SPEAKER_00: So it is uh Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning we remember perhaps one of the most probably the most famous two-mile walk in human history.
SPEAKER_00: That's when Jesus and his disciples traveled from Beth Page to uh Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Sunday before the Friday.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in history, it's the Sunday before the Friday where Jesus died, crucified on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Sunday before the Sunday where Jesus who died rose from the dead, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't be surprised if Pastor Dan will be uh we'll be talking about that next week, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: But today we're looking solely at Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to read with you some of that uh from Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, bless your word as we as we look at it this morning and open our eyes to the uh to the possibilities, to the promises, to the potential that is for us available through the Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may He be our Lord and Savior, we pray, in Jesus' precious name.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I like that song.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna come, I want to come back to it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure when we come back to prayer, the group is gonna have a uh very fitting song.
SPEAKER_00: But I love that last song that they did.
SPEAKER_00: I took a little uh picture of it.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, my soul, don't get shy on me.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your song because you've got a lion inside of those lungs.
SPEAKER_00: Get up and praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope as we get near the end of this service today, and there will be an opportunity, maybe for you to uh maybe you need a adjustment in your attitude or your heart or your life or your home or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to tell you you don't have to go to Father Baker's, but you just come to Jesus and let him do something in you to make you to be strong and whole again.
SPEAKER_00: So from Matthew chapter 21 with verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
SPEAKER_00: Untie them and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: If any one asks or says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs him, and he will send them at once.
SPEAKER_00: 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 foal of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: What was going to happen that day was prophesied long before and was going to be fulfilled, even as it was prophesied on what we call Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So the disciples went, verse six, and he and they did as Jesus had directed them, and they brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowds that went before them and that followed them were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: And Hosanna also even just is a word of praise.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, praise his name.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna, praise his name.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the crowd was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just pray that you would honor your word and that you would your presence, your that your spirit, Holy Spirit, that you would work within our hearts, stir us, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be ready to make any attitude adjustment that may be necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to embrace and understand and put some truths into our thoughts and our mind and our faith that would equip us to better serve you with confidence, with expectation, and with truth, Father.
SPEAKER_00: We ask these things in Jesus' precious name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the same passage, the same event as recorded in Luke, in Luke chapter 19, 39, says that some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they were a little out of line.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were a little bit critical of those that were praising the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered them, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want some stone, some rock, some boulder doing your part of praising the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You be that one who will give praise and honor to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
SPEAKER_00: So you be one who will speak for the Lord and who will give praise to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Palm Sunday, as it's as we call it that, is recorded in all four Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably called Palm Sunday because people cut down palm branches and wave them before Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The event is often overshadowed by what happened a week later with his undeserved crucifixion, death, and then on Sunday with his miraculous, unbelievable resurrection back to life.
SPEAKER_00: However, all of these events, all of these events, Palm Sunday, his death, the crucifixion, the resurrection, all of these events are primary, gracious, and of eternal importance for us, not just for history, but for us as people.
SPEAKER_00: God has provided for us something of blessings and power and purpose and passion and plan for our lives that we can embrace and we can we can just we can soar with the Lord, we can walk with him in victory, we can have, we can have uh something in life that is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this was a this was a profound time.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, for much of Jesus' ministry, he urged people to be quiet about who he was and what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: You ever do you ever think about that?
SPEAKER_00: When he would do a miracle and he said, Don't tell anybody about that.
SPEAKER_00: Keep this quiet.
SPEAKER_00: When he healed the sick, he told people to say nothing often.
SPEAKER_00: When he confronted demons who recognized him, the Son of God, told them to shut up.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you say anything.
SPEAKER_00: That's because it wasn't yet time for him to declare himself as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: On Palm Sunday, the time had come.
SPEAKER_00: The time came for Jesus to declare himself as Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: It was the time.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 21, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: We already read this, but look at the and the crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: The time had come.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not, you know what, I'm not going to talk about the Roman soldiers today.
