You're listening to kfi Am six forty on demand. It is Palm Sunday.
And for those of you who don't know, the palm Sunday is the mark
of my entrance into Jerusalem and essentially starts the last week of my life.
And this is an interesting day. And I titled this as Expectation is the
mother of disappointment. And it's interesting that you you see that interwoven in life
every day. And that might sound confusing. What Palm Sunday Wasn't everybody was
excited? Weren't they excited that you were arriving? Absolutely so where was the
false expectation? Well, think of it this way. Today would be the
you know, the mark of my entrance into Jerusalem, the beginning of the
last week of my life, and starts with deep faith and conviction. The
attitudes of those that were there and witnessed this were such that the animal in
which I wrote in on they didn't even want the bottoms of his hoofs to
touch the ground. They laid the palm fronds down. That's where you get
palm Sunday. And this was an act of triumph in their eyes. It's
often called the triumphal entry. So it starts with deep faith in conviction Luke
nineteen thirty eight. You hear the Hosannas and the King who comes in the
name of the Lord being yelled out and cried out by the people that were
in audience of this. They recognized I was the chosen One, the Messiah,
the long awaited son of David, the fulfillment of God's promises. And
they stood on the beauty and intensity of that very conviction, noticing that what
they witnessed on that day was the entrance of the Messiah. But this changes,
obviously one week later, I'm on a cross. One week later,
the chance of joy and praise turned to chance of execution. What causes this?
It's expectation. It's false expectation. You do this all the time with
God, and partly your view and where you're standing is right, but your
timing or the fulfillment, the way God's going to fulfill that request or that
idea or that belief becomes different, and then all your faith goes out the
door. False expectation changed that praise and worship in the chance of anger and
disappointment. One week later and I was crucified. So what were those expectations.
Well, it was believed that I would enter Jerusalem in power, into
authority, that I would take my throne and free Israel from Rome. The
common belief was almost one of military The common belief is that the Messiah,
the chosen One, the anointed One, would rise up from the people appointed
by God and would destroy the military power of the day. It wasn't even
about God in that In that sense, it was more about the individuals.
Is more about you, you standing there and waiting for God to do what
you want God to do, rather than what God must do. See,
that was the plan in the eyes of man, not in the eyes of
God. My throne would be taken, But not when I overthrowed a government,
a power, a principality on earth. My throne would be taken when
I suffered, died, and resurrected, conquering the power of sin, not
just the power of Rome. And this is seen and understood later after the
fact Acts two twenty, Act two thirty two through thirty three. This Jesus
God raised up, and of that we are all witness. Being therefore exalted
at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit. He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing
and hearing. It was after the experience they understood God's plan, but many
were left scattered about because they had their own vision of what God should be
doing. And you're probably in that same place today. That expectation ends up
bringing disappointment. You sit and you wait for God to do something, but
you wait for God to do that which you think is right, that which
somehow leaves your once fulfilled. But that's not how God works. God is
in a cosmic bellhop running to and fro based on your wishes. The key
here is to get your wishes in line with the wishes of God, because
these expectations in everyday life, every part of your life, end up causing
you to go down the wrong path or to be disappointed with something wonderful because
it's not what you thought, it's not what you expected. And the people
of Israel expected me to come in to wipe out wrong and by having that
attitude, by having that expectation, missed the beauty of what was at hand,
what was taking place and right in front of them. And I knew
there's many scripture that talk about me reigning, but it comes with the conquering
of sin, of all enemies, not just Rome one Corinthians fifteen twenty five.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his foot.
That is not about one enemy, that is against the combatant of sin.
And how small that is the vision of the people on that day to
see me as someone who would just take care of that one problem, that
one little problem in comparison to the sins of the world world. Yet selfishly,
that problem was all there was in their eyes. And similarly you today
think of things that are in your life as the biggest, the only problem
in which needs to be tackled, not seeing the bigger picture and the beauty
of the righteous plan, that is the plan, that is God's plan.
Palm Sunday, the marking of my entrance into Jerusalem, what is often called
the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the last week of my life, starting out
with such deep faith and conviction. Luke nineteen thirty eight shows that people called
out, they cried out that I was the king who comes in the name
of the Lord. So it's not that they had it completely wrong, but
they were missing. They were missing the most important part they were missing the
totality of why I was there and what I was going to do, and
not understanding that missing that was due to expectation. The expectations were set incorrectly.
How often does this happen to you, that an expectation exkews you from
seeing the beauty, the true beauty of a situation, and it ends up
letting you down. This is part of many problems and relationships as well,
and that's absolutely right. Expectation is the mother of disappointment. And in this
case, that expectation that started with this praise and worship ended with my crucifixion
and some of the same people screaming and yelling for Barabbas. That expectation is
what killed. The perspective was off. They wanted me to destroy Rome.
