Portfolio - Week 4 (Palm Sunday 2024)

Men and Amen, thank you so much. We're gonna continue in our series

Today portfolio. We're gonna end it up next week on Resurrection Sunday. If

you got your Bible, go to Second Samuel chapter twenty four, Second Samuel,

chapter twenty four, and we're gonna read there. But before we read,

this is uh. This is Palm Sunday. This is the beginning of

what we refer to as the Passion Week or the Holy Week in church.

So if you're not familiar with those terms, it's okay. It just means

it's the week leading up to the resurrection of Jesus, and today is known

as the triumphal Jury. This is where Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey

and the people waved palm branches, which are a symbol of victory and hope.

They wave palm branches, they threw them down before him, and they

shouted Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. And that's one of those spiritual words a

lot of times that we say in church, that we sing in church,

but we don't really know what that word means. Amen, So Hosannah literally

means I beseech you to save us. I'm asking you to save us.

It's what Hoseanna means. It's a cry out. And listen what those people

were doing as they waved those palm branches, and Jesus wrote in they were

making a public profession that Jesus could be the deliver of Israel. Now they

were looking for a different messiah than the one that came. They were looking

for a military messiah. They were looking for one that would deliver the country,

the political system of Israel, from out from under Roman occupation. But

what they were doing is they were making and you need to understand this,

they were making an open display of rebellion against their occupying power as they waved

those branches, and they asked Jesus to be their deliverer. As he wrote

in, they were making a display of worship that certainly cost them something that

they could be named traders, treason us. That literally, the penalty of

those things by trying to overthrow the government was death. And these worshipers still

went out before Jesus and they waved those palm branches and they said, save

us, set us free, be our deliverer. And I want you to

keep that in context today as we go through our message that you have to

have a point in your life where you draw a line in the sand,

where you draw a line in the sand and you realize that to go to

the next level with the Lord, to go to my next level in that

relationship, I have to draw those hard lines and stand against certain things.

Amen. In Second Samuel, chapter twenty four, start reading. In verse

twenty, it says, now Irana looked and saw the king and his servants

coming toward him. So Irana went out and bowed before the king with his

face to the ground. Then Irana said, why has my lord the king

come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threat the threshing

floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may

be withdrawn from the people. Now Irana said to David, let the Lord

my king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here

are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements, and the yokes of the

oxen for wood. All these o King Urana has given to the King.

Then the King said to Irana, no, but I will surely buy it

from you for a price. Nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord

my God that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and

the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Let's pray, Father, I thank

you for your word. It's the only change agent on the face of the

planet, and I pray that you change. It's the very fabric of our

being. I pray that we have this David moment today where we realize the

true cost of relationship. In Jesus' name, Amen, Amen and amen.

Now, so David is approaching this, this threshing floor, this place where

where wheat was threshed before it was ground into grain, and the Lord had

sent him specifically to Irana. And when he gets there, Irana says,

listen, I just want to honor the King. So whatever you want,

take as many oxen as you want, take the threshold, whatever you need,

offer these burnt offers of the Lord. I just want to I just

want to be here for you, man, King. I love you.

Whatever's my is yours. And David could have very easily just went and slaughtered

the oxen and taken the threshing floor and set up the altar, but he

chose not to do that, and he makes a statement that's very that that

that's very deep, theologically impivotable, and pivotal to who we are as believers.

He looks at him and he says, I will not offer the Lord

something that costs me nothing. I'm not gonna offer to the Lord that which

costs me nothing. David is trying to stop a plague that's flowing through the

people of Israel. He had made a decision against the Lord. The Lord

told him not to number the people. He numbered the people. Then there

was a plague that began to sweep through Israel, and David understood that it

was because of him, and because it was his responsibility. He had to

make amends for those things, and he refused to go to the Lord and

let somebody else pay the price for the thing that he was asking the Lord

to do. Come on, somebody, see, I think a lot of

times we are comfortable in our giving. We're comfortable in our worship, We're

comfortable in our discipleship, we're comfortable in showing in our witness. We're comfortable

in those things until we get to the point where it actually costs us something.

When we move across that line where it goes from Yeah, it's not

really a big deal to oh wow, this is a big deal. That's

where we begin to really shut down. I want to tell you something about

you as an American person. You are the most generous people in the world.

Statistics show us that the American people are the most generous people in the

world. Not spiritual people, just Americans in general give more to charitable causes

in any other place in the world. It's part of our culture, it's

part of who we are. It's part of the abundance that we live in.

