Well, good morning. It is great to be back here. I love this church, and I'm not just saying I love this church. I love your pastor. I love the staff. My son would verify that, just be bragging about coming here. I love to come to this church. It's been, I don't know how many years in a row I've been here, Pastor Kenny, but A bunch. Not enough. I hope to always come back. I love it here. Luke chapter 19 this morning. Luke chapter 19. As Pastor Kenny said, I do have my son with me today, so I'm very excited about that. Don't get to have him with me very often. You can meet him at the book table at the end of the service if you'd like. Luke chapter 19. A story that many of you are familiar with. How many of you, when you were younger, when you were in Sunday school, you sang a song that went something like, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he? Raise your hand if you know the song. Oh my gosh, that's pretty much everybody. Well, honestly, I do remember that song from early days, and obviously they must have taught the story, but I just never really knew anything about it, even though I guess I heard it. I guess it went in one ear and out the other. So anyway, that's the story we're gonna read this morning, beginning in Luke chapter 19, starting in verse one. Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, and he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, because he was of short stature. And so he ran ahead and he climbed into a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was gonna pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and he said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house. And so he made haste and he came down and he received Jesus joyfully. But when they, the crowd saw it, they all complained. And they said, he's gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Then Zacchaeus stood and said, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I will restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also was a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. God, in the name of Jesus, by the power of your Spirit, I pray that you would arrest this congregation and the many who are watching today online. God, meet them in their homes as they watch. Lord, we pray that by the power of your Spirit, that lives would be changed, that people would be motivated and encouraged. It would be a day, Lord, that would be a turning point in the lives of many, many people. And Lord, we know that cannot happen, but by any other way than by the power of your spirit. And so God, we ask that your spirit would move in a mighty way. And we pray against all the forces of darkness in Jesus name, amen. Well, I was always daydreaming from the time I was in junior high, what it would be like when I one day got married and had my own family. I wonder what my wife would look like, how many kids that I would have. It's not something that most young guys in junior high think of. Even as I got older, when most guys were wanting to avoid commitment, I was looking forward to having commitment primarily because I wanted to have kids. Matter of fact, I think had I been able to afford it, I probably would have had as many as I could possibly have. But finally the day came. Misty and I were married and heard those famous words, it's time. We jumped in the pickup and drove to the hospital. And we're waiting for the arrival of our firstborn, my oldest son, Lane. It was an incredible experience. I got to watch the birth of all three of my children. I know for some people that's not your thing. It was for me. Nothing like seeing new birth. Nothing like it. Just a phenomenal, incredible experience. I don't know how anybody could watch a baby be born and doubt there is a God. We must realize that daydreaming about what it would be like, I imagine watching my son roll over the first time. I imagine what it would be like to watch him crawl the first time. What were the first sounds that he would make? And watching him take his first steps. At that time, I was working for a Fortune 500 company. I thought I was gonna take a temporary job and end up being a lot longer than temporary. And I must be honest and say, at that time in my life, there was some distance between me and the Lord. I was a believer, but there was some distance between us. I was working an eight-to-eight shift. When I got up to go to work in the morning, my son was asleep. I had to leave early. When I got home late at night, my son was usually asleep. And while I was grateful that my wife could be a stay-at-home mom and she could be there for my son, and I would come home and hear all the stories and the first things that he had done, it bothered me. It bothered me that I never had the opportunity to witness any of that. And one day I was driving down the road. I remember clearly exactly where I was, and I prayed. I said, God, I want to ask something of you. To be honest with you, I didn't even know if God would hear my prayer at that time in my life. I felt like God was angry with me, probably was wrong, but that's the way I felt. And I asked the Lord if he would allow it to please let me be home when my son took his very first steps. I know for some of you in the audience, that may sound rather trivial. Okay, to see your son take his first steps, big deal. It was a big deal to me. I thought if I could just see that one thing, since I missed everything else, it would be so significant to me. Well, quite a bit of time passed. Again, as I said, I usually got home, got off work about eight, got home about 8.30 at night. It was a