Transformed Life: Zaccheus

Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast.

Thank you so much for listening.

We're startup church.

We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together.

And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more.

You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that.

We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today.

Good morning, Kalamazoo church.

It's great to be here.

Um, you know, my wife and I really wanted to come earlier in the year, but we had a pretty wild year and we just weren't able to do it.

But we came last year, sang a bunch of songs together, had a great time and uh, we're, I'm pumped to be back and I wanted to bring a family, but for anybody that has any kids or two or three, you're like, it's diminishing returns with how many you have.

And so we decided that I would just come today.

Um, we opened up your Bible to Luke 19 and I just want to introduce myself just for a moment.

And, you know, thank Jaron and Bianca, obviously for your kind words, you know, it's, it's strange hearing nice things said about you because then you feel like, you know, I need to like be those things.

I was like, I got to be passionate, you know, um, I, you know, I really appreciate, um, you Jaron and your wife.

We were talking last night, we had some time together.

I'll just, I often think of Jaron and Bianca that, you know, sometimes with leadership, there can be, we probably all had times where you felt a little strange about leadership, right?

Like there's like a, sometimes there's a weird vibe in the people leading or like, Oh, like they really like being a leader.

Not ever what you want to say about someone.

And then you meet people who are leaders who don't, they don't treat you any different.

There's no elitism.

There's a humility there.

And I feel like that kind of disposition, uh, the things exude and I really appreciate that.

I don't, I don't ever feel like when I'm speaking, either of you are listening to talk or whatever, that there's a feeling of I'm better.

And I just think that's, I think that's indicative of your relationship with God.

Um, so I, I really love and appreciate you guys.

We love and appreciate the church.

I was praying for the church this morning, this church here and think about you guys often.

And I, I'm not upset if you don't think about me often.

I won't ask you about how did you think about me earlier today?

Um, you know, I, I want to introduce my family to you guys.

So, uh, you're in my family.

Um, so my wife, Kristen Rowan is the oldest in the middle.

Kate is the one that the only way to make her smile is to tickle her.

Um, she's rebellious.

And then the one in that little brace, that's Noel.

She's been the reason our life's been wild this year.

Um, sleep is, uh, that's just a thing of the past.

People are like, how are you asleep?

I was like, don't, don't ask me that question.

You don't want to know the answer.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, you know, I want to give you a little bit of the, kind of the attitude of my children.

I won't talk, speak too much about Noel.

There's a whole bunch of life that's happened there.

But, uh, uh, Kate, this is a little more my kid's personality.

Um, this is a really good indicator of my kid's personality.

So my son Rowan is six and my daughter Kate is four and a half.

And Noel, the little lion, is one.

And I'm asking God to not give us any more.

Yeah.

I'm not sure I'll keep the fourth alive.

Like, so you can do what you want with that, Lord.

All right.

That's my opinion.

Uh, this is her attitude.

So Kate, we were trick-or-treating and, uh, Kate is very, she's confident.

And so she's trick-or-treating and she's walking up to these doors.

And you know when you're trick-or-treating, you're like, some doors are like, obviously that's a door you walk up to.

You're like, all the lights are on, there's five pumpkins.

You're like, yeah, definitely do that.

And then there are some that are like, you might get murdered if you go there.

Yeah, yeah, right.

They've intentionally turned every light off.

But Kate will still, she's up, she's like, I'm gonna get that candy.

And she walked up to one house that was kind of an in-between.

And there was like a teenage boy that was clearly his mom had told him you have to, like he had been punished or something.

Yeah.

To hand out this candy.

So he had a big jar, like a big bowl.

And they walk up and knock on the door, trick-or-treating, he's like, what do you want?

And he just gives, he has the audacity to just give us any candy.

Okay.

And Rowan's like, I'll take whatever you got.

Like, I don't care.

And Kate's like, she kind of pushed it away.

She's like, do you have anything almond?

And he was like, wait, what?

And you could tell, like, he was like, I wasn't prepared for a conversation.

He's like, yeah, do you have anything almond?

Like, I'm allergic to peanut butter.

So can I get something almond?

He's like, oh, all right.

And she's like, thanks, man.

She walked, now that's Kate.

This is Rowan.

Rowan is our sensitive part.

So, you know, I don't know.

The other night, you know, my wife Kristen was talking to him, kind of our bedtime routine.

