Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, and we
Speaker 1: are so glad you're here. As we approach the new year,
Speaker 1: it's a great time to reflect on your relationship with God.
Speaker 1: What's behind you, what's ahead. And that's why Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: has a timely and powerful message for you called how
Speaker 1: Much You Matter to God? Now, if you've ever doubted
Speaker 1: your value or wondered about your place in God's plan,
Speaker 1: this message is for you. So let's get right to
Speaker 1: Rick for the first part of this message.
Speaker 2: Now, as an evangelist, I spend much of my time
Speaker 2: with people who totally disagree with me. But does that
Speaker 2: make sense? I mean, if you have the gift of
Speaker 2: sharing the good news, you don't just share it with
Speaker 2: people who already understand it. So I spend much of
Speaker 2: my time talking to people who totally disagree with me,
Speaker 2: and I would disagree with them, and I have. You know,
Speaker 2: they've written all kinds of things about you know, Rick
Speaker 2: Warren has at dinner with this religion group or that
Speaker 2: religious group, or he's had dinner with you know, atheists
Speaker 2: or Gaze or worst of all liberals, you know, And
Speaker 2: I mean that's like the highest sin of alls. That's
Speaker 2: the impardonable one, okay, liberals, And and you know, as
Speaker 2: if you know, well, then that means I agree with
Speaker 2: everything everybody I've ever had dinner with, well, of course not.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if Jesus we're alive today, what the
Speaker 2: bloggers was to say about Jesus having dinner with a
Speaker 2: prostitute or a corrupt government official or all the other
Speaker 2: quote sinners. He hung out with lepers. These were the
Speaker 2: off cast of society that nobody wanted to hang out with.
Speaker 2: It'll be black people who have aids today. Who people
Speaker 2: are I'm afraid I might get it, so I want
Speaker 2: to get it away as far away as possible. And
Speaker 2: you know, Jesus his answer to all of this was always, Hey,
Speaker 2: the well don't need a doctor. It's the sick people
Speaker 2: who need a doctor. And Jesus says many times, several
Speaker 2: times he actually says, I didn't come for the righteous.
Speaker 2: I came for the unrighteous. I didn't come for the saved.
Speaker 2: I came for the lost. I didn't come for people
Speaker 2: who think they've got it all together and don't need
Speaker 2: to be saved. I came to save people who realize
Speaker 2: they're broken. They don't have it all together. The things
Speaker 2: don't always work in life. Frankly, people who think they
Speaker 2: don't need to be saved, I don't have any time for.
Speaker 2: But I came to be with people who know they
Speaker 2: need help. I came for the insecure. Now. The truth is,
Speaker 2: I've learned this after thirty years of pastoring. Everybody is insecure.
Speaker 2: Everybody in this room, everybody's listening is insecure. He said,
Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm not insecure. Oh really, Let me have
Speaker 2: thirty minutes with you and I'll uncover you're hidden the insecurities.
Speaker 2: I'm do it quite quickly. I'm very good at discovering
Speaker 2: what people's insecurities are. It's the reason why people don't
Speaker 2: get help before things get really bad in their life.
Speaker 2: If your marriage is tanking and going down and you
Speaker 2: don't get counseling, or your business is tanking and you
Speaker 2: don't get help, or you got a relationship problem with
Speaker 2: your parents or your kids and you don't get help
Speaker 2: and you don't get counseling. And why do people are
Speaker 2: afraid to go to a counsel because of insecurity? What
Speaker 2: if that counselor reveals something to me that I can't
Speaker 2: handle and he points out a truth about myself that
Speaker 2: I don't really want to know. That's called insecurity. And
Speaker 2: it's the reason why people wait until it's too late
Speaker 2: to get help in an area of their life. It's
Speaker 2: because of their own insecurity. What can they uncover that
Speaker 2: I can't handle now? The truth is, one of your
Speaker 2: deepest needs in life is to feel secure. One of
Speaker 2: your deepest needs in life is to feel valued, to
Speaker 2: feel valuable, to feel like your life matters, that it counts,
Speaker 2: that it's significant, that you're not just a cipher, that
Speaker 2: you're not just some kind of zero in life. You
Speaker 2: want your life to matter. You want your life to
Speaker 2: have value and significance. And as a result, you're constantly
Speaker 2: doing two things, evaluating and comparing, and you do it
Speaker 2: all the time. You do it consciously and you unconsciously.
Speaker 2: You're evaluating yourself and you're comparing yourself to other people.
