Palm Sunday

Our God's not going anywhere.

He is here, he is here to say.

Well, it is Palm Sunday.

It is Palm Sunday, which is the beginning of Holy Week.

And we're gonna talk a little bit about Palm Sunday today

and what we celebrate in that.

But before we get into the word, I have a few announcements.

We have a week before us and it is a Good Friday.

We're gonna have a worship night here at 6 p.m.

And I can't think of a better thing to do

on the evening of a Good Friday

than to be here and worship the Lord.

So we're gonna do communion together, six o'clock,

come and be a part of that special gathering.

Then next Sunday is Resurrection Sunday.

And we are having our gathering.

Now our gathering times have changed starting next Sunday.

We are at nine o'clock and 11 o'clock.

And for those of you who come at 1030, you will be on time.

I'm so excited.

Come and be a part of our Easter gathering.

Now I do need to ask you a favor.

I'm looking across the room here

and I believe we probably could fit easily

another 30 or 40 people in here.

Next Sunday is traditionally a time

people will come to Easter gathering.

If you have the capacity to come to the gathering

during the early gathering,

we would ask that you would do so

to make room in the main gathering

for our guests and visitors.

Children's programming is identical.

The services are identical.

You won't miss a thing.

Sherry and the team are excited about loving on the kids

and have a lot of activities planned.

So if you can make that work, that would be great.

Also, another thing,

as we have guests that will come next week,

if you could be considerate and thinking of them

as they're coming in here,

introduce yourselves would be a good thing to do,

but also that we would make room, okay?

That we would be conscientious of that.

And maybe the message today will help

with that reflection of the heart.

Okay, here we go.

Churchwide picnic is gonna happen the following Sunday.

Anybody like to eat after church?

You know, I figure if we're gonna push

the service getting out a little later,

we might need to feed you on the first one,

first couple ones here.

So we're gonna have a church picnic, invite your friends.

We're gonna feed you, come hungry.

And then the following Sunday on May 4th,

newcomer's luncheon is going to be that day.

So if you are new to Springhouse,

the team and I, we want to meet you.

We want to feed you.

We want to make sure that you know all of the stuff

that's going on here at Springhouse.

And we'd like you to be a part of our church family.

So there's an opportunity there as well.

Scan the QR code and you can get signed up for that.

So it's Palm Sunday.

We are going to read two short passages of scripture

that I hope that you know.

And so if you'll stand this morning with me,

and we are going to read as if we've had a few shots

of espresso and we are proclaiming the word of the Lord

as they sang, "Hosanna, hosanna in the highest."

Here we go, let's say it loudly.

My children, I will be with you only a little longer.

You will look for me and just as I told the Jews,

so I tell you now where I am going, you cannot come.

A new command I give you, love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples

if you love one another.

Let's read that last line again.

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples

if you love one another.

Lastly, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,

and forever.

Father, thank you for your word.

I pray, Lord, that its transformative work

would get into our hearts and our lives today, God,

and the things that are of me would fall away,

but the things of you would stay and stick for eternity.

Anoint us today to receive from you in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

You may be seated.

I forgot to mention next Sunday,

the F-Stop will also be taking photos, family pictures,

if you're interested in that.

You might wanna, well, you can dress the way you want to,

but Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday,

it is the kickoff to Holy Week.

Can I tell you that if this is the greatest story ever told,

then this week represents the climatic event

that makes the story worth reading.

This week is an important week that we celebrate.

There's a lot of things that happen during Holy Week.

Now, here's the thing.

You thought you had a packed week this last week.

Let's look at Jesus' week coming up.

So we start with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem,

riding on a colt where people are waving palm branches,

signifying, "Hosanna, Hosanna, in the highest,"

and they're praising his entry into Jerusalem.

Then Jesus goes into the temple and he cleanses the temple.

Now, this is some of your favorite portions of scripture

because you like to justify being angry,

and so this is where he flips the tables, right?

This is where you find that story.

Then Jesus is anointed in Bethany

in preparation for the sacrifice that was going to come.

Jesus washes the disciples' feet.

We find the Last Supper,

the last time Jesus breaks bread with the disciples.

Jesus prays in the garden, and he's betrayed,

arrested, and crucified.

And then it ends with Jesus' resurrection.

You thought you had a full week.

Jesus was pretty busy in the week to come,

and there was a lot going on.

