Nothing But Leaves

Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Lights and, um, I don't know what else, I don't know what you're distracted by,

but, um, God wants to speak this morning.

Amen.

And so I'm going to ask if, uh, the lights like flicker or something, or

there's a baby that's crying or I don't know, something, um, you stay focused.

You stay focused on the word of God, because God has something to say to you.

And we know that when Jesus called Peter in faith, Peter said, Hey, if it's you

call me out to go to you, Jesus made a way for him to go, but the moment he

started to look elsewhere and look at the distractions and look at the waves,

he took his eyes off of Jesus.

He began to sink.

And I know I'm not trying to make a super spiritual moment out of this, but I know

that many times when we come into worship, God, we come in to receive a word from

God, because God has something to say.

There is also distractions and there's also an enemy who doesn't want us to get

the word, doesn't want us to get the experience of the worship and doesn't

want us to experience the Holy spirit.

And so if you're distracted by anything this morning, I want you to rebuke that

distraction and focus on what God has to say to you, to his people.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

You can, you can take your seat for just a moment.

Just a moment.

Um, I do want to just, first of all, thank you for being here on time.

Man, get yourself around.

Y'all had me worried and some of y'all showed up at 11.

It's all good.

It's better to be early than it is to be late.

Um, next Sunday as well, we will be here at 1130, 1130.

Uh, I anticipate we're absolutely going to need that extra time today was really a

Um, because we know that everybody in their mama comes to church on Easter

Sunday, and so we want to give that space between our services.

Uh, so again, 1130 and then after next week we'll be back at, at 11 o'clock.

Um, I also just want to acknowledge that our youth group, man, they, they, uh,

they went to fine arts this weekend.

I think 25 categories went advanced to nationals, man.

We got some awesome, talented, anointed, fired up young people in this house, man.

Praise the Lord.

I don't worry about the next generation here, man.

And so if you need a place for your, for your child, for your young person to plug

in, this is a great place for them.

I also just want to shout out pastor Renee.

Are you pastor?

It was his birthday yesterday.

He was out there hustling and doing all kinds of stuff.

I hope to look like you when I'm your age, bro.

Hope to still have my hair, the little that I have left.

Amen.

Now we can, we can turn, uh, our, our Bibles to Matthew and I'm gonna ask you to

Matthew chapter 21, beginning with verse six.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

And my wife pray for my wife and reach out to her.

If, if, if you can, uh, she is, if you're a woman, don't reach out to my wife.

If you're a man, uh, um, yeah, just reach out to her.

She had a really high fever yesterday, so she's feeling under the weather.

Uh, Matthew 21, beginning with verse six, this is, this is what is, um, commonly

known as, you know, the triumphal entry of Jesus.

When Jesus makes his way into Jerusalem, it's kicking off passion week.

This is the very final week of Jesus life on earth before he's being crucified.

Uh, up until this point, Jesus had been doing ministry for three years.

He's been preaching, he's been teaching, he's done miracles, and he's gathered a

really large following outside of the city of Jerusalem.

And now he is about to step into the epicenter of Jewish religion where the

temple is.

Um, it said that on any given, I asked you to stand prematurely, but it's okay.

Just stand standing.

Uh, cause I'm setting this up, um, on, on any given day, the city of Jerusalem, it

had a population about 30,000 people, but on special occasions on Passover, on

special festivals, I mean, that, that number exceeded a hundred thousand because

people were trying to get to the temple that was in Jerusalem.

Uh, it's kind of like resurrection Sunday, you know, at church, you know, a church

might have 500 people in weekly attendance, but on Easter Sunday, it's like a

thousand.

And there's something to be said about that, which is message that you will speak

to.

Um, but Matthew 21, six through 11, it says this, the disciples went and did as

Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the cult and put on their cloaks and he sat on them.

Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the

trees and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before him and that

followed him were shouting Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this?

And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

And I want to real quick read Mark 11, Mark 11, 12 through 14.

You don't have to turn there, but the reason I want to read it from Mark is

because Matthew leaves this part of the story out, but it's following the same

timeline.

Mark says on the following day.

So this is the day after the triumphal entry.

When they came to Bethany, he was hungry.

