There is a verse of scripture that I
think ought to be at the beginning of
every book of the Bible.
In fact, I really think it ought to
be at the beginning of every chapter of
the Bible because it so thoroughly, so well
condenses what God is up to.
And it's the 19th chapter of Luke, verse
10.
You know it actually by heart.
Luke 19.10 says, for the Son of
Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost.
Oh, he's come to seek.
He's a hunter.
Well, we could have known that.
After all, he is the lion of the
tribe of Judah.
And lions are pretty good hunters.
In fact, one great poet described him as
the hound of heaven.
I like that.
A friend of mine told me that a
bloodhound can track you if there's only one
part per million of odor in the air.
I think I lay down more odor than
that.
Now, I doubt very seriously, it would seem
incredible that there could be anybody here tonight
who is running from God.
If you are, what a strange place to
hide.
He knows you're here.
He followed you.
In fact, it may even be as you
drove here tonight, in the distance you could
hear him.
Maybe even as you came in the door,
you heard him.
He's a good hunter.
Well, just how good a hunter?
Well, let's find out.
Let's read a hunting story in the scripture.
I love the Bible.
It is so complete.
Whatever you need, there it is.
Tonight, it's field and stream, okay?
Go back to Luke chapter 19, verse 1.
A hunting story.
Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
Now, that's the Bible's way of saying he
was hot on a trail, okay?
Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
Ah, now we know who the prey is.
Who was a chief tax collector.
Our favorite sort of person.
And he was very rich.
You might know.
And he sought to see who Jesus was,
but could not because of the crowd, for
he was of short stature.
Now you know why I've chosen to speak
of this man tonight.
So he ran ahead and climbed up into
a sycamore tree to see him, for he
was going to pass that way.
Now we've got him treed.
I want you to put yourself in for
a moment in Zacchaeus' shoes.
Just think about this.
This is an incredible moment.
Here you are.
You're wealthy.
Probably the wealthiest man in town.
You're unquestionably the best dressed man in town.
You certainly are the best known man in
town.
You're a man of dignity.
You are suave and debonair.
Maybe even suave and deboner.
I don't know.
And you're up a tree.
I've never thought of that with such dignity.
Here I am up a tree.
I don't believe this.
What am I doing in this tree?
Well, I'll climb high enough.
Maybe nobody will notice me up here.
Now, I don't believe this tree was in
the middle of the road.
Roads and trees don't tend to get along
with each other very well.
It was probably over to the side, and
he thought, ah, here's a good safe place.
I can observe what's going on and not
be observed.
And so here comes Jesus, the great hunter,
walking along the street, and Zacchaeus says, all
right.
Yeah.
And then Jesus turns, and uh-oh.
He's headed my way.
I can see Jesus stopping under that tree
and going, I smell a sinner.
And then, and I love this, it says,
when Jesus came to the place, he looked
up and saw him and said to him.
Now, before I read what he said, I
just want you to notice what he didn't
say.
He did not say, to whom it may
concern in trees, nor did he say, if
you're up a tree today, I'm speaking to
you.
He was such a good hunter.
He was very specific.
He says, Zacchaeus.
Now put yourself back in Zacchaeus.
I mean, you can't even say, who me?
That's how good a hunter Jesus is.
In fact, think about this.
I don't know your story.
Each of you is a book and a
trophy of the Lord.
But what about the story of how you
became a follower of the Lord?
Maybe it was here.
And maybe you came some service, perhaps in
the week, maybe on a Sunday, and you
came under protest.
You didn't want to, but your friends said,
come and you just didn't have a way
out.
Or your spouse said, this is it, you're
coming.
You come in and you find a safe
seat somewhere.
And then Pastor Chuck gets up, opens the
word and starts reading.
And you think, somebody told on me.
How did he know?
At least he's not using my name.
It's as if the word of God is
this huge gun, man.
And when you get here, it goes off.
