I know I've mentioned this before, several times I traveled when I was in my former role with EDS to Brazil. And things are a little different. If you've ever traveled to a place like Brazil or several other countries in the world, you recognize that the cultures are different. For example, with Brazilians, there's no such thing as a line. It's just kind of mass of people pointed towards a place where you're supposed to get. especially when you're in the airport. You come to the area where you're to get on board and there's going to be this mass of people, this crowd, all generally kind of pointed towards the gate. But there's no line. I can guarantee that. It's just a surge that happens. Well, one time I was traveling to Brazil. I can't remember for sure which airport. I think it was John F. Kennedy I was in. And it was a gate fairly far down the concourse. And there was a large crowd of people and I and my co-worker, we were standing off against a wall trying to stay out of the mass of people as much as we could. Well, apparently there were several other flights going, I'm thinking now, to South America as well, because all of a sudden we heard down the concourse the cheering begin. and this applauding. And it got closer and closer and closer to us. And it got louder and louder as it came. And all of a sudden, within sight, came one of those airport carts. And there was a guy that looked Brazilian on the cart, along with a couple other people. And as that cart came in view, it just exploded in the area where we were at. Everybody just started cheering. And then they started chanting, Pele! Pele! Pele! Some of you know who I'm talking about. Most of us probably don't. But unless you're into soccer, and then you would know, or as they call it in Brazil, football, Pele is a national hero in Brazil. He is, by many estimations, one of the greatest footballers that ever played the game. Well, apparently that's who was on the cart. I have no idea. You know, I didn't recognize him at all. But this cart came and it pushed right through the crowd, went right down immediately on the ramp and onto the plane. And the crowd never died down the whole time he was coming through. It was just screaming as loud as they could. A celebrity had come through, a superstar had come through the midst there. This morning I want to look at a biblical scene that's somewhat like that, where a crowd gathers and they explode in joy and excitement over a person that they see. Something like what I experienced when Pele came through the airport. We call this Sunday, Palm Sunday. It's the Sunday that records, or at least we celebrate, the record of the triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. We've talked about that several times already. When Jesus came in and great excitement met him. They were excited about his arrival. Now I decided this morning to take a break from our series on John. We already took a break last week with Jeff Musgrave being here, with next week being Easter. I figured let's continue to take a break from John and we're going to follow the final week of Jesus as is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew this week. We'll look at his triumphal entry this morning, we'll look at his crucifixion on Friday, and we'll look at his resurrection next Sunday. So we'll follow his account this final week as it's recorded in the book of Matthew. In fact, that might put a challenge out to you. If you want to follow it yourself this week, today read chapters 21 and 22, then each day of the week read one more chapter. That will put the crucifixion on Friday when we celebrate that, and then next Saturday you can read the resurrection to prepare your hearts for Sunday. So a little challenge that you can follow this record as well this week. As we turn in our passage this morning, we're going to look at the first 11 verses in the 21st chapter of Matthew. We have these verses in your bulletin. You can look there or follow along in your Bible as we get to them too. But we're coming to a very familiar event in the life of Christ. Most of us know about this event. We know about the triumphal entry. We know that the crowds respond in great jubilation when they see Jesus approaching the city. We even know the words that go on youth. We heard them in the choir song just a few minutes ago. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We know all these things. This is a familiar story. You know, my fear is because we know this story so well, we begin to look at it with a little bit of a jaded eye, because we know that it's only five days from now that the same group of people that meet him with such joy and such astonishment and such accolades turn their back on him. Not only do they turn their back, they get aggressive and they're the same ones that are chanting in just five days, crucify him, crucify him. Because of knowing all of that, I think we get a little bit jaded as we look at this and we somewhat discount this triumphal entry saying, yep, this is just a blip on the screen of the life of Jesus. It's not going to stick. But this morning, I don't want us to look at it that way. I want us to recognize that this is recorded and God allowed this to happen as a foreshadowing of another triumphal entry that is coming. Jesus is coming again. And that time when he comes, it will be in complete triumph. It will not be to the disappointment that the crowds came to see because they were looking for an arrival that didn't meet. It will be the arrival they were expecting. This arrival in Matthew 21 points to another arrival, and that's one that we should look forward to with eager anticipation. So this morning, I want us to look at this entry into Jerusalem when