How Close Do I Have to Be to Jesus to Truly Be a Christ Follower?

I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinOcala.com and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you. Because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today. Peace.

How close do you have to follow Jesus to be a Christ follower? Like what's the distance? How close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? Is it measured in feet? Is it days? Is it weeks? Is it behavior? How close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? There's a guy in the Bible, if you wanna join me in Luke chapter 19, who's wrestling with this very same question. And to be honest, it's a question that I've wrestled with my entire life. So much so, next year, 2026, we're gonna spend 52 Sundays leaning into this space. How do you follow Christ? Is it left up to your opinion, my opinion, denomination's opinion, your parents? Like really, how close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? In Luke 19, there's a guy and he is really successful. Now he's not very popular in town, but he is successful. And he's at a stage in his life where he's heard all about this Jesus guy, but for himself, he's never really experienced Jesus. And what he does is a little out of the ordinary. Here, check it out in your Bible in Luke 19.

Look with me in verse number one. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. So on one hand, some people in culture would say that he's successful because he's wealthy. On the other hand, people disdained him because of the way that he got his wealth. See, in those days, the Romans had occupied Israel and they would take different regions and they would put a taxation that as the Romans, they wanted X amount of money for that region. So think about Ocala. The Romans would say for Ocala, we want X amount of dollars. Let's just say we want a million dollars. How would the Romans get the million dollars? Well, they didn't have a taxation like we have it today where they would tax someone's paycheck. So they would set up these Jewish leaders, call them tax collectors. They would empower them. They would give them authority to tax you. And their instructions were, we Romans want a million dollars you get it however you want it from the people. And you ask for as much as you want and anything over a million, you get to keep. So you can see what's happening. It's setting up a vicious cycle, and these tax collectors would put a burden on people to satisfy the Romans what the Romans said they wanted, but then they would keep all the extra cash for themselves. And so in the community, in the culture, these tax collectors were looked

down upon. They were wealthy, they had lots and lots of power, but they were looked down upon. Zacchaeus is not a popular man in the culture. Now here, go back to your Bible. Look what it says in verse number three. He wanted to see who Jesus was. Now we don't really know why he wanted. There's no backstory. I think maybe perhaps potentially when you think about the way that he would exact so much pain on people. Here's the deal. If he said that you owed a thousand dollars in taxes, if you couldn't pay the thousand dollars, he could literally come in and just confiscate your home. He could take your children and sell them into slave trafficking. He had that much authority, and now he wants to see Jesus. Maybe he observed some people give him forgiveness, even though he was being cruel to them. Maybe he heard people praying, dear Jesus, how will I have enough money to pay the tax collector? Somewhere along the way, he got curious about who this Jesus is. And so the Bible says he wanted to see who he was, but being a short man, I understand that he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore fig tree to see him. Since Jesus was coming that way, when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him, notice how Jesus makes it personal. Your relationship with Jesus is a personal relationship. He calls him by name, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, he's gone to be the guest of a sinner. People are not happy with Jesus now because in their mind, Jesus should not be hanging out with this sinner guy. This guy, Zacchaeus has caused a lot of pain in a lot of people's lives. A lot of people are living less than best. They are not experiencing freedom in their life. Some of them maybe have lost their own family or lost their own goods or their, or their livelihood and they're upset and notice what happens next in verse eight, but Zacchaeus stood up. In other words, he didn't focus on the criticism. He's focusing on Christ. And he says to the Lord, Lord, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody, not if we all knew that he did, if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house because this man too, is a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the law. So I'm asking you the question again, how close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? Zacchaeus gives us two dangers to avoid. And he's going to give us a few steps that we need to take. And what my hope and my prayer is this morning is that as we lean into these very last three days, that there'd be some

