Be The Ladder | Pastor John

I don't know about you, but I love that one of

my favorite things, and maybe I'm just getting

old, but I love that life has purpose. You ever

wonder or ever sit and go, man, I can't imagine

not knowing what my purpose in life is. Maybe

you're sitting here today and you go, I don't

know. Well, I hope that by the end of the day,

you're able to connect the dots of, hey, here

is why Jesus has saved me. This is what it's

for. Because the reality is Jesus could save

you and just go, you're out of here, right? But

he didn't. And he also knows that this isn't

a great place to be because this isn't what he

created it to be. That there's a lot of pain

down here, right? There's a lot of pain as we

walk this life. And so the reality is we get

to step into, we get to step into purpose. And

so part of this Christmas and part of what we're

building towards and part of what we're moving

towards as a church family is where is God's

kingdom mission and how do I join him on kingdom

mission? And so if you were here week one, you

heard Pastor Todd give a phenomenal message on

this idea. If I could pick this up, who's in

your circle? And you got one of these little

newspaper things, right? And the idea was, who

is God naturally placed in your life? And if

you did your homework, you began to go, God,

who is around me that needs some good news? Now,

here's what I love about good news, right? Good

news doesn't mean they don't know. It's not a

category of, well, it's only if you don't know

Jesus, right? Because you might have people in

your life that they're just in a really tough

season of life and they need to be reminded of

the goodness of God. And so they need some good

news. And so the idea was that you look around

and you go, who in my life is hurting? Who in

my life is far away from God? Who is in my life

has got brokenness going on? Who in my life could

use some good news? And then the goal was that

you write it down. You write them by name. You

write them by name on this little piece of paper.

And the goal was that this little piece of paper

ends up on your fridge. You know why? Because

I know you eat. Right. And every time you go

to eat, what happens? You see their names. Or

you drive a car because you got to get to work,

right? And every time you drive your car, go

drop the kids off, whatever it happens to be,

you see those names. The idea was that this is

carried with you from week one all the way through

that you are carrying the names of people that

need some good news. Week two, if you were here

last week, you heard Pastor Ben give a phenomenal

message on prayer. All right, give it up for

Pastor Ben. Amazing. And what I loved about Pastor

Ben's was, okay, now. Pray by name, right? Like

it's a privilege to take somebody's name before

the throne of God. There is power in prayer.

So you are taking both privilege and power and

by name, because it may be the first time that

person's ever been prayed for by name by another

human being. You get to take them before God

and pray by name. And this week, we're going

to kind of wrap all this together and bring it

to the next step this week as we move towards

our Christmas gatherings. But before we do that,

I got to tell you a story about October this

past year. So my kids decided they, and very

important you understand, my kids decided they

were going to run a marathon and a half marathon.

This guy did not decide that. I am not running

no half marathon unless something's chasing me,

right? So they decided they're going to run a

half marathon. So within that, We can stop the

video. I'll come back to it. So my daughter's

out in California. Sierra's out in California.

She's going to do the half. Pastor Noah, you

guys know Noah. Noah decided that he was going

to drive out there and run the full marathon.

So we go out there as a family. We're going to

cheer them on. Well, there's two ways that you

can, I understood this went on. There's two ways

you can cheer them on. You can go to the halfway

point. Right. And the halfway point was a couple

of blocks from where we were staying. You walk

down to the beach. And when you got to the beach,

you you hold signs. My kids made signs. Young

kids made signs for them as they're going by

all that good stuff. And then your only job was

to make sure that whatever they needed to refuel,

you know, that sludge that they take, you know,

is there they're running the gels and all that

kind of stuff. Right. And make sure they hydrate.

So you're just there to kind of hand them stuff

and go. I didn't understand at the time that

when you do that, there is very few people around

and it's an enjoyable experience because you

got to walk from where you were down to the beach.

It's sunny. OK, so that's that's one version.

The second version was you can go to the finish

line. Now, my daughter, Rylan, and our grandson,

Beckham, they were going to the finish line.

So I said, well, I'll go with I'll go with her.

