SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: We've come to bless you.
SPEAKER_01: We by nature curse you.
SPEAKER_01: But evidence that God's at work in us is we take you take people who by nature curse you, and you change our nature to where we're people who want to bless you, who want to live our lives to the glory of God, not just the smallness of our happiness.
SPEAKER_01: We want to bow down before you and say that you're God and your word is truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so our lives are conformed around that, God.
SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't mean that we we're restricted, we can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: What it means is we're really free.
SPEAKER_01: We believe the teaching of the Bible is that Jesus came to give us back the freedom that Adam and Eve forfeited in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: You said to them, You're free.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes, and the Bible says, if the Son sets you free, you're free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: So Lord, let us live in love and lead in the freedom that you came to make real and available to us.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for anyone in this room today who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus, that today that the light would come on in their head and in their heart.
SPEAKER_01: They're not here to get a religious whipping with a guilt stick.
SPEAKER_01: They're here this morning to hear the truth that sets them free.
SPEAKER_01: Set us free now in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 878.
SPEAKER_01: And if you if you don't have a Bible at home, you can take that one home with you as our gift to you today.
SPEAKER_01: We'd be glad for you to have that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say welcome.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a series right now entitled 40 Days to the Cross.
SPEAKER_01: We started about 36 days, 35 days ago, kind of looking at different things Jesus talked about.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've been preaching and writing and teaching about things that Jesus said leading up to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read from Luke chapter 19, uh, and what we're going to read today takes place five days before Jesus dies.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is going to be dead in five days.
SPEAKER_01: He knows it full well.
SPEAKER_01: The historians have determined on our calendar, this is March 29th, A.D.
SPEAKER_01: 33.
SPEAKER_01: On the Jewish calendar, it was the 10th of Nisan, N I-SA-N, which is the first month of the year on their calendar.
SPEAKER_01: You say, why do you say tell us all that, Bill Nye Science guy?
SPEAKER_01: Because I want you to know that Jesus was not a figment of someone's imagination.
SPEAKER_01: He lived chronologically in a real time in a real place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're going to read in just a minute, but I want to talk to you this morning about this question.
SPEAKER_01: What do you see?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want you to fall into the habit of just reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We'll read and hopefully God will give us something to see.
SPEAKER_01: This is Luke chapter 19, starting verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: When he drew near to Beth Page, Beth and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you'll find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.
SPEAKER_01: Untie it and bring it here.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it?
SPEAKER_01: You shall say this, The Lord has need of it.
SPEAKER_01: So those who were sent away went away and found it just as he had told them.
SPEAKER_01: And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, Why are you untying the colt?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, The Lord has need of it.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
SPEAKER_01: And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.
SPEAKER_01: And he was as he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
SPEAKER_01: And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.
SPEAKER_01: And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: It begins holy week here at Grand Park Way, and most of us have heard what's referred to in the Bible as a triumphal entry many times before.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to hear it this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you see, there's four things that we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is simply this is that prophecy is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is a word that we the Bible usually use in church.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, it's like God made promises or statements way back in the Old Testament, and years went by, and then they never came to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when you go watch a movie and something happens 15 minutes in, somebody looks a certain way, or they play that music, dun, dun, dun, and you're like, okay, something just happened, and I want to make sure I understood.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't understand it until almost the end of the movie because what they set up gets fulfilled over here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the same way in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says of Jesus that all of God's promises, all of these things that God says in the Old Testament are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: They are yes and amen in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this kind of sets it up.
SPEAKER_01: He comes, he fulfills it.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus, by the simple act of riding into Jerusalem, he rides in, not on a white stallion like a war general, I'm here to conquer.
SPEAKER_01: He rides in like a king on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: That's what when a king would come, just to kind of say, by the way, I'm now in charge.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they'd ride in on.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible prophesied this, or the Bible talked about this 520 years earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before I read that, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: How many in this room have ever had somebody told you, I'm gonna do this and they didn't do it?
