This has been radiant news Good morning radiant family. How's everybody doing? Can we just take a moment and welcome our online family and our portage family? Come on. Let's put our hands together Welcome you guys. We love you glad you're here Real quickly. I know we've said it a few times, but Reinforcement so next weekend with it being Easter I wanted to challenge you to do a couple things if radiant is home and you come regularly Number one is we're gonna ask you to pray pray this week That we'll make much of Jesus and both here and at every church in our community We want every church to be absolutely packed out with people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, right? So pray that and pray also about who God would lead you to invite to come with you to church Next weekend for one of our Easter services 80% of unchurched people People don't go to church or used to go to church and have stopped don't know the Lord all those categories 80% of them will go to church if they are invited by somebody who will go with them So that's up to us. This is part of this is the easy part of evangelism of just saying, you know Being friendly being nice and inviting someone to come with you when you're at a restaurant And you leave a tip leave an invite card leave a really good tip and then leave an invite card or text somebody call somebody send somebody a link from Facebook or Instagram and Invite them to come with you to Easter and then here's the other thing is it doesn't matter which campus you're at We have added some services. So especially the Richland folks that 1030 services going to be like this It's gonna just be packed and standing room only so we need to divide the Red Sea We need some of you to sleep in a little bit later come to 1230. I know it's a lot to ask Here's what you can just be like, you know, I'm a missionary. I'm sleeping until noon. Just doing it for the Lord Or you can like get up early like Jesus did and come to the 830 service That would be fantastic or or try this out Both at Portage and at Richland if you've ever wanted to go check out our Portage campus Portage We have a Saturday night Easter service along with our Saturday night here So go on over there to one of the Saturday nights or come here Saturday night That will really help us last year. Just give you an idea. We had about 7,000 people in church For Easter and so we're probably expecting that or even more than that So we're just trying to make room for everybody. So your help is greatly appreciated Turn with me in your Bibles this morning wherever you're at to Matthew chapter 21 While you're turning there, let me just highlight a couple things that are coming up the next few weeks That are gonna be things you're gonna want to know here at radiant next weekend obviously is Easter The weekend after Easter. I will be Introducing to you my new book. It's called flourish and it you we're not going public with it It's not gonna be on Amazon or sold in bookstores We want to release it to radiant church first because it's our story So the book is called flourish planting your life where God designed it to to thrive and we're gonna have it here That's so it's gonna be flourish weekend. That's the following weekend then after that on May Let's see May 4th or May 3rd 3rd and 4th that weekend We are going to start for the next three weeks red hot. How many remember red hot? Okay, so it's live Text in questions and answers any of your questions about family and relationships about Bible and theology The last week will be wild card where you can ask anything about anything live on the spot put the pastor on the spot I'll see the question when it comes up on the screen at the exact same time Everybody sees it and I'm gonna do my best to not sweat like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee and answer the question According to the Bible so that red hot is coming and then we're gonna be launching our summer series called Heroes New Testament Edition, so there's some good stuff coming down the pike. All right Matthew chapter 21 Look with me here at verse number one It says now when they that's Jesus and his disciples when they drew near To Jerusalem and they came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two disciples saying to them go into the village in front of you and Immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her Untie them and bring them to me if anyone says anything to you you shall say the Lord needs them and Then they will send them at once This took place to fulfill which was spoken by the prophet saying Sada the daughter of Zion behold your king is coming to you humble and Mounted on a donkey on a colt the full of a beast of burden The disciples went and did as Jesus directed them and they brought the donkey in the colt and put on Them their cloaks and he sat on them Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches From the trees and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting Hosanna To the son of David Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest and When he entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up saying who is this? And the crowd said this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee Verse 12 and Jesus entered the temple and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple And he overturned the tables of the money changers in the seats of those who sold pigeons And he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer But you make it into a den of robbers and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple And he healed them but when the chief priests and the scribes Saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David they were indignant and they said to him do you hear what they are saying? And Jesus said to them. Yes. Have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes? You have prepared Praise I've entitled this message this morning a strange way to save the world a Strange way to save the world today is the day when we commemorate Jesus's triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem This is the story that we just read. It's the beginning of Passover week It's the beginning of what for Jesus will be his passion week We know that in the next several days as Jesus enters the city That Jesus will appear in the temple almost daily And the reason why that's significant is Jesus comes as the ultimate Passover lamb Paul writes in first Corinthians That Jesus is our Passover lamb He's the fulfillment of all the types and all the shadows that in the Passover meal the lamb represented The lamb was the spotless lamb the lamb needed to be Investigated it needed to be inspected by the priests before it could be offered as a sacrifice So Jesus as the Passover lamb enters into the city and he appears in the temple daily to be inspected to be questioned To be