Jesus was hungry and seen in the distance, a fig tree in leaf.

He went to see if he could find anything on it.

And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for

figs.

And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again.

And the disciples heard it heavenly father.

I come before you this morning.

My God, just humbled as your servant to preach this word that you have given me,

Lord.

I pray that as I have received it, my God, your people would receive it.

Lord, I pray that you would have your way today.

Father God, I pray against the distractions Lord.

And I pray father God for conviction.

I pray for healing.

I pray for transformation.

I pray for peace to be restored.

I pray for salvation in this place this morning and Jesus mighty name.

I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take your seat.

Amen.

I entitled the sermon today, nothing but leaves, nothing believes.

And look, I hope most of you don't need to hear this message this morning.

Like I pray that this doesn't resonate with you.

And I know that's not a normal thing that preachers say.

We want our messages to truly impact.

And I do want this to impact you if you need it.

I just, I'm praying that I'm only preaching to a minority today.

Now, if it does resonate with you, I'm going to, I'm going to make you a

challenge right now before I even make the altar call, I'm going to challenge

you to go beyond this moment.

I'm going to challenge you to go beyond the service, go beyond this preaching

and really seek transformation of mind and spirit.

Okay.

There's too many people all over this world who go to church on Sundays and

they flaunt their leaves and then they go home with no fruit to show for it.

And I truly believe that most people who come in here for transformation, find it.

We've, we've seen it.

We're witnesses of that.

Amen.

So again, I hope I'm not speaking to many of you, but if you know that you have been

coming to church for too long to still look like you did a year ago, if you know

that nothing's really changed, if you know that you are a different person, when you

get outside of the temple of God around non church people, God isn't playing man.

So I want to encourage you to go beyond this moment of emotion and seek to be

transformed.

Amen.

God is, God is looking for a fruitful church, not a leafy church.

Leaves might look pretty, but they bring no nourishment.

God is looking for a church who's got joy in their spirit, faith in their spirit,

passion, zeal for the Lord, a church who hungers and thirsts for the Lord.

A church for his presence.

May we never, somebody say never, may we never become a church where people say,

man, they look really good on Instagram.

Let's go check them out.

And then they come in here and there's no fruit to be found.

Let us never be that church again.

I don't believe that this is the majority of us, but if you find yourself here today,

a leafy Christian and love, I say to you, it's time to transform into the man or the

woman of God that God has called you to be.

And for the rest of us, this message is going to serve as a reminder for everybody

who truly loves Jesus to, like my wife said last week, guard our hearts.

The enemy is very good at deception.

He's very good at deception.

And we would be fools to think that we can't be deceived.

So the church needs to discern between being religious and being holy.

Okay.

We need to know what the difference is between a holy person and a religious

person. Now I want to, I want to define the word religious real quick,

because I think that we, we kind of throw out that term a little nonchalantly.

We kind of use it too casually. Religious isn't someone saying, Hey,

you shouldn't wear a hat in church. That's not religious.

That's just old school. Pastor, you need to preach in a suit.

Somebody told me that one time when I first became a pastor,

you need to preach in a suit. That's not religious.

That's just an old school preference.

I know a lot of pastors who probably wouldn't invite me because I like to

preach in jeans and boots. It's okay. I don't think they're religious.

I just think they're old, old school, old school.

Sorry. They're stuck in their cultural ways. Now,

now these things don't get me wrong.

They can absolutely lead to a religious mindset.

And I know many people who have come out of very religious legalistic churches or

homes where they felt so uncomfortable,

like they couldn't do anything and everything they were doing,

they were being judged for.

I know that people have left some of these churches hurts because they felt like

they just didn't belong. And so many of them even left the church altogether.

I don't want to excuse real religious mindsets, but for the most part,

people just have a different interpretation of what it means to respect the Lord

and his temple. You know, every time I wear a hat,

I take it off when I'm on pray.

And I don't do that because I think I'm going to go to hell if I don't take off

my hat. I don't do somebody asked me one time, uh, they said, pastor,

would you judge a person who, uh, who preaches in a hat? I said, no.

They said, well, would you do it? I said, no, they were trying to trap me.

They're like, so then why, why wouldn't you do it? I just told him,

because for me, this is the way that I respect the Lord.

