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Ashley Tirado: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Christ Fellowship of Elizabeth. We're so happy that you decided to join us today. This is a teaching podcast from our Sunday worship service recorded at the Liberty Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Our goal as a church is to love God, make the cycles, and change the world. We hope that this message inspires you and helps to lead you deeper in your relationship with Jesus.

Enjoy.

Carlos Cedeño: I don't know if anyone here have, as has ever walked down a red carpet before. Has anyone here ever walked down a red carpet? Raise your. Okay. A couple of you guys have, couple of you. How many of you have never walked [00:01:00] down a red carpet? Raise your hand or never. Never. Okay. I know, I think in my life I might have walked down the red carpet once, so I just thought that it would be such a cool idea if I would have a red carpet that would be able to lay out here at the altar.

But where could I find a red carpet now at this? Oh, thank you guys. You guys are the best. Wow.

Look, it's so convenient. It's not like we planned this and had Alex and Eddie on the side with the red carpet. Guys, see how God works. Thank you so much. So here we have a red carpet, and as you know, red carpets are seen whenever there's events, you, um, special dignitaries and in movies. And of course it's a moment where there's a lot of applause and a lot of recognition.

So I actually thought it [00:02:00] would be really cool to start off with having someone. Down the red carpet. And actually I wasn't necessarily planning this, but how I highlighted Marianne. Marianne, I think you should walk down this red carpet. So guys ask but you have to wait a second. You have to wait, wait, wait, wait.

So, uh, Mar, so as she walks down the red carpet, let's thank God for her and give a big applause. Thank you, God. Maryanne, walk down the red carpet. Woo.

Now Maryanne, you have to do the turn and walk down the red carpet again.

Thank you Maryanne. So, so as, uh, like a couple of you raise your hand that you've had that experience and one of the things, the reason I have the red [00:03:00] carpet here today, because I'm gonna highlight actually three. Red carpets this morning. Three red carpets. Today we're gonna talk about three red carpets.

You'll see in the back, the one they rolled, the one he rolled, and the one. We roll and we're gonna go by, we're gonna do each one one at a time. The first one we're gonna highlight, the first red carpet is the one that they rolled. As you know today's Palm Sunday and that's why all of you have the palms.

I have my palm right here, you see right here. Come on, Palm. Yo, this palm was in my pocket, got kind of squished a little bit, but I got my palms. So of course the first Palm Sunday. Some what we need to. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Jesus' last days on Earth. On Earth. Like in [00:04:00] his physical body. It marks the last days because that was Palm Sunday.

But by the end of the week on Good Friday, he would be crucified. He would be crucified. So here Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem writing on a donkey. This event is such a big event. That the announcement of it could be seen 500 years before it actually happened. Some of you planned birthday parties or special events, or if you got married, you know, you send your invitation three months before, six months before some of you might even send it.

Who knows? Depending on what it is. One year before. This invitation and announcement was sent 500 years before. We see this in [00:05:00] Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine. Here's the prophet saying, rejoice greatly. Daughter Zion. Shout daughter Jerusalem. Your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly, and riding on a donkey, on a cult, the fall of a donkey.

So here you see clearly 500 years before the prophet. Speaking about the event that was gonna take place in Palm Sunday, we're gonna read here in Jerusalem, there was a large crowd building, and we're gonna read in Matthew chapter 21, verse eight through 11. It says this, A very large crowd spread their cloaks and a cloak is like a heavy rope like coat.

So I want you to picture that a [00:06:00] very LA large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees. They spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them. And those that followed, shouted. Now we're gonna all shout this now too because it's as if we're there at the moment.

Jesus writing the donkey entering Jerusalem, everyone with palm branches, and all of a sudden everyone shouted in the count of three. 1, 2, 3. Ho to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest heaven. So here they're shouting this, and then we're gonna continue in verse 10, it says, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was.

And ask, who is this? Now, I want you to realize at the we, a lot of times when [00:07:00] we read the Bible, we could probably assume that everybody knew who Jesus was or most people had an idea. But here in this time period at this event that's happening, pretty much, there was an estimated of 1 million to 2 million people.