transformation in our lives, setting up 2026, because here's what I know. You do not want to step in to a new year with a changed calendar and not a changed life. The reason we have the same experience year after year after year is you change your calendar, but we've never changed our life. And what we're about to see is the potential for our lives to go to a whole nother level for you and I to experience everything that we've ever hoped for along the way. Here's the two areas, the two dangers for us to avoid. Number one, I simply just call this box-top theology. Zacchaeus wasn't going to settle for the box-top theology. Now, if you're a seventies kid or you're a 2025 kid, you would sit at a breakfast table. And while you're eating your breakfast, you're looking at the back of the, of the cereal box. And it's, it's, it's box-tops theology. You're just kind of seeing it. You're reading it from a distance, but the next morning you're going to read it and see it from a distance again, and again, and again, same thing on an iPhone. It just, technology has changed. You're at box-top theology. Oh, you know, all the words of Christianity, you know, the verses, you know, the language, you know, the culture, but you're living on borrowed faith. It really hasn't transformed. It's not personal engagement. Zacchaeus says, I'm, I'm, I'm avoiding that danger. I'm not going to experience God at a box-top. Theology and the second thing he teaches us is that it's important that we live with a shot clock The danger is too many of us are not living with a shot clock in our life now you all who are basketball players you Get the shot clock right you get so many seconds to take the shot now You might miss the shot get the rebound you can take another shot But you got to take the shot inside of that allowed at time even football fans You have so many seconds to run the play before there's a penalty But many of us in our everyday life. I mean, we're just kind of going through it sometimes We'll even say things like this while we're sitting in the pickup line. I'm just killing time so I pick up the kids I'm just killing time between where what I was doing and what I'm now doing the Bible says in Matthew 24 Jesus says be ready Jesus is coming when you least expect it That kiosk wants us to know we got to avoid Not living with a shot clock He gets up in a tree

He puts a sense of urgency in his daily calendar when he's up in the tree Jesus comes and says Immediately you come down Jesus is teaching us avoid not living with a shot clock you've got to have a sense of urgency in your life now hear me Urgency is different than worry the Bible says don't don't worry Well, we don't have to worry about anything because we know who's in control we know that God has a plan and his plans are good worry Drains you of energy worry is like I gotta get this done because if I don't get this done something bad's gonna happen to me I don't even really like what I'm doing, but I gotta get this done or what are they gonna think about me worry depletes you Where being urgent gives you energy urgency says I'm going to do this I Get to do this I want to do this this is a priority. That's what urgency does urgency Establishes the thing the activity as a priority. It's a purpose and so what happens is we can often Kind of walk through our days and somehow think well. You know what I can do this tomorrow this disease of procrastination Where the Bible couldn't be more clear that listen we don't know what's gonna happen on tomorrow today is a gift today is a Present we have to lean into it so that Kia says out loud hey listen avoid these two dangers box-top theology that you're just gonna experience Jesus on the surface and Somehow that you can live with no shot clock that you don't have to have a sense of urgency urgency is living on Priority so here's the deal Three days the calendar turns to 2026 But you still you And I'm still me the question is will you lean in in these next three days and develop some new? You habits Here's what I know about life is You form habits and then habits form you you make decisions today and those decisions Make you tomorrow so right now here today. You and I looking at Zacchaeus from the Word of God. We have the opportunity Opportunity to change as We go into a new year do not enter 2026 with a new calendar year and not it changed life So here's the first and the most important lesson that we see from Zacchaeus is this you have to daily seek Jesus for?

yourself Following Jesus is you It's not what your parents. Do it's not what your kids do It's not what the pastor does You Zacchaeus made a decision for himself He climbed up in that tree because he wanted to personally see and experience Jesus for himself Write this down God has no grandchildren Not a one God only has sons and daughters and that only happens when you personally pursue Him at the farm. I introduced you we introduced you to an incredible couple team team Bryant Julius and Janelle and I saved the best part of their story for today because I wanted you to see what it looks like when someone Decides for themselves to pursue Jesus when they come to a point in place in life where they're I'm going to for myself Taste and see that God is good Hi, I'm Julius. I'm Janelle and this is J Libby and we are Say hi guys For me, you know I've always prayed, and I've gone to church here and there, but I wasn't raised like Julius was, always going. But for me, Jesus really became real after having J-Levi and finding out she had Down syndrome. That was a big shock and change for us, and I really turned to him then. I mean, really, it was shocking because I had a great pregnancy. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I quit drinking, didn't have caffeine. I need more than myself. I need Jesus for this. I actually saw J-Levi come into the world, and I remember just thinking, I looked at her eyes a little bit, just had a little thought, but didn't know what that thought was.

