Contrasting Grace

Contrasting Grace | Encountering Jesus (Part 5)

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

The sermon by John Samuelson at South Fellowship Church explores contrasting characters and themes that showcase the grace of Jesus. It tells the stories of a blind beggar and Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax collector, who both encounter Jesus. Through these encounters, Samuelson illustrates that Jesus' grace is not only for the oppressed but also the oppressor. The message emphasizes that God's grace is vast and calls us to transformation, urging us to understand its depth and power in our relationships with God and others. Jesus' mission, as highlighted, is to seek and save the lost, demonstrating that grace is both a gentle invitation and a powerful force for change.

Highlights

Jesus encounters both a blind man and Zacchaeus, demonstrating that grace reaches everyone, regardless of status. 🌟
The grace of God extends to both the marginalized and those deemed contemptible, illustrating its boundless nature. 🌌
Jesus challenges societal norms by calling both the poor and the wealthy to follow Him, showcasing equity in grace. ✌️
Jesus' question, 'What do you want me to do?', invites a deeper engagement with faith and transformation. 🤔
Grace meets us in our messiest state, not waiting for us to 'clean up' before it enters our lives powerfully. 💥
Faith in grace necessitates action and transformation, demanding we alter our daily lives post-encounter. 🚀
Samuelson encourages listeners to grasp the radical invitation of grace and respond with wholehearted surrender. 🙏

Key Takeaways

God's grace is unbound and embraces both the oppressed and oppressors, urging transformation for all. 🌟
Encountering Jesus leads to life-changing transformation, aligning individuals with God's divine purpose. 🔄
Grace is a scandalous, tender force, inviting us to embrace its full weight and transformative power. ⚡️
Being met at our lowest by Jesus exemplifies the redeeming power of grace, calling us to rise and follow Him. 🙌
True grace demands a profound response and leads to a beautiful, restored communion with God and others. 💖

Overview

The sermon delivered by John Samuelson takes us on a biblical journey through the stories of a blind beggar and Zacchaeus, showcasing the abundant grace and transformative power of Jesus. As Samuelson narrates, both stories highlight how Jesus seeks out the lost and extends grace to individuals from vastly different backgrounds - a blind man living in poverty and a wealthy tax collector shunned by society.

Samuelson paints a vivid picture of how Jesus bridges the worlds of these two seemingly opposite characters. He emphasizes that grace is not limited to the oppressed but extends boldly to oppressors, with Jesus meeting each individual where they are, but calling them to a higher purpose. The true essence of grace lies in its ability to transform lives completely, bringing both comfort to the needy and a call to justice for those who perpetrate injustices.

By exploring these biblical accounts, Samuelson underscores the radical nature of grace that can sometimes be challenging to accept. The sermon ends by reinforcing the idea that our relationship with grace must go beyond accepting it superficially - it demands a deep, life-altering response. Samuelson's prayer for the congregation is that they are reminded of God's inclusive grace, inviting them to His table and urging them to extend the same grace to others in their pursuit of living a life reflective of Jesus' redemptive mission.

