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[Music] [Music] ♪ And the world now I own whole and whole ♪ ♪ In both their kindness ♪

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♪ I receive the prize ♪ ♪ And now I am happy again ♪ ♪ Where life does drown ♪ ♪ In glorious light ♪

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♪ And the sun is always here ♪ ♪ With us the miles we've made ♪ ♪ And the road and the beach are near ♪ ♪ And the falls and the floods ♪

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♪ They're a curse on us ♪ ♪ And the burdens of our love ♪ ♪ Always ♪ ♪ People care my name ♪

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♪ But it's me I've found ♪ ♪ I'm now I am ♪ ♪ And we are free ♪ ♪ I'm not so free ♪

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♪ And every day ♪ ♪ The rest of the night ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ And Lord, I give myself away ♪

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♪ In all that I can do ♪ ♪ And the problems that come ♪ ♪ Where I first was one ♪ ♪ And the burdens of my heart ♪

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♪ Go away ♪ ♪ In whate'er I do ♪ I received my sight, and now I am happy again. Let the cross that I've borne bear my curse of life,

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and the burden of my heart all the way. ♪ It was there by the name I received the sight ♪ ♪ That now I am happy only ♪ - Amen.

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And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

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The subject, Zacchaeus, rich and righteous. Zacchaeus, rich and righteous. Persons who identify with us in time of crisis are listed among those we dare not forget. Zacchaeus is remembered as one of the personalities identified with the passion of our Lord.

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He chose to follow in the way of the cross, to endure shame and suffering for the glory of God. All of Jericho seems to have turned out to see Jesus as he passed through the city, the The streets are lined with spectators and well wishes.

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It's spring. Flowers are blooming. The spring nearby is roaring. Gentle breezes are blowing.

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birds are on the wing, it's spring. Not only the crowd, but all nature seems to be in a festive mood as the master journeys toward Jerusalem. Local police find it difficult to direct the crowd.

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Traffic is jammed in every direction. People have gathered from every nook and corner to get a look at Jesus. crowd is a certain man named Zacchaeus. All of the VIPs have special places. They have reserved sections, the most desired locations from which to view Jesus in

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in his march toward Jerusalem. But Zacchaeus has no special place, there's no reservation for him. He's regarded as an outsider.

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You see, Zacchaeus is the director of the Internal Revenue Service. Let's say he is the district director of the Internal Revenue Service.

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Now IRS officials are not usually very popular. They are usually, or in many instances, more feared than revered. And this was especially true

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of Zacchaeus. In fact, a Jew who was in the Internal Revenue Service at this time when Rome is dominating Palestine, such a Jew was looked upon as being a stooge of the oppressor. Zaki, as you see, is identified with a system of exploitation and corruption. That was an arrangement that the district director could pay the assessment of taxes

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for the area to roam, and then he was free to add on as much as he could get from the people. as much as the traffic would bear. And in those times as well as in ours paying taxes was not popular. So he's one of the most unpopular persons in town. In fact

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he is listed among the publicans, those who are at the lowest rung of the social ladder. He is chief among sinners. Yet the very name Zacchaeus means righteous. That's what the name means. Somehow when he was born his parents gave him a good name, Zacchaeus, which means righteous or pious one. Now as far as material success is concerned,

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Zacchaeus had done all the right things. He had maneuvered his way to the top of a very lucrative business. He was the district director, I said, of the IRS. All all of the other tax collectors were under his supervision. Financially, he had it made.

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He had done what is regarded as all the right things. He knew how to maneuver his way politically. He knew how to maintain good relations with Rome. He did the right thing as they would think of it politically,

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but he did not do the right thing ethically. His political relations did not seem to have any ethical motivation. Zacchaeus.

