The Lord's Victory Is Your Victory

Well, good morning Church on the Move. It is so good to be back with you. It's been a while. I've been traveling all over the place and now I'm back and what a privilege it is to be here continuing our study in the book of Psalms tonight, or today rather, we're gonna be in Psalm 24. Psalm 24, it's a preparation for worship. What I love about the Psalms is that they're honest. It's not as if the rest of the Bible is in any way deceptive. But Psalms pour out the heart. Many different writers over many years and it's a collection of songs and prayers adopted by the people of God for centuries, used in worship. And Psalm 24 is a preparation for worship. And it breaks down into three sections, which is convenient because every great message has three points. And so this is divinely appointed for us this morning. Three sections. The first is this recognition, submission of God's supreme power, his supreme authority as creator. The second is a revelation of his holiness and the requirement for us if we are to approach him. And the third is a celebration of his victorious kingship. But every reality of God and what we learn about God demands a response in us.

So it isn't just that we come in here to learn about what we are to do. The important thing that we strive for is that we would reveal, or that God would reveal himself to us. And that informs our response. Sometimes it's not so much like here's the action step, do this, do this, do this. It's this is who God is and then the spirit of God works on us as to how we are to proceed, how we are to respond. And so with that in mind, I wanna look at the Psalm in these three sections. The first is his dominion is our submission. The second is his holiness and our response to that is our devotion. And the third is his victory and our response to that, our confidence. So with those things in mind, let's look at Psalm 24. I wanna read the first two verses to you. We'll break it down slowly. First section, his dominion, our submission. Psalm 24, one and two. 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. The foundation for everything that follows in this Psalm

is God and who God is as creator, his all-encompassing dominion. Everything is because of him. This is foundational to this Psalm. It's foundational to our lives. Everything that follows in this Psalm begins with God. That's how we're to live our lives. It begins with who he is and then we adjust to that reality. Who is this all-powerful, all-encompassing God? Well, he is the creator of all things, everything here on the earth, everything outside of the earth, the depth and vastness of the universe, all under God's dominion. Everything in creation, all under God's dominion. Even humanity, of course, draws its breath from its creator, whether it believes in it or not. Exodus 19, let's see, where are we at here? Trying to find, Exodus 19, five, says this. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. All people are here and have been because of God. There are people that would say I don't believe in a God. Well, that doesn't matter. This God is the one that created you. You draw your breath, you have existence because of him. And although all people are here because of God,

not all people are his people. It's a question of access. Think of it like this. The difference between a landlord and a father. If you've ever leased an apartment, leased a house, you've signed lease documents, you have a landlord. You did not build the house. You did not build the apartment. You are not responsible for all that it is. You have access to that private space. You sign a paper, this is the agreement. I agree to do these things, you agree to do these things. Now, what you're asking for when you sign these papers is a certain level of privacy. The landlord, even though he owns the property, he is not allowed access all the time. This is his own designation. He does not come in whenever he wants. You would not allow him in whenever he wants to come in. It is not an open door policy. You have individual rights. This is my space. This is where I exist. You are not allowed to come in here. Many people treat God like a landlord. They would say, I don't believe. He's distant, but the reality is that it is a defiance against the order of creation, that God has created all things, and God has access, but I do not allow Him access. I am saying I have rights to my own individual space. This is my life, this is my body, these are my preferences.

You do not have a right to come in here. Look at what Romans 1, 18-21 says. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, even though they would deny that. They would say, give me proof of a creator, show me that there is a God, this God that you claim that no one can see. God says, the scripture says, this reality of who He is is plain, it's evident, 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. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. The scripture says, we know God. He is hardwired into our DNA, it is a resistance to Him, and people keep Him at a distance. You stay out of my space. But this is not how the people of God allow Him access. He is not a landlord to us, He is a dad. And dads have access to who we are, that can be good, sometimes that can be challenging when dads have access to the parts where you go, you know, we'd rather you stay out of this spot, don't come into this space to correct me, to adjust what I'm doing. I would like it if I could have my own liberty, but dads have access. I will never forget when I was 14, 15 years old, I was at my high school, the beginning of the year, it was after school, there was a volleyball game, I was staying, I was going to be picked up later by Witt, that was the plan, later after the game, Witt would come and grab me, I was there by myself, and it was still early in the night, and I remember being on one end of the gym and looking across the gym, and seeing in the hallway there through the open doors, I saw my mom, my mom was there. I know many of you don't know my mom, but my mom doesn't, she doesn't leave her house

