All right, good morning. As you can see up here, for the kids, what is this? I went all the way to Jerusalem to get one of these so I can use this as a prop, or I went outside and just ruined one of our trees. Today is Palm Sunday, and the reason why it's called Palm Sunday is because this is the day that we remember Christ coming into Jerusalem and preparing his last day that he may go be crucified on the cross on Friday.

It's called Palm Sunday because the crowds were shaking the palm branches and laying it on the ground for the path that Jesus was taking along with the cloak. And so I'll explain the meaning behind the Palm Sunday during the sermon, but this is why it's up here. It's just to remind us of what day it is today.

The text that I want to jump off of, I'm actually going to be going back and forth through the four different texts in the Gospels. As I mentioned last week, the feeding of the 5,000 is the only two of miracles that are mentioned in the four Gospels, but the triumphal entry, again, not as a miracle, but as an event of Christ is mentioned in all four Gospels because of the significance behind it.

I'm going to be reading from Luke chapter 19, verse 28 to verse 37, and then I'll pray and then we'll jump in. "After he had said these things, he was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he approached Bethphage and Bethany near the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples saying, 'Go into the village ahead of you.

There, as you enter, you will find a cold tide on which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say to them, 'The Lord has need of it.' So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.

As they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, 'Why are you untying the colt?' They said, 'The Lord has need of it.' They brought it to Jesus and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.

As soon as he was approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray that you would ordain this time that your word would go forth.

We pray that you would make our hearts fertile. May our years be leaned toward you. Lord, we desire to meet you. We desire to have greater conviction, Lord God, of your presence in our lives. We pray that the worship that we give, the offering, the time that we spend, Father God, diving into your word would cause us to be better prepared for what we will celebrate this week.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, as you know, all the craziness that's going on, I don't know about you, but I've been watching the brief that the president and the doctors have been giving each day. In the middle of the day they would give the latest numbers, how it's spreading, what's going on with the economy.

And obviously if you watch the news, there's a lot of things going on that's changing every single day. But along with that, I think every single one of us, the reason why we are eager to hear from the leaders is because we want to see how they are directing us.

And a lot of times our anxieties or our comfort may directly come to what kind of confidence we have of our leadership. So if you happen to have no confidence in the leadership, then you're probably more anxious than other people because every decision that's being made, you're going to be questioning them.

Why are they doing that? Are they just doing it for the political gain? Whatever news that may be coming out, do I trust these people? Do they care about us? How we feel at this time in our anxiety level, in many ways is directly tied to who we trust.

I remember when I was young, the only person that I felt comfortable when I was driving, not driving, when I was at passenger side, where I felt comfortable enough to fall asleep was my older brother. For whatever reason, whether it was my friends or whether it was my parents, I would always get anxious and as soon as I started falling asleep, I would jolt right back up because in my mind I imagined something's going to happen.

And I never felt comfortable. But for whatever the reason, whenever my older brother drove, I felt comfortable and I would just pass out. I'm in good hands. And I think part of the reason why I felt that way is because when I was a little kid, my older brother was the one who, like in the neighborhood, whatever bullies that there were in the neighborhood wouldn't touch me because they were afraid of my older brother.

So I was able to roam around freely in the neighborhood because they say, "Oh, that's Paul." Or he had a Korean name at that time, but that's Paul's younger brother. And so I'm thinking maybe that's the reason, since I was a young kid, that I just felt more comfortable in my brother's hands.

But right now, and again, who do we feel confident? Who's our leader? Obviously, we've been talking about Jesus' identity, right? He's the great I am. And each one of the I am statements are trying to correct and to redirect the direction of the nation of Israel. Is he simply a means to where we truly find refuge?

If our refuge is financial security, then we're praying now to Jesus that our primary concern is that he would make our business stable, that I'd be able to find a good job, that none of our kids would get sick. And we are clinging to Christ because he's the means to get to that goal, whatever that goal may be.

But the I am statements are redirecting us, saying that ultimately he is the goal. Sometimes the hardships in our lives are brought to us so that we may come to recognize that whatever brings us to him is the means. Sometimes they're good stuff. Sometimes it's events like this that causes us to see him in a different light.

Well, today, it's one thing for Jesus to say who he is. It's another thing to observe it. And I think when we look at Jesus' last week of his life, every part of it reveals a certain aspect of his character. And I think this triumphal entry really highlights, to me, the love of Christ.

