Palm Sunday

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- Happy Palm Sunday, get on your feet.

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This is a brand new song our team wrote

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for Holy Week for our community.

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Let's stand and sing together.

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads church, I'm Andy.

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Church people call this particular day Palm Sunday.

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It's the day that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem.

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It's also the first day of Holy Week.

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And without the events that happened

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during this week about 2000 years ago,

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our faith would be completely irrelevant.

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But because of those events, we get to live in freedom.

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Now, let me ask you a question:

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When was the last time that you flew somewhere?

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And have you ever flown first class?

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Have you taken a train? Have you taken a road trip?

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When was the last time that you asked someone for a ride?

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When was the last time you rode the bus?

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And when you travel, do you like to travel like a king?

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I mean, first class? Who doesn't love an upgrade?

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Now, Jesus, who was a king, rode coach.

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Could you imagine seeing the President hitchhiking?

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Jesus, who is more powerful and honorable

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than any president, didn't write a giant, beautiful horse.

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He rode the one thing that was most like Him,

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a humble, peaceful, suffering servant.

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- That's our prayer right here.

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Do you feel His presence?

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- That's the whole drive of this week.

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Holy Week, Palm Sunday, all about making a way

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for a King, clearing the path.

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Just in case you're confused,

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let me tell you about this King.

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I want you to close your eyes.

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If you're brand new, you don't have to, that's fine.

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I'm going to do nothing weird, but I want you

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to close your eyes so you can lock in.

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Close your eyes so you can lock in and focus.

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This is the King who we just said come like a flood,

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like a fire, because you have better for me.

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I want to make a way for You.

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Listen to this description of who this King is.

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For He is the radiance of the glory of God

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and the exact imprint of His nature

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and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

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Read it again, talking about Jesus.

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Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God

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and the exact imprint of God's nature

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and Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power.

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And Jesus, this King, invites you and me

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to come to Him freely.

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That's the kind of King He is.

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That's the kind of King He is.

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- Jesus, you're the King, and I am not.

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And so I come back to You for maybe the,

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I don't know, thousandth time for me,

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way more times I come back to You and say,

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"You're the King and I'm not

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and take Your rightful place in my mind,

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my body, my soul, my heart, in my life."

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This week reset me so I can clear the path

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for You to be who You are, fully King in me.

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I pray all this because of You, King Jesus. Amen.

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So glad you showed up.

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So glad you're with us online.

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If you're in the room, why don't you turn

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to somebody and say, hey, glad to be here with you.

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- Let's thank our band at all of our sites

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for just really giving us some good, good, good stuff

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and more of that to come, more and more of that today.

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Hey, whether you are a follower of Christ, a Christian,

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or whether you are newer to Crossroads

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and you're seeking to figure out

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if there's anything different from Judah,

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from Buddha and Jesus, today is a significant day.

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Today is the beginning of Holy Week.

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Christians from all over the globe

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for thousands of years have made a big deal

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out of the time what's known as Palm Sunday

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all the way through Easter weekend.

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So this is the start of Palm Sunday weekend today.

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And my goal today, my goal today is to reframe

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maybe some ways that you see Jesus and to set you up

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to be able to have a week long filled

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with spiritually significant experiences.

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We've booked a bunch of things for you

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in all of our sites and online.

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We don't have to do these things.

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We all got more than enough to do as staff members

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and as volunteers, but we feel like

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there's something special to lean into

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these spiritual truths and the events of Jesus life,

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the last week of His life.

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So I'm hoping you're going to take advantage of that.

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And so I'm going to talk about Palm Sunday,

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what that means. You might have heard that.

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You might have heard a sermon on that.

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You might have heard something that was wrong.

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We'll find out. Maybe I'm wrong, you never know.

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But let's pray before we do anything else.

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God, I'm thankful for the ability to talk about

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something that has just gone on forever and ever

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and ever, crazy.

