Ready or Not | Pastor Mike Saathoff

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

How y'all doing this morning?

Good, good.

Nice.

Man, that was a good one.

You know, usually like I see all the memes and they're like, how's everybody doing?

Everybody's like, mm-hmm.

And then y'all, I mean, y'all are ready this morning.

I don't know if it was time change.

You know what it is?

It's not time change Sunday.

So everybody's like alert now.

We've got sunlight.

We're not in like the depression of the fall.

Don't worry, y'all.

Pastels are coming next week.

Anyone else want a good pastel?

I have a good pastel.

I may come in all Seersucker suit.

You never know what you're gonna get.

Hey, so we love y'all.

Thank y'all so much for being here.

It's always awesome.

As even Pastor Nate said, being able to come into a place and worship as a corporate uh community and coming together and lifting praises onto God, it really can change not only the atmosphere of a place, but it can change our own predicaments.

And so hopefully you have also felt that.

And and I believe it to be true just by seeing all of us in this room that when we come in here and we worship God, somehow, somehow, our worries and our problems and our issues seem to just fade away.

If we didn't leave it at the door, we know that we're leaving it at the altar.

And so um, it is absolutely beautiful and wonderful.

So, church, I'm always excited to be here, and I just want to give honor to Pastor Keith and Pastor Man.

Can we just love on them real quick?

Because they are amazing, absolutely amazing, truly.

It's an honor and a privilege to do life with the both of you, and uh thank you so much for this opportunity to be able to present the word of God.

And um, I'm I'm a good old southern boy, which means that no matter what I had to do, we were always in church on Sunday.

So I'm this is what I know.

I love being able to dive into the word of God.

I could be here all day long, and it doesn't matter who's up here speaking, I'll just sit there and listen.

Um, but don't worry, I'm only gonna keep you guys for four hours, so we're good.

So I'm excited to share this message because today is Palm Sunday.

So if you didn't already know, it's Palm Sunday, um, which is amazing.

If you didn't come with the palm branch, don't worry, you're gonna take a whole palm tree home when you leave.

Um, no, it's an amazing time as we celebrate uh the week going towards Easter.

And we celebrate today as Palm Sunday because today is the day at which Jesus had his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and that is so significant for us because as believers, we realize that our Savior, our King, was going in.

Now, now here's the reality.

The reality before we go into the text, the reality is that our King, our Savior, had this triumphant entry that is one of royalty, but it really didn't look that way.

We expect to see in the text that there's marching bands and there's fireworks going off, and it's just all just people are going bananas, but that's not really what we see.

That's not really how our savior entered in.

He didn't come in on a chariot, he didn't, he didn't come in, he actually entered into the city in a way that was similar to how he entered into the world, which was humble, which was lowly, which which kind of makes me think, man, if our savior did that and is demonstrating that, how much more should we, when we go to places, when we represent him, do we represent him with our chest stuck out, or do we represent him in all meekness?

Do we represent him in a way that is true to his character and nature?

So this Palm Sunday, you know, I really want to be able to unpack what the word says, and we're gonna dive right in right now into um into Luke.

Now, just to give you quick context before we go to Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

So, right where we pick up in the text, Jesus is is actually coming off of like a tour.

He's been preaching and and giving parables, and he even healed a blind man right before Luke goes into this conversation with us that we're gonna dive into today.

And here's what it says it says this, it says, in Luke 19, verse 29.

Luke 19:29

We're gonna go all the way down to 40, and it says it says, as he came to the towns of of Bethagy and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead.

Go into that village over there, he told them.

As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks, Why are you untying that colt?

just say the Lord needs it.

So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said.

And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt?

And the disciples simply replied, The Lord needs it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

As they as he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him.

When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven.

But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that.

And he replied, Get this.

If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers.

You know what we see right out the gate in this text is that it is very possible for proponents and opponents to occupy the same space.

Which leads me to know that there may be times in life where I we all might be someplace where we've got those people who are for us living in the same space as the same people who are against us.

Now, I could unpack that all day long and we can sit on that, and that's not what I want to talk about, but keep that in mind as we go forward with what I do want to unpack, which I want to actually kind of take a look at the from the perspective of the cult, from the perspective of this young donkey.

I want to kind of see what that's like because how many of us in this room, probably maybe all of us, have done something that we have no experience of?

Something has landed on our lap that we just we don't know, we've never done it before.

It's something new, it's just it's just dropped in front of us.

