You Need a King

Good to see all of you on a, I don't know, how you feel about it. I think this is a beautiful morning. I like a little bit of overcast, a little bit of drizzle. Welcome to Church on the Move this weekend. If you're joining us online, or maybe if you're at one of our churches in prisons. We have one in a men's prison, that's Dick Connor, and one in a ladies' prison. We always like to say welcome to you guys and gals as well. So put your hands together. Thank you. So good to be back with you this weekend. I know I've been off the last few weeks. And when I'm off, especially for any kind of extended period of time, I always am reminded of just how meaningful the local church is. How much I needed, I woke up last weekend, had no real obligations or responsibilities here at the church, anything to do. But I just felt like I needed to get here and to worship, to hear the words of the gospel sung and come out of my mouth. I needed to hear it again. That's what this is. It's something life-giving in all of this. And I hope you're finding that kind of community here. If not here, I do pray that you find a local church somewhere where you can be planted.

There's something beautiful about it. It's what God is building and has been building from the beginning, a people. We'll talk maybe a little bit more about that as we dive into Psalm 2 today. So we're in week two of Summer in the Psalms. I don't know about you, but I love reading the Psalms. It's been a book that probably I've read over the last few years more than any other book of the Bible. It's certainly a book that the New Testament quotes more than any other Old Testament book. And it's a book that Jesus quotes more than any other Old Testament book. It accesses in me something different than just kind of my logical mind. The Psalms activate my feelings, my emotions, my imagination. It speaks the language of the heart. And I don't know about you, but I need that. It's a little harder for me to access those places. So when I read the Psalms, it gives language to things that I feel. It's not always easy for me to understand. We're gonna find that today, maybe as we study through Psalm 2 together. But it requires meditation. Pastor Blake talked about that last weekend. Meditating, muttering the word, running it over in your mind and in your mouth again and again and again and again

until it begins to yield up its treasures, its insights. And that's what I hope happens for us over the course of this series as we study through selected Psalms this fall, or this summer. So today what we're gonna do is read Psalm 2. I know normally I would read the scripture myself, but I wanna invite you to stand, if you would. We're going to stand and read God's word together out loud as we begin today. So we're gonna look at Psalm 2. The words will be on the screen, or you can follow along in your Bible if you like. But we will read it out loud together. We stand for the singing of the national anthem. I think how much more should we be standing for the reading of God's word, amen? Amen, all right, let's read it out loud together. Here we go. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. This is the word of the Lord and we all said, thanks be to God, you may be seated. So what's going on here in Psalm 2? I don't know about you, but when I read this psalm the first several times in my life, it made really little sense to me. I didn't understand what was happening here. If I'm being honest, it made God sound a little petty. Like he gets angry, really mad, you better bow your knee, you better kiss the son, he's gonna get angry, what's happening here? How are we to understand this? Well, Psalm 1 and 2 are the gateway into understanding the entire book of the Psalms, or you may hear this term, the Psalter, that is simply a way of referring to the whole of the book of Psalms. And they work as something of a mirror image of each other, where Psalm 1 speaks to the individual, blessed is the man, Psalm 2 zooms out and takes a look at mankind. There's some evidence that Psalm 1 and 2 were, in fact, in the beginning, just one

psalm, mirror images of each other. However the case, or whatever the case may be, what we can say is that they do serve as something of a gateway into understanding the whole of the Psalms. They kind of lay the groundwork for where the rest of the book is going, and indeed, what it is to be human, and what it is to be a creation under the lordship and kingship of the Creator. So here's how I want to kind of lay this out for you. I'm going to break it down into three sections today, and I'll tell you in advance where I'm going. Number one, we're going to talk about the way of the world, or you could title this the true nature of sin. Number two, we'll talk about the rule of the king, and finally we'll conclude with the invitation to blessing. The way of the world, the rule of the king, and the invitation to blessing. Let's talk first about the way of the world, and let's look back at the text again. What do we find in the beginning of Psalm 1? Well, we find a description of the nations, of mankind, of the people. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. We get these different descriptions, the nations, the peoples, the kings, the rulers of mankind. What are they doing? Well, they're filled with restless activity. They're raging. They're plotting. They're setting themselves. They're taking counsel together. By the way, this is the way of evil. Evil is restless. It's always on the move, trying to do something. It's been said that hurry and restlessness are the great enemy of a spiritually mature

