Embracing Surrender: Trusting God's Plan in Obedience

In our journey of faith, we often encounter moments where God calls us to obedience before we fully understand His plans. This is a divine invitation to trust in His sovereignty and to surrender our need for control. As we delve into the scriptures, we find that Jesus, in His final days, becomes increasingly direct with His disciples, preparing them for the ultimate sacrifice He would make for humanity. He challenges them to move beyond their expectations of a conquering, earthly king and to embrace the vision of an eternal kingdom that transcends national boundaries and temporal power.

The disciples, even without full comprehension, obey Jesus' instructions. They fetch a donkey for Him to ride into Jerusalem, fulfilling ancient prophecies and demonstrating the upside-down nature of God's kingdom. This act of obedience, despite their lack of understanding, is a powerful testament to their faith. It is in these moments of surrender that we, too, are called to trust in God's greater plan, even when it contradicts our expectations or desires.

The crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem is a mix of motivations—some seeking a political savior, others drawn by His miracles, like the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Yet, Jesus accepts their imperfect motivations, knowing that He is there to offer a salvation that is not just for a moment but for eternity. This teaches us that God can use us, regardless of our motivations, as long as we are willing to step forward in obedience.

As we approach the season of Lent, we are reminded that surrender is not just about giving up something; it's about gaining a deeper awareness of God's desires for us. It's a time to recalibrate our hearts and realign our devotion to God. We are encouraged to let go of the good things we've made ultimate in our lives and to elevate God to His rightful place.

In summary, our path of surrender involves trusting God beyond our understanding, obeying His call even when we don't see the full picture, and allowing Him to use our mixed motivations for His purposes. As we prepare for Easter, let us embrace this season of Lent as an opportunity to deepen our walk with Christ, to surrender our will to His, and to anticipate the transformative work He desires to do in and through us.

Key Takeaways:

- Obedience before understanding is a hallmark of mature faith. We must be willing to follow God's direction even when the path is not clear, trusting that He sees the bigger picture and has our ultimate good in mind. This kind of trust deepens our relationship with God and demonstrates our commitment to His lordship over our lives. [30:54 ]

- God's kingdom often subverts our worldly expectations. Just as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a humble donkey instead of a majestic steed, God's ways frequently challenge our notions of power and success. Embracing God's upside-down kingdom means seeking humility and service over personal glory and recognition. [33:07 ]

- God can use our imperfect motivations for His perfect purposes. Even when we come to Him with mixed intentions, God is able to work through us. Our willingness to be used by God is more important than having flawless motives. This should encourage us to step out in faith, even when our hearts are not fully aligned. [38:58 ]

- Lent is a season of intentional focus on God. By surrendering something of value, we create space to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice and to cultivate a greater appetite for God. This practice is not about deprivation but about reorienting our desires toward the One who truly satisfies. [48:25 ]

- The path of surrender is a journey of transformation. As we give up our illusions of control and submit to God's will, we open ourselves to the life-changing power of His grace. This surrender is not a one-time event but a daily practice that shapes us into the image of Christ. [49:34 ]

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Matthew 21:1-11** - Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
2. **Zechariah 9:9** - Prophecy of the King riding on a donkey
3. **John 12:12-19** - The crowd welcomes Jesus, referencing the raising of Lazarus

#### Observation Questions
1. What specific instructions did Jesus give to His disciples regarding the donkey? (Matthew 21:2-3)
2. How did the crowd react to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, and what were they shouting? (Matthew 21:8-9)
3. What prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus riding on a donkey, and where is it found in the Old Testament? (Zechariah 9:9)
4. According to the sermon, what were some of the mixed motivations of the crowd that welcomed Jesus? [43:51]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. Why do you think Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a horse? What does this signify about His kingdom? (Matthew 21:5)
2. How does the concept of "obedience before understanding" challenge our modern approach to decision-making and faith? [27:03]
3. In what ways does the crowd's reaction to Jesus' entry reflect their misunderstanding of His mission? How does this apply to our own expectations of Jesus? [29:17]
4. How can God use our imperfect motivations for His perfect purposes, as seen in the crowd's reaction to Jesus? [38:58]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you felt called to obey God without fully understanding His plan. How did you respond, and what was the outcome? [27:33]
2. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey subverted expectations of a conquering king. How can you seek humility and service over personal glory in your daily life? [33:07]
3. The sermon mentioned that Lent is a time to recalibrate our hearts and realign our devotion to God. What is one thing you can surrender during this season to deepen your walk with Christ? [49:34]
4. Think about a situation where your motivations were mixed, but you still felt called to act. How did God use that situation for His purposes? [38:58]
5. The sermon highlighted the importance of trusting God beyond our understanding. What is one area of your life where you struggle to trust God fully, and how can you take a step of faith this week? [30:54]
6. How can you create space in your life to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice during Lent, and what specific practices can help you cultivate a greater appetite for God? [48:25]
7. The path of surrender is a journey of transformation. What is one practical step you can take this week to submit to God's will and open yourself to His transformative grace? [49:34]

