Palm Sunday 2026

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- Welcome to Palm Sunday, everyone,

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it's so good to see you.

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Hey, if you're new, we're glad that you're here.

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And we're going to start our time off connecting with Jesus.

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So if you're not on your feet,

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get on your feet right now

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and we're going to sing some songs together.

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We're going to celebrate.

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So I need you to clap like this. Come on.

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Imma teach you these words.

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Try with me.

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- And Father God, everything I say today,

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every thought I want to have all comes and flows from gratitude.

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Because You're the giver of all good things.

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You set us free. You've rescued us.

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You came near to us to be with us.

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Thank you, Jesus, for all Yone.

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Receive our gratitude openly and widely today.

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Give You all the glory and praise Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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It's good to be together, right?

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Hey, if you call this place home like I do,

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then we take our worship and we also worship

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at Crossroads.net/give.

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You can do that with me and my family right there.

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So, hey, if you're in the room with us right now,

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why don't you turn to somebody and just say,

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"Hey, happy Sunday. Glad to be here with you."

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If you're online, we're glad you're here with us, too.

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Let's all have a seat together.

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- Easter should be the best day of the year.

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It's a celebration of the resurrection of hope.

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Come to Crossroads Church and celebrate

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an empty tomb and a living hope.

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Info and service times at crossroads.net.

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- I love that video. I hope it's a helpful reminder

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that Easter can be more than just like brunch

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in that one floral pastel shirt that you're never gonna wear.

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- I love the pastoral florals.

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- You might wear that the rest of the year,

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but for the rest of us that's right.

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But no, Easter can be a beautiful thing.

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We want you to get the most out of it that you can.

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- Yes. And if you are someone who attends church

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regularly, or maybe you haven't been into a church

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in forever, we have ten locations.

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We would love to have you come into our Easter celebration

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next Sunday, or you can watch online.

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We'll be streaming at 8:15, 10:15 and 12:15.

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And Easter is also that time of year where it is

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the best time to invite someone to church.

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Christmas and Easter people tend to show up

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and inviting them is an easy ask,

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and we want to make it even easier for you.

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So you can text "invite" to 301301

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and we will just text you back a sample text

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that you can copy and paste it,

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or you can tweak it a little bit,

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but it is such an easy way to invite someone

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and let them show up with you.

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- Yeah. That's right.

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Now, we've been talking a lot about Easter,

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but the reality is, for thousands of years,

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followers of Jesus have actually used

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the week leading up to Easter to sort of

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get their minds and their hearts in the right place

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so that they can experience Easter

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as not just another hallmark holiday,

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but as something weighty and beautiful and meaningful.

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And at Crossroads we're no different.

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We want to make the most of Holy Week,

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and we've got a few different ways you can do that.

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So ending with Easter, but we're going to rewind

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all the way back to today with Palm Sunday.

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Palm Sunday is the start where it talks about

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Jesus coming to our lives.

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And then every day of the week,

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we're going to have a daily podcast led by Chuck Mingo,

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one of our amazing teaching pastors,

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to sort of put our hearts and our heads in the right space.

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And then also daily worship led by our worship leaders

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on Instagram live, on Facebook live, TikTok,

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like a daily way that you can engage

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your heart with God through worship.

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And then our Last Supper Experience,

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Thursday night, 7 p.m. eastern focused on

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the last 24 hours of Jesus's life.

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We'd love for you to join us live or at a site.

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- Yes, and today is Palm Sunday,

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and every story has a beginning.

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And our beginning is a King who rides into a city

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on the back of a donkey.

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- The nation is holding its breath.

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Everywhere there's tension, politics, religion, the economy.

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Neighbor has turned against neighbor,

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family against family.

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But underneath it all, this stubborn hope remains

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that a King will come who will finally come

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and set everything right.

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But what if the King looks so different than we expected

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we don't even recognize Him?

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What if He isn't the King that people wanted?

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Palm Sunday confronts us with that question:

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What if God has already stepped into our world,

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but He didn't look like the kind of King

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that we were waiting for?

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What if He doesn't come with force but with peace?

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What if He doesn't crush His enemies, what if He loves them?

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What if He doesn't take power, but lays His life down instead?

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What if God has already come closer to you than you think,

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would you recognize it?

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- Behold your King is coming to you humble.

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The King of kings with angel armies at His back.

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The word who spoke in reality was born.

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The head of all heaven and earth rode into town

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with His heart on full display, humble and gentle,

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ready to lower Himself and die.

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This is the paradox picture of the humble Savior King.

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If you want to understand Easter,

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if you want to get Holy Week,

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if you want to understand Jesus. Period.

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You have to get this portrait of Him.

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The head of heaven crowned with glory,

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the King above every king, the Lord of lords,

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the name above every name's,

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crowned with power and glory,

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and with a heart that's low and gentle.

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If you miss His heart, you'll never come close to Him,

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because why would you?

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If you miss His head, you'll never let Him change you.

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You'll never experience His power in your life.

