Don't Miss Moments - Week 6 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Don't Miss Moments
Week 6 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Oh, good morning once again and welcome back to our sermon series through the Gospel of Luke called. Don't Miss Moments. When my wife, Kim and I, were raising our two daughters when they're really little. There were three songs that we used to sing to them day after day, after day after day and week after week, after week, after week, because we really wanted them to be strong in their Christian faith and to embrace our Christian values. You might already know what these three songs are number three on our list of most sung songs in our home was, I Am Jesus Little Lamb. I'm going to teach our kids. You might feel weak and vulnerable like a little lamb. But Jesus is a good shepherd. And if you have him, you lack nothing, you're going to be Okay. No one can snatch you out of his hand. But number two, on the list of songs that we sung to our daughters. The most was, “Jesus loves me this. I know for the Bible tells me so. “Iin life, you might doubt God's love. You might wonder if you've messed up too bad if you've sent you much. But no here's what, you know, no matter what your feelings tell you, because the Bible says, so that God is love and that Jesus loves you.
The number one song on our list that we assign to our girls more than any other. And you probably already know what it is was. That hit by The Rolling Stones. You Can't Always Get What You Want. This is sure. I'm not English. Our daughters know, the text and the tune of that song, even better than Jesus loves me. For copyright reasons. I can't sing it to you today, but you can probably guess what? It's about the Rolling Stones. Say, it doesn't matter what you want, You Can't Always Get What You Want.
Because I know about your kids parents, but my kids I mean they're great. But they were little one to addicts like when they when they would not get what they want. They would have withdrawal symptoms. They were so moody for so aggressive. They would literally say that they hated their mother, the mother who birthed them fed them and raise them when she did not give them what they wanted. And so we would saying, “You Can't Always Get What You Want. You Can't Always Get What You Want. You Can't Always Get What You Want.” We would just sing the very first know, within our kids would go. In fact, I love this to this day. If you make the mistake of saying, I need,
ThinK in front of my daughters, they might perk up and say do you need it or do you just want it that as parents? We know how important it was to differentiate between something that you might want. And something that you actually need. That's actually hugely important in any relationship, isn't it? If you're dating someone like how you want things to go, what you want to do over the weekend, what you might want, that's, that's fine. But if you don't know the difference between what you want and what you actually need out of relationship.
If you're running a business or you have employees or you're working for your boss, there's all these things that we want as employers or employees, but You don't always get what you want that. So you need to know the difference between once and needs and I do not propose to you today that that idea, The difference between wants and needs, is so urgently important when it comes not to you and your earthly parents. But when it comes to you and God, our Father in heaven.
A whole long list of things that and that's totally okay. But it's really really important for you to know the difference between what you might want today from God and what you actually need from God. What do you think? I have a good idea in your own heart of those two categories? I was thinking the other day about what you hear our church family once because I was reading these. Watching at home online or on TV. You might not know these are these little communication cards. We have at our church where the members of our church can write down all the things they want their pastors to pray for. And every single Sunday, right after you all leave, I read through all these things that you want. Two weeks ago, here's some of the things that made your want list. I'm starting a new business. God, would you bless it? My daughter is dealing with extreme anxiety. God, would you heal it?
My granddaughter is recently having seizures and we don't know what to do. God, would you help us? Oh, Lord, would you cure his lung cancer and her brain cancer? And his colon cancer with request, after request, after request. You basically told me what you wants God to do it and it's absolutely okay. But maybe think of a big question. What if God? Didn't give you what you wanted. What if the anxiety doesn't go away? What a starting a business is more difficult than you think. What's that special? Someone doesn't show up. Just one week after you prayed that prayer. What happens if physically or financially or relationally or emotionally? God doesn't give you an immediate. Yes, if you don't get what you want in that moment. What will happen to your relationship with God? We love him, praise him. Put your palms up and worship him because he's giving you everything that you need eternally.
Or will the Devil tempt you to think that he's not giving you what you actually need which technically is, which kind of wants.
Hey, I want to try to impress on your heart, the spiritual importance of differentiating, between, once from God, and what you need from God. Because today we're celebrating Palm Sunday as you probably picked up from the palm branches, all around and Palm Sunday is like, proof positive. Number one that if people get this wrong, if I think all these things that they want are, what they truly need. They can turn on God, lightning fast.