Day 1: Trusting God's Unseen Plan
When God calls us to action, it's not always with a clear roadmap. The essence of faith is found in our willingness to obey before we understand, to step into the unknown with confidence that God is guiding us. This trust is not passive; it's an active choice to follow God's direction, even when the path ahead is shrouded in mystery. It's about acknowledging that our vision is limited, but God's is not. He sees the end from the beginning and orchestrates our steps towards a greater good that we might not yet comprehend. This trust is a testament to our belief in God's sovereignty and wisdom. It's a surrender of our desire to control and a commitment to follow, even when we're stepping into the fog of uncertainty. [30:54]

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

Reflection: What is one decision or situation in your life where you feel uncertain, and how can you demonstrate trust in God's plan for it today?

Day 2: Embracing the Upside-Down Kingdom
The kingdom of God often defies our expectations, flipping our worldly understanding of power and success on its head. Jesus exemplified this when He chose a humble donkey for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a stark contrast to the grandeur expected of a king. This act was a profound lesson in humility and service, revealing that true greatness in God's kingdom is not about ascending to the top but about stooping to serve others. As followers of Christ, we are called to embrace this upside-down kingdom, seeking to live out the values of humility, service, and love in a world that often prioritizes the opposite. This means letting go of our desire for recognition and choosing to serve in anonymity, to love without expecting anything in return, and to prioritize the well-being of others above our own. [33:07]

Matthew 20:25-28 ESV
"But Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'"

Reflection: How can you practice servant leadership in your current context, perhaps at work, in your family, or within your community?

Day 3: God's Use of Imperfect Motives
Our motivations are rarely pure, often mixed with self-interest, doubt, or fear. Yet, God's ability to use us is not hindered by our imperfect motives. He works through our willingness to step forward, transforming our mixed intentions into actions that fulfill His purposes. This is a source of great hope, for it means that we don't have to wait until we are perfect to be useful in God's kingdom. Instead, we can come as we are, with all our complexities, and trust that God will refine us along the way. Our part is to remain open and obedient, allowing God to work through our imperfections to bring about His perfect will. This should encourage us to act, to serve, and to love, even when we feel unworthy or unprepared, knowing that God is at work in us and through us. [38:58]

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Reflection: Can you identify an area where your motives are mixed, and how can you offer that area to God, asking Him to work through you despite your imperfections?

Day 4: Lent: A Season of Refocusing on God
Lent is not merely a time of giving up pleasures; it's a season for deepening our awareness of God's presence and purpose in our lives. By intentionally surrendering something of value, we create space to reflect on the life and sacrifice of Jesus, allowing us to cultivate a greater desire for God. This practice is about reorienting our hearts towards the divine, recognizing that our ultimate satisfaction comes not from the things of this world but from a closer relationship with God. As we let go of the good things we've made ultimate, we make room for God to take His rightful place in our lives. This intentional focus helps us to recalibrate our priorities and to live in a way that is more aligned with God's will. [48:25]

Isaiah 58:6-7 ESV
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

Reflection: What is one thing you can give up this Lent to create more space for God in your life, and how will you use that space to grow closer to Him?

Day 5: The Transformative Journey of Surrender
Surrender to God is not a one-time event but a daily practice that transforms us from the inside out. It involves giving up our illusions of control and submitting to God's will, trusting that He knows what is best for us. This surrender is a journey, one that requires us to lay down our will and pick up God's, allowing His grace to change us. As we do this, we become more like Christ, reflecting His love and character to the world around us. The path of surrender is marked by moments of letting go, of choosing God's way over our own, and of finding our true purpose and identity in Him. It's a journey that leads to freedom, joy, and the abundant life that Jesus promises to those who follow Him. [49:34]

Romans 12:1-2 ESV
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you find yourself holding back from surrendering to Jesus? What would surrendering this area to Him actually look like in terms of daily habits?

