Palm Sunday

Nice to see you, Cameron. So nice to have you here.

You've chose a beautiful set for tonight.

Why don't you come up here? And the guy on the drums, that

set's also very beautiful. Devin, where are you?

Yes, Devin. You can also come up here.

Where are you, Devin? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know. You guys look beautiful.

Let's give them a big hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hello, buddy. Nice to see you.

Nice to see you now. You guys look amazing.

Absolutely amazing. So nice that your girlfriends

let you wear their shirts today. I'm so pleased for that.

So it's really nice. So what we're going to do is

we're going to have a lesson in palm dancing.

Yes. Yeah, I can hold that there.

Thank you. Thank you.

You know, I'll do it for you, bud.

Let me pick it up. I don't want you to strain

anything. So.

OK, So what we're going to do, we're going to just watch you

and, and, and you're going to Just Dance with palms.

If you look at the back there, you see the whole Sunday is Palm

Sunday and Palm Sunday is actually a very today is Palm

Sunday and Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week.

And actually from now until Easter Sunday is the whole it's

it's when Jesus came into Jerusalem, did a whole lot of

really radical things. I spoke to you about Stood Bull

and, and Jack Para and all those kind of things that Jesus does

at this week. And then he dies and he expects

us to die with him and then he comes to life and he will give

us resurrection life. So this week is actually a week

of palm trees and death and internal investigation and, and

the deep walk with God. And at this week he wants us to

put some things down and to give some things up and to follow him

into crucifixion. He wants to take your anger and

pin it to the cross. He wants to take your abuse and

pin it to the cross. He wants to take the

deficiencies of your upbringing and pin it to the cross so that

we don't live with excuses for the rest of our lives.

He he actually fulfilled and his blood is enough to keep us

going. So if you guys can, sorry, don't

put them down and you can just pick them up and just, yeah.

And don't any of you laugh because I'm going to call you

next. Any one of you with a white

shirt tonight? I can see everywhere.

You can hide. You can do what you like, so you

can look that way. You can look down, you can look

up and you got a white shirt on and run.

Oh, oh, my son-in-law. Is that what?

Yo, I tell you, is that a white jacket?

My dog, darling, it's not beige. I I tell you this is what I I

bought it for her birthday. Yo, that's close to what I

wouldn't laugh so loudly, young lady, with those gold buttons.

And as we look up, yes, you with the glasses, you can look

whichever way you want. I'm going to catch you white

shirt guys. And just because we're going to

be anti religious, I'm going to go for blue shirts as well.

Oh yes, that's a that's a proper blue shirts.

Yeah, yeah, you can catch them on the IT, but I'll catch you

tonight. How you feeling, bro?

Feeling a bit nervous? You're not.

And what pants? Now put your Bible down because

you we better do this whole black white thing.

Come, let's do this whole black white thing.

You can replace that guy with the beard.

Yeah, the guy. That guy.

That guy with a beard. I like the other guy.

There you can go, Cameron, because you you came and stole

one of our girls. But we really love you.

You're an amazing guy. And then just do the sort of

like, black, white. We don't really know each other,

but we, like, know Jesus together.

Yeah. Yeah.

Give each other a hug. Like you're like, give each

other a hug. This is Pretoria.

Apartheid started. Yeah.

But Jesus has sorted all that out.

So. So it's like.

Yeah, yeah. What are you?

What's your name? I'm Arnold.

Arnold. Arnold.

That's Devon. Why do you give each other,

like, a hug? Like Jesus really means it?

Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful If you if you

brought your family to churches. We do this every week.

Now, can you do, like a Hebrew, like a little bit like Hebrew, A

little bit Israeli. I know you're from Palestine,

but a little bit Israeli. Palestinian.

Where? Where are you from?

Arnold. Arnold.

Where are you from? From the Free State.

Are you Sotho? Yeah, I'm Sotho you so though

we're in the Free State, Arnold. Virginia.

Virginia. Geez, that's in the dark part of

the Free State, right. What are the white guys like

there in Virginia? Yeah, Yeah.

No, no, not really. Not really.

Eh. So so do you like, like Jesus

really has touched your heart deeply and and you can just sort

of wave the palm broth. Yeah.

