Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
The Unexpected Invitation: Jesus, Zacchaeus, and the Transformation of a Tax Collector
Jesus's encounter with Zacchaeus demonstrates His mission to seek and save the lost, revealing how genuine salvation transforms not just our eternal destination but our present actions and attitudes.
• Looking for Jesus with genuine curiosity and hunger for righteousness leads to finding Him
• Jesus intentionally seeks out the lost and knows us before we even look for Him
• Religious people often criticize Jesus's association with sinners, missing His redemptive purpose
• True faith must manifest in practical actions, not just emotional or mental acknowledgment
• Grace doesn't just cover sin like snow over trash—it transforms the trash into snow
• Zacchaeus's response went beyond requirements, giving half his goods to the poor
• We must see unbelievers with potential rather than judgment
• Transformation is sometimes immediate, sometimes gradual, but always with God's help
• Prayer focus: intercede specifically for lost people in your life and recapture excitement about salvation
This week, commit to praying daily for specific people who need Jesus in their lives, and ask God to renew your excitement about what Jesus has done for you.
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We're going to Luke, chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. We're going to go ahead and jump into the scripture and then talk about our lesson for today Luke, chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. You've heard this story before, probably in a kid's song. He entered Jericho and was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus Not Zachary, make that clear, not Zachary Zacchaeus, not Zachary, make that clear, not Zachary Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature Zacchaeus, not Zac. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, for I must. Everyone say must, I must stay at your house today, not musk, but must. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled he's gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And 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. And Jesus said to him Today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is the son of Abraham, for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost. This is I don't know. I never preached on this before, so I came across it and I thought we're getting ready for Easter, so I thought what are some things that happen as Jesus is walking towards Easter? And this happens to be one of the scriptures, that's sort of right before we get to the crucifixion and the resurrection. And so I just thought it appropriate, as we build towards Easter, to see what Jesus was doing in this moment. And surprise, surprise, he's fulfilling his mission saving the lost. But Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, doesn't really know much about Jesus, but is curious about who this guy is. And Zacchaeus doesn't understand and know that Jesus came to see Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus even understood what was happening. But this is a story of salvation.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus is what it calls a chief tax collector, a person of wealth, and what that means is that he was the chief tax collector and all the other little tax collectors would gather their taxes and give their cut essentially to Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus would deliver it to the Roman government. Here's why this matters, because no one likes taxes, but it doesn't make you evil just because you're part of the IRS. What happens back in this day is that Rome had a tax percentage that was due to them and the tax collectors. Essentially, they would get this contract and they could collect the tax, and then, on top of the tax, they would collect whatever they thought was appropriate for their compensation. Okay, lots of room for some silliness to happen there. If you can just imagine if someone gave you a job to do and said okay, I need you to go get $100 from this person, but then you collect whatever you need for your own self, well, I think I'll take $100 too, thank you, so give me $200. And so that's what's happening here. That's why people don't like tax collectors. That's why it was considered sinful, because there's often a lot of room for dishonesty. And, on top of that, the Jewish people didn't like tax collectors because they felt like they were traitors to the Jewish people, because they're working for Rome, which is this enemy of Jerusalem, of the Jews, and so hopefully, that little bit of context explains why other people in this story have such a negative reaction to Jesus associating with a tax collector like him.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus is coming into Jericho, this Samarian city, and Zacchaeus the short guy again Zacchaeus, not Zachary. I want to make that very clear, very, very clear. If this listen, 5'8 was tall back in this day and age, like 5'5 was the average height of a man back in this day and age. So this guy must have been even shorter than that. So I would be considered tall. I long for the day. Long for the day, jack, john, you guys, you don't understand it, but anyways, I'm kidding, I don't really care all that much. But he's coming to Jericho and Zacchaeus the shorter guy all that much. But he's coming to Jericho and Zacchaeus the shorter guy climbs into the tree to see him. Jesus stops, sees him, tells him come on down from there. I must, I must stay at your house today, which is some interesting wording there. We'll talk about that in a minute. But Jesus must spend time with Zacchaeus today. Zacchaeus gladly takes Jesus back to his home, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus just wanted a glimpse of Jesus and now he's getting a full meal in conversation with Jesus. He's getting more than what he bargained for. Everyone else is mad about it. They're angry, they're snickering, they're talking behind Jesus' back. How could he do this? How could he go into this sinful man's house? They couldn't understand that this was Jesus' mission. He came for the broken, he came for the sinner. And Zacchaeus responds to Jesus' presence and this invitation of a new way of doing life that Jesus was offering.
