SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: The Church of the Lookout is a full color and a vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family and living on his mission to transform the world with all inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us alive at the lookout.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a fun day because we're going to be uh setting up this initiative that we're going to be in as a church for the next several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Before I talk about that, um, I just want to uh bring to mind a passage, maybe the most well-known scripture, whether you're a Christian or not.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows this and can quote this.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find this on street corners, you'll find this at sporting events, and that scripture is John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure you'll be able to quote this even without it on the screen, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Just can we, we are gonna have it on the screen, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Um John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: Can we read this together for a moment?
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to somebody around you and say, God so loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, and if that wasn't convincing, turn to the other person to the other side and say, God so loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that was completely forced and inauthentic, but it's true because it's in the Bible, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's it's one of those passages that we we know it so well that sometimes we forget to enter into the depth of how good it is not to just be loved by God, but to be so loved by God, to be so loved by the Father that he would send his son.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus said to this Pharisee, this ruler of the law, Nicodemus, as Nicodemus, something was changing in his heart in John chapter 3, something was shifting, and he started asking new questions because he couldn't reconcile the fact that Jesus was doing things uh that no other person was doing, and he had somehow he had words of life, and he recognized this in his heart, and so he was asking Jesus, what is this all about?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would then just begin to open the door to say that listen, there is something new that happens when you're born of the Spirit, when you were born again, when you come to the Father and put your belief and your trust in me, um, that the Father wants to give you everlasting life, eternal life for whoever would come to me.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know it is not God's will that any would be left to their own death, to the left to their own destruction, but that all would have everlasting life, life here and life forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: And that's for you and I, that's for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna be starting a conversation called So Loved.
SPEAKER_00: And for the next several weeks, we're gonna be talking about the love of God and how the love of God looks because Jesus died for the world, but he loves every single one of us one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I about I imagine if you were to think about the moments in your life where you felt the most loved, I bet you're not thinking about crowds of people.
SPEAKER_00: You're probably not thinking about giant events, you're thinking about one moment at a time.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking about names and faces of people in your life that took a moment to see you, to call your name, to invite you into something, to speak words of life into you, to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we want to look at in the life of Jesus because he invites us into his life.
SPEAKER_00: And his life, we read in the life of Jesus that he would take one moment at a time with the people that he was loving.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke chapter 19 is where we're at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I'm gonna read this, and you can follow along on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 19, starting in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: He entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
SPEAKER_00: He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
SPEAKER_00: So he ran on ahead and climbed up into the sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
SPEAKER_00: So he heard and came down and received him joyfully.
SPEAKER_00: And when they saw it, they all grumbled.
SPEAKER_00: He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus was a wee little man.
SPEAKER_00: And a wee little man was sea, all right?
SPEAKER_00: All of us thoroughbred church kids know the song that we learned in Sun in dark, dingy basements all across America.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was sea.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the first stories that so many of us memorized.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's good for kids, it's good for adults, it's good to be short in stature and still be able to get to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those stories that in the Bible is a really fascinating one because the Gospel of Luke is the only one out of the four Gospels that captures the story.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and Luke includes the story to build upon some of the other themes that he gets at regularly in the Gospel of Luke, which is namely um uh uh the problem of riches and how riches sometimes becomes this obstacle to our follow- uh our discipleship to Jesus and what we are to do about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the theme of Jesus' identification with sinners and his his uh resolve to, no matter how much grumbling and weird noises are coming from the Pharisees, he still insists on being with the people that nobody wants to be with.
SPEAKER_00: But then also uh as the faith that comes upon recognizing Jesus as Lord and the new life as the result of it.
SPEAKER_00: These are all themes that Luke gets at.
SPEAKER_00: And in this particular passage, this is a snapshot of how Jesus, as he is ministering to crowds, as he makes his way across the land, as he is faithful to this larger mission of ultimately laying down his life for all of humanity and the world, like what have you done with your life?
SPEAKER_00: He laid down his life for the entire world, right?
