 This has been radiant news Good morning radiant family. How's everybody doing? Can we just take a moment and welcome our online family and our portage family? Come on. Let's put our hands together Welcome you guys. We love you glad you're here Real quickly. I know we've said it a few times, but Reinforcement so next weekend with it being Easter I wanted to challenge you to do a couple things if radiant is home and you come regularly Number one is we're gonna ask you to pray pray this week That we'll make much of Jesus and both here and at every church in our community We want every church to be absolutely packed out with people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, right? So pray that and pray also about who God would lead you to invite to come with you to church Next weekend for one of our Easter services 80% of unchurched people People don't go to church or used to go to church and have stopped don't know the Lord all those categories 80% of them will go to church if they are invited by somebody who will go with them So that's up to us. This is part of this is the easy part of evangelism of just saying, you know Being friendly being nice and inviting someone to come with you when you're at a restaurant And you leave a tip leave an invite card leave a really good tip and then leave an invite card or text somebody call somebody send somebody a link from Facebook or Instagram and Invite them to come with you to Easter and then here's the other thing is it doesn't matter which campus you're at We have added some services. So especially the Richland folks that 1030 services going to be like this It's gonna just be packed and standing room only so we need to divide the Red Sea We need some of you to sleep in a little bit later come to 1230. I know it's a lot to ask Here's what you can just be like, you know, I'm a missionary. I'm sleeping until noon. Just doing it for the Lord Or you can like get up early like Jesus did and come to the 830 service That would be fantastic or or try this out Both at Portage and at Richland if you've ever wanted to go check out our Portage campus Portage We have a Saturday night Easter service along with our Saturday night here So go on over there to one of the Saturday nights or come here Saturday night That will really help us last year. Just give you an idea. We had about 7,000 people in church For Easter and so we're probably expecting that or even more than that So we're just trying to make room for everybody. So your help is greatly appreciated Turn with me in your Bibles this morning wherever you're at to Matthew chapter 21 While you're turning there, let me just highlight a couple things that are coming up the next few weeks That are gonna be things you're gonna want to know here at radiant next weekend obviously is Easter The weekend after Easter. I will be Introducing to you my new book. It's called flourish and it you we're not going public with it It's not gonna be on Amazon or sold in bookstores We want to release it to radiant church first because it's our story So the book is called flourish planting your life where God designed it to to thrive and we're gonna have it here That's so it's gonna be flourish weekend. That's the following weekend then after that on May Let's see May 4th or May 3rd 3rd and 4th that weekend We are going to start for the next three weeks red hot. How many remember red hot? Okay, so it's live Text in questions and answers any of your questions about family and relationships about Bible and theology The last week will be wild card where you can ask anything about anything live on the spot put the pastor on the spot I'll see the question when it comes up on the screen at the exact same time Everybody sees it and I'm gonna do my best to not sweat like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee and answer the question According to the Bible so that red hot is coming and then we're gonna be launching our summer series called Heroes New Testament Edition, so there's some good stuff coming down the pike. All right Matthew chapter 21 Look with me here at verse number one It says now when they that's Jesus and his disciples when they drew near To Jerusalem and they came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives 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 anything to you you shall say the Lord needs them and Then they will send them at once This took place to fulfill which was spoken by the prophet saying Sada the daughter of Zion behold your king is coming to you humble and Mounted on a donkey on a colt the full of a beast of burden The disciples went and did as Jesus directed them and they brought the donkey in the colt and put on Them 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 on the road and the crowds that went before him and 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 up saying who is this? And the crowd said this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee Verse 12 and Jesus entered the temple and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple And he overturned the tables of the money changers in the seats of those who sold pigeons And he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer But you make it into a den of robbers and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple And he healed them but when the chief priests and the scribes Saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David