Speaker 1:He responds not just with thanksgiving, not just with excitement, not just with words, but with actions that go above and beyond expectations, and here's what I mean by that. There were certain expectations of generosity if you were going to be considered righteous. There were certain expectations of making things right. In the Old Testament for you to be considered righteous, zacchaeus offers 50% of his possessions to the needy. To be considered righteous in later Judaism you had to give 20%. So he's given 50%. To be considered righteous, he's giving 20% I may have mixed that up, but you know what I'm saying. On top of that, to sort of do restitution to those who he may have harmed, or even his sort of subordinates may have harmed, he's offering to give four times what we find in scripture when it comes to restitution. So Zacchaeus' actions are attached to this excitement. They're attached to Jesus transforming his life. They're transformed to the salvation experience. So he wasn't just excited, he wasn't just saying that he was saved. There was a practical change in his life that he took action out of. That sort of connected it all together. Jesus accepts all of this and he confirms the salvation in the story.
Speaker 1:Just reading the scripture, beyond the practical points, which some of them I'm about to point out in a minute it just makes me excited, because Zacchaeus had this curiosity about Jesus. Zacchaeus had to see Jesus and, just as exciting, even though Zacchaeus didn't know it yet, jesus had to get to Zacchaeus. It's exciting to me that that's still the God that we serve today. We can get curious about Jesus, we can get closer to Jesus and before we even realize that we need Jesus, he's already trying to find you All right. From this scripture I've got four points, four quick points. I'm going to talk about these practical points and then we can go home here in a little bit. But point number one is this and then we can go home here in a little bit. But point number one is this Are we looking for him? Are we looking for him Now?
Speaker 1:This question means two different things, depending on the context For somebody who might not be saved or for somebody who might just still be searching and trying to figure out answers for their life, that this question of are you still looking for him is different than for most of us in here who are already saved, all right. So it's two different, same question, two different meanings, depending on your context, and I don't know. It's just interesting to me that Zacchaeus is just looking for Jesus, doesn't know anything about him. But here we have this grown man climbing a tree to get a glimpse of a dude. Okay, this reminds me of, like, some of my friends in high school, some of the girls that were my friends. They had obsessions over the Jonas Brothers or something, and I just remember and imagine the lengths they went to to try to make a connection with some sort of star that they liked, they were enamored with.
Speaker 1:And here is this Zacchaeus, a grown man, who is so excited to just get a glimpse of Jesus that he climbs a dern tree. Okay, if you don't know what dern is, it's just a word. Okay, all right, I got you. Jack knows. Thank you, jack. You guys know back here, we got a bunch of northerners and southerners mixed in here. It's God's great kingdom, but sometimes there's a language barrier, all right, but he climbs a tree. He's just excited to see Jesus.
Speaker 1:Do we want to see Jesus? Are we curious about him? Do we want him at work in our lives? And again, this question means two different things, depending on your context. But it just makes me think of two verses in Matthew, chapter 5, that's often called the Beatitudes, and both of these verses I'm going to read speak to a certain desire for wanting God in sort of different ways.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 5, verse 6, it's not going to be on the screen, it's real short. It says this Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Whenever you hunger and thirst for something, you what, you want, something right, you want something. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They recognize that God is the ultimate source of real righteousness, and so they long for his righteous character and his righteous being to be evident in the world and evident in their lives, and to be evident for all the people around them, because there are plenty of people in the world who want the right thing. They want to solve problems, they want to be good, they want to be helpful. And what that really means is that there are plenty of people in the world who recognize that there is wrongness in the world. If they want something right, that must mean there is something wrong. And there's plenty of people in the world who recognize that there is wrong and they want rightness, or another word for that is righteousness. They want righteousness.