Chapters

00:00 - 04:00: Introduction and Reading The chapter begins with a greeting from John Samuelson, who introduces himself as a lay pastor at South Fellowship.
04:00 - 09:00: The Encounter of the Blind Man As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man sitting by the road, who was begging, heard a crowd passing by. Upon inquiring about the commotion, he was informed that Jesus of Nazareth was passing. The blind man then called out, asking for Jesus, whom he recognized as the Son of David, to have mercy on him. Meanwhile, those leading the way were sternly instructing the blind man to be silent.
09:00 - 15:00: The Encounter of Zacchaeus Jesus is walking through a town, and a blind man calls out to him, asking for mercy. Despite being told to be quiet, the man continues to call out. Jesus asks the man what he wants, and the man responds that he wants to see again. Jesus tells him that his faith has made him well, and the man immediately regains his sight. He begins to follow Jesus, glorifying God, and the people around witness the miracle.
15:00 - 21:00: God's Grace: Embracing Opposites The chapter titled 'God's Grace: Embracing Opposites' begins with people giving praise to God. As Jesus enters Jericho, a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus is introduced. Despite being wealthy, Zacchaeus faces the challenge of his small stature which prevents him from seeing Jesus through the crowd. Determined, he runs ahead and climbs a sycamore tree for a better view as Jesus is about to pass by.
21:00 - 28:00: Responding to God's Grace In 'Responding to God's Grace,' the story of Zacchaeus unfolds as he is called by Jesus to come down quickly, for Jesus intends to stay at his house. Despite the crowd's disapproval, labeling Zacchaeus a sinner, he joyfully accepts Jesus. Demonstrating a change of heart, Zacchaeus pledges to give half of his possessions to the poor and to repay fourfold anyone he has wronged through fraud. This chapter highlights themes of redemption, generosity, and the transformative impact of Jesus's presence.
28:00 - 40:00: Conclusion and Invitation In the concluding chapter titled 'Conclusion and Invitation', the emphasis is on the transformative encounter with Jesus, highlighting themes of salvation and redemption. The chapter affirms the mission of Jesus as a seeker and savior of the lost, embodying the inclusive promise of salvation to all, epitomized by calling Zacchaeus a son of Abraham. This part of the Gospel is presented as an open invitation to salvation, epitomizing Jesus' purpose of seeking out and saving the lost.

