Transformative Power of Grace: The Story of Zacchaeus

### Bible Study Discussion Guide: "Grace Undeserved"

#### Bible Reading
1. **Luke 19:1-10** - The story of Zacchaeus and his encounter with Jesus.
2. **Jeremiah 29:13** - "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." [01:00:22 ]

#### Observation Questions
1. What actions did Zacchaeus take to see Jesus, and why were these actions significant for a man of his status? [57:10 ]
2. How did Jesus address Zacchaeus when He saw him in the tree, and what was the significance of this interaction? [01:01:48 ]
3. What was Zacchaeus's response to Jesus' acceptance, and how did it demonstrate a transformed life? [01:10:09 ]
4. According to the sermon, what does Zacchaeus's name mean, and how does this relate to his encounter with Jesus? [01:03:12 ]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. Why do you think Zacchaeus was so eager to see Jesus despite his wealth and status? What does this tell us about his inner state? [53:18 ]
2. How does Jesus' invitation to Zacchaeus's home challenge the societal norms of that time? What message does this send about grace? [01:04:28 ]
3. In what ways does Zacchaeus's radical generosity after meeting Jesus reflect the nature of true transformation? [01:10:45 ]
4. How does the story of Zacchaeus illustrate the concept that grace is not earned but given freely by God? [01:11:25 ]

#### Application Questions
1. Zacchaeus overcame significant obstacles to see Jesus. What obstacles (doubts, fears, insecurities) are currently hindering your pursuit of Jesus, and how can you overcome them? [01:00:22 ]
2. Jesus knew Zacchaeus by name and called him personally. Reflect on a time when you felt personally known and called by God. How did that experience impact your faith journey? [01:02:34 ]
3. Zacchaeus responded to Jesus' acceptance with radical generosity. Identify one area in your life where you can show radical generosity or forgiveness this week. [01:10:45 ]
4. The sermon mentioned that grace compels us to respond with extravagant sacrifice. What is one specific way you can demonstrate an extravagant sacrifice in your life as a response to God's grace? [01:11:59 ]
5. Reflect on the idea that grace is a gift to the undeserving. How does this understanding of grace change the way you view yourself and others? [01:11:25 ]
6. Zacchaeus's life was turned upside down in a matter of seconds. Have you experienced a moment of rapid transformation in your faith? Share what happened and how it changed you. [01:08:51 ]
7. The pursuit of Jesus is proactive. What proactive steps can you take this week to deepen your relationship with Jesus? [01:00:22 ]

This guide is designed to help your small group delve deeper into the transformative power of grace as illustrated in the story of Zacchaeus. Use these questions to foster meaningful discussion and personal reflection.

Day 1: Embracing Grace as God's Gift
Grace is not earned but freely given to us by God. It is a divine gift that we receive not because of our righteousness, but because of God's love and mercy. Understanding that we are recipients of such grace can transform our lives, leading us to live in a way that reflects the love we have received. This transformation is not an attempt to earn God's favor but a response to the favor He has already shown us. When we truly grasp the concept of grace, it changes our perspective on how we view ourselves and others. We begin to see that everyone is in need of grace, just as we are, and this can lead to a more compassionate and forgiving attitude towards others. Grace teaches us to extend the same kindness and forgiveness to others that God has extended to us, even when they don't deserve it. [01:11:25]

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Reflection: How can you show grace to someone in your life today who may not deserve it, as a reflection of the grace you have received?

Day 2: Radical Transformation Through Grace
When grace touches a person's life, it results in a radical transformation that turns their world upside down. Zacchaeus's encounter with Jesus led to immediate and profound changes in his behavior, demonstrating the transformative power of grace. When we encounter the grace of Jesus, we are called to live lives that demonstrate radical generosity, forgiveness, and love. This is not a superficial change but a deep and genuine transformation that affects every aspect of our lives. A heart touched by grace is a heart that is willing to go against the norms of the world to reflect the love and generosity of Jesus. [01:14:41]

Luke 19:8 (ESV)
"And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.'"

Reflection: What is one tangible way you can demonstrate radical generosity in your life this week as evidence of the grace you've experienced?

Day 3: Proactive Pursuit of Jesus
The pursuit of Jesus requires proactive effort. Like Zacchaeus, who went to great lengths to see Jesus, we too must be willing to overcome obstacles to reach Him. This pursuit is often filled with challenges, including doubts, insecurities, and fears. However, the grace of Jesus draws us in and gives us the strength to overcome these barriers. When we seek Jesus with all our hearts, He promises that we will find Him. This pursuit is a testament to the power of grace drawing us closer to God and transforming our lives. [01:00:22]

Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..."

Reflection: What obstacles are you facing in your pursuit of Jesus, and how can you actively work to overcome them today?

