(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

If you have your Bibles with you today, I'm gonna invite you to open it up to Matthew chapter 21.

We're gonna take off there in Matthew chapter 21 for a teaching today, where we're gonna be looking at the heart of God and not only the heart of God, but the heart of God and how he wants to work through his people in the world around us.

And we oftentimes here at Valorous talk about, it's really important for you to connect to God and know who he is through Christ Jesus.

But it's also significant for you to understand who he says you are.

The Bible has a whole lot to say about who God calls his people to be and what their assignment is or their calling is or their purpose is in the world.

And oftentimes this world begin to suck purpose out of us.

We can lose sight of purpose as we're doing life's journey.

Sometimes sickness comes and makes people begin to forget about their purpose or think that they don't have purpose.

Sometimes relationship things happen and people are like, oh shoot, I'm more focused on the relationship now and not my purpose.

And sometimes, you know, we have difficult moments, financial moments, all kinds of things go on in life.

And all of those things in life can steer you away from purpose instead of draw you to purpose.

But I need you to know today, the reason God sent Jesus into the world is to grab hold of your heart and take you closer to purpose in relationship with him so that you can walk in that on a daily basis.

Come on, somebody.

And so today we're gonna continue in the vein that we've been over the last several weeks, who is Jesus?

But we're gonna celebrate Palm Sunday today too by looking at what Jesus did the week of his crucifixion.

Now think about a week before you're gonna die.

I mean, you know you're gonna die.

You know you're gonna surrender your life and give your life, but it's the week you leave an earth.

And oftentimes, if it were me, I would be thinking about what I wanna do, what I wanna feel, come on, all of those kinds of things.

What's interesting about Jesus is his thought process the week he was gonna go to the cross was how can I pour in to the people around me to leave a legacy so that humanity can feel their purpose.

And Jesus's thought process is simply amazing.

And what we find Jesus doing is really accelerating his teaching by using a lot of object lessons the week he was going to the cross.

And we're gonna look at some of those object lessons Jesus used to teach people about their purpose as he was preparing to go to the cross.

But I wanna open today with Matthew chapter 21.

He's going into Jerusalem to go to the cross that coming weekend.

And the Bible says in Matthew 21 verse 10, the entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar when he entered.

Now just stop and think about that for just a moment.

There's a huge festival going on.

Preparation for what they would know in that day is the Passover feast.

People from all over the world had traveled to Jerusalem.

Jesus is coming into the area.

And the Bible says that as he begins to enter the city, there's a huge uproar.

And the Bible says, this is what the people said.

Who is this?

Now, the people of that area weren't asking a question because they didn't know who Jesus was because Jesus had been in that area.

Jesus had been doing miracles in that area.

Jesus had been doing lots of ministry in that area.

And so it wasn't a bunch of people asking a question because they didn't know who it was, like a visitor from New York just came into the room and we didn't recognize him.

No, no, no.

They were asking the question in this manner, who is this?

Because in reality, the Jesus that came in to Jerusalem didn't come in the way they expected him to.

In other words, they were expecting Jesus to be one thing when he showed up as another.

And they asked, who is this?

Because of the way he came in to the city.

It wasn't because he was unrecognizable.

It was simply he was doing the unexpected.

How many of you know that God will do the unexpected in your life?

He will do amazing things in your life and he will do unexpected things in ways you never thought he would do them simply to grab hold of your attention so you can connect with him.

And this is exactly what Jesus is doing in this story.

He's coming into Jerusalem and we're gonna read the passage here where he comes into Jerusalem, but he does it in an unexpected way to capture the attention of the people so the people could connect with who their creator is.

Because people had gotten off track just like people have gotten off track today.

And the Bible says, Jesus does the unexpected and this is how he comes into Jerusalem.

I wanna show it to you.

It's found in Matthew 21, verses one through five.

