Thursday, September 4, 2008

Palm Sunday 03/16/08 Matthew21:8-17

What is Palm Sunday
Jesus entered Jerusalem - a day when people offered praise

Praising God....what do we give our voice to?
Negativity, gossip, judging others, sports teams, our egos

God is looking for people to praise him
No an egomanic
We are complete in Him
Your wife...I Love You...I am completed by knowing you

Some voiced praise in a way that has made us uncomfortable
So noisy, so load. Boisterous. Arrogant.

We have become timid, shy, we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater
Problem...A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service ballons ascended, but withn it was over 1/3 of the ballons were unreleased. Let your balloon go.

The Psamist call us to praise
What I am talking about is not about a bunch of noisey stuff
Its not about an arrangement of behavior that humans call praise
It is about a life style of parise.

It is about learning to live a life that is vertical too, not just horizontal
I say too, because we will continue to live horizontally...

The money changers
This is illustrated in the incident with the money changers
Life cannot be about collecting to ourselves
God must be the center of our lives
that's where he wants to be

So what can we offer praise to God for....
For relationships
For family
God I thank you and praise you for my children. For other peoples children
For friendships....more valuable than any boat, any car, any home.

We can praise him alone or together

When Christian people sit outside on their patio and give thanks for their families, God is honored
Sit outside with countless men and give thanks for our wives and children

When men praise God, the women no longer have to fight to teach them the right thing to do.

For Forgiveness
For love

For life itself
Praise to the God who makes it all happen

The God who creates
Gives us those aha experiences
Warm our hearts

For tulips rising from the ground.

For the feeling that I need to be in the mission field
Mongolian bbq story

Praise God for the chance to live out our faith
How we live day by day brings praise...
When you reach out to others, when we care, when we help the needy, when we encourage a young person,
every time that your life reaches outside of you normal, human thinking, your life praises God

Conculsion----Don't be robbed of the joy of praise

Pat Starke at the men's breakfast....
we are all waiting for the next Ghandi, Mother Teresa.
God is simply waiting for us to step up
To live our lives in a way that brings him praise

O sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim His salvation from day to day. Declare the Lord's glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, to be honored above all gods (Psalm 96)





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