Because it's been already.
Some of us may feel already like running
away.
Because this stuff scares us.
And some of us may just have in
the corner of our hearts a ray of
hope that finally something real can happen in
our lives.
And finally someone can come along who will
not hurt us.
And we can trust to whom we can
give our burdens.
And finally we'll discover whether you're real or
not.
Whether you're there or not.
I just want to worship you Lord.
Because you know we need you.
And we can't find you.
You have to find us.
I thank you that you're so willing to
speak to us now.
Well, last night I went home and couldn't
sleep.
So I crawled into bed at one o
'clock or so.
See, I hope that person in the hospital
bed survives.
Anyway.
And I was praying, you know Lord, I
don't know what they're doing over there right
now.
But I hope somebody is really frightened.
Not in the bad sense.
Not in any bad sense.
I can't find my notes.
Oh well.
But Lord, I hope they're really struggling with
this whole question of letting go of control.
Because it's really cool when you challenge people
about it.
So I know some of you were.
Just because I was praying.
And God answers prayer.
And some of you were working your way
through the implications.
And we have to.
See, this is not comfortable Christianity.
This is not the safe pew.
This is not the institutionalized church.
This is Jesus.
This is raw.
This is real.
And it's scary as heck.
But it's the only thing that works.
I believe we're at a real crossroads in
our time.
And God is giving you an opportunity to
walk on the highway of life.
Highway to heaven.
It's a phrase that Isaiah used.
He's giving you an opportunity to walk in
reality.
To walk by the Spirit.
Not by the flesh.
The sad truth is that a whole generation
of Christians has gotten messed up.
It's a bit like, you know, the hippies.
Remember when the hippies came?
Oh well, you don't.
Somebody told me this morning they were born
in 1985.
So you don't remember the hippies.
I remember the hippies.
They were so cool.
I wanted to be a hippie.
I did.
But I was too young to be a
hippie.
I just sort of messed that generation.
They were sort of my older brother type
generation.
I just caught the edge of the hippie
thing.
Man, they're so cool.
So I tried to be a late blooming
hippie.
And I wore, you know, pastel sort of
brushed denim.
Deep maroon colored jeans.
And then a bright yellow mustard sort of
shirt.
And it was one of those high neck
things.
What do you call it?
Polo neck things.
Turtleneck.
And then a green sweater.
That was like the little thing.
And it beads.
You know, it was awesome.
And I grew my hair long.
Because I had hair then.
And because, you know, you could just feel
their desire to find something better.
It was genuine.
And they really got messed up.
And, you know, half of them are now
dying of AIDS.
And the other half are our businessmen.
So, you know, the answer they found was
the same one their forefathers found.
In Marguerite they came in droves in Western
Cape Breton to come back to the land.
By the time I got there in 1985,
the year that Hannah was born, there was
just one hippie family left in the hills.
And they were in the process of coming
out of the hills.
In fact, he became an elder in our
church.
And every family that had gone into those
hills, back to the land, back to simplicity,
looking for better, starved to death nearly, froze
to death, carried away by the flies in
the spring and the summer, decided it's better
to go back to Wall Street.
And they did.
The one family that was left split.
And then he searched for God.
And he found Him.
Or rather, he was signed by Him.
But, you know, the hippies, they were awesome.
They just wanted something better.
Spiritually, we're in a generation of hippies.
And I don't mean that in a bad
sense at all.
But see, the hippies had a search on
their head, on their minds, in their hearts,
finding something better.
Today, a whole generation of young people is
saying, there has got to be better than
this.
Church has got to be different than this.
We've got to find a better way.
And the worship movement and the whole desire
for contemporary Christianity is all about that.
And it's awesome.
But you know what?
It'll just be like going to the hills.
Because in a while, when you get too
old to dance, and your kids are tugging
at your heels, and when life begins to
bear down, and you have responsibility, and you've
got to pay the bills, you'll go back
to Wall Street.
And you will reproduce spiritually what your forefathers
have produced, because that's the way of the
flesh.
You will.
I know you will.
Ten, twenty years from now, you'll be saying,
remember those days when we were looking for
something better?
What happened?
Because we're just the same.
However, you have, you spiritual hippies, something that
the hippies in the 60s and 70s didn't
have.
It's the God.
And He wants there to be something better.
The 21st century has to see a change
of such drama in the church.
