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Intro: Welcome to Freedom Church!!  (NEXT Sunday)

April is an exciting month… celebrating a new Season.  (Easter, Baptism, New faces…)

Thankful today… that we serve a God who never changes BUT who is always doing NEW things!

New things in your life as well…(Our Prayer for you)

Today:  We are continuing our series “Jesus is____” …Where we have been looking at some misconceptions of Jesus and laying out the TRUTH of who Jesus really is!

…And the fact that discovering Jesus, will completely alter our very existence!

Recap: We’ve learned that Jesus is ALIVE… and GRACE.

Transition:  Today we are going to look another defining characteristic of Jesus that should be a great comfort to us all…

Message Title:  “Jesus is a friend of sinners”

(I can be a neurotic neat freak… compulsive cleaner… BUT MY WIFE… her mom… HIVES!)

Most of us do this! Someone is coming over…frantically shoving stuff in drawer’s… cabinets… disguising the disorder of our homes. (As if our mess… will alter the relationship)

Transition:  If were honest, we even do this with God. 

We live with this assumption that until we get our lives in order, God will want nothing to do with us!

(Break down as you read)

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. ² There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. ³ He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. 

⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name.“Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. ⁷ But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

⁸ Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

⁹ Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.¹⁰ For the Son of Mancame to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:1-9 (NLT)

Transition:  In this moment with Zaccheaus, Jesus shatters that assumption that we often live with… That we have to clean up, before God will show up.

We’ve learned over the past 2 weeks that we cannot earn God’s love. 

There is no amount of giving, serving, reading, praying, doing… that can tip the scales in our favor!

No in fact you will find God consistently trying to open your eyes to the fact that there is no scale!!

So that is settled.  Living right, does not make us right.  Jesus makes us right.

Transition:  So Jesus wants a relationship with me, despite all the things I have done and will ever do? Yes!  Jesus is a friend of sinners!!

But wait a minute… what do I do about the sin that I STILL struggle with?

Do we just keep sinning… doing whatever we want… because Jesus loves us?

No.  There is a solution to the sin problem in our lives… but as we live in the tension between what Jesus did for us… and the sin we still struggle with… we have to understand some things.

As a Friend of Sinners, there are 4 things Jesus wants us to know:

1.  You are not WHAT YOU DO

Sin is a big deal.  Sin controls us.  Destroys us.

Rebelling against God’s standards only brings pain, suffering, and ultimately death. 

It separates us from God. (That is why God hates SIN.)

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 

²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:24-25 (NLT)

Our sin does not DEFINE us, what JESUS defines us.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)

Our value, identity and purpose were ALL determined… BEFORE we even met Jesus. And THAT NEVER CHANGES!!

We all have areas where we are prone to deviate from God’s standards… THAT is why we need grace…

When we focus too much on rules (doing right) and not enough on Grace… we teach people that what they do is more important than who they are.

2.  Sin is NOT as POWERFUL as you think.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. ² And because you belong to him, the powerof the life-giving Spirit has freed youfrom the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)

You see, when we focus on how strong grace is… and how the cross took the POWER of sin away… We will realize how weak sin actually is!

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you…¹⁰ And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. ¹¹ The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:9-11(NLT)

There is new life pumping through your spiritual veins… Sin has lost its power!

Then why does it seem to have such a hold in my life… Because we are so focused on NOT SINNING… DOING RIGHT and NOT DOING WRONG… that we become more and more aware of our sinful nature.

(Donut – and weight loss)

The more you starve the appetite for sin… the more you don’t want to sin… the more you realize how weak it is, and how strong God’s spirit is inside of you! (Pornography)

Jesus sees our sin more clearly than anyone, yet He LOVES us more than anyone.

What does that tell you about the power of sin?

We don’t focus on our sin… to stop sinning.  We focus on Jesus and His grace and let His spirit teach us a new way to live… and we will find ourselves struggling with sin less and less.

3.  There is a new way to LIVE.

“In God’s mind, Jesus’ death on the cross solved the sin problem, and now we can get back to the abundant life God originally created for us.” – Pastor Judah Smith

The reality of sin… reveals that there is an alternative… a DIFFERENT WAY to live your life!

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. Romans 6:22-23 (MSG)

It’s not change your behavior… than you can have a relationship with God.

It’s meet Jesus.  Surrender to Jesus… and HIS spirit will lead you into a new way to live!

Zacchaeus and all his scheming, striving, rule following AND rule breaking… couldn’t find the new life that He experienced when he met Jesus… THAT is when his life changed. 

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ And when Christ, who is yourlife, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

⁵ So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. ⁶ Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. ⁷ You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. ⁸ But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.⁹ Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 

¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. ¹¹ In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Colossians 3:1-11 (NLT)

4.  Our sinful world needs more FRIENDS and less JUDGES.

The other 3 deal with us… This one deals with how we approach the world around us. 

Just like there is this tendency to think we have to get our lives in order BEFORE God wants anything to do with us… We can very easily slip into this mindset when it comes to the people around us.

(The Church and Grace AND Truth) – The truth part gave people the right to focus on the sin in other peoples lives.

They are both personified in Jesus.  We just need more Jesus. And Jesus saw people… not sin.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gavehis one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT)

¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17 (NLT)

(The woman caught in adultery…)

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” John 8:10-11 (NLT)

That wasn’t a threat… but a declaration of Freedom.

You will find people who live and believe differently than you… even contrary to God’s plan and standard.  Or job is not to pity them, rebuke them, or make projects out of them… Just be their friend. 

As you follow Jesus… and just love people… people will want to know your Jesus.

Let’s not be too quick to preach what Jesus said… before we LIVE how Jesus LIVED.

And it wasn’t his perfection that attracted the lost to Him… but the way he befriended them.  Saw value in them.  Loved them.

Big Idea: Jesus is a Friend of sinners… He doesn’t identify us by our struggle with sin, but defines us by HIS love. 

Challenge:  We still deal with sin… we all continue to sin… but the power OF sin was forever dealt with.  It doesn’t have to be a factor in your life… holding you back. 

…Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)

Salvation:  God take control of my life… It’s the easiest thing you will ever do, but I will cost you everything.