This Is Going To Be Different - Week 9 - This Time My Pursuit Will Be Different - Shaundra Connelly - August 9, 2026

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Good morning, everybody, again How's everybody doing? Good, good.

So, um, surprise, I'm speaking to you all this morning.

If you don't know who I is, that was so hood.

But I am Shondra Connelly.

I'm one of the, um, dream teamers here, so I get the privilege and honor to speak to you guys this morning, and I'm just gonna tell y'all, I've been, like, on fire for what I feel like the Lord is going to say.

Yes.

I-- Yeah.

It's wrecked me.

So it wrecked me.

So I'm gonna pray, and then we'll jump in.

Is that cool? Yeah.

So Father, I thank you, Lord, for this word.

I thank you for what you've already done this morning.

I pray that, Lord, that everything that comes out of my mouth comes from you.

I pray that every person that is under the sound of my voice will hear and receive exactly what you want to say to them.

Pierce every heart, and begin to move in the way in which only you can.

I thank you in advance for what you're gonna do, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So as I said before, um, Pastor Damon and Pastor Ty, they are away this weekend.

They are, uh, taking, um, David off to college.

I'm sure it's a mixture of emotions that's going on with them, so keep them lifted in prayer as they're doing that.

Um, and keep David lifted in prayer as he's entering into another stage and phase of his life as well, as well as with the other college students and all the different things that are going on.

But today, we're going to be, um...

Well, I'll give you the title in a second.

I will tell you this: So today is day one of 21 days of prayer, if you did not know.

At this point, you should know.

Today is day one of 21 days of prayer, and over the past few months, I believe, um, or few weeks, I'll put it that way, Pastor Damon and Pastor Ty, they've been in a series called This Time Will Be Different.

This Time Will Be Different.

But before any of that In January, there was a scripture verse that we have been repeating every week because it needs to be rooted in, in our spirit where it's like, listen, be strong and courageous.

If you don't know, we're gonna read it together, so I'm just gonna catch you up a little bit.

But since January, we've been declaring this scripture, and I want us to read it together, and it's going to tie in to what we're going to be talking about today.

So what I want you to do, you're gonna put your name in front of the scripture as soon as it comes up.

You're gonna put your name in front of the scripture, and we're gonna read it together.

Can we do that on the count of three? Like on three.

Not one, two, three, then read, but one, two, three, read.

Okay.

Okay.

'Cause some people will be like, "Is it on three? Is it after three? Is it before three?" You didn't have it before.

I, I didn't.

Okay, whatever.

One, two, three, read.

Is that clear? Is that cool? Okay.

All right, all right.

So say your name and then read the scripture.

One, two, three.

Matthew.

Be strong and courageous.

So thinking of that scripture and in thinking about the series that our pastors have been in, the, the message today is a combination of that.

Because the message today is this time my pursuit will be different.

Come on.

Amen.

This time my pursuit will be different.

It is a matter of it's going to be different, but it's also going to require us to be strong and courageous in our pursuit So today, we're gonna jump into Luke 19 and reading verses one through nine.

There are some message notes on your seat.

They are blank lines intentionally.

Because I do want you to write, I want you to write the things that speak to your spirit, what the Lord says to you.

There are gonna be different things on the screen, but write the things that apply to you.

Okay? So let's jump in.

Luke 19:1, it says, "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.

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

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

When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house today.'

So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.'

But Zacchaeus stood up and 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 back four times the amount.'

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 the lost.'"

So what is going on? Well, Jesus, if you were to read the scriptures prior to what we just read, Jesus was walking through a town, and He was healing different people.

He had just healed the blind man, and He was about to enter into Jericho.

Now, as people were being healed, they are beginning to also follow Jesus.

They're following Jesus as He's entering into the town of Jericho.

And as He's entering into the town of Jericho, there's a man by the name of Zacchaeus who heard about Jesus and wanted to see who He was.

So he runs through the crowd, he pushes through the crowd, and then he climbs up a tree.

Jesus tells him to come down, and eventually Jesus declares that, "Today salvation has come to your house."

Now the question becomes, who is Zacchaeus? Well, the Bible tells you that he was a tax collector.

Zacchaeus, and I'm gonna tell you the reason why there was...

the people were so upset about all of this.

Zacchaeus is a tax collector.

He is collecting taxes off his own people to pay the Roman Empire.

He is a tax collector who is collecting funds off his own people to pay the Roman Empire.

What that would be considered as today is y- this is a politician who is corroborating or collaborating with a terrorist That's what it is like today.

So this man, he is collecting taxes, and at the same time, the Bible says that he is wealthy.

