Why Jesus Finishes Well

What does it take to complete the race of faith with integrity, confidence, and ultimate endurance?

In this Palm Sunday sermon on Matthew 21:1–11, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon unpacks the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week. Exploring why Jesus was able to finish His earthly mission so faithfully, the message identifies five crucial principles: honoring the integrated authority of the Bible, dying to the constant need for human approval or understanding, pursuing genuine biblical reconciliation, recognizing God’s overarching plan, and extending true gospel hope to a broken world. Discover how surrendering your own life plans to Christ allows you to live with unwavering purpose and finish your faith journey well.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Authority of Scripture: How Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy demonstrates that the Bible is one unified, authoritative story.
• Dying to Human Approval: Learning to give up the drive to be understood by others so you can live freely and faithfully before God.
• Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation: Understanding why forgiving someone makes us feel noble, while true reconciliation requires vulnerability.
• Trusting God's Plan: Recognizing that God’s sovereign design for your life is far greater than any temporary plan you can construct.
• The Promise of True Hope: Seeing how the sacrificial Lamb of God provides lasting deliverance from sin and uncertainty.

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Transcript

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This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

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Father, we've come to build our life upon everything you say and all that you are. Because Jesus, you said if we hear these words of yours and we put them into practice, that's the key, Jesus. We're not here just to hear words. We're not here to get a religious whipping. We're not here to increase our determination or our self-hatred. We're here to be set free by the truth and to build and bank our lives upon the unchangeable reality of the word of God. And so this doesn't make us religious, it makes us a people that are in a relationship with you. And so, Holy Spirit, uh, open our eyes so we can see the truth in the scripture today and be set free. We want to finish well. We see Jesus the last week of his life, finishing well. Impress upon us everything necessary today and let everything else just fall to the ground. This is our prayer, God. We pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen. Amen. You could have a seat. If you got a Bible, don't you take it, open up to Matthew chapter 21. If you don't have a Bible, relax, don't worry about it. Everything I say will come up on the screen back here behind me on either side of the stage. Today is what's called Palm Sunday. It's called Palm Sunday because we're going to read a story in the Bible here in just a minute about how when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on what's called the triumphal entry. It is the last week of Jesus' life. It's called Holy Week. It's a big deal. It was a big deal back then. And a lot of people didn't know why. Uh we say this a lot here. Sometimes the Bible gets after us. Sometimes the Bible raises its voice and says, hey, don't do that. And sometimes the Bible just winks at us and it's like, watch this. This is one of those occasions. A lot of people did not understand what was going on, but that Jesus didn't have to be understood in order to do the right thing, okay? And so I'm going to read from the Bible and I'm going to make four or five points about finishing well. Why Jesus finishes well is what I want to talk about today. Let me begin with confessing some of my own sin from when I was in college. How many in this room, or maybe you're watching online, you think back to who you were in college and who you are now, and there's a difference in those two people. Say amen. Yes, yes. Now, if I was in the 10th grade, I'd listen to that because you don't want to be who you are right now. I know your friends tell you things like at school and stuff, amen. Stay the same and never change. Those people are morons, don't listen to them. Uh when I was in college, I went to a small private Baptist college, and chapel attendance was necessary. You had to go to chapel. Like if you went in there four years, you'd have two years of chapel credit, okay? And so with chapel is a big room, much bigger than this. And in the back of the room, there was a little window up there on the second story, and the chapel checker lady sat up there with an attendance chart, looking down. If she saw an empty seat, she'd put an X. You could not graduate unless you had fulfilled your chapel credit, okay? I dated the chapel checker's daughter, and I thought that's gonna give me some credit. No, it didn't. She said, Let me tell you something, I don't see your bushy little hair. I'm giving you a marked absence. Now I had hair back then, okay? Uh it was a long time ago. Uh and so chapel was not great. The speakers were kind of like, and so we would either take naps or study or work on homework. And so, until one day I'm sitting there and I'm reading for the quiz in my next period, and a chapel speaker got up, they had 22 minutes. The guy said, Hey, listen, if you've got a test next period, go ahead and study. If you're tired, sleep, I'm not talking to you, but I'm talking to somebody in this room today because what you will realize is that many people in the Bible and most people in this room will not finish well. And I sat up like, what you talking about, Willis? Uh, and I was kind of halfway listening, looking down, reading my page, and the dude was five minutes in, and he had me hooked because he just said, Most of you in this room will not finish well. And here's why. Finishing well depends on who you marry, who you surround yourself with, and the