Speaker 1: Would you stand with me. Let's pray over the Word
Speaker 1: this morning.
Speaker 2: Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather to
Speaker 2: hear from your heart. Father, pray that as we listen
Speaker 2: to what you have prepared for us, God, to pray
Speaker 2: that it pierces our hearts. This morning changes us, affects us.
Speaker 1: Makes us leave here.
Speaker 2: Running after you with passion and with everything that we have.
Speaker 1: We pray that in.
Speaker 2: Jesus' name and Man, God bless you, you can be seated.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited about being able to share with you
Speaker 2: the Word today. Hopefully you enjoy the graphic and it
Speaker 2: reminds you of when you were in Sunday School as
Speaker 2: a kid. Come on, a couple of you, Hey man,
Speaker 2: all right, and we'll talk about that in a moment.
Speaker 2: But last week, Pastor Gary, how many of you were
Speaker 2: here from Pastor Gary last week?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And Pastor Gary last week was you know in his
Speaker 2: message he was encouraging us to ask Jesus to call us.
Speaker 1: Out of the boat. And the point was, you know,
Speaker 1: he wanted us to ask the Lord to call.
Speaker 2: Us into the deeper things of him so that we
Speaker 2: could be running after him with everything that we've got
Speaker 2: and that's a that is a powerful word and a
Speaker 2: powerful picture of how we should be responding and requesting
Speaker 2: of God. And then two weeks ago, Pastor Dwayne was
Speaker 2: preaching a message and he made a really profound statement
Speaker 2: and it was so profound. Actually wrote it down. So
Speaker 2: how many of you take notes? Okay, come on, you
Speaker 2: should be taking notes.
Speaker 1: In these things. But he made a profound statement.
Speaker 2: And at the time it was kind of humorous because
Speaker 2: of what he was talking about. But that statement stuck
Speaker 2: with me and I thought, boy, that that's actually really profound.
Speaker 1: And the statement was a little leak makes you worthless.
Speaker 2: And he was talking about this large floating that he
Speaker 2: had Pastor Joel bought recently. And uh, and they spent
Speaker 2: some money on this thing. What do you spend like
Speaker 2: thirteen hundred bucks or something?
Speaker 1: Wow? I mean, I've known you a long time.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you spending thirteen hundred You didn't
Speaker 2: pay that.
Speaker 1: For your house.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot of money for Wow, and you're
Speaker 2: a pastor.
Speaker 1: Huh, all right, we need you to go to that
Speaker 1: giving thing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we're gonna have a drop over to add
Speaker 2: pastor's floating.
Speaker 1: Well, all know what it's about. But anyway, but his
Speaker 1: point was.
Speaker 2: You know that they bought this floaty, they made the
Speaker 2: floating float and uh and then they get up.
Speaker 1: And it's gone, like.
Speaker 2: What happened to the floating I can only imagine this
Speaker 2: conversation at their house and and Pastor Joel said, I
Speaker 2: told him me better go find it.
Speaker 1: It was probably his idea to buy it. She was
Speaker 1: against it.
Speaker 2: And then it disappears and she's like, you better go
Speaker 2: find that thing.
Speaker 1: How'd I do? Is? I am my clothes? Kind of okay?
Speaker 1: But but here's the thing about that.
Speaker 2: So and I want to relate that to us for
Speaker 2: a moment, because see a lot of us we can
Speaker 2: end up feeling a lot like that floaty. You're like, wow,
Speaker 2: how do you get that? Well, here's the deal. When
Speaker 2: when you first become a Christian. So when you first
Speaker 2: get the floaty, you pull it out of the box,
Speaker 2: you inflate the thing. You know, when we first become Christians.
Speaker 2: I remember when I became a Christian, I was like
Speaker 2: full of energy, full of vigord. There was nothing that
Speaker 2: could stop me. Saved, fill the Holy Ghost, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to heaven and nothing's going to get.
Speaker 1: In my way, you know, and same thing.
Speaker 2: You know, we kind of get that, and you know,
Speaker 2: we get the euphoria of it going. We go float
Speaker 2: out in the lake and it's a calm day, the
Speaker 2: sun is shining, the water is calm. Maybe the grandkids
Speaker 2: are playing with us. If it were our kids, we'd
Speaker 2: be irritated, but it's grandkids, so we're not irritated, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: speaking from experience and so so, you know, but you're
Speaker 2: laying there, but you're thinking to yourself, man, this is
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: I'm never going back to shore. This is it.
Speaker 2: The sun is in my face, like these lights are
Speaker 2: shining down. You know, maybe I have some sunscreen. I
Speaker 2: probably need it here under the lights. But it's okay.