Bible says, as Jesus and the disciples got ready to approach Jerusalem, they came to a town outside of Jerusalem Bethphage on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus sent two of them on ahead.

Go into the village over there, he said, and as soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there with its coat beside it.

There'll be a donkey and a little donkey.

The Bible says, untie them and bring them to me.

And if anyone thinks you're stealing, if anybody asks, what are you doing?

Just say, the Lord needs them.

That'd be awesome, wouldn't it?

I'm gonna get your tractor, because the Lord needs it.

Come on, somebody.

But Jesus knew what he was doing, and he knew he was being intentional by telling these guys to go get these two donkeys, because he had a purpose.

He was gonna use the donkeys for to teach the people.

And he will immediately let you take them, Jesus says.

So this took place to fulfill the prophecy that Zachariah had prophesied many, many years before Jesus comes on the scene.

Tell the people of Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you.

He is humble, riding on a donkey.

Not only riding on a donkey, but riding on a donkey's coat.

This is a significant passage of scripture, an object lesson that Jesus does in order to teach people about who he really is.

We live in a time period on the other side of the cross of Christ.

We live in a time period after the resurrection of Christ.

We live in a time period after the ascension of Christ and he's returned to the heavens, the Bible teaches us.

That's the time period you and I live in.

But during this time period, they were looking for a liberator, they were looking for a Messiah, but they were looking for a Messiah to come with great power so that the people of that day could begin to overthrow the Roman government.

And so the people, the Jewish people of that particular day were looking for a political leader, one that would normally come riding in to declare war on a horse, but Jesus gets on the coat of a donkey and rides in and they're like, what is this?

Who is this?

Why is he coming on a donkey?

But also in this day and age, when a king would prepare to conquer a region, he would go in on a horse, much like we find in Revelation 19 of our Bible.

And the Bible says Jesus is coming on a horse next time.

Come on, somebody.

But this time he comes in on a donkey to begin to communicate a message because when a king would ride in on a donkey in this day and age, it would declare peace.

And these people aren't thinking peace.

They're thinking of overthrowing a political power, a government, so that they could step into destiny and be the people that they're supposed to be.

And Jesus basically declares the only way you're gonna be the people that I declare you to be is for you to make peace with God in your heart.

Let him pour into your spirit.

And it ain't about overthrowing a roaming government.

It's about being the people I designed you to be.

And I poured you into you in the first place to be.

See, the people of God had gotten filled with pride.

And they had forgotten that God had called them out of slavery, out of Egypt, the Israelite people in order to produce and to reflect God to the nations of the world.

And I need you to know today that when God calls you out of darkness, out of slavery, out of sin, it's for a purpose and it's to produce.

It's for you to produce and reflect the heart of your creator to the world around you.

But if you're looking for a political overthrow, if you're looking for a status position, I need you to know that that's not God's heart.

God's heart is for you to know who he is, for him to tell you who you are and you to walk in it all the days of your life.

Come on.

And Jesus comes strolling in on a donkey so that these people would know, you know what?

That God had come to establish peace in their heart with humanity.

See, the whole reason God sent Jesus into the world is to reconnect you and me to our great God.

Don't miss this.

We live in a day and age where people think, well, God sent Jesus into the world, forgive me of my sin.

Yes, that's part of the good news, but that's not all the good news.

He forgives you of your sin so you can have peace with God, be in a right relationship with God, and God can speak into your life.

And again, it's not, hey, forgive me of my sin.

No, no, it's forgive me of my sin so that, everybody say, so that I can fulfill my purpose.

And many people are like, I want my sin forgiven because I want to go to heaven one day.

Your purpose ain't heaven.

Don't miss this.

See, so many people are waiting to go to heaven.

When God's saying, you know what?

Heaven will come to you if you'll open your heart.

Make me the king of your life.

Make me the Lord of your life.

Make me the savior of your life.

I will become the king of your life and heaven will come to you and you can have peace in this earth with your great God.

Come on.