Contrasting Grace | Encountering Jesus (Part 5) Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 good morning my name is john samuelson i'm a lay pastor here at south fellowship would you please stand with me for the
00:30 - 01:00 reading of the living word of god as jesus was approaching jericho a blind man was sitting by the road begging now hearing a crowd going by he began to inquire what this was they told him there was jesus of nazareth was passing by and he called out saying jesus son of david have mercy on me and those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet
01:00 - 01:30 but he kept crying out all the more son of david have mercy on me and jesus stopped and commanded that he would be brought to him and when he came near he questioned him what do you want me to do for you and he said lord i want to regain my sight and jesus said to him receive your sight your faith has made you well immediately he regained his sight and he began following him glorifying god and when all the people
01:30 - 02:00 saw it they gave praise to god he entered jericho and was passing through and there was a man called by the name of zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and he was rich zacchaeus was trying to see who jesus was and was unable because of the crowd for he was small in stature so we ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see him for he was about to pass through that way when jesus came to the place
02:00 - 02:30 he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurried and come down for today i must stay in your house and he hurried and came down and received him gladly when they saw it they all began to grumble saying he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner zacchaeus stopped and said to the lord behold lord half of my positions i will give to the poor and if i have defrauded anyone of anything i will give back
02:30 - 03:00 four times as much and jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save that's which was lost this is the gospel of our lord jesus christ you may be seated
03:00 - 03:30 1968 a movie entitled the odd couple came out many of you have seen it i'm sure it was a movie about two unlikely friends that started to room together in an apartment one of them was extremely type a and very clean the other was um well not so much and the movie revolved around was eventually made into a tv show the way that these two opposites really came together and and attracted
03:30 - 04:00 we see that kind of thing happening in our lives and culture all the time don't we we're where two people who are really diametrically opposed in a lot of ways come together and make something beautiful um my my parents were like that on every personality profile they could take they scored on exact opposite ends of the spectrum my mom was extremely artistic and free-spirited and my dad was is an engineer and they were very
04:00 - 04:30 very different and we see this all the time though where things that are opposite come into contact with each other and and they tend to attract or they tend to make something beautiful um we see this in in the food that we eat right like for example um chicken and waffles like were we just were we yeah were we just looking for an excuse to put syrup on chicken is that is that how that came about or um i was in mexico um uh a few weeks ago and i saw somebody walking down the street and they were eating
04:30 - 05:00 um a paeta which is a um uh fruit popsicle with chili powder on top of it praise be to god right like i love that let's find a way to make anything spicy because it deserves it right or um a few months ago my wife brought home this popcorn and i don't know if you've had this but this popcorn is a combination of caramel corn and cheddar cheese popcorn okay caramel and cheddar two things that you would
05:00 - 05:30 think should not go together until you taste it and then it's like the shekinah glory of the lord has come into your living room while you're watching your movie and your mouth is having a party i mean it is absolutely anybody want to say amen to that it's it's absolutely delicious and if you doubt me since this is second service i will crack this open afterwards and invite you to come and taste and see that god is good okay
05:30 - 06:00 see there's times where we don't know what to do with jesus because what he's doing is taking two things that we think are opposites and bringing him together there's times where where he takes things that we think should never touch each other and should never come in contact with each other and he brings them together in such a way that when we allow it to touch and prick our hearts it it just it explodes and that's what we've seen in these two stories that we heard today
06:00 - 06:30 because you heard two stories one was about a blind man the other was about a tax collector two stories that dr luke records and puts right next to each other to make a point he wants us to sense something he wants us to feel something about what happens when people encounter jesus and he wants us to know something about the type of people that encounter jesus see because in luke 18 35 through 1910
06:30 - 07:00 there's two stories but there's only one point and luke tells you what it is at the very end of luke chapter 19 he says this for the son of man he came to seek to to find out to actively pursue and hunt down and to save to make whole that which is broken to restore that which is damage the lost
07:00 - 07:30 two stories two different people one central point that jesus the the son of god the the reflection of what god is like is coming and his central purpose is to find people like you and to find people like me and to bring them back into the fold of god that's why he came two stories one point that the grace of god is wide enough
07:30 - 08:00 big enough strong enough to chase you down to hunt you out and to call you home and in these two stories what jesus is going to do is he's going to take things that we think oftentimes live on opposite ends of the spectrum and he's going to walk into jericho and he's going to pull these things together in such a way that it allows his grace to shine and that's my prayer this