when the sun goes down, you know, it's just who she is. She doesn't venture out, she had no business being there, never would she come in to take in the sporting event. Because I knew if she's there, it's something not good, something's not good. She was talking to a teacher, she seemed to be in a good mood, she was smiling, I thought well maybe it's not bad, you know, maybe it's not bad. But that feeling and that thought quickly subsided because I thought no, this isn't good, it's not good. And I was thinking maybe it's something tragic, honestly I was hoping for tragic. Because there were a lot of things going on in me, I was like there could be a lot of reasons why she's here and none of them are going to end good for me is how I felt. So I'm making my way to her and I'm devising, I'm plotting without information, I got nothing to go on. But I'm just like alright, what do I do, okay this, this, what do I do here, carry the one, you know, what do I do? Well I ask her, I go up on top, I tap her on the shoulder and I meet her at her level of perceived joy. She seems happy, I'm happy, hey mom, and she looks at me smiling, she goes go get right in the car. And I know it isn't good, I know it's not good. And I'm walking out to the car and I'm trying to figure out what is it, what is it and how will I respond. I walk out to her car and I see in the back seat through the window, I see Whit, he's in the car, he's not looking at me, he's looking down, he's broken, he's broken. I don't know why. And I'm thinking man this isn't good and I open the door and I see him in there, he's just in athletic shorts and nothing else. No socks, shoes, no shirt and he's wet. Apparently he had been pulled out of the shower, this revelation, whatever it was my mom had discovered was so jarring, it was like get out now and come with me.

She ran up to the school to pick me up. I look at him, I don't know why I'm there, I'm looking at him, he won't look at me. I just go what, what happened, what's wrong? He doesn't speak to me and I'm like dude, I'm the one that can massage the details, like help me help you, you know, like give me something to work with, I can think fast man, let's go, that's what I'm thinking. He doesn't say a word. My mom gets in the car, she turns around and she goes, I found your bag of tapes. Now to you young people, a tape, it's a thing that has music on it, you know, we put it in the cassette player. And I was born in 1978, grew up in the 80's, Christian home and there was a wave. in those days against secular music. And my dad grew up in a broken home and music was a big part of his life. When he was a teenager, running from God, he was an alcoholic and he understood the power of music and he didn't want that influence in our house and I can certainly understand that. But as a young teenager, I couldn't understand. I couldn't quite grasp it. And when we were kids, we listened to Christian music. But in those days, the Christian music sucked and so, you know, it was tough. It's better today, but it was bad back then. And we're like trying our hardest, like this is, you know, they say it's Christian, but it really wasn't Christian. It was like a vegan burger. You know, it's just like, it looks like a burger, but it isn't a burger.

And this music, it's like, we're Christian, but it's like, is it? I don't understand what the difference between this is this is worse for my soul than the secular music. That's what we're thinking. And we're just beginning to reason behind the scenes, wit and I, and Wit's the one that took the first step. He was a pioneer in our iniquity. He was a bad influence on me. You know? And we started buying tapes. You go to the mall and you buy a tape. And a lot of the music we had was kind of neutral, secular music, I mean, no big deal. But it went darker than that. There was stuff that we got that we had no business listening to. You know, it was the early 90s. There was some rap in there and there was some stuff that was just like, this isn't good. We knew that, so we hid it, we hid it. We hid it in this black Reebok bag and the back of Wit's trunk under some things. Well, my mom had found this bag of tapes. And whenever she tells me this, my heart sank in the back of the car and I thought, this is it, this is how I die. Because I'm nervous that my mom knows. I'm nervous mostly not because of what I'm afraid my mom will do to me, because of my dad.