And here comes this great big bullet right
at you.
And it's slow, but it doesn't fall.
It keeps coming.
And as it gets close, you look and
your name is written all over it.
He looks up, Zacchaeus.
Is he a hunter?
Make haste and come down for today I
must stay at your house.
Now, put yourself back in Zacchaeus' shoes.
You're a man who is wealthy, well known,
well dressed, man of dignity, suave and debonair.
You have just been caught up a tree.
And you've been invited by an itinerant evangelist
to come down so he can go home
with you.
Not your normal first order of business.
But something happened.
It says, so he made haste and came
down and received him joyfully, gladly.
I don't know why, but somehow it seems
to me that there must be a space
of time within this word, and.
What was it about Jesus?
What was it that caused even the worst
of sinners to say to him, boy, I'm
glad you're here.
There was something about the way he treated
people, something about the way he viewed them,
something about the way he approached them that
the worst of people would say, boy, I'm
glad you're here.
They don't always say that to me.
But I want them to.
Somehow I want the nature of Jesus working
in me in a way so strongly so
that I view people the way Jesus views
them, love them the way he loves them,
see them the way he sees them, so
that I treat them in ways that even
the worst of sinners would say to me,
boy, I'm glad you're here.
I want that.
Well, Zacchaeus was not the only person in
this story.
There were some others here.
Have you ever wondered who they was?
Have you ever heard someone say, well, they
say?
And you wonder, well, who is they?
Well, now we know.
We have a they in our story.
It says, but when they saw it, they
all complained, began to mutter and complain, saying
he's gone to be the guest of a
man who is a sinner.
Isn't gossip wonderful?
Now, come on, folks, we may as well
admit it.
We kind of like gossip.
Come on.
If someone says to me, hey, Gail, have
you heard the latest?
I'll say no.
What?
It is amazing how we like to latch
on to the latest thing and hear these
people are talking.
We had such hopes for him.
We thought maybe he would be the Messiah
boy.
And now he's gone to be the guest
of a sinner.
Who can you trust anymore?
Folks, I don't understand this, because frankly, if
there's anyone we want to have get saved,
it's a tax collectors.
Well, meanwhile, back at the farm.
Verse eight, then Zacchaeus stood and said to
the Lord, look, Lord, I give half of
my goods to the poor.
Wow, this was a very present thing.
He says, I'm doing it right now.
Incredible.
This lets me know that this man had
been in the presence of Jesus.
When have you ever been at a party
where the host got up and said this
has been such a great party?
I think right now, in honor of all
that's going on, I'm going to give half
of my goods to the poor.
You've never been at such a party, have
you?
This man has been in the presence of
Jesus.
This man had touched eternity.
For the first time in his life, he
was interested in others.
Always before it was how much can I
get?
What can you do for me?
How can I gain this?
But now for the first time in his
life, he's thinking, how can I help someone
else?
That lets me know that he had touched
Jesus.
Because something happens when you get to know
him, your value system changes, doesn't it?
Can you remember how it was for you
before you became a Christian?
Remember what you thought of Christians?
Remember how absolutely unbelievable you thought it was
that someone would take Thursday to come to
church?
And then you met the great hunter and
suddenly you love these people that you once
thought were wimps.
You can't understand it.
You can't wait to get here.
Something messed up your value system, didn't it?
This man, Zacchaeus, had been in touch with
Jesus because for the first time he was
thinking servant.
He was thinking other-centered.
He wasn't thinking about himself.
And do you realize when he gets up
and says, here and now, Lord, right now,
I give half of my goods to the
poor.
This man who before had been the most
hated man in town is now the most
loved man in town.
Amazing.
But he's not through.
He's not through.
He says, and if I have taken anything
from anyone by false accusation, you know he
had.
I restore fourfold or I'll give back four
times the amount.
Well, there goes the other half of his
goods.
Folks, this man got saved.
I mean, seriously, saved.
