Intro: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Alfredo Ramos: One of the great challenges of life, I think, is trying to live up to expectations. Whether they're expectations we place on ourselves, for the kind of person we wanna be, or the life we think we should live, they're hard to live up to. I think about our young kids today and the enormous amount of expectations that are on from their own parents, from their friends. Think about young adults and the expectations they have on themselves for the direction they should know for their life right now. Or, maybe you are a young adult and you have a parent who still from time to time will ask you if there's anything in your life that smells remotely like a professional thing happening.
Right? Maybe for many of you, like me, you're in a serious relationship. You're married. There's expectations in marriage. Sometimes those are unspoken expectations, not that I'm speaking from experience.
But those can become very problematic. And honestly, that's that's a sermon all in itself. Alright? But my point is this, though. There's not a single relationship in your life right now that doesn't have a set of expectations that you operate with.
This is especially true when it comes to our relationship with God. And whether we can identify them or not, we all have expectations of God, who we think he is and what we think he should do. And oftentimes, those expectations have come from our family of origin, our religious background, and even culture to some degree has shaped who we think God is and what we think he should do in our lives. And so the question then becomes, what do you and I do when God does not meet our expectations? When you've been asking for a miracle and he hasn't delivered, He doesn't meet the expectation because these often sting even more so when you and I find ourselves in situations where we are powerless and we can't control what's happening to us.
And we all know what this is like. Regardless of who you are, you know what it's like to be in a situation in your life in which you have zero power or control over what is happening. You're sitting in traffic. Zero power over the situation. There's not a thing you can do in your car to make those cars inch further and faster ahead of you.
In work, some of you right now probably feel, like, powerless in your jobs. And you feel underappreciated, unseen, unheard. Maybe even in your marriage right now, some of you are in a place where you you feel like you have zero resources to fix what needs to happen. You are powerless in your situation. And so my question is this.
When you are faced with a problem beyond your power to control, what do you do? Like where do you run? How do you respond? Especially when you feel like God should have met you in that moment. You had an expectation on God.
Do something, Lord. You know, if you're familiar with AA, their first step in their program is confessing these words that I think are so important for us. They say this. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives have become unmanageable. It's a good word.
And now maybe here today and your issue isn't alcohol, but I would imagine you could fill in that blank with something else. So how would you do it? We admitted that we were powerless over blank and that our lives had become unmanageable. How would you fill in the blank right now? One thought for me comes to mind as sugar.
I've admitted that I'm powerless over sugar, that my life has become unmanageable. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I move from something that is savory and salty to something that is sweet. Every single time, I need I just need sugar. Can I get a witness to anyone?
You guys are all healthy in here. Dead quiet sugar. Maybe you're riding your smartphone. We admitted that we were powerless over our smartphones and that our lives have become unmanageable. Maybe if you're, parents, we admitted that we are powerless over the choices of our children and our lives have become unmanageable.
We admitted that we are powerless over this addictive habit, and our lives have become unmanageable right now. Or we admitted that we were powerless over the anxiety we face Hallelujah. And our lives have become unmanageable. You see, I'm regularly as a pastor in conversations with people in church who are confronted with the reality that they are in a situation in which they are powerless over the circumstances. And you know what they need?
They need a miracle of god. Amen. They need an intervention. They need god to break through the natural order of their lives and to make it right. Amen.
They need god to show up. And I say all that because today is Palm Sunday, a day in which millions of Christians gather to remember the final week of Jesus' life. In other words, you can think of Palm Sunday as kind of the the beginning of the end for Jesus. And it's a day in which we remember Jesus actually showed up. More than that, he showed up to people who were powerless, wanting him to be there.
But here's the tragic irony. They missed the miracle right in front of them because it came in a way that they were not expecting at all. And that tragic formula that we'll see in the story today, I think, is one that very much shapes our lives too when it comes to unmet expectations with God. And here's the formula. Situations we are powerless in plus unmet expectations of God equals missing the miracle of Jesus right in front of us.