God you worship. And he talked about those three things. And I was just like, wait a minute, who you marry, who you surround yourself with, and the God you worship. I'm not married, I think I'm doing good on these other. Uh but but it was sobering because me and my friends talked about it at lunch that day. My roommate and I talked about it that night in our dorm room. He said, You think I'm gonna finish well? And I said, Hey, people ever ask you a question and you don't want to give the answer? You're like, I don't, hey, hey, hey, look, sports center's on. He said, Hey man, uh, you think I'm gonna finish well? And out of my mouth came these words, not if you marry the girl you're dating right now. And I wasn't trying to be cheap or funny, I was had deep, deep concerns. And he's like, you know what? I've been thinking the same thing. Threw the covers back, got dressed, walked over to her dorm and broke up with her. And I was like, please, Lord, don't let this come back on me. And he just said, You know, I just been staying in the relationship because I didn't want to be alone. I'm like, there ain't no reason to stay in a relationship. And so Jesus, what we'll see, finishes well. This is the last week of his life. He rides into Jerusalem, what's called the triumphal entry on on a day known as Palm Sunday. Here's why. Matthew chapter 21, verse 1. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethog to the Mount of Olives, then 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 he shall send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cold, the full of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and sat on them. Most of the crowd 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 they 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. We'll just stop right there. Again, this is Palm Sunday. There's a lot going on here. Jesus finishes well. By the way, he knows fully well what's going to happen. As you'll see here later on, I'll read to you from different places in the Bible. You don't have to flip around, but I'll come up on the screen. You'll see that Jesus understood that he had to go to Jerusalem. What was going to happen when he got to Jerusalem? He tells his disciples over and over and over, and those knuckleheads still didn't understand. And yet he did it anyway. Why? Why does Jesus finish well? Let me point out five reasons. Number one, to remind us that we have a Bible that is both integrated and authoritative. To remind us that we have a Bible that's both integrated and authoritative. It's verse five, or actually verse four. He says, This took place to fulfill. Underline those two words to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Now, what prophet he's talking about? And then he quotes something there in verse five. He's quoting the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah is an Old Testament book in the back of the Old Testament. It's where homeschoolers get names for their kids. Malachi, Zechariah, Habakkuk. No? Keep going. Anyway, uh, and so he's reminded, he quotes the prophet Zechariah 9:9. That's what that is. He says when he says, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble, mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. What is he talking about? He's referencing back in uh he said, to fulfill. In other words, something is a promise has been made, look at me, and now it is being fulfilled by Jesus. Back, the book of Zechariah was written 550 years before Jesus comes. If you want to nullify the life of Jesus and cancel it out and say, there's no way this is true, all that has to happen is these prophecies that the Bible predicted 550 years earlier not to happen, and yet they do. And by coming into Jerusalem, not on a white stallion like a conquering general, but riding the donkey, the foal of a donkey, Jesus is fulfilling prophecy. And by doing that, he's reminded us we have a Bible that's both integrated and authoritative. Why is this important? Because a lot of people like to separate the Old and New Testament. We don't like the Old Testament. Mean old God kills people. Jesus, he's very loving. We like Jesus or typically it's like this. I want to excuse some behaviors in my life. And so people say to me all the time, I don't really believe the teachings of the Old Testament. It typically is around two topics tithing or sexual identity. And we say, Oh, I well, Jesus doesn't talk about LGBTQ issues, and the New Testament never talks about tithing, so I don't engage in either one of those behaviors. And to those people, I just ask a question. Now, be careful when people say something that offends what you believe with, you don't have to get offensive. I just say, hey, let's take that logic, flawed though it is, and let's apply it to something else. And people always go, okay. And by the way, you know, in the New Testament, the New Testament never says, do not murder or do not kill without referencing the ethic that was established in the Old Testament. So if we take your logic, as diseased as it is and insufficient, and we apply it to the topic of murder, someone could kill you and your family will have no basis for charging them with wrongdoing. Now, do you want to separate the Old and New Testament? Well, that's not what I'm saying. It's exactly what you're saying. But what Jesus says by his behavior is that the New Testament, it's like this cup of water here. The Old Testament is the cup. The New Testament is the water that fills the cup full. One you can't have one without the other. It's one Bible that tells one story all the way through. And so with just a simple behavior by riding it on a donkey, Jesus says reminds us that we have a Bible that is both integrated and authoritative. The second reason Jesus finished as well is because he has died to the need to be understood. He has died to the need to be understood. Let me give you two uh simple statements uh uh under this topic. When you feel as if you need a person's approval, then that person has power over you. When you