Speaker 1: Good morning, saddleback. It's good to see you. I want
Speaker 1: to say hi to all ten of our campuses, and
Speaker 1: all of you in the different venues, and those of
Speaker 1: you outside, and those of you who are watching online.
Speaker 1: We're glad to have you part if you take out
Speaker 1: your message notes. Last week we began a new series
Speaker 1: I'm calling When Jesus Comes to Dinner, and it's just
Speaker 1: a little miniseries we're doing in a couple weeks before Easter.
Speaker 1: You see, it was the dinners with sinners that God
Speaker 1: Jesus in trouble. The religious people of Jesus Day just
Speaker 1: couldn't stand Jesus. They're really so righteous folks. They didn't
Speaker 1: like him because he hung out with all the wrong people.
Speaker 1: He was always going to dinners with sinners. He was
Speaker 1: always partying with people they didn't like, people that they
Speaker 1: didn't think he should be hanging out with, and it
Speaker 1: ticked off the church goers. Last week, Pastor Buddy did
Speaker 1: the first message in the series. We looked at when
Speaker 1: Jesus had dinner with a prostitute and a pharis. Now
Speaker 1: that's the opposite extremes, the very self righteous and the
Speaker 1: very unrighteous. That would have been an interesting conversation. I'm
Speaker 1: sure this week we're gonna look at when Jesus goes
Speaker 1: to dinner with a corrupt government official that everybody in
Speaker 1: town hated. Next week, which is a week before Easter,
Speaker 1: we're going to actually look at the Passover. We're going
Speaker 1: to do the passover here on stage, we're going to
Speaker 1: have communion, and by the way, next Sunday evening we're
Speaker 1: going to show the passion in the refinery. So we're
Speaker 1: going to take it in order. The passover a service
Speaker 1: and then communion and then Jesus' death on the cross.
Speaker 1: And I hope you want to bring a friend to that.
Speaker 1: But when Jesus did the passover, the most important dinner
Speaker 1: of his life, the Lord Supper, he invites a bunch
Speaker 1: of rednecks. I mean, that's exactly what the disciples were.
Speaker 1: They weren't exactly sophisticated people. They came from Galilee. Galilee
Speaker 1: was Hicckville. These people were country umpkins. They watched reruns
Speaker 1: of Hehaw. I mean, they were illiterate. They were very
Speaker 1: rough hewn men. And Jesus does not gather for his
Speaker 1: world changing group a bunch of intellectual, very sophisticated people,
Speaker 1: he gets a bunch of illiterate country Hicks and has
Speaker 1: dinner with them, you know, I can you know, in
Speaker 1: my life I have received a fair amount of criticism
Speaker 1: from bloggers and things like that for people that I
Speaker 1: have tried to befriend. Now, as an evangelist, I spend
Speaker 1: much of my time with people who totally disagree with me.
Speaker 1: But does that make sense? I mean, if you have
Speaker 1: the gift of sharing the good news, you don't just
Speaker 1: share it with people who already understand it. So I
Speaker 1: spend much of my time talking to people who totally
Speaker 1: disagree with me, and I would disagree with them, and
Speaker 1: I have you know, they've written all kinds of things
Speaker 1: about you know, Rick Warren has at dinner with this
Speaker 1: religious group for that religious group, or he's had dinner
Speaker 1: with you know, atheists or Gaze or worst of all, liberals,
Speaker 1: you know. And I mean that's like the highest sin
Speaker 1: of alls, that's the impardonable one, okay, liberals. And and
Speaker 1: you know, as if you know, well, then that means
Speaker 1: I agree with everything everybody I've ever had dinner with, well,
Speaker 1: of course not. Can you imagine if Jesus we're alive today,
Speaker 1: what the bloggers was to say about Jesus having dinner
Speaker 1: with a prostitute or a corrupt government official or all
Speaker 1: the other quote sinners. He hung out with lepers. These
Speaker 1: were the off cast of society that nobody wanted to
Speaker 1: hang out with. It be black people who have aids today,
Speaker 1: who people are. I'm afraid I might get it, so
Speaker 1: I want to get away as far away as possible.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jesus his answer to all of this
Speaker 1: was always, Hey, the well don't need a doctor. It's
Speaker 1: the sick people who need a doctor. And Jesus says
Speaker 1: many times several times he actually says, I didn't come
Speaker 1: for the righteous. I came for the unrighteous. I didn't
Speaker 1: come for the saved. I came for the loss. I
Speaker 1: didn't come for people who think they've got it all
Speaker 1: together and don't need to be saved. I came to
Speaker 1: save people who realize they're broken, they don't have it
Speaker 1: all together. The things don't always work in life. Frankly,
Speaker 1: people who think they don't need to be saved, I
Speaker 1: don't have any time for. But I came to be
Speaker 1: with people who know they need help. I came for
Speaker 1: the insecure. Now, the truth is I've learned this after
Speaker 1: thirty years of pastoring. Everybody is insecure. Everybody in this room,
Speaker 1: everybody's listening is insecure. He said, Oh no, I'm not insecure.
Speaker 1: Oh really, Let me have thirty minutes with you and
Speaker 1: I'll uncover you're hidding the insecurities. I'm to do it quite quickly.
Speaker 1: I'm very good at discovering what people's insecurities are. It's
Speaker 1: the reason why people don't get help before things got
Speaker 1: it really bad in their life. If your marriage is
Speaker 1: tanking and going down and you don't get counseling, or
Speaker 1: your business is tanking and you don't get help, or
Speaker 1: you got a relationship problem with your parents or your
Speaker 1: kids and you don't get help and you don't get counseling.
Speaker 1: And why do people are afraid to go to a
Speaker 1: counsel because of insecurity? What if that counselor reveals something
Speaker 1: to me that I can't handle and he points out
Speaker 1: a truth about myself that I don't really want to know.
Speaker 1: That's called insecurity. And it's the reason why people wait
Speaker 1: until it's too late to get help in an area
Speaker 1: of their life. It's because of their own insecurity. What
Speaker 1: can they uncover that I can't handle. Now. The truth is,
Speaker 1: one of your deepest needs in life is to feel secure.
Speaker 1: One of your deepest needs in life is to feel valued,
Speaker 1: to feel valuable, to feel like your life matters, that
Speaker 1: it counts, that it's significant, that you're not just a sipher,
Speaker 1: that you're not just some kind of zero in life.
Speaker 1: You want your life to matter. You want your life
Speaker 1: to have value and significance. And as a result, you're
Speaker 1: constantly doing two things, evaluating and comparing. And you do
Speaker 1: it all the time. You do it consciously and you unconsciously.
Speaker 1: You're evaluating yourself and you're comparing yourself to other people.
Speaker 1: And we compare everything. It's an indoor national favorite pastime
Speaker 1: of Americans. And the problem is the four ways that
Speaker 1: we judge our value are all furious. They're all false,
Speaker 1: they're all phony, they're all fake. How the world tells
Speaker 1: you you determine your value is one hundred percent wrong.
