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

Hosanna, hosanna.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Come on, church.

Welcome to Palm Sunday weekend as we journey through the word of God together as a family to begin to see Jesus's journey into Jerusalem the week before he went to the cross.

We're gonna be doing that today.

And you know, Jesus declared during that particular time that either we could choose to give him praise.

Come on, church, you wanna give him some praise today?

Or we could wait on the rocks to give him praise.

And here at Valorous Church, I ain't about waiting on no rocks to give our Jesus some praise.

Can you give him some praise from the top to the bottom?

Come on, church.

Now look at your neighbor and say, you ain't a rock.

Look at your other neighbors, say, so give Jesus some praise.

Jesus, the one who saved us from our sin, those of us who have put our belief and trust in him, we have a lot to praise him for.

And in that particular day, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem the week before he went to the cross on the back of a donkey, he did that for a purpose.

He wanted the people to understand who he was as a great God.

He wasn't just one who come as king.

He was one that came to serve humanity so we could know him as king.

He came on our behalf.

He came so that we could have a connection to our great God and become all God has designed us to be.

And we're to elevate our voices and we're to elevate our lives and we're to elevate our heart and we're to give God praise all the days of our life.

We're a people who are created for praise.

But a lot of times we live under oppression, we live underneath bondage, we live underneath a struggle, and we don't give God praise because we don't fully understand who Jesus is.

And those of us who begin to understand who he is can begin to give him praise in all circumstances, in all challenges.

Jesus declared, don't wait on the rocks to give me praise.

He says, give me praise for who I am.

Jesus journeyed into Jerusalem to show that he's a servant, also that he's a savior.

He also journeyed into Jerusalem to die on a cross to show that he is a king.

He also came back from death so we could be made alive and so that we could become who God has designed us to be.

And so today we're gonna look in the story of Jesus whenever he had an encounter the night before he went to a cross that's found in your Bible in John chapter 13.

So if you have your Bibles with you, we're gonna invite you to open it up to John chapter 13 and we're gonna understand what it really means to praise Jesus for who he is, to praise Jesus for who he is.

You know, the Bible says in John 21, that week that Jesus journeyed into Jerusalem in Matthew 21 verses nine and 10, says the people began to wave palm branches.

And they were crying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

When he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, the Bible says.

In other words, it was in an uproar.

And they were saying, who is this?

The Bible says in Luke 19 verses 39 through 40, that some of the Pharisees in the crowd that day, they said to him, teacher, you need to rebuke your disciples.

And Jesus replied, I tell you, if they stop speaking, then the stones along the road will begin to cry out.

Again, church, we're not to stop speaking about who Jesus is.

Because we're not waiting on some rock to give Jesus praise.

We are people who have been salvaged by the goodness of God, brought in a right relationship with him, the Holy Spirit of God deposited in us, and we have the opportunity to praise him all the days of our life and walk in the fullness of who he says we are.

Can you give him some praise in this house?

Praise is powerful, but we have to learn what we're really praising Jesus for.

In that particular day, it was a lot of political unrest.

Sound familiar to you?

In that particular day, there was a lot of people that really were uneasy, and they were living underneath oppression.

They were living underneath the oppression of the Roman rule in that particular time.

And these people were looking for a savior.

They were looking for someone that would set them free.

They were looking for a king to come in and rescue them from that oppression and from, you know what, being basically pushed down and not being able to live out who they were designed to be.

And so when Jesus comes riding in on a donkey, they begin to give him great, great praise because they were looking for someone to save them from this unrest in that particular day.

But see, we live on the other side of the cross.

We live on the other side of the resurrection.

We live in a space before Jesus is gonna return for his people.

And so we have a lot more to give him praise for today than they did in that particular day because the reason Jesus came was to basically deliver us and forgive us from the penalty of sin.

He came to give us the power of the Holy Spirit so we could overcome the power of sin.

And when he returns, he's gonna deliver us from the presence of sin.

But right now, we're to be giving him praise in this space for who he is.

Do you know Jesus as Savior?

Do you know Jesus as the one who can lead you on life's journey?

Do you know Jesus as the one who will one day, you know what, come to basically take you into his presence and no longer will this battle of sin be around you?

But in the meantime, we can give him a praise.

And Jesus goes in to a room with his disciples right before he's betrayed and taken to the cross.

And he's teaching them a lot about who he is and what he came to do and how they are to respond to it.

And the way he teaches them is in John chapter 13.

