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Good morning Riverbend, hope everyone is doing great today.
Real quick, before we jump in, let me just say there's a line
in that song that we just sang at the end that talks about when
you can't hold your arms up. Reminds me of the story in
Exodus 17 of Moses, Aaron and her.
Moses is holding his arms up and his while he holds his arms up,
the nation of Israel wins the battle.
Well, you can imagine if you hold your arms up long enough,
they're going to get tired. And so Aaron and her bring a
stone, put it behind Moses. Moses sits down, Aaron gets on
one side, her on the other, and they hold his arms up for him
because they've realized that they're Better Together,
stronger in small groups. That's the theme of our small
groups here at Riverbend. Better Together, stronger in
groups. I want to encourage you this
morning, if you're not a part of a small group, that's really
where the life of the church happens.
Listen, when you're in those battles and you can't hold your
arms up any longer, that's where the small group comes in.
And our small groups are really, really strong here.
They are so good. You can ask different folks
about things that have happened in their lives over the past
couple of months. The small group has come around
them and held their arms up for them.
I would strongly encourage you this morning, become a member of
a small group. That's really where you're going
to find the life of the church. That's really where you're going
to be encouraged. You're going to be empowered
through small groups. You're going to be taught in
here, but then you can really flesh out those things in small
groups. So I just wanted to mention that
this morning. Good morning.
My name is Todd Slade. Thank you for joining with us
this morning. Whether you're here in person or
whether you're online, thank you so much for being here this
morning. I have the amazing privilege of
serving as the executive pastor here.
Our senior pastor is on vacation this week.
He and his wife and daughter are down, enjoying some time away.
And so pray for them this week. I hope they have a great time
together. Honestly, I could tell you this
morning though, my wife and I came here in September of 2024
and of all the churches that I've served over the past 20
plus years, Riverbend has felt like home immediately.
As soon as we came here, Riverbend felt like home.
And so I want to encourage you this morning.
Maybe you're watching online, you've been watching for a
couple weeks and you think, I don't know if we want to jump
in, dive in. Maybe you've been visiting.
This is your first, second, third time visiting.
I want to encourage you this morning, jump in, dive in.
Look, we love here at Riverbend like any other church I've been
a part of and we would love for you to be a part of the mission
of Riverbend Church. We do have a a mission statement
at Riverbend. It's Riverbend exists to bring
people to Jesus, grow generations in Jesus, send
disciples for Jesus. That's really our mission here,
and we want you to join together in that mission with us as we
try to serve not only Hall County, but really around the
world. We have opportunity this year to
go on some mission trips. We're going to Boston, we're
going to Guatemala, and we're going to Uganda.
And we would love for you to be a part of those trips.
But coming up in just a few weeks, we have Easter, and
Easter is an amazing time. We call it the Super Bowl on the
Christian calendar. Because really this is what our
faith is all about. Jesus rose from the grave
without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and our faith is
worthless. Our faith is hopeless and what
carries us through when someone around us passes away, but they
knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
What really gets us through that is knowing that the resurrection
is true. Amen.
We don't have to worry about whether or not we'll ever see
that person again. If they knew Jesus and you know
Jesus, then we're going to spend all of eternity together
worshiping at his feet. And so Easter is the greatest
day on the calendar because it's the day that Jesus rose from the
grave. And so when you came in this
morning, you should have received something that looked
like this. This is our Easter Connect card.
We would love for you to serve one and attend 1 during Easter,
especially those who call Riverbend home.
We would love for you to serve one, attend one, just pick a
service that you would like to serve at, serve in that service,
but then attend another service. And the way that we've tried to
make this as easy as possible is we've we're going to do
something a little unique this year.
We're going to have a Saturday night service for those who
volunteer. It's going to be Saturday night
at 5:30 and we would love for you to volunteer at one of the
Sunday services, but attend the Saturday night service.
It's going to be the same service that we have on Sunday.
We're just making it possible for you to attend on Saturday
night and then serve on Sunday morning.
And please pray like crazy that God would fill this place up
with people who are looking for what they don't even know
they're needing. And that's the relationship with
Jesus Christ. May they be drawn here on Sunday
of Easter as we talk about Jesus borrowing a tomb.
May they hear the great gospel of Jesus Christ and come to
faith in him. And so thank you so much again
for being here this morning. Well, three weeks ago, we
started a brand new sermon series called Borrowed in the
Gospels. The first four books of the New
Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
We see Jesus borrowing 5 things. He borrowed a boat, he borrowed
5 loaves and three fish. He borrows a donkey, he borrows
a room and then he borrows a tomb.
