I want to speak a message entitled, "What do you see"? I guess I could have subtitled this to be "Gaining and Maintaining Confidence". I believe that we are in the time where God is breaking down some strongholds in our lives and in this area. One of those strongholds I believe is how the enemy holds people back from achieving all that God has for their life, from the plans and the fullness that God has.
I believe God has great things for our country. I don't believe that great things lies in politics or in the President or who we have in Congress. I believe we need to vote right but I believe that America changes when Jesus Christ is Lord and the church does what they're supposed to be doing. One of the ways that the enemy is able to hold us back is by stealing that confidence that we have in Jesus. Also by stealing the things that God has for us to do in our own lives by getting us so tied up and bound up.
Luke 19:1-10 tells us the story of Zacchaeus. I want to say this right off before we read it, this is not just a story for children, this is a story for adults. Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, "Now behold there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and he was rich. He sought to see who Jesus was but could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house". So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when the people saw it they all complained, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner". Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look Lord, I'll give half of my goods to the poor and If I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation I'll restore four fold". Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham". For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost".
Father, this morning we thank you again for your presence here. Lord I ask you in the next few moments as we study your word that you would annoint my mouth to speak. Father, give us ears to hear and that we would decrease and you would increase and that you would have your way through this message. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
Sean Connery, the great actor, we know him for his role in James Bond. One of the reporters sat him down and said, "I want to ask you, what do you find to be the most appealing in a person?" He thought for a moment and said, "Three things: Confidence, confidence,confidence, that's what I find appealing in a person".
The truth is that we know in the world we live in that much self confidence we have is really pride and arrogance. People carry them in such a way that they are first and God is not. The other truth is this, there are just as many people today even in God's kingdom who are suffering from an image that they see of themselves. They are not seeing how God sees them, they are seeing themselves the way they see them and how the enemy wants them to be seen.
I think there is something wonderful that God is doing. People who have once been overcome by sin, people who have been overcome by shame, people who have been overcome by the failings that they've had in their life, God is changing them. They are moving out of that stuff and walking into the fullness that God has. The truth is that many today, even Christians, are still living in their past. They are living in the lack that they perceive in themselves, in the mistakes that they have made, and in the weaknesses that they carry.
I want you to hear me this morning, this is not going to be a feel-good message so that self indulgent, prideful, arrogant Christians can feel good about themselves. This isn't a self help message that could be preached in some arena and you pay some guy to tell you how to feel good about yourself. Listen, that's not the place for the Word of God.
I want to talk about Christians who are walking in the fullness of God and about us recognizing all that God has poured into us and beginning to achieve and walk in the life that God has for us.
Zaccheus was a small man, both in stature and in character. He wasn't just short but he was a man that didn't have a good character and he viewed himself that way. This is a man who knew his shortcomings and he knew his failings and in life he tried to make up for that by taking advantage of other people. He was a chief tax collector. I don't know about you but he wouldn't be the first man that I'd be inviting to dinner. As a tax collector, because of his authority he took advantage of people. People looked at him like he was a small man so he decided with the authority that he had, he'd prove to them that he was a big man. Some people would call that, short bald man syndrome. I take offense to that but I understand what they're saying.
Zacchaeus was a social and religious outcast. He was a Jew who cooperated with the Roman government and was a trader to his people. He was a rich man yet unfulfilled. He lived better than most people around him but he still didn't feel good about himself, didn't like himself and wasn't living in the fullness that God had for his life. But there was a day when he had an encounter with God. Jesus came walking through the city, a word didn't have to be said to the man, he just knew that something was going on. How many of you have ever had a day where you woke up and you had no clue what you were getting into but you had an encounter with God that day? God began to change something in your heart, he began to change everything about you and you began to see yourself differently and other people differently because of that one moment that you had with Jesus.
I want you to hear me this morning, I believe that all it takes is one encounter with God to change a life. It's from that, that a life can be changed. You can be walking one way and turn around and begin to follow Jesus with all your heart. That's what began to happen with Zacchaeus.