Speaker 1:Here's the problem. Far too often, people solely rely on their own rightness to correct the wrongness of the world around them. And I'm going to go ahead and tell you and you know this already we are not enough to fix the problems of the wrongness in the world. Like all of you in here, I love my kids, love my kids. I desperately love my children. I desperately want to be a perfect parent. I desperately don't want to make any mistakes with my kids and I am passionate about it, like you guys are. But I also know already into this parenting thing, that that's impossible not to make mistakes, it's impossible to get it right 100% of the time. And so if I'm taking that example of something that I am desperately passionate to be successful at and yet I still can't get it right 100% of the time, if I take that attitude and apply it to everything else in my life. If I take that attitude and apply it to everybody else who exists, it doesn't matter how passionate someone might be about correcting the wrongness of the world, if they're operating out of themselves, they're going to get it wrong, and so what we need is some outside help.
Speaker 1:What we need and what we want and should want and should desire and search for is Jesus Christ, and in his righteousness we might have a chance of making some things right in the world. That's what we're talking about this morning a little bit. Do we desire all of Jesus, which means that we desire his righteousness for life? Do we want that? Do we want thy kingdom come, thy will be done here on earth as it's done in heaven. That's what we're talking about. Do we want Jesus? So that's verse number six. And now verse number eight says this Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart are those whose purity and their pursuit of purity and uprightness affects every area of their life. They will see God. One author, cs Lewis, says it this way only the pure in heart will see God, because only the pure in heart want God.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're talking about motivations at the center of who you are. Right, do you want to see God? And for the right reason. Jesus was talking to Jewish people, and Jewish people have become really good at doing all the right stuff. All the right things. They went to church, they prayed, they fasted, they gave, they followed all the rules, and they did it all supposedly for God. Unfortunately, for a lot of them and this is what Jesus tries to get them to understand and calls them out of this false religion of actions without the right motivation their hearts weren't pure and, if we are honest with ourselves, how often do we do the right thing and perhaps have the wrong attitude about it? Okay, how often do we realize? Why did we go to church? Why are we giving? Why are we singing? Why are we helping others? Why are we doing all of these good things? Is your heart right? Do we want Jesus for the right reason? Are we looking for Jesus as Christians? Are we looking for him? I promise you, the more you look, the more you will find. If we are actually looking for Jesus. It's not a question of if, it's not a question of when you will find Jesus. If you look for him, you will Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love a good book. Do we have readers in here? Love a good book? I love really all kinds of books. My favorite author is probably, as far as non-religious stuff is probably Ernest Hemingway, but beyond that I like JRR Tolkien, lord of the Rings and what he does is man. He's built an entire universe, he's got languages, he's got this history, he's got these peoples, he's got these side stories that you never even get a glimpse of in the movies that go on and on. You've got all this interesting stuff and what it is is if I wake up one morning and I want to dive in to learn some stuff about Lord of the Rings and just sort of have some escapism. There's plenty of stuff there, but ultimately I'm 35 years I'm probably 20 years into liking Lord of the Rings. The well is a little bit empty. Surprise, spoiler alert Tolkien's dead. He ain't writing anymore. And so if I go to search for more stuff in Lord of the Rings universe, well, there's not much there anymore for me. With Jesus, I could be a Christian for 95 years, 100 years. And if I go back, if I wake up in the morning and say I want more of Jesus, I can find something new that day. Do you want him? Do you want him? Point number two so do we want Jesus? But also, do we know that Jesus wants us? Jesus wants us and he sees us. He sees us, he wants to meet you, he wants to have a connection with you.
