The Road to Jerusalem

Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 9. We are doing part two of three in the series that we titled so creatively before Easter. What a creative series title, huh? Okay, and today, last week we talked about this wasn't the plan, right?

You guys remember that? So many of us love to have the plan according to the way we want it. And now this week too is called the road to Jerusalem. And it's this idea that Jesus was heading towards Jerusalem.

And we know in verse 51 of chapter 9, it says that when the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face towards Jerusalem. Now, Jesus had this focus, this idea of going to Jerusalem. What was the reason he was going to go to Jerusalem? Who knows?

To be crucified, right? He knew this was the plan and he set his face towards Jerusalem. So today I want to talk about the road to Jerusalem. How many of you know you're all on a journey?

You're all on a road, yes? Okay, and Jesus' journey in this in his lifetime was to go to Jerusalem to be crucified for the sins of the world. And three days later to rise from the dead conquering all death and sin and Satan himself. And he had this mission that he was set upon.

So we're going to look at that today. So in your Bibles, if you have it open, let's go to Luke chapter 9 verse 51. Say God if you're there. You're already there.

And I'm not. You're waiting on your pastor. I know who said that. Oh, it was my elder Dan Seale.

Wonderful. Okay. Nine. We're going to read 51 through the end of the chapter through 62.

And here's what God's word says. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him, but that people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. Interesting.

And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume the heaven? It's okay to laugh at that. Can you imagine a couple of us in this room being like, hey, Jesus, you know, you want to blow on up with a grenade or something like this? This happened.

Okay. And it's still verse 55, but Jesus turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village. Like we just read this stuff so fast sometimes. But I think that's hilarious.

Okay. Verse 57, it says that they were going along the road. Someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, look, foxes have holes in birds of the Arab nest, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

And to another, he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord. But first, let me say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the flower and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Wow.

So this is real. The pot's really stirring now. We're gearing up here, church. For this road to Jerusalem, Jesus has his set face towards Jerusalem.

People are starting to reject him and he's on the way to the mission. Now, what we're going to take you through today is understanding what it means to be on a road somewhere and how to get to that destination. But along the way, things sometimes don't exactly go according to the plan. We know this, right?

Our journey is filled with all kinds of speed bumps and U-turns and detours and all kinds of stuff. And in this case, Jesus gives us a model. That's what the goal of this morning is for you to see that Jesus gives us a model that when you're on the road to a mission somewhere, there's going to be some stuff along the way that's really good for us. Okay?

So let's take a look on your handout. Number one, let's fill this in. It's all part of God's plan. Number one, the plan never changed.

Amen, somebody? Isn't this great news? I mean, you and I live in a world where plans change every day. Don't you hate when plans change on you?

But here with God, He set a plan in motion and the plan never changed. Continually, continually, continually in scripture. You hear it over and over and over again in all four gospels. Jesus is telling His disciples, hey, this is going to happen real soon.

Just so you know, just so when it does happen, you'll believe you'll see what's going to happen here. And He starts talking in a way that makes these disciples say that doesn't sound right. But she's kept saying it over and over just in case they misheard it. Just in case they weren't like locked in on what they're supposed to be locked in on.

He just kept on telling them. Take a look at these verses on the screen. There's three verses in a row in Luke chapter 9. It says 1st and 22.

He's telling everybody the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders. And she priests and scribes and then be killed. And on the third day be raised later in that chapter. He says this word sink into your ears.

The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. And then later on in the book of Luke in chapter 18, he says, and taking the 12, he said to them, see we are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day, he will rise.

So there's just three little examples in scripture. But if you look through the gospels, you'll see a time after time after time. And you notice in these verses how specific Jesus was. Has that ever caught your eye?

Look at that last, can you go back to that last verse on the screen? Look at this. Look in the middle there. It says he's going to be delivered over to him.

He's going to be mocked. He's going to be shamed but he knew he would be spit upon. Jesus knew that. He knew I'm going to go here.

