Found

You can stand for the reading of God's word of your able. First through fifth grade can be dismissed at this time. And so thankful for the McFarland family. I appreciate the kids getting up here and singing.

They did a great job and just a blessing. Because it doesn't matter if you're the youngest person here or the oldest person. The testimony is this. It's amazing what God has done for us. And that he loves us so much that he came for us.

That he sent his only begotten son. That's what we're seeing right here in Luke's gospel, chapter number 19. And we're making our way through it. And we're looking at a pretty, I would say, famous encounter, Zacchaeus.

And we're going to look at it here in the first 10 verses. And so you found your place. I'm going to read beginning in verse 1 down through verse number 10. The Bible says this. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans. And he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who he was.

And he could not for the press because he was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed up in a sycamore tree to see him. For he was to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today I must abide at thy house.

And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. Verse 7. And when they saw it, the crowd, they all murmured, saying, that he has gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have taken anything from a man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house. For as much as he also is a son of Abraham.

And then verse 10, which is really the theme of the entire gospel of Luke and really the theme of the entire Bible. For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

And so we're going to look at that. We're going to look at this message entitled this, Found. I'm so glad Jesus found me. I know Zacchaeus was. And my prayer is that he has found you as well.

And so let's go to him in prayer and ask to bless the reading of his word. Father, we've prayed multiple times for different aspects of this service. But Lord, we're asking you now just to quiet our hearts and minds for the next few moments as we open up your word.

Lord, I pray that you would give me the words to say. You would just empty me of self, cleanse me of sin. Lord, fill me with your spirit that I might be a help to the hearer this morning. Lord, if there is somebody here that's seeking.

Lord, would they come to the realization that you're seeking for them? That you love them. That you came to pay the price for their sins. And Lord, that salvation would come to their life today.

Lord, for those that know that to be true, Lord, would you remind us where you found us. And Lord, what you've called us to do. I pray that you would be honored and glorified in everything that's said. And we ask it in Christ's name.

Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. You ever been somewhere, maybe somewhere busy. You're looking for somebody. You're going to meet there at a certain time. And you start scanning the crowd for them.

You're not sure if you're in the right place. You're kind of walking in the room. You're trying to maybe walk back and forth, get a little bit better view without looking like a creeper. Like, what is that guy doing? Why is he just kind of just hanging out around here?

And then finally, your phone rings. You've texted that person. You've called them. They just ignored you. The phone rings. And you say, hey, I'm standing here. I think I'm in the right place. Where are you? And then they say this.

Turn around. And then they're over there looking at you. They're the creeper. They're laughing. They've been watching you struggle this whole time. You thought you were looking for them.

But in all reality, they had already found you. They already knew where you were. And they just kind of watched you kind of walk all over the place. And as we come here to these first ten verses of Luke's gospel in chapter 19, we meet a man named Zacchaeus.

And we saw there in verse number three that it said that he sought to see Jesus. He wanted to find out who this man was. And he was doing everything he could to find him.

He goes out of his way. And we're going to look at that here in a second. Just to get a glimpse of Jesus. And yes, while he was looking for him, he was putting effort in. The reality is, is Jesus was actually looking for Zacchaeus.

That Jesus was on this road on purpose. This wasn't some happenstance. This wasn't some weird coincidence. No, this was a divine appointment by God. And really, that's what this whole account is about.

And not just this account with Zacchaeus. It is really the entire mission of Jesus Christ. That's what he tells us here in verse number 10 that we had already mentioned. But really, this is kind of just a continuation of the last few weeks that we've seen, especially in Luke chapter number 18.

And Luke is showing us what it looks like to have complete dependence on God. We met the publican who cried out for mercy and realized there was nothing he could offer God and just said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

And he realized he must receive what Jesus offers. And the kingdom of God is like that. We must be like a child with helpless dependence coming to the Lord.

And we saw last week the blind Bartimaeus on the road to Jericho. He's crying out for mercy. And Jesus stops and talks to him and changes his life, not just his vision, but his eternal destiny.

