Matthew 2024

Mathew chapter 21.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her cult by her, untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the lord needs them and he will send them right away. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, say to daughter's eye on, see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a cult the foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the cult and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, hosanna, to the son of David. Bless it is he who comes in the name of the lord. Jose in the highest heaven, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowds answered.

This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in early. Thanks, Chris. Even everybody, it's good to be here tonight. It's good to be here to hear god's word. What a privilege it is to to hear it twice and to think about it twice.

And, so, listen, I wanna ask you a question. When was and what what was the last thing that that caused you to break out in spontaneous praise? And, and how did you how did you do it? How did that praise come out? Was it, was it a film?

Maybe, maybe a, you know, a recent film or an old film. You talked someone's ear off for half an hour. Maybe that was it, or was it a dish you cooked? I'm famous in my house for praising my own cooking. Sometimes I just knock myself out.

I just can't help it. Or, you know, maybe it was a piece of music or a concert. I actually I heard a story recently of someone going to a concert and loving it so much that they went to someone else, some friends of theirs, and they basically said, I've bought you 2 tickets, and I'm gonna babysit for you. This is how good it is. And I want you to go.

Isn't that great? It's a great way to to praise to praise something. Well, my my aim tonight is to make you want to break out in praise of Jesus. To praise him in the highest heaven. As as verse 9 of our of our passage says, praise him with your lips, but also to praise him with your lives as we as we go out into this new week.

Now you might think that's a that's a nice idea, a nice positive message. To start the week off, that's a good good way to do it, positive vibes, and all that kind of stuff. But but it's it's not just about positive vibes. I'd like you to go out happy, but but I'm not I'm not aiming to give you a a nice message. Not NICE is if you think about it, NICE is not gonna help us, against the temptations and against the accusations of of how is, are they?

That the enemy wants to throw at us. It's it's not gonna help us. NICE is not gonna help us to go to war with our own flesh, and to do battle with that, that old man who, who keeps rearing his ugly head, and and positive vibes are no match for what the apostle Paul calls a warped and crooked generation. And and that that that those words really neatly sum up the world that we're in, does doesn't doesn't it? We are in a warped and crooked generation that the first century was warped and crooked, and so is the 20 first century.

It's it's no no better today, maybe maybe even worse. And by all accounts, generation zed, know this better than most if we're to to believe that the reports in the newspapers. But I I really think praise and its counterpart Thanksgiving, but praise specifically tonight. I I really think that there there are amazing weapons that that we wield as Christians way too little. We we don't I don't think we are very comfortable, with thinking about praise as a weapon.

Maybe it's too militaristic in this age of war. But, but I I think it might be a good idea to start to to to think about it like that. And I think I think you can back it up with with the Bible. 1 of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 8, and in there, you've got little ones, haven't you? Little ones, you know, the the praise of little ones, and why why why does praise come from little ones to silence the foe and the avenger.

Alright? So I think, I think there's there's a, there's a scriptural backup for it. And there's there's also an an interesting, section in in Philipp. We're gonna get to our passage, but in in Philipp, Paul says, listen, I want you to Don't grumble. Don't argue.

Therefore, no grumbling. No arguing. I want you to shine like stars in the heavens, and and think about Psalm 19. What does what do the stars do? What do the heavens do?

They they declare the glory of god. They praise him. And this follows immediately after Paul has done what. What what what's Paul been speaking about after, straight before he he talks to these, these Christians about shining like stars. And, you know, no grumbling, no arguing.

Well, he's he's given the Philipp a vision of Jesus, the humble king who was exalted. And and that's what we're gonna see tonight in in this passage in in in Matthews's gospel. So pray with me 1 more time as we as we start. Father god, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that you speak to us from it.

Thank you that you you want to heal us and challenge us and make us think and make us change. And you will give us the power to change. We thank you for that. So please change us by your word in Jesus name, amen. So we've we've made it all the way to chapter 21, haven't we, of of Matthew Matthew's Gospel, and tonight is a big moment in in the in the story of Jesus.

Our story is commonly known as the triumphal entry. And it's when Jesus comes out of hiding as it were and makes the clearest demonstration of his ministry so far that he is indeed the long awaited foretold by the prophets, Messiah, savior, king. But we we don't we we don't get there straight away in in the passage. And so if if headings are helpful to you, he his my first heading. And remember, I I want to, I want you to praise Jesus.