See, he knew that some things are not
as valuable as other things.
And in the presence of Jesus, there are
some things that are eternal and there are
other things that burn.
And he chose to go for the eternal.
Well, Jesus said to him, today bankruptcy.
No, no, no, no, that's not what he
said.
It's not what it says.
He says, today salvation has come to this
house because he also is a son of
Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost.
Is he ever a hunter?
In fact, let me tell you another hunting
story.
It's a personal one, a true one.
My father was a pastor and he was
where we lived at that point, taking some
flying lessons at a little community airport because
he wanted to go back into the interior
of the state where we lived to begin
some additional churches.
One day when he went to the little
community airport for his regular lesson, a training
plane from a nearby air force base landed
there.
It wasn't supposed to do that.
The pilot got out, chatted with my dad
and the other fellows in the hangar, said
to my dad, have you ever rode in
one of these training planes?
He said, no, I haven't.
Would you like to?
Well, sure.
Hop in.
He wasn't supposed to offer my father a
ride.
My father was not supposed to accept it,
but he did and he did.
Well, this hotshot pilot did not use adequate
amount of runway, but he did manage to
get airborne but was unable to clear the
top of some trees beyond the end of
the runway.
He hit them and the plane crashed.
Life was changed for us all at that
point.
The pilot was not badly injured, but my
father was.
From then on, his left side was paralyzed.
His brain was badly damaged.
Well, the air force was upset by this
and they were going to throw this pilot
into prison for 25 years for having done
this, but my dad was cut just a
little different from the average and he went
to bat for the man and said to
them, look, I got into the plane voluntarily.
Don't be so rough on him.
So they gave this pilot a dishonorable discharge,
which is pretty bad in itself.
Well, we were penniless.
So we went to the air force and
said, can you help us?
And they said, no, this man was not
doing air force business when this occurred, so
we're not responsible.
Now it became a civil liability case.
The pilot was responsible and he knew it.
So he disappeared.
Well, my parents began to hunt him.
It took a year before they found him
and we needed the help of our congressmen.
You see, this was before the days of
computers.
They know where you are now.
Finally, we found him and they wrote him
a letter and it went something like this.
Sir, it seems to us that you are
running from us and we really don't want
you to live that way.
Please know that we forgive you and we
hold you to be without liability.
You owe us nothing.
My wife and I have both signed this
letter so that you can live free.
We only ask that you let us know
that you received it.
There was no answer.
A couple of months later, they wrote him
again, another letter, just like the first one.
This one, though, came back stamped across the
front, moved, left no forwarding address.
He was running.
Well, they started hunting him again.
Took another year.
Once again, it took the help of the
government.
We finally found him and he had moved
quite a distance away.
My parents wrote him another letter.
Sir, obviously you are running from us and
we really do not want you to live
that way.
Please, please know we forgive you and we
hold you to be without liability.
You owe us nothing.
We forgive you completely and my wife and
I are signing this one again so you
will know.
We just ask that you respond.
Let us know you've received it.
There was no answer.
Two months later, they wrote him again, just
like the first.
This one, like the other, came back stamped
on the front, moved, left no forwarding address.
He was running.
That was the last time my parents ever
tried to find him.
So somewhere in this country, someone is still
running, terrified that I might find him.
Maybe you're here tonight.
And yet you hold in your hands all
you need to live free, written over and
over, and yet you don't believe it and
won't receive it.
As I pondered that story, it dawned on
me that there are millions more in our
land running from God, terrified that God might
find them.
And yet you hold in your hand all
you need to live free.
You just don't believe it and won't receive
it.
The Bible.
Well, there is a question and it's a
good question and one we need to deal
with.
What will he do to you if he
catches you?
That's a valid question.
Maybe where you work, when you became a
Christian, you know what your co-workers likely
said?
Oh, you got religion.
See, they never say, oh, you became a
Christian or you're a follower of God now.
