Down to his final shot. American rifle shooter Matt Emmons was set to win the gold medal in the three position shooting event in the 2004 Athens Olympics, he was well ahead of the pact and all he had to do was to focus and get just even an average shot and he would walk away with the gold medal. Rifle shooters who compete at the olympic level are so precise, there's such incredible marksman that part of their training is to learn how to pull the trigger between heartbeats. Sometimes millimeters would be the difference between gold medal and not placing at all. And here matt had given himself such a lead that just a regular shot on his final shot would give him the gold medal so he looks through his scope, took a deep breath, pull the trigger. Now to his astonishment when he hit the bull's eye, there were no sounds made and he looked up at the scoreboard and saw that he had zero next to his name. In fact, I have a picture of how confused he was when he took what he thought was the gold medal winning shot after some extensive review because you know these are trained marksmen, so if he thought he had a bullseye, I'm sure he did and so the judges looked at the replay and come to find out in the pressure of the moment when he looked through his scope, he set his sights on the wrong target and so yes he hit a bullseye But he hit a bullseye for the wrong target, scored zero and ended up finishing in 8th place. Now matt Emmons would go on and win some other tournaments and compete in future olympics, but can you imagine how he would feel training all of his life and executing it on what he thought was perfect only to find out that he was aiming in the wrong location. Well today I want to talk to you about a man from the bible who by earthly standards was rich, but by eternal standards, he was bankrupt. You see, he had his eyesight on the wrong target. It's not about hitting the bullseye, but really placing your eyes fixed upon the right target and that target being the very person of jesus, it's not about being afraid of failing, but really succeeding at the things that don't matter. You see, we are in a series entitled everyone together, we understand that in the middle of these troubling times, we want to help you navigate this new normal and ultimately we want to help you get to where you need to go, but but before we jump into week three of our discussion, let's take a brief review about how we got to where we are today. In week one, we shared that, calming the anxiety within you will help you care for the people around you. This idea is that if you can calm the feelings of stress and anxiety inside of you, that you're going to be more aware and more capable of helping others and leading others through this pandemic. And then last week we talked about how everyone needs someone to believe in them and we took a look at the story of Barnabas and Saul and how Barnabas took a chance on Saul, invested personally in him, saw his potential and ultimately built the platform for him, that would set the stage for the early church and now we have much of the new testament, thanks to the writings of Saul who had become paul, but would there ever have been a paul, if there was no Barnabas? Everyone, wherever you're watching this right now needs someone to believe in that. And so last week, hopefully you took my challenge and you reached out to the person who has invested in you and thank them for their investment in their time and belief in you and when you look back and you see the gratitude that that person experiences now, you can look forward and see who can you encourage and set the path and build the platform and invest in others so that they can change the world as well. Well, today, we're not talking about just believing in someone, we're actually going to try to answer this question and that is who needs jesus Honestly, there's never been a greater time in our community for revival than right now, you know, a politician is not gonna solve our spiritual battles, a government program or getting a new job, will not solve your spiritual needs. But really, here's our big idea for today, Everyone ultimately needs the one And that one is Jesus, Christ himself. So don't shoot at the wrong targets of popularity and fame and money and materials, but instead set your sights on the only one who can forgive your sins, give you eternity and ultimately give you purpose in this life. If you have your bibles open up to the gospel of luke and luke. Chapter 19. Now, luke was a doctor by trade and so you're going to notice that he gives very specific details and luke wrote the account of the Gospel to really show how the church began and how the ministry of jesus really came to be. And so if you're newer to the bible, you have in the beginning of the new testament, you have what are called the Four Gospels and here you have the gospel according to luke. Now, luke would also write the Book of Acts, which is the early history of the church and together they formed one work where he wrote to this man named Theophilus and so he wanted to demonstrate the person and the power and the purpose of jesus ministry and the beginning of the early church. So with that as our background, let's go ahead and jump into luke chapter 19 verses one through 10. Now, I want to give you a heads up here that I want to pause along the way because this is a loaded narrative and story with some incredible context that adds power and understanding when you know what's behind the scenes, imagine if you have a DVD you remember what those are. Remember you get this little disk that you would put in and and not only would you choose the scene that you want to watch. You also had a director's cut so you can go behind the scenes and hear why they shot or wrote the scene the way they did. And so I am by no means the director of this but through study and commentaries and other things, I want to shed some light on some more details that you might not have picked up on in this story. If you've read it. So let's jump in. So jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. I'm already gonna pause right here, Jericho was this incredible city. If you