SPEAKER_00: And even with that, as his mission from the Father, he still found time to find the one.
SPEAKER_00: He still made space for the one.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to look at this, look at this in the story.
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus engage the one?
SPEAKER_00: What can we look at this?
SPEAKER_00: What can we learn for ourselves even today?
SPEAKER_00: And so he's coming into Jericho and he's making his way down this highway.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that Jesus stops and he he looks up and he sees a man in the tree.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the middle of a crowd, and so this would be easy to not see anyone in particular, but to make his way for whatever reason he was in Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: But we see that immediately something turns in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He notices this wee little man climbing a sycamore tree.
SPEAKER_00: And his eyes, what's important to see here is even in Jesus, his eyes were not simply dialed into his itinerary for the day in Jericho, but he had the capacity, he had the capacity to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't, which means this, Jesus didn't live in a way that was just rushed and dictated by whatever appointment he had that later that day.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere he went, he went for a reason, but any everywhere he went, he left open the ability to pay attention to the one.
SPEAKER_00: And even in this scenario, Jesus, as he's coming into Jericho, he there's this availability in the heart of Jesus that as he sees this man climb the tree, something turns.
SPEAKER_00: And and as he turns towards Zacchaeus, we see that he greets him by name.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't know if he had been to Jericho before.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know if Zacchaeus is like, you know, was on his childhood soccer team or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how far back they go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we can we might even assume that this was kind of prophetically.
SPEAKER_00: He just like God showed him this man's name, Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: He may have not even known he was a tax collector, but he calls his name Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: And and and by calling his name, he's demonstrating to Zacchaeus, like, listen, whatever whoever you are, I see you, I know your name, and uh, and you're you're worth me stopping for in order to invite into action.
SPEAKER_00: Now, does he know he's a tax collector?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not even sure if he cares at this point in time, but a lot of other people care about this particular detail, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Who in this room, first of all, enjoys paying taxes?
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So humanities always have an issue.
SPEAKER_00: We've always had an issue with taxes, all right?
SPEAKER_00: But this isn't just taxes, this isn't just the IRS.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys know, like tax collectors in first century Israel, this was like above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: This is next level because the Roman government taxed the people very harshly in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the the Romans were occupying this entire land, and so they were taxing the people.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that they would tax the people is they got these Jewish men to become tax collectors, and they sent them to their own people, but they gave them the option, like, we know this is a really bad job.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to, you can do a markup on top of what we need, you know, for the Roman government.
SPEAKER_00: So not only was it already a bad tax, but these tax collectors are like, seriously, I can do that.
SPEAKER_00: So they would tax more and more and more and more and more.
SPEAKER_00: And now, can you imagine if this was your own people, if you were if you were a Jew, and one of your own was collecting taxes for the government that was oppressing you, that you you lived every day with their boot on your neck, telling you how you are to live, how you ought to pay tribute to Caesar in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of your very own says, hey, you gotta pay taxes to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh, I'm gonna charge you a lot more than that uh to get away with this, all right?
SPEAKER_00: So imagine how you would feel towards the tax collectors at this point in time.
SPEAKER_00: This is so far beyond paying your April 15th taxes, my birthday, by the way, your April 15th taxes to the government.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This was the epitome of robbery, betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a betrayal of identity, it was a betrayal of fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, they didn't want to share a space, of course, they didn't want to make a space because they were betraying the promises of God over the people.
SPEAKER_00: And so it just doesn't get much lower in this point in time for Jesus to go and to have a meal with sinners and tax collectors because they weren't a part of what God was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, tax collectors were ritually impure because of their contact with the Romans who were Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And so they weren't allowed, like it was just considered impure to go eat with a Gentile at this point in time.
SPEAKER_00: Because eating, as you guys know in the scriptures, is one of the most intimate fellowships that you can have with another.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus had this way about him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus always had a way of locating the people that he was not supposed to love.
SPEAKER_00: He always had a way of locating the people that he was not supposed to love.
SPEAKER_00: And he found a way to see them and to name them.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys know that we're not numbers to God?
