Fickle Followers of the Faith
First B Jackson
2015-03-29

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Can I share a verse with you? We're celebrating Palm Sunday today. And from John 12, it says this, a large crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches, they went down the road to meet him. And they shouted, praise God. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hail to the king of Israel. Wanna celebrate this morning and praise God. Should we stand up and sing to him?

Alright. Hosanna. With lots full of praise be salted oh Lord my God glory let's sing it glory to the king glory to the king of king. Lord, we lift you up. Let's sing Hosanna one more time, okay?

Hosanna.

Amen. Hey. Can we let these guys know we love them? More than that, that we love Jesus. Thank you all.

You can have a seat.

Good morning. How about that? Can you hear me now? Alright. Very good.

I have a few announcements, and I have some quite weird announcements this morning. So I'm gonna make them. Easter breakfast and celebration surveys. These are from last week. Hey, there's no children's church today and there's no children church next week.

Palm Sunday this week, Easter next week. Pancakes next week. We're having pancakes between the services. Actually, I just spoke with Dave Coffman, the guy that's gonna be in charge of getting all the pancakes prepared and getting the guys who are serving them prepared and doing that and I am I'm talking to Dave this morning at 06:00 in the morning. He is actually in Virginia right now with his sister.

His brother-in-law just passed away. I've been praying for him for some time and I thought of that when I saw the pancakes but Dave is thankful for your prayers and appreciates him and have you praying for Dave Kaufman's sister but Easter, Sunday, sourdough pancakes, bacon and sausage too between eight and nine and between ten and eleven. Bring your friends and relatives. I know it's the middle of spring break but come on and enjoy Easter breakfast with us. There's a book club that's meeting for three weeks.

The three Wednesdays after spring break is the fifteenth, the twenty second, and the twenty ninth. Fifteenth, the twenty second, and the April 29. I'll be leading that in the fellowship hall and we have had about 20 people sign up. If you would like to be a part of that, the book that we're gonna be going through together and preferably, you'll be reading it over spring break. Is the Cross and the Shadow of the Crescent by Erwin Lutzer.

So, we're working on those together. I have a few more copies. If you want one today, see me after the service and I will get you signed up for that. If you're interested in volunteering for VBS, please let Krista Clemmer know. That'll be June 22 through the twenty sixth and she is right there.

There's Krista, Carl's wife, Krista. There will be a garage sale. Pay no attention to the arrow. I don't know why it's pointing towards Carl's house. It's not in their garage.

It's actually gonna be over there in the parking lot on April 12. You'll find out more about it. There's a bulletin. There's a flyer in your bulletin but that is gonna be to raise money for the 100 of the Guatemala mission trip. This is also in the bulletin.

So, if you didn't pick one up on the way in and you have anything to do with the youth of this church, if you are a parent or you are a youth yourself, just look in the bulletin and see there's a lot of tedious information I'm not gonna mention right now. So, youth stuff coming up soon. It's a retreat and like what they call the thirty hour famine.

It is. It's good to see you and I I'm a I'm a very proud dad today. Last week, my my little daughter, Addie here, just of her own innovation, her own will said, you know, dad, I I believe in God and I I want to be baptized and but as a parent, the the one thing that I could want most in in this life is knowing excuse me. Knowing that my kids put their faith and trust in Christ. And so as much as she understands and last night, we're reading Acts chapter eight about Philip and the Ethiopian and I was explaining that story and and the Ethiopian man said, there's water.

I believe this message, why shouldn't I be baptized? And when my daughter makes that profession of faith and says, want to be baptized, I'm not going to stand in her way. And so that's why we're here. And so I want to ask Addy a question. You want to stand up right up here, But, Addy, do you believe that God loves you?

Yes. And that he sent Jesus to pay the penalty for your sins and mines and all of ours? And do you put your faith and trust in him as your lord and savior?

Yes. Amen.

Well, upon your confession of faith, I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. So let's get in this tub together.

Amen. I'm gonna invite Mike Nelson up too. We've got praise God, Addie. That's awesome and it's great when kids come and it's a simple thing and kids can't understand it but praise God that adults can come too and so, I wanna let Mike get a chance if he wants to say anything.

I don't I don't know what to say. If you know my story, that's enough right there. God truly does love. Amen. Sinners and given some recent past events, it's a miracle I'm here but it's not really a miracle, it's a victory.

