³ Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
    And who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not lift up his soul to what is false
    and does not swear deceitfully.
⁵ He will receive blessing from the Lord
    and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek the face of the God of Jacob.^[b] Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord, strong and mighty,
    the Lord, mighty in battle!
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And lift them up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord of hosts,
    he is the King of glory! Selah

Sermon Transcript:

Pastor Thom Rittichier
This morning, we’re going to talk about something that I think is very needed in my life, and the life of some of those in our community of believers. Let me start here by saying that it happens over and over, over and over, over many, many times in one week. For all of us here, I am pretty confident that it has occurred at least seven times, probably more. For most of us, during this past week. What has happened is that you have become conscious, again, to your life. In this world, we call it waking up, over and over and over, it happens in your life, you wake up again, to your life, in this world, and you know, the Bible uses that experience, God in His Word, repeatedly uses it. I did a quick search, I did this, it was about 34 different times, God references, waking up. And frequently, he references this as a help to you a call to you. to face your life in this world, like you kind of have to do when you wake up, face your life in this world again, but face it in a way that you stake steps

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to walk with Him that you intentionally walk with him day, by day, by day, as you live out your life.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
Let me give you a couple examples of this, how God uses that experience, and applies it to this thing of your walk. Look at this. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come to wake from sleep. For he goes on to say, salvation, the conclusion of this rescue that God brought in your life, this salvation that is available through Jesus Christ is nearer now than it was when you first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. That’s what he says in this passage. And then he says this. So let us put off and he lifts and let us put on and let us walk properly, as in the day. That experience of coming to consciousness again in your life, God uses it relative to your walk. your walk with the Lord, which is what we’re called to, and that we take steps to be in that walk. intention again, though is this. This is in Ephesians chapter five. He says therefore, it says the scripture a waco sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. He says then look carefully how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the most of the time. Because the days are evil look at this call. It is the use of that experience that we all go through of waking up again. Eddie has us do that. Again, relative to our walk and how it’s going. And there are many other passages. Let me just put these up here quickly. All of these and more refer to this both in a positive and a negative direction. This waking up things that we need to put away From our lives things that we need to put on, but primarily, it’s to focus again, on this walk going well, with the Lord. Waking up to that, I want to ask a question How, how does it go for you? How does your waking up, go? I mean, the physical waking up, here’s a couple of pictures of some going through the waking up. For some, the waking up is kind of like, hitting the snooze button. And sometimes just doing the snooze thing, and not hitting the button. I’ve been there, I’ve done that without the button, and then suddenly, you’re in a panic, because you’re this far behind. And that whole waking a kind of gives you a headache to get plugged in relief. And for some people, it kind of goes like that. And then this little jingle for some people, the best part of waking up is. Yeah, look at that, how they don’t talk to me before I’ve had my coffee. For some folks, the nature of way of waking up. For some folks, they put it on somebody else. Hey, will you be sure that I’m up by? What is this? And you know, sometimes, if you’re a mom you’ve experienced trying to get them up? Right? Okay. For me, it’s probably best indicated by by this one right here. It’s kind of like I go through the five foundational questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I come from? What am I to do? What happens to me? What? Yeah, that kind of thing.

Truly, it’s kind of like that, for me, I questioned the point of my existence, when my eyes pop up. And then I kind of congeal Okay, and what I have to do and Okay, this, this is the purpose here and go forward. You know, for some people, whatever they do waking up, sometimes it’s just staring and scratching, right rubbing your head, sometimes. For some people, there is no congealing of purpose. Let me demonstrate this to you. A guy who would have been very much considered to be very much in accord with the sentiment of our time, the guy who was organic, wanting to get back to nature, an independent thinker. His name was Henry David Thoreau, many of you probably have heard of him. Here’s a quote from Dennis Henry David Thoreau. He said from his interactions and his organic kind of life with other people and he did have other people if you know, Walden, that was his experiment. He came to this quote, most people, most men, live lives of quiet desperation. That’s desperate. Because it’s going and what is it meaning and you know, this isn’t where I imagined the me to be. This isn’t what I signed up for. something different, something more. Most men. The row says now that’s not the Bible. That’s Henry David Thoreau. But the Bible pleasee asti is talks about it. The vanity of vanity says the preacher of all is vanity, it just returns over and over and over and over again. And he searches to try and find out what is good for men to do. He said this, too, is vexation of spirit. That kinda sounds like desperation. Of course, it’s not confined to men. My wife has spoken to me about the experience and her life and looking for satisfaction. This has been expressed to me not all that long ago. that most women are finding dissatisfaction in their roles and what’s happening in life. My wife got help by Mirabelle Morgan in a book total joy, and it was instrumental in her coming to Christ. But I’m not limiting it. To wash people Henry David Thoreau in his clientele, it does have the Bible’s wisdom from Ecclesiastes, he is and the experience of women like Mirabelle, Morgan and others that they’ve expressed to me. And and this book was written by Paul Tripp, it’s called the quest for more. And let me share with you the beginning of this book, he says this, have you ever wanted to invest your life in something worthwhile? Have you ever wondered why your life seems to lack? Meaning purpose? Have you ever been disappointed? With a position achievement, a possession relationship that failed to fulfill you? Have you ever dreamed that somehow, some way, you may be a part of something that is truly great, and he’s talking to believers here, remember, in this wake up notes, that he was talking to believers in Romans and Ephesians people in Christ, and this very much is a possibility to be haunting in our souls, this sense of seeking satisfaction that isn’t present fair, and it never seems to congeal. It’s true of unbelievers. Many live lives of desperation can be true of believers. This morning, we’re going to look at God addressing that in some 24. And I want you to turn there with me. He doesn’t

