Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 179 - Zacchaeus: Much More Than Just a Wee Little Man

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Ep. 179 - Zacchaeus: Much More Than Just a Wee Little Man · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:05
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus and Judas have quite a bit of parallels, but yet they went about their pursuit of money differently.
• 1:10
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus left God's family, he left God's will to pursue money, to pursue wealth, to pursue creaturely comforts.
• 1:18
  Oscar Navarro: Right, he's the sinner who ended up in the pigsty.
• 1:22
  Oscar Navarro: But Judas, he stayed close to the church, he stayed close to Jesus.
• 1:27
  Oscar Navarro: From the outside he was a whitewashed tomb, he was a moralist.
• 1:32
  Oscar Navarro: He was doing all the right things, he was following Christ.
• 1:34
  Oscar Navarro: Yet Zacchaeus and Judas, both were doing something.
• 1:38
  Oscar Navarro: One of them was running from God and one of them was staying close to God.
• 1:42
  Oscar Navarro: But Judas was staying close to God, as it turns out, for the same reasons.
• 1:46
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus was running from God for his own wealth, for his own comfort.
• 1:51
  Oscar Navarro: And so often in our lives we can do the same thing.
• 1:53
  Oscar Navarro: Some of us run far away from God because we want to pursue our own way, our own life, and some of us, we go to church every Sunday and we act the.
• 2:02
  Oscar Navarro: We play the part of the legalists and the moralists.
• 2:04
  Oscar Navarro: We do all the right things, we say all the right things, but we do it because we want control over our lives, because we want the wealth, because we want the comfort.
• 2:12
  Oscar Navarro: And the difference here is to be a Christian is to pursue God for who God is, not because we want our life, but because he gave up his life so that we could have a life.
• 2:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Guys, I have a really sincere, genuine question.
• 2:34
  Emeal Zwayne: It's unique because I never ask sincere, genuine questions.
• 2:39
  Mark Spence: The answer is four.
• 2:40
  Mark Spence: Two plus two is four.
• 2:41
  Emeal Zwayne: This is how you know when someone really knows someone, when they know that what they're gonna say is not what they're gonna say, but you're wrong.
• 2:47
  Emeal Zwayne: This is somewhat genuine.
• 2:49
  Emeal Zwayne: How many times is it appropriate to say excuse me to someone when they're telling you something and you can't understand them?
• 2:57
  Emeal Zwayne: I'm talking about whether it's an accent or it's too loud and it's hard to hear, or they're not speaking clearly enough.
• 3:03
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean seriously, how many times is it appropriate to say excuse me, Because I've been in some weird situations?
• 3:09
  Emeal Zwayne: Right?
• 3:10
  Ray Comfort: Three times and then you slap the face With your foot.
• 3:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, have you guys ever been in those situations where someone is telling you something?
• 3:19
  Ray Comfort: Excuse me, excuse me, it's gonna be the same thing as when?
• 3:22
  Emeal Zwayne: the timing?
• 3:22
  Emeal Zwayne: I know I predicted this a hundred times in my head already before this.
• 3:26
  Emeal Zwayne: Excuse me, okay, I can't.
• 3:27
  Emeal Zwayne: No, but someone's trying to tell you something and you don't understand them.
• 3:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Sometimes it's been an accent for me or it's been louder, and they keep saying it and it gets to a point where you get embarrassed.
• 3:38
  Emeal Zwayne: What's he talking?
• 3:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Excuse me, why did I put myself in?
• 3:42
  Oscar Navarro: this position.
• 3:42
  Oscar Navarro: No, you set yourself up on this one.
• 3:44
  Oscar Navarro: You set yourself up, I know.
• 3:47
  Emeal Zwayne: This is your fault, ez.
• 3:47
  Emeal Zwayne: But seriously though, does it get to a point where you just nod your head?
• 3:55
  Emeal Zwayne: I've done it where I'm like yeah, there's a courtesy thing.
• 3:58
  Ray Comfort: You don't want to make the person seem very foolish, so you just got to use discretion.
• 4:03
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, but they're asking you a question or they're telling you something and you don't know what you're agreeing to.
• 4:07
  Oscar Navarro: but it just gets to a point where it's like One of my sisters is hearing impaired and we used to give her a heart tum all the time because if she's, what's that?
• 4:15
  Emeal Zwayne: Don't do it.
• 4:16
  Oscar Navarro: I knew it.
• 4:16
  Oscar Navarro: If she was across the table with somebody and they would crack a joke, everyone would laugh and you would see my sister, sam, go like if you were me and I'm Sam, she'd go like this.
• 4:24
  Oscar Navarro: What did he say?
• 4:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, it's kind of like that.
• 4:29
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, I remember a friend of mine's mom when I was growing up, a friend that I actually ended up reuniting with not long ago.
• 4:37
  Ray Comfort: There's too many details.
• 4:37
  Ray Comfort: He was a really nice guy.
• 4:39
  Ray Comfort: He had nice hair.
• 4:40
  Oscar Navarro: This is what happens when you get older.
• 4:42
  Oscar Navarro: He was kind of tall.
• 4:42
  Oscar Navarro: He was born in Westminster in the 80s.
• 4:44
  Oscar Navarro: It wasn't Westminster where he lived.
• 4:48
  Emeal Zwayne: But I remember she said something and just always stuck with me.
• 4:50
  Emeal Zwayne: She said always listen very closely to what people say, Listen closely to their words.
• 4:57
  Emeal Zwayne: It was just a bit of wisdom, and it always comes back to mind in situations where it's like it's easy for us to just kind of brush things off, yeah, or agree to something, and then end up finding it out that it was something different than what we thought.
• 5:12
  Emeal Zwayne: And so I think that's.
• 5:15
  Ray Comfort: It's biblical too be swift to hear and slow to speak.
• 5:18
  Ray Comfort: So be swift to hear and slow to speak Slow.
• 5:23
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, so you guys ever tried those tests to see if you can hear a super high-pitched sound?
• 5:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Kids ever do that.
• 5:32
  Emeal Zwayne: You mean like you're singing.
• 5:35
  Oscar Navarro: No, but you know they have them.
• 5:36
  Oscar Navarro: They like the beep tests.
• 5:37
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, I had one when I was a kid.
• 5:40
  Oscar Navarro: Oh, they have them on your phone.
• 5:43
  Mark Spence: Yeah, I do it all the time around.
• 5:44
  Mark Spence: When I'm around kids.
• 5:44
  Mark Spence: I put my phone in a conspicuous place.
• 5:47
  Mark Spence: I turned that little thing on, knowing that none of the adults can hear it.
• 5:51
  Emeal Zwayne: You can't hear it, right, I can't hear it.
• 5:53
  Mark Spence: They're just like.
• 5:55
  Emeal Zwayne: It's like a dog whistle Kids can't hear it.
• 5:57
  Mark Spence: It's like a dog whistle for kids.
• 5:58
  Emeal Zwayne: It's like a dog whistle for kids.
• 5:59
  Emeal Zwayne: Why can they hear?
• 6:00
  Oscar Navarro: it and you can't?
• 6:01
  Mark Spence: I don't know, because we just get older and are hearing it.
• 6:03
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, I think that's what's going on.
• 6:04
  Ray Comfort: I'm playing it now.
• 6:07
  Emeal Zwayne: But I wonder that you know, like how much better did we used to hear.
• 6:11
  Emeal Zwayne: And then time goes by and you just don't know anymore, you don't realize anymore.
• 6:14
  Emeal Zwayne: That's.
• 6:15
  Ray Comfort: Richard Dawkins Millions of years ago.
• 6:18
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, crazy stuff.
• 6:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Mark Scottedon's phone.