They're going to spit on me. Is that amazing? He knew that he called that out. And then he says, I'm going to get flogged.

That's the cat of nine tails. He's going to be tied to a whipping post like this. His back is going to be stretched out. They're going to take this whip with nine braided cords on it filled with glass and bone and shards and all this kind of sharp stuff.

And they will slap it down on his back and it will dig into his skin and they'll rip it off making his back like ripped sheets coming off of his back. And they'll do that 39 times because they would say 40 would kill you. So they're going to do that to Jesus says, yeah, this is going to happen. They'll plug and then after that they'll kill him and then he'll rise from the dead.

I mean, this is Jesus is telling him the plan never changed. This is it. Fill in your handout number one. Under Number One.

It says the cross wasn't the failure. It was the mission. The cross wasn't the failure. See everybody would think like being crucified and people's plans would say that the cross was the end of Jesus.

That Jesus got defeated and Jesus lost that Christians lost that we all lost. And God knew that the cross was actually the mission of everything was. And Jesus was determined. Nothing could turn Jesus away.

Jesus was resolute. Catch this church. Are you resolute? Jesus was resolute.

He was walking in obedience. He knew how hard it would be. Jesus knew that he would be betrayed and mocked and tortured and crucified and he never avoided Jerusalem. He had his face set towards Jerusalem.

And so I ask you how resolute are you? Jesus gave us this model that the plan is not changing. This is what I was put on this earth to do. The obvious question is to the congregation here at encountered church is how resolute are you in your faith in following Jesus and saying my God my heart belongs to you.

There's trouble coming and you say well I don't know if I want to do that. Jesus says I'm going to be going to be betrayed, mocked, spit upon, tortured and crucified and I'm still in because it's the will of my father. So for us as disciples of Jesus when we know that this world is going to have trouble, this world we're going to have many tribulations. There's going to be lots of things that come our way that are real ugly curve balls right?

And do we have that resolution to say God I'm following you no matter what. Okay number two on your handout on the way. Jesus showed grace. Now I get a little caught up on this one because before I even read it here.

Is anybody is anybody like one of those type A type personalities where you have a mission to get something accomplished and you kind of feel like nobody better get my way. I'm going to take care of A, B and C. This is what I'm doing and I don't need interruptions and I don't need the plan changes. Anybody like that?

Again, am I the only one in here? There's a few of you. Okay. Nobody in the middle section.

Not one of you, but everybody on the sides. I see others. The sides on the back. They're all with me.

It seems. Okay. No, but this is how I operate a lot. I'm just kind of thinking like, look, I've just got this to do.

I just need to finish this. I just need to take care of this and then I can deal with the rest. But along the way, Jesus gives us another model on the road to Jerusalem that he shows grace in the midst of what shouldn't be a distraction shouldn't be an interruption. And Jesus shows grace.

Look at this verse on the screen of Luke 19, 7 through 10. And this is the stripes that he is. You know this one. But it says this when they saw the old grumble when they saw that Jesus was going to Zacchaeus house.

They grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. How dare you Jesus? There's we're headed to Jerusalem.

And you're going to go to a sinner's house for Satan. Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him today, Jesus said today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham.

But the son of man came to what? So he can save the lost. I mean, here all the disciples are what's going on Lord. The big crowd is following you right now.

We're on the way to Jerusalem. We don't have time for a pit stop. We don't have time for a bathroom break. Right?

I remember man when I was a youth pastor. I had that train of vans that would follow me. And I'm the youth pastor and I told those kids I said, I ain't stopping no matter what. You got to go to bathroom too bad.

Hold it. We ain't stopping for you. And everyone thought, oh, that pastor Jason sure is mean. And I'm like, well, you should have planned better.

Right? I told him before we left, you better go to bathroom now because we didn't stop him for the next three hours. I guarantee that. And like that's my plan.