That were there. So they're hearing all this commotion happening, and they're pretty much trying to find out they're, they're trying to find out what is happening. So they, they, they say the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? Verse 11, the crowds answered. This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

Now, As you can tell here, many of them were saying he's the prophet from Galilee. They weren't saying, you know, he's the son of God, or he was God, just because some of them were trying to figure out who Jesus was. But I tell you this must, Jesus was very popular at this moment. [00:08:00] And it's amazing how he was so popular here, but in the end of the week, he ended up being crucified.

One of the reasons he was very popular, it was because five days before he performed an amazing miracle where he raised someone from the dead. Does anyone know? Does anyone know who he raised from the dead? Lazarus? So he raised Lazarus from the. And then five days later, he's making his way into Jerusalem on a donkey.

So think about it. If you know about what happened, you're gonna be standing there talking to people. Look, look, this is Jesus. He's the one that raised Lazarus from the dead. He's the prophet from Galilee. He's the one that could save us from the Romans. So all of a sudden, there's so many different things, so many different topics, so many different, um, discussions that they might be.

But that's pretty much what was happening there at the moment. It might seem weird to us when you, when you see the [00:09:00] fact that they had palm branches waving, they were laying down their cloaks in front of Jesus. But believe it or not, this is, this was like a tradition. This was a tradition through the years, through the centuries, pretty much there in Israel.

And I'm gonna give you just an example for you to get an idea of of it. You, you'll see in Second Kings chapter nine, verse 13, where it talks about King Yahoo. And it says this, second Kings chapter nine, verse 13 says, they quickly took their cloaks, spread them underneath. On the bear steps, they blew trumpets and shouted J who is king and he was a king from Israel.

So the reason I wanted to share that is for you to realize it's not the first time that people hear people laying down cloaks or coats in front of [00:10:00] people, um, kings or other people that military leaders you could say as well. It's not the first time, but what I want you to. Is what they're laying down is a red carpet.

They're laying down a red carpet. You know, they don't have this nice red carpet that we bought from Party City. Thank you, party City. Thank you for hooking us up. You know, they don't, they, back then, they didn't have nice Party City Red carpets. They had Palm branches, they had their own jackets and clo. So they wanted to honor the king, so they took off their jackets laying down.

They took the palm branches they could find, wave them and lay them down as well so that they could roll out the red carpet for King Jesus. Now that's the first red carpet. How many red carpets? I told you I'm gonna talk. Three. Three. So this [00:11:00] is the second roll, um, red carpet. It's the one he rolled, the one Jesus rolled.

Because it's amazing for us to think that I'm Palm Sunday. While people were rolling a red carpet before Jesus, some of them without sincere hearts, they were rolling it because they wanted something. They were rolling the red carpet in front of Jesus. But, but while this red carpet was being rolled in front of Jesus, Jesus had a red carpet.

He was rolling out him. He was rolling out a red carpet starting on Palm Sunday. The beginning was on Palm Sunday and it was making its way to the cross and then to resurrection. [00:12:00] And the palm, the Red Cross, uh, the red carpet that he was rolling out was a red carpet for each and every one. Every person that's ever lived a red carpet that we would be able to walk on so that we could walk directly into God's presence.

It's a red carpet that you're able to walk down. And you would hear the applause from heaven the moment that you're walking down this red carpet. When you choose to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as you choose to give him everything, and all of a sudden we know that this is the red carpet he's laying down for us.

So Jesus here laying down this red carpet knowing that he's gonna pay the ultimate. The red carpet that Jesus was laying down was red because it [00:13:00] was red with his blood. It was his blood that made it a red carpet, and he made a red carpet for each and every one of us to be able to walk into God's presence.

And we need to realize that there's nothing more beautiful for us to. That Jesus loves us so much that God loves us so much, that he wants us to be honored in God's presence, and he wants us to have full access to God's presence. Nothing. There's nothing good we could do to get into God's presence.

There's no good works you could do. Sometimes I talk to people and I'm like, why do you think you're gonna get to heaven? They're say, they say, I'm good. I'm like, good compared to who? You know you're good compared to someone that you saw on TV that might have done something you think you wouldn't do.

We're all not good compared to God. [00:14:00] There's no goodness in us besides the God in us, and we've all fallen short and none of us deserve to be in God's presence. Like some of us think that we could earn the right to be part in God's presence if we go to church. We could go into God's presence, or if I read the Bible enough, I could go into God's presence.