Speaker 1: So let me just mention them, because I want you
Speaker 1: to understand that your value is not based on what
Speaker 1: the world says about just what God says about you. Now,
Speaker 1: there are four things that the world tells you you
Speaker 1: need to look at if you want to know how
Speaker 1: valuable you are, you might write these down. The first
Speaker 1: way we judge our wealth are our worth is by
Speaker 1: our appearance, and that is how do I look? And
Speaker 1: we think, you know, if I look good, then I
Speaker 1: must be good. And if I don't look so good,
Speaker 1: then I must not be so valuable, I must not
Speaker 1: be important. And our society has an entire industry that
Speaker 1: is built on the idea that your value is based
Speaker 1: on your appearance. It's called Hollywood, and Hollywood says, if
Speaker 1: you really are ravishing, you're stunning, you're really gorgeous, you're
Speaker 1: really handsome, then you're really worth a lot. But if
Speaker 1: you're not so hot, then you're not. Oh I'm a
Speaker 1: poet and I don't know it. Now. The problem with
Speaker 1: this is there aren't that many really stunning people in
Speaker 1: the world. I mean, most of us are just normal,
Speaker 1: average looking people. In fact, everybody around you is normal
Speaker 1: average except you. You're stunning and you know it. But
Speaker 1: you are the only person in this room that actually
Speaker 1: really is stunning. All the rest of us are just
Speaker 1: kind of normal looking. Okay, we're just normal people with
Speaker 1: normal looks. Now, if you only have high value in
Speaker 1: your life, by being super attractive. That leaves most of
Speaker 1: us out, and the Bible says that's not what you
Speaker 1: valuate yourself on. The second false way to evaluate your
Speaker 1: worth is not appearance, but by affluence, and affluence is
Speaker 1: what do I own? And that's the myth of materialism
Speaker 1: that says if I have a lot of things, then
Speaker 1: I must be worth a lot. That if I have
Speaker 1: a lot of values, then my personal value is a lot.
Speaker 1: But if I'm poor or I'm broke, then I'm not
Speaker 1: worth much as a person. Now I've told you many
Speaker 1: times never connect your self worth with your net worth,
Speaker 1: because if you connect your self worth with your net worth,
Speaker 1: the recession will cause depression. And I have seen that many,
Speaker 1: many times. I've seen a lot of people who when
Speaker 1: their business hits the toilet, then their personal feeling about
Speaker 1: themselves hits the toilet. And when they tank in their portfolio,
Speaker 1: then they tank and how good they feel about themselves?
Speaker 1: And I'm just not a very good provider, and on
Speaker 1: and on and on. Your value and your valuables have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with each other. Your self worth and
Speaker 1: your net worth have nothing to do with each other.
Speaker 1: The greatest things in life as I've said many times,
Speaker 1: are not things. But the world tells you you got
Speaker 1: a lot of money, you got a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: then you are really a valuable person. Not true. The
Speaker 1: third thing that we judge our worth on is achievement,
Speaker 1: and that is what have I accomplished? And if I
Speaker 1: get a lot of things done, then I feel good
Speaker 1: about myself. And if I reach a lot of goals,
Speaker 1: then I feel good about myself. And if I get promoted,
Speaker 1: or I win, or I get an honor, and I
Speaker 1: have accomplished a certain thing, then I must feel good.
Speaker 1: And this is what creates workoholism, and it drives us
Speaker 1: because we want to feel good about ourselves, so we're
Speaker 1: trying to achieve to prove that we are worthwhile. The
Speaker 1: fourth is approval, and approval basing your worth on approval
Speaker 1: says how well am I liked? And if I'm liked
Speaker 1: a lot, then I must be worth a lot. And
Speaker 1: if I'm only liked a little, then I'm worth a little.
Speaker 1: And if I'm not liked by anybody, then I'm worthless.
Speaker 1: That's just not true. Some of you have spent your
Speaker 1: entire life trying to gain the approval of somebody who's
Speaker 1: never going to give it. And if you haven't got
Speaker 1: your parents' approval by now, I'm sorry you're not going
Speaker 1: to get it. But here's the point. You don't need
Speaker 1: it to be happy. Your happiness is not dependent upon
Speaker 1: the approval of other people. If you build your worth
Speaker 1: on what other people think of you, then you are
Speaker 1: going to be devastated every time you get criticized, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna hurt like the dickens. And you're going to
Speaker 1: tend to always be going around saying what will other
Speaker 1: people think? And if you're always asking that question, what
Speaker 1: do other people think? You're already a slave to the
Speaker 1: approval of other people. You've got to learn to trust
Speaker 1: what God says about you. Now it is true. Psychological
Speaker 1: studies have shown that you tend to base how you
Speaker 1: feel about you on what you think the most important
Speaker 1: person in your life thinks about you. That's where you
Speaker 1: get most of your self esteem, what you think the
Speaker 1: most important person in your life thinks about you. So
Speaker 1: I highly recommend you make the most important person in
Speaker 1: your life Jesus Christ, because he's going to tell you
Speaker 1: the truth, and he's going to love you unconditionally, and
Speaker 1: he's not going to say I love you if I
Speaker 1: love you, if I love you, if I love you,
Speaker 1: if I love you, if you love me, I love you,
Speaker 1: if or I love you, because that's conditional love. Jesus
Speaker 1: says I love you peeriod. In fact, you can't make
Speaker 1: me stop loving you. Now. The problem with these four things,
Speaker 1: appearance and affluence and achievement and approval, is that they
Speaker 1: are are all unstable, unreliable sources of security. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's just go down the list. Our beauty fades. Anybody
Speaker 1: want to give a testimony on that. Okay, our beauty fads.
Speaker 1: And if you think you're not looking so great, now
Speaker 1: wait ten years. Okay, all right, okay, unless you're like
Speaker 1: me on the Daniel plan, and in ten years, I'm
Speaker 1: not half the man I used to be. All right,
Speaker 1: Beauty fades. Possessions wear out, Okay, successes are surpassed. No
Speaker 1: matter what goal you reach, somebody is going to break
Speaker 1: your record and you're going to feel bad. Then if
Speaker 1: your self esteem is built on that, and other people
Speaker 1: are going to reject you no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: some people just aren't going to like you. That's their problem,
Speaker 1: not yours. The only solid foundation for self esteem for
Speaker 1: feeling good about you is understanding how much you matter
Speaker 1: to God. That's what we're going to look at today,
Speaker 1: how much you matter to God. And if you get
Speaker 1: what we're going to look at today, it'll change your life.
