PALM SUNDAY

It is Palm Sunday, as Fred had said. But first, I didn't really hear it. Do we have any first time visitors or guests with us today? We have one over here, any others?

Can we give them? We just want you to know that you're family. We appreciate you. Please connect with our connections team afterwards.

Just want to give you a small gift. Love when you get your plugged in, plug in with you. See what we can do to do life together. Amen.

I feel like an axe to church is really happening here. We are getting added to daily. And that's an amazing thing to see, especially after COVID when we only was able to fill a couple chairs. And now, I mean, just we have a lot of you here with smiling faces.

And we appreciate it. We're glad that we get to come together on a weekly basis. So Palm Sunday, what we know is the week that Jesus entered into Jerusalem and was headed towards our salvation, our final physical Jesus that was there. And that's actually the story that we're going to get into today.

It's about Jesus walking into Jerusalem. You can find this story in all four gospels. You can find it in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12. And I think it's important to acknowledge that how much it's spoken about.

They found that it was so important that all the writers, every one of them, included it into their account of Jesus. Who knows if just one person talks about something, it's like, OK. But when multiple people are talking about something, it's probably something we should pay attention to or it gets acknowledged a little bit better. And that's exactly what took place here.

Before we get into the actual scriptures, I want to explain something. And it is the concept of studying God's work. There's two primary ways to do that. And it's exegius and isegius.

I may end up saying exegius. So excuse me if I do. So with the terms of exegius and isegius refer to how you read the Bible. At the most basic level, exegius relies on the original context of the biblical passage to determine that passage is meaning.

While isegius uses the things other than the original context of the biblical passage to determine that passage's meaning. So the first is what the literal of it means. And as we'll see today, when it says Jesus wrote a donkey, that means that Jesus physically got up, once we were donkey and wrote it. But the isegius is where we're going to look at things today.

It is what you classify as reading between the lines. So today is how we're going to do that. So I'm going to kind of let you guys into how my brain works and how things spin around in there. You should definitely feel privileged of that, because it took my wife many years to get there.

Some of you guys are getting there in a couple of days. If it gets a little crazy, you'll understand how my head operates and works. So the passages that we're going to use today come out of Luke 19. It's actually going to run from verse 28 on down through 40.

Let's go ahead and read these passages together. So again, start in Luke 19, 28. And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethapag and Bethany at the Mount that is called Olive, he sent two of the disciples saying, go into the village in front of you, where on entering, you will find a cold tide on which no one has ever yet sat.

Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say this, the Lord has need of it. Those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.

And as they were untying the cold, it's ownership to them. Why are you untying the cold? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the cold.

They set Jesus on it. And as he wrote along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near, already on his 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 they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Let's go ahead and pray over the top of this message. Father God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for this word that you've given us God.

We thank you for the heart that you've given us in these words God. I ask that this be 100% of you God, that your spirit does all the speaking here. God allows us to see new revelations, allows us to speak of what it is that you want us to see inside of this. God, we truly open the doors of this congregation to allow your spirit to move through it.

And that is all that we ask is that this be a spirit-centered time of you, God, with our worship and our praise fully concentrated on you. God, God, let's do this time. And in Jesus' name, amen. So this is a day of praise and worship for Christ.

So I want to go ahead and let you notice that what you don't think is I'm getting close to the end, just to take off. I'd like to do something a little different today. I'm asking you guys to join with me, that towards the end of service, we're going to go back into worship. Because that's really what today's purpose was almost 2,000 years ago was the worship of Christ and what He was doing for us.

So we're going to go back into that today. So let's go ahead and get into breaking these verses down. And I'll let you guys in on how my brain operates a little bit. And when He had said these things, He went on ahead.

I want to talk to you first about that going on ahead. But when it says, and He had said these things, Jesus had just gotten done teaching His disciples in a corrective kind of way of what the kingdom of God looked like. So that's what they're talking about there. But that go on ahead, this is a statement that I found so profound.

Jesus knows where He's heading to. He knows what is about to happen to Him. And it says that He went on ahead. When we make those statements of what would Jesus do, or actually be more like Jesus, you know, all those catchy Christian slogans that we use, this is where our mind needs to be concentrated.

If we knew exactly what we was headed into, would we still walk into it? And I believe that's why God, you know, a lot of times stops us from knowing the final destination. It just gives it to us in little bits and pieces as we're walking along the way. Because I can tell you with my life personally, when I first came to Christ, if I'd have known half the stuff that I was going to go through to get to this point here today, I wouldn't be here.

