Are you Vertically Challenged || Pastor Diego Mesa

Welcome to the ALSC podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

tease the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Father, thank you for the next few moments that we

could stand behind this pulpit. We've not come to hear the lectures of the

philosophy nor the opinion of man. Man cannot change us. God, it's

the Holy Spirit visiting, knocking upon our heart and revealing to us what we

need to hear today. So we give you permission to design this message individually

and personally for us today. In Jesus' name. Amen. We are in

a series called in the Tomb, and Pastor Adam has done a masterful job

in the first week talking about the prostitute that broke the Alabaster box, talking

about, you know what, there's different kinds of sin, and we think

we're better because our sin is less than somebody else white or blue collar sin.

And then he talked about Judas, how Judas could hang around Jesus for

three years and so many of us don't relate to the betrayer, but we

can relate to the disciple that we could be so around and I think it

was masterful. That's my favorite word now, masterful, because I never I've

heard a lot of sermons about Judas, how that temptation could have come to

all the other eleven, but he's the one that gave into it. And

we got exposed to what that open door was. It wasn't title, it

wasn't position, It was money. It was money, and that the devil

pulled all those strings with all of them and they wouldn't bite on it.

But when they pulled money on Judas, he gave into that. And so

today I'm going to do a blending of that, and we'll talk something very

similar about in the tomb why Jesus died and who Jesus died for. But

I'm going to talk a little bit about Zachieths and is somebody that was vertically

challenged. And everybody in this room is going to identify with Zakias, because

all of us are vertically challenged in some way and in some form or fashion

in our lives. You feel vertically challenged physically, and you're always trying to

compensate for that. You feel vertically challenged educationally or intellectually, so you wear

a face or persona that kind of defends that or protects that. You are

vertically challenged financially because you can't pay bills or you struggle to get loans or

buy certain things. And all of us today are going to be able to

identify with being vertically challenged. With that in mind, would you stand on

your feet and we're going to read the story about a man named Zichius and

he entered Jericho. That's Jesus and was passing through and there was a man

and very important to recognize Jesus was not going to stop. He wasus going

through Jericho and a man named Zachias who was a chief tax collector, and

he was rich. He's a very successful So if there's any business people entrepreneurs

in here, please identify with Zechias because he's just like you. He lives

in the best house in Newport Beach. He is as bougie as he wants

to be. He never has to look at the bill. That's who Zacchias

is. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not

able to because of the crowd since he was vertically challenged. He was a

short little man. The Bible says, so running ahead, this industrious guy

climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass

that way. When Jesus came to that strategic place, he looked up and

he said to him, Zakias. Now how did he know his name?

He never met him. He says, Zakias, hurry and come down,

because today it is necessary or a must, for me to stay in your

house. So he quickly came down. This lead we little man came down

off the tree and welcomed him joyfully. And all who saw it began to

complain. They're very judgmental people complain, okay about who Jesus hangs around,

okay, and it says he's going to stay with this sinful man. But

Sakias stood there and said to the Lord, look, I give half of

my possessions to the poor. Look, and if I have exhorted anything from

anyone, I'll pay it back four times as much today and will end here.

Today's salvation has come to this house. Jesus told him, because he

too remember this phrase. Never saw it before until I reading it. Son

of Abraham. He is the son of Abraham. Classic verse in the entire

Bible Jesus's mission and our mission is to come and seek and to save that

which is lost. You may be seated. There are three things that stand

out to me as an opening and then we'll get into the three main points

today. But the three things I recognize as an opening point was that Zachias

was searching for something. He was looking for something, He was longing for

something. In spite of all that he had, he still was empty on

the inside. He was searching, he was looking, and he's longing.

And I don't care where people are living at today, their status, their

education, everybody is looking for something today. They're searching for something. The

world today is searching for identity, it's searching for purpose, it's searching for

feigning fortune, relationship and ships. What today are you searching for? Today?

Are you what are you looking for today? What are you searching for

today? The second thing that I recognize about about Zechias is this somewhere between

his curiosity and his desperation drove him to do something ridiculous. It made him

run ahead of Jesus, so he had to break a sweat, he had

to get his heart rate up. It made him physically have to climb up

a tree, and then he had to position himself on a limb to look

when Jesus would pass by. How desperate are you to find Christ today?

