Replay | The Suite Life of Zacchaeus and Cody with Stephen Dunn

You can have all of me

And face in the little things

You can have it all

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online,

go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.

If at any point during this message

you feel called to make a change in your life,

text changeme to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. What's up everybody? I'm Stephen.

While I pull out my notes on my laptop,

I want you guys to introduce yourself to two people that you don't know.

You're welcome. Go ahead.

Oh yeah, good job being social everybody.

You guys can be social. Look at that.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

A bunch of social butterflies. That's what I see.

That's awesome.

For you guys that didn't introduce yourself to people,

we're condemning you in today's message.

So turn up. Alright?

But anyways, my name's Stephen

and before we preach this message,

before that we enter in this time together,

I just want to thank the thing that holds me accountable

and that I follow every day and that holds me to high standards.

My wife Janine. I just want to thank her.

She's awesome. Alright, shout out.

I'm getting me some brownie points today, baby.

I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what.

I ain't doing the laundry. God is good.

That's the miracle that I've been praying for,

that I don't have to do the laundry.

But anyways, some announcements.

The kids camp was absolutely incredible.

Aren't you guys thankful that we have pastors like Pastor Chris,

Pastor Rudy, Pastor Jess, Miss Erin, Mr. John,

that where we can do fun things like that and touch kids' lives

and impact them for good.

And our pastors are so good, Pastor Chris and Pastor Rudy,

that they're willing to do things like this for your kids.

That's love.

Are you not entertained?

Wow. Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Aren't you happy that we have pastors like that?

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

Aren't you happy that we have pastors like that?

I didn't get Christmas permission to put that up there.

So today I'm officially resigning.

But some announcements real quick.

If you're in middle school, 6th, 7th, and 8th,

Wednesday nights from 6.30 to 8 is our middle school youth group,

and we have fun.

Sunday mornings, don't sit in here and hear the boring message.

Go back and have small group that we have every Sunday morning

during the 9 and 11 services.

If you're high school, 9, 10, 11, and 12, Sunday from 4 to 6

is our high school service.

We have fun.

The other week we went to a softball field in Williamsport,

and we hit a bunch of dingers to celebrate 4th of July, and it was fun.

Trinity Schlatterbeck, who plays D1 softball,

I was the only one out of the youth group to hit her pitch.

So all glory to me.

It was pretty cool.

On a serious note, if you're a man and you struggle with pornography,

yeah, we went there.

Then we have a group at this church called Quest Group,

and it's a bunch of us dudes that meet up,

and we talk about how to live a Quest-free life from pornography.

So if that's something that interests you,

I'm not going to tell everybody what our business is,

but just email me at steven at hcv.church,

and I'll be glad for you to pull up and join our group.

Sound good?

All right.

We don't got to go any deeper than that.

Before I go further, I want to bring out Kirsten Gorsuch,

one of our female young lady leaders for youth.

She's awesome.

We could not do what we do without her,

and she is the best prayer-er that I know in this church.

So she is going to pray for this message,

and then she's going to preach the rest of the message.

Good morning, everybody.

Is your mic on?

Good morning, everybody.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

If everybody could just go to a place of prayer.

All right.

Holy Spirit, come.

Lord, we just thank you for this time of fellowship.

We thank you for Stephen getting up here

and being willing to preach for us.

We thank you that he is willing to lead the youth, Lord,

that you've just placed this calling on him,

and we pray that today you use him,

that you use him to reach the people that are here,

that you just open hearts and minds,

and Lord, that just as people leave today,

it sticks with them and it changes them.

We pray this, Lord, in your amazing name.

Amen.

Amen. Awesome.

Thank you, Kirsten.

She was super nervous, but she killed it.

So everything that we do in youth group is small group based.

I don't preach for our youth students.

One of our pillars in youth group is that everyone is a pastor.

So something that we do in small group for the guys group

is if me and Lance are feeling it,

and we have something on our heart,

we'll say something like, can I preach for a second?

And once you say that, we're letting the youth know that

whatever me and Lance are about to say is about to be good,

it's about to be hype,

and it's about to be from our heart and what God put on our heart.

And that prepares the small group that they got to respond

in a way that's just hype and that just gives glory to God.

Does that make sense?

So for example, if I'm like, youth group,

can I preach a second?

Then I'll start preaching, and then Nolan will be in small group,

just be like, yes, pastor.

Dom will be in there like, you better preach it, pastor, amen.

And like we turn into some like black church from down south,

we're just like, yes, pastor, you better preach it, pastor.

And it's incredible.

And it's fun.

We have fun.

It's like watching fireworks.

All right?

Everybody who walks fireworks, you're like, ooh.

Wow.

It's like they're really not that exciting,

but it's the words behind it that makes it impactful

and makes it exciting in the same way.

