HOSANNA
Psalm 118 1 & 2
MARK 11: 1-11
DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED … TRUST IN GOD … TRUST ALSO in me!
The words of Jesus Christ my friends … HOSANNA … HOORAY … JOY to the WORLD …
Are you ready to wave the palms of joy? Are you ready to shout hosannas to our troubled world? Are you ready to sing for Jesus …. Dance for God … can you shout HOSANNA with me … HOSANNA to the highest!!! HOSANNA to the King of Kings?
Though we walk in the midst of trouble … you and I and those on FACEBOOK … though we walk in the midst my friends GOD WILL REVIVE US!!! GOD is stretching GOD’s MIGHTY HAND to you and me … GOD’s RIGHT HAND … the mighty and powerful hand of the CREATOR … the CREATOR of ALL of us … the CREATOR of ALL the universe … GOD … JESUS … from the BEGINNING … TRUE LIGHT … LIGHT in the DARKNESS … a GOD of GRACE … a GOD of LOVE … a GOD whose Son walked this earth to teach us to hear God … witness God in the flesh … understand God’s love …. HOSANNA my friends …. HOSANNA … we are loved! We are God’s people!!!
Are you ready …. Can you shout it … Don’t you think the world needs to hear it? HOSANNA to GOD … HOSANNA to JESUS …
Yesterday, in front of millions of people watching on television and nearly a million standing before him a young man … a teenager … he lifted up the Word of God! Now, how many of you would lift up the Word of God to a small gathering of strangers? To family members? To your children? To neighbors? Well, this young man from the Hood of Chicago … this young man whose personal life has been impacted by the evil of violence in our streets … this young man stood up on the podium in our nation’s capital to preach … to preach a lesson his family had taught him. And, all I could think as I watched this young man in my living room … was HOSANNA …. Someone had taught this young man about the Light of Jesus Christ … someone had made Scripture relevant rather than the taunts of the world … taunts that on this Friday we will remember because Jesus, the Son of God was taunted by those filled with hate and concerned that Jesus was ruining their party. A crowd led by the entrenched rulers of the day … shouted crucify the King of Kings; the Prince of Peace who only the night before had told Peter to lay down his sword but that’s a lesson for our worship on Friday because all I want to do today is shout HOSANNA to the King of Kings!
Don’t you wish you were on that road above Jerusalem? Along the Mount of Olives. Aren’t you aching to see Jesus and dance for Him … SING FOR HIM … SHOUT HOSANNA to Him … bow down before Him knowing that all too often the world has been your priority not the lessons of the One we have been getting closer to throughout this Lenten season?
So, this young man … removed a strip of tape from his mouth … you see he knows that silence has been expected for too long. Acceptance … but no more. It was a day to raise voices and when I heard him say that his mother had taught him to always remember this Scripture from First Peter Chapter 4 … I rushed to find a Bible. Not an app but I wanted to open up God’s Holy Word with him … First Peter … chapter 4 … I wanted to tell this young man I am with you! And he shared … did I tell you this young man … a teenager was standing before nearly one million people in our nation’s capital … millions more on TV and with the confidence of a child of God he shared God’s Word,
“Above all, show sincere love to each other because love brings about forgiveness. Open your homes to each other without complaining. And, serve each other according to the gift that each person has received, as good managers of God’s gifts. Whoever speaks should do so as those who speak God’s Word. Whoever … WHOEVER … serves should do so from the strength of God. Do this so that in everything God may be honored through Jesus Christ.”
That deserved a HOSANNA CHURCH!!!
We are still on our Lenten journey … it gets tough this week … but we need to remember. Church you are going to spend time with God and Christ this Holy Week … prayer, the Lord’s table, remembering the awful things hate-filled power lusting humans did unjustly to Jesus on Friday … and then taking in the splendor of the truth that EASTER is about Jesus … it is about us … and it is not the end of our time for getting closer and closer to God. That we must do each day so that we can serve from the strength of God through love so that God may be honored because we have Jesus right here … right here in our hearts. And, most importantly … we … you and you and you and me … we are loved by the Creator … we are loved by God … don’t you think God and Jesus are worthy of a Hosanna this morning … don’t you want to declare WE WORSHIP YOU GOD!!!! Dance … sing … wave the palms!!!! HOSANNA!!!
Our Psalm this morning reminded us
“Give thanks to the Lord because He is good, God’s faithful love lives forever! You are my GodI will give thanks to You! I will lift You high!!” That stone rejected by the builders … our cornerstone … our Jesus … is now the main foundation … We will rejoice and celebrate in it!!!”
Church I am sure there are times you aren’t happy because I sure have those times in my life. And, just like me … I am sure that you have moments when God seems so far away usually because we have pulled back. But, as we take this last Sunday of Lent in I so want you to experience joy in God’s love! When I struggle in faith or just need to be uplifted I often turn to music and one Gospel singer composer whose music can flip me like those pancakes waiting for us in the fellowship hall back to God is Kirk Franklin. Franklin said,
“God did not build you to pull over during the storms of life; He built you to keep going. He just wants to be the one driving. As a child of God, I believe Jesus is a hero who came to save man’s life and restore people with a love that’s real; unconditional sacrificial love.”
And, one other quote of his that to me on Palm Sunday should resonate with all of us … but that we need to be taking out into the world is this “I know God is working so I smile!” HOSANNA?
So, today my message is going to end with 5 minutes of Kirk Franklin and his choir singing HOSANNA … and my challenge is … can you smile with the song? Can you wave your palms with the song? Can you dance for Jesus with the song? The lyrics start “The angels bow down at the thought of You. The darkness brings way to the Light for You. The price that you paid gives us life brand New. HOSANNA FOREVER WE WORSHIP YOU. “
<<PLAY KIRK FRANKLIN’s HOSANNA>>
No greater love in the world than You … Wherever You go I follow You!! HOSANNA FOREVER I will worship You! AMEN
Watch a video of today’s worship service: