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hey there welcome to summit online this is where you'll find the weekend worship experience coming right to where you are in fact we have two ways to watch first you can access the full worship service on demand on our youtube channel so don't forget to subscribe this is a great option for families watching together or maybe you miss the weekend service and want to catch up later in the week second we host a live service on sundays at 9 or 11 a.m at live.summitchurch.com we never want you to worship alone so this is an awesome opportunity to connect with a digital community through the live chat option plus we have hosts actual humans ready to connect with you answer any questions or pray with you in our digital chat rooms if this is your first time joining us i am so glad that you are here in fact i believe god has a purpose in you being here today here at the summit we exist to create a movement of disciple making disciples here in the raleigh-durham area and around the world we pray this worship service allows you to grow deeper as a disciple of jesus christ that's what this is all about the good news of jesus so our service will begin shortly but before it does i want to let you know about all the ways that you can engage with us today first our desire is that families would watch this service together so we offer resources for all ages including today's sermon transcript as well as kids and student notes for your families to follow along second you can give financially all that you give goes towards all that we do to propel the mission of god forward and finally we don't want you to worship alone so can you think of someone that might want to join you today go ahead and text a friend and ask them to tune in with you for resources ways to give opportunities to connect and a free download for our first time guests you can text next steps to 33933 or visit summitchurch.com nextsteps we look forward to worshiping with you today so welcome summit family if this is your first time here we are so honored that you are spending some time with us today we have an awesome service in store for you and i believe that god wants to speak to each one of us today yeah if this is your first time or you just haven't been able to connect with us yet uh go ahead and pull out your phone or you know leave it right there in your hand and text welcome to 33933 and once you've found just a little bit of information we'll be able to connect with you and we're looking forward to meeting you and getting to know you yes and friends we are at the end of our 21 days of fasting and prayer can you believe it so right now in your home gatherings or in the live chat i would love for us to share with one another something god has taught you over the past 21 days go ahead right now because one of my prayers for summit online is that we would be a place where we can really encourage each other in the faith so go ahead and share and while you're sharing david what has the lord been teaching you kelsey thanks for asking you know god has been teaching me a lot about fasting during this season jesus says in matthew 6 32 that unbelievers spend their lives chasing after the things of this world what to eat and what to drink and what to wear and god knows we need these things but we fast to give up something in this world to remind ourselves that nothing in this life will really satisfy us and to be able to clearly focus on god who can and does satisfy us that's so true he really does satisfy he is enough even when we strip everything away he is enough and my prayer for us is that this is just the beginning don't let this be the end of this intentional time that you are taking to pray because it really does change things yeah yeah amen prayer is a way that we continue to grow as disciples and worshipers in jesus and at some we want to see every person who's a part of our church to become and grow as a disciple and that's why we we have summit small groups they exist to make disciples uh i know last year you know felt a lot of people feeling very disconnected from each other but when we talked to small group leaders at the end of the year we heard again and again how connected people felt with their group many saying that the depth of the relationships in their group at the end of the year was more than at the beginning and you know that's just amazing to me but it reminds me how important it is for us to be in relationships with people with people in our church family so we want to see every person at the summit church take the first step of building those relationships and join a summit small group yeah that's incredible i know for me even in the middle of a pandemic it was so crucial to be in a small group and to be able to pray with one another but i know many of you are watching from outside the raleigh-durham area and we believe the same is true for you while you may not be able to connect with one of our local small groups we would love to help you get plugged in to a church in your area if you're looking for a church we actually have a website that helps you find all of our church plants all over the country you can visit summit collaborative dot org slash find and get plugged into a church near you yeah and for those of you in the triangle area you can always find out more about summit small groups and how to get connected on our website summitchurch.com small groups we have groups that meet online in person in safe ways and and everything in between so if you're not in a summit small group and live here in the triangle reach out to one of our campus teams and begin that conversation of what it could look like for you to join a group this week you got it you definitely don't want to pass up on an opportunity to connect with others and grow as a disciple now who's ready to worship turn up your volume and let's praise the lord together hey summit family thanks for joining us let's sing lift up the name of god together we sing praise praise to the lord the almighty the king of creation oh my soul praise him for he is thy health and salvation o ye who here now to his temple draw near praise him in glad adoration praise to the lord who are all things shelters the under his wings yes so gently