#2636: Cultivating A Heart For The Lost

0:00MUSIC Well, hello cornerstone, great to be with you again. Always love coming over to cornerstone back in my home city, city by the bay, love being here. And I love sharing the word of God with you and excited about the series that were in Cultivate. It's been our summer series. As you know, Pastor Terry started off the series back at the beginning of the summer.

1:00And I have to say this, when I first heard that the series was called Cultivate, that I thought, first thing I thought of was, Oh, Jonathan is going to love this. And he did not disappoint. I gave a great message on cultivating your spiritual gifts. That was terrific. A lot of great messages this summer. As you remember, Pastor Terry started off this summer in Psalm 92. And the idea was, as we were starting off leading into summer, he was really sort of challenging us, calling us into sort of a season of Sabbath, taking time out. Maybe put down the phone, turn off the TVs, sit down with the word during the summer and really cultivate your relationship with the Lord. It's been kind of a theme of the summer. And Pastor Terry has come back time and again to Psalm 92. Been a number of different speakers kind of helping us think through this idea of cultivate. Well, that was the beginning of summer. And now it occurs to me, here we are on Labor Day at the end of summer.

2:02And so the question I guess I want to ask now is not how are we walking into summer, but how are we walking out of summer? What are we taking with us out? We have one more week of the series next week. And then we're wrapping up. So what I'm wanting us to think through now is, as we come to the end of this series and the end of summer. I'm wanting us to sort of think back over these past several months. So what are the things the Lord has been teaching you? What has he been speaking to you? What action steps as a result of the teaching that you've received over these months? In fact, what I'm encouraging you to do even is to think that if you take notes great, go back through your notes maybe in your quiet time and look through some of the things that you've been learning. If you missed any of the messages, but all means go back and watch those or rewatch them maybe and just be, Lord, help me understand what it is during this season of Sabbath that you've really been speaking to my heart that I can respond to in faith. That's what I'm encouraging us to do.

3:05Of course, the word cultivate means to dig looking up in websters. It's to dig, to turn, to break up dirt so that plants can grow. Of course, I think we all get that. We understand that. Jonathan, for sure, knows that. It makes me think of the verse in Hosea 10-2 that says, break up your fellow ground for it is time to seek the Lord. And the prophet Hosea, there is challenging the people of Israel to allow the Lord to break up the fellow ground of your heart because we can become hard over time. If we're not careful, we can begin the coast. We start off well, but then we get to a place where we just, we sort of become numb. We become hard. We're not really allowing the Lord to speak to our hearts. And so what the prophet is really saying there is is, break up the fellow ground of your heart that the word of God, that the Holy Spirit, might be able to penetrate into a work in your life. That's what we've been doing this summer. Is asking the Lord to penetrate deeply within our heart to strengthen us,

4:06to encourage us, to renew us, and to give us a tender heart and a tender spirit. So today what I want to do is we sort of, as I said, come, we're walking out of summer, what are we taking with us? I think a lot of the emphasis of the summer has been and rightly so that we need to be cultivating our relationship with the Lord. And as we're doing that now, what's the walk away? I'm thinking, let's cultivate a heart for the loss. Let's turn our attention now toward others. And let's be thinking about how growing in our relationship with the Lord leads us naturally to having a heart for the loss. That's what we're talking about today. All right. Well, we're going to look at a very familiar text. Luke chapter 19, it's a story of Zacchaeus. And it's so funny because I think Pastor Terry mentioned one of the times about how the things that we learn when we're young stay with us, particularly Bible stories. And many of you have learned Bible stories in your youth

5:06that you still have a very fond memory. So I can't think of this passage of Zacchaeus about thinking of Zacchaeus was a wee little man or a wee little man was he climbed up in the sick and more tree for the Lord he wanted to see. Those things just stick in my mind. It's so funny because I'm from San Francisco. This is my home grew up here. But now I live in Chicago and so I have to watch the bears because we don't get the Niners out in San Francisco and Chicago. We have to watch the bears. And the bears have a player named Zacchaeus. And every time I see the guy in the field my brain just goes, oh, there goes the wee little man. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and wee little man was he. And that's just stuck in my brain. And so it's a familiar story. It's a favorite story. But I want to look at it today and think about how we can learn from this passage the beauty of cultivating a heart for the lost. Let's read the text. Luke chapter 19 starting verse one. I'll just read the first four verses for our first point.

