Palm Sunday | Hour 1

Palm Sunday
Expectations

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to kfi Am six forty on demand. It
is Palm Sunday. And for those of you who don't
know that, Palm Sunday is the mark of my entrance
into Jerusalem and essentially starts the last week of my life.

(00:23):
And this is an interesting day. And I titled this
as Expectation is the mother of disappointment. And it's interesting
that you see that interwoven in life every day. And
that might sound confusing when Palm Sunday wasn't everybody was excited.
Weren't they excited that you were arriving? Absolutely so where

(00:47):
was the false expectation? Well, think of it this way.
Today would be the you know, the mark of my
entrance into Jerusalem, the beginning of the last week of
my life, and starts with deep faith and conviction. The

(01:08):
attitudes of those that were there and witnessed this were
such that the animal in which I wrote in on
they didn't even want the bottoms of his hoofs to

(01:28):
touch the ground. They laid the palm fronds down. That's
where you get Palm Sunday. And this was an act
of triumph in their eyes. It's often called the triumphal entry.
So it starts with deep faith in conviction Luke nineteen

(01:50):
thirty eight. You hear the hosannas and the King who
comes in the name of the Lord being yelled out
and cried out by the people that were in audience
of this. They recognized I was the chosen One, the Messiah,

(02:13):
the long awaited son of David, the fulfillment of God's promises.
And they stood on the beauty and intensity of that
very conviction, noticing that what they witnessed on that day

(02:36):
was the entrance of the Messiah. But this changes, obviously
one week later, I'm on a cross. One week later,
the chance of joy and praise turned to chance of execution.

(03:02):
What causes this It's expectation. It's false expectation. You do
this all the time with God, and partly your view
and where you're standing is right, but your timing or

(03:23):
the fulfillment, the way God's going to fulfill that request
or that idea or that belief becomes different, and then
all your faith goes out the door. False expectation changed
that praise and worship in the chance of anger and disappointment.

(03:43):
One week later, and that was crucified. So what were
those expectations. Well, it was believed that I would enter
Jerusalem in power, into authority, that I would take my
throne and free Israel from Rome. The common belief was

(04:14):
almost one of military. The common belief is that the Messiah,
the chosen One, the anointed One, would rise up from
the people appointed by God and would destroy the military

(04:36):
power of the day. It wasn't even about God in that.
In that sense it was it was more about the individuals.
Is more about you, you standing there and waiting for
God to do what you want God to do, rather

(04:58):
than what God must do. See, that was the plan
in the eyes of man, not in the eyes of God.
My throne would be taken, But not when I overthrowed

(05:24):
a government, a power, a principality on earth. My throne
would be taken when I suffered, died, and resurrected, conquering
the power of Sin, not just the power of Rome.

(05:46):
And this is seen and understood later after the fact
Acts two twenty x two thirty two through thirty three.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are
all witness. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,
and having received from the Father the promise of the

(06:07):
Holy Spirit. He has poured out this that you yourselves
are seeing and hearing. It was after the experience they
understood God's plan, but many were left scattered about because
they had their own vision of what God should be doing.

(06:34):
And you're probably in that same place today. That expectation
ends up bringing disappointment. You sit and you wait for
God to do something, but you wait for God to
do that which you think is right, that which somehow

(07:00):
leaves your wants fulfilled. But that's not how God works.
God is in a cosmic bellhop running to and fro
based on your wishes. The key here is to get
your wishes in line with the wishes of God, because

(07:25):
these expectations in everyday life, every part of your life,
end up causing you to go down the wrong path
or to be disappointed with something wonderful because it's not
what you thought. It's not what you expected. And the
people of Israel expected me to come in to wipe

(07:47):
out Rome, and by having that attitude, by having that expectation,
missed the beauty of what was at hand, what was
taking place and right in front of them, and I
knew it. There's many scripture that talk about me reigning,

(08:12):
but it comes with the conquering of sin, of all enemies,
not just Rome one Corinthians fifteen twenty five. For he
must reign until he has put all his enemies under
his foot. That is not about one enemy, that is

(08:35):
against the combatant of sin. And how how small that
is the vision of the people on that day to
see me as someone who would just take care of
that one problem, that one little problem in comparison to