So my question to you is is your Christianity and the giving and the

sacrifices you make, is it because of your culture or is it because of

your faith, because we don't mind giving a few dollars to a good cause.

As a matter of fact, I was on my way to a funeral

and I got to a four way stop up in wherever I was, and

there was a guy I call him the Grand Poobah. You know, they

had the hats with the tasseles on him, and he's got the bucket and

he's out there and I noticed that he was just standing in the middle of

the four way stop. I thought, that's an odd place for that guy

to stand. He's gonna get smashed. It's what I thought. I mean,

somebody's gonna run over him. But every car pulled up and stopped and

put money in his bucket. Now I was in my car, come on,

somebody. I was in my car by myself. Nobody knew who I

was, but I felt the pressure because everybody else stopped to stop and put

money in the bucket. And when I reached in, I had several dollars,

several bills folded up. I had a twenty, a ten of five,

and three ones. And I reached in and I said, definitely,

not a twenty coss Come on, somebody, Not a ten costs. And

I looked at those dollars. I said, I got three dollars. But

you know what, after the funeral, if I want to stop at the

convenience store, that's gonna cost six dollars for me to get a mountain dew

and a candy bar. So I had two spare dollars. So I took

the two dollars and I put them in the bucket, and I drove on.

Not because of my faith, but just because I'm part of a culture

that is generous in giving and I gave the two dollars, but that two

dollars and cost me anything because I still had the money. Come on now

to give my coc in a candy bar. Are we in a culture that

gives because we have trained to be generous as people? Or do we draw

that line in the stand with the Lord and say I refuse to give the

Lord something that costs me nothing. And here's the reality is that our monetary,

our financial giving, is not something else that we do. It's literally

an extension of our praise and our worship. Our praise and our worship,

and those things are different. So as we give, as we move into

this understanding, this deeper understanding of praise versus worship, tithe versus offering,

all of those things, each one of those things play a different role in

our life. As a matter of fact, we talk about praise and worship

and we talk about it and we apply it to the volume or the speed

of the music at which the band plays or we play through our phones.

We think faster music is praise music. Amen. You know, if it

makes me want to move around, its praise. It makes me do this,

it's praise if it makes me do this, it's worship, but that's

actually not anything to do with it. It's all about intent. See,

praise is that cry that arrests the attention of God. We need God to

do something. Come on, somebody. We need God to show up.

We need him to do something right now. And that's what that praises.

It's like when your kids are back in their room playing and you're trying to

watch the ball game in the living room and they scream and you know that,

right, it's not like their play. It's like, oh my gosh,

an invading army has come through the window, and I must go save

them. You know that. It's that cry, and that cry elicits an

encounter. The cry the praise is all about an encounter. And then when

you get there and you realize that the cry this sounded like an invading army

come through the window is just simply because Barbie's head fell off, right,

So you sit down in the floor and you take Barbie and you pop her

head back on. Come on somebody, which I don't know is a good

thing to do in front of your kids, right so, because I mean,

oh, if I take their head off, it just put it right

back on. You know maybe you should do those things. Oh I had

to send her to the hospital. Yeah. But and then you sit down

in the floor and you put Barbie's head back on and you say, oh,

hey, Lexi, how are you thinking? And there's this in and

your kid crawls up in your lap and you have not an encounter, but

there is a moment of impartation, a moment of dwelling together, of abiding

together. Because praise is about encounter, but worship is about impartation. It's

about where there is another level of relationship that happens because we have spent time

and we have abided together, and we have bonded over this common moment where

we have come together. And when we think about that, our praise,

when we need God is that cry. And it doesn't matter if you're singing

a slow song or a fast song, or a quiet song or a loud

song, because it's all about that posture that we talked about earlier, and

it's that cry that arrests the attention of the Father that causes an encounter.

Some times we just need that instant moment where God comes and he makes everything

okay right now, But I just need him to intervene right now. I

feel that anxiety coming on and I need him right now. I check my

bank account and I had no idea. It's overdrawn. I need him right

now. And that's what praise is. It is that cry. It's that

thing that arrests the attention of the father in giving. It's that offering.

It's that thing where we plant that seed for a harvest to be sown.

It's that instantaneous moment where we go above and beyond the normal and we are

arresting the attention of the father who loves me and who wants to have an

encounter with me. He's just been waiting on me to realize I need it.