SPEAKER_00: We we each have names.
SPEAKER_00: You are not nameless to God.
SPEAKER_00: You are not one of many, you are you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you by your name.
SPEAKER_00: And if nothing else, that should do something to your heart today.
SPEAKER_00: He knows us by your name.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, Jesus not only sees him and stops for him and calls him by name, but he invites himself over to his house.
SPEAKER_00: Which is kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus immediately, upon recognizing his name, says nothing else to him, but he invites himself into dinner plans at Zacchaeus' house that night.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even ask him if he had plans that night.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even ask him how he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Zacchaeus, I'm coming over.
SPEAKER_00: Come down, I'm coming over to your house tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's something my wife would do.
SPEAKER_00: Because she's the extrovert among us, right?
SPEAKER_00: She'll meet somebody and say, let's go out to dinner tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do that.
SPEAKER_00: Not me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not my jam, alright?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm calculated, people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm cautious.
SPEAKER_00: I need to get my read on you first.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just gonna invite anybody into my house, but you when I do, it's gonna be three Thursdays from now.
SPEAKER_00: And I would appreciate if you come over at 5:30 and leave by 8, alright?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus had this way of immediately moving into you are a person I must be with, and I want to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: He would have invited him over to his own house, except he didn't have a house.
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't home.
SPEAKER_00: He was in Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house, which was probably good news for Zacchaeus because of the centrality of table fellowship, so centrality of a meal means that this man actually wants to be with me.
SPEAKER_00: And this was kind of what Jesus was modeling was this this bigger posture of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get into that in coming weeks, but the posture of Jesus was the inner capacity to be with a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: See, hospitality isn't just entertaining somebody, it's not just bringing somebody a good time, it's the inner capacity to hold open a sp a space for a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: And hospitality is in itself following in the way of Jesus that strangers might become friends, that enemies might become guests in our very presence.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't always need to happen in our own home.
SPEAKER_00: It happens wherever your presence is.
SPEAKER_00: A space can open up for a stranger to become a friend of God in your very presence.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he was doing for Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't give him time to go home and to tidy up and to get everything ready.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we do that.
SPEAKER_00: So many of us think that Jesus wants us before he comes into our life.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to get our act together first.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to clean some things up.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta, I gotta straighten some stuff up and my I gotta stop behaving this way.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta stop saying those words, I gotta stop treating people like this before I really get serious about Jesus or invite him in.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just ask you this morning to flip that completely upside down.
SPEAKER_00: If you have stopped yourself from inviting Jesus closer because you don't think you're clean enough or good enough or perfect enough to come in.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to tell you this morning, that's not what he's interested in.
SPEAKER_00: He is calling you by name and saying, I want to come into your house.
SPEAKER_00: And as he comes into your house, as Jesus comes into your life, he says, Let's start the process of transformation together.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till you have everything perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Call on my name.
SPEAKER_00: Let me come in and dine with you, and together we will design the life that God always had in mind for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel that you don't have to be good enough to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he's that's not even his invitation to you.
SPEAKER_00: His invitation says, if you're willing, I'm gonna come over because I love you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he does for Zacchaeus, this is what he does for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in this passage kind of a really quick flip where it all of a sudden it goes from he's on the road talking to Zacchaeus, people are grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: This next scene, he's already in his house.
SPEAKER_00: And Zacchaeus responds to Jesus and he says, Hey, hey, he says, he says, Listen, listen.
SPEAKER_00: Everything, anyway, I've defrauded people.
SPEAKER_00: I've repaid them up to fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I don't, Zacchaeus just blurts out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a confession.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you need to know something has changed inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't do what I used to do, or I don't do what other tax collectors do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to rip people off anymore.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I pay them fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus say to Zacchaeus?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Today, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Today, salvation has come to this house.
SPEAKER_00: And so he declares over Zacchaeus and his whole household that salvation is here, which means a lot of things in this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, salvation is his house because Jesus is salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So the person of salvation is literally here.