SPEAKER_00: It's not on my notes, so I'm just going to pause for a second.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, at this time that we call Palm Sunday, well, people were coming into Jerusalem because they were coming for what?
SPEAKER_00: For the Passover feast.
SPEAKER_00: And this was a this was something nobody was expecting, but there it was.
SPEAKER_00: And there were who knows how many hundreds, maybe thousands of Roman soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: And these Roman soldiers were not, they were not Buffalo police or la or LA police like you have here in Lackawanna.
SPEAKER_00: They were not sheriffs or even state police who often have their hands tied and can't do anything, can't arrest somebody, and if they do, nothing's gonna happen, they're gonna be kicked back out on the street anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Sad to say, that seems to be often happening in our culture today, and because of that, crime goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: But these guys, I'm thinking of the the movie, the um what's the one with um Billy Crystal and and the giant, Andre the Giant, the Princess Bride, and somebody says to Andre the Giant, uh, we somebody we need the brute squad, and he says, I am the brute squad.
SPEAKER_00: These soldiers, man, they were like the brute squad.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't, they wouldn't put up with nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: And they had power perhaps to do to be rough if they needed to.
SPEAKER_00: But these these um Roman centurions, these soldiers, were they were not taken back by what they were seeing.
SPEAKER_00: And and there, there could have been the the crowd in Jerusalem for the uh Passover could have been bigger than the crowd that will be in New York City for the dropping of the ball on New Year's on New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_00: Could have been over a million, could have been some say it could be as many as two million people that were gathered in Jerusalem to uh celebrate and and participate in the uh the Passover, which symbolized what Jesus did when he brought the the uh the slaves out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: When it was the blood on the doors that uh that allowed the the God's angel of death to uh to pass over those who were covered by the blood.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of representative representation there for us too, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: But my point was these Roman soldiers were not uh taken back, they were not afraid, or as the kids would say, they were not as scared of what was happening because they were Roman guards, they could handle any situation.
SPEAKER_00: And here's Jesus coming into town riding on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when uh when a Roman uh general would come in after a battle and he was the victor, he would come in riding on a white horse, or maybe riding on a couple horses, pulling a fancy chariot, and he would have behind him uh on a tether many of the victors, maybe a representation of those whom he had conquered.
SPEAKER_00: And when they would come in, sometimes they would they would actually let some of those captives uh in in with the animals and make sport with them.
SPEAKER_00: So so the so these centurions knew what a victorious parade looked like.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus riding on a donkey, that's kind of cute.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the way Jesus, and there's a reason why Jesus didn't come in on a white horse.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be another time in history when he does come in on a horse, and he's gonna come in great judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not doing that lesson today, but this was this was Palm Sunday, and he does come in riding on that donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: As he entered Jerusalem, verse 10, and I don't have a slide for this, you just leave that one up there.
SPEAKER_00: The whole city was stirred up saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: And we already read it, but some of the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: I think some of them were saying things they really didn't know what they were saying.
SPEAKER_00: They were saying things that though they knew the phrase, their mind and their heart was not up to speed.
SPEAKER_00: Other biblical references, including Romans chapter three, I just enjoy I just love the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: There was a time when uh when when some of these iron uh curtain countries could not have Bibles, when there was an organization that would that would take the really thin paper, almost like some of the paper they use on the fine Bibles, and they would actually print a copy of uh Romans on that fine paper, and then they would fold it up like a letter, and they would send it to people behind the iron curtain, and some of these people would receive what they thought was just a letter, but I don't know how they got their mailing list, but they did do that.
SPEAKER_00: And they and these people were getting the the letter of Paul to the Romans, and the reason that they chose Romans to be that portion of the Bible that they would send to these people that where it was illegal to have a Bible was because Romans is such a rich document.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches so much about the history of God, beginning, middle, and end, and it teaches about who we are and what that means and what God has done and how we can embrace that and how we can know him.
