Palm Sunday Luke 19:11-40

Transcript

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We're going to go into Luke chapter 19, Palm Sunday. I've never preached this passage on Palm Sunday, though we're going to preach a passage that I have uh gone through many times. So give me a minute. If you're like Joey, I want the part with the palm branches and the donkey. Like just pump the brakes. We're going to get to it, all right? Okay, good, good, good. Is it okay? We can have a spiritual moment and still laugh. Ryan? Like it doesn't have to be either or. You're not going to be solemn. You can laugh and smile. And man, God loves the smiles of his children. I know I love the smile of mine. This is verse 11 of chapter 19 in Luke. And we know that Jesus is entering the last days before his crucifixion. This is what verse 11 says. The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the kingdom of God would begin right away. Boy, that's highlighable. That's a moment to note right there. The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said, and because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to what? Correct the impression that the kingdom of God would begin right away. So clearly everybody has this false expectation of what's about to happen in this moment. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. He's been making his way there. Everybody's excited, and they're looking forward for him to do what they've been hoping that the Messiah would do, right? And we're going to get into that in a few minutes, but they had a false impression of what was about to happen. And so the love of God, the love of Jesus, brings a correction to them. Okay, here we go. He said, A nobleman was called away to distant empire to be crowned king and then returned. Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, Invest this for me while I am gone. But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, We don't want him to be our king. After he was crowned king, he returned and uh excuse me, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their prophets were. Verse 16, the first servant reported, Master, I have invested your money and made ten times the original amount. Well done, the king exclaimed, You are a good servant. You have been faithful with little. I entrusted you to, excuse me, you have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor over ten cities as a your reward. The next servant reported, Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount. Well done, the king said. You will be governor over five cities. But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant. You wicked servant, the king roared, your own words condemn you. If you knew that I am a hard man who takes what isn't mine and harvests crops I didn't plant, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Then turning to the other standing nearby, the king ordered, Take the money from this servant and give it to the one who has ten pounds. But master, they said, He already has ten pounds. Yes, the king replied, and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. And as for these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king, bring them in and execute them right here in front of me. Happy Palm Sunday, right? Bring them in and execute them right here in front of me. Sheesh. So Jesus tells parables for a reason. He's trying to bring common things that people would talk about and they could connect to and bring them to a spiritual understanding. So Jesus has got a story here representing himself, right? And what is the point of this story? To correct the impression of when the kingdom of God would come. Right? Isn't that what it said? This was this was this was verse 11, to correct the impression that the kingdom of God would begin right away. He's correcting that impression. And so in this story, people are given money to work with, his servants, and he leaves. And there's some people that are happy that he left. And there's people in that crowd that are listening to Jesus that can't wait to get rid of Jesus. And there's other people in that crowd that are listening that are servants and followers of Jesus. And he's saying, I'm gonna give you something, I'm gonna deposit something into your life, and then I'm gonna go. And I'm coming back, by the way. And so here's what happens. The breakdown is easy. One guy is hustling, he's working like crazy, he's doing everything he can to trade, to work, to hustle, to multiply the master's money. He gets back, master, I've multiplied it times 10. And what does the master say? Good job. Good servant. Well done. And what does he call him here? He says something to him and says, You have been faithful. You have been faithful. This is verse 17. Is verse 17 up there? Let's get to verse 17. Well done, the king exclaimed. You're a good servant. You have been faithful with the little. Now listen to me, we get caught up on how much we have, not what we've done with what we have. Right? So we get really hung up on, man, I've only got this to work with. And now, can I just say something? I'm not even just talking about money right now. What gifts you have, what abilities you have. Maybe you can speak eloquently or sing well or dance well or paint well, or maybe you can plant plants that actually live past a day, right? Maybe you can grow things that you can actually eat later on, right? Like maybe I don't know what your gifts are, but but they don't have to just be money, but the things that God would entrust to you as a servant. He says, you've been faithful. And then what does he do? He gives him ten cities to rule over as his reward. Now that's exponentially more than what he was dealing with before. You with me on that? So there's an exponential blessing that came for his faithfulness and multiplying what God had given him, or what the what the master had given him. The next guy's like, okay, I hostula, I worked, but I came up with this number. What was it? He came up with even more. Excuse me, he came up with three. I'm all over the place. You've been faithful, Lord, I entrusted you. There you go. The next servant responded, Master, I invest your money and made five times the original amount. He blesses him, gives him five cities. Now it's the final guy that I want to look at. I'm trying to move through a lot of content, but I feel like these passages are going to be connected if you just give me a minute to build it. The third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. Um, the implication is I didn't do anything with what you've given me. And here's why. I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant. This is his impression of the master. Can I tell you something? Whenever you have a false impression of Jesus, you will always walk fearful and never walk into promise and purpose. The servant wasn't correct of his impression of the master. He had a faulty impression of who this man was because we see, in fact, that this master is a very generous master. You made ten times the amount, here's ten cities. You made five times the amount, here's five cities. He's generous, in fact. He in fact gave them the money to start with. He gave them stuff to work with off the rip before they did anything, and all the same amount. And he wasn't mad at the guy that came up with five because in comparing him to the one that came up with ten, did he? He didn't say, Well, you got five. Ah, that's okay work. It's not as good as the guy with ten. He didn't compare them. He just said, no, no, no, that's awesome. Five cities for you, right? And the measure and what you were able to multiply back, I'm multiplying even more to you. I'm giving even more to you. So here's what I look at. When we talk about faithfulness, when we talk about faithfulness, we look at faithfulness as loyalty, being steadfast, not giving up. It can mean those things. It can for sure mean those things. But Jesus is bringing a direct connection between faithfulness and multiplication. Oh, let me realize I'm going to rewind that. Right? Jesus is making a direct connection between faithfulness and multiplication. Okay, so so what is the implication then for me and for you as we take this parable and apply it to our lives? My faithfulness, listen, maintenance is not faithfulness. Maintenance is not faithfulness, multiplication is. So listen, and don't compare your multiplication with somebody else's, because then you'll give up. Because there's always going to be somebody that might be multiplying a bit more than you, and that's cool. But you're supposed to be obedient with what you have and the abilities you have and what God's given you. But if you finished the race and all you did was average and status quo and maintenance and just maintain, showed up with one, ended with one. If you do that, that's not faithful. In fact, check this out. Can we get heavy here for a minute? He said, I was afraid because you're a hard man to deal with, so he's operating in fear. If you don't know the character of Jesus, it will cause you to not multiply. Fear will keep you from multiplying. If we submit to fear, we'll exchange destiny for apathy, and then we'll call it wisdom. Listen, I'll I'll read it because I wrote it down in case I had to say it again. If we submit fear, if we submit to fear, we'll exchange destiny for apathy, and then we'll then we'll call it wisdom. Say, I'm just being wise with this. I'm not losing anything for you, not gaining anything for you, but I'm not taking risks. Listen, we're not called to safe, we're called to obedience. As a believer, listen now, if you're just searching out in church and you're just seeing what's going on with Jesus and you're trying to figure some things out, that's awesome. Just rest in this. But if you call yourself a follower of Jesus, he doesn't call you to a safe place, he calls you to an obedient place. And obedient places will leave you to lead you to dangerous places. In dangerous places, you find his presence like you never have before. When you risk things, then you have a position and posture in your life. When you risk it for the Lord, you have a position and posture that makes you blessable. As followers of Jesus, we're not called to safe, we're called to obedience. So Jesus for Jesus maintaining is not faithful, multiplying is. This is 2 Timothy 1, verse 6 through 8. This is 2 Timothy. This won't be on the screen, but I'm gonna read this to you. Verse 6 of 2 Timothy chapter 1 says, Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift that God has given you through the laying on of my hands. This is Paul talking to Timothy. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. So never be ashamed to tell others about the Lord, and don't be ashamed of me either, even though I'm in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news. Oh man, I like when I get blessed. I don't like when I get suffered. Right? I don't want that in my stocking. I didn't ask for that for Christmas. I don't want the suffering. I want the blessing. I just you ever seen like an interview where they bring somebody that's gonna be interviewed into a room and it's just filled with puppies, and they interview them. My puppies are just just crawling. It's just the cutest thing, right? That's that's how I want my Christian life to be. Jesus, I just want a room with puppies. Ask me easy questions, and I'll just play with puppy dogs all day. Boom, I'm faithful. That's what I want to. That's what we listen. That's what we want church to be. Pastor, just give me puppies to play with today so I can feel good for an hour, 15 minutes. I'll go home feeling better about life because I play with puppies and I'm not challenged to anything. And oh, by the way, I'll never reach my potential and my life will never honor God, but I'll feel good about me. He says, Listen, when