I'm on my mission. And it's like, Pastor Jason, don't you have any great something? I just have to go to bathroom. No, too bad kid.

Right? This is how I operated. I'm exaggerating a little, but not much. Some youth group students are people who went on trips.

I kind of did that. But here Jesus somehow is on the road to the cross and he has a clear mission. And he stops for the little guy. Zacchaeus, who had every one of his disciples, every Christian there was like, what's Jesus doing with this guy?

Of all people. This guy is a fraud. This guy doesn't deserve anything. He's stolen all of our money.

He's oppressed us. Why would Jesus go have dinner at this time with this sinner? And somehow along the way, Jesus shows grace. Under number two, filled a second one in, the road to Jerusalem was the road to our redemption.

Yeah? The road to Jerusalem was the road to Jesus went and he redeemed this Zacchaeus guy. Like man, he brought him back to that place. Like you would say Zacchaeus is garbage.

You would say Zacchaeus has no place in the kingdom of God. You would say he doesn't deserve grace. Count him out. Cast him out with the rest of these sinful people.

And Jesus is like, this is exactly who I came for. A sinner that has gone astray. And in that day, salvation came into his house. Jesus brought redemption to him.

He not just bought him back, but he forgave him. He restored him. He gave him a new life. And he said, hey, this man's with me now.

He's walking with me. He's going to be in paradise. Amen? Right?

So trying to show humanity. Jesus was on Jesus's mission towards the cross. He was trying to show all humanity. He was trying to show us, giving us this model, what the kingdom of God is really all about.

Jesus was like, look, disciples, get off your kick. We've been over this last week. This isn't about a political revolution. I know you want to see me just go in and crack some skulls in the Roman government.

I know you'd love to see me overturn this stupid government that we're dealing with in Rome and get rid of Caesar and get rid of Herod, get rid of Nero, get rid of all these evil men that are oppressing you. I know you want that, but instead of them, I'm going to Zacchaeus's house. You and I, along with all these disciples, would say, Jesus, you're crazy. You're missing it, Jesus.

And Jesus is like, no, you're missing it. And here we are in 2026, and I wonder how many of us in this room are still missing it, including myself. When I walk out this door today and head back into this world for the next six days before I meet you guys next Sunday, am I going to miss it all week? Am I going to miss the outcast in the center that needs Jesus?

That's what he calls us to. He calls us to redemption. It's not about Roman rule or overthrowing the government or earthly king. It was about compassion and grace, and his mission was to save people.

Number three, the road to Jerusalem was also sad. It was sad. It wasn't all fun and games. That's the thing.

Our road in life, our journey in life is sometimes sad. When Jesus knew he was going to come to Jerusalem, this famous city, the city of the temple, the city of the sacrifices, the city of the prophets and promises. And Jesus was heartbroken when he saw this city. Look at these verses on the screen when he approached Jerusalem.

It says, and when he drew near and saw the city that he had his face set towards the whole mission was to go to Jerusalem. When he saw the city, he wept over it. Jesus wept over it saying, would you Jerusalem, even you had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. And Jesus wept over it.

It just broke his heart. It broke his heart because filled us in at number three. These people, they had the scriptures, but they missed the Messiah. They had the scriptures, but they missed the Messiah.

They rejected him. And Jesus had this internal realization of what he was about to face. In Jerusalem, he realized, I'm going to go and die for the sins of the world. I'm going to die for the worst people on the planet.

I'm going to die for every active sin that's ever been committed. And these people are missing it completely. But I'm going to do it anyway because I love them. And the road to Jerusalem was sad because they missed it.

Same question I just asked you on number two that I'm asking on number three. How many of us are going to miss it? How many of us miss the Messiah? I mean, here we have two weeks church, two weeks before we celebrate the greatest event in all of history, the resurrection and Easter.

