A very warm welcome to the We Are Zion Sermon Podcast.
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess
our promise. This Palm Sunday we fix our eyes
on the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.
He isn't a weak and inadequate creature, but a mighty
conquering King who was the sufficient sacrifice for
everyone of us. We pray that you will worship
the Lamb and seek Him in greater measure as we enter Holy Week.
Hi Church, this is a joy and a privilege to be able to bring
God's word to you today. And for those of you who are
watching and listening, I pray that God will be able to speak
even as we celebrate Palm Sunday all across the world.
I believe we all get to welcome the King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords into our lives today. We get to worship Him for who he
is, that He is God over everything.
He is God over everyone. He is God of all.
And I pray that even as you listen into the sermon, that God
will be able to work in and through you.
Over the last couple of weeks in the season of Lent, we've been
meditating on Leviticus and seen Jesus in Leviticus.
And even as we've been looking at that, one of the evident
things that we've seen is there were glimpses that Jesus had
given his people and he came and fulfilled it once for all.
And so even as we go into this Holy Week, which they call
between Palm Sunday to Easter, I believe we need to be waiting
for God to do something in our lives every year.
You know, it's something pivotal that God does.
Two years back on Palm Sunday is when we moved into this hall.
And every year I've been praying and asking God, God, let not
just Easter be an other passing day where we remember you
resurrected, but may that evidence of that power be
working in and through US. And so even today, as we just
partake of Palm Sunday and see what God is calling us to do,
I've titled my sermon today called Worthy is the Lamb.
Worthy is the Lamb. And you might be like Geshum,
the palamsandi is not about the lamb, it's about the donkey.
I believe the narrative of how Jesus entered, yes, was
important, but today He is the lamp of God seated on the
throne, and he is worthy. He is worthy, worthy of
everything that we have. There's nothing you can say He's
not worthy of this. He's worthy of everything.
And so even today as we meditate, I just want to go back
to that passage of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem
from Matthew chapter 21. As we read that, let's envision
what the people around him would have felt of this Messiah
walking into Jerusalem. The disciples went and did as
Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the
colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others
cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed
shouted Hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the
highest heaven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was stirred and asked, Who is this?
The crowds answered, This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth
in Galilee. One of the things that we see is
there was miracles that happened before and then Jesus was
entering into Jerusalem. He was getting his disciples
prepared, saying this is where I'm going to lay down my life,
you know, and all these things as they're happening in
preparation, it's evident that they missed out on who Jesus
was. Jesus was their Messiah.
Jesus was what they were waiting for.
The form didn't match who he was.
The very entry didn't match who they wanted him to be.
And so today, as we are all here today in 2025, seated and
listening, my prayer is, is Jesus real to us or is he
another passing prophet that's just going by today as they
missed out. They missed out on who?
They missed out on the King of Kings.
They missed out on the person who was called, who was sent
down to earth to be one with mankind who would redeem us from
all our sins. Yet they did not receive him.
They quickly turned in a week's time.
They quickly turned to asking the person who would fight for
their freedom then and there. And so today the question is,
what is our worship today looking like?
Because if the if we have to say worthy is the Lamb of God, it
comes down to a posture of worship today.
Are we just so bound by what our outward worship is, or are we
also really concerned of what our inward worship is like?
Because that's where when our inward worship matches our
outward worship, it will transform us and make us see
things differently. I want to read from John chapter
1, verses 10:50. This is from the message version
and this is what it says. He, that is Jesus Christ was in
the world, and though the world was made through him, the world
did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His
own, that which belonged to Him, His world, His creation, His
possession, and those who are His own, His very own people.
The Jewish nation did not receive and welcomed Him today.
This verse as I read can be very true.
As I was meditating on this, I was reminded His very own
creation, everything that He's created, everything that
belonged to Him, His possession, everything.
All of us. Yet we did not recognize Him.
How bad is that? Today you and I are in that same
place. Are we not recognizing God?
