The Trap of Self-Initiated Grace: Why ‘Belonging’ Without ‘Believing’ Fails

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Amen.
[00:02:25] .

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
.
[00:02:47] .
[00:03:03] of the Holy Spirit
[00:05:00] Thank you.
[00:06:09] Thank you for watching!

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
We're going to worship, sing, and celebrate today.
[00:07:18] We invite you to lift up your voice with us.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
of Christ be, which is

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest forever For all He has done is unfailing love Glory to God in the highest forever Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
In excelsis Deo

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
All He has done is unfailing love Glory to God in the highest forever All He has done is unfailing love Glory to God in the highest forever
[00:10:59] Come on, somebody praise God today.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Come on, say this out together.
[00:11:19] You've given me joy It's unspeakable joy

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
It's always burning I'm by the river It's full of light That's ever growing And I've got a fire And it's always burning It's always burning You've given me joy It's unspeakable joy

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
It's a table where I've got the joy of the Lord Come on, let me see your hands like this.
[00:13:09] We're gonna sing this out together.
[00:13:11] And I've got joy on the inside Feels like fire can't keep it in And I keep praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I've got joy on the inside It feels like I can keep it in And I'll keep praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength I've got joy on the inside It feels like I can keep it in I'll keep praising I'll keep praising in the midnight
[00:13:49] The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength And I've got a river that's flowing inside
[00:14:17] It's full of life, it's ever growing I've got a fire and it's always burning It won't go out, it's always burning You've given me joy It's a speaker full of joy
[00:14:54] The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength
[00:15:22] Hallelujah!

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
You are our strength.
[00:15:35] Oh God, we look to You.
[00:15:37] We worship and exalt You in this place.
[00:15:40] Great are You, Lord.
[00:15:56] of the world.
[00:16:01] Treasure of heaven, brilliant like the stars in the wintery sky.
[00:16:08] Joy of the Father, reach through the darkness, shine across the earth, send the shadows

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
The tragedies of time were no match for your love From great heights you climbed You saw my story and got me into it

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
Soon will be coming with fire in his eyes He will ransom his own through clouds

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
All together let's lift up our voice and together declare how great and mighty our God is.
[00:20:15] How great is our God.
[00:20:37] Every voice proclaim it in one tongue we sing.
[00:20:41] How great is our God Won't you sing with me How great is our God And all will see How great, how great is our God
[00:23:02] Dear God, we come before you and we sing how great is our God.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
You know, there is power in us coming together as a church and declaring the name of Jesus.
[00:23:37] Jesus, you're the name above all names.
[00:23:39] You're the name that darkness runs and hides.
[00:23:44] You're the name above all names.
[00:23:45] And God, as we come in here today, I pray that we will just lay down before us whatever we're bringing in here.
[00:23:53] and this hectic holiday season, God, let us see you as the focal point.
[00:23:59] Don't let us get distracted by the busyness, God, the lights and the presents and the get togethers, God.
[00:24:05] Let us see you and remind us that you are the name above all names.
[00:24:11] You're worthy of all of our time, adoration.
[00:24:14] There's a weight behind singing, how great are you, God?
[00:24:22] You're so great.
[00:24:24] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:24:26] Amen.
[00:24:27] You guys can go ahead and take a seat.
[00:24:34] Well, good morning, Cove Church.
[00:24:36] How are we doing?
[00:24:38] I think you guys can do a lot better than that.
[00:24:40] How are we doing?
[00:24:42] Much better, much better.
[00:24:44] Well, hi, my name is Ashlyn and I'm one of our Cove students leaders.
[00:24:48] And I'm so excited to be here with you today.
[00:24:50] And guys, we had an incredible tree lighting last night, didn't we?
[00:24:54] We had a wonderful time and it was so special getting to experience the holiday season with you guys.
[00:25:00] There's something so special about that.
[00:25:03] And there's something extra special about experiencing it with any first time guests.
[00:25:08] Hey, can we take a moment to celebrate any first time guests that we've got in the building this morning?
[00:25:14] If it's your first time, we are so, so glad that you're here.
[00:25:19] And we wanna make sure you don't leave today without letting someone know.
[00:25:23] You can do that in a couple easy ways.
[00:25:24] You can scan the QR code on the back of your seat, or you can go out to our Next Steps area in the atrium.
[00:25:30] We have team members that would love to talk to you, would love to answer any questions that you may have.
[00:25:36] And most importantly, we want you to know that we would love to have you a part of our church family, and we are so glad that you're here.
[00:25:43] You know, Christmas is such a special time here at the church, and something that makes it so extra special is our toy store.
[00:25:52] And this is where we get to partner with Cove Church families as well as some of our community partners and provide toys for those who are in need this holiday season.
[00:26:02] Guys, can you believe that our toy store is this Saturday?
[00:26:07] We are so excited for all the things God is gonna do.
[00:26:10] And I got to speak with a wonderful woman who has been attending our church for 12 years this week.
[00:26:15] And she told me the story of the first time she came to the toy store.
[00:26:19] She said she walked in and she was feeling a mixture of stress but also hope.
[00:26:24] And she was met by team members that welcomed her with smiles.
[00:26:28] They asked her about her kids and helped her pick out the perfect gifts for each of her children.
[00:26:35] She said she left that day and felt confident in giving her family a wonderful holiday season.
[00:26:42] Cove Church, thank you for your generosity.
[00:26:45] This is one of so many stories where we see God use the generosity and the obedience of the church to change lives.
[00:26:55] but the good news is that opportunity has not passed.
[00:26:59] We're gonna be collecting toys for three more days.
[00:27:02] So you guys can still bring in your toys until Tuesday, December 9th.
[00:27:07] You can do that two ways.
[00:27:08] You can grab a wishlist and you can go shop in stores or you can go to the Amazon link on thechristmasonthecove.com and it'll send it directly to the Cove Church.
[00:27:19] Either way you choose to do that, I want to encourage you.
[00:27:22] There are so many families that are feeling the exact way that that mother was feeling.
[00:27:28] And God may be calling you to be obedient and generous and show someone a little extra love this holiday season.
[00:27:35] You know, you guys do such a wonderful job of being generous, not only in that way, but with your tithes and with your offerings.
[00:27:42] You know, your tithes and offerings are what allow us to continue our mission of introducing our friends to Jesus, learning to follow Him, and celebrating His presence in our lives.
[00:27:53] And so if you guys would like to give today, you can do that in two ways.
[00:27:56] You can go out to our atrium, to the gray receptacles, or you can go to covechurch.org slash give.
[00:28:03] Well guys, we are on our second week of our Christmas series and we have a special treat.
[00:28:08] Our Statesville campus pastor, David Porter, is here joining us today so we can celebrate that.
[00:28:14] And you guys can direct your attention to the screens.

