Palm Sunday
Father, thank you for, this chance to gather together, this morning and worship you, praise you for for who you are and the freedom that you bring to us. Father, thanks for the chance to look forward to to your death and your resurrection. God, will you center our hearts upon you, align our hearts with you, open our ears to to hear your word? Will you bless Pastor Luke today? And speak through him.
Jeremy:Pour out your holy spirit upon him, and and may the words that you speak through him go deep into our hearts and and touch us and affect us, and draw us closer to you, today and every day moving forward. In Jesus' name, we ask these things. Amen.
Luke:Well, good morning everybody. Good morning. My name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors here at Conduit. And today, in case you didn't realize, it's Palm Sunday.
Luke:That's why there's a bunch of branches laying in the middle of the of the of the aisle. Does anybody I remember when I was when I was younger, I remember the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Did anybody else watch that reality TV show? Alright. Yeah.
Luke:We loved that show when I was little, I think it was on like Sunday nights or something like that, at least where I was at and they, you know, the whole premise of the show is is right. They pick some family and they're like, oh, we're gonna come in. We're gonna send you away to Disney for an entire week and then while you're gone, we're gonna completely renovate your house, which, like, now being an adult and knowing what goes into all of that, I'm like, was that really good craftsmanship? But anyways, you know, so they come in and they like ask the family. They're like, what are the things you're interested in?
Luke:And, like, what are the things you really like? And what's this, like, room mean to you? And they'd ask all these questions and they'd, like, send the family away and they build them this like dream house. Right? And they'd bring the family back from Disney and then they'd show them this big house and they'd be just like, oh my gosh.
Luke:You know, like they made just they put in slides and firefighter poles and other just strange and exotic things in these houses that make no sense. And if you like tried to resell them and somebody's like I don't want a jungle room. Probably hurts your resale value. But anyway, so they would do that and you know, I just thought it was the coolest thing as a kid. 1, because I was like, oh, I want a trip to Disney, and it'd be fantastic if I had a really cool room.
Luke:Right? And you know, that's you know, who wouldn't? Right? To be able to just say, alright, I'm gonna be gone for a week and even if it's just me and I'm a Disney adult for a week and and then I come home and my house has been renovated in sort of my dream kind of extreme makeover. And, I kind of like wanna ask you like, if you could ask God, like if there's like a, maybe a room in your house, your spiritual house here, of your life, or like a situation you're in, a place you feel stuck, a thing that you've kind of wanted to see kind of like renovated as it were.
Luke:How would you have him do it? Like, what is the thing that you want God to do in your life? Like, if you could like, God, can you come in and do an extreme makeover on this thing? What's that thing? Kind of hold that in your head as that kind of comes to your mind.
Luke:Because the thing is is like there's, you know, it's all well and good when these extreme makeover houses like show up and it's like, oh, it's great. You know, oh, this is exactly what I wanted. I even, I kind of remember a viral video that went viral, I don't know, a while ago now, but, it was like one of these renovation shows, surprise renovation shows. And they're showing how they've renovated and made this whole new space. And, like, the wife and husband are standing there, and the wife is just like, like, she don't like it.
Luke:Like, you could tell. She had that, like, face like, look on her face. She was like, I don't like it at all. Like I think she You know? And it just went viral because you're like, you just got your home like renovated and then you're like, surprised.
Luke:And you're just like, I don't like this at all. And the question I have for us today is what happens when God meets our expectations? What happens when that kind of renovation, that ideal renovation of whatever that thing is that kinda came into your mind and your spiritual house of your life. If you're like, God, if you could just kinda change this, fix this situation, kind of, maybe break down this wall a little bit and open it up to an open concept like it whatever that is in your mind, how would that interact? That expectation or that dream, what happens when it meets God's actual intentions?
Luke:The thing God actually wants to do in your life. And that's what I kinda wanna talk about today. That's what we're gonna deal with is what happens when Jesus himself encountered other people's expectations of him. When his mission, his plan didn't exactly play out the way that everybody else wanted it to. So we're gonna be in the book of Matthew.