• 6:24
  Ray Comfort: Are you turning it on?
• 6:25
  Emeal Zwayne: Mark.
• 6:26
  Mark Spence: Yeah, can you hear it?
• 6:27
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh that's so loud.
• 6:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh wow, no, you're not playing it, are you?
• 6:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, no, I can't hear anything.
• 6:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Can you hear it, oscar?
• 6:34
  Emeal Zwayne: No, not even in your headphones.
• 6:36
  Ray Comfort: It's an intelligence test we failed.
• 6:39
  Emeal Zwayne: It's called a dog whistle.
• 6:40
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah yeah, so it's just crazy when you think about that.
• 6:44
  Emeal Zwayne: You know one of the things.
• 6:45
  Ray Comfort: Hang on a minute.
• 6:45
  Ray Comfort: A wonderful lot of kids is listening to you just blew a billion eardrums my ears are bleeding.
• 6:52
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, no, but you know one of the things that I do sometimes, rachel and the kids always laugh at me.
• 6:57
  Emeal Zwayne: If I'm talking to someone with an accent, I start to mimic their accent.
• 7:02
  Oscar Navarro: No, it's called mirroring.
• 7:03
  Oscar Navarro: Is that a thing?
• 7:04
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, it's a thing.
• 7:05
  Oscar Navarro: I do something similar.
• 7:08
  Emeal Zwayne: I think it's because I'm subconsciously thinking they'll understand me better.
• 7:12
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, and usually the person that does it is delusional into thinking the accent is actually genuine sound.
• 7:18
  Emeal Zwayne: Sing us a song.
• 7:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, yeah, right, I like seven days.
• 7:21
  Emeal Zwayne: Right, you know that I spiked just long, yeah, and then just like the way you tell it, right.
• 7:29
  Mark Spence: Sounds like a convict Australia being tortured in Australia.
• 7:33
  Emeal Zwayne: You know.
• 7:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Seriously, I wonder.
• 7:34
  Emeal Zwayne: Look, when my dad moved to the US, ray, you were probably about three.
• 7:39
  Emeal Zwayne: My dad was 70.
• 7:41
  Emeal Zwayne: He's now, you know, 112.
• 7:42
  Emeal Zwayne: That's crazy Every time, those numbers.
• 7:43
  Emeal Zwayne: So, ray, I wonder what it would have been like for you.
• 7:47
  Emeal Zwayne: My dad never learned English, but if you moved to a place like Russia or China or you know wherever, if you would still have a New Zealand accent.
• 7:55
  Ray Comfort: I'd learn the language.
• 7:57
  Ray Comfort: Just I'd say it's like food now and things like that yeah but the basics.
• 8:02
  Emeal Zwayne: But I mean, like would you do it with, like, a New?
• 8:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Zealand?
• 8:05
  Ray Comfort: accent, I think.
• 8:05
  Ray Comfort: So I think I wouldn't mediate Like would it be like if you're in Germany?
• 8:09
  Emeal Zwayne: would it be like Flavik Nogen, lena Schnitzel, what on?
• 8:18
  Oscar Navarro: If there is a Russian New Zealander out there listening to this podcast, would you email us?
• 8:23
  Emeal Zwayne: We'd love to hear your accent, but I'd give to you Ray speaking of Russian Record it, record it and send it to us, just unsubscribed.
• 8:30
  Ray Comfort: I'd say it.
• 8:33
  Emeal Zwayne: All right, friends, we've got a comment.
• 8:35
  Emeal Zwayne: This is from Garrett Rose.
• 8:37
  Emeal Zwayne: I want to thank y'all so much for doing this podcast.
• 8:40
  Emeal Zwayne: It reminds me of what Christian friendship and fellowship looks like and always makes me feel like I'm with my friends talking about the word of God.
• 8:48
  Emeal Zwayne: I also want to thank Ray specifically because of your evangelism videos, I realized that I wasn't saved because I never understood the weight and consequences of my sin.
• 8:57
  Emeal Zwayne: Thank you.
• 8:58
  Ray Comfort: Praise the Lord, praise God yeah.
• 9:02
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean we hear of one person that got saved, but this has potentially generational impact their kids and then those that know them.
• 9:10
  Emeal Zwayne: I think about that sometimes.
• 9:12
  Emeal Zwayne: When we talk about the number of people that watch our YouTube channel or listen to the podcast or watch the TV show, you have to think that the extrapolation of that because those people all have a circle of influence, you know, I mean if each person knew 10 people really well, you know, you multiply the potential of impact by 10, you know, do you remember that?
• 9:32
  Oscar Navarro: the young man that we met at the way of the master relaunch season?
• 9:36
  Oscar Navarro: I can't even remember now, but he came up to us, he had one of the original evidence Bibles and he told me that you guys have to remember this.
• 9:43
  Oscar Navarro: He told me that he started watching Way of the Master with his parents when he was like a kid, I don't know five, six years old, and now he's a dad.
• 9:51
  Oscar Navarro: Oh yeah, yes, he's watching Way of the Master with his kids.
• 9:54
  Emeal Zwayne: I totally remember that.
• 9:54
  Emeal Zwayne: Isn't that crazy.
• 9:55
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful.
• 9:55
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, it's lovely and encouraging.
• 9:57
  Emeal Zwayne: So thank you for that, garrett, and may the Lord continue to use you as you grow in him.
• 10:03
  Emeal Zwayne: All right, friends, this podcast is brought to you by the Equipping Book Pack.
• 10:08
  Emeal Zwayne: Ray, this was your brainchild, as most things are.
• 10:11
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• 10:24
  Emeal Zwayne: Banana, Banana man, Banana man.
• 10:27
  Emeal Zwayne: So make sure to check it out, friends, along with the Living Waters podcast Mug and the Evidence Study Bible at LivingWaterscom Dot com.
• 10:37
  Ray Comfort: We started putting in hot chocolate in the mugs.
• 10:41
  Emeal Zwayne: Did you?
• 10:41
  Emeal Zwayne: Yes, I did you, and I talked about that.
• 10:43
  Emeal Zwayne: Who gave you that idea?
• 10:43
  Ray Comfort: Ray, you gave the idea to me and I went ahead and did it.
• 10:46
  Oscar Navarro: That's why so, if they get the mug, so wait, this is big news they get hot chocolate.
• 10:50
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, hot chocolate in the mug, it spills.
• 10:53
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, is it still hot by the?
• 10:54
  Ray Comfort: time it gets there, yeah.
• 10:56
  Emeal Zwayne: While supplies last and as long as we decide to keep doing it.
• 10:59
  Oscar Navarro: just in case someone's hearing this game online I'm glad you said that you should throw a marshmallow in there too.
• 11:04
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, they should get it with the hot chocolate already mixed with everything in there.
• 11:07
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, friends, that's fun, so make sure to get all that good stuff.
• 11:11
  Ray Comfort: That's nice.
• 11:11
  Ray Comfort: The staff has been drinking it before it goes.
• 11:15
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, All right friends.
• 11:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Today we're talking about.
• 11:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Zach.
• 11:21
  Emeal Zwayne: Kias was a wee little man.
• 11:23
  Emeal Zwayne: A wee little man, was he?
• 11:25
  Emeal Zwayne: What a sick song he climbed up in a sycamore tree Is this real, what You've never heard Wait stop.
• 11:30
  Ray Comfort: Israel.
• 11:31
  Oscar Navarro: Is this real?
• 11:32
  Oscar Navarro: Oh, there's a song in Israel.
• 11:33
  Emeal Zwayne: No, no, no, You're joking.
• 11:33
  Ray Comfort: Israel, israel.
• 11:34
  Emeal Zwayne: You are joking, Oscar.