we read in scripture, this is verse 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear. He's not given us that, so we know when we operate in that, we're not operating in the spirit that God's given us. So if it's not from Christ, then it's anti-Christ. So for me to be manipulated by fear, I'm living outside of his guidance. With me on that? Okay. He goes, so check this out. It's gonna get a little bit worse before it gets better. Verse 22. Verse 22. You wicked servant. This guy didn't even lose the money. You wicked servant. Your own words condemn you. He basically what he's saying is this you're saying things about me that you don't even believe, because if you believed what you were saying, even you would have just invested the money in a bank. If you actually believed, you're using fear as an excuse to be lazy. You're using fear as an excuse to be lazy, and but you've got a really well-phrased words up here, like, I knew I you knew I was a hard master, and you knew I took things that weren't mine, or places you're saying all this stuff about my character that's not true, but if you really believed it was, you would be functioning in an appropriate measure and manner. But you're using fear as an excuse. And what does he get called? You wicked servant. There is in the kingdom uh no neutral. What's a what's a what's a neutral country? Sweden, Switzerland, something like that. Aren't they one of the neutral countries? I don't know. Switzerland, there you go. They got the chocolate. So at least the hot chocolate, something like that. So everybody likes them. There is no Switzerland in the kingdom. Either you're being obedient or you're being disobedient. But here's what we play with churches. We're like, well, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not, I'm not getting drunk like that. I'm not getting high like that. I'm not sleeping around like that. I'm not doing all the things. Like, I listen, I gave up meth years ago. I'm not selling it anymore, right? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not pirating movies anymore that often. Right? But if you got a good, you know, like like right now, I'm not pirating movies. I'm not sneaking candy into the movie theater. I'm not doing anything bad, but I'm also not doing anything that's obedient. So not doing anything that's obedient gets you in the kingdom by Jesus' standards. What label? Wicked. Wicked, this is what wicked means, by the way, if you're if you're unsure the original intent. Possessing a serious fault, being worthless. In this context, in regard to labor. In our context, in regard to what we've been gifted with in our life. I don't want to hear from God who created me, and when I'm finally standing before him, I don't want to hear him say wicked. That I was worthless with the life that he gave me. If you think you have all the time in the world, you will waste day after day after day, year after year after year. He's not coming anytime soon. We're good. Yeah, sure, things are blowing up around the world. Yeah, sure, there's like volcanoes and earthquakes in Montana and wars happening everywhere. Sure, that that that pop tart I had last week may have had some little glass in it. I don't know, like, right? Like we there's there's things that are not, but but we we we kind of lull ourselves back into just apathy. I remember when COVID first hit, everybody was praying. Everybody was watching as many messages as they could, getting as much as much in the Bible as they could. Why? Because they were afraid. They're like, man, what's going on? And so they went to the only thing that was trustworthy. Here's what happened Life eased up a bit, and a third of the church never returned. And Jesus says about this guy that doesn't do anything with what he's been given, you wicked servant. And then the master or the king at this point addresses everybody that said, Hey, we don't want you back. And as for these enemies, this is verse 27, and as for these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king, bring them in and execute them right here in front of me. Man, it would have been it's easier when you're preaching if there's not a verse like that. That Jesus just said, Hey, I got a parable for you. Everybody that hates this king, me, right? I'm being Jesus in this, not Joey. Gosh, that'd be terrible. He said, Anybody that hates me, you're gonna get dealt with. You're gonna get dealt with. There is a judgment day coming, and there are intentional servants, and there are indignant enemies, but there are no indifferent parties. Say this to you one more time. There is a judgment day coming, and there are intentional servants, there are indignant enemies, but there are no indifferent parties. You're either in obedience or you're in disobedience. You're either faithful as a servant or you're wicked. There's not a not a middle ground. Joey, could there be a C? Like, is there another option I could be that doesn't like make me uh risk everything? No, no, no, no. There's not. Jesus says, hey, listen, you are not forced to, but if you want to come follow me, I'm gonna pay a price for everything that you couldn't pay for, but I call you to follow me, to carry your cross and follow me, to like crucify your flesh and follow me. This is not normally the kind of message that gets people super riled up and like, yeah, I want to follow Jesus now. Listen, I am telling you this much. I'm keeping it real with you, what Jesus is asking for, what he's calling for, so that you don't feel like somebody hoodoo you would that when you say yes to Jesus, that everything's just gonna be magically now easy. I can tell you this much, though. If you say yes to Jesus and you're obedient and following him, your purpose and potential for your life will be so sweet, so rich, and such, check this out, such a beautiful worship to the Father. So either you're gonna get praise or he's gonna get