Just do it like in a sort of a holy way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's beautiful.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Let's give them a big hand. The whites.

What do you say? The whites?

You chose your dress code well, bro.

So listen to Matthew 21 and just pick a few things about why on

earth is important. So if you've never waved the

palm branch in your life, you and I are going to wave palm

branches for the rest of our lives, just so that you know

that. And so let's read this, Matthew

21. It's called the time for entry

as they approach. So I won't be long.

Tonight. As they approached Jerusalem and

came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2 of

disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and at

once there you'll find a donkey tied there with their colt by

her. Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything, you tell them that the Lord needs

them and he will send them right away.

This took place to fulfill or the spoken through the prophet

say to the daughter of Zion, see your king comes to you gentle

and riding on a donkey on a colt, the fold of a donkey.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

They bought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on

them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread out

their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches, palm

branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed

shouted Hosanna to the Son of David.

Shout that. Let's start it. 123 Hosanna to

the Son of David, 123 Let's start it loudly.

That's what happens on Palm Sunday.

Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and

asked, who is this? The crowd answered, this is

Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

John chapter 1 says, can anything good come from

John 1 · chapter mention

Nazareth? Can anything good come from

Virginia? I come from the Free State too,

Arnold. I come from a place called

Swinburne that is between Harry Smith and Van Reelen.

Little place. I don't know where you come

from, what town you come from. I don't know what background you

come from. I don't know what upbringing you

come from. But I can tell you this.

God can use Jesus from Nazareth. He can use you too.

Doesn't matter where you come from.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were

buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the

money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

It is written, he said, my house will be called a House of

prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.

Palm Sunday is to deal with the commercialization of the church.

The church was never meant to be a place of money, of robbing

people of money, of making money, of commercializing

religion. The church is meant to be a

place of worship. The blind and the lame came to

him at the temple and he healed them.

Why didn't they go to the priests?

Because the priest didn't like weakness.

Jesus loves weakness. The church is where the weakest

survive. The world is where the fittest

survive. Palm Sunday.

We must be reminded that this is the place for the weakest.

When you're broken, when you're bruised, when you're hurt, when

you've been let down, when you're rejected, you run to

church and we'll wave palm branches over you.

We'll wave, we'll wave victory signs over you.

We'll declare the goodness of God over your life.

But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the

wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple

area, you see this with old people.

The new move is going to come through children.

It's going to come through young believers.

It's going to come through the next sound wave.

And one of the things that offends the church is new music.

This music, this, this kind of music offends the church, but

there's going to be new music. There's going to be new

instruments, there's going to be new kinds of singing.

That's what's going to come. And the old religious systems

will always be offended by that because they want to control the

environment. I've, I've been a Damon

container. I've been here 12 years.

I've never chosen a song in the life of this church.

I don't ever ask what they worship being because you can't.

The moment you control worship, you control the temple, the life

of God goes. So between the guys, Greg and

Mitch and whoever was leading today, they're called by God to

worship, to take us into worship.

Hosanna, hosanna, Hosanna to him who's in the highest, that word

hosanna means to save. So when this time on Easter,

Palm Sunday, when we shout hosanna, we sang God save me,

God save me hosanna. It's not just a worship song.

It's a deep cry for salvation to come into my heart.

I've told the story once before, but there was many, many years

ago I was in a church in Durban, big church, probably as big as

this, but it was flat. And the man came in.

His wife had had an affair with Princess Di's brother.

Remember Princess Di, Charles and Di, He had an affair.

It was this royal big affair. It made the public headlines.

He was trying to save his marriage, and I remember he came

in early 6:00 in the morning. He came into our church just

sitting in the very back row, basically in his heart crying,

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna. God save my marriage.

God save me. God do something and for some

reason that Thursday morning, early in the morning, the elders

got him to the stage and we just lifted our hands over an empty

congregation and we just started praying, crying out to God for

salvation. The Spirit of God hit him off

the back of his chair, threw him about 5 meters, threw him

backwards. He was filled with the Holy

Spirit. His marriage got saved, he got

saved, his children got saved, and he's still serving God with

his wife today. This is the day, friends, to cry

out to God. This is the day that we cry.