SPEAKER_01: Or they said, I never do that, and they did it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: I see your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, we've all had that.
SPEAKER_01: Now put your hands down.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Bible, look, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says of this of God.
SPEAKER_01: It says, God is not a man that he would lie.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're here and you're suspect of religion, or you're suspect of organized religion, or you think church is a bunch of hypocrites, I understand that on some level, but yet it's kind of gets the more you say that, it becomes a cop-out because you're looking at people, not at God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how honest and straight shooting God is.
SPEAKER_01: 520 years before, what happens in Luke 19, back in the book of Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, the Bible records this.
SPEAKER_01: It's a prophecy or a promise.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the king is coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: Righteous and having salvation is he.
SPEAKER_01: Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop.
SPEAKER_01: Now it circle in your mind's eye that phrase, righteous and having salvation is he.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament is the Bible that the people of the New Testament read.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's all they had.
SPEAKER_01: They've been reading this for years.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Shout aloud, which is why they're going berserk when Jesus comes riding in.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna, glory to God in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: They're waving palm branches.
SPEAKER_01: They're taking their coats off and laying them down on the road.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine men coming home from work this week and your wife and kids being in the driveway, taking their coats off and laying them down?
SPEAKER_01: Dad, it's home.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna, glory to God in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You would be kind of like, this is creepy.
SPEAKER_01: You just put in reverse and back up.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, I'm at the wrong house.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_01: I say that because no one thought this was creepy.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone had been living for years, for centuries, in light of one day, our Messiah's gonna come, and he's gonna come riding in righteous and having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: And the people see this and they think they consume Jesus upon their lust.
SPEAKER_01: You know you can do that, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can take the good things of God and consume them upon your lust.
SPEAKER_01: For them, it's kind of like oh, finally, a political ruler that's gonna do what we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna overthrow the Romans and they're gonna make it better for us.
SPEAKER_01: Or if it was modern day, it'd be like, yes, Ted Cruz is gonna run for president.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, a constitutional conservative.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making light of politics.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying don't put your hope in that.
SPEAKER_01: Because they consume Jesus upon their lust.
SPEAKER_01: Because when Judas saw that Jesus wasn't gonna do what he thought Jesus should do, he betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus comes riding in, just humble on the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: And by coming in, everybody knows Jesus believes himself to be the king.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing you see, prophecy is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, history is being filled full.
SPEAKER_01: History is being filled full.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rides in on the 29th day of March.
SPEAKER_01: Back then, their calendar, the way the Jewish calendar was the tenth day of Nisan.
SPEAKER_01: This is the day that Passover is celebrated.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've got a Bible, I want you to turn to the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: It'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Exodus, because I said a minute ago something about all of God's promises are yes and amen in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus rides in on the day that lambs are being selected.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, history is being filled full.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 12, verse 1, the Bible tells us this.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be for you the beginning of months.
SPEAKER_01: It shall be the first month of the year for you.
SPEAKER_01: Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to the father's house, a lamb for a household.
SPEAKER_01: And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.
SPEAKER_01: According to what you can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 says, Your lamb shall be without blemish.
SPEAKER_01: Mark that in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: There's no throwaway sentences in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.
SPEAKER_01: You may take it from the sheep of or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God says you're going to select this lamb on this, you're going to select this lamb on the tenth of Nisan.
SPEAKER_01: You shall keep it until the fourteenth.
SPEAKER_01: So if you select it on the tenth, and you keep it till the fourteenth, that's 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
SPEAKER_01: That's five days, correct?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: They pay you to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I can count.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Back to Luke chapter 19, because remember, all of God's promises are yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: When I say history is being fulfilled, since that time when God institutes in Exodus chapter 12, what's called the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: They take this lamb, they have to keep it for five days, and they examine it to make sure it's without spot or blemish, because it cannot have any kind of defect, or it can't be sacrificed as a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: They sacrifice the lamb, they take the blood, they apply it to the doorpost of their house, and when the death angel comes, it's judgment upon Egypt, and God says, If I when I see the blood on the door, I'll pass over your house, and no harm will come to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so for years, Jewish people have celebrated Passover.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's that got to do with history being filled full?
