APR 9 2017

Sea Change Church · Harry Wilson · April 9, 2017
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I'm Harry. I've already been introduced and I'm off the baby bottle today. Praise the Lord. And I'm the youth pastor here on staff and I'm so just blessed and thankful to get to do this job. And today is Palm Sunday and that's just it's an exciting Sunday and an honor for me to get to speak to you on this Sunday. And so I've taught a little to my to the middle school kids about Palm Sunday and it's always fun and interesting to hear exactly what they remember.

And so as a youth pastor, I feel like it's my duty to just share with you guys a little bit about what goes on with the kids. Since you guys aren't always up in the in the youth room, you probably hear them, though. But and so we're going to play a clip talking about what what they remembered about Palm Sunday. So Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and all the people put down palms for him so he could walk down like the aisle.

And then like the Jews didn't recognize him. And Jesus was like, blah, blah, blah. OK, so what happened is Jesus was he was walked. He wanted to go to Jerusalem. But he he said to two disciples or disciples, he was like, go and get me a colt or a donkey, whatever. And so he was like, I need one. That's not it's never been written. And then they're like, oh, cool. What do we say? If they're like, what?

You just you just steal my donkey? No, say the master needs him or something like that. And so basically he took they took their donkey and they said what he said. And then he rode on the donkey to Jerusalem and people cheered and praised and they put their coats down. And then they like walked and then he like walked over them and they put palms down, too.

And they were like, yeah, praise him. And his disciples jumped with enthusiasm. Yeah, that's all I remember. So we celebrate Palm Sunday to prepare ourselves for Easter, which is a celebration of God's sacrifice for us. So cool. So fun. We have some of that. I got my posse front row here for me. So when I get nervous, I just I can look at them.

And I love what the last last thing that was said and that this is a time where we're preparing our hearts to even understand, to fathom what Jesus did for us on the cross. We're just a time where we can rest in this holy week. And so we can begin to understand the depth of love that God went to for us on the cross. And so today's message is titled Carpool to the Capitol.

You'll see it in your notes. And it's talking about we're talking about this Palm Sunday message, Jesus writing into Jerusalem. But ultimately, his destination is the cross. And all of us are on our own carpool to the Capitol with Christ in a way. If we call like the first corner that we talk about is our heart. And I'm calling that the capital of our bodies.

It's where Jesus and the Holy Spirit is called to reside in us. And we're called to protect it. And so we're on this journey with Christ carpooling to the Capitol. And the goal is always to affect and change our hearts and the hearts of others. And so to do that, to talk about that, we're going to look at this scripture closely. Because we're going to need a couple things for this journey.

So I'm going to read again 30 through 34. It says, As many of you know, I've been speaking. And you probably know because every time I get up here to speak, I talk about it. I'm getting married soon. And probably about two months, right? It's my fiance sitting front row. Yeah, that's exciting. And one thing that couples who are getting married or engaged should probably talk about is whether or not you both want kids.

That's a conversation that should probably happen before you commit to each other forever. And so we've talked about it and we both want kids. So if everything goes according to plan or according to my plan about 100 years from now, we'll have kids. And we'll be like Abraham. Don't knock it. We'll be like Abraham and Sarah. Like they did it. We can do it too.

And what I'm looking forward to about having kids is getting to use this phrase, a phrase that was used on so many of us growing up, myself included, when we would just whine and cry and ask, like, I'm 10 years old. I should be able to go to bed at 9. Why does my older sister go to bed at, like, I have to go to bed at 8. She goes to bed at 9. What the heck?

And we always got this response, this because I said so response. That that's the way it is. And it was so, I hated that growing up. It was so frustrating for the answer to always just be, well, because I said so. I'm, you know, I'm in charge here. And I'm excited to return the favor when I become a parent. Because there's no one in my life currently that I can say that to.

That won't go well with my fiance or my boss. So there's not too many people I can say that to. But in our relationship, in our relationship with God, sometimes we receive that answer, that because I said so answer. When we cry out to God and we ask him why things are the way they are. Or he brings us into a certain calling. And we just want to ask why.

We just want to know more. And sometimes his response is simply, because I said so. And is a because I said so from Jesus good enough for you today? Is a because I said so from Jesus good enough for you today? Can we go forward into our calling simply because the Lord needs it? And this is exactly what Jesus is doing as well. Jesus is on his way to the cross.

And one, because he loves us. He has an absolute love for us. And also because it's the commission on his life. It's because God said so. And only once does he ask the Lord to take this cup from him. To change his circumstance. And he continues to the cross. And I can't tell you how many times I've asked God to change my circumstance. Multiple times.

It's as many times, more than I've changed my major in college. Like all the time. You're always asking God, could you just change what's happening? But can we go forward simply because God said so? So where is God calling you today? And we can't be surprised if it's uncomfortable. If it's, if it's, yeah, if it's uncomfortable. And sometimes it's going to be that way.