Luke:Matthew chapter 21. If you wanna turn there in your physical bible, we also have bibles in the pews if you wanna pull them out in front of you. Matthew chapter 21 Yeah. So we're coming into I've called we call today, Palm Sunday. And so if you're excuse me.
Luke:If you're familiar with Palm Sunday, you might know what this kind of means. But Palm Sunday is, you know, just like we have Easter and Christmas. There are other days inside of the church calendar that mark significant events in the Bible, particularly events in Jesus's life and ministry. And Palm Sunday marks 1 week before Easter. And it was the week it was the day in which Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem.
Luke:And this whole week coming forward is what's traditionally called holy week. And there's different days of those weeks mark the different things that are happening in Jesus' ministry during the week leading up to him being crucified on Good Friday. Now, Jesus has been going about and he's been conducting his ministry. He's been conducting a, like, a really, like, you know, really notable tour as it were. Right?
Luke:He's going around and he's going from town to town. And the He's he's just just miracle worker. People Big large crowd are following him around because sometimes he feeds them lots of bread and fish. Sometimes he heals people. And then he's always doing this really dynamic teaching.
Luke:He's opening up the ideas in the Old Testament, and people are like, woah. Never heard it preach that way before. He's teaching with this certain authority. And so everyone is kind of hearing the news, you know, even before social media, people still pass news around and going from town to town, and they'd be like, hey, like, have you heard about this Jesus guy? Like, he's a carpenter, he's from Nazareth, and he's going around, and he's teaching this radical teaching, and he's healing people.
Luke:The the blind are seeing, the lame are walking, all of these amazing things. And this is just this so he's this miraculous prophet and this radical teacher, and he has this reputation that's building around him. He's got these disciples that follow him, and it comes to Passover kind of weekend or Passover is coming. So Passover is the big Jewish holiday. If you remember the story of the old in the Old Testament of the Israelites leaving Egypt.
Luke:If you watch the animated movie, The Prince of Egypt, when you were younger like me, or, you know, God comes and delivers them. The story of Moses, of bringing the people out. Passover celebrates that. It's the big, big holiday in the Jewish calendar. And so everybody would come to the capital city of Jerusalem to celebrate this, and Jesus is coming too.
Luke:He's like, alright. I'm gonna come to Jerusalem for this really important holiday. And so it's like everybody's coming into this one city because it's really important. Everybody wants to go to the temple, and so it's just jam packed. It's, you know, it's kind of like, you know, the modern equivalent would be like the city that's hosting the Super Bowl.
Luke:Right? Just how jam packed that city is leading up to the big game. It's kind of like that, and Jesus is coming into that. And that's where we pick up our story. So we're gonna be Matthew chapter 21.
Luke:We'll start right in verse 1. Says this, as they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, Bethage? We're gonna say Bethage. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her a colt by her untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them and he will send them right away.
Luke:And he's just like, alright. I'm done walking. And he tells his disciples, he said, can you go ahead of me and go bring a small donkey, coal, a little baby donkey, and its mother, and I'm gonna ride it forward. So, like, it's kind of a an interesting like thing. Like if just like, well, why is Jesus doing that?
Luke:Like he was perfectly fine walking all of the way, but now that he's just right here out in front of Jerusalem, why why is he gonna pause? And why is he gonna have his disciples kind of like, walk in front of him and then come back just to bring him these donkeys? And Matthew supplies the explanation for us. So he gives us the answer in the next verses. He says, this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.
Luke:Say to daughter Zion, see your king comes to you, Gentle and riding on a donkey and on a colt a foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. So Jesus pauses and he's kind of being this he's kind of being particular because he wants to he wants to say something with his actions. He's fulfilling this prophecy in Zechariah.
Luke:He's kind of saying like, look, like, I'm going to fulfill this prophet. It's so important that I enter into the city of Jerusalem because I am that royal king that is mentioned in that, in that passage. I am coming to bring peace and salvation. Now, I'll take just a quick second to talk about the donkeys because apparently, people kind of get confused in the Matthew account as to exactly what is happening. I actually ran across, like a popular person who tries to, like, debunk the Bible a bunch of times.
