Week Zero - Eternity Eyes & Legacy Lives

Well, thank you all very much for being here.

This is truly something we look forward to all year.

We don't have anybody here that I know of from West Virginia tonight.

But I have a friend named Andy who used to be a pastor in a little town in Virginia.

And uh it was um uh it was like uh kind of one of those coal towns.

Any of you have driven through West Virginia Um, you know, there's some really deep valleys, you know, you you drive through there's some really impressive mountains and you don't have any cell service.

And um and he was uh with his with uh with his wife, they pastored there.

The problem was he had a tendency to get depressed.

And it was a very depressing place because it was never it was really dark in the valley most of the time.

And also it was the town itself was kind of dingy by his description.

And but and the sun didn't shine there till late in the morning.

So it was just it was just kind of a depressing place all year long He said, but the thing he found out was that if if when he could do this, and he did it several times a week, he would hike up the mountain, and he said, when you went up that mountain and you got the view from up there He said it really was beautifully so much.

It lifted my spirits the whole different.

He said that even the town even looked kind of good from up there.

Well, we're going to be climbing some mountains together.

I've been climbing them for the past six months.

Now you don't need your hiking boots, but we're going to be climbing some mountains in God's word that literally we will find in the most important week in the history of planet Earth.

Took me six months to do a week.

You'll see what I mean in just a couple of minutes.

But first I have an important question for you And in order to set the stage for the question, I want to do something.

I know we we like this to be a weekend of encouragement, so I want to read some epitaphs to you.

Something uplifting.

Um for example, W.

C.

Fields, who was a very funny guy, did movies in the 1930s and 40s.

Yeah, his his his tombstone says, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.

I don't know what that has to do with it.

Alexander the Great, this is pretty profound.

A tomb now suffices for him For whom the world was not enough.

Ritual Man Prophet, huh?

How about this one on the Georgia Cemetery?

I told you I was sick.

This is from Redoso, New Mexico.

Here lies Johnny Yates.

Pardon me for not rising.

What?

Martin Luther King just simply says free at last on his.

Ruth Graham, Billy's wife, I've told some of you before, most creative.

Epitaph.

Some people are like, whoa, what does that mean?

She said, this is literally at the Billy Graham Library.

It says, um, end of construction.

Thanks for your patience.

That's pretty good.

That is pretty good.

End of construction.

I'm glad it's finally, I'm finally done.

And uh she was that kind of lady.

Karen loved her.

And um, oh I this one raises a couple questions.

This says, this is in Burlington, Vermont, she lived with her husband 50 years and died in the confident hope of a better life.

That's well.

Um here lies Mary Smith, silent at last.

Some of you may want to write that one down.

You say, yeah, that's a good one.

Dio Mounis, I've been to his grave, Northfield, Massachusetts.

It simply says, he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

Very cool, very cool.

So here's what I want you to think about.

You have one week to live.

You've been notified, you have one week to live.

Most people, if they know they have a week to live, are too sick to really do anything.

Most people don't have any notice But you know, and you're able to do things.

You have one week.

You're done in a week What things do you think are going to be important for you to do?

Here's the interesting thing.

Jesus had one week left.

One week before the cross.

Now he'll be back, of course, after Easter, but if you remember your Bible, he doesn't hang out very much during those 40 days afterwards He pops up here, pops up here, occasionally, folks see him, and he's gone again.

But in terms of being with the main people in his life, In an intensive way, Jesus has one week left.

I started to study that week.

Last Palm Sunday I've spent six months in that week.

Did you know one-fifth of the book of Luke is about uh is is about that week?

One-third of the book of Matthew is about that week.

One third of the book of Mark is about that week.

One half of the book of John is about one week out of 33 years.

Do you think it's important?

What does he do with this final week?

I thought I was just going to be having a little, you know, holy week devotional.

No.

No, so you're gonna have to eavesdrop on my Jesus time, but we won't it won't take six months.

I've digested it as best I could But here's why this is if it's that important for the gospel writers to focus so much on it, what does he think is important?

What does he say?

What does he do?

What matters to him in his final week?

So we're going to start to walk through that final week before the cross because it will reveal the passions and the priorities of our Savior's heart and maybe of ours.

And the question is, are we going to find out that what mattered so much to him in his last days is what really matters to us?

You know, we are living in times where it's very easy for us as Christians to take our eyes off the ball.

I mean there is it's such a passionate time.

Political passions are running high.

There's so much going on on social networks and back and forth with people and sports passions and there's all kinds of lesser passions.

That that tend to occupy us right now and have our attention.

And we've all got like breaking news whiplash I mean, I just heard a guy say the other day, he said, we used to have a new news cycle every day.

We now have about seven news cycles a day.

So in this crazy world It's easy for us to break the cardinal rule you learned when you first tried to hit a baseball, and that is to keep your eye on the ball.

Well, I tell you, Jesus has got his eye on the ball all the time, but especially in this final week.

I saw this, somebody posted this.

I thought this is good.

Life's short.

Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the internet arguing with strangers about politics.

Anyway, that's what I mean.