Day 4: Known and Called by God
God knows each of us by name and calls us to Himself. This personal knowledge signifies that God is intimately aware of our individual lives and circumstances. He calls us out of our situations and into a relationship with Him. When we respond to His call, we step into the grace that He offers. This grace is not just a general concept but a personal invitation to experience God's love and transformation. Knowing that God calls us by name can give us a sense of belonging and purpose, as we realize that we are valued and loved by the Creator of the universe. [01:02:34]

Isaiah 43:1 (ESV)
"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'"

Reflection: How does knowing that God calls you by name affect your sense of identity and purpose?

Day 5: Extravagant Sacrifice as a Response to Love
The only reasonable response to the extravagant love of Jesus is an extravagant sacrifice of our own. When we understand the depth of Jesus' love for us, we are moved to give our lives back to Him in service, worship, and obedience. This is the essence of Christian discipleship. Our sacrifices are not to earn His love but are acts of worship and gratitude for the love we have already received. This may mean giving up our time, resources, or even our personal ambitions to serve God and others. It is a response that comes from a heart that has been profoundly touched by grace. [01:11:59]

Romans 12:1 (ESV)
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you can make an extravagant sacrifice as a response to the love you have received from Jesus?

I forget. Oh, we will not forget him.

Well, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we come to you asking for you to speak to our hearts and minds today. Address our lives. Speak to us through our pastor today. When your word is spoken, may we give it the reverence that your word deserves, and may we be obedient people.

Uh, God, with all the different ways to engage with this community, we ask you, Lord, that you would prompt us to involvement and prompt us in a way to take another step of faith with you. We love you, we trust you, and we continue to worship you now. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Well, good morning, Lake Point Church! How are you doing today? It's a great day to be in church and to be reminded of all these things, how God is good to you. It may seem like something small, and the world may look at it and say, "Well, that's just a small thing," but to you, it may be a mountain. And to be reminded that those mountains, God is not afraid to move those for you. He can do that. It's just an awesome reminder.

My name is Chris, and I'm one of the pastors here at the church. Hopefully, this morning when you came in, you got a program, and inside that program is a connection card. We would love to have you fill that out. If you're a guest with us, you can either drop that in any one of the giving kiosks around the building, or you can give that to Pastor Scott. He'll be in the hallway on the way out of the building and has a special gift for you. We'd just love to meet you and thank you for coming to church this morning.

We have March, which is just a packed month, and it's hard to believe it's already the month of March. But March is a packed month in our church, and just some exciting things we want to remind you of. All these things can be found in your program, but we also have a church app. You can download the church app, and you can see everything that's going on there as well.

But we have, in the month of March, our 14th year anniversary. It's hard to believe that for those of you who have been here all these years—14 years—and we're going to celebrate that together. It's just going to be a wonderful time of remembrance of what God has done through these 14 years.

And then we also have Easter coming up at the end of the month, and we would love to know if you're planning on being with us at one of our Easter services. So whether this is your first time or you've been here a long time, if you would fill out your connection card and you would mark which service you plan on being at—whether it's the Saturday service or one of the two Sunday services—and just drop that in the giving kiosk, that will help us to be better planned for all of the guests that you plan on bringing.

So if we need to beef up our children's ministry and have more people there in the Saturday night service, we want to do that. We don't want to leave one worker or two workers back there with like 17 kids; they won't ever volunteer again. So we want to make sure that we're taking care of all of them. It's just going to be a wonderful weekend for you to invite friends and relatives, and we don't want anything to come in between them enjoying the service and hearing what God has for them and the experience that their kids are having.

And so we're just excited about being able to volunteer for that special service. The other thing that we have that's coming up, but it's not—it's in your program—is that tomorrow night is a prayer meeting. Here at our church, we are a praying church, and that's one thing that just over this last year has been impressed upon me is that when somebody says to you here in our church that they're going to be praying for you, they are going to be praying.

And so tomorrow night, we have our monthly prayer meeting. So the first Monday of the month, usually we have a prayer time that we get together right here in the auditorium, and we love for our church to be part of that. So at 7 p.m. tomorrow night, right here, if you want to come and just pray with us, pray over the month of March and the special things that we have coming up, and that God just moves through those times and on that Easter service, that the gospel is clearly given and clearly heard by those who are in attendance.

And it's just a great time for us as a church family to rally together and set the month right at our monthly prayer gathering. So if you want to be here, 7 p.m. tomorrow night, right here.

And the last thing that I just want to let you know about is for those of you who've signed up for information about our mission trip to Las Vegas, that is coming up right after the service in the hub. So if you go out in the hallway, turn right like you're going out to the parking lot, the hub is there on the left-hand side. It'll just be about a 15-minute meeting just to give you the basic preliminary details of that trip—just to let you know date and cost and what's going to be happening.