08:00 - 08:30 morning as we dive into the scriptures is that god's grace would just have a little bit more weightiness to it in our life today that it would shine a little bit more that we'd walk out of this place just with our hearts captured in worship and with hope being breathed into some dead and dark spaces that we thought were too far out of his reach see because when you and i get a full realization or full recognition a full picture of god's grace this grace
08:30 - 09:00 that brings polar opposites together when we get a full picture a realization of god's grace it leads to a fruitful relationship with god and some of us are struggling in our life with god because our view of who god is and the way that he works in our world and the grace that he showers down is far too small and so in this picture of this unlikely combination these things that jesus is gonna bring together that we would often keep
09:00 - 09:30 separate we're gonna see grace just explode and god maybe call some of us home see the passage revolves around three main characters jesus who says he's come to seek and save the lost and two men one man who's blind and he spends his days sitting along the road leading in to jericho he is desperate he's destitute
09:30 - 10:00 his day revolves around asking people or the jewish people for alms or or gifts it was a part of the jewish jewish ethos and their culture to give to those who were needy and so in many ways this blind man is fulfilling a role in society but his role is one that nobody wants to choose because he's completely dependent on everyone around him and he's broken and he's hurting and he's in need
10:00 - 10:30 third character in the story of jesus you have the blind man and then you have zacchaeus zacchaeus who's the not just a tax collector but he's a chief tax collector he's risen the ranks in tax collecting and he's grown to be one of the more hated people in this region of israel because tax collectors were hated for a number of reasons one they were hated because they were sellouts see when rome conquered the israelite people they took bids from uh from israelites to see
10:30 - 11:00 who wanted to become a tax collector and so you could pay rome a certain amount of money and have the right to set up a tax collecting booth and so zacchaeus had paid rome had sent up his tax collecting booth and rome would tell zacchaeus hey you need to get x amount of denarius per head but whatever you can get on top of that zacchaeus that's yours you get to keep that and so zacchaeus was hated not only
11:00 - 11:30 because he was a sellout and he had teamed up with rome to tax his own people but he was hated because he was in a position of power and he was manipulating everyone around him to try to get things from them okay save two stories one about a very poor man who's taken advantage of and who is the oppressed another who's an extremely rich man
11:30 - 12:00 who is the oppressor and you have jesus who walks into jericho and he meets the poor man the oppressed man on the ground where he is and he meets the rich man the oppressor where he is see these are the things that trouble us about jesus aren't they if we're honest with ourselves we love the fact that he meets the oppressed
12:00 - 12:30 right something in us goes yeah that's how it should be god should be for the people that are broken the people that are destitute the blind man who's in need who has no hope jesus should be for him but this passage isn't just about jesus being for the oppressed it's also about jesus being for the oppressor it's about jesus being not only for in his grace being over the victim but it's about jesus grace
12:30 - 13:00 being over the victimizer it's about jesus being for the people that have zero power zero authority zero hope and it's about jesus being for the person that has all the power all the authority and is using it to manipulate and steal from all the people around him jesus walks into jericho takes those two extremes and brings them both under the grace of god
13:00 - 13:30 it's an extremely beautiful and troubling story see because what we start to see is that god's grace is jumpy this morning a little bit jumpy god's grace is is incredibly beautiful and it's shockingly offensive you could read it that god's grace is for the jewish person in the prison camp and
13:30 - 14:00 it's for the nazi camp worker that god's grace is for both the victim and the victimizer i i'm um have developed a friendship with dr jeff brodsky who works with joy international and who works in human trafficking and he sent me a text the other day and his text said this his text said eight girls rescued
14:00 - 14:30 three of them miners two traffickers arrested and i went yes that's why we took a christmas eve offering and gave 8 500 to joy international because we believe in their ministry and then i had to take a step back and wonder if i would have been as excited if you would have wrote me and those people who were the victimizers met
14:30 - 15:00 jesus see because we love grace when it touches the oppressed but what about when it gets a little bit scandalous when it gets a little bit offensive when it reaches further than we would have it reach of god we're taking ideas from us right and look at the different responses of the people in the crowd see because these two stories are parallels of each other they're drawing out two different points
15:00 - 15:30 but look at the way people respond when the oppressed when the blind man received sight all the people when they saw it say it with me church gave praise to god they were like amen that's what god should be about and when they saw it speaking of zacchaeus and jesus going to zacchaeus's house they all say it with me church grumbled right so in a very short few verses we go from cheers to jeers right that jesus