Because if we don't recognize Him, we will give up when tough
times come. And mind you, as followers of
Christ, tough times will come. That's what the early church
kept stressing on. Hold on to your faith.
Today. You and I are in that same place
where suffering will come, turmoil will come, things will
topple. But are we ready to worship
Jesus for who He is? Do we see Him as a Redeemer?
Do we see Him as our edema, as we see in Leviticus time and
again? It just became an outward
worship. Everything that they did was so
talked about and may do of the outside that they missed inside.
And the New Testament is all about what happens in the inside
because when it gets fixed in the inside, the outward changes
because the inside is fixed. And so today as we look into
these aspects, I want to come to a place where we realize the
Lamb of God is everything to us. There are glimpses of the Lamb
of God. In fact, as I take you across in
this sermon, I want to give what it looked like in the Old
Testament. What did it look like in the New
Testament? What did it look like for us
when we see him face to face? I want to read from John chapter
1, verses 29 to 34. And this is where John the
Baptist testifies about who Jesus is.
A John the Baptist is the cousin of Jesus, and this is what he
says. The next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. As we read this, we see John
emphasizing who Jesus was. Mind you, John the Baptist was
the one who was sent ahead of Jesus to go prepare the way.
What was he preparing? He was preparing the people to
say, people, would you start looking at yourselves?
You say you're doing sacrifices, you say you're doing this, but
your heart is not there. You're just doing it for the
outward appearances. And there was this nature that
was very much ingrained, intertwined with people that he
was calling them, that you need to let go of this.
And the more I meditated, I realized it's one of our very
own nature that we all struggle with, irrespective of what age
you're living in. And that stubbornness, that
stubbornness that my pursuits are important than his pursuits.
My affections are important than his affections.
My love is more important than what God's love is.
And so today can we move? He was saying, prepare.
I'm come here to prepare the way of the Lord.
What is it to move stubborn hearts to a place of receiving
Jesus as the true Saviour of the world today?
What is our stubbornness causing us to do?
It's stubbornness in this day and age in 2025, All my life in
fact, has made me get what I want, how I want it, when I want
it. And so today I want you to come
to a place and see where Lord, am I missing it out?
Is my stubbornness not causing me to see You for who you are?
He is the Lamb of God. He is the Redeemer.
He is wanting. Is my stubbornness causing me to
just constrict my idea of worship?
Is my stubbornness causing me to derail some of the promises that
were meant for me because I am struggling to believe with it?
Today the people of Israel welcomed them with cloaks on
their ground, palm leaves in their hand.
But your heart's missed welcoming Him.
Hearts missed welcoming him. Today, as we meditate on the
Lamb of God, are our hearts open to receive Him as God and
Saviour of our life? One of the things we read from
Leviticus chapter 4 about the Lamb is the fact that there was
innocence with regard to the Lamb.
When you read from Leviticus 432 to 35, this is what it says.
If someone brings a lamb as their sin offering, they have to
bring a female without defect. They have to lay their hand on
the head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where
the burnt offering is slaughtered.
Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering
with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of the
burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of
the altar. They shall remove all the fat
just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship
offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of
the food offering presented to the Lord.
In this way, the priest will make atonement for them for the
sin they have committed and they will be forgiven.
Today Jesus has come and because we don't go through this
gruesome process of seeing blood being spilt, innocent blood
being spilt, of seeing it being put there on our behalf, we take
the after effects of sin. Likely we say, you know what,
I'm forgiven and I move on and I commit that same signal again.
God is saying if we are worshipping Him, we won't take
His grace for granted, we won't take His forgiveness for
granted. We would participate in this
fully. We would participate in this
holy. We would participate in this and
see Him bring wholeness to our lives today.
What is our eyes getting so caught up in?
We are such bound by culture. We are so bound by what we'll
miss out here that we are stubborn like God.
I can't miss out on this. I'll become irrelevant.
I things won't make I'll, I'll, I'll be cut out of this chase.
