The God Who Sees

``You see, heaven sees souls before heaven saves souls. That's really important that you hear that. Heaven sees souls before heaven saves souls. In other words, Jesus sees us long before he saves us. You're not lost. You're not forgotten. You're not abandoned. Jesus sees you. And if you're here this morning, you're not sure what you believe, well, the beauty of Jesus is that he sees you before you ever see him. [00:18:45] (43 seconds)  #SeenBeforeSaved

And so as we continue to work through this passage, what's important that we pick is that Jesus sees beyond our behavior to our identity. He calls Zacchaeus by name. He calls him by name before he repents, before he changes, before he fixes anything. In that moment, when Zacchaeus is up in a tree, he is still a sinner. He has still betrayed his own people. Nothing has happened yet. [00:19:28] (35 seconds)  #IdentityBeforeBehavior

When we get to the end of the passage, Jesus says, today, salvation has come to this house. That terminology is so important because Jesus didn't say, Zacchaeus, salvation has come to you. He says, salvation has come to this house, meaning the entire household, the family that is there, friends, whoever is there is saved. You see the salvation in this story isn't just personal, it's relational, it's household. See, the gospel changes the atmosphere of our homes. [00:30:11] (45 seconds)  #GospelChangesHomes

And then I love what Jesus does and only the way Jesus could. He invites himself into Zacchaeus' home. He says, Zacchaeus, I must stay in your house. Notice what he says, I must. He doesn't say, could I? I'd sure like to. No. By the way, I'm showing up at your place. And he does it in such authority and power. He doesn't ask for permission. You wanna know why? Because the privilege belongs to Zacchaeus, not Jesus. Jesus isn't blessed to be in Zacchaeus' house. Zacchaeus is. The savior of the world is coming over for lunch. Zacchaeus is the one that's privileged. He's the one that's blessed. [00:20:56] (52 seconds)  #SaviorAtYourTable

You see, being evangelistic is seeing the soul beneath the behavior. Well, when Zacchaeus is seen by Jesus, it changes everything. Zacchaeus stands and he declares publicly that he's gonna give half to the poor and four times as much restitution to anyone that he has defrauded in this process. And so he's doing a lot of different things. I won't go into the deep theological reasons behind that, but I will say this, that it has both Jewish and Roman impact behind it when he says that he's gonna give money back. [00:26:21] (55 seconds)  #RepentanceInAction

And especially right now, as crazy as this country is, the world wants to divide us, wants to separate us, put us into categories, and wants to pit us against one another rather than recognizing we are God's creation. We are created in his image. And so we need to see the intrinsic value that is inside each and every one of us. That is so important that we recognize that. [00:09:37] (30 seconds)  #MadeInGodsImage

I wonder if we develop that attitude, how it would change, how we talk to people, how we would walk out into the world when you recognize that I have something that's blessing everyone I talk to. I don't need permission. I'm blessing you in my gospel conversations. I'm not ramming it down your throat. I'm not shoving anything there. I'm not being awkward. I'm not being cruel. But I have the gift of life that I carry with me, and I'm gonna share that. I don't need permission. It's a privilege to carry this message. [00:21:47] (43 seconds)  #ShareLifeBoldly

Now for those of you who understand Old Testament, you're gonna say, oh, see, there's there's a bloodline. Jesus is pointing it out. He's he's the son of Abraham. It's not what he means. He means that because of the covenant promise that god, the father, made with Abraham, now now Zacchaeus is part of that family. He's part of that covenant promise. You realize that you gain a title like that too when you're saved? You now belong to the family of Abraham. See, scripture is rich when we understand it. It's not about a bloodline. It's about a faith line. [00:31:03] (53 seconds)  #FaithLineNotBloodline