Disciples at Work | Week Four

Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he walks us through week four of our Disciples at Work series!

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

And you guys, today I get the honor and the privilege of doing our scripture reading, which comes from the book of Mark, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Says, A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such numbers that they that there was no room left, nor even outside, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof and above Jesus by digging through it, and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat, and walk. But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

All right, Keith, y'all may be dismissed. Thanks for being here. Bye up, young fellas. All right. My name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving here as a lead pastor, as we say bye to the young. So we're in a series called Um Disciples at Work, and I um am really, really excited about today for a number of different reasons, but mostly I just really hope it's going to be helpful. Um, let's pray together that um Jesus just speaks to all of us, uh, no matter where we are. So, God, we we come before you. We're here to hear from you. Last thing that anybody needs is the words from a guy named Ben. Um but Jesus, we pray that your word would be spoken today, uh, that we would hear what you would have for us. For those of us who walked in the door and we have um recently started following you, would you help us to see what a life looks like, the patterns of you as Jesus, the chief minister and shepherd? For those of us who have been following you for a long time, God, would you speak clearly to each and every one of us to help challenge us to see what it means to be disciples, your disciples with whatever our meaningful work is. And for those of us who are here and we're trying to figure this out, we're exploring, we're we're wrestling, we're not really sure exactly where we are in faith. God, would you just clarify what it means to be a follower of Jesus and what that actually looks like? Because that can get so cloudy in today's world. And so we just pray, Jesus, that you would speak clearly, that we would see you um um clearly today, and that you would change our hearts in life. In your name we pray. Amen. So we started this series called Disciples at Work, and the reason that we started it is because you spend most of your life, whether that work is not, by the way, an industrial revolution, 40 hours a week, nine to five, it does include that. Um it includes if you are um you know uh working inside of the home, it includes if you're working outside of the home, it includes if you're going to school, if it includes if you're going to internship. In fact, you could even say it included if you have a weekly allowance and chore chart, right? Like there's about a hundred different ways and versions, but the idea behind this, and what I find is interesting, is most of our actual public life is lived doing some type of vocational or pointed towards some type of a vocational life, especially the places where it's difficult to live out the gospel. And so many times in a church world, we'll sit here and we'll talk about these things of God and hope that you can integrate them. And this series is aimed at saying, what does it actually look like? What does it actually look like to have the same passion and desire for Jesus, for people to know him as the missionary that lives in Cambodia, the missionary who lives in East Angola, Africa, the missionary who lives in Colombia, the missionary who lives in Utah, the missionary who lives in wherever. What does it look like to do that? Yet you have a state job, or you have a nonprofit job, or you have a for-profit, you're an engineer, you're a nurse, you're, you know, you're wherever you are, whatever you are, you're you're raising kids, you're going to school. What does it actually look like? Because sometimes in the United States, it can seem so watered down, just the context that we live in. Almost like because it's hard to swim in this fishbowl without feeling like you're lukewarm as a believer. And today I want to talk about one of the things that I, if there's one thing that makes me feel like at times we get it wrong. And when I say we, I mean the church as a whole and at times our church specifically. If there's one thing that I see that I'm thinking, if we could figure that out, I think it would change the game as it relates to people knowing and seeing Jesus. Is that the wildest thing happened when Jesus walked around. And in fact, if you're here and you're trying to figure out this God, Jesus church faith thing, you're not really sure where you are, and you've been to a hundred different places that that every time that you walked in the door, you know, you didn't know if you were gonna get hit by a lightning bolt or not. Thankfully you didn't, you're still here. And that's by the way, not how God works. But you saw maybe some church people, and you didn't get you didn't get hit by a lightning bolt, but man, you got hit by by this death stare that made you feel like, why am I even here? The wildest thing happened when Jesus was around. People who were nothing like him. And I mean, I mean not nothing like him, because he was God, right? So that's kind of everybody. What I mean by