I can't climb the corporate letter, but God saying, if I am
the one you're worshipping, don't I hold the future in your
hands. And I want to speak this to some
of you who are probably in this chase and you're feeling tired,
worn out, literally on the words of being shred and giving up.
Jesus is saying I'm here to give you rest.
I hold your future in your hands.
Would you come and submit and yield to me?
There are three things I want us to think about with regard to
the lamp of God. The first thing is, is the lamp
of God less attractive to us? Is the lamp of God less
attractive to us? Is that the reason why I am
missing out on God? Because there are many other
things that are attractive. Mind you, we're living in a day
and age where man is constantly in this marketing frenzy, trying
to make everything attractive to us.
The food that we eat, the things that we wear, the things that we
have to do, the places we need to go, everything looks
attractive. But God's asking us, am I not
attractive enough for you that you may just be with me?
Isaiah chapter 53, verses 7 to 9, This is what it says.
He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word.
And like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep
being sheared, he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried and he was led off.
And did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without the thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody
for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with the rich man, even though he'd never
hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.
As we read this, we're reminded this was prophesied of who Jesus
was. What happened because they
didn't find it attractive enough.
We too can be people like that. When Jesus went into the
synagogue and when he read the scriptures and said this is
fulfilled, they failed to see it.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem, they missed seeing who their
Redeemer was. Today, in 2025, we too can miss
seeing a Redeemer because he's not packaged attractive enough
for us. He's not looking at.
It might look like an ordinary thing that's going by.
It might look like an ordinary prayer meeting.
It might look like an ordinary sermon.
It might look like an ordinary worship.
But it's in that grind that God changes us in the inside.
It's in that in that space, he comes as a Redeemer to the
people. Isaiah was talking at that time.
It was a prophecy. They were waiting expectantly,
but at the when Jesus came, they missed out on the person who was
prophesied. And so today our worship stems
from this place where we are not moving from places to places
because of the attraction of worship.
We are moving because this is where God is.
This is where we stay. Our worship stems from what He
has done. What did he do?
He died on the cross, as Isaiah said.
He was bruised, He was broken, He was humiliated, justice was
not given. He was crushed for our
inequities. That's where our worship stems
out of, from ultimate obedience He had when he was on this
earth. And that's where our worship
comes from to say God, you who came in human form submitted to
the will of the Father, May I submit to you.
A lot of us are worshipping him because we have A to do list to
be done. There is a motive.
But today if we have to come to a place of worshipping him, he's
bigger than your To Do List. He's bigger than the list that
you have for your future. He's bigger because that's agree
that our list will keep adding on.
If you're single, you're like, I want a good spouse.
The spouse comes in, Oh, I want a good marriage.
The marriage happens. Oh God, I want to pray thee.
Oh, I need to settle this or I need to travel.
The list will keep adding on, but word which we read
constantly says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and
forever. He's all-encompassing.
So if we are not there with Him right now, we will miss out on
who He is. What does this mean for us
today? What does the world have to say
today to us in 2025? If you have to become an
attractive person, it says with regard in 2025.
I just, you know, did a Gemini of this and checked your face
should have a should smile often.
You should stay hydrated. You should create a skin care
routine. You should start mewing for
jawline. Apparently, if you have a good
jawline, that's a big thing today.
What does the world have to say about 2025?
It says expect a blend of maximalism, bold colours,
ethereal aesthetics in fashion and beauty with data-driven
skills and a focus on global issues shaping this year.
If we are attracted to Jesus, we will go by what the world
dictates because attraction is always on the outside.
Attraction. For those of you who are in the
beauty side of things, realize that you know to be attractive,
you put on make up. But the minute you remove that
make up, it shows the real and I think we have subconsciously
cultivated this narrative that that is true beauty.
But the God saying no, I want the real you.
I want the real you. He's come for the real us today.
