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This sermon was developed for the Army Community. It contains phraseology that may not be understood by the general civilian population.
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Our culture says it is wrong for us to ask for help when we need it. In fact asking for help is a sign of weakness a sign or of incompetence. This is particularly true for men. Women let me ask you this question, how often have you ridden with a man who is clearly lost and refuses to ask for directions? The man, be it your husband, boy friend, father or whoever desperately needs help find his way back to the right road, but simply refuses to ask and is insulted because you have suggested asking for help. Now I don’t need to see hands, but I am sure the majority of you here have had that experience.
The truth is we all have problems to deal with but what do we do instead of looking for help we needed it? I posed the question of “how do you deal with your worse problems” to several of my soldiers out in my motor pool last week. Listen to some of their responses. [PLAY CD] In each of the responses the soldiers tried to rely on their own experience and judgment. Exactly what our culture says they are suppose to do. Which is some circumstances I suppose is not necessarily wrong, but it’s the John Wayne mentality. If you are going to be a rugged individualist you never ever ask for help. Only sissies and weaklings do that. Once again, however, we all need a little help from time to time.
Today is Palm Sunday, a significant day on the church calendar to say the least. Today is the day that we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry in to Jerusalem. Today we will be looking we will be looking at the story of Palm Sunday and the story of Jesus’ arrest in the garden. You can follow along with me in your Bibles if you like. I will be reading from Luke chapter 19 starting at verse 29.
As they (Jesus and the disciples) came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he (Jesus) sent two disciples ahead, with instructions to go to the next village, and as they entered they were to look for a donkey tied beside the road. It would be a colt (that is a young donkey), not yet broken for riding.
"Untie him," Jesus said, "and bring him here. And if anyone asks you what you are doing, just say, `The Lord needs him.’"
They found the colt as Jesus said, and sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners demanded an explanation.
"What are you doing?" they asked. "Why are you untying our colt?" I don’t know if crime was a problem in that town or not, but the owners of the colt probably had the same kinds of feelings if you saw someone trying to get into your car and drive away.
And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs him!" So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw some of their clothing across its back for Jesus to sit on.
Then the crowds spread out their robes and palm branches along the road ahead of him, and as they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus had done.
"God has given us a King!" they exulted. "Long live the King! Let all heaven rejoice! Glory to God in the highest heavens!"
It was prophesied in the Old Testament that the Messiah, the individual who would deliver the Jews from oppression, would ride into Jerusalem on a colt and the Jewish people apparently though that Jesus would somehow get rid of the Roman forces that occupied Jerusalem. The Jewish people saw Jesus as an earthly king.
This was Jesus’ first problem he encountered on when he entered into Jerusalem. Jesus did not come to give the Jewish people freedom from the Romans, but rather to give them spiritual freedom from legalistic traditions. For example it was considered wrong under Jewish tradition for a person to wear false eyelashes or false teeth on the Sabbath, because that would be work, unless the eyelashes or teeth per put in before the Sabbath started. Likewise a person observing Jewish traditions could refuse to take care of his or her parents when they were old (which according to Jewish tradition children were suppose to) if they give all of their property to the sacred service of God.
You see the Jewish people did not understand that Jesus came to set them free from being a slaves to traditions (and not all of them are bad. I kinda like that one where children take care of their parents when they are old), but from traditions that kept them from having a relationship with God. So in essence
Jesus’ first problem in today’s story is that people did not really understand who he was.
Verse 39 - But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Sir, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!"
He replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones along the road will burst into cheers!"
But as they came closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead, he began to cry. "Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down," he wept, "and now it is too late. Your enemies will pile up earth against your walls and encircle you and close in on you, and crush you to the ground, and your children within you; your enemies will not leave one stone upon another-for you have rejected the opportunity God offered you."
Jesus cried not only because he was going to be rejected, but also because Jerusalem was going to be destroyed in about 40 years. The scripture is clear Jesus knew that he was going to die in Jerusalem, which in my mind poses Jesus’ second and biggest problem.
Verse 45 Then he entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls, saying to them, "The Scriptures declare, `My Temple is a place of prayer; but you have turned it into a den of thieves.’"
After that he taught daily in the Temple, but the chief priests and other religious leaders and the business community were trying to find some way to get rid of him. But they could think of nothing, for he was a hero to the people-they hung on every word he said.
Do you think Jesus had some problems, had some issues? Not only did the people think that he was an earthly king which he never claimed to be, but the religious leaders also wanted to kill him. It make matters worse Jesus knew all of this even before he went to Jerusalem.
What would you do if someone wanted to kill you? Would you panic like this guy? [SHOW VIDEO CLIP FROM INDEPENDENCE DAY] Would you be calm cool and collected? I don’t know, but I suspect I would be somewhat panicky. Jesus, however shows us another way to deal with our problems.