Jesus comes riding on the donkey as we know he'll ride. As we see this recorded and we think about this first coming, I want us to think about that second coming that's there. What are the implications that we should consider as we anticipate that second coming of Christ? Now I'm going to tell you up front, this sermon is not going to be the normal expository type sermon that I give you. An expository sermon identifies the main idea in the passage and applies that. I think we all know the main idea in this passage. So I'm going to do what you could maybe call a sermon of analogy today. It's going to be looking at this passage, because I think there's several analogies in the way this crowd greets Jesus. to the way we should be living our lives now, anticipating that coming arrival when he comes in victory. I believe there's several analogies in the way these disciples are involved with his arrival to the way we as his current disciples should be involved in the future arrival. The rival that this passage is pointing towards when he comes up to the entrance of Jerusalem. The overall point I want to recognize this morning as we look at this triumphal entry is that we need to recognize that the king is coming. Do we believe that the king is coming? Do we acknowledge that? We're sitting here and I already see people nodding their heads. Yeah, we believe that. Do we live our lives as if that is true? If we really believe he's coming, I think there are three analogies that we can see in these verses that should show themselves in the way we're living our lives. Three things that these disciples and the crowds are doing that we ought to be doing if we really think the king is coming, that he's going to arrive in victory. We should be living in the same way that we see displayed here. Let's read our passage together this morning, and then we'll begin to consider these three analogies. When they, being the disciples and the crowd and Jesus, all that's been talked about in the previous verses, when they approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus said to two disciples, sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their coats on them, and he sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! When he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the crowds were saying, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth and Galilee. we must recognize that the King is coming. The first analogy that comes from that central truth that I see in these verses is that we must prepare for the coming arrival of the King. We must prepare for the coming arrival of the King. I see that analogy here in the action of these two anonymous disciples. The things that they had to do. These two disciples, they were given the job of preparing for the arrival of the King. They were told, go into this nearby village. The image that we have, apparently they were coming down a hill into a valley. And as you go up the other side, there was a village. The path they were going on had a village ahead. And Jesus told two of his disciples to run on ahead of us, go into that village. As soon as you get in the village, you'll find this donkey and her colt, untie them, bring them back to me. That's what he told them to do. But you know, nowhere are we told which two disciples these were. We assume they're part of the Twelve, most likely, but we don't know. We know Jesus had a larger following of disciples, so it could have been some others, but two anonymous disciples were told to go get these animals for me. Well, why don't you think about, for a moment, that mission. What it was that they were told they were to do. Jesus told them to go ahead and get this donkey. Jesus now was coming from Jericho and Bethany, where he had been, and he had performed miracles along the way. So a large, large crowd had gathered with him. So he was not alone, but he told these two, run ahead, get ahead and go get these beasts. Think about that assignment. We're never told who these men are, but they're told to hustle ahead in the heat of the day, go into the strange village, walk in and untie these animals and bring them back to me. Now, most of us may think, well, it's no big deal that we don't know who they are. I know many of you don't mind working behind the scenes, so you don't mind being anonymous. And that's frankly a good thing. We're doing it for God's glory. We're not doing it for our own praise. So the fact that they're anonymous may not be of any concern to you. But think about what they were asked to do. How many of you like to put yourself in an awkward position? I'm not saying how many of you are good at it. Some of you may be very good at putting yourselves into awkward positions. But how many of you like to do it? Purposely set out to put yourself into an awkward position? None of us do. But that's what they're being told to do. They're being told, go into this village and tie these animals. Jesus never does tell them that they're expecting you. He never says that there's any pre-arrangements made. Maybe there were, we don't know. All he says is go. And if somebody asks you why you're doing this, who gives you permission to take these animals, just tell them the Lord has need of them. What kind of answer is that? You know, put yourself in their shoes. You don't know who's going to stop you. It may be the owners. It may be somebody looking out for the owners. You don't know if the people stopping you are going to be ones that respect Jesus or not. You don't even know if they're going to believe you. They may say, yeah, Jesus is coming, but you're trying to steal these animals. You're just using that as an excuse. Where's your papers from Jesus? You know, there's