feel, or when I feel as if I really need that person's approval is very important to me, then that person, you've allowed that person to have power over you. Here's the second statement. There are things that you cannot make people understand because God has to reveal it to them. There are things that you cannot make people understand because God has to reveal it to them. Now, keep that in mind when you're talking to our c or thinking about our current culture, because our current culture thinks that we should get their approval for everything we think, feel, and do. Matter of fact, this past week, a writer wrote a big article in the USA Today, a newspaper, about how Oral Roberts University should not be allowed to play in the NCAA basketball tournament because their views of LGBTQ issues do not line up with ours, and so they should be kicked out. Now, what should concern you is these are the tolerant people. And see, what culture does is culture demands that you agree with me. You've got to go along with this. And the issue, uh they know some of the things they think are absurd, but they are serious, but they're not serious about the issues, they're serious about the point that they're making. And the issue is this if they can get you and I to go along with their absurdity, then they have complete control. And that's the goal of the whole thing. So, what culture needs to do, you don't have to raise your voice in order to be heard or respected, but you do have to stand your ground. You do have to occupy your space out of your identity and with authority. Someone said to me recently, who thinks, by the way, I'm crazy, that you're wasting a brilliant mind believing in something that's that's not really real. And I said, That's okay. Time will tell who's right and who's wrong. And I'm not here to be right, actually, and go, oh, so your life's about being right. No, no, no, no. Stop being a pendular thinker. I say this, the pendulum swing, you just say the exact opposite. I'm not about being right, I'm about being faithful. What do you think I'm about? I said, You sound desperate. And well, well, I mean, I mean, you're you're just a degree minority. You need to get with the 21st century, and we're we're progressive nowadays. And I said, That's great. But the Bible says, God says of Himself that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So as you progress, is there a possibility you're getting further and further away from God and the way God created you to live? Now, by the way, when you have this conversation in a Starbucks, which I did, everybody in there is eavesdropping on you. I mean, they are kind of like, who is where do we dig up this dinosaur? And I look around, I counted, there was like 17 people standing in line and sitting at tables, and I thought, this is a fair fight right here. I like these odds. And the guy was like, he just kept backing up, correct two degrees, come right back. And I said, No, no, no, no. No, see, see, you want me to agree. Now, here's the thing: you've got to give up the need to be understood. Because when people don't understand us, we talk louder with more gestures. And I just said, Hey, here's the thing. I'm willing for us to disagree on this. Or are you not understand my perspective or not agree with it? I'm okay with that. He goes, It doesn't bother you that I think you're crazy. And I said, They killed Jesus on a stick because they disagreed with him. Why should it bother me? What are you gonna do? Go write about me on Instagram or something? I don't care. And he just shakes his head. He goes, Man, see, here's the thing. When I say talk about being, Jesus gave up the right of being misunderstood. Three times in John's gospel, he tells his disciples, hey, we're going to Jerusalem, and this is what's going to happen. And they didn't get it. Three times in Mark's gospel, in consecutive chapters, chapters eight, nine, and ten, he says the same thing. And each time he says it, it's with more granularity. I brought those three because I want you to see, I'm not just making this up. This is Mark chapter 8, verse 31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. And he said this plainly Hello. No parables, no mysteries, no riddles. He said this plainly, and Peter took him aside. By the way, sidebar, some of the people closest to Jesus didn't understand Jesus the most. His disciples. And Peter, wait a minute, and Peter, look at this. This is you're talking about Moxie. This is this is pretty bold. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. That's Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 9, verse 30. They went on from there and they passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know. For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. Mark chapter 10, verse 32. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, the closer Jesus gets to Jerusalem, the more he focuses on making sure his disciples understand who he is and what's fixing to go down. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him, condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. You see the granularity? It starts off in chapter 8. Man, we're gonna go to Jerusalem. Not gonna be a good day for us. Chapter 10, they're gonna mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. And here's the good news after three days, he will rise. Now, have you ever had the experience of trying your best to make someone understand? And despite your best efforts, they simply cannot grasp what you're saying. It is so frustrating. It's just like, oh, if you gave up the need to be understood, what would that free you up to do? And when people don't understand you and you feel that sense of tension that just and you and you think of another illustration or another analogy, like that doesn't make any sense. You're just like like my friend that I'm talking to who doesn't believe, he's a great guy, he just doesn't believe. And he said, I bet this frustrates you. I said, No, actually, it makes me want to cry. He goes, Well, bro, don't