How did he acquire his wealth? Well, tax collectors back then, they would take a little bit on the side and pocket it until they acquired their wealth.

So not only is he taking money from the people, but he's taking money and pocketing it to acquire his wealth.

But then the Bible says he's the chief tax collector He's not just a tax collector, he is one of the best tax collectors who is taking money off the backs of his people to pay a Roman Empire.

These people were considering him to be not only, he is not only a sinner, but he is a traitor And you have acquired all of this wealth off of us.

This man is a Jewish man collecting things off of his people.

So why are we studying Zacchaeus? Because to me, it tells us, it describes what happens when our pursuit changes and it's pure and desperate for Jesus It describes what happens when it's, it's showing up when he's, he's pushing through the crowd past everything else just to see Jesus.

My question, the underlying question that I have for you guys today is what would happen if our pursuit of Jesus was different? What would happen, and you can make it personal, what would happen if my pursuit of Jesus was different? What would happen in your life? What would happen in your perspective? What would happen in your walk? What would happen if my pursuit was different? So how did Zacchaeus pursue Jesus? And I'm gonna tell you, we're gonna run through this.

I say this every time.

We gonna be f- we ain't gonna be here long.

The first thing is Zacchaeus was curious.

The Bible says he wanted to see who Jesus was.

He wanted to see Jesus.

At this time, there's rumors going around about who Jesus is.

I would imagine Zacchaeus is probably hearing a mixture of things.

On one side, you hear a group of people who are saying that he is the Messiah, but on another side, you hear a group of people who are saying that he is a threat to their religious beliefs.

On one side, they're saying that he is Lord.

On another side, they're saying that he's a heretic.

So now Zacchaeus is getting all this information, and I would imagine that he's probably heard about the times in which he's healed all these different people, and he's like, "Man, I just want...

I'm curious.

I want to see Jesus."

So it starts with a little bit of curiosity, but then it led to him being unashamed in his pursuit He is unashamed in his pursuit.

The reason why I say that is we just talked about who Zacchaeus was.

He is a chief tax collector.

He is collecting all these funds for a Roman Empire tyrant, but he is also, he is the chief, so it means he's, like, one of the best.

So I would imagine when, when Zacchaeus is pushing through the crowd, the reason why I say he's unashamed is because he ignored who he was.

He ignored dignity.

He ignored all the different things to push through a group of people who could not stand him Zacchaeus, a man that had a certain level of clout, a man that...

Somebody calling.

Um, a man that had a certain level of status, a man that had acquired all of this wealth.

I would imagine too that I'm sure that the Romans didn't want this man just walking around all willy-nilly because he's also acquiring so much money for them.

They're protecting the money, not him.

So now this man who has, I'm sure he has the attire, he has all the different things, and he makes the decision, "You know what? I'm curious enough that I'm gonna push past all the people."

Do you think that the people weren't saying anything? Do you think that the people weren't saying, "How in the world? I know who you are, that you're gonna push past me to get to see Jesus.

You are a sinner.

You are a traitor.

How dare you push past me?" I would also imagine that Zacchaeus was probably battling different things in his own mind.

If you're hearing all the different people say all the different things, you had acquired all of this wealth.

Here's another piece about Zacchaeus.

Because of the fact of how he acquired his wealth, do you think that he had friends? He had enemies.

He didn't have a community of people that really supported him.

So this man, Zacchaeus, everybody's hating on him, and he still pursued and pushed past all of it.

He abandoned all of that, unashamed.

The next thing is he abandoned excuses The thing is, this man, it says that he was short in stature.

He could have chosen to say, "You know what? Next time I'll see him."

I can't see past the crowd I'm sure he'll come through here again I couldn't get here early enough.

I missed my opportunity.

What would happen if our pursuit of Jesus was different? He abandoned every excuse and said, "I don't care what it takes.

I'm pushing past all of this to pursue Jesus."

The next thing Which I love this part.

He decided to go higher The Bible says it like this.

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

A sycamore fig tree could get as high as 30 to 40 feet high and have 120 feet diameter.

So the moment when Zacchaeus made the decision to climb the fig tree, his vision of Jesus was clear and it was closer Zacchaeus was so curious that he pushed past, abandoned all of the different things, says, "I'm gonna pursue him unashamed, and I'm gonna abandon all the excuses, and not only that, I'm not gonna settle there, but what I'm gonna do is climb even higher so that I have a clearer view of who Jesus is and have a closer view th- of Jesus."

He climbed higher But then after that, he waited He waited and he watched.

The reason why I don't-- We don't know how long it took for Jesus to see Zacchaeus.

We know that he saw him.