But if you remember a few weeks back, if not, we'll just remind you quickly. We met a man earlier, a rich young ruler. He asked to Jesus, he came to him, came to the right place.

But he asked this question, what shall I do that I might inherit eternal life? And Jesus began to talk to him and he said, okay, you've done all these things. You've kept the law.

You're a good, upstanding, moral person. But there's one thing you lack. Go sell all that you have and give it to the poor and follow me. And the Bible tells us there in verse number 24 and verse number 25 of chapter number 18 that Jesus really exposed what his heart was set on.

It was set on material things. It was set on his money. And here's what Jesus said in verse number 24. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, a needle's eye, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And those that heard that saying, verse 26, they said, well, who can be saved then?

I mean, this was a great man, this moral, upstanding, religious man that was kind and cared about people. If he can't make it in just because he's rich, who can be saved?

Well, Jesus gives us the answer there in verse number 27. The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And the reason I remind us of this text that we looked at a few weeks ago is because Luke introduces us in verses 1 through 10 to another rich man, Zacchaeus.

But what we're going to see this time, as opposed to what we saw previously, is the impossible is about to happen. The camel is about to go through the eye of the needle.

But Jesus said that's already impossible. With men it is. But with God, all things are possible. And really the big idea of this text that we see is this, is that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

And when he does that, his saving grace produces a changed life. And so the question I want us to consider this morning as we walk through maybe what would be a familiar story to some here this morning, is this question.

What happens when Jesus finds the lost? What happens when Jesus finds the lost? The first thing we see is this in verses 1 through 5, is that Jesus finds us where we are.

That Jesus finds us where we are. So, I would imagine most of our knowledge as a group here on Zacchaeus is from a song. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.

And he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in that tree and said, Zacchaeus, come down, for I'm going to your house today.

See, I sing specials in church too, so you should sing specials in church as well. But that's probably what we know about Zacchaeus. And then we tell this little story, and the kids love singing the song, and we make fun of Zacchaeus because he's a short little guy.

And because we've heard this story since childhood, maybe we picture Zacchaeus as this cute little guy that climbed up in a tree. Maybe we picture him on a flannel graph, or he looks like a little people, you know, like they have the little things.

He's just real cute and fuzzy. That's not Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is the kingpin of the Jericho tax cartel. This is not somebody you want your children hanging out with.

I just want to get it out of our mind that the song tells the truth, but sometimes that song kind of paints a different picture than what Zacchaeus really was. To the people of Jericho, he was anything but cute.

And Luke tells us a couple things about him in these opening verses. He tells us, number one, this in verse two, he was chief among the publicans. And number two, he was rich. The Bible's not exaggerating.

Wealth wasn't, I mean, he had, we thought the rich young ruler had stuff. But so does Zacchaeus. There was nothing that was off limits for him because he had the means to get it. And what we know from our study in Luke's gospel, that Jesus has already had some run in with some tax collectors.

In fact, one of them is on his discipleship team. His name's Matthew now. But tax collectors were completely despised. They worked for Rome, the occupying government of the time.

They were Jewish men that basically bought these tax franchises, and they were notorious for enriching themselves off the backs of their own countrymen. They would collect the taxes they were supposed to, but then they would also collect above and beyond so they could line their own pockets.

But that's not Zacchaeus. He's not a tax collector. He is the chief tax collector. All those booths that the publicans worked in that gathered there, they probably reported to a man like Zacchaeus.

He was the big time, so to speak. So he wasn't standing at a booth collecting a few coins. He was overseeing the tax collection. And Jericho is a wealthy, strategic city.

It's on the way to Jerusalem, so you're getting a lot of traffic. You're getting a lot of people that are coming through there. So when Zacchaeus walked through Jericho, people knew who he was, and they did not like him.

I mean, he was responsible in their mind for maybe some of their problems in life, maybe why they couldn't pay the bills, maybe why they were working multiple jobs just trying to make it.

And the Bible tells us that he was rich. But we see that he's completely opposite of this rich young ruler that we mentioned. The rich young ruler, the people seemed to respect him.

