The Passover Lamb Enters | March 29, 2026

All right.

Thank you.

Worship team.

You know, we stand united with thousands,

millions, probably billions by this

time of Christians through the years.

Who have celebrated the triumphal

entry of Jesus into Jerusalem at the

culmination of his earthly ministry.

We call it Palm Sunday, right?

And it kicks off this incredible

week that we call Holy Week.

Beginning today on Palm Sunday.

We recognize Jesus riding into

Jerusalem in the last big official

act of celebration before he faces.

A sham of a trial,

crucifixion and suffering.

Mondy.

Thursday is this period of time where

the church traditionally gathers to

celebrate the last supper of Jesus.

They take communion and maybe wash

the disciples or wash feet like

Jesus, wash the disciples feet.

Very symbolic and significant.

Good.

Friday is a day.

We're commemorate the sacrifice and

the suffering on the cross where

Jesus dies, right for our sin.

And at White Rock, we kind of merge

these two together a little bit.

We're gonna celebrate Palm Sunday.

We're also going to, uh.

Do some communion and reflection on

Jesus' sacrifice and His last supper.

But we'll do that collectively on Friday

night together as we celebrate what

Jesus has done for us on Great Friday.

And then Sunday morning Resurrection

Sunday, millions of people

around the globe celebrating

that we worship the risen savior.

Not a savior who is dead, whose

bones are buried in some tomb.

He's alive and he's alive forevermore.

So we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

But today is Palm Sunday and all

of you can participate even though

you didn't get a Palm branch

because you brought one of these.

All right, everybody ready?

Let's put a palm up.

We just need a poem.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Very nice.

Just a poem.

Just a poem.

In fact, turn to the person next to you,

high five 'em say, happy poem Sunday.

Nice.

Nice.

While you got those palms outstretched,

lemme see those poems one more time.

Really, really nice.

Uh, was a quick question.

How many points you

want in today's sermon?

Five.

Got it.

All right.

Five points in the sermon.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And while you got your hands up

really high, let's see those palms.

I need a volunteer who will

help me preach this morning.

Jed.

Fantastic.

Come on up here, man.

All right.

In fairness, I might have worn Jed.

I was gonna do that so I

wasn't gonna totally cold.

Grab your mic, bro.

You got a lot of work to do today.

Whew.

So if you are part of a class I teach

at, uh, mission Christian Academy,

we talked a lot about Palm Sunday

in the triumphal entry last week.

I even got to cover some classes

for Josiah while he was in Alaska.

And so, uh, I got to even talk to some of

the middle schoolers, which is super cool.

But Jed.

We're gonna talk about five

important things about Palm Sunday.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

You feeling it?

Oh yeah.

You better stand up.

You're gonna fall asleep.

That's what teenagers do.

They just sleep on chairs.

Right?

Alright.

So Jed came to me yesterday in tears and

he was like, dad, you never let me preach.

And I was, no, that's not how that works.

Okay.

Okay.

Here's what Jed did wrong.

Yesterday he and I were talking

and I was like, you know, there's a

lot of stuff I shared in, in class.

I, I don't really wanna

like beat a dead horse.

And Jed was like, dad.

It's Palm Sunday, right?

A, you're beating a dead donkey, but

you're not really beating, right?

This is important.

We gotta talk about this.

Yeah.

Alright.

Alright.

Why don't you stand right up here?

'cause you're gonna kind of

fade into the background.

I know.

And people, people would rather look

at you than me, even your mother.

Okay, so point number one we're gonna

talk about real quick, as Jesus is

making his way into Jerusalem, this

is no insignificant day, is it?

No.

No.

What day did Jesus ride in to Jerusalem?

Lamb selection day.

He came in on lamb selection day.

Now this is a big deal.

Uh, do we have any shepherds

here just real quick?

Anybody got lambs in their house?

Sheep, anything like that?

Nate, you were a shepherd.

You raised one lamb and

it, and that's a bad story.

We can't talk about it, so, okay.

Yes.

I know.