Hopefully we can have some fun and we can give some extra glory,

some extra old bay on the fries,

and we can have fun for this service.

Is that good?

So can I preach a second?

Is that cool?

Perfect.

So let's practice real quick.

You ready for this?

I'm going to say something simple,

and you're going to hype it up and give God glory.

Is that cool?

God is good.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

That was good, but I know we can do better.

You ready for this one?

Pastor Chris is handsome.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Don't you know we got a good-looking pastor church?

Oh, yeah.

But anyways, let's hop into the message.

This message is titled,

The Sweet Life of Zacchaeus and Cody.

The Sweet Life of Zacchaeus and Cody.

I know how old my crowd is

because some of you guys don't understand that.

And if you understand it, we're on the same wavelength,

but The Sweet Life of Zac and Cody was a TV show

about two boys who lived in a hotel,

and they messed the hotel up.

Anyways, it was a great show,

and that's the title of the message.

So I like to preach a little differently.

A lot of pastors like to preach like a Michelin star chef

where they have this really prepared meal for you

with a beginning and a middle and an end,

and everything is thought out and carefully crafted

and built together to be a wonderful meal.

I like to preach more like a buffet,

if you couldn't tell.

All right?

Aren't fat jokes good?

And we are going where I like to put

the whole Scripture in front of you.

We're going to read through the entire Scripture together,

and then I'm going to go back through

and analyze it for you,

make out some main points for you

that I thought that God wants you to hear this morning,

and then we're going to dive deeper into the text together,

and then hopefully you can learn

how to better analyze Scripture in your own personal time

based off of how you see me analyze Scripture.

Does that kind of make sense?

So that's why I'm sitting down.

It's kind of like a classroom, okay?

And if Kelsey back there gets a little too loud,

I'm giving her lunch attention.

And so anyways, whenever I preach,

whenever I read Scripture,

I like to view it like a metal detector.

Has anybody ever gone metal detecting before?

I've never done it.

This is my grandpa's metal detector.

But pretty much what happens is you're in the sand,

you're at the Antietam battlefield and whatever,

and you're just metal detecting,

and you have a wide range of land

that you're trying to figure out,

is there any metal under the surface, right?

So you go through and you do a broad sweep,

you do a broad overview of the land,

and you locate where there's certain pings

or places of interest,

and then your second run through,

you go back to those pings that you identified as important,

you dig deeper, and you discover what is there.

Make sense?

So whenever I like to read the Bible,

I like to read it over and do a brief overview

of what the Scripture is,

and then whenever the Holy Spirit pings something

that's important to me,

then I'm gonna go back through and dig a little deeper.

Be honest, that makes sense, right?

Alright, so if you ever go metal detecting,

just know you're reading Scripture.

So, that being said,

we are gonna read the story of Zacchaeus,

because we're talking about house parties,

and each week we're trying to invite people

to have a house party where we can just turn up

and have fun and celebrate the people of God

and just show them that Jesus likes to party.

The first miracle he ever did was at a party.

I mean, he likes to party.

He's not some boring God who sits in the back of the party

and just watches everybody else dance.

Jesus is the one turning up, serving the food,

and dancing with everybody.

Jesus is the one doing the cha-cha slide

and doing all that, the Holy Spirit sway,

and all of these dances, right?

So, we are in the book of Luke,

that's where the story of Zacchaeus is found,

and Luke never actually met Jesus.

He is, out of all the people that wrote the Gospels,

we can identify most to Luke, who wrote the book of Luke.

He never met Jesus in the flesh,

but instead he gave his life to Christ

after hearing a message from the Apostle Paul.

And then he went from being a doctor, a physician,

to now dedicating his life to compiling

eyewitness stories and interviews

with people that did meet Jesus in the flesh,

so that rather than saving bodies as a doctor,

he can save souls as a pastor.

Does that make sense?

So, the story of Zacchaeus,

we get a third-person viewpoint of this interaction

between Jesus and between Zacchaeus,

and that's how we're reading it, right?

That's the context for you.

Step one of metal detecting is you need to know

where you're metal detecting, right?

So, this is where we're gonna be detecting metal,

in this vibe right here.

So, Luke 19, one through 10,

if you've got it on you, pull it out.

I'm gonna be in the CSB, the Christian Steven Bible.

If you wanna be up in the Sky Bible

and you wanna read it from there, please do.

So, let's read.

So, he, Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through.

There was a man named Zacchaeus, that's our boy,

who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

So, he had the Gucci robe, he was styling.

He was trying to see who Jesus was,

but he was not able to see because of the crowd,

since he was a short man.

So, running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree

to see Jesus, since Jesus was about to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place,

he looked up and said to him,

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down,

because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.

Jesus is a savage.

He invites himself to a party.

That's how much he loves to party.