sustain it has your day surely his goodness and mercy your daily i can do sing praise to the lord he is worthy worthy has come adore sing praise to the lord he is worthy he is worthy he is worthy is let again forever to the is he is he is worthy worthy come a door sing praise to the lord he is worthy you're worthy let's read psalm 95 out loud together read with me oh come let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand are the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god and we are the people of his pastor and the sheep of his hand today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker he is our god let's give him all of our worship sing with me you lord you are and worthy one can worship you for me for all of the things you've done for me no one can worship you for me to sing this here's my worship here's my worship all of my worship received my worship all of my words it's my joy to bow down and say here's my worship all of my worship received my worship all of my worship every voice the things here it is received my word it feels like a sacrifice to praise i bring it to you guys it's my joy to bow down and give you all my words no matter what's going on i will not be silent i will always worship you by your spirit i will as long as i am breathing he never holds back from you don't hold back from him is is here's all that you're worth here it is summit family my name is curtis we are going to be continuing in our series in the book of luke so if you have your bible go ahead and pull it out uh turn it on if you're at home make sure you got your bible i know for some of you if you don't have a bible i'm just going to assume it's because that new year's resolution of more scripture memorization that you have already memorized luke chapter 19 all right but for the rest of us that need a little help uh just go ahead and grab that um why don't we do this luke chapter 19 we're going to start out with the word of god we should start with the word of god we should remain in the word of god and we should end in the word of god amen so let's do this whether you are in person at one of our campuses or whether you're at home even if you are at home i'm going to ask you to throw your blanket off for a second and why don't we all stand all across all of our locations let's stand including our home gatherings in honor of the reading of the word of god luke chapter 19 a rather familiar story for a lot of us but um my hope today is that uh it will become a story that we will never forget luke chapter 19 beginning in verse 1. it says jesus entered jericho and was passing through and there was a man named zacchaeus zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was rich and he was seeking to see who jesus was but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small of stature so he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was about to pass that way and when jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurry and come down for i must stay at your house today so he hurried and came down and received him joyfully and when they the crowd when they saw it they all grumbled for he has gone in jesus gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner verse 8 and zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have defrauded anyone of anything i restore it fourfold and jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost god i pray today that you would do just that that you would seek and save that which is lost summit church if you agree would you say amen amen and amen y'all can be seated and throw your blanket back on get snuggled up grab your coffee whatever you're doing right now all right hey how many of you by show of hands would say that you are rather good with directions anybody who self-proclaimed say i'm pretty good with directions i would imagine uh most males think they are probably good with directions all right um how many of you would say i am horrible with directions like you've lived in the same house for 10 years and you still have to use your phone to figure out how to get to the grocery store okay i'm not saying pastor jd is bad at directions but i'm just saying pastor jd is really bad at directions okay that's all i'll say um kids how many of you for kids how many of y'all if your parents dropped you off at chick-fil-a could find your way home any kids don't worry parents are not going to drop you off a chick-fil-a as long as you behave okay that's not the point my dad my parents live in north georgia live about 30 minutes north of atlanta and my dad is phenomenal with directions like i'm not kidding uh his career his entire life he's grown up driving around he's incredible at directions he knows where everything is and my dad's pretty old school like he's one of those once he finds something he likes he tends to stick to it and uh this is not a joke i'm not exaggerating my father still uses a paper map now some of you like what's a paper map it's basically just google on paper okay that's all it is it's a paper map and to this day to this day about every other time my parents come to visit us up here in north carolina my dad will bring me another paper map why because it's got to be updated every couple years right and every time i'm like dad like he he's just got this thought that he thinks every person should have a paper map in their car i'm like why do i need a paper map in my car and he's like what happens when you get stranded and you don't have any cell phone service i'm like i don't know like i die like i'm not gonna use the paper map i don't know how to use this thing and so anyway like my dad if he were here right now and you got to talking to him his name's willy he's a super nice guy and um you'd love him and and if if uh if you asked him like okay so how do i get to your house in atlanta he's the type of guy who would give you directions he'd be like all right so from where we're at right now what you want to do you want to go out you're going to go past the yellow mailbox you want to go west i'm already confused right and so you want to go west until you get on the highway and then you want to just take go south until about as far as the crow flies okay and then as soon as you see the old mill that used to produce you know