Well, we spent 30 minutes just trying to find

a parking spot. Right. So we get down there and

I come to realize there was 10 ,000 runners in

the half marathon runners. There was 6 ,000 in

the full marathon. That is 16 ,000 runners. On

top of that, you had a bike race. And I don't

know how many people were in that. So when we

get down to the finish line, I'm sent with a

mission. And the mission was given to me by my

wife. Make sure you get a video. of our daughter

crossing the finish line. Yes, ma 'am, I can

do this. What I didn't anticipate is if you have

16 ,000 runners, that's a whole lot of people

that showed up to see them finish. And the way

this thing was set up, you could only be on one

side. You couldn't get to the other side. So

you are standing on this side and they're coming

by here. Noah finishes first, and Rylan's like,

she's like, will you take care of Beckham? I'm

like, that's the easiest job on the planet. Give

him here, right? So I'm playing grandpa. Noah's

finishing. Rylan goes to record Noah finishing,

and wouldn't you know, people are so kind. Here,

you can come just right to the front of the fence.

So she gets right up next to the fence, captures

Noah running. Well, now it's my turn. We track

the GPS. Sierra's coming, and I'm like, okay,

she's finishing. So I'm now standing, and I realize

there's no way I'm making it to the fence. No

one is letting me through. I'm eight to ten people

deep. And remember, my mission is what? Get her

finishing the race. So I got a video. Now, she

is wearing red shorts. You see anybody with red

shorts? I'm standing, holding my phone. We're

going, we're going. Still no red shorts. Still

no red shorts. Still no red shorts, but hang

on, hang on, hang on. The finish line. And there

she is. Yes. Got her crossing the finish line.

Now, if you were to grade my video and did I

accomplish my mission? Kind of. You did. That's

a guy if I ever heard it. My wife did not think

the same. Some of you have been bugged by this

ladder the whole time, huh? Why'd they leave

a ladder on stage? I can't worship. You see,

what's interesting is in that moment, what if

somebody came along and gave me a ladder? What

a gift. What a gift a ladder would have been.

What was I there to do? I was there to see and

experience. My ability to see and experience

because somebody was kind enough to give me a

ladder would have changed everything. Would have

changed the video because I wouldn't have the

sun on my screen so I couldn't see what I was

getting. It would have been right here. And I

would have been able to video and I would have

been able to experience instead of panicking

the whole time. What a gift the ladder would

have been. I know you're good church folks, and

I know you got your Bible and you're ready to

go. I need you to not turn to this passage, okay?

I need you to hear this with as fresh of ears

as you can possibly hear, okay? The words of

Jesus, he says this, 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,

for Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

For Jesus came to seek and what you were just

given in this moment is the purpose and the why

of everything that Jesus has just done before

this. What we are filled in on that Jesus, the

purpose of Jesus coming and the purpose of Jesus

having the intentional actions that he did is

because he was on mission. You might say the

same as me driving around for 30 minutes, hauling

stuff down to this spot, standing with a camera.

Why? Because I had a purpose and I had a why.

When Jesus talks about his purpose and his why,

he says, I am here to seek and to save the lost.

So everything that happens before this, we can

look through the lens of going, Jesus had extreme

intentionality to why he moved, how he moved,

and what he was moving towards. And so now if

you jump in at Luke chapter 19 in verse one,

Luke 19 · chapter mention

you go, oh, that's the story. Jesus entered Jericho

and was passing through. Remember, he's doing

what? He's on mission to seek and to save who?

The lost. So he is passing through. Why? Because

he's on his way to Jerusalem. This is right before

he's about to get on a donkey and be ushered

into Jerusalem as king during the last week of

his life. So the intentionality of Jesus at this

moment is he is moving towards Jerusalem. Why?

Because he has come to seek and to save a humanity

that is lost. And so he intentionally moves.

Then we're introduced to a character in verse

two. A man was there. So as Jesus is passing

through, a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

Isn't it interesting that just by you hearing

Zacchaeus, you're like, oh, I know this story.

I know what this guy does. And yet when you take

a slightly different look at something, it can.