life. Why? Because it's really hard to hear God's voice when you're in a hurry. It's hard to love God when you're in a hurry. How many of you know it's hard to love other people when you're in a hurry? Restless energy, like a puppy that won't sit in your lap, or a toddler who won't be still at the table, that's the description of the evil person. Contrast that with what we find in Psalm 1. The righteous man will be like a tree. I notice of our Lord that he was never in a hurry to get anywhere, that he was never restless and he was never anxious. There was a sense of calm and certainty about him. Restlessness doesn't mean that he didn't have purpose in his life. There could be no more, a person with no more purpose than our Lord and yet he was not busy. Not constantly filled with activity. Some of us need to learn how to slow down and live our lives with greater focus and purpose rather than just involving ourselves in busyness. That's what we see here. And what does all of this activity lead to? What does it point to? It points to this. They are against the Lord and against his anointing. In other words, what brings them together is not what they are for, it's not what they are trying to build, it's not love for one another, but what or who they are against. This Psalm, Psalm 2, gets quoted several times in the New Testament. One of the most prominent places it gets quoted is in Acts chapter 4. Do you remember what's happening in Acts 4? The disciples, Peter and John, have been preaching in the name of Jesus. This is after the crucifixion, resurrection, after the day of Pentecost. And they are now preaching for themselves.

Jesus has ascended into heaven. And they are preaching about Jesus, who he is, proclaiming the gospel and laying hands on the sick and they are being healed. Well the same ruling authorities that crucified Jesus pull Peter and John in and command them, you better stop talking about this Jesus or we'll do the same thing to you that we did to him. Afterward they release Peter and John and they return to the gathering of believers, to the church, and they begin praising God and in their praise they quote this Psalm. Specifically they quote these verses, Psalm 2, 1 and 2. They say, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And then they say this, Acts 4, 27, for truly in this city there were gathered together against. In other words, their gathering is about what they're against. That's what binds them together. It's not what they're for, not what, the only thing in fact that unifies this group of dissidents, the nations, the people. the kings of the earth. It's not that they love one another and not that they're for anything other than they're against God and his rule. That's what holds them together. Here they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. Notice all the allusion, you're anointed in Psalm 2. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Now if you don't have kind of like a historical context here you might miss the force of what they're saying. Herod and Pontius Pilate were no friends with each other. They did not like each other and the peoples of Israel and the Gentiles did not get along with each other. But the common ground they could find was that they were against the Lord and against his anointed. And we see this. We see this of evil. We see that things that's being against something is what can align desperate groups of people, disparate groups of people together. We're seeing this in our kind of modern day. I mean what could bring the far left and Muslim extremists together? Not what they're for but what they are against. And we're seeing this. A dissident group

of people brought together bound not by shared values but by shared hatred. That's what we see here. Evil has a not a bringing together in love but a bringing together by hatred. And what is it that they're wanting to do? Well we see it in the next verse. Let us tear off their fetters. Now this is Robert Alter's translation and I like it because it emphasizes this phrase. Let us. Let us tear off their fetters. What binds us? Like chains. Let us fling away their bonds. The picture is of someone trying to get out of a straitjacket. Trying to free themselves of what ties them down. They're trying to get out of what restricts them. And in this case what restricts them is God's reality. His kingship. His rule and authority over them. Let us burst their bonds apart. Now this language is interesting here. This phrase let us. Because if you're at all a kind of careful student of the scriptures you may know or remember that this wording has been used before. Let us. Let us. Where does that show up? Where have I heard that? Does that ring familiar for anyone? Let us. Let us. Where does it show up? Well it shows up all the way back at the beginning. Do you remember? In Genesis 1. What is it that we find in Genesis 1 26? Then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness. Now this is not incidental. This is on purpose. This language is used specifically of God's divine decree. It's God speaking as God. As creator. As he and he alone has the right to speak. This is why by the way when we studied through James last fall. Do you remember what James says? He says look you shouldn't say hey I'm going to do this tomorrow. I'm going to go do that. You should say if the Lord wills. In other words you should not. You should not think of yourself as being in charge of your own life but rather as being under the rule of a king. We'll talk a little bit more about that when we get to point two. It's this idea you you're not to speak like God speaks. Here's what I'm going to do as if your will was the only one that matters. And yet that's exactly what we see mankind doing. And here we start to get the true nature of sin. See later in Genesis just a few chapters later we find the quintessential story of human rebellion in the Tower of Babel. What do we find mankind saying at the Tower of Babel? Look the same language. Come let us make bricks. Come let us build ourselves a city and tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves. Same thing here in Psalm 2 verse 3. Let us. Let us. We want to do what we want to do. And it's here we start to see what sin really is. See a lot of people think of sin as merely just the breaking of divine rules as if God said don't do that and you did it anyway. That's of course part of what sin is. But it's deeper than that. Sin is more than just breaking rules. It's actually rebellion against God. And that's what we see

