Well, hello. I'm glad

to be back in the house with you guys today. Thank you for

letting Shari and I take a few weeks out to rest

and be with family. And I came back to

700 emails, but I'll get to them at some point,

I'm sure. No, we are super excited to be back with you guys.

I told the Thursday night crowd that it's. Man, it's just something.

Whenever you're out, you know, you can come back one or two ways. You can

come back and go, oh, I gotta go back to that place. Or you can

say, I can't wait to get back to that place. And that's really where we

were, you know, probably even around week two, we were thinking

a little bit in that direction, so it's good to see your faces. Thanks for

being here this morning. I have a couple of announcements before we get

rolling this morning into the Word. The first thing is we have a big event

coming up at the end of the month that we've been doing for several

years, and it has drawn, like thousands of people here

and it's just been kind of crazy. The Lord's just kind of covered it and

blessed it and made it fruitful. And we need your help.

If you have the capacity to greet people, to hand out candy,

to work a booth, maybe some time on the 31st, we'd

like to see you on the 26th, that Sunday, last Sunday this month, we're going

to feed you and we'd like to invite you to be a part of service

for our annual Fall Fest. And so if you'll sign up in

the app, we'll make sure we have enough food for you. And like I said,

this is Cross Ministries. All the ministries are gonna be represented and serving in

this. And so we would just ask you to make, you

know, consider having capacity to come and serve in that way the next week.

If you're new to Springhouse or you're newer to Springhouse, we're gonna have a

newcomer's lunch on Sunday, November 2nd. And this is an

opportunity for you to really meet the leadership here at the church. Hear more about

us, ask your how do you get involved?

And just to learn about the different ministry options that we have. And so we

don't have this up on the app yet. Oh, between services they put this on

the app and so you can sign up. There's the QR code. Sign up for

that. So we have enough food for everyone there.

So we wanna go ahead and put that on your

radar next. Yesterday I went and Visit. Boy, it's been an

active weekend. It's been an active weekend, but yesterday I went to go our brother

Chris Mincy, who is in the hospital and got to spend some time with Chris.

And, man, what a precious soul with a testimony, just a

testimony of life. And I

told Chris that we would pray for him. And he's watching right now on

Livestream. And so what I'm gonna ask, can you do this for me,

cameraman up there? I can't. Is that Chuck? I can't see who's behind the

camera. Would everybody stand and would you face that camera? And I'm gonna let

you take that camera and pan across so Chris can see everybody. Y' all just

wave at. I'm going to start waving. I'm hoping we're going to be panning the

camera real soon here. Are we panning it? We look in the right

direction. Okay, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for Chris

Mincy. Thank you for his life. I thank you, Lord, for the doctors that you've

surrounded him with. I pray for Jeanne and Chris right now. I pray for peace.

And I pray, Lord, that you would heal Chris, God, I pray that you would

touch him and that his testimony would continue to unfold. Of your faithfulness, God,

I thank you for his life, God, and what he means to this body. Touch

him today in Jesus name. And everybody said,

amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So we were

at sabbatical and we were able to get out of town a little

bit. And this is my family. And if you wonder kind of what you do,

like, what did we do? You know, for the most part, we did nothing, which

is very abnormal for the o' Day family. But mostly we did nothing and we

played hide and seek. You know, I mean, you gotta have a good game of

hide and seek in the house that you're in. And that's

Ruby. And we found her, and that was. That was good. So we

did bring back all four of the kids, and they are here today.

We're going to continue our series, the Greatest Stories

Ever Told. And I did get a chance to watch each of the week's

messages when we were gone. And, man, what rich soil. We are so blessed. And

I just want to thank Pastor Barbee and the leadership team here for holding down

the fort. The church has not burned down. We've got. Everything

is moving forward, and we are just a blessed people to have

such an anointed team of teachers and minister.

So just thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for Allowing Shari and

I this space. So we are going to get into the

scripture of a story that's really familiar, I think, to a lot of

us. But before we do, I want to talk a little bit about the

introduction of it. We're going to talk about a man named Zacchaeus today. Can you

say Zacchaeus? Can you spell Zacchaeus?

I learned to spell it. That was

rhetorical. So

when we start the passage, we're looking at Jesus, and Jesus is.