Take on a different feel. You can learn something

different. I've taught this, I think I was telling

somebody, I've taught this at least twice at

Heights, this story, and I could not be more

excited to teach it to you today because there

is something here that I personally have never

seen. And what I love is it tells us that here

is this guy, tells us by name, his name is Zacchaeus,

and he was a chief. Tax collector. Okay, just

for sake of understanding kind of in our context,

think mafia boss. Okay, that's what this guy

is. This guy is the mafia boss. Now, how many

mafia bosses do you know? Well, you probably

don't know any, but at least maybe if you do,

let me know. But the idea of a mafia boss, right?

Like one of the things that they are unsettled

with is they struggle to trust. Why? Because

somebody is always coming for their seat. So

we can project into this story that within his

role, he was hated. People did not like him,

but he held a role of prestige. So he has a need

in his life that he is hated. Now, people that

are hated normally aren't the people that you

hang out with. So there's probably a connection

there that we go, man, Zacchaeus was probably

lonely. He was probably isolated. That one of

the realities of being hated, one of the realities

of his job is that people didn't want to be around

him because he was the one making their life

harder. And so there was probably isolation.

But if you were to see him because of his role,

what we know about him is he would have had stature

and status. He would have been somebody that

was... notable within the community that have

notoriety. And so there's this outside perspective

of him, but there's this internal needs that

begin to arise. Another one is that we learned

that he's wealthy. Now, my understanding of this

area and what Jericho was is it was extremely

pivotal in the collecting of taxes because of

the amount of trade that went through Jericho.

So the toll in that area was extremely high.

So when it says that he was wealthy, it is emphasizing

that where he is doing his job, it is also very

lucrative and he is doing very well at it. Well,

wealth brings its own issues, right? That then

if you're hated and you're isolated, then anybody

who's around you is probably around you and putting

up with you. Why? Because of what they can get

from you. So we could say that there's a relational,

deficit in who Zacchaeus is. He has some real,

real needs. Church, I wonder, let's not even

go outside the church because that would be,

that's easy pickings. I wonder how many of you

front that everything is good and the person

next to you doesn't even know it's not. I wonder

how many of you front, buy your clothes, Buy

your cars, buy your house, buy your life, buy

your job, buy your spouse, buy your family, buy

your Christmas card. You ever see Christmas cards

and you wonder what the story is behind the Christmas

cards? You ever see those? You're like, hmm.

They look happy. Was the picture actually happy?

If you don't smile right now, you know, one of

those. But isn't it interesting that we can be

around people and not know the needs of the people?

And I just wonder how many people in your life,

just in this room, now extend that to your circle.

How many people have real needs that we don't

even see because we're not moving at a pace to

see them? And he carries on. We're introduced

to another need. He wanted to see who Jesus was,

but because he was short, he could not see over

the crowd. Because he was short. We're introduced

that he has something that is a lack in his life.

This is a very tangible need that if you were

there, you could tell, hey, this short guy at

the back can't see over the crowd. It continues

on into verse four. It says, so he ran ahead

and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him. since

Jesus was coming his way. So he ran ahead. The

idea of running in those days, and if you've

been around stories from Scripture and men running,

you know that there was this shame to it, right?

Like you had to pick up your skirt to be able

to run, or your robe would be a better way to

say it. but you had to pick it up to be able

to run. And when you ran, it was awkward. The

only people that ran was not grown men, it was

kids. And so there's just this shame that is

instantly bought into the story that not only

is this guy have other needs, but he also now

is in shame and he's undignified and it's in

a public setting. Then he climbs a tree. Now

the sycamore fig tree, my understanding from...

looking at some stuff, is it could grow up to

60 feet. So it could be large. We don't know

the size of the tree that he climbed. But here's

what's interesting about it being a sycamore

fig tree, that the only people that climbed that

tree would have been children because it was

childish, which again is him just being undignified,

shameful. But it was also the workers that went

to collect the figs. So what you have in this

moment is you have him lowering his status, climbing

in his fancy clothes, doing something that what

was perceived was he'd hit hard times. He was

in trouble because now he was doing the role

of a worker. You have all of this happening just

in these few verses. That's the context we're

given. But it says that we're given his why.

