Palm Sunday 2026

Aren't you glad to be here today? I hope you are. I'm glad to be here and it's an honor to be here. I want to thank Pastor Ryan for inviting me. All the staff has been awesome. Terry, Mike, and Jeff from the board. God bless you guys for your hospitality toward me. And Pastor Ryan, it's just an honor to be here. And when he selected me to speak on this day, I thought, whoa, this is a big deal for me. So thank you for being here. Amen? Here's a situation we have in America. Sometimes we as Christians don't understand what's going on around us and because of that we sit back and just... we can get pretty critical. You wouldn't do that, would you? Huh? About things that are going on in our world. So here's the epidemic that is seizing America today. This is the epidemic that is contagious and is infiltrating every life and someone you know. And that's the epidemic of loneliness. It's contagious. It's sad. Loneliness has the effect on your life of cutting your life short by 15 to 20 years. It's the same equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Loneliness is a problem. That's why it's important that you invite somebody to church next Sunday. I am superintendent today because at the age of 14 my neighbor invited me to church. Your neighbor needs to come to church. Well, my neighbor comes to church. Well, there's somebody on your block. There's somebody in your portico. There's somebody in your office that needs to be in church. The beauty of church is this. It cures loneliness. Aren't you glad for your friends? Huh? Just look at your neighbor and say, man, I'm glad you're my friend. I hope you did that with a smile. I mean, there's something powerful about coming here. You know what? Another thing, you just wouldn't realize this, but when you sing together, it helps your loneliness. Who would have thought that God would invent something to cure us from our need of isolation? Oh, I know from the very beginning when God created Adam, he said one thing was not good. It was that man was alone and he created Eve. Thank God for Eve's. My Eve is in the house. Miss Linda. I love Miss Linda. I love Miss Linda. You want to make an enemy of me, you talk bad about my bride. I'm just gonna tell you, you're just gonna make an enemy of me. Can I tell you what the scripture says about the church? The scripture says that the church is the bride of Christ. You better

be careful what you say about the bride of Christ. Yeah, I'd hate for Jesus to be your enemy. Now look, the church is not perfect. Somebody say amen. That's right. Look at your neighbor and you'll understand why. Because we're not perfect, but we know what grace is and we know what forgiveness is. Our problem is we don't often extend it to people who offend us. God will always put you in a situation to test your grace, to test what you really say you believe. If you don't believe me, you just hang around me long enough and I will offend you. I will give you an opportunity to practice grace. I'm just saying God has a way of honing you and sharpening you. I mean the scripture says iron sharpens iron and we need one another. Your neighbor needs this church, needs the church, needs the church. The first Adam, God said it wasn't known. You see, the enemy knows what's not good because he heard it out of the mouth of God and he's doubled down on our time and in our season to isolate people and make them lonely and keep them out of the grace you and I know. first Adam was lonely and God put him to sleep. Out of his side, Scripture says, a rib he brought forth woman. The way I like to say it is, wow! Amen. All the married men say, amen. The second Adam, God put to sleep. Do you remember something happened? He wasn't supposed to die so quick. Crucifixion was supposed to last two to three days. The Romans were experts at torturing people and they tried to extend it as long as they could. But Jesus died at three in the afternoon. The spear went in His side, water and blood came out. God put Him in a tomb. On the third day He rose again. Aren't you glad Easter is coming? That second Adam was pierced, wounded. And on the 50 days after the resurrection His church come forth. From a wounded side God brought forth His bride. And I'm so glad to be a part of His bride, aren't you? Huh? What an honor to be a part of His bride. Oh, glory to God. I want to talk to you today about Palm Sunday, is that

okay? There are three things I want you to come away really for and I'll mention that later. Number one, I want you to understand you can trust the Word of God. You can trust the promises of God. They might not come, I'm going to tell you they might not come when you think they should come. There are promises that God has promised you. I don't know about you but God's always been late in my life. He always came late. You know, I was the last person in my home to get married but thank God I waited. If you'll wait on God's promise to be fulfilled in your life it will be the best thing that ever happened to you. You can trust the promises. The second thing I want you to understand is worship is powerful. Worship will, when you engage in worship, worship will dismantle the fear that you have in your living. Because there's a lot of things to be afraid of in our world. If you don't know that just get behind the wheel of a car. I'm always amazed at people who say they don't believe in God but yet get behind the wheel of the car. Because you have to have a lot of faith that the guy coming towards you is going to stay in his lane. You have to have a lot of faith that someone's going to honor the red light. You have to have a lot of faith to drive your car and then you say, well I just don't want to believe in God. Well then please don't drive. See it doesn't make sense because there's proof that there is a God and his word is one of those. And the next thing I want you, the third thing I want you to do is love Jesus a little more. Did you hear me? Love Jesus a little more. You know our problem is we think we can love this and it takes away from our love from God. You see when I love my wife it doesn't mean I love God less. Somebody say amen. When I love ice cream it doesn't mean that I love God less. And you know what? It's