Amen. Amen. Amen. So, Mike, let's go ahead and get in the baptistry here. So, Mike and I have talked extensively about Jesus and we've talked about how he does, what he does, and neither of us know how he does, what he does but he does it and he did it a long time ago.

He made the sacrifice for sin and Mike, do you believe that Jesus died for your sin? I know he did. Amen. And upon the profession of your faith in Jesus as your savior and your lord, I'm going to baptize you in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit buried with Christ. Amen.

Actually, while I'm in here, is there anybody else out there who doesn't mind, Who's not afraid? Who has never been baptized and wants to be? A step of obedience? I always like to give the chance. Alright.

Well, praise God. Well, praise him while Carl and I go get ready to stand up here not soggy. Would you stand together?

Amen. Today is the Lord, the day that the Lord's made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it.

Are the life. You are the way. I once was fatherless. I once was fatherless, a stranger with no hope. Your kindness waken me, awaken me from my sleep.

Your love it back comes deeply. I'll call to come and die. And by grace, I now will come and take this life. Take your life. Sin is lost.

Sin has lost its power. Death has lost its sting out of shame. By the cross, you are the truth. You are the life. You are the way.

My dead heart now is beating. And my dead heart now is beating. My deepest state's now clean. Your breath fills Into marvelous light I'm running, and out in darkness out of shame. By the cross, you are the truth, are the life, blessed blessed be your name on the road my with suffering for this pain in the offering blessed be your name every blessing and take away my heart will choose to say blessed be your name you give and take you give and take away

God, we want to give you thanks. I I thank you God for this life that you've given us and we have a choice. We get to choose to follow you and submit to your will and your design and and I pray God that that each of us would would be more than just lip service and words here but we'd want to follow you with our lives and I thank you God for giving us choice, for giving us free will and I pray with that. We would choose you and and the good and the bad, not just when things are are great in life but even when when when things get tough, that we would choose to remain faithful to you because you have remained faithful to us.

The stands one who is my savior. And I take him not his word indeed. Christ died to save me this I leave. And in my heart, I find of For him to be my savior, he would leave out, he won't leave his place on high. And comfort simple men to die, My savior loves my savior lives my savior's always there for me.

My God he was my God he is my God he's always gonna be. My seed, he loves. My seed, he lives. My savior's always there for me. My God, he was.

My God, he is. My God, he's always gonna be. Yes, living, dying, let me pray. My strain, my soul is from this spring. I've healed this to be my king, once died to be my savior, You counted strange souls, did I, before I knew my savior.

My savior savior's always there for me. My God, he was, my God, he is, my God, he's always gonna be. Yes, living, dying, let me bring.

God, we thank you again. And the the part of the song that really grabbed hold of me is that you would leave your place on high and come for sinful men to die. Thank you, God, for doing that. I I think about this week, that week that all those years ago, that in obedience to the father's will, you carried out your mission. Even when you were mocked and ridiculed and beaten and abandoned, you still went to the cross for our sake.

What an amazing I can't even wrap my head around it. Why wouldn't you just say forget it? But you came to rescue us and to save us. And God, we need rescuing. We do.

Save us from ourselves. Thank you. Thank you for that. God, in this little response here in the worship of giving, I I pray that just out of an the overflow of our hearts and thankfulness and gratefulness to you, this would be just a portion. But more than the worship of more than our our giving of money to you, I pray, God, that in our hearts, we would resolve to know you as lord, as savior.

In Jesus name, amen. You can be seated.

I have I feel like this has been the sloppiest service I've done yet, and I'm just gonna say that it's so weird that ceremony like I'm not a ceremonial guy but ceremony is important to people. It really kinda it kinda holds on to us and grabs us. I did not intentionally do it sloppy but it ends up sloppy and as I was up there thinking about that, just kinda a little bit the angst of it. It goes right along with the sermon. It goes right along with what God has been kind of bringing out this week to me and at Palm Sunday, there are so many traditions that are wrapped up in the church.

There's so many traditions that are wrapped up. We're wrapped up at this time actually. Israel with the palm branches. That's a national symbol. You know, it's their nationalistic symbol.

