Transcription
[Music] I want you to go to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 21, verse 2-9. A very predictable and practical text, considering that we have just stepped into Holy Week, and it is introduced to us through a right and a memorial of what we call Palm Sunday. I know I always preach occasional messages, but indulge me this morning, and I share with you the oracles of God. I have found that the flowers shall fade and the grass will wither, but the word of the Lord shall stand forever. When you have it, say Amen.
Saying unto them, “Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied in a coat with her foal; loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.” All this was done, careful now, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Tell ye the daughters of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes; and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the path. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, crying, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.”
Can you say, man? I want to use an odd subject, but hopefully, before I finish, I’ll weave it together in some symmetrical ideology that helps you to understand the profundity of what I’m about to say. I want to talk about trusting beyond knowledge, or trusting beyond knowing. It’s one thing to know, and it’s another thing to trust. Jesus told Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen; but blessed are they who have not seen, and yet they believe.” Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us as we open up the book and delve into Your word. I thank You. I thank You for what You’re about to do. I thank You for Your presence and Your glory and Your impact and Your anointing, and I invite Your presence to have Your way in this place in a supernatural way, in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. You may be seated now.
Much to your surprise, the early church, the apostles—Peter, James, John, Paul, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew—knew nothing of Palm Sunday. It was not a holiday; it was not something that was commemorated every year. It was four centuries after Jesus had departed before we begin to recognize this as a day of memorial, to commemorate what the traditional Jews understood to be a messianic sign of the coming of the Son of David, their King. Is coming. And for them, on a very practical level, that meant that their oppressor was defeated. And you must understand that we are all looking at the same scene, but we are seeing it from different perspectives. It’s amazing how a group of people can get excited about the same thing but have different points of view. They don’t always understand what is at stake, but the disciples did, because people who walk really close with a leader are privy to information that other people don’t have. They know—sometimes, for instance, I’m preaching as we travel across the country—they know when I’m jet-lagged; they know when I’m sick; they know when things aren’t going good; they know when I’m worried about some—the audience doesn’t know it, but the people who are closest to you really get to know you, and in some way they become a kind of family.
Several years ago, I went to Whitney Houston’s funeral, and—and I was moved by her mother and her daughter, who was living at the time, and their remarks and all the things that people said. Her aunt, who presided over different aspects of it—all of it was touching. But when her band stood up and started talking, I find it difficult to hold back my tears, because I know what it is to travel with somebody. And when you travel all over the world, you become a bit of a family. You’ve seen them in good times; you’ve been on the road once a loved one died; you’ve been on the road when somebody got sick; you’ve been on the road when they got in trouble. I never will forget: we were in Nigeria, and Antar got sick, and they told me to go ahead and fly home, and I said, “Are you crazy? I’m not leaving an entire Nigeria sick with malaria.” Hop on a plane? And they thought he had malaria. He did hop on a plane and leave him behind? I’m old school. [Applause] If he’s not going, I’m not going. So we might as well settle down, get an extra night, get extra three nights, whatever we got to do, because we’re in it together. We’ve been in deserts; we’ve been in dry places; we’ve been in places where there were no bathrooms; we’ve been in places where there was no food; we’ve been in places where we got sick. There’s been times I’ve got sick, and he had to nurse me back to health. There was one time I was in a hotel, had fallen out on the floor; he came in and got me up off the floor and treated me till I got better. And you think I’m gonna leave him? And not Jerry? You must be out of your mind. Are you tripping? I’m never as happy when I preach as when I have Marcus on the organ, because Marcus has been playing for me since I’m 17 years old—since he was 17 years old. I’m not—I wasn’t 17. When I was 17, I’m not sure he was born, but he was 17 years old. And he don’t even have to look at me; he knows my body language; he knows my movements; he knows everything about me, and I don’t have to explain nothing to him. It’s powerful when you travel with people; a special bond erupts out of that, and a closeness that comes out of that situation.