okay to love your nation. God loves nations. You can love your nation. Isn't your nation perfect? No, it's like this church. It's not perfect. But you can love your nation. God loves Israel. He makes that very clear in the Bible. And don't get me wrong, it's not about the leadership of Israel. It's about what God has done through a chosen people to bring about the Savior to rescue you and I from the kingdom of darkness and put us into the kingdom of the son he loves. To give us an eternal home. Our problem is we have a short view of history and God takes the long view because he's more interested in the eternal progress of your life than the now. It's okay to have multiple loves, just don't make it an idol. Do you hear me? Jesus did this. And here's our problem with friendships. We want our friends to believe like us. Guess what? Your friends ain't going to believe you. Jesus said, the Bible says this, Jesus is a friend of sinners. That means he didn't agree with everything they thought. Somebody say amen. Amen. Do you understand? You can't have friends. You're just living in a silo and then what happens in our society is, we become tribes and we all wanna live in our own tribe and we hate the other tribe because they don't believe like us. Ooh. And then we start warring one another because we're all in our own little silos

and we don't realize the value of humanity is, Christ died on the cross. For all people who don't agree with you. I just came back from Washington, D.C. We had a mission summit there. The Assemblies of God has 89 million, almost 90 million adherents around the world. Aren't you thankful? We have 2,700 missionaries around the world that are serving and our goal by the year of 2033 is to have 4,000 missionaries. Why? Because Jesus has said he would come back when the world heard the gospel and we're about the father's business of proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I got sidetracked. You did that to me. You did it. Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday was the day they marched lambs into Jerusalem. Every family had to bring a lamb or march a lamb. Thousands of lamb. Matter of fact, on the side of the temple, one of the sides is the Kidron Valley. They call it the Kidron Valley because Kidron means black. The blood would flow from the temple so thick that it made the valley black. That is what we call Good Friday

when the lambs would be sacrificed. And those lambs marched into the city, had to be inspected by the high priest and then every family would adopt the lamb and it would live with them for three days. Eat at their table, well, underneath the table. They would love on it and care for it for three days. And then on Friday, they would take it to the priest. Seems odd, doesn't it? Well, you and I live in a society that's a little different and we thank God for the completion of the sacrifice through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? So Psalms, Palm Sunday, it's a prophetic word. It's a victor's Psalm. It's the eternal consummation takes place in Revelation chapter 17. And we're gonna walk through that today. You see, Palm Sunday began long before it really happened, long before Jerusalem. Palm Sunday was not spontaneous. It was a prophetic word arriving in person. Three things hold together in this moment, in this story, a prophetic word, a victorious celebration and the eternal consummation that is yet to come. You see, you and I live between. We between what was and what is to come. In other words, we live in the not yet world, but something good is coming, because he made a promise.

Passover, the context was the city was full. The city was anticipation of Good Friday, which we call Good Friday. The people had something going on. Something was going on. I mean, Lazarus had just come, the story. Matter of fact, the prophetic, I mean, the people said he's turning the world upside down. Just Jesus, something's going on. Listen to me, the prophetic word in Zechariah 9, 9, the king was announced. Listen to what he said. This is almost 600 years before the day. Your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, and yet he is humble, riding on a donkey. Does that sound familiar? The reason the exile happened, the children of Israel, was not because of a lack of religious activity. Can I tell you, religious activity never made anyone holy. No, it's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's faith in what God has done. You see, every sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to the sacrifice on Good Friday. Jesus, that's why after Good Friday, there's no longer any sacrifice of an animal for sin. Why? The Lamb of God came, hallelujah! And when he declared it on the cross, it is finished.