nothing wrong with Jesus saying, go get these animals. I hope we all recognize he is Lord of Lords, King of Kings. He created everything. Everything is his by ownership. He is the creator. So if he wants to make use of these two animals, that's not a problem because anything that any of us have that anyone has is something that he's only loaned us to watch over. So if he says, I need what I own now for a short period, that's not a problem. But put yourself in the shoes of these two disciples. They're being told, go out, go into that village and hope that everything works out the way I told you. Grab these animals and bring them back for me. Jesus never does tell them that there's any reason they should have confidence other than his word. He says, if you say that I need them, they're going to let you go. They're going to send you on away. All he says is just answer them. The Lord has need. When I was in college, I can somewhat understand the feeling of these two disciples. I bought a stereo while I was in college. And back in those days, most of you probably remember that the idea of stereos were the bigger the speakers, the better. So I had speakers that were probably about three feet tall. They were big. And when we bought the stereo, I happened to buy a floor unit that was on display at the front of the store. That was the last one. I got a better deal buying that. Well, the salesman told me, when I was buying the unit, he said, go ahead. I had a friend with me. We were looking at it. He said, go ahead and start taking it apart and take the pieces out to your car. I'll write up the paperwork. So he went off to the back of the store, and here's my friend and I in the front of the store, reaching into this display unit and start unconnecting wires, and then we grab the components and we start walking out the front door. After about the third trip, somebody stops us and says, you are buying that, right? You know, just being stopped like that gave me pause. I didn't like the feeling of not knowing if I'd be believed or not. And that's the scenario these two disciples were in. They're being asked to do something that could very easily put them in an awkward position. With all probability, that's what would happen. What if they didn't accept their excuse? If you also think about the task they're being given to do is rather unglamorous. They're to run, as I mentioned, through the heat of the day, go out, gather beasts of burden, and bring them back. Nothing too glamorous in any of this. Potentially awkward, but not glamorous. Yet we see in this record here that they did it. They fulfilled the task completely. And the question I want us to ask ourselves is why? Why would they do that? What motivated the disciples to take on this task? You know, Matthew doesn't reveal their thoughts to us. He doesn't record that. We does tell us those a couple of things that I think allow us to bring it together, why they would do this. First of all, he tells us that this was necessary in preparation for Jesus's arrival. This was necessary because Jesus was going to fulfill the prophecy that we see recorded there from Zechariah chapter 9, 9, that predicted the Messiah would come riding on a colt. So this was necessary for his preparation. Now, the disciples probably didn't know that. They didn't understand at the time they were helping Jesus fulfill the prophecy. In fact, we know frequently we're told in Scripture that disciples only understood what they were doing after the fact. When Jesus rose from the dead, then the Holy Spirit helped them see how this action and that action made this happen. So most likely they didn't understand on this morning when they're told to run ahead that they were helping him fulfill a prophecy that was necessary for his arrival. But they did know that Jesus told them to do it. And they obeyed him. Obedience was the way for them to prepare for his arrival. So even though the task they were given was awkward, even though it was a bit confusing, they couldn't figure out why he would want to do something like this, they did it. They did it out of obedience. But you know, I think there's more to it than just sheer obedience, because I want us to see the other thing Matthew records. What did they do when they brought these animals back? They took their own coats off and laid them across to make a blanket for Jesus to sit on. That's the actions that they took when they prepared for Jesus right on the colt. Their outer robes made a blanket for Jesus to sit on. That's an act of love. That's an act of devotion. They got the animals for him, but they went beyond just doing the bare minimum of obedience. They showed that they loved Jesus, that they were devoted to him. And here's where I think we see the first analogy for us. We're his disciples now. Our responsibilities prepare for his arrival. He is coming again. We're to be preparing for that. But, you know, just like the disciples here, most of the times we don't know how our obedience factors in to that preparation. You know, they didn't know that this fulfilled a prophecy. I don't think. I doubt that they were that clued in. I wouldn't have been. And I expect none of us would have been. And they're just like us. But they were willing to obey whatever He said to do. You know, we're in the same boat. We don't know how our acts of obedience prepare for Him. But we do know that Jesus uses our obedience and ties it all together, fits it together to prepare for His arrival. We know one of the main things Jesus wants when he returns is to find a strong church. Will the Lord find faith when he returns? He's looking for a strong church. And we know from the overall teaching of the New Testament that as we as