Living to Win Over Worthlessness
Tom Shrader addresses the struggle with self-worth by examining how God establishes human value. Unlike worldly measures of worth based on achievements or possessions, God demonstrates our value through Christ's sacrificial death. He explores the theological concepts of propitiation, redemption, and justification to show that believers' worth is secured by the highest possible price - the blood of Christ.
“If you're a Christian today, when Jesus died on that cross, in that blood was you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Living to Win (2005)
Recorded: May 05, 2005
Duration: 42 min
Themes: worth, value, identity, self-esteem, redemption, sacrifice, grace, acceptance, struggling with self-worth, feeling worthless, measuring success, comparing to others, new believer, young adult, parent, mentor
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Romans 1:20, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5, Philippians 1:6
Theological Themes: propitiation, redemption, justification, being made right, atonement, sanctification, imago dei, image of God
Full Transcript
So what we have today is session 5 of 8 in our series titled "Living to Win." As I look at some of the topics, it can be a little bit discouraging - winning over stress and anxiety and uncertainty and all these different things, loneliness. Today it's the whole idea of winning over worthlessness, which puts us into this discussion of self-esteem.
I was talking to one of our junior high staff guys at church and he was saying he had just been in a meeting where there had been a bunch of junior high students in the leadership from their school, the principal and the staff. One of the staff people was saying to the kids, "We want you to know that we don't think there are any bad kids. There's no such thing as a bad kid." Our guy said, "Jeepers, that's interesting, because what the scripture says is exactly the opposite. The scripture says there is no good kid. There's no good adult. There's no one who's good."
We're getting this whole idea of self-esteem and you live at a time when people seem almost obsessed about feeling good about themselves. Where we are today is that some of you feel valuable here today and you shouldn't. Some of you feel worthless and you shouldn't. So we're going to try to get our arms around this whole idea of worthlessness and value.
What Makes a Person Valuable?
Typically, and on your outline I think we mentioned this, there's the general public perception of what makes a person valuable - maybe what they do. I assume I'm representative of you as well. When I meet somebody, one of my very first questions is to say, "What do you do?" I find that more of just an icebreaker and it helps me understand, maybe gives me an opportunity to relate.
But I think oftentimes we ask that question, "What do you do?" and the minute we get that answer, we begin to size them up. Based on what they do, maybe put them in a little box and quickly determine whether I need to invest another 10 or 15 minutes in this relationship. Because what you do is important and if it looks like you're going to get more out of this relationship than me, then I don't think we want to go on. So what you do is important.
What you have or what you own. Again, perceptions all over, based on where I live, where I office, what I drive, those kinds of things. Based on who you know - can you get on the horn and scare up some good tickets for a sold out event?
I remember the girls, oh my, the girls were young. They had to be five and three. We had a friend who was working with the Suns and he was always good about sending tickets to Susan and me. I said, "Well listen, if you ever get a game that nobody wants to go to, I mean it's just a game, somebody's coming, it doesn't matter, and you get four tickets, let me know because the girls, I think, would love to go." They watch some games on TV, you're young, we'd like to get them involved in just watching the NBA.
So he calls one day and he says, "I've got four tickets for you, I'm just going to leave them at will call." I said, "Great." So I told the girls, "Hey listen, we're going to go to the game tonight." They said, "All right, what time is it on?" and they're still thinking TV. I said, "No, we're going to the game."
At the time, they sat around the table, that's how young they were, and they had these yellow booster chairs. So I said, "Let's take your booster chair to the game because you're not going to be able to see and you're going to need that booster chair." So we're walking in and Haley's three, so she can't carry her chair. Sarah's five, I figure she can carry hers and then Susan can carry Haley's and my hands are free in case of emergency. So we're all set.
We're moving in and I get my tickets and I really don't think much of it. I grabbed them and I don't look and I know they're downstairs, see they're down on the bottom part of the bowl and I give them to a guy and he says, "Go down here" and another guy "Go down here," another guy "Go down here." What we had - at every NBA game, the commissioner has four tickets at center court on the floor. We had four tickets front row, two on one side of center court, two on the other side. They were incredible tickets.
