Latest / HBCWestminster / 10.25.20 Luke 19:1-10 Greg Scarato

Transcript

10.25.20 Luke 19:1-10 Greg Scarato · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Allow me to introduce our speaker. I met Greg five years ago, I think, coming on five years. Greg and I have been friends since then, and I knew that I would become friends with him as soon as I found out that he had two great loves in his life, love for the Lord and love for baseball.
• 0:15
  And so he and I met because we both coach at Jefferson Academy High School. We both coach baseball together. He is one of the coaches there. And so he can tell you more about that if he'd like. But we became fast friends. He was also my son Pearson's pitching coach. And so much of what Pearson knows how to do with the baseball, he knows because of Greg.
• 0:32
  We come from similar educational backgrounds, have a high regard for God's Word, and I know that you guys will be blessed to hear from him this morning. I can't wait. It's the first time I've ever heard him preach, and so I can't wait to hear it. Would you guys welcome up Greg Scarrato? To be honest with you, the first connection we had was our similar hairstyles. When I saw Danny, I said, now there's a man after my own heart and my own head.
• 1:05
  Anyway, somebody I want to acknowledge here, not only are we coaches for Jefferson Academy, and what a blessing it is for the ballplayers at Jefferson Academy to be coached by two pastors and by a head coach who is a follower of Jesus Christ. And also we have Michael that is here today, who is another one of our coaches, the youngest member of our coaching staff, but probably the most...
• 1:32
  the most knowledgeable baseball guy on our coaching staff. So Michael, thanks for being here. Also, I have some friends that are here with me today, and those Brian and Amy and Kevin that you know here have been with me for quite a while. The things that I loved about Brian and Amy is they came to church and they were with us for, I don't know, probably a month or a month and a half.
• 2:00
  Amy just came up to me and asked me, well, is there a place that I can serve? And I said, well, yeah, I do the bulletins. You can take the bulletins for me. And so they faithfully did that. And that's what believers are supposed to do. We're supposed to come and we serve. I mean, that's part of the body life of a church is that people come and worship and are taught by the word of God, but then they come and serve.
• 2:25
  And so that's what they did. And I want to encourage all of you, that's an important aspect of your Christian life is to be involved in serving. Another thing that I wanted to make sure that I made mention of, and that is just the wonderful time that we had in worship and music. Sam, that was just an excellent set.
• 2:55
  and really appreciate being prepared in such a profound way. So I love the joy that you have about singing, and I love the heart that you bring.
• 3:05
  to the Lord and to this congregation. And I don't know if you guys have been aware of this, but October is actually Pastors Appreciation Month. Have you guys made that announcement? And so what I would like to do before we even get started is just on behalf of the pastoral staff, Danny and Sam and the other pastors and the directors of your ministries,
• 3:31
  Can we just give them a show of appreciation through a hand clap? So there's nothing wrong with sending a note or a text or an email just showing appreciation to your pastor because that's the purpose of this Pastor's Appreciation Month. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Well, Father, as we come before you this morning, we ask that you would bless our time. Lord, speak to each and every one of our hearts.
• 4:06
  Lord, I pray that you would help me to be able to expose the text for the meaning that you intend for each and every one of us. Lord, fill me with your spirit as I proclaim your word. And Lord, I pray that each heart will be prepared to hear what the spirit wants to say to each and every one. We give you praise and thanks this day. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that he means to us. We pray these things in the precious name.
• 4:36
  of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everybody said, Amen. Well, I don't care who you are. Nobody likes having to deal with the tax collector. They are just brutal guys. I mean, even April 14th just has a bad connotation to it because it reminds us of having to pay our taxes and we're paying to somebody that we can't see, that we don't know, and they're taking too much of our money.
• 5:07
  Now a lot of us are looking for a refund, but that's only because we paid it during the course of the year. Nobody likes tax collectors. But we're going to be faced with a tax collector today who's probably endeared himself to many of us because there's this little song that children learn about Zacchaeus. And so if you have your Bible, you can open up to...