He's about to enter this city named Jericho. Okay? Now,

Jericho, the word Jericho, it literally translates into the word

walls. If you remember Joshua and the army walking around the walls

of Jericho. So Jericho translates through

walls. Translates walls. And Jesus is

walking through Jericho. And if you'll go with me, I believe that Jesus on

is about to walk through some walls. Metaphorically, he's gonna walk through

walls. And I believe that the same Jesus who walked through walls on that day

is the same Jesus who can walk through walls today in your life. And so

I believe today that Jesus wants to walk through some of the walls that we

put up. He wants to walk through some of the walls of the issues that

divide us. He wants to walk through some of the walls of politics,

the walls of pride, the walls of religion, the walls we built in our own

hearts. And when he passes through, he doesn't just want to get through to the

city, he wants to get through to us. He wants to get through to us.

And so if we would lay down for just a moment the distractions that

we drug into this place, I believe that the Lord, the God of the universe,

will minister to each of us today. Can we do that? Are we ready? Would

you stand with me? We're going to read from Luke, chapter 19. Now, you

probably were off the hook for a little while while I was gone, but I

want you to read with some gusto today. Read like you mean it. Here we

go. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was the

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

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 is

gone to be asked 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. Can we read that last part

again? For the son of man came to seek and to save the

lost. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it brings life.

I thank you that it's true. Transform us today through the power of

your word and let everything that I have to say that comes from me

fall in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen,

boy. If there's anything I know to be true, it is that we are a

culture full of distractions. We're a culture

full of distractions.

And in the midst of distractions, when anybody tries to actually say anything to you

that is worth meaning, anything that you need to pay attention to, that would really

be life changing. It's very hard to cut through, through all of the distractions because

you can't hear, you can't really see. It's very difficult to really tune into that.

If you'll stand, I'll give you your blessing.

We are a culture full of

distractions. We live in a world full

of noise, headlines, arguments, opinions.

Everyone wants to debate what's right, who's wrong,

who's really standing up for the truth. And

I might suggest today that we start here, that the biggest

distraction the enemy can use is to get us focused on anything other

than Jesus. The biggest distraction the enemy can use

to get us focused on anything other than

Jesus. Last week in the message Pastor Ronnie brought, he

was talking in a moment about how the issue, sometimes we put

the in the center. We make that the focus. Other than Jesus. Well,

I want to talk about something today that's a little bit closer to home,

a little bit closer to home that every one of us deal with. And I'll

get to exactly what that is in just a second. But this

is why we gather here. It's not to take sides, but to take

the time to lift the name of Jesus. And I

believe that the biggest lie, Listen to me, the biggest lie that

the enemy can render is that Jesus big

enough or good enough to fix whatever's broken,

heal whatever needs to be healed, and bring clarity where there's confusion.

When we are distracted and we're looking at anything else but Jesus, we

begin to believe the father of lies that Jesus is

not enough. And so then we insert ourselves and we operate in our own

opinions, our own ideas, our own limited understanding of Scripture, our

own limited ideas, our own limited experience. Experiences. And we begin to assert

them as truth. And that's very dangerous. It's very

dangerous because we can walk as if there's truth where

there's actually a lie.

There's a lot of distraction out there today, and I want to be

very clear at Springhouse that we believe in

the Word of God. We believe in the whole

truth, nothing but the truth. We believe in the

Word of God. We believe it is the inspired word of God, and we

believe that it is the transformative word of God in your life. When you pick

it up and you open it, the Holy Spirit will engage you

in the words that come up. The Word tells us that the Word of God

is alive and active, and it is alive and active in your life

when you engage it. It doesn't do much when it's sitting on a shelf

collecting dust, but when you open the

Word of God and you begin to be saturated with the truth of words,

of the Word of God, it is transformative. It will change your life.

And here at Springhouse, we believe in the entirety of the truth of

God's Word. We believe in everything that it says,

everything that is in the Word. That's what we base our life. It is a

light unto our path, okay? And so we believe in the Word

of God, but the distractions are so thick

around us that we tend to become more desperate for

answers to issues and the need to feed into the cesspool

of gossip and opinions that we have no or little

desperation for Jesus. And I want to

ask you today, church, where is your desperation for

Jesus? What is your desperation level

for Jesus? Where is your desperation for Jesus? We're talking about a

man in scripture by the name of Zacchaeus who

I believe was desperate to see Jesus.

Desperate to see Jesus. What was going on with this Jesus

that he had heard of? There are four. There are four

characters in this story. There's Zacchaeus.

There's the crowd. There's Jesus.

And there's you. There's you.