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This week has happened for 2000 plus years,

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and we're just in this little corner of Your Kingdom

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called Crossroads, whatever city we're in,

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we're just this little corner of Your Kingdom,

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and we stand in the midst of this root structure

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and system that's been going out

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on all corners of the globe for so long

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and starts with You.

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So help me to understand and to communicate well

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who Your Son Jesus, is, what happened

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on Palm Sunday and why that matters to us.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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All right. So, Holy Week starts

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with Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

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And He knows when He comes into Jerusalem,

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it's the beginning of the end of His life.

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This is a major step of faith on His part.

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It's a major step of boldness.

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It's a major step of sacrifice on His part.

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He could have just kept the crowds coming

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and kept teaching and having everybody be in awe

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and and do miracles and have people shocked by His miracles

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and had amazing popularity contest.

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But He had a mission to do and the stakes get higher

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when He comes into Jerusalem, which is the hotbed

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of Roman occupation for the Jews.

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Jerusalem is their holy city.

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It's their high holy city.

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And so Rome knew, "We've got to set up

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a beachhead here, have a strong presence here,

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because these people, we own them.

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These people do what we tell them to do."

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And so Jesus, when He comes in, He realizes

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He's coming into a tempest. Let's just read it.

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It comes from the book of Mark, chapter 11.

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It's actually, this story I'm gonna give you today,

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is in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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There's very few things in the Bible

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that are in all four of these things,

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these parallel accounts of Jesus's life.

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This is one of them.

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Let's read it and we'll talk about it. Here it goes.

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Sometimes we think of things in the Bible

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as more spiritual than they actually are.

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Like, how does Jesus know that this donkey is there?

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Did he have a dream in the middle of the night,

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like, "Thou shalt go with getteth thy donkey?"

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How does He know? How does He know this?

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You know how He likely knows it?

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He scouted out a day or so earlier

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and worked something out with the owner.

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That's how He knew. Let's keep going here.

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So He sends His disciples in.

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They start getting this donkey and the owners go,

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"Oh, what are you doing? What's going on?"

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They said, "Well, the Lord has need of it."

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Now you could look at this as sort of voodoo powers,

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"The Lord has need of it."

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And then the owner of the donkey goes, "Oh, okay.

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If the Lord wants it, He can have it."

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Like he loses will and mind, like he's in the midst

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of The Last of Us or something like that,

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with stuff coming out of his nose and out of his head.

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But that's probably not what it was.

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Again, Jesus maybe introduced Himself

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to this guy earlier

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and this guy had this interaction with Jesus.

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Maybe this guy came to see

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that Jesus wasn't just a teacher,

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He was actually Lord and said, "Oh, Jesus sent you?

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Oh, yeah, we work something out.

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Go ahead, go ahead, untie it and take it."

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And it goes on.

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And some of those standing there said to them,

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There's a lot of things in this passage

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about who said you can take the colt?

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A colt is a donkey that's never been ridden.

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Who said you could do that? Who said?

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They're making a big deal out of this

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because Jesus has set this up and these people

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are not understanding, except the owner of it is.

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So they bring this colt to Jesus.

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And they bring it to Him.

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And this is how Jesus is going to come into Jerusalem.

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Jesus doesn't arrive in Jerusalem by accident.

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He comes here intentionally.

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This is the time of the high holy holiday

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of the Jews called Passover.

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He enters because this is a big thing for all Jews

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to be in the holy city of Jerusalem.

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And He knows this is go time.

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This is the final climax and culmination of His life.

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And the fact that He chooses to enter in

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riding a donkey says something. What does it say?

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There's three important props we're going to talk about

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today that are in this passage, three important props.

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There is a donkey, there are cloaks,

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and there are palms. Donkey, cloaks and palms.

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Three props that we're going to

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look at real quickly here today.

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Donkey, let's talk about the donkey.

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Why a donkey? Why?

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Why do the disciples come up, take this donkey,

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and say, come along now, donkey. Why do they do that?

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I just can't get that out of my head from Shrek.

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It's like, like, three lines from Shrek

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I think of all the time.

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The other one is: do you know the muffin man?

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The muffin man? The muffin man?