So all my headings start with a very helpful couple of words, praise Jesus. Alright? So there we go. First of all, then first heading, praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless. Praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless.

Look at verse 1 with me, well, verse 1 in the first part of verse 2. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beffage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you. So I imagine Jesus He's been staying in Bethany, and he's left Bethany, and he's on he's on his way to Jerusalem, and he's sort of in between, Bethany and Bethage, and and then he sends these these these 2 disciples to go and get a donkey for him. Go, you know, go into the go into the village ahead of you. The village ahead of them is Beffage.

And the word Beffage means house of unripen figs. It's a pretty unpleasant name, isn't it? I don't like figs to start with, and especially I I wouldn't go near an unripen fig. And and and and I don't think it's an accident that Matthew starts his account of Jesus the king coming into his capital city by mentioning the the name of a town, that means house of unripened figs. I think, Matthew is is saying that this, this is as good as it's gonna get.

It's gonna get it's gonna go downhill from here. And and he did this to indicate that, what what you're gonna find in Jerusalem is a barren spiritual wasteland. Lots of lots of religion. You'll see next week. Massive religion.

Huge, huge, you know, industry of religion, but no spiritual fruit. Now I mustn't say too much about fig trees, or temples That's all next week in the next couple of weeks. It's not fair on those who are coming after us if we if we, you know, stray into those those passages. We don't have time either. So there we go.

But I'm I'm gonna try and stick with what's in front of us. Just give me a little teaser. Alright? Some believe that this is the place or it's very near the place where Jesus later cursed the fig tree. So it's the start of a grouping of stories that all go together.

So I I think Matthew is starting this new section, and and he's starting off by saying Jesus is walking towards Jerusalem, and if there's anyone with who who does any anything good, if there's any spiritual fruit here, that glorifies god. It doesn't get any better than on unripe and figs. Beffage. It's all downhill from here, which is actually literally true. Mount of Volives is higher than Jerusalem, and so they were they were above it looking down on it.

And so they literally went downhill. And, you know, that you see that as you read the other accounts, you know, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because they've rejected him. Now to be fair, It wasn't just Jerusalem. If you think about where we've been in in Matthews's gospel, do do you remember it's probably a couple of months ago, but but you you might remember Capernum up north. I'm allowed to go backward I saw I saw that to go backwards.

Alright? Remember chapter 11, when when Jesus says to capernum, if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in sodom, it would have remained to this day. Sodum was a city that was destroyed by god, by fire because of its wickedness, and Jesus says you're worse than sodom. Imagine imagine, imagine Jesus showed up tonight and said, you lot are are no better than than Berlin, Kingston's, no better than Berlin in the, like, in the late 19 thirties. You're all worst nazis.

That would that would that would rock us, wouldn't it? How how dare you say that? But that's what that's that's Jesus's, that's his judgment over these cities, and it's not just a city problem. It's a generation problem. Them.

They will get judged. Less harshly. Sodden will get judged, less harshly, partially the new capernum. And so it's it's kind of an equivalent, you see. Sodden had more spiritual fruit.

Can you can you imagine that? Than Capurnum. It's quite hard to imagine that if you've read the stories of sodom and Gamora in, in Genesis. So Jesus is saying about the generation that saw his wonders and heard his words, I see no fruit of the it in you, your baron. You have no love for me because you don't listen.

You you look for joy in all the wrong places, and you don't wanna get it from me. I can give you never end in joy, and you said no. I'm the only 1 who can make you whole. Give you true peace with god. So it's a pretty dire situation.

It's dire straits. Beffage is not a great name to have on your your town. And I was thinking, imagine if Kingston, had a new advertising campaign, and they said, kingston, home of green bananas. I mean, that would that's green bananas is just horrific, isn't it? Sorry if you like green bananas.

I don't see the point. The the banana has I mean, if you eat bananas anyway, you got you got to eat them when they're ripe, but don't use softened. You know, that's what's that's what's going on here. It's It's it's unripened fruit. It's dire.