So here's if we want to live our life strategically, I don't know how much time you got left, I don't know how much time I got left.

I'll tell you this.

I would like it to count more than all the rest has before this.

So how do we live strategically and urgently and significantly I think if we can spend our time in this incredible week, some of the parts of the Bible you know better than any other.

The story's been told so many times.

I think you're going to find that there's a lot in there that really opens up the heart of Jesus and opens up our lives as well.

And is his agenda.

My agenda.

We start the week just before Palm Sunday.

And we find out what makes Jesus cry.

We go to Luke for this.

The doctor records this.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city.

Now you know what's about to happen.

They're about to have this incredible celebration in his honor.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.

Why?

He said I see your future.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another.

You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

He says in another place, in another description of this, if you only knew, if you only knew what could have been, if you had come to me and let me be in charge of your life.

Jesus weeps over, well, what the poet Whittier said like this, out of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of these is It might have been.

Well, I hope that won't be the epitaph over our lives what what might have been when we m um So Noelle was in her dreamland.

She thought heaven was at Disneyland.

And she was three years old, and she was there.

And Noelle, do you love it when I talk about you?

Good.

She'd like everybody to look at her too.

Um no, she would not, please.

I'll have a I'll lost I'll lose a granddaughter.

Um but uh there there's a dumbo ride there.

That's probably the one I'd love I would ride.

That's about as wild as I get And the little dumbbell with the big ears, you know.

And uh and Uncle Brad took her on that.

And it was really nice because uh they started to go around and if you lift the bar then the dumbbell thing goes up and you can kind of look over in the park a little bit And as Brad started to lift the bar, Noelle objected?

No demanded that he not touch that bar.

We are not going up We are not going up and so they did the whole ride down here on the ground level.

What's the point?

You're supposed to be able to go up and fly with Dumbo and see everything.

She said, I'm staying down here.

What breaks Jesus' heart, as he looked at his city, as he looks at us is that we're willing to stay at this level when he actually would like us to fly up here and we say, I don't want to go, let's just stay where we are.

I'll stay in my comfort zone.

Thank you.

Well, no, you won't.

No, you won't if you spend this time in his last week, which I describe as looking at everything through eternity eyes, the result being you have a legacy life.

So I call this week zero.

All the weeks counting down to what Jesus came to do, we are now down to week zero.

And he's going to explode.

His ministry is going to explode worldwide.

But this is like a launch at Cape Canaveral.

This is the ball of fire that's going to launch his ministry.

And I said we were going to do some mountain climbing.

Here's how I digested.

I read the Bible a little differently than a lot of people.

I saw six mountain peaks.

We have six times together.

I see six mountain peaks from which we can look down in the valley and have a whole new perspective.

Things totally look different from these six mountain peaks in the final week of Jesus.

Now they could be excited and some of them will surprise you, some of them will not.

And what comes of this is six accelerants.

Each one will give you an accelerant To have the most high impact life you could possibly have with the rest of the time you have.

We talked about a legacy life.

I decided I'd look up legacy this afternoon.

I know what it is, but listen to this Something someone has achieved that continues to exist after they stop working or die.

Something that will outlive you.

Something that will outlast you.

A life lived in such a way.

That the flowers you plant will continue to bloom in people's lives and your family's life long after you're gone.

That's a pretty good definition of legacy.

And this is going to help us, I think, move toward the direction of having a legacy life.

So here's the first peak.

The parade.

I call it the parade.

And when we get to this first peak and we stand on Mount Palm Sunday, what it turns out is that that day Jesus challenges Several things, I'm going to look at five targets that he challenged on Palm Sunday that are the same in our life today Now, let's go to Matthew 21 and let's read.

You say, I know the story.

Let's look at it through different eyes this time.

Here we go.

As they approached Jerusalem, came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus and two disciples.

We'll talk about this, this little transaction, saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her.

Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything, just say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut 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.

We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute, what that all is about.

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

Highly significant what they're saying here.

Hosanna in the highest heaven.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this?

The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

And Jesus entered the temple courts.

Oh, hello.

So much for the parade.

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 to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making a den of robbers.

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did, and the children shouting in the temple courts, Hosanna to the son of David, they were so happy.

Wait.

Probably the first time they had children singing out in the temple in a long time.

They were indignant Do you hear what these children are saying?

They asked him.

Yes, replied Jesus.

Have you never read from the lips of children and infants?

Lord, you have called forth your praise.

And he left them.

Went out of the city to Bethany.

We spent the night.

Now we may not know it, but that that and the other gospel accounts are pretty loaded.

Jesus comes to town, shockwaves go through the city.

They have this massive ticker tape parade, much like the Yankees are going to have in New York and if Oh wait, no, no that let's see that won't be this year.

No, I'm sorry, Brad.

Um but this is like a ticker tape parade except it's a palm parade instead of ticker tape.

Jesus is, he's coming to town, he stirs the whole city.

The whole city's going nuts.

On this same day, he will actually call out the religious leaders of the country, of the nation.

On this the same day, he will throw out the temple mafia.

On the same day Or perhaps the next morning, he will announce to his disciples the total destruction of that great temple.

