Mensa Otabil - Rise Above Your Short Comings (09/26/2025)
As you know, I indicated that for some time now, I will be doing a series on rising. That doesn’t mean, uh, that that would be the name of the series, but it means that, uh, everything I preach in this series would contain the words arise, rise, or rising. I started by talking about «Let God Arise,» and I indicated that when God arises, His enemies are scattered; they are blown away like smoke in the wind, and they melt like wax in fire. Then, last week, I spoke about «Rise Up and Walk» and talked about three people who were commanded to rise and walk: one who had no one to help him, one who had a lot of people to help him, and one who needed just a little help to be able to rise. So whether you are someone who feels that nobody helps you, or you feel that many people are trying to help you, or you just need a little help, the net effect is that you rise up and you will walk. Somebody say, «I’m walking.»
So today, I’m following through from there with the same concept, and my message is titled «Rise Above Your Shortcomings.» Rise above your shortcomings. Everybody has some form of a shortcoming. A shortcoming is something that makes you fall short of expectation, or fall short of a standard, or fall short of your own desires. That shortcoming can keep you from a great thing that God wants to do in your life. It can be a dream, a vision, or a desire, and a shortcoming can make you feel inadequate for the things that God wants you to do. Therefore, today we’re going to learn how to overcome the shortcoming, and we’re going to look at a man who had shortcomings but tried to rise above them, and his name is Zacchaeus. His story is in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 19, verses 1 to 10. However, I will read from verses 1 to 6 just for time’s sake.
So, Luke chapter 19, and I read from verses 1 to 6: «Then 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. And 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.»
The story of Zacchaeus sometimes appears almost comical because you can imagine the height of the man and his sense of activity and the whole effort of climbing up, and Jesus seeing him. Later on, when you read about his whole attitude, Zacchaeus seemed to be a very fun-loving, outgoing personality and very energetic. He was a colorful character. Now, I’m going to use the story of Zacchaeus as a metaphor for how we rise above our shortcomings, and we’re going to walk through the steps he took to rise above his shortcomings.
Zacchaeus lived in Jericho and was a chief tax collector, a tax officer. He was rich, quick-thinking, active, outgoing, and had a cheerful personality, and all that energy was bundled in a small body. Zacchaeus was short. Interestingly, his name Zacchaeus means «pure.» That’s what his name meant—pure. So by name, he was expected to be pure, but by his actions, he was seen as not pure by the Jews. People didn’t have a very good thought or consideration of him. Unlike the three people we spoke about last week who were paralyzed and couldn’t move, and needed help, Zacchaeus could move; he could walk, he could run, and he was an active person. He was not paralyzed, but he had shortcomings, and he had two main shortcomings. The first one was his reputation; he had a bad reputation.
He was a chief tax collector. Tax collecting is generally a noble job in current times, although none of us like tax collectors, but it’s a noble job to be a tax collector. To do that, you might have to be an accountant sometimes. However, to the Jews of Jesus’s time, tax collecting was not a good job; it was hated. That’s why Zacchaeus had a reputational problem. People didn’t like him, and that was a shortcoming for him. We will find out soon because tax collectors in the days of Jesus were contractors who worked for the Roman government, which was oppressing the Jewish people. Tax collectors were chosen among the Jews, and normally, they were given a quota of taxes they must collect. If you collected taxes in a neighborhood, you were told you must collect a certain amount.
Now, the tax collector, in order to make money, had to collect the quota and then collect beyond the quota because everything above the quota is for the tax collector. So people didn’t like them because they squeezed money out of the Jews, and that’s what Zacchaeus was doing. In fact, he was a chief tax collector, not just a tax collector. This meant that he had employed other people in various locations who went out and harassed people for taxes. He was sitting on top of this big pyramid, and because of that, his reputation was very low. People didn’t like him, and when people don’t like you in a community, you may go ahead with your life and enjoy your life, but there comes a time when reputation may work against you.
