Episode 1633: Marching Orders

===

Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,633 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Chad Hufford: I'm Chad Hufford, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact in the world by using your time, talent, your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to live a life of abundance is key and one of the ways to be inspired do that, is to listen to this Inspired Stewardship podcast with my good friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: And still we hear the question, where are you? Where are you? When everything changes, where do you stand? When that trip moves forward, whose orders are you marching to? Whose orders are you fulfilling? Who are you following? Welcome and thank you for joining [00:01:00] us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew chapter 21, verse one through 11. I talk about what it's like to be feeling the anticipation of going, and I also share how we can find ourselves in the story in different ways and at different times. Matthew chapter 21, verses one through 11 says.

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached be fudge at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying [00:02:00] to them, go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey, tide and a cult with her, untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this. The Lord needs them and he will send them immediately.

This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet. Tell the daughter of Zion, look, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey and on a cult, the fo of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the cult and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them a very large crowd, spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed as the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil asking, who is this? The crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

Getting [00:03:00] ready to to leave to go somewhere usually comes with a whole bunch of different emotions. Often you're packing frantically, worried that you're gonna forget something you're uncertain about, maybe what you should bring or what you should wear, or what clothes to take to be appropriate in the new place.

I remember back in the day, whenever I was traveling from South Texas to Chicago. I made the mistake of dressing for the weather that we were having in South Texas and not bringing clothes appropriate for the weather that they were having in Chicago. And since it was January, this was a big mistake and I actually had to go shopping.

There's all sorts of worries when you're traveling, but along with that usually comes a certain amount of excitement and enthusiasm for the trip. Along with the uncertainty and the fear of change or someplace different, there comes [00:04:00] enthusiasm and excitement as well. And if you think about what was going on for the disciples minds as they got ready for this trip to Jerusalem, they gathered the things required.

Jesus sends them out to do a little donkey rustling, to, to steal a, an animal and bring it back to him, so to speak. Maybe this added to their worry and their anxiety or even their excite excitement, they were stirring up the status quo. Right? And being sent to NA donkey might seem a little bit sketchy.

There are some indicators that maybe it was prearranged, maybe there was a, a code phrase, a precise description and location. Maybe things had been set out ahead of time. Maybe it was mystical and Jesus just knew what was going to happen. We really don't know, and I [00:05:00] don't know that it really matters all that much.

Like a lot of times in Matthew, we don't get a lot of the backstory here. We don't have the conversation that happened between the two sent out on this donkey grab IGN mission. We don't know much, and yet we're called to get in line, get in the car, get on the bus. Get on the trip. The parade is about to happen.

The procession is about to happen, and where are you this Palm Sunday? That's the question that we often ask. Where are you? Where are we in this journey? There are so many roles in this drama, in this story. There's so many things going on and we find ourselves flitting from one to another based on our mood [00:06:00] or our circumstances or where we are in life.

But maybe if you step back, you can actually choose where you are in the story, choose which position fits you currently, or look at what others might choose for you. But what if you could choose, what if you could choose to go along on the donkey nabbing mission? Would we go without question? Would we pick up out of the blue and just trundle off across the countryside to find a donkey and a cult tied and waiting for Jesus to climb on board?

Would we listen to what Jesus said and follow that path even when it doesn't seem to make sense? Or when it's out of line with political and social trends of the time, would we be willing to risk loving our enemies, welcoming the stranger, praying for [00:07:00] those who persecute us, even when everyone else says you're crazy.

And would your only response be the Lord has need of it, or would we tack along with the other disciples? Walking on that risky road to challenge the center of power there in Jerusalem. Maybe we have a clue about what is happening or maybe we're just caught up in the spirit of the event. There's a parade vibe after all, so we can go along with it and for a moment maybe we stop worrying about might happen and lean into what is happening.

After all, Jesus says, over and over, do not be afraid. And for a moment, maybe we aren't. Maybe fear gets replaced with love or love for Jesus, for the word he brings, but also our love for one another and that sense of wholeness and community [00:08:00] that we are becoming as personal fears of worry about failure or inadequacy.

It's just falling aside. Maybe perfect love really does cast out fear, and so we pick up our palm branches and we march along behind him with him before him even. Or maybe you're not ready for that. Maybe you're not ready for donkey hunting or prayed marching. Maybe that's all too much and it's asking too much.

After all, there's. So much we don't know. There's so much that we lack and we're often filled with fear, and yet we also feel called to something. So maybe we step to the side of the road. Maybe we wave a little as the group passes by. Maybe we even find a palm branch and wave it. Maybe we even are [00:09:00] brave enough to shout Hosanna as he passes by writing.

That rather confused donkey and cult trotting alongside maybe somewhere underneath all that excitement. There's a memory that Hosanna means, save us. Save us. Please save us. Now, maybe we're not ready for it all, but at least we are there. At least we are standing alongside asking. For salvation and opening ourselves up to that.

Whatever it means we're there somewhere on a mission or standing by, we're there. And that means when the tone changes or when the conductor calls for that shift, when that change comes about in the air. And those who had shouted, hosanna have their faces twisted in anger and [00:10:00] disappointment and are saying, crucify him.

Maybe then it's as if something went wrong and still we hear the question, where are you? Where are you? When everything changes, where do you stand when that trip moves forward? Whose orders are you marching to? Whose orders are you fulfilling? Who are you following? Thanks for listening.

Chad Hufford: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired

Scott Maderer: Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to [00:11:00] facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market.

That you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.