Are you willing to do the ridiculous to have Jesus come and change it encounter

your life? Or do you want to do it within the comfortability of an

hour and a half a week. I thank you for coming to church today,

but it's probably greater than that, your commitment to Christ beyond an hour

and a half a week. Sometimes you gotta get desperate to get your breakthrough.

Sometimes you gotta get desperate to get your miracle. Sometimes you gotta get

desperate to get your healing. Sometimes you gotta get desperate to get your change.

And it always isn't gonna be convenient. You're gonna have to put forth

this effort of running ahead, climbing up a tree and getting out on a

limb. But he didn't care in spite of my three piece suit and dressing

like Steve Harvey and then looking sharp. It doesn't matter right now, all

that I've acquired hasn't fulfilled the need in my life. I'm gonna give this

preacher a chance called Jesus. See how it applies to business people here today

because they think they don't need Jesus or some The third thing I recognize as

opening point is who is this Jesus that sees me? Who is this Jesus

that sees me in the midst of a crowd? Enough? When Jesus says

the key is, he's not just saying his name. He's saying I know

everything about your life. And you can walk around here all bougie and acting

like you got your act together with your edumcation and your degrees and your car,

but I know you's Achius. Who is this Jesus that knows you?

He sees you in the midst of a big crowd today, He's the one

who sees you. You know. When I was a younger man, uh,

and I was around twenty years old, I was in Las Vegas and

I was going to enter into an elevator, And when the elevator opened,

there were two celebrities at that time. There was this kid named Andy Gibb

and he was dating this girl, uh. And anytime you could show the

picture Forcilla Presley, I'm for Silla Pressley. Victoria Principal, sorry, Victoria

Principal, and so they were coming out of the elevator, and Cindy tells

me it didn't happen there. But this is before BC, before Cindy,

so she doesn't know. But Victoria made eye contact with me. She saw

me. She saw this little taco brother from Mantabello and the suave Latin lover

and that girl. Come on, she you could say, i'm she looked

at me. She didn't glance at me. The woman looked at me with

her boyfriend Andy Gibb right next to her, and I may i'm I got

on the elevant. I said, wow, she looked at me. How

do you feel when Jesus looks at you? What kind of reaction would that

bring? He saw me today like no one else has ever saw me in

my life. Now, as aventur into our three points today, we're gonna

note some things. But the reality was he had an unpopular job. It

was absolutely despised. He was a tax collector. He worked for the Roman

government and he had to bring Caesar tax. But he could charge whatever he

wanted to those people and take more or charge more so that he could pocket

it in his home or his life. And so that's what he did.

He was a ruthless tax collector. And so if let's just say the bare

minimum was, you know whatever, seven and a half percent, Let's just

say seven three quarters whatever we're paying in our county or city. He could

charge fifteen percent and give Roman Caesar the seven and a half and then him

keep the seven and a half, and everybody knew it, and they couldn't

do nothing about it. He's absolutely untouchable because the Roman government protects him.

So he has one of the most despised jobs I have on the screen.

Some of the most hated jobs today in our world. Politicians, lawyers,

carl salesman, preachers, policeman, irs, repoman, HR directors, Kim,

I'm sorry it was came out on the list. I did not Kim.

It's a excluding Kim on there. Cleaner, septic tank cleaners, and

porta potty and the one everybody hates and I hate. I hope that nobody

has his job here. I apologize. A telemarketer, you say, pastor,

you didn't put my job. I hate it. Well, you're the

only one that hates your job. I'm sorry about that. Let's talk about

these three s's as we enter into the life of this very very successful businessman.

First we see how he compensated for his vertically challenged life, the compensation.

Then we'll venture into the change that took place, and then the commission

that was given to him or commission that was given to us. How do

you and I compensate for the sin that's in our lives? How do you

and I compensate for the little man's syndrome that sometimes we feel. How do

we compensate for sometimes us feeling less than and not measuring up and so unworthy?

How do you, guys, how do we compensate for being forgotten and

unwanted and left out? Many of us have felt that way, and that's

the ways the Kias feels. But most of all, the Bible says in

Romans three, in verse number twenty three, all of us have sinned and

are vertically challenged, come short of the glory of God. And that's the

difference between religion and Christianity. Religion is man's attempt to get up to God,

to appeal to God, to do works to gain righteousness with God or

right standing with God. God said, all have sinned and come short of

the glory of God. So I will now come down to earth. You

can never measure up to my standards. I will come down and die for

your sins. We're all like that. We just simply we simply don't measure

up. There's a story told of how Eskimos kill wolves that are attacking and

devouring their flock, and so they get their biggest knife and they stick it

in blood, let it freeze overnight, and put it into the sand.

