Well, you can go ahead and take a seat. If you were here last time we had service, I talked about kind of what was more of a Thanksgiving service and we kind of took a pause and a break from Matthew I’m sorry, from Mark but today we are continuing in chapter 11 and it just so happens that, even though we are coming to a season of Advent, of Jesus arriving on humanity’s scene right, we’re going to start talking about his crucifixion. So it’s just the Bible, all right. I’m sorry, but you might be surprised to learn that there’s actually a lot of things overlap here and there’s a Christmas message in here and the triumphant entry.
Now, of course, we know this passage as the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but if you want a title for tonight, you can write something down along the lines of this the fake coronation of the real king. All right, the fake coronation of the real king. If you ever had a time in your life where you’re extremely disappointed, you know exactly what I mean. That disappointment in general is extremely painful.
Disappointment is that thing that happens when we set our expectations so high and they’re not met. Disappointment happens when you know you are planning for that career that didn’t really pan out for you, or maybe you’re hoping for that kind of thing, hoping for that specific person that you’re hoping to date and didn’t happen, and now you’re heartbroken. Disappointment also happens when you do the same thing every single day, hoping different results, but nothing really happens and you tend to get, first and foremost, you tend to get a bit sad and then you get a little bit of a pity party, right, you throw yourself a pity party and talking about exactly how difficult this is for you, and then sometimes you get bitter by your situation, especially when nothing changes. Right, if you had a problem in your body for a long time like about last year, I had for about two and a half months I couldn’t sleep because of a shoulder problem and it would just not go away, and I was like I don’t know, I’m so done with this pain already, like I am so done, and I was like, lord, I’m praying for healing.
But I felt like very disappointed in my faith. I was very disappointed in and praying all of these things. Right, disappointment has a way to really get to us, and it’s not just us. The Bible talks about this and specifically there’s a Proverbs and Yuri’s probably not gonna like me because I kind of put in this last minute.
So Proverbs 13, verse 12, if you will follow along, it tells us that if we have hope, oh this is good, good job Says. Hope deferred makes the heart what? Sick. But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life, right?
So when you hope for something for a very long time and it doesn’t come true, it has a way of making your heart sick. You feel the pain of that. If maybe you’re praying for your family and you are praying and praying and nothing’s really happening and you get to a point, you’re like Lord, when are you going to intervene? Because I don’t see you moving in my family.
If you’re dealing with some kind of addiction or you have some kind of sin that constantly pops up, you’re like Lord. When are you going to deal with this? Because I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired, right? So hope deferred makes a heart sick, but what?
But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. But when the Lord does answer and it becomes a testimony, now it’s not just you coming to life, but people around you. You sell people. You start telling people like, let me tell you what Christ has done in my life and it brings life not just to you but to those around you.
So it’s good to have your desires fulfilled, except when our desires are really wicked. We don’t want those desires filled. Now one more verse that I didn’t put in the notes. So, yuri, if you can do this Psalm 37, verse four.
It tells us that if we delight in the Lord, then what will happen? He will give us the what the desires of our heart. So I was thinking you know, if I just delight in the Lord, if I want a car, I get a car. Is that what it’s saying?
No, that’s how people always interpret this passage that if I just, if I just delight in the Lord, then whatever I want, he will give me those desires. Because that’s sort of the interpretation that most people come to. That’s the surface level interpretation, but that’s not what it’s saying. What it’s saying is if you delight on the Lord, the Lord will change your desires and he will desire what he wants you to desire, right?
So what he’s doing, what the Lord is doing, is changing the focus of your life. So now you used to be about money and this, and not on success and fame and power, and now you delight in having joy, like Apostle Paul, when you’re in prison for his name. How does that make any sense? Right?
And I think a lot of times. One of the best ways to get your life completely off track and be extremely disappointed for the rest of your life is to have desires that God never meant for you to have. Of course, we have desires from him, like, for example, the desire that we have for food, for intimacy, like we all have these desires. But when our desires get off track, right, and then they can become our idols and our monsters, right, when we have a life that’s not focused on the things of God, if we focus on completely something that is not of God, it’s very problematic because you will never satisfy to begin with, but those desires will consume you.