And so, when we step into this particular text, the disciples are not feeling what the crowd is feeling, because they are privy to information that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to die. And Thomas has said, “I must go and die with him.” So the—the—the palpable feeling of anxiety—what was exactly that? It was palpable; it was tangible; it was real amongst the disciples, because they didn’t know how the story was going to end. Have you ever gotten into something you don’t know for sure how the story is going to end, and there’s a certain ominous feeling hanging over your head, because you got a feeling this is not going to be a happy ending? My mother, when she was down to Alzheimer’s, she was trying to prepare me for the death. She said, “Every story don’t have no happy ending,” and I knew what that meant. I tried to act like I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew what it meant. She was trying to prepare me. They were going to Jerusalem. Jesus had set His face to go to Jerusalem; there was no stopping Him, even though He knew that to go to Jerusalem was to sign a death sentence. And the disciples were going along loyally. They’ve been with Him everywhere else; they’ve been with Him in every other situation. They had been with Him with the woman with the issue of blood; they had been with Him as Lazarus was raised from the dead; they had been with Him as a man with the withered hand stretched forth his hand and got healed; they had been with Him when He ran through the cornfields and they ate of the cornfields; they had been with Him when the Pharisees tried to trap Him and He eluded their trap; they had been with Him in every situation and every circumstance. They’ve been with Him when He took the two fish and five loaves of bread and fed five thousand; they had been with Him when He walked out on the water in the middle of the night and came walking to Him and they thought He was a ghost; they had been with Him when He told him to go down there and pay the taxes out of the fish’s mouth. They have been with Him in every situation, and it would have been—been a bit nefarious to walk away now. But the real test of discipleship is not walking with somebody when they’re performing miracles. [Applause] The real test of real disciples, I said, is to walk with them when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death; to go through the garden in Gethsemane and hang out with them and watch them sweat drops of blood is proof of being a real disciple. I’m not impressed with people who want to follow me up on the mountain; I’m impressed with people who hang with you in the valley. Am I talking in the right place? So the disciples are on the edge, so it’s a near-going to—to—to the place of Jerusalem and starting the Holy Week. They run into blind Bartimaeus, and the reason is, I believe that the disciples snapped at blind Bartimaeus, they didn’t have time for it. And everybody in here, I don’t care how saved you are, there are times—I mean, if you catch me at the right time, you get Jesus. [Applause] But if you catch me on the wrong day, and I ain’t got time for it, I don’t want to hear that foolishness. Shut up! We threw healing people; we got problems; we didn’t come to Jerusalem to heal no blind people; we might die here. Shut up! Master sent him away. He cries after us. That’s the stress they’re carrying; that’s a stress. Okay? Because they are going to Jerusalem to die, and there he is in this situation. And in the middle of this situation, He exhibits throughout the week a three-fold deity—operation of deity—prophet, priest, and king. He is priest enough to serve the last supper, the sacraments of the Passover. He is priest enough to do that. He is prophet enough to look into another city that he’s not in and says, “There’s an ass and a colt tied up.” I get happy when I get to that part, because I have to figure that if God knows where a donkey is, then I don’t have to get down on my knees and explain to Him where I’m at. Jesus was aware of a colt and its foal tied up; He knew exactly where it was tied up. He said, “Go get Him.” God ain’t making this thing up as He goes. He had had that ass and that colt tied up for years, waiting on the right time. I want to take a minute and talk to somebody who’s been tied up. God has not forgotten you. He will tie you up until the time is right. I don’t care how many people go ahead of you; when it’s your time, it’s your time. And when God gets ready to pull you, He’ll pull you out. He knows exactly where you are; He knows exactly what you got tied up, and the tie is as much God as the calling is. That when God gets ready to loose you and let you go, no devil in hell can hold you back. Listen! He let Him go. He is priest enough to serve the first communion—previously a Passover, now communion. He is prophet enough to be aware of the donkey and its baby. Good God! Every little voice in you that says that God doesn’t understand just got up with Him, because you know—if God knows where an animal is, if His eye is on the sparrow, if the hair on your head is numbered, all that stuff you’re doing, trying to explain to God your situation as if you needed to educate Him, is a waste of spit and wind. God knows exactly where you are, and if you’re going to praise Him when you get loose, you got to praise Him while you’re tied up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I want the folks that’s tied up to praise the Lord, because the truth of the matter, the rope isn’t holding me; my divine purpose is. And when it’s time for me, and the stage is set, hell can’t make a rope that can hold me back. When God gets ready to loose me, He’ll loose me. I ain’t worried about you putting your foot on me, because He’ll break your foot before you can hold me down. If He wants me up, you ain’t strong enough to hold me down. Then a colt and a foal tied up in the next village. [Applause] And prophet Jesus knew where they were; and prophet Jesus knew what posts they were tied to; and prophet Jesus knew what rope was around that day; and prophet Jesus knew exactly what village they were in. And He’s going to die, and He’s thinking about animals. If He’s thinking about animals while He’s dying, then while He’s resurrected, I can surely believe He’s thinking about me. Look at your name and tell Him God is thinking about you. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and yet thou crowned him with glory and honor. When I think of the fact that God’s mind is full of me… [Applause] And before the week is out, they will put a crown of thorns upon His head and mockingly call Him the King of the Jews, when in reality He is absolutely what they called Him—the King of the Jews.