interrogated to prove that they could find nothing in Jesus during this week Holy week or passion week Jesus will spend one last evening with his disciples the last supper and he'll Take the Passover meal together with his disciples and at the end of it He'll institute a new covenant and he'll take the bread and he'll say this is my body He'll take the cup and he says this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins Do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me remember me Jesus will in this week go to the Garden of Gethsemane On the Mount of Olives, and he will pray one last time God if there's any other way Let this cup pass for me But nevertheless not my will but yours be done and that same evening Jesus will be arrested illegally tried He'll stand before a pilot. He'll stand before the Sanhedrin Council and The order will be given for Jesus to be scourged for him to be beaten and for him to be crucified You see this week on Friday Jesus will be forced to carry his own cross After Experiencing scourging with the cat anine tails and you know We can form a man named Simon of Cyrene will be forced to carry his cross and take it to a place called Galgotha outside the city walls of Jerusalem and Jesus the son of the living God will allow his hands to be nailed to the cross beams in his feet after a crown of thorns has been crammed down onto his head and after He's been beaten severely Jesus will be lifted up in humiliation and agony in excruciating pain For six hours on the cross to die for the sins of the world and Jesus will give up his spirit into the hands of the father and all day Saturday Jesus will remain in the tomb but on Sunday an Angel will roll the stone away and The son of the living God will be resurrected from the dead And he will have the keys of death hell in the grave in his hands forever more and he will rise from death Victorious an overcomer the king of kings and the Lord of lords And he will have made a way for each and every one of us to be saved and to be right with God praise the Lord Jesus is a lot This this is the week and how it begins though Jesus has spent several weeks making the journey from Galilee in the north down to Jerusalem in the south In fact, I think we have a map here that charts out the journey of Jesus from the Sea of Galilee Capernaum along the well tread trail all the way down to Jerusalem and As he enters into the city of Jerusalem one last time He has just left Jericho Jericho was further to the east. It was his last stop and from Jericho to Jerusalem It's 14 miles of climbing almost 3,000 foot of elevation change It wasn't the easiest way to get to Jerusalem But it was Jesus's chosen way and the reason why it was chosen is because Jesus was making a messianic declaration Jericho was significant. How many know that Jericho was the place where Joshua fought the battle of and The walls what did they do? That's right. See it was the first City that Israel conquered as they entered into the Promised Land It was the first. Do you know what the last was? It was Jerusalem David conquered it and ushered and ushered in the golden era of David And if you notice the cries of the crowd, they're saying Hosanna Blessed is the son of David. So the Messiah the the messianic figure that Israel was anticipating who would come who would Forgive who would heal who would restore the golden era of Israel who would restore the kingdom and Fulfill the promises that God had made to Israel through Abraham Isaac and Jacob. They called the Messiah the son of David So as Jesus goes from Jericho to Jerusalem He's making a prophetic statement that God has begun the work of salvation at Jericho And now he's about to finish it in Jerusalem And now as Jesus comes with his disciples And they're climbing up the trail towards Jerusalem and they come to the Mount of Olives The eastern most border of the city of Jerusalem and they climb up Mount of Olives And they're looking down into the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount The disciples know that this is a significant moment the crowds come and they've been following Jesus for quite a while Many of them all the way from Galilee Many of them kind of figured out what was about to happen They were living in Jericho and they said we heard word that Jesus is going into Jerusalem Jesus was not just making a trip to Jerusalem. Jesus was going to Jerusalem on Purpose and everybody knew that this he's the Messiah. He's going to Jerusalem on Passover week This is the day. This is it. This is this is the countdown This is the countdown to Messiah Restoring Israel. This is the countdown to God saving us Rescuing us from our old pressers This is the moment where the Messiah the son of David is going to come he's going to walk into Jerusalem He's going to sit down on the throne like David and he's going to restore the kingdom In fact, they knew it because it's quoted in Matthew 21 where it says that he came in on a donkey And the reason why he came in on a donkey is because Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 says behold daughters of Zion when your Messiah your king comes He will come lowly and humble riding in on a donkey everybody knew that and Jesus knew that the disciples knew that that's why he did it They knew the prophetic symbolism. So when Jesus said hey, go get me a donkey.  Can you go grab me a donkey? It probably wouldn't have the same meaning for you It's like what do you want a donkey for it's a donkey. How about a quad? No donkey I need a I need a donkey. They knew what Jesus was doing, but listen. They also knew it verse 10 said in Zechariah verse 9 and 10 chapter 9 It says and not only will he come humble in on the donkey, but when he comes he will break the bow He will put away war he will make peace with all the nations and he will establish the kingdom from the great sea all The way to the Euphrates River They would not have segmented it into just the first part They would have seen the second part of the messianic promise as well. That's why they're shouting Hosanna How many grew up going to church on Palm Sunday? You got one of these Like grew up doing that. I did I went to United Methodist Church, and we always got one I didn't know what they were for I just knew I could smack my friend on the back of the head with We get them and just Hosanna we're waving and chanting Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? It's a Hosanna is actually a word that comes from the Hebrew. It's the Hebrew transliteration the real word is Hoshanna And it means victory Salvation now Think about that literally when they were throwing down their palm branches For Jesus to walk on and they're shouting to Jesus Hoshanna I mean the crowds are gathering right there's swelling and Jerusalem would have been crowded because it's Passover people from every nation All over the world