That's what happens. And so we need this word today so we can see where God is actually at work in our lives. And so, with that said, I'm gonna ask that if you are willing and able, wherever you're watching this, that you would stand with us for the reading of God's word. This story of Jesus riding in comes to us from Matthew chapter 21. Matthew writes these words.
As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethpage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent 2 of them on ahead. Go into the village over there, he said. As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, the lord needs them, and he will immediately let you take them. It's a great line. Probably won't work in the rest of our lives, but this took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, tell the people of Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you. He is humble riding on a donkey riding on a donkey's colt. The 2 disciples did as Jesus commanded.
They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt and he sat on it. Now most of the crowds spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession and the people all around him were shouting, praise god for the son of David. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the lord. Praise God in highest heaven.
The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. Who is this? They asked. And the crowds replied, this is Jesus. It's Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we have gathered here today on Palm Sunday, we ask now that from your word you would speak to us because we know that you have gathered here too. And so as Jesus said, would you give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might receive all that you have for us in your son? We pray these things in his name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. You guys can be seated.
Intro: Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today at Sandals Church online. Before we continue on in the message, I just wanna take a moment to invite you. If you'd like to be a part of the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church, we would love to invite you to go to give.sc right now. For now, let's hop into the message with pastor Freda Ramos.
Alfredo Ramos: What a scene we just read from this moment where Jesus arrives into Jerusalem. Now to understand what's going on, some context would be helpful. First of all, keep in mind that, the Jews are celebrating what's referred to as Passover. Those of you who know the Bible might know that during Passover, Jews come together every year. 100 of thousands of them gather to pharaoh.
He liberated them. He set them free. And so every year they gather. I mean, 100 of 1000 of them. This would have been like a scene from, New York City on New Year's Eve.
So many people packed in a central location. Imagine that for a second. They've all gathered to remember the miracles of the past, but, listen, to also anticipate the miracle of the present. Like you and I, we're here not just remembering what Jesus has done in the past, but what we want to see him do now in the present. Okay.
And that's what this story is about. Palm Sunday can be viewed in a handful of ways, but at its core, it's about how, listen, we can actually miss out on the miracle of Jesus because he actually showed up Yeah. But they weren't ready for it. They they they they weren't ready to see the way that god was actually going to be working in their life. And all these people were there gathered, excited to see, like, who who is this?
Right? There's quite the stir here. And because you gotta remember, they're they're not just celebrating, you know, the pharaoh that was once their oppressor. Now they got a new one in Rome, and so they need that miracle again. So there's this anticipation that what they're celebrating will once again happen.
But, again, the sad irony here is that they miss the miracle right in front of them. The very one that they had hoped for comes riding in, and they don't fully get it. They missed it. And I think that's the tragedy that so many of us miss as well. And so, as we think about this story, there's a few observations I wanna make as we think about what happens when we miss the miracle of Jesus.
The first is this. I miss out on the miracle of Jesus when I expect God to use his power in a way that makes sense to me. Amen. In a way that makes sense to me. Notice from the story, Matthew writes, look.
Your king is coming. Your king is coming. Here he is. He's humble riding on a donkey. Why is Jesus on a donkey?
There's probably a lot of moments through the gospel where, like, why is Jesus doing this? Spit on the mud. He's walking around. Why is He doing this? 2 things are happening.
1st, Matthew makes it real clear. He's fulfilling prophecy, referring back to the Old Testament book in Zechariah when we're told that Israel's future king, the the final king, the messiah, the one who would indeed liberate everyone, the world, he would in fact ride in on a donkey. The second thing, though, that he's doing, I think, is challenging our understanding of god's power. You see, when he rides in on a donkey, he is showing us what kind of messiah he actually is going to be. Because you gotta keep in mind, Israel's been conquered before.