We know that God is holy, and we also know that the Bible says that he is love. It's one thing to imagine what his love looks like. It's another thing to actually see it. So what I want to do this morning is highlight the three different aspects of love, God's love that we can observe through this Palm Sunday.

So if you look at the outline, there's three outlines, and then you'll see in the outline it says, "God is," and then I left it blank, okay, so that you guys can just know that this is what we're going through. So there's three things that we're going to be dealing with, and the first thing that I want us to pay attention to is God's love is deliberate.

It's deliberate. Why is this so significant? Because everything that happens this day, in fact, everything that happens in Jesus' life, but in particular this day, was carefully calculated. In Zechariah 9, 9, which is the passage that all the four Gospels quote, because Jesus tells his disciples to go and get the donkey so that he can ride it in, and the significance behind that was the whole nation of Israel knew that when the Messiah came that he was going to be riding in on a donkey.

So up to this point, Jesus was telling everyone, "It's not time, it's not time." And so he might say it in private, he might tell his disciples, but he didn't publicly announce that this is who he is. So for the first time, for the first time he's making a public declaration just in case there was any doubt to his identity, he gets them to get this colt and he was going to ride on it.

But it wasn't just a random colt that he found on the street. He told his disciples to go to a very specific place. And then if the owner says, "What are you doing?" Tell him the master needs of it, and he said, "That's all it took." He didn't say, "Well, what master?

For what purpose? Who's going to pay me for this?" The reason why the owner of this colt was going to say, "Okay," because it was prepared ahead of time. And we don't know if Jesus went there ahead physically, we don't know if an angel visited him, we don't know if there was some prophecy over his family's life, all of his life saying, "You know what?

We're going to be the family of this colt, and the Messiah's going to raise this colt. That's why nobody can ride it." We don't know. We don't know how it happened, but what we do know that it was prepared, even the donkey that he was going to ride was prepared.

In Zechariah 99, it says, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey." But you know, this prophecy that took place over 500 years before Jesus came was prophesied way before that, all the way up to Genesis chapter 49, verse 11.

There was a prophecy about the king of Israel, and this is what he says. He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey colt to the choice vine. He washes his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. Now here clearly we see the colt that it prophesied way before even Zechariah prophesied, but it goes a little bit further how his robe is going to be in blood of grapes, clearly pointing to the blood that he was going to shed.

Not only that, in Mark chapter 10, 33-34, everything that happens this week was carefully designed and planned, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.

They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him, and three days later he will rise again." Every one of these things that he prophesies is found somewhere also in the Old Testament. It wasn't just coming out of Jesus' mouth. Jesus is saying, "I'm going to fulfill all of these prophecies." God, Jesus didn't come on a donkey and all of a sudden the people betrayed him, and then he didn't find a good place to hide, so the leaders came early in the morning, crucified him, his disciples scattered, and against his will he was dragged to the cross.

That is not how the Bible portrays what happens this week. Even to the betrayal of Judas, to the beating, to the crown that he wears, to the Roman soldier spitting, even the spear on his side with the blood and the water gushing out, even to the place where he was buried, scattering of his disciples, every part of that the Bible prophesies that it was going to happen.

In fact, the Bible says there's over 100 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, over 100. You see, the book of Ephesians chapter 1, as we're studying through the book of Ephesians, the first chapter lays the foundation of God's predestination, adoption, election of us. If you read chapter 1, there is a theme that is repeated over and over and over.

You may have caught it, you may not have caught it when you were studying through it, but the theme that he repeats over and over in Ephesians chapter 1, it was all his doing, his will. Let me just read you a couple of verses, Ephesians 1, 5. He predestined us to adoption.

He predestined us, meaning he planned it and he fulfilled it, as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intentions of his will. Verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the name of his beloved. The theme of he did it, he planned it, he willed it, he purposed it, over and over again.

Again in verse 11, also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. So if you go back and read chapter 1, if there is one theme above God's election, he predestined, he did all of that, it's he did it.

It was his purpose. He planned it. He executed it. Every part of our salvation was carefully crafted and carried out. But what we need to understand is, prophecy in the Bible isn't God looking down the road and looking at a crystal ball and saying, "Oh, okay, that's what's going to happen." That's not what prophecy is.