It will be like the 16th century when
the Reformation hit.
It'll be like the 1st century when Jesus
landed.
It has to happen.
Because we're in the last of the last
days.
Each of us, all of us, feel the
urgency of our times.
We know that certain things are passing away,
which, of course, is what the Bible says.
And some things need to pass away because
they've become old, they've become corrupted, they've become
institutionalized, they've become dogmatized.
They need to die.
But there has to be something to replace
it.
And what is it?
I think that's what Jesus is about in
this generation.
And He's offering, He's calling, He's touching, He's
reaching, and He's saying, there is something better.
You have to let some things go.
You have to let go of control.
That is such a challenge, and it is
an ongoing issue, and it will never go
away.
Now that you've heard it, and don't think
you're going to be able to forget it,
the Holy Spirit will come back at you
again, and again, and again.
You've got to let go of control.
You've got to get out of the driving
seat.
You have got to put yourself into the
hands of Jesus.
For the rich young ruler, that meant selling
his possessions.
For you, it could mean any number of
things, but it will put you in a
position of need and dependence.
Some of you are terrified by that.
You know why?
Because although you've heard a great deal about
Him, you're just not really sure who He
is yet.
This God, this Jesus.
I mean, some of you have grown up
in the church, and it's still true for
you.
It's still true that although you've heard so
much about Him, you're just not sure if
He's trustworthy.
You're just not sure if you let go
of control that He'll be there.
It's a scary thought.
Will He be there?
Will there be something when I let go
of the control of my life?
If I'm going to put myself in His
hands, will He catch me?
When I was younger, I used to take
my kids to the swimming pool.
Some of them are here today.
Take Micah and Sarah and Jonathan to the
swimming pool.
They loved to do this thing.
They'd get me out somewhere in the middle
of the pool on the safe end, and
they'd say, Daddy, gotcha!
And then they'd run to the side of
the pool where we were, and one at
a time they'd come running.
And you'd just see in their little faces,
and they'd come and they'd just run.
Little Micah running as fast as his wee
legs could carry him.
And then he'd launch right into the deep.
And of course, right at me.
So, they hit me.
My job was simple.
Catch them.
Be there.
Now this was good once.
Twice.
Three times a lady.
No, that's...
It was great.
You know, it was really great.
Micah was a little guy, and then Jonathan
would come, and he was a little bigger.
I'd catch him.
Yeah, this is great, son.
His shoulders were about okay, really.
Then they'd go back.
Do it again, do it again, do it
again.
And then Sarah would come, and she was
as big as a wolf.
I'd go down in the water.
I'd come up to put her, and she's
giggling.
It's just so much fun.
We had a friend visiting from Ireland with
us, and his children, they thought they'd get
in on the act.
And my friend Brian, you know, he's a
bigger, muscular, more muscular guy than me.
And I was already, my muscles already sagged
to the middle somewhere, and you could see
I was getting really tired.
My kids had done this 70 times now.
Step aside.
I'll catch him.
Step aside.
Oh, great.
Yeah, thank you.
No problem, man.
Actually, that's quite good.
And the kids all lined up on the
wall, my three kids.
And, you know, right into that moment, it
went, Oh!
Yahoo!
Let's do it again, Daddy.
Let's do it for three hours, Daddy.
And then Brian stepped into my place, and
their little faces went, and little Micah stands
off to the side, and then he takes
a step back behind Jonathan, and he peeks
out.
And Jonathan, he's a shy one.
He stopped giving anybody in the room eye
contact.
He's looking at his sister.
His sister is like this.
Boys took the cue.
There was no way.
It was written all over her body.
She didn't have to say a word.
Little Micah came out from behind Jonathan.
Jon stood out from behind Sarah.
And they all went looking at me.
Not looking at him.
Just looking at me.
Now, Brian was stronger than I was.
I mean, bigger.
He could handle them.
No problem.
But what was their problem?
Tell me.
They didn't know him.
Now, they knew me.
And they knew, you know, that it was
probably a bit of a risk with me
because my legs were getting sore, and they
could tell I was wheezing, and maybe they'd
die next time.
But still, they knew me.
Jumping into my arms was not a problem.
You see, the thing with this, and this
is what really challenges us, when God says,
let go of control.
You know what the real hard issue is?
We're just not sure if you'll catch it.
Now, I know that hurts.
But you know it's true.