Didn't even know, and then a little bit later on, we get the news. Being a special needs parent, it can be difficult, and the proof is in the prayer, because if I was not praying, I just would not have enough strength. J-Levi was born in 2016, and then fast forward to 2022. She's here, not feeling well, thinking maybe she's just sick. Maybe she got something from school or whatever. Janelle, being in the medical field, picks up on some physical cues, and she's like, I don't know, this doesn't seem right. So we go to the hospital, and they're running all types of things, and Janelle thinks it's meningitis. The hospital that we were at didn't want to do the, no, it's not meningitis, no, it's not this, and we don't need to do the spinal tap. I remember Janelle pushing for that hard, and now when I look back, I'm like, that was the spirit, that was Jesus pushing that, because if she wouldn't have pushed that, J-Levi wouldn't be here. And so we were able to get J-Levi to Shands and get her the assistance she needed, and she's here today because of that. Hope in Christ means to me that I don't have to be afraid of anything. He will never leave me nor forsake me. There's always hope. There's always room for improvement. There's always somewhere to turn. You can always turn to him, no matter where you are. It does not matter. And if you turn to him, you will feel better. And then I just wanted to say, we love Church of Hope, too, because they really want to do more for special needs families. They have buddies for special needs kids. There's also a sensory room, so people are there. We're available, and they have their arms wide open. So I feel like, especially as a special needs parent, it is so important for you yourself to be able to go to the service

and not be, like, wondering, is my kid okay? Is everything going okay? Like, everything is fine. You are where you need to be. Your kid is where you need to be. And that just makes me so happy at Church of Hope. What a great example of personally pursuing Jesus. That's what Zacchaeus, daily you seek for yourself. In Luke chapter 19, he said he wanted to see Jesus. That is a request that Jesus will always answer in your life. In verse 5, when Jesus reached that spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. See, God's already done the saving. He sent his son Jesus. That's what Christmas is all about. Emmanuel, God, is with us. He lives his life. Easter is all about Christ dying on the cross and being buried and becoming alive again. God's taking care of the saving. He's asking you and I to do the searching. And God sees you. He sees you specifically. This sense of urgency. You know, delayed obedience is still disobedience. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. He didn't say, hey, Zacchaeus, I want you to think about something. Or, hey, Zacchaeus, would you pray about it? One of the excuses we often use when God's calling us out of the tree.

When God's calling us to follow and to trust him along the way. Zacchaeus didn't argue theology. He allowed his life to be changed. He didn't say, hey, Zacchaeus, circle back after the holidays when life kind of settles down and let's hang out together. I'm asking you a question this morning. How close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? always thought is wrong. What if somehow you thought that you can kind of dabble, that somehow you can follow him at a distance? What if following Jesus, what if the proximity between you and Jesus is a whole lot more important than you ever thought before? Jesus said, come down immediately. New habit, new you. You chase after Jesus this year personally. Here's the second thing if you want to write it down is this, is you got to remove the excuses from your life. You go back to the story in Luke 19, because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. He had an excuse. I'm short, God made me this way. He could have made all kinds of excuses. If I go out into public, man I have stolen from people, I have put pain on people's life. They might beat me up, so listen I have to stay in. There are all kinds of excuses that you can offer for not pursuing Jesus. Life is unfair. Life has never been fair. It never will be fair. Life doesn't get easier. We don't somehow work and live that somehow life will become easier for us, no. When we follow Jesus we just learn how to do hard better because we have the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit who now lives within us. You've got to remove the excuses from your life. He had all kinds of excuses, his height, the crowd, how busy he was, his reputations. Hear me, excuses keep you stuck, faith gives you momentum to move forward with Christ. The life that we're living right now today, many of us, we are stuck because of some excuse. You're right, it was a raw deal. It was unfair. It was unjust what they did, what your boss did, what happened in the economy, what happened physically. I get it, things go bump in the night, life is less than best. Jesus said in this world you will have all kinds of trials and tribulations and setbacks but then he also said be of good cheer, I Christ have overcome the world. How close really are you at following Christ? Three days to develop new habits for a new you. Don't go into a new year with a changed calendar and not a changed you. You start pursuing Jesus personally. You remove those excuses and here's a third