read the old testament before Jericho was the city that Joshua had a miracle, the early Israelites, we're talking thousands of years before this story took place, they went into the city and rather than defeat it with armor, they marched around the city seven times, blue praised trumpets into the air and the walls came crumbling down and God gave them this city and so now fast forward to the time of this story, Jericho was seen as a major passing point or toll station for trade between the east and the west, I spent some time living in Orlando florida and if you've traveled to Orlando where you lived in that area, one of the things that I guess is good for the economy, but annoying to drive through is that their main highways and interstates, a lot of them in that area are toll roads and if you don't have one of those e passes in your car window, you have to stop every few miles and pay the toll in the same way, Jericho often acted as a toll station between the east and west and so there was a lot of goods being passed through this and so if you could tax those things, you can make a lot of money, which makes sense here in just a moment. But next I want to pause and just share the fact that jesus was just passing through, this wasn't even his intended destination. You know, I thought about giving the title of this message as there's power in the pit stop because we pass over this verse and these phrases right here, but we're going to see life transformation happen while jesus was just passing through, notice that jesus works through interruptions and in strange circumstances and when the disciples were hurried to get to the next place, jesus was right where he needed to be and he knew exactly who he needed to minister to and so there's power in the pit stop, we could preach an entire sermon just on that phrase. This idea that when you think that you're stuck, when you think that you're just pulled over for a time, if you're battling a time of transition right now in the middle of this covid pandemic, understand this, that God is right there with you and while you might be trying to pass through, God is trying to work through and to work in your life. So never ignore the potential that could be found in a pit stop. Okay, let's move to verse two And behold there was a man named Zach kias, he was the chief tax collector and was rich. This was a loaded phrase for the audience of that day. You see the roman empire controlled the majority of the land, but in order to receive money from the people it enslaved. It would empower nationals or other jewish people to serve as tax collectors. And so they would give them the bills and the amount of money that was owed and then tax collectors would go and collect money and steal it from their own people. And how tax collectors would get rich is that they would require the people to give them more than what the roman government was even asked for and anything that they kept over the number that the roman government was asking for they got to keep. So how mad would you be if after being enslaved by another power, your own brothers and sisters, your own people in turn would get rich off taking money from you. Now before you would think that someone could just say, hey, I know you, I'm not paying the tax collector had power because they would go to that person and say, hey, if you don't give me this money, I have the backing of the entire roman military, I can take your house, I can take your family, I can do whatever I want. So you better pay up or else. And so they got rich, they got power and then he was the chief tax collector. And so he was the top of the pyramid marketing scheme. Except it wasn't a marketing scheme. It was a straight up extortion from his own people. In fact, other places in the gospel when people refer to sinners, tax collectors had their own category. So they would refer to people like prostitutes and thieves and murderers. And then below all of that was a tax collector. And so this was the highest of the high in terms of the richest, the most power, the most influence and then also the lowest of the low because he was the most hated man in the village. So let's continue on verse three and Zacky is, he was seeking to see who jesus was, but on the account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. Now maybe it's the fact that luke was a doctor that he just included his height. Maybe the Iraqis had a short guy syndrome and was just ticked off and just use this power to, you know, just hold it over people. Um, I don't know, but he includes this detail, partially because it adds to the nuance of the story, but mainly because it was a true story, He was just giving description of an actual person who lived at the same time that luke did and now he's having an exact real interaction with jesus. And so Zach Kia's was curious about who this jesus figure was. Now we don't know who first told Zakia says about jesus, but we know that enough of the story of jesus, that somehow his fame, somehow this rabbi who was performing miracles, who was teaching with authority, who was filled with compassion and grace and forgiveness. Somehow this person intrigues, intrigues. That key is enough to seek him out. Maybe it was the fact that Zakia had everything the world had to offer. He was rich, He had power. But yet he had come to realize that he had shot his shot at the wrong target, that the things of the earth really don't fill up your heart. They're temporary. And so he was searching to fill that void in his life. And you know what if we're being honest here, Maybe he didn't go that intensely ahead of time. Maybe he was just curious, but you're gonna see his curiosity go into humility and ultimately into risking something substantial just to have a connection with jesus because he goes on and it says that he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree. Oh, okay. So now we see the connection to why he would climb a tree because he was short and he couldn't see over the crowd. Now my dad is 64, I'm 65 and my brother is 66 and any time we go to a concert or a large gathering or sporting event, if those large gatherings ever going