And we're not going to spend a whole lot of time

dissecting all of this

because this answers the question, what happened?

And many times when we get to a week like this,

we go, okay, I'm going to look at scripture

and I'm gonna identify the what, what happened, what happened?

And guys, it's good to know what happened.

It's good to historically understand what happened

culturally, contextually, all those things.

In fact, it brings more meaning to the next question

we're gonna ask when you know those things,

but you can't just stop there.

It's not something where we're supposed to go get our latte,

come and hear some historical facts,

and do an Easter egg hunt next week.

No, there's something that we're supposed to do

with this information, and so it begs the next question,

why?

Why did this happen?

Why did this week take place?

Why did it have to happen the way that it did?

Now, I'm gonna tell you, I could give you probably

three or four different messages of, A, my opinion,

things I find in scripture that would point

to answer this question, but it can all be summed up easily

in one word, and that's this, love.

Why did Jesus do all of the things that he did this week?

Love, motivated by love.

Jesus went to the cross by obedience to his Father,

by saying yes to Father God, and his fuel was love.

Love for who?

Love for you and me.

How do I know this is true?

Probably the most famous scripture that we find is this.

For God what?

So loved the world that he gave his one and only Son

that whoever believes on him will have eternal life.

He will not die and have eternal life.

So we know that God's motivation here was love,

and it's pure, and it's wonderful, and it's good.

Why did the events happen?

It's because of love.

So perhaps our next question, if we know the what,

and then we know the why,

perhaps our next question should be this.

How do I respond?

How do I respond to this king who comes in

and apparently loves me so much that he does

all of these things, goes through all of these things

leading to his death, burial, and then resurrection?

And I believe I've got a simple answer.

Now, a lot of what I'm gonna tell you today is simple,

but it's not easy.

It's simple, but it's not easy.

I believe the summation of the gospel,

if you were to say, okay, if I could encapsulate

what is it that God wants me to do?

What is it that he wants me to do?

With all of the stories and everything here,

I believe it can be summed up in these two things,

love God and love people.

Love God and love people.

So this should beg another question,

a lot of questions today, right?

This should beg another question.

Well, how do I love God?

Well, I have the authority on this, so let me know.

How do I love God?

How do I love God?

How do you love God?

You know that you can go to scripture

to get the answers to your questions.

Jesus told us how to love him.

He says this in John 14, "Whoever has my commands

"and keeps them is the one who loves me."

Oh, it got quiet.

No, no busting out, amen.

"It's the one who has my commands and keeps them

"is the one who loves me," says Jesus.

Where do I find his commands?

Right here.

Where do I find his commands?

Right here.

Man, I feel like a failure

because I don't always do everything he tells me to do.

I feel like a mess up, a screw up

because I don't always do what he tells me to do.

Jesus knew that it was going to be too hard

for you to keep all the rules.

That's why he had to go to the cross.

That's what the blood does.

It covers us, not to liberate us to continue

to just not follow the rules and follow his commands,

but it liberates us from this idea

that we gotta be shackled to that sin,

that we gotta stay there,

that we can be liberated and live the abundant life

he promises us because of his blood.

And so Jesus pays this ultimate price

so that we can have him.

And here's the thing.

He gives us this command.

He says a new command, in fact.

"Love one another as I have loved you."

So if the job is to love God and to love people,

well, if we love one another, then we're loving God.

Do you see that?

We're loving God and loving people.

If loving God is following his command,

Jesus said, "A new command I give you,

"I want you to love one another."

Not love one another like you think

you should love one another.

He says, "I want you to love one another," what?

"As I have loved you."

And that, my friends, is where simple crosses over

to not easy.

"I want you to love people the way that I have loved you."

Sit on that for just a second.

Just rattled off a bunch of torture

that Jesus is gonna go through this week.

"I want you to love people the way I have loved you."

So it begs our next question.

Well, this statement, let's say this.

"You cannot love God and not love people."

You cannot love God and not love people.

Guys, Jesus did not die for ministries,

for programs, for jobs, for bank accounts, traditions.

He died for people.

And at the center of God's plan are people,

and he has given us the power to love people

through his Holy Spirit.

You cannot love God and not love people.

So here's the next question, how do I love people?

And this is where we're gonna ride out the storm.

Guys, did you fare through the storms this week?

My mother and father-in-law have moved from Seattle.

They've been here for two months.

