All Hail King Jesus

At this time, join me in the book of Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Last Sunday we began a series called

The Road to Resurrection,

looking at different points in Jesus' road

in the final moments and hours of his life,

his earthly ministry,

from where he set his face to Jerusalem

to Calvary and then to the tomb, his resurrection.

And I want us to focus in on this verse, verse 35 of Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Amen.

Last Sunday, if you weren't here, you could catch the broadcasts on YouTube

or our podcast Spotify, Apple,

so you can catch up to where we're at in this series,

talked about Jesus setting his face to Jerusalem,

and now we come to another pivotal point.

It says this in verse 35.

Then they brought him to Jesus,

and they threw their clothes on the cold,

and they set Jesus on him.

And as they went, many spread their clothes on the road.

Then, as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives,

the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice

and praise God with a loud voice.

Someone say a loud voice.

For all the mighty works they had seen,

saying,

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord,

peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd,

teacher, rebuke your disciples.

But he answered and said to them,

I tell you that if these should keep silent,

the stones would immediately cry out.

Today with God's help,

I'm going to preach on this title,

All Hail King Jesus.

All Hail King Jesus.

Amen.

I got a little sick during the week.

I'm feeling about 90% better right now.

My voice is not where I want it to be.

So I'm going to need your help.

How many of you are going to preach with me here today?

I need some loud, amen, today,

because I need to know not only you're receiving it, amen,

but so that we can make some progress.

I need some help. Amen.

Let's pray today.

Father, I thank you for what you are doing in our midst this afternoon.

You have come to visit us in a special way.

You were waiting for us before we got here.

And now Lord, after the praises have gone up

and after Lord, the songs have been sung,

God, we have greeted one another.

We are ready to hear your word.

Anoint our hearing, our understanding to receive your word

and give us clarity and give us power today.

And anoint God, my lips of clay.

Lord, put your word in my mouth

that I would declare it boldly and powerfully

in the name of Jesus.

Can everyone say amen?

Say all hail, King Jesus.

You may be seated.

The next pivotal juncture in Jesus' road to the resurrection

was a processional known as the triumphal entry,

commencing on the Mount of Olives,

crossing down through the Kidron Valley

and concluding at the eastern gates of the old city of Jerusalem.

This colorful scene recorded in all four gospels

describes his formal arrival in the city

and at the same time radiates with cultural and prophetic

symbolism and significance.

It also kicked off a momentous week,

which coincided with the plot to falsely incriminate

and sentence Jesus to death, largely because he

claimed to be the Son of God.

And indeed, Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah,

the King of Kings.

However, unlike the processionals of most kings and queens,

with all their pomp and circumstance,

the entry of Christ, while lovely and beautiful,

was a low-key affair by comparison.

Nevertheless, the streets were packed with people.

The air was electric with excitement for the Messiah

to come and take his rightful place as savior.

There was no confetti, no cardboard signs,

but the people were ready to usher in the presence of Christ

in that very moment.

They were with bated breath, with anticipation

on the edges of their seat, on their tiptoes,

with expectation for the coming Messiah

to do what he came to do.

And in this moment, we see some interesting things

come to light, things that on the outside

don't appear very significant, in fact,

seem to almost downplay what is happening.

But if we would lift the veil and go beneath the surface

of the text that we're reading today,

we will find both some theological and some metaphorical

gems for us.

And the first begins with the unusual mode

of transportation that Jesus chose.

According to Luke chapter 19 and verse 30,

Luke 19 · chapter mention

it says that Jesus instructed two of his disciples

to go ahead of him and to lose a young donkey in order

for him to ride into Jerusalem.

Now, when you consider the moment,

when you consider what is taking place,

that this is the formal arrival of the King of Kings,

of the Lord of Glory, a donkey doesn't at first

seem like the appropriate mode of transportation.

A donkey doesn't seem to fit the acation

until you understand the cultural and the spiritual context.

