Palm Sunday, 3/20/16

Palm Sunday worship sermon 2016 1 Chr 16:23-31

Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day.
²⁴ Declare his glory among the nations,  his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

²⁵ For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
²⁶ For all the gods of the nations are idols,    but the Lord made the heavens.
²⁷ Splendor and majesty are before him;    strength and joy are in his dwelling place.

²⁸ Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
²⁹ Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;    bring an offering and come before him.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his^[e] holiness.³⁰     Tremble before him, all the earth!
    The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.³¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;    let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”

David set Jerusalem as his capital city.  They built homes for himself and a tent for God and he  offering praise.

this is language that we commonly find in the psalms.

Palm Sunday is also a day of praise

Tell the palm Sunday story of jesus entry into Jerusalem. 

when we see what we have, praise is the natural response.
The people on Palm Sunday saw what they had in Jesus
The Pharisees did not... The Pharisees challenge him.

they were focused on something else...themselves

If these don’t praise me the rocks and stones will cry out.

Song: aint no rock gonna cry in my place.  Done by mercy me & hillsong

Ain't no rock, gonna cry in my place

Ain't no bird, gonna flap it's feathers

(Ain't no tree, gonna wave it's branches.

Ain't no rock, gonna cry in my place.
Long as I'm alive, I'll glorify his holy name

Praising God...does this seem weird to you?
Do we Methodists praise?
When do we do this?
Ask the average church member: I guess when we sing, but I don't know.
Emphasis on I don't know.

The joke: a fellow from a more demonstrative church visited the mainline
At a good point of the sermon, he would shout out "praise the Lord"
Sir, we don't do that here

Why this praise? Why did they praise Jesus that day?
Reason #1 You praise what you love...
what you love probably is your God - idolatry is alive and well on planet earth

and everyone is praising, exalting something...
It is what we do. We see something that we like and we call it good.
We make choices of what we will exalt: our self, sports, money, God
If we are fixated on the wrong things, we do so at our peril
The result of such living is predictable.

[someone says that they don’t feel close to god…… hmmm…]

We praise what we love
For what it does, and for who it is
For what it does, we praise the dog
What who it is, we praise those special people

A man gave his wife the most beautiful compliment: "Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you."

Authentic praise of God acknowledges what is true about God; it responds to qualities that are "there" and not simply "there for me..." In other words,God is to be praised because God is God, because of what God is and does, quite apart from what God is and does for me.

Reason #2: Why did they praise Jesus that day?
It is what we are made for...boy does that sound weird.

We are not our own! This is a difficult lesson to hear and to get across in a culture-our lives are not simply our own to live. 

1 Cor 6 you are not your own, you are bought with a price

Genuine life is found in relationship to God.

It empowers us, it lifts us up as we lift up God
You raise me up...song – josh groban

When I am down and, oh, my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Selfishness makes us unhappy but looking to God brings us joy

Samuel Goldwyn said, when someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy--
it makes us happy when we find a joy in God.

Song- indescribably, uncontainable awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim you are amazing.

Praise must be relevant
Waving palm branches anymore-any adults want to try this?
People joke about rolling in the aisles ...swinging from chandeliers
The pastor that handle the snakes [do you take the bible literally?]

there used to be what was called “shouting methodists”
I believe that we can praise God 7 days a week, 24 hours a day

I think that this is from Barbara taylor brown……
A group of Christian women got together for prayer and to do each other’s hair…..Jackie began the litany with the soft voice she saves for leading morning prayers with her sisters in faith: "We thank you, Lord, for this day. For mending families. For Healing broken hearts..."
Her volume and eloquence rising, Bess and the circle of seven women around her began to shout, sing and sway. Their voices rose to a climax--"Amen, Hallelujah!" Then Bess yelled even louder: "To you be the honor and glory, Lord! Guide our steps, Lord! Amen, Lord!"
Tears trickled down one woman's face as she bellowed a cascade of praises. With that, the group fell silent. The circle broke. Each said amen and drifted away. Worship was over. Now it was time to do hair.

So there is praise, and then there is hair cutting.
I reject this. We cannot separate our lives into the spiritual and the unspiritual.

But We have divided our life into the sacred and the secular.

Living a divided life instead of a united life

1)   Sacred acts..performed with a feeling of satisfaction and a firm assurance that they are pleasing to God......prayer, Bible study/reading, church and such acts that spring directly from faith.

2)   Secular acts including all the ordinary activities of life....some that we often do reluctantly and with misgivings, often apologizing to God for what we consider a waste of time and strength....

What if There are no sacred or secular places.

God is everywhere

The holy land is no more sacred than lees summit.

Lent no more holy than 2nd week of august

Easter no more holy than sept 9

In John 8 Jesus says- “I do always the things that please him”
What common things did Jesus do?

·        Went for a walk

·        Drank wine

·        Taught a class

·        Went on a mission trip

·        Stopped to hug a baby

·        Talked to a prostitute

·        He ate with sinners

And god was pleased

It is all spiritual, life is spiritual

Can I not praise God by how I cut my hair? Can I not praise God by how I treat the people I come into contact with during the day?

You can praise God, Anytime you just by being aware of His presence with you. It is not something that you do to begin the day, and then go about your life

A spiritual awareness of God is available to you anytime you stop to take notice.  And the moment that you take notice of God's work, you are praising.

Paul wrote - And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

I listened to a pastors sermon a few weeks ago-

Describing the throne room in revelation

1.   All creatures in heaven revolve around God, he is the center

There is a throne and I am not on it

Worship service is a weekly reminder that it is not about us.

2.   Worship does not start at 1115.  It has been going on for centuries.  At 1115, we join in.

An old Jewish legend gives the origin of praise this way: After God created the world, God asked the angels what they thought of it all. "Only one thing lacking," they said. "It is the sound of praise to the Creator." So, the legend goes, God created music of birds, the whispering wind, the murmuring ocean, and planted melody in the hearts of men and women.

yes we praise for the great theological truths, but oh what joy in becoming more aware of the amazing small things around us.

someone said, you have brought every act down to a low level,

A>W> tozer says no, we must lift up every act to the kingdom level and the whole of life to a sacrament

when we get this, a sense of wondrous meaning will begin to take hold of us And all of life can become special, holy and spiritual

We just have to decide how we will see.  What we will see

Is eating at la fuente a mundane or a holy thing

If a member of my family is on the other side of the table, it’s a holy thing

Is breathing a normal thing or a sacred thing

Ask someone who has a lung condition

Is walking a normal thing or a sacred thing

Ask someone who cannot walk

Is driving a mundane thing or a sacred thing

Ask someone who has just had their license retired

Is working a normal thing or a sacred thing

Ask someone who is looking for a job

Praying is good.  Study is good.  Acts of mission are good but.......

let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds as well and learn to find Him there

It is after all, a beautiful day in gods world be sure to see the good

Close with Psalm 150 - Jeff Brinkman version
1Praise the LORD. Praise God in this sanctury; praise hin when you are outside.
2Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his acts of kindness and love.
3Praise him on the basketball court, praise him by the way you drive your car,
4Praise him with kind words to family members, praise him by prioritizing your life
5Praise him by being aware of His simple gifts, praise him with a thankful heart.
6Let everthing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

Prayer: 

Oh God of Peace, help us on our journey.  remind us that we belong only to you.  We give you our life….every moment of it.  You chose us and we in turn choose you.  You are a faithful God and we confidently believe in you and live in you.  we offer you thanks and praise.  thanks for the joy that this brings. - Amen