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Tis the season.
[00:28:26] You know what that means.
[00:28:27] There is shopping to be done, meals to cook, company to entertain, and Santas to go visit.
[00:28:34] Traffic will be slow, checkout lines long, and calendars full.
[00:28:38] Christmas can so quickly feel hectic, stressful, and even overwhelming.
[00:28:44] Yet when you look at the manger, isn't it always still, quiet, peaceful, hopeful?
[00:28:53] Truthfully, we haven't changed that much.
[00:28:57] Mankind used to imagine what the coming of the Messiah would look like.
[00:29:00] They knew he would come as a fierce warrior, a king, a conqueror here to turn the world on its head.
[00:29:07] No one could even imagine his grand entrance.
[00:29:11] And instead, Jesus came in the most normal way you could imagine.
[00:29:15] We will always be drawn to the loud, the craziness, and the unbelievable,
[00:29:22] But maybe this Christmas we would be better served to focus on something simple.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
All right, good morning.
[00:29:33] How y'all doing today?
[00:29:38] Y'all ready to be here for another two and a half hours today?
[00:29:42] Some of you are like walking out the door right now.
[00:29:44] Well, hey, good morning.
[00:29:46] My name is David.
[00:29:46] I have the honor of serving as Statesville campus pastor.
[00:29:49] and it's just us and those watching online right now.
[00:29:53] So I wanna ask one more time, are y'all excited to be in church today?
[00:29:57] Come on.
[00:30:01] So, are y'all excited about Christmas?
[00:30:10] Like, nobody even clapped.
[00:30:12] That was like five people.
[00:30:15] You know, this time of year,
[00:30:17] should be like we should have some joy right we should we should be excited about this month have joy we should be excited about going out and seeing all the amazing christmas decorations the lights excited just to be home snuggled up like drinking hot chocolate and a hot cup of coffee and watching
[00:30:44] The greatest Christmas movie of all time.
[00:30:49] He says, really?
[00:30:51] Somebody?
[00:30:52] Okay.
[00:30:53] This happened first service.
[00:30:56] Let's just get this clear, guys.
[00:30:57] Some of y'all didn't hear it.
[00:30:59] Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.
[00:31:02] Stop it.
[00:31:04] I'm talking about the real Christmas movie.
[00:31:07] Elf.
[00:31:08] Come on, let's go.
[00:31:09] Let's go.
[00:31:11] We should be in that mindset of enjoying this time of year, but it's hard for us to.
[00:31:19] And you know why it's hard?
[00:31:21] It's because there's people.
[00:31:26] Like, you know what I mean?
[00:31:27] Like, people, like, this, like, I mean, have you been to Target and Walmart and even the grocery store lately?
[00:31:33] Like, it's just, it's crowded.
[00:31:35] It's frustrating.
[00:31:36] People get on your nerves.
[00:31:38] And then, and then what happens?
[00:31:39] Now, I'm not talking about any of you because none of us in this room, we're not those crazy people.
[00:31:44] We got our lives together.
[00:31:45] We're always happy, right?
[00:31:46] But what happens is those crazy people annoy us a little bit.
[00:31:51] and frustrate us who are not crazy and what happens is is like our fuse is a little shorter than normal this time of year and anytime we see someone do something whether it's in a store or out with traffic we we get a little aggravated and we want to honestly we just want to see them pay for it like we want some just justice to take place in their actions like you know better you know did you forget how to drive
[00:32:19] Did you forget how to push a buggy in Target?
[00:32:24] And the other day this happened, like going down 77, which we know is crazy anyway, but this time of year it's even like a level 10 with it.
[00:32:34] And I'm driving down the road,
[00:32:36] And this guy comes flying up behind me right on my bumper.
[00:32:41] Well, I get a little frustrated with that.
[00:32:42] And then he weaves out and then he goes and he weaves from another car to another.
[00:32:47] Then he heads out and he's like going like 80 miles an hour.
[00:32:50] And I get frustrated and I'm going, this guy deserves to get pulled over by the cops.
[00:32:56] Maybe I would just call the cops on him right now and say, there's a reckless driver on 77.
[00:33:01] Well, a couple of miles up the road, I look and I see flashing lights.
[00:33:07] And I see the guy pulled over.
[00:33:10] And there's a smile on my face.
[00:33:14] As a pastor, I'm going, God is good.
[00:33:16] He answers prayers.
[00:33:18] You know what I'm saying?
[00:33:20] It feels justified.
[00:33:21] He deserved it.
[00:33:23] It's like the person that's even in Target or Walmart, and they jump in line, which is aggravating.
[00:33:29] And deep down, as a believer, you're going, I hope their car gets declined.
[00:33:34] Like you want to see something happen to them.
[00:33:36] I was watching a documentary the other day and it was about Christmas and it's a few years old, I forget the name of it, and this guy moves into the neighborhood and he's doing this thing with this big event at his house with all these Christmas lights and he's talking to his neighbors and all of a sudden they get into a fight and this guy says, hey, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, but he basically was calling all of his neighbors idiots.
[00:33:58] And he was really being a jerk.
[00:34:01] And I'm sitting there and I'm like, this is horrible.
[00:34:04] I can't believe this guy feels this way about his neighbors.
[00:34:07] They really didn't do anything wrong.
[00:34:10] Well, all of a sudden it blew up and it got really bad.
[00:34:12] And he actually sues the entire neighborhood.
[00:34:16] The entire neighborhood.
[00:34:17] He sues the entire neighborhood.
[00:34:18] They go to court and I'm like, there's no way this guy's gonna win this.
[00:34:21] There's no way.
[00:34:22] Well, the judge gets up there and the verdict goes for the guy that was a jerk.
[00:34:28] I'm on the couch and I'm upset I'm really upset I'm like oh my gosh he deserves to be punished I can't believe he won well as I continue to watch it probably about 15 minutes later another judge jumps in switches the verdict and then the guy who was a jerk was guilty and I was so I wanted to jump up off my couch like that's what that's the mindset I was in I wanted to see that he was guilty