that is the people who self-categorized as not religious, the people who self who self-identified as as not the religious elite, they flocked by the thousands to be around him. And the people who were most like him were most driven away by him. And it's the wildest thing. In fact, it's the one thing that I feel like if we got everything that we're doing right would happen, which is that people wouldn't see Jesus, God, church, and think, my goodness, that's a difficult place to go to, that's a difficult thing, I don't know if I can go there. There's so many different frustrations and experiences. When Jesus was around, people who were nothing like him flocked by thousands. In fact, if you're here and you're like, man, I don't even know what I feel about Jesus right now, did you know that me as a pastor compared to you as a I don't really know what I think right now, I don't know what I believe right now, did you know, do you know that statistically, if both of us were in the Bible, you would have like a 10 to 1 probability of liking him more than me? Yeah. It's wild, isn't it? It's crazy. In fact, let me read you some verses. I'm just gonna, this, these aren't our main verses for the day, but I just wanted to go and I want to show you this stuff actually in scripture. This is uh Luke 42, Luke 4.42. I'm just gonna read these. You can write them down if you want to. When it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place, and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving. In other words, they were so engaged with what Jesus was doing. They're like, don't leave, don't leave, don't leave. And Jesus basically has to say, Hey, the kingdom of God is bigger than this city. I gotta go. Luke 5, 15. Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came near to him. Luke 6, 17. A large crowd of his disciples was there, and a great number of people from where? From all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sodom. In other words, he's looking around and saying, Man, people from city after city after city, they're coming to what? Here, Jesus. And it wasn't the religious people. It was the irreligious people. It was the I don't know people, it was the hurt people, it was the broken people. Luke 7, soon afterwards, he went down to a town called Nain, and his disciples, and a great crowd went with him, Luke 8, 4. And when a great crowd was gathered, the people from town, and people from town after town, Luke 9, 11. And when the crowds learned it, they followed him and welcomed him. For they were about 5,000 men, and that's not including the women and children. Luke chapter 12, verse 1. So many thousands of people had gathered together, they were trampling one another. There's like a, it's like, you know, uh Black Friday, you know, day after Thanksgiving, and all of a sudden Best Buy opens up and they got that flat screen that's like 399 almost, right? And everybody's just like at the front doors and they're shaking them, and then all of a sudden there's just like he's like, that's kind of what it was like with people with Jesus. And it's wild because, again, the church has kind of the opposite tendency and kind of the opposite trajectory. We're talking about disciples at work. In week one, we talked about how God was in our vocation. How God, Genesis 1, breathed life into vocation. And at the same time, not at the same time, actually later on, Jesus comes, Jesus dies, he breathes life, he breathes his spirit into his disciples as he transforms their vocation into their mission. And some of what we said last week, some of what we said are the disciples, the disciples are going to be as you go disciples, and some of them are going to be go therefore. Some are going to travel intentionally to bring the gospel. And when the gospel is brought and people come to know Christ, what happens is there's a bunch of disciples who God's mission field that He's called them into is already the places and spaces that they're living, working, and playing. As you go, as the life that you have. And so, week three, we said, okay, so if God is all about vocation, he spoke your mission, our mission into our vocation. And the best way to make disciples at work, go therefore and make disciples, is to be a disciple at work. That you actually love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You follow him deeply, you follow him personally, not just as a category, not just as a set of ideals, but as your rabbi. Who you're trying to follow so closely, almost as if his dust were to get on you. But to make disciples, as Jesus talked about in Matthew 28, was not just taking people from belief to maturity, but from non-belief to belief. And this is the thing that I feel like as Christians we struggle with the most. Do I just walk into everybody's office at work and I'm like, got a minute? Yeah, sure, come on in. What you got? I got a savior I need to tell you about. You know somebody knocks on your door? Hey, you got that spreadsheet? You know, speaking of spreadsheet, have you seen how the the hands of our savior were spread on the Roman cross for you in the sheet that wrapped his head was neatly folded in the resurrection? And do you know, say you know Jesus, right? You're just kind of like, you know, again, man, the the McFlurry machine is broken. Speaking of broken, have you heard of my Savior, our Savior who was broken for you, and his brokenness