He went from being small, uncertain, and sinful to beginning to achieve God's plan for his life. Zacchaeus saw himself as a small man but Jesus saw him as a changed man. When Zacchaeus climbed in that tree just so he could get a glimpse of God, he didn't do it because he wanted to see the superstar that was coming from town, there was something that was going on in his life and he knew that something had to change. He was going to do anything so he could get a glimpse of it. Here's a rich tax collector climbing a tree. How many would like to see some of our politicians climb a tree just every once in awhile and get humbled to get a look at Jesus?
He needed a changed life and he was going to do all that he could to just get a glimpse. What I find amazing was while everyone else wasn't paying attention, Jesus was paying attention. Jesus looked up at him and didn't say, "Listen, little man". He called him by name, "Zacchaeus". He didn't say, "Listen, you lousy, losing sinner, thieving, robbing, disgusting guy". He called him by name. You may be sitting in here this morning and you know what's going on in your life. You may be thinking because you don't like what's going on in your life and you know the sin that you have and the things that you're dealing with and you think everyone else can see what's going on. The truth is, Jesus can. Jesus didn't start by calling him names, he called him by his name. He said, "Zacchaeus, come here, today I'm coming to your house, I want to be with you". I think that blew the guy away, I think he couldn't scramble down out of that tree fast enough. He probably began to straighten his clothes, wipe the bark off his suit and said, "Ok, come into my house".
Because Jesus began to pay attention to him something began to change. In verses 9 and 10 it says, "Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also was the son of Abraham for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost". Listen, salvation applied to Zacchaeus' eternal condition. He was lost and without God. How many know that if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, that's the first thing that he needs to take care of with you. The second thing was God beginning the work in Zacchaeus' life that he always dreamed of. Zacchaeus just didn't realize that it could happen that fast.
I want to ask you this morning, "What do you see in yourself?"I want to ask you, Christian, and I want you to listen to me, we've been in the presence of God and he is greater than all things, I don't want you to begin to drift off. How many believe strongholds are going to be broken this morning? I want to ask you this question, "How do you see yourself?"You need to be honest with yourself. I want to challenge you as a church, how do we view ourselves? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see all your failures and your weaknesses, do you see all your hurts of what you wish you could be? Or when you look in the mirror, do you see what God sees? A changed life, a life that he has a plan for, a life that he's going to work through, a life that he's going to change?
What do you see? Do you have confidence in what God can do in and through you? Do you know your past? Do you lack confidence in God? What is your perspective of God? Some of you don't like yourself, you don't like what you see and you don't like who you are. I am not talking about some goofy self help thing. Self esteem issues are usually just pride turned inside out but pride none the less. I'm talking to people this morning where you cry often because you don't like who you are. You're frustrated when you look in the mirror because you see the things that you're not quite measuring up to. I want to tell you I believe that there's been a stronghold that the enemy has had in so many lives and God is going to break them in people today.
God is going to bring the homeless where before there has been hurt.
When God gets a hold of you, no matter what has been done to you, no matter what you've done to yourself, the healing is wonderful. I want you to hear me, If God can take 5 loaves and 2 fishes and do a miracle with that, just think what God can do with you? Most of the people God used in the Bible started out as people with a lack of confidence. Most of the great men and women of God that God did powerful things through were people that didn't see themselves the way that God sees them. As a matter of Fact, even when angels showed up and told them, "God is going to do marvelous things through you", they didn't believe them. Some of you in here this morning, God has great things for your life but the truth is if Gabriel stood up here and said "God is going to do this in your life and through your life", you'd think he was lying.
