Rick Warren - When Jesus Comes to Dinner—Part Three

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We are so glad

you're here with us today. As we close out the year,

it's such a powerful time to pause and reflect, not

just on what's behind us, but on what truly matters

moving forward. And that's why Pastor Rick has a timely

and encouraging message for you called how Much You Matter

to God. So, whether this year is filled with joy

or challenge, one truth remains. God sees you and loves

you and has a purpose for your life. So let's

join Rick right now for the final part of this message.

Number three. This is a bigger one.

No matter what I've done, Jesus wants me. WHOA, No

matter what I've done, Jesus wants me now. Zechi Has

appearance made him feel insecure and lonely inferior. Zaichius's accusers

made him feel bitter and resentful. He's pretty mad at society,

but Zakius's sins made him feel guilty and ashamed. So

Jesus does the most shocking thing of all. He invites

himself to Zachias's home. He doesn't wait for an invitation,

he takes the initiative and invites himself to the worst

guy's home in the city of Jericho Luke nineteen. Jesus

looked up and Zachias called him by names, said, Zachias,

come down quickly, for I'm going to be a guest

in your home today.

Do you think that was a shocker?

Now, Jesus knows that Zachius would be filled with guilt

and shame and would never think himself worthy enough to

have Jesus in his home. Zachius wouldn't even consider inviting

Jesus to come to his house and goes, man, I'm

a sinner, I'm no good man.

I'm a cheat.

I'm not worthy of having a relationship with Jim Jesus.

I'm not good enough to have a relationship with Jesus.

I've done too many bad things. I don't deserve to

have him in my home. So Jesus takes the initiative

and he looks up and.

He says, zach Chius, come on down.

How long do you think it took him to get

out of that tree. I think he probably did it

in record time. I think he slid down the tree.

I think you're saying, I don't care if I get

splinters in my butt. I'm hitting the ground as fast

as I can because I'm been invited. I've been invited

by Jesus to take him to my house.

Blew his mind.

Now, the fact is, you're ashamed of a lot of

things you've done in your life. How do I know that?

Because you're a human being. We've all done things that

we're ashamed of. I've done things that I'm ashamed of.

The Bible says we all have sinned and fallen short.

He's not the only short guy. We've all fallen short.

I fall short as a parent, I fall short as

a husband, I fall short as a pastor. I fall

short as a person. I don't measure up to my standards,

much less God's perfect standards, and neither do you. You

don't keep all your promises, you don't measure up to

all your standards. You fall short. Why because all have sinned?

Everybody had a pastor friend who's teaching on that verse.

One time he said, thank God, he forgives all our

falling shorts, and yes, if your shorts fall, he forgives

those two. You've done a lot of things you're ashamed of.

You've had plenty of time to hurt people with your

own personal brand of selfishness. And we all have our

own personal brand of selfishness. You hurt people in your

selfish way, and I hurt people in my selfish way,

and everybody has their own personal brand. But it's all

all the same. But you know what, Jesus is more

interested in changing you than condemning you. He said, I

didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save it.

Says that in John three. If you want to be

like Jesus Christ, then don't go out condemning the world.

Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world. I

came to save it. And I decided about thirty years

ago I wanted to have a ministry like Jesus. I

didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save it,

Which means I don't spend any of my time condemning culture.

Why because Jesus didn't. He said, I didn't come to

condemn the world. I came to save it. You see,

most Christians spend all their time either condemning the world

saying how badly society sucks, and then be looking for

a political solution to figure out how to get rid.

Of the suckiness. Neither of those work.

Spending all your time condemning society won't change it and

looking for a political answer to solve the solve problems.

Society won't change it either.

God so loved the world, he didn't send a politician. Okay,

why because you can't change people's hearts by laws. No

law will turn a bigot into somebody who loves all

the races. Only Jesus can get rid of racism in

your heart. Only Jesus can get rid of selfishness in

your heart. No law is going to turn people who

are selfish and unselfish people. Jesus said, I didn't come

to condemn the world. I came to save it. And

so no matter what I've done, Jesus wants me, and

he wants you to know him, and he wants you

to love him because he loves you, and he wants

you to know how much you love him. You remember

the story of the prodigal son, the kid who tells

his father, Dad, give me my half of the inheritance.

And he splits, and he goes to Sunset Strip in Jerusalem,

and he spends.