Speaker 2: And we compare everything. It's an indoor national favorite pastime
Speaker 2: of Americans. And the problem is the four ways that
Speaker 2: we judge our value are all spurious. They're all false,
Speaker 2: they're all phony, they're all fake. How the world tells
Speaker 2: you you determine your value is one hundred percent wrong.
Speaker 2: So let me just mention them, because I want you
Speaker 2: to understand that your value is not based on what
Speaker 2: the world says about it, just what God says about you. Now,
Speaker 2: there are four things that the world tells you you
Speaker 2: need to look at. If you want to know how
Speaker 2: valuable you are, you might write these down. The first
Speaker 2: way we judge our wealth are worth is by our appearance,
Speaker 2: and that is how do I look? And we think,
Speaker 2: you know, if I look good, then I must be good.
Speaker 2: And if I don't look so good, then I must
Speaker 2: not be so valuable. I must not be important. And
Speaker 2: our society has an entire industry that is built on
Speaker 2: the idea that your value is based on your appearance.
Speaker 2: It's called Hollywood, and Hollywood says, if you really are ravishing,
Speaker 2: you're stunning, you're really gorgeous, you're really handsome, then you're
Speaker 2: really worth a lot. But if you're not so hot,
Speaker 2: then you're not. Oh, I'm a poet and I don't
Speaker 2: know it. Now. The problem with this is there aren't
Speaker 2: that many really stunning people in the world. I mean,
Speaker 2: most of us are just normal, average looking people. In fact,
Speaker 2: everybody around you is normal average except you you're stunning,
Speaker 2: but you're the only person in this room that actually
Speaker 2: really is stunning. All the rest of us are just
Speaker 2: kind of normal looking. Okay, we're just normal people with
Speaker 2: normal looks. Now, if you only have high value in
Speaker 2: your life by being super attractive, that leaves most of
Speaker 2: us out, and the Bible says that's not what you
Speaker 2: valuate yourself on. The second false way to evaluate your
Speaker 2: worth is not appearance, but by affluence, and affluence is
Speaker 2: what do I own? And that's the myth of materialism
Speaker 2: that says if I have a lot of things, then
Speaker 2: I must be worth a lot. That if I have
Speaker 2: a lot of values, then my personal value is a lot.
Speaker 2: But if I'm poor or I'm broke, then I'm not
Speaker 2: worth much as a person. Now, I've told you many
Speaker 2: times never connect your self worth with your net worth,
Speaker 2: because if you connect yourself worth with your net worth,
Speaker 2: the recession will cause depression. And I have seen that many,
Speaker 2: many times. I've seen a lot of people who when
Speaker 2: their business hits the toilet, then their personal feeling about
Speaker 2: themselves hits the toilet. And when they tank in their portfolio,
Speaker 2: then they tank and how good they feel about themselves
Speaker 2: and I'm just not a very good provider, and on
Speaker 2: and on and on. Your value and your valuables have
Speaker 2: nothing to do with each other. Your self worth and
Speaker 2: your net worth have nothing to do with each other.
Speaker 2: The greatest things in life, as I've said many times,
Speaker 2: are not things. But the world tells you you got
Speaker 2: a lot of money, you got a lot of stuff,
Speaker 2: then you are really a valuable person. Not true. The
Speaker 2: third thing that we judge our worth on is achievement,
Speaker 2: and that is what have I accomplished? And if I
Speaker 2: get a lot of things done, then I feel good
Speaker 2: about myself. And if I reach a lot of goals,
Speaker 2: then I feel good about myself. And if I get promoted,
Speaker 2: or I win a trophy, or I get an honor,
Speaker 2: and I have accomplished a certain thing, then I must
Speaker 2: feel good. And this is what creates workoholism, and it
Speaker 2: drives us because we want to feel good about ourselves,
Speaker 2: so we're trying to achieve to prove that we are worthwhile.
Speaker 2: The fourth is approval, and approval Basing your worth on
Speaker 2: approval says how well am I liked? And if I'm
Speaker 2: liked a lot, then I must be worth a lot.