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You and I have to get both.

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Palm Sunday, today, we're looking at the self portrait

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of the humble Savior King, with a gentle heart

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and a face set like flint, determined to die for you.

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Before we go any further, let's pray

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and ask God to help us see that picture.

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God, I'm asking that today

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You'd give us eyes to see like you say,

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that we would see the whole complete picture of You

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Your head and Your heart together

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in this picture of You riding in on a donkey.

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Amen. Amen.

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Well, that song was great, wasn't it? Oh my gosh.

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That was an old hymn that our band reworked

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just slightly, in case you couldn't tell. Amazing.

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Well, hey, by the way, there's a there's

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a whole creative team behind the scenes at Crossroads.

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They've been working so hard for us.

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They made the Run Journey, making today's experience,

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all of Holy Week, Thursday, Easter.

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Let's just say thank you to them.

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They're so -- man, so appreciative, so grateful

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for the hard work that they do.

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Now this picture of Jesus is, is critical.

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We're starting Holy Week where it starts with Palm Sunday.

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This image of Jesus riding in a town on a donkey.

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And I just want to be upfront from the beginning

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and say it's weird.

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It's really weird.

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If you don't have this visceral heart reaction

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to Jesus on a donkey, that's because you're normal.

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It's strange. He's on a donkey

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and people are waving palm branches,

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and then they put Him underneath of Him

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so that He can ride on into town.

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What in the world is happening in this picture?

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And yet, and yet it's a critical image that

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we won't understand any of the rest of Holy Week

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if we don't understand this simple moment,

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this paradox, I think.

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Matthew 21, we just heard read at the beginning.

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I'm going to take us back to verse five. It says:

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Behold, your King is coming to you humble, humble.

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In this one line is the head in the heart

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of Christ on full display.

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Two things that should not fit together:

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power in humility. Humility.

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The humble king ready to die.

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Speaking of humble, if you want to be humbled,

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I would suggest filling out a March Madness bracket.

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That would be my advice.

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I had this great idea.

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I was like, we're in a family bond.

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We'll make a family pull, just me, Sarah, the three kids.

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And part of why I wanted to do that is because

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I thought I was going to win really easily.

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I love basketball.

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Little known fact, I actually played basketball.

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You guys don't believe me?

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This is a picture of me right here. Uh.

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I actually did play basketball,

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and I hand drew a poster of Muggsy Bogues,

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the shortest ever player in the NBA, five foot three on my wall.

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That's true fact. I love basketball.

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I went to Georgia Tech when we were

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in the national championship game.

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And so I thought I'm going to win this thing.

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You guys, after the first round

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my bracket was in the 16th percentile.

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That is bad. That is not good.

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Meanwhile, my daughter Gracie,

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who doesn't know anything about --

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Never touched a basketball in her life,

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but is apparently much better at research.

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She's in the 97th percentile. Like what?

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Humbled, I am, I am. I am humbled by this.

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I made my bracket, it's kind of my fault.

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I made my bracket.

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Jesus made this picture of Him,

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this portrait of Jesus on the donkey is a self portrait.

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There's actually four accounts of the story

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in the four biographies of Jesus.

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One of them is in the book of John.

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John himself was a witness to this moment.

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And in the beginning of his gospel

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he wrote this about Jesus.

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He said: In the beginning was the Word, that's Jesus,

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and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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He was in the beginning with God.

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All things were made through Him,

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and without Him was not made anything that was made.

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John says Jesus is the Word of God.

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And if you go all the way back to Genesis,

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what you'll discover is that God didn't make stuff

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by thinking of it. He could have; not what He did.

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He didn't make stuff by forming it with His hands.

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Instead, He spoke and reality burst forth.

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And the Scripture says that the one who spoke,

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the Word is Jesus Himself.

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And 500 years before the Word

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rode the donkey into Jerusalem, that same Word

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whispered in the ear of the prophet Zechariah these words,

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Zechariah 9:9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

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Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

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Behold, your King is coming to you,

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righteous and having salvation is He,

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humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt,

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the foal of a donkey.

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This is a self-portrait of Jesus, this collision

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of the King of kings who puts Himself above no one.

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I think if Jesus were to give a title to this painting,

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that might be some of the words He might use:

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the King of kings who puts Himself above no one.

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This collision, like I said, ultimate collision

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of ultimate power and ultimate humility

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existing at the same exact time.

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His head and His heart together.

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And Jesus didn't just make this portrait

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and hope that we would catch it.

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He very, very badly wanted us to see this.

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In fact, there's four biographies of Jesus

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I just mentioned.

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They don't actually have a lot of overlap.

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There are four different eyewitness accounts

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of what happened.

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Luke's is actually a collection of eyewitness accounts

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from lots of people, so I guess way more

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than four eyewitness accounts.

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And just like you would expect from anybody's life,

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if you interviewed four different people about someone,

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you'd probably hear a bunch of different stories

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because different things stuck out to different people.

