Located, Loosed and Lead
Mark 11: 2-10
Job 39:5-7
The preaching of this passage usually is reserved for palm Sunday but it is a very important passage and is practical and applicable to us in many ways. It is the narrative of Jesus’ triumphal entry in to Jerusalem.
It fulfills prophecy and it is the eschatological event that shifts the tide and aroused the hatred and loathing of the Jewish rulers. And in one day they go from being silently contentious to being violently envious.
The pericapy starts off with instructions and a mission, and while the instruction is to the disciples the mission belongs to the colt. He told the disciples to go and get the colt. But the disciples could not carry out the work that Jesus needed to be performed; it was to be performed by the colt.
Sometimes God will lead you to someone not so that you can receive a job but because God has need of that person. And in order to bring there destiny to pass he sends you to find them. Just like many of you are here because of the efforts on the part of an outreach worker, or a friend, who told you that they really would like for you to come and see what a good time they had down at church.
That’s why you can’t afford to be partial and prejudice in your witnessing. It might just be that the person who your bringing into the kingdom, will turn out to be the one that will usher the spirit of God into your church.
Jesus was about to go into the city of Jerusalem and witness to the people that he had been sent to first. For the largest concentration of Jews at that time was found in Jerusalem. And because it was the time of the Passover there were many Jews that were from afar off who had come to participate in the sacrifices and rituals of the season.
And so while he was still a ways off he sent two of his disciples to go and find a colt that he new had been tied up. And I want to stop right there and there are two points that I would like to make right here.
Number one the colt had never been sat on before. In other words this colt had been lead around by a rope all of his life. He had never really been used for the purpose that he was brought into the world for. And I’m sure that people had laid on him some burdens.
I mean he had probably had to carry some heavy loads but he had never really done anything worthwhile. And I don’t know if the colt of an ass aspires in his own heart to greatness. But if I were an ass I believe that I would probably want to say one day to my children. That I had carried someone who was royalty. I would probably like to say that there was a man who couldn’t walk and I had carried him to a doctor. Or maybe I had one day carried a treasure of one of the sheiks of Arabia.
But this colt was leading a life of obscurity. No one really cared a whole lot about this colt because when the disciples said that they were taking him away there was no big protest about him leaving.
And we don’t ever really know how much people value our presence until its time for us to leave. Sometimes the people that God calls us away from are just as glad to see us go, as we are to leave. Because usually when God has a calling on your life you don’t really fit in with the world anyhow. Most of the time the folk who God has a divine purpose and plan for and will do great things in the kingdom are not very useful to the world.
My brothers and sisters no one might see the potential in you. but Jesus knows where you are and he knows where your going. People might not see anything in you that is worth while, people might not have any significant use for you, but God does.
Some of us have been lead around like a pack mule doing miniscule tasks and being looked over for more meaningful work. And it seems that no one knows that deep down inside there is a divine destiny And a hunger for greatness in you. But God knows.
And don’t you dare give up on your dream don’t let people tell you that you’re a nobody. Refuse to accept a mediocre existence. You might not have anything now but keep on looking up. better days ahead. And when God calls you….. when your names been changed……… he’s able to make princes from paupers, and kings from slaves. Just have faith in God and he will make your dreams and hopes come alive. ……Have I got a witness here?
And then the bible says that he was tied in a place where two ways met. Ah-hunh. He was in a place where two roads came together. He was not going east or west he wasn’t really going north but he wasn’t really going south either. He wasn’t going into the city and he wasn’t really coming out of the city. He wasn’t really at the beginning of the road and he really wasn’t at the end of the road. He was just kind of in between.
And that ought to mean something to somebody in here, because when God found many of us we were tied between two things. Some of us were not quite honest, but not all the way crooked, not quite a thug but not all the way legit.
Somebody right now is not all the way in bondage, but not all the way delivered. Not in, and not out…… Not straight, but not quite gay…. Not a alcoholic, but not all the way sober….. Not really married, but not quite single……. Somebody here is caught in between two opinions. Not quite a sinner, but not a whole saint….. Not quite free, but not all the way bound. not quite living but not ready to die.
