Hey this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those who are.

that you share it with.

God bless you.

All the time.

Amen.

Welcome to the house of God this morning.

I believe that God wants to speak And I don't I don't know exactly what He's gonna say because I ain't gonna lie I kind of struggled with this sermon today

I just and there was no there's no real reason some of y'all are gonna be like was it the letter pastor no it wasn't the letter Which no one's come forward by the way everybody's been asking me every every day

Y'all just attracted the drama, right?

But I believe that God wants to call us to

To something that we spoke a lot about last week.

I think it was like the theme of last of last um last year, sorry, which is holiness.

We serve a holy God.

Right?

And and and he desires a holy people.

He desires that.

And when we talk about holiness, it makes us uncomfortable.

Because we're like, well, I'm not holy.

Jesus is holy.

That's why we worship Jesus.

But Jesus is calling us his sons, his daughters.

To the holiness that he made possible for us on the cross.

The word says that God, for our sake, made him who knew no sin to be sin.

So that for our

Because of us, to be so that we would become the righteousness of God.

I jacked that up a little bit, sorry

But so that we would walk in the righteousness that he made possible for us.

He desires you to be holy.

So if you would turn with me to Mark chapter 11.

Verses 15 through 19.

Praise God.

And you can take your seat for a moment.

And thank you, worship team.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

God is good, amen.

Praise God.

Um, we had a

I didn't get to stay the entire time, but yesterday we had a men's encounter.

What do we have, Pastor Larry?

About 36 men here.

Thirty-six men.

We had some pe we had some men say yes to Jesus.

They came to Jesus.

I love what God is doing in the lives of men.

Amen.

Today is Palm Sunday, and for those who don't know what that really means, I think we talked about it a little bit already.

But it

It represents the week that commenced, you know, what's known as Holy Week.

And if you read your Bibles, um, you'll see in the heading what says the the triumphal entry.

That kind of kicks off.

All of this.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem in a very prophetic way, asks to announce his kingship.

He is the rightful Messiah.

And everybody's following him

They're coming into the city and they're shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest.

They're proclaiming him as king.

And then a week later

Jesus would go to the cross and die for the sins of the world.

And that's where we're going to end our series next week on Resurrection Sunday, which is at what time, by the way?

1130.

1130.

Yes, eleven thirty.

Uh we'll end our series.

Look at Jesus.

Um by this point in the ministry of Jesus, things are really starting to heat up.

Jesus is uh

He's finishing up the last bit of business that he's got to take care of.

And he intentionally chooses to do that in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the holy city.

It's ironic when you think about it that the holy Son of God would be crucified in the city that was supposed to represent everything that was holy.

It's crazy to me.

It's always been interesting to me when we think about Holy Week, when we think about the triumphal entry.

Is that as Jesus gets deeper into this supposed holy city, he finds so much in it that is not holy

Jerusalem is supposed to be the epicenter of holiness.

This is where they're celebrating Passover.

They're commemorating everything that Yahweh did for them while they were slaves in Egypt.

This is home to the holy people of God, but as Jesus gets deeper into this city, he finds so much wrong with it

Last year on Punt Palm Sunday, I I preached a message called Nothing But Leaves.

I don't know if you remember that, but it was on the passage where Jesus curses the fig tree.

Because the fig tree wasn't producing the fruit that it appeared to be producing.

The leaves of the fig tree implied that there was fruit on it.

You know, just like when you

You sing a Christian song, it implies you got some fruit to show for it.

Or you take a discipleship class, or you're in Bible study, it implies you've got some fruit.

The leaves attract Jesus, but as he gets closer, he finds no fruit and he curses it because it's pretending to be something and it's not.

And there's a lot of people in the church, not our church, but in the church, who have all of these luscious, healthy-looking leaves.

And they wave them around and people are impressed by them.

They think, wow, what beautiful green, healthy leaves.

Look at all the gifts

Look at all the talent, look at, look at the way she sings, look at the way he speaks, look at the wisdom, look at look at the anointing.

But as Jesus gets closer to these people, he finds no fruit to be shown for all the leaves that they wave around.