**Transcript:**

[Applause]

So thank you so much for your generosity—your generosity in your time, your service, and then also your offerings will make all of this possible. Whether it's creating Lent devotional guides, or kids ministry, or hosting organizations like Rise Against Hunger, it's you and your generosity that make all of these things come together.

So let's just give a time of thanks to God for all that is happening within our community.

God, we say thank you for all the gifts that we have that you pour out upon us and that we are able to surrender to you. Whether it's the gifts of our skill, our time, our money, and we just say thank you that you have poured out so much blessing upon us so that we may be a blessing to others.

So open our eyes as we even move throughout this week of ways that you are calling us to surrender and give and love to you. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.

In the Shadow Garden where olives wept, a savior knelt in anguish. Secrets kept his path of surrender, a heavy weight, a journey to the Cross sealed his fate. With Grace in his eyes, forgiveness on his lips, the path of surrender, a love that equips.

Upon that cruel cross, he breathed his last breath. A tomb could not hold him; he rose anew. The path of surrender, redemption for me and you.

Well, hey, good morning, Menow Church! So glad that you are with us as we begin this Lenten season together. A special shout out to our Bay Area campuses in Sano, Menow Park, Mountain View, Saratoga. I believe that God wants to do something uniquely in us in this season to prepare for what's next.

Now, before we dive in too far, I want to acknowledge the elephant in the room. I am not wearing any gear right now. I will say I am rooting for the team that is playing Taylor Swift's boyfriend's team. I am, um, so just putting it out there. A few weeks ago, we were playing the Lions, and I accidentally wore blue, and I heard about it. So honestly, I was just a little scared about what I was going to wear today, and so I chose this and I'm just asking for your grace in the midst of that.

So, yep. Anyway, if Lent is a new concept for you, though, it really just means springtime. But the way Christians have celebrated springtime, or the Lenten season, for more than 1500 years is to think about and dedicate these 40 days leading up to the celebration of Easter with preparation.

It mirrors 40 in a bunch of different places throughout the scriptures, but one in particular is when Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness, preparing for his ministry. We celebrate the Lenten season as a way of preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter, as well as really this kind of personal reflection opportunity about how our faith is doing this year.

And sometimes, without realizing it, the things that are most important in our life can just kind of slowly drift into a place that is not healthy for our growing connection with God. So maybe you've never celebrated Lent, or it's always felt a little bit mystical to you. That's really what's at the core of why we celebrate.

And before we get started and I break any more of that down, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here before or never heard me speak, I pray kneeling. And part of the reason that I do that is to humbly ask God to open our eyes, to open our ears, so that we would see what God wants to show us and hear the whisper that God has for each and every one of us in our time together.

Would you pray with me?

God, thank you. Thank you for the fun things that we can get to experience, even this side of eternity, in the midst of so much heaviness in our world. We can still do that. We can celebrate with people who are experiencing and celebrating Lunar New Year this year. We can celebrate and reflect on what Black History Month is going to look like in our experience of it this year.

God, we can celebrate the Super Bowl. There are so many things in life that we want to not just experience; we want to experience as followers of you. And so would you help us, God, as we think about and pursue what it means to follow you in unique ways during this Lenten season?

God, thank you for the time that we have together. It's in Jesus' name, amen.

So for you, if you are new or newer to faith, this idea of Lent is tricky, right? If you've never fasted before during this window of time, it starts this upcoming Wednesday and goes through Easter. And it can be anything. It's not just food. Some people will take the Lenten season as sort of like a spiritual covering for their diet. You're like, "I'm giving up carbs."

I would just say there's probably something more spiritually significant that you could fast from in general, letting God show you and me what would be on the list of some of the most difficult things to surrender, to give up over the course of those 40 days. And then asking God, "Hey, what is the specific thing that you want me to surrender in my life that would be most helpful to give that devotion to God where it's maybe gone somewhere else?"

And early on in our walk with God, maybe there are things that you know you and I would say, "Hey, there are some really unhealthy habits in my life," sometimes things that the Bible calls sin. But over time, as you follow Jesus, it can be that there's less and less that you would say, "Here's sin that I'm giving up."

Sometimes it's about giving up status. Sometimes it's about giving up success. Even there are areas of surrender in your life that should change as you and I follow Jesus. It's not that these things, by the way, that we're surrendering over these 40 days are bad. It's a tool that we can have with surrender in which we ask God to transform the desire that we have for that thing, for that act, for that thing that we enjoy into an appetite or a desire for God that we would have that grow.

