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Right. Good morning everyone. How y'all doing this grand morning? As he said, I'm

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a pastor Chris and it is my honor to continue to preach on the Book of Mark.

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We've been talking about the Book of Mark for a few weeks here and I'm excited

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to be teaching today as we enter Holy Week, amen? And I don't know about you

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but especially here in the Midwest there's something about being here that

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keeps us in a state of anticipation as we anticipate if it's the weather, if

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it's the final four, March Madness, whatever it may be we're in this

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anticipation of this new season of things. And this type time of year perhaps even

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spiritually and within our souls there might be a longing or an anticipatory

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feel during a Holy Week. The week that we remember the journey of Christ

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entering into the city in celebration that ultimately ends in a death. However

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there is Holy Resurrection. Despite what you might think about it's Easter there

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are traditions, right, that families partake in even if it's not celebrating

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Easter during this time then you have a tradition of not celebrating Easter

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whatever the case it is there's a tradition that you hold however some

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people like what I don't celebrate I don't celebrate tradition there you go

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however there's a large majority of folks that attend services you dress up

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or you have some family things or you barbecue if the weather's right here but

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whatever the case there's a lot of different kind of traditions that take

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place during this time of year and as I was doing this message I remember that

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when my wife and I were young parents of three beautiful girls shout out to you

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now they're embarrassed but we would love this time of year because we did

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want to dress them up in their dresses and things like that and oftentimes one

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of their grandmothers would give them some dresses I don't know if we ever had

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to buy Easter dress but and we will look forward to the day that we would get to

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dress them up and go to church and we was at a different church when they were

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younger but my wife my beautiful wife is an essential worker so her beautiful

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essential work itself sometimes she was wasn't able to be at the Easter service

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so that left solo dad and I took pride in those days so much so that I enrolled

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in a ponytail boot camp and I think I got the ponytails down we could maybe

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look at some old pictures today later to see if I had passed the test but it felt

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good that I would be able to boldly walk into the church with my three girls in

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their Sunday's best dressed by dad I remember one one one didn't go as planned

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I was in a rush I was kind of froused I just remember getting there hurrying up

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and throwing them into the kids nursery whatever not throwing them but I

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remember there was a you know some of the ladies in this church that we were

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at it was a fairly big church so we had to check them into their each of their

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separate little rooms I remember one of the ladies they were good friends with

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us at that time and they were like what did you put in her hair now like man I

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just sprayed some some hold spray in that piece you know I mean it's windy

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out there and a head was as hard as a helmet man I'm trying to tell you but I

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was just like yeah yeah I'm trying you know I'm saying so I know that I try I

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try but there was kind of a running joke that you know people kind of look out

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for the grand entrance when I would come in my wife would be working they'd be

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like oh wonder how they dress this time wonder how they are dressed this time

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but that is a good memory but today we get to see Christ grand entrance and

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believe it or not with all the talk surrounding Jesus during that time what

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it looked like kind of did matter to the people the entrance did matter and what

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Jesus wore what he traveled into Jerusalem on his vehicle of

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transportation that all mattered and all was a part of the bigger picture it all

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mattered the people for many reasons because this was Jesus who was to come as

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the King of Kings so today we get a front row seat and seeing how he was

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received by the people as recorded in the gospel of Mark so we'll be in the

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book of Mark chapter 11 verse 1 through 11 it all starts again a week before

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we call Easter and Palm Sunday so we have a tradition where we stand as

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you're able in spirit and as you are able in the reading of God's Word Bibles

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are available you can take one that's out in the lobby area or log in to your

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favorite Bible app but mark 11 1 through 11 and we'll read today's passage now

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when they drew near to Jerusalem to Beth Pais and Bethany at the Mount of

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Olives Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them go into the village in

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front of you and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied on

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which no one has ever sat untied and bring it if anyone says to you why are

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you doing this say the Lord has need of it and we'll send it back here

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immediately and they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the

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street and they untied it and some of those standing there said to them what

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are you doing I'm tying the colt and they told them what Jesus had said and

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they let them go and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on

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it and he sat on it and many spread their cloaks on the road and others

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spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields and those who went

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before and those who followed were shouting Hosanna blessed is is he who

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comes in the name of the Lord blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David

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Hosanna in the highest and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and