And so, in the same way, Jesus, he's stepping into Jerusalem, this holy city, and he finds nothing but leaves in the lives of the religious leaders, the priests, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law.

He finds religion.

Masquerading as righteousness.

And Jesus sees right through it.

And then he walks into the outer courts of the temple.

And what he finds is really troubling to his spirit to the point that he flips out.

This is like a climactic moment in the ministry of Jesus where he lets us know he means business.

Jesus ain't playing around with things that are supposed to be holy.

And so that's that's where we we kick this off.

If you would stand with me as we read this short passage, Mark 11, 15 through 19.

It says, and they came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers.

And the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temples.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?

But you have made it a den of robbers, and the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and were seeking to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

And when evening came they went out

Into the city.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word, my God.

This word, Lord, if it has to hurt a little bit, Lord, may it hurt, my God.

May it hurt us to build us, Father.

Because my God, we know that we are living in the last days, Lord, and you are looking for a church that looks like you.

Not just not that looks like Christians, but looks like you, my God.

And I pray that this word would call us to look more like you, Father God.

That we would get rid of the leaves, my God, and that we would begin to show the fruit that you are looking for.

Holy Spirit, may this word transform us, my God, and not offend us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

I entitled the sermon Flipping Tables.

Flipping tables.

And my message today is for anybody who has been too afraid to let Jesus get too close to you.

Um because you know what happens when Jesus gets close to you, right?

You know what happens.

He starts to examine you

He starts to notice some things in you.

He starts to call things out.

He starts to convict.

He begins to disrupt our normal way of living and call us out of our comfort zone.

See or no?

The closer Jesus gets to you, the more uncomfortable it becomes for your flesh.

That's just the truth

And you realize like you know like when I was dating my wife and I was gonna I was saying babe I'm gonna come come pick you up she probably was like oh my god I gotta do my hair right

I gotta I gotta I gotta look my best, right?

Because I was I was gonna s come see her, right?

I thought I I don't know.

Um But when Jesus comes closer to you, you realize, man, I I I've I've I've got some things that I need to get rid of.

I got some I got some baggage that I need to release.

That's that's what Jesus does when he gets closer, he he disrupts our normal way of living.

The religious leaders, they didn't like that Jesus messed up their religious system.

Who does he think he is walking in here, flipping tables?

We don't like it when Jesus.

Messes up our plans.

We don't like it when Jesus messes with our schedules and our agendas and he rearranges everything in a certain way.

And we're like, Jesus, I like my things in a particular way.

And so when when what we have in a lot of churches is Christians who they don't let Jesus get too close.

Because we know that the closer he gets, the holier he's gonna ask us to be.

And can we be honest?

Can we just be honest this morning?

The idea of holy living is a little bit uncomfortable

To many of us, because it disrupts our lives.

But you want to I want you to understand something.

This isn't a message about you getting closer to God.

This is not about that.

This is about God getting closer to you

This is about allowing Jesus get clo to get closer to you.

See, because a lot of times we talk about getting closer to God.

We talk about that in our time uh in our terms.

So so when trouble comes, that's when we want to get closer to God.

When we're in need, that's when we start to fast.

That's when we start to seek Him.

That's when we start to pray.

When everything in our life is messing up, that's when you know what that's when I'm gonna come back to church.

We we we want to get closer to God on our terms.

This is not about that

Because once you give yourself over to Jesus, you allow him to become Lord over your life.

You give him permission.

To disrupt some things in your life and to rearrange some things in your life.

And if you harden your heart for too long after letting him in,

Just like Israel was cut off, so can we be.

So listen, we have to be okay with Jesus flipping tables that he finds offensive to his body.

This uh this this story kind of depicts a different side of Jesus than what we're used to seeing you know in the gospels.

Uh Jesus is always he's always pretty direct and not afraid to confront the religious leaders, but

For the first time, we see Jesus not really being the gentleman that we usually describe him as being.

You know how we say that a lot?

Jesus is the gentleman.

We're seeing here a fed up Jesus.