No, they don't say words like that.
They say, oh, you got religion.
Well, now they're going to scrunch your face
up so that you look like all those
other Christians out there.
They'll say that, won't they?
Well, they'll say something like this.
Uh-huh.
Got religion?
Oh, well, the party's over.
You've been having fun till now, but now
no more fun because you got religion.
They say that, don't they?
Fun.
I was flying back from London recently and
on the plane was a football team.
For some reason or other, I took up
with them.
Got involved in a conversation.
They were telling me about how much fun
they had in London the night before.
Man, they said, did we have fun?
We had fun.
I mean, we had so much fun and
I thought, fun?
Fun?
Man, I had so much fun last Wednesday.
Of course, my wife's left me and I've
lost my house and my family, but boy,
did I have fun.
Fun?
Folks, it's hard for us to explain this
to people, isn't it?
But we have a secret.
We know that when you become a follower
of Jesus, that's when the fun begins.
That's when the party starts, you know.
I find myself sometimes at night, I have
to massage my cheeks, man, because I've been
smiling so much, you know.
And when I wake up tomorrow, I don't
have to think, boy, what did I do
yesterday?
Oh, man.
No, I know, and I can massage them
again.
I'm so happy.
We tell the world that, but they don't
believe it, do they?
Well, it still is a valid question.
Just what will he do with you if
he catches you?
You see, Satan has managed to give God
all the bad press, even an insurance.
Have you ever heard of acts of God?
What are they?
Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes.
Way to go, God.
So it's understandable that people might be just
a little terrified about what he might do
if he catches us.
Well, let me tell you another story.
That will help you understand.
This one is also a true story, even
more personal than the other.
I must confess something to you now that
I don't want to, but I have to.
There have been two people in my life
whom I hated.
I hate to admit that, but it's true.
They were uncles of mine.
One of them was named Raymond, and the
other one was named Austin.
What can I say?
I hated them.
Now, the problem with hatred is it's a
form of bondage, and God doesn't want his
kids in bondage.
He wants us living free, and so if
there are areas of bondage in your life,
he goes to work on them.
But, you know, something else I really love
about God is he works with you, and
he loves you, and he sticks with you
even when you resist.
Have you noticed that?
I tried to resist, but I found it
difficult.
The Lord's prayer was a real problem to
me.
Oh, most of it I liked, especially, forgive
us our debts.
As we forgive those who are debtors who
sin against us?
And Raymond and Austin would pop into my
mind.
And you know, there are certain portions of
scripture you just know, don't read that.
You avoid it.
Oh, I managed to avoid it as much
as possible, and then there's another thing that
happens.
Sometimes you accidentally read the Bible.
Love your enemies.
Oh!
Do good to those who despitefully use you.
Oh!
Pray for your enemies.
Oh!
Well, I knew I had to do it.
I knew I had to pray for them.
But I must also confess to you now
that my early praying was not very mature.
It went something like this.
God, you said vengeance was yours.
You would repay.
Get him!
But God wouldn't let me get away with
that either.
And I knew that I had to pray
the kind of prayer for them that I
would want prayed for myself.
So I began to pray, Oh, Father, do
good things for these men.
Draw them to you.
You see, Austin had been the first Irwin
ever to become a Christian, but he had
drifted away from God.
And his third state was worse than his
first.
And Raymond too had been a follower of
the Lord, and he had drifted away.
And so I prayed, Father, just draw them
to you.
Fill them with the knowledge of you and
your will.
Just shower them with your love.
Bless them, God.
Overwhelm them with how good you are.
Prosper them.
He did.
Both of these men came back to the
Lord.
There was reunion and reconciliation in our family.
It was an awesome thing.
I'm overwhelmed by it.
But one thing I noticed is that as
I began to pray this, I didn't hate
them anymore.
I could say the Lord's prayer.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those
who sin against us.
And I would have to think, who are
they?