• 5:33
  Luke chapter 19 and as I told the pastoral staff when we met this morning for prayer I spoke with Danny last week and I told him that there was a passage that I was going to be preaching on and that I had been preparing and it was from Luke chapter 19 but he's preaching through the book of Luke and he said hey listen don't worry about it. He said we're in chapter 9 right now we won't get to chapter 19 for another year. So at any rate
• 6:01
  The IRS is a very powerful collection agency, and if you owe them money, they are your enemies. They have a lot of power and they have a lot of authority. They can empty your bank accounts. They can charge you extra penalty money. They can show up at your home or your work. They can attack your checking account if you owe them money. I mean, they're a ruthless group of people, and they can do it.
• 6:34
  simply because they can. And you better be really sharp about handling your taxes because you can get yourself in trouble. I mean, Ronald Reagan once said, it takes more brains to figure out your income, your income taxes, than it does to actually make the income. So, as we move to our text for this morning, let's read chapter 19. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 10.
• 7:04
  Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man, he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot,
• 7:37
  He looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, he has gone to be the guest of a sinner? But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord.
• 8:04
  Here and now I give half of all of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is the son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost. Now verse 10 is the climactic point of this section.
• 8:36
  But it's really the climactic point of the entire book of Luke, of the entire gospel of Luke. Because Jesus has come to seek and to save that which is lost. See, Jesus loves lost people. And he wants to save lost people. Peter says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. See, this story is really...
• 9:10
  about Zacchaeus, the tax collector, but it's also about the heart of Jesus. It's also about the heart of salvation that Jesus has for every kind of person. So as we go into the text, we want to make sure that we keep that in mind. Jesus loves everybody, and anybody at any time under any circumstance can come to know Christ. And that's important for each and every one of us to know.
• 9:39
  There's nobody who is outside the long arm of the law and of the Lord. So let's begin in verse 1. Jesus entered Jericho and he was passing through. Now, Jericho is an interesting place. It was like an oasis in the desert. Jericho is considered probably the oldest inhabited city in the world.
• 10:15
  It's been around for a long time. People have inhabited. I checked it out, and there's almost 20,000 people who are living in Jericho today. This is the same Jericho where the walls came falling down, if you remember that story with Joshua in Joshua chapter 6. Not only that, but Jericho was an interesting town because it was a very low sea level city. It's probably the lowest city in the entire world. It's like 800 feet.
• 10:51
  below sea level. And it talks about how Jesus is traveling through Jericho as he's on his way to Jerusalem. Now, this is the last week of Jesus' life. This is probably the Sunday before Monday where he rides in Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and everybody hailing him, you know, saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
• 11:27
  Jericho was a beautiful city. It was an oasis, really. It was like the palm springs of Israel. It had palm trees all around it, and it also had the balsam plants that had this aromatic odor that freshened the whole area of Jericho. It's not a really large area, but it is one that people love to visit. People still go to visit there. So he's passing through Jericho.
• 12:04
  As he passes through, there's a man named Zacchaeus. And he was a chief tax collector. And he was wealthy. Now I want to tell you, tax collectors were hated. Rome had kind of an interesting way of collecting their taxes. What they would do is they would take a region and they would put that region out for bid. And then people would bid for it.
• 12:32
  And then after they won the bid, then they would pay up front to the Roman government and then they would go out and collect taxes from everybody. And there was all different types of taxes that they would collect. But the interesting thing is that these guys were evil. They took their share and then more than their share. I mean, nobody liked the tax collectors. Tax collectors were hated.
• 13:04
  Because most of the time they were Jewish guys who were trying to earn a living for themselves. So they were collecting taxes from Jewish people as a Jew, collecting from Jewish people to give to the Roman government who had Israel under its subjugation. These people were evil. And they were extortionists.
• 13:28
  They charged whatever they want. And they had the Roman government as an authority behind them. So you could either pay the taxes that the tax collector said you owed them, or you can deal with the Roman government. And nobody wanted to deal with the Roman government. So these guys would even, what they would do, if you couldn't pay the tax, if you didn't have the capital for the tax, then they would lend you the money. But at exorbitant interest rates.