Monday night, Monday night football. When I turned in, the TV was on. My wife had supper ready. It was a really long day. I remember just laying on the sofa and my wife coming over and setting a plate of food on my chest. My son at that phase, those of you that have children will recognize this phase, he was at that phase where he certainly was not walking on his own, but he was at that phase where most children, they will crawl to something and they'll take those little bitty fingers and they'll pull themselves up. And we had kind of an odd shaped coffee table. And so that night when I got home, he was awake and he was doing that thing where he would walk around the coffee table and just literally go round and round and round. Never had taken steps without leaning on something like the coffee table. As I'm watching the football game and just trying to recover from a long day of work, out of my peripheral vision, I see something that stops me in my tracks. I don't know how I missed him letting go, but I look to the right, my wife's in the kitchen, And my baby boy has let go of the table like a drunk man and looking me square in the eye. I'm not exaggerating at all when I tell you I couldn't move. There was this moment of shock and then just seeing that he had let go of the table. I mean, I was accustomed to seeing him walk around it, but he never let go of it. And it was like I couldn't get the plate of food off my chest quick enough. And finally I was able to maneuver it and put it on the table. And just in enough time to swing my legs off and hit my knees, my little boy took his first three steps and fell in my arms. Man, I was screaming, my wife ran in from the kitchen. It just meant the world to me. It was such a huge event in my life. I had missed so much. I felt like everything that I dreamed about and having a kid was not happening. And here, the very first steps he ever takes in his life, he literally fell into my arms. I told the earlier service and I meant it when I said, I have the video in my mind and it's as clear today as the day it happened so many years ago. I like to remind my wife that while she may have seen everything else, he did take his first steps to his father. Nobody will take that away from me. Well, I think that's a great lead in because it was such a defining moment in my life. It was an unexpected day where there was an encounter that took place between a son and a father that changed everything for me. And this morning we see an encounter that also was years in the making. An encounter between a son and Father God through the person of Jesus Christ that is a incredible encounter. The first thing that we see here is that this story unfolds in a city by the name of Jericho. Jericho in its day was a influential city. Not only was it in the richest part of the country, it was referred to as a place of paradise, commerce, military center. And I love that this story unfolds in this town. Now, we know that Zacchaeus was, according to the passage we read this morning, he was a chief tax collector. Well, a few things that you must know to put this story in context, a tax collector, first of all, being a Jew, would make him very unpopular. I say that. Nobody typically likes tax collectors then nor now. But he was a tax collector, and we know from Jewish historians like Josephus that tax collectors oftentimes would even hire people, bullies and such, to extract money from people. They worked for the Roman government, and so not only did they work for the Roman government, but any additional money from the taxes that they were required already to get, they could keep for themselves. Extortion. Black male, these were people who were very corrupt. Now, the scripture tells us that not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, but he was a chief tax collector, which means that not only was Zacchaeus able to funnel money on his own, he would have been able to take a percentage of all the tax collectors that worked underneath him. We know, obviously, as the scripture blatantly says in verse two, he was rich. We all know the stories that money never makes you happy. We've all heard the stories of some of the Hollywood elite who have all the mansions and all the homes, and even in the athletic world, right here, you've got major sports franchises. But we've all heard the stories of people who have money, and yet they're miserable. That must have been the case with Zacchaeus. Now, we don't know that definitively, but we know that something is missing in his life. He has climbed the corporate world. He's at the top of the ladder. But there are some problems that come with being a tax collector. Not only do people not like you, but as a Jew, you would even be forbidden to go to the synagogue. It would be likely that Zacchaeus' own family would not want to admit that they were relatives with him. Now we don't know all the details of his life, the scripture doesn't give us that type of background, but what we do know is, is that something obviously is missing in Zacchaeus' life. Maybe that's you this morning, you're watching on the internet, or maybe you're in this building this morning. And maybe people don't know that about you, and it doesn't seem that way about you, but there's something that's missing. Maybe you're well-liked. Maybe you're a beautiful person. Maybe you have a lot of material things. Maybe like Zacchaeus, you've got to the top run of the ladder in your field, but yet something is wrong. All those things that you thought were gonna fill the gap, all those things that you thought were gonna make you