In ancient times, when a king came to make war against the nation,

he would come riding in on a horse.

But if he came on a mission of peace,

he would ride on a donkey.

We know that one day, Jesus will indeed

ride on a white horse to make war against the nations.

We know this is going to happen.

But for the time being, and for now,

his presence still arrives on a donkey,

which says something about the unusual ways that God shows up.

When we look at this scene in the text, this momentous occasion,

and Jesus selecting a donkey to be his mode of transportation

communicates a lot of things to us.

But one of the things it does is it conveys this idea

about God showing up in our lives in the most unconventional,

seemingly unattractive ways.

When we want God to show up in our lives to flex his power,

to reveal his royalty, we want him to come often

riding on that white horse.

We want him to show up with the armies of heaven.

We want him to come with like a night shining armor,

like someone ready to do battle.

And certainly, God has all the power and all of heaven

at his disposal.

But many times, I have noticed, not only in the text today,

but in my personal life, that when I want God to show up

and when I need him, he shows up in the form

like we see here in this text.

He shows up in unassuming ways.

He shows up in ways that maybe we're not expecting.

We want the lights to shine bright.

We want the heavens to part and angels to descend.

And for us to have all sorts of goosebumps running down,

we want our back to give us the sign that God is with us.

But many times, it's through the most unassuming

and the most unattractive and the most un-unjust ways

that you would not imagine that God will show up.

We think God's going to show up at the end of a great,

at the end of a great revival service,

or when our favorite preacher comes in town,

or when we hear our favorite song.

But can I tell you that sometimes God just

shows up when you get in your car on your way

to work on Monday morning and there's nobody else there,

and you just begin to feel something come upon you,

letting you know that God is with you.

Can somebody say amen?

Sometimes he shows up on a donkey.

And it's when those moments where it's not so glorious,

that it's not so grand or, and it's not so out of this world,

it's just in those donkey kind of moments.

People think that donkeys are dumb animals when actually

they are intelligent creatures.

As we read in other places, donkeys are not only intelligent.

Do you know that donkeys are spiritually sensitive?

Remember the story of Balaam's donkey?

And how the donkey was able to see the angel

and had enough discernment to turn aside.

The donkey was more spiritually discerning than Balaam.

The donkey was completely sensitive to God

and responsive to the presence of God.

And it's the same case here in this text

where the donkey seems to be more sensitive and responsive

to the presence of Christ than some of those naysayers

and critics would be who criticize all that was happening.

Dare I say today that we have to become like this donkey?

Dare I say today that we have to become more sensitive

and responsive to his spirit?

Otherwise, we can miss our moment of destiny with God.

We can miss our moment of life transformation.

We can miss, I want to preach you today.

Come on, y'all said you were going to help me.

I need some help right now.

Otherwise, we can miss our moment of miracle.

We can miss our healing.

We can miss our blessing because we're

expecting God to do something way up in the cloud.

And God has said, no, you need to be sensitive and responsive

because right now I'm riding in on a donkey.

It may not look like much.

You look around you.

It may not look like much.

You drove into the carcass lot today

and maybe it didn't look like much.

You came into the service today and maybe it didn't seem like much.

But I got news for you today if you will be sensitive,

if you will be responsive.

You might just get everything that you need from God.

You might just have a holy ghost encounter with God

that will revolutionize your life.

Somebody ought to give the Lord some praise today.

Come on and clap your hands.

Come on and shout, hallelujah.

Woo, my Lord, some of my greatest times in the presence

of God were not in big services.

For thousands of people roaring, it's been in a little prayer

meeting with just a few people.

It's been in those moments where it's all by myself.

I've had my most powerful moments in the presence of God

when it's just me in my prayer closet with the Lord.

It's in those moments.

I call them donkey moments.

Because you're like, really, can God move here?

I've preached in some places where you walk in and say,

oh, boy, I'm in trouble.

