[SW225] 03/19/2016 message notes by
Reverend/Evangelist Susan J. Wynn ©2016
“His Entry Into Hearts”
This Sunday is Palm Sunday, when the church celebrates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But He wants you to focus today on His entry into your heart.
Imagine the scene in Jerusalem! The people received Jesus as a king who they thought would free them from Roman rule, but He is a different kind of King who offers a different kind of freedom — complete freedom from sin’s rule in them, and it happens when He enters a human heart.
We all are born with a heart problem called sin, and only Jesus Christ can heal us.
Texts: Psalm 84:5-6, Mark 1:1-8
Psalm 84:5-6 — How blessed is the one whose strength is the Lord, and in whose heart are the highways!
Do you want to be blessed? Or do you want to be called “blessed” by the Lord? There’s a difference.
Do you want the Lord to give you stuff, or do you want to give HIM to others? Freely you have received — His command is “freely give.” (See Matthew 10:8.)
But to freely give, a place must be made for Jesus to make a triumphal entry into your heart.
Then your heart problem will be healed so you will be a blessing to others, just according to Psalm 84:5-6, making valleys of weeping into places of fountains, sources of satisfaction that never dries up.
How does Jesus make a triumphal entry in your heart?
— You must make a highway for Him
How do you make a natural highway?
— Clear trees and brambles and brush
— Cut down hills
— Break up the rocks
— Use the broken rock (gravel) for the base
— Level the highway’s base
— Pave it and mark it
Then you have a highway.
It is the same in your heart and mine. It is a highway of repentance, confession of sin, and forgiveness (Mark 1:1-3, Isaiah 40:4-5) —
— The trees and brambles are the things “not of God” that are in your heart. You know what yours are, just like I knew what mine were.
— The hills are your pride. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up at the proper time (1Peter 5:6).
— The rocks are the hard places in your heart, where you have not yielded to Jesus.
Confess them to the Lord, repent and ask Him to forgive you.
Then you are ready for the next phase of construction:
— The broken rock (gravel) results when you fall on Him (Matthew 21:44).
— The highway base can then be leveled, because broken rock is easy to smooth and level.
— The final paving and marking is done by prayer; you say, “O Lord, come in!”
Then your heart’s highway is prepared for Jesus Christ to triumphantly enter!
And look at what happens to you!
— You are blessed because you receive Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mark 1:8, Matthew 3:11), and Jesus and the Father come to dwell and rule and reign in you (John 14:23). Your heart problem is healed!
— Because you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you become a blessing — even fountains and springs of satisfaction for others — as you go (for you cannot imagine sitting, or seeking blessing only for yourself!).
— You go from strength to strength (Psalm 84:7), saying with the Apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
— You appear before God (Psalm 84:7), because your heart is pure and cleansed (Matthew 5:8, Acts 15:9).
— The early rains come and cover you, and the people, with blessings
Why should you care?
— Your heart problem is fatal. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
— Jesus is coming again, and He will look for you to be doing what He has asked all of His church to do (Matthew 24:45-51). You must be ready and at work!
Do not be like the people of Jerusalem who wanted Jesus to come and free them. They were only thinking of their own needs. Prepare the highway and make Jesus King in your heart!
Then He will free you from sin’s rule in you, and make you a blessing for others, because every heart has a problem, and needs His healing, through you.
Make yourself ready! Build a highway! Repent, confess your sin, and ask Jesus to forgive you.
He will surely enter your heart, you will go out and make fountains in places of weeping, and He will find you ready, when He returns.
Now I will pray for your hearts, and for your hurts.