I have about 14 hours of flight time and one of the best decisions you can do in your life is to never fly with me, because I’m just not good at flying. I can never land a plane, but I was able to take off and specifically the reason I was able to take off is because when you take off, you go from this small strip of land to, like. You have endless possibility in the sky, right, like you can go anywhere. But when you land, that’s the hard part where you come from all of this to land on a specific strip that is so tiny when you’re far up there, but if you end up somewhere in a river, I think you probably didn’t really hit your target Right.
A lot of us in our lives we think that this road that we’re on with Christ is wide. It’s like you know, just you can sort of go anywhere. But the Bible says that the road that he asked for us is very narrow. It’s hard to focus on what God has called us to focus on.
If you ever threw darts where you know like it was a it was a Charlie Chaplin that like he would he would throw I don’t, I’m not sure if it was a bow or like a dart and like he would, whenever the, the, the bow or the what do you call that arrow would fly and would lend somewhere, he would go and draw a circle around it and the guys like no, you need to set a target first and then you should you know, throw the. You know you should throw the. Well, make the arrow fly. He’s like, well, if I do that then I would never hit my target Right.
So he, he would just kind of whatever the arrow went, he would just draw a target. And I think this is a perfect illustration for a lot of of our lives sometimes is we don’t have a focus when it comes to Christ. We just sort of make everything sort of oh, I landed here, so most must be the target. That was intended for me.
No, god has a specific calling to your life, a specific focus that you need to focus on. And, like Francis Chan says that one of the worst things in life is to focus on things that really don’t matter. Right, our church’s name is do things in light of eternity. Right, like everything that we do or we’re hoping that would.
That would, that would matter in light of eternity. Another guy said it this way that one of the worst things about climbing the ladder is to find out that after you climbed all the way to the top, you’re on the wrong wall and now you have to go all the way down and move the ladder. One of the worst things in life is to climb the top of your game and realize that there’s there’s just loneliness and emptiness up there. So how do you focus Now?
I know that’s a that’s a long introduction, to say the least, but when it comes to the triumphant entry, I don’t know what a better passage that tells us that we need to focus on Jesus is focusing on and we need to have the right view of who Jesus is and what he’s called to do, like this passage, because everyone here is so confused. It actually starts a bit earlier on in John. This is the same account in John 12, verse one, to verse nine. We are told that six days before Passover, jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was with Jesus and whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha, served in. Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure Nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair before the triumphant entry.
This is happening the night before, okay, so just to give you a little bit of context, he’s in Lazarus home. You remember what Lazarus is famous for? He was raised from the dead, right Kind of a big deal. And then, in this moment where he’s there with his disciples as the Mary to broke this very expensive ointment and start to pour over Jesus.
The house was filled with fragrance of the perfume, but Judas right is scary at one of his disciples. He, who was about to betray him, said why was this ointment not sold for 300 dinari and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and, having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put in it. Jesus said leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial, for the poor.
You always have with you, but you do not always have me. Now listen what’s happening in the next verse. In verse nine, it says when the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on the account of him, but also to see Lazarus. So this idea that Lazarus was raised from the dead started to spread like wildfire.
Right, so they all, this crowd, comes to see Jesus. But not only that, but they want to see, okay, what is this guy actually raised from the dead? Right, to see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. And look at this.
What’s? This is really interesting verse. And says so the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well. I don’t know a more feudal or attempt at anything than the guy who just was raised from the dead You’re trying to kill.
How do you scare someone that that the was dead and then knows the guy who raised him like, how do you scare Lazarus? But apparently they thought it was really good for them to pursue this where they’re like. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because, on the account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. So so first you have a disciple of Jesus who, after walking with Jesus for 12 years sorry, 12 years, three years, 12 of them for three years right After walking with Jesus for three years, seeing the same miracles, he is having a really hard time actually believing Jesus.
Judas, think about this. You thought that you should go to a church where you have a good teacher. Judas had the best of teachers for three years. Yes, he still chose what he chose.
The problem with Judas he loved money above Jesus. Talk about someone who’s completely off the rails when he comes to the point of his life. It’s insane to me that you have the Son of God. He says he’s the Messiah and you are so in love with money that you’re willing to do this, right?
So this is the first person that we see. That’s very confused. And when he sees the expensive perfume being poured out, he says this is a waste. Apparently pouring perfume and anointing Jesus.
For him it’s a waste. Now look at the contrast between Mary here and Judas. Right, mary thinks Jesus is worthy enough for me to do this. Judas, he is so, so, kind of put off by this because we’re wasting money.