It doesn't look like anything's going to happen.

They're not singing in the right note.

Their guitar only has one string.

Everything's out of tune.

You're like, Lord, help us.

And you know that it's in those moments sometimes.

I'm going to be honest with you.

I've had some of the greatest miracles

and the greatest experiences with God.

Because sometimes I'm going to help somebody.

We've put too much confidence and faith in the technology

and everything being just accurate and pinpoint precision.

Can I tell you that even if the lights turn down

and nothing works, we can still have church, brother?

I need somebody to help me today.

I said, we can still have church.

We can still have church.

We can still have revival.

We can still lift up our hands.

Somebody give God about 30 seconds of praise right now.

Come on.

I want to let the devil know that I don't need that stuff

to worship my God.

Hey, it's nice to have these things,

but don't you ever forget that if we just worship him

with a banjo with one string, we'll have revival, brother.

It doesn't matter.

Amen.

And I'm not trying to downplay what we have.

We are so blessed.

Oh, my gosh, we're blessed.

But let's never forget what it's all about.

It's those low-key moments with God.

And here comes this donkey.

And here what begins to happen when they were sensitive.

The first thing they did is my first point here

is we need to do what the disciples did.

Is make him a seat to dwell.

Someone say, dwell.

We got to make him a seat to dwell.

The Bible says in verse 35, now they brought him to Jesus,

and they threw their clothes on top of the colt or the donkey,

and they set Jesus on him.

Now, I don't know if anybody here

has any horseback riding experience.

I've tried it a couple of times, and I've decided I'm not

a cowboy.

I'm not a cowboy.

Hallelujah.

You know, do I got anybody else here with me on that one?

I'm not a cowboy.

And I could tell you that even with a saddle, it's hard.

Even with a saddle, it's difficult.

And this was here was a donkey that the Bible said

had never been ridden.

It was unbroken.

And they brought this animal that had never been ridden.

And so it's just new to all of this.

And yet it was sensitive.

I could talk more about that right there.

Because some of us, the more accustomed we get to it,

we start to dull our sensitivity.

Woo, hallelujah.

But there's something about being new to things.

Everything is just so colorful and vibrant and powerful.

And so here is this donkey.

Everything's new to him.

And then what they begin to do is

the disciples realize that Jesus is going to ride this donkey

into Jerusalem.

And they were thinking, we have to make this donkey as

comfortable as possible so that the Lord Jesus Christ can

sit upon it and ride his way in.

And so promptly, they started to remove their garments

and started to make this makeshift saddle so that Jesus

can sit on it.

It was all about making Jesus more comfortable.

It wasn't that Jesus wasn't going to ride the donkey.

It was not because this was prophesied.

It was going to happen.

But it was all about how could we make the presence of Jesus

more comfortable right here.

And so this was the goal.

Can I tell you what the goal of praise is today?

Someone say, go ahead.

The goal of praise is to give Christ a seat in our midst.

The goal of praise is for Christ to be seated in our midst.

We often quote the words of Psalm 22 in verse 3, which states,

you are wholly enthroned in the praises of Israel.

You may be familiar with the King James version that says,

he inhabits the praises of his people

or the praises of Israel.

What this verse is saying is literally,

go back to the last one, what the verse is saying literally

is that God sits.

He's enthroned.

He sits down.

Think of a throne, a chair, the chair of royalty.

He sits down on the praises of Israel.

And the Japanese have a wonderful way

of translating this verse, recalling

how their emperor was once carried on a throne

around the people.

And those would stop when they would see the emperor,

would stop and bow down before him.

And their translation, now you can put it up, says this.

When we praise God, we create a seat.

And he comes down and sits in it.

When we really begin to praise God with all of our hearts

and all of our soul, we create habitation.

We make this place comfortable for him

to come on in here and sit down in our midst.

How many of you want Jesus to come in our midst,

kick off his shoes and stay awhile?