healed your brokenness? And he's the ultimate flurry fixer. You're like, yeah, but we got a line right now, okay? That's great. Because here's the thing, right? Isn't this true? We feel weird, we feel awkward, we feel goofy, we don't really know how to bring it up, you don't really know how to transition that conversation. It's just kind of like, you know, you know, you know, what do I do? And here's here's the thing. So much of what happens in the book of Acts is we read the heralding of the gospel, right? We read these men, these ordinary folks, actually women and men, these ordinary folks who who took, who carried, who brought this story all over. And most of the book of Acts is about the heralding. But what's beautiful is every single person in the book of Acts were disciples of Jesus. They walked, they talked, they saw. In fact, the only one who's kind of a caveat of that really is Paul, and he walked and talked in kind of a post-revelation, but he would spend all kinds of time around his disciples. In other words, what was their training grounds? They followed Jesus. And today I want to show you a pattern in the life of Jesus, if you have never seen this before, that I think is going to be extremely helpful, extremely helpful in how you understand and how we understand how to engage people who are far from God. Because, as always, Jesus didn't leave us on an island with this. He gave us a very clear, very repeatable pattern. And it wasn't every single time, but this was the vast majority. If you got your Bible, we're gonna start off with uh we're gonna drop into three different stories. We're not gonna spend a ton of time in any one single of them. But Mark chapter 2, Jesus is just starting out in his ministry. Mark chapter 2, verse 1. And when he returned to Capernaum, after some days, it was reported that he was home. Everybody's like, Y'all, Jesus is here. And many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. So they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. We don't know the backstory of this man. We just know that Jesus is there. He's talking, he's teaching. He's actually just healed a couple people, just you know, worked with someone who was a leper and made them clean. And now he he's back at home. People have heard, people start to show up at his door, man. We heard about Jesus, we heard what he does, we heard about Jesus, we heard what he does. He begins to teach them. And there's Buddy. He's paralyzed. We don't know if this was from birth, it doesn't seem like it. We don't know if this was an accident, maybe it happened that day, maybe it happened last week. But there's four friends, they've got a buddy who's paralyzed, and they all carry this man. And when they could not get near him, because of their crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down on the bed on which the paralytic lay. Right? So what is this guy there for? Well, the reason he's there, the reason his friends brought him, is because of the fact that simply put, he can't walk. He can't fix himself, right? He's coming kind of for this first tier needs. In fact, we've got, if you've ever studied this, then perhaps you've seen this, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Any psych people, we've got a little uh visual reference here in a second, where there's a triage, kind of like a an angling of what all the best, what all the needs are, what kind of the base level. And the base level is right, that that idea of like food, shelter, clothing, water. Food, shelter, clothing, water. It's this concept of food, water, air, rest. I think that's a need. We'll say that one, right? He kind of goes up security, stability, love, belonging, esteem, self-actualization. In fact, if you um followed Maslow very much, which you know you don't need to have actually at the later on in his life, he said there's actually a sixth. It's at the very top. And he called it the need for transcendence. Sometimes it's external transcendence, sometimes he would say it's self-transcendent. He wasn't particular of a particular religion. But here's what's interesting read the Bible for yourself. Almost every single person, almost every single person who came to Jesus came with one of these first four base-level needs, and most of them, number one and number two. Very few people came to Jesus and said, Jesus, how do I inherit eternal life? And almost cons almost every single one of them consistently came to Jesus who said that. They were trying to trick them, they were trying to self-validate. They weren't coming because they were honestly, genuinely, existentially, eternally, salvifically in curiosity mode. They're most times trying to make sure that I've done enough to get there. But the people who came to Jesus, they came to Jesus and said, Jesus, my servant is sick. Jesus, this person has leprosy. Jesus, this person can't see. This person can't walk. Now, Jesus, at the top of this, below above self-actual actualization, we would put eternity, salvation. That was Jesus' primary mission, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever would believe in him would continue to see, continue to walk, and have enough food to eat. That's not what he said. But whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. When they came to Jesus, it was what was primary in their life, these first-tier needs. And there's this pattern. There's this consistent pattern