comfortable, all those things that you thought would bring satisfaction did so temporarily, but they didn't last. That must have been the case with Zacchaeus. And so somewhere along the line, Zacchaeus would have heard about Jesus. We know that because the scripture tells us that he sought, in verse three, to see who Jesus was. Maybe he heard about the miracles that Jesus was doing. But he hears that Jesus is gonna be passing through this town of Jericho. And so when he finds out that Jesus is gonna be passing through the town, the very least that he wants to do is he wants to be able to get a good look at him. You know, I firmly believe with all of my heart, and I don't know of any other place in scripture, there may be, but I don't know of it off the top of my head, where after this, Jesus made a secondary trip to Jericho. I believe there's a moment in time when Jesus passes by, and when Jesus passes by, you've gotta take advantage of it. I believe there's a moment in time where the Spirit of God moves on your life and maybe it's to bring you to salvation. Maybe it's to show you that you're religious but lost. Maybe it's to show you as a believer that you have some things in your life to get right with God. Maybe it's a time when the Spirit Calls you into ministry. Maybe it's a time when the Spirit calls you to get baptized that take that first step of obedience I believe there's a moment in time where God's Spirit through the person of Jesus Christ Moves on your life and you must take advantage of it just a few weeks ago. I was preaching about the man in Gadara and and that the townspeople that lived in Gadara, they were afraid of Jesus, and they asked Jesus to leave their region. And Jesus granted their request, and he left Gadara, and he never came back. There was that moment in time. And so Zacchaeus wants to take advantage of this moment in time when Jesus is coming to Jericho, and so he devises a plan where he's going to go, and he wants to get a glimpse of him. It would stand to reason that Zacchaeus would never think that he would be able to have an interaction with Christ. It stands to reason that Zacchaeus would certainly know that Jesus wouldn't know who he was. But the very least that he can do is at least get a bird's eye view of this miracle worker. Now at this point in Jesus' ministry, there's multitudes of people that are following him. The crowds are everywhere. People, there's a lot of fans like there is in this day and time. A lot of Cardinals jerseys I see around town. A lot of Blues jerseys I see around town. But not everybody who's a fan has ever been in the game. And so Zacchaeus goes down to whatever Main Street is, hoping to see Jesus pass by, but he realizes because of the multitude of people that he's not gonna be able to see Christ. But Zacchaeus is not a guy that's easily discouraged. He hasn't climbed the financial ladder of the world by not having a lot of personal drive. Now the scripture tells us right here in verse three that he couldn't see Jesus because of the crowd and there's a second reason that he couldn't see Jesus. It wasn't just a throng of people, he also couldn't see Jesus because he was of short stature and rather than packing it in and going home, he devises a plan. Nothing is going to stop him from seeing Christ. I wish to God that those of us that are in the room this morning and those of us that are watching via internet would have that same goal, that nothing is going to stop me from seeing Christ. I will go anywhere, I will do anything, I will surrender any part of my life, but I must see Christ. That was the case with Zacchaeus. The Bible says in verse four, so he ran ahead and he climbed into a sycamore tree to see him because Jesus was gonna pass that way. The first thing that we see in this passage is, is that as Jesus comes near, Jesus calls him by name. This must have been a absolutely shocking statement. Again, Zacchaeus would have never thought that Christ would have, number one, even wanted to associate with him because he's corrupt. because he's greedy, because his God is money. But even more shocking would have been the fact that as Jesus is walking down the road of Jericho, that of all the people, Jesus looks up into the sycamore tree and he calls Zacchaeus by name. First thing we see is, is he knew who Zacchaeus was. And I want you to understand this morning is, he knows who you are. He knows everything about you. The thing that your husband, your wife, your mom, your dad, your grandparents, your coworkers, your neighbors don't know about you, nothing can be hidden from Him. The Bible says in Proverbs 15, three, for the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. Second Chronicles 16, nine says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him. There's nothing that remains hidden from Christ. We may be able to fool other people. We may be able to deceive other people. We can walk in churches on Sunday morning and say, praise God, hallelujah, everything's great, but God knows the inner parts of you and I. We cannot be hidden from Him. For me, this is very encouraging in some ways. I think about Psalms 139, 17. It says about the thoughts of the Lord, He continually has good thoughts about me. So on one hand, it's encouraging to me to know that the Lord is watching me, that when the Lord thinks of me, that sometimes I look in the mirror and I don't like Jay. And sometimes I'm turned off by Jay. But the thoughts that Jesus has about me, the Bible says in verse 17 and 139, he has precious thoughts about me. And so it's encouraging to know that he's watching over