DAY 1 – APRIL
11
TITLE: “OBSTACLES”
WEEKLY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-10
DAILY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-4
KEY VERSE: “He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a
short man he could not, because of the crowd.” Luke 19:3
Johnny Fulton was run over by
a car at the age of three. He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured
skull, and compound fractures in his legs. It did not look as if he would live.
But he would not give up. In fact, he later ran the half-mile in less than two
minutes.
Walt Davis was totally
paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up. He
became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952.
Shelly Mann was paralyzed by
polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually
claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at
the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1938, Karoly
Takacs, a member of Hungary's world-champion pistol
shooting team and sergeant in the army, lost his right hand when a grenade he
was holding exploded. But Takacs did not give up. He
learned to shoot left-handed and won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952
Olympics.
Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy
ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their
team. But, he was committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was
entered into baseball's Hall of Fame.
Woodrow Wilson could not read
until he was ten years old. But, he was a committed person. He became the
twenty-eighth president of the United States.
Obstacles
come in all shapes and sizes. They can hinder us from many things or they can
become stepping stones. Zacchaeus faced an obstacle
when he came to see Jesus. That obstacle was the crowd of people. However, he
did not allow the crowd to hinder him from seeing Jesus. Because of the crowd,
this short man ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree so he could see Jesus.
Are there some hindrances or obstacles blocking you from seeing Jesus today or from
being all that God wants you to be? Hebrews gives us
this word of instruction. It says, “Therefore,
since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run
with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith…” Hebrews
12:1-2.
DAY 2 – APRIL
12
TITLE: “TODAY I WILL…”
WEEKLY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-10
DAILY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:5-6
KEY VERSE: “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up
and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I
must stay at your house today.’”
Luke 19:5
Yesterday is
gone and tomorrow may not come for us, but we have today. Yes, today is the day
of opportunities. Benjamin Franklin observed, “One today is worth two
tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming.” Author John Maxwell observed,
“It may sound trite, but today is the only time you have. It’s too late for
yesterday. And you can’t depend on tomorrow. That’s why today matters.”
When Jesus
looked up at Zacchaeus in the tree, he instructed him
to come down immediately. There was no time to waste. Jesus said, “I must stay at your house today.” The
simple truth of this passage for us is that now is the time to respond to
Jesus. Today is the day to respond to Jesus and receive what He has for us. One
person writing on the importance of today wrote, “Yesterday is a cancelled
check, tomorrow a promissory note, but today is cash, spend it wisely.” (Unknown)
Author John
Maxwell tells of a nursery in
Today, I will
obey the Lord and do what He tells me to do.
Today, I will
face life with the understanding that this day will not ever return.
Today, I will
be brave enough not to let any opportunity pass me by to lift up Jesus so others are drawn to follow Him.
Today, I will
listen to the Lord with all of my heart and do what He tells me to do, without
procrastination or hesitation.
Today, I will
let the joy of the Lord be my strength and share the joy of Jesus with others.
Today, I will
spend the day with the Lord.
DAY 3 – APRIL
13
TITLE: “SINNERS”
WEEKLY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-10
DAILY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:7
KEY VERSE: “All the people saw this and began to
mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” Luke 19:7
Scripture
reveals the seriousness of sin. I love the word picture author
The problem is
that the evil in human nature is so deep and so radical that man cannot escape
its power on his own strength. “Sin adds
to your troubles, subtracts from your energy, multiplies your difficulties, divides
your interest in your work, and its wages is death!” This is why Jesus came.
Jesus came to deal with the sin problem of sinners, praise His name.
Author Tim
Keller writes, “I used to go visit my brother-in-law, and he would never wear a
seat belt in the car. I always berated him for it. I remember one time he
picked me up at the airport, and he had on his seat belt and shoulder harness.
I said, "What happened? What changed you?"
He said,
"I went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital who was in a car
accident and went through the windshield. He had two or three hundred stitches
in his face. I said to myself, ‘I better wear my seat belt.’" We talked
about that a little bit. I said, "Did you not know that if you don't wear
your seat belt, you go through the windshield if you have an accident?" He
said: "Of course I knew it. When I went to the hospital to see my friend,
I got no new information, but the information I had became new. The information
got real to my heart and finally sank down and affected the way I live."