So in other words, if you give up TikTok reels and instead you replace it over the next 40 days with Instagram reels, you have missed the point. Like, that's not what we have in mind.

During our weekend series, we are actually going to journey with Jesus in his final week of earthly ministry before he would face the cross for you and me. Now, these are often stories or passages that, if you spent time in church, they can feel very familiar at a surface level. So it can be easy to assume that God has nothing for us in them.

And maybe for you, you're like, "Okay, this is a time I can just kind of coast a little." And my encouragement to you is to let God show you something unique that you may have missed in the past, something that God wants to highlight for you. Don't let your familiarity with these stories blind you to the fresh insights that God will have for you in our study together.

See, great storytellers understand how to provide the right context, level, well-communicating pace, intensity, and detail when the story's focal point comes into focus. Jesus' public ministry spans three years, and it has been written down in four books that we call the Gospels that expound on his life. Each Gospel—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are written by a different author with a different perspective to a different assumed audience.

But even with all that being the case, the first two-thirds of the Gospel accounts that we have of Jesus' life, his biographies, are about the 32 years and 51 weeks that are the first of Jesus' life. The last third of the Gospel accounts cover the last week of Jesus' public ministry. So it's worth slowing down, for the author is clearly saying there's something unique in this window of time.

So we are slowing down. We are slowing down over the course of the weeks of this series to study those specific passages. And while we will often start with Matthew's account of Jesus' life, we will jump around to the different biographers and the places where they write from the same stories but with different details to help us gain some unique insight.

Now, in just a few hours, we are all going to be Taylor—I mean, 49ers fans. Like, in just a few hours, last year, 115 million Americans tuned in for the Super Bowl. This year, they're predicting that it will be the largest event on television ever.

And if you are in a city where your team is in the Super Bowl, even if you weren't a fan last week, even if you want nothing to do with football, you're like trying to find merch, right? Like, if you go to stores today, they are sold out. Somebody walked up to me after the last service in an act of compassion and handed me 49ers merch. They were like, "You should have something," which was very, very kind.

Right now, there are plenty of us that are new or newer to 49ers fandom. Like, we're new to the area; we're trying to figure it out. And the thing is, if you are a fan, especially an early-on fan, it's easy to have your fandom falter early on if your team is struggling because bandwagon fans are fickle. We all know this. If the experience of watching the team that you have become a fan of is not up and to the right, if it's not uninterrupted success, then fickle fans aren't interested.

We're like looking for what the snack options are; we're waiting for the commercial break, right? But even the closest followers of a team will falter and fail. Sometimes we say fans—well, that's not so great—but followers are incredible. Both need grace, and that's really good news for us.

As a lifelong follower of the Cleveland Browns, that was unnecessary. Even I have had times where I've had to just turn off the TV. It's too painful; it's too discouraging; it's too disappointing.

As easily as we can relate to that happening with our team or with something that we're really excited about when things aren't going well, it's true for way more than just what we are a fan of or what we're a follower of in sports. It's true of our whole life, and it's definitely true of our faith.

In our first week on our path of surrender, we see that this is true for Jesus too—that fans are fickle, but even followers fail. We are at the point of kind of a fever pitch of Jesus' reputation. It had never been higher than the moment we're about to read about with the crowds, and it had never been lower with his critics than the passage we are about to read.

Today's event is uncomfortable for us because it's a time when Jesus asks for obedience before understanding. See, this is very different from the process that I want God to use in my life. I want God to offer a debate or at least a discussion before he gives a decision for my life. Especially if you're newer to faith, this might seem inconceivable to you, but Jesus does it a lot.

It was actually a pretty normal part of his ministry. He knew that he was always sort of sifting out of this big group of people who was really in and who was just kind of around, and this was one way that he would filter that group of, "Will you obey before you understand?"

And I think for some of us, if we were honest, we obey to the level of our understanding. The moment that what God is calling us to do in the pages of his scripture, or even sitting here, you feel like God's drawing you to something around Lent or something in your life that you should be doing, if you don't have understanding, it's not actually God that you're worshiping, and everything else surrenders to it.

Our understanding becomes the lid of our faith.

When we jump into Matthew's account of the story, it says this:

"Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth Page, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says to you, "You shall say, 'The Lord needs them,'" and he will send them at once.' This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 'Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."'"

See, Jesus has been getting more and more direct with his closest followers. Early on in his ministry, Jesus would speak in metaphors and illustrations, parables, word pictures to extend the amount of time before people really connected the dots to who he was and what he was doing.

