Seeking Jesus

Pastor Hal Daigre walks through the story of Zacchaeus and shows how Jesus' invitation still reaches into our own lives: “Come down — I want to be with you.” This sermon explores what it really means to seek Jesus, repent honestly, and live a life shaped by ongoing transformation.

Transcript

We are very blessed to have the children in the church with us. When Marshall told me about what he had going on and everything, I was really excited to come over here and be with you guys. I have preached a lot of camp meetings. Some of them were intense, some of them. We went to Iowa one time and we preached a camp meeting there.

There was literally looked like a barn, maybe two or three, 400 people, where they just opened the sides up. So I've been in tent meetings where it's been raining. I've been in tent meetings where it was hot as could be. And so it's really nice to be inside. But what we're going to try to have is that kind of atmosphere this morning in singing the old songs.

And I want to invite you to travel with me this morning to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19. To the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19. We want to look at this this morning and see what God might have for us. If I could title this message today, then I would title it Seeking Jesus. Seeking Jesus.

Now you're traveling with me to Luke 19 this morning and we'll read verses one through ten in just a moment. But what I want to say to you as you pray for your pastor, and it's so good that we have pastor appreciation. A lot of people don't realize the life of a pastor. It is a joy. I've been pastoring 39 plus years.

It is a joy. And you carry your people that God has called you to pastor in your heart all the time. Pastors are involved in families and involved in people's lives. I want you to think about this in every key moment of their life. Sometimes at birth, as they grow up, as they graduate, as they marry, as they have children.

And then I've certainly preached a lot of funerals. I preached one yesterday. So a pastor is a life that I believe only you could do. If you're really called, there's no way I could accomplish what I do. Because you're 24 7, you're in people's lives.

You not only preach to them on a Sunday morning, but you're there with them as they go through the different stages of life. And a pastor's wife is certainly a calling too as well. Cindy has been there with me every step of the way. And so she is my Aaron. If you know anything about the Old Testament, if you don't, God just simply told Moses.

He says, I'm going to give somebody to help you. And that's what she has been. So let's stand together for the reading of God's word. And this is a story. And I always love preaching stories, Right?

We all love a story. Amen. Let's try it again. We all love a story. Amen.

And I love to tell stories. And Jesus did too. And so I want to take your mind today, if you'll give me your mind just for a little while today. And let's get inside this. Let's get inside what's going on here.

Not just to read it. Jesus entered. I'm reading from the new living translation. Jesus entered Jericho and he made his way through town. Now picture that in your mind.

We're not sure all who was with him as he made his way. Some disciples, some others were with him. Certainly it had been from our text noised that he was coming through. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. So all of a sudden we're introduced to Zacchaeus.

We're told a little bit about him. He was a chief tax collector in the region and he had become very rich. He tried to look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. Now get that in your mind. So we know there was a crowd there now, right?

We know there was a crowd and this guy named Zacchaeus, so he ran ahead and he climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass by that way when Jesus came by. Now here's the scene. We got this crowd, we got Jesus walking and we got this guy in a tree. And when Jesus came by, he stopped and he looked up at Zacchaeus.

He called him by name, Zacchaeus. Jesus said, quick, come down. I must be a guest in your home today. Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house and in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased.

He had gone to be a guest of a notorious sinner. They grumbled, you'll always have those joy suckers around you. Verse 8 says, Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, I will give half my wealth to the poor. Lord, if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much. Jesus responded, salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.

For the son of man came to seek and to save those who are lost. Father, today, could it be you could speak to the human heart this morning? I know that you have gifted me to speak to the intellect of people, but I cannot speak to the human heart. So I pray, sweet Holy Spirit, that you would make your word alive to us today that you would speak to us what we need to hear and you would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. In Jesus name, Amen.

And you can be seated. Seeking Jesus. Seeking Jesus. This is amazing story, is it not? The first thing I would like you to write in your notes, if you're taking notes this morning or write in your mind is that we need to seek Jesus diligently.

We need to seek Jesus diligently. What does that mean, to seek Jesus anyway? Somebody we can't see. What does that really mean, guys? Well, Jesus told a story about a woman that lost a coin.

Have y' all ever lost anything? I mean, doesn't that drive y' all nuts? I mean, it's like everybody in the house is looking for it, right? I see that hand. Amen.

And so this guy back here said, I've lost stuff. And I mean, I'm like, I just can't even sleep. I can't. I can't do anything. I can't move on to anything else because it's just on my mind.