Well, yet when Jesus comes to town, he shakes things up, believe me.

It's going to be quite a day.

But see, Jesus looks through eternity eyes.

See, everybody else looks and they go, look at the buy-in.

They are buy-in Jesus, the Messiah.

Huge buy-in here.

Jesus looks and you know what he sees?

He sees people who will say, today, magnify him, and five days later will say, crucify him They don't want that kind of messiah.

They had a different messiah in mind.

Oh, he sees things that others don't see Everybody else is interested in pleasing the very important people in town, the religious leaders, and Jesus said, I only really care about pleasing one, my Father in heaven.

There's a wonderful book called The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah.

It was written in 1888 when I was a boy, and this is a um Wonderful text because he was a grew up as a Jewish boy, came to Jesus as his Messiah, and has incredible Jewish information to enrich the gospel accounts.

Listen to what he said about Palm Sunday He alone, Jesus, was silent and sad among this excited multitude, the marks of the tears he had wept over Jerusalem still on his cheek It is not so that an earthly king enters the city in triumph, not so that the Messiah of Israel's expectation would have gone into his temple.

He spake not, he just looked around at all things as if to view the field on which he would suffer and die.

And now the shadows of evening were creeping up And weary and sad, he once more returned with the twelve disciples to the shelter and rest of Bethany.

All looks very different to Jesus than what everybody else sees.

Now, I told you that there are five challenges Jesus issues that day.

Let me give them to you.

Here's the first one.

He challenges our worship.

He challenges our worship.

How dare he?

He does.

I mean, these people were involved in exuberant worship that day.

When they said Hosanna, you know what they were saying?

That means please save.

Please save.

They were under the the boot of the Roman Empire.

Taxed out of their out of any kind of a decent living.

An inhabited country.

And um what please save meant and had come to mean over the years was that either deliverance it was celebrating deliverance of God had saved them from something or he was about to.

And so That's what they were saying.

And this comes literally out of , they would chant uh s during the Passover, Psalm 116 to Psalm 118.

So basically they were saying this, praise God and Messiah.

We are saved.

We are saved.

He's here.

Jesus challenges cheap worship.

It had to be cheap if they cashed it in for a crucifixion five days later.

Jesus challenges our worship sometimes.

He doesn't particularly like worship as an event.

If all worship is is an event, oh, time to go worship.

Worship is just an event where we get our spiritual high.

Much more than that.

Worship is a compartment.

Well it's just a we oh time to worship now.

Really?

That's cheap worship.

And there's a lot of this these days, worship that calls attention, either to the worship leader.

Or the worshiper.

It's cheap worship.

Supposed to be thinking of only one person.

And that's the greatness of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

You want to see real worship?

Go to Matthew 21 here, verse 14.

The only real worship that day, the blind and lame came to the temple, he healed them.

The kids are shouting in the temple courts, Hosanna to the son of David.

I think they worshiped without any agenda.

All the other people had an agenda.

Well, kids know they just love Jesus.

That's all they know They're so excited about Jesus.

It's the real deal.

Noelle, I think, was only about I'll pick it on you tonight.

I would be somebody else tomorrow.

But I think Noelle was uh both she and Jordan were only about three years old when they prayed to ask Jesus into their heart.

They're pretty smart kids.

You go, well, is that possible?

Well, they stuck with them and uh and and they're living it.

And uh no and they got it.

The parents made sure they they really understood it first.

And um so Doug told us about that, that you know, but she he said, I let Noelle tell you.

So she came over to Nalima and Alipa to the farm and she told us, she said, uh, I accepted Jesus in my heart And Karen said, that is so wonderful, Noelle.

She said, you know what?

Your mommy and daddy have asked Jesus to clean their heart.

And Nali Ma and Nalipa have asked Jesus to clean their heart.

And your aunts and uncles have asked Jesus to clean their heart.

And she said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Well what's wrong honey?

She said, Jesus is just for children.

I'm glad that's not true, but uh he is for but I love that simple little Jesus loves me.

That's those kids are probably the most authentic worship that took place that day.

But during this period of time, Jesus highlights two women who really did worship.

Go to Mark chapter 12.

Look at this.

This is worship.

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.

By the way, you may know this.

You know where they put their offerings?

It was a big trumpet It was a trumpet chat.

Oh, you pass baskets around the church?

Oh no.

This is when they come in and say, ladies and gentlemen, you throw your money into the trumpet like ta -da!

And try that at your church.

You need a trumpet to go with it.

Many people, rich people, threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came, put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has poured more into the treasury than all the others.

They gave out of their wealth.

Shut out of her poverty, put in everything.

All she had to live on.

Someone has said Jesus doesn't care how much you give, he cares how much you have left.

Now, let's put her side by side with one other lady that Jesus Praises, the worship.

Let's go to this, let's go to the other passage here in John.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor.

Martha served.

Alazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

Then Mary took about a pint of Pure nard, which was an extremely rare and expensive uh it came from Asia, I believe.

It was uh very I mean it would be like your your biggest investment of your life. to have this.