Or if I, um, worship God, if I know the big bands that are out there and I know all the Hills songs and all the different people, I could go into God's presence. Let me tell you, the only access we have into God's presence is the bloodshed red carpet that Jesus laid down for you to walk through. On. That's the only one.

That's the only way is through Jesus's blood and sacrifice. There's nothing good that you could do. There's nothing you could say. There's nothing you could become that could earn the right for you to walk through the Reddit carpet to enter God's presence. Only the blood of Jesus [00:15:00] gives you that access, only the blood of Jesus.

In John chapter 10, verse 11, it says this. I am the good shepherd. Jesus said, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus lay down his life for each and every one of us. So when you think about it, when you walk down the red carpet that Jesus provides, you're really walking down his. He laid down his life.

You're walking on the path he created through the sacrifice that he made. In one Peter chapter three, verse 18, it says this, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, and we know he's righteous. We're unrighteous [00:16:00] to bring you to. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.

So right there, you see again, for Christ also suffered once for sins to bring us to God. So he's the only path to God. Now, I wanna let you know, I, I told, I talked to you about the first red carpet, the one that the world has, and the red, uh, carpet that Jesus lays out for each and every one. Both red carpets don't compare.

Let me tell you one, you might get the applause from the world, the one that you walk down that Jesus lays down, you get the applause from heaven, the applause from heaven. Because when you choose to walk down that path, when you choose to lay down your life for God, there's no greater decision that you could ever make in your.

So many times we think of all the different [00:17:00] decisions we need to make. Let me tell you, the day you decide that you want to lay down your life for God, and the day that you decide that you want to walk down the path, the red carpet that he has laid out for you is the greatest day of your life because you are making the greatest decision to put Jesus, number one in your.

Now, I told you well before we even go there, I wanna read Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. It says there this, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have this confidence to enter the most holy place, God's presence by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus is only his blood. Now, I told you there were three red carpets and it's the one that they.

The one that Jesus rolled for each and every single [00:18:00] one of us. And the last carpet that we need to highlight today is the one we have the opportunity to roll. Every single one of us, we have a choice to roll out a red carpet for God. We have a choice. You might be wondering, how do I roll out a red carpet?

For Jesus. You get to roll this out in your heart, and before I even tell you more about it, I, I, I wanna make something very clear. It's not the palm branches you wave. It's not how loud you shout. It's not how many times you might say Amen. It it's, it's not how many times you come to church. It's not how many times you go or you read the Bible or you memorize scripture or you pray.

It's [00:19:00] about you laying down your life to God. So many times, Christians give God lip. We know how to say the things, but we're not willing to lay our hearts down to God. We know how to go to church, but yet we don't know how to be the church. You know? So many times we know. How to have an artificial, superficial outside of appearance that we are a Christian, but yet we're truly not living for God.

There's a big difference between being a fan of God and a disciple of God. I'm Palm Sunday. There were tons of fans. They had the palm branches. They were shouting and screaming, but their. Weren't really into it. You know, they were giving Jesus lip service, but of course, Jesus is able to see through all of that.

Now we need to realize that what moves God's heart is not being [00:20:00] a fan of him, but being a disciple of his. Because it's not the noise we make for God. It's the obedience following him that pulls his. So there's a big difference. So there's, if I would do a poll right now and ask throughout the whole world how many Christians are there, I guarantee you it's gonna be a huge number that people are gonna call themselves Christian.

But yet how many of those that call themselves Christians are actual actually disciples? Because there is a big difference. And here, during this season of Holy Week, it's very important for us to look at this because it is a time period for us to really look at r o own hearts as well. We're gonna read in Matthew chapter 16 verse 24, to.

27, it says this. Then Jesus said to [00:21:00] his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life from. Will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world but yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the son of man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have.

Now here in this verse, in these passages is very powerful. I mean, the, the reality is if you want [00:22:00] homework for today, just go home and focus on Matthew chapter 16 verses 24 to 27, those three verses, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. If, if you're really tired of just being a fan of Jesus and you wanna be a discipl, These three verses, go home and talk to the Holy Spirit and ask Ho.

Ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. I don't wanna be a fan of yours, a fan of God. I wanna be a true disciple, and I want you to speak to me now. I know so many times we might be quick to say, well, I'm a, I am a disciple. Are you really? I, even myself, I have to evaluate myself every single day of my. Every single day of my life, I have to evaluate myself just to make sure I'm a disciple of Jesus.

Like, and the thing is, this is the thing. Sometimes when I, when I talk to someone too and they think about their [00:23:00] commitment to God, they're like, oh, no, no, no. I gave my life to Jesus when I was 15, my heart to Jesus when I was 15 at a retreat. And that, that's their response. Now, let me tell you something. I give my heart to Jesus multiple times every single day of my life because when I give my heart to Jesus, I laid that.

I give him my heart, and when I feel like the world is trying to tug it out of his hands, pulling it in the wrong direction, I have to go back to Jesus and be like, no, no, no. My whole heart is. And that's a daily thing. That's a multiple times a day thing. That's not, you do it once, you set a little prayer back in the day and you're all good.

No, no, no, no. This is a daily communion with God, wanting to keep my heart in his hands and not taking it back. Because lemme tell you, there's a lot of people that pray be like, yo God, Jesus, I give you my. And you go up to [00:24:00] Jesus, he stepped into the throne room because Jesus made the path for you, right?

The red carpet. You give Jesus your heart, but then as the day progresses and you see the sins, you see the temptations, you see the lures, the world, you see your career, you see your family because it's not just the bad things that pull you away from Jesus is the good things as. Lemme tell you, I love my family.

I love my wife, Jen. We've been married 20 something years already. Jesus is number one in my life, and Jesus is number one in her life. It has to be that way. Jen can't be my number one. I can't be Jen's number one. Jesus has to be the number one. It's not just. Bad things that pull you away from Jesus is good things too.

So you go throughout your day, your family, your kids, your career, your the temptations, the busyness of the world, whatever it might be, social media. You, you might like TikTok more than you love Jesus. You know, all of a sudden you are just [00:25:00] caught up in so many different things in your life. Just caught up with all these things.

And then little by little what you, what you are doing. And you might not realize that you're doing this, but you gave your heart to Jesus in the beginning of the day. You could say then, but throughout the day you'd be like, yo, yo, Jesus. I know I gave you my heart in the beginning of the day, but I'm gonna ask for it back.

Come on, let me, let me get at least part of it back. Jesus, this.

So all of a sudden you take parts of your heart, little corners and little by little you start taking, then what ends up happening. You really don't leave much for Jesus to hold of your. More of your heart is being held by the world. And the way I see it, the God of this world is Satan. Jesus is the king of everything.

Jesus is king over Satan. But the Bible [00:26:00] says that the enemy is like the God of this world trying to lure people, blind people, keeping them away from the truth. So this is something we need to realize. Whoever's holding your heart is your king. Who whoever's holding your heart is your king. Sometimes people, I hear people say a lot of times, you know, everyone's a creation.

Uh oh, no. Everyone is a child of God. I I hear that all the time. It's like, oh no. Everybody's a child of God. And I tell 'em, say, everybody's not a child of God. Everybody's a creation of God. But whoever you obey as father, that's the child that you, you know, that's your daddy. You could say, so if Father God is your dad, you obey Father God.

If the enemy is your God, you obey him. And some of us were like, well, I would never follow Satan. Where's your heart? If you, if your heart is in the world's hands and in the [00:27:00] enemy's hand, and it's not in Jesus's hand, I gotta tell you, you gotta make sure you surrender everything to God. I wanna highlight a couple quick things here too with this passage.

Matthew 16 versus 24 to 27 is this, Jesus starts off by saying, whoever wants to be my disciple, it's a. Jesus not here to beg you to follow him. Jesus never begged anyone. Please, please follow me. I need you to follow me. Jesus never did that in scripture. Jesus pretty much told you this is the path you are invited.

And he's heading his way with you or without you. If you choose not to follow him, that's on you. But literally it's an invitation for every single one of you, whoever wants to be my disciple. Now, something that's interesting, the word disciple in its original meaning means student. It means [00:28:00] student. So pretty much Jesus says whoever wants to be my.

Like pretty much come and follow me, but there's a big difference when we hear the word student. We think of Cain University and Union College, like you just show up, you sit down in school and you just listen to the teacher. You get what you wanna learn, and you walk away and you do what you wanna do.