Jews would have gathered for Passover for pilgrimage, and they're shouting. Yes, Shana Here's what they might as they might as well have been playing Da-da-na-na-na Da-da-na-na-na Da-da-na-na-na That's final countdown Remember the bulls when they would come out championships, and they would and now your Chicago Bulls Da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da. I love that Boys want to do that in church But that's it might as well have done that for Jesus because when they're waving saying Hosanna They're not just saying all this is fun to do. They're saying no, this is victory you see the palm branch was a symbol in Israel of Israel's ultimate messianic victory Actually, if you go back in history, and you look at coins that were minted in the days of Jesus and after Jesus They would have palm branches on them because it was their declaration. We will be victorious It was messianic. It wasn't just we're gonna win. It's when God acts in history When God acts on our behalf in history We're gonna win and not only are we gonna win but the Messiah is gonna come and when the Messiah comes all of our problems They're gonna go away. He's going to take the throne of his father David and he's gonna restore our borders He's gonna restore our dignity God is going to forgive our sins He's gonna usher in the world to come and they thought all of that was happening all right then That's why they're shouting Hosanna to Jesus and Jesus was on his way into the city To bring the kingdom of God to save his people To overthrow their oppressors to bring victory and to bring salvation it Just wasn't going to be the way. They all thought it was going to be You see they thought when Jesus comes Victory or when the Messiah comes victory would come by him defeating all of their enemies But what they didn't realize is that their greatest enemy was not an enemy Around them or against them, but it was the enemy within them You see remember that those scriptures that we like to quote like Isaiah chapter 54 where it says no weapon Against you shall prosper how many of ever remember that verse. It's like no weapon formed against you shall prosper every tongue That rises up against you an accusation you shall condemn when we love those verses Whenever we're under attack, but what do you do when the weapon that's formed against you is actually formed within you? What do you do when the tongue that rises an accusation against you is actually your own tongue Self-condemning you by your very own words What do you do when instead of the greatest threat against your salvation and against your eternal life and against your future is not the devil It's not the person that you view as your enemy.  That's what Jesus absolutely knew. He knew as he came into the city of Jerusalem He was going to take his seat on a throne But it was not the throne that they all thought he was gonna take his throne was gonna be a cross You see there will come a day that as as followers of Jesus what we believe and what the Bible teaches very clearly now on the other Side of the cross and the resurrection is that Jesus's the Messiah's coming would be divided into two parts the first part was he was gonna come as a humble servant who would Die upon a cross as a suffering servant that God would vindicate by raising them from the dead and that would bring about salvation of our sins and Freedom from spiritual bondage and oppression so that we could have a relationship with God because that was our real enemy But there would also come a time when that same Jesus remember Acts chapter 1 the angel announces to the disciples this same Jesus whom you see depart will a likewise return there is coming a day when Jesus the Son of David Is going to pierce the eastern sky he's gonna return in physical visible form all those who pierced him shall see him All nations shall weep for him and his feet will touch the Mount of Olives And he will march through the eastern gate and he will sit on the throne of his father David And he will rule forever and ever as king of kings and Lord of lords Jesus is coming again He will fulfill verse 10 of Zechariah chapter 9 he will do it But they thought it was all gonna happen right then and here was the biggest biggest issue is they all thought that salvation or victory meant God Dealing with their oppressors and their enemies and they didn't realize they were their worst enemy Because they like us Our radioactive We're radioactive with sin Sin from the inside out that's our biggest enemy That's why in Mark chapter 7 Jesus said this he said it's not what goes into a man that defiles him It's what comes out of a man in other words the source of Everything that's defiling and everything that's wrong and everything that's corrupt actually comes from inside of us We think the opposite we think all the things that are wrong in our lives are the result of other things other enemies But you know Roman says that the wages of sin is death How many have ever sinned if you didn't raise your hand that was your first one? Welcome to the club Jesus said and John in Mark chapter 7 He said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for within Out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts anybody ever evil thought raise your hand One person's like my hand raising my hand. Yeah, that's evil.  I know that we have enemies. I know that there are things that are external that are challenges and obstacles I know that there is a devil I Think sometimes we give the devil far too much credit For the havoc that's in our life when he really doesn't need to do much because we're pretty good at making a jacked-up mess of our own lives But what Jesus realized is the only way to save the world Was for him to become one of us and to take our place and suffer The penalty of sin which is death Jesus the only one who is sinless the only one the only man who's ever lived and never sinned not won once The innocent became guilty for us so that you and I the guilty could be caught could be called and declared innocent by God Romans 8 says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life It's the gift of God and Jesus knew that and that's why he had his face set like flint as he entered into the city Is he entered into Jerusalem and while they're all shouting Hosanna victory salvation? It's now Jesus said yeah, absolutely They just didn't know how it was gonna go down They had misconceptions and What's interesting is the very same crowds that were shouting Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord We're the same crowd that about five days later were shouting crucify him Why it's because their expectations were not met Their expectations were not met. This isn't how you're supposed to save the world Jesus You don't go to the cross and give up. We want to we want a warrior.  