These girls are walking with their little booster chairs. I said, "Ah, you're not going to need those chairs." Well now that was kind of cool and you could get carried away and say, "Oh wow, I really know somebody. Look at what they've done. Look at what there is here."
Or not just what you do or what you have or who you know, but maybe what you know. If you're a PhD or you're somebody who's particularly bright or maybe educated, some cases perhaps way beyond intelligence even, but educated. So we measure it that way. That's what makes a person valuable.
Different Ways to Establish Worth
Another way we can look at this is to establish what you're worth and then we just use some common ways. Scrap value. A man years ago bought a 1964 Corvair. I don't know why, but he did. Had 7,500 miles on it. Paid $1,500 for it. I don't know much about cars, but apparently in the Corvairs, only 2% of the Corvairs had air conditioning. So a car down here without air conditioning, not a great asset. Well, he found in Kansas City a Corvair that was being scrapped, literally sold for parts, and got an air conditioner out of it. Scrap value.
Or replacement cost. We look at that. If your house burns down, what's it worth? Well, what's it going to cost to replace it? Or maybe even you in your office, in your work, what's it going to cost to replace you? And you know that. No one's irreplaceable.
Or that income multiplier, or a cap rate. We take the cash flow, and then we multiply it, try to get that number as high as we can, and find somebody from California and sell it to them. That kind of process that we do. Or market value, but somebody will pay.
Your body, my body, is 90% water. Some of you retaining that water a little more than others, but 90% water. Of the balance, you take the minerals, their worth right now, ballpark, because market values fluctuate. Right now, your remaining minerals are worth about $35. So what are you worth? About $35. Those are all ways to establish value. And that's the way the world would do it.
But how does God do this? Look at Matthew 6, you've got it in front of you. How does God value you? We are going to make some points today that I think are really simple to grasp. And then we're going to go down some roads here that got some theology attached to them, and I will acknowledge up front, we may stretch some of you at that point. That's okay. You hang in there. You listen closely. And if we lose you for a second, that's okay too, because we'll come right back and you'll catch us on the loop around.
Jesus Teaches About True Treasure
Here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, and you've got it in front of you. It's a fascinating passage of Scripture. It's contained in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, which is the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest message ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived. This is Jesus teaching.
He's been talking about how we're saved. He's been talking about coming at the beginning with what we're really worth, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who understand they're spiritually bankrupt. And now He begins to talk to us about life.
Look at verse 19. He says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures, but don't stop there. He says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures, where? On earth. Look at verse 20, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. He's not against laying up treasures. He's saying, why don't you invest them where the moth and the rust and the thieves won't get them?
Anything that I do that's building my net worth here ultimately has a drop dead date on it. It ultimately has a time at which it won't work anymore. I'm going to lose it. There's going to be moth or rust or thieves or IRS, or I'm just going to die.
Where Your Heart Is
Then He says, look at verse 21, wherever your treasure is, your heart will be. What He's really saying here is, where your heart is, that's where that treasure goes. So if you say to me, here's what's really important to me, and it's X, but I'm spending all my time, energy, and effort in Y, then you're not being straight with me.
We can see that in all sorts of relationships. You're dealing with a husband and wife, and the husband says, I love her. And she says, yeah, he says he loves me, but he doesn't, what? Show it. He doesn't show it. He doesn't show it to me. Because if he said he loved me, there'd be all sorts of evidence around it. So Jesus says, listen, that's what's going to happen in your life.
Verse 24, no one can serve two masters. Love one, hate the other, despise one, cling to the other. You can't serve God and this world. So in a sense, His question is, who's your daddy? That's what He's saying. Is it money, the world system, stuff, or is it God?
No Middle Ground
Again, I know this is not exactly where we are in this lesson, but this is really important. See what He's done here? He's taken away all middle ground. Here's what He's acknowledging. The ways of God and the ways of man are different, and they're on a collision course.