Come on now, somebody.

How many of you want, hallelujah,

you want Jesus to come into our midst and get comfortable?

Let me tell you what the whole point of this is.

Praise is not about making us comfortable.

It's about making God comfortable.

Praise, come on, is about making God comfortable and not us.

So everything that we do in the praising in our church,

it's not to make you feel good, it's to make him feel good.

Oh, I wish I had some help here today.

It's not about singing your favorite song.

It's not about doing what you like.

It's about doing whatever's gonna draw

the presence of God into our midst

because I want God to dwell.

Someone shout, hallelujah.

Come on, shout, hallelujah.

I want God to dwell.

But the problem is that some of us are too comfortable.

And as a result, the Holy Ghost has nowhere to sit.

You know why?

Because the throne is not a two-seater, my friend.

The throne is a one-seater.

And either he's gonna sit on it or you're gonna sit on it.

And people sometimes they get a bad attitude.

They get all sour.

They get all out of shape because we're not

making you feel comfortable.

Hey, we come into this place to make him feel comfortable.

Because if we don't get him here, then all of this is for not.

It's just one big religious show.

It's one big spectacle.

But I don't want religion.

I want him.

I don't just want to have church.

I want God to be in the midst.

And so everything I do.

You know, I was taught, maybe like many of you,

growing up when you're sitting down.

And let's say you're having dinner

or you're all gathered in a family room somewhere.

And someone, elderly or more important, maybe a dignitary,

someone respected, walks into the room and there's no seats.

What were some of us taught to do when that happens?

Get up, right?

When someone important, maybe your grandma or your mother,

they walk into the room.

You don't just say, how rude would it

be for you to sit there too gumby?

Like, I don't know.

Looks like all the seats are taken.

That would be so disrespectful, at least

where I come from that would be.

I think true politeness, true manners, true decency would

be for you.

Here you go.

Sit down, have my chair, right?

And it's awesome when you see that.

I've seen it and I've been there many times.

Someone important comes in, you get up, give them your seat,

right?

And many times, this is what God is doing.

He comes into our midst, but sometimes we're just sitting there.

We want God to pull us up out of our seats.

No, he's a perfect gentleman.

But if somebody here would be willing to get up out

of their seat.

Oh my God.

If somebody would say, you know what?

It's not about me.

It's not about how I feel.

It's not about what moon I'm in.

It's about the presence of God.

And I want to make him comfortable.

Amen, somebody.

Amen.

How many of you believe what I'm saying here today?

We got to make him comfortable, not me, not you.

So I need to get up so that God can sit down.

And I want God to sit on my praise.

I want God to make his presence known.

And as the Holy Ghost begins to move,

and as things begin to happen, when we praise God,

then we can do what the people did next.

After they made a seat for Jesus to sit on the donkey,

the next thing we see happen in the text

is that they begin to lay things down for him to move.

Lay things down.

Someone say, lay it down.

Lay things down for him to move.

So now that we've talked about praise,

let me go deeper and talk about worship.

Because while the Lord, you can't get to worship

until you first get through praise.

I will enter his gates with thanksgiving,

into his courts with praise.

And then to the glory of God, to the presence of God,

through worship and sacrifice.

So praise gets us to this point.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

You can't be a worship.

I just feel like saying it again.

You can't be a worshipper until you're a praiser.

All right.

Amen.

But if you're a praiser, we move to this next point.

And now the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting

on a saddle of praise.

He's sitting on a seat that they have made for him.

And now he begins to move along this road

that the disciples and the others made from.

After they made a seat, look at verse 36.

As he went, many spread their clothes on the road.

In ancient times, spreading garments on the road

was considered an act of homage to a king,

similar to what we call rolling out the red carpet.

You may have seen a gala or an award ceremony

or where there's dignitaries.

They roll out a red carpet for these VIP, very important people,

to walk down.