And so I think that's the picture here. That's the picture here about seeking the Lord diligently. Notice our text. Jesus is making his way through town. He's on his way through town.

Now, let me say something to you. God is everywhere, right? We all agree on that. He's omnipresent. God is everywhere, right?

But he's not everywhere in the same way. God is everywhere, but he's not everywhere in the same way. Now what I mean by that you say, wait a minute now, brother, I don't know about that. Moses and the Lord interact. There's a fire, there's a bush.

Maybe you don't know the story. He's got his shoes off. Can I submit to you today? Nobody else, as far as we know from the scripture, was experiencing, experiencing that anywhere else. Even though God is everywhere, he's not everywhere in the same way.

We think about the woman at the well, there were other people around, There were other people as Jesus moved through there, but he had interaction with her and she got saved that day. And what I would like to submit to you in the old time camp meetings, as God's spirit moved on people, it was how they responded that revealed how God would respond back to them. And so thus in camp meetings that I've preached, I've literally had people to get up and come to the altar while I was preaching because it was the spirit of God moving. And so thus it's on Us. Moses responded.

The woman at the well responded. And so God is everywhere, but not everywhere in the same way. It's very interesting to me, and I've preached and I've watched people, and God is dealing with somebody over here, and God's dealing with somebody over here. And this person responds and gets something, and this person doesn't. And it all depends on whether we're going to seek the Lord diligently.

Now, Zacchaeus, he's wanting to see Jesus, right? I mean, he's heard about him. This guy is probably a sinner because of what we hear about him. A tax collector. He was an outcast.

Nobody like the tax collector, kind of like today. Amen. We'll table that right now. All right, but here's the thing. He's a tax collector.

From what his testimony is later on, we're pretty sure that he probably cheated people and that he wasn't doing right and he was a sinner. And for some reason, he is drawn to seek Jesus. Now, the Bible tells us every person is given a measure of faith. You didn't find the Lord. He's never been lost.

We need to kind of correct that. But we are seeking him. We're seeking somebody that's here, but not always here in the same way. It's dependent on us. And so there's a big crowd there.

And undoubtedly we know there's a crowd there. And here's this guy. Undoubtedly he's lost and he needs Jesus, and he really wants to see the Lord. So here's where we're at, guys. How diligently are you seeking God?

Well, he runs. He runs. And he climbed a tree. And I don't know how many of y' all climbed a tree. Most everybody climbed a tree.

I'm a country boy from down in Mississippi. Our family come out of Louisiana. I climbed a lot of trees when I was a kid. Fell out of trees. Matter if I fell out of a tree right now, I'd be in the hospital.

But I used to go fall out of a tree and get up and run all over the place. It didn't even hurt. I remember one time a cow chased me, and we farmed and everything. And we had old cow had a horn grew into her head and some other gross stuff that went on, messed up her mind. I was out counting the cows, and I turned around.

Slobber's coming out of her mouth, and she's running at me. It wasn't nothing but a pine tree right there without any limbs for a long way. And I Was seeking that limb. Amen. I went straight up that tree and I was like that.

And so I see Zach kiss. He wants to see Jesus. But the crowd. I'm going to say something. The world will hinder you from seeking the Lord.

The crowds, people. The enemy is against us. Listen to me when. Here's what I do, guys. I get up in the morning time real early.

I'm an early person. I love to seek the Lord. These electronic deals are good. I got an iPad. I don't know.

My youth pastor helps me with all that. But here's what I did. I told him, I said, here's what I need you to do in the morning when I go up there. I got too many things popping up.

I need you to take that off. Does anybody listen to me preach? It's my time with Jesus, so I don't need to know about how many emails I got. I don't need to know about my pictures in the woods or my cameras in the woods showing me the deer that are coming by. At that point, I don't need to know anything about social media.

Does anybody hear me preach this morning? And don't tell me you don't have time to seek Jesus, because what I'm going to do is ask you to let me see your phone and I'm going to look up your social media and I'm going to ask you to take half that time and seek the Lord. But what we got to do, guys, is we got to watch out. There are a lot of distractions in our world. There are a lot of distractions in our world.

There's a lot of pressure on us when we get up in the morning time about work and social media, getting kids ready, getting ready for school, a test today. But I'm telling you, if you will do what Isaiah 55, you can write that down. Isaiah 55 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him with while he is near. God is near.