• 11:35
  Emeal Zwayne: You've never heard that song.
• 11:36
  Emeal Zwayne: I didn't grow up Christian?
• 11:37
  Oscar Navarro: I don't know any of this stuff.
• 11:38
  Ray Comfort: You've never heard that.
• 11:39
  Ray Comfort: No, it's a demeaning song about a man of God.
• 11:42
  Ray Comfort: Yeah.
• 11:45
  Emeal Zwayne: Ray, why am I feeling like personal and the most important song and the most important song, yeah it's because I'm standing at this table.
• 11:53
  Mark Spence: On stealth.
• 11:54
  Mark Spence: Listen, you really got to hand it to Ray, because you probably can't reach it anyway.
• 11:59
  Mark Spence: That's a good dad joke there, Mark.
• 12:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Ray look, I'm looking, what do?
• 12:08
  Oscar Navarro: you want to ask.
• 12:11
  Ray Comfort: I remember sitting in my dad's car when I was a little kid and I saw my dad talking to a man and I thought my dad's short, he's five foot eight.
• 12:17
  Ray Comfort: He was five.
• 12:18
  Ray Comfort: I didn't even get a five foot five.
• 12:20
  Ray Comfort: I think I reached five foot five.
• 12:22
  Ray Comfort: So my dad was tall compared to me, my brother's.
• 12:25
  Ray Comfort: The thing is about six foot or six feet.
• 12:27
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, philip is pretty tall, that hasn't made me better at all.
• 12:29
  Oscar Navarro: What's it like to duck under a dog.
• 12:34
  Mark Spence: That does not make Ray happy.
• 12:36
  Mark Spence: Well then which one does it make you You're?
• 12:38
  Ray Comfort: not happy either.
• 12:39
  Emeal Zwayne: That makes me dopey.
• 12:39
  Emeal Zwayne: So, ray, this is yeah, I mean Zachy is he's in God's word, and I mean this is what he's known for being short yeah For returning and people singing silly songs about the poor guy.
• 12:54
  Ray Comfort: What do you see as glorified body?
• 12:55
  Ray Comfort: So I tell you what if you study, if you study tall people in scripture, they didn't come down very well.
• 13:03
  Ray Comfort: You got Goliath down.
• 13:04
  Ray Comfort: He went.
• 13:05
  Ray Comfort: You've got King Saul.
• 13:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, turn that to be a rat bag.
• 13:07
  Ray Comfort: He has hidden shoulders about the people.
• 13:09
  Ray Comfort: Jesus looked up to Zacchaeus.
• 13:15
  Emeal Zwayne: My grandson Haddon is like addicted to the song.
• 13:18
  Ray Comfort: He just sings it all the time he's going to be about eight foot six.
• 13:21
  Emeal Zwayne: He's going to.
• 13:22
  Emeal Zwayne: He's in the 99th percentile, yeah, and so you know.
• 13:26
  Emeal Zwayne: Matthias is six, four Summers, five, eight tall for a girl, and so I met him the other day.
• 13:31
  Oscar Navarro: He was shaving he's getting there.
• 13:33
  Mark Spence: Wait, how tall is Matthias?
• 13:35
  Emeal Zwayne: Six, four, wow, yeah.
• 13:36
  Emeal Zwayne: But he just loves this song and it's like we don't know what to do because he's at the park the other day and he's singing it and he's in the tree and he's like I'm in a sycamore tree.
• 13:47
  Emeal Zwayne: Who put them in the tree?
• 13:48
  Emeal Zwayne: They just put them up there because they wanted to go have fun around the park.
• 13:51
  Ray Comfort: It's the babysitter, so they wanted to go to the supermarket.
• 13:54
  Ray Comfort: Can?
• 13:54
  Emeal Zwayne: you imagine here's son stay here.
• 13:56
  Emeal Zwayne: But but yeah, zacchaeus was a wee little man.
• 14:00
  Emeal Zwayne: A wee little man was he?
• 14:01
  Emeal Zwayne: He climbed up in the sycamore tree, the Lord he wanted to see Mark no.
• 14:05
  Mark Spence: I was just wondering how do short people greet each other?
• 14:07
  Mark Spence: Yeah, they microwave.
• 14:14
  Emeal Zwayne: You did your dad joke research.
• 14:16
  Mark Spence: I love this.
• 14:17
  Ray Comfort: I love short jokes.
• 14:18
  Mark Spence: I wasn't going to do any until Ray gave me permission.
• 14:20
  Ray Comfort: That's right, because, well, the good thing about short jokes is they don't go on too long.
• 14:25
  Emeal Zwayne: That's so good.
• 14:26
  Emeal Zwayne: I remember years ago, Ray, I wrote a whole long list of short joke comebacks that Rachel can use.
• 14:34
  Emeal Zwayne: She's four foot 10.
• 14:35
  Emeal Zwayne: Four foot 10 mother hen is what we call her.
• 14:37
  Emeal Zwayne: But yeah, zacchaeus, let me read the story for us and kick us off, because the title, friends, of this podcast is Zacchaeus Much More Than Just A Wee Little man.
• 14:47
  Emeal Zwayne: So Luke 19, 1 to 10,.
• 14:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
• 14:51
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was King James says, because of the press, because of what.
• 15:05
  Ray Comfort: Because the media really appreciated what was going on?
• 15:07
  Emeal Zwayne: Does it say the press?
• 15:08
  Ray Comfort: It says the press.
• 15:09
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, the press Fake news.
• 15:12
  Emeal Zwayne: For he was of short stature.
• 15:14
  Emeal Zwayne: So he ran ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.
• 15:20
  Emeal Zwayne: And when Jesus came to that place he looked up and saw him and said to him Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.
• 15:29
  Emeal Zwayne: So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.
• 15:33
  Emeal Zwayne: But when they saw it they all complained, saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who was a sinner.
• 15:38
  Emeal Zwayne: Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord look, lord, I give half of my goods to the poor and I have, if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.
• 15:48
  Emeal Zwayne: And Jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost man.
• 16:00
  Emeal Zwayne: This passage is so packed, there's so much in here, so much, and it's so Easy.
• 16:05
  Ray Comfort: I noticed we were reading the whole portion.
• 16:07
  Ray Comfort: You were smiling.
• 16:08
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, I mean because, again, Jesus is so much more than we oftentimes give him credit for being and did, so much more by way of significance than I think we realize.
• 16:21
  Emeal Zwayne: And as I'm reading it, it's coming, it's all coming back to heart and mind like man.
• 16:25
  Emeal Zwayne: This is really amazing and I think context is important and understanding those things is key.
• 16:31
  Emeal Zwayne: So, oscar, give us a little bit of background and fill in the blanks on.
• 16:35
  Emeal Zwayne: He's a tax collector, yes, and that's a good place to start.
• 16:38
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, and we already see here that obviously the religious were in an uproar because he's going to be with a center.
• 16:46
  Emeal Zwayne: So give us a background.
• 16:47
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, the context of tax collector, I think, is really important as we come across those words in the scriptures often.
• 16:53
  Oscar Navarro: It's good for us to know what it is and how it's different, because even if we, if we knew one of our neighbors worked for their IRS right now, we all probably wouldn't like them very much already right Because they're a tax collector, but it was even more so.
• 17:07
  Oscar Navarro: Remember that the taxes that Zacchaeus was helping collect was from the Jews and for the Romans, and Zacchaeus was the Jews.
• 17:16
  Oscar Navarro: So what the Roman, what the Roman centurions would do, is they would come in and they would go to a Jew and they would basically hire them away from the people.
• 17:26
  Oscar Navarro: They would betray his own people.
• 17:29
  Oscar Navarro: He would become a spy for his own people.