It is a mission trip; it's not a fundraising trip. So those of you who are thinking of going to Las Vegas for, you know, other purposes, it is a mission trip. But we're going to just let you know about everything that's going on and let you decide whether you can be part of that trip.

But we're glad that you're here. Thank you for being here. This message series that we're in, Grace, is something that is so needed. And grace not only saves us; it allows us to live our Christian life in the way that God intended us to live.

And so we're excited about hearing what Pastor Scott has here in just a minute. But before he comes, let's bow in a word of prayer.

Father, we are grateful and thankful for all that you do, for your faithfulness to us when we are unfaithful. Lord, I pray that you will just keep us reminded of your goodness and your grace. Lord, I pray that the message today stir our hearts and helps us to realize that grace that you have given to us draws us to you, and it is what allows us to receive you as Savior and Lord. Grace also allows us to live out our faith in the world around us.

So, Father, may the message today encourage us, strengthen us, and help us to live the life you intended. We ask that you'll guide and direct the rest of this day. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Well, I am so glad that you're here today. I'm glad to be here today, and thank you for being a part of our service.

And I just want to say a word before we get into our message this morning. Just a big thank you to all those who were involved this past month in our Crossroads Ministries, and know for our Crossroads Pregnancy Center. So many of you gave donations and have just been a big help to that organization.

I was unfortunately able to attend this past Friday night a banquet—the annual banquet—just to see what God is doing in that ministry and how they're impacting lives all over the area. And so thank you, church, for being involved with that.

This month, we got Love Week coming up. We got a lot going on this month, but Love Week is one of the ways that we do every year where we get to love in our community—love teachers, love police officers, firefighters—and really get involved with that.

And so if you're interested in helping deliver bagels and donuts and coffee and be a blessing to all of these local servants, let us know in the back of your connection card or talk to Amber out in the lobby after the service.

And so we are in the series called Grace—Undeserved Grace. Undeserved. And we'll talk about what the word grace means. The past few weeks, if you're taking notes, here's one definition. Maybe you've seen this; maybe you haven't. It’s God's riches at Christ's expense. That's a beautiful cross for the word grace: God's riches at Christ's expense.

We also said that grace is God given to you and to me what we do not deserve. That's been our working definition: God given to you, God given to me what we don't deserve.

And what we're doing in this series, we're looking at four gospel stories about people who deserved one thing, but because of the grace of Jesus, he could not give them what they deserved.

We talked about two weeks ago; we looked at the thief on the cross. He deserved death, but Jesus on the cross gave him life. Last week, we looked at the woman who had committed adultery. They wanted to stone her, and they wanted to condemn her, and she deserved condemnation, but Jesus changed her life around because of the grace of God.

Today, we're going to look at the story of Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. I'm looking forward to talking about Zacchaeus here in the next few minutes.

I don't know about you, but to me, one of the worst feelings in the world, one of the worst feelings to have is that feeling of being rejected—feeling left out, you know, being overlooked. How many of you would say, "You know, I hate when something like that happens"? I think most of us in this room would say, "I hate it when I have the emotion of rejection, when I feel rejected." No one likes to be rejected.

I think one of the worst moments of rejection I've ever had in my life was in the late '90s—1998, actually probably close to 2000, you know, 1999, 2000. And I was, believe it or not, before I met Karen, I never knew she existed. I was engaged to another lady. I know, and you say, "Really? Oh yeah, I had another fiancé."

And things were going well, so I thought. I was invited by my—I was just barely into the ministry, and I was actually interning at the church that I eventually became on staff at. So I was just fresh out of college, fresh out of Bible school.

And the assistant pastor and his wife took me in and said, "Hey, we've got extra tickets for you and your fiancé to go with us to the Alabama football game. Would you like to go?" And I was like, "You know, sure! I go to a good college football game."

And so, you know, just the assistant pastor and his wife and another staff member on the staff, you know, with the worship pastor and his wife, and then me and my fiancé. We went to the Alabama football game, and there were 85,000 crazies there. They are nuts!

All right, my mom, by the way, if you don't know, she's a lunatic of an Alabama fan. So I go to the Alabama football game. I've never been to an Alabama football game, and we're cheering the game. Everything's going well. It's halftime, and everyone kind of out and about getting their, you know, hot dogs and popcorns or whatever they want to get.

And I'm just getting there, just kind of taking it all in. It's a beautiful day with a good game. I'm enjoying it. I look over at my fiancé, and I say, "Are you having a good time?" And she looked at me and she said, "Scott, I don't love you no more. I'm breaking up with you."

And you know, I'm hearing the pay—I’m like, "Did you say that one more time? Because I'm not sure that I heard you." She said, "I don't love you. We're breaking up." She signed language, "Okay, breaking up with you." And then she started taking off the ring. I said, "Oh, this got real."

