Psalm 24

Psalm 24

Happy fourth of july weekend. Good morning. I’m thankful for the opportunity to spend a few moments of you looking at God’s word, I’m gonna share a short story and if I do my job right, I’ll tie it together here. Later in the sermon, this passage today reminded me of my trash this week. I have a have a street I live on and the lady that lives behind me, she’s this retired, sweet dear ex teacher of music and she’s been teaching my kids all sorts of musical instruments. And so she eventually noticed by smelling that a possum died in one of her huge flower beds she has in her backyard. And so she asked that I would dispose of said possum. It was already a week plus old dead. And so I grabbed my shovel that I hardly ever used and I carried it over and I scooped up the possum and I put it in the black trash actually had, I tied it, I spun it and I carried it back to my trash and I threw it in my trash. This is day zero of my trash. My trash can is usually clean. I sprayed out once in a while. Um and it’s, it’s immaculate trash can. Um and so I threw the dead possum in the very bottom of trash and what about my day Week Plus All Dead Possum. Day one you know, some flies, my kids seven, they threw some trash in on top of the possum heap week. Day two, we added some more trash. Day three, you can smell, you know, little width of dead carcasses floating around the house on either side. Day four, Day five, you can smell a strong width of carcass rotting. Day seven I drug that can out to the curb and I was concerned the trash man would not take it. I didn’t take a photo because I thought that’s cruel. I’m gonna explain and describe what it was until I see concerned faces and I’ll stop. But the dead possum remains have produced fluid. Black fluid which made its way out of that sack into the bottom where there’s this pool of hair and fluid and maggots and flies, I’d say a couple 100 maggots and a couple 100 flies. It was insane. It was disgusting, gross revolting. It was like take a breath and throw something else in and close the lid. It was rough. And so I was texting and I’m like anne is everything okay with our trash? Did he take it? You know? And he said he looked concerned, but he took the trash. So I’m gonna pause there, We’re gonna pray. But that that reminds me of my passage I’ve signed this morning, I’ll come back to it. But let’s pray God, thank you for the word of God, I thank you that you are writing stories in our lives and the greatest and grandest story you’re you’re sharing is your story of redemption of all of mankind. I thank you for this word of God. We get we get a hold in our hands. Thank you for the main theme of this story is jesus, the main authors a tent as God’s rescue plan for salvation of men and women on this planet. I just thank you for the great story of writing our lives where we all come nearer to you. You instruct us with, with the Word of God, encourage us with the Word of God humble us with the Word of God helps us submit to the word of God. Help us to yield to the word of God helps to be encouraged refresh and some of us need to kick in the butt. Others need a hug from the Word of God. I pray your word with your spirit to do your work in the grand story of these men and women’s lives. You’re writing, We pray this in jesus name Amen. Today we’re kicking off a new series at our church. We value the bible. And so a quick little shout out to your bible. Your bible consists of 66 books in your bible and they’re written over 40 different authors of men of various diverse backgrounds. Uh profits, priest, tax collectors, I. R. S. Agents, fishermen, shepherds, doctors, Kings, military leaders, musicians, politicians Over 1500 years, several different continents, multiple different countries wrote the word of God and there’s unity across this book from cover to cover, there’s an amazing unity, There’s no contradictions, there’s no errors. Archaeology is discovering the cities. The bible mentions, the temples of people and kings. The bible mentions, The Bible has Malt 40 different authors over 1500 years. They have different perspectives and seasons of life. They wrote it, but they all proclaim the same message of the same God. And in your bible you’ll see different genres, different different styles of writing, some as narrative literature, which we have done as a church wisdom literature, which is like proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which we’ve done as a church prophecy literature. We’ve done some of that gospel literature, which we have a heavy dose of each fall epistles, a paco apocalyptic and poetry. There’s multiple different genres. And I saw this the other month. I love this. There’s a photo, um it’s done by a bible scholar and each of those white lines at the bottom of the graph. There is like a chapter in your bible and there’s cross references from the old testament to the new testament. From the old testament, different parts of the old testament. It’s just crazy how this entire intricate web of scripture, From the first page to the last page is intricately woven together and masterfully written across the lives of 40 different men for 1500 years. It’s an amazing work. It’s an amazing ancient book we’re reading from today and in that amazing ancient book. We’re looking at one of the books, one chapter of one of the books, my title for this message is God lovingly redeeming me and it’s in psalms 24 is what we’re looking at today. But the whole book of psalms is about in the middle of your bible. There’s 100 and 50 some psalms different chapters in that book. Half of them are written by David. Today’s psalm 24 is also written by David. 