[00:34:54] I wanted to know that he was wrong and I was right.
[00:35:00] Isn't that the case so often with people?
[00:35:04] We want to see justification.
[00:35:07] We want to say, hey, you are wrong and I'm right.
[00:35:12] This happens so often in our spiritual journey, our spiritual walk.
[00:35:19] And we may not realize it.
[00:35:22] But so often as those of us who say that we're Jesus followers, that we're Christians, it can be easy to see other people and think they deserve punishment because we're right.
[00:35:37] That somebody who may even, this is where we gotta watch, somebody who may not be following God, they may not be going to church, we see their actions, we see how they talk,
[00:35:51] We see their lifestyle and we start to look at them and say guilty.
[00:35:58] We start judging them and think they should be punished.
[00:36:02] Or even worse, we look at them and we don't want to go anywhere near them.
[00:36:08] because of who they are.
[00:36:11] And we look at ourselves and be like, oh, we're believers.
[00:36:13] We're Jesus followers.
[00:36:14] We're Christians.
[00:36:15] We can't associate with anyone.
[00:36:17] So everyone that's not like us, that looks like us, that talks like a believer should, then we look down upon those people.
[00:36:27] It's so easy for us to do.
[00:36:29] But see, what we're gonna look at today is the life of Jesus.
[00:36:33] Jesus flips the script because
[00:36:37] Everyone thought when the Messiah was going to show up, especially the religious leaders and the Pharisees, they were thinking with this mentality that Jesus, the Messiah, is going to walk right beside of us.
[00:36:52] And how we see sinners, that's how Jesus is going to see them.
[00:36:56] He's going to look down on them.
[00:36:58] He's going to judge them.
[00:37:01] But Jesus does something different than the religious leaders, than the Pharisees.
[00:37:07] Jesus saw those who were far from God.
[00:37:10] He saw those that were called sinners as his friend.
[00:37:17] And that blew the religious leader's mindset.
[00:37:21] And today we're gonna look at this from the world we live in.
[00:37:27] What does it look like for us to follow Jesus?
[00:37:31] How can we become what they call Jesus, the friend of sinners?
[00:37:36] We're gonna look at three different ways in how Jesus saw people who were far from God.
[00:37:44] And maybe for us, for myself even included, how do we look at people different?
[00:37:49] How do we look at people who don't follow Jesus?
[00:37:53] How do we look at people who don't go to church?
[00:37:55] How do we look at others who have a different lifestyle than us?
[00:37:59] And how do we love them like Jesus did?
[00:38:04] Today we're going to be in a very familiar story that many of you may know.
[00:38:09] And we're going to see this played out.
[00:38:10] And I hope today as we read this that we don't just check out immediately and say, oh, I've heard this story before.
[00:38:17] I've read this story before.
[00:38:18] Because there's some things about this passage we're going to read today that even as I've read it a hundred times,
[00:38:26] that I've seen really for the very first time.
[00:38:30] So if you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to turn to Luke.
[00:38:33] We're gonna be in chapter 19, and I'm gonna read verses one through 10.
[00:38:38] So go ahead and turn there in your Bibles.
[00:38:40] If you don't have your Bibles, it's gonna be on the screen.
[00:38:43] It says this, this is Jesus.
[00:38:44] As he entered Jericho and he was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
[00:38:50] He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
[00:38:53] He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was of small stature.
[00:39:00] So he ran on ahead, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
[00:39:06] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
[00:39:14] So he hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
[00:39:17] And when they saw it, they all grumbled.
[00:39:20] This was the religious leaders and the Pharisees.
[00:39:22] Because he has gone in to be a guest of a man who is a sinner.
[00:39:28] Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
[00:39:37] And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham,
[00:39:45] for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
[00:39:51] There's so much to unpack in these 10 verses today.
[00:39:57] So if you're taking notes, we're gonna jump in.
[00:39:59] Point number one is this.
[00:40:01] Jesus notices the unseen.
[00:40:05] Jesus notices the unseen.
[00:40:07] Luke tells us all about Zacchaeus and who he was.
[00:40:10] He wasn't just a tax collector.
[00:40:12] He was the chief tax collector.
[00:40:14] He was over everyone.
[00:40:16] So what tax collectors tended to do is they would get money from their own people, shave a little bit off the top, and then they would receive a lot more money than actually they deserved.
[00:40:27] So they were actually cheating their own people.
[00:40:32] Now, Zacchaeus being the chief tax collector, not only was he despised, but he was actually hated.
[00:40:38] He was hated by everyone.
[00:40:40] He was hated by his own people.
[00:40:43] But Scripture tells us something about Zacchaeus that we sometimes miss.
[00:40:50] Zacchaeus was rich.
[00:40:52] Zacchaeus had everything that he could possibly want in this life.
[00:40:56] He could live any lifestyle that he could want.
[00:40:59] But Zacchaeus heard about a man named Jesus who was coming to Jericho.
[00:41:05] And Zacchaeus did something that would have been so humiliating back in those days.
[00:41:10] First, it says that he ran.
[00:41:13] Now, for men to run back then would have been embarrassing because they had to wear a tunic.
[00:41:19] And when they ran, they had to lift up their tunic to run.
[00:41:22] That was embarrassing.
[00:41:24] The second thing is he climbed up in a sycamore tree.
[00:41:29] That would have looked childish to a man back then.
[00:41:34] But there was something about Jesus.
[00:41:38] Him knowing that Jesus was on his way.
[00:41:42] He did everything he could to climb that tree.
[00:41:44] All Zacchaeus wanted to do in this moment was to see Jesus.
[00:41:50] Because that's who Jesus was.
[00:41:52] And this is what Jesus was all about.