But if we go forward because God said so, we're going to find just unexpected blessing. Unexpected grace. So can we lean into just going forward? And we have to understand this idea in itself is countercultural. Because what's the world want to tell us? That we're in charge. That we, that we should be running our own life. That no one should get to tell you what to do.

It's a radical idea to believe that there's a God in heaven that's in charge. And we're simply supposed to obey him because he said so. That's a radical idea. And it's countercultural. So when God calls us to uncomfortable places, can we continue forward simply because he said so? And so I'm calling this first thing that we need on our carpool to the Capitol as a because I said so faith.

C.S. Lewis has a fun quote about this kind of idea about Christianity not being comfortable and being controversial. And he says, I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity. Do we want comfort or do we want kingdom currency in our life?

Can we go forward because God said so? The next point you'll see is elastic expectations. And we're going to read 37 through 40. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. This same scene is described the emotion that's happening in this scene. This is a powerful scene. As Jesus is riding into Jerusalem, you have his disciples praising him as the king that he is.

And there's so much emotion welling up in this scene. And in the gospel of Matthew, he uses a Greek word, a word pronounced seo. And this word has to do with shaking or stirring. And this same word is also used when Jesus dies. And it talks about the whole earth shaking. It's where we get the root word for seismic, our English word, seismic. And this is all only to mention to drive home the power and impact of this scene, the power that's happening, that if they weren't crying out, the stones would be.

This is a powerful Sunday. Yet, what a difference a week makes. Because just a week later, large Jewish crowds would not be. I was told I was supposed to climb the pulpit more like Adam. Large Jewish crowds. Large Jewish crowds would not be shouting, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They would be shouting, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him.

What a difference a week makes. And why is that? It's because their expectations of the king that they so desperately wanted Jesus to be, he ended up not meeting those expectations. And sometimes for us, we have our little Jesus mold and we give Jesus a lane. And if he would just stay in his lane, then we're going to get along just fine. But often that's not how it works.

Because he is called to mold us, not the other way around. So what a difference a week makes. Their Christ following was overshadowed by their politics. And I have to say, there's a fine line between following Christ and forsaking him. There's a fine line, a razor thin line between following Christ and forsaking him. And we see that again and again in the Bible.

Another example would be Peter. Peter was one of the first disciples to actively call out Jesus, to name Jesus as the living son of God present with them on earth. He was also one of the only disciples to walk on water with Jesus. Yet, he was one of the first disciples to deny him, not once, but three times. There's a razor thin line. And are we walking a spiritual tightrope when we're following Jesus?

And so the question is, is where are your razor thin lines? What has to go wrong for you to not anymore want to follow Jesus? It could be that marriage that you have just been longing for and it hasn't happened. It could be maybe having children, that career, whatever that you've put. And this is that idol, that thing that has to come true. It's part of my calling.

I know this is going to happen. And if it doesn't happen, are you walking a tightrope? So when God doesn't meet your expectations, what's your reaction going to be? Our expectations must be flexible if we're going to have the vision necessary to see what God is doing in our life. We have to have flexible expectations. And we see that in this story, that's what the Jewish people missed, is they did not have the vision.

Their expectations were not flexible. They had a rigid mold for what they wanted their king to look like. And so when a king came to them, they missed it. So can we see what God is doing in our life based on elastic expectations? And can we go forward into it? Why? Because he said so. Indy Wright has a cool quote about this as well. I love quoting the big guys, the big guns.

I quote Adam too. Always securing my job. N.T. Wright says this. He says, forget happiness. You are called to a throne. How will you prepare for it? We're called to a throne. And is it possible that our expectations are too small for the kingdom? Is it possible our expectations, the things we desire for God to put on in our lives are actually too small?

The Jewish people wanted a king that was much smaller than the king they got. And they missed him. Moving on. You'll see a point three in your notes. And we're going to skip it because I said so. It didn't fit the... I don't have to tell you why. I'm just kidding. It didn't fit where I wanted to go today. And so we're going to move on to point four.

And so the fourth thing that we're going to need is a transfer of power. A transfer of power. And so we're going to read 41 through 44, the rest of this passage. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. The Jewish people desperately wanted a transfer of power. Desperately. It was built in to their very cultural identity that they wanted restoration with God and a restoration for Israel.

For Israel to take its place as the leader of the world. Liberation from Rome. And they craved a transfer of power. But it wasn't the kind that came that they expected. A different transfer of power took place. And it started on Palm Sunday. And it was finished on the cross. And this transfer of power and this ride into Jerusalem reminds me of an American tradition that we have and that we've had since the 1800s.

And that is every inauguration day, the president and the president-elect, they share a literal carpool to the capital. They share a ride and carpool into Washington, D.C. And this is supposed to symbolize a peaceful transfer of power. It's supposed, and it's an awkward car ride I would imagine. But it's supposed to symbolize a peaceful transfer of power.