You see, here's the thing. I believe that the Word of God is alive and

active, and sometimes we separate ourselves from the

stories that we find in scripture. But they are there to teach us

and to change us. And in order for them to change us, we must

be willing to insert ourselves into the truths that come from

God's Word. Zacchaeus is here, and he is desperate

to see Jesus. How do we know he's desperate? Well, the. So the word tells

us a little bit something about Zacchaeus that it doesn't tell us about some other

people. Zacchaeus was a short little man.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man. A wee little man. Was he right?

We get a little bit more detail about Zacchaeus, but we also

are told, based on what he does and based on the

response of the crowd, we can infer Zacchaeus wasn't liked

very much. He wasn't like. And I tend to, you know, I tend

to. When I sit with scripture, I kind of imagine. Because, you know, when we

talk about Zacchaeus, he's not a cartoon figure. Zacchaeus was

a real man. He was a real man. And I put myself in

his shoes. And I wonder because of his stature and what he ended up doing

in his profession and how he cheated people out of their taxes. I wonder

if as he was, as when he was growing up, if he was not an

insecure man, if he was not someone who was made fun of and.

And had to find ways to gratify himself

or to bring some security to himself. I wonder what it would be.

But it's very clear that the people hated him.

It's very clear that the people hated him. But something was really

interesting and strange about this particular day.

I don't know about you, but when I go into a room and I find

out that there's a lot of people who hate me, I'm not trying to bring

a big spotlight to myself, trying to hide under a chair kind

of behind a wall or get out of there. Because if I'm in a room

full of people who hate me, I'm probably going to be subjected to their hate.

Yes. But this particular day,

Zacchaeus chooses to climb a tree.

Now, I'm going to tell you, the people saw him climb this tree.

The people saw this man who they hate climb this

sycamore tree and say. Now, he didn't say anything. He was

looking for something. And let me tell you who he was not looking at. He

was not looking at the crowd. He was looking for

Jesus. Sometimes, in order to see above the crowd, you gotta

be willing to climb in a tree. Sometimes you gotta rise above the

crowd in order to see Jesus. So he

climbs this tree because he wants to see Jesus. His desperation

to see Jesus superseded the opinions of those around him. And

when Jesus stops and looks up, I can imagine that

moment when Jesus comes up. Because here's the thing. I Believe Jesus had

an encounter, a divine appointment for Zacchaeus on

this particular day. And Jesus strolls up, passing through

walls, all walls, supernaturally

strolls up and he looks up in that moment and he looks up and he

sees Zacchaeus. He doesn't see

a thief, he doesn't see a sinner, he

sees Zacchaeus. And he says to Zacchaeus,

come down from that tree. I want to come

and spend time with you.

The people didn't see Zacchaeus. They saw a sinner,

they saw a sinner. How do we know? Because their response

was Jesus is going to spend time with a sinner.

I think that's the most idiotic statement that could be said from those people at

that time. Because that's like the pot calling the kettle

black. The sinners are upset that Jesus

is going to spend time with the sinner. And as

ludicrous as that sounds, some of us operate the exact same.

Sometimes I wonder if we aren't more excited about someone's exposure and

punishment than we are about their freedom and grace.

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. I must stay at

your house today. Here's the

foundational truth I want us to operate from today. Jesus doesn't start with

condemnation. He starts with connection. In

almost every encounter that we see Jesus in scripture, he does

not start with a judging, condemning hand. He

starts with a relational connect.

But a lot of us forget that what brought us into the kingdom and what

attracted us to Jesus and what saved our life was Jesus connection.

And all of a sudden we turn it out and flip it on its head.

When we're treating other people, when we're seeing other people

live their life, we start with condemnation. And if they get their life right, then

we'll go into connection. But that's not the order Jesus

modeled. You see? Do you understand as

Christians, we want to attempt to be like Christ. Do

you understand that? Is that a fundamental understanding? We're trying to be like Christ.

Even Paul, who was a wonderful man, an incredible,

incredible author of scripture and

writing letters to the church, even Paul, we are not called to

be like Paul. Paul says, emulate me as I emulate

Christ. Our goal is to be like Jesus Christ, not to

be like anybody else, to be like Christ. And so Christ

is giving us these examples. I just watched the episode of the Chosen last night.

It was the episode where he's washing the disciples feet. And I just

sat there and wept. And I just thought, Lord, the example that

you set in real time, the example that you set in

real time you didn't just say it, you modeled it for us.