they were indignant and they said to him do you hear what they are saying? And Jesus said to them. Yes. Have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes? You have prepared Praise I've entitled this message this morning a strange way to save the world a Strange way to save the world today is the day when we commemorate Jesus's triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem This is the story that we just read. It's the beginning of Passover week It's the beginning of what for Jesus will be his passion week We know that in the next several days as Jesus enters the city That Jesus will appear in the temple almost daily And the reason why that's significant is Jesus comes as the ultimate Passover lamb Paul writes in first Corinthians That Jesus is our Passover lamb He's the fulfillment of all the types and all the shadows that in the Passover meal the lamb represented The lamb was the spotless lamb the lamb needed to be Investigated it needed to be inspected by the priests before it could be offered as a sacrifice So Jesus as the Passover lamb enters into the city and he appears in the temple daily to be inspected to be questioned To be interrogated to prove that they could find nothing in Jesus during this week Holy week or passion week Jesus will spend one last evening with his disciples the last supper and he'll Take the Passover meal together with his disciples and at the end of it He'll institute a new covenant and he'll take the bread and he'll say this is my body He'll take the cup and he says this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins Do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me remember me Jesus will in this week go to the Garden of Gethsemane On the Mount of Olives, and he will pray one last time God if there's any other way Let this cup pass for me But nevertheless not my will but yours be done and that same evening Jesus will be arrested illegally tried He'll stand before a pilot. He'll stand before the Sanhedrin Council and The order will be given for Jesus to be scourged for him to be beaten and for him to be crucified You see this week on Friday Jesus will be forced to carry his own cross After Experiencing scourging with the cat anine tails and you know We can form a man named Simon of Cyrene will be forced to carry his cross and take it to a place called Galgotha outside the city walls of Jerusalem and Jesus the son of the living God will allow his hands to be nailed to the cross beams in his feet after a crown of thorns has been crammed down onto his head and after He's been beaten severely Jesus will be lifted up in humiliation and agony in excruciating pain For six hours on the cross to die for the sins of the world and Jesus will give up his spirit into the hands of the father and all day Saturday Jesus will remain in the tomb but on Sunday an Angel will roll the stone away and The son of the living God will be resurrected from the dead And he will have the keys of death hell in the grave in his hands forever more and he will rise from death Victorious an overcomer the king of kings and the Lord of lords And he will have made a way for each and every one of us to be saved and to be right with God praise the Lord Jesus is a lot This this is the week and how it begins though Jesus has spent several weeks making the journey from Galilee in the north down to Jerusalem in the south In fact, I think we have a map here that charts out the journey of Jesus from the Sea of Galilee Capernaum along the well tread trail all the way down to Jerusalem and As he enters into the city of Jerusalem one last time He has just left Jericho Jericho was further to the east. It was his last stop and from Jericho to Jerusalem It's 14 miles of climbing almost 3,000 foot of elevation change It wasn't the easiest way to get to Jerusalem But it was Jesus's chosen way and the reason why it was chosen is because Jesus was making a messianic declaration Jericho was significant. How many know that Jericho was the place where Joshua fought the battle of and The walls what did they do? That's right. See it was the first City that Israel conquered as they entered into the Promised Land It was the first. Do you know what the last was? It was Jerusalem David conquered it and ushered and ushered in the golden era of David And if you notice the cries of the crowd, they're saying Hosanna Blessed is the son of David. So the Messiah the the messianic figure that Israel was anticipating who would come who would Forgive who would heal who would restore the golden era of Israel who would restore the kingdom and Fulfill the promises that God had made to Israel through Abraham Isaac and Jacob. They called the Messiah the son of David So as Jesus goes from Jericho to Jerusalem He's making a prophetic statement that God has begun the work of salvation at Jericho And now he's about to finish it in Jerusalem And now as Jesus comes with his disciples And they're climbing up the trail towards Jerusalem and they come to the Mount of Olives The eastern most border of the city of Jerusalem and they climb up Mount of Olives And they're looking down into the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount The disciples know that this is a significant moment the crowds come and they've been following Jesus for quite a while Many of them all the way from Galilee Many of them kind of figured out what was about