What Am I Really Looking For?

All right! Welcome to church, everybody. Welcome to Evangel. Let's give Jesus some praise this morning. Come on, he's worthy. Isn't he? Isn't it great to just be in the house of the Lord today? I'm just so excited. Bismarck, would you guys welcome those joining online at the online campus and those watching from a distance? It's Memorial Day weekend, and we know that there's many different people out enjoying this weekend, and we had some lovely weather yesterday. Come on, who enjoyed the weather yesterday? I enjoyed it. Spent some time out golfing with family, and it was incredible. But it's an incredible weekend. As the video and Pastor Dylan mentioned, it is Fresh Voices weekend, and I'm so glad to be here. I just want to say thank you to Pastor Josh and Pastor Jene. Can we give it up for our lead pastors? They truly are incredible leaders, incredible friends, and I'm just thankful to call them my pastors, and we're thankful for you. But hey, if we haven't met, my name is Andrew, and for the last 18 months, I have served at Evangel as the Garrison campus pastor, and this is my first Sunday where I can say I'm serving as one of the Bismarck campus pastors, and I'm so thankful to be here. I could just preach a message on thankfulness today. I could just go over and over, but truly, I am thankful to be here, and the last 18 months in Garrison have been incredible, and in this last season, leadership at Garrison and in Evangel has been praying about what is God doing in Garrison, and we felt a nudge in this last season from the Holy Spirit that God was wanting to do more in this community, that God was wanting to release vision over Garrison, and we investigated that, and this weekend, right now, during this message, Builders Church in Garrison is having their very first service, and I just want to say thank you to Bismarck. Come on, let's give it up for what God is doing in Garrison. I want to say thank you to all of Evangel for how you have prayed for the campus in Garrison, which is now a church that is fulfilling the Great Commission, that is making disciples, that is building churches all across North Dakota through this one church, so thank you for how you've invested both financially and spiritually and through your prayers. We're just so thankful, and my wife, Macy, and I are incredibly thankful for how you've invested in us, and we're excited to be here today. Come on, who has their word today? Who has the Bible with them today? That's what I want to actually talk about today. I want to jump right into Scripture, and we're going to be jumping into Luke chapter 19 today. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along. If you don't have one, it'll

be on the screen behind me, but we're going to pick up in verse number one. Everyone say verse one. Luke 19, verse one, and it says, he, talking about Jesus, 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. Mentally underline that. If you have a physical Bible, underline that, highlight it. He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. And verse four, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 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. Verse six, so he hurried and he came down and he received him joyfully. And when they saw it, talking about the crowd of people around, they grumbled, right? He's this tax collector. He's this sinner. And they say, he has 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've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. The title of the message I want to give you guys today, I've titled, What Am I Really Looking For? If you're taking notes, I recommend it. Studies show that you remember better. And it's a good time to write down if God speaks to you anything today. But remember, what am I really looking for? That's what we're going to be investigating today. But would you guys just join me in praying? Lord Jesus, we fix our eyes on you today. And we just ask right now that your words would be spoken. that you'd open our minds and our hearts to what you have to say today and that every single one of us in this room would just leave here changed by your Holy Spirit. We just look to you and pray this in your name and all God's people said amen. Amen. Well as I mentioned I've been serving as the Garrison Campus pastor but this last week I started as one of the youth pastors on staff here in Bismarck and it was an incredible time this last Wednesday was my first Wednesday here and we got I got to my wife Macy and I we got to meet a bunch of the students we got to hang out with the leaders and it was incredible to see what God has been doing in the youth here in Bismarck and one of the things

