Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/lgc/sermons/66050/receive-the-priestly-king-psalm-110/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Amen. Well, we're in Psalm 110, so please keep a finger open there. We are going to look now at the second movement, sort of, of our Advent series. Last week we got to talk about sort of an introductory message in 2 Samuel 7, which deals with the promised king. Now, all the way back in the history of Israel, there's a man named David that we looked at last week who was a great king.

[0:28] But as great as David was, he was no Messiah king. So God, in his sovereignty, his grace, and his mercy, comes to David and tells him, hey, I'm going to bring up somebody from your line who will be a king forever, whose throne will never depart from the earth. That was what we looked at last week, and we saw that that promised king was Jesus, the coming Messiah. But now we're going to pivot a little bit and look at another element of Jesus' kingly reign that he comes to us on Advent, and this one is the priestly king. So in Psalm 10, as you just heard Heather read and you read along, one of the first things we see in Psalm 10, if you look at your Bible with me right now, actually, there's a superscription on the very top that says, Psalm of David. And as I've said before in the Psalms, that is inspired scripture that was written down by David himself or his scribe. It's inspired by the word of God. It's meant to be there, those little inscriptions. Now, if you look above that, you might see a chapter title that is not inspired. That is translators trying to help us out, which is great. But that little inscription is scripture. And why is it so important? Here's why it's important, because David is the same man who received the promise of an eternal king to come from his line to reign forevermore. And now, presumably years later in David's life, when he writes this Psalm 110, which is believed to be after the events of 2 Samuel 7, he sits down divinely inspired by the the Lord himself to write this beautiful Psalm. And here's what's so majestic about this. David pens 70 songs in the book of Psalms. But this particular Psalm is really important to understanding Jesus, because it is one of the most quoted Psalms in the entire New Testament.

[2:32] Why? Because what David decided to write down as musical lyrics in Psalm 110 ended up validating the coming of the long-awaited Messiah King. This Psalm served to confirm the promised king of 2 Samuel 7, the very covenant that David received earlier. And now he writes this beautiful Psalm about the long-awaited king that would come to rule and reign, and it speaks of something greater and grander than David could possibly have even imagined when he actually wrote the lyrics.

[3:11] The praise be to God that we read Psalm 110, and we see it for what it is. So what we're going to do, we're going to work through this verse by verse. I'm going to jump a little bit around to kind of reorganize to help us understand it, but we're going to start with verse 1. And verse 1 is maybe a verse you've heard before. It's familiar to you, and if it's not, I'm going to offer to you this is a very important verse in the early church. Quoted and referenced a lot. So let's read it together. It says this, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

[3:47] And what I have for the first verse of Psalm 110 is a prediction that even David himself may not fully understood, but here's what it meant. That Jesus comes from God and goes back to God as his chosen king. How do we see that in verse 1? Well, here's what David says. It's a kind of a weird, pronoun-heavy, confusing sentence. He says this, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

[4:18] So who's speaking here? Is it, is David speaking about himself, to himself, with the Lord in mind? Is, is he speaking on behalf of the Lord to him? Or is he speaking on behalf of the Lord to someone else that's not him? You can see the confusing nature of this verse. And a lot of debate has been spewed on this verse, but here's what we need to know first and foremost. There's a key term that really unlocks the mystery, and it's right hand. How does this unlock the meaning of this verse? Well, the right hand biblically is understood as a place of privilege and honor. A place where a king or a ruler would invite another guest of honor to sit, or more importantly, a co-heir to the throne to sit at their right hand. And here the Lord, Yahweh, invites his divine king of choice. And it's not David.

[5:18] He invites his son to sit and witness his sovereignty and divine purposes play out through the very duties and actions of the son that he would send. How do we know that that's what this is about? Well, in Mark chapter 12, Jesus himself is talking to some Pharisees, and they're asking him about this verse and this idea of the one that's going to come to be the king. And here's what Jesus says. And Jesus taught in the temple, and he said, how can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself and the Holy Spirit declared, quoting from Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? In other words, Jesus is appealing to the fact that Yahweh and all of his divine sovereignty, foresight, foreplanning, and omniscience ordained that his son, Jesus Christ, would come to earth, be born of a woman, and come to fill this place. A place that David could never sit. A place that is too high and too lofty and too grand and too regal for someone as meager as David, as great as David was. Jesus proclaiming to the very people that are wondering about who this position will be filled by, he says to them, how can the scribes say that Christ is the son of David? And in so doing, in Mark, Jesus proclaims himself the son of the living God. But here's what's amazing about this image. It's not just predicting that

[7:08] Christ would come and be the Lord over all creation and the king that rightfully sits at the right hand of Yahweh, but also it says that he sits. What does sitting mean? It's an ancient symbol of a great work being completed, and now it's time to rest and rule. So there's this picture that Jesus at one point is going to come back to the father, and he's going to sit at his right hand, which symbolizes the work is done, redemption has been accomplished, and the king now sits ready to rule.

