#138- You Matter More Than You Think

On Palm Sunday, we celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem—but here's the powerful truth: He didn't journey to the cross alone. God chose to include ordinary people in the most extraordinary moment in human history. Two disciples fetching a donkey. An owner offering what he had. Crowds shouting "Hosanna!" Each played a part in God's redemptive plan.

You matter more than you realize. God doesn't need us, yet He chooses us—not for function, but out of love. He invites you into His redemptive community, using your ordinary acts of faith to accomplish extraordinary things. The question isn't whether you're qualified, but whether you're available.

This Lent, we don't just walk to the cross—we partner with Jesus to bring others with us. What small act of kindness, faith, or invitation is God calling you to today? Your role in His kingdom story matters more than you think.

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Transcript

Transcript: You Matter More Thank You Think

 Today is Palm Sunday and we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

 This is just a few days before we remember and we stop to reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus, which really is central to the Christian calendar, central to our faith, and actually one of the most important, if not the most important and significant event in human history.

 We turn our attention now to Matthew 21, verses 1 to 11, which records this triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

 It reads as follows.

 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethpage, the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, Go into the village ahead 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, just say this, The Lord needs them.

 And he will send them immediately.

This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "'Hosanna to the Son of David!

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

Hosanna in the highest heaven!'

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, who is this?

The crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

The title of our message today is, You Matter More Than You Realize.

You Matter More Than You Realize.

And we want to speak about the idea that God chooses to include us in his plan of salvation.

Not that we're always aware of what he's doing or understand the bigger picture, but God in his grace and love chooses to include us in even this, his journey to the cross.

If we look at theater or even the movies, we understand that there is usually an actor who plays the main role, often a celebrity of some kind, and somehow the selling point of this particular movie or theater production often revolves around that particular person who is in the center of the stage, who then promotes this particular movie or theater production.

But we also understand when we watch these things, when you're watching movies or a series on television or you go to a theater performance, these things seldom happen alone.

There are usually a lot of people around and they would call these people extras.

As if they aren't really essential, they're just extras that are kind of added into this movie to make it what it is today.

Even now, people are starting to move towards AI generated extras to avoid the costs that it takes to bring all these other people in.

We do live in a very celebrity driven, celebrity driven culture, which highlights the star, the lead role, the one person or the two people.

And really what the message that is sent is simply this.

They did it all on their own.

When we look at the triumphal entry of Jesus, make no mistake, Jesus is at the center.

Jesus is the one that receives the applause.

He receives adulation.

He's the one who is worshipped.

Hosanna to the Son of David.

They are speaking of Jesus.

He is the one that rides on the donkey.

But this picture, and as has been our discussion through Lent,

It's got so many more players that are around in this picture that he chooses somehow in the way he journeys to the cross not to journey alone.

So Jesus rightly stands at the center of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but he chooses by his own.

God chooses.

Jesus they choose not to do this alone but to bring people on a journey with him as he's going into Jerusalem we know without even realizing it and there's an indication in this passage that actually the disciples are there somewhere they're a part of this picture

There are at least two disciples that are sent to find a donkey.

There is at least an owner of a donkey that is inferred and sometimes explicitly stated in other accounts who actually gives this donkey.

And then we have the people who are shouting.

Some people are excited and seem to know who Jesus is.

Other people say, who is this?

But there is a lot of people.

There are a lot of people around that are making this scene what it is.

The truth is, even this lowly donkey has a role to play in this triumphal entrance as Jesus walks in, bringing Jesus to the center.

All these people come around that Jesus can be glorified.

Now we could ask the question, did these people really matter?

Did they really make a difference in God's plan of salvation?

Well, that's something we can talk about.

But it actually...

 begs us to ask a deeper question.

Do we really matter?

Do we really make a difference in God's kingdom, in the eternal plan that God has in the world today, and in the lives of those around us?

And I contend today that yes, we do matter.

You matter.

I matter.

And we matter more than we realize.

I'll say it for three reasons.

The first is this.

You matter more than you think because God chooses to include humanity that includes you in his plan of salvation.

Did Jesus really need to include all these people in his journey to the cross?

Did he really need people to fetch a donkey for him?

Well, same question.

Does Jesus really need to include us in his plan to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth?

 It's less a question of whether he needs it.

It's more a question of he has chosen to do that.

In Acts chapter 1, which takes us fast forwards beyond the death, the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus leaves and he says, you will receive power.

 when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

Jesus is obvious.

God obviously wants to include humanity in his plan of salvation.

So to answer the question, does he need us?

 Does he need to include us in his plan to spread the gospel?

Well, the answer is actually no.

He does not need anything.

And this comes down to a doctrine that's not often spoken about, the deity of God.