And in the next two weeks, I mean, as we build up for that, I mean, I know I love the Catholics. They do lent. There's an actual spiritual discipline to say, hey, I'm focusing on something to get my spiritual mindset in line that we may not all do that or celebrate that. But what are you doing?

Are you going to miss Easter? Are these next 14 days going to fly by where you're not realizing that Jesus had this road to Jerusalem and he went and died a bloody death on a cross for my sin and for your sin? Are you going to miss the fact that he rose from the dead? Are you going to wait until the Easter service to hear about it?

Or are you going to be like, you know what? I want to start getting intimate with Jesus. I don't want to miss the Messiah because I just told you that they had the Scriptures and they missed the Messiah. Guess what?

We have the Scriptures, don't we? We have it printed in really nice leather-bound books. They didn't even have that. And we have a lion all over the house and a lot of them are dusty, aren't they?

And I wonder if God would love for us just, I don't know, every now and then put away this and pick up this. That sounds crazy to anyone? No response. You guys come on.

What do you think? I mean, we could get real scary here. How much screen time a week do you guys spend? Do you ever check it?

When the report comes out, is it ever? Do you ever check like, I'm on the phone this many hours a day? Do you ever check that? And then if there was a log for your Bible, what would that say?

How much time a day are you in the Word of God? We have the Scriptures, but we missed the Messiah. And God wants our hearts in this. But the road to Jerusalem was sad because these people missed the Messiah.

Also, let's not miss the Messiah. Amen, Church? Amen. Number four.

And I'm going to spend a little time on this one on number four because this is a real pivotal point in the story of on the road to Jerusalem because Jesus had time for just one more miracle. Just one more. Out of all the miracles he's ever done. Did you guys know this is the final miracle recorded in Scripture before the cross and the resurrection?

This is the big one that turned the tide. And here it is. Fill this in number four. The final miracle that tipped the scales.

Now, I could do three whole Bible studies on this point, but I'm going to try and keep it to five minutes on this one point. Is that okay? Can we do that? Okay, take a look at the screen here.

Just a little bit of the story. Not a lot of the story. I don't have time for all that. We're going to go a little bit.

Verse five to seven. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. These were his people. This was his core group.

This was his together group. This was his friends. These were the people he did community and life with. And Jesus loved these people.

Martha and her sister and Lazarus. These were the three people that Jesus identified. Like, hey, I'm with this group. I love them.

Verse six and says, so when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed how many days? Two days longer in the place where he was. What? And then after this, he said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again continuing on next passage.

Now, in verse 23, we skip down. Jesus said to her, okay. So by the way, Lazarus dies. Spoiler alert.

You guys know that? Okay. So he's, he knew Lazarus was going to die because he's Jesus because he's God. Yes.

So he knew this was going to happen. He got a report that Lazarus was ill. His main people were there. And what does Jesus do?

He stays there. It said he stayed two days. He ended up saying three before he came. Three full days.

Three days. Now, before he actually made a move to heading back to do something about it, does that, does this frustrate anyone? This story? It frustrates me so much.

I'm just like, what would you do? What if it was your spouse? What if it was your child that was dying and you knew Jesus could come and do something about it? And he decided it can't out for three days.

Would you be bummed? Would you be like, where's the Lord in this? And later on, Jesus comes and he says, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, look, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus said to her, no, no, don't miss this. Martha. Martha, I am the resurrection in the life. Whoever believes in me, though he died yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. What an amazing moment of revelation there.

Praise God. But Jesus had to explain to them, hey, look, I'm the resurrection. This is what it is. It's the final miracle that tipped the scales.

In this moment, Jesus was coming from Galilee to Jerusalem. And there's three ways to get from Galilee to Jerusalem. If you've been to Israel, or like, I know we've been twice. If you were on one of those trips or if you've studied the topography of this, like, there's three ways to get to get to the world.