All of his money on wine, women and song, mostly.

Women and he ends up feeding pigs and a pig

sty and finally realizes this doesn't work, so he goes

home to his dad with a humble attitude and smelling

of the pig sty. The father runs out to greet

his younger son and he grabs him in a big

bear hug that says, my son has come home. Let's

have a party. He doesn't say to his son, a son,

go in, get a bath, get shaved, put on some

clean clothes, get rid of that stinking pig smell, and

then I'll give you a bear hug. No, he says,

I love you just the way you are. Jesus loves

you just the way you are, but he loves you

too much to let you stay that way, so he's

going to help you change. Many of you remember a

story I told years ago when I went and visited

a prison where we had to celebrate recovery church purpose

driven celebrate recovery church up in a maximum security prison

in north in California called Sierre Prison, six thousand maximum

security prisoners, and they had invited me to come speak

on the prison yard, and it was about the size

of a football field, about six thousand prisoners. I mean

that was everywhere, and I got out to speak, and

I wanted to get everybody's attention. So I pulled a

fifty dollars bill out of my wallet and I held

it up and I said, is there anybody here who'd

liked this fifty dollars bill? Six thousand hands went up.

I crumpled it all up in my hand, and I said,

anybody still want this fifty dollars bill?

Six thousand hands went up.

I took that fifty dollars bill and I tore it

and I put little pears all through it.

I said, anybody still want it? Every hand went up.

I took that fifty dollars bill and I threw it

in the dirt and I spit on it, and I

took my foot and I crushed it into the ground

and I held it up and I said, anybody still

want it? Every hand went up. And then I said

this guys, a lot of you, This is what your

daddy did to you. Your daddy said you're worthless, your crud,

your crap, you're nothing, You're never going to amount to anything.

You're going to end up in prison or die.

And then your dad walked out on you, and you

were left to be raised by your mom. And you've

been hit on and spit on and crushed into the ground,

but you have not lost one cent of your original

value to God. I don't really care what you've done.

I don't care who you've done it with or how

long you've done it. What the matters is not where

you've been, but what direction your feet are headed today.

And Jesus says, no, matter what you've done, Zachias, I

want you. I want to party with you. I want

to have a relationship with you. I want to go

to your house and have dinner. I want a relationship

with you. And God says that to you, that's how

much you matter to God. Yes you've blown it, Yes

you have. And the starting point of salvation is when

you swallow your pride and admit I need help. I

need a savior, I need God in my life. God

doesn't save prideful people, he says, humble, not arrogant people.

People say I need your help.

I've made mistakes, I've blown it, I've done wrong, I've sinned,

and I need to turn and go your way. And

you've made a lot of mistakes in your life, but

you have not lost one cent of your value to

the creator who made you. And Jesus wants a relationship

with you. He wants to come to your house and

have dinner. In fact, here's what he says the next verse.

I stand at.

The door, the door of your life.

I stand at the door, and I knock, And if

you hear my voice and open the door, I will

come in and eat with you, and you with me.

There's one other great truth, number four. No matter what

others say about me, Jesus affirms me. No matter what

others say, Jesus affirms me. They may call me this name,

or that, they may criticize this, or that they may

misjudge this or that, But what matters is that Jesus

affirms me. Now, when Jesus goes and he pays attention

to the biggest sinner in town, the most hate man

that everybody despises, and he says, I want to go

to your house. I want a relationship with you. Jesus

did the unthinkable, and the reaction is swift, and it

is immediate. The crowd goes nuts. And in verse seven,

all the people saw this, this interaction between Jesus and Zachias,

and they began to complain. Jesus is having dinner with

a sinner. Jesus is staying with a sinner.

And what's his reaction to that? What does he do?

He defends this guy in the front. He defends this

guy to the religious, selfrighteous people. Next verse, Jesus says,

this man is a true son of Abraham.

That I mean. He hadn't said no, He just said

he's one of us. He's going to be in my family.

And if you hear my voice, he says, and I,

the son of Man, have come to seek and to

save people like.

Him who were lost.

He affirms him, he defends him, he protects him. Jesus

always did that in the face of criticism from religious people.