(08:59):
the sins of the world world. Yet selfishly, that problem
was all there was in their eyes. And similarly you
today think of things that are in your life as
the biggest, the only problem in which needs to be tackled,
not seeing the bigger picture and the beauty of the

(09:20):
righteous plan, that is the plan, that is God's plan.
Palm Sunday, the marking of my entrance into Jerusalem, what
is often called the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the last
week of my life, starting out with such deep faith

(09:44):
and conviction. Luke nineteen thirty eight shows that people called out,
they cried out that I was the king who comes
in the name of the Lord. So it's not that
they have it completely wrong, but they were missing, They
were missing the most important part. They were missing the

(10:05):
totality of why I was there and what I was
going to do, and not understanding that missing that was
due to expectation. The expectations were set incorrectly. How often
does this happen to you, that an expectation exkews you
from seeing the beauty, the true beauty of a situation
and ends up letting you down. This is part of

(10:29):
many problems and relationships as well, and that's absolutely right.
Expectation is the mother of disappointment. And in this case,
that expectation that started with this praise and worship ended
with my crucifixion and some of the same people screaming

(10:51):
and yelling for Barabbas. That expectation is what killed. The
perspective was off. They wanted me to destroy Rome. They
thought that's what I was there for. But that was
the plan in the eyes of man, not the plan

(11:12):
in the eyes of God, and they missed it. They
missed it. Now, if you read on it talks about
it talks that I point these things out. But not

(11:33):
only did I point it out to everyone or just
the lay people that were there. I pointed it out
to the religious leaders, the religious leaders as well were mistaken.
It's not just left up to the people. So I

(11:56):
say these things today that you understandout expectations and how
they can ruin your vision and understanding of what's going
to take place or the bigger picture that's more important
than just that small thing. You're looking and saying, God,
I want you to remove Rome from my life. And
God wants to remove a plethora of problems or concerns,

(12:23):
to get these things out of your life to make
you healthier and even happier. But you hold on everything
else and say, well, just remove this one thing, and
God has a bigger plan. And your relationships as well.
You're focused on this little thing, and that expectation ends

(12:47):
up making you not appreciate what you have and the
greater good that is coming from the relationship. And throughout
that that attitude, you miss the best part, You miss
the most important stuff because you're lost in false expectation.

(13:10):
Palm Sunday marking my entrance into Jerusalem and the last
week of my life. Expectation is the mother of disappointment.
And I want you to take that away with you
today and into this week and understanding how you bring
expectation into your life in every way, in every form,

(13:32):
whether it be at work, in relationships with your faith.
How many times have you heard people that are praising
God and loving God, and something goes wrong in their life,
and all of a sudden their faith is gone. There

(13:53):
are some expectations that are written in stone, and still
man kind of looks away like death inevitable. But everyone
looks around trying to find ways around it, or to
somehow blame God or get upset when a life comes

(14:16):
to an end, because the expectation is that you're going
to have ninety one hundred years, but that's not said anywhere.
There's no guarantee. The false expectation of the people of
Israel at the time led them first to praise my

(14:38):
coming and then second to denounce it because it wasn't
the way they expected me to come. And I knew
that this would happen later on. In Luke nineteen forty
one and forty two, it says that when I approached Jerusalem,
I saw the city and I wept over it, and
I said, if you had known in this day, even
you the things which make for peace, but now they

(15:03):
have been hidden from your eyes. I'm telling them if
you would have recognized, if you would have fully understood
who I am, then this minor piece that you see,
this desire for, made it to conquer Rome. See, that
was all that they wished where they were seeing it

(15:26):
too small. So on Palm Sunday two thousand years ago,
you had people with false expectation, thinking that I was
just gonna come and destroy Rome and then all would
be well. But it was bigger than that, and in
focusing on just that little wish, they missed the beauty.