Some of us experienced that in 2020 when it was just something so new that we never even have an experience.

There was nobody that trained us, nobody prepped us, nobody got us ready for it.

2020 was full of that.

Nobody, I don't know about you, but working from home was not a good experience for me.

I don't like that.

I need somebody to be like, what are you doing right now?

I mean, there's people who had to become teachers in home.

Parents, you know, had to become teachers and they're learning math, and now they're like frustrated, like, that's not math.

What is that?

Why is my child learning this?

You're never going back to school.

Now, these are things that we've experienced.

Some of us had new jobs, some of us experienced furloughs, and how do we function and operate in that?

And so it was something new that we never had to do before.

But what we did know was ready or not, we had to be there.

Ready or not, we had to step up to the plate.

And you can look to somebody and just just look as a matter of fact, look to the person next to you and just say, ready or not.

Look to the next person who is your second choice and just tell them ready or not.

Because here's the reality ready or not, life is coming.

And that's the title of this message today.

If you're taking notes, you can put that down that it's ready or not.

And my hope, my sincere hope is that when we leave here today, we can truly walk in the fullness and boldness of Christ.

That all of us can leave here going forward and knowing the authority that we have in us because we are chosen, ready or not, we are moving forward.

And so there's three things that I want to unpack that we see in the life of this cult.

But first, let's pray.

God, we love you and we praise you, God.

Thank you for meeting us in this place, God.

We don't ever want to take that for granted.

But God, as you are here with us right now, God, allow our ears to be open, allow our hearts to be ready to receive what it is that you want to get to us today.

God, move me completely out of the way, God.

In fact, decrease me that you might increase, God, that people can walk out of here knowing that they have encountered the sovereign God of the universe, knowing that they can, that they are better, knowing they can do better because you've made them better.

There is no 2.0 version of ourselves, but you make us whole.

So allow us to walk from this place, to leave this place never the same.

We love you and we praise you.

And if Faithfield Church said, Amen.

Now, the first thing that we see in the life of this particular cult, this young donkey, is the fact that he was reserved.

Now, that's a good way of just saying, you know, waiting.

It's a good way of saying that it's being held.

It's a good way of saying that it's just off right over there.

Don't touch it.

Now, some of us maybe we have encountered that or we have ourselves experienced what that feels like to be in the waiting.

Is there anybody in here that that you just love waiting?

Because for me, I hate it.

I am not one of those people that I don't like to wait.

I don't want to wait on anything.

Most of the time, I'd rather not go to a restaurant, I'd rather cook it myself because I don't want to wait.

I probably can't make it as good, but I sure will try.

I'm like a, you know, I'm like a cheap chef.

It's okay.

I'm kind of there, but not really.

But anybody in here, like I hate, I absolutely hate waiting.

I can't imagine what that experience is like for this donkey.

This nobody's ridden him, this donkey's been tied up, nobody's been on it.

But we often in our own lives experience the weight.

And the weight can can sometimes make us feel like we're forgotten.

It can feel like we've been left out.

It feels like nobody wants to choose us.

In fact, you know, growing up, uh, anybody remember P.E.

And I just I hated P.E.

Clearly.

P.E.

was not my friend.

I was like, why are we doing this?

I was here to learn not run.

What does this mean?

What's chasing me?

Nothing?

Great, I'm not doing it.

But I just remember so much in P.E.

growing up, and then it was the point where we would just have like just, it was like the free time, and then get out, and everybody's running around playing.

And if it was earlier in the day, you're like, y'all are dumb because now we're gonna be stanked the whole day, but that's on you.

Smell us.

Hope you love it.

But we would play kickball, and I used to hate it because that was the moment when you would go and everybody would pick teams.

And I don't know about you, but somehow, somehow, it felt like I always got overlooked to be picked until I got smart with them jokers, and then I was like, here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna be captain.

How about I be captain, then I do the picking.

But if you've ever been in that place where you weren't the captain, you weren't leading the team, you were just another one off into the distance, and everybody is just being picked and picked and picked, even Johnny with the snotty nose and the glasses with a patch, like he got picked before you.

And all I remember was just feeling like I was forgotten, feeling like I got left out, feeling like I wasn't good enough.

And oftentimes when you're in the waiting, it can feel that way.

Am I right?

It can feel like you're just being looked over, you're forgotten, especially if you've been praying.

And you're like, God, get me to that next place.

God, help me move forward.

God, I want this job.

God, I want this woman, I want this man.