And when they got, she was like,

she's petrified of tornadoes.

She's like, "Now there's not gonna be a lot of storms."

And I said, "We might get a tornado once in a blue moon."

And the storms come here and there now.

We'll be 71 day and 30 the next,

but you have nothing to worry about.

There might be a tornado like 50 miles away from you.

This past week, if you're in the vicinity

of Lancaster Christian Academy, take cover on the news,

literally on the news.

So yeah, it's been stormy out there.

Are you guys faring okay?

All right, well good, you're here.

Are you here to plead the blood of Jesus over your house?

I hope not, Lord, protect us.

All right, how do I love people?

Let's talk about this.

Let's talk about, since we now know the motivation is love,

how do we do this?

Can I say this?

Loving people's not easy.

- Amen.

(congregation laughing)

- Loving people is not easy.

That's what we're called to do.

In fact, I would say it's up there at the very top.

So we need the strength of the Holy Spirit.

So what does, man, what does love look like?

Listen, it's easy to, and I'm putting this in quotations,

it's easy to love when there's not conflict.

It's easy to love people that agree with everything you say.

- Right.

- It's easy to love people

when they're on your team.

But it's not so easy to love people

when they don't return the love to you,

especially when they don't return the love to you

behind closed doors.

Is that true?

It's hard to love people.

It's hard to love people.

So what does love really look like?

How's it modeled?

Well, I've got a couple of examples here.

I've got many examples.

Many of you have loved me through some real

tragic choices I've made and stuff.

But I remember when I got in my accident

a couple years ago, guess it's been two years,

Justin Beshears comes over my house.

And I'm expecting Justin to come up

and just pray over me and be encouraging

and lather me with just copious amounts of encouragement

and he walked in my house blazing and said,

"I am so angry with you."

I'm like, what?

I'm there like basically bandaged up.

He said, "You got in an almost fatal accident

"and you did not call me."

He said, "There was nothing that would have stopped me

"from being there.

"Why didn't you call me?"

That stuck with me forever.

I just showed you, shared that with you again

this past week.

That's love.

I was at the school about four or five,

it's been more than four or five years ago at the school.

We had a campus pastor named Daniel Jackson

and he bust into the office and he said,

and Orrin Jones was our principal.

And he said, "Man, you might question a lot of things

"about what you're doing at the school and other thing,

"but let me tell you something, that Orrin Jones,

"she loves you."

I was like, what do you mean?

Well, we just went into a room where a few teachers

were talking about some stuff that was against the things

you were wanting to do.

And she went in there and busted that up real fast.

And he said, she didn't bust,

she did not bust it up because she was the principal,

she busted up because she was your friend.

That stuck with me.

It's like, wow, I didn't know that was happening.

Anybody ever seen the movie, "The Forge"?

What about when the person who takes out your only son

is invited to be in your inner circle

because you've forgiven them?

(claps)

Kind of think that's love.

We're called to love people.

But here's the problem.

And this is really, I believe,

probably one of the top three culprits.

We are a culture who questions motives

because we define the parameters of love

by the world standards

and not by the standards of the kingdom.

The world standard of love protects.

It protects me.

The world standard of love protects me.

The kingdom's perspective of love protects others.

In other words, the love of the world says,

I'm gonna protect myself at all cost.

The love of the kingdom says, I'm willing to die for you.

I'm willing to die for you.

Can I just make this, I'm gonna say something right now

you're gonna gasp, okay?

Don't be mad at me, don't leave the church.

But you're gonna gasp, okay?

Jesus was weird.

(congregation laughs)

Jesus was weird.

He absolutely was weird.

And if you've ever been called weird,

you're in good company with Jesus.

How do I know Jesus was weird?

Let's look at the definition of weird.

Very strange, unusual, unexpected, supernatural.

Jesus was weird.

If Jesus was not weird, no one would have taken note

of anything that he was doing.

Because it is the weird people that get noticed.

It is the weird people, it is the oddballs,

it is the ones who are doing something different

than everyone else that gets illuminated.

And can I tell you as Christians,

you're supposed to be weird in this world.

Can I tell you as believers,

you are not supposed to be able to walk right up

into the world and we can't find you like where's Waldo?

You should be sticking out like a sore thumb.

Not by beating people upside the head with this book,

you should be beating yourself upside the head

with this book.

It is by your way you love people.

It's by the way you love people.