What an excellent teacher Jesus is. He doesn't start

with condemnation. He starts with connection. I was a Catholic, and then I

was a Baptist, and then I was whatever we are, and

I started as a Catholic. In Catholicism, where I was,

Catholics predominantly believe that you go to the priest and you confess your sin to

the priest, and the priest goes on your behalf to the Lord. And so I

was eight years old, I told this story before. I was eight years old, I

go into the priest's house and he sets me down. He says, hey, Kevin, tell

me everything you've done wrong. So I'm like, okay, I stole a cookie from the

cookie jar. I hit my brother in the face. I didn't do what my mom

told me to do. And, man, he was so encouraging. It's like, good, tell me

more. Good, tell me more. Tell me you sin there, too.

Come here. Tell me more. He was so encouraging

about my sin that I started to make things up.

If there was gonna be a sinner in that house, I wanted to be the

best one. And so I just started making up things to the point where he

had to say, okay, that's enough. As if that's all Jesus could forgive today.

And so there, under that teaching, I learned that I don't

have a relationship with Jesus. I've gotta go through this man on this

couch who's a priest to have a relationship with Jesus. Then

I moved to the Baptist church. And this isn't

a prod to put down Catholics or Baptists, I'm telling you my experience. But

I went to the Baptist church and the Baptist. Man, when I got in there,

let me tell you something, they came at me and they said, there is this

place with fire, and you're going there.

You are going to burn because you are a sinner and you're a bad person.

Even so much so that I remember in third grade, they lit a candle and

they had me put my hand into the candle flame to see how

long I could keep my hand there. When I'd retracted it back, they

said to me, if you don't want your soul to burn like that, you need

to get saved. I got saved that day. I was so scared.

My goodness. I said, jesus, whatever I gotta do, you

know? And then they told me, you know what they told me, Barbie? They said,

you better go tell everybody else that they're going to hell. You're going to hell.

You're going to hell. You're going to hell. You're going to hell and scared me

right into my salvation. So in that

particular setting, I learned. Well, at first, I learned

that I don't have a relationship with God. I got to go through some of

us. The second setting, I learned to fear him, to

run from Him.

And if I don't get saved, I'm going to a place called Hell. I don't

want to go there. Can I tell you that your salvation isn't about going

to heaven or going to hell. It's about being with Jesus for eternity.

Your salvation is about being with Jesus for eternity. But let me tell you why

the distractions become so big in our lives. The

distractions become so big in our lives because the luster towards

spending eternity with Jesus is only as

deep as your relationship with him is right now here on Earth.

When we don't have a real, true relationship with Jesus right now, there's not

really a luster to continue to lean into that relationship or the idea

of we're going to spend eternity with Him. And so guess what? Gets

boring. But it's more exciting, it's more exotic to talk about the issues

and the sin and everything else I mentioned

before. I wasn't going to necessarily talk about issues. I'm going to talk about something

a little closer. And that's this issue of sin.

It's the issue of sin.

I want to start here. Jesus didn't come for those who think they are whole.

He came for those who know they are broken. He

didn't come for those who think they've got it all together and working out. In

fact, I'll tell you, if you got somebody who's taken a glaring flashlight and pointing

out all your flaws all the time. There's somebody who thinks that they're whole

and are not in need of a savior. He came for

those who know they are broken. Anybody here know

that they're broken? Anybody in need of a Savior?

I want to be clear. Sin is a real thing. If you have a ball,

would you lift it in the air?

If you don't have a ball, will you say, I don't have a ball?

Okay, put your balls down for a second. Raise your hand if you don't have

a ball and somebody's going to get you a ball. Quickly, we got some people

in the back. Quickly, quickly, quickly. I need everybody to have one.

All right, Got several down here. Come on down here.

Thank you guys, for moving quickly. If anybody's about. We had several down

here. We got anybody over here that needs one? Got some people over here.

Loft you Guys, got your balls up there. Okay, everybody has one. We need several

more down here. Pastor Will, come on, let's bring him. John,

bring that down here.

Let me tell you something. If you come into this church and you see a

basket of balls out there, before you come into this place, you need to grab

one. Okay?

Has everybody got one?

Logan and Kelsey need one over there. Need two, actually.

All right, who does not have a ball? Everybody has a

ball. Praise God. Raise your balls in there. Okay?

If you have a ball in your hand, you are a center.

Keep him up.

You are led in worship by sinners.

You are taught from the pulpit from sinners.