If you get from Galilee to Jerusalem, there's first, the King's Highway, which is the Beach Way, which is via Morris, the way of the sea. I personally would take that way. I love which is a good scene for you of the beach. Second way is the Benjamin Plateau, which is the straightway.

It's up high, but it's the clearest way to get to a destination. A lot of you are like, I don't want to waste any gas or any miles on my car. Let's take the straightest route. Let's forget about the scenic route.

That's the Benjamin Plateau. And the third way, which is what Jesus took, was the Jordan Way. It's the desert way along the Jordan River. And Jesus took this way after staying there for three days.

He purposely lets Lazarus dies die. And he takes the desert way to get to him after he finds out that Lazarus was sick. What does this all mean? Why did Jesus do it this way?

He did it this way because it's real simple people. He has a bigger plan than us. He has a bigger plan than us. In fact, right?

He comes and says, in verse 4, Jesus told him, this happened for the glory of God, it's so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. This is why Jesus came so that he could be glorified. And everybody could see God is so much bigger than me. And here's Jerusalem.

This city that was afraid of Jesus, they didn't know what to do with them. It was right before Passover. And Jesus pulled off the biggest miracle of all yet. They've already seen him feed the multitude of the 5,000.

They've already seen him give a blind dude sight. So he starts walking around and seeing and the crippled in the lane. They started walking. I mean, he healed the lepers.

Jesus did all these massive miracles turning the water into wine. Everything Jesus did up to this point should have been good enough, but it wasn't. But this one tipped the scales after this one after all the people saw Lazarus rise from the dead right in front of their eyes after he'd been in the tomb for days. Everybody was like, okay, you got me.

He's the Messiah. We finally got it. I know we've been skeptical. I know it's been like, oh, that was cool.

The water in one thing. It might have been a trick. I don't know. Everybody might have their skepticism.

Now they're looking at Lazarus coming out of this grave after four days and they're like, oh, there's something here. This is it. He's really the Messiah. And this leads us to next week's lesson, Palm Sunday.

This is when everybody's shouting Hosanna and waving palm branches saying, you know, save us. The blessed is he who comes in the name of the word. They're declaring you're the Messiah. You're the one we've been waiting for.

We're lining up on the streets. We're shouting so loud that the rocks would crowd if we didn't. Like it was that big of a deal. That's because of this Lazarus miracle.

And along the way on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus pulls off one final miracle. And on your hand out of number four, you can fill this in. This prepared the crowd for Palm Sunday. Because of this miracle, they all showed up on Palm Sunday.

The messianic expectations went through the roof. And now everyone's talking about it. Everyone saying the Messiah is finally here. Let's get on board.

Let's be first in line. Let's start praising him. Let's start shouting. It doesn't matter what the government says anymore.

He's the one. Let's put our attention on him. And you guys know that crumbles pretty quickly, doesn't it? Later in the story.

But they don't know that yet. They're just like, wow, Jesus is the hottest thing in town. It was great. So the final miracle, the tip to scales.

That was the one did it. Final number five on the road to Jerusalem. The whole reason Jesus came is to save us. The whole reason he came was to save us.

And again, verse 10 on the screen says this, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. What is Jesus's mission on earth? Oh, yeah. This is why the Son of Man came.

And again, people were thinking earthly came political revolution overthrow this government free us from our oppression. Feed us a free meal. Let me rub the lamp and wish whatever I want. Make me rich, make me happy.

Satisfy all my desires. We keep doing this all the time, don't we? And there's one mission Jesus had. It's right on the screen, you guys.

Let's read it out loud together for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That's why I came. That's what we're going to celebrate. Good Friday.

So we're going to celebrate sunrise and Easter all about. Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So, build this in a number five. The road to the cross was our salvation depended on it.

And Jesus knew that it depended on it completely. That is why Jesus said his face towards Jerusalem. That's why he was doing everything he was. So the obvious question is, what am I setting my face towards?