(15:53):
And some seventy years ad Jerusalem and Israel started to
see the problems of missing that. But it wasn't just

(16:13):
the people, It was the lay people walking around. It
was the religious people as well. They had false expectations.
The religious leaders of the day had their own thoughts
as to who I was, and more importantly to them,
who I wasn't. In Luke nineteen thirty eight, the crowds

(16:33):
were crying, blessed is the King who comes in the
name of the Lord. They had it right, at least
at that point. But if you go just a little
bit further, if you go to the very next verse,
what do you read that some of the Pharisees the
religious leaders at the time. Some of the Pharisees in

(16:54):
the crowd said to me, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Why
did they want me to rebuke them, Well, they wanted
me to rebuke them because they were giving me praise.
They were saying, blessed is the King who comes in
the name of the Lord. So, y'all, on one side,

(17:15):
you have the people that understand, at least in the beginning,
who I was, but didn't understand what I was there
to do. And then you have the religious people who
didn't even understand who I was, and they wanted me
to rebuke the lay people forgetting it right because they

(17:36):
didn't see me to be the Messiah they expected they
expected someone else. And whereas the lay people saw me
as the Messiah, they expected me to do something else.
The religious leaders saw me altogether as someone else, as
not the Messiah at all, wanting me to rebuke my disciples,

(18:00):
wanted me to rebuke those that said, Hosannah, blessed is
the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
They didn't see me as the Messiah, and almost everyone
missed what God was doing because of it. I wept

(18:23):
because I knew the turmoil, the pain that would come
to the people, not just there in Jerusalem, but over
the whole world. And this is something that you deal
with every single day with your relationship with God, whether

(18:45):
your relationship with man. These false expectations that get in
your way because you think something should be going one
way and goes the other. You know, this attitude about
having a soul mate, although beautiful and whimsical and sounds

(19:05):
wonderful and God God breathed on paper, but causes a
lot of problems, a lot of divorce because if your
expectation is there's only one person for you prior to marriage,
then when you get in that marriage and there's problems
and there's struggles, like there is in any good relationship,

(19:29):
the first thought is, well, this isn't the right one,
this isn't my soulmate, this isn't the one I should
be with. Therefore I need to be with someone else.
I assure you, when you marry, that is your soul mate,

(19:50):
that is the only one that you should have. It's
best that you go through not picking bad ones because
outside of abuse, verbal and physical, outside of infidelity, God
doesn't want you to break that bond. And and so

(20:11):
these expectations build and you miss what God's doing. The
people of Israel are you and you get these expectations
and you miss the bigger picture that God has. And

(20:32):
I'm asked, is does expectation come from from pride, from greed,
from all of the above. It comes from you thinking
that you know best always. That's the weird relationship between
man and God. That's askew man all often things you

(20:54):
sit there going, okay, God is the one. It's it's
like having you know a giant to do your bidding.
So you think, well, all I need is the brown
of God that I'm just going to think at what
I need. I know what's best for me, but I
need the brown of God to execute those wishes and

(21:15):
needs so that I can move forward on my desires.
And that's not the way it works. The Father's not
there just to do your heavy lifting because you need
it lifted. Those expectations will not only kill you, you'll

(21:38):
miss the beauty of God's will, the steadfastness of God's will,
and lose the total insight of the situation. God has
a plan and it's always always bigger than the plan

(22:00):
you have for yourself. But how many times do you
hear people say, gosh, if I only had this, if
I only had a million dollars, or if I only
had a better boss, or if I only had a
better job, or if I only had a better car,
a better house. That all these things you start seeing,

(22:21):
you start expecting in life that would make your life better.
I expect my life would be better if I had X,
Y and Z. But why and who's to say that's where?
That isn't limiting where God wants you to be just
at this much money, or just in this home, or

(22:41):
just in this neighborhood, or just with this job. To
look beyond those things to the bigger picture. God didn't
want to save man from one army. The Father wanted
to save you from the army of Hell, the true

(23:03):
enemy that desires to absorb and zap all joy, all
things that are good, all things that give glory to God.
But two thousand years ago on Palm Sunday, the desire
was just to get Rome out of the equation, as
if another army wouldn't arise, as if that was the

(23:27):
only thing in their way. And this happens every single day.
You do it with politicians, every single time you could
almost watch the politicians with exception. They come just as

(23:51):
triumphantly with praise and sometimes unfortunately worship. And part of
that is legitimate hope, as you should have when there's
newness in office, every opportunity for every politician to have

(24:12):
the attitude of hope and newness. But when those politicians
don't do exactly what you want, exactly what you think
is going to be best, you shoot them down, regardless
of what side of any aisle you may sit on.