There's no fruit, but there's always a glimmer of hope, isn't there? You might remember ezekiel when we were going through that book, you know, the first few chapters. We're all thinking about ezekiel, if those of you going on on authentic, in a couple of weeks. But the the early chapters of ezekiel are very, very dark, and there's not a lot of light. And then they you get those little little sentences of of light, those shafts of gospel, of hope.

Well, we we've got that here tonight as well. Look at the donkey and her cult in verse 2. Let's read those 2 verses together again. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth on the mount of olives. Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, and her with her cult by her, untie them and bring them to me.

We know nothing about whether this was all prearranged. Maybe it was. He'd been staying in the area for a while, and there might have been messages going back and forth and arrangements being made. It might have been the same kind of situation as the, the, the, the coin in the fish's mouth, complete providence. We don't know, but either way, the owner of the cult and the donkey must have thought Jesus was pretty special, and he most certainly would have heard of this miracle maker.

Doing the rounds. Plus, it was it was very unlikely that he was in the habit of giving away unwritten, unbroken animals to any Tom dick or Jose, you know, he just wouldn't have done that. Even if even if they had never heard of Jesus. Okay. You know, worst case scenario, they'd never heard of Jesus.

Verse 3 shows us that this donkey owner had a had a good fear of the lord. He he feared the lord. Verse 3 says, let's look. If anyone says anything to you, say that the lord needs them, and he will send them right away. The lord needs it.

The lord needs it, he can have it. And off it goes. It makes you think, makes me think of, of Anna and Simien, you know, those kinds of people that were that were obviously waiting. Was this owner, were these owners sort of, you know, did they have these animals tied up because they knew where they were, and they knew, you know, look, we're waiting. We're waiting.

This is part of our worship. We we we raised donkeys for a living. And we're gonna keep this we're gonna keep this cult tied up. Were they waiting for the Messiah? Who knows?

I know we can't build too much on these verses, and I'm I may have laid the conjecture on a bit thick already, but I I I'm a I'm an optimist. I I see glimmers of hope everywhere. And so, you know, I think this can cause us to praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless. In Betheage, a house of unripened figs, there were signs of ripeness In a generation that looks pretty depressing when you see what goes on, the lord still had, you know, he had and still has people that are bearing fruit. Fruitful ones, the fruitful ones.

Think about Psalm 1. These fruitful ones are seeking to live out as people who are like trees planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not with her. So so can you praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless? Who do you know? Who do you know that, you know, you can praise god for?

You you must be able to think of someone. Can you spot the spiritual fruit in their lives? Maybe maybe you struggle because you're the only christian in your office or on your building site, or in your school, in your class. Maybe maybe maybe you're the the the the the fruit there. Amongst a fruitless place.

And we also need to be praying, don't we, for the fruitless to become fruitful. So thank you very much, Rory. See you all on Wednesday night at 8 o'clock. It's great. Come and pray.

Yeah. Kingston is a is a barren town, and and it needs prayer. I wouldn't be surprised at all if if this donkey owner had recently heard a sermon on Zechariah 9, or maybe it was, you know, growing up in Sunday school, it was like a favorite memory verse. Which brings us to our the next section and our next heading. So secondly, praise Jesus for humility among the hubris.

Praise Jesus for humility among the hubris. So verse 4 to 6 is this. This this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet it, say to daughter's eye on, see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a cult, the foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. That's, by the way, that's actually a great little verse that verse 6, isn't it?

Yeah. 1 little light in the darkness, the disciples actually did something that Jesus asked. Great, isn't it? Anyway, that's not in my notes. Sorry.

But Matthew breaks into his story to make sure that we know that this was was the fulfillment of a promise that was given long, long ago by the prophet Zechariah. And, you know, he he quotes Zechariah 9 9. And this just this shows just what kind of king Jesus was declaring himself to be. He had already taught his disciples that, he had come not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. But now he was showing himself to the world as the servant king by taking this lowly animal and riding it into the city that had long expected him and waited for him.

Now compare this to other kings and how how they entered their cities, and the the difference is stark is massive. There's 1 story of Julius Caesar who entered the city of Rome, following what he had 4 triumphs, 4 big victories, sort of parades, And, and, and he he 1 of them, he was pulled into Rome on a chariot with 4 dazzling bright white horses. And on both sides, there were, there were 40 elephants 20 on each side. You can imagine that. That is a day out at the zoo, isn't it?