Jesus was not cooperating with their plan, but he was cooperating with God's plan And he come to save the world, but he was going to do it in a strange way all the way to the cross but it didn't Start with the cross it started with Jesus in his triumphal entry into the city And immediately he goes up into the temple the house of God and he overthrows tables money changers those who were corrupt lawyers and Pharisees that were kind of religious leaders that basically they said look if you want access To worship God you got to go through us and you're gonna have to use temple money Temple money was kind of like if you wanted to buy an animal to sacrifice you couldn't use your money You had to use temple money and temple money had a user recharge So it's like well You can buy a pigeon to offer to God to fulfill what Leviticus says is necessary for your guilt offering You want to be right with God, but you got to go through me and I'll tell you what I'm gonna do a pigeon costs $10 Oh, let me let me pay that out and they said no no no not ten not ten dollars of your money ten dollars of temple money Well, I've got ten dollars. Give me ten dollars a temple money. You know that cost fifty dollars Well, I can't afford fifty dollars, then I guess you can't be forgiven It's kind of like the guys on Christian television who oftentimes will say You can have a miracle For a gift of five hundred and ninety nine dollars. I Thought it was freely you've received therefore freely give I Didn't know there's a price tag attached to the grace of God. You see not only were they charging? Usury, but they were so creating barriers by legal details Saying you can't worship God unless you have my help it was they were a symbol of a Legalistic system that kept people at an arms length away from God. That's why when Jesus walked in the temple He threw him over man. That just must have felt good Let's walk into there Throw that get out of my way. You've made my house at dinner robbers. I want it to be a house of prayer for everybody And it says immediately the blind and the land came to Jesus Why is that significant because blind people and lame people weren't allowed in the temple. They were unclean But now they begin to hear hey, Jesus is in town and wherever Jesus is miracles happen And so they rushed the temple. Oh, yeah, I'm blind son of David. He'll meet Jesus heals them Lame people are brought in lame people can't walk Which means somebody had to carry them in somehow some way they had to get in there And so they're carrying their lame people and they're bringing them up in the middle of all these crowds of religious people and Tables turned over and coins flying everywhere. Jesus is making a mess And Jesus heals the lame people and they're walking Children's choir over to the right begins to shout hoes on oh And the religious leaders are freaking out because religious leaders are Pharisees and Sadducees Here's what their experts at they are experts at creating legal system legalistic law-centered performance oriented Ladders that people have to climb in order to get to God But Jesus had climbed down the ladder of heaven come as one of us to all of us to heal any of us who would come to him Jesus stands in the temple Ho Zana Now listen, here's what I want to tell you is that? Jesus came in a strange way to save the world When he entered into the city and in the same strange way Jesus saves us individually You see oftentimes we think the things that are keeping us back from walking in Joy and happiness and fulfillment in life are external things We think if God would just do this it would change everything if if God would listen if God would defeat Isis in the Middle East We would have peace and safety and we could go back to life before as it was If God would just defeat all the terrorism that's out there and it's a real threat, but can I tell you? You change the external we still have an internal issue How many know that even people that are far away from Christ that are in ice Here's the hard thing to wrap your mind around about Jesus that when Jesus was on the cross He wasn't just dying for white American folks He was dying for al-Qaeda and Isis He was dying for communists Believe this or not. He was dying for Republicans and Jesus was dying for Democrats He was dying for rich people Jesus was dying for poor people Jesus was dying for popular people. Jesus was dying for obscure people Jesus was dying John 316 was to say for God so loved It's everybody But we oftentimes make enemies The battlefield where salvation is waged. We think God if you love me you'll defeat my enemies That's when I'll I'll be really happy if you defeat the person on the other side of the aisle Then salvation will come to our nation. It'll come to me Or we think God if I could just if I could just have that right relationship, man I mean I'm lonely. I'm single. I'm like 31 years old and still waiting for that right one I've been on Christian mingle and Christian tingle and e harmony and farmers dating website And I'm just looking for that right. I'm scrolling. I'm scrolling. I'm liking. I'm communicating And I just can't find that right one Lord when that right one comes then my life will be complete I will have found my la Fonda my soulmate We think it's external But if you can't be the right one, you'll never find the right one See that's why I tell young people instead of you searching for the right one. How about work? I'm becoming the right one. So when you find the right one, they'll recognize you or hey God if you just took care of my financial issues my problems man. I mean my life would be set I mean the only issues I have are financial, but it can I just tell you that money is just like miracle girl Whatever you put it on it will just make it more So if you add miracle girl to sin, it'll just expand that if you give money to a corrupt Radioactive individual money will just make you more of who you already were Money doesn't solve problems Now monies can do a lot of good money can do a lot of bad Do you know I heard that over 90% of the I can't remember 90% of the $20 bills in the US have traces of cocaine on them. I don't even know if that's true. I heard it I I I actually I read it on the interweb So it's got to be true Listen the point is this the problems that we have are not external The things that Jesus comes to save us from are not external You see Jesus entered into the temple in a very strange way to begin saying the world But today he doesn't enter temples today. He enters our lives And when he comes into our life, what does he do? Does he immediately deal with our enemies issues? Does he deal with the spouse we're married to does he deal with their issues? Now when Jesus enters into our life, what does he do? He starts overthrowing tables overthrowing areas of our life where there's corruption overthrowing areas of our life where we've allowed legalism