to happen They were living in Jericho and they said we heard word that Jesus is going into Jerusalem Jesus was not just making a trip to Jerusalem. Jesus was going to Jerusalem on Purpose and everybody knew that this he's the Messiah. He's going to Jerusalem on Passover week This is the day. This is it. This is this is the countdown This is the countdown to Messiah Restoring Israel. This is the countdown to God saving us Rescuing us from our old pressers This is the moment where the Messiah the son of David is going to come he's going to walk into Jerusalem He's going to sit down on the throne like David and he's going to restore the kingdom In fact, they knew it because it's quoted in Matthew 21 where it says that he came in on a donkey And the reason why he came in on a donkey is because Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 says behold daughters of Zion when your Messiah your king comes He will come lowly and humble riding in on a donkey everybody knew that and Jesus knew that the disciples knew that that's why he did it They knew the prophetic symbolism. So when Jesus said hey, go get me a donkey. They're like, oh, this is good I mean if somebody told you hey, by the way, about to go for a walk. Can you go grab me a donkey? It probably wouldn't have the same meaning for you It's like what do you want a donkey for it's a donkey. How about a quad? No donkey I need a I need a donkey. They knew what Jesus was doing, but listen. They also knew it verse 10 said in Zechariah verse 9 and 10 chapter 9 It says and not only will he come humble in on the donkey, but when he comes he will break the bow He will put away war he will make peace with all the nations and he will establish the kingdom from the great sea all The way to the Euphrates River They would not have segmented it into just the first part They would have seen the second part of the messianic promise as well. That's why they're shouting Hosanna How many grew up going to church on Palm Sunday? You got one of these Like grew up doing that. I did I went to United Methodist Church, and we always got one I didn't know what they were for I just knew I could smack my friend on the back of the head with We get them and just Hosanna we're waving and chanting Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? It's a Hosanna is actually a word that comes from the Hebrew. It's the Hebrew transliteration the real word is Hoshanna And it means victory Salvation now Think about that literally when they were throwing down their palm branches For Jesus to walk on and they're shouting to Jesus Hoshanna I mean the crowds are gathering right there's swelling and Jerusalem would have been crowded because it's Passover people from every nation All over the world Jews would have gathered for Passover for pilgrimage, and they're shouting. Yes, Shana Here's what they might as they might as well have been playing Da-da-na-na-na Da-da-na-na-na Da-da-na-na-na That's final countdown Remember the bulls when they would come out championships, and they would and now your Chicago Bulls Da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da. I love that Boys want to do that in church But that's it might as well have done that for Jesus because when they're waving saying Hosanna They're not just saying all this is fun to do. They're saying no, this is victory you see the palm branch was a symbol in Israel of Israel's ultimate messianic victory Actually, if you go back in history, and you look at coins that were minted in the days of Jesus and after Jesus They would have palm branches on them because it was their declaration. We will be victorious It was messianic. It wasn't just we're gonna win. It's when God acts in history When God acts on our behalf in history We're gonna win and not only are we gonna win but the Messiah is gonna come and when the Messiah comes all of our problems They're gonna go away. He's going to take the throne of his father David and he's gonna restore our borders He's gonna restore our dignity God is going to forgive our sins He's gonna usher in the world to come and they thought all of that was happening all right then That's why they're shouting Hosanna to Jesus and Jesus was on his way into the city To bring the kingdom of God to save his people To overthrow their oppressors to bring victory and to bring salvation it Just wasn't going to be the way. They all thought it was going to be You see they thought when Jesus comes Victory or when the Messiah comes victory would come by him defeating all of their enemies But what they didn't realize is that their greatest enemy was not an enemy Around them or against them, but it was the enemy within them You see remember that those scriptures that we like to quote like Isaiah chapter 54 where it says no weapon Against you shall prosper how many of ever remember that verse. It's like no weapon formed against you shall prosper every tongue That rises up against you an accusation you shall condemn when we love those verses Whenever we're under attack, but what do you do when the weapon that's formed against you is actually formed within you? What do you do when the tongue that rises an accusation against you is actually your own tongue Self-condemning you by your very own words What do you do when instead of the greatest threat against your salvation and against your eternal life and against your future is not the devil It's not the