There's some you Bible scholars, kind of know the story Sunday Palm Sunday, people putting their palms up and laying their palm branches down. They love Jesus. They're praising Jesus. They worship Jesus, and it didn't take them five years, to turn on Jesus and took them. Five days. When these massive crowds that were singing, praises to his name, turned on him and raised up their fists and cried for his crossed. Do you know why that happened? It's because Jesus was the kind of King that they needed.
Not the kind of thing that they wanted. So today, 2,000 years later on this Palm Sunday. I want to save you from making the same mistake. By the time, I say a man, I want you to be praising. Jesus, not because he said yes to everything on your prayer list, but because he came to this world and he rode into Jerusalem, to be exactly the kind of King Redeemer and God that you and I truly need. So I don't open my bible today to Luke chapter 19, if you follow along at home and you have a Bible, open it up to verse 28 because we're going to read one of the four accounts from dr. Luke here, Palm Sunday and made the kind of King that we desperately need.
Verse 28 says, “After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. As he approached best veggie and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples saying to them, go to the Village ahead of you. And as you enter it, you will find a Colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden, untie it. And bring here. If anyone asks, you, why are you untying it, say the Lord needs it. Those who are sent ahead, went and found it. Just as Jesus told them. “
Is it right? On time? The colt its owner has asked them. Why are you untying that colt? They replied? The Lord needs it.
So what do we learn about? Jesus from those verses? What kind of King is he not for taking notes? Write this down. We learn from these verses that Jesus is in all-knowing, King. Jesus is the kind of thing. Who knows? All of it. In fact, when I look at the details of this text, it's almost humorous, isn't it? Hey, guys. Yep. I want you to go to that Village. When it's are right? When you walk into the village, you're going to see this little donkey. And do you know how many miles are on that? Donkey 0, fresh off the donkey factory floor. No one's ever written it before and so you're going to untie it and then someone's gonna come out the house and you say, oh yes on the colt. And here's what you're going to say back and I'm gonna say cool and then bring me the donkey and I wish there was like some YouTube video footage of these guys just wide-eyed walking into the village. There's the donkey doesn't have a saddle on its what and then the dudes come out. Out, we knew you were going to come out. It's like, wait, what? Wait, what say before they say it, like every, every line every detail. I mean, that's just the fact that the donkey was there, but no one had ever ridden, that Jesus knows everything. He knows the desires of our heart. He knows the thoughts of our mind. He knows the GPS location of random donkeys in tiny villages. He went along people spread their cloaks on the road. So, what do we learn about? Jesus from these verses? Here's my second thing. I want to tell you that Jesus isn't all worthy King.
They take their cloaks. They throw them over this dirty donkey that they take off. Maybe the only cloak they had with them. Maybe the only cloak, they own, they laid it on the ground. So Jesus would get the red carpet treatment as he rides into Jerusalem as a king. They ever think about why they did that. So you and I are used to clean sidewalks pavement. Nice interstates, but 2,000 years ago, especially on the hills of Jerusalem. There were no like major Roman roads. There was just dirt.
And dust. Next to the dirt and next to dust. So, when this massive crowd comes walking into Jerusalem with Jesus. What do you think? They are? Would have been like, just massive cloud and these people think wait if Jesus is actually the king, if he is the chosen, one of God, if he is the Messiah, we don't want him covered in dirt, and filth, and grids and grime. And so they were willing to take off their own, cloaks to be trampled on by sandals and animals just so Jesus. Would stay clean.
A way of saying, I'm willing to get dirty, because Jesus is worthy.
I think of this Jesus is riding a donkey. Who here has ever been to a parade before?
You don't go with this. I mean, maybe it's my only cloak that I owned back in the day. People didn't have extra walk-in closets. This is my only cloak and I'm laying it down. I'm watching that donkey put praying, please, please, so these people are taking a huge chance because they believe that Jesus is a huge deal. He's the king from Heaven, whatever it costs me, however, difficult or dingy dirty life has to be, he's worth it and he's worthy.