12 of them are in by Aesop 10 by the Sons of Coral, which is a low vehicle priest, professionals, professionals who wrote songs and poems To buy Solomon one by Moses and 50 summer unanimous. So what does the book of psalms exist if you’re paying attention to our intro video Chloe had for us the book of psalms exist so that it’s the way to model the examples of how to process the emotions of life all the ups and downs, twists and turns highs and lows you have and you will experience in this life as a follower of christ you’re gonna feel a lot of feelings, people and those feelings may or may not be right and biblical people, but the bottle model the bible models for us in the book of psalms, how to processes human emotions of this human experience. There are things you can sing about that, you can’t say we know that’s true in modern music. There’s things you can write in a poetic way to make you really get to the head of the person and all those experiences of life. If you had a great day or the worst day of your life, you lost your job this last week, or you got a job. If you had a baby or lost a baby, depends on what happened in your experience this week. A healthy model is laid out for you in the book of psalms and psalms 24 is what we’re looking at. It is one of the most majestic, stately hymns. In the whole book of psalms, we see several abrupt changes in subject matter. That’s not just me, I am abrupt and I changed frequently. If you’ve spent time with me that there’s scholars think this could have been three small separate poems that were combined to one song, him poem three independent works that are made one unified work. But we see this pattern throughout psalms 24, it’s 10 verses the first two verses, Look at God, the creator, verses three through six. Look at a holy God and verses seven through 10, Look at a glorious God. If you’re following along in the House Bibles, it’s page 261. So I’m 24 focuses on God, lovingly redeeming me. I’m supposed to be a history teacher. So the history of this psalm has a big history. Um when David was bringing the Ark of the covenant back to the city of Jerusalem, That whole ordeal, psalm 24 could have been involved in that ordeal or parts of it and the dedication of the temple that Solomon made in his lifetime, when the doors were hung, it could have been sang. This song could have been sang during that time and written with David had that dedication of the Temple day in mind when he wrote this song, the Tabernacle of feast, the annual New Year’s Festival, those two jewish holidays. This song had a big moment in those, those holidays and then I found this really interesting. It was commonly sung each monday morning in jewish temples. This song had a key part in the history of the jewish people and some think this psalm had poetic, I mean, prophetic renderings from here and with David writing it talking about it, jesus, someday returning to his heaven to a completely finished work and I agree, I can see that connection. Well, I’ve prayed, I’ve given you some background. Let’s look at it. Amen psalm 24 verse one, The focus is God the creator. It says this, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell there in, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. This is a foundational passage, a foundational bedrock of a biblical worldview is being laid out in these first two verses Verse one and 2, God owns it all because God made it all the Earth is the Lord’s let’s think about that for a second, the earth is the Lord’s. Why does this matter? Well, if you’re from one paradigm, that’s a bold claim that’s inconsiderate. That’s arrogant. How can you say the Earth as the Lord who gave God and Christianity creative rights to the entire earth? This is why evolution. Worldview and a creationist worldview deeply matters. So one world was like, we’re all evolved from millions and millions of years. Now I succeed. That mike revolution is a thing. Mac Revolution is not a thing. We don’t see anything in the fossil record of people transferring from scum to people. There’s not like half grown dolphin people walking around. You know, there’s, there’s either dolphins or there’s people, there’s either you get what I’m saying. There’s not a fossil record of half formed creatures. There’s a large debate and there’s tons of research on the creation side to dismantle evolution. If you like more information on that. I’d love to give it to you. There’s tons of books and resources. I’m sure we’ll buy some of the future and give it out to all your parents. There’s some great tools we’re using in our own house. The earth is the Lord’s If you make something, you own something in our current copyright law. If