JAN 12 2020 | Invite: Discovering the Power of Invitation S1E2 | Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

Sea Change Church · Invite: Discovering the Power of Invitation · "Zacchaeus the Tax Collector" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · January 12, 2020
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Now tonight I want you to turn with me to the 19th chapter of Luke. Luke, the 19th chapter, and a very simple little story that many of you have heard since childhood. I'll read it to you. The 19th chapter, the first 10 verses, if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was very rich.

And this man sought to see Jesus, who he was, but he could not for the press because he was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be the guest with a man that is a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of the goods I give to the poor. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And that's one of the key verses in all the New Testament, that tenth verse, because it gives you the purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ.

He's come to seek and to save that which is lost. Billy, right? That's a little something about that. He can just show up every day and do that when I wake up in the morning. Okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. Following BG. My mom put her hand on the TV when she was, part of her testimony, was struggling and trying to get sober. And he came on TV and she tells a story how, back then we had cable, but the TV actually, the cable ran off a cord.

And you had a thing you would hold to change the channel. It's like early cable, right? Maybe some of you remember that. And she got on her knees and put her hand on the TV and something stuck. But it was really powerful. It was a moment of decision. Today we come to the scripture with Zacchaeus. And a moment of decision in a moment when Jesus is passing through. We'll get to that in just a moment. The power of the moment.

The power of opportunity. But before we do that, let's just quickly go through this scripture and take a look at what Jesus was doing. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. Circle passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. Jesus walked into his life. He was not just a tax collector like Matthew. Now remember, we were with Matthew last week. The second tax collector. He was a chief tax collector.

Maybe over the whole region. Maybe at one point, Matthew's boss. And I want you to think about what Matthew was thinking when this happened. Because Matthew saw somebody who he formerly was. Matthew is looking at himself. And perhaps if you are a person that has gotten sober, you've been somewhere and you have seen someone who is still in the throes of their addiction. And you think to them yourself, that used to be me.

So put yourself in the place of Matthew now. And looking at this, as Jesus is walking, and all of a sudden Matthew sees himself. And but for the grace of God, there go I. And I believe that Matthew probably has some grace. Like Harry was talking about. And this was a tax collector who was wealthy. Now he wanted to see who Jesus was. There's a lot of people out there that want to see who Jesus is. That's why we have things like Alpha Cafe.

There's a lot of people who don't understand Jesus. But if you talk to people about Jesus, usually you will hear people say positive things about Jesus and negative things about the church or people they have known that have been Christians. But most people are open to Jesus. And this was definitely true for Zacchaeus. What I have found sometimes is we become less open to Jesus the longer we follow him sometimes. That we're very open to him when we're desperate.

But once things get comfortable, we become less open. And we don't do things like Matthew did in the previous story, invite Jesus into our home. We follow Jesus from afar. We like to be near the water during the miracles. But we don't invite him to the deepest recesses of our lives. He wanted to see who Jesus was. But because he was short, this was an obstacle, he could not see over, and Billy used the word, the press.

Think about the press of the crowd, not the media. The press. He could not see over the crowd. These were obstacles. So he ran ahead. He did something about it. Climbed a sycamore fig tree. It's a sycamore, not just a sycamore tree. It's a sycamore fig. To see him. And since Jesus was coming that way, he knew that Jesus was coming. And he threw himself in front of Jesus, which is something many of us have done. And I did that myself when I was younger.

Still try to do it every day. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. And that just sounds like he said it with a chuckle to me. There's nowhere in scripture that tells me that. But I could just see Jesus like, Zacchaeus, what are you doing up in that tree? Would you get down here? I've got to go to your house today. Just with joy. That's just how I hear that verse.

I don't know if you do. But I believe that that is how Jesus is. And Jesus loved community. And Jesus loved people. And Jesus still loves people. And Jesus loves you. So he came down at once. Didn't wait a week. Didn't wait three days. Didn't wait five minutes. Came down at once. And welcomed him gladly. We're going to look at that word in a moment. And all the people saw this and began, one of my five favorite words in the Bible, mutter.