Luke:He seems to think that the text says that Jesus was riding on 2 donkeys at the same time, kinda like I was like, I don't know, like Chuck Norris riding them or something like that. Thank you. I had a very specific picture in my head. So like so just to be clear, the passage is like so Jesus sends his disciples forward to go get this small baby donkey that's never been ridden before. And he's like, bring the mother of the donkey along.
Luke:Why? Because it's gonna be really loud. There's gonna be a big crowd. Lots of people are gonna be shouting, and there's gonna be this small little donkey that's never been ridden before. What better way to calm the donkey than with having its mother along?
Luke:And so the passage does not indicate necessarily that Jesus, like, rode both of them or something like that. Jesus rode the full. And then, if you read that quotation from Zechariah, it's it's going into this, like, because you see it says, gentle and riding on a donkey, in verse 5, and on the colt, the foal of a donkey. He's not saying that he rode both of them, those two lines. One line gives the general statement, The second line below it explains the previous statement.
Luke:That's how often poetic passages in the Bible work. So, there you go. If anybody's ever like, look the Bible silly, because Jesus wrote on 2 donkeys. You can just say, that's silly. You're not reading it right.
Luke:So there you go. That was like a nerdy thing I found out yesterday. I just couldn't eliminate from the sermon. So there you go. So Jesus does all of this really, like, purposeful thing.
Luke:Right? To bring a full. To ride on it and fulfill this prophecy. Now, is everybody gonna know that though? Are they going to like see this prophet and this teacher?
Luke:How are they gonna respond to Jesus doing this? Like he's being very intentional about it. So let's read the next couple of verses and let's see just exactly how the crowd and the other people around Jesus and that were coming into the city respond to Jesus doing this. Verse 8 says, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from trees and spread them out on the roads. That's the palms that are in front of us today.
Luke:The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and they asked, who is this? And the crowds answered, this is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
Luke:So there's almost like as I kinda think about this happening, I was like, how did this kind of, like, play out? Like, it it kind of almost feels like kind of like a flash mob, you know. Did you those were, like, really popular at one point, you know. Like, people are, like, grocery shopping and then all of a sudden everybody breaks out in the song and dance and like it's a weird viral video or something like that. It's just kind of like everyone's going about their normal day.
Luke:They're they're coming into Jerusalem, they're traveling, and the disciples kind of stop. They go get the coal. Everyone who's kind of around them are seeing Jesus getting on this donkey and they're like, oh. And they're recognizing what's in there. They're like, oh, we've we've heard this before.
Luke:We've read that passage in Zechariah. We know what's going on here. And people are like, did you hear that Jesus is outside the city? And he's getting ready to ride in on a donkey and everybody's kind of like grabbing everybody and they come out to kinda greet him and they take off their cloaks and they start, well, I don't have a cloak, but I can grab a branch and I can put the palm down, and they're creating this scene almost just out of out of, like, not planned, but this this radical scene of submission and honor to Christ and saying, like, he's he's coming, and we're gonna shout Hosanna, which means, God, save us. They're quoting this passage from the Psalms.
Luke:If we were to go to Psalm 118. There's a section of Psalms and there's, I think, about 4 or 5 of them. And they're this collection of Psalms, and Psalm 18 is at the end. These collection of Psalms would be Psalms that were sung in connection with Passover because they celebrated the exodus from Egypt through the wilderness into Jerusalem. And so this would have been things that they would have been reciting and would have been in their mind as they're coming into Jerusalem to celebrate Pass over.
Luke:And if we jump into Psalm 118 starting in verse 19, we'll see this. Listen for the parallel imagery. Listen for how it's mirroring what's happening all the way back in Matthew. Open the Open for me the gates of the righteous. I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
Luke:This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks for you answered me. You have become my salvation. The stone, the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Luke:The Lord has done it this very day. Let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord, save us. That verse right there, 25 says, Lord, save us. That's Hosanna.