(24:34):
And it's because of those expectations and what you think
that someone should be doing, or your your husband, your wife,
your boyfriend, your girlfriend, whatever it might be, this is
what it should be, and if it's not, then you
shoot it down. So do your expectations of God get
in the way of what God is really trying to

(24:55):
do in your life. How did Palm Sunday get its name?
This you can find in Matthew Matthew, Chapter twenty one,
when it talks about the triumphant entry that if you
look down, as I wrote in you can look down

(25:19):
on chapter twenty one, verse eight and read on, and
it says in most of the multitudes spread their garments
on the road and others were cutting branches from the
trees and spreading them on the road. When it talks
about this is talking about palm fronds. The palm fronds
from the trees, and they were laying it on the
ground so that my animal that I was walking in

(25:40):
on would not even touch the ground. And so it
becomes palm Sunday for that reason. That's why the palm
fronds becomes such a symbol on this day. So it's
really about the entrance, the entrance into Jerusalem, and this
missed expectations, this miss understanding as to who I was

(26:04):
and what I was there to do. Interestingly enough, Florida.
Florida got its name because of the observation of the
time was expected that it was around the time of Easter,
and because of the term that is used for Easter
time in Spanish.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
That they.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Put this upon the location of Florida as well Florida.
So you know, Easter continues to spread and the beliefs
and understandings therein. But Palm Sunday, that's where it comes from,
just shortening the fact that people lay not only their
garments on the ground, but also palm fronds, so that

(26:48):
the animal in which I was walking in on didn't
touch the ground. Claude, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, Jesus, I would appreciate your comments on a question
of observation that I have, And I state first of
all that I'm very much a believer. But when we
go back two twenty five hundred years ago, is it
any wonder that your people rejected you, because, and correct
me if I'm wrong, there was every number.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Of false messiahs, and in fact, probably went out of
the way to pretend to be fulfilling prophecy and that.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Sort of thing. In many cases, even you know, magicians
of the time would come behind you and duplicate some
of the same things you did. Absolutely, and even though
you're very non political, the way I see this thing.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Is back in the day two thousand years ago, it
was very political because, like you said, a lot of
your people expected you to rescue them, destroy the Romans
and everything else.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
I've got to believe that there was such spin going
on the other side as far as setting things up
for the way they happened. Of course, there's a lot
of public relations on the other side and that sort
of thing where your of course, your public relations was
the truth. But yeah, I think it was kind of
a very political time. Even though you didn't get involved

(28:23):
in the politics, I think it was very political on
the other side. And I guess what my comment would be,
You know, who could blame your people for denying you
because of some of the things that went on in
the past, as far as the falsema size and that
sort of thing. I just appreciate your.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Comment on that, of course, very legitimate and very well put.
I might add, just taking making a synopsis of what
was taking place, Absolutely Claude, there were many people that
not only followed me, that kind of did the magic
tricks and said, look, I'm doing miracles too. On every
street corner you had somebody claiming to be the Christ.
As a matter of fact, a lot of people misunderstand

(29:01):
this in scripture, but in Matthew, where it talks about
there will be those in the end times that will
be those that claim to be the Christ. And a
lot of people think, well, for instance, if there was
a radio show where somebody was portraying Christ to teach
people and inspire them about this more than special individual,

(29:26):
that that would be a false Christ. No, what it's
talking about is actual false Christ, not people pretending to
be Jesus, people in movies or television or even radio.
But it's talking about people who actually claim to be
the Christ and say Jesus wasn't the Messiah. I am.
And so that's a problem that will come again, and

(29:46):
it still happens every once in a while you see
people popping up saying that they are the Messiah and
that Jesus wasn't or whatever that took place there. It
wasn't about the politics of the day. It was about
understanding that that they still could have seen me. So, yes,
was there reason for them not to see me to
look away, Yes there were distractions, but that's like saying

(30:07):
that it's legitimate for a business to go out of
business because they don't want to accept any money because
there's so many counterfeits out there. Just means do the homework,
take the time and learn what's true versus what's a counterfeit.
And they had every ability to do that, and those
that didn't didn't.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
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