Sermon

Palm Sunday: Who Is This? - March 29, 2026

The Word from Mountain View

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  1. It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

  2. I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

  3. When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

  4. mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

  5. May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

  6. Hey, I want to tell you, it was an incredible day.

  7. I just want you to imagine the first time that you were ever at a parade.

  8. Maybe you had no clue of what was going on.

  9. Maybe you were just some kid that was dragged to this thing by your parents.

  10. But yet when you got there, your mind was just blown because there were all

  11. these sights, these floats that went by.

  12. Maybe there was all these smells. you smell cotton candy, you smell some good barbecue.

  13. It was just a festive time, a festive event.

  14. Not only that, your parents, when you looked at them, they were just in awe

  15. of everything that was happening.

  16. I've never been to a really, really big parade.

  17. You know, kind of like when astronauts used to come back from space and they

  18. would get this big parade or,

  19. you know, a very popular politician comes into town and takes a parade or a

  20. sports team wins the championship and they're there in town and everyone's cheering them on as they go by.

  21. But there was a boy at this parade. He did not have a clue what was going on.

  22. His dad just dragged him with him and there he was.

  23. And he was just in awe of this incredible day, this incredible event that was happening.

  24. And as he watched, he was just in awe.

  25. And then the big moment came, the VIP, the very important person,

  26. And the one the parade was for just happened to walk by and he saw his dad just

  27. cheering and yelling and just ecstatic.

  28. And he interrupted his dad's excitement for just a moment. And he said, Dad, who is that?

  29. The dad, very excitedly but very instruction-worthy, looked at his son and said,

  30. that's who the parade is for.

  31. Now, when we think about this event that happened so many thousands of years

  32. ago, the triumphal entry, as it's called, we think about who this parade was

  33. for, this impromptu parade.

  34. Nothing quite could ever capture the imagination of what was happening here.

  35. We saw it portrayed, and you'll have to come back next week to see the rest of the story.

  36. I'm telling you, that was just a snippet.

  37. Next week is longer. You're going to have to be filled in on everything that comes afterward.

  38. But can we, just for a moment, concentrate on this?

  39. You see, today is Palm Sunday, and we think about the significance of Palm Sunday.

  40. What is going on? What was shouted as Jesus came down? Hosanna!

  41. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. blessed be the son of David.

  42. We see prophecy that has been fulfilled in this man Jesus and what has happened

  43. with everyone praising.

  44. You see, who is this is the question you need to answer today.

  45. It's the question that was asked in scripture, and we're going to read this in just a moment.

  46. But what I want you to take away from all this today is this,

  47. who Jesus is to you personally matters eternally.

  48. So have that nailed down. Know who Jesus is today.

  49. Why wait? Why wait for another parade? Well, there's a parade today. We praise the Lord.

  50. And so when we think about this, who is Jesus to you?

  51. Not just historically, not just theologically, but personally.

  52. Who is Jesus to you today?

  53. Maybe you'll see him as we read the scripture and you can answer that question

  54. as we look to God's word today. If you're willing and able, would you stand

  55. with me as we read Matthew 21, verses 8 through 17.

    Matthew 21:8–17

  56. Matthew writes in this gospel, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the

  57. road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

  58. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that follow shouted,

  59. Hosanna to the son of David!

  60. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

  61. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, Who is this?

  62. The crowds answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

  63. Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

  64. He overturned the tables, the money changers, the benches, and the benches of those selling doves.

  65. It is written, Jesus said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer,

  66. but you are making it a den of robbers.

  67. The blind and the lame came to the temple, and he healed them.

  68. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things

  69. he did, and the children shouting in the temple courts, Hosanna to the Son of

  70. David, they were indignant.

  71. Do you want these children? Do you hear what these children are saying? They asked him.

  72. Yes, replied Jesus. Have you never read from the lips of children and infants?

  73. You, Lord, have called forth your praise. And Jesus left them and went out of

  74. the city to Bethany where he spent the night.

  75. Father, in the name of Jesus, may your word have an impact on our lives today, God.

  76. May it so impact us, we are able to answer this question, who is this?

  77. And Father, in answering this question, we pray that, Lord, we will be turned

  78. on to the Son of God, the Savior of the world, Father, the eternal King of kings and Lord of lords.