His second shortcoming was his stature. So he had a problem with reputation; he had a problem with his stature—he was limited in height. He was not a tall person, and he couldn’t be blamed for his height. He didn’t make himself short; he was born that way. Probably his parents were short, so he inherited that limitation. His reputation as a tax collector, he didn’t inherit; he chose it. His stature as short was inherited. What does that tell you? Sometimes shortcomings are inherited; you’re just born that way. That’s who you are. Sometimes it is a result of choices you made. So whether it’s choices you made or who you are—you’re just born that way—it’s still a shortcoming.
Ordinarily, when we look at Zacchaeus, the Bible calls him a rich person, so it means that he had found a way to manage his shortcomings. People didn’t like him, and that didn’t bother him. He still moved on and made money. His limited height didn’t bother him. You don’t need height to collect money, so he did well. His shortcomings didn’t seem like shortcomings.
Then one day, all of these things that he had managed so well in his life came against him because he heard of Jesus, and he wanted to see Jesus. The passage says he sought to see who Jesus was. Sometimes, you can be okay with a shortcoming because you can manage it well. Perhaps your shortcoming is that you don’t speak good English, and you can manage it well if everybody you trade with doesn’t speak good English or if you just don’t need English to trade until the day when you need English to trade.
Or you have some other shortcoming that you’re able to manage well until something comes up where you realize you can’t manage it. For Zacchaeus, that day came when Jesus came to Jericho, came to town, and he sought to see Jesus. Something interesting about Zacchaeus is that although he doesn’t have a good reputation—people don’t like him; he seems like a crook, just taking advantage of people—deep inside his heart, he had a love for God; he had a spiritual desire, and it seems like this spiritual desire was a very big desire of his.
You know, there are people who can seem very rough on the outside, but deep inside them, they have a deep hunger for God, and that’s what Zacchaeus was. He had a deep hunger for God. Nobody knew him as a person who loved God; he seemed to love money more than God and seemed not to care about anybody until Jesus came that way, and then his true desires showed up. He sought to see who Jesus was.
That’s when he had the challenge. The first challenge he faced was a hostile crowd. The crowd was hostile to him; they disliked his reputation; they didn’t like him mingling with them. So if he was going to be with that crowd, people would say, «Hey, Zacchaeus, you don’t belong here. You’re a bad man; you’re not supposed to be in this crowd.» It’s almost like when there are some people who go to church and people ask, «Are you in church? How did you come to this church?» because people think you don’t belong in church, and that’s what they thought about Zacchaeus—he doesn’t belong in the Jesus crowd.
That’s his first shortcoming: How do you survive in a crowd when the crowd is hostile against you? How do you survive in a place where people don’t like you? How do you endure in an office where people dislike you? How do you survive when the crowd is hostile? Because sooner or later, some of us find ourselves in places where people don’t like us for whatever reason. So that’s the first issue: the crowd is hostile because of his reputation.
Secondly, it’s a hindering crowd. They hindered him. How did they hinder him? They were taller than him. Everybody who seemed to be taller than he was stood in his way and hindered him from seeing Jesus. So the crowd is hostile to him, and the crowd is hindering him. Sometimes we feel that way; we’re strong, we’re active, we have gifts, we have talent, everything seems to be going well for us, and then you get into another season in your life where your shortcomings kick in: hostility and hindrance.
So how do you deal with it? How does Zacchaeus deal with this? Well, he understood his shortness, but he didn’t allow his shortness to shorten him. My friends, sooner or later, you’re going to have a dream, and that dream is going to make all your shortcomings appear. You’re going to be invited to a boardroom, and then you realize you’re not prepared; your language isn’t good. You’re going to be invited to a place, and then you realize your education doesn’t match up. You’re supposed to submit a report, and you don’t know how to write it. You’re supposed to do something great, and then you realize you don’t have what it takes.
For some of us, our big desire is to live for God like Zacchaeus. Other people will say, «I want to have a great marriage,» or «I want to get married,» or «I want to set up a business,» or «I want to be financially independent,» or «I just want to be happy.» These are very simple desires, but these desires, like Zacchaeus’s desire to see Jesus, can sometimes be very difficult to achieve because your shortcomings will come against it.