See, life has a way of warping us
from childhood, doesn't it?
It doesn't matter if we've had a good
home.
It doesn't matter if we've had a bad
home.
It just doesn't matter.
The world does this to us.
Period.
The flesh does this to us.
The fact that we are out of step
with the Holy Spirit from birth does this
to us.
We're born in sin, shaping in iniquity.
This does this.
We build little safe walls around ourselves.
And if we do get hurt by people,
man, there are some places no one is
ever, ever going to get to.
The one place that we're safe.
And we can build all kinds of worlds
around us, all kinds of lifestyle, all kinds
of meaning, purpose for ourselves, but we will
not let anyone pass.
Sometimes we'll let them in a little ways,
but there's always that inner sanctuary.
You know what I'm saying?
People do this.
You do this.
And it comes out in your life.
It comes out in your body language.
You're just like my kids.
Here's how it happens sometimes.
It comes through this quickly, this simply.
You think you're good at hiding it?
It's so obvious with some of you.
All I have to do is hug you.
You know.
You know what I'm saying.
The moment somebody reaches for you, you go...
And somebody pulls you into their arms, you're
pulling back.
You ever hug somebody like that?
The whole experience is you're pulling them, they're
pulling back.
It's like baptizing somebody who doesn't want to
be dipped.
You've probably never done this.
Interesting experience.
You're pushing down, they're pushing up.
You're standing on them, they're struggling.
Just kidding.
There is an emotional wall.
It's a barrier.
You let people into a certain area of
your life, you let them into the front
room of your home, but no way you're
getting in the kitchen, man.
There's no way you're seeing the dam, metaphorically
speaking.
And even God is held at a distance.
Because we're really not sure yet.
Life sucks.
And we find ourselves in pain constantly.
And we find ourselves longing, just longing for
someone to accept us.
And you know, there's a point at which
most of us realize that that someone is
God.
And at some level, we begin our journey
with Him and we enter into a relationship.
But often, it is still at a distance.
And we just, we fear so much.
Letting go of control is miles away.
Because we're not sure if He's there.
We're not sure if He's going to hurt
us.
We're not sure if He's going to put
us through cancer or something.
We're not sure if we let Him in,
if He's going to really do us damage.
And man, I've been damaged already.
I mean, we may not even go through
all these machinations mentally, but that's the way
we live.
That's the reality.
That's the state of mind.
Many of you know it already.
At 23, 24 years of age, you know,
you know, your heart is closed.
The walls are up.
Okay, fine, pastor.
Fine, see, for you to say, jump.
Is He going to be there?
And even if there's some notion in your
mind that He is there, and He's muscular,
and He's strong, and He's all the things
that you think the Bible says He is,
it's just like my kids.
You're looking at them thinking, mm, mm, mm,
mm.
Mm, mm.
You don't know.
I'm not talking to you now, I'm talking
to those of you that don't know the
Lord yet.
I'm talking to those of you that do.
Luke, chapter 19, it says that Jesus entered
Jericho and was passing through.
The man was there by the name of
Zacchaeus.
I love this story.
I tell this story to kids.
I tell it to adults.
I love this story.
Just had to say that.
He was a chief tax collector, and he
was wealthy.
The only way to get that way, a
chief tax collector and wealthy, is to be
absolutely dishonest, to be a jerk, to be
a heel, to use your community, to use
your people.
The tax collectors were hated.
They were the rejects of their society.
They were generally not even allowed to be
in church, though Jesus pointed out once that
He saw a tax collector, He must have
snuck His way in there.
Perhaps He wasn't a local tax collector, because
generally speaking, if they knew you were a
tax collector, they knew you were a sinner,
therefore they knew that you didn't deserve to
be in church, therefore they could keep you
out if they had to.
You were totally unacceptable.
Though you may have been a Jew with
all the right pedigree, you were persona non
grata among the cultural events of the nation,
because you were serving the enemy, because you
had used your people.
I don't know how a guy gets to
be a tax collector.
I don't know how a man gets to
be someone who uses his people.
I don't know how this person got to
be the way he was, but when he
got there, he was a man alone.
No matter how he got there, he knew
what it was like to be alone.
He knew what it was like to defend
himself.
He knew what it was like to be
so different and despised.
And he knew what it was like to
hope.
I know God is here, and I know
God is speaking.
Do not miss what He is going to
say.