God, just like bring it.

I don't want to be lonely, I don't want all these different things, and we pray and pray and pray, and it can look like everybody else around us is going forward with their life.

Everybody else around us is being picked, and it seems like we might be the one that has been left out.

You know, we see this playing out in the scriptures.

We see it in the life of David, of King David, before he was king.

We see this in his life.

In fact, in 1 Samuel 16, it says, when they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliah and thought, surely, this is the Lord's anointed.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.

The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

We saw over and over again, if you read on in that text, you will see that each brother, nope, that's not the one.

Nope, that's the one.

How about this one?

He's this, he's that.

He's got all these awards and accolades, and everybody's pointing to that one, but no, no, no, no, no.

It ends up being David.

Why?

Because the Lord does not look at the outward appearance.

Why?

Because it is all about the posture of one's heart.

It is always about the posture of our heart.

And in fact, it's not just that, but it's like, man, David was out there.

He didn't care what they were doing.

In fact, he himself probably didn't think, oh no, they're they're coming.

Oh yeah, I got all my brothers.

I'm literally gonna be the last one.

And he's just got his hands on the plow.

He's just still going out there.

He's smelling all bad because he's with all the animals and doing all the things.

He's just doing what he knows to do and doing it well.

I don't know how many of us in this room feel like we're forgotten and left out, but can I submit to you right now that just keep doing what you know to do, continue being faithful and watch God show up and show you who he really is and come into your world, come into your situation like never before, because that is exactly the God that we serve.

See, see, it looks like everybody else is getting ahead, but really, he's just positioning you.

Really, you're just being reserved for when God is ready to use you.

See, I can just I can just imagine what David was feeling in that moment.

One, because it wasn't something that he was expecting to do, but also it was something so new.

What do you mean, me?

Why would you choose me?

I'm just doing what it is that I'm supposed to do.

That is exactly sometimes where we are.

When God shows up, we've been reserved and he's wanting to use us.

At times it can go, wait a minute, why me?

Why am I doing this?

I used to say that sometimes even with the call of ministry and being able to go and really activate that and go, wait, why now?

And it's so amazing that he will come right in on time because of the posture of your heart.

So keep your heart right and keep moving forward.

Guard it at all cost.

Guard your heart at all costs.

Don't let anything come because trust me when I tell you that anything will come to creep in, to distract you, and to derail you from your mission and your purpose.

Do not compare.

We've heard this many times before that comparison kills, that comparison is a trap in and of itself.

So, yes, you might be young.

Yes, you might be waiting.

And even when I say young, you might say, Well, hey, I'm I'm not like in my 20s and my 30s, but you still are young because there's still something new that God wants from you.

There's always something new.

We serve a God who is doing new things all the time.

And and the fact that I know that you have something to do is because you're breathing.

The fact that I know that you have purpose still is because you're breathing.

So don't get caught up on your age.

You still have a mission to go forward and to move forward.

Ready or not?

So guard your heart.

Guard it at all costs.

So you thought that God forgot about you.

You thought that time was ticking and running out.

And yes, time is ticking, but you are not forgotten.

You are not missed out.

You are only being reserved.

Only being reserved.

So get ready because the true posture of your heart has now really caused our Lord and our Savior to come on the scene and to begin to look at you and go, now it's your time.

We see this with the cult where Jesus shows up and this cult has been reserved, and then all of a sudden he's like, nope, go get him on tie him.

What is he saying?

Release him.

He is saying, release him, which brings me to the second thing that we see in the life of this cult, which is that he is released.

Now, I don't know what else to say, other than at the moment when we are released and set free from some things, we can just go like never before.

It is powerful.

It's like winding up a little toy.

And every time we've been reserved, we've been wound up.

And then when he lets us go, when we are released from the things that gripped us, from the things that held us, and mind you, it may not always be what you see.

There could be some things that are holding you that is internal.

There could be some things that are holding you back.

There's just stuff that's been circulating in your mind.

Can I tell you right now that God wants us to completely take control of our mind and to be able to set us free completely, that we can be released into doing what it is that he reserved us for.

And you've got it in you and know right now he is in the releasing business.

Imagine for a moment if Joseph from Genesis 41, if he was not released from prison to be able to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.

In this particular story, they didn't know that at that time that a famine was coming, but when Joseph began to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, it was able to not just save the kingdom, but it was able to save some people in the surrounding areas.

Trust me when I tell you, when you have been reserved and then you've been released, it's going to give a maximum impact, not just for your house, but for people all around you.