The crowd, the press began to mutter. They had things to say. And you can hear the muttering of the crowd. Just, you know, it just was not good. And so Jesus immediately looked at what the crowd thought and said, I better not do what the crowd doesn't like. And so he left and left Zacchaeus. No, that isn't what Jesus did. Jesus didn't care about the muttering. And they said to themselves in the midst of the muttering, he has gone to be the guest of a sinner.

God forbid we have any friends that are sinners. God forbid that we are sinners ourselves. And admit it. But Zacchaeus stood up. Now this is important because if you just read scripture and you don't study scripture, you're going to miss this. He stood up. He just got down from a tree. He should be standing. And so why does the scripture say he stood up? Obviously, unless he fell out of the tree, I doubt he fell out of the tree.

It would have said that. He either got on his knees or on his face before the rabbi, before the Messiah Jesus. And we miss the contrition. And if we just read the scripture, which is important, and we don't study the scripture, then we miss sometimes the nuance of it. And this is a man who obviously was in a place that when Jesus called him, he was so overjoyed that he fell down at his feet and worshiped Jesus. Now it doesn't say that, but why is he standing up?

I think we can assume that. And the posture in which we meet Jesus, I'm pre-preaching a point that's going to be coming in a moment. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, look. I love that. Look, look, Lord. I want to show you something. So here and now, in that moment, moments are important. Opportunities are important. I give half of my possessions to the poor. That's a big, that's a, that's, imagine doing that right now.

Just go clear out half of it. Everything you got, half, some of you are like, well, that's like $12, so it's all good. Others are like, I don't know if I'm up for that. It says, I give half, and anybody, and it says, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay them back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, today. Now, here we are again with this chronology that is so important to the gospel writers.

Luke, Matthew, this word's immediately. In the moment. Today. Actually, what happens today is important. The decisions, maybe you can look back where a window of opportunity came to you, and you took that moment of opportunity. One of my dads, my dad was a businessman here and a developer, land developer here in San Diego, and came in the 40s. It was a good time to come after the world, after the war to 19, he'd be 110 today.

So my dad had me when he was 60, go dad. And he was at a restaurant in Mission Valley, and he heard over breakfast while eating bacon and eggs, two men talking about a business deal that he didn't know about, a piece of land, and what they were going to offer on the land, and they were talking big and talking to the waitress. And my dad's famous story to us is that he left his bacon and eggs, didn't finish it. He went and called the person they were talking about, made a higher bid than they were going to bid, and got the piece of property.

That became the Mission Valley Inn, which actually now is becoming that religious center down on Mission Valley, which is really interesting. And the place where they actually put the pulpit, where the stage is being built, it's where my mom met my dad, which is so interesting to me. It's just a thing. But I drive by, and I think that's cool. It's a cool part of the story. But my father and many others in this crowd understand the importance of a moment, understand the importance of when there's an opportunity doing something about it.

And so he says, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is the son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. Zacchaeus was definitely lost. Zacchaeus was a person, we'll look at his as a character in a moment, but the first thing I want to focus on is verse 19. Go to verse 19. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. Wasn't going to stay a long time. Wasn't going to camp out, go to an Airbnb for a week, take a look at the old city and look at the history of what had happened and how they had taken that city.

Jesus was passing through, and this would be the last time that Jesus ever passed through this place. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, and if you look at the chronology of Jesus' life, he goes through this place heading to the cross. He would never come back to this place again. There would never be an opportunity again for Zacchaeus to see him in his own town. This was an opportunity, and there is one thing that's true for all opportunities.

They pass. True opportunities, it's not an opportunity if it's always there. In the same way that the word opportunity is meant to mean that there was nothing, and then a window was opened, a door was opened, a possible deal was opened, a moment of inspiration. There was a moment that happened, and Jesus was passing through in this moment, and Zacchaeus captured the moment. How often do we miss moments for one reason or another, for one obstacle or another?