That's why she had a pint of it, never opened it.

An expensive perfume.

She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair.

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume But one of his disciples, of course, the treasurer, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected.

Why wasn't this perfume sold in the money given to the poor?

It was worth a year's wages.

He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to whatever was put into it.

Leave her alone, Jesus replied.

It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

You will always have the poor among you.

You will not always have me here And you remember he said that she would be remembered as long as the gospel was preached throughout the world, and sure enough, that's being fulfilled in this room tonight.

What did these two women have in common?

Sacrifice.

Their worship was sacrificed.

But then doesn't um Doesn't Hebrews 13 talk about the sacrifice of praise from your lips?

See, real worship is tied to sacrifice.

John 4, 24 says, Those who worship him must worship him in s in the spirit and in truth.

I'll never forget what my brother Bill Sperling said, Where are you, Bill?

I didn't get to see you yet.

There you are.

And now I see you.

He he he was with our on Eagles Wings team and we were it was after the last reservation this was several years ago might have been your first year and um Bill being an elder in his church and a leader he said you know Ron He said, I've listened to this team pray for their people.

And I've listened to them worship.

And he said, you know that place in the Bible it says we're to worship in spirit and truth?

Well He said, I think I know a lot about worshiping him in truth.

But he said, this month I've learned what it means to worship him.

It's your spirit.

That's the real deal.

Jesus exposes and challenges some of our worship as being fairly cheap and not too deep and fairly superficial and shallow.

Look at Romans 12, 1.

You know this verse.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This Not an event.

This is your true and proper worship I heard sacrificial praise.

I know when there was sacrificial praise.

Thirteen years ago.

Anna in her six month of pregnancy with their what would be their first son first son, Noah 's little brother.

They learned from the what was to be a routine sonogram that the boy in utero might not survive birth and had a one in 10,000 heart condition.

It's not what you want to hear when you see the sonogram.

They were on the reservation.

They had a long drive back to the reservation for Flagstaff.

Hit pretty hard when they called us.

Dad, he just said, Dad, get your grace helmets on.

We got bad news from the doctor.

You know our miracle boy is here now.

He turns 13 next month But you know what they did all the way back?

They sang a song over and over again.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And when the darkness closes in, still I will say, Blessed be the name of the Lord.

He gives and takes away.

But blessed be the name. of the Lord.

They got that from Job, having lost everything.

Nobody here has lost what Job lost.

And he said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.

That's worship.

That's sacrifice worship.

You ought to be worshiping all day.

I hope you got the kind of thing going with the Lord where you find yourself either out loud, I'm doing it out loud more often than not now.

People just think I'm talking to myself, which is possible.

I've I just so many times now I'm just saying, Jesus, I love you.

Jesus, that's a you're amazing.

God, look at what you did.

Look at that that sunset.

I love just it ought to be all day, every day.

God sightings.

And the real worship comes when there doesn't seem to be any reason to, in the darkest moments, like Job, like Doug and Anna, that's worship.

So Jesus challenges our cheap worship on Palm Sunday, and here's the challenge.

Let your worship be nothing less than poured out love.

Just think of Mary pouring out.

She poured out everything she had.

Poured out love and poured out life.

A poured out love and poured out life is bringing worship that pleases him.

That's the first challenge.

Here's the second one.

He challenges our worship in the first challenge.

The second one on Palm Sunday challenges our anxiety.

Our anxiety.

Now the disciples were fairly worried.

They were worry words.

All through, you'll see, for example, a few days before with the raising of Lazarus, When Jesus decided to wait two days to go, the disciples are like, oh Jesus, I don't know if this is what are you doing?

And he's like, everything's out of control, don't worry.

And then two days later he decides to go.

And like, Jesus, you know, they're they're going to kill you if you go.

I don't know if you should go to Jerusalem.

They never can figure out what he's gonna do.

They're always worried about it.

Well the feeding of the 5,000 is a scream.

Philip comes to him and says, Jesus, we've been here three days.

You're still talking.

You think I'm bad.

We've been here three days, you're still talking, the people need to go home.

They're starving.

We gotta let them go.

Jesus said, no, no, no, no, I have a better idea.

You uh he said, give them something to eat.

This is hilarious.

Phillips like You know what happens.

They find a lunch.

Then he says they they got one lousy lunch for 5,000 people.

Jesus said, now get them into groups of fifty.

Let's get ready for a picnic.

Jesus, we're going to have a food riot here.

These people are going to, we're creating expectations we cannot meet with one lunch.

They always are so Palm Sunday is a beautiful example of how Jesus talks about random events, how he handles what appear to be random events.

I gotta show you this.

This is going to be encouraging because of something ahead of you that's uncertain.

Luke chapter 19.

We're just going to do a quick quick look at the go to the village ahead of you and notice this.

He said, you're going to find a cult there You will.

I know that.

And I know where you're going to find them.

And it'll be one that no one has ever written.

And untie it and bring it here.

Now this must raise a number of questions.

Horse horse thieves get hung, don't they?

If anyone asks you why you're untying it, say the Lord needs it.

Oh really?

That's good.