He has told me I have to let
go of control.
I can't do that.
It is too slight.
Here was a man who was in control.
But it wasn't the control issue that Jesus
got his ideas on.
He wanted to see who Jesus was.
Verse 3.
That is a cool statement.
I love the Bible.
It is just an amazing book.
Phrase after phrase after phrase.
It just blows you away.
Because it didn't say he wanted to see
what Jesus could do.
It says he wanted to see who Jesus
was.
Wow!
You are thinking, what?
I mean, it is so amazing.
Just in a word, we know where his
heart was.
In one word, we know what this man
was about.
Vast multitudes were following Jesus at this point,
just to see what He could do.
But one little reject.
One little despised and hated character, who knew
nothing as far as his peers were concerned,
who could offer nothing, who was nothing but
a thief in their minds.
There was something.
There was something in that little man.
And it is not just like God.
Because it is Him.
But he couldn't get to Him.
Because he was short.
He was vertically challenged.
It is a terrible thing to be vertically
challenged.
And it doesn't matter which end of the
vertical scale you are on.
It is a terrible thing to be too
small.
It is a terrible thing to be too
big.
I never had to deal with the too
small thing.
But when I was eleven years old, I
was six foot tall.
I was.
All my peers were three feet tall.
I was vertically challenged the other way.
I already had ears like Dumbo.
Kids laughed at my ears.
And every boy I ever met wanted to
fight me.
And they would come and stand at my
navel and say, Fight me!
Irish people are weird.
See, you've got to understand this.
This is like a cultural, this is like
Anthropology 101.
Because Irish people are just weird.
And they're passionate.
And they love to fight.
And I'm not kidding.
They love to fight about anything.
And they see you vertically challenged, you are
a challenge to them.
You are an affront to their ability.
I'd be walking out of school minding my
own business.
Some kid would come running up, three other
guys behind him, and stand and say, Fight
me!
I'm thinking, Why?
Why?
Why God?
I'm eleven years old.
I'm six foot.
He wants to fight me.
Happened constantly.
I also wore size eleven shoes.
One size for every year of my life.
Now that gets scary.
Because you're thinking, When I get to fifteen,
What if I live to thirty-five?
What if I'm seventy?
What does that mean?
It's a terrible thing to be vertically challenged.
I had one fight in my life.
I beat the tar out of the kid.
Felt good for like three nanoseconds.
And then I felt, Oh God, I'm going
to hell.
And I ran, I ran.
I left him lying in a pool of
his own blood.
And I ran away.
And ever after that, I ran away from
every other challenge to fight me.
And there were dozens of them.
And I hid.
I hid.
I hid inside.
Because I just didn't want to live that
life.
I wasn't like that.
I just happened to be too big.
So leave me alone already.
I had a good home.
I had loving parents.
At the time I was eighteen, I was
hiding from everybody I knew.
By then they'd all caught up.
But the damage was done.
I had a stutter when I was in
high school.
And it came out of this fear of
who I was and what I was.
And how I could cope.
And the world just became a place I
couldn't cope with.
And in my math classes, which I never
learned to cope with, I would develop a
stutter.
My teacher would say, What's the answer?
And we were gritted and I always sat
behind Marie.
And she always knew the answer.
I knew the answer.
And I would go...
And the class would erupt in laughter.
And I was verbally challenged.
It just got worse.
My dad had played professional soccer.
Played for one of the best teams in
England.
A team called Liverpool Football Club.
My uncle had played professional soccer for Chelsea
Football Club.
Soccer was in our blood.
I knew I could play soccer, but I
couldn't play soccer.
I was such a wreck.
Then they discovered I could run fast.
I'd had all that practice from running away
from fights.
I was swifter than a speeding bullet.
And when I ran, I was sick to
my stomach because all my life, somebody had
been chasing me.
I want to fight.
So I could run.
I'd run.
Anybody.
Anybody who ran with me.
I was terrified of them.
I mean, they weren't thinking to fight me
anymore.
Just to beat me in a race.
I would run.
I would win.
I would throw up.
That was the practice of my athletic prowess.
Just full of fear.
The first job I got working for the
summer.
The night before I went, I was ready
for Unit 9.
Except it wasn't Unit 9 in Belfast.
I was ready for the nut house.
I cried.
I prayed.
I said, oh God, come tomorrow so I
don't have to go to work.