They're hailing their new king coming in and and traditions where I'm from are probably different from where you are but a lot of the kids coming in with the palm branches is like this cool deal and I think, oh, I just want for it to be cool, special, and something that they remember but not something that has to be right every time. You know what I mean? Not something that's gotta be the same way every time so that we get entrenched in new traditions and stuck by em. Palm Sunday, I I decided what we're gonna go for. Y'all y'all know a while back.

Most of you have been here a lot and you know that we've been going through the life of Jesus first in the book of John and then we went through the Eric. Alright. Abandon this thing altogether, please. Okay. So, Jesus life in the book of John and then the life of the early church in Acts and since then, we've been going in chronological order as I think that the books were written.

So, those being James first, some people say Galatians is first though. Some people say that Galatians is first and they have a pretty good argument for it. But I think James was first. So James first. Then we went through first and second Thessalonians.

The second and third books most people agree on. First Corinthians is next and we finished that last week. Praise the Lord and I mean that. I'm glad to get out of Corinthians. It's a good, good, good, good book and it stirred up a lot of stuff and people have been coming in.

We've had some great conversations around it and people have made some changes based on what Paul said in Corinthians But Galatians, I put right in the middle because some people argue for an early date and some people argue for a late date and I'm gonna split the difference and put it right in the middle and I'll tell you more about why in a minute. So, we're getting going today in Galatians and you can call it getting going in Galatians or you can call it for fickle followers of the faith. To what what stands out about Galatians to me is that fickle congregation. So, let's go forward. Galatians one one through five reads like this, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead.

So, who sent Paul? Apostle means one who is sent. Who sent Paul? He lets us know in the very first verse. Paul, an apostle.

There were some people in Galatia. They were arguing that Paul was not an apostle at all. He had not been with Jesus for the three years. He was not one of the steady 12 disciples that followed him around. But Paul asserts it in the very first verse.

Paul, an apostle, one who is sent, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead. And all of the brethren who are with me and it's to the churches of Galatia. Now, if you pick up any commentary on Galatia, the first, I don't know, tenth of the book is going to be about North Galatia or South Galatia. This is amazing how this fight goes. It is an unbelievable battle over whether it is North Galatia or South Galatia.

And people have all the reasons. It's based on the text, and there are reasonable reasons for both sides. I honestly don't care which one you believe. But if you read the commentaries, you'll run into it. Don't let it undermine your faith because we don't know exactly where the book was written.

North Galatia, South Galatia. The point is it's a very, very hotly debated subject because some people feel that the book was written before the Jerusalem council that we studied in Acts, and other people feel that it was had to be after. Either way, the point remains exactly the same. So there, I guess, could've been East or West Galatia. That could have been a more hotly debated.

But anyway, if you look at where this is on the map, this is a fairly modern map right here. And Galatia is in Central Turkey. It actually is landlocked according to the ancient first century Roman context. It's landlocked and it's right in the center of of Turkey today. So you see Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, you get your bearings, Russia, Georgia, Syria, got Israel down here, Egypt.

Galatia is right here. Now Paul went through what actually, some people try to stretch Galatia all the way down here almost to the coast, but you see Pamphylia and Cilicia and Cappadocia, and there's actually another one right in here. Laconia. Pisidian Antioch right there. We know he went through there.

Well, none of those places were actually technically in Galatia. But all of these places were full of Gauls or what we would know as the Gauls or the Celts, either one and they were a people that spread out all over this area. So, when Paul writes to the churches of Galatia, we know that he went to this area down here. We do not have a biblical record of him going to North Galatia. So, this is why the argument is.

Technically, Galatia is up there in the center landlock and the other is are down here. And that's Lystra and Derbe and all those we studied in Acts. I don't wanna bore you with the details. These are the details though. Look at that.

Yes. If it's South Galatia, he probably wrote it early after his first journey. If it's North Galatia, probably wrote it late. So this is the the dividing lines of theologians what they fight over. I'm not going to fight over it because the time period and exact location are somewhat uncertain.

We don't really know. But the point of the book is really, really, really clear. The letter to the Galatians deals with this, grace versus law. And you might wanna even say it as faith versus works. That's the way that it is.