My dad. But my dad was not in town, which was terrible. Because I wanted to find out what our fate would be as soon as possible, but he was out of town for like a few days. He wasn't gonna be back for a few days. We were just dead men walking for like three days. You know, you have a moment, it's like, oh, it's good that you're at school laughing, and then you realize, oh, I have nothing to be happy about. You know, just waiting for him to come home. I'll never forget, he came home and we met him in the den and he had that bag of tapes open and he's pulling tapes out. He's looking at him, he's so disappointed. And he's opening them up and he's looking at some of the tape jackets there and he's unraveling them and reading lyrics. And in my heart, I'm going, God, just keep him from these tapes. You know, like, don't let him go into all of it. You know, let's just, let him stick to some of the lighter stuff. But there were some I was like, oh, I hope he doesn't. Not that one, you know, that's what I'm hoping for. We have a conversation. I'm not gonna tell you what happened. I'm not gonna tell you where it went from there. But my butt grew back, you know, God healed it. It's a miracle.

And, but I just, I tell you this to say this, that at no point in this interaction, at no point in the confrontation did I ever think once to tell my mother or my father, how dare you go into our private space. Like, you have no right, that was our room. That's a wits car, you can't go in there. Like, I know that we broke the rules, but this is my individual space. I never thought to say that. Now, I know some of you grew up that way. Some of you, look, we'll deal with that another time. But it's like a teenager goes into the room and slams the door, you're not allowed in here. I knock and they didn't answer. So as a parent, I walk away. Man, if I locked the door on my dad, he would just blow that thing up. Gunpowder, dynamite, whatever required. If I locked the door on my dad, I wouldn't be here today. And I never thought to do it because he's my dad. Because the only reason I'm here is because of my parents. I didn't pay for the room, I didn't pay for my stuff. I was doing very little to contribute to my existence. And yet I have rights. Like, this is my space. The children of God treat God as a father, but I will say this, there are many that will call him father, but in spaces of their lives. You treat him like a landlord.

He's not allowed access here. We want him to have access in the places of blessing where we want to move forward, but what about the places of subtraction? It's like, nope, this is my space, this is my life, these are my preferences, I lock that door. These first two verses of Psalm 24 remind us that all is his, all of us. Not just our life, everything in our life, every area of our lives. We must respond in submission to our great God. Verse two says this. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Why does God have access? Why should he be allowed this access? For. He created, everything is here because of him and it says that he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. This is not geological but theological. In the ancient Near East, waters represented chaos or more than that, rivaled divine power, created beings that have rebelled against God. And God is saying, I have founded my creation on top of that chaos, on top of those rival powers that oppose me and oppose my people. Here's why this matters to us because our battle, our fight, and we all fight and we all have battles, there are challenges we walk through, there are things that we experience that are tragic, we all have difficulty in this life.

But the scripture says our fight is not with people, it feels like that, especially if your algorithm tells you so, you just thumb through and it's just like, look, the problem seems to be the idiots out there and if we could just put them all in a box, ship them to one part of the country, better yet another one, and they could just exist there, then we could be at peace. Your fight is not against people, it's against these waters, it's against these seas and God says, I have founded it upon the seas. There's no mention of cosmic struggle here. There's no battle that God had to fight, God just establishes it because it's who he is, because he's great, because he is elevated far above all and because this is who he is, our response must be total submission, must be. Every part of our lives we acknowledge, there's not a cognitive dissonance where we just separate reality from our preference. He is God, all is in his hand, we submit to that reality. What does this submission look like for us? The psalmist explains Psalm 24, 3 through 6, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? 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, such as the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Who can climb the hill? The psalmist poses and answers the question, it's not just important, it's critical.