And periodically, they seem to drift along and coexist peacefully. But inevitably, they're going to come against one another. When they do, you're going to have to make a choice. Who are you going to serve? Because you can't serve two masters.
Don't Be Anxious
Then He says, look at verse 25, don't be anxious. Now, if you look closely, and again, I'm doing this from memory, and you're one of those who marks in your Bible, this is a great place to mark. Verse 25 there, He says, do not be anxious. And He says it again, I think, in verse 31, do not be anxious. And maybe then again in verse 34, do not be anxious.
What He's talking about here is don't be worrying. And then He's going on to say, don't worry about this, because God's going to take care of you. And He says, look around. Look at how God takes care of the birds. The birds aren't out there doing a bunch of planting. The birds aren't out there doing a bunch of storing. The birds are just being birds, and God's taking care of them.
Your Value to God
And then Jesus asks this question that at one point in time was almost rhetorical, but now we seem to really want to think about. He says this, look at the birds of the air, Matthew 6:26. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And the answer to that, by the way, is yes. You're more valuable than all of creation.
Now as Christians, we ought to be environmentalists in the sense that we understand that here is this magnificent creation that's very important. God created it. And in the creation of it, it speaks of God. But He also gave us this creation to enjoy. I mean, what do you do with a cow? Feed it, kill it, eat it. I don't know. Isn't that hard to figure out? And then maybe we could add to it, feed it, kill it, eat it, and then it kills you. I don't know about that part. But that's why you got a cow. That's what stuff is there for. There's that creation.
Creation Speaks of God's Power
Now what's important in the creation is that God shows in that creation His power. Romans 1, verse 20, since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine glory have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that we're without excuse.
Here's what He says. When you look around and you see creation, it speaks of God's power and His divinity. That seems so obvious to me. Doesn't that seem obvious to you? Forget all the details, because we know now we're going to argue in the details. But it just seems to me, you look around and it's like, there has to be a creator. When I'm in restaurants, especially if I'm by myself or waiting for somebody,
I'll always have a relationship, if I can, with the server. And the restaurants that I'm in, on a regular basis, I make sure I have a relationship with the server. If I'm going to be in a restaurant on a regular basis, I'm going to tip very generously. I'm going to make sure that I have a relationship with that server. They tend to be, generally, ladies. And they tend to be younger. And they tend to be people who are oftentimes open to just conversation.
I have a restaurant, I go there every Friday and then other times during the week, but every Friday morning. And I have a step, literally, when I walk in the door, I'll go and sit down and they will just bring me something to drink. They'll know what I want to drink. They'll, in the course of the day, funnel their way around and say hello. Periodically, they'll come over and just stand there. And that's when I'll know they really want to talk.
A Conversation About Design and Purpose
So I have a gal one day, she's 17, just about to be 18, graduating from high school, on her way to go back to the Midwest to study microbiology. And so I'm talking to her about just her stuff, and I said, "Well, how did you get interested in that? That sounds like a, that just sounds like a hard course, that'd even be hard to cheat in, I would think. That would just be a tough course." And so she said, "Oh, I'm fascinated by the way things are made."
I said, "Really? Tell me about that." And she said, "Well, let me give you an example, blood." So she starts to explain blood to me, and here's what the blood does, and it moves all these things, and oxygen, and all this stuff I don't know. And she goes through all of these magnificent, beautiful, intricate, complicated characteristics of the human body.
Then I said to her, "Man, that's something. I guess just that must prove that there's a God." And she said, "No, no, not necessarily." Let me give you a little lesson here. The new generation that you're dealing with does not think linear anymore. Two plus two equals 578 to them. This does not go to this, does not go to this.
And I said, "Wait a minute. I'm about to order an omelet. When you bring me that omelet, that omelet screams of a chef. The chickens come in and squat, and do these eggs, and then with a little wing, crack them, and make an omelet. The omelet demands the existence of a chef, doesn't it?" And she said, "I guess so, but I don't follow what you're saying here." What I'm saying is, look at the intricacy of the human body, and just expand it into the world we live in, and in the universe, and it says there's a God.