here. The way of the world is more than just more than just a group of people who don't want to do what God said do. It's actual rebellion against God. James as well reminded us of this when he said he who makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There are only two sides and to choose a life of sin is to choose a life of rebellion against Almighty God. It's exactly the opposite of what Jesus prayed in the garden. Do you remember what Jesus prayed in the garden? Not my will but thy will be done. Well sin is exactly the opposite of that. Sin says, not thy will, but my will be done. It's the elevation of self. And I think this has a particularly pernicious lie behind it these days that's pervasive in our culture that maybe, because of our familiarity with the kind of current world and climate that we live in, we miss. See, there's something deep in our kind of American psyche that longs for independence. After all, are we not a group of people who are descended from people who rejected their king, who wanted to throw off the shackles of monarchy? Our national cry is echoed in the words of the immortal words of Patrick Henry, give me liberty or give me death, right? I would rather be dead than be enslaved to your rule. That's how we see kings. That's how we see authority. We fight. We're fiercely protective of our independence. It's who we are as Americans. And I'm not trying to assert that somehow at the kind of core of our nation is some evil, sinful impulse. What I'm saying is that the enemy will work with what you give them. All human effort and impulse ultimately tends and trends towards sin because of the deep brokenness that's within us. In other words, even good gifts that God gives, we tend to warp. And so what do we do? We take freedom and we make it a kind of all-encompassing construct to understand who we are. What we want is a life where no one can tell us what to do. No one can rule over us. We want to be able to do what we want, when we want, with whoever we want, and however we want. And that's how we conceive of freedom in a kind of an absolute negative way. What do I mean by that? Our view of freedom is really just this idea of having no restrictions or limitations. By the way, you hear this echoed in the famous song from the well-known movie Frozen. The whole idea is no right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm throwing off the shackles of obligation. I'm throwing off the constraints of what other people say I ought to be and how other people think I ought to live my life. And what we believe is that the only path to true happiness is that you do you. Follow your heart. Be who you are on the inside. Don't let anybody tell you who you ought to be. We think of that as deeply oppressive, limiting, that you're the only one who knows what's best for yourself. That's the idea of this negative freedom,

independence from all restrictions. But here's what's happened. In our dethroning of the king, here's what we've done unknowingly, is that we've made every man a king and every woman a queen. Population of one, a very small kingdom. I rule myself. And what it leads to, what we unknowingly done, is we've led to a separation between people because after all, if each man is an island, then we are cut off from one another. If I get to determine what's right for myself, what I want, what that comes in complete contrast or is it against is relationship. Because how many of you know, to be in a real committed relationship, you cannot have all of your freedom. Being in relationship costs you something. Being in relationship means you don't get to do what you want, when you want. If you're going to be in a healthy relationship, it means prioritizing the needs, preferences, pain of the other. It means putting other people first. That's what relationship requires. I read this quote a few weeks back by John Stott and this was written, keep in mind, in 1982. How prescient his prediction of what the future would be like. Look what he says, he says, it is difficult to imagine. Remember this is 1982. It's difficult to imagine the world in the year 2000. By which time, versatile microprocessors are likely to be as common as simple calculators are today. This will lead to, look at this, the probable reduction of human contact. As the new electronic network renders personal relationships ever less necessary. Does this not come true? Are we not living in this reality? He continues, in such a dehumanized society, the fellowship of the local church will become increasingly important. Whose members meet one another and talk and listen to one another in person rather than on screen. By the way, this is why we have made a commitment at Church on the Move. Online church is not church. It is a supplement to your in-person gathering with the other body of believers. We do not believe you sitting at home in your pajamas, eating cereal, watching a screen, constitutes you being a part of the local church. I get it. Sometimes you can't be here. And we want it for you so that you can remain connected when you're not here.