I always hate when I ask this.

Because Nate Harshman is the only

guy I know who's ever owned some

lambs, and he won't let it die.

Well, he let it die, but

that's a whole nother story.

Sorry.

I'm just kidding.

I don't really know.

I don't really know what

you did with your lamb.

Talk to Nate afterwards.

He can validate this whole lamb talk.

Okay, so Jed Lamb selection Sunday

takes place on a really important

day in the Jewish calendar.

What day is that?

Do you remember?

No.

No.

The Sabbath?

What?

I don't know.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

No, it's actually on the 10th

day of the month of Nissan.

Ah, yeah.

The old 10th day of the month of Nissan.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

This might be why most of us don't really

track that it's Lamb selection day because

most of us aren't shepherding besides

Nate, and we don't really take part in

some celebrations on the Jewish calendar.

In fact.

We don't even really know what the

Jewish calendar is, but the 10th

day of Nissan is a really important

day because it's Lamb selection day.

Jed, tell me a little bit about what you

can remember about Lamb Selection Day.

What's going on there?

Well, the Israelites need to

have like a Passover lamb, so

they have to pick an unblemished.

Take care of it for three, four days.

Four days, yep.

Uh, take care of it for four days, like

have it live with them and everything.

And then they, the lamb that they pick,

they have to kill and sacrifice and then

that's what they eat on the Passover.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Right?

This is tied to the Passover,

uh, festival of Exodus, right?

When the Israelites were in Egypt and

the Lord sends these plagues against

Pharaoh and all of Egypt and the final.

Plague is this man, this angel

of death who comes, right?

And for all of the Israelites who

had the blood of the lamb on the

doorpost of their house, scripture

says the angel Lord passed over them.

Right?

Passed over.

Ah, passed over.

Passed over.

Got it right.

The dots connect.

This is simple stuff.

Now, the Israelites were supposed

to, you said select a lamb.

Yeah.

Unblemished.

Yeah.

What do you mean?

Without blemishes.

Ah, without blemishes.

Yes.

The old classic without blemishes lamb.

And this lamb was like

spotless and perfect.

Yes.

So like, God didn't want the Israelites

to pick a lamb that was like a three

legged lamb, two one-eyed, half a ear.

Right.

It had to be a perfect lamb.

Is that important?

Yeah.

Why?

Like, 'cause Jesus is our perfect

lamb, and it like symbolizes it.

Ooh.

We call that foreshadowing nicely done.

Yeah, because the lamb and the symbolism

wasn't just a random thing God was doing,

he was putting into motion some really

clear and defined realities that are

gonna point towards the real lamb of God.

I showed this in my class, um, this week,

and uh, Jed and I were talking about this.

You're not supposed to look down there.

Remember?

Yeah.

Sorry.

I got you.

Yeah, it's like cheating.

Tell us a little bit about

what this thing is, Jed.

A stone manger that is a stone manger.

Now, you may think it looks more

like AAR bathtub where you sacrifice

lambs, and I could totally see that.

Uh, but this is a stone manger, and I

want, I, Jed and I were talking about

this a little bit and, and he talked me

into making sure I share this because

it's a really cool picture, even

though there's a little question now.

I'm gonna put this up here.

Uh, this is supposed to be a

picture taken in Bethlehem and it's

supposed to reference a stone manger

from Bethlehem and potentially

something historically significant.

Now, let me say this, I'm a huge,

huge, like truth teller, right?

I do not ever want to say

something that's untrue.

That's unverified or you can't verify it.

I always try to be really careful.

So I wanna say this little segment

here, what I'm about to tell you is

something that some historians claim to

be true based on Jewish tradition and

some historians question it, which is

probably not unlike most things, right?

I do not know.

But when you see it, I think it

kind of is a pretty cool picture.

There is some historical accounts.

There are some historical accounts.

Of the shepherds, specifically five

miles from Jerusalem in a place called

Bethlehem who ran a very important flock.

And that flock was owned by

the priests in Jerusalem.