person that you view as your enemy. It's actually you you are carrying around death on the inside of you That's what they did not comprehend. That's what Jesus absolutely knew. He knew as he came into the city of Jerusalem He was going to take his seat on a throne But it was not the throne that they all thought he was gonna take his throne was gonna be a cross You see there will come a day that as as followers of Jesus what we believe and what the Bible teaches very clearly now on the other Side of the cross and the resurrection is that Jesus's the Messiah's coming would be divided into two parts the first part was he was gonna come as a humble servant who would Die upon a cross as a suffering servant that God would vindicate by raising them from the dead and that would bring about salvation of our sins and Freedom from spiritual bondage and oppression so that we could have a relationship with God because that was our real enemy But there would also come a time when that same Jesus remember Acts chapter 1 the angel announces to the disciples this same Jesus whom you see depart will a likewise return there is coming a day when Jesus the Son of David Is going to pierce the eastern sky he's gonna return in physical visible form all those who pierced him shall see him All nations shall weep for him and his feet will touch the Mount of Olives And he will march through the eastern gate and he will sit on the throne of his father David And he will rule forever and ever as king of kings and Lord of lords Jesus is coming again He will fulfill verse 10 of Zechariah chapter 9 he will do it But they thought it was all gonna happen right then and here was the biggest biggest issue is they all thought that salvation or victory meant God Dealing with their oppressors and their enemies and they didn't realize they were their worst enemy Because they like us Our radioactive We're radioactive with sin Sin from the inside out that's our biggest enemy That's why in Mark chapter 7 Jesus said this he said it's not what goes into a man that defiles him It's what comes out of a man in other words the source of Everything that's defiling and everything that's wrong and everything that's corrupt actually comes from inside of us We think the opposite we think all the things that are wrong in our lives are the result of other things other enemies But you know Roman says that the wages of sin is death How many have ever sinned if you didn't raise your hand that was your first one? Welcome to the club Jesus said and John in Mark chapter 7 He said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for within Out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts anybody ever evil thought raise your hand One person's like my hand raising my hand. Yeah, that's evil. Okay Sexual immorality don't raise your hand Taft anybody ever stolen anything stole somebody's seat this morning murder adultery coveting wanting what other people have wickedness deceit Sensuality envy slander you ever said anything bad about somebody else pride none of us Foolishness all listen to Jesus all these evil things come from within and they defile a person See the real issue. I know that we have enemies. I know that there are things that are external that are challenges and obstacles I know that there is a devil I Think sometimes we give the devil far too much credit For the havoc that's in our life when he really doesn't need to do much because we're pretty good at making a jacked-up mess of our own lives But what Jesus realized is the only way to save the world Was for him to become one of us and to take our place and suffer The penalty of sin which is death Jesus the only one who is sinless the only one the only man who's ever lived and never sinned not won once The innocent became guilty for us so that you and I the guilty could be caught could be called and declared innocent by God Romans 8 says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life It's the gift of God and Jesus knew that and that's why he had his face set like flint as he entered into the city Is he entered into Jerusalem and while they're all shouting Hosanna victory salvation? It's now Jesus said yeah, absolutely They just didn't know how it was gonna go down They had misconceptions and What's interesting is the very same crowds that were shouting Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord We're the same crowd that about five days later were shouting crucify him Why it's because their expectations were not met Their expectations were not met. This isn't how you're supposed to save the world Jesus You don't go to the cross and give up. We want to we want a warrior. We want to conquer We want somebody who's gonna be bombastic and wield a sword We we don't want a suffering servant who gets killed Rome is evil Rome is our enemy and you're submitting to them and they're they're watching the Romans kill their hopes and their dreams The disciples go back to fishing Because they thought it was all over until Jesus rose and so unmet expectations Unmet expectations create disappointment and Disappointment creates bitterness bitterness hardens our heart towards God and so many people that day Had unmet expectations. Jesus was not cooperating with their plan, but he was cooperating with God's plan And he come to save the world, but he was going to do it in a strange way all the way to the cross but it didn't Start with the