And God is ready to speak to your heart. And God wants to have a relationship with you, but you got to do like Zacchaeus, man. He wasn't going to let the crowd hit him. He went up and got up in that tree and he knew Jesus was coming by. Now, that's very important because it said Jesus was going to pass by there, right?

Jesus sets all these meetings up.

The woman at the well, she came in the middle of the day because she didn't want to deal with anybody. She'd been married five times and was an outcast. Nobody came to the well in the middle of the day. She came in the middle of the day because she was done with people. But guess who was sitting at the well?

And I can guarantee you she sat over there for a little while, like, when is this guy going to leave? She didn't want to deal with nobody. But Jesus puts himself in our path, in our life, no matter how young or how old we are, he puts himself in our path to see if we'll seek him.

He walked right up to that tree. What does the Bible say? He looked up and he calls Zacchaeus by name. Can I tell you this morning that the Lord knows your name? Can I tell you this morning that he knew your name before your parents knew your name?

Can I tell you that? Because he lives outside of time, it's not a predestination thing. It's just that he lives outside of time and sees everything. God never looks ahead. Don't say that.

Don't say, well, God looked ahead. No, He. He just looked. Amen. So all he did was take John when he wanted to show him revelation.

He just took John outside of time and said, look what I see. Isn't that cool? I got a table that. Listen to me now. Here we go.

He's in the tree. Jesus comes up and you remember.

You remember when he called your name?

Oh, I remember. August 9th, 1983. He said, how?

And God began to move on my heart. And maybe God's speaking to you today, and he knows your name. He knows who you are, see the name. He knows who you are. Not talking about Dag.

I'm not talking about Smith or anything. He. He knows exactly who you are, and he still calls you by name because he wants to have a relationship with you. No matter where you come from. He wants to start a walk with you.

He's not worried about Zacchaeus being a thief or a tax collector or an outcast. Jesus doesn't see anything like that. He sees somebody that needs to be saved and transformed. So we're going to seek Jesus diligently, right? He seeks him.

There's a lot of other things. I'll just give you this. Psalm 27:8. Psalm 27:8 says this. When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you, your face, Lord, will I seek.

The face is a place of revelation, and God wants to give you a revelation of who he is so you can enter a relationship with him. Secondly, what I see in this story quickly this morning, because I know I don't want to tarry with your time but secondly, not only to seek Jesus diligently, but seek Jesus through repentance.

Seek Jesus through repentance. You may not know this story, but in the Old Testament there was a man named Jacob that wrestled with God.

What that simply means is Jacob was seeking the Lord. But there were some things in his life that needed to change that he needed to repent of.

Our reading in the old Testament, Psalm 34. Are you familiar with that psalm? If you're not, let me bring you up to date on it. This is David writing that psalm when he wouldn't repent in his sin of adultery with Bathsheba. Remember, he went a long span there because she got pregnant and she sent him a text and said, that's the last text you want to get, right?

First of all, you don't need to be living in adultery. But hey, I'm pregnant. And then he, they have the child. He's still not repented. That's nine months plus.

What does he say in Psalm 34? He said, while I wouldn't confess my sin, Justin read it while ago, your hand was heavy upon me. You know, in some of the old tent meetings, they actually had a pew over here to the side you'd come sit on if the Lord was dealing with you. I thought, who's going to sit on that pew? Amen.

I mean for real. But you know, people really went over there and sat down. You know why? Because that let people know they need to be praying for them. That let people know.

So we see. He says, when I wouldn't confess my sin, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon me to the place my bones ache. Have you ever been under such old time conviction? You got sick. That's what he's saying.

He said, but then I confess my sin. So what I'm telling you today guys, is we need to seek the Lord. He is looking at Zacchaeus. He says, come down, I need to go to your home. Jesus says in Revelation, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me. Repentance is the key, folks, to your beginning a relationship with Christ and continuing it. And continuing it. See the calling by name, going back to the woman at the well. Jesus is there.

We never know her name, right? We never know her name. But listen to what he says to her. Go get your husband.

Why, man? That's what she didn't want nobody to ask her about. And then our Lord says, go get your husband. Said, I Don't have a husband. He said, you're right.

You're living with a man now. What did Jesus do? He loves you and I enough. He loves you and I enough to point out our sin, to point out who we are, to call us by name so that we can be transformed, so that we can come into this state of conviction to where we truly repent. And repentance, folks, don't ever let anybody fool you.