The wolf is carnivorous, and he's driven by his nose of blood, so

he smells the blood that is on the knife, and so frivolously and passionately

and veeminately he begins to lick the ice, to try to lick the blood.

And that's what sometimes our lives are like. As sin. We're driven.

We're driven. We're driven. We're driven. We're driven. We're driven

by ambition and passion and looks and lust. We're driven and we're driven.

We're driven for something that's there. The problem is is he licks so much.

He's now not licking the other animal's blood, he's licking his own blood.

And then he'll suffer and he'll die and he'll kill himself. And that's

sometimes the way sin is. It just drives us, and it drives us,

and it drives us so U controllably. And I don't know when it

becomes okay and when it becomes wrong, when it becomes controllable, when it

becomes uncontrollable. I don't know when it becomes self destructive in my life.

So you see, he's a kius. And let me introduce him today as

the scriptures did. Four things stand out. A z a Kias is a

tax collector, so he's very, very very familiar with money accounting off terms

like that. Next, the Bible says is that he is a chief,

which means he is numeral uno tax collector. He has tax collectors under him,

He is the hefe and he is the boss of everyone. Chief is

the fact that he has achieved the highest rank that is available to him in

his career in corporate America or in the latter. The third thing, it

says he's filthy, Well, i'll say the word filthy. He's rich.

So a status of life has brought him to a place in his life where

he has no want, he has no need. He has too many cars,

too many boats, too many houses, whatever you want to look at

today. And then the fourth characteristic is he's a sinner though he is absolutely

away from God, and he's a sinner. Zakias is somebody that is hated,

despised, and rejected. As we identify, he is unliked, unwelcome,

uninvited, and unwanted. Zachias is a cheater. Zakias is a liar,

a fraud or corrupt. He is an exploiter. He's a bs or.

Does anybody know what a bs or is? Today? Doesn't mean Bachelor

of science. So let's move on. Why is he like that? Why

are we like that? Why is he like that? Like that? Because

he's an environment? How do you and I get to where I'm at today?

How do we get to this place that we're far from Christ or our

sinners because we're a byproduct of our environments, our associations, and our experiences.

That's who makes you up today. The environment you we raised, the

associations you've had in your life. That's why this text talks about the crowd.

The crowd hindered him from seeing Jesus, so he had to separate from

the crowd to find Jesus. I wonder what that says to you. His

name, Zakias means clean and pure, So what do you do when you're

not living up to your name? Many people today have Christian names and they

don't even know what the heck it means. I think it's in the Bible.

They'll say, what do you do when you're like'sichius? You have

a godly name with a lot of meaning, but you're far from that.

That's who he is. He's a byproduct of his environment, associations, it

experiences. The business culture of his world has told him. Listen to me,

business people, that the only way for you to succeed is you've got

to cheat, lock and connive to make it in this industry. I think

I've heard that before. I think I know people like that that come to

church on Sunday in our Christian but their business practices don't act Christian because they

think they have to play by the culture of the world. That is the

Zakias story. And Zakias is arrogant. He's prideful, he's boastful because outwardly

he's he has amazing status. He's educated, he's probably very intelligent. He's

gifted, he has status, he has degrees, he has a resume,

and just like Pastor Adam talked about in his messages today. Over the last

few weeks, so many people think that the only people that need Jesus are

the poor, the impoverished, the sick physically, the diseased, the lunatics,

the people full of the devil. Anybody know what I'm talking about.

But the people that got their act together, that are educated, good looking,

beautiful in appearance, smart, are just as lost as the other extreme.

And so many times, listen to me, we are so intimidated to

approach Zachias's We are not intimidated to approach women that are prostitutes who break alabaster

boxes. We gravitate toward them because they have visual sin that we could see.