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He is rich, And he has the name of being righteous. He could afford to buy the finest clothes, live in the most expensive home in the most exclusive section of

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Jericho. In fact, he had all that you could buy as far as money was concerned and yet Zacchaeus is an outsider, an outcast regarded by his countrymen as a stooge of the Roman government. People avoided him as much as possible. He was greeted with cold shoulders and icy stares. He was an

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outcast, despised and rejected. And I think we know something of what it means to feel a stranger in your own home. That was his predicament. We have around us today in every community those who are regarded as outcasts, the drunkards, the prostitutes and pimps, the drug addicts, the poor, the handicapped, outcasts. He had the name of

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being righteous but he did not live up to his name. It's one thing to have a good name but it's something else to live up to it. It is often painful to live the kind of life that we ought to live to be true to the best that we know. You see, Zacchaeus has a form of righteousness, but it is not the righteousness of God.

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Oh, maybe he says, "Let me make as much as I can while I can. No matter who it hurts or cripples, somebody's going to take this job, so why shouldn't I?" This is the kind of righteousness Zacchaeus practiced. Paul describes this as a form of godliness but not according to

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knowledge for he was one of those that was ignorant of the righteousness of God and had gone about to establish his own righteousness. Yeah he has a good name but he doesn't live up to it. All the things money can buy, the latest gadgets, a fat bank account, a comfortable retirement already arranged, but there is

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in Zacchaeus a hunger, a holy hunger. There is a hunger for something better. There is a sense of emptiness. You see, his existence is a conglomeration of of discordant notes. There is a hunger for wholeness and harmony.

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You see, he had heard of Jesus, but he had never seen him. And now Jesus is passing by, and Zacchaeus goes out to meet him, and he has a problem. Zacchaeus is short of stature.

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short of stature. He wasn't tall enough. And this was what he regarded as sort of a negative, being short. I have some friends that don't think they're tall enough, and what they do is that they buy shoes and they put heels about several inches higher than the normal one so that they can appear to be taller than they really are. You try to

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compensate for what they don't have in that manner. And Zacchaeus was not tall enough to see Jesus because of the crowd. A lot of people just aren't tall enough to see what is the right way. They cannot see because of the crowd, not really tall enough. It's a good question for us to ask ourselves this morning. How tall are you? Not just 5'5" or 5'11"

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six feet or whatever, but really in your thinking and in your principles of living and in the way of life that you embrace as far as being related to that which is highest and best, how tall are you? How tall are you? Zacchaeus could not see Jesus, I said, because of the crowd.

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He failed to appreciate that divine goodness because somehow he could not see it, could not see Jesus because of the crowd. Many times we fail to see what's good in life because of the fact that our lives are crowded with nonsense activities.

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We fail to see life's highest values because our lives are cluttered up with things. Zacchaeus just isn't tall enough. He has a rather negative image of himself.

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In fact, the dear fellow has an ego problem. He has spent his life trying to assert himself, trying to command respect. He wants to be loved but he's despised and rejected.

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He's an outsider, treated as a stranger in his own hometown. Well he's successful but he's not happy. He has dealt with the handicap of being part of a minority race but there's something for which his heart hungers.

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And that hunger caused Zacchaeus to seek Jesus but he's unable to see him because of the crowd, because he's short of stature. So what does he do? He runs and climbs a sycamore tree.

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In this tree, high above the crowd, he looks down on Jesus. Man who's rich, man who thinks he has really made it because he's done the things that would make him successful in his

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little world, and now he's up a tree. So often there are people who get a fine home, who get a fine car, who get a good bank account, who get a good position, and they get up a tree. They get up a tree.