Repentance is a key thing in the Bible. John the Baptist preached repentance. Jesus preached repentance. Peter on the Day of Pentecost preached repentance. Paul preached repentance.

And repentance means simply turning from your sin to God. Turning from your sin. I was in an awful state of sin. You. How bad was it?

I don't ever tell people how bad I was. I love talking about how good God is. Amen. Come on, now, y'. All.

All right. Can I get amen? I like talking about how good God is. But see, repentance is turning from your sin to God. So we're truly seeking him.

What's going to happen when you start seeking him? He's going to start putting his hand on things, and all of a sudden you're going to see your sin and who you are. And that's okay, because that lady got saved. The woman at the well got saved. Zacchaeus got saved right here.

Because he truly sought the Lord in repentance. Now, David would say this to Solomon, it's time to turn the kingdom over to David. Solomon was his son. It was time for Solomon to take over the kingdom. And David knew how he failed God.

And he looks at him and he says this. I want to read it to you in 1st Chronicles 28. 9. Solomon, my son, learn to know. Listen to me now.

This is seeking Jesus through. Learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Marshall mentioned a while ago, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob, to know his him intimately. So we're seeking Jesus diligently, but we're going to repent of things in our life and be saved so we can have a relationship. And not just a relationship, folks.

Listen to me. An intimate relationship. The closest relationship known to human beings. God himself is Father, Son and Spirit. Right?

That means he's a relational God. Do you know a relationship's always been going on? Always. There's never not been a relationship because there's never not been God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He's a relational God.

That's how we Know he's he. The Bible says in. In First John, chapter four, God is love. How is he loved By. For love to exist, there has to be a what?

Another. There's always been another. It's always been a relationship. And he created a man to be in that relationship. And here he is with Zacchaeus, just like the woman at the well, just like Moses, just like you and I, bringing them to the point of repentance so they can enter into this relationship.

Because you can't be in a relationship with God and in sin at the same time. No man can have two masters. Jesus said that himself. He wants to set you free and. And he wants to deliver you.

And he wants you to come into an intimate relationship with him. Psalm 27:8 says this. My heart heard you say, come and talk with me. And my heart responded, lord, I'm coming. Lord, I'm coming.

See, that's repentance. And even after you repent and are saved, that's God calling you each day to walk with him and talk with him. I love going back to the garden. The only thing is, I wish we had a few more pages of the garden experience, don't y'? All?

I mean, how long was they in the garden? What was going on in the garden? But we know some things that were going on in the garden. The Bible tells us that God came and walked with him in the cool of the day. Do you know he wants the same for you?

That's the image that he has created us with, is to walk with him. And so if we seek Jesus diligently and we seek him in repentance, then he brings us into a relationship with him.

But the Hebrew writer gives us a warning, doesn't he? One thing I know, in the old time camp meetings, they always preached under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and they always preached against sin. And the Hebrew writer, in chapter four, I'll not read it to you. Maybe you could jot it down and read it later on. And it's referring to the children of Israel.

He said, if you hear his voice today, harden not your heart as the children of Israel did. See, every time God speaks to you and you don't respond, your heart gets a little harder. And it says, through the deceitfulness of sin. See, sin will deceive you just like it did Eve. Sin will deceive you, just like David.

David was a man after God's own heart. But sin changed him. He committed adultery and then killed Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, and took her in for his own wife. But then the Lord sent the prophet to him and called him by name so he could repent. God loves you and I.

God loves you and I. And see, as we begin to seek Jesus, here's what's going to happen. See, I didn't notice when I got saved.

I just thought, hey, God called me by name. I repented. I'm in a relationship with him, but I didn't know that God moves in, and when he moves in, he comes in to clean house. Because, like, I was excited to get rid of a lot of things in my life, right? I was so excited as I repented and this went and this went, and God healed my marriage.

And, man, I mean, I was so excited. But then the Lord started putting his hand on some things I really didn't want to get rid of. Can I. Can I get a witness?

Because, see, what's going on is the third thing. When you really climb that tree and Jesus calls you by name and he comes into your home, and he did go with Zacchaeus. And people are going to question that. When I got saved, people like, man, it won't be long before you be back at the bars and in jail.

Oh, why? Because when you begin to seek Jesus diligently and you seek through repentance and you turn your heart to him, we begin to seek Jesus. Are you ready? Transformation for transformation. See, there's no salvation without transformation.

There's no way the eternal God that created and spanned the universe comes into your or my life, and there's not change.