Pastor Ben's done a great job covering those first two talked
about borrowing a boat and then borrowing 5 loaves and three
fish. I think there's a joke somewhere
in there about him asking me to preach the sermon on the donkey.
So nothing boost your confidence when the pastor more than when
the pastor comes to you and says, hey, I think we're going
to preach a sermon on a donkey. I think you'd be the great guy
to do that. So a donkey preaching about a
donkey this morning, I guess. So here we are.
Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, I'm going to ask
you if you would please turn to Matthew chapter 21.
I've been praying for you the past few days.
Really. Three weeks ago when Pastor Ben
asked me to preach today, I began praying for those who
would attend today without even knowing who it would be.
But God knew you've been prayed for this morning.
I pray that you would not just hear another sermon.
Hey, listen, I'll, I'll be the first to admit none of us need
another sermon. Most of you have been believers
for longer than I've been alive. Or some of you, not most of you,
some of you, some of you have been believers for 20 plus
years. You don't need another sermon.
You have enough knowledge that'll last you the rest of
your life and you will stand before the Lord and he'll say
well done thou good and faithful servant.
If you've never heard another sermon, you would be just fine.
I don't want you to hear another sermon this morning.
I pray that you would lean in today, that you would lean into
what God wants to speak directly to your heart today as we talk
about Jesus borrowing a donkey. There's so much more to it than
just Jesus borrowing a donkey, All right.
And so lean in with me this morning.
And I pray that you will take notes either in the app that you
have on your phone or your tablet or on the paper that you
have in front of us. Let's dive into Matthew chapter
21 this morning. If you don't have your Bible,
don't worry, it'll be up here on the screen.
You can read along with us now. When they drew near to Jerusalem
and came to Bethpage to the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent 2
disciples saying to them, Go into the village in front of
you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied in a colt
with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say.
Now let's pause right here just for a second.
Have you ever heard there's a difference between shall and
should or shall and could? Right?
Jesus says here, you shall say to them, This is not a, If you
want to say this, say it. This is not, you could say this
amongst other things. No, Jesus says you shall, this
is a command that Jesus is giving them.
You shall say to them, you know, I'm the executive pastor here.
So I go through all of our documents.
I do all those things. And one of the things that we
look for in our, in our doctrinal or in our, in our
bylaws is the word shall. If it says you shall meet on
Sundays, then we don't have the option to not meet on Sundays,
right? Unless it snows and then nobody
does anything right. But if it says shall you have to
do it? OK, Jesus says here you shall
say the Lord needs it. We'll have more on that here in
just a minute. And he will send them at once.
This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet saying
say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to
you humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a
beast of burden. The disciples went and did as
Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey in the
colt and put them on the on their put on them their cloaks,
and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their
cloaks on the road road, and others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road.
And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were
shouting Hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the
highest. And when he entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
The crowd says this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of
Galilee. Father, I pray that you would
speak to our hearts this morning.
Fathers, I've already said we don't need another sermon.
Father. We need life transformation.
Father, I pray that you would speak directly to our hearts
this morning. Lord, number one, we would leave
here encouraged. But #2 Lord, we would leave here
more desirous of serving you. However that is, Father, may you
speak to your people this morning.
In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Well, as we dive into the
message that God has given us for today, let me get begin by
giving you the theme or the main idea that is driving this sermon
series borrowed. And that theme is simply what
Jesus borrows. He blesses to use for our good
and for His glory. Again, what Jesus borrows, He
blesses to use for our good and for His glory.
And I think we'll see this play out throughout this passage this
morning. Look back with me, if you would,
at Matthew 21, verses 1 and 2. Now when they drew near to
Jerusalem and came to Bethpage to the Mount of Olives, then
Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go into the village in
front of you and immediately you will find a donkey and a colt
with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
Now stop with me and just think for a second, is this not a
weird ask of Jesus? Hey guys, go into the city,
there's going to be a donkey. Immediately when you go into the
city, untie that donkey and bring it to me.
Now it's a weird thing to ask here is essentially Jesus is
telling his disciples, hey, look, go into the city and steal
that donkey and bring it to me, right?
I mean, it's a weird thing to ask.
Jesus says don't worry about asking permission, Just go into
the city. You'll find the donkey tied up.
Untie that donkey in her colt and bring them to me.
If someone asked me to do this, man, I've got some questions,
right? I've got lots of questions.
My first question is, hey, Lord, isn't that stealing?
