WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:02.700 In opening up this illustration, I'm going to 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:05.679 have to jump into a little bit of my nerdiness 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:08.419 over here. And I have to talk a little bit about 00:00:08.419 --> 00:00:11.880 a book called The Hobbit. You heard of The Hobbit, 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:14.939 a few of you? See, some of you may have heard 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:17.839 of it. Maybe a few of you have not. Have you 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:20.239 heard of it? No. But it's not a movie. You should 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:23.079 know this one. There we go. And I'm going to 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:26.199 give you a short version. It's about a very small, 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:29.480 very comfortable guy named Bilbo Baggins. and 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:31.579 it gets pulled into an adventure with a group 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:34.579 of dwarves, and they're trying to reclaim a mountain 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:38.219 full of treasure from a dragon. And along the 00:00:38.219 --> 00:00:41.280 way, they face all kinds of dangers. But the 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:44.479 real problem doesn't actually show up until the 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.920 dragon has been killed. Because once the treasure 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.920 is finally within reach, everybody starts to 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.560 change. The dwarves want it, the men want it, 00:00:55.700 --> 00:00:58.920 the elves want it. and what they thought would 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:02.299 fix everything, once they actually had it within 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:06.219 reach, it almost tears them apart. There's even 00:01:06.219 --> 00:01:08.640 this moment when the smallest person in the story, 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.719 Bilbo, he takes the most important treasure at 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:15.159 the time, a stone called the Arkenstone, and 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:20.219 he gives it away, because by doing so, he's trying 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:24.239 to stop a war from happening. But it raises this 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:28.019 question. What if the thing that we think will 00:01:28.019 --> 00:01:31.719 fix everything isn't actually the thing that 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:36.459 we need the most? Because when we come to Palm 00:01:36.459 --> 00:01:39.599 Sunday, that's exactly what we see happening. 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:44.260 The people see Jesus coming into Jerusalem, and 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:46.640 many of them are thinking this is it. This is 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:49.280 the moment that everything gets fixed. Our nation 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.099 finally becomes what we always wanted it to be. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:54.980 We can finally live these lives that we have 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:58.840 always wanted. But what they're expecting and 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:02.340 what Jesus is actually bringing are not the same 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:05.599 thing. But to understand this, we need to step 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.800 back for a moment. Because Palm Sunday, it's 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.800 not just this one moment that we're looking at. 00:02:12.259 --> 00:02:15.879 It's the climax of a pattern. that runs all throughout 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:20.259 Scripture. A pattern that begins to repeat itself 00:02:20.259 --> 00:02:25.000 step by step. And it starts with Abraham about 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.039 4 ,000 years ago. With Abraham, there was almost 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:32.740 nothing built among the people of God yet because 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:36.460 it was just Abraham. There was no nation. There 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:40.020 was no law. There was no temple. Just a promise 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:44.759 from God and a calling. Go to the land that I 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:49.819 will show you. That's it. Faith is simple. It's 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:55.199 portable. It's a relationship between God and 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:58.500 the person He has called. There's a tent. There's 00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:02.520 a voice. But none of the rest of the trappings 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:05.939 that we might have been expecting. But then comes 00:03:05.939 --> 00:03:09.639 Moses around five centuries later, and there's 00:03:09.639 --> 00:03:13.159 structure now. There are laws. There's a tabernacle. 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.460 There's a priesthood. The faith that they have 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:19.219 in God, it has bones to it. It's something that 00:03:19.219 --> 00:03:21.620 you can teach. It's something you can organize. 