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And there's about 120ish unique stories

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and teachings of Jesus spread across those four gospels.

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Well, only ten of them appear in all four.

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And nine of those moments happen in Holy Week,

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the first one of which is this moment in Palm Sunday.

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By the way, for the Bible nerds out there,

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the only one that's not part of Holy Week

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is the feeding of the 5000.

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Interesting, interesting.

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And so I would say Jesus wants to make sure

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we don't miss this self portrait,

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and yet many of us do. Many of us do.

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And we don't miss it because

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we see a completely different one.

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We tend to miss it because we only see half of it.

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I've been reading this book that's meant

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a lot to me lately called Gentle and Lowly;

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The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

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by Dane Ortlund.

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And in it he said this: The heresies of church history

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are not universally upside-down depictions of Jesus

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but simply lopsided ones.

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So you and I tend to see one or the other.

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We see His head. The power of Jesus;

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or we see His heart, gentle and lowly for us.

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But we tend to miss one of the other two sides.

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And if we do, we miss Him entirely.

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You don't end up with half a self portrait

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that's half accurate, you end up with something

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that's wholly untrue.

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The great theologian J.I. Packer put it this way. He said:

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A half truth masquerading as the whole truth

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becomes a complete untruth.

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If you want to understand Jesus,

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you have to see His head in His heart together

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at the same time, otherwise, you miss Him entirely. Entirely.

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So what is His head and what is His heart?

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We're going to start with His heart.

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Heart in Scripture is not the way that you and I use heart.

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We use heart like, oh man, he wears his heart on his sleeve.

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And by that we mean he's bad at regulating his emotions.

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That's what we mean. That's what we actually --

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No, it's not that, it's not.

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It's not my emotions on the outside.

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The heart in Scripture is the driving motivating core of you.

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It's what determines what you do,

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the center core of who you actually are.

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And Jesus says His core is humble, humble.

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Matthew 21:5: Behold, your King is coming to you humble.

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Now in different translations, it'll come out as

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humble, gentle, lowly.

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It's a Greek word that actually only shows up

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in three places in the entire Bible:

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here in Matthew 21, and then two times earlier.

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The first time in Matthew 5:5, where Jesus says,

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The meek will inherit the earth.

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Gives you some more flavor for what this word means:

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humble, gentle, lowly, meek.

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And then in Matthew 11:28-29, where He describes

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His heart, it says this:

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Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor

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and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Take My yoke upon you, and learn from me,

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for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

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and you will find rest for your souls."

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Do you know this is the only time in the entire Bible

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where Jesus ever says, "This is My heart."

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Anybody else who ever tells you about Jesus's heart,

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we're inferring stuff out of other stories.

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But here Jesus says, "This is who I am.

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This is my driving central motivating core.

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I am gentle and lowly in heart."

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Isn't it fascinating that the all powerful, perfect God

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didn't say, "I am just and perfect"?

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Isn't it fascinating He didn't say,

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"I am righteous and pure"?

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He could have. Those are true about --

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Powerful and wise. That would have all been true,

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but Jesus says that is not the center hot core of my heart.

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It is I am gentle and lowly.

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Now, it doesn't mean He's soft and mushy,

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doesn't mean He's a pushover,

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doesn't mean He's unprincipled,

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doesn't mean He's afraid of a hard conversation.

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Clearly, that's not the case.

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Clearly that's not true.

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But His driving motivating core for everyone

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who comes to Him is gentle and lowly. Lowly.

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Now that second word, lowly is also really, really fascinating.

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Gentle means like a characteristic, right?

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It's kind of a a virtue that you might have.

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Lowly is not that.

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Lowly is actually a station in life.

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It's the same word that Paul uses in Romans 12:16

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when he says, "Do not be haughty,

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but associate with the lowly."

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Lowly is -- it's a station in life.

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It's the lowest of the low,

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the complete zeros at the bottom of the social ladder.

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It is the losers. It is the --

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It's my bracket, basically is what it is.

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And Jesus says, "That's me."

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Whoever you consider to be the lowest form of life

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in the world, Jesus says, "I associate with them.

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I'm actually just like them, I mean, I'm even lower.

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I am lowly in heart."

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Doesn't put Himself above anyone.

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And because of that, Jesus can't tolerate

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hearts that aren't like His. He can't.

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This is why some people encounter Jesus

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with a heart that's not like Him,

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they don't come to Him with a lowly heart.

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They come to Him with a haughty heart.

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They come to Him in pride, not humility.

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And Jesus cannot stand it. He can't.

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He doesn't want a heart that's easily angered

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and prideful or arrogant and rude,

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doesn't want that kind of heart.

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And when He encounters them, you don't actually see

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the gentle, lowly Jesus come out.

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You don't see the heart of Christ.

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You see the head, the power come out.

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I encourage you sometime this week,

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read through the entire Holy Week story in the Bible.

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You can use Matthew 21 if you want to.

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It's in all four gospels, use any one you want.

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You can ask ChatGPT to make you

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a little reading plan if you want to.