Who can ascend? Who can stand in the presence of God? This is more than just participating in religious activity, this is being in the presence of God Almighty. Who is allowed that access? The answer, he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands, what you do. Pure heart, why you do it. What I do and why I do it. Jesus, so many of his messages go down deep into the motive because God cares about the heart posture just as much as he does about what you do. What you do is not enough. The Pharisees did good things seemingly but their hearts were far from the reality of who God was. Clean hands, pure heart required. It goes into a deeper explanation of this here. 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. What does that mean? Lift up your soul to what is false. This is the vertical portion, you to God. Does not deal deceitfully is the horizontal portion, you to other people. What does it mean to lift up your soul to what is false? Well, Psalm 25 says, in you, O Lord, do I put my trust. I lift up my soul to you. The beginning of the first verse is I lift up my soul to you, O Lord. O my God, in you do I put my trust.

To lift up your soul to what is false means that you are seeking your fulfillment from something other than God. It's idolatry. We don't think that we engage in idolatry the same way the people of old did, but we are very much engaged in the same practices. We are seeking satisfaction, answer, fulfillment. We bring the cry of our heart to someone other than God or something other than God. I've told this story before, but it fits well here. I feel it bears repeating. In 2020, November 2020, I stepped out of my position as the pastor of Church on the Move South. I had this great conviction that God was calling me out. Out to what? I was not sure. I had some ideas, but I wasn't sure. I just knew that I needed to step out of my position. We had been leasing a house. We were going to move into another house. There was a gap between that of just a few weeks and it was in this gap that I knew God was calling me out. Because we were without a home, I figured that we would be moving out of the city. I was not sure where we would go, but all of our stuff was packed up. And so I thought here we were gonna go on an adventure with God, God's going to respond with a step. I figured the step would be something we would learn of

from the Lord quickly, I had a lot of faith. November turned to December, December to January, January to February, it ended up being a year, it was a year transition. And in that transition, I experienced great angst, especially in the beginning of this transition, because I did not have the income, the money set aside to live without a job. That's one of the things that happens when you step out of a job, you forfeit your right to this paycheck every other week. And so when God says step out, I think, well, he has a plan for my provision, he's not gonna let us go into a place where we don't have. I trust him, and so we stepped out. My money ran out quite quickly. And I am crying out to God, I did not do this in the presence of my family. I did not break down, I did not reveal the content of my soul to my wife, to my kids, because I did not want that to be unsettling to them, as it would be, I am the one after all that is following God through this, and if I wilt, everyone around me wilts. And so I would go into private spaces and lift up my soul to God, I would pour out my heart, God, here I am, God, have mercy on me, God, respond. And every single month, God would respond, but he wouldn't respond at the beginning of the month, whereas I'd have a lot of peace for the next 30 days,

and I knew in advance how we were gonna handle everything, he'd usually wait till my toes were dangling off the edge, and then he would provide for us in miraculous ways, for a year, it was crazy. But I will never forget being in the middle of this transition season, and we were in an Airbnb in Southern California, we were in an Airbnb because I could not sign any permanent document saying, hey, we will pay you, there's an application that you have to fill out, when it says place of employment, income, I don't know, God, trust me, he's leading, they're not gonna, so I have to Airbnb it because they don't ask those questions, I just have to pay, and God gave me the money and I paid, God gave me the money, I paid, God gave me the money, I paid. And I will never forget being in this Airbnb in Southern California, and I am feeling the angst, I'm like, I'll be right back, I went into the closet, closed the door, turned off the light, and just honestly wept, cried like, God, the wait. The wait of this uncertainty is too much for me. And I heard him whisper to my heart, not audibly, just this question arise, arose in my spirit, what are you asking me for? And I thought about it, seemed obvious to me, and I'm just like, Lord, I need money. And a whisper comes back to my heart,

