Seen In The Sycamore

Well, hello, Evangel, good morning, friends. I am one of our fresh voices today. My name is Chancellor, and I'm one of the pastors that get to serve here on staff. And if this is your first time at the church, I wanna say I'm so glad that you're here. I also wanna say I'm so sorry that you get me instead of Pastor Josh today. But I know that just because you're hearing from some fresh voices, I know that all of our speakers have prepared, we've prayed, and we're excited to preach. I get to start us off today, and then Pastor Andrew gets to speak next. We get to hear from our prison ministries coordinator, Travis, after that, and then my good friend, Pastor Sam is gonna close us out today. And the good news about that is if you don't like my sermon, you can just stay for the next one. And if you don't like that one, you can stay for the next one. And if you don't like any of them, then just please come back next Sunday, and Pastor Josh will be back up here. And no, I joke, but I am so excited and privileged to be your Fresh Voices speaker for the 8 a.m., and I do wanna honor Pastor Josh and Pastor Janae. Pastor Josh has been a constant in my life through many different seasons that I've walked through,

and so I appreciate him sharing the stage with me, but I appreciate him sharing his life with me. And at different seasons, I remember he was the one who convinced me to join the church internship program in 2013, where I really started to feel called into ministry and fell in love with ministry. And then when we moved out to California and I took a pastoring job, suffering for Jesus under the palm trees and ocean breeze, I was learning to be a pastor for the first time. And I remember multiple times calling Pastor Josh and he picked up and offered me encouragement and wisdom for some things that I was walking through at the time, and when those palm trees got a little bit too expensive to live under and we wanted to start having kids, we moved back to North Dakota, and now I've gotten to serve under Pastor Josh for the last couple years as a pastor, and it's been my privilege. And honestly, it's just so fun to get to be a part of everything that God is doing here at the church. And so I do wanna say thank you, Pastor Josh, for giving me the opportunity to preach today. And all of our Fresh Voices speakers are gonna be talking through the story of Zacchaeus. And so we're gonna be in Luke chapter 19, and poor Zacchaeus, if you know the Sunday school story, you know that Zacchaeus was a wee little man. And a wee little man was he.

And I won't bless you by singing the whole song for you. It's too early for that. And if you don't know the Sunday school song and you're like, what is he talking about? That's okay, because Zacchaeus was known for more than just being a short dude who climbed a tree to see Jesus. I believe as we go through Scripture today, we're gonna see that he was a man who was seen by Jesus. And he was a man who was noticed by his Savior and got to have dinner with God. And that's a much better reputation than a wee little man. And so we're gonna read together in Luke chapter 19, starting in verse one. And this is talking about Jesus. This is what it says. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was very rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not. And here's the unfortunate part that Luke decided to add, because he was small in stature. And because he was a wee little man, he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said to him, "'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, "'for I must stay at your house today.'

So Zacchaeus hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they," this is talking about the crowd that was following Jesus, saw it, they all grumbled. He's gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. 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. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And so we see Zacchaeus in scripture, he was a tax collector. So not only was he short, but he was a tax collector and tax collectors were not well liked in Bible times because they were known for getting rich from ripping people off and from taking more money from people than they should. And so he had this terrible reputation and we see that he was a man who was lost, but he was looking for Jesus. And one of the most powerful moments in the story happens in verse five, when he sees and realizes that not only was he looking for Jesus, but Jesus was about to see him. And so the title for my message today is called Seen in the Sycamore

because Jesus sees Zacchaeus and he sees us today. And how many of you know it's good to be seen? All of the extroverts gave me an amen. All of the introverts said, get behind me Satan, because you don't like to be seen. I'm not talking about a spotlight. I'm not talking about attention seeking. I'm talking about what it means to be truly known, to be noticed, to be truly cared for by someone who has your best interest in mind, who cares about the things that you care about, who care about the things that you're accomplishing, who are proud of you, who just wanna know how you're doing as a person. In that regard, it is good to be seen and everyone wants to be seen. That's true at a toddler level. In my daughter, Ariah, she's almost three and she's in the season where she wants dad and mom to see everything. Dad, watch. Dad, look. Dad, watch me jump off the couch. Dad, watch me do a somersault. Dad, look at what I've scribbled for you. Dad, look at my new toy. Dad, mom. Dad, watch. And I just have to say, I see you baby. I see you, Ariah.