Speaker 1: And it will set you free from the expectations of others,
Speaker 1: from the grip of materialism, from the pressure of workaholism,
Speaker 1: from the need to have to improve and always look
Speaker 1: your best. And every time when you see yourself as
Speaker 1: God sees you, it transforms you. Now, a great example
Speaker 1: of this is a guy in the Bible named Zachias,
Speaker 1: and his story is in Luke chapter nineteen. If you
Speaker 1: have a Bible, you can turn to Luke nineteen. It's
Speaker 1: there on your outline. You can read the verses with
Speaker 1: me also on the screen. Now, Jesus is going through
Speaker 1: a town called Jericho, and of course, large crowds are
Speaker 1: following Jesus wherever he goes. He's walking through these cities
Speaker 1: and crowds are following him everywhere. And there's a guy
Speaker 1: in this town named Zachias, who is the most hated
Speaker 1: man in the city. And the Bible tells us this
Speaker 1: story Luke nineteen. Jesus was going through the city of Jericho,
Speaker 1: and a man was there named Zachius, and he was
Speaker 1: the chief tax collector, and he was wealthy. Now he
Speaker 1: wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was too short,
Speaker 1: too short to see above the crowd. So he ran
Speaker 1: ahead of the place where Jesus would come, and he
Speaker 1: climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. Now,
Speaker 1: when Jesus is walking through. When Jesus comes to that place,
Speaker 1: and then there was this sycamore tree, he stops and says.
Speaker 1: He looked up, and he he said to Zachias, Zachius,
Speaker 1: hurry and come down. I must stay at your house today.
Speaker 1: Zachias came down quickly, and he welcomed him gladly. Now,
Speaker 1: now all the people who saw this, they began to complain,
Speaker 1: Jesus is having dinner with the sinner. Jesus is staying
Speaker 1: with a sinner. But Zachiah stood and said to the Lord,
Speaker 1: this is at his house. I will give half of
Speaker 1: my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone,
Speaker 1: I will pay them back four times as much. And
Speaker 1: Jesus says to him, Salvation has come to this house today.
Speaker 1: This man is a true son of Abraham. In other words,
Speaker 1: he's the real deal. He's in with us and I,
Speaker 1: the son of Man, have come to seek and save
Speaker 1: people like him who were lost. This is an amazing story, now, Zachias,
Speaker 1: of the four ways that we judge our value, this
Speaker 1: guy has struck out on three of them. Okay, he's
Speaker 1: struck out. He is wealthy because of his corruption, but
Speaker 1: he has struck out in three different ways. In the
Speaker 1: first place, Zakias doesn't like his appearance. The Bible tells
Speaker 1: us he was short. In fact, he was so short
Speaker 1: he couldn't see above the crowd, and he was shorter
Speaker 1: than everybody else in the city. In fact, tradition tells
Speaker 1: us that Zakias was the shortest man in the city
Speaker 1: of Jericho. In fact, the Greek word here for short,
Speaker 1: describes the body of an underdeveloped child. This man is
Speaker 1: not just short, like a lot of people short. He
Speaker 1: is abnormally short. He's a little person, probably dwarfed. He's
Speaker 1: abnormally short, an undeveloped, fully develop body. Now because of that,
Speaker 1: he's probably teased and ridiculed his entire life about his height.
Speaker 1: Can kids be cruel and ruthless on the playground, Oh
Speaker 1: you can remember it. Kids can be meaner than adults,
Speaker 1: and on the patio they can say all kinds of
Speaker 1: mean things about the way you look, or the way
Speaker 1: you dress, or what you did. And probably Zachias's entire
Speaker 1: life was given hurtful, cruel nicknames, and he learns real
Speaker 1: quickly don't worry about the opinions of other people, because
Speaker 1: he was constantly made fun of. He didn't like his appearance.
Speaker 1: He's abnormally short, stunted, he falls short second. Zachias was
Speaker 1: not liked by anybody else, so the approval factor is zero.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was the chief tax collector, and that
Speaker 1: means he's hated by everybody. Now, tax collectors are never
Speaker 1: popular people. I mean, you don't just call up the
Speaker 1: irs and say come over for dinner and do an audit. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not it's something you normally normally want to do.
Speaker 1: But in those days it was even worse because the
Speaker 1: Roman tax system was one hundred percent corrupt to the
Speaker 1: core in the first place. In order to become a
Speaker 1: tax collector, you had to bribe an official to get
Speaker 1: that job, because once you got it, you were going
Speaker 1: to make an all a lot of money. But you
Speaker 1: had to bribe an official to become a tax collector,
Speaker 1: so you had to be dishonest justs to get the job. Then,
Speaker 1: in the Roman tax collection system, Rome didn't care how
Speaker 1: much you collected as long as they got their percentage,
Speaker 1: and you could collect two, three, four, five, up to
Speaker 1: ten times as much as Rome required and keep it
Speaker 1: all for yourself. So really, a tax collector in this
Speaker 1: days is more like a mafia extortionist. He can come
Speaker 1: to your house and say you're gonna pay me this
Speaker 1: amount of money when Rome's only said this much, and
Speaker 1: he said this much, and if you don't do it,
Speaker 1: I'm going to throw you in jail. I'm going to
Speaker 1: make you an offer you can't refuse, and you will
Speaker 1: pay tribute to me. So everybody hated the tax collectors
Speaker 1: because not only did they represent Rome, which was the
Speaker 1: invading country of Israel, and they were under subjugation by
Speaker 1: a foreign country, so they hated Rome. But second, the
Speaker 1: Roman tax collector was corrupt, and you knew that that
Speaker 1: guy was going to get rich off of you by
Speaker 1: being dishonest, and you couldn't stop him. He could extort
Speaker 1: all he wanted to from you. Now for a Roman.
Speaker 1: For a Jew, which Zachias is, to become a Roman
Speaker 1: tax collector is like treason. It's like going over to
Speaker 1: the enemy's side. No who self respecting Jew would ever
Speaker 1: become a Roman tax collector. It was unthinkable, without a doubt.
Speaker 1: Zachias was disowned by his family because no family is
Speaker 1: going to have a son who represents Rome in the
Speaker 1: most corrupt area of taxes. So he's disowned by his family.
Speaker 1: In fact, in those days, you were barred from going
Speaker 1: to worship if you worked for Rome. You could not
Speaker 1: go to the Jewish synagogue because they believed you had
Speaker 1: sold out. In fact, Jewish law in that day meant
Speaker 1: that the Roman anybody who was a tax collector for
Speaker 1: Rome that wasn't considered in the same class as a murderer.
Speaker 1: So he is not a popular This is the most hated,
Speaker 1: unpopular man in the entire city of Jerusalem. So he
Speaker 1: not only has an appearance problem, he's got an approval problem.
Speaker 1: He's not doing good. And worst of all, notice it
Speaker 1: says he was the chief tax collector, which means this
Speaker 1: is the guy on top who runs the whole scam.
Speaker 1: You couldn't pick a more hated person in the city
Speaker 1: of Jericho that Jesus stops to talk to and invite
Speaker 1: himself to dinner. Now, not only Isachius, he doesn't like
Speaker 1: his appearance and he has no approval. He's hated by everybody.
Speaker 1: But Zacchius doesn't like himself self. How do we know that?
Speaker 1: Because he's not a proud of his achievements. He's got
Speaker 1: all this wealth, but he got it by stealing from people,
Speaker 1: from extorting it from people. You cannot be happy and
Speaker 1: guilty at the same time. You cannot give up your
Speaker 1: integrity and have harmony and happiness in your life. He
Speaker 1: knew he'd ripped off people. He knew that all his
Speaker 1: success was achieved by cheating others. So he lost all
Speaker 1: his self respect and he didn't like his life. And
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of money. He's got a lot
Speaker 1: of money, but he's a very lonely, very unhappy man.