But what we do know is that Zacchaeus never came down until Jesus instructed him to So it is safe to assume that when he climbed the tree, he stayed in the tree and he waited to see Jesus.

He didn't just climb the tree and then come down and say, "Okay, well never mind."

He climbed the tree and he waited for Jesus What is interesting though too is that while he's in the tree, and there's nothing wrong with what I'm about to say, you can do this.

But what is interesting is he didn't call out to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I need you to see me."

He just waited and watched.

He watched Jesus.

How powerful that can be for us to just sit and watch Jesus move What would happen if our pursuit of Jesus was different? The result of all of this, the result of his pursuit, was a few different things.

The first thing is Jesus sees Zacchaeus.

If we were to look back, the scripture says that his entire intention was for him to see Jesus.

And as a result of his pursuit, Jesus saw him I'm sorry.

Me and Marlo having church all by...

I don't know if y'all are getting this right now, but listen, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray that it is resonating in your spirit.

I really do.

Because of Zacchaeus' pursuit to see Jesus, not to get something, just to see Jesus, Jesus in return sees him.

Yes.

He didn't have to say, "Jesus, I'm over here."

Yeah.

He just had a pursuit that was so intentional, that was like, "I don't care what everybody else is saying.

I don't care what everyone else is doing.

I don't care what everyone else is thinking about me.

I don't even care about my own internal thoughts.

I'm pushing past it."

Come on.

"My intention is to see Jesus."

Yes.

"And as a result, he sees me."

The next thing that occurs is Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from the tree.

Now, I told you that Zacchaeus, because of his journey, his pursuit, he was pursuing wealth, he was pursuing status, he was pursuing, um, financial stability or whatever, but he was pursuing all the different things.

But in that pursuit, because of how he was acquiring his wealth, he also probably didn't have any friends.

He's in a season of isolation.

But what is interesting is, is that Jesus changes that instantly.

Jesus tells him to come down from the tree, which takes him from a season of isolation to a season of community The very thing that Zacchaeus needed most, Jesus saw in an instant His pursuit to see Jesus.

We are sometimes so worried about, "Man, I need you to hear all the different things."

God is like, "I already know what's on your heart.

I know everything that you need.

If you would just come and seek me.

I see you.

Seek me."

What would happen? I'm gonna keep asking the question because I really-- I want us to walk out of here and ask ourselves the question, what would happen if my pursuit of Jesus was different? The next thing that happens after that is Jesus redeems Zacchaeus.

The Bible says, "I must stay at your house today.

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.'"

Now, this is what spoke to me.

What is interesting about this, Jesus tells Zacchaeus to come down from the tree, and immediately he switches places with him The reason why I say that is they hated Zacchaeus.

But the moment he said, "Today I am staying at your house," where did the ridicule turn? On Jesus He redeems.

He took on the very thing that Zacchaeus was experiencing because of his, uh, profession All because Zacchaeus decided to pursue Jesus differently In that moment, Zacchaeus then has a shift in his heart.

It's like everything happened so quickly.

Well, it looks like it happened quickly.

We don't really know how quickly it occurred.

But instantly after that, then Zacchaeus is like, "I'm giving up everything."

The very thing that he had worked so hard for, because of what the Lord was doing in him, Zacchaeus was like, "I'm good."

So if we were to take an-- band, y'all can really just come on up.

At, uh, somebody was like, "What? What you say?" I told y'all.

Get it quickly Get it quickly.

I like to have fun too.

Um, but what can we get from what Zacchaeus just did? I kind of already given it all to you, but we just gonna run through it really quickly.

The first thing that I'm gonna tell you is that if we were to pursue God like Zacchaeus pursued his face, then we would pursue His presence and not His present We'll pursue His presence and not His presents Zacchaeus did not come into it thinking, "Man, I, I heard about everybody else being healed.

I wonder what would happen if I come into his, uh, vicinity."

And it's okay.

I'm not saying that that is not okay He is a healer.

But his pursuit was so focused on just encountering Jesus That everything that he needed was answered Pursue His presence and not His present.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me, and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart."

Seek His face Not his presence.

His presence.

Presence, not presents.

I hope y'all got it.

If anything, y'all gonna say I got a good laugh The next thing that I would tell you, if we were to pursue like Zacchaeus did, we would pursue unashamed, not holding anything back Holding nothing back.

What does that look like? It doesn't matter if it's you sitting in your car during your lunch hour and saying, "You know what? I need to seek His face."

It doesn't matter if it's you at home and it's like, "I'm just gonna lay out on this floor.

I'ma seek Your face."

It doesn't matter if you come in here and say, "You know what? I'm gonna sit at the altar and I'ma s- I need to seek His face."