SPEAKER_00: So Romans chapter 3 and on, for instance, makes it clear, and check it out if you haven't done so in a while, that the law, the Old Testament law, obeying the law, can never save anyone, but that it points to the one who can save Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD perhaps confirms that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Old Testament sacrifices did not really cleanse anybody from sin, but Old Testament believers were saved by faith and what they had at that time during this sacrificial system.
SPEAKER_00: But they and the Lord was looking forward to a future event, to the to the time when the real sacrifice that could pay for mankind's sins would.
SPEAKER_00: And that sacrifice is Jesus Christ in his blood.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_00: So, really, what happened, what was going to be happening within those next couple of weeks over there with the with the uh Palm Sunday, the the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, that event in history has the potential and has paid for all of those sins of people, Old Testament at that time and today, who will turn to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Those who died, and all those guys, you know, they they died and they had the they had the sacrifices, the animals, the blood, but all of those things, God was counting their obedience as righteousness, but the actual price for their sin was not paid for by the blood of those animals, but it was paid for by the blood of God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord for that.
SPEAKER_00: So from beginning to end, sins are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great news?
SPEAKER_00: Now we're on the other side of the cross, we're on this side, but it's it's incumbent upon us to put our faith and trust in God's provision as well.
SPEAKER_00: We we we aren't gonna be saved by good deeds or or or the blood of animals or anything like that, or because we're we're so good or we do a lot of you know nice things or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: We are saved if we are by the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So Romans chapter 3 is a rich, rich, and the whole book of Romans is profound.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love, I'd just love to read that and try to understand it all.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118 is a messianic psalm, meaning it's pointing to the Messiah, it's pointing to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, those who are uh saying the things that we looked at some of the verses already, and those who are proclaiming things as Jesus is coming into town, some of them are actual quotes and principles taken from Psalm 118, which is a messianic psalm.
SPEAKER_00: And it's talking about the Messiah, the the Son of God, the Messiah, who would be coming in the future according to God's providence.
SPEAKER_00: Those who lived in and believed its promises were forgiven and embraced by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we who are alive today are saved and forgiven by faith in that same promise and reality of what Jesus procured for us two thousand years ago.
SPEAKER_00: He went to the cross, his blood paid for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to take a look at some of those messianic promises that were spoken by the people in that day, and I wonder if they even knew what they were talking about or knew how it applied.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the Psalm 18, 118 promises and truths were spoken at the celebration of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and yet perhaps many who were saying those things might have been unaware, at least to some extent, in that many of these same people who hailed Jesus as Messiah would, along with the Pharisees, just a few days later, join in to the call for his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it was a hot topic of the day.
SPEAKER_00: The news was there, the buzz was happening, it was exciting.
SPEAKER_00: There was hundreds, maybe hundreds of thousands of people that through that that saw that parade.
SPEAKER_00: But these who were praising Jesus and saying Hosanna and even making some quotes from the uh Psalm 118 Messianic chapter, uh later in that week were saying, Crucify him, give us Barabbas.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at some of these Psalm 118 Messianic promises.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 118, verse 8, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
SPEAKER_00: And yet many of them in that day would trust in man.
SPEAKER_00: They would rather trust into man.
SPEAKER_00: And even today, many still do trust in man rather than trust in the Lord and take refuge in him.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118 and verse 14 the Lord is my strength and my song.
SPEAKER_00: He has become my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And though many turned away, um, and many who even today turned away from Jesus, he is still here for us today.
SPEAKER_00: And those who would look to him, uh, he will become our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118 and verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Open to me the gates of righteousness that I might enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Open the gates of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This is interesting because um this is perhaps referencing the gate of the Lord as he entered Jerusalem on that day, which would have been the eastern gate of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus comes in through the eastern gate.
SPEAKER_00: But we can enter into righteousness, we can enter in through the gate of loving him, praising his name, and looking to him.
SPEAKER_00: We can enter into righteousness not by going to the temple which is gone, but by praising him today.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: So we can open, uh, the gates are open for us to come in, and as Jesus is the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would be rejected by many Jews and others, and even some who were singing his praises that day rejected him later that week.