No one is exempt from the curse of being in

a world full of sin. The Bible does not say when you get

saved that you stop being a sinner. It says that you stop being a slave

to sin. And in that freedom, you don't have to

engage in the sinful nature that you're a part of, but you are a

sinner. Here's what the word says. Keep your balls up for just longer, and if

your arm gets tired, just bring them right here. Okay? For all have sinned, say

all. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Where it

also says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth

is not in us. All right, now put your balls down for a second.

If you have a pink ball, would you raise it in the air? Okay. If

you have a pink sin, that sin is okay, you're good. This is what

most people struggle with. So you can make that loud and proud. You got it.

You're carrying it in. Okay? But if you've got a green ball, would you raise

that in the air? Okay, now. Now

this sounds a little edgy.

You probably want to be a little careful.

If you've got a yellow ball, I need you to try to hide that real

fast because those

with the yellow sin, there are people here that would like to see you leave

the church. You're not qualified to serve. You're not qualified to teach. You're not

qualified to leave because you're dealing with that yellow ball.

Don't get me started on the red balls.

But, guys, this is exactly what we do.

This is exactly what we do. We look at each other and we

examine. Oh, guess what? I don't have a yellow balls in. So I

can tell you everything. I've got my opinions. I can tell you everything

about. I don't struggle with the same thing you struggle with. So, hey,

I'm going to just blast you with it. And

I'm going to send an email to the pastor to say, could you make sure

you preach on this message? Don't talk about

the red sins, though. Every

one of us are sinners and every one of us need the blood

of Jesus Christ to set us free.

And when we focus on our sin, when we make this the

issue, we say, jesus, you are not sufficient enough.

We need to examine this so we know how to get out of it. But

what we don't understand is the only way to get out of it is with

him. Is with him.

Everyone in this story was a sinner,

save Jesus. Everyone was

a sinner. And sin is not just breaking the rules. This is what sin does.

Sin separates us from living God's best.

That's essentially what sin does. When you engage in sin, you

can actually not be a slave to sin and be engaging in

sin and not get God's best. God

wants his best for you. Well, what is sin?

Well, get in the word of God and find out. It's listed in

here. Basically, sin is anything that

separates you from God,

anything that comes between you and God.

It separates us from peace, from joy, from purpose, from

one another, and from the presence of God himself.

That's why he didn't spend his ministry praising the Pharisees for rule

keeping. Pharisees looked at everybody and said, you're sinning,

you're sinning, you're sinning. You need to straighten that out. You better

straighten that up. You better straighten that up. You better straighten that up.

Jesus didn't spend his time praising them. And they were getting, they were

checking things off the list, but they missed the heart

of God.

And so if we're going to talk about sin, we certainly can't exempt

ourselves from a hidden sin that creeps up, especially in such a

volatile and polarizing climate we live in. And that is the sin of hate.

A definition of hate is to separate, to sever, to turn away from in

rejection. You ever heard the phrase hate the sin but

love the sinner? A lot of us hate the sin and hate the sinner

because our response to what's going on in their life is this. We've separated,

we severed, and we turned away in rejection.

And we walk around like the Pharisees

in self righteousness because we

forget that we too were saved from the thing that we're carrying.

Jesus had a response to Zacchaeus that the crowd did not

have. The crowd rejected Zacchaeus

in the midst of sin. But Jesus

loved Zacchaeus. And leaned in.

Jesus gives us a command, a new command. And he says this.

Love one another. As I've loved you, so you must love one another.

Now, here's the thing. I hear so many people have walked in the faith for

a while. They come, they say, well, we're supposed to be disciples of Christ. And

so what that means is, I gotta walk with you, Barbie, and be a disciple,

and I need to make sure you know what you're doing wrong. That's part of

the discipleship process, is me making sure that you've got all your X's and O's

together and all of those things. No, that's not it. He says, by this

loving one another, then they will know that you're my disciples.

Well, so what is love, then? If that is love, if we're supposed to look

at people and sinners and let them know that we belong to Jesus, what does

that look like? It is this. Love is patient. It's

kind. It's selfless. It keeps no records of wrongs. It always

protects. It always trusts. Here's what love does, and here's what we see

Jesus do in the story. Love leans in closer.

Love leans in closer. Can I tell you guys, love saved

my life? It wasn't going to that Catholic priest. It wasn't

in that Baptist church where I was scared because of hell. It was through people

like Ronnie and Margaret Meek, who invited me into their home and showed me an

extraordinary love, imperfect as they were, showed me an

extraordinary love. The grace of Jesus Christ did not look at

me for my flaws, but accepted me and said, come on in. Let me point

you to him. Love saved my life. And guess what? If

you're honest with yourself, love saved your life, too.

