Psalm Sunday: Matthew 21:1-16 (The Source of Joy)

chance we have here to be here on a Palm Sunday.

How many of you are excited about Palm Sunday?

I know.

I love it.

And so many of us are like, I don't know what it means.

Don't worry.

We're going to fix that today.

It's going to be just fine.

If matter of fact, if you have your Bibles, you want to turn with me on Palm Sunday, we are going to be in Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

We are taking a break from our Peace of Work series for Palm Sunday and for Easter.

We will be jumping back in to finish that up after the fact.

But if you want to get your notes out, your message notes out, we are going to be talking about this today because I've been talking to some folks and they have no idea what it means.

But it is one of the greatest days that we can celebrate the Lord.

And we're going to get into all of that in just a moment.

And I even brought my handkerchief with me because half of it is for me to wipe away snot.

And the other half is I might get old school Pentecostal up here just to start just having some fun.

Because I love I love Palm Sunday.

All right.

And also we're going to talk about some other things but I got to do one thing.

We don't get to do this for most people but um I have a very special birthday coming up tomorrow.

My daughter Insley who actually isn't her first musical she is a Oompa Loompa.

Yeah.

We're so proud.

And it's turned 17 tomorrow.

And so I am not getting old but some of y'all in here are all getting old okay so when I count to three I want you to say happy birthday as loud as you can.

One, two, three.

And that is a brand new shade of red I see on her face right now.

Yes, thank you very much for that.

Also real quick if you didn't already know it, Easter is next week, okay?

We are so excited about Easter.

And so we want you to invite somebody to Easter.

Therefore you've got some Easter invite cards to the left and to the right of your seat.

And if you don't see an Easter invite card it's probably because you're sitting on it okay so make sure you get those and this is what I want you to do.

I want you to invite somebody to church this next Sunday that doesn't know Jesus.

Let me tell you what you don't do.

You don't walk up to them and say you look like a dirty rotten sinner.

You should come to church.

Don't do that, okay?

Unless you are really bold okay don't do that though.

Instead say hey we worship Jesus 365 at our church but we just take it a little bit higher on Easter Sunday and I would love for you to join me and you pick a service.

And I want you to tell them they get to pick the service because I'm praying for them that they are going to invite you to take a missions trip this coming Sunday.

We do it every year once a year we ask for a few of us because we have three services we ask you to take a missions trip to the 8 a.m service yes I see a couple of you are going no okay I get it but if you don't mind we need to borrow your seat just for one week because especially this service remember it's it's the 930 service.

Some of y'all go to the 930 service every week anyway you know but it does start at 95 usually but this next Sunday for one time out of the year it begins at 930 and that is our biggest service of the of the day.

So if a few of you don't mind coming to the 8 a.m service it would be a great blessing to us.

If you don't want to that's also okay.

Either way it's going to be awesome.

We got some stuff prepared I cannot wait for you to see it.

It's going to be absolutely awesome.

Okay?

All right.

Now we're going to jump into God's word and kind of to get our minds around why this is so important.

I'm just going to have just go ahead and tell you I'm going to have some fun and just brag on Jesus a little bit today because Palm Sunday is so powerful that we don't always give it space.

But I think some of us could really benefit from just focusing on Palm Sunday because it reminds me of this and that is I don't know about you guys there used to be a generation that you could look at a map one time and then you could travel from here to California and back.

Okay?

You could just get the idea of where you were going and you were good.

But nowadays some of us are directionally challenged and we need our cell phones to get from here to the bathroom and back.

Okay we need some GPS on us right well the worst thing ever is when you're in an airport at least for me.

I don't know what it is about airports but they just suck the battery right out of your phone whether you're using it or not it just does.

And a couple years ago I was trying to find where I was supposed to go and trying to get from one terminal to the next and they had changed my terminal and I didn't know I was trying to figure out I was looking on my phone it was going to update and I had 2% battery left on my phone.

Now I don't know if you know what panic is but if you have 2% left on your battery and they tell you be looking at your phone for the new terminal that's panic because for some reason there was never going to be another airplane getting back to where I was supposed to be it was that or I was going to die right and here's the thing I had my charger with me.

I had this I just didn't have a source to plug it up and I don't know if y'all ever had this happen.

Have you ever had the crowds part and the angels sing and all of a sudden you look and you see an outlet in a wall and you realize the Lord is good.