Or when a king is being coronated,

there is this special carpet that they don't just

walk on the ground like everybody else.

They have a special walkway that they take.

And so in that same manner, they lay down their garments.

And in the Bible, doing such signifies

that the person received greater glory.

It signified that they were worthy of a higher glory,

that they were of a higher status.

And therefore, for these people to do that,

for them to lay down their own garments,

their own clothing, clothing represents your identity.

It represents even your own glory, your own prestige.

As it was in the old days of the ancient, so it is today.

I mean, come on, let's just be real.

See, someone dressed nice.

You could tell they got fancy clothes or whatever.

That may say something about who they are.

Or if not, if they're dressed in shambles or soil cloth

or whatever, you might think, well, maybe they're

in hard times or they're unhoused or whatever it might be.

And so very much so, their clothes were important to them.

But watch what they did.

They took the things that were important to them.

They took their status.

They took their glory.

And they laid it down so that Jesus

could move across that carpet made up of their laid down

glory.

Are you following me here today?

Therefore, the removing of the garments

represents us laying down our glory in favor of God's glory.

It represents us laying down the things that maybe are

important to us, the things that may be valuable to us,

the things that maybe that we treasure and hold near and dear

to us.

But now you are starting to see what true worship is all

about.

Praise may be all about the song that you sing or the way

that you clap your hands.

But worship involves something totally different.

Worship involves laying something down.

Someone say lay it down.

Hallelujah.

It's about surrender and sacrifice.

And these are the things that please God.

No wonder the apostle Paul writes these words in Romans 12.1.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies

as a living sacrifice.

Holy and pleasing to God, and this is your true and proper

worship.

Notice he doesn't mention anything about what note you

sing in.

Notice he doesn't mention the volume of your song.

Notice he doesn't mention from what track you're playing in.

But he talks only about what you are giving up of your life.

That is your true and proper worship.

This is what distinguishes praise from the worship.

Let me put it to you this way.

Praise is what you lift up, but worship is what you lay down.

Oh, I want to say it again.

Praise is what you render up, but worship

is what you lay down.

Praise and praise.

You're lifting up your voice.

You're lifting up your song, your shout, your dance,

your rhythms under God, but in worship,

you're laying down your thoughts and your gifts

and your ideas and your body and everything under God

and your flesh and service and sacrifice

unto your King and your Lord.

Oh, my God is looking not just for a generation of praise,

or he's looking for a generation of worshipers.

He's looking for those that will worship him,

his spirit and his truth.

Somebody give God some glory here today.

Somebody give him some glory.

Anybody can praise him.

All of the earth is praising him right now.

The heavens of the earth declare the glory of the Lord.

Everything that has breath, praise the Lord.

Anything that's breathing is praising God, giving glory to God.

But there is a difference between a praiser and a worshiper.

Some people praise, but they don't worship.

Why?

Because they don't lay anything down.

Oh, my God.

The Jewish writers say that when people would lay down

their clothes for their King, it was

that he might walk on a higher level than them.

Oh, picture this.

The more clothes that they lay down on this carpet

for their King, what does it do?

It elevates the ground that they're walking on.

They're not even walking on the same level

as those that are honoring him.

And so watch this.

The more they put down, the higher he goes up.

I need you to see that.

The more you put down, the higher his red carpet becomes.

If I put down little, I exalt him little.

But if I put down much, I exalt him much.

Why?

Because the two of us cannot go up.

One of us goes down so that the other can go up.

Oh, I need somebody to hear me today.

If you're willing to lay down yourself, lay down your flesh,

lay down your idea, lay down everything that contradicts

and offends God, then we will magnify him on another level.

So I have come to lay something down.

And I am desperate for God to move.

How many of you want God to move?

Who can I preach for a little bit more?

Is that all right?

I want God to move.

You know what, brother?

I'm desperate for God to move.

How many of you are desperate?

Come on, come on, come on.

Are you really desperate?

