The Crowd's Attitude

Greater White Rock Baptist Church

Palm Sunday—The attitude of the crowd

Luke 19:28-40

April 4, 2004

Please note that I have recieved some additional information from sermons on sermoncentral

How many of you have ever been to a parade that had different things in it from bands, to floats, to drill teams and more? In a parade you never know what is going to come up next, whether you will feel good about it, or just want it to hurry up and get out of the way. 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.

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 to tell you, you need to change that attitude or get rid of that attitude as soon as possible? Having a bad attitude or a poor attitude can really destroy relationships and will hurt us in the long run.

Chuck Swindoll had this to say about attitude. “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of Attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important: than facts, than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do, than appearances, than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. Some folks got some real bad attitude; they think we owe them the world. They know how to roll their eyes at you and turn there back on you. You know what I mean. We get an attitude because we don’t get our way. Well if I can’t sing my song then I’m not going to sing at all. If I can read the scripture or pray then I’m not coming to prayer meeting.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the Attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the predictable. The only thing we can do is to rely on our Attitude. I am convinced my brothers and sisters that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”

Palm Sunday is a time for us to examine our attitudes toward each other as well as toward God. In a way, Palm Sunday is about a huge parade coming into town with one major float as its main attraction. The preparation, the launching, and the moving of the float will allow all kinds of attitudes to appear. The people have gather together to witness, to enjoy and embrace the joy and laughter that will be marching down their streets.

Let’s see when and where our own attitude shows up.

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. He has shown His deity, for the word had become flesh and dwelt upon us. He has turned water into wine. Cause the deaf to hear and the lame to walk. He place a bakery and fish market on

the top of a mountain during His sermonic delivery “The sermon on the Mount” Deity took the funeral home out of business causing Lazarus, Jarius daughter and the young man all came back to life and they went back to the funeral home for a reimbursement. Yes deity showed up, “I am the way, the truth and the life no man cometh to the father except through me”.

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 here, which was to obey God the Father. He calls his disciples together and He looks at the lineup 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"