What it is that fascinates me in the early journey of this text—the inaugural display of this taxi—embryonic development of this text—is the mixed expectations of the people. And the reason I think expectations have a lot to do with the text is that—write this down—expectations control disappointment. I can’t control what you do to me, but I can control what I expect from you. [Applause] And the way—once I find out what you are capable of doing, I lower my expectations to your capabilities, so I can’t get shocked by your behavior. Because I can’t control what you do, but I control what I expect, because to the degree that I control what I expect, I monitor my disappointment, because disappointment is the end result of lofty expectations. And it is in fact about the expectations that I have come to talk to you about. They all said the same thing, and they all experienced the same moment. The disciples went and obeyed Him, and they got the colt that day. They brought Him, and Jesus said, “If any man stop you in the way, tell him the Lord has need of him.” And that means that somebody gave up their donkey so Jesus could have a ride. What have you given up that was yours, that you raised up and fed and grew up and nurtured, and yet you’re willing to give it up so that God can use it? There is no success without sacrifice. Just because you aren’t the one who paid it doesn’t mean that somebody didn’t pay it. You can come in this church for years and throw five dollars in an offering plate and walk away and pay it no mind, but it is not your five dollars to pay for that pew; it is the people who gave 500 and 5,000 and 10,000 and a thousand dollars for years, and you get to sit in somebody else’s sacrifice while you pass the plate and do nothing. Just because you didn’t pay it doesn’t mean it didn’t get paid for. Just because you didn’t buy the milk in the refrigerator and you left it out on the counter for it to go bad doesn’t mean that Mommy or Daddy didn’t pay for the gallon of milk that you chose to waste. Because you can waste it until you start paying for it. Yeah! When you start paying for it, I bet you put it back in the refrigerator. My kids used to turn the air conditioning on and the fan, said they couldn’t sleep without the air conditioning and the fan. Or when they moved out, they learned how to sleep without the air conditioner on or the fan, or—because when the bills come in your name, you learn how to cut stuff off. You ought to see them going through the house, cutting off—“Cut that light out; ain’t nobody in that room; we don’t need no light.” I think—where were you 10 years ago? [Applause] Jesus is literally sitting on the benevolence of a follower, which is built on the integrity of His name. “Tell him the Master has need of him.” I’m not going myself; I’m not calling him; I’m not reaching out to him; you just tell him what I said. My name will open up doors to access other people’s resources. That’s when you got power. You ain’t got power ’cause you got muscles; you got power when you can put your name on something and it opens up. Because I mean, it’s nice to have muscles; I’m not hating on nobody; I got a few. But the problem with it, ain’t nobody fighting no more. So you can box like Muhammad Ali, but you can’t box a nine-millimeter. Power is when your name has enough weight that all they have to do is go in your name and doors open because you said it. That’s what you want to aspire to—to get the power and the integrity behind your name that’s strong enough that your name opens doors, and you don’t have to walk around wearing Brioni. What are you wearing, me? [Applause] I’m wearing me. Yeah, I’m—I’m dressed in me. This is my company; this is my suit; this my tailor—may—I’m wearing me, because I’m tired of investing in other people’s names. I’m gonna start investing—y’all can’t handle it. Let me get out of that.
The mixed expectations of the people—almighty—because the fact that Jesus has summoned the colt to ride into the city reinforces the expectation of the people around Him that He is coming as the Son of David to be King. You see, throughout most of the text—Old Testament—they saw the peaks of the mountains but not the valleys. So they saw the first advent and the second advent—the coming of Christ, the return of Christ—and they prophesied about the birth of Christ and the return of Christ, but they said very little about the death of Christ. So the death of Christ was hidden from view, because the death of Christ is process; the return of Christ’s promise. And God very seldom gives us details about process, because if He gave you the details about the process, you would give up on the promise. So He gives you a vision about the promise, and then He throws you into the process, and you say, “Lord, I didn’t know I was gonna take all of this. I wanted a good marriage, but I didn’t mean—I didn’t mean—I—I didn’t expect to—” Shut up! You didn’t tell me I was gonna have to bite my tongue. I want a husband; I don’t want to watch no dirty draw. I want a wife; I don’t want to be understanding, listen at her chat about people I don’t know. I learned how to handle that. When my wife does that, I—I respond, “Shut up, get out of here!” No, she didn’t. She know better than that. I can’t believe I keep right on reading the paper. “Shut up, get out of here!” She know better than that. “Shut your mouth, girl!” No, she didn’t. She know better than that. No! Y’all can’t steal my stuff; that’s mine; it’s patented; you can’t have it. But it’s why we’ve been married 40 years. And as long as she don’t question me too deep, because I might not even know what she’s talking about, but I did look good in the moment. These are the kinds of things that you go through when we are living life together, but having two completely different experiences. My wife and I live in the house—same house—but we have two completely different experiences. We go to the same party, the same dinner party; we get in the car and go home, and it’s like we were at two different events. You know, she don’t like her husband at all. Couldn’t you tell? No, I couldn’t tell. I was talking; I wasn’t checking to see whether she liked her husband and I. The lady in the red shoes had an attitude; she didn’t even want to call. I didn’t even see the shoes, so I don’t even know who you’re talking about. Are you sure we was at the same event? Because I was trying to wrap up this deal with Microsoft. You trying to smoke out these red shoes? I—you keep the shoes; I want the deal. We did—I’m just—I’m just saying that just because we have the same experience, we don’t have the same expectation. The crowd expected Jesus to—to—to fix their lowliness. The crowd is an oppressed people in their own land. We talk about slavery amongst Americans a lot, and it was horrific and terrible, and—and it deserves to be studied and understood like the Holocaust, so that it is never repeated again. [Applause] We have to study it not from an accusatory perspective, but from a human behavior perspective, so that we understand what humans are capable of when we lose equity of power. We set ourselves in threat, no matter the color of your skin. Too much power totally corrupts you. Hear what I’m saying? But the Africans have a completely different experience, because they were colonized in their