And now he was very openly and clearly saying, "I am going to have to die, and then three days later I'll come back from the grave." You know, and what's tricky is when you've spoken in parables and illustrations and metaphors for a while, I'm sure that plenty of his followers were like, "This is a weird metaphor that he keeps repeating."

But this one actually wasn't a metaphor. It would be the ultimate gift to humanity that Jesus would offer payment for our sin and suffering to restore our forever relationship with God. Their expectation of Jesus, of their Messiah, was way different than that.

See, the overwhelming expectation of the Jewish people—those who were following Jesus and those who were not in the first century—was that this Messiah would be a conquering king, would be a military hero. This idea of rescue would be that he would rescue them from Roman rule and then return Israel to its rightful place in the world.

But Jesus' view was different. His eyes were on the eternal kingdom that would be offered to all nations, not just Israel. And it wouldn't be about temporary military success; it would be about eternal, durable success.

On the cusp of what's called the Passion Week, even Jesus' disciples were likely wondering how and when Jesus would assume the throne that they were waiting for. In the previous chapter, we see two disciples of Jesus—they had been walking with him every day for three years—and they said to Jesus, "Hey, can we sit, like, when you're in your kingdom? Can we do some reserved seating and be like next to you? Is that okay?"

They still don't get it. But here's the great news: even though they didn't fully understand, they still obeyed. Even though they didn't understand, God still used them.

Evangelist and author, devotional writer Oswald Chambers, he phrases this tension of our faithful obedience this way:

"He says faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading."

I think for many of us, if you've been following Jesus for a while, there is a point at which pretty early in your walk with Jesus where you think to yourself, "I don't see how all these dots connect. I see what God's calling me to do in this relationship. I see what God's calling me to do at work. I see what God's calling me to do in this area of my life, but I don't see how God will ultimately bring it to what I ultimately want."

And at some point in surrender, we have to say, "God, even though I don't see it, I trust that you do see." It's not blind faith because we have seen God at points in our life, and hopefully, as our faith grows, even when we don't see all of the picture, we don't see every step along the way, we trust that God does.

We trust that beyond my comprehension, beyond your understanding, we can still obey.

So his disciples, they were hearing these instructions from Jesus as though they were preparing for Jesus to take over this throne that they were waiting for. But Jesus was doing something that Matthew calls out for us.

See, Matthew, who was a tax collector but Jewish by descent, he was Jewish by blood. He is very intentional; he's assuming that Jewish people are reading his biography of Jesus' life, and he calls out all these areas where Jesus is fulfilling Messianic prophecies—these future promises and predictions, more than 300 of them in the Hebrew scriptures, or what we call the Old Testament.

And while any one of these prophecies might have felt like coincidence—well, yeah, yeah, somebody could do that, somebody could do that—fulfilling all 300 of them points to this incredible love and providence of God for people.

And so Matthew, he wanted to show the powerful connection as he prepared his gospel for Jewish readers. The thing that you've been anticipating, the thing you've learned your entire life, what has been getting taught from generation to generation from the very first pages of the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus fulfilled it.

See, the promise of the Messiah entering in like a conquering hero, but not any kind of conquering hero they'd seen before, was not new. In this case, he would come in instead of a large conquering animal; he would come in on a donkey, small and unimpressive.

It was just one more way that God was showing the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of Heaven—that what is impressive to the world is not always the way that God chooses to work. It was also a way that Jesus was calling his disciples to obey before they understood.

Jesus was actually tapping into something that psychologists have pointed out for how we all make decisions. Maybe you've never heard these words put this way, but there is a concept called systemic processing, which is the scrutiny and comparison of information that all of us use every day, where we have sort of detailed decisions that we need to make, and we have frameworks and ways we think about it and process information and manage risk.

But there is also another way we make decisions, and that's called heuristic processing. And that one is when we use cues, like an authority figure we trust, to make decisions without all of the information. And we all do this too.

Now, don't get me wrong; this has certainly been used to manipulate and do harm to people, but Jesus was using it to train his followers to listen and obey when he wouldn't be physically with them anymore. He was preparing them for a future reality. He knew the plan, even if they didn't, and he wanted them to trust it for even when he wasn't around anymore.

That's hard, right? We all have different times in our life where that is an obstacle for us—some big, some small. If you've been around Menow for a little while, you know that I grew up in a very difficult home life, and I had an abusive father. My relationship with him was really messy for a really long time.