Love saved your life, too. Why

will we not allow love to render that same power to other

people?

Love leans in closer. We lost our dog over the sabbatical. This is Koda.

15 years of stories and fun,

poop and pee. It was great. We lost

him over the sabbatical. But one of the things that this conjured up was

a memory about when Hadassah was about three years old, we lived over

here, close to the church. And she would

be playing with toys or she might be watching a show or whatever. And when

I was on my way home, Shari would say to Hadassah and

Dakota, daddy's on the way home. And, you know,

it didn't matter what was going on. It didn't matter. The toy,

it didn't matter. The TV program, it didn't matter what they were eating, this

is what would happen.

You know why? Because they wanted to see their daddy.

Hadassah wanted to see her daddy. And there was nothing better

than me to pull up and see my child waiting there eagerly to see me.

Oh, do you know that you have a father who loves you so much? Where

is your eagerness to see him? Where is your eagerness and your

desperation for this Jesus? Jesus says

to Zacchaeus, he says, come down. I want to

be with you. And he's saying to you

today, I want to be with you.

I'm not casting. He didn't look up and go,

zacchaeus, you wretched sinner. You know what you've done. You know what

you're hiding. You know it. Get out of that tree. No, he says, I

want to come to your house today.

I want to come to your house today. Come down here.

Jonathan, earlier was referencing holiness,

and that's a big buzzword in

Christian circles is holiness. It's an important word.

But if we're going to be like Christ, we cannot call distance, holiness,

not separating from people.

It's not being separated from people. It's being set apart to

love people. That's holiness, being set apart to

love people. Jesus says, come

down. I want to be with you. He doesn't lecture. He invites. He doesn't accuse.

He approaches. And I believe that's who he is. Still today,

when everyone else pulls away, love says, I'm staying. When

others walk out, love says, I'm coming in. When the world

severs, love restores. And that kind of love

is the love that changed that kiosk. And it's the only kind that still changes

hearts today. And that's why it must be the focus. It's

why Jesus must be in the center. And this is

why here at Springhouse, we make every effort, every Sunday

to make sure that Jesus is at the center of what we are teaching and

what we are saying and who we are singing about. Every single week.

When you walk out of here, you should be thinking about him. Good

Lord, you got enough to think about the rest of the week.

This is what love in action looks like. You got

somebody dealing with sin. You see them, and here you

are. You're a sinner, they're a sinner. Here you are,

and you've got your eyes fixed on Jesus, and you understand that Jesus is the

one who set you free from this. But

this person has their focus in the wrong place. And what we

want to do is turn them toward us and say, you need to put that

down. You need to stop doing what you're doing. Don't you see that? This is

the red ball. Now, if you had a pink ball, it would have been okay,

Kurt, but you don't. You got a red ball. You understand how bad that is?

That's what we like to do, all the while carrying our own.

But here's love in action. Salvation. I'm a sinner.

And my gaze and my focus is Christ. And I look over and

I see someone whom I love struggling and looking at their

sin. This is what love looks like

when we look at Him. He gives us the power to lay that sin

down. He gives us the power. He's

the one. And because you love and you lean in,

you show and model the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank

you, Curt. You can sit down. And it renders people free

to see the power in the love of Jesus, the

grace in the love of Jesus. And that's what sets people free.

That's the power that we are able to let go of what so

entangles us.

The church is not a museum for saints. It is a hospital for

sinners. And if we're honest, most of us are more comfortable with our sin

than we are with the cure. I was at the hospital about three years

ago with a kidney stone. Do you know when they. When I went into that

hospital, Tina, I walked in, there was no

question about whether or not I was in pain. I did not need them to

come up to me and say, you're in pain. I didn't

need them to come up to me and say,

you look like you're screaming. You sound like you're screaming. I didn't need them to

point out to me that I even had a kidney stone. Why was I

there? I was there because I needed a cure. And in

a hospital, you want them talking more about the cure than the

disease. Give me what I need so that I can be

healed. So why is it when we come into the church, it is a

problem when we don't talk mostly about the cure and we want to talk

all about the disease?