cross it started with Jesus in his triumphal entry into the city And immediately he goes up into the temple the house of God and he overthrows tables money changers those who were corrupt lawyers and Pharisees that were kind of religious leaders that basically they said look if you want access To worship God you got to go through us and you're gonna have to use temple money Temple money was kind of like if you wanted to buy an animal to sacrifice you couldn't use your money You had to use temple money and temple money had a user recharge So it's like well You can buy a pigeon to offer to God to fulfill what Leviticus says is necessary for your guilt offering You want to be right with God, but you got to go through me and I'll tell you what I'm gonna do a pigeon costs $10 Oh, let me let me pay that out and they said no no no not ten not ten dollars of your money ten dollars of temple money Well, I've got ten dollars. Give me ten dollars a temple money. You know that cost fifty dollars Well, I can't afford fifty dollars, then I guess you can't be forgiven It's kind of like the guys on Christian television who oftentimes will say You can have a miracle For a gift of five hundred and ninety nine dollars. I Thought it was freely you've received therefore freely give I Didn't know there's a price tag attached to the grace of God. You see not only were they charging? Usury, but they were so creating barriers by legal details Saying you can't worship God unless you have my help it was they were a symbol of a Legalistic system that kept people at an arms length away from God. That's why when Jesus walked in the temple He threw him over man. That just must have felt good Let's walk into there Throw that get out of my way. You've made my house at dinner robbers. I want it to be a house of prayer for everybody And it says immediately the blind and the land came to Jesus Why is that significant because blind people and lame people weren't allowed in the temple. They were unclean But now they begin to hear hey, Jesus is in town and wherever Jesus is miracles happen And so they rushed the temple. Oh, yeah, I'm blind son of David. He'll meet Jesus heals them Lame people are brought in lame people can't walk Which means somebody had to carry them in somehow some way they had to get in there And so they're carrying their lame people and they're bringing them up in the middle of all these crowds of religious people and Tables turned over and coins flying everywhere. Jesus is making a mess And Jesus heals the lame people and they're walking Children's choir over to the right begins to shout hoes on oh And the religious leaders are freaking out because religious leaders are Pharisees and Sadducees Here's what their experts at they are experts at creating legal system legalistic law-centered performance oriented Ladders that people have to climb in order to get to God But Jesus had climbed down the ladder of heaven come as one of us to all of us to heal any of us who would come to him Jesus stands in the temple Ho Zana Now listen, here's what I want to tell you is that? Jesus came in a strange way to save the world When he entered into the city and in the same strange way Jesus saves us individually You see oftentimes we think the things that are keeping us back from walking in Joy and happiness and fulfillment in life are external things We think if God would just do this it would change everything if if God would listen if God would defeat Isis in the Middle East We would have peace and safety and we could go back to life before as it was If God would just defeat all the terrorism that's out there and it's a real threat, but can I tell you? You change the external we still have an internal issue How many know that even people that are far away from Christ that are in ice Here's the hard thing to wrap your mind around about Jesus that when Jesus was on the cross He wasn't just dying for white American folks He was dying for al-Qaeda and Isis He was dying for communists Believe this or not. He was dying for Republicans and Jesus was dying for Democrats He was dying for rich people Jesus was dying for poor people Jesus was dying for popular people. Jesus was dying for obscure people Jesus was dying John 316 was to say for God so loved It's everybody But we oftentimes make enemies The battlefield where salvation is waged. We think God if you love me you'll defeat my enemies That's when I'll I'll be really happy if you defeat the person on the other side of the aisle Then salvation will come to our nation. It'll come to me Or we think God if I could just if I could just have that right relationship, man I mean I'm lonely. I'm single. I'm like 31 years old and still waiting for that right one I've been on Christian mingle and Christian tingle and e harmony and farmers dating website And I'm just looking for that right. I'm scrolling. I'm scrolling. I'm liking. I'm communicating And I just can't find that right one Lord when that right one comes then my life will be complete I will have found my la Fonda my soulmate We think it's external But if you can't be the right one, you'll never find the right one See that's why I tell young people instead of you searching for the right one. How about work? I'm becoming the right one. So when you find the right one, they'll recognize you or hey God if you just took care of my financial issues my problems man. I mean my life would be