what does my word say? And I rifle off, my God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And he said, exactly, so why are you afraid? And in that moment it convicted me deeply because I realized where my trust was. Where was I lifting up my soul? What was I trusting in? Because in my mind, my peace was taken because my bank account was empty. But God is present and God is my peace, that's what he says, that's what we sing, we lift our hands, we claim it. But what happens when you're in the reality of that situation where you have to actually answer the question, do I trust you? Or is my hope, is my peace in the fact that I have a full bank account? And I thought about it, if my bank account was full, I would not feel anxiety. But God is saying, don't feel anxiety because I am your provider. It's a fork in the road. Jesus said you cannot serve God in mammon, mammon being money personified. You cannot lift up your soul to mammon and be happy about it. Mammon is a terrible God and God is saying, lift up the content of your soul to me. This is what it means to lift up your soul,

the word is false, bringing your soul to anything other than God, saying here, help me, save me, we do it all the time. He also says, he who does not swear deceitfully, how you deal with the people around you. You can come in here and you can sing and you can worship and you can read your Bible, but the proof is in the pudding. How you respond to the world around you will reveal the depth of the purity in your heart. There's a parable Jesus tells in Matthew 18 about an unforgiving servant. A servant who was forgiven a great debt, but then he went out to a man who owed him money, and he demanded the man that owed him money, which was a tiny fraction of what he was forgiven. He says, if you don't pay me, I'm throwing you into jail. It's this, oh, thank you, God, for your great mercy towards me, but then I demand of people something different. That motive is impure, and that person will not ascend to the presence of God. Only the pure will climb the hill of God. Jesus says this in Matthew 5.8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I read this, clean hands, pure heart, it's convicting. There are times when I feel like, that's me, you know, like I'm in there. It's a quick six seconds, you know, it's just like, I got this, and then you just feel like I'm falling short. Pure heart, pure heart. There's so many times, like, I don't even know what the depth of my heart is. I don't always know what my motivation is. I don't always, my hands aren't always perfectly clean. How do I do this? Is the requirement perfection? It's less perfection and more disposition. It's less perfection, it's more your aim, and here's why that matters.

Some people have a difficult time with the grace and mercy of God, because they feel it's just a long leash. Like, don't tell me that God will forgive me. Don't tell me that I'm good with him, that he's just faithful. Don't tell me, because then I'm so tempted to run out and continue in my way. The grace of God is not meant to be used in that way, where we just go do whatever we want. God will forgive me, he'll forgive me, he'll forgive me. It's the pure in heart, it's like, I aim at God, and as I aim at God, I move towards God, and I fall, but I get back up and I continue. Why? Because I'm not drifting off into oblivion, I'm aimed at God. I continue to pursue God. My heart's devotion is pointed towards God. But here's the problem, and it is an ultimate problem that needs ultimate resolution, that even our highest devotion towards God still is inadequate. It's inadequate. Which leads me here to the last section. His victory is our confidence. Exodus 25. Exodus 25, God gives Moses instruction for this tent of meeting, this tabernacle. It is the place that God will dwell with his people. This has been God's desire and design since Eden. That God would be with his people. This is where we will end up, by the way, in an Edenic reality, where God will be with us. And in between these two gardens, God has pursued humankind, and with Moses, when he calls the children of Israel out of Egypt, he gives them instruction for this tabernacle, this tent of meeting, where God's presence will rest and be with Israel. He gives Moses the instruction.

Moses constructs this tabernacle, and in Exodus 40, it is completed. I want to read verse 33. The second part of 33 through 35 says this in 33. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. When God's presence rested, Moses couldn't go in. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone more devoted in those days to God than Moses. But when the presence of God rests on the tabernacle, Moses cannot go in. Even though he's devoted, he's still unholy. And unholy flesh in the presence of God will die. It is not just God's punishment. It's just the reality of God's holiness you cannot enter. But God had a way, a temporal solution. In Leviticus 16, we see the beginnings of this, or the requirement for this day, this annual festival, the Day of Atonement, where the high priest, and only the high priest, in this case the first high priest, Aaron, Moses' brother, would enter into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum, the place where God's presence was most thick. And only he could go in, and only one time a year, and he would bring the blood of animals in, and he would sprinkle it on this mercy seat. and it would temporarily cover the sin of Israel, it would not remove it and it would have to be applied again and again and again. But only the high priest could enter and he could only enter