And I'm in and out of there pretty quick.

Kristen's in there for like 20 minutes.

I'm like, what are we talking about?

She's like, life.

And I'm like, man.

I mean, our son's a pretty smart kid, but that's a long time to talk to a six-year-old.

And one of the conversations they're having, I think that in his kids' class, they had learned about John the Baptist.

And we had read a story about Elijah or something like that.

So he's mixing these stories.

And so Kristen was like, son, how do you build your friendship with God?

Kind of a deep question.

And Rowan's like, good question, Mom.

He would say that.

He'd say, I think you pray.

You praise.

Then you stop.

And he's like, you wear itchy clothes and don't eat for three days.

And I think that's how you're close to God.

And I think maybe you misunderstood what was happening in the ministry of John the Baptist.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's Rowan, too.

He's soft-hearted.

He wants to know what's right.

And the question that Kristen asked, I think, is really relevant.

How can we be close to God?

It's a great question.

And as I understand it, you guys have been going through a series on encountering Jesus.

And I realize that I'll go back and I'll come back forward.

Today, the title of today's lesson is called Healing the Heart.

And I want to talk a little bit about this Bible-y word called repentance and what it has to do with being close to God.

And what is it?

But I want to start by reading in Luke 19.

Hopefully, you're already there.

We're going to read the story of Zacchaeus.

And let me give you a little context as you turn, if you're not there yet.

Zacchaeus is a really great story in the Bible, only recorded in Luke, I believe.

And it's the story of this very short tax collector.

And I don't know a lot of the times in the Bible where they really want you to know he was short.

It's like, really?

They're like, I want you to know this is a short dude.

And I think it was because it was part of his identity, which I can relate to.

And I'll talk about it before the sermon's over.

You'll learn all kinds of things about him.

Now, Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

And perhaps those who have been around church a while know this.

Perhaps this is your first time at church or you have no idea what that would have meant.

But the Romans were occupying Israel, Jerusalem, the city that a lot of these things take place in.

This is taking place in Jericho, which is a city in the region of Judea.

And the Romans are in charge.

They kind of let the Jews do their own thing.

And the way that the Romans collected taxes from the Jews were that they basically hired Jewish people to collect taxes from their own people.

The problem with that was that the way the tax collectors raised the money they earned their way of life was that they charged extra for their cut.

And so the Romans knew that they had to find someone who was willing to extort their family and their friends and their people.

And really be known as a sellout and an outcast.

And so when you hear the word tax collector, you're supposed to – I mean, I think we all don't feel like warm and fuzzy.

But you're supposed to feel almost a visceral hatred.

That's how the Jews would have felt about Zacchaeus because he was a sellout.

He sold out.

He gave up his family and his culture for his greed.

Luke 19 verse 1, Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

Luke 19:1

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

Okay, so you have to understand when you see that he was extravagant.

He was the guy managing other tax collectors and he was wealthy.

Where did he get that wealth?

By extorting his people.

He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was so short he could not see over the crowd.

I totally relate.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached his plot, he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house today.

I love that.

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter he is gone to be the guest in the house of a sinner.

Zacchaeus stood up, presumably some time later, and he said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.

And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay four times the amount back.

Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what the world wants.

Wow.

Such a great story.

What's so interesting to me is that we have no other dialogue from Jesus and Zacchaeus.

That's right.

Nothing.

Luke didn't deem it worthy to talk about how did this happen?

Why did Zacchaeus want to see Jesus?

Why is it that when he encountered him, his transformation was so dramatic?

That's what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about what I believe to be the reasons that he has changed, because it's a common theme biblically.

You know, this word repentance, for me, has been a foundational word in my life in ministry.

And I've had the privilege of serving the ministry for about 15 years, alongside my wife for most of that.

I talk about repentance all the time.

But if you've been around for any amount of time, what you learn quickly is that these concepts that are such foundational principles that you seem to think you know everything about, you have times in your life when you realize it's almost like you never knew what it was.

And I feel like the last three months, for me, have been that in regard to repentance.

I feel like I've learned so much about what it is.

It's a very important word, of course.

Repentance means a change of heart that leads to a change of mind.

A change of heart that leads to a change of mind.

But it's interesting, because I think sometimes what we think repentance is, is actually behavior modification, rather than heart transformation.