whatever you want to get off the highway you want to head into town once you get into town uh you know there's the there's the corner store like not the new corner store with the you know the newfangled fancy sign but but the corner store we all know the corner store right when you get to the corner store you're gonna go east you're gonna head down about 200 paces on the left you'll see a cul-de-sac there'll be a dog in the yard that's where we live or you can just follow the smell of the grill amen like that's that's kind of my dad all right but i'm just like that i'm like dad just like what do i need a map and a time machine like i don't i don't know how to how this whole thing works with this paper map well i think you know when we're traveling whether you're good at directions or not there's kind of landmarks that let us know that we're headed in the right direction so my family and i we attend the capitol hills campus which is right behind an audi car dealership so my kids my young daughters whenever they see those four audi rings they're always they're always like oh we're almost to worship we're almost to worship they know that as a landmark and landmarks are helpful but what happens when you come to a crossroad and you don't know where you're going see landmarks help you know that you are headed in the right direction where a crossroad forces you to choose a direction and i actually think one of the problems with christianity today is that we treat salvation like it's filled with landmarks like we think that we can kind of go along life as it comes and pertains to jesus we can go along life on our own time table at our own leisure and we can find jesus we think when it becomes convenient for us but what i read in my bible is that jesus is not a landmark along the way of life he's a crossroads that when you are confronted with jesus you have to make a decision which direction will i choose to go with my life so i just want to throw this out there if you were a first-time guest or a non-believer or joining us online for the first time i'm so glad that you i'm just incredibly uh just grateful that you have joined us but i'm just going to be straight up i'm going to be candid i'm going to be honest this might not be the best weekend for you to have joined because one of your biggest suspicions about christians actually one of the main reasons that you dislike us is about to be confirmed and here it is i am about to try to convert you today it's true i'm not pulling any punches there's no emotional trickery here at the end of the day you need to know that i love you and i know jesus and i know that jesus has changed my life that he has given me a joy and a peace be on anything this world could offer and i just want you to have it too it is that simple i believe the heart of the gospel was right here what we just read in verse 10 that jesus loves you so much that he came to seek and save that which is lost and maybe i'm foolish whatever but i am believing today that some of y'all showed up today dead in your sins and you're gonna meet jesus today i'm believing the hounds of heaven are on your heels and today is going to be the day of your salvation and that you are going to leave as a new creation anybody else believe that god is still in the saving business in 2021 i almost titled my message today it's time to decide again not pulling punches because today i'm going to set jesus in front of you and at the end of the message the choice is going to be yours we're at a crossroads will you take jesus or will you not so here's the title of my message today very simple a sinner a savior and surrender a sinner a savior and surrender so let's look at the seeking savior who came for sinners and first we're going to be introduced to this sinner luke chapter 19 let's walk back through it beginning in verse 1. the author luke says this he says jesus entered jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and he was rich good for him now we can't fully understand the magnitude of this story without having a clear picture of who zacchaeus is he's a tax collector he he's at the end of the day he's just a first century irs agent okay so by career choice alone he's quite beloved as you can imagine and in those days the only way to actually become a tax collector is to bribe another tax collector in order to become one so you kind of had to be corrupt just to even become one but not only is he kind of this corrupt tax collector he is the chief of all tax collectors which means he actually would have received a cut of the other taxes that the other guys got because as a tax collector you went and you collected the tax that the people actually owed the roman government and then you could actually extort them anything above that and then you got to keep it for yourself and there's no way of people like verifying that stuff uh i mean we can't even verify today it's 2021 right and so they got to keep that so he's kind of the head of this ponzi scheme so all the tax collectors everything over and above that they collect he gets a cut of that so he's become rich by being corrupt and and he's just a bad dude all right so there's this guy he's this professional cheat he's an extortionist who's at the top of the list of probably the most hated people in all of jericho verse three that's who he is but he was seeking to see who jesus was why i mean honestly the the text doesn't tell us we don't we don't know if zacchaeus is curious we don't know if he's seeking and to some degree we don't know if he's unhappy we don't know if he's dissatisfied with life we don't know if he's kind of come to the end of his rope and he's just searching the text doesn't tell us perhaps he was just legit curious what we do know is that the holy spirit made sure that zacchaeus was in the right place at the exact right moment to encounter jesus that day and in the same way you may not know it but the fact that you are here today or listening online wherever is evidence that god is already at work in your heart and in your life and you might be like no no no like christianity is not for me i just come because my parents make me the only reason i'm here is my friend i'm just trying to get them off my back so i finally accepted an invite and i'm not coming