What is freedom If Lamb of God is not evident in our worship,
if he's not seen his sacrifices, is not made known to us, we will
be worshipping because God. I don't feel anxious anymore.
But the truth is we're living in a world where it will be driven
by anxiety. We have to be overcomers today.
Today, which means we realize the Lamb of God is in with me
and I'll take that next step. I'll take that next step.
What is our response to all of this?
Yes, attraction is not what will keep us close to Jesus.
It says there that we'll need to dwell with him, DWELL, dwell
with him. Which means irrespective of
whether I get anything from you or not, God, I'm dwelling with
you, I'm dwelling with you. I'm comfortable being with You.
I'm comfortable being in Your presence.
Psalm 27, verses 4 to 6. One thing I ask from the Lord.
This only do I seek, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord
all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord, and
to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble He
will keep me safe in His dwelling.
He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent and set me
high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted
about the enemies who surround me at His sacred tent.
I will sacrifice with shouts of joy.
I will sing and make music to the Lord.
So today what does this this entire verse talk about dwelling
in the House of the Lord Does dwelling in the House of the
Lord mean I don't work, I just sit by I just go through life.
No dwelling in the House of the Lord helps you understand God is
above everything. Dwelling in the House of the
Lord knows that the beginning and the end.
God controls everything. Dwell in the House of the Lord
is He knows what is best for me, and I get to enjoy the plan and
the will that He has for me because I'm dwelling in the
House of Lord. Dwelling in the House of the
Lord is not a seasonal listening to His Word, but a daily
meditating on His word. It's not a seasonal worship, but
a daily worship. It's not a seasonal surrender
but a daily surrender. In fact, when you read in Psalm
27 verse one, it talks about that light and in the passion it
beautifully says Yahweh is my revelation light and the source
of my salvation here. No one, I'll never turn back and
run for you. Yahweh surround me and protect
me and this word revelation light caught my attention
because he has to be everything for us.
When I dwell in the House of the Lord, suddenly when I'm giving
everything to Jesus, what happens?
I'm not attracted to him, but because I'm staying there, I'm
allowing him to speak to me. His revelation light puts.
Understanding into what my plan and purpose is right now.
His revelation right tells me what I'm going through right
now. His revelation right tells me
these are the skeletons that I need to address.
These are the demonic forces that are acting against me.
These are the things that I pull down in the name of Jesus.
That is what happens when I dwell in the House of the Lord.
That doesn't come from a place of attraction.
What happens when attraction emotions are heightened?
You make choices emotionally. You're not able to think
clearly. You're not able to think long
term, would think surface. There are only surface level
issues because when the rubber hits the road is when you start
feeling the pleasure of anything that you're attracted to.
But when Jesus, when you start dwelling with him, he cleans us
inside out. He takes the scalpel, He starts
cutting off all those extra chunks that have happened
because of bruises, of issues of growing up, things that I've
been struggling with, all that starts taking shape and God
cleans it inside out. John chapter one verse 5 says
the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
overcome it. Praise God, Amen.
That is the promise that we have when his light comes, darkness
cannot overcome it. However dark the room is, if
there's a small hole where your light can shine through, where
Jesus can shine his light through you, he will come
through. And so today, no matter of
darkness should cause you to pull back, but rather invite him
in. I was having a conversation with
a friend a couple of days back and he was eventually into this
new city to do certain things. And in the midst of everything
he kept saying God. And I'm just doing this because
I can see God calling me to do this.
And many a times that is all that we have with us.
That is all that we have, that small light that is there.
And as we run towards it, everything starts becoming
brighter. As we run towards it, everything
starts clearing up. As we run towards it, darkness
starts moving away. So the first thing we saw is to
combat an attraction is to dwell.
The second thing is the lamp. Is the lamp of God less integral
to us today? The when we look at Palm Sunday,
Jesus coming in as the Messiah was the need of the earth.
They wanted freedom from the Romans, but was that the
integral part of being of Jesus actually coming in?