The old was done away with, and we march toward an eternity that he is preparing for us. Oh my goodness, I got ahead of myself. Isn't God good? Huh? It's a prophetic word. A word that you and I can camp out on. He didn't come on a war horse, a donkey, an animal of peace. He came righteous, victorious, and humble. You know, there's one thing about the humility. It's not in the vocabulary of darkness. The devil has no idea about humility. Pride cast him out of heaven, and he operates by pride, and he, that's why when you get full of yourself, you're not on Jesus' team. But God conquered darkness because Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death. I'm gonna tell you humility dismantled darkness so that you and I can be free from sin. So God calls us to walk in humility because it's not us, it's him. Amen? Amen. Jesus found the donkey as directed. A deliberate fulfillment of prophecy. Every action on that road is a divine exclamation point

to what God had promised. Amen? Here he is, the king, who is righteous, who is victorious, who is humble, who is riding on a donkey. It's a symbol of peace, not war. Kings rode horses into battle, but our king comes gentle, comes gentle. In Zechariah 13, one, it says this, listen to this. On that day, on that day, a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity. Praise God for that fountain, amen? Zechariah saw more than a parade. He saw the cleansing, your cleansing, my cleansing. God in his destiny had a savior named Jesus riding in humbly toward the cross. Your cross, my cross. He took upon himself. This fountain that was opened would never run dry. You see, the Hebrew children, Jesus' day, even to this day, have a series of psalms that they sing. I would encourage you to read these psalms this week from Psalm 113 to 119. They call them the Hillel Psalms, and they're all about the Passover. They're all about the sacrifice, the sacrifice. And it's out of that verse that the people are saying the day.

In Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26, praise, please, Lord, please save us. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Psalm 118 was sung every Passover, and the crowd was now shouting it. In the event, it was scripture returning to meet its fulfillment in Jesus. The prophetic word arrived in living flesh, and the first coming prepares the way for the second coming. Glory to God, because one day, one day we're gonna grab palm branches again. Huh? Listen to it. John chapter 12, it says this. A large crowd took palm branches and went down to the road to meet him. They shouted, praise God, hail to the King of Israel. Do you see it? This symbol of a palm branch. Why a palm branch? It's the emblem of victory in the Old Testament. It's used by believers in surrounding culture to honor conquerors. Yes, the palm tree remarkably resists heavy and persistent pressure, a symbol of enduring victory. Hallelujah! Yes, it's a symbol of grandeur, steadfastness, and spiritual prosperity. Oh my goodness, did he open up something

we can't even imagine or fathom this side of eternity? But what a mystery you and I get to participate in. A mystery the angels are not gonna be able to sing about. The scripture says this. The angels long to look into the salvation that you have received. You are. the apple of his eye amen glory to God the Sun the leaves of that palm they radiate like the radiation of the Sun and here it is the Passover lamb these Passover lambs would marched into the city and you would go on Friday Thursday night to pick up your to identify with your lamb the priest would ask you three questions first do you love your lamb do you love your lamb and then he'd ask you it again he'd ask you another question ready here it is do you love your lamb he'd asked the third question are you ready do you love your lamb he would ask you that three times because he wanted to know you identified with that which was in your home you identified with this lamb so that this lamb could take away your sins in the sacrifice of Friday it was Passover that represented the deliverance of Israel from Egypt when they had to put the blood over the doorpost so that the death angel would pass over their lives this represented that which God had done in the past they had to identify it so that they too could know the cleansing power of the blood it's no strange thing in John 21 when Peter after he had seen the resurrection after he'd ate with Jesus after he walked him through what he says in John 21 read it it's the most crazy thing you've ever seen in Scripture in your life he says I'm going fishing now I have to admit I pastored a long time and there's some Sunday mornings I'm driving to church to preach and I'm saying I wish I was going fishing today because you can't get weary in doing good there he was Peter so they fish all night and catch nothing and the guy on the beach says hey cast your net on the other side and they get it so full they can't even pull in 153 fish and and and people have significant what what is 153 mean what is 153 mean I mean my goodness