And we're gonna look at this passage of scripture today because I do believe as Jesus pours out his heart in that room that night to those 12 disciples, he can begin to pour out his heart to you in this room or online today.

This is what the scripture says in John chapter 13, verses one through three.

Says before the Passover celebration, the Bible says Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his father.

He had loved the disciples during his ministry on earth and now he loved them to the very end.

It was time for supper and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the father had given him authority in the midst of this betrayal.

He had given him the authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.

There's something key there in that opening passage as Jesus begins to show these disciples who he is and why they should give him praise.

The first thing we learn from this is it says that Jesus had been given authority over everything that he had come from God and would return to God.

So what that teaches us is that Jesus was truly God in the flesh.

He had come from God and he would return to God and he had been given authority over everything.

In other words, Jesus was who he said he is and Jesus demonstrated that he was God in the flesh and we can have full confidence in Jesus is who he says that he is.

But until we have full confidence that he is God in the flesh, then it's really hard to give him praise.

Another passage of scripture calls him Emmanuel, God with us.

In other words, he came from God and he came to us to rescue us from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin and one day he's gonna take us out of the presence of sin and he reveals to us that he has the authority to do this because he is the one who created us, he is the one that will sustain us, he is the one that will deliver us, he came from God and he returned to God.

Have confidence in who he is.

Has confidence that, you know what, he can do what he says he can do and when we have confidence in Jesus, then we can begin to praise him.

But here's what it reveals to us in John 13 about who he really is.

The Bible says there in John 13 verses four through 11 that in the midst of all of this, in the betrayal in the night before he's getting ready to go to the cross, the Bible says he got up from the table, he took off his robe, he wrapped a towel around his waist and he poured water into a basin and then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with a towel he had around him.

The Bible says when Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

And Jesus replied, you don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will.

No, Peter protested, no, Peter protested, you will never ever wash my feet.

Jesus replied, unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.

And Simon Peter exclaimed, then washed my hands and my head as well.

Lord, not just my feet.

And Jesus replied, a person who has been bathed all over does not need to wash except for their feet to be entirely clean, pay close attention.

And you disciples, he says in that room that night, y'all are clean, but not all of you.

For Jesus knew who would betray him, which was Judas.

And that is what he meant when he said, not all of you are clean.

Jesus reveals something to us today in this passage as he had this encounter with his disciples and he being God in the flesh, the one who created us, kneels down on his knee and begins to wash the disciples' feet.

He reveals something very powerful to us in this passage as he begins to have this dialogue with Peter.

And what he says to Peter should begin to elevate our praise because what he reveals is, you know what, powerful praise happens, Peter, when you understand me as a savior.

See, do we really understand Jesus as a savior or do we continually think that Jesus has to keep on saving us?

Do we really put our faith in what he did on a cross as he shed his blood for our sin?

Do we really trust that to put us in right relationship with God and forgive us of the penalty of sin?

Do we trust that he is the one that came to give his life so that we could be forgiven of our sin and brought into communion with our great God?

Do we really trust that with our heart?

Because when we trust that with our heart, through the bad, through the good, through the ugly, through the mean, through the challenges, we can begin to give him praise because he is a savior, come on.

In other words, I don't save myself by stumbling and struggling through life to get to God, he came to me.

And Jesus reveals it clearly in this passage that if he comes to you, that he don't have to keep on washing you over and over again.

The book of Hebrews says it this way, let me read it to you.

In Hebrews 10, verses 11 through 14.

It says, under the old covenant, the priest stands and he ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.

The Bible goes on to say, but our high priest, who is Jesus himself right now, because the Bible says he sits at the right hand of God, the father almighty right now, and he's interceding for you and me.

Our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice.

Everybody say single.

Single.

For sins, good for all time.

Past, present, and future, one time on a cross.

Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand.

A lot of people say, where is Jesus today?

He defeated death, he rose from the grave, and he sits at the right hand of God, the father almighty.

There he waits, everybody say waits.

There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.

It says, for by one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

In other words, that day that Jesus gave his life on a cross and shed his blood and went through all that cruelty of that cross, the Bible says that one act of God's kindness, that one act of love on that cross, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

Whoever believes in him shall not waste away, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

That one act of what God did of shedding his blood on that cross, giving us something that we didn't deserve is good enough to save you from the penalty of sin.

You don't have to keep offering up anything else.

No blood from bulls and goats and all of those kind of things like the priests used to do.

No, no, no, that was an offering that God gave on that cross for all of humanity down through all ages.

But you got to trust him as savior.

Is he who he says he is or not?