Your Value Above All Creation
Now here's what God says. In the midst of all of this creation, you and I are more valuable than any of that. Remember what we're talking about here? I want you to stay with me now. We're talking about your worth. We're talking about your value. God values you over the rest of creation.
Here's our second point: God has established your value by purchasing you. Now we're going to have to define this a little bit. I'll be sitting with guys, and they'll say, "So-and-so just signed a five-year, $75 million deal." And inevitably, somebody will go, "Nobody's worth that." And I will always say, "Well, somebody's worth it because they just gave it to it." There's a sense in which the value's established by what somebody will pay for it.
If I'm out and I want to buy a turkey sandwich, and I'm just moving around the valley here, I can find a turkey sandwich for three bucks to six to seven bucks. If I'm in an airport, I can get one for about $37.95. They know they got me. I walk in there, I'm in the airport, there it is, that's what they're going to get for it. What are you going to pay for it? What did God pay for you?
Understanding God's Love
Now we've got to really, you've got to hang in there now because this can get a little bit confusing. I hang periodically with a group of real pinheads who love to argue about stuff that in my mind doesn't have a whole lot of value, but it's part of what I've got to do. One of the things they like to argue about is, does God love everybody? Now you're immediately going to go, yes, but let me tell you, there's some very, very, very smart people who would say, no, God doesn't love everybody.
Here's what I think the right answer is. God loves everyone, but in a different sense. It doesn't make sense that God would say to you and me, love your enemies, and then He doesn't love His enemies. That doesn't make sense to me. But God doesn't love everyone the same.
Here you go. Fifty kids in this room, let's imagine, and I love kids. This is hypothetical, but I love kids. So you've got fifty kids in the room, and I say, I love these kids. But over here is Sarah, and over here is Haley, and I might say I love kids, but I love these two kids very differently than I love the other 48, right? Now, I would say God has this general love for everyone, but He has a special love for His people.
The Price That Establishes Your Worth
So when you're trying to figure out here, what is your worth, well, listen, you are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6:19, you were bought at a price. You're worth whatever somebody would pay. God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
When you're dealing with God's love, it is oftentimes in the form of a verb in the sense that there's action associated with it. God loved. How do we know? Because look, look at what He did. How much are you worth? God has established a value on you. He purchased you.
You, if you're a Christian, now, here we're going to hone language again. If you're a Christian, what does it mean to be a Christian? It means to come to that point in my life where I understand that I'm a sinner, my sin has separated me from God, and the only way that I can be reconciled with God is through His prescription, not mine. The only way that God and I are ever going to be on terms again, peaceable terms. The only way that I'm going to be associated with
Him and be able to call Him Father legitimately is if I understand my sin, my sin has separated me from Him, and I understand that He's made a provision for me, and it's through Jesus Christ and Christ alone. A little bit earlier in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul's writing, and he said, here's a whole list of sinners, they want to inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. You're not that anymore. You were bought at a price.
The creator God of the universe became man. He did not forfeit at all His deity. He took on humanity, like you and me in every way except sin, and He died. Why? Well, to save us.
Was There Any Other Way?
Was there any other way? I once was in a small group, and we broke up over this issue. There were a group of people that said, in the small group, there was a group of people that said, no, here's what God could have done. God could have simply forgiven us. He's God, He could do whatever He wanted to do, we offended Him, He could forgive us. That was one view.
There was another view, the right view, my view, that said, no, He couldn't do that. There was only one way. The wage of sin is death. Something has to die. Something has to pay a price. Something has to pay the penalty. It has to be, because a perfect sacrifice, and the only perfect sacrifice could be God Himself, so God becomes man, and God pays the penalty to God.
The High Price of Redemption
How high was this price? I'm going to invite you to turn to this passage, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 18. I have obviously read this verse many times. I went to two of my different Bibles, I have it all marked up, circled, I have these notes with my writing on it, and yet I have to tell you, I had absolutely lost track of this verse when I read it again the other day as though it were for the first time. I finally said, I think I have next Easter's message. So that was good. Good to get that out of the way.