That's so good that you look so nice. That's such a nice drawing because she wants to feel seen by mom and dad. And we never really outgrow that and outgrow that desire. It does something significant in our souls when we feel seen. Unless you're doing something that you know you shouldn't be doing. And that is also evidenced in my three-year-old daughter. And maybe you're walking through this season of parenthood or maybe you have walked through this where that same peace and quiet that you used to pray for as a parent is now actually the same peace that brings panic in your soul. Because if I'm just sitting on the couch and I can't hear anything and I don't see Ariah, it's usually because she's doing something that she knows she shouldn't be doing. She's scribbling on the wall that she knows she shouldn't be scribbling. She's taking her diaper off when she knows she shouldn't be taking her diaper off. And she's hiding and she's quiet because she doesn't want to be seen. And I don't think we ever outgrow that either. The feeling to hide or isolate when we're not proud of what we've done. And in preparation for this message as I was going through scripture,

I was like, yes, God, I want people to know that they are seen. I want them to know that they are loved. And I just felt like he dropped something in my mind that some people don't want to be seen by Jesus. And so I recognize that the thought of God seeing you today brings mixed emotions across the room. Some of us desperately want to be known and noticed. Others are terrified for God to see us because he's scared he's not gonna like what he sees or maybe you feel like you're not worthy of being seen because of what you've done or because of your reputation around town or because of the sin that you know exists in your life. As I was praying, I believe that there's some in the room who have been made to feel small. Like you're not small in height like Zacchaeus was, but you've been made to feel small in significance. You can be seven foot eight like Pastor Josh, and you can still feel insignificant. You can still feel overlooked. You can still feel invisible. And so you hide in isolation for fear of being seen. And if that's you today, as I've prayed through this, I feel like God was breaking my heart for that person. And I just want you to know that God sees you, that God does know you and notice you, that you can't hide from the Lord, that from the moment you were born, he saw you and he desired a relationship with you.

Scripture says that God searches us and knows us completely. That's comforting for some, that's uncomfortable for others because for someone to know you, to know the inner workings of your soul and your mind and your thoughts and your past is vulnerable. But God never sees you to shame you. God always wants to see you to save you. Romans 5.8 says that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It's one of the most beautiful parts of the gospel that Christ didn't die once we got our lives together. It says Christ died while we were still sinners. God sees us at our worst. And that is when he decided to give his life for us. Jesus didn't die to expose our sins, to make us feel bad. He died to rescue us from the penalty of those sins. And he doesn't expose us to bring shame. He exposes what he wants to restore. Jesus is always in the business of restoration and reconciliation. And so often he wants to heal what you want to hide. What has been hidden, what you think has been hidden from people or from God out of guilt or shame is exactly the area of your life that Jesus is waiting for an invitation into because he wants to heal, he wants to restore, he wants to bring freedom in that area. And so man, before we go any further, I just want you to know that to be seen by Jesus can kind of be like this Christianese term

that we throw around a lot. But what it means is it means to be seen with the eyes that are filled with nothing but compassion and love. And if you take nothing else away from the message, know that you are seen by God with eyes of compassion, with eyes of love. That's the eyes that Jesus saw Zacchaeus with. But there is also another pair of eyes that was looking at Zacchaeus. If you notice the crowd also saw what was going on and they grumbled and mumbled and complained and they said, man, Jesus is going to hang out with that dude, with Zacchaeus. I wonder if Jesus knows what he's done. I wonder if Jesus knows about his reputation. And they began to judge Zacchaeus. And I think if we're honest, maybe we don't struggle with judging others, how the crowd judged Zacchaeus, but we look at ourselves with eyes of the crowd rather than eyes of Jesus. And we think, man, if Jesus does know everything that I've done, there's no way that he wants a relationship with me. There's no way that he would invite himself over for dinner at my house because of my reputation, because of the sins in my past. And we look at ourselves through the eyes of the crowd rather than through the eyes of Jesus. And Jesus's posture towards us