And the sole responsibility was to make

sure that they had animals that were

unblemished and perfect for sacrifice.

And as some historians claim, when a

Perfect Lamb was born in this flock.

They would take this perfect lamb and

they would wrap it in cloths and they

would lay it in a stone manger in the

town of Bethlehem, which is just sort

of random, no real connection until

you start to think about somebody who

was actually the eternal lamb of God.

Perfect.

And unblemished who was born in the

town of Bethlehem, who was wrapped

in some cloths and laid in a manger.

And all of a sudden you're

like, whoa, that's pretty cool.

Now, I'm not saying that's the

truth, that all the little lambs were

born in Bethlehem that they used.

I'm sure not all, but that this

specifically happened definitively.

We can't prove it.

Historians are gonna argue about it.

That's cool.

But I do know this, that

Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Absolutely.

The Lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world, was born in

Bethlehem and wrapped in swaddling

clothes and laid in a manger.

And he scripture says,

is the perfect Passover.

Lamb Christ.

Our Passover lamb was slain for us, and

in the same way that the Israelites had

to put blood on the doorpost of the lamb

so that the wrath and consequences of God

because of their sin would pass over them.

Jesus puts his blood on our

heart and covers our sin.

That the judgment and wrath

of God passes over us because

he is the eternal lamb of God.

And Hebrew says that he did it

once, not lots of lambs over

and over and over and over.

That was just symbolic, pointing

to the day when the eternal

Passover lamb would show up.

Jesus shows up on the scene born

in Bethlehem, perfect unblemished,

spotless to die for us because he

is the way, the truth, the life.

I am the door.

Through me.

You can experience eternal life.

Jesus says, so it is no coincidence

that on this Palm Sunday numero uno that

Jesus shows up on lamb selection day.

It's not just a coincidence.

The Passover lamb for all eternity,

who pays the price for our sin enters

Jerusalem on that first palm Sunday.

That's good, dude.

Anything else you wanna add?

Nope.

Cool.

Alright, why don't you tell

us about point number two?

Point number two is

obedience and generosity.

Obedience and generosity.

Now here's why I'm gonna point this out

really quick, uh, 'cause we're gonna

jump over the scripture real fast.

In Matthew chapter 21,

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

we have this account.

We also have this account

in Mark, Luke, and John.

All the gospels record

the triumphal entry.

And I brought Jed up here because he

loves to read in front of people, so he's

gonna look it up on his phone because

he didn't bring his Bible with him.

Matthew chapter 21, we're gonna walk

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

through Matthew's account that was written

to the Jewish people, specifically with

the perspective of the Jewish audience.

And he's gonna, you watching videos, bro?

What are we doing over here?

He's gonna read this passage for us

and listen carefully to what happens.

And we'll unpack this

obedience and generosity thing.

Check this out.

As Jesus and the disciples approached

Jerusalem, they came to the town

of Be Beth on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus sent two of them ahead,

go into the village over there.

He said, as soon as you enter,

you will see a donkey tide

there with its colt beside it,

untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone asks you what you're doing,

just say the Lord needs them and he

will immediately let you take them.

Okay, I love this image.

I dunno if you see it from

where you're at, the eyes,

the faces of these disciples.

The disciples were told

to go and steal a donkey.

I mean, right.

This is legit crazy stuff, right?

Go and find a donkey

and snag it right now.

Uh, I love to say in my class, I think Jed

would do a better job of explaining this.

Um, this is not just a donkey scripture

says it's a cult, the full of a donkey.

And theologically, that's important.

Why?

Because you believe that

Jesus is a cults fan.

That's why right in the pinnacle

moment, that was good dodge by

you in the pinnacle moment of his

earthly ministry coming in Jerusalem.

Are we like still talking about

like how it can't be proven?

No, we're not talking about it.

Can't be proven.

I'm just nicely played there.

Yeah, no, Jesus is a Colts fan.

It's pretty clear.

But anyways, that's not the point of this.

The disciples are told to go and find this

cult and untie it and bring it to Jesus.