So, he quickly came down,

Zacchaeus quickly came down from the tree,

welcomed him joyfully.

All who saw it in the crowd began to complain,

he's gone to stay with a sinful man.

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

look, I'll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord,

and if I have extorted or stolen anything from anyone,

I'll pay back four times as much.

Today, salvation has come to this house, Jesus told him,

because he too is the son of Abraham,

for the son of man has come to seek and save the lost.

All right, pretty cool.

That is our brief overview, right?

And as I was reading that,

I got a few pings that I want to go back

and I want to dig a little deeper in

so we can serve some more of our buffet

and hopefully you can get something for your soul from that.

Sound good?

So going back to the beginning, so blah, blah, blah,

he entered Jericho and was passing through,

there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector.

If you were a tax collector, you were the, how to say it nicely,

the buttholes of the culture at this time.

All right, you're welcome.

Pretty much your sole job was to work for the city of Rome

and you were to find vulnerable business owners

and you were to take money from them, take taxes,

and a little extra for yourself.

And your sole job was to extort and to steal

from small business owners in the community.

And you were like a reverse Robin Hood.

Rather than stealing from the rich and giving to the poor,

you would steal from the poor and give to the rich.

So yes, he was a rich man.

We see that he was rich according to the world's standards,

but according to God's standards, he was poor.

He was a chief tax collector, meaning he wasn't just a thief.

He was the king of the thieves in Jericho.

Let's keep reading.

He was trying to see who Jesus was,

but Zacchaeus was not able to because of the crowd.

He was a short man, and other translations don't say short man,

but they say man of small stature.

What I want to talk about is what if Zacchaeus ran from the crowd

not because he wanted to see Jesus,

but he ran from the crowd and ran into the tree

because he was scared of the crowd?

Because if you think about it, if we look, he was a tax collector, right?

And the money that he stole was from people in Jericho, right?

Where is Jesus right now? In Jericho.

So Zacchaeus would have recognized the people in the crowd

as people that he had just stolen money from yesterday.

He would have seen Tommy, he would have seen Billy,

he would have seen Jebediah.

He would have seen them, been like probably filled with shame and guilt.

And fear, knowing that if he got close enough to Jesus,

the crowd would expose him as a sinful man.

And then maybe his first conversation with Jesus wouldn't have went so good.

Does that make sense?

So we almost get this picture that let's say, you right there in the HTV shirt,

stand up on your chair.

Welcome everybody, Jesus just entered the building.

Woo!

Alright, that's Jesus and surrounding him is the crowd.

Everybody around him stand up.

You're welcome.

That is the crowd, that is Jesus, right?

I'm a short man and I want to see Jesus,

which doesn't make sense because Zacchaeus, if he would have got close enough,

he would have been able to hear Jesus.

I see Jesus and I say, wow, I'm curious.

But then I look and I see the very people that I stole from the other day

and it's almost like you can see, like he almost drops his stuff

and he runs away and says, I can't be exposed for the sinful man that I am.

So I'm going to run away from the crowd, I'm going to climb up this tree

and I'm going to hide from the Christians.

And hopefully while I'm hiding from the Christians, I can still learn about the Christ.

And I think about Gandhi says it like this, you know Gandhi?

Everybody knows Gandhi.

Gandhi says it like this, I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians.

Your Christians are nothing like your Christ.

And I think how many people end up here, hiding in the tree, running and separating,

thank you crowd, running and separating from the Christians, from the church,

from the crowd, not because of the Christ, but because of the Christians.

Hmm.

And I think, that makes me think, am I in the crowd?

Because I come here on Sundays and I worship and I lead and I do all this stuff

and I'm so focused on my roles and responsibilities in the church

that maybe I've overlooked and seen the very people that I caused to go up the tree.

Hmm.

And I'm thinking, I used to be Zacchaeus.

I started going to church when I was 15 and I started going to church

because I was dating a girl and she said she'd only date me if I was Christian.

So you said, girl, you know I'm Christian.

Praise God, hallelujah.

Right?

And I started going to church and there I met some of the most important people

in my life there and they encouraged me and they loved me,

but I also met a lot of the crowd.

And I met a lot of two-faced Christians, I met a lot of non-Christ-like Christians,

I met a lot of people that held religion over my relationship with God,

I met people that said I wasn't good enough to be in a place of leadership

because I just became a Christian.

I was like, do you not know Saul and Paul?

I met people that would lie to my face and the very people that I thought were my shepherds

were actually the wolves.

And I was left hurt and disconnected from the church

and I ran from the church and luckily COVID happened

and I didn't have to go to church and thank God for COVID, am I right?

And I ran from the church and I thought I could still have a close, intimate relationship with God,

but what I realized is yes, I have a close and intimate relationship with God,

but the cross is horizontal and vertical, the church is important.

