I Earned It

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 23:39–43 “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.””

These 5 verses carry so much weight and yet somehow I believe it is becoming one of the most forgotten.

Who I am

Start with one of the most important dates in history August 23rd 1986 My Birth!

Born in small town Illinois

Youngest of Five

When I started thinking and praying and meditating on this message God gave me this vision and this thought of the two stories of Zach

Zach 1

Hello I am Zach number 1

I was born into a beautiful family rooted and grounded in the Word

I was raised in a small pentecostal church

Dad was song leader. We didn’t have worship leaders then.

He has been and still is on the board. The only one who has been for over 40 years now.

Mom was a Sunday school teacher

From a young age I loved the drums

Eventually became the drummer for our church.

I followed

Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.””

We had revivals a week long fast convention and you better believe I was delivering a cup of cold water to those preachers!

After high school I spread my wings and joined the only legitimate and might I say greatest armed force the United States has The US Army!

I spent 8 years honorably serving my country

I spent 3 years and 3 months between 3 deployments as a turret gunner in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I earned multiple awards and accolades during these times.

When I left the Army I spent time in Montana, Florida, back in Illinois before eventually settling here in Colorado.

I was fortunate to get a job as Campus Safety Officer with Denver public schools where I met my wife.

After a couple of years of knowing her I finally garnered the courage to ask her out in 2018.

From that day I have lost the ability to be without her. I can not imagine a life without her in it.

We were married in February of 2020 and thanks to Covid, we are yet to go on our honeymoon!

I have three step children Isabel, Carlos, and Gabriela and Nina and I have one little girl together Ella.

That may come as a surprise to you because if you have ever heard me talk about my kids I do not put a separation between step and biological.

Because there isn’t one.

Nina found Purpose Church or at the time was Valley View in 2019

I became the youth pastor in 2021 and by 2022 I started my journey to become a pastor.

January 25th 2024 we started Breakthrough Church with a Bible study on Thursday nights

In September of the same year we launched our Sunday service

We have seen growth from 3 people our very first night to 40-50 on our Sunday services.

We have great fellowship every other Thursday when we all come together for dinner and small groups.

It has been the most stressful, crazy, hardest thing I think we have ever done. And yet it is the most rewarding.

We are seeing lives changed and families repaired. God is moving! And i am just blessed to be a part of it.

Man I like that Zach.

That Zach is righteous.......right?

That Zach is going to Heaven.........right?

I’ve earned it.........haven’t I?

A study published in December last year conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University

discovered that (53%) of self-identified Christians agree that “A person who is generally good, or does enough good things for others, will earn a place in Heaven.”

Now you may be sitting there saying well Zach that is those heretic denominations that don’t believe the word like we Pentecostals do. We live every word of the Bible!

(41%), Pentecostals believe this

(35%), Pentecostals believe “There are many paths to eternal salvation; you can choose whichever one you prefer,”

I truly believe this is one of the biggest threats to Christianity and it’s not by accident.

If the enemy can remove the need for Christ then by default we kill the Christian.

So what is the big deal, Zach? You are clearly a good person.

Obviously a good God would never send you to hell!

Well before we dig into that let me introduce you to Zach 2

Hi I’m Zach number 2

All the things of my childhood are true.

Dad led song service, mom was a Sunday school teacher.

I was a drummer

But let me fill in some gaps

When I was 15 my grandma died. I didn’t handle it well......

I blamed everyone including my parents and God

I moved out of my parents house and lived with family friends for a while.

I eventually moved out of there dropped out of school and just squatted wherever I could.

Lived with friends, my girlfriend, until eventually hitting rock bottom.

I signed up for a military school GED program that was about 3-4 hours from home.

I spent about 8 hours there before telling them to kick rocks.

I made my mom and dad drive all that way to get me, had them drive me all the way home, and you know what my response to them was??

Thanks for the ride but I’m not living with you and I took off again.