And that's an act of obedience that I

think is worth thinking about on Palm

Sunday because does Jesus ever say to

us or call us to action that we don't

understand fully what's going on?

Does he ever call us to be obedient even

if we don't have the end of the story and

we're not sure we have all the pieces,

but we know he told us to do this and so

we're just gonna be faithful to do this.

Now listen, if you go and try to steal a

car this afternoon and say the Lord has

need of it, that ain't gonna work at all.

Okay?

It's just not gonna work.

But when God clearly gives us direction

to maybe go and talk to somebody, to maybe

give something to somebody, well, I'm not

really sure how it's all gonna play out.

Well, none of that matters.

Our obedience is what matters,

and God is in the business of not

always giving us all the details.

Calling us to act in obedience.

And I love this guy.

I dunno who he is.

We don't know anything about him other

than he was a donkey owner who somehow was

like, wow, there goes my donkeys, right?

But he operates in something

we call generosity.

And you could say obedience too, right?

To say everything I have is the Lord's,

and if he needs it, he can have it, right?

Does God ever ask us to give

money to somebody or to something?

And we're like, ah, well I need

to know where it's all gonna

go, how it's gonna play out.

What are they gonna do with that money?

That's not what he does here, right?

All this guy knows is,

Hey, Jesus needs it.

He's like, all right, done.

Right.

When you give to the poor, when

you help, when you serve, when you

sacrifice, instead of some leverage

or some expectation, how about

it's just obedience and generosity?

'cause you're just giving it to the Lord

and if they squander it or if they're

not faithful with it, that's not on you.

That's about what they're doing

with what you've done in obedience.

So Palm Sunday shows us right here

with the acts of the disciples.

Some obedience and the act of

our new friend, the donkey owner,

AKA Colts fan, generosity, right?

Third point fulfillment of prophecy.

Jesus fulfilled a crazy

amount of prophecy, right?

Matthew 21, 4 through five.

Jed, read it to us.

Would you?

This took place to, to fulfill

the prophecy that said, tell

the people of Jerusalem, look,

your king is coming to you.

He is humble.

Riding on donkey, riding

on a donkey's colt.

Okay.

Zacharia the prophet four told 500 years

earlier that Jesus was gonna come and this

Messiah would come riding on a donkey,

the a cult, the full of a donkey, right?

Colts fans in the Old

Testament too, right now.

Uh, sometime you need to ask

Jed, who stole this from me?

Who stole this from Randy, uh, about

the mathematical probability of Jesus

is the Christ from Westmont College.

Blow your mind.

It's on the website somewhere, I think.

Do you wanna explain what's

going on here real fast?

Go.

Uh.

Jesus fulfilled a lot of prophecies.

He did.

He did.

And that's unlikely for a person to do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They took it.

Look at eight.

Eight prophecies fulfilled

in the life of Jesus.

Right.

And the astronomical numbers are

insane, and we're not gonna go through

it today 'cause we don't have time.

But Jesus didn't fulfill

eight or 16 or 48.

He fulfilled over 300 prophecies.

In his life that point to Jesus, the

coming Messiah and the Israelites

were paying attention and they were

watching, and lemme just say, the

mathematical probability of him

fulfilling eight is crazy fulfilling.

16 is mathematically

impossible, fulfilling.

48 is beyond comprehension fulfilling 300.

Well, with God, all things are possible.

And that's it.

There is no way somebody

accidentally became the Messiah.

There's no way we got it wrong.

The math proves that Jesus is the Messiah.

We don't have time to

watch all those, but.

Fulfillment of prophecy.

The Israelites were watching, oh hey.

Also, I dunno if you know this or not,

but, uh, he came once, but he's also gonna

come again and there's between 500 and

a thousand depending on who you talk to.

Some say 800 prophecies of his return.

That's a lot more than the 300 he

fulfilled when he came the first time.

So if you're doing math, bet on that one.

Right.

Okay.

Number four, Jed, let's get into it.

You ready?

Yeah.