to set in where we've created self-constructed belief systems Or patterns of behavior that others have told us if you'll do these things, you'll be right with God If you just act like this Then you can you'll be right with God if you do that. That's really bad if you don't do this, you know smoke and drink That's bad, but lie and cheat on your taxes. Everybody does that We have legalism in Jesus's day Under the old Jewish dispensation there were 613 laws in the Old Testament That nobody could keep Nobody kept them all if you broke one you broke them all The law was never meant to listen the law of Moses was never given by God in order for it to be a means of salvation He didn't send Jesus because it was too complicated and we couldn't figure out the law was actually given by God to convince us That we did not have it within ourselves to save ourselves by our good behavior He gave us the law to expose to us our drastic need of him to come and to save us from the inside out So what does Jesus do? He shows up in our lives and instead of giving us a better set of rules and say Here's your ten do these things and you'll be right with me No, Jesus comes and he starts overthrowing tables. No that belief system You think you can improve yourself your best form of yourself focus on yourself. Oh, that's all garbage And I'm gonna I'm gonna just turn these tables over right now because your heart was never meant to be a religious Institution of performance under God your heart was meant to be the holy of holies where you and your father have an intimate one-on-one relationship and Then what does he do? Well Jesus somebody was about to clap and that would have made me feel really good But you were just tenth of a second too late. So It's alright, but I forgive you. No, I forgive No, it's alright. It's grace. It's grace.  You got what you deserve Jesus heals him I Want you to know that you may have 2020 site, but all of us start our journey with Jesus being healed from spiritual blindness 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 4 says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers So that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God When Jesus finds us we're all spiritually blind. I don't know about you, but when I look back on my life before Jesus The words of amazing grace I was once blind But now I see If you ever thought to yourself how in the world did I not see this How in the world was I seeing the world? I was I was I was blind to The gospel I was blind to who Jesus was the disciples were blind To how Jesus came to save the world It wasn't until the resurrection that their eyes opened, you know the beautiful thing about Jesus is when he saves us He doesn't come to make us a better version of ourself. He comes to make the dead soul on the inside of us alive in him And he heals us the places where we're lame where we're broken Where we were fine, but Something happened trauma happened in our lives and we find ourselves broken unable to walk unable to follow him Can't follow Jesus if he can't walk Jesus doesn't walk away from us and say I guess you can't he reaches down to everyone who said listen to me This is for somebody this morning. You've thought for a long time. I just don't have what it takes to follow Jesus I've tried You've looked at your life and said I'm just not cut out for it because spiritually you've been lame I want you to know that in the name of Jesus today, he reaches down He says you don't have it in your own strength But today I'm going to heal your heart and give you the ability to follow me rise up take up your met and follow me and lastly What's the last thing that Jesus does it says that the Fair season Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Saying hosanna son of david the kids The kids see what jesus is doing And how many no kids They're gonna have a party no matter what And they're singing Son of david hosanna hosanna hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord, you know kids when they sing They sing without constraint. They sing the top of their voice even if they don't sound good You ever notice that We sing really Oh, no, wrong key. Uh And we try and make it perfect and we don't we don't reach for the high notes Unless you're chorea's barrier Richard Adolf or somebody like that, you know, you're Yeah, all those All those we don't reach for those high notes kids do they just go for it Why it's because there's a childlike innocence Jesus says to the scribes in a Pharisee He says have you not read that god perfects praise in the mouths of infants and nursing babes You know what he's talking about when jesus comes into our life to save us he heals us He overthrows all of our old mindsets Picks us up and gives us the ability to follow him and he puts in our heart a brand new song A song of gratitude of childlike faith not of cynicism Jadedness skepticism He gives us something on the inside of us where we don't care what anybody else thinks We're gonna reach for the high notes of praise for god And we're gonna sing like children once again and in that you may not be perfect pitch But baby when you're in jesus, you are perfect praise Why don't you stand up with me if you would here and over at uh at portage as well now listen We did not pass all palm branches But everybody's got a palm So lift up your palm And wave it and come on say say hosanna Come on say hosanna Blessed is he Who comes in the name of the lord To save the world in a very strange way it may be strange But it's so beautiful It's so powerful And it's so real I want you to buy your heads with me if you would Today, here's what I know is just as jesus rode into the city of jerusalem today The son of god enters into this moment jesus Resurrected lord and savior is here by his spirit And in the same way that jesus opened the blind eyes today I know by his spirit that all over this room and every other place where people are watching The spirit of god knows no time and no distance. He's awakening hearts. He's opening eyes of the heart Is that you He's opening eyes where it's eyes of the heart are going I see I see that jesus is my only hope I see that the enemy is with me and I need a savior to forgive me to deliver me and jesus Is the one who did that today? I need a savior You see jesus enters in and today he picks people off of the floor that we're lame and he says today follow me Well, I don't know if I have the strength to do it. I'm not I'm not a very good religious person to jesus. Perfect You're the right kind of disciple Get up and follow me today jesus is taking some people that have maybe grown cold and hopeless cynical And today he's bringing us back to childlike faith and giving us a new song song of praise Today jesus rides into this moment humble He rides in And with him he brings victory with him. He brings salvation Today, I don't know where you stand But I know this I know this that the holy spirit is pulling on many people's hearts saying today Will you let jesus become Your savior Will you let jesus sit on the throne of your heart? Will you stop? Trying to do it yourself. Will you not become angry and cynical at the idea that you need a savior today? Will you humble yourself? and receive him and Say hosanna God save me hosanna Forgive me Give me a new heart a new life today hosanna Everyone listening within the sound of my voice even online Today if you say I know I need a savior today, I know I'm a sinner Today I can't earn my salvation, but I believe jesus has paid for it and I today want to receive Salvation in the name of jesus. I want to invite jesus into my heart hosanna to be the savior and the lord of my life Today, I know i'm not right with god, but today I want jesus to come into my heart And to be my savior pray for me pastor lee wherever you're out. I want you right now. Just raise your hand say that's me Pray for me. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes hands just raise it and keep it up. This is not a shameful moment This is a joyful moment. I see that hand that hand all the way in the back over here to my right I see yes Yes, yes. Yes on the aisle here. God bless you Somebody in a corner. I feel I just feel like there's somebody in a corner of one of the rooms You don't have your hand up, but you know you need to lift your hand Your heart's pounding and you haven't raised it right now be free. Raise your hand Be saved today. Hosanna. Thank you all the way back there. I see that hand You can put your hands down Today what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna lead all of us in a prayer of invitation The bible says if anybody believes on the lord jesus christ that he died on the cross And also believe that god raised him from the dead and we confess him with our mouth is lord We will be saved salvation victory will come to you this morning Lord right now in the name of jesus i want everybody to pray this prayer a lot say heavenly father I come in the name of jesus and i say hosanna Save me god I believe in jesus That he's the son of god That he rose from the dead After dying on the cross For my sins God forgive me cleanse me Give me a new heart From this day forward i repent I turn my back on my past And serving myself Today i choose to follow jesus and i surrender Sit on the throne of my life And have your way Thank you for loving me And saving me In jesus name Amen and amen Come on let's just


We hit 9,000 subscribers! Woo! Thank you for helping the channel reach another milestone. This means there are still a lot of people who remember and love G.I. Cho. I hope you will all find a home here. I want to thank each and every one of you 9,000 people for joining and staying with the channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, I lost count. I do need to thank one viewer in particular, Thomas Hogan, for donating this toy to the channel. This is the third review in a row that was donated by Thomas. That was just a coincidence. When I was making the schedule, I was just looking at which toys would make sense each week. I tried to keep the lineup diverse. I try not to review the same character and subteam too close together. That helps me narrow it down. So by coincidence, three toys in a row donated by Thomas. I appreciate Thomas' generosity, but I worry about accusations of favoritism. Maybe I should say something mean about Thomas just to balance it out. Thomas f***s b***s. The Desert Apache is a peculiar bird. In many ways, it fits perfectly with G.I. Cho. It's based on a real vehicle. It's desert themed, as a lot of G.I. Cho vehicles were. It looks great and it brings a lot of firepower to the battlefield. In other ways, it doesn't fit with G.I. Cho at all. It literally doesn't fit with G.I. Cho. Let's look at one of the strangest vehicles in the entire vintage G.I. Cho toy line. HCC788 presents the Sonic Fighters Desert Apache. This is the 1992 G.I. Cho Sonic Fighters Desert Apache AH-74. This vehicle was introduced in 1992 and it was available in 1992 only. It was discontinued in 1993. To my knowledge, this is the only version of this vehicle ever introduced in the G.I. Cho line, vintage or modern. The name Apache comes from a group of Native American tribes. The Desert Apache is based on a real-world military helicopter, the Boeing AH-64 Apache. The Apache was developed to replace the AH-1 Cobra, the vehicle that was the model for G.I. Cho's Dragonfly. It's a great idea to give G.I. Cho an attack helicopter based on the Apache. G.I. Cho was due for an upgrade in that department, but for a number of reasons, the Desert Apache never achieved the legendary status of the Dragonfly. The Desert Apache was released as part of the Sonic Fighters line. It was one of two Sonic Fighters vehicles in 1992. The other was Fort America. Sonic Fighters were action figures that included electronic sound playing backpacks. In 1990, the Desert Apache is two years too late for the Sonic Fighters. In 1991, the Sonic Fighters became the Super Sonic Fighters. The Super Sonic Fighters was a new set of figures with the same sound playing gimmick, but it had new characters and the branding was changed. In 1992, there were neither Sonic Fighters nor Super Sonic Fighters. That year, they had the Talking Battle Commanders. They had sound playing backpacks like the others. Unlike the previous iterations, the Talking Battle Commanders had their backpacks bolted to their backs. The Desert Apache is a vehicle for a defunct subteam. The Desert Apache had a sound making gimmick, which I will demonstrate later. The Desert Apache continues a long and storied tradition of G.I. Cho helicopters. In 1983, G.I. Cho got its first attack helicopter, the Dragonfly. The next was the Tomahawk in 1986. More than just an attack helicopter, it was also a troop carrying gunship. There was a helicopter action pack in 1987. I'm never sure if I should count that. In 1988, G.I. Cho had the Skystorm, the X-Wing Chopper. Also in 1988, G.I. Cho repurposed the Dragonfly for Tiger Force, calling it the Tiger Fly. 1990 was a big year for helicopters. G.I. Cho had the Locust in two different forms, and the Larger Retaliator. The Battle Copters were introduced in 1991, and there was another set in 1992. After the Desert Apache in 1992, there was only one more Joe helicopter in the Vintage Era, the Razorblade from 1994. The Desert Apache is unique among all these G.I. Cho helicopters, and not because it plays electronic sounds. There's something peculiar about the Desert Apache. For a G.I. Cho vehicle, it is in the wrong scale. Many G.I. Cho vehicles were scaled down from their real-world counterparts. They were still made to accommodate G.I. Cho figures. The Desert Apache is truly underscaled. A G.I. Cho figure barely fits in it, and only with his head and arms hanging out. The cockpit looks like it's made for a much smaller figure. There's a reason for that. This is a flying fighter. The Flying Fighters was a toyline from Hasbro in the early 1990s that featured realistic-looking aircraft with joysticks attached to the back so kids could pretend to fly them around. They had a sound-making feature. The Flying Fighters were in a much smaller scale than G.I. Cho.  