[7:40] It's a great verse, and it wraps up with this, I will make your enemies your footstool. The father giving over all authority to the son to reign and rule over the earth, and one day the prediction is that we know from scripture that Jesus will do this very thing.

[8:00] More on that later at the end of the psalm, but let's jump to verse two, because verse two is going to help us sort of move into this idea of a king who's characterized by something that's more than just what we know to be kingly, regal. But there's another characteristic that's coming, so let's look at verse two. Verse two says this, the Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Now, if you look at through history and kingdoms and leaders and kingship, what you're going to find is things like rings, signet rings, that the Caesars of Rome used to wear to designate that I am the boss here. The British Empire actually wore literal crowns to denote their rule and their reign to the throne. But in scripture, we see actually a lot of different ancient symbols used to denote who is king. Things like rings and things like crowns are all through scripture, but here we see a different image that denotes the king, and it's a scepter. The symbol of Jesus' divine cosmic reign that is given to him by the Father is a divine scepter handed down from King Yahweh to King Jesus. The cosmic king inaugurates the messianic king by the passing on of this rule through a scepter. And with the scepter, here's what Jesus will do. He will rule in the midst of his enemies. So again, we see another picture, an extension of this king. But here's what we're going to do. I know you see verse three in there.

[9:43] We're actually going to skip verse three and jump straight to verse four, but we'll come right back. Don't worry. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to read verse four, and then we're going to see what is it about this Messiah king named Jesus that makes him so unique. So let's read verse four together. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Verse four, penned by David. And I all but guarantee when David wrote the lyrics for verse four, he did not fully understand what he was writing.

[10:29] That's going to be a great conversation someday. David, when you wrote about the king coming, being like a guy named Melchizedek, who has essentially three verses in all of scripture and is pretty much unknown, what were you thinking? What were you doing? What was the point of that? And maybe David will know and he'll have this full explanation for why he did it, but I kind of think that the Lord sovereignly through David's hand inspired him to write these lyrics for the sole purpose of predicting something that is unbelievably majestic. So let's look at verse four and understand it. Jesus is a priestly king. That is what verse four is about. Penned by the Lord through his sovereignty in David, and it starts out with this amazing word. It says this, the Lord has sworn. Now, I don't know about you, but my parents, they taught us about swear words, but even more importantly, they taught us about swearing our word. Now, what does it mean to swear your word? Well, the Bible actually talks a lot about letting your yes be your yes and your no be your no. If you say you're going to do something, if you're going to commit to something, then follow through. The Bible's very big on this, especially when we make oaths to God, Jesus reminds us, to be very careful in making oaths to God in his sermon on the mount.

[11:51] But here's what we know about oaths. When they are made, you are committing a promise to somebody that you will do something. So if I tell the girls, hey, we're going to go get ice cream tomorrow, and I don't follow up on that, especially my oldest will remind me for the next month.

[12:09] Dad, you said we're going to get ice cream. We haven't got ice cream yet. You say we're going to get it way back then. That's how Brynn works, and good for her to remind me that I failed, and I did not keep my commitment. But to swear an oath is a little bit heavier.

[12:22] Because see, in the ancient day, to swear an oath is terminology that would oftentimes carry with it a sentence of death. Literally, cross my heart, dare to die type of language. And here's what the Lord does. All throughout the Old Testament, he promises Israel over and over again, I have sworn, I did swear, my oath I gave to your fathers. About taking the land to Joshua, about giving them a place of prosperity and peace from all war to Moses, on and on, to Abraham, the blessings of divine providence over him.