He is the perfecter of our faith. He is the one who

changes everything. I can't change a thing, Dustin. I don't want you

walking in sin. I think you won't have God's best with that yellow

ball. But all I can do in your life is to point you and tell

you about the Jesus I've been looking at. And when you do that, you're going

to see something from him. You're going to feel something you're going to know something

about him that's going to cause you to go, this ain't worth it. This

ain't worth it. And it might change your life. And when it changes your life,

guess what? You're going to look at Tina and you're going to say the same

thing. Look at Jesus, Kurt. Look at Jesus. And it goes on

and on and on.

The goal of church isn't to make bad people good. It's to bring dead people

to life. John 12:32. When I, Jesus, am

lifted up, I, Jesus, will draw all people to myself. It's

not when Kevin's lifted up, not when Kurt's lifted up.

It's not when Lisa's lifted up. It's when Jesus is lifted up. It's not when

your sin issue is lifted up. It's not when the politician is lifted

up. It's not whenever the teaching is lifted up. It is when Jesus is

lifted up, when the main thing is the main thing, he will draw

all men to himself.

When we lift Jesus up and make him the focus, not only are we no

longer slaves to our sin, we are free to hope for and celebrate the freedom

in others. Jesus calls Zacchaeus down because of his love for

Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus response to the love of

Jesus, to the leaning in of his love is, look, Lord,

here and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I've

cheated anybody out of anything, I'll pay it back four times the amount.

Who is he talking to? He's not talking to the crowd, he's

talking to the Lord. Why is he talking to the Lord? Because Jesus

leaned in. And just the presence of Jesus will illuminate

all the darkness and cause everything that's not supposed to be there to

flee. Jesus changes everything.

Jesus didn't have to say a word about the sin. Just his presence

changed Zacchaeus heart.

So I began today talking about distractions. There's a book that I love, children's book

called you are Special. And there is a girl in it named Lucia. And

the basic premise of this schedule, this story, is that there

are women, there are wooden people. And the wooden people go around and they put

stars on the ones who do good things, and they put dots on the ones

who do bad things. So if you are talented and you can jump high, you

can ride the cycle, whatever it is, you get a star. But boy, if

you trip up and you mess up and you're a failure, you get a dot.

So they go around and they put Stars, and they put dots. They put stars

and they put dots on each other all day long. Well, Punchinello, the small guy

here, he's one that gets dots a whole lot. And I don't know about you,

there might be people in here. You feel like you would be one getting a

lot of dots. I know I would. She goes up to Punch. He goes up

to Lucia, and he says, lucia, you don't have any

stars or dots on you. Why don't you have stars and dots? You're a

whimmick, just like me. And she says, oh, that's

easy. Because every day I go see

Eli. Pachenello said, eli? Who's Eli?

Eli's the one who made me.

His voice matters most. And when

you make Eli the focus and what he says, the focus,

none of the stickers stick. The stars and the dots,

they fall. She says, the stickers will only stick if you let

them. The stickers only stick if

you let them. There are people under the sound of my

voice who have a bunch of stars, who've got a bunch of dots.

And you're wondering in comparison to other people, why you've got stars and

they've got dots and they've got dots and you've got stars, all of these things.

And you're listening to the voices around you.

And Jesus says, listen to my voice. Listen to

who I say you are.

And so in that when we talk about distractions, guys, as a fellow

believer, if Jesus truly is the way,

you know that scripture in John that says, he is the way, the truth, and

the life? If that is Jesus, it doesn't say, kevin is the truth, the way,

the way, the truth, the life. It says, Jesus is the way, the

truth. You need any of that. You need a way. You

need some truth. You need life. It's him. And if Jesus is the way, I

don't want to be in his way.

I don't want my voice to be a distraction to you. I don't want my

presence to be a distraction to you. I don't want my actions to be

a distraction to you. Jesus is the way.

Jesus is the way.

You can trust him to make the wrong thing right.

You don't have to try to be somebody's holy Spirit,

and you don't have to be someone's distraction. This

is Merlin Henderson, and Merlin is sitting right

here in front of us this morning.

Merlin's gonna go see Jesus real soon. Soon.

He's going to go see him real soon.

And I got the pleasure of going over their House and spending a few

hours with Merlin. And, you know, the family told me Merlin was talking a

whole lot more than he usually does that night.

Merlin, you were telling me all types of stories.

Merlin's about to meet Jesus. And I'm.

I'm a bit jealous, to be honest.

He's about to meet Jesus. Can I tell you something? Three

hours of conversation. Not one time did he mention the name Donald Trump,

Joe Biden, Charlie Kirk. Not one time did he mention sin.