100 of years before Jesus, Alexander the Great did that same strolling, had the same procession, and he came in on a war horse, a chariot, as almost to to say this is the kind of power I have as king. And if you get in my way, this is the kind of power that you're going to have to deal with. He's sending a message to everybody. But Jesus arrives on a donkey, a slow, unglamorous animal. Not only that, the colt is next to it.
So this is a young talk. It's never been written before. Other gospel accounts will say it's never been written before. It's got the baby next to it. It's quite possible Jesus' feet are dragging on the ground like a little kid trying to get up on your dog.
Right? This is this is quite the scene. Imagine for a second, like, on inauguration day, the president of the United States at the end of this year, lord help us all, arrives in DC on a scooter. What kind of message do you think that sends to the watching world? The most powerful person in the world rides on a scooter?
It's confusing. But what Jesus is doing here, we dare not miss this, is he's challenging our understanding of power. I think he's redefining what true power is. In other words, true power is not found in our ability to crush our enemies. It's not found in our wealth.
It's not found in our ability to control everything and everyone around us. True power is not even found in our ability to avoid pain and difficulty and suffering. True power is found in humility, in sacrificial love, and in vulnerability. That's where true power is found. And what is powerful in the eyes of the world is weak in the kingdom of god.
Amen. God will have nothing to do with how you and I view power. And so often when we're asking god for a miracle, we're using frameworks of power that we think make sense to us, but it doesn't to god. He's coming in a different kind of way. Now to help us understand this, I want us to play a little game because the way that god works is so different than us.
So we're gonna play a little game called powerful, not powerful. I'm gonna throw some images on the screen and you guys are gonna tell me powerful, not powerful. You got it? Pretty easy. First picture, Yoda.
Powerful. Powerful. Very powerful. If you question that, we'll talk after this. Very powerful.
Nerf gun. Next picture. Not powerful. Not powerful. Unless you get hit in the eye, Then then it hurts.
You might say a word you can't say in church. Next photo. Cat. I'm an old teacher so you guys have to throw a weird one in there. Right?
The point, the word here I was going for is actually pointless. That's how powerful. Or, harsh, judgmental. Again, we'll debate after service if you have an issue with my thoughts on this. Next one.
Amazon Prime. Oh, powerful. Your bank knows how powerful Amazon Prime is. The amount of times that I have been delivered by 2 day delivery is a testimony to power. The next one, got the sun.
Power. Powerful. Powerful. Sorry. I just realized I've been answering for you guys.
I'm not giving you a chance. And the last one, La Chancla. Powerful. Very powerful. If you grew up not experiencing its power, it's good on you.
But just know, some parents out there are good at whipping that thing off, throwing it, hitting it. I mean, they're just they're just good. Turn into Thor with his hammer when it comes to the chocolate. But here's the point. Palm Sunday reminds us that many of us are in danger of missing out on the miracle of Jesus when we expect him to use power in a way that makes sense to us.
Some of you, you need real things in your life right now, but be open to the possibility that the way God's power is going to come is not in the way you think. And so we even need, I think, need to ask ourselves, are we even in a position to tell God who we think he should be and the way he should be using his power? Isaiah asked that question. He says this. What sorrow awaits those who argue with their creator?
Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it saying stop. You're doing it wrong. It doesn't. That's right.
Does the pot explain how clumsy can you be? No. It can't talk. Right? And so I think we need to humble ourselves and be open to how God actually might be at work in producing a miracle in our lives.
And I wonder how many of us today have actually missed God doing something already in our lives because the way he was working was not deemed as powerful by us. And so the issue is this, will you continue to live your life expecting God to use his power according to the world's definition of it or according to Jesus' true demonstration of it? He rides on a donkey. He's different. He's different.
He comes with gentleness, with humility, with sacrificial love. We need this picture. We do. You know, for many years, there's someone in my life very close to me and my family that I've been praying for. This person for nearly 2 decades now has been in bondage to substance abuse.
