Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Robert: Praise the Lord. It's good to be with you on this Palm Sunday. I'm going to warn you ahead of time we've been doing our homework, so strap in and get ready. Hallelujah. Lord, we just thank you for today and we are excited this week. It's just a highlight of what we should be celebrating every moment that we breathe, because without your sacrifice of your son, our lives would be quite different. We thank you that you loved us enough to send your son that not only changed us, but changed the whole world. Amen.
Like we said, we know that today is Palm Sunday. During the beginning of Jesus' last week of earthly ministry, he rides into Jerusalem down the slope of the Mount of Olives. This is a true historical event. We have historical records. Amongst Bible scholars and the like, this entrance into Jerusalem has been labeled the triumphal or triumphant entry. There were many people that welcomed Jesus in Jerusalem that day as he rode down the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Many that welcomed him then believed that the hour of his triumph had come. They believed that he was about to assert his royal authority and begin his divine reign over Jerusalem.
One of the things, in learning about Jewish history, as people understood the word, the scriptures, there was anticipation. There was a heightened anticipation during the birth of Jesus. I believe the atmosphere was changing prophetically things were changing in anticipation of the incarnation of Jesus. Also, during the time that Jesus lived on the earth, there were certain things that were going on. As Jesus was going about his public ministry, there start to be some-- we know about the opposition, but there was also some anticipation and, and expectation about the coming of the Messiah, especially as John was out preparing the way. John the Baptist was preparing the way and going out before Jesus ripening the atmosphere. You know, John was Jesus' hype man. John went before to get people excited about the coming of Jesus.
There were people certainly there as Jesus was coming into Jerusalem that day with thunderous applaud and cheers and praises. But Jesus in reality had another work to accomplish. You see all of this, his entrance into the city amongst these people, amid the thunderous applause, was just preliminary to his death upon a cross where he was to make propitiation for sins. He was to make it right between mankind and God with the sin problem. See, for Jesus, whether we like it or not, there could be no kingdom without the cross. Those who rejoice to Jesus coming to them that day, they didn't realize the true state of affairs, nor did they understand the predictions of their own prophets that prophesy, that this Christ, the Anointed one, must first be rejected and suffer many things before he could enter into his glory.
During this week, the passion week, New Testament, New covenant believers focus on the suffering of Christ, but the suffering of Christ is not just the new covenant idea, the prophets, Jeremiah and Isaiah, when they prophesied of the coming of the Lord. They prophesy what we have labeled a suffering servant. So this was not something to be surprised, but although they were truly looking for this prophesied ruler, and they truly believed, at least on this day, that that has come to fulfillment. But I tell you the truth, that Jesus was not the king that they were looking for. That's the title of our message today. He was not the king that they were looking for. Let's read about this prophetic interest into Jerusalem. We chose the gospel of Matthew 21. On the first seven verses we are going to read about this entrance into Jerusalem.
TaQuaris: As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Beth Page on Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on the head, go into the village over there, he said. As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tie there with its coat 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. 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 coat. The two disciples did, as Jesus commanded; they brought the donkey and the coat to him and threw their garments over the coat, and he sat on it.
Robert: Now, those that have joined us in our, our Bible study Building blocks, you know that there is a signal in this passage when it says this was done. Well, this took place to fulfill prophecy. That's our signal to go back and see where this was prophesied in the old covenant. This is another promotion for what we've been doing and building blocks for those of us that haven't joined, we've been having a great time talking about Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. And what we, one of the tools we use is to correlate scripture. One of the things the New Testament authors helps us with, gives us a cheat sheet to say, this right here was prophesied about this is being fulfilled. This is no different than the gospel of Matthew. What he's quoting or saying is fulfilled comes from Zacharia, the Book of Zacharia, chapter nine and verse nine.
TaQuaris: Rejoice o people of Zion shout in triumph, oh people of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's coat.