in the life of Jesus that we see. The pattern, simply put, is that he would continually embrace, embrace their first, second, and third tier needs. And in doing so, he would embody the kingdom and reveal to them who the healer really was. He would embrace what was primary to them, almost in a way to demonstrate the kingdom, healing, restoration. So they would understand who he is as the ultimate healer and restorer. You see, they would say, Here's my problem. And Jesus wouldn't say, Are you kidding me? Get away. Don't you know that what I'm concerned about is salvation? He'd say, Come here. In fact, it's funny. This one he actually says it, and people are like, What? Verse 5. So they let him down, you know, basically through the roof. When they could not get him here, they removed the roof above him, which was which was very disruptive, by the way. And when they made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. And they would have said, Neat. Not why we're here. The reason I'm here is so that he can walk, so that he can move, so that he's not paralyzed anymore. Now some of the scribes are sitting there and they're questioning their hearts. Why does this man speak like that? He's blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus said, That's a good question. Immediately Jesus perceived in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves and said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk? He said, Come on. Which is easier? Let me just ask this. You guys are questioning, you're wondering, and you're saying, Who is this person who says this thing? Let me ask you, which is more difficult? Someone to say, your sins are forgiven? And someone or someone to say get up and walk. There's another time where Jesus, you know, heals people. And as he does these healings, he opens up and says, This is this is what the kingdom is about. He pauses. And we're going to read a couple more of those in a second. But he pauses here and he kind of unpacks it. He says, This. He says, He said to them, Why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven, or rise, take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise up, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose immediately. Picked up his bed, went out before them all. So they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this. You see, here's the simple idea. Jesus healed what was broken in people's lives. Jesus embraced the brokenness in their lives. Jesus healed the brokenness in people's lives so they would understand the healer who was broken for them. You see that? He's giving them a picture that the gospel, that his death, that his resurrection, that his redemption, that his restoration, that his reconciliation is going to bring together. He was temporary, they had these temporarily broken pieces, right? This this thing that in eternity is not going to last for all of eternity. But but he didn't say, oh, that's silly, that's stupid. That's just that's just your rent, that's just your your mortgage, that's just how your kids are gonna get fed, that's just what that no. He said, No, no, let me actually embrace those things so that you would understand. John chapter nine, where he heals a man born blind. As he passed by, chapter nine, verse one. Chapter nine, verse one. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, they said, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? They had this very linear sense of sin and the consequences of it. That the reason that he's blind, the reason he was born blind is because he must have done something either in the womb or his parents did something, and this has passed along generationally. Jesus said, You need to open up a new category of theology. It was not that this man sinned or his parents, listen, but that the work of God might be displayed in him. He's like, no, no, no, no. God's going to do something with this man, this broken part, this part that everybody in the town, everybody around sees. He's been like this since he was born. And actually, this is for a reason that God is drawing this person as well as other people around him to himself. We must work, he says, we must work the works of him who sent me while it's day. Night is coming, and when no one can work, and as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the mud made with saliva. And then he anointed the man's eyes with mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seen. This man goes, he comes to Jesus, right? And what does Jesus do? Jesus embraces what is that man's first tier needs to get to his ultimate salvific need. Jesus embraced what was important for them to give them a picture of what was important to him. Jesus consistently says, okay, what's the need in your life? Where's the brokenness? And they would bring it to him. They would show up with, or he would show up to their town. And there would be this sense that when he was there, he could make a difference and he could heal. And he could what was make he could make what was broken whole again. And then he continually does this. When he meets needs and steps into the gap of brokenness, he regularly explains the kingdom of God through what he's done. A couple weeks ago, I gave you three homework assignments. And like most sermons, you know, there's maybe a handful of us that did them. I'm okay with that, I get that. But let me just tell you, this one was