• 13:55
  These guys were hated. These were Jewish guys. You know, we've got our own political system right now and people, I mean, there's half of the country that absolutely hates the president. Well, that's nothing compared to the way that they felt about tax collectors because everybody hated tax collectors. At least half the country likes our president. The other half hates him. But with tax collectors, nobody liked tax collectors.
• 14:25
  I mean, it was against their religion, the Jewish faith, to be involved with tax collectors because they were considered so evil. And so, you know, they were bad guys. They were just the worst of people. Now, Zacchaeus had a problem because, as the text says, he was a short man.
• 14:55
  He was little. It's interesting, the word for short is, the Greek word is mikros. It's for where we get the word micro, you know, like a microscope. You magnify little things. So the text is actually saying that he's tiny. He's a little guy. He's a wee little man. So if you can imagine his entire life, I mean, when you're short like that, his entire life.
• 15:22
  People always looked down on him. Now, one of the things that I found out is that the average height of people back at that time was between 5'5 and 5'7. But he's a wee little man, and everybody hated him. So, I don't know, who do you think of when you think of a really little guy? Oh, I don't know. Some people might say Danny DeVito. He might even be too tall. What I thought of is that
• 15:52
  He might be the size of the mayor of Munchkinland. You know, one of those wee little guys. So a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. It's interesting, Zacchaeus was a... His name actually means pure. And he was a chief of the tax collectors. So that means that he just didn't have his own area, but he was over...
• 16:22
  people who had other areas. So he was on top of the tax collection pyramid scheme, I think. But what's interesting is he wanted to see Jesus. He wanted to see who he was. It says in verse 3, he wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man, a wee little man, he couldn't see him because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and...
• 16:52
  climbed a sycamore tree to see him. Jesus was coming that way. Here he is in the crowd of people. And you can imagine that as he was among the people, people knew who he was because he was that tax collector. And he was involved with everybody. And so there's this large crowd. I mean, whenever a celebrity comes in town, everybody always wants to go and see him. And Jesus was the ultimate of celebrities.
• 17:19
  So as he's coming in the town, he wants to see who Jesus is. I mean, he's heard about all the miracles that Jesus has performed. He had just given sight to a blind guy. He had heard about all of the stories, and he wanted to see. He just wanted to get a glimpse of who this Jesus was. Now, as we come to this part of the text, I want you to try to imagine what it would be like if you were sitting on that limb of that sycamore tree with Zacchaeus.
• 17:53
  And what might have been going on in his mind when Jesus walks up to him? People hated this guy. Tax collectors were hated. Zacchaeus, everybody looked down on him. They were probably taking the opportunity to push him around. And so as he sees Jesus coming, he can't get a glimpse of who he is. So he runs in front of everybody. He climbs on top of this tree just so that he can get a glimpse of who Jesus is. And Jesus walks right to the spot, it says.
• 18:32
  When Jesus reached the spot, he looked at him and he said, Zacchaeus. Now, understand this. People hated Zacchaeus because he was a tax collector. Climbing a tree as an adult was not something that would have been customary. Kids climb trees, not adults, and not tax collectors. People were probably scorning him.
• 19:06
  making fun of him like they always did. Nobody could have possibly imagined that Jesus would stop and even look at Zacchaeus. I would imagine that the thing that went through Zacchaeus' mind as Jesus stops right at the spot and looks up at him, you can imagine that he said, he sees me. Jesus sees me.
• 19:50
  What would prompt a tax collector, a little guy, to run up and climb a tree so that he could see Jesus? He wanted to see Jesus. He was thinking, there's something about this Jesus that I have to see. So he climbs up this tree because why? He wants to see Jesus. And Jesus...
• 20:23
  Knew who he was. See, what he didn't know, what Zacchaeus didn't know, is that Jesus was on a mission. He was seeking out Zacchaeus. He didn't have to climb a tree for Jesus to see him. I think that if he would have been among the crowd, he would have parted the crowd, walked right up to him, and he said, Zacchaeus. I think he would have done the same thing. You see, Jesus knows everything.