What? You know, it's a huge, huge pump, and they they would there was, you know, days of feasting and and there were there were prisoners being being brought through. It it, you know, it was a it was it was an astounding, demonstration of of, you know, of arrogance, really, of their of their power. But Jesus had no no elephants. He had a donkey.

He came to daughter Zion on a donkey. He came gentle. On a cult, unwritten by anyone else. The cult says, I'll carry you. I I trust you.

You don't seek to harm me. I I can tell that. I just wanna ask, do you know that about Jesus? Do do you know that Jesus? He is all powerful, and he can stand in the face of a violent storm and shout it down with a word.

But don't, and don't mistake this for him being soft. In fact, his enemies, by him coming into Jerusalem as he did, with all the fanfare, they saw it as the, you know, the height of arrogance. And it and it it would have been, wouldn't it? It would have been the most arrogant thing Jesus could have ever done if it wasn't true. Right?

How how dare he do, you know, like take, you know, take a donkey and ride and and sort of say, look, I I'm fulfilling Zechariah. I you know, this is me. I'm the king. If he declared that about himself without any backup, then it was an act of arrogance, but he he is the king. He is the all powerful 1.

He's able to control his power. He is the it says he he is gentle. And I remember I remember many years ago, at camp. It's great. You you remember the things at camp.

I don't know why, but gentleness is is power under control. That's what I remember. And and that's what that's that's Jesus in a nutshell. Gentleness is power under con under control, and and that's how Jesus treats his people. Did you know that?

Do you know that? That's how he that's how he treats you. You know, remember last week, we heard he changes you. It's not comfortable all the time. What do you want me to do for you?

Remember? He will change you, but he means not to harm you. And maybe you've been a Christian for years. And, you know, I I want you to be encouraged as well. You know, 1 day, imagine this.

1 day, Jesus is gonna make you just as humble as he is. Isn't that isn't that wonderful? He's he's gonna make you just as humble as he is. He will change you. He will finish the work that he's doing.

I remember a story. I don't know, again, I don't know why I remember these stories. I don't know why they stick in my head, but I remember it from a a a book of, there's a book of stories for for young for young Christians for teenagers, by a lady called Patricia John. I don't know if she's still around. She sort of compiled some of these stories, and it was a wonderful story about a lady.

It was a humble lady she was a pretty much a nothing in the eyes of the world around her, and and the lord used her to change a whole town. And I I remember it because there was basically what happened was, a preacher came to town. He stayed in he stayed in a hotel, And the hotel owners were old and they were Christians, but, you know, they couldn't get to church very easily. There wasn't a church locally. And so they said, could you're a preacher.

Could you leave family prayers for us? And he said, okay then. But I tell you what, let's make it a a, you know, an event, and we'll bring the staff in as well of the of her hotel. And this lady, they kept this lady on as a staff member. She was terrible at a job by all accounts.

But they took pity on her. She was, she was an uneducated woman. She was, and she was from, you know, she was from a local native tribe, and they had compassion on her and kept her around. When this man passed her on the staircase, he He he saw in her eyes there was so much sorrow, and and and so they arranged for her to come. She sat by the door.

She didn't feel what really worthy to be there. And after the meeting was finished, She came to him and said, I've never heard it. I've never heard about Jesus that way before. It was very simple and very, very clear, and I can understand it. And she said, could you could you teach me a prayer?

You know, do you know, a prayer? I I I I I'm uneducated, you know, I don't really remember things very well. And and he said, oh, yeah, I've got I've got a prayer for you. He said, hold out your hand, and I want you to pray these 5 words. You and do this for the next week.

I'm coming back in a week's time. Do this for the next 7 days, and I'll come back and we can talk some more. And he said, are you ready to to hear the prayer. Yeah. I'm ready yet.

And it and it's it was simply this. Oh, lord, show me myself. That was the fur. That was the prayer she was to pray. He goes away for a week, and when he comes back, he sees the owner of the hotel, and, She he says, I don't know what you said to that woman, but she's been a complete record week.

She's been even worse than usual. Just crying constantly. I don't know what you, you know, and so he's, let me see her and and so he goes and talks to her. And she says to him, you know, I just I'm just so broken over all the ways I failed and, you know, and, please, can you help me? Can you give me another prayer?