thing, just start living changed. Because by the way, that's what it means to follow Jesus, it's changed. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's a new person. The old things have passed away. Look at the change that happens in Zacchaeus. Look at verse 5. When Jesus reached that spot, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. There's that sense of urgency again. I must stay at your house today. Notice the proximity. He came down at once and welcomed him gladly. Did you see the shot clock in play? He's not thinking about it. He's not praying about it. It's first time obedience. He's stepping up and he's leaning in. He's not arguing the theology of it. He's just trusting God along the way and he's obeying him in the little things. What you're about to see next is a really big thing that he trusts God with. He first starts with the little thing, getting out of the tree. The best step that many of us could get out of the tree this morning and just come and get real with God. You've been hiding from something. Maybe it's a past emotion. Maybe it's a setback from your childhood. Maybe something happened at work. I don't know what it is. What I just know is as human beings, a lot of us are living less than best because we're hiding and we're up a tree. Look at verse 8. Because he trusted him in a little thing, notice how he trusts him in a big thing. 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've cheated anybody out of anything, I pay them back four times the amount. He's living changed. How many of us have had a prayer? I mean, honestly, I'm just asking you a question. I mean, really, how close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? And can you offer some prayer at summer camp, at youth group back in the day? Can your kids have some prayer moment back when they were little, but now they're living far from God. They're not really interested in God. They're not a part of a local church. I mean, how far of a distance can you really live and say out loud that I'm a Christ follower? How unchanged can you really live and say that you have been born again? It's a question worth wrestling with. Because, to live your life on box-top theology, and to live your life without a shot clock, could actually take you to the very end of life, where you've never really lived change for Christ in this life, and perhaps what you're expecting and anticipating in an internal life might change you forever.

Luke chapter 6 and 43, the Bible says, you don't get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. Makes sense. A healthy tree is going to give you healthy apples. An unhealthy tree is going to give you wormy apples. Somehow we think we could have an unhealthy life and produce healthy results. See, you get the authority of making the choice, but you also have to accept the authority of the consequence. You can't change the consequences for your choices. Go back, look what it says in Luke 6. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. Who you are, not what you say and do that counts. I'm asking a question this morning. How close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? Can you just say on a random Tuesday, I'm a Christ follower, and then never live in proximity for the rest of the year and be a Christ follower? Can you offer a prayer? Could your kids offer a prayer back at vacation Bible school? They know the language. They've got box-top theology. They can say the verses, but today if you looked at their life, where are they involved in the body of Christ, a local church? How do you see them giving their time, giving their talents, giving their cash? How are they living? How are they living in proximity to Christ? Zacchaeus tells us, avoid living without a shot clock. Today matters. Examine your own life. It's who you are, not what you say and do that counts.

Your true being brims over into true words and deeds. So how close do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? Zacchaeus couldn't be more clear. He says, avoid that box-top theology. Avoid thinking that you can be at surface level. He says, avoid living without a shot clock. There is a sense of urgency that's happening right now in real time. So you today decide you're going to follow personally, passionately, purposeful. I have a sense of urgency. I'm following after Jesus. I'm removing all those excuses, those reasons why I can't because of this and it's unfair and it's unjust and I got to go to work and my boss did this and my neighbor did that and the cat did this and the pastor didn't do this and all the excuses. He says, remove all of those and live changed because that's what you're saying. And then finally, and it's the whole purpose, if God gives us 2026, is for us as a local body of believers, for you as an individual believer, is commit to becoming more like Jesus in 2026. There are a lot of purposes for 2026. There are a lot of people who have opinions for 2026. Kids will tell you what's the number one purpose. Doctors will tell you what the number one purpose is. Your boss will tell you what the number one purpose is. The world, people have opinions, influence will tell you, do this, take this and this is how life will be better. I submit to you that life will be at its best in 2026 when Christ followers named you and me decide our purpose in 2026 is I'm going to live more like Jesus. That's my decision. It's a line in the sand. I'm not going to have box top theology. I'm not going to live without a shot clock.