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Who lives on Drury Lane? Yes.

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It's an amazing. It's an amazing movie.

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I need to watch it again.

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He chooses a donkey. Why is that? A few reasons.

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Let's take a look at Zechariah 9:9.

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This is a prophecy written about the coming Messiah,

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written hundreds of years early.

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When Jesus comes, hundreds of prophecies are fulfilled,

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which is why many, many Jews

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have come to see Him as a messiah.

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They're called completed Jews.

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They say, "My faith is complete.

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You're the Messiah, You're the Christ."

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Here's one of the prophecies about Him

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in the book of Zechariah chapter nine.

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Your king is coming

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riding on a donkey.

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I believe that Jesus knows that this prophecy is there,

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and He is intensely saying, "I need to check the box

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and fulfill that prophecy."

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I think that's part of what He's doing. He knows.

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Some of these prophecies He can't possibly fulfill.

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Like one prophecies they would gamble for His clothing.

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He couldn't fulfill that on His own,

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but that actually happened.

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There's a whole bunch of things He had zero control over.

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Jesus didn't have any control over being born of a virgin.

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Didn't have any control over so many things.

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But this is one that I think that He said,

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"The donkey thing, I need to do that."

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And He came on a donkey.

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But there's more than just fulfillment

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of a prophecy that's happening here.

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There's also a message that's being sent.

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And why would this prophecy be way back when?

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Part of it is humility.

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We're going to see today there's two things

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I really want you to get, aside from these three props.

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I want you to understand the idea of humility,

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how humble God is, how humble Jesus is.

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I want you to see that's part of His DNA.

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And I want you also to feel a challenge,

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to feel a push because He's powerful.

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When He chooses to come in on a donkey it's a humble move.

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Because when He's coming into a city,

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if He's coming to conquer it as a conquering hero,

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He would be coming in on a horse.

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He chooses a donkey.

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Who is intimidated by a donkey?

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Nobody's intimidated by a donkey.

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And that's the exact point.

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He chooses a humble mode of operation

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to send a message to everybody that, "Hey,

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I know you want a conquering hero

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to come and take down Rome.

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I know you want Me to use My powers of persuasion

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with my tongue to rally up a crowd.

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I know you want Me to use my power,

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that you've seen Me use in healing people

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and bringing people back from the dead.

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But I'm not going to do that for you.

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I'm not coming in as a conqueror.

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I'm coming in as a humble person who's riding a donkey."

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It's interesting that these people,

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it looks like a beautiful scene.

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It looks like everybody's excited about it

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and everybody's fired up about it.

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But really, it's not that good of a scene.

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Let me read the last section here, verse eight and following.

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And many spread their cloaks on the road

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and others spread leafy branches

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that they had cut from the fields.

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And those who went before

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and those who followed were shouting,

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"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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Blessed is the coming kingdom, our father David.

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Hosanna in the highest!"

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It's -- you got to look at stuff that is really odd.

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Like when Jesus referred to,

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He's not referred to as father David, except for here.

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He's referred to in the rest of the New Testament

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as Son of David.

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Whenever people, someone comes and get healed by Him,

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they say, "Son of David, have mercy on me,

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Son of David, of your lineage. You're of the root.

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This was the prophecy.

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You were going to be of the Christ child

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that's come from David's lineage."

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What do they mean when they say father David?

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They're saying David was the greatest warrior king

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who killed more people than anybody ever has

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in Israel's history.

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He knows how to get people to go to war.

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Bring the Davidic kingdom to reality.

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Tap into your father, father David.

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Get ready. Come on, come on, come on.

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Let's get some blood. Come on. Let's have our way.

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Let's get done with these Romans right now."

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And Jesus says, "No, I'll have none of it.

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I'll have none of your agenda.

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In fact, I'm not going to ride a horse

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like you're used to seeing a conquering hero coming on,

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because that's what conquering heroes would do,

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come in on a horse.

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And I'm not even going to walk in front of my troops.

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I'm going to take a donkey."