We miss that moment, and I would say that even moments like today are important. Two weeks ago, somebody in this crowd had a moment. I talked about getting sober. I talk about that a lot. We're working on starting a Celebrate Recovery group here at the church, and they sent me a text last week on Sunday, and they said, it's been seven days since you talked about getting sober, and I've been sober for seven days. This morning, now thankfully my phone's off in the morning, early morning text, pre-dawn text, hey, I'm sober two weeks now, thanks for inviting me to church.

I've been sober two weeks. That is phenomenal life change, and it's, yeah, right? We want to see life change. That is phenomenal life change, and somebody that saw a moment. I remember when I was trying to get sober, and I remember so many times, I would talk myself out of the sobriety. I would talk myself out of the moment. There would be a moment of life change, and I would talk myself out of that moment because ultimately I didn't really want to change.

Zacchaeus in the scripture is someone who saw Jesus coming, wanted change, threw himself into the path of Jesus, and when the moment of opportunity came, he took it. It struck, and it made it different, and it changed his life. Perhaps some of you, you know that Jesus, there's an opportunity right now in your heart for one thing or another, to dive deeper into relationships that you were probably going to leave, to be more wise, to some of you, it might be an addiction issue.

Some of you, it might be letting go of anger or hate. Whatever the thing is, there is a moment, and there is a window, and it's possible, it is possible, that this might be the last time this moment ever produces itself or presents itself to you again. We tend to think with opportunities that this opportunity will come back again. That's not always true, especially for opportunities. So when an opportunity comes, and a moment of heart comes, of change, do you strike and make immediate change?

Do you welcome the opportunity? Are you in a place like Zacchaeus, and we'll see how he was in a moment, why he was ready, or do we just move on and talk ourselves of an opportunity, not realizing perhaps the rich life that salvation has come to your door that day? Very powerful. Let's look at Zacchaeus, understanding Zacchaeus, and there's a few words I want you to see. First is this, Zacchaeus means pure. Now it's interesting, we were talking about names in the back in the pre-meeting, and I talked to people about names this week, and sometimes we have names that actually, I don't know if it's just serendipitous or because God does it, but our name tends to, when we find out the meaning of it, it tends to really relate to the story of our life.

I know Lucy was called, we called her Lucy Joy, which means bringer of light and joy. Lucy is the female of Luke, and we felt that she was gonna be called to go be a light into dark places, and she definitely has been that. We know that that has meaning. Zacchaeus means to be pure, but Zacchaeus wasn't pure. Now whether it was just a coincidence that he was living an unpure life and his name meant purity, and there was a juxtaposition there, we don't know, but what I will say is that God has called each of us to a stronger, deeper understanding of his love, of contrition, of forgiveness, of living in the power of God, and many of us are not living up to that calling.

God calls all of us. It says in the scripture that he doesn't want anyone to be lost. There is not one that he wants to be lost, and that he's calling us into our true name. In the book of Revelation, it says that in the end of time, when we get and spend in heaven with God, that he will come to us, and he will give us a stone, and on that stone will be written your true name that only you and him will ever know. It'll be your true name.

It says it comes on a white stone, and it basically symbolizes that you will be walking finally into your true identity. Now how far you walk in this life to that true identity is oftentimes up to how you deal with opportunities. How far you're going to get. Many of us could get a lot further, and we want to go as far as we can to that true identity. We will never reach it until we get there with God in the end, but we want to get as much as we want as we can today.

His name meant pure. Zacchaeus was also wealthy. We talked about that. He was not only a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector, but he was also dishonest. We'll see about that in a moment, but he was wealthy. This was an obstacle. What are your obstacles? It says that he was short, and that was an obstacle, but he also had wealth, and wealth is a tremendous obstacle. We know in the scripture, another gentleman comes up, another man comes up to Jesus and says, I want to follow you.