individuals, and then as we gather together corporately, as we obey what he tells us to do, he uses that to form a strong church. It's when we disobey, when we refuse to do what Jesus has told us, that the church begins to fragment and splinter and sin works its way in. When we're obedient, we're strong. So while we may not know how all the different commands that we find in the New Testament, all the instructions that he's given us work to prepare for his arrival, we can have confidence that if we do them, we're doing our part to prepare for the coming of the king. But I also want us to think about the motivation that we see in the disciples. Why did they do it? They did it out of love. You know, the only thing that can motivate us to do all these various tasks that we find in the New Testament, all these various commands that frequently put us into awkward situations to make life difficult for us, the only thing that can motivate us to truly do that is love. If we don't love Jesus, We're going to fail if we attempt on sheer obedience alone. Our will is not strong enough when things become awkward. But love will motivate us. Devotion to Christ can move us to do what He's told us to do. We find it difficult, then we don't love Him enough. We need to come to love Him more. We must recognize that the King is coming. The first analogy that I see in this passage from that central truth is that as Jesus enters Jerusalem as he enters and we're now to prepare for his second entrance. We need to be lovingly devoted in our obedience so that we can prepare for the arrival of the king. We need to prepare for the arrival of the king. He's given us tasks to do and love and devotion should motivate us to do those tasks. Secondly, I see here that we must rejoice at the coming arrival of the King. First of all, we must prepare for the coming arrival. Secondly, we must rejoice at the coming arrival of the King. You know, there's a reason that the choir sang the song it sang this morning. This is Palm Sunday. This is echoing the words of this passage. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That song exudes joy. It's a song filled with rejoicing. It's a song of praise, attempting to reflect the joy and the praise that we see in this passage. You know, these people weren't just mediocre about Jesus coming. It wasn't just ho-hum information. They were excited. And that's what we should be reflecting. When we sing a song like we sang, we're trying to reflect that joy and that excitement. The disciples and the crowds were excited. Granted, we know their excitement was driven by misunderstanding. We've discussed several times in our study of John what they were looking for is a Messiah who would throw off the Romans, that would free them. They were looking for something different than what Jesus was offering. But their excitement was real. It was genuine. They missed the fact that he's riding on a colt that should show them that he's coming as a peaceful person. in a lowly position. He wasn't coming as a conquering general. He was riding on a beast of burden. That was his vehicle of transportation that should have clued them in. He's coming as the Prince of Peace. But the scene we have here is one of overwhelming excitement. There's a large crowd swelling all around Jesus. Think about that description I put of the airport crowd that swells around a common point. They were swallowing around Jesus. This large crowd had followed Him now from Jericho and Bethany. And as He was coming, it was growing. Crowds from the city heard He was coming and they were coming out to meet Him. Massive amount of people. They cut branches from the palm trees and they laid them down in front. They followed the picture that the disciples had already started. They took off their coats and laid them on the road in front of Jesus. These are all traditional, actions that people would take when a dignitary was coming. They were treating him as a VIP. He was a dignitary. And then they thronged ahead and behind shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. If you put this all together, we have a picture here of great, great rejoicing. Do we see that? Originally, the word Hosanna meant save, I pray. But it became a general word of praise. It was taken out of their Hebrew origin and used as a general word of praise. And the people combined here with Son of David make it clear that they were expecting the Messiah to be riding in in this person that they saw. So they misunderstand the role. But when they thought their Messiah was arriving, their joy was tremendous. They did not greet him with any sort of reserve formality. They weren't prim and proper. They were excited. And they let everybody know it. Do we do the same? Do we recognize that the king is coming? Turn with me for a moment to Revelation 19. Let's look at the verses where we see the king coming a second time. Revelation 19, beginning in verse 11. John tells us what's going to look like the second time Jesus heads to Jerusalem. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Do we get it? The King is coming. He's coming again, and the second time he's not coming peaceful, riding on a lowly beast of burden. He's coming as the conquering general, riding in front of his troops. When the king comes again, his triumphal entry is going to be absolutely magnificent. Do we really believe that? Do we really see that picture? Does that excite us? Does our excitement show? Are we willing to make a noise about the coming of the king so that we attract attention to our excitement? Think about this in the context of our worship for a moment. Now, I hope you recognize me or you know me well enough to know I'm not advocating any kind of unruliness that would disrupt our worship, that would detract from magnifying Christ as we say we need to do. But when we come together and magnify him, does our excitement show? Do we get excited that we get to worship the coming King, that we get to praise Him, that we can sing about Him coming? Or do we worry that we're not going to be very dignified if we let our excitement show? That that's not very formal. This should be a formal service. Folks, we should be excited that Jesus is coming again, and it should show in everything we do. We should praise Him, magnify Him, You know, we shouldn't look so bored that, well, God's Word is going to be open. I know He doesn't preach too long. In 35 minutes, I'll be through this. Are we excited that God is about to speak to us? The King is coming and we get to hear what the King wants us to do to prepare for Him. You know, I believe if we truly comprehend that He is coming again, We're going to lose some of our formality, some of that self-centered focus that we have that doesn't let us exuberate any joy, because that might draw attention to ourselves. You know, the people when Paley was coming through the airport, they didn't care if they were making noise, because the focus wasn't on them, it was on someone else. Is that the way we gather when we worship? Do we put the focus on the king who's coming so much that we lose our focus on ourselves. And that sheer joy that comes with anticipating that He is coming again bleed out of us. The disciples sure did, and the crowd sure did the first time around. They even had it wrong. We know when He comes again, He is coming and conquering victory. That should drive us to great, great joy. We must recognize that the King is coming. The second analogy that I see for us here when Jesus enters into Jerusalem is that we must rejoice when we think about the coming arrival of the King. Thirdly, we must announce the coming arrival of the King. We must announce the coming arrival of the King. Notice what happens here when Jesus is coming. Matthew tells us in verse 10 that the entire city was stirred A lot of commotion going on here. People all over the city heard the noise. They heard the commotion of this large crowd that was still outside the city. And they came out of their homes, they came out of their shops, they started looking around. What is going on? What's all the commotion? What is happening? They wanted to know what all the fuss was about. And then when they could see it, they saw people taking palm branches and laying them on the road. They saw them taking their coats, laying them down. Who is it that's coming? By now, I've got to believe, Some of them were as vertically challenged as I am. When there's a large crowd, they couldn't figure out who is that guy in there. Everybody's looking towards somebody, but who is that? I can't see well enough. So they'd come up to the back of the crowd and they'd stand up on tiptoes and try and see who's out there. What's the excitement? How do people respond? I love verses 10 and 11. The impression I get here is that as people come up and they try to figure out who is coming, that they get a response from a lot of excited voices. Jesus! Jesus of Nazareth! He's the one that's coming! You know how it is. Whenever you know something exciting, you want to share it with others around. You know, when Pele came through, I didn't know who it was. I didn't have to ask too many people to get a full story about who was coming. All I had to say was, who was that? And anybody that spoke English was very quick to tell me. And they told me all about him. Folks, do we have that same Joy. Do we want to announce the coming of the king? Do we want everybody to know about his arrival? Are we so excited that he's arriving that it's attracting attention where others are asking, who's coming? Who's arriving? He's the king of kings, the Lord of lords. If that doesn't get us excited, then we don't get it. But are we announcing his coming arrival? Are we telling people who's coming? When people start asking, who is it? Why are you excited? Who's coming? Are we just as quick to say Jesus is coming? He is the one. He's coming again. And here's what he's going to do. We just spent the past week, many of us going through the exchange seminar. The whole purpose of that seminar would teach us how to announce the coming arrival of Jesus. so that when people know that we're excited about something, that we are ready to tell them what we're excited about, that we want them to know. The goal was to equip us with a gospel presentation system that would give us a ready answer when people ask, who is this that is coming? Who's got your attention? Who's caused you to be so excited? I mentioned it in the previous hour, and I'll give another quick side commercial here. I know many of you were not able to be there all week at this seminar. In the evenings, you weren't able to come. You weren't able to come on Saturday. But you haven't missed out yet. Carl Gray, as we begin our ABF starting next week, back to our regular schedule, Carl's going to teach through in his ABF the Giving the Exchange, the entire presentation. So if you missed it, and where it was crammed together in that short time frame, or you didn't quite absorb all of it in that short time frame, here's an opportunity. Get up, step out of the ABF that you normally go to for about three months and go to Carl's ABF and he will teach giving the exchange so you can have a ready answer when people ask you, who is it that is coming? Well, let me tell you, the one who's coming is holy. The one who's coming is just. The one who's coming is loving. And the one who's coming is gracious. You'll have an answer for them. We