Speaker 1: He's miserable and he feels pretty hopeless about his life.
Speaker 1: But on one single day, his life does a one
Speaker 1: to eighty and in one snap of a finger, bam,
Speaker 1: his life is transformed. What happens Jesus shows up. Jesus
Speaker 1: is walking through Jericho that day, and of all the
Speaker 1: people he stops to talk to, and of all the
Speaker 1: people he pays attention to, and of all the people
Speaker 1: he invites himself to their home, he chooses the most unloved,
Speaker 1: the most disrespected, the most evil, the most unappreciated person
Speaker 1: in the entire city, a guy named Zachias. Now he's
Speaker 1: walking through town, and when he comes to the tree
Speaker 1: that Zachias is in, he stops. He looks up and
Speaker 1: he says, Zachias, I want you to come down now.
Speaker 1: This story teaches us four truths about how much you
Speaker 1: matter to God. You need to write these down. Four
Speaker 1: truths about how much you matter to God. Number one,
Speaker 1: The first thing we learn is that no matter how
Speaker 1: small I feel, Jesus notices me. No matter how small
Speaker 1: I feel, Jesus notices me. Now, as I said, Zachias
Speaker 1: is very wealthy, but he's very lonely. And so when
Speaker 1: he comes he hears Jesus's come the city. He wants
Speaker 1: to see him, but being so short, he can't get
Speaker 1: a glimpse. So he does two things that no Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern wealthy man would ever do. First thing, he runs.
Speaker 1: He runs ahead of the crowd. Now, in those days,
Speaker 1: running was for slaves. No wealthy, self respecting Middle Eastern
Speaker 1: man would run. But Zachias doesn't care. He runs ahead
Speaker 1: of the crowd and he finds a tree, a sycamore tree,
Speaker 1: and he climbs up in a tree. Second thing he does,
Speaker 1: he climbs up in a tree. No self respecting Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern businessman would climb up in a tree. That's what
Speaker 1: you have a slave do. By the way, if you
Speaker 1: want to ever see a sycamore tree, go over here
Speaker 1: to the Ministry Center, because we planted one. Because outside
Speaker 1: of that building are fifty seven different elements to teach
Speaker 1: Bible stories to our kids. And they planted a sycamore
Speaker 1: tree when they built that building so they could teach
Speaker 1: this story. And there're actually fifty seven different elements around
Speaker 1: that building that teach different stories from the Bible. So
Speaker 1: we have a sycamore tree here on this property. Now
Speaker 1: he's shocking. He's just hoping for a glimpse of Jesus.
Speaker 1: But Jesus does something even more shocking, and the Bible
Speaker 1: says this verse three, and Luke nineteen Zaccheas was too short.
Speaker 1: But when he climbs up in a tree. But when
Speaker 1: Jesus got to the tree, he looked up. Now he
Speaker 1: stops at Zachieus's tree, and in a packed crowd, he pauses,
Speaker 1: and of all the people in the crowd that he
Speaker 1: notices and pays attention to, he notices Zechias. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine how this guy's heart started racing? Boo boo boo
Speaker 1: boo boom. All of a sudden, he thinks, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to get a glimpse of this guy, And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Jesus stops at my tree, looks up
Speaker 1: at me and calls me my name, hello, And he's thinking,
Speaker 1: Jesus is noticing me, and he's totally focused on me,
Speaker 1: And so everybody in the crowd is totally focused on me.
Speaker 1: He's not looking at anybody else. I'm little, I'm short,
Speaker 1: I'm overlooked, I'm insignificant. But Jesus is paying attention to me. Now,
Speaker 1: why did Jesus stop at that particular tree and look up?
Speaker 1: Because he knew exactly where Zachius was. Now, let me
Speaker 1: just say this, I don't know what you're going through
Speaker 1: right now. You may feel like you're up a tree. Financially,
Speaker 1: you may feel like you're out on a limb relationally.
Speaker 1: You may feel like you're in a hole spiritually and
Speaker 1: nobody even knows you're there. But God knows where you are,
Speaker 1: and he's paying attention to you, and he notices you.
Speaker 1: He's always had his eye on you. That's because you
Speaker 1: matter to God. There has never been a moment of
Speaker 1: your life when God took his eye off of you.
Speaker 1: When you get to heaven one day, if you've trusted
Speaker 1: in Christ, there's not going to be a time because, oh,
Speaker 1: God says, oh, I didn't see that one happen in
Speaker 1: your life. He saw you take your first breath, he
Speaker 1: heard you scream your first scream. He saw you being
Speaker 1: formed in your mother's womb. Why because he made you.
Speaker 1: God fought you up. You wouldn't exist if God hadn't
Speaker 1: thought of you first, and he wanted you alive. And
Speaker 1: He's watched every second of your life, the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: and the ugly. You may feel you're all alone right now.
Speaker 1: You may feel that what you're going through God's a
Speaker 1: million miles away. Well, you're dead wrong. God is paying intimate,
Speaker 1: close attention and just as much as a year before
Speaker 1: Zachieas even decided to go to that tree, God knew
Speaker 1: he'd be there. God knows where you are right now.
Speaker 1: He knows where you're going to be in the next hour.
Speaker 1: He knows where you're going to be next month. He
Speaker 1: knows where you're going to be next year. He knows
Speaker 1: where you're going to be on the last day of
Speaker 1: your life and the last breast you're going to take.
Speaker 1: Why Because God is not limited by time. God does
Speaker 1: not live on the earth, which rotates in a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour cycle around the sun, so he's not limited
Speaker 1: by time. God can see the past, the present, and
Speaker 1: the future all at once, and he knows it all,
Speaker 1: and he never takes his eye off you. And just
Speaker 1: as much as a thousand years before this happened, God
Speaker 1: knew Zachias would be in that tree at that moment.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, God knows where you are
Speaker 1: in this and he's seen everything that happens to you.
Speaker 1: He's seen every word of abuse that has been said
Speaker 1: to you that hurt, and he heard it. He saw
Speaker 1: every unkind act that's ever been done to you, and
Speaker 1: he grieved when it happened. No hurt has ever been
Speaker 1: hidden from him. He saw Zachius every mean thing that
Speaker 1: was said to him on the playground about his size
Speaker 1: when he was growing up. And God, no matter what
Speaker 1: you're going through, has not forgotten you, no matter how small,
Speaker 1: how insignificant I feel. Jesus notices me. Look at this
Speaker 1: verse Luke, Chapter twelve. The Bible says, God never overlooks
Speaker 1: a single sparrow. How many sparrows you think they're in
Speaker 1: the world, How many birds you think they're in the world.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, God notices every bird and everything they're doing,
Speaker 1: every time. And he says he pays even greater attention
Speaker 1: to you, down to the last detail. God knows more
Speaker 1: about your life than you do, even numbering the hairs
Speaker 1: on your head. Do you know what the greatest expression
Speaker 1: of love is. It's not given somebody flowers. The greatest
Speaker 1: expression of love is not buying somebody a box of chocolates.