And his why is that he wants to see. Jesus. Now

we hear the word see and we're like, oh, you

just want to lay eyes on him. Just kind of see

who he is. The idea of the word in the original

is that he wants to perceive who this Jesus is.

He wants to. have perception that goes beyond

sight to knowledge of. He wants to learn everything

he possibly can about this individual because

he's that desperate and that in need that he

is willing now to climb a tree, look like a worker,

be undignified. Why? Because he wants to see

Jesus' church. What a gift. If somebody came

along and went, hey, Zach, I see your needs.

Here's a ladder. You can remain dignified. You

don't have to shame yourself. But I would love

to help you see and experience the person of

Jesus today. I mean, what a gift. Just a ladder

would have been to Zacchaeus, right? And it carries

on. Verse five, when Jesus reached the spot.

He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come

down immediately. I must stay at your house today.

When Jesus reached the spot. What do we know

about Jesus? He's doing what? Passing through.

He's heading towards Jerusalem. When he reaches

the spot, like was there an X on the ground?

Right? But when he reaches the spot. Isn't that

fascinating? Why? Because what we were told at

the end of this, that Jesus's mission was what?

To seek and to save the lost. He's on mission

for people. And he's aware that as he's going,

he's aware. Why? Because it says that he reaches

the spot and he looked up. You can put it this

way. Jesus was present. Jesus was present. He's

in the midst of what? He's on mission, kingdom

mission, seek and save the lost. He is going,

and as he is going, he is fully present inside

of the mission that he's on. I wonder, church,

are we fully present in the mission that God

has us on? Like I wonder, are our eyes on us?

Are our eyes on the things around us? Are our

eyes already on Christmas and presents and everything

else? And in the meantime, we are missing everybody

that is around us. And Jesus, throughout your

day, I love this, right? Like Jesus has been

going along going, X, X, X. And you're just like,

and you don't see one of them because you're

not present to the mission that God has us on.

I wonder how many X marks the spots God's put

in your life this last week. And I'm not preaching

at you. Don't mishear this. It's me too. I can

get so busy with, I got a sermon coming. We got

Christmas coming. I got this meeting to that

meeting to the other meeting. And it can be really

easy to miss the moments. He looked up and said

to him, Zacchaeus, come down. immediately. Zacchaeus

come down immediately. Jesus was urgent. Okay,

not only is he present, but he is urgent. Why?

Because he knows that he has come to seek and

save the lost, and he's heading towards the last

week of his life. He's conscious of time. I wonder,

for us, are we conscious of time? Like we live

like time is just this thing that we have an

extension of. You don't have an extension of

time. Neither does your neighbor. Neither does

the person you work with. You don't know. I opened

Instagram this morning. It's a mistake. But I

opened it. You know, the very first thing I saw?

Somebody I recognize that had passed away. And

somebody else mourning that person passing away.

Here's the point. Jesus was urgent. Why? Because

he knew his mission and he knew how time worked

and he knew what he was there to do. And so in

the midst of being present, he's also urgent

to go, hey, I can't wait, Zach. You got to come

down. We got to go to your house, dog. I like

there was an urgency to it. Like we got to go.

And I wonder, church, when we're going to wake

up and go, there's an urgency to the mission

that God has called us to. There's an urgency

when we talk about the 1 % and giving. Like I'm

sitting here going, God, the mission field is

so much bigger than my 1%. And God goes, unite

it with a whole bunch of others in the kingdom.

Do we have the urgency to go, hey, we're on mission

in every aspect because Jesus came to seek and

to save the lost and he was on mission. And he

was urgent. I must. is the next two words, I

must. That word must is required by obligation

in the original. I am required by obligation

to what? The next word is stay at your house

today. I must, I'm required by obligation. Wait,

what was he obligated to? To seek and to save

the lost. Everything he did was moved with intentionality

because he knew his why. He knew his why was

to seek and save the lost. So guess what that

meant? I am obligated to what? The mission, and

the mission is to seek and save the lost. Zach,

I am obligated to come to your house today. I

must, I can't do anything else. I wonder, I wonder,

do we see ourselves when Jesus saves us, he rescues

us, gives us a new identity, sets us completely

free. Puts us into this whole new life. And he

goes, now you're on mission with me. I wonder,

are we obligated to our mission or his mission?