And I'm like, "Wait a minute! We've got a three-and-a-half-hour drive back to Pensacola, Florida, with people in the car." We talk about the most awkward, the most uncomfortable drive ever. I mean, she sat in the front, and I sat in the back. It had nothing to do with her. I thought, "We're done." I mean, this was not good.

And I remember driving about halfway back. We stopped to get some gas, and I walked over—this was before we had cell phones, right? There were some people that had cell phones. You had lots of money if you had a cell phone, you know? But I didn't have that kind of money to have a cell phone.

So I walked over to the pay phone. How many remember pay phones? All right, go to the pay phone, and I pick it up, and I dial zero. You know what that means? I'm making a collect call. What that means is this is a free call. I mean, somebody else is paying for this call. It's a long-distance call.

And I call my mom and dad. You know, I'm somewhere in the middle of Alabama off of I-65, and I'm stopping. I was like, "I don't know what just happened. I didn't know what was coming." And of course, you know, that was it. I mean, the Alabama—by the way, I am not an Alabama fan now.

He said, "You know, that was the worst rejection I ever had led me to my greater treasure." All right, there we go. Oh man, that feeling of being rejected—it stinks, doesn't it? And it starts very young too. You know, it happened when you went to recess, and they're picking teams—the two captains—and they're picking people, and it all comes down to you and one other person.

And you're just hoping, you're just hoping that you're not the last one standing. You've been there? Or maybe you went to lunch in elementary school. You walk into the cafeteria. They at the popular table for the popular kids, they at the almost popular table for the almost popular kids, and then there's the table for you, you know? And you're there all the time, every day—the feeling of being overlooked, rejected.

And it didn't get better as you got older. It didn't get better. You know, you applied for a job. You thought you got the job. You got the talent, the gift. You nailed the interview. You thought, "Man, I got this in the bag," only to get the phone call a few days later or an email a few days later and say, "Hey, thanks, but no thanks."

You know, maybe your marriage was supposed to be really good. You think, "Man, I've got a good marriage," until one day you wake up, and it was not as good as you thought it was. You caught your husband looking at something he shouldn't look at, and you felt rejected. Or she got eyes for somebody else, and the marriage starts to spiral and go south.

Perhaps your own kids, they don't want to spend time with you. They don't take your call, and you just feel hurt. You feel horrible rejection. See, there are few emotions worse than feeling rejected, overlooked.

And what we're going to do today is we're going to look at a guy in the gospel that absolutely and completely, 100% deserved to be rejected. But we're going to see a beautiful story where Jesus actually did not give him what he deserved, but because of the grace of God, gave him something else.

So look, let's look at Luke chapter 19, verse number one. The Bible says that Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus, and Luke describes him in two ways. He said that he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

Now pause here for a minute. We need to understand that Zacchaeus was probably the most hated, the most despised man in town for several reasons. He was a tax collector. By the way, to be a tax collector, you had to bribe another tax collector. You had to be a corrupt person to be a tax collector.

And the way you would collect taxes is that you would lie about what was actually being owed. For example, the Roman government might say that I need $100 from this family, but you, as a tax collector, would go and tell them $150, and you would take $50. You would scam off the top. You would keep 50, and you would send the rest to the Roman government.

And you had no way to dispute it. You couldn't file a claim. You had to just take his word for it. You knew he was probably lying, but you couldn't contest it. Everybody knew that that was what was happening behind the scenes.

And to make matters worse, Zacchaeus was a Jewish man, and he was working for the enemy. He was working for the government. He was actually committing treason to turn his back on his own people and to work for the Roman Empire and to go after his Jewish neighbors.

But to top it all off, Zacchaeus was the boss. The Bible said he was the chief tax collector, meaning not only did he get his own cut, but he got the cut of all the other tax collectors that reported to him. He was the mafia. He was the boss.

And so Zacchaeus was totally despised by all the other Jews. There's a good chance that his own parents didn't want to have anything to do with him. He wouldn't have been allowed to worship in the temple. They wouldn't have even let him in the doors of the church. That's how much they hated him.

Now, before we read the next verse, looking from the outside in, I'm sure people looked at him. I'm sure there were people that thought, "You know, this guy has everything. He got the house on the hill. He's got the infinity pool, right? He drives the Ferrari. He got the fancy clothes. He got the flat-screen plasma TV. He has it all. He has everything."

You know, if you talk to anyone that has a lot of money, one thing that they would say is that there's not enough money in the world to make up for the lack of friendship. There's not enough money in the world to make up for the lack of human interaction, for intimacy, for relationship.

Now, I can't tell you from the story, but I can tell you by human nature. I'm pretty sure Zacchaeus, even though he has everything, deep inside, Zacchaeus was hurting. He was hurting. Everybody hated him. He knows it. He despised. Nobody invites him over for dinner. He had no friendship. Even the Roman government didn't really care for him.