Who And then there's worship. Worship is that tithe experience, sad experience.

It's not because we need him to show up right now. It's that

we enter into that relationship because of who he is, because of his character

and his nature and his steadfastness, and he's always there and I just want

to spend time with him. And that tithing relationship is about an ongoing process

of planning and execution and sacrifice so that we have created an atmosphere where he

can impart his wisdom and his goodness and his blessing to us, because it

is a lifestyle event, not a momentary event. Everybody tracking, Amen,

everybody track it with me so far, and we come to this place where

where we have to get past the ideology or the thought of Hey, I'm

just going to give I'm just gonna throw something. I'm just listen, I'm

gonna go to church and I'm just when when the music is just right,

I'm gonna lift my hands and you're comfortable lifting your hands. That doesn't cost

you anything. Listen, It doesn't cost you anything to come to a Pentecostal

church and lift your hands during worship. It doesn't. As a matter of

fact, it doesn't cost you anything to come to a Pentecostal church and sway

a little bit. That don't cost you anything. That's expected. Amen.

So when we move across that line where we're not just simply standing in the

shadows, say us, but we're out on the street and we're waving the

palm brat, singing hose Ac, Come and save me, Lord, come

and save me. I need you right now. My boss just chewed me

out. I don't know why I need you to come show up in my

cubicle right now and give me a visitation, an encounter right now, to

just make things okay, right now. Praise. If you got a Bible,

go to Exodus chapter twenty, verse four. This is a This is

what many people call the Ten Commandments. I call it the Big ten.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is

in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is

in the water under the earth. You shall not bounce down to them nor

serve them. For I the Lord your God, I am a jealous god,

visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and

fourth generations of those who hate me. He says, listen, I'm a

jealous guy. I desire your praise and your worship. As a matter of

fact, I created you to do those two things for me. He realized,

that's why we were created. We were created for his pleasure. We

were created to praise Him and to worship him. That was That is the

point of all of this. The point of the point of it all is

an encounter and impartation. That's that's why he did it all. That's why

He created mankind with free moral choice. He created us to choose him,

because if we can't choose him, if we have to do something for him,

it's neither praise nor worship. It has to be a choice to cross

that line where it costs me something. If there's a gun to your head

and you do it, that is not free will. If you're programmed and

can't do it any other way, that is not free will. Free will

is I intentionally and freely enter into this moment to have a relationship with the

God on High, whether it's a moment or an abiding time. I choose,

and I make that choice, and he's a jealous God and he desires

that, and he says, but here's the problem. You create these images,

you create these false idols, and you bow down to those false idols,

and you're like, yeah, but see, nobody does that anymore,

pastors. See, and this is really what the modern church believes. We

believe we're past that, we believe that only happened back in the old days,

that now nobody does that. But I want to tell you that we

still do that every single day, and we do it in the area of

finance. Is more than we do it in any other place that we that

we get into a place. And listen, I know I've had these moments

in my own life. Transparency right number one, core value. I've had

these moments we're ange and I, you know, it's just like we're broke.

We broke, We ain't got no money. Two nichols would be two

more than we had, you know. And and I just look at it,

and you just say, hey, let's go out to eat. She

say, we ain't got no money. I say, we put on a

credit card. I just need to break off that poverty spirit bless God,

you know. You know, I try to spiritualize it with the tone of

my voice, you know. And you go eat crab legs, and you

can't afford crab legs. You can't, you can't even afford the shells.

I've had that moment. And listen, what that is is that is a

moment of praise to a false God that tries to have an encounter to make

me feel better right now. And I cater to that God of gluttony,

that God of convenience, that God of whatever it is. I say,

hey, look at me right now and make me feel better. But we

don't just praise those things. We also enter into worship relationships with things.

We get that engraving image, that that that little flat idol that has a

number on the front of it. Come on, somebody. In the modern

world, that's called a credit card. In the old world, it's called

an idol. It's called a false God because it becomes our provision. No

longer are we trusting God to provide, because now we have the plastic I

am greater than he because it can provide my needs and my waltz. And

we swipe that sucker, and we swipe that sucker, and we swiped that

sucker, and suddenly we formed a dependence on this idol. Did you know

that ae thousand dollars of credit. I'm going to show you how it becomes

a worship relationship. If you accumulate one thousand dollars of credit card debt,

one thousand dollars of credit card debt, and most people would say that's not

a big deal. But one thousand dollars of credit card debt at an interest

rate of twenty percent, I challenge you, yeah, but it seizes me.