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And he wants to see Jesus. he's just a spectator. He's just observing Jesus as he passes by. And so often those who get up a tree who seem to have the things that make life successful and yet they recognize that there is something missing. They are

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spectators watching as Jesus passes by. What he's really done, he has exalted himself, the righteous one, one who's rich, but the kind of richness that Zacchaeus has is really being rich in himself. He's really poor toward God. And many times, Luke talks about the rich

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great deal, many times dollars change our attitude and our relationships. I remember a good friend of mine, Dr. T.S. Boone, said when he was young he left home. He had been read in a fine family and his father provided for him but he sort of strayed away he ran out of money he was hungry and he was determined not to

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write back home. He made up in his mind that he would go into a restaurant and order a hamburger. Hamburgers back in those days were just a nickel it's hard for some of us to remember when hamburgers were nickel. He ordered a hamburger and he had planned to get the hamburger eat it and run out the door

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without paying because he had no money that's what his plan was. But while the man was back in the kitchen preparing the hamburger he looked down on the floor and he saw a dollar bill and he picked it up and when he got the dollar building in his hand he said hurry up back there. It changed his attitude in

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just that moment. And that often happens. There's always a great temptation and the more we get the more we have to check on ourselves as to how how we really are in spirit. When I was in Bishop College the president's wife called me the humble YMCA boy that humble YMCA boy. I was the president of YMCA but as soon as I got

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my first church people began to say that he's up there with those arrogant folk. And I have to check on myself. You have to check on yourself. It's very easy for us to get an ego problem.

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It's very easy. A little success can ruin you if you don't have the right relationship to the eternal. And so Zacchaeus you see is up the tree.

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And really he's up there looking down on Jesus. That's really not the position he ought to be in but he's up there looking down on Jesus. A lot of times when people get successful they get up a tree

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they don't have anything to do with the church, they don't think that any of these things are really important, they are above all of that. But he wants to see Jesus.

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There's a hunger in his heart and Jesus is coming by. The crowd is there and Jesus is walking. And as he walks through the crowd, the great press of the crowd is upon him. And people are moving people back so that he can get by and Jesus walks on.

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And he comes right to that tree where Zacchaeus is. And he looks up into that tree and he says, "Zacchaeus, come down, son. I am going home with you today." Ah, what a surprise. That's a surprise. He was just there just to see Jesus, but here Jesus comes in the midst of all of that crowd. Here he is an outsider and yet here the man who is our eschatological hero.

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Here is the one who all of the people have come out to see and yet he stops underneath my tree and calls for me. Zacchaeus, come down. Well, I'm going home with you.

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was possibly a shocking announcement. My wife always tells me to call before you bring somebody home. Just don't bring them in, call and let me know that you're on your way. All of us would like to make certain arrangements, you know, we would like for people that may be distinguished people in town to follow

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us home after the service we had no announcement of it we may find this thrown that way and this arranged that way. We left in a hurry this morning to get here. But Zacchaeus rushes down the tree in fact he took the skin some say the bark off of the tree. He came down so hurriedly to be with Jesus. He has now an encounter with the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. This is a human

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divine encounter. He meets Jesus. You really can't meet Jesus when you're up a tree, when you're higher than you ought to be, when one thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think. You really can't meet him. You need to come down from the tree. And he came down from the tree and Jesus went home with him.

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That tells us something about the master. He goes home with the most unpopular man in town. I don't have to wonder what people would say if they saw me after leaving this service, go home with one of the prostitutes on the corner.

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I don't have to worry what would be said, it would be on many telephones, did you know what the Reverend did? Do you know what, I saw him, honey did you see him?

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Yes, I saw him, I saw him, and he got in the car, I really saw him. You don't have to wonder what people will say if you're seen fraternizing with a drunkard, but that's what Jesus did.

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He went home with the most unpopular man in town. Jesus went to his home and when he went home with him, Zacchaeus rearranged his life because he'd been touched by the Master. He said, "Lord, Lord, Lord, whatever I have taken from any man that I should not have

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taken say I am willing to restore it four times for every dollar I've taken I'm willing to give four and the half of our goods all of this bank account that I have the half of it I give to the poor. You see something had happened to Zacchaeus because Jesus had touched his life and he had redeemed him. He had snatched him

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from the jaws of death. He had been snatched from that exploitation and that corruption in which he engaged. His life was transformed because he had met the master. People were talking and they'll talk. And we still have some self-righteous people. I remember once I was engaged in a revival many years ago

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and there were some people, some of the reverend said they may be alright but not for our church. Some people have that that idea. And the scribes and the Pharisees they were there to criticize but Jesus said I am come to seek and to save that which is lost and somehow God is always out there searching for us. No

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matter where we go, what we do, no matter what crime we commit, no matter what it is, God is always reaching out, always searching. And Jesus says today, today is salvation come to this house. Salvation has come. Whenever we take Jesus home, we We need to take him home.

