Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, Pastor Jon Burgess
April 21, 2019 - W1916

Happy Easter!

Welcome Home

April 20 & 21, 2019

Pastor Jon Burgess & Wayne Cordeiro

PASTOR JON: Welcome Home! It doesn’t matter if this is your first or 500th time to New Hope—consider this your home! Scripture says that Jesus stands at the door and knocks, and if we would welcome Him in, He will come in, sit, eat, and have fellowship with us!   

Jesus did not come to establish a new religion, but to restore a broken relationship with the One who has done so much to make a way for us to spend time with Him! So, let down your guard and inhibitions and experience the sweetness of His presence as we celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ!

PASTOR WAYNE: We are celebrating Easter, but our party is dependent and determined by the One who is the Host—Jesus! And, I want us to be able to sing for an audience of One. Sometime ago, a guy came to the church and said, "I'd like to play guitar in your praise team, because I'm pretty good, and I like to play."  I said, "Well, why don't you start this weekend?"  He replied, "Well, that's a little fast because I have to practice." Still, I invited him to play with us right away and said it was with the condition that he does not plug in his guitar.  He was a little taken aback, and said: “But nobody will hear me.” I replied, “When you are satisfied playing for an audience of One—just Jesus, then you can plug in.”  He complied and for six months he played so that only Jesus could hear him. As the Lord did a work in his heart, he discovered that it was only when our hearts are joined together in praise of Jesus that our voices also blended in perfect harmony!   

[Video – Pastor Jon with Camille Santos]

PASTOR JON (Narrating): In 1994, Camille, an expert snowboarder from Montana, and her friends were looking to conquer the slopes of Mammoth Mountain.  Mammoth is 330 miles from Los Angeles, 310 Miles from San Francisco, with an elevation of 11,053 feet, and offers more than 3,500 skiable acres, vast terrains, and steep drops.  She couldn't wait to show her friends her stuff on these slopes.  Little did she know she was about to face the worst situation of her life—a life?or?death situation! 

CAMILLE: When we got off the gondola it was a little cloudy, a little snowy, and it gets kind of confusing up there when you are looking at the mountains all around you—but the snow was fresh. The others were following the signs, going by the rules, but I didn't see any ropes that said do not go; so I just proceed to go, and, you know, I'm having a wonderful time, getting lost in the joy and beauty of it all! 

PASTOR JON (Narrating):Then, 4 ½ hours later, she realized that she was miles away from where she started!  Unable to see any landmarks in the freezing cold, she realized she was truly lost.  She had spent hours circling, following ski tracks that weren’t paths!  It was getting darker and she was getting nervous. 

CAMILLE: I was really scared!  And that’s when I actually just dropped to my knees (I wasn't a believer then), but I just cried out and said, "If there is a God, if you are real, save me!" When I got up from my knees and, I kid you not, the clouds parted and the sun came out, and I was able to find a snowmobile track! I got down on my knees and I'm like wow God is real!

After following these tracks for another hour in freezing conditions, I discovered to my horror, that I had been following these tracks going in circles! Oh, my goodness, I’m lost!  After more dead ends and more prayers, I got on my knees again.  Lo and behold, the sun comes out!  I see ski tracks and dog paw prints; so I get on my knees, saying, “There is a God!” I finally found a cabin and knocked on the door, and came face to face with a man whose jaw dropped when he saw me and asked, “Where did you come from?” I told him and he said,  "You're in the Iron Mountains, 17 miles from the resort!" He proceeded to tell me that for 30 years in his profession as search and rescue, there were only two survivors—all the others were frozen bodies!  My story gets even better as to how much God loves us.  We exchanged letters when I got home to San Diego and he said, on the day that I appeared at his cabin, was the very day, he was supposed to be on a job in Iron Mountains doing a snow removal project, and he said, "I didn't do it because I was too depressed.  Rather, I stayed home because that day I was going to take my life."  God not only saved me but him, too!

PASTOR JON (Narrating): God has truly brought Camille full circle.  She later accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and realized that God had been working in her life from the very beginning.  Years later, she moved to Kauai where she met her husband Garrett, and they are faithful members at New Hope Kauai.  They loyally serve in the hospitality and worship ministries, and Camille's heart is to create a warm and inviting environment.  Garrett is a leader on the worship team, and together they work to welcome people home!

[End Video]

PASTOR WAYNE: Thank you so much for joining us; we are happy you are here!  I could never, ever, thank you enough for praying for me when I was going through cancer and surgery!  I know God answers prayers, and your prayers are more powerful than you'll ever realize. I will never tire of saying thank you for your prayers and your love.  Never!