• 17:32
  Oscar Navarro: It was like okay, zacchaeus, you know the lay of the land, you know how much Mark is making and what easy in his family do for work and what and how often Ray goes out.
• 17:42
  Oscar Navarro: You know fishing.
• 17:43
  Oscar Navarro: So it's you're going to be the best equipped person to be able to tell us whether they're being honest about the money they're making and whether or not they're paying us the right amount.
• 17:52
  Oscar Navarro: And so, to the Jewish people, a tax collector was someone who betrayed his own people.
• 17:58
  Oscar Navarro: He was working for the enemy.
• 18:00
  Oscar Navarro: That people and remember, rome is not a welcomed guest in Israel they took over, they forcefully took over the land.
• 18:08
  Oscar Navarro: Right, they are occupying the promised land.
• 18:11
  Oscar Navarro: And so Zacchaeus and all of the tax collectors in the New Testament, for that matter, they're heavily looked down upon.
• 18:19
  Oscar Navarro: He is categorized immediately as a sinner, while we are all sinners, but he is especially categorized as a sinner because he's betraying his own people by being this tax collector.
• 18:28
  Oscar Navarro: And one other thing to add to that context is that the better you were, the more money you made, the more money Zacchaeus found in the crevices that people were hiding.
• 18:38
  Oscar Navarro: He earned a percentage of that, and so he was directly motivated to shake people out of more money for the Romans, because it means he would make more money himself.
• 18:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, and I think the text really gives us insight into how rich he was.
• 18:52
  Emeal Zwayne: He's saying I'll give away half of everything that I own to the poor and then, on top of that, I'll restore fourfold to anyone that I've ripped off and I assure you he ripped off a lot of people that reveals he knew the law, because the law, lord Moses, said you pay back fourfold.
• 19:10
  Ray Comfort: So revealed he had some semblance of Jewishness in that sense.
• 19:15
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, and look, we can't really downplay how hated the tax collectors were.
• 19:19
  Emeal Zwayne: As Oscar said, you know there was a betrayal, of course, against the Jewish people.
• 19:23
  Emeal Zwayne: They were in cahoots with Rome, but then they're getting ripped off blind, you know.
• 19:29
  Emeal Zwayne: So they're taking their livelihood and then they're consorting with the enemy.
• 19:32
  Emeal Zwayne: They were really hated and we see insight in this, you know, from scripture.
• 19:37
  Emeal Zwayne: In fact, luke 18, jesus was talking about the unrighteous versus the righteous and their prayers, and the hypocrite.
• 19:43
  Emeal Zwayne: And he says the Pharisees stood by himself and prayed God.
• 19:47
  Emeal Zwayne: I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
• 19:53
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, I mean it was they were grouped in with like the most hideous.
• 19:59
  Emeal Zwayne: And in Matthew 18, where Jesus was talking about church discipline, you know, and if your brother's sins against you, approach him.
• 20:04
  Emeal Zwayne: If he doesn't repent, take one or two, then take it to the church or whatever he says.
• 20:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Even and this is what he says in Matthew 18, he says 1817, if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
• 20:18
  Emeal Zwayne: So again, the picture is being drawn here that that Zacchaeus, he was a very detested and hated guy.
• 20:27
  Emeal Zwayne: And so, ray, how beautiful is that picture of him being so eager to wanna see the Lord.
• 20:34
  Ray Comfort: he climbs up and oh, I just find it very thrilling that he ran ahead because he wanted to see Jesus, who he was.
• 20:41
  Ray Comfort: Not just see Jesus, but who he was, which is?
• 20:46
  Ray Comfort: You read scripture, you come up with the same thing.
• 20:49
  Ray Comfort: You go who is this?
• 20:50
  Ray Comfort: It's like the disciples when Jesus still the storm, they said who is this man?
• 20:55
  Ray Comfort: That even the wind and the sea obeys him.
• 20:57
  Ray Comfort: And so he climbed a tree, which shows humility of heart.
• 21:01
  Ray Comfort: And when Jesus said, make haste and come down, it says Zacchaeus made haste.
• 21:06
  Ray Comfort: So there's a sense of urgency for every person to make haste in coming to Christ.
• 21:11
  Ray Comfort: Amen.
• 21:12
  Mark Spence: You know, I kind of put this into effect when I had the opportunity to meet George Clooney and give him that gospel track oh, yeah, right.
• 21:19
  Mark Spence: He was over in a section where everybody was kind of throwing in towards him and I knew the way it worked, that eventually he would make his way down the line where other people were at.
• 21:28
  Mark Spence: So I ran ahead to where he would be at, got into the front row and then he made his way on over to me and I gave him a million dollar gospel track and he held it up for the cameras and his comment was look, now I'm a millionaire.
• 21:40
  Mark Spence: And I said, sir, what's written on the backside of that is more important than all the money inside your bank.
• 21:45
  Mark Spence: Wow.
• 21:47
  Mark Spence: So, real quick, I was not up a tree.
• 21:50
  Mark Spence: Real quick for the listener who's George Clooney?
• 21:54
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, that's so good, mark.
• 21:56
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, mark, I do want you to comment on this.
• 21:59
  Emeal Zwayne: We often talk about how important it is to in fact, you talked about it in a recent podcast about how important it is to hold up the character of God, to open up the character of God.
• 22:12
  Emeal Zwayne: Jesus, in a sense, was a novelty to Zacchaeus and to those that were living in that region, and what we see here in America oftentimes is the opposite of this.
• 22:23
  Emeal Zwayne: Like, get me as far away from hearing about Jesus as possible.
• 22:27
  Emeal Zwayne: Zacchaeus was eager to see him.
• 22:30
  Emeal Zwayne: No doubt he had heard about him and I would assume, about his character, what he was like, you know what he was doing, his great power, so on, and so forth.
• 22:36
  Ray Comfort: Of course, remember the press was there, so he obviously had to know about that.
• 22:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, the press was getting the word out, but we have the opposite problem today, Mark.
• 22:43
  Emeal Zwayne: Do you think that we can capture people's attention again to be more interested in the Lord by speaking about his character, as opposed to just like assuming they know what Christ was like and what God is like?
• 22:58
  Mark Spence: Well, I mean you should know the truth and the truth will set you free.
• 23:01
  Mark Spence: You know Jesus is seeking after those who are gonna worship the Father and spirit in and truth.
• 23:05
  Mark Spence: So it's good to have a proper understanding, a clear picture of who God is and leave the results to God.
• 23:11
  Mark Spence: Right, I mean cause.
• 23:12
  Mark Spence: We cannot save anybody.
• 23:14
  Mark Spence: I do think that the more we are able to share scripture, the better off we'll be inside of our presentation, because scripture does not return void, so we get it in us and there will be ample opportunity to get it out of us.
• 23:27
  Mark Spence: It might, ray, do you remember several years ago when we went miniature golfing, when I just started working at the ministry?
• 23:34
  Oscar Navarro: Is there any other kind of golfing career?
• 23:36
  Mark Spence: Well, that's what I'm saying.
• 23:37
  Mark Spence: He doesn't remember it because he just simply called it golf.
• 23:39
  Mark Spence: Yeah, it's just golfing.
• 23:40
  Ray Comfort: I thought why are the clubs so big?
• 23:41
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, oh, was that your joke?
• 23:44
  Ray Comfort: You had no point.
• 23:45
  Ray Comfort: I thought that was a real.
• 23:46
  Mark Spence: If you ask me how tall I am, I'm gonna say I'm about six feet.
• 23:48
  Mark Spence: But if you ask Ray how tall he is, what do you say Ray, Five point, five feet, five, Five 11 inches.
• 23:53
  Mark Spence: No, I say four, four, 14, I think, or something like that Five, 11 inches, it's always just more specific.
