Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing

Welcome

Intro

In his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, Stephen Covey has a quote that says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

It is easy for us to get distracted in our lives

We bounce from thing to thing

It’s hard to focus on one thing because there is so much minutia in our everyday lives that we forget our priority

The book of Luke really lays out for us the story of Jesus that shows what his priority was

Luke 19:10 ESV

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus knew what he was ere for

He had a mission

SO how do we keep the main thing the main thing?

We can find that in the story of Zaccheus by looking at his interaction with Jesus

PRAY - Centerpoint Church - Ryan Ingold

Live a Life Worth Finding

Luke 19:1–4 ESV

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

Zaccheus was RUNNING to find Jesus!

We see in previous verses that Jesus had healed many people and large crowds were following him into Jericho

I’m sure that you could hear the commotion that was going on.

Jesus by this time had created a name that preceded him

Zaccheus wanted to meet this guy!

But Zaccheus was a wee little man

He was too proud to ask to be let to the front of the crowd

More importantly, he was HATED!

They probably would have laughed him out of town

If he tried to get through the crowds, they would have taken every opportunity to leave him bruised and battered.

He was cunning though

He did whatever it took to get to Jesus

If we were honest with ourselves, would our lives be a life that people would want to find?

If we did an honest evaluation of ourselves would our lives be lives that people would do anything to be around?

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul lays out how to live a life worthy of the calling that we have

We have been called to live like Jesus

1 John 2:6 ESV

whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Our lives should reflect his life

But not just some areas, EVERY AREA

We have to choose to live our lives above reproach in every area

Proverbs 27:19 ESV

As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.

Proverbs 27:9 ESV

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.

The things we say, the things we post on social media, the things we listen to and watch

The heart was

We have to live a life that people will see and want to know more about

When we set ourselves apart from the world, we become something of an alien

When things are diff

1 Peter 2:1–12 ESV

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

We must long to grow in God

We have been chosen and set apart

We must live as new

We have to act like it!

Go to Where They Are

Luke 19:5 ESV

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 2212. ζητέω

ζητέω zētĕō

(zay - tay - o) is a verb

The Bible Guide Zacchaeus (19:1–10)

Here is the gospel in action. Jesus comes to Zacchaeus, like a shepherd to a lost sheep. He finds him, accepts him and helps him to discover a new life. Our point of need is God’s point of salvation.

This gospel that we talk about requires action!

Here is the gospel in action. Jesus comes to Zacchaeus, like a shepherd to a lost sheep. He finds him, accepts him and helps him to discover a new life. Our point of need is God’s point of salvation.

Why?

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 490). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Because Jesus mission was to SEEK and SAVE

He was not waiting for them to come to him

He was going to them!

Why is Deploy part of our mission?

Because cities across the world are filled with churches with wals

We want to be a church WITHOUT walls!

TO go out to the highways and byways and seek and save the lost!

We are looking for people who are lost and headed toward destruction

the Last Defense

We have to be willing to go after them where they are even if that means we drag them from the very gates of hell

It an stand for

Spurgeon quote

We must be willing to go wherever they are and find them

But I think it also means that we have to be on the lookout for those who need to hear the love of Jesus

Jesus did not just wake up an start walking

I think he lived his life on purpose

I think he lived his life searching after every person that he could find that need salvation

We must do the same thing

Pray for God to open our eyes to see every person who needs to hear the gospel.

To See them the way he sees them…in love

Love Without Limits

Luke 19:7 ESV

And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

You know who I have trouble loving?

The Bible Guide Zacchaeus (19:1–10)

Here is the gospel in action. Jesus comes to Zacchaeus, like a shepherd to a lost sheep. He finds him, accepts him and helps him to discover a new life. Our point of need is God’s point of salvation.

Referees

But really, people are hard to love sometimes

I am sure there are people that we have seen or come across that we have a hard time loving

Tax collectors were those people in Jesus time

They were Jews who collected tax for the Romans

TO make their money they would charge more than the actual tax

Most of the time they were charging way more than they should have been

They were basically crooks

They were hated!

Talk about flipping a crowd quick!

Jesus had these people following him and then when he went to this sinner’s house, they were all complaining against him

They couldn’t believe that Jesus would go to this crook’s house!

This wasn’t Jesus first interaction with a tax collector

Luke 5:27–32 ESV

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus made it a habit to be around these type of people

He was not concerned with what people thought of him

He wanted to show love to them

We have to make a habit of being around the ones no one else wants to be around!

We should not be looking for the ones who have it all together

We should be filling this place with people that make others grumble about us

We should fill this place with the outcast and rundown

We are a hospital for the soul sick.

We have to understand that they are not going to have it together

They aren’t going to worship like us

They aren’t going to be perfect

But we want them to get here and become who they were made to be

Our expectations have to be that we are helping them discover God

We have to love them despite what it may look like for us

Think about it..

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us

We were once in a place where people thought that we weren’t worth saving, but someone did!

We have to know that every life matters to God!

Every life must matter to us!

Why is this important?

I would venture to say that is Jesus mission

Sure he had other things that he was doing

But he knew the mission that he was supposed to accomplish

We have to focus on the same thing

We can’t get wrapped up in all the other things

We have to make the main thing the main thing

Where do we go from here?

Meditate -

Ask - Is my priority seeking the lost for Jsus to save?

Respond - In a desire to live above reproach. To love unconditionally and to open our eyes to see the ones that need the unconditional love of Jesus