Peter's writing, and again, it's not the focal point here, we're going to come back to it, but I want you to look at this, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 18: "...for you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, that you were redeemed." We're going to come back, because redeemed is what we want to focus on. Look at what you were redeemed from. The New American Standard says, redeemed from a futile way of life, NIV, from an empty way of life.
Life Without Christ is Empty
What is life without Jesus Christ? It's futile and it's empty. It'll never be fulfilling. There will never be enough. I'll never be satisfied. There'll always be something missing. That's why I'll go from girl to girl to girl, guy to guy to guy, house to house to house, car to car to car, job to job to job, thing to thing to thing, deal to deal to deal, because this is the thing.
How many times have you said this to yourself? This is the thing. If I get this done, if I can just get her, if I can just get him, if I can just get the vacation, if I can just get the kids raised, if I can just, and you fill in the blank, just then everything will be fine. And now it happens and you go, I'm empty all over again. Why? Because life apart from Christ is absolutely empty.
You were designed with a spiritual side to you that can only be fulfilled through an intimate, personal relationship with the Creator God of the universe, and that's available only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why it's so odd. Is it universal? It may not be universally spoken, but it's universal in the sense that we can look at all aspects of society and we find these frustrated people.
The Emptiness of Those Who "Have Everything"
It is always so interesting to me to get into the lives of the men and women who seem to have everything we say we need to be happy, and then to unpack it and see it exposed. I don't mean in a sinister way, I just mean revealed for what it is. To see it exposed and to see at that moment, these people are empty, they're hollow. Why? Because life is empty and futile apart from Christ.
What Are You Worth?
I want to get on the main point here. What are you worth? He pays a price to you. It is a price that could not have been higher. Let me read the entire passage here, 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."
Here's the imagery. And again, to the Jew, they would understand it perfectly. They would understand the sacrifice. They would understand the Passover. They would understand this symbolic exercise of finding this lamb without a flaw, slaying that lamb in a picture of what would happen one day when the perfect lamb would come and He would be the perfect sacrifice. So that's what John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God." What's He do? Take away sin.
We are, I don't know, a few years ago trying to recreate the Seder dinner, the Passover meal. And we decided we're going to do it authentically. So we're to the point where we're doing all the study and the reading and there's a group of people that are making the food. And I said, we want this authentic. So they come to me and they said, we got a problem. And I said, what's the problem? They said, we can't get this lamb edible. It's awful. Every way we cook it is awful.
So I said, why don't you call some of the temple synagogue around town and ask them how they prepare their lamb and I'm sure they'll share that with you. So they come back in the next day, he said, we got a problem. I said, what's the problem? They said, we called three different places and they all said the same thing. We don't use lamb anymore. We use chicken. And I said, well, behold, the chicken of God loses some of its punch here.
When Jesus dies on the cross, He is to the Father the propitiation. This is the hardest of three terms I want to give you. Propitiation is a word you'll find three or four times in Scripture. It means to satisfy the wrath, to satisfy God's wrath. When Jesus dies on the cross, He satisfies God's wrath towards sinners.
Here's another question: did Jesus die for everyone? I don't believe He did. If Jesus died for everyone, if He was the propitiation for the whole world, then the whole world would go to heaven. He died for a specific group of people. Why did He come? To save His people from their sin.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He didn't just make salvation possible. He made our salvation secure. If you're a Christian today, when Jesus died on that cross, in that blood was you. You were in that blood. He died and paid the price for your sin.
Three Terms That Define Christ's Work
Jesus Christ is the propitiation. He satisfies God's wrath towards you. God is angry. God hates sin. And this is very important: God hates sinners. God doesn't send adultery to hell, He sends adulterers. But Jesus Christ died as the propitiation of the Father.
The verse we have in front of us says He redeems. That's the business term. He redeems us. You go to a pawn shop, put an item in, get a little ticket, you come back, you redeem. It means to loosen. When I was a kid, my mom had S&H Green Stamps. We'd lick those green stamps, and when we had enough stamps in a book and wanted a toaster, we'd go to the S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center and loosen a toaster from that major corporation. We'd redeem it.