Speaker 1: The greatest expression of love is not given them a
Speaker 1: gift card to Best Buy. The greatest expression of love
Speaker 1: is attention. It's attention paying attention, because when you pay
Speaker 1: attention to somebody, you're giving them your time, and your
Speaker 1: time is your life, and you're never going to get
Speaker 1: that time back. You were giving them a part of
Speaker 1: your life. And when you pay attention to somebody and
Speaker 1: you look them in the eyes, that child, that husband,
Speaker 1: that wife, that friend, and you pay attention to them,
Speaker 1: you were saying you matter to me. It is the
Speaker 1: greatest gift. Some of you grew up with parents who
Speaker 1: thought that what you needed were things. Kids don't need things.
Speaker 1: They need attention. After Easter, I'm going to do a
Speaker 1: three week series on parenting, and one of the keys
Speaker 1: to great parenting is simply showing up and paying attention.
Speaker 1: That's what they need. They need attention. Little kids, They're
Speaker 1: obvious about their need for it. They crave attention. Watch me, daddy,
Speaker 1: Watch me, daddy. And for the rest of your life
Speaker 1: you're going to be saying, watch me, daddy. You're still
Speaker 1: saying it today. Watch me everybody by the kind of
Speaker 1: car I drive. Watch me everybody by the kind of
Speaker 1: clothes I wear. Watch me everybody by the way I
Speaker 1: manicure my front lawn. Watch me everybody by how I
Speaker 1: make myself stand out. You crave attention. It is a
Speaker 1: fundamental human need. You crave attention. And there are people
Speaker 1: all around you, the people you work with, they're starving
Speaker 1: for attention. Your next door neighbors and the people around you.
Speaker 1: They're starving for attention. And if you want to be
Speaker 1: like Jesus, you pay attention. You show up and you
Speaker 1: pay attention, and you be there when they need you.
Speaker 1: There are people all around you dying to be noticed.
Speaker 1: Most of you do not realize the awesome attention that
Speaker 1: God is paying to you every single second of your life.
Speaker 1: Why because you matter to God. Number two, not only
Speaker 1: no matter how small I feel, Jesus notices me. The
Speaker 1: second thing we learned is that no matter who ignores me,
Speaker 1: Jesus knows me. No matter who ignores me, Jesus knows me.
Speaker 1: That this is more than noticing. He doesn't just notice
Speaker 1: you as one in six billion people. He doesn't just
Speaker 1: notice you. He knows you, and he calls Zachias by name. Now,
Speaker 1: all of his life, Zachias has been ridiculed and rejected. First,
Speaker 1: as a young person, he's ridiculed and rejected for his size.
Speaker 1: He's not as tall as everybody else. His appearance and
Speaker 1: his physical handicap cause him to be the subject of
Speaker 1: some mean spirited things. But then when he gets older,
Speaker 1: he's ridiculed and rejected for his dishonesty, and his corruption.
Speaker 1: Now you could only imagine the kind of gossip and
Speaker 1: the kind of verbal abuse that this guy probably receives
Speaker 1: daily for being a Jew who sold out to the
Speaker 1: Romans and is ripping off his own people for his
Speaker 1: own benefit. And he is being ignored by everybody. But
Speaker 1: Jesus has another surprise, and the second part of this verse,
Speaker 1: Jesus looked up at Zachius and called him by name.
Speaker 1: He knows me and just noticed me. He knows me, Zachius,
Speaker 1: he said, Now, imagine the shock. He knows my name.
Speaker 1: How did he know? How did Jesus know the same reason.
Speaker 1: Jesus knows your name because he made you, He created you.
Speaker 1: He's God. That's why he knows your name. Because God
Speaker 1: knows your name. Now, I want to tell you this,
Speaker 1: God not only knows where you are, He knows who
Speaker 1: you are. He not only knows what you're going through
Speaker 1: right now and knows it better than you do. He
Speaker 1: knows why you're going through it, and he knows how
Speaker 1: you feel about it, even when you don't even know
Speaker 1: how you feel about it. He knows you inside and out.
Speaker 1: He knows you. He doesn't just notice. He cares about you. Personally,
Speaker 1: because God is not an impersonal force. Now Jesus is
Speaker 1: walking through the city of Jericho. A crowd is following him.
Speaker 1: He stops at this tree and he looks up and
Speaker 1: he sees the most hated guy in the community. And
Speaker 1: he not only stops and notices him, he calls him
Speaker 1: out by name, Zacheus, Come down, I'm going to your
Speaker 1: house today. I'm going to have a party at your house.
Speaker 1: He knows his name. Now this shocks everybody. First the
Speaker 1: fact that Jesus, How does Jesus know this guy's name? Okay,
Speaker 1: but in a packed crowd, he's noticing him. But not
Speaker 1: only that, how does he know his name? The second
Speaker 1: shock is the meaning of the name. Do you know
Speaker 1: what Zacheus means? It means pure one, pure one. Now
Speaker 1: that's the last thing Zachias was. He's anything but pure.
Speaker 1: He's mister corruption personified. And Jesus looks up at him
Speaker 1: and says, hey, pure one. It probably been decades since
Speaker 1: anybody had ever called him by his real name. They're
Speaker 1: probably call him Zachius every other name in the book, okay,
Speaker 1: every other despised scoundrel. He's a crook, he's anything but pure.
Speaker 1: They're using all kinds of derogatory names and behind his back,
Speaker 1: but Jesus calls him by his real name. What is
Speaker 1: he doing here? He is affirming his potential rather than
Speaker 1: pointing out his past. Now follow me on this. I
Speaker 1: told you in a few weeks we're going to do
Speaker 1: a series on parenting. And by the way, you may
Speaker 1: be eighty years old, but you're still a parent. Your
Speaker 1: kids may be sixty, but you'll be a parent your
Speaker 1: entire life, all right, So this is a parenting series,
Speaker 1: not just for young couples, it's for everybody. One of
Speaker 1: the principles of parenting is treat your kids the way
Speaker 1: you want them to be, not the way they are.
Speaker 1: Don't label them, help them see what they can become.
Speaker 1: When you say you're just what are you doing only
Speaker 1: reinforcing the past. Don't tell it like it is, Tell
Speaker 1: it like it can be. Guys, if you want your
Speaker 1: wife to treat you like a king, you treat her
Speaker 1: like a queen. You treat people the way you want
Speaker 1: them to be, and then they tend to measure up
Speaker 1: to your expectations. Jesus looks at zach Chias, and he
Speaker 1: doesn't point out his flaws. He says, hey, pure one,
Speaker 1: come on down now follow me on this. The reason
Speaker 1: your friends are afraid to come to Christ and the
Speaker 1: reason why you are afraid to get close to Jesus
Speaker 1: is you think if I get close to Jesus, He's
Speaker 1: going to scold me. He's going to nag me, and
Speaker 1: he's going to tell me and remind me of all
Speaker 1: the things I've done wrong in my life. Wrong. Jesus
Speaker 1: goes to the biggest center in town in the people's view,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't say, Oh, Zachius, let me give you
Speaker 1: one hundred things you've done wrong in the last three weeks. No,
Speaker 1: he looks up at it and he says, hey, pure one,
Speaker 1: let's go party. What's going on here? He is treating Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's treating Zachias the way he wants him to be treated.