Luke:It's the translation of what they're saying. Lord, save us. Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord, we bless you.
Luke:The Lord is God and he has made his light shine on us with with bows in hand, join in the festival procession up to the horns of the altar. Right? They're talking this like, Hosanna, come and save us with branches, bows in hand. We're celebrating this procession. Let us enter through the gates of righteousness.
Luke:Yet it is just absolutely dripping with this imagery that is playing out in Matthew chapter 21. And so as they say these words, they're looking towards the deliverance, and they're hoping this is that radical prophet and teacher. Perhaps he'll come and he will deliver us from the Roman Empire. Perhaps he will set us free from the political and religious, like, oppression that we've been under. The last time that somebody had ridden through into Jerusalem on a donkey and there had been palms placed down was slightly over a generation ago when the Maccabees had overthrown the Greeks before the Roman Empire had taken over the region, and Jerusalem had a small period of independence because of the Jewish rebels, the Maccabees.
Luke:And so they had this memory. They would have been had this historical memory of of their grandparents telling them of, oh, the Maccabees. They overthrew the Greeks. And when they had won that war, they had laid down these palms and and he and they had come into the city. And so they would have been like, oh, maybe this Jesus is gonna do the same thing.
Luke:He's gonna perhaps lead a revolt. He's gonna set us free, not from the Greeks this time, but from the Romans. They had this expectation of who Jesus was. And all the city is just like, what's going on? Why are all these people laying these palms and branches?
Luke:Why are they shouting? What's going on? And they're like, it's Jesus, the prophet. Right? For all of the recognition of knowing something important is happening, thinking something significant is happening, they still don't actually know what's happening.
Luke:Because they don't exactly get who Jesus is yet. They think he is this prophet. And so the city is in this state of kind of being startled and confused and despite all the signs everyone was limiting who Jesus was and what he was there to do. Right. Despite everything that was kind of being indicated, all the teachings that Jesus had given, Jesus at this point has even said, I must die and I will rise again on the 3rd day.
Luke:Even his disciples did not quite get it. Despite all of that, they're coming to this idea. They're limiting who Jesus was and what exactly they thought he was there to do. So what does Jesus wants? He's gotten into the city.
Luke:He's off the donkey, kind of, where does he go? What does he do? And in the book of Matthew, we get this sharp kind of like, whip pan moment of just like next scene. And it's immediately, Jesus entered the temple courts, and he drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the bench selling there.
Luke:He overturned the tables, excuse me, and all those who were selling doves. It is written, he said to them, that my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. So almost without any warning, the passage immediately goes into and Jesus was in the temple and he was kicking people out. Right? He was turning over the tables.
Luke:He was saying this is not how my temple was to be used. So what's happening here? Just why exactly is Jesus doing this? So Jesus comes into the temple and there was this area, the court of the Gentiles. It was a place where if you weren't, if you weren't ethnically Jewish, but you believed in Yahweh, if you believed in God, you could come and you could participate, but you could only be in this particular court.
Luke:And there were areas that were set aside to kind of handle some of the kind of exchange. Because if you're traveling from somewhere, maybe you weren't able to bring your sacrifice on the long road to Jerusalem. This would have been a place to come and buy a sacrifice that you could make for Passover. And they were selling It mentions that they were selling doves, which were probably the cheapest sacrifice that you could sell. So this was this was a place where those who were financially strapped could come and get a sacrifice to offer at the temple.
Luke:And what's being told us here is that these weren't being offered at a fair value, they were being marked up, they were being charged, kind of being gouged, kinda like walking through any airport. Right? Like you're traveling. I'm like, I really need this bottle of water. Is it really worth $6?
Luke:No. But I'm thirsty. You know, like so like what is or Starbucks. Right? Like whatever it is.
Luke:So I don't drink coffee. So anyways, but whatever we're not gonna go down that theological rabbit hole. But whatever that thing is. Right? So you can kinda get the sense of they're being gouged.