I would not be here. I would not have walked on ahead. But I find that Jesus knew He was about to take a savage beating. Jesus knew He was going to take a spirit of the side.

He knew He was going to take nails in His hands and feet. He was going to be hung on the cross. And He was going to be humiliated. But for you and I, He went on ahead.

I mean, that alone right there, we could stop right now, go back into worship. And that is enough reason right there to worship. We don't need to speak about the rest of it. So I want you to think about that as we're going along.

It says, going up to Jerusalem. So this was His final destination of where He was headed to. But how we know that Jesus knew these things were going on is if you look at John 1157, it says, both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should chew it, that they might take him. So it was not just Jesus knowing it was publicized, that we want him.

At the very minimum, we want him in chains. We want him in prison. But they wanted much more than that. And I love going back to that, the heart of what God does here.

And we see this again later on in Luke 2242. It says, Father, if you were willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. That is something that Jesus said while hanging on the cross.

And this is the same heart that we see Him when He goes on ahead to knowing what He's doing. It's your will, not my own. And this is an attitude that we need to adapt into our life and truly stand on. God, I don't want to do the things that need to be done.

I don't want to spend time in the rain and wind out in the community. It's cold, but God, if it's your will for the weather to be that way, that day that we do an outreach, then so be it. And I appreciate a lot of you that did that. I think that yesterday is our tense blew away.

But this is something that we really need to think about. And this is, I believe, a slogan that we need to adapt into Christianity instead of the what would Jesus do in that? Of more, God, if it's your will, then let's go for it. So it's when he drew near to Bethapag and Bethany at the Mount called Olive, he sent two of his disciples.

There's only one part, we've mainly covered almost all this where he was headed and what was going on. There's one part in here that I want you to see that stands out to me. And it says that he sent two of his disciples. This is a mentality that I've definitely tried to adapt into my own life.

Of it is very important for us to have accountability. Now, I know that's a harsh word, some of us don't like that because we don't want people to see what it is exactly that we do in our private life and that. But it is something that we definitely need. You can see this throughout a lot of scripture that Jesus does this.

Now, I'm not proclaiming that every time he sent two, but a lot of the times Jesus would send accountability. And it's very important to understand that accountability is not there just to walk along with you. It is a person who is willing to not only uphold you, but a person that if you slip is willing to pick you up. They're there to, I believe it's a fees and said it says it about two or stronger than one.

Three is even greater. A third is ultimately the Holy Spirit that walks with us. But it is very important that we adapt somebody, a trusted advisor into our life to walk out with us. 33, 32 says, saying, going into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a cold tie on which no one has ever said untie it and bring it here.

Once you remember those words untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say this, the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went away and found it just as he told them, just as he told them.

I wanna first clarify that if God says it to you, I promise you it will be exactly as he said it to you. We'll get into that more in a second. So the first part there, go into the village in front of you. A lot of times in our life when God is calling us to something, it's right in front of us.

We don't have to take a bunch of side detours, we don't have to climb the mountain, we don't have to run halfway around the city to find what it is. God will utilize the things that are right at in front of you, the things that have already been given to you. Yes, as there's sometimes it's a little complicated, it is. But nine out of 10 times, I believe that God will utilize exactly what's in front of you.

God will use your family to speak to you because there's the very thing that's right in front of you. God will use the people around you because they're there in front of you. What multiple other things? That says entering you will find a cult tie.

So I'm gonna for a second call everybody here a donkey. Okay, now listen, I do not wanna see any Facebook post by the end of the day saying Phil called us a, you know what the other name for a donkey, okay? Because that's not what I'm saying. I just want you to put yourself in the place of this for a moment, you know, like I said, we're looking at things between the lines.

So what are you tied to? What are you tied to? So for myself personally, I was a donkey that was tied to addiction. I was a donkey tied to anger, lust, fornication, and I could keep this list going on for a very long time.

What are you tied to? Now we're gonna skip out of that part for which no one has ever sat for just a second. When it says untie it and bring it here. Jesus sent two disciples to go to something right in front of them, untie a physical thing, and bring it to him.

I promise you that there's disciples standing right in front of you that want to untie you and bring you to Jesus. That's the first and primary be our focus for everybody. Whatever question. Are you allowing people to untie you?

Or are you being a stubborn mule and bucking and kicking? Not letting anybody near your fence post. For me personally, there was multiple people that started untie me from things. For years I did, I bucked against those people.