But I was struggling to see that because I was running away.

And I think about it often, I need to make sure that I'm not in the crowd.

I don't want to be the very people that hurt me.

But if I don't self-reflect often, which is main point number one,

I can end up like that.

We can end up like that.

And if you're not careful, a herd-like mentality,

we as Christians tend to go to the crowd and we like to fit in with the crowd.

So we play the comparison game and we do these things

and self-reflecting is important just like a red solo cup is important for a party.

Why is this red solo cup a good party drink?

Because from a distance, you can't tell what drink I have.

If I'm at home and I'm throwing a party and my mom comes home early,

she can't tell if it's Hennessy or iced tea.

Know what I'm saying?

She can't tell if it's brisk tea or whiskey.

Because from a distance, you can't see inside the red solo cup

because if it's outward exterior, but if you get close enough

through mindfulness and through prayer, you can really start to see what's inside your cup

and you can identify the things in your cup and you can identify contaminants inside your cup

and you can see maybe I am in the crowd,

this racism and sexism and bigotry and hatred and anger and past pains,

it's in my cup, it's in my heart.

And through self-reflection, can we really start to work on ourselves

and make sure that we are not in the crowd-like mentality.

Does that make sense?

So self-reflect often, let's keep reading the word, alright?

So that's meal one, let's keep going down our buffet.

So we climb up the Sycamore tree, when Jesus came to a place,

he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, blah, blah, blah, blah,

he gone to stay with a sinful man, but Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

look, I'll give half of my possessions to the poor Lord,

and if I've stolen anything, I'll give back four times as much.

So do you guys know where we are in the Bible right now?

Cool, the Sky Bible.

So I think often, I think, how many times a day do I say

and do stupid stuff that upsets my wife?

That's a rhetorical question, don't answer, but I do it often.

And I think whenever she's upset at me, I assume that I know how she's feeling,

so I start to add expectations onto myself to make myself in right standing with her.

I say crazy stuff like, you know what, I'm going to do the dishes.

I'm sorry, babe, I'll do the dishes.

And I still assume that she's not pleased with that, she's not content with that,

so I go on to say crazy stuff like, I'll fold my laundry,

I'll organize my socks how they should be,

I'll turn my underwear inside out, I don't even know, that's how crazy it is.

And I still think that she's not content with it, so I'll say stuff like, I'll vacuum.

Horrible.

And I'm putting all these expectations onto myself, not because my wife wants it,

but because I think that that's what she wants.

She does, but I could do all that and still upset her and it wouldn't be forgiven.

What she really wants is to know that I'm sorry and I'm asking for forgiveness.

That's what she wants.

She doesn't want the work, she wants the heart.

And Zacchaeus is adding expectations to himself

because he assumes that that's what Jesus wants to hear.

He says, I'll give all my money, I'll pay it back.

And then you can see Jesus almost stops him.

Hold up, hold up, hold up.

Zacchaeus, don't worry about it.

Today, salvation has come to this house.

And if Jesus would have said that, because of the works,

Jesus would have waited for Zacchaeus to give his money.

But Jesus didn't even let Zacchaeus finish.

He just said, no, no, no, no, don't worry about the works,

don't worry about the expectations.

I love you, I forgive you, and just invite me into your home.

Invite me into your heart.

Main point number two, don't overcomplicate the simple gospel.

A lot of times as crowds and Christians,

we like to overcomplicate the simple gospel.

We put expectations on ourself thinking that that's what God wants.

And no wonder Zacchaeus did this.

He was a Hebrew man during Old Testament times.

All they were used to was works.

So this radical Jesus who said, you don't need to do anything,

you just need to let me do all the work and believe in me,

that's beautiful.

What is the simple gospel?

The simple gospel is we're sinners.

We suck.

My flesh does what it wants, and sometimes I can't stop it.

I turn away, like Zacchaeus, I turn away from what my father wants,

and I go against him.

Truthfully, I don't deserve anything in this world.

Curb your entitlement.

I deserve to die.

We all do.

But Jesus, who lived a perfect life and who didn't deserve to die,

died in our place so that if we believe in him and he is our sacrificial lamb,

then our sin dies with him and we are made clean and we are good to go to heaven.

That's as simple as it gets.

That's an amen moment.

Like, come on.

I'm going to condemn you guys later for being quiet.

Just wait.

All right?

Romans 10, 9.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God

raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Amen.

It's that easy.

That's the simple gospel.

It's not about how much money you give.

It's not about how much time you put in.

It's not about whether you got baptized or not.

It's not about whether if you wear jewelry or not.

It's not about whether if you have tattoos or not.

It's not about how old you are.

It's not about any of that.

It's not about your family history.

It's not about what you do when the door is closed.

The only thing that matters is that you believe in your heart and confess with your

mouth that he is Lord and you will be saved and you will go to heaven.