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when he had looked around at everything as it was already late he went out to

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Bethany with the 12 let me pray God thank you so much it's a blessing to

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join together this morning to worship you to fellowship together with your

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spirit may you open our ears and hearts to receive your word today help us to

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understand what it means to put our trust in you more and more it's my

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prayer today that we can be encouraged to act on your word today to envision

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this text and immerse ourselves inside your story and your name we pray amen

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thank you you may be seated so going through this passage some of you that

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have been with us for a while I've heard me kind of brag about her talk about her

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but it always means something a little bit different to me ever since visiting

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the Holy Land a few years ago I mentioned before that we are blessed as

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a church I believe all the teachers are the teaching team on separate occasions

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the last few years have had the opportunity to visit biblical locations

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Greg and I have been to the Holy Land on separate occasions pastor Jane has been

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to many places a lot of places you could play where in the world is Jen at some

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points but she's been to biblical places and places that Paul has traveled when

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he was preaching but there's an important realization that we all have

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kind of come together and back when we talk about our trips that we've

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appreciated the richness of the role that geography does play in the

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scriptures and I got to go and experience the geography of the Holy

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Land which kind of puts this story in like 5d like you know like you're

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actually immersed in it and you feel the heat and you get to see he's laughing

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because you know what I'm saying it's hot and you get to see that it's not

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just these paved roads and I'm always I'm always just amazed at how there's a

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lot of traveling in the scriptures and it's so fast that it happens that we

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can miss the humanity of the story Jesus has some good cardio yeah yeah you look

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at the geography of the place imagine we're really blessed in the Quad Cities

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if you think about when I think about the story often say think about if you're

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at the top of Longview and there's this valley right there separating you from

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where the bridge is that if you're at long you can see the bridge this was an

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everyday route for Jesus walking up and down this thing you know I went sledding

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I had a brag on this we just had that snowfall it was weird we built a snowman

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that morning we sled it that day and I went on a bike ride later because it was

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warm first time in my history I ever did that I just did it so I can say like I

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did all this in one day but uh the sledding didn't last that long yo we went

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down a couple times and I was so windy coming about it wasn't like the old

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Chris you know I was just not just running up there like hey let's go again

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I was like hey I think it might be time to go we we we did it you know so we

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went a few times but uh yeah there was there's this geography that plays a

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significant role in the story because you can imagine long you kind of be in

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this mound of olives and and Jesus has to he's you can see the holy city right

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I know it's kind of funny but you picture our bridge being where the holy

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city would be more marveling at this place but you got to get there all right

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no ubers no Metrolinx no hey come pick me up here and Jesus his mode of

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transportation is very interesting and we're going to talk more about what that

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means in the big picture of God's Word in the story today well on the road Jesus

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took a traveler would arrive first to Bethany and then come to Bethpage which

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was about two miles from Jerusalem as I said before geography plays an important

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part just to kind of visually see this the elevation at this point is about

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2,600 feet and from it you have this breathtaking view of the holy city Greg

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mentions a little bit about this last week but since it was Passover the

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ancient Jewish horse historian Josephus notes that there were most likely

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hundreds of thousands of people in and around Jerusalem to remember to celebrate

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Passover and what God had done in Israel's history and setting them free

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and it's worth noting also that up to this point in Christ's ministry Jesus

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was about to do something that he hadn't done before something that he had

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repeated repeatedly warned others not to do for him he was going to allow his

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followers to give a public demonstration of his honor so in this passage we see

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that Jesus sends two disciples to get an animal a colt and he instructs them in

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verse 2 and 3 untie it bring it here if anyone asks you why are you doing this

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tell them the Lord needs it and we'll send it back here shortly in Luke's

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gospel the disciple unties the animals and some someone questions them the

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disciples respond exactly how Jesus asked them to and the people people let

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them go verse 7 and 8 when they brought the animal to Jesus they laid their

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cloaks on the colt and Jesus sat on it and at this moment in the passage verse

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a says many people spread their cloaks on the road while others spread branches

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they have cut in the fields there were other folks that cut down branches from

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trees and the book of John helps us to understand the kind of branches not just

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regular branches but leafy palm branches and they took them laid them along the

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streets headed to Jerusalem when I was in when I was on this trip we had a

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chance to get baptized in the Jordan River and our bus driver was really cool