They missed out entirely. And I believe a lot of us many
at times don't go to the integral part as to what God is
doing in and through us. What is our worship towards God?
Because if our end outcome is something we're just looking at
him as a problem solver. But God's saying, no, I want you
to rise above, rise above. Because what happens is doubt
gets set in. Things that have to be done out
of the sincerity of the heart become mechanical.
And then suddenly faith just becomes mechanical.
And this is what Jesus came to talk to.
He confronted the Pharisees about that.
In fact, when we see John the Baptist, the Pharisees came and
said, who are you doing this for?
Why are you doing this? Anything that took attention
away from them, they questioned. They missed out on who Jesus
was. And today that is where the
Spirit of God will work in and through us.
If we are doing certain things mechanical, He will come in and
move us to a place to be authentic so that we'll be able
to do what He's calling us to do.
Even as we read from Matthew chapter 23, there are a couple
of things I wanted to highlight. And many a times we remove the
integral part of who Jesus is. He came to seek, save and the
lost and bring salvation to mankind and then move us to a
place of living in obedience according to His will so that we
will be able to see Him face to face.
But the beauty we have all created, we do these mechanical
things and eventually what happens, we have a Pharisees and
a Sadducees attitude that sets in.
We suddenly are becoming like the east where we're like, no,
this is how it is done. This is how we need to move to a
place of repentance to say, Lord, I want to keep the main
things main. Matthew 23 we see in verse 13,
it's he talks to the Pharisees. You shut the door of the
Kingdom. You don't allow anyone to.
You don't allow anyone to enter in.
You travel over land and see to win a single person, and when
you succeed, you make him twice as bound.
You don't give him the freedom to live his faith out.
He says you're like blind guys. If anyone swears anything by the
temple, it means nothing, but if they swear by the gold of the
temple, it means something. He moves on to the place that
they've defiled, the name of God.
Nothing in the name of God is taken serious, but only
importance is given is to money, he says.
Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold
sacred to many? The money of that time became
important. You can see all these patterns
trickle down all these hundreds of years.
Even today this is something that has become so important
that we missed out on the lamp of God because is He the one
who's important to us? For those of you who give a
tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin, but you've neglected
the most important matters of the law, which is justice, mercy
and faithfulness. In fact, in one stage he says
you give all your tithes, but you fail to look after your very
own parents, He says, and he condemns them.
He says you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside
you're full of greed and self indulgence.
You're like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful in the
outside, but in the inside you're full of bones of the dead
and everything unclean. On the outside you appear
righteous, but in the inside you're full of hypocrisy and
wickedness. As Jesus mentioned this, he was
walking into Jerusalem towards this, towards a temple which
valued gold more than the temple and the sanctity in itself.
That's why he went and turned the tables over.
If there's one thing we'll have to understand is we are living
for the outside versus we are not living from the inside.
And I pray that if the Lamb of God is an integral part of our
faith, we will live from the inside.
We won't live for the outside. The law always dealt with the
actions of the art. And so when we committed sin, we
went, but Jesus when he came, he took it a further.
He said, even when you start conceiving all this, you will
be, you can approach me because I'm ready to deal with the heart
issue. And that's what is very
important for us to develop a healthy understanding of moving
towards God, towards receiving His favour and grace because we
need Him to work in and through our heart issues.
In and through our heart issues, He came so that He will save us
from the mess that's happening in the inside of us.
Because the outworking of the mess is what causes us to sin.
And He wants to deal with that. He wants to take every route
that we are born into sin out and set us free once and for
all. When John sees Jesus and when he
says this is the lamp of God in verse 29, he says the next day
John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look the lamp of God
who takes away the sin of the world.
This is the one I meant when I said a man who comes after me
has surpassed me because he was before me.
I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with
baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.
Then John gave this testimony. I saw the Spirit come down from
heaven as a dove and remain on him.