praise, but there's no in between, right? And when you die, the praise ends. But he's never dying, right? So check this out. I said it's now now, hey, donkey time, right? Cheer up, church. We made it to donkey time. Verse 28. Verse 28, everybody loves the donkey. A good donkey is fun. My my my dad and mom, they used to live up on Bent Mountain, and the neighbor had a donkey named uh we named it carrots. I don't remember the donkey's actual name. My kids named it carrots because they fed it carrots. They they could have fed it anything and they would have eaten it. But who doesn't love a nice donkey, right? So we're gonna talk about donkey. After telling this story, Jesus went on towards Jerusalem. So he's corrected now the impression of when the kingdom of God's gonna begin before he does what's about to happen. After telling this story, to correct the impression, keep bringing that up. Jesus went on towards Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Beth Page and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. Go into that village over there, he told them, as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks why you were untying that colt, just say the Lord needs it. So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus said, and sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked, Why are you untying that colt? And the disciples simply responded, replied, The Lord needs it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. There's so much I want to I I pray is on like a DVR in heaven. Cause how weird is it that like I w if I was The disciples are just people, right? They're regular people. They they get mad at each other. They have indigestion, like all the things. There's regular, dagular people. Now, Jesus, imagine Jesus tells you and one of your best friends, like, hey, I want you to, you're gonna walk over into this town and you're gonna see a house, and there's there's a there's a there's a cult. It's not even a full-grown donkey, a baby donkey. You're gonna see a baby donkey. Take it. And if anybody asks, well, I'm pretty sure when I steal somebody's donkey, they're gonna ask. Right? Like, imagine somebody gets up and they start opening the door to your car, and you're you're just gonna let it happen? No. It's like, hey, what do you what's going on? Why are you taking my Prius? Right? Like, then you're gonna want to find out. He goes to get the donkey, and they're like, oh, the the the Lord, the Lord needs it. Thumbs up. Give give give carrots a pat on the head and have a good day, carrots, right? Like the Lord needs you. And then off this cult goes. Now, we also understand that um that in another account of the gospel, even in Matthew's account, that it's um a cult that's so young that the mom has to come with it, right? So there's there's two donkeys, and Jesus is gonna ride the young one, not even full grown, right? So just a just a quick insight into two things. The donkey's important because of Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9 in the Old Testament, fulfilling of a prophecy. Rejoice, O people of Zion, shout and triumph, O people of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's colt. The serve team this morning, when we gathered to pray before service, uh Adam shared this message and he said, Listen, you've got to remember this was written 500 years before Jesus uh goes and gets carrots, right? Like this is 500 years before the donkey. And so listen, there's a fulfillment of prophecy happening in this, but there's also something culturally going on that you cannot miss. That this is this is this is critical to the story for me, that you cannot miss this. They are in a Roman-conquered area, right? That's who's in charge. The Jewish people are not in charge. And so you need to understand something. That when there was a victory, a Roman general or an emperor, when they come into an area that's been conquered, they would have ridden a war horse and they would have worn symbols of divine status, and the prisoners and the spoils and the spoils of war would have been brought in behind them. Like they're up on the biggest horse you can imagine and find. No other horse in their fleet, I don't know if that's what you call a bunch of horses, in their herd. All the other horses are shorter, right? The war horse is gonna be the biggest one. It's gonna horses are measured, Devlin, by hands, right? That's how they measure horses. This many hands. Right? And the war horse is gonna be the most hands, right? They ride in on this thing like, I have conquered, y'all are done for. This is like, listen, we have won, you have lost. This is the culture they live in. These are the people that rule them and how they operate. Jesus goes out and gets a donkey, a cult, not even fully grown, similar. Listen, I didn't have to research this because I want to find out because there's different donkeys, there's different strains of donkeys. That's not what they're called, strains, but right? Like not every dog is a big dog, right? And so I wanted to find out what strain of donkey, and it was most similar to a miniature Mediterranean donkey. A cult of one of these kinds of donkeys would have been four to five times smaller than a war horse. Maybe the shoulders, like if you measure the hands, you get up to three feet, maybe a little over three feet of the shoulders. Imagine they pull up with your donkey, and you're about to ride in victorious, and the war horse rider is up here, and you woke up and you saddle up on your donkey, and your feet are still on the ground. You got like a kickstand. Can you imagine Jesus riding into town and he's on carrots, and carrots' mama's leading the way, because nobody has ridden carrots before. His feet dragging the ground. This is not an imposing figure. You with me? Nobody finds that weird. This is not a full at least you get a full-grown donkey, Jesus. No, this is a cult. He's not been