Do it.

Stand up.

You got this.

Hosanna and palm branches,

Hosanna and palm branches.

You can't really have Palm

Sunday without it, right?

Significant stuff.

Matthew 21, 6 through 11 says what the

two disciples did as Jesus commanded.

They brought the donkey in the cult

to him and they threw their garments

over the cult and he sat on it.

Most of the crowds spread their

garments on the road ahead of him

and others cut branches from the

trees and spread them on the road.

Jesus was in the center of the procession.

And all the people and the people all

around him were shouting, praise God

for the Son of David, blessings on the

one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Praise God in the highest heaven.

The entire city of Jerusalem

was in uproar as he entered.

Who is this?

They asked and the crowds replied.

It's Jesus the prophet

from Nazareth and Galilee.

Okay, so talk us through

the situation, bro.

We have Jesus.

He gets the donkey from

the donkey donation guy.

What happens next?

People start like, well, tell,

I, I kind of know actually.

Just tell that people start like

throwing coats and palm branches

ons the ground and then the donkey

walks on them and they praise them.

There you go.

Not too succinct, but not too bad.

Okay.

So yeah, they are, they steal a donkey,

they're ripping off people's branches.

There's a lot of stuff going

on in celebration here, right?

But as Jesus starts to make his way

into Jerusalem, he's riding on people's

super nice Nike sweatshirts, right?

And he's trampling on it with his donkey.

And this and the disciples feet.

People are waving palm branches,

they're shouting, Hosanna, hosanna,

hosanna, as loud as they possibly can.

These palm branches are poking

people in the eye, right?

All kinds of stuff's going on.

It is bedlam.

And do you know why it's bedlam?

Because.

Zacharia said that the king was coming.

Right.

And in the mind of the Jew at the

time, who, this is our moment, right?

This is, this is it.

We're about to overthrow Rome and take

over the world and be the most dominant

force that this planet has ever seen.

Goodbye everybody else.

It's our time, right?

And they were crazy excited.

Rusty alluded to it.

What does the word HOA mean?

Save us.

Save, right?

Literally.

Save we pray.

Check this out.

This is so important, right?

Save.

We pray the word for the image

of palm branches victory back

in the Greek world, right?

They would have these wreaths of, uh,

what, what'd you put on an Olympian?

The, the Olympic International Olympic

Committee has this on their website.

They would put the, I

don't know what it is.

I don't even have hair, dude,

so I don't watch the Olympics.

Alright, that reath thing

on your head, the Laurel,

Hey guys, work together.

Get me the right word.

What do we got?

No, I don't trust you.

What do you got Kirsten?

Okay.

Okay.

Make this we go with Kristen.

Kristen, nice job.

Um, the Laurel thing, Laurel and Hardy

on your head right here, right, is green.

Super exciting.

And then the victor in the Olympic Games

in Greece would also have a palm frond,

which I'm not sure if that's one or two.

I think it's one, but I wanna

call that, I don't know either.

So it's a palm branch, right?

And it was symbolic of victory.

So here's what's super

crazy to get in your mind.

Jesus is coming up the road here, right?

And the Israelites are losing their minds.

They are crazy excited.

They are screaming, save us, save us.

Save us.

Right?

They don't care who hears.

They are all over it.

Victory is ours.

We have arrived, all this stuff.

And if you don't understand and you can't

get a picture of how intense this moment

was and how much they were literally.

I mean, let's just call.

They were, they were humiliating

themselves in front of

anybody and everybody, Rome.

It didn't matter.

Like they were all over this guy Jesus.

And if you don't understand that, you

won't be able to understand why in just

a few short days, they're screaming.

Crucify him, crucify him,

rid the earth of him.

His blood be upon us, and our

children and our children's children.

And the only way that makes sense

is the amount of insanity that

was going on when he arrived.

Their expectation of what Jesus

was gonna do different, different

for sure than what he did.

They thought he was coming to defeat Rome.

They had no idea they had a far

greater enemy, that Jesus was

there to destroy eternal death.