We have some who are shut in, some who are in a hospital, some who just for medical reasons can't be here. Welcome, we're glad that you're able to gather in this way and we're thankful that technology allows that. But gang, we were made for more than just to relate to one another on a screen. We were made for real, authentic, human relationships. And if 2020 didn't teach you that, I don't know what will. We need each other. And the Lord desires to bind and bond us together in a family. Do not buy the lie that you and Jesus are good together and you can take or leave the local church. That's not the truth. God's desire from the beginning is he wants a people. Do you know what his first command is? Be fruitful and multiply. I want a people. What did he promise Abraham? A people. I'm going to bring a nation from you. God wants a people and that people today are the local church. It's interesting about what John Stott's talking about here, this dehumanized society, and he continues. Let's end it and then I'll make this point. He says, in this human context of mutual love, speaking about the church, the speaking and hearing of the word of God is also likely to become more necessary

for the preservation, the preservation, what it is to be human, the preservation of our humanness, not less. Here's what's interesting. Oh, what was I going to say? I can't remember it. Oh, I remember. There's no Nat up here, guys. It's just me. You know what's interesting in this world of logarithms and everything being tailored to the individual? Here's what's interesting. We've seen relationship disintegrate. We've seen our national discourse get lower and lower and lower and more and more hostile. You know what else is interesting? The two commands, the very beginning of what God does. He brings husband and wife together in marriage, and then he says, be fruitful and multiply. You know what we're seeing? The drop of marriage and the drop of having kids. You know why? Because nothing will inhibit your freedom like children. Can't go to Europe quite so easily when you have kids. So what does our world tell us? Wait. Don't have kids now. Hold off. Be slow about it. Don't get married.

Don't do anything that will kind of, go, live your life. Live your best life. Do all the things. But here's what's interesting. You know what that, you pursuing you, you know what that robs you of? The deepest and greatest pleasures of what it is to be human. Meaning, love, relationships. Do you realize that all of those come by assuming a burden? We don't even like the word burden. Burden, we only, like it's all bad. Burden, mm, I want no burdens. But do you know that it's only through the assumption of responsibility, relationship, taking on the role of father, mother, that you get to experience much of the deepest and greatest joys that there are in this life. It comes through the assumption of burden, not the rejection of it. And yet our world tells you exact opposite. Don't take on any kind of burdens. You do you. Have as little as possible. Sell everything. Live light. Don't have much. And you get to go do, don't do anything that will tie you down.

Scriptures are just the opposite. Get married, have kids. Now obviously, I get it. Like Paul was single, Jesus was single. There is a place in this world for singleness. I'm just telling you that there is no path to happiness that doesn't include the willful accepting of burden and responsibility. It's part of what it is to be human and to live in community. But trying to cast the shackles of burden and responsibility off aren't making us happier. We're more free, as they understand freedom to be, than we've ever been. And yet are we happier? No. We're far less happy. And we're far more anxious. And we're far more depressed. Could it be that we're not nearly as good at being our own kings as we think? That brings me to heading number two, and that is the rule of the king. So the first picture that we get is of the nations in rebellion, rebelling against God. Let's get His command, His rule, His authority off of us so that we can be free to do what it is that we want to do. How does God respond? Well, He who sits in the heavens laughs. He laughs. How foolish. How foolish are you? You have no idea what's best for you. The Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury. And here's God's response. As for me, I have set my king.