SPEAKER_00: But not all did.
SPEAKER_00: And may he be the cornerstone and salvation of our faith and our lives today.
SPEAKER_00: He is our cornerstone, he is our victory and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And Psalm 118, verse 25, save us, we pray, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, we pray, give us success.
SPEAKER_00: That's Psalm 118, verse as well.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think that many of the Jewish people of that day living in Jerusalem were coming into the into the city for that day for that time of feasting.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they wanted and they were looking for a military, social, and economic victory.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted military, social, and economic success.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that he was coming as a king to free them from Roman rule, to free them from the crazy taxation and bondage and cost of living under the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: And I think today there are many as well that are praying for God to free them from the bondage of the government, from the bondage of taxation, from the bondage of fear, from the bondage of crime.
SPEAKER_00: But um may we find, may we find victory and freedom in God's presence and God's favor because of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: May we find freedom from sin and freedom for eternity in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus doesn't necessarily free us from every uh political uh bondage or from every taxation, but he does free us from our sin and he sets us up for eternity with him.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not the victor of over the government.
SPEAKER_00: And as much as uh, you know, the the uh these kind of things play into it.
SPEAKER_00: This would be a great uh discussion for a Bible study, a consideration.
SPEAKER_00: God does lift up and put down governments, and God does uh bless those who who honor and and and and bless Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that our country is aligned with them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that our country and Israel together and now others want to come on board now that things are moving pretty good to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's imperative, it's ethical, it's good.
SPEAKER_00: It could very well be the blessing of God to to to to tear down this government who's trying to destroy Israel, to destroy us, who calls us Satan the big one, and Israel the small one.
SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, uh God is not in the business of uh political, although he does lift up and put down governments, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: And righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
SPEAKER_00: So when you get governments like Iran and others that are sinful, that are wicked, just into the conscience, let alone the word of God, God can put down and crush those.
SPEAKER_00: And he can even use other governments that are gonna want to align with God to be the weapon with which he can bring some pressure and destruction towards them.
SPEAKER_00: That's a political conversation, maybe for another time.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, when when we're saying, Lord, save us, primarily he gives us freedom from sin and he also brings us to eternity with him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, moving along.
SPEAKER_00: So all of this is happening, the triumphal entry, the Palm Sunday entrance and celebration.
SPEAKER_00: Which of the group of people who were looking at Jesus that day, as he was coming in, might have been hundreds of thousands of people who were lining the road as he's coming in and some waving branches, and the and I don't, I just can't not imagine that the presence of the Lord and the Holy Spirit is there just speaking to people and convicting them and bringing a thrill to them.
SPEAKER_00: And and those some of them didn't see it, others did.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like when you're when you're in a when you're in a church service and there's a message being given, if there's a hundred people, uh people hear different messages based upon what they hear and who they are and how they think and their history.
SPEAKER_00: But I would imagine on that day, with those people gathered on those streets as Jesus comes by, that the Holy Spirit was really tugging at hearts, was really drawing people.
SPEAKER_00: Look what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen some exciting things in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I remember as a boy being on Broadway, right near Fillmore with my mom, when President John F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy rode down Broadway in a in a in a parade, and he was standing in the back of a of a of a car, convertible, waving to the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: I remember that day.
SPEAKER_00: Some things in our lives that we never forget.
SPEAKER_00: And I imagine what happened that day with Jesus writing in was it was an unforgettable historical event for those who were there that day.
SPEAKER_00: And thank God that his word makes it an unforgettable historical event for us.
SPEAKER_00: So which of those groups that were watching Jesus do you fall into?
SPEAKER_00: From the people we see in this account, I think they basically fall into three types of people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, putting aside the soldiers because they were on duty for Rome, but the people that were there, there was a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Are we the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: The crowd got caught up in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe each one, maybe every one of them they were thinking, well, what's in this for me?
