WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.719 We are toward the end of the season of Lent. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:11.599 Not the season we thought it would be, but it has been the 40 days leading up to Easter. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:14.080 So we are toward the end of the season. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:20.079 And for most of us, this has not been the season we thought it would be. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:23.519 We thought March would be one thing. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:29.519 We thought April would be one thing, and March ended up a different thing altogether. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:52.320 When my wife Christy, when uh we got married, she expected, she expected a husband that would wake up early in the morning with her and sit coffee with her and uh have a morning devotion with her, read that Max Lucata morning devotion, and we were gonna ask each other questions about each other's hearts, and we're gonna pray for each other. 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:53.520 This is what she expected. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.320 This is what she grew up thinking a Christian husband did within a Christian marriage. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:03.119 We never talked about that, but that was the expectation that she had. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:05.359 But the problem is I don't like coffee. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:06.959 That's that was the first problem. 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:10.239 The second problem is I don't like to wake up early. 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:11.920 Like I like college early. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.079 College early 7.30, right? 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:17.439 I mean, in college, 7.30 was the break of dawn. 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:18.879 So I like college early. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:26.239 I still like college early, but she likes adult early, and adult early is like 5.30, and to me, that's some insane numbers. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:30.239 I better be going on a big trip if I wake up at 5.30. 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:33.280 And so this is one of the many ways I have failed her. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:42.400 I haven't lived up to this expectation because even when I do wake up an hour or two after her, I still don't want to talk to anybody. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.959 I have a long kind of wake-up period. 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:47.200 Like it takes me a while to warm up. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:53.040 So she expected one thing, and then she ended up getting another thing. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:59.359 How easily something like this, even as silly and small as that example, right? 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:07.439 How easily something like that can create disappointment and can even create resentment. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.560 There's a saying, maybe you've heard it. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:14.960 Resentments are premeditated expectations. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:30.719 So when you have an expectation early on and you project it onto somebody or some season or even God, how easily those expectations, if they're not true, they end up being disappointments and resentments. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:34.479 And you know what I'm talking about because you thought March would be one thing. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:48.560 You thought the month of March was gonna hold a great month of business or sports or activities with your kids or your own activities or graduation or travel or stuff with friends or a wedding. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:55.840 And then it ended up something else, or maybe some real suffering hit, some real disappointment within this month. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:59.599 Lost some money, lost some freedom. 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:14.639 Maybe you lost your job, maybe you became sick, or your cousin became sick, or your neighbor, we thought it was going to be one season and we expected that season, but we ended up with a different season. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:22.000 So we enter Palm Sunday in this context that we have had for the last month, right? 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:35.280 And we also entered this Palm Sunday just with that idea, with that idea that we can easily hold an expectation that was never promised to us. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:45.599 And so the story of Palm Sunday we can find it in Matthew chapter 21, and it's Jesus, he's become a well-known rabbi, well-known teacher. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:59.599 And he's a teacher at this point that has status, like he has gone from being a nobody to everybody knowing who this guy is, because he is like rock star status coming into Jerusalem here during the Passover feast. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:05.039 And he has had miracles, and people have heard about him, and he is teaching, and there are crowds coming. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:09.439 All this momentum behind Jesus as he comes into Jerusalem. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:15.280 So two disciples go ahead of him, and they bring him a donkey for him to ride on into the city. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:18.560 And here's what we get in Matthew 21, verses 4 and 5. 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:21.439 This took place of Jesus riding on this donkey. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:38.000 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden. 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:52.959 So he's on a donkey, and thousands and thousands of people have lined these streets during this festival because this Jesus, this leader, this teacher, this Messiah, they believe, is coming into this city. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:05:09.759 But the first clue that they have a little bit of their expectations wrong is that he's on a donkey and he's not on a horse because a donkey was a symbol of humility, but kings who came to overthrow powers that be would have been on a horse. 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:26.560 A person of power would have been on a horse to show dominance, but Jesus comes into this crowd, entered on a donkey, and this is a confrontation with people's expectations with what they wanted him to be. 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:30.959 And we can see what their expectations were in verses 8 through 11. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:51.600 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and here's where we get some context of some other people's expectations, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and the crowds went before him, and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:56.560 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this? 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.839 And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:05.199 So two points today to make sense of all of this. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:17.519 Point number one is this as we resist what is true, as we resist what is true, we welcome increasing measures of disappointment. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.680 As we resist what is true, we welcome increasing measures of disappointment. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:25.120 So now that's a general truth, and that's a good general truth. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:27.839 But let's make sense of it so it applies to our hearts. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:40.480 Now, as a church, what we've been saying for maybe the past six months, and we've been learning over and over again, is that our idolatry is at the intersection of our woundedness and our sin. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:45.600 And these people on these streets, these are wounded people. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:54.480 These people have been under the thumb of Rome, under the power of Rome, and there's been corrupt taxation. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:58.160 A lot of these people are burdened in debt. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:00.639 They've had it. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:03.040 These are our wounded people. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:08.480 And so they cut branches, not just any branches, we know they are palm branches. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:10.720 And they lay them in the streets. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:13.120 And here's the context of expectations. 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:21.439 It's that the context is that the palm was a symbol of national, nationalism, nationalistic symbol. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:28.000 So many are saying here with this statement, this context for us to understand their expectations. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:37.680 Many are saying, Jesus, take power, take national political power, because that will save me. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:39.759 That'll give me peace. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:41.279 That'll make me whole. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:42.800 And we can see it right there. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:57.120 You can see this intersection of their woundedness and their sin, and then they get this idol, they get a projection onto Jesus for him to be a functional, national savior of which he never promised or intended to be. 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:02.639 How easily we end up with a God that he never promised or intended to be. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:06.240 Now listen, this has everything to do with our hearts. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:16.800 Because in these days, if you're anything like me, you're looking for just the next bit of information that'll finally really give you relief. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.680 And how has that been working? 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.720 Well, for me, it's never enough. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:29.759 There hasn't been an Instagram post yet that's actually given me relief, and yet I keep going there to see if one will. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:57.039 So many ways that our woundedness and our sin intersect and create an idol. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:03.200 So many ways that we have expectations and project them onto even God. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:06.000 That He never promised. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:11.840 Point number two is this we don't just need better circumstances. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:13.440 Now we we want them. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:16.159 We desperately want them. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:17.840 And we pray for them. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:24.720 I mean, I can't wait for our circumstances as a community, a church to change, where we get to actually be together. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:33.440 How sad it is for us to walk into our sanctuary here during the week and nobody's been in there for a month. 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:38.480 That we can't wait for the day where we can hug each other. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:40.960 Not just see each other, but hug each other. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:46.240 So we want better circumstances, but we don't just need better circumstances. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:51.200 We need a savior and a healer for our hearts. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.960 So Jesus is on this donkey, he's making his way into Jerusalem. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:10:01.919 These people, some are laying down their cloaks, some are laying down these palms, and the people are singing, and they're singing a psalm. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:03.200 Hosanna. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:04.799 It's from the Psalms. 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:06.480 Hosanna to the Son of David. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:08.399 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.320 Hosanna in the highest. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.320 But it's clear because of these branches, some of them have it wrong. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:19.919 We don't know how many had it right, how many wrong, how many understand what's going on, and Jesus is headed to the cross. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.519 Not a lot, apparently, because not a lot came to his side. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:27.039 Seems like a lot of them had it wrong. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:46.240 Because they're trying to get Jesus to fit into their idolatry and their woundedness and their sin, wanting him thinking, hoping that he could save them from their political oppression, their overtaxation, from their circumstance. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:56.960 Thinking just like we do, just like I do, that if my circumstance or if my idolatry is satisfied, then I would be okay. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:01.279 And this has everything to do with my heart. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:07.120 And yet I wonder if we could accept everything that is true. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.240 For some real suffering, for some grief. 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:25.200 If we could accept it, not resist it, not cope against it, it doesn't mean you have to like it. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:31.600 It doesn't mean you have to like it, but accept it so that you can dare to feel it. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.559 To ask the God of comfort to help you process through it. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:43.840 I do wonder what sort of peace and healing and freedom there might be even inside of the difficulty. 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:55.919 I read this week that last year, last year, The Guardian reported that there were 40 million slaves in our world today. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:58.080 40 million. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:12.799 These are people in our world today, 40 million, that are forced to work against their will, they're exploited, they're even sold as products. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:16.639 Suffering is not new. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.559 Suffering's been going on all the entire time. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:27.840 Suffering was going on before COVID, and there's all sorts of suffering going on other than COVID. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:37.600 Centuries ago, during the transatlantic slave trade, some of the greatest songs of hope were written. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:56.240 PBS reported, I read this on PBS.org this week, they they reported that slaves used songs to express their feelings in that gray area of experiencing slavery and yet experiencing freedom. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:00.240 Maybe you know this one. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:05.919 There is a bomb in Gilead to make the wounded whole. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:18.559 So they're singing about a healing from God that makes wounded people whole. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:19.519 That makes us whole. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.960 We're the wounded people, we're the sin sick people that can be healed. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:32.559 So I think it begs a few questions of our hearts, at least it did for me when I was processing this, asking the Holy Spirit for greater awareness. 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:45.679 God, in what ways do I rely, in what ways do I rely on circumstance for my worth or my stability more than you? 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:48.480 What a great question for these days. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:55.360 God, in what ways do I rely on circumstance for my joy and my peace more than you? 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:09.279 God, how might I, how might I, in these days that are a bit slower, how might I quiet my soul in increasing ways that I might know your peace? 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:16.320 These past few weeks have been filled with bad news, certainly, if you look at the headlines. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:23.679 And yet at the same time, there's these incredible sightings and passing around of just really great humor and love. 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:28.960 The funniest one that I saw this week was watching Jack Black dance in his spandex. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.360 I think he had a cape on in his backyard. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:32.879 He does a karate kick. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:33.600 It's amazing. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:36.480 We probably shouldn't try it, and yet he's doing it. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:37.840 It's an amazing dance. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.519 You should watch it, and you will laugh. 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:40.879 It's amazing. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:47.840 The most endearing thing that I read and I watched this week was about Dr. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:55.840 John Klein and Montgomery, whose wife has had Alzheimer's, early said Alzheimer's for 17 years. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:24.159 And she's been in a nursing home, and his schedule's been very routine for these years, where he goes and he teaches his students at Troy University, and then in the late afternoon he goes over to the nursing home and he sits next to his sweet wife Anne with her in the late afternoon and to the evening till she falls asleep, and then he returns home, and then he does that same day again, and he's been doing this for years and years and years. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:28.879 But last Friday they had to close the doors to visitors. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:31.120 And so Dr. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:33.759 Klein shows up and stands outside her window. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.159 Like you've seen so many of these stories. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:46.559 And he stands outside her window, and you can see her inside in her bed, and he leads her and singing Amazing Grace. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:49.039 Here's what Dr. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:51.440 Klein said to the USA today. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:59.120 I've always said how much I love her till death do us part. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:07.039 But I'm trying to make the statement that no matter what happens, there's no reason to give up on love. 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:14.159 If she gets where she doesn't know me, I will still go see her. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:18.240 Because I will still know her. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.399 What an image for us to behold. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:30.159 See, the love of God is given to us in the person of Jesus. 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:35.279 And we see it in this march into the city where he is even loving these people. 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:39.200 Forgive them, they know not what they do, he says, from the cross. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:46.639 And on the work of the cross for our sin and all of our lack of understanding, our woundedness, our shame, our sin is cast upon him. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:48.399 His righteousness is given to us. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:54.000 We're forever beloved despite our condition or our behavior. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:59.519 The love of God is given to us despite us how well we know him. 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:00.960 He knows us. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:03.759 That's what we have in Jesus. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:11.359 That's what we're beginning to celebrate in Palm Sunday, and we're gonna celebrate it with Good Friday, and we're gonna celebrate it with Easter. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.680 We're gonna celebrate it every single Sunday in this church. 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:21.759 That Jesus is the forever statement to us. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.119 The forever statement that, yeah, maybe we're not as we should be. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.839 Maybe you haven't handled this past month as well as you would have liked to. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:32.960 That's possible. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:41.119 And maybe you think you don't even know God as much as you should know God, but here's the good news He knows you. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.200 And he knows all of you. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:48.400 And in the cross of Jesus, he redeems all of you, and he loves you. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:51.039 Let's pray again. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.519 God, thank you for the good work of the cross. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:18.880 That in this holy week, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, that we get to remember even more in these historic events that this was given to us for us to understand the relationship that we have with you because you pursue us and you know us. 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:37.920 Help us to learn what it means to grow and be quieter in these days, to quiet our soul before you, to remember how much you know us and that you still love us and you still redeem us. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:49.519 Help us not to wait upon our idols or even our projection of who you should be, but help us to wait upon you. 00:18:50.720 --> 00:19:01.680 The God that doesn't just come in all the victorious moments, but the God who actually shows up to comfort inside of disappointment and difficulty. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:06.799 And to that we are so grateful that you walk with us in all things. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:14.880 And to that we say, Hosanna, that you are the king of all things and the savior of our hearts. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:16.160 In Jesus' name. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:17.200 Amen.