Speaker 2: And and so you know, you're you're just laying there.
Speaker 2: Life is good. Maybe you have a little glass of tea.
Speaker 2: You're just hanging out and you never want to go
Speaker 2: back to shore. And then, you know, that's how it
Speaker 2: is with us as Christians. We kind of get into
Speaker 2: that mode and we're just kind of, you know, this
Speaker 2: is so good, we don't ever want it to change.
Speaker 2: But then life has to happen and things begin to
Speaker 2: change and when pastors rescued the floating, he found it.
Speaker 2: They get it untethered from the other people's dock, and
Speaker 2: they take it home, and they discovered that it had
Speaker 2: a little leak in it. It had picked up a nail,
Speaker 2: and now it became more of a sinker than a floaty.
Speaker 2: And sometimes that's how our lives can be, you know.
Speaker 2: We kind of bump along and life is good, and then.
Speaker 1: A little.
Speaker 2: Pop comes and we have a little link and we
Speaker 2: begin to sink a little bit.
Speaker 1: But now that's our new normal, and we just but
Speaker 1: life just becomes what it is.
Speaker 2: And you know, with Peter, I can only imagine he's
Speaker 2: sitting in the boat. They see Jesus on the water
Speaker 2: through the mist, can't really tell who he is. And
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, you know, Peter sees and
Speaker 2: recognize him.
Speaker 1: Says, Lord, if it's you, call me out of the boat.
Speaker 2: I want to walk on the water too, And Jesus says, well,
Speaker 2: come on out, Peter, and so he gets out of
Speaker 2: the boat and he begins to walk on the water.
Speaker 2: And Peter, all of a sudden, like us on that floating,
Speaker 2: he's all of a sudden, he's pretty excited. Because walking
Speaker 2: on the water is a totally different experience than being
Speaker 2: on the water in a boat, And he's thinking to himself,
Speaker 2: you know, this is really cool, and Peter, he's like
Speaker 2: probably thinking to himself, this is the best thing in
Speaker 2: my life. I'm going to be able to walk on
Speaker 2: the water. I don't need a boat to go fishing anymore.
Speaker 2: I can just walk out, get the fish, come back in.
Speaker 2: I don't have the maintenance of a boat. I don't
Speaker 2: have to clean the boat. I don't have to trailer
Speaker 2: the boat to Blue Creek. I don't have think about that.
Speaker 2: What could we do if we just walked on the
Speaker 2: river and got the fish? Amazing, really cool. But then
Speaker 2: something happens and distractions come the waves, maybe a wind,
Speaker 2: or maybe those guys in the boat that you left behind. Hey, Peter,
Speaker 2: you better get back in the boat before you drown.
Speaker 1: Dude, what are you thinking? You're going to sink?
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, those voices become the voices
Speaker 2: you're hearing, not not the word of the Lord, the
Speaker 2: voices from behind, well meaning people who only have your
Speaker 2: best interest in heart, and he begins to sink. But
Speaker 2: up to that point, he's sinking to himself. I'm going
Speaker 2: to open a new business. Who needs a boat? When
Speaker 2: you've got Jesus charter company? Would that sell?
Speaker 1: It might? Craig's my fishing buddy, so you know.
Speaker 2: But but I'm telling you the reality of life can
Speaker 2: wipe us out if we're not careful. And what God
Speaker 2: wants us to hear today is that He has this
Speaker 2: sustaining connection that he wants with us. He wants us
Speaker 2: to be people who are so connected to Him that
Speaker 2: the people in the boat can't distract us from the word.
Speaker 2: Come on that when we're on the floatie. All we
Speaker 2: can hear is his word. All we can hear is
Speaker 2: his praises. All we can hear are the good things
Speaker 2: of God. Jesus said this in Revelation three. He said, behold,
Speaker 2: I stand at the door, and I knock, and if
Speaker 2: anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will
Speaker 2: come in and dine with him, and he with me.
Speaker 2: And then Timothy Paul was writing to him, and he said,
Speaker 2: and two Timothy one six He says, I'm writing to
Speaker 2: you to encourage you to fan the flame and rekindle
Speaker 2: the fire of the spiritual gift.
Speaker 1: God imparted to you all of these things.
Speaker 2: See John, he wrote this that Jesus stands at the
Speaker 2: door and knocks, And we think of that as a
Speaker 2: salvation call, and it is, but it's also Jesus standing
Speaker 2: at the door and knocking and saying, I want to
Speaker 2: come in and dine with you. If you read that
Speaker 2: passage and you go into the original interpretation, is it
Speaker 2: is the bridegroom standing at the door knocking on the
Speaker 2: door of his bride. And if they opened the door
Speaker 2: and they invited him in, the answer was yes. Jesus
Speaker 2: is saying to you today, will you be my bride?