SPEAKER_00: What does he have for me?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming to set me free from my physical disabilities, from my ailments, from my pain, from my sickness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus is coming to set me free from the occupation of Rome and the terrible taxes and the danger and the and the corruption and the evil that Rome is bringing upon we, the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's what they're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're pretending allegiance to Jesus, but when in reality what they really want is for him to do something to kind of set them free from the burdens of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: So some in the crowd might have been thinking that way.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in that same crowd would have been uh Pharisees, the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders of that day.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees saw Jesus coming, and they see the crowds chanting and calling out scripture verses and praising him and waving the palms and putting, throwing your coats down, Jesus writing in.
SPEAKER_00: I suppose when he was riding in on that day, how wonderful that's a representation, of course, from the uh the the TV show.
SPEAKER_00: But uh he might have had a smile on his face when he was being hard to not smile as you're writing in, and there's a couple hundred thousand people just praising or more, just praising your name.
SPEAKER_00: So um the Pharisees see this and they see Jesus coming in as a perhaps a threat to their way of life.
SPEAKER_00: They had a pretty good thing going for them.
SPEAKER_00: They were the teachers and the rulers of the Jewish faith.
SPEAKER_00: They had a responsibility to teach and to regulate the things of God as they believed them to be.
SPEAKER_00: And welcoming this new, this new king meant that maybe they would no longer be number one.
SPEAKER_00: So I think the Pharisees would have been kind of put out by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There were some that were uh fascinated and maybe even convicted and open to him, like Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who came to Jesus at night, and we believe that received the words of Jesus and turned his heart to him.
SPEAKER_00: So we got the crowd, we got the Pharisees, and then in John's account, and by the way, the um Sunday event is recorded in each of the four Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: And in John's account, we of the triumphal entry, we see that the disciples, looking at the disciples, we see in John, it says, the actual disciples of Jesus were lifting up praise as a recognition of who Jesus was and what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: So if you were a disciple or if you would be a disciple, you were giving praise and it wouldn't be corrupted by anything.
SPEAKER_00: You were giving praise and you were recognizing this is of God.
SPEAKER_00: So which group have you, which group do you fit into?
SPEAKER_00: Are you part of the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: Are you part of the religious leadership who you got your ideas about things and you you I don't know about you, but I don't know how many times over the years when I read the Bible, uh God's word convicts me about even an understanding I have about the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so do I allow, do I allow the Lord to convict me and shape my understanding of Him?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I think I've got the answers and He's got to be the way I say?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: So am I more like the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: Am I more like the Pharisees?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I, I hope, are you more like the disciples who give praise to him and they mean it?
SPEAKER_00: So now, now, as now, that was if you were there, but as Jesus approaches your life, what about this morning?
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus approaches your life, as we were together worshiping the Lord, with thank you for the beautiful music and the opportunity to praise God that the worship team brought for us today.
SPEAKER_00: So, as you are praising him, as you're listening to his word now, as perhaps you've been praying now or during this service or beforehand, as Jesus approaches your life, what will be your reaction?
SPEAKER_00: Like some, will you give him a false praise, just hoping to get something good from him, but not really recognizing what it means when Jesus says, if you want to follow me, pick up your cross?
SPEAKER_00: Pick up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Carry the load that I've got for you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you give him a false praise?
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of give him a salute and a praise your Lord because you want something from him?
SPEAKER_00: Or when how will you approach Jesus in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Will you get like some?
SPEAKER_00: Will you become fighting mad when Jesus touches an area in your life and says, I would be the king and lord of your life for that area as well.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get mad?
SPEAKER_00: I would imagine in a group like this, I look around, I see maybe two to three hundred people here today.
SPEAKER_00: Could be a little exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful crowd.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful pastor you have.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful worship.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, seriously, a wonderful place, the presence of God and the teaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But do you get fighting mad when Jesus wants to cramp in and say, Well, I do a lot of things right, Lord, but I I've got this little problem with uh relationship with the opposite sex.
