I'm going to be reading this morning from two passages in the gospel of Luke first from Luke 19 1 through 10 And then from Luke chapter 3
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy He wanted to see who Jesus was but being a short man. He could not because of the crowd So he ran ahead and climbed a sickle more fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus Come down immediately. I must say your house today So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly All the people saw this and began the mutter. He is going to be the guest of a sinner But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord Look Lord here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anyone Out of anything I will pay back four times the amount Jesus said to him Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham but the son of man came to seek and to save What was lost Then from Luke chapter 3 I'm going to begin reading in verse 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet a Voice of one calling in the desert Prepare the way for the Lord Make straight paths for him Every valley shall be filled in every mountain and hill made low The crooked road shall become straight the rough way smooth and all mankind will see God salvation John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath Produce fruit in keeping with repentance and did not begin to say to yourselves. We have Abraham is our father for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham Amen I'm going to do something a little bit out of the ordinary today And I think you'll agree if you know me that this is out of the ordinary I want you to watch a clip on the screen. It's a few minutes in length. It is somewhat humorous in nature. I promise you it has a point. So we can roll it
Dr. Switzer Yes, come in. I'm just just washing my hands. I'm Catherine Bigman. Jenna Carlisle referred me
Yes, yes, that's me. Should I lay down? Oh, no, no, we don't we don't do that anymore. Just just have a seat and And let me tell you a bit about our billing. I I charged five dollars for the for the first five minutes and And then absolutely nothing after that
That sounds great Too good to be true as a matter of fact Well, I can I can almost guarantee you that that our session won't last for the for five minutes now We don't do it any insurance bill so you would either have to pay in cash or by check Wow, okay, and I don't make change All right Go Go tell me about the problem is that you wish to address. Oh, okay. Uh, well I have the sphere of being buried alive in a box
I just I start thinking about being buried alive and I begin to panic As as anyone ever ever tried to to bury you alive in a box No, no, but truly thinking about it does make my life horrible. I mean, I can't go through tunnels or be in an elevator or in a house anything boxy So what what you're saying is you're you're claustrophobic Yes, yes, that's it All right, well, let's go cousin. I'm I'm going to say two words you right now I want you to listen to them very very carefully. Then I want you to take them out of the office with you and Incorporate them in into your life
Well, if it makes you comfortable, it's just two words most we find most people can Can't remember them Okay, you ready? Yes, okay, you're there Stop it. Yes S-G-O-P-N-W-W-E-I-T What are you saying You know, it's funny I say two simple words and I cannot tell you the amount of people who say exactly the same thing you're saying I mean this you know, this is not Yiddish Catherine. This is England. Stop it. So I should just stop it. There you go I mean you you you don't want to go through life being scared of being very alive in a box to you. I mean that
No, we we don't go there just just stop So I should just stop being afraid of being very alive in a box. You know good girl. Well, it's only been It's only been three minutes so that will be a three dollars
I only have a five so my time don't I don't make change Then I guess I'll take the full five minutes fun all right, well, what other problems would you would you like to address?
I'm bulimic I stick my fingers down my throat
Some kind don't do that But I'm compelled to my mom used to call me No, we don't go there No, we don't go there either But my horoscope did say we definitely don't go there But what else Well, I have self-destructive relationships with men
You want to be with a man don't you Mm-hmm. Yes, well, then stop it
Big baby Wash my hands a lot That's all right I wash my hands all the time a lot of germs on there Yeah, don't don't don't don't worry about that
Well, stop it How are you gonna get around? Get in the car and drive you you poop stop What's what's the problem? I don't like this. I don't like this therapy at all. You're just telling me to stop it And and you and you don't you don't like that. No, I don't So you think we're we're moving too fast, is that it? Yes Yes, I do All right, then let me let me give you 10 words that I think will clear everything up for you You want to you want to get a pad and a pencil for this one? Right? Are you ready? All right, here are the 10 words Stop it or I'll bury you alive Most of you are probably amused some of you may be a guest I'm glad if you like that, but the goal is not to make us laugh If we just wanted to laugh, we could all drive down to a comedy club someplace in Atlanta and and have a good time If you think about it The response that Christians often make with somebody who is in some kind of addictive sin is Stop it. Thank you about it It's really true Tom and I talk about being a little bit creative and Maybe this morning addressing people who come in late for church and saying stop it But get honest you can't name one sin in your life that has ever worked with not one not one If you think I'm kidding and you think overcoming sin is a matter of stopping it like that You don't understand the law of God Or the holiness of God and you don't understand what the Bible says about sin The series this series that we've been talking about is is not about behavior