God's response to human rebellion and sin is to send us a king. Now this is how God is going to set things and make things right. We, for all of our effort, all of our activity, all of our struggle, we cannot make things right. We're constantly looking for utopia, constantly looking for the next breakthrough, constantly looking for the technology that will help us to eradicate that which plagues us so that we can kind of enter into this state of human happiness and peace and harmony. I've got news for you. We can't bring it ourselves to that point. Only the one true king can. We were made for a king. You were made for a king. I'll go a step further, and you might not like this. This may grate against your American sensibilities, but you were made to be ruled. You were not made to rule yourself. I'm not absolving you of all personal responsibility. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm just telling you that you were made for a relationship with your Creator. You were not made to be the pinnacle and supreme leader of your own life. I think this is at the root of why we're so anxious and why we are depressed is because we are occupying a role that is not ours to hold. We've crawled up into the throne, and we've found that it is much more difficult to govern your own life than what we ever imagined. It has not brought us the peace, the happiness, the worry-free, carefree life that we envisioned. In fact, it's brought us just the opposite. The weight is crushing us. How do I get liberated? I submit to the authority of the one true king. In fact, I would tell you this. The greatest happiness, the greatest confidence you will ever have in life, the greatest authority—I don't love that word either, but we're going to use it a lot today— your greatest authority in whatever capacity you operate in, husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, co-worker, employee, employer,

your greatest effectiveness—hear this— will come in the place of your deepest submission to the authority that God has placed over you. Because this is how authority works. I want to show this to you from a story that comes to us from Matthew 8. Jesus is having an interesting interaction with a Roman centurion. Now, you have to remember that Jews and Romans didn't get along. They didn't like one another. After all, the Romans were foreign invaders and occupiers of the Jewish homeland. They had brought with them their foreign customs and their foreign gods, and the Jews hated them for this. The Jews would constantly rebel. By the way, this is part of what's the tension sort of in the crucifixion narrative. If you've read this, why Pilate is so eager to deal with Jesus and to put down this mob is because he doesn't want an uprising under his rule. There have been enough of those. And he didn't want to be responsible to the higher-ups for there being an uprising in Judea. He begrudgingly goes along with crucifying what he perceives to be an innocent man. Correctly so. But that's the tension that's there between the Jews and Rome. Well, here Jesus is having an interaction with a Roman centurion, one who commands a hundred in the army of Rome. And look at what happens. When he, that's Jesus, had entered Capernaum, that's a little village on the Sea of Galilee. You can still go and visit the ruins of Capernaum today. I've been there. A centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And Jesus said to the centurion, surprisingly, I'll come and heal him. Look at how this centurion responds.

Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, just speak, and my servant will be healed. And here's the real insight. For I too, this word here we could also translate as also. That's what too with a second o. means. I also am a man under authority. In other words, he's recognizing that his power, his rule over these soldiers that he's in charge of, is not self-generated. It's not something that he built up. No, it comes from above him. It comes from Rome itself. His power has been handed, delivered to him. He is only a steward of the authority that he has. I, too, am a man under authority. He continues, I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. So what he recognizes, I am under authority and I have soldiers who are under me. I've been given a certain authority, but I am I'm not the one who generated this authority. In other words, these guys don't obey me by sheer force of my personality. They don't follow my commands just because I'm the best centurion in all of Rome. They follow my commands because they know my commands are backed up by an authority that is greater than me. So I can have confidence, not because I'm the strongest or the baddest soldier in the Roman army, but because I have an authority that is over me that backs me up. His confidence comes from the authority that's over him and to the degree that he is submitted to that authority. Now I want you to watch how Jesus responds. Verse 10, when Jesus heard this, he marveled. Put in common speech, he was blown away. And this is only like two times in the Gospels where Jesus has this response to the faith of someone who's approaching him. And in both cases, by the way, these are not Jews. These are Gentiles. He said to those who follow him, truly I tell you, no one, no one in Israel have I found such faith. In other words, this guy gets it like nobody else gets it. And notice what this man said. Let's go back and look at it. I also, in other words, Jesus, I see in you that you're operating like I operate. There is an authority over you. Now that may