And there are two important truths I just want to discuss briefly this morning.

One, that repentance is a transformation of the heart that naturally leads to transformed behavior.

That's the first one.

I highlighted the word naturally on purpose, because I wanted to call attention to the fact that it's not a willed change, necessarily.

It's an organic change, because what happens is changing you.

No one told Zacchaeus to do this.

Perhaps, maybe Jesus did, but you don't get that sense at all from the story.

It's abrupt, actually.

Isn't the story abrupt?

You don't even know, is he still in the tree?

Is he at dinner?

Was this hours later?

Did this happen in the middle of this crowd?

You don't actually know.

I've always thought of it as later, but I suppose I actually contextually don't know.

But it's so dramatic.

And you've got to think, God has been doing something in this guy's heart for a while.

And when he saw Jesus, he was ready.

His heart changed.

And when you see change that dramatic, it seems that there's almost only ever one reason that could be.

It's because they want to change.

Zacchaeus wanted to be different.

No one forced him to do it.

He wasn't trying to conform to what was normal culturally, or what made him feel accepted in his circle of people.

Something dramatic happened in his heart.

And it seems like the grave that presumably drove this man to forsake and betray his friends and family, and that would have isolated him, lost its value when he encountered God.

You know, a lot of people encounter Jesus and don't change.

It's all over the Bible.

And it's not just people who didn't see a miracle.

There are times they watch Jesus do something, and it means nothing to them.

And it makes them angry, actually.

This is, of course, normal in our lives as well.

I want to talk about this idea, the difference between behavior modification and heart transformation.

Kristen and I have been talking about this a lot lately.

Recently, Kristen and I, I want to illustrate the story.

Is anybody here allergic to wasps?

We've got to state it as an insult.

You're going to be terrified of the story.

Yeah, you're welcome.

I just, I prepped you.

I'm allergic to wasps.

Probably not as bad as you are.

But I was stung, based on your reaction, I was stung about a year and a half ago, and I didn't sleep for like a week.

I mean, it was like this crazy rash.

It was like this bacterial infection, really bad.

So about three months ago, Kristen and I noticed some yellow jackets out of our siding on our side.

And you know, at first you're like, I'm a dad of three.

Like, I can handle this, no problem.

You know what I mean?

It's almost a moment of heroism.

People are like, Dad, there's a wasp.

I'm like, you know what I mean.

I take it personally when they come into my house.

But they're just outside, and I'm kind of like, you know, with your house, you're like, I'm just going to see how long that can last before I do anything about it.

Like, it's a very normal home ownership thing.

Do you need a furnace?

Nah, we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

The Lord will provide for it.

I mean, sometimes the Lord breaks, and you're like, oh, I need to buy a new one.

So these wasps are not worried about it.

I'm kind of like outside of my mind.

But then I start to see them in the house.

In our basement.

One or two, and they're really sluggish by the time.

It's like they got drugged on the way in.

They're easy kills.

I'm sorry if you're a wasp lover.

There's a lot of death to wasps.

And no one's loud enough.

And no one goes, like, I'm not going to say it.

And so these wasps start to get in our house, and it's getting kind of bad.

At one point, there were like five in there, and some of them were a little active.

I saw one in our room one time.

So our kids are just like never going into the basement, which makes the rest of our house insane.

That's where all the toys are supposed to go.

They're like, can you go get it?

So not only have they been going into the basement, they're making me go down and get their stuff and bring it up.

So eventually I'm like, okay, I think I probably should do something about this.

So I walk outside, and a friend of mine tells me one of the ways to kill wasps is to don soap.

I don't know if you knew that.

It's shockingly effective.

Don't ever use the pesticide.

Go get some soap.

It does the job.

I even get the bushy spray as well.

I remember one time I had kind of a mentoring time with a young guy in the church I had.

We just sat outside, and I clogged the hole with soap.

And the wasps were leaving the nest and coming back and building.

There's obviously a nest in our house.

And they were coming, and I would clog it.

And there was kind of like a traffic jam.

And I waited until like 30 of them gathered.

I'm telling you, I killed at least 500 of them.

And there's just a pile of bodies.

It was almost traumatic for me.

And I left them there on purpose.

I wanted the other wasps to see what's going to happen to you.

It's still outside.

And no, it was terrible.

I feel like he was court-sanctioned in that situation.

And there's just a pile that thick.