It doesn't matter if you need to worship unash- whatever that looks like to l- dignif- undignified worship.

However, let's not be crazy.

But undignified worship, where we're pursuing God with everything, leaving nothing.

When we worship God and we leave him, leave here empty, my God, what kind of worship is that? And it's not just in the songs.

But what would it look like if we pursued God unashamed? I don't care what people say.

I don't care about all the different things.

I don't care about my feelings, but I'm gonna pursue God unashamed.

What would that look like if our pursuit of Jesus was different? But one of the other things that Zacchaeus did was he went where he knew Jesus would be.

He went ahead of the crowd.

The crowd were over here.

They were following Jesus as he healed.

But Zacchaeus made the decision, "I am not gonna go where he was," which is okay, "but I'm also going to go where I know he will be."

The Bible says He inhabits the praises of His people.

So if we know that He lives in praise, why aren't we going there? If we know that He resides in our worship, why aren't we going there? If He inhabits the praises of our people, then we have to abandon everything else and say, "Lord, I am going where I know you will be.

Nothing else matters."

You go where He is.

The Bible says in Psalm 63:1, "O God, thou art my God.

Psalms 63:1

Early will I seek thee.

My soul thirsted for thee.

My flesh longed for thee."

I am not gonna wait until afterwards.

I'm gonna seek you early because I know that's where you are What would happen if our pursuit of Jesus was different? What would happen? What would, what would your walk look like if your pursuit of Jesus was different? The next thing that he does is he climbed higher.

In our pursuit over these next 21 days, we can choose to make it look like yet last year, or we can go a little bit higher.

What, what we can do is you climb higher and you expect and you wait.

We talked about how Z- Zacchaeus went up the tree and he waited there until Jesus saw him What if, if we know that he inhabits in the praises of our people, that in our worship, we waited until he showed up What if in reading our word, we waited until He spoke What if when we're praying that we actually engage in conversation and allow Him time to speak? What if our pursuit of Jesus was different? Sometimes we can wait longer at a restaurant for food than we are willing to wait for Jesus Listen, I'm not just talking to y'all, I'm talking to myself.

Sometimes we can sit at a restaurant and wait on our food and get a little bit aggravated.

But we will get up and say, "You know what? I already read.

I, I, I got five minutes, Lord.

I got five minutes.

If you don't speak now, I'm sorry.

I gotta catch you later."

We may not say that, but in our actions we do What if we worship lo- the Lord until he moved? He climbed higher, and then he waited.

What would we see, and what would we experience? The next thing that happens with Zacchaeus is that the, the Lord gives him an instruction.

And this is where I'm ending.

The Lord gives him an instruction.

For you is what-- For you and I, what I would say is that we have to listen.

Because it is in that place that the Lord wants to abide Jesus tells him, "Come down from that tree, Zacchaeus, because today I'm staying at your house."

In that time, it was a physical abiding, and today it is the abiding in our spirit.

So the Lord, when you are setting aside the time and you're like, "Man, I'm not gonna rush you, Father.

I wanna sit in this place until you show up," the longer we sit there, the Lord will begin to speak, and I will tell you exactly what will happen.

He will begin to reveal the things that are on the throne of your heart.

The Bible says, "Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great things and even unsearchable things that you don't even know."

So if we sit and listen, He will be- will begin to reveal different things on your heart that maybe it's like, "Man, I didn't even know that was something that I need to surrender," because it's in that place where He wants to dwell What would happen? If our pursuit of Jesus was different Listen, we are, this is day one of 21 days of prayer And I really do not want us to experience the same thing that we experienced the last time.

Every year in August, we have 21 days of prayer, and in January, we have 21 days of prayer and fasting.

But we get to choose what those 21 days will look like Are you guys with me? Let me ask you this question.

Are you willing to make this time different? That's three of y'all, and I would rather you be honest, but I want you to search your heart.

Is this time going to be different in your pursuit? Let's pray Father, thank you I thank you for what you have already done in this message.

I pray that, Lord, that everything that was spoken, that, God, that you would begin to minister in the hearts of your people.

I pray that even as they leave, that the message doesn't leave them.

I pray that whatever you were doing in their heart, the areas in which they can, uh, increase their pursuit, change their pursuit so they can really seek your face, that, God, I pray that it happens.

I pray that they surrender everything unto you and abandon all excuses.

I pray that they have a...

They abandon ev- the feelings, the emotions, the disappointments, the different things that block their pursuit.

God, I pray that they will pursue you unashamed, that, God, that they will seek you first above everything else and give you the glory and give you the honor that you are so due, in Jesus' name.

Thanks for joining us.

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