Pa [00:00:00]:

I'm such a creature of habit, and when something changes in my pattern, boy, I could just have the worst day because all of a sudden I overslept 15 minutes, and that just messes up my whole pattern. Or messes up my whole routine. This morning, before we get into the scripture, I just want to have a little interaction this morning, just for our opener, I want to see you raise hands, okay? How many people were here last week? Okay, great. So out of the people that were here last week, how many of you sat in the same aisle? Same aisle. Okay, so there's three aisles. Okay, raise your hands. Almost the same.

Pa [00:01:06]:

Now we're going to break it down. How many of you sat in the same seat that you did? Okay, a lot less. How many of you would have sat in the same seat as last week, but somebody else was sitting in the seat? All right, lot more. All right, come on. The truth is, we're all creatures of habit, right? We all get used to routine. We come to church and we listen to worship, and all of a sudden we're singing a different song. And it's like, OOH. It just kind of puts us on edge.

Pa [00:01:47]:

Just like waking up 15 minutes after the time you normally wake up. Well, guess what? The clocks are going to be changing and that's going to throw you all off for a while, right? Was it next week that changes, or is it following week? It's happening soon. I know that church routine is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing. But when we're living our lives so focused on our routine and aren't willing to change, we're not willing to grow. We're not willing to get stretched. We can get just stuck. We can just get stuck in a rut in our lives and wonder why we're not growing.

Pa [00:02:42]:

I know people that are bodybuilders and people that work on their bodies and they go to the gym. They go to the gym all the time. They work out same time. They do the same. Mondays are arms, Tuesday's chest, wednesday's, legs. And all of a sudden they've seen all this great result, and all of a sudden they plateau. Why did they plateau? Because they're doing the same routine. And what a personal trainer will tell you is you got to change it up.

Pa [00:03:16]:

You got to change up your routine, and then you'll see growth. Church, if we want to grow, we're going to have to change up some of our spiritual routines. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, lord, I just thank you for today. Oh, Lord, this is a tough message, and I just pray people would just be willing to receive what you want them to hear. Lord, any words that are not of you, Lord, I just pray would just be cast out of their memory. And Lord, Lord, I pray you would just use me to speak into people's hearts today.

Pa [00:03:56]:

In your name we pray. Amen. Our key scripture I want to look at this morning is Ephesians, chapter 417 through 24. Ephesians, chapter 417 through 24. All right, we have it. All right. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord. Insist on it.

Pa [00:04:35]:

This is important. When God is putting the word insist, we should stop and just think and meditate on it. This is important that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. We'll break this down coming up here. Verse 18. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of what ignorance that is in them due to what the hardening of their hearts. You know what that looks like to me? It looks like I don't want to receive from you today, Pastor, because I like my routine, I like things the way I like it, and don't try to change my mindset because things are good. Verse 19.

Pa [00:05:47]:

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to what, sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity. Would a continual lust for more. Is that not the world that we live in? Okay, verse 20. You that seems you. Can I point you? You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Okay, 21. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Christ Jesus. 22.

Pa [00:06:36]:

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to do what? To put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. What does it mean to put off, to take off, to get rid of, to change. Okay, verse 23. To be made new in where the attitudes of our minds and verse 24. And to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. I'm going to talk about three things today. Three words that I want us to get. Number one surrendered.

Pa [00:07:49]:

Paul says in Romans, chapter one, verse one i, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. I talk about this often. The word servant there means duos, and duos means slave. Putting off means to surrender your life and your will, your emotions, your desires for the thing that God wants us to have. Who in here doesn't want God to lead and guide and direct our lives? You have to ask yourself that, because, truthfully, many of you want to lead your own life. You want to dictate where you're going to go, what you're going to do. We need to stop that right now. Our minds, our attitudes, our life must be focused on Jesus Christ and what he has for us and what he wants for our life.

Pa [00:08:48]:

The truth is, every one of us was born with a purpose. Church, you were born with a purpose. Your purpose was to advance your kingdom. No, it was to advance God's kingdom. So what does that look like? Well, it looks like this. Lord, start your day off. Lord. Use me today, Lord.

Pa [00:09:29]:

Use me today, lord, however you want to use me, Lord. I know that today I got to deal with my boss, and I don't like him or I don't like her. Help me, Lord, to model Christ to them. O Lord, help me to raise my kids the way that You've called me to raise my kids. Not the way I was raised, not the way I was taught, but the way you want me to raise your kids because they're your kids. Yes. Oh, Lord, help me to be a light to my friends. Help me, Lord, to make an impact in this world you called me to live.