Robert: Matthew is saying, this is happening so that this scripture, this prophecy from Zacharia is now being fulfilled to the reader, but also before the people, in Jesus' time. This act of Jesus has so many different significances. It was also fitting that he entered into the city by way of the Mount of Olives because the Mount of Olives had messianic associations with it. There is also a scripture in Zacharia that talks about the coming of the Lord, talks about his foot being placed on the Mount of Olives. All of this is just a big illustration of who Jesus was in fulfilling prophecy. From the Mount of Olives, it was thought that the Lord God would appear there to establish the kingdom and the deliverance of Israel would take place.
This is very significant. That's happening before the eyes of the people. It is amazing how there is no second guessing. Jesus played out this prophecy to a t it was very meticulous, detailed of what he was doing in choosing this donkey and reigning it into Jerusalem during this time. This was a very profound moment to be alive right now for those that were expecting this great, anointed one, this Messiah. Jesus enters into Jerusalem, humbly seated upon just a lowly beast of burden. Do you know a donkey is not a majestic horse? He rides in on this lowly beast of burden while all together being acclaimed the messianic king from the line of David. Jesus accepted this right now. Yet the crowd hardly understood the significance of this humble entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
TaQuaris: Jesus, in the passage read earlier, breaks all of our categories for thinking about power and authority. Here we have someone who is a king, but he's also a servant. He has sovereignty, but he also has humility. He has authority, but he also has gentleness. Here is someone who is God, but truly man. He's not only the alpha in Omega, he's also the lamb that was slain. So our Jesus, he's both servant and king, king and servant. For him, these two identities go hand in hand. He is both a leader who serves and a servant who leads.
Robert: It's a funny thing about expectations. We have expectations about all kinds of things, but what are those expectations based upon? How many times have our expectations have fallen short of the actual reality? The crowd that applauded Jesus enter into the city, they had certain expectations of salvation and deliverance from their oppression. You could hardly blame them. Here they found themselves, they've gotten through their golden years, and they've gotten into a place. If you read through the scriptures, you understand that they were not the most faithful people to God. There have been times where God said, you know what? I need to just be done with these folks. I'm just going to wipe them out. But thank God for people like Moses. They said, no, no, no, no. Hey God, they are getting on my nerves too. But you know, is that going to be a good witness for you, God? You don't want to do that. You don't want to spoil your reputation.
God had always remained faithful to them. But there are consequences for disobeying God. There are consequences for rebellion. One of their major consequences was that they were not free in their own land. They had come under many different rulers, and many different nations, but at this time in history, they were under Roman occupation, and they were tired of it. There were pocket rebellions going on. There were the zealots that were there that were very bent on freeing the nation from the Roman occupiers. And so there was, with this, this anticipation for this great deliverer, this messianic deliverer to come. You can't blame them for having expectation to be delivered from their oppression.
Even their expectation was heightened as they see Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. As a matter of fact, we see in the scriptures, we are going to read in in just a few minutes, a lot of times translated, praise God as Jesus was coming translated. Praise God in the original languages is actually the word hosanna. We sing the song Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna is a word that really indicates the greatest honor and praise it; it literally means saved now. It's a tribute to the person that's doing the saving. It's the highest praise. Hey, we are recognizing who you are. You have the power to save us. As Jesus told on the trial, he said, if I really showed you who I was, I could command legions of angels to come and free me.
I don't know if they had that deep of a revelation, but this is what's really being said in this Hosanna. You are it. We know that you can come and get rid of our occupiers. They recognized and expected Jesus to be their savior. They just didn't know how this salvation would come about. We want to read to you again continuing in Matthew 21.
TaQuaris: 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 a center of procession, and all 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, it's Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
Robert: There are thoughts concerning the, the Messianic king, the son of David. That was a very specific profound understanding and identifying who Jesus was. But their thoughts concerning this was dominated by ideas of power and glory and nationalism, and the overthrow of the Roman authorities and the establishment of the Jewish state as a nation, as a kingdom, as a political kingdom. It was precisely for this reason that earlier, remember when Jesus would go about his public ministry, he would keep his identity secret. We've had all kinds of theories about that, but I believe it was precisely for this reason that he didn't want to, to, to feed into what their expectations were. He had a mission to accomplish. The last week of his life here on earth, there was no reason to hide who he was anymore. Now is the time.