He was immoral. He was religious. He was helpful. Zacchaeus is corrupt. He's despised. And the Bible says he's a sinner. I mean, he walked by and they were like, look at that sinner right there.

I mean, they were not kind to Zacchaeus. But they did have something in common. Neither man's money could give him what he needed most. They both realized that.

The rich young ruler came because he knew something was lacking in his life. He said, hey, I got all these things, but I know I don't have eternal life. What can I do to get that? And we can see, and we'll see here in a minute, Zacchaeus, for some reason, is trying to find Jesus.

We don't know why, for whatever reason he has his attention. Maybe he had heard the stories. We don't know this, but maybe he knew Matthew. Like, that guy used to work for me.

Why is he following this guy? Like, what's different about this Jesus? Maybe he's curious. Maybe he had just grown tired of his life. Because he had everything in the world, but everybody hated him.

I mean, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? And Zacchaeus seemed to be a miserable man from what we can tell in Scripture. Everything he had, he still was willing to do and willing to find Jesus.

And he doesn't say that he just wanted to see Jesus. No, he made an effort to see him. But verse number three tells us he had a big problem. Here's his problem. He's real short.

He's there, and the crowd is gathered. Maybe they had heard news that Jesus had healed Bartimaeus on the way into Jericho. And everybody said, hey, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. And he gets out there, and the crowd is too large, and Zacchaeus is too short.

And so this kingpin, this corrupt criminal, is running in verse number four. The Bible says he ran ahead, found a tree, and climbed up in it.

That's not super dignified for a man of his ilk. You know, we've talked about this multiple times. Men in the first century didn't really run, and yet Zacchaeus is running. And climbing in a tree seems like something kids do.

I mean, everybody's got to climb in a tree, fall out, and break your arm. It's kind of like a rite of passage. But he's just trying any way to find Jesus. He doesn't care what the crowd thinks. Obviously, he's gotten over that because the crowd doesn't like him anyways.

So he's like, hey, what's it going to hurt? I'm going to run ahead and climb up at this sycamore tree because Jesus is going to pass this way. Before we move on, I just want to remind us something.

I think there's something worth remembering here. Is that sometimes the people we assume have absolutely zero interest in spiritual things. Sometimes the people that we think, hey, they want nothing to do with the Lord, maybe are more curious than we realize.

It could be that co-worker. It could be your neighbor. It could be that family member. It could be that person whose lifestyle makes us assume they'd never be interested in it. Well, that's Zacchaeus.

The entire crowd doesn't think he has anything to do with God, that God should have anything to do with him. But I just want to remind us there may be people in your life. And they're just trying to catch a glimpse of Jesus.

And you know where they're going to see that? In you. You're there with them. Maybe they're watching and they're wondering and they're just trying to see, hey, is this something real? Because they look around their life and realize, I have things, but it's not really making me happy.

It's not really satisfying me. And maybe God has placed you near them so that you can be a glimpse of Jesus to them. That you can be a help to him.

But we see what happens in verse number five. The Bible says that when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him. See, Zacchaeus was doing all these things.

He was making all the effort. He's running ahead. He thinks he's the one searching. He climbs a tree. He positions himself in the right spot. But here's what Jesus finds him. Right where he is.

See, Jesus doesn't notice him, by the way, and keep on walking. No, we saw it with Bartimaeus. We've seen it over and over and over and over in the Gospels.

And this is what Jesus does. Jesus stops. I'm so thankful Jesus still stops for people today. I'm thankful when Jesus saw me, he didn't just walk right past me.

No, he stopped. Because that's what Jesus does. He loves us. And here's what a beautiful thing. He calls him by name. And he does something the crowd cannot understand. He said, hey, I'm going to go to your house today.

Because when Jesus seeks and saves the lost, he doesn't just find us where we are. Number two, he receives us by his grace. Imagine being Zacchaeus.

You're setting up in the tree, watching from a distance, hoping maybe nobody sees you. Hoping you can just get a glimpse of Jesus and just go about your life. Hey, I'm just here.

You know, Jesus doesn't want anything to do with me. I mean, if Jesus knew who I was, he'd definitely run the other direction. Maybe that's what Zacchaeus is thinking. But as Jesus is coming, maybe Zacchaeus, it seems like, man, he's slowing down.