You hear from heaven the hallelujah chorus and you realize it's going to be okay.

Well that's what happened to me I finally saw an outlet and I was able to plug up my phone and it was man it started charging really fast.

I was so proud I was so proud of my phone.

And it got from two to four to six to ten and within just a few minutes I had almost a full charge.

And the thing is I was able to find what I needed right when I needed it.

And I don't I don't know about you but that is also explaining my life so many times.

So many times I'm trying to get from point A to point B and I'm doing the very best I can but it just seems like sometimes I'm in certain seasons and in certain situations that it just drains me more than it probably should.

Like I should be okay but yet I can see the battery meter on my soul going further and further down.

And it's like I I want to charge up but I don't see a place I just need a power source where I could encourage my soul.

Well the great thing is the Bible expects this it knows that we're going to have hard times.

As a matter of fact God's word says let us strip off every weight that slows us down especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

So other words anything that wants to drain our battery and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus look at somebody and say it's all about Jesus.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus because he's the champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy awaiting him he endured the cross disregarding its shame then it says think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people and when you do then you won't be weary and give up we used to say like this this old school song said listen when it all gets really difficult I can trade my sorrows I can trade I can trade all of my shame I can lay it all down for the joy of the Lord.

That's what we want to do today is we want to just take a moment and just study how the Lord did it.

Just focus our eyes on Jesus because if you're like me and you ever feel like your soul gets down to about 2% the Bible promises us that if we focus on Jesus he will restore our soul every time we need it.

So to do that we're just going to focus on him and focus on what Palm Sunday has to say to us if you're ready we're going to jump into Matthew 21 verse 1 through 16 this is five days before the crucifixion of Jesus here we go the Bible says as Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem they came to the town of Bethagi on the Mount of Olives.

Matthew 21:1–16

Jesus sent two of them on ahead and he said Go into the village over there he said and as soon as you enter it you will see a donkey tied there with his colt beside it untie them and bring them to me and if anyone asks you what you are doing just say the Lord needs them and he will immediately let you take them this took place to fulfill the prophecy that said Tell the people of Jerusalem look your king is coming to you he is humble riding on a donkey riding on a donkey's colt and so the two disciples did as Jesus commanded they brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt and he sat on it.

Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others cut branches that's where we get the name of the of this weekend cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Jesus was in the center of the procession and the people all around him were shouting Praise God for the Son of David blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Praise God in highest heaven and the entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered Well who is this they asked and the crowds replied it's Jesus the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee.

Jesus entered the temple and he began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice and he knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves and he said to them The scriptures declare my temple will be called a house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and they were and he healed them.

The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the temple shouting Praise God for the Son of David but the leaders were indignant isn't that a word we don't use anymore indignant they asked Jesus Do you hear what the children are saying?

Yes Jesus replied Haven't you ever read the scriptures for they say you have taught children and infants to give you praise wow there's a lot going on there.

And what we want to do is we're going to take five days before the crucifixion Jesus is already doing amazing things and I love obviously Easter I love celebrating the resurrection of Jesus at the same time you don't get a resurrection without a crucifixion and you don't get a crucifixion without Palm Sunday.

And so I want us to not ever look over this amazing moment because here's the big idea for you today and that is that Palm Sunday reminds us to celebrate Jesus as the true source of joy.

Somebody say amen the true source of joy that we have the the greatest thing is that we may have 99 problems but we always got to remember Jesus isn't one of them.

And if you're in a spot in your life where you would say just like this scripture told us that we need to strip off every weight that slows us down other words the weight of just life sometimes the weight of difficulties also the sin that we are struggling with and it's not going to overcome us but it's a daily battle struggling against us and we want to run with endurance he said the only way we can do this is by keeping our eyes on Jesus the champion who initiates and perfects our faith and he says if we will then you won't become weary and give up so in other words God's word tells us that we can trade all of our sorrows for the joy of the Lord.

And what I want to ask you this question of today is this question of have you ever felt like you had about 2% left in your soul?

You ever felt like you were almost empty for a thousand different reasons and you tried this and you tried that and you ever went on a vacation and you came back just as weary as you were when you left maybe it's because your body got rest but your soul is still on empty and God's word knows that.

And so he tells us he says you want to know what it is is you can have a charger but unless you plug it into the source you're not going to be able to find true joy.