• 20:48
  He knew who Zacchaeus was. He didn't need an introduction. He just walked up and he said, Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus realized that he knew where he was and he knew his name. See, friends, we all need to know that Jesus knows exactly where we are at in our life. We need to understand that there's nothing that Jesus doesn't know. He knows everything about you.
• 21:26
  He knows everything about the circumstances that you're in. He knows everything about your life. He knows more about you than you do. He has remembered everything that has ever happened to you in your life. I can't even remember the things that happened in my life last week. See, but unfortunately, I think that there's also some people who think that Jesus doesn't see them. And unfortunately, I think that there's some Christians who live their lives as though Jesus can't see them. And they think that while they're alone at home,
• 22:03
  maybe by themselves that nobody sees. And so I can do the things that I want to do because nobody's going to know. Friends, Jesus is not limited by ignorance. Jesus is not limited by time. He knows everything. He knows every one of us. And I think that that's a really important thing for us to remember. There's no place that you can go where Jesus can't see you.
• 22:45
  No place where you can go where he can't reach you. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 says, No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. Job 23, 21 says, For his eyes are upon our ways, and all our steps he sees. Zechariah chapter 4 verse 10, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro.
• 23:13
  through the whole earth. We have to remember, friends, that Jesus is not like us. Psalm 50 verse 21 says, You thought I was altogether like you. Too many people have this idea of who Jesus is and it's a wrong understanding of who Jesus is. Yes, we've been created in the image and the likeness of God, but we're not like God and we really don't understand God.
• 23:49
  We don't understand what an infinite being is because we're finite. We don't understand. I'm going to tell you what I cannot comprehend in my brain, how God knows everything before he created anything. Oh, friends, the God that we serve is marvelous. He's glorious. He's magnificent. He's a God that we can't possibly comprehend, and he seeks us out.
• 24:24
  He's looking for us. He's come to seek and to save everybody who's willing to put their faith and trust in what Jesus has accomplished. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. He says, come down immediately. And immediately he responds.
• 25:04
  You see, God initiates, man responds. He initiates what he wants us to do in life. He initiates our relationship, but we need to respond to him. You know, too often people will go to the Bible and they'll read something in the Bible and it addresses an issue in their life. And so there's a sense of guilt.
• 25:37
  Maybe we've been caught in a lie. Maybe we've used profanity. Maybe we've drank a little bit too much. Maybe we've allowed our anger to run rampant. Maybe we have been inconsiderate to people. Maybe we've yelled at our kids or yelled at our spouse. And we feel guilty because the Bible has addressed an issue. And so we feel guilty and then we turn away and we continue on just as we did before. The Lord wants us to respond, but he wants us to respond in obedience.
• 26:12
  He wants us to deal with the issues of our life. You see, here's the thing. Jesus is in the process of molding and shaping each and every one of us into the image of himself. I mean, that's what a great, what a great truth that is. God wants you to be like him. He says, be holy for I am holy. And holy means to be separate. Friends, listen.
• 26:46
  The Lord is different. That's kind of what holy means. He's set apart. He doesn't have any rivals. There's no other authority that is over him. He's the ultimate authority. God is holy. It means that he is intrinsically holy. It means that everything else about him is defined by his holiness.
• 27:18
  When we think about God's knowledge, it's a holy knowledge. When we think about his morality, he's a holy and righteous type of God. His mercy is a holy mercy. You know, there's nowhere in the Bible, I think R.C. Sproul said this, there's nowhere in the Bible where it says that the Lord is mercy, mercy, mercy, or forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness. But it does say that God is holy, holy, holy.
• 27:48
  He's perfect in everything that he does, everything that he thinks. So Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house. So Zacchaeus must be thinking, not only does he see me, not only does he know my name, but he wants to hang out with me. He wants to be with me.
• 28:25
  I mean, this is a guy, remember, who is hated by everybody. He's a foul guy. He's vile. He's immoral. Gee, we can even say that he's illegal. But Jesus wants to spend time with him. Friends, that has to change your idea of who people are.