is never like the wagging finger of the crowd. It's never the finger of disappointment. It is always a posture of open arms and an open invitation. And it's an invitation that Jesus gives even though he sees us completely. He still invites himself over for dinner because scripture says that the Lord moves towards us when we move towards him. And that's really. What is the keyest moment is? I think of those moments in my life where God has made me to feel seen. I think of the moment when I was in high school, when I was sitting in my room, I'll never forget this. And I just had a whole lot of things that were going on. And I was so overwhelmed by the things that were happening in different areas of my life. And so I just sat and I opened scripture. And there's been many moments like this where I open scripture and I read a Psalm or I read something that speaks to the situation that I'm walking through, or it gives me wisdom to handle the relationship that I'm having issues with. And I remember doing that in this moment in scripture, like illuminating to me. And I remember turning on the radio. This was before I had a Spotify playlist where I could just pick the good song.

I just played roulette and I turned on Caleb and it was the song and I'll never forget that song. And the lyrics went, as the waters rise, let them rise, I will follow you. And I still think about that song. I think about the moments when I've turned towards worship, the moments when I was so angry driving in my car and I was angry because of the battle that we were walking through trying to get pregnant and the infertility that we were dealing with and having doctors tell us that we probably weren't going to get pregnant. I have two kids now, by the way. What's up? What's up devil? But I remember being so angry at God that that was the moment where I was so upset and I was so disappointed and I turned on this worship song and it spoke directly into what it was like to be angry at God, but that he could handle that emotion in my life. And now I hear those songs and it gives me joy. It gives me encouragement. And those are moments when I just felt so seen by God. I felt like he cared about the things that I cared about and that he spoke directly into my situation and into my life so that I would feel valued and feel known and noticed by God. And I believe that God has Zacchaeus moments in store for people today.

Not just in this message, but throughout the day that God wants you to feel seen and noticed and cared for. I also recognize that there's people in the room that you've had your Zacchaeus moment. You've been following the Lord. And my prayer for you is that you would be refreshed today as you stop and as you challenge yourself this week to stop and reflect on the goodness of God, the Zacchaeus moments that he's brought in your life, that very first moment where you came to know Jesus, that you would bring that to your mind, that you would remind yourself of those moments. And I believe that maybe he has some Zacchaeus moments in store for you today, some new Zacchaeus moments, a fresh outpouring of his love where he wants to remind you that he cares for you in the season that you're walking through. As you invite yourself to remember and remind yourself of what it looks like for God to take care of you and how he has proven faithful before. Really, as we remember, really, it comes when we remember that we were all Zacchaeus at one point. Before we were ever called to start trying to be like Jesus, we were like Zacchaeus. And we were all called to have the eyes of Zacchaeus before we were called to have the eyes of Jesus. Because it can be really easy to open this text and immediately put yourself in the position of Jesus

and say, man, I wanna have eyes like Jesus to see people. And we lose sight of the fact that we first have to have eyes like Zacchaeus because Zacchaeus' eyes were just focused on Jesus. And I wanna have eyes that are focused on Jesus. I wanna have a family that keeps our eyes focused on Jesus no matter the situation or no matter the struggle that we're walking through. I wanna have eyes to see what Jesus is doing, to see where he's going. I wanna be a part of a church and lead a church that has eyes focused. on Jesus, despite everything else that we have going on in culture or the world, I wanna be a part of a people that has eyes focused on where Jesus is going and going in that direction. I don't wanna miss out on Jesus as he's passing by and doing things around me and miss it because my eyes are elsewhere or my gaze has been distracted. I found a great quote by D.A. Carson, he's a theologian and he says this, the good eye is the one fixed on God, unwavering in its gaze, constant in its fixation. And I thought, man, that is the challenge, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, constant in our fixation because when our eyes are fixed on Jesus, it's then and only then that we are equipped to really see others how the Lord sees us. Scripture teaches that our ability to love and to see others how the Lord sees them