And it's painful to watch. It's wrecked the family. It's wrecked their life. And so often I have found myself praying that, God, would You just be powerful? Like, the miracle I need is You just to break through this person and just open up their mind and set them free.
Help them choose another way. Help them hit rock bottom so they can just make a different decision. I have been begging god to be powerful. Yes. And here on Palm Sunday, I'm thinking maybe the ways that God is going to be powerful is through gentleness, through humble things, through small things that I would dismiss.
Maybe god actually wants to use me in a sacrificial, loving way, in a humble way, in a gentle way. Palm Sunday invites all of us to reimagine what we expect god to do with his power. If Jesus rides on a donkey, you and I need to change our expectations. Secondly, I miss out on the miracle of Jesus when I expect God to deliver me according to my timing. Oh, man, how great a life with God would be if He did just what we wanted Him to do when we asked him to do it.
It's as if he's our children and we're not his. Second observation from the story there. Most of the crowd, it said Matthew's writing. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others cut branches from the trees, that's where we get this idea of Palm Sunday, and they spread them on the road. He noted that Jesus was the center of this procession.
In other words, they're they're coronating him. But we know what's going to happen. We know how this gospel story goes. This is a coronation that leads him not to a throne but to a cross. We know what happens on Good Friday.
But but they're celebrating him. They're honoring him. They're they're they're putting their coats down. They're cutting branches. And what's going on here?
What what's the symbolism here? Well, for the Jews, they would have known exactly what they were doing because years years years before Jesus arrived as a liberator, there was another one by the name of Jacobus Maccabeus. Here's a history lesson in 30 seconds or less. I promise you. I know I get nerdy, but I'll keep it brief.
Jacobus Maccabeus led a revolt years before for Israel, and he actually somewhat liberated them. And the way that they celebrated what he had done was with palm branches, and they stamped them. And so the people, as they see Jesus coming in, they're like, he's the new Jacob Maccabeus. This is it. They're they're beginning to connect the dots for them, and and they're saying, wow.
He's the new liberator. And here's the thing, they're kinda half right, but they're also wrong because he is there to liberate them, but in a way that they could never imagine from their ultimate oppressor, which is death and sin. And he is there to liberate them, but he won't do it on their timing. Because remember, in other stories, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they use the phrase hosanna. In other words, as Jesus is coming down on a donkey, they're chanting hosanna, hosanna.
We've turned it into a great worship song now. But the word actually means save us now. Right. Save us now. What's the timing?
We want it now. Jesus, liberate us now. That's right. And if we aren't careful with our expectations, it will lead us to demand God to do what we want him to do and when we want him to do it. Now here's what's happening that I think is really important that we don't miss.
When it comes to this issue of timing, We want it now, god. Two realities are at work. 1st, the people are having to wait, but god is doing something to them while they wait. Here's what is so important. The people are waiting, and god is doing something to them.
And here's the truth that we find in scripture all the time. What god does in you as you wait is often more important than what you're waiting for. What he's doing in you is more important than what you're waiting for. The miracle you're waiting for, the miracle you need is great. It's important.
It's probably very valuable for your life, your well-being, or the well-being of someone else. But what God is doing to you while you wait is far more significant. He's transforming you into the kind of person who is shaped by your ability to wait. The the beautiful people in our lives are people who have not avoided the line, but they learned to sit in it. They haven't skipped, you know, to find the fastest checkout, but they learn to wait, and they let transformation take place.
Because what God is doing in you is far more important while you wait than what you're waiting for. Now I say that fully knowing who I am as a person. I get so grumpy when I gotta wait. There's not a worse version of Alfredo than at Target in the year of our Lord, 2024, still watching people struggle at self checkout. Like, my god.
These things have been, like, in life for a long time now. You grab the gun. You shoot. You put it in the back. And I it's crazy to me.