Isn't stealing wrong? You know what Jesus says?
Well, if they say anything to you, just tell them the Lord
needs it. Oh, OK, that makes it easier.
I'm going to steal your donkey or, you know, I'm going to take
your donkey and the colt. Now, one thing we need to
understand is when you have a donkey and you have a colt,
you're probably raising up that colt to replace that donkey at
some point, right? So it's kind of like having your
main car that you drive everywhere and then you have a
secondary car. In case your wife or your spouse
takes the first car, you have the second car to go somewhere.
Well, they're kind of raising up this colt to do the work of the
initial donkey when that donkey is no longer able, right?
So not only are they still in the primary donkey, but they're
also still in the backup, if you will, right?
And when we say steal, I want to be careful that we're not
talking really about stealing. We're talking about borrowing.
We'll get there in just a second, right?
So Jesus says, look, go take this donkey.
Well, I'm not sure that I'm not asking a lot of questions at
this point. I mean, you know, the main point
here is not really about them not questioning Jesus, although
we could spend a lot of time on this, right?
They just go into town. They just get the donkey and
they come back, right? Here's kind of what I think may
have been going on in their minds.
Think with me just for a minute. These guys have been with Jesus
now for three years. This is the end of Jesus's
ministry. He's about to ride into
Jerusalem for the last time. And as he rides into Jerusalem
for the last time, he's riding into Jerusalem to go to the
cross for all of our sins, right?
They've been with Jesus for three years at this point.
And man, Jesus is not your ordinary dude, right?
Jesus has turned water into wine.
How many times were you at a wedding and somebody turned
water into wine? Yeah, that's really never
happened before, right? Not to us.
Well, how many times have you been hanging out with the guy
and you come across a paralytic and Jesus says, pick up your mat
and go. And the paralytic, the man who
had been paralyzed for a lot of his life, picks up his mat and
walks out. I've never been around that
before, Right? How many times have you seen a
guy encounter a blind man? He spits in the dirt, makes some
mud, puts it on his eyes. The guy goes and washes in the
river and comes back, and the guy can now see.
Right. Anybody ever been a part of that
before? I haven't.
So these guys have been with Jesus all of this time these
three years. They've seen Jesus healing all
kinds of people, doing all kind of miraculous things, making a
crazy storm on the ocean, be completely still.
I think at this point, these guys trusted that Jesus really
wasn't just some ordinary dude. He was a little bit more than
that, right? And so when Jesus looked at them
and said, hey, go get that donkey, these guys said, yes,
Sir, he's got something that he's going to do here that's
going to blow our socks off, right?
And so that leads to the to the next question.
Why a donkey? Why a donkey?
Here is God in the flesh, Jehovah Jireh, the alpha, the
Omega, the beginning, the end, God in flesh.
Why a donkey? Jesus could have used a white
stallion or even a black beauty. He could have used the chariot
pulled by the most beautiful Clydesdales you've ever seen in
your life. All of those things would have
been perfect and they would have been right for Jesus to ride on.
After all, we are talking about the Son of God here.
So why donkey? Well, I believe this donkey
showed great humility of our Lord and Savior.
If you remember, Jesus came into this world not as a king.
Jesus came in a very humble fashion, not even in a normal
birthing chamber. Jesus was born in the most
humble of all places, a stable. Just the same way that Jesus
came in as a humble child, he's going to go out as a humble
saviour. Jesus.
Humility on full display here. And there's quite a bit of
prophecy that points to the true king riding into Jerusalem on a
donkey. Check this out.
Zechariah 99 says this. You rejoice greatly.
O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold,
your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation.
Is he humble and mounted on a donkey?
On a colt, the foal of a donkey, in total fulfillment of
Zechariah 99, Matthew tells us that Jesus used this borrowed
donkey, not stolen borrowed donkey to ride into Jerusalem
for the very last time. And all the while, as Jesus was
riding into Jerusalem on this donkey, he's being praised.
Hail the King of the Jews, hail the King of kings and the Lord
of Lords. They're shouting at Jesus as he
rides in. And this leads to the first
thing that I really want to draw your attention to this morning.
Jesus often uses what is already near you.
Jesus said to the two disciples, go into the town in front of you
and immediately you will find the donkey and her cult weren't
on the other side of the city. The donkey and her cult weren't
at the temple. The donkey and her cult weren't
anywhere far away. They were actually really close
to where this story took place. And so the point that I want to
make by saying that is this. Jesus often uses what is already
near to us. What I also want you to mention
or to realize this morning is God doesn't use just
extraordinary things. God uses available things.