But see, the culture of the world says,

why would he give himself away in that way?

He's got some motive, there's gotta be something there.

Why would he or she sacrifice that for me?

There's gotta be something there, this is weird.

And don't let it be, listen, don't let it be too weird

because here's the deal, this is how we respond

to weirdness, okay?

We look at everybody else and see how they respond

to dictate how we respond because if I endorse the weird,

then you might call me weird.

True?

And so we look and say, okay, if they're all over here,

I'm gonna respond this way.

Or if they're responding this way,

and so we just are fickle, we just go with the shifting wind.

I'm glad that Jesus embraced being odd and different.

I'm glad that he chose love

even though it didn't make any sense.

I'm glad he chose to go to the cross

and do the things that this week entails because of you.

That doesn't make, that is so weird, Kurt.

It's so weird for Jesus to do that.

It's so strange for Jesus to do that.

And every Pharisee was accusing him of having bad motives.

But if we are to love people the way that Jesus loved us,

then our love can't look like the world's love.

I love you.

But behind closed doors, it's a whole different story.

And it's especially true in the South, guys.

Can I just say?

It's exactly right.

Be careful of bless your heart

and the people that use sweetheart all the time.

Sweetheart, sweetheart.

'Cause that translates in some different languages

around the South.

Bless your heart is a different language as well.

But boy, don't we want to be around people

full of integrity that you don't have to worry

one bit about.

When they say they love you, they love you.

How do we love people?

Jesus, Jesus, I believe Jesus was weird.

And we're supposed to be there that way as well.

So we look at love and this is what we tend to do.

We know in 1 Corinthians chapter 13,

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

it gives us an exhaustive lift of what love looks like.

But I tend to believe we stop right here.

Now, of course, now I stop with patience

because I'm like, love is patience.

I might as well just hang it up.

But even if I can get my mind around patient and kind,

you know what this looks like right here?

This looks like this.

I love you.

I love you.

Hey, well, I need you to help me.

Oh, I got time for you.

I love you.

I love you.

I'm broken and in need.

Let me try to hide him.

Maybe they can.

Love shows up.

And it's more than patient and kind.

In fact, it's so much more.

It doesn't envy.

It doesn't boast.

It isn't proud.

It honors.

It's not self-seeking.

It's not easily angered.

It doesn't hold record wrong.

It doesn't rejoice, sorry, it does rejoice with the truth.

Love protects.

Love protects.

Love trusts and it hopes and it perseveres.

This is the exhaustive list that we so know.

We say it at every wedding and we say it

when we're talking about love and all these things,

but this is not actually where I wanna draw from today.

We know that this is what love looks like.

But there's actually a passage in Philippians

that actually Paul writes in his letter

that tells us in relationship to one another

how we're supposed to act.

And this is what it says.

In your relationships with one another,

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Well, we just learned that Christ Jesus' mindset was,

I'm gonna lay my life down for you.

So it says this, who in being the very nature of God

did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant

being made in human likeness

and being found in an appearance as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death,

even death on a cross.

Can I tell you that there is reward,

great reward in obedience?

Because this is what happens.

God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow

in heaven and on earth and under the earth

and every tongue acknowledge what?

That Jesus Christ is Lord because of his obedience.

Now, let's take this scripture

and let's apply it to our lives.

This is what I'd like you to do.

I don't want you to think of your spouse

or your immediate family.

I want you to think of somebody even this morning

or within the last weekend that you said, I love you.

I love you.

Just think of that person and get them in your mind.

Anybody, except for your spouse and family,

which they're included in this, but that's too easy.

Somebody you said, I love you to, okay?

Got them in your mind.

We're gonna ask these questions.

This is a litmus test to see if you really mean I love you.

Here we go.

And this is based on this scripture.

Number one, do I elevate them

or do I elevate myself in that relationship?

Number two, who being in the very nature,

God did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage?

We're having the mindset of Christ.

Do I elevate myself in my relationship with this person

or do I elevate them?

Number two, do I let them have the best

or do I reserve the best for myself?

Rather, making himself, it says nothing.

Do I let them have the best?

If there's a choice before me,

if we're out doing something,

wherever there's a choice and there's the best option,

am I going after the best to make sure I get it

and leaving them with the leftovers or am I working?

Not just making it available,

but working hard to make sure they have the best.

Love you.