I create something, I have to still work at the copyright office and pay fees and do all that legal stuff to make something copyrighted regardless of our american institution of copyright stuff. If God made this planet and the earth, he owns it and he has ownership of it all. It’s kind of like your shirt might say made in china or fireworks might say made in America or made in Thailand or made somewhere. If you are a doctor or you’re a scientist looking at creation or our D. N. A. You should see made by God, you should see the creative fingerprints and signature in the copyright of God. His stamp on all the creation. I’ve spent a couple of years looking into this. It is amazing the complexity and the in criticism of how God created everything. The voice I’m using right now. How God made this organ to communicate to your intricately designed ears. It’s amazing system God’s created and that’s just what’s happening right now. And I’m talking about your eyes which is wild and we talk about everything on this planet. The earth is the Lord’s David. The psalmist writing on behalf of God. He writes the earth is the Lord’s you think back to genesis Dennis is one in the beginning, God created something, created everything the heavens and the earth. He created it. He owns it. It’s kind of like that that movie toy story, the bottom of their foot. He writes Andy my kids do that with their toys eh nox NOx rock miles. Like come on share the earth is the Lord’s the toys are your kids, He owns it. He created it. It’s his the signature on your soul on your D. N. A. On your fabric. Every breath of your life is God’s own and created the world and God owns and creates you. And that’s a big shift we just made God owns and creates animals and plants and those pretty sunsets. Sure. But God doesn’t own me. It doesn’t create me doesn’t have authority and ownership over me. That’s a that’s a very big thing we’re working through in the verse first of this song. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof the world and those who dwell there in those who dwell there in is a nice poetic way to say us we dwell and where God created, we are part of God’s creation where maybe we’re the chief pinnacle of God’s creation but we are a part of that created order. God made us. He intricately moved us, moved us together in our mother’s womb. He was there when life began in our existence. Those who dwell there and God can name claim to you and to me because he made you and me the earth is the Lord’s and you’re the Lord. There’s a new testament equivalent to this passage. If you follow the little arch from psalm 24 to the new testament paul wrote the same concept about God laying claim to you and I and his first Corinthians six verses 18 through 20 paul wrote this is a very anti christian pagan culture this church is planted and it’s a very weak unhealthy church at this time. This is not a healthy robust church and a very anti christian anti Christianity culture. First, Corinthians 6 18, I started a couple of verses earlier because it helps give some context. It says flee sexual morality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body, don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God. You are not your own where you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. We’re not our own. The earth is the worlds and all that dwell in it. He owns. We’re not our own, we’re double owned by God because the Holy Spirit in us and he’s purchased us with the blood of jesus and the Holy Spirit and dwelling in us. So let’s break this down. Men, women, men, you’re not your own. You belong to God and your body is not your own. It’s a servant of God and your body’s belongs to God and also belongs to your wife or your future wife. Someday men and honor and worship and glorify God and how you live sexually. That’s what paul writes about. Your body belongs to the Lord. Men. Women, you can’t say it’s my future. It’s my decision. It’s my body. I can do what I want with it. The bible says you belong to the Lord. Like mike. You’re really out of touch with the times. Well, we are looking at a timeless work of God that’s lame like the timeless work of God. And there’s parts of this bible that were not controversial a couple of years ago and now they’re controversial. Do you realize that this is an eternal book written to eternal beings and it’s not going to be popular to the here and now today. Think about it in the beginning, God created male and female. He made that wasn’t earthshaking news a couple of years ago. But nowadays our culture is redefining things. The bible doesn’t give us that permission. The bible’s very clear. We belong to the Lord. And because we belong to Lord, we serve him. We glorify him. We worship him. He says, honor me with your sexuality. Honor me and glorify me. Men on the Lord. Women honor the Lord. Men. If there’s, there’s multiple men’s purity groups that exist to help men walk through what it looks like and they cover things like accountability, prayer, uh, scripture that speaks to pursuing holiness and four main things. I forgot one of them. You should go to the classes. They’re confidential. They’re usually closed, but they’re