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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is Kelly Iatt, and some of you may know me as missus Coyote. Today, we've got something special for the whole family to enjoy. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about what it means to be real with God and give you some action steps you can do together as a family. If you enjoy our content, please consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more families.
Kelli Ayotte:But for now, let's jump into our story.
Joell Holland:Alright, friends. It is time to get real. Today, we're talking about Zach attacks from our story in Luke 19. This week, we'll find out how we can be real with others because god loves us so that we can love others. So let's get real.
Kelli Ayotte:I want you to imagine if you were trying to get your favorite person's attention in a crowd. What would you do? Would you shout their name as loud as you could? Would you wave your hands wildly back and forth? Would you jump up and down?
Kelli Ayotte:Would you yodel their favorite song? And what if your worst enemy was in the crowd too, and your favorite person noticed them and decided to hang out with them instead of with you? Well, how would you feel? Let's see when something similar happened in the bible. Okay.
Kelli Ayotte:So there was once a tax collector, and his name was Zacchaeus. He got super rich from cheating people out of their money and being really dishonest. Nobody in the town really liked Zacchaeus. And to be honest, that probably doesn't come as a huge surprise. Well, one day, Jesus was hanging out in a town called Jericho.
Kelli Ayotte:And this is where Zacchaeus lived. Now the Bible tells us that Zacchaeus was short in stature. So, of course, Zacchaeus couldn't see Jesus through the crowd of people. And because of this, Zacchaeus climbed up into a sycamore tree, and he waited for Jesus to go by. So when Jesus came by the tree, Jesus actually stopped in the middle of the crowd.
Kelli Ayotte:He looked up in the tree, and he made eye contact with Zacchaeus. He looked Zacchaeus in the eyes, and he said, Zacchaeus, I want to come visit you today. Zaccheus was super surprised. How did Jesus even know that he was up there? Zaccheus climbed down the tree, and he invited Jesus to come over to his house.
Kelli Ayotte:The people in the crowd who saw this happen, who knew Zacchaeus, they were so annoyed. They were upset, and they started complaining. Why would Jesus talk to a huge sinner like Zacchaeus? That's when Zacchaeus said something that surprised them all. And you'll just have to see what that is later on.
Kelli Ayotte:So we've talked about being real with ourselves, and we've talked about being real with God. So what's left? It's being real with others. Being real with others means that you are honest about who others are and how others see you. So what does God say about who others are?
Kelli Ayotte:Well, I want you to just take a moment. Look to your left, look to your right, and look at all the other kids around you in the room. God says the same thing about them that he says about who you are. He says that we are his children, that we are chosen by him, that we're created in his image, that he has plans for every single one of us, and that we are loved. The Bible says that all people sin, even followers of Jesus, but God still chooses to love them and give them grace anyway.
Kelli Ayotte:And God asks us to do the same for others. The Bible says in first John 4 19, we love each other because he, that's God, loved us first. And that's why the one thing to remember is that God loves me so I can love others.
Joell Holland:In our story, you'll see that Zacchaeus was changed so much by his encounter with Jesus that the way he acted towards others changed too. He knew that even at his worst, he was loved by Jesus. Because of this, he was willing to admit that he had been wrong and worked to make it right with other people he had sinned against. He was being real with others. We should be so changed by knowing how much god loves us that in response, we love others no matter who they are.
Joell Holland:That's why our one thing for today is god loves me so I can love others, and our action step for today is I can choose to be real with others. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna think of 1 person you have wronged, and that means maybe you were mean to them or not honest or maybe you took something from them. It could be anything. It's okay to admit that no one is perfect.
Joell Holland:So you're gonna practice being real with that person by admitting that you were wrong and then ask them for forgiveness, but make sure you mean it. Then ask them how you can make it right. Just give them the opportunity to be real right back with you. And I know that sounds a little scary, but you can do it. Friends, remember, you can always find us on sandalskids.tv every weekend.
Joell Holland:You can also follow us on Instagram at sandalskids to keep up to date with us. And it's been real friends. I'll see you all again soon.
Kelli Ayotte:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.