15:30 - 16:00 is at one point the hero because he's offering grace to the oppressed and then he's the cast off because he's his grace has gone a little bit too far dan ellender the psychologist and great author says it like this he says the christian faith and the grace at its heart is so radical that most congregations can't deal with it
16:00 - 16:30 that it's for the oppressed in the oppressor the abused and the abuser the victim and the victimizer do you have you wrestled with the extent of god's grace enough to where it sort of haunts you a little bit it's the intention of this passage he's he's bringing both the beauty and the scandal of grace together two stories one point here's the way the passage continues
16:30 - 17:00 is that one man see two stories one point one man cries out to jesus the blind man jesus son of david have mercy on me he's he's seeking he's longing he's hurting and his heart's on the line another man climbs up one man cries out one man climbs up but zacchaeus is seeking all the same isn't he he's just doing it in a different way
17:00 - 17:30 he wants to do it from a distance luke tells us it's a sycamore tree because sycamore trees were very leafy trees and presumably one would be able to climb up into a sycamore tree and be able to hide but jesus doesn't let him hide does he so the question both of these passages ask us is what does jesus do with the person who's seeking how does he respond so if you're in this room and you're seeking out if you're seeking
17:30 - 18:00 jesus this is the question that that all of us in some way are asking isn't it what does he do when people cry out what does he do when people climb up well the answer is actually better than the question because jesus doesn't just respond to people who are seeking him out he responds by saying oh i've been seeking you out you thought you were the hunter but
18:00 - 18:30 you're really the haunted blind man and zacchaeus you thought you were the one who was trying to get me in your sights but i'm the one who's come into jericho with a plan to get you in my sights see the son of man came not to be sought but to be the seeker that he was on the move that he was hunting them down and that he was then going to call them out because grace the way
18:30 - 19:00 it works in our life you may have noticed this is that grace encounters us tenderly that it meets us in those deep needy places of our soul and refuses to allow us to stay there amen the grace finds us when we're destitute and when we're broken and it doesn't just say i'm really sorry that you're there but it takes us by the arm and and it pulls us out it's the way that it
19:00 - 19:30 happens in both of these stories see you reach this moment of truth and the story of the blind man where jesus asks him a question he says to him well what do you want me to do for you and i've always thought like dude jesus he's blind right like news flash son of god he probably wants to see right and sometimes we read through the scriptures and we'll read something like this and it doesn't make sense and it's because we really don't
19:30 - 20:00 understand i think this is a legitimate question he has two answers he can give he could give the answer he's given to every other person that day what do you want me to do for you i'd like i'd like some money i'd like alms it's a legitimate answer isn't it it's an answer that meets an immediate need but leaves him in the exact same spot or he can respond by saying i'm going to go out on a limb here and believe that you are the christ that you are the son
20:00 - 20:30 of god that you have all the power in heaven on earth and i'm going to ask you to make my blind eye see but if he does that his life changes if he says i want my sight do you know what he can't do the next day what he's done every other day he cannot go back to that same spot he cannot sit down and beg for alms he can't be along the
20:30 - 21:00 side of the road his whole entire life changes for the better yeah but change nonetheless and before we go well that's a ridiculous question how many of us respond to the king of the universe when he asks what do you want me to do for you we say just help me get through the day right like our response when when our marriage is hurting and we're in pain and we're going in two opposite directions sometimes when jesus
21:00 - 21:30 enters in and says well what do you want me to do for you our response is just help me survive help me get through the day instead of will you heal this and it may mean some pain that we have to walk through in order to get to this point where you do what you promise you'll do but jesus we're willing to walk with you on this because isn't it easier isn't it easier sometimes to just choose what we know than to take a risk that god's grace
21:30 - 22:00 would meet us where we are and so we just continue in the same patterns i'd like money thank you very much i know it'll help me and i know it will help me today see i think god wants to speak a word over some of us this morning that he's asking us what do you want from me and i can i invite you to risk when you tell him what you want to dig a little deeper than just meeting the immediate and to get to the actual core of what's going on in in your soul
22:00 - 22:30 that maybe there's a dream that's died and instead of just surviving man ask him to awaken it ask him to breathe life into dead places we're talking about the one who's conquered death you tell me what's too big for him just ask him just ask him what do you want me to do for you so that's that's the blind man's moment of truth and and here's zacchaeus moment of truth zacchaeus
22:30 - 23:00 come down and zacchaeus is probably like um who me right like he's up there thinking he's anonymous jesus zacchaeus come on down i must stay at your house when today i mean if you're zacchaeus aren't you like hey that's a really great invitation could we do that tomorrow because i left some stuff out that i'd like to put away and my house isn't exactly clean and