The toyline didn't last long. There was a helicopter in the Flying Fighters line, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. It was slightly closer to G.I. Cho scale. Hasbro said close enough, changed the color, slapped some G.I. Cho stickers on it, and called it the Sonic Fighters Desert Apache. The Desert Apache was a reissue of a non-G.I. Cho toy from a toyline that was in a totally different scale. That's why it looks weird next to other G.I. Cho vehicles. That's why the plastic feels weird compared with other G.I. Cho vehicles. That's why the figures don't fit like in normal G.I. Cho vehicles. I have the instruction sheet and the blueprints for the Desert Apache, and I will refer to these. I did have standard G.I. Cho blueprints with listed features. Note it is the AH-74, not the AH-64. G.I. Cho just had to be 10 AH's higher. The instruction sheet shows how to insert two AA batteries. I have batteries in this toy, so it is ready to test. We will get to the electronic gimmick after we look at the rest of the vehicle. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Desert Apache. The helicopter can be removed from the support rail, as the blueprints call it, which is attached to the joystick with the electronic sound making gimmick inside it. There is a tab on the bottom. If you pull that down, the helicopter can be slid back and out. When removed from the support rail, it is a basic G.I. Cho style vehicle with no electronic features. Starting in the front, we have the radar and sensor cluster on the nose. It is in black plastic. It is hinged, so it can turn a little. On the underside, we have what the blueprints call a full rotation 30mm chin gun. It is in black plastic. It can pivot, but not quite all the way around. It runs into the body of the helicopter, so it's not really a full rotation gun. It's pretty tiny as G.I. Cho vehicle weapons go, but it is in scale for the helicopter. Next, we have the canopy. It is in tan plastic, the same color as the main body of the vehicle. It is the frame only. It does not have clear plastic windows. It has some cobra kill marks, and it can be removed for placing the action figure in the cockpit. Then we have the cockpit, and this is a big problem. It has one seat, it has no instrument panel, and it barely fits one figure. The box art shows a two seat cockpit, as a real Apache helicopter would have. Falcon is piloting from the back seat. That's a bit of false advertising. Who should be the pilot? The box art shows Falcon. He was a supersonic fighter from 1991, and his backpack was sort of a helicopter. The file card for 1992 bullet proof says he should be the pilot of the Desert Apache, but he was in the DEF series. He had nothing to do with Sonic Fighters or supersonic fighters. I'm choosing Falcon only because he's slightly more related to the Sonic Fighters series. You can place the figure in the cockpit in a seated position. You just put him in there, and then you have to put the canopy on over him. Place the front tab in first, and I don't know if you can get this to work better, but I have only been able to get this to work with the figure having his arms and his head sticking out of the canopy. The canopy has openings on the side and the top that seem to be for this. They knew a GI Joe figure wouldn't really fit in there. This looks ridiculous. It looks like he's flying a toy helicopter. Which of course he is, but I mean it looks like he's flying a toys toy helicopter. The Flying Fighters version had a two seat cockpit, and it came with small scale figures that would fit in it. Moving on, we have the main rotor. The hub and post are in tan plastic, and the blades are in black. All of the blades should have these green little safety stickers, but I only have one of them. The blades spin pretty well, though they are a bit wobbly. Let's turn our attention for a moment to the main body of the helicopter. It has some excellent detail, some lines and rivets, and some technical detail. It's all in a light tan plastic color, perfect for a desert mission. Later in the line, GI Joe went for more desert themes, possibly inspired by Desert Storm, and I think it looks good. The body is covered with paper stickers, not vinyl stickers like classic GI Joe vehicles. There's a problem with these stickers, they tend to dry out and fall off. I had to re-glue all of these stickers on this vehicle. They had fallen off, as if there had never been any glue on them. On either side, we have what the instruction sheet calls engine covers. That's what the instruction sheet calls them. They are not the kind of engine covers we usually get with GI Joe vehicles. They are not removable engine cover panels. They are tan like the rest of the main body. On each side of the helicopter, directly under the engine covers, we have stabilizer wings. And they each have missiles and bombs and spring-loaded missile launchers. These spring-loaded missile launchers make it feel a bit more like a 90s GI Joe vehicle. On the end of each stabilizer wing, there is a spring-loaded missile launcher. They can be removed. They are black. There is one on each side. They can fire these neon green missiles. There are four total green missiles, one for each launcher, and two more that can be pegged onto the wings. These black missile launchers and the missiles were copied wholesale from the 1991 heavy-duty figure. It's the same missile launcher, but in black plastic instead of green. It even pegs on in the same way, and the green missiles appear to be identical. The extra missiles can peg into the underside of the wing. Oddly enough, the underside of the wing has a dumbbell-shaped slot, like a regular GI Joe missile. But these missiles don't have a peg for that. You have to just slot in one of the fins. You can place the missiles into the launcher with the flat rail to the side. Press back until it clicks. Then you can place the missile launcher on the end of the wing. It can slot in, like so. Then you can take aim at our favorite target, Dr. Mindbender. The trigger for the missile launcher is in the back. You just take aim and fire. Okay, that was really weak. Let's try it again. Press it all the way back. And can we get a little more energy out of it this time? It's a good thing we have four shots because Dr. Mindbender is proving not to be an easy target. Let's try a third time. Dr. Mindbender, you're going down. Last chance. I