SPEAKER_01: The day that Jesus rides into Jerusalem is the 10th of Nisim.
SPEAKER_01: It's the day everyone in Jerusalem is selecting their lamb to observe Passover.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish historian Josephus tells us that on that day there were as many as 260,000 baby lambs in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: All you can hear is bleeding everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone's getting their lamb.
SPEAKER_01: They selected on that day.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Jesus first comes on the scene, John the Baptist looks up and says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's so subtle that sometimes you miss what's really happening.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rides in, everyone's selecting their lamb.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: What's that got to do?
SPEAKER_01: He rides in on the tenth of Nisan, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And for the next five days, things happen.
SPEAKER_01: He teaches a little bit, and then he gets uh betrayed, and he gets sent from this ruler to this ruler to Herod the Great.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything to do.
SPEAKER_01: Then they send him to Pilate.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Pilate, here's how subtle the Bible is.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the lamb has to be without blemish.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to before Pilate, and Pilate says, he washes his hands in front of everybody and says, I find no fault in him.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, what he's saying is, you now have a Passover lamb that you can sacrifice for the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: See, history, not only is prophecy fulfilled, but history gets fulfilled by Jesus coming into Jerusalem on this day.
SPEAKER_01: It's not without accident.
SPEAKER_01: He could have got there the day before or the day after, but God sets it all up so that the big picture of the Bible all of a sudden gets a little more clear.
SPEAKER_01: He rides in because God says, Hey, I am I'm the one that fulfills all the promises.
SPEAKER_01: So two things we see prophecy is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, history is being filled full.
SPEAKER_01: Without that, all we have is a bunch of empty religious rituals.
SPEAKER_01: You come to church, you go through the motions, you say some things, you do no.
SPEAKER_01: But because of the way God set it up, all of a sudden it has substance to it.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing we see is simply this that our greatest needs are being addressed.
SPEAKER_01: Our greatest needs are being addressed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've got a Bible, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have two primary needs.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, we need a sufficient sacrifice, and number two, we need a sufficient motivation.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll start with the first one.
SPEAKER_01: A sufficient sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 3, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: We'll read more in just a minute, but hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Romans chapter 3, verse 20, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that I can't do enough good things to counterbalance all the bad things I've done in life.
SPEAKER_01: I told the first service, I may as well tell you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to church, or maybe today's the first time you've been in a while, you looked around and when we sing, people raise their hands and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while I try to see church through the lens of somebody.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey man, I don't really go to church that much.
SPEAKER_01: You might look around and think, what are these people doing?
SPEAKER_01: Let me take you back about, I don't know, 34 years.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when I was 16 years old, I was not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't become a Christian until I was 18.
SPEAKER_01: When I was 16 years old, on my 16th birthday, I was in the fifth row at a KISS concert.
SPEAKER_01: And all me and my brothers did the whole night was this.
SPEAKER_01: Wow! Through the warm-up band, through Kiss, through the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: I came home and my mom's like, You boys smell like marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Mom, there was like a nuclear cloud of pot smoke above this thing.
SPEAKER_01: There was no way you cannot smell like marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: Let me smell your breath.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, that's drinking, mom.
SPEAKER_01: You can't smell marijuana on your breath.
SPEAKER_01: I can.
SPEAKER_01: Come here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may see, but I remember looking back at that concert, and just everybody around me was just wow! Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: And if you press me, I could probably sing the entire song of certain kiss songs.
SPEAKER_01: And that's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm your pastor, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you another confession.
SPEAKER_01: Just the other night, I was flipping channels and I came across a documentary on the band Kansas.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember Kansas?
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, baby.