They correctly identified Jesus as this Davidic King, but they missed the paradox of, of the character of that kingship. The irony was that this king who was really the promised Messiah, came to Jerusalem not as a warrior upon a stallion, but as a humble servant, as the servant who came to die. Where they had the expectation and thought Jesus' goal was to overthrow an enemy, there was a more fundamental salvation and kingdom that had a universal scope beyond Jerusalem. One that far transcended the limitations of the thoughts of the crowd. Like Pastor Jeff said, the same crowd that was fickle enough to say Hosanna, and then go around and a week later crucify him. Be careful of when the praises come in your life. Give glory an honor to God, amen. For everything that you do. Because people will applaud you today and call for your stoning tomorrow. Glory. That's just people. That's the nature of people's flesh.
I thank you for all your love and your praises, but I still have a lot of teaching to do. So let's see how long you, you have those praises when I come and mess with your theology. That's just a warning. I don't get wall excited about the praises of men. I just don't. At the end of the day, I want to ask the father, did I please you? The praises feel good. I'm sure Jesus had some emotional attachment to the praises, but see, he had the foresight that those praises were only going to be short-lived. Sometimes if we get-- and this is not in the notes, this is just extra for you. Sometimes if we get caught up in the praises of people, it can get us off of our assignment. Because when we have the praises of people, we can give into their expectations and go against God's will that we already accepted and said yes to, to please the whims of the people.
My warning to you as your pastor, as your brother, your friend, don't do that. Stick to what God tells you even if no one applauds it. Because God is the one that's going to glorify you in the end. And that means more than a thousand thunderous plazas in an auditorium filled with people. God's approval means more than all the hand claps, the likes, the hearts, all the emojis in the world. God's acceptance, God's approval for what you do is of utmost importance.
While the Jews were centered on national pride, Jesus was centered on redeeming mankind to a loving God. Jesus wanted to restore the Jews to glory, but this glory was not to be contained in Israel. The Jews had the job of being a light to the nation's, plural. Jesus not only had the obligation of delivering Israel, but to bring the light to the rest of the world. This is the historical significance for what took place those many, many, many years ago during this week that we celebrate. Jesus had the difficult task of changing people's minds. Do you know how hard that is? Things that you've been taught, traditions that you've held for many, many years, and someone comes along and tells you, you need to think differently. It's best summed up in the phrase when Jesus says, "I know you've been taught this, but now I say to you, now I give you a new commandment."
This is what Jesus was doing during his entire ministry, but specifically the culmination of what's happening now. That's what Jesus was doing. Everything that you understood that God was saying to you, I'm shattering your whole worldview. I'm doing what God intended, but I'm not limited to your interpretation. But if your eyes are open, you understand that this was God's heart all along. This is what I was trying to tell you all along.
I think that relationship that God had with mankind and given his word through the prophets over the centuries, I believe that was played out in Jesus' relationship with his disciples, the ones that were walking and eating and sleeping with him that were with him daily. They saw all the miracles, pastor. They saw all the things, the miraculous things were going on, but Jesus was also the one pulled them together and say, hey guys, I know you enjoying this, but you know, uh oh that but. I'm going to have to die. I'm going to have to suffer. They are believing who he was, and yet when he says this, Peter says, what? Oh no, not on my watch, this not happening. No, no, no, no. They believed him before the miracles. They believed that he was the son of man, but when he spoke of suffering, nah, nah, you don't know what you are talking about. And so historically, this was mind blowing to the people.
Besides the historical significance of what we are sharing, we've been having this discussion for the past week or so many discussions going back and forth. We were talking about, you know, just outside of the context, having some modern applications to everything that we are sharing. For a minute or two, we just want to interject a little sidebar application and focus on how Jesus, in this passage, in this whole event, speaks to our understanding of servant leadership.