They thought that's what I was there for. But that was the plan in
the eyes of man, not the plan in the eyes of God, and
they missed it. They missed it. Now, if you read on it
talks about it talks that I point these things out. But not only did
I point it out to everyone or just the lay people that were there,
I pointed it out to the religious leaders. The religious leaders as well were
mistaken. It's not just left up to the people. So I say these
things today that you understand about expectations and how they can ruin your vision and
understanding of what's going to take place or the bigger picture that's more important than
just that small thing you're looking and saying, God, I want you to
remove Rome from my life. And God wants to remove a plethora of problems
or concerns, to get these things out of your life to make you healthier
and even happier. But you hold on everything else and say, well,
just remove this one thing, and God has a bigger plan and your relationships
as well. You're focused on this little thing, and that expectation ends up
making you not appreciate what you have and the greater good that is coming from
the relationship. And throughout that that attitude, you miss the best part,
You miss the most important stuff because you're lost in false expectation. Palm Sunday
marking my entrance into Jerusalem and the last week of my life. Expectation is
the mother of disappointment. And I want you to take that away with you
today and into this week and understanding how you bring expectation into your life in
every way, in every form, whether it be at work in relationships with
your faith. How many times have you heard people that are praising God and
loving God and something goes wrong in their life, and all of a sudden
their faith is gone. There are some expectations that are written in stone,
and still man kind of looks away like death inevitable. But everyone looks around
trying to find ways around it, or to somehow blame God or get upset
when a life comes to an end, because the expectation is that you're going
to have ninety one hundred years, but that's not said anywhere. There's no
guarantee. The false expectation of the people of Israel at the time led them
first to praise my coming and then second to denounce it because it wasn't the
way they expected me to come. And I knew that this would happen later
on. In Luke nineteen forty one and forty two, it says that when
I approached Jerusalem, I saw the city and I wept over it, and
I said, if you had known in this day, even you the things
which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes.
I'm telling them, if you would have recognized if you would have fully understood
who I am, then this this minor piece that you see, this desire
for made to conquer Rome. See, that was all that they wished where
they were seeing it too small. So on Palm Sunday two thousand years ago,
you had people with false expectation, thinking that I was just going to
come and destroy Rome and then all would be well. But it was bigger
than that, and in focusing on just that little wish, they missed the
beauty. And some seventy years ad Jerusalem and Israel started to see the problems
of missing that. But it wasn't just the people, it was the lay
people walking around. It was the religious people as well. They had false
expectations. The religious leaders of the day had their own thoughts as to who
I was, and more importantly to them, who I wasn't. In Luke
nineteen thirty eight, the crowds were crying, blessed is the King who comes
in the name of the Lord. They had it right at least at that
point. But if you go just a little bit further, if you go
to the very next verse, what do you read that some of the Pharisees,
the religious leaders at the time, some of the Pharisees in the crowd
said to me, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Why did they want me
to rebuke them, Well, they wanted me to rebuke them because they were
giving me praise. They were saying, blessed is the King who comes in
the name of the Lord. So y, on one side, you have
the people that understand, at least in the beginning, who I was,
but didn't understand what I was there to do. And then you have the
religious people who didn't even understand who I was, and they wanted me to
rebuke the lay people forgetting it right because they didn't see me to be the
Messiah they expected, they expected someone else. And whereas the lay people saw
me as the Messiah, they expected me to do something else, the religious
leaders saw me altogether as someone else, as not the Messiah at all,
wanting me to rebuke my disciples, wanting me to rebuke those that said,
Hosannah, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
They didn't see me as the Messiah, and almost everyone missed what God was
doing because of it. I wept because I knew the turmoil, the pain
that would come to the people, not just there in Jerusalem, but over
the whole world. And this is something that you deal with every single day
with your relationship with God, with your relationship with Man. These false expectations
that get in your way because you think something should be going one way goes
the other. You know, this attitude about having a soulmate, although beautiful
and whimsical and sounds wonderful and God breathed on paper, but causes a lot
of problems, a lot of divorce because if your expectation is there's only one
person for you prior to marriage, then when you get in that marriage and
there's problems and there's struggles, like there is in any good relationship, the
first thought is, well, this isn't the right one, this isn't my
soulmate, this isn't the one I should be with. Therefore I need to
be with someone else. I assure you, when you marry, that is
your soul mate, that is the only one that you should have. It's
best that you go through not picking bad ones because outside of abuse, verbal
and physical, outside of infidelity, God doesn't want you to break that bond.
And so these expectations build and you miss what God's doing the people of
Israel are you? And you get these expectations and you miss the bigger picture
that God has. And I'm asked, is does expectation come from from pride,
from greed, from all of the above. It comes from you thinking
that you know best always. That's the weird relationship between man and God.
That's askew. Man all often thinks. You sit there going, okay,
God is the one. It's like having, you know, a giant to
do your bidding. So you think, well, all I need is the
brown of God that I'm just going to think at what I need. I
know what's best for me, but I need the brown of God to execute
those wishes and needs so that I can move forward on my desires. And
that's not the way it works. The Father's not there just to do your
heavy lifting because you need it lifted. Those expectations will not only kill you,
you'll miss the beauty of God's will, the steadfastness of God's will,
and lose the total insight of the situation. God has a plan and it's
always always bigger than the plan you have for yourself. But how many times
do you hear people say, Gosh, if I only had this, if
I only had a million dollars, or if I only had a better boss,
or if I only had a better job, or if I only had
a better car, a better house. That all these things you start seeing,
you start expecting in life that would make your life better. I expect
my life would be better if I had X, Y and Z. But
why and who's to say that's where? That isn't limiting where God wants you
to be just at this much money, or just in this home, or
just in this neighborhood, or just with this job. To look beyond those
things to the bigger picture. God didn't want to save man from one army.