Moses started out as a stutterer, a man that was misplaced, not even with his own people, growing up in a palace where he knew he didn't belong, he knew he belonged with the slaves. A man who murdered someone else because he was feeling bad about his place and where he was. But God showed up and said, "I'm going to use you to set an entire nation free". Moses didn't believe him. Abraham was an old man past the child bearing age and God came up and told him, "You are going to be the father of a great nation". He said, "I'm an old man, I don't even want to have kids anymore". The children of Israel were going to possess a land that was flowing with milk and honey but when they showed up there were people there who were stronger and bigger than them and they walked around saying, "I believe God has a promise but I'm like a grasshopper in their eyes, I'm nothing, how in the world did this happen"? Most of them walked away discouraged.
David was seventeen years old when he fought Goliath. Gideon was an insecure man sitting on a threshing floor doing everyone else's dirty work. When an angel showed up and called him a mighty man of valor, Gideon said, "Listen, I am from the least family in the tribe of Israel and I am the least in my family". That's how he saw himself and the angel of God called him a mighty man of valor. God began to use him to set an entire nation free. As a matter of fact, to prove his point, God said "I'm not going to give you thousands for you to lead, I'm going to give you only 300 people and they will be used by you to help set a nation free".
I want to ask you this morning, how do you see yourself? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Some of you are going to be getting a facelift, not because you're ugly and not because you need a change but you're going to begin to see things differently through the eyes of Jesus. I want you to understand Christian, we need to get used to the fact that God does not view us as others see us or as we see ourselves. When God looks at you and me he sees a finished work. He knows what he has for our life, he knows what he wants to do inside of us, he knows what he wants to do through us and his goal is to help us see it.
Let me ask you teenagers, If you could just grasp what God has for you today and what he wants to do through you, you will be amazed. This morning you may know the things you're dealing with, you know the ugliness that you've got. The truth is when we give it to Jesus and let him turn us around nothing stands in the way of God's plan.
1st Corinthians 1:26-29, "For you see your calling brethren that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh can glory in his presence".
Listen, those who are useful to God, those whom God uses to do great things are not those bent on their own self sufficency and their own glory. The world today will look at everyone who walks around that look handsome and pretty, they seem to have got it all together, they are self promoting. They walk in the room and they expect to get the accolades, when they walk out they expect to get the accolades. They're the smartest one in the room, they seem to have the highest IQ, they seem to have the most money and the world would say those are the ones that God would want to use, those are the ones who are most successfull and have it altogether. But Jesus is walking through a town and looks at someone like Zacchaeus and says, "You need to get out of that tree because I've got a plan for you". As a matter of fact, those that seem to have it altogether, those are the ones God cuts down a notch so he can use them. The ones God will begin to use are those people we would least expect and he does it intentionally. Sometimes it's the smallest churches that reach a city. Sometimes it's the least good looking person in the group that winds up changing an entire neighborhood for Christ. Sometimes it's the one that doesn't speak real good and is kind of shy and all of a sudden God raises them up to change the lives of young ladies and young men so that they become all they can be in Christ. God uses the weak things of the world to put to shame what the enemy would raise up.
I want you to hear me, too many churches and too many people are trying to put on a show like the world so that we can reach the world for Jesus. The church will never have enough money and will never have all the talent that the world has to reach the world with a show. The world doesn't need another show. What they need is the power of God and God will take simple people, good people, loving people, prayerful people, who will stand up and say, "Listen, I don't want to put on a show for Jesus, I just want to be the light of the world that God has called me to be". Those are the people that God will use.
Teens, you did awesome today, you came up and did what you knew how to do and ministered to this church. Keep doing that. When you go back to your school don't be yelling at people like a preacher yells at them. If you stand up to do this in school they're going to beat you up. Be a light in the world.
Those who walk in true confidence see themselves as God has seen them and they have found their identity in who they are in Christ. To me It's fun to watch people grow and mature. Some of you don't like yourself and you don't believe in yourself. Listen, don't believe in you, believe in Jesus and watch what he'll do through you. It will be powerful in Jesus name. To live in true freedom we must come to terms with how we see ourselves.