This last week actually marks five years since my dad passed away. And our relationship really shifted quite dramatically when I was 16 years old. Before that, I had hated my dad for lots of reasons—lots of reasons that you would probably agree with.

But I woke up one morning, and I just sensed God's love for my dad. And while it had been very difficult for me to experience that too or to share that, and I had boundaries in our relationship, and it had changed a lot since I was younger, it was still really difficult to feel that love that God had for my dad.

And that day, for whatever reason, God just gave me this sense of love for my dad, just like Jesus did. And so I remember I went downstairs at 16, and I found my dad reading the paper at the kitchen table in his underwear, and I said, "Dad, I love you."

And my dad looked up at me and, at that point, had exclusively referred to me as "boy." He stood up; he said, "Thank you," and he hugged me. And it didn't fix everything, but it changed a bunch of stuff.

My dad wouldn't tell me that he loved me until I was in my 20s for the first time, but I watched God begin to melt my dad's heart over the course of years. My dad would eventually, near the end of his life, become a Christian. And while the pain of my childhood still required and requires care and counseling, seeing my dad change was a huge part of my healing—of being able to see that sometimes God calls me to obedience before understanding.

And your story may not have quite so happy an ending; your story might feel different than that. But I just wonder, what was the last thing you obeyed without understanding? Can you think of it? Can you think of the last time at work or with your family or with your finances or in your faith? Can you think of like a key area in your life where you go, "You know what? Yeah, there was an area I didn't totally get it. God didn't give me all the details of it, but I could see pretty clearly what obedience looked like, and I took a step towards obedience even though understanding wasn't there."

'Cause I'm telling you, if you can't, it may not be God that you're worshiping with your understanding, but your understanding that you're worshiping with your God. And I think it's worth taking a step back and saying, "God, where are the areas of my life?"

Because if we really do worship an infinite God, he is going to call you to obedience in areas that you and I don't understand because our understanding is finite, and his isn't.

Maybe you have someone that God is calling you to love, or a step of generosity that you don't totally understand even how it's going to work. Maybe a step in your career that doesn't make sense for what your resume holds to this point. I would just say seek counsel, pray about it, but don't wait until you fully understand before you obey because oftentimes that means you will never obey.

I think that for so many of us, part of this path of surrender is rendering our illusion of control and understanding that sometimes it gets in the way of what we know clear obedience looks like. When we have to understand everything first, the good news is that even though his disciples failed to understand, and they did—like, they did this stuff without having all the details—they still obeyed. They still took steps towards what God was calling them to do.

In your path of surrender, what about you? Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus? One isn't perfect or blameless; actually, both need grace. That's really good to know. Some of us, we've been excusing ourselves. We go, "I'm really, really committed." But remember, fans might be fickle, but even followers fail.

And so maybe for you, this year Lent is a reminder where some things about your faith have gotten off track. You've been a little bit out of calibration in your journey with Jesus. And so without realizing it, over the last 12 months, it's just drifted and drifted and drifted and drifted and drifted.

And so Lent is the time where God's going to call you back, going to recalibrate your heart and devotion to be able to have a deeper walk with him than you have before.

The second scene that we're going to look at in our time together is when Jesus uses the wrong motivation for the right direction. And I'm so glad that he does. Don't get me wrong; God wants us to have the right motivation, but he will even use the wrong motivation to move us in the right direction.

That's exactly what we see in our passage. As a parent with young kids, this is easy to spot almost every day. See, whether or not somebody wants to do the work, even when a motivation is wrong, if that was the barrier, we would be stuck all the time.

Like, "I don't want to" is a pretty common theme for kids, right? We want to use these moments as lessons, but we also still need to function as a family for our good, even when we don't want to do it, even when we don't want to show up that way, even when we want to do quick fixes as parents, even when our kids just don't want to get in trouble.

Sometimes it takes steps even beyond what we want to do. But what about something that we all use for a minute? I want to talk about the internet. And I do—I just want to say quickly, it was very kind of Al Gore to invent it for us. Like, super kind.

But do you know what the original reason for the internet was? Some of you are like, "Yeah, I helped make it, Phil. That's impressive." Many of you are like helping pioneer what's next. But during the Cold War, the Defense Department developed the technology that we use for the internet to communicate through a nuclear exchange where it's switching sites.

The locations that were connected could be destroyed, and it didn't need to depend on central control, but it could still work like that. That was a core reason why the internet was developed in the first place.