important. I said, I want you to start praying about them. What are the idols? What are the needs? And where do you have favor? What are the idols? What are the needs, and where do you have favor? You see, Jesus saw these needs and met these needs, but he also had a word that would explain how this need that he was meeting paralleled the kingdom of God. And can I tell you why this is important? For two reasons. Number one is it's because he did the thing, but he also said something with it. Some of us are of the category that it makes sense that at all times preach the gospel and if needed use words. The thing is, it's like Jesus regularly needed words. But it was because of the outer pouring and outer working of his life. And here's what you need to see. In fact, if you're here and you hear this right, and you're thinking, okay, at my job, at my work, at my house, at my school, at my internship, at you know, whatever it is that I'm going to this summer, whatever I'm doing with my life. What are the needs? Who who are the needs? What are the people around you? Who's in that cubicle or that desk? Who's in the office? Who's down the hall? Who you're meeting with on Tuesday or on Thursday. And there's needs in their life. And our Americanized version says, well, don't get close, don't get involved, don't get too, you know, don't lean in too much. And let me just tell you, if you have never actively served, if you have never actively met needs in this person's life, it might feel really weird. But this is why being a disciple at work is so important. Because what does Philippians 2 say? It says, do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves, which means that we look not only to our own interest, but also to the interest of others, having the very same mindset of Christ Jesus. In other words, if every room that you walk into at your office, you think I'm not here to serve myself, I'm here to serve the people around me. If every time that you walk into a neighborhood group that you're a part of, every time that you walk into whatever homes and places and space you're a part of, and you walk in and think, I'm here to serve, you want to know who people bring their needs to? The people who have served them. In fact, the more that we serve, the more we gain access. But here's what you have to see, and please, please, please see this. Jesus wasn't doing this simply to gain access. And he was not doing this because people are projects. Oh, I'm only serving you so that I can preach the gospel to you. I'm only serving you so that you'll agree with me, and I'll only do this conditionally if you are in alignment with what I think. Look at what he says. See, there's this there's this mass thing. Jesus heals this man, and all of a sudden people take off, right? And and and he starts seeing, and and people are like, Who is this? You know, it's Derek, and he can all of a sudden say we were American, mad at Derek every single day, right? And now Derek is incredible, he's being productive. People look around, they see this man who was born blind, and and they they start to hear about it. And then all of a sudden the Pharisees hear about it. They're ticked because it happened on the Sabbath, and no one's supposed to do anything, no one's supposed to work on the Sabbath. It wasn't God's laws, it was the word, it was the laws that man had put around God's laws to try to make sure they were protecting them. They were trying to be holy. Well, they get all ticked off about it. In fact, they called this man in. He says, I don't know who this dude was, he just healed me. I didn't even really see him. I don't know if you guys remember this, but he spit in my eyes. By the time I came back, he was gone. They call his parents and parents. What do you think? They said, I don't know. He's an adult. Talk to him. They call him again. He says, I don't know. It's funny. He has this really funny line at the end where he basically says, I don't know. I mean, y'all are really interested in him. Do y'all want to be his disciples too? And that was really angering to him. That's something like he's like my spirit animal when he said that. You don't know what happens? This man that was that was blind, it's not like, oh, all of a sudden it's like he's coming back. Like, oh, praise Yahweh, right? You know what they do? They kick him out. The religious folks hated it. Let me just ask this to religious folks to just to see if that we have the right pulse and even who we're spending time with. You know, Jesus oftentimes got he was continually roasted for hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. Let me ask you, if you've been following Jesus for a while, when's the last time somebody got mad at you because you hung out with too rough of a crowd? I mean, you're like a you're like, I'm not talking about like you're like, I don't really know, but no, I'm talking about you're like saved, saved. You Jesus Jew people on a regular basis. They kicked him out. So verse 35, Jesus heard that they'd cast him out. And found having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he? Then I believe in him. And Jesus said, and I feel like this word he says, he says, You have seen him. You couldn't see. But now you can see. You have seen him, and it is him who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. And Jesus said, Look at this. For judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see