So he got it all. He has all the stuff. You know, he's rich, but at the same time, deep inside, he's lonely. He's hurting. He's rejected. Maybe he thought that this life wasn't going to be as bad as he thought it was going to be, but then he paid the awful price of being alone.

You know, people do this all the time. It's happening today. Maybe you're here this morning, and that's where you're at. You know, on the outside, you look like you got it all put together, and you look like your marriage is great, but deep inside, your marriage is falling apart.

Maybe on the outside, you look like the most spiritual person in the room. I mean, you can quote Habakkuk; it flows out of your mouth, and people are like, "Man, you're so spiritual." But deep inside, you're a mess. You've got no love, no connection. You feel rejected. You feel alone.

And chances are, Zacchaeus, he's wrestling with all this stuff, right? I mean, he got all the money in the world, but he didn't have relationships. But because of this, we see that he had spiritual curiosity. Right? We see this in verse number three. The Bible says that Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, the Bible said that he could not see over the crowd.

Now, if you grew up in church, you know Sunday school or vacation Bible school, there was a song that some people were thinking about Zacchaeus. Some of you know this song, right? The song that goes like this: "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see."

You know, I got to thinking about this. I'm just glad that Zacchaeus wasn't around when this song was written because no man I know wants to be called a wee little man. I mean, I really about his self-esteem a little bit here. I mean, nobody wants to be called a wee little man.

And here he is. Now, most scholars believe that not only was Zacchaeus a short man, but some refer to him as a little person. Some people believe that what his situation was—and we can only speculate—but if he was a little person, then he probably faced rejection all his life. I mean, kids can be cruel, right?

And so not only did he face rejection as a young little kid, but then he became a tax collector, and he faced rejection at a whole different level. Nobody wants anything to do with this guy.

And here's what I believe was happening in Zacchaeus' life. He was desperate for acceptance. He's desperate for someone to accept him. He's not getting it. No one is giving it to him. But here's about a man named Jesus, and he wanted to see what he was all about.

The Bible said in verse number four, Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed. I want you to look at the two verbs we can underline: "ran" and "climbed." He ran and he climbed. He climbed a sycamore fig tree since Jesus was coming that way.

A couple of things you need to know: no self-respecting Jewish man would ever run, and they would never climb. You say, "Why?" For a Jewish man to run, that means he would expose his legs, and they were dignified. They would never show off their legs for the same very reason why you don't see them climbing.

In fact, the only people that used to start climbing trees were the slaves. But Zacchaeus, he ran and he climbed—did something that you never saw any Jewish person ever do. He ran and he climbed. Why? Because he had to see who Jesus was.

No doubt he had heard about one of Jesus' followers, a man named Matthew, a tax collector in his former life—a man who would probably felt the rejection and the shame of being overlooked. And not only did Jesus step Matthew into his circle, but he became a disciple, a follower of Jesus.

And so Zacchaeus, I'm sure, you've heard about this, and so he wanted to see for himself. And so the Bible said he runs and he climbs. You know, there's another great story in the Bible about a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years. She couldn't find healing. She heard that Jesus was passing by, and the Bible said that she reached out and touched the hem of His garment, and she was healed.

Another great story in the Bible about four guys who had a friend who was paralyzed, and they had to get their friend to Jesus. They got to the place where Jesus was. Jesus was in the house, but they couldn't get in the house; it was so packed full of people.

But they didn't stop, those four guys. They took their friend up to the roof of the house, and they dug their way to Jesus. I'm here to tell you that sometimes you need to reach out for Jesus. Sometimes you need to dig through a little something to get to Jesus. Sometimes you have to run; sometimes you have to climb to Jesus.

Now, I don't know if there's anyone that needs to hear this this morning, but there may be somebody here where there's some obstacles—perhaps there's some doubt, some insecurities, and some fears—and you just got to climb over that fear. You've just got to run through that doubt. You've just got to dig through that insecurity, and you've just got to reach out to Jesus.

You got to pursue Him. You've just got to pursue Him. Just run to Jesus. Just go to Jesus. I love what the word of God promises. The Bible said in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 13 that you will seek me, and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. When you seek Him, the Bible said you will find Him. That when you pursue Him, He will reveal Himself to you.

There's somebody here today; it's just your time to say, "I need to know for myself." Until you reach, you climb, you dig, you run, and you say, "I'm going to pursue Him," and He will, just like He did to Zacchaeus, reveal Himself to you.

You'll do it. In fact, we see this in verse number five. When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, "Oh, I love this! He called him by name: Zacchaeus." He never met Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus never met Jesus. In fact, nobody had been calling him Zacchaeus for a while.