It don't matter. You've been in church all your life. Never late with your library book. When Jesus comes in your life, there's going to be a change. Now, some people change a little bit more than other people.

I'm going to imagine the woman at the well with some really major changes. But even people in church like Paul that kind of got it all messed up in his mind. He tells us he sought the Lord diligently, but then Jesus met him on the road and did you notice, called him by name.

Well, for me, it was daylight and dark. Cindy actually speaks at ladies conferences, and I was down in Georgia preaching a revival. I preach a lot of revivals. I really do. I was in Kentucky last weekend.

I'm headed from here today, going down into central Mississippi. Start tonight through Wednesday night. But Cindy, you know, she shares at ladies conferences, and I was down in Georgia. This lady come up to me and she said, I just want to meet the man that your wife was talking About. She said she'd been married to two men.

I said, oh, really? She said, yeah, the one for Jesus and the one after Jesus, but it's the same guy. After the transformation said, nothing. I did, folks, was when I really got real about seeking God. And then he began to transform my life.

Now how do we see that in Zacchaeus? Well, note, note. He climbs down, he takes Jesus to his house. The people didn't like it. People are going to come against you when you say I'm saved at work or at school.

They're going to come against you and grumble. Just don't even worry about that. The Bible says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That's Hebrews chapter 12. And so you notice, he comes and he stands before the Lord, verse 8.

He said, Lord, I'm going to give half my wealth to the poor. Wow. Remember, the rich young ruler couldn't do it. Oh, he came seeking Jesus down in the dirt, kneeling. What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said, sell all you got. He knew that was his God. Now he's not calling everybody to do that, but he knows what the strongholds are. Listen to me. Now listen to me.

He knows the strongholds in your life and he's calling you to let go of them. Because here's the thing, even though God is God, he cannot deliver you from anything you will not let go of.

And the rich young ruler wouldn't do it. Zacchaeus did. He said, lord, you know what? I'm going to go out here, I'm going to give away half my wealth. And then he said, if I've cheated people on their taxes, I'm going to give them four times back.

Folks, that's transformation. That is a transformation. Where Peter said, you have been given the very nature of God. When the Holy Spirit comes in and you're born again of the Spirit of God in John 3, right? The nature of God comes into your life.

There's no way you can live with the nature of God inside you and there not be transformation. And I'm not talking about clothing. I mean God work on that too if you need to, if your dress is too short or something like that. But anyway, we're not talking about that. You can dress the part.

You can wear the Christian T shirt and still go to hell. Listen to me, we need to be transformed because we come here in a mess and we make a mess out of our life because we want our own way. We're self centered, self seeking and self Serving and that messes up marriages, that messes up families, that messes up lives, that messes us up even in our mind. And so he comes to transform us, which not only means that he forgives us of the acts of sins we've committed, but he cleanses us from sin itself with his nature, his power, his blood. We sang about it a while ago.

Whoa. I'm about to get happy up here. Listen to me now. If we seek God, he's going to change your life.

I want you to jot a couple of things down. Transformation only happens in Christ. You cannot do it by psyching yourself up. You cannot do it by coming in this altar. You cannot do it through fasting if you're just punishing yourself for the sin.

Now, if you're fasting, truly seeking God and the power of God to set you free, then he will. I got to go on quickly to say this transformation in Christ frees you from your past. Listen to me. Some of y' all need this. I know God has spoken this into my spirit this morning.

I always believe in following the Holy Spirit of God. See, transformation in Christ frees you from your past. Transformation in Christ means your identity is not in your past or in your failures, but in Christ. That woman at the well had been married five times and was living with a man. She got saved.

She put him out. She went into town, one of the first evangelists we see, and she won the town to Jesus. Stop letting your past failures define your life and shape your life. Let the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus. I identify today with Jesus, and that's a long way from where I was.

It's crazy. People called me all kind of things when I was growing up, but God called me to preach. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy.

We look all the way through the Bible. You say, had a guy come up to me a couple of weeks ago. It's really interesting to me. In the old time camp meetings, people always came to the altar and wept and prayed and sometime was praying even after people left. But culture changes.

The word of God never does. Culture changes. And at connect, we have people all the time just get saved in the pew. I find out later on Scott's coming here. Three Easters ago, his brother Winford came.

We had two services that day for Easter. And I noticed the next few weeks, Winford kept coming. I talked to Scott and I said, man, something happened with Winford. He said, yeah, on Easter, when you prayed the sinner's Prayer. He prayed it out loud, man, I'm telling you.