don't get all emotional on him. I said, No, no, no. I said, it's a very Christ-like thing. What do you mean? Jesus is so frustrated because he's so misunderstood. And what does he do in response to this? Does he cancel culture of them and just no, no, no, no. The Bible tells us what he does. It's only two times in the New Testament Jesus weeps at the unbelief at the death of Lazarus, and in Luke chapter 19, when he looks out over the city of Jerusalem, the Bible says that when he drew near and he saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. That word weep is not like he had a little tear, like he watched Saving Private Ryan. It is this mournful bewailing, B-E-W-A-I-L, bewail this deep guttural from the heart, make noise. Like people walk by and they really cover their kids' face, like, don't look at that. That looks bad. It wasn't just a trickle of a tear. All right, my eyes got misty. It was, oh my gosh, you people make me so sad. But yet being misunderstood and doing the right thing purifies our motives. Here's the third reason we see that Jesus finished as well. He knows that reconciliation is necessary. He knows that reconciliation is necessary. Now let me just say a little bit uh uh uh about this. Uh all of life comes down to three things. All of marriage, all of life comes down to three things sin, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Now, if I was newly married, I'd been married like a month. I'd listen really careful to this because this would change your life. There's sin and then there's forgiveness and then there's reconciliation. We have to be able to separate forgiveness and reconciliation because it's easy to forgive people because forgiving somebody makes you feel noble. Your spouse sins against you or says something doesn't hurt your feelings, and you forgive them, you feel a little bit noble. Forgiveness makes us feel noble. Reconciliation makes us feel vulnerable. This is why reconciliation is so hard. I see people in counseling all the time, typically married couples where like this one couple, uh, they the guy had done some, he had messed up, he'd sinned. And his wife forgave him. And he said, It's really cold at my house. And they kept coming back. They do good. Four months later, I get a text or a phone call. Hey, can we come see you? It's not very good. And the guy's like, she says she forgiven me, but I don't think she's forgiven me. And she's like, I've forgiven you. What do you want me to do to prove to you that I've forgiven you? He goes, then why are you so distant? And I said, Well, whoa, wait, time out. The issue in this is not forgiveness, it's reconciliation. And she said, What do you mean? I said, Oh, you've forgiven him, but to reconcile with him, to be one with him in a one-flesh relationship makes you feel stupid and vulnerable because he may hurt you again. And she goes, That's exactly right. And I said, There are no guarantees. Well, you are not helpful. Yeah, yeah, there's not. And I'm not saying that flippantly, I'm just saying that that's why reconciliation, it's easy to forgive. I feel noble, but to reconcile, that's very vulnerable. And I said, Hey, what we seem to be in an impasse because she's sitting like this, and he's just like, and I said, Let's just pump the brakes and let me just pray. And let's she said, You prayed in the beginning. I said, You're very observant. I'm gonna pray again now. And she goes, Why are you praying now? I said, Because I don't know what to say. And she's like, Aren't you some kind of counselor? I'm not a counselor, I don't read articles, I don't keep up with journals. Those are for counselor things to do, and that's great. I read the Bible and I try to listen to the Holy Spirit. So Jesus said, The Holy Spirit lead us into all truth. I'm gonna ask the Holy Spirit to lead us you into the truth because there's something going on that you got alligator arms. We can't quite access it. So let's ask the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus said he would do. And she was just doing this. Okay, thank you. This will go well. So I pray, and we just sat there. I said, just ask the Holy Spirit, is this in him or in me? Do I need to forgive him or do I need to forgive myself? After a couple, three minutes, she was like, wait a minute, I got something. I said, Oh, oh, oh. It's like when you're fishing, the Bible goes, Oh, and she said, You know what? I I it's not him, it's me. I said, You got words for it? She goes, Yeah. She goes, when we were dating, my mom said, He's flirty, and flirty men can get themselves in trouble. She says, I had a little bit of in me, and I I didn't follow through it, and now I'm mad at myself because I feel like I'm just stupid. If I had to listen to myself, I wouldn't be hurting like this. And I said, Yeah, you don't need to forgive him. You've already forgiven, you need to forgive yourself. And she's like, See, forgiveness is separate from reconciliation. You and I are easy to forgive because we feel noble, like, yeah, I'm forgiving you. Aren't you glad? I'm so like Jesus. Okay, now you've forgiven, reconcile. Reconciliation makes you feel vulnerable. Now, that's a lot of talk about that. Why? Because Jesus is not just about forgiveness, he's about reconciliation. He later in this week, he gets into the Garden of Gethsemane, he's praying, he's getting ready to go to the cross. He's so overwhelmed and he's so vexed, he sweats drops of blood, his body is shutting down on himself. And he says to his father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. If it be possible, is there another way? God says, No, there's not. And so he has this intense, intense experience. Now, why does the Bible teach not just forgiveness but reconciliation? Because look at me, we are born separated from God because of our sinful nature, and then we make sinful choices, and the Bible says your sins have cut you off. Now, we live in a culture that sought, they first sought to make God non existent, but that was impossible. And here's why because the Bible