[00:41:55] People who were nothing like Jesus
[00:41:58] Wanted to be around Jesus.
[00:42:01] So as believers today, and I want to talk to a lot of us who say we are Christians, we are Jesus followers, people who are not going to church, people who are not believers like you are, do they want to be around you?
[00:42:21] Do you attract people to you like Jesus did?
[00:42:27] Not because of our charisma, not because of our status, not because of what we make, how much money we have, nothing like that.
[00:42:34] But because of the gospel that changed your life.
[00:42:37] Are people attracted to you because they see Jesus in you?
[00:42:43] Or is it like they don't want to be around you?
[00:42:47] Are they intimidated by you?
[00:42:50] Would you say that you are approachable?
[00:42:55] Do we have a tendency, could it be, that we have a tendency to look down on people who are not like us?
[00:43:07] This whole thing hit me a little bit hard as I was going through the message today because I remember a time when I worked in a factory and I was at this moment, I was trying to really follow Jesus and go to church and do all the things I thought I was supposed to do.
[00:43:21] And I remember going into work and I worked with a lot of guys who didn't go to church.
[00:43:26] They didn't believe in God at all.
[00:43:28] But sometimes we'd have these moments and we'd have these conversations.
[00:43:31] We'd talk about church and we'd talk about God.
[00:43:34] And I'd talk a little bit about how He changed my life.
[00:43:36] And we had a couple of guys, man, they just resisted.
[00:43:39] They pushed back.
[00:43:40] They said things that were really discouraging.
[00:43:43] And there was this one guy in particular, he said a lot of really negative things.
[00:43:47] And can I be honest with you?
[00:43:48] I got super upset.
[00:43:50] I got really mad and he kept pushing me and pushing me.
[00:43:53] And finally, I looked at him one day and I said, listen,
[00:43:56] I am never ever going to talk to you about God again.
[00:44:00] I'm never gonna mention church to you ever again.
[00:44:04] He's like, are you serious?
[00:44:05] I said, yeah, I don't want anything to do with you.
[00:44:09] And I walked away from that conversation.
[00:44:11] Can I tell you that I did not have the fruit of the Spirit?
[00:44:15] I was not living out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.
[00:44:21] I did not show grace.
[00:44:23] I didn't show mercy.
[00:44:25] I didn't show any love.
[00:44:27] Now, I would love to go ahead and tell you that there was a redemptive story that took place.
[00:44:32] I would love to say that the next week, he came in asking me about church and about God, and I led him to Christ, and he got saved right there in the workplace.
[00:44:42] And then a week later, we came in again, and every day from then, we started singing Amazing Grace every day at work.
[00:44:50] Can I tell you that didn't happen?
[00:44:53] What I ended up doing is saying, I'm not fooling with you again.
[00:44:58] I'm not having conversation about God again to you.
[00:45:02] And I never did.
[00:45:04] And I left that workplace never talking about Jesus again to that man.
[00:45:12] It's one of the things I'll regret still to this day.
[00:45:17] And I wonder for us, I wonder for you, how many people
[00:45:23] like Zacchaeus have been a part of our lives and we just ignore it.
[00:45:30] How many people, even when they don't understand, even when they don't have the lifestyle we do, they're up in a tree and they're searching, but they don't understand, but we say, hey, they're too much and we walk away.
[00:45:47] Someone who may have been climbing and looking for an answer, looking for hope,
[00:45:53] hoping someone might notice them while we walked away instead of looking up.
[00:46:03] Who would we say that we have written off?
[00:46:07] Who is that Zacchaeus in your life that you looked at and said, they're too far gone?
[00:46:15] You have a Zacchaeus like I did at your work, a Zacchaeus at your school,
[00:46:21] Someone maybe even at the gym.
[00:46:23] Someone who drains you.
[00:46:24] Maybe someone that has a lifestyle you disagree with.
[00:46:28] Someone whose politics, come on, frustrates you.
[00:46:32] Someone who you think and you look at their life and you think there's no way they could be forgiven.
[00:46:37] They're unforgivable for their actions.
[00:46:40] I want you to think about the Zacchaeus in your life, in your workplace, in your school, wherever it may be.
[00:46:47] If Jesus was walking into your workplace
[00:46:50] If he was walking into your school, can I tell you, Jesus would walk right to them.
[00:46:58] Jesus wouldn't be walking away.
[00:47:00] Jesus wouldn't be saying, they're too much.
[00:47:02] He wouldn't be saying, they're too far gone.
[00:47:05] He would be saying, this person needs to understand and experience grace.
[00:47:10] Who is your Zacchaeus?
[00:47:15] And you may be thinking, but you don't understand.
[00:47:17] It's too hard.
[00:47:18] You don't understand who they are or what they've done or what they've said.
[00:47:21] Can I tell you something about the gospel today?
[00:47:24] The gospel is messy.
[00:47:27] The gospel is not always easy.
[00:47:30] The gospel calls us to go out and sometimes we have to get our hands just a little bit dirty to reach people who are far from God.
[00:47:41] Here's why.
[00:47:42] Because some of us were in that spot.
[00:47:46] Somebody had to get their hands dirty to meet us when we wanted nothing to do with God.
[00:47:54] So who is your Zacchaeus?
[00:47:57] Who have you written off?
[00:47:59] I wonder if we would get up in the morning and just go to God in prayer and say, God, let me see the person that I usually overlook.
[00:48:09] Let me see the person that I usually run away from.
[00:48:12] Let me see that person, God, how you see them.
[00:48:16] How would you approach them?
[00:48:20] How would you talk to them?
[00:48:23] How would you have a conversation with them?
[00:48:27] And what we have to see as we continue to go through this story with what Jesus does with Zacchaeus, he does something more shocking.
[00:48:35] He draws even closer to Zacchaeus.
[00:48:37] And it says in verse 5, once again, And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
[00:48:46] So he hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