And it hits this drum over and over and over and over again. There is no doubt at all as to where stand where Paul stands on this issue as to where God stands on the issue whether it is by ceremony that I was talking about a minute ago, things being done exactly right, the right way, hold your mouth exactly right or whether it is by the grace of God and by the faith that he's given but that's in our hearts that we can exercise toward him. The book of Galatians is dealing with faith versus works. How does that go? So, he says, he's an apostle, sent straight from Jesus, from God the father, who raised him from the dead and he sent to sending this letter to Galatia And he says, grace to you and peace from God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Does anybody recognize that little blurb right there? Just the yellow part up there. We have covered this in first Corinthians. It was exactly the same wording, and we've covered in first Thessalon first Thessalonians, exactly the same wording. He does switch the word the father and our Lord Jesus Christ and others that was our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The and there though in Greek makes in an English too technically. It makes these things two things equal. He is saying that Jesus Christ, the Messiah is God and he saying that he has a message for you of grace and peace. Grace to you and peace. That's where he starts.

That's where he always starts. Grace to you and peace from God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins. We're in the fourth verse and he's already covered. He's covered who it is that's responsible for the gospel, for salvation. He's already covered a lot of really, really important points and this you might just say, this is just prologue.

This is just normal letter behavior for that time. He's saying who he is, who's who he's sending it to, and what the letter's about in the first paragraph. Well, it is. But think about how much he's already said just in those first four verses. That he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of God and father to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Yeah. Great. First five verses, he covers all of that. He comes back over and over and over to those points of the gospel that they had already accepted.

They had already accepted that Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life. He paid the penalty for sin by his death, his burial, and his resurrection, proved and authenticated his message, and Paul says, this is what it's about. Now the next thing that he gets to is about the people. He says, I marvel or I am astonished or completely surprised that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. It's not another gospel.

And the gospel there, the message of good news. If you look at that, I marvel. He's amazed by it because he knows he's been there with them. He's been there with them and he's seen them accept the freedom that Christ gives, that God gives through Christ. He's seen that.

He knows it and then he gets away from there and he hears back that they're turning away from the grace of God and they're going back to law. The rest of the book will be about it. I'm only going through verse 10 today but the rest of the book will be about that. The argument that how in the world can you turn away from God in all of his goodness and grace and having provided for you a savior, you want to do it yourself now. You're gonna pick back up this old way.

From what exactly is it that they're turning? It it says it very plainly. You're turning away so soon even from him who called you in the grace of Christ. They're turning away from God and they're turning away from grace and they're wanting to pick it back up, pick back up the law. Have you all ever done that?

Oh my goodness. It is so easy to get trapped in tradition. It is so easy to invent new traditions that have to be. And we feel like we've gotta do it just this way and we turn away from the grace of God. Fickle.

That's the one word that stood out to me this week. It's an adjective. That's the way you pronounce it, fickle. And I love the definition. It was marked by a lack of steadfastness.

Now, what did Paul say last week? The last thing he had to say to him was stand firm in the faith. It's marked by a lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability, and given to erratic changeableness. Would you agree with that? I agree with it.

Are we like that? Are people like that? Oh my goodness. Politics, you can see the winds blowing and people are just duped and they go all over the place. They might be going opposite directions, but they will change.

Peoples and cultures will change their minds. Here's a quote I found this week that I thought fits it pretty well. Of mankind, we may say in general that they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. Now that is not some great theologian. That was actually Niccolo Machiavelli.

But he has a pretty sharp point on it. He understands human nature pretty well. We're fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of game. Would you agree with that? I think the Bible agrees with that.

I think that I definitely agree with it. Fickle being prone to changeableness, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Remember that. Hypocritical.

We play act, and we put on a face that says that we are better than we really are. And greedy of gain. That one's pretty easy to understand. I wanna keep on going. I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel which is not another gospel.

It's not good news but there are some who trouble you. Now, the rest of this letter will mention these guys, the troublemakers. Actually, you could translate this. There are some troublemakers. There are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Now the gospel of Christ is what it is. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, living a perfect life, crucified, dead, buried for sin, to pay the penalty for sin. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you add to it, Paul says, it is not a gospel. It's not good news.

This is good news that Jesus did the work already. That's good news. It becomes bad news if you add anything else to it. Jesus did the work but you have to also do this, this, this, this, and this. Jesus did the work, period, is the gospel.