has to flow out of a love that we have already experienced ourselves. First John 4.19 says, we love because he first loved us. John 13.34, love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. In essence, it's saying love as you are loved by the Lord. We can't love people in a way that we're not allowing ourselves to be loved and known. We can try, but it's not something that can be manufactured. It's not a fake it till you make it kind of thing. It is only in the love of Jesus that we find the motivation for the mission that we read in verse 10. It's the mission that Jesus gives when he says, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. That was his mission, and that is now our mission because once you've had your Zacchaeus moment, God is always faithful to then place some Zacchaeuses in your path. And so who is God placed in the path that you're already walking? Who are the Zacchaeuses around you? The ones who are hungry, the ones who are curious, the ones who just kind of gravitate towards you because they know the way that you live your life, and so they ask you questions. But the ones who are hungry, they're not actually that hard to see. I don't believe that Zacchaeus was hard for Jesus to spot. It wasn't like he was off in the distance,

high up in this tree, hiding in the branches. A sycamore tree was wide. It was not tall. And so the branches that Zacchaeus had climbed on probably extended right over the path, and so it actually would have been hard for Jesus to meet because he was the only dude hanging out in a tree like a monkey looking at Jesus. And in the same way, I believe that the Holy Spirit will illuminate people to us in a way that's hard to miss if we're just having eyes that are open to who he places in front of us, to who is already on the path that we're walking. Jesus was already on his way to Jerusalem. He was walking through Jericho on his way, and it doesn't say anywhere in the text that he went out of his way or he took an alternate route. He was just obedient to who was put in front of him. And so I've been reflecting lately on a man who was put in front of me. Quite literally, he came forward for prayer. Me and my friend John were on prayer team, and I'll never forget, he was in this section, and he came forward, big guy, and he stumbled and just collapsed in our arms, weeping. And he was crying so hard that he couldn't even get words out. And so we took him out of the auditorium, we carried him out,

and we were talking to him in the Dream Team Center, and he still was just crying so hard that he couldn't speak. And I noticed that he smelled of alcohol. And so I said, hey, man, I smell alcohol on you. Have you been drinking? And his face. looked up and it was a face of surprise. Really it was a face of a man who had just been exposed. But it wasn't like an angry look. It wasn't like a look of a man who was scared or like a child who had just been found out. It was like this weight had just been lifted off of his shoulders. And he would later tell me that it was at that moment that he decided to share with us about this hidden alcohol addiction in his life. That he'd been dealing with for months on end and that he hadn't told his wife about, he hadn't told his kids about, that no one knew the struggle that he was walking through that was destroying him. And so my friend John got to pray for that man in this moment. And he got to pray that God would forgive him. He got to pray that God would see him in that moment, that God would release the chains that alcohol had had on his life. And I believe in that moment, it was a moment where he felt seen,

not with guilt, not with shame, not with any condemnation like he might have thought would happen when he revealed himself in that way or when he was exposed in that way, but he was seen with eyes of compassion. He was seen with eyes of love and he was seen in such a way that it led to healing. It led to restoration. It led to reconciliation with his family. And I got to follow up with that man. And I believe it because he said he went home that week and he told his wife, he told his kids, he told his brother-in-law and he asked him to hold him accountable and be an accountability partner for this journey. He went throughout the house and he threw out all of the alcohol. He went in his car and threw away the hidden alcohol that he would drink on his way to and from work. And get this, he hasn't touched a drop of alcohol since. That is good. That is what it's like to be seen, to be saved. Not in a way where it's to be seen to feel shame. And so often the enemy wants to keep us hidden. He wants to keep our sins in the shadows because he knows that that is where the power is. And when we are revealed, like God didn't bring those things to light in this man's life so that he would feel shame. God didn't expose him