Speaker 2: Will you invite me in? And what Paul was saying
Speaker 2: to Timothy is Timothy, if you want to run with
Speaker 2: God the way that you've been called to run with God,
Speaker 2: with the annoying thing that you've been called with, with,
Speaker 2: with the passion that He's put in you, You're gonna
Speaker 2: have to do something on your own.
Speaker 1: You've got to stir yourself.
Speaker 2: You've got to stir that blessed you got to stir yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, I'm challenged by this, and I want
Speaker 2: to challenge all of us that that that you consider
Speaker 2: stirring yourself every day. You know, it's interesting because I was, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking about this the other day, and it
Speaker 2: puts a responsibility on us. You know, so many times
Speaker 2: we we we come to church and we don't get stirred.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're not stirred by the worship, but you know
Speaker 2: what it wasn't for you? Was he stirred by it?
Speaker 2: Come on, I don't want that to sound critical. I'm
Speaker 2: just telling you what we think of it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: Can we stir ourselves into the reality that Jesus you
Speaker 2: are my Lord.
Speaker 1: I worship you with all that I have.
Speaker 2: I worship you even though I don't necessarily care for
Speaker 2: that type of music. But I'm gonna worship you anyway.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna worship you. I'm gonna serve you. I want
Speaker 2: to praise you. Stir yourselves up. Jeff Conley was telling
Speaker 2: me the other day about an encounter that he had
Speaker 2: with the Lord this week and how that he had
Speaker 2: gone up into his prayer room in the morning and
Speaker 2: he began to pray.
Speaker 1: And he went in there.
Speaker 2: With no phone, no music, nothing, just goes in their
Speaker 2: raw and he began to pray, and He's like, I
Speaker 2: just wanted to visit with God, and he began to pray,
Speaker 2: and he began to seek the Holy Spirit, and pretty
Speaker 2: soon he began to sing. And soon he begins to
Speaker 2: get stirred up in his spiriting, and he begins to
Speaker 2: sense Holy Spirit in the room, and he's singing a
Speaker 2: new song, and he stirred up, and he said, it
Speaker 2: was the best.
Speaker 1: Encounter I've had in a very long time.
Speaker 2: God wants us so raw, he wants us so stirred
Speaker 2: up in him, that all we can do is say, God,
Speaker 2: I just.
Speaker 1: Need you, and I want you.
Speaker 2: I want you in every situation. I want you in
Speaker 2: my life. God, more than anything. I want you in
Speaker 2: the lives of my children. I want you in the
Speaker 2: lives of my grandchildren. I want you in the lives
Speaker 2: of the people that are around me. God, get yourself
Speaker 2: stirred up. Let what breaks his heart break your heart.
Speaker 2: The relationship that He has for us is so filled
Speaker 2: with joy and purpose and destiny, telling you so many
Speaker 2: times we as Christians, we walk through life with a
Speaker 2: little bit of a leak, and we allow it to
Speaker 2: destroy us, and we allow it to steal the joy
Speaker 2: that He has for us because we're not taking the
Speaker 2: time to patch it every single day and say, God,
Speaker 2: I need you more than anything. Psalm sixteen eleven says,
Speaker 2: because of you, I know the path of life. As
Speaker 2: I taste the fullness of joy in your presence at
Speaker 2: your right side, I experienced divine pleasure forevermore.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 2: He's the God of joy, and he's the God of pleasure.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want you to be bored, to be stiff,
Speaker 2: to have a leak, to be down cast. He wants
Speaker 2: you full of joy, full of pleasure. And it's through
Speaker 2: that joy and through that pleasure that you're gonna find
Speaker 2: your destiny and everything that he has for you.
Speaker 1: Many of you know our story a little bit.
Speaker 2: You know that since the beginning of twenty twenty, Sandy
Speaker 2: and I we really began to focus on the communion message.
Speaker 2: And in the beginning it wasn't that it was just hey,
Speaker 2: let's receive communion with Jeff and ca Aaron who were
Speaker 2: stuck on the Princess Cruise ship, and we're like, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, can we just call you, encourage you each
Speaker 2: day and receive communion with you and pray with you, guys,
Speaker 2: because they're stuck out in the middle of the Pacific
Speaker 2: ocean in a little dinky cabin. These are very tall people.
Speaker 2: Have you seen them? Can you imagine? No window? You know,
Speaker 2: the bedroom is small, you know, Jeff is tall, Karen's tall.