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Because I'm going to tell you, and what He's saying is,

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"I really don't have any time for your agenda for Me.

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Your agenda for Me and God's agenda for me don't match."

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It's a donkey.

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And then people are taking their cloaks

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and they're taking them off

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and they're they're laying them down.

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And it's really a nice gesture because

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this is what they would often do with royalty

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is throw their clothes down, give them a soft cushion.

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If you're on your horse, you're walking.

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We're going to give you a little air mattress,

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a little bit there to make it more comfortable for you.

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It's what you do with royalty.

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It's a it's a sign of sacrifice.

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It's pretty good. But the question is this:

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Is this a sacrifice for the right reason?

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Are they sacrificing for the purpose of God,

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or they for sacrificing for the purpose of themselves?

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We sometimes get those things mixed up.

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Let me tell you about me. I'm married. I'm married.

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And let me tell you something about my marriage.

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There's hard spots in my marriage.

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Always has been. Always will be.

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It's really -- I love my wife Lib.

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She's an amazing wife. It's great.

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But, you know, when you have two people

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who are together, two people

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have different perspectives, different agendas.

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It just brings out difficult things.

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But here's the core,

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here's the core challenge with our marriage.

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It comes up again and again and again and again and again.

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You know what it is? Here it is.

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Lib doesn't do what I want her to do.

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I can't say it any more clearer than that.

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She doesn't do what I want her to do.

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And not only that, she doesn't stop doing

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what I want her to stop.

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I mean, that's basically, that's basically

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the problem with our marriage right there.

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That's basically it. Right?

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And of course, she would say the same about me.

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See when you're in a marriage,

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for those of us who are married, you know,

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there's the agenda God has for marriage

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and then there's the agenda you have for your marriage.

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And most of us are not even self aware enough

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to even notice that really, our agenda for the marriage

00:35:06

is for the person to do for me

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what I want them to do for me.

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My agenda is for you to make me feel complete.

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My agenda is for you to make my life easier.

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My agenda is for you to make me feel emotionally satisfied.

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My agenda is for you to fulfill me sexually.

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My agenda for you is a fill in all the gaps in my life.

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My agenda is for you to make my life better.

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And that's not God's agenda for marriage.

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He's got a different agenda for marriage.

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This is not a marriage message.

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It's a this is a Palm Sunday message.

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But I'll just say this one last time.

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If you want to build your marriage,

00:35:40

the best thing I can offer you,

00:35:41

we can offer you is Couples Camp.

00:35:43

It's the last day to sign up is this weekend,

00:35:45

last, last day, I promise you.

00:35:48

I promise you, there's nothing you're going to do

00:35:51

for your marriage the next year

00:35:52

that's going to be better than Couples Camp.

00:35:54

And if you go and you disagree,

00:35:55

we will refund your money back. Promise you.

00:35:58

And we're even letting you camp in your car this year.

00:36:01

We'll even let you camp in your minivan.

00:36:03

Whatever you want, fine, great, great, great.

00:36:06

What we learned is this applies to our own life with Jesus.

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That's really the heart of our problem

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with our union with God is God doesn't do for us

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what we want Him to do.

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He doesn't give me what I want Him to give me.

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He doesn't stop the people who are hurting me

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that I want Him to stop.

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He doesn't bless me with the things

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I want to be blessed with.

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He doesn't put people down who I want to be put down.

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And see, it's really about us.

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And this is what's happening

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as Jesus comes into Jerusalem.

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It's about the people. It's about them.

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They're like, "Great, Jesus, You're here for me.

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You're here to make my life better.

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You're here to make all my political aspirations

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and all my difficulties just vanish because You,

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Jesus, are here for me."

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And Jesus isn't there for them.

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He's there for the purpose and agenda of God,

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which includes people,

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but people aren't the starting point.

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Specifically, individuals and their needs

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aren't the starting point.

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It's honoring the voice and obedience

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to the call of God that He has on His life.

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And we make the same mistake

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that the people in those crowds did there.

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We do some worship.

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We put some stuff down, make it good for Jesus,

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take our cloak off.