  79. We ask this in Jesus' name today. Amen.

  80. Thank you. You can be seated.

  81. Well, I'm sure glad that you're here today. And as we look at the scripture

  82. and we answer this question, who is this?

  83. Who is this that caused such a stir in town?

  84. That caused us so much ruckus in this very festive time for the Jews.

  85. I mean, it was the Passover. Great and amazing and mighty things were happening.

  86. And so here this crowd begins to gather as we read the scripture.

  87. And, you know, we give some clues as to who this is. It tells us right off who

  88. this is. We know it's Jesus.

  89. Jesus, that precious name that is above every name, that name that Scripture

  90. tells us, that at his name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

  91. We see Jesus, whose name means Yahweh saves, the Lord saves,

  92. just by the meaning of his name.

  93. That he didn't come just to decorate your life, to make your life look better,

  94. but he came to deliver you.

  95. And in this, he came to deliver the Jews that were shouting,

  96. that were praising, that were making a highway of carpeted by their cloaks,

  97. by their coats, by the palm branches that they were waving.

  98. That's amazing and exciting. This was Jesus. Did you catch the answer in there?

  99. Who did people say that this was?

  100. In verse 11, it says, this is Jesus, the prophet from Galilee.

  101. That's kind of backhanded compliment in a way.

  102. Galilee was like one of those places that, you know, you kind of made fun of.

  103. Now, I grew up in Boise, so I won't tell you what towns we made fun of,

  104. but they may be nearby here.

  105. You know, city kids, right?

  106. I could tell you several my kids made fun of when they grew up in Central California,

  107. but they were all nice places, I think.

  108. And really, the ones we made fun of in high school, they're super nice places.

  109. Who wants to live in Boise anymore after all, right?

  110. When we think about this, who was Jesus from Nazareth? It was said,

  111. can anything good come from Nazareth, come from Galilee?

  112. I mean, you know, you want to talk about where the redneck hicks lived.

  113. It was Galilee. It was Nazareth.

  114. And we think about the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

  115. They got part of it right, that he was a prophet, but he just wasn't a prophet. So who is this Jesus?

  116. Who is this prophet from Nazareth and Galilee? Well, we see the scene kind of change really quickly.

  117. I won't get into it too much, but Jesus kind of cleaned house in the temple.

  118. He drove out all of those that were jacking up the prices for the lambs and

  119. the doves and all the sacrificial animals that people had to have at that time

  120. in order to worship at the Passover.

  121. I mean, Rich could have brought this perfect lamb, perfect for sacrifices,

  122. and he could have brought it into the temple courts and showed it to the priests.

  123. No matter how perfect it was, that guy examining that lamb would say, no, this one's flawed.

  124. You can't use it for the sacrifice.

  125. But hey, I got 20 over here, only $19.95 plus shipping and handling,

  126. or actually plus tax. They didn't have to ship it anywhere.

  127. That's the kind of scheme that they were working here. You could have brought

  128. your own sacrificial animals,

  129. But they had a scheme going Because guess who profited from the sale of those

  130. animals It was the high priest and his family It was the temple there,

  131. We think about what Jesus did. He cleared all that garbage out.

  132. And then he got down to what God's house, the temple, was supposed to be all about.

  133. And we see the next thing about Jesus there is that he's a healer.

  134. The blind and lame were brought to him, and Jesus healed them.

  135. Now, Jesus had already been healing people. This wasn't anything new.

  136. But they knew that this was Jesus, the prophet from Galilee,

  137. from Nazareth. And here he has come, this Nazarene guy.

  138. For whatever reason, he's in the temple and they took advantage of it.

  139. Here's my aunt. She cannot see. She's blind. And Jesus would heal her.

  140. Here's my brother. He can't even walk. We dragged him in here so that he could

  141. be healed. And Jesus did just that.

  142. Wouldn't it be great if this place was known that people are healed?

  143. People are healed. We just don't always see it.

  144. Sometimes it's a spiritual healing that takes place. Sometimes it's a healing on the inside.

  145. Sometimes it is a physical healing. We're not ones to always shout and praise

  146. the Lord about it, although we should probably.