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It'd be great. Whatever you want to do,

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just engage in the story.

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And when you do, you'll see this like back and forth Jesus.

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It's like this yo-yo.

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Like sometimes he's this humble, gentle guy,

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like at the moment he rides into town on the donkey, \

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weeping, by the way, over the city of Jerusalem,

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crying for them, His gentle heart on full display.

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Sometimes he's that, and then in the very next scene,

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do you know what He does when He gets off the donkey?

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He goes to the temple and starts flipping tables over

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and shoving people out, people who were there

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for self-righteous reasons, the prideful people.

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And then guess what He does?

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He goes back and He starts healing the lowest

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and the least of these, the lepers and the blind people

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that no one else wants to be around,

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the people who are on the bottom of the social hierarchy.

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And then He's back to yelling at the Pharisees,

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the people full of pride.

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It's this crazy back and forth.

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It's because Jesus is meeting two kinds of people,

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people with a heart like Him, humble and gentle, lowly,

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and people who think that they're on the top,

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who have a picture of power that does not match Him,

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doesn't match Him.

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You know, the world's picture of power,

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what you do with power, why this feels like such a paradox.

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The humble King crowned with power, how can that exist?

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It's because the world's version of power

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is very different than Jesus's version.

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The world's version is when I get power,

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I use it to put myself above you,

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over you, and get you to serve me?

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And Jesus flips that on its head.

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Now, that kind of power, the power over,

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is the exact same kind of power that

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Jesus's disciples actually wanted to have.

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In fact, three times in the weeks leading up to Palm Sunday,

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three times they made plays for that kind of power.

00:37:27

The first one is recorded in Mark 9.

00:37:30

Here's how the story goes. It says:

00:37:32

Then He came to Capernaum.

00:37:34

And when He was in the house, He asked them,

00:37:37

"What was it that you disputed among yourselves on the road?"

00:37:40

But they kept silent, for on the road they had

00:37:42

disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.

00:37:45

This is the moment you've been in where He's like,

00:37:47

"Tell me what's going on."

00:37:48

"I'm not going to say it. You say it."

00:37:50

"I'm not going to say it. You say it."

00:37:51

And no one says it, but Jesus knows anyway,

00:37:53

and so He keeps going.

00:37:55

Jesus called the 12 and said,

00:37:57

"Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last,

00:38:01

and the servant of all."

00:38:03

And the disciples react just like you right now,

00:38:06

like someone farted and no one wants to say.

00:38:08

They're like, "What? This is not. This is bad news.

00:38:13

This is bad news. What?

00:38:16

Use of power is to climb under people? Why?

00:38:18

They're not happy about it.

00:38:20

Now, that was up in Capernaum,

00:38:21

in the north and the Sea of Galilee.

00:38:23

From there, they head south and it happens a second time.

00:38:25

About one week before Jesus rides the donkey

00:38:29

into Jerusalem, again, the same conversation

00:38:32

about the greatest comes up.

00:38:33

But instead of disputing amongst themselves,

00:38:35

two guys break off from the pack, go to Jesus

00:38:38

and ask to be the greatest.

00:38:40

That's how Mark records the story.

00:38:42

Matthew actually records the story

00:38:44

as their mom goes and asks for them.

00:38:48

Just a quick note to my friends younger than me,

00:38:50

Gen Z, Gen Alpha.

00:38:52

I just want just out of heart for you,

00:38:53

do not send your mom to ask for a promotion to your boss.

00:38:57

Don't do that. That will not go well. It will not.

00:39:01

Your mom's a lovely person.

00:39:02

It's just not going to work. Just trust me.

00:39:05

So this is what happens, this is how Matthew records the story.

00:39:08

It says: Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee,

00:39:10

(that's James and John) came up to Him with her sons

00:39:14

and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.

00:39:17

And he said to her, "What do you want?"

00:39:20

She said to Him, "Say that these two sons of mine

00:39:23

are to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left,

00:39:26

in Your kingdom."

00:39:28

Jesus answered, "You do not know what you're asking."

00:39:31

She goes, "Say that my sons will be in your C-suite.

00:39:35

You know, COO and CMO. I don't know, just CFO.

00:39:38

We don't care just as long as

00:39:40

it starts with a C and ends in an O.

00:39:41

That's all. That's all I want.

00:39:42

Left and right hand, would you just give me?

00:39:44

Make them the greatest."

00:39:46

And Jesus goes, "You don't know what you're asking for."

00:39:51

Jesus knew. He kne.

00:39:54

He was on the road to Jerusalem,

00:39:55

He knew that He was going there to die.

00:39:58

He knew there would be positions on His right

00:40:01

and on His left, two other crosses

00:40:05

with thieves on them hung to die.

00:40:08

He goes, "You don't know what you're asking for, you don't."

00:40:11

Now the other disciples, they hear this thing happened, \

00:40:14

and they get they get mad about it.

00:40:15

They're very upset about it.