Wimber got saved. Wimbledon. Miss a day of church in private three years, and he's a. He's an avid Alabama fan. Go down there and watch the game in Tuscaloosa.

Get back 2:30, 3 o'. Clock. He's sitting right there on Sunday morning. Amen. See, that's a transformation.

That's what we're talking about. But we see people getting saved. So this guy comes up to me, and he had gotten saved at some point, him and his girlfriend. And I noticed them, they'd been visiting for a while, young, Young couple. And he said, look, man, you said several times, God will forgive you.

He said, am I forgiven? I said, have you asked? He said, I have. But he said, you don't know where I've been. I don't need to know.

Y' all hear me? He went on to tell me anyway. He said, I've been in devil worship.

Ouija board crystals. I was deep. I looked at him, I said, did you ask Jesus Christ to forgive you? He said, yes, sir, I did. I said, brother, you're forgiven.

Hallelujah. Don't you ever question the integrity. Listen to me now. I'm getting close to the end. Don't cut me off, all right?

I can preach longer than you can. Listen. Listen to me.

Don't you ever question the integrity of God. Let me give you a scripture. First John 1:9. First John 1:9. If we confess our sin, that's on us.

That's what I asked him. I said, you asked the Lord. He said, I did. If we confess our sin, he confessed. God is faithful.

Remember that. Faithful and just. Let's say that together. Faithful and just. To forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all.

Everybody say all. You know what. You know what all means in the Greek? I don't know Greek, but I know it means all. All right.

So when you question God's forgiveness, and I know you're thinking about your own self, you're actually questioning the integrity of God. When Jesus stops at your tree and he calls you by name, and you repent of whatever sin you were in. Whatever sin. Whatever sin. As Psalmist said, thou would pick me up out of a miry pit, set my feet on a rock, and you have steadied me.

God has forgiven you. Walk in that forgiveness, you who are Christians. And you fell on. And you fall on your face. The righteous man falls seven times.

He gets up, stop asking the Lord 25 times that day to forgive you. Once You've asked him once. The Bible says he puts your sin as far as the east is from the west. And he remembers it no more. He bears within the deepest sea.

People will remind you. Yourself will remind you. But God has forgot it. So walk in his forgiveness. Thank you, Jesus.

Transformation. I got a couple more and I'm done. Transformation brings new life. Transformation gives you a new nature. And lastly, transformation continues all your life.

Philippians 1:6, one of my life verses, he that has begun a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That means when you die or Jesus comes back. The little children's song. He's still working on me. The writer of Amazing Grace, John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, John Newton, wrote these words.

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be.

But by the grace of God, I am not what I used to be. He would write Amazing Grace, my friend, this morning, ladies and gentlemen, I will promise you on the authority of God's word, that if you will seek Jesus diligently, then seek him through repentance and seek him to transform your life. You say, I've got some areas that I need to work on. No, you've got some areas that you need to let Jesus work on. You can't fix them.

And promise you, on the authority of God's word and the precious blood of my Savior and yours, if you'll come and pray, he will transform your life. And he's not ever going to stop. Let's stand together with our heads bowed, our eyes closed and our hearts open. We're going to take communion in a few minutes, but I want to give you time to respond. And so maybe Deborah could come up and.

Deborah and I've worked together a long time. You may not know this. She was actually at Connect Church when I came there over 39 years ago as a very young person at that time. That was a hundred years ago, it seems like. But would you.

Would you play just a little song for us here? Just maybe. We're not going to sing, but just. We just sing, just play endeavors. You'll just play a minute and listen to me now.

Your head is bowed, your heart is open.

Only you can answer this. The Bible says in the book of James to draw nigh to God, and he'll draw nigh to you. I'm going to interpret that scripture for you right now. You. You not the person beside, not your wife, your husband, your brother or sister.

You. You're as close to God as you desire to be right now.

Maybe you're here today and you've never made a commitment to Christ. And you're Zacchaeus in that tree. And the Lord's saying, come down. I want to come into your life. I know who you are, but I want you anyway.

Hallelujah. I know who you are, but I want you anyway. Then I wish you'd pray and repent of your sins. It's real simple. If you pray this prayer, you'll be saved.

Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus.

I repent of my sin and I trust and ask you to forgive me.

Come into my heart and be my Savior in Jesus name. If you pray,