set I mean the only issues I have are financial, but it can I just tell you that money is just like miracle girl Whatever you put it on it will just make it more So if you add miracle girl to sin, it'll just expand that if you give money to a corrupt Radioactive individual money will just make you more of who you already were Money doesn't solve problems Now monies can do a lot of good money can do a lot of bad Do you know I heard that over 90% of the I can't remember 90% of the $20 bills in the US have traces of cocaine on them. I don't even know if that's true. I heard it I I I actually I read it on the interweb So it's got to be true Listen the point is this the problems that we have are not external The things that Jesus comes to save us from are not external You see Jesus entered into the temple in a very strange way to begin saying the world But today he doesn't enter temples today. He enters our lives And when he comes into our life, what does he do? Does he immediately deal with our enemies issues? Does he deal with the spouse we're married to does he deal with their issues? Now when Jesus enters into our life, what does he do? He starts overthrowing tables overthrowing areas of our life where there's corruption overthrowing areas of our life where we've allowed legalism to set in where we've created self-constructed belief systems Or patterns of behavior that others have told us if you'll do these things, you'll be right with God If you just act like this Then you can you'll be right with God if you do that. That's really bad if you don't do this, you know smoke and drink That's bad, but lie and cheat on your taxes. Everybody does that We have legalism in Jesus's day Under the old Jewish dispensation there were 613 laws in the Old Testament That nobody could keep Nobody kept them all if you broke one you broke them all The law was never meant to listen the law of Moses was never given by God in order for it to be a means of salvation He didn't send Jesus because it was too complicated and we couldn't figure out the law was actually given by God to convince us That we did not have it within ourselves to save ourselves by our good behavior He gave us the law to expose to us our drastic need of him to come and to save us from the inside out So what does Jesus do? He shows up in our lives and instead of giving us a better set of rules and say Here's your ten do these things and you'll be right with me No, Jesus comes and he starts overthrowing tables. No that belief system You think you can improve yourself your best form of yourself focus on yourself. Oh, that's all garbage And I'm gonna I'm gonna just turn these tables over right now because your heart was never meant to be a religious Institution of performance under God your heart was meant to be the holy of holies where you and your father have an intimate one-on-one relationship and Then what does he do? Well Jesus somebody was about to clap and that would have made me feel really good But you were just tenth of a second too late. So It's alright, but I forgive you. No, I forgive No, it's alright. It's grace. It's grace. It's just grace Then what does Jesus do the blind and the lame come to him and did Jesus tell him you don't belong here? You got what you deserve Jesus heals him I Want you to know that you may have 2020 site, but all of us start our journey with Jesus being healed from spiritual blindness 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 4 says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers So that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God When Jesus finds us we're all spiritually blind. I don't know about you, but when I look back on my life before Jesus The words of amazing grace I was once blind But now I see If you ever thought to yourself how in the world did I not see this How in the world was I seeing the world? I was I was I was blind to The gospel I was blind to who Jesus was the disciples were blind To how Jesus came to save the world It wasn't until the resurrection that their eyes opened, you know the beautiful thing about Jesus is when he saves us He doesn't come to make us a better version of ourself. He comes to make the dead soul on the inside of us alive in him And he heals us the places where we're lame where we're broken Where we were fine, but Something happened trauma happened in our lives and we find ourselves broken unable to walk unable to follow him Can't follow Jesus if he can't walk Jesus doesn't walk away from us and say I guess you can't he reaches down to everyone who said listen to me This is for somebody this morning. You've thought for a long time. I just don't have what it takes to follow Jesus I've tried You've looked at your life and said I'm just not cut out for it because spiritually you've been lame I want you to know that in the name of Jesus today, he reaches down He says you don't have it in your own strength But today I'm going to heal your heart and give you the ability to follow me rise up take up your met and follow me and lastly What's the last thing that Jesus does it says that the Fair season Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Saying hosanna son of david the kids The kids see what jesus is doing And how many no kids They're gonna have a party no matter what And they're singing Son of david hosanna hosanna hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord, you know kids