I'd love for you to write that under number five on your hands. What am I setting my face towards? Go ahead and write that whole sentence down. What am I setting my face towards?

Because Jesus, you would see after this lesson, I hope, he had his face set towards Jerusalem and it was resolute. Wasn't it? Did Jesus have any other plans besides going to Jerusalem people? Somebody answer me?

Yeah. Okay. No, right? It was clear.

It was like, that's the mission. So I'd ask you, what are you setting your face towards today, tomorrow, this week, this month? What are you setting your face towards? Is it a relationship with Jesus?

Is it a deep commitment to him? Are you saying, hey, you know what? When push comes a shove, I'm sticking on God's side. When the temptations come, I'm going to do what's right.

And not what's wrong. When I'm faced with this relational situation, I'm going to follow through and do what God calls me to do instead of taking the easy way out. Yes. That's what we're called to do as believers, you guys.

If the whole reason Jesus came is to save us. What is the whole reason you exist on earth? It's to see others come to Christ. It's to be a witness for him.

It's to see him glorified in your life. And what are you setting your face towards? So we close with this. What is your road to Jerusalem?

What is your road to Jerusalem? Circle that word, your if you can on their hand out there. Number one is do this. Follow Jesus with full commitment.

Follow Jesus with full commitment. Not a half commitment. Not one foot in the world. One foot in Jesus.

But it's like, no, Lord, I'm in a cycle of yours. I'm going as a full commitment. Number two on your hand out along the way. Show grace.

Just like Jesus stopped and showed grace towards Zacchaeus. Maybe we need to along the way show grace. How many of you know when you've had a hard day and you're frustrated, especially in your own family, your own relationships? How many of you know if you're trying to get something done?

It's hard to show grace in that moment when you're already frustrated? Yes. This is our road to Jerusalem. This is you and I now.

Okay, we just heard about Jesus's road to Jerusalem. This is our road. When you face those moments, are you able to say, I need to show grace along the way. And some of you are thinking to someone in your life right now that you're like, oh, man, I don't show much grace to them.

I'm constantly frustrated with them. I'm constantly raising my voice them. I'm constantly getting into it with them. Whoever that person is, let the Lord love on them through you this week.

Amen. And some of you are laughing right now. I know it's real. Some of you are sitting next to that person right now.

Okay, good. All right. Now, this is number three point and we're going to spend a minute on this for a second is have a heart for the lost. Have a heart for the lost.

Now, we talked about this as a church. Who are you inviting to encounter? Who is somebody you can say, Hey, I'd love for you to come hear about Jesus. Hear about what's going on in my life.

And so we have some cards. I have a team that's ready to pass them out to you as quickly as possible. We used to have these a long time ago. They're called my top five.

It's called my top five. And on the back, there is a list of five numbers that you can actually fill out. You can even start right now with your pen if you want, but it's my top five of people that need Jesus. Now, there's two categories here.

There's obviously people that don't know Jesus at all. And there might be some people that maybe you think they're a Christian or you think they were a Christian or you think they are Christians, but don't act like it these days or they seem like growing half of you or whatever. That's someone that got to land your heart. So this list here, this is these cards that say my top five with one, two, three, four, five.

The idea behind these numbers is to be able to say, you know what? I'm going to start praying for these people and you can carry this card with you. You can carry with you and pull it out and start praying for people when you need to. You can start put it on your dashboard and it has a reminder to constantly think about these people and say, God, I'm going to just commit to prayer with these people.

And then I'm even going to take that next step. I'm going to show Grace on the way. I'm going to invite them. And I wonder if we have any events coming up at encounter church.

It will be a good time to invite somebody to church. Is there a day on the calendar of the year that most people are more open to receiving an invitation to go to church than any other day of the whole year? Nope. I guess not.

Yeah, it's called Easter. Anybody heard of it? Google it. Easter is an amazing holiday.

It's about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is. It's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's something. What is that again? Okay.