And he says, okay, I've got another prayer, and, says, hold out your other hand. And he says 5 simple words, you know, and and, oh lord, show me yourself. That's what he says. And so he she says, okay. How long do I need to pray this for?

He says, well, why don't you, you know, why don't you pray that for the rest of your life, you know? You can probably pray the other 1 a bit now. You know, pray the pray, oh, lord, show me yourself. And so he goes away, and forgets about her. And then a few years later, he's called to preach at a church in this district, in this town.

And so he goes along, and he goes into this church, and he sees all these young people around, and they've got bright, fresh faces, and he goes up to the past, and he says, what hap what's what, you know, what what's going on here? This is a mate. This is amazing. And he said, oh, yeah, he said, yeah, there's a wonderful youth work going on. He said, I really haven't had a lot to do, but I help out.

But there's a a couple that recently got married, and they're bringing everybody, and the the the wife is especially, you know, a real gift. And, and so he says, oh, I would love to meet her and so this lady steps forward long dark hair, Nate, you know, native born. And and and she says, hello, sir, do you do you remember me? And he says, no. And then she says, oh, you taught me a prayer once, and and she says, hold out the hands.

And, oh, lord, show me myself. Oh, lord, show me yourself. And and the man the man is absolutely blown away, you know, blown away by this woman. And this this woman has has completely transformed. She is useful and godly, and, and being used by god.

Still uneducated, but is just amazing at bringing young people, to the to the church and teaching them the gospel. And and so this is, you know, this is a she she's a she was a nobody, and she was a complete wreck, and the the lord changed her life. And, you know, so be encouraged and know that, you know, in a in a world where being the best and being the top dog and being the most powerful, that's not what Jesus is interested in. He he's interested in in the humble, in the 1 who, who who doesn't think more of themselves than they should. Praise Jesus for humility among the hubris.

That's what that's what this town needs, isn't it? That's what that's what Kingston needs. That's what this nation needs. It needs it needs to see that the humble 1, the humble king. Now sadly, most of the crowd were hoping and expecting Jesus, to be the same kind of physical conqueror that Rome had.

When it turned out that no immediate physical freedom was coming, the same crowd turned on him. And this shows that most of the crowd probably had a very low view of their need, of their real need. But here's the third heading. Here's the third heading praise Jesus for faith among the faithless. Praise Jesus faith among the faithless, and we're gonna we're gonna look at that section, where the crowd responds So verse 7 says they brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord. Hosanna in the highest When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this the crowds answered? This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in galilee. Now my question is, what did the crowd get right?

If this was a CV of if this was a spiritual CV, how does it look? Would it would it pass the PIM test is what I was thinking? That PIM is a brother in our church who you go to if you need a CV work on. He's the man. Alright.

He'll tell you this is shocking. Get rid of it. Oh, this is great, you know, or you can improve it. But if this, if if, if Pym was looking over this crowd sort of CV here, how what did they get right? For first of all, hosanna, They say they say Jose, don't they?

Save now is what that means, or save us, please. That's a good that's a good start, isn't it? Save us. We need rescuing. But the question is what did they think they needed rescuing from?

And by all accounts, it looks like they were really interested in the physical. They were always interested in the next meal, you know, the next miracle so they could have the next free meal. And, you know, again, they're looking to throw off the yoke of Rome, and so they want Jesus to come on the donkey and to to bring in his army and to overthrow the Romans. They thought their biggest need was physical, but their biggest need is spiritual, isn't it? And it still is today.

That is our biggest need. So, Jose, save us, please. Jose to the son of David, they get his name right, don't they? They they they call him by this this this Davidic title. They're they're spot on.

He's the Messiah, the son of David. He's coming to the city of David. And you do you remember who else uses this title, this phrase. Last week, it was 2 blind men, wasn't it? And the the the the time before that, the person who said said this phrase last before that was chapter 15, a canaanite woman whom Jesus said you have great faith.

So this is another this is we're going on well. He comes from God. Bless, they say. Bless is he who comes in the name of the lord, and this is, taken from Psalm 1 18, which is a messenic psalm that used to get sung a lot. Hozanna in the highest, they say.