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:26.020 It's something that you can preserve. And then 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:29.699 comes David, another five centuries after that. 00:03:30.259 --> 00:03:33.870 And there's a kingdom. There's kings. There's 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:37.189 now the temple. There is a capital. There's a 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:39.750 sense of permanence. This is the moment where 00:03:39.750 --> 00:03:43.449 it feels like everything is finally established 00:03:43.449 --> 00:03:48.629 with His Son Solomon. Here's the key. None of 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:53.169 these things are actually bad. God gave all of 00:03:53.169 --> 00:03:56.469 them to the people because of what He saw that 00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:00.009 they seemed to need at that time. See, God gives 00:04:00.009 --> 00:04:04.090 His people ways to live with Him. And those ways 00:04:04.090 --> 00:04:09.370 are good. But over time, something begins to 00:04:09.370 --> 00:04:14.009 happen. You see, people begin to lean on the 00:04:14.009 --> 00:04:18.589 gifts of God instead of the God who has given 00:04:18.589 --> 00:04:22.550 them. You see, the temple, it became for them 00:04:22.550 --> 00:04:28.110 a sense of security. Their identity became a 00:04:28.110 --> 00:04:31.970 sense of pride that didn't look to God Himself. 00:04:32.659 --> 00:04:37.120 Their worship wasn't about what was inside as 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.759 much as what they were doing on the outside. 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:44.540 And what was meant to point us to God became 00:04:44.540 --> 00:04:47.060 something that we started to depend on instead 00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:52.060 of Him. And if we're honest, we don't just live 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:56.399 in systems that do this. We do it inside our 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:59.620 own hearts. You see, this is where the first 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:03.160 part of the book of Isaiah was speaking. See, 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:06.240 we've been spending the last several months looking 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:10.160 at Isaiah and realizing the three main sections 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.560 of how it is split up. The first 39 chapters. 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:18.180 On the surface, everything still looks like it's 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:22.160 intact. The temple is there. The kings are there. 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:26.319 The rituals, they're still happening. But underneath 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:31.339 the surface, there is injustice. There is idolatry. 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:35.199 There is hollow worship, like a mountain full 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:39.420 of treasure. From the outside, it looks glorious. 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:44.160 But on the inside, something is already going 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:49.300 wrong. Then what we see is about five centuries 00:05:49.300 --> 00:05:54.600 after David, everything collapses. The people... 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:58.939 are exiled into another land. The temple is destroyed. 00:05:59.060 --> 00:06:03.839 The king is gone. The land is lost. Everything 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:08.500 they trusted is gone. You see, here's the hard 00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:11.139 truth that Scripture is showing us. Sometimes 00:06:11.139 --> 00:06:17.000 God allows the things that we rely on, He allows 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:21.480 them to be shaken. Not because He's trying to 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:27.399 destroy us. but to bring us back to Him. Because 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:31.000 we keep trusting things that cannot hold us, 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.439 and God keeps bringing us back to Himself through 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:39.339 the servant who can. And right there, in our 00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:44.699 moment of collapse, comes a new voice. You see, 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:49.620 as we look at the second section of Isaiah, it 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:53.670 says, comfort, comfort my people. You see, this 00:06:53.670 --> 00:06:56.449 is not meant to be the shallow kind of comfort 00:06:56.449 --> 00:06:59.829 that we give to each other because someone's 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:02.170 going through a rough time and we don't know 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:07.129 what else to say. The times whenever I will be 00:07:07.129 --> 00:07:10.790 praying for you, well, I wish you the best. Well, 00:07:11.009 --> 00:07:16.029 let's go figure out some coffee, but rather something 00:07:16.029 --> 00:07:21.290 deeper that can only come from God. God is saying 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:26.649 this did not just happen because I failed. This 00:07:26.649 --> 00:07:30.990 happened because you trusted the wrong things. 00:07:32.410 --> 00:07:38.069 And then God reveals something new. What He shows 00:07:38.069 --> 00:07:41.750 is that salvation does not come through kings. 00:07:41.970 --> 00:07:44.910 It does not come through systems. It does not 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:48.230 come through power. He shows that it will come 00:07:49.259 --> 00:07:54.240 through His servant. And that is where we are 00:07:54.240 --> 00:08:07.420 with chapter 50 today. It says, This isn't just 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:11.360 an idea that we might get from a book. Not just 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.740 an idea that we heard on the news. Not just an 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:18.620 idea that we swiped through and saw on an Instagram 00:08:18.620 --> 00:08:24.519 vid. Morning by morning. This is a life shaped 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:29.120 by listening. Morning by morning. Step by step. 