Amen. Accept it for what it is and he will change your life. Amen. But the list of things is aggravating because that goes in all directions depending on who you are and where you are. There are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

They want to change it. Pervert could be changed, corrupt. They want to make it invalid. They want to twist it. Have you ever heard this word?

This is a new word. They just accepted it into the dictionary this year, frenemy. Can you get it? It's a portmanteau word. It's pretty easy to get it.

Somebody who professes to be a friend but is also an enemy or someone who you think is an enemy that is your friend frenemy, either one. I I kind of like the term and it stands out in this case and Palm Sunday has always bothered me for one reason. It's because of the fickle nature of that crowd. It drives me nuts. I love the the cheeriness of it and I love the laying down of the cloaks and the all of that, the passage that Carl read a little while ago.

But those same people were the ones in town that were yelling crucify him later. And that's always really, really kind of bugged me. But human beings are fickle. We are like that. And we tend to be greedy of gain.

And if we think that somebody's going to do well for us and for our people and for our country or for our national whatever, our team, anything, if we think they're going do well for us, we'll be their friend. But if they turn on us, man, we turn to their enemy really, really quickly. So, there are some who trouble you. There are some troublemakers and they wanna pervert the gospel of Christ. And then Paul says this, and I love this, but even if we and he's talking about himself and his companions, the other apostles.

He's saying, even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you because that is all there is. The gospel is what it is and you've accepted it and you know the joy of it and you know the freedom therein and whereas the Thessalonians, he was praising them because they were spreading that love and that joy and that freedom and the Corinthians, he was saying, oh, don't fall away. Come back in. You're letting sin distract you and get in there. He's saying, it doesn't matter if anybody shows up and preaches something different.

You've already gotten all that there is. You have the full gospel. It is good for salvation and it is good as you yield your will to his will for your sanctification. He will clean you up. You don't have to get clean.

If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all, the song says. Even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, then let him be accursed. Know that he is outside. Actually, the word accursed can, it's anathema. Let him be anathema.

Apart from God, recognize him as not being one of God's messengers. If he tries to preach anything else than what we've already taught you, what you already know to be true, keep him outside. Don't let that kind of teaching in, okay? It's the same message from last week, standing firm in the faith, that gospel which we've preached. Now, do you think that this is relevant today?

This is a rainbow gathering right here. This one's actually in Bosnia, but there was one in Big Piney two years ago. I picked up a hitchhiker and took him. Didn't know what I was taking him to, but anyway, that's a rainbow gathering. So this thing's all stacked up.

This is the angel Moroni on the top of every temple of the LDS church Mormon church. This is a new life a new age, sorry, new age symbol, and these are other kinda new age symbol. Is the book of Galatians relevant to our time and our place? It is very, very relevant. Even if an angel comes proclaiming some other gospel, do you know that that is what Maroni, the angel of the LDS whole tradition?

He was proclaiming a different gospel. Their definition of gospel is different. It is Jesus' blood plus your works. The rainbow gathering, they gather for a reason. They have certain things that they have to do to be in peace and harmony with the whole everything.

It is very, very relevant because there is but one way, and Jesus is that way. And if you've accepted that, please don't turn away from it. Please don't turn away from it. All of these folks that these religious symbols represent deserve our love and our compassion and not our condemnation. If we are loving these people and sticking to the gospel, the real gospel, God will bring more people to himself through the way that we live our lives.

So, as we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel, anything else to you than that which you have already received, let him be accursed. Know that he's outside of the faith. Pluralism is a great government system. It's really, really good, and I love it. I'm thankful for it.

But I don't want for us to confuse that with all roads lead to heaven. All roads go to the same place. Every path is equally valid. That's just not true. Paul proclaims it over and over and over.

If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be anathema. That is let God deal with him. Let God deal with him. Don't pay him heed. He is outside of the faith.

For do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. Now, I'll get to fill that particular verse will be filled out several different times before we get to the end of this book. Paul went through some very severe beatings for sticking to just the gospel, not the gospel plus anything else.

If he would have said, oh, but we can also, you know, do the acts of the law or we can also praise the emperor of Rome. If he had gone through those measures and said, well, we can we can bend on this one. We can bend on that one. No. He's not trying to please men.

He's not trying to save his own skin. He is trying to please God. And he's doing it because that's what God has sanctified him to do, to bring a pure message of the pure gospel. So why do I bring this message on Palm Sunday? That that's the reason right there.