Speaker 2: These are big people. This is like, you know, I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I'd go out of my mind. I
Speaker 2: would have gone out of my mind. I'm not very big,
Speaker 2: you know. And and so that began this thing, and
Speaker 2: and so then it kind of grew, you know, and
Speaker 2: we start just receiving communion with them, and then we
Speaker 2: invite people from the church to begin receiving communion with us.
Speaker 1: And and it just kind of gross.
Speaker 2: And then I'm sitting at home one day on a
Speaker 2: Saturday and and I'm like, I'm like, you know what we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna do, honey.
Speaker 2: We're gonna start a Facebook page and we're gonna call
Speaker 2: it my daily communion. You ever done something as a
Speaker 2: commitment and gone after you did it, You're like, what
Speaker 2: was I thinking?
Speaker 1: And that kind of hit me.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know right, I mean, I'm like, because
Speaker 2: it's not my every other day communion, it isn't my
Speaker 2: every other week communion.
Speaker 1: It's my daily communion.
Speaker 2: When you have a website, called my Daily Communion dot
Speaker 2: Com and you can go there and check it out.
Speaker 2: It's kind of cool, you know, and and like, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like people expect to see.
Speaker 1: A daily communion post.
Speaker 2: Who knew, And like, we grew up in religion. We're
Speaker 2: in church, you know, Pentecostal kids. We had communion afore
Speaker 2: Sunday of every month in the same scripture, you know,
Speaker 2: and we examined ourselves and we took communion, and you know,
Speaker 2: in five minutes it was over, and we had done
Speaker 2: our communion duty for the months, and life went on,
Speaker 2: and then twenty twenty hits and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: communion because something totally different to us. It had already
Speaker 2: been that years ago, but at this point in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: it's like, this is really important for people right now.
Speaker 2: And while we didn't have a whole lot of manna
Speaker 2: in us because we knew a few scriptures about communion,
Speaker 2: but then God begins to place a daily manna in us.
Speaker 2: So the Bible says, if you seek me out, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna come to you. And we would sit around, I
Speaker 2: remember these early days of this, and we would literally
Speaker 2: we would sit around and we would talk about these things,
Speaker 2: and it kind of was at the beginning, it was
Speaker 2: kind of like this laborious thing.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was kind of like, wow, this is we have
Speaker 2: to do this, and we could. And then and then
Speaker 2: one day I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm praying
Speaker 2: about it because because I realized that we're making it hard.
Speaker 2: We're making it hard. And then there's this day I'm
Speaker 2: sitting in my chair and I'm praying and I'm prepping
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me
Speaker 2: and he says, I want to show you something.
Speaker 1: And he begins to show me.
Speaker 2: He says, I want you to see that there was
Speaker 2: a foreshadow of communion throughout the Word of God, throughout
Speaker 2: the Bible. And I'm going to give you golden nuggets
Speaker 2: to give to people, not because other people have taught
Speaker 2: this and you're gonna be able to go learn from them,
Speaker 2: but because you're going to learn from Holy Spirit what
Speaker 2: God wants you to present. And it was interesting because commitment,
Speaker 2: how many of you have a hard time with commitment?
Speaker 2: Come on, seriously, like I know this, more than three
Speaker 2: or four of you as needed to come to the
Speaker 2: altar and repent today. But The point I'm making is that,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes we do things and then we try
Speaker 2: and do it in our own and it becomes hard.
Speaker 2: And yet God begins to show us things. And one
Speaker 2: day I remember the Lord speaking to him. He says, Okay,
Speaker 2: I want you to understand something. I fed Elijah communion
Speaker 2: under the broom free to overcome depression.
Speaker 1: Would you tell people that please?
Speaker 2: So I'm telling you you want to get over depression,
Speaker 2: receive communion. And then he says to me one day,
Speaker 2: he says, you know, when Paul was shipwrecked and the
Speaker 2: men hadn't eaten for fourteen days, I fed them communion
Speaker 2: because the journey ahead of them was too long without it.
Speaker 1: He says, would you.
Speaker 2: Tell the people that they need communion every day because
Speaker 2: the journey they're facing is too long without it. And
Speaker 2: he began to make it easy for us to see.
Speaker 2: And everything we began to see was through this lens
Speaker 2: that God began to just lift the lid off of.
Speaker 1: And he says, these are what I want you to teach.
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you this not to brag, because it's
Speaker 2: not anything we can brag about. This has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with Sandy and I all of this was things
Speaker 2: that Holy Spirit began to reveal to us. But I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, if you'll make a commitment, God will meet
Speaker 2: you in your commitment.
Speaker 1: And if you'll.