surprise you. Stop and think about how authoritative, how confident Jesus was. Read the Gospels. You will find a man who is supremely confident in every and all situations. Never is he flustered. Never is he caught off guard. He is in what appears to be supreme control and power. But what's interesting is how he described that power. See, in Mark's Gospel, all through Mark, the crowds are amazed. They're always saying, where does this guy get this authority? There must have been something so, so confident, so strong about Jesus' presence that it arrested people. They said, who speaks like this? Who speaks with such authority? Who casts out demons and they obey? Who prays for the sick and they're healed? Who can speak to the wind and the waves and they obey him? And never do we get the answer in Mark's Gospel as to where that authority comes from. But we get it in John. John chapter 5, verse 19, Jesus gives us the answer. He says to them, truly, truly, look at this. I say to you, the Son can do, what's this word here? Nothing. Does that surprise you? Jesus said, I'm not doing anything on my own. Nothing of my own accord. I'm only doing what I see the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. That's why this Roman centurion recognized a kindred spirit. He said, you're doing what I'm doing. In other words, he's saying, I'm just following orders. And in those orders, guess what? I can be supremely confident. I may be insecure in other parts of my life, but when I get an order from on high, this is what I'm supposed to do, I can be supremely confident in that order. Why? Because it's not from me. It comes from a power greater than me. Now, this is how we're called to live. This is why you need a king. Now, we grate against the idea of a king. We grate against the idea of authority. In fact, we're very skeptical of authority in our kind of modern time. And not for no reason. We've seen authority abused, right, again and again and again and again. We've seen crooked politicians who should be working for the people, actually lining their own pockets and taking care of those closest to them, right? We've seen that. We've seen greedy corporations hoarding what they could share with others. We've seen leaders in powerful positions using the legal system and their vast legal resources

to silence critics and those who would speak out against them. We've seen pastors, who should be pictures and examples of godliness and holiness, act as hypocrites. not do what they say and practice what they preach. And so no wonder we're skeptical of authority, but it's become so pervasive that even the idea of accepting the rule of a king, King Jesus over us, we kind of bristle against. We don't like this idea, but we were made for this kind of relationship. I would tell you, you will be always in your life insecure until you submit to the real and true power that is over you. You'll always be operating out of a sense of insecurity, never really trusting yourself. That's because self-generated authority, it never really feels very sure. You ever notice how some of the most powerful people in the world are actually the most insecure? Have you noticed this? The people with the biggest names, the biggest platforms and most power are actually deeply insecure. You can see it in the way that they can't handle criticism. They can't handle dissent. They're constantly trying to bend other people to their will. They're very petty. I don't know if you've ever worked for someone like this. These people make the worst bosses.

They can't be vulnerable. They can't accept feedback. They always have to be right. This is not power. This is actually insecurity masquerading as power. Can I get an amen? Do you know what this feels like? It's not fun to be around, and it's because their power, guess what, is stolen. See, Jesus said this, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It's an interesting interaction that Jesus has with Pilate. Just before his crucifixion, Pilate says, don't you know that I have the power to put you to death and the power to let you live? And Jesus says, you would have no power except my father gave it to you. Your power is just yours on loan. Do you realize that whatever position of power, authority, even the power to govern your own life, do you realize that you're only a steward of that power? Any authority that you have is not really yours. It's on loan to you. Jesus said, all power has been given to me. If all power has been given to Jesus, first of all, where did it come from? His father gave it to him. And does his father then possess all power? Well, he must. If he gave it, I mean, you can't give

what you do not have. If I tell my kids, hey, when you die, hey, Lucy, when you die, I'm gonna give you a million bucks. I got five kids, wouldn't that be awesome? A million dollars for each of my five kids. I can make that promise, but guess what? If I don't have five million bucks, guess what they're not getting when I die? I can make the promise. The promise doesn't matter if I don't have it to give. Isn't that right? So when Jesus says, all power has been given to me, that must mean that all power actually does belong to the father. So whatever power you have is on loan to you. Whatever authority you have as a father is on loan to you. Whatever authority you have as a mother is on loan. Whatever authority you have as a teacher, coach, an employee, whatever agency you have, it's on loan to you, and you will be held to account for what you did with it. You wanna know where you can have confidence? You wanna know where your greatest authority is? When you bring that authority that's been given to you and you submit it to the Lord Jesus. What does it look like? It looks like I do things his way. Looks like I treat people his way. Looks like I husband his way.