says in Romans chapter one that what may be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious and what has been made so that men are without excuse. Like you can't go to the ocean. Like I'm in Hawaii one time teaching at Wyoming, it's where I met Brent, our teaching pastor, a long time ago. And I I took one of his friends, Brandon Fox, and they said to me, We can't pay you anything. Welcome to ministry. But bring your golf clubs and we'll go play golf. And so we are playing golf. And I got his friend Brandon Fox out there, and I'm just curb stomping him on the golf course in Hawaii. And we walk it up to the 18th green. The sun is setting in the ocean. And Brandon, I like he's just like standing there, just looking at the ocean. The green's back there. And he said, Man, is there a God or what? And I said, He ain't gonna rescue you from this whipping. Get up here and putt out. I think I got you by seven, okay? I give you four strokes just to make this interesting. And he just laughed and he just stood there and we watched the sun just sink into the ocean on the 18th green of a beautiful golf course in Hawaii. And here's the best part it was free for me. I felt like I'm getting over on a man today. But now I did that. I just thought that's what the Bible means when it says, hey, what made me known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious and what has been made so that men or without excuse. See, our culture saw it to say, oh, there's not a God. Hard to do that. You can't watch babies be born or taste good savory pepper bacon or good chocolate or good coffee and not think, oh, where does this goodness come from? So what our culture's done is changed their plan. Now they're not trying to say God's non-existent, they try to say sin is not existent. And really what they do, it's a two-for-one. Because if you can say sin is not existent, nothing's wrong. It's just your personal preference. If sin does not exist, then you don't need a savior. And so that's why our culture is so coarse. That's why when you turn on TV, it's hard to watch it. That's why you don't turn on your TV hardly at all when your little kids are in the room. It's like, where's Nickelodeon and even that now? They're just kind of creeping things in. See, Jesus knows that reconciliation is necessary because these people have been sold a bill of goods. Oh, there's no such thing as sin. You don't need a savior, God. We got ourselves and technology. We got Google and Amazon and Facebook. What else do we need? You need a God that can forgive you and reconcile you to himself. And here's why Jesus rides into Jerusalem, because that's what he comes to do. The Bible says it like this in 1 Peter 3:18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. If Jesus suffers, look at me, you're smart people. If Jesus suffers and the purpose of his suffering is to bring you to God, then the Bible is saying that you are separated from God to begin with. Another verse, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 5. For there's one God and one mediator between God and man, that is the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Again, if if we're all God's children, why do we all need a mediator? Or as I said to my friend I'm talking to in the Starbucks, uh, if you don't believe in God or the reality of sin, then I ask you four simple questions. And I brought them this morning and put them on the screen. The first one is this why is there something rather than nothing? It's a question of creation. Why did God make golf courses in Hawaii and the sun, which burns at this incredible uh uh temperature that if it was much closer to us, it would incinerate us. And yet we can be out in it and get a tan, we can play golf, we can eat broiled fish and white rice afterwards and look at each other and just be like, man, is God good or what? This is incredible. Man, beauty is abounding everywhere around us. Why is there something rather than nothing? If there is no God and there is no sin. Here's a second question. This is a really hard one. How did things get so bad? Look around the culture. Now, some people on the right say, I'll tell you how they got bad. We lost an election, it was the fix was in, and blah, blah, blah. That's an insufficient answer, too. You see, you cannot explain the world. Look at me, you cannot explain the state of the world today without the word sin. For me as a Christian, you just can't. You look around, this will get me in trouble with some of you. Our president stumbled going up a flight of stairs, and everybody piled on. I just thought, that's somebody's grandpa, man, who's aging, got some issues going on. Like, well, he's a he's a Democrat. No, he's a human being. That's a human being that probably is cognitively challenged. And guess what? You and I are going to be there one day, too. So, how do you explain that? See, see, sin says we want to pile on that and go, look at him. How do you how did things get so bad? Here's a third question: Is there any hope? My friend said to me the other day, he said, You realize you're in the shrinking minority, Neil. They slowly, I said, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, you know, I texted him and said, Hey, by the way, uh, they're trying to, you know, they're trying to make a case. Or Robert shouldn't be in the ECA tournament. They'll come after them, they'll come after us. I think it's a good thing that Christians get persecuted, then we can see who really believes. He said, Uh, are you are you sick? Yeah, I think it's a great day for churches to own their own buildings because churches that meet in schools, if we get the squeeze put on them. It's coming, folks. And that's a good thing. Because the school's gonna say, Hey, you you you you believe our LGBTQ policy. You don't believe what the Bible says, do you? And then what are you gonna say? Uh, we got no place to go. Here's the fourth question: how will it all end? I said to my friend, we had coffee, I said, Hey, how's this end for you? Well, I mean, I don't