And in spite of what's going on in a foreign land, in a foreign earth, you can begin to walk in it.

But these people were looking for earthly status and not heavenly status.

And Jesus simply demonstrates on a donkey by using the coat of a donkey to say, look, I'm not doing things the way, you know what, your normal thinking thinks I'm going to do it.

I'm coming in the first time as a suffering servant.

I'm coming the next time as a risen King.

Let me tell you, we live on the other side of the cross.

We live on the other side of the resurrection.

We live on the other side of the ascension of Christ.

He's already paid the price for sin on that cross, defeated it, rose from the grave and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

And the Bible says, he sits there waiting and putting every enemy under his feet.

That's the time period we live in now.

These people of that day, they lived in a different time period.

The suffering servant has already come.

He's coming again as a risen King.

They didn't understand that he needed to come as a servant first in order to forgive them and connect them to the living God.

They were simply just looking for the King to show up and they miss the one who showed up the first time.

You and I live between peace and war.

Don't miss this.

We live between peace and war.

Jesus came the first time as a peacemaker with your heart, with your grandmama's heart, with your kid's heart, your neighbor's heart.

He's coming the second time as a warrior on a horse.

And the Bible says that he's going to put all evil in the abyss and he will live with his people forever and ever and ever and ever and ever as a reigning King.

But in this stage of life, you need to make peace with God, with the one who rode in on a donkey to give his life on a cross so you could be forgiven and reconnected to the living God.

It's an object lesson for you to understand who the liberator really is.

He came the first time as a suffering servant, he comes the second time as, you know what?

A reigning King.

And guess what?

His kingdom will have no boundaries, it will have no limitations and it will have no expiration date.

Kingdoms come, kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.

It's happened throughout history, but the Bible says his is an unshakable kingdom.

It has no limits.

It's not on the basis of race or nationality or tongue or gender or creed.

His kingdom reaches far beyond all of that.

His kingdom has no boundaries.

It's not contained to a land mass.

His kingdom has no limitations.

Nothing can stop what God is doing through King Jesus.

It started at the cross, it started at the resurrection, but it will be finished when he returns to earth and he makes all things new.

My Bible says he's gonna create a new heaven, he's gonna create a new earth and all things are gonna be made new.

Jesus was simply coming into Jerusalem the week he was going to get crucified to announce to the world, God is a servant.

He loves you with all of his heart.

But what God expects from us is a response, which leads me to the next object lesson.

So whenever you understand that the God of the universe comes into your life to begin to help you become all he's created you to be, he deserves a response.

We would call that worship.

And I wanna show it to you because Jesus does another object lesson with a jar of perfume.

How odd is Jesus?

He uses a baby donkey to communicate who he is as a servant.

Now he uses an expensive jar of perfume to talk to people about how they should respond to who he is.

Let this speak to your heart today.

It's again found the week he's gonna get crucified.

John chapter 12, verses one through eight says this.

Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus, the man he had already raised from the dead.

Dinner was prepared in Jesus's honor.

Martha served and Lazarus, the man who was raised from the dead, was among those who ate with him.

Then Mary took a 12-ounce jar of expensive perfume, made from the essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus's feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair.

So this lady, Mary, breaks open an expensive jar of perfume.

The Bible here says it was a 12-ounce jar.

And if you study, it was probably worth a year's wages in that culture.

Now just think with me for just a moment.

What is your annual income?

If you don't know, ask your husband or your wife sitting next to you, what's our annual income?

Go ahead.

No, I'm just kidding.

But the Bible says that this jar of perfume was worth a year's annual income.

And the Bible says this lady pours it out on Jesus' feet and then begins to wipe her hair on his feet.

How odd.

But look what happens.

The house was filled with the fragrance, but Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said that perfume was worth a year's wages.

It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.

That would have been a great idea.

How wasteful are you?

You poured out 12 ounces of perfume.