Looks like I wife his way. Looks like I love others his way. I need to know who he is, what he's about, his character, his ways. That brings me back to Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who meditates on his Torah, his law, his instruction, his ways, day and night. What happens? I become shaped like him into his image. I begin to take on his character, and in so doing, I grow in confidence. I've experienced this as your pastor. When I stepped in as pastor here in 2017, I can be honest and say there was a lot of insecurity in me in those first several years that the Lord had to painfully root out. I was more concerned with pleasing you than I was with pleasing God, and when God finally brought me to my knees where all of my plans and all of my strategy had failed, and all I could do was say, Lord, I'm just gonna pastor whatever church you give me, guess what? That's when it all started to turn around. My authority and my confidence began to grow when I began to preach the scriptures really. Why? Because you're not here to hear my opinion, you're not here to hear my stories, and you're not here to hear my creative ideas.

You're here to hear from God's word. That's the only thing that has any authority is this book, what he says. It's not me that you're here to listen to. It's him, and so long as we keep that at the center, guess what? That's where the greatest power comes from. More and more people start showing up. Why? Because it's not my talent, my ability. You know what, how much that allows me to relax? I don't have to show up here and perform every week. I don't have to put on a show. I don't have to come up with some bit to impress you. I just get to preach this book, and the more faithfully I do that, the more confident I am, and the more it serves you. You know the same thing is true for you? As a husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, coworker, employer, teacher, coach, wherever the Lord has sent you, that's where you find your confidence is in Him. Doing things His way. So my admonition to you is get under His authority. Submit to the King, and that's how the psalm ends, with an invitation to real blessing, happiness, joy, the good life. Now therefore, O Kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Now we get to the wisdom and the commands of the psalm. It sounds negative, but actually it's a positive. Be wise. Be warned, like someone waving at you on a highway where the bridge is out ahead. Don't go any further. It's not gonna be for your good. The bridge is out, stop. Go no further. Be wise, be warned. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Now I gotta be honest. The first, I don't know, 20, 25 times I read this psalm in my life, this verse here particularly bothered me. Kiss the Son, lest, you know what this sounds, it sounds like an abusive dad. Don't make dad mad. He gets angry real quick, and you don't like him when he's angry. It kinda sounds like that. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. I had trouble with this idea of His wrath being quickly kindled, because I knew other verses. The Lord is slow to anger. You heard that before?

Over and over again, we hear that the Lord is slow to anger. Here, Psalm 2 says He gets mad quick. What are we talking about here? Well, it doesn't mean that God gets angry quickly, that the Son gets angry quickly. What it means is that His wrath, which is certain to come, will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. And you won't be ready for it. Don't put off bowing your knee to the King, or one day you will wake up and it will be too late. By the way, the wrath of God is not a bad thing, but a good thing. It ought to be a fearful thing. It ought to cause us to examine ourselves and examine the allegiance of our hearts, but it is a good thing. After all, if there is no wrath, then God does not deal with evil and wickedness and sin and injustice. No, we want that. We don't want evil to go unpunished. We want it to be dealt with. God is slow to anger, and He has been patient for many thousands of years, but there is a day coming. It is called the day of the Lord, when His wrath will come. And that day it will be too late to bow your knee and to kiss the Son. It means kiss the ring. You've seen that before. It's a way, a mark of loyalty and obeisance.