SPEAKER_00: So he's like, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is in this house.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our salvation, right?
SPEAKER_00: But also he's not, when he's saying salvation is his house, he's not just saying, hey, everybody, get guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus is is he knows where he's gonna go when he dies.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we limit salvation to one dimension of just life and afterlife, what's happening later on after this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is recognizing is Zacchaeus, upon your repentance, upon your confession, I see that something has happened, something is transformed in you, and you're willing to make right everything that you've participated in is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You're willing to repay all the corruption, all the destruction that you've caused to other people.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is acknowledging something amazing must have happened.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is apparently in this house today.
SPEAKER_00: Something had happened in Zacchaeus that was so profound that Jesus celebrates and he declares, he doesn't minimize the sin, but he declares a new day for Zacchaeus that is it is a day full of restoration.
SPEAKER_00: See, this word salvation, this soteria, it's this word that means all around welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, and safety.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically with the rich, this was a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Because as Jesus would talk to those with wealth and riches, he would always invite them out of one way into a new way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And so him declaring salvation over a rich man's house is saying, Listen, you have you have been released, you've been preserved from the grip of mammoth, the grip of greed, the grip of power, and now you were able to give yourself to the purposes of God on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Even salvation can come to this house.
SPEAKER_00: And for Jesus, this was all summed up in just one kind of final summary statement at the end of this passage, in case we needed reminding today, of Jesus' primary mission.
SPEAKER_00: He says it like this for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Primarily, that starts with the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Zacchaeus, you're a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a great day for you to come into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus primarily, his first message was to the lost sheep of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was rejoicing that they were responding to the fact that he is the Messiah, he's the one that they had been praying and waiting for, the one that they had been reading about in these Old Testament prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one.
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, as we know, Jesus desires that all would be saved, that all the lost would be found.
SPEAKER_00: This includes the rich and the poor.
SPEAKER_00: This includes all who are lost, stuck, alone, pushed out.
SPEAKER_00: The single, the married, the children, the adults, the forgotten, the abused, the powerful, even, the Pharisees and the prostitutes.
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, Jesus came for every single one to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: And he does that one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: He does that one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't batch load you into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He calls you by name and he sees you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this morning you feel seen by God.
SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he does for Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus engage the one by seeing, by naming, valuing, inviting, welcoming, sharing, eating, encouraging, and celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: He so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And once again, he died for the world, but he loves us one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And then he expects his followers to do the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't do anything that he expected something different for his followers.
SPEAKER_00: You guys realize that.
SPEAKER_00: Commanded them to do many things.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is my command to you.
SPEAKER_00: That you love one another.
SPEAKER_00: He commanded them.
SPEAKER_00: That's not, we don't like that word.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes to be commanded to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: And even for Jesus, we're like, Can He command me to do something?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he can.
SPEAKER_00: Because He's not asking you to do something that He didn't do for you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how Robert Coleman says it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the disciples understood that they were not just keeping a law, but were responding to the one that loved them and who was willing to give himself for them.
SPEAKER_00: He was life, he was a life of giving, giving away what the Father had given to him.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them his peace by which he was sustained in tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them his joy in which he labored amid the sufferings and the sorrows about him.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them the keys of his kingdom, which the powers of hell could not prevail against.
SPEAKER_00: And did he indeed he gave them his own glory, which was which was his before the worlds were made, that they all might be one, even as he was one with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He gave all he had, nothing was withheld, not even his own life.
SPEAKER_00: Love is like that.
SPEAKER_00: It is always giving itself away.
SPEAKER_00: When it is self-contained, it is not love.
SPEAKER_00: In this sense, Jesus brought clearly into focus before his followers just what was meant when God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that God gave all he had to those he loved, even his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The way that Jesus moves for the one is by giving through self-sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways this year that we want to build into this, you see, sometimes for us, it's so easy, especially in our day, to get so preoccupied with the ambient anxiety that's all around us.
SPEAKER_00: We're living in a very anxious time.