00:40:16

Not, I think, because they're like, "Man,

00:40:19

how could they be so arrogant as to ask for the best jobs?"

00:40:22

I think it's way more like, "Dang it,

00:40:23

I wish I would have thought of that.

00:40:25

Crap, you know, now, now it's too late.

00:40:27

He's going to give it to them."

00:40:28

And so Jesus pulls them together,

00:40:30

and here's how the story continues.

00:40:32

When the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

00:40:35

But Jesus called to them and said, "You know that

00:40:38

the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,

00:40:42

and their great ones exercise authority over them.

00:40:45

It shall not be so among you.

00:40:48

But who would ever be great among you

00:40:51

must be your servant,

00:40:53

and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,

00:40:58

even as the Son of Man did not come to be served

00:41:01

but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

00:41:07

See, what you're supposed to do with power

00:41:08

is not humility in the world.

00:41:10

You're supposed to exercise it over.

00:41:11

And Jesus says, no, go under.

00:41:13

The world says go high. Jesus says, go low, low,

00:41:19

which makes the place where He told this story

00:41:21

very, very interesting.

00:41:22

Now, this is one of the moments where we know

00:41:24

exactly where Jesus was when He shared

00:41:26

these words with His disciples.

00:41:27

Earlier, I told you that He was up north

00:41:30

at the Sea of Galilee, in the city of Capernaum.

00:41:32

Mark records these details.

00:41:34

Then it says He crossed over to the other side of the Jordan.

00:41:37

He went down the King's Highway and ended up

00:41:39

just across the Dead Sea from Jericho,

00:41:43

at this spot right here where the Jordan River

00:41:46

empties into the Dead Sea.

00:41:47

Now, this spot is highly significant for two reasons.

00:41:52

One, it's the place where Jesus Himself was baptized,

00:41:55

the place where He lowered Himself under the water.

00:41:58

The place where He first publicly said to God,

00:42:01

His father, "I put Myself under You,

00:42:04

and I put Myself under Your care.

00:42:06

I will lay down My life for you."

00:42:09

And then two, this place, I think not coincidentally,

00:42:14

happens to be the lowest place on earth,

00:42:20

1,412 feet below sea level.

00:42:25

Do you think it's an accident that the Word

00:42:30

who created all things, including the topography

00:42:33

of the planet, happened to say these things at this place?

00:42:38

I don't.

00:42:40

Do you think it's an accident that the Word was baptized

00:42:43

lowered Himself under the water in this place?

00:42:47

I don't. Think about this moment.

00:42:50

When He goes under the water for baptism,

00:42:53

He is literally physically placing Himself underneath,

00:42:58

lower than every single human on the entire planet.

00:43:04

Why? So we wouldn't miss His heart.

00:43:07

I am gentle and lowly in heart.

00:43:12

He's for you.

00:43:14

By the way, this is why baptism is so important.

00:43:17

Baptism is not this, like, mystical, magical ritual.

00:43:20

It's not a stamp on your bus ticket to heaven

00:43:23

that automatically gets you in. It's not that.

00:43:26

In fact, we know from the thieves on the cross

00:43:28

you don't have to be baptized to get into heaven.

00:43:31

You don't. Why do we know that?

00:43:32

Well, because one of those two guys actually repents

00:43:34

while he's on the cross, talks to Jesus and says,

00:43:38

"Hey, can I be with You in paradise?"

00:43:40

And Jesus goes, yeah. And guess what?

00:43:42

The thief didn't get off the cross and get baptized,

00:43:46

but he's still in heaven.

00:43:47

It's not this bus ticket to heaven, but friends,

00:43:49

you and I are hanging on a cross

00:43:50

where we can't get baptized. We have a chance.

00:43:54

And when you have a chance and you say no,

00:43:56

you are saying some piece of you,

00:43:58

some piece of you somewhere is saying, "That is beneath me,"

00:44:03

which means you're putting yourself above your Savior

00:44:05

because He went under the water for you.

00:44:07

He went and He died for you.

00:44:09

Friends, putting yourself above your Savior

00:44:11

is a dangerous place to be, because when you're above Him,

00:44:15

you're not under iHs care,

00:44:17

you're not under His protection,

00:44:18

you're not under His covering,

00:44:20

you're not under His blessing.

00:44:21

And so I just want to encourage you,

00:44:23

maybe in your Run Journey, maybe the big thing

00:44:25

that popped out at you is that you can't do it on your own.

00:44:27

Maybe you spent your entire life running

00:44:29

and making no progress, and this light bulb went off

00:44:32

that was like, "I've been doing it on my own power."

00:44:34

Awesome. Stop that, and start running it under His power

00:44:38

by putting yourself in His hands,

00:44:39

by putting yourselves under the waters of baptism.

00:44:42

Do you know that we were originally going to

00:44:44

plan on doing baptisms today, but we moved them to Easter?

00:44:46

I think it's for you so that you have a chance to get baptized.