Not the biblical sense of prophecy. He's not telling the fortune of each individual or the history of mankind that he looked down at the end times and he said, "Oh, that's what's going to happen," and then he wrote that down. Now, that's what John did. When God revealed to him the end times, John took what he saw and he put it down on paper.

But that's not God. When the Bible talks about God prophesying or telling us what's coming, it's because he's going to fulfill it. He's telling us his will. Now, the problem, the difference between us and God is, I can tell you, like today, we're going to be having a meeting at 1 p.m.

and at 1 p.m. we're going to have certain things. We're going to pray for certain things. We're going to inform you of certain things. But I can't guarantee you 100% that's going to happen. I mean, there's good odds that's going to happen because I don't know if I can make it on the way home, something might happen.

I don't know if Zoom is going to break down. I don't know if this meeting is too big and there's too many people showing up, if it's going to work properly. I don't know if the mics are going to work. I don't know if the power outage is going to happen.

I could look at that and say, "I'm hoping that it'll happen. We're planning that it'll happen." But only God can say something's going to happen and it happens 100% because he is able to do that. So every prophecy of the Bible, when we talk about fulfilled prophecy, all it is is God making sure that when it happens, it's him.

That we see what is happening and we recognize this was God's plan all along. This is not happening randomly. Things are not out of control. Jesus' death and crucifixion wasn't out of his hand. Jesus actually says in John 10, 17 to 18, "For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again.

No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up. This commandment I receive from my Father." He said, "No. Yes, I am going to be crucified by the hands of the Gentiles.

I will be handed over by the leaders of Israel. I will be mocked and I will be forsaken by my own people." But Jesus says, "No. Ultimately, it is I who lay down my life and it is I who take it back up." So when we see the prophecies being fulfilled, we have to look at that as when you look at fine art, one of the first things that they always look for is authentication.

If Picasso is the painter, they want to make sure that his signature is there, that it matches up with all the other things that he has done. And so when they match it up, it could be worth a few bucks if it's an imitation or it could be worth a million dollars depending on the authentication of the author or the person who painted this picture.

Prophecy is fulfilled in the same way. When we see it being fulfilled, we recognize God purposed this. This is what he said he was going to do. This is what he said how he was going to do it. And then when he actually does it, the purpose of that is, "Ah, it's him.

He's the one we've been waiting for. He said he was going to come on the donkey." Ultimately, it was not Zachariah. It was not Moses. Zachariah and Moses was only looking at the vision that God gave them and was writing that down. Ultimately, it was God himself who said to Moses, who said to Zachariah, who said to Isaiah, "I am coming, and when you see these things being fulfilled, you know it was me." In fact, there's so many prophecies about the last week of Jesus.

Even Psalm chapter 22, it is a messianic passage. It's about David crying out to God for his suffering. But the Jews commonly understood this as a messianic suffering. But if you look at and study that passage carefully, it is the Messiah, Jesus hanging on the cross, and the vision that he has on the cross.

Even his very moment of suffering was prophesied in the book of Psalms hundreds and hundreds of years before. Now why do I say all of this? Because God did not simply, randomly choose to come and save us. From the beginning of our fall, God made a plan. He said, "This is what I'm going to do.

The seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent, and then he's going to raise up Israel, that they may receive the law, that they may shine God, establish the tribes, and have the prophets prophesy in every little detail of his birth, his life, his disciples, his suffering, his rejection, his resurrection.

All of it, he planned, and then he devised it, and then he fulfilled it. Now why does this show us about God's love? Because the only answer to why he did that is because he loved us. That will always remain a mystery. Why? I think one of the clearest pictures that we have of this love of God is adoption.

I'm very encouraged that there's many families in our church who are praying, and many of you are in the process of adopting. The people who got caught right in the middle of this, some of you guys were waiting, maybe in a few more months you'll get news, you'll be able to go out to Korea and different parts of the world possibly and pick up your children, but now you have to wait.

Even just a few months is a long time. I remember when my own family, with Philip and Mary, and now they prayed and waited eagerly, and now they longed and was eager to pick a belly. The difference between an adoption and birth, and obviously every child is precious, but an adopted child was planned.

An adopted child had to save up a lot of money, had to pray, had to talk to family and friends, and they had to wait. You could see the anticipation not only of the parents, but the friends and extended families, just eagerly waiting because this child is so adored and loved even before he ever lives in the house.