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But we're doing these things

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to make Him more comfortable so that, we hope,

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You'll do for me what I want you to do for me.

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And Jesus will have none of it.

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It's not what He's about.

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They take these palm branches,

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they start waving around these palm branches. Right?

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Palm branches are a sign of of victory.

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You know, when Jesus is called Father of David,

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they're saying, "We want you to kill

00:37:54

just like your father did, your great, great,

00:37:57

great, great, great, great, great, whatever grandfather.

00:38:00

We want you to be like him.

00:38:01

Conquer these people. Kill them! Win!"

00:38:05

This is what the palm is.

00:38:07

The palm was a a symbol of victory.

00:38:10

A palm was placed around somebody's ears

00:38:14

or around their neck whenever they won

00:38:17

an Olympics thing in ancient Greece

00:38:19

or they won a gladiator match, a palm branch came to them.

00:38:23

This was a big thing.

00:38:26

In the Bible we see the palm branch mentioned.

00:38:28

In Leviticus 23:40 it says this:

00:38:43

So there's a place for rejoicing with palms,

00:38:46

a place for saying, "Man, great!

00:38:48

Winning is happening. It's great."

00:38:50

But there's something else happening

00:38:52

with these Jews who are worshiping,

00:38:55

it seems to be worshiping Jesus.

00:38:57

What they're worshiping is the dream that they have,

00:39:00

the dream to kill the Romans.

00:39:03

If you take a look at an ancient monetary coin

00:39:09

for the Romans, Constantine, Constantine had a coin

00:39:12

and had the palm around his head.

00:39:15

And this palm around his head was a sign of victory.

00:39:19

About 150 years before Jesus comes into Jerusalem,

00:39:24

Greece and their king is crushing and hurting

00:39:28

the Jews in a huge way.

00:39:29

They take occupation of Jerusalem.

00:39:31

They go into the temple.

00:39:33

They take all the holy relics out of the temple.

00:39:36

They melt them down, they do something for themselves,

00:39:39

and they totally defile all of God's holy sacred objects.

00:39:44

And people were not happy.

00:39:46

And one person decided to do something about it,

00:39:49

Judas Maccabeus, not Judas related to Iscariot,

00:39:53

a different one.

00:39:54

And he rounded folks up and he was a catalytic spark plug,

00:39:59

and he ended up throwing back and eliminating

00:40:03

the Greeks out of the temple and really gaining new ground.

00:40:08

And because of that, what took place was

00:40:12

they have a celebration for seven days,

00:40:14

still to this day, it's called Hanukkah.

00:40:17

Because of the Maccabean Revolt,

00:40:19

because Judah and the Maccabeans, all of them

00:40:22

came along and they put down the Romans.

00:40:26

And what was their symbol of their revolution?

00:40:29

It was the palm branch.

00:40:31

In fact, you could see 150 years earlier

00:40:35

when Jesus was around, this was the monetary currency

00:40:38

is this coin that had a palm branch on it.

00:40:42

See, they're waving a palm branch for Jesus,

00:40:46

saying, "Come on, do a Judah for us.

00:40:48

Come on. Maccabean revolt. Come on, Jesus, come on.

00:40:50

You can do it." This is --

00:40:52

Okay, trigger warning. Are you ready?

00:40:54

Trigger alert for everybody on the right and the left.

00:40:56

Trigger alert. Here we go.

00:40:57

This is like waving a red MAGA hat.

00:41:03

That's what this is like.

00:41:04

This is like waving a rainbow flag.

00:41:08

That's what this is like.

00:41:10

They're waving their flag, saying, "I want mine.

00:41:15

I want you to give me mine."

00:41:17

And Jesus, again, will have none of it.

00:41:21

These people, we know that they're not into Jesus.

00:41:23

I'll tell you why else.

00:41:24

Not only do they call him Father of David

00:41:26

instead of Son of David, not only that,

00:41:28

but it's just a few days later

00:41:30

where He's going to be on trial

00:41:31

and Pilate is going to prop Him up

00:41:33

before a bunch of people and say, "Look,

00:41:34

I'll give you back Jesus,

00:41:35

or I'll give you this murderer, Barabbas.