Speaker 1:Early in the book of Luke, while Jesus happens to be eating with some other tax collectors and everybody's losing their mind because, oh Jesus, this rabbi is eating with all these sinful people, how dare he? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He knows all this is happening, he knows that people are sort of questioning his actions here and he gives us this parable out of this moment. You've heard it before what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls together this was Jesus' mission. They're making fun of Jesus. They're questioning Jesus because Jesus is walking into lost people's homes. Well, that's where he belongs. Now, that's partially where we belong.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus wanted a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus wanted a meal and a conversation and a relationship. Zacchaeus thought this was just random chance, a random encounter, but Jesus must be with Zacchaeus that day. There's a level of divine intention in the way that Jesus communicates this message in the scripture. Jesus didn't randomly walk around to Jericho. Jesus didn't randomly teach. He didn't randomly preach. He didn't randomly do miracles. No, he came for a purpose. He came to Jericho for a purpose. He walked to the sycamore tree for a purpose. He already knew that Zacchaeus was looking for him and curious about him before Zacchaeus even knew that he was in the town. He came for a purpose, he came for a mission, and it's the exact same thing that he's doing today. Every last soul out there is marked for God to reach out to and for Jesus to show up to in their life. Now, god can't make people look for him, god can't make people accept him, but he is right there. He is right there walking up to the sycamore trees. He's right there looking for you as you're looking for him. He is there.
Speaker 1:By the way, just because Jesus isn't here, physically, right here right now, doesn't mean his mission is over. No, the Holy Spirit is at work even right now, still showing up, still knocking on the doors of our hearts, trying to get more, trying to get in. He's knocking on your lost family members' hearts even right now. We don't know it, we don't understand it, we can't see it, we can't feel it, we can't experience it. But the Holy Spirit is still in the job of showing up to sycamore trees and saying I got to be with you today. He's still doing it right now. That encourages me because the mission isn't over, our mission isn't over. He's invited us into this process. He's invited the church into this process of showing up for the lost and showing up for the hurt and showing up for the broken and for the sinners. That's where we belong. It's where we belong. And that leads us to point number three. There is unexpected potential in the outcast, unexpected potential in the outcast.
Speaker 1:Another obvious point of this scripture is Jesus showing a certain group of religious leaders and religious sect in their society that God's plan of love and redemption and of perfection and of salvation included everybody, everybody. It was a big net that Jesus was casting. He wanted everybody. Jesus wasn't showing up just for the perfect and I say perfect with really big quotation marks there, because there's no such thing. He wasn't just showing up for the people who had it all together. He was showing up for everybody who was broken, which is everybody, whether they want to recognize it or not. That was his mission.
Speaker 1:Now let me say this To want to live a moral life, to want to live a life of good action, that's a godly call. But we are called to live morally good lives. Our actions and we'll talk about this a little bit more have to align with our beliefs. We can't just sort of wander around doing whatever we want and propping up the grace of Jesus Christ over our heads, saying, well, now I can do whatever I want to do. That's not how it works Now. So this is a good principle to live by, live morally.
Speaker 1:That being said, that idea, that concept in your head, if we aren't careful, can sort of be applied too thoroughly in your life, so much so that we have a fear. We have a fear of connecting with unbelievers because we're so afraid of their sin. And so, because we're afraid of connecting with unbelievers, we are hampering our ability to develop relationships, which is so necessary for evangelism and bringing people into the kingdom of God. Amen, ivy, amen. We have to find this balance. We have to find this balance. We have to find this balance. We're not going to be dragged into sin. We're not going to be dragged into poor behavior. We're not going to be dragged into bad habits. We're not going to be dragged into the ways of the world, which is destruction, but we are called to the center. Okay, we were sinners once. We were broken.