That's the picture, that is pictured for us in the scripture about our adoption. He didn't randomly come in and we were born and all of a sudden he recognized something good in us and then said, "You know what, I'm going to, he's cute, she's cute, he has potential, she has potential." No, the scripture tells us from the beginning, God planned to come and get us.

That's what this triumphal entry is. He's coming to get us. He didn't plan this a couple of weeks before, he didn't plan this when he told the owner of the cult to get ready. From the book of Genesis, the Bible tells us he planned and now he's fulfilling it.

Every single one of us, when danger hits us, the first thing we do is how can we avoid this danger? That's why when this thing first broke out, like when are we going to go home? We got to protect our children. Many of us ran and saying, "Oh, they're going to run out of toilet paper." We have to have toilet paper, so we stocked up on that.

What if the supermarket shut down and we need to have food, so we stocked up on that. At least a lot of us did. We purchased properties based upon the crime. Part of the reason why Irvine is so popular and expensive is because they have low crime rate and parents can send their kids to public school and feel safe.

That's our natural inclination. Every decision that we make, we make based upon how is this going to bring more safety and security. Jesus lived his whole life knowing that he will face danger. He didn't do it for himself. He wasn't a thrill seeker. The Bible says he planned and he actually faced the crucifixion.

Every action that he takes this week takes him closer to the cross. The worst thing that he would do when he enters into Jerusalem is to go to the temple because that's where all the leaders who wanted to kill him was hanging out. The worst thing that if he did go to the temple was to make a scene and to announce to people that he's there.

He flips over the tables. That's the worst thing. If he was a man who was looking for security and safety, first of all, he would have never entered Jerusalem. He would have stayed in Galilee, maybe went further out to Turkey. Instead, every part of his life was intentional and deliberate and executed because God loved us deliberately.

He purposed to love us. So Palm Sunday, he's coming in to rescue us. Number two, God's love is patient. God's love is patient. It says in Luke chapter 1941 that Jesus was weeping. As he was writing in, you have to understand this scene because there's only two places in the Bible where it's described where Jesus was weeping.

The other time was at Lazarus' burial. Now there's a whole different story behind that which I'm not going to get to today, but we can understand, at least superficially, why someone would be crying at a funeral. But Palm Sunday was a parade. In fact, the palm branches that people were waving...

Since I got my prop, I got to use this one more time. The reason why they were waving these palm branches is because the palm branches at that time represented victory. So usually what they did was when soldiers would go out to battle and they win their enemy and the soldiers would march back into town, the people would greet them in celebration with palm branches.

So when Jesus came into Jerusalem and they were waving the palm branches, they were recognizing that somebody powerful was coming into town, that he was going to bring victory. It's similar to when soldiers go to war and they come back, or at least you see films of it where they throw confetti.

If we want to celebrate and we're really excited, if we're excited we'll say, "Yay." If you're really excited, you get confetti and throw it. You just kind of like... An exuberance. That's the scene that we see as Jesus is coming down, coming into Jerusalem. In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, he said that the crowd was stirred.

And the word "stirred" in Greek is seismos. And you could already tell what that word means, is where we get the word seismic, earthquake. He said it was that electric. In fact, this took place during Passover, and by the number of lambs that they have record of that was sacrificed at the temple at that time, they believe that the number of people that possibly could have been in Jerusalem at that time was over 1.5 million people.

I don't think it was 1.5 million people greeting Jesus, but this was not any normal crowd. This is probably the biggest crowd that Jesus has seen. And they were all elated. There were rumors about Jesus raising Lazarus, it was a very prominent family. And even the leaders wanted to shush that.

They were concerned. I mean, this man just raised Lazarus, how are we going to get rid of this guy now? So you can imagine the electricity, and yet, right in the middle of that, we see Jesus weeping. You know what's interesting to me when I read that? Is that there is no explanation, there's no description of the disciples coming to Jesus and asking, "What are you doing?

Why are you weeping?" Look at these people, they're crying out. They're so elated. I can imagine the disciples were thinking that when they come into Jerusalem, that this is what they were going to face. And that's why they were constantly asking, "When the kingdom comes, when these people finally recognize who you are, like we have, and they come and they make you king, who's going to sit on the left and who's going to sit on the right?" I'll bet you the disciples were elated over this.