And I myself did not know him. But the one who sent me to
baptize with water told me, The man on whom you see the Spirit
come down and remain is the one who'll baptize with the Holy
Spirit. I have seen and I testify that
this is God's chosen 1. He was an integral part of God's
plan. He was an integral part of
humanity's plan. He's an integral part of my own
life. And So what is that response
today? Yes, he should be integral.
So which means I have to give myself to the Holy Spirit who
will renew me every day, renew me every day.
If my heart has to change, it happens only when there is
renewal every day. Not renewable when the altar
call happens, not renewable when I have this big event and then I
decide that's where no renewal happens every day.
A friend of mine keeps telling this phrase.
I ask him how things are going. He says one day at a time.
And I remember that phrase catching on to me.
And God was reminding me As a follower of you, as a Jesus
follower, can I be renewed one day at a time?
One day at a time? What is God changing my thought
process today? Because that's very important
because what we're fighting is not in the natural, it's in the
spiritual. What you're fighting is not the
outworking of what the enemy is doing, but it's with those
principalities of darkness. In Two Corinthians chapter 10
versus 3 to 4, this is what it says.
For although we live in natural limb, we don't wage a military
campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to
achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons
are energized with divine part effectively dismantle the
defenses behind which people hide.
We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and
breakthrough every arrogant attitude that is raised up in
defiance of the true knowledge of God.
We capture the prisoners of war every we thought and insist that
it bow down in obedience to the anointed 1 Can I repeat that
again? We capture the prisoners of war
every thought and insist that it bow down in obedience to the
anointed one. Since we are armed with such
dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion
as soon as you choose. Complete obedience, a response
to renewal by the Holy Spirit is that we have dynamic weaponry
and that dynamic weaponry will come will be activated when
there's complete obedience. When there's complete obedience,
what does it say? When I read that verse again,
what did it say? Take every prisoner of what
every captive thought and submit it.
Bring it into a understanding that you are a defeated for you
have to submit to the anointed one to the Lamb of God.
And So what is this dynamic weaponry?
So when you go, when you see an, a soldier going into a, a
battlefield, he's going with a particular weapon to target an
enemy. When he has that weapon, he can
target it. But what if the enemy is of is
camouflaging and is looking different?
He can't go with that weaponry. But the Holy Spirit is saying
when you're waging war with my help, you have dynamic weaponry,
which means it will change to how the enemy looks.
It'll change. A lot of us are trying to beat
anxiety by staying in closed doors and being bound.
But you can only beat anxiety with the help of the Holy Spirit
from a place of being an overcomer.
You have to rise up. That is where faith kicks in.
That's when everyday obedience, surrender and dependency happen.
That's what renewal is about. Renewal is basically obedience.
Lord, I surrender to you now. I'm dependent on you.
So as we do this, I pray the
lamp of God will become an integral part for us.
He won't just be an other isolated thing far off, but the
dynamic weaponry will be so active in us.
We are all foot soldiers in His Kingdom.
We all have our battles, but far too long we're trying to buy
fight those battles with the wrong weapons.
I pray that God will give us the grace and the strength to rise
up. The third thing we see is, and
the question which I want to give lay in front of you is, is
the lamp of God less eternal to us?
Is he less eternal to us because many a times with Jesus coming
with us, celebrating his birth, reminder after reminder, is
eternity a far off thought or is it less important to us?
The movie look at the Book of Revelation.
In fact, yesterday when we prayed here during our open
heavens, we had repented of what the seven churches that were
mentioned in Revelation talked were talked about of what their
heart positions where. And today even as I'm mentioning
some of that, I want to come to a place.
Are we complacent? Are we OK with status quo?
Have you come to a place where we abandoned our love for
Christ? Have you come to a place where
we are unable to remain faithful because of the amount of
persecution and struggles that are happening?
Are we compromising on our beliefs because we think you
know what God, the culture is so important, I might miss out on
it. Are we following false prophets,
people who speak what our itching ears want to hear?
Are we spiritually that they're like God?