Speaker 2: And if i'm only like a little, then I'm worth
Speaker 2: a little. And if I'm not liked by anybody, then
Speaker 2: I'm worthless. That's just not true. Some of you have
Speaker 2: spent your entire life trying to gain the approval of
Speaker 2: somebody who's never going to give it. And if you
Speaker 2: haven't got your parents' approval by now, I'm sorry, you're
Speaker 2: not going to get it. But here's the point. You
Speaker 2: don't need it to be happy. Your happiness is not
Speaker 2: dependent upon the approval of other people. If you build
Speaker 2: your worth on what other people think of you, then
Speaker 2: you you are going to be devastated every time you
Speaker 2: get criticized, and it's going to hurt like the dickens.
Speaker 2: And you're going to tend to always be going around
Speaker 2: saying what will other people think? And if you're always
Speaker 2: asking that question, what do other people think? You're already
Speaker 2: a slave to the approval of other people. You've got
Speaker 2: to learn to trust what God says about you. Now
Speaker 2: it is true. Psychological studies have shown that you tend
Speaker 2: to base how you feel about you on what you
Speaker 2: think the most important person in your life thinks about you.
Speaker 2: That's where you get most of your self esteem. What
Speaker 2: you think the most important person in your life thinks
Speaker 2: about you. So I highly recommend you make the most
Speaker 2: important person in your life Jesus Christ, because he's going
Speaker 2: to tell you the truth, and he's going to love
Speaker 2: you unconditionally. And he's not going to say I love
Speaker 2: you if I love you, if I love you, if
Speaker 2: I love you, if I love you, if you love me,
Speaker 2: I love you, if or I love you, because that's
Speaker 2: conditional love. Jesus said, I love you period. In fact,
Speaker 2: you can't make me stop loving you. Now. The problem
Speaker 2: with these four things, appearance and affluence and achievement and approval,
Speaker 2: is that they are are all unstable, unreliable sources of security.
Speaker 2: I mean, let's just go down the list. Our beauty fades.
Speaker 2: Anybody want to give a testimony on that. Okay, our
Speaker 2: beauty fads. And if you think you're not looking so great,
Speaker 2: now wait ten years. Okay, all right, okay, unless you're
Speaker 2: like me on the Daniel plan, and in ten years,
Speaker 2: I'm not half the man I used to be. All right,
Speaker 2: Beauty fades. Possessions wear out, Okay, successes are surpassed. No
Speaker 2: matter what goal you reach, somebody is going to break
Speaker 2: your record. And you're going to feel bad then if
Speaker 2: your self esteem is built on that, and other people
Speaker 2: are going to reject you no matter what you do.
Speaker 2: Some people just aren't going to like you. That's their problem,
Speaker 2: not yours. The only solid foundation for self esteem, for
Speaker 2: feeling good about you is understanding how much you matter
Speaker 2: to God. That's what we're going to look at today,
Speaker 2: how much you matter to God. And if you get
Speaker 2: what we're going to look at today, it'll change your life.
Speaker 2: And it will set you free from the expectations of others,
Speaker 2: from the grip of materialism, from the pressure of workaholism,
Speaker 2: from the need to have to improve and always look
Speaker 2: your best at every time. When you see yourself as
Speaker 2: God sees you, it transforms you. Now. A great example
Speaker 2: of this is a guy in the Bible named Zachias,
Speaker 2: and his story is in Luke chapter nineteen. If you
Speaker 2: have a Bible, you can turn to Luke nineteen. It's
Speaker 2: there on your outline. You can read the verse with me.
Speaker 2: It's also on the screen. Now, Jesus is going through
Speaker 2: a town called Jericho, and of course large crowds are
Speaker 2: following Jesus wherever he goes. He's walking through these cities,
Speaker 2: and crowds are following him everywhere. And there's a guy
Speaker 2: in this town named Zachias, who is the most hated
Speaker 2: man in the city. And the Bible tells us this
Speaker 2: story Luke nineteen. Jesus was going through the city of Jericho,
Speaker 2: and a man was there named Zachius, and he was
Speaker 2: the chief tax collector, and he was wealthy. Now he
Speaker 2: wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was too short,
Speaker 2: too short to see above the crowd. So he ran
Speaker 2: ahead of the place where Jesus would come, and he
Speaker 2: climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. Now,
Speaker 2: when Jesus is walking through, when Jesus comes to that place,
Speaker 2: and then there was this sycamore tree, he stops and says.
Speaker 2: He looked up, and he said to Zachias, Zachias, hurry
Speaker 2: and come down. I must stay at your house today.