• 28:49
  I mean, we all, let's face it, we all have our own prejudices for one reason or another. It's not a matter of just black and white. I mean, it's a matter of old and young. It's a matter of wealthy and not wealthy. It's a matter of people being in positions of authority and not being in positions of authority. We can hold grudges against anybody because they're not exactly like us. Do you understand that God doesn't learn anything? He doesn't learn anything.
• 29:29
  He knows everything. He calls him down and he responds. And then he takes him to his home. Now I can imagine, if you can imagine, he comes down that tree. I wonder if Jesus had his arm around Zacchaeus as he walks to his house. I wonder if he's holding on to his arm. Because one thing that we know for sure, look what the text says. After Jesus had reached the spot, verse seven says, all the people saw this and began to mutter.
• 30:06
  He's going to be with the guest of a sinner. See, in the Talmud, which is kind of a commentary on the Old Testament for Jewish people, it identifies tax collectors with murderers, robbers, prostitutes, and people of immorality. And people are looking at Jesus. And not only do they look at Jesus, but oftentimes they make his disciples feel guilty because they'll walk up to him and say,
• 30:39
  Your boss goes and hangs out with tax collectors and prostitutes? Do you ever feel that way? We feel that tension as being a follower of Jesus Christ sometimes. So all the people saw this and they began to mutter, he's gone to be the guest of a sinner. Now I'd like to know what happened in that house. Text doesn't tell us. I mean, we can only assume. He goes in. One thing I think that we can say about
• 31:14
  About Zacchaeus is he probably wasn't married because men, let's face it, you would never bring company home without telling your wife first, right? So he's probably a single guy, takes him home. I wonder what their conversation was. I wonder if Jesus told him about what's going to happen to him because he had told, he just got done telling his disciples that he was going to be put to death. He was going to go into Jerusalem and he was going to be arrested and he was going to be put to death.
• 31:51
  But I wish the account recorded what Jesus said because it just says that all of a sudden he blurts out. He stood up and he said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Then Jesus said to him, Today.
• 32:17
  Salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost. All of a sudden, Zacchaeus proclaims, here and now I give half of everything that I own. Now, this is an important account because in chapter 18, there is the account of the rich man that asked Jesus what he needed to do to get into eternal life. And Jesus, you know,
• 32:48
  told him to keep the commandments. He said, well, I keep all those commandments. He said, well, then one thing that you need to do is you need to take your wealth, sell it, and give it to the poor, and then come follow me. But that guy was really sad because he loved his money. This says that Zacchaeus announces, look, Lord, here and now, I mean right now, I'm going to give half of all of my possessions to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody out of anything,
• 33:22
  I will pay back four times the amount. That was actually the legal amount for a Jew to pay if they're repaying something that they've stolen from someone. I remember a number of years ago, I had my car parked in my garage, and for some reason I had left my keys in the car. I had run into the house, and I was just going to ask my wife.
• 33:48
  if she wanted anything from Costco. I thought I was going to be in the house for maybe five minutes. I ended up being in there for about 20 minutes. I came out, and my car was gone. Well, a couple days later, we found my car, but my golf clubs that were in my car were gone. So if that would have been Zacchaeus, then he would have not only bought me a new set of clubs, but he would have bought my wife.
• 34:19
  and my daughter, and my son a set of golf clubs, because that's fourfold. You see, he didn't love his money so much as he loved that Jesus knew him. He didn't love his wealth so much, his position so much, that he loved it more than Jesus. See, he came to understand that Jesus loved him. And that's an important truth for each one of us to know.
• 34:56
  And it's an important thing for us to know when we talk to other people about Jesus. Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house. Now that's interesting you say that. Some people might say, well, how can he truly be saved since Jesus hasn't died yet? Well, friends, he had put his faith and trust in Jesus. And it's just like you and I. I mean, when I trusted Christ, I was 29 years old when I trusted Christ. It was back in 1982.
• 35:29
  I trusted Christ. And that's really all I knew. I had been reading the Bible, which is very unusual for me at the time. I owned a restaurant. I was a single guy. I was kind of living the life that I wanted to live. And I came to understand, after reading the Bible every night for two weeks, I came to understand that I was in trouble with the Lord. And so I asked him to come into my life. I knew that I was a sinner.