I'm desperate.

Brother Ricky, I'm getting to a point

where if God doesn't move, I don't want any part of it.

God's got to move.

He's got to move in my house.

He's got to move in the church.

I need him to move.

I don't want anything if God's not in it

and God's not moving in it.

But me, wanting God to move is one thing.

And getting God to move is another.

And God said, I'll move when you start laying things down.

Oh my God.

Oh, hallelujah.

Jesus was on the donkey, getting ready to make

his triumphant entry into the eastern gates

of the old city of Jerusalem.

But before he moves, someone say, before he moves,

come on and help me.

I'll say before he moves, they begin to lay things down.

And by laying things down, they created a walkway.

They created a red carpet.

They created a path for the spirit of Christ to move.

So here is the key.

If you want God to move more, lay down more.

I want miracles.

I want blessings.

But you won't fast even one cheeseburger.

I want revival.

I want this.

But you won't be obedient.

You won't lay some things down.

Come on now.

We say we want to move of God, but we want to move of God

free of charge.

We want to move of God that doesn't cost us anything.

I'm going to preach myself into a future day.

We want to move of God that doesn't take anything

from our time, from our money, from our space.

No, we just want to move of God.

And God said, all right, I'm willing to move.

How many know He's ready to move?

I'm willing to move.

But you better start laying some things down.

Laying some things down.

And I don't mean laying stuff down

that you didn't want anyways.

I didn't mean laying stuff down that you were just

going to throw away anyways.

No, no, no, no.

Someone once said, it's not obedience

if you didn't want to do it anyways.

And you don't get credit for doing things

that you didn't really want to do anyways.

It's when you do things or when you don't do things

that you really wanted to do.

Man, I really wanted that.

It hurts when someone say ouch.

That hurt.

I didn't want to say goodbye to that Benjamin Franklin.

He's my friend.

I'm trying to get more of them.

I'm not trying to lose them.

Oh, man, that's going to get quiet on me.

Going to get quiet.

No, no, no, because we just think revival just

comes with the louder I clap.

Hey, brother, that's fine.

Clap into your hands, fall off.

Sing until you lose your voice.

But at the end of the day, God won't

move one more inch into some of our lives,

into our ministry, until we start laying

some significant things down.

Oh, my God, hallelujah, until we start laying things down

and saying, this Lord, I'm ready for you to move.

I'm ready, God.

And what you lay down will lift God up.

I'm desperate for him to move.

But praise brings us to worship.

And then worship brings us to another dimension.

When this all happens, when they created a seat for Christ

on the donkey, and then they lay down

with their sacrificial giving, they

put their expense of attire, their prayer shawls,

their if all the prayer shawls, the talits,

these embroidered special garment,

they put all these things down on the man.

There's so much I can talk about that.

But they put it all down.

And then something begins to happen.

It changes the atmosphere.

It changes the environment.

When all this happens, we can do what the people of God there

did next, which is to wave your palms with joy.

In John 12 or 13, it says, the people then

took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him

and cried out, Hosanna!

They began to cry, Hosanna!

That word, Hosanna, in the original language means save us.

They were saying, save us!

Save us!

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,

the King of Israel!

And then they got their palms, their palm branches,

and they began to wave them.

And in the palm branches, we find several meanings.

This right here could be like a message all by itself.

And we see, first of all, that palm branches

were used throughout history and in biblical history

as a symbol of celebration of victory and pain

homage to a king.

They would wave palm branches, ancient people in Israel,

to celebrate victory.

And this obviously points to Jesus Christ

as being the King of glory, the King of kings,

and the Lord of lords, the Prince of peace,

and the royal son of God, somebody say amen.

And so it was fitting for them to use these palm branches.

It was honoring and celebrating the victory of Christ.

But not only that, the palm branches also represent Jesus

being worthy as the high priest for all who believed.

A palm tree takes 30 years to bear fruit,

the kind that grow there in Palestine.