And the reality of it is, is when I trust him as savior, I stop trying to save myself because I understand that he did it for me.

I can't do it for myself.

And Jesus reveals in this passage that it is God who saves us.

It's only our faith in him that can begin to take us on this journey where he gives us the ability to praise him over the penalty of sin.

And so we're offered this freedom.

Have you experienced this freedom of what Christ did for you?

Are you still living underneath this oppression of what the enemy is telling you in your life?

See, the enemy wants you to live underneath guilt.

The enemy wants you to live underneath shame.

The enemy wants you to live underneath oppression.

But we come in this place called Valorous Church among these people to continually remember that he is our savior.

He died once for our sin on a cross.

And because of that one time death, you know what, I have communion with God.

I am not gonna live in shame.

I am not gonna live in guilt.

I am not gonna live in oppression.

I am not gonna live in a space wherever the enemy keeps reminding me of who I used to be.

That sacrifice for you and me was good one time for all people who would believe the message of who God is.

Do you know him as savior?

Because when you know him as savior, you stop pouting and you start praising.

Come on, you stop pouting and you start praising.

I'm telling you right now, we ain't a church that's gonna let the rocks out praise us.

We gonna praise him for who he is in this place.

Jesus says, you can wait on the rocks to declare who I am, or you can start praising right now in who I am.

Let's be a people who give him praise for being savior.

What it says there in John 13 verse 10, Jesus replied to Peter, a person who has been bathed all over does not need to wash except for their feet to be entirely clean.

What is Jesus saying?

He's saying, you don't have to keep coming back and taking a bath over and over again.

In other words, you don't have to keep getting saved.

What he did for you is good.

And either you trust it or you don't trust it.

And when did you become so prideful that you thought it was your merit that saved you instead of his love?

Because the reality of it is, maybe you're living underneath the oppression of pride because you think it's something that you're doing instead of something he's already done.

Why don't you take Jesus's advice and let him bathe you once?

And it's a good enough bath for all times, all times, everywhere.

And he can do what he says he can do.

The next reason we praise Jesus is not only because he is a savior, but it's because we trust him as a leader.

See, the Bible says we're to make Jesus the Lord and savior of our life.

What does that mean to you?

What is a Lord?

A Lord is a leader.

What is a savior?

A savior is a liberator.

Jesus came to liberate us from the power of sin.

And we praise his great name for liberating us from the power of sin.

But a Lord or a leader begins to take you on a journey so that, I'm sorry, he came to deliver us from the penalty of sin and that's what a savior does.

But a Lord begins to help you develop and begin to get over the power of sin.

In other words, sin no longer has to be your master because God is your Lord.

He is your leader.

So you know Jesus is leader because a lot of people, you know what?

They're like, Jesus saved me from my sin, but they're still being overpowered by sin.

And Jesus came to lead us.

He came to lead us in a direction so we could fulfill our God-given potential and not live underneath the oppression of this world and become a product of this world.

Look what he tells Peter here.

Jesus is explaining the person who has been bathed all over does not need to wash except for their feet to be entirely clean.

And you disciples, he said, you are clean, but not all of you.

In other words, Jesus says, if you begin to praise him as leader, that means you come to him on a regular basis and you let him wash your feet.

And when you let your leader wash your feet, it's a humbling experience.

It begins to help you understand that he's for you and not against you.

It begins to help you understand he didn't come to Lord over you, but he came to lead you on a journey and give you power over sin.

Do you know Jesus as leader?

Are you coming to him on a regular basis or are you going to something else?

Because see, yes, his sacrifice was good once and for all for all of our sin, but some of us are still letting sin overpower us because we're not following Jesus as leader.

And Jesus came to lead us.

And the Bible says the way he leads us now, something remarkable happened 50 days after the resurrection it's called Pentecost.

And the Bible says how Jesus leads us now is Jesus poured out his spirit on men and women alike.

And his spirit begins to gift us in a special way so that we can become a part of his family and come to him and begin to get a download for who he says we are.

And we can begin to walk fully under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our gifting and begin to experience God in a powerful, powerful way.

In other words, you know, what God wants to do is he wants to lead us in the way he leads us and guides us today is through the Holy Spirit that lives in us.

And what you're to do as a follower of God underneath the direction of the Holy Spirit is come on a regular basis and repent of your sin and begin to let Jesus guide and direct your life.

Say, God, I got it off track.

I'm not repenting of my sin so I can keep on getting saved.