SPEAKER_01: I stopped on that and watched the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, Carrie Livgren, the guy, the blonde-haired guy, the guitar player, wrote muscle songs.
SPEAKER_01: He had a finger-picking exercise where he would practice the guitar, and that he was he would do this little routine, and his wife walked by and said, You should work that into a song.
SPEAKER_01: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: That became the song Dust in the Wind.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, no way.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: When they lit in to carry on my wayward son, I got my aim in flame barbecue lighter and lit it up on the couch.
unknown: Whoa!
SPEAKER_01: Take your shirt off, honey.
SPEAKER_01: We're at a concert.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife shook her head, like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: You moron, you're a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: It's Kansas.
SPEAKER_01: I went out in the garage, got my broom, and jumped around for a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: My wife opened the door.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, come take a shower, big boy.
SPEAKER_01: It's about bedtime.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Same thing happened when I was 16 at kids' concert.
SPEAKER_01: It just got the better of me.
SPEAKER_01: I lost myself in the music.
SPEAKER_01: So let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to church, look around, you say, oh, they're raising the hand, sure.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people just lose themselves in the music.
SPEAKER_01: Like we sing that one song that says, See the true and better Adam.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that Adam, in the old first Adam, refers to Jesus as the second Adam.
SPEAKER_01: So when we say, See the true and better Adam, come to save the hellbound man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, Yes! That's me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I never get over that.
SPEAKER_01: I was having dinner with some friends on Friday night, and one guy was telling about how he came to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He said, There was a woman in my church, little church in Mississippi, that every Sunday night she met with me and two other boys, three boys, and just explained the Bible to us.
SPEAKER_01: And one night she just looked at us and she goes, I want to talk to you about how to give your life to what it means to give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this cat's 62 years old, he choked up crying just the thought of it.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah, I get that.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you realize what the Bible says in verse 20 of Romans 3, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.
SPEAKER_01: Since through the law comes knowledge of sin, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: You know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: You just don't think of it in this terms.
SPEAKER_01: Since through the law comes knowledge of sin, in other words, the more you read God's law, the more you're gonna realize, uh oh.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I've done a lot of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Through the law comes knowledge of sin, which is here's what how I know you know that.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you see a cop, you instinctively hit the brakes.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, Mom, you're doing nine miles an hour.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay, you're never gonna be too safe.
SPEAKER_01: Speed limit 60, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible goes on.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now keep in mind we're talking about our greatest need is a sufficient sacrifice because hey, the Bible says, hey, for by works of the law, we're no one's gonna get right with God.
SPEAKER_01: Then the question ought to come up in your mind, you're thinking, people, then how do I get right with God?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible keeps talking in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
SPEAKER_01: Although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
SPEAKER_01: There's no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
SPEAKER_01: This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the former sins.
SPEAKER_01: It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible speaks with such authority, it doesn't have to raise its voice.
SPEAKER_01: Like that last sentence where it says, God did this so he could be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If God was to look at the sin of humanity and just wink and kind of go, hey, everyone screws up, just do your best, he wouldn't be just.
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't be a just God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the only way for God to be just and the justifier, the one who makes people right who were born wrong, is to come up with a solution on his own, not leave it up to us.
SPEAKER_01: The beauty of the gospel and the beauty why I say your greatest need is being addressed is that God didn't leave it to you and say, just try your best, and I'll grade on a curve when this all goes down in the end.
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible says he put him forward as a propitiation, as an atoning sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It means that God is unhappy with sinners like me and like you.
SPEAKER_01: And we can't get right ourselves, and so Jesus comes right into Jerusalem on a donkey, and it looks innocuous and simple, but what God is saying is, I got an unblemished lamb that's gonna take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And Passover is not gonna be a ritual anymore, it's gonna be a reality for all who have faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing that happens is our we have a sufficient sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing, the greatest need is being addressed, is a sufficient motivation.