You know what? We've been part of the system.
We know the game. We know.
Are we patiently enduring everything and giving up hope?
Today I want to be encouraged. Our church, I want to encourage
you all. May we live with such a fire
that is fanning a flame, such fire that's fanning him.
Because I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to be like that,
where we come expected every week after week because eternity
is set. We are going to be spending
eternity with Him. For all those who've confessed
Jesus as Lord and Savior, who believed with their heart,
who've confessed with their mouth and acknowledge Him as
Lord and Savior will spend eternity with him.
But if we don't have that as our ultimate goal, we will be
chasing many other things. Revelation chapter 5 verses 5 to
7 says this. And I saw in the right hand of
him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the
back seal with 7 seals. Then I saw a strong Angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll
and to lose it's seals. And no one in heaven or on earth
or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at
it. So I wept much, because no one
was found worthy to open and read the scroll and to look at
it. But one of the elders said to
me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of
Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and
to lose its seven seals. And I looked and behold, in the
midst on the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in
the midst of the elders, to the Lamb, as though it had been
slain, having 7 horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
spirits of God, sent into all the earth.
Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand and of him
who sat on the throne. Now when you had taken the
scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell
down before the Lamb, each having a harp and a golden bowl
full of incense, which are the prayers of the Saints.
And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take
the scroll and to open its seals.
For you are slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood
out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have
made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the
earth. Then I looked, and I heard the
voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 * 10,000, and
thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the
Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honour and glory and power and blessing, and
every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them. And I heard blessing and honour
and glory and power be unto him who sits on the throne, and unto
the Lamb forever and ever. I don't know about you, but when
I read this, I'm always amazed that I get to be seeing this.
He was the Lion of Judah. He is the Lion of Judah.
We are going to worship the Lion of Judah.
He is from the root of David. He prevailed.
Eternity is real. Don't move.
Let not people, let not culture, let not people move you to a
place of thinking. You know what eternity is not we
what we do. Eternity is real.
Our living of life will set us up for eternity.
I don't want to move my faith to a place where I've lost my first
love. That I will be end up in
eternity. No, or when I've been
complacent. I don't want to live lives where
I've given up on my faith 20-30 years later when it doesn't make
sense now. I want to keep eternity as my
end goal. That is what I live for.
That is what I see. That is who I worship.
So if I am unable to worship today amongst other people,
amongst people from different tribe, language and tongue, if
I'm unable to see that, how will I worship in heaven?
Because all of creation will be worshipping them, not just a
select but all of creation. As I conclude, I want to ask us
today, what is our response? Because today what is not
eternal is temporal and the needs of temporal are very
heavy. The needs for temporal are very
heavy. But we need to know what is what
is it that God wants us to keep our eyes on the eternal?
What is a response like? As we saw, we have to be renewed
everyday is to be expectant. And that comes when the Holy
Spirit is in and through our lives, is working in and through
our lives. It's part of our lives.
You know, there's a parable that Jesus talked about Matthew in
Matthew 25, the parables of 10 virgins.
And the story goes like this, where ten of them are waiting to
see the bridegroom. Five of them calls foolish, five
of them are wise. They all end up there and
they're waiting. And as they're waiting through
the day, their lamb gets exhausted.
The they sleep, the five who are wise have brought extra oil with
them. They refill, they're ready, and
then they're able to go and be with the bridegroom when he
comes. But as the remaining 5 go in
search of oil and they miss out and then they go and knock and
the bridegroom says, we can't allow you and go away.
I don't even know you. And the reason why I'm taking
this parable is because a lot of us are like the 10.
We are waiting. We are waiting.
Some waited without that oil, some waited with extra oil, and
I believe as we wait with that extra oil, it'll pay off.
The Greek word for that oil is Elion, and it's a spiritual
meaning of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit?
He does is consecrates us. When He works inside out, what
does He do? He consecrates us, He sets us
apart. In fact, the entire of last year
we saw that was our theme. He sets us apart.
