Roger Thrower

1. Jesus sees value in people that others don’t see.
* Luke 19:1-10
* Luke 19:5-7 – And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

2. Jesus affirms peoples worth without approving the things they do wrong.
* Luke 19: 8-10 - And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my good I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
* Jesus knows people and the deepest sense of need in their hearts of the affirming love of God. He understands the hard shell that people put up to protect their hearts from being hurt.

3. Jesus wants us to be merciful like him.
* Matthew 9:9-13
* Matthew 9:11-13 – And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Romans 5:6-11 (ESV)
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his
blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

How can you love people deeply if you do not understand how deeply God loves you? To delve into this understanding of God's great love we must focus on what Jesus has done for us at the cross. You see if you think that you have any merit in yourself to be accepted by God, then you will judge others on the basis of the merit that you feel that you have before God. But reality is you and I have no merit before God in ourselves and apart from Christ we never will.
The foundation of salvation will never be based on what we do; it will only be founded on what Christ has already done. So we must receive the revelation of what we truly are, which is a weak, ungodly, sinners who are enemies of God. You and I are sinners undeserving of God's love. We are rebellious and selfish and prideful in our nature. The average person in his or her blindness says that they're just as good as the next person. Well, the next person is also a lost sinner in need of God. But God’s love values us, affirms us, and is merciful to us.