Tell me what I must do. Jesus goes right to it because he has that perceiving, right? So that same word that was used in the last two weeks, when Jesus sees him up in the tree, the same word, that Edo word, that Greek word, means he perceived him, and Jesus says to this other man, I believe it's in Luke, he says, okay, if you want to follow me, because the man was self-righteous. He said, I've done all these things. I've done everything you've ever told me.

I've really just grinded when it comes to being, I've got so much spiritual activity. It's something funny. I have calendars of all the cool stuff I've done for you. God's not looking for spiritual activity. He's looking for hearts. Jesus says, okay, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. It says that he went away sad. You see, there's somebody who wasn't willing to take the opportunity, and then you have Zacchaeus, who was.

You have a self-righteous person that says, tell me what to do, because he knew he could do it. If Jesus said, well, go on a mountain for 100 days and fast for 40, then he'd do it. There was all these things, but he had this thing that his heart was tied to. Zacchaeus wasn't tied for it. He was wealthy, but he wasn't tied to his wealth. Number three, Zacchaeus was a tax collector and a sinner. Now, with Matthew, they used the word tax collectors, and they separated, you hang out with tax collectors and sinners.

We can assume that one could be a tax collector and not be a sinner. I believe that Matthew was righteous, and it doesn't say that he ever cheated anybody. He was maybe just a tax collector, but they were hated by the crowds because they were betraying the Jewish state. I said last week it would be like a Jew working for the Nazis. During World War II, it was the same type of thing, and he was stealing money from the people.

Now, I believe that Matthew was just a hated tax collector. He had made a decision in his life that wasn't popular, and he was doing things that were hurting society as a whole, or at least hurting society that he called home, but we know that Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector. Zacchaeus was a tax collector and a sinner, and how do we know that? Now, that doesn't mean that Matthew doesn't have sin, but we know it because he said that he had cheated people, and you're not going to say, I'm going to pay back everybody I cheated unless you cheated people.

I would say that maybe some of us have some reconciliation, and part of repentance is reconciliation. Going back to those that we have wronged in the right situation, sometimes we just need to let people be, but when we can, going back and making it right, Zacchaeus was willing to do that. He was a tax collector and a sinner. Number four, Zacchaeus had obstacles. We talked about that he was short. That was just a physical obstacle.

They mention it in the scripture, but it was an obstacle, and sometimes we allow the obstacles, the physical things that are happening in our life to victimize us. Oh, if it wasn't for this, then I could do it. If it wasn't for that, then I could do it. This is not true for Zacchaeus. He was a go-getter. He was not willing to let the obstacles define him. Have the obstacles in your life define you. I do believe that we see a lot of voices in our culture telling you to let obstacles define you.

Let the things that are against you be the definition, and then live your life even though you've been victimized, and Jesus was victimized, but Jesus never acted like a victim. Jesus was a victor even when he was victimized. He was short, Zacchaeus, but he wouldn't let the obstacles stop him. There was a crowd as well, and crowds are really, really interesting to me. Crowds are, there was this crowd that was there, and crowds are interesting because they exist, but then they don't.

Like, a crowd exists, and then it disperses, and the crowd isn't like a person that's there. It's like, and it has a crowd mentality, and there's like a group think, and it thinks one thing until it changes its mind and thinks another thing. I don't trust crowds. I never feel safe in crowds. I've had a couple bad experiences in crowds. I was in Spain, and they were having, Europe likes to have lots of protests, and this is in the 90s, and Fidel Castro had come to town, and so he had come, and he was in Spain.

We were in Madrid, and there was a crowd going through, and they were marching, and I told my buddy, let's go get in the middle of that. That'd be fun. So they're going, Cuba, si, Castro, no. Cuba, si, Cuba, si, Castro, no. Cuba, si, Castro, no. And so I just jump in. I'm going, Cuba, si, Castro, no. And pretty soon, it was like somebody started screaming, and I don't know what was happening, but a fight broke out, and the whole crowd went crazy, and I was like, I got to get out of here.