Raymond and Austin would no longer pop into
my mind.
In fact, to my absolute amazement, I discovered
that I loved them.
I knew that was God.
Well, I thought the story was over.
But it wasn't.
You see, a few years later, God had
called me into this kind of ministry.
I was graduating from college.
I was married.
We had a one-year-old daughter named
Gloria.
I made a dumb decision.
It wasn't my first dumb one or my
last dumb one, but it was a dumb
one.
I decided that we would travel across the
United States and I would preach at churches
for a week at a time.
Now, folks, there's not a heavy demand for
a kid fresh out of college to come
and teach for a week anywhere.
What I'm trying to say is I was
basically unemployed.
You know who saved my life?
It was Raymond.
Raymond was a farmer and he said, Hey,
Gail, I need help on my farm.
You can plow for me.
I'll pay you.
I've got a place for you to stay.
You can eat at my table.
I'll take care of you until somebody wants
you.
And I thought, this is incredible.
God, here you've let Raymond save my life.
Wow.
What a beautiful symbol of your restoration.
You did this, didn't you?
Yep.
I thought so.
Well, I thought the story was over, but
it wasn't.
About 16 years ago, my father passed away.
A couple of years later, my mother married
again.
I performed the ceremony, by the way.
And at the close of it, I wanted
to say, I now declare you mom and
dad.
She married one of the finest men I
have ever met in my life.
He is a jewel.
He is so much like Jesus.
It's scary.
I love this man.
He's about six feet, six inches tall, too,
and very slender.
And when I introduced him as my dad,
they look at him and they look at
me and then they look at me and
say, what happened, Gail?
Radiation, radiation.
That's all I can say.
His name happens to be Raymond.
Not the same Raymond, but it's Raymond.
And I thought, this is incredible, God.
Here you've given me a man whom I
call dad, whom I love deeply, and his
name is Raymond.
What a beautiful symbol of your restoration.
You did this, didn't you?
Yep.
I thought so.
Well, I thought the story was over.
But it wasn't.
You see, there's Austin.
Now, we had been reconciled, but I had
lost track of Austin.
He had moved to Northwest Arkansas, and I
never got into that area.
Didn't know exactly where he lived.
Hadn't seen him for years.
One day, I happened to be teaching in
that area.
I didn't even know how to get in
touch with him.
Had no idea if he knew where I
was.
But when I stood up to speak that
night, there he was.
I couldn't believe it.
He had never heard me teach before.
When I finished, we made a beeline to
each other, and you could hear that bear
hug for miles.
Man, I can feel it even now.
All that was past was past.
We were brothers in the Lord.
It was awesome.
Not long after that, Austin died, and I
thought the story was over.
But it wasn't.
You see, about two and a half years
ago, my oldest daughter, Gloria, gave birth to
her fourth child, a son, whom she named
Austin Gale.
She put our names together.
I thought, this is incredible, God.
Every time I pick up this handsome, intelligent,
outstanding young man and hold him, I think,
Austin Gale.
Oh, a grandson named Austin Gale.
What an incredible symbol of your restoration, God.
You did this, didn't you?
Yep.
I thought so.
You see, folks, when my daughter named him
Austin Gale, she did not know the story
that I just told you.
So a few months after his birth, I
said, honey, sit down.
I got to tell you a story.
She said, okay, Daddy.
And I told her what I've just told
you.
She cried.
She said, Daddy, I didn't know.
I said, I know, I know.
That's what makes it so beautiful.
This is God.
And I have these symbols of God's restoration
in my life, and the freedom that he's
given me.
This is awesome.
Well, I thought the story was over.
But it wasn't.
You see, a few months later, I dedicated
Austin Gale to the Lord.
I'll never forget that day.
As I stood in front of the church
where they attend and held him, I said,
folks, all baby dedications are great, but this
one has some special elements about it, and
I need to tell you.