And I'm like, surely I'm making a dent.

But more are coming into my house.

More, more, more.

One day I found 50 in my basement.

I killed 50 wasps.

And I got so mad.

I was slapping them out of the air with my hands.

I was so fed up.

I was like, I don't care anymore.

So eventually I'm like, we need to hire an exterminator.

Which some of you would have done immediately.

I don't want to pay the money.

So I hire the exterminator.

This dude is not ready.

He's like, yeah, I'm kind of new to the job.

Better get that hazmat suit.

I noticed there was a panel in the ceiling.

And if I was really quiet, you could kind of hear them buzzing.

I was like, I think that's where they're at.

But I never opened it just for fear for my life.

I want to raise my kids, all that stuff.

So he's like, crack the thing open.

I'm like, do you mind?

I'm not even joking.

So he went and got his bee suit on.

And I put a sweater on, my two fly swatters.

And we crack it open, and the sound.

As you open it, I'm not exaggerating.

There were at least 2,000 wasps in the ceiling of my basement.

And he's like, oh! It's crazy.

I took video, I was like, oh! I don't have the video with me, unfortunately.

It's kind of like, you know before a traumatic video comes on, you get a little warning.

It's like, I need to put that.

So we just take him out.

He goes in there, he grabs the nest.

I'm talking about 3 feet of hive.

And I'm like, oh.

This was the problem.

Him tearing that thing out was like, it was a therapy for me.

I was like, get the queen! It was all because of one queen.

Produced thousands of wasps.

What does this have to do with the Bible?

My efforts to kill these wasps, are analogous to our efforts to modify our behavior, without any heart change.

Man, I'm telling you, I spent so much time filling the gaps in my window with a cock gun, I'm all around the edges, and they just keep sneaking.

I'm like, where did they come from?

I'm going to go crazy.

How are they getting in at my house?

I was filling everything.

I had killed hundreds of them.

I couldn't believe it.

My efforts were very reactive.

I'm going to stop them from coming in.

I'm going to do as much as I can on the outside of my house to stop them encroaching on my territory.

Because the symptoms were seeping out.

The wasps were overflowing inside.

Perhaps you can see where I'm going.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, who were this Jewish religious leading group who were known to be particularly corrupt and self-righteous, He says, if you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but on the inside you're full of rot and death.

Any person can change their behavior for a time, without God.

That's why self-help books are so popular.

People have wills, some stronger than others.

Repentance is not changing the way you behave.

It's changing the way you feel.

You can't do that.

Which is why repentance is not a work of man, or just a work of God, it's a co-working between.

It's not wrong to modify your behavior to do the right thing.

Self-denial is a thing.

I was with someone, I was teaching him about God, and he was of the impression that I do nothing, so I'll just live my life until I feel differently, then I'll change.

And of course you're like, that's absurd, that's ridiculous, because Jesus often says to deny yourself.

Self-denial means you do the thing you don't want to do, because it's right.

That has a place in Christianity.

In fact, I believe it's the beginning of repentance.

Most of the time you start to change something, you don't want to.

But over time, the hope is that you don't want to do it anymore.

If you're someone who continues to struggle with the same stuff, perhaps, this is not a full diagnosis, but perhaps your intention to modify your behavior may be to fit the church culture.

I'm accepted if I don't do this, or if I do this.

And what you'll find is that then your openness becomes kind of particular.

You start to share things with some people, but not everything, because you kind of know the line.

You almost get to the point where you don't even know what's happening.

All you know is Christianity is really hard, and you're not sure you can do it.

A lot of people walk away from God, because they've actually never learned that it's supposed to change here, not just here.

And I could have, literally, if I would have continued just to kill the wasps on the outside and not call the exterminator, the exterminator came in and he said, you were about a month away from needing to basically board up your house and fumigate the whole thing.

They were going to get in the vents, in the walls.

This is exactly the way sin is.

It's in your heart, it creeps in there.

And you know that something's in your heart, because it starts to seep out of the silence.

It starts to get in your basement.

Sin is a symptom of something broken inside.

Always.

That is always the case.

You can modify that behavior, but if you never address the source, you never address the high, you're going to delay how bad it is, but then it will become explosively bad.

Because you're going to be really embittered with God.

It's like, why is it not changing?

It's actually getting harder.