Doesn't include include this detail, but Matthew and Mark and John do that. The people didn't just put down their cloaks. They put down these palm branches. Dates, palm trees grew all over in the ancient Middle East and so you'll find an ancient art and an ancient coins that people started taking the palm branch as a symbol of victory. We see palm trees and we think, oh, California. Next is why I met that looks nice. Now, in the ancient world people would have seen this and they would have thought…victory.
For example, when athletes would win a race, they'd often take these leaves, and they turn them into a crown. You've won the victory. You can find coins from ancient Kings. They're sitting on their thrones victorious and strong scepter in hand with palm branches overhead. Or my favorite one, Roman lawyers would go to a big case. They weren't sure if they were going to win, if they would come out victorious. They might come home to their loved ones. Having having nailed palm branches, over the door frames of their houses, a victor lives here. So with the cloaks on the ground, with the palm branches laid out, they were trying to say, Jesus is our victorious King. He's worthy of whatever we have to offer him. He's not just all knowing.
He's all worthy. And one last thing looks wants to tell us some back to verse 37.
Since when Jesus came near the place, where the road goes down, the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began. Joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles. They had seen blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest. It's a, it's a praise party.
There were very few Lutheran's in the crowd because these people went nuts that It wasn't just one, like super expressive. You know, we're super there. I love this, the whole crowd. Here's what they began to do. Joyfully, praise not just in mumbling church speak in loud, voices. They're just going nuts. It's like a stadium erupting in praise. And, did you catch the reason why? The began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all. The miracles.
The Greek word for miracles literally is powerful things. Right. Jesus, then just know a bunch of stuff. He could do a bunch of stuff. That one time, some of these disciples saw, he took bread and fed thousands of people. But that one time that widow's son was tragically dead. And Jesus brought him back. He made the blind. See, he drove out. Evil spirits with a word. It wasn't just Jesus would win, you know, first century jeopardy, is he could do, he could do anything that you wanted. So, write this down. Jesus is not just an all-knowing and in all worthy. He's finally an all-powerful King.
You put that all together. And the average Jewish person in that crowd thoughts. Perfect.
Jesus is the perfect King. You could rewind 2000 years and look at the prayer requests of the average Jew living near Jerusalem. Do you know what would have been on the list? Not, cancer, Caesar. Romans and the taxes.
All these Romans walking around like they own the place occupying, this sacred Promised Land and all the taxes are bleeding us. Dry at every intersection. We have to cough it up. So Cesar can live in luxury. While we are struggling in poverty. We Jewish people, we can't fight against the Romans. We can't do anything about these taxes, but Jesus. If Jesus is our King.
The Caesar doesn't stand a chance, does he?
Jesus comes riding into town to lead us in a military fight and he knows everything. He's going to know every single thought that runs through every single Roman, generals head. How could they defeat us? And if Jesus is all-powerful, but you can take the Jawbone of this donkey and go like Samson 2.0 and take on the Roman Legions. He can drive out legions of demons with a word and he could take on Roman Legions in the same way.
The Romans could kill us. Jesus will bring us back the Romans could try to besiege us and starve us. Jesus will just make more bread. He's the, he's the perfect King to take care of Caesar and his oppressive taxes. Like he could walk over the Romans. Like they were a bunch of old cloaks and we could have a palm every day parade. He is the perfect King.
But you know what happened next?
Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Right there next to the temple, was the Roman Fortress called Antonia were, all the soldiers were in Jesus for that whole week.
He didn't kill a single Roman.
Not one.
In fact, the Bible says, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, didn't even stop by the Roman Fortress at all. Instead. He went right into the Jewish temple and flipped over tables and said you hypocrites. And then that Tuesday, someone said, hey, Jesus. Should, we should we pay taxes to Caesar? He said,
“Give to Caesar. What is Caesar's.” P.ay taxes.
In fact, Jesus spent all week barely saying a word about the Romans and their taxes and saying countless words about people and their own hearts. He refused to spend his time worrying about the problems out there, as real as they might have been and instead he focused almost all of his attention on the problem in here and the hearts of religious people. That's what happened with the sound. It's a big idea that we get from Holy Week that Jesus isn't the king that we want.
Jesus instead is the king.