Now, this motivation is what originally or eventually led to what we use all the time. It's what has made the world, for better or worse, so much smaller every single day. Imagine if we said we couldn't use the internet because of its original motivation.

Now, thankfully, Jesus can use a plethora of motivations and still direct our lives, even when it isn't the way we would have done it, even if it isn't the way that we would have wanted it done.

In the next scene, it shows us this exact idea. It says, "The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put them on their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them out on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and saying, 'Who is this?' And the crowd said, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.'"

Luke, who's a biographer who writes a gospel account of Jesus' life, he took a whole bunch of eyewitness accounts, and so his account, his biography of Jesus' life is way more detailed. And in his account, he gives us the answer to the question we're wondering: did the disciples have to give the reason that Jesus equipped them with to get the donkey?

And the answer is, yeah, they did. And actually, the reason was to fulfill this prophecy made about Jesus from hundreds of years before he lived that we find in Zechariah.

Now we see a version of a crowd that would welcome back a conquering hero. That's what we see in what's called the triumphal entry of Jesus. But the thing is, it was like comically paralleled. Jesus is an ordinary-looking Middle Eastern man in the first century. He's riding on a small, unimpressive animal with common clothing, and branches that would be laid on the ground as a sign of honor.

If you grew up with Palm Sunday as a part of your church experience, this is what it was talking about. It's very popular in our day to talk about the difference between Instagram and real life, right? We have an Instagram vision of what a moment like this is, especially if you grew up in church.

And Jesus looks amazing; he's got product in his hair. Like, it's colorful; there's just not a dirty thing around him. Everything's great. But the real life of what we see here is gritty. The real life of what we see here is hot and stinky and chaotic, and people are there with the wrong motivation, and he uses it anyway.

Matthew leaves us wondering why this crowd of people are shouting "Hosanna," which probably by this time they just meant praise God. But the original word "Hosanna" in Hebrew, the language that it was originally written in, means "the God who saves," which is ironic because it's actually what Jesus was there to do.

They would have thought, "Well, he's here to save the day," and Jesus is like, "No, no, no, I'm here to save you for every day. I'm here to save you forever." That was the vision that Jesus was coming to, even if they didn't fully understand it.

Well, John, who wrote a biography of Jesus' life that emphasizes his supernatural acts and power, and it assumes a way wider audience that doesn't understand all of the Hebrew scriptures, he tells us that this group of people, this crowd, the reason they're there, the reason that they're waiting for Jesus in Jerusalem is because Jesus had just brought his friend Lazarus back from the dead.

And it wasn't like Lazarus was sick and Jesus kind of like brought some really good medicine. Jesus arrived at his friend Lazarus's house four days after he died. He was in a tomb; the tomb was covered. And Jesus asks them to remove the covering of the tomb, which would have been like you showing up a week after your friend's funeral and asking them to dig up the grave.

It was disrespectful; it would have ever asked to do this. But they did it for Jesus. And then, to insult to injury, Jesus commands his dead friend Lazarus to get up and come out. And I'm sure as long as they were standing there, that moment felt very heavy—Lazarus' family now feeling frustrated and maybe even more disappointed in Jesus than they had before, tears streaming down their face, frustrated and angry until they wondered if they saw a shadow, until they wondered if they saw a figure.

And sure enough, they did. They saw Lazarus coming out, still in his burial shroud, pulling off what was likely covering his face at the time. And no one had ever seen that before. And it showed in just one little manifestation the kind of power that God would have to raise someone from the dead.

See, Jesus, he used this final miracle to show people the kind of power that God could deliver through him. But unlike Lazarus, who was raised to life but to die again, Jesus would be raised to life on Easter, the resurrection, and he would never die again. The crowd just didn't know it yet. The dots would get connected later.

Sometimes our path of surrender means that we acknowledge just how little of the plan we know, just how wrong our motivations might be, and yet we still take steps towards obedience to God in our lives, even when we don't fully comprehend, even when our motivations are mixed.

The question of motivation is deeply personal for some of us, right? You're here at church, or you're watching online out of duty or out of guilt or out of a deep desire to see the 49ers win, right? But I have really good news for you: if Jesus were to speak to you directly, I think he might say, "I care why you're here, but I care more that you're here."

So much of what it means to walk with Jesus is to continue to take steps even when our heart doesn't feel perfectly aligned to it, even when we don't fully understand it. Whether you call yourself a fan or a follower, or likely a mixture of both, Jesus just wants to spend time with you.