And there's no description, there's no mention of this, of the disciples like, "What is he doing? Why is he weeping?" It wasn't until later. After everything was done, Jesus was resurrected, maybe after the ascension, Jesus cried. Remember when Jesus cried when he was coming down? Remember? What was that?

Just like in any other, they didn't understand, they were too afraid to ask because every time they asked, Jesus would say, "Why didn't you know? Haven't you been paying attention? I've been telling you this all this time." So my guess is they were probably afraid to ask and it wasn't until after the resurrection they realized Jesus wept.

That's why we have record of it. But it is a strange scene. In the midst of probably one of the biggest parade that Israel has seen, Jesus, the one that they were celebrating, was weeping. It's kind of like you're in a birthday party and everybody's singing "Happy Birthday," confetti falling everywhere, and the guy who's supposed to blow out the cake is just weeping.

And everybody just ignores him because they want the cake. Jesus' delicious cake. This is the best cake that they're going to ever have. So the person that they're celebrating is weeping, but they're just eager to get to the cake. That's what I see here. Jesus is weeping, they're not asking what's going on.

But by his own words, he describes, he says in verse 42 of Luke chapter 19, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, now they have been hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hand you on every side.

And they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." I remember years ago, we were coming out of China and one year SARS broke out in China.

And maybe about a month before we were supposed to go, we got information from our denomination saying, "You guys can't get in there. China is not allowing anybody from outside to come in because of this outbreak." So we ended up scrambling and last minute we ended up going to Romania.

And so our ministry is different in Romania because we can't speak their language. So we made it into this presentation. And at that time, body worship at our church at that time was a big thing. So we had some of our ladies and the guys, we'd practice body worship and then we'd give a short sermon.

And so we have this skit presentation that we prepared. We were eager to go to Romania. And I remember the very first church that we went to, our ladies were doing the body worship and give a short testimony. And I saw a lady way in the back, and this is probably about a group of about 200 people maybe.

So it wasn't a tiny church. And she was weeping and crying and saying something. And the whole time I was thinking, "Wow, she's really touched." She must have, I mean, we can't speak the language, but clearly she understands the Holy Spirit and she's weeping. And so after it was over, I went to one of the translators and said, "Hey, I saw that old lady crying.

What was she saying to you?" And then he seemed reluctant to tell me. And then I said, "Well, what did he say?" And he's like, "Well, it's not good." So I'm like, "Oh, really?" It was complete opposite of what I was thinking. I said, "What was she saying?" She said, "How can they do this in the church?" Romania is such a conservative, and we got rebuked for smiling up on the stage in one of the churches.

And I remember that just deflated everything that I... I was so excited. We had seven more days of this. And I couldn't tell our team, because if I told our team, because it was the very first church, like every church we go to, they're going to... People hate us.

But we're going to do it anyway, because we're here, so let's do it. I kept it to myself until after it was over, and I told them what happened. But it completely deflated everything. Imagine this party, this huge celebration, and Jesus is saying, "You have no idea what's coming." They completely missed it.

What they were seeking and what Jesus was seeing was not just different. It wasn't just off by a couple of degrees. It was going to clash big time. And Jesus says, and it's fulfilled in AD 70, that the Romans came in and completely destroyed the temple, never to be established again, at least in its glory.

And Israel, as an official nation, basically disappears. Reappears, a couple thousand years later, to fulfill God's promise, but they completely missed it. You see, God's love is patient. And why? If that was the case, and he knew that they were going to reject him, why walk in, knowing what they were going to do?

Knowing that they would reject him, the very people that he loved and cared for? Jesus weeps over them. You know, in Luke chapter 15, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, and because he was hanging around with sinners, he said, "How can you, if you're a rabbi, how can you be hanging around with sinners?" And Jesus gives three parables, and the first one is the lost sheep.

In the lost sheep, you have out of the hundred, one sheep strays, the shepherd goes after him and brings him back in celebration. And then he has the parable of the lost coin, same thing. Loses a coin, sweeps the whole house until they find the lost coin, and then they celebrate.

And then the prodigal son, the lost son, is mentioned. But what's different about the lost son is he's not searching. He actually releases him. He said, "My life will be so much better, and I know you have money, and that's all I need. Why wait till you die? Can you give it to me now?" The father actually gives him his portion.