What's he doing? Why is he slowing down? And he just happens to stop right under the tree that Zacchaeus is in. No, he knew exactly what he was doing.

He stopped and he looked at him and he said, Zacchaeus. I wonder if Zacchaeus is dropped to the floor. He'd be like, wait, you know my name?

I mean, he was pretty notorious. Maybe he thought he just knows me because of what I do. But if he didn't drop his jaw when Jesus said his name, he probably would have when Jesus said what he said next in verse number five.

Make haste and come down for today I must abide at thy house. He just wanted to see Jesus. And now all of a sudden Jesus says, hey, I'm coming over.

But notice how Jesus says it. He says, I must abide at thy house. He didn't say, Zacchaeus, I'd like to come to your house today if I can.

Hey, maybe I'll stop by later. Hey, what's your calendar look like, Zac? Maybe we can get something on the calendar and we can do something next week. No, no, no. No, when we see the word must, this purpose shows that there's an encounter.

This isn't some random interruption. It is a divine language. You go back to John chapter four and Jesus told his disciples, I must needs go through Samaria.

Why did he do that? Because there was a woman at the well that he intended to meet. And that is the same language that we see here. That this isn't some random situation. No, he is on the road to Jerusalem, but he is going to go through Jericho because there's a man that needs him.

There's a man whose life is a wreck and Jesus loves him. And what we constantly see in the gospels is that Jesus is always on mission. He had a lot on his mind.

We mentioned last week where he's going. He's going to Jerusalem. Not to hang out. No, he's going to the cross. And by this point in Luke's gospel, we're likely less than a week out from the crucifixion.

And I would imagine if any of us knew something that awful was going to happen in our life, it would consume us. I would have no time for anybody. I'd be trying to figure out how to get out of it and how to avoid it.

And I'd be overthinking everything. And yet Jesus knows exactly what lies ahead and stops for a man. Not just any man, but a sinner. A chief sinner.

An awful traitor to the Jewish people named Zacchaeus. Why would Jesus do that? Because Jesus came for men like Zacchaeus.

This wasn't some charity event. No, this is why he came. He came to seek and to save people that were lost. We've seen throughout the gospels.

He didn't come to those that didn't need a physician. He came to those that were sick. He came to the sinners. And that's who Zacchaeus was. And when Jesus says, hey, I'm coming to your house, Zacchaeus didn't say, well, you don't have to come today.

No, he's pretty hyped up about it. Look at verse number six. And he made haste. He's like, you've got to be kidding me. Maybe his servants are there. They've got a little stool. They had to get him up into the tree.

We don't know this for sure. But hey, get my stool. I'm trying to get back down out of the tree. You know, that's kind of how I read my Bible. Sorry, that's weird to you. But he's just trying to get down as fast as he can.

And the Bible says that he received him joyfully. I mean, this is a landmark day for Zacchaeus. I mean, he's probably rubbed shoulders with the movers and shakers.

I mean, he's there in Herod's palace possibly. I mean, he knows the people that moved the needle in Israel. But this is a different needle. And he can't believe it's about to happen. And he's so excited.

But as we see, not everybody's excited when Jesus shows up in your life. Not everybody's excited when Jesus is beginning to change how you live. Verse number seven. And when they saw it.

When the crowd saw it. See, the crowd loved Jesus. They didn't like Zacchaeus. They knew his reputation. They think, does Jesus know who he is?

I mean, somebody needs to tell Jesus who he's dealing with. Jesus doesn't need to be associating with people. They know what kind of man Zacchaeus is. And their reaction is like, hey, you can't go to his house.

He's a sinner. Jesus, you can't be a guest of somebody like that. See, in their mind, Jesus should have nothing to do with somebody like him.

And they're right about one thing. Zacchaeus is a sinner. He's not a good person. But they're wrong about one thing as well. Jesus' mission.

See, they're looking for a king. They're looking for somebody who's going to fix all their problems. They're not looking for somebody that's coming to find people like Zacchaeus. Hey, they're ready for a crown. They're ready for a throne. They're ready for Rome and people like Zacchaeus to get out of town.