And I told them Austin Gale's story.
When I finished, something dawned on me.
You see, standing three steps to my left
was my stepdad, Raymond.
He had flown out for this event, and
he did not know his story.
So I said, there's another story I want
to tell you.
And I told them Raymond's story.
Folks, we were melted cheese all over the
floor.
And I said, I just want you to
see what happens when the great lion of
the tribe of Judah, when the hound of
heaven catches you, when you give up, you
discover what happens.
It is an amazing thing when you say
to him, I give up.
He lunges at you, this lion, with that
mouth wide open and those horrible teeth come
at you, and you hear this sickening crunch.
And then you discover he just ate my
chains.
He eats chains.
So that's what happens when he catches you.
Yes.
It's called freedom.
Let me tell you another story.
Is it okay?
It's a Bible story.
You'll find it in Genesis.
It's a guy there in Genesis with a
terrible name.
They named people back in Old Testament days
in keeping with who they really were.
So that if you knew a person's name
and the meaning of the name, you knew
the person.
We don't do that anymore today.
We just sort of flip through baby books
until we find a name that sounds good.
And we name our children that way.
For instance, my parents named me Gail, which
means a big win.
So obviously parents.
Well, anyway, this guy's name, and I want
you to know that if you're named anything
like this fellow, that we've redeemed the name.
It doesn't have that meaning anymore.
But back then, it was a terrible name,
loosely translated.
His name meant dirty, sneaky thief.
Now, how would you like to grow up
with a name like that?
You go to school and they call the
role dirty, sneaky thief.
You grow up and go to the bank
to get a loan to go into business.
And your name, sir, a dirty, sneaky thief.
Now, you know who I'm talking about?
Jacob.
And he lived up to his name and
dirty, sneaky thief, his brother Esau out of
the birthright.
Esau is furious.
He's going to kill him.
Now, where does Jacob go now?
He has one name on his resume.
Esau, just check with him.
He can tell you about my work habits.
Well, he went to live.
He ran away and went to live with
his uncle Laban, who was just like him.
It was perfect.
They deserved each other.
And for 20 years, they dirty, sneaky thief
each other to a fare thee well.
Laban had to be pretty good to sneak
the wrong wife in on him after seven
years of hard labor, you know.
But finally, after 20 years, Laban says, that's
it.
I can't stand it anymore.
Leave me.
So Jacob left him and took just about
everything Laban owned with him.
And his wife Rachel, who had learned from
both her father and her husband very cleverly,
escaped with the most valuable item in the
house.
Now, where do you go?
Where do you go?
You've got two names on your resume.
Esau and Laban.
Just check with them.
They can tell you about my work habits.
Well, God had said to Jacob, go home.
I'll bless you.
That's all God said.
Has God ever spoken to you and you
wished he'd give you more details?
He always tells us as much as we
need.
He says, go home.
I'll bless you.
I'm amazed, though, at how...
I want details, God.
I want more specifics.
It's amazing to me how we want...
I want all the rules.
I just want to hear all the rules.
And there's some people that won't read the
Bible because they say, well, there's too many
rules in there.
You expect me to read all those rules
and learn those rules and I get tired
at the begins anyway.
You know, there's something about us human beings.
I'm fascinated.
How many rules does it take before we
break them?
You go back to the very beginning.
Wasn't it beautiful?
Oh, it was beautiful.
God plants this incredible garden.
The Garden of Eden.
I don't know how big it was.
Let's assign a size.
A hundred square miles.
Okay.
Just for the fun of it.
How many trees can you get in a
hundred square miles?
Billions.
And folks, they were all edible.
They didn't have to worry about it.
God says everything, everything in the garden is
edible.
In fact, he says it's all for you.
And in the whole...
with billions of trees, there's only one tree.
Just one that I don't want you to
eat.
That's all.
I said, really?
Where is it?
Now, folks, it can't get any simpler than
that, can it?