We should care about the poor. And John says he didn’t care about the poor. He didn’t care about the poor, he was a thief. So his first sin was not that he betrayed Jesus.
His first sin is he was stealing from the purse without repenting. His first sin was to look at Jesus and say he’s not worth my time. You know what happens next. He goes and he betrays Jesus for 30, right, 30 was a piece of silver.
There you go and we see this first account where Judas is obviously very confused about who Jesus is and he has other allegiances to other things like money. That’s the first person. Then you have the religious people. They are confused about who Jesus really is here, because Jesus just raised somebody from the dead.
And these guys come and they’re like you know what we should do? We should kill Lazarus too. It’s like, well, it’s kind of pointless. And this is how we come to our story of the triumphant entry.
Right Now, a lot of people like to think that this story happens where Jesus randomly just gets this coronation of all these people that come to Jesus, and Jesus didn’t really like to know. But really we are told a completely different story. The story that we are told is Jesus orchestrates this very, very well. So we’re told that now, when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage Bethpage is a small city, sorry, a small village and Bethany and the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them go into the village in front of you and immediately as you enter, you will find a cold tide on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you why are you doing this? The Lord has need of it and will send back immediately. When they went away and they found the cold tide of the door outside of the street and they untied it and someone of those standing there said to them what are you doing, untie the cold.
And they said to them what Jesus had said to them or had said, and they let them go and they brought the cold to Jesus and they threw the clocks on it and he sat on it. So the first thing that we can see is that Jesus is a great prophet. We all knew that already, but he is able to tell exactly what’s going to happen. Now some scholars and theologians are basically trying to say that well, he made a deal with someone.
But there’s way too many coincidences like hey, if you go up there, you’re going to find a cold. Other accounts say a donkey in a cold. Make sure you untie it. And if somebody asks you, that’s exactly what you tell them.
And as you tell them, they’ll be okay with you taking them Right. So Jesus shows that he has this ability to see exactly what’s going to happen. So Jesus here is shown as a great prophet because he’s orchestrating this whole thing. Because here’s the odd thing about this coronation this coronation is done by people that they’re also very misguided and they don’t fully understand what Jesus, what’s the purpose of Jesus coming into Jerusalem and we’ll get to that in the second here.
But Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing, because in the whole account of Mark, jesus never says that when somebody says to him you’re the Messiah, he would say things like just don’t tell anybody. Just I want you to don’t talk about this After every single miracle. This is the first time where he makes it known that he is the Messiah publicly. Now why would Jesus do that?
Why is this the first time that he does this? Now some people look at Palm Sunday and they say, well, it’s Palm Sunday, because that was the next day. Some people put it actually this happening on Monday. But what we know for sure is this happened on the 10th of Nissan, and that’s not the Japanese automaker.
We’re talking about their month, the 10th of Nissan. What’s so significant about that date also is this is when the Jewish people would select a lamb for Passover. So the selection of the lamb would be on the 10th, and then the Passover would be on the 14th, and then the same day they’re selecting a lamb. Jesus is proceeding into Jerusalem on this sort of triumphant entry.
So Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing. He shows the right time. He knew that when he says to people that yes, I’m the Messiah, this actually kind of riled up his disciples too, because they knew that at this point they came back down. Either he goes and takes over in the Roman Empire or he’ll be crushed in the process.
When someone makes his presence known as the King and the Messiah, people in that town will have a massive problem with that. The Romans will have a problem with that because he’s declaring himself a king. The Jewish leaders will have a problem because he’s declaring himself as the Messiah. So he will get under everyone’s skin.
But he chooses to date, correctly here, when the day that normally he, the Jewish people, would choose a lamb, the Lamb of God, starts this whole process. I thought that was really significant. I thought that was really awesome to think about, and the day that normally this was done to fulfill prophecy. Now, of course, when we talk about the donkey and the cold and all of these things, there’s three types of animals that the kings would ride in.
One of them was a horse. If you wanted to go to war, you went on a horse, because if you go to war on a donkey, good luck getting away from anything. You don’t go to war on a donkey. So there was a horse, there was a donkey, which is kind of like the two extremes the horse is fast and the donkey is really slow, but he was called a beast of burden, which people care a lot on the donkey.