Are we obligated to, do I wake up going, man,

I got a purpose. And my purpose is to build the

kingdom of God. And in that purpose, I'm going

to have urgency because I don't know if I got

tomorrow. So I'm not going to waste today. So

I got today. We're going to move towards this

kingdom mission that God has us on. Why? Because

I'm obligated. I have an obligation. When I said

yes to Jesus, I laid down my life. When I said

yes to Jesus, I laid down my kingdom. When I

said yes to Jesus, I laid down my choice to go

across the store, across the aisle, across the

whatever. And he says that I must stay. That

word stay is interesting. It means detached.

That Jesus detached from passing through. Because

he was obligated and he, I must stay at your

house. So he gladly, verse six, so he gladly

came down at once. So Zacchaeus comes down and

listen to this, and welcomed him gladly. He welcomed

him gladly. That gladly means with joy. Let me

just ask you something. When you made that list

of people, or you get that like Holy Spirit buzz,

you know what I'm saying? Right? Like you're

sitting somewhere and you're like, the Holy Spirit's

like, go talk to them. And you're like, I don't

know if I want to. And it starts buzzing inside

to where you're like, okay, it's getting obvious

to everybody at this point. When you walk towards

them, do you think they will receive it gladly

or not? Why do you think there'll be joy? I would

probably say that the disposition of most believers,

most Christians, most followers of Jesus, is

that they are cynical that the person is going

to reject what's about to come out of your mouth.

However, if you go back to week one of this,

one of the stats that I thought Pastor Todd said

that I just can't get out of my head is that

eight out of 10 people, eight out of 10 people

are waiting for somebody to give them a personal

invite to church. Can I tell you something else?

Christmas, we already know that the Christmas

season is the easiest time to get somebody to

come to church. So your eight out of 10, your

80 % just jumped. I don't have the numbers for

that, but it's higher than 80 % because 80 %

is all year. Imagine what Christmas is. Whatever

that number is, I'll take that on any test I

take in my entire life. And so now what happens

is, do we have the holy belief that when I move

with urgency and I move towards you, that what's

going to actually happen is they're going to

receive it gladly? Because that's what happened

here. When you look at Zach from the outside,

when you look at Zach, he is from the outside.

Everything about him said he's going to reject

this. But remember, what had God already done

in him? I want to see. I want to see this Jesus.

All the people saw this and began to mutter.

He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. I love

the word mutter. Mutter is that I'm talking to

this person, but I'm talking loud enough so you

can hear it. You know, like I'm muttering to

this person. I'm complaining, but what I'm really

doing is I'm having a conversation with you,

but I don't want to have the conversation with

you because that would be weird. So I just talked

to this person about that loud enough that you

can hear. I wonder how many times God is sitting

here going, I can hear you guys. Isn't it interesting

that this was more than likely the church people?

This is the people that should have known the

mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost. This

is the people that should have known that. And

what are they doing? They're on the side muttering.

Why? Because they're not on the mission that

God's on. They're on their own mission. And I

wonder how many times church people, we are on

our mission. We are on a different mission instead

of being on the mission of almighty God. To seek

and save what is lost. We don't talk about it

enough and we're going to in the new year. Heaven

and hell are real. The new heavens and the new

earth, it is real. And time is coming when this

will be called short. And either we decide that

we're gonna take what we have and we're gonna

go full in on the mission of God because that's

the only thing that matters. Or we're gonna continue

to sleep in a slumber. But Zacchaeus, so as they're

muttering, loud enough that everybody can hear.

Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look,

Lord, here and now I give half my possessions

to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody out

of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.

What this was that if you go to the Old Testament,

this was the works of repentance. What he is

displaying is the works of repentance that were

required by law. He's actually above and beyond

them, but this was the works of repentance. He'd

gone, hey, something shifted on the inside and

it's changing my outside. Jesus said to him today.

Today, salvation. What did Jesus come to do?

Seek and save who? The lost. Okay, celebration.