SPEAKER_01: A sufficient motivation.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to raise your hands because this might get a little personal.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever been in a situation where you knew the right thing and you knew what the wrong thing was?
SPEAKER_01: But for some weird reason you just wanted to do the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, I am glad we're not raising our hands on this.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you another question.
SPEAKER_01: So, what determines what you do?
SPEAKER_01: See, in riding into Jerusalem, Jesus is demonstrating for us what a sufficient motivation looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Because a sufficient motivation is not his love for people, it's not his love for humanity, it's not, hey, I want to do no no.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what motivates Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in John chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: When you find yourself in a situation that's that you're just like, ah, what do you look to that ensures you're gonna do the right thing?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this of Jesus in John 12, verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Now is my soul troubled.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, man, this is and what shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's for this purpose that I've come to this hour.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm gonna say instead is, Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_01: And then a voice came from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Hey, I I I'm betwixt and between here.
SPEAKER_01: My soul is troubled.
SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Shall I say, Save me?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: No, I this is why I came.
SPEAKER_01: I came to give my life on the cross for people.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_01: And God speaks from heaven and says, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying to you the glory of God is the only sufficient motivation that's gonna see you and I through when we come to that fork in the road.
SPEAKER_01: As a Christian, and I'll press it even further as a non Christian.
SPEAKER_01: If you're thinking, I don't believe all this stuff, this doesn't apply to me.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why you need a source of motivation.
SPEAKER_01: Outside of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, we will waste our lives obsessing over ourselves, how we feel, what we prefer, and we'll never live our life in consequence of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one of the ways I know that I'm a Christian is that when I'm at a fork in the road, something in me says, not do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: Not you're a preacher, not you're a dad.
SPEAKER_01: You want your kids to follow your example?
SPEAKER_01: Something in me says, glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: Glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: I'll explain this in a minute, but there's a bigness to the glory of God that we don't find in our own happiness.
SPEAKER_01: Because we live in a culture that says, hey, just be happy.
SPEAKER_01: Just be happy.
SPEAKER_01: You do what makes you happy.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever floats your boat.
SPEAKER_01: However that's coming out these days, it's the same message.
SPEAKER_01: But let me just say this: God's glory, this is the most controversial thing I'll say this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So get your pens ready.
SPEAKER_01: God's glory matters more than your personal happiness.
SPEAKER_01: It just does.
SPEAKER_01: It matters more than my personal happiness.
SPEAKER_01: One of the ways that I know that I'm a Christian is that God's glory and my person.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm gonna tell you, I don't have time to preach this sermon, but but those aren't mutually exclusive if you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: John Piper, this preacher, said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna seek that which satisfies me with all my might.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That just you sound like you're contradicting yourself.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how I know that I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna seek that which dishonors God and robs God of His glory and makes me happy.
SPEAKER_01: If God is most glorified in my life, when I'm most satisfied in Him, then I should seek that which satisfies me as a Christian, the glory of God with all my might.
SPEAKER_01: With all my might.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: God's glory matters more than our purple personal happiness.
SPEAKER_01: This is only possible because the gospel, and without the power of the gospel manifesting itself in our lives, we'll only accomplish what we feel like.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll get to the end of your life, and I don't mean your deathbed, I mean the last five, ten, fifteen years of your life, and you'll have this gnawing sense that you could have done more.
SPEAKER_01: If every time you come to the fork in the road and the glory of God doesn't motivate you, and you just choose what will make you happy, there's a smallness to personal happiness that you should find offensive.
SPEAKER_01: And let me demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: This was said back in September.
SPEAKER_01: You probably heard it because it was all over the news.
SPEAKER_01: People called me, hey, what do you think about this?
SPEAKER_01: This is a quote from a lady named Victoria Osteen.
SPEAKER_01: Her and her husband pastor a church up on the highway, uh, not mad at them.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll explain that why in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But but but this is an indication of where our culture is.