00:44:52

My baptism story was in another kind of a low place,

00:44:57

not the low, low place of the Dead Sea.

00:45:00

A different kind of low place, Panama City Beach, Florida.

00:45:05

Anybody spring break down there at any time?

00:45:08

Wow. You probably don't remember a lot.

00:45:10

I understand. I was down there.

00:45:13

It's mostly if you've never been,

00:45:14

iike a bunch of 'Nati Light, dog tracks and cigarettes.

00:45:17

That's kind of --It's Panama City Beach.

00:45:20

I was down there for a fraternity retreat,

00:45:22

doing what you do on fraternity retreats.

00:45:23

I was having a great time drinking a whole lot.

00:45:26

And there was one night, it was about 2 a.m.

00:45:28

and we were on the beach, me and some of my fraternity brothers.

00:45:31

And I was kind of, you know, I'd been drinking.

00:45:34

And so I was in this, like, hungover kind of a phase,

00:45:36

and we're on the beach and one of my buddies

00:45:38

starts just going after us and he's like,

00:45:40

hey, he puts his finger at me.

00:45:42

He's like, "Kyle, you've been one foot in

00:45:44

one foot out with Jesus.

00:45:46

You've been not putting yourself under Him.

00:45:48

What are you waiting for? Put yourself under Him.

00:45:51

The time is now."

00:45:52

And I was like, "You're right."

00:45:55

And so I got baptized right there at 2 a.m.,

00:45:57

in a red tide, by the way.

00:45:58

That means there was dead fish floating everywhere.

00:46:02

It's gross. Probably needed a shower afterwards.

00:46:04

Probably didn't take it. Probably just passed out.

00:46:06

But, you know, people ask me since, you know,

00:46:09

have you -- "You need to be rebaptized.

00:46:12

Didn't, you know, it didn't happen in a church or,

00:46:14

you know, you need to be rebaptized."

00:46:16

I was like, "No, no, not at all."

00:46:18

Because that was a low point in my life.

00:46:21

And do you know what I know about my God?

00:46:24

He takes the low place.

00:46:26

Do you know what I know about my God?

00:46:28

He's already there before I turn around

00:46:31

and ready to meet Him. He was there.

00:46:33

I'm telling you, friend, He's there for you.

00:46:35

He's there for you.

00:46:37

If you feel any sense of conviction,

00:46:39

if you want to get baptized, it's for you.

00:46:42

It's on Easter Sunday.

00:46:44

We've extended the deadline.

00:46:45

In fact, you have until Good Friday at 3 p.m. to sign up.

00:46:50

Why 3 p.m. on Good Friday?

00:46:53

Well, because 3 p.m. on Good Friday

00:46:54

is the moment your Savior died for you.

00:46:56

And I just want to put that in your hands.

00:46:58

I just want to give you time to think and to pray

00:47:01

and to process and to come up with any reason not to

00:47:05

that holds any kind of water.

00:47:07

I don't think you will.

00:47:09

And I hope we see you in the waters of baptism

00:47:12

seven days from now.

00:47:15

It says this in Acts 2:

00:47:19

Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized

00:47:22

every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ

00:47:25

for the forgiveness of your sins,

00:47:27

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

00:47:33

See, this crazy thing happens that

00:47:34

when you lower yourself under your Savior,

00:47:38

He doesn't crush you. He doesn't condemn you.

00:47:41

Instead, He elevates you and gives you a gift

00:47:44

called the power of His Holy Spirit.

00:47:46

Good news. You receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

00:47:50

See power is released when you repent and you're baptized.

00:47:54

Why? It's because not only is His heart gentle,

00:47:58

it's that His head is powerful, with a face set like flint.

00:48:05

700 years before the moment He rode in on a donkey,

00:48:08

the Word Himself to author this self-portrait

00:48:11

also whispered in the ear of the prophet Isaiah

00:48:15

these words, Isaiah 50:7:

00:48:18

But the Lord God helps me;

00:48:21

therefore I have not been disgraced;

00:48:23

therefore I have set my face like flint,

00:48:27

and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

00:48:31

Luke records this echo of this prophecy

00:48:34

in his account of Jesus riding in on the donkey. Luke 9:51:

00:48:38

When the days drew near for Him to be taken up,

00:48:41

He set his face to go to Jerusalem.

00:48:44

For two millennia, theologians have connected

00:48:47

this back to this moment in Isaiah,

00:48:49

a face, set His face like flint to go die. Flint.

00:48:54

One of the weirdest things that Sarah and I bonded on

00:48:56

in one of our earliest dates is the fact that

00:48:58

both of us had rock collections as kids.

00:49:01

It is maybe the nerdiest thing about me, I don't know.

00:49:05

But I know from having a rock collection as a kid

00:49:09

that flint is not a substitute for any kind of rock.

00:49:13

It's a very particular kind of rock

00:49:15

with a very particular history.

00:49:18

See, now and back then, in the ancient world,

00:49:20

it's known for being very hard.

