Palm Sunday Sermon

A child was told to write a book report on the entire Bible...
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did. Then God made the world He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something. One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check. After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat. Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother. One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me. After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed upon the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them. After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.') During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Any way's, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution..

Well, now let’s see if we can get serious after that…
Happy Palm Sunday!
Whenever we hit Spring and think about Easter
I am always reminded…
The same people who paraded Jesus thru the streets waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna
Are the same people who cried Crucify Him a few short days later…
And today,
in this room
some of us are yelling crucify
some of us are yelling hosanna
It’s a choice
Enter into His courts with praise or anger
demanding why questions or trusting Him anyway

But that is not my sermon today
Today we begin a new sermon series entitled…
INTEGRITY: CREATING HEALTHY BOUNDARIES
The LORD threw this in my lap last week
and said preach it
Our first Focus must be
NEVER CONSIDER YOURSELF ABOVE TEMPTATION
JAMES 1

If the devil can’t keep you from becoming a Christian then he’s gonna work at making you a bad Christian
The enemy loves it when Christians become smug
He throws a party when Christians get infected with a superiority complex
Because Pride goes before the fall
If you ever believe you are above temptation, watch out

You’ve heard it said
What’s the last thing that goes through a bugs mind when it hits your windshield?
the answer is…it’s behind…splat
(some of you are very proud of me for not saying butt)
yes, Christian if you consider yourself above temptation…splat
So we need accountability
We need safeguards
We need to create Healthy boundaries
and nobody teaches us where to start like good ole James

FIRST OF ALL
When are you most tempted to sin?
When are you at your weakest?
Think about where James begins
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials…
Isn’t it true that when life gets ruff, stuff happens
We want to turn to that sin that so easily entangles
and it’s fun for a season
but then when it’s full grown James says it gives birth to death
So…
1. COUNT IT ALL JOY

A simple change of mind-set can free you from temptation
Instead of turning to the bottle you turn to worship
Instead of eating that whole bag of cookies you get your praise on
When the trial comes you thank the LORD
and suddenly your BLESSED and given the strength to endure…
I encourage you to memorize James 1:12…
BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO ENDURES TEMPTATION; FOR WHEN HE HAS BEEN APPROVED, HE WILL RECEIVE THE CROWN OF LIFE WHICH THE LORD HAS PROMISED TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM…

When we begin to whine
feel sorry for ourselves
develop a victim mentality
we become weaker and weaker
But when we count it all joy
thanks praise worship adoration hope
temptation loses it’s power over us

Secondly
James tells us to shut up
He’s gotta lot of nerve
So then my beloved bretheren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath
Anger is very much linked with a mouth out of control
Think about it
How many times have you fueled your own anger
getting hotter and hotter about whatever
with your mouth spueing
If you will just close the mouth
The anger will subside
You want to know how to stand firm against temptation
To practice integrity
Don’t go one day without being in the WORD
Faith comes by hearing the word of God
So…
2. Be Swift to Hear

And James doesn’t stop there
Don’t just practice your daily ritual of devotions
Of reading your Bible and praying and then leaving it on the shelf while you go live your day
NO, practice what you have learned
Nike has it right JUST DO IT
Don’t deceive yourselves
Don’t just read your bible
Live your Bible
So…
3. Be doers of the word

Count it all joy
Swift to hear
Doer of the word
These kind of commitments
Can create healthy boundaries
Can make one integrous
I think I just made up a word
integrous…full of integrity
it’s in a special dictionary I will be producing
along with every other tongue tied adventure ya’ll have endured the last 4 years…

It is very important that as we begin this series on integrity
We understand that the best case scenario is a mere grasp
We never will create a fool-proof system of boundaries that will enable perfection
But that doesn’t mean we don’t try
I think Jim White said it best
when he wrote of reducing spirituality to moral benchmarks…