If I go against my conviction, then I'm, I'm in the wrong.

But if you're preaching in a hat, I'm not going to be like, all right,

you're going to hell borough and you ain't taking me with you. That's,

that's not, that's not how it is. And so, um,

the truth is we call a lot of holy people, religious people.

I'm gonna talk to some of y'all today. Cause y'all use that word too,

too lightly. Oh, he's just religious.

I used to think my grandpa was religious because I had an earring back in my

gangster days and he,

he called it a demon. He saw me. He said, there's a demon in your ear.

I said, what? I started rebuking that thing. And he says,

that earring you got, I was like, come on, man.

I thought he was a religious, but the truth is my grandfather,

he was a holy man. He was a man of God. He was just a little old school.

So what is a religious person?

A religious person is someone who attempts to look holy for people.

That's a religious person.

And Jesus rebukes these types of people all over scripture.

They fast for everyone to see them.

They pray loudly for everyone to hear them.

They give to the poor and make sure all social media knows about it.

They acknowledge God with their lips, but their hearts are far from them.

And so the enemy is very good at deception.

He has convinced many people that they're not religious. They're holy,

but you don't have to look religious. Listen, hold on.

You don't have to look religious to be religious. See, we, we've,

we've had in our minds that we know what a religious person looks like.

They're all put together. She talks a certain way,

creates expectations that are not even biblical, thinks everything is a sin.

I can't even go to the movies because I'm sinning. We,

we have learned that that's what a religious person looks like.

And maybe it is, but you know what?

It's also the guy who speaks against the religiosity and against the

legalism, the guy who can preach in jeans and sneakers,

but who himself has no Holy spirit in him.

That's also a religious person.

You can be the least looking religious person in the room while being the most

religious person in the room.

So the people of God need to discern what it is to be religious

and what it is to be Holy.

And the reason that I wanted to read Matthew's version of the triumphal entry is

because Matthew points out a detail that a lot of the other gospels don't verse

nine says,

and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting

Hosanna to the son of David. So the chapter before this,

you know, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And, and, and he's, again,

he's been doing all kinds of ministry,

all kinds of miracles for the past three years on his way to Jerusalem. He,

he sees two blind guys, he heals them. And then they start to follow him.

Everybody is following Jesus. And, and if you,

if you think about the multitude of the, of the 5,000 Jesus feeding,

the 5,000,

those people follow Jesus because they wanted to hear him speak.

And then he did a miracle for them. And so Jesus is,

he's got this crowd that has been following from Galilee and,

and they're shouting Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna.

These are the crowds that are shouting Hosanna, Hosanna,

the ones who had experienced the work of Jesus because they received him.

They believed him.

This wasn't necessarily the same crowd who was shouting, crucify him,

crucify him a week later. That was a different crowd.

And I'm going somewhere. Stay with me. Verse 10 says,

and when he entered Jerusalem,

the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said,

again, the crowds who were already following Jesus, they said,

this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

So there's two things that I want you to understand. First,

the Jews had this saying, nothing good comes from Galilee.

In fact, Nathaniel, one of the 12 disciples, uh,

he was called to follow Jesus. And that was his first response. He said,

can anything good come from Galilee? This Messiah is a Galilean.

Can anything good come from Galilee? Galilee was this a Judean region.

It was North of Jerusalem. It was a lot more rural.

The people were less educated. It was also mixed with Gentile.

So non-Jewish people, they spoke differently. They had a little accent.

Remember Peter's, uh, Peter's accent was his giveaway because he was a Galilean.

He was the ones that was following Jesus.

The Galileans were probably like Californians to Texans, right?

It's the best way I can put it on California, my Texas,

they were both Jewish groups,

but Galileans weren't really respected by the more elite Jews from Jerusalem.

But Jesus, the Messiah, the prophet was a Galilean.

And he comes riding into Jerusalem and he's making the statement that he was a

true Messiah. And so many of the residents from Jerusalem,

they don't really know who he is. They've never seen him before.

Maybe they've heard of him, but they don't know what he looks like.

And so they ask, well,

who is this and the crowds who were following Jesus also Galileans were so

quick to say, this is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee.

I bet you they were so proud and petty to say from Galilee.