Luke:They're being taken advantage of because of the circumstance that they're in. Well, they're like, I need a sacrifice and they're being upcharged for this. And Jesus is like, no. No. Like, you are not going to create barriers to people coming and knowing God, coming and worshiping him.
Luke:They were creating this atmosphere of of kind of keeping these kind of modern barriers to people being in the in that space. Even if we go into the very next verse, this might seem kind of out of or that's not out of character, but like how does it connect to the story? So let's look at the very next verse. Verse 14 says, the blind and lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. Why does it take a moment to mention these healings, specifically of the blind and the lame?
Luke:Well, it's mentioning, I think, in part because of something that is said in the book of Leviticus. So, Leviticus chapter 21 has a whole number of rules around, like, who is supposed to be in the temple and when and under what circumstances. These were all of the rules concerning being ceremonially clean, because God was holy and there was meant to be no imperfection in front of God. So Leviticus chapter 21 has some of these rules, and in verse 18 and 19, it very specifically lays something out. Says this in verse 18 of chapter 21 of Leviticus says, no man who has any defect may come near.
Luke:No man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed. No man with a crippled foot or hand or hunchback or dwarf and so on. Right? You get the idea. It's saying, no one with a born physical deformity.
Luke:Someone who would be kind of ceremony unclean or imperfect is supposed to come into the inner courts of the temple where God is. And so Jesus is sitting after having cleared out all of the financial barriers and the people who are taking advantage of people from keeping them from coming into the courts of God, is now sitting down with people who are lame and blind. Who have these physical deformities that would have kept them from going farther into the temple, and he's healing them so that they can. Right? He's removing every single barrier that he can from keeping people from getting closer to God.
Luke:Right? He's removing those barriers. And you know, it's easy for us in our kind of modern mindset and context to say, oh yeah. Well, sure good. We don't like sell doves in the in the lobby or something silly like that.
Luke:So we don't have a problem with that. Right? But like, I was looking and I was looking at history and I had this like, I had this thought yesterday and I was like, I think and I was like, surely the church didn't do this. But we did. The church historically, right, for a number of couple of 100 years or so before before pews were invented, people kind of just stood in church.
Luke:And then pews were invented, and they're like, how are we gonna pay for those pews? Well, I know we'll rent the pews out. And so there were churches, both Catholic and Protestant denominations, who for a number of years, 100 of years or so, would have pews and you could pay to rent better seats. So those of you who come here regularly and you're like, this is my seat, like like we are not leasing our pews. But they used to actually lease their pews.
Luke:You could pay for a better seat and you would get a some churches even sold deeds to certain sections of the pew and then that would be passed down as kind of an inheritance. Right? Now yeah. Talk about putting a barrier between those who don't have money and Christ. Now, not every single church did that.
Luke:Not every denomination did it. And the practice fell out of favor in the mid to early 1900. But don't tell me that we don't still have things that kind of keep people from feeling like they can enter church freely. Right? There's still such a thing as kind of public shame.
Luke:Right? We don't, by any means, force the poor to sit in the back of the sanctuary or anything like that because we're not selling our pews. But, are we welcoming? Are we inviting? Are we saying no, no please come and sit near next to me?
Luke:Right. Let us consider our own context and say, perhaps even there are even these simple physical barriers that keep people from being able to come to church, to be with the people of God. And so in all of this, what's gonna happen? Jesus has come in this massive flash mob. This scene has happened.
Luke:Jesus came into the temple. He has kicked all these money changers out, and he's like, my house, the house of my father is supposed to be that of prayer, not of thieves and robbers. And then he's healing people, all things that sound really great. What's gonna happen? Like, Jesus came in, it's a normal Saturday, and just all of this stuff is kinda happening.
Luke:What is the response? How do people reply to him? Verse 15 says, but when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and they saw the children shouting in the temple courts, Hosanna to son of David. They were indignant. Do you hear what these children are saying?
Luke:They asked him. Yes, Jesus replied. Have you never read from the lips of children and infants, You Lord have called forth your praise. And he left them and he went out of the city to Bethany where he spent the night. And so in response to all of these wonderful things that are happening, high priests or not the high Yeah.