00:49:21

In fact, in the ancient world, it was known as

00:49:23

the hardest, the sharpest thing that there was.

00:49:26

And people would use it to create sparks amd fire.

00:49:30

Now, the fascinating thing about flint is

00:49:32

that flint actually itself doesn't make fire.

00:49:36

What flint is is harder and sharper

00:49:38

than anything it's going to touch.

00:49:40

And so today we use steel.

00:49:42

Back then they used pyrite.

00:49:43

Both of them work because they have iron in them.

00:49:46

Something strong and hard.

00:49:48

But what happens is when you rub the flint across the iron,

00:49:52

sparks fly because little bits of the iron are shaved off.

00:49:58

See, there's power that God wants to release in your life.

00:50:01

There's a gift that He wants to give,

00:50:02

and part of that gift is reshaping you.

00:50:04

His heart loves you the way that you are.

00:50:07

He will meet you in your lowest place,

00:50:09

and He doesn't want you to stay there.

00:50:11

And He doesn't want you to stay the way that you are.

00:50:13

He wants to shape you and change you into the image of His Son.

00:50:15

And when you meet Him, parts of you will be burned away,

00:50:19

and that is good.

00:50:20

When you meet His power. His power. He is flint.

00:50:24

Jesus himself in Matthew 21 said this:

00:50:29

And the one who falls on this stone

00:50:31

himself will be broken to pieces,

00:50:35

in a good way, broken to pieces.

00:50:36

When you meet the King of kings,

00:50:38

His heart is gentle and lowly.

00:50:39

But make no mistake, He is harder

00:50:41

and He is sharper than you and He wants to change you.

00:50:45

He wants to change you.

00:50:46

But there's a promise in that.

00:50:47

It's not the change to make you worse;

00:50:49

it's a promise to put power in you.

00:50:52

Paul, in the Run Journey, we heard Paul say

00:50:54

that he rejoices in his weakness

00:50:56

for in his weakness God's power is made perfect.

00:51:00

Therefore, Paul says, I'll boast all the more gladly

00:51:02

about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ

00:51:05

might may rest on me.

00:51:06

That's you meeting the flint.

00:51:08

That's you getting close enough

00:51:09

to let Him shape you and to cut you.

00:51:12

When you strike flint, power is released.

00:51:15

When you strike it.

00:51:17

Well, do you know that Jesus let Himself be struck?

00:51:20

It says this in Matthew 26:

00:51:22

Then they spit in His face and struck Him.

00:51:25

And some slapped Him.

00:51:27

John 19: When they came up to Him, saying,

00:51:29

"Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck Him with their hands.

00:51:33

And where did they strike Him? Matthew 27:

00:51:36

They spit on Him and took the reed

00:51:38

and struck him on the head.

00:51:42

His face set like flint and power, power is released.

00:51:46

Power is released.

00:51:47

That power, that Holy Spirit

00:51:49

that gets released in that moment,

00:51:51

it's looking for a place to catch in a place to ignite.

00:51:56

And that's where this story becomes really fascinating

00:51:59

and meets this weird moment of the people

00:52:02

holding palm fronds, laying them underneath the Savior

00:52:06

with the face set like flint.

00:52:08

Why would they do that?

00:52:10

Well, a palm frond comes from a palm tree.

00:52:14

But did you know that palm tree is actually a misnomer?

00:52:17

It's not a tree in the way that you and I think about a tree.

00:52:20

Do you know what it is? It's grass from the grass family.

00:52:25

Well, Isaiah 40 says this: All flesh is grass,

00:52:31

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

00:52:34

The grass withers, the flower fades

00:52:35

when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

00:52:37

surely the people are grass.

00:52:40

The grass withers, the flowers fade,

00:52:43

but the Word of our God will stand forever.

00:52:48

I want you to get out your palm frond, hold it in your hand.

00:52:53

Now maybe your palm frond is nice

00:52:55

and still green like mine is.

00:52:58

Maybe yours is already brown and dry.

00:53:01

This one, if yours is brown and dry,

00:53:03

this will look just like yours in about a couple of days.

00:53:07

A couple days it will dry, it will turn into a husk.

00:53:13

And it will be useless except for as one thing:

00:53:18

a place to catch a spark and light a fire.

00:53:24

Friend, the Palm Sunday story is a picture of you

00:53:27

putting yourself under the feet of a Savior,

00:53:31

a humble King with a heart that is gentle and lowly,

00:53:36

and a face set like flint determined to die for you.

00:53:41

Who else is worthy of that?

00:53:44

Who else is worthy of your life?

00:53:46

Who else is worthy of your worship?

00:53:49

Who else is worthy of you saying you are the King of kings,

00:53:51

You are the Lord of Lords?

00:53:53

Who else is worthy

00:53:54

of you putting your life into their hands?

00:53:58

We're going to sing a song in just a minute.

00:54:02

You can go ahead and stand on your feet.

00:54:05

And I want to invite you to consider a moment

00:54:09

you might want to have during this song.