And then you have in the middle what’s called a mule, and the mule is for the lack of better term. It’s when a horse and a donkey are mixed and you get a mule. So that’s kind of how you get a mule. So if you look in the, for example, in 2 Kings, chapter 9, I believe, there’s a coronation of Jehu.
This is a king who comes into the city. This is kind of like showing the same thing where Jehu, when he came into the city, people would lay down their clothing and when David and Solomon would enter the city, they would come on the mule right. But Jesus chooses a donkey. And the question is, why is he choosing a donkey Right?
And Matthew tells us exactly why he’s choosing a donkey. And the reason he is choosing a donkey is because this was prophesied in Zachariah and this is supposed to show that Jesus is so. It’s in. Matthew 21.
4 is quoting Zachariah says this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying. Say to the daughter of Zion behold, your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, right? So Jesus is signifying that he comes on this donkey to show that he’s coming in peace. He comes from a position that he is a king that will achieve what he will achieve through not through power and conquering, but through weakness.
Kings don’t come into the cities to conquer on donkeys, but Jesus is coming for a different kind of kingdom. But that’s not what the crowd hears. The crowd sees this and the crowd starts to chant and the crowd start to praise, and here are some of the language they use. In Mark 11, 9 says this and they were saying Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, david, hosanna in the highest.
So this is a little bit of a scene, right? Just say that lightly. Right, like where you have people are putting palm branches down and there are cloaks, and these cloaks and the clothing was supposed to meant that you can, we are submitting unto you, right? So Jesus is proceeding on this road, right, it’s filled with cloaks, and then people are shouting and saying Hosanna, it’s kind of a scene, but the Romans not really threatened because they don’t really see Jesus as an army and they just okay, he’s a religious leader, so they’re not really threatened by this, right?
Look at Luke 13, luke 19, 39 says this. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him now, the Pharisees understand, this is coming under, so Jesus is coming under turf, right. So they’re having a massive panic attack at this point, right, and they’re like they say and the Pharisees in the crowd said to him teacher, rebuke your disciples. And he answered to them.
I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones will cry out, right. So you have this crazy scene where people are yelling Hosanna and the religious people are really mad at Jesus because he is sort of coming under turf, and it’s a very confusing sort of situation, right? But what’s happening here is people are trying to crown Jesus as the king, their king. Remember at the beginning, when I told you that they got really disappointed If you look at the Jewish people year over year, decade over decade, century over century, they were conquered by different nations, by Syrians, by Romans, right?
So they were so exhausted and every single time there is somebody like Judas Maccabees, right, like where would rise up and they would have a new hope. They’re like they will finally liberate this guy. This is the Messiah that will finally liberate us. They will finally just go against Rome, and this is where the crowd is expecting the Jesus will be triumphantly walking into the temple and do a speech and rally up all the Jewish people and they will go against the Roman Empire and they will crush the Roman Empire.
That’s what the crowd is expecting. Is that what happens? The most anti-climactic thing happens After all of this procession. Look how this passage ends Very, very anti-climactic.
So blessed, they would shout, blessed is the coming of King and Father David Hosanna in the highest and says verse 11, right. Verse 11 says and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and when he looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went to Bethany with a 12. So, after all this procession, he goes in Jerusalem, he goes in the temple and nothing happens. Talk about anti-climactic, right, like you think that they would stir up a crowd and people would just like but that’s not what happens.
It’s just says and they went to the temple, they looked around and they went back to where they came from. Talk about being disappointed. This is your Messiah, you just shouted to him like you are the King, you are coming, like David and Solomon, you’re supposed to do all these things, and Jesus doesn’t know none of those things. Says that he looks around the temple and goes back home.
Do you think the crowd would get really kind of weirded out by that? That’s exactly what happens. The crowd had an expectation of Jesus that Jesus did not fulfill, and we will see that what happens next is because their expectation of Jesus was not fulfilled. They really turn on him.
They go from a Monday crying Hoseanna, and some people say Sunday I think it’s more accurate to say on Monday. But whatever the day was, literally within a week they turn around and a lot of the crowd starts to say crucify him. Turns out, the crowd was only willing to have Jesus as King as long as Jesus was willing to serve their purposes, their causes. Turns out, the crowd wanted Jesus, but on their own terms, so they would speak out of their mouth, but they were let down.