  147. But here, people were seeing what Jesus did in the temple.

  148. We see Jesus, this prophet from Galilee, who's healing.

  149. But we know his ultimate purpose and what the people were shouting about.

  150. Hosanna, which means save us now.

  151. The crowd was saying, we want this guy to rescue us. This is the Messiah, our Savior.

  152. They were shouting in the crowd, son of David, which means we know that you

  153. are a king. You're the king we've been waiting for.

  154. Now, mind you, they were under Roman occupation, the greatest empire of the

  155. world, and they could not do anything to break free from that.

  156. And so they saw this Messiah, this Jesus coming in as one who could be the rightful

  157. king, the eternal king, the one that would separate himself from other false

  158. messiahs that had come and tried to do it, but they got filled.

  159. But here we see Jesus riding on a donkey, a fulfillment of the prophecy in the

  160. Old Testament book of Zechariah 9, I think it's verse 9.

  161. And as he came in riding on an animal of peace, he set the tone of what his kingdom was all about.

  162. He wasn't coming in as a mighty conqueror on a white stallion with a white cowboy

  163. hat coming to save the day.

  164. He was coming to save the day, but not in the way that people thought he was coming to save the day.

  165. And as Jesus rode in on this animal of peace, people carpeted the road there,

  166. throwing down their best garments, a sign of respect, a sign of royalty.

  167. But this leads us to this, what's been known as a trilemma.

  168. It was for them back then, but it is for us today.

  169. You see, yes, we believe in Jesus. He was a prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

  170. We believe that he is a healer. We believe that he is the Messiah.

  171. And there's something that Jesus said that people knew that he said,

  172. that's recorded in scripture that he says. And that is Jesus' claim to be God.

  173. There's a lot of people today that will say, oh, well, Jesus,

  174. he was a good philosopher.

  175. Oh, Jesus, he was a good teacher. He taught and he lived out some good things.

  176. And when you ask people about Jesus, a lot of them will say, yeah, I like Jesus.

  177. And some will say, but it's his followers I have problem with.

  178. Well, there's some followers that Jesus has had that I've had problems with before, too.

  179. Maybe you've even had problems with me, a follower of Jesus.

  180. Nevertheless, we're faced with this. If Jesus claimed to be God,

  181. and in that claim, other people said, well, he's a good teacher.

  182. Well, if he's a good teacher and he's teaching that he was God,

  183. then you've got three options.

  184. One, you can believe that he is the Lord because that's what he said.

  185. And if you choose to believe that Jesus is Lord, then there's two ways you can go.

  186. You can either accept him as the Messiah, as the Savior, or you can reject him.

  187. And in rejecting the Savior, you don't have the salvation that he offers to you.

  188. If you believe that he is Lord, that he is who he said he is.

  189. Now, maybe you're like, well, no, I really can't buy into that religious stuff.

  190. I can't buy into the fact that he was God. He was a good man. He was a good teacher.

  191. Well, this is where the trilemma part comes in. You believe that Jesus is Lord,

  192. or you have to believe he was a lunatic or a liar.

  193. So which is it? Is he Lord? Is he a liar or is he a lunatic?

  194. Let's take the liar part.

  195. You can't say that Jesus is a good teacher, taught good moral things, and then call him a liar.

  196. You see, some people will say, when they look at the scripture,

  197. yeah, I believe in this peaceful things that Jesus taught.

  198. Well, what did Jesus teach? Jesus taught in John 10, 30, that I and the Father are one.

  199. It's taught in John that very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am.

  200. Ascribing those godly attributes to himself of being the I am.

  201. Even Thomas, next week you'll hear this line said, Thomas, when he saw the resurrected

  202. Jesus, when he was invited to put his fingers in the palm of Jesus' hands or

  203. in the side where the spear was.

  204. He didn't do that, but he said, my Lord and my God.

  205. Even his disciples knew and proclaimed that Jesus was God.

  206. And in the book of John, John 1.1, it says, in the beginning was the word.

  207. The word was with God and the word was God. And who was the word?

  208. If you've been here recently, you know it's Jesus.

  209. Jesus is God. But if you think Jesus was lying, you think Jesus was pulling

  210. a scheme, he was pulling off, you know, some kind of con.