There is no greater, higher savior. You're the 1. Verse 11, they they go on to say, you know, he's a prophet. He's a prophet from from Nazareth in Galile, and you know, some think that this is sort of, you know, them's it could possibly be that there's a lot of tourists from Galile and Nazareth, and they're sort of going way. Yes.

The Messiah comes from our town. That's right. But, you know, they yeah. He a prophet was promised. A prophet greater than Moses.

So they do it they're doing very well. They're getting their language right. And they sing all this all while throwing down their cloaks and ripping off branches from trees. And they're they're desperate, aren't they? They they you you can see a desperation in this crowd.

They're desperate. They want they want to be saved. They want to be rescued. And this is something that, you know, is is, it's laudable. It's a pretty good CV, I think.

And I wonder if we're sometimes hard on the crowd, time. You know, I think all this is it's to be continued. We're we're only at the start of of of sort of Jesus' passion week, and there's a lot of things to come. And and I just I love to I love to think that, there surely were those who had genuine faith among the among among the crowd that day. If you wanna, you know, if you wanna look it up and and you will find out next week, the kids, especially, I like just, you know, praising Jesus.

They take him at his word and and they praise him. And so I, you know, I think there was genuine faith among the crowd, but there were many who who were just therefore, you know, getting caught up and jumping on the bandwagon. A question I would love to I would love answered, and I know it won't be till glory that this will be answered. But how many of this crowd were among those converted at Pentecost. I'd love to know that.

How many of them were were there on that day that Peter Peter preached and said, you know, you killed them. You were the help of wicked men. How many of them were cut to the heart? And how many of them remember. Oh, yeah.

I was there. I was there. I ripped I I took my coat off. I I, you know, it was my only cloak. I didn't have another 1.

I laid it down on the road for him. And then 3 days later, I was shouting crucify. Yeah. Yeah. That was me.

I was there. Johnny Cash. Yeah. Where are you there when they crucified my lord? It's a good song.

You should go look it up. What? So, yeah, I'd love to know that. I can't wait to meet someone on that last day. But as we as we wrap up as we wrap up, let me let me ask you then, you know, what is what is your reaction to this king?

You know, you these words that the crowd were shouting, they they may have been caught up. They may have been jumping on the bandwagon. But when can you take these on your lips? Can you say these words? And when you say them, can you mean them?

Do you mean them? Do you want Jesus to save you? Has Jesus saved you? Has he become your king? And and have you asked what does that look like now?

What do I need to do next? Can you praise him like this? Again, I was really challenged by the cloak. The cloak, it these we've got a we got wardrobes full of clothes, haven't we? Drawers full of t shirts and, you know, and these people, they maybe had 1 or 2 cloaks, and they were willing to lay their cloaks.

There's there's the disciples laid them on the animal, the the crowd laid them on the road. It's a real challenge. What, you know, how how our possessions, how how much of a grip on our heart do they have, and how how easily would we lay them down for our king. As we finished then, I wanna I wanna I wanna leave you praise in Jesus. I want you to praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless.

I wanna I wanna help you praise Jesus, praise Jesus for humility among the hubris, and I want to to make you, help you praise Jesus for fruit among the fruitless. Let's pray. Father god, we we do thank you so much for this time together We thank you for this amazing story. We thank you so much for helping us all the way through Matthew's gospel, and lord Wig, we're, you know, we're in the the last week of Jesus' life now and we're getting, that it's really picking up the pace and these are these are challenging words lord. The king has come into his city.

And will he find faith there? And does he find faith in this room? And so please, lord help us, help us as as as individuals to ask that question, is Jesus is Jesus my rescuer? Are we, are we, have we said, Jose, save us, please? And I I pray for any in in this room who who need to say that.

Thank you that it's such a simple thing to do. And, lord, there might be there might be those who need to pray. Oh, lord, show me myself. And, oh, lord, show me yourself I asked Lord that you would help them to do that. And lord, please, for those of us who who have been, Christians for many years, we pray that we wouldn't get complacent.

We wouldn't get comfortable. We would be willing to lay our they are cloaks down to to hold, hold lightly to our possessions. Lord help us to see fruit in each other and praise you for that. And so we we ask and pray all these things, and we give you praise lord Jesus, amen.