Christianity will only become harder if you try to modify your behavior, rather than change your heart.

So what is our transformation?

It's when the root is transformed.

It's when you take out the high.

Of course, you see this with trees, right?

It's like the age old analogy.

You judge the fruitfulness of a tree by its roots, right?

But we have a really, really prolific pear tree in our backyard.

I'm telling you, like 1,000 pears dropped off this thing this year.

This is not, I mean, it was like about 1,000.

And some people are like, wow, that's so magical.

Until it's not.

Because unless you pick them up, guess what loves pears?

The issues.

And they know better now, too.

Like, I've taken care of that neighborhood, but they keep coming back.

The pear tree is very fruitful.

Why?

It's root system is incredibly, incredibly healthy.

You can't even see it, but you can tell by the fruit.

It's always this way with people.

You can tell how close someone is to God, and how clean their heart is, by continued interaction with them, and continued exposure to their behavior.

Because when you're trying to modify your behavior, you will never do it perfectly.

Stuff will always seep out.

And you'll be frustrated that that happens.

You won't understand, but it's because it's not changing here.

So, the very first thing that we must do if we want to have the response of Zacchaeus, is you've got to identify what's happening at the root.

Why are these symptoms what they are?

How do you do this?

Well, when you go to the doctor, you go to the doctor because you have symptoms.

I'm feeling sick.

I'm coughing.

My heart hurts.

I have a sore throat.

I'm getting migraines.

Some of you probably, I don't know for sure, but in a group this size, people probably have chronic illnesses, sicknesses that you don't understand that no one can figure out.

And you go to the doctor, and you're like, hey, what's going on with me?

I have a facial tick, which will manifest.

It happens now.

It's gotten better.

I've had it about four years, and I went to the doctor about three months ago.

It was kind of a holistic nutritionist, chiropractic doctor.

Now, I was pretty terrified to do this.

Some of you were like, yeah! And some of you were like, no! Some of you were like, I don't know what that is, and I still don't either.

And she kind of just, I told her my symptoms.

I wrote down a huge list of the symptoms that I've seen with a primary like, help me address this.

And we've been talking a lot about my nutrition.

And the changes I've made in my diet have changed my facial tick by about 60% better.

I'm addressing something going on internally, and it's just not manifesting as much.

This is always the way it is.

But I wonder if sometimes we're not good at getting down to the root.

What's happening?

Where is the high?

We don't know how to find that, and so we're frustrated, and we don't change.

Perhaps you have that thing in your life.

I believe there's one simple question if you learn to ask yourself, you will eventually get there.

It's learning to ask the question of yourselves and others, why?

You struggle with overeating.

Let's say you struggle with overeating, or you struggle with any coping mechanism.

Growing up for me, it was impurity.

I was addicted to pornography for 10 years in my young life.

It hasn't been in my life for a long time.

I was addicted to video games.

People that are non-video game people are like, that's ridiculous, but it's the same thing.

It's the same thing.

It's not that different from alcoholism or being addicted to drugs.

Alcoholism and drugs and pornography have a much more noticeable societal impact.

But video games, I coped.

What do you cope with?

The first question you ask yourself is, why am I doing it?

If you can't control your anger, why do you get angry?

For me, I struggle with fits of rage growing up.

If you would have asked me why, I would have said, I hate failing.

You're still not there yet.

You're just a couple steps down on the branch.

Why do you hate failing?

This is of course my perspective now.

I wasn't saying that when I was 16.

I was like, I don't know, I just hate it.

But now I say, I hate failing because I hate how it makes me look.

Why do you care about that?

You're like, I'm uncomfortable now.

But I suppose I really care what people think about me.

Why do you care what people think about you?

I suppose it's because that's where I get my security.

Eventually you'll say something and you're like, That's bad.

When you say that live, you're like, that's usable for that person.

Why do you think that is?

Why do you care so much?

I suppose I'm not secure enough in God.

I'm almost there now.

I was not content with who God made me.

I did not trust how He chose to form me.

Like Zacchaeus, I am, but especially was, a really small kid.

I meant to put a picture up here because I know you may be thinking, you're probably not that small, but you guys are like, oh wow.

I have pictures of me with my friends.

Middle school was pretty awkward.

All my friends that were girls were a foot taller than me.

I was older than them.

Do you know what that does to a boy?

It's terrible.