[13:04] He uses this term a lot in the Old Testament, and now we see it used by David in Psalm 110, and it is not a light usage. So what does it mean the Lord has sworn? It reminds us that God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. That when he speaks about what he will do, it's as good as done, like we saw last week. But here's what I'd love for us to do to understand verse 4. This is very unique, so bear with me. We're going to read all of Psalm 110 together right now, but here's what I'm going to do.

[13:37] I'm going to skip verse 4. You'll see why in a minute. So we're going to read all of Psalm 110, but I'm going to skip verse 4. Let's do it. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head.

[14:17] Man, that flow is just perfect. I'm going to make you king. I'm going to give you a scepter. You're going to reign. People are going to follow you. You're going to have power. You're going to rule in judgment, and you're going to drink from the brook. Man, that's a king, and that is a king.

[14:32] So why verse 4? If you reinsert verse 4 as we are meant to do, it's not right to read it without verse 4. This is an exercise. Here's what verse 4 does for the whole psalm.

[14:50] It offers an essential characteristic of a king that defines his duty in coming. See, if you take verse 4 out of Psalm 110, you can look at it and have sympathy for the modern day view in Judaism of the Messiah who's going to come. He's going to crush the enemy. He's going to be a military boss, and he is going to rule and finally forever be our warrior king.

[15:22] But if you all of a sudden take verse 4 and put it in there, the whole meaning changes. And here's why it changes. There's a key word in here, priest.

[15:39] Now surely, if you think of a warrior king conquering enemies by the edge of the sword, winning battles, taking land, you're not thinking of a priest.

[15:53] No. What is a priest? Well, in ancient Israel, the Lord set up the role of priest. And what did a priest do? I'll tell you one thing, the priests were not warriors.

[16:05] Their goal and job in Israel was not to lead the battle, to go in and free the people through war. However, the job of the priest, according to the Lord, is to intercede on behalf of his people.

[16:21] That when a sinner comes to God and says, I want to be right with you and worship you and follow you, they would come to the priest at the tabernacle or the temple.

[16:33] And the priest, through an unbelievably long list of exact to-do, step-by-step processes that the Lord ordained, that they would be holy and sanctified, goes through his list, and he did things like this.

[16:47] A priest was a, in modern terms, a pastor, a counselor, a teacher, an elder, and here's the last one, a butcher.

[16:59] If you look through all of the descriptions of a priest, according to the Lord, the job set was unbelievable. But all in all, every one of those things I just listed is in the service of the people to be made right with God and to have access to him.

[17:19] The main way they did this was by offering sacrifice. There's an entire day called the Day of Atonement where they would stand at the altar nonstop and they would butcher every bull, every sheep, offer every grain offering, and so forth.

[17:32] And every time they made these offerings, they followed the holy rituals that the Lord set out to be sanctified, that the Lord might be honored and people might be made right with him.

[17:44] But here's the thing, without the priest, there is no right worship of God in Israel. So why in the world, in this regal, kingly psalm, does David throw in this line about the king being a priest.

[18:02] Doesn't add up with the rest of the theme if you don't understand who Jesus was and why he came to earth. But here's what's so amazing. The Lord swears, not just to establish a king, he says, I won't change my mind on what I am promising, not about just a king, but he swears on this, that you, one to come, king who will be the eternal ruler of my people, you will be a priest.

[18:29] And here's the term, after the order of Melchizedek. So we have to do it. We have to do it. Who's Melchizedek?

[18:42] If you've studied Melchizedek before or you've wandered into this pool of theology, you might have some answers, you might be confused. I think that's probably the consensus of a lot of us.

[18:54] But here's what I want us to know about Melchizedek. This mysterious character of the Old Testament appears only twice, once in Deuteronomy for three verses, and again where?

[19:06] Psalm 110. So why does he get dropped here in this beautiful Messianic psalm? What's so special about Melchizedek? Well, here's what happens. Soon after, God appears to Abraham with a call to follow him, to believe in him, and he will bless him.

[19:21] Abraham journeys out from his homeland in faith, and he conquers a few different people in battle. He does a couple deals. He establishes himself in the new land, and almost immediately, this guy comes to him named Melchizedek, and here's what it says.

[19:37] Three verses. After his return from the Devit of Shed of Lamer, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shava, which is the king's valley. And Melchizedek, first usage, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

[19:55] He was a priest of God Most High. What? And he blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram, by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, blessed be God Most High, who has delivered you from your enemies into your hand.