me, they do not see, may see. And those who see may become blind. Can I tell you this is this is the beautiful thing about Jesus? Jesus didn't move towards people because people were projects. Jesus moved towards people, restoring and redeeming, because that was the natural overflow of his character. That's who he was. So that's what he did. He didn't say, Man, you're you're a project, and this is my evangelism strategy. This is how I'm going to go and specifically reach a loss, a hurting, and a broken world. He said, No, no, no. This is the character of God. The character of God is to reach, the character of God is to redeem, the character of God is to restore. If you think about what God does, He brings life, He restores broken places, and the ultimate sense of that is our lives, our sin, that God saw us, not just with our brokenness, that we have broken arms and broken hearts, and eventually our entire body breaks down enough to we die. I mean, that's true. But that was just a foretaste of the ultimate brokenness that needed reconciliation. And he saw that and he knew that he says, and I want to come give you a picture because, because not you're a project, not because I have to, but because I love you, I need you to see this is just who I am. See, Christians, if if if we're disciples at work, this is just who we are. That we're loving and that we're serving and that we're meeting needs. And here's here's the thing as I was thinking and praying about this, and I'm gonna be as short as I can with this last story. One of my favorite times of this, one of my favorite times of this happens back in the book of Luke, chapter 19. There's a story of him and Zacchaeus. He entered Jericho in Luke chapter 19, verse 1, and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. You don't want to know why I like this story right here? Because for many of us, we hear all that and we think, well, great, I can't heal the blind. I hope no one tears the roof off of my house first. But I hope I have insurance if they do. But I certainly don't believe that I had the capacity or the ability to make them walk again. You see, he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. It says that for two different reasons. Tax collectors, if if you were like Zacchaeus, who from everything that we see and know he was a Jewish man, Zacchaeus, who in his tax in his chief tax collector, he was the one in charge of collecting taxes, and no one likes taxes in general, but for them to say that as a Hebrew you are a tax collector for Rome was to say that basically you are a traitor, you are on the side of Rome, and you basically use Rome against your people to overcharge them. And not only was he a tax collector, it's like, and he was the big dog. He was in charge of everything, and he was rich. And he hears that Jesus coming to town, and everybody from around the town would have hated Zacchaeus. He does not have friends except for maybe a few tax collectors, which people also don't like. Zacchaeus was lonely, Zacchaeus was isolated, Zacchaeus was in need, in deep existential need. He was hurting. But you know what was difficult about Zacchaeus? He was successful. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not. Why? Because he was small in stature, he was a wee little man. Short King Summer for Zacchaeus. So he ran on ahead, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, for I must stay at your house. So he hurried, he came down, he received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, he is gone to be a guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to his house, since he also is the son of Abraham. Man, I was praying through this and I was thinking, this is all neat, this is all interesting. Can I just tell you in our culture, this is not complete. But our brokenness rarely, rarely is really present in our suffering. It almost always hides behind a mask of success. It almost always hides behind a mask of success. Here's what I mean by that. You have somebody, they're like Zacchaeus, they're rich. They're successful in their industry and their field, and they've done and they've worked and they've created, and everyone looks at that person, and you think, man, this person's incredible. And then you look and you see that actually, in order to get that success, their idol, which was success, their idol, which was productivity, their idol, what they saw. What it actually created was a trail of brokenness in their family. Every single relationship has been turned, every single relational has turned transactional. And the brokenness is the collateral damage of their success. But no one sees the success because they see brokenness. It's the parent who their idol is having the perfect family. And everybody's together, and everybody, you know, got their hairbrush and their collar and this tug, and you get the whole thing, right? And inside, you know, internally in this family framework, things are falling apart. Parents don't talk to each other, kids don't talk to parents. But boy, y'all look good when you show up and you smile. And that success is hiding what's broken. You've got somebody who's worked their entire life for school. They've worked and they've gone towards the major and they've gone towards the major, and it's not the story of and then they didn't get in. It's the story of, and then God gave them exactly what they thought, exactly