Speaker 2: Decide that you're going to do the thing that's hard,
Speaker 2: God will meet you in the thing that's hard and
Speaker 2: make it easy. Come on, Serving Him is easy. Making
Speaker 2: the commitment is the hard part for us as people.
Speaker 2: But once we make that decision, God's going to turn
Speaker 2: on the faucet and all of a sudden, the thing
Speaker 2: that you thought was hard is going to become easy.
Speaker 2: The thing that you thought was difficult is going to
Speaker 2: become something that you can handle every single day. And
Speaker 2: I'm telling you it will change, change, change your life.
Speaker 2: Miraculous things flow out of the intimacy with Him telling you.
Speaker 2: The miraculous flows. We have seen miracles in our lives.
Speaker 2: You know about God healing me of celiac disease. We've
Speaker 2: seen miracles in other people's lives. You know about Roman
Speaker 2: and you know having a baby, how Aiden came? Where
Speaker 2: after all those years of infertility and treatments and frustration, communion,
Speaker 2: one night, three weeks later, they're pregnant. Come on, Come on, God,
Speaker 2: he's the god of fertility. He's the god of agility.
Speaker 2: He's the god that will take you from your low
Speaker 2: point to your high point. If you're struggling with anything,
Speaker 2: he's the god for it.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. If you're struggling in.
Speaker 2: Your finances, he's the god of prosperity. If you're struggling
Speaker 2: in your health, he's the god of your healing.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 2: If you're struggling in your marriage, he's the god of
Speaker 2: reconciliation and unity. Come on, But it starts with communion
Speaker 2: with him. You've got to have communion with him. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I sometimes everything I talk about it gets
Speaker 2: up ends up being community. Yes, because you know what,
Speaker 2: everything in our lives flows out of our relationship with him.
Speaker 2: And Jesus said, I came here. I'm knocking on the
Speaker 2: door to dine with you. Come on at that table,
Speaker 2: Come and dine. Come on, come and dine. Tell him
Speaker 2: your troubles, tell him your high points, tell him your
Speaker 2: low points, tell him everything that's going on. And you
Speaker 2: know what else, Listen to what he has to say.
Speaker 2: Because he cares about the government, he cares about the
Speaker 2: school system, he cares about the Port Commission. He cares
Speaker 2: about our lives daily. He is the god that cares
Speaker 2: about everything that's going on in our lives. As a
Speaker 2: young man, as a boy I grew up, I was
Speaker 2: fascinated by this story of Zachias. So you all, some
Speaker 2: of you might recognize that that's actually a picture of
Speaker 2: a flannel graph. I many even know what a flannel
Speaker 2: graph is. Okay, there's about half of you, Okay, good
Speaker 2: third of you. Whatever I told Sandy, like fourteen people
Speaker 2: would raise their hand. But you know, I was always
Speaker 2: amazed by the flannel graph because like it was this
Speaker 2: piece of paper and he's stuck it.
Speaker 1: On the wall, and I was like, huh, how's that work?
Speaker 1: You know? And and so I'd be like trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how it works.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure the teacher was saying something really important
Speaker 2: about Zychias, but I was still trying to figure out
Speaker 2: how to stick to the wall, you know. And I'd
Speaker 2: look at the back afterward, thinking they got glue back there,
Speaker 2: and it's just soft and anyway, it kind of freaked
Speaker 2: me out, but it was cool, you know.
Speaker 1: And I tried to take it home with me and
Speaker 1: my mother slapped me.
Speaker 2: She was she was the bastard's wife, you know, and
Speaker 2: the and the teacher and so I'm boring.
Speaker 1: It was terrible.
Speaker 2: So anyway, but but you know, but but Zachias fascinated
Speaker 2: me as a kid. And the other thing that was
Speaker 2: cool about is Psychias was there was a cool little
Speaker 2: song that went with Zachias's story. You know, you guys
Speaker 2: know the song Zachius was a wee little.
Speaker 1: Man, and a wee little man was he?
Speaker 2: Guys know the song some of how many of you
Speaker 2: honestly know the song? And I have okay, oh right,
Speaker 2: I stopped singing, Okay, But the point was that, you know,
Speaker 2: Zakias climbs up in the sycamore tree because he wants
Speaker 2: to see Jesus, and the Bible teaches us that Zachius was, you.
Speaker 1: Know, was uh.
Speaker 2: Was you know, height challenged, let's say, yeah, and so
Speaker 2: you know that's why you call him a wee little man. Okay,
Speaker 2: it was cute and it probably rhymed, but you know whatever,
Speaker 2: And and so, but Zacheus was this guy who was
Speaker 2: short and he worked for the Roman government. He was
Speaker 2: a Jewish man working for the Roman governor government. And
Speaker 2: he wasn't just like a tax collector. He was actually
Speaker 2: in charge of tax collectors, and so he was known
Speaker 2: to be, you know, this kind of squirrely little guy
Speaker 2: who abused people and took their money. And probably from
Speaker 2: the Jewish perspective, he was considered a trader because he
Speaker 2: worked for the Romans and he would take your money.