God's deity refers to his attribute of independent self-existence.

 Rather than depending on anything external for his being, he does not depend or need anything outside of himself on the Godhead.

God possesses existence entirely within himself.

And this foundational doctrine means God stands as the uncaused cause, the uncreated creator, originating and sustaining all that exists.

 God is self-sustained.

He needs nothing.

And so the fact that we are included is he has chosen to include us, not because he needs to include us.

 Same with Jesus.

Jesus, God incarnate, did not need anyone in his earthly life.

He doesn't need the disciples.

He doesn't need the donkey.

He doesn't need the people to go fetch the donkey.

He doesn't need any of these things, but he chooses to bring them into his world.

 Jesus includes humanity in his story, not because he has to, because he needs to.

And here's the powerful thing, it's because he wants to include us in the story of salvation.

So why would God include people in this account, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem?

Why would Jesus choose to include us in his plan of salvation?

Why does God actually choose to use fallen and frail humanity?

 This is something we struggle with.

And there's probably several answers to this question.

But fundamental to our thinking about this is because we live in a very functional driven culture and economy and society,

 where relationships ultimately are functional, and if there is no function or purpose that can be derived from this relationship, the relationship no longer seems valid.

This is how our society is built.

This is part of the carnal building blocks that we have.

 And that becomes a little bit of a problem because when we say, does God need us?

No, so therefore he won't use us.

He doesn't need us.

And this is what makes this truth so powerful.

He doesn't need us, yet he chooses us.

And so it's very possible that he wants to include us purely because he loves us, he values us, and he wants to relate to us.

 If we really stop and evaluate the state of our lives in the light of a perfect God, what do we do with that?

What do we do with that?

Well, actually, it's difficult to understand what use he gets out of us.

It's only by the grace and the love of Jesus that we can be a part of what he's doing in the world today.

 Well, we are, and we do matter more than we think because the second reason, because God chooses to work through his redemptive community.

Not only does God want to work with us, but God also wants us to work with each other.

 And so there is this community, this relationship between God and humanity, but God doesn't work with us in isolation.

It's not kind of the lone ranger and his sidekick.

That's not how it works.

It is a matter of we are immersed and a part of a redemptive community, the body of Christ.

 1 Corinthians 12 verse 14.

This is where Paul actually uses that very term.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

And the point that Paul makes, which we need to understand, is that this body, this redemptive community, this thing called the church is made up of many different parts.

 And so there's an incredible diversity.

There's a unity that we need to maintain, but there is a diversity.

There's a multiplicity of this thing.

There's different elements coming together.

Throughout the Bible, we see that God does not choose to work in isolation, but continually gives gifts continually.

 different gifts 1 corinthians 12 body many parts before that different gifts are given to different people in the body of christ at different times by the holy spirit romans 12 we see other gifts to some are given to others are given and this continues in ephesians chapter 4 11

 Some are given to be apostles, some are prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

And so there's this incredible picture that the body is not a single uniformed entity, but a collection of people coming together.

 Many of the references that Scripture makes towards the body of Christ in the church are that of multiple people, multiple entities, multiple parts forming a whole.

The family speaks to the church as the family of God.

And the family, it's not one person.

It's many people.

And we might even think within our Western mindset of a mom and dad and two kids talking

 It's bigger than that.

When the scripture speaks about family, it speaks about extended family, the people that are part of that unit, that family grouping of people.

It speaks about the body, and we've discussed that.

It might speak about the flock, many different sheep, not a sheep, many sheep.

Even when it speaks about the priesthood, it's not speaking about the priest.

It speaks about this collection of people.

We are a royal priesthood.

 community is central to understanding the way the church partners with God's plan of salvation.

So how does God work through his redemptive community?

Do we all get together and then we just make, decide, we sit down, we brainstorm, we come up with good ideas and then we vote and we say, well, this is what God should be doing through our church.

 Well, if we understand this analogy of the body, then we should also understand that the body has a head.

Ephesians chapter 1, 22 to 23, And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

 In speaking of the church, Paul speaks of Jesus as the head, the people of God as the body.

We're a diverse community with many parts, taking our leadership from the head.

The way leadership works in the church, in the local church, is simply this.

As the body, our responsibility is to discern, to hear from the head, to listen to the voice of the Spirit,

 Discern the will, discern the way of Jesus and work that out in the body for the purpose of God.

Third point, you matter more than you think because God chooses to use the ordinary to do the extraordinary.

Two ways we incorrectly see ourselves in God's plan.

The first is we tend to value ourselves too highly.

 In fact, in Philippians chapter 2, Paul says this, and he says in other places, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.

And sometimes we can think about ourselves more highly than we ought.