when they sing They sing without constraint. They sing the top of their voice even if they don't sound good You ever notice that We sing really Oh, no, wrong key. Uh And we try and make it perfect and we don't we don't reach for the high notes Unless you're chorea's barrier Richard Adolf or somebody like that, you know, you're Yeah, all those All those we don't reach for those high notes kids do they just go for it Why it's because there's a childlike innocence Jesus says to the scribes in a Pharisee He says have you not read that god perfects praise in the mouths of infants and nursing babes You know what he's talking about when jesus comes into our life to save us he heals us He overthrows all of our old mindsets Picks us up and gives us the ability to follow him and he puts in our heart a brand new song A song of gratitude of childlike faith not of cynicism Jadedness skepticism He gives us something on the inside of us where we don't care what anybody else thinks We're gonna reach for the high notes of praise for god And we're gonna sing like children once again and in that you may not be perfect pitch But baby when you're in jesus, you are perfect praise Why don't you stand up with me if you would here and over at uh at portage as well now listen We did not pass all palm branches But everybody's got a palm So lift up your palm And wave it and come on say say hosanna Come on say hosanna Blessed is he Who comes in the name of the lord To save the world in a very strange way it may be strange But it's so beautiful It's so powerful And it's so real I want you to buy your heads with me if you would Today, here's what I know is just as jesus rode into the city of jerusalem today The son of god enters into this moment jesus Resurrected lord and savior is here by his spirit And in the same way that jesus opened the blind eyes today I know by his spirit that all over this room and every other place where people are watching The spirit of god knows no time and no distance. He's awakening hearts. He's opening eyes of the heart Is that you He's opening eyes where it's eyes of the heart are going I see I see that jesus is my only hope I see that the enemy is with me and I need a savior to forgive me to deliver me and jesus Is the one who did that today? I need a savior You see jesus enters in and today he picks people off of the floor that we're lame and he says today follow me Well, I don't know if I have the strength to do it. I'm not I'm not a very good religious person to jesus. Perfect You're the right kind of disciple Get up and follow me today jesus is taking some people that have maybe grown cold and hopeless cynical And today he's bringing us back to childlike faith and giving us a new song song of praise Today jesus rides into this moment humble He rides in And with him he brings victory with him. He brings salvation Today, I don't know where you stand But I know this I know this that the holy spirit is pulling on many people's hearts saying today Will you let jesus become Your savior Will you let jesus sit on the throne of your heart? Will you stop? Trying to do it yourself. Will you not become angry and cynical at the idea that you need a savior today? Will you humble yourself? and receive him and Say hosanna God save me hosanna Forgive me Give me a new heart a new life today hosanna Everyone listening within the sound of my voice even online Today if you say I know I need a savior today, I know I'm a sinner Today I can't earn my salvation, but I believe jesus has paid for it and I today want to receive Salvation in the name of jesus. I want to invite jesus into my heart hosanna to be the savior and the lord of my life Today, I know i'm not right with god, but today I want jesus to come into my heart And to be my savior pray for me pastor lee wherever you're out. I want you right now. Just raise your hand say that's me Pray for me. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes hands just raise it and keep it up. This is not a shameful moment This is a joyful moment. I see that hand that hand all the way in the back over here to my right I see yes Yes, yes. Yes on the aisle here. God bless you Somebody in a corner. I feel I just feel like there's somebody in a corner of one of the rooms You don't have your hand up, but you know you need to lift your hand Your heart's pounding and you haven't raised it right now be free. Raise your hand Be saved today. Hosanna. Thank you all the way back there. I see that hand You can put your hands down Today what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna lead all of us in a prayer of invitation The bible says if anybody believes on the lord jesus christ that he died on the cross And also believe that god raised him from the dead and we confess him with our mouth is lord We will be saved salvation victory will come to you this morning Lord right now in the name of jesus i want everybody to pray this prayer a lot say heavenly father I come in the name of jesus and i say hosanna Save me god I believe in jesus That he's the son of god That he rose from the dead After dying on the cross For my sins God forgive me cleanse me Give me a new heart From this day forward i repent I turn my back on my past And serving myself Today i choose to follow jesus and i surrender Sit on the throne of my life And have your way Thank you for loving me And saving me In jesus name Amen and amen Come on let's just