Pa [00:10:22]:

We've gotten so used to professionals. We go to the dentist to get a tooth pulled or a root canal. We go to the doctor when we're sick. We come to church to listen to the professional speaker. We go to whatever concert to listen to a professional artist, whatever it is. And God has given each and every one of us, he made each and every one of us unique and a plan for our lives. But you'll never experience the plan for your life if you don't surrender your life over to Jesus Christ. If you don't become a slave to Jesus Christ, if you don't say Jesus, here I am.

Pa [00:11:06]:

Use me. What do I have to offer? I'm going to share a little story of how I grew up. A little bit, just real short. I grew up in a home where we were expected to go to church every Sunday. What that looked like was, you're going to church with mom on Sunday. Hey, dad, what about you? I'll go once in a while, but you're going. And there was no talking back to my dad. You went to church.

Pa [00:11:46]:

So we went to church growing up. Then we went to a Christian school. There was no, oh, I want to go to a different school. You went to a Christian school. And then as I grew up, there was expectations that were put on me. Oh, you're going to do this or you're going to be this or you're going to be that. The expectation for me was I was going to take over the family farm. The expectation for my brother was he was going to grow up to be a pastor.

Pa [00:12:22]:

True story. I had an older brother. I remember we had Iowa skill test. Anybody remember those things? He'd get to Iowa. Skill test and perfect score. Perfect score. And he'd go through, and I'd be like, oh, how did you do? Eighty s eighty five. Oh, that's good.

Pa [00:12:46]:

But your brother perfect scores. And my whole life. It seemed like there was a plan over my life. My life was going to be a farmer, and my brother's life was going to be a pastor. I remember for the 8th grade class, the valvictorian of the 8th grade class would be allowed to do like a one to two minute speech at the church about what they learned during the years of going to the school. My brother got up there and he spoke, and I was like, well, that'll never be me because I'm never going to be the val Victorian of my class. And my parents didn't have a lot of money, so I'm not going to be able to go to school. And so I just kind of gave up on it.

Pa [00:13:44]:

But I knew in my heart that I was called to be a pastor. I knew in my heart that I wasn't called to be a farmer. I was called to be a pastor. But how could it happen? Because my parents didn't have enough money. My brother was going to go to boarding school where he had a full ride, full ride for boarding school and then a full ride to college because of his grades. I'm like, well, that's not going to be me. So I gave up on it. I gave up on my dream that God put in my heart to be a pastor and I live for the world.

Pa [00:14:30]:

I was like, hey, I might as well have fun. So I had a lot of fun, and it led to a lot of misery. I said, Lord, I remember going to Waukesha Technical College and taking an assessment. This is when I was in my early twenty s, and I took this assessment of what I would be good at and what jobs I'd be good at, because I was just trying to find myself. And every assessment pastor came up pastor came up in my assessments at a technical college. I was like, well, that's impossible. The dream seemed impossible because I was looking at it through my experience, my worldly eyes. And then I realized, you know, the apostles, did they go eight years to college? How about Peter? I mean, they said that he spoke Galilean, which meant he spoke more slang or more like the people of the day.

Pa [00:15:46]:

I was like, well, if Peter can do it, I can do it. And then God just directed every step to where I am today. Church. God is putting in each and every one of your hearts what you're called to do. Then what it looks like is your passions, your desires. What are something you're going to stay up all night talking about? What are things you love? Now, here's the neat thing about it. God uses our passions, our desires to advance his kingdom. We support a ministry here at this church that's down in Milwaukee on 84th street, where Neil, one of the elders here in the church, rolls out a Basketball On The Floor and The Kids Come Out And Play Basketball.

Pa [00:16:54]:

It's not about the basketball. It's about the discipleship that takes place. Teen Challenge reached out to this ministry. And now Teen Challenge comes so their people that go to Teen Challenge, people that are struggling with drugs and alcohol can get discipled by this church. By this. People in this church started with just I like basketball, and I want to invest in the next generation. And God is using it to disciple that's one ministry. Have a ministry in this church.

Pa [00:17:37]:

And I'm not going to mention her name, but she writes out the birthday cards. She has a gift of helps. She has a gift of administration. And she's like, what can I do? I said, this is a value for me as the pastor of the church. Can you come and help me? She writes out a hand note. Happy Birthday. How many of you got a card? See, church, you can make an impact. You make an impact where you're at if you just let the Holy Spirit lead and guide and direct you.

Pa [00:18:28]:

But we get stuck in a routine. We get so stuck into the world that we live into, the life that we were born into that so many of us can't even think outside the box because there's no hope for me. I wasn't able to go to college. Or I'm a woman, or I'm a man, or I'm this or I'm that. I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm to this I'm to that Stop It. Look yourself in the mirror.