In James 1:23-25 it says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was". Those who have been saved and know what God has done in their life and then turn away from the Lord, they forget what God has done in their life. I want you to listen to me, some of you have not walked away from the Word of God and it is alive and well in you but that hurt that you've carried, that shame that you bear, the things that you've gone through, the things that have happened, there were times that you've met with God and you were standing there looking at yourself and you had that encounter like Zacchaeus did. God began to do a powerful work in you, you began to walk different, you began to carry yourself different, you began to believe that you were everything you ever hoped you could be and you stayed in that word.
But something happened, you walked out of that service, you walked away from the altar, you walked out of that thing where God was doing a powerful work in your life and although for a moment you could see what God wanted to do through you and in you and because of you, you walked away. The enemy began to come in and those old feelings began to stir up again and you forgot what you looked like. You forgot what God wanted to do through you, you could see it, you could see it in yourself but the enemy began to steal that hope and that confidence away. I want to tell you this morning, doing the word doesn't only mean living righteously before God. I want to encourage you not to forget that promise God has placed in your heart what he said you would be and could be and don't forget it.
Some of you have forgotten. Some of you got so deep into some personal battles you've forgotten what God was wanting to do through you. As a matter of fact, you've stopped believing that could even be you. Listen, don't you let the enemy steal the promise. He's done a healing work, you knew that he wanted to do it through you and if you will just get back and see him face to face, you will begin to see what he wants to do through you. It's when we're not in the word that we must remember who we are in Christ. Some of you get up and pray in the morning and get in the word and that promise is there. When you put it down you get back to real life. How many know you can't hide in the prayer closet all day long? How many know you were called to live a life?
When you're not sitting there just reading it and feeling it that's when you've got to remember the promises put in your heart. After we have the healing, after we have the cleansing encounters, we must begin to live beyond the encounter. That moment that Zaccaeus had with Jesus was powerful and that moment that Jesus was in his house was awesome. But after he was being affirmed and confirmed and after all the community saw that Jesus loved him, he then had to go out and live what Jesus said he was. I want to encourage you this morning, Zachaeus had to stop having little bald man syndrome and begin living everyday. I want you to hear me again, all of us have sinned, all of us have made mistakes, all of us have failed. There is not one person in this room that we will look at and say they are a super Christian and have it altogether.
Some people look at me and say, "Pastor, you must have it altogether, you get to pastor the church". If you only knew. I want to tell you I've learned to have confidence in Jesus and less confidence in Marvin. What I have found is this, I have made many mistakes and I promise you as your pastor that I'm going to make a few more.
Phillipians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God will take our mistakes and turn them into miracles, we just need to continue to walk in him confidently knowing that he cares for us. All of us have rough edges, all of us need refining and that does not disqualify us from service to God. I'm not talking about a sinful life. If you are living an immoral, improper sinful life, you need to repent and get right with the Lord. You can have all the rough edges in the world and that's one thing, but sin is quite another. Sin is not a rough edge, it is death and there's a difference. But the truth is, no matter what your sin is, Jesus will forgive you if you will repent and turn to him. It's amazing, some of you think that we have to have everything polished and together.
It's actually in the time of service that God begins to refine us and heal us. Listen, you can sit and pray all day and wait for God to be finshed with you but the truth is you're not a finished work until you start going and that's when God begins to do things in your life. Be confident in your gifts, be confident in your calling, be confident that God wants to use you. Be confident that you're able to hear from God and be led by the spirit. Be confident that God actually wants to talk to you.
Some of you in this room know the things that you lack. Hear me now, seek God to give you whatever it is that you're missing. God said he would supply all your needs whether it's something about your personality, or the way you present yourself, whatever it is that you need. You seek him for whatever it is you think you lack. The truth is, sometimes you'll think those things that you lack, where you don't do real well, you're going to find out they're actually a treasure from God. You didn't need anything else, you were made exactly the way God wanted you to be. Most of our internal agony and frustration comes from a misplaced confidence or lack of confidence in our flesh.
