This Sunday, Pastor Jay brought a word that a lot of us didn’t know we needed.
He started with a story about pulling up to the mall and spotting a parking space near the entrance. He made his move, pulled up ready to claim it, and found a cone sitting in the space. On the cone: one word. Reserved.
The spot wasn’t empty because nobody wanted it. It was empty because it was being held for something specific.
That image became the foundation of the whole message. And if you were in the room, you felt the moment he turned it toward the congregation and said: “You’re not empty. You’re not overlooked. You’re not stuck. What if I told you you were reserved?”
The Donkey Nobody Had Ridden
The text for Sunday was Matthew 21:1-3, the account of Jesus preparing to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. As Pastor Jay walked us through it, he pointed to a detail in Luke’s version of the story that stops most of us in our tracks.
The donkey Jesus asked for had never been ridden. Not once. No experience, no track record, no obvious qualification for the moment it was about to step into. And yet Jesus specifically asked for that one.
Why? Because 500 years earlier, in Zechariah 9:9, the prophet had already written it down. The king is coming, humble, riding on a donkey. That donkey wasn’t sitting there waiting because something was wrong with it. It was sitting there because God had a specific moment in mind, and the donkey was being preserved for it.
Pastor Jay made it plain: some of us have been in a long season and we’ve been reading it as rejection. But what if it’s reservation? What if God has been keeping you ready for something that requires exactly who you are right now?
Waiting Is Not Wasted
One of the most freeing things Pastor Jay said Sunday was this: waiting is not wasted time. Waiting is an opportunity to worship.
Every quiet season. Every dry season. Every season where nothing seems to be moving. That’s not God being absent. That’s God being intentional. He’s not ignoring you. He’s preserving you. And there’s a difference.
The donkey didn’t know what it was being held for. It just waited. And when the moment came, it was ready.
Come. Go. Do.
Pastor Jay closed with three simple things the donkey did that we can learn from as believers.
Come when He says. The donkey didn’t resist when the disciples arrived. It came. Sometimes God uses the people around us to carry the word to us, and our job is simply to respond when it comes.
Go where He says. The donkey had never been ridden and had never been where it was going. It went anyway. Pastor Jay made the point that some of us are more afraid of what it means to succeed than we are of failing. We shrink ourselves to stay comfortable. God is calling us out of that.
Do what He says. This is where most of us stall. We respond to God based on how we feel rather than what He says. But He’s not working according to our emotions. He’s working according to what He already knows about our lives, and what He knows is bigger than what we can see right now.
Covered and Free
Before Jesus sat on the donkey, the disciples covered it with their cloaks. Pastor Jay pointed out that before the donkey came to Jesus, it was tied up and uncovered. After it came, it was free and covered.
The covering came with the coming.
And here’s the word he left us with: the goal is not to be viewed. It’s to be used. We don’t know the names of those donkeys. We don’t know their history. It doesn’t matter. What matters is who they carried and what they were a part of.
Your name doesn’t have to be big for God to use you in a big way.
There’s a Seat for You
If Sunday’s message spoke to you, share it with someone who’s been in a long waiting season. Watch the full sermon above and join us next week as Pastor Jay continues through Holy Week.
We’d love to have you in the room. If this is your first time visiting or you’ve been thinking about making this your church home, plan your visit here. We’ll make sure you know what to expect before you ever walk through the door.
And if you’re ready to take a next step, get connected with a group, or just let someone know you’re here, connect with us. You don’t have to navigate this season alone.
We’re coming out of this.