just address it in Psalm 24. But he surely does. He addresses it in other places as well. seeking something more, as a matter of fact, our title is this, seeking and finding this splendor, this wonder, this significance, this important this, this place this weightiness this glory. Now, as you’re turning to some 24, I’m going to have you look with me specifically at one verse, we’re going to look at the whole of what God has to say here because it is splendour. But I want you to zero in with me on one verse to start with, so we can get the impression. Look with me at verse six of Psalm 24. Such is the generation such is the people in their time. And that has to do with what he describes here in Psalm 24, such as the generation of those who seek Him. And then he clarifies, in the poetic fashion, who seek the face of the God of Jacob, sila, which means pause, and reflect on that. Here, what we’re going to be looking at seeking and finding this blender in the face of God. We’re going to do that by seeking out this song in this fashion, seeking as the hunt in your life verses one through six. This is the hunt. This is the trail that I’m on this is the search for my life and then never to finding that it’s the treasure of our Lord and it’s the treasure of our Lord. Like he pre sense it here. Not like in the realm of our imagination, but like the way it is indeed and in truth. Like he presents it here and I want you to know that I’m going after heart Hear, ongoing after soul here. And I’m not doing that on my own. Because the song talks apart heart and soul here and it finding the splendor the quest for more that pulsates through unbelievers, Henry David throne believers, and what we become conscious concerning our life in this world. Our life here has gotten. So we’re going to do this. Now I want you to know that God has made a promise. He said this to his old testament people, Jeremiah, he said, You will seek me.

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And you’ll find me when you seek Me,

Pastor Thom Rittichier
with all your heart, he says that to the Jews, the Hebrews, the Israelites, in the Old Testament, and Jesus, talking to his disciples, his followers, who had committed to learn from him, said this, and they tell you ask, and it will be given to you seek and you will find, knock, and it will be open to you, for everyone, everyone, for everyone, now with Jesus tend to mislead us on something where he tend to shade the truth, and not be straightforward with it. He wouldn’t. For everyone who else receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks,

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it will be open. to him. This is a possibility. This is a possibility. It’s about heart. And it’s about soul. Seeking.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
I want to tell you, that as we do this, this is a song. Which means it’s a psalm of David, which means it is put in poetic

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expression. It said poetically, and that is to engage your heart in this,

Pastor Thom Rittichier
you have to stop and consider and think when something is said poetically, to us. Now, this is poetically done in Hebrew,

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Hebrew poetry, not English, poetry.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
English poetry has a rhyme and a rhythm to it. That is often a rhyming of words, with syllables and meters, music, I guess, not very musically inclined, but I guess. Hebrew poetry doesn’t rhyme. Words. It rhymes, ideas or thoughts. It expresses this again. But as it expresses it again. It expresses it in a bigger

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fashion. That’s how he talks to us about finding this more seeking it as the hunt

Pastor Thom Rittichier
of your life, and we need to start here. We need to start here and getting your bearings on God. And this world. That’s where the song starts. You know, when I went to school for ministry to be involved in the ministry, was a particular school is a school that was known to train you for doing a ministry in line with the scriptures with the Bible. One of the one of the courses, I still have what they call the syllabus for this course what they hand out. The course was called the God and the world. And I thought, Wow,

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that’s a pretty big subject. God in the world, you know, that’s true. What does that not include God in the world Pretty well sums it up. Right?