That's not the word student here in the, in the context of the way Jesus uses it. The word, the word student means you're there to learn for the master because you wanna become just like the master. Just like the master. It's not, you wanna get certain aspects of the master or you wanna learn certain things.

You could be smarter. No, no, no, no. You're there to study from the master to become just like the master so that when the world sees you, they see the master. Because all of a sudden they'll look at you, be like, I see Jesus in you. There's something different about you. Are you a believer [00:29:00] or you, you know?

Do you know God? And of, of course, they see the master in you because you've been sitting in the classroom of the master. That is the disciple. And if you've walked out of the classroom, some of you have dropped out of the school of being a disciple of Jesus, you better sign up today. Sign up today, go straight into the classroom and tell Jesus that you want him to be your teacher, the master of your life, and you wanna become just like him.

And I know some of us are thinking, well, you know what? I gotta get my life together first. Let me tell you something. That's the biggest lie in the Hawaii world, because you can't get your life together without Jesus helping you. So go into the classroom with your. With your problems, with your addictions, with your struggles, with your temptations, with your burdens, with your tears, with your past, your chains, I don't care what it takes, sit inside that classroom and with all of your mess.

You look at [00:30:00] your master and you tell him, I wanna learn from you, master, and let me tell you something. He will meet you there and I guarantee you, as you learn from your master, the chains will fall off. As you learn from your master, the burnings will be lifted up. As you learn from your master master, the strongholds would be teared down the mindsets that don't belong.

Fall apart by themselves as you learn from your master, because that is what the master does. The second thing he says is to take up your cross. It's not easy to follow Jesus if you want. Like a lot of people think that following Jesus, not it, it's it. It's gonna be easy. It's not easy to follow Jesus.

It's not easy to follow Jesus. And of course we're talking about the three carpets, the one they rolled for Jesus and Palm Sunday, the one that Jesus rolled himself to give us path into His presence. When we lay down our [00:31:00] lies for Jesus, when we choose to take up our cross and lay down our life, that is the red carpet Jesus walks on is us laying down our.

That's the red carpet. We, uh, give Jesus the permission because he's waiting for us to do it, to walk down. So we need to realize we have to take up our cross. Something else he says is, follow me. He says, follow me. You can't follow someone unless you're close to the person. How many of you let, um, So many times, I mean there, there's so many different ways I can say this, but let's say if you're driving and you're following somebody, so I actually sometimes don't like to follow someone.

And if I'm following someone in the car, you're like driving like, oh man, the red light, they're too close to this and that. And then all of a sudden I keep ink to cut me off to get in between the God [00:32:00] and you. Just one car between you and the other car. That's there's problems there. That's right. That's the beginning of the problems, because then there comes the second car.

The third car, all, they switch lanes, all the, they take that exit. All of a sudden you lose track and think about it. You have to stay close. You can't follow Jesus as your king and masks are far away from him. You have to stay. You have to stay close enough to hear his voice. You have to stay close enough to be in his presence every single day of your life.

You have to stay close to him. But so many times we let other cars cut in front of us. It could be a girlfriend, it could be a boyfriend. It could be a relationship. It could be our kids. It could be our problems. It could be our circumstances. It could be our job, it could be our ambitions, our dreams and goals.

There's nothing wrong with your dreams and goals, but if they come before Jesus, there's something very wrong with it. So all of [00:33:00] a sudden you let one car get in between you, then all of a sudden it's two cars, then three cars, then four cars. You've lost track of Jesus. Someone talks to you, say, do you know Jesus?

Oh yeah, yeah. He's somewhere up there. I'm trying to follow him, but you've lost exactly where he's at. Something else Jesus says, is this, whoever loses their life for me will. Think I that like, think I, you have to lose your life. You have to lay down your life. You have to give away everything, everything to him.

And that's when you find your life. It's like the reverse. So many times people want to find their lives. So many times I talk to people, they're like, I'm trying to find myself, trying to figure things out myself. No, no, you, you are gonna lose your life trying to find it yourself. You have to lose your life.

Lay down your life to Jesus. Lay down your life as a red carpet so Jesus could walk down on your life as king of your of your life, and then you'll be able to find your [00:34:00] life. And then it says the, and another thing he says is, what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their own?

