him. And the more we're drawn to him, the more aware we are of his holiness.

[28:19] And as a result of that, the more aware we are of our sinfulness. Such was the case for Isaiah. Isaiah 6.1-5. He testifies, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up in the train of his robe, filled the temple.

[28:39] Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

[28:51] The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called the house and was filled with smoke.

[29:03] And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

[29:19] John, the disciple of Jesus, had a similar experience in Revelation 1.17. When he saw the Lord resurrected, he fell at his feet as though as if he were dead.

[29:31] The more we are aware of God, the more we are aware of his holiness, and the more we are aware of our sinfulness. That's a dilemma. In verse 4, David lists the requirements of the one who can stand before God.

[29:44] He says, he who has clean hearts, clean hands, excuse me, and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. The Hebrew words translated as does not lift up and does not swear are in the perfect tense.

[29:59] This describes someone who has not, does not, and will not lift up his soul to what is false. This describes someone who has not, does not, and will not swear deceitfully.

[30:12] This is a person who is clean of sin and its effects both on the outside and on the inside. And when we measure our lives by those requirements, we have a problem, don't we?

[30:27] A big problem. We don't measure up. We all fall short. We've all sinned. Sin separates us from God's.

[30:38] That's the bad news. But verse 5 contains good news. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. The Lord has done something for us.

[30:52] There is a righteousness we receive from him. How do we receive it? While we don't measure up, Jesus did.

[31:05] He had clean hands. The Bible says that Jesus committed no sin. Hebrews 4.15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

[31:20] Jesus' hands were clean. He used his hands to serve, to heal, and allowed them to be pierced by nails, dying in our place for our sins to cleanse us of them.

[31:36] Jesus was pure of heart. 1 Peter 2.21-22 says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

[31:53] Jesus entrusted himself completely to the Father's will. He alone has met all the requirements, and the good news is that Jesus didn't meet those requirements for himself, but for us.

[32:07] He came to make you and me qualified to enter, to be in God's presence. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For our sake he, that's referring to God the Father, made him, God the Son, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[32:30] Although Jesus was sinless, he carried our sin on the cross. He died. Enduring the wrath of the Father for the sins that we've committed against him.

[32:42] He died in our place. And three days later, he rose again, that our dirty hands, stained by our sin, are made clean.

[32:55] He saves us in salvation. He transforms us. He gives us a new heart, a pure heart, as he transforms us by the indwelling of his spirit into people who seek after him, seek after the things of God.

[33:15] He clothes us in his righteousness. He drapes us. He wraps us in it. He justifies us, removing both the guilt and the penalty of sin. He removes the separation that existed between us at one time, between God who is holy and we who are sinful.

[33:32] By faith in him, we are declared innocent, though we are guilty, because Jesus paid the price to redeem us from our sins. Look at verse 6.

[33:46] Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. This is a striking transition. We go from reading about an individual to an entire group of people.

[34:00] One man kept God's requirements completely and perfectly, making a way for an entire generation of people to seek God and to enter his presence.

[34:12] In worship, we can approach God in the righteousness we have received from his son, Jesus Christ, as Hebrews 4.16 tells us. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[34:28] This new status that we have, this access that we have to God, this salvation that we have received changes our relationship to God and the rest of the world.

[34:41] In Christ, we seek to be like him. We seek to obey him. We want to be holy like him. 1 Peter 1.13-16 says, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[35:01] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

[35:15] This is the attitude we should come with when we gather as a church. I'm coming to be convicted of my sin.

[35:27] I'm coming to be challenged to pursue holiness. I'm coming that God would use this time to conform me into the image of Jesus Christ, my Lord.

[35:39] I'm coming to worship God who has made the way for me to be able to approach him through the righteousness that I didn't have, but I was given by faith in his son, Jesus Christ.

[35:51] And we should all have this attitude that I don't have to go to church. I get to go to church. I get to go be a part of the family of God.

[36:02] I get to assemble with the redeemed and announce with them the greatness, the goodness, and the graciousness of my glorious king.

[36:13] Which brings us to the third answer. How do we have the right attitude in worship? Announce the Lord is king. In verses seven through 10, we have this processional led by the man with clean hands and a pure heart who's ascending the hill of the Lord, leading a generation of people who have received his righteousness.

[36:32] He comes to the gates of this city with ancient doors. And the gates are personified as having drooping heads as if they've fallen asleep from this long wait for this king to return.

[36:47] But at long last, the king has arrived. And we hear the voice of a herald. And it's as if he's saying, he's here. He's here.

[36:57] Wake up. Get up. Open up. Verses seven through 10. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory?

[37:09] The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory?

[37:19] The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. The king of glory is the Lord. It's Yahweh. God is the king of glory who ascends the hill of God to bring us into the presence of God.

[37:34] This king can refer to only one man, one person, and that person is Jesus Christ, the God-man. Fully God.

[37:46] Truly God. Truly man. Man. This king can't refer to anyone else other than Jesus Christ, who was mighty for us in battle, who defeated Satan, sin, and death through his sinless life, his sacrificial death, and his victorious resurrection.