me, that he's watching over my family. But if I'm to be honest this morning, although there's one side of this that's very encouraging that Jesus is watching over me, there's another side that's very convicting. Because Jesus knows my motives. He knows the deepest part of me. He knows me better than I know my own self. He knows me better than my own wife and my kids know me. And so it's convicting to me to think that there are so many things in my life that I always want to improve and that I want to change. I'm a sinful man and I need forgiveness. And so I'm glad that He loves me and that He watches over me, but it's convicting to know that He knows every single detail of my life, that He's watching, that there's nowhere I can go from His Spirit, nowhere I can go from His presence. He knew Zacchaeus. Can you imagine? I believe one day that we're going to hear Jesus call us by name. I believe that. I wonder what it's gonna be like when out of the larynx of the Son of God, I hear my name. Well, Zacchaeus, here he is in Jericho, just hoping to get a glimpse of Christ. And Christ stops and looks up at him and calls him out by name. The first thing, yes, we see is that Jesus knows us. And he's looking at us. that there's nothing that escapes His eye. That as Matthew 10, 29 says, that even when a sparrow falls to the ground, something as insignificant as a sparrow, that every single one that falls to the ground today in the state of Missouri, Jesus Christ knows about them. And God knows if His eye is on the sparrow, certainly His eye is upon you and upon me. The second thing that we see in this passage of scripture, is not only that he knew Zacchaeus, that he was watching over Zacchaeus, but the next thing we see is, is that he wants to know Zacchaeus. He wants Zacchaeus to know him. Listen to what he said. Verse five, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and he said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. for today I must stay at your house. It's in the imperative. When Jesus said this, it was in a sense of urgency. It wasn't, well, hey, Zach, you wanna come down and maybe grab lunch? No, there's an urgency when you look at this in the original language where Jesus is putting this emphasis that Zacchaeus, come down from the tree. It's urgent that you come down because today I'm gonna go to your house. He wanted, Zacchaeus, and he wants you. He wanted Zacchaeus to know him. Now you gotta imagine the scene. Here are these crowds of people. Zacchaeus has just heard his name called. And if that's not shocking enough that he knows my name, it's now gonna get even more shocking. I mean, of all the people that you would have ever thought Jesus was going to speak to that day, you would have never picked Zacchaeus, never. Because most people have a misconception of who Jesus is. You ever notice that every time in scripture that Jesus was associating with sinners, there were always religious people that said about him, why is he hanging out with these people? Why is he associating with sinners? The other encounter that he had with a tax collector was a guy by the name of Matthew, who became one of the 12 disciples. And Jesus went to Matthew's house that night, and the religious leaders said, if he were who he says he were, He wouldn't be hanging out of Matthew's house. This is a reoccurring theme, where people thought that because Jesus claiming to be the Messiah, holy and righteous, that he wouldn't have anything to do with the prostitutes and tax collectors. But Jesus said that he was a friend of sinners. That was one of the accusations that was made against him, that he was a friend of sinners. I hope that that's an accusation that will always be made of me, that I'm a friend of sinners, that I love lost people, that I love people that don't know Christ, because that was the heart of Jesus. I think some of us have misunderstood who Christ is. He came to seek and save the lost. Jesus said, I did not come for those who are well. I came for those who were sick. And I think sometimes we bypass people that are on the fringes or on the outside of society, not realizing that the people we're running from is the very people that Jesus is running to. And thank God he is that way, friend. Because if Jesus only ran to the righteous people, he wouldn't run to any of us because the Bible says there is none righteous, no, not one. He loves sinners. And so here we see that he tells Zacchaeus, come down, I've got to go to your house. I'm sure the crowd was absolutely shocked. I would imagine that Zacchaeus would think, I don't know this, but I've got to think that in some way Zacchaeus thinks what I think about me. The biggest question to me in my whole life is God, why did you save me? I grew up in church, I heard the gospel over and over and over and over and over, and I rejected the gospel, and I lived a very sinful, rebellious life against Christ, against the prayers of my mother and my grandmother, completely dishonored God, disregarded God. Why did you care about me? Why at 21 years of age did I even get invited to that crusade? And why when I went to that crusade and sat in the balcony, why God, did you send your spirit to help me realize I was lost? Why? I had nothing to offer God. I wasn't, I'm still nobody, but I was really nobody then. Suicidal, alcoholic, why did you even care God? Why me? I gotta wonder if that was the same thought that Zacchaeus said when this miracle worker walks up and stops at that tree and calls him by name and says, I'm coming to your house. And can you imagine the crowd? The best people I've ever known