know. I said, You think we're headed some technological utopia on the back of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and the dude, the pot smoking uh indie hippie Hindu guy that runs Twitter? I mean, really, just I mean, get less things pierced, Jack. You think they're gonna lead us to the promised land? I said, He goes, How's this end for you? I said, Oh, I he goes, Well, I ultimately I don't know how it ends. I mean, do you? I oh, absolutely, I know how it ends. It gets worse, and then Jesus comes and makes everything better, and then we come back as Christians, we come back and live on the earth in its pre-fallen state forever and ever and ever. You sit around smoke pot with your friends who agree with you. That's your idea of heaven. Well, you you you you got something there. Here's the fourth reason Jesus finished as well to demonstrate that God has a plan and his life was a part of it. Let me say this again: to demonstrate that God has a plan. As you sit here in these chairs today, do you believe that God has a plan? And secondly, do you believe that your life is a part of it? Because unless you believe that, you will always long for purpose and reason. I want to demonstrate not only that God has a plan, but God has always had a plan. Going all the way back to Exodus chapter 3, God sets his affection on this guy named Moses. Now, Moses was not a noble cat, he wasn't a good man. No, Moses was a convicted murderer. He killed a guy, buried him in the sand. They should have a 48 hours episode on CBS next Saturday night about Moses. He's a convict. He killed a guy and he fled. He lives on the backside of the wilderness, just making the most of it, living in a double wide on his father-in-law's property. He's out there and God appears to him in a burning bush and says, Hey, dude, I want to use you to change the world. And Moses, like, uh, well, I kind of got a rap sheet and I stutter. How about my brother? He's a good-looking one, and God says, No, you. Why? Because God initiates relationships with people where he can get the most glory. That's why he reveals himself to you and me. He he and so God in chapter five of Exodus, he tells Moses, you go tell Pharaoh, most powerful person on the planet, let my people go. And get this. This is just the raw depravity of the human heart. Moses goes and says, God said, You know, I don't mean to impose, but you know, God, hang on a second, he gets out as a haler. God said, Let my people go. Pharaoh is so rawly, cocky, arrogant, lost, proud. He says, Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I do not loathe the Lord, and I will not do what he says. That's why your kids don't obey you. Their heart is just like Pharaoh. Pharaoh's just honest. And God says, Oh, you don't know me. Let me introduce myself. Here's these little things called plagues. And he just ups the ante. You want some more? You want some more? You want some more? You want some more? And Pharaoh's heart's just hardened, gets to the tenth leg, the death of the firstborn. God says, I'm gonna kill all the firstborn, not just your kids, your livestock, your kitty cat, your puppies, everything. Everything that's the firstborn is going to die. Look at me. Not because God is mean, but because man is sinful and rebels against God. And he but he says, here's the mercy of God. He says, His people this way, hey, I tell you what, if you'll take a lamb and sacrifice it, take the blood of that lamb and apply it to the doorpost of your house. When I send the death angel, look at me. This is the plan. The death angel will pass over your house and spare you. And they did. And he did. It became the feast of Passover that's celebrated. That happened in Exodus 14. So for thousands of years, this is celebrated. Now, when Jesus comes on the scene in the New Testament, one of the first people to see him recognize him, John the Baptist. He looked up and said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. That makes no sense. People are like, hey, dude, smoke less weed, okay? Knock it off. Makes no sense until Matthew 21 that we read this morning. Jesus rides into Jerusalem. The day he rides in is the day that remember Passover feast? All of the people in Jerusalem, that's the day they're selecting their lambs for the Passover sacrifice. And so the law said you had to select your lamb, you had to keep it in your house for five days to make sure it was without spot or blemish and could be sacrificed. And so Jesus rides in while they're selecting their lamb, God's selecting his lamb. And for the next five days of Holy Week, he's passed from this person to this politician to this little guy and this little guy, and finally gets to Pilate, and Pilate washes his hands and says, I find no fault in him. And God's plan is so subtle and so profound because what happens is now you have a sacrificial lamb that can be offered up for the sins of the world. And God has established the innocence of Jesus out of the mouth of people who hate Jesus. And so there's two parallel realities taking place here. People are going through the Passover ritual, and God is demonstrating the Passover reality. Why? Because God's always had a plan. There was a certain point where Jesus turns the head towards Jerusalem. And the Bible says in Luke 9, that when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. One translation says he set his face like flint. He said, I'm heaven-bound to go to Jerusalem. Why? To fulfill God's plan. To do something about your sin and my sin. The highest form of dignity that God has bestowed on humanity is involvement. Ever ask yourself if your life is a part of God's plan? Or maybe a little bit more granularity. Are you more about asking God to bless your plan, or can you hear him asking you to believe his plan for your life? See, we about every 18 months we come up with a plan. Hey God, here's the plan. I want you to bless this. Thank you very much. And maybe God's just looking down on you, coming, can you just believe my plan for your life? Are you kidding me? Like