Today, celebration. Salvation has come to this

house. That word house is household because this

man too, this man too is a son of Abraham. Those

people muttering, they're sons of Abraham, just

so we're clear. And they would be proud that

they were sons of Abraham. This guy, he's a sinner.

And what does Jesus do? When the lost are found,

they're transformed. And what is he called? The

same identity as the ones who were muttering.

Can you imagine how mad they got then? I mean,

it's kind of like when you're in church and you

see that person come in. Right. And that person's

like, yeah, I did all this bad stuff and I did

this and did this and did this and did this and

did this. And you're like, oh, you need Jesus.

Then they find Jesus. And then you realize they

have the same identity and they have the same

standing with you in heaven that they're they're

no further behind than you. And you're like,

wait a minute. I've been here a while. You just

got here and you got all kinds of stuff. Right.

That's what's happening here. Jesus shows up

and he saves. And he transforms because that's

what he does for the son of man. Verse 10 for

the son of man came. to seek and to save the

lost. It's beautiful. I love what happens in

verse five. Because we could end there and the

story's done, but jump back to verse five, humor

me for a sec. When Jesus reached the spot, he

looked up and said to him, what's the next word?

This isn't a trick question, by the way. It's

on screen. Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. Huh. What is

Zacchaeus? What were we told at the beginning?

There was a man who was what? Named Zacchaeus.

What is Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus is his name. Jesus

comes along and calls him by name. He invites

him by name. It's this beautiful moment where

Jesus is so intentional. But notice what he does

next. He calls him by name. He says, Zacchaeus,

come down immediately. I, I must stay at your

house. He calls him by name. And then, and then.

He goes, Zacchaeus, join me for dinner. You catch

that? He calls him by name. It's personal, but

he doesn't leave it there. He doesn't go, Zacchaeus,

you should go to church. He goes, Zacchaeus,

I gotta have dinner with you. I, I, Jesus, still

personal. Zacchaeus, by name, will you join me

and will you go to dinner with me? He didn't

say, Zacchaeus, come down. You gotta go home.

It's dinner time. This church? This little piece

of paper right here, where this piece of paper

comes in, is it's blank on this side. Guess why

it's blank? Because this is your invite to everybody

who has been on your list. What is this invite?

This invite is not, hey, we got some services.

This invite is you writing them by name. Hey,

Jerry, will you? This is important. Will you

join me this Christmas to hear some good news?

Jerry, will you come with me? This is not a,

hey, Jerry, you need Jesus and here you go. This

is Jerry, I've been praying for you, man. This

is Jerry, I've been having you before the throne

of God this week. Jerry, I need you to join me.

Because there's good news that I believe you

need because I see the needs in your life. I

think you could use some good news, man. But

Jerry, will you, will you come with me? It's

personal. It's a personal invite. Please do not

hand these out. Please do not take this and go,

oh, good. I need to know what the service time

was and put it on your fridge. Don't take one

if you're going to do that because that's not

what this is for. What this is for is for you

to take the people that God has put in your circle

that you've been praying over and for you to

go, hey, by name, by name, Sally Sue. I don't

know if there's a Sally Sue in the church, but

Sally Sue, will you come to church? Or not church,

will you come to hear some good news with me?

I've got this dream, okay? And it might be dumb,

but I'm gonna share it with you anyways. I can

imagine nothing better than you have to attend

every single Christmas service this year. All

six of them. I'll be there. You can be there.

But what do I mean by that? This is not a group

invitation. This is not, hey, I'm going to invite

everybody on my list to the same service so we

can sit together. Not a group invitation. This

is a personal invitation. Will you come? And

if you've got six people, try and line them up.

Will you come at the 4 p .m. with me? Will you

come at the 6 p .m. with me? Why? Because Christmas

services are not about you, church. They're not

for you. I hope you come. I hope you're encouraged.

I hope you feel like you got to celebrate the

birth of Jesus. But it's not inherently for you.