And and and they said and and then and it's gonna come.

I remember when I came home From a trip one day and I we had new animals.

Karen was an animal collector.

We had new animals in the lower pasture.

I came in and I said, Karen, we have two Democrats in the lower pasture.

We suddenly had I heard him praying.

It was dark, but I heard him.

I'm like, what are we doing with the two Democrats picked up over the weekend?

She said, you go away on too many more trips, I'll get you two Republicans.

Sounds like Karen, doesn't it?

So uh but you know what I found is the interesting thing about donkeys?

If you grew up in our barn and you look down on those donkeys and I read this and this I true of many I don't know if it's true of all many donkeys if you look in their fur there's a shape of a cross On their back.

You can see it in these two donkeys.

Jake and Brighty have got a cross on their back, which is kind of cool.

That's has nothing to do with anything, but I just think it's Maybe symbolic.

So Jesus has got it all figured out.

I'll I'll tell you where it is, I'll tell you what to say, it'll work out.

Go to Luke 22.

Now we have a different situation.

They gotta find a place for the Passover.

They're like Jesus The crowd, every place is taken.

We need a place to do the Paschal dinner, the supper, the Seder feast.

Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

Jesus spent Peter and John saying, go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.

Right.

Sure.

What do you want us to prepare for it?

Have any place in mind, Jesus?

Yeah.

As you enter the city, you're going to see a man.

Carrying a jar of water.

Okay?

He'll meet you.

Really Follow him to the house that he enters.

The guy with the jar, you go follow him, and then you here's what you I'll give you the script.

You say, the teacher asks, where's a guest room?

He's gonna have one, it'll be available, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples.

He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished.

Make preparations there.

They left.

And found things just as Jesus had told them, so they prepared the Passover.

This is so cool.

Matthew 22 All this related to this last week.

Matthew 22, or 21.

I'm sorry, Matthew 21.

Speaking of Palm Sunday, this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.

Say to daughter Zion, see your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

That was written 500 years before Palm Sunday.

All figured out.

He's gonna come, this is where he's gonna ride.

And Jesus has all the arrangements made.

Do you realize that this Jesus that you serve, this is a great cure for anxiety, better than any pill I know.

Today's events Have been ordained in eternity.

Today's events have been ordained in eternity What does Psalm 139 say?

All the days fashioned for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

I wasn't even conceived yet.

I had never had day one.

And all the days ordained for me were written in God, fashioned for me.

Oh, what does it we say?

This is the day my health has made.

No, wait.

This is the day the headlines have made.

Wait.

This is the day the Democrats have made.

This is the day the Republicans have made.

This is the day my wife has made.

This is the day my boss has.

Nope.

How many times have you said it?

This is the day.

The Lord has made, therefore, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Brad and Sarah and their kids were And Carissa, they were living at our house for a while.

And one morning I came down and I know that that Sarah had taught Carissa and they every morning, they every day they would go, Um they would go, uh, this is the day the Lord has made.

Yay!

That's good.

This day, Carissa had thrown up about ten times.

She was like blah in her mother's lap So together she they went like this.

This is the day the Lord has made.

Some days it's just and I can see no good, I can see no sense in it.

Oh, I've had dark days.

But the point is that it says they found things just as Jesus had told them, and so will you.

It is all prepared, but the thing is, Jesus only unfolds it.

He doesn't, did you notice how he works with the disciples?

He only unfolds a little information at a time.

Some lady here is going Like my husband?

This sounds like my husband.

He's just trying to be Christ-like.

That's why he only gives you a little information at a time.

You want to know how to follow Jesus?

I've taught our OE Ders this.

This is how you do God's will.

Take a step.

Take a step you feel he wants you to take.

Guys, you tell me, take a step back row.

See a step.

See a step.

Well every time you take one, you see one.

Take one, see one.

Take one, see one.

That's how you can do God's will the rest of your life.

Take the step you know He wants you to take.

Don't wait till you got the whole thing.

The disciples just had to take a step and they saw a step.

Take a step, see a step.

There are no random events.

So I like that little gospel song that says, many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds the future.

I don't know who holds my hand.

See, he knows exactly the right time for everything.

It won't be your time.

You see in your notes here, he knows the right time.

There are three times literally he says here, it is not yet my hour.

My hour?

No, it's not time yet.

My hour has not yet come.

No, my hour is not yet come.

No.

He started his first miracle at the wedding in Cana.

No, not yet.

Then, as it gets closer to this final week, there's three references here you can see where he says, the hour has come The hour has come.

The hour has come.

I have a question in your notes.

So am I waiting on his timing?

Or am I just pushing ahead on mine?

One of the hardest parts of the fruit of the Spirit for me is patience.

Like most men in this room, I think.

If he's not doing it, I'm going to do something.

Well, do you realize if you wait for his time it'll be right?

If you do it, it'll be a mess.

Ecclesiastes 3. 11, he makes everything beautiful in its time.

Erwin Lutzer. now retired pastor of Moody Church said the thing God does in you while you're waiting on him is often more important than the thing you're waiting for.

Any of you ever found that out?