Pastor Thom Rittichier
So what he talks about here initially, in this song, this song, which is about the Messiah, this psalm, which is about the Messiah in a particular way, that we will see, what he talks about knicely is your perspective. Notice what he says, He says it this way, getting your bearings is this, the the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it. And the idea here is, is that this planet, and everything that fills it belongs to him. He continues this, because he uses the rhyme of words, the earth, riding with this, the world, and what he goes to the world, he expands it, because he does not only include the creative things that we see, but the people that are in it, and those who dwell therein. So his point is here, getting this perspective correct on God in the world, is that every one and every thing is his. It belongs to him. And second, he establishes the facts of life, here’s the fact of life. Verse number two, he has founded it upon the seas and what he is a reference here is the time when the Spirit of God is hovering over the deep. The surface of the waters is God brought this world and then or this earth and then the world into existence. He began with an unshaped on filled that now contents mass, the Moga mated mud, water and there he is over the surface of it, and he founds this, he brings it into existence under the sea. And he says he establishes it on the reverse. You know, it’s very interesting that in the flood, when God brought the water back over the earth, again, the entire Earth, by the way, interestingly, I’ve been teaching science to my, to my grandkids, one of the things that we’re doing and teaching science to to my grandkids, is we look at geological formations. And you know, very interestingly over and over the earth, you hear this said by the Jayla, your first is that God? Let’s see, how do I say this? geologists Stein said, The geologist that this this part of the world was once underwater, sea water. And they demonstrate that by the amazing number of sea life fossils that are everywhere. Absolutely. Everywhere. You know, the Bible says Genesis 711, when God brought that he broke forth, Genesis 711, the waters that were in the deep, the waters from underneath, so as he describes this, he tells us, he founded this thing out of the seas, and then he set it on the rivers. Underneath waterways that broke forth at one point I pointed in being is her point being made here is that this is this is a very important. You know, I have an opportunity throughout the week to talk to people lots of times repeatedly with people who are kind of in distressing situations like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. depression,

anxiety attacks, by the way, that was just a couple from this week. marriages. And you know, when I talk with them, I kinda have to frequently not always frequently sell to them that God has insight. He’s got directions and work and you know, the response I get. It’s kind of like does God know anything about depression in the human psyche? Does God know anything about marriage and how to make it work? And I feel like the odd person out, you know what I mean? I feel like number four in the trio here. Because it’s like, Come on, let’s deal with the real world here. Okay, let’s deal with the real world here. Everyone, and everything in it belongs to him. And the facts of life is he found it, he established it, he made it work. And that’s the truth. But because this is a fallen world, and we have God’s truth, in a world that is

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not going God’s way, we have to be the odd one out, we have to be and the

Pastor Thom Rittichier
thoughts being, this God know anything about what you’re facing,

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let me assure you, he does. He does. He has put to gather you, and your inner man, and everyone else, and the situation we are in. That is getting your bearings. That is the truth and God in the world.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
And we’ll be the odd ones out. As we buy that until, until we get to the end of the song. Until now, having said that he speaks directly about granting you access to this God and to this place where he is he starts in verse number three, who shall is set here and he starts with questions here. Let me move this up and put this he starts with the questions about who has access to this God and an access that is welcome. Okay, it goes like this, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and he’s talking about this place where God reigns from his own high, the Old Testament kind of referred to it as Mount Zion, the place where, where God is, who has access to the Lord, who can stand notice again, the poetry, who shall stand in his holy place, who has access to him, and is welcomed there, who can come and be there before him? That’s the question being there welcome. Here’s the answer. And he gives four requirements that he lays out for access. Now we’re going to kind of run through these quickly. And here they are. He says, He who has clean hands, and a pure heart, and he doesn’t lift up his soul. This is the inner man that we’re referring to in this song, he does not lift up his soul to what is false or to what is vain, to what is empty and pointless and, and on achieving it. It is an essence of worthless to be pursuing. This is the person who has access to this, the one whose hands what their handling have been had. It’s clean, whose heart he says here, it’s pure before God who is doesn’t lift up his soul to what is vain, empty, false, worthless and the final one, and he does not swear deceitful, the talk is not

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off. It’s straight up. Straight out. This is the one who

Pastor Thom Rittichier
has access to this God who founded and established everything. By the way, who qualifies?