  211. Well, if he knew that he was doing that, then he knew his claims were false.

  212. If Jesus was pulling a scam and was telling and teaching all these things and

  213. he really knew he wasn't God, then, of course, he was lying.

  214. And he deliberately misrepresented himself.

  215. And he was a liar if that was the case. Worse than that, he'd be a hypocrite

  216. because he was teaching people to look and to be honest, to tell the truth and all of these things.

  217. And yet he knew that maybe it wasn't what was going on. He knew he wasn't God.

  218. Well, if he did that, then he was like a demon because he was sending groups,

  219. loads of people to their eternal doom, claiming to be something that he wasn't.

  220. And if that's the case, he was really a fool because he died for his lie.

  221. Now, I think in our own human logic, we can see that that's impossible.

  222. Why would you go and die for something?

  223. You know, you'd confess before you got to the cross. No, I was just joking.

  224. No, I didn't mean all that God stuff. No, Jesus wasn't a liar.

  225. Well, that leaves us with another option. If he's not the Lord,

  226. if he's not a liar, then he must have been looney tunes, right?

  227. He must have been a lunatic. because if he wasn't who he said he was,

  228. if he did not know that what he was proclaiming was false, then he was sincerely deluded,

  229. seriously deluded, much more than some of the people that we know today that

  230. are just bonkers with some things.

  231. He was crazy, crazy so much that he died again, not knowing who he was.

  232. Well, the fact is Jesus does know who he is. He did know who he was then.

  233. And he was true in proclaiming that he was God, that he was the son of God, that he was the savior.

  234. So much so that the people that came in proclaiming Hosanna to the son of David

  235. knew that prophecy was being fulfilled.

  236. They knew that Jesus was who he said he was. So in your own mind, who is Jesus to you?

  237. Is he a Lord? Is he your Lord? Have you accepted this Lord?

  238. Or do you consider him some crazy guy?

  239. Well, Palm Sunday kind of forces the issue for us today.

  240. Palm Sunday is not just a great story in the Bible, but Palm Sunday is a mirror

  241. that we could see a reflection of who we are in this story.

  242. Think about the different people that were in the crowd that day.

  243. Think about the worshipers, those that were laying down their garments for Jesus,

  244. the donkey, to pass by on.

  245. Think about how amazing that must have been, especially for those who are following

  246. Jesus, to see all kinds of people excited about what was going down,

  247. to be excited about what was happening.

  248. Are you one of those today? It's the day, one of those days where you're just worshiping God.

  249. We're just worshiping with all that there is within you. But there are others in the crowd too.

  250. There were no doubt others that were just there observing.

  251. They were just kind of checking things out. Yeah, I heard about this Jesus guy.

  252. Have you ever went to a parade or maybe you just were at a concert and you were

  253. kind of over by the tour bus just so you could catch a glimpse of the rock star

  254. that was coming out or the country star or whoever it was?

  255. I've got someone very close to me that actually got a drumstick from one of

  256. these famous country guys.

  257. I won't tell you who she is, but we live in the same house together.

  258. And she was very excited about that.

  259. She was an observer. And she was there with a very good friend that was not

  260. shy about pushing through the crowd.

  261. Are you an observer today? You're still not sure, but you're just checking things

  262. out, kind of scoping it out because maybe you want to follow,

  263. but maybe not. There are observers in the crowd.

  264. We also know that there were fair weather fans in the crowd.

  265. There were people that loved to

  266. hang out with Jesus because he put on an amazing show. He healed people.

  267. He took a little boy's lunch and he made it expand into enough food to feed thousands of people.

  268. People got to eat when they followed Jesus.

  269. I bet there were some Nazarenes in that group. I mean, literal Nazarenes in that group.

  270. When we think about the Fairweather fans, you know who Fairweather fans are, right?

  271. They're the ones that sport the jersey of the team that's always winning.

  272. But the next season when they stink, the jersey's in the closet,

  273. and they're wearing a different team's jersey.