trained. My feet are probably gonna dangle on the ground. This is what it looks like. That picture, everybody make fun of me with my little tiny drum set. Angie just laughed out loud, so I know the rest of you do it. This little tiny drum set that can fit on our stage. And when I sit down, it looks like I brought my eight-year-old's drum set to play with. And it just looks weird. And now you got Jesus on this like little cult. This like, what is this about? War horses symbolize conquest, power, military might, donkeys symbolize peace, humility, and legitimate rule. Now check this out, listen to me. Did the people want a donkey or did they want a war horse? They wanted a war horse. They were sick of Rome. They're getting taxed, they're not in control. They want the kingdom of Israel restored to its full glory. They don't want their king coming in on a donkey, they want their king coming in on a war horse. They don't want his feet dragging the ground, they want his feet by people's faces, they want an imposing king. And Jesus doesn't come in that way. And isn't it interesting? So he's coming in, and what are they doing? They found the colt. This is verse 32. They found the colt, just as Jesus said, and sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked him, Why are you untying that colt? And the disciples replied, The Lord needs it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and they threw their garments over it for him to rhyme on. As he rode along, crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead, and then they they they reached, and when he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all the followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven. But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that. And he replied, If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers. Now check this out. When somebody takes off their coat, like they don't have a lot of them in that time. So they're throwing this out before the Lord. They're taking the palm branches and they're throwing them down before the Lord and they're glorifying him, they're worshiping him. Why? Because in that moment, they believe that he's coming in the way that they want. Isn't it interesting that when God is doing what we want, we bring him praise, but when he's doing what we need, we scoff. He was coming in the way that they needed, not in the way they wanted. They wanted Caesar to be conquered. Jesus was coming to conquer sin. They wanted Herod to be taken out. Jesus was coming to take out hell. You with me on that? This is what they wanted. Here's what he knows that we need. And so they go from glorifying him and throwing coats in front of him and palm branches in front of him, and this amazing triumphal entry. But in the back of their minds, they're like, ah, this would be way cooler if it was a horse. This would be way cooler if he did it the way that we would want and have it done. Is this all that was available? Like you ever go to a rental car place? And they're like, We're sorry, we gave your reservation of the SUV away. What do you have? We have a three-wheel car. Right? You get out, you zoom it up, right? Like those little play cars, and you get like, is this they didn't have any more horses at the rental place, Jesus? Jesus chose this because he's making a point. Always reminds us that we have a God that loves us so much. That He did what we needed, not what we wanted. Here's where we connect to the dots. If you wait to be obedient with what God's giving you until He starts doing what you want, then you're trying to manipulate the creator of the universe, trying to twist his arm. When you're waiting, like God, once you do this, then I'll do this. It doesn't work well like that. But when you're when you know that he gives you what you need. So check this out. You might not have everything that you want right now, but you have everything you need right now. Joey, but I need this, and I need this, and I need this. I hear you saying need, but you have everything you need right now. Do you have the fullness of everything that he's promised? Probably not. But it's coming. Five hundred years between a prophet saying, our king is coming. Five hundred years. Rejoice, O people of Zion. Shout in triumph. O people of Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious. Listen, you might not see the victory yet, but it doesn't mean that it hasn't been already won. And so don't wait, don't wait to start seeing the victory before you start giving your obedience. Give it now. Give it now. God, what do you want me to do with my life? Like, what do you want me to do in the next few days? And stop saying, well, I don't have what this person has. I remember reading the story of a seventh grader. It was during Black History Month, and he was learning about Harriet Tubman. And during the classes, they were learning about slavery and they were learning about all these different aspects of what had gone on. It came up in conversation that there were still mass, mass, mass amounts of people enslaved today around the world. Seventh grader. He finds out about this place called International Justice Mission that works to free people that are enslaved. As a seventh grader, he comes up with this idea. He's like, you know what? What there's always, this was a few years ago, so this will make more sense. People always seem to have change, loose change in their pocket. It's like, what if everybody just gathered their loose change and then we sent that to where help is needed the most so freedom can happen for those that are enslaved? Seventh grader. He starts a nonprofit called Loose Chains, Loose Change to Loosen Chains. And just in his school, in that year, he raised $8,500. A seventh grader. Just lay it out there. I'm going to go for it. What would God be asking you to do? Can I ask this week? Man, there's something so unbelievably heavenly, divine