Hosanna, those things that have bothered you for years, go home

tonight, look into the mirror and cry.

Hosanna, God, heal me. God save me.

God, stop this nonsense in my life.

God deliver me from pornography. Hosanna, God, Hosanna.

Lord. God, friends, have you ever

tried to ride a donkey? I mean, the the muy Cliff guys

will tell you you can't do the muy Cliff.

You can't just ride a horse. You can't just call a horse and

ride the horse. It will scorp you.

It will kick you right off. A donkey's worse.

A don't you don't just get on a donkey and think giddy up, giddy

up, giddy up. A donkey.

Just this donkey's never been ridden in its life.

And Jesus gets onto the donkey, and that donkey knows that he's

the king, and that donkey submits to the king.

That donkey doesn't buck him. These things.

If I buck him, this is the king. I must submit to him.

I've never had a human on me in my life.

Everything in my nature wants to kick him off.

But I'm going to carry him into the crowd.

And those crowd are going to shout to Hosanna and people are

going to get saved. People are going to get saved.

I pray that you get saved tonight.

I pray that you get saved from the things that are plaguing you

tonight. Do you hear what these children

are saying? They asked them.

Yes, replied Jesus. Have you never read from the

lips of children and infants? You have ordained praise.

Old people, listen to me. There is going to come a new

song that is going to fill this world and it's going to come

from young people. The beat is going to be

different, the style is going to be different, the clothes they

wear is going to be different, and you and I have to receive

it. It is going to be the thing that

is going to usher in the Kingdom of God.

Don't stop young people worshipping Jesus.

Not when they stay late at night, not when they meet in

West Cafe on Mondays, not when any whenever young people gather

to worship. God is busy bringing his pattern

of freedom onto the earth. Don't stop it.

Don't stop it. We can't control it.

I realize what leaders in the churches and religious

institutions trying to do is they try and control the next

move of God. You can't.

God is going to break out amongst young people, and I

trust you young people, that you would be brave, that you would

step out, that you would dance, that you would bring the new

music, the new rhythms of this earth.

You'd bring them to the church. Amen.

And he left them and he went out of the city to Bethany, where he

spent the night. Early in the morning he was on

his way back to the city. He was hungry.

Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found

nothing on it except leaves, and he said, May you never bear

fruit again. Immediately the tree withered.

When the disciples saw this they were amazed.

How did the fig tree wither so quickly, They asked.

Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do

not doubt, not only can you do what has been done to the fig

tree, but also you can say to this mountain, go throw yourself

into the sea and it will be done.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

Why friends, do we celebrate Palm Sunday?

Why do we take this day and look at palm trees?

I want to just show you 2 scriptures 1 from 1 Kings

1 Kings 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 if you can put it up please.

This is the Old Testament. For those who don't know, it's

2000 years before this scripture was written.

It says on the walls all around the temple in both the inner and

outer rooms he carved cherubim. Cherubim.

Just keep the scripture. I have cherubim.

When God kicked him out the garden, he put two cherubim

there with flaming swords. Cherubim were the judgment

angels. They were meant to judge us for

our sin and protect us coming close to God.

So cherubim were the judgment angels.

In the book of Exodus when God makes the ark he makes 2

cherubim which they nated two kinds of angels, cherubim and

seraphim. One shout holy, holy, holy.

The other ones cut your head off with the sword.

But he takes 2 cherubim judging angels when he makes the ark and

he makes them pointing downwards and they look on the ark and on

side of the on top of the ark seat cover is blood and

underneath the the seat is the 10 commandments.

Those 10 commandments pin you to the wall.

You are guilty and you should go to jail and the angels will

judge you for it. But when the angels look down,

they see the blood, and instead of bringing judgment, they bring

redemption. They get kicked out the garden.

Now they've wandered around in the wilderness for a long time.

They've gone from place to place to place to place to place in

the Tabernacle. Now Solomon wants to build the

temple, and he says, listen, we need to put cherubim in there

just to remind us that we walked away from God.

But by his mercy, he made the cherubim look downwards.

So all of us here tonight should be judged.