Speaker 1: He said, I know you, I made you, I know
Speaker 1: your potential. I'm not looking at your sin. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at what I made you to be, and I made
Speaker 1: you to be a pure one. They can't forget him.
Speaker 1: Look at this next verse, this verse out of Isaiah.
Speaker 1: God says, can a mother forget her nursing child? Can
Speaker 1: she feel no love? For a child she has born.
Speaker 1: The answer is obviously no. If you're nursing a baby,
Speaker 1: there's no way. If you're nursing a baby, you're gonna
Speaker 1: forget that baby. It's impossible. If you're nursing a baby,
Speaker 1: you cannot forget a baby. But he says, even if
Speaker 1: that were possible, God says, I would never forget you. See,
Speaker 1: I have engraved your name on the palms of my
Speaker 1: hand when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at this next Sunday night, when we
Speaker 1: look at the passion again. They nailed nails through his hands.
Speaker 1: Those created scars, and God says, I have engraved you
Speaker 1: on the palms of my hands. This is how much
Speaker 1: I love you. When you get to heaven, there aren't
Speaker 1: gonna be any scars in heaven. You're not gonna have
Speaker 1: any imperfections or any scars in heaven. The only person
Speaker 1: with scars in heaven will be Jesus. For the rest
Speaker 1: of eternity, we could see how much he loved us.
Speaker 1: I have engraved you on the palms of my hand.
Speaker 1: Look at the scars on my brow from the crown
Speaker 1: of thorns. Look at the spear scar in my side.
Speaker 1: Look at the nails in my hand, the nails in
Speaker 1: my feet. These are the scars that say this is
Speaker 1: how much I love you. I call this God's tattoo. Verse.
Speaker 1: God says, there's no way I could ever forget how
Speaker 1: much I love you. I've engraved you on the palms
Speaker 1: of my hand. You see, in spite of Jesus' sin,
Speaker 1: in spite of his zachie as the sin, Jesus affirms him.
Speaker 1: You see, God has created you. You're his custom creation.
Speaker 1: He made you. You weren't mass produced when he formed you.
Speaker 1: He uniquely formed you for a purpose, and he knows
Speaker 1: that purpose for your life. And he didn't use an
Speaker 1: assembly line. And he lovingly crafted you. And he knows
Speaker 1: your name, and he's impressed you on the palms of
Speaker 1: his hands. I like to say say it this way.
Speaker 1: God has your picture in his wallet. Do you realize
Speaker 1: that you're not number one billion, four hundred and eighty six,
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty two whatever. God has your picture
Speaker 1: in his wallet. He made you to love you, and
Speaker 1: there's never been a moment of your life that he
Speaker 1: didn't love you, that he didn't see notice, and that
Speaker 1: he didn't know what's going on in your life. Some
Speaker 1: of you have had some pretty tough shots in life,
Speaker 1: and you've had some pretty mean things said about you,
Speaker 1: and you can still remember the names you've been called, names,
Speaker 1: you've been called by your dad, names you've been called
Speaker 1: by your mom, names you've been called by people on
Speaker 1: the playground or at school, and you've been the braun
Speaker 1: of verbal abuse, and you can still record the recall
Speaker 1: the words. And so you have a pretty hard time
Speaker 1: feeling good about you. But I want you to remember this.
Speaker 1: Even though all those other people called you, all those
Speaker 1: other names, you'll never amount to anything. Why can't you
Speaker 1: be like your brother or your sister. You're gonna failure,
Speaker 1: You're gonna end up in prison, on on and on
Speaker 1: and on, and all those things that people said about you,
Speaker 1: and all the names they called you. You're dumb, you're uncoordinated,
Speaker 1: you're a clutch. You don't matter, And all of that
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter, because what matters is not the names
Speaker 1: they've called you, but the fact that he knows your
Speaker 1: name and he says, pure one. I see in you
Speaker 1: what I made you to be, and I've never given
Speaker 1: up on that, no matter how insignificant I feel, Jesus
Speaker 1: notices me. And no matter how uh you know, things
Speaker 1: go wrong in my life and people ignore me, Jesus
Speaker 1: knows me. Number three, this is a bigger one. No
Speaker 1: matter what I've done, Jesus wants me. WHOA No matter
Speaker 1: what I've done, Jesus wants me now. Zachiah's appearance made
Speaker 1: him feel insecure and lonely inferior. Zachias's accusers made him
Speaker 1: feel bitter and resentful. He's pretty mad at society, but
Speaker 1: Zakius's sins made him feel guilty and ashamed. So Jesus
Speaker 1: does the most shocking thing of all. He invites himself
Speaker 1: to Zachius's home. He doesn't wait for an invitation, he
Speaker 1: takes the initiative and invites himself to the worst guy's
Speaker 1: home in the city of Jericho Luke nineteen. Jesus looked
Speaker 1: up and Zakia has called him by names. Had Zachias
Speaker 1: come down quickly for I'm going to be a guest
Speaker 1: in your home today? Do you think that was a shocker? Now?
Speaker 1: Jesus knows that Zachius would be filled with guilt and
Speaker 1: shame and would never think himself worthy enough to have
Speaker 1: Jesus in his Homechs wouldn't even consider inviting Jesus to
Speaker 1: come to his house, and goes, man, I'm a sinner,
Speaker 1: I'm no good man. I'm a cheat. I'm not worthy
Speaker 1: of having a relationship with Jesus. I'm not good enough
Speaker 1: to have a relationship with Jesus. I've done too many
Speaker 1: bad things. I don't deserve to have him in my home.
Speaker 1: So Jesus takes the initiative, and he looks up and
Speaker 1: he says, Zach, Keus, come on down. How long do
Speaker 1: you think it took him to get out of that tree.
Speaker 1: I think he probably did it in record time. I
Speaker 1: think he slid down the tree. I think you're saying,
Speaker 1: I don't care if I get splinters in my butt.
Speaker 1: I'm hitting the ground as fast as I can because
Speaker 1: I'm been invited. I've been invited by Jesus to take
Speaker 1: him to my house. Blew his mind. Now, the fact is,
Speaker 1: you're ashamed of a lot of things you've done in
Speaker 1: your life. How do I know that? Because you're a
Speaker 1: human being. We've all done things that we're ashamed of.
Speaker 1: I've done things that I'm ashamed of. The Bible says
Speaker 1: all have sinned and fallen short. He's not the only
Speaker 1: short guy. We've all fallen short. I fall short as
Speaker 1: a parent, I fall short as a husband, I fall
Speaker 1: short as a pastor. I fall short as a person.
Speaker 1: I don't measure up to my standards, much less God's
Speaker 1: perfect standards. And neither do you. You don't keep all
Speaker 1: your promises, you don't measure up to all your standards.
Speaker 1: You fall short. Why because all have sinned, everybody. I
Speaker 1: had a pastor friend who's teaching on that verse. One time.