we did with it being graduation season and all of the seniors graduating is we did a senior panel where we brought many of the seniors on stage and asked them all of the important questions in life such as what is the best school lunch meal right that's the most important question any high schooler ever asks and I know personally I really loved the chicken alfredo growing up it was always really good but we asked them questions like what was your favorite class what was your favorite youth memory and one of the questions we asked them this last Wednesday was what are you looking forward to the most as an adult and a couple of the students shared what they've been looking forward to they're looking forward to moving out owning their own place they're looking forward to having and starting a family a couple of them are looking forward to getting a job right starting to earn some money and a couple of the students got really serious and looked out into the crowd and said you know I'm really looking forward to paying my first bill and and I think all of the the adult leaders in the room collectively facepalmed but don't you remember being a kid and you look forward to funny things you know I I remember looking forward and having excitement about potentially having my first job and thinking it would be so cool to earn a paycheck and to pay a bill right to have responsibility and I remember how disappointing it was when I paid that first bill and how just like really disappointing it was the next month when the bill showed up again it didn't it it's kind of been downhill since then but I don't think that feeling within us ever really goes away we always are chasing something just like these high schoolers they're chasing something they're looking forward to something and we are always so disappointed when we finally arrive I think each one of us there's something innate within our hearts and our minds that we're looking for something maybe not a bill maybe you're not looking forward to that but there is something that we're chasing after we chase success we chase this dream that we have that we want to be put in authority we chase it we chase wealth we want to build up a nest egg and provide for our family Zacchaeus in our story found both of these things Zacchaeus was a chief

tax collector Zacchaeus was in charge of other people Zacchaeus found authority and he found success in his profession and it scripture says he was rich that he had gotten rich doing what he had done that he had been successful in life and I think oftentimes we find ourselves successful at what we put our minds to and then we arrive there and we ask is this really is this all life has to offer is this all that I've been chasing after right some of you are in this room and you are a recent graduate some of you have been a senior or you're about to graduate and you are have been your whole senior year saying I'm looking forward to getting this diploma and maybe you got it in the last couple weeks maybe you're getting in the next couple and you're saying is this really it some of you it's college you say maybe after I have this degree I'll have what I'm looking for maybe it's your dream job and you're saying just after I get this job just after I'm successful I'll have it my heart will find what it's looking for maybe it's something else you say maybe I get this house maybe I get this car this thing I'll have it once I have this item I'll find what my heart's looking for maybe it's a relationship you say after I get a boyfriend or a girlfriend or I meet the right person then I'll have it you say after I get married after I have kids after my kids grow up then I'll have it we keep saying over and over I just need one more thing my heart just needs one more thing and then it'll be satisfied but it's really never enough it's sometimes we look silly you pull your phone out and you get the flashlight on and you're looking under the cushions and you're looking under the couch and if you're like me you have a lovely wife that steps in and says what are you looking for and I'm like have you seen my phone anywhere I can't really find it and she says very lovingly Have you checked your hand? But that's what our life can look like. We have this desire to look for something and God looks at us and says, what are you really looking for? You see, what we're looking for is closer than we can think. It's closer than we imagine. And I'll give you the truth today. What we're looking for is a relationship with God. We're all made for a relationship with God and it's closer than you think. Romans chapter 11 verse 36 says this, for from Him,

talking about God, for from God and through Him and to Him are all things. That we are made for Him. That we are made for God. To Him be the glory forever. Amen? Amen. There's this void in our heart. There's a hole in our life when we are separated from God and we all try to fill that void with something. We're all looking for something that'll fulfill it. Success, wealth, relationships, intimacy. We seek knowledge. We think maybe a drug will fill it or an addiction. We think alcohol. We think our habits. We think work. We try to fill it with something but it's a hole that only God was intended to fill. I think even as Christians, sometimes we can have this encounter with God, this one-time experience with Him and we can go back and worry about all the distractions of life because we aren't really finding that relationship with God. What are you really looking for? The German-Dutch priest Thomas A. Kempis said it this way, you can in no manner be satisfied with temporal goods for you were not created to find your rest in them. We were created to find our rest in something else. If it's true that we're all looking for something, we're all searching for something and that something is only found in a relationship with God, then the question becomes, how do I have a relationship with God? How do I actually let that happen? How do we find God and create a relationship with Him that changes our lives and lets Him fill that hole in our heart? It's not a formula or an equation, but we can look to the story of Zacchaeus and there's important truth that I really don't want you to miss. So in our passage, to find what we are actually looking for, we first need to recognize the problem. We need to recognize the problem. Zacchaeus was wealthy. He's successful. He has it all, but still he's looking for something. It said that he was seeking to know who Jesus was. Zacchaeus is looking for something. There's something in his heart that even though he had all of this success, he's still curious about Jesus and we experience this too. That's what this whole introduction has been setting up, that only God can fill this hole in our heart and the problem that in our life we need to recognize. It's a problem we need to recognize. Who hates car trouble? Actually, show your hands. Who hates car trouble? I hate car trouble. Ever since I first got my driver's permit, I've been convinced that no one in the world has worse car luck than me. I'm convinced of it. When I was 14, my family was going on this vacation and it was a 14-hour road trip. The night before, we're grocery shopping and we're at the store. We finish shopping and my dad sends me to go to the car. He says, can you start the car? I'm like, this is amazing. I'm going to start the car. I get in. I'm feeling good. I'm in the driver's seat and I put