Right.

But they thought he was there to set

up the earthly kingdom, and so they

made fools of themselves over him.

And so when they realized four days, five

days later, that all of a sudden wait,

that's not what he's gonna do, I think.

Their pride gets in the way.

They're embarrassed, they're ashamed,

they feel stupid, and that turns to

anger and wrath where they scream,

crucify rid the earth of him, kill him.

Right?

And if you can understand how

excited they were here in this

space, that helps us understand it.

And I can't help but think that

sometimes as followers of Jesus, we

sort of get this, uh, expectation of who

Jesus is and what he's gonna do in us.

Right.

God is good.

If God is good, when God is faithful.

When this situation or this circumstance

plays out in my life and when it's like

this, uh, I wish God was more good, right?

Sometimes I would say probably often,

Jesus doesn't meet our expectations,

in large part because our expectations

aren't aligned with his expectations.

Then we get disappointed and frustrated

and resentful, even angry because he

didn't do what we wanted him to do.

You guys shared about that in

some cool ways today about his

timing and how he's at work.

He's never, he's never late.

He's also never early, and he's also

God and he will do what he will do

and calls us to walk in obedience

and to trust him in that space.

The Israelites on Palm Sunday.

Had a messed up expectation of

what Jesus was about and what

it meant to follow the Messiah.

They thought they were gonna be kings.

They didn't know they were gonna suffer.

They didn't know that they were

gonna sacrifice all for a kingdom

that wasn't of this earth.

And when they found out that's all this

Jesus was about, they were done too.

Let's be careful that we don't lose

track of that when we celebrate and we

see all this exciting stuff going on.

'cause we could fall into the same

trap the Israelites fell into.

And Jed, let's wrap up point number

five with a little more barn life.

Go ahead.

Donkey versus horse.

Donkey versus horse sounds

like an awesome, like, uh, on a

Nintendo video game, you know,

donkey versus horse, right?

Yeah.

Good.

Okay.

Thanks for backing me up on that one.

Um, there's some really important

symbolism if you are tracking with

what's going on in the ancient world.

When a king rides in on a donkey

to a city, it's symbolic of peace.

He rides in on a donkey, bringing peace,

a message of peace, symbolic of peace.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on that first

Palm Sunday to make peace with God for us.

He didn't come in on a horse.

That's a very different image.

When a king rides in on a horse,

it's a symbol of aggression.

It's a symbol of conquest, right?

But on that first Palm Sunday,

Jesus rode in in peace and he

allowed his body to be broken.

He allowed himself to suffer.

He came to make peace for us,

and he offers us that peace.

He offers us forgiveness for our sin.

He offers us his blood to be painted

on the doorpost of our heart so

that we don't face the wrath of God.

He offers us that because he loves us

and he is good, and he is a God who

offers peace, the prince of peace.

But make no mistake, and this

picture won't do it any justice.

There's a day coming.

When the King of Kings and Lord of

Lords will rip open the eastern sky

and his eyes filled with fire in the

sword that comes from his mouth, riding

on a white warhorse with his thigh

emblazoned with King of Kings and

Lord of Lords, and scripture says the

whole Earth will mourn for his coming.

He will come again and

it will not be in peace.

He will come again in judgment and

consequence for those who are not.

Covered by the blood of the lamb.

He paid a price.

One time he humbled himself.

He made himself nothing.

Scripture says, but God is not willing

that that's the end of the story.

God exalted Jesus to the highest place.

The name above every name,

right and every name.

Scripture, everyone high, low, doesn't

matter who you are, what your stature is.

Every single person will bow and

acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.

He's gonna come again.

He came once and had defied math.

It was crazy.

There's over 800 prophecies,

maybe a thousand that say,

man, here he comes again.

Watch out, and we don't

listen, or we don't care.

We don't pay attention.

We think it's no big deal.

Just man, don't make the mistake

The Israelites made in thinking

that this peaceful king was

nobody to be messed with, right?