This is Jesus' the first sermon, and I'll read it really quickly. Y'all don't have to read it in that tiny little print. But I want you to hear, I want you to hear the nature of people in this story and I've got one more quick story and then we'll just call the band back up, alright? But listen to this, then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee. He just left the temptation in the wilderness with the devil.

Then, Jesus returning the power of the spirit to Galilee and the news of him went out through all the surrounding region and he taught in the synagogues being glorified by all, lifted up. So, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, stood up to read, and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. This is his first sermon. First sermon in his hometown. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year or time of the Lord. Then he closed the book. He gave it back to the tenant and he sat down and all the eyes who were in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So, all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth and they said, isn't this Joseph's son? You see the turn right there?

They were glorifying him but when he spoke graciously, isn't that Joseph's son? We don't understand this. He said to them, you will surely say to this proverb to me, physician, heal thyself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in in your country. Give us a miracle.

Then he said, assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarepheth in the region of Sidon to a woman who was a widow and many lepers were in the Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed except for Naaman, the Syrian. He's telling them a story from their own history that all of them agree with the facts, but he's saying it and he's putting a different spin on it that the Gentiles now have a way. And if you look back in your history, they always have.

So all those in the synagogue when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath. These people were glorifying him just a few verses ago. And rose up and thrust him out of the city, and they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built. It's almost exactly the same height as Snow King right here. That they might throw him down over the cliff, and then passing through the midst of them, he went his way.

Then he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. And they were astonished at his teaching for his word was with authority. Does it look like the cycle is just about to repeat itself in Capernaum? The triumphal entry on Sunday, Palm Sunday, John twelve twelve and thirteen says, the next day, a great multitude that had come to the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches and palm trees, and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.

That was Sunday. This is Friday. So, then, Pilate took Jesus and scourged him and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put him a purple robe and then, they said, hail, king of the Jews and they struck him with their hands and Pilate then went out again and said to them, behold, I'm bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, behold the man. And therefore, when the chief priest and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him.

Crucify him. The same one that they had said on Sunday. Our king. Pilate said to them, you take him and you crucify him for I find no fault in him. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend.

Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. And Pilate then gets a little fickle because he was gonna let him go. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment and he said to the Jews, behold your king and they cried out, away with him. Away with him. Crucify him.

And Pilate says, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. This was Israel. God's chosen people. They knew all of their history.

They knew what they were looking for, and they denied it. And they said, we have no king but Caesar. When it comes right down to it, we wanna save our skin and we want him dead. We have no king but Caesar. Then he delivered him to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and they led him away. We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases. That's Emerson. I don't agree with everything he says, but I agree with that.

Is the story just going to repeat itself today here in Jackson? Is this story just gonna repeat itself again where we come and we sing the hosannas and we sing the praises? I pray that it's not. In fact, would you all stand with me? And I I do wanna pray.

Actually, I'm gonna end with a prayer and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. So let's pray. Lord God, we come to you confessing that we are a fickle people. We say we want you to be in our life and we applaud you but we often wander. We don't always wanna listen to the truth that you're teaching us about ourselves and there are times lord when we don't wanna hear your truth.

So, if you won't tell us what we wanna hear, a lot of times that makes us uncomfortable and we often wanna listen to somebody else. Today, you're calling us to be more loving and compassionate and to arrest our fickle behavior to fully trust in Jesus, not in religion, not in procedure, not in politics, not in tradition or even education. You're calling us to love you with our whole heart, our mind, our soul, our strength, and with everything we have in this world to put our relationship with Jesus first, and in so doing, begin to love our neighbors as ourselves. You want us to do our part to help make this world a place that's free from any form of hate or brutality and we know it can only come about through you, your kingdom coming. You want us to fill this world with your unconditional love and compassion through living out the gospel.

You want us to demonstrate the kingdom of heaven on earth by loving others in such a way that they could call others to grace and repentance and seek your face and your truth. You want us to be with you forever and ever and not shrink back in fear or pull away in pride. I pray that you'll speak and teach lord and that we will listen and learn. In Jesus name and by his blood only. Amen.

Finding me that all in all. Jesus painted all, and all to remind you. Thy power and thine alone can change the love response and melt the heart of stone Jesus paid it all roar to Nehemiah. Sin got left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. And when before the throne, I stand in him complete.