Speaker 1: He says, thank God, he forgives all our falling shorts,
Speaker 1: and yes, if your shorts fall, he forgives those two.
Speaker 1: You've done a lot of things you're ashamed of. You've
Speaker 1: had plenty of time to hurt people with your own
Speaker 1: personal brand of selfishness. And we all have our own
Speaker 1: personal brand of selfishness. You hurt people in your selfish way,
Speaker 1: and I hurt people in my selfish way, and everybody
Speaker 1: has their own personal brand. But it's all the same.
Speaker 1: But you know what, Jesus is more interested in changing
Speaker 1: you than condemning you. He said, I didn't come to
Speaker 1: condemn the world. I came to save it. Says that
Speaker 1: in John three, if you want to be like Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: then don't go out condemning the world. Jesus said, I
Speaker 1: didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save it.
Speaker 1: And I decided about thirty years ago I wanted to
Speaker 1: have a ministry like Jesus. I didn't come to condemn
Speaker 1: the world. I came to save it, Which means I
Speaker 1: don't spend any of my time condemning culture. Why because
Speaker 1: Jesus didn't. He said, I didn't come to condemn the world.
Speaker 1: I came to save it. You see, most Christians spend
Speaker 1: all their time either condemning the world saying how badly
Speaker 1: society sucks, and then be looking for a political salution
Speaker 1: to figure out how to get rid of the suckiness.
Speaker 1: Neither of those work. Spending all your time condemning society
Speaker 1: won't change it and looking for a political answer to
Speaker 1: solve the solve problems society won't change it either. God
Speaker 1: so loved the world, he didn't send a politician. Okay,
Speaker 1: why because you can't change people's hearts by laws. No
Speaker 1: law will turn a bigot into somebody who loves all
Speaker 1: the races. Only Jesus can get rid of racism in
Speaker 1: your heart. Only Jesus can get rid of selfishness in
Speaker 1: your heart. No law is going to turn people who
Speaker 1: are selfish and unselfish people. Jesus said, I didn't come
Speaker 1: to condemn the world. I came to save it. And
Speaker 1: so no matter what I've done, Jesus wants me, and
Speaker 1: he wants you to know him, and he wants you
Speaker 1: to love him because he loves you, and he wants
Speaker 1: you to know how much you love him. You remember
Speaker 1: the story of the prodigal son, the kid who tells
Speaker 1: his father, Dad, give me my half of the inheritance,
Speaker 1: and he splits and he goes to the sunside strip
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, and he spends all of his money on wine,
Speaker 1: women and song, mostly women, and he ends up feeding
Speaker 1: pigs and a pig sty and finally realizes this doesn't work,
Speaker 1: so he goes home to his dad with a humble
Speaker 1: attitude and smelling of the pig sty. The father runs
Speaker 1: out to greet his younger son and he grabs him
Speaker 1: in a big bear hug, says, my son has come home.
Speaker 1: Let's have a party. He doesn't say to his son.
Speaker 1: A son go in get a bath, get shaved, put
Speaker 1: on some clean clothes, get rid of that stinking pig smell,
Speaker 1: and then I'll give you a bear hug. No, he says,
Speaker 1: I love you just the way you are. Jesus loves
Speaker 1: you just the way you are, but he loves you
Speaker 1: too much to let you stay that way, so he's
Speaker 1: going to help you change. Many of you are. Remember
Speaker 1: a story I told years ago when I went and
Speaker 1: visited a prison where we had to celebrate recovery church
Speaker 1: purpose driven Celebrate Recovery church up in a maximum security
Speaker 1: prison in northern California called Sierra Prison, six thousand maximum
Speaker 1: security prisoners, and they had invited me to come speak
Speaker 1: on the prison yard and it was about the size
Speaker 1: of a football field, about six thousand prisoners. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was everywhere. And I got out to speak, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to get everybody's attention. So I pulled a
Speaker 1: fifty dollars bill out of my wallet and I held
Speaker 1: it up and I said, is there anybody here who'd
Speaker 1: liked this fifty dollars bill? Six thousand hands went up.
Speaker 1: I crumpled it all up in my hand, and I said,
Speaker 1: anybody still want this fifty dollars bill. Six thousand hands
Speaker 1: went up. I took that fifty dollars bill and I
Speaker 1: tore it and I put little pears all through it.
Speaker 1: I said, anybody still want it? Every hand went up.
Speaker 1: I took that fifty dollars bill and I threw it
Speaker 1: in the dirt and I spit on it, and I
Speaker 1: took my foot and I crushed it into the ground
Speaker 1: and I held it up and I said, anybody still
Speaker 1: want it? Every hand went up. And then I said, this, guys,
Speaker 1: a lot of you, this is what your daddy did
Speaker 1: to you. Your daddy said you're worthless, your crud, your crap,
Speaker 1: you're nothing. You're never going to mount to anything. You're
Speaker 1: going to end up in prison or die. And then
Speaker 1: your dad walked out on you, and you were left
Speaker 1: to be raised by your mom. And you've been hit
Speaker 1: on and spit on and crushed into the ground, but
Speaker 1: you have not lost one cent of your original value.
Speaker 1: To God, I don't really care what you've done. I
Speaker 1: don't care who you've done it with or how long
Speaker 1: you've done it. What the matters is not where you've been,
Speaker 1: but what direction your feet are headed today. And Jesus
Speaker 1: says no matter what you've done, Zachias, I want you.
Speaker 1: I want to party with you. I want to have
Speaker 1: a relationship with you. I want to go to your
Speaker 1: house and have dinner. I want a relationship with you.
Speaker 1: And God says that to you. That's how much you
Speaker 1: matter to God. Yes you've blown it, Yes you have.
Speaker 1: And the starting point of salvation is when you swallow
Speaker 1: your pride and admit I need help. I need a savior.
Speaker 1: I need God in my life. God doesn't save prideful people,
Speaker 1: he says, humble, not arrogant people, people who say I
Speaker 1: need your help. I've made mistakes. I've blown it. I've
Speaker 1: done wrong, I've sinned, and I need to try and
Speaker 1: go your way. And you've made a lot of mistakes
Speaker 1: in your life, but you have not lost one cent
Speaker 1: of your value to the creator who made you. And
Speaker 1: Jesus wants a relationship with you. He wants to come
Speaker 1: to your house and have dinner. In fact, here's what
Speaker 1: he says the next verse. I stand at the door,
Speaker 1: the door of your life. I stand at the door,
Speaker 1: and I knock, and if you hear my voice and
Speaker 1: open the door, I will come in and eat with you,
Speaker 1: and you with me. There's one other great truth number four.
Speaker 1: No matter what others say about me, Jesus affirms me.
Speaker 1: No matter what others say, Jesus affirms me. They may
Speaker 1: call me this name or that, they may criticize this,
Speaker 1: or that, they may misjudge this or that, But what
Speaker 1: matters is that Jesus affirms me. Now, when Jesus goes
Speaker 1: and he pays attention to the biggest sinner in town,
Speaker 1: the most hated man that everybody despises, and he says,
Speaker 1: I want to go to your house. I want a
Speaker 1: relationship with you. Jesus did the unthinkable, and the reaction
Speaker 1: is swift, and it is immediate. The cat crowd goes nuts.