00:41:37

Who do you want?" And the majority of the people,

00:41:39

they shouted out, "Barabbas, give us Barabbas!"

00:41:42

They realize this guy is weak. He gets captured.

00:41:45

We don't have any part for Him. Kill him! Kill him!

00:41:49

The same people who are doing this.

00:41:51

I wonder how many people proclaim to be

00:41:55

followers of Christ and we wave our flag, whatever it is.

00:41:58

We wave our Cross.

00:42:00

We wave our quilted Bible cover carrying case.

00:42:05

Do they even have those anymore? I don't know.

00:42:07

We wave our Christian bumper stickers.

00:42:11

We wave whatever.

00:42:13

We just -- it's like good luck charm

00:42:15

declaring who we are like.

00:42:18

But man, waving your flag versus laying down your life

00:42:22

are two different things.

00:42:24

Waving your flag versus giving up your dream

00:42:28

and your agenda for the dream of God

00:42:31

is a different thing.

00:42:32

Waving your flag for your life

00:42:35

the way to happen that you want instead of your life

00:42:38

to be under God's rule is entirely different thing.

00:42:40

And these people here,

00:42:41

they don't want to be under God's rule.

00:42:43

They want the blessings of God without the rule of God.

00:42:47

And this is why for a whole week we get to wrestle with this.

00:42:50

How much do you want, God?

00:42:52

What part of God do you want?

00:42:54

Do you want His forgiveness?

00:42:56

Do you want His instructions?

00:42:57

What is it of God that you want?

00:43:00

This is a God who is humble.

00:43:02

This is a God who has power.

00:43:05

This is a God who provides hope.

00:43:08

And when we start crowding Him

00:43:10

and trying to bring our agenda,

00:43:13

make Him fulfil our agenda, God will leave our lives.

00:43:16

I don't mean He'll abandon you and you go to hell.

00:43:19

I just mean, you're not going to feel the presence of God.

00:43:21

That's what Jesus does.

00:43:22

Whenever someone has an agenda they put on Jesus,

00:43:24

He starts -- He just he just removes Himself.

00:43:27

Let me give you an example, John 6:15:

00:43:39

So they're coming other times, like,

00:43:41

"We gotta take Him by force, make Him king."

00:43:42

He goes, "I'm not having any of that.

00:43:44

I'm withdrawing. I'm leaving."

00:43:45

Whenever we want a co-op Jesus for our agenda,

00:43:48

you can expect Jesus to leave.

00:43:51

Doesn't mean He doesn't love you.

00:43:52

Doesn't mean He doesn't have a plan for you.

00:43:54

Doesn't mean -- Doesn't mean anything.

00:43:56

It just means, like, you're not going to feel

00:43:58

the presence of Jesus if you're trying

00:43:59

to co-op Him for your agenda.

00:44:00

And everybody does this,

00:44:02

everybody's got their proof Bible verse

00:44:03

to prove that Jesus is on their side.

00:44:07

The question is whether or not we're on the side of Jesus,

00:44:10

whether we're on His agenda,

00:44:11

even if we don't know what His agenda is.

00:44:14

He gives hope because His agenda has power.

00:44:16

That's what's going to happen in Holy Week.

00:44:18

He has hope, and He's humble.

00:44:22

He comes in on a donkey.

00:44:23

He could have sucked in all the praise He wanted,

00:44:25

but He's humble and He gives hope.

00:44:26

This last weekend when we had John Burke, my friend,

00:44:30

talk about near death experiences in heaven.

00:44:33

Wasn't that just amazing? Wasn't it? [applause]

00:44:35

I watched, I saw those videos, you know,

00:44:39

multiple times, cried every service,

00:44:41

different things I saw in different videos

00:44:44

I hadn't picked up before.

00:44:45

John, by the way, is on my podcast, Aggressive Life.

00:44:47

I've had him on three times.