Here's a picture of the triumphal entry of Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

 He's moving towards the cross.

He's riding on this donkey.

You can imagine, if you will, for a second that the donkey is walking along the road and the donkey is thinking, isn't this incredible?

All these people have come here for me.

I am here.

I am the important one.

They're putting pokes in the ground for me.

They're lying branches in the ground for me.

And sometimes we get it wrong.

 We think we're more important than we are.

We think everything around us, the church, ministry, the world, God's kingdom cannot exist without us.

Remember, God is still at the throne.

God is still at the center of this picture.

Christ is still at the center of all things.

And it's to Christ that we lift up.

Christ that we shout Hosannas.

Christ that we glorify and we magnify.

 The second way we incorrectly understand ourselves is we value ourselves too lowly.

The image of a donkey once again seems a little bit applicable here.

Sometimes we might think that we are nothing more than, if we could use the picture of the triumphal entry, a donkey in the kingdom with not much value.

 We choose not to get involved in the church.

We choose not to get involved in spiritual matters or ministry because somehow we feel unqualified.

And sometimes it's not just a feeling of inferiority.

 being unqualified, sometimes this feeling of being disqualified.

Maybe there's things in our past that we can't look past, and we think somehow these things have disqualified us, our past activities.

And so we need to understand God uses the ordinary for the extraordinary, but Christ still sits on the throne.

Christ is still the center of this picture, and we work together to glorify him.

Many people were a part of Jesus' journey to the cross.

 His journey not just to a cross.

His journey to probably the most important moment in human history.

It's quite interesting when we reflect on this and if we stop for a minute and we step ourselves outside of this picture and observe it and see what's going on.

Two disciples running into town to help Jesus get a donkey.

 An owner saying, yeah, sure, the Lord can use this.

That's fine.

People coming in, disciples laying their cloaks on this donkey, walking in, people shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna.

Some people super excited to see Jesus.

Others confused because they're not too sure what's going on.

And as we look at this picture, how many people who are a part of this picture truly know what's going on?

 How many people understand that that lowly donkey is taking Jesus just one step closer to the cross?

I wonder if we were there and we knew that Jesus was moving to the cross, whether we, if we were disciples, would have fetched that donkey.

 whether we would have laid our cloaks on the donkey, whether we would join the crowds and shout to the hosannas.

In fact, maybe like Peter in Matthew 16, when Jesus says, I need to go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and scribes.

And Peter said, no, you can't do that.

Peter rebukes him.

And this is the moment when Jesus says to him, get behind me, Satan.

 Let's not criticize Peter because we probably would have done the same thing.

We would have done everything in our power to protect our Lord.

See, it's less about working out the details of what God wants us to do.

It's less about perfection, perfect planning, and it's more about humbly making ourselves available to do the small things that God would have us do even just today.

 We never know what those small things might be.

We never know where those small things might take us.

We don't know where that journey is leading and whether that journey is going to take us to a cross, to a resurrection, to eternal life.

Let's finish with this.

 There's a need to renew our minds.

There's a need for us to deconstruct secular thinking, secular celebrity type thinking, and to start to approach God's work in our lives with a kingdom perspective.

 Why?

Because if we understand kingdom, we understand God's desire to work with us, then we know that God has chosen, is choosing you, and is choosing to include you in his plan of salvation.

He is choosing to include you in a redemptive community that is here to touch the world.

He's choosing to use just the little things that you have, the ordinary of your life, to do extraordinary things.

 And we can stand back as Jesus enters in and moves towards the cross.

Or we can ask the question, what role do we play in this picture as Jesus journeys to the cross?

And I've been saying this throughout our Lenten journey.

So often our Lenten journey is a journey we walk alone.

This year I've said, no, we journey together to the cross.

 But what if I was to challenge you today and say maybe the small acts that you have, small acts of kindness, acts of faith,

 Acts of offering an invitation, a hand, love, serves to those around you.

Maybe it's not just about walking to the cross, walking with others to the cross.

Maybe it's about taking somebody by the hand and walking somebody with you to the knowledge, the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Maybe Lent sometimes is less about us walking to the cross

 Maybe it's about us partnering with Jesus to bring others to the cross.

Jesus is and always will be the central figure in all that we do.

And to him, like in this day, Palm Sunday, he deserves all the praise, the honor and the glory.

However.

 The big mystery is that He wants to, in His grace and mercy, to use us.

In fact, He invites us into a life of purpose, a life of destiny, a life of partnering with the cause of Christ.

So on Palm Sunday, as we see all these people come together and join Jesus on His journey to the cross, the question is, will we partner with Jesus?

 in walking with him to the cross, but also in walking others to the cross to find his love, his grace, and his forgiveness.

Amen.