But there's an invisible sin that's in this world today that is being passed

up by you and I because we are intimidated. Because they are our bosses,

they are our leaders of today, they are our doctors. They're the

people that we esteem. But they are like Zucchius's. They're empty on the

inside, and when they're all by themselves, they are lonely and hurting,

just like everybody else. Lord, forgive us, forgive us of being scared,

and we're not scared to intimidate, go to a homeless person, do

you need Jesus? Let me pray for you right now. But you and

I would not do that to a celebrity, high profile business mogul, because

we would recognize that they don't need Jesus, and yet they do. They

clearly do it. And that's the story, absolute story of Zichias. He

is what I call a functional sinner. Here's what I call a respectable sinner.

So I'm gonna pretend like I'm gonna, I don't know, make a

bake us a cake. So you know you got natural ingredients. We'll throw

an egg in here. We'll get these little measuring cups and we'll throw uh,

let's pretend this is a I know it's not enough flour. Cup of

flour in here. Okay, So we're gonna add some cocoa here. I

guess it's gonna be a chocolate cake. We're gonna put some baking powder.

Put a little bit of that, Put some of that in there. I

guess they got oil. They want me to put a little oil in there.

Now, when I make I do cook, it drives Cindy Crazer or

lovely Cindy, because I don't measure nothing. It's all by looks. That's

it's all about. Fail it will sweeten it. It was sweeten it with

some honey here, and we'll put some milk in there. Okay, how's

how's that looking pretty good? So we'll start we'll start mixing it. Okay,

so we start mixing it. But here's the reality. I have two

dogs. I have leather and cinnamon, two chocolate dogs. And so right

right before the service, I went and got a little little bit of their

crap and so let me just just just a little dab there. Okay,

we'll just mix it in. It's a listen. I didn't come on over

here and get a big spoon of this crap and throw it in there.

It was just it was just a tiny little bit, just a tiny little

bit. Now, how many of you knowing that there is just a tiny

snib of crap in this cake mix? When I'm done with it, would

like a bite, would eat it? How many of you guys? It

is just a little bit. It's just one time because I need a baby,

so I'm just gonna sleep with this guy so I can get prag just

one time, and then I'll never have sex again, just one time,

just a little bit. I'm just gonna go to the strip joint one time,

and that's all. They get drunk, and that's all it is.

That's all it is. One time. I'm just gonna go and cuss out

my ex for what they're done, and you know, and slash their tires

and you know, that's all. It's just one time. It's just a

little bit of sin, that's all it is. And it's amazing how we

would justify that. But in the natural, you would never eat something with's

just a little bit of crap in it, but we often eat it in

our lives by the gallons or by the droves. Zachias was changed, he

was absolutely changed. By we see what he did, Zakius, I want

you to recognize what's not sorry for what he did. Zakias was repentive for

what he did. Today, it's very important that we bring out this terminology

to us because God doesn't ask you to be sorry for your sins. He

doesn't ask you to be sorry for your wrongs. You will never see the

word sorry in the Bible. Again, I was sorry that I cussed you

out. I was sorry that I got drunk. I was sorry that I

had an affair or I cheated, I was sorry. We use that all

the time. That is like our get out of free card, that when

I've hurt somebody or cheated on somebody, I just look at them in their

face and I shed a little fake tear and I say, I am really

really sorry that I hurt you, and I stole money from you, and

I lied on social media to you, and I stole your job and your

I am really really sorry. God don't want you to be sorry. He

wants you to repent. And so we got to look at what the scriptures

say. So here's what the Bible says about repentance. Prove by the way

you live that you have repented from your sin. Don't even say tell someone.

Prove by the way you you live. Hereafter that you have done me

wrong. Hereafter that you have sin. Now show it to me. See,

we go to the God and we say God forgive me, but we

never go to the person and say, you know what, here's what I'm

gonna do because I hurt you, I'm gonna bring restitution. And that's what

That's what Zakias did. He said, everybody that ripped off, I'm not

only gonna give them back what I ripped off. The law required me to

give them twenty percent interest, but I'm so saved, I'm gonna give them

forty percent back because I'm too totally repentive over what I did. So the

next scripture says this, Then Judas pastor Adams preached on this. Then Judas's

betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was what does it say?

Was full of remorse? Why was he not forgiven? He's full of sorrow,

He's sad, he's sorry, he's remorse, But he was not repentive.

He was sorry. He was sorry that he is now being shamed publicly.

He's sorry that his mess got out. He's sorry that I got busted.

Man, I got card, dude, But if I have another opportunity,

I'd still steal the money. You got to see the difference here.