in my whole life have been people that go to church. And some of the worst people I've ever met in my life are people that are in church, amen? That's been my experience. I can imagine some of those in the crowd. I think there was two prevailing thoughts. I think the first thought among some people was absolute shock. I mean, nobody would have picked Zacchaeus as the guy that not only got to meet Jesus, but he's going to his house? Absolutely stunned. You know, there are people that you go to work with that live in your neighborhood, that maybe even in your own family, and in your mind's eye, you think they will never get saved. That's what people thought about Zacchaeus. They're beyond, they've just stepped too far. And oftentimes we see these people saved in some of our events and they had the biggest impact of anybody that got saved because of the influence that they have. I think people were stunned, shocked. And then I think there was a second thing among the crowd. Not only were some people shocked by the fact that he was going, but I think there was another part of the crowd that was jealous. I can't help but wonder if there weren't people in the crowd going, but why did Zacchaeus, why does Jesus get to go to Zacchaeus' house? Why not mine? I'm not a crook. I didn't steal money from people. I'm not a loan shark. I'm not the hypocrite Zacchaeus is. I mean, I'm a good person. misunderstanding of who Christ is. You know, it's always amazing that when you see these stories in the New Testament, you see all these crowds, you see the same thing with the woman, the woman that had the issue of blood. Have you ever noticed that oftentimes these stories that unfold, one person is changed and there's a whole crowd of people? A whole crowd of people. The woman with the issue of blood, people all around Jesus Christ, and only one person walks away from that crowd changed. Same thing here in Jericho. There's this flock of people, so many people that according to the text, Zacchaeus couldn't get near Christ. And we only read of one person whose life was changed. I think about even this morning, standing here preaching on this platform, hundreds of you in this auditorium and multitudes of you that are watching online, I just wonder, out of the crowds today that are gonna hear the gospel, how many of them are actually gonna be transformed by the power of Christ? It's so easy to be in the crowd and remain unchanged. Yeah, he wanted Zach to know him. And he wanted it to be urgent. Come down quickly, Zacchaeus. You know, I think there's a lot of folks that have, I've heard it so many times over the years, there's a lot of folks that think about, well, they're gonna get right with Christ later. I'm gonna get my life right with God later. When I finish high school, when I graduate college, when I get my retirement set, when I find my new job, when I let go of this addiction, when I win, win, win, win, win. And yet the Bible says in Psalms 144 verse four, man's days are like a shadow that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. David said in Psalms 39, four, Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am. And then you turn over to the James chapter four, the half brother of Jesus. And what did he say? I think it's verse eight, if memory serves me correct. No, it's not eight. I know it's chapter four. And he says, man's days are like a shadow that appears for a little while and then vanishes like a breath. It's here today and gone tomorrow. No, the Lord tells Zacchaeus, today I wanna come to your house. Today, today, today, today, today, there's an urgency there. And all Zacchaeus had to do was say yes or no to Christ. You know, today you could be that one person. You could be that one person whose life is radically transformed today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not when you get older, not when you get married, not when you retire, today. That's the thing I love about the gospel. My life was changed in one moment in one night. I never even saw it coming. I'll tell you a story, when I think about Zacchaeus and when I think about this unlikelihood of him being the one that would get saved, of him being the one that people would have thought would have never have known Christ. A few years ago, my wife and kids used to take me to the airport, and that's back before all the rules were there, and then I would walk down the jet bridge, and it was always great to have them drop me off, but it was always a hard time. because of my schedule. You miss a lot of birthdays. You miss a lot of holidays. You're gone a lot. And so oftentimes, I'd get to the jet bridge, and my wife would kiss me goodbye, and my kids would hug me and kiss me goodbye. And they had no idea that when I turned my back and walked down the jet bridge, I had tears running down my cheeks. I'd got on the airplane. I used to fly from Wichita Falls to Dallas. I don't do that any longer. But that time that I did, it was a short flight. And so I oftentimes would pick up a USA Today newspaper. I'd want something to read between Dallas and Wichita Falls and Dallas just to get my mind off the fact that I was leaving my family. It was always very hard for me. And this particular day, I was reading the USA Today newspaper, and I saw a story about a guy by the name of Benjamin Cole. Mind you, I've just left my wife and kids. Mind you, my heart is already injured because I'm going to be gone for a while. I open up the story and read the story about this guy. He was on death row in Oklahoma, about two hours from where we live. The name of Benjamin Cole, his girlfriend