[20:10] And Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had. What an interesting little narrative. So what do we learn about this guy?

[20:20] Well, first, he's king of a place called Salem, which means peace. Second, he blesses Abraham, even though God said Abraham would be the one doing blessings on people. That's interesting. Third, he's called the priest of God Most High.

[20:35] And fourth, he gives a benediction to Abraham, seemingly on behalf of God himself. Who is this guy?

[20:49] And here's the question that we have to answer. Wait a minute. When did the priestly Levitical system instituted by God happen? Hundreds of years later, under the leadership of a guy named Moses.

[21:06] So what, how could this man, who has three verses in the Bible, be called a priest of the Most High God? There are no priests.

[21:17] The Lord has not established priests. And here lies the meaning. Melchizedek is the first priest of God, we see in the Bible.

[21:34] He blessed Abraham and carried out God's will to bless him with an actual benediction from the mouth and hand of God himself. And here's what happens. The author of Hebrews, as we find later on in the Bible, summarizes the story that we just read in this way.

[21:50] He essentially says this, Melchizedek is greater than Abram and greater than the Levitical priests. Melchizedek was a priest, not under law or obligation, but under utter service to God from before Israel existed.

[22:04] I'm summarizing. You have to go back, and I encourage you to do it. Read all of Hebrews 7. It's too long for us to do today. Read Hebrews 7, and you will find the author of Hebrews make that argument. Abraham was supposed to be blessing other people.

[22:17] Melchizedek comes from the scene and blesses him. So therefore, Melchizedek is superior to Abraham. That's what the author of Hebrews says. But not only that, all the priests in the Levitical system are great, and they did their job, they did their obligations, but all of them came at a prescribed time and then died, and then replaced, and then died.

[22:36] But here's his point. Melchizedek came before any of them and had no start, had no end. He was just God's priest. But not only that, here's what's so amazing.

[22:50] Melchizedek was also a king of Salem, which is a place called peace. So literally, who's Melchizedek? In the three verses, we learn a lot.

[23:01] He is the only priest of God that was not bound to a timeline before Jesus. And he was a king of a place that was called peace.

[23:12] Meaning this, Melchizedek was a type that predicted the coming priestly kingship of Jesus. Melchizedek was born a priest and a king by God, and he predicts Jesus, the great high priest, and the one true king who would come and set a dominion for ever.

[23:34] In fact, Hebrews 7 literally says, Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant than even Melchizedek because he has a priesthood that reigns forever.

[23:48] Meaning this, Jesus fulfills the eternality that is implied in the role of priest that Melchizedek took from, or was received from God.

[23:59] Jesus has come. And he is the one whom we anticipate. In verse 4 of Psalm 110, written by David, says that Jesus Christ, as Melchizedek, had no start or no end to his priesthood, so Jesus comes on the scene and is the true, total, final priest that takes on this eternal priesthood for us, his children.

[24:26] So here's what I want to do real quick. The other time it's quoted about Melchizedek, or excuse me, Psalm 110 is Acts 2. Listen to Peter. Peter preaches this about Psalm 110.

[24:39] This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

[24:51] For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to myself, Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. Now listen to this. Last verse. David's interpreting Psalm 110 for us.

[25:03] Let all of the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

[25:18] And in so doing, we have our final element. Peter ties the priesthood of Jesus Christ to his crucifixion. And the coming king that we celebrate at Advent came to be your priest.

[25:36] Which means just like the priest, he came to make the sacrifices needed for you to be at one with God. He came to satisfy God's judgment on sin through offering.

[25:53] But unlike the priests of the Levitical system, the offering is not made on behalf of someone and that's it.

[26:05] Jesus, this eternal priest of a new covenant, is both the priest who administers the sacrifice for his people before God and he himself who also is the very sacrifice for their sin.

[26:23] Literally, the priest throws himself on the altar is the picture of Jesus. And in so doing, here's what Jesus does is that great high priest, he pleads our case before a holy God.

[26:37] He comes to bridge eternally harmony and acceptance between sinner and God with his final complete sacrifice. He came to make us holy as he is holy, to bring us fully clothed in righteousness and want of nothing, able to merit nothing, praise be to God, to meet with God and dwell in his presence.

[26:58] This is Jesus, the high priest of our covenant. And this is our priest forever as David says in verse 4. So here's what I want to ask us to do on this point to receive his priesthood, to accept his satisfactory sacrifice, and to rest in his intercession.