So many people pretty much lose their soul chasing after things that are artificial superficial of this world. The world has a great way to give you a little taste and make it seem like it's worth it, but the reality is not worth it. It's a lie that so many people choose to believe in. And lastly it said, um, he said he rewards each person according to what they've done, according to what they've done.

So just think about that. There's a reward that God has for each and every one of us according to what we've done. And let me tell you, so many people get caught up with the applause from this world. The only applause I want is the [00:35:00] applause from. All I want is today, unless Jesus comes first. The, the day I transition and I'm in God's presence, I just see Jesus and he says, well done, good and faithful servant.

And I just hear the applause from heaven. That's worth so much beyond measure. If even if you are able to get a chorus of the entire world applauding you at the same time from every country, the applause from heaven, even from just Jesus' hands, it's all worth it to give your entire life for. So how I told you how we lay down our red carpet is pretty.

Literally laying down our lives. And you might think right off the bat that you've already done that. It's like, oh, you've already laid down your life. I'm gonna have five questions to ask you, and as I read these questions too, I'm just [00:36:00] gonna ask Pastor Harold to come forward, um, to the keys. These are five questions that I want you to reflect on in your own.

In life. The first one is this. You are more consumed with your life than spending time with God. These are red flags of your whole heart, doesn't belong to Jesus type of thing. So look at that. You are more consumed with your life than spending time with. So I want you to think about that. Think about your life.

Think, think about your heart at this very moment. Are you more consumed about your life than spending time with God? Or spending time with God is such a priority in your life. Every single day you wanna spend time with God. [00:37:00] The second, uh, red flag would be this. You look at God for only what he can give you.

You look at God for only what he can give you. Now, I could even just point it this way. When you look at your prayer life is your prayer life, just asking God for things. It's like, God, give me this. Bless me with this. Give me this. Bless me with this. I need this. For those of you that are parents, and if you have.

Imagine if all they do is just ask, ask, ask. Give me this. Some of you're like, well, that's normal in my house. That's how it is. But imagine if that's all they do. They never take the time to tell you that they love you. They never take the time to tell you that. Like, what? How's your day going, [00:38:00] dad? How's everything with you, mom?

What's on your heart? What's on your heart? Mom? What could I help you with today? Dad, what could I help you today with mom as a parent? Imagine you would hear that. Think of how our heaven father feels. If all we do when we go into his presence, just ask him for things. Imagine your prayer life completely changes when you wake up in the morning.

You're like, good morning. What's on your heart? Dad? What do you want me to do today? Dad? What? What? What do you have in store for me to accomplish today? I might not see it. What moves your heart? Dad? What breaks your heart? Dad, I want to get to know you, [00:39:00] dad. I wanna be able to hear your voice and be in your presence always.

Dad, I'm sorry for always just coming to you, asking for, for thanks. I wanna know your heart. I don't know, I, I don't just want to know what your hand could give me. I wanna know what breaks your heart, what brings joy to your heart? I wanna know what moves your. I wanna know why you fashioned me in my mother's womb.

Why am I here on this earth? Why? What's the purpose of my life that BR would bring joy to your heart? Dad,

I wanna let you know, like in my prayer life, I really don't spend too much time praying for things for myself. I really don't. I pray mostly for you, for the church. For others, for the community, for things that are [00:40:00] happening in the world. I don't really spend too much time praying for myself, cuz I know as long as I'm in God's presence, he's gonna take care of his son.

As long as you're in God's presence, he's gonna take care of his daughter for you. For those of you that are parents and you have your kids and they're in your house, in your present. Without them even asking for anything. Aren't you gonna take care of them? Aren't you gonna give them what they need before they even ask it?

Because sometimes they ask you for things you know that they don't need. You know what they really need and you'll give them what they need. Amen. I don't worry about asking God for things for myself. God knows and he'll gonna take care of me. I just have to stay close to him. As long as I stay home with him in his presence, he's gonna take care of all those.

Number three. I want us to think of another red flag. Your love for [00:41:00] God is conditional. It's conditional. You are willing to love him under certain conditions. There's concerns and issues with that. Another red flag is your commitment to God is customized. You're willing to be committed to him as long as it's according to your rules or what you want.

