Celebrate the Faith

This morning I would like to share with you about a man who was short in stature that we hear about in children’s stories, about climbing up the little tree. There is a man whose life was changed by Jesus Christ and he became a very generous man, which is what happens when people invite Jesus Christ into their lives; He will change them. And we celebrate the faith that changes them today. It says in Luke, chapter 19:

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a `sinner.' "

8 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 have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

You know, if you had asked me if Carolina was going to beat Miami yesterday I would say that if pigs could fly they would have about the same chance. I’m just . . . (tape change) . . . goal posts, no telling what else they did, but you didn’t have to coax them to celebrate the first time in the history they have ever beaten a top five team in the sports world. I mean, again, I know it’s just a football, and it’s just a game, but you couldn’t tell the fans that. They celebrate. They are excited. Apparently, if you are a Boston Red Sox fan, they just really had it bad and they had so much to celebrate, not only beating the Yankees, their arch enemies, and coming back in historic fashion — being three down and still winning extra-inning games. A lot of you may have stayed up to watch those. I’m a sore loser; when the Braves lost, that was it for me; I just kind of lost interest, but, boy, a lot of people didn’t. A lot of people stayed up and watched that. They won the world series, beat the Cardinals four straight and then they also, the famous Babe Ruth curse, 1918, they had this skinny left-handed pitcher who they traded to the Yankees. But the Yankees discovered this pitcher could hit and so, the eighty-six year curse was removed. Those five million people, or thereabouts, that were in Boston yesterday: You didn’t have to convince them why we need to celebrate.

But October 31st, though, is especially a day that the Church celebrates. It is the date that the Protestant Reformation began; it is the day that a young monk named Martin Luther nailed up ninety-five theses of what he believed were wrong with the Church at that time. They say, “Well, that’s kind of negative,” but at the heart of that, in 1517, this young man who was translating the scriptures into German, as he began to read them, he realized that faith in Christ alone is what saves us. Faith in Christ alone is what will give us forgiveness of our sins. Faith in Christ alone gives us eternal life. His life was changed and it was his mission throughout the rest of his life that others, ordinary people, would know that Jesus Christ came to seek and save those that are lost.

Today we celebrate the Faith. A great example of that is a man named Zacchaeus. Who was Zacchaeus? Well, we know he wasn’t very tall, but, especially, he was a wealthy tax collector. Now you may know people who work for the IRS, H&R Block, and they are fine people, people that do your tax returns. But in this time, tax collectors were notorious cheats. They got the job by bidding for the Romans who, most of all, wanted Jews that would get taxes from the Jews and their fellow men and they didn’t mind if they overtaxed them. In fact, that was fine just so long if they paid their taxes. So you can imagine the Jews did not really appreciate the people like Zacchaeus who were making a good living at their expense. And so, generally, they were put in the same vein with harlots — tax collectors and harlots, and they wondered why Jesus spent time — wasted His time, in their opinion — on these people. But who was Zacchaeus? Well, Zacchaeus was someone that realized all this money couldn’t satisfy the spiritual hunger in his life. He was hungry for something; he wasn’t sure what it was, but when Jesus came passing by, he wanted to be sure he saw him. When I look at this it says:

When Jesus reached the 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.

Reminds me of Jesus' words in Revelations 3:20:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door then I will come in and sup with him and he with me.

There are many, many people that have this hunger today. Sometimes we get discouraged and think, well, I am going all I can to help — my children, or parents, or my friends to come to Christ — and you keep living Christ, but you need to remember that the Hound of Heaven (remember that poem), the Lord is after them; the Lord is looking for them and He will be faithful, and ultimately, conversion is Christ extending the invitation and our welcoming Him into our hearts, and that’s what Zacchaeus did.

When you look at the history of how Martin Luther’s life was changed, first of all, he came to the Lord in fear — and let’s face it: fear; I don’t know if it’s the greatest motivator, but it is a motivator and during a great thunderstorm, he got real frightened.

He got really scared and prayed to the Lord, “Lord, if you will get me out of this, I’ll do anything for You.”

One problem with this kind of prayer, sometimes, is that once the storm has passed, people forget the vow that they made. But fear will get you praying. You know, this is also Halloween, and we had some trick or treaters come by last night. I remember, naively, one of the things I’ll never do again. As a youth minister in Georgia, they wanted to go to one of these scary houses. I asked, “Is it really scary?” “Naw, it’s no problem at all.” Well, I went through one of those; I wasn’t right for about a month. I mean, it just shook me up; I just don’t do scary very well at all. So, I hope they aren’t too scary tonight.