own country and restricted out of the places they owned, with signs that said, “No blacks allowed” in my own city and house. So colonization was as traumatic for them as slavery was for us. The Jews are being enslaved, entrapped, second-class citizens in their own house, and much of their culture has been lost, and their food has been lost, and their religion has been tampered with by Herod, who is partially Jewish and partially Greek, and he has infused his purpose and way to the point he is selling them offerings. And Jesus freaked out in the temple because He never intended for government to get in church business. The reason Jesus is flipping over tables is not because they’re selling chicken dinners after church; the reason Jesus is flipping over the tables is because Herod is making money off of their belief system. That’s why it is called Herod’s temple; it was never meant to be Herod’s temple. If it was God’s house—can I work? I’m going somewhere; I’m going somewhere. I want you to understand the climate of this situation, and—and so they desperately needed Jesus to be the long-awaited Messiah to—to—to—they expected His return to liberate them from the oppression of Caesar, the Roman dominance that prevailed over their city and left them a second-class citizen in their own house. Now you can belittle me in the public a little bit; you can—you can belittle me in the public—“Oh, wow!” When you come in my house and you get up in my face in my house and try to tell me who I’m not, you gonna get a most unsavory side of me. Am I the only one? I paid too many mortgage payments to be intimidated in my own house; I paid too much property taxes to be intimidated in my own house; I put too much work into being—I will put you out! [Applause] I have been known to walk over and open the door and say, “I’m the president in here; I am the chief executive officer of my house; I am—” Well, you stopped me just in time. You know your brother. You know your brother. You better pray me on through, because I’m getting them alphabets. I forget, girl. I almost told them who I was right in church. You prayed me out of that. I’m so thankful for you. Keep on interceding for the man of God. Yeah, keep on interceding for the man of God, because I will flip out over my stuff. They are oppressed in their own city; much of their traditions have been compromised, and religion has been diluted; their culture has been diluted. They are holding on by the—the—the mere skin of their teeth to—to their priestly order. John the Baptist is a priest after the order of Zacharias, and yet completely different from him. They’re holding on to a little bit of their ceremonies and rituals, in spite of the fact that the Ark of the Covenant is gone. You know how it is when people are robbing you of who you are, and you’re trying to hold on to a little bit of your personhood. That’s where a lot of relationships are. They will rob you of who you are until you have to fight for the threats of being yourself. I don’t want you if it means losing me. [Applause] Write that down: “I don’t want you if it means losing me.” Yeah. You can accept me; you can love me, but God did not call you to change me. You are not my pastor; you are not my savior; you’re not my deliverer. We can share life together, but I’m gonna do me; you do you; we do us. That’s how that works. You see how that went? That’s how they work. They had lost themselves in the dominance of their masters, and they were waiting for the master to come, and there were multiple points of views. And Jesus calls for the donkey to come that Zechariah 9:9-12 may be fulfilled. For in Zechariah 9:9-12 it says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” So when they saw Him coming on the colt, they saw Him as the King, so they called Him, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” because they said, “Our liberator, our Dr. King, our Nelson Mandela has finally come. Our Kenticon day has a road. Wakanda forever!” This is yet—we get red—take over this mug; it’s gonna be some trouble up in here. Shaka Zulu! Shaka Zulu! We get ready to swing down on the trees, and we’re gonna drive you out of Israel; we’re gonna drive you back. You can have wrong, but you getting up out of here today! “Hosanna to the King of Kings!” They knew that the scripture says, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” They knew that—they knew that He would say, “As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, where there is no water.” That means I’m going to loose some prisoners. “Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.” Did you hear that? “Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.” You ought to write that—prisoners of hope—now, because you need to be a prisoner of hope; you need to be incarcerated by hope. You prisoners of hope—even today do I declare that I will—I will render double unto thee. God says, “I’m gonna give you a double for the trouble.” [Applause] So no wonder they started singing, “Hosanna to the King,” because they said, “This means that we’re going to break the bands that around our neck; this means we can own our own businesses again; this means we can rule ourselves again; this means we’re going to get double for the trouble, and we have been bound for years, and this is a sign.” It’s called, “Hold on!” “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” But they are feeling joy while the disciples are feeling pain, because they think that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to kick butt, and the disciples know that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to die. And Jesus—the Lord of glory, the I AM of Israel, the mighty God, the Day Star, the Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus—the Lily of the Valley, Jesus—the I AM of God, Jesus—Ruler of the universe, Jesus—Prince of Peace—chooses not to ride in on a stallion. He’s saving that for the encore. He’s not going to ride in on a thousand. He chooses not to ride in on a chariot. He chooses to come in on what a child would ride—what a poor, proper child would ride. Jesus, the Lord of glory, who commands the angels, is not riding on chariots of fire; He’s riding on the back of an ass to show you that I am the God of the downtrodden; I am the God of the broken; I am the God of the oppressed; I am the God of the denied; I am the God of the forsaken. And if it’s necessary, I’ll humble Myself down from the corridors of heaven and sit down on a donkey and walk amongst you right where you are. I’m as kin to you as this donkey is; I’m connected to you as this donkey. In fact, when you read through the Bible, all the miracles I ever did…
I used stuff you had. I will bring my glory within your reach. I will not put my glory in somebody else's house. If it's a jawbone of an ass, it will be in your reach. If it's two fish and five loaves of bread, it will be in your reach. If it's a pot of all, it will be in your reach. Whatever it is, I'm gonna put it in your reach, or somebody ought to shout me down because I'm telling you your next miracle is within your reach. Stop looking in somebody else's house for your miracle. Your next miracle is in your house. It's in your head. It's in your thoughts. It's in your mind. It's within your reach. Whoever that's for, praise him like you lost your mind.