He goes out and he squanders it, and it's only when he's living in squalor, he raised all of his money and realizes that it would be better to be his father's servant than to be his son. So with his tail behind, with his tail under his knees, I forgot what that's...

Between his legs. Okay, I'm a fop. Tail between his legs, he comes crawling back in, and the father is eagerly waiting, eagerly waiting. He sees his son way off in the yonder, and he goes out and grabs him, hugs him, puts his cloak back on, puts his slippers back on, and he ran back in and celebrates.

And obviously, the older brother is like, "Man, I've done nothing. I didn't do all this, and I don't have this." But the point of the whole story is his father released him because the only way to get him was to wait till he comes back. I mean, the patience of our God.

The reason why he didn't reject him is because he knew. Even though as he was weeping over them, knowing the judgment that was coming, he knew that he had to wait until his resurrection, until they repent to come back to him. Isaiah 49, 15 says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion in the son of her womb?

Even these they may forget, but I will not forget you." That's our God. He's deliberate. His love is patient. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that he did what he did because he had compassion. Matthew 9, 36, "Seeing the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd." Matthew 14, 14, "When he went ashore, he saw the great crowd, and he had compassion on them and had healed their sick." He healed them because he was compassionate.

Matthew 15, 32, "The feeding of the 5,000, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I am unwilling to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.'" Let me stop right here.

Just in case any of us thinks that Jesus didn't care whether they ate or not, because Jesus said, "You're coming to me because you ate the bread, not because you saw the sign." It wasn't because Jesus didn't care that they were hungry. It says he fed them because he was compassionate.

Their problem was they thought that if they ate, that they've arrived to their destination. He was compassionate to the lepers. He was compassionate to the demon-possessed. He was compassionate to the widow. He was compassionate to the two blind men. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Isaiah 42, 3, where Jesus quotes in the synagogue in the beginning of his ministry, and he says, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish." There's nobody more patient than our God, not even your parents.

No amount of love of your husband, your wife, your mother, your father, your best friend can be as patient with us as God has been with sinners. God's love is deliberate. God's love is patient. Jesus came into Jerusalem knowing he would be rejected, weeping over the sins of his people, and yet he did it anyway.

Third, God's love is powerful. When he came in, the people were shouting, "Hosanna." The word "hosanna" literally means to save us. But what they were yelling was not save us from our sins. They were yelling, "Save us from poverty. Save us from the Roman oppression. Save us so that we may become the great nation." Every Jew greeted each other with "Shalom," just like we say, "Hi, hey, what's up?" Their greeting was "Shalom." And "Shalom" had deep theological meaning behind it.

It meant peace. All throughout the Old Testament, we are told that God will bring peace. So they quoted this. Basically they were saying, "Shalom. May God's peace be upon you. May God's peace be upon you." Kind of like when somebody sneezes, we say, "God bless you." It was their way of saying, "God bless you.

God bless you." But their idea of blessing was no different than the world, because they did not recognize their sin. The law that God gave them was to reveal their sins so that sin may become utterly sinful. The day we wore it as a badge of honor. We have the law, so we are special people.

We are closer to God than you. In the midst of all of this, Jesus is weeping. He says, "Judgment is coming because you did not know." He says, "Only," in verse 42, "if you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace." Yes, God promised peace when the Messiah came.

The donkey that he rode to come in signified that peace. But the peace that they were looking for and the peace that they wanted was on a collision course. Jesus says in John 8, 36, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." If the Son makes you free.

But again, their idea of freedom was freedom from tyranny of the Romans. And they completely missed the point. As soon as they realized that Jesus wasn't going to fulfill their longing, they didn't want him as king anymore. In fact, they needed to get rid of him. And Jesus, during his ministry, made it clear to his disciples, John 14, 27, "Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." The power of his love, people who are recipients of this love have peace. Even in the midst of storm. Even if we lose our jobs. Even if we get sick. Even if we end up dying early.

We have peace. Because we know we're just passing through. We're just passing through. So whatever we miss out on here, it's just temporary anyway. So the biggest problem that we've had, we've had our own sins, the consequence of our sins, it was crucified on the cross with Jesus Christ.

And that's what he means when he says, "My peace I give unto you." And it's a peace that the world does not understand. This is a peace that will only come when we have peace with God. That's why in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the church, the common greeting in the New Testament was, "Grace and peace to you." As the Jews were saying, "Shalom," the New Testament believers and apostles were saying, "No, shalom." But "charis," grace.