They were not wrong about his condition, but they were wrong about why Jesus came. See, you know what this crowd saw? A sinner to avoid. You know what Jesus saw?

A lost man that needed to be found. And I think as a church, we just need to be reminded. We need to be careful here. Because it's possible for us to be around Jesus, to know the Bible, to believe in holiness.

I mean, the Bible calls us to be holy because he's holy. And still in our mind, begin to decide which people are worthy of the grace of God. I don't think we can live that way.

We may never say it out loud, but we can look at people. We can think about their life and we think, well, not him and not her. They're too far gone and they can't change. But last time I checked, the gospel doesn't give us permission to decide who is beyond the grace of God.

Because if Jesus only received people who deserved it, none of us would be here. That's just the truth. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous, no, not one. You say, well, I'm not as bad as Zacchaeus. It doesn't matter. Sin is sin. And Jesus came to forgive us of that and die in our place.

And the crowd looked at Zacchaeus and they just saw his past. But when Jesus looked at Zacchaeus, he knew who he was and he received him anyway. Because here's the beautiful thing.

Is Jesus doesn't save us and just let us sit there. He doesn't save us and just say, well, just keep doing what you're doing. No, we saw last week when he gave Bartimaeus sight. Bartimaeus didn't go back to the road and start begging again.

His life has changed. What did Bartimaeus do? He followed Jesus. And that's what grace does. That's what grace, that's how it works in our life. And maybe there is somebody you've written off.

Somebody that's made a mess of their life. Somebody who seems completely uninterested in God. Don't forget Zacchaeus. Because if God can save Zacchaeus and if God can save you, he probably can save them.

That's really what we see here in this story. No one is too lost for the Savior who came to seek them. Jesus is pretty good at finding people.

That is his job. And we need to understand this though about grace. That Jesus received Zacchaeus. He met him where he was. He went to his house knowing good and well that he was a sinner.

But he didn't intend to leave him unchanged. And because Jesus seeks the lost and he saves the lost, he finds us where we are. Receives us by his grace. But notice number three.

Jesus changes what has our heart. Look at verse number eight. And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord.

Man, how it's changed. See, Zacchaeus has moved from curiosity to submission. He was curious about Jesus.

But after conversation, no doubt. I mean, sometimes we read this and we think, they got out of the tree and then he said this. I'd imagine there's some long conversation going on there. And really some soul searching. And Jesus is preaching the gospel to him and he's showing him the truth.

And Zacchaeus said, hey, that's exactly what I've been looking for. And he's gone from curiosity to submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the man that just wanted to see Jesus is now calling him Lord.

And his life begins to reflect it. Look at verse number eight. Not only does he call him Lord, but here's what he says. The half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, which no doubt he did, he knew that, I restore him fourfold.

That is a bold declaration. Now we see the kind of wealth that he had. He's willing to give half of it away. And then he's willing to restore other people fourfold. And he's probably still going to have some money left over.

This was an extremely wealthy man. But I think we can see this is a different man than the man we met in verse number two. A chief publican and a sinner.

What happened? You see, up to this point in Zacchaeus' life, money had to define his life. Ambition, status, recognition, power.

His career was built around getting and taking and accumulating. But now his hands are open. How does that happen? How does that happen in somebody's life?

I mean, he's given half to the poor. And if he's wronged anybody, which is probably almost everybody in Jericho, he's going to give it back, but not just give it back, with interest. He's going to give it fourfold.

But I don't want us to misunderstand what's happening here. He's not coming to Jesus and saying, Jesus, look how much money I'm giving away. Surely that's got to get me salvation. I mean, if I give all this away, I'm getting into heaven, right?

That is not what Zacchaeus is saying. That is not what is taking place. I just want to make it very clear. He's not purchasing salvation, but his giving has revealed what salvation has done to his life.

It is outwardly showing. Grace reached his heart and other people could see it. See, salvation didn't come because Zacchaeus said, I'm going to turn over a new leaf and I'm going to be a good tax collector.

