Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. Sometimes we sing a song and actually don’t know what we’re singing about. So, I want to explain the first song for you. And Cecilia, if you’ll put the words up, please. Cecilia put the words up.
2. Let the king of my heart, be the mountain that I run. The king of my heart be a mountain and I run there? So let me just tell you really quickly what this means.
3. The song is singing that I will make a deliberate choice. For God to be like the mountain in my heart. My place of safety. My place of stability. He’s the king of my heart and I run to him. He’s my mountain. Rather than myself. The mountain, a place of secure shelter. It’s like saying, oh I want you Father God, to be the ultimate ruler.

Pastor Gail – Reading of the Word
4. Amen. Praise God. Amen. Amen. He’s always good. Praise the Lord. You may be seated. Normally, we remain standing for the reading of the Word. But today, we’re going to read a little longer portion. And you have Bibles on the back of your chairs if you’d like to follow along in Matthew 21.
5. Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the beginning of ending or rather beginning, however you want to say it. Amen. The greatest story that will last for all eternity. Matthew 21:1-11 “As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
6. Let’s agree in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you today to be able to remember this day, Lord, of approaching victory, the story Lord, that will last for all eternity. You didn’t come riding, Jesus on a conquering stallion, but Lord, you came on the gentle humble donkey. The Lord today, we thank you for your example. Oh Lord, let us be a servant to all as you were. Lord, that our lives will be your light, that the lost will find their way. We declare today, with thanksgiving, the name of your Son is Jesus, Father. He is Messiah, and we say Hosanna. Oh, Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. The King has come. Reign today and forevermore, for you are King of kings and Lord of lords. Lord, we lift our praise to you today. We lift our praise to you today, the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

Pastor Gail – Welcome and offering
7. One of the ways the Lord wants us to praise him is to give him praise, for what he alone can do. Amen. Sometimes we heard somebody share this morning, the doctors have done all they can. I’m better, but they’ve done all they can. But there is one that can always finish the work. His name is Jesus. He also has the name healer. I am the God who heals thee.
8. If you’re here this morning and you need healing or someone that you know needs healing, whether it’s for the physical body or if it’s for the mind or if it’s for spiritual healing, the Lord is more than able. He is mighty to save and heal. Amen. Why don’t you, I won’t ask, but if you’d like to believe that today for yourself or someone?
9. Just lift your hands today and thank him and praise him that, Lord, I know you can do it. Let’s do this together. Father, in thy name right now, Lord, I believe, Lord, I thank you, Lord, for who you are, God. My faith is in you, O God, Lord. I believe, O Lord, for my son, God. I believe for my brother in the name of the Lord, God. I believe for my cousin that I visited on this trip, God. Lord, she needs a new liver, God. There doesn’t seem to be one, but, God, you know, Lord, you’re able to miraculously give a new liver, Lord. O God, I pray for Jane today, God, for the pain to go for you to heal her hands. God, I pray for the many, Lord, that I know in their minds are troubled, God. Lord, you are the one that brings peace, peace, wonderful peace, peace, wonderful peace. O, hallelujah, hallelujah.
10. O, you are the Prince of Peace, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, God, today. We thank you even as we pray right now, God. You are, O God, with us. You are, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. Lord, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing you cannot do, Lord. And today, God, we’re going to agree together, God. Lord, before we even see it, Lord, we give praises for what you alone can do in the name of the Lord, what you alone can do in the name of Jesus. Amen, and amen. You may be seated.
11. For those of you that this is your church, I missed you last week. Yeah, praise God, I was actually in Tunisia with Pastor Brian and arrived Saturday morning at one o’clock. And I rushed home and took a shower. And Stavros came back at three thirty. And put me back on a plane to America. And I’m here standing on my feet. Praise God.
12. I will tell you; it was very important and I want to just share that really quickly with you in both places. Because the church I went to in America was one of the very first churches that supported us here in Greece.
13. The pastor was retiring or refiring. And he really wanted me to meet the new pastor so that church would continue to support us. Praise God. And he was excited about us. So, he’s going to keep supporting us. Praise the Lord. Thankful to what God does for all of us. Amen. He’s a great, great God.
14. For those of you that follow American baseball, there was also a woman there I hadn’t thought about in years. Eighty-four years old and the New York Yankees call her their spiritual mom. So, I think, oh Lord, you open big doors for us, don’t you? Amen. She told me if I ever want to come to New York and meet the New York Yankees, I could give her a call. Yeah, why not? You never know. Praise God.
