What Are You Worth?
Luke 12:6-7
November 25, 2007
New Hope Community Chapel
Goal: Changed Lives. Change from seeing oneself or others as low or no value to high value in God’s eyes.
Main Point: What is the one thing I want my audience to know? You are valuable to God.
Application: What do I want them to do about it? Treat themselves and others as objects of great worth.
Introduction:
This past Tuesday I went to a farm machinery auction.
I’ve always enjoyed a good auction – even though I’m not in the market for a combine I really enjoy seeing what things are selling for.
I like to know what it might cost to buy a little tractor and a plow and a planter, sprayer, wagon etc. just in case I ever get to follow my dream to be a hobby farmer.
You know, at an auction the higher priced – greater demand items usually sell last.
That’s the same at a farm auction or a household auction.
The practically new solid oak bedroom set sells last.
The particle board kids’ bunk bed sells a little earlier.
The knick knacks and Tupperware sells first.
At a farm auction the hand tools and buckets of bolts sell first.
The almost new tractor sells last because it has the most value and if it sold first, those who came to bid on it would leave and the rest of the little stuff would never sell.
I like to watch the bidders become emotionally charged as they play a game of chess with their opponent.
Occasionally, you can get a really good deal at an auction.
I have bought all kinds of things like extension chords, garden hoses, boxes of cleaning supplies, tools, furniture, appliances, etc. that are as good as new at bargain prices.
But once in a while you will see an item up for bids that draws no one’s money.
Sometimes an item won’t even fetch a quarter.
That was the case with several items this past week.
The auctioneer tried his best to get a $1 bid but when it was to no avail, he would conclude, “Let’s move on… it has no value.”
“No value.” I was intrigued by those words…
What he really meant was that no one who was present and paying attention at the moment was willing to pay even a dollar for the item.
An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
You can say it has been appraised at $____, but if no one is willing to pay that price for it, then it isn’t worth it.
It can also work the other way, you can say, “It has a book value of $____, but if 2 people get a notion that they have to be the next owner of it, it may be worth a whole lot more.
Most things can have a monetary value attached to them.
The house you live in has worth and a dollar value associated with it.
It’s worth what you pay in rent or what you pay the bank in mortgage payments each month.
The car you drove to church today has worth – it’s worth a lot less than you paid for it and probably less than you owe if you borrowed money to buy it.
This church has value.
There is a building and furnishings, land, etc. all of which has value.
Even the members have value – especially to one another. (not necessarily monetary)
But what am I worth?
The Problem:
What are you worth?
Well, to your banker you are worth the sum total of your income and assets minus your liabilities.
That’s kind of scary.
Don’t go to your banker for an assessment of your worth if you have a fragile esteem.
I like to think of wealth, not by how much I can accumulate, but in terms of how much I can give away.
But J.H. Jowett said, “The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.”
To your employer you are worth what you can produce in profit for him.
Some of you may have allowed a low value to be placed upon you.
Perhaps because of life circumstances you feel like you have a low worth.
You may say, “I don’t like the way I look, so I have a low value.”
I can’t sing, or do this or that…
You may think, “I have done so many bad or evil things in my life that I have no value any more.”
Maybe you don’t have the education that you had hoped to attain, or the position at work that you thought you would have at this stage in life.
If you have been victimized at any time in your life you may feel like you are worthless.
Sometimes it’s not a matter of life circumstances; sometimes it’s a matter of the choices we make.
Perhaps you have struggled with a life controlling or addictive habit and you haven’t been able to get freedom from it – and because of that you feel like you have a low value.
Maybe you have been caught up in sexual immorality and now, you feel as though you have cheapened yourself.
What is your value?
What would someone be willing to pay for you?
You say, pastor, are you suggesting that I sell myself as a slave?
Not exactly.
What is the value of the people you work with?
“Some of them are paid more than they’re worth.”
What is the value of your next door neighbor?
Maybe you think they’d be worth more if they raked their lawn of silenced their barking dog!
What is the value of the poor people in our community?
What is the value of a homeless people in the inner cities of America, or a starving child on the other side of the world?
What’s the value of the person who steals your parking spot at the mall or cuts in front of you at the checkout?
What’s the value of the Islamic terrorist named Osama Bin Laden?