what they wanted, exactly what they hoped, exactly what they prayed for. And they started doing that thing and working towards that thing, not realizing the entire time I am creating an existential crisis where my entire self-worth is based off of how well I perform. What are the needs where you work? And what are the idols? Because behind those idols, what you'll find are the actual areas of hidden brokenness. Those places of need are oftentimes where that brokenness is starting to come through. Jesus saw a need, met a need and explained the kingdom. He saw a need, he met a need, and he connected it. But it's not because he was sitting there thinking, what's the access point? What's the evangelist trying to do? It's because that's who he was. And as he is our primary, we follow him, our chief priest, our high king, our rabbi. He is our savior. And we say everything we want to do, we want to be like him. So here's the question What are the needs that you walk by on a daily basis? What are the people that are hurting that you see on a daily basis? That you're too busy, you have too much stuff. Jesus embraced what was broken so that people would understand the healer. Is because they've never experienced anyone who, in the name of the healer, has brought healing. And all they see is people who are just as broken. And though we are broken, we point to the one who is the ultimate healer. Three questions. What are the idols? What are the idols? The more affluent you are, the more rich you are, the more wealthy you are. We are. And where do you have favor? Because those are the people that God's saying, okay, they're coming through the roof. I'm bringing, they're the people you connect with. There's just a quicker and easier level of trust. Here's what I know. If we begin to see this, see the world through this lens, right? And you every single day before you go into work, you pray and you say, God, help me, help me to see the idols, help me to see the needs, and help me to see where you've given me favor. God, help me to see where are the idols, where are the needs. Help me to meet the brokenness in both of those areas, whatever that means, whatever. God, I don't even know. Maybe it's like Zacchaeus, where it's not this, I'm I'm hurt and I can't see or I can't walk. Maybe it's like Zacchaeus, where I just don't have any friends, don't have anybody to hang out with. I'm incredibly lonely. The loneliness epidemic. And he doesn't say that's awful. He says, Come on, I love you. I love you. Step one is be a disciple at work. What is a disciple at work? They see the need, they meet the need, and they connect it to the one who ultimately was broken for those needs. They see the brokenness, they embrace the brokenness, and they point to the one who was ultimately broken for us. Jesus rarely, if ever, forced a conversation. But they saw him, they saw his life, and they said, God, tell us more. Jesus, he had this continual ability. And when he stepped into humanity, he loved and he served. We're gonna sing one more song together. And as we do, I'm just trying to invite you to spend time thinking, praying. If you're in here and you don't know Jesus and you're far from him, man, I hope that today you meet some Jesus followers, some people who aren't as afraid of brokenness, who aren't afraid of dirty, who aren't afraid of people who see Jesus and saw that He came and healed them, loved them, served them, restored them. And I'm praying for every single one of us who's a Jesus follower, this week we begin a life pattern that was the pattern of Jesus. Where we embrace brokenness to give a picture of the ultimate healer. Not because people are projects, but because that's the outer working of the character of God. It's just who He is. Let's pray. God, would you help us? Would you help us to see needs and meet needs? Would you help us to see brokenness? And not to do the religious response, which is to say, oh my gosh, that's gross, that's broken. That's an area of breath, that's gross, that's dirt. No, Jesus, we are all, all sinners. We're all beggars. And those of us who know you are just saying we're a beggar, saying we found the place of ultimate bread. We thirst and we found that fountain of living water that never runs dry, that creates a reservoir so deep in our soul that it flows out of us into living water. God, would you help us to see the idols, to see the places where our culture hides brokenness behind the mask of success? And God, for any of us who are in here right now, who the truth is that we have brokenness in our lives that we've been keeping from you, and we've we've justified it because we're successful. Would you help us to experience your love on a deeper level, to know that even you, you love us in those places? For some of us, it's the blind. For some of us, it's the paralytic. And for some of us, it's just the lonely, the left out, the downtrodden, and the depressed. Will you help us to make a difference for your kingdom? Either as we go or going therefore, as we embrace brokenness, we bring healing as a small picture of you, King Jesus, the ultimate healer who is broken for us, who died for us, whose blood was shed for us, who covered us, who redeemed us, who restored us, who healed us, and who ultimately gives us life, not because we deserved it, but because you love us, because that's just your character. And say your name we pray. Amen.