Now what happens the next day? The next day, jesus goes to the temple and he’s about to get under the skin of a whole bunch of other kinds of people. It’s no longer the crowd outside, but it’s the religious kind of people. They’re on the temple but they’ve been mismanaging God’s house, right.
And Jesus starts, gets a whip and starts to chase him out. Talk about Jesus letting everyone down. It gets so bad, actually, that by the end of the week even his own disciples are having a hard time sticking around Jesus. So somehow Jesus is able to offend everybody and let everyone down.
You know why? Because they had the wronged expectations of him. He wasn’t here, judas, for you to have money. He’s not your cashing machine For the crowd.
He’s not here to serve your purposes. When it comes to power and liberation, there’s actually a thing in the 1950s and 60s called the Liberation Gospel. Right, there were, people adopt the gospel and they make it Anytime. You put something up in front of the gospel prosperity gospel.
I think Judas would fall into that category. And then you have I know it’s kind of fighting words right there that’s what we say in class anyway, but where you, prosperity would be the Judas problem. Then you have the crowds problem, where they’re pursuing power and to overtake them they’re preaching sort of a liberation gospel, right. And then you have the religious delights, the religious people who are like you know what.
Actually, I’m sure that if Jesus told the religious line, they would have found a position for him in the temple. I’m sure they could have. He could have fit in amongst the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes. But Jesus starts to clean the house with the religious people and he gets under their skin too.
By the end, his disciples forsake him too, and then he’s hung naked on the cross, deserted. Now I know that’s a lot of story, but I wanted to give you the context and what are some practical things that we can actually draw out of this? What are some things that we can actually learn for our own lives? How do we make sure that we don’t get disappointed in Jesus?
Now, I would say the first and foremost, we need to understand why Jesus came. What is he about? He’s not here to give you everything you want. He’s not a vending machine.
He’s not here to give you money. Of course we need money. Money is good, right, the love of money is the root of all evil. But if you look at the gospel as means of gain, then do understand that it’s very, very dangerous.
And thinking of the gospel as a way to line your pockets, that’s very dangerous. That’s doing what Judas was doing. If you’re looking at the gospel, that you’re trying to gain influence and you’re trying to make it and use the some kind of power level over people to show people that you’re a good person and you are fighting with good cause, can I remind you that we serve a king that we submit under his authority, not his, not him under ours. We need to submit under his authority and sometimes that means that whatever dreams you had for your life, you have Lord.
You have to say Lord, I’m dying to those dreams and I’m embracing your dreams. If I can call him that, I would say I would. I would embrace your calling your heart, your desire for my life, or change my desires right, change my desires for my desires to line up with yours. Lord, help me to hope and the right things that I will not get sick by hoping and things that you never meant for me.
You were never hoping that I would pursue those things. If you want to use Jesus as some kind of religious sort of means to an end to build your ministry or church but Jesus is not the king. If you’re not using your influence and your, your call it. Whatever you want to do, call it.
But if your resources and talents to serve him, if you’re trying to use Jesus to clobber people with your religion, I would say that this is the sin of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Right, you will be disappointed. You’ll be disappointed If you look at Jesus’ ministry. Jesus actually was very kind to, to what we would call sinners.
He was very critical of the Pharisees because they they had a form of godliness but denied its power. They had a form of oh, I am, I am, I am, I’m fasting, I’m praying and I’m so much more spiritual than everyone else around here. But they did not know God. You know.
Here’s the thing. The scary part about this is the first time that Jesus comes, he comes on a donkey. It’s funny because one of my, my students said Mr M, do you, do you think I can become a good preacher? And without even thinking, I have replied really quickly, which I think was pretty.
I don’t know if he got the point or not, cause probably he lost the reference, but I was like well, if, if God can talk through a donkey, and the whole class went whoa like, and I’m like it’s, it’s a reference to you, to the Old Testament, when God spoke through a donkey. Okay, I’m sorry, but apparently they got lost on them, right. But if there’s one, one, one example here that I want to follow would be that of the donkey that I would be the humble beast that I can carry Jesus. I mean, that would honestly be an honor.
Now, obviously, I’m not talking about physically I’m. I’m talking about carrying him to my family, to my city. There’s one example that I get out of this. All of that is is to be the humble donkey that is just doing the submitting, really submitting under the weight of carrying Jesus in Jerusalem and to the temple.