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because he was positioning himself in this place along the river that wasn't

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crowded there wasn't a whole bunch of tourists and stuff like that it wasn't

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those places because there's places that you can it's like a six flags ride you

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could pay and get in line and they'll take your picture and you'll go like

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yeah I want that picture you know so I've been on the rise and you got a

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crazy picture and it's like no I don't want to buy that but there's a place

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where you pay and you are bus drivers like I'm gonna take you to a place

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nobody goes over here we almost got stuck but we went over there and it was

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really cool because we're we're getting out and he had palm branches down we got

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off the bus and I was like yo this dude really wants a tip but it was a really

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cool experience of this he wanted to honor our experience and I was getting

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out this bus and going to this and having this holy experience together so

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it was a sign of humility a sign of paying homage to this King as he was on

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this young coat and it doesn't seem very kingly for a king to show up riding on a

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donkey or a stinky animal but for Jesus this was the choice of what I like to

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call his royal ride right in an article back in a sports column in 2019 a sports

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writer have followed up with the grand entrance of an NBA star Kawhi Leonard

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at the time who he was rolling into his NBA games in a 20 year old 1997 Chevy

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Tahoe and they said why do you keep this thing going like why do you keep this

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thing for him there was a bigger picture he said this he's had this car since

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high school and he simply said it's paid off and I like it he said it's paid off

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and I like it for him it was you know not what everybody expected that he

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should roll up in but for him he had a simpler idea he wasn't projecting that

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everybody should do it but for him the value and the sentimental value of a

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man everything to him to keep this car that probably was only worth about a

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thousand bucks even with some of the updates that he put on he still kept it

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simple I even had to Google what it looked like I'm like of course he had to

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like pimp it out or something and it was like no I mean he could be riding around

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Rock Island we didn't even know right now but again for him there was a bigger

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picture with his decision and to with Jesus there's a much bigger picture than

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coming adorned with this monetary interest of gold and all these things

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something that's helpful to know about reading the Gospels and the book of

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Matthew has this story the book of Matthew kind of primarily written for a

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Jewish audience but the book of Mark that we're in right now does a lot in

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explaining these Jewish customs and some scholars say that the book of Mark was

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kind of cast at a wider net to some folks that might not be as familiar with

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these Jewish customs but nevertheless it's important because it gives

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shoutouts to Old Testament narratives and which a lot of times we can easily in

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the New Testament be caught up with these these things that forget about

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some of the traditions of the old and how it connects to the bigger picture

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and I usually say sometimes you know a lot of times we think of God's story as

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okay we got a Genesis the fall then we got sin then we got Jesus and he dies

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and he comes back and we all go to heaven there's a story oh we got to come

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to church all the time in here just very same thing all right but we miss out on

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the bigger picture of how God's story continues to move through his people

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even through this grand entrance he's continuing this narrative that started

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way in the Old Testament so it's easy for us to miss out on the beauty of how

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God partnered with his people in the past to get to this point in the story

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today when we think about Moses Noah Ruth

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Rahab Naomi Esther David Solomon and how all of this leads to the need for God to

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send himself as Jesus the King to show up right here at this specific spot to

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begin kind of this transition in the story that's ultimately going to bring

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his people forgiveness all of the workings that he done through people

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through prophets through everybody through men and women I should say that

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loudly gets to this moment where he's coming in and popping up on a donkey

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there's a bigger story amen a donkey was a sign of humility and a sign of peace

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and a sign of Davidic royalty so when Jesus comes into the city he's not

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riding on a horse

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it's also safe to note that in Matthew in this part of this in the gospel

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Matthew 21 for says Jesus did this to fulfill prophecy if we flip back to the

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Old Testament in Zechariah 9 9 it says rejoice greatly daughter Zion shout

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daughter Jerusalem see your King comes to you righteous and victorious lowly

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and riding on a donkey on a colt the fold of a donkey long before Jesus was

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born the prophecy was foretold and every promise that God makes God keeps

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amen and we'll get a little bit more of that in a moment and one clue that

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people of Jerusalem recognize this connection again is that when they saw

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Jesus right on the cold they said hosanna blessed is he who comes in the

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name of the Lord blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David hosanna in

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the highest they shout out hosanna which means save now the interesting

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perspective sometimes I wonder what the group you know there's different people