I'm repenting of my sin so I can have some divine guidance in my life and begin to walk on track for who God says that I am.

I'm to come and I'm to say, God, forgive me.

God, forgive me.

I got it off track.

I messed up.

I screwed up.

Forgive me for being prideful.

Forgive me for messing up.

Forgive me for making a mistake.

God, forgive me.

I am saved, but I want to come underneath your direction.

I'm tired of these things lording over my life and having power over my life.

I need you to forgive me and begin to give me power over my sin.

Come on.

Jesus reveals he came to serve us and he came to serve us as savior, but he also came to serve us as leader.

You know, I've found in my own life that I have to submit to God on a daily basis because I'm human, aren't you?

And the reality of it is, is the enemy begins to work on the human side of me.

And what I'll begin to do is I'll begin to think I can do something.

And I'll begin to think, you know what, I'm all that in a bag of chips.

And I'll begin to think, you know, that I can overcome this.

And the reality of it is, is in the mornings, when I get up, I need to hit my knees and I need to come to Jesus.

And I need to say, Jesus, I repent of my sin, of my flesh.

And I believe you are the Lord of my life today.

Forgive me for getting it off track yesterday.

Thank you for saving my soul.

But Jesus, I need you to lead my life today.

And I got to get on my knees and I got to come to him on a daily basis.

I got to partner with his word.

I got to believe him for who he is.

I got to give him some praise.

Come on.

How often are you hitting your knees?

How often are you going to his word?

How often are you submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit in you?

How often are you repenting of your sin so that God can get you on track?

God, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Get in Jesus and begin to let him speak to your heart and your life.

He came to serve you.

He came to serve you as a suffering servant.

He came to serve you as a priest.

He's sitting at the right hand of God, Father, all right now, interceding for you and me.

Basically what Jesus is saying right now is when you get it off track, he's saying, don't look at her, look at the blood.

Don't look at him, look at the blood.

Don't look at what they did, look at the blood.

Because my blood was good enough for all times, for all people.

Look at the blood of Jesus.

Look at the blood of that cross.

Come on.

He's doing it for you right now.

Those of us who believe, he wants our life to get back on track, but we have to trust him as savior.

We have to trust him as leader.

We have to begin to learn from him.

And so, you know, what that's called is submission.

Nobody likes to submit to the authority of anything, but you gotta battle against your flesh, and you gotta submit to God.

Because Jesus has not been given authority over everything.

And my friends, what we want to do is we want to resist what God wants to do in our life, and we battle against it.

Because most of us, you know what, we have a problem with submission.

Your flesh is an enemy.

But the reality of it is we crucify our flesh on a daily basis so that the power of God can flow in our life and flow through our life.

We have to begin to trust him as savior.

We have to begin to trust him as leader.

And then what we need to do, because praise becomes powerful when we join the movement.

I'm not gonna let a rock out praise me.

And if the movement is three of us, I'm gonna give him some praise.

If the movement, if the movement is 30,000 of us, I'm gonna give him some praise.

But what I'm not gonna do is I'm not gonna sit and let the rocks out praise me.

I'm not gonna sit on my towel.

Remember last week, I'm gonna pick up my towel, and I'm gonna begin to serve with my towel.

Because Jesus teaches us that when we become a part of the movement and we begin to serve, amazing things begin to happen in our life.

And some of us are sitting right there right now wanting the blessing of God to fall on our life.

Are you joining the movement?

You say, what's the movement?

It's called the local church.

Because Jesus created us and birthed us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he created for us to do long ago.

And the Bible goes on to again remind us that he came to pour his spirit out on men and women alike so that we can be a part of his movement and begin to make his name great among the nations.

We would be his witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

We would be a part of something bigger than ourself.

And we begin to join in with the unique gift that he has given us.

We would partner it with other gifts, and together we would become a body known as the church.

He would be the head, and this movement being the hands and feet of Jesus in this world would begin to do amazing things in your life, your family's life, your neighborhood's life, your country's life, but you gotta get involved with the movement.

In other words, you gotta do something.

You can't just let the rocks out praise you.

Praise him for what he's given you.

Look what he says.

John 13, verses 12 through 16.

Bible says, after washing their feet.

He's the leader, right?

He put on his robe again, and he sat down, and he asked him, do you understand what I was doing?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, because that's what I am.

He says, and since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.

Here it is, verse 15.

I have given you an example to follow.

Do as I have done, do as I have done to you.

I tell you the truth.

Slaves are no greater than their masters, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.

So what is Jesus saying?