But God is gracious, so he looks at the blood palm trees and open

flowers. So, so he's making, he's

starting to decorate the temple, puts palm trees in there because

he knows what it was like in the garden when the presence of God

was there. And he says somehow we have to

try and we messed up the garden. But let's try and recreate a

space here on earth where we can have cherubim and we can have a

little bit of palm trees, a bit like the garden, and maybe God

will come back and dwell amongst us.

Maybe, maybe, just maybe the presence of God will come back

to us. Because friends, if we do not

have the presence of God, we've got nothing.

Moses says don't send us from here.

Don't send us out from here. Don't send us anyway, Lord God,

unless you've got your presence. Unless you've got your presence.

I don't want to repeat a story, friends, but last week I told

the story. I was sitting in a market and a

girl was sitting about 3 down for me on the other side.

And as I sat down, I had a brand new pen.

I started writing, I just felt God's presence come on me.

I started writing some scriptures.

I gave it to her. She opened it.

She started weeping and then she she left and I didn't see her

again. I just know her name was Amanda.

And somebody said to you, she must listen to the preach from

three CR And this morning in the in the foyer, I walked up and

this young lady walked up. She said, how do you Remember

Me? I said your name is Amanda said,

yes, I met you at the market. You see friends, we don't need

the presence of God here. We need the presence of God out

there. Your barbers and hairdressers

and coffee connoisseurs and students and lecturers and

teachers and doctors and lawyers, you need the presence

of God there. You need the palm tree engraved

upon your heart. So wherever you go, the garden

of God may go with you and the presence of God can go with you.

You also covered the floors of both the in and out the rooms of

the temple with gold. Let's go all the way to the New

Testament Revelation Chapter 7. After this I looked and there

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

before me was a great multitude that no one could count from

every nation, tribe, people, and language.

There was a Sutu man from Virginia in South Africa called

Arnold. There was a Lebanese guy from

Pretoria called Devon. There was an old guy called Rory

from Durban. There's another guy from

Pretoria. There's some guys who came from

Brits, the other guys who have come from overseas.

There's a girl today with us who's from Germany.

And God starts to gather this group of people from all over

the world, rich people, white people, black people, young

people, old people, clever people, dumb people, qualified

people, unqualified people, divorced people, married people.

And he starts to put us all together.

That's the beauty of the church. Every nation, every nation,

every tribe, people and language standing before the throne and

in front of the Lamb They were wearing say it and we're holding

palm branches in their hands. They were wearing white robes

and holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out

in a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who

sits on there, not on the donkey anymore.

He doesn't sit on the donkey anymore, He sits on the throne.

He sits on the throne and the throne will never kick him off

because he belongs on the throne.

Friends, this Sunday, Jesus Christ needs to ride into your

life. And take his seat on the throne.

You need to know two things. Palm branches speak about the

presence of God and the victory of God.

We are dressed in white. It doesn't matter who you are,

we are dressed in white. We are dressed in white.

Arnold, you could have chosen any color to come dressed to

church and thread, but you chose white.

And we tease and we laugh. Why do you stand, David?

Why don't you come here? This is Palm Sunday.

You could have chosen any shirt. I remember once I did a

conference in Durban with a man called Mark Driscoll.

He's a big preacher guy for America.

We arrived at exactly the same shirts and he was a reformed

preacher. I'm a charismatic.

I believe in the spirit of God. He believes in like theology.

We had the same shirt. I said how did this work?

He said before the earth was formed God decided in his

pre-existing form that you and I would wear the same shirt on

this day. He said but for you

charismatics, you opened your cupboard in the spirit of God

said put that one on. What?

Why, you never knew the scripture, hey, but you put on a

white shirt. You never knew I'd call you out

today. Hey.

Yeah. But a black man and a white man

dressed in white with palm branches.

For the rest of our lives, we're going to stand.

And there's going to be a Chinese guy here and an Indian

guy here and a woman over here. And there's going to be a

prostitute over there. And there's going to be.

And we're all going to stand in white clothes with palm

branches. And we're going to worship the

king. We're going to worship the king

and he's going to take his authority in our lives.

This week is a tough week for Christians because it's the week

when the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of ourselves clash and

we have to bow down. We have to give it up.

I want to read one verse and we finished.

