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Collegedale Korean SDA Church

Kurt Osena

Before Royalty: Cross Etiquette

The title of the message is Before Royalty, Cross Etiquette.

You know, when you are going to visit with someone that is of a royal family, right, if you're going to visit with a queen or a king, It is important that you make sure that when you go there that you have the proper etiquette, right?

That you meet and greet them in the way they ought to be met and greeted.

I looked online as to what you ought to do when you come across royalty, how you're supposed to engage with them.

When you're addressing the Queen or King, you need to appropriately address them right, using words like your majesty or your highness.

Men, when you approach them, you need to bow.

Women, you need to do the whole curtsy thing, right?

You need to make sure that when you are approaching them that you wait for them to extend their arm, and when you talk with them you should not ask personal questions.

If there is a social event, the host needs to make sure that he gives up his seat or her seat in order for them to sit there.

So there's so many things that you ought to do in order for you to engage or interact with someone that is of the royal family.

The Bible says in Revelation chapter 19 verse 16, we're about to pray but I just want to set up these introductory remarks.

Revelation chapter 19 verse 16 Jesus is called the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

How many of you guys recognize that Jesus is royalty?

When we worship God, when we come to his presence, we ought to recognize that.

We ought to recognize that God is sovereign, that Jesus is royal.

But you know, sometimes I feel that we don't recognize that enough in our lives.

Sometimes I feel like even when we walk into church, sometimes it's so easy for us to get caught up in a secular conversation or get distracted by the things that are around us.

Sometimes we forget, even when we come to church, that we are worshiping the sovereign God.

You know, Jesus, when we come to him, we should always recognize that he is royalty, that he is the king of kings.

And so when we come to worship him, it is my prayer that we all come to him in reverence, amen?

That when we worship him, that we always recognize that.

Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer as we get into our message this morning before royalty cross etiquette.

Precious Heavenly Father, dear God, it is my pleasure and I count it a privilege to stand before this sacred desk this morning.

I don't feel like I'm the person to do this, but Father, you have called me to do it.

But Lord, I just want to pray this morning, as you know that I am in desperate need of you.

I pray, Father, that you would fill my heart.

I pray that, Lord, you would be the 1 to communicate to my frontal lobe that you would give me the words that I need to speak here this morning.

Father, we come before you recognizing that you are the King of all kings, recognizing that you are the God of the universe.

And Father, how much we are just wanting to hear your voice this morning.

How much we just want to hear something, Father, from this message here this morning that will make an impact in our lives, that, as mentioned already, that will bring us higher in our Christian experience.

It is my sincere prayer, Father, that as we delve into this message, as we talk about this topic, cross etiquette, I pray that, Lord, we would learn what it means to bear the cross of Christ and help us to learn from the Bible, Lord, what we need to do in order to carry that cross.

And so it is my sincere prayer, Father, I can't do this alone.

I pray, Lord, that you would be speaking directly from your throne this morning, I pray.

I had the privilege of going to the Philippines for a mission trip a few years ago, actually it was several years ago, and this mission trip was such a blessing.

It was a life-changing experience for me, and I was able to go to this country, the Philippines, with a group of my friends.

We all went there for the purpose of reaching the hearts of the young people.

So I was stationed with a select group of friends of mine that were stationed in this college, while the other half of our group was stationed in a mountain called Mount Seacal.

But they were stationed in this mountain, and we didn't see each other for a majority of the trip, but when we did get a chance to see each other.

We were so thrilled to see each other and we were sharing stories back and forth.

We were telling each other all the powerful experiences that God was doing in both both both camps.

How God was using us, you know, these weak young people to be able to share the gospel with these young people and seeing how they're making decisions for Christ and seeing how their lives are being changed.

We were just sharing these stories back and forth.

And I remember there was 1 story 1 of my friends shared with me who was stationed in Mount Seacal.

I remember she was telling me just the incredible experience it was just being out there.

And she was telling me, you know, there were times we would have our morning devotional worships and we would wake up just, you know, way before the sun even, the sun even broke out and we would wake up because we had to go over to the worship area and give a devotional talk to some of the children.

And so she was telling me this story and she told me, you know, what was so powerful about this entire thing was that When we wake up early in the morning, we were thinking to ourselves that when we would get there, that we would be the first people there.

But as they would walk there in the dark, as they were walking to the worship area, they quickly realized that there were a group of people that beat them there.

They quickly realized that the people that they were going to give a devotional talk to were already sitting in their chairs, but more than just sitting there, these young people were there and ready.

She was telling me the story of how they would be walking towards the worship area, and as they're walking closer to the worship area, they would hear the sounds of singing.

And they realized that the people that were singing were the young children, and they were seeing these hymns, these hymns that we have in the Seventh-day Adventist hymnal, they were seeing these hymns from the top of their lungs.

And my friend, as she would go closer and closer and she would look into the building, she realized that there was no lights.

She quickly realized that the entire building was dark.

And it was so powerful for her to recognize that here are these young children.

They came to worship God and they are singing these hymns straight out of memory.

And what was even more powerful is that she continued to elaborate.

She told me, you know, what's so beautiful about this entire thing is that these young children, they're not coming just across the street from across the street.

They're not just coming from their house and walking 2 minutes to get there.

These are young children that have to walk a mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, just to get there on time for worship.

These young people, young children, worshiping God, getting ready for the day by spending time with their precious Lord and Savior.

They recognized that he is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

And it was their hope that every day they would be at that place early in the morning to greet their king.

Beloved, I hope that we have that desire, amen?

That each and every day that we would wake up and that would be the first thing that is on our minds, that the first thing that comes into our minds is that we want to spend time with the King.

It's sad because if you turn to Matthew chapter 17 we're gonna see a story where there was a group of followers, the disciples, 3 of them, who were not ready to meet the king.

Matthew chapter 17, we're going to be looking at this story, and this story is called the Mount of Transfiguration.

Mount of Transfiguration, And here we see that we're gonna look at Matthew chapter 17.

We're gonna pick up right into the story.

But I want you to notice what it says in verse 1.

And if you are there, can you just say amen?

The Bible says, And after 6 days Jesus taketh whom?

Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart.

Just to give you the context of what's going on here, there has just been a day that has been far spent in doing ministry.

The disciples, Peter, James, John, the other disciples as well, and Jesus, they were engaged in doing the work of the Lord.

Jesus was just constantly ministering to the multitudes of people like he usually does.

Healing the sick, the lame, the blind, preaching and teaching to the multitudes of people.

And of course the disciples were there to help him and assist him in this great work.

But As the day was so long, as the day was far spent, and as the day was coming to close, Jesus wanted to do something special with his 3 disciples, Peter, James, and John.

So Jesus turns to Peter, James, and John, I would imagine, as the 12 are there, and he says, hey, I want you guys to follow me up this mountain.

Sure enough, they start treading up this mountain.

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Before Royalty: Cross Etiquette

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