open right now for a season. They’re adding men and these are excellent for men’s recovery groups. Um, they’re typically closed, but right now, I think they’re open. They will not be open much longer. Women if you struggle with this, tell your community leader, we go about, you know, identifying and assimilating women groups quite different than we do the men. A variety of very obvious reasons the earth is the Lord and all that is in it, the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell there in. He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. The emphasis of these first two verses, God’s sovereign hand over all the creation and all the creative beings and all people. So it’s a short catechism, you can tell your kids what is God’s everything everywhere for all time is God’s Psalm 24 1 2. God is the creator. And David continues because God is the creator, who created everything. He looks at God and he looks at himself, he looks at himself in humanity. And you see the holiness of God and this is key to catch one and two, the biblical worldview of creation and who owns it all goes to some very natural questions you would be thinking if you spent time dwelling and sitting in the question of what is God’s, what did he create? Who is it that created this being? He goes to verse three, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? The hill of the Lord is that that real estate? That hill that David bought. The temple is built upon. Who shall stand in his holy place At this time in the Jewish temple. They had priests. There were 11 tickle order priests who are like career, professional religious people that were developed their entire life work of memorizing the first five books of the bible of practicing the law meticulously. And they would go in once a year. There’s random lots were cast about a priest who would go into the temple, the most holy of holy places, a place where they’re set apart from all of the temple. Like people could come into if you couldn’t come into part of the temple, unless you’re jewish, you couldn’t come and pass a different part of the temple unless you’re a man, you couldn’t come deep into the temple unless your ceremonial clean. You couldn’t go deeper in the temple of your professional, you know, professional jewish priests. And there’s this holy holy place deep in the temple that no one could go into except for one time of year when they would offer sacrifices, light some incense, burned some candles and they would have these robes on. And they have these little bells on the bottom of the robes and you’d hear a little jingle of that man going into the temple and they’d have a rope tied around his waist in case he died. They would drag his carcass back out If God struck him dead because he was unworthiness come into God’s presence. They would drag his body out a possum smells. I’m sure a rotting carcass in the holy of holies would be problematic. So who can go into that space? This unclean unworthy people can’t be in the presence of a worthy and clean God. These verses three through six, the question and answer. You’ll see here, there’s probably chanted by the priests and the or the leave ites who shall ascend we, Who shall stand? There’s, there’s liturgical rhythms here in this psalm that we can see. But verse three is a question. Who gets to be in God’s presence? Who gets to be in the presence of God? Who gets to be with God? Now there’s like weight to the presence of God. There’s a holiness, there’s a reverence that most of american culture I would say does not get, we don’t put weights, reverence or holiness or worth to think about being in God’s presence, but I do think we do get some things we get the idea, the concept of power, prestige and fame. So let’s camp out on fame for a minute. Who gets to be in the presence of a famous celebrity, famous person. Looking at fame and celebrity. I have tom brady’s phone number. Now it’s Tommy brady. It’s not thomas Edward. Patrick brady the second. It’s Tommy brady. A minister here in Lincoln who does ministry? He changed? He calls himself Tommy to be very clear. That not to be confused. But if what we have to do to get tom brady thomas Edward Patrick brady the second phone number. How much money would you have to give? How long would have to stand in line? How many years did you have to work at the Tampa Bay Edward James Stadium? To be able to have a chance to shake his hand. He walks by to be able to see where he parks his car. He parked his car in the stadium. The owner and him gonna park the car in the stadium. We did a tour of it on our vacation a couple months ago. But you could what you have to do to get tom brady’s phone number to send, you know, means about hydration and pliability and whatnot to be in a texting relationship with tom brady, what would you do to have a friendship with tom brady? What would you do to be in the presence of a celebrity of a famous person? David, the psalmist is asking us a question that’s kind of posed the same way 1: verse one and 2 covers is God real? Is God real. If he’s real, he created everything everything for all time. And if he is real, how verses three through six, how do we get to