You can put on Matthew 21 again, please,

and verse 6. Let's read verse 6 together.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

Let's read it again. The disciples went and did as

Jesus had instructed him. If you want a whole manual on

discipleship, there's the manual the disciples went and did as

Jesus had instructed them. That's the manual of

discipleship. The whole manual of discipleship

right there. I love it when Jesus tells me to

do wonderful things like go and preach at conferences in

Australia with a 5700 people. It's not so lacquer when he

tells me to go and fetch a donkey.

I went to a birthday party today and I quickly had to ration to

the shopping center to go and get a presence and arrested.

And there was a young couple sitting there and they said, hey

Rory, we're at church this morning and we saw you call that

girl Amanda. And we asked God that somehow

we'd be able to connect with you and we thought maybe even today

you'd walk past us. I said, how's things going?

He said we've been in your church for about 6 or 8 weeks

now. I said, how's it going?

They said we used to live together but now we've moved the

part because we believe it's wrong.

I haven't preached on sex before marriage once in six weeks, not

once. I haven't preached on it, but

somehow sitting here, the Lord has instructed them sometime the

Lord has instructed them. And I said to me, Flip, it's

hard. I said, I've also been there,

bro. I understand.

I was dating when I was a Christian and sex is not given

by the devil, given by God. Devil's too stupid to invent

something like that. You're just twisted into

pornography. You're just twisted into lust,

but they're just sitting there said can you help us?

Pastor said of course I can help you because discipleship is just

following what Jesus has instructed people come to you

and say can you save my marriage?

I said I can save your marriage easily.

Wife submit to your husband. You can't say that to a woman is

not saved. She'll tell you 2 forsake.

It's not written to unsaved women.

It's written to disciples. It's written to disciples.

Wife, submit to your husband. And if you think that's

hardcore, ladies, the Bible says, husband, lay down your

life for your wife. At least you get to live.

The man dies. So girls, stop moaning.

You get a much better deal, but you can save your marriage like

that. Why?

Because that's what Jesus instructed.

So Palm Sunday, go back to the instructions of Christ.

Go back to the instructions of Christ.

If you say, can you help me with this?

Can you? I said, I can help you with the

instructions of Christ. And if he says fetch the donkey,

fetch the donkey. He says planet church, planet

church. If he says study medicine, study

medicine. Oh, that beautiful young girl

there. I've known her, she was since

she was a school girl. I've known her, I've watched

her. The spit of God came upon her, I

don't know when it was 10/11/12 years old, came upon her, spit

of God, put her aside, set her aside, set her aside, gave her

the an unbelievable ability to study.

She qualifies as a doctor this year because the spit of God

came upon, instructed her. You go to Pretoria, your parents

live in Cape Town, go and study medicine and she gives herself

to it day after day after day. And then there's a credible man

came into her life and she he knew that he and he was from

Joburg. He can't be see me, he said, but

I've fallen in love with this girl in Pretoria.

And God instructed him, if you want to data, you must move to

Pretoria. So he moves to Pretoria.

He moved his business to Pretoria because the Lord

instructed him. Palm Sunday, friends, is the day

that we listen to the instruction of God.

It's the day that we live to the instruction of God.

Here the Bible says about your parents, honor your parents,

honor your parents. That's the instruction of God.

If you have got a broken relationship with your parents,

write them a letter, make a phone call, send them flowers.

I have a broken relationship with one person this week, and

every relationship that's broken has got two sides to it.

But this week as I read the scripture, I wrote a letter

saying I believe I am fully responsible for this broken

relationship. I am fully responsible.

I repent. I also forgiveness.

I try. I've also said we can try and

repair this. And they wrote back and said why

now? Why not earlier when I was in

trouble? And I said I don't know, I think

I was too proud. But I said please, I'm asking

you for mercy and grace. I'll go, let it back, say you

have got mercy and grace. What?

What is God instructing you tonight on Palm Sunday?

We're dressed in white, we've got palm trees in our hands, Our

King is upon the throne. We are free, we are safe, we are

secure. But what is the instruction to

us tonight? This is my prayer.

You listen carefully, and this week you follow out his

instruction in Jesus name, Amen.