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:32.879 I did not turn back. I gave my back to those 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:38.059 who strike. This servant has been prepared for 00:08:38.059 --> 00:08:46.269 years at the feet of the Father. king on a throne 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:50.409 acting as if everything is about pomp and circumstance, 00:08:51.330 --> 00:08:54.210 but rather this is someone who stays faithful 00:08:54.210 --> 00:09:00.750 even when it costs everything. Because here is 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:04.029 what's happening. This servant is doing what 00:09:04.029 --> 00:09:08.970 Israel was supposed to do, but couldn't. This 00:09:08.970 --> 00:09:13.009 is the one who is listening, trusting, obeying, 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:19.549 enduring. perfectly when none of the people of 00:09:19.549 --> 00:09:24.169 Israel ever did. If we want to understand what's 00:09:24.169 --> 00:09:27.809 happening inside the servant, Philippians today 00:09:27.809 --> 00:09:31.990 gives us a window into this. It says, have this 00:09:31.990 --> 00:09:35.210 mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:38.870 Jesus, who though he was in very nature God did 00:09:38.870 --> 00:09:42.490 not consider equality with God something to be 00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:46.009 grasped. but emptied himself, taking the form 00:09:46.009 --> 00:09:49.250 of a servant, becoming obedient to the point 00:09:49.250 --> 00:09:55.629 of death, even death on a cross. Do you hear 00:09:55.629 --> 00:10:01.509 that? Jesus, He doesn't grasp. This is not something 00:10:01.509 --> 00:10:04.740 that you cling to. as if it's something that 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:08.259 you are going to use for somehow your own benefit 00:10:08.259 --> 00:10:11.580 or to try to get the things that you want. He 00:10:11.580 --> 00:10:17.120 doesn't seize what is already His. He lets go. 00:10:18.620 --> 00:10:22.899 It's the exact opposite of what we do. We are 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:26.600 constantly grasping for control. I have to have 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:30.700 things the way I want it. We cling to what we 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:33.860 think. will secure us. Give me what it is that 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:38.159 makes me feel safe. We reach for the treasure 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:46.019 that we are looking for. But Jesus, who already 00:10:46.019 --> 00:10:48.759 had everything from the beginning of the world, 00:10:49.740 --> 00:10:54.159 releases it. He humbles Himself. He becomes a 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.980 servant. He walks the path of obedience all the 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:03.340 way down. Because all the way down, as He does, 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:09.440 God lifts Him up. For God has highly exalted 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:14.580 Him. The pattern of the true Kingdom. Not grasping, 00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:20.860 but surrender. Not climbing, but humbling. Not 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:25.440 seizing, but trusting. And that's the King who 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.539 rides into Jerusalem. The crowd shouting, Hosanna, 00:11:29.779 --> 00:11:31.820 blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:11:32.019 --> 00:11:35.159 They think that the system that they had in mind 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:38.059 is about to be restored. The kingdom is coming 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:40.679 back. The power is returning. Everything will 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:44.340 be fixed. But Jesus is not coming to restore 00:11:44.340 --> 00:11:48.639 what they expect. He's coming as a servant. He 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.879 doesn't seize power. He doesn't secure control. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:57.590 He doesn't even protect Himself. He rides in, 00:11:57.750 --> 00:12:01.490 knowing exactly where this is going to lead. 00:12:02.269 --> 00:12:08.009 To suffering, to rejection, to the cross. And 00:12:08.009 --> 00:12:11.789 within days, the same voices shouting, Hosanna, 00:12:12.570 --> 00:12:17.889 will shout, crucify Him. How often we keep trying 00:12:17.889 --> 00:12:22.149 to convince ourselves that all those people must 00:12:22.149 --> 00:12:26.320 have been different from day one. to day seven. 00:12:27.340 --> 00:12:30.799 Why? Because He is not giving them the treasure 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:34.460 they wanted. He is giving them something deeper. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:39.259 Here's what's striking. Jesus doesn't just fix 00:12:39.259 --> 00:12:42.840 the system. He re -centers everything around 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:47.019 Himself. It's not come back to the structure 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:52.440 that you liked so much. It's follow Me. Just 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:57.970 like Abraham. Go trust walk with me the temple 00:12:57.970 --> 00:13:01.549 fulfilled in Jesus the law fulfilled in Jesus 00:13:01.549 --> 00:13:05.909 the identity of God's people once again centered 00:13:05.909 --> 00:13:12.629 in him and after him The early church doesn't 00:13:12.629 --> 00:13:17.470 rebuild one central system it spreads to homes 00:13:17.470 --> 00:13:21.129 to relationships to communities faith becomes 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:26.820 Portable again, relational, spirit -led. And 00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:31.259 this is where we have to see what our own history 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:35.580 is. Because we see the pattern happening all 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:39.840 over again. The Roman Empire fell while the church 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:43.679 took its position of power. The church strengthened 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.159 its authority as a place of learning and knowledge. 