back ever but i mean you're here right like you're listening and what you're about to see is that god has already been at work seeking you so let's keep reading zacchaeus was seeking to see jesus but on account of the crowd he could not why because he was small in stature he was short he was vertically challenged if we're being pc okay now don't worry i'm not gonna make fun of him i'm not gonna belittle him okay there yeah dad jokes there you go but this is where the song comes from right zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he anybody know what keep going nobody okay anyways i'll meet up at the end um we're not gonna make fun of him we're not gonna belittle him okay uh actually we will okay he was so short okay let's try that again any kids in the room when i say he was so short you say how short was he okay he was so short that whenever he sneezed he hit his head on the ground all right let's try it again he was so short that when he got off the toilet he always broke his leg that was kind of that was lame right okay one more okay he was so short that he couldn't even get high smoking pot don't smoke pot i'm just playing all right i'm a dad i'm a dad of four you got to give me some dad jokes okay it's fine zacchaeus is the little dude little dude all right verse four back to the bible okay sorry verse four so he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him i feel like that was like in all my years at summit that was like my cheesiest widest lamest like 45 seconds i've ever had all right that's okay verse four so he ran on ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see jesus for he was about to pass that way and so zacchaeus runs and he climbs up this tree kind of awkward this grown man well like danny devito grown man he's like up this tree which would have been highly unusual in this day for both a grown man to run and for a grown man to climb a tree again he's got like his royal robes on he's got his sandals this is not a good look in general but nobody ran no men ran back in this day much less a wealthy government official i mean even today right there's only about three reasons i can think of why a grown man would run even today athletics defense or thievery that's about it i'm trying to get in shape i'm running from a dog or i stole something and i'm running that's about it but zacchaeus isn't running like any of these things he is running through town like a little boy who is excitedly and curiously following a parade and he climbs this tree like a kid which perhaps that's just the point that the author is trying to make because just as pastor jd showed us last week one chapter behind that the kingdom of heaven must be inherited like little children you see so often i think that one of the things that keeps us from taking on childlike faith and curiosity in life is actually our pride our dignity and our egos i mean these things alone are usually our first and biggest barriers between our hearts actually receiving jesus well something happens to zacchaeus the sinner that makes him run through the streets climb this tree and then his entire world is about to get turned upside down and it happens because he meets the savior so let's look at the savior that's our sinner let's look at the savior verse 5. and when jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurry and come down for i must stay at your house today now i tell you this every time but my mind i don't know if the kind of creative mind what my mind always gets real imaginative in these stories so i just want you to join with me here and think about how this kind of played out it's not super descriptive what happened but here's how i think about it i think jesus is kind of going down it's kind of this prey thing that's happening and there's this grown man up in a tree and when jesus stops i can see the entire crowd stopping and i feel like the entire world probably basically stopped with him it's kind of one of those like what's about to happen moments so he stops and turns and here's this grown man up in a tree it's a little awkward but not just any grown man this is the most hated man in the entire town i mean we're actually going to see in a few more verses that he's already been labeled as the center of all sinners in this town and here's why i think everybody i think here's why i think the crowd actually stopped because jesus stops and he calls out this dude he says zacchaeus come on down and i think they're like yes just kind of like a teacher singles out a kid in class who's in trouble right i think they're like yes finally like finally somebody's gonna call this guy out finally somebody's not afraid of this tax collector finally somebody is not intimidated by him finally he is going to get what he deserves i think this crowd is like finally this dude jesus is about to drop the hammer on zacchaeus this guy that we do not like but then i actually see the awkward scene getting a little even more awkward because jesus shocks them all by saying zacchaeus come on down because i'm coming to stay at your house today and the crowd's like wait like wait what like jesus you i i think you got like what are you doing you've got the wrong guy jesus you know who he is he he's a tax collector he's a cheat he's a liar he's a fraud he's a thief he's jacked up why don't you come hang out at our house jesus we're the righteous ones he's the sinner what are you doing but the thing is they're not telling jesus anything he doesn't already know about zacchaeus jesus knows all about him jesus knows everything he's ever done and everything he's ever thought he knows about all the lives that zacchaeus has ruined he knows about all the pain and frustration he has caused and yet jesus still wants to meet him and stay at his house and you can't tell me when zacchaeus woke up that morning he could have ever anticipated anything like this ever happening because to the crowd he's this defiled sinner nobody's going to come near him nobody's going to come into his house much less ever break bread with him but jesus how many of you are grateful that jesus doesn't just hang out with people who have it all together jesus doesn't care whether you showed up today by public transportation or in your tesla jesus doesn't care today