Philippians 3:3 says, "Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh". Our hope has never been in us or in others but in God. People will fail you. A lack of confidence in God and in his plan will leave us open for satanic attack. If we put our confidence in others we're always going to be let down. Insecurity comes when we've done well but we think we didn't do enough. We lose confidence when we've had bad experiences with people and are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Someone else is going to speak negative into our life or the enemy is going to do another thing and the rug is going to be pulled out from underneath us. Listen to me, the enemy will come to rob us of joy and peace but when we put our confidence in God we know that he will guard us. Right now some of you have had the stronghold and it is when you lose confidence that God can set you free, that God loves you and he cares for you, that the enemy sets up a stronghold. Why? Because anytime you give the enemy a foothold in your life he will want to camp there and he won't want to leave. That's what a stronghold is.
I'm about to close and I want you to hear this, some of you have those areas in your life where you haven't completely trusted God. If you don't like yourself, God loves you. Areas that you haven't been able to conquer, you've given the enemy a foothold or permission and he's tried to stay there and isn't going to let go. I want you to listen to me, when you take that to Jesus, the enemy can want to hold on as much as he wants but once God comes in that stronghold is not only emptied, it is destroyed. Some of you have been struggling with the confidence that God has in you and what you have in yourself. I'm not just talking about self esteem, there's been this work of deep hurt that the enemy has tried to afflict on you. God wants to set you free.
Whatever that battle is that you're facing, I want to ask you again, what do you see? Not only do you see yourself the way God sees you, do you see the battles that you're facing the way God sees them? Elijah had a servant and they had been chased into a city and the enemy was going to kill them. The servant was having a panic attack, "How in the world am I ever going to get out of this?" Elijah said, "We're going to just walk through the front gates of the city and we're going to be ok". The servant looked at him and said, "I don't understand this, how in the world are we going to be alright?"Elijah prayed and said, "God, open the eyes of my servant". That city was surrounded by the enemy and there was no way they were getting out. When Elijah prayed for his servant his eyes were opened and he saw the entire host of heaven, angels surrounding the city". How many of you think that when you begin to see angels surrounding your problem and that God has you under control that you're going to begin to see things a whole different way? That servant went from being a cowering guy to believing they're going through the front door. All of a sudden he began to see that greater was he that was for them than he that is in the world.
I want to ask you, Christian, what do you see? Some of you have been trying to figure out a backdoor way out of what's been going on in your life and you haven't had confidence that God will see you through it. Some of you are having financial difficulties, maybe you got yourself into more house than you should have. How many know God knows how to take care of you? Some of you got yourself into relationship problems that you don't know what in the world to do with. You've been trying to figure a way out the back door but God wants to walk through the front door and do a miracle. Where's your confidence?
I want to ask you today, what do you see? Are you looking at the enemy or are you looking at God who is surrounding you this morning? Confidence is actually faith in God. As Elijah's servant began to walk out of that city he had a new confidence. Proverbs 28;1 says, "The righteous are as bold as a lion". Because they know that God has a plan for them and they believe in what the Lord is going to do.
When you look in the mirror what do you see? When you're looking at your problem, what do you see? When you see what God wants to do through you and the way others look at you and treat you, what do you see? Church, can I ask you something as your pastor, you can look at this little room, what do you see? I'll tell you what I see, I see a church that's winning this city to Jesus. You see that hallway that's full out there? How many believe that's going to be a regular Sunday thing? Not only do I see us reaching Jupiter, I see us reaching all of Palm Beach County. I see us reaching the rich and the poor, the young and the old. I see a church with gang members that are sitting next to millionaires and enjoying the worship service together. I see a church that reflects the culture of our city. I know we have a spanish church that meets in the afternoon because we don't have anough room but I see them at a time when we have a service where we have a spanish interpreter so we can all be together. How many know that's a marvelous thing? What I see is the family of God coming together. So let me ask you, what do you see?