It is important—I'm almost finished—the importance of balancing the extremes. He is the Lord of glory, but he is sitting on a horse; the extremes of the donkey waiting and the master's urgency awaiting donkey and an urgent master. This, this Texas full of extremes. The coronation: Hosanna to the Son of David. The crucifixion: Crucify him. Praise is in the air; palms are on the ground. Resistance at Gethsemane; submission at the village. It is the oxymorons of life: the highs and the lows, the north and the south, the east and the west. Everybody in here has polarities in your life. If you show me this side, I'll think you're amazing. If you show me that side, I'll think you need to be safe. Don't you sit there with your holy self and don't act like you don't have a side you don't want nobody to see, because everybody in here has got a side that contradicts the other side. And how you balance those two sides is how well you do in life. You can't kill either side, but you can control the other side so that you can be the best version of yourself.
Who am I talking to? I'm in here. I'm in here. They think he is headed to be their king. After all, he has sweated till blood has come through the pores of his skin. He knows he is headed to the cross, and they are all experiencing it together. He knows that he has to fulfill what is called a scapegoat in the Bible. A scapegoat is sent into the wilderness after the Jewish priest has symbolically laid the sins of the people upon him. When John saw him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world," he is both the Lamb of God and the scapegoat of God. It was the custom in the Book of Leviticus to pray the sins on the scapegoat and send him into the wilderness. That's why, after that the Holy Ghost had fallen upon Jesus in the Jordan River, they sent him in the wilderness because he is our scapegoat, and he carried away our sins. Jesus going in the wilderness; in the shadow of Jesus going to the cross. So he's riding on a goat because he is carrying away the sins of the world. To God be the glory. Look at how much God carried away out of your life. He carried away stuff out of your life that you have been guilty about, that you have been worried about, that you have been terminal about. God has carried away sins. God has carried it away. Why are you still carrying it? I'm going to ask you over here: Since God has carried it away, why are you still carrying it? Slap somebody and tell them if it's gone. He carried it away. He carried it away. They slapped him and sent him into the wilderness. They carried him away. He got on the goat and carried it to the cross, and on the cross he nailed to the cross every ordinance that was ever against me, every curse, every witch, every hex. That's why I ain't scared of none of you witches in here, because all of your spells are nailed to the cross. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world.
I wish I had some warring saints in here. Let the warring saints make some noise. Let the warring saints make some noise. Let the warring instincts make some money. I don't care if you get a lock on my hair. I don't care if you bury it up under the porch. I don't care if you kill a dead cat. If you kill all the cats, I'm still blessed. If you get all my hairbrushes, I'm still blessed. If you bury my drawers, I'm still blessed, because you can't curse what God has blessed. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this room. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm blessed in this city. I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed in my uprising. I'm blessed in my dance. I know you don't like me, but I'm still blessed. I see you rolling your eyes, but I'm still blessed. I know you hate me, but I'm still blessed, 'cause you can't curse what God has blessed. I need 30 seconds of crazy praise in this. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm blessed from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I know I'm blessed. I want somebody to shout till hell gets nervous. Shout! Shout! [Applause] Till demons tremble. Shout till spells are broken. Shout till curses are destroyed. Shout until you get a sense of direction. Shout till you come to yourself. Shout till you get new power. Shout out till you get your backbone. Shout out till you stand up straight. Shout till you feel the anointing of God. Shout till demons start running out the door. Shout out till your son gets saved. Shout out till you get your breakthrough. I feel an anointing, a breakthrough anointing, a delivering anointing, a stand-up anointing. I am blessed. It's out. I am blessed. [Applause] I'm blessed if I ride a Cadillac. I'm blessed if I'm driving a Volkswagen. I'm blessed if I'm sitting on a chariot. I'm blessed if I'm riding on a donkey. I'm blessed if I'm sitting in first class. I'm blessed if I'm sitting on the back of a bus. It is not the bus that defines me. I'm blessed in my spirit. I'm blessed in my soul. I'm blessed in my mind. Somebody, bless him. Praise him like a blessed man. Praise him like a blessed woman. Praise him like a blessed daughter. Inside, I can't hear you. [Applause] Look at somebody. Lie to them. Yeah, I know I'm blessed. I don't need to date you to know I'm blessed. I don't need you to affirm me to know I'm blessed. When I woke up this morning, I knew I was blessed. You can add to it, but you can't take from it. I am blessed. I am blessed. I am blessed. Did you hear me? Tell hell I'm blessed. Tell hell I'm blessed. Type it on the line. Put it in your computer. Write it in your heart. Tell the devil I'm blessed. Tell cancer I'm blessed. Tell depression I'm blessed. Tell fear I'm blessed. [Applause] The same people [Music] that say Hosanna will turn right back around and say, "Crucify him."