TaQuaris: If Jesus is our motto, then we not only embrace the triumphant king, we also have to embrace the suffering servant, which means we have to model our lives and our ministries on Christ, and we have to be willing to endure service, sacrifice and suffering. But we also must understand servanthood doesn't mean that you neglect who you are or hide behind the scenes all the time, because we look at Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the donkey as only demonstrating him being meek and mild because it wasn't a triumphant entry.
Now, while the donkey, it may represent Jesus' humility, it is quite ironic that by Jesus riding on that donkey, he was also proclaiming to be the king and the Messiah because he was fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy. And the Jews that was gathered around, they would have known this. At this time, Jesus, he didn't hide who he was. He was very precise and very accurate. What he did was he used who he was to benefit others. So that means for us, that we have to use who we are to benefit others, and the focus of our life is outward.
We might not all be kings of queens and we definitely, not all a savior, we are not the savior of the world, but in some way or another, each one of us is a leader. This means we can follow Jesus' example as a servant leadership. For example, if you are a parent, you are a leader in your family and it's up to you to be an example to your children and how you treat them. It's up to you to demonstrate being an honest, sympathetic, empathetic human being. And that's by how you treat them. You are not only just being a servant by doing an act of service and treating them well, you are also being a leader by setting an example to them.
Or perhaps you are in a supervisory position or you are a leader in a church. God didn't give you that position to Lord over others. A good Christian leader serves God through investing in other people, and it's for God's glory to complete whatever task for God's glory. This requires the right attitudes. It requires the right motives. It requires the right ambitions. And it's not merely just the right actions, because people can do the right thing, but for the wrong reason and their hearts are not into it.
Leaders, we must serve from the inside out. Servanthood is all about the heart. As a leader, you can't have entitlement issues that prevent you from serving others. Your self-esteem can't be wrapped up in your status as a position or leader. In Christ, we are set free from cultural expectations of who we are supposed to be. There is no better example to follow than Jesus as a servant, king. He overturns our definitions of what a leader and a servant is to be.
Robert: Well, thank you. Back to the events at hand, back to Jerusalem, back to the people that were witnessing Jesus coming down the slopes of the Mount of Olives. The historical time period of this event represents a time in Jewish history when the sense of nationalism was at a peak. The people of Israel were not happy with the Roman occupiers. They were definitely not pleased with Herod, the tetrarch of the region. They were not happy with him. After the defeat from other nations and oppression by the Romans. The people of Israel were starved for national recognition and vindication.
With John the Baptist coming on the scene, and the news spreading of the miracles and the works of Jesus, the people were stirred up with anticipation of their promised Messiah, that would elevate them once again as a great nation. They believed their time had come to exact vengeance on their oppressors. And you know, what if Jesus would say, hey, let's go take up arms, they will be right with Jesus to take up arms against the Romans. However, as they were focused on themselves and their problems, God had other plans.
You see, again, it wasn't just for Israel. This was God's love for all of humanity, all of mankind. Yes, Jesus was the promised messiah to the Jews, but his sacrifice was for all of mankind. He was the one true price to cover man's sin, humanity, mankind, not just one group of people, not just one nation, not just one ethnicity. People often talk about the chosen people. You know, the chosenness of the people was to protect that seed, that was promised way back in Genesis when the Lord gave notice of his plan for man's redemption. That redemption required a human being to be born and all, as all of us come from a particular family or group of people or ethnicity. Jesus was no different.
And so by God's sovereign will, this particular people that we've come to know, the Jews, were the chosen vessels to preserve that seed. It doesn't make them chosen in the sense of salvation. God so love the world, all of his creation. God wants relationship with all of his creation. The kingdom of God is made up of many nationalities, ethnicities, languages, skin color, backgrounds. God's kingdom is a diverse kingdom.