It is for the lost to be found. It is for the

good news of Jesus to go out to those that need

it. It's a bunch of shepherds on a hill. And

if you come. And you have to attend all six services

because Sally Sue came to that one and Jerry

came to that one. And that's the mission God's

got you on this Christmas. On your way out, you

can take as many of these as you're going to

invite, but please don't take more. Because this

is not a blanket. Can I tell you what your invite

is? Your invite is a ladder. And you are creating

a ladder for people to see and experience Jesus.

That's what this invite is. You're creating a

ladder because they can't see right now. You're

creating a ladder. Come hear some good news.

Come see this Jesus that changes everything.

Your invitation, your invitation is a ladder.

For people who need Jesus to come and see this

Christmas. There's another table. And it's by

invitation only. Because there's a table that

we call communion, right? There's a table we

call the Lord's table, the Lord's supper. And

you realize you only sit at it because you were

invited by name. to the table. Oh, what do I

mean by that? That when Jesus was going to seek

and save the lost, he saw you and he saw your

name and the cross is your invitation that is

stained red with the blood of Jesus. And the

empty tomb is your invitation to new life. And

what is new life? That we gather around the table

with him because you have been invited. Who have

you been invited by? Almighty God. You've been

invited by the same Jesus that invites Zacchaeus

down. You think about that early table. Everybody

that sat at that table was there. Why? Because

they were called by name. And so you're invited

to come sit at a table. And what do you do when

you get to that table? You remember that you

were invited. How were you invited? By Jesus

giving his life. It cost him his life for you

to sit at this table, which is why the reminder

of his body and the reminder of his blood. It's

a reminder of how you were invited, that he loved

you enough, that he urgently showed up when you

couldn't, that he chose to take up the cross.

He chose to let his own creation put him to death.

He chose to go into a tomb. And God the Father

raised him to life. Why? So that you could be

invited. And so the next moments are yours just

to remember that you are invited by name. That

he walks with you to this moment. That he's here

present. And he wants to have dinner with you.

So the next moments are yours and then we'll

take it all together. The imagery of that meal

table and Jesus pre -crucified, even with all

the urgency, slows down to still love them enough

to go, hey, you're going to need this when I'm

gone. You're going to need the reminder of why

you sit at the table in the first place. See,

I won't reach an invitation out to somebody else

until I realize I've been invited. Until you

realize that the bread that you hold is your

invitation to remember your invitation. That

it says that as Jesus sat there, he told them,

this is my body and it is given. No one is taking

it. I am giving it. Why? Because I'm here to

seek and to save the lost. And I give it. And

when you get together and you share this meal,

remind yourselves that I was here. Remind yourselves

that I died. Remind yourselves that I gave my

body. And so he said, take, eat, do this in remembrance

of me. You hold one of the things, and this cup

of juice represents it, that the world is craving.

You know what it is? Complete forgiveness. And

when Jesus took the cup, he connected the idea

of forgiveness to his blood. That when his blood

was shed, when his blood ran the cross red, that

what was happening is the forgiveness of you

and me was being purchased for all of eternity.

You hold a story to invite people to that they're

craving. And we get to sit and be reminded you

are completely forgiven today because of the

blood of Jesus. And he said, take, drink, do

this in remembrance of me. God, we come before

you and God is with gratitude. Thank you for

the invite to the table. God, thank you that

we get to sit, that we get to remember, that

we get to worship, that we get to, God, see you

and experience you, God, because we've been invited.

And so, God, would you, this week, would you

put on our hearts and our souls and our lives

Would you give us eyes to see? And as we see,

would it move deep within us that we're compelled

to action, that we're compelled to live on mission

with you? God, would you, would you, would you

lead us to those that need you today? Would you

lead us to those that need to hear some good

news? God, would you give us the courage to personally

invite? Would you give us the willingness to

get out of our comfort zone? And God, maybe that

means we attend more services than we would like.

But God, would you put us on mission this Christmas?

And would we respond with our lives? And so God,

we are grateful people. We are the people who

choose to build our life on you and you alone.

We declare to remind ourselves, we declare before

you and others, I will build my life today on

you. And so God, we just say, thank you. Thank

you for loving us. Thank you for inviting us.

Thank you for being here present at this moment.

Holy Spirit, would you continue to speak as we

sing? It's in your name we pray, everybody said.

Amen.