Speaker 2: And the tax collectors back then, they would, you.
Speaker 1: Know, be just honest.
Speaker 2: They would charge you more than you were supposed to
Speaker 2: pay because that was their share. And zachy Is became
Speaker 2: wealthy through this process. And and so one day though,
Speaker 2: and by the way, how many of us have friends
Speaker 2: that work at the I R S?
Speaker 1: Anybody?
Speaker 2: I asked this in first there's one person out of
Speaker 2: the out of however many we've had here today, one person, pastor.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, congratulations. How many have you worked for the
Speaker 2: I R S? Anybody? Okay, good, all right, okay, we're
Speaker 2: just just checking in, no big deal.
Speaker 1: We're all good here.
Speaker 2: But but my point is these guys don't have a
Speaker 2: lot of friends.
Speaker 1: They didn't then and they don't today.
Speaker 2: We still have a guy that attended our churchyard that
Speaker 2: was an auditor with the I R S. And you know,
Speaker 2: we love dun him. From a distance. So, but here's
Speaker 2: the thing about Zachias. He was physically, you know, financially,
Speaker 2: materially he was very wealthy, but spiritually he was bankrupt.
Speaker 1: Emotionally he was probably bankrupt.
Speaker 2: He probably didn't like himself any more than the people
Speaker 2: that were around him liked him, because that's what happens
Speaker 2: to people like that.
Speaker 1: And and so.
Speaker 2: He goes and he hears that Jesus is coming to town.
Speaker 2: Let's read this in Luke nineteen. It says on his
Speaker 2: way to Jerusalem, Jesus had passed through had to pass
Speaker 2: through Jericho. There lived a very wealthy man named Zachias,
Speaker 2: who supervised all the tax collectors, and he was eager
Speaker 2: to see Jesus and kept trying to get a look
Speaker 2: at him through the massive crowds. Since Zachias was a
Speaker 2: short man and couldn't see over their heads of the people,
Speaker 2: over the heads of the people, he ran ahead of
Speaker 2: everyone and climbed up a blossoming fig tree to get
Speaker 2: a glimpse of Jesus as he passed by. And it
Speaker 2: says when Jesus got to that place, he looked up
Speaker 2: into the tree and he said, Zachius, hurry down for
Speaker 2: I must stay at your house today. And then the
Speaker 2: crowd they heard that, and they began to complain, and
Speaker 2: it says, look at this, of all the people to
Speaker 2: have dinner with, he's going to eat.
Speaker 1: At the house of a crook.
Speaker 2: And Zachias was amazed over his gracious visit, over the
Speaker 2: gracious visit to his home of Jesus, and joyously welcomed him.
Speaker 2: And Zachias stood in front of him and said, half
Speaker 2: of all that I own I will give to the poor,
Speaker 2: and Lord, if I've cheated anyone, I promised to pay
Speaker 2: them back four times as much as I've stolen. And
Speaker 2: then Jesus says something to him that's absolutely crucial. He says, gee,
Speaker 2: Jesus said to him, your repentance shows that today salvation
Speaker 2: has come to you and to your household, and that
Speaker 2: you are a true son of Abraham.
Speaker 1: I want you to catch some things here.
Speaker 2: Here's a man who probably thought very little of himself.
Speaker 2: Here's a man who others thought very little of as well.
Speaker 2: And then one day Jesus is coming to town and
Speaker 2: he hears about it, and.
Speaker 1: He remembers something.
Speaker 2: He begins to think, this man who might be the Messiah,
Speaker 2: I want to see him with my own eyes. There
Speaker 2: was something in him that began to stir, there was
Speaker 2: something in him that began to cry out, I need
Speaker 2: to see this man. And he goes and he climbs
Speaker 2: into this tree, and this tree. It's an interesting thing.
Speaker 2: These sycamore fight as trees the fruit on them. In
Speaker 2: order for that fruit to ripen, it has to be
Speaker 2: struck open.
Speaker 1: It's just like our hearts.
Speaker 2: God needs to strike us open sometimes so he can
Speaker 2: cause us to mature and come into what he's called
Speaker 2: us to. And Zachias goes up there and Jesus strikes
Speaker 2: him open. Wow, by his loving kindness. He knew his name,
Speaker 2: he recognized him, he saw his weaknesses, and he said, Zachias,
Speaker 2: I need you to come down from that tree, look
Speaker 2: me in the eye, because today I'm going to dine
Speaker 2: at your house.