Where the Jews missed it and only thinking on this terrestrial plane, the Lord was thinking on a higher plane, a heavenly plane, a celestial plane. Jesus himself said, "my kingdom is not of this world." You ever thought what he was saying, you know, really was saying the words behind the words, the meaning behind the words. He said, "my kingdom is not of this world.' Many times, we just think of geographical context with that thing. But Jesus is saying, my idea of kingdom is not the same as your idea of kingdom. Your idea of kingdom has limitations of earthly expectations.
One of the eels again, that God's people suffered from, they wanted, they wanted to compare themselves with other human nations. That's how they got into trouble the first place when they desired a king to be over them. They wanted to push God out the way. And they said, "Give us a king like all the other nations." That's what the whole Book of Judges when--- There was a time when God used judges to deliver the people they didn't want to be. They didn't want God's direct intervention. They wanted to be under the same rulership like the other kings. Even to the point when God warned them to show how oppressive those kings were going to be, they said, we don't care. We don't want to be set apart. We want to be just like them.
That never left them even now. They were focused on a human-ran government kingdom and everything that came with it. They weren't thinking on God's spiritual plane at all. And yet, by Jesus coming, Jesus doing what he did, he was extending heaven to earth. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not just on earth, not the ways of man, but God's way. Jesus' way.
TaQuaris: Jesus was not the king they were looking for. Jesus did not come on a brave horse to impress others or to seek his own glory. He didn't come to receive adoration. He came as a humble king. He was not what they expected. We too, we can walk through life with expectations for God. And while God, he does some wonderful things for us, sometimes his plans don't necessarily follow our expectations. We have to be willing to trust God and his plans for our life, even when things don't look like what we thought they would. We have to be able to trust God in a process. We can always expect that God has the best in mind for us, and we have to learn to be patient. Patience in the process is difficult, but it is well worth it.
Robert: Finally, again, back to expectations. The Jews had expectations of Messiah. The disciples also had their own expectations of Christ as well. You see, both their ideas of honor missed the mark of Christ, what Christ came to fulfill. Before these events took place in this interest into Jerusalem, Jesus was teaching his disciples that it was necessary for this promised Messiah before reaching glory, that he had to go through suffering and death. It's remarkable that immediately after Jesus was teaching this, James and John requested to be placed at the greatest honor in the kingdom.
The scriptures also suggest that the other disciples were desiring this too. They wanted to be positioned in the greatest places of honor right after Jesus just said this, the greatest one has to go through pain and suffering and even death. Well, Lord, how high can I be in the kingdom? And Jesus, he responds that the greatness in the kingdom has nothing to do with status or even power over others. Rather, greatness in the kingdom involve submission to the will of God even if this submission includes suffering even it got quiet in the room. Because we don't like that word suffering. We don't even like to hear it. We don't even like to talk about it. But this was God's will for our savior. And the very salvation that we enjoy today is the result of Jesus's willingness to pursue the path of servanthood even unto death.
None of us like to suffer or the ideas of suffering, but if we are to follow Christ. I'm sorry my friends, but suffering is inevitable. But thank God for not abandoning us in our suffering. It's one thing to suffer and to suffer along. And we can fill in the blanks of how we suffer. There are all different ways. It doesn't have to always be morbid. There is some suffering that we just rather not go through, some hardships we'd rather not go through, some trials we'd rather not go through. But imagine going those through those things without the Lord.
I thank God for in the times of suffering that I don't have to be alone, that I have a friend in Jesus that understands suffering. Where my fellow man's words fall short in comfort, the fact that I have the Lord on my side brings more comfort than any words that you could ever speak to me. Because in the relationship with the Lord, that suffering is yet temporary. As I hold the Lord's hands, I know that I can get through the other side. He may not have been the king that they were looking for, but he is the great king. He is the King of kings, and he is the Lord of Lords. Even though his pathway down the Mount of Olives was on a pathway to suffering and death, it is because of that act of obedience that he was crucified, and he died on the cross and he was buried in the tomb. And then came Resurrection Day.