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm dealing with uh being allured towards even people of the same sex.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it, but what but you know, hey, if you if you're attracted towards people of the opposite sex, that that that's God approves of that because they're the opposite sex.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: So you be faithful to your wife, or you build a relationship, and by the grace of God and your intelligence and your commitment with another person of the opposite sex, one day maybe you'll be married and you'll be husband and wife, and then the doors of that of that marriage relationship open up all kinds of adventures for you.
SPEAKER_00: But you might be struggling with that right now.
SPEAKER_00: You get fighting mad when you sense the Lord says, Hey, I want to, I want, I want to can I want that control in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, God will speak to you that way, and He speaks to you primarily through His Word.
SPEAKER_00: You start, I remember, I remember in my life sometimes when I was a brand new Christian and I started reading the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I would kind of carefully go to the next page and kind of see what it was about before I was going to read it all.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's word has a way of convicting your actions in your heart sometimes, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had a little business and I was making money and uh I wasn't too keen on paying taxes, and I was, you know, I was I was doing a lot of things that were shady, and that was okay with the world because everybody does it.
SPEAKER_00: But you start walking with the Lord and you start looking into the word and you start reading the book of Romans, and it says, pay your taxes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I'll just skip ahead to the next chapter, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we don't want the Lord to speak to us because we're happy in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: But are we so dumb as to think that I can do what I want to do and I can reject the Lord's ways and somehow think he's gonna bless me in my disobedient sinfulness?
SPEAKER_00: No, but he would bless me if I if I say, Yeah, you are the Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_00: God, you know I'm stuck on this girl or I'm stuck on God, but uh, but I want to set that aside.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do what's right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna not watch that show anymore because every time I do, it gets my imagination going to where it shouldn't, and it gets me doing things that I shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: So do you get fighting mad when he touches an area of your life and says, I would be the king of your life, I would be the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see his lordship as a threat to your life?
SPEAKER_00: If you do, you need to do some examination and make some good decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Or thirdly, are you willing to bow before him and obey?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to acknowledge your lack and his lordship?
SPEAKER_00: Do you give him praise for his great love and wisdom and welcome him as your Lord and King?
SPEAKER_00: God loves you, he's inviting you, he wants to welcome you and he wants to lead you in the way of victory and life and life more abundant.
SPEAKER_00: So, which, as Jesus approaches your life, what's gonna be your reaction?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna just kind of fake it out?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can fake out somebody, you could fake out your mom, you could fake out maybe your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: You might even be able to, if you're really good, you might be able to fake out Pastor for a while, but probably not.
SPEAKER_00: But even if you can fake out all the above mentioned, you cannot fake out the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows if you're faking.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get fighting mad?
SPEAKER_00: Do you get up, do you get oppressed when you think Jesus is trying to cramp your lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if he is, it's because your lifestyle needs to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Or do you obey him and bow before him because he is the Lord of all?
SPEAKER_00: So, remember, he will come again in judgment.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about that today.
SPEAKER_00: There won't come a time when he comes riding on a white horse with a sword, and he's gonna bring judgment to those who have rejected him, who are evil and who have rejected his grace over the years.
SPEAKER_00: That day, that second coming is perhaps around the corner, could be closer than we might ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, right here, Jesus is still the king on the donkey.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, not literally, but you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's coming to you in peace.
SPEAKER_00: He's offering you salvation, he's offering you his righteousness, he's offering you his life, and his life abundant and eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming to you right now, and he's extending to you the freedom of making the choice for him.
SPEAKER_00: Understand why he came.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand why he came?
SPEAKER_00: He came and he gave, and he not only you want to understand that he came and he gave, but he also requires something of you.
SPEAKER_00: He requires you to humble your heart as he did.
SPEAKER_00: He requires you to come to the cross as he did, to recognize that you are there with him, and that it's for you to die to yourself and then rejoice in rising in new life, even as he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants you to come to him so you can rise with him to new life.
SPEAKER_00: And also recognize, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a promise here.