Speaker 1: And he goes to his house.
Speaker 2: And the Bible really doesn't tell us much about what
Speaker 2: happened behind those closed doors, but.
Speaker 1: I can tell you this. I guarantee you.
Speaker 2: At that table, at that communion table, they were sitting
Speaker 2: there and Jesus said to him, Zachias, you were created
Speaker 2: with a soft heart. Zachias, you were created to be
Speaker 2: a man who loves people. Zachias. You were created to
Speaker 2: be honest, Zachias. You were created to love on your
Speaker 2: fellow neighbors. Zachias, I've put something in you that's meant
Speaker 2: to influence all of your talent, all of the things
Speaker 2: that you've done, all of your abilities, if you'll use
Speaker 2: them for me, I'm going to make you the tallest
Speaker 2: man in all of the city. You may not be
Speaker 2: tall physically, and you might be critical of yourself, but
Speaker 2: Jesus is saying, whatever your shortcoming is.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it your PowerPoint right now.
Speaker 2: And zach he is all of the sudden, something comes
Speaker 2: over him and he stands up in front of Jesus
Speaker 2: and he says.
Speaker 1: I'm going to become a different person today. And he became.
Speaker 2: He transitioned from a heart of stone to a heart
Speaker 2: of softness. He transitioned from a miser to a giver.
Speaker 2: He transitioned from someone who was hoarding to someone who
Speaker 2: was not hoarding. And all of a sudden, I want
Speaker 2: to give it all away. I'm going to give back
Speaker 2: four times what I've stolen. All of a sudden, he changed,
Speaker 2: and God's saying to us today you'll do the same thing.
Speaker 1: I'll make you.
Speaker 2: I'll make you something you've never dreamed that you could be.
Speaker 2: I want to share with you something that the closer
Speaker 2: we will draw to Him, the more clearly we will
Speaker 2: hear him.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you.
Speaker 2: Encountering him, you'll begin to hear his voice more clearly.
Speaker 2: You'll begin to sense his presence more clearly. You'll begin
Speaker 2: to understand what he has going on, what he has
Speaker 2: planned for your life, more clearly than you've ever had before.
Speaker 1: This morning.
Speaker 2: My encouragement to us is that you would consider a
Speaker 2: daily encounter with Him, kind of like what Sandy and
Speaker 2: I have done, where I could tell you story after
Speaker 2: story after story or over the past few years, God
Speaker 2: has met us in those morning moments, and sometimes it
Speaker 2: becomes a little bit emotional because we begin to see
Speaker 2: things that we've never seen before, and it begins to
Speaker 2: minister to the places that we've never even knew where.
Speaker 1: Problems in our lives, and the Holy Spirit begins to
Speaker 1: touch us, and.
Speaker 2: God begins to touch your life because maybe in that
Speaker 2: lonely place, he says, you know what, if you'll dine
Speaker 2: with me today, I'm gonna fill that void.
Speaker 1: And maybe you're looking at a.
Speaker 2: Health situation and Jesus says, if you'll dine with me today,
Speaker 2: I want to heal you physically. Come on, maybe it's
Speaker 2: that moment that you're saying, God, I don't know what
Speaker 2: to do because my marriage is falling apart, and he says,
Speaker 2: he you'll dine with me, I'll begin to heal your marriage.
Speaker 1: Because you see, as we.
Speaker 2: Dine with him, he says, if you'll dine with me,
Speaker 2: I want to heal your heart. I want to touch
Speaker 2: your life. I want everything in your world to be
Speaker 2: what I've called it to be. If you'll shrut out
Speaker 2: the noise of the distractions and focus on me, have
Speaker 2: got something for you that you've never had before, through
Speaker 2: the chaos, through the difficulties, through all of that.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want to compete with those noises.
Speaker 2: He wants to completely invade your space and your situation.
Speaker 1: He will absolutely change your heart.
Speaker 2: Out of Zacheus's life and that moment of encounter, zach
Speaker 2: Heias began to see himself completely different. It's interesting that
Speaker 2: the Bible says he's stood up. Here's a very short
Speaker 2: man who probably hadn't stood up a lot in his
Speaker 2: life but that day he stood up a little taller,
Speaker 2: a little stronger, but with the power of the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 2: and made some serious commitments to the Lord. That day,
Speaker 2: he began to view his relationship with the Lord totally
Speaker 2: different because.
Speaker 1: He hadn't known him until then.