That finished the deal, and that paved the way for not only me, but for you and me, your family, your friends, those that you invited but didn't come today. The pathway is set that when they embrace the love of the Father that came through the sacrifice of his son, they have an opportunity to have a destiny, to bask in his presence in a light that's brighter than any sun and to be with our creator for all of eternity. He may not have been what they were looking for, but he was the great king that reconciled us to our creator. Amen. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for an opportunity to be a part of your kingdom, to be a part of your great love. As we enter this holy week, Lord, we just take time to consecrate and set ourselves apart to reflect on this great love that came through such a price. Lord, let us not take that sacrifice for granted. Let us not have a lukewarm response to the sacrifice of God. Let us not just casually experience the reflection of this week, but let us grow in a deeper intimacy with you. Thank you, God, that you saved a wretch like me, that you thought enough of me to give up your life. Thank you, Lord, that when the rest the world and all the spiritual enemies saw defeat, you saw victory. And all the spoils of the enemy were captured by our Lord Jesus. Now, this humble servant has been exalted in the heavenlies and because of your covenant with us, we are now joint heirs, seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord for your love for us. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Brian: History has a way of repeating itself, doesn't it? And not always in a good way. If the religious leaders at the time of Jesus would've had their way, Israel would've risen to national prominence. That's what they wanted: independence, economic strength, patriotism, nationalism. Here in America, I feel at times we have also confused economic strength and being a world leader with God's blessings on us when God's blessings are his kingdom coming and his will being done the nature of Jesus being walked out in the lives of our people.
I love America. I don't want to live anyplace else. There is not another country in the world I covet to live in. But I don't want to confuse what we would call the blessings of living in this country. I don't want to confuse economic opportunity and some of the things that we've grown up with and taken for granted. I don't want to confuse that with the kingdom of God coming to the earth here. Because if you look at the nation of Rome during the time of Christ, it was very similar to America, wasn't it? It was the most powerful country. It was economically very sound. They had military opportunities around the known world at that time, and yet God was far from Rome.
God still used Rome to bring his kingdom. God caused Caesar to send forth a decree, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem. God is now limited to get his work done by who is in power and who is not in power. God can work in communist countries just as easily as he can work in free countries. God is not limited by those kinds of things. But I think what this message is really stirring in my heart is that nationalism, albeit I love it when the US basketball team wins the gold. I love it when we come in first place. Who doesn't want that? I played sports. I didn't play sports to come in last place. I didn't even play in sports to get a participation trophy.
As a fifth grader, I would say to my teammates, "We can win this game!" I like winning. But let's not confuse winning on that level with the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. I think God has a greater plan for America than simply to be the most economically sound and the most military strong country in the world. I think God has a much higher plan for us, and that's his kingdom to come and his will being done and that the king of kings would rule sovereignly here. That's my prayer for, for you and I and this church and our community.
I look at the community we are part of here, Corcoran, that's our Jerusalem, Jerusalem Judea, Samaria, the other most parts of the earth. I want to bring the Lordship of Jesus Christ right here into Corcoran and right here on this corner. We are excited. I told you last week I had some good news. I want to share that just briefly before we dismiss and go to lunch.
Many of you know we've had plans before the city for many years. Our first concept plan for our site here, we originally bought 76 acres and Jim Uzel, one of our members here who is a snowbird, he'll be coming back here in a month. Usually they are watching by livestream, so God bless you, Jim. But Jim built these six homes to the north of us here. We sold some of the acreage that we had originally bought. We had a concept plan for our site that there would one day be senior housing and multi-family housing and medical facilities and some other developments on our site. That all takes what's called sewer and water. You can't have high density development without city services.
We acquired this property in 2000 and working with the city at that time, we submitted a concept plan in 2001 that showed seniors housing and medical and development on our site. By 2005 we were pretty sure we would have a shovel in the ground. But it all required sewer and water and things were moving really well. And then what happened in 2007? Do you remember that year? We call it the crash. Everything in Corcoran got delayed by over a decade and so everything got put on hold. But in 2017/2018, things were starting to ramp up again for development in Corcoran.