6:09He entered Jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sick and more tree to see him. He was about to pass that way. That's the first four verses and the first point that I want to make here is that everybody is lost. Everybody is lost. And then we need to have the perspective that everybody is lost. So here's Zacchaeus. Here's an example of a lost person. And that's the picture that we're going to get here. We're told he was a tax gatherer and that he was rich. Those are the two things that we learned about him. And as you I'm sure know the tax gatherers were despised because they were seen as traders

7:09working with the Romans to collect taxes from the Jews to pay to the Romans. So that he was already a despised person. Certainly not someone that people would want to reach out to. But it also tells us that the text that he was rich, he was rich. Now you think about this. If he's rich, why is he looking to see Jesus? See the perspective tends to be I think for many of us, myself for sure, that rich people, they're probably, they're going to be all right. They've got everything they need. They're doing fine. They're not struggling. They've got a nice house. They've got all the money that they need. They have no worries. They have no concerns. However, it's not the case. Everybody is lost, including rich people. In fact, in the previous passage in chapter 18, Jesus has just had the encounter with the rich young ruler who went away sad, who wasn't willing to submit his life to Christ.

8:13And so he goes away sad. And then Jesus makes this point, he says. Well, let me just read it. I don't want to paraphrase Jesus. Let me read it. It's just a page back where he says in verse 24 of 18, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. So Jesus is saying it's very difficult. In fact, it's impossible, really. It's impossible. He uses the illustration of a camel going through the eye of a needle to make the point that it's impossible. And so the disciples are kind of freaked out by that because they're thinking, hey, rich people, they should be, they should be in great shape. And so then they naturally respond, well, then who can be saved? In other words, if this guy can't be saved, who can be saved? And Jesus is saying it is impossible on your own. See, the problem for rich people is that they don't think that they need anything.

9:16They've got everything that they need. They don't think that they're lost. They think that they're doing fine. That's the point that Jesus is getting at. So that he says, they say who then can be saved. And Jesus says what is impossible with man is possible with God. So on their own, it's impossible. But with God, if they come to me, it is possible. So the idea here is that the rich young ruler doesn't think that he's lost, and Jesus is making that point. And now you have Zacchaeus, who is scrambling, kind of, what's the word I'm looking for frantically, to see Jesus. And he's jumping up and he finally climbs up a tree, he's just like, I got it. He's rich, but he's lacking. He knows that there's a deficiency. He knows there's something wrong. There's something missing. And it was St. Augustine in his book Confessions, where we have the famous quote,

10:21you've probably heard this before. You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. And what Augustine is saying there is that everybody is lost. Everybody has a restless heart. Every, doesn't matter if you're richer, your poor, everybody needs Jesus because everybody is lost. And so I think of the verse also in Luke 12, look back just a few pages, Luke 12 with May, where Jesus talks about this, similarly. He says in Luke 12, where is it Luke 12, 16? 12, 16. Here it is, yeah, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods.

