The Return of the King

I'm giving the sermon tomorrow at Open Arms, which is Good Shepherd's second campus congregation. So I'm going to 'practice' on here. In the words of the Joker, here we go:

We have many different names we like to call God, don't we? I like that we have so many different names, because it helps reveal the many different facets of the kind of relationship that God wants with us. One name that I want to focus on today is "Lord" or "King." We call God "Lord" all the time, but do we really carry with us an understanding of what this means to call God "Lord"? We can investigate this by looking way back in the Old Testament to understand the relationship between God and the ancient Israelites.

God's relationship with the Israelites cannot be properly understood outside the context of the Covenant. The nation of Israel was defined by their relationship with God inside the covenant. God made a covenant, or promise, with Israel at Mount Sinai. This was basically Israel's new, fresh start as a nation after coming out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The terms of this covenant are written out in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. This was a formal agreement, like a contract. In fact, the entire book of Deuteronomy is structured similar to other ancient Near Eastern treaties found during that time period between a king and his subjects. These contracts governed the "rules" that the two parties would live by in this agreement. I think it's great that God speaks to Israel in a language and style that they are familiar with--such as the social structures of cultures around them.

The terms of this covenant are set by God--He is the one in charge. He names off all of His conditions for the covenant, and that is what we find in the book of Leviticus. All these "rules" about how the Israelites should live are part of the terms of the covenant that God set. All this to establish that God was the King in the relationship between Himself and Israel. This was a big part of what defined Israel's religion. Israel was a theocracy, a nation governed completely by God.

I find it helpful to picture what other kings in the ancient world were like, and how people acted around them. We've all seen movies and read books with this element in it. When people see the king passing by, they immediately move out of the way and bow down to him. When the king requests something, he gets it immediately, without question. The words of the king become law. Servants would immediately fall down and hunch over if the king needed a footstool. All of this wasn't done just for kicks and giggles. It was because of a genuine reverence and great respect for the king. People would literally worship this man who sat on a throne. All of this for a man who was born into this position of authority.

Let's compare this to the King of kings and Lord of lords, our God who's very presence is too great for any man to view and live. This Lord of Hosts, who commands all the heavenly bodies as His army. This King who conquers lands and nations for the sake of His people. This King who's name is too sacred to utter, so much so that the pronunciation of this Name is now lost. This King who is so holy that the very ground where He is present is made holy (we are in a holy place right now because He is present--isn't that cool?). This King uses the entire earth as His footstool! In the book of Revelation, dozens of kings--these powerful men who are constantly waited on hand and foot--lay their crowns before the King of kings and bow down prostrate to worship Him day and night.

It's in this context, understanding God as the King, that all of Jesus talk about the Kingdom of God makes more sense. Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God more than any other subject during His ministry.

But it's so amazing that this King we serve is no typical king. He is so powerful and mighty, and all the things that come with being a king multiplied by thousands. But at the same time, somehow, he is still so personal, and so intimate. This is a King who loves His people as a Father.
Yet we reject Him. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, Israel requests a king to rule them. You can almost hear the hurt in God's voice when he tells Samuel, "...they have rejected me as their King." What have we made our king in place of God? What rules our lives? Scripture makes it clear that anything that rules our lives apart from God is sin.

God, this King who has conquered nations, wants to conquer your life and mine. He wants to be the only ruler, and the supreme ruler, Lord over everything in our lives. This King, who led Joshua and Israel to conquer Jericho, is on a mission to conquer you. Perhaps at this point in your life, He is circling you, quietly closing in. Perhaps He is knocking down walls, the barriers that separate you from Him, right now. Has he conquered you yet? Is He King over every part of your life? Does every part of you exist to serve Him? I'll be honest with you, I'm not there yet. I haven't turned everything over to Him yet. But I'm getting there. I know that my life is headed in the direction of the King, slowly but surely being completely and utterly conquered. I hope yours is too.

The paradox of this is, to be completely conquered by God brings complete freedom in Him. We are free from all the things of this world that vie for our attention and only seek to enslave us. 2 Corinthians says, "Christ's love controls us." If we allow ourselves to be completely conquered and controlled by this King, we receive life, and life to the fullest.

Update: The sermon went pretty well. Not phenomenal, but good. It didn't really sound much like this though.