[00:48:49] Point number two, we see what Jesus does.
[00:48:51] Jesus embraces those the world considers unworthy.
[00:48:57] When Jesus says the word must, I don't want us to overlook this word.
[00:49:02] In Greek, it means day.
[00:49:05] Well, in Greek, the word day means a divine purpose.
[00:49:10] And this story means that there was a divine purpose which took place and then there was a divine appointment.
[00:49:19] Jesus knew Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus ever climbed that tree.
[00:49:27] was looking for Jesus, but Jesus already had a divine appointment with him on this day.
[00:49:35] Jesus knew his name before he ever climbed that tree.
[00:49:38] Can I tell someone who is here today, and I don't know where you are, I don't know everyone's, your walk with Jesus right now.
[00:49:47] Some of you are Zacchaeus.
[00:49:51] Some of you are in a place where people have said things about you.
[00:49:55] They said you have gone too far.
[00:49:57] They said that no one will ever love you.
[00:49:59] Someone said that no one will ever care for you.
[00:50:02] And what you are carrying, you are carrying weight of guilt, of doubt, of frustration, and of failure.
[00:50:09] Can I tell you, He knew you were going to be in this place before you even went to bed last night.
[00:50:16] And He is saying, even in this moment, that I see you.
[00:50:23] And I don't know about you guys, but I thank God that he saw me when I was living in darkness.
[00:50:33] I thank God that he saw me when I was at a place that I thought no one would ever love me or care for me because I had done too much.
[00:50:43] Is anyone in the room thankful that Jesus saw you in your darkest days?
[00:50:51] As believers, we should be so thankful for that.
[00:50:54] And not only should we be thankful for that, we should show others what He has done in our life.
[00:51:00] Not looking like, okay, now I've got my life all together, and I'm all cleaned up, so I'm not worrying about anyone else.
[00:51:06] We can't do that as believers because that's not what Jesus did.
[00:51:10] That's not what he did.
[00:51:13] That's not who he was.
[00:51:15] And I love this because when you go on and you look at this, what it meant for Jesus to go into the home of Zacchaeus and sit down and eat with him, that was unheard of for anyone to do that.
[00:51:27] What Jesus was saying by eating with him in his own home, he was saying that, hey, you don't have to fix your issues.
[00:51:36] You don't have to get yourself together before I come and sit down and eat at the table with you.
[00:51:41] He's saying, I'm accepting you.
[00:51:42] What Jesus is saying, you can belong before you believe.
[00:51:47] And that changed Zacchaeus' life.
[00:51:51] He was offering relationship before repentance.
[00:51:58] This is why I love this church.
[00:52:01] Before I was ever on staff, before I was ever on a pastor, one of the things that I love about this church was our mission statement and our core values.
[00:52:09] And one of those core values is we love people unconditionally.
[00:52:13] I see it not only on Sunday, I see it through the week.
[00:52:16] You're about to see it if you're gonna be a part of the toy store.
[00:52:19] People who run to people who are hurting.
[00:52:23] I see it all the time where people are like, others would be like, I don't want anything to do with them.
[00:52:27] I don't want to be near them.
[00:52:28] I don't want to be around them because they're too much for me.
[00:52:31] I see so many people in our church that will run to people who are searching, who will run to people who are hurting.
[00:52:40] Years ago, we had a basketball life group when we were meeting at the Statesville High School.
[00:52:45] When we started having this life group, we would have guys who would show up from the community.
[00:52:51] They didn't go to church, they didn't believe in Jesus, but before they played basketball, we had about a 15-minute devotion that you had to be a part of.
[00:52:59] and these guys would come in like I said they didn't go to church they weren't part of anything and they would come in and and it was it was kind of basically like this it wasn't like you you get a little you know little physical playing basketball it wasn't like oh you hit somebody and then they go oh brother I'm sorry God is good he loves you
[00:53:17] Sorry about that.
[00:53:18] Praise God.
[00:53:20] You get your shot blocked and it's like, oh man, I'm sorry I did that.
[00:53:25] He is the King of Kings.
[00:53:27] He's the Lord of Lords.
[00:53:28] Like, it wasn't like that.
[00:53:30] These guys were making up cuss words that I've never heard of.
[00:53:34] I'm like, what in the world?
[00:53:35] Like, it was constantly up and down the court.
[00:53:38] This bomb would be dropped.
[00:53:40] This bomb would be dropped.
[00:53:41] And at the end of it, after a couple times, a couple weeks playing like that,
[00:53:45] Some of the guys came up that was in our life group that came to the church.
[00:53:48] They were like, listen, we gotta do something about these guys.
[00:53:51] I said, what are you talking about?
[00:53:53] He said, they cuss too much.
[00:53:55] Praise God, they cuss too much.
[00:53:58] Now you're looking at me going, what in the world are you talking about?
[00:54:02] Here's why.
[00:54:04] It's because you had these guys who were not affiliated with church, who did not know Jesus, but would come in and take 15 minutes and sit and learn about Jesus.
[00:54:17] Here's the thing.
[00:54:18] We accepted them for who they are, who they were.
[00:54:23] But guess what?
[00:54:24] We showed them love.
[00:54:25] We showed them compassion.
[00:54:27] We were meeting them right where they were at, and then we were allowing God to do His work.
[00:54:35] Allowing God to come in and change their life.
[00:54:37] And those guys actually showed up for church.
[00:54:41] What would have happened if we had to kick them out and said, no, we don't do that here.
[00:54:46] We embraced, we loved.
[00:54:48] That's not agreeing with everything that was happening and everything was going on.
[00:54:54] But see, that's what grace does.
[00:54:57] Grace doesn't push people away.
[00:55:00] Grace says, I love you right where you are.
[00:55:03] I accept you right where you are at.
[00:55:08] And this is what Jesus does for Zacchaeus.