I want to talk to 10 people that's been betrayed. They said Hosanna one minute, and then they said, "Crucify him." It wasn't what they said that hurt you; it was who said it that hurt you. Can I get a witness in here? Have you ever been hurt by somebody you thought you could trust? Be a witness for me. Jump up and down. Let the world know I'm not a liar. They can change on you in a minute. All of this happened. Sit with me. Give me five minutes. Sometime, I'm almost done. Oh, can I come down here? I want to come back. [Music] All of this text came through giving. The Son gave his life. That's a big story. The owner, he gave the colt. The disciples took their coats—now they didn't go to the warehouse and buy coats; their coats were made—took hours of labor—and they took their coats and covered the ass so Jesus could sit on their sacrifice. When was the last time that you gave something that cost you something so Jesus could sit on the couch? Now turn in here. We see Jesus right in the court like his mama. You will remember that when his mama was carrying him, she came riding to the mansion, and she was riding on a coat. Isn't it amazing how God will bring your life a full circle? The first time it was the mama riding, and here come Jesus riding like his mama. God said, "I'm gonna do a new thing in your life. I'm gonna turn it all the way around again." And the first time you came in, you was riding on a coat in your mama's belly, and the next time you come in, I'm back on the coat again. Somebody holler, "I'm back!" The devil tried to kill me, but I'm back. Hell tried to take me out, but I'm back. I need a survivor to shout out, "I'm back!" Sit down with you. I can feel it in my eyes. I can feel it in my feet. I can feel it in my soul. I can feel it in my spirit. Warn your neighbor: Something is about to happen in here. If I leave, don't think I'm crazy. If I run, don't chase me, but I feel a breakthrough coming in this place. I feel the deliverance of the Lord coming in this place. Somebody help me praise him. Somebody help me praise him. Somebody help me praise him. Is there anybody in the balcony that will praise the Lord? Is there anybody in the balcony that will praise the Lord? Is there anybody in the balcony that's about to get a turnaround? You about to come around full circle. Right, baby? Right. Right, baby? Right. God is about to do something in your life. Make some noise. Come out of your closet. Show yourself strong. Online, show yourself strong. I feel the breaking of day. [Applause] I'm almost where I want to be.
There are three levels of giving. There are those who gave their coats; some put them on the donkey, and some put them on the ground, but they gave something that they had an investment in to the kingdom of God. If you don't invest in the kingdom, how dare you ask the kingdom to invest in you? If you're not willing to give something that costs you something, that you sweat for, that it took you months to make, that you had to be fitted for, that was made for you, but you gave it to him—that's sacrifice. It ain't sacrifice when you buy me something. It's sacrifice when you give me something you wanted. As long as you give me something you don't like, you ain't sacrificed. But if you give me something that you wish you had yourself, that's a sacrifice. They put the coats on the ground. There was something about Jesus that they looked at the coat and said, "You ain't nothing." Paul said, "I count it all dung that I might win the excellency of Christ." Whenever you see Jesus, you put things in the proper perspective. Whenever you see Jesus—anytime I see somebody stuck on themselves—you sing church, but you ain't seen Jesus. If you ever see Jesus, it'll make you throw your coat on the ground. If you ever see Jesus, it'll change your priority. If you ever see Jesus, it'll make you put everything up under your feet. Paul said, "I count it all but dung that I might win the excellency of Jesus Christ." Somebody who knows the word, give the Lord a praise right now. Slap somebody and say, "Throw it down!" Whatever you've been exalting, throw it down. Whatever you've been proud of, throw it down. Whatever you put your hope in, put it down. Cut down, down! Throw it down, down, down! Pull it down, down, down! Go down, down, down! Throw it down! Now that's worship when you throw it down. Slap your neighbor and say, "Torn down!" [Applause] There were three levels of giving. The giving of the coat is something that was for you, but when you saw him, you counted it as dung and you threw it down for him. The second level is the cutting of the palm tree, which cost you nothing, but you wanted to do something, so the only effort you expended was cutting down what was easy. Some of you have never given an offering; all you've ever given was palm trees. [Music] You just reached up and cut down something that was close anyway; you didn't have nothing invested in it; it didn't cost you nothing, but it looked good in the crowd. You, you, you cut down the palm tree and laid it down at his feet, and you thought you had done something big, but to the folks who dropped their coat, your palm tree don't mean nothing at all, because you, you, you cut down what didn't bleed. You cut down what you cared nothing about, and you gave it to God as if you were throwing something big, all based on what you thought he was gonna do for you. You cut down the palm trees 'cause you thought you was gonna get double for your trouble. You cut down the palm trees because you thought you had a new king, the Son of David. I gave my coat 'cause I esteemed who he was to be greater than what he did. If you don't do anything else for me, if I can do anything to make you more comfortable, if I have to give you something, I'll give you the shirt on my back because I love who you are, not what you do. If you're going to die, I'll die with you. Notice most of the coat givers were disciples; they knew he was going to die. Most of the branch cutters were people who lived up under the illusion that he was going to set up his kingdom, because as long as you only serve God for what he can do for you, you will give something, but it will cost you nothing. But when you have fallen in love with God, and when you esteem him above your chiefest joy, it changes the way you give because your value changes. So, one, you had coat givers; secondly, you had palm cutters; and then you had lip service. Hold that up. You ain't cut nothing. You ain't gave nothing. You just making noise. I have learned over the years the loudest folk in the church do the least giving. Them people that gets out of control and runs all over the place, and you can't do nothing with them, and they dance and break their shoe, and they're hollering and falling all over top everybody—go get ten dollars. The people who make all the noise—"Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna to the King of Kings!"