You could have sold it, got an annual salary, and we could have fed a lot of hungry people with that money.

That's what Judas says.

But look what the Bible says.

Not that he cared for the poor.

He was a thief anyway.

And since he was in charge of the disciples' money, he often stole some for himself.

Jesus replied, look at this, leave her alone.

She did this in preparation for my burial.

You will always, look what this says, have the poor among you.

There will always be opportunity to help poor folks.

Look what he says.

But you will not always have me.

What was Jesus's point in saying what he said?

Leave her alone.

She prepared me for my burial.

Other words, she was advancing me by what she did for what I came to do.

She was preparing me to go to the cross so I could go to the grave, so I could rise again and begin to give people life.

In other words, what this lady did was worship, and you called it worthless because she didn't give the money to the poor.

She wiped my feet and prepared me to do what I came to do.

There's a incredible object lesson to be learned from this busted jar of perfume that wiped Jesus's feet.

We can use what's bottled up inside of us, the gifts, the talents, the resources, to either choose to worship God for who he is, or we can begin to think that it's worthless and our resources are to be used for just other things or humanitarian needs, and nothing wrong with humanitarian needs, but the Bible says God gives you spiritual gifts, talents and resources to advance the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven, and if you miss what Jesus was saying, what God has given you, it's simply to continue to advance the good news of who Jesus is.

He says, you wanna know what a proper response to worshiping a God who came to save you is?

He says, it's pouring out what God's put inside of you.

It's not to be contained, it's not to be bottled up.

If God has truly brought you out of darkness into the wonderful light, he did it.

So you and I can come together, the Bible calls it the local church now, so we can come together and be the people of God to every tribe, every tongue and every nation, dispensing the goodness of God among people so that they can come into a connection with God through the same Jesus Christ that we came into connection with God through.

And the Bible says this is your true act of worship, to offer up yourself as a living sacrifice and let God flow in and let God flow out.

Come on, somebody.

So what's Jesus doing in this moment?

He's teaching these people what really they are created for.

And it's to be in a right relationship with your creator.

And when you're in right relationship with your creator, it doesn't mean you have a trouble-free life.

The poor will always be among you.

But what it does mean is you understand the meaning of life, the significance of life.

You understand that life is eternal, and you begin to walk in the fullness of what that means right here in this day and age.

Don't forget, the suffering servant has come the first time.

It's already done.

He has come to forgive humanity of their sin on that cross.

He said, Tetelestai, it is finished.

But understand, the returning king also said, it will be finished in the last day when he comes to earth.

Come on, somebody.

He comes to earth and sets up his unshakable kingdom with true worshipers, people who worship in spirit and in truth and understand who God is.

And so the great question for this object lesson that Jesus gives on the last week of his life is what am I doing with what's in my hands?

Do I truly believe that I'm here simply to magnify the name of the Lord, to glorify God with all the goodness he has bestowed on me and pouring it out like a drink offering so other people can come to know who he is?

My friend, this is the calling on your life, male and female.

It's why God gave you that spiritual gift when you came to Christ.

So we can work together as the local church and manifest God to the nations.

And then I got one more object lesson that Jesus taught that last week of his life with a fig tree.

And not only a fig tree, an unfruitful fig tree.

The Bible says in Mark 11, verses 12 through 14, the next morning, as they were leaving Bethany, after all of this transpired, the Bible says Jesus was hungry.

I thought the Bible said Jesus just ate supper with Lazarus.

Why is he hungry?

Well, it's breakfast time, come on somebody.

The Bible says he noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off.

So he went over to see if he could find any figs.

But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit.

I find that fascinating.

Because Jesus is being very intentional with what he's doing.

I don't know how hungry he really was, but the Bible says he was hungry.

He noticed the fig tree.

He's like, ha, ha, I bet they're hungry too.

Let's go over to that fig tree and see if there's any figs.

But we know it ain't fruit season.