be in the presence of God? I’ve had friends who’ve told me they heard I’m a pastor and they heard what I do and they’re like, I can’t go to your church if I do it’ll burst into flames and they have come both of those different friends of condom and the church is still here right now, that’s not burst into flames. The David continues on in verse four, Who can be in God’s presence, verse four, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, clean hands mean your outward action and a pure heart means your inward motivation. Who does not lift up his soul to what is false and who does not swear deceitfully, Who qualifies? Who can be in the presence of God, who has clean hands and a pure heart, who can come before the Lord and be in the presence of God. The Answer Is No one. We all have the same problem. We all are unworthy to be with God in the presence of God. We are completely and totally disqualified. Who can be in God’s presence. The answer is easy. Sinless people, no sinless people in this room. There’s no sense people in this city. If you spend any time with us the last 10 weeks, those 10 commandments, we worked through them one by one, and you might have walked in on a sunday morning thing. I’m good on this week. And as the sermon ended, you’re like, no, not that one to that one too. I didn’t murder anyone this week. You know, and you went through the entire thing and you’re like, wow! Those 10 commandments is a real brutal photo of me and myself and my sinfulness of my unclean hands and UNp your motivations as a person who can be in God’s presence. Verse four explains, we can’t we do not qualify. And then David continues on in verse five. Now it’s a it’s a Som It’s not it’s not it’s not it’s a poem. It’s a song, so it moves differently in literature. So he jumps to verse five, We will receive blessing from the Lord. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Like what? So what’s happening here, verse five, jesus happening there. The messiah is happening there. Every author in the new testament was looking forward to a future messiah that will come and redeem and save and could be in God’s presence on our behalf. And every author after the cross was looking back to jesus about how we could be saved and be in God’s presence and have right standing with God, the one sinless savior is able to be in God’s presence. And that’s jesus. The messiah Tobacco to four and Romans 1 6, 17, both quote the righteous will live by faith. Our righteousness, Righteousness is based off of God’s righteousness, not our own righteousness. Our righteous standing is made by jesus’s life, not my life. But then less churches speak more normalized language you get to go to heaven because of your relationship with jesus, not your resume, jesus resume gets you right standing with God, not your resume, jesus effort gets you right standing with God, not your effort. There’s none of us that can make a nice enough resume to impress God and of us that can that can have enough effort to get God’s attention. Your personal effort does not matter verses three through six. This this portion is the prerequisite for worship. And David starts naturally rise from this world to our condition in this world to who could come and stand in God’s presence on our behalf. There’s a recognition of the creation to the creator of this world, where we are now as unworthy sinners who need a worthy christ to come and redeem us negative verse six and verse six is the main hope. You can hang your hat on this morning. There’s this verse six probably was sung as a chorus by the congregation so they can really grasp verse six. Let’s read it together. Such is the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of God of Jacob, that is this individual. This sinless one would go into the presence of God and make a way for us to join God and have right standing with God. This is the only action on this whole song which is seek him. It’s not seek David, the author of this passage. It’s not seek your local priest. It’s seek him. The only one who could be sinless and righteous. That verse five and 6 talk about seek him christian. The old testament equivalent of seeking him was burning your idols and obeying God and worshiping God who gets to be in God’s presence. Those who seek him, how do you seek God? You seek God the way he called his people to seek him? How do I get to be close to God? The answer in Psalm 24 is you get to be close to God closer to God than you think you can. The way and how you seek him, seek him christian when you’re young and dumb like I was seek him when you never get tired of your joints, never hurt, seek him when you get older and you get hurt getting out of bed in the morning and your your elbow hurts and your eyes get wrinkled in them and you start to get white hair in your head. See kim christian, the worst days of your life, God, the best days of your life seek you grow old and your friends start to scatter and disappear and your kids don’t see you as much as they used to and you don’t have as many teeth as he used to seek him when your thoughts are about the past because that’s what you have seek him christian, who gets to be close to him. Those who seek him verses seven through 10, the results of all that’s been written about God, our creator and God is holy 7 to 10. They turn our attention, the author burst forth and worship about the glorious God we seek. It’s likely to call response very liturgical. It’s designed to have the high priest or a crowd of leave. Icts leading a chant of singing the song the first day of the week. And these repetitions of songs and songs are usual and normal and our songs have repetitions as well. Let’s look at this song, verses 67 verse seven, lift up your heads O gates. That’s a stick him reference and be lifted up o ancient doors. That’s a revelation. Reference that the King of Glory may come in there looking to jesus, the messiah. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. The biggest battle. The biggest problem we have is sin and death who’s able to defeat that became glorious. Lift up your head heads o gates to see kim emphasis and lift them up. O ancient doors that the King of Glory may come in as a revelation reference who is the King of Glory. It’s a messiah, jesus reference the Lord of host. It’s a term for the Lord’s the Lord Heaven’s army. He is the King of Glory and Saleh, which is a heavy moment to pause and reflect when the music is playing the little history highlight. David probably wrote this song when the doors were being hung up to be read when the doors will be hung on the temple and this song was re sang the first day that the temple, that grand day when the temple was opened up and completed and it’s fitting that the songs were written for the future dedication of the temple when David was dying and might have very well been saying in heaven when jesus was welcomed home, you know, I had a little fun and wrote a little story about what heaven will not be for you. It’s just remarkable that God is welcoming us has created people into his presence and a deep and meaningful relationship is what we talk about, a deep and meaningful relationship and I’m gonna contrast our experience with celebrity and leadership and fame is powerful people with what it will not be like in heaven, you’re not going to be dying and going to heaven and get a glimpse of jesus on july 3rd two new orientation sunday welcome class of january 3rd 2020 to welcome your new inductees to heaven, pack into this huge room and then comes in different people explaining where you’re gonna get stuff at heaven, what you need to do in heaven, what your work is that heaven, how things operate in heaven and then and quickly jesus walks in because a quick little hello hi 92nd thing and then the angel Secret Service leads them out, you walk around heaven for a while and like this is awesome, but I not hanging out jesus that much, I’m gonna go hang out, jesus, you go to the office of jesus And you request a meeting of Jesus and they say, well yeah easy. We have 15 minutes on July 14 and you know, 1600 years from now, give or take. Like is there a waiting list? That is the waiting list? Like okay great. I will uh I’ll low weight go to a dinner party for some of your friends in heaven and your friends in heaven say you know, I heard a guy who knows a guy who can get you in quicker, I’ll ask if I can help you out and I’m like okay great and then nothing happens of that. Finally years go by and your patient to wait. I mean it’s a great gig, you’re enjoying the place. Finally you get to go to your meeting and you’re there early and you’re ready. You have some photos, you have your bible, let’s say a bible or something and you have some questions and whatnot. He comes late just comes like he’s distracted by his iphone, there’s notifications and stuff. He came in on his phone and yes, there’s iphones in heaven and anyways you and him are talking, you have a few rushed combo who’s distracted and then you’re like, he’s gotta go because someone is more important is calling when you’re like yeah that’s cool, I’m just glad to be here and then you’re like, hey jesus just get a self, he’s like yeah you better smile, Great selfie, You loved it, your fingers in it, it’s fine. You’re happy. You tweeted out on your heavenly instagram social media and he’s like, remember hashtag awesome, Love it. Great, I’m happy to be here and then he’s gone, he’s gone. And you see him glimpses here and there every couple 100 years, but he’s gone. That is not the bible’s version of the relationship we can have with jesus. That’s what your experience of a world leader today, a famous person today, a glimpse at a moment of their time and it’s forced manipulated, rehearsed spontaneity conversation. That is not what you see in heaven. This isn’t the kind of savior we write about, we read about in the bible, we see a Savior leader, King of Glory, Lord of hosts. You see in your bible, I’ve read my bible a dozen. Sometimes I’m no expert, but I’m trying to learn more about this bible, but you see a radically intimate, genuinely authentic time wasting on sinners, Jesus who goes broke just to be in a deep close personal relationship with you, Jesus wants to be your best friend. That’s the king of glory. Read about, he desires to be in a close relationship of sinners and only sinners