SPEAKER_01: Victoria Osteen and her husband Joel are standing up there on the stage at Lakewood and welcoming people, and she says this, and I quote So I just want to encourage every one of us to realize that when we obey God, we're not doing it for God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is one way to look at it, but we're doing it for ourselves because God takes pleasure when we're happy.
SPEAKER_01: That the thing, that that's the thing that gives him the greatest joy this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to know this morning, just do good for your own self.
SPEAKER_01: Do good because God wants you to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to church, when you worship him, you're not doing it for God really.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing it for yourself because that is what makes God happy.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: On amen.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my question.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends call me, what do you think about that, man?
SPEAKER_01: It's right there in your city because they want to get me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at that.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to make you sad.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, this surely she didn't say this with her pastor husband standing right there.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Stood there and said, because God takes pleasure when we're happy, that's the thing that gives him the greatest joy this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to know this morning, just do good for your own self.
SPEAKER_01: Do good because God wants you to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to church, when you worship him, you're not doing it for God.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Really, you're doing it for yourself because that is what makes God happy.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, happiness is not an attribute of God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to get off track here.
SPEAKER_01: But God doesn't need us to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: God is sufficient, He dwells in sufficiency.
SPEAKER_01: He's not unhappy, and He needs me to obey, so He's going to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: He is altogether lovely and He stands within the solitude of Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing that bothered me.
SPEAKER_01: Not that she said that, but nobody in the church blinked.
SPEAKER_01: This is how far we are away from the glory of God and how centered we are on our own happiness.
SPEAKER_01: That a woman stood up and said, When you worship God, you're not doing it for God, you're doing it for you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody just walked out and said, Oh my gosh, I gotta get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: They all nodded their head.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're putting your personal happiness above the glory of God, you're destroying yourself with smallness.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: If you're putting your personal happiness above the glory of God, you're destroying yourself with smallness.
SPEAKER_01: There's a bigness to the glory of God that you don't find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01: I said that a minute ago.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: It's so big that you can fit whatever you do inside of it.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: There's a bigness to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God is so big that you and I can fit whatever we do inside of it.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God is the only thing that is so big, it's a big enough context within which you can fit everything you do.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you can do and everything you want to do will not fit into your personal happiness.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak from my own life.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, I got up, my wife had a baby shower, one of my kids had a concert, a violin concert, one of my kids had a UIL history competition.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are not athletes, they're nerds, okay?
SPEAKER_01: My daughter got her letter jacket in debate.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, eh, you're a nerd.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh, but your dad loves you, sweetie.
SPEAKER_01: Um keep them grades up.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And so I mowed the yard, washed my wife's van, washed my truck, hung out, and my whole day was built around I'm gonna be dumb and do all this stuff because here's what I do.
SPEAKER_01: I work hard during the day, then about four o'clock, right before basketball comes on, I think, don't ask me for nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: And I go in my bedroom, I got a club chair and an ottoman, which my wife puts purses on, shoes on, computer cords, shoulder bed.
SPEAKER_01: It's just mounded up with stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm in there, the lights are off, it's dark.
SPEAKER_01: I got the air conditioner, I'm 56.
SPEAKER_01: You can hang beef in my house.
SPEAKER_01: And I got my feet up, I just pushed all that stuff off on the floor.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, get it out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Just put my feet up.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm in my man cave, and then all of a sudden the door opens.
SPEAKER_01: My wife walks in, who just got back from baby shower, and she wants to tell me about the baby shower.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I didn't go to the baby shower because I don't care about the baby shower.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna sit there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just pausing the game, kind of like, and then our 17-year-old comes in, hey, what are y'all doing?
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember when you were a kid?
SPEAKER_01: I never went to my parents' bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't, my kids live in there.
SPEAKER_01: And then, oh, the 11-year-old comes in, hey, I just want to be with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: And then I look down, I'm not making this up.
SPEAKER_01: I looked down, two dogs and a cat right at my feet.