  274. The Fairweather fan likes it when the team's winning. Yay, Team Jesus, we're winning.

  275. There's these fair-weather fans that by the end of the week,

  276. some of those same ones that were shouting Hosanna to the son of David were

  277. then instead proclaiming, crucify him,

  278. crucify him, give us the criminal Barabbas in place of Jesus.

  279. Those are fair-weather fans. They blow this way when the wind's going this way.

  280. They blow that way when the wind's going that way.

  281. We also see some others in the crowd.

  282. We see some religious leaders wanting to control the moment for their own benefit,

  283. wanting to manipulate the people because it's Passover after all.

  284. They've got a scheme they're running in the temple to get you to buy the animals

  285. that you need to buy to sacrifice, and you sacrifice in order to be right with

  286. God. That was the Old Testament system.

  287. They tried to manage the noise. As a matter of fact, they told Jesus,

  288. hey, don't you hear what these kids are saying?

  289. Another gospel, the religious people were telling his disciples,

  290. hey, tell everyone to be quiet.

  291. What did Jesus say? He said, well, if I tell them to be quiet,

  292. even these rocks are going to start singing. These rocks are going to start crying out.

  293. So there were religious folks. There was also scoffers. They kept their distance,

  294. you know, scoffers. They don't like what's going on.

  295. Maybe some of your neighbors are like this. I hope not, but they just kind of sit back and watch.

  296. If you're out there changing your tire and the truck fell on you,

  297. they would not come to help you.

  298. They're the kind of people that would say, well, I know you should have done

  299. it this way, but they wouldn't come and help to rescue you.

  300. They're there to scoff, to make fun of what was going down. There are cynics of the crowd.

  301. They're cynical because there's other messiahs that had come before.

  302. And these messiahs that came promising to overthrow the ruling empire,

  303. they ended up dead themselves and their followers scattered.

  304. All these that are in there, which one is a reflection of you?

  305. Today, who do you identify with? Are you one of the ones saying,

  306. yeah, yeah, Jesus, team Jesus.

  307. But when life is hard and then you're like, oh, I thought Jesus was going to help me.

  308. There's a very famous artist, and I use the term loosely that's out there.

  309. Within the last several years, he was all on team Jesus.

  310. And then he was praying in his prayers to get his ex-wife back and it never happened.

  311. And now he's mad at God and he says, I don't have anything to do with God because

  312. he didn't give me my ex-wife back.

  313. That's a Fairweather fan. The dude even wrote songs about Jesus.

  314. I don't know what the next songs will come out. I don't listen to that kind of music anyway.

  315. But when we think about the text here, we see who Jesus is.

  316. He's got to be our Lord. In our own human logic, we can see that But in our

  317. reflection here, are we a worshiper?

  318. Are we an observer? Are we a fair weather fan? Who are we?

  319. See, everyone in that crowd had an opinion about Jesus, but there was only one

  320. correct opinion and only one correct action.

  321. Can you hand me that? That white thing.

  322. The only viable option for these people that were there is what we call total surrender.

  323. Now, be encouraged. In NASCAR, a white flag means there's only one lap left.

  324. That means this sermon's almost done.

  325. Praise be to God.

  326. Hosanna, save us, Lord. But it's total surrender is what these folks needed.

  327. They could have had all these opinions. The worshipers knew,

  328. and they were surrendering just even their garments to Jesus.

  329. But it's this total surrender of giving up all of yourself.

  330. You see, they placed fig leaves on the ground in front of Jesus.

  331. They were waving them, a sign of his royalty.

  332. But even that, perhaps it should have been white flags that were raised.

  333. We surrender. We know the Romans should have been raising these white flags.

  334. A religious leader should have had the white flags out there,

  335. raising them and flapping them.

  336. But it comes back to surrender.

  337. You see, they were shouting, blessed is the son of David. Meaning,

  338. this is the right and the true king.

  339. This one right here. But in proclaiming that, in proclaiming Jesus to be the

  340. king, did they proclaim him to be my king?