• 23:59
  Ray Comfort: Four, yeah, five, 11 inch, Something like that.
• 24:03
  Emeal Zwayne: Mark, was there a note?
• 24:04
  Emeal Zwayne: What was that?
• 24:04
  Emeal Zwayne: No, that was it.
• 24:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Listen, we don't need to climb a tree to see.
• 24:07
  Mark Spence: We don't need to climb a tree to see truth, but listen, you draw near to God, god will draw near to you.
• 24:13
  Mark Spence: So if we open up God's word, he's gonna meet us more than where we're at, but where we need to be.
• 24:20
  Mark Spence: And imagine, to his surprise, zacchaeus' response when Jesus looks up to him, gets eye contact and says today I'm going to dine with you.
• 24:31
  Mark Spence: Just what took over him to where he goes.
• 24:36
  Mark Spence: Yeah, man, let's do the flamingo.
• 24:37
  Ray Comfort: Probably hasn't had any Jews dine with him for 40 years.
• 24:40
  Ray Comfort: Yeah that's probably true.
• 24:42
  Oscar Navarro: I've been thinking a lot.
• 24:43
  Oscar Navarro: This is unformed thoughts, but this morning I've been thinking a lot about the parallel between Zacchaeus and Judas, and it kind of reminds me of the Prodigal Son story, because Zacchaeus and Judas have quite a bit of parallels, but yet they went about their pursuit of money differently.
• 24:59
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus left God's family, he left God's will to pursue money, to pursue wealth, to pursue creaturely comforts.
• 25:07
  Oscar Navarro: Right, he's the sinner who ended up in the pigsty.
• 25:10
  Oscar Navarro: But Judas, he stayed close to the church, he stayed close to Jesus.
• 25:16
  Oscar Navarro: From the outside, he was a whitewashed tomb, he was a moralist, he was doing all the right things, he was following Christ.
• 25:23
  Oscar Navarro: Yet Zacchaeus and Judas, both were doing something.
• 25:27
  Oscar Navarro: One of them was running from God and one of them was staying close to God.
• 25:30
  Oscar Navarro: But Judas was staying close to God, as it turns out, for the same reasons.
• 25:35
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus was running from God for his own wealth, for his own comfort.
• 25:39
  Oscar Navarro: And so often in our lives we can do the same thing.
• 25:43
  Oscar Navarro: Some of us run far away from God because we want to pursue our own way, our own life, and some of us, we go to church every Sunday and we act, we play the part of the legalists and the moralists.
• 25:53
  Oscar Navarro: We do all the right things, we say all the right things, but we do it because we want control over our lives, because we want the wealth, because we want the comfort.
• 26:01
  Oscar Navarro: And the difference here is, to be a Christian is to pursue God for who God is, not because we want our life, but because he gave up his life so that we could have a life.
• 26:15
  Oscar Navarro: And that's the beauty of this story.
• 26:16
  Oscar Navarro: Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see the savior, who would die on a tree for him and for us, to make sure that we don't become a pre-saved Zacchaeus or a Judas, we have to do the same thing.
• 26:31
  Oscar Navarro: We have to look to the cross and to see what God has done for us.
• 26:36
  Oscar Navarro: And only when we really, truly understand the love of God can we put away our own way of doing things, our own legalistic ways, our own antinomian ways, and pursue Christ for the sake of Christ.
• 26:49
  Ray Comfort: And Zacchaeus came alive by a tree and Judas died by a tree.
• 26:52
  Ray Comfort: That's good.
• 26:53
  Emeal Zwayne: That's really good, ray, would you call that humility, what Zacchaeus did?
• 26:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Because I mean I'll tell you now Humility, but I mean yes, yes, because he was basically putting himself on display.
• 27:07
  Emeal Zwayne: I'm a short man, you know what I mean.
• 27:10
  Emeal Zwayne: I don't care, and maybe that's what was behind it.
• 27:13
  Emeal Zwayne: And not only that, he's doing two things he's putting himself on display as I'm a short man, and he's also drawing attention to himself from everyone that hated him.
• 27:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Here I am the tax collector.
• 27:24
  Ray Comfort: Up a tree.
• 27:25
  Emeal Zwayne: Up a tree.
• 27:26
  Ray Comfort: It might be good to give some thought as to why he was a tax collector.
• 27:29
  Ray Comfort: Why would he betray his people?
• 27:30
  Ray Comfort: Perhaps he was despised because of his shortness, Because we tend to do that.
• 27:35
  Ray Comfort: You don't get people being bullied that are six foot eight.
• 27:38
  Ray Comfort: In school it's usually the little kid they get or the shorty they get.
• 27:41
  Ray Comfort: My first memory as a kid was being put to the front of the class, cross-legged for the school photo.
• 27:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Really.
• 27:49
  Ray Comfort: Because I was the shortest and I wouldn't block any views, but didn't they have you just stand, no.
• 27:56
  Mark Spence: The water evaporates in the shower before it hits me.
• 27:59
  Mark Spence: I'm teaching this, yeah.
• 28:03
  Ray Comfort: So maybe he was a tax collector because people despised him because of his lack of stature.
• 28:08
  Ray Comfort: So it's always good, like Rachel, your wife, she really didn't like people looking down on her to want better wording.
• 28:18
  Ray Comfort: But yeah, we need to be very careful how we talk to people with their physical attributes.
• 28:25
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, but there is something in mankind, in the heart, that I think, whatever you are, I mean sometimes people think, oh, you're tall, so that must be all good for you.
• 28:37
  Emeal Zwayne: But I've heard a lot of tall people say I wish I wasn't that tall, right?
• 28:41
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, look how awkward Mark is.
• 28:43
  Emeal Zwayne: Anything that stands out, at least I'm able to reach my goals, yeah.
• 28:47
  Emeal Zwayne: Anything that stands out from the norm, I think it becomes fodder for people.
• 28:53
  Emeal Zwayne: What is it in the human heart?
• 28:55
  Emeal Zwayne: Like what?
• 28:56
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, if everybody was four foot six, no one would be short.
• 28:59
  Emeal Zwayne: That's true, right, I mean it's that standout.
• 29:02
  Emeal Zwayne: I think that draws the attention.
• 29:05
  Emeal Zwayne: But the human heart, I mean you wanna see the extent of the sinful fallen nature.
• 29:11
  Emeal Zwayne: Just look at how kids treat each other.
• 29:13
  Emeal Zwayne: Nothing kills me more than when I see kids being bullied.
• 29:17
  Ray Comfort: I don't know what it is.
• 29:18
  Ray Comfort: All the flies.
• 29:18
  Ray Comfort: Do you remember that movie?
• 29:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh yeah.
• 29:20
  Ray Comfort: Just terrific.
• 29:21
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, it just became this animalistic kind of a thing, but yeah, but I think that there is that importance so far as believers, to be secure in who the Lord has made us.
• 29:36
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, there are some people that won't put themselves in certain situations cause they're embarrassed or fearful about what people might say about them or how they might be perceived.
• 29:47
  Oscar Navarro: You bring up a really good point, easy and actually just preached, on Psalm 139, in which it reminds us that God is the one who creates us, our formed substance and our unformed substance, our personalities, our dispositions and our physical appearance.
• 30:05
  Oscar Navarro: And I think that's really important to remember, because oftentimes what happens as believers is that we start to believe the lies of the devil, that God wasn't paying attention when he made us, that he messed up.
• 30:17
  Oscar Navarro: And when we believe those lies, we begin to speak accusations against God.
• 30:23
  Oscar Navarro: Why am I not tall enough?
• 30:25
  Oscar Navarro: Why am I not pretty enough?