Stop overcomplicating the simple gospel.

Let me drink some coffee.

Let's keep reading the scripture, right?

Jesus said today salvation has come to this house.

Jesus told him because he too was a son of Abraham for the son of man has come to

seek and save the lost.

Whenever I was reading this I was like son of Abraham.

What?

I'm a Bible school dropout by the way.

That's why I was confused.

And I was like so what does this mean?

And the more research I looked into it Zacchaeus would have been Hebrew, Jewish.

So the father, the God would have been Yahweh.

But the father of the Jews, the first Jew would have been Abraham.

Abraham, Abraham.

So Jesus is saying Zacchaeus even though you've gone and lived a sinful life far

away from me you're still a son.

I still love you.

You're still a son.

And I think back to metal detecting.

Oftentimes when you're metal detecting and you get a bunch of pings it's not just

five different coins, right?

There's something really big under the dirt.

And whatever the metal thing is it connects a lot.

So as you dig deeper you start to see more and more connections and you really have

to look and discover and research more what those connections are.

Does that make sense?

Like you think it's some coins but really there's a tank under your feet.

So you got to dig deeper and I don't know about you but as I was reading the story

of Zacchaeus it's almost word for word the parable of the prodigal son.

Word for word.

Almost so that I would say that the prodigal son story might have been about Zacchaeus.

And we're going to have another buffet and we're going to dive into the prodigal son.

The story of the prodigal son.

It's a parable which simply means it's an allegory.

It's a fictious story that Jesus is telling his people to take hard to understand

concepts and put it into an easy to hear story.

Does that make sense?

So we're in Luke 15 which is a few chapters before Zacchaeus and we're just going to read

over the prodigal son.

Is that cool?

And in the case of the message I'm going to call him Cody.

All right?

So Zacchaeus is Zacchaeus and Cody is the prodigal son.

So read it on the Sky Bible and make sure that you're focused up with this.

Luke 15.

He also said to Jesus, a man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father,

Father, give me the share of the estate that I have coming to me.

So the father distributed the assets to them.

Not many days later the younger son gathered together all he had,

traveled to a distant country, probably Vegas,

where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

Vegas.

Or Charlestown.

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country

and he had nothing.

Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country

who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to eat his fill from the pods and eat what the pigs were eating.

But no one would give him anything to eat.

The man was down bad.

He was starving.

When he finally came to his senses, he said,

How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food?

But here I am, dying of hunger.

I'll get up, go to my father, and say to him,

Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

The Sky Bible is going down, but that's okay.

You can hear it, right?

Make sure you're listening, right?

Don't be distracted, alright?

Come on now.

So the son says, I'll get up and say to him,

Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired workers.

Just make me an employee.

I'm not even a son anymore.

So he got up, went to his father, but while the son was still a long way off,

his father saw him, was filled with love and compassion.

The father ran, threw his arm around his neck, and kissed him.

Hopefully on the forehead.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father dismissed him and said,

Servants, quick, bring out the best Gucci robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet,

then bring the fat calf and slaughter it, baby.

Sorry, vegetarians.

And let's celebrate with a feast.

Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

Here it is, exact quote.

He was lost and he is now found.

So they began to celebrate.

Now his older son, though, he was in the crowd, he was in the field,

and he came near the house and he heard the music and the dancing.

So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what was going on.

Your brother is here, they told him.

And your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

Then he became hungry and didn't want to go in.

So his father came out and pleaded with him.

Son, your brother is here. Come, let's party.

Let's turn up, let's celebrate.

But the son replied to his father, Look, I have been slaving many years for you.

And I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat

so that I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes,

you slaughtered the fat calf and threw a party?

Plot twist, comparison is of the devil.

How many times as Christians are we going through our third miscarriage

and they're going through their third live birth and we condemn them?

How many times as Christians do we pray for healing

and when we don't get it and somebody else does, we're not joyful in our heart?

Comparison.

Anyways, let's read through.

Let's go back and read over the pings.

So, Father, give me the share of the estate.

What he's saying is, Father, you're dead to me.

Give me my inheritance now.

And I'm going to live my own life.

I'm going to no longer claim to be a Hebrew citizen,

but I'm going to work for the state of Rome.

You're dead to me.

Do you see the similarity?

And then we keep going and they keep going.

Zacchaeus says, I'll get up, go to my father and say to him,

Father, I have sinned against heaven in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hard workers.

And the father dismisses what he's saying.

He's saying, son, I love you.

God, I love you.

And he's saying, he's saying, son, I love you.

Come inside and let's throw a party.

Cody is overcomplicating the simple gospel.

The father doesn't need some fancy prayer and fancy apology.

He just needs you to accept the welcome into his presence.

And then we keep going and then bring the fat calf and let's

slaughter it and let's celebrate with a feast because the son

of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and he's now found.

