Let Him In!

Let Him IN!

CCCAG

Palm Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Scripture- Luke 19:28-39

For those of us on social media sites like Facebook, we occasionally see a post that says something along the lines of “8 years ago today” and it shows a post that you made at that time.

One of the posts that came across my feed was from a little over 12 years ago. I was on shift as a paramedic, and had a very frustrating call where I ranted “You will never see me as a nurse, never see me working in long term care, and never work in mental health.”

About 3 years ago, the instructors in my nursing school gave us a survey about the different fields of nursing we were interested in pursuing. They did this so they could line up potential employers for us to meet on the job fair day. The survey had us rate the different nursing fields on a scale of 1-5.

ER and ICU were 5’s for me. The only kind of nursing I ever wanted to do because it wasn’t a huge challenge for me- it was just an extension of being a paramedic with some more education. At the bottom of the list, with negative number assigned to them were nursing home, long term care, and mental health nursing.

Of course, everyone here knows that my negative number selections are exactly what I am doing now.

You have to wonder how God smiles at our immaturity sometimes, knowing the very thing we swear we’d never do is exactly the plan HE has for our lives. Those things we want to avoid are absolutely necessary for HIS plan to sanctify us and mold us into the person we will need to be in the future.

But it doesn’t always happen right away.

Often that plan has to wait. It’s just not the time for God’s plan to manifest itself. Often, it’s because we are simply not ready for God to bring us to that next level of life.

The timing isn’t quite right yet to elevate you to your next level.

The character needed for that plan to come into fruition has not been formed. The life experience that would support HIS plan for you in that next level or that next season hasn’t been lived yet.

Most importantly, the pride that sets limits on what God can do in your life had not been brought under HIS control yet.

Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem and presented HIMself as the Messiah.

A lot of things had to fall into place for this to happen. The timing had to be just right. Jesus didn’t go straight from sitting at God’s right hand to riding a donkey into Jerusalem.

Jesus need to be born.

He needed to be born of a specific family line- the line that started with Seth- Adam and Eve’s son, down through Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, through Jacob’s son Judah, down to King David, almost got wiped out with Joash, but survived and eventually arrived at Joseph and Mary, who were both descendants of David.

He needed to be born in Bethlehem.

He needed to survive the purge of Herod the Great when he ordered the death of all males under 2 years old to try and wipe out this messiah that was born.

He needed to mature to an age where his culture would take him seriously- in his time that age was 30.

Interestingly, there was donkey that needed to be born to a man who was sensitive to God’s needs, and would allow a couple of strangers to take his donkey.

These are just a few of the things that needed to happen so that Jesus could be let into Jerusalem and be recognized as the Messiah.

Let’s read about it in Luke 19 (CSB)-

Luk 19:28-40 When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. (29) As he approached Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. (31) If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it??’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’” (32) So those who were sent left and found it just as he had told them. (33) As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” (34) “The Lord needs it,” they said. (35) Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their clothes on the colt, they helped Jesus get on it. (36) As he was going along, they were spreading their clothes on the road. (37) Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen: (38) Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven! (39) Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” (40) He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.”