to happen again, I always feel a little bit bad for people who stand behind us because we got three tall guys and that might be blocking someone's view. And so here's ekeus has his view blocked. But what we don't know in the nuance of the story unless you understand their culture is that grown men in that time. Don't run. I kind of like that concept. In fact, I think we should bring that back in this day that it's, it's a maturity thing. If you don't run, amen right if you're watching it or maybe throw that in the comments. But anyway, so it was not expected or even respected if somebody ran the only people that ran in that day were slaves or kids, This adds nuance to another story in luke. The story of the Prodigal son, a son who really squandered all of his inheritance from his father. But when he came back home, his father risked his reputation and his dignity and didn't wait for the sun to come to him, but instead he risked and looked foolish and ran to the sun. So running in this case as adults in this time period was seen as unusual and then climbing up in a tree that's just plain out weird and uncommon. And so here is the most powerful, ruthless leader in the village running and climbing up a tree. Can you imagine the crowd pointing up if they saw him poking fun at him, making fun of at him, maybe yelling things under under their breath? Because here is this person that you hate and now he's looking foolish and childlike and absurd, but why would Jackie is do this? Well, it started with curiosity, he realized he wasn't going to see jesus unless he did something. And so then it led to humility. He climbed up a tree, something that only kids would do. And then it led to him taking a risk as we're gonna see here in just a moment, for jesus was about to pass by his way, let's continue on. And when jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said to him, Zack kias hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. Isn't it amazing that in the middle of a crowd in a tree, Jesus looks up and sees an individual. You know, sometimes life might have you up in a tree, but it's the grace of God that ultimately is gonna set you free. I don't know where you are in the story. Maybe you're in a crowd, you don't feel like you've been seen, maybe you're up a tree, you feel like you look a little foolish, you feel out of place and you're searching or maybe you feel ashamed of your past and you've aimed at the wrong target and you've shot for the world and maybe you missed it and feel bad or you hit the target and you realized it didn't fulfill your life and your purpose. And so now you're searching wherever you are in the story, imagines that Kia's heart and mind how it would begin to race when this man, this rabbi, this teacher, this potential savior would look at you and he says, come down for, I must stay at your house because everyone knows that accountants and tax people and people that audit stuff, they throw the killer parties, don't they? Isn't that a little crazy, right? Jesus looks at him and says, Hey, thanks for tuning in, Thanks for stopping by. No, he says, Hey, Zacky is Yes, you with all your mess ups with all your sinful behavior, with all of your doubts and your issues and the fact that you climbed a tree and you ran ahead and you did what seemed to be foolish things? Yes, you, I'm coming to your house, Jesus could have died at any house in Jericho. But he chose to eat with Zaki's who had his own category for sin called the tax collector. So he hurried, came down and received him joyfully. I want to highlight this word received because what I believe in this moment means that he received jesus into his life and ultimately he would believe him as his Lord and savior. Now, if this seems crazy to you and I, we know this seems crazy to the people that were actually there because in verse seven, it says this that when the crowd saw it, they all grumbled for he referring to Jesus has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Wait a second, Jesus, the holy one, this guy who does all these miracles and speaks with truth and calls himself the way the truth and the life and this power and all power in heaven that supposedly being given to him and he chooses Zach Kia's house for the Airbnb. So they were upset. They didn't meet their expectations. They didn't meet their expectations of Jesus. Then meet their expectations of Zaki's. Wait a second. Zaki's isn't allowed access. Wait a second. He's the one who's heard us. No, no, no, that doesn't count. He's not in our group. He is not in our club. He's not accepted here. That doesn't work. But in the story of Jesus. It does. Let's continue on. And Zakia stood and said to the Lord behold Lord the half of my goods I now give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. It was jewish law that if you frosted somebody, You owed them 20% more than what you had given them. So for example, if someone owed say $1,000 And and someone confessed and then paid that money back, they were meant to pay them $1,200. But in this particular case that Kia's went around and gave fourfold of what people or what money he had taken from them. I also want you to notice the order jesus addressed and came to that Kia's first came to his house. Zaki has received him joyfully and then responded, do you see that? Let's continue on verse nine verse 10. And Jesus said to him today, Salvation has come to this house. Now, why can he say that? Because Salvation comes through him alone. So where jesus goes, Salvation goes And the fact that Jesus would dine in the house of a sinner. The person that is hated, the person that is ashamed. The person that's filled with mistakes and questions and wrongdoings, it's there that Jesus made that place a place of Salvation. When jesus enters a situation, it is jesus that sets the tone not the situation itself. Think about his birth story or the christmas story as we know it, we sing o holy night. What makes that night holy, it's not Bethlehem, it's not the stable, it's not the manger. No, it's jesus himself that when jesus entered the stable it became holy when jesus entered the house of Zaki's, it became a worship