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:49.539 The Reformation showed flaws within the church. 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:53.919 as people began to question its authority. And 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:56.500 then postmodernism now means that people do not 00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:59.559 believe in anything outside their own views and 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:03.559 personalized meanings. Things get built, people 00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:08.179 trust them, they begin to replace God, and eventually 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:13.360 they shake. And if we're honest, it feels like 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:15.899 some things are shaking in our world right now. 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:20.820 Institutions feel less stable. Certainties feel 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:23.940 less certain. Things people used to rely on do 00:14:23.940 --> 00:14:28.720 not feel as solid. And that's unsettling, as 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.080 it looks more and more like we are approaching 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:36.700 another major shift in how the world works. But 00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:41.559 Scripture gives us a lens. Maybe this is not 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:45.340 the end of faith. Maybe this is actually the 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:51.289 moment where God re -centers us back on His Son 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:57.850 and His Son alone. Not to what we controlled, 00:14:58.590 --> 00:15:02.210 but to the One who holds us. Because here's the 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:05.490 truth, everything the servant did in Isaiah 50, 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:10.049 we do not follow it. We don't always listen. 00:15:10.330 --> 00:15:13.870 We turn back when it's hard. We try to avoid 00:15:13.870 --> 00:15:18.690 suffering. We grasp for control. Jesus did not. 00:15:19.870 --> 00:15:23.690 He listened perfectly. He obeyed completely. 00:15:23.909 --> 00:15:28.490 He did not turn back. He endured suffering all 00:15:28.490 --> 00:15:32.470 the way to the cross where He carried everything 00:15:32.470 --> 00:15:35.929 we could not. He became the servant we were meant 00:15:35.929 --> 00:15:41.019 to be for us. not just as an example. This is 00:15:41.019 --> 00:15:44.919 salvation. You are not saved by how well you 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:49.059 follow. You are saved because He followed perfectly. 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:53.019 And because of that, when everything else shakes, 00:15:53.340 --> 00:15:57.240 He is not something that gets shaken. He is the 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:03.059 One holding you. And now because of Him, we are 00:16:03.059 --> 00:16:09.899 invited back into that life. Not perfectly, but 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:14.419 truly. To listen, to trust, to follow morning 00:16:14.419 --> 00:16:18.039 by morning. Because here's something simple for 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:23.240 this week. Morning by morning, could we ask, 00:16:23.899 --> 00:16:28.299 where am I leaning on something that isn't you, 00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:31.720 God? And what am I holding onto that I think 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:35.840 is going to fix everything? And then could we... 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:42.960 Take one step. Just one. To listen. To trust. 00:16:44.179 --> 00:16:47.600 To follow. And to remember that even when our 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:52.799 grip is weak, He is not. Because here's the truth. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.679 We are not that different from the people in 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:58.500 Jerusalem. We still look for things that are 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:02.500 going to fix everything. We still reach for treasure 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:06.400 that we think should be ours. that we think is 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:10.779 the point. And sometimes, even when we think 00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:14.619 we've won, there's still something underneath 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:19.759 the mountain, something that could undo us. But 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:25.059 Jesus, He doesn't lead us deeper into that. He 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:28.740 leads us out of it. Not by giving us what we 00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:31.859 expect, but by giving us what we truly need, 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:38.390 Himself. So this week, may we notice what we've 00:17:38.390 --> 00:17:43.049 been holding. May we lay it down and may we follow 00:17:43.049 --> 00:17:48.430 the servants morning by morning because that 00:17:48.430 --> 00:17:53.710 is where the real treasure truly lies. Thanks 00:17:53.710 --> 00:17:54.230 be to God.