Now you may have been coming to saddle Back for

weeks or months or men, maybe even years, and you've

never really opened your life to Christ. You know about him,

but you've never said yes, Today's your day. Because think

about this, knowing the fact that Jesus sees everything in

my life that he made me. He notices me, he

knows my name, he cares about me, and no matter

what I've done, he wants me and he wants.

A relationship with me. How should I respond to Jesus.

The same way Zachias did the next verse, verse six. So, Zach,

he has came down at once. He didn't wait, he

didn't delay, didn't put it off. So let me get

every week to think about it. He came down at

once and received him with joy? Have you received Jesus

with joy? I love the message translation, says Jeep zach.

He has scrambled out of the tree. He opened his

heart and his life immediately. Now follow me on this,

the logic on this with a god who loves you

this much, with a god who loved he created you,

he made you, he saves you. He's engraved you on

the palms of his hands. He wants a relationship with you,

in spite of all your rebellion. Can you name one logical, rational,

intelligent reason for saying no to your creator? If you

can think of any logical, rational, intelligent reason for saying

no to the God who made you, loves you, saves you, wants.

You in a relationship.

If you could think of one good reasons, stand up

and tell us right now, because I can't think of one.

In fact, to reject this is stupid, it's insane. It

is the most irrational thing to do, to say, I

reject the creator who loves me that much. It is

the only sane approach to life. And notice the change

in Zachias is immediate. Look at the next verse Zachius,

after he's shown this love and grace, he says to

the Lord Lord, I'll give half of my possessions to

the poor, and if I've cheated anybody, I'll give back

four times as much. Now, I want you to circle

the phrase i'll give. He says it twice. I'll give,

and I'll give now. The moment Zachiah says that he

was converted, he was saved the moment he says I'll

give you say, how do you know that's his conversion?

Because the most selfish man in the city became the

most generous man like that, and only Jesus can do that.

All of a sudden, he's going, how can I help

the poor? How can I help other people? How can

I pay back the people I've ripped off and cheated?

Only Jesus can change a totally self centered, selfish It's

all about me, and I don't care who have to

put down to get a lot of money, and who

have to climb over in order to get to the top.

Only Jesus can change that and have a guy's going,

it's all about me too?

How can I help other people? That's his conversion.

How do you know when you've really met Christ? I'll

tell you how you know. Your attitude toward giving changes. Yep,

you become generous. All of a sudden, you go it's

not about me. I want to give back. How can

I help people? How can I help my neighbors? How

can I help the poor? How can I help my family?

How can I help the people around me? How can

I help people who don't know about Jesus? All of

a sudden, you become generous, You become like Christ. He

gives a public demonstration of his change. Jesus asked us

to make a public demonstration of our change. You know

what it's called today, baptism. Baptism says, I want the

whole world to know that I'm changing on the inside,

that He's changing me, that I want to be a

different person. I want Christ in my life now. I

don't know what you're going through.

List.

You may feel like you're out on a limb relationally

or financially, or physically. You may feel like you're up

a tree, and I invite you to jump out of

a tree and into the loving arms.

Of the Savior who made you. That's power heads.

Would you pray this prayer, Dear God, to say it

in your mind, Dear God, Man, I have tried to

find my worth on all the false ways. I've judged

my value on how I look my appearance, and on

what I own my affluence. And I've tried to support

my value on what I've done, my achievement and it

makes me overwork, and on how well I'm liked. And

I've really, in many ways lived for the approval of

other people.

Thank you for this story of Zachias.

Thank you that no matter how small and insignificant I feel, Jesus,

you notice me everything in my life.

Thank you.

No matter who ignores me, you know my name, and

you have engraved me on the palms of your hand.

You've got my picture in your Wow. Thank you, Jesus.

No matter what I've done, you want me. You want

to come to my house. You want a relationship, not

a religion, a relationship with me. And thank you that

no matter what other people say about me, you affirm

me when people complain about me. You say this is

my child. Today I do the most logical rational thing.

I surrender to your love. I invite you into my

heart and my life and my mind. I want to

learn to trust you. Please start making the changes in me.

Thank you for not being ashamed of me. I don't

want to be ashamed of you. If I need to

be baptized, I want to be baptized to show my

joy in your name.

I pray Amen.

Such a great message by Rick today and every day.

I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.

And now here's Rick with an important message.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize

them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the

Great Commission. We believe it daily. Hope that a great

commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will

produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so

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You know as well as I do, that the Word

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