modification If it were we could all just say stop it and move on What I've been trying to to talk about these last nine weeks is involves believing in clinging to and living out the gospel of Christ Today is part two of something we talked about two weeks ago the business of making amends It's number nine in the steps of recovery. Let me just remind everybody where we are Could I just see your hand if this is your first time at Westminster Church? All right, a few good. We're glad that you're here We have been looking for the last nine weeks at the biblical truths underneath The so-called 12 steps of recovery of alcoholics anonymous and other groups I want to make clear. I'm not pushing a a or in a or Alamon on anybody and I want to state as plainly as I know how our authority in this series is Not the big blue book It is not psychology our authority in this series is the Bible period in the discussion and If these messages on the 12 steps don't focus you on the truth of what the Bible teaches you should disregard them The steps of recovery are valid only in so far as they mirror biblical truth Someone might say well why are we doing this at all if groups like a a only refer to a higher power And if they don't acknowledge the Bible How are we supposed to do this? I want you to remember the principle of common grace God enables people who don't know him at all to discover all kinds of truth about the universe and the world that we live in Someone says well, yeah, but if you look at their material some of it seems awful weak There's there's not much about Jesus and it Fall short of what the Bible teaches in some places and yes Didn't start that way originally the original material of alcoholics anonymous emphasize the person in work of Jesus Christ But go back to that It falls short of what the Bible teaches You can apply that standard every sermon you've ever heard from me Every one of them fall short of perfectly expressing what the Bible teaches My goal in this series is to better understand the subject of repentance and Add some biblical support to the 12 steps now. I may have failed in that My normal sermons fall short to I'm aware of that I knew this would be controversial and risky and somewhat out of the ordinary and a couple of people have heard I've never heard of anybody doing this And I agree and in a couple of weeks we're going to be in a more traditional series in a more traditional way At times I've been uncomfortable and a little bit scared But I'll tell you this it scares me a lot worse to do nothing It scares me a lot worse To do and say nothing About the subject of addiction Whether it's drugs or alcohol or internet or shopping or gossip or pride or you name it This is out there Let's face it. This is out there And let's face it. This is in here It's in this room You know a list of people You know a list of people who struggle with these issues You could give first and last names of husbands wives College students high school students who've gone headlong in some way in addictive sin We need a biblical framework for understanding and dealing with addictive sense This message and this whole series is not the last word on this subject I can refer you to a bunch of books and materials But as I've said before Underneath the 12 steps are the principles I believe for repentance and faith in Jesus Step 8 Was two weeks ago we made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing To make amends to them all Step 9 we made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others Now you'll immediately notice these two steps are very very similar I probably got a little bit ahead of myself Two weeks ago because that step was really about becoming willing to making amends to them all and we talked about more than that We talk about actually making amends in some cases Step 8 is about brotherly love making amends But it isn't always possible and it isn't always wise to make amends and so step 9 is really the step of self-discipline It emphasizes making amends for the other person's good not for your own for instance I know of a New some years ago over church pastor and his wife who were having difficulty They were sent off for several months of counseling and when they returned he confessed an emotional affair to the entire church He felt instantly better But many people in congregation were hurt by that and it continued to be devised in that congregation for years following Or imagine this scenario in an office Mary there was a time when I struggled with lust for you, but now I have repented
How does Mary take that as a confession or as it come on In step 9 we're talking about doing the right thing the right way at the right time making amends How do you know when to do that? Well, this is where often you need input from somebody else in AA They called that person your sponsor Who helps you in making amends, but but why are these two steps important? I believe it's very simple It's because when it comes to addictive sin We minimize the effect that our sin has on others In fact, it's not just true with addictive sin. It's it's true with all sin When it comes to your sin You and I we minimize the effect that our sin has on others just part of human nature Today's point is a very similar very simple. I want to talk about Zacchaeus I want to talk about repentance and third. I want to talk about you First of all Zacchaeus Zacchaeus, you know, was a wee little man and a wee little man was he? You know the story Zacchaeus was a public gun. He was a Jew who had joined forces legions with the Roman government in collecting taxes Zacchaeus was a hated man Zacchaeus was a traitor Zacchaeus was a crook Just went with the territory of being a public gun. In fact, the Bible identifies him with as the chief tax collector So he was a Jew working for the Roman government. He was seen as a traitor And what really rubbed salt into the wound was Zacchaeus's name, Zacchaeus means righteous Can you imagine what an irritation that was in that day? He was a betrayal of his name A