God Says: You Are Priceless

Scripture: Luke 6:17-26; Genesis 39:1-23; (Call to worship - Psalm 8)

Theme: Recognizing Your Worth

Title: God Says: You Are Priceless!

INTRO:

Grace and peace to everyone in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I want to talk to you this morning about recognizing your true worth. I want to talk to you about recognizing how valuable; how priceless you are to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

It is vital for us this morning that we understand our worth; our value in God's eyes. It is important because far too many people have based their self-worth on other things like:

+How other human beings treat them - what they say to them, what they say about them or how they act around them

+What accomplishments or achievements they believe that they have either attained or not attained in this life

+What house they live in or car that they are able to drive or how much money they have in their bank accounts

It is easy to get caught up into thinking that you are only worth what others say you are worth. After all that is how our world judges us. But how the world judges us and what the world says about us is not always the truth especially when it comes to what you are worth in the heart of our Heavenly Father.

As I said, it's easy to get caught up into thinking that you only as valuable as the world says you are valuable. But the world has a rather skewed view of what it considers valuable.

For example:

Some years back after Super Bowl LI was finished New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's game jersey went missing. It was suppose to be on the equipment truck but someone had been able to sneak in and steal the jersey.

Fans of the Patriots went into a panic. Mr. Robert Kraft (the owner of the Patriots) condemned the theft and publicly stated that he considered the jersey to be worth as much as a Picasso painting. Who in the world would take such a valuable jersey? Did they even know how much pain and suffering they were causing?

Things then got a little silly. Or at least from my perspective (and I am a Patriots fan) they got a little silly. A jersey that anyone can go on line and buy for around $ 120.00 swiftly took center stage. Suddenly, this used, grass stained, sweaty jersey was reported to be worth as much as $ 500,000.00.

The FBI, local Texas authorities and the NFL all began a joint investigation that spread out over the next few weeks. Hundreds of man hours were spent looking at video tape and investigating possible leads that in the end became an international incident. The person who reportedly took the jersey worked for a media firm in Mexico so the Mexican government had to enter into the investigation. Ultimately the jersey was found along with some other items and they were returned to Brady. Case solved.

I am really glad that Tom got his jersey back. But to seriously think that a stinky jersey that anyone can buy for around $ 120.00 is suddenly worth $ 500,000 is to begin to allow the world to warp your thinking. And that is what the world does. It puts high values on things that are not really that valuable.

For years the world has done that in the diamond business. Before 1938 nearly 90% of people didn't use a diamond as part of an engagement ring. While diamonds were considered valuable they were also considered unnecessary. Most people got married without an engagement ring. Wedding ring - Yes. Engagement ring - not so much.

That all began to change in 1938. One of the largest diamond suppliers determined that they would see if they could figure out a way to get more people to buy their diamonds. Since the discovery of the South African diamond mines way back in 1870 the company had accumulated a large stock pile of diamonds. They needed to find a way to sell those diamonds but at the same time they wanted very much to make a nice little profit.

In 1938, the De Beers company decided to hired Gerold Lauck and the N. W. Ayer advertising agency to see if they could create an environment in which almost every person pledging marriage would feel compelled to buy a diamond engagement ring. Mr. Ayer and his company went to work. They set about the task of trying to convince Americans that marriages without a diamond engagement ring were incomplete.

Within a few years their campaigns were a major triumph. They had successfully changed the hearts and minds of American couples and couples all over the globe. By 1942, over 55% of Americans were using diamonds as the center piece of their engagement rings.