But if you can plug in your soul to the joy of the Lord that's where life is and that's where the goodness of God is.

So here's the question I want to grapple with today and that is why is it so important not to skip over celebrating Palm Sunday?

Why is it so important that we that we not skip over but we allow the Lord to fill our hearts and our souls because of what we can celebrate through Palm Sunday.

Because here's the thing I don't know about you but all of us could use just a little bit more charge.

All of us could use a little bit more joy in the Lord.

And so what we're going to do is we're just going to talk about just brag on Jesus for a little while and then at the end of our service we're going to receive communion together just a reminder that Jesus is good that he is above all and we're going to celebrate him together.

So look at your neighbor and say it's time to charge up that was horrible.

Look at somebody else and say it's time to charge up I don't know about you maybe this message is just for me but I need a little bit more Jesus in my life here's here's the reason why Palm Sunday helps us to celebrate number one is because it reminds us that Jesus is the true King of kings.

He is the true King of kings and Lord of lords.

And it's when we we turn our hearts and our minds toward Jesus we can get our charge on we can charge all the way up because we remember that above everything else Jesus is the King of kings.

Look at what God's word says it says as Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem they came to the town of Bethagi or Beth Page depending on how you want to pronounce it and this took place to fulfill the prophecy that said Tell the people of Jerusalem look your king is coming to you he is humble riding on a donkey and so they brought him a donkey and most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others cut branches from trees and they spread them on the road.

Jesus was in the center of the procession and people all around him were shouting now here's the thing if you don't know what's going on in the time that passage is full of who cares?

Like that's great for you.

What in the world does that mean for me?

And I don't know about you but if if I don't put my mind back in what's going on in the moment I just read right over that well Jesus he needed a ride so he got on a colt a baby donkey and they rode on in and then folks put out some some coats on the road and then then they just they started waving some palm branches.

Praise the Lord you know wouldn't do that today.

But here's the thing that is full of symbolism that Jesus was already on his victory parade.

You know the gotta the kind of confidence you gotta have that before you have actually finished winning the victory you celebrate that's like celebrating the national championship at the first quarter like you haven't even finished winning yet and you're already doing your victory parade.

That's exactly what Jesus was doing.

That's why we call this the triumphant victory is because of all that Jesus was already celebrating.

Let me show you a couple of things that just proves to us that Jesus was the king of kings and this was his celebration.

Remember the Bible says that Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem and they came from the town of Bethagi and they took place to fulfill the prophecy.

Now the reason why that's so important is because up till that time Jesus had told or excuse me God had told them about the Messiah that was coming which we now know is Jesus and all throughout the Old Testament they said listen don't be deceived.

There's going to be all of these different promises that he's going to have to fulfill that way you know if he's the prophet or he's the messiah or not.

So it was all these different prophecies he had to fulfill and so what would have been happening is they would have been always looking at somebody who is claiming to be the Messiah and it's almost like they'd have a checklist.

Okay, does he do this one?

Does he do this one?

Nope he only got two out of what he's supposed to have that's not the Messiah.

And so they were constantly looking for the Messiah the amazing thing is Jesus was fulfilling prophecies left and right.

And the the amazing thing is that Jesus proved that he was the king because he fulfilled over 300 direct and indirect prophecies of the Old Testament.

He didn't just fulfill one or two he fulfilled over 300 of them.

That's amazing.

That is absolutely phenomenal as a matter of fact if you want to kind of just get your mind around how amazing it is that Jesus proved that he was the King of kings by fulfilling all the prophecies I read this one time that a guy named Professor Peter Stoner worked with 600 students to calculate the probability that one man could fulfill only eight messianic prophecies.

Just eight not 300 but eight they they calculated that it was one and 10 to the 17th power there's one math person who can say wow okay I didn't know what it meant.

Okay.

Someone told me this and I was like yay I don't know what that means is that like good and they're like no you don't understand.

That's really really good.

I was like okay really good no you don't understand 10 to the 17th power there's more zeros than you could put from this stage to this stage.

So they they gave me an illustration that helped here's the illustration to realize that one person fulfilling only eight of them was 10 to the 17th power one in 10 to the 17th that is this that imagine we took the entire state of Texas okay the big huge state of Texas okay imagine you do that and imagine you filled it two feet deep with coins and you paint one of them red okay so you got a big old you know state of Texas two feet deep with coins you take one red coin and you throw it out in the middle of it then you take someone blindfold them and tell them you get one chance to pick out the red coin that's the likelihood that one man could fulfill eight of those prophecies.