So I have a little bit of a list of a difference between sorry and

repentance. Sorry is for a moment, Repentive is a monument. Sorry is

a conviction. Repentance is a conversion. One is an event. One is

eternal, One is an experience. One is an expression. One is an

apology. One is an action. One is telling on yourself the other's transformation.

One is a belief, one is a behavior. One is remorse.

One is remembering. David said, my sin is ever before me. I

want to remember how I hurt you, how I made you feel, how

I made God feel when I did that. One is easy, the other

one requires an effort. And one is driven by feelings. The other one

is draw driven by faithfulness. When I'm fifteen years old, I hang around

the crowd. So the crowd hinders me from seeing Jesus. Okay, So

I hang around the neighborhood kids, and and we steal, and we bribe,

and we lie and we heard, and so we all want to become

a neighborhood bunch of guys that are dealers, a dealer in marijuana, okay.

And so we have a plan. We execute a plan. In our

neighborhood are giant avocado trees, and there's a lot of Mexican restaurants, and

so what we say is we went wekay diego. You're in charge of talking

to all the Mexican owners and saying do you need avocado? Because you need

avocado, or you'll walk them more land for your Cheetos, your chips,

you need walk them. Oh, yes, where do you get it from?

Oh? I get it from here. I'll give you some for half

price if you buy your Walkamla avocados from me. So we work out deals.

Okay, So we go and we raid all the avocados. I'm talking.

I'm talking a whole back of a nineteen seventy Ford Ranchero to the top

is filled with avocados. We just drove it. You know. It was

like pickers. We're just we're just picking, we just picking. We're just

picking, just picking. And it was getting lower and it was getting lower

and love, you know, and then I drove it. I drove it

and I drove it to al MONI I was fifteen years old. I drove

a tail money, got a lot of money. And then we went and

bought by a bunch of lids, marijuana lids. We divvied it up and

I had never done it before. I was the rookie. So I said,

how do what I do now? They said, well, here's what

you're doing to get to roll them, or you could just leave it in

the little plastic bags and then you'll sell it. And here's how much you

sell a joint for one one a little reefer for it. I know,

I'm sorry some of our flashbacks. I apologize, I repent, I repent,

I apologize. See this is an O. G said, look you're

looking at it thisme on. I'm not making this out. I didn't have

to google this stuff. So then I stood there. I stood on there.

They said, now you go to the street corner here and you just

stand there and people will come by and then you sell it to them.

I didn't know no better, so so I just stood there and it was

all in my jacket, had a big, you know, big jacket on,

and it was all piled up there, you know, a couple hours

and nobody came by, and then all of a sudden a cop came by.

A police officer came on, and I panicked. I thought that he

could see that I was selling drugs, and I took off running. And

when I was running, I was just throwing things like this true story.

And there was being caught in the trees. The little baggy was handling there.

And then you know, they caught me in the corner and they told

me to free. They searched me down and they said, man, look

at all the you know, thee it was night. They turned the flashlight

on and you could see all the little baggies hanging all that. I said,

dude, you set me up. Man, you you you can't leave

a Latin brother alone. It's all because of my skit. You're messing with

me. You set me up. And they hauled me away. They hauled

me away. To make a long story short, my parents have come to

pick me up, take me home. My mom is my mama is crying.

And I said this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but they'll put

me on probation and had a lot of privileges taken away for like about three

months. And I was like a goody two shoes during those three months.

I was kind of showing face, like I got my act together. I'm

really really sorry. But how many of you know after three months what happened.

That's the difference between being sorry and being repentive. It's a vast difference.

So when you and I live out our Bible, we are repentive.

When you and I live by the consciousness of the Holy Spirit. And don't

tell me if you're saved that you don't hear the Holy Spirit telling you don't

do that, don't act that way. Do you feel a little bit of

conviction about that? Give your extra and best in everything you do to the

glory of God. Because that's what Zachias did, Absolutely what he did,

and he went into immediate service. How do I do that? The Bible

says, I die daily and I've crucified my flesh. It is the only

way for you to live a broken, repentive discipleship life for Christ. It's

got to be more than I did an altar call. Jesus is the Lord

of my life. You've got to live this thing out now. He's got

to be seen in every aspect of your life, in your life. So

the reality of what happened, he made amends for his wrongdoing and he stopped

doing wrong. But here's the amazing thing. He didn't change his career.