corrupt official Yeah, you really owe this much, but if you'll grease my palm with a few shepherds and dinner. I I'll lessen what you owe a corrupt official no doubt But understand Greed is one of the things that we have identified as an addiction It was a choice I think they can be little doubt Zacchaeus was addicted to his own greed When we say that something is addiction is an addiction. We're not saying that that it lessens the severity Or that it makes it more palatable or understandable or that it makes it makes a person less responsible When we say that someone is addicted like that we simply mean he was locked into it He was locked into his greed He wasn't gonna get out When we say that someone is addicted like that we're saying That Zacchaeus like you and me was not going to be reached by someone saying stop it Zacchaeus stop being greedy stop it It's ludicrous We'll never work at all Zacchaeus needed for Jesus to do something dramatic inside of it He needed to be forgiven and he needed to be cleansed And one of the ways that since strangled hold is broken in our lives comes When we begin to see understand and wrestle with the impact that our sin has had on other people Because we're blind to it all of us Man plunges is into alcohol in order to escape A woman plunges herself into an affair because she's lonely Their kids are decimated Their world is shattered Everything they've ever been taught about right and wrong has been turned upside down on its head Doesn't have to be alcoholism or an affair Could be someone who's a a golf widow or a football widow or exercise orphans I'm talking about an activity that's so overpowering on your life that you have no clue That other people are affected or how they are affected For Zacchaeus an important sign that the strangled hold of money had been broken in his life and that he was genuinely repented Comes from his willingness to make amends Notice what he says to Jesus Lord, I'll give half my possessions to the poor I'll make fourfold restitution Something good has happened in Zacchaeus The blinders have been removed He recognizes that other people have been impacted by his sin Well, that's Zacchaeus and a nutshell now important. I want to talk about repentance When we say repentance it's more than just a word repentance is a way of life Repentance needs to be an everyday way of life Because sin is an everyday way of life Did you know that the first of Martin Luther's 95 Thesese nailed on the door there the church at Vidinburg reads like this When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent He called for the entire life of believers to be one of Repentance that was the first of the 95 Thesese When Jesus said repent he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance That's commonly thought that repentance is to stop doing what's wrong and to start doing what's right You know keep the commandments Do the right thing just do it Stop it You don't have to know how you feel about something if you do right you'll feel better And if you do right that will please God
That's behaviorism That's straight works theology I did wrong I won't do that again. I will make a wise your choice I will do right and if I've done right then I have repented no Repentance is not just changing your behavior That actually denies the holiness of God Oh God was this pleased with me when I did wrong and now God's happy with me when I do right It's not repentance at all Richard Loveless gives probably the best Definition of sin that I know of put that on the screen if you will He says sin cannot be eliminated to isolate incidents or patterns of wrongdoing It is something much more akin to the psychological term complex It is an organic network of compulsive attitudes beliefs and behaviors deeply rooted in our alienation From God sin isn't just something that you did It's how you think It's how you feel It's what you desire It's what you plan It's what you long for So how do we repent It's very simple we go to Jesus for cleansing and we stay there for power to change We go to Jesus for cleansing and we stay there for the power to change Simply we're humbled before God To repent means to humble yourself before God we stop making excuses about what somebody else did Or what somebody else does or what somebody else said And we acknowledge that everything that God says about us is true That's the start of repentance We acknowledge that everything God says about us is true and we cling to Jesus by faith because he is our only hope As we think about the cross or as we look at the cross We don't just simply look at the fact that Jesus crucified between two thieves two thousand years ago We really look at what he did there for us and the effects of Repentance humbling yourself before God and forgiveness Our first of all intimacy with God Your relationship with God is is restored. It's been healed You know the Bible says there is joy in heaven over one center that repents Now think about that of course that means join heaven when someone Repentance and is converted to faith in Christ they become a Christian for the first time But it means more than that Did you know there is joy in heaven every time you repent Think about how a loving father welcomes a child who has Dissevaid and is broken The little girl throws herself in her daddy's arms and says oh daddy. I'm so sorry Will you ever forgive me? How does he respond? Will you better not do it the next time? No A loving father Showered her with kisses And hugs And says honey, I love you. Why is a loving guy to do that because the relationship has been healed. It's been restored Think of the prodigal son Jesus taught about in lute 15. He's coming home He's been eating with pigs. He's wasted his father's resources He's trash his father's reputation What does Jesus say the father does he sees him From afar He runs to him. He throws his arms around him and the Bible says explicitly and kisses him This is how God receives you Every time you repent Every time you look to Jesus. This is the way he receives