can't believe we can't hit that guy. Let's see if we can take him out. Dr. Mindbender, you're going down. In addition to the missile launchers and the missiles, each wing has a cluster of black bombs. The bombs are on a rack. The racks have dumbbell-shaped pegs that actually fit in these slots on the underside of the wing. So you could put them in any slot. Each rack has a cluster of four black bombs. Each one has a dumbbell-shaped peg that goes right through it like a regular GI Joe missile, so they can be removed. There are four bombs on each side for a total of eight. The Desert Apache has landing gear. It has a pair of wheels in the front. They do roll. They are black. They are not detailed, though. There is some detail on the struts. The struts are tan like the main body of the helicopter, but no detail on those wheels at all. A real Apache helicopter has a wheel on the tail, and this one does, too. It is molded in. It is in that tan plastic color. Unfortunately, we didn't get another color for that. It is in a raised position, but it does function. The helicopter will rest on it. The tail itself is quite long with GI Joe library and stickers that say airborne with what looks like a Native American shield and eagle feathers. I'm not loving the lime green color they went with on these stickers. That's definitely more like a GI Joe vehicle from the 90s than a flying fighter. They could have gone with a different color, maybe brown, to complement the tan. It has a tail fin with a tail stabilizer, United States and American flag stickers. On the port side of that tail fin, we have a tail rotor, and it's two separate pieces. They do not lock together, so they do spin independently. Maybe that's by design, but I just think it looks odd. On the underside of the tail, we have some tabs, and that's for placing the helicopter in the support rail. The support rail itself is in that tan plastic and attached to it is a black joystick with a battery compartment and the electronic components inside it. The joystick has a green button on the top. This appears to be a standard flying fighter's joystick, unmodified for GI Joe. By squeezing these tabs on the side, the joystick can be removed from the support rail, and here it appears to be a standard flying fighter joystick that you could probably put on other flying fighters. Yes, that's exactly what it is. It is an unmodified flying fighter's joystick. To place the Desert Apache on the support rail, just line up those slots and press it forward until it latches. That makes me a little nervous. I feel like this plastic is maybe just a bit too delicate for this latching mechanism, but so far it has connected and disconnected without any problem. The joystick allowed kids to fly the helicopter around and pretend to be piloting it, and that's cool. That's really not a bad feature. The underside of the joystick that attaches to the support rail has a speaker and it has a battery compartment and cover. Just slide that forward. It takes two AA batteries. This control stick produces three sounds. It has a helicopter engine sound that runs constantly as long as it is switched on. It starts slowly and then builds up speed. To activate the other two sounds, you use the missile on the top of the joystick. Pressing it to the left makes a machine gun sound. Pressing it to the right makes a missile launch sound. The instruction sheet says you have to let the engine sound get up to full speed before you can use the other two sounds. So let's switch it on to see what happens. Looks like we switch it back to turn it on. Okay, there it goes. Okay, the helicopter engine sound is up to full speed and it's super annoying, but let's go ahead and do the other two sounds. Let's press this top button to the left for the machine gun. Machine gun sound and to the right for the missile launch. Let's launch another missile and machine gun. That helicopter engine sound gets annoying really fast and it does not stop as long as the thing is on. There. That's enough of that. I'm not a big fan of noise making gimmicks. I know some kids liked this stuff, but it was never my thing. The helicopter noise gets annoying really fast. Unfortunately, you can't use the other sounds without also hearing that incessant clicking. Looking at the Desert Apache's media appearances, it doesn't seem to have any. It was not animated and I can't find any appearances in the comic book. Looking at the Sonic Fighters Desert Apache overall, this is such a strange vehicle. It's hard for me to wrap my head around it. I maintain it's one of the strangest G.I. Joe vehicles in the entire line. Yes, the Pogo was strange and the Buzzboard, but this vehicle is strange because it's not a G.I. Joe vehicle. On its own, it looks great. It's a nice model of a real Apache helicopter. It has some nice features. The desert color is cool. I wish the missiles weren't neon green, but I can live with them. When you put a figure in it though, it all goes awry. It's very obvious this vehicle was not made for G.I. Joe scale figures. The joystick attachment is kind of fun. The electronic sounds are fun for about two minutes. You can remove the joystick and ignore those features and that's good. It's a gimmick that does not get in the way of normal play. How do I rate this toy? Do I rate it as a flying fighter toy or as a G.I. Joe toy? As a flying fighter, it's awesome. It's a faithful reproduction of an AH-64 Apache. I want the Desert Apache to fit in G.I. Joe because I want G.I. Joe to have an Apache helicopter in its arsenal. Rating it as a G.I. Joe toy, it comes up short. Literally short. It's too small. It doesn't fit. It looks less cool with a figure in it. So it lands in the middle tier, I guess. Seems like everything is hitting the middle tier lately. The Desert Apache is too cool for the bottom tier and too weird for the top tier. So there you go. That was my review of the Desert Apache. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you again to Thomas for donating this toy. You f***ing f***er. If you liked this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribing to the YouTube channel, hitting the notification bell and sharing it with your friends. You can always find me on social media on Twitter and Facebook and I have a website, hcc788.com. Things as always to my patrons. Their support is invaluable. They help keep this show going. If you like G.I. Joe and you like these videos and you like to help me make more of these videos, please consider supporting the channel on Patreon. You can get some special perks and even find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. Like that one right there. Thank you to each and every one of you 9000 for joining me on this journey as a G.I. Joe fan. I'll see you next week and until then, always remember. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.