Do I serve them or in most cases, do they serve me?

Do I serve them or in most cases, do they serve me?

It says this, Jesus,

by taking the very nature of a servant.

Do you serve them or do they serve you?

And lastly, does loving them cost me something

or am I always leaving with more than I gave?

Jesus says, it says this about Jesus being found

in appearance of a man,

he humbled himself becoming obedient to death,

even death on a cross.

And your relationship with this person,

you're saying, I love you.

Is it costing you anything

or are they constantly sacrificing for you?

And if any of these questions are no,

it doesn't mean necessarily that you don't want

or desire to love that person,

but man, I might ask you to consider filtering your mindset

and your actions to love like Christ.

In addition, you might have people that you say love you to

and none of these fit.

And I just have to tell you, you don't love that person.

You don't love that person because here's the deal,

love that costs you nothing is not a love

that transforms anything.

With the seven individuals who are gonna help me

this morning come up to the stage.

So we're looking at Holy Week

and we're looking at our motivation of love

and I wanted to kind of set the sermon up this way

to kind of get everybody in the place that says,

anybody in the place like me, I wanna throw in the towel.

I'm like, dang, I can't do this, right?

I mean, that's a pretty high standard, this love, my gosh.

I'm answering no to those questions.

Man, it's having me reevaluate, do I really love anyone?

Well, maybe some of these things will help.

Would you guys slide down in front of this dude here?

These are people, do you agree?

These are good looking people, do you agree?

Okay, I am called to love every one of you.

God's desire is for me to love you,

even if you didn't look good as you do,

I'm supposed to love you, okay?

God has called me to love each and every one of you.

And He's not just called me to love each

and every one of you, no, He's called me to do.

He's called me to give you the fullness of my heart.

He's actually called me to lay down my life.

But here's the problem.

Part of the reason why it's difficult for me to love

in that way is because the dividend or the payout

for my loving you sometimes is this.

Is this true?

Anybody ever felt this?

You've given of yourself and you get this in return?

Just me, okay, perfect.

I'm giving my all to you,

but it's met and paid back with disappointment.

I'm giving my all to you as Jesus has told me,

I'm laying down my life, I'm loving you,

but all I get is abandonment.

Anybody ever been abandoned by somebody

you said you loved fully?

Jesus, you're telling me to love this person fully

with everything, but the payout is pain.

Anybody been pain, experienced pain?

Y'all are quiet this morning.

I'm gonna love this person fully,

but it's met with jealousy.

I'm jealous of what you have and who you have in your life

and what you get to do that I don't get to do.

And if that's not enough, I'm loving you fully

like Jesus tells me to, but it's met with this nasty one,

betrayal.

Anybody ever experienced betrayal?

And after all of that, here I am loving

the way I'm supposed to love,

and I just met with discouragement.

Discouragement, hurt, disappointment, abandonment,

pain, jealousy, betrayal, and discouragement.

These things, God is saying, I want you to love

these broken people who have the capacity

and the ability to pay back.

Y'all aren't getting this this morning.

I tell you what, I wanna make this more relatable.

Just turn your signs around.

Everybody take them off and turn them around.

Maybe this will help you guys relate

to what I'm trying to talk about.

Anybody contended with church hurt?

Nobody hurts people in the church, right?

What about church disappointment?

Nobody gets disappointed in church, right?

We are supposed to be the sanctified, holy, Bible,

living, following, perfect, encourage.

Like this is a place where you come

just to get filled up, right?

You don't have to contend with disappointment.

You don't get abandoned at church, right?

You don't have to contend with any type of pain

from people at church, do you?

Ain't nobody jealous.

We don't have to worry about this one, right?

(congregation laughing)

Anybody experienced betrayal in church?

Anybody been discouraged in church?

Yeah, of course we have.

Of course we have.

Jesus calls us to love people

knowing that they are broken, not whole,

and their payback to your love, your full love,

the propensity could be any one of these things

or multiple ones.

How in the world am I supposed to do this?

See, here's the thing.

Jesus says, "I want you to love them."

So I say, okay, I'm gonna love them, Lord.

So here's my heart.

Is that good?

Oh, no, more, okay.

(water splashing)

How about that, half a heart, no, more?

More, Lord, okay.

How about that?

More?

Lord, if I put more in here,

then I'll have to give them my entire heart.

Yes, that's what I want.

Lord, what if, no, what ifs, give it to them?