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in this group all these thousands of people but you've ever thought about

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what the Romans were thinking or the Rome is thinking as they watch these

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festivities because Romans knew how to party they were experts at party city

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parades official public events so in the Bible is interesting and ironic that

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this is called the triumphal entry but no Roman soldier would have used this

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term an official Roman triumph was a big show like for real for real back then

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when a Roman general would come back to Rome after a huge victory and they

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slaughtered you know they conquered their land another land and captured

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folks they were welcomed with an elaborate official parade in the parade

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he would exhibit trophies of war and even show off the illustrious prisoners

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that they captured the victorious general would ride in a gold chariot and

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priests would burn incense in an honor and people would shout his name and

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praise him and the parade would end in an arena where the people would be

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entertained by watching the captives fight with wild beasts that was a Roman

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triumph and this is cool our Lord the king of kings his triumphal entry was

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not like that but Jesus flipped the script God's anointed king and Savior but

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his conquest was a militaristic amen his victory would be spiritual it was said

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that a Roman general had to kill at least 5,000 enemy soldiers to to merit a

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triumph but in a few weeks as we heard in the gospel of Mark we hear the

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countless stories and stories about how Jesus's love didn't conquer but it

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overcame 5,000 it overcame and love infiltrated in the victory of love was

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conquering all amen God's love was triumphant and after looking into the

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temple where Jesus would return after this this big you know celebratory thing

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Jesus left the city and spent the night in Bethany where was safer and quieter

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and he spent time praying with his disciples seeking to prepare them for

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the difficult week that lay ahead there was this big celebration there's people

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that was looking like this ain't no real celebration was this there was other

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people that was expecting it there was people that heard you know he was kind

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of just messing some other people love like this isn't how it's supposed to be

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you have all these mixed emotions but at the end of the day God was setting

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stage for this redemptive story that still plays out in our lives today so I

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want to close this out with a couple things because if Jesus is king we

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should recognize his sovereign sovereignty recognize his true power by laying our

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hearts down before him throwing down our lives as surrender and ask Jesus to

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govern how we think and how we move and explore what that means for us by

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worshiping not just through song but through our lives two final thoughts

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here is the first is what does it look for us to to trust Jesus to complete

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his story and work in and through us even when it doesn't look like the way

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that we thought because there had to be people that this ain't the way this is

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not the way and Jesus is amongst them Jesus was there Jesus is like riding

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around this thing like I'm here and people like this ain't it and if we're

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honest many of us in here would be we have these points in our life where we

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would be like this ain't this ain't how it's supposed to be this ain't how it's

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supposed to be I really want to bring it home there's a group of poems that I

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wrote just small poems and as many of you know I did full-time ministry for 15

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or whatever 20 15 years something and there was some some some dark times that

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I had just trying to figure out my story as I'm doing ministry and it would seem

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on the outside that this is all great man Chris is doing all this great stuff

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in the community I have this internal battle where I was like this ain't the

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same how I was supposed to look you know my girls are getting older I'm trying to

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figure out if I still want to do this it's time for a career change and I'm

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like Jesus this where you at where you at I wrote a group of poems I'm gonna

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share a couple poems and these poems have never really seen the light of day

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and I talked to a good friend he said yo these might not ever be for the stage or

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anything but just wrestle with them so these have just been kind of tucked away

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for years as I was just crying out to God thinking about my family and

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thinking about where we're how am I trying to navigate these things they

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don't even have titles I'll just get into this one when parents say I hope

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you have kids that turn out just like you what the heck

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why are y'all asking God to boomerang our children through pain and trials

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just to watch how we have to handle hardships y'all really hope that all that

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returns our way like I'm guessing this is which this is why y'all spent so long

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teaching us how to catch how to watch what's headed our way how to move

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accordingly to extend open arms and when things go down we will pull them close

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to our hearts well I see the boomerang coming back y'all and you best believe

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my hands are ready I'm racing for impact then you best believe I'll do my best to

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catch them as you did catching me one morning I wrote I'm so sad right now my

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emotions are at high speed zooming laps within my soul heart racing body

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breaking trying to keep up with the speed of me without a lane for help but

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a crew that cheers is near and their prayers are fuel they refill my emptiness

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as I steer towards another day and I just hope that I can make it because it

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seems like there's so many more laps to come