that he had a baby with, she'd gone to the grocery store. He had a kind of a track record of being in trouble and he was playing video games. The baby wouldn't quit crying. And so he'd gone in there. Try to get the baby to be quiet. The baby wouldn't be quiet. He kept interrupting his video games. He couldn't concentrate on the video game. And so eventually he goes into the crib where the baby's laying face down in the crib. He grabs the baby by the ankles and then grabs the baby by the head and then pulls the baby like this. When he does so, the spinal cord is broken. When the spinal cord is broken, it punctures the aorta. When it punctures the aorta, the baby bleeds out and dies. Mind you, I'm on an airplane, about a 45 minute ride from Wichita Falls in Dallas, and I'm reading this story, and I cannot tell you the hatred and the anger that I'm feeling on that airplane. Literally sickened by it. I just said goodbye to my wife and kids. And to think that you could do that to an innocent baby, it's beyond fathomable. I flew to Atlanta. I didn't know the guy picking me up at the airport. We went to dinner. I told him the story. I said, man, would you pray for me? My heart is filled with hate. I know it's wrong. I know it shouldn't be. I'm being honest. I hate this man. I said goodbye to my family. I'd give anything to have my family with me tonight. I can't be with my family. And here he literally murders his own child. I said, man, you got to pray for me. I don't think I can preach tonight until I can get rid of this hate I have in my heart. I'm not proud of it. I'm just being honest with you. For the next few months, occasionally, I would tell the story. It would bother me so much. And I saw some parallels that were applicable. And so sometimes I'd share the story. Well, one day I go to the PO box. And I'm going through our stack of mail. We get mail at two different locations, our office downtown and then the PO box near my house. And I'm going through the mail and I've gotten enough letters from inmates. I recognize, I know them well. I see an envelope and written in the left-hand corner is an inmate's number and the name Benjamin Cole. I cannot tell you when I saw that letter, it was shocking. My first thought before I opened the envelope is he probably heard me, because I've done some stuff on national television with some Christian television stations. And I figured I probably must have said something about that story, using it as an example. And he's written me because he's angry that I've repeated the story. Standing there over the little island there in the post office, open up the envelope. It is a complete shocker because it's not what I expected. Now, Benjamin Cole had not seen me on television talking about his story. He did see me on television and wanted me to know that he had given his life to Christ and wondered if we could send him some free material. Oh, I know what you may be thinking. Oh, jailhouse salvation, is it real? Friend, that's not your decision, nor is it mine. It's not us to guess that. All I know is, is according to Benjamin Cole and the subsequent letters that I've gotten from him, he has met Jesus Christ. That's all I know. I can't wrap my mind around all that, but for him, what I can wrap my mind around is this. I think as shocked as people were about Zacchaeus, as similar to what I felt about Benjamin Cole, But what I want you to understand this morning is, is that is the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. And Paul said in 1 Timothy 1 15, of whom I am chief. You may not know it, but the person who wrote the majority in the New Testament, the guy by the name of Paul used to murder Christians. And if your theology doesn't believe or understand that God can save even somebody who murdered their child, you don't understand Jesus. Yes, Christ wanted Zacchaeus to know him. The next thing that we see here as we kind of pull this thing all together is that he wanted to save Zacchaeus. I want you to understand something this morning. Whether you're in the audience or whether you're at home sitting on the sofa drinking coffee, watching TV, watching online, wherever you're at, I want you to understand that more than anything else, this is what Christ wants from you. I'm gonna tell you exactly what he wants from you. Well, Jay, I don't really have much to offer Christ. Well, I understand that because neither did I. What he wants from you, you can give. If all you have to give Christ is your heart, that's all he wants. That's all he wants. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2.4 that God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. The Bible says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but his longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The gospel message is that Christ died for all so all can be saved. He didn't die for just some people. He died for anybody that's willing to truly put their faith in Him and repent of their sins. He doesn't want you to become a better person. He doesn't want you to become more religious. He wants you to give your life to Him and allow Him to turn you into who He wants you to be. That's what he wants. He wants to save you. Yes, he wants to take you to heaven, but he wants to do more than just take you to heaven. He wants you to use you in this life to build his kingdom, to have influence for his glory and his honor. He has more for you than to just wear a religious label. Well, I'm Baptist, I'm Catholic, I'm Methodist. He has more for you than that. He has more for you than to just attend church. He wants you to be