Pa [00:19:00]:

Look yourself in the mirror today and say, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Amen. You Can't Get there though, if you try to do this life by yourself, just Doing What you want to do. You have to surrender your life to Jesus Christ and let him use you. I look at the life of Paul and Paul persecuted Christians. He actually killed Christians. His Name was Saul At the time and he had an encounter with Jesus. And we say, well, his name changed to Paul.

Pa [00:19:47]:

Something more than a name change happened. He went from a persecutor of Christians to being persecuted for advancing the kingdom of God. He was passionate and lived a life that whatever City he went to, he knew he was going to be encained and imprisoned for sharing The Good News about Jesus Christ. That's what Acts Chapter 20, Verse 23 says, that he would Know that and the Holy Spirit would tell him this I'm going to a new city. Well, I'm Going to be spending some time in jail. Now, I want to say this. We're not Paul, but we can be Imitators of Jesus Christ and Live our lives to do What God tells us to do. Paul was called to go to different cities, to minister.

Pa [00:20:52]:

And when he was there, the Holy Spirit even Revealed to Him what was going to happen. He was going to be imprisoned. Church. Surrender your life to Jesus, watch him lead you and guide you and take care of every step, and it doesn't always look pretty and impressive and, oh, I'm going to make a million dollars. There's a lot of teachers out there that are teaching, hey, you do this, you're going to get this. You know what I care about? I care about your salvation. I want to see you come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior number one. And I want to see you live the life that God's called you to live so that you can witness to the people that I can't reach.

Pa [00:21:51]:

So remember the three words surrendered. What was the second one I talked about? Anybody wrote down attitude? So let's look at attitude. Luke 19, one through ten. We're going to look at a little man, Zacchaeus. Remember that little song? Zacchaeus was a wee little man. A wee little man was he we're going to look at Zacchaeus, but as we read this text, I want us to look at his attitude. Okay? Let's just stop and just look at this. What was his attitude? Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

Pa [00:22:33]:

Okay, let's just keep reading here. Verse two, we got it. 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. People come to church because they need Jesus in their life. They want to experience Jesus, do they not? When you first came to church, did you come to church because you were told to go to church? Maybe that's true, but why did you stay at church? Because you wanted to grow in Christ and you want to experience Jesus. That's what Zacchaeus wanted here.

Pa [00:23:22]:

He wanted to see Jesus, but being a short man, he could not because of the crowd. I don't have that problem. I just don't. So he ran ahead and climbed the sycamore tree, fig tree to see him. Since Jesus was coming that way, what did he do? He ran ahead. Oh, I think a lot of us would just sit in the back of the crowd and say, well, I'm not that important. And when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today or six.

Pa [00:24:09]:

We're going to read through this account, and then we'll break it down. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. If I climbed up a tree, I'm not coming down at once. It's going to take me a little bit. All the people saw this, and he began to mutter, he has gone to the guest of a sinner. See, a tax collector collected taxes for the Roman government, and the way a tax collector got paid was he skimmed off the top, so they weren't very liked. 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 anybody 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.

Pa [00:25:05]:

Let's break down this text a little bit. Zacchaeus wanted to encounter Jesus. He wanted to experience Jesus. So when Jesus was coming through the town that he was at, he went out to meet Jesus. Many of you have done the same thing. You want to have an encounter with Jesus. You want to grow with Jesus. So you come to church and you want to grow with God.

Pa [00:25:31]:

So you come to church and all of a sudden that big guy in the front row is standing there and he's blocking us from the words on the screen. How am I supposed to encounter Jesus when the big guy in the front row is blocking the screen? Oh, shoot. He's the pastor. I can't say anything. Yeah, sit in the front row. Join me. Did he just sit in the back of the crowd? Did he? He ran ahead and he climbed the sycamore tree. That took effort.

Pa [00:26:20]:

I would put it this way. It took passion, pursuit to see God. How's your attitude this morning? Is your attitude like, I'm just going to go to church or is your attitude of passion and zeal and to pursue what God has for you? You should check your troubles and stuff at that door. When you walk in, you should just say, you know what, Lord, I want to receive what you have for me, lord, I'm struggling with this. Give me a nugget. Give me one nugget. To help passionately zealously pursue Jesus, how about taking the scriptures that were talked about and going back, writing them down and going back and studying them? How about being really zealous, really passionate and coming out on Thursday night and doing a sermon, rewind and talking with a bunch of believers at John and Liz's home again. John and Liz are in Hawaii right now, but otherwise I'd had them come up and talk about what their vision is.