SPEAKER_01: I just looked at my wife because see, this has been the joy set before me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: All day long, washing the car, washing the truck, mowing, edging.
SPEAKER_01: Did I tell you I edged as well and swept it up?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get a blower like you lazy people, brrrrrrrrr, blow it onto my neighbor's yard.
SPEAKER_01: I take care of my debris.
SPEAKER_01: All I want to do is watch Notre Dame beat Kentucky, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And my wife is like, oh, and then we play this little game.
SPEAKER_01: And then and I'm just, your wife ever talked, men, and you're looking at her just thinking, I don't have the words to tell you how much I don't care about what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: And then my wife picked up on it.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Oh, you're trying to watch the game.
SPEAKER_01: I won't say anything because if I say something, then it's gonna be 45 more minutes of conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, so I just said, How about all you women go out there and just hug each other and braid each other's hair or whatever you do?
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to go home, but you gotta get up out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just thought we'd spend some time together.
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I want to spend some time with my flat screen and the remote.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to take these kids and these dogs and that cat that's going, now, now, no, out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife's like, come on, girls, let's go, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say any of that.
SPEAKER_01: I just looked at her like.
SPEAKER_01: Help a brother out here.
SPEAKER_01: And after they walked out, you know what went through my mind?
SPEAKER_01: See how small your happiness is, Neil?
SPEAKER_01: You'll never be offended by the fact that God gets more glory.
SPEAKER_01: If you're always offended, you're probably living for your own happiness.
SPEAKER_01: And there are churches all over the world, many right here in our city, that will tell you that God wants you to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, I'm gonna tell you that God wants you to be holy.
SPEAKER_01: And in that process, you will find lasting happiness.
SPEAKER_01: They're not mutually exclusive, but you can get one without the other if you're not careful.
SPEAKER_01: And so our greatest need is being met.
SPEAKER_01: And fourthly and finally, you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what surprised my friends.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh man, I thought I thought you'd be more angry.
SPEAKER_01: Can you believe she said that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't believe she said that.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: There's people come see me for marriage counsel and say, Well, I'm just not happy anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just not happy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what does that give you license to do?
SPEAKER_01: What are you, 12?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not happy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm taking my Barbie and going home.
SPEAKER_01: Where's that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if that's the case, I could have divorced my wife and walked out on my kids yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not happy.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in the midst of that, what she said to me was, hey, did the dogs get fed?
SPEAKER_01: Why can't I even care?
SPEAKER_01: Why can it's anywhere on my radar?
SPEAKER_01: We had kids, so the chores could get done.
SPEAKER_01: Talk to them.
SPEAKER_01: See, hey, there's a paralyzing smallness to your life when all you think about is, am I happy?
SPEAKER_01: Am I getting what I want?
SPEAKER_01: If happiness was the mantra for life, Jesus would have never died on the cross for you.
SPEAKER_01: You are the biggest hypocrite in the world.
SPEAKER_01: If you go around evaluating things on, I'm about half a bubble off of happiness.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta quit.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the gospel, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you think that God is some just big glory hog who doesn't care.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 41, and when he drew near the city, and he saw when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.
SPEAKER_01: Who takes pleasure in telling somebody how this is going to affect you and your children?
SPEAKER_01: You bring someone's children up.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's serious.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why Jesus is weeping.
SPEAKER_01: And they will not leave one stone upon another because you do not know the time of your visitation.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying the fourth thing you see is that you see a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_01: You see a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a weird question.
SPEAKER_01: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a weird question.
SPEAKER_01: Who's the last person you wept over?
SPEAKER_01: When my buddies call, my preacher friends are like, hey, can you believe that, Victoria's feet?
SPEAKER_01: Man, we should be weeping over that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get mad at them.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just the Bible says, hey, in the last days, people formulate teachers after their own desires.
SPEAKER_01: They will not endure sound doctrine because they want to have their ears tickled.
SPEAKER_01: We're all that way.