for a short bit, then he would have to leave. Now if you've ever read through Leviticus you could see, I mean it's not exactly a thrilling book to read through because of all the legality, all the requirement, just like gosh this is repetitive and it just goes on and on and on. This is the reality of presenting yourself before a holy God. You read through it and we brush over it but this would be the requirement for us if it were not for our high priest. We don't think about the high priest the same way the Jews did in those days because we don't live in a priestly system. But the Lord Jesus is not just savior, he is also high priest and it matters because when he ascended to heaven it is not just the cross, yes, the resurrection, yes, but it is the ascension because in the ascension he brought his blood and he brought it to the mercy seat in the heavenlies and it is there to this day calling out better things about you than the accusing blood of Abel. The blood says forgive them father, they don't know what they do and it's the blood there and our high priest there is mediator, mediating on our behalf and because of this mediation we are in him. His victory is our confidence. Hebrews 9, 11-14 says this, but when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is, not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God because our high priest ascended with his blood. Hebrews 4, 16 says, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive and find grace to help in our time of need. His great victory has become our reality. I'll close with this story. 2015, we had moved to Los Angeles. We had been there a couple of months. The first month was just fighting to find our home. We found it. God blessed us. It was a great victory, but quickly after that, the reality of planting this church in a really difficult place began to set in, and I felt woefully inadequate. Feeling inadequate was kind of common for me. As far back as I can remember, I always felt like something was missing. I always felt like something was broken, something was off, like I didn't belong. Some of this was my own doing. Some of it just seemed innate, just seemed to be a part of me, just like this default of guilt, shame, distance.

Living and growing up in a standard, great parents in this church, it always felt like the bar was high, and I just always strived to, like, how do I live up to it? How do I belong? I'm a middle child. It seems like some of that's just part of the heritage of middle children. Like, you just feel like something's off. I don't know. Something's off. What is it? I just, something's off. Something. And I'm there in LA, and I'm just feeling the weight of the work that I was so honored to be called to do, but also just, man, who am I to do this work? Man, who am I to do this work? And the angst began to build, and one day, Summer and the kids left the house, and I lifted up my soul to the Lord. I just cried out. I turned on worship music, and I just was emotional in my living room, just feeling woefully inadequate, lifting my hands to heaven, praising God, and just calling on His name. I will never, ever forget lifting my hands in that living room, and all of a sudden, I wasn't in that living room. My eyes were closed. It wasn't that I was transported somewhere, but I knew something was changing. As I worshiped, I could feel it. I could see this throng of humanity to my right, to my left, in front of me, just people, not faces, just the backs of people's heads, their backs, just everyone facing a direction. We were all worshiping. I knew where I was. It was the throng of heaven. It wasn't the beauty of heaven that I could describe, like, oh, there were trees and mountains. No, it was just people. And I was just trembling because it was just so powerful, and I'm worshiping God with these people somewhere in that great crowd. And as I'm worshiping, the people in front of me begin to step away, and Jesus walks up and stands right in front of me.

But I was looking straight, but it was like I'm looking at my son down here on the front row, which is like out of my peripheral. I could not tell you anything descriptive about him except for the peace. The peace lasted for days. I had so much anxiety, just the weight of the world on my chest. But after that, it was just like a fog of peace. And when he stood there, I broke. I was already crying, but I just, like, I'm shaking. And I did what I felt was appropriate to do in the presence of a holy God, and it really wasn't much of a decision. It was just sort of a response. I fell on my face. And I put my hands where his feet would be, and I'm bawling. And I start to say what I have said a zillion times in my life, forgive me. Because in the presence of a holy God, I feel so inadequate. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. I start to say it, but I don't get the words out, not because I couldn't get them out, but because he wouldn't let me. I start to say forgive me, and he just stops me, and he just goes, get up. It was stern, it was militaristic.