He's he's messing things up, he's destroying property, he's using force.

But notice notice this: he's not using force to force anybody into a relationship with him.

That's that that's not what he's doing.

He's not trying to force anybody to be holy.

What he's doing is protecting, listen

He's protecting that which was meant to be holy, that which belongs to the Father.

Jesus is saying, this will not be defiled.

If you don't want to be righteous, that's on you.

If you don't want to be holy, Jesus, I'm not gonna make you, but the place that was designed to connect the people to the Father and the Father to the people that cannot be defiled.

That has to be holy because it is holy.

And so Jesus is walking into this temple, and he finds a lot of things wrong with it

The temple was something that was consecrated.

It was set apart.

It was meant to be holy.

But the people who were entrusted to maintain its holiness had defiled it.

And so he walks into the temple and he notices in the outer courts, the outer courts of the temple was the place that was reserved for the Gentiles.

This is where the Gentiles came to worship and pray.

And Jesus walks into the outer courts of the temple and he finds a marketplace in the place that people are supposed to be worshiping.

So there's two reasons that Jesus gets upset.

Number one is the misuse of the temple.

They were misusing the temple for what it was designed to be used for.

Jesus says, this is a house of prayer.

He's quoting from Isaiah 56, which says, These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.

So the purpose for this portion of the temple was so that anybody in the temple could come in and worship.

It didn't matter if you were not a Jew.

This was a place

made sacred, made holy, for all the people of every nation to come in and worship God.

And Jesus walks in and he finds a marketplace.

Now on this point, Jesus could have walked in, he could have found anything.

He could have walked in, he could have found a park and and and kids were playing around.

Maybe it was a playground, maybe it was restaurants and people were

were eating there, maybe it was a bowling alley.

It didn't it didn't really matter what it was.

The point is that the temple wasn't being used in the way that it was designed to be used.

It kind of grieves the Holy Spirit when the people who were designed to worship aren't worshiping.

It grieves the Holy Spirit when the holy people of God are acting out of holiness.

Because this is what we were designed for.

So that was number one.

The second reason Jesus gets upset is because the merchants are being allowed to exploit the people.

Who just wanted to worship?

Jesus says, but you have turned it into a den of robbers.

This is a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers.

To run a temple, you gotta understand it took money, right?

It took money.

The temple had administrative costs and

And in this day, the Jews had a temple tax that they were required to pay for all of the administrative costs in the temple.

The problem was that they had to use a specific type of currency.

That most people didn't carry.

And so the scripture talks about money changers.

They allowed money changers to be in the outer courts of the temple.

So that people would come in to pay their temple tax, they could they could exchange their currency for the right type of currency to pay the temple tax.

Well, the problem was they were charging crazy fees just to exchange the money.

On top of that, it was required for everybody who was going to enter the temple to bring with them a sacrifice, either a an uh a goat or uh a calf or a lamb or if you were poor a dove.

But the problem was a lot of people were coming from all over the Judean region.

It wasn't practical for all of them to come in and bring an animal sacrifice.

So the religious leader said, Okay, you know what?

We'll we'll set up some tables here so that we can sell some of these animal sacrifices.

And again, they were charging crazy fees.

Like when you go to the Astral's game and you pay

Fifteen bucks for a hot dog, right?

And so this this these are the issues that Jesus kind of walks into.

The religious leaders, those who were expected to protect the temple, were misusing it, and they were tolerating exploitation in the temple.

No wonder Jesus flipped out, man.

There was no fear.

There was no reverence for the holy and consecrated things.

How many of us walk into this place with no fear and no reverence?

Uh look, this is next week is Easter, it's gonna be it's gonna be softball for you guys, right?

But for the church

For the church, for the ones already made holy, God requires something of us.

We talked about this last week.

Salvation is free.

The cost of discipleship that that that that is expensive that costs you something that costs you your life.

You got to pick up your cross and you gotta walk.

You don't have the luxury of letting it down whenever you feel like whenever it's not convenient anymore.

We have to keep walking.

And what God is requiring of the church for today is that we would have fear in his presence.