• 35:58
  And I asked him to save me and I asked him to make me be the person that he wanted me to be. But when I started reading the rest of the Bible, I just started believing everything that happened in it. I mean, I believe that God created everything out of nothing in Genesis chapter one. I believe that that was six literal days. We're in a Bible study on Wednesday nights and we're going through the book of Revelation. And I'm gonna tell you what, this idea of the rapture, I mean,
• 36:33
  Who in their right mind is going to believe that people are going to all of a sudden just disappear off the face of the earth? Millions and millions of people are going to disappear. That's hard to believe. But I believe it. Because it's in this book. This is the word of God. He says salvation has come into this house. And here's the climactic verse. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost.
• 37:11
  Whoever is lost, everybody who's lost, anybody who's lost, regardless of your circumstances. Friends, as a Christian, I don't ever want you to think that you've gone too far away from the Lord that you can't come back. And friends, if you're sitting here, since I really only know a few of you, if you're sitting out here and you're really not sure whether you have a true relationship with the Lord, maybe there's things going on in your life.
• 37:42
  that you know don't please Him, that you know are not the way that He wants you to live, you can never go too far away from the Lord where He can't reach out, find you, and bring you back to Him. And friends, let me say this. As you talk, you know, you're called to be an ambassador of Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul talks about this. You're called to be an apostle of Christ. He says,
• 38:09
  Anytime that you speak to the Lord, it is as though the Lord is speaking through you. As an ambassador of Christ, it's like Christ is speaking right through you to people who are in your sphere of influence, family and friends who don't know the Lord. But I want you to also, as a spokesman for Jesus Christ, which is your purpose in life,
• 38:35
  You know, it's to bring glory to the Lord by explaining to people what it is that Jesus has done for them. I mean, that's your primary responsibility as an ambassador. But I want you to think about what happened with Zacchaeus. You need to let people know in the same way that Zacchaeus knew that Jesus saw him. You need to let people know that Jesus knows exactly where they're at.
• 39:05
  You need to let people know that Jesus knows them by name. And you need to let people know that are in your sphere of influence that don't know Christ. You need to make sure that they know that Jesus wants to walk with them in their life. He wants to be with them. He wants to be in their house. He wants to be among their marriage and among their parenting or among the way that people treat their parents.
• 39:38
  employees or your employers or the way that you coach your baseball team, God initiates and he wants to have a relationship with you. That's a message that you need to let people know. See, a relationship involves communication. Jesus spoke with Zacharias. Did I say Zacharias? I meant Zacchaeus. I was going to call him Zach, but in favor of Zach Gardner, I don't want to.
• 40:34
  Jesus speaks and he'll speak to them through you and he'll speak to them through the word of God. See, anytime a person picks up the Bible and reads it, God's speaking to them. This is where God speaks. I'm not talking about an audible voice. I'm talking about a voice of the word of God. This is the most important tool that you have, friends. This is the most important weapon that you have to bring people
• 41:08
  who you know and love, to the Savior. Make sure that you let people know that he sees them, that he knows them by name, that he wants to be in their life. And he proved this by dying on the cross. Can you remember that? It's real simple. Bow with me for a word of prayer. Well, Father, we just want to give you praise and thanks this morning. Lord, I thank you for this time that we've had together. And I thank you for putting this account into...
• 41:46
  Luke's Gospel. Lord, I think it's an important thing for us to understand how much you love us. That you loved us so much that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. That was your demonstration of love. What a powerful demonstration of love. Because it happened not while people were seeking you or searching you out, but it happened while we were yet sinners. Lord, I thank you that we can
• 42:18
  understand that you love us, that you know us. You know us by name. You know everything about us. Lord, I thank you that we have a God who is so intimate, who wants to communicate with us and wants us to know him. Lord, we give you praise and thanks this morning. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. And most of all, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.
• 42:53
  We pray these things in his name. And everybody said, Amen.