No, salvation came because Jesus showed up. And he told him the truth and he realized that he was a sinner. And that impossible thing that Jesus spoke about in chapter 18 is happening right before our eyes.

And if you know Jesus Christ, just go back to when Jesus changed your life. Maybe you were the person somebody said, well, God can't do anything with them. No, I'm pretty sure that God can change a greedy heart.

He can change a dishonest heart. He can change the hardened heart. And he can change a person that everybody has written off because that's what grace does. That's how Jesus operates. And before we move on, I just want to remind us that Jesus receives us by grace, but it should change just like Zacchaeus.

Real salvation produces real change. Not instant perfection. Listen, I'm looking forward to the day where I don't have to fight with sin anymore.

I'm looking forward to a day where sin is no longer even a thing. Maybe when you first got saved, you didn't know a whole lot about it. And you think, man, I'm going to trust Christ as my Savior and I'm going to just live a perfect life.

And then you sin like two minutes later. You're thinking, what's going on? Listen, God, when we accept salvation, we accept Christ in our life, we're not instantly perfect, but we do have a new direction.

We should have new desires. We should have new priorities. We should have a new relationship with the sins that once controlled us. Because sin is no longer our master, according to Romans chapter number 6.

We have a new master. His name is Jesus, and he loves us, and he changes everything about us. That if we are in Christ, old things are passed away. That's what's taking place in Zacchaeus' life. You see 2 Corinthians 5.17?

That's what's taking place right here. That Zacchaeus is no longer the man that everybody thought he was. You could see the change in the very area where sin had dominated his life.

I mean, the money controlled his life. Now he's saying, this money's not even worth anything. I'll just give it away. Because I have what I'm looking for now. I have Jesus. I just want to ask you, what has grace changed in your life?

If Jesus Christ has saved you, what is different? There should be a noticeable difference. We're not perfect, but you should be able to look back at your life and say, Hey, praise the Lord, I'm not that anymore.

God is working, and God is growing. And the sin that used to control me doesn't have the same grip. The attitudes in my life that I used to take all the time, they're changing.

My priorities have changed. The relationships, I'm trying to make them right. That's what God does. He changes everything about us. Repentance in our life should become visible.

See, because biblical repentance isn't just feeling bad about it and saying, Man, I feel bad about that. No, here's what biblical repentance is. It's turning from our sin and to God. That's what biblical repentance is.

And that's what's taking place in Zacchaeus' life. And Jesus says, this is what happened. Verse number nine. This day is salvation come to this house. Not because he's given all his money away.

No, because his heart changed. His priorities changed. His Lord changed. He's no longer serving money. He's no longer serving man. He just wants to follow Jesus, and he wants to just do what God wants him to do.

And here's what Jesus says. For as much as he also is a son of Abraham. This is a big deal. Because Zacchaeus was already a Jew by birth.

And when you study the Gospels, they would always come and say, Well, our father is Abraham. And Jesus would teach them and show them, No, Abraham is the father of faith. And really what he's saying here is he's not giving some family history of Zacchaeus.

No, he's reminding the crowd and those that were around him. Because this probably wouldn't have been a one-on-one conversation. Zacchaeus would have had a big feast. Everybody would have been there. And they would have maybe viewed him as a traitor, a collaborator with Rome, a sinner.

Somebody that they had pushed to the outside. To them, he was too far gone. There wasn't enough grace in the bank for a man like Zacchaeus. But Jesus says the same faith that saved Abraham is the same faith that saved Zacchaeus.

And they're in the same family. And that's how you make it in here. The man that everybody wrote off, Jesus said, He's got a seat at the table. He's going to sit next to Abraham one day.

How is that possible? For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

That's how it's possible. Why did he stop beneath the tree? Why did he call Zacchaeus? Why did he go to his house? Why did Zacchaeus' life begin to change? Because that's what Jesus came to do.

Jesus didn't come to make us feel better about ourselves. He didn't come to heal the blind as we just saw. He didn't come to feed the bellies. He didn't come to make the lame walk. No, he came to save sinners and change lives.