The last term is justification. Jesus dies on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. He never sinned. Second Corinthians 5 says He knew no sin, but He became sin. Not that He sinned—we were guilty of our actions—but Jesus Christ paid the penalty attached with that guilt. He's your substitute.
The Immeasurable Value of Your Soul
So how high a price was it? It could be no higher. How valuable are you, if you're a Christian? If you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, how valuable are you? The Creator God of the universe sent the most precious thing He has—His Son, God Himself—coming here, living and dying, redeeming you so that you might have everlasting life.
In fact, that's the last point: you will have eternal life. You are saved by grace, and you can't lose it. At one point in my life, raised in a very heavy religion, it didn't click for me. A lot of works were attached to it. I got some Jesus stuff, but it was always Jesus plus. Jesus died for us, but there was this stuff we had to do.
All of a sudden in 1980, when I heard the gospel for the very first time, I heard I was saved by grace. I heard there was nothing I could do to satisfy God's wrath, but God had done that Himself in Christ. All I did was respond to that. But then I heard something that really blew me away beyond that: I could never lose it.
The Security of Your Salvation
Philippians 1:6 says He who began a good work in me will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus. If you're a Christian, you're as certain of heaven as the saints that are already there. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Many of you know John Wutenberg. John's been around our studies for a long, long time. Tuesday night, John wasn't feeling well, went to the emergency room and died that morning. Think about this: last Wednesday, he's sitting in one of our studies, eating a donut. Today, based on God's testimony through His Word and John's testimony of faith, we can say with great confidence that today John is in the presence of God. That's an amazing thought.
I'm sure your mind is filled with all sorts of stuff for today. Mine is. As I'm driving up here today, I'm thinking about the new location, whether everything will work out, whether everybody will be there, whether the church will be ready. When I get done with this, I've got an 8:30 with a guy who called me—he obviously has an agenda. Then I've got a 10 o'clock, and then some other appointments. I've got a lot of stuff today, and my mind is racing around.
I'm sure your mind is racing on what you've got for today, tomorrow, and the next day. But you want something to think about to get perspective on everything? If you're truly a follower of Christ, there's this moment in time—and not very far away frankly—when you will be eating a donut one day, and you'll be in the presence of the Lord the next. It is an extraordinary thought, and it's as certain as the fact that this stand is here.
God's Sovereign Chain of Salvation
It's not based on you hanging on to Him. That gets into the whole section of Romans chapter 8: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Is that you? Are you someone who loves Him? Are you someone who's called according to His purpose? Are you a Christian? Are you a follower of His? Can everything work together for you?
Then He talks about how He secures that. Those He foreknows He predestines, and those that He predestines He calls, and those that He calls He justifies, and those that are justified are glorified. In every step along the way, every group moves through. All the people He knew intimately He predestined, all that He predestined He called.
All that He called were justified, all that are justified are glorified. And then He just asks, if God's for me, who can be against me? What can separate me from the love that God has for me? And the answer is absolutely nothing. That's the magnificent truth.
Living Differently in a "Feel Good" World
So here you go. In a world that's saying, feel good about yourself, why? Feel good about yourself.
I have a great story I hadn't planned on telling. One day, it's Thanksgiving Eve, and I'm in Tucson, and I'm speaking to this large group—fourteen, fifteen hundred people, ecumenical group, all sorts of churches. So you've got a church or two that's probably solid, and then you've got the whole community that's there as well. I'm talking along, and it's not going very well. People seem disconnected, they're not paying much attention. So I kind of move away from what I'd planned, and I start talking about this idea of feeling good.
I just heard something on the radio. I'd heard a lady that called in and said—and I don't know if I can get all this right—my daughter's on drugs, I'm strung out on drugs, I'm shacked up with a guy, and I'm divorcing my husband. And the guy receiving said, well listen, first and foremost, you have to feel good about yourself.