One of the great ones that helped me was Pastor Andrew Grub. And I can remember about seven years ago, him standing outside of a church and speaking to me. And me being absolutely, I don't want to hear a thing you have to say right now. My kids were playing basketball for the basketball team of city reach.

And the only reason that I was there, because my children were involved in it. I wanted nothing more, nothing less. I just wanted to see the basketball game and be done with it. But he was a disciple that knew I was tied to something and just wanted to help me.

Now, with that untying that he began right there, later on, he was able to do the important part. Walk me to Jesus. Because here's the thing, as I was being donkeys, if you just untie somebody, then they run amuck and do whatever they want and get caught by something else and tied to a different fence post. You must walk that donkey back to Jesus.

Now whether that's somebody that's sitting around you that physically walks you and leads you, or whether that's yourself, the important part is that when you are unbounded or untied, taken from those chains that you take to Jesus and not to the world. No, I told you that we were going to see a bad part of no one has ever sat. The very thing that is untamable in your life can be rode by Jesus. The very things that nobody else wants to sit upon are the things that Jesus will sit upon.

What I want you to think about a donkey for a second. No donkey can, you just go out in the wild and hop up on top of it and gallop off and go right to Jerusalem where you need it to go. You're gonna look like an eight second bull rider flopping around in that field that you just hopped up on. So I want you to see that Jesus was able to tame something that was not tamed yet.

Also, are you willing, we covered that? Or are you willing to walk back with the ones that are leading you? Again, the donkey was untamed but was willing to walk with the disciples. And then the last part, it says, and found it just as he had told them.

When Jesus tells you something, I say it again, you will find it exactly like he told you. If Jesus says something to you and you get there and it's not as he told you, stop blaming God. Start looking at where you took the wrong path. Start looking at what instructions you didn't listen to.

Stop making up your imaginary things that took to blame on God. But God told me I was gonna get married in this relationship. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.

You came up with that yourself. It's one of the things that drives me insanely crazy is people all the time wanting to utilize their mistakes and their mess ups and blame it on God, saying that God told them. One, you must ask the question, did God seriously say this to you or were you just imaginative, a nine year old within a great imagination world again? Or were you willing to listen to truly what God was saying to you?

Now, one of the things that you can do when you believe God has spoken to you, I'm a firm, firm believer that God's voice is very much alive today. God speaks to people in many different ways. I'm not doing the oh, so holy roller thing. God speaks to me on a daily basis.

A lot of times it's about myself. What other times he gives me works for other people, which is a good thing. But if you get to the destination and it's not as God said it, again I say, look at yourself before you try to blame God that he was wrong. God cannot lie and he will not lie to you.

Now, Luke, 1933 says, and as they were untying the code, it's understood to them why are you untying the code? When you're this donkey and you're bound to things, we said it here at the beginning that it's not a Republican or Democrat government that has you tied to it. Yes, they have laws over top of you. It is an enemy that has you bound to this thing.

And he will, along with people around you, when you are being untied from that very thing that was holding you captive, there will be people and spiritual things standing around you that are gonna say, why are you doing that? Don't do that. You wanna leave that donkey where it's at. It's untamed.

All the things of this negative energy of people that is around you will constantly be told to you. But once you see, like I said, the story's in four different gospels. In Mark 11, it says it like this. And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the code?

Notice that it uses a plural form, some of those. So not even the very thing that's the owner of the donkey, others around it were saying, why are you doing that? You will have, any time that you're removing yourself from something, you will have negative people in your life. What are you using at that time?

That a cycle's that are untying you. What are you using at that time? So I want you to see what they use. And they said, the Lord has need of it.

They use God's word to stand against what was coming against them. We see this in another spot. I'm sure you guys know where I'm going to right now, but when Jesus was led into the wilderness and tempted by the enemy, what did he utilize to stand against the enemy? God's word, it is written.

What isn't it great how there's a correlation here of, Jesus told them to go get this? And also the spirit led Jesus. And the other story we just talked about. God's word can absolutely help you with things that you have led yourself into.

But I gotta ask you, are you following what the spirit is saying to you? Are you following to where Jesus wants you to go to? Because if the disciples would have did the roundabout, the mountain kind of thing and went to a different town, not the one that was right in front of them and tried to untie a donkey from over there, it may not have played out the same way that God had it planned out to be. Now would Jesus ultimately collect and make happen what was planned originally?

Yes, but there's gonna be a whole lot more work for you involved in it or it's going to be somebody else that completes that task. God will get his purpose accomplished one way or another. But it says that has need of it. Want you to know, God has need of you.

