Hope Is On The Way Jesus Is Coming

Palm Sunday--Choose Your Attitude by Rick Gillespie- Mobley

Luke 19:28-19:40

Choose Your Attitude

April 17, 2010 Palm Sunday Zech 9:9-12 Matt 21:1-11

We are in part two of our series, “Hope Is on The Way, Jesus is Coming.” Last week, we saw how Jesus was wrapping up his ministry as he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Jesus is going to be killed. He is going to come into the city, riding on a donkey, and the streets will be lined with people as much as you would see in a parade today. They will be waving palms, and shouting “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Many people who have not had a chance to see Jesus do a miracle, are hoping to either see one or experience one today .

In Jerusalem there was plenty of excitement because people had a feeling that Jesus was coming and that something big was about to happen. The quality of the hope they possessed depended a lot on the attitude they had toward Jesus. Those who loved Jesus the most, were the most thrilled about him entering the city. They had the greatest amount of hope of what a difference Jesus was going to make in their lives. Those who loved Jesus the least, were nowhere near as excited. “If he comes, he comes, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.”

Your hope for what God can do in your life, is going to be affected by your attitude toward Jesus. There are some things you are hoping for today, that you will not obtain if your attitude toward God is not what it should be when Jesus approaches you. You may say, how does Jesus approach me today when he left 2000 years ago. Jesus is coming to you today, through this message, through the word of God, and through people he is sending into your life. He’s coming, because he wants to bring you hope.

This past week, we saw the tragedy of a mother who took her children and drove them into a river to kill her and the kids. Fortunately one of the children survived. The reason she did this, is because she had no hope in her situation. When we have no hope, life becomes difficult. If she had had the hope, that Jesus is coming to her situation, she would probably still be alive today.

Palm Sunday was like a great big parade as people looked anxiously to see if Jesus was coming yet. Life itself is like a parade. You never quite know what is coming next. Although you cannot determine, what’s coming, you can determine what your attitude toward whatever it is, is going to be.

Our attitude is a choice. It is something that’s very valuable, because it lets us be in control of how we feel inside.

If attitude was not a choice, we could not follow Christ, because Jesus requires of us some unexpected attitudes in certain situations. Have you ever had anyone tell you, you need to change that attitude or get rid of that attitude as soon as possible? To have hope in Christ goes along with us deciding to have the right attitude.

Jesus knows that Palm Sunday is the last time he will be marching to the adoration of the crowds. Now Jesus has less than a week to live, and He knows it fully well. He has finally decided to make it known publicly that He is the long awaited Messiah, the King that God’s people has been waiting for, for hundreds of years. We read in the Old Testament a prophecy about a King who would come into the city riding on a colt. Zechariah predicted it would happen over 500 years before Jesus was born. The time had finally come and Jesus was ready to take the next step. Can he count on everybody’s cooperation?

He’s starting to get ready for his whole reason for being ,which was to obey God the Father. He calls his disciples and chooses two of them. Let’s look at Luke 19:30-31 "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 it here. 31If anyone asks you, ’Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it.’ Now the word Lord here, is the name for God which is found in the Old Testament.

So Jesus is saying, tell them “God is about to do something great with it." Now here’s the first opportunity for an attitude problem that could affect our hope for Palm Sunday. Suppose you had been there as one of the disciples. Would you have gotten upset and became envious that Jesus chose those two and not you? Some kind of miracle is going to take place with this colt. Why do they get to be the ones to go?