the key in and I turn it over. It makes a funny sound and the engine starts smoking. I was thinking, uh-oh. My dad got there and we looked at it. We ended up having to take another vehicle the next day because that vehicle had been completely scrapped that night. I don't think it was me. I just turned the key in the ignition. It was bad luck. When I got my license, I remember taking one of my friends home after school. I was driving home on the interstate. All of a sudden, my wheel starts turning and jolting. I'm doing 25 miles an hour on the interstate. Everyone behind me is really upset. I get home and my dad helps me take the wheel off. The wheel hub is bent. We take the wheel bearing out and it crumbles. I don't even know what happened. It's just bad luck. I don't want to talk about what happened when my friend tried to teach me to drive stick. I don't want to talk about what happened when I needed to find my power steering that was leaking and I didn't know what that looked like. I don't want to talk about how many times I've had to change or replace the AC in my car in all of the vehicles I've owned. It's to the point where I can be very guilty of whenever I hear a sound in my vehicle that I just reach for the radio and I start to turn it up a little bit. I don't like the sound and I think I can just drown it out a little bit. But isn't that what our life can look like sometimes? That something in our life doesn't sound right. Something in our life doesn't feel right. And what do we do? We turn the music up a little bit. We scroll on our phone. We bury ourselves in our habits. We bury ourselves in our work. We ignore this problem in our life, but then we complain that we aren't satisfied. If we're going to see change in our life, if we're gonna feel satisfied with what God does in our life, we need to recognize that there is a hole that has to be filled. It starts with recognizing something has to change.

Our lives are very much like cars. If we ignore that problem, it only grows, and eventually the music, you can only turn it up so much, and it gets worse and worse, and our lives can be the same way. If we ignore that problem, it gets worse and worse, and it takes more and more to drown out. The first step to a relationship with Jesus isn't to fix all of our problems. The first step is to realize that we have one. We need to recognize the problem. We also need to reposition the heart. That's the second point today, if you're taking notes. Reposition the heart. In the Old Testament, there's this book called Samuel, and Samuel was this prophet, and he was about to anoint the second king of Israel, and he goes to the house of Jesse, where ultimately King David comes from, but King David had older brothers, and Samuel arrives to the house, and he sees these older brothers, and he assumes, just because of their outward appearance, because they're tall, because they're handsome, because they're strong, that they are the ones that are going to be the next king, but we see this in 1 Samuel 16, seven. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature,

and all the Zacchaeuses in the room said amen, do not look on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. We all have our barriers. We all have things that we struggle with. There's things that block us. For Zacchaeus, he was short, and sometimes we think in our life, I'm not smart enough, I'm not tall enough, I'm not strong enough. We think I've been through too much, that God would never choose me because of what I've been through. We think I'm not that kind of person, but we say these things, and when we say them, we're saying it with human eyes, that we are seeing our life through the eyes of man, but God has more for us than this, and he sees more than this. When Zacchaeus was in this situation where he knows the problem in his life, he's rich, he's successful, and he's still seeking to know who Jesus is. He's drawn to him, and he repositions himself. When he couldn't see Jesus because he was too short, he physically moves into the tree, the sycamore tree, to get a better view of Jesus, but spiritually, his heart positions himself

