Beyond Palm Branches: Worship With a Ready Heart

They're waving these palm branches and celebrating who they want Jesus to be, not who he actually is. The cross hadn't happened yet, and they had these grand expectations of what a savior would look like, and Jesus was absolutely not what they expected. The Jesus that they saw rode into town on a donkey, not a war horse. He came to bring peace, not to conquer a city like they were hoping for. They were looking for a king to take over and and to show everybody who was boss, but that's not what Jesus did. Everything that he did was so intentional, and it was so peaceful and purposeful, but it wasn't what they were hoping for. [01:00:10] (48 seconds)  #NotWhatWeExpected

The trouble is, and and this was even something that God really impressed on me just a few minutes ago, when people look at the outside appearance, right, this is something that that Samuel spoke even when he was choosing David as king, but god looks at the heart. And all of these people had the outward appearance of praise. These people were praising god with their lips. They're praising Jesus with their palm branches and their cloaks, and they're out there in the streets, and they're loud, and they're proud, but they're missing it in their hearts. They are not understanding what's really happening here. They're celebrating, but they are so confused. [00:59:25] (44 seconds)  #HeartOverAppearance

They start shouting, hosanna, which means save us now. But then by Friday, many of those same voices were shouting, crucify him over the same man. And palm branches are interesting. That was not a a pretend choice. It wasn't just accidental that they picked up what they had nearby. Palm branches were a symbol of Jewish nationalism and victory, and they wanted to encourage this victory from Jesus who was riding in and saying, you've got this. Go take the city by storm. And he was gonna be victorious, and he knew how to bring freedom from their enemies and from their spiritual brokenness, but he knew that the real victory was about a week away. [01:01:43] (49 seconds)  #FickleCrowd

The crowd lays down their cloaks, and they they do this as, an act of honor and submission, and it's symbolic of them saying, here we are. We place ourselves under your authority. But in laying down their cloaks, they didn't also lay down their expectations. And often, we get caught in that same cycle again where we are saying, god, you have authority over this situation. Jesus, you can do it. You I give it to you, but then we pick it right back up again. Then we take complete control over it all over again because we know best. Right? We know what we're doing here. [01:02:32] (41 seconds)  #LayDownExpectations

Both of these parables and really so much of of these chapters in Matthew taught in Jesus' last days teaches us that the Jesus way is about being ready all the time, for Jesus to come back, for us to live a life that glorifies him, because not everyone who looks prepared or acts the part actually is. This this part of scripture and so much of it when Jesus is talking, he's just impressing on us so much that we have to live every single day on earth as if it matters because it does. We don't have any idea when our last day will be, and and Jesus spent so much time emphasizing this in his last final moments that it must be important. Right? [01:13:27] (51 seconds)  #EveryDayMatters

But living the Jesus way challenges us to use everything that we've been given to us for something more. The Jesus way is about being faithful. All the good things that we have in our life were given to us by God, and they're just trusted to us. They don't actually belong to us. They are good gifts that were given to us by him. And this parable is not just about money. It's not just about the change in your pocket. This isn't give more money. I mean, you can, like, feel free. Do what you want with that. But, it's about time. It's about where you spend your time. It's about what you do with the talents that you've been given, the things that God has entrusted you with. It's about the impact you make on your family and the people who know you most. [01:17:33] (50 seconds)  #FaithfulStewardship

And I think sometimes we do the same thing. We have this perception of who we want Jesus to be right there in front of us, and we know he could work in this situation in this exact way, and it would be perfect because we have it exactly figured out. But then we start worshiping a version of Jesus that's really us. A version of Jesus that's our idea of what's supposed to happen next. A version of Jesus that's our answer to the problem that's right in front of us. When really, he's the king of kings, and he had a plan all along. From the beginning of scripture, he knew what was gonna happen next, and it wasn't anywhere close to what they had in mind. [01:00:58] (45 seconds)  #WorshipTheRealJesus

And it really is easy to lay something down in a moment. Maybe an altar service, maybe a time when god's really impressing you that there's something you need to give up or or take charge of, and you do. But it's a lot harder to surrender to the heart of the father. It's a lot harder to lay down that thing without expectation of the way it's gonna be solved. When we read this same scene of Jesus coming into the city in the book of Luke, it says that Jesus, as he came closer and closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead of him, he began to weep. [01:03:13] (38 seconds)  #TrueSurrender