I lay matrophies down, none down at Jesus' feet. Jesus paid. Jesus paid it all, and all to whom I am. Sin got left a crimson stain. He washed dear white as stone.

Praise the one who paid our debt. Oh, praise the one who paid my debt and raised his life up from the dead oh praise the one who laid my dead and raised his life up from the dead Oh, the one who lead my dead hand, raises thy up from the dead. Oh, praise the one who lead my death and raises life up from the dead. Jesus paid it all,

and for the benediction. Actually, I want to mention something before the benediction. Cathy Flickinger and Chuck Flickinger and Anna and Ben and Allison and Kelly are all down in Denver right now. There was a very bad car wreck north of the tunnels headed towards Thermopolis. Last Sunday evening about 10:00.

A lot of y'all read about it in the paper. You've heard about this. Tanya and I took off Monday and went down there to be with him and Chuck, we need your prayers. So does Cathy, so does Anna, so does Ben, and the girls too but Chuck has feeling in his legs but cannot move them and can't move his feet. He can feel his feet.

He can feel his legs but he cannot move them. Anna broke both of her femurs and they have been repaired and she is doing well. She's sitting up in bed. They're progressing very very well. He is Chuck is supposed to be moved on Wednesday to the Craig Hospital which is really good with spinal cord injuries.

So, would you please pray for them, the whole family? Pray for Ben too. He was driving and he was unharmed physically but mentally, he's having a hard time with having been the driver that had this horrible crash. It was a rock slide, not his fault, nothing he could've done about it but would you please pray for them and the reason I mention it, the benediction is after the second service, every time that Cathy's here, which is almost every time, She says, I missed the benediction. I missed the benediction.

So, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Amen. Good morning, everybody. How are y'all? Good.

Good. Are you as comfortable as I am right now? Not quite. We do have three baptisms in this service. We had two baptisms in the first service this morning.

So, I'm going to invite you if you would stand with me. We're going to sing a couple of songs to get things rolling. I'm going invite Scott to come up. And we'll sing off of the wall this morning. Hosannas, Hosanna in the highest.

In the Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise be exalted oh Lord my God glory to the king of kings glory glory to the king of kings of we lift up your name with hearts full of praise be exalted oh Lord my God Glory to the king of kings. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you all. I'm going to sing.

We're going to go on

and sing right now. Oh, here they come. Keep on coming. We will glorify.

We will glorify the king of kings we will glorify the lamb we will glorify the Lord of lords

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. And we've got a few announcements this morning. The the announcement about the baptism, I'm always excited on baptism day. So much to the point that I kinda get out get flustered.

In the first service, I was like so excited about it because it's a step of obedience. It's saying that I have made a decision to follow Christ. I recognize that he's drawing me. I've recognized that he's drawn me and I've accepted it and it's a statement of that and that's great. We have three sisters.

One, the older sister waited for the other two to be ready and so we'll do that in a minute but I wanna give you a few announcements first. First of all, there's no children's church next week in the first service. There's not in this service either but there's not next week, April 5, Easter Sunday. We'll all be up here together. There will be a Easter breakfast celebration.

So, Dave Kaufman, if you'd like to help out with that, guys especially, he's made a call out for all the guys if you would. Come early and set up and help serve. 690-3770 is his number. Now I will mention this because I mentioned Dave Kaufman. He is actually in Virginia today with his sister.

His brother-in-law passed away late in the night last night. And so they were all together, had a wonderful evening with him, and they're assured of his eternal destination. And this morning, they are just comforting his sister. So I wanted to let you all know that so you can be praying for Dave and Melissa and the boys. They're all there together for this week.

But he will be back next week to serve up sourdough pancakes, Seal's old recipe and starter, I think too. So there they are, pancakes and that'll be from eight to nine and from ten to eleven this year instead of just between services. It was pretty packed in there last year. So bring your friends and relations and come on and enjoy breakfast with us. There's a book club that we're doing.

It's meeting for the three Wednesdays after spring break, which is April fifteenth, twenty second, and twenty ninth. I will be kind of leading the discussion, but it's going to be centered on the books. And it is the cross and the shadow of the crescent by Erwin Lutzer. He has a pretty even handed view of the history of Islam and especially as it relates to Christianity and so if you would like to be a part of that book club meeting just for three Wednesdays, April fifteenth, twenty second, twenty ninth, let me know afterwards. There are a few books, I think, still left in Diane's office.