23:00 - 23:30 there's a few people that i may or may not have depending on how you look at it i may or may not have wronged them and jesus before you come into my house son of god i'd really like the chance to make some things right that i've done wrong isn't that what you and i would like to do hey jesus before you enter my life let me get it cleaned up a little bit let me take care of a few loose ends and then you can come and enter my life look up at me for a second
23:30 - 24:00 it's not the way grace works see grace meets us at our low or it doesn't meet us at all and so when jesus encounters zakiyah says i'm coming to your life not tomorrow and not in a week and not when you get it cleaned up and not when you're deserving of having me come in but i'm coming to your house when today when you're a total mess when you're a total thief when you're a chief tax collector
24:00 - 24:30 that's when i'm entering in he says oh man that's great news isn't it because here's the thing here's the thing here's the thing we all wish we had time to prepare for jesus but how much time would you need to clean up your life to the extent that you could actually invite a holy god into your house to sit at your table good luck good luck right
24:30 - 25:00 so jesus doesn't say i'm gonna wait till you get things cleaned up he says i'm entering in to your space by my grace i'm gonna enter in at your lowest point and i'm going to encounter you there friends this is the gospel this is the message of jesus coming to seek and saved not good christian people not people who have it all together and are just a few degrees off but people who are lost
25:00 - 25:30 people like the blind man who's lost and people like zacchaeus who's lost i love the way that the great author brennan manning puts it when he says this and i just let this wash over you this morning he says do you believe that the god of jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness beyond fidelity and infidelity that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain
25:30 - 26:00 that he loves you when your intellect denies it when your emotions refuse it and when your whole being rejects it do you believe that god loves without condition or reservation and loves you at this moment as you are not as you should be this is the scandalous nature of grace entering in meeting us tenderly and saying i'm
26:00 - 26:30 coming to your house today or what do you want me to do for you one thing grace refuses to do is allow us to ride the fence it's not soft it's strong and look at the way it works in the lives of these two people first in the life of i love the way some of you like try to sneak attack it zooms forward and you're like i'm gonna get it i'm gonna get it first the fill in the blank right
26:30 - 27:00 jesus says to him to the blind man recover your sight your faith has say it with me church made you well if you have your greek new testament out um that word made you well in the greek is the same word that we translate saved it's it's the greek word that we translate saved so your faith has saved you your faith has redeemed you that where where faith is active grace
27:00 - 27:30 is realized that's what jesus is saying your faith has saved you well if you skip forward and read about zacchaeus encounter it says this wow jumpy jump jump it says this and jesus said to him to zacchaeus today say it with me salvation same word same word salvation has come to this house so
27:30 - 28:00 we have two men both lost both blind in completely different ways one literally blind and cannot see one blind to the way that his power and his use of authority has absolutely ruined and torn apart his life and the life of his community and we see jesus entering into both lives showering grace down on both lives that faith invites them to sit at jesus table to receive from him and grace in both instances
28:00 - 28:30 makes them well it saves them um i have some baggage with the word saved okay i look back in my life and the way that i use or have viewed the term get saved i often hearken back to like tent revivals with an angry preacher who's got a vein in his neck that you wonder if it's gonna survive the entire sermon okay right like and typically it's
28:30 - 29:00 you need to get saved from hell because hell is coming after you right and so salvation was always sort of an um good news bad news type of word and indeed it is that's true there is a hell it is real without jesus we do go there but salvation is so much more than saving us from something salvation is saving us for something and in this passage if you look up salvation
29:00 - 29:30 salvation looks like seeing it looks like seeing literally it looks like seeing the kingdom of god it looks like seeing the way of jesus it looks like seeing the extent of god's grace see salvation certainly saves us from but it saves us for that we're redeemed to the fullness of the humanity that jesus died to instill in us that's what it means to be saved
29:30 - 30:00 and this is the way grace works see it pulls together these two things it it finds us broken and it leads us to this place of wholeness restoration site and so look at the picture just zoom out for a moment in one instance grace finds somebody low in every way low and destitute needy
30:00 - 30:30 longing and dependent and when grace finds somebody low grace picks them up in another story grace finds somebody high up in a tree in a position of power and a position of authority both are lost when grace finds you low grace picks you up when grace finds you
30:30 - 31:00 high grace brings you down because both are broken and what grace does in the lives of believers is it makes us whole it restores us to the way that god intended and designed us to live and so i don't know where you're at this morning i don't know if you're on the ground and broken and needy and grace needs to pick you up and i also don't know if you're in the tree and you're proud and you're arrogant and
31:00 - 31:30 you've got it all together and all your boxes for religiosity are checked and you think you and god are good and grace needs to bring you down but here's look at what grace always does grace always restores people to walk with jesus whether it picks us up off the ground or brings us down out of the tree the result is wholeness salvation life