Pa [00:27:50]:

They'll do doing it next week and then the following week we're going to start being zealous, getting in, diving into scripture. Hey, truth is, though, we just want to experience Jesus on a Sunday morning and then we want to go home and live the way we want to live. Pastor, you went a little long on Sunday. I'm getting used to an hour and 15 minutes. You went an hour and a half. Oh, shoot. You're going closer to 2 hours. That is affecting my life.

Pa [00:28:36]:

Missing kickoff of the packer game. We're not missing much this year. Okay, we're not going to miss much this year. Attitude. Do we have a surrendered life? How's our attitude? Is our attitude passionately pursuing Jesus? I have to check that I have to check that. Sometimes you get into the rut or the routine of just coming to church, sitting in the same section, sitting in the same chair, and all of a sudden it's like, there's somebody new here. And they sat in my chair. Oh, boy.

Pa [00:29:27]:

Now what am I going to do? How about welcome them and say, hey, so good to see you today. I'm glad you made it out. That would be radical. Can you scoot over one? All right. Check our attitudes. Are they passionate? Remember the third word choose surrendered life attitude. And we need to choose. We need to choose to honor God.

Pa [00:30:13]:

I'm going to be staying at your house tonight. But, Lord, my house is messy. But, Lord, I don't even know any of your disciples. I don't know what they like. They might have food allergies. Oh, Lord, I'm not well liked in this town. You come here, there might start a riot. Lord, my only friends are fellow tax collectors.

Pa [00:30:52]:

I don't even know how much they like me. Who am I supposed to bring? Lord, I'm staying at your house tonight. You have to choose to honor God with what God has given you already. Honor God with your home. Honor god with your car. How many of you brought somebody to the church today that wasn't your family member? I want to see hands. A couple. So 2323 people.

Pa [00:31:34]:

How radical. Yeah, excellent job. How radical would it be to say, hey, I'll pick you up. Amen. Jason's dad, I was told yesterday I had no idea. He picks a lady up 30 minutes from his house, and now they're attending a church in Hartford that's I guess five minutes away from his house. So he goes 30 minutes away to pick up a lady to go five minutes away from his house. I think that's awesome to pick up people, take them to church, take them to see God.

Pa [00:32:22]:

That's radical. But we have to choose to honor God. Well, why can't we do that? Well, we're running late. Woke up 15 minutes late. Got to brush my teeth. I got to get dressed. I know a couple of weeks ago, I got up and my dress pants were ripped from here to my knee. I like, I can't wear those.

Pa [00:32:47]:

My dress shirts, sadly, I've gained some weight, and they're, like, too tight. And I'm popping buttons. I'm like, I got to get to church. I'm running late. So I just threw on some clothes, and somebody said, hey, boy, you're pretty casual today. I'm like, yes, I was stuck with my wardrobe malfunctions, but yet I came. You know what? We got to stop worrying about a lot of that stuff and just come. Jesus wants to come.

Pa [00:33:25]:

Jesus wants to come to your house. He wants to indwell in you. He cares about you so much that he calls you friend, your best friend. Are you worried about your best friend? When they come to your house. That's a little messy. I'm not. My friend Craig still has a key to my house. And I said, hey, you're always welcome.

Pa [00:33:54]:

You don't have to call. You just come now. I don't know if he lost the key, but when you have friends that you're intimate with and you're close with, you don't worry about that stuff. After you're married a while, do you really worry about all that stuff? It bothers you when your spouse doesn't pick things up. Ask Sarah. It still bothers her, but after a while, she just like, is that worth the fight today? Choose to honor God. I wrote down Ephesians five one and two. Ephesians five one and two.

Pa [00:34:42]:

We have to walk in love, let me tell you. Can we pull that up, Deanna? Ephesians five one and two. Love is a choice church be imitators of God. Therefore, as dearly loved children, verse two. And live a life of love. Just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, as fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, we got to live a life of love. Imitators of Christ. Christ did what he came to earth with a purpose, and he fulfilled his purpose on the cross, and he rose again victorious over sin and death in the grave, and he ministered to his apostles, to his disciples, and that work is still carrying on today.

Pa [00:35:32]:

So to be imitators, it can be overwhelming. Let's look at the part there that I really want us to focus on. Walk in love. Choose to love. Choose to care. Choose to invest. I've been asked to be a coach for home school league this year, and I've had to pray about it because I'm busy and it's a big commitment, home school basketball. And I put my name in the hat last year, possibly as a coach.