• 30:27
  Oscar Navarro: Why doesn't my body look like hers?
• 30:29
  Oscar Navarro: Or why am I not tall like him?
• 30:30
  Oscar Navarro: Why am I not shorter?
• 30:32
  Oscar Navarro: Why am I not shorter, as Mark's always asking himself, like Ray?
• 30:35
  Oscar Navarro: And here's the thing that's important to remember is that there is not a freckle on your body that is misplaced, there is not a hair on your head that does or does not belong there.
• 30:45
  Oscar Navarro: Right, god shaped you.
• 30:48
  Oscar Navarro: And it reminds me when I was, a couple of years ago, like for Valentine's Day, I wanted to make my family heart-shaped cookies, and so I kind of formed the dough and I put the you know, the four hearts in the oven and they all came out and most of them look like hearts.
• 31:02
  Oscar Navarro: But one of them did it and you know like I handed them off to everybody.
• 31:05
  Oscar Navarro: I handed it to my daughters I'm like here's your heart-shaped cookie and to my son, and then to my wife I gave her the deformed one.
• 31:11
  Oscar Navarro: I'm like, here's your liver cookie, you know.
• 31:14
  Oscar Navarro: Here's the thing, though, is you're not a liver cookie Like.
• 31:17
  Oscar Navarro: God didn't mess up when he made you.
• 31:19
  Oscar Navarro: He shaped you in the way that he wanted to shape you for his glory and his good, and the more we listen to the devil, the more we begin to believe in his own lies and make accusations against God.
• 31:33
  Mark Spence: Wow you know there was in church history.
• 31:35
  Mark Spence: I was talking, I was looking up the appearance of the apostle Paul and the question was asked how do we know who Paul is when he comes into town?
• 31:43
  Mark Spence: And the response was this Paul was a small man of stature with a bald head, crooked legs and a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting, I mean.
• 31:54
  Mark Spence: He had a mono brow and a nose somewhat hooked.
• 31:57
  Ray Comfort: Who said all this?
• 31:59
  Mark Spence: However, his wife, full of friendliness For now, he appeared like a man and he had the face of an angel.
• 32:06
  Mark Spence: That's good, friendly in the face of an angel, you know, but otherwise he looked like one of you.
• 32:15
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, you know you think about Jesus.
• 32:17
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean Isaiah 53 talking about you know there was no comeliness, form or comeliness or beauty and, depending on how it's translated, yeah, you see the hand of God in his creation.
• 32:29
  Emeal Zwayne: Obviously, we know it's a fallen world, so there are imperfections from our perspective, but that perfection is attributed to the fact that this is what God willed ultimately and I've shared this quote before, but it's one of my absolute favorites this is by George McDonald I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of, for to have been thought about, born in God's thought and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.
• 32:59
  Emeal Zwayne: This is such a powerful and insightful quote because I mean, really, you could have been the grandest, most beautiful thing, but hypothetically, not made by God, but imagine being exactly who God, from his hand, had its functioning in making you.
• 33:20
  Mark Spence: Yeah, the master, artist, sculptor.
• 33:21
  Mark Spence: Right, he didn't just give you freckles, he strategically placed every freckle, every hair strategically placed.
• 33:27
  Mark Spence: Knowing, then, the number of hairs on her head, that is who God made me.
• 33:36
  Ray Comfort: I guess way back in my memory banks, but some study was done years ago of seniors in university that were most likely to succeed and they went back to them 10 years later and they had fluffed it almost all of them Really.
• 33:49
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, they were the successful, good-looking, the tall, the intelligent, the strong and in society just didn't work.
• 33:57
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, you know, yeah.
• 33:58
  Emeal Zwayne: That's good.
• 33:58
  Emeal Zwayne: And so how about the impartiality of Christ in this, though?
• 34:02
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, oh beautiful, he didn't act differently toward Zacchaeus because he was a short stature and because he was a tax collector, yeah, you know, and he got flack for it.
• 34:16
  Oscar Navarro: Yep Stayed with sinners.
• 34:18
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, look at you.
• 34:18
  Emeal Zwayne: What are you doing.
• 34:19
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, but why did they get in New York?
• 34:23
  Ray Comfort: What are you doing?
• 34:24
  Emeal Zwayne: What are you doing over there?
• 34:25
  Emeal Zwayne: What are you doing over there?
• 34:25
  Emeal Zwayne: What?
• 34:26
  Oscar Navarro: are you doing over there?
• 34:26
  Oscar Navarro: What are you doing with?
• 34:27
  Ray Comfort: that short little fella.
• 34:32
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, kevin D Young about that, says this the Savior goes to stay with sinners, but too often we separate from sinners Instead of helping those far from Christ come near to him.
• 34:45
  Oscar Navarro: We act as if hanging out with people who don't know God will cause us to contract a sin disease.
• 34:51
  Oscar Navarro: But sin isn't a disease you can catch.
• 34:54
  Oscar Navarro: Sin is a sign of death that only the Savior can defeat and overcome with new life.
• 35:00
  Oscar Navarro: And he goes on to say like when is the last time you took the opportunity to invest in someone's life that isn't already saved?
• 35:07
  Oscar Navarro: When's the last time you had someone over for a meal?
• 35:10
  Oscar Navarro: When's the last time you got your hands dirty with the homeless?
• 35:13
  Oscar Navarro: Like we often, I think we want to keep them at arm's length from us.
• 35:19
  Oscar Navarro: But Christ gives us this wonderful example of staying with sinners.
• 35:23
  Oscar Navarro: And he didn't stay with sinners.
• 35:25
  Oscar Navarro: Like the point here.
• 35:26
  Oscar Navarro: That can devolve right.
• 35:28
  Oscar Navarro: It could be like, oh, jesus was partying with sinners.
• 35:31
  Oscar Navarro: Like, no, jesus wasn't like hanging out partying with sinners necessarily.
• 35:36
  Oscar Navarro: What Jesus was doing was investing intentional time with the focus of the cross.
• 35:42
  Oscar Navarro: But he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty to a degree.
• 35:45
  Oscar Navarro: But he wasn't wasting his time with sinners either.
• 35:49
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, right, I did the breathe, which means I've got something.
• 35:53
  Ray Comfort: So verse eight I love it, where Zacchaeus stood and said Lord, I give half my goods to the poor.
• 35:58
  Ray Comfort: He stood.
• 35:59
  Ray Comfort: There was a resolution and a spirit.
• 36:01
  Ray Comfort: It just didn't land.
• 36:03
  Ray Comfort: I'm saying, behold, he stood, and I think, when it comes to righteousness, each of us, as Christians, have got to make that resolution stand and not compromise.
• 36:13
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, it's that determination of saying I'm going to respond to what I just heard.
• 36:20
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, I think of Josiah.
• 36:22
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, king Josiah, when they found the law of God and it was read to him, he tore his clothes.
• 36:29
  Emeal Zwayne: And then we see his response Eight years old.
• 36:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, he was eight years old when he became king.
• 36:34
  Emeal Zwayne: And then, you know, later they read to him the law and he responds this way and then he has the idols crushed to powder.
• 36:45
  Emeal Zwayne: It wasn't just destroy the idols, and he was one of the first kings to actually get rid of the high places.
• 36:49
  Emeal Zwayne: You'd always hear about a king and he was righteous, but he did not remove the high places.
• 36:53
  Emeal Zwayne: Josiah removed the high places which were, you know, indicative of pagan worship.
• 36:59
  Ray Comfort: He destroyed them.
• 36:59
  Ray Comfort: Sexual connotations, didn't it?
• 37:01
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, there was that too.
• 37:02
  Emeal Zwayne: Remove them and then took the idols, didn't just throw them away or break them, ground them to powder and then disperse them Like they're gone.
