A great example of the principle of building your self-esteem on something that won't change of is a Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a man who lived in the city of Jericho. One day Jesus came to Jericho and Zacchaeus had an encounter with Jesus that changed his life.
We see this in Luke 19 in the Bible “Jesus was going through the city of Jericho and there was a man there named Zacchaeus who was the chief tax collector and he was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was but he was too short to see above the crowd. So he ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come and he climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Him.”
Zacchaeus didn’t want to talk to Jesus. He was just hoping for a glimpse. And if there was ever a man who needed his self esteem built up, if there was ever a man who needed a stronger sense of self worth, it was this guy – Zacchaeus. Because in the four ways we evaluate our worth, Zacchaeus struck out on the first three. He was wealthy; he was very affluent.
But in the first place, Zacchaeus didn’t like his appearance. The Bible tells us that he was short. In fact he was shorter than everybody else. Tradition tells us that Zacchaeus was the shortest man in the city of Jericho. In fact the Greek word for “short” here where it says he was short of stature literally means “a body of an undeveloped child.” He wasn’t just short. He was a little person. His body had not developed fully into adulthood. He had carried this handicap all of his life. He was probably ridiculed, probably teased all of his life about how he looked.
Not only that but this guy was hated by everyone in the city. He may have been the most hated man in the city of Jericho. It says there he was the chief tax collector. Tax collector’s are never popular but in Roman days it was even worse. The Roman system of collecting taxes was absolutely corrupt. In the first place to become a tax collector you had to bribe an official for the privilege of becoming a tax collector. Second, you could collect and keep as much taxes as you wanted to keep as long as you paid Rome its due. For instance, maybe a family owed Rome one dollar and you could say, “You owe Rome ten dollars.” They would pay you. You give Rome one and you pocket the nine. So it was a very corrupt system. So instead of being a tax collector it was more like being a Mafia extortionist. You could go in and say to anybody “You owe ‘this’ much to the government” and they couldn’t fight it and you could collect as much as you want, skim off the top and just give a little to Rome. So Zacchaeus became a wealthy man by ripping other people off.
For a Jewish person to become a Roman tax collector was absolutely unthinkable. This was high treason. It was like joining up with the opposite side. You would be not just ridiculed, you would be hated for being a traitor, for being treasonous to your faith. If you became a Roman tax collector as a Jew it meant three things. One, your family would disown you. Two, you would never be allowed to worship in the synagogue, and three, you would be put in a class of people that were worse that murderers.
So he was hated by everybody because not only was he a tax collector but he was the chief tax collector which means this was the guy on top which runs the whole scam. So there’s no doubt he not only didn’t like the way he looked and people made fun of him but nobody liked what he did either. So as a result of that Zacchaeus hated himself. How do I know that? Because you can’t have a guilty conscious and feel good about yourself at the same time. There’s no way. He knew that he was ripping people off. He knew that he was making his own wealth at the expense of other people. He was deceitful, he was dishonest, he was a lying scoundrel. He had lost all of his self-respect and his zeal for life.
What we have here is a guy who has a lot of money but doesn’t like himself. A man who is lonely, a man who is miserable. But one day everything changed. In one little moment, one encounter with Jesus that we’re going to look at this morning, he was never the same again. Why? He learned how much he mattered to God.
When you learn that you will never be the same. This story illustrates three profound truths.(we'll look at one today) If you will remember these and let them be seared into your conscious you’ll never again have problems with how you feel about you, your self-esteem, your self worth. We’re going to look today at what made the big difference.
If you're feeling a little low today, a little down on yourself, a little confused, maybe lonely or unloved or just a little out of place you came to the right place because this is the place of hope. Jesus Christ is the source of all hope.
How do we know that we can have hope even when things are going wrong? Because we know that we matter to God. And how do we know that we matter to God? The story about Zacchaeus gives us three fundamental truths on which you should base how you feel about you.
#1. NO MATTER HOW INSIGNIFICANT I FEEL, JESUS NOTICES ME.
No matter how low, how lonely, how insignificant, how little I feel maybe if nobody else notices me, Jesus Christ notices me. As I said Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man but he was also a very lonely man. When he heard that Jesus had come to the city of Jericho he wanted to get a glimpse but he was so short he couldn’t see above the crowd. So Zacchaeus did two things that no wealthy Middle Eastern man would do. One, he ran through a crowd, and two, he climbed a tree. These were things that little boys do in crowds not wealthy well known men. But he wanted to get ahead of the crowd and he found a tree where he hoped that Jesus would pass by and he climbed up in that tree.
That was shocking but what Jesus did was even more shocking. Jesus walks straight through the city, past thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people thronged in that crowd and He walks right up to that tree and He stops. Notice what happens. Luke 19:5, “When Jesus got to the tree, He looked up.” In a packed out crowd He notices Zacchaeus. He looks up. I can imagine Zacchaeus ’s heart starting to pound, literally about to explode, his throat all constricted, his blood is pulsing, he’s filled with adrenaline. “He’s looking at me! Out of all the people in Jericho He’s looking at me! Why did He stop here? Why did He look up? Here is the Son of God looking directly at me.” I imagine he was in shock when that happened.
Why did Jesus do that? Why did Jesus stop right at that tree and look up? Because He knew that was exactly where Zacchaeus was.
Here’s the point: God knows exactly where you are today. You may even be up a tree. You may be out on a limb. You may be in a hole. You may think God has forgotten you and that He is a long, thousand miles away. But He is not. He’s got His eyes on you. There’s never been a moment when God took His eyes off you. Never. He’s seen every breath you’ve ever taken, every thought you ever had, every word you’ve ever said, every thing you’ve ever done good or bad and He has constantly looked at you with eyes of love.
Jesus said in Luke 12 “God never overlooks a single sparrow and He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail even numbering the hairs on your head.”
When you were a little child and you would ride around on a tricycle, or you’d do something you thought was particularly cute you’d say “Watch me Daddy! Watch me Mommy! Watch me!” All of us have a deep need to be noticed. You want to be noticed. You have a need to be noticed. So we say, “Watch me Daddy!”
Adults do this all the time. They’re constantly saying, “Watch me! Watch me!” We don’t say it that blatantly. We do it by the kind of clothes we wear, by the kinds of cars we drive. “Watch me!” By the way we fix up our houses. “Watch me!” By the way we put in our lawn, by the way that we talk, the way we style our hair. “Watch me!” You have a deep need to be noticed. And God is always noticing you.
There are people all around you who are dying to be noticed. It’s a need. Other people may not pay attention to you but believe me, God has never not paid attention to you. Remember this today as you think about the areas of your life that God wants to do a fresh work in.
Remeber to evaluate the key areas of your life, asking am I flourshing or languishing?
"Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it." 2 Corinthians 13:5 (MSG)
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