Not one time did he mention what I'd done wrong or what. Guess what? Merlin's

gonna. Merlin is taking to the grave with him his sin,

and he's gonna be resurrected with Jesus. But here is

where we fall short in our understanding. Here

is every one of us could be that close as well.

Yet we have these walls in our life that we allow to just build and

be strong. I'm going to build this wall. I'm going to cement this issue.

I'm going to cement this relationship. I'm going to cement this wall against

you and me. And it'll wait till we get to a moment

where there is a casket here to then allow the wall to come down. What

are you talking about?

The reason that happens is because we're distracted people. And when

you look at Jesus, you have no choice but to look at him and say,

I'm going to exude love. Because, man, the love you've lavished on me is so

much greater and weightier than anything else I've ever had.

Marlins is a life well lived. Telling me stories about

how he saw the people who weren't seen. The memories that

are coming up are. Is a man being utilized by the Holy Spirit to

bless people. And brother, you're about to hear well done, good and

faithful servant.

I haven't even gotten to the most powerful part of the story of Zacchaeus.

Here's the most powerful part. When

Jesus strolls up on that scene. I told you, it's a divine appointment. Jesus is

walking through walls. He walks up and he sees Zacchaeus in the

tree, and he calls out Zacchaeus name. He

says, zacchaeus. Do you know what

Zacchaeus name means?

The purest one, the innocent one.

Only Jesus can look at Zacchaeus

amongst the crowd of sinners and look and see a pure one,

an innocent one. And he's the only one who can look at you and call

you by the name he's given you.

So you in that tree today,

you're contending with the sin issues of your life.

Jesus wants to Lean in. And I

apologize to you for those of you who have

experienced hurt because Christians who were supposed to be acting like Christ

decided to sever from you, decided to throw stones at

you. Do you know that story about the woman in the stones? We love that

story where they says they're all there throwing the stones and she's caught in adultery,

right? Big sin, big time sin. That's probably a red ball.

Our favorite part of that story is go and sin no more. We love to

preach on that, make that the whole point. You know, the

power of that story is not in that line. The power

of that story is let he who is without sin cast

the first stone. Let me tell you why. See, we forget that that

woman had more life ahead of her. Now, I don't

know if she tripped up in that same sin of adultery when Jesus said, go

and sin no more, but I guarantee you she's tripped up in something else.

And she needed that same grace that she had that day. On

Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday. What

she didn't need was a bunch of people holding up stones who are contending with

the same things, ready to kill her.

Jesus says to you, go and sin no more. Why? Because the life you're

living in that sin is not worth the life

that you're living. I have so much better for you.

Choose better. Choose better. You can't do it on your

own. Guess what? Got my Holy Spirit. I

got people who are going to come alongside you and love you and hold on

to you and walk with you.

He's saying, come down. I want to be with you. And guys, this is the

gospel. It's the cure. Jesus is the cure. That's

the love that leans in. That's my Jesus.

I may be pastor one more week or five more years, 30 more years, I

don't know. But as long as I'm pastor here, we're going to center in on

Jesus every single week. We're going to center in on Jesus every single week.

And I welcome you to be a part of the journey because he'll change your

life. If you go with us with those who

are going to serve the elements, come forward. Going to end today by

remembering why we are here.

It's the broken body and the blood of Jesus. And so what I

want you to do today, every one of you got a ball.

I want you to bring that ball and I want you to drop it in

the tub and receive the grace of Jesus through his broken body

and the blood that cleanses all sin.

And once you receive the broken body and the blood. I would like you

to go back to your seat. And if you're able. If you're able.

We used to do something back in the old sanctuary with the pews, but we

would make these our altar space. And if you're able

to do this, I'd like you to. I just want to invite you to make

this your altar space. You know, we do have prayer

time. Pastor Barb. We have prayer time here where you need. If you need healing

and we need. Your needs need to be. That's not what this is about. This

time today, we're going to remember him.

And if you came in here with a wall that just seems like you can't

penetrate, this is a time to invite Jesus into that place to

say, lord, I've not been able to penetrate this wall. This is a

hard place in my life. I need you to penetrate it. And let me tell

you, he may have you do some things that you don't even understand

because he is so much bigger than the issue or the situation or whatever it

is. And if that's not you and you don't have a wall, there's people in

here that probably do. Go before him and ask him that. We would

keep him. The main thing. Guys, stand with

me. Father, thank you so much for the bread. Thank you for the juice, the

blood that pays for our sins. Thank you for Jesus.

Come receive.