Imagine if Jesus was from your hood.

This is Jesus. The prophet from now side, baby.

Imagine you would say that with your chest, man.

So all of this crowd, they're following Jesus.

They're Galileans and they're paving the way and they've got these palms and

they're getting ready to enter the city of Jerusalem.

And Jesus comes in riding on a donkey and they're like,

this is Jesus, the prophet that we all spoke about. This is a Messiah.

This is the anointed one. And you know what? He's from Galilee.

So here's my point with saying all this,

you have this crowd who is less educated,

probably can't read.

Many of them don't speak properly and they're diluted with Gentile people.

They don't look like religious people, but to the religious people,

they probably don't look Holy.

But this is the crowd that is following Jesus.

Many of them have already been healed. They've been delivered.

They're full of faith. Jesus has had an impact on these Galileans.

He has had an influence on their lives so much so that they follow him into

Jerusalem, boldly and loudly hailing him as Jesus,

the son of David. They might not look Holy,

but they have been transformed already by the Holy one.

And so it doesn't matter. This is my point.

It doesn't really matter so much. If you can talk like a Christian,

it doesn't really matter.

If you look like somebody who's been in church all their lives,

you know how you could just tell she's, she'd been in church all her life.

You could just tell God,

God doesn't look at your representation of men.

He looks at your heart.

I know people in this room who didn't grow up in church.

You don't know what a godly marriage looks like because you've never seen it.

You didn't grow up with the priests in your home.

You don't look like one of those church folks,

but God has been working on you and you have been transformed and he is showing

you what it is to be a son, a daughter of Christ.

You can see your father and you know what it is to be a priest because he is

transforming you even if you don't look like it.

And then Jesus goes into Jerusalem and we need to understand something about

the triumphal entry that often gets missed in most Palm Sunday messages.

The triumphal entry is not just about Jesus going into Jerusalem and saying,

I'm here, baby,

your King has arrived,

bow down and kiss my feet and you better recognize my power and my authority

because I and the father are one. Yes, yes.

Jesus called people to follow him. Yes.

Jesus spoke of himself as one with the father. He is the King of Kings.

He is the Lord of Lords. He is worthy of all of it. But listen,

Jesus was coming into this supposedly Holy city of Jerusalem to reveal how truly

unholy and unrighteous it was.

He came to expose the filth that was going on in the temple.

He came to rebuke the highly esteemed Pharisee teachers.

He came to reveal the corruption of the Sanhedrin.

He came to reveal that religion without true relationship was as good as a fig

tree that produced no figs.

Listen, Jesus, we have to understand this. Jesus had one week.

Somebody say one week from the moment that he stepped into the city of Jerusalem,

he had one week to let the people know he wasn't coming for Rome.

He was coming for the hearts of his people. He wasn't after Caesar.

He was after the devil. He didn't come to establish a kingdom on earth,

but rather his father's kingdom here on earth.

That was the point of the triumphal entry.

And this is something that we need to understand as the people of God,

that as the more space we give to Christ, whenever we say, God,

invade my life, cover me, take over more spaces in me,

take over my mind, take over my mouth, take over my eyes, take over all of me.

We have to understand that when God enters our hearts,

he doesn't care about my agenda.

I don't get to dictate the way that he uses me.

I don't get to dictate where he goes into my life because he is not in,

in the business of making us feel good.

He's trying to make us Holy.

He's also not concerned with every earthly giant that you bring to him. God,

here's my finances. God, here's my health. God, here's my relationship.

He's not so much concerned with the earthly giants,

but we still got spiritual giants still standing.

Jesus is in the business of sanctifying and making Holy and slaying devils.

And he wishes to see a Holy church that produces fruits more than it produces

leaves. Are you hearing me this morning?

This, this is the commencement of passion week.

And when we think about passion week, you know, we,

we don't always think about the whole week. We just think about Friday.

We think about his betrayal, his arrest, his suffering, the, um,

the Lord's supper. We think about his death, but,

but the passion of Jesus is seen as soon as he enters the table,

the temple to overturn the tables because the religious leaders had turned the

father's temple, which was supposed to be a house of prayer.

Pastor Danny spoke about this today into a den of thieves.