Pa [00:36:20]:

And then this year they called me up and asked me if I could be assistant coach. I said, Let me pray about it and I'll get back to you. And after praying about it, I thought about it for a long time. I get the opportunity to invest in these young men that will be around, hopefully a lot longer than I'm around. To impact the future for Christ, I'm working on developing a discipleship program for all the high school boys, starting with the JV boys because that's where Caleb plays of opening up scripture and talking about how it applies to their life and then playing basketball modeled a lot. After what Neil has taught me with the ministry that he's doing, we got to choose to walk in love, which means investing our time, our energy into people. It's the opposite of what the world's doing. You go on your phone and you post, oh, I just went out to eat.

Pa [00:37:41]:

Here, take a look at what I ate. Oh, go on your phone and post your new car. You go on your phone and post about the wedding you were just at and whatever. How about posting about a new relationship that God gave you? How about posting about somebody coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ? That's radical, isn't it? But it's a choice. We're either going to choose to love God, walk with him by loving other people, or we're going to choose to just serve ourselves. Zacchaeus when they said, hey, this guy's a tax collector. He's a cheat. He said, If I cheated any of you, I'll give you four times back.

Pa [00:38:41]:

It doesn't say in Scripture that anybody stood up and said that he cheated them, did it. But if there was, he would have given back four times the amount. Be willing to sacrifice in your choices. Be willing to invest in other people. Amen. See, the world I want to close with this. The world is an enemy to Jesus Christ. The world we live in is an enemy to the cross.

Pa [00:39:19]:

And if we choose to live in this world and just follow along with the things of the world, we can catch ourselves getting into a routine that pushes us away from our Lord and Savior. I've been talking to some Christians that were very sold out for the Lord, serving in church, and all of a sudden there was an offense. Somebody ticked them off. And so they stopped going to the church the first week, and it's like, well, that was kind of weird, not serving in church. And then second week came along and said, well, not going back to that church. So they stayed home the second week. Third week came along and they're just like, I don't know where to go to church. I haven't done any research yet of any of the churches in my area.

Pa [00:40:24]:

So the third week came and gone, and by the fourth week, they were like, hey, there's a lot of good TV programs on TV on Sunday morning, and I can watch the preview for the NFL football games. I kind of like that. And guess what? I don't have to go to church. I don't have to get up. And a month turned into a year, and a year turned into two years, two years turned into three, and on and on and on and on to the point where they're like, Why? Why should I even go to church anymore? I know my Jesus. I know Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I know he rose victorious. I love my Jesus, but I don't like the church.

Pa [00:41:27]:

It's a lie of the enemy church. It's a lie of the enemy. And if you found yourself in that rut or you know somebody in that rut, you need to say, you need to change your routine. You need to come alongside that person and pull them out, because the Bible says, don't forsake the assembly. We need each other to sharpen each other. We need to be there for. Each other. The more I grow in Christ, the more I realize that this is not a singular thing.

Pa [00:42:01]:

It's not my faith. It's about community of believers coming together to advance the kingdom of God. If this is your church home church, this is your church home. I want us to be a church of love, a church that chooses to put people first. I want this church to be passionate about Jesus Christ, not just, oh, I have to go to church. I want this church to be passionate about Jesus Christ, to pursue Jesus Christ to the point of climbing a tree. Do we have that attitude? And finally this church, we need to be surrendered to God's will instead of our own will. Amen.

Pa [00:42:54]:

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, lord, I just thank you for today. O Lord, I thank you that we can come to you. And, Lord, there's many people in this room that their lives seem planned out for them. Maybe they were born in a certain lifestyle or they just thought of themselves a certain way because a teacher said something or somebody in their household said something to them. Lord, I pray that they would put that aside right now and they would just say, lord, what do you want me to do with the gifts and the passions that I have? And Lord, I know it's going to be about loving you and loving your people. And so, Lord, if there's people in this room that are passionate about crafts, lord, I pray that they would gather people around to do crafts and then minister the word of God. If there's people in this room that are passionate about playing cards, Lord, I pray that in card club, it wouldn't just be vulgar jokes, it would be talking about what God is doing in their lives.

Pa [00:44:09]:

If there's people in here passionate about basketball, Lord, I pray that they roll out the basketball on the floor and invest in the young people. If there's people in this room that are passionate about shopping, I am not. But Lord, I pray that they would come alongside other people and they would shop together and have a good time finding that bargain. And Lord, Lord, we all need to check our attitudes this morning. Lord, I pray that we would be passionate and zealous for you, that we would run ahead and say, lord, what do you have for us today? What do you want me to do today with a surrendered life? Lord, I just thank you for who you are and what you've done. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening into today's message.

Pa [00:45:08]:

To get in touch or donate, please see the links in the show notes. God bless. Bye.