Luke:The high priests and the teachers of the law. Those who were kind of in charge of the temple come up to Jesus and they're like, what are you doing? You came in here and you disrupted everything that we had set up. And aren't you gonna stop these little children from running around and and just saying this about you? Like, are you okay with the people calling you the son of David?
Luke:Because we don't think that's who you are. And Jesus says, out of the mouth of babes it comes. Right? So this story is that of Jesus's goal, Jesus's end coming into conflict with everyone's expectations. Jesus came with the goal of clearing all barriers between God and those who seek him.
Luke:Right? He came and he removed even just some practical physical barriers, the money changers. He removed and healed those who needed healing so that they could go into the inner courts. But he would not just remove those physical practical barriers. He would come and in a few days, remove the power of sin.
Luke:Right? He would go and he would die on the cross for our sins. He would become what he was not so that we might be given righteousness, so that we might come before the throne in confidence before God. Not because of anything you or I have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. And that is done not because we do all the right things, or because we read the Bible so often, or we pray, or we come to church every so often.
Luke:It's not because of any of those things. It's because we believe that Jesus Christ died for me, that we have faith and confess that Jesus is indeed Lord. And that's what Jesus was coming to do. He would literally, when he died, the curtain, the curtain that was separating God's presence from the rest of the temple would be torn in 2. And my question is, is what happens when Jesus's goal encounters our expectations?
Luke:When Jesus' goal came to he came with that goal to help people get closer to God to remove those barriers, they ended up crucifying them. That was then met those people's expectations. What happens when Jesus's goal meets our expectations today? How do we respond? Who do we say Jesus is and does he fit into our mold?
Luke:What do we want from God versus what God wants for us may not be the same thing. Right? To go all the way back to that beginning illustration, that extreme home makeover. The thing that we want God to kind of do in our life. Maybe we want God to knock down that wall and God's like, that wall is load bearing.
Luke:Right? I'm not going to knock that down. And I'm going to do something different here that you're maybe not expecting. And I'm going to do something different here that you're maybe not expecting. That you're maybe not expecting.
Luke:So we can because here's the thing, like we can only hold on to so many things. Right? If I'm, I mean I'm a firm believer of like, one grocery trip, all of those bags are coming inside at once. Right? Like, not making 2 trips.
Luke:Right? And I I You know, but there are times where you can't hold another thing. You're not gonna be able to carry another thing. You're gonna have to put something down. Right?
Luke:Or you're running out of the office and you're trying to carry your your water jug and your coffee jug or tea jug, in my in my case, and your bag and your and then you're like oh well I gotta bring this and like you can only carry so many things at once and we live in a culture where everything just gets piled onto our hands and our arms and we are carrying so many things. Now, we all had a really sort of a blessing in disguise in some way. I'm not gonna minimize the impact of the pandemic on anyone by any means. But we all had this moment where a lot of things were taken out of our hands. Taken out of our schedules because we couldn't go somewhere or we couldn't do this thing.
Luke:At least for me, I found myself stuck in an apartment all by myself. I was like, what do I do with myself? And that was both social and existential, economic and all the crises at once. But there was this moment where all of a sudden people were like, hey, you know what? It's kinda nice not to have something to do every single night of the week.
Luke:It was kind of nice to be able to spend more intentional time with my family. Yeah. Working from home is difficult or this is difficult and all of those different things. But that kind of equaling out, that leveling out of the schedule that happened for a couple months there. We kind of had this moment of like, oh, maybe maybe some of the things that were on my schedule were not as important as I thought they were.
Luke:We had this moment where we were forced to let go of certain things. And the thing is is I kind of wonder if Well, I I know that God will remove an attachment if it means you can hold on to him more. Because the thing is is, what if your hands are full, but your hands being full because you're like, I've got to do this and I got to do this and I got to this and this and this is important. And your hands full, but you're not holding on to any part of God. You're not holding your relationship with him as important or significant in the things that you're holding on to.
