Sunday Service-March 28, 2010

I had 'church' today before church started.

I sat down beside a friend and she began to tell me about a situation in her life
which is beyond her control.
People seem to feel the need to find the reason
behind her predicament and to voice their opinion.
She's been criticized and analyzed.
It's a really hard situation.
But then she said,"I feel like God is telling me to humble myself and take their criticism."

I felt I stood on holy ground.

I told her about friends of ours who were working in the ministry.
People would come up to them and tell them hard things.
She would call me and ask, "Annette, is this true about me?"
I would say, "Tell me who they are. I'll go take them out."
And she would laugh and she wouldn't tell.

Then, she would spend a day at home,
fasting and worshiping before God.
She prayed, "Lord, is there truth in this?
Cleanse me from my secret faults.
Defend what You can defend in me,
and change what You cannot."

I have never met anyone with as much integrity
as my friend and her husband.

Time after time, they humbled themselves.
And God took them from prison to palace in a day.
With my own eyes, I saw it happen.
They now pastor a vibrant growing church,
Full of integrity and humility.
People just like them.
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I hugged my friend,
who had just taught me so much about how to live.
"I feel like I already had church," I said.
"Me too," she replied.
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Sermon notes from Pastor Frank's message and
my understanding of them.

"The Triumphant Entry"
(Luke 19:28-44; esp. 41-44)

The Passover is a feast celebrated to remember when the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Children of Israel whose doorposts were sprinkled with the blood of a perfect lamb. Those homes in Egypt, which did not have the blood sprinkled on their doorways, lost a firstborn child that night to the final plague.

When Jesus was coming into Jerusalem to celebrate His last Passover feast with His disciples, there were as many as 2.5 million other Jews, converging on Jerusalem for Passover. As He was coming from Bethany to Jerusalem, people began to take off their cloaks to prepare the pathway and waved palm branches, shouting, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" It is recorded that the shouts were so loud and the crowd was so large that the ground actually shook.

Jesus passed by the Mount of Olives where He knew His suffering would take place.
As He drew near the city, He began to weep over it.
"If you had known the things that would have made peace for you. But now, they are hidden from your eyes. The day is coming, when your enemy will surround you on every side, and this city will be leveled to the ground, because you did not know the day of your visitation. (You do not know how often I wanted to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.)"

In the midst of the celebration, Jesus realized that people were more interested in their deliverance, then they were in the Deliverer.

(The Roman soldiers accompanied the praising crowd. Every year, some kind of revolt took place and they were prepared in case Jesus would cause an uproar.)

In five days, the crowd went from crying "Hosanna" to shouting cries of "Crucify Him!"
What happened?
Their Messiah didn't perform the way they thought a Messiah should perform. They were sure that their Messiah would release them from the oppression of the Roman rule.
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What happens to those among us who are praising Him one day and then turn their back on Him the next, willing to crucify Him all over again?

Apostle Paul said that He wanted to know Him. The desire to know Him was greater than any beatings, sufferings or imprisonments that He went through.
Sometimes,
we let the beatings, sufferings, and imprisonments of life become a hindrance to knowing Him.

Perhaps we cry 'Crucify Him' because things did not go as we had hoped.
Things did not go our way.

In our hunger for God,
He has a tremendous purpose for our lives
when He does not deliver us from every difficult situation.
He wants to reveal Himself and be with us in that situation
more than He wants to deliver us out of the suffering.

The religious leaders missed the day of His visitation.
They didn't recognize the fulfillment of prophecy.
Zechariah 9:9-"Behold your King is coming...meek and riding on a donkey's colt."
It was fulfilled right before their eyes.
Many, many prophecies were fulfilled during the time of His visitation to them,
and they refused to recognize Him because He didn't fit their mold.

He revealed Himself to those who earnestly sought Him,
and He will do the same today.

When Mary sought Him in the garden, He revealed Himself to her.
We can be so hungry for God that He steps out His timetable and reveals Himself in a new way.

The enemy wants us to be comfortable.
God wants us to be complete.
The Jews thought their Messiah would make life more comfortable for them.
Jesus wanted to make their life complete.
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Pastor Frank was passionate in his desire
that we would not miss the visitation of the Lord.
I took everything he said personally.
Why listen and think he's probably talking about somebody else?
What growth is there in self-justification?

And so all week long I have asked myself these hard questions.

Have I become overwhelmed with life?
Am I judgmental of those who love Jesus more than I do?
Have I stopped judging fruit and become judgmental?
Have I lost my critical thinking skills and become critical?
Am I unwilling to take up my cross because the cost is too high?
Do I love peace more than I love the Peacemaker?
Do I have a prideful religious spirit?
Am I disappointed with the way God has chosen to reveal His Messiahship to me?

Lord, is it I?

Like my friend, I receive these words.

I accept their painful purging and I pray,
"Lord, cleanse me from these things.
Help me not to miss the day of your visitation.
Defend in me what you can
and change in me what you cannot."

Search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in me.
And lead me in Your way everlasting.