Yeah.

The thing he does while you're waiting is probably more important than the thing you're waiting for.

In my Streams in the Desert devotional book, it says, his purpose in waiting is to bring more glory out of it all.

Your desire for the thing you wish is perhaps stronger Then your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled in its arrival.

Well, I hope not.

So um Wait for his timing.

You know, he governs the precise timing of births, deaths.

Nobody thought my baby brother should die when he's six months old.

But then my family might still all be lost.

But for that event.

Nobody in our family thought Karen's work was done.

Nobody in On Eagles Wings thought Karen's work was done.

But all the days ordained for her were written in God's book before one of them came to be.

Cause of death.

Work done.

When God says so.

All the all the the pain times God knows just when it's time for some pain.

He knows just when it's time for some pleasure.

He knows when it's time for a need and then when there's time for a miracle to meet that need.

He's got the timing.

He understands it.

The other thing he knows is he knows exactly where the resources are.

Look at in Matthew 21, he told them, I think we already looked at this, but that yeah go ahead go ahead with that he said um this is this is for the Passover he said I know everything we're gonna need is we know where the room is we don't have to go ahead you already saw the verses you know where the room is you know where the house is just follow the guy with the jug on his shoulder It will be ready when you get there.

Poor Elijah.

You know, the king wants to take him out.

God says you just announced there's going to be a drought, that's not going to be go down well.

Go out, go to this brook, you'll have a stream to drink from.

Yeah, I'm not going to have any food.

Well, yes you will.

Oh, meals on wheels?

No, meals on wings.

Ravens will bring it.

Do you realize there's two miracles there?

Every breakfast and every dinner, the ravens delivered it.

That's a miracle.

Second miracle, the ravens didn't eat it.

Did you ever hear the word rabbinous?

Yeah, that's because the ravens delivered it.

It's kind of funny that these these uh you know vulturous birds are the ones who actually deliver the food.

It was there every time he needed it.

Didn't get he didn't get dinner at breakfast time.

No, he didn't get any ahead.

It's that daily bread thing, I guess.

Um We see the threads.

God sees the tapestry.

Any of you ever been to a symphony?

Have you been there when they've been warming up?

Isn't it beautiful music?

All this chaotic, nothing melodic, and you're like, is this what I paid for?

Is this the great city symphony here?

And then the conductor raises his baton.

And all of that random noise suddenly becomes a symphony.

Right now you may only be hearing the random noise of God's great plan warming up.

But no, nothing random is going on here.

For when he raises his baton, wait till you hear the symphony.

Some of you ladies bake lost art these days.

What a shame.

You bake a cake.

Bring in those ingredients.

I'm not even sure I know what they all are.

Flour and Baking powder and butter and something.

Why don't you eat some of the flour?

It's the same thing.

You just eat the flour and get a mouthful of baking powder and mouthful of butter and All those ingredients, you wouldn't want to eat those.

But where do you taste the cake?

I don't understand all the ingredients.

I just know that God is baking one awesome cake.

So he there's a great challenge to our anxiety that day, and I I hope there's a warning in Palm Sunday.

Jesus is an outside-the-box savior.

They expect him to work in the temple, he works the streets.

They expect him to work with the religious establishment, he defies the religious establishment, calls them all hypocrites.

He's constantly outside the box.

They expect a Messiah who's going to take down Rome, and they have a Savior who's going to die for their sins instead.

He's always working outside our box.

So those who try to keep Jesus in their box will miss the amazing things God is doing.

A lot of church folks miss what Jesus is going to do.

Because they don't realize he's a god of surprises.

Here's the challenge.

Relax.

Knowing you are living God's perfectly timed plan.

Would you relax in his plan?

Or you can fight it.

You can worry about it.

Oh, you can relax.

Here's the third one, it's hijacking.

God, Jesus challenges our hijacking.

I call it hijacking the holy.

Mark chapter 11, verse 15.

He enters the temple courts, drives out the buyers and sellers, overturns the tables, the benches, all these people that are making a business out of God's work.

That would never happen today, I'm sure.

But And he would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

You know what they're doing?

He said, my house is called the house of prayer.

You made it a den of robbers.

They are hijacking the holy.

Jesus says he challenges anyone who hijacks the holy.

Now some people looking through earth-eyes might have simply said, well wait a minute, what's wrong with having church and business together?

You know, there's a little business going on at church and they're getting a little extra fund, you know, by selling the animals for the sacrifice.

Jesus sees an abomination here.

He says, you do not use what's holy for unholy purposes He is passionate about cleansing the house in what belongs to him.

So don't use the holy for unholy purposes.

Do you know how we do that today?

It's possible to use the church, ministry , the work of God To promote yourself.

Oh, you say all the right words.

But We hijack the holy when we take the work of God or the name of God and put his name on something he would have nothing to do with?

And use it for unholy purposes.

But more importantly, where is the temple today?

When's the last time you saw the temple of God?

Last time you looked in the mirror.

Right?

Because we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.

You know the verses.

Don't you know your bodies?

He doesn't live in that building.

No, we need the building anymore.