But Jesus called him Zacchaeus, and He said, "You come down. I must stay at your house today. I must stay at your place today." Can I just say that God knows your name? Nobody else might know your name, but God, He knows your name.

Perhaps today God is calling you to Himself. He's calling you to Him. Jesus called Zacchaeus by name. I'm sure Zacchaeus had heard his name spoken in youth. In fact, I'm sure there were other names for Zacchaeus that may not be appropriate here for church and all kinds of things. You know, nobody's seeking Zacchaeus.

You know, if you take a note, Zacchaeus' name actually means "righteous one." That's what it means. It means "righteous one." And I can guarantee you those widows weren't saying, "Hey, righteous one, come over here and take my money." Nobody's doing that.

But Jesus says, "Righteous one, by faith, that's what you're going to become today. Come on down. I'm going to your house today."

Put yourself there. Put yourself in that crowd for just a minute. You know, you've been hearing about Jesus. He's raised the dead. He's healing people like crazy. He got this massive wisdom. We're thinking, "You know, maybe he's the Savior."

He goes to the most hated guy in town. He goes to the most hated guy in town and says, "Hey, can I come over to your house? Come on down! I want to come into your house today. I want to spend time with you at your house."

And if you're in that crowd, here's what you're thinking: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Jesus! No! I don't know if you've heard about this guy, you know, the righteous one. And he's not—I mean, I go to church every week. I serve every week. In fact, I serve in the two-year-old room, so that makes me a righteous one right there. Yeah, I'm a greeter. I tithe. I'm not only a tither; I give up my tithe."

Hey, Jesus, I'm the righteous one! This guy, he's not even allowed in church! But Jesus ignored the crowd. He just ignored the crowd and went straight to the wildest guy. Why? Because that's exactly who He came for.

He didn't come for the righteous; He came for the sinners. He didn't come for the healthy; He came for the sick. Jesus went for the most unhealthy, unrighteous sinner in the whole block. He said, "Come on down! I'm staying at your house today."

Look at verse number six. So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. Oh, I love this! Verse seven: "All the people saw this and began to mutter." All the people started to mutter.

They began to murmur. What were they murmuring about? "He has gone to be a guest of a sinner." Mother, mother, mother, mother! By the way, if you have a mother around, you can get away with it because I can't hear underneath your breath. But he's just picking up everything around him. He knows he's going to be at someone's house who is a sinner.

Bless God! Bless God! I can't believe He's hanging out with the sinners! I mean, this is shocking, right? This is scandalous! It's scandalous! This is beyond our ability to comprehend because Zacchaeus, he absolutely, completely deserved rejection.

But if you take a note, Jesus did not give him what he deserved. In fact, you know, Zacchaeus, he deserved that rejection. Instead, Jesus gave him acceptance. Zacchaeus deserved rejection; however, Jesus gave him the opposite: acceptance.

You know, just when we turn to Jesus, just like when we turn to Him, He doesn't give us what we deserve. He accepts you and I as well. You know, I think about His grace, and His grace is a scandalous grace. None of us deserve it. Grace undeserved.

A famous evangelist in the 1800s, D.L. Moody, said this about Zacchaeus: "Jesus saved Zacchaeus in the distance from the limb to the ground." I love that! He saved him in the distance from the limb to the ground. From the time it took Zacchaeus to get from the limb to the ground, Jesus changed his life.

Now, how long would that take? Three seconds? Maybe one second if you fall? I don't know. But in a matter of seconds, in the distance from the limb to the ground, Jesus completely transformed Zacchaeus' life.

And I'm here to say this morning that in a matter of seconds, you, my friend, can be totally and completely transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ. In a matter of seconds, I don't care how bad you are. I don't care how far your friends think you are from God. You're here this morning, and people are shocked that you came to church.

It doesn't matter! In a matter of seconds, you can be forgiven, transformed. You can be spiritually healed. You can be made new in the presence of Almighty God. From the distance from the limb to the ground, you can be transformed by the power and the grace and the approval of Jesus Christ.

And in a matter of seconds, you can be transformed by the grace of Jesus. And we see, in fact, we see immediate evidence of a transformed life. I want you to pick this up. Jesus tells Zacchaeus, right? He said, "Come on down! Party at your house today!"

Right? But before the party gets started, Zacchaeus said, "I've got an announcement to make." It's a pretty big announcement. It's a powerful announcement, and it's evidence of the life change that just took place from the limb to the ground.

He said in verse number eight, "But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.'" Wait a minute! Wait a minute! This is coming from a guy that worships money. Money was a god.

He said, "I'm going to give half of my possessions to the poor." And then, "If I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Wow! In the distance from a limb to the ground, he is so transformed that he's now talking crazy talk.

He said, "I'm going to be so generous, and I'm going to make wrong things right." Why did he do this? I don't want you to miss this. Why did he do this? He did not do this to get the approval of Jesus. He did this because he just got the approval of Jesus.