SPEAKER_00: In case you didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot swirling all around us.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is when we're living in uncertain times, it's so easy to turn in and to lose our sight.
SPEAKER_00: We can walk walk through crowds without ever seeing a person.
SPEAKER_00: We can go to work without ever seeing a person.
SPEAKER_00: We can drive through our neighborhood without ever seeing a person.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is we can turn into a life of isolation and self-preservation.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that that I believe that God wants to invite us to is to renormalize the ability to see and to perceive one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And here's how we're going to do this as a church in this for the next several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We're just calling it the same as what's on the screen here, so loved, a thousand moments of love and action.
SPEAKER_00: A thousand moments of love and action.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we're going to do together is we're going to be on a mission between now and Easter to create a thousand moments of loving one person at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Finding moments to pause, to notice, to stop for somebody else in order to extend the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how could this look?
SPEAKER_00: That might be bringing a meal to a family or with the new baby.
SPEAKER_00: It might be inviting somebody to coffee.
SPEAKER_00: It could be sending an encouraging text message that was completely unexpected.
SPEAKER_00: It could be shoveling a neighbor's driveway or an intentional moment of gratitude with your server at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: It could be making a time to celebrate a coworker publicly and to brag on them.
SPEAKER_00: It could be telling a stranger that God loves them.
SPEAKER_00: It could be offering a listening ear or even just asking, like Gary said earlier, if you can pray for somebody that's going through, that has a need in their life.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is this: just like we see in the life of Jesus, every small moment actually tells a big story of the God who sees us and loves us in the everyday moments of life.
SPEAKER_00: And what's really important about this, as we kind of issue this challenge for us to collectively catalyze into movement together, this may be something that you already do as a lifestyle, and I want to say awesome, keep going, keep at it.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to be sharing the stories as we go, and as we share stories, it's actually going to spur one another on to love and to good faith, as it says in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But uh one of the reasons why this is so important that we enter even into a season of intentionality like this is so many times we feel, even as Christians, we feel like what we're doing is not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: We feel like we need huge, big gestures.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get, we need to lead all of our neighbors to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We need to take care of all of the orphans in Africa.
SPEAKER_00: We need to, we need to do these huge things.
SPEAKER_00: And so we never feel like our lives, our actual lives, are good enough for what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: But this season, this time, here's what's going to be fun is we're not looking for massive, extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking for many small acts done with great love, as Mother Teresa would have said, every small deed done with great love.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why this matters.
SPEAKER_00: According to not only that the anxiety and the fear that's surrounding us is separated apart, but because of that, even a 2024 survey says about nearly half of Americans feel lonely or sometimes, sometimes or even often.
SPEAKER_00: Half of Americans, 48%, feel lonely, sometimes or often.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys know?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you even feel this in your room or in this room today, maybe you have felt this here.
SPEAKER_00: That we live such lives where we're so separated that even when we're doing light socializing, it doesn't quite get to the part where we feel seen and we feel loved.
SPEAKER_00: So, what happens when the church moves out to find simple moments to look at somebody, to learn their name, to introduce to ourselves to them and to dignify them with our presence and say, listen, I don't know what it is, but I just want to take this moment to serve you, to give to you, to listen to you today.
SPEAKER_00: And they may name they may not ask, why are you doing this?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they do.
SPEAKER_00: And you have a chance to share why you're doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, what's the point of this?
SPEAKER_00: Is the point to all of a sudden do something small so we get something in return?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: You might decide to take in your neighbor's trash cans from the curb, and it's not likely they're gonna come up to you and say, What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, that's probably not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: If it does, hey, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: But they might take notice, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And and and listen, you you already you might be thinking, like, okay, this sounds good, but like, why such a public display?
SPEAKER_00: Why would we do this all together?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, maybe you're of the kind of you, this is your normal life.
SPEAKER_00: You live by the spirit, you live with an openness in your heart to look at to look at others and to see others.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you prefer to do that in hidden ways, which is good as well.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something about even entering into the reality that good works, God is not opposed to good works.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that it may see your good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You guys catch that?