Reverence for his presence, not just love.

You can love God and not fear God.

Man, back in the day, uh we that whenever I read this story, it reminds me of

Of the ushers that I grew up with.

And if you grew up in an old school Pentecostal church, you know what I'm talking about.

Man, we had some ushers that put the fear of God in me.

I couldn't even I couldn't even look lock eyes with some of them without them making me cry.

As a little six-year-old boy, man, they would just look at me

Kid you not I would I would try to go out to drink water at the water fountain they would time me that's three seconds that's it you're done

If we had the ushers that we had when I grew up, not even George would be in his office right now.

I didn't throw George.

He'd be sitting up right here in the front taking notes.

And uh about fifteen years ago I remember one of those ushers, he passed away.

And I remember speaking at his funeral, and I I I said, that man taught me how to have reverence for the temple.

As a kid, I thought he was just being mean.

I I thought, man, he's just grumpy old man.

coming to church today, but but over time that fear turned into reverence for the Lord and for his temple.

And I look back now and you know, sure, maybe today we would train ushers a little bit differently.

Like, you know, let's let's look more like ushers and less like bouncers, right?

Let's be a little bit more friendly.

But I tell you, man, those those men had a reverence for God's temple.

They took the job seriously because they protected that which was meant to be holy.

So what am I saying?

We have to care about and we have to protect the things that are designed to be holy.

That's number one.

We cannot misuse the things that were meant for God's purpose.

And number two is that we cannot tolerate unholiness.

in the places that are meant to be holy.

Okay, I want you to hold on to those two points.

Now in this passage we're talking about, you know, the physical second temple of Jesus' day

That was located in the holy city of Jerusalem.

But I also want to tie in what Paul says to many of the corrupt Christians in Corinth.

He says, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit within you?

You are not your own, for you were bought with the price.

So glorify God in your body.

Do you realize that when you accepted Jesus, it cost him something?

When when when when something is free to you, a lot of times we trample on it.

We don't respect it.

We don't fear it.

We just take it and alright, that's awesome.

And then we take we don't take care of the things that belong to somebody else.

The things that somebody else had to pay for.

And so, as the children of God, a lot of times we we take the salvation, we say that prayer, and now we're saved, but we don't walk in the fear and the reverence.

That it actually cost our Lord Jesus something.

It cost him his blood.

It cost him his fli his life.

It costs him something

So this is why he says, do you not know that that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God?

You are not your own.

What we tell the girls all the time: this is not your house.

You don't pay the bills here, you don't pay rent here, but it's my room, it's not your room, girl.

We just let you have it for free.

You are not your own.

You were bought with the price.

That room costs us something.

Take care of it.

You know what I'm saying?

If if we knew, if we knew that the physical human Jesus was coming to church today.

I'll tell you what, all the leaders would fast.

100%.

It'd be a requirement.

We're gonna fast.

The worship team would be very selective, more intentional about their song choice.

Everybody make sure that they they know the chords, they know the lyrics.

I probably wouldn't even preach.

Why do I preach in the front of in front of Jesus?

We would make sure that the church was clean, free of clutter.

We might reconsider the outfit we threw on today.

We wouldn't bother with the church announcements.

We would all be on our best behavior.

We would we would park right.

And we would have respect for our parking team.

Right?

If Jesus was watching you in that parking lot

If the human Jesus were here, we would all be in our best behavior.

But can I tell you that this isn't even about the temple?

This isn't the temple that Jesus is most concerned with.

Yes, it deserves care.

Yes, it deserves to be clean.

Yes, it deserves reverence.

But don't neglect the temple that's in you.

You are meant to be holy.

Okay?

You hear me?

Yes, yes.

We need a

This needs to be a clean place, a nice place, a consecrated place, a holy place.

We anoint the the the the instruments, we anoint the seats

We pray over this place, but you are the temple that matters to Jesus.

You are meant to be holy.

Don't misuse that mouth.

Don't misuse those hands, don't misuse those eyes, don't misuse what was designated for him.

And don't you tolerate those who want to defile you.