It's saying, I submit myself to you. Again, we don't love this idea. It makes Jesus seem like a sort of oppressive, overlord, kiss the ring. That's just so warped, though, our ideas of power and authority. But I would remind you of this, take this into consideration, that when this King comes and He holds out His hand for your devotion and loyalty, you must remember that that hand comes with a nail scar. This is no King who seeks to dominate and leverage His authority over you and to lord it over you. In fact, Jesus told His disciples, we're not to be as the Gentiles do, lording our authority over others, but rather to serve. Is this not a King who gave up His rights, who laid down Heaven's throne so that He could become one of us? That's what Philippians 2 tells us. This is a King who spilled His very blood so that you could be brought into His family. This is not a King who seeks to push down, but one who wants to lift up. Jesus said, who the Son sets free is what? Free indeed, but that same Jesus also said, take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Make no mistake, Jesus doesn't just set you free

to do whatever it is that you wanna do and follow your heart, you're free to serve with this King, and this King is good. He's not trying to push you down, He's trying to lift you up. In fact, what He desires to do is not just to rule over you, but to rule, hear this, with you. It's what God wanted from the beginning. It's a staggering thought that God wanted men and women to rule and reign alongside with him. That's what the future is. That's what the end of the story is. Christ returns and he lifts us up so that we can be not only with him, but to rule and reign with him. We sing the song of it. He has made us a kingdom and priest to our God. It's a verse from Revelation. It's what the Lord longs to do, to lift you up into the fullest vision of who you can be for yourself. You don't know who you are, not really. You think you do, but I got news for you. God knows you better than you know yourself. And when you finally and fully bow your knee to him and say, all right, King Jesus, I submit and surrender myself to you, then you begin the journey of not only knowing him,

but knowing yourself, your true self. That's where you find confidence. That's where you find that calm, that steadfast, that assurity of knowing who you are because you know who he is. That's what the Lord wants to give you, that kind of peace. That's why it ends in the same way that Psalm 1 begins. Blessed, blessed are all who take refuge in him. When we surrender ourselves to our true king, then and only then do we find who we really are. That's the invitation of Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, surrender to the true king. Would you bow your heads, close your eyes. Let me pray for us as we end today. Heavenly Father, thank you for these words for these words preserved for us through the centuries that we might know you. They are a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. Help us, O Lord, hide this in our hearts that we might not sin against you. Deeper still that we might know you, that we might become, as Psalm 1 says, like that tree, planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in our season. Our leaf does not wither. And all that we do, may we prosper because we are planted in you, your commands, your instruction, your word. Now, Lord, if there are parts of our hearts, lives that we have not surrendered to you.

In fact, church, I think now is a good time just for us to respond. I'm not gonna have you stand up or raise a hand this morning, but maybe there's a part of your heart, maybe the Holy Spirit would speak to you. But a part of yourself that he has been asking for the door to be opened, to be let in, so that he can be really king there. Maybe it's with certain attitudes. Maybe it's in the way that you've treated people. Maybe it's in the right to rule your life. Maybe it's around money, I don't know. But perhaps the Holy Spirit would speak to you about areas that need to be surrendered to him. Maybe right there at your seat, you could just quietly, under your breath, say, Lord, I'm giving this to you. I give you access. Have all of me. This is where life truly begins, when we surrender to the one true king. Lord, we offer ourselves to you fully and completely, holding nothing back. In Jesus' name, amen. As we close today, as usual, our prayer team will be down front. They stand right here in front of where I'm standing right now, and they're available to pray with anybody. You don't have to be a member of church on the move.

This may be your very first time in this room. We would love to be able to pray with you, minister to you about whatever may be going on in your life. Now, hear this. Specifically, if you have questions about your relationship with God, when I've talked today about surrendering your life to Jesus, maybe that's you. Maybe you know you've never done that, or maybe you've been playing games in your relationship with Christ. We have a lot of people in this state who call themselves Christian, but only really a name and kind of from a cultural perspective. They're not really consecrated, dedicated to the Lord. And if that's you, you wanna live that kind of life, I would encourage you, come down front. We've got a little booklet for you. It's called What Does It Mean to Be Saved? It's something that we wrote. This is no strings attached. We're not trying to get you to become a member here. We would love to just resource you with what it looks like to actually follow Christ. So if you want one of these, come forward. Prayer team's down here for you. We would love to be able to resource you with one of these. All right, stand to your feet. We're gonna close with this blessing

out of Numbers, chapter six, and we like to say it out loud together as a. congregation and community. So we'll put it on the screen. Would you join me? Here we go. 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. I love you. We'll see you next week. You're 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.