in a way that that barrier is no longer there. He climbs up into the tree, and he gets a better view of Jesus, and what happens? God sees him. Not only does he find what his heart is looking for, but Jesus sees Zacchaeus. When we reposition ourselves, we're preparing our hearts. We are repositioning our hearts in a way that give us a better position to actually encounter him. I really like watching baseball, and sometimes you buy the cheapest seats to a stadium, and you show up, and you're excited for this big game, and you sit down, and when you get to your seat, you realize that you're right behind one of those pillars that holds up the whole stadium ceiling, and you sit down, and you think, great, this is a wonderful view, and you show up, and you are excited. You hear the game. You hear the announcer call up the batter, and you're looking around, trying to see who's up, and you hear the crack of the bat, and you hear the excitement of the stadium, and the people around you all start to stand, and the person right next to you puts up their hand, and they catch the ball. If we're going to catch the ball spiritually, if we're gonna catch the home run that God is hitting towards, if we're going to engage with the game,

if we're going to engage with what God has for us, we need to change seats. We need to reposition our heart to get this barrier out of the way if we want to get a better view of Jesus. We realize that we haven't just been looking for the wrong thing. Sometimes we show up to church. We're in the right place, but we're looking with the wrong perspective. Something has been blocking your view, your heart's view of God. You've been trying to encounter him, but something is blocking your heart. God doesn't just look on the outward appearance of man. He looks on the heart. His desire is closeness with us. It's not distance. He's inviting us towards him, and it's not just a self-help process for how you can get from seat A to seat B, right? Life is trying to return to a connection. to God that is unblocked. For some of you in this room, that looks like returning to prayer. Maybe you have been feeling blocked by God. You've been feeling blocked by something in your life and that something can be moved around by saying, God, would you just encounter me today? God, I open my heart. God, would you guard my heart today? For some of you, it's realizing that the environment that you're in has been drawing you away from God rather than drawing you closer. And it's time to reposition your life with people and rhythms and habits that draw you closer to Jesus. What do you do in the first five minutes of your day? What do you do in the last five minutes of your day? Who do you spend your time around? Move away from the things of the world

and move closer to God and get yourself into a better position to actually hear from him. Spend time in his word, spend time with the church and be around godly voices. So what happens when you finally move? What happens when you reposition yourself and you get a clear view of Jesus and you can see what he's actually doing? He's calling you to receive his invitation. That's the third point today. Receive his invitation. In our story, we see a man who is looking for something. He's moving towards God and suddenly there's this moment where the narrative changes. It's not focused on him anymore, but the perspective moves to Jesus. Jesus is walking along. He's surrounded by these crowds. It's loud, it's packed, and those at a distance can't even see Jesus. But suddenly he stops. He stops and he looks up. He's direct, he's purposeful, and he looks at Zacchaeus and he calls him by name and says, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house. He gives this invitation. Really, it's him inviting himself over to Zacchaeus's house, but he gives us the same invitation. Each and every one of us. Jesus says in Revelation 3 20, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is inviting each and every one of us to something. Jesus is inviting each and every one of us. He invites himself over to Zacchaeus's house and he's inviting himself over to our house. Do you guys remember a time when someone would knock on your door and you would actually answer? In the entire time I've lived in my own place, I've never had that experience. It's unheard of. Maybe you're like me and whenever you hear the doorbell ring or you hear someone knock on your door, you just drop to the floor. My wife, Macy, and I, we lock eyes and we try and we're asking, who did we invite over? Maybe you're like me and that's what your life looks like. That God has come to your door and he's knocked on your door and you've just dropped to the floor. He's invited himself to your house and maybe today you're standing here and you're realizing that God has been inviting you. You're realizing that God has been inviting you. You're opening up the Bible. You're praying for the first time in a long time or for the first time ever and you're realizing that Jesus has been standing beneath your tree and he's looking up at you and he's calling you by name. You can read any book but only the Bible offers us more than words or knowledge. God invites us with his word. God's word speaks to each of us and you could read and meditate on one passage your whole life and God would still speak through it. Sometimes Jesus is just on the other side of that door and he's knocking and he's inviting and he says, I must come over. I must enter your life. We've heard our name