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one morning I just woke up sad I didn't feel like God was even there and I said

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today I woke up laughing the funny thing is ain't nothing funny about the reality

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that I woke up to but I really woke up laughing and now I'm understanding this

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genre of this moment in my life I'm living through a season of dark comedy

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last poem I'll share just to see my daughter smile through difficulties is a

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beautiful thing I see them waiting through clouds of confusion through

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foggy futures and unsure steps and I get it I'll walk with you and sometimes

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y'all won't even invite me on your journey and I get that but just know it's

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difficult to see you pushing through puddles of pain navigating the noise of

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thunder yesterday I seen the lightning in your sky strike your footsteps and

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spark sorrow my daughters this is all hidden so close to home but please know

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that I'm here let me help you take cover just know that I'm near when you see me

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just know I ain't even mad at y'all if y'all run towards me and just use me as

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your shelter and I promise I'll let God's strength just allow me to shelter

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y'all if y'all let me and I read these I don't know if I'll ever get a word award

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for best father of the year or nothing like that and I don't want it however I

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thought about how our father loves us even more than my cheesy bones our father

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is there in our story when it doesn't seem like it in front of thousands and

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thousands of Heavenly Father sent his son and there was a lot of people that

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didn't even really understand that he was right there amongst them riding

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through because for them it wasn't supposed to be like that this might not

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have to do with the original Palm Sunday message that you might hear at another

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church but I couldn't get past this part because I thought to myself that there's

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people that are under my voice that just feel that Jesus ain't riding into their

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story at all or doesn't care to how can we learn to trust God to complete the

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story within us and through us it's just a question it's a challenge for me as I

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was challenged during that time and I am happy to tell you after a few years I

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did I'm able to look back and see how how God sent himself in insert himself in

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my story when I needed him most but you may be in here in a different place with

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God than you were before or wondering what it would look like now that things

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have changed in your life and I'm just asking don't give up on allowing God to

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finish your story and allowing God to finish what he started it might look

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different might not look like what you had hoped but God is there and secondly

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how can we trust Jesus to lead our next steps even a little bit more see when

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when it came time to take our first child home from the hospital we remember

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it was December and we just had a ice storm we stuffed her in this car seat

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it looked like she was in a cave because we haven't the car seat was so big it

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looked like and we had all this big old onesie and I remember I just wanted to

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drive home so slow I'm going to put the hazard lights on you know I'm saying

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like you just want life is so fragile at that moment and you went you know I

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probably was the most attentive driving ever the next scary day with your kid in

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the car when he turned 16 now you're handing over the keys now they're moving

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from the passenger seat to the driver's seat it's a scary moment all right well

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I experienced that and and we're getting through however it was it was reminding

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me of these seasons of my life where there's many times where I recognize I

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need to give the keys back to Jesus and allow Jesus to lead because truth be told

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we like Jesus in the car like Jesus around right hey turn the radio up hey

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Jesus like yo let me ride let me can I don't know where you gonna take me good

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try just be here but I don't know if I want you steering the vehicle how can we

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get to a place where we can trust Christ leading for brother I know in African

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America we say Jesus take the wheel right but in reality what does that mean

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for us what does that mean for us to allow Jesus more control I would say

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somebody say total control you but maybe this season you're asking how can I

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just trust Christ to lead more in relationships or family stuff or

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finances or or whatever the case may be for you these little baby steps could

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end up in some huge huge victories that you could experience in your life coming

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closer to Christ so I would challenge myself and all of us during this season

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to think about what we can lay down and then in the area in the arena of control

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and as I mentioned first not to forget that Jesus is a part of our story and

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how can we have faith and put hope in God to allow him to continue the story

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that he would like to work in and through us let's pray God I'm thankful

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for your word I'm thankful for your triumphal entry and what that means for

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us today as a church I pray God that as we fellowship through song and word and

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a little fellowship God that your word may have brought us closer to you and I

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know the challenges that that I spoke of I continue to be challenging to myself

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and as a church for our prayer God that we can learn what it means to to trust

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you with our stories and to hand over the keys to some of the things in our

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life God to trust you to navigate I mean we continue to keep our attentive to the

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spirit this week as it's Holy Week and we're approaching Easter and maybe just

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continue to try our best to be in tune with how you could move and work you

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name our prayer amen