• 37:13
  Emeal Zwayne: That's how I want my heart to be.
• 37:15
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, I don't want to grow dull of hearing.
• 37:18
  Emeal Zwayne: These words of Christ were fresh to Zacchaeus, he was connected to them and it resulted in this powerful response.
• 37:27
  Ray Comfort: Well, it may have been sorry the first time anyone spoke kindly to him for years.
• 37:31
  Ray Comfort: When you think about it, wow.
• 37:32
  Oscar Navarro: That's so good.
• 37:33
  Oscar Navarro: It's also a great reminder of what repentance looks like, and Zacchaeus is mine and the example that you just gave.
• 37:39
  Oscar Navarro: Easy repentance takes action Like repentance.
• 37:42
  Oscar Navarro: Wasn't just Zacchaeus going whoops, I messed up and now I was a sinner and now I'm just a really wealthy saint?
• 37:47
  Oscar Navarro: Repentance costed Zacchaeus something right.
• 37:51
  Oscar Navarro: It costed him his comforts.
• 37:52
  Oscar Navarro: His idol.
• 37:53
  Oscar Navarro: His idol was his comfort, and that's the exact thing that he was giving up.
• 37:55
  Oscar Navarro: He was sending back, he was restoring the thing that he took from others, and oftentimes repentance requires us to go make right what we made wrong.
• 38:07
  Ray Comfort: How powerful that is in the sight of the unbeliever.
• 38:09
  Ray Comfort: I heard a preacher, so this is an original.
• 38:12
  Ray Comfort: I mean he just spoke of a poor Jewish family hearing a the door, open the door and there's the tax collector and he says I've come back to pay back fourfold.
• 38:23
  Oscar Navarro: That's wow.
• 38:25
  Ray Comfort: And how powerful is that yeah.
• 38:27
  Mark Spence: That's so good Wow.
• 38:28
  Mark Spence: You think of when Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house and he's looking around at all of the amazing things inside the house that were received through ill-gain.
• 38:37
  Mark Spence: Yeah, you know, at any given moment, right, jesus wants to come to our house, if you would, knowing what he's going to see, also knowing that he's going to require those things from us.
• 38:49
  Mark Spence: Zacchaeus knew it.
• 38:50
  Mark Spence: You just imagine what was going through Zacchaeus' mind as Jesus is kind of looking around at the house the guilt, and then the stand up, listen, if I've done anything wrong and he knows what he's done, but able to go that extra mile, thomas Watson said that repentance it flows like a river.
• 39:06
  Mark Spence: In other words, it just flows and it flows and it flows.
• 39:10
  Mark Spence: Everything and anything that I've ever done, it just comes out.
• 39:14
  Mark Spence: Well, that's what I think happened to Zacchaeus that he gave until he didn't have anything else to give, because he couldn't differentiate between what he received through ill-gain or not.
• 39:24
  Mark Spence: It's just, listen, I'm not my own, I've been bought with a price and he just surrenders.
• 39:29
  Emeal Zwayne: What a joy.
• 39:30
  Emeal Zwayne: And I think you know, when someone encounters the Lord they just want to be right in every way.
• 39:37
  Emeal Zwayne: We know in Christ we have imputed righteousness.
• 39:41
  Emeal Zwayne: That's given to us as a gift.
• 39:42
  Emeal Zwayne: We're declared completely righteous.
• 39:44
  Emeal Zwayne: But we want practical righteousness, we want to please God.
• 39:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Everything shifts.
• 39:50
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, ray, when you share your testimony you always talk about how your desires changed.
• 39:54
  Emeal Zwayne: Our relationship with sin changes.
• 39:58
  Emeal Zwayne: We go from being at peace with sin and loving sin to hating it, even though we struggled with it and we're tempted by it.
• 40:06
  Emeal Zwayne: And so I remember when I got saved I was eager to make things right To a point where people thought I was stupid, like, don't do that.
• 40:13
  Emeal Zwayne: But I remember going to the convenience store that was in our neighborhood and I said to the cash register guy I said, hey, I used to steal cigarettes from here.
• 40:21
  Emeal Zwayne: I remember one time I walked down to a whole carton.
• 40:23
  Emeal Zwayne: I was one and a half years old.
• 40:25
  Emeal Zwayne: I took a whole carton of cigarettes.
• 40:28
  Emeal Zwayne: But I did.
• 40:29
  Emeal Zwayne: I took a whole carton of cigarettes and I shoved it down my pants and put my coat over it and walked out.
• 40:33
  Emeal Zwayne: And so he's like oh, thanks for letting us know.
• 40:37
  Emeal Zwayne: Kind of like, what are we going to do about it now, but I needed to.
• 40:42
  Ray Comfort: So did you give him some cigarettes or something?
• 40:44
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, I gave him a hookah.
• 40:46
  Emeal Zwayne: It was my head of hookah.
• 40:48
  Mark Spence: Well then, now the transition and the transformation has searched me and tried me and see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.
• 40:53
  Mark Spence: Only a Christian can say that there's no skeletons in our closet.
• 40:58
  Mark Spence: We are open and naked.
• 40:59
  Mark Spence: This is who we are.
• 41:01
  Mark Spence: We have no secret life.
• 41:04
  Mark Spence: Lord, I want to walk that straight and narrow path, for whatever you need to do, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how comfortable it is, I want eternity over the temporal.
• 41:12
  Mark Spence: So whatever you have to do is okay with me, and I give you that permission today, because tomorrow, when the fire has turned up, I'm going to say ouch and stop.
• 41:20
  Mark Spence: Yeah, you just reminded me easy.
• 41:23
  Oscar Navarro: I know I've told this story before, but when I first became a Christian about two years after I became a Christian I remember back to this girl that I was dating as an atheist.
• 41:32
  Oscar Navarro: Her dad was a retired pastor.
• 41:34
  Oscar Navarro: She was going to a Christian college and by the time we weren't together anymore.
• 41:38
  Oscar Navarro: She was no longer a Christian.
• 41:40
  Oscar Navarro: She had left that college.
• 41:42
  Oscar Navarro: She had a big Marxist tattoo on her side.
• 41:44
  Oscar Navarro: She had left the faith.
• 41:46
  Oscar Navarro: Two years after me becoming a Christian, I felt that conviction, like I participated in this thing.
• 41:52
  Oscar Navarro: I influenced the faith.
• 41:54
  Oscar Navarro: I participated in this thing.
• 41:55
  Oscar Navarro: I influenced this person.
• 41:57
  Oscar Navarro: I can remember I was like I need to go apologize to her parents and I need to get, I need to find her and I need to tell her I was wrong.
• 42:06
  Oscar Navarro: And so they lived in Westminster.
• 42:08
  Oscar Navarro: I was like 45 minutes away.
• 42:10
  Oscar Navarro: But I can remember, like it was yesterday, driving on that freeway to her parents house.
• 42:16
  Oscar Navarro: They don't know I'm coming, I don't have their phone number.
• 42:18
  Oscar Navarro: I just remember where they live, mind you right.
• 42:20
  Oscar Navarro: And I remember sweating Wedding, like should I turn around?
• 42:24
  Oscar Navarro: Is this a good idea?
• 42:25
  Oscar Navarro: Am I overreacting?
• 42:26
  Oscar Navarro: It's been so many.
• 42:27
  Oscar Navarro: It's been seven years.
• 42:28
  Oscar Navarro: Like are they gonna?
• 42:30
  Oscar Navarro: Like this is crazy.
• 42:30
  Oscar Navarro: You know what I mean To finish the story.
• 42:34
  Oscar Navarro: I get there and I knock on the door and the mom and the dad are there and I give them my testimony, I start telling them what happened, you know, and they sit me down.