Speaker 2: Zachias came down quickly, and he welcomed him gladly. Now
Speaker 2: all the people who saw this, they began to complain,
Speaker 2: Jesus is having dinner with the sinner. Jesus is staying
Speaker 2: with a sinner. But Zachias stood and said to the Lord,
Speaker 2: this is at his house. I will give half of
Speaker 2: my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone,
Speaker 2: I will pay them back four times as much. And
Speaker 2: Jesus says to him, Salvation has come to this house today.
Speaker 2: This man is a true son of Abraham. In other words,
Speaker 2: he's the real deal. He's in with us, and I,
Speaker 2: the son of Man, have come to seek and save
Speaker 2: people like him who were lost. This is an amazing story, now, Zachias,
Speaker 2: of the four ways that we judge our value, this
Speaker 2: guy has struck out on three of them. Okay, he's
Speaker 2: struck out. He is wealthy because of his corruption, but
Speaker 2: he has struck out in three different ways. In the
Speaker 2: first place, Zakias doesn't like his appearance. The Bible tells
Speaker 2: us he was short. In fact, he was so short
Speaker 2: he couldn't see above the crowd, and he was shorter
Speaker 2: than everybody else in the city. In fact, tradition tells
Speaker 2: us that Zakias was the shortest man in the city
Speaker 2: of Jericho. In fact, the Greek word here for short
Speaker 2: describes the body of an underdeveloped child. This man is
Speaker 2: not just short, like a lot of people short. He
Speaker 2: is abnormally short. He's a little person probably dwarfed. He's
Speaker 2: abnormally short, an undeveloped, fl developed body. Now because of that,
Speaker 2: he's probably teased and ridiculed his entire life about his height.
Speaker 2: Can kids be cruel and ruthless on the playground, Oh,
Speaker 2: you can remember it. Kids can be meaner than adults.
Speaker 2: And on the patio they can say all kinds of
Speaker 2: mean things about the way you look, or the way
Speaker 2: you dress, or what you did. And probably Zachias's entire
Speaker 2: life was given hurtful, cruel nicknames, and he learns real
Speaker 2: quickly don't worry about the opinions of other people because
Speaker 2: he was constantly made fun of. He didn't like his appearance.
Speaker 2: He's abnormally short, stunted, he falls short second. Zachias was
Speaker 2: not liked by anybody else, so the approval factor is zero.
Speaker 2: In fact, he was the chief tax collector, and that
Speaker 2: means he's hated by everybody. Now, tax collectors are never
Speaker 2: popular people. I mean, you don't just call up the
Speaker 2: irs and say come over for dinner and do an audit. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's not something you normally normally want to do. But
Speaker 2: in those days it was even worse because the Roman
Speaker 2: tax system was one hundred percent corrupt to the core
Speaker 2: in the first place. In order to become a tax collector,
Speaker 2: you had to bribe an official to get that job,
Speaker 2: because once you got it, you were going to make
Speaker 2: an a whole lot of money. But you had to
Speaker 2: bribe an official to become a tax collector, so he
Speaker 2: had to be dishonest justs to get the job. Then,
Speaker 2: in the Roman tax collection system, Rome didn't care how
Speaker 2: much you collected as long as they got their percentage,
Speaker 2: and you could collect two, three, four, five, up to
Speaker 2: ten times as much as Rome required and keep it
Speaker 2: all for yourself. So really a tax collector in this
Speaker 2: day is is more like a mafia extortionist. He can
Speaker 2: come to your house and say you're gonna pay me
Speaker 2: this amount of money, when Rome's only said this much,
Speaker 2: and he said this much, and if you don't do it,
Speaker 2: I'm going to throw you in jail. I'm going to
Speaker 2: make you an offer you can't refuse, and you will
Speaker 2: pay tribute to me. So everybody hated the tax collectors
Speaker 2: because not only did they represent Rome, which was the
Speaker 2: invading country of Israel, and they were under subjugation by
Speaker 2: a foreign country, so they hated Rome. But second, the
Speaker 2: Roman tax collector was corrupt, and you knew that that
Speaker 2: guy was going to get rich off of you by
Speaker 2: being dishonest, and you couldn't stop him. He could extore
Speaker 2: all he wanted to from you. Now for a Roman,
Speaker 2: for a Jew, which Zachias is, to become a Roman
Speaker 2: tax collector is like treason. It's like going over to
Speaker 2: the enemy's side. No who self respecting Jew would ever
Speaker 2: become a Roman tax collector. It was unthinkable, without a doubt,
Speaker 2: as Zachias was disowned by his family, because no family
Speaker 2: is going to have a son who represents Rome in
