[The King of Glory]

Associate Pastor Seung Wan Sung

Psalm 24:1-10

We are listening to the King series through the book of 2 Kings. When we are obedient to keep the Kings seed, we will sing the real hurrah, the Kings hurrah, and it is said that this is the opening of the heavens. It is my hope that todays message will resound with a true 'Hail to the King of Glory' for all of us.

First, we need to know what the King of glory looks like.

In order for us to truly cry out for the King of Glory, we must know that the King of Glory is the Creator. The King of Glory is, in a word, the King of Creation, the God of Creation. The earth and all that is in it (verse 1) were all created by God, neither the world nor my life came about by chance, all were created by God. And God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, were present in all His works. For us, Cutie is creation. It is Cutie who prunes my human thoughts and desires with the words He speaks to me today when events come to me in the darkness of chaos and emptiness. Its letting God create my life with His Word in the midst of my incomprehensible life.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I was on mission trips and doing a lot of Outreach trips, and I would do Cutie every day and meditate on the Word, but I dont think the Word had anything to do with me. I would say with my lips, 'King of glory,' but I would open the Word so that I could be the king. I would always open the Bible and meditate on it, but I never really applied it to my life. I need to know more about God, the Creator of all things, so that I can truly call out for the King of glory.

Second, we are a seeker after Jehovah.

The reason why we cant come before the LORD and confess the King of glory is because we set our hearts on the world. It is a blessing if we find God through various sufferings, but those who are successful in the world, who make good money and have no worries, dont seek the LORD. Verse 4 says that their hands are not clean because they are always busy trying to be successful and recognized in the world. Verse 5 says their hearts are not clean, because they are impatient with God and set their sights on happiness instead of holiness. My friends, I want you to turn away from your desires for happiness. I want you to turn away from the false dreams that everything will be okay and turn to holiness.

Third, we should lift up our heads before God.

In the original language, 'Lift up your heads, ye gates, and let the everlasting gates be lifted up' (v. 7), the first part, 'lift up your heads,' is in the active voice, and the second part, 'let the everlasting gates be lifted up,' is in the passive voice, and then the King of glory enters. The 'gates' are the celestial gates that stand in majestic praise before the procession of the God who made the heavens, who made the earth, who made us.

So how do we actively lift up our heads? I think actively lifting up our heads is singing praises before the great caravan of God, and I think our ranch, our church, and our nation are gates, gatekeepers, singing praises before the great caravan of God. I think passively lifting up our heads is sitting in the Word and listening, sitting in the ranch with the Word, listening to the sharing of the ranch family. And then actively lifting up our heads in our lives and in our homes is having family worship and listening to our spouses, and I think especially for our wives, we have a lot of things that we want to say to our children and to our husbands, and I think the active application would be to not hold it in. The passive application would be for husbands to just do what their wives tell them to do and not gag. The application for wives would be to not tell their husbands what to do. The best way to lift up our heads is not to do something spectacular, but to be an active passive participant in everything that we do in community in the time that we have in a given week. As I lift up my head before this King of glory and acknowledge Him as the King of my life, how I interpret and live my life on this earth that has been given to me is the battle I have been given.

My mother, a deaconess, passed away on December 23 last year, and there was a big change in our family. She had been a believer in Jesus, but during the funeral, she was able to carry her hair at home and talk about our church freely. We had a total of eight funeral services, with separate services at my mothers church and Wooridul Church, and my brothers saw all of this and started to wonder about Wooridul Church, and they started to ask me about it, saying, 'Wooridul Church is so great, Im so thankful for it.' You opened the door for me to talk about the church, but I still cant talk about it to my non-believing family members, and I dont call them much, and I avoid them. I feel like he took pity on me and put me in this pulpit today to encourage me once again.

The opening of the gates of heaven is the entrance of the God of creation, the King of glory, into the place of captivity, and we just need to lift our heads in the direction of that Jesus, and we need to recognize the place of captivity and obey that place. Bless me and all of us who cry out to be held fast to the setting of the God who creates our lives, in Jesus name.