But sometimes we run past that word lost too quickly. It can become so familiar we begin to stop feeling the weight of it. Anybody ever been lost on the road somewhere? It's kind of a weird feeling.

Maybe when you were little, you know, your mom would, you go to the store with your mom and she'd say, stay right next to me. And as a good child that you were, you did not stay right next to her. One time I thought I lost my mom forever in a Mervyn's.

You ever been in a Mervyn's? Yeah. I'm 40, so I know what Mervyn's is. And I thought, I'm lost. I'm going to have to live on the streets now. And I'm not built for the streets.

I know that much. At all. I mean, it scared me. I don't know how to get back to her. I just stayed there. I just stayed there and started crying. And they're like, hey, where's your mom? I'm like, I don't know where she's at.

Listen, lost means that we can't find our way back. Sin has separated us from God. We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot earn our way back.

Lost people need somebody to come looking for them. I'm thankful my mom came looking for me. But I'm thankful Jesus came looking for me. That's exactly what he did.

Jesus, the plan was never that he told us how to find our way, that he stood at a distance and gave us good directions. No. He sent his only son for you.

For Zacchaeus. And see, the mission would cost him greatly. He's just passing through Jericho because he's on his way to Jerusalem. Where he's going to be nailed to a cross.

He's going to be betrayed and mocked and scourged and crucified. And he takes our sin upon his body in that tree for us. Because why?

We were lost. We didn't even know we were lost. While we were his enemies, while we were lost, he still died for us. So when Jesus says he came to seek and to save, the seeking brought him to a man named Zacchaeus.

But the saving would take him to a cross. See, Jesus didn't come just to look for lost people. He came to save them. The mission doesn't stop with Zacchaeus.

He went all the way. So when we stop and we look at this story. We look at the story of Zacchaeus. We see that Jesus found him right where he was.

Up a tree. Lost. Curious. Carrying this reputation of everything he had been. And Jesus knew that. And he still reached out to him.

And he said, Zacchaeus, I don't care who everybody says you are. I love you. And he received him by his grace. While everybody else murmured, Jesus went home with him and loved on him and told him the truth.

And that truth changed his life. It changed his heart. The man who spent his whole life getting started giving. The man who had wronged others wanted to make it right.

And the same Savior who sought out Zacchaeus is still seeking out people today. You see, the mission has not changed. What's Jesus' mission in 2026?

What's the mission in Chekvia? What's the mission in Cook County? Here's the mission. That Jesus is seeking and saving the lost. You see, for God so loved the world.

That he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's what this story is about. He wasn't just trying to help the people of Jericho so they have a better tax collector.

No, he's trying to change Zacchaeus' eternal destiny. And when he did that, guess what? It changed his life. The man that was so hated was a new man now. And that's what I want to leave us with.

Just a simple thought. That Jesus seeks us where we are. But praise the Lord, his grace never leaves us there. You should be able to look at your life.

And mark it. Man, Jesus showed up. I'm not perfect. But praise the Lord, I'm different. Praise the Lord, he's changed my life. Praise the Lord, my priorities and my situation.

They're not everything I want to be. But I'm thankful Jesus loves me. I hope you're thankful Jesus loves you. And I hope you've seen throughout these past couple chapters, we look at this blind man, we look at this publican, we think, man, they were in a horrible shape.

So was I. And so were you. And Jesus still loved you anyway. And he stopped. As we come to a missions month, it just reminds us, maybe that person at work, you just need to stop and just love on him a little bit.

Invite him to church. I'm thankful a family's willing to go, leave a job, leave a good church, do all those things, and go halfway around the world. Because here's what God said, somebody needs to go tell them that I love them.

They're dealing with all kinds of things over there. They just need to know Jesus loves them. But the same is true. It's not just halfway around the world. It's where you're going to go to work tomorrow. It's at your school. People are wondering, is this all there is to life?

You can get them. No, it's not. Jesus is what's life. And I'm thankful for that truth, that Jesus seeks us where we are, but never leaves us there. He completely changes our outlook.

Would you stand with your heads bowed and with your eyes closed?