15. I will tell you; she gave a testimony that quite a few of them have asked Jesus into their lives and they publicly profess they follow Jesus. Amen. God is good. All the time. Amen.
16. Well, you look good. It’s good to see you today. And we want to make the announcements for this week. This is a very big week.
17. I actually have a confession. When I was growing up, in America, Christmas was the biggest thing of the year. But when I moved to Greece, I realized it’s Easter. It’s Easter. Amen. It finishes the story. Christmas begins the story. But this week, we share together, the victory that Jesus won for every one of us that we can, if we follow Him, live forever with Him. Amen.
18. And I’m planning on living with all of you, even if I don’t know all of you yet. So please know that Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, the church will be open at 7pm. There will already be a devotional printed for you. And if you have a special prayer request, let me know and we will put the prayer request here in the church. We’ll have a little bit of worship right at 7pm.
19. And we’re not having communion today because on Thursday, we hope you will all be here. We will sit at the table and share Holy Communion altogether. And this year, normally we wash feet. But this year, we’re going to be sitting around the table together. So, we will wash hands together this year. And symbolically, you’re remembering Jesus washing feet. And by the way, if you want to wash someone’s feet, because I love it, just let me know and we’ll make sure we have the bowls ready for people that would like to wash feet.
20. And Friday morning, the church is open from 8:30 in the morning. And Leto will have a list. I think she’s on the board there or we’re going to pass it around the room right now. And if you would like to come and pray before the service at 11am, please just sign up. It’s just a beautiful morning. The bells are ringing all through the land. And just to come and spend a little time with the Lord before the word.
21. And of course, Saturday night, which goes all the way into Easter Sunday morning. Don’t forget your ‘lambades,’ your candles. We will be celebrating, Jesus, the light of the world. He lives. He lives. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ lives. Amen. Amen.
22. Let’s make him first this week. Amen. So, I’m going to ask you to greet one another. Stand up and greet somebody and say, let’s make him first this week.
23. We like to receive our tithe and offering for the Lord today. What a privilege. I always like to remember. It’s like putting action to your words. Amen. It’s easy to say I love the Lord. But to actually put something in the offering plate. What’s that in action? Stavros will pray for our offering. Amen.
24. Amen. It’s so good to see Caleb today. He’s part of our church. We miss you. I wanted to just share very quickly. Shawn and Beatrice left early this morning to go back to Mauritius. And they wanted me to share this with you. ‘Meeting all of you was literally an answer to prayer. To all of you, we’ve seen how God moves personally and powerfully. Thank you for the role you played in our lives. We want to express love and gratitude. Thank you for the joy you showed and your servant hearts. We love you.’
25. So, I told them I would share this with all of you. You know why we’re able to have that joy? I know the author. I met the author. His name is Jesus. Would you stand with me? Stand with us.

Pastor Brian – Main Message
26. And Lord, we do just thank you that you are here with us today. You’re present with us. Your presence is among us. And we worship the Lord that is in us. Thank you for being ever present. And Lord, we pray that today your Word would be heard. Lord, let simple truths become profound in our spirits. And let the depth of your Word be made aware to us. Pray this today in your name. In your one name, Jesus. But Lord, today we celebrate the many names that apply to you. So, journey with us. And we will go with you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
27. You can be seated and say amen as you do. We’re going to be talking in this week about some very simple things. But if we take them in, they’re very profound things.
28. This week we’re going to be talking all week through Friday about the incomparable names of Jesus. What does incomparable mean? It means they can’t be compared to anybody else. There are many names because no one name can fully capture who Jesus is. Each one that we’re going to talk about is going to reveal something different about his nature.
29. We’re going to talk about his divine nature. That’s today. There are some names applied to Jesus in the Word that reveal that he is God. On Wednesday we’re going to talk about names that show his authority and his Kingship. On Thursday, which is always a very intimate evening, we’re going to look at names that reveal his personal nature to us.
30. And then on Friday morning, as we remember and, in some sense, we mourn the fact that Jesus had to go to the cross. I mean, I’m glad he did, but I’m sorry that he had to. I rejoice in the work he has done, but something in my spirit says, it should hurt just a little bit that the Father had to send his Son.
31. So, all of these names are more than just titles for Jesus. I want you to hear them as invitations to know him better. As we dwell on these throughout the week, I’m going to give you four names today. If you take notes, I hope you would write them down. If not, pull out your phone and find your little notes there and keep these. And throughout the week, reflect on these names, day by day, night by night.