we got to figure out and people and theologians have deciphered and tried to figure out exactly what 153 means and this is what it means 153 153 a massive load of fish to provide for them for the next 50 days while they're waiting in an upper room God will take care of you and guess who's on the beach Jesus John says it's Jesus and Peter jumps over you know the last time he jumped over he was walking on water can you imagine that he's the only one out of the boat don't you just love Peter well he denied passing on three times can you imagine Peter jumps out and the last time he jumped out and now he's remembering you've never done this now he's remembering you know I said this and I did this I said I wouldn't deny him and I did I said I'd never forsake him and I did I can just imagine that through that trudgery of walking through that water that day if you ever tried to run in water have you ever tried to walk through water the drudgery the strain and sometimes when we our memories is exactly what we're trying to trudge through in our life and there Peter is and Jesus has breakfast on the beach there have been days when Jesus cooked me breakfast when I was worried and when I was struggling in my own failures in my own weakness there he was Peter do you love me Peter do you love me do you see what Jesus is doing there do you love the lamb Peter do you love your because John said it remember at the baptism of Jesus behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world he must increase and I must decrease oh my goodness this question still echoes do you love your lamb do you Love your lamb. The morning sacrifices started at 9 a.m. on Good Friday. When did he go on the cross? 9 a.m. The sacrifices started, stopped at 3. When did he die? At 3. There's a bigger picture than what you're reading on the page now. It's a picture of all eternity being collapsed into one moment.

Your deliverance, my deliverance so that we somehow can stand in the presence of a holy God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was sacrificed on that day. The perfect sinless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He's my Jesus. Do you love your Jesus? Oh glory to God. First Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 says, Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. And then it says, so let us celebrate. Glory to God. Easter's coming. A celebration is happening. You see the Prince of Peace rides in. He is righteous and victorious. Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9, yet he is humble. Listen, when one rejoices completely, one stops being afraid. Love casts out all fear. And when you declare your love for him in worship, there's something that happens to fear. It falls like rags at your feet. Don't be afraid of that. Other enemies had come to Jerusalem with destruction. He comes with peace. He brings peace, not to a nation, but to every heart that identifies with the land. He had not just, he had just raised Lazarus. Think about it just for a moment. And the Pharisees, he's got, we got to do something with him. And then he dies. And on Sunday, he comes back. We live in light.

Listen, Revelation chapter 5 says, 7 says this. Listen, a vast crowd from every nation, tribe, and people, and language held palm branches in their hands. Salvation comes from our God, from the Lamb, hallelujah. We're going to celebrate it again. Palm branches in our hands, not a few thousand on a dusty road, but a multitude beyond counting. Every nation, every tribe, every language gathered before the throne, hallelujah. And the same symbol and the same shout, glory to God, gathered before the throne, hallelujah. Listen to what it says. We're going to have white robes. You know, I don't know about you, but I'm always worried about, I hope I'm dressing right. Now, I used to have young ladies on my staff, I'd go before Sunday, I'd say, do I look okay? And they'd, pastor, you shouldn't, you shouldn't. I won't have that problem in heaven. He's prepared a white robe for us. Oh, glory to God, through His righteous sacrifice, you and I are going to be clothed with eternity. Victory of the righteousness of Christ through the blood, the perfect one, victory by sacrifice, the Lamb who was slain made white robes possible. Listen to what it says. He who sits on the throne will give them shelter. The Lamb on the throne will be their shepherd. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Shelter from spiritual darkness and the enemies of the world. Never again to be hungry or thirsty, all provisions granted. Never scorched by the sun, no more being worn down and burnt out. The Lamb becomes the shepherd. He leads, guides, and protects. He leads to springs of living water. Listen to what it says.

Not one tear falls that He's not always already promised to wipe away. Glory to God. So you and I live between two Palm Sundays. Do you understand that? We witness, we say there's more to it than just what you read. There's one coming, and I live in the yet now, amen? So what we celebrate today, we celebrate the first ride into Jerusalem. We celebrate the spiritual prosperity that He brought into our lives. We have access to the throne room of heaven. Glory to God! And this question still comes true today. Do you love your lamb? He's coming for you. One day we're gonna have, stand with me, would you do that? One day we're gonna have palm branches and I don't have them today but I do have them. Oh glory to God. Raise your hands toward heaven. You know in the Old Testament they had this thing, they called it a wave offering. Oh glory to God. Aren't you glad he's worthy of all your ways? Huh? Would you say this what they said on Palm Sunday? Listen to it. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Oh can you say it with me right now? Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Can you say it one more time? Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Oh come on, one more time. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Do you love your lamb? Slip your hands toward heaven, just love on him just a little bit.