—where is your branch? Where is your coat? Where is your sacrifice? Wherein has a man robbed God? With your mouth you draw near to me, but with your heart you're far from me. You must be praying for me because I feel like preaching. [Applause] If I feel like preaching, something is going to break in this place today. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost about to break loose in this place. Somebody's gonna get delivered. Hallelujah. God don't just want your lip service; he wants your sacrifice. Somebody shout, "Yes!" That was cute, but I said, "Shout yeah!" Stop. Stop being impressed with lip service. Stop being impressed with people speaking in tongues at the grocery store. Stop being impressed with bathroom prophets, because anybody can make noise, but you have to be a special person to make change, and I feel change coming in the atmosphere. I feel like I stopped. I feel change coming in the atmosphere. I wish I had a hundred old saints that knew how to go into a sanctified praise. Somebody, how do I feel a change? [Applause] [Applause]
So this is my point, and I'm closing. They did all of that giving—the three levels of giving: the coats, the palm trees, the lip service—and they was good with it until he got to the Sanhedrin court, till he was apprehended by Pilate, and then he was apprehended by that which they thought he was going to apprehend. So the same people who said Hosanna—you get in now that I see that you're not gonna do what I thought you was gonna do—now I got no more use for you. Watch out for people who throw you away. [Music] [Applause] Stop crying over who threw you away because you didn't lose nothing in the first place. When they were saying Hosanna, they were opportunists. When they said, "Crucify him," they were opportunists. The only reason they mad at you is because they can't get out of you what they want to get out of you, and there you sit up crying thinking you lost something that you never had. You never had them in the first place. I feel like preaching. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Somebody's getting delivered from people. You've been delivered from alcohol. You've been delivered from drugs, but now God is getting ready to deliver you from people. If God is delivering you from people, take about 10 seconds and praise him like you trying to clear your world. I'm thrilled and through with people. I'm truly worried about it. I'm through with trying to get along with—I'm truly worried about people. [Applause] Two things that I'm done with. The Bible said, "Thomas, you have believed because you have seen; blessed are those who have not seen and yet they believe." All of these other folk lost their blessing because their Hosanna turned to "Crucify him," but there were a few people left on the cross that said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." If he die, I'll trust him. If they bury him, I'm gonna trust him. If they put him in a grave, I'm gonna bring frankincense. Man, I feel like preaching this word. Does anybody want to hear this word? So I asked God, I said, "Since they did not start celebrating Palm Sunday until the fourth century after the early church, and it didn't get big till the 8th century—800 years after the resurrection before Palm Sunday became embedded in the Christian theology—so before it was a tradition, why did you spend so much time articulating the text to me?" He said, "Because I want my people to have trusting beyond knowing; to trust me when you don't know how things are gonna turn out." This is important, please. God told me this is important. He said, "I want somebody to trust me before knowing; to trust me when I make a U-turn; to trust me when I had something in mind different from what you had in mind; to trust me when you had bad theology; to trust me when you thought I was going to do something one way and I did it another way; to trust me when you understand that you think of earthly kingdoms and my kingdom is not of this world, and sometimes I have to disappoint you to elevate you." Come on! Come on! Come on! Trust me. Trust me if I break your heart. Trust me if I let you down. You were going out to Pilate; I was going out to Satan. Trust me. You got a bigger enemy than what you see, and while you're trying to get me to deal with somebody that I know is going to be overthrown in a few years anyway, I'm going after your real enemy. He was wounded for my transgressions; he was bruised for my iniquities; the chastisement of my peace was upon him, and with his stripes I am healed. For this purpose was the Son of man manifested, that he might destroy—God have mercy; I'm about to feel like I'm 41—that he might destroy the works of the devil. I didn't come to destroy Pilate. I told you he's going to destroy himself. Not one stone will be left standing upon another, but I came to destroy the works of the devil. Somebody, shout "Destroy!" Destroy cancer! Holler! Destroy suicide! Holler! Destroy mental pain! Holler! Destroy kidney disease! Holler! Destroy leukemia! Somebody holler, "Destroy!" [Applause] And so here is our great challenge: is to not be like the palm throwers and the lip service people; to be like the disciples. It means they gave their coat to a savior that they knew was gonna die. Now that's worship; to trust beyond knowing. That means I give you my coat if you don't restore the kingdom. That means I give you my coat if I keep on living out my same old normal routine as long as I got you. That means that I keep on praising you, married or not, boyfriend or not, big house or not, mutual funds or not. That means that I praise you, job or not. That means if my hair stopped growing, I'll praise you with a bald head. That means if my hair turns white, I