The Solution:
You may be surprised to hear me say that all of these people are of great and equal worth.
You see, a long time ago there was an auction held and the item up for bids was your life.
There were only two bidders present at the auction – God and Satan.
Satan would love to have owned you.
He offered everything he had to have possession of your soul.
He schemed and cheated, he devised a plan to take you with him.
But it wasn’t enough.
To God, you had even more worth than that.
Jesus taught us in
Luke 12:6-7
"What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows. NLT
God says you have great value to Him.
“I have great value to God.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. NLT
You say, “At what price did He buy me?”
At the price of the blood of His perfect Son, Jesus – that’s the price,
He was willing to pay with the blood of His Son for you.
He didn’t make an error when He made you.
God doesn’t make mistakes and he doesn’t make junk.
The Bible tells us that on the 6th day of creation
Genesis 1:31
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way. This all happened on the sixth day. NLT
If you think you are less than excellent in God’s sight – tell me when did He stop making excellence?
God never stopped doing excellent work.
It would be a violation of who He is!
And even though you think you are less than perfect He was willing to pay the blood of His Son for you.
You may say, well, I was born illegitimately, unplanned, I was a surprise.
Well, you may have been a surprise to your mother and father, but you were no surprise to God.
He doesn’t get taken by surprise.
He knows everything before it ever happens.
And just because it may have happened outside of the order that He prefers, doesn’t mean you have any less value to Him.
He was willing to pay the blood of His Son for you.
He knew you before you were born and He planned you for a purpose.
Psalms 139:16
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. NLT
The Application:
You are valuable to God.
I can state that without fear of exaggeration.
His Word makes it clear that He willing bought and paid for you.
As I said before, a thing is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.
God was willing to give His Son and Jesus was willing to give His blood – that is what you are worth.
So What?
So don’t think of yourself as worthless.
Think of yourself as worth the blood of Jesus.
Think of yourself for what you are really worth.
You are worth more than a paycheck at then end of the pay period,
You are worth more than the stuff piled in your house or garage.
You are worth more than what society says you are worth; more than your education or abilities.
You are worth the blood of the Son – if you are not, then you were a bad investment and I don’t believe God makes those.
Now What?
Since you are worth the blood of the Son to the Father, what are you worth to me? The blood of the Son
And what am I worth to you? The blood of the Son
Then how should we treat one another?
Just as we would treat Jesus himself.
What is the person on your left or right worth? The blood of the Son
And your spouse? Neighbor? Co-worker? A Stranger? The blood of the Son
This week, think of every person you come into contact with as being worth the blood of Jesus Christ because that is exactly what He paid for them.
The Vision:
What would the church be like if every follower of Christ would see each other for what we were really worth?
You see, in God’s economy, one is not worth more than the other.
They are all equal.
What would the church be like if we would all see each other as equal value – and that value was the blood of Jesus?
We would love spending time with one another – if we saw each other’s value as that of the blood of the Savior.
We would stop all fighting and back biting; there would be no gossip, because to do so would be known as a slight against the blood that purchased the other.
The lost people in our community would be drawn to us and to a relationship with Christ.
What would your home look like, dad, if you didn’t demand respect, but you modeled it instead, because every person in your house is worth the blood of Jesus?
Imagine a world where Christians led the charge of people treating one another as though they are worth the price that has been paid for them.
Invitation:
I wonder if there is anyone here today who feels like you are worthless.
You have been instructed and taught from the Word that that is not true, but sometimes you need a real miracle – a healing.
I really want to invite you to come for prayer, but I understand as well how difficult that may be.
So I leave it up to you… You can come, or you can slip up a hand.
Either way, we won’t embarrass you.
We want to pray with you.
Also, maybe you are for the first time today hearing that you have worth – that you are worth the blood of Jesus.
I want to invite you to have a relationship with the God who gave His Son for you.
He wants you to know Him.
He wants to forgive you for your sin and start a real relationship with you.
Will you accept Him today?
Communion:
In a moment we are going to receive the Lord’s Supper together.
We invite everyone who has a relationship with Jesus to participate regardless of church affiliation.
And then I reminded the congregation that their healing and restoration to the Body was worth the price of His broken body. Our salvation was purchased at the price of His spilled blood.
