His Heartbeat:
A Heartbeat for Our change
March 4, 2012
Luke 19:1-10
How Does Jesus Heart beat for us?
Let me give you a few stories.
Here is C.S. Lewis: militant atheist, Oxford don. The last thing he wants is to be converted. God sneaks up on him, and Lewis is "surprised by joy," and he says, "I am dragged kicking and screaming--the most reluctant convert in all the world--into the Kingdom." Becomes one of the clearest sharpest minds defining 20th c Christianity.
Or here is John Wesley: fanatical son of a minister, a missionary to America, a great theological mind, but a total failure as a human being and a minister. One day he sits in the chapel in England, a failure as a missionary, and his "heart is strangely warmed." He becomes a great fountain for life. John Wesley becomes alive for God. He spear headed a huge Christian revival becomes instrumental in launching what became the United Methodist Church and l, once said:
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can."
Or here's Bill Stringfellow in our generation, the most brilliant lawyer in his class at Yale Law School, who sits in his room quietly and reads the Bible. God gets ahold of him, and Bill Stringfellow begins his ministry in Harlem in New York. As a Christian, he viewed his vocation as a commitment, bestowed upon him in baptism, to a lifelong struggle against the "powers and principalities," as systemic evil is sometimes called in the New Testament, or "Power of Death." He proclaimed that being a faithful follower of Jesus means to declare oneself free from all spiritual forces of death and destruction and to submit onself single-heartedly to the power of life. He becomes a lifelong advocate for the lost the disenfranchised the broken.
A former a vice-president for McGraw-Hill, one of the great publishing firms of our land. He was a brilliant businessman. He was a senior vestryman in the Episcopal church, on the city council, respected, and loved by all, but empty. One weekend, he went off to a conference with a bunch of lay people who began praying with him and talking about Jesus. This beautiful man comes home transformed and says to his neighbors and friends, "I met Jesus."
"What happened to you?"
He says, "I don't know. I fell in love."
"He's always been a good man," his neighbors said, "but now he's a new man." You see, there's no single type that conversion happens to.
Or Saint Augustine, the monk with a mistress, who is struggling with his soul, sitting under a tree, saying, "O Lord, make me pure, but not yet." One day God gets him, and Augustine becomes Saint Augustine. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity
There's William Booth, a very unlikely, rough-cut man, who says over a hundred years ago, "Nobody in London cares about the poor, the drunks, the winos." He invented the Salvation Army. One day he said, "Lord, I give you everything there is in this man William Booth. Do with me what you will." A movement starts that changes the lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of people, because one man is changed.
Dr. David Thompson: Son of martyred missionaries Ed and Ruth Thompson and the son-in-law of kidnapped missionary Archie Mitchell. When God healed the hurt of the loss of his parents' deaths, he is spurred to become a missionary doctor in order to bring the gospel to the least-reached and hurting. When Thompson and his wife arrived in Gabon, Bongolo Hospital wasn't much of a hospital, at all. "We found lots of sick people coming, no equipment, hardly any medicine--two Gabonese nurses that had been partially trained, and that's what we started with," he says. In the years since, Thompson, his wife, and a team of medical colleagues transformed a small dispensary into a 150 bed, full-service hospital where tens of thousands of patients from all over the country have been helped. To date, more than 7,000 people have prayed to receive Jesus Christ while at the hospital.
Then there is you, me.
Jesus' Heart Beats to Change Our Story
Whatever word you wish to use, changed, transformed, alive, renewed, revived, sanctified, filled, . . .
Jesus' Heart Beats to Change Our Story
Last week we looked at Jesus as he enters the small synagogue in Nazareth and makes a declaration that was radically awakening. Good News, Freedom, Recovery, Favor.
When he leaves that place her travels town to town, village to village and begins to help people discover the reality of that radical awakening.
This morning by looking at one story, we can discover how his heart beats to change our story.
Jesus' Heart Beats to Change Our Story
Turn with me to Luke 19
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner."
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
I. Old Story
Our Old Story is composed by a number of different things
A. Defined by the cards life dealt us.
Zaccheaus is small in stature. So he runs ahead and climbs a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus.
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
Compensation is a fact of human existence since the fall. A strategy whereby one covers up, consciously or unconsciously, weaknesses, frustrations, desires, feelings of inadequacy or incompetence in one life area through the gratification or (drive towards) excellence in another area.
Compensation can cover up either real or imagined deficiencies and personal or physical inferiority. The compensation strategy, however does not truly address the source of this inferiority.
Positive compensations may help one to overcome one's difficulties. But many struggle with negative compensations.
Overcompensation, characterized by a superiority goal, leads to striving for power, dominance, self-esteem and self-devaluation.
Undercompensation, which includes a demand for help, leads to a lack of courage and a fear for life.
In our society there is a tendency among men of small stature to think they have to compensate for it. Overly vocal declarations of one's physical prowess and penchant for threatened violence. This sort of child-like behavior is usually found in small-statured people who feel they need to make up for their physical inadequacy somehow. I wonder how Zaccheaus sought to compensate.
Ill: In my life, struggling with and incredibly low self-worth, rejected by the USCG academy for an irregular heartbeat. I joined the USCG, but seeing everyone around me so much more cooler, sharper, better than myself, I sought compensate. Two man ways, I lied and exaggerated any and every story, second, I was determined I could party, especially drink with the best of them, and not just beer, Seagram's was my drink of choice. No matter how hard we try to, the real us eventually comes through and people see us with all our faults, weaknesses and failures. VERY FEW PEOPLE TRULY LIVE UNDSICOVERED BEHIND THE MASK.