Imagine with me for just a second—maybe even close your eyes—that you are in the crowd as Jesus is entering Jerusalem. It's bustling with excitement and anticipation. You see Jesus, a humble man riding on a donkey, a symbol of peace rather than a majestic horse of war.

The streets are alive with a diverse crowd, people from all walks of life gathered to witness this moment. They lay their cloaks and branches from the trees on the ground, creating a first-century red carpet. The ancient walls and buildings of the city are bathed in the sun's warm glow, casting long shadows that dance on the ground at midday.

You came with all the wrong motives, but for a moment, your eyes meet the eyes of this first-century Jewish carpenter who sees you with equal parts compassion and conviction. The feeling in that moment of safety and surrender is exactly what Jesus still longs for you today.

You can open your eyes.

So today, as you see fans or failing followers during the Super Bowl, remember that God meets both kinds of people as we choose to surrender in obedience to him.

Maybe Lent is a really big step for you—using the next few weeks to join us in this devotional study that starts on Wednesday. Help at Info Central if you need it to get on to that. Maybe that's brand new. Maybe giving up something to focus your attention on the sacrifice that Jesus made for you would feel totally foreign to the way that you've thought about this every year.

But maybe that's exactly what God wants for you. God doesn't want you to delete that app, stop buying on Amazon, change that routine because he gets something out of your sacrifice. God wants someone—he wants you. You are who he gets from that sacrifice.

Lent has historically been a season when attention is redirected to God, and in our day, it's even more important than ever. What if you were directing your attention over these next seven weeks in a way that you didn't feel like you were giving something up, but you gained an awareness of what God truly wanted for you for the rest of your life? Would that be worth the next 40 days?

I think that's exactly what hangs in the balance of our act of surrender—that it could be what's at stake for you and me this year, in this day.

Let's pray that God would do that for each and every one of us today. Would you pray with me?

God, we anticipate so much in our lives, but sometimes we can have a shockingly low expectation of what you can do. And so over these next 40 days, I pray that you would increase our expectation of what you can do if we will direct our attention to you—of how you can change our focus, of how you can change our desires, of how you can change our lives if we will simply say, "God, there are good things in my life that I've made ultimate, and the ultimate one in my life, you, I have made just good."

Would you help us to undo that exchange? Even just give us a vision of what obedience looks like.

Thanks, God, that you can use us as fans or followers. Thanks that grace is poured out to each. Thanks that, God, you call us to obedience even when we don't understand. And thank you, thank you, thank you that even when our motivations aren't pure, even when things are messy under the surface for us, God, you can still use us and use this time.

I pray that you would. It's in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you stand with us?

- "Sometimes it's about giving up status, sometimes it's about giving up success... it's a tool that we can have with surrender in which we ask God to transform the desire we have for that thing into an appetite or a desire for God." [21:51 ](Download | Download)

- "Maybe for you this year, Lent is a reminder where some things about your faith have gotten off track... Lent is the time where God's going to call you back, to recalibrate your heart and devotion to be able to have a deeper walk with him than you have before." [38:25 ](Download | Download)

- "God wants us to have the right motivation but he will even use the wrong motivation to move us in the right direction... as a parent with young kids, this is easy to spot almost every day." [38:58 ](Download | Download)

- "So much of what it means to walk with Jesus is to continue to take steps even when our heart doesn't feel perfectly aligned to it, even when we don't fully understand it." [46:36 ](Download | Download)

- "God doesn't want you to delete that app, stop buying on Amazon, change that routine because he gets something out of your sacrifice. God wants someone; he wants you. You are who he gets from that sacrifice." [48:25 ](Download | Download)

- "What if you were directing your attention over these next seven weeks in a way that you didn't feel like you were giving something up but you gained an awareness of what God truly wanted for you for the rest of your life?" [49:01 ](Download | Download)

- "Even though his disciples failed to understand and they did like they did this stuff without having all the details, they still obeyed. They still took steps towards what God was calling them to do." [37:59 ](Download | Download)

- "Jesus fulfilled it... He would come in on a donkey, small and unimpressive. It was just one more way that God was showing the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of Heaven." [33:07 ](Download | Download)

- "Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading... even though I don't see it, I trust that you do." [30:54 ](Download | Download)

- "Sometimes our path of surrender means that we acknowledge just how little of the plan we know, just how wrong our motivations might be, and yet we still take steps towards obedience to God in our lives." [46:04 ](Download | Download)