Jesus fulfilled 300 of them Jesus is the king of kings and so he's just checking them off and you can imagine these people who knew the prophecies in the Old Testament they just keep looking at Jesus and going well there's one and there's there's 12 there and there's 15 of these and he he's still going you know and he's the king of kings and so he's just once again proving who he is here's the next thing the Bible said that they brought him a donkey and they threw their garments over the colt and he sat on the colt.

What is that supposed to mean well here's the thing that they knew in the time that when a king would come into a city how he came into the city said everything.

He didn't have to say a word.

If a king came into a city riding a horse that meant he was preparing for battle.

If a king came walking into town that meant he was trying not to be noticed.

But if a king came into town riding a donkey or a colt it was a symbol of peace.

It was a symbol of full authority coming in and declaring peace.

When they saw Jesus riding a donkey they didn't just think well he couldn't do better.

That was as good as he could get but rather they they were amazed who said he comes to bring peace to the city.

The amazing thing about Jesus is Jesus knows how to make an entrance.

Jesus knows what he's doing.

Not only did he fulfill all the prophecies because he's the king of kings but they call him the prince of peace because he brings peace wherever he goes and then here's the other thing is the Bible said that most of the crowds spread their garments on the road ahead of him and the others cut branches from trees.

What does that mean?

Well first of all the reason why they would put garments down is you know how when you go to like a special event, you throw out the red carpet is considered to be for VIPs?

Well that's the same thing is they were doing that as a way to honor Jesus but also about 200 years before the time of Jesus there was a revolt called the Maccabean Revolt.

And when they won that revolt they waved palm branches as a symbol of victory and of national pride and it became such a thing that it became a symbol of the nation of Israel.

The reason why they were waving palm branches because it was a symbol of victory and of national pride.

They weren't just doing that because they didn't have anything else to do.

They were declaring this is the king he is bringing peace he is restoring victory and pride to our nation they were declaring him as the Messiah because you notice in every other time when Jesus would heal somebody he would say hey go and be quiet about it.

My time hasn't yet come but now he is strolling into the city of Jerusalem and he is allowing them to praise him because now the time has come.

And the amazing thing is that our king makes a scene wherever he goes.

And the amazing thing is that Jesus five days before the crucifixion is coming into the city and already declaring his victory march and the Bible said that for the next four days he walks with the people and he teaches in the temple.

He has the Last Supper with his disciples and then he is crucified on the cross sealing the victory for all of us and then is later raised from the dead and Jesus is so powerful that the Bible says that when Jesus died he shouted out again and he released his spirit and at that moment the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom the earth shook the rock split apart and tombs opened and the bodies of godly men and women that had died were raised from the dead they left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection and they went into the holy city of Jerusalem and appeared to many people and even the Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened and they said this man truly was the Son of God that's amazing.

The Bible said that when Jesus by the way I love how it says he didn't die it says he released his spirit he's like okay on to the next thing and when he stepped out of this world and into the spirit world it so shook everything that there was an earthquake and then it split the temple or the curtain of the temple that curtain was three inches thick.

It took 300 people to move that curtain it doesn't just split unless it is torn where God says now there's no barrier between me and you the Bible said that it shook everything it shook everything up so much that it caused people to be resurrected.

Dude did you see George I thought George was dead well when Jesus does something I don't know just just stuff on the side starts happening.

That's how awesome Jesus is the amazing thing is he has declared himself as king because he truly is the king.

And so this is how we can plug into his joy that we can trade our sorrows for joy because our king is greater than any enemy we face.

No matter what enemy you face can Can it bring the dead back to life?

Can it fulfill the prophecies?

Can it bring peace to your soul?

No, of course not.

Jesus has many enemies, but he has no rivals.

And if Jesus can do all of that, imagine what he can do in your life and in mine.

And that's why he says, when you feel like you're on 2%, plug into the source.

Focus your attention on Jesus and remember not how big your problems are, but remember how big Jesus is.

Can I tell you for some of us, we have been going so long without getting a good charge of Jesus in our life.

So long when we have allowed our problems to be so big that we forget about how much bigger Jesus is.