We see his passion in every single discourse that he has with every Pharisee,

every Jewish leader who questions his authority because they're so blinded by

their religion to see the very son of God standing before them.

See the Holy city of Jerusalem thought they knew what holiness was.

They had religion, they had the temple, they had the Sanhedrin. This was,

this was the city of David in their minds.

This was the epicenter of holiness.

If anybody could teach anybody else about holiness, it was them.

And Jesus enters the heart of the city and he begins to dissect everything that

was wrong with it. Listen, I never want you. Are you still with me?

I still got your attention. I talk about holiness a lot

because it's important and it's,

it's what God desires from his people.

The thing that was lost in the garden was holiness and God has had this plan ever

since to restore us back to the Holy one,

to cleanse us by the power of his blood. He died.

He died not just to, to, to see us party in heaven.

He died to cleanse us.

He died to make us Holy the precious blood of the lamb for our sake.

And so we need to be after holiness, but to be after holiness,

we need to know what holiness looks like. We have to be able to discern it.

I don't ever want you to look at me or any of our leaders or any of our pastors

or any preacher that comes in here that preaches a really good sermon and think,

wow, he is Holy because he preached a good sermon.

He must be Holy because that was a fire sermon.

That is not what makes a person Holy.

There is a difference and we've talked about this before.

There's a difference between being Holy and being anointed.

Anybody who was anointed is also anointed to be Holy because you're chosen by the

Holy God,

but you can be anointed and start to lose your holiness along the way.

This very thing happened to King Saul.

He was anointed by the prophet of God to be the King over Israel and he started

out good, but then he started to let some other things into his temple.

And as he let jealousy in some holiness left and as he let pride in some more

holiness left and as he let in hatred more holiness left until one day the

anointed King of Israel was left with zero holiness.

Don't think that our worship leaders who sing here powerfully and beautifully on

Sundays are, are Holy just because they can minister.

I'm not saying that they're not,

but I just,

I don't want anybody to get the picture that these are the things that ministry

is the thing that makes you Holy.

That knowing a little bit of Bible verses is the thing that makes you Holy.

Holiness is what holiness is,

what you do when nobody else sees you.

Holiness is what goes on in your mind.

It's what it's what goes on when it's the way that you act with the people that

you're most comfortable with.

When you look around and you're like,

Oh,

this is a safe place.

Let me tell you about the sister is when you feel comfortable enough to start

gossiping.

It's when you have certain people in your circle that you're like, okay,

we're not at church.

I can talk like this.

Holiness is what happens when nobody else is looking in your most intimate

circles.

Holiness is what happens when you're at home talking to your wife,

talking to your kids,

being a priest.

That's what holiness is.

And the enemy is such a good deceiver because he allows the voices of other

people to influence the way that we think of ourselves.

Remember a religious person is someone who attempts to look Holy for people.

So when people say great sermon,

pastor,

when they say great worship,

pastor Damaris,

great class,

great prayer,

great leadership.

When they say thank you for the offering,

when they make it spiritual and they say,

thank you for your heart.

That has the power to convince us that we are bearing good fruit.

But in the way that Jesus entered the sacred city and the sacred temple,

he enters our hearts and sometimes finds nothing but leaves that might look great

to people,

but are totally unsatisfying to the father.

And you know,

my heart is,

we're just talking about this the other day,

David,

as a pastor,

I am,

I am aware of the religious elements that we partake in here at church that

might be equated with holiness and true longing for the presence of God.

Like I,

I never want us to be moved or I never want us to have to be moved by a song to

get into the presence of God.

Oh,

I don't.

And yet,

and yet we know the importance of sound selection,

right?

Worship team.

We're getting ready for a,

an awesome worship night.

This is coming Friday.

Good Friday.

I got to pull up.

It'd be awesome.

And I was just thinking about this.

What if we just chose the most random songs that nobody even knows?

There was a song that man used to annoy the heck out of me when I was a kid.

I would turn it off every time I heard it.

Um,

if you've been in church long enough,

you,

you've heard it.

My deliverer is coming.

You heard that one?

I'd hear that song.

It would creep me out.

I'm turning that off.

What if we sang that song on Friday?