32. Because even though it’s a very simple thing just to look at the meaning of a name, if we meditate on these, you know what the word meditate means. Especially in his biblical sense when God told the Israelites meditate on the Laws. It means to silence yourself and repeat them again and again.
33. I guarantee you that if you take the time to meditate on his names, and concentrate on the simple Scriptures that I will give you, the Holy Spirit will use that to increase your knowledge of who he is and to deepen your relationship with him. You can say amen.
34. So, each of these will reveal not only who he is, but how he relates to us in our everyday lives. So today we will talk about the names, four names that reveal his divine nature. Don’t let this just pass you by. Dwell in it.
35. The first name has 3 parts, but we’ll start with Son. But who was Jesus? Son of God. Matthew 3:17, at Jesus’ own baptism. The Holy Spirit descends as a dove out of heaven. And words echo out over Jesus. As the Father himself cries out from heaven, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
36. What does it mean that Jesus is Son of God? A few things. In a world that is filled with uncertainty, I hear this said almost every day somewhere, especially living here for some reason. I wake up every day and I wonder what’s going to happen today. Where am I going to get blocked in the street? What struggle am I going to have at that office? Where is my time going to get taken away and absorbed? How is life going to affect me positively or negatively today?
37. It seems like fewer people know where they’re going. Maybe have less of a plan for life because somehow it seems harder to plan. We don’t know what markets are going to do. We don’t know what governments are going to do. We don’t know where the next war will be. We don’t know how close all of these things will hit to home. And they all can.
38. Life is uncertain, but this name, it reminds us that Jesus is not a part of our human weakness. Jesus is not limited by our humanity. Jesus carries divine authority. He said, ‘I speak the things the Father tells me to say. I do the things the Father tells me to do. And because that’s who I am, everything I say, everything I promise will come to pass.’
39. There’s no uncertainty in him. There’s divine authority. There’s perfect wisdom. And in Jesus, there is unfailing power. This is why he boldly spoke the parable, indicating that building life with him, is the equivalent of building your house on rock. When people visit us here, they’re always surprised to learn how many earthquakes we have. Especially in the Attica area.
40. An earthquake has to be pretty good, a pretty strong one for us to feel it very much. We wake up those mornings and say, hey, did you feel that last night? And some of us will say, yeah, I felt it shake a little bit. And others of us will say, no, I slept perfectly, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
41. Why? Because we live on a big piece of rock, and its deep rock, and it takes a lot to make that move too much. But walk out to the beach sometime and experience an earthquake there. Doesn’t take a lot to move the sand. Make your feet slide a little bit.
42. Life with Jesus, divine authority, perfect wisdom, unfailing power. You want to know absolutely how to behave or how to make a choice? Turn to the Son of God. When we place our trust in him, please listen to this. When you place your trust in Jesus, that is not putting your faith in hope. Well, I hope.
43. When you put your faith in Jesus. We do still hope, that’s part of us, that’s our humanity. And hope is a good thing. Better to hope than to despair. But biblical hope is not, for my former or present Persian friends, those from this background, on hope in Jesus is not inshallah.
44. Biblical hope is a foundational knowledge. And when I become uncertain, it’s often because I have not been communing and meditating and understanding who the Son of God is and what he desires. Because our hope is built on the very strength of God himself. The next time somebody tells you that your faith is a crutch, say, thank God, I’ve got it to help me walk.
45. The second name I want us to hear today. We sang it. He is not just Son of God out in a way, he is Immanuel. God with us. Isaiah 7:14. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” This truth speaks to the human heart. Or at least it should. There are moments when life feels overwhelming. Don’t say amen. Amen means so be it. Just say, yes, it’s true.
46. Sometimes life seems overwhelming, at least it does for me. When burdens pile up. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some things to worry about in life. Or when your loneliness creeps in. When it seems like everything is kind of just stacked up against you.
47. This name reassures us. You are literally never in anything alone. Sometimes we may experience human loneliness, but we are never actually alone. I think this is one that we don’t meditate on enough. It’s our human nature to continue to keep God out there.
48. But God became man for a purpose. He dwelt among us. And then he said, I’m going to leave so I can send another one, the Holy Spirit, who is better for you, because he will not live among you. But he will live in you, God with us.