He says, I've given you an example to follow.

Do as I have done to you.

He's not literally saying, you know what, go out every day, and it might be that sometimes, and wash people's feet and clean out their toenails.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, look at me, I'm the leader.

And I humble myself to a place of kneeling down and washing your feet so that you can understand who I am.

I'm a savior, I'm a servant, but I'm a savior.

And I'm willing to wash your feet, and I'm willing to pick up my towel, and I'm willing to do something with it and not sit on my towel so that you can better understand that God loves you, that God sees you, God's for you.

He's not against you.

I'm doing this so you can understand who I am.

And Jesus washes their feet.

And he says, you don't completely get it right now, but one day you will.

Because when I defeat death, I defeat sin, I defeat that grave, I rise from a grave, you're gonna understand that I washed your feet so you could understand who God is.

Everybody in Jesus' day wanted a king, but they weren't looking for a servant.

And Jesus shows up on a donkey, and he rides into Jerusalem, and he comes into all the political unrest, and he walks by a fig tree with his disciples, and he curses the fig tree because the fig tree wasn't putting out any fruit.

He says, you know what, you don't really understand completely why I'm here, but I'm here to serve you as a savior.

I'm here to serve you as a rescuer.

But what you will understand is I can defeat sin, I can defeat the grave, I can ascend to heaven, but I'm coming back one day as a king.

See, today, we can look at that cross, we can see that blood, we can understand the grave is empty, and we can begin to worship him as servant.

But we have so much more to hang on to now, because we know we live on the other side of the cross, and the grave, and the ascension.

We know, because the story has been revealed to us, we know that he's gonna come again, and because he's gonna come again, I can pick up my towel and follow my Lord's example.

I can serve those around me with the gifts that God has given me, partnered with other people.

It's called the local church, because I believe he's on his way back, he's coming, and the Bible says he is sitting there till every enemy is put under his feet like a footstool, and if the church would get on with the church's business and pick up your towel, and not throw it in, and do what God's designed you to do, the world would change.

You see, Jesus had no problem challenging those in the room to follow his example, and I have no problem challenging you to follow Jesus' example.

And the reality of it is, whether you're in the top row, or down here in the bottom, you need to be challenged to step out of your comfort zone, and step into your gift mix, and be a part of what God's doing in this world.

We are his body.

The local church is the body of Christ.

He is the head, we are the hands and feet, and here's why I don't mind challenging you, is because of what he says in this last statement.

Because Jesus says, if you'll get on doing what I've designed you to do, and serving with your life, instead of sitting on your life, he says, now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

See, God don't care if you just know something.

God wants you to do something with what you know.

He wants you to know who he is.

Savior, leader, the one who came for you, who deposits his spirit in you, but you can know that all the days of your life, but my Bible says, God will begin to bless you when you stop just knowing something and you start doing it because you know it.

And so many of us know what we ought to do and what we ought to be a part of.

And we're calling out for the blessings of the creator of the universe on our life.

And I gotta just propose the question to you.

Are you doing what he's asked you to do?

Have you stepped fully into it?

Are you really being who God has designed you to be in spite of all the oppression around you?

You see, close with this today.

My life was changed because somebody chose to do what God called him to do.

And it was to love me when I was unlovable.

It was whenever, you know what?

I probably may not, still not be to some of y'all, but I probably wasn't the most easy person to love in the world.

But my wife, this little lady sitting down here in this jean coat right down here, back in 98, 1998, she began to be an example to me.

Instead of standing and fussing and fighting and us, you know, just keep pressing through, she started praying for me.

She started praying for me and she began to, basically, God began to speak to her heart about stepping into our relationship and beginning to be who she was designed to be so that I could become who I'm designed to be.

And what I began to see is the love of Christ in her.

Because I saw the love of Christ in her, in 1998, I announced Jesus as the savior of my life through going public with my water baptism and beginning to follow Jesus with my life.

It changed everything.

Because this lady was willing to push through oppression.

She was willing to push through challenging moments.

She was willing to push through all the, I guess, bitterness that had, so she surrendered that back to God and said, God, I'm going to be the example that you called me to be.

And she stepped into it, and my life was forever changed.

In other words, she washed my feet when I didn't deserve it.

So I need you to know.

I need you to know today that that's what God calls us to be and do.

We as a church, we don't share the generosity of Christ because people deserve it, but it's because it's what God called us to and called us to be.

So this week, as we journey through Holy Week and prepare to move in to Resurrection Weekend, I'm going to invite you to be a part.