People still struggle to do this. But I said I just I get grumpy. I'm irritable. I'm frustrated with my kids, with whatever the situation is. I turn into a cold, hard person when I'm asked to wait, when I'm forced to wait.
And and I would much rather become the kind of person who the longer I have to wait, the more sensitive I am to God's spirit. That's the goal. The goal is the longer you wait, the more sensitive you are to what god is actually doing in your life, even when you're waiting for something important like a miracle. Because I would imagine for the Jews there, they they have good reason for liberation. They wanna be set free.
They want a different life. Jesus is riding in. He's right there. But how many of them got hard hearts? How many of them have become blind because of what waiting has done?
And so let me ask you. What have you been waiting for? And more importantly, what has that waiting caused you to become or led you to become? Are you cold? Are you impatient?
Are you grumpy like me at Target? We can hang out together and judge everyone. A a psalm that has been so helpful for me in understanding the way comes from Psalm 31. The psalmist says this, my my times are in your hands. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.
Listen to David's words. My times are in your hands. The good times, the painful times, the times of my life when I actually feel like you're not around, the times in my life where I feel like you have let me down, God. Those times, where are they? They're still in your hands.
Think about the complexity and the irony of life that in the moment of you feeling like god is far from you, not doing what you would want him to do, those times are still in his hands. And so for, I think, many of us, as we try to imagine our lives being transformed into something beautiful as we wait, recite that verse to yourself. Psalm 31, my times are in your hands, and see how God might move you and transform you into a different kind of person. Lastly, we see from this passage, I miss out on the miracle of Jesus when I let unmet expectations affect my trust in God. How many people in your life do you know right now struggle to believe in a god because he has not done what they would have hoped him to do?
Either in their own life or just in the world, like some people just are totally okay saying, man, I can't imagine there actually being a god in light of the way the world looks. I just can't picture that. You can tell what God has not apparently done in their life has deeply affected their ability to trust in him. They don't know who he is. And you see this.
This is a great observation from the same story. As Jesus rides in, Matthew says there's a stir in the crowd. There's an uproar, and people are asking. It's amazing. Like, some people are anointing him.
Like, this is his coronation. Others are asking, who is this? That's what they said. Who is this? They asked.
And the crowd replied, it's Jesus, the the prophet from Nazareth. So even they are having to ask this question, which I think is an important question. Who is this? Every single one of us in our lives, especially when it comes to receiving a miracle from God, need to be able to answer the question, who is Jesus? In other words, will you let Jesus define himself in his own words, or will you continue to allow certain expectations that have been shaped over the course of your life to inform who you think he is?
Who gets the final say so on to that all important question, who is Jesus? For those of you who are wrestling with unmet expectations, it's time for you to consider releasing them and allowing Jesus to define himself in his own words. You and I all love this. We like to be able to explain who we are from our own perspective. Let me explain what I mean by that, right?
But let me tell you who I actually am. We hate when people place expectations on us, don't we? Why then would we continue to live in a way in which we have placed expectations on Jesus? Release them. I love, the story of Job because of its honesty, and ironically enough, I like it because there's not a lot of answers in Job.
There's a lot of mystery. His life was anything but what he expected. He expert, experienced an immense amount of loss, and you you come to find these words there in Job 13. Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
What I what I love about this picture is that Job is holding together this tension that things are happening to me that I did not expect, that I did not want, but I still will trust in God. I will still trust in him. That becomes the question all of us, I think, need to wrestle with, especially as we find ourselves maybe waiting on God to do something miraculous or processing the fact that he has told us no. Here's the question. Can we trust in the same god who has disappointed us?
Can you trust in a god who has let you down? Can you? And the reason why I would hope at some level you would be able to say yes is because the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest promise that was ever kept. He will keep his word. He absolutely will keep his word.