My father wanted to save you from the army of Hell, the true
enemy that desires to absorb and zap all joy, all things that are good,
all things that give glory to God. But two thousand years ago on
Palm Sunday, the desire was just to get Rome out of the equation,
as if another army wouldn't arise, as if that was the only thing in
their way. And this happens every single day. You do it with politicians,
every single time. You could almost watch the politicians with exception they come
just as triumphantly with praise and sometimes unfortunately worship. And part of that is
legitimate hope, as you should have when there's newness in office, every opportunity
for every politician to have the attitude of hope and newness. But when those
politicians don't do exactly what you want, exactly what you think is going to
be best, you shoot them down, regardless of what side of any aisle
you may sit on. And it's because of those expectations and what you think
that someone should be doing, your husband, your wife, your boyfriend,
your girlfriend, whatever it might be, this is what it should be.
And if it's not, then you shoot it down. So do your expectations
of God get in the way of what God is really trying to do in
your life. How did Palm Sunday get its name? This you can find
in Matthew Matthew Chapter twenty one, when it talks about the triumphant entry that
if you look down, as I wrote in you can look down on chapter
twenty one, verse eight, and read on, and it says, and
most of the multitudes spread their garments on the road, and others were cutting
branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. When it talks about
this is talking about palm fronds, the palm fronds from the trees, and
they were laying it on the ground so that my animal that I was walking
in on would not even touch the ground. And so it becomes palm Sunday
for that reason. That's why the palm fronds becomes such a symbol on this
day. So it's really about the entrance. The entrance into Jerusalem missed expectations,
This missed understanding as to who I was and what I was there to
do. Interestingly enough, Florida, Florida got its name because of the observation
of the time was expected that it was around the time of Easter, and
because of the term that is used for Easter time in Spanish, that they
put this upon the location of Florida as well. Florida. So you know,
Easter continues to spread and the beliefs and understandings therein. But Palm Sunday,
that's where it comes from, just shortening the fact that people lay not
only their garments on the ground, but also palm fronds so that the animal
in which I was walking in on didn't touch the ground. Claude, Welcome
to the Jesus Christ Show. Oh yes, Jesus, I would appreciate your
comments on a question of observation that I have, And I state first of
all that I'm very much a believer. When we go back two twenty five
hundred years ago, is it any wonder that your people rejected you, because,
and correct me if I'm wrong, there was every number of false messiahs,
and in fact probably went out of the way to pretend to be fulfilling
prophecy and that sort of thing. In many cases, even you know,
magicians of the time would come behind you and duplicate some of the same things
you did. Absolutely, and even though you're very non political, the way
I see this thing is back in the day two thousand years ago, it
was very political because, like you said, a lot of your people expected
you to rescue them, destroy the omens and everything else. I've got to
believe that there was such spin going on the other side as far as setting
things up for the way they happened. Of course, there's a lot of
public relations on the other side and that sort of thing where your of course,
your public relations was the truth. But yeah, I think it was
kind of a very political time. Even though you didn't get involved in the
politics, I think it was very political on the other side. And I
guess what my comment would be, You know, who could blame your people
for denying you because of some of the things that went on in the past,
as far as the falsema size and that sort of thing. I just
appreciate your comment on that, of course, very legitimate and very well put.
I my add just taking making a synopsis of what was taking place,
absolutely Claude. There were many people that not only followed me, that kind
of did the magic tricks and said, look, I'm doing miracles too.
On every street corner you had somebody claiming to be the Christ. As a
matter of fact, a lot of people misunderstand this in scripture, but in
Matthew where it talks about there will be those in the end times that will
be those that claim to be the Christ. And a lot of people think,
well, for instance, if there was a radio show where somebody was
portraying Christ to teach people and inspire them about this more than special individual,
that that would be a false Christ. No, what it's talking about is
actual false Christ, not people pretending to be Jesus people in movies or television
or even radio. But it's talking about people who actually claim to be the
Christ and say Jesus wasn't the Messiah I am. And so that's a problem
that will come again, and it still happens every once in a while you
see people popping up saying that they are the Messiah and that Jesus wasn't or
whatever that took place there. It wasn't about the politics of the day.
It was about understanding that that they still could have seen me. So,
yes, was there reason for them not to see me to look away?
Yes, there were distractions, But that's like saying that it's legitimate for a
business to go out of business because they don't want to accept any money because
there's so many counterfeits out there. It just means do the homework, take
the time and learn what's true versus what's a counterfeit. And they had every
ability to do that, and those that didn't didn't. Kf I AM six
forty on demand