Cause, here’s the serious thing about this is, the first time Jesus comes, he comes on a donkey. Next time he comes, he comes on a horse. In Revelation 1911, he says this then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it called faithful and true.
This just gives me goosebumps, just like reading this passage. Called faithful and true, and in the righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and his head are many diet, diet, mints, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself, his clothes in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. The armies of heaven array and find.
Linen, white and pure, were following him on the white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down nations and he will rule them. With a rod of iron he will thread the wine press and the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty. On his robe, in his high diet, his name is written King of kings, the Lord of hosts.
So the meek, a mild Jesus that comes in peace on a donkey. Next time he comes, he comes in judgment, he comes to make war, he comes to strike down the nations. I know this is not a popular message that people normally preach in today’s age, but this is who we’re dealing with here. This is the Son of God, this is God himself, this is Jesus.
I mean, reading this description just gives me. I’m filled with terror, just renewed. Not terror like I know Jesus, but like I’ve never thought of Jesus having a sword coming out of his mouth, even though I read the Bible and somehow he got lost on me. But just reading this, his clothes, his clothes, in the robe dipped blood in the name by which he is called is the word of God and the armies of heaven, arrayed from fine linen, white and pure, were following him on the white horse.
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will thread on the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh has his name written King of Kings and Lord of Hosts, beloved. This is something that I’ve been thinking about for the last few days and, and my encouragement to us, to you, is that if you are dealing with disappointment, get a hold of who Jesus is.
Get a hold of what he is doing. Go to the cross and see the real reason that he came. Think of the kingdom that he brought. It’s not the kingdom that we think he should have brought, but he’s the king, not us.
We need to submit under him, we need to be the donkey, we need to be the clothes that he. We submit fully under his leadership, his agenda, his kingdom, his kingdomship. We don’t set the agenda here, we don’t set the course here, and if we get disenchanted, if we get disappointed, maybe it’s because we are on a path that God never intended us to be on. Maybe we’ve chosen this prosperity gospel or the liberation gospel or the religious gospel, whatever gospel you want to call it, but it’s not the gospel of Christ.
We need to get off of that and that is my plea with you, and here’s my call to you for prayer. Where have you allowed areas of your life not to submit, not to be submitted under his leadership, under his kingship? Better yet, what is the area of your life that you haven’t fully surrendered? And then you wonder why it’s out of whack.
What’s because you haven’t surrendered that area to Christ? Now, of course, even with surrendering, there’s also an enemy that’s trying to destroy you. We get that, but if we truly get a hold of him, I wonder the guy that had the donkey how do you know? Did God speak to him in a dream that he’s has to let the donkey go and it’s okay?
Like how do you know that? I wonder how many people in this crowd truly understood who Jesus is. I really want to be that person. Looking back in retrospect, some 2000 years later, wouldn’t you want to be that person?
Well, we don’t have a chance to do that 2000 years ago, but you’re alive today. When we say that we want to do things in light of eternity. Wouldn’t you want to be part of those who see Jesus for who he really is? We’re not talking about do you have a 401k retirement.
We’re talking about eternity here. Wouldn’t you want to be the person, the crowd, that really, really knows what Jesus is about? And the way you know that is by spending time with him, by asking the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you by reading your scripture. That’s why we don’t emphasize flashy things.
We want to just teach you scripture. We want to pray together, we want to worship together. We want to see people discipled. We want to see people having fellowship.
That is our heart, and my hope is that that fire starts to stir up in your heart when you go to lunch, when you go to a coffee shop and when somebody comes with their agenda like yeah, man, I’m just trying to make an MBA and Jesus is helping me out, say, hey, man, I don’t know if Jesus called to MBA, maybe he is, but you need to surrender your life, your life, to Christ first. Stop using Jesus as a means to get in the MBA and think of MBA. How can you glorify Christ with your life, with your talents. With all of that, we need to pursue his kingdom first, and everything else will be added unto us.
So just stand with me. I want to call you to this prayer and after this, if anybody wants to share and maybe something that got us placed in your heart, you’re welcome. Just make it really short, because we don’t have, you know, it depends how many people, but I want you to respond to that. So first I want to respond in prayer.
Think of an area of your life that maybe you haven’t surrendered. If it’s your marriage, if it’s your finances, if it’s your calling, whatever that is. Say Lord Jesus, would you come and take control over the area of my life?