Sometimes you want to live for God, but you have a lot of past and current entanglements. I hope you know what I mean by «entanglements"—all kinds of relationships and entanglements are making it difficult for you to live for God. So that’s your shortcoming—your past associations, maybe a past boyfriend or girlfriend, relationships you are in, entanglements that are hindering you from seeing God. That’s a shortcoming.
Or maybe you want to have a happy marriage, but you have a bad temper; you get angry too quickly. So that’s a shortcoming, and it’s hindering your marriage. Or maybe you want to marry but aren’t physically attractive—people don’t find you instantly attractive, and you wonder, «Will somebody ever find me good enough to marry?» Or maybe you want to set up a business, but you have limited resources, or you want to be happy in life but are just making bad choices every day.
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but he was in the wrong place. The crowd didn’t like him, and he was short. How do you see Jesus? How do you fulfill this desire of yours when you are in the wrong crowd, in the wrong place, and there’s hostility all around you?
So let’s see how Zacchaeus overcame his shortcomings. I love this guy; I truly do. Jesus also loved him, so we better love him. The first thing we notice is that he ran ahead. He was positioned in the crowd, and he ran ahead. In other words, he left the crowd. He didn’t run backward; he didn’t shrink back. He didn’t say, «I’m not going to do it again; I don’t even want to see Jesus again; it’s too hard to see Jesus.»
You know, sometimes when we have a big desire and then we see our shortcomings, we abandon the desire because of the shortcoming. «Oh, I want to serve God, but I have entanglements. I will serve God again.» «Oh, I want to have a great marriage, but I have all these problems; I don’t even care about the marriage anymore.» Instead of Zacchaeus abandoning his dream, he decided to move ahead with his dream. So he ran ahead. Somebody say, «I’m going to run ahead.» He ran ahead of the criticizing crowd; he ran ahead of the hostile crowd. He didn’t stay where people wanted him to be. If you stay where people want you to be, they will keep you in the place they have designed for you.
That’s the first thing he did. Running ahead of the crowd meant he left the crowd, but he’s still short. You’ve left the crowd; you’ve distanced yourself from the hostility. Now nobody’s going to push you around and say, «Hey, you don’t belong here.» He’d gone ahead, but he’s still short. So he did something else; he climbed the tree to solve the height problem. He had to look for something he didn’t have. He had to be creative. He had to use an opportunity that was ahead of him to get high.
So he rose up high and got into the sycamore tree, and Jesus passed by. It’s very interesting because Zacchaeus had anticipated where Jesus was going to be and chose the right tree in the path of Jesus, waiting for the crowd to catch up with him. When Jesus got to where Zacchaeus was, Jesus looked up. He didn’t look down on him; He looked up. He had positioned himself in a way that he would be visible and available to Jesus, and he did that by running ahead and climbing up.
I want to say to somebody, it’s time for you to run ahead and climb up. Don’t go backward! Don’t abandon the dream! Don’t stop becoming the person God wants you to be! You’re going to run ahead, and you’re going to climb up! You’re going to run ahead, and you’re going to climb up! Somebody say, «I’m running ahead, and I’m climbing up!»
So he ran ahead and climbed up. He found a sycamore tree. Maybe it’s time you find your own sycamore tree. The sycamore tree is a very interesting tree; it is broad and heavy. It can go quite high—about 15 meters. It has large, strong branches. One good thing about the sycamore tree is that its branches reach down. There are trees that are strong, but their branches are too high; you can reach up to it, but the sycamore tree branches reach down. So they are at a point where Zacchaeus can reach them.
They are not too high for him. I believe for every situation in our lives, for every shortcoming, for every limitation—whatever the limitation is—it could be a spiritual shortcoming; it could be your temper; it could be education; it could be choices you’ve made; it could be just something you were born with. For every shortcoming, there is a sycamore tree that God will place in your way.