Now. Now, if he's a stripper, he has to change his career.

If he's a pimp, a drug dealer, you need to change your

career after you come to faith in Christ. Are you with me? Can

you agree? Okay, So, so he doesn't measure up to that,

but he's but he's a tax collector. So what he's gonna do is He's

not going to change professions, but he's going to change how he does his

profession. And that's the key. That's the key. Some professions before we

come, when we come to faith in Christ, they need to be stopped.

Now, you can't make a living doing that anymore. You can't be

a porn star no more. No matter you are, you can't do it

anymore. Okay, But then there's some things that says I could still do

this, but I'm gonna do it morally and ethically and with integrity. But

it's just not enough to say Jesus's Lord to not have the fruit and manifestations

in your life. And we begin to see that was the key, is

the change that took place. I'll say this and then i'll finish with my

last point. We have what a beautiful member. His name was Stan Lafeur.

In this church, he owned a few seven elevens and liquor stores,

and he got saved in this church, and he was just so loving Jesus

and wanting to make his life whole. He was, you know, about

sixty years old when he came and gave his faith to Christ. So he

just has a life of a sinner just like everyone else. Did you know

whatever? I know, I want to talk about it, but you could

imagine just what he did, you know, And with a man of a

little bit of coin and means, he expressed that and he used that.

But so he come to me. He came to me one time with sincerity,

I mean I could see it in his face. And he said,

Pastor, do you think that now I've come to faith in Christ, I

need to sell all my liquor stores and sell all my seven elevens? He

was, so sincere, I want to just live for Christ. I don't

want anything to represent the lifestyle that I was. What do you think about

that? I said, Stan, don't sell nothing. Let it be your

mission feel now, and everybody that walks into that store, you pray for

them, and you could have little tracks or little cards that you give inviting

people to church. Why don't you think that way, Stan? You can't

be responsible for what people do. The Bible didn't say stop drinking liquor.

It talks about the abuse of liquor. So you take that back. And

I know some of you are legalistic, and you're very upset with me now

that I even told stand that let's not venture into your closet and see what

you're collecting in there. So I've closed with this last plan. Some of

you got those nineteen fifty five Marilyn Monroe Playboy is Oh, they valuable?

I can't give those. I'm just joking anyway. I love how Jesus says

I closed, how Jesus never forgot his commission the Last Sea to the Zucchiuses

of the world. Somewhere along the line, I've been saved, or you've

been saved too long that we forget the Zachiases that are in the world,

the people that you and I have been commissioned. Yet we see through this

text that Jesus searched for Zakius, He invited Zachius, he welcomes Secchius,

He had a conversation with Sechias, He touched Zachius, He was not intimidating

and didn't care what the religious people thought of him. To hang around this

chief business sinner and go to his house and share a meal with him blows

me away. It brings conviction to my life. How far will I go

to hang around a sinner? Or am I so saved that I have forgotten

and think that their sin is going to rub off on me, instead of

thinking that my righteousness could rub off on them. But the reality was this

is that when you hang around as Aichias, that probably you won't if you

and I have a judgmental attitude and we complain about their sin and we criticize

and condemn them. I do not see in any form of this story Jesus

judging Zakias, condemning Zachias, complaining to Zaccheus, nor criticizing Zachius. Nor

is he upset to be around sinner Zakias. Why because he said this one

statement that I wanted you to recognize in that passage, for he too is

a son of Abraham. What was he saying when he said that? It

doesn't make sense that that little statement would be there. He said, he

is just as worthy of being a child or a son of Abraham as you

self righteous people were. Abraham came to faith as a idol worshiper. He

was a heathen, and he became righteous by following me. Why can't people

who are pagans become saved through following Me and become heirs of salvation like Abraham?

He's redeemable. He could be forgiven, and he's absolutely included. So

I have here these bags and they're filled with recycle, redeemable plastic bottles.

Something as insignificant about of this that when it's empty still has value. I

want you to start collecting people that are the keys in your life. Stop

passing them by. They're redeemable, they have value, they have absolute value

in your life. I'll show you this last image and then we're going to

pray. And last year's Academy Award oscars Morgan Freeman, the great actor that

he is, stood on the stage. But notice his left arm in hand.

It has a glove on it. It has a black glove on it.