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Who gets there? You, me? Now your mate. Okay? Who gets there as Jesus? Jesus gets there. He’s the only one who did always those things that are well pleasing in His sight,

Pastor Thom Rittichier
I want you to listen to Charles Spurgeon here. When he commented on this, this song, Charles Spurgeon said this, it is possible that you are saying, quote, I shall never enter into the heaven of this God, I, I have neither clean hands nor a pure heart. Look, then to Christ. Spurgeon says, who has already climbed the holy hill, he has entered as the forerunner of those who trust Him, follow in his footsteps, and repose upon his merit. He rides triumphantly into heaven, and shall write and you shall ride there too, if you trust him, but how can I get the character described you so Spurgeon says, again, the Spirit of God

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will give that to you. He will create in you a new heart, and the right spirit. Faith in the work of

Pastor Thom Rittichier
faith in Jesus is the work of the Holy Spirit, and has all virtues wrapped up in it. Faith stands by the fountain filled with his blood, clean hands, a pure heart, a holy soul, a truthful tongue are given. He says, this, this qualification is only met by Jesus. But by being in Jesus, you have a guarantee of success. in accessing the sky. guaranteeing you success is this look at verse seven. He will receive blessing from the Lord. The need is to receive blessing and righteousness from the God of salvation. That’s what he says. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. He’s talking about the rescue that God brings guaranteeing success. This is the rescue that God brings in this world in your life, like it is, and it guarantees success, through guarantees success in receiving blessings, and righteousness from the God of salvation. Now, notice, he adds this, this thing of receiving the blessing and the righteousness and the access to God and His place belongs to the group, the generation, the group in time, who he says, Seek Him who seek the face of the God of Jacob, sila, stop and consider. Folks, I want you to know that the hunt of your life has been wonderfully, wonderfully satisfied. Here, let me do it this way. Jesus gave two short parables. On this. He said, this kingdom of God, this kingdom of heaven, this place where we living with God, running things, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. He says, it’s like this, you know, this parable. It’s like a man

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who found a treasure in a field. Matthew 1334, and you know what that man did. He went, and he sold everything he had to buy that field. With treasure.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
Again, he follows that parable up with a second very short parable only, only a one verse.

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You know, our Bible. He said, The kingdom of heaven is is like a merchant.

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In search of a poor, and he finds this pearl, of great value. And you know what he does? He does this. He goes, and he

Pastor Thom Rittichier
sells out

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everything he has to have, that what seeking in the hunt of your life is like, in Christ, you have this treasure that you sell out.

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You have this pearl, of great value, that you sell out everything else, you have to have this. And folks, that’s not my concoction. That’s what Jesus said, when he talked about seeking the face of God, and finding, finding the right standing and finding this blessing, benefit and prosperity that you receive from him. Sometimes I don’t think we realize how rich we are. And how provided far You know, you as a believer, if you are, are an air, an air of God and a co air of with Jesus Christ, of everything God is and freely given to us. But here’s what we do.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
We sell out and become the odd man out if we have to, to follow Him, with our hands, what we get into and with our hearts, how we handle our fantasies and our imaginations and our dreams and our disappointments and with our soul, not being lifted up to empty things, which really are empty in the long run.

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And we talk about it straight. That’s what we get in having in the following Christ. It’s what we do. But you say we fail. Every day we fail. And then we wake up again to the reality of our life in this world. And what it really is. Now

Pastor Thom Rittichier
we’re going to conclude this thing and we’re going to conclude this thing in a very unorthodox manner, because the song concludes it in a very unorthodox manner. He’s been talking here about the Messiah. It is amazing psionic Psalm, it’s a song about the Savior that came from the Jews, to the world, to the Gentiles, and the Jews to you and die at the ends of the earth, this

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Messiah. And now he talks about the future, for this Messiah,