What am I doing in a Cuba, si, Castro, no crowd right now? I don't trust crowds. Jesus didn't trust crowds. Oh, he's Lord, God of all. You know, Hosanna in the highest on Friday. Saturday? Crucify him. Crucify him. Doesn't trust a crowd. You know what? Eugene Peterson talks about crowds. He says, you know, Jesus had this really interesting, he was always dispersing crowds, right? He wasn't trying to gather crowds. He was always dispersing them.

They'd come, then he'd disperse them, and then they'd try to make him king, and he's like, no, I'm not here to be that kind of king, and he just had this really unique relationship with crowds. It didn't seem like he really liked crowds. It seemed like he liked individuals a lot. It's funny that churches, and Eugene Peterson says this, are so enamored with crowds. Like, can you really trust crowdthink? I mean, seriously, can you trust crowdthink?

Crowdthink is, I mean, sometimes it can be good, but you can see, just go on social media right now, and you will see this groupthink crowd mentality and how things shift with a new, you can't trust a crowd. Jesus never trusted the crowd. It says he didn't give his hearts to mankind because he knew what was in the hearts of men, but yet at church, just to speak to us sometimes, why do we like crowds so much? When Jesus did his best work with people, Jesus is doing his best work with people with Zacchaeus right here, and Jesus wants to do his best work with you if we're willing to meet him one-on-one.

Zacchaeus had obstacles. Number five, Zacchaeus was desperate. We know he's desperate because of that posture. Go to verse eight. Verse eight says, but Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, and I really like that. I like having a dialogue with Jesus. I like, last week we said that this is a spiritual relationship of invitation. Jesus invites Matthew to follow him, and then Matthew says, well, hey, come to my house, and invites Jesus back, and there's like this mutuality of sharing, of ideas, and grace, mercy, and wounds.

It says, by his wounds, we are healed. Jesus touches our wounds, but he also, in regard to Thomas, allows us to touch his wounds as well, and so there's this mutuality of woundedness, and invitation, and joy, and it's this back and forth relationship where the church and people haven't made God too big. You see, Jesus was God's attempt to make God smaller so that we could understand who he was, and Jesus understands this here with Zacchaeus.

In verse eight, it says, but Zacchaeus stood up, we talked about that a moment ago, and said to the Lord, look, Lord, look, I want to show you something. Let me show you something. Now, I think he was speaking more to Jesus directly than to the crowd, but there is something to be said for verbalizing publicly what you believe, this, and what you're willing to do. This is what baptism is. One of our missionaries in the Middle East was in an immigration camp of refugees that had come from the Middle East, and they were on the, in one of the, we can't say where it is, but they were in one of the towns, and eight Christians, eight people had made a decision to follow Jesus in this refugee camp full of Muslims.

There was ISIS fighters and all kinds of people that were masquerading as well, and immediately they had death threats because they were baptized in front of everybody. They were baptized and said, we're willing to be baptized for Jesus, and they had to be taken out of the camp and rushed out of the camp. Maybe you were here two years ago when two former people that were, they're actually more secular, they were Muslim by name, but they were more secular, came and were baptized here in our church.

They were Iraqi. Ended up going to an Iraqi church because they spoke a different language, but the one thing that I remember as I baptized him, we had him speak, him and his sister, and they were baptized here a couple years ago, and the one gentleman said, I want you to know that I want to be, I believe that Jesus died for me, and I'm willing to die for him. Now when an Iraqi says that in the baptismal, it isn't like, well I just heard what everybody else said.

They actually understand that there is some skin in the game. They're not getting baptized in Springfield, Missouri. They understand that there is some skin in the game, and they also know that they can possibly be disenfranchised from their entire family. Zacchaeus here makes a public statement, and if you want to get sober, if you want to get financial prudence in your life, whatever this obstacle is, we all have obstacles, one of the best things that you can do is call it out into the light.

Not that you have to get up in front and tell everybody what you're doing, but find somebody and make it real. It seems to make change real if you want change, or else you can just wait until the temptation to get better passes by. I remember many times when I was trying to have change in my life, but I didn't really want change, and so I just waited. I knew if I waited long enough, that opportunity, that desire to change would leave, and I could just get back to living my menial life, doing the things that I want, because I actually didn't want change.