qualify, but he wants to be your best friend. You don’t deserve that kind of friend. You don’t, I don’t deserve that friend. That’s the friend, we get that’s the authentic, genuine who will meet you in heaven and I’ll hug you, walk you to your mansion. They’ll sit down and set up shop. You get what I’m saying, He’s your roommate, he’s bugging you all the time. That’s the kind of jesus. We have that suggest we sing songs. Do we read about a deeply intimate personal relationship of God who wants to be with us to creative people. The girls broke to Belfast. This psalmist points to christ to the mercy seat of christ about jesus triumphal entry into the eternal city of eternal doors are thrown open where christ and all of his glory is able to reign and rule and we get to be with him. This jesus found the shut doors we sinners could not get through and he busted them open because of his work on the cross, atoning mankind for our sins. And there are many. Your sense, my sense became his problem and he fixed it. Your most embarrassing evil, shameful, horrifying things you have done or you will do. We’re redeemed on the cross of christ christ. Our redeemer has the authority to open closed doors for us in the tone for the biggest problem we had our sins for all of mankind, your sins of my sins, we were allowed to have her access to God. A deep relationship with God because you removed your sins and my sins Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God. They could walk in the cool of the night and the evenings with God. Daily talking and walking with God. That was paradise. You get fruit, you get nice weather and you get God that’s that’s the garden of Eden. The garden of Eden heaven. You get God’s presence to make it paradise. We get God’s presence to make everything perfect. And the best part about paradise is God’s presence. How are we able to enter into paradise? If we’re imperfect, how can we have a perfect relationship with God? If we’re imperfect people, how can we have a relationship with the perfect creator when they’re the faulty people? The creative things that are broken. We can’t. The creator welcomes us people. The creator welcomes us people and we people need to welcome the creator. So as I closed talking about jesus and doors, Psalm 24, there’s this famous passengers in the new testament, Quoting Jesus, Jesus saying these things in revelations 3 20 to see. I stand at the door and knock and knock and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. This is coming for you. He’s seeking you first. That’s how you’re allowed to seek him. two this door. Opening, trailblazing, chain breaking Savior. We sing about. We read about we worship, he broke your chains boost trail. Did he blazed? He blaze your trail whose sins that he conquered. He conquered your sins. He saw seeks you, You seek him. Question all the doors and gates of your heart need to be open to christ Not a one time a week thing, not a one time a month thing, not a christmas and easter kind of thing. But I’m seeking christ because the only hope I have is the order of your heart. He owns you. He made you church seek him. You desperately need jesus to come into every pair of your life here and now and set up permanent residents seek him christian remember our lives without christ are like that trash can of a dead possum. My son was heard me talking about it. I think he was worried on my behalf and he took the lights off from our house and he went over there and he sprayed lights on top of the week two week old possum carcass trash that was cooking all week in the hot Nebraska human heat. I came back later that evening and I was like, I didn’t smell the Lysol. You get what I’m saying? Our effort to impress God with our resume and our effort, we’re a workspace midwest city, we want to earn God’s approval. It’s like spraying Lysol on the dead carcass of our works. People, we cannot impress God if our works seek him, worship him the way he said. Cast your eyes aside and seek and worship him. Don’t worship things Sikkim church. I love what Matthew Henry wrote about this passage, Psalm 24 he said this song 24 this is the gospel call and demand that we let jesus christ the king of glory come into our souls and welcome him with hosannas and blessed be he that cometh. This does not come, No one else is coming seek him. You can be closer to God than you think seek him. Let’s pray, will you bow your heads, Laura, thank you for if we realize it or not we’re unworthy to be close to you. God apparently would realize that today because of christ work on the cross, because of christ seeking us. First we can have a relationship with you but I thank you for right. You just convicted instruct hearts Lord that we would believe that Yes, the gospel is for me and you can forgive us. Lord, I believe we just move our hearts to believe that we can be closer to you. Lord, I pray for our hands. Lord, we would use our hands to throw our idols away on the power that you give us in the gospel and the word of God step an authentic christian community and follow you Lord, thank you for seeking each of us individually. We’d spent a lifetime seeking you. Lord, jesus name. We pray amen