The enemy will use you, God will utilize you. There's a big difference in the two. So does the enemy have need of you? Yes, but he doesn't care whether he uses you or not.

God has a utilizing need of you. Want you to see how it says it, Mark 11, the same verse that we just read in Luke 19, 34, Mark 11, six says it like this. And they told them what Jesus had said, and I love it at the end it says, and they let them go. When you are following God's path for your life, when you're walking in accordance with the spirit and you utilize God's word against the things that are coming against you, there's nothing that the enemy or that owner or whatever it is can do against you.

Notice that it doesn't say, well, the those around tried to fight the disciples or those around pulled the rope of the donkey back. No, it was God's purpose. They utilize God's word and the people did this. All right, you're good.

Go in your happy way. I don't want no beef there. This is the same thing that will happen in your life. If you're truly following the spirit and you're utilizing the word that has been given to you, both the physical word and the word between you and him, there is nothing that can stand against you.

There is nothing that can stop that. It will be allowed. They will let you go. Verse 35, it says, and they brought it to Jesus.

Throwing their cloaks on it. They're throwing their cloaks on the cold. They set Jesus on it. So this is just a second ago.

It is brought to Jesus. I wanna really clear this up. In plain English, if you untie yourself from something where somebody helps to untie you from something, if you don't bring it to Jesus, it's pointless. The work was done for nothing.

If the disciples walked all this way and got there and just untied it, thinking that their task was complete, yeah, the donkey very well might have walked back to Jesus. But most likely it's gonna run its own little way and do what it wants to do. So I want you to know that as disciples, as you all sitting here, discipling others, your work is not completed when you just bring them out of addiction. Your work is not completed when you just meet them on the street and they accept the Lord's prayer as we put it.

There's more work to be done. You must walk alongside of what it was that is unbound until Jesus sits on top of it. Once Jesus is on it, you can take your step back. And you can worship God.

God, thank you, we got the opportunity to bring this to you. God here, what are they doing? It says, and they threw their cloaks on it. They worship God for the very thing that they brought back to him.

That's when their task was completed. I believe that this ministry is growing because of you guys that are sitting here that are doing just that very thing. You are not washing your hands when you just talk to somebody. I watched multiple people yesterday at the park handout phone numbers.

So multiple people inviting others to church and stuff like that, but they were willing to walk alongside of these people to complete the task of bringing them to Christ. You guys are amazing at not just, well, I did my part. Your part's not done. Until the day you stand before Christ yourself, your work in the situation is not done.

Once you see this though, and two of the other guys, was Matthew and Mark how this verse is phrased. It says, they brought the donkey and the coat and put on them, put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. And they brought the coat to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it. There's a great comparison there of what it says at the end of Luke and how it phrases them at the end of Matthew and Mark, but I love how it says it in Luke.

They set Jesus on it. When you bring something to Christ, when you're unbound from something and you come to Christ yourself, God will not force his way into the situation. You must say God here it is and place him on top of it. Even in the other two it just says, he sat on them.

He sat on it. God will not force his way into your situation. So you can do all the crying out that you want to about something in life, but until you are willing to truly open up the door, until you are truly willing to give it to Christ and allow him to be on top of the situation, you're gonna sit there and whine. You're gonna cry God take this, God take this.

It's one of these things that, Fred take this, Fred take this, Fred take this, take this. No, you must be willing to say here Fred, take that. It's yours, sit on top of it. Too many of us want to hold onto it and do it our own way.

What I love, it says during their cloaks on it. So the cloak is a article of clothing. So when they brought this foul disgusting, dirty donkey to Jesus, they wanted to honor him in such a way of God. We don't want you to be connected straight to the dirt of it.

We want to make sure that the seat is comfortable for you. But not only that, I don't only want to bring you what you said to bring you, I want to give it all to you. I want to strip myself down. I want to expose myself so that you can be comfortable in the situation.

It's also a form of worship that God, I'm willing to give you everything. Not only did they do that, it goes only 36 and says, as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. Now some, this is where we'll get into what Palm Sunday is. Some of the translations and the other gospels say that they cut leaves and laid it on the road.

Now, I want to get into the meaning real quick of belief and the donkey. So the reason that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem was a sign of peace. The Palm leaves themselves mean peace. So in this timeframe, when a king would ride into a different city, a territory or whatever it is, if he came in on a horse, it meant war.