11:22And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax. Eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the things that you have prepared, who's will they be? And so Jesus is making the point here that this rich man thought he had it all, thought he was, he just said, hey, I can coast. I'm good. I have everything that I need. And Jesus says, but he missed the most important thing. He didn't prepare for the life to come. He wasn't ready. He didn't understand that life is just for a moment, just for a season. And then we enter in to eternity. This man wasn't prepared for that. And so we need to have the perspective and understanding that if someone doesn't have Christ, doesn't matter what else they've got. If they don't have Christ, they've missed the whole thing because that's the first point. Everybody is lost. Like he is as a picture of a lost person struggling to see Jesus because he's got a hole in his heart

12:24that only Jesus can fill. Everyone is lost. Let's look at the second point in verses 5 through 7. Chapter 19, verse 5. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. That is the response of the people. The second point I want to make is that Jesus has a heart for the lost. He has a heart for the lost. It's interesting to me that Jesus sees him, right? Jesus is, and notice Jesus is out about the crowds. He's out about the crowds visiting with people, talking to people, walking down the street. And there's a large crowd. Everybody wants to see him and hear him. And in the midst of all of that, he sees Zacchaeus up in the tree.

13:29How? How does he see him? See, Jesus is looking. He's looking. When we come to the end of the passage, what we're going to see is that's the whole purpose of his ministry. It says in verse 10, we'll get there a moment, but look at what it says. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus is focused on that. He has a heart for the lost. He's looking for the lost. And Zacchaeus is someone who is seeking. And so Jesus has come down and he's just spent time with you. Jesus is on a mission. Remember in John chapter 4, when Jesus is talking about women on the well, and the disciples all go off to buy food and they come back and other, hey, Jesus, we brought you food and Jesus, excuse me, excuse me. Could you just set that down for a minute? Could you open up your eyes? Could you look around? Do you notice all the people here who are lost? Guys, we're in Samaria. We never come to Samaria. This is a unique opportunity to reach out to, he says, lift up your eyes and look

14:31for it to fields. They are ripe under harvest. What does he mean? There's all kinds of people here that are lost, that need the gospel. And you're talking to me about food right now. Could we just set that aside for a moment? Could we focus on what really matters? And that's the people that are all around us. Is that our perspective? Jesus has a heart for the lost. Do we? Do we see all the people around us? Do we see the fields that are ripe under harvest? People who need Jesus. Look in the way Jesus says it in Matthew 19, I love this. Similar situation, verse 36. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, the labors are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into the harvest. Jesus sees this crowd and he has compassion on them. Why? Because he sees them as lost.

15:32He sees, he says, they are helpless and harassed. That's how Jesus sees people, because that's how people are. Our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, our friends, our schoolmates. They are helpless and harassed and they need Jesus. And so Jesus has compassion on them and what's his response? Hey, disciples, disciples, be praying that more people would be raised up from cornerstone NSF to go out and share the good news with these people because they need it so badly. All around you, he says, are people who are harassed and helpless? They need the gospel. So be praying that the Lord would be sending out people to reach the lost. Jesus has a heart for the lost. It's such a beautiful, a beautiful thing. All right. And then of course the contrast there in verse 7 is the religious people. It says in verse 7, when they saw it, who is they? Who is they? It doesn't say.

16:33When they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Who is they? Is it me? Is it me? Am I like that? Do I write certain people off? That person's not going to become a Christian. That person's not going to be a follower of Jesus. If I'm not careful, I can do that. I can do that. And the warning here is the contrast that we see is that Jesus has a heart for the lost. But not everybody does. So am I going to be more like the gromblers? Or am I going to be more like Jesus? Am I going to understand that every person I come into contact with is lost if they don't know Jesus? And everyone who I come in contact with needs Jesus. That's the perspective I need to have. That's Jesus' perspective. And that's what we're going to see in this final movement here in verses 8 through 10. Verses 8 through 10 reading here.

17:34And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, be hold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it for fold. And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house and he also was a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save a lost. There it is. It's a whole point, the whole point of what we're learning here. Is that Jesus came to seek and then to save the lost. And that's the picture that we have here. Notice that Zacchaeus is the one who starts off here in verse 8 saying to the Lord, be hold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to another is there's a heart change. He's not saved because he's going to give away half of his possessions. He's saved because there's a heart change. And the giving away of possessions is merely an external representation of what's happening on the inside. So we are saved when God reaches down and touches our heart and we respond in faith.