Zacchaeus wanted change enough to make a difference and to say to Jesus, look, look what I'm doing, and everyone else, look what I'm doing, and then not only that, he gives and doesn't act. We'll see that in just a moment. He was desperate. Zacchaeus was ready and willing. That's great. Many of us are ready. Many of us are ready for change. I'm not surprised. I speak to a lot of people, and there's a lot of brokenness here in the church.

There's a lot of great stories, a lot of healing. I speak to a lot of people. This is my job. People call me. People from old churches call me. Youth group kids call me. I probably get four calls a week to like, hey, let's hang out and talk. I have some stuff I want to share with you, which is an honor. I mean, I just love my life. I love that part of my life. I love, not that all you call me this week, but I meet a lot of people that are ready for change.

They're so ready, but they're not willing. I meet a lot of people desperate for change, but not willing to change. And you can hear it in the rationalization as we begin to rationalize stuff and have a conversation. Zacchaeus was not only ready for change, he was willing for change and the buck stops here and he basically bankrupts himself to prove it. You realize he bankrupts himself giving back, you know how people he had cheated?

He had made a lifestyle out of cheating people. Not only had he given away half of his money, he said, I'm going to give four times back to everyone I have cheated. Basically, if you were to look at this and to study and not just read the scripture, he bankrupted himself. completely financially in order to follow Jesus. Because he said, I will not let this obstacle have bondage over me anymore in my life. I am no longer willing to be a slave because whatever you are a slave to becomes your master.

The scripture says that. And then finally, no wonder he was rejoicing. Go down to where Zacchaeus welcomes him. It says, so verse six, so he came down at once and welcomed Jesus gladly. The word there is rejoicing. It's like when Gollum got the ring at the end of the, remember at the end of the Lord of the Ring, Fellowship of the Ring or the Return of the King. Gollum finally gets that ring that he wanted and I'm not going to do the Gollum voice because I can't.

I'm not even going to do the weird Gollum dance. But he's dancing, yelling, my precious. He's got so much joy in that moment and he welcomes Jesus because he knows finally the thing I've been looking for is here. Someone accepts me. This is the third year of Jesus' popularity. He was very well known. He had raised people from the dead. He had done all these things. And Zacchaeus thought, maybe if I could just get a glimpse of him.

Like the woman that reached out and said, maybe if I could just touch him. He throws himself in Jesus' path. And not only does Jesus, he get to see Jesus, Jesus stops and says, come on down. Today you will be, I want to be a guest at your house. And he comes down, falls on his face, and then he welcomes him with rejoicing. You have to understand what it feels like to finally be free of your burden. I have to say, there's been times in my life where I've had these things and I just never wanted to let it go.

But nothing is quite as good as letting something go and knowing you let it go. For anybody who's ever done that in this crowd, who has had something that you know and has kept you in bondage, we have somebody we're praying for right now. We get these prayer requests on Tuesdays. And they say, I love that they keep engaging with Jesus. I have this thing that I'm doing. I hate it. It makes me not want to live. And I want to stop.

And they write it every week. The prayer request is there every single week. And we're praying. It's an anonymous prayer request. We're praying with that person because they want that freedom. And I say, if you have not, it's been a while since you have experienced what it feels like to be free of something, go for it. Be willing to jump into that. It feels so good. Even as I prepared this this week, I thought, is there any little, you know, niggling issues in my life where I just want to be free of and there's a few things and I actually wrote my wife a letter on a couple things.

I thought, you know, I'm just, when things are good, it's easy to let things just roll. There's certain things, it's not that big of a deal. But I just wrote her a letter. She said, you know, you put this in writing. I said, you know, I did. And she goes, it's actually really well written. I said, well, thank you, but I mean, that's not what I'm hoping. I'm like, I want you to get it. But ultimately, once I gave it to her, I was like, yes, yes, no more of that.