So they began to celebrate.

And we see that when things are dead and they're now alive,

when things are lost and they're now found,

we need a main point number three, celebrate salvation.

You can't see it, but you can hear it.

All right?

Main point number three, celebrate salvation.

The father was slow to anger, but he was quick to party.

Slow to anger, but he was quick to throw a party.

And we as Christians, we love to throw these big parties and

celebrate for these grand miracles that happened on Earth,

but we fail to understand that the biggest miracle of them all

is that we're allowed in heaven.

Why do we close our eyes and raise our hands when we should

be throwing parties?

Why is our baptism pool party tonight probably going to be

probably have lower attendance than what expected?

We should have more people here tonight than anything else

because we're celebrating salvation.

Right?

Throw a party, bro.

Right?

That's easy.

All right, let's keep reading.

What time is it?

10, 12?

All right, bet.

Don't worry, I got you.

All right, we're almost done.

Focus in.

So blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The son was angry.

He didn't want to come in.

The son was in the crowd.

But we see a difference here between the prodigal son's story

and the story of Zacchaeus.

When Zacchaeus saw the crowd, he got scared because he didn't

want the crowd's opinion of him to reflect on how Jesus saw him.

Does that make sense?

Because Zacchaeus wasn't sure who Christ was, so he was scared

that the Christian's opinion would dictate and change the

opinion of the Christ.

Cody knew who his father was, and when his older brother came

calling, Cody stayed in the party.

He stayed in the presence of the father because he knew who his

father was.

Main point number four, we need to have an accurate view of the

father.

We need to know who God is for ourselves.

We need to stop treating pastors like they're prophets.

It's like middle school dating.

Anybody ever date in middle school?

God, forgive us.

But it's like if I like a girl, I'm telling my homie, yo, I like

her, and then my homie is going to go ask the girl if she likes

me back, and then he's going to report back.

Right?

And in the same way, in the Old Testament, the prophet was my

homie, God was the girl, and he was the messenger between me and

God.

But Jesus was the last prophet.

He tore the veil.

He gives me as a Christian the confidence to go to the father,

go to the girl by myself, and have an intimate relationship

without the prophet.

If the only time that you go to God is whenever you're near a

pastor, maybe you need to build a little confidence.

Maybe you don't have an accurate view of the father, and you think

that the Christ is like the crowd Christians.

I think back to me whenever I first really got hurt by the crowd

Christians, and during COVID, I stopped going to church.

I remember I started going to another church at the time, and I

remember just standing there doing worship, almost refusing to

raise my hands.

I used to raise my hands all the time in worship.

This time I almost refused because I was like, God, how can you

be good when your Christians are so bad?

I almost felt like God abandoned me because the shepherd, the

pastors that I idolized abandoned me.

And that's why it's so important that we have an accurate view of

the father so that when Christians fail us, when pastors fail us,

we are secure and we know who God is.

Just the truth.

I don't think Christians suck, but God doesn't.

Right?

And if Zacchaeus would have known that, he would have saw the crowd,

heard their grumblings, and he would have known all I have to do

is get to the crowd and Jesus will love me no matter what.

But he didn't know that, so he ran.

Main point number four, have an accurate view of the father.

All right.

Do you guys kind of see the similarities between the prodigal son

and the story of Zacchaeus?

Okay.

Hopefully, you got the buffet and you're feeling a little full.

But in case you're not, let's go back into the story of Zacchaeus,

and I want to analyze something that was really cool and I think you

guys will really like.

Sound good?

So anytime that you see anything, this is a key Bible lesson type

thing right here.

You ready for this?

If you see anything mentioned by name, it's important.

God decided in his word to put sycamore tree, not just the tree.

Does that make sense?

So why did he choose to put sycamore?

Why did he choose to tell us the species of tree?

So I started doing some research.

I was like, what is a sycamore tree?

Ten facts about sycamore tree.

And I didn't find anything that I was like, okay, this applies to God.

So God loves numbers.

He's a mathematician.

He invented it for Christ's sakes, literally Christ's sakes.

He invented it.

And we are, so I typed in how many times is the sycamore tree mentioned in all

the Bible?

Weird look.

But it's mentioned nine times throughout all the scripture.

And the ninth and last time is the story of Zacchaeus.

So I searched.

I was like, what is number nine in the Bible?

And it is the numerical meaning of new beginnings.

It's almost like God did it on purpose, huh?

So main point number six or number five, Jesus is new beginnings.

And we think back to pay attention to this.

I'm standing up so you know it's real.

All right.

Let me drink some coffee.

Zacchaeus saw the crowd.

He saw the Christians and he separated himself from Christ and from the

Christians and he ran up into the tree.

He used the tree to hide and to separate himself from God.

