Palm Sunday 2019 – Week 1 | King Jesus

Most of us want help without a ruler — a forgiving friend who fixes problems but leaves our choices and identity untouched. This sermon names that tension plainly: we’re taught to “believe in ourselves” and to keep control over the parts of life that matter most, yet that very posture often steals our sense of joy, purpose, and freedom. The struggle shows up in small moments (defending our place in a car line) and in the big ones (work, relationships, politics), where we resist surrender because we fear losing ourselves. The message reframes Jesus as a king who forces a choice: crown him or push him away — but not as a conqueror, rather as a counterintuitive ruler who enters in humility, vulnerability, and service. Listening offers a different picture of freedom: surrender that restores rather than robs, weakness that wins, and a coming king whose strange way of reigning may be exactly what you need right now.