and now God waits for our answer. I think there's three different types of people in this room today. I think we've all received an invitation and it just matters how do you actually respond to that? And I think the first person is like me. You hear the invitation and you drop to the ground. Not physically but you've heard the invitation of Jesus and you're in your heart. You've dropped to the ground and you've been ignoring him. You've heard it. You've kept your distance. You've heard the invitation Jesus has for you and you've decided that you don't want it. Maybe that's like the crowds that Jesus were around that knew what Jesus was preaching and said it's not for them. Maybe that's been you. You've been ignoring it. Maybe you've been delaying it. You've been delaying what you do with this invitation. You've heard the knock and you've said I need to clean my house before I let someone in. You've been saying I've heard the knock but I'm going to clean up my life before I let Jesus into my life. When life slows down then I'll let God in. When my life gets better then I'll get baptized. When I feel more spiritual then I'll follow God. You've been ignoring or delaying this invitation from God but maybe there's a third group in here and you've heard the invitation. And maybe you've been ignoring, been delaying, but just like Zacchaeus, you know it's time to stop watching and time to start responding. You will want to stand on the other side of that door and you want to start opening it. Jesus is inviting each of us. He's calling each of our names. He's not calling the crowd. He's not saying, this room, I'll call you. No, he's saying, Andrew, I call you. He's not calling the person next to you. It's up to you how you respond to Jesus. He's inviting, will you respond? But response isn't the finish line. When we respond to Jesus, it's the starting point for a completely different life.

When we respond to Jesus, our life can look completely different. So my encouragement to you today is if you've been ignoring or if you've been delaying and you want to start responding, respond with transformation. That's the last point today. Respond with transformation. Luke 19, verse eight. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. My life, I restore it. My life is transformed. God, move in my life. And Jesus says to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham. Transformation isn't the requirement for Jesus to enter your life. Transformation is evidence that Jesus already has. Transformation is proof that God has entered into our life. And what we see in this scripture is not Zacchaeus being pressured by Jesus to change, but he's responding from a changed heart. Zacchaeus isn't trying to earn favor with God. He's just showing us what happens when our lives encounter Jesus. He's showing us what happens.

And Jesus confirms this. And he says, today salvation has come to this house. Today, Zacchaeus has been changed. Today, this thing in Zacchaeus is real. Something has changed. That's what Jesus does. He doesn't just improve lives. He doesn't just enter lives. He transforms them completely. Say amen. Amen. God transforms our lives completely. God saved me at 14. I encountered God. And I didn't just tack him onto my life. I didn't just put, I can do all things through Christ and then play sports. You know, I let God transform my life. It looks completely different. I remember being in high school and all of my friends struggled with depression or anxiety or addiction or wrong relationships or lack of purpose and all of them struggled. And I had my struggles and my challenges, but I remember having hope that no matter what challenge I faced, that I wasn't alone, that Jesus was with me. My life was transformed. My friends in high school thought it was really weird that I wanted to be a pastor.

They're like, you know, you're not gonna make any money. And I'm here today. I didn't make any money. And they were right about one thing, but they thought it was weird. But God had put a purpose on my life at a young age. And through that purpose, through his will, he gives me success, not by my own works, not by my own hands, but by his purpose and by his grace. He helped me when my heart couldn't find what it was really looking for. He entered into my life and he helped me find it because I couldn't find it anywhere else. Jesus transformed my life because that's what encountering Jesus does. That's why at Evangel, our mission is to connect real people with real struggles, with real challenges, to a real God because he can change lives. I've seen it in my life and I've seen it in so many others. We can learn from the scripture what an encounter with Jesus looks like. At Evangel, maybe you've heard the points today and you've said these sound familiar. At Evangel, we call knowing Jesus, this is really much, really very much what recognizing the problem is. We recognize the problem with our life and we realize that Jesus is the only answer. We know Jesus. Maybe we reposition our heart,