gathering and a place of transformation and life, Jesus says today, Salvation has come to this house and since she also is a son of Abraham. Now for this jewish crowd, he's referring back to one of the great Mount Rushmore characters in the old testament. Abraham and Jesus is calling him here is that Kia's is a son or a child of God, he is a child of God, he is loved, he is accepted and he is one of us. He replaced his title of tax collector and sinner with one of beloved child of God. It says for the son of man came to seek and save the Lost. This is why Jesus came and an obscure story in a town where Jesus was just passing through, we get one of the most powerful verses and all of the new testament and the bible as we know it. Why did jesus come? He came to seek and save the Lost. This is why Everyone needs the one who needs jesus. Well, whoever is listening right now, whether on church online Youtube facebook or maybe listening later in a podcast, you need jesus right now the gospel, not only saves you, it sustains you and that in this world. Don't aim for targets that aren't going to give you the score that you need. Zacarias was earthly rich but eternally bankrupt and it was in his Brokenness in this state where he was willing to risk his reputation and to climb up a tree and run ahead of the crowd and and risk what others might think of him. It was in that quote unquote lowest moment that he became spiritually rich when he had a connection with God. It changed and transformed his relationships with others. So I want to share with you too big applications for the story. Let's lay in the plane, let's focus in and zero in on what the target should be in our lives. This truth can change your life that jesus came to seek and save. Maybe you stumbled upon this video or this message by accident or by an invitation of a friend. But understand this, God has you here right now, watching this video on purpose, God knows your heart and he's willing to look through this lens right now or through your airpods or the speaker in your car or wherever you're listening to and he can speak to your heart. I feel the holy spirit prompted me to to say that whatever target you're holding onto, whether it's one of achievement or one of success or one of I need this lady in my life, I need this guy in my life, I need these friends in my life, I need this money. This title, this job, this house, whatever target you think you need, I'm hearing to tell you that you don't. The only thing that matters in this life is what do you say and believe about jesus christ, jesus came down. It's not that man reached up to God, but in the middle of a mess. God reached down to man. He lived a perfect life. He came to seek and to save and he is doing that today right now in this moment and he would go to the cross, dying for your sins and for mine, Zaki's didn't have to pay the price to follow jesus because jesus would ultimately pay it for him. Jesus paid the admission for that dinner. That party, that relationship yes, Dicky is was called to die to himself our own desires. We have to take our focus off the worldly target and put it on jesus christ himself. But when jesus died on the cross, he rose again on the third day and by doing so, he conquered death. He covered our sins. He offers us forgiveness and grace and mercy and ultimately we can spend eternity with him where there is no more disease. There is no more virus. There is no more uncertainty. There is, there is love, There is community, there is healing, there is joy and that is because we will one day stand face to face with the same God who created us and the God who died on the cross to save us. If Jesus was willing to dine with Ekeus, I promise you that there is room in the family of God for you that Jesus wants to come to your house. Jesus wants to speak into your heart. Jesus wants to forgive your sins and give you new life. And when you receive him as your Lord and Savior, notice the response of Zakia is because the second application is that Zaki's responded with gratitude. Generosity. When you've been blessed, you cannot help but be a blessing. When you've been truly forgiven, it becomes natural to forgive When someone has given you grace, then it's easy to turn around and give grace to others. Zaki's was so grateful that Jesus would save him. That he turned around and that he became generous and started giving things away because he realized that the true wealth came from God. And so I want to challenge you to do two things First, I want to challenge you to receive jesus today, just as that Kia's received, jesus in that story, It says in revelations 320 that Jesus and God is standing at the door knocking, would you be willing to let him into your heart today? Would you be willing to let God into your life today. Understand this, that yes, it's gonna take some humility. Yes, you're going to have to risk your reputation. Yes, you might feel even foolish, but if you're willing to lay your life down, if you're willing to give up the things of this world that don't even matter, then Jesus says he will come to your house to your life, that your sins will be forgiven and that you can spend eternity in heaven with him. And if you've already done that, then I want to praise jesus and I want to celebrate but I also want to challenge you with this, respond with gratitude and generosity, Church family. How can we respond to be given eternal life with anything other than gratitude? How can we complain and struggle and and battle and trust me. This is this is being human, are human flesh and our nature comes out and I understand that we do that. But when do you recognize that the grace of God is given freely to us? That we are like Zach kias, we are not the crowd that judges people off the side. We are that person in the tree. That looks ridiculous but that we can be saved. Do you have questions? Great? So do I come to jesus? Do you have a past? So does that Kia's come to jesus? Do you have issues and struggles jesus didn't say is that kids hey get your life right, get everything together. And then maybe if I look at your resume, I'll come over. No, he offered salvation