Take 30 years to bear fruit.

And a man, a Jewish man, could not

become a high priest until he was 30 years old.

And likewise, Jesus began his public ministry

at 30 years old.

And so Jesus's ministry, like the palm tree and the priest,

were at 30 years of age when they began

to produce the kind of fruit in their ministry.

And so by waving these palm branches,

see the biblical and the prophetic significance.

They are not only honoring him as the King of victory,

but they are also honoring him as the high priest who

can be touched by the feeling of our infirmity, the one who

goes before us and mediates between man

and reconciles us between God and man.

And with the waving of the palm branches,

they were symbolically revering Christ as King and priest,

the coming fruition, the culmination of his ministry

here on earth.

Oh, this is so awesome.

And all of these things are taking place.

And Jesus is being showered with praise and worship.

And they are glorifying him.

Hallelujah.

And aside from all of that, there's even more.

Can I share with you just a little bit more?

Amen.

There's even more to that.

I'm almost done.

But watch this.

Aside from pointing to Jesus as the King of kings

and as the high priest with their palms,

this coincided with a very holy festival

that the Jewish practiced called the Feast of the Tabernacles

or the Feast of Shelters.

Don't have time to explain all of what that symbolizes,

but they were to do so on a yearly basis.

And during this feast, the Bible

says that this is what they were supposed to do.

In Leviticus 2340, they were to take for themselves

all of the different fruit from the beautiful trees,

the palm trees, the branches of the palms, and the willows.

And they were to bring these branches

and come before the Lord and rejoice.

Someone say, rejoice.

Come on, somebody say, rejoice.

They would come and begin to rejoice before the Lord

and begin to worship and magnify and glorify the Lord.

And they did this for several reasons.

Oh man, so many layers to this.

But they did this in celebrating God for the past,

for the present, and for the future.

When you look at the Feast of the Tabernacles

and the use of these palm trees,

they would do it to celebrate the past, the present,

and the future.

They would celebrate God bringing them out of Egypt.

That's the past.

How many of you believe God is worthy to be praised

for everything that he's brought you out of?

Amen.

Amen, somebody.

How many of you believe that God is worthy?

How many of you know we ought to praise him

for everything, for bringing us out of Egypt,

for delivering us from this world,

from setting us free from sin and bondage?

Amen, somebody.

And they would wave these palm branches

to celebrate what God had done,

and also to celebrate what God was doing in the present.

Because at the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles

was a great harvest.

It happened during harvest time.

And so everybody was gathering the harvest in,

collecting all of the crops that were produced that year,

and they were celebrating the current harvest.

We are not just thank God for what he's done,

but we ought to thank God for what he's doing.

And how many of you are blessed today?

Oh, come on, I said how many of you are blessed today?

To say right now as sure as I am sitting in this place,

I am blessed.

And then not only that, but they would worship,

they would celebrate God for the future.

They would wave the palm branches,

celebrating the coming Messiah,

celebrating what was going to come in the future.

I've come to tell you today that as the people of God,

we have this privilege of welcoming in the glory of the Lord.

We have this awesome responsibility of being the choir

and the praise team.

And oh my Lord, and the voices and the worship

that brings in the glory of God.

We, somebody say me, we all have this job, this calling.

And so they would begin to wave these branches and celebrate.

They would begin to worship.

And as Jesus was starting to ride in,

as he was starting to his entry into the city gates,

they got their palms and they began to wave them.

And I thought to myself, Lord, how can we do this today?

How can we rejoice today?

You and I church can do the same thing.

You and I can wave our palms with joy.

I'm not talking about palm branches.

I'm talking about these palms right here.

I'm talking about the palms of your hands.

We may not have the branches, but we got arms today.

Hallelujah, we've got hands that we can lift up to God.

How many of you got a hand today?

How many of you got a hand today?

How many of you got a hand today?