whether you are listening to this sermon in your 800 000 house on your big screen tv or in section 8 housing on your little cell phone he does not care yeah zacchaeus wanted to see jesus but more than that jesus wanted to see zacchaeus because jesus is a friend of sinners by inviting zach himself to zacchaeus house jesus is actually hitching his wagon to uh zacchaeus's life he's hitching his wagon to the center he's entering into his home he's dining with him he's participating in his life and y'all we have to see how beautiful this is that the god of the entire universe perfection incarnate god in the flesh clothed in the flesh divinity and perfection deciding to hang out with the lowest of low the most despised sinner of this town and what's equally as important is what this doesn't say you know so many of us see jesus as lord and god and sovereign king and that's awesome but that's him kind of as this theological construct and this intellectual ascension that we come to we often don't see him as friend and brother and savior but kids listen here's what you need to see in this so far that jesus loved zacchaeus when nobody else did when everybody else hated him and made fun of him and cast him off during recess jesus wanted to be his friend because jesus was showing people what god's love was truly like so you might feel and it may be true that every single person in your life has written you off but not jesus and i'm here to tell you that today jesus has come to the place to this place wherever you are and he has stopped and he's looking straight at you and he is calling you by name and he's saying hurry and come down for i must be with you today what he didn't say is that he is come on down go home clean up your house clean up your life and then i'll come over no he simply says i'm coming to your house because that's how it is with jesus he meets you where you are at if we had to wait until we got our lives in order until we've done all the right things until we became the person that we are supposed to be we'd never ever ever get close to jesus but thank god that jesus does not wait until we get better thank god that jesus came to make us better i mean i just i just have to wonder whether whether in this room or at one of our other campuses or at home and you can testify online i don't know is there anybody who would like to testify that hey i know i don't have it all together but i know the one who does that i know i disappoint myself and others every single day but i don't live for others approval because i already have the approval of the god of the universe that i no longer have to pretend to measure up and live up to some type of social media uh like algorithm or name that i'm trying to live up to because i know that jesus already measured up for me anybody who's willing to say my life is jacked up my house is messy my kids are crazy my life is actually nothing like what it looks like on social media but i know jesus still loves me so if you're listening right now and you feel like your life is jacked up welcome to the club know that jesus is calling your name today he's at the front door of your heart he is right there he's saying behold i stand here and i knock and if anyone hears my voice and then opens that door i will come in to live with them to somebody today jesus is saying hurry on down from your tree beloved for i'm ready to come to your house so i don't know how you're going to respond but let's see how zacchaeus responds verse six so zacchaeus hurried down and came down and received him joyfully when they saw it they all the crowd they all grumbled they said he's gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner now jesus does hear what he has done fairly consistently throughout his entire ministry he continues to violate the established traditions of the pharisees by hanging out with sinners and outcasts the lowly the despised the outcast jesus goes for them and in contrast you see that one of the main things actually keeping zacchaeus from getting to jesus is the religious crowd i mean it's not much different than it is today it's no surprise that one of the biggest problems that people have with christianity is the moralistic the self-righteous and dare i say religious crowd and here's this jesus that this religious crowd has been hearing so much about he's been healing people he's been doing insane things and he's been taking people that are broken and putting them back together and he shows grace to this great sinner and what's their response what does it say it says they all began to grumble now that word grumble in greek i don't normally do this it's an onomatopoeia it's one of those words that sounds like what it actually is right so this is one of those like pastor jd always does the swagma you know y'all know like jd's blog one thing so this is going to be mine all right so when they grumble this is the word in greek it is diagon guzo okay say it with me diagon guzzo one more time diagon guzzo okay that's what's happening so all through this section of luke's gospel there's a series of stories of religious people acting in ways that actually hinder the gospel from advancing so all these religious people are going all about and they're diagon guzowing is what they're doing okay so for starters there's jesus constant struggles and run-ins with the pharisees but it's not just the pharisees that we throw under the bus here actually his disciples even hinder the gospel too again in chapter 18 which pastor jd showed us last week it's actually the disciples who are so focused and concentrated on their like adult religious grown-up conversations that they push little children away to the point that jesus has to say hey hey don't hinder the children from coming to me let them come in another place in luke there's a blind beggar who is calling out for jesus and it's the crowd that tells them to shut up and stop yelling for jesus and now we have zacchaeus and again it's the crowds of people the religious crowds who are appalled that jesus would have anything to do with a sinner like him and so the obvious question for us is why would luke group all of these stories together about these religious crowds and i just can't help but wonder if the reason luke groups them together is if he's