Palm Sunday - “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, and He Ain't Never Doing What the World Thinks He Should Do Dad Gummit”

Matthew 21:1-11

John 12:18-19

How to not get lost in the sauce of whatever you want God to be that he's not being.

1 - What do you need saved from today? In this story they thought it was Rome, until Jesus made it about greed in the temple. They thought it was an oppressive government until Jesus made it about sacrilegious conduct. They thought he was the second coming of a king on a warhorse with a hammer and an army, until he showed up on a donkey with a bunch of teenage boys.. Your expectations will oftentimes be very different from God’s reality, and it is done to expose the depths of lordship and faith in areas God wants us to go past the surface in.

2 - If you want to celebrate him in the streets but not let him cleanse your spirit you will be in for a rude awakening. Jesus allowed the palm branches to be waved and then walked directly into the temple and cleansed it of anything but the worship it was intended for. External behaviours and performance will never exempt you from internal development of the surrendered and sanctified soul. Celebration is not the same as surrender, and waving a palm branch is not the same as carrying a cross. You can celebrate him publicly while still resisting him privately.

3 - The tipping point of it all… the secret of Palm Sunday that turns from celebration to the slaying of our Savior. A God who has no favorites anymore. Jesus finishes off his final week before crucifixion making space and a place for those who historically had no space, or place in the kingdom of God. We love a Savior who includes us—we struggle with a Savior who includes ‘them’. Jesus will offend your expectations, by including people you wouldn’t… because Jesus will cross lines that religion tries to draw.