But God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not parish but have everlasting life. God sent Jesus and I stopped by to tell you that if you believe in your heart and that if you confess with your mouth that God raised Jesus from the dead you shall be saved. Have I got a witness? I gotta get outta here come on and go with me.
And then the bible tells us that Jesus told the disciples to loose the colt and bring him to me. And so my second point: not only was the instruction for the disciples to free the colt but that he should then be lead to Jesus.
And what that means to me is that its one thing to be loosed but that’s not the end of the matter. After being loosed then you got to be lead. It’s no good to be loosed and not lead.
Listen once a person is loosed from the bondage of sin they must be lead. The bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. And if the bible likens us to sheep then that means that we need a shepherd. We do not have the strength inside of ourselves to make it on our own. We need a body of believers to keep us strong.
And as a member of the body of Christ we need to be accountable to somebody, because if we are not careful we begin to justify our own desires and we need a sound body of believers that can recognize when we go into err.
That’s why Paul tells us not to neglect the gathering of ourselves together as the manner of some is. But to come together speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
That’s why you got to watch these folk that jump from one place to another. It is not spiritually healthy to jump from one place to another. You can’t just go as a baby saint from one bible study to another. That’s how so many people become confused and disillusioned by jumping from one church to another church.
When I was a little boy my grandmamma didn’t just let me eat at any ones house because she said “You don’t know where them peoples hands been.” So you can’t go church hopping and expect not to be confused. You don’t know where them folk’s hands have been. Have I got a witness?
And then there are always those that get loosed and once they feel like they been saved two or three days they want to lead somebody else. You can’t be a leader until you learn how to follow.
God does not anoint you for leadership until you’ve learned how to take orders. And if you cant except orders from those that are in leadership, who you see, everyday then how do you expect to follow the leadership of an invisible God? David was anointed to be a leader years before he lead the people. Joshua was Moses general for 40 years before he became the leader of Israel.
You got to be lead. and if you’re loosed and not lead you become a wild beast on the loose. And there are a whole lot of wild and loose folk in the church. Folk who can’t stand for anyone to tell ‘em anything. They can’t stand to be corrected they always question the decision of the pastor. They think that they know more than anyone in the church. And they get offended the first time they’re rebuked.
God knows what he is doing. He set things in divine order and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
You got to be lead…can I hear you say amen?
As I close the holy writ says that when they brought him to Jesus they cast their garments upon him. And Jesus sat on him. First of all they had to put their garments on him because he was a beast that was unclean. And so for a man to sit upon him in his unclean condition would have made the man unclean. And so they cast their garments on him so that Jesus would not become defiled.
And there are some things that are not clean that will make it uncomfortable for the spirit of God to rest on an individual. That’s why John says that anyone who has this hope purifies himself. There are some things that you’re going to have to cast the garment of the blood of Jesus over. Before the spirit of God will sit on you.
Then the bible says in I John 1:3 the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, They were all with one accord. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared cloven tongues like as of fire. And it sat upon each of them.
And someone here tonight needs the lord to sit on him or her. I want the lord to sit on me.
Sit on me lord so I can walk right.
Sit on me lord so I can talk right.
Sit on me lord so I can treat my neighbor right.
I need your power, Holy Ghost power, so I can have joy in my time of sorrow. Power, to love my enemy
POWER……TO PRAY FOR THOSE WHO DISPITEFULLY USE ME
POWER…….. TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION
MOST OF ALL I NEED YOUR HOLY SPIRIT
FOR IT IS THE SAME SPIRIT THAT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD THAT WILL QUICKEN OUR MORTAL BODIES IN THE RESURRECTION DAY.
I WAS LOST BUT NOW I’M LOOSED
GUIDE ME OVER, THY GREAT JEHOVAH
AS I PILGRIM THROUGH, THIS BARREN LAND
I AM WEAK BUT THOU ART MIGHTY, HOLD ME BY THY POWERFUL HAND.
THERE IS A FOUNTAIN, WHENCE THE HEALING WATERS FLOW.
LET THY FIREY BILLOWS, ON MY JOURNEY, LEAD ME OV’R
STRONG DELIVERER , BE THOU MY, STRENGTH AND S