No more of that. It feels so good to be free. Have you tasted freedom? Have you tasted what it's like to be free? I see somebody else in the crowd just smiled at me a second ago because they know because over the last month they've been free. Do you want to be free? We are going to preach life and freedom at this place in Zacchaeus God. Turn your notes over. We're coming in for a landing. Zacchaeus, you never thought he had that much going on, did you?

It was solid. Jesus creates a scandal. The scandal of grace. Sinners. Scandal. Why? Because he invites Zacchaeus into fellowship. For some of us, maybe it's not scandalous if he invites us, but other of you are like, he invited me? That's some scandal, for sure. Who does Jesus invite today? Strippers? Whores? All of them. Whatever you say, Jesus invites them all. He invites people of certain political parties or whatever.

He would just go to the people who are the most marginalized, the ones who are the most hated, and he would say, you, let that go. Come and follow me. He created scandal, and it was a scandal, and it's still a scandal today. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. Would you get out of that tree? Seriously? You're having a tree. You see, Zacchaeus not only had obstacles, I'm going to show you the tree right now.

Zacchaeus had resources, and he was willing to take them. This is a sycamore fig tree in Jericho. This is one of the very type of trees, and that's an old one right there. I actually have one of the leaves from one of the 2,000-year-old Gethsemane. When we were in Israel, I found one on the ground and put it and kept it, so I have this leaf from one of those trees. This is the resource that he used to get in the way of Jesus.

I want to say, we offer a lot of resources here, and some of you need some resources. A lot of time, we look at our obstacles, but we don't look at our resources. Do you have a, what's your tree? Where's that thing where you say, I got to get that? If I went there, some of you, it's rehab. Some of you, it's a friend that you can talk to. Some of you, it's a financial counselor. All you use spending over and over again.

You're so in debt because you just spend to make yourself feel better, and you need something. You need a financial peace class. You need something. Find a tree and climb up in it, and once you get up in it and you do it, I want to tell you, Jesus is going to come to that tree, and he's going to say, we've solved the issue. You don't need that tree anymore. Get down. It's time, because I'm coming to your house today, and we're going to live in a new reality.

Do you want a new reality in 2020? I know I want a new reality. I don't want to live in the margins of life. I found it's really easy. I was a B student all through college, grad school, everything. B student. B students are great because everyone's like, hey, you got pretty good grades, but you really don't have to go for it. You know what I'm saying? And I was kind of like, I got to surf a little bit, but I look back now, and I thought, you know what?

It's okay to have rest and margin, but sometimes, what would it look like to live at the most in your spiritual potential? What would it look like to get up that extra 15 minutes or whatever it is to find that thing to go to that next level? Jesus says, I must come to your house, and he invites him into the scandal. Jesus wants to be in the scandal of your life, and he invites you today. Next, free yourself from the muttering crowds.

We talked a moment ago about the crowds, about groupthink. Crowds. You know what? Care about people. Care deeply about people. Don't care what people think. Big difference. Care deeply about people, and don't care what they think. Be willing to make change. We are looking for individuals. Everyone wants a leader. America, we love leaders, right? Unless you go against the crowd, which is so often leaderless. Who's leading the crowd today?

Unless you go against the crowd. Jesus went against the crowd. The muttering of the crowd. Where are the mutterings that you hear? Where are the things that you're going to have to stand up and say, no matter what this crowd says, this is what I know is truth, and I'm going to walk according to that truth. And then Zacchaeus enacted change. Final bit. First, he admitted that he was a sinner. I have sin in my life. If I've cheated somebody, I'm going to turn it over.

I'm going to make a change. And then finally, as I said a moment ago, he admitted his sin, and then Zacchaeus was willing to bankrupt himself to follow Jesus. What are you willing to give to follow Jesus? He wants your heart. He wants your whole life. C.S. Lewis says that he didn't come to prune the tree that is your life or take a branch off there or remove some leaves there or cut it back a little bit. It says that he wants the whole tree down.