Sometimes, not all the times, so don't take this like, you know,

for gospel truth, but sometimes you can tell where somebody has gotten the victory in their life

or not by their ability to lift their hands.

The last thing the devil wants you to do is raise your hands.

Not only is it a sign of surrender, but it's also a sign of victory.

It's also a sign that says I rejoice for what God is doing in my life.

I'm free.

Oh, Jesus, I'm free to worship Him.

I'm free to praise Him.

Why don't you just take a moment right now and begin to worship the Lord?

I feel something happening in this place.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Why don't you take a moment right now?

Hallelujah.

We're going to do something today.

We're going to do something today.

Hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah, God.

We're getting ready to do something in this place right now.

Hallelujah.

You see, we have praised God.

We have lift up our hands throughout the service.

We have moved and we have a dance.

Well, not everybody, but some of us did.

But God believed that before this service is over, there's going to be a wave of praise

and worship that's going to sweep through this house.

Oh, I feel it in my bones right now.

Something is going to begin to happen in this place.

Oh, hallelujah.

I believe it with all of my heart.

This is what began to happen.

You see, there is a spirit called an anti-praise spirit.

Can I tell you about that right now?

Somebody say, go ahead.

Can I have a few more moments?

Is that all right?

There is like an anti-praise, anti-worship spirit.

And it's the spirit we see manifest in the Pharisees that day when they saw all of the

joy and the worship and the praise that was happening.

They saw the garments being laid out.

They saw the palm branches.

They saw Jesus coming in.

And then these Pharisees did not like what they were seeing.

They thought this was all out of order.

This was all out of order.

This is not right.

This is not how it should be done.

This is too excessive.

This is too exuberant.

We got to call a time out.

And so they began to criticize.

And then they told Jesus, rebuke these disciples for what they're doing.

Tell them to be quiet.

Tell them to hold their peace.

Tell them to be more respectful.

Tell them to be quiet.

Tell them to stop making all that commotion and making all that noise.

Tell them to just tell them to hush and be quiet.

And Jesus looked at them and he did not address the worshipers and the praise.

But he addressed those that were criticizing.

He says if these should keep quiet, then the rocks will immediately cry out.

Now for many years I would read that verse.

And I thought that Jesus was referring to just like a rock on the ground.

And if you read it just on the surface, that's fine.

There's nothing wrong with that application.

I think it works.

Because I think that God can make a little rock in the ground cry out.

How many think God can do that?

God can take anything he wants in this world and make it worship him.

How many of you think God can do that?

Can I get a bigger amen for that?

You can do it.

You can do that?

All right.

God can make these cinderblock walls here.

Start singing if he wants to.

But when you look at the geography, when you look at the scene with all of its fixtures, colors and symbols,

there's more going on to what Jesus said.

There's more going on because the Bible says that he was coming down from the Mount of Olives.

Some of you who have visited the Mount of Olives, who have gone to the Holy Land,

you might remember this, taking pictures of it.

But when he rode down through the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, there to the eastern side of the city,

all throughout that area, he wasn't just surrounded by people.

But you see, the Mount of Olives that Jesus passed through was a massive cemetery

filled with thousands and thousands of headstones.

In fact, it's one of the oldest and still active cemeteries in the world.

If you go there now, put the picture up so they can see it, brother.

The Mount of Olives.

The Mount of Olives.

Okay, it'll be up in just a moment.

But I want you to see this.

Look at, there it is.

All of these, now this is only a partial picture.

Thousands and thousands of headstones feel the Mount of Olives.

And as Jesus was there, and as the Pharisees told him,

why don't you tell these people to be quiet?

He said, if these keep silent, he said the stones will immediately cry out.

What Jesus was saying is that if the living will praise me,

I will cause the dead to rise up and praise me.

You're not hearing what I'm saying.

He said, if the living won't praise me, I will cause the stones that are dead to rise up.

But you better know that somebody is doing a praise.