One rule, only one rule.
The very next scene in scripture, Adam and
Eve are sitting under that tree.
Doesn't want us to eat that, huh?
I wonder why.
I have some dear friends who told me
this story.
The man and his wife were going out
for an evening together.
Much needed evening together.
They had left their three-year-old daughter
with a babysitter or had hired a babysitter
for her.
And my friend says, I don't believe I
said what I said.
He says, I'm an intelligent man.
I know better than to say this.
But he says, as I walked out the
door, and I can't believe I said this.
I turned to my daughter and said, don't
push any beans up your nose while we're
gone.
She wouldn't have thought of it.
But now, now she's thinking, why?
And you know the rest of the story.
When they get home, the first item of
business is to hurry to the emergency room
to get beans out of her nose.
There's something about us human beings.
When someone says, don't, we say, don't what?
So Adam and Eve really had it simple,
folks.
And I want you to understand that when
the Bible says, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, it knows
what it is talking about.
Well, anyway, back to Jacob.
He heads home.
But just before he gets home, his scouts
come back with some news.
Your brother Esau is just over the hill
with an army.
Now, that's known as bad news.
Here he is caught between the FBI and
the IRS.
Life is over and he knows it.
There is no place for him to run.
This is it.
You ever been at a place like that
in your life?
Well, he sends gifts over to Esau.
He sends his That night, Jacob was alone
with himself.
What a thing to be alone with when
you're a dirty, sneaky thief.
I had a philosopher once ask me, have
you ever knocked at your own door and
found yourself not home?
That was the situation with this guy.
As we say, the lights were on, but
nobody was home.
Now, put yourself in his shoes.
Life is really over for you.
You have messed it up as thoroughly as
it can be.
You have no options.
You're alone in the wilderness.
It's dark.
And suddenly, into your scene, an angel.
Now, when I say the word angel, what
tends to pop into your mind?
Do you see big, bright?
Well, the Bible never really describes angel that
way, but it's okay.
Except now, I need to play with your
thinking just a little bit.
I want to say another word, and what
pops into your mind?
Wrestler.
Different, huh?
Cauliflower ears, tank top, shorts.
Well, this angel was a wrestler, see?
So you have to adjust your view of
angel a bit.
I don't think he had wings.
That wouldn't have counted.
That wouldn't be fair.
Oh, but I need to play with your
thinking a little bit more.
When I say the word Jesus, what comes
into your mind?
Do you see just like the angel, no
wings?
Well, many people believe, and I believe this,
that this was a pre-fleshly appearance of
Jesus.
So now, can you see Jesus?
Tank top, shorts, cauliflower ears.
When I get to heaven, I hope they
have an instant replay machine up there.
I want to see this.
I want to see what made Jacob take
him on.
See if it were me, and I'm there
as despondent as that, and a wrestler suddenly
shows up and says, let's wrestle.
I'd say, you've got to catch me first.
But he took him on.
Any of you guys here wrestle in high
school or college?
Any old wrestlers here?
Okay, when a match goes the distance, how
long does it last?
Six minutes.
How do you feel at the end of
six minutes?
Dead.
Wasted.
These guys wrestled all night long, and it
was a draw.
Neither prevailed.
The angel had even shriveled his hip, and
Jacob's still fighting.
Come on, I'll fight you.
Finally, Jacob did what might have been the
most intelligent thing he did in his whole
life.
He gave up.
Now, you can miss this if you're not
careful in scripture.
You see, the angel was prepared to leave,
and Jacob said, no, you must not leave
here until you bless me.
Now, in that day, a contest like this,
the winner would give a gift to the
loser, because the giving of gifts was a
show of strength.
And the winner was the stronger, so he
would give a gift to the loser.
So that back then, if you had a
trophy case full of trophies, well, here's where
I lost to so-and-so, and here's
where I lost to so-and-so.