Luke:What are you gonna do? Are you gonna try and like squeeze your pinky over there and kind of hold on to it a little bit? Or do you need to let go of something? And God will remove an attachment if it means you can hold on to more of him. There is nothing in your life that will ultimately God will value more than either your holiness or you knowing him more.
Luke:Disappointment is a reminder in this world or is a reminder that this world is but a shadow. We come into places of disappointment all the time. This didn't work out exactly the way I thought it was going to. Maybe I finally got the relationship, I got the job, I got the thing, the next stage in life. I accomplished the goal.
Luke:And maybe maybe it worked out really great but I'm still actually kind of dissatisfied. I am kind of now looking for the next thing because I feel anxious not having that next thing. That's a disappointment. Or maybe we've yet been able or unable to get that next thing that we so desire. And or maybe we just won't.
Luke:What do we do with that disappointment? It's a reminder to us that this world and all that's in it is still but a shadow of Christ in his kingdom. It's a reminder that should we, that we should perhaps let go of some of the things that are keeping us from focusing on the main thing. We often experience disappointment in our relationships, our goals, even our health. When our health doesn't play out the way we want it to.
Luke:It's a disappointment. It's a frustration. And even in that, that's a reminder to us that this is not our home. That we have but one life to live and only part of that life is going to be lived here and now. That there are bigger things and that perhaps we do need to let go of an expectation.
Luke:By holding on to our expectations, we are fighting against what Jesus wants to do in our lives. By holding on to that expectation saying, God, this is the way it has to work out. God, this is exactly how I want you to show up, not any other way. We're fighting against what Jesus might want to do in your life. I had we had me and my wife had a moment the other day where we kind of realized that we were kind of both inadvertently fighting against the other person's expectations.
Luke:We were in the I was we you know, we got a bathroom. We got these nice bathroom mats and, you know, and there's this one bath mat that's kind of between, the toilet and the shower. And I'm in my mind, I'm like, well, that mat belongs right up against the shower. Right? Because that's where you step out of the shower and you get onto that.
Luke:Okay. And, you know, they don't really have, like, grippy on the bottom of these bath mats. And so I just kind of every time I walked into the bathroom, I was just like, oh, this kind of bath mat kind of drifted again. I'll move it back over. See, you guys all realize what took took me like a year and a half because come out, Knoxville.
Luke:I was like, babe, why do you keep moving that mat? And I was like, what do you mean? I'm just moving it to where it goes. And she's like, no. No.
Luke:No. It goes just in between the 2. Like, Like it's it's supposed to go right here so that like it's useful for both the toilet and the shower. And I was like, oh, like, you mean that you just come in and move it right after I move it? And then I come in and then she moves it right back?
Luke:Like, that poor little mat's been moved around like 5 times a day for a year and a half. Right? We were fighting this like ex each other's expectations because I Oh, I didn't I didn't realize. Wow. Communication.
Luke:No. That silly example. Right? It seems kind of how how futile. Right?
Luke:How kind of silly is that to kind of constantly be shifting this mat back and forth. How much more silly is it for us to be fighting against what Christ wants to do in our life? All because we've got this very limited view of, like, the way it's supposed to be and what's supposed to happen. Right? We're constantly in this place of wanting to be resistant to what God wants to do.
Luke:We wanna paint Jesus a particular picture. This is what Jesus came to do. This is what I want Jesus to be in my life. I kind of want him to be this kind of like spiritual guru buddy cheerleader that kinda sits on my shoulder and says, yeah go you. Or am I actually supposed to die to myself, submit and surrender my kingdom, and become part of his kingdom?
Luke:I have 3 questions for us to end our time together today. Three questions. When you hold that place that's in your mind of like a place you feel stuck, a place you feel disappointment, that wall you wish Jesus would just knocked down already. I want you to wrestle with these three questions. Ask God and ask Jesus, what do you want to do inside of me?
Luke:Instead of asking immediately, God, how how do you do this thing that I want you to do? Ask the internal question. God, what is it inside of me that you want to do? What inside of me are you trying to change, grow, alter, illuminate? What are you trying to help me to let go of?