God doesn't just use extraordinary things.
God uses available things. Let me help make this as clear
as I can. What if God wanted to use your
house for let's say United weekend?
What if God wanted to use your house for a small group
gathering? What if God wanted to use your
house just for a lunch meeting of some sort that had to do with
your faith or having to do with your church?
What if God wants to use you to invite your Co workers to Easter
and to come in the in the in three weeks?
What if God wants to use whatever is near you to bring
glory and honor to Himself? I can promise you this morning,
God is wanting to borrow those things that are close to you.
He's going to bless them for your good, but He's going to use
them for His glory. Yes, sometimes it might not make
much sense at all. Hey guys, go borrow a donkey and
bring it to me. I'm sure those guys were like,
now why a donkey? What's she's just going to do
with this donkey, right? But they went and did as Jesus
said, God doesn't just use extraordinary things, He uses
available things. And I just want to ask this
morning, if God wanted to use you, are you available for him
this morning? Are you available for God to use
you for your, for your good and for his glory?
Jesus often uses what is already near us as a reminder this
morning. Second, there's a powerful line
in verse 3. It's loaded.
Jesus uses 4 little words here that are huge.
And what I want you to see though, before we get to those 4
little words is this. Jesus asked for what already
belongs to him. Jesus asks for what already
belongs to him and he uses 4 little words to show us this.
The Lord needs them. The Lord needs them.
And this is a powerful, powerful statement.
Have you ever heard somebody say make Jesus Lord of your life?
Have you ever heard that in a church service or have you ever
heard that somewhere? You ever, you ever thought about
what does it mean to make Jesus Lord of my life?
Well, oftentimes people make things Lord of their life
without really even realizing that they're making it the Lord
of their life. Oftentimes that looks like money
or it looks like possessions. Oftentimes it looks like stuff,
right? Without us realizing it, we buy
a house and before we know it, that house is our Lord because
it takes money to pay the mortgage.
It takes money to replace the water heater when it breaks.
It takes money to pump out the septic tank, right?
And before you know it, that house is Lord over you because
whatever that house does, you answer to, right?
You don't have a choice. You have to pay that mortgage.
You have to do this. You have to do that when it
comes so that house becomes Lord over you.
When we talk about making Jesus Lord of our life, really what
we're talking about is everything that we own.
Now, you don't really own it because really God is the maker
of all things and really it all belongs to God.
So instead of us being owners of our stuff, we just become
stewards of our stuff, right? We don't really own anything.
And you heard it said before, pastors say this all the time.
I've never seen a hearse behind a funeral procession, right?
People can't take their stuff with them.
When you go to heaven, well, that's just a reminder to us
that we don't own anything. God owns it all.
We're just stewards of that. And what God wants to do is God
wants to use those things for your good and for his glory,
right? The Lord needs them.
That is a powerful, powerful statement.
It helps us to realize who we are in light of who Jesus is,
right? And reality we're not much at
all right. God is the one who owns the
cattle on 1000 hills. And so we are when we make Jesus
Lord of our life, we become stewards of everything that he
has given to us. Jesus tells his disciples go
into town and get the donkey in the colt.
This fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 99.
But I believe there's so much more going on here.
It's it's a little bit deeper than we think.
There's a story in First Kings one about King David's fourth
son, Adonijah. You are all mostly familiar with
who King David was. King David was the greatest king
in all of Israel's history. He had he was a man after God's
own heart. There were so many things that
happened to the nation of Israel under King David that really he
was the greatest king ever. One First Kings 1 David has
gotten to the end of his life and all the things that God has
used him to do and all the things that he has used King
David to fulfill in the nation of Israel.
David's coming to the end of his life and we read an interesting
story in First Kings 1, David's fourth, fourth son, Adonijah,
appoints himself as the king to take his father's place.
Did you hear what I said? Adonijah appoints himself to be
David's replacement. He arranges for himself to ride
into the town like a king. It says this in First Kings 15.
Now Adonijah the son of Haggath, exalted himself, saying, I will
be king. And he prepared for himself,
Chariots, horsemen, and 50 men to ride before him, to run
before him. Adonijah had had set up all
these things to make people think that he was the rightful
king. Listen to this in First Kings 6.
First King 616 tells us that Adonijah had never disappointed
David and that Adonijah was a good looking man.
Actually, I think that might be why Pastor Ben asked me to
preach this message this morning.
Sounds a whole lot better than the donkey, right?