Do the math on an even number. So if you go and look

at your credit card, it's probably closer to thirty okay, at twenty percent,

and you make the minimum payments on that one thousand dollars in credit card

debt, you're gonna pay three thousand, one hundred and twenty six dollars and

seventeen cents. It's gonna cost you three times over, three times as much

to pay that back. But that's not the worship. That's not the worship

relationship. That's just poor fiscal management. The worship relationship is the fact that

it's gonna take you sixteen in a quarter years to pay that back. So

for sixteen and a quarter years, you are offering a monthly tith to this

idol that it is required and mandatory because of what it is. And any

time you enter into a relationship because of what it is and its character and

its nature able to provide the things that God can't, you've just entered into

a worship relationship with that idol. And now you struggle to give your tithe

to the creator because you have to give your tithe to the created. I

gave that to you because that's pretweetable right there. And we think we don't

serve idols. We think that our praise and our worship is only what happens

during the music moment of a worship experience, but it's every single thing we

do. Do everything we do, we should do as unto the Lord.

That literally it is a glorification of him. If it brings honor to him,

it's a moment of praise or it's a moment of worship that we have

entered into a relationship that listen, it's not about Sunday. It's not about

Sunday and whatever day you go to group. It is about every single day

you wake up and you go through life. Because you are no longer a

citizen of earth. You're part of the Kingdom of God and you're a representative

of Him and everything that we do should reflect him in some way. So

in our finances, we look and we make sure that those things are prioritized

so that we have that loving worship relationship through our tithe that we are giving

those moments where we just need an encounter with God. I want to just

by show of hands, how many of you you've ever just I'm just gonna

make it easy. You've come here on Sunday and you just think, Man,

I just need to feel God today. I just want to feel God.

I don't necessarily I don't know what I want him to do. I

just want a feeling. Just I just want to know that I'm not by

myself, that I'm not alone. You know, It's why in those moments

when you have that that crisis experience that occurs where that car pulls out in

front of you and you don't have anywhere to go, and your initial response

is Jesus, and suddenly something just overwhelms you. That's that cry, that

cry of praise that Jesus, you're the only one that can get me out

of this. And you're like, no, it's not. That's the You're

taking the Lord's name in vain. Now. I'm crying out for my Savior

because that's who's in my heart. Never one time have somebody pulled out in

front of me and I almost hit him and I yell boot aye. Never

because he ain't in my heart. Come on, somebody as big as I

am, that man can't fit in my heart. I've never said allah,

I've never said nothing. You know, nobody ever cries out to nothing when

they're in a moment of crisis because everybody, no matter what they say,

believes in something, but we have those moments of praise for that encounter,

that moment that make me okay right now. And the sad thing is,

in the season in which we're living right now, there are so many people

who don't have the ability to call on the name of the Lord because they

simply don't know him. And the biggest indictment about the fact that so many

people don't know him, it's that it's because we don't live a life where

our worship costs us something. As a matter of fact, we spend a

lot of our lives trying to avoid the appearance of religion so that we can

fill in the blank. Oh well, we can't talk about We can't talk

about religion on our job. If I talk about religion at my job,

I'll get fired. Do you talk about your husband, your wife, your

girlfriend, your boyfriend, talk about your kids, because you're talking about relationship,

and that's what I'm talking But I'm talking about relationship. I'm not talking

about religion. I'm not talking about an organized set of rules. I'm talking

about the one that sticks to me closer than a brother. I'm talking about

the one that that I talk to every single day, that that that that

that I have a great relationship with And if I could talk about my relationship

with my wife, my relationship with my kids, I can certainly talk about

my relationship with my Jesus. So he's got to stop trying to find lines

to avoid, and we've got to start saying, hey, lord, I'm

gonna put you out front, and I'm willing for it to cost me whatever

it needs to cost me in order to carry my relationship with you to a

new level. And there's so many of you thinking right now, Yeah,

you can say that because you're a preacher. You're a preacher. Man.