So he set these 5 apart. What did he set them apart?
He set them apart. Their thought and their word and
their action and the way they lived.
And so today as you're waiting there, as you wait there, maybe
be consecrated. When I allow the Holy Spirit to
consecrate my everyday, He works in me, He does not he, it's not
like he one day empties of my entire house.
No, He takes bits and pieces. He takes OK anger is an issue,
let's work on this for the next 6 months.
And he tears that slowly by slowly and that's this painful
process. Yet it's a liberating process.
The tears are hurtful but yet He brings healing into it.
What happens as he does that? My sin and my wounding gets
healed. I'm assured that Jesus is the
healer and I start living out a healed life which means I live
by what the Holy Spirit says and dictates.
So in my anger if my response is something I depend of it because
that's not the working of the Holy Spirit and I become alert
to what he's doing. I just want to read a a a a
quote which I came across and it says I do not consecrate myself
to be a missionary or a preacher.
I consecrate myself to God to do His will where I am, be it in
school, office or kitchen, or wherever He may in His wisdom
send me today. If eternal is a focus, He will
consecrate us everywhere, anywhere, for anything.
Consecration. As the mayor says, this
consecration is only possible when we give up on our will
about everything, about everything.
So as we wait today, we are expecting for what?
For the Holy Spirit to do his work because when he
consecrates, it brings healing and when you're poured out,
you're healing to the nation's. I pray that I mean, Isaiah pose
these three questions. Is it attractive?
Is it integral? Is it eternal?
May our responses be one that we're able to dwell with him,
may be able to experience his renewal everyday, and may be
expectant to see Jesus face to face because it's in that
consecration we realize God is very real to us.
That day will come and we will be able to worship him in all
honesty, in the spirit and truth across all nations, tribe and
tongue and say be glorified, be honoured.
Church, can I pray with you that as you receive and celebrate
Palm Sunday today, you will receive the King of kings into
your lives. You'll receive the Lord of Lords
into your lives. He won't just be someone who
passes by, but he'll be everything for you.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will be
your portion fully. Let's pray our loving heavenly
Father, Lord, we thank you Lord for this time.
I pray that Lord, even as we heard your word made fall into
the good portions of our heart made work.
I pray Holy Spirit, for those of us who've been in this phase of
attraction, maybe move to a place of dwelling.
Lord, learn to abide with you no matter what.
I pray Lord for those Lord who have not made you an integral
part, who made you an add on and who Lord been moving here and
there. Lord Jesus, keeping so many
things important. I pray we'll move to a place
where we'll allow you that to be the one who renews us every day
to see us in everything. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord, for
those of us who have not lived with that eternal perspective,
that we worship a God who in turn, in the final, we'll be
worshipping him with all of creation.
I pray our expectancy will change.
We will move to a place of learning to be consecrated by
the Holy Spirit. Lord, we will learn to wait
well. Like those five virgins who
waited with the Holy Spirit, we will wait well so we'll be able
to enter into the doorway of life.
Be with us. I pray Your blood covering over
each and everyone, Your protection, Your hand of grace
upon everyone, strengthen everyone.
I pray everyone will experience you more than ever before.
They'll see your Kingdom come, Your will be done.
In and through their lives, Lord, be glorified, honored and
praised. I pray that Lord, your peace
will abound in their lives. And as we celebrate this Holy
Week, I pray supernatural things will start working in and
through our lives. Lord, be glorified.
Be honored. In your most holy name we pray,
Amen. Amen.
Pray as you step out this week, I pray.
Let's believe and pray and wait expectantly for those of you
believing and praying for a miracle.
Hold on. We are praying that this Good
Friday, Easter, something remarkable will happen.
God will move through because we believe the supernatural has to
be evident here so that He's glorified.
The word of our testimony brings many to the saving knowledge of
Him. I pray His protection and peace.
O you have a blessed week. God bless you all.
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