It's just got leaves on it and there's probably not any fruit on it.

Jesus knowing this, why would he go over there?

It's for an object lesson.

Let's continue to look.

The Bible says, then Jesus said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit again.

The Bible says, and the disciples heard him say it.

In other words, those standing around him heard as he cursed a fig tree that didn't produce fruit and it only had leaves on it.

And they were thinking, how odd is this?

Why would he curse a fig tree that ain't even supposed to be producing figs right now.

But they went on about their way.

Keep in mind, Jesus is a visual teacher.

They go into Jerusalem, they walk into the temple.

And as they walk into the temple, the people that were supposed to be magnifying God to the world around them were exploiting people.

The Bible says that they were money changers in the temple.

And Jesus walks in, flips the tables upside down in the temple of that day, and says that my father's house should be called a house of prayer.

And threw the money changers out.

Now keep in mind, they would have always been people selling the items at the temple in this day and age, because you know what, people had to come from a far off place and they had to have a sacrificial animal to sacrifice at the temple on these particular celebrations.

And so instead of bringing an animal from a long, long way away, from California over here to South Carolina, you would just buy an animal when you got to South Carolina to sacrifice when you got to South Carolina.

And so there wasn't nothing wrong with selling the animals, but what they were doing is they were raising the price on the animals, come on, somebody, and they were exploiting people so that they could line their pockets with what God wanted, with the things that they should have been doing what God wanted them to do.

In other words, he says, my father's house should be called a house of prayer.

And again, he throws them out and he's basically saying these people aren't doing what they're designed to do.

They're not producing.

They're not making my name known among the nations.

They have forgotten the whole purpose of the sacrificial system and what it's to point to.

And Jesus comes in and the Bible says, the city's in an uproar, he's throwing tables around and he's saying, no, no, no, this is not what it's all about.

What it's all about is not just you being a pretty fig tree, a Christian that looks like a Christian, a plastic person, no, no, no.

You are supposed to be a person who has been saved by God, brought in right relationship with him and you produce fruit out of your life that people can eat from.

Come on somebody and listen, listen and find God.

And the Bible says that after all of this in the temple, Jesus leaves that afternoon and then the next morning comes and I wanna show it to you.

They come back to the fig tree.

And the Bible says it in Mark chapter 11 verses 19 through 22 that evening, Jesus said to the disciples, Jesus and the disciples, they left the city.

The next morning as they passed by the fig tree, he cursed that he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the root up.

And Peter remember what Jesus has said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, look Rabbi, the fig tree you cursed has withered and died.

And then Jesus said to the disciples, look at the teaching lesson.

Jesus said to the disciples, have faith in God.

That's the teaching lesson.

Have faith in God or guess what?

You're gonna wither up too.

And you're gonna be worthless to why I came to earth.

I didn't come to earth in this day and age, we live on the other side of the cross.

We live on the other side of the resurrection.

We live on the other side of the ascension.

He's talking in that day and age to a people who hadn't experienced the cross and the resurrection yet.

But the application is still the same.

If you don't recognize why God saved you and called you out of darkness and have faith in God to produce greatness in this world for his name's sake, you're gonna miss so much what life is all about.

Life ain't just about attending church.

Life ain't just about filling the offering bucket so we can do more ministry.

And I think you should fill the offering bucket so we could do more ministry.

But life is about so much more than that.

Life ain't about just building fancy buildings to say, look at us.

No, it's about the glory of the one who brought us out of darkness into the wonderful light and saved us for a time such as this.

And my friend, you can read the scriptures from the front to the back, but God never called anyone to come out of darkness and just go to heaven.

God always calls them out of darkness, out of slavery, out of bondage, to be the wonderful light of Christ in this earth.

Come on.

And I'm convinced that there's a lot of miserable Christians because we got leaves on us, but we're not pouring out our life like a drink offering.

And producing fruit.

You know what fruit looks like?