SPEAKER_01: You have the capacity to believe a lie just as quickly as that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that we have this compassionate God that when he drew near and he saw the city, he just wept over it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, would you have known.
SPEAKER_01: Had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, now it's too late.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the here's the merciful, compassionate God of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's not too late for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you can hear my voice today, it's not too late for you.
SPEAKER_01: God has not folded his arms and said, Well, you live for your happiness too long, not for my glory.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done with you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying to all of us theologians in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you don't exalt all, you don't exalt the glory of God above all of God's other attributes, and you make God look harsh instead of loving.
SPEAKER_01: God does, He says, Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says one day the glory of God's gonna cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in Matthew 5, let your light so shine before men that they see your good deeds and they glorify your Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God is central to the narrative of the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's what motivates God.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus saying, What shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Shall I say, I want out of this, I'm not happy?
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, no, here's what I'm gonna say.
SPEAKER_01: God, you glorify your name.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, You got that right.
SPEAKER_01: I've glorified it, and I'm gonna glorify it again.
SPEAKER_01: Next time you find yourself in a situation where you're unhappy, and you're gonna find yourself there.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that, beloved?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be unhappy, and your marriage you're gonna be unhappy.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's married to an almost perfect man, and sometimes she's unhappy.
SPEAKER_01: She said the other day, right out of her little mouth, she said, I need you to help out around the house more.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, I'm not a stay-at-home mom anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I got a part-time job.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes I need you to unload the dishwasher.
SPEAKER_01: That's supposed to not in the wedding bows.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, and pick up your clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Well, my mom picks up my clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, your wife doesn't like to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: She's right.
SPEAKER_01: I do need to do more.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes I come home and it's like a calf rope and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: Time.
SPEAKER_01: Six seconds.
SPEAKER_01: Now serve me.
SPEAKER_01: But see, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: When I'm unhappy and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: When you're unhappy next time, it's just a reminder that you were created to live in the context of something bigger than your happiness.
SPEAKER_01: It's not God getting you by the neck going, hey, how does that feel?
SPEAKER_01: Are you not happy?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the compassionate God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: What do you see?
SPEAKER_01: You see prophecies being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that God's not a man that he would lie.
SPEAKER_01: You read something in the Bible, God means it.
SPEAKER_01: He's never gonna change his mind about it.
SPEAKER_01: History's being filled full.
SPEAKER_01: Don't watch some goofy movie on TV tonight and get your understanding of Jesus from that.
SPEAKER_01: God's had a plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: And Passover goes from being this ritual they go through to being, oh my gosh, here's our Lamb that takes away our sin right here.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest need is being met.
SPEAKER_01: That's for someone to die on the cross, someone to die as payment for for as payment for your sins, because you can't get there by doing good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: By works of the law, no one will get right in God's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And God could have left it at that, but he didn't because he's compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: And he weeps over a city.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're here this morning and you're like, I don't believe a bit of this, I'm just here because my parents made me come.
SPEAKER_01: The sooner you shut up, the faster I can go eat lunch.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy your lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Take me with you.
SPEAKER_01: But know this.
SPEAKER_01: You can't change the heart of God for you.
SPEAKER_01: He weeps over the fact that you don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't look down and go, serves you right.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna go to hell one day and burn forever.
SPEAKER_01: Yea me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The God of the Bible looks out over this congregation and says, Would that you, even you, knew the things that made for peace.
SPEAKER_01: Last question I want you to think about this week while you're walking around, cooking supper, walking the dog, going to work is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: What brings you peace?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible believes that if you can find peace outside of a relationship with God through Son Jesus, then Jesus doesn't have to come.
SPEAKER_01: His existence is the most unnecessary life that was ever lived.
SPEAKER_01: So I gotta ask, like Jesus says, weeping, would that you, even you knew what would bring you peace.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands and we speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is life.
SPEAKER_01: Live that you're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, in the Son, in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.