We don't do good things to win His approval. You know, that's what religion teaches. Religion is all about, "Do this, do that. The more you do, the harder you do, the closer you can get to God." But that's not what Christianity is all about.

When you recognize that you do not deserve it, but in God's grace, Jesus still gives you His extravagant love, that's when we understand what Christianity is all about. In fact, this is what you need to know if you're taking notes: the only reasonable response for extravagant love is extravagant sacrifice.

The only reasonable response for extravagant love that He pours out on you is an extravagant sacrifice that you give back to Him. It's what you say: "I give you back my life. Here's my everything. It is all yours."

And Zacchaeus, this is what he does. This is so powerful. The law says in the Jewish laws that if you're a benevolent Jewish man or Jewish person, you're supposed to set aside 20% of your income and give it to the poor—20%.

Now, for those of you that gripe about 10%, that's baby steps, okay? 20%. If the law requires it of a benevolent man, but Zacchaeus doesn't say, "I'm going to do 20%." He says, "I'm going to give half—50%! I'm giving it away!"

And then according to the law, if you stole from somebody, if you stole money from somebody, what he did—he was a thief; that's what he did—then you're not only to give back what you took, but you're to give an extra 20% interest.

So he's supposed to give back 120%. That's the total: get back what you took plus 20%. But Zacchaeus, he said, "If I stole from you, I'm not going to just give back 120%. I'm still changing by the power of God. I'm going to give back 400%!"

You see, what happened here? See, he was not motivated by the law. If he was motivated by the law, he would only do the bare minimum. But he was motivated by love. He was motivated by love.

You see, this is an extravagant response to God's extravagant love. And that's what happens when you're truly transformed by Jesus. It's not uncommon to see this. I see this all the time when I see people's lives that just change from the limb to the ground.

I see evidence—there are trippy evidence. I see people whose lives have changed, and they do a total 180. And when you're transformed by Jesus, there is evidence. You start doing stuff. You start forgiving people who don't deserve forgiveness. You start loving people that others don't seem to care about or love.

You start caring for the outcast. You start using your resources to help people—people that you probably never meet. You start serving. You just start doing what God wants you to do. And all of a sudden, you realize that your life is not your life; it belongs to God.

And you do things that don't make sense. Why? Because extravagant love demands an extravagant sacrifice. Zacchaeus did not do this to gain the approval of Jesus. He did it because he already got Jesus' approval.

And Jesus looked at Zacchaeus in verse number nine. He said, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham." He back into the club. He'd been accepted. And the only person that matters that he was accepted by—Him, God Himself.

And then He said in verse 10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

As I finish up here, I don't want you to miss the parallels—the two parallels to this story. I don't want you to miss it. First parallel: like Zacchaeus, we are short. We have all fallen short of God's perfect mark of holiness, God's mark of perfection. We have all fallen short of His glory.

And just like Zacchaeus, we're all in the same boat. We all deserve to be rejected by God. The second parallel: Zacchaeus climbed down a tree so that he could have a relationship with you and with me. Our Savior, He climbed a tree on Mount Calvary so that He could have a relationship with you.

He did this so that we could have a relationship with Him for all of eternity. So why? Why'd He do that? He said Jesus didn't come for the found; He came for the lost. He didn't come for the healthy; He came for the sick. He didn't come for the righteous; He only came for sinners—sinners like you and like me.

And when we recognize that, then our only reasonable response is to give Him our whole lives because He accepted us even though we didn't deserve it.

Our heavenly Father, we ask you to help us today. Help us to see today the powerful story of grace—the grace that still saves today. Perhaps there's someone here who is far apart from you. Perhaps their sins have separated them from you.

God, you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross to have a bridge of salvation, and all we have to do is climb, run, pursue, walk over that bridge. Salvation from the limb to the ground—salvation can happen today.

God, perhaps there's someone here today. I've done it for the last few weeks. Perhaps there's someone here today that needs to take that next step. They don't understand it all; that's okay. That's all right. But today they want to come down the tree and receive Jesus and say, "God, that's me. I need to do that today."

The Bible says, "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." In fact, I believe He's knocking on the door of your heart right now. They say, "Let me in! Let me in!"

The past few weeks, I've done this prayer of salvation. Multiple people have raised their hands, but perhaps you've been here. Maybe you haven't been here the last couple weeks, or maybe the last couple weeks you've been here, and you've been just, "I don't—I'm just not ready."

God is waiting for you. What are you waiting for? Come on down and let Him in. You can pray a simple prayer like this right where you're sitting: "Dear God, I'm a sinner. I'm a mess. I've been trying to live life on my own, but today I give up. I surrender trying to live life on my own, and I ask you to come in and take over. Forgive me of all my sins and come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for dying on the cross for me."