It has a characteristic called love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

But it also has exponential growth in this world.

And it offers up a cold drink of water to people who are thirsty.

It offers up a food that people can taste the goodness of the Lord from.

And it invites them into a relationship with the God of the universe.

This is the gospel, my friend.

Jesus came to earth to save you and call you to a holy calling so the world could be filled with God's amazing glory.

And my prayer is nobody would get too old, nobody would get too sick, nobody would get too poor to fulfill the mission that God called you to fulfill because the circumstances of life don't define who you are.

God defines who you are.

If you've got air in your lungs and a heartbeat in your chest, you live for the glory of the Lord all the days of your life.

Come on.

So today I'm gonna allow you to respond.

We're gonna sing a last song and our worship team's gonna come out in a minute and sing a song.

Our prayer ministers are gonna be all around the front of this stage over by the lighted crosses you see on each side of this room.

Maybe you need to respond today and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Maybe you've never stepped into that right relationship with God through what Jesus did on the cross and through his resurrection.

Today would be a good time to start.

You don't have to wait till Easter weekend to start that relationship.

Maybe you're in this room today and you just need to respond to God in prayer.

Maybe you need to repent of being stagnant.

Maybe you need to repent of being complacent.

Maybe you need to repent, turn away from wrongful thinking.

And today, maybe God's realigned you and you just wanna come, maybe meet with a prayer minister, come to the foot of the crosses.

There's prayer stations up here in the front.

There's kneeling benches.

And maybe today you just wanna respond by saying, God, during these next five minutes, I just wanna cleanse my heart so I can be a conduit.

For you to do great things in and through me.

I wanna connect myself to what you're doing.

You know, I don't know all the reasons that people need to respond all over this room today.

But what this response moment is all about is for you to have an opportunity to respond to the message God just delivered.

And so in a moment, I'm gonna pray.

And if you need to respond, you can feel free to come to the front.

You can sit in your seats.

You can do whatever you wanna do.

This is time to worship.

This is a time to evaluate our own heart.

To say, God, what do you wanna do in me?

And God, what do you wanna do through me?

I'm thankful for Jesus.

So could everybody in this room bow their heads, please?

I'm gonna ask that the prayer ministers go ahead and take their stations across the front here at the crosses on the side.

And God, as we prepare to respond today as a family of believers, as maybe new believers in the room today, God, I pray you would speak to people right where they are.

Every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl.

And God, maybe today is the day of somebody's salvation and they need to come surrender to your lordship, your leadership, and receive the saving grace that Jesus gave on that cross as he showed mercy for our sin.

God, I pray today would be the day of their salvation.

That you may be right where you sit today and say, God, today, I need to be saved.

I admit that I need to be in right relationship with you.

And I trust that Christ is the one who gave his life so I could be reconnected to you.

I trust that he resurrected from a grave so I could have life and have it abundantly.

Just received that today.

Bible says, if we can fest with our mouth and we believe in our heart that Jesus rose from the grave, that in that moment, we'll be saved.

And I truly believe when you say that prayer and you believe that in your heart, in that moment, Jesus comes in and he salvages you and restores that relationship.

But then the relationship requires faith, requires you to begin to continually submit your heart and life to God over and over again because God wants to do a great thing in you and do a great thing through you.

And maybe today you're in this room and you say, God, today, I need to surrender again.

I've been going my own way, doing my own thing.

Hadn't been focused on building the unshakeable kingdom.

And today, God, I need to recommit myself.

I need to recommit what's bottled up inside of me and pour it out for your name's sake.

God, I trust you'll continue to fill me, use me, and do great things through me.

And maybe that's what you need to come forward today and just respond to God about.

God, I don't know how you're working in each individual heart here today, but God, I do know as a church, you're collectively working in the heart of this church to be on mission with you.

And it's simply to reflect your glory to the world around us.

So God, I pray you'd move in this moment and because we know who you are, we can know who we are.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.