Speaker 1:Once Jesus found us, jesus used other people to connect with us, so why would we think that it's any different now for our own lives? Protect your heart, protect your mind, live a moral, upright, righteous life with the help of the Holy Spirit. But don't you dare ever look down on the people around you who don't live like you, don't believe like you. Yet Don't look at them with judgment, but look at them with potential, potential, potential that you have and that Jesus saw in you. We've got to look at our friends and our neighbors and the people around us, not with ridicule, but with hopeful expectation that Jesus Christ is working right now in their life to bring them into the mission, that Jesus is showing up in their life, at their sycamore tree, in their moments of curiosity, in their moments of pain, in their moments of hurt, because it's often whenever you have the most questions about what's out there and Jesus is showing up saying come on, and then we don't need to be like the people in the story, getting mad that Jesus is helping the broken people, because that's the job. That's the job description. Do we look at outsiders with judgment or do we look at them with potential? They have potential.
Speaker 1:Point number four Belief. Faith is more than a mental thing. It's more than a mental thing. Clearly, zacchaeus has this immediate response to the presence of Jesus in his home and in his life. You can just tell he's excited. I can just sort of put myself in the scene and I can see him stumbling over his words, trying to explain how excited he was that Jesus was there, how excited he was Jesus, I'm going to give all my stuff away, jesus. If I've done anything wrong, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. He is thrilled. But that thrilling feeling, that emotion, the words, the salvation that's attached to this moment doesn't stop at the emotional level. The emotional response to Jesus saying that I got to be at your house today doesn't just stop there. It leads to a practical place of action in his life For a long, long time, probably for as long as 2,000 years, since Jesus came and launched Christianity and launched the church, there has been this love affair with Jesus' message of love and grace, because Jesus is full of love and grace and that means something.
Speaker 1:The problem is that so often people take his message of love and grace and they transform it and they mold it into a message that doesn't actually fit what Jesus came to do. They associate love and grace with perfect, unquestionable acceptance of the person and while there is in salvation, a level of acceptance, it's more of an acceptance on our part of the reality that we are sinners, that we are broken and we are messed up and now, because of Jesus, we have a chance at something different. That's the acceptance of the gospel. The acceptance of the gospel is not sort of I've got grace and mercy and now I am set, no matter what, because there are standards, there's holiness and there's righteousness and the the old testament and the new testament it's revealed that, well, there's just ways and things that God expects out of us.
Speaker 1:And so when people talk about love and grace from Jesus and they attempt to hijack that and turn it into some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card for their own actions and behavior, that might be, I don't know, hard to deal with in particular cultures, right, that's not the gospel, it's not the gospel. No, hard to deal with in particular cultures, right, that's not the gospel, it's not the gospel. That's not how it works. In other words, we don't have faith in a grace that simply covers our sin, our grace, our mercy, our faith, beautiful, wonderful things. Right, it does cover our sin, but it doesn't just cover our sin. Does that make sense? It's just part of the equation. It's not just I don't know. It's more than that.
Speaker 1:It's not just grace for our sin. It's also grace for transformation. It's also grace so that you don't have to curse like a sailor anymore. It's also grace so that you don't have to be an alcoholic. It's also grace so that you don't have to gossip anymore. It's also grace so that you don't have to be an alcoholic. It's also grace so that you don't have to gossip anymore. It's also grace so that you don't have to live in anxiety anymore. It's also grace so that you have self-control in your finances. It's also grace so that you're not looking at pornography on your phone anymore. It's also grace for any number of issues that you might have in your life that are classified as moral issues. You can have freedom and liberty. You're not just going to heaven, but you're also going to transform into more and more like Jesus every single day. That's the grace that we're talking about. That's the gospel. We've got to be different. We've got to be different.