need to be ready. Who is this who's coming? Let me circle back now to the overriding question that I think we need to be asking ourselves. Are we announcing the coming of the king? Are we announcing it? You know, Jeff talked several times during the seminar that if we're honest with ourselves all too often, we have to answer, no, we are not announcing the coming of the king. Because if we were, these pews won't all be empty. There's people out there that God desires to draw to himself. But we're not announcing it. On the final day of the seminar, I gave a challenge in the last few minutes to our people. If we're honest with ourselves, I think all too often we live our Christianity in stealth mode. Yeah, we're Christians and we'll sneak out of our house and come here on Sunday. And maybe only a neighbor or two will notice that we left. And then we'll come back home and we'll start going through our week again. And you know, if I handle this right, I won't have any outward sins myself, but nobody's going to know that I'm a Christian. I'm in stealth mode. Our excitement is not causing attention, and we're not announcing that the king is coming. We need to be honest with ourselves. As a church, that is not what characterizes us. Now my understanding from the history of our church, from stories I hear of time way back, that there was a day that our church focused very hard on announcing the coming of the King. But if we're honest, in the last couple decades, that's not who we are. We have become a church that tries to attract other Christians. Once in a while, we may get an exception here or there where somebody except Christ and we rejoice over that. But we are not characterized as a people who are out there announcing that the king is coming in every opportunity that we have. And that needs to change because the king is coming and we must prepare ourselves for that. And the best way to prepare is by announcing to everybody that asks and even those who don't that he is coming. Are we drawing attention to the fact that he is coming? I know my desire and my prayer for our church is that we become a church filled up with people announcing the coming of the King. His coming arrival should be our heartbeat. What we have been doesn't have to be what we will be. The fact that we have not been characterized by the level of excitement as this crowd in Jerusalem displays doesn't have to be what we are in the future. We can become excited by falling in love with Jesus ourselves again, recognizing that the King is coming. Let the excitement show in our lives and begin announcing that he is coming to all those that we see. That can become what FBCSH is. As we recognize that He is coming, our excitement should build. And our excitement builds, we should want to tell everyone we see that the King is coming. We want you to know Him. We want you to be ready for Him. We want you to be prepared when He comes. And we want you to be filled with the same joy we have that He's coming. We need to recognize that the King is coming. The third analogy that we see in this passage is that we must announce the coming arrival of the king. You know, I will never forget that excitement that that crowd in that airport had when Pele came through. It's been many years ago now, but that just sticks in my mind's eye. It's the first time I've seen a celebrity of that level come through a crowd where I was at. And it stuck with me. But you know, as I think about it, I realize that that level of excitement should be nothing compared to the level of excitement that we display for the king himself who's coming. Who's Pele compared to Jesus Christ? He's coming and we need to be excited about it. This morning, we've been challenged, I think, by the triumphal entry here of Jesus to Jerusalem on this day that we call Palm Sunday. Let's consider the analogies that are applicable to us now as His current disciples. We must recognize that the King is coming. First of all, by analogy, we must prepare for the coming arrival of the King. We must do our part to keep His church strong. We do that by obeying what He has told us, but the motivation for that obedience must be love and devotion to the King Himself. We need to recognize that He is coming. Secondly, we must rejoice at the coming of the king. We should get excited about his coming. His coming arrival should influence how we approach our worship. We should be moved to sheer joy and excitement that the king is coming. Lastly, we must announce the coming of the king. The excitement that bleeds out of our body should generate questions from everyone who knows us. Who is it that's coming? Who is it that has you this excited, this on fire? Who is it that you're so thrilled about? And we should look for opportunities to tell them that Jesus is coming. Telling people about him should be the natural reaction to the excitement that we have. If it's not natural for us to tell people about Jesus, then we don't have the excitement that we ought to have. The king is coming. The people in Jerusalem, they were excited when they thought their Messiah was coming. And he was. But at that time, he was coming in a peaceful mission. When we see Jesus, as we follow him throughout the rest of this week, we'll see that the mission he came on that time was to die for their sins. So that they would have to die for their own sins. He didn't come as the conquering Messiah that they were expecting. But you know what, when he comes again, that's the role he's in. It will be as the conquering Messiah who has paid the penalty for sin, has overcome death, and is rightful ruler of the universe. We need to recognize that the King is coming, and that should excite us. Let's close in prayer.