SPEAKER_00: According to Jesus, there is a light inside of you that deserves to be seen.
SPEAKER_00: There is a light that deserves to be displayed through good works.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So there's actually a chance for people to see God and to give glory to God who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And the other part, the reason this matters is because, you know, even something like this where we're moving out in acts of kindness, acts of love, acts of service, we might think, like, is that it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what happens after that?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that's up to the Lord, that's up to the Holy Spirit to decide where that relationship goes after that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to be your concern.
SPEAKER_00: But in our culture today, people don't listen to what you have to say until you earn the right to be heard.
SPEAKER_00: You must earn the right to be heard.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways that we earn the right to be heard is that we avail our lives, we receive people into our lives, and we find a way to stop for them, to dignify them, to let them know that there is a God who loves them, and they know that because we are there to love them ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys with me this morning?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says this keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak of you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
SPEAKER_00: We must continue to be a people who move against the spirit of the age, which has to do with fear, isolation, self-preservation, turning to our own interests above the interests of others.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna move in the opposite spirit and say, God, let this be a season where there is an explosion of lights, there's an explosion of love, and as we go, would you unlock and unleash your spirit in a whole different degree?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So listen, around the room, these guys are gonna give you a handout around the room, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna see on this piece of paper, um, it's gonna be a bunch of quick, it's a quick start guide, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, the invitation is to hear from God, you know, hear from the Holy Spirit who God has put in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a quick start guide to ways that you can engage people in your neighborhood, in your workplace, your school, um, in Boulder County, even beyond, with partnering with some of our missions partners, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this is like just feeding your imagination of what we can do.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's how it's gonna work, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Here's how this is gonna work.
SPEAKER_00: This is the call from now through Easter, and probably beyond, but from now through Easter, to every day, every every week, see if you can spot, find a few moments where you can put love into action with a friend, a neighbor, or a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Every week, find a few moments to put love into action with a friend, a neighbor, or a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do, here's what we're asking that you share that micro story with us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That you share that moment with us by texting that number.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys know that's kind of the church text message number that we use.
SPEAKER_00: And even right now, if you want to join, just be a part of this with us right now.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to encourage you, just text the word so loved to that number.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna leave this up on the screen here for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Just text the word so loved to that number, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe like once a week, once or twice a week, we're gonna send a little prompt to you about, hey, did you find somebody to love today?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But this is one way that we're gonna do this together.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: As you share, hey, listen, I brought a plate of chocolate chip cookies to my elderly neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I wrote a letter to a friend that I know that God brought to mind that lives in Florida, and I wrote them a letter of encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Or, hey, I had a coworker.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I picked up some of their extra work so they can get home to their family, right?
SPEAKER_00: There may be things that happen.
SPEAKER_00: Just all what we're asking you to text that number, just a short little thing.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to say what happened after that.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to end with, and then revival swept across the land, you know?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to do that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It can just be one moment of you moving towards another, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And then as you do that, we're gonna be posting, we're gonna be sharing, and over the next several weeks, we're just putting the challenge out there.
SPEAKER_00: What if what happened is we hit a thousand moments of love in action?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might think, like, what if we don't hit a thousand moments?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what if we do?
SPEAKER_00: What if we hit two thousand?
SPEAKER_00: What if there's actually more in you than you think is in you?
SPEAKER_00: What if the spirit of God inside of you wants to show love in a greater degree than you thought?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is something we can do together.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do, we're not celebrating our own good works.
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating the God who insists on seeing one person at a time, one moment at a time, that all may know his goodness and his beauty.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, that you love us today.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, before we leave, God, we want to honor your presence and what you've done for us through your table.
SPEAKER_00: And just as you invited yourself to Zacchaeus' house to share dinner, God, we want to share a meal with you through sharing communion together, the body and the blood of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing like your love.
SPEAKER_00: And for each of us, Lord God, I just pray that you would help us to know that your nearness, that you call us by name.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's