• 42:43
  Oscar Navarro: The dad doesn't say a word.
• 42:44
  Oscar Navarro: I am not exaggerating.
• 42:46
  Oscar Navarro: Not a hello, not a sit down, not a come in.
• 42:50
  Oscar Navarro: He didn't say a word.
• 42:52
  Oscar Navarro: The wife sat me down.
• 42:53
  Oscar Navarro: I tell them my testimony, I tell them I was wrong, I tell them I'm sorry.
• 42:58
  Oscar Navarro: I tell them I want to reach out to her and I want to apologize that I was wrong.
• 43:01
  Oscar Navarro: And the dad's just like stoic looking at me.
• 43:05
  Oscar Navarro: He doesn't say a word.
• 43:05
  Oscar Navarro: The mom gets up, walks into the other room and like, leaves me with the silent father and I'm like is she?
• 43:13
  Emeal Zwayne: gonna get the gun.
• 43:14
  Emeal Zwayne: What is happening?
• 43:16
  Oscar Navarro: Here you go, honey.
• 43:17
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, he sort of like prompts me to get up and walk to her, to the front door, and then she hands me a piece of paper and is like thank you so much for coming.
• 43:26
  Oscar Navarro: Like we're really happy for you, closes the door and I open it up and it's a paper with her phone number, the girl that I was dating at the time.
• 43:36
  Mark Spence: So I called Wait, did the father still?
• 43:37
  Oscar Navarro: didn't say a word.
• 43:37
  Oscar Navarro: Didn't say a word, dude, oh wow.
• 43:41
  Mark Spence: Even when you left, even when I left.
• 43:42
  Oscar Navarro: And he was a pastor.
• 43:43
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he didn't say a word.
• 43:46
  Oscar Navarro: Well, he was a retired pastor.
• 43:47
  Oscar Navarro: Oh wow, he was a retired pastor.
• 43:49
  Ray Comfort: He may have been talked out Probably.
• 43:51
  Oscar Navarro: No, I mean, you could have, like I put them through some things, you know, like they there's a lot to that story when we were dating that I see now, as a father, how brutal it must have been for him.
• 44:02
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, that the two years that me and that girl were together, yeah, right, I call that girl, we meet up for dinner and I tell her that I'm a Christian and I share the gospel with her and I share my testimony with her.
• 44:12
  Oscar Navarro: And at the end of that long conversation, I mean her jaw hit the floor and she, just the first words out of her mouth were you, you're a Christian, you, wow.
• 44:22
  Oscar Navarro: And we sort of had a bit of a sword fight at dinner.
• 44:24
  Oscar Navarro: And then I walk her to her car and at her car she starts to cry and she like confesses that she knows it's all true and that she wants me to pray for her and stuff, wow, wow.
• 44:34
  Oscar Navarro: And I think back like that Oscar.
• 44:37
  Oscar Navarro: this could be part of the movie, but that was sort of that, zikias moment, I think, for me, where it was like I didn't take something but I contributed to something and I need to look beyond as uncomfortable of this moment was going to make me feel.
• 44:51
  Oscar Navarro: I just knew that like the truth of what God did in my life was more important than my comfortability and I stuck out in faith.
• 45:00
  Oscar Navarro: I don't know where she I haven't seen her since, but hopefully, by the grace of God.
• 45:05
  Mark Spence: You haven't seen the parents since.
• 45:06
  Oscar Navarro: No, that's the last interaction I had with all of them, wow.
• 45:11
  Ray Comfort: I don't even run and no one be warned.
• 45:14
  Mark Spence: Still silent.
• 45:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, man Ray, how absolutely just joy infusing it must have been when Zacchaeus heard Jesus say today salvation has come to this house.
• 45:30
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, you know, here's this guy.
• 45:31
  Emeal Zwayne: He's just, yeah, he's hated, he's rejected, he's got his conscience probably constantly plaguing him and he was just like.
• 45:41
  Emeal Zwayne: I just want to get a glimpse of this Jesus as he's walking by, you know, he climbs up in a tree and then I'm going to your house today.
• 45:47
  Emeal Zwayne: Wow, he comes, he makes that declaration half of my goods, I'll pay back four fold.
• 45:52
  Emeal Zwayne: And then Jesus declares salvation.
• 45:54
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean he's like declaring this guy his eyes are open, he's you know, I mean, what must have that?
• 46:01
  Ray Comfort: been like.
• 46:02
  Ray Comfort: It's such a lesson for us, because the words that Zacchaeus spoke showed that he was genuine in his repentance.
• 46:08
  Ray Comfort: He's going to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.
• 46:09
  Ray Comfort: And how often have you been in a church when someone makes a decision for Christ and the whole church bursts into applause and there's no evident fruit, there's no time?
• 46:18
  Ray Comfort: It's like they're all saved, that have come to the front and made a decision for Jesus and prayed the sinner's prayer.
• 46:23
  Ray Comfort: No, give them time, see if there's fruit and then applaud.
• 46:27
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, that's good, amen.
• 46:28
  Emeal Zwayne: See, if there's fruit that demonstrates they were regenerated at that moment, that demonstrates that that's so good.
• 46:36
  Emeal Zwayne: And what a man, what a life for this guy.
• 46:40
  Emeal Zwayne: And I'm always curious, like what happened after that?
• 46:43
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, who did he become?
• 46:44
  Emeal Zwayne: What happened his life?
• 46:45
  Emeal Zwayne: Right?
• 46:46
  Ray Comfort: All around the world there are churches named after the apostle Paul and John.
• 46:51
  Ray Comfort: I don't know this any first-hand church of Zacchaeus oh that's right.
• 46:55
  Emeal Zwayne: The church of the Holy Zacchaeus.
• 46:56
  Emeal Zwayne: What a great, great testimony.
• 46:59
  Emeal Zwayne: And, friends, we know that some of you listening now, and I remember one time we read a comment from an atheist who listens and he says he's an atheist but he absolutely loves the podcast.
• 47:09
  Emeal Zwayne: We're honored that he listens.
• 47:11
  Emeal Zwayne: Hopefully he still does.
• 47:12
  Emeal Zwayne: Maybe there are others who are in the same boat.
• 47:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Maybe someone told you about the podcast.
• 47:15
  Emeal Zwayne: You came across it randomly.
• 47:17
  Emeal Zwayne: We just want to remind you that you can have that Zacchaeus moment.
• 47:21
  Emeal Zwayne: You can recognize that there is nothing good in you, that you need this Jesus and you need to humble yourself and recognize that you can't save yourself.
• 47:32
  Emeal Zwayne: I think that's one of the biggest things that keeps people from truly repenting.
• 47:37
  Emeal Zwayne: They're trying to earn their own salvation.
• 47:39
  Emeal Zwayne: That's an impossibility.
• 47:40
  Emeal Zwayne: You're a sinner, you violated God's law, you're deserving of His wrath and judgment and Christ lived the perfect life you could not live and then he became the substitute for sinners on that cross.
• 47:50
  Emeal Zwayne: If you repent, cry out to Him and repentance and faith, god will wipe away every sin you've ever committed, past, present, future.
• 47:56
  Emeal Zwayne: He'll grant you the gift of everlasting life and transform you.
• 48:00
  Emeal Zwayne: So that's the gospel.
• 48:01
  Emeal Zwayne: Turn to Him today, that the Savior who died and rose again to set sinners free.
• 48:06
  Emeal Zwayne: There you have it, friends, no silliness.
• 48:08
  Emeal Zwayne: Check out everything we talked about at the beginning of the podcast.
• 48:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Go back to the beginning if you can't remember it.
• 48:12
  Emeal Zwayne: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters Podcast.