Martin Luther, though, learned that God is more than someone to come to when you fear. He began to learn about grace. He began to learn about how the Lord really can change your life with His great love. It would be a hard time for him, as he was excommunicated; his life was threatened, but he kept the faith and from then we get “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing”, that beautiful hymn out of Psalm 46. His life was changed.

In John’s Gospel, I love some of the stories of encounters with Jesus Christ. Nicodemus has a faith-encounter with Christ. Nicodemus is religious; he is scholarly, but Jesus tells him, “It is like being born again, being born all over again.” And we know at the end of the Gospel that Nicodemus became a Disciple, became a believer.

Or I think of the woman at the well who had all kind of failed relationships — five failed marriages; she is living with a man right now. She is coming to the well at noon-time so she can avoid all the other people that are going to gossip and talk about her. Jesus tells her about a well that will never run dry. Her life is changed and she immediately goes and tells people about this Savior.

Or I think of a man who for thirty-eight years has been an invalid. He goes to this Bethesda pool and he thinks that his problem is that he is not getting there when the angel stirs the water. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be well?” You know, what of question is that to ask someone who has been an invalid for thirty-eight years? Christ touches his life and he is never the same.

That is the way it is in my life. I think back on how much God has done in my life. I think of how, also, His Church, what a difference it has made in my life. I think of going back, and having parents who took me to the First Methodist Church, and being nurtured in the Faith of Providence Methodist Church. I even think of the couple of years I wandered away from the Faith, although then I would come back, several years later, and ask the staff parish of that committee, “I believe God has called me to preach.”

They asked me those questions and they said, “Well, we believe He is calling you to preach too.”

And it amazes me now that I have had the opportunity to share Christ in a lot of different settings. But the Church has blessed me immensely. And Christ has blessed me immensely. And as we celebrate the Faith, we want to share it. Jesus, before He ascended, gave us the Great Commission: Go unto all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.

Jesus said, The gates of Hell shall not prevail. We celebrate the Faith in Jesus Christ and His Church today. But specifically, how did Zacchaeus change, this man who used to cheat people? Just making more money was what was most important to him. It says that as the people were muttering about Jesus being the guest of a sinner, Zacchaeus stood up and said, “Look, Lord, here now I give half my possessions to the poor and if I’ve cheated anybody out of anything, I’ll pay back four times the amount.” Pay back four times the amount sounds like Jesus has really converted his pocketbook and his wallet. He has really come into his life, but that really was just the standard for the Romans if you had committed fraud on anybody. But giving half your goods to the poor, now that was totally Zacchaeus’ idea. God had changed him.

You know, in the Fall Festival of Faith, I got to teach Andy Lambert and Lowell McNaney’s book on Fuel for the Journey. They talked about stewardship and, you know, it is funny; it is a great Christianity 101 book. In that whole segment about stewardship, first of all, they talked about the stewardship of time. When Christ comes into our lives He will change the way we look at our calendars and at our watches. You know, day light savings time, when it goes, I like this time of year because I can stand an extra hour of sleep. You’all look a little bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today; I can tell you have been sleeping a little bit more. But think about what he has to say here about time:

The average person who lives to be seventy-two, you will spend twenty-one years sleeping, fourteen years working, six years eating, five years waiting in line, three years in meetings, one year searching for lost things, twenty-two months in worship, six months waiting at stop signs, and three months scolding children and eight days telling dogs to lie down and be quiet.

I don’t know how your time goes, but I believe that when Christ comes into our lives, one of the things we pray is Moses’ prayer: Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

We realize that we are not here that long; we want to make sure that our time counts for Christ.

And then there is a section on gifts and God has gifted you. What I have found — and I emphasized it Wednesday night and I emphasize it this morning — more and more among God’s people is this inadequacy: I am inferior; I am not gifted like the person that can sing solos or do other things; I’m not as smart as they are, but God has not made anybody to be inferior. When God created you, He knew exactly what He was doing; He gave you the gifts, the tools that He wants you to use for His glory. And mostly what God wants us to do is use those gifts for His glory. Andy Lambert used the example of, imagine it is Christmas time and you worked very hard on this gift; you made it, and you just can’t wait to give it to your friend. You get over there Christmas morning. You jump over the dog and the cat and you knock over the Nativity scene. You ring the door bell about fifteen times and finally they come to the door, half asleep. And, “Here’s your gift!”

And they take the gift and say, “Oh, OK. Well, I don’t want to open it right now, but maybe later.”

And they put it up on the shelf and of course, you are kind of deflated. They obviously aren’t very happy about it or excited about it like you are. And then, you come back six months later and you realize, well, that’s my gift; it’s under the bed; it’s still not opened. He says that’s the way God feels when we have gifts and talents that we just hid under the bed; we won’t use them for Him.