  341. I don't know. At the end of the week, as you read through Holy Week,

  342. I tell you, a lot of stuff happens to Jesus.

  343. And those that were cheering him on, yay, Jesus, were slowly just kind of doing the moonwalk backward.

  344. Getting away when the testing came. Even his closest ones scattered.

  345. Instead of saying, Jesus is the Savior, the question you have to ask is, is he my Savior?

  346. Am I trusting Jesus the Christ as my Messiah, as my Savior?

  347. And are you trusting him today?

  348. You see, remember that little boy prayed. He didn't know what was going on.

  349. He knew someone very important was passing by, but he didn't know who.

  350. When we think about us today, do you know who Jesus is? I think if you come to church, you do.

  351. If it's your first time with us today, hey, thank you for making a point to

  352. come here today on Palm Sunday. I hope you come next week for Resurrection Sunday.

  353. The longer you're around here, you're going to learn who Jesus is.

  354. As we read and study the scripture, as you see Jesus reflected in the lives

  355. of the people that are around here.

  356. Have you made that personal choice to say, Jesus, you are my Savior.

  357. Jesus, you are my King. And I surrender.

  358. I surrender to your authority I surrender to who you are God are you trusting

  359. him today in that as we enter Holy Week.

  360. A lot of things that are going to go on, like I said. I want to encourage you in three things today.

  361. One, walk with Jesus. If you don't have a good Bible reading plan,

  362. I've got one that I can share with you that will walk you through each day,

  363. what Jesus did each day of Holy Week.

  364. It's exciting because you get to experience that with Jesus.

  365. Walk with Jesus through this week. But in a larger sense, hey,

  366. walk with Jesus right now.

  367. Walk with Jesus in the way that he wants to lead you in.

  368. It might not be the way you have planned for your life, but walk with Jesus

  369. and see the great place where he leads you.

  370. As you again say, Jesus, I surrender.

  371. I surrender to you. Lead the way.

  372. Man, there's something that we don't like to do. If you're like me as a driver,

  373. you don't like anyone else driving you.

  374. You want to take danger into your own hands. Really what it is,

  375. you want to be in control.

  376. When you're teaching someone else how to drive, that drives you bananas.

  377. Because you can't control their braking, their turning.

  378. Sometimes life is like that. We don't want to give up control to Jesus,

  379. but let's do that. Let's walk with him.

  380. Secondly, let's worship him. Like these that we read about in the scripture.

  381. They were throwing down their best clothes. Yeah, they were going to get dirty,

  382. but they were throwing down all they had for Jesus to walk through, to ride through.

  383. Let's worship Jesus.

  384. Give him all of our attention. Let's consult him before we make any of those big decisions in life.

  385. Let's see what the life of Jesus is all about in the scripture.

  386. So walk with him, worship him. And last, again, just surrender to him.

  387. Just say, Jesus, I give up. I give up. I'm surrendering to you.

  388. What would you have me to do?

  389. Remember this morning We can walk with Jesus We can worship Jesus We can surrender to Jesus,

  390. We can do all these things Because who Jesus is personally to you It matters

  391. for all eternity I want to invite you to pray with me this morning In this prayer

  392. I just want to give you a chance,

  393. Just to examine your own life Remember we said, Palm Sunday is like a mirror. Who are we in that crowd?

  394. And what are your thoughts about who Jesus is? Have you finally given him control

  395. of your life and said, yeah, God, I want to follow Jesus.

  396. No matter what happens to me or what happens in my life, how it changes, I'm all in.

  397. Consider that as we pray this morning. Bow your head with me,

  398. would you, Father? In the name of Jesus, we just come before you.

  399. Lord, we've worshiped today. It's been a little different than our normal way

  400. that we're going about worshiping you.

  401. But God, here we are. And God, we love you.

  402. God, we've gathered in this place today. And Father, we want to look at ourself

  403. in the mirror that is the pages of Scripture here.

  404. And God, as we consider ourself and our own concept of who Jesus is,

  405. Lord, we just want to lay down our life.

  406. Lord, as worshipers already, we just want to continue that worship now,

  407. but also for all eternity.

  408. Lord, if there be some that are just observing this morning in this congregation,

  409. and they haven't committed quite yet. They're just not ready to take that step, Lord.

  410. Help them to question themselves and say, why am I waiting when all the benefits

  411. of heaven are open to them right now?