[27:23] The reason his priesthood is eternal and lasting is because it is complete. Nothing can be added to this offering. Nothing can be merited to this sacrifice.

[27:35] sacrifice. The only thing to be done to receive the work of this great high priest is to turn from sin, to lay it on the cross, the altar of Christ, and to believe in what he has done.

[27:57] His love for us to willingly go to the cross and be the very sheep that was supposed to die. Us. So now we jump back to verse 3.

[28:11] You'll see why we're doing this in a second here. Verse 3. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours.

[28:24] And they've entitled verse 3 this, the holy citizenry of the priestly king. The one who he himself has been the priest, interceded on behalf of the people, stands in that place between sinner and God, holy, bridging the gap that we might walk.

[28:44] He has done this for us. First it says that these people, this is describing you and I, the holy citizenry, the God's kingdom, says that we are dressed in holy garments, which is an amazing term.

[28:57] I love the way the NIV translates this phrase, arrayed in holy splendor. And here's what we know, what does, what makes God's people holy all throughout the Bible?

[29:08] Whether it be in ancient Israel, the early church, or today, God's people are only ever considered holy by his designation alone, in his grace, through sacrifice.

[29:22] You want to be holy? Sacrifice is the bridge. And Israel was designated by God as holy and beloved to him.

[29:34] This was coupled with the sacrificial system whereby a worshiper would go and make that sacrifice of a bull, sheep, or grain to the priest to be made right with God. But here's what we know about Christ.

[29:46] He has done this for us forever. And our goal, our job, as his followers and worshipers, is to cease from self-atonement. To turn from our pride that says you have to show yourself worthy of God's love.

[30:06] We try to self-atone so quickly in our world. To take the wild, obscure passage to heaven filled with efforts to appease God through intellectual prowess, material wealth, spiritual enlightenment, or an appeal even to pity.

[30:21] These are all ways that we seek self-atonement. But in understanding that Jesus has fulfilled the role of both high priest and king, he himself becomes our entire worth.

[30:38] But here's the second thing I want us to notice about verse 3. It says this, that they, his citizens, will follow their great king into all of his conquests. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.

[30:52] Next week, we're going to look at how Jesus becomes or is coming to be our conquering king through his death and resurrection, subduing all powers and authorities of all time. But here we see a snippet of what the redeemed, justified heart does in response to receiving that holy, divine intercession of Jesus.

[31:11] Here's what the heart does. Offers themselves freely. Romans 12.1 says this, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

[31:32] And in response to all he said about the salvation of the gospel that comes through Christ, Paul then says in that verse, here's our obligation, brothers and sisters, to every day lay down our lives in worshipful sacrifice for the one who sacrificed for us.

[31:50] Sacrifice begets sacrifice. And I love this term. His people will offer themselves freely. That's what the redeemed heart does.

[32:05] It doesn't seek its own desires, its own will no longer, but instead because of the transforming love of Jesus Christ to lay down his very life, to be the king that no other king could ever be in that we find our purpose and our meaning.

[32:23] And this is what makes Jesus so different than all the rest. What king would lay down their throne, their crown for a crown of thorns? What king, even in the desire to help his people, would go to the extent to humble themselves to being born a man, to live among sinners for 33 years, to be scorned, rebuked, beaten, absolutely denied and rebuked by all around him, to be willing to suffer an immense amount of pain, sorrow, and separation, and to die a shameful death on a cross.

[33:12] What king would do that? There are none but Jesus. So offer yourself freely to the one who offers himself freely for you.

[33:25] And then finally, verse 5 and 7 finishes on sort of a somber note. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.

[33:36] He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. And understanding this king of Psalm 110, we recognize as we've seen that the chief characteristic of this king is not just that he has authority or might or power, which he does have, but that he gains all of this by way of his priestly intercession.

[34:00] That because Jesus was crucified and brought low, God was pleased to raise him in resurrection life, but not only that, back to his right hand to ascend to the Father, to that place of exaltation and glory.

[34:18] That's who Jesus is. And that's what he did. And now we see in verse 5 to 7 a picture of what will be for those who reject the intercession of Christ. Christ. This is a stark picture, but I will offer this, that it brings comfort, confidence, and finality to those who have already received this priestly king.