With your bow eyes closed, say, "God, I prayed that prayer as I came down from the tree, and I ask Jesus to come into my life." If that's you, I'm not going to embarrass you, but will you raise your hand? We had one person this morning in the first service raise their hand.

Anybody in the second service here? "I ask Jesus to come to be my Lord and Savior." Anybody like that at all? From the limb to the ground, I see that hand. I see one hand. Anybody else? From the limb to the ground, He saves. He's still saving souls today. Anyone else?

Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the decisions that were made today—from the limb to the ground—they've been changed. I pray that today they will walk in a new path of salvation, walk in your grace. We don't deserve it, but because of your great love, you give it to us anyway.

Thank you for all you've done for us. Thank you for dying on the cross and coming out of the grave for all of us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Would you stand with us today? If that was you, whoever made that decision today, we'd love to give you some resources today. We'd love to talk to you and meet you.

You have a couple different options. You can fill out your connection card and let us know that today you decided to follow Jesus. You can come and tell Pastor Scott, who will be over there by the blue wall.

Also, if you're a guest today, we have a gift that we would love to give you today—just our way of saying thank you for investing the time to be here.

Also, a reminder: Easter is coming, and we're really excited. You can put the information up there. Let us know on your connection card what service you are thinking of coming to. We would love to have that from you.

I'm going to pull it up real quick. We would love to hear that from you. But also, if you are interested in going to Vegas—I shouldn't just say Vegas. Let's go to Vegas together! We're going to go to Las Vegas to work for the Lord, and what happens there, He will remember.

So anyways, it's just a quick—it's a quick 10-minute informational meeting. It'll give you some more details about what we're doing, and it's going to be in the volunteer hub, which was the room that's lit up with all the lamps and stuff like that.

Head over there. If you're hanging out in the hub right now, just know that there are people coming in there. Or if you want to go to Las Vegas, stick around. We'd love to do that with you.

But I also can't miss the opportunity to wish a happy 56th birthday to my good friend Pastor David. Can you tell him happy birthday? Yeah, saw him out there today, and it's like his birthday, and he's like helping people conduct.

Like, we have a pastor working in the parking lot, and you know, part of that reason is Pastor Scott and David and I—we went out to Texas last year, and we went to a church, and we were asking them about how they run things. They're one of the largest churches in Texas, which for Texas is, you know, just mega, mega, mega.

And they said, "You know what? Our parking lot—that's where we put our best and brightest because the first impression matters." And that's where the craziest people are. You know, it's true because you drove here. Maybe you weren't the driver, but the other one is nuts.

So we put a pastor out there. We got to make sure—I mean, it's a shepherd, so it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? And we're just so thankful for you, man. Just so thankful for you, and I'm thankful for your friendship.

As our prayer team starts coming forward right now, again, just thank you for being here. If there's any way we can be praying for you, these are the folks that I trust with my prayer requests, and they would love to pray for you today.

But let me do that now. God, we love you, and we trust you, and we're so grateful for you. Thank you for the way that you're moving in the hearts and minds of people here, and thank you for changing my life.

And it's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for being here. You're loved. We'll see you next time.

- "Grace undeserved is a scandalous Grace; none of us deserve it. It's about God giving to you and to me what we do not deserve." [41:20 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "In the distance from the limb to the ground, Jesus completely transformed Zacchaeus's life. In a matter of seconds, you can be totally and completely transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ." [01:08:51 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Zacchaeus did not do this to get the approval of Jesus; he did this because he just got the approval of Jesus. We don't do good things to win his approval; that's what religion teaches." [01:11:25 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "The only reasonable response for extravagant love is extravagant sacrifice. The only reasonable response for the extravagant love that He pours out on you is an extravagant sacrifice that you give back to Him." [01:11:59 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "When you're truly transformed by Jesus, there is evidence. You start doing stuff like forgiving people who don't deserve forgiveness, loving people that others don't seem to care about." [01:14:41 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Zacchaeus did not do this to gain the approval of Jesus; he did it because he already got Jesus' approval. Extravagant love demands an extravagant sacrifice." [01:15:11 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Like Zacchaeus, we are short of God's perfect mark of holiness, but through grace, we are accepted by God Himself." [01:16:31 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Sometimes you need to reach out for Jesus, sometimes you need to dig through a little something to get to Jesus. Sometimes you have to run, sometimes you have to climb to Jesus." [59:46 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Zacchaeus ran and climbed, did something you never saw any Jewish person ever do. He ran and climbed because he had to see who Jesus was." [57:10 ] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Jesus saved Zacchaeus in the distance from the limb to the ground. From the time it took Zacchaeus to get from the limb to the ground, Jesus changed his life." [01:08:10 ] (Download | Crop for social media)