[00:55:11] He doesn't have Zacchaeus repent, get his life together, fix his life.
[00:55:17] He said, I'm gonna meet you right where you are and I'm gonna show you unconditional love and I'm gonna show you grace in your life.
[00:55:25] I wonder if we would take this week, not only pray,
[00:55:29] for that person, but to choose one person to intentionally move toward.
[00:55:39] People that others look down on and show them grace.
[00:55:46] Have them around your table.
[00:55:49] Take them out for coffee.
[00:55:50] Not somebody that looks like you, not somebody that acts like you and talks like you, but someone that you would look at and be like, this person is searching.
[00:55:59] They're looking, they're far from God.
[00:56:05] And you may do that and some other people around you may be like, you're crazy, I don't know why you're doing that.
[00:56:09] The same thing happened to Jesus.
[00:56:11] Look at verse seven, it says, and when they saw it, this is when Jesus was with Zacchaeus, they saw it, he has gone in to be the guest of a man who was a sinner.
[00:56:21] This wrecked their mindset for the religious leaders.
[00:56:24] And this was not the first time this happened.
[00:56:26] In Matthew chapter nine, Jesus is walking by.
[00:56:30] He sees Matthew sitting there.
[00:56:32] Matthew was a tax collector and he says, come follow me.
[00:56:35] Matthew gets up, starts to follow Jesus and then they're in this home and they're eating and you have the religious leaders, the Pharisees, sitting back talking to the disciples.
[00:56:44] I can see them with their arms crossed.
[00:56:47] and they look over and they start to say and they start to question what Jesus was doing and he says to the disciples, it's the religious leaders like, why is Jesus eating with sinners?
[00:56:57] Why is he eating with tax collectors?
[00:57:01] Jesus says this in Matthew 9, he says, but when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.
[00:57:08] Go and learn what this means.
[00:57:09] I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I come not to call the righteous but the sinners.
[00:57:16] Jesus is saying, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
[00:57:23] Could you imagine being, having a cold, having a fever, coughing, unable to stop, and you go to your doctor and say, hey, I got this going on.
[00:57:34] Your doctor looks at you and say, no, I don't really wanna be around you.
[00:57:40] I don't wanna take care of you.
[00:57:40] I don't wanna prescribe any medication to you.
[00:57:43] I just don't even wanna be in a room with you.
[00:57:47] This is what the religious people were doing in that time.
[00:57:53] People who were far from God, who needed to understand and hear love and grace and mercy, forgiveness, they were pushing away.
[00:58:05] I sometimes wonder if we can be the crowd.
[00:58:07] I sometimes wonder if we can be the ones who are gossiping about other people and have our arms crossed looking at them, talking to our neighbors, talking to our friends, being like, I can't believe them.
[00:58:18] Did you see what they did?
[00:58:21] Do you know what they're about?
[00:58:23] Do you know what they stand for?
[00:58:27] And pushing them away.
[00:58:28] And we start to make this invisible list of who is accessible to reach and who's not.
[00:58:35] We start to post maybe harsh comments or liking comments and call it, hey, I'm just standing for the truth.
[00:58:46] We withdraw from people far from God, from sinners, and we call it holiness.
[00:58:51] We refuse grace to people that Jesus ran to.
[00:58:55] This is what we have to understand today.
[00:58:57] If our version of holiness keeps us away from those who are far from Jesus, then we may not be that holy after all.
[00:59:10] Because that's not the holiness that Jesus actually showed.
[00:59:17] Who is it?
[00:59:20] Have you written somebody off who you think has made too many mistakes?
[00:59:26] Someone you feel like is too far gone.
[00:59:31] Grace doesn't mean, once again, that you agree with them, that you agree with what they're doing, but grace says, I'm not gonna give up on you.
[00:59:43] Grace says you're not too far gone.
[00:59:46] Grace says you're not broken.
[00:59:49] Grace says you deserve to be pursued.
[00:59:54] And when that grace shows up in someone's life, then we see transformation.
[01:00:01] Transformation is possible and it takes place in the life of Zacchaeus.
[01:00:07] It's my third and my last point.
[01:00:10] Jesus is what he does.
[01:00:11] He transforms and he restores.
[01:00:15] Jesus transforms and restores.
[01:00:18] Zacchaeus finally sees grace lived out.
[01:00:22] He encounters grace for the very first time.
[01:00:25] And the transformation in his life is immediate.
[01:00:29] Verse eight says this, Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor and I have defrauded, if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
[01:00:43] His life has changed.
[01:00:47] He turns from greed.
[01:00:50] He has a heart change.
[01:00:53] This is repentance in action.
[01:00:55] This is taking place in the life of Zacchaeus.
[01:01:02] You know, as I was thinking about this story, and I've shared this story I think a couple years ago, but as I was doing this message, this story meant something a little bit different for me.
[01:01:17] And I saw it in a different way.
[01:01:19] You know, because I am thankful for His grace.
[01:01:24] I'm thankful for seeing me in my darkest days.
[01:01:29] But I'm also thankful for the people that were part of my life, that were part of my family's life, that didn't turn away.
[01:01:41] People who looked up.
[01:01:44] And my story is with my mom and dad when I was little.
[01:01:48] I think I was like seven, eight years old.
[01:01:50] They didn't go to church.
[01:01:51] They didn't want anything to do with church.
[01:01:53] They definitely didn't want anything to do with God.
[01:01:57] And my dad especially.
[01:02:02] Have you ever heard of someone, I know you guys have, you ever heard of somebody and you go like, man, they're really rough around the edges?
[01:02:09] My dad was rough to the core.
[01:02:11] There was no edge.
[01:02:12] It was just all the way to the core rough.
[01:02:15] He was hard to be around.
[01:02:16] He was hard to live with.