You're not king of the universe, only goddess, and for us to go to God, be like God, I'm willing to follow you. If this takes place. God is not there to customize his. Pretty much a custom made level of commitment for you to follow him. He lays down what he expects and we are called to follow him. And lastly is sin is [00:42:00] rationalized.

This is so many times Christians come up with excuses on why it's okay to have sin in their. They rationalize it, they justify it. They say, well, God understands. Trust me, we all sin. But there's a big difference when you sin and you come to God and ask for forgiveness, and you realize that things have to change and you ask God to transform you compared to sinning and not caring, not coming to God, not asking for forgiveness, and then saying it's.

I don't care if the whole world says that something is okay. If the bo, if God's word says it's wrong, it's wrong. I don't care if there's millions of people in the world saying this is okay, because it is just the way it is now in [00:43:00] 2023, no, no, no, no, no. God's word is the truth through all generations, and God's word is what we have to obey.

So if we believe that it's okay for us to rationalize sin and accept sin, and to come up with excuses and jump on bandwagons of the world just to find things that you know, it's not right, it's a red flag. There's a part of your heart that's not surrendered to God. And even now here at the altar, there's palm branches in the shape of a cross.

And the reason why we have this here is because in a second you'll have an opportunity to lay down your life to. Here, walk into the altar here where the [00:44:00] red carpet is here. You're pretty much coming forward, laying down your life before God, laying it all before God, and then you're gonna pick up this cross.

And this cross is not necessarily to remind you of what Jesus said. This is to remind Jesus and to let Jesus know. You're le, you are picking up your cross on Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem, a lot of people were waving palm branches, making a lot of noise, but they weren't willing to pick up their cross.

They weren't willing to lay it all down. They weren't willing to lay down their lives as a red carpet for the king to walk on. And let me tell you, that's the greatest thing that you could do for God is to lay down all your life, not hold anything. Don't wait until another day. Don't wait for another moment with all of your heart laying down your life before him is the greatest thing [00:45:00] that you could do because when you lay down your life, that's when you'll find your life in him.

If everyone could bow their heads, father God, even right now, in a few seconds, we're gonna be coming forward. And God, I just pray as they're evaluating their heart and lay down their heart. I pray as they come forward, as the moment they stand up and come to the altar, they that, that they would realize that they're even able to come before your presence because of the red carpet you lay down for them to walk on, but as they come forward, And pick up this cross, and as they come forward and lay down their lives.

God, I pray that your presence with saturate this altar, saturate their lives as they lay down everything. God, we pray that [00:46:00] you would be the king over every area of their life, Lord God, in Jesus name. So if everyone could come forward, who, whoever chooses to. This is a choice. If you're not ready, you could stay seated, but you could come forward, lay down your life, pick up a cross, find an area here in the altar, and Pastor Harrow is gonna lead us in worship right now to God.

As we close, I want every single person to realize that holding Palm Branche. It's not just something we're gonna do here on Earth worshiping God in Revelations chapter seven, verse nine, referring to a picture seen in heaven. It says this, after this, I looked and there [00:47:00] before me was a great multitude that no one could.

From every nation, tribe and people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Father God, we thank you for this day. We lay down our lives. God forgive us, God for chasing after so many different things. God, we we're chasing after you today.

God. We put you first over everything. God. God, help us Lord God, understand how to follow you, Lord God. God, every single day, Lord God, that we would live in your presence, Lord God, that we would dwell in your presence, Lord God, every second of our life, Lord God. And that we would always learn from our master and truly be a disciple.

That we wouldn't just be a student [00:48:00] that would learn information. God, that we would be a student that would become just like our master. In Jesus' name we pray and everyone said, amen. Amen. 

Ashley Tirado: Christ Fellowship of Elizabeth is a Christian community whose mission is to love God, make disciples, and change the world.

You can learn all about us by visiting cf of elizabeth.com. We meet each Sunday at 10:30 AM at the Liberty Center in Elizabeth, as well as at various times throughout the week. If you'd like to see a video recording of the full worship service. This teaching came from. You can watch on demand on our YouTube channel, and you can join us live online every week by visiting CF of elizabeth.live.

We hope you enjoyed this week's message. Make sure you subscribe in Apple Podcast, Google Play Spotify, or your favorite podcaster so you never miss an episode. See you next time.[00:49:00] 

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