Speaker 2: the most corrupt area of taxes. So he's disowned by
Speaker 2: his family. In fact, in those days, you were barred
Speaker 2: from going to worship if you worked for Rome. You
Speaker 2: could not go to the Jewish synagogue because they believed
Speaker 2: you had sold out. In fact, Jewish law in that
Speaker 2: day meant that the Roman anybody who was a tax
Speaker 2: collector for Rome that wasn't considered in the same class
Speaker 2: as a murderer. So he is not a popular This
Speaker 2: is the most hated, unpopular man in the entire city
Speaker 2: of Jerusalem. So he not only has an appearance problem,
Speaker 2: he's got an approval problem, he's not doing good. And
Speaker 2: worst of all, notice it says he was the chief
Speaker 2: tax collector, which means this is the guy on top
Speaker 2: who runs the whole scam. You couldn't pick a more
Speaker 2: hated person in the city of Jericho that Jesus stops
Speaker 2: to talk to and invite himself to dinner. Now, not
Speaker 2: only is Zacheus, he doesn't like his appearance and he
Speaker 2: has no approval. He's hated by everybody. But Zacchius doesn't
Speaker 2: like himself. How do we know that because he's not
Speaker 2: a proud of his achievements. He's got all this wealth,
Speaker 2: but he got it by stealing from people, from extorting
Speaker 2: it from people. You cannot be happy and guilty at
Speaker 2: the same time. You cannot give up your integrity and
Speaker 2: have harmony and happiness in your life. He knew he'd
Speaker 2: ripped off people. He knew that all his success was
Speaker 2: achieved by cheating others. So he lost all his self
Speaker 2: respect and he didn't like his life. And he's got
Speaker 2: a lot of money. He's got a lot of money,
Speaker 2: but he's a very lonely, very unhappy man. He's miserable
Speaker 2: and he feels pretty hopeless about his life, but on
Speaker 2: one single day, his life does a one to eighty
Speaker 2: and in one snap of a finger bailed his life
Speaker 2: is transformed. What happens Jesus shows up.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: You know your prayers and financial support have a huge
Speaker 1: impact on millions of people here and around the world,
Speaker 1: so we really appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: And now Rick's going to share a letter from one
Speaker 1: of our listeners who says Daily Hope is making a
Speaker 1: real difference in their life.
Speaker 2: Today, I want to share with you a very special
Speaker 2: testimony from one of our listeners named Marquita, and thanks
Speaker 2: to Daily Hope and your support, she recently asked Jesus
Speaker 2: Christ to be the leader of her life. Here's a story. So,
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, I wanted to let you know that I
Speaker 2: have prayed the prayer of salvation that you included in
Speaker 2: the Deepening the Eyes of Faith message. I've been listening
Speaker 2: to your messages for years. In fact, my child wouldn't
Speaker 2: even be here today if it weren't for your words.
Speaker 2: You wrote there may be accidental parents, but there are
Speaker 2: no accidental children. Well, I've given birth to a beautiful
Speaker 2: baby girl, and she's the light of my life. In fact,
Speaker 2: it now hurts to remember a time that I was
Speaker 2: fighting to decide whether I was going to have her
Speaker 2: or not. But I repeated your words throughout my pregnancy.
Speaker 2: There are accidental parents, but they're no accidental children. And
Speaker 2: although I'm a single mom today, with the support of
Speaker 2: my family, we're thriving. I want to make sure that
Speaker 2: she grows up to find her purpose and to serve God.
Speaker 2: So thanks for renewing my faith in God. And as
Speaker 2: I still try to find and fulfill my purpose, please
Speaker 2: pray for me and my child. Wow, Marquita, you are
Speaker 2: so right. God does have a plan and a purpose
Speaker 2: for every single baby. There are no accidental babies. So
Speaker 2: I want to take a moment right now and just
Speaker 2: pray for you in this broadcast, a pray for you
Speaker 2: and for your daughter. Lord, I'm asking you right now
Speaker 2: to put your hand of protection, your hand of blessing,
Speaker 2: your hand of guidance on Marquita and her daughter, and
Speaker 2: I'm praying for both of them to know your purpose,
Speaker 2: to feel your presence, to discover your power, to live
Speaker 2: in your plan for each of their lives. In Jesus'
Speaker 2: name Amen.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
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Speaker 1: nine and thank you so much for your support. Be
Speaker 1: sure to join us next time as we look into
Speaker 1: God's Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored
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