the things that we've been struggling with, we reposition and we find freedom in those things. We put ourselves in circles where we are around other people. We find freedom and we receive his invitation and we discover God's purpose for us. And we respond with transformation. That what God does in us overflows into our life and we make a difference. This is what we talk about at Evangel. This is what my message was about today and it's not just church language. It's simply what happens when we encounter Jesus because when someone knows Jesus, they don't just add him to their bio on Instagram. They don't just add him to their life but their life begins to change. So today, if you want to know Jesus, the question is, have you let him into your life? And the second question is, have you let Jesus transform what is coming out of your life? Have you let your life be led by response to him? Have you let your life be transformed by him? When Jesus enters a life everything becomes attached to him Everything changes by him when Jesus enters a life. He doesn't leave out some parts I'm only a Christian when I'm with these friends No, Jesus Changes us Jesus

Changes us. Is there anything in your life right now? That doesn't look like Transformation when people look at you do they see evidence of what Jesus has done? Is there anything in your life that maybe you've kept in a box in a closet that you're hiding from Jesus? That even you've maybe thought you've let him into your house, but you haven't let him into that box Is there anything in your life? You haven't surrendered to him today because real response Always leads to real change and for some of you the invitation isn't just to try harder It's not to fix yourself first, but it's to let Jesus fully enter every part of your life Because when he comes in he transforms everything he touches That's what's incredible about this story. Is that Zacchaeus this whole time thought he was seeking to know who Jesus was But we forget that first verse as he was on his way through right as he was going through Jericho Jesus was on his way to see Zacchaeus Jesus wasn't trying to just oh, there's Zacchaeus. He knew him by name. He was there on purpose We feel like we've been trying to quiet the noise that we've been trying to feel like we've arrived and it's exhausting to always be Searching or chasing or wondering if the next thing's enough, but Jesus has been searching after you. It's not on you He's been searching for you What you've been looking for that relationship with him He's offering it to you That's what Jesus says at the end of this story Luke 19 10 At the end of this whole story and encounter with Zacchaeus He says for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost Zacchaeus thought he was searching But Jesus was chasing after him Jesus was already on his way So today if you're struggling and You want that encounter with God you can know that he has been searching for you He has been pursuing you all along when you thought no one was watching when you thought no one cared He was searching for you, and he's been fighting for you. You didn't have to earn his attention You didn't have to earn your way into his presence You don't have to fix everything before he comes But he simply stops beneath your tree and says I must come over to your house

I must enter your house. He came not to teach or perform miracles, but to seek and to save the lost He came to find us So that this feeling you have that there has to be more than this That whatever you've been searching for you can't seem to find the right thing. You're not crazy There is something all of our hearts are looking for It's hope We're looking for hope that our lives can change. We're looking for hope That I'm I have a purpose and Jesus offers that Jesus offers us hope I'd love if everyone could just bow their heads in this room Just with every head bowed and every eye closed if you're here today, and you've been distant from God Maybe you've been realize you've realized that you've been looking in the wrong places for the wrong things And today you want to start chasing God. Would you just pray with me? Jesus, we fix our eyes on you Thank you for seeing us when we were lost. Thank you for seeing us When we had no one else And thank you for saving me Would you just transform my life Would you just transform my life I accept you as my savior And I make you the lord of my life With every head still bowed in this room If you know Jesus and you have a relationship with him But maybe today your heart's been nudged and you've realized maybe your priorities have been out of line You've had an encounter with Jesus, but now you want a relationship with him And you want him to intervene with every single part of your life You want him to touch every single part of your life if that's you today Would you join me in praying? Jesus we fix our eyes on you In this moment today and every day of our life we fix our eyes on you

We welcome you in we accept your invitation and we ask would you just transform us This thing my heart has been looking for would you satisfy it? And would you just move in my life in a powerful way. Pray this in your mighty and holy name. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Hey, we're going to go into worship today.