So I'm there that night, and this story comes to mind. I figure nobody's listening to me anyway, so I said, let me tell you what I heard on the radio today. I said, here's this gal, and then I recreate this story. So I said, what should she feel good about? That her daughter's on drugs, that her husband's leaving her, or that she's a slut? Well I hadn't planned on saying slut. There's a guy who's been dozing off in the fourth row, His head pops up, He's looking around. Who's the slut? The blonde, the redhead, the brunette?
True Reasons for Worth
Feel good about yourself, why? Feel good about yourself as a follower of Christ because we understand that God sent the perfect sacrifice. How much did He love you? He loved you so much that He sent His Son to die so you'd have eternal life. And He loves you, loved past, loves you so much that He sends His Spirit to indwell you to make certain that upon death you'll spend eternity with Him forever.
Now since that's true, we've got just one more question here. If that's true, how do you live a life that's valuable? You then live a life that's valuable based on that reality, that you're a child of God. You live distinctively. Back to what we started with. You don't lay up treasures on earth, you lay up treasures in heaven. All of a sudden you begin to see things differently. Your life begins to change.
Christianity Must Affect How We Live
See if you're a Christian, I did a message last week, last Sunday, somewhat hard hitting I think, and lit it up. I had 122 emails when I got in on Monday. Now a lot of it is for home loans and Viagra, but I had the emails. I don't need a home loan. But in the midst of this, there are people saying, you know, no one's ever talked to us like that before. And what I talked about is contentment, and my point was, if you say Jesus is Lord, it has to affect the way you live.
I got an email, and I was talking about people, and I was talking about families we're seeing that are moving away from our church, 45 minutes, severing, for practical purposes, all of those relationships, a step on a Sunday, and they're doing it for one extra bedroom. And my contention is that's foolish. I had an email from a realtor that said, I've been doing real estate for 20 years. I know exactly what you're saying. I have noticed no appreciable difference between the thought process of the material gain and the material grab between the Christian and the non-Christian.
And my point to you is that's not right. As a Christian, it ought to affect how I live. It ought to affect where I live, how I think, how I react, what kind of mate I am, if I'm married. If I'm single, how I date.
Put Off the Old, Put On the New
And it's not just what you don't do. I think some people say, here's Christianity, and here's what it is. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. It's that, for sure. If you're a Christian, you shouldn't be doing these certain things. But there's also these things that you're supposed to be doing. That's the Christian walk. Put off the old, put on the new.
None of that is done to save me. All of that is done in response to this extraordinary gift that I've received of eternal life in Christ Jesus.
The True Source of Value
So you live in this world that says, what's valuable? How do you establish value? And the world says, and we understand it, you know, what you have, what you do, who you know, what you know. Jesus comes along and says, listen, you want to see value? You ever get to the point where you say, I don't know if I'm worth much? If you're a follower of Christ, if you can get a picture in your mind of Him on the cross. How much did He love you? He died so that you'd have eternal life. Are you more important than a bird? Yeah. You're more important than all of creation.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this magnificent truth. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You for the death and the resurrection. And God, for many in this room, we periodically need to be reminded that one day we will give an account for how we live here before Your judgment seat. Father, we pray again as followers of Christ that our lives would be transformed, that we would say that we're Christians and it would be evident to those around you.
God, for those who might be here today or those who might listen to this who would say, you know what, I'm not a Christian. God, I pray they would feel the extraordinary weight of that statement. You've sent Your Son as the provision for our sin. They've said no, they'll go it on their own. And God, let them feel and sense and realize how hopeless and helpless and worthless their efforts are apart from You. But Father, for those of us who know You, those of us who've been saved not because we're better than anybody else
or because we did anything that was of value or good, but based on Your grace and mercy, You now have attached great worth to us, great value to us. We pray now that in turn we would live a life that has value. We pray that what we do, what we say, how we live, how we think would bring honor and glory to You.
Father, on this day that we gather here for a very first time, let the people at this church know how much we love them and how grateful we are for their hosting us and extending such gracious hospitality to us. Let even that be a model that we follow as we leave this place and infiltrate this world in the cause of Your gospel. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.