The
information that all have sinned is clearly given in the word of God. The good
news is that Jesus came to minister to sinners in a life-transforming way. We must allow that information to become real
in our hearts and impact the way that we live.
DAY 4 – APRIL
14
TITLE: “RESTITUTION”
WEEKLY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-10
DAILY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:8
KEY VERSE: “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.’” Luke 19:8
I have a book in my office of
sermon outlines and thoughts by F.E. Marsh. It was given to me years ago by a
retired pastor. Dr. F.E. Marsh tells
about one occasion when he was preaching, urging upon his hearers the
importance of confession of sin, and wherever possible, of restitution for
wrongs done to others. At the close, a young man, a member of the church, came
up to him with a troubled countenance. "Pastor," he explained,
"you have put me in a sad fix. I have wronged another and I am ashamed to
confess it or to try to put it right. You see, I am a boat builder and the man
I work for is an infidel. I have talked to him often about his need of Christ
and urged him to come and hear you preach, but he scoffs and ridicules it all.
Now, I have been guilty of something that, if I should acknowledge it to him,
will ruin my testimony forever."
He then went on to tell about
how he started sometime ago to build a boat for himself in his own yard. In
this work, copper nails are used because they do not rust in the water. These
nails are quite expensive and the young man had been carrying home quantities
of them to use on the job. He knew it was stealing, but he tried to salve his
conscience by telling himself that the master had so many nails he would never
miss them, and besides, he was not being paid all that he thought he deserved.
But, this sermon had brought him to face the fact that he was just a common
thief, for whose dishonest actions there was no excuse.
"But," said he,
"I cannot go to my boss and tell him what I have done or offer to pay for
those I have used and return the rest. If I do, he will think I am just a
hypocrite. And yet, those copper nails are digging into my conscience, and I
know I shall never have peace until I put this matter right." For weeks,
the struggle went on. Then, one night, he came to Dr. Marsh and exclaimed,
"Pastor, I've settled for the copper nails and my conscience is relieved
at last." "What happened when you confessed to your employer what you
had done?" asked the pastor. "Oh," he answered, "he looked
queerly at me, then exclaimed, 'George, I always did think you were just a
hypocrite, but now, I begin to feel there's something in this Christianity
after all. Any religion that would make a dishonest workman come back and
confess that he had been stealing copper nails and offer to settle for them
must be worth having.'"
Zacchaeus responded to Jesus with a promise to
be generous. He also made a promise to make restitution by paying back to any
he had cheated four times the amount. Jesus did a life-transforming work in Zacchaeus that was expressed by his actions of generosity
and restitution.
DAY 5 – APRIL
15
TITLE: “JESUS CAME”
WEEKLY
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 19:1-10
DAILY SCRIPTURE
READING: Luke 19:9-10
KEY VERSE: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save
what was lost.” Luke 19:10
Many years ago, a Minnesota
radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were
staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of
placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the
front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief,
were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat
bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in
apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car.
Jesus came to
seek and to save what was lost. He came to set us free from our bondage to sin. In the 1840’s and 1850’s, major portions of
the United States of America were dominated by the institution of slavery, and
it was expanding fast. On one occasion, a young congressman from Illinois by
the name of Abraham Lincoln heard about a slave auction being held near where
he lived, and so he went. As he stood at the edge of the slave auction, he
observed as black Americans were led onto the block and auctioned off. Finally,
a young slave woman was led up to the block, and they started the bidding on
her, and Lincoln bid. Somebody outbid him, and then he bid higher. Somebody
outbid him, and he bid higher still.
After a few
moments, they said, "Sold." They took her off the auction block and
brought her to Lincoln, and he had the slave master let her out of her chains.
Then, Lincoln looked at her and said, "Now you are free." She looked
up at him with a curious look and said, "Free? What does it mean to be
free?"
Jesus was on
a mission. It has been said that the story of Zacchaeus
is the mission of Jesus in miniature. Jesus came to find us, forgive us and set
us free from the power of sin. He came to seek and save what was lost so we
could live in a right relationship with God.
What a wonderful change in my life has
been wrought
Since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul
For which long I had sought, since
Jesus came into my heart!
Since Jesus came into my heart, since
Jesus came into my heart,
Floods of joy o'er my soul like the
sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart. (R.H. McDaniel)