Some of y'all are like,

yeah,

do it,

do it,

do it.

What if we sang the songs that nobody knows?

What if we sang the songs that,

that didn't have that oomph,

that unction that,

and all the spiritual words,

would you still walk out saying,

man,

worship was fire.

Would you actually,

actually,

when you walk out of church saying worship was fire,

do you listen?

Honest question.

Do you mean the set list was fire?

Or do you mean that your experience with God was so powerful that you didn't even know what song they were playing?

Come on.

There's a difference.

There is a difference.

Out that last night of worship.

I was so proud of the song that I sang.

Cause I mean,

I was,

it was awesome,

bro.

It was,

uh,

what song was it?

I don't know.

uh,

uh,

it doesn't matter.

Okay.

It was an awesome song.

It was,

it was a good song and we tagged it with another song.

It was so powerful.

And,

you know,

we were practicing.

I was thinking,

man,

this is going to be amazing.

And then I,

after,

after the service,

I asked Melissa,

I said,

did you hear the song?

Did you hear,

what'd you think of the song?

It was so awesome.

And she was like,

honestly,

I was so lost in the presence of God.

I didn't even know what song you're singing.

She was like,

you see,

honestly,

she told me this.

She said,

you sang that night.

I was like,

bro,

come on.

That,

that is the type of experiences that we want to have at church where,

where a good service is not tied to the songs that they sang,

but it's tied to the experience that you had with the Holy spirit in his

presence.

I don't want my,

listen,

I don't want my sermons.

Listen,

I don't want my sermons to lead you to raise your hand every Sunday.

If that's what's happening,

you're just being a part of an emotional moment with no transformation

taking place.

And can we be honest about something?

Church can be a very emotionally driven place.

Like it is,

it is.

And,

and,

and God can and does use emotion to draw us into him.

But if we never go beyond the moment,

if we never go beyond the emotion,

you're always just going to be doing things for the emotion.

You're going to look Holy for the emotion that comes from being liked and

accepted by the people of God.

You're going to talk Holy.

You're going to speak in faith in front of people.

You'll say,

God is good out of fear of being judged.

If you don't say those things,

you'll come to the altar because you love the song more than you love the

father.

And my prayer is that this would be a church with all the leaves,

but with all the fruit as well,

that whenever the Lord is hungry for a true worship,

when there is no AC in the room,

when there is no light in the room,

that would still be a church and East end Houston that would bring down fire

from heaven with their praise and with their worship.

That when the song is over,

we would still fill the room.

That is my man.

That is my heart's desire,

but he's not moved by religion.

He's not moved by the festivals.

He's not moved by the ordinances.

He's not moved by the pretty worship songs.

He's moved by a heart that is after his,

we cannot be people of leaves.

We need to be people of fruit

because when Jesus cursed that fig tree,

it says he was hungry.

The human Jesus became hungry.

And I believe there,

there's still a spiritual element to that because the Bible says that,

that the father,

he is looking for a heart of true worship.

He's looking for worshipers who,

who would worship in spirit and in truth.

He is hungry for our worship.

And when he comes a little bit closer to that church in Houston,

will he find leaves or will he find fruit and be satisfied?

I don't,

I don't care if you come in here and you wear a hat.

I don't care if you wear a suit,

as long as you're modest,

as long as you don't cause a distraction,

wear what you want.

In fact,

I tell people,

this is one of the really small,

I love a lot of things about our church,

but one of the really small things I love about our church is that you have

people,

you know,

some churches you either dress down or you dress up,

right?

I love that we got people in here who wear hats and suits.

We've got everything from the streets to the executive boardroom.

I love that.

You know why I love it?

Because we're not,

we're not trying to create a culture of dress code.

We're trying to create a culture of holiness.

And I'm,

I'm all for changing the exterior.

I'm all for the outward transformation,

but God is wanting to grab hold of that heart of yours today.

So here's the challenge I want to make to you.

I want you to choose your crowd,

choose your crowd.

See the Galilean crowd.

They,

they weren't self-righteous.

They weren't proud.

They were,

they were humble.

Much like Jesus didn't look like the Messiah,

the Galileans didn't look holy,

but these were the people who recognize their need of a savior.

And shouted Hosanna in the highest.

