On Palm Sunday, the crowd laid down their cloaks for Jesus — and then picked them right back up. They laid them down for what they thought they understood. They picked them up when they realized they'd still need them later. It's a small detail most people overlook, but Pastor Curtis Hight says it's a mirror of how so many of us live our faith today.

In this Palm Sunday message, Pastor Curtis challenges every believer to ask an honest question: What is holding you back from completely surrendering your life to God? Drawing from the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem, the letter of Paul to the Corinthians, and the testimony of two followers walking to Emmaus, this sermon calls us to stop picking back up what we've laid at the feet of Jesus.

We are called to be Christ's ambassadors — new creations, saints of God — not because of who we are, but because of what Jesus has already done. The question is whether we'll stop holding back and fully trust him.

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, the crowd did something remarkable — they laid down their cloaks and palm branches to pave the road before him. It was an act of worship, of recognition, of celebration. But when the donkey had passed, most of them went back and picked their cloaks up off the ground.

They laid them down for Jesus. And then they took them back.

Pastor Curtis Hight"They didn't just leave them there and walk away. They laid them down for Jesus and they picked them up when they thought he didn't need them anymore. It's a lot like us today — probably more than I think we want to admit."

We say we're laying our burdens down at the feet of Jesus. But too often we don't leave them there. There is something that keeps holding us back from fully surrendering — from fully putting our trust in him. When life feels out of control after we've given it to God, we reach right back down and pick it up again, convinced we can fix it ourselves.

The people following Jesus on Palm Sunday were so focused on what they could see and feel and touch and smell that they missed what was most important. Two thousand years later, we are not so different.

The crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem didn't understand why he was there. They wanted a political deliverer — a king who would free them from Roman oppression and establish a new nation. They even answered among themselves when asked who this was:

Matthew 21:11"This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

They were laying down their cloaks and palm branches for what they thought they knew — for what they wanted. And they weren't alone. His own disciples, who had spent three years with him, who had heard him say he would be put to death, chose to ignore what he said because it didn't match their plans.

Even after the resurrection, some were still confused. Two followers walking to Emmaus met Jesus on the road without recognizing him, and explained their shattered hopes:

Luke 24:21"But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel."

Have you ever been in a position where you stopped believing — or maybe you knew someone who stopped believing — because God didn't do what they thought he was going to do?

It wasn't until Jesus broke bread with those same two followers — until their eyes were opened — that they recognized him. And they asked each other: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road?"

The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Corinth, explains why he was compelled to keep preaching the good news about Jesus even when people thought he was out of his mind. He writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that Christ's love compelled them — because one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for him.

Then Paul says something extraordinary:

2 Corinthians 5:17–20"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new… We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."

Most of us feel uncomfortable being called a saint. We know ourselves too well — we know the good, the bad, and the ugly. That self-knowledge holds us back, keeps us from allowing ourselves to be all that God has created us to be.

Paul summed it up in one verse, Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Jesus took our place. We should have paid the price for our own sins. Instead, he died in our place so we didn't have to.

That is the freedom Jesus brought — not from Rome, not from political oppression — but freedom from sin and death, and the opportunity to have a new life both here on earth and forever in eternity.

Pastor Curtis opens the message with a story that illustrates how easy it is to give what we don't have — and how hard it is to give what we actually do.

A Sunday school teacher asked her eight eager ten-year-olds if they would give a million dollars to the missionaries. Yes! They all screamed. A thousand dollars? Yes! A hundred dollars? Yes, they all agreed. Would you give just one dollar?

They all said yes — except for Johnny. The teacher noticed him clutching his pocket.

Johnny"I have a dollar."

It's easy to talk about what we would do when it feels like something we can't actually do. But like that ten-year-old boy, it's another thing entirely to commit when it's something we could actually do — knowing that it might cost us something we're not ready to give up.

Johnny didn't have any trouble saying he'd give a million dollars. But when it came to the one dollar he actually had in his pocket — he was clutching it tight. That's the sermon in one image. What will you lay down at Jesus' feet, knowing what you know to be true today?