[34:41] To know that all wrongs will be righted, all injustices will be turned is actually should be a comfort and a confidence to those who are in his kingdom.

[34:54] But for those who have yet to receive the great high priest and his atoning sacrifice, this is a ghastly, horrifying picture. And the truth is that God will have his judgment on the self-atoning, self-righteous people.

[35:11] For their sacrifices are putrid and insignificant and insufficient as yours and I's were before Christ. But this is why we celebrate Advent. As terrible as the fate is of those who reject the beloved intercession of Jesus Christ between sinner and holy God, we celebrate Advent because we cherish the gift of Jesus Christ come to rid us of our sin.

[35:39] The one that brings hope. We share the hope of our priestly king and we take the altar of atonement, Jesus' cross, with us wherever we go.

[35:50] In that when we celebrate Advent, I pray that our goal would be to see the world with the very eyes of the priestly king. The very eyes of the one that sees the sinner coming with all of their burdens, all of their shames, all of their sin.

[36:05] And as they come closer to the altar, the priest is overwhelmed with love for such a sinner and is willing to go and be the sacrifice. That's the love that we're called to.

[36:18] And that's the hope that we have in Advent. to share this priestly king with others. How do we do that? Well, we're told by Jesus a million times in his ministry, love as I has loved you.

[36:32] So we love others with sacrificial love this Christmas season and beyond. Here's a few ways to do that. Give more than you receive. Part of sacrificial love is being willing to give far beyond what anyone has ever given you.

[36:51] That's sacrificial love. So would that be a present this year? I'm not the best gift giver. My wife rocks it with gifts. She's just one of those people that is amazing at thinking through and crafting out gifts.

[37:02] I don't have that. But here's what I need to do. I need to die to myself and the part of me that says I love to receive presents but I don't like to give them because it's expensive.

[37:15] You have to put work into it. It takes a lot of time and energy and heart how silly to be expecting gifts but not to be giving them out.

[37:27] So give more than you receive whether that's in the context of a Christmas gift this year or it's in the context of something bigger. Two, serve more than you are served. We see a model of Christ who served to the very end even to his last breath all of us.

[37:44] What breath do you have today that you can freely serve with? Consider what it might mean to do something like this. When the presents are unfolded and the wrapping paper is out who's the first person that's going to bring those up and put them in a garbage bag?

[38:03] Or how about this one? Do those, will yourself to do those after a giant meal that mom spent all day slaving away at dishes. I know what that's like. My mom made meals in Christmas time for like 20 people and she would a lot of times get caught doing the dishes.

[38:22] That's absurd. And this last Thanksgiving we were just down there all of us boys saw her starting on the dishes and we all died a thousand deaths and rushed over and had to like push my mom out of the kitchen because she wants to do the dishes.

[38:37] But man, seeing the world with eyes like that, where is it that the dishes need to be cleaned, I have time, I have energy, I can do that. That's a priestly sacrificial heart.

[38:50] And here's the hard one. Forgive and be reconciled to those family members whom you have fallen out of favor with. A call to rejoice in the priestly service of our great King Jesus is also a call to extend the offering of sacrifice and forgiveness to others.

[39:07] The altar is a place where relationship is made whole again. So too, our hearts should embody this altar.

[39:21] Don't invalidate the altar of the cross where the sacrificial lamb was slain by refusing someone else forgiveness or reconciliation. As we have been made right with God through Jesus' priestly reign, so we should be right with one another to the sacrificing of our pride.

[39:40] There's a lot of things we can do to apply this this Christmas season. But all in all, we will never apply any of these things unless we truly are ready to receive the priestly King.

[39:53] The King who saw it fit to die in order to serve us and make us right with God. Praise be to God that we have a King that lays His life down freely for us.

[40:04] So at this time, I'd like to ask you to stand. We're going to receive the priestly King this Christmas. You can put that last slide up there.

[40:16] We're going to all repeat the bottom line together. I'll lead us by saying the front line. So this Advent, let us say together in perfect harmony, Come, King Jesus, establish your rule and reign among us.

[40:29] Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for being with us, being our King. And I pray that you would honor, Lord, the worship of our hearts as we see you dying for us, coming to be the priest that lays down his life.

[40:43]  Thank you, Jesus, for being a King like no other. Thank you for this morning. Help us to see your beauty this Advent. Let me pray. Amen. Amen.