Speaker 1:It's not just snow covering a pile of trash so that you can't see the trash anymore. That's not what grace is. Grace is snow covering a pile of trash so that you can't see the trash anymore. That's not what grace is. Grace is snow covering a pile of trash so that you can't see the grace anymore, but slowly, through a miracle that we can't understand, that trash becomes snow itself. That's salvation. It's not just a ticket to heaven. It's a ticket to a brand new way of doing life. Brand new way of doing life. So it should play out in our life. We should think differently. Whenever we have that grace, we should speak differently. When we have that grace, we should relate differently to others. When we have that grace, we should act different with that grace, we should behave different with that grace, we should socialize different with that grace, and the plethora of other things in our existence should be transformed because of salvation and grace.
Speaker 1:It's not just acceptance, it's a transformation. It's not just acceptance, it's transformation. It's one of the biggest problems I see in many denominations is that their love for grace is well-founded, but their understanding of the implications of that grace is broken. And it's not a process we're going to get right all the time. By the way, it's not a process we're going to nail overnight. Sometimes you get saved and things change. Like that. You are delivered from temptations that you've been struggling with your entire life. Like that. Sometimes it's a battle. Sometimes, every day, you've got to come back to God and say, god, I messed up again. I desperately need your help once again. I need your grace once again. So you're not going to get it right all the time. Keep going, keep moving, don't give up. Jesus is not just your ticket to heaven, it's a ticket to transformation, not on your own. Not on your own, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, with his word, with church people and church family. James, chapter 2, verses 14 through 20.
Speaker 1:A little bit of a scripture here, but let me read it. It explains perfectly what we're talking about. What good is it then, brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, catch that I've got faith in Jesus, but I'm not producing anything that proves that I've got faith in Jesus. Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the them, what good is that?
Speaker 1:So, also by faith by itself. If it does not have works, if it's not attached to anything practical in your life, it is dead. Don't have dead faith. Let your faith be connected to behavior. Let your faith be connected to action. Let your faith be connected to something outside of yourself. But some will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one you do well, even the demons believe and shudder in that. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person? That faith apart from works is useless.
Speaker 1:Interesting thing here it's one thing to admit, it's one thing to understand that Jesus is Lord. It's another thing to live for him. The demons know that Jesus is Lord. The devil knows that Jesus is Lord. It's a radically different thing to walk from the knowledge that Jesus is Lord to walk into the action that Jesus is Lord, to walk into the action that Jesus is Lord. Action has to be connected to your faith. It's a pretty striking rebuke in that scripture for those that don't tie the emotional and mental joy of salvation with the practical.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus' excitement about Jesus overflows into his actions in a pretty radical way. Jesus overflows into his actions in a pretty radical way. He's using his resources. He's making things right. His life is changing. Don't settle for a ticket to somewhere good. Be transformed. Put away the old and pick up the new. My dad I've shared this before my dad got saved later in life, he was 27. And in this process I was still young enough to see this process of discipleship in his life, meaning that from when I first knew him and first have memories of him and I was mature enough to understand who he was and what he was doing in his actions, from that point to the end of his life, he grew in Christ, meaning he became different to the end of his life. He grew in Christ meaning he became different. He became different. He put certain struggles away and I'm not saying he didn't have other struggles that cropped back up. But what I'm saying is there was a growth in his life over time.
Speaker 1:Don't be discouraged in your lives if right now you can't seem to really get it together. Keep moving every day to get slightly better, not on your own, but with prayer, with the Holy Spirit and through practical reasons. You can be different, you can be better. You can get rid of the filthy language in your mind. You can learn to pray every day. You can learn to read your Bible every day. You can learn to listen to the right music that's edifying to God. I'm not saying you got to listen to just Christian music, but you got to be careful out there.
Speaker 1:I am saying that you can sort of change over time. Be changed. Let that faith connect you with something greater than yourself so that you can be in the image of God, because ultimately that's what we're called to be. We are called to be in the likeness of Jesus, meaning that we've got to change. We've got to change. Are we looking for Jesus? Do we know that he's looking for us? Do we let that impact us? Do we know that he's still looking for us and looking for others right here, right now, that his mission isn't over and, yes, even others that maybe we don't expect and maybe others that we've forgotten about. He still wants them. He still wants them. It's the salvation that we are hoping for, it's the grace that we are excited about, more than just a ticket to heaven. Trust me, I want a ticket to heaven, but I want to get there the right way. Do you want God as a focus area, as a focus area for this week? I want to tie this into our prayer time here. It's okay, guys. It's okay. We're almost finished.