If he rode in on a donkey, he was coming in the name of peace. Jesus is 100% trying to show everyone that I am not coming to avenge, I'm not coming to cause war, I want peace. And I believe that the reason we began to throw the palm branches is they knew this in somehow some way, that it's a peace offering that we are laying down on this road as we walk into this situation. So does he rode along?

Once you bring something to Christ, once you set Christ on top of the situation, you must be willing to travel along with Christ in the situation. So again, it's not just give it to Christ and walk away from it. Coming out of addiction, it wasn't one of those things where I fully submitted to God and said, here take my addiction and it just went away. I am continually walking along with Christ with that situation.

Now, I can more than not Christ offer that thing and take it back any day that I want to, but you must be willing to allow Christ to stay on the very thing that you unbound and brought to him and walk alongside of him in the situation. So thank you your own life. What is it that you've brought to Christ? What is it that you were bound to one that you gave to Christ, allowed Christ to sit on top of, and now walk along?

Because I want you to bring that thing fresh to your head because now you have a reason to worship just as they did almost 2,000 years ago. You have a reason to start stripping your cloaks off and laying them before Christ because he's riding on the situation that you brought to him. 37 and 38 says, 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. Like I just said, you now have a reason to praise.

You now have a reason to rejoice. God with a loud voice of all 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. This right here is the key verse that shows us Christ was fulfilling prophecy that was already spoken of. The prophecy that's being fulfilled here is Zachariah 9.9.

It says, rejoice greatly. Oh, daughter of Zion, shout aloud. Oh, daughter of Jerusalem, behold your King is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, the fowl of a donkey.

So the prophecy of the donkey was being fulfilled. But in that prophecy, they were being told to rejoice, rejoice greatly. I really want the heart of worship to take place in you guys today. I know that we come in on Sunday mornings and we have a three song worship set, okay, which is spectacular, begins our service.

But I do not ever want our heart to get stuck in just that pattern. I want our heart to truly be a heart of worship, of God. I know what you did for me. I know what you did for all of humanity.

But for me, I'm shedding off this cloak and I'm laying it in front of you. I am worshiping you as you're riding on the situation that was unbounded, I was tied to. And now we're here. So they had a thought that, this goes back to the piece.

They had a thought that Jesus was coming to overthrow the Roman government at that time. But again, I tell you that he was showing them from the beginning of why he was riding it. It was in peace. It wasn't in war against the situation.

Verse 39, it says, in some of the Pharisees of the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. So what the Pharisees are asking here, I refer back to the same thing that happened with the owner and the people standing around the donkey, that when you've came out of the situation, when you've been on bound, first off, there's going to be people trying to stop you from getting unbounded at that thing. But even as you get farther away from the thing that you were bound to, there's going to be people in your life that are going to say, stop it. That are going to tell you that you shouldn't be worshiping in the way that you are.

The Pharisees were understanding that Jesus was getting more attention and respect than they were. There will be people in your life that you're not going to pay the same respect to because you no longer live in that way and you're giving more praise to Christ and they're going to say, stop it. You're not doing it correctly. I'm here to tell you right now, there's no wrong way to worship Christ.

It doesn't matter what I say to you, as long as your heart is Christ as good in the situation, Christ is King of the situation, the glory beats a God not to the man standing beside it. So I want to say you guys, I say this to our homes in that. Worship God the way you want to. Don't ever allow a pastor, don't ever allow somebody else in the congregation to tell you that you're doing it wrong.

So as we go back into worship here in a few minutes, I want to say this to you. If you want to put your hands in the air, put your hands in the air. You want to run circles around the sanctuary, take off, have a blast, okay? You want to shout, you want to scream, do it.

You want to cry, do it. You want to be on your face, do it. There is no wrong way for you to worship Christ in the situation in your life, in your life. Last verse of what we're reading says this, and he answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

I'm going to update this verse to a new modern English. If you ain't willing to worship, these chairs will do it for you, okay? And this again is Jesus telling these Pharisees, the very thing of the scriptures they study and already knew Jesus is reinforcing that for them. If you look back into Psalms, we'll start 148, verses seven through 13, praise the Lord from the earth.

You great sea creatures and all depths, leaves, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beast and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds, kings on earth and all people, princes and all rulers on earth, young men, maidens together, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted, his majesty is above earth and heaven, he has proclaimed, it's already proclaimed, that everything will worship Christ. Psalms 96 says this, let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar and all that fills it, let the field exalt and everything in it, then shall all trees of the forest sing for joy. The very trees themselves will sing out for joy.