00:44:49

He's the most popular person I've ever had on

00:44:51

because we all want to have our heart reoriented.

00:44:53

He blew past Matthew McConaughey's numbers

00:44:57

on my podcast in like two weeks.

00:44:59

Like, Hollywood A-lister, whatever.

00:45:01

How about a guy who could tell me about some hope?

00:45:04

This guy's talk from last week,

00:45:07

I want to show it to you again,

00:45:08

I think beautifully shows the hope

00:45:11

and the humility that Jesus offers.

00:45:14

This guy had been stabbed multiple times,

00:45:16

and just before the last one went into his heart,

00:45:19

as a surgeon and as a psychiatrist, he met God.

00:45:22

Here it is.

00:45:25

- When God shows up in your face like a bomb blast,

00:45:29

He really gets your attention.

00:45:31

And I'm standing there in awe and time stopped.

00:45:35

All I know is that God showed up as a light.

00:45:41

And the light was roiling with energy,

00:45:44

as you would expect if you were up close to,

00:45:47

say, an atomic bomb.

00:45:49

What was roiling even more was the love that came with it.

00:45:53

It -- I'm sorry I have a hard time talking about this.

00:45:58

And in one single instant,

00:46:00

all of His qualities were in my face.

00:46:04

God's overarching quality is love.

00:46:07

Everything is contained within that.

00:46:10

His knowledge came very suddenly as an image

00:46:15

of a library filling the universe.

00:46:18

His power was undisputable.

00:46:20

The joy is it will make you happy for a lifetime.

00:46:27

I can't think about it without getting full of joy.

00:46:32

His authority is so great

00:46:34

that You would follow any instruction.

00:46:39

Kindness.

00:46:42

You probably know someone who is someone who's kind.

00:46:45

If you can imagine that kindness magnified a thousand times.

00:46:51

Humor is something rather surprising.

00:46:55

You don't expect God to show up ready to laugh His a♪♪ off.

00:47:02

Purity. He is so pure,

00:47:05

it puts your own condition in stark relief.

00:47:10

You can see that you're not that.

00:47:13

And then there's humility.

00:47:16

If I had his qualities, I would be so proud, you know?

00:47:21

But He's not. He is humble. Such humility.

00:47:34

- Is humble, and He also had power,

00:47:37

which is why we have hope.

00:47:38

He comes in on a donkey.

00:47:40

But he isn't on a donkey forever.

00:47:43

In the Book of Revelation, the end of all things,

00:47:47

a time that prophesies Him coming again.

00:47:50

Here's what it says in Revelation 19:

00:48:04

At some point Jesus will come in on a white horse

00:48:07

and He will make war.

00:48:08

At some point He will come and He will bring justice.

00:48:12

At some point He will come

00:48:13

and make everything physically right, but not this day.

00:48:18

At someday He is going to come

00:48:20

and He is going to put pain where pain needs to go,

00:48:23

but not on this day.

00:48:25

At some point He will make all things right,

00:48:29

everything will be in order,

00:48:31

everything will be the way God wants it,

00:48:32

but not on this day.

00:48:34

Someday it's coming, but not on this day.

00:48:37

And therefore we wait in the tension.

00:48:40

In the Book of Revelation 7:9, another prophecy, says:

00:49:05

Eventually everything gets redeemed,

00:49:09

including the palm branch, including perhaps

00:49:13

people who are there that day and were about their agenda.

00:49:16

But they get switched to God's agenda

00:49:17

and they start waving their palm branches

00:49:20

with the One who's full of humility and hope and power,

00:49:24

who will one day, someday, come on a white horse.

00:49:27

But not this day.

00:49:29

Someday we'll see Him in awesome physical power,

00:49:33

but not this day.

00:49:35

This day we see Him in humility.

00:49:37

This day we wrestle with our own frailties,

00:49:41

we wrestle with our own faith and ask ourselves,

00:49:46

"What do I think of this man, Jesus?

00:49:50

Is -- could He be my answer?

00:49:52

Could He be my life?