I can't do this.
I can't speak to people.
I can't do anything.
Just, I can't.
I could.
Physically.
Emotionally.
Intellectually.
The ability was there, but I couldn't do
it.
I was already building walls, fears around me.
And you know what?
My story is no different than yours.
Because life does this to you.
I experienced failure.
11 years of age, we all did something
called the 11 plus.
And it was an exam that determined whether
you went into the grammar stream, where all
the smart people went, or the secondary stream,
where all the dopes went.
Two systems of education.
And of course Brian, my muscular friend, passed
the 11 plus.
And he went to Annadale grammar school.
He was learning Latin and Greek.
Howdy doody.
He was a smart guy.
And then it was my turn.
And I wanted so bad to pass that
thing.
I wanted so bad to be able to
go to Annadale with my pal.
And I still remember the day the letter
came.
And it was then, you know, I still
remember standing in front of the dresser 11
years of age, opening that letter that said,
I'm sorry, you're one of the dopes.
You go to the secondary stream.
And I looked up into the eyes of
the boy in the mirror.
Yes.
My life story is no different than yours.
Life does this to you.
No different than his story, Zacchaeus.
Whatever got him to the place he was,
whatever brought him to that place of total
domination of his life, whatever took him to
the place of absolute control, so that he
controlled his destiny, he controlled his finances, he
controlled the people around him.
He had built all these walls.
He was rich.
He was wealthy.
He was totally alone.
Whatever got there.
And I could go on and tell you
my side story, but there's no need.
You get the picture.
I had a good home.
I had good parents.
I had a good life.
I began to feel that everything.
In Bible school, they told me I was
just working my way from the bottom right
to the middle.
One of my professors said to me one
day, Steve, you're a plotter.
I said, thanks, I think.
He said, no, no, I just think you
just, you know, you don't really achieve too
much.
But, you know, you just keep on plugging.
You just, you're okay.
That's my whole list.
Don't worry, I'm not sad anymore.
Because you know what that creates?
It creates a desperate desire to protect yourself,
a desperate desire to prove yourself, a desperate
desire to get on top no matter what.
So that's the kind of person I became.
That's the kind of person this was.
He succeeded so powerfully to get on top.
He made himself rich.
He made himself secure.
He made himself totally lonely.
Then he heard about Jesus.
And he wanted to know could he window
into his heart.
It didn't matter really, you know, it didn't
matter to him what he could do.
He wanted to know, in this stinking world
is this to whom I can let go
of my heart.
He climbed a tree.
Hey, you do what you have to do.
And this is an amazing story.
He saw Jesus from a distance.
That is the way many be seen.
And you're born again.
Don't get me wrong.
Die the day you go to heaven.
Hallelujah.
You get there, you have to spend the
first 800 years getting to know someone whom
you've only seen a few times.
Christmas and New Years comes a little closer.
When your grandmother died, he seemed to touch
you for a while.
During a couple of recent worship times, he
seemed to draw near.
Generally speaking, he's a distant relative.
You know lots about him.
And like Zacchaeus in the tree, you can
see him in the distance.
And there's a deep longing for him.
I was talking to somebody the other day
about some friends of mine.
I have a friend, she's a doctor.
And she's a Presbyterian.
So we need to pray for her.
Do you know what that means?
It means very staid worship.
It means, you know, Psalms.
It means, you know, hard pews and dusty
Bibles.
And that's what she grew up with.
And right from when she was so young,
God spoke to her.
Like, spoke to her.
Intimate relationship.
Blew her away.
Spoke to her so clearly, it was just
as real as any voice she ever heard.
So she becomes a doctor.
Yep, in life too.
She becomes a psychiatrist.
She gets the opportunity to set up a
good practice in Cape Breton.
All kinds of wonderful opportunity.
And God speaks to her and says, Jeannie,
I want you to pray for a year.
I don't want you to go to work
yet.
So she goes to the head of psychiatry
at Nova Scotia.
She sits down with him and she says,
God has spoken to me.
He said, you hear voices?
She said, um, no.
But God has always spoken to me.
And today he has spoken to me and
he said, Jeannie, I want you to pray
for a year.
And he said, but Jeannie, couldn't you pray
on Sundays or, you know, on evening times?
Saturdays every now and again?
I mean, you are ready.
Cape Breton needs you.
There is an opportunity.
You can set your hours.