Jesus loves you and he cares about

you so much that he endured What

we're gonna talk about this week.

But we have to make a choice about what

we're gonna do with that sacrifice and how

we're gonna live and how we're gonna walk.

Because there's a day coming when the

King of Kings will emerge with the

armies of heaven, and that'll be it.

And it'll be done and the choices will

be made and where we go from there.

Pretty clear.

True?

Yep.

Got it.

Jesus Christ.

The Passover Lamb who pays the price

for our sin, calling us to be people

who are, be obedient and generous no

matter what we think or feel or want.

He is the one who fulfilled

the prophecy and the fill in

the blank prophecy to come.

It's gonna happen.

He's not slow in keeping his promises.

Some think of slowness, but he's

patient with us wanting no one

to perish and giving opportunity.

Scripture says.

Save us.

Oh man.

If only they understood what

they were screaming, right?

'cause he did come to save not from

temporary nonsense stuff like a pitiful

little empire called Rome, but against

death and hell and eternal destruction.

He came to conquer it forever and he did.

And that's why we can wave

a palm branch 'cause of his

ultimate victory over the grave.

And he came in peace.

And while it is yet today, scripture says

Choose wisely 'cause the day will close.

And today he offers opportunity for

us to be in relationship with him.

But one day he will return in power and

in might, and that day it'll be a day of

terror for those who don't know Christ.

But if we know Jesus, that'll be a

day of celebration and joy for us.

Nothing to be afraid of, right?

Not at all.

Palm Sunday is a lot about preparing

our hearts, preparing the way for the

king, and I encourage you as you go

into this week ahead, there's a lot

of activities and a lot of, oh shoot.

In our world, there's a lot of

distractions and stuff that sound like

they're more important, and gathering

on a good Friday and celebrating the

resurrection of Jesus, or even coming on a

Saturday and trying to love some kids and

share the gospel with some candy, right?

There's a lot of stuff to pull your

time and your energy, but I would really

encourage you to keep the most important

things, the most important things as you

look at Holy Week and what lies ahead

in the beginning today, that you would

take off that really expensive jacket

and you'd throw down that iPhone and

whatever it is before the presence of the

Lord, and let him trample on it into your

heart to set up his kingdom and cover

your sin with the blood of the lamb.

So that over this week you can

celebrate hope and life because of

who Jesus is and what he has done.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for Palm Sunday.

Thank you for the triumphal entry.

And God thank you for standing at

the door of our heart and knocking,

and you said that you would come

in, in triumphal procession.

You would come in.

If any of us would open the door.

So God, for anybody here this morning

who's listening to this, or maybe even

online years from now and some random

accidental click, God, I pray that

you would give that person the courage

to open the door that you're knocking

on in their heart, that you give them

the courage to invite you in to know

what it's like to confess their sin.

And to have your blood cover the

doorpost of their heart, and to be

in relationship with this good and

gentle shepherd, the lamb of God who

is good and kind and gentle with us,

help us to know that and not to be in

the darkness and unaware that the day

of the Lord would catch us off guard.

That the day of the Lord when

you rip through the eastern sky,

that we would not mourn for your

coming, but that we would celebrate

with joy, the return of the king.

We love you Jesus.

Thank you for this week ahead

and we commit it to you.

We ask that you would use the time

together on Good Friday as a powerful

time to to break down hardness in

our heart and soften it to your love.

And to your sacrifice.

We pray for Saturday's Egg Event,

that it would be an amazing time of

connecting and loving children in

Jesus' name and that the gospel would

go out and be spread and make sense

to the families and kids who are here.

And Father, we pray for the times we

get together for a couple different

gatherings next Sunday morning to

celebrate the resurrected savior.

God, I pray you give us the courage

to invite a friend that we're nervous

about talking to, to just see if

they might be able to have a little

curiosity about this whole season

and find hope and life forevermore.

Thank you for this time this morning.

Lord, thank you for my son and his

awesome job of helping and give us an

incredible day in you as we celebrate.

The risen Savior in Jesus' name.

Amen.