Because they're there.

Don't tolerate it.

That's that's what the Pharisees did.

They tolerated unholiness being allowed to come into the temple

And maybe they weren't directly complicit, but they tolerated it.

Don't let people, don't tolerate the people who want to defile your eyes, defile a bed that does not belong to you.

Do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit?

You're a temple of the Holy Spirit.

You have to tell yourself that, man.

You got to tell yourself that every single day when you wake up.

You're not just going to church.

You you are the church.

You are.

I remember 20 years ago, twenty about twenty years ago, we were trying to get into um the the church media computer.

Joe Joel knows what I'm talking about.

And um we were trying to get in and Joel's like an excellent like hacker for the Lord

And it was password protected.

And we're trying to get in because I can't remember I don't know why we were trying to get in, but we're we needed something.

And I don't know, you know, if you're old enough, you remember um LimeWire?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Back there was no such thing as streaming movies and and music.

You had to download it illegal.

That was the only way, right?

But we we get into the computer, which was upstairs, and and what we found was tons of downloaded we have kids in here, but just

You know what I'm saying.

Downloaded inappropriate things.

And I remember thinking on the church computer

Do they not have fear?

During service?

This was happening.

During service?

Are you kidding me?

But if you really think about it,

If we say that the church is the body of Christ, if we say that the people of God are the church, it doesn't really matter where it happens.

Whatever you watch, whatever you entertain, whatever you think, whatever you do, is all done through the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you.

This is why the Holy Spirit grieves.

This is what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit.

See, you're his child.

He loves you so much that he's not just gonna abandon you when you do something wrong.

When my kids act up, I I'm not gonna leave them, but I'm gonna grieve

I'm gonna be disappointed.

It's gonna hurt me.

And every time that we as the people of God

Loved by God.

Sin.

Drop the ball.

Carry things that doesn't belong in the Lord's temple.

It grieves him.

It grieves him.

One of the hardest parts of Christianity is the holy part.

Why?

Because holiness requires rearranging our lives in a way that looks more like Jesus.

It disrupts our normal way of life.

And this is why some of us like to keep God at a distance because we know what life is gonna look like the more we let him in.

We know what it's gonna require.

We know the sacrifices.

We know the things that we're gonna have to let go of.

We know that the selfish things in us are not gonna belong there, so we keep God at a healthy distance.

It's the hardest part of our Christian walk.

But it's the one that Jesus requires.

Be holy as my Father in heaven is holy.

Be perfect.

As my Father in heaven is perfect.

Getting saved, that man, that's the easy part.

That's the easy part.

Only if you want to be holy.

Because salvation is about receiving.

You receive Jesus, you receive grace, you receive a second chance

Being holy is about giving.

You give your heart, you give your mind, you give your time, you give your body, you give your weaknesses to him.

But let me remind you, church, that when you receive salvation, you are making covenant with God.

That's what you're doing.

That's what it's it's not a verbal agreement, it's a covenant that you are making with God.

We're saying, God, I have received your Son by faith and grace alone.

I am now yours, and we become in that moment a temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so when Jesus comes searching through that temple, when he comes searching through your thoughts, when he comes searching through your bedroom and your closet and your drawers.

And your Spotify playlist and your Netflix Q and your emails and your DMs and your text messages when he comes flooding

and searching through all of your personal places and wants to flip tables.

It's not because he's being mean.

It's not because he's being unreasonable.

It's because you belong to him.

And he's trying to protect what was meant to be holy.

Jesus is saying, you said yes to me.

That means I have a right to get close to you and flip the tables that should not be standing in your life.

You still with me?

I'm almost done.

I I don't know where it's going from here, but it's very neat.

When Jesus wants to flip tables, one of two things can happen.

Because, you know

When Jesus flips tables, it's pretty intense, right?

It's pretty dramatic.

Causes a scene.

The Gospel of John says that Jesus made a whip.

He went in there whipping.

Come on, come on, Jesus.

Calm down.

You're reacting in anger.

No, no, it's not anger.

It's hope.