like grace upon this week ahead of us. Where people that are hard-hearted throughout the whole year, there's like a tenderness. Who would God be asking you to minister to them this week? And it doesn't even mean ministering, listen, when I say ministering, it doesn't mean you have to get them into this church. It means you're speaking into their life. You're planting seed. You're speaking, you're encouraging, you're praying over them, you're encouraging them. Listen, don't wait till Easter to try to start multiplying. Start multiplying today. Does this make sense to you? Like, what do you have? I got Facebook. Cool. I'm going to message people and check in on people, see what's going on. If there's somebody I need to ask for forgiveness for, I'm going to make a phone call or drive and meet them and say, listen, hey, this is an area where I did you wrong. I need to ask for some forgiveness. What in your life can you do to begin multiplying? And I say all that to say this. While Jesus rode in on a horse, people are cheering and shouting for them. He replied, listen, when the Pharisees said, Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that. When they were calling him king, and blessed is the name, uh, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven. The Pharisees in the crowd said, Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that. He replied, If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheer into cheers. Check this out. In Matthew chapter 27. Check this out. Jesus had been crucified. He breathes his last breath. Everybody is now gone. Either they're standing at a distance looking on in horror or they've completely abandoned him. There are no more palm branches, there are no more jackets being thrown down. There's no more hallelujahs. He dies on the cross. This is Matthew 27, verse 51. At that moment of his death, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, giving us access symbolically. From top to bottom, it was torn in two. Check this out. What does it sound like when thousands of rocks just start breaking? That's gotta be what a cry of praise from a rock is when people don't bring up their voice. Know this today. Check this out. I want you to hear this going into this week. Know this that King Jesus will always be praised, but may there never be a rock that has to take your place in the chorus. The rocks will cry out. The payment of sin for the world. And Jesus atones for it all. It's not a voice that's raising up from a person. So the rocks start cracking. Our King will always get his praise. But may it come from people with a pulse. Man, can we pray? I'm just like, Holy Spirit, I just need your help. Holy Spirit just needs your help right now. If your life looks more like the guy who buried the money than the one that multiplied it. I'm not saying you're perfect. I'm not saying you multiply it every day, but there's an intention of your heart. You are putting the effort in, you're putting the you're putting the service in, saying, God, I just want to be faithful with what you've given me. I want to multiply it. But if your life looks more like the man that buried it, man. I want to say right now is the time just to repent. You don't have to, you don't have to have the day where you hear him say wicked. You don't have to wait for the day where he says wicked servant. It can change right now. He is faithful and just to forgive. Our God is a good God, He's a loving God, He's kind. He's faithful and just to forgive. But listen, you might need to be in this place today and say, God, I've been burying what you've given me. So I want to repent right now. I want to change, change my mind and change my course. I want a course correct right now. If that's you, I just want you to in your heart, we're going to pray this together. Jesus, I repent for bearing what you've given me. I repent for playing it safe. I repent for worshiping comfort. I repent for dodging the risk. I thank you that you've not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. In Jesus' name. Amen. And just with your eyes closed, just for one more moment, if we could. Man, if you I don't want to assume, if you don't know Jesus, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, and what I mean by that, if you're not fully submitted, and you want to say, Man, I need him to be my savior. I need him to not only be my savior, but I need him to be my king. And I'm gonna trust that he'll give me what I need. Regardless of if I get what I want. But he's worth it. You want to give your life to him today. Your life, not your Sunday mornings, your life. Not five minutes when you wake up in the morning for a quick prayer, five seconds trying to pray before you fall asleep, but you want to give your life to him. I just want to pray with you this morning. Because the Bible says to be saved, you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth, you'll be saved. If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand up, not stressed out who's around. Just raise your hand up and say, Yeah, that's me. I want to pray. I want somebody to pray with me. And also, as those people are raising their hands, if you're like, man, I have had the money buried and uh I've completely just done my own thing and not had anything to do with the Lord, but I want to return home to Him. I want to I want to renew relationship. I want to uh I want to start fresh. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand because I'm gonna pray for you as well. Thank you, God. Awesome. Can we pray this together? You can pray it out loud with me if you would. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died for me, you paid the price for my sin. You paid the price for my failures. And I ask for your forgiveness. I ask for you to redeem me. I ask that you would be my Lord, my Savior, my King. Lead my life. It's yours. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.