Here's the point. Adonijah looked the part.
He rode into town on these majestic horses and Chariots.
He had all these men running before him.
Here comes the king. He played the part.
He acted the part. He looked the part.
It was only one problem. Adonijah wasn't the king.
David had already prepared to appoint Solomon as the next
king. And when David found out all the
Adonijah had done, he placed Solomon the rightful king.
Listen to this. He plays Solomon on a donkey,
and he rode Solomon into the city on a donkey.
Sounds a whole lot like what we're talking about in Matthew
21, doesn't it? The king is coming into the city
riding on a donkey, and his name is Jesus.
I wonder this morning how many of us, when it comes to truly
following Jesus, have convinced ourselves that if we just play
the part, if we just look the part, if we just tell other
people, hey, I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus.
If we convince other people that we really are of him, you know,
attend church every Sunday, give a little money in the giving
boxes, serve every time there's opportunity to serve, tell other
people, hey man, I love Jesus. We look the part, we play the
part, we act the part. But in reality, the words of
Matthew 723 are true of you. This morning Jesus says this.
And then I would have clear to them.
I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, just
like Adonijah. Just because you look the part
or play the part doesn't really mean that you are the part.
This morning, I pray that you would allow the Holy Spirit to
do a little soul searching this morning to make sure that you
are indeed the part, that you are indeed a son or daughter of
the Most High King. And if not, the good news is,
listen, your heart is still beating.
You still got breath in your lungs, right?
Praise the Lord that he hasn't allowed you to die yet, right?
But the Bible promises death is coming to all of us and we'll
stand before him in judgement If you haven't made Jesus Lord of
your life. And I beg you today to make
Jesus the Lord of your life. As we close this morning, one
last point I want to make. What you release to Jesus
becomes part of his redemptive plan.
So I talked a little while ago about Jesus riding into town on
a donkey. Well, why was Jesus riding into
town on a donkey anyway? Well, Jesus was riding into
Jerusalem because he was riding into town ultimately, ultimately
knowing that he was going to Galgoth, he was going to that
that heel that there was going to be a cross on the top of that
hill and Jesus was going to be nailed to that cross for your
sin and for my sin. Jesus was riding into Jerusalem
on this donkey for the very last time because he knew that he was
ultimately going to be betrayed and he was going to die on a
cross. The donkey in her cult became a
major part of the story of redemption.
God the Father was using this donkey and her cult to to bring
the Savior of the world into the city.
But what I want you to think about this morning is think
about the the owners of those donkeys.
Put yourself in those in their shoes for just a moment.
You wake up in the morning and you find that your donkeys have
been taken. Not just one, but both of your
donkeys have been taken. I'm sure there would have been
questions like hey, honey, did you do something with the
donkeys? No, baby, I, I I left them right
where you had them tied up. Well, they're not there,
Honeywell. I don't know, baby.
I didn't do it. You did it.
You probably put them somewhere else than where they usually go.
No, honey, I didn't. I didn't.
You know? And if you're like me, who am I
kidding? Jennifer and I never argue.
We never have a disagreement at all.
I usually say yes, Honey, you're right.
I put those in the wrong place. Let me go see if I can find
them. Right?
That's what I say, right? And that what you men, Mike, I
know what you say. Nancy's always right, isn't she?
Yeah. OK.
Well, I can imagine if if it's us, man, the frustration of
losing your keys, you know, initially you're like, man, I I
I'm pretty sure I hung those on that, on that hook.
I'm pretty sure that I left them on the counter.
I'm pretty sure that they were right here, right?
And as you start looking for them, that, that, that maybe
sense of awe and wonder about what happened to the keys might
turn into all right, I got to find my keys.
It's 9:15. I got to be there at 9:14,
right? You're running a little bit
late, right? You got to find your keys.
And so you start to panic. And then as you start to panic,
you start to get angry. Man, I know I put those keys
right here. Lord, help me find those keys.
I don't know what I did right. I can sure these owners of these
donkeys are like, man, somebody came and stole our donkeys in
the middle of the night, and I don't know what in the world is
going on. Why would people steal our
donkey? And then they see the procession
coming. They see the people taking off
their cloaks and throwing them on the ground, and they see the
King of kings and Lord of Lords come riding in on their donkey.
Can you imagine what it did to their spirit?
They're like, hey, man, that's my donkey.
Jesus. Hey, that's my donkey.
Look, Jesus is riding on my donkey.
Look at Jesus, man. He, he's riding on my donkey.