I have a sense of urgency. I'm going to pursue him every single day. I'm removing the obstacles. I'm a changed person because that's what I said I was going to be. I'm a follower of Jesus and I want to become more like Jesus. That's what happened to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had an up close personal encounter with Jesus and everything changed. Look at verse 9, Jesus says to him, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is the son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. That's why Jesus came. So the question that's in play is how close? Do you have to follow Christ to be a Christ follower? You say that you're a Christ follower. So how close? I want to teach you how close you need to be. When you came in, you got a ping pong ball. You've been waiting all morning to wonder what's going on with this ping pong ball. So get your ping pong ball out because we're about to have some fun with the ping pong ball. Here's what we're going to do. I want to teach this illustration for you right here and right now. Is from where you're sitting, from where you're sitting, I have right here, my coffee cup. I have been enjoying my coffee all morning long and I'm thankful for it. But when I say three, from where you're sitting, you're going to throw your ping pong ball and you're going to land it inside this coffee cup. I have a crisp $100 bill for anybody who lands it inside this coffee cup. To those who are sitting in the back row, so sorry for you. Students in the front row, there's a good reason to be in the front row. But I want to make this clear because sometimes we like to bend the rules.

Sometimes when we're driving on I-75 and it says 70, we bend the rules and we say we're going to go 78 because somewhere it says you're allowed so many miles per hour over, they really won't pull you over so you can actually go 78. Sometimes we have a tendency in April to bend the rules on a little thing called the 1040. So sometimes, right? And so even this morning we actually had some police officers here on campus in the first gathering and of all the people in the world, police officers broke the law this morning. I'll tell you more about that in a moment. But what I want you to do is right from where you're sitting, I will stand out of the way so I don't block your shot, but you take your best shot from where you're sitting and you land your ping pong ball from where you're sitting in this cup. Are you ready? On the count of three, one question. All throwing at the same time. I will know. I'm watching. Because if you, you're cheating, you're cheating, you're cheating. Okay. That's a good call, bro. That was a good call. I like that. All right. So you ready? On three. One, two, three. Okay. Some of you took five shots. So here's the deal. Now you're cheating. You do more than once.

You're cheating. Here's the deal. Not one of you were successful. Many of you are better athletes than me. Many of you played sports. Many of you have good intentions. Some of you might need the $100 more than me, but here's the deal. I won. What's the difference? The difference is proximity. And many of us, including those two police officers this morning, all of a sudden when the challenge was on and they thought, oh, I can get something if I get in close proximity. You know what they did? These are police officers. They left their seats. They jumped over the candles. One of them was this close and still missed. The other got it in. And a lot of times as Christians, all of a sudden we like, oh, wait a second. I need to catch up and get close to Jesus because something bad's happening in my life. The proof is still made. The point is still made. It's about proximity. Most of us are living less than best because somehow we've thought that we can live at a distance and still be a Christ follower. That's why in 2026, I'm leveraging every ounce of my life for you to rediscover who Jesus Christ really is and for you and I to be conformed into his image. Thank you. Being together in this space today is really good. If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you today to start

following Jesus. It's not about your behavior. It's not about your church attendance. It's about the reality that Jesus. is for you. God's not mad at you, He's madly in love with you. Would you right now pray this prayer with me? Hey God, it's me. I've sinned and I know it. And I can't fix me. But today, I receive you, Jesus, as my savior. I believe that you died on that cross for me. And that you were buried for three days. And then you became alive again. And I invite you into my life to guide me and direct me all the rest of the days of my life. And with that prayer, my friend, welcome to God's family. I'd like to continue our friendship. If you would email me, pastor at hopeinocala.com. I'll follow up with you and together, we'll celebrate Jesus in your life. Peace. Wow.