And then he has a section on finances. He calls it mixed stewardship. He likes going to McDonald’s and he talks about one of the greatest inventions of all time is McDonald’s French fries and he says that he went in with his two girls one day and he bought them French fries and he didn’t buy any for himself, thinking they would share with him. Well, he was mistaken and they said, “No.” And he said, “Well, what do you mean by ‘no’?”

“We mean the opposite of ‘yes’. No. We don’t want to share our French fries with you.”

Well, they were just adamant about that. He said, “But, I bought them for you.” And they finally did give him some French fries, but what he wanted to point out was: you know, I bought them those for them and then they won’t turn around and share it with me. What he is pointing out in that passage, I think, is one of the most important financial concepts, and it makes such a difference when we look at what God has blessed us with, especially finances. Ultimately God is the Giver. We are managers of what He has given to us. We are not the owners. He uses the example from this same imaginative scene.

Would it be hard for you to give two thousand to a total stranger whom you have just met and may never lay eyes on again? Before you respond, let me add one more ingredient to the equation that may totally alter your reply. What if you were the teller at the bank?

Imagine this scenario: A distinguish gentleman comes in. “I’d like to withdraw two thousand from my account, please.”

The bank teller says, “Well, how about four hundred instead?”

And this gentleman says, “I beg your pardon. I’d like two thousand from my account.”

And the bank teller says, “Well, how about four-hundred and fifty?”

The gentleman says, “This is not an auction, my dear fellow. I want two thousand from my account. I do have enough to cover it, don’t I?”

And the bank teller says, “Well, yes sir. In fact, according to our records, you own this bank and all the money in this bank belongs to you.”

“Well then, again, I’d like to withdraw two thousand from my account.”

“I see your point. How about four-hundred and seventy-five?”

“Well, which part of this do you not understand?”, says the gentleman. This is my bank and my money and I would like part of it.”

The bank teller says, “But, the money is in my vault.”

The gentleman says, “Your vault? Didn’t you just say this is my bank?”

“Well, yes sir.”

“But,” the gentleman says, “if this is my bank, does it make sense that it is also my vault?”

“Well, I suppose sir, but I’m standing in front of the vault. Shouldn’t that count for something?”

“Well, the only thing that I can account for is that you will be in the unemployment line if you don’t give me my money.”

Now, that goes on to say, and I will just cut to the end here:

The gentleman says, “You manage the money. You don’t own it or control it. You manage the money, but don’t ever forget: You manage the money for me. It is my bank, my vault, and my money. Your job is to put my money where I tell you.”

I have found that when we truly believe that it is God’s, then we want to be good managers, but also, we are grateful. Our response is not to be greedy or stingy, but it is to be generous.

Millard Fuller understands this very well. When he had an encounter with Jesus Christ, what got his attention was in 1965. His wife Linda was ready to leave him because he was so absorbed in his business. He was making a million dollars, which is still a lot of money, but it was a lot of money in 1965. But he came to faith in Christ, got in his Lincoln Continental (in fact, I think he ended up selling his Lincoln Continental) and he went to Koinonia Farms and spent time with Clarence Jordan, the leader of that faith community down there.

And he told Clarence Jordan, “You know, I’ve just got this heaviness in my chest.”

And he told Millard Fuller, “Well, you know, a million dollars can do that. It can get pretty heavy on you.”

But what happened to him is he came to a deeper faith, more compassion for the poor and more of a realization that what God really wants me to do with my business talent is to use it for Him, and that’s where Habitat for Humanity came from.

How did Zacchaeus change? Well, more and more he didn’t look at life and what’s in it for me, but how does God want to use me to benefit other people?

Judson Van DeVenter, back in the nineteenth century, was a school teacher whose great love was art. For about five years though he struggled with the call to be an evangelist because a lot of people could tell that, yes, you’re a good artist, a good teacher, but we can tell, you have gifts for sharing the faith and evangelism. We think you should go into this work full time. Five years he struggled about that, and finally the answer to prayer came with a prayer of surrender. And a couple of years later, after he made that decision to go into evangelistic work, he wrote these words:

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In his presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

Let us pray. O Lord, on this day that we celebrate the faith, we want to thank You that you reach out to us, Lord, that You call us to a deeper faith and trust in You. And yes, Lord, we do thank You for the cloud of witnesses that surround us today, that lived faithfully, that sacrificed on our behalf, that let their light shine brightly. May ours as well, we ask today in Jesus’ name. Amen.

First United Methodist Church

Lenoir, North Carolina

© First UMC Lenoir