And so, what Jacob is saying is, you
win, I lose, and you must not leave
here until you declare yourself winner and give
me a gift.
Bless me.
The angel said, okay.
What's your name?
Oh, man.
Dirty, sneaky thief.
You hate to admit it when you've fought
that hard, you know.
The angel said, no more.
From now on, your name is Israel, Prince
of God, because you have wrestled with God
and man and won.
Wait a minute, Mr. Angel.
I just gave up, didn't I?
Right.
And now you're telling me I won, right?
Right.
Let's go through this one more time.
Folks, I have just shared with you one
of the greatest secrets of Scripture.
If you want to win with God, give
up.
I am amazed at how many times we
wrestle with God, man.
It's just simple what he said for us
to do, but we're going to wrestle as
hard as we can and wrestle.
And then we say, okay, I'm just coming
on Easters and Christmases, all right?
And we get all exhausted.
What a waste of energy.
All we had to do was give up.
And God says, congratulations, you won.
Israel, Prince, Princess of God.
Any of you wrestling with God?
Is he giving you a leaning or a
push or a little word and you're saying,
okay, God, have to talk this over.
Maybe for 30 years, okay.
There's a simple way to win.
Give up.
What a waste of energy to wrestle with
him.
It may be that some of you here
are running from God.
It's possible.
Now, you need to know two things.
First of all, you need to know that
Jesus is not the only lion in the
Bible.
There is another one.
Peter tells us about him.
He says, watch out, beware, be on your
guard.
Your enemy, your adversary, the devil, like a
roaring lion, goes to and fro seeking, aha,
he's a hunter too, whom he may devour.
So you have two lions chasing you.
One wants to save you and the other
one wants to devour you.
Which one do you want?
The other thing you need to know is
that the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the hound of heaven, if you'll let me
mix these together, is a lot more persistent
than my parents were.
He keeps hunting.
He loves you so much, he will hunt,
he will chase, he will follow you.
But you also need to know that he
loves you so much, he will not catch
you.
You have to surrender.
He does not violate people, but he does
chase.
And you may run as far as you
can.
I have a friend, he got mad at
God.
I know that you never would, but he
did.
And he got so mad at God, he
says, I'm going to go and sin every
sin I can think of.
And he went out and he sinned every
sin he could afford.
And then he said, now, God, you'll leave
me alone.
And then he heard it.
And he discovered that the hound of heaven
is so persistent.
The guy's a pastor today.
I want you to know that if you're
running from God, what a terrible thing to
do with your life.
Just run.
You do strange things when you're running.
Nobody quite understands it.
You don't even understand it.
All you know is you do weird things
when you're running all the time.
And the hound of heaven, the lion of
the tribe of Judah, is chasing you.
He knows what you smell like.
You can't get away.
He will be there.
And he simply waits for you to say,
I give up.
Yes, Lord, I give up.
Save me.
And you know what?
When you say that, you'll hear a roar.
And you'll see this open mouth and these
horrible teeth lunge at you.
And you'll hear a sickening crunch as those
teeth chomp on your chains.
And suddenly, you're free.
Don't run.
Give up.
Don't wrestle.
Give up.
And then you will discover not only is
he a good hunter, he's a good healer.
In fact, there just isn't anything he can't
do.
And the only way you know is you
give up.
Oh, Father, you're so good to us.
Oh, I am overwhelmed, Father, that you would
chase and chase because you love us so
much.
And yet your great love for us says
you will not violate us.
We have to give up.
Oh, Father, on behalf of myself, and I
think I speak for these people, we give
up.
We ask you now to be king in
our lives.
We're tired of running.
We're tired of wrestling.
We want you to be in complete control
and charge.
We give up.
Take over and make us like you.
Amen.
God bless you.
Have a great week.
Post Office Box 219, Cathedral City, CA 92235
Or, you may call Servant Quarters toll free
at 888-321-0077 You may also visit
our website at www.servant.org