Jesus breaks through the crowd, walks towards the tree, and says,

Zacchaeus, come down from there.

If you read in between the lines, it's almost like Jesus is saying,

Zacchaeus, you don't belong on the tree.

I do.

Get down from the tree, Zacchaeus.

Yes, you're a sinful man and you're hiding your face from God, but I'm

here to love you, not condemn you.

Let me take the tree instead of you.

That's pretty deep.

And we get this picture of how much God and how much Jesus really loves

Zacchaeus, that the very things that he is using to separate himself from

God is the very thing that Jesus is using to break the separation.

You think alcoholism separates you from God?

No.

You think an addiction to pornography separates you from God?

No.

But I'll tell you what he will do, though.

He'll take it and he'll work all things together for good and he'll use it

for a good testimony.

And I think Cody, we get another picture similar to that.

Cody, the prodigal son, his lowest place is in the pigs, wanting to eat from

the pigs and his highest place when he returns back to the Father is eating a

feast.

And the cow, he went from not enough to eat to too much to eat.

And it's just proof that God loves to take our lowest points and glorify

himself by turning our lowest points into our highest points of praise.

God, I should have O.D.ed that one day, God.

But I didn't.

All right.

That's cool.

How do I have new beginnings?

All right.

We're going to go into some action steps and we're going to talk about how do

you as Christians have new beginnings?

You ready for this?

Are y'all awake?

All right.

I need more coffee.

You stand up and sit back down.

If you don't stand up, then you're excommunicated.

That's it.

Last straw.

Excommunicated.

See, I grew up in a Catholic church.

That's how I know that.

All right.

Action step number one.

You ready for this?

Get out of the crowd.

I heard last week that there was people cussing out our parking team because

they asked you to turn right.

Get out of the crowd.

How many, if you're in the crowd, the parking team was that key.

How many of them probably wanted to quit and never volunteer again?

They're running from you.

Get out of the crowd.

We are to be in the world but not of the world.

I tell my young men in group all the time, my goal for you is to not be a

deadbeat father.

You're more than that.

God doesn't want you to repeat your family's trees.

So get out of the crowd.

Stop being like everybody else.

Why does Paul say all these things like wear head coverings and do all this?

He's talking to the church in Rome.

He's talking to the church in Corinth and he's saying be different than the

community.

That's the point of it is to be different than the community.

People need to identify he belongs to Christ.

He doesn't.

It's important.

How do we do that?

Through our love and through our actions, not what we do but how we do it.

So get out of the crowd.

Action step number two, get out of the cup.

Plot twist, I'm talking to some of you alcoholics out there.

You got to get out of the cup.

Go to AA.

Our AA program here is awesome.

Turn up.

But anyways, for all of y'all, I'm talking about get out of the cup.

If this cup is a representation of our heart, this red solo cup, right?

If I fill water into the cup, what's in the cup?

Oh, wow.

You guys must have went to school.

Right?

If I fill it with water, water is in it.

If I continue to fill it, what spills out of the side?

More water.

A lot of you, a lot of you, God is doing great things in your life.

But you're stuck in the cup.

I think it's like my dad's weed whacker.

Whenever I moved out, those weeds haven't been whacked in a year.

Okay, first off, weed whacking sucks.

And second off, his weed whacker works fine.

It still has full strength.

It still has full gas.

But it doesn't do what it's supposed to do because it's stuck inside.

I think how many of you come to church on Sunday, you turn up and you praise God,

and then you leave and you never do anything again.

It's not that we need you to fill in spaces.

It's that we need you to pour yourself out to influence our community

because it's a team effort.

So what you've got to do is you've got to get out of the cup.

You've got to get out of the cup and you've got to let it flow out.

You've got to serve with the youth.

You've got to serve with the kids.

Let it out of the cup.

You've got to invite people to church.

You've got to throw a house party.

Love people, influence people.

If it fills, it spills.

It can also be dangerous, plot twist.

If you fill yourself with anger and hatred, what spills out?

Action step number three.

Get out of the tree.

Get out of the tree.

Stop separating yourself from Jesus because of...

You fill in a blank.

What is your tree?

Are you running away from Jesus because of the crowd?

Are you running away from Jesus because of fear?

Are you running away from Jesus because you don't know who he is?

Are you running away from Jesus because you feel like you're not good enough?

Hear me, Zacchaeus and Cody.

Cody, he didn't have the opportunity to shower before he went back to the Father.

He would have smelled like pig and poop.

He would have looked ugly.

But his Father still hugged him.

I don't care if you're clean. I'm going to get poop on me, son.

Because I love you.

I love you in the midst of your crap.

Literally.

So get out of the tree.

Online community.

Get out of the tree.

COVID is over.

All right, some of you, I get it. You got to stay home.

But some of you, why aren't you here? I know.