Immediately, judgmental people or people that had a certain perception went back to

nineteen sixty eight on the Olympics when people stood up with a protest of some

kind and they went to him and said, what are you protesting to wear

that glove? He said, I'm not protesting nothing. He said, I

had an accident and the doctor prescribed a compression glove for my hand. I

could be so quick to judge someone's black glove through my lens and my eyes,

to think that I know what's wrong with them and I don't even know

what's wrong with them. I'm going to challenge you, as I pray now

you might be as a key as a very successful business person. Would you

let his life ministry you and when you turn your business practices around, you

don't have to play the game, young entrepreneur. And for all of us

today, let's not go next week into an Easter week without bringing Zachiases to

this church. Not just the downtrodden, but those that utmost to the uttermost,

the two extremes. All they could say is know to you and don't

just invite them. Go the extra mile that I see Jesus did, bring

them, sit next to them, take them out to lunch. Father,

I thank you so much for this great story God of Zakias, God and

administers to us in so many realms of our lives. Father, help us

to take an inventory God of how we compensate and what we do for the

sins that are in our lives. Truly, what transformational change looks like as

a Christian God, and help us to be commissioned not to forget the Zechiases

that are in this world. Thank you for this message God today that reminds

us how you feel about sinners, God, and really what the Cross is

all about. Yes, in a few weeks we'll get our shout on,

we'll get our dance on, and we'll talk about the victory and breakthrough.

But God, there's so many people that don't know this story, and they

need to know the story. Help us now in those next couple weeks to

begin to prepare, think about those that will invite, have the conversations,

Oh God, and be on commission like Jesus was, to seek and to

save that which was lost. Amen, I'm gonna ask that nobody move.

We're gonna walk out of this church together, and a beautiful pastor Aaron will

dismiss us I think today or something like that. Yeah, so stay to

the very end. Are you as the key as here today or are you

the opposite? Are you the woman that broke the alabaster box, the prostitute,

two extremes or maybe in the middle, highly educated, highly intellectual,

highly moral, highly spiritual. You're not broken, you're not sick, you're

not in poverty, you don't have no wants in your life. But you're

like Sakias, you're empty on the inside because you don't know what's going to

happen the day after you die? And all that you've accumulated will what will

it do for you in eternity? And there are some things that you have

mastered in this world, and there's some things that you still don't know.

Why am I really here? Why was I saved from that car accident?

Why didn't I die of that childhood disease? What is the purpose and meaning

in my life? Or the other extreme? I've been through the I've been

through the mud of this world, and yet I'm still alive. And it's

not because I'm smarter or stronger, better looking than anybody. I have to

ask the question, why have I been kept alive today? Will you come

to faith in Christ? No matter what extreme you're living in, from the

prostitute to the rich tax collector, we all fall in between. We need

a savior. We've all come short of the glory of God. No one

is good, no not one. And that's why this loving God said,

you'll never ever come up to me because you're vertically challenged. But so I'm

gonna come down to you, and I'm gonna die in the cross, so

that now when you die, you can come up to me, what a

beautiful story it's for you today, and he calls you today by your name,

he knows you or so. I'm a Christian, but I'm writing that

fensive compromise. I'm living the sorrowful life. I'm not living the repentive life.

That's for sure, because I'm not stopping what I'm doing. And the

next time I'm tempted, I'll give into it again. But I need to

be delivered. I need to be forgiven today again. When I count to

three, all across this auditorium, would you raise your hand, all Uzachia

says, would you raise your hand, all you Alabasma box women. Would

you raise your hand, all you that are empty and longing and searching,

would you raise your hand? Here we go, Let's come to faith in

Christ today. Two one, two three, Raise your hand, all across

this auditorium, wherever you are, do one more thing for me. Stand

on your feet. If you had the courage to raise your hand, stand

up like zachiahs. Run, climb the tree, get out on the limb,

and don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't

care. I don't care. I want to see Jesus. I want to

see Jesus, and I want him to see me. Say this, Say,

dear Jesus, here I am everything that I am. You know everything,

and now I bring myself before you. I am nothing to offer you

but my heart, and I ask now that you would forgive me, and

I pray that you would accept me. Now, thank you for dying on

the cross for my sins. I don't understand it all, but I accept

it and I believe it in Jesus name. Amen, you may be seated,

God bless you. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if

you said yes to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and give you

a free devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the link in

the description or head over to grow dot Faith for download your devotional. Oh

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