Matter of fact, he wants to give you a new tree with new roots, with new sustainability that is a flourishing and producing life where you become a generator for life. I would love to have seen the end of Zacchaeus' story. Can you imagine this guy? I don't know what he did. I don't know how much money he had. I don't know what he did. I wish, I wish, maybe I can look, maybe there are some references to it in some of the old text, but I wonder what happened to Zacchaeus, and I wonder what's going to happen with you.

I wonder what the next move on the chessboard of your life is going to be. Moving into that next thing, he was willing to bankrupt himself, and because of that, going back to the beginning of the sermon, that opportunities pass, salvation came to his house that day, today. Maybe you need salvation today. If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, it's not you know it. Whenever God speaks to me, I know it. It's just there.

There is a moment for all of us. Maybe it's following Jesus exclusively. Maybe Jesus has just been one of many great spiritual teachers. The thing that makes Christianity a scandal is that Jesus says, you must follow me exclusively. There's, you know, no Buddhas, no other powerful universe spirits. No, there's a lot of people that actually, you know, they're really trying to find truth, and they're looking everywhere for it, but what the Scripture says, and Jesus says, is I command exclusivity.

This is why it's a scandal, and why not only Jesus calling you is a scandal, but it's a scandal to follow Jesus to the world because it's a slap in the face. It says, this is ultimate truth. This is absolute truth in a world that doesn't want absolute truth since the Enlightenment, and has been, you know, decomposing absolute truth for the last, like, three to four hundred years, that Jesus is saying, I want your heart exclusively, and it is a relationship of mutual exclusivity that reaches out to others in the end.

Maybe today, salvation comes to your house. Let's stand, if we would. Chris, it's a powerful message. It's a powerful story, and I want to give you an opportunity. There's going to be two opportunities. The first, if you're not following Jesus exclusively, I want to give you an opportunity to say, I want to follow Jesus exclusively. If you've never done that, you haven't been baptized, if you raise your hand during that, we want to see you get baptized to make that public confession, so I want to give you that opportunity.

I want to be very clear. The second, some of you know that you have not been following Jesus or having him in your home. You have things in your life that you want to change. You need that moment, and today, in this moment, you have the ability, in this moment, to grasp something. A window has opened in your heart that you have not been able, seen open for a while, and this might be the last time it passes through. I want to encourage you at the second time that I ask to consider if that is you.

Let's bow our heads, if we would. If you've never followed Jesus exclusively, and you know, if he's calling you, you know it. You'll know it. Say, I want to take a shot at this. I want to follow Jesus exclusively. So raise your hand so I can see it. Is there anyone here that says, I want to follow Jesus exclusively? Yeah. Yeah, I see three people. Right. So you just begin with this prayer and say, Jesus, I want to follow you exclusively.

I want to come down out of my tree and I want to follow you. Show me what that looks like. If you've never been baptized, let us know. We want to see you baptized. Here. Go to Sean at the back table and let us know. That's the first thing. The rest of you, there's a window of opportunity and God's been calling you into a deeper life. If you have something, let's keep our heads bowed and eyes closed. It makes it easier for people.

Raise your hand. I don't know what it is, but just raise your hand and say, I got to make a change. So anybody here needs to make a change. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. As freedom comes. Yes. Step into it. Yeah. More. Yeah. Yeah. Praise God. A moment of freedom, a moment of opportunity. Now I pray for these people, Jesus, that they need to make a change. God, in this window, in this place, Lord Jesus, they know in their hearts, this is business you're doing and that you would speak to them directly and that the window of God, the power of God would come into their lives.

Jesus, you'd open up, I'm so grateful, Jesus, for changed lives. Bless their homes. Bring such blessing. Bring such a current of your love, of your proclamation, of letting them know how much you love them, God, to blow up everything they've done before and recreate it anew where you say, let there be light. We bless you now. We send you from this place. Change people. If you need resources, go to the back table, talk to Sean.

We have tons of resources to help you. Let us know. Let someone know. We bless you. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.