Because there is something bigger than just ourselves.

God doesn't always just do stuff for us only, He does it so He can change an entire community.

In fact, if God can get something to us, it's only because He can get it through us.

We are to be a conduit for those around us, for our community, our friends, our family.

And it's supposed to be a broad reach.

Matthew 6, 22 through 24 says this.

It says, Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.

No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other.

You will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

Now I would submit to you not only being enslaved to money, but being enslaved to fear, being enslaved to doubt.

Whatever we put on the throne of our heart will begin to guide us, will begin to trap us, will begin to tie us up to it.

That's why I'm saying we have to guard our heart at all costs, because whatever we put on the throne, whatever we magnify, begins to be our master.

It begins to hold us captive.

And this is the very thing that Jesus is saying, release, release, release that.

Because he has need of us.

In fact, if we look a little bit closer and we see this point of release and what that means in our own lives, and when we see about we can't have two masters, we can't serve two masters, we begin to understand that if we really serve Jesus, then there is clearly no room for any other authority in our lives other than Him.

There's no room for it at all.

Anything that is sitting on the throne of our heart that is not Jesus is fraudulent, is corrupt, is a perpetrator.

And we have to get rid of it.

Now, I'm not saying that things that we are dealing with are not real.

Because there are some things that will give us anxiety, there are some things that will shake us up, but we also know that that is not for us to magnify higher than we magnify our Savior.

That is not meant for us.

No, we have a risen Savior.

We have one who we can lean on and depend on.

We have a true champion, and he's the one who is to inhabit that throne.

He is the only authority that we are to have in our heart on that level.

Philippians 2.10 says this that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So truly, if Jesus is reigning supreme on the throne of our heart, and we know this, and we have completely declared inside of us He is Lord, He is sovereign, then that means everything that we are facing must bow to Him.

Everything above Here and below has to bow to him, has to yield to his complete and sovereign authority.

That is the God that we serve, that is the power that is in him.

That is who can really be in us.

That is the one who will release us into freedom in him.

So here's the deal, y'all.

We've been reserved for such a time as this.

I know it looks crazy out there.

I know every time we turn around, there's there's a shooting over here, or every time we turn around, there's a natural disaster over here.

And if we turn on the news, it's always something.

I literally was just Thursday, I was getting uh eating breakfast or something, and and uh um then that was when I found out about the tornadoes in Alabama and was watching on the news and didn't realize all this was happening overnight, and it can seem like every time we wake up in the morning, there's something new.

Every time we wake up, there is something.

And sometimes we feel like there's nothing that we can even do about it.

But can I submit to you that there is something we can do?

We have the power of prayer, and some people will say, well, man, that's just speaking the air.

No, no, no, no.

The power of prayer allows us to speak to situations and change them.

Why?

Because if we know who is in us, if we have the rightful king, the rightful authority on our throne, then he has already given us power to be able to speak to things.

Now, does that mean that things will change immediately?

Maybe.

Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.

But we are to pray without ceasing.

We are to speak truth into every area, we are to bring light, we are to be a beacon of hope, we are to speak that.

Because yes, we live in a cold, dark, broken world.

We know this.

But we also have a light, a champion, a risen Savior who has given us power and authority to be able to speak life into death.

Amen.

We have that.

That's who we serve.

That is the God who we serve.

So if we look into our hearts, and maybe you can search today, and maybe you're already thinking about some things that are troubling on your heart.

Maybe you're thinking about some things right now that you know what, I what is occupying the throne of my heart?

What is occupying that particular space?

Maybe that space right now is being occupied by doubt.

Maybe you don't think that you'll be able to make it out of where we are right now in terms of our life and in terms of a job and in terms of a family.

Maybe you think all is grim and all hope is lost.

Maybe you face some loss right now.

Maybe 2020 brought you that, and maybe even going into 2021, we've thought that everything would be different, and it just seems like it's 2020 part B.

And some of us feel that way right now.

When I look at the news, I'm like, you've got to be kidding.

Has 2020 launched an era?

And I'm like, the devil is a liar.

The 2020 is not gonna be an era of just loss, defeat, and doubt and all these things.

We are going to raise, rise above all that is this, because here's what I've realized: I've realized that the enemy comes not but to steal, kill, and destroy.

That's what scripture says.

So, of course, if we look around us, it looks all grim.

Of course, if we look at the world, the world's gonna show us what it truly is.