49. God has drawn near. It is true that he walks with us in every trial. That he rejoices with us in every victory. And he remains present even when we cannot feel him. Do we believe that? Meditate on it. He is Immanuel.
50. And then in John 1:1, his third name today, he is called, ‘The Word,’ the living message of God. If you know it, just quietly say it with me. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And that passage goes on to say, and the Word Jesus, the logos became flesh and dwelt among us.”
51. Through him, the Logos. What does the Word mean? It doesn’t just mean a text, a word. The depth of that word actually means the divine reason of God. Jesus makes sense of everything about God. Through him, through his written Word, through our relationship with the living Word, God speaks clearly into the noise that we live in.
52. If we actually stop to include him, he includes himself. And in that, he reveals God’s character to us. Things like God’s mercy, his love, his truth. Don’t we really want to understand these things? When we seek direction, when we long for clarity.
53. I hope you long for clarity. Because if we just live life wandering, it quickly becomes a very weary way to live. One person once said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you are guaranteed to get there.’ In other words, if you’re going nowhere, nowhere is where you’re going to get.
54. I need direction. I need to sense that the Lord has me moving somewhere. I need not to sense that he changes his mind about me every week. One of the worst phrases in Christianity, only because we spit it out too easily. One of the worst phrases, is God told me.
55. Number one, you can’t reason with anybody after that. Who might argue with God? But it’s amazing how often God tells me this today and tells me something else tomorrow. That’s not following God. That’s confusion. That will lead very quickly to dissolution. And that doesn’t mean that God won’t sometimes take us this way, to then take us this way. But he’s not doing it on a constant and consistent basis.
56. We need to stop and seek clarity, before we make directions. Because the Logos, the divine Word of God. The reasoning behind what God does, is available to your life. We can know that Jesus is God’s perfect communication. Meditate on the Logos.
57. And the fourth one, Pastor Gail, you can get ready. In the book of Revelation, 22:13, oh, how majestic is this one? “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I am the first and the last.”
58. You ever think about the difference between beginning and end and first and last? Don’t those, kind of sound the same? They’re not, with Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God and the Word was with God. Before the beginning began, Jesus is. Before the world, before time, before anything.
59. Notice the tense I use. Not Jesus was. Before it, in the beginning, Jesus is. And when all of our time is said and done, Jesus is. This is what gives us the assurance of eternity. Because not only is he the beginning and the end, but he’s the first.
60. He was the first-born son. He was the first and until now only sinless man. Man meaning mankind, ladies. He was the first and the last. But in the last, the Bible tells us that he will return and he will make us like him. He’s the beginning and the end, eternal on all sides. But he’s the first and the last so that we can enter into that with him.
61. This is what the Bible calls our great faith. All throughout the Bible there’s faith. Abraham had faith to leave Ur and become Abraham. David had faith to take rocks and kill a giant. Lots of faith in the Bible.
62. But our great faith is this. That in the end, we have eternal life. Because he is the Alpha and Omega. This anchors our faith. It reminds us that God is in control of every chapter of history. We say it all the time, but it’s such a simple truth.
63. God is never caught by surprise. You didn’t do anything yesterday that God went, ‘Ooh, I didn’t see that coming.’ You won’t ever be a part of anything in the rest of your story that God is not already there. The same one who began a good work, the Bible says, is faithful to bring it to completion.
64. The day you put your faith in Jesus, you are what united with him. Forever. And we’re not going to get into doctrines of, can you lose your salvation? I have an opinion about that. You can ask me after service. But let these things settle into your spirit today.
65. The four sections of the names of Jesus should remind us of this. In moments of doubt, he is divine. He is the Son of God. In moments of loneliness or feeling lost, remember he is Immanuel. He is with you. Right now, Jesus is with you.
66. In moments of confusion, remember he speaks. He is the Logos. And in moments of uncertainty, when you’re wondering about your future, remember, he holds the beginning and the end. And however this thing ends.
67. Lars, I’ve got a few breaths left to breathe. All of us, we have a few breaths left to breathe. Before, as Pastor Gail says, we either die or we fly. Our future is certain. Meditate on these things because his names are promises. They are not titles, they are promises. And every promise he makes, he faithfully keeps.
68. And God’s people can say, Amen…

Pastor Gail – Closeout
69. Today we have the opportunity to invite the King into our heart in a deeper way, or maybe for the first time. He is always with us. He is here. But is he outside or is he inside? Would you stand with me. And where you’re at this morning, just invite him in either deeper or for the first time.