We're all, this is this is a temple whom you've received from God.

You're not your own.

You are not your own.

You are not your own.

You were bought at a price.

Honor God with your bodies.

Let's look at Romans 6.

13.

This there's a biology to obedience.

There's a biology to following Jesus.

Did you know this?

Do not offer any part of yourself to sin. as an instrument of wickedness.

Don't use any part of your body to sin.

This is the biology, the physiology of sin But rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

Offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

Today we hijack the holy When we use any part of our body to do something unholy, the last time you used God's mouth, well it's not your mouth.

We need to say this is not my body.

This is not my body anymore.

This is his temple bought at a price, a high price So these are not my eyes to look at what I want to look at.

We know that a high percentage of Christian men. are using God's eyes to look at pornography These are not my eyes to look at what I want to look at.

These are not my ears to listen to what I want to listen to.

This is not my mouth to say what I want to say about people or the way I want to say it and to hurt people I love with it.

This is not my mouth.

These are not my hands to touch what I want to touch.

These are not my feet to go where I want to go.

This is not my mind to junk it up with what I want to put in it.

This is not my body.

I hijack the holy.

When this mouth tears somebody down, when this mouth gossips about somebody, when this mouth backstabs, when this mouth lies.

I'm doing what those guys were doing in the temple that day.

I'm defiling the holy.

And that day in Palm Sunday, Jesus challenges.

Hijacking the Holy.

Here's the challenge.

Purge any unholy uses of the Holy Spirit's temple.

Fourth challenge here real quickly.

It 's he challenges our motives.

Our motives.

Look at Matthew 23, right here, while Palm Sunday.

Everything they do talking about the leaders is done for people to see.

I had to stop when I read that one and start writing in my journal.

And say, what am I doing?

For people to see.

They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.

This is kind of, you know, see how religious, how spiritual I am?

They love the place of honor at banquets.

They love the most important seats in the synagogues.

They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, to be called rabbi by others.

Oh yeah, they love all of the attention that they are getting for what God should be getting all the attention for.

So living to impress, that's what they did?

And your notes say I put living to please. is the fourth challenge that Jesus takes us to.

Living to please other people.

How much of what I do is for show?

Here's a scary verse.

John 12, 42.

Look at this.

And 43.

This has all taken place this same week.

At the same time, many even among the leaders, among the leaders, actually did believe in Jesus But because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.

Next verse.

For they loved human praise more than the praise of God Paul said, if I seek to please men, then I am not the servant of Christ.

This was a love issue.

They simply would rather do what made people happy.

I'm a firstborn.

Any first points here?

The rest of you are otherwise normal.

You know, we've learned to be very good pleasers.

But people pleasing is bondage.

Because you've got to play to every audience, and as Jesus knew, the cheers of the crowd would be the jeers in a few days.

And people pleasing is costly.

Look at what they did to Jesus, Mark 15, 15.

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them.

The power of pleasing people.

Luke 23, 23.

But with the loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.

How many times in my life have their shouts prevailed?

And have the voices of humans pressuring, pushing , Threatening, scaring, whatever, prevailed over the voice of God.

Jesus challenges people pleasing on that day.

It is our motives that God will judge.

You say, well, I got a pretty good spiritual resume when I see Jesus.

Well look what he's going to judge.

Proverbs 16, 2 says this.

All a person's ways, isn't this true, seem pure to them.

But motives.

But motives.

But motives are weighed by the Lord And look what happens when Jesus comes back, 1 Corinthians 4, 5.

Judge nothing.

You have no idea.

Whether somebody's doing the right thing or not.

Wait for the appointed time.

Wait till the Lord comes.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose.

Read the those words with me.

Motives of the heart.

At that time each will receive their praise from God.

If your motives stand up, you get praise from God.

If not, he's not impressed.

It isn't what we do.

It's why we do what we do.

Challenge is this.

Live your day to please an audience of one.

He was the accomplished concert pianist by the age of 21.

Amazing young prodigy.

This was his first major concert.

His manager was backstage.

He played a flawless concert.

The audience was roaring.

And at the end.

Standing ovation in the seats on the main floor, mezzanine, balcony, on their feet The manager looks out there and says, kid, they love you.

Get back out there.

He said, I'm not going out.

He said, you gotta go 50.

Listen to this.

He said, everybody loves you.

Look, everybody's standing.

Everybody's cheering.

He said, not everybody.

What are you talking about?

Look again.

Manger peered out between the curtain.

He said, well, there's some old geezer up in the balcony sitting there.

Yeah, he's not standing.

That's the only one.

He said, he's my teacher.

It didn't matter to him if the whole audience loved what he did. if his teacher wasn't standing and applauding.

The day that the whole city of Jerusalem hated Stephen.

Stoned him to death.

The picture is that he looked up and he saw Jesus and up, and it says Jesus was standing.

Wasn't he sitting at the Father's right hand?

I'd like to think that while the whole city hated him, Jesus was giving Stephen a standing ovation.

And that's all Stephen needed to know.

Who you pleasing?

That matters a lot to Jesus.

He showed up on Palm Sunday.