[38:04] As we looked at in Psalm 23, he is the good shepherd who leads his sheep in the fields and guides them to the place where all of God's promises are realized, where God's people will dwell with their creator forever in a place without sin.

[38:21] 2,000 years ago, Jesus exited the city gates of Jerusalem and he ascended a hill bearing a cross.

[38:35] And on that hill, he was crucified. The seed of the woman God promised to Adam and Eve after the curse had come and he had accomplished what he was sent to do.

[38:54] He crushed the head of the serpent. And from the cross, Jesus' last words, with all the strength that he could muster up, he cried out, it is finished.

[39:12] And by that he meant, my mission in coming this time has been achieved. Sin has been atoned for. Death is defeated. The chasm separating sinful people from their holy creator has been bridged.

[39:30] The way has been made. Jesus took our sins. He suffered our penalty. And in exchange for all of this, he gives us his righteousness. And one day, one day, the king of glory, our divine warrior, our good shepherd, our gracious king will return and will lead us through the gates into God's eternal kingdom.

[40:01] Will you be a part of that procession? Will you be in the crowd of people who follow the king of glory through the gates of the new city God prepared for those who have trusted in him?

[40:18] Do you know what God requires? we've heard it. Clean hands. A pure heart. Obedient life.

[40:31] Do you know that you don't measure up? Do you know that the only solution that can wash the dirt off of your hands and purify your heart and give you a new life is Jesus Christ?

[40:46] Christ. Your good works can't save you. No matter how good you are in comparison or think you are in comparison to others, the Bible says that all of our good works are like filthy garments to God who's holy, holy, holy.

[41:04] And absolute holiness and righteousness is the requirement to enter into his presence. and on our own we could never achieve that. Never. But in his love and in his grace God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

[41:21] He sent his son, the eternal word of God who added a human nature to his divine nature who lived sinlessly, who died sacrificially, willingly on the cross knowing that there he would bear the sins for all who believed in him or who would believe in him.

[41:45] And he died and three days he rose again as proof that he is who he said that he is, that he has accomplished all that he said that he came to accomplish.

[42:00] Our king went out to battle. Our king is coming again. And before he comes for you if you have not trusted in him today is the day now is the time.

[42:13] Because he said he's coming at a day and a time that we don't know but it's imminent and I implore you be reconciled to God the Father through faith in Jesus Christ his son.

[42:26] Come to him with your dirty hands and he will clean them. Come to him with your sin and he will forgive you and he will clothe you in his righteousness and you will have eternal life.

[42:39] For the rest of us whom God has been gracious to save I think this is how we adjust. We need to analyze our attitudes towards the Lord. This is what I encourage you to do.

[42:51] This is the challenge that I have for you believer, member of Highland Park Baptist Church. I don't know what you do to prepare yourself for worship on Sunday morning but I am encouraging you to analyze that.

[43:03] What are you doing if anything? How are you preparing yourself for worship? How much do you pray for our teachers our worship leaders or whoever is going to preach God's word to you during the week?

[43:17] Take time to do that. I encourage you to do it every day. Pray for the nursery workers again, the teachers for God to use our time together to conform us into the image of his son.

[43:32] And I encourage you to do this. Pray that unbelievers would come. Pray for their salvation. Pray for the sanctification of those whom God has been gracious to save. Pray that as a church we will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

[43:48] Would you commit to do that? And if you're already doing that, thank you. I ask you to do it more and more until the coming of our glorious King.

[43:58] Let's pray. Lord, you are the King of glory. And Lord, we are thankful that you are our King.

[44:13] You're a good King. You're a gracious King. You're a kind King. You're merciful. And Lord, you have done for your people what only you could do.

[44:31] God, coming, living amongst us, meeting the requirements that we could never meet, giving your life to atone for our sins, rising again, that by faith in you we are completely and totally forgiven, that we are changed and transformed, that we have new life in you and that life will go on forever until that time when we are in that place with you and we will worship you, the King of glory, where sin will no longer be present in our lives or in the new city that you make for those who have trusted in you to dwell with you.

[45:13] God, I pray that for each of us whom you've been gracious to save, that we would that we would wrestle with the attitudes that we have when we gather together as a church with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

[45:29] Lord, Satan can't take away our salvation but he can distract us and he makes every effort to do that, to distract our minds and our hearts off of worshiping you, to think about things that are temporal instead of eternal to, Lord, make us think that we own things that we are truly just stewards of.

[45:53] And oftentimes when we gather to worship these distractions, Lord, are so distracting that we forget who we're singing about, who we're singing to and what we're singing with one another. So God, forgive us and help us to have this kind of attitude that is thankful for today, that praises you for all that you are and that looks forward to all that you're going to do as you return and take us to our heavenly home.

[46:19] And God, for those who aren't here, I pray that they would know that there is a king and a time will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.

[46:31] And I pray, Lord, that they would submit to you, bow to you in recognition and not in bitter grief that they did not do so in life, but in recognition that you have saved them and that you are the good and gracious king, the king of glory.

[46:48] God, we pray for our church that we would worship you in ways that please you, that you would receive it and that it would be a testimony of how awesome and good you are. In Jesus' name we pray.

[47:00]  Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.