31:30 - 32:00 life with jesus and then look at it life with others because the the blind man can no longer sit and beg he must now be a positive contributor to society which everybody wants to be and zacchaeus can no longer steal he can't be the thief he can't be the rat he can't be the scoundrel anymore because grace has brought him down both people are restored not only to jesus
32:00 - 32:30 but also to the community around them because rescued people are restored people redeemed people are communal people it's jesus inviting us not only to be forgiven but then to forgive to make things right this is what zacchaeus does after encountering the grace of god well i've got to make things right with the people around us around me because god has by his grace entered in and made me right with
32:30 - 33:00 him and see here here's the way that these two passages work out here's the way that they end the blind man receives his sight and say it with me church followed him zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold the half of my goods i give to the poor if i've defrauded anyone of anything that big if right everybody looks at zacchaeus like if seriously if i've defrauded anyone of anything i restore it four fold
33:00 - 33:30 he goes i'm making things right why well because when grace meets us it meets us at our low empty-handed certainly and god gives it to us freely but grace while it's given freely demands our all it's these two things coming together that we see in both of these stories the beggar can no longer beg the
33:30 - 34:00 thief can no longer steal both people because the grace of god enters into their lives are left definitively changed they can't go on living the way that they've always lived their next day is different and hey friends um we look up at me for just a second i just want if you'll invite me into your life for just a minute i just want to press on us a little bit and say there's times where we make grace seem
34:00 - 34:30 unintentionally pretty soft like like it's just the love of god and we just get to enjoy it and certainly it is meant to be enjoyed but it also is meant to be responded to where if we're not changed because of it we probably haven't really tasted it zacchaeus cannot go on being the same zacchaeus he's always been and add jesus to his party he can't do it grace changed him grace wrecked him
34:30 - 35:00 grace changed his next day immediately because he had met the king of kings and the lord of lords and it had a weightiness over him i love the way that isaac watts the great hymn writer puts it he says this we're the whole realm of nature mine that we're an offering far too small love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my
35:00 - 35:30 all my my everything grace finds us empty-handed every time but then calls us to surrender everything we have to jesus king of kings and lord of lords see both of these men respond by calling jesus lord and then living as though it's true so is that has it changed your life has
35:30 - 36:00 the beauty and weight of that changed your life i love both of these stories because when jesus enters jericho and he sees this blind man he essentially comes to his house i mean that's that's where he does all of his business that's where he is day after day and jesus enters into his space when he meets zacchaeus he says zacchaeus i'm coming to your house your messy house today
36:00 - 36:30 i'm gonna meet you on your turf zacchaeus i'm gonna sit at your table blind man i'm gonna sit at your table zacchaeus and as i sit at your table i'm going to lead you to my banquet that's what grace does it meets us exactly where we are grace enters our life and then leads us into the life of god it
36:30 - 37:00 meets us at our table and it carries us to jesus's banquet friends this message of the gospel i don't know i don't know how to say it's changed my life the the both the the beauty and the offense of the grace of god on the cross the tenderness and the call the brokenness and the wholeness the the
37:00 - 37:30 freedom the free gift and the all-inclusive demand has absolutely changed me i'm convinced that the arm of god is not too short to save anyone the oppressed and the oppressor the abused and the abuser the victim and the victimizer and friends if the mission of jesus is to seek and save the lost
37:30 - 38:00 the mission of jesus's church needs to be to seek and save the lost and when the church lives the mission of jesus the church receives the power of jesus so friends my hope and my prayer as he takes us and meets us at our table and leads us to his banquet is that anthem that song and that declaration would become ours as well because when we have a full picture of
38:00 - 38:30 grace we have a fruitful relationship with god as we come to the table this morning his table his life that he's given to us and for us may we be reminded once again once again in the way that he called us the way that he picked us up or the way that he calls us down that he calls us that he seeks and his grace is sufficient for you and for me
38:30 - 39:00 i'm going to invite you to come in to the table or the station that's in front of your section but as you come would you be reminded of a god who enters your life to invite you into his let's pray and then we'll come to the table together so jesus king of kings and lord of lords the one who comes to seek and save the lost
39:00 - 39:30 that's us that's us and as we come to your table this morning would you remind us afresh that you meet us at our table in order to bring us to yours you enter our life you seek us out in order to invite us into the life of god father as we come this morning and as we taste and see that you're good once again may your grace just explode
39:30 - 40:00 in our hearts and in our souls we pray this in the name of jesus amen if you're a follower of jesus you're invited to the table this morning if