Holy jealousy.

It's holy jealousy for the things that were meant to belong to the Lord.

So when Jesus wants to flip a table in your life

You either let it change you or you let it offend you.

That's it.

That's it, because it's so intense.

Jesus is flipping tables.

He's kicking things down.

He's messing up property.

He's messing up everything that was arranged so nicely and neatly.

And you can either let it offend you.

Or you let it change you.

You either take the rebuke, you take the conviction, or you say,

That church talks too much about sin.

I think it was Pastor Brand that sent me something this week.

Pastor Brandon's always sending me memes.

I don't always respond to them, but the ones that are good, I do.

And he sent me one.

He sent me one that it was this like this woman that said, I'm church hurt.

And then the guy was like, tell him the truth.

And then she says, He called out my sin.

Know the difference.

Because Jesus comes in flipping tables, not not to make you mad.

Not because he's full of rage, but because he's jealous for you.

He's jealous for you.

So we have a choice.

We let it change us or we let it offend us.

That church talks too much about sin.

That pastor is always talking about sin.

He's always calling me out.

That church always wants to keep me accountable.

Pastor Larry's always texting me.

He's always asking if I'm coming to the men's thing.

They always just want to disciple me, they always just want to change me.

Let me live my life, and you can you can allow the offense of the gospel

To not do what it needs to do in you, so that one day the Holy Spirit decides that because he is not welcomed, he should just leave.

You can only grieve the Holy Spirit enough before he leaves.

Jesus, why can't you just leave us alone?

Jesus, let me let me worship my way.

Jesus, let me get out of here by by 12.

30 every Sunday because I got plans after church

Jesus, let me love you when it's convenient for me.

Let me pray to you when it's convenient for me, when I need something from you.

But Jesus is saying, look, I'm just trying to protect what belongs to me.

Jesus isn't flipping tables like he used to, right?

In the literal way, but he's still doing it through his Holy Spirit.

Through prophetic word.

Through expository preaching, through conviction.

Some of you know today exactly what tables Jesus is trying to flip.

And you can hear the spirit saying to you, why are you defiling my temple?

Your body is my body.

So brother, brother, when you look at something that you're not supposed to be looking at, you're doing it through his eyes

Are you catching that?

Are you catching that?

Because you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The window from which you look lustfully at another woman is happening through the window of the temple of the body of Christ that you are.

That's why he grieves.

That's why he's so passionate about it.

That's why I don't expect any anything else of Jesus but to flip those tables because he's trying to protect you.

You belong to Him.

So you gotta decide, people of God.

And I don't know what tables Jesus are trying to flip in your life.

I've got no idea.

But you got to decide if you're going to let it offend you or if you're going to let it change you.

Jesus wants to let it change you.

Jesus wants to transform your life, man.

He wants you to be sanctified

He wants you to be holy.

He wants to clothe you in righteousness.

But we got to be able to take it.

We got to be able to say, Lord, search me.

Lord, flip whatever you gotta flip in me.

Have your way in me, Lord.

And I want to stand this morning as we reflect on this.

Hmm, Jesus, we worship you, Lord.

Come on, just close your eyes with me for a moment.

Heavenly Father, my God, search our hearts, Lord.

My God, expose in us, Lord.

Those tables, my God, that should not be standing in your presence

My God, I pray, Lord, that you would make those that are giving you permission this morning.

To be more like you.

To let go of the unholy things, God.

To truly be your children, my God, and look like your children.

Lord, I pray that we would grieve you less, Lord God.

I pray that we would please you more, Father.

Holy Spirit, transform us.

Transform us, my God.

We thank you, Jesus.

If you need to have a moment with God this morning, if you need to overturn some tables in your life, if you need to surrender some things in your life this morning.

I just want to open up these altars.

If you're in need of prayer, our prayer team is here, ready to pray with you.

But my prayer is just that let God do whatever he wants to do in your life.

Give him permission this morning into every area

Draw closer to him.

Thank you, Jesus.

These altars are open.

Worship Team Sing Summer.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.

org.

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Thanks again and God bless.