And one of the reasons why we have to take time to celebrate Palm Sunday is because it reminds us that our King truly is the King.

And if we can focus on that, it will charge up our soul and remind us that He is the source of our joy.

Look at somebody and say, get your charge on.

Absolutely, get your charge on because Jesus is the King of Kings.

Here's the second one, and that is that it reminds us that Jesus is the true healer of all.

That Jesus doesn't just save us, but he heals us.

Say lah.

That coffee is good, but it's almost empty in Jesus' name.

Okay, we'll get some more in just a minute.

Here's what the Bible says it says, first of all, I mean, you imagine, once again, what kind of confidence have you got to have that before you are finished declaring victory, you already have a party.

That's amazing confidence.

And the Bible said that he went in and he is celebrated.

He comes, he gets off of the cult, and then look at what he does.

I love this.

He says, he entered into the temple and he began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice.

He knocked over the tables of money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.

And he said to them, The scriptures declare, my temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.

Wow.

We love talking about Jesus the gentle, but you know what gentleness is?

Gentleness is controlled strength.

Gentleness is, I could tear you up, but I'm gonna be nice.

But Jesus was gentle, but he was not nice with sin.

He was not nice with anything that tried to take his place.

And so the Bible actually says in one place that he actually took a cord and he made a whip.

You know what I'm saying?

Instead of Indiana Jones, it was Indiana Jesus up in there.

I mean, just tearing people apart.

I mean, that's my Jesus right there.

I mean, it's amazing and how he was ruthless with sin, kind to people and ruthless with sin.

The reason why this was such a big deal is because number one, Jesus didn't have a problem with them buying and selling.

Okay, if anybody ever tells you that, that's not what's going on.

Because people would come from all over the known world and they had to offer sacrifices when they got to Jerusalem.

Well, for some people, it'd take them a month to get there.

And so by the time they would take their lamb all the way to Jerusalem, that lamb was no longer spotless.

You know, they they needed to be able to do that.

But the problem was is they were price gouging.

So if a lamb normally cost a hundred bucks, they would charge a thousand bucks.

And if you didn't like it, go find the lamb.

And so Jesus was not upset that they were doing this, he was upset that they were taking what was supposed to be holy and turning it into a business.

And then they were doing it in the court of the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles, the people who were not born of the Jewish world, they were not able to go and worship.

And he said, You're taking away the opportunity for people to come and worship me.

And then what I love is it says he goes out after he cleanses the inside and he goes to the outside.

You know, and the book of Leviticus says that if you were born with any kind of sickness or infirmity, you couldn't enter into the tabernacle.

And so they would have to stand on the outside of the tabernacle and hear the worship from the inside until Jesus came.

And Jesus heals them and escorts them into the temple.

What I love about Jesus so much is he is so very kind with us, but he is so very violent toward our sin.

That's why Christianity is hard sometimes.

It's because he loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way.

And so the amazing thing is that Jesus loves us so much that he doesn't just save us, he also systematically goes to war with everything broken, every broken place in our lives.

Everything broken place, every broken place in our lives.

Spellcheck is still not my friend.

After three weeks, okay?

Y'all pray for me.

That the every broken place in our lives, he wants to heal it.

And sometimes when he does surgery on us, it hurts.

But he wants wholeness for us.

He doesn't just want to put a band-aid on it, he wants to do surgery and heal it.

He wasn't just telling those guys, hey, take a weekend off.

He was saying, no more.

Nothing should separate my people from me.

And that's what the cross did.

Jesus, already looking ahead five days into the future, knows the cross is coming.

And he realizes that not only is this victory for the moment, but this victory is also signaling what's going to happen because the Bible teaches us that the cross heals us everywhere we hurt.

I love how 1 Peter says it.

It says, He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.

By his wounds you are healed.

Once you were like sheep who wandered away, but now you have turned to your shepherd, the guardian of our souls.

He said, What happened with salvation is he doesn't just save us, then he goes to work on us and he heals us.

And he said, Well, where does he heal us?

Anywhere that we hurt, any broken place, anything that the enemy has done to us, anything that anybody has done to us.

Jesus loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way.

And so what he does is he walks into the city and declares victory before they even realize they're in a battle.

And then he goes in and he sets things that are right on the inside and on the outside.