Maybe, maybe what really is happening is that our blinders are being removed and we can really see the world for what it is, and that is broken and lost and hurting, and now we can rise up and we can begin to be released into changing our environment, to changing our nation, to changing our world.

Maybe this is the time.

So when Jesus says, Brum here on tithe the cult, maybe he's speaking to all of us to be on tied to what we once knew and to what we expect, and to really begin to trust and to lean on him in a greater way to be able to change the world that we live in, to be able to speak life and not death in the situations, to be a beacon of hope for people who think that hope is all lost, when really hope is not lost.

Hope is found in Jesus.

Hope is Jesus.

And so if we know that here in this place, and and we've been able to lean on him all throughout 2020 and even now, then maybe that is what our world actually needs is to know that there really is a true living God who is for them and not against them.

And maybe that's for us to be released to go and to tell them.

In fact, it is for us to be released and to go and tell them about Jesus.

So, yes, we've been reserved, and yes, sometimes people have said, Where is the church?

We've heard this before plenty of times.

Where is the church?

Where are the people of God?

Why isn't anybody speaking into things?

Well, I would submit that we might be reserved at that point in time.

But trust me, I feel that now as we are going forward into life and we've been able to remove some blinders, we are being released and we're being able to go and to speak into areas in our community that we never actually had access to.

Here's the thing: let's not let doubt and fear creep in to hold us back anymore.

Because there are some people who are broken, who are hurting, who are waiting to hear the news that we already know is true and good.

And we can't keep it bottled up and locked up inside of us.

We have to tell them about Jesus.

Why?

Because I believe that once we are reserved, then we're released, and now we can be reconciled.

This is the life of the cult that we see because he was reconciled with Jesus.

This is the purpose and plan of God the whole time is that we can be reconciled to them again, to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one.

We can be reconciled to them.

We were never meant to live life apart.

And as believers, we know this to be true because man, we can come into a place together and worship.

We can even be at home, we could be driving and we could feel low, but when we cry out to Jesus, knowing that He's with us, knowing we've already been reconciled to Him, there is freedom in that, there is hope in that.

We might be down for a moment, but you better believe we're like a Timex watch.

We'll take a licking and we'll keep on ticking.

And I truly believe that that is who we are as a church.

That is who we are as a body of believers is man, we know we're reconciled back to Him.

When we look at the life of this cult, we see this cult being reserved and then being released and now reconciled.

And here's the truth of it right now.

Some of us, we may come to church every Sunday.

We may be in groups, and we may not truly be reconciled to him.

Wouldn't that be the greatest tragedy of all?

Is that we can hear about the goodness of Jesus, we can know about the goodness of Jesus and not be fully reconciled to him.

Wouldn't that be the greatest tragedy to know that we've gone throughout all of our lives and not had a moment where we could be reconciled to the Father?

What a tragedy.

What a tragedy that Jesus would come lowly and even enter into the city in the meekest way possible and take upon all of our sins and go up on Calvary's cross and die a most gruesome death so we can be reconciled, and yet we're just content filling a seat.

Yet we're just content putting on a little worship music because it's just nice to not hear cussing every now and again.

That is not why Jesus came.

He didn't come so we can have a feel-good Sunday.

He didn't come and he didn't die so we can have Easter eggs and bunnies running around on Easter Sunday.

He didn't come for that.

No, he he came that we can be reconciled to him.

There is a reason why, even next week, we the whole week we celebrate his triumphant entry.

We celebrate what he did for us because what that means is now we've got some power.

Now we've got some authority.

Now we're able to go into our world and change it for the better, go into our families and change for the better and demonstrate the fullness of who he is.

Matthew 28, 20 says, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

See, when we are reconciled with him, that means he is with us.

That means we are with him.

That means wherever we go, he goes.

That means every valley, every mountaintop, wherever we are, he is there.

What was so amazing about Jesus riding in on this donkey is that he he summons the donkey to him and gets on the donkey.

And here is a donkey that's never been ridden.

Here's a donkey that nobody's ever touched, and yet Jesus rides it.

Now this donkey is experiencing life that one he's never had before, but life with Jesus.

And what does life with Jesus mean?

It means that even in the midst of all the haters, the agitators, the naysayers, you can walk freely through it and confidently, knowing that the sovereign God of the universe is with you.

He's backing you, and literally was backing this donkey.

He was right there with them.

And let me tell you something.

That is the God we serve.

He is with you and he's for you.

And if he's for you, then he's with you.