because salvation is from God, not from man. And so when we have that heart of gratitude, then it's natural to be generous. Be generous with your time, Be generous with your talents and your skill set and I want to challenge you church. Be generous with your treasure. You don't hear me talk a lot about giving and to be honest with you, maybe it's just my own fear because I don't want to seem like a church that's trying to get something from you. But when you read story like Zakia says it's not that I want to get something from you, but I want to give something for you and that's the heart of generosity. You really don't see a lot of people who are generous and mean at the same time you don't see people that are generous and bad moods a whole lot. Now. Yes, we all have our bad days. But if you want to release the control money has in your life, be generous. Give flex that generosity muscle because jesus has already given you all things and when you do that, you set an example of what it means to live a life of gratitude and you will change lives around you. Can you imagine for a moment being there in Jericho and you hear a knock on the door, who is it? It's Jackie is okay, here's a guy that's the most hated man in town knocking on your door, you would either be upset or you'd run and hide, but instead you open the door and there before him, he gives you four times what he had taken from you and says I want to apologize, I messed up. But guess what? I met jesus, he saved me, he forgave me, he gave me new life. And so what I wanna do is repay and give new life to you. And so because God is giving me grace, I want to give you grace and so I want to be generous as jesus was generous with me, I strongly believe that much of that town was saved and people were changed because of the testimony of Zacarias and when we become generous people with our treasure with our talents with our time, the world takes notice and we see the testimony of jesus because your horizontal relationships with other or direct relation relationship to your vertical relationship with God. Have you received forgiveness in your life? Then you can bestow forgiveness to others. Have you received grace in your life, then you can give grace to others. Have you received blessing in your life, then you can be a blessing to others. And when you have that mindset and that attitude, when you understand that everyone, everyone is in need of the savior, then you can share with everyone the good news. I'm going to close with this thought, I think there are gonna be people in heaven that surprise us. No, I'm not saying you can just believe whatever you want, but I'm not gonna stand here and judge a person's heart and I believe if there's a moment in time where you truly received, jesus christ as your Lord and savior, then he promises salvation. Yes, we're called to repent of our sins and yes, people will know us by our fruit and I just have decided that I'm not gonna play the holy spirit for other people. I'm excited to be surprised by who ends up in heaven. I also think we might be surprised that people who aren't there because they put a good earthly show, but they never really received him into their life. Anybody can receive jesus when you pray to receive him as Lord and savior Because everyone needs the one and that my friends, that's how everyone can be together, let's pray, Dear jesus, I admit that I am a sinner now, I might have different struggles than Zach kias, but I definitely have them. There are times in life where I might fill up a tree or ashamed of my past or aiming for wrong targets in this life. But God, thank you for saving me God, I believe that you are Lord and I believe salvation only comes through you through dying on the cross and rising again. God, I can have new life, I can have a relationship with you. God come into my life, I want to follow you. I believe you and I commit my life to you, Thank you God for saving me, your son's name. We pray Amen now, I want to encourage you that if you prayed that prayer with me, let us know if you're watching online, there's gonna be a place to indicate that that you raise your hand or that you accepted jesus in your life, do that right now. Don't wait climb that tree, let's kiss to take that risk. You might feel foolish, you might feel just out of sorts. But if you trusted jesus christ as your Lord and Savior, take that step of courage right now, if you are watching, take that step, let us know, fill out that connection card. Let a friend or family member that you're watching with, let them know that you prayed to receive jesus christ and let me tell you that will be the greatest decision that you could ever make. And if you share the good news with somebody else, then we are happy to come alongside of you know, you won't be perfect, you're gonna mess things up. Yes, you're gonna have questions but let's go through this life together because together we can follow jesus who saved us and we can be a church that loves and serves and shows grace because we have received grace from our heavenly father, let us know and we want to come with you and start the spiritual journey together and if you've already prayed to receive jesus, I want you to begin thinking who is the one that I could be reaching out to last week, we shared how everyone needs someone. Well this week we got to understand that everyone needs the one and that helping someone is nice, but the greatest thing you can do for someone is to share the gospel with them and watch God transform their life from the inside out. Do that this week, start with a conversation with a friend or a family member, be on the lookout, maybe you're passing through the store or out running errands and maybe in that moment just like that passing moment that jesus had, Zakia had with Zakia is someone can meet jesus as their Lord and Savior Church, let's do this. There's no time for fans in the stands, let's get in the game, let's love and serve and share jesus because this is what our world needs. If we do that, I'm telling you, revival is just around the corner. I hope you'll join me, God bless, have a great day, We'll see you next week