And for the rest of their life, Can you imagine what they would
have thought? The King of kings who died on
that cross, He used my donkey church.
Can I tell you this morning, Can you imagine what it's going to
be like when we get to heaven and standing around that throne?
There's people that Jesus used us to lead them to faith and
they're standing across from us and we look, hey, man, hey,
look, there's John. I worked with John and that
Bible study at work that I was leading, Jesus interceded John
on his way to hell. And John is around this throne
this morning because God used me, right?
Hey, hey, look, there's whoever that person is around this
throne today because I let my house be used for a Bible study.
And my neighbors saw what was going on and they said, hey,
man, what's goes on at your house on Monday nights at 6:00?
You have all these cars to come in.
But what's happening? We have a Bible study.
Would you mind you want to come? We just hang out for a little
while and that person comes to the to the Bible study and they
find Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
What Jesus borrows, he blesses for your good and ultimately for
his glory. I wasn't planning to say this
this morning, but I feel like I need to.
Several years ago I was pastor at First Baptist Church down in
Moreland, and God had somehow orchestrated the way that God
does. I didn't understand it.
Whatever. God wanted us to go to Ecuador
on mission trips. We were going down to reach the
Afro Ecuadorian people group. They, nobody that they knew of,
had ever come to faith in Christ from that people group.
About a year and a half after we started going down to Ecuador,
we were able to go out on the beach.
One day Johnny the missionary down there, took this lady out
into the water and for the first time ever, a baptized believer
from the Afro Ecuadorian people group was baptized right there
in the ocean. I stood there and wept like a
child thinking that the Afro Ecuadorian people group is going
to be represented around the throne from Revelation 17
because of us coming down here and doing missions.
And really on a bigger level than that, because God loved him
enough to send his son to die for them so that they could ask
him to be Lord of their life. And now that Afro, Dorian, the
Echo, whatever the people group that I can't pronounce is going
to be represented around the throne of grace in Revelation 17
because of our faithfulness and ultimately because of God's love
for us. Church, what God borrows, he
blesses for our good and for his glory.
So let me ask you this morning, knowing that Jesus often uses
what is already near to you and that Jesus already owns it all,
what is it in your life that Jesus wishes to borrow so he can
bless for your good and for his glory?
What is it in your life that Jesus wants to borrow?
And here's the real question, church.
Here's the real question. Will you release it?
Often times we think, no, that's
mine. I'm not going to release my
children, Lord, those are my children.
I'm not going to release my home, that's my home.
I'm not going to release my car. That's my car.
The difference is the difference between the ordinary and the
sacred is often just surrender. Often it's just surrender.
That donkey became part of the greatest moment in history, and
not because it was impressive, but simply because it was
available. Are you available this morning
at church? And I ask if you would just to
close your eyes. Let this next few moments just
be a moment that you do business with the Lord.
Perhaps you just need to sit there and pray Our I'm going to
invite our worship team back out here to lead us and one final
song of worship this morning. We're going to have a time of
response. But as we move into this time, I
want this time to be a moment of surrender.
I like to think of it like this as you have your eyes closed
this morning. But you know, often times we,
we, we come to God with the palms closed attitude.
Lord, I'll do this and this as long as you don't ask me to do
this. You know we have 3 mission trips
coming up. Maybe God is calling you this
morning to to go on one of those mission trips.
Yes, the time for sign ups have already passed, but I'm going to
tell you as the executive pastor this morning, I might get myself
in trouble. I hope Ben's not watching.
What if God wants you to go on a mission trip this year?
Instead of holding your palms closed, would you just open your
palms this morning as a yes gesture to the Lord?
Just say yes to him this morning.
Because what God borrows, He blesses it for your good and for
His honor. Father, I pray that you would
have your will and your way in this place this morning.
Father, I have no idea what you want to do with Riverbend Church
this morning and those who are seated before me, but God you
do. Father, long before the owners
of those donkeys took what they thought was possession of those
donkeys, you had a purpose and a plan in mind for those donkeys.
And that was for your Son to ride into Jerusalem for the last
time seated on that donkey. Father, you have great plans for
us. Plans, Lord, that that often
times we don't really even understand.
But God, I pray this morning that you would allow our yes to
be on the table, Lord, because you want to borrow whatever it
is you want to bless it to use for our good.
But ultimately, Lord, you want to use it for your glory.
Father, move in a way that only you can this morning.
Father, send the Holy Spirit to provide whatever this morning.
And Lord, have your will and your way in this place.
Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect, you
can head over to our website, Riverbendchurch Life.