Okay, I'm trusting you, God.

I mean, this is,

I love you.

There's my whole heart.

What, you want me to do it again?

I'm still trying to believe by faith for that one.

Okay, geez, all right, let me,

okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

(water splashing)

(congregation laughing)

All right, you see everything, all right, yeah, yeah, okay.

All right, I love you.

Again, what, Lord, my goodness,

isn't it enough hurt and pain and you want me,

these people could really cause some havoc in my life, Lord.

Okay, yes, yes, Lord, yes, okay, okay.

I'm getting so overjoyed by your love, it's spilling out.

(congregation laughing)

Lord, it's kinda getting easier, God, to do this

'cause I haven't experienced any of this.

Hey, I love you.

So then what happens, we fill all the cups,

and then what happens is you're walking around one day

and they get in your heart, they take your heart,

(water splashing)

and they leave you empty.

And now you're there.

God, I told you this would happen.

I told you this would happen.

I didn't wanna give all my heart away in the first place.

You made me do it, but now look at the hurt

that I'm experiencing.

What do you want me to do about this, God?

How do you want me to treat this person?

I'm so upset.

(congregation murmuring)

I want you to do it again.

What?

I want you to do it again.

Let me tell you something.

Here's the thing.

They can do whatever they want with your heart

as long as you're holding onto the source.

As long as you're holding onto the source.

(congregation applauding)

Because if you're holding onto the source,

no matter how much hurt people bring you,

disappointment, abandonment, pain, betrayal,

if you're holding onto the source,

he will always be right there to fill you back up.

He'll be right there to make sure that you're taken care of.

If you're holding onto the source,

he will fill you back up.

And here's the thing, then you have a choice

because guess what he's gonna ask you to do with this again?

He's gonna say, I want you to go right back

to that same person who hurt you.

And give them half of it, some of it.

Why don't you give them all of it?

But Lord, what if they throw it down again?

And guys, I'm so glad that Jesus didn't ask that question

when he went to the cross.

I'm so glad because the what if they put another nail in me?

What if they curse me?

What if they turn their back on me?

Jesus didn't contend with any of that

because he was holding onto the source.

He was holding onto his father.

So Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday, right?

Let's see what this looks like.

Jesus is riding in on donkey.

Can you wave this in the air for me?

You do both.

Jesus, King, comes in, all of these people shouting,

"Hosanna, God in the highest, you're great."

Let me translate all of that to you.

Ready, ready for this?

We love you.

Jesus, we love you.

And you know who he was riding by?

He was riding by the people who were gonna hurt him,

who were gonna disappoint him,

who were gonna abandon him,

who were gonna cause him pain.

The Pharisees, they were jealous of him.

They were gonna betray him and offer discouragement.

He rode right by them as they said,

"We love you, we love you."

And the same people waving the palm branches

are the same people that say, "Crucify him."

Have you ever been in a place where people were praising you

in one moment and wanting to crucify you in the next?

And so Jesus says, "I love you so much

that despite the reason I knew you were gonna say,

'I love you, but you hurt me,

you disappointed me, abandoned me,'

despite all of that, I still went to the cross

on your behalf because I actually love you."

And if Jesus did it for us,

we're supposed to do it for one another.

We cannot do it alone.

We can't do it by ourselves.

We don't have the capacity to do it ourselves.

This is my daughter, Lucia.

Can y'all hang for just a second?

This is my daughter, Lucia.

Two years ago, she came home

and somebody at school had said something bad about her

and she made a bad grade on a test

and it was just, she was so upset and distraught.

I mean, just crying, never seen her cry, so much pain.

And if you're a parent, there's nothing you want more than

to take your child's pain upon yourself.

And she comes and sits in my lap and I'm loving on her

and I'm trying to encourage her and I send her to bed

and I can't sleep all night.

I'm literally up, I'm in anguish, I'm upset, I'm praying.

I just, I'm feeling the pain of my daughter

and I get up real early 'cause I wanna encourage her

in the morning, I get up and I go to her room

and she is up skipping around.

She went and got some Froot Loops, she was fine.

There was like nothing had happened.

And I was tossing and turning all night.

And I said, "Lucy, are you okay?"

And she said, "Of course I'm okay.

"Daddies make things better."

The God of the universe, your source,

will take every bit of your broken pain.