[01:02:20] and my mom at the time she wasn't as bad it was more him but my mom was at work and she had this lady that would talk to her about church talk to her about God and invite her to church and she said no I'm not going to go so a few months passed by and then one day my mom said hey I'm going to go to church and you're going to go with me so mom and I went to church and she went a few weeks and and then one night she uh she accepted Jesus to be the leader of their life which was an amazing time for us and our family yeah and
[01:02:52] But my dad was like, don't you come home with that nonsense.
[01:02:56] I don't wanna hear anything about it.
[01:02:58] And the people who really led her to church and to Christ, after work they would pull in our driveway and just have a conversation with mom.
[01:03:05] Mom would go outside, talk to them, and my dad wouldn't even allow them in the house.
[01:03:11] That's how bad he was.
[01:03:11] He said, I don't want anything to do with them, with church, with God.
[01:03:15] So we continued to go to church throughout the week and on the weekend.
[01:03:19] And then one day out of nowhere, I don't remember what happened, but my dad decided to go to church.
[01:03:24] And so we go to church and he goes a few times and something weird started happening with my dad.
[01:03:30] So he would go out to our, we'd meet with our family and friends and he would all of a sudden start talking to people about Jesus.
[01:03:39] And he kept saying, hey, you should come to church.
[01:03:41] Hey, you should hear about this Jesus guy.
[01:03:43] Hey, and he kept on.
[01:03:44] And it was really weird because they would ask him, they were like, bro, did you get saved?
[01:03:49] Are you a Christian?
[01:03:51] He'd be like, absolutely not.
[01:03:53] It was that weird.
[01:03:57] It was so weird.
[01:03:58] And then a few weeks later, maybe a few months later, my dad, I remember one night they had an altar call and he went down to the front and he gave his life to Jesus.
[01:04:10] He accepted Christ.
[01:04:12] And here's what I realized.
[01:04:18] As I was doing this message, and I was thinking about my dad in that moment of like, man, he was talking to people about Jesus.
[01:04:26] He was looking for Jesus.
[01:04:28] My dad was Zacchaeus in the tree.
[01:04:31] He didn't know who Jesus was.
[01:04:35] He didn't understand, but there was something about Jesus that was drawing him to him.
[01:04:45] But here's, it's an amazing salvation story.
[01:04:48] That story is awesome.
[01:04:49] I could tell more.
[01:04:51] But here's the thing that I don't want us to miss.
[01:04:56] There was a lady that talked to my mom to go to church.
[01:05:00] While all that was happening, we didn't realize it until later, there was a gentleman that gave my dad a small Bible and was praying for my dad and talking to him about God.
[01:05:12] I thank God every day
[01:05:15] That there were people who didn't give up on my mom and dad.
[01:05:21] I thank God every day that there were people that were in their lives that didn't walk away but they looked up.
[01:05:30] And they saw people who were hurting, who were without hope, people who didn't realize that they needed Jesus and they looked up.
[01:05:42] I don't know if I would be here today preaching the gospel if it was not for those people probably 40 years ago.
[01:05:53] I don't know if my two kids would have ever accepted Jesus if it was not for those two people probably 40 years ago.
[01:06:03] Three generations of lives changed because of the power of Jesus, because of people who were willing to look up.
[01:06:14] Are we willing to look up and see people around us who are hurting?
[01:06:21] You, we can be a part of someone's salvation story where they could be in an environment telling and talking about you.
[01:06:33] How you shared the gospel with their parents 40 years from now.
[01:06:39] Think about that, guys.
[01:06:41] The difference that we as believers can make.
[01:06:45] See, the religious didn't understand this.
[01:06:48] The Pharisees didn't get this.
[01:06:53] This idea of grace and love that Jesus gave.
[01:06:57] And Jesus really wrecks their mind because I want to read 2 Corinthians real quick.
[01:07:02] It says, I love this when it talks about new creation and the life and the story of Zacchaeus.
[01:07:13] Here's why.
[01:07:14] And I want to read 9 and 10.
[01:07:15] It says, And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to the house since he also is a son of Abraham.
[01:07:27] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
[01:07:31] Guys, when he says the son of Abraham, you talk about blowing the religious leaders' minds?
[01:07:39] This was next level.
[01:07:41] When Jesus said he, Zacchaeus, is a son of Abraham, he is saying he belongs to the covenant family.
[01:07:49] Zacchaeus was Jewish, just like them.
[01:07:53] They treated him as a traitor, someone on the outside.
[01:07:58] But Jesus is saying, hey, you all rejected him, but I haven't.
[01:08:03] You treated him as an outsider, but I'm telling you right now, he is an insider.
[01:08:09] Jesus in this moment is restoring him publicly.
[01:08:14] The whole crowd hears it.
[01:08:16] Jesus is rewriting and restoring his name, Zacchaeus' name, and his identity in front of the people who erased him.
[01:08:26] So we look at the life of Zacchaeus, and we could say that he's a sinner.
[01:08:31] We could say that he's impure.
[01:08:33] We could say that he is guilty.
[01:08:36] Can anyone, does anyone in the room know what the name Zacchaeus actually means?
[01:08:43] I'm gonna tell you, it means
[01:08:45] Innocent and Pure.
[01:08:47] Guys, I don't know about you, but that just blows my mind.
[01:08:51] Think about it.
[01:08:52] A man who was guilty, who was impure, who was a sinner, his name actually means to be pure and to be innocent.
[01:09:05] Before Jesus, that's who he was.
[01:09:08] He was impure and guilty.
[01:09:10] Zacchaeus wasn't just saved, he was restored.
[01:09:14] He restores, Jesus does, restores Zacchaeus' name to what his name actually signifies.
[01:09:24] I don't know about you, but that is beautiful.
[01:09:28] Here's the thing for us today.
[01:09:30] You may be thinking, well how does that apply to me?
[01:09:35] Who does He say we are?
[01:09:38] God says we are His masterpiece.
[01:09:42] He says we are His children.
[01:09:48] That means that no matter where you are, that means that no matter what you've done, God can restore who we actually are.