And if you can get that and read the book over spring break, we'll talk about it when we get back together. If you're interested in volunteering for VBS, please talk to Krista, Carl's wife, Krista Clemmer. The time for that is June 22 through the twenty sixth. So go ahead and get your plans to be here early if you wanna help out with that. The garage sale.

Pay no attention to the the arrow here that's pointing towards Carl's house. This is not Carl's yard sale. It's not Carl's garage sale. It is actually what the KC and Brian McCooey are setting up a garage sale for to raise money for the mission trip to Guatemala. They were supposed to use the Hill Climb parking lot rental fee that we usually do every year but we the Hill Climb was cancelled so that kind of threw a monkey wrench and things.

They're doing a garage sale instead. If you would like to donate some of those things, the garage sale is going to be on the twelfth. On the eleventh, and I should add, only. On the eleventh only, if you would bring those things here, you can bring them here on the eleventh and we'll do the garage sale on the twelfth and then they promise to get rid of everything that's left so that it'll be gone before the thirteenth, that Sunday. Okay.

So that's the garage sale. That's in your bulletin. Also, youth spring retreat and the thirty hour famine that the youth alliance does each year. Those are in your bulletin. If you know of a young person, high school, middle school age, please look at that and see what you need.

It's pretty tedious. We have Monday nights. Every Monday night, we don't stop. We stop it as often as we stop Sunday mornings. It is going to happen.

So, Monday nights at first B, meal, music, and a message. Carl's going through Matthew and we are moving our way up to the cross this week. So, want to introduce to, where is Steve Landis? I'm introducing, he's got a better picture on his phone but I'm introducing Everett James Landis, Steve and Sandy's grandson, James and Bree's son, Everett James Landis, was born last night at Saint John's here in Jackson, and so there is somebody that actually was born here right there. Everett James Landis and it's that one, not the other one.

I know Steve shaved and he looks a lot younger but not that young. We're going to start a Spanish service on the April 12 at one hundred thirty. So, it'll be after this service but enough time hopefully for you to get away, get something to eat, and come back. If you would like to do both, hopefully, that'll be enough time to do it. Amen.

In her case, it says, what are you waiting for? Her case, she was actually waiting on her sisters to be ready to do this but it is a step of obedience and obedience to Christ and following his example too. It is a declaration that and a celebration too for the church. So I'm gonna ask you if do you wanna say anything? You have a verse?

Okay. This is Elizabeth, also known as Fussy Girling.

One verse that I thought was very powerful was Matthews five sixteen. Even so, let your light shine before men so they can see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.

Amen. And so have you trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And do you plan to live your life henceforth to serve him?

Yes.

Alright. Well, let's get into the baptistry. Alright. There you go.

Just like Fosse, one of my verses that I thought meant a lot to me for this day is Philippians three ten. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrections.

Amen. Amen. That is wonderful. Would you step on in here with me? You can take your shoes off.

So I got a letter from from a Bible camp that said earlier in the year, it said that these two were ready, and that they wanted to talk to me afterwards. And we did talk a while back, but we have delayed this baptism for some reason. I don't know why. I'm excited that it's finally happening. So step on in here with me, Virginia.

Are you ready? Alright. Would you do you have something that you would like to say? Mhmm. I thought you might.

Okay. Psalms thirty three four. What the Lord says is right and true, he and he is faithful in everything he does.

And after that, we you'll play for operatory, won't you? Alright. And then after that, we'll invite the girls to come up and sing. That's great, ain't it? Two, they just got baptized and they're already serving in the church just like that.

Lord, would you please take our lives, Lord, and consecrate them to your service? Would you impress it upon us, Lord, how how you love us and how you love others and would you use us to reach those that don't yet know you. Lord, we're asking that you would take these offerings as we put em in of our own free will knowing lord that you are the giver of every good and perfect gift. We put these offerings in lord with the with the hope, with the prayer that you will multiply em to the ends of the earth, that you will save others, that you'll bring the kingdom. Lord, the advance of your gospel.

In Jesus name, we ask that you would take these, multiply, bless others through them. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.