And that is what it means to be reconciled to him.

So, yes, you've been reserved.

Yes, it feels like you've been waiting.

But trust me when I tell you, when you get that release, then you can be reconciled to him.

It is beautiful to see that we are reconciled for something, to be released to something, to be to be with the Father in it, and then not only that, but listen, church, it's because there is a greater purpose at stake.

There is a much greater purpose at stake.

See, everyone in this room has a purpose.

Each last, every last one of us, we have a purpose, we have a mission that is holy, that has been sent by the Father.

You'll be surprised in your sphere of influence what that could mean by you just showing up on the job, by you just speaking life into someone.

Will you notice that someone is having a bad day?

Just to say, How are you?

And then afterwards, have y'all ever done okay?

Let me just say this.

I love doing this.

If I see somebody having a bad day, I will just pray and then just say, Hey, how are you?

And I can still be praying for them, and then just to watch the reaction change slowly over time.

This is why I know for a fact that there's power in prayer.

What will that look like?

And you don't have to do anything weird and be that person, but what does that look like if you are knowing that somebody is going through something and just praying for them, just lifting them up before God.

Why?

Because you yourself have been reconciled to him.

And maybe that prayer for them is that they can begin to know the same God that you know in the way that you know him, to know that no matter where you are, he is there.

I love it when I was thinking about this message, I'm like, oh my God, this is so great because wherever I go, he goes just like that, and wherever he goes, I go just like that.

And it's like I'm right here with them, and he's right here with me, and and we're in this thing, and what am I saying?

I'm saying there's a rhythm and there's a flow.

And once you are reconciled with him, you begin to understand that there's a rhythm and a flow to it.

And when you are working in a good rhythm and a flow with Jesus, nothing seems to be impossible for you or to you.

1 John 4 and 4 says this, but you belong to God, my dear children.

You have already won a victory over those people because the spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint, and the world listens to them.

But we belong to God.

That is the difference maker.

We know who we belong to.

See, that is why we have to be released from so many different things.

And it's critical that we we understand that we have to keep God in his place in our heart because we don't belong to the world.

The world will always point us to a place of defeat.

The world always wants to keep us down because as long as we're down, we're controlled.

As long as we're down, we can be silent.

That's why they're like, no, no, no, no, we don't need prayer in schools, and and no, no, no, no, we don't, we don't want you to speak out too much.

And no, no, no, just aren't you supposed to just be a good Christian and just be kind to people and raise money for the poor and just do all those things.

No, no, no, no, no.

We take a stand.

After done all that we can do, we take a stand.

Because when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord begins to raise up a standard.

And I truly believe that we are called to be a standard.

Yes, we were reserved for a time such as now, and yes, it is time for us to be released into the world, released into our community, because everyone needs to be reconciled back to Christ.

Everyone needs to know that they have a Father who loves them, who is with them, who is for them, and ready or not, the calling still stands.

Ready or not, what you have on your life, God is ready to equip you and empower you to go forward and to move forward.

We have an assignment.

Each and every last one of us in this room has an assignment on our life.

And God is preparing us and equipping us to be able to go forward and to capture the enemy in a way that when we capture him, we begin to release others to be able to come into the family.

And let me tell you something.

Our family is growing.

No, I don't just mean celebration church.

No, I mean the global church.

I mean the family of God, the kingdom of God.

It is growing because more and more people, even in this time, are realizing that hope can be found only in Jesus.

Hope is not found in political leaders, hope is not found in money, hope is not found in all of those things.

Those things may be good, but it is only in Jesus.

And we know him and we have him right in our midst.

And so, therefore, we need to be able to go beyond these four walls and be able to tell people more about the sovereign God whom we serve.

Well, I'm beginning to close right now and the band can come back.

I don't want to miss the fact that this whole thing is about being reconciled to him.

As we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem, this whole thing is about coming back to him.

It's about bringing the family back together again.

For so long, there was a disconnect from Genesis, from God and His people.

This disconnect because of sin.

And it took Jesus coming into the world, and not just coming into the world, but beginning to tell everybody about the kingdom and once telling everybody about the kingdom to be able to put sin on as his own, your sin, my sin, all of us.

Every single last one of us.

Imagine that.

That as he is entering into Jerusalem, he already knows what is about to take place.

His triumphant entry into this city with people cheering, and and even the fact that the Pharisees would say, Hey, you need to tell all these people around here to quiet that.