And for some of us, one of the ways we need to plug into our joy is that we realize we can trade our sorrows for joy because there is no wound he cannot heal.

There's no wound in our lives that he cannot heal.

Would you admit with me that sometimes you find your heart, you find your soul on 2%, and you're trying to get from point A to point B, but the weight and the heaviness of life, maybe the struggle with sin in our lives, it just starts to drain our spiritual battery over and over and over again.

And it doesn't matter how many songs you listen to, it doesn't matter how many great conversations you have, it doesn't quite do it.

Well, the reason why is because nothing can quite satisfy our soul, like focusing our minds on Jesus.

Because only Jesus can satisfy completely.

Only Jesus can give us that full charge in our heart.

And that's why we have to never forget to celebrate Palm Sunday, is because when they were waving those palm branches, they were declaring He is the King.

He is the one who is gonna bring victory, He is the one that's gonna bring wholeness back to who we are.

And when we realize that He's the King of Kings and He's the healer of all, it can charge up our soul.

One more time, look at somebody and say, get your charge on.

You got to get your charge on because he's the king of kings.

And also he's the healer of all.

And here's one more, and that is that he is our true salvation.

He is our true salvation.

The reality of it is that we plug our hearts into Jesus, we realize, man, he truly is the king.

Our trust is firmly placed in the king.

Over 300 direct and indirect prophecies.

That he's the healer of all, that he is not intimidated by what has happened in your life.

God's not mad at you, he's not offended at you, he doesn't get nervous when you walk into the room.

Instead, he says, Oh, I'm so glad they made it today.

I'm so glad that he's never gonna change his mind about you.

And the greatest thing is that he is our true salvation.

I love this.

The Bible says that the leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles, heard even the children in the temple shouting, Praise God, or Hosanna for the son of David.

But the leaders were indignant.

I can't even say that word.

Let's just say they were really, really, really mad.

Okay, that's the word.

All right.

And Jesus asked, or they asked Jesus, do you not hear what these children are saying?

Yes, Jesus replied.

Haven't you ever read the scripture?

For they say, You have taught children and infants to give you praise.

Here's the reason why they were so upset is because it wasn't just that he came into the king came into the kingdom, and everybody would have realized what he was doing.

Everybody realized why he was on that cult.

Everybody heard all of the different things, but then he goes in and he throws out and he makes the temple holy again.

And then he comes out and they're still singing and they're singing this word, Hosanna.

Then they got ignited and indignant.

My goodness, they got that.

Here's the reason why.

You know what that Hosanna actually means?

It means, praise God, He will save us.

They were crying out for Jesus to save them.

That's why they were saying, Be quiet, the Romans are gonna hear you.

And you know what Jesus said?

I think they got it right.

I think these kids finally know what they're talking about.

The kids know what's up, save us.

But here's the problem how is it possible that the same crowd that is saying, Hosanna, save us, five days from then are saying, Crucify him, give us Barabbas, crucify the king.

How is that possible?

Because they had no idea what Jesus was actually doing.

They thought that Jesus was coming to save them from Rome.

Jesus was coming to save them from themselves.

Jesus was coming not just to save somebody, but to save everybody.

The beautiful thing is Jesus did not come to save some people at one point in time.

He came for all people for all time.

So they had it right.

They just didn't think big enough.

Praise God, the one who comes to save us generations later, we still can say, Hosanna, he's still the one who comes to save us.

And that's the beautiful thing about Palm Sunday is it reminds us that five days from now, he secured our freedom.

And what I love about this is that it's never too late.

If you're in here and you don't know Jesus, and you would say that your your charge is on negative zero, you don't know when your soul's been alive.

You don't know, can I tell you?

It's never too late.

That's one of the things I love about the crucifixion, even though it's, you know, we call it Good Friday.

It was good for us, it wasn't good for Jesus.

Worst day ever, but also the best day ever.

And the Bible said that he was crucified, and on his left and on his right, there were two thieves or revolutionaries, depending on what translation you read, and they were there.

And look at what happens.

The Bible says that a sign was fastened above him with these words.

This is the king of the Jews.

And one of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed.

So you're the Messiah, are you?

Prove it by saving yourself and us too while you're at it.

But on the other, but hang, but the other criminal protested don't you fear God?

Even when you have been sentenced to die, we deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn't done anything wrong.

Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus replied, I assure you today you will be with me in paradise.

What kind of person you gotta be?

You are dying on a tree and you still talking smack.

You know what I'm saying?

You are dying and you are still talking bad about Jesus.

There's one guy on one side, and he is there, and he's still not willing to trust Jesus.

He's still saying, Prove it.

Okay, yeah, you fulfilled 300 prophecies.

Okay, yeah, you did all these things.

Okay, yeah, prove it some more.

The other guy is saying, You got nothing to prove to me, Jesus.

All I ask you to do is remember me.

What trust I have, I give to you.

And the beautiful thing about the about the cross is that it reminds us that there's always hope.

But you have to surrender.

For one, there's always hope, but you don't get to do it your way.

You don't get to say to Jesus, prove it, he's already proven it.

But instead, it's Jesus, remember me.

I put my trust in you.

That's one of the beautiful things about the cross, is it doesn't require us to get on the cross.

Jesus took that for us.

It requires us to trust in what he did.

And that if we trust in what he did, salvation is ours.

The God's love language is trust.

It reminds me of, we've been reading through God's word, and if you've been reading God's word with us, we're going through the book of Genesis.

And if you would like to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000.

And I'd say coming up in just a few days, it's one of the big chargers for me.

I love reading about uh a guy named Abraham, and there was this amazing moment in Abraham's life where God tells Abraham, He says, If you will leave from your family and you go to where I tell you, I'm gonna bless you, and all the nations of the world be blessed because of you.

Not only that, is even though you are old, you're a hundred years old, I'm still gonna give you a family.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna let your wife become pregnant, you're gonna have a son of your own.

If you'll just trust me, if you'll trust me and go.

Well, the Bible says this.

It says Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of how perfect he was, how industrious he was, that he always got it right.

No, because of his faith or trust.

The amazing thing about salvation is that when we put our trust in him, God does the rest.

That we don't have to prove ourselves to God, he has proven himself to us, and that's what we can plug into his joys, that we can trade our sorrows for joy because we can place our trust in Jesus because he is trustworthy.

We can put our trust in him because he is trustworthy, and that's the beautiful thing about the gospel is that the gospel is not me due, it's God has already done.

And because of what he has done, I can rest in who he is.

And that's the beautiful thing, is that the Bible says that one day Jesus was talking to this guy named Nicodemus and he was sharing with him the gospel, and he said this he says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that if anyone would put their trust in him, they would not perish but have eternal life.

And when we hear that, sometimes it goes right over top of our head, but what if we remembered that that verse was for us?

As I've told you before, part of my testimony is I heard someone quote that scripture in church one time, and I I wasn't a Christian yet, but I knew that scripture, and he challenged me and he said this, he said, I want you to take out the word world, and I want you to put your name in there instead.

And I'd never really thought of it like that, but I tried it, and it said, For God so loved Brandon that he gave his one and only son, so that if Brandon will believe in him, you or I will not perish but have eternal life.

Do you know up until then that verse didn't mean anything to me, it was just a natural thing.

But in that moment, I knew what it was to plug into the source for the very first time to remember who he was, to remember the goodness of God.

And so if you're taking notes, I'd love for you to do that for me right now.

I want you to put your name in there instead.

And if you put my name in there, scratch that out and put your name in there.

Because can I tell you one of the things in my life is from time to time, for a thousand reasons and a thousand situations, if I'm not careful, I get so busy going about all the different things and just making life happen that if I'm not careful, I can forget to plug into my source.

Just the simple joy of knowing who Jesus is.

But there's something about we we just remember that if you have Jesus, you're going to heaven and not to hell.

If you have Jesus, God is for you and not against you.

If you have Jesus, God so loved you, God so loved Nick, God so loved Derek, God so loved Jonathan, God so loved Eric, God so loved Barry and Chris, God so loved every single one of us.

Then he said, If I gotta do it all by myself and I gotta do it all over again just for them, sign me up.

And the Bible said, For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

What do you think that joy was?

It was you spending eternity with you.

Don't ever let the enemy tell you that you're not loved deeply, that you're not significant, that you're not accepted.

In him, you are deeply treasured, in him you are deeply significant.

He would you were worth dying for.

That's how much you mean to him.

And can I tell you sometimes it's the simplicity of knowing who Jesus is that can be the greatest charge to your soul?