the church and influence your school and your community and your family and your neighborhood and your job. Hello? Amen. He wants to turn your life around. You see, the night I met Christ, that April 5th night at age 21, what you've got to understand is, is I didn't just get a makeover. That's not what happened. That night in the balcony when I heard the gospel, religious but lost, that night I got more than just a ticket to heaven. Jesus Christ completely changed me. Now don't misunderstand that. I'm a sinful man. I am not perfect. But he gave me a new purpose, a new mission, a new vision, a new life, a new beginning. It's not just a ticket to heaven. He made me a new man, albeit a lot of faults. But I'm telling you, I'm not the man I was back then. And that's what he wants to do in your life. He wants to transform you. The Bible says in Romans 6, 3, that we walk in newness of life. It's not just, well, I'm gonna quit doing this and quit doing that, because I shouldn't do that. No, it's that He changes you from the inside out. You don't see things the same way. You don't have the same wants. You don't have the same desires, because you are literally a completely new person. And that's what we see in the life of Zacchaeus. It wasn't just, well, I'm amazed by these people. Yeah, I met Jesus. Yeah, I got saved when I was 10 years of age. And there's really no change in their life. Oh, I go to church every, but you know, I really don't care about the Bible, you know, and I really, it doesn't matter to me about going to church. No, I don't really pray. Friend, that's not the gospel of the New Testament. That may be the Americanized gospel, but the gospel of the New Testament, when people met Jesus Christ, they were never the same again. And if you say you know Christ and you're the same person you've always been, friend, there's something wrong with what you believe. He changes people. Thank God that he does. And we see that in the story of Zacchaeus. It wasn't just, well, he had a great encounter and so, you know, I'll put on a suit on Sunday and kind of pretend. No, no, no. Zacchaeus was made a new man. Did you hear what he said here? Listen to this. Zacchaeus. stood and said to the Lord, look Lord, hear me Lord. I give half of my goods to the poor. Do you understand who's saying this? This is the man, his whole life was about money. He could go to sleep at night. It didn't bother him one bit to take your rent money or food out of your kid's mouth. It didn't bother him one bit that he couldn't go to the synagogue anymore. He didn't care because his God was money. And we know that the love of money is the root of all evil. And listen to the transformation. It wasn't, I got a ticket to heaven so now I can go do whatever I want to do and live my life however I want to live it. Listen to what Zacchaeus said. He says, Look, Lord, hear me, Lord. I give half of my goods to the poor. This was his God. Half of everything I own, God. Some of us, we won't even tithe or give to the church. Your money is an indicator of where your heart's at. Well, we'll let the older people give money. God's called you to give money. You may not have much to give, but God's called you to give it. He said, I'll give half of my goods to the poor, my money. I give half of my money to the poor. And then listen to this. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, which he had done plenty of that, I'll give it back to him. No, he didn't say that either. He said, I'll restore it fourfold. I'm gonna give back four times everything that I've taken advantage of. Do you see the transformation? You remember when Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to, listen, a camel, yeah, a camel. Remember when Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus said that. Jesus said a camel could literally walk through the little bitty eye of a needle before a rich man could enter the kingdom of God. But then he also said that with God all things are possible. You have just heard the story, you have just witnessed a camel literally walk through the eye of a needle because a rich man just met Jesus Christ. This rich man just met Jesus Christ. And there were all those people in the crowd. They were all standing by wanting to take a look at Jesus. They were all fans, had on their jerseys, and they left unchanged. But the most sinful, unlikely, cheat, conniving, stealing, ripping people off guy left as a new man. Now friend, let me tell you something. There is no difference in you and Zacchaeus. You have lied, you have stolen, you have taken from God what was His and given it to yourself or others. There is none righteous, Romans 3.10. No, not one. They have all gone aside. They have all become unprofitable, God's Word says. And Jesus Christ wants to save you. He wants to change you. If you've never been saved and you just wear a label, you can put a label on anything. Today is the day for you to be saved. You may be religious, but you may be lost. And there are others of you that you know Jesus, man, you've known Jesus for years, and the truth of it is you got over it. You lost the fire. And there's a moment in time when God's Spirit deals with you and you have to make a decision to either say yes or no to Christ. All Jesus asked Zacchaeus to be willing to do was to say yes. Will you get down from that tree and will you let me come into your home? Let me come into your life. Will you let me change your broken marriage? Will you let me change your addiction? Will you let me change your motivation? Will you unlock every door in your home and let me have full access to it?