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I think too many people leave him out on the streets of Jericho. They meet him, they shake hands with him so to speak, and they exchange pleasantries, and that's the end of it.

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But we need to go home, have him to go home with us. You know home is that most intimate place. Home is the familiar, we need to take him home. woman who took a bouquet of flowers and placed them in the front room of her

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house. It was a beautiful bouquet of flowers and she said after those flowers were there she said I got to clean this room up. As I look at these flowers I recognize how untidy this room is. I've got to clean it up and she cleaned up that room and then when she cleaned up that room she said this room looks so

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good I got to clean up this next room here. And she went to the next room and then because it was so clean and she went to the next one all of it happened she cleaned up the house but it happened because she had brought that beautiful bouquet of flowers so when Jesus came into his life Zacchaeus rearranged the

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furniture in his life. He redecorated his life because Christ had come because Christ had come to be with him. Jesus went home with him and it's a wonderful thing to take Jesus home and to know that he saves. Some of us who've been on this journey a long, long time can testify that Jesus saves. He changes our lives.

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He somehow molds us and shapes us into the kind of person that we ought to be. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. So the word comes to us from this experience. You see somehow a special niche in history is called for Zacchaeus because of his relationship to the master. He has a place in the New Testament. God

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has changed his life and he can do that today for any person who will accept him. Come home, you who are weary, come home. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Just as he called Zacchaeus, who was up that tree,

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he called for you, and you, and you. He called for everyone of us. (upbeat music) ♪ Glory and enduring ♪

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♪ Jesus is calling ♪ ♪ Calling for you and for me ♪ ♪ Still the portals he's waiting and watching ♪ ♪ Watching for you and for me ♪

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♪ The hope, the hope, the hope ♪ ♪ A home, a home ♪ ♪ He who are weary ♪ ♪ A home ♪

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♪ And in sleep tender ♪ ♪ Jesus is calling ♪ ♪ Calling, O sinner ♪ ♪ A home ♪

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♪ I shall be happy when Jesus is near ♪ ♪ Heed him for you and for me ♪ ♪ I shall be there when he comes with mercy ♪ ♪ Blessed for you and for me ♪

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♪ Come home, come home, come home, come home ♪ ♪ We who are weary, come home ♪ ♪ Merge with me, Jesus is calling ♪ ♪ Calling all sinners ♪

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♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Light is now feeding the hopeless ♪ ♪ The passing ♪ ♪ Passing for you and for me ♪

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♪ Scattered again in the endless ♪ ♪ Of the year ♪ ♪ I'll sing for you and for me ♪ ♪ I'm home, I'm home ♪

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♪ Here you are, here we are ♪ ♪ Glad as we tenderly ♪ ♪ We love to call you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy Lord Jesus ♪

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♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ He who was weary from all ♪

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♪ Earnestly and tenderly ♪ ♪ God is calling ♪ ♪ Calling, O sinner ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪

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- We'd like at this time for Senator, for Senator and his wife, if you would, the aide, if you would bring them to the foyer, please, at this time.

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And if you, Sister Davis, Brother Terry Davis, just escort your wife on back there if you will, please. Brother Senator Sharp, who is counting for the Railroad Commission,

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and Sister Davis, who's running for the Austin Community College Board of Trustees, will join us there as we greet you this morning. As we come to the close of this service,

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I'd like for us to sing this song, which we will probably use as sort of a theme in our revival. Would you turn now to hymn number 425, "Set My Soul Afire?" [ Silence ]