wanting us to be thinking about whether the way whether the way we do things is actually making it harder for people to come to jesus what i read is that jesus is constantly trying to get to babies and beggars and blind people and bad people while the religious people even if unknowingly are keeping that from happening and here's here's the terrifying part to me at an awesome church like the summit church that the bigger we get and that the longer you are here i think the longer you are in church the easier it is to become part of the crowd and you're like wait wait not not not me i would never do that so what are some of the ways that i think we can become and act like the crowd i think we can just come in to even a weekend service and have a very consumer-like attitude toward church we're coming for us to get something out of it we're coming to be entertained not just to worship god and so some of you this weekend i'm not it's you're not hurting my self-esteem anything you're gonna leave you're gonna be like those just weren't my favorite songs and i just i didn't feel spiritually fed by that message today i mean that guy i don't even really like him first off like rude but nonetheless like i just didn't feel fed i wish it was pastor jd like that's the kind of attitude you have toward a church instead of i came i worshiped the god of the universe the scriptures were open and when god's word goes forth i believe it accomplishes that which is purposes some of you may be on a good side you're actually super busy tweeting sermon quotes you're like man that's so good and you're like sending the link already and you're like so-and-so needs to hear this and so and so needs to and that's awesome but the fact and the reality is maybe the holy spirit is actually trying to work on your heart but you're busy thinking about somebody else and so instead of saying amen you need to be saying ouch what is god trying to do in my life maybe not so much right now and in covid season but if you're an in-person in one of our campuses i have to imagine this this has happened at least once um and and this one might sting a little but what about when you show up and you're busy trying to get to my seat you're not worried about anybody else you're frustrated because somebody's in your seat you didn't bother seeing the lonely person who's by themself in the lobby who came to church as a last resort because they are just looking for an ounce of hope what these things do even though our mouths would never say it like this basically often our actions are saying hey this is our religious club we don't really care about you you can just go to hell and so if there's anybody here that's felt like that that's felt like an outcast because the religious crowd has pushed you away i just want to say i'm sorry and what i hope you hear today is that jesus loves you beyond anything you could ever imagine he sees you he knows your name he's calling out your name and actually i pray that the summit church is a place that you can feel at home zacchaeus welcomed jesus into his home and before the day was over he would welcome jesus into his heart look at verse eight we're getting to the end here and zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i've defrauded anyone of anything i restore it fourfold y'all i practiced that word fourfold so many times in the last couple of days i kept saying fourfold like i was i don't know north georgia coming out four-fold four-fold okay there's so much in here all right let's take this line by line so they're having this conversation they're at zacchaeus's house and zacchaeus rises he takes his stand and he says two words to jesus this is beautiful don't miss this he says behold lord now kids i told this to you last time i preached lord just means that jesus is the master he's in charge he gets to make the rules now and what's awesome y'all is that that's enough right there don't don't miss this it's foundational romans 10 9 if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved now that assumes humility and repentance and all these things but what i see there is confess and believe behold lord confess jesus as lord and you will be saved which means that those two beautiful words from zacchaeus behold lord are actually wrapped up in all that is his admission of guilt his sin and his sign of his new humility before god so you have this man whose entire life has been defined by selfishness now acting in an absolutely unselfish way something incredibly dramatic has happened here and to me one of the most fascinating things about this conversation is that we don't know everything they said or even what was talked about now we have enough other gospel stories i have to imagine jesus talked to him about repentance and faith and salvation and all these things but we honestly we just don't know all we do know is who was there and i think it's because luke wants us to focus not on what zacchaeus talked about but who he talked about it with that it was just being with jesus and that was enough to totally wreck this tax collector's life and turn it upside down but zacchaeus doesn't just stop at confession listen to this he immediately and publicly shows that jesus has changed his life by what he's about to do next which ultimately confirms the change in his life look at let's go back there behold lord he says the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i've defrauded anyone of anything i restore it fourfold saving faith is more than just pious words and devout feelings saving faith creates this living union with christ that results in a changed life of complete surrender so we've had the sinner he's met the savior and now he's living this life of surrender because true salvation always results in a tangible transformation demonstrated by surrender it's the entire point of james chapter 2 that faith without works is dead that if we truly have faith it will bear the fruit of works now again please don't get this twisted hear me clearly zacchaeus was not saved because he promised to do good works on the contrary zacchaeus's salvation and his understanding of the grace and the love of jesus is what gave him the desire to do good works see trusting in jesus as lord he then gives evidence of his faith by his act