Chapter 22 of Luke tells us that after the last supper Jesus took the disciples to a garden, a quiet place and he prayed. He asked God to relieve him of his pending duties, to spare him the pain and humiliation of being crucified. To spare his life. The first thing a person needs to do to begin to solve a problem is pray, to pray for strength. Luke records that Jesus was straightened after he prayed.
We need to pray for strength to first not be afraid of the problem. Yes there are many problems in life that are scary. I’m certain that when Jesus prayed that night in the garden he was afraid. What person in their right mind would not be scared. And that’s why Jesus prayed for strength and that is why we need to do the same. There is nothing wrong with being scared by a problem, but we don’t need to panic over it. After all panic doesn’t solve a thing. With God strengthening us we can approach our problems with a clear mind and if we ask for it with God’s wisdom and wisdom is something God gives freely to anyone who asks for it.
Second we need to pray for strength so that we will see the problem though to the end. How many of you here know someone who when they come to a difficult problem they simply stop trying to solve it. Its like they are in a slow moving car which when it hits a speed bump it can’t get over it. In order to solve any problem a person must be willing to see it through to the end, see it through till it is solved. There are those problem in life that we simply do not have the strength on our own to solve. The human part of Jesus recognized this when he went to his father in prayer in the garden. We need to do the same. We all need a little help now and again.
Continuing on with our story, Jesus asked some of his disciples to stay and pray with him in the garden.
While Jesus gave his disciples a specific thing to pray about, I think that the application here is that when we are facing a problem it is good to have other people stand with us. Now I realize that some problems are very personal and its best to keep the details to yourself, but that does not mean that you can not have your friends stand with you, pray with you. One of the things I love the most about God is that he is all knowing. Nothing escapes him. When you ask people to pray for you, you don’t have to tell them what they are praying about, God already knows. You just need to ask them to pray for you. After all we all need a little help now and again. We need to pray for strength and we need the support of people who we can trust.
Finally finishing our story. Jesus trusted his father’s will. We need to trust that God knows what we are going though and that he knows just what we need. Cory Timboon a woman to survived the Nazi concentration camps of World War II told a story about when she was a little girl in Europe waiting for a train with her father. As they were waiting she became worried how she was going to pick up her suite case which was to heavy for her to carry. She tried all sorts of things to move it, but her father just watched. And as it came closer and close to the time to get on the train she became more and more worried about her suit case. Her father did not seem interested in helping her, so she kept on struggling to move her suit case. But when it came time to get on the train her father bent over and picked up the suit case and carried it for her. You see when we struggle with our problems and we ask God for help we need to realize that he will help us exactly when we need it. Corries father did not help her before it was time to get on the train because there was no reason for him to help her and the same is true with God. God’s help comes when we need it, which is not always when we want it. Let me repeat that, God’s help comes when we need it, which is not always when we want it.
God knows what we are going though and exactly what we need. Remember He has first hand experience, God completely understands what it means and feels like to have problems. Jesus was not only 100% God, but he was also 100% human. I don’t know about you, but I can take great comfort knowing that because Jesus was human as well as God that God understands when I’m frustrated and feel like pulling my hair out, that is if I had any hair to pull out. We all need a little help now and again. Jesus that night in the garden was no exception. If the Son of God can ask for help then so can we.
Now I suspect that there are a few here today that are dealing with some fairly serious problems and your saying okay Doug, let me see if I understand what you are saying. If I pray and ask God for strength and if I ask people to support me in prayer and to just be there for me and if I trust that God knows what I need, everything is going to be okay, my problem is going to be solved? YES! But it is important to understand that our problems do not normally just go away when we ask God for help. Almost all problems take some time to solve. As Michael Coffee has said so often in the past, God hasn’t made any mistakes yet and I feel confident that as you go to God with your problems he will not make any mistakes in helping you. It may not be as quickly as you may like, or the way you would like, but God dose know what he is doing.
Now I’ll also bet there is one or two here this morning who are saying to themselves, its fine for you, Doug to talk about prayer, you are a professional, you have a connection, but how can I do that? Prayer is the simplest think to do. Prayer is nothing more than talking to God as if you were talking to a friend. Tell God your problems as if you were telling a friend about your problems. You don’t need fancy words, you don’t need to be super spiritual, you just need to be yourself when you talk to God.
Today is Palm Sunday. As Jesus entered into Jerusalem everyone thought that he would bring about a revolution, a deliverance from the Roman oppression. People were breathing a sigh of relief, because they thought that their troubles would quickly be over. As we know from our examination of the story they were mistaken. We, however, can breath a MESSIAH of relief when we apply the basic problem solving skills of prayer, having trusted friends and trusting in God. We all need a little help now and again and Jesus moldered for us what we need to do.