First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13 puts it this way: «No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape.» God will make a way of escape so you can bear it—that’s what He did for Zacchaeus. His height didn’t change; his reputation didn’t change, but God gave him a way of escape. He ran ahead, found a way of escape, and used that way of escape, and that way of escape was his sycamore tree.
No matter what your shortcomings are—no matter what your shortcomings are—it could be reputation; it could be stature; it could be a physical look; it could be academic; it could be financial. Listen to me: God will cause you to find a solution because with every difficulty, He provides a way of escape—our sycamore tree.
The good thing about the sycamore tree is that it was very common. It was not a rare tree where Zacchaeus was; it was common, available, and accessible. You know, sometimes something is available and common, but it’s not accessible; you can’t take advantage of it. However, because the tree’s branches were low, Zacchaeus could climb it. Even short Zacchaeus found something that was purpose-fit for him.
Then it lifted him up above the crowd, above those who despised his reputation, above his height. When he went there, Jesus saw him. The sycamore tree is what I call the sufficiency of God’s grace for us—the sufficiency of God’s grace for us. There is always grace available for your shortcomings. Where shortcomings abound, grace much more abounds.
In Second Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh that he had, which was a hindrance to him. He says he prayed about the thorn in the flesh so many times—three times. In verse 9, he says Jesus said to him, «My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.» There is something about your weakness that activates the grace of God. There is something about your shortcoming that activates the grace of God, so that where you are weak, God’s strength kicks in.
He gives you a way of escape, but don’t just watch the way of escape. You have to run ahead to meet it, and you have to climb up. You have to use it! Paul says, «Because of what Jesus said to him, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in need, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.» I love that! «When I am weak, then I am strong!»
For every weakness of yours, God has an appointed strength for you. For every weakness, for every place of weakness, God has an appointed strength for you. That is what I call your sycamore tree. You may not have it naturally, but God will make it available to you. It could be a person whom God places in your life, an opportunity that God opens for you, or a word that inspires you—perhaps this word I’m preaching today is your sycamore tree to help you rise to the place God wants you to be.
The sycamore tree deals with your shortcoming, but the shortcoming doesn’t exceed the sycamore tree—that’s a good thing. It doesn’t solve the problem; it only gives you a way out of the problem. But that doesn’t solve the problem.
I like how the story of Zacchaeus ends: he met Jesus, what he had desired right from the beginning. «I need to see Jesus.» He met Jesus. His hindrances and shortcomings didn’t stop him. When he met Jesus, Jesus said to him, «Come down from the sycamore tree.» What is Jesus saying? Jesus says, «You used this to get to Me; now I am here to be all that you need.»
When you have Him, He becomes the completion, the perfection of every need of your heart. When you meet Jesus, you find your heart’s desire.
So what do we learn today? We learn from Zacchaeus that sometimes there are shortcomings. It could be reputational; it could be stature; it could be inherited; it could be chosen. But whatever it is, it’s keeping you from getting to the place where God wants you to be.
But we can rise above every shortcoming in our lives because God will always make a way of escape. When God gives you a way of escape, you don’t look back at your past; you run ahead and climb up. May the Lord cause you to run ahead and climb up above every limitation, above every shortcoming, and above everything that wants to hold you down. You will rise, and you will overcome. Somebody say, «I’m arising.»
Father, we pray this morning for every child of Yours who feels, in one way or another, like Zacchaeus—experiencing a shortcoming and not knowing how to manage it. Today, I pray, Lord, that as you did for the great Apostle Paul, you do for each one of us—that Your grace will be sufficient for us, that You will show us the person, You will show us the path, You will show us the opportunity—whatever is needed for us to get to the place that You’ve called us to get to. Open our eyes to see it and help us, Lord, never to sit in a place of hostility and a place of rejection but rise above it to do Your will and fulfill Your vision. In Jesus' name, amen, and amen, and amen.
Well, I trust you’ve been blessed, and you’re going to rise, and you’re going to rise above your shortcomings.