This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

[Music] Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Mark chapter 11 this week. Mark
chapter 11 begins the last week of Jesus' earthly life.

This is the chapter where that week begins. And in many ways as we enter into
this chapter, these chapters that talk about this last week of Jesus' life,
we're entering into a very holy place. We have walked with Jesus as he reached
out to a lost world.

We've walked alongside of his life and calling and his commitment as we saw him
baptized, as he fought Satan in the wilderness. We've walked beside him and seen
his love as he reached out to teach and to heal people. We've walked beside him
in frustration over disciples who wouldn't learn and Pharisees who were full of
hate.

With Mark chapter 11 we begin a new and different walk. We walk beside Jesus
during the last week of his earthly life. Now tomorrow we're going to begin the
verses in this chapter.

Today I'd like to just remind you of what happened during this last week. It's a
good thing I think to have it as a picture in our minds. We'll be looking at
this last week of Jesus' life, walking through the next several weeks, several
chapters of the book of Mark.

So what happened in this last week? What happened on Sunday and Monday? And what
happened on Thursday?

What happened on Saturday? What happened on the next Sunday? Here is the last
week of Jesus' life as if you were seeing it on a calendar, on Sunday.

He enters Jerusalem as king. And you have these pictures that may be familiar to
you of the palm branches that are waving and the people shouting out, "Hosanna,
save us, save us. " That's what happens on Sunday.

On Monday, Jesus enters Jerusalem as a priest. He comes in and that's the day
that he cleanses the temple. He comes in and that's the day that he teaches
strongly the cleansing power of God in our lives.

On Tuesday, Jesus enters Jerusalem as a prophet. And on that day, that's a
teaching day. In fact, this week as we look at the teaching of Jesus on that
day, it's going to be an amazing day.

Because the way that he taught turns everything in life right side up. That's
what happened on Tuesday of that last week of Jesus' earthly life. On Wednesday,
it's pretty much a day of rest.

Jesus was getting ready for what was to come. And so he probably stayed in
Bethany with his friends. And out in Bethany, he rested and waited and prepared
his heart and spirit for what would happen on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday, Jesus enters Jerusalem, but this time it's not as king or priest or
prophet. He enters Jerusalem as the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. He begins on Thursday by teaching.

And then we have all those familiar events of the Garden of Gethsemane and that
long night, the arrest of Jesus Christ going into the next morning. And so on
Friday, you have the day of Jesus' death. Jesus on the cross.

As we walk through these last chapters of the book of Mark, we're going to come
to Friday. We're going to come to that last moment of Jesus' last breath in his
earthly body. But that is not the end.

Friday is not the end of this week. There is Saturday. There is Jesus in the
tomb.

There is that silent day when no one knows what's going to happen. And then
there is Sunday. There is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Where everyone celebrates something they never believed, never expected, even
though Jesus has told them many times he's going to rise in the third day. They
just don't expect it. And he does the totally unexpected.

Now in many ways, this last week of Jesus' life teaches us about the kind of
life that he wants us to live. The kind of relationship that we're to have with
him. If I'm going to live every week of my life in an empowered way, in a way
that allows God to be working through my life, then I've got to recognize Jesus
for who he is.

The king, the priest, the prophet, the lamb of God. I've got to recognize Jesus
for what he has done. He has taught, he has healed, he has cared, but he's also
died.

And he's also been resurrected again. And there is in this last week of Jesus'
life all the power that I need for every week of my life. But there is one more
thing here.

As we enter into this last week of Jesus' life, there is one more thing that you
and I need to get a hold of in order to really see what God wants to do in our
lives. As we've been walking through these last several chapters of the book of
Mark, we've seen again and again that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.
This last week of Jesus' life did not happen by accident.

It's not as if he just happened to be in Jerusalem and they just happened to
arrest him. Now everything was intentional. Jesus knew what was going to happen.

So he set his face. He made his decision. He determined with all his will to go
to Jerusalem.

And what was Jerusalem for Jesus? Jerusalem, here's the definition for his life
and for my life. Jerusalem was the sacrificial center of God's will.

Jerusalem was the center of God's will for Jesus' life. It's exactly where God
wanted him at this exact moment in human history. But it was more than that.

It was the sacrificial center of God's will. For Jerusalem, for Jesus, was a
place of sacrifice. He was going there to give his life on a cross.

Oh, to be resurrected again. There is a resurrection on the other side of
sacrifice, but there's also a sacrifice that comes before the resurrection. So
as you and I look at Jesus Christ, who is our model, he is the one that we
follow.

To be a believer in Jesus Christ is to say, "I want to follow you. " And Jesus
said, "If you want to follow me, you've got to take up your cross daily. " There
is something about the lesson of Jesus Christ and the fact that he made his
decision to go to Jerusalem.

He made his decision to be in the sacrificial center of God's will. There is
something about that that I've got to get a hold of in my life. I've got to ask
myself, what is my Jerusalem?

Where is the sacrificial center of God's will in my life? And I have to ask
myself, am I willing to go there? Not just be taken there, not accidentally
stumble across that place.

Am I willing to go there, knowing full well that it's going to be a place of
sacrifice? Now, for most of us, this sacrificial center of God's will is in the
simple choice to serve the people in our daily lives. That is why Jesus, again
and again, these last several chapters of the book of Mark has been telling us,
"If you're going to be like me, you've got to serve others.

If you want to be great, you've got to serve others. You've got to humble
yourself like this child and serve others. " For most of us, the sacrificial
center of God's will is not moving to a different place.

It's not getting a different job. It is deciding to love my family, the people
that I work with, the people that I go to school with, the people that I
encounter every day, to love them like Jesus loves them. And that means
sacrificing my selfish desires in order to serve others.

You can't serve others without sacrificing your selfish desires. It's making the
decision that instead of being served, I'm going to serve. Now, I know that as I
say this, as I talk about the sacrificial center of God's will, for some of you
listening to this, it is a particular place that God wants you to go.

And it's hitting your mind right now because there is a place that God wants you
to go. Your Jerusalem has a geographical location right now. He wants you to go
to this country, this city, this job, this calling.

I know that for others of you, this sacrificial center of God's will is a
particular ministry that he's calling you to. You know you need to be serving
this people, that people. It might be children.

It might be students in high school. It might be people who are suffering with
some handicap. It might be the poor.

There is some particular group of people that God is asking you to serve. I'm
fully aware that as I talk about this center of God's will and this place of
sacrifice in our lives, that there are times in all of our lives where God says
it is right here, right now. But I also know that for all of us, every day of
our lives, every week of our lives, it is in this choice to serve the people
that are around us.

And Jesus is our model. And I want to follow him. I want to be like him.

But I need his power if I'm going to live the kind of life that he lived. Let's
ask for it together right now. Jesus, as we talk to you for a few minutes, first
of all we ask that you help us just to walk with you during this last week of
your life.

To see your heart. To understand your motivations. God, we pray that you help us
to see in Jesus the deep, deep love that you have for us.

I pray also, we pray together, that you would impact our hearts, our lives,
through your example. Jesus, you were willing to go to Jerusalem, that place of
sacrifice, that center of God's will. Help us to be willing to go to our
Jerusalem today.

Even if it's some small act of service that we think is so small it's not even
worthy of being called a sacrifice. God, help us to do it. Though no one else
may notice, help us to choose that place of sacrifice, that place of service,
asking for your strength and power.

Give us strength and power, Jesus Christ, from you today. And thank you for
loving us. In your name we pray.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to look at Sunday.

Jesus entering Jerusalem as King. God bless you.