of making listen to this word big here's your ten dollar word restitution to all of those that he has wronged now remember zacchaeus was jewish so he would have known what the levitical law had to say about restitution and what the law had to say is that hey if you have wronged somebody what is required that you pay them back plus 20 percent everything you've stolen pay them back plus 20 what zacchaeus does he chooses to give back 400 percent half his goods to everybody he's wronged let's just let's just put this in perspective let's say you've got a couple kids college age you've been driving you live in in rome at this time zacchaeus shows up after this encounter you don't know he's at this encounter he shows up at your door he knocks you go to the door your wife's like who is it you're like it's that short guy i don't know he's here to take more of a money what's happening and you open the door and you're like all right what do you need today zacchaeus is like man i don't need anything he says you remember how the last payment i took from you how it drained your kids college fund well here's a check for that times four here it is and you're just kind of standing there you're like i don't understand and he's like and also he hands you a car key and you're like what is this he's like remember how last time you didn't have any money to pay so i took your hyundai he's like my tesla's in the driveway you can have that some of your like teslas don't have keys get over it use the illustration okay like if this happened you'd be like what what has happened man like like what's going on why are you doing this and his response would be simple i met jesus and jesus has radically changed my life and what i'm displaying now is just a fruit of what jesus has done in me and so this church is zacchaeus displaying biblical restitution now before we go too far off here let me tell you what restitution is not restitution is not penance some of you might be familiar with that word penance is a false teaching that you need to pay god and others back so that you can be forgiven for the sin you have committed that's not true restitution in god's eyes has nothing to do with forgiveness no zacchaeus practiced restitution as evidence that he has already received the forgiveness of god restitution is making things right to those that you've sinned against as a response to the work of jesus in your life that is not penance that is justice and justice is the duty of every single christian today zacchaeus restitution was proof of a changed heart y'all not a means to it we as the church of christ don't do good things to win god's approval we do good things in response to god's approval we are extravagant toward others because god has been extravagant toward us not so that god will love us but because god already loves us not so that god will forgive us but because god has already forgiven us not so that jesus will befriend me but because jesus has already come along and said i am a friend of sinners zacchaeus could then freely let go of the things that he has spent his entire life worshiping for him it was money and power and he could just let those things go because he was thinking less about the amount he was giving and more about the kingdom he was pursuing probably my favorite quote by the famous jim elliott he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose zacchaeus was no fool for he gives what he cannot keep his money his power his status his position all these things that he's worked towards he gives those things up to gain that which he cannot lose a relationship with god his father brought about through faith by grace verse 9 so jesus says to him today salvation has come to this house since he's also a son of abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost the gospel the reality that jesus came to seek and save the lost is only going to become good news to you once you properly understand your state as someone who is lost and without christ it's only good news once you realize that without jesus there's no one righteous not even one not the best person you could think of that without jesus you are dead in your trespasses and sins that without jesus you were a follower of satan as ephesians puts it you're a follower of the prince of the power of the air and he is you're not just a follower of him he is at work within you this is the bad news but somebody's got to deliver this truth to you that if you have never surrendered your life to jesus you stand today you are lost if you died today you would spend eternity apart from god in a place called hell no love no peace no joy no justice no satisfaction and a forever longing for jesus to save you but the time will have passed but that's also why the good news is so good because you still have the opportunity today right now the reality that jesus came to seek and save that which is lost the fact that the broken relationship between you and god can be healed today through faith in jesus yes the wages of sin is death the wages what you have earned because of your sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life in jesus christ our lord so i don't care if you have messed up i don't care how jacked up you are i don't care how deep of a sin you are in right now you hear you filled with regrets let me tell you jesus does not sit still and pity you jesus doesn't even stand up and propose a plan to you in order for you to save yourself he came to seek you he came to save you because he's the only one that can don't you see jesus is saying hurry down from your religion hurry down from your traditions hurry down from your striving come on down because only my grace can save you he's saying don't spend one more second trusting in yourself don't spend another second climbing trees don't spend another second believing that you can be satisfied by anything else in this life except for a relationship with me hurry down from all the trees you've been trying to climb to satisfy yourself from the sins you're stuck in from the labels you are trying to hide behind come down quickly for i am coming to your house today the truth in this story is that i am zacchaeus you are zacchaeus you might not be short in stature but you're certainly spiritually short when it comes to