SPEAKER_00: That if you belong to him, and then that he is at peace with you for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: If you open your heart to him, say, I Lord, I will walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to walk with you forever.
SPEAKER_00: I just I I I pledge myself to you and I will walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: When you when you pledge yourself to him, you are at peace with him and he will be with you for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Can you still disappoint him?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you probably can, and he probably will.
SPEAKER_00: Can you even grieve him?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you probably can.
SPEAKER_00: But will he abandon you?
SPEAKER_00: No, never.
SPEAKER_00: He may discipline you, but you belong to him, and you can rest in that peace of knowing that he is your savior, that he is your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And even when you go into stupid gear, he's still your savior and he's still your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he will carry you through your your your infractions and your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's it's not like, you know, it's not like uh, well, today I'm saved, tomorrow I'm lost.
SPEAKER_00: The day after I'm saved.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not in and out, it's not a frying pan.
SPEAKER_00: When you're with Jesus, you are with him.
SPEAKER_00: He is your Lord and He is your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And thank God He can keep you through the temptations and through the testing.
SPEAKER_00: And even when you do something, you know what you say, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: What happens if what happens if I do something bad and then I step on the street and I get ran over by a truck?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you got ran over by a truck and you're dead, but you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You're still secure in the love and grace of God who is who was with you and is with you.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not that we're in, we're out, we're saved, we're lost, we're saved, we're lost.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a revolving door.
SPEAKER_00: If you are with him, if you truly make that uh true confession of faith and determine to walk with him and by his grace do the best you can, you are secure with him and you can rest in his peace.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to just invite you as the team comes back and provides for us some music with which to pray, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: Um remember that that that uh that song.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know if they're gonna say it again.
SPEAKER_00: They can do whatever they feel led to do because they are so good at that.
SPEAKER_00: But come on, my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get shy on me now.
SPEAKER_00: Don't run out.
SPEAKER_00: The pizza will be ready even after you leave if you wait a half an hour.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get shy on me.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your song because you've got a lion inside of those lungs.
SPEAKER_00: Get up and praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, set aside those doubts and those fears, and maybe this is an opportunity to get up and praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I'm coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know some of my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I I I you can agree that you've sinned, but he already knows it and he loves you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: So make those things right, confess those things, ask him for your strength, let him renew to you the joy of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never come to the Lord, maybe this Palm Sunday opportunity is your opportunity to say yes to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you were there on Palm Sunday and you saw that, maybe the Holy Spirit would have drawn you to him, because that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does, is he draws people to the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe this morning, Palm Sunday 2026 in in South Central LA, right here, maybe the Lord is drawing you to himself as well.
SPEAKER_00: So as the as the worship team begins to uh play, uh if you wish to do so, find a place to pray and just kind of uh do business with Jesus, whatever it needs to be.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe confess something, come closer to him, make it right.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've got to come to him for the first time ever.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can do that on your own.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, nothing magical about coming up front to do that, but when you do that, it's like you're taking a stance.
SPEAKER_00: You can sit there and you get distracted, or you can come up and and you can stand here and Pastor might come up and say, Can I pray with you?
SPEAKER_00: You've taken a step of faith that might open the door to an involvement that could change your life forever.
SPEAKER_00: So let's do just that, shall we?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is working with you.
SPEAKER_00: Be like the one who will come to Jesus because he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether you're on the outside looking in or whether you're on the inside looking out, let the Lord just secure your relationship with him and do something wonderful for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor, join us and may the Lord lead us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Father, thank you, Lord, as as people would um as people would step out in faith this morning and maybe recommit to you, maybe examine their hearts and say, Lord, you you are the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, I'm sorry for for uh ignoring you and doing my own thing.
SPEAKER_00: Help me, strengthen me.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, help me.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me, Lord, to embrace your ways.
SPEAKER_00: I know that I'm I'm I'm saved because you love me and I've I've I've just embraced you.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I want to walk cleaner.
SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to pick up my cross and carry it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live for you and all that you have for me.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, we've we've heard the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.