18:43Now the rich young really, I didn't even, it didn't occur to me until preparing for this message that the rich young ruler is the exact opposite of this. When he comes into contact with Jesus in the chapter earlier in chapter 18, he is unwilling to sell his possessions. He's hanging on. There is no heart change. I will not give that up. I will not yield myself to you. I will not trust in you to provide for me. I'm going to keep everything I have for me. There will be no heart change. And it says he walked away sad. Zacchaeus is the opposite of that. Lord, I'm going to give stuff away because you have touched my heart. And I now am willing to submit myself to you. Jesus says salvation. Today, salvation has come to the... Salvation is the same as the word to save. Right? So in verse 10, why is Jesus here? Why is he here? The Son of Man came to do what? To seek and to save.

19:43But salvation is the same word. Save is the verb, salvation is the noun. Same thing. You could say that this man has been saved. Jesus came to save the lost. Zacchaeus is lost. And now he is saved. That's the picture that we're getting in the text here. Jesus saves the lost. And I guess the question then that I have to ask here before we can have a heart for the lost. We have to have yielded our heart to Christ ourselves. First, and the question I'm asking is, have you done that? Are you a Christian? It wouldn't be right for me to assume that that's the case. I'm supposing that because you're in church, you're watching the message that you may very well be a follower of Christ. And if so, yay. But maybe not. And so I have to ask the question, is there ever been a time in your life

20:47when you have come face to face with Jesus and yielded your life to him and asked him to forgive you of your sins, acknowledge your neediness and let him turn your life inside out. That's the picture that we have of Zacchaeus. We have a picture of a life turned inside out. And so when Jesus recognizes that he has responded in faith, he declares him saved. And I want to make sure that Jesus declares you saved because you have yielded your life to Christ and you are no longer, as Paul says, no longer, is it you who live, but Christ lives in you in Galatians 2.20. See, all of us are going our own, all of us are lost. All of us are living our life, born in sin, bent on sin, living life, going our own way until we are confronted by Jesus. And when we are confronted by Jesus, we have a choice to make, to continue like the rich young ruler, just continuing to go my own way

21:47or responding in faith and yielding my life to Christ and allowing him to turn my life inside out and to go in a new direction, walking with Christ. I hope that you have come to the place, and if not, let's today be the day that you say, Lord, no longer, am I going to walk the way I want to walk, but I'm going to yield my life to you, submit my life to you, and walk the way that you would have me walk. I want to live my life no longer serving myself. I want to live my life serving you. And so that's my hope, that's my prayer for Cornerstone that we would continue cultivating our relationship with the Lord, go back, think through those messages this summer and read through some of those things and really build that relationship with the Lord. And then as we're doing that, let's look at the people all around us. You know, let's put down the phone. Don't be, you know, like this all the time, it's easy to do. But let's be looking at the people around us.

22:48Let's make eye contact. Let's have conversations. Let's understand that people are lost and that Jesus has a heart for the lost and that Jesus saves the lost and that we want to be in partnership with him. Let's be cultivating a heart for the lost. Heavenly Father, thank you for our time in your word. Thank you for the way that you rescue us. You save us. We're super grateful for that. Lord, I can't imagine living a lost life. And yet Lord, there are people all around us doing just that. Would you give us a heart? Would you give us eyes to see? Would you give us a burden? Would you give us a heart for the people all around us who need Jesus? In your name we pray, amen.

23:58He healed us之前 here in John's Church in its mercy. bucket of Jesus. Everlasting while earthly ages and faith, mercy, our God, your kingdom reigns. Lord, over everything you are near, all the will you never set at your feet.

25:10In the Savior, injustice brought to right, for your glory that you may be left in high. Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet. Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet.

26:24Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet. The land will walk, the dead will live, and you are God, forever you will reign. Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet.

27:38Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet. Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet. Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet.

29:02Lord, over everything you are near, all of the universe at your feet.