00:54:13

I want to invite you to consider if you might want

00:54:16

to do a move that's an echo of your spiritual ancestors

00:54:20

who 2000 years ago saw the humble Savior King

00:54:24

riding into town and chose to lay themselves down

00:54:27

on the ground so He could walk over them,

00:54:30

because it's the best place to be.

00:54:32

If at any time during this song you have a moment

00:54:35

where you want to say to Jesus,

00:54:37

not because I asked you to,

00:54:38

not because everybody else around you is doing it,

00:54:40

because you want to say to Him that

00:54:44

you put yourself under Him and His care,

00:54:46

I want you to drop your palm frond

00:54:48

and just stand on it at any time during this song.

00:54:52

Let's say to Him that He alone is worthy of it all.

01:03:35

- You know, it's becoming clearer and clearer to me,

01:03:39

I don't know many things, but I know one thing:

01:03:44

The best place I can ever put myself

01:03:47

is on the floor under my Savior.

01:03:49

Because He's so kind He'll pick me up.

01:03:53

He'll lift me out of my lowly station. He'll crown me.

01:03:57

He'll give me His power and His Spirit

01:03:58

for another day to follow Him.

01:04:02

If you would, you can pick up your palm frond.

01:04:05

I'd encourage you to take it home with you

01:04:08

and let it be a living symbol that's withering away

01:04:12

in your home this week.

01:04:14

A symbol of you and a reminder every day that

01:04:17

the best thing you can do with your life

01:04:19

is to lay it at the feet of your Savior. Lay at His feet.

01:04:23

Maybe you're in a place where

01:04:25

you've never actually done that before.

01:04:27

If so, I want to give you a chance right now

01:04:29

to do exactly that, to acknowledge Him

01:04:33

as your humble Savior King.

01:04:37

If you want to, you can borrow my words

01:04:39

and just pray a prayer like this.

01:04:41

Say, Jesus, I put myself under you.

01:04:48

Will You forgive me of all of my sins?

01:04:52

Will You allow Your blood to flow down and cover me?

01:04:58

And would You fill me with the power of Your Holy Spirit

01:05:03

to live a new life following You? Amen.

01:05:10

If you prayed that prayer for the first time,

01:05:12

or maybe for the 400th time,

01:05:14

but you haven't been baptized, I just want to remind you,

01:05:18

you have until Good Friday at 3 p.m.

01:05:20

We would love to celebrate your baptism this Easter.

01:05:24

See you at the rest of the Holy Week starting on Thursday.

01:05:27

Thanks for being with us.

01:05:30

- Man, I don't know what struck you from what Kyle shared,

01:05:34

but I hope, I hope, I hope that you understand

01:05:37

how much Jesus wants to connect with you,

01:05:39

the lengths that He went to to restore you

01:05:42

and bring healing and redemption in your life.

01:05:44

And that's ultimately what we're celebrating,

01:05:46

what we're leaning into and experiencing for ourselves

01:05:49

throughout all of Holy Week and leading up to Easter.

01:05:52

And man, if you haven't taken the opportunity

01:05:55

to be baptized, we would love, love to see that happen

01:05:58

for you and to even help make that happen for you.

01:06:00

- Yes, you can text "next" to 301301

01:06:04

and someone on our team, possibly one of us,

01:06:07

will be the one to get back in touch with you

01:06:08

and see what that looks like, whether it's

01:06:10

at one of our ten locations

01:06:12

or maybe you don't live near a site,

01:06:14

we can still help you figure out.

01:06:16

We have people all over the country who've gone

01:06:18

and baptized people because we know someone,

01:06:20

a part of Crossroads Anywhere

01:06:21

that lives somewhere near that person.

01:06:23

- I heard we've got six people in Bolivia

01:06:24

looking to get baptized at one of our watch parties.

01:06:27

- So excited for you guys.

01:06:28

But also, it's one thing to say you want to get baptized

01:06:31

and decide you want to do that, and it's another thing

01:06:33

to actually do it. So do it.

01:06:36

Don't worry about, well, is my hair going to get all wet?

01:06:39

I get you. Am I -- Is my clothes going to get wet?

01:06:41

Am I supposed to go to brunch after that thing?

01:06:43

Or maybe you think you're too old

01:06:46

or people already think I got baptized.

01:06:48

Stop! He is worthy.

01:06:52

And so don't worry about those things.

01:06:54

Text "next" to 301301. We want to help you.

01:06:56

- That's right. Hey, thank you so much

01:06:58

for joining us today for Palm Sunday.

01:07:00

But remember, this is just the start

01:07:02

of all that God wants to show you of Himself

01:07:05

and all that there is to participate in

01:07:07

throughout all of Holy Week.

01:07:09

So we'll see you tomorrow and every day this week

01:07:11

for our live worship and our daily podcast,

01:07:14

as well as Thursday night for our Last Supper Experience,

01:07:16

and then next Sunday for Easter.

01:07:19

Thanks so much for joining and celebrating with us.

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