You can set your pay scale.
Man, no, see, God has spoken.
And this is the way it's been all
her life.
And she said, no, I'm going to pray
for you.
And so she's been praying for a year.
She just started work last week or the
week before.
And I would call her up.
I'd say, Jeannie, how are you doing?
I'm great.
It's funny, Steve, you called because I was
just talking about you.
I said, really?
Who with?
God.
And, you know, see, he said this.
It was funny.
We were upstairs in the room.
I was looking out the window and God
said, and she would tell me the whole
conversation.
I'm thinking, weird.
But strangely, I'm thinking, wow, why can't it
be that way for me?
I have this other friend.
And long before she became a Christian, God
was speaking to her.
Like, they would be walking home.
She had a dark lane on a dark
road to get to each night.
And she says, as she walked along, she
would enter into a period of fear.
And she would just know that God was
right there.
And he'd say, don't be afraid.
I'm here.
And she'd say, okay.
Crazy.
Weird.
She'd go on to a flatbed of a
train one day.
Just because she felt like it.
And the thing started moving.
And they traveled, like, 150 miles.
People passing by, working in their fields, and
that train driving by.
This little girl.
Eventually, somebody reported it.
Somebody told her father.
He drove 150 miles to meet the train.
And he gets her.
Weren't you afraid?
No.
God told me I was okay.
God told me that you would come.
Isn't it?
This is what God wants for everybody.
You look at the Bible, you see people
all over the thing.
Who spoke to God and to whom God
spoke.
Clearly.
Vibrantly.
Regularly.
This kind of intimacy is what we were
made for.
Jesus promises people that when we put our
trust in him, we will abide in him.
When he is at the center of our
lives, we can expect that he will speak
to us.
Many of us are like a kiss in
the tree.
I wish it was that way for us.
I had a neat thing happen.
Jesus marched right up to the tree.
Looked up into the tree.
At him.
Must have been an awesome moment.
I mean, he's minding his own business.
Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people milling around.
Jesus pushes his way through the crowd.
Gets to the sycamore tree.
Looks up into the tree.
Catches his eye and says, Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus is looking around for any other vertically
challenged people he can find.
Nobody else there in the tree.
Terrifying moment.
Zacchaeus, come down right now.
Get out of that tree.
Send me down.
Get your little keister down here.
I must stay at your house today.
Zacchaeus is stunned.
Think about how he must have felt.
Totally alone.
Totally rejected.
Completely unacceptable religiously.
Unacceptable socially.
Unacceptable emotionally.
Unacceptable vertically.
Jesus is saying, I have to stay at
your house today.
I must.
See, the weird thing is that God seeks
out.
I love the gospel.
I love the story.
I love the Bible.
And I love the gospel.
You know why?
Because God loves those who are hiding in
trees.
Hoping for some.
Surrounded by walls.
30 feet thick, 90 feet high.
And when he comes to us, he says,
come on.
I must.
I must stay at your house today.
Apostle Paul put it this way in 1
Corinthians chapter 1.
He said this.
Brothers.
He also means sisters.
Brethren.
Men and women.
Boys and girls.
Think of what you were when you were
called.
Not many of you were wise by human
standards.
Not many were influential.
Not many were of noble birth.
But God chose foolish things of the world
to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of the world
to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things.
Vertically challenged.
Spiritually challenged.
The lowly things of this world.
And the despised things.
And the things that are not.
To meet nothing.
The things that are.
So that no one may boast before you.
It is because of your Father that you
are in Christ Jesus.
Who has become for us wisdom from God.
That is our righteousness, our holiness, and our
redemption.
Therefore let him who boasts boast in the
Lord.
They offer that Jesus made to Zacchaeus.
He makes to all of us.
And he says, I must.
I must live in your house.
I must come.
I must have this intimacy.
I must become for you everything that God
has designed.
Your righteousness, your holiness, and your redemption.
It is Jesus who becomes these things for
us.
He does not give them to us.
This man had no holiness.
No righteousness.
And certainly no redemption.
He was on his way to hell.
He was totally alone.
But he wanted to see if there was
just a little hope.
For someone into whose arms he could jump.
Someone whom he could let his heart go
to.
Jesus pushed him to the cross.
He found him and said, Come out of
that tree.
Come down here and I will give you
a hug.
We are going to go home.
We are going to light a fire.
We are going to make some s'mores.