as I stand here, I believe it's God's plan for my life that I'd be your pastor. Some of you like that, some of you don't. Last week, some of you got mad. Go, oh, you said that nowhere in the New Testament does the Bible tell us to confess our sins for forgiveness after the cross. Oh, and I said, Yeah, here's the problem. You can get mad and go talk about me in your community group. Just show me in the Bible where you found it. Nah, nobody yet. And I'm not trying to win and all right. I'm trying to be faithful. I'm trying to say the Bible doesn't just call us to God, the Bible sends us to each other. The Bible says, confess your sins one to another. We'd rather well, you know, I did my little thing and I'm good, me and the big man. That's not the gospel, it's not Christianity. You you were created to be known, to seen, known, and loved. The Bible comes along and it's just, hey, God's got a plan. Be careful. You don't waste your life saying, Hey, God, here's the my wife and I read some books. We got some life coaching, and here's our new plan. Bless this. Maybe God is saying, Hey, why don't you believe this? Before you ask me to bless something else. Why don't you believe my plan for your life? I believe it's God's plan for my life that I'm married to the woman I'm married to. I've never doubted that day in my life. I enjoyed even on the days where I say, What's for breakfast? And she says, Whatever you can find. Kitty likes to scratch. Okay. Yeah. Guess what? I believe it's God's plan for my life. I'm a better man because I'm married to her. Okay? I'm a better man because I'm your pastor. I think it's got this is getting real personal. I think it's God's plan. I live in the house I live in. I don't get on H A R and troll, hey, look, ooh, look what they got. Well, here's the last reason Jesus finished as well. To give everyone in this room hope. Everyone in this world hope. Everyone that's watching at home right now is part of our online congregation to give you hope. Why? Well, Jesus knows what he knows with certainty is that everyone ever born is going to go through some difficulty. They're going to sin, they're going to be sinned against. And as a result of that, we're going to feel hopeless. We're going to feel like there's no way this is ever going to get better. This is ever going to change, or this is ever going to matter. And then Jesus rides in to Jerusalem on a donkey, just smiling. People are saying, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest. And Jesus knows they don't mean a word of this. They're just religious posers. They're saying, Oh, Hosanna, okay, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest. They want deliverance, they want a stimulus check. They don't want to be ruled by the king. He's like, Are you kidding me? You people don't mean a word of it, but he doesn't call them on it. He's so merciful. Sometimes mercy is loud, and sometimes mercy is silent. And God is mercifully silent, and he's just like, Come on, man, who are we kidding? You guys just want deliverance. You don't want the truth. But he rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to say to you and I, I'm gonna endure this entire week. I'm gonna go to the cross so that someone can be reminded that hope is available, forgiveness is real, and you're invited. This is why Jesus finished as well. He believes that every day of his life is an expression of God's plan. What would be different in your life if you believed that simple truth as well? Let's pray together. If you're new to our church, just relax. We like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it. What we do is I'll pray a prayer and some questions come up on the screen. You're gonna try to write them down. You can just discreetly get your phone out and just take a little picture if you want to think about it later on this week. But for right now, let's just think about what we heard. What's happening in your head and in your heart right now? If, like Juni B. Jones, your heart's getting a little pumpy right now. Just ask God, hey, what's what's going on there? What are you saying to me? Because God speaks a language you understand. He does. He's not mean, he's just right. So God thinks you that you're right and you're merciful, you're gracious. You're not like a talk show host on the left or right. You're not out, you're not a pundit out to make a point. You became a person. You took on flesh, you came into this world to say, Ollie, alley, infree. Come out, come out wherever you are. You didn't ride in on a white stallion like a conquering general to announce your victory. You lived in victory every day of your life, so you could ride in on donkey. You didn't need to be understood because you understood. The Holy Spirit just caused us to ask ourselves today: what is it if I understood it, I could just be a more freed up person? Brood over us, God, while we think and listen in Jesus' name. God, we understand we have victory because you finished well. You didn't get to the end like a lot of people currently in our culture, and all of a sudden we find out things about you, and it's scandalous. The more we find out about you, the more we understand about you, the more awe-inspiring and wonderful you become. We become filled with wonder that God would take on flesh, ride into town on some bony pony of a donkey, and go through all that he had to go through for a week and the whole time just winking at it, kind of going, I'm the lamb, I'm the Passover Lamb. Why do you think you guys no longer sacrifice animals for your sins? Because I was enough. So beautiful. What a plan. God, we want to confess that you have a plan for our life, and we have a plan for our life. And our plan pales in comparison to yours. We're gonna get ourselves jammed up and you're gonna set us free. It's as simple as that. So I pray for anyone in this room who's not surrendered or submitted to God's plan for their life that today would be that day. Pray that in Jesus' name, and everyone