Angel just spoke about it.

That word Hosanna,

it means save us,

but it was also an appeal to praise.

Hosanna,

listen,

Hosanna was the sound of hope.

As if you were stranded in the middle of an ocean,

and you finally see the coast guard just a few yards away.

And you say,

Hosanna,

Hosanna,

Hosanna.

It was a cry for help,

but there was hope attached to it because you knew that the savior was in the room.

And listen,

God is looking for people who every single day recognize their need for a savior.

If you've stopped recognizing your need for a savior,

if you think that you've got it all together,

if you think that only you can help everybody else,

if you think that you are the hero,

you might be that religious person because you have refused the heart of humility.

Every single day,

I have to walk with the posture that says Hosanna,

Hosanna in the highest.

God,

save that mouth of mine.

Save that mind of mine.

Save me from the temptation.

I need Hosanna every day because every day I fall short of the glory of God.

Hosanna,

save my marriage.

Or you can be like the other crowd,

filled with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious people who looked good.

They dressed good.

They spoke well.

They were educated.

They knew the law.

They knew the scriptures,

but they were so proud that they judged Jesus.

As soon as they walked in,

they didn't want true transformation.

They didn't want true salvation.

And so as Jesus began to expose,

because how many of you know that whenever you allow the Holy Spirit in,

he begins to expose some things.

Okay.

Yes,

you come as you are,

but you don't stay as you are.

You come as you are.

You receive the savior and he begins to do some heart surgery.

And,

and if you come every single Sunday and you're like,

God,

I want you to save what I want you to save.

I want to give you the parts that I really need help with,

but not all of me.

That's not what Jesus does.

So as,

as soon as Jesus began to expose and make uncomfortable and call people to

repentance,

as soon as he started to tear down their religion,

the people rejected him and crucified.

Listen today,

right now,

the King of Kings is here.

That same King that wrote in on the donkey Jerusalem,

he's here today.

He has entered this place and you know what?

He didn't enter it just for praise,

not just for worship,

but also to cleanse and call his people to holiness.

He doesn't want an empty worship.

I don't care how good you sing.

I don't care how loudly you pray.

If there was nothing in here,

it's just for show.

It's just leaves.

And so I wouldn't be,

I don't think I would be a good usher of his presence.

If I was just always saying,

come on church,

lift up that voice,

lift up those hands and just being a cheerleader for Jesus.

If I wasn't truly calling the people of God to open up their hearts and say,

God,

see the parts of me that nobody else does

know me and try me.

And I want to give every piece of it to you because I want to be totally

transformed by your power.

That King is here today and he wants to redeem you and he wants to set you

He wants to transform you.

So here's the,

here's the call today.

I'm gonna ask you to stand and I'm,

I'm almost done,

but I really want you to hear this call.

Okay.

If you have the leaves,

but you haven't seen the fruit,

this is for you.

Everybody,

I have your attention,

right?

I want you to examine yourself.

If you have all the leaves,

but no fruit,

or maybe you don't have any leaves and no fruit.

This is going to be for you.

Now I'm going to be honest with you.

This is going to be a true challenge today.

It's going to be a challenge because church people don't like to be called out

in front of other church people.

Remember religion is the attempt to look Holy for other people.

That's why so many people who should come up to the altar never do.

I'll be the first to admit I've been that person.

I'll be the first to admit,

Hey, I'm the pastor.

I'm a minister.

I'm a leader.

I've been a Christian all my life and that altar calls for me.

But if I go up there,

people are going to know some things that is a religious mindset.

And it's got to break today

because God,

God can break what you won't give him.

God won't break what you won't give him.

God won't break what you're still holding on to.

And so this is a true challenge today.

If you know that there is an area of your life that you have welcomed religion,

but have seen no transformation and it's time to start shouting,

Hosanna,

Hosanna,

it's time to make a public statement that you,

you who know the power of Christ are in need of saving.

So that's you.

I'm going to make the altar call.

Once come up,

come on.

And you don't have to come up for prayer,

but you can come up and you just have a moment with God.

Anybody in need of a transformation this morning?

Can we give glory to God for this?

Come on.

This is not easy to do.

It's not easy to do.

It's not easy.