00:49:54

Are other people who've given their lives to Him

00:49:56

for thousands of years, do they know something I don't know?"

00:49:59

I need that we get for a whole week to go back down

00:50:03

the teachings of the Cross,

00:50:05

the teachings of what Communion is,

00:50:07

the teaching of sacrifice,

00:50:08

the teaching of God's love for us,

00:50:11

the teaching of why He would do this for us.

00:50:14

They didn't realize what He was doing was coming in,

00:50:16

He was making room in the plan of God for them,

00:50:20

making room, and we'll talk about that

00:50:23

on a Good Friday service and also on other things this week.

00:50:27

He was making room and God's heart and God's Kingdom

00:50:31

for frail people like you and I, who wave our MAGA hats

00:50:34

and wave our rainbow flags, making room for us.

00:50:38

And now, this week, we have to figure out

00:50:41

if we want to make room in our own schedules

00:50:44

to zero in to this King.

00:50:46

Do I want to make room to do things and think things

00:50:50

and pray things that I haven't for a long time,

00:50:53

or maybe never have?

00:50:54

Do I want to make room and prioritize

00:50:56

my spiritual growth and honoring

00:51:00

and getting to know a little better the King

00:51:02

that's changed world history? I hope you do.

00:51:06

This is not the end of my talk today.

00:51:09

This is the beginning of perhaps life altering messages

00:51:13

and information and transformation that we're hoping

00:51:17

and praying and worked really, really hard

00:51:19

to come your way this week.

00:51:20

God, I'm asking as we come to worship You right now,

00:51:25

as we worship You, this is the response of our hearts.

00:51:28

In all humility, God, we're here, many of us,

00:51:32

it's uncomfortable to sing, but we're going to do it

00:51:34

out of humility because we want a hope that lasts

00:51:38

and transcends our petty preoccupations.

00:51:42

You are good. We choose to make room for You today, Jesus.

00:52:31

- Here's what we want to do.

00:56:08

- The question that we leave with today is:

00:56:10

do you want to prepare for the King?

00:56:12

Easter is not just another hallmark holiday.

00:56:14

It is a moment with beauty and redemption

00:56:17

and meaning and new life that's available for you.

00:56:20

Now, towards that end, we have an incredible week

00:56:23

of physical and digital experiences

00:56:25

designed to do just that

00:56:26

and to immerse you in Holy Week.

00:56:29

First thing, if you live near or around

00:56:31

the Cincinnati area, we're offering

00:56:33

a Thursday Last Supper experience

00:56:35

and an immersive Good Friday service

00:56:37

that you'll want to be in person for.

00:56:38

Secondly, we have not forgotten about

00:56:40

our Crossroads Anywhere family all over the globe.

00:56:43

There's a Last Supper video on demand experience

00:56:45

that you can check out, as well as a live stream

00:56:48

of our Good Friday service on Friday at 7 p.m. eastern.

00:56:51

And for this week only, we're actually

00:56:53

going back to daily worship each morning

00:56:55

on Facebook and other platforms.

00:56:57

And last, but also maybe my personal favorite,

00:57:00

we're going to have an online night of healing

00:57:02

on Tuesday evening that we'd love for you to join.

00:57:05

You can find all the details and more

00:57:07

at crossroads.net/HolyWeek.

00:57:09

And if you have questions,

00:57:10

just click the little white bubble

00:57:11

in the lower right hand corner of our website.

00:57:13

There are real people, like friends of mine,

00:57:16

that would love to pray for you and answer your questions.

00:57:18

Hey, thank you for joining us today,

00:57:20

and make sure to join us next week

00:57:22

for an Easter experience you don't want to miss.

00:57:27

- Easter is a celebration of life conquering death.

00:57:31

Because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:57:33

you can be resurrected too.

00:57:35

- This is the resurrected life

00:57:40

The one and only Jesus Christ

00:57:45

from the Cross to the grave

00:57:47

from the grave to the throne

00:57:50

the King is finally come

00:57:54

and He's coming again.

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