I eventually actually hit the lowest of lows and came crawling back apologizing to my mom and dad who by the grace of God took me back got me into an alternative school where I was able to make up two years of high school and actually graduate on time.

I did join the greatest branch of the military where I proceeded to drink myself into oblivion.

I remember waking up one morning probably 3 in the morning and I was parked in someone’s driveway, car running, door open, and my idiot self passed out in the middle of the driveway.

I remember coming back from Illinois after a 4 day weekend of non stop partying to a surprise urinalysis where I’d eventually be told I failed due to cocaine in my system.

I’d lose rank, money, and freedom because of that decision.

I married a woman I barely knew because I was leaving on my second deployment and in my mind there was no way I was making it back home a second time. So why not?

That woman would eventually almost destroy my relationship with my family to include fighting my then 50 year old mother and put such a strain on myself and eldest sister that we didn’t speak for over a year.

After our separation and her subsequent death due to overdose, I met my second wife.

She was the definition of a good person.

She was honest and hardworking a great mother. Oh and one other thing an atheist......

2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

Let me tell you this, in all my years as the prodigal I never stopped believing in God, but you’d never know that.

I lived the life of an unbeliever I bore the fruit of an unbeliever.

Eventually the tug on my heart by the Holy Spirit led me to confront her about our separation in this most important area of my life. Which led her to decide that we were no longer compatible nor did we need to be together anymore.

I found myself living in my truck homeless and alone.

So how about that Zach?

Has he earned Heaven?

Is he a good person?

Has he earned it?

If we are to believe that being good is all that is needed to get to Heaven then how do we determine what and who is good?

I believe the pastor standing in front of you today is a good man.

I try to be a good husband

I try my best to be a good father

But there are people in this world who have never seen this Zach

They have only seen and only known the depraved Zach

The always drinking Zach

The chasing women Zach

The Zach with 0 morals

Is there some cosmic scale where my bad deeds are weighed against my good and so long as the scale tips ever so slightly to the good then I am in?

This is the problem with creating rules based on subjectivity. But it is also why the world loves it. It removes all accountability. So long as I say they were good then good things are going to happen to them.

If that is what we choose to believe then this breakfast is without purpose.

If that is what we choose to believe then next Friday carries no weight.

Next Sunday is meaningless.

So let me clear all of this up right now...........

We NEED Jesus!

The old Zach, Zach number 2 would control this Zach’s fate without the cross.

My righteousness is not enough to clean my sin.

My righteousness is of filthy rags.

No matter what good I do it is and will never be enough.

I am a failure. I am not worthy.

But I don’t have to be.......

Over 2000 years ago a man walked this earth in perfection. Sinless without blame.

Yet He took on the burden of my blame of your blame, of our blame.

He allowed Himself to be beaten and nailed to a cross as the ultimate sacrifice for US!

His blood was shed so that it may wipe away our sins.

He bore the punishment of death for US!

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But it didn’t end there........

The reason we get to give the title Resurrection to this event is because He laid down His life for us, but in three days He rose defeating death hell and the grave and is alive today at the right hand of the Father!

Self righteousness deletes the cross

Self righteousness says Jesus I do not need you.

Self righteousness is the path to hell.

Self righteousness is YOUR truth

But there is only one TRUTH

And that is that Christ came to earth for you and for me and for each and everyone of us.

He bore the price of our sin so that we could experience mercy and grace.

We stand guilty as charged and yet the price was already paid for it.

We just have to accept it.

Grace and mercy are freely given but we have to step out of our own righteousness and into His

We hear nothing of the good deeds of the thief on the cross. We do not hear of his days in the synagogue, We don’t hear of his generosity, we do not hear of his obedience.

But yet we see his salvation freely given by his savior because of his belief!

His self righteousness led to his crucifixion

But HIS righteousness led to his salvation!

We can not erase the cross but embrace it for what it is. Our freedom!

Hebrews 12:2 For the joy set before him he endured the cross

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”