I also had a really high voice.

I have a high voice still.

I listen to myself in recordings and I'm like, I don't sound good.

I remember I would go through a drive, this happened numerous times when I was 16, 17, and I'd be like, can I get a...

And 30% of the time they'd say, is that all man?

Strong.

It's like you laugh now, but I just stopped crying about that like 5 months ago.

That cut to the core, man.

I was really insecure.

I didn't even really get made fun of that much.

I had a bunch of friends and I bullied some, but it was more that I didn't get attention from certain people that I really wanted that would have felt really validating.

There's a group of people in school or church that if you got their attention, it meant you meant something.

I did not get that.

It caused a lot of insecurity and honestly, it was the root of most of my sin.

But the root wasn't insecurity, the root was I didn't trust who God chose me to be.

Now I'm at the root.

You have to get that deep.

And oftentimes you'll need help doing that.

Help getting there.

My second point and my final point is that repentance is a co-working that heals your brokenness.

So you've identified, why is it so hard for me to repent?

It's because your heart's not changing.

You're just modifying your behavior.

What happened with Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus was broken.

Think about what his life would have been like.

He would have been the stereotypical super rich, super lonely guy.

Hated.

So he had stuff and people had to respect him because he had the backing of the Roman Empire, but they just feared him and despised him.

Imagine living like that.

You know what you gave up.

And then you realize money's not doing it for me anyway, because it never does.

Greed wasn't the answer, but by the time he figured that out, it felt too late perhaps for him.

Perhaps the least understood part of repentance for me personally is how deeply repentance is tied into healing.

There are two verses.

I'm just going to reference them.

Acts 3.19 says, So that times of refreshing may come.

Interesting.

I like the repent and turn to God part, but the times of refreshing part I'm never sure I've totally understood because repentance feels kind of hard to me.

I'm like, is this refreshing or is this just horrible because I'm not doing the thing I want to do?

And what I've learned is that verse in James 5.16 which says, Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Fascinating.

Refreshing, of course, is a part of repentance.

How is repentance healing?

I believe that repentance is about becoming whole.

When you are sinning, I believe it's rooted almost always in some kind of brokenness or pain or trauma in your past.

I'm telling you, for me, my insecurity that I talked about drove almost all of my sinful nature.

That is often the way it goes.

Jesus here doesn't just give Zacchaeus his salvation.

He makes him whole again.

Imagine what it would have been as beloved as Jesus was for Jesus to go to Zacchaeus' house and to proclaim that around everybody.

It was so ridiculous that people were like, he's going to be the guest in the house of a sinner.

But that was normal for Jesus.

And what happened, and you'll see a theme, is that Jesus goes the extra mile not just to heal somebody but he restores their dignity.

Have you ever looked at the woman at the well?

There is no more powerful story than in John 4.

Jesus restores this woman's dignity.

He brings her back.

Everybody forgets who they thought she was because of her interaction with Jesus.

You have to presume it's exactly what happened to Zacchaeus.

Jesus was very intentional in his healing of Zacchaeus.

He didn't just tell him to change and be better.

Something about the way Zacchaeus was changed because he felt like, I actually don't need this grief.

I need Jesus.

I need him to be the thing I love most.

And once that happened, it would restore his relationships with everybody else.

Why?

Because he reconciled people.

People he cheated, love him now.

Can you imagine?

This guy's been extorting me for years and I paid him $1,000 and he just put four grand in my bank.

That would restore my relationship.

Why?

Not because you gave me money but because you've proven something about how you're different.

You have earned the right to earn my trust back.

And we don't have the full story of Zacchaeus.

Jared told me something really interesting that may or may not be true.

Some scholars believe that perhaps Zacchaeus was the apostle who was appointed after Jesus was killed who would be renamed Matthias.

Is that true?

If it's wrong, it's totally Jared's fault.

Same way you felt about the song.

You didn't like it?

Totally fine.

Whatever is true about that, we know that you know Zacchaeus' life was different.

And why?

Because he was here.

What do you think drove Zacchaeus to make this decision?

To become a tax collector?

He knew.

It wasn't like, I didn't know, too late.

It was a very intentional move away.

What?

Was it about his songs?

Why did they keep talking about it?

I don't know, but something, some pain, something that happened to him, that he believed about himself drove him to these actions and it built that wasp nest in his heart.