They're praising you coming into this city, and he goes, No, no, no, no, you don't even understand that even if they were to be silent, then the stones that you see on the ground would cheer.

They would praise me.

Can I submit to you right now?

How much more should we give God praise after all that we've been through?

We've seen him, we've seen him move, we've seen if we look over our lives, we can see the countless miracles.

Even if we didn't ask for it, he was there.

Because the one thing about Jesus that I love so much is that he knows the very desires of our heart.

There are things that we don't even have to speak, that he will just step up and do.

He is the ultimate in our life, he's the ultimate friend, he's the ultimate father, he's everything that you've ever needed, and he's more than you could ever want.

That is the God whom we serve.

That is the God whom we worship.

That is the God who said, You know what?

I'm entering in knowing that I'm about to take on all the sins of the world.

He saw us even in 2021 today.

He saw each and every last one of our faces and thought of us as he was up on Calvary's cross.

That's beautiful.

He thought of us as he was entering into this city.

And some of us just feel like we're so inexperienced, some of us feel like we're just too young, and maybe, maybe that's kind of something that's been a trap, maybe that's been something that's really been a lie.

Is that we're too young, that we're inexperienced, that nothing new is going to happen, that nothing's ever going to change.

Maybe those are just some lies that we continuously hear over and over and over again, but it's not true.

If we look over our lives and we can look just like this cult and realize man, the time is now.

We've been waiting too long, we've we've we've been sitting too long, but here is the moment you have just been reserved.

You have not been forgotten, you've only been reserved.

If you ever wonder when would be a time for you to be released, today is the day that you will be released to go and do and fulfill what it is that God has called you to, and then to be reconciled with Him completely and totally.

You know what's so cool?

If you were to look, when I was doing a study and all this, uh Bethage, the city that Jesus goes through, it means house of unripe figs.

So here it is that you have this cult, this little donkey who's young and experienced, in a place in an environment that is young and inexperienced.

And some of us can feel that way, that we've been sitting in an environment that's young and experienced.

And some of us we are the product of our environments.

But can I tell you right now that no matter where you are, no matter what you've been sitting in, no matter what's been around you, God can completely come in and transform everything because when you walk with Him, when you allow Him to sit on the throne of your heart, when you fully engage and tap into that, everything begins to change.

Everything begins to change.

You no longer are speaking from your own insight and your own will and your own all of that.

No, no, no, no.

You're speaking from a place where you understand the authority that's in you, which is that of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit can come inside of you and you can begin to speak into things that you never did.

Some of you may have even experienced that already where different jobs have opportunities have come, different assignments, and you never had the experience before.

Can I just even lend hope to somebody in this room that maybe you are furloughed, maybe you still are.

Maybe you're looking for a new career and you feel like you're not experienced to apply for the job, apply for the job.

Because God, let me tell you something.

The thing that I love about him the most is that he qualifies the call.

This is what we see in the life of this donkey is he qualifies him immediately.

No experience, yet with God, that's all the experience you need.

Yet with God, you are able to go into rooms that, hey, those people may have more degrees in a thermometer, but with him, you're able to go and you're able to speak some truth.

You're able to speak some truth, you're able to speak way above and beyond your own knowledge point.

It's beautiful.

Go where the spirit leads you.

Hone into that.

Don't, even if you have to do it, go shaking.

I would even like to imagine that this cult was shaky a little bit.

How could it not?

Can I tell you?

It is okay.

Just take the steps.

One step at a time.

One step at a time.

And before you know it, you're moving like a champion because you have a champion in you.

So if you are one of these people in this room, maybe you're somebody in this room right now and you're you're you're wanting to be reconciled.

I want to first pray for you.

I want to first pray for you if you feel as though, you know what, I have been occupying a seat.

Yeah, I have been going to this thing and that thing, but I really don't connect fully and know the authority that is inside of me.

I want to pray for you in this moment.

And all heads can be bowed and all eyes can be closed, but I really want to pray for you in this moment because that is his whole mission is to reconcile us to him, to be one with him.

So if you feel as though you need to be recognized.

Reconciled in this moment.

I just I just tell you right now, don't wait till tomorrow because tomorrow is never promised.

Today is today.

Maybe you are at home watching, you need to text in right now, you need to do whatever you need to do.

Let us know because we want to be there for you.

There's so much craziness going on that we all need to have the sovereign God of the universe truly inside of us, believing and knowing that He is real and risen.

If you are in this room and you want to receive Jesus and you want to be reconciled back to Him, I am I implore you to just lift your hand boldly and know that you can have Him into your heart.