So, my question for you is do you feel like you're on two percent?

Do you feel like your soul is almost tapped out?

What if you just took some time and you focused on Jesus?

It's the greatest medicine I could ever give you.

Because you know the Bible said that this moment that we've been talking about is five days before the crucifixion.

Jesus, just knowing where he's headed, knowing where he's headed, he's going and he's he's debating with the different you know religious law uh leaders during the week and all these different things.

And then the night before he's gonna be crucified, the Bible says they celebrate the Passover Seder, also the what we call the Last Supper.

And because Jesus knows what's coming, he says he got up there with them, and at the end of the supper, he gets some bread and he gets some juice, and he says, I want you to eat this bread and I want you to drink this, and when you do this, I want you to remember me because this is gonna be a symbol of what I'm about to do for you.

And can I tell you, Jesus knew what he was doing because in the coming days there were gonna be moments when things and stuff would get in the way, but when we receive communion together as a church, it brings us all the way back to the simplicity of the gospel, and to realize there is no greater joy, there's no greater source of joy than to realize we are saved, and to realize that Jesus is the King of kings, and to realize that he is the healer of all, and to realize that he is our salvation.

In just a moment, the band's gonna come up, and before we sing our final song of worship, we're gonna receive communion together.

And I just want to pray for us before we do this because I don't know about you, but we live in a world that it just seems like it just wants to just suck all the goodness out of our soul if we're not careful, if we're not constantly allowing the Lord to just pour it back into us.

And I just, my prayer today is that the Holy Spirit would just visit you in this moment and just pour this, the fresh sweetness of his presence into your soul.

But I want us to take a moment and just reflect on this.

And here's here's my challenge for you.

If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus, can I tell you it's time to come home to Jesus?

He's the greatest source of joy in your life.

In just a moment, as we're gonna pass around the communion elements, this is what I'd love for you to do.

I'd love for you to take some communion elements yourself, but don't receive them.

We're gonna receive this together as a church family, but I want you to hold on to yours because on the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

And in just a moment, after we've received communion, we're gonna begin to worship the Lord our final song.

And I want you to take those communion elements, and I want you to take this card with you, and I want you to join us at the prayer table.

This is our treat and our joy because we want to lead you in the prayer of salvation, and we want to receive communion with you for the very first time as you remember what Jesus did for you.

It's time to come home to Jesus.

But for all of us, let's begin to prepare our hearts for communion.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

God, thank you that you see us and that you know us and that you love us.

Thank you, God, that you are for us more than we can imagine.

Thank you, God, that in this life you said we would have trouble.

We would have times and moments and seasons when it just seemed like the joy in our life would just get close to zero.

And God, if I'm honest, there's many of us in here today that we would say we're on 5%, 3%, 2%, or maybe we just feel dead on the inside.

God, your word says that your joy is our strength and that your mercies are new every single morning.

God, I know that the enemy wants us to focus on everything but you, but we just bind the devil in Jesus' name and we release you, Holy Spirit.

Just the sweetness of your presence to wash over us in this moment, fresh and new and greater than.

Ever to remind us that the greatest miracle we could ever receive, we've already received when we found you, Jesus.

And God, for those that today is the day of salvation, I pray you will silence the voice of the enemy that would say it's too late or they've gone too far, they're not ready.

Don't let the enemy speak to them right now.

But Holy Spirit, I pray yours, your voice will be the only one they hear that says, I love you.

Today's the day.

You're ready?

Come and find me.

I pray, God, for all of us today as we receive communion, the freshness of your presence will wash over us today.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

If you are on the right hand side of your row, you are the designated line leader today.

I would love for you to pick up the uh the bucket with the communion elements.

And please don't feel obligated to receive communion today if you if you don't feel comfortable, if you don't want to, you don't have to.

But if you would like to, you are welcome to.

And once you receive the communion elements, let's just kind of focus our attention back on the Lord.

Let's sing this song a couple times.

Just get our mind back on Him and focus on the goodness of God today.

Come on, let's worship the Lord together.

How great is our God come on, sing it again.

Come on, let's focus our attention on Jesus.

Come on.

How great is our God sing me how great is our God?

Oh see how great, how great.

Come on, one more time.

Come on, sing how great is the Bagad! Come on, sing! How great is the Baghdad! How great is the Lord Yes you are Jesus?

Praise the Lord!