Week 1 - Love Starts With A Name

 Week 1 - Love Starts With A NameBig Idea - Loving someone begins with knowing their name. Prayer - “Give us the courage to love others, to know their stories, to learn their names.”Main Scripture - Luke 19:1-10IntroductionToday we begin a new 3-week series called Love Has A Name. And to open our time together today, I want to ask you to think about how it feels when someone says your name. (Pastor - This would be a great place to insert a personal illustration about either remembering other people’s names, or having your name remembered. Or maybe you have another story about meeting someone new, or having a new family come to the church and learning their names.)Learning a name is often the first step to beginning a new friendship or relationship. It is the entry point into someone’s life, the doorway if you will. And from that initial point, a relationship can grow. You can see how, Love starts with a name.There’s something powerful about knowing and remembering a person’s name. When someone knows your name, it makes you feel loved, noticed, and seen. When someone knows and remembers your name it gives you worth, it gives you value.And a name represents a person’s story…Who they are… Their past... good and bad…Their successes… and screw ups...Their background, upbringing, occupation… who their parents are…A person’s name… and their story… it matters.And the best news? Jesus knows your name, He knows your story, and He loves you.Main TeachingJesus and Zaccheus - Luke 19:1-10“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.”At the beginning of our passage we see Jesus passing through the city of Jericho. We’re told about a man there, Zaccheus, who collected taxes for a living. As a tax collector, he would overtax and steal money from his own people. And as a result, (to put it nicely) the man wasn’t very well-liked. In fact, he would have been despised, loathed, and ostracized. Now get this, we’re told that he wasn’t just a tax collector, but he was the chief tax collector. Not just a jerk, the chief jerk! So, in summary, he’s the chief jerk, despised by his fellow countrymen. Oh, and by the way, he’s rich because of his job. Even more reason not to like him.Somehow this man knew about Jesus coming to town, and Zaccheus really wanted to see him. He wanted to see Jesus. “Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.”But there was a problem: The man was really short. Very short. He’s a “wee little man.” And because of it, he can’t see over the crowd to see Jesus when Jesus comes into town. So Zaccheus has an idea. Listen to this; “So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.”Problem solved right?“When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’”Don’t miss this. Jesus knows his name! He calls out to him - specifically, up in the sycamore tree overhead. “Zacchaeus!”What? He does? Why would Jesus know his name?Now I’m guessing there were times when Zacchaeus didn’t want his name to be known—probably by the very people whose money he had taken. But not today, Zacchaeus was over-the-moon excited... that Jesus knew his name. He was so excited.“And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they (the crowd) saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’”But the crowd, on the other hand, was ticked. Why is Jesus going to the house of the jerk who’s stealing everyone’s money? Shorty’s house? How could he?You can bet that if Jesus knows the name of a guy like Zacchaeus, he knows the names of the people in our lives too. To get more direct, Jesus knows the name…of our ex.Of the people... who’ve hurt us.Of our coworker… who thinks differently than us politically.of our neighbor… who’s kind.And of our neighbor who’s kinda strange.Of our spouse.The spam callers.The know-it-alls on Twitter. The random strangers we cross paths with.Jesus knows their names. Do we? Do we even want to? When we put names with faces, they’re no longer just faces in the crowd —they become human. Again, a name gives a pe… >> END SAMPLEFor the full sermon series kit, visit .(Pastor - If you would be interested in obtaining a bulk discount on orders of the book that the Love Has a Name sermon series is based on you can do so by emailing the publisher here: (churches@) Please write Love Has a Name in the subject line of your email.) ................
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