And there's a, there's the major, the largest power shift ever to take place since the fall of mankind is where Jesus is currently riding to. It's the largest power shift to ever take place. But unlike the peaceful transfer of power that we view at inauguration day, death's not going to go out without a fight. And Jesus takes the full force of it on our behalf.

It's hardly peaceful. And so in us, after this great transfer of power that takes place because death and sin rule the world, and Jesus comes to defeat death on our behalf and shift the power in the world. And now, as followers of Christ, we have the ability to do the same thing in our life, to shift the power from sin and death and start to walk in life with Christ.

We need to power shift in our life. But that's not peaceful either. It's not a peaceful change. The Bible talks about us taking a warm bubble bath and just gently scrubbing the sin away, and it'll go away. No, that's not what it says. It talks about we have to die to self in order to be alive in Christ. Death to self is not a peaceful transfer of power, but it's where we're called.

And when we die to self, we start to walk in a resurrected life. But death to self is not peaceful, and it's hard for us to make that transition. And this idea reminds me, you guys have seen movies, it reminds me of a transition a werewolf makes to a man. That's an ugly, violent transition, right? You've seen the movies where these are werewolf morphs.

That's how a werewolf moves. He morphs back into a man. And it's an ugly transition. But it's a battle. Ultimately, why bring that up? It's this struggle between our sin nature and our salvation nature. We're born into a sin nature. We already have that. But as soon as we begin to walk with Christ, to deny ourself, put death to self, then we start to walk into a salvation nature.

And so sometimes we hear these two contradicting voices, one from our sin nature, one from our salvation nature. And often the voice that is going to be the loudest is the one that we're feeding. And our sin nature is being fed every single day. It being fed without us doing too much. And so we have to actively be feeding our salvation nature. Actively feeding.

That means spending time in the Word of God, spending time in prayer, spending time in fellowship. With one another. Serving one another. So we can transfer the power, shift the power from our sin nature to our salvation nature. So do you need a power shift in your life? Where do you need to shift the power from your sin nature to your salvation nature?

Where is there an imbalance of power in your life? And what does that look like for you? For me, years ago, it looked like putting God from a back burner to the forefront of my life. And so that changed everything. That shift the power in my life. It ended relationships. It ended a job. It changed everything. And it could be something as big as that or something as small as perhaps social media has too much power in your life.

My fiance and I have been talking about that recently. Just how do we balance? We felt like social media has such a negative effect and has too much power. There could be... Where does there need to be a power shift for you in your life? Can we go forward with the power shift simply because God said so? Because that's what he's calling us into. And then sticking with our werewolf analogy, we all put things in front of God where we need to shift the power from.

And we'll all call those our moons. We make these moons and we're... Oh! We're just howling at our moons. We're howling at them and we're putting them at the front... In front of God. But if we begin to shift the power to our salvation nature, then the sun will come up. We'll begin to pick the werewolf hairs off our back. And we'll step in to be the men and women that God created us to be.

So what moons are you howling at? Where do you need to shift the power in your life? Jesus' journey on Palm Sunday to the Capitol and ultimately to the cross represents that huge power shift. But on his way, he faces a metaphorical crossroads where he can stop. He comes in and he's worshipped as the king that he is. Finally, some people are recognizing him as king on earth and he's worshipped as the king that he is.

And he can stop and be king. He has every ability to stop and be king. Or he can continue to the cross. And that temptation to stop and be king is the original temptation in the desert that he faced with the enemy. So we can't be surprised is when we're tempted on our journey, on our carpool to the Capitol with Christ. We can't be surprised when the enemy tempts us according to our nature.

Because he does it with Jesus. It's in Jesus' very nature to be king. That's who God created him to be. Jesus is king. That's in his very being. That's his nature. Yet he continues to the cross because it was the key part of God's salvation, reconciliation plan with his people. Because God said so. And so it boils down to this for us today. This key point.

And this is what it's about being a Christian. Are we willing to be crucified with Christ? Or do we want to be king over our lives? Are we willing to be crucified with Christ? Or do we want to be king over our lives? And if we can be crucified with Christ. And it's a daily battle every morning to be able to put our sin nature on the cross. And to begin to walk into our salvation nature.

It's a daily battle. But if we do that, then we begin to see that kingdom currency. That blessings from heaven that come into our lives. Are we willing to make that power shift? Luke 9 24 says this. And we'll end here. It says, For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will save it. Are you willing to lose your life for Jesus so we can step into a new resurrected salvation life that starts today?

We don't have to wait to get to heaven. We walk into salvation right now as we make that decision. And I love what one of the people who were baptized said. That they just want to obey the call to be baptized. And can we just obey the call to walk with Christ. To step into life today. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.