All you do is sit in the office and pray every day. You don't

live in the real world. I force myself to be in the real world

every single day and to have conversations about Jesus with people who on the outside

look like they don't know him. Let me say that again, who on

the outside look like they don't know him. Many times we wait and share

our faith when we know that that person is a Christian, and we testify

to other Christians. But I look for the most hurt, broken people I

can find, and I try to engage them with conversations about Jesus. You

know, I talk to y'all a lot of time standing in the fourrier about

football for church. After church, we talked about football. We talk about

hunting, talk about cars, motorcycles, the garden. You know why y'all

are here. You're here. I know your life, I know your relationship

with the Lord of conversation with you about other things. Somebody I don't know.

I try to always point that conversation to Jesus because they may not know,

and they may walk away, they may reject me, they may get

mad, they may march away, they may do whatever. But you know

what, I'm really willing for that to cost me that relationship because that's my

line in the sand. What is your line in the sand. What will

you offer to God that will truly cost you something? Because King David said,

I'm not gonna offer God anything that doesn't cost me something. And listen,

maybe you're here today, Clay, you guys can come and get ready.

Maybe you're here today, and you know you don't have that a fervent

relationship with Jesus. You don't have that relationship with Jesus that extends beyond Sundays.

And maybe when you show up at group and listen, I don't care

how long you've been around here. Maybe that's you. And sometimes it's just

seasonal in our lives where we just feel like God is way way way out

there somewhere. I've been through seasons in my life where it just feels like

God is way way way out there somewhere, and I still have to stand

up and preach every Sunday. No one is immune to those seasons of their

life, but you must only allow it to be a season and not become

the normal in your life. And maybe you're hearing you're in one of those

seasons it just feels like God is way way way out there somewhere, and

you just don't really and you are so tired because you want a feeling you

want to experience. You just don't know how it's praise or maybe you're here

and you say, hey, I just I would like to leave here,

and when I lay down to take my nap this afternoon, just feel the

Holy Spirit at home the way that I feel him here. I just want

to know what that of body bred. That's worship. That's a worship relationship.

So it doesn't matter where you are maybe you're here, you know what,

and you've never experienced Jesus ever at all. You've never asking to forgive

you of your sins. You're never asking to be the lord of your life.

And you go through life and for the most part, it just seems

heavy and hard. Now. I used to be there too. None of

us are born saved. You look at the the person that looks like they

have it together, that just looks like they have just been passionately in love

with Jesus their whole lives. I mean, you know, they always have

a smile on their face, They're always in a good mood. On Steve

honeycut, I mean old Steve. You know, he's just got it all

together. Man, He's always smiling and joking, and he's just he's got

it together. Dean. I tell you what old Dean for, man,

he just he's got it together. He works at the food patries there every

time the doors are open. Man, Dean, he's just always had it

together. He was born save, surely. I mean, he had diapers

that were anointed with the oil of gladness. There's not one person here like

that, not one person. At some point we all came to a moment

where we said this thing. Jesus, I finally realize it's got to cost

me something. And it may be a thirty foot walk from where you're sitting

to this altar today. It may be you weeping before Him for the very

first time, maybe you crying out to God with a loud voice. But

you got to move points past that point and enter that place where your worship

cost you something. Matthew eleven, verse twenty eight says, come to me,

all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you

rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle

and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for

my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Everybody staying with me.

Alter team, Come on and get ready. Unless you're planning on responding to

the altar call, then stay where you are. If you need this altar

call, then it's okay. Just stay where you are. When I count

to three, then you come. Otherwise, go ahead and get ready.

You know, we make some assumptions in the church, don't We assume that

everybody up here never needs to come to the altar. We assume that all

the people that are waiting to pray for you in the altar never need to

come to the altar. That the church staff never needs to come to the

altar, That the sound guys never need to come to the altar, That

our nursery workers never need to come to the altar. That's crazy thinking.

This is a regular place of visitation where the things that hurt us and break

us come to die. Resurrection happens. So if you're here today, you

say, pastor today, I'm ready to take up that posture in that stance.

Today, I know that I'm going to live, and I will stop

offering things to God that don't cost me. Today, I'm willing to step

across that line and give myself fully and holy to God and live in a

sacrificial relationship with Him because He gave me everything. If that's you, you

want to meet Jesus today, you want to experience him right now, or

you want to experience him at three o'clock this afternoon. This altar call is

for you. It's about changing your position the way you think. On the

count of three, I want you to step out and come. If that's

you, these guys are gonna sing, They're gonna do an incredible job leading

you in one more worship song. So don't be a spectator, be a

participant. Either come to the altar or worship in such a way that there's

a habitation created for those people to get the miracle that they're searching for when

they come to the altar, it's on the count of three h