Speaker 2: But now, all of a sudden, he's like, here's this
Speaker 2: man who's the Messiah who came into my house. I
Speaker 2: didn't deserve him to come into my house, but he came.
Speaker 2: I hadn't done anything that deserved the honorary, the honor
Speaker 2: of his majesty, King Jesus, coming into my house, but
Speaker 2: he came.
Speaker 1: And you might feel that way about your house.
Speaker 2: Maybe your house has just calm, and maybe your house
Speaker 2: isn't the biggest, maybe your house isn't the most fallation.
Speaker 2: What I'm telling you, if you'll invite him, and he's
Speaker 2: going to come in because he sees you as a prince,
Speaker 2: he sees you as royalty, he sees you as one
Speaker 2: of his own, and he wont to sit down with
Speaker 2: you and dine with you and tell you all the
Speaker 2: good things that he sees in you, the beauty of
Speaker 2: your life, the plans he has, the things he has
Speaker 2: for you. If we'll just dine with him. The Bible
Speaker 2: tells us that though we were once far off, we
Speaker 2: have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Every
Speaker 2: time you receive that cup of communion, you're drawing near
Speaker 2: to him. Every time. It's not just simply a wafer
Speaker 2: and a cup of jews. This is the very dna
Speaker 2: of our Lord Jesus entering our bodies. The most powerful
Speaker 2: substances on earth are those two elements that you're holding.
Speaker 2: That encounter with him will change your relationship with other people.
Speaker 1: All of a.
Speaker 2: Sudden, You'll begin to see them through the eyes of Jesus.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, it will change your perspective. Prejudices fall
Speaker 2: off in light of what Jesus sees. Hatred falls away
Speaker 2: in light of what Jesus sees. Disappointment, discouragement, doubt, and unbelief.
Speaker 2: They just fall off, and all of a sudden, you
Speaker 2: can have relationship with people that you never dreamed of,
Speaker 2: and maybe those shattered relationships become restored because of communion
Speaker 2: with Jesus. Would you stand with me? This invitation in
Speaker 2: revelation still stands today. He's standing today at the door
Speaker 2: of our lives knocking, and.
Speaker 1: He's saying, if you will open that door.
Speaker 2: And invite me in, I want to come in and
Speaker 2: dine with you. If you will open that door and
Speaker 2: make a commitment of encounter. He's telling us today that
Speaker 2: those encounters will change your life. I believe that the
Speaker 2: most important time of our day is that time that
Speaker 2: we spend with Him. There's nothing more important for your
Speaker 2: day than be able to sit with Jesus and have
Speaker 2: that encounter. And I promise you, if you'll set aside
Speaker 2: some time in the mornings, and I challenge you to
Speaker 2: do this tomorrow, just set some time aside, take two minutes,
Speaker 2: play a worship song. I don't care what you do,
Speaker 2: but focus on Him for two minutes, and I tell
Speaker 2: you it will change your life. It will change your day.
Speaker 2: And I guarantee you when you go to work tomorrow,
Speaker 2: you're gonna see people, You're gonna see situations totally different.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, as you do this every
Speaker 2: day and you make this encounter a part of your life.
Speaker 1: It does not have to be hard.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, pretty soon, when he begins to encounter
Speaker 2: with you, all of the sudden, that encounter becomes the
Speaker 2: thing you look forward to the most every single day
Speaker 2: of your life. And as you encounter him and you
Speaker 2: begin to share with him your deepest, darkest concerns or
Speaker 2: your greatest victories, he's there to meet you, and he
Speaker 2: has victories to share with you too.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 2: Father, we declare over your people that desire to encounter you.
Speaker 1: God, I asked him.
Speaker 2: Your Holy Spirit would invade every.
Speaker 1: Home this present here. Lord, we give you our homes.
Speaker 1: We give you the room. God.
Speaker 2: We we just declare, Father, that you are the lord
Speaker 2: of our homes. That you're the lord of our finances,
Speaker 2: You're the lord of our fears, You're the lord of
Speaker 2: our insecurities. You know the lord of everything in our lives. God,
Speaker 2: and we give it to you. And God, I pray
Speaker 2: to your Holy Spirit, would tenderly speak into our lives,
Speaker 2: tenderly speak into every situation. We declare healing, we declare restoration,
Speaker 2: we declare deliverance.
Speaker 1: We declare the power of Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: Moving throughout this church, throughout the lives of the people
Speaker 2: in our homes.
Speaker 1: In Jesus Mighty Air. Amen, God bless you this morning. Church.
Speaker 1: Would you give him.
Speaker 2: A shout of praise as you go today?
Speaker 1: Amen?
Speaker 2: Lord, we thank you and we glorify you in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Let's worship as we go Church. Amen.