And tomorrow morning I am going to make
waffles.
Come on.
Jesus is the weak man.
Some of you have already begun to believe.
Man, I am so messed up.
I am so confused.
I am so afraid.
God will never ever use me for anything.
My life is such a mess.
Even though I am only so young.
There is no way.
He chooses the people who seem to have
it together.
The people that he really uses are the
people who are well educated.
They are handsome.
They are brave.
They are strong.
If he looked at me that way.
If he really looked at me that way.
He called me out of my tree.
Can you imagine that little surprise party?
Absolute scum look on their faces.
Pharisees.
Just disgusted.
If anybody should have got him in our
houses today.
We are the religious leaders here.
We are the people who know.
We are the people who work with these
scum.
We are the people who care for the
needy.
Just look at this.
What on earth is wrong with him?
What kind of person is this?
Does he not know who this man is?
Disgusting.
Pardon the way.
Little Zacchaeus.
Oh yeah.
This is my pal.
This is my pal Jesus.
Yeah.
Going to my house today.
Yeah.
Bob.
Come on Bob.
Bob.
Come on.
My house.
Lunch.
Cards are parting.
People are just disgusted.
This is my pal Jesus.
Yeah.
Mary.
Hey.
Mary.
But she is okay.
She is a good girl.
Yeah.
Mary.
Lunch.
My house.
Get out of the way.
Okay.
Clear the box.
Albert.
Oh.
A little space.
Try a few.
Okay.
Albert.
Lunch.
My house.
Oh.
This is awesome.
Can you stay for the whole afternoon?
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's go.
Hey.
We are nearly home now.
Just around the corner.
Hurry up.
Come on.
All of you.
My house for lunch.
That is where it went.
It was like flying to a honey pot.
To all of the rejects.
All of the failures.
Notorious sinners.
Religious people were apes.
That day, this little guy let go of
his heart, he entered this bubble, every room,
every story, every issue, even the basement, he
looked up into the eyes of his first,
what a moment for that first real friend,
he said, Lord, late night, I'm going to
give half my possessions to the poor, no,
really, no, no, no, I want it, yeah,
I want it, and if I cheat on
anybody, well, actually, it's not a matter of
if, I'll give them four times my, no,
really, something has happened here, it's okay, I've
never felt like this, I really don't know
what's going on, but if you'd stay for
a while, he said, today, has
come to this house, no, he wasn't talking
about the building he was living in, what
use would that be, he was talking about
this house, today, salvation has come to this
house, this man, is the son of Abraham,
he calls for two things, he's dependent, both
are connected, safe, you can't have one without
the other, when you have safe, you let
go of control, you'll have enemies, you can't
have one without the other, but you have
both, you let go of your heart, for
the son of man, I can, I can
for this, as he can say of those
who really, really are lost, you're thinking, that's
a great Christian message, speaking to you Christians,
you sweet doers, who have sought to find
acceptance with God with all of your activity,
all of your service, and sometimes, in the
midst of it all, you find yourself completely
alone, wishing, hoping, praying, you
really know, you know all about what he
can do, but who he really was, who
he is, he must, you
let go of your hands, okay, open the
walls, you let the kingdom of glory in,
I don't mean another salvation experience, this is
metaphorical, I'm talking about an emotional, a deeply
spiritual event, you come out of the tree,
he chooses us, don't you get that yet,
don't you get it, he loves us, he
loves the weirdos, I am weird, I
am so crazy sometimes, I am so off
the wall, I am such a failure, I
have so not got it together, I find
it so difficult, the most difficult thing I
do is get up in the morning and
be a Christian, I can't, but he called
me out of the tree, I have to
come, and I still fail, and I still
mess up, don't think Zacchaeus turned into Saint
Zacchaeus overnight, any more than you have, oh
well, you know what, you got to jump,
you got to run as hard as your
little legs will carry you in, you got
to jump, you got to get out of
the tree, you got to open your heart,
you got to let somebody in there, hurt,
damaged, frightened, he seeks you out, you
know what I mean, I know, Jesus said
to a church, a church mind you, Revelation
chapter 3, behold, hello, modern language, I am
here, I am out the door, I am
not inside, if anyone will open the door,
I will come in, and we will fellowship,
together, don't talk to me about being a
Christian, is he in the house, is he
in the house, he will heal
you, he will love you to pieces.