Speaker 1:As a focus area for this week, connected to this sermon, in particular, when we do our prayer time in the day, I would like us to focus on two specific areas. First, we're going to desperately pray for the lost people in our lives. We're going to desperately pray for the people that we know don't have a connection to God. A couple of weeks ago, many of you wrote down a bunch of names on a list of paper of people who you know need a touch from God, who you know need the grace of God. Right? I still got those lists. I still pray for them pretty consistently. Right? This week we're going to pray for the people in your circle that you know need a touch from God specifically. Right, I'm not saying you got to do it every single time you pray, but at least once a day I want you to specifically mention people by name that you want the Holy Spirit to start ministering to so that they can get saved. Specific Pray, specifically. I'm tempted to tell a funny story, but I won't because it will ruin the ambiance of the close of a scripture. But if you're curious, I'll tell you after the sermon about praying specifics. All right, so we're going to pray for the lost people in our lives. We're going to do that. We're going to do that together, all right.
Speaker 1:Secondly, I want to pray that we are encouraged with the fresh excitement for Jesus and what he did. I think it's appropriate, in this season of Easter, the season of crucifixion, the season of resurrection, a season that leads to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, of the day of Pentecost, in this season where we should be reminded of all the great things Jesus did, I'm going to pray that we are actually excited, physically excited, for the fact that Jesus Christ loves us. Listen, call myself out. How often do I walk through a day and not recognize how blessed I am that Jesus came and died for my sins and was resurrected. For me, that is the most significant thing that has ever happened in your life, even if you don't accept it. So I want us all to pray together Again.
Speaker 1:You don't have to do it at every prayer, but at least once a day in one of your prayers I want you to pray for the Holy Spirit to minister and soften your heart and help you remember the fact that I was lost, but now I am what Found. I was in the woods, nowhere to go, and now I'm where I need to be. So we're going to pray for the lost ones. We're going to pray for just an emotional remembrance of what it means that Jesus died for us, right, is that okay? Can we do that this week together? All right, let's get a jump start on the prayers for that this week. Let's pray together right now for these two things, and then we can go. Let's bow our heads and, as always, prayer is not a spectator sport. Pray with me, heavenly Father. We love you. We thank you, lord. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to get to do this. We thank you for the chance that we have to hear your word and God, I pray right now in the name of Jesus, first and foremost for those connected to us who need you in their life.
Speaker 1:They need salvation, they need grace, and I pray right now they would have a sycamore tree experience, lord, that they have a moment of curiosity, a moment of interest, a moment where they maybe just have a brief open heart and open mind to something more in their life, and that you would come along some way somehow and say I've got to be with you today. I must have a meal with you today. I must start a relationship with you today. Lord, in Jesus' name, I pray and declare that people would be saved, that we're praying for in our heads right now. God, in the name of Jesus and Lord, I pray for us in this room and those in this building.
Speaker 1:I pray right now in the name of Jesus, that you would make us excited. Lord, thank you for grace, thank you for mercy, thank you that our mistakes don't have to keep us down. Thank you for the fact that we were lost and now we can be found. Thank you so much that, while we'll never be perfect, you've given us an opportunity, a chance to be better. Thank you so much for that, lord, and I pray that you would soften our hearts and let us be excited, even if we're in a season of struggle right now, even if we're dealing with something we don't want to be dealing with right now, lord, and we don't feel up to the standard. Lord, I pray that we are appreciative and thankful for your grace and for your mercy. Fresh and anew, lord, in Jesus' mighty name, I pray and we all say amen.