And he stopped caring what people thought.

But did he really?

Does anyone care?

When people are like, I don't care anything, I'm like, yes you do.

Or else you wouldn't say it.

You just gave yourself away.

Everyone cares.

Or you become so calloused and disconnected that you don't even know how to have relationships anymore.

What is it for you?

The fact that pain always lies at the root of your sin does not excuse your sin.

If I were to still be addicted to pornography in my marriage and Kristen would not think, oh it's okay honey because you're really hurt and you're coping with your insecurity.

No, that's not how that would go.

It would be like, I can sympathize that something is driving this behavior but you have to change this.

My closing is, how does one do that?

How do you change the way you feel about something?

You actually can't do it.

Which is where repentance is a co-worker.

Repentance is not just you, it's not just God, it's both of you together.

You are co-laborers, 1 Corinthians 3.

This is how I think repentance works.

You recognize, look at the symptoms seeping out of my life.

The wasps coming out of the siding in your basement.

Whatever it may be, what does that mean about you?

You do the work of identifying.

You ask those questions.

God of course helps us through his spirit.

Points us to things, points it out.

We have to choose that we want to be different.

I don't want this anymore.

I want God.

I want to love what he loves because I love him.

Not because I want to fit in the church because I'm lonelier.

Because this is what people expect of me.

But because I actually want a relationship with God because they believe he's real.

He died and he was here and I believe this crazy stuff.

You ever had that moment?

You're like, do I believe this?

This is wild.

I believe this dude came down and I really believe it.

I really want to live it.

Every time I see sin in my life, the first question is not, it's not stating to stop doing it.

That's not the first thing we say to one another.

We say, why do you think that's happening?

Because if you really want to take the wasp nest out, you have to ask why.

And then at that point, once you identify it, I believe the only way to change is to get on your knees and pray.

I believe that is the answer.

I'm that deep into it.

I think you can modify your behavior, but if you really want to feel differently, if you want to not do it anymore, that's what I'm talking about.

If you overeat, if you want to not want that anymore, prayer is the only way out.

There's a difference in prayer.

I'm like, oh, help me out, dude.

Even when people call God bro or dude, I'm like, I don't know.

He's your friend and perhaps he's fine with that, but I'm talking about that reverent, authentic desperation.

I do not want to be this way.

I don't want to do that.

I need you to change how I feel about this.

Please, God.

I have to believe Zacchaeus had those moments, and so we have the outcome that we have.

So for you, think about your sin.

What does your sin say about what's happening here?

What has led you to be that way?

There's a reason for the way you act and the way you feel.

What lies at the root?

What's the lost nest?

Is it unconfessed sins?

Is it some trauma?

Is it some choice you made?

Sometimes it's not something that happened to you, it's something that you did.

Sometimes it's not something you did, it's something that happened to you.

You didn't have any control, but you've got to deal with it now.

What are you going to do about it?

We can live like a victim, and some of us have more reasons than others to live that way.

Or we can choose to bear up under it.

God allowed that.

For some reason, you can never understand.

But he gives you the power.

You can deal with it.

Some people's journey is a lot further.

We need to be empathetic about that.

Some people have been through more than you can possibly imagine.

I think we have to be empathetic, and we also have to help people heal.

The church is not a club we go to when we got together.

It's supposed to be a rehab center.

When people are frustrated about it, there's a lot of sick people in the church, but there's a lot of sick people in the hospital too.

That's just kind of the way it goes.

If it's just a bunch of people that are healthy, do you want to be part of that church?

Do you think you could handle being a part of that church?

I don't want to be part of that church.

We have to deal with the sin, but we have to deal with it the right way.

We have to help love people into that repentance.

Repentance brings refreshing and healing because it addresses your wounds.

Amen?

Let's do this.

Let's say a quick prayer here.

Father God, we love you.

We know that you know everything that's happening inside of us, and we don't always know what's happening inside of us.

So we really pray that you would give us the wisdom to see through our sin and the symptoms and to really repent.

Not to just change our behavior, but that you would transform our heart.

I don't know if people are going through this room, but we're all kind of going through the same junk.

I really pray, especially for those that have deep wounds, deep trauma, hurt that maybe they feel like no one else can understand.

I really pray that you would do a special work in those hearts to heal us.

I pray that this church would be a place of growth and healing.

So let me pray.

Amen.