He wasn't condemning me, but he was condemning my incessant request for what he had already paid for. I shot up like a soldier, and he said, now go. In the strength that I've given you, have I not commanded you? And I started to say, you gotta help me. But he wouldn't let me get that out either. And he said, I've already given you everything you need. His victory is our victory. For so many of us, we live at a distance from God. We feel like we've got to figure out how to bridge the gap. We know enough, we know better, we should do better. But the reality is, nothing changes until you, by faith, live in his victory. That's what it means to be in Christ. It's like a parade route. The New York Knicks just won the championship. You see videos on social media of all the fans there. They identify with the team, but they're behind the rope. They're not the players, they're behind the rope. They had little to do with the victory, although that's probably not what they think. But when Christ walks down in this triumphal procession, he says, come out from behind the rope because you're not supposed to be there. My victory's your victory. You're not just a spectator, you're a participant. How?

By faith. Look at the last verses of Psalm 24, 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 this 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. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. This was this triumphal procession. The high priest would lead the Ark of the Covenant back into its proper place, and the people would line up, no doubt, and celebrate the great victory that God had given Israel. And this is the picture for us today, that Jesus has won the great victory, and we are in Him. And because of what He's done, we should have confidence. Therefore, come boldly into the throne of grace. With confidence, come into the throne of grace to receive. What would it look like if instead of navel-gazing, instead of just second-guessing yourself, instead of just feeling inadequate at a distance from the good things of God, the blessing of God, what would it look like for you if you said, you know what, because He said it, it's true, by faith I receive it, and I am gonna walk every day.

I'm going to put it on. Paul said, I am weak, but he didn't stay there. He said, because I know I'm weak, his strength covers my weakness. I put his strength on, so I'll boast all the more in my weakness, not to stay in my weakness, but because I'm weak, he is strong in my weakness. It is a transference. It's not us and him, it's us in him. That's when life changes. His victory is your confidence. All of this submission. Submit to the reality. Submit to the goodness of who he is. It's about him. Who he is informs who you are. Every day, eyes up. Aim. Will you bow your heads, please? Dear Heavenly Father, Father, thank you. You are great. We give you praise, but we are your people. You have access to us. There are places we want you, Lord. There are places we're afraid. May we not be afraid, Lord, because all you're trying to do is redeem us, heal us, set us free. May we follow you with our eyes up, moving towards you in every area of our lives, in our relationships, in our vocation, in our finances, in our personal purity and morality, in every decision we make, in our time, in our entertainment. May we submit to you. You have your way. You have access. I thank you so much. We thank you for sending your son. Our victory is his victory. That is our confidence. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming, for living for us, for dying on the cross for us, for being resurrected, for coming to life and bringing us to life with you, for ascending to heaven with the appropriate sacrifice. Thank you, Almighty God, for your word. It has been sown as seed. May it find a place in the hearts of your people and produce much fruit. This is your will. May we submit to it. In the mighty name of the Lord Jesus, we pray, and everyone said, amen. Will you stand to your feet? As we dismiss, we'll have prayer partners down front, as always. If you have questions about your walk with God, your relationship with God, questions about your salvation, we have a book here that we would love to give you. You come down front. We would love to put this in your hand. If you have a need of any kind, we would love to join our faith with yours and pray for you. What a privilege it has been to be with you this morning. We'll pronounce the blessing. You can say it with me. The words will be on the screen, and we'll dismiss. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you. You are dismissed. Thank you so much for watching this message from Church on the Move Tulsa. We really hope it encouraged you to take a step toward Jesus. Church on the Move is a family of churches in northeast

Oklahoma, each with its own in-person pastor. We love our Bibles, learning and community, and taking steps toward Jesus. If you live in the area, we would love for you to join us in person. For more information, check out our website at churchonthemove.com, or we've got a few videos we think you might like. Check them out here.