said. Amen. Amen. If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here. Especially if you're from Idaho, thanks for being here. That's a long way away. You know what Idaho is, don't you? Idaho is where people from California go to start over. Just a joke. Anyway, uh, I met some people that are visiting this morning from Idaho. You're like, what are you talking about Idaho for? Uh anyway, if you're a guest, hope you had a chance to pull on those uh guest cards in your seatback pocket. If you would just fill that out on your way out here in just a minute, just drop one of those wooden boxes by the doors. We'd love to have a record of your attendance. We're not gonna show up uninvited at your house. We just think that you matter. We'd love to know your name and who you are, okay? Uh also, if you're part of our church, uh and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you would take care of that as well, okay? Uh, we have one thing I want to make you aware of coming up, and it's our women's weekend. Uh, there's a slide right there. It's April 23rd and 24th. We have a video. We'll get to you shortly. Uh, but April 23rd and 24th, ladies, you do not want to miss this. If you have questions, they're registering in the lobby. That's one of the little movable kiosks. Uh, it is not a retreat. I call it the women's retreat. It's here on our campus to make it more accessible for people. It's Friday night, and then you'll be done about Saturday afternoon. Uh, but Elizabeth Woodson, who is a teacher instructor at the Village Institute, uh, which is a part of the Village Church in Flowerman, Texas, great church, pastored by a great guy named Matt Chandler. Uh, Elizabeth is an African-American lady, brilliant, godly, godly, gifted communicator. She will be sharing, uh, leading during our women's weekend. So, ladies, if you have any questions about that, we'd love for you to be a part of that. You may be thinking, hey, it's my second time to visit. Can I come? Absolutely. It's not just for members only. You can invite friends. We'd love you to be a part of that. All right. The schedule's been adjusted a little bit to make it more easy and accessible for everybody. So if you have any questions, ladies in the lobby can answer any questions you may have. All right. I'm gonna remind you of just a couple things coming up this week. As I said, my first cup, it's Holy Week. Uh, we have a couple special services that we do here at Grand Parkway in observance of Holy Week. The first one is Monday Thursday, which is this Thursday at seven o'clock. Monday is a Latin for the word mandate or commandment. Uh, and it's basically around John 13 where Jesus tells his disciples, A new commandment I give you, love one another as I have loved you. And so what we do on Monday Thursday is we receive communion, and then we have optional foot washing stations on the back wall back there. Uh, and some people wash each other's feet. Uh, it's like every year my wife washes my feet. It's the most humbling thing. I'm kind of like, hey, can we not do that? And she goes, No, I want to love and serve you. Okay. It's just like, ah, okay, can you just tell me you love me? And she's like, nope, come here. I'm like, here's why. Because I'm an orphan. And when you love me, it scares me. Because you may leave me too. And my wife will say to me on a consistent basis, you know, I'm not going anywhere. Yes, what a here. Because I like to keep that at arm's length. How's that for honest? So, Monty Thursday, again, if you can come to Monday Thursday and no one will wash your feet, no one's gonna come to you and go, Hey, I just met you, Jim. Come and wash your feet. No, I'm leaving, never coming back. Uh, but it's also a time of affirmation, it's a time where we just love on each other. Uh, I'm bringing somebody a gift card just to say to them, hey, I really enjoy you, and I just want you to know that. And here, here's a little something, something. Uh, so it's Thursday night, seven o'clock, and then Friday night at seven o'clock is our Good Friday service. It is sight and sound and remembrance. It's a hymn-dense service that Clyde and I put together uh just to remind us of the sufficiency of the cross. We'd love for you to be a part of either of those or both of those if possible, okay? Uh last thing I want to say if you're visiting, uh, we'll be down front if you have any questions about anything you heard today, or if you want someone to pray with you. But if you're visiting, you're looking for a church. We don't want to just be your church. I want to be your pastor, okay? I was at the Chick-fil-A out here on Waterview Town Center off 99, and I'm at the drive-through getting my food a couple days ago, and behind me here, a little kid lean out of a suburban. Hey, Pastor Neil! And I was like, What's up? Monkey face, chicken lip? And the poor girl at Chick-fil-A, she went, Do you know him? I said, No, I just call kids names. And I said, He goes to my church, and she's like, Oh, so you're like a pastor? And I said, Yeah. But you called that kid what? It just whatever comes to my mind. And I said, Do you have a pastor? She goes, have a blessed day. Here's the thing: I don't want, I want this to be your church. The best part of this church is the people, but I want to be your pastor. I want to see your kids and call them names in public. And I want them to go, Oh, that's my pastor. That guy's for me. So it's more than just, hey, I got a church that I affiliate with. We want to know you, we want to walk alongside of you, okay? So if you have any questions about any of that, we'll be available down front, okay? We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing. So stand to your feet. Hold your hands out if you would. Come on, even the real men. Your God has accomplished everything necessary to eradicate sin from your life. And it was for one simple reason. So you could have more capacity to enjoy Him and everything He provides. Therefore, depart now and enjoy your Father and everything He provides in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.