You're afraid of the crowd.

All right, let's keep going.

I wrote this down because I thought it was important, but stop letting fear dictate your choices.

I love when the worship team plays behind me. It sounds so spiritual.

Last action step. Are you guys ready for this?

Action step number four.

Get out of the past.

Your past can be a tree.

Your past can separate you from the future.

Your past can separate you from God and the plans that he has for you.

And I think about my personal story.

And I wanted to say on behalf of pastors and on behalf of Christians,

I'm sorry that they hurt you.

I'm sorry.

But they're not God.

They're not.

Just because one Chick-fil-A employee doesn't say, my pleasure,

doesn't mean all of Chick-fil-A is bad.

There's Christians and there's pastors and there's preachers.

And there's a God who loves you.

Please don't let the Christians distort your view of the Christ.

He loves you.

He loves you. Get out of the past.

Have an accurate view of the Father by knowing who Jesus was

and by knowing who Jesus is and knowing who Jesus will be.

And let me tell you, he doesn't change.

He won't switch up on you. He's going to love you.

I have one more Bible story that Pastor Chris talked about last week

that I wanted to comment on.

And the point of this is to reaffirm, reaffirm to you who Jesus' character is.

Can we do that?

Strip away your past. Pretend like you know nothing about Jesus.

And this is the first time that you're hearing about who this man that is God is.

Sound good? Do you guys know who Jesus is?

No! We're pretending like you don't. You don't.

All right? You guys are too spiritual.

So Pastor Chris talked about the story the lady caught in adultery.

This lady just cheated on her husband and these Jewish men and leaders

threw her at Jesus' feet and said, what should we do to her?

Because in the Hebrew law they had full legal capability to stone her to death.

Pick up these stones and throw the rocks at her until she dies.

How horrible is that?

But they had full legal rights and ramifications to do so because that was the law.

And they say, Jesus, should we stone her?

And Jesus says, the one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone.

So the religious men, all sinners, they leave, they leave.

And we get this picture that it's just Jesus and this woman.

And you can almost see the woman scared and say, Messiah, are you going to stone me?

Because he had full rights and capabilities to because he was without sin.

If he wanted to, he could have picked up that stone, condemned her,

said, you're not good enough. I don't love you.

But instead he looked her in the face and said, I throw parties, not stones.

Because that is who Jesus is that no matter what your past,

even if you just cheated on your husband, he loves you and he accepts you.

And that's why, Zacchaeus, it's important for you to come down off the tree

because you are not having a Bible bashing, hell preaching Jesus.

You're having a let me hug you and let me love you and let me get you into eternity.

Because that tree belongs to me, not to you.

That is who Jesus is. That is an accurate view of the Father.

When you're saved now and you're wiped clean, you can go and do whatever you want.

You shouldn't, but you can.

And his love is still washing over you.

It says that nothing under the sun, nothing made can separate you from the love of God.

And guess what? We're made from God.

So you can't separate yourself from God.

So look, we're going to do a little altar call. You ready for this?

If you want prayer, you can be on this side of the stage.

And if any of my youth leaders in here, you can come up here and you can pray for people.

I think that would be cool. But altar call for three groups of people.

You ready for this?

Number one, the Zacchaeuses that need to stop running from their past.

That's your past. That's your present. And this is your future.

If you're stuck in your past and maybe you need to forgive a pastor that hurt you or forgive a Christian that hurt you, that is what this is.

The next person for the altar call is the Codes that need to return to the Father.

You're stuck in the pigs. You're stuck in the pigs.

You're living a life that is far from God and you just want to be loved and you just want to be forgiven.

The Father loves you and accepts you with open arms.

And just like Zacchaeus hiding in the tree, Jesus will meet you where you're at.

So don't feel like you need to do this in order to be saved, but you are choosing to do this because you're like me and you need something physical.

Right? And number three, people that need to come up to the altar, people that are in the crowd, and you know you need to stop.

Because let's be honest, if you're in here and you're like me, you can name off some scenarios where you feel bad that you didn't act like Christ.

And you know what? You may never be able to talk to that person again, but you can talk to God and you can say, I'm sorry.

And guess what He's going to do? I love you. I forgive you. And don't worry, I have more in store for you.

So let's pray. God, I'm thankful for you. I'm just thankful for who you are.

I'm thankful for that you are not in the crowd, but that you call me out by name and that you love us and you forgive us.

And you are not here to stone us, but you are here to throw a party for us because that's how excited you are whenever we come home as Christians.

We're not strangers, but we're family. Even if I say that you're dead to me, you still view me as a son.

So please be with the Zacchaeuses and the Codys and the people in the crowd and just love them and influence them and give them the strength to step out and just let you into their home and just throw a party for them.

Amen.

Take it away, peeps. Take it away, peeps.

Amen.