you with kisses So the effect of of repentance and forgiveness is first intimacy with God and then second the re-entery re orientate Excuse me the re orientation of your affections The re orientation of your affections Your conscience has been cleansed Your integrity has been renewed Think of David after his sin with Bathsheba and after he had repented on 51 He praised God surely you desire truth in the inner parts Create in me a pure heart. Oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me This is why after you repent your your life changes Your life changes because God's cleansing gives you a new desire to be obedient Your affections as the Puritans would say have been re-oriented Second Timothy 2 Paul says flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness faith love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart All has to do with the heart This is why John the Baptist in Luke 3 says Bring forth fruit In keeping with repentance The third thing that happens in as result of repentance and reconciliation forgiveness intimacy with God re-inorientation of your affections And then thirdly reconciliation with others And so I run to my brother My sister my spouse my child my friend in order to make reconciliation In order to make restitution and be and be reconciled I run to my brother and sister but Bible also makes it clear. I normally run to my brother and sister. I run to the lost David again in Psalm 51 says these words then I will teach transgressors your ways And sinners will turn back to you. Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth Will declare your praise Now I mention Zacchaeus And repentance Now let's talk about you What keeps you from doing this? What keeps you from repenting? What keeps you from making amends or as we said two weeks ago sweeping your side of the street It doesn't mean that the other person hasn't sinned What he does or did what he doesn't do he's responsible to God for But how do you go verse How do you make amends when your heart is filled with resentment How do you make amends when you're quite confident at what he did is as bad or worse I know this if you hold resentment against someone or withhold something from them that you owe them You're spiritually tied to that person in a way that's not healthy
There's turmoil in your heart That creates a longing for something to Dole the pain You must forgive them In order to make amends you're going to be making amends to people who themselves have sinned And more than likely a sin against you How do you make amends to someone who's sinned against you by first forgiving them And by Randy being reminded of the fact that repentance means that your primary focus is your sin not theirs
It's your sin not theirs This is why Paul in Colossians 3 says be gentle and ready to forgive never hold grudges remember the Lord forgave you So you must forgive others Someone says I did that I did that but but the memories keep creeping back and I'm bitter all over again So repent again And forgive again Repentance is probably the most imperfect thing that we do Repentance is probably the most imperfect thing that we do Listen to this quote by the famed CH dispersion The man who truly repentance has never satisfied with his own repentance We can no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly However pure our tears there will always be something to be repented of Even in our best repentance Listen to repent is to change your mind about sin and Christ and all the great things about God There is sorrow implied in this but the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ If there is this turning you have the essence of true repentance even though no alarm or despair have cast their shadow on your mind Look at that sentence there is sorrow implied in this but the main point is the turning of the heart From sin to Christ And so you must understand that when you repent the message of the gospel is not stop The message of the gospel is start Start looking at Jesus
Focus your attention on him The secret in repentance is in where you look This is how it happens for you I know because this is how it happens for me You have this temptation That pulls at you And tugs at you and you tell yourself this is wrong Not going to do that Not going to think that not going to go there And then it comes back again and you think oh no I'm I'm a Christian and that's not the way Christian behaves himself So I won't do that I mean this time I really won't do that and that And you're better for a while until it comes back again and so you say I'm going to I'm going to steal my resolve Not to do that. Where's your attention and all that Your attention is on what you're being tempted with This is why I mean repentance means you start looking at Jesus You focus your attention on him the secret to repentance is in where you look
Zacchaeus was changed that day He was like a mafia boss He was changed He was brought to repentance How Because he brought Jesus into his home And he looked at him Looking at Jesus will lead you to repentance Repentance is the fruit of looking And the Holy Spirit Turns us to Christ and in so doing turns us from sin and so look away from the effect of repentance to the cause Looking at Christ And turn from your own efforts to repent To looking at Jesus who is exalted on high Because that Jesus Will give the repentance that you seek Friends, that's the gospel That's good news That's pray Jesus, thank you that your gospel is far greater than the word stop it
Thank you that you have really good news for us You must start looking at you and looking to you continually
And we pray that Jesus said because you sit at the right hand of the Father That as we look upon you and all of your purity and all of your holiness All of your perfection That you will grant repentance on high To those who humble themselves before you We thank you that you're great We thank you that you're glorious And we thank you that you are the friend of sinners Attics Just like us And we pray in your name Amen