Pastor Thom Rittichier
for this Jewish saver who belongs to us, in Christ with all that I just described, with all that the song just described, the blessing and the righteousness from God. So here’s the finding the finding of the treasure, which is our Lord, notice the Lord is all in capitals in our Bible, and it refers to what, when it’s all in capitals, it refers to what it refers to what God gave his name to us, in Exodus, chapter three, that I am who I am, always and forever what you need. This is for all generations, throughout all times. That’s what he says it’s to every generation. I am, who I am, always and forever what you need. And I’m going to encourage you to bring your heart and your soul here. As you seek for the satisfaction as you live with the desperation as your head congeals Day after day of your life in this real world, bring it here to who I am, because where I am, will take you is absolutely amazing. Here’s where he takes us. Look with me at verse number seven. After giving us the pause, in the sila, so that we reflect on this he says this lift up your head, oh gates and lift up your ancient doors that the King of glory make come in? What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the arrival of the king. He’s talking about the arrival of the king. Verse eight, Who is this King? That the King of glory may come in? Who is this King? Okay, so the appeal is to go with him. Here. The king is coming. And he’s coming to Jerusalem. I want you to know in Mark chapter one this is described where the king comes writing humbly on the cult of a donkey. We just a side note here we went looking at these little donkeys. When I had our grandkids on vacation two weeks ago, we went to the zoo, some of the grandkids, not all of them. And I pointed out to them because they had these two donkeys which one of them the grandkid was totally, totally freaked when this thing started breaking. Have you ever heard one of those things break? It’s like he’s totally freaked by that. And I pointed out, do you know what’s on the back of those donkeys? Have you ever seen the back of them? They have this little thing that looks just like have you seen it? My wife and I talked about it again we saw and he said that’s so weird. That you know you know about the king coming writing humbly on a donkey and there it is he coming to the cross and near that grace and over and over and over. I don’t know. I don’t know why that’s there. It’s there. It is their day. Have you seen it? It is there. It is there.

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It’s there. Some people. Oh, that’s there. For me. It’s like

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that’s amazing. But you know, that’s not the only time this king is coming to Jerusalem.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
Because Zachariah chapter four, which I’d love to go into don’t, time, describes in detail this king coming to Jerusalem, as he kill chapter 44, verses one through three, it’s the hope of the Jews for the yet the future that this king comes to Jerusalem and you know how he enters, he enters through the east gate. You know what the east gate is, it’s called the Golden Gate. It’s the gate, which is talked about that it’s not going to be entered into it’s the gate that in about 1533 was was blacked up by the Muslims because they didn’t want someone coming through this gate, who was false, they say. And by the way, they also put a graveyard in front of this gate to keep some Orthodox Jew from going through that gate. And here’s he talking about that gate. And he says, lift up your head, oh gate, so that the King of glory who is the King of glory, he is this. He is the Lord. He is I am who is strong. He’s stout, and he’s valiant, and he’s brave. He is brave in the battle. He is mighty he is brave and valiant in the battles. Do we have battles? Do we have battles? He is brave. He is strong, he is stout, he’s mighty, he’s valiant in those battles. I would love to talk to you about the battle with the world. Ephesians two, I’d love to talk to you about our battle with the flesh our own selfish desires. Galatians or rather Galatians five. And I’d love to talk to you about the battle with the devil who is the adversary to you and wants to stall you and sidetrack you and take you out. If he can have this picture as a roaring lion he’s seeking to devour that’s Ephesians six, and the book of Peter and James, I’d love to talk to you about that. Here. Here’s the point in this battle that you have in your soul in your heart, whether it’s the quest for significance for more, he is mighty, he is strong, he is valiant, he brave. That’s who the King of glory is. And he does a ditto here because we’re in poetry. He says going with him number two verses nine, the king is coming to Jerusalem. Lift up your heads, oh gates, lift up the ancient doors that the King of glory may come in, who is the King of glory? He is Lord. He is the Lord of this mass of people. Do you see this here? This is the east gate. It’s the Golden Gate. This here is the graveyard since about 1530. This puppy has been blocked up to keep the King of glory from coming in. Now, I said this because this is the picture from Mount of Olives, the foothills of the Mount of Olives, it is right across from the east gate. And Zachariah chapter 14 tells us that this King of glory is going to set his foot on this mount of olive and that puppy is going to split right apart when his foot comes in. And you know what? This King of glory is going right in through that Eastern Gate Mount of Olives, Eastern Gate blocked up and he is going in.

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He’s going in and he will rain. Now my point in this is to tell you that this is the king of splinter.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
And in your day to day responsibility. You’re waking up and facing what you have in the course that set before you to run the race within Dorrance is your participation in this King of glory.

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It’s your course he’s given it to you what’s your life habits now? What is what is it run within Dorrance look to community, the community of believers to stimulate,

Pastor Thom Rittichier
we have opportunity July 4, you have July 5 off what a great thing to do. Amen. Do I get an amen on that? Amen. And community where we touched their lives giving a drink of water in Jesus name. We are putting that out there in Jesus name and you won’t lose your record. But it seems so mundane. Folks, were the odd ones out right now.

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But that all changes when the King of glory comes here. For Lord, I lay down my life. I lay it down, I lay it down.

Pastor Thom Rittichier
I lay it down what was my dreams, my ambitions the way it ought to have been. To follow faithfully the course that you’ve gone because you