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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Adrian Zahid

The Man Who Did Anything for Money

I request as you look at the bulletin that you insert a hard pause after my name because it says Adrian Zahid, the man who did anything for money.

And that can be a very dubious distinction if you think about it But it's true because Jesus said in Matthew 6 24 that No man can serve 2 masters Either you'll serve God We'll serve money And at the end of time it'll be recorded that you did anything for God or you did anything for money.

And so you can choose which distinction you want.

Speaking of distinctions, today is graduation weekend.

And I'm sure that many parents are here with their kids.

Graduation represents a huge milestone for many people.

Those caps and gowns represent a lot of hard work sacrificed by parents and spouses and, of course, the student's own individual effort.

It represents a lot of cramming for tests and a lot of other things.

I've sat through many graduation sermons, and I've heard soaring speeches about change, about being that 1 person that stands against the system and makes that change happen, or being successful in life.

And I've sat there and I've wondered, what does it take to be that 1 person that stands against the entire system?

And what does it take to be that person who can be successful?

So this morning, let's look at those things today from the Bible.

And before we do that, let us bow our heads for prayer.

Dear Father I ask that you come into my heart through the Holy Spirit that you forgive me of my sins And that you give me the clarity and the ability to speak your word today Be with my listeners as they hear and help them to apply it to their daily lives in Jesus name.

I pray amen Let's look at a man in the Bible who reached the pinnacle of success in his profession, but at the top of his success, somehow, something was missing.

And so, as he looked at his life, he realized that he needed to make some changes.

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

This was the week before Jesus was to be crucified.

The second last week before he was to be crucified.

And scholars sometimes think that this was either Wednesday or Thursday of the week before he was to be crucified.

And so here he is, he is going through this town of Jericho.

And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

Now, I don't know whether Zacchaeus went to business school and learned accounting and graduated at the top of his class, or whether he had a degree in mathematics, but we know 2 things for sure.

Number 1, he was a tax collector, and number 2, he was very good at it.

The Bible adds that he was the chief among publicans and he was rich.

Now there's nothing wrong with being rich.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being successful.

The Bible wants you, God wants you to be successful, and if it so happens that He gives you resources and He makes you rich, for this world is for a certain reason.

However, someone once said, people who think that money can do anything may well be suspected of doing anything for money.

And so, here we have this man, he's at the top of his profession, he's chief among publicans, and he is rich.

There are some realities after graduation that many graduation speakers don't talk about.

When you begin to work in the real world and those tests and those quizzes start to fade from your memory, there are other realities that become more pressing.

For example, your children need more money for clothes, iPods, cell phones, cameras, lip gloss, and other non-essentials that they would just die without.

Your wife needs money to spend so that she could look pretty.

The IRS, the church, the mortgage company, regular bills, IRAs, suddenly everybody wants your money.

Now I don't know what drove Zacchaeus to do what he did, but I'm sure he wanted money.

As I said earlier, Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, you cannot serve God and money.

Either you'll love the 1 and despise the other, or hate the 1 and love the other.

I don't know what drove Zacchaeus to do what he did, but I know that once he became chief of publicans in that city, no man became a publican in Jericho without first promising Zacchaeus a cut of his earnings.

So Zacchaeus not only made money from his subordinates, he also made money from the merchants and he also made money by skimming off the top himself.

But despite all those riches and success, there was something wrong in his life, something missing.

Perhaps he realized something about money that a great Norwegian novelist once wrote about.

He said, It is said that money can buy you everything, but it cannot.

With money you can buy food, but not appetite.

You can have the husk of everything with money, but not the kernel.

John the Baptist came near Zacchaeus' town at the River Jordan and he began to preach.

John's sermons were not like the sermons that Zacchaeus had heard all his life.

And the more he heard John's sermons, the more he wanted to change.

Let's go to Luke chapter 3 verse 12 to see what John's sermons were like.

We'll just have a snippet of 1 of John's sermons.

Then came, Luke chapter 3 verse 12, Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?

And he said unto them, Exact no more than which is appointed you.

Desire of Ages says, Page 553, Zacchaeus began at once to follow the conviction.

Notice it was a conviction, not an emotion.

He began at once to follow the conviction that had taken hold upon him and to make restitution to those whom he had wronged.

He based upon his conviction and he began to act on a principle and that principle was to make right what he had taken from people wrongfully.

There are many people that stand at the end of an emotional sermon and make an emotional decision to change things in their life.

But when that sermon begins to recede from their memory, they find that their resolve also begins to recede to make those changes.

But when someone hears a sermon and is convicted by the Holy Spirit, by the quiet, powerful work of the Holy Spirit on the heart, he or she counts the cost, and then based on the conviction, finds the will to act by principle Desire of ages page 555 says no repentance is genuine that does not work Reformation The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed, unforsaken sin.

It is the principle, it is a principle of life that transforms the character and controls the conduct.

It is the entire surrender of the heart and life to the indwelling principles of heaven." Zacchaeus began to act on that conviction based upon principles.

But as he began to make those changes in his life, He began to run into suspicion, distrust, and disbelief.

John the Baptist was dead, and there was no 1 to encourage him.

And he longed to see another teacher whom he had heard about named Jesus, who seemed to be preaching the same things that John was preaching.

He just wanted to see his face, so that he could be encouraged to continue making things right.

Luke 19, verse 3 and 4 says, and he sought to see Jesus who he was and could not for the press because he was little of stature.

And he ran before and climbed into a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way.

Sometimes when people try to get a hold of Jesus, other people get in the way.

What is amazing to me is that here's a grown man in a tree, and no 1 asks why he's in the tree.

Because if Andrew had asked, why are you in the tree man?

He would have said, I'm in the tree because I'm too short to see Jesus.

And then maybe Andrew would have taken him to Jesus.

But you see, no 1 asked, because no 1 cared.

A lot of times in the church we see people who are going through problems and we see their problems, but no 1 asks because no 1 cares.

At home when you try to make changes at home in your life, There are times when people, your own family, they're so used to the way you are, and they don't want you to change because they made adjustments to the way you are.

And they don't want you to make those changes.

But when you try to make those changes, it rubs against the grain.

And they put up this opposition, and it's very hard to change it in your home.

And Zacchaeus was feeling that at that moment, and he really, really wanted to see Jesus, just to see His face.

The good news is that Jesus, in the midst of all those people healing all those people the blind man Bartimaeus as he as he saw him and others as he was walking through that town he knew that there was 1 man in that town who really wanted to see his face and verse 5 it says And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at your house.

My friends, success in this life is a good thing.

It doesn't matter whether you live at a self-supporting institution or whether you live at Loma Linda University.

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The Man Who Did Anything for Money

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