Luke:2nd question is is, what would you have me do or not do? My assumption is not that Christianity is some sort of passive meditation religion. I don't necessarily assume that that just means, okay, well, I'm not gonna do anything. Right? I don't know what the wall is.
Luke:Maybe God is waiting for you to be active in the situation, to act in faith. Or maybe God is waiting for you to let go and trust. You're gonna have to figure that one out with Jesus in prayer. So what do you want to do in me? What would you have me do or not do?
Luke:And then final question is is how will this bring you glory? How will this story, how will this thing in my life not just serve my kingdom, but serve Christ's kingdom, Serve your kingdom. I was thinking about this in my own life and I there's a number of examples but one example that came to my mind this morning as I was reflecting on moments where I've had to have a prayer like this was at the end of 2020. I was serving as a associate pastor at a church plant in Chicago. And we had dreams.
Luke:We wanted that church to grow. We wanted to, you know, be the next big church in the Chicago area. And our little church of 20 people was just absolutely for quite a while, a number of years, both as a participant and then as a pastor. And it didn't work out. And I found myself at the age of 30 moving back to be with my parents in Ohio.
Luke:And I've got no real job I've got a degree in ministry and I'm looking and trying to find a job in a church in probably one of the most difficult, like, church economic times. And I'm at my parents house where I never thought I'd end up back at. And this is not how I wanted things to work out. That was not the life I had planned for myself. All of my plans were kind of dashed and in shambles and I'm just like, what exactly are you doing God?
Luke:Just exactly what are you trying to do in me? And I sat down. I had lunch with a local pastor I was trying to network with and he asked me this question that really shook me. And he said, Luke, what would happen if you didn't go back into ministry? What if God just wants you to be a faithful congregation member?
Luke:He's like, you might need to wrestle with the fact that your identity needs to be in more than just the job that you have and being a pastor. And I didn't like that question very much. But I had to sit with that because I didn't find a job for several months and I didn't get very many good interviews, to be honest. And I had to wrestle with that. I say, okay.
Luke:How long am I gonna look for a job? And what is it what does it mean about me right now that I'm not employed as a pastor? Am I still? Like, where does that do for my identity? And I had to meet God in the middle of all that chaos and uncertainty and ask him, Lord, help me to be less attached to a title and to a role in a church and more faithful to your church regardless.
Luke:Lord, help me to follow your path. Maybe not exactly what I have planned, but be open to what you have planned. Now, the end of that story is is that I did end up finding this church and I absolutely believe that this is where God wanted me to come and where he has me. Thank you for the affirming of the call. And and that's been an absolute blessing, but never in my life did I think I was gonna end up in Western New York.
Luke:I grew up in Ohio. And so it's been a blessing. It's been a blessing, it's been a good thing, but it was definitely not what I'd planned. And it took I had to learn to surrender those things to God, to let go of my expectations and say, God, you do what you're going to do in this situation. So would you please join with me in prayer as the worship team comes back up?
Luke:Heavenly father, Lord, I pray that today you would remove any and all barriers that earn people's hearts, that are keeping them from coming to you. Lord, I pray that we would be a community that removes barriers. I pray that we would be a community that brings and invites people alongside. And Lord, I pray for each and every single one of us who is holding on to something. An expectation, a desire.
Luke:And Lord, those might be really good things. But, Lord, I pray that you would help us to be discerning, to learn to hold on loosely. Lord, that we might trust your goodness, that you give good gifts. And, Lord, when disappointment hits, I pray that we would not be shaken in faith, but we would rest in faith. Lord, might you give us a glimpse for the kingdom of God that you are building through us that's not at all related to our own idea of our personal kingdoms.
Luke:Lord, have your way among us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus said these words. He said, I am the bread of life.
Luke:Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Conduit, my prayer for you is that there would be nothing that would stand between you and Christ's invitation to come and taste, drink of that living water. I pray that you would be held in Christ's love this week. Go in peace.