And if you are at home, why don't you just go ahead and text?

I see you.

I see you.

So God, we're gonna we're gonna pray right now, and everybody, I'm just gonna pray for you, those folks right now, that I just feel led to do it even now.

God, I love you and I praise you, God.

You see every hand, God, you even see those people, those folks at home right now, God.

I pray, God, that as they are committing themselves to be reconciled to you, as they believe truly in their heart that you are the sovereign God of the universe, that you went up on Calvary's cross for them, that you you bore their sins, God, and you didn't even, you didn't even, you didn't speak against it in a way, God, where you regretted it.

No, you did it fully, knowing because you saw right where we are.

You saw our need for a savior, you saw our need for a father, you saw our need for a friend, you saw our need to be with you.

And so, God, I pray, God, that right now, even in this moment, God, that your Holy Spirit will fill them, God, that you will fill them from the crown of the head to the sole of their feet, God, that you will begin to speak life into them, that you can put people around them, even as we come alongside them, God.

I pray that you put others around them, God, who will begin to encourage them, who will strengthen them, God, as they are on a journey with you, as they are moving forward in you, to know, God, that you have reserved them for a time as now, and you are releasing them to fulfill every promise and purpose you have over their life.

They are reconciled back to you, back to the one who is, who was, who always will be.

So, God, we praise you for that.

Their life is forever changed for the better.

And God, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, everybody else in this room, you know, can we just celebrate those lives right now?

Can we just celebrate what God is doing for them?

But also, I want to pray for all of us that we can walk in this boldness because it can seem hard.

It can seem like we're walking with a cloud over us all the time because of what we see in our world, what we see in cities abroad, whether it's natural disasters or or whether it's shootings and people killing each other, and and there seems to be no answers, and you know, just just all this division and the divisive language and everything, and it almost seems as though where is God?

Can I tell you that God is still sitting on the throne, and God is releasing us to be his ambassadors right now.

There is never a better time for the people of God to be the people of God than right now.

There's never a better time than right now for us to speak up and to really demonstrate the character of God in a lost and broken world.

That is our purpose, that is our mission, and we can start small.

You don't have to go to the White House, you don't have to go to the crack house.

All I'm asking you to do is just to pray and seek God.

The Bible says that if my people were to humble themselves and pray, seek my face, then I will begin to heal the land.

I don't know about you, but our entire world needs some healing.

It's not just America.

We can't be so blinded that we can't see that this thing is sweeping across our world.

We can't be so blind to see that our enemy, and he's a formidable enemy, is at work and he's only looking to still kill and destroy.

But we've got brothers and sisters all across this world that we also need to be praying for, that God can strengthen them, that they can be encouraged to go and to fulfill the purpose that he has even for them.

So I just want to pray for all of us in this room that even as we leave here today, that we don't miss what God is doing in our midst.

That we don't get scared and try to run to a corner or to a cubby.

No, that we can feel like, man, we've got we've got all of heaven back in us.

We can speak with some encouragement, we can go on the job and we can begin to speak life.

We can we can be alike.

Because let me tell you something.

More than you know, demonstrating Jesus can also be way more powerful than just speaking about Him.

And all you need to do is demonstrate the love of God and watch people change around you.

When people talk bad, you talk good.

You do that.

God, we love you and we praise you, God.

Thank you, God, for meeting us in this moment.

Thank you, God, for just being able to speak so clearly to us, God, that you are with us, you are for us.

And thank you, God, for backing us, God.

God, we want to go beyond these four walls, God, and we want to impact our community.

We want to make sure that we we do what we can, God, to represent you well.

We want to represent you well, and we want others to know you the way we know you.

To be kind, to be good, to be a father, to be a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

So, God, we love you and we praise you, God, and we ask, God, that even as we enter into this week, even as we enter into holy week, even as we begin to celebrate your death, burial, and resurrection coming up, God, we want to take note, God, that you are with us.

You have always been with us, you are for us, you have always been for us, and you haven't stopped, you haven't left us, and so God, we won't leave you.

You've been faithful even when we haven't.

So, God, we love you and we praise you, and we thank you for the goodness and the mercy that are following us all the days of our lives.

God, we love you and we praise you.

And everybody said, Amen.

Hey church, let's just worship right now.

Let's stand, let's worship God, let's feel this and worship and praise God for who he is, who he was, and who he always will be.

Thanks again for listening.

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