Evangelism Series

Intro: In the 1998–1999 NBA basketball season, David Robinson, frequent all-star and veteran center for the San Antonio Spurs, learned to share the limelight with the new dominant player of the league: his teammate Tim Duncan.

-San Antonio won the NBA playoffs in 1999 with Tim Duncan as their star player. In Sports Illustrated, Robinson reflected on what that was like for him. He said, “I can't overstate how important my faith has been to me as an athlete and as a person. It's helped me deal with so many things, including matters of ego and pride.

-For instance, I can't deny that it felt weird to see Tim standing on the podium with the Finals MVP trophy. I was thinking, Man, never have I come to the end of a tournament and not been the one holding up that trophy. It was hard.

-But I thought about the Bible story of David and Goliath. David helped King Saul win a battle, but the king wasn't happy because he had killed thousands of men while David had killed tens of thousands.

-So King Saul couldn't enjoy the victory because he was thinking about David's getting more credit than he was. I'm blessed that God has given me the ability to just enjoy the victory. So Tim killed the tens of thousands. That's great. I'm happy for him.”

-I really don’t think sharing comes too naturally for most people. And the reason why is b/c when you share it means you have to give something up. Today, we’re continuing our series “DNA: The genetic makeup of VillageChurch.” And a part of this church’s mission is to be a church that shares.

-And the one thing that we’re to share more than anything else is our faith in Christ. That brings w/it some pretty big challenges b/c we’ve been told over and over again that our faith is a private matter. It’s something we’re to keep to ourselves. But how can we keep the message of Jesus and the hope He offers to ourselves and consider ourselves to be a biblical community?

-We can’t! Unfortunately, most of us don’t do it for various reasons. We don’t do it b/c we don’t want to offend anyone. We don’t do it b/c we feel like it’s not our responsibility.

-But the Bible says in Rom. 10: 14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear w/o someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!’”

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see Jesus be our example as to how we’re to share the message of Jesus’ love and hope w/others. I promise you, you don’t need a degree to tell other people @ Jesus. It’s not as complicated as we make it out to be. I really believe there are a few things we need to understand @ sharing Jesus, sharing our faith w/others that can transform the mission of this church.

TEXT: LUKE 19: 1-10

Bckgrd: The text we’re going to look at took place @ 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem in Jericho. It was probably loaded w/travelers at this time b/c people were going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Jesus Himself was headed to Jerusalem where He would be executed on a cross. But before He made His stop in Jerusalem, He found it important to share.

-The man He was to share w/was named Zaccheus. And from this text we’re going to see a few things to help us understand the importance of sharing our faith. The 1st thing that will help us understand the importance of sharing our faith is:

DIV. 1: PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW JESUS (vv. 1-3)

Exp: Zaccheus was a tax collector. And I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that people could not stand tax collectors. One of the reasons why is b/c they were typically corrupt. These collectors were supposed to collect taxes for the Roman Empire, but often times they would charge more than the tax to make extra $ for themselves.

A. So Zaccheus was basically a thief. He wouldn’t have been high on anyone’s priority list to get to know! Do you know people like that? But it’s interesting to see that as depraved as this guy was, he still had a desire to see Jesus; he had a desire to get to know Jesus.

1. Why? I can only surmise why, but my guess would be b/c even though he’d made a ton of $, even though he was living at a higher standard than anyone else, he still wasn’t satisfied. There was something missing in his life. At this time Jesus was a well known figure.