This shalom is going to come by the grace of God. And that's what he was referring to on the cross, is death and resurrection. We will never have peace of God until we have peace with God. And that's what Jesus was saying. But that peace of God is so powerful.

In Philippians 4, 11-13, Apostle Paul, sitting in prison, possibly, possibly this prison sentence may end up in death. And he says this, "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." Now when he says, "I have learned the secret of being content," he's not talking about deep meditation.

He's not talking about going to woods and focusing on an object and saying, "Meditate and tap into your inner self and find peace." It wasn't something that he learned from discipleship and going to some school. He's talking about his connection with Christ. "I have learned the secret of being content in every circumstance.

I know how to get along in humble means," which he is in now. "I also know how to live in prosperity," which he used to live. And many prosperous people were supporting his ministry. "In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering in need.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me." I bet you many of you who are sports fans know that verse very well. "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Seth Curry has that on his Philippians 4.13. "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." That passage was not about dominating your opponents in the basketball court.

That's not about CEOs of companies saying that our company is going to dominate this world. Apostle Paul is talking about finding contentment in Christ that supersedes every other contentment. So whether the storm comes or whether we are in peace, according to the world, whether the pestilence passes us or whether it visits us, whether our business does well or it doesn't do well, I have learned the secret of being content, and that's the powerful love of Jesus Christ.

And this is the love that the world cannot understand. That's why he says, "When we are anxious," in Philippians 4, 6, and 7, "to pray, to come to God, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and suffocation, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension that the world does not understand will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Again, let me read a final passage of encouragement, 2 Corinthians 4, 7-12.

This powerful love of Christ, what it does to people who are completely, completely connected to Christ, anchored in Christ. Paul says in describing his life after meeting Christ, the secret that he's talking about in Philippians, 2 Corinthians 4, 7-12, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." In other words, it may seem common.

It doesn't seem like a big deal. By the views of the world, earthen vessel. "So that the surpassing greatness of the power of the will of God and not from ourselves, we are afflicted just like everybody else in every way, but we are not crushed." We're perplexed, meaning Apostle Paul doesn't understand everything.

And there's a lot of things that happen in the world that we don't understand either. Paul says he is perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us but life in you. That's the power of the cross. God's love is deliberate, God's love is patient, and God's love is powerful.

So I pray that during this season of anxiety and uncertainty that Christ would truly become our anchor. I want to introduce this song again. We sang this last week, but I want to... I asked the praise team to sing it one more time because it's such a powerful song.

It is "Well With My Soul." And I ask that when we sing it, that it would truly be our confession. And I know there's a lot of you who are very anxious because you're at the hospitals and you're being exposed to this virus that's going on, the uncertainties of what's happening.

Some of you just started a business and you're really suffering. You don't know if this is going to make it. Some of you, I've been hearing through the grapevine, have been laid off. And we don't know if it's going to be a furlough, we don't know when this goes back, what the economy's going to look like.

Right now there's a lot of anxiousness and uncertainty. Well, this song, it is "Well With My Soul." The man who wrote it, Horatio Spafford, was a man who knew suffering very intimately. There was a great fire in Chicago that wiped out his business and he was facing possibly losing everything that he had.

And he planned, after that, he planned a trip with his family or to go and took a boat and he sent his family ahead and a great storm came and took out his family. And only his wife was saved from that. I mean, he suffered greatly and he received a letter from his wife and his wife started the letter by saying, "Saved alone." So you can imagine the pain that this man was in.

He was in a circumstance where he could have easily asked, "Why? I've been faithful." I mean, he was a man of God and yet why would you do this to me? But instead, he was so anchored in Christ. And so, look at the words that he pens to describe a man who's been affected by God's deliberate, patient, and powerful love of Christ.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul." Verse two, "Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let the blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul." Verse three, "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that this Palm Sunday, that we would not simply spend it like any other week, any other Sunday, but help us, Lord God, to join the chorus of millions and millions of Christians around the world, remembering what you have done for us.

I pray, Lord God, that your love would convict us, revive us, renew us, and that through all that is happening now, that you would bring revival, a greater affection for your name, greater anchoring toward Christ may result from all of this. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.