Appl: If you try to hide behind the mask, pretending you are more together, more capable, more than you are. Other will know.
Our Old Story is composed by a number of different things
B. Defined by our vocation.
Our choice of vocation is considered on the most important decisions of our lives. What do you do for a living.
Zaccheaus the Jew became Zaccheaus the chief Tax collector who was wealthly.
The majority of the people in Palestine belonged to the lower class, poor. All sorts of people belonged to this class, such as orphans and widows, the blind, the crippled, and the mentally ill. Having no other means of livelihood, people with physical and mental handicaps became beggars. To this class also belonged outcasts. The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman Empire.
They made their living by charging an extra amount.
They exacted any amount they could and thus became well to do. They were considered traitors who became wealthy by collaborating with Roman authorities at the expense of their own people.
We spend a great portion of our life in our callings our occupations, they define us. Some we think have more status than others. Doctors, Lawyers, leaders, police officers. But no matter vocation others will still demean it.
The health care vocation is frequently by far the most respected vocation on the planet. Yet there are far from immune from attack.
Doctor Joke
Nurse: Why are you sad today doctor?
Doctor: The patient I operated today afternoon died.
Nurse: I'm so sorry Doctor.
Doctor: Me too, I was planning on spending the fees for post operative care for a trip to Europe this summer.
No matter who you are if you define you self worth by what you do you will still take shots.
President Barak Obama -- Great Achievement
Approval Rating 45% like him, 48% don't 7% could care less.
Appl: So it is with most of us. No matter what you vocation, some will approve, some disapprove and some could care less.
C. Defined by how others see us.
So Zacchaeus is a short, wealthy tax collector, but look how he is referred to by the community in which he lives.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner."
Zacchaeus is an outcast. One can be an outcast without necessarily being poor economically. Such were tax collectors. They were considered traitors, sinners and considered to be an outcast.
In 1st century Palestine, tax collectors, prostitutes, the poor, the sick. All these people were in the position they were in (according to teachers of Mosaic law) because they had sinned. These were people not worthy to enter into the temple. There was no area for them to worship. They were condemned by God. They were outcasts.
The final lines of our old story were composed by those around us. Those who judged us, dismissed, condemned us. Those who spoke the words, loser, failure, into our lives over and over again.
Some of the words, some of the definitions of who we are became etched upon on hearts.
Students labeled with such negative adjectives as "lazy," "unmotivated," "slow learner," or "behavior problem."
He's ODD, ADHD, Aspergia, Dyslexic, Special Needs, OCD, Bi-polar.
The labeling, the defining goes on and on.
That's our old story; we are at the mercy of it. It seems to be beyond our control.
* The cards we were dealt
* Our vocation
* How others define us
Seems to have composed our story.
Jesus' Heart Beats to Change Our Story
II. New Story
Composed of very different things
A. Defined by our relationship with God
1. Our Seeking
Notice that Zaccheaus transformation begins with him seeking Jesus.
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
2. Jesus Acceptance
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
Zaccheaus, I know how you are defined. I know what these people think of you. I know that you are an outcast a sinner. But I want a relationship with you anyway. Come on Down Zaccheaus. Let's go to your house.
Jesus is willing to become intimate involved in our lives, eight there are right now. Whether we are just beginning a relationship with him or if we have ben i8n a relationship with him for year.
He doesn't care if the house is messy. Did you ever go through one of those embarrassing moments when someone shows up for a visit at your house and it's a mess. You know how we feel obligated to make excuses, to seek to reassure them that it's not always like this. You know how we start cleaning things up.
Jesus doesn't care how messy the house is he just wants to be let in. If we get too worried about how messy it is we'll miss out on the significance of the visit.
3. Our willingness to accept the terms
6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
Jesus will not settle for us defining the limit of the relationship. He defines it. Our willingness to accept his terms (I'm coming in, I'm going to deal with the messy things in your life) determine whether or not we benefit from it.
Ill: Hoarders A&E compulsive hoarders get a chance to have professional cleaners and organizers help them climb out from underneath mountains of stuff. The only catch, you have to let them in and let them work. You have to cooperate with what Dr. Robin Zasio's determines is necessary.
B. Defined by Altered World View
Jesus standard for life comes into play.
Worth is redefined
What is valuable, important, right and wrong changes.
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
What is important to us becomes more and more in line with what is important to God.
Responsibility redefined
The altered world view is something not forced upon us but willing adopted and practiced.
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, . . .
C. Defined by and New Identity
Ultimately we become different. Our identity, our story is Changed.
9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
Jesus longs to change, and keep changing our story.
Every read a novel, one that keeps you interested form cover to cover? Imagine how great that book would be if there was only one chapter.
Ill: Tears chapters out of the back of a book. What are you missing?
Never anything else. It's a great first chapter, but nothing more.
Jesus' Heart Beats to Change Our Story
Summary
Jesus longs for our story to be defined in a completely different way. He longs for it to be defined by the things that he thinks are important significant, of worth. He longs for pages to be written about how we take responsibility for living out that world view that he defines. He longs for us to be continually redefined by our relationship with him.
Application/Challenge
Two Questions:
Have you opened the door of your life to him to allow him to come in and begin to rewrite your story?
In not then today can be a beginning point.
Have you cut the story short, have you stopped experiencing the newest, the refreshing, new work that he wants to do in you? Have you given up before the final Chapter?
There's More.