so that he would feel all of this condemnation. God brought him into the light and brought these things into the light because he wanted to restore him. He wanted to show this man what it was like to be seen by the eyes of a good, good God who sees us with love and compassion. He had a Zacchaeus moment where he moved towards God. He took a step of faith. He didn't have to climb a tree, but he did have to come forward for prayer, which can be intimidating. And God saw him in that moment. And God moved towards him in that moment. And so my heart, my prayer for this message has been for the person that has been longing in your heart to be seen like that. Maybe you don't feel like you deserve it. Maybe you've been made to feel like you're not worthy of it, but that's your desire. That's all of our desire is to be seen. That was Zacchaeus. Yes, he climbed a tree because he wanted to see Jesus, but what he really wanted was to be seen by Jesus. And it was in that moment that his life was forever changed. It was that moment where he felt seen that changed the trajectory of his life. And it led to this joyful response. It says in scriptures that Zacchaeus hurried down the tree

and he joyfully invited Jesus over. It led to this joyful response, not only to invite Jesus into his house, but then we see this joy. Joyful response to give away all of his money He gave away half of what he owed and the rest he repaid four times what he had stolen He went from a very rich man to probably a very poor man joyfully And I don't know what your response today looks like I know it probably doesn't look like giving away all of your money But I think we can take something from Zacchaeus his response where he Identified what had a hold in his life what had been pulling his gaze from Jesus and he got rid of it and he gave it to Jesus and so maybe for you today Maybe it is like the man That there's a sin in your life that has a hold on you because you've kept it hidden and Man, I've just I've seen too many times where the moment that you confess that sin to someone the moment You come forward for prayer the moment that you confess that to someone You know and trust is the moment that that sin loses all of its power It loses all of its hold in your life because it's actually not the drug. It's actually not the addiction It's actually not the sin that has that power in your life It's actually the identity that you've attached to that sin It's the shame that has become attached to that sin and you begin to believe that that is who you are and so when you reveal it in a way where people can see you and Still love you and know you and look at you with eyes of compassion and love. It's at that moment that you experience freedom and So maybe that is you today maybe you're lonely and Whether someone has made you to feel

Insignificant or small or you've just started to believe the lie of the enemy That you are invisible that you aren't worth seeing I Get it. I was there in high school where I walked through this it's really weird difficult season of like depression and anxiety and can I just tell you the the season that I came out of that and Really started to to feel loved and feel comfortable in my own skin Was the season when I walked into our young adults ministry And I got plugged into a connect group with a group of guys who saw me who loved me who were concerned about me Who checked in on me and I experienced freedom in that season And so maybe today Yeah But catch this maybe today your move towards God is actually a move towards God's people Where you need to surround yourself with godly community and get in a connect group or whatever It looks like so that you can start to experience the freedom that comes when you surround Yourself with people who love God and people who see you the way that he sees you and you will start to experience freedom in that season I don't know what it looks like for you today. I don't know what your response has to be But let it be a response that keeps your eyes focused on Jesus Move towards the Lord Keep your eyes fixed on God Unwavering in your gaze constant in your fixation Move towards him and he will move towards you Let me pray for you today as we close as you bow your heads God I ask for the person who feels unseen for the person who feels overlooked Lord I ask that as they move towards you today as they take a response God that you would allow them a moment as the keyest Moment to truly feel what it's like to be known and loved and seen God I thank you that you see us. I

Thank you that you see us at our worst and that is when you chose to die for us so that we could Experience what it's like to live in freedom free of shame free of Condemnation but to know love and to know compassion at a deep level and Lord I pray God that if there's a person in this room who has been on the fence about Jesus. They're in the tree and they're looking for you. God, would you see them? And in that moment, Lord, would it lead to a radical change, a radical response where we get rid of everything that has been pulling us away, where we focus our gaze on you, and when we are seen by you and by God's people. Lord, I pray for those in the room that have already known you, but they're in need of a fresh outpouring of your love. They're in need of a new Zacchaeus moment. God, would you remind them of the moments where you have been faithful before so that they understand that you will be faithful again and again and again because you are a good father. And Lord, would you illuminate people to us that you have placed on our path? Lord, would you illuminate the Zacchaeuses in our life as we follow you and as we seek you out? God, I thank you for seeing us. And I just pray that we would respond accordingly today. And it's in Jesus' name that everyone said amen.