Hail to the King

Intro: Today is Palm Sunday, Today is the day we remember, the day that we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as he made His way to the cross. We call it palm Sunday because they waved palm branches as they greeted Him making His entrance. In that time the palm branch represented victory and triumph. And while those that celebrated Him that day had no idea what the week held in store.,they were celebrating Him because of what He had represented in their lives over the past few years, and the victory they believed Him to be bringing. His timely entry into our world came during a season where hopelessness was at an all time high

what in the world does hosanna mean? It means save us now, and not did they need saved.

Colton mentioned our king rode into town on a donkey and flipped their world upside down, here’s what’s was going on

A 1000 years prior to this time the prophet Samuel felt as though the people of God were rejecting him, but God assumed him this was not the case by saying they have not rejected you but me.

Over the next 500 years the Kingdom of Israel split into half, was corrupted and eventually overtaken. By the time Jesus showed up on the scene they had been under the rule of foreign and pagan government for over 500 years…

So Jesus comes… He comes bringing food… in a place of starvation

He comes performing Healing… where there is no medicine

He comes… Opposing not only the leadership of Rome, but also the religious leaders that had held them captive to burdensome laws and regulations

As he entered the city, they were cheering for Him to be there next King

Little did they know… they were welcoming the King of the world

Let’s look at the text this morning…

John 12:12–15 “On the next day, when the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, indeed, the King of Israel!” Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “do not Fear, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.””

Let’s Pray

Before we dive in today could we just offer our own Hosanna to God this morning? Hosanna is what the shouted as they welcomed Jesus that day and remember the word Hosanna simply means save us now. There were quoting a verse from the Psalms so could we read these three verses together?

Psalm 118:24–26 “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let’s rejoice and be glad in it. Please, O Lord, do save us; Please, O Lord, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.”

BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!

500 years prior to Jesus’ entry int the city that day the book of Zechariah would predict His coming saying, rejoice and shout for your righteous and humble king comes to you riding on a donkey.

He would enter Jerusalem that day, in the same way he entered the world. Meek, lowly, and being praised by the least of these.

This morning we want to recognize what it means that he came to us 2000 years ago, and what means that He still comes to us today.

He came and He comes… To Brings Hope

· We introduced today’s sermon describing the hopelessness that He broke through 2000 years ago. Today Jesus comes to us bringing the hope of salvation and eternal life in an instant gratification society that promises happiness through worldly pleasures.

It has been said that a person can live about 40 days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.

The primary cause for the painfully real suicide rates we see continuing to rise today is that people come to a place where they can no longer see hope. If you are here today you can be sure that your hope is in something. You might say you feel hopeless, but hopelessness is simply a result of us placing our hope in something that cannot deliver on its promise. If anything is outside of Christ, it is a false hope. Money will fail, relationships come and go, and success will eventually terminate.

Because in a typical church setting we could suppose that most if not all that are present would claim a hope in Christ, why is hopelessness still something that we struggle with? The answer is that Christianity is an instead of life, not an add on life… Did you get that… repeat. I’m building here a little off of Pastor Tom’s comment last week on the disciple Peter moving from a fisherman who sometimes thought about God into a passionate disciple for Jesus Christ who sometimes thought about fishing. He then posed questions such as “Are you a teacher, engineer, manager who sometimes thinks about God, or are you a passionate disciple who sometimes thinks about teaching, engineering, managing?” Too many of us want to add Christ to our life, as we remain preoccupied with the things of the world. We are not given this as an option in scripture, instead we are to be preoccupied, currently occupied, and post occupied with the Hope of Christ. Anything less than this will cause duplicity which the book of James says leads to instability, which is the source of so much or our anxiety, stress, and depression. Our hope must be in Christ alone. When our hope is invested fully in him, the king of glory will bring hope and stability that cannot be shaken.

He came and he comes…To Removes Fear

Fear is a lie about tomorrow, whispered to us today. REPEAT… Fear is putting your belief in something bad that may never happen. Did you catch that? Fear is a belief system. If your belief system is built around fear, you belief system is built around something other than the love of God. Let me back this up biblically for you this morning.

1 John 4:18 tells us that18There is NO FEAR (everyone say no fear) NO FEAR in love; but perfect love casts out fear… The perfect love that is the very nature of God removes fear from our life. If fear remains we have not allowed God’s love to be perfected in our life. Furthermore, 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear. If we continue to have fear, which isn’t just about ghost or goblins or the bogeyman hiding in your closet… but instead most of our fears as adults come from a fear of the unknown, a fear of failure, or a fear of lacking provisions. If these ideas remain in our life, we must understand that these emotions and struggles are a gift from the devil, did you get that? God does not give a spirit of fear, so if you possess such a spirit it can only come from the evil one. Your fear and anxiety can be cured today by Submitting to God and resisting the devil. Then we must ask God to fill us with the perfect love of His son Jesus. We are not to fight our battles today out of a hate for enemy but instead out of a deep and perfect love for God and our fellow man.

There’s a song that we sing that says I will speak to my fear, and I will preach to my doubt, and I get the premises but let me tell you how i think we need to deal with our fears and our doubts. I believe when fear sends a text, I think it’s best to block her. I believe when doubt posts a comment I’ll unfriend him.