No, you guys, I'm being stupid right now. Look, Easter is the greatest opportunity you could ever have to invite someone to church. So some of us might take this card and just slip it into our Bible or into our pocket and never fill out one name and never pray for anyone. And you just move on along with your week.

That's sad. Like I said, the road to Jerusalem is sad when Jesus is coming to do it. Like he came to save. So he can save the lost.

And he's called us as his people to say like, Hey, you're part of the solution. You're my plan. A he doesn't even have a plan B. He said, you go and be my disciples go make disciples of all nations.

That doesn't mean the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaches them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I'll be with you always every single time I'll be with you. That's what Jesus said. So some of us might just not even do anything with this card.

That'd be sad. Some of us might fill out the card, but do nothing about it. That's sad too. Some of us might fill out the card and pray for people, but never invite people.

That's better. Right. And some of us might fill out this card, even if it's just one name. Okay.

I know the five might be intimidating. Even if it's just one name on here and you pray for them and you invite them. That is huge church. I can tell you right now, Billy and I have been planning these Easter services.

Good Friday is going to be so over the top and so amazing, so experiential with the worship and the stations and everything we're doing. You're not going to want to miss that. And our sunrise service is my personal favorite service of the whole year. It is going to be so powerful and great.

And we're going to have like a call and response reading in it. We're going to have my son already did the artwork for the cover of the bulletin for good for a sunrise service. I'm so excited to worship out there. It's so beautiful out on the patio next to the playground.

It's amazing. We have a huge breakfast. We have 16 pounds of bacon coming. I mean, it's a great morning.

You don't want to miss it. And then our 10 o'clock service right in here is going to be so powerful also and we're going to give a chance for people to receive Christ and hear the gospel and there's going to be a powerful testimony and some videos. Like I'm telling you, these three services, we aren't taking lightly. I'm planning three separate messages for all three services.

It's going to be the Super Bowl for us, right? Which the Seahawks just won. That's a side to point. I mean, I'm telling you, this is why did I slip that in and set the holy moment?

I don't know. I think my dad is the only person in the room that appreciated that, but you're welcome, Pops. Okay, I'm telling you guys, this is it. This is the big moment of the year and we're talking about we got to grow as a church, right?

I got to do some big stuff. This is a great community. This is a great way to do it. And we'll have a huge deck of these flyers up here.

We'll have them here for you guys next Sunday 250 cards to be taken out of here. Every person in this place is going to walk away with five cards. We encourage you to give them to people, share it with people, and that's next Sunday. So anyway, have a heart for the lost.

Amen, right, you guys? And like if you've been one of those people where you just kind of say, gosh, I haven't invited someone to church ever or it's been a really long time. You know what? Jesus has so much grace on that.

And if you said, even if you've screwed up up to this point or you haven't ever done something like that and you just said to the Lord, hey, Lord, use me, you think God would be displeased with you? Or do you think he would be so proud of you and pleased with you? Even if you haven't been doing it, but you said, God, I just want you to use me and you stepped into that for the first time. The Lord will be so blessed by that.

That's a huge part of your discipleship. I encourage you guys, have a heart for the lost. And your last one on the handout number four, don't miss God's plan. Because we're missing it all the time.

Don't be so caught up in this world that we miss the things that he's doing. The road to Jerusalem is pretty cool, isn't it? It's a what a journey that Jesus took. But see, if it was our plan, you got to remember, our plan would change.

Our plan would have no detours. Our plan probably wouldn't show grace. Our plan probably wouldn't be sad. And our plan probably wouldn't have a heart for the lost.

And Jesus goes on this road to Jerusalem journey that is way tougher than any of us have ever faced. And he sets his face towards the cross and he's on this mission and along the way, he sticks to the plan. The plan doesn't change. He has grace along the way.

He has compassion on the loss. He's sad for people missing it. And he came for the mission of seeking and saving the loss. The cross was always the focus.

Let's do the same.