  412. And God, I pray for the Fairweather fans that might be here this morning,

  413. that Lord, you would help them just to fully cash in on Team Jesus,

  414. just to be with you, Jesus, through the good times.

  415. And even when life stinks, you're always with them.

  416. Whether they may be with you or not We know in the Bible it says That you never leave us nor forsake us,

  417. Jesus, you are never so far away from us That you cannot impact our life And

  418. be right there when we turn around And see you've been following us the whole time.

  419. Help us not to be so religious like these Pharisees and Sadducees in the scripture,

  420. where we begin to complain about what you're doing, God, where we begin to become

  421. cynical or skeptical because things have been promised before,

  422. but this never happened.

  423. Lord, help us just to trust you in those times, not to be a religious,

  424. to control what goes on in people's right relationship with you,

  425. but Lord, just to trust you and, and what you're doing.

  426. God, we just pray this morning that we submit our lives to you,

  427. submit our whole self to you.

  428. If you're here this morning and you're just not sure about where you stand with

  429. Jesus, I want to give you a chance.

  430. It's a chance that's simple as ABC.

  431. We think about A, it just means to admit. Admit you need Jesus, the Messiah.

  432. Admit you need a Savior.

  433. Admit that without Jesus, your life is not going to be what it could be and

  434. really what it should be.

  435. The B stands for believe.

  436. I want to encourage you, do you, in this question, do you believe in Jesus?

  437. Do you believe that Jesus is who he said he was, that he is God,

  438. that he willingly laid down his life on the cross to pay the penalty, the price for your sin?

  439. All those things that you thought that you did that were not right,

  440. that were against God. Do you believe that Jesus died on a cross for you?

  441. But do you believe that he rose again on that third day, victorious over sin?

  442. He paid the price for your sin, and now he's victorious over that.

  443. He lives forever, and he wants you to join him in that life.

  444. And then the C, admit, believe, and then confess. Will you confess Jesus Christ

  445. as Lord this morning? Will you confess that.

  446. A Savior, and Jesus is that Savior. It's with the mouth that you confess,

  447. and when you confess, it's in your heart that you believe that Jesus was raised

  448. from the dead and now lives eternally, gloriously,

  449. and that He's promised you a place in that life.

  450. If you've admitted, if you believe, and if you've confessed,

  451. then there's a place in God's family for you.

  452. It goes back to all you need to do is surrender.

  453. Will you surrender this morning? I want to ask you with every head bowed and

  454. every eye closed this morning, if you're here, I'm not trying to trick you or anything.

  455. I just want you to lift up your hand if you're just like, man, I'm struggling.

  456. I'm not sure if I know exactly who Jesus is. And if you just want me to pray

  457. for you, would you just do that?

  458. You don't have to be a big show, just hand up and hand down.

  459. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

  460. Encourage those of you that raised your hands, hey, don't be afraid.

  461. It just takes that first step of faith to see God move in a miraculous, in a major way.

  462. Trust Him this morning.

  463. Heavenly Father, I pray this morning that as your Spirit is challenging and

  464. searching our hearts, that Lord, you want us to worship you.

  465. You want us to walk with you. You want us to surrender to you.

  466. And Lord, we're here this morning.

  467. And as Jesus went through this holy week, what we call holy week, passion week.

  468. Lord, we know that he suffered and what he suffered was not just for himself, but for us.

  469. And the challenges that came and the beatings that came and ultimately the death

  470. on the cross that came, that was on our account, on our behalf.

  471. And Lord, we look forward to celebrating next week what Jesus has done.

  472. We celebrate his resurrection, his victory, his proving to everyone else that

  473. he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, that he is victorious over sin,

  474. and yes, even victorious over death.

  475. And so, Father, we just thank you this morning for Jesus.

  476. Lord, we thank you for what you are doing. And God, we just pray again for those,

  477. this morning that do not believe, may we be instruments to lead them to Jesus

  478. and to show them how they can trust you, God, and how they can trust Jesus.

  479. We love you, Father. It's the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. I want to thank you

  480. for joining today's sermon podcast.

  481. You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

  482. and the sermon outlined from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

  483. It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.