The blood of Jesus covers sin so that the word says

that we can boldly go to his throne in our time of need

with confidence.

And some of you are contending with hurt,

with disappointment, abandonment, pain.

You're contending with this stuff in real time right now.

Somebody has said something, somebody has done something.

I'm among you.

I'm in real time dealing with something right now.

I'm angry about something.

And I'm right here holding onto the source saying,

"Lord, I need you to fill my cup.

"I need you because I know that I'm called

"to give these people, this person, this cup again."

Full, not halfway, full.

But here's the thing we have to remember.

Love doesn't just forgive failure, it makes space for it.

And one of the areas that I've messed up in my life, friends,

is that I have not given the people I say I love

the opportunity to fail me.

I've not given them the capacity to fail me.

I have put some people with expectations

that they would never hurt me,

that they would never say things.

And then I come to find out that there are things

that have been said and done, and I get broken,

and I get wounded.

I don't know if you can relate to that.

But this is what love did, this is what Jesus does

when he's walking by these things.

Do you not think while he was on the donkey,

he knew that all of these people were gonna be saying,

"Crucify him"?

He knew where he was going.

But he gave capacity to be hurt.

He gave capacity for them to be human.

Because here's the thing, I love Dustin Minchi.

And I hope that I never have to feel any of this

with Dustin, but man, if I do, I hope that I'm a place

to fill that cup back up and give him my heart

all over again.

Because I need him to do the same thing

when I mess up on his behalf.

We are called to love God and to love people.

Jesus on that night, that desperate lonely night,

right before Judas came and did what he did,

his friends asleep, I believe for the story

to be what it was supposed to be,

he had to be alone in that moment.

And he looks at God, he looks at his father alone

in that moment, the source, the only one who could sustain

him in that moment, and he says, "God, if you could take

"this from me, please do, but your will be done, not mine."

And Father God, I believe in that moment,

gave him every bit of strength to love you and me,

despite the fact we were shouting crucify, crucify, crucify.

Couldn't you imagine, he's carrying his cross,

literally through the streets, passing all the people,

crucify, I'm doing this, I'm not doing this because you,

I'm not going to the cross because you punish me,

I'm actually doing this because I love you.

I became obedient to death, not the other way around.

Jesus carrying his cross, connected to the source.

So this morning, going into Holy Week,

yeah, let's talk, let's examine this week, the events.

It's so great to read about the Last Supper

and read about the anointing of Jesus's feet.

And it's wonderful to look at how,

all the things that Jesus did, turning the tables,

it's good to read all those stories.

But it means nothing if we're doing it just for information.

Why did he come?

He came so that we had the ability to love him

and love others.

We need to exercise the ability to love him and love others,

even when they don't love you back.

Even when they don't love you back.

And I'd be remiss to not bring this up.

If you're one of the people who has caused hurt,

disappointment, abandonment, pain, jealousy,

will you forgive me?

(gentle music)

We're gonna talk a little bit about that next week, but,

the source has given us the ability to forgive,

to forgive the unforgivable.

There are times in my life where I need to just do a check-in

with the people I love and say,

"Hey, is there anything that I've done to offend you

or is there any wrong that I've done?

Would you forgive me?"

I wanna make sure that the pathway

and the communication is clear.

(gentle music)

Pride stops us from doing that.

And pride means we're not connected to the source.

So would you stand with me this morning?

Thank you guys.

If you guys will just, just wherever in that thing,

and I appreciate you guys helping me.

For those who are gonna minister to people,

please come forward.

And here's the thing this morning.

(gentle music)

(gentle music)

I believe there are people here this morning

and you are dealing with abandonment, hurt, discouragement,

a number of those things that were up there.

And here's the thing, Jesus had a purpose.

And his purpose was to die on the cross for you and me.

Well, guess what?

You also have a purpose.

And sometimes we're not fulfilling

what God has told us to do,

because we're contending with the people around us

and we're trying to draw from empty cups as our source

instead of the source of God.

And if you're here this morning and you're thinking,

man, I'm stunted in my forward movement with God

because I'm wrestling with this individual,

or I'm contending with her,

or maybe you've even forgiven them.

Let's say you've even forgiven them,

but there's residue there.

And you're needing God to fill this cup.

It's a choice.

Come this morning.

Come this morning and allow the source of your strength,

the source of your love to fill your cup

so that you can walk in true freedom.

Let's worship.

you