Amen. Even in the midst of you and I dealing with the disappointments of our lives, dealing with the things that we feel like God has not answered us. Because imagine the disappointment of the disciples on Friday night. Their best friend is now dead. The king who we invited in on Palm Sunday, he's dead.
Saturday morning, he's in a tomb. The body's gone. That's disappointment, you guys. They saw miracle after miracle, 3 years straight, and now the man is crucified, dead, buried. That's waking up with disappointment.
How do you live with that? As we look back, we can live with that because we know Sunday was coming still. Amen. Resurrection was coming. You know, I think about, a story, just an encounter I had a few weeks ago with a person at our church.
They came forward for prayer after service through our 40 days of prayer series, and this person was really struggling with disappointment with God. They were confessing that. This person had lost a child recently and deeply hurt him, as it would any one of They felt to some degree guilt as if they didn't believe enough, pray enough, trust God enough. They felt a sense of shame because why should I be upset at god, the god who saves me and the god who saved my child? And so they didn't know exactly how to even process and share what they were feeling in their disappointment.
You ever been like that? Like, you know you're feeling some kind of way, but you don't even know how to describe it yet. That's what this person was doing. And what I found so important in this moment was that even though this person was disappointed, they were still asking for prayer. The goal was not to give them an answer.
I had very little to say. The goal was to pray. Though they were disappointed, they're still showing up for worship. Though they were disappointed, they're still gathering with the people of God. Though they're disappointed, they're still, with as much faith as they can, looking to the reality that Sunday is coming.
Sunday is coming. And so is it possible in your life, as you wait for god to do the miraculous, that you're honest with the disappointments, but you look to Sunday. You know a new day is coming. There's this beautiful place in Romans chapter 8 where Paul describes what this is like for so many of us. He says the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
It's a beautiful picture. The same way that Jesus rose from the dead, Paul is saying, is how all the universe will be. Free, alive, new life again. He goes on, for we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. That's a great picture.
Groaning with the pains of childbirth. In other words, what I think what Paul is trying to get us to see is that waiting is not to diminish you in the same way that waiting doesn't diminish a pregnant person. When you think about it, the longer a pregnant woman waits, the closer she's getting to delivery. So the longer you and I wait, the more agony we experience, the closer we're getting to new life. And that's what Paul is saying is going to happen for everyone right up to the present point.
And we believers also groan even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. That's our hope. We too wait with eager hope for the day when god gives us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. That's what we're working towards, a new future, a new reality in which sin, death is all gone, and you're made alive again. The great challenge of today, though, is knowing that the resurrection is, in fact, the greatest miracle, the the the best promise ever kept that gives us hope for the now.
But that's the very thing. We gotta sit in the now. We gotta sit here. We gotta sit here and wait. We gotta sit here and hope.
But the beauty is we don't do it alone. We hope together. What I find so profound is that when we cry out to god for a miracle, we do it in the presence of one another. We we do it together, and and we invite others into this moment because you're not alone in this journey. How many people in your life right now need a miracle of god in in the sense that they have been disappointed by the way that maybe God has let them down.
What an opportunity we have to turn to them and say, Sunday is coming. Sunday is coming. On this Palm Sunday, we celebrate, we remember the beginning of the end of Jesus only to remind ourselves that the end isn't the end. Disappointment is not the last chapter in your story. Death is not the last chapter in your story.
Sin is not the last chapter in your story. One day, we will see Jesus as he actually is, and we will be made just like him. And as CS Lewis said, it will be the beginning of a brand new story. This is the hope that we have. The hope that we have.
Let's go to prayer together. Heavenly father, would you help lead us to a place where we can hold on to hope knowing that Sunday is coming. In the midst of our disappointments, in the midst of the things that we feel like you have not done, as we wait or as we feel that you have given us a no, help us to know that Sunday is coming, and we can still trust in you, Jesus, because you have beaten death. And so we look to you now, and we ask that you would give us a fresh sense of faith and confidence in you because Sunday is indeed coming. We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.