Speaker 1: And in verse seven, all the people saw this, this
Speaker 1: interaction between Jesus and Zachias, and they began to complain.
Speaker 1: Jesus is having dinner with a sinner. Jesus is staying
Speaker 1: with a sinner. And what's his reaction to that? What
Speaker 1: does he do? He defends this guy in the front.
Speaker 1: He defends this guy to the religious, selfrighteous people. Next
Speaker 1: verse Jesus says, this man is a true son of Abraham.
Speaker 1: Does that mean he hadn't said no? He just said
Speaker 1: he's one of us. He's going to be in my family.
Speaker 1: And if you hear my voice, he says, and I,
Speaker 1: the Son of Man, have come to seek and to
Speaker 1: save people like him who were lost. He affirms him,
Speaker 1: he defends him, he protects him. Jesus always did that
Speaker 1: in the face of criticism from religious people. Now you
Speaker 1: may have been coming to sattle Back for weeks or
Speaker 1: months or men, maybe even years, and you've never really
Speaker 1: opened your life to Christ. You know about him, but
Speaker 1: you've never said yes. Today's your day. Because think about this,
Speaker 1: knowing the fact that Jesus sees everything in my life
Speaker 1: that he made me. He notices me, he knows my name,
Speaker 1: he cares about me, and no matter what I've done,
Speaker 1: he wants me, and he wants a relationship with me.
Speaker 1: How should I respond to Jesus the same way Zachias did?
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse, verse six, So, Zach, he
Speaker 1: has came down at once. He didn't wait, he didn't delay,
Speaker 1: didn't put it off. So let me get every week
Speaker 1: to think about it. He came down at once and
Speaker 1: received him with joy? Have you received Jesus with joy?
Speaker 1: I love the message? Translation says zach He has scrambled
Speaker 1: out of the tree. He opened his heart and his
Speaker 1: life immediately to follow me. On this the logic on
Speaker 1: this with a god who loves you this much, with
Speaker 1: a god who loved he created you, he made you,
Speaker 1: he saves you. He's engraved you on the palms of
Speaker 1: his hands. He wants a relationship with you in spite
Speaker 1: of all your rebellion. Can you name one logical, rational,
Speaker 1: intelligent reason for saying no to your creator? If you
Speaker 1: can think of any logical, rational, intelligent reason for saying
Speaker 1: no to the God who made you, loves you, saves you,
Speaker 1: wants you in a relationship. If you could think of
Speaker 1: one a good reasons, stand up and tell us right now,
Speaker 1: because I can't think of one. In fact, to reject
Speaker 1: this is stupid, It's insane. It is the most irrational
Speaker 1: thing to do, to say I reject the creator who
Speaker 1: loves me that much. It is the only sane approach
Speaker 1: to life. And notice the change in Zachias is immediate.
Speaker 1: The next verse, Zachius, after he's shown this love and grace,
Speaker 1: he says to the Lord Lord, I'll give half of
Speaker 1: my possessions to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody
Speaker 1: I'll give back four times as much. Now I want
Speaker 1: you to circle the phrase i'll give. He says it twice,
Speaker 1: I'll give, and I'll give now the moment Zachiah says
Speaker 1: that he was converted, he was saved the moment he says,
Speaker 1: I'll give you say, how do you know? That's his conversion?
Speaker 1: Because the most selfish man in the city became the
Speaker 1: most generous man like that, and only Jesus can do that.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he's going, how can I help
Speaker 1: the poor? How can I help other people? How can
Speaker 1: I pay back the people I've ripped off and cheated?
Speaker 1: Only Jesus can change a totally self centered, selfish it's
Speaker 1: all about me, and I don't care who I have
Speaker 1: to put down to get a lot of money and
Speaker 1: who have to climb over in order to get to
Speaker 1: the top. Only Jesus can change that. And have a
Speaker 1: guy who's going, it's all about me too, How can
Speaker 1: I help other people? That's his conversion. How do you
Speaker 1: know when you've really met Christ, I'll tell you how
Speaker 1: you know. Attitude toward giving changes. Yep, you become generous.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, you go, it's not about me.
Speaker 1: I want to give back. How can I help people?
Speaker 1: How can I help my neighbors? How can I help
Speaker 1: the poor? How can I help my family? How can
Speaker 1: I help the people around me? How can I help
Speaker 1: people who don't know about Jesus? All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you become generous, You become like Christ. He because a
Speaker 1: public demonstration of his change. Jesus asked us to make
Speaker 1: a public demonstration of our change. You know what it's
Speaker 1: called today, baptism. Baptism says I want the whole world
Speaker 1: to know that I'm changing on the inside, that He's
Speaker 1: changing me, that I want to be a different person.
Speaker 1: I want Christ in my life. If you've never been baptized,
Speaker 1: I can't think of a better time than Easter season.
Speaker 1: And we're going to today after the service baptize and
Speaker 1: in all of our different campuses. If you can't be
Speaker 1: baptized at a pull out a card and say I
Speaker 1: want to be baptized, and we'll make an appointment because
Speaker 1: you need to do this during the Easter season. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're going through, Lisette. You may
Speaker 1: feel like you're out on a limb relationally or financially
Speaker 1: or physically. You may feel like you're up a tree
Speaker 1: and I invite you to jump out of a tree
Speaker 1: and into the loving arms of the Savior who made you.
Speaker 1: That's power. Heads, But you pray this prayer, Dear God,
Speaker 1: to say it in your mind, Dear God, Man, I
Speaker 1: have tried to find my worth on all the false ways.
Speaker 1: I've judged my value on how I look, my appearance,
Speaker 1: and on what I own my affluence. And I've tried
Speaker 1: to support my value on what I've done, my achievement
Speaker 1: and it makes me overwork, and on how well I'm liked.
Speaker 1: And I've really, in many ways lived for the approval
Speaker 1: of other people. Thank you for this story of Zacchias.
Speaker 1: Thank you that no matter how small and insignificant I feel, Jesus,
Speaker 1: you notice me everything in my life. Thank you. No
Speaker 1: matter who ignores me, you know my name, and you
Speaker 1: have engraved me on the palms of your hand. You've
Speaker 1: got my picture in your wallet. Wow. Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: No matter what I've done, you want me. You want
Speaker 1: to come to my house. You want a relationship, not
Speaker 1: a religion, a relationship with me. And thank you that
Speaker 1: no matter what other people say about me, you affirm me.
Speaker 1: When people complain about me. You say this is my child.
Speaker 1: Write Today, I do the most logical, rational thing. I
Speaker 1: surrender to your love. I invite you into my heart
Speaker 1: and my life and my mind. I want to learn
Speaker 1: to trust you. Please start making the changes in me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for not being ashamed of me. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be ashamed of you. If I need to
Speaker 1: be baptized, I want to be baptized to show my
Speaker 1: joy in your name. I pray Amen,