[01:10:00] Who He has called us to be.
[01:10:02] Who our identity actually is.
[01:10:05] He can restore that in us.
[01:10:11] And I wanna talk to you in just a moment, if that's who you are and how you feel, but I wanna talk to those of us who say we're Jesus followers.
[01:10:19] I wanna say this, can we go out of these four walls and show grace to someone we may have written off?
[01:10:29] To show love to someone that we feel like is too far gone.
[01:10:35] Because if we do this, guys, we will show the world who Jesus is.
[01:10:44] If we do this, we probably need to put more seats out in our churches today.
[01:10:52] We can't live a life as believers of living in this bubble and thinking, hey, we're taken care of.
[01:11:01] We have to step outside and show grace and love.
[01:11:08] And as we close out today, I wanna circle back to those of you, maybe you feel like Zacchaeus today.
[01:11:17] Maybe you walked in here today in the church feeling unworthy, ashamed, you feel far from God.
[01:11:25] Maybe you feel like you've climbed your own tree
[01:11:29] and you're just looking and you're searching for hope.
[01:11:32] You're searching for some type of joy, a little bit of peace in your life.
[01:11:37] Maybe you feel like a failure.
[01:11:40] Maybe you feel like you're too far gone.
[01:11:42] Can I tell you, He sees you and He loves you and He wants a relationship with you.
[01:11:53] That way you can experience what Zacchaeus did.
[01:11:58] it's transformation to take place in your life that you can walk through this life understanding that there is someone by the name of Jesus who loves you unconditionally right where you are no matter what anybody else has said about you and I want to take this moment I want to pray if you'd bow your heads and close your eyes
[01:12:27] If you feel like Zacchaeus today, he wants to save you, he wants to forgive you, he wants to restore you.
[01:12:37] He wants to rewrite your story today.
[01:12:40] You don't have to climb anymore.
[01:12:43] You don't have to hide anymore.
[01:12:45] You don't have to pretend anymore.
[01:12:48] Grace is reaching for you.
[01:12:51] Today can be your defining moment.
[01:12:55] Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
[01:12:59] If that's you, He's seeking you right now.
[01:13:04] Today is the day that I say is put your yes on the table.
[01:13:12] It's the day to accept the gospel, the good news of a man named Jesus who came and died for you right where you are.
[01:13:21] To know that even after this day that you will have someone who loves you unconditionally.
[01:13:27] Today to experience salvation.
[01:13:32] To experience this moment when you close your eyes on the very last day of your life that you know where you will spend eternity.
[01:13:41] Today's a defining moment.
[01:13:44] And if that is you, you wanna accept Jesus to be the leader of your life, you wanna have this relationship with someone right now who's extending grace and showing love to you, a man named Jesus.
[01:13:58] All you have to do is have the courage
[01:14:02] Not thinking about anybody around you.
[01:14:04] This is between you and God.
[01:14:06] And on the count of three, would you just raise your hand and say, today, I wanna choose Jesus.
[01:14:10] One, two, three.
[01:14:13] Just raise your hand, amen.
[01:14:15] Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.
[01:14:18] Keep your hands up, amen.
[01:14:19] Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.
[01:14:25] Anyone else?
[01:14:28] Praise God.
[01:14:30] Amen, I'll see you again.
[01:14:33] Acts chapter 2 says this, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[01:14:39] We're going to do this as a church together.
[01:14:42] We're going to pray this prayer together.
[01:14:43] We're going to encourage those who are going to pray this prayer for the very first time.
[01:14:47] So let's as a church pray this prayer together.
[01:14:50] God forgive me of my sins.
[01:14:54] Today I'm confessing with my mouth that Jesus is Lord.
[01:15:01] I believe He is the Son of God.
[01:15:05] that He died on the cross and rose on the third day.
[01:15:10] Thank you Jesus for saving me.
[01:15:16] Thank you Jesus for setting me free.
[01:15:20] it's in Jesus name and everybody said amen amen come on can we celebrate those who prayed that prayer those who accepted jesus to be the leader of their life if that is you don't pass this moment to tell someone about that decision that you made i just want to say welcome to the family of god go grab a bible at the next steps area and a devotion book that team would love to help you with your next steps in following him but hey right now we are going
[01:15:50] to give it up for Jesus one more time before we walk out of this room today come on God is good in this place come on God is good in this place y'all believe that all right love you guys hope you have an amazing rest of your day hello hello hey sorry I missed something
[01:16:15] Can y'all, if you have a second, we have Toy Store coming up next week.
[01:16:19] If you guys have the opportunity, we need to stack all the chairs six high.
[01:16:24] Thank you, Colin, for the reminder.
[01:16:26] If you don't mind doing that, six high, stack the chairs, if you don't mind.
[01:16:30] Thank you so much.

[01:16:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
The Christmas tree have a happy holiday Everyone dancing merrily in the new old-fashioned way
[01:17:20] You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear Voices singing, let's be jolly Deck the halls with boughs of holly Rock and roll the Christmas tree Have a happy holiday Everyone dancing merrily In the new old-fashioned way

[01:18:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
St. John the Baptist Church
[01:18:34] He knows about you, He knows about me He knows about everything, don't try to hide it
[01:19:03] When you sleep and look at yourself when you wake up Don't try to hide from Him, because He will always see you He knows about you, He knows about me He knows everything, don't try to run away Santa Cruz is here

[01:19:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Faithful, joyful, and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
[01:19:59] Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels.
[01:20:04] O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
[01:20:24] Thank you for watching!