They started in the southeast corner of our city because they could buy water from the city of Maple Grove, but they did have sewer access. But the whole northeast quadrant, which is where we live, that was kind of on the back burner. But a few years ago I got a call from the city and they said they wanted me to come to meeting. That wasn't unusual because I'm involved in a lot of different things with the city, and I showed up to this meeting and I was the only guy there. I thought I'm in trouble. What did I do?
The city proposed a proposal to me that they wanted to buy some of the acreage where I live to build the first water treatment plant in corporate. I said, "Where do I sign?" Because I knew that that was the beginning, but there is also a need for a water tower. There were multiple sites in the city that were selected by the city to build the first water tower. The only problem was, in all those sites, there were a lot of people that lived around them, and most people don't like water towers being built right in their neighborhoods. So I went to the city and I said, well, we have some acreage here at Hope Community Church. Maybe you should put your water tower here.
That was like two and a half years ago.
Last Monday the city bought some of our acreage. We closed on the property, and they paid us a handsome sum to build a water tower on our site. What that actually means is between the water treatment plant, which is just going to be across the street and the water tower, city services are going to come to this site, and we are going to be able to do all the development that has been in our hearts for 23 years waiting to happen.
I know what it is like to wait and sometimes you have to just become a waiter when you are waiting and we just waiter on the Lord as we wait on the Lord. We've already submitted a concept plan that the city has been very positive about. As one of the councilmen said, when this development gets done, one eighth of the population of all Corcoran will be on this site right here. We've had prophecies about people coming here. Oftentimes, we've thought of them as just people coming to a church, but with the help of the Lord and the cooperation of our city, there is going to be a rural campus here, there is going to offer housing for families and for seniors and medical for people in need and retail for buying groceries and things of this nature.
I'm just excited that God is allowing us to just be a part of bringing something really wonderful to our community, and the kingdom of heaven is coming into all of this and to all of this. If you are 55 and older, we'll have some place for you to live here within a couple of years, I hope. But I'm so excited that-- we are not a big church. Sometimes, I wonder how we keep our nose above water with how the costs keep rising and everything else. But every month, Pastor Jeff writes out all the checks and all the bills get paid and God's keeps sustaining us. You are all part of it. Our online community's part of it. I couldn't be happier to be alive at this time. God has got some wonderful, wonderful things for us in the future.
By the way, when these things start to fall into place, it's going to create a tremendous economic return for the church as well, and we are going to be able to do some ministry things that up to this point we've just been able to dream about, but at that point in time, we'll have the money to do it as well. I'm so excited about all that. Keep praying. Let's give the Lord blessing. We are hoping that we'll come before the city sometime, late spring or early summer with preliminary plot approval process. And then once we do that, we'll be soliciting, entertaining offers from developers. And we are hoping that within the year we'll have a couple of projects already started by the end of this year. Let's keep praying for that. Hallelujah. Thank you, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris. Wonderful message today.
Let's just pray for God's kingdom to come. Let's just pray for God's kingdom to come. Father, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know that you are really good at giving us our daily bread. Lord, we do have trespasses that we need forgiveness for. But help us also walk in that place of not carrying those anchors of unforgiveness in our lives. We give you Lord, everyone and everything to you. We give our lives to you. We give our families to you. We give our concerns to you. We give this whole development project to you, Lord, we want you to be glorified. We want your kingdom to be here. We want your name to be honored. Jesus, we want you to enter this community here. You are our king. You are worthy. You deserve it. Thank you, Father, for your favor. As long as we have your favor, that's all we need. Your favor is what we seek and what we want. We bless your name. Bless this lunch now that we are about to have. We just thank you. You are good all the time.
And now may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may the kingdom of heaven come into your heart. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Jim and Brenda will be serving communion for those who would like to have communion here today. And we will have prayer for you at the altar for those of you who want prayer. Please stick around and have a wonderful lunch because I tell you what, you can't beat Ken's cooking. Hallelujah. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 4-2-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.