your own ability and capacity to save yourself and so in a plethora of ways whether it's through a career whether it's through good works whether it's through moralism whether it's through thinking you just don't care and acting like you don't care whatever it is we try to climb these trees of salvation but salvation isn't found in climbing a tree salvation is found when jesus died on one see zacchaeus climbed a tree using his hands and feet jesus would hang from one by his hands and feet where nails were put through the wood rusty long nine inch spikes were put through his and that man jesus died to save you from your transgressions from your iniquities from your sin it's his punishment but it brings you peace it's his stripes but it brings you healing it's his grief but it can bring you joy it's his grace his free rich unsought unbounding sovereign entirely undeserved infinite unchanging eternal boundless grace which can save you from sin can save you from yourself can save you from satan and can save you from hell your salvation has come and it's not a doctrine it is a person and his name is jesus and he's calling your name in 2008 he called my name in my childhood bedroom in 2003 he called john muller's name in a college dorm room in 2003 he called todd unziker's name in a hotel bathroom in 2014 he called garrett's garrett gore's name when he was sitting in a deer stand in the woods in 2007 he called my wife's name sitting in a car in a parking lot and i have to believe that in 2021 right now he is calling your name the only question is whether you're going to open the door for him so i told you at the beginning i'm going to set jesus in front of you and the choice is yours today so why don't we do this wherever you are i want you to bow your heads close your eyes eyes closed but but hearts remaining open to what god the father wants to do in your life right now and it's time to decide indecision is not an option this weekend to not decide is to decide not to take him if jesus is standing at the door of your heart knocking to decide not to decide right now is to not open the door so eyes closed hearts open now's the moment you either stand condemned by god or you stand saved by god that's it so today right now this weekend you want to receive jesus as savior here's what i want you to do i just want you to pray silently in your heart you can repeat this prayer after me you can say god i'm ready god i repent of my sins i believe jesus has done everything necessary to save me i put my trust in jesus i put my faith in jesus and i'm willing to go wherever he tells me to go and do whatever he tells me to do god thank you for saving me thank you for seeking me my life is yours jesus now listen eyes eyes closed heads bowed if you just prayed that prayer i'm going to ask you to do something bold even if you're at home right now even if you're by yourself right now i'm going to ask you to just shoot your hand up if you just prayed that prayer would you just shoot your hand up everybody's head's down eyes closed would you just shoot your hand straight up not not kind of up i want it full elbow extension up in the air we got all sorts of campuses all sorts of people online i can't see everybody but i'm believing that god wants to do something this weekend so what we're about to do we're about to worship god you can put your hand down that's fine we could not be more excited if you just made that decision and if you did i want you to tell somebody we're not going to spam you we're not going to email we're not going to do these things we just want to pray with you we want to celebrate with you we want to welcome you into the family of god this weekend summit church at all of our locations can we stand if you're in your homes can we stand everybody let's stand let's worship the risen seeking savior together hallelujah you have won the victory death could not hold you down you are the you are the reason it was impossible to hold you you are the reason he is alive he won the victory he reigns on high our god is reason he is alive he won the victory he rings on is is jesus foreign steve open up your mouth and give it praise jesus cause you are summit as we heard today for the son of man came to seek and save the lost and maybe that's you maybe you feel the lord pulling on your heart today are you ready to give your life to him if you are text the word ready to 33933 and we would love to have a conversation and help you take your next steps and it's not too late to request prayer right now if you're watching live just click the request prayer button and one of our hosts would love to pray with you and maybe not just pray for you but maybe there's somebody in your life that you would like to see come to christ who has a need but if you're watching on demand take a few minutes and pray with the people you're watching with right now or you can always email in your prayer request at prayer summitchurch.com awesome well today was awesome wasn't it yes wasn't it summit family in response to today's message if you're looking to get connected grow as a disciple or give to the mission here at the summit church text next steps to 33933 and that will take you to all of our resources but before you go i wanted to let the parents know the beginning sunday february 7th let me say that one more time sunday february 7th we're beginning a limited rsvp only regathering for the younger phases of summit kids at many of our sunday campus locations in alignment with advice for medical professionals we have capacity to open certain parts of our kids ministry at 30 percent with aggressive safety and cleaning policies in place this will look a little different at every campus so make sure you check out our website and your campus communication for more information that's awesome i know so many of you young parents are so ready okay well summit i really look forward to seeing you guys here next week you will not want to miss it summit you are sent the constellations are swimming inside the breath of your desire where could i run where could i hide your heart's jealous fire all treasures of wisdom and things to be known are hidden inside your hands you've asked me to ask be you are you are oh you are the biggest and you are my last you are man so so you