Zacchaeus is one of my favorite Bible characters; it reveals one of the most important verses in the New Testament: Luke 19:1-10 NIV says, “¹⁹Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” ⁸ 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.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This Scripture reveals the purpose that Jesus Christ came to the earth—to seek and to save the lost!  Jesus came to seek and to save Mary Magdalene out of her immorality and pain; a demon possessed man; the lame man at the pool of Bethesda; the man who was a leper; and in this list of auspicious people, He came to seek and to save you and me!  Isaiah 23:6 KJV says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;” When Jesus resurrected from the dead, His earthly purpose to seek and save the lost now becomes his eternal purpose and He is with us here today. Hebrews 13:8 NKJV says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

It’s bad enough being physically lost, but once you get your bearings you're good to go! But when you feel alone and your soul is lost, you can't seem to get your bearings and you feel alone even in the middle of a crowd—that's the kind of loneliness many people struggle with today.  Maybe it starts when we realize that we've squandered our life; maybe a treasured relationship is now gone, and we feel friendless, lonely, and a failure!

Zacchaeus must have felt exactly that way! Let me explain: The Roman government occupied Israel and demanded certain amount of money from every Jewish family, and tax collectors were assigned to make sure they got that money!  Let's say $5,000 was due per family, but the Romans allowed the tax collectors to actually charge more—so they would say you owe the Roman government $9,000 a year, when only $5,000 was due—kicking in their commission!  

Not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector for Rome, he was the chief tax collector, collecting money from his own brethren and becoming wealthy off them! This meant that he could take a cut from other tax collectors, like a pyramid scheme. If you didn't pay your taxes, he could confiscate your house, donkey and camel!  That qualified him to get the Most Hated Person Award, annually, in Jericho.  He was a despised man, and everything was falling in on him!  He had everything, but then had nothing! 

Mark 8:36 NKJV says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” You can have all the money in the world, but God says that doesn't hold a candle to the value of your soul.  We are created in God’s image.  Our bodies will age out and die and go to the grave, but our soul/our spirit lives on forever. You ask why would God send anybody to hell?  He doesn't—you choose where you will go after you die—heaven or hell. 

Matthew 25:41 NKJV says, “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’”

The Bible says hell was not created for man, but for the devil and his demons.  What did God create for you and me?  John 14:2 NKJV says, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” God wants us to be with Him, but He lets you make the choice.  If you choose against God, you'll have to reject Him. And every choice has consequences.  God gives us a prerogative of choice, but not the privilege to change the consequences of those choices—those are fixed!

Zacchaeus doesn't know that his life is about to change forever.  I love the verse that says he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus who was about to pass that way. He was curious to see if Jesus was an imposter as some said He was, or if He was just another strange Jewish man trying to be prophetic, or if He really was the Messiah, the Savior.  I want you to know that Jesus Christ is passing right through New Hope, today!

Some obstacles Zacchaeus overcomes just to see Jesus: The crowd, the criticisms, and short stature. So he climbs a sycamore tree and Jesus notices him and stops, looks up at him, calls his name, and says, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately.  I must stay at your house today!” 

How in the world did Jesus know Zacchaeus from anybody else? When you are willing to overcome obstacles just to get a look at Jesus and have Him change your life, He notices you and will call you by name!   

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to Golgotha, where He would actually bear the cross for our redemption. I wonder if Jesus detoured [about 16 miles] through Jericho just to see one person—Zacchaeus! The crowd reminds Zacchaeus what a sinner he was, but he gets off the tree and says, "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.” He knew he wasn't worthy; the crowd had already echoed that! He could have faked it and made excuses, but he didn't.  He knew he had to be truthful.  Transformation only follows truthfulness!  

The Bible says none of us is worthy.  Romans 3:23 NKJV says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23 NKJV says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God knows who we are, unworthy! And each time we've rejected God, we created a spiritual debt that demands a payment.  God could judge any one of us and be justified; He could condemn us, but that wasn't his assignment—His purpose is not to judge or condemn, but to save us!  We have a spiritual debt that we cannot pay! The Bible says in John 3:16-17 NKJV says, “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT says, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”

When Jesus was on the cross, He cried, "It is finished!” “Tetelestai!” in Aramaic [the language that Jesus spoke] is a banker’s term, Paid In Full!  If you will accept His offer for salvation given on the cross, it will be the most eternal decision you'll ever make!  

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1.     What were some of the obstacles you faced while trying to see Jesus?
2.     How did Jesus answer your deepest prayer requests?
3.     What does Easter mean to you?
4.     When and how did you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?