When Jesus needed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he didn't go buy one. He didn't borrow one. He simply sent two disciples ahead with one instruction — find it, untie it, and bring it to him. And when the owner asked why they were taking his animal, the disciples answered with four words:

No resistance. No negotiation. The colt was given immediately and used for the most significant moment in human history.

District Superintendent Doug Wyatt brings this powerful Palm Sunday message to Paris Church of the Nazarene — asking every believer the same question Jesus was asking that day: What is your Jesus donkey?

DS Wyatt opens with a personal story from a life-changing trip to Israel with his wife Joanie. As their tour bus pulled up to the top of the steep pathway leading down through Jerusalem — the road historians believe Jesus traveled on Palm Sunday — the group was invited to walk the path themselves.

At the bottom, a lineup of donkeys waited. For a fee, anyone could ride a Jesus donkey down the path just as Jesus had ridden.

DS Wyatt looked at the condition of the donkeys. He looked at his own condition. He made a decision.

DS Wyatt"No Jesus donkey."

But the image stayed with him — because the donkey Jesus chose to ride wasn't impressive. It wasn't powerful. It wasn't trained for ceremony or royalty. It was just a colt. Available. Willing. Ready to be used. And that, DS Wyatt says, is exactly the point.

Luke 19:30–35 records the exchange that took place when Jesus sent his disciples to retrieve the colt:

Luke 19:30–35"While they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, 'Why are you untying the colt?' They replied, 'The Lord needs it.' And they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road."

What stands out is the owner's response — or rather, the lack of resistance. The moment he heard that the Lord needed it, he let it go. No questions. No conditions. No holding back.

The question is whether we'll untie it and hand it over.

DS Wyatt tells the story of Pastor Brian Wilson, who built a powerful inner-city children's ministry in New York through buses, food, clothing, and the simple message of Jesus. Into this ministry came a Puerto Rican woman who spoke very little English — broken enough to communicate, but not enough to teach, lead, or preach.

When she told Pastor Wilson she wanted to help with the children's ministry, he wasn't sure what she could do. Eventually he gave her an assigned seat on one of the church buses.

That was her Jesus donkey.

Every Sunday, as children from the inner city boarded the bus, this woman would scan the crowd for the most downtrodden child — the one with the most holes in their clothes, the one who wouldn't make eye contact, the one who had never once been told they were loved. She would find that child and say the only words she knew would land:

Over and over. Week after week. A thousand times. Ten thousand times. One Sunday she found a little boy — the worst of the worst. She invited him to sit beside her. Eventually he moved from the seat next to her to sitting on her lap. And one Sunday after weeks of hearing those six words, he turned around and stammered out:

The little boy"I love you, too."

He grabbed her and held on. That afternoon at 2:30, he was dropped off at home. At 6:30 that same evening, he was found dead in a dumpster — beaten to death by his own mother.

DS Wyatt"I love you and Jesus loves you. Those were the last words of hope that little boy heard in his short little life — from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who didn't think she could do much of anything."

She gave her one talent to God. And because she did, a little boy who never heard the word love in his own home experienced it — and responded to it — before he left this world.

DS Wyatt brings the message home with a direct challenge to every person in the room:

DS Wyatt"What can you give? What is your colt?"

It doesn't have to be impressive. The donkey Jesus chose wasn't impressive. The Puerto Rican woman wasn't impressive by the world's standards. She couldn't preach. She couldn't teach. She could barely speak English. But she had a seat on a bus and six words. And Jesus said — the Lord needs it.

DS Wyatt reminds the congregation that the gifts, talents, abilities, and opportunities we have aren't really ours to begin with. Our parents, our birthplace, our race, our gender, where we are today — very little of it was our choice.

The call isn't to be qualified. The call isn't to be eloquent or powerful or impressive. The call is simply to be willing — to untie whatever God has given you and hand it over when he says he needs it. There will be people who lay cloaks on the road. There will be praise. But there will also be times when the same crowd yells crucify him. Through all of it — the call is to stay faithful.

DS Wyatt"Not what I want to be, not what someone else wants me to be — but what he needs me to be."