Let me make a plug again for praying out loud, whether you’re in a room by yourself or at a place like this altar. Even if it’s just a whisper to move your lips and let the words proceed from your mouth… Practical application on prayer and your thought life here… I believe the enemy can hear and see everything I do, and that you do? Are you with me this morning? Do you believe there is an enemy of our soul? That’s targeting you? If you don’t, you have to keep reading the Bible because it’s very clear that satan is the enemy of our soul. I believe the enemy can share thoughts with you, but I do not believe that enemy can hear your thoughts or read your mind, he is limited, he is not God. So when temptation comes your way, when a thought enters that should not, you still have control of the situation. I believe that God hears the quiet prays that I pray, but i want the enemy of my soul to hear them as well because I want to him to know where belief system lies, I don’t want him to think for a minute that he’s winning. When he offers up a thought to me that should not be there, I want him to immediately know that my response it to call out to the name above all names, that makes demons tremble when it’s spoken, the name of Jesus. I want him to know without question who I serve, who I praise, and where my trust is.

Early 20th century Wesleyan pastor Samuel Chadwick had this to say about the enemy. “Satan dreads nothing… but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” If we believe the enemy to be real and we are tired of him messing with our stuff, we need to be sure that there’s no doubt that the enemy of our soul knows when we are praying to the God who created him and has authority over him.

Ultimately our fear remains because we haven’t truly submitted to the authority of this king who entered Jerusalem 2000 years ago riding on a donkey. Peace is the antithesis of fear. Theologian Thomas Merton said that peace comes from two fundamental places: Submission to God’s will and perfect confidence in Him. The peace that comes from knowing Christ casts out the fears that are imposed upon us by the darkness of evil and the corruption of man.

We don’t know or speak much of kings and kingdoms today. But the king was the authority, the first and last word on the matter. We don’t like to speak much of authority in general today, because we have traded submission for a spirit of rebellion that says I will do things my way. But you can be sure of this today, you are submitting to someone or something. When we submit to the king that is Jesus we find peace… when we rebel against God or the authorities He has put in place, we have submitted to the prince of darkness, and the control that we so desperately hold onto in our lives, keeps us living with fear, anxiety, and discouragement that were all to be swallowed up by a peace that is beyond comprehension. He came and He comes to remove fear, but fear can only be removed when we surrender to His authority and control.

Because He came, He is now… Worthy of Glory

Let’s look at Luke 19:37–40 “And as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “Blessed is the King, the one who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And yet some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!” Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!””

Rocks crying out – What on earth did Jesus mean when He was talking about crying rocks? Re-read verse…And yet some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!” Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!””

God does not need our praise. The rocks, the trees, the mountains can cry out to him. But if I’m allowed to say this today, God craves your praise. The very reason that He created you was to bring glory to Him, and in the process to pour out blessing, and love, and mercy upon you. He loves you with an unending love, and when you have fallen, when you have failed, when you don’t see hope anywhere in sight. The King of Glory will ride in humble and lowly on a donkey ready to give you His everything so that you can be everything in Him.

He says in Matthew 25:34 that those who have submitted to King Jesus will inherit the kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of time.

Receive your king today, and be received into an inheritance in the Kingdom of God that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world… We want to be part of that kingdom because…

His kingdom has no end

In the prophetic chapter of Daniel 7

Daniel had a vision of 4 beasts rising up

Lion with wings like an eagle, Bear, Leopard, finally one not named but just described dreadful, terrifying, and extremely strong, and Daniel said

Daniel 7:9–12 ““I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; (In the original language the term used for ancient of days was understood to mean “the God who existed before time became). His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. “A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were serving Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court convened, And the books were opened. Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was killed, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.” (beasts equal demonic creatures of sorts)

Daniel 7:13–14 ““I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man (that’s Jesus) was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. “And to Him (that’s Jesus) was given dominion, Honor, and a kingdom, So that all the peoples, (this is us) so that all peoples, nations, and populations of all languages Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”

Church today, you want to be part of His kingdom, that kingdom that is everlasting, the kingdom which will not pass away, the kingdom that cannot be destroyed. These earthly bodies will have an end, but nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

RESPONSE: (Invite Team)

So what move will we make today?

Many of us can’t see Him as king because our attitude about submitting to authority is not what it should be. Some of us have even subtly made ourselves queens or kings by saying we are ok with God, without the church, without each other. The person who believes that they can do everything alone, will soon find themselves all alone. Submitting to Jesus as king means we don’t just get Him but we get everyone else who calls Him king as well. The older and hopefully somewhat wiser i get, I really want to be around all of you. I can’t do it on my own, I want to do life together with all those who are called by His name.

THIS MORNING WE SAY HAIL TO THE KING

STAND THIS MORNING

Whole team on stage turn… to be clear you aren’t saying anything to me, just close your eyes with me this morning, and picture the king of glory, One day we will all stand and bow together before Him, but if we won’t bow before Him and give Him praise today, we won’t be able to do it in eternity. The Bible tells us one day that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that’s because when we see Him in all of His glory we won’t be able to resist doing so because we will be overwhelmed by His presence. But I can say with great certainty, there will be a distinction between those who did it here on earth willingly bowing of their own free will. All Hail King Jesus (REPEAT)

He will bring hope to the hopeless

He will bring peace and security to replace and cast out fear.

He will bring blessing to those who bring glory to Him.

Receive your king today and find hope…. Find salvation from your sins

Receive your king and find the peace that so many have found, but so many more so desperately seek

Receive your king today and receive the blessing of God that He pours out on those who bring glory to His name.

Let’s sing this song together.

All the saints and angels, they bow before Your throne All the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and sing You are worthy of it all You are worthy of it all, Jesus For from You are all things And to You are all things You deserve the glory

Come this morning to the altar, bow before His throne, cast your crowns before the Lamb of God and suepr88

the king of kings. Turn over control, fully surrender that thing that you are holding on to that is holding you back from being all that He has called you to be.

Before prayer pastor Tom healing, my mom for chara and kids

Prayer (During song let it rise), Let your praise rise to the king today, He deserves the glory…

Post response: CELEBRATE foundations (free meal for the whole family on Wednesdays during our spring foundations) sign up, goal for kids at easter

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