praise you up into my old age. That means if the building is empty, I still praise your name. If there is no crowd, I'll still praise your name. If I have to preach in the jailhouse, I'll still preach your word because it's not about dollars and cents; it's about purpose and passion. I want to raise up somebody who trusts beyond knowledge. Stand to your feet. How close are we with this? The ways of the Lord are high lifted up. Even the people who pose to know what he's doing don't know. [Music] Even the people who think they know don't know. I tell all the preachers all the time: Do all the teaching you're gonna teach down here. Write all the books you're gonna write down here. There will be no bookstores in heaven. [Applause] If you're gonna be a professor, be a professor down here, because there will be no professors and there will be no universities in heaven, because all of our knowledge amounts to foolishness when he shall appear. There'll be none of us teaching him theology, hermeneutics, homiletics—all of these man-made names—pneumatology. We won't be teaching nothing. We'll sit down at his feet. We're sitting at his feet, and he will say, "I love you because you trust me beyond knowing." Now there are people in this room that are dealing with all kinds of stuff, and you deal with the stress of not knowing how it's going to turn out. You don't know if you're going to get the home back together or not. You don't know if the kids are going through school or not. You don't know if they're not blowing your hard-earned money smoking up their tuition. You don't know if they're coming home pregnant or HIV positive. You don't know for sure if you're gonna get laid off tomorrow. You cannot have faith based on knowing. [Applause] Because I'm gonna tell you the truth, man. [Applause] I'm gonna tell you the truth: Sometimes I don't know. I don't know if everything's gonna be okay. I don't know if I don't have to cry. I don't know who I have to say goodbye to. I don't know if this is the last time. I don't know. I don't know if the market's going up or down. I don't know if my house will sell or not. I don't know if I'll finish my strategy or drop dead when I walk off the stage. I don't know. But the beauty of my peace is that I can trust beyond knowing. [Applause] To all my brothers and sisters who have to know everything—where we gonna stay, where we gonna live, what we gonna eat, what we gonna do, how much money we gonna make, let me see how much rent we gonna pay, let me see if it makes sense to me—to all of you people who have to know everything, you are canceling out a chance to walk with God, because to walk with God is to be cool with uncertainty. To be cool with uncertainty. You don't know whether your parent—whether your patients are going to live or not. You do everything you know how to do, and you pray, and you sow, and you give, and you're great doctors, but you don't know. Don't nobody know but God. You look at all evidence and make a decision as a judge, but you don't know. We don't know. It's okay to not know. Stop trying to know everything. They saw the colt and they thought it was the kingdom, but the kingdom was not of this world. And the reason they could with such venom say, "Crucify him," is because they were disappointed, and the reason they were disappointed is because they expected something that was not in God's plan. What have you expected that is not in God's plan, and you got the nerve to tell God he let you down? How dare you say he let you down like it's his job to fulfill your desires? God don't work for you. God doesn't work for you. You work for God. God doesn't work for you, and it is not his job to fulfill your desires. You didn't carry that boss thing too far. You don't run up on the real Boss now. The real Boss, the ruler of the universe, and his thoughts are above our thoughts, and his ways are above our ways, and he told me to tell you—and I don't know who it's for; I don't know whether you're in the room or in the back or in the balcony or you just got in or you're logged on—but God says he's not going to let you know, so stop asking him to make you know. He said he requires of you that you trust beyond knowing. My third quote—he won't stop talking to me—he told Abraham to get up early in the morning and take the son that he waited a hundred years to have, and he said, "Take him to a place I will show you." So Abraham loads up the wagon and takes his son, and he says, "Where are we going?" "I don't know, but I'll know it when I see it." That's how you live your life. You want to know? You can't know. You had to follow on to know. You have to just—where are we going, Daddy? I'm not sure. He said, "It's somewhere out here, and I'll know it when I see it, and I trust beyond knowing." And when he—the Bible said he was three days off from the place—and he looked up and he saw the place, he said, "That's it. Now I know the place." And so he starts up the hill, and he says to the servants, "Stay here in the land of going under the worship," and he starts up on the hill to go from one not knowing to another not knowing. The boy says to him, "Daddy, I see the knife and I see the wood. Where is the sacrifice?" He said, "I don't know. I don't know where it is. I just know that God himself shall provide the sacrifice." Here's God's word to you. Here's God's word to you worriers: It'll be there when you get there. Abraham goes up on the mountaintop, raises up his knife to slay—you have to have a son to understand it—this is unthinkable; this is just something I can't hardly even preach it—to lay my son on the altar and raise a knife to stab my son—as I can't even preach it—and Abraham raises his hand to slay his son, and all of a sudden he heard—Abraham, stay your hand. Behold, I have a ram in the thicket. You didn't know it. You didn't know it. God says you don't know what he has in store for you. Stop saying stupid stuff—"I'ma kill myself. My life is not worth—" Shut up! You have to trust beyond knowing because you don't know what's coming up the other side of the hill. While Abraham was coming up this side, the answer was coming up on that side. And faith is not about what you know; it's about what you don't know. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet they believe. Bow heads and close eyes. I'm done. [Music] You.