That we need.
Friends, I want to tell you today that Jesus. Has not changed.
He listens every time you crowd to him in prayer about the things that you want. But what he is most concerned about is not is not those people out there. He's concerned about this thing in here.
A few years after Kim and I got married just after we had those two little girls. We realized that we needed some help. Some counseling, my wife gave me permission to tell you this story. We're about seven years into our marriage. We had two kids in diapers and we were struggling just having the same argument, every couple of months. As I look back on that season of our marriage, I really blame the children I do here was see, was your fault. Yeah, you know, Kim. And I used to have all this time and energy for each other and you parents know, then you have kids and they just they need two hundred percent of you. And so we had to navigate expectations and realize what we could do and how things have changed and to work that out. So we went to this, we went to the Counselor and honestly, all I wanted the counselor to say was three words. “Kim, he's right.” For a hundred dollars an hour. You would take just three parts. All I wanted, but can you guess what happened? That counselor did not tell me what I wanted.
Instead, she told me what I needed, so if you want to make your marriage, better stop thinking about her. And start thinking about you.
Smart woman and Jesus is a smart King.
What are the dysfunctional problems of the human heart? Is that? We we always want to look out there.
What's the problem with the world? What's the problem with America? What's the problem with the place that?
Now instead it's the Romans, right? Or the Republicans or the politicians, or the unions. It's old rich, white men or young inner city black ones. It's that coworker that you work with, the boss, who is unbelievable. All the employees. These days. The covid culture. Yeah, we can pick
because we hate we hate. We hate to look in the mirror and say maybe. Maybe the problem is me.
And like my little kids. We throw this. We throw this tantrum, like Adam and Eve. We point fingers, but Jesus loves us so much. Sometimes he refuses to say, you know. You're right.
And said, he looks you square in the eye. And he says, What about you?
You see what you and I need is not someone to fix the government or the next generation. What you? And I need is for someone to forgive. What's in here.
What you and I need is someone who knows like the heart of the problem is the problem with our heart. And we need someone who has so much power. You can just give us good advice on how we can fix it, but he can actually deal with it himself. Who in the world is possibly power enough to go toe-to-toe with the weight of your sin and win. There's only one answer, Jesus.
That Jesus Christ rolled into Jerusalem, 2000 years ago. Exactly. As the king that we needed. That he was so smart. He knew all things. He realized the problem wasn't the Roman soldiers or seizures taxes. The problem was the sinfulness of her own heart. He knew it. You know, that what you most need is not a cure for cancer. It is Holiness. Given to human hearts. And Jesus is all-powerful. That means that on a Friday. When he hung on the cross. He had the power through his sacred. Holy Blood to cleanse you of every sin that you have ever committed. Only one person can fight the devil and win and his name is Jesus. Only one person can take the full weight of your past and erase it. And his name is Jesus. Only one person can actually make you good with God. Right now is a total of free gift and his name is Jesus.
Joy Jesus rode on the back of a donkey that never had a person on the back of it. Because I didn't come to fight.
It wasn't jumping on a white Steed. That was trained for war. He was jumping on top of a virgin donkey who had no clue what it was doing because he didn't come to fight, he came to die. Did I for you to die for me to make everything right with God? So that at the end of the day, we would believe that Jesus is Worthy.
Whether you're dying of cancer, or you've never had a cancerous cell He's worthy. But whether the anxiety lessons, diminishes goes away or stays at level 10 for the rest of your life. He's worthy. Whether you find that person that you would love to settle down with and start a family with, or not. He's worthy. If the world falls apart, if you sit at the lunch table by yourself at school, if you never get past the hurt of your past, he's always worthy because Jesus Christ has given us exactly what we need.
God. He's giving us forever. He's given us heaven.
Friends. One day, you're going to get exactly what you want. Jesus going to come back. And the Bible says, he's gonna be riding a white horse and he's going to go to war. He's gonna fight against pain. He's gonna fight against mental illness. He's going to fight against brokenness. He's going to heal your wounds. Everything you pray for everything you want, it's coming. But for now, even if you don't get what you want, you have exactly what you need.
The grace of God, the love of the father and the presence of the Holy Spirit, be with you all Amen.
