Sermon Central
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Becoming More Valuable
Contributed by Mark Roper on Nov 28, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Our soul is valuable because of the cost it took to redeem it.
Becoming more Valuable
1 Cor 6:20 KJV
What is our Value?
A Body: Only a few dollars in chemicals.
A Soul: Our soul is the most valuable possession one has.
What could equal its value?
In a chapel in Southern France, the great Emperor Charlemagne is buried. In that chapel is a large dome and in the center of that dome is where the body of Charlemagne is placed. It is not unusual that his body is buried in a prominent place. However, the manner of his burial is. He’s seated on a marble chair and wrapped in his emperor’s robes. In his lap is a copy of the N.T., and his finger is pointing to a verse. It is Matt. 16:26.
Mt 16:26 - "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
WHY IS ONE’S SOUL VALUABLE?
1. Because it is made in the image of God. Gen. 1:26-27
2. The soul is eternal, its existence is not terminated when the body is laid to rest.
3. The soul is valuable because of the cost it took to redeem it.
1 Cor 6:20 KJV
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
4. God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us.
I. God loves you because you are his creation!
II. God loves you because he wants you to know him!
III. God loves you because you need him!
God loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way.
God’s gift is free
In the world in which we live we always think of the price of things.
We look at a car, and we admire its features, but the price stands in the way of having it as our own.
We look at a new home, and we would love to live in it, but again, it is beyond our reach if the price is too high. We go into a jewelry store and see the exhibited diamonds and we would like an expensive one to show our love to a special person, but again, the price stands in the way.
The amazing thing about God is that He places the greatest fulfillment of our need at no price at all. However, we are likely to not appreciate the greatness of the gift, just because it is free.
What do we Value?
23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
That All Depends
A young couple in California remodeled their home, installed a swimming pool, and settled in to enjoy their $70,000 investment. A few weeks later that same couple stared in disbelief at the big white sign posted on a porch pillar of their house: “Notice, this building has been inspected and … is hereby declared unfit for human occupancy.”
The house stood erect. It had no holes in the walls or in the foundations. It looked neat and attractive; yet the lack of running water had reduced the desirable property to a condemned wreck. One Thanksgiving Day the well supplying the development went dry and faucets in the area sputtered only air and sand into sinks.
How conditions change—and change values along with them. In this case, a lifetime investment was threatened because a well failed. What we possess may now have value because circumstances permit or favor it.
But will it have value if circumstances change?
Can the loss of health imperil it?
Or a financial reverse?
Or a natural catastrophe?
Or death?
God wants to give us values that remain unshaken, whatever circumstances we face. He chooses to grant possessions that no cold, warmth, stock market crash, business failure, personal crisis, or death can disrupt or devalue. He will give them if we seek them in Christ.
Christ declares that where one’s treasure is there the heart will be also. We cannot at the same time serve God and Mammon. Many times, without intending it, the Christian loses the sweetest treasure of his spiritual life by being drawn away by the things of the world.
A young lady in Kansas City lost the gold ring which had been given to her by her husband at the time they became engaged. She advertised for the trinket, and offered rewards greatly in excess of its value, but with no result. Some time after another lady went into a store and commenced to try on kid gloves. Her surprise may be imagined when, in removing a glove from her hand, she found a strange gold ring upon one of her fingers. The ring was engraved "From Willis to Emma," and was at once recognized as the one lost by her friend, who had been trying on gloves in the same store, and left the ring in the glove when withdrawing her hand.