Most important one for last.

This is quick, but it's it's I've saved the best for last.

His last challenge on Palm Sunday is to our allegiance.

You know what the people wanted that day?

They wanted a king on their terms.

And so do we.

Yeah, oh they wanted Jesus to hey, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Uh please save us.

The Messiah has come.

I have a favorite columnist in a Christian magazine.

She writes very creatively.

And she told about a conversation she had with her granddaughter.

And she actually had a granddaughter over.

She was actually doing some baking with her, and they had a three-year-old cousin along.

And she overheard this little conversation between them The three-year-old little boy, he said, why did Jesus have boo-boos on his knees?

Van Darter said, was she because they hated him.

Why?

She said, because they all wanted to be boss of themselves.

But God is king Boy, we can take turns.

She said, but he's the big king, and he made boys out of dirt and girls out of ribs.

But he's the How about we take turns being boss?

You can write this down.

We want a king who will save us from our situation.

He is the king who wants to save us from our sin.

They wanted to be safe from their situation.

Jesus, please make me well.

Jesus, please give us money.

Please do please fix my situation.

Jesus said, I want to fix your sin We want a king who will save us from our problems.

He is the king who wants to save us from our pride.

Totally different agenda.

We want a king on our terms, just like they did.

We want a king who will move our mountain.

Jesus, you said we had a faith to move mountains.

Our mountain is not moving.

He is the king who often wants to give us strength to climb the mountain, not move it.

We want a king who will fix him.

Fix that fix that husband of mine.

Fix that boy of mine.

Fix that boss of mine We want a king who will fix him or fix her.

Guess what?

He's the king who wants to fix us.

Stop trying to get him to fix them.

How many of you remember karate kid?

Yeah?

I saw your hand up.

Do what tell me.

Do do do four four words.

We all we saw it, yeah.

Wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off.

Okay.

Good.

I'm not coordinated, so I can't, whatever.

I get So so this uh this uh young boy uh is going to uh wants to learn karate, so he goes to Mr.

Miyagi.

Mr.

Miyagi is a is a master of karate and um and so uh Daniel Larusso is going to uh be trained.

He's ready to start to uh kick and fight and punch, and Mr.

Miyagi says, well, what I'd like you to do is wax my antique cars.

Well, okay if I yeah fine okay and you say can you do this?

He said you know so you do right hand left hand breathe in breathe out okay so he tells him how to do the car so Now here's what he gives to them.

You can walk along the left side of the road or the right side of the road, remember?

Or you can walk down the middle of the road, squish like grape.

You can say karate yes or karate no.

You say karate maybe, squish like grape.

I say you do.

Wax the carbs.

Well then Miyagi moves on.

He's like, he gets done with that, and then he wants him to sand his desk.

That's nice.

Nothing about karate.

Then he wants him to paint his fence.

Then he wants him to paint his house Nothing about karate!

And he's about ready to quit.

And Mr.

Miyagi says, let's go through.

Wax, sand , paint.

And suddenly Daniel realizes he has been learning karate all the time And he has been through this process which seems to make no sense at all.

And he wakes up to find that this crazy process has fulfilled the very dream he had.

Many ways that's our Jesus.

I don't understand the process.

Why do we have to go through this?

He says, because this is how I make you into a legacy life.

Here's the challenge. to surrender because I suspect because God led me to this someone has come here this weekend And there's a part of your life where you've got Jesus being king on your terms and he's not meeting your terms.

Who wins this one?

Who's the king?

Surrender anew to Jesus, being king on his terms, not yours.

I promised you an accelerant.

And we found a life accelerant from the day at the parade.

And it is to live authentically.

Real worship.

Real purity, a body that is used for only holy purposes Real trust that says, Lord, I don't understand your time.

I'm worried about where this is going, but I trust your plan.

I trust you've got this figured out.

I trust your timing.

Real motives.

And real allegiance.

All of this is Jesus seeing things through eternity eyes, what's going to make matter, not just now, but forever.

And that's what leads to a legacy life that will outlast you Tomorrow morning we are going to look at one you will never guess, a second mountain peak.

Very much apart our times.

And with a tremendous, tremendous life accelerant in it.

I'm excited about tomorrow morning.

And as we work our way through the week, the most important week in the history of the planet.

Expect to see things you've never seen from these mountain peaks.

It's going to be a fascinating journey with Jesus through the last week zero of his life.

Let's pray.

Lord, out of this amazing list of challenges hidden in the events of Palm Sunday.

It's about more than a man on a donkey and people, those the those little palm branches the kids all bring home from Sunday school on Palm Sunday.

It's about you challenging everything around you.

Because you thought that was important to do when you had one week left.

And today, knowing our lives, you've come to challenge us with some of that.

May we hear your voice and obey you.

And if we've if we've made the mistake of the Palm Sunday crowds. . .

And we've got a part of our life where we we want you to meet our terms.

Would you show us that And may we bow down tonight before this night is over and say, Lord, forgive me for hijacking your lordship of my life.

You'll be king on your terms.

Thank you, Lord, for the mirror of your word in Jesus' name.

Amen.