How To Measure What You’re Worth
(Part 3, The Call)
Text: Ephesians 4:1-16
Have you ever been told what you were worth? Maybe you have been told what you were not worth. Probably came in the phrase something like, “You ain’t worth a dime!” or “You ain’t worth nothin’!” Do these sound familiar? Some of the others I have heard are a little peculiar. My favorites are the “hill of beans”, “diddley”, and “squat”. Can you tell me the last time you saw a hill of beans? What exactly does a hill of beans cost? I don’t even know what “diddley” is and “squat”…I don’t even care to find out. We are worth some crazy things to different people.
I used to play baseball a lot when I was younger. I used to play for the Expos in the Babe Ruth league as a pitcher. I had a lot of fun playing baseball, I was good at it, and my teammates looked up to me as a leader on the team.
My coach, Coach Williams, was a really, uh…interesting guy. He was our second baseman’s dad and he was something else. He had a prosthetic leg that was constantly getting nervous twitches and making him jump up and start to shake. A constant focus of imitation for certain 12 – 15 year old boys. Anyway, he used to chew tobacco, cuss like a sailor, and pray the Lord’s Prayer before every game. I was a riot to be on my team as a kid. (GET BASEBALL CAP AND GLOVE ON)
One particular game, we were warming up before the game started, y’know, taking some grounders and shaggin’ flies, turnin’ two and comin’ home. The catcher put the throw down to second and we wrapped it up as the other team took the field. We did not look our best that night, by the way. Coach Williams told us all to get behind the dugout. He came around the corner and was silent for a long time. We all knew it was coming. He looked at all of us one by one, making us acknowledge each mistake we had made on the field in our heads.
Then he asked us, “Do you know what you guys looked like out there?”
Then he proceeded to do the one thing that sticks in my mind the most about all those years playing baseball. He took his wad of tobacco out of the cheek of his mouth, dripping with saliva and looking like a regurgitated hair ball, held it between his forefinger and thumb and threw it to the ground with a sickening “thwack”.
“That’s what you looked like out there”, he shouted!
“You guys ain’t worth spit!”
He grabbed his leg and started to shake it, because stress gave him excessive nervous twitches and we about split our sides trying to hold in the laughter. We may not have been worth spit, but Coach Williams was always worth a laugh.
So the question is, “How do you measure what you’re worth?” Paul gives us a brief look at some of the things we can use to measure our lives in light of God’s Word.
You can measure your worth…
1. By showing attributes of your CALLING.
To live a life worthy of our calling means that we are not living in a way that is disappointing God.
Let’s look at each of those attributes individually.
Humility – Is it any wonder that God, through Paul, decided to put this attribute first? What would be the significance of that for us? Humility is probably the hardest thing to accomplish in today’s culture. Everywhere you go there is something else being marketed that you need to have to make your life better than Joe Public. It will make everyone jealous of you if you have it. Nobody else will ever look down on you if you can run right now to the store and pick this up. Hurry, supplies are limited! If you order now, they’ll send you an additional one for the low, low, price of $199.99, no…$99.99, no… but just $19.99! There is a definite shortage of humility in the world today. God asks us to profess our calling by showing the fruits of the life lived by one who is called by the Most High. If you are a Christian, then exhibit A should be humility. If not, do not pass go, don’t collect your $200.00, and face the issue with your Caller, Jesus Christ. Humility is a key ingredient in how we can measure our worth.
Gentleness – At this year’s convention, I was able to sit in on Mr. Glenn Bourne’s class on this very chapter. He made a statement about gentleness that I will never forget. It goes, Gentleness is Power under control. Christ on the cross is the ultimate example of gentleness. Being taunted with ridicule and laughed at for his humility, He was dared to come down off the cross and prove His worth to those few by saving himself. In his humility and through his gentleness, Christ portrayed the most of his Power by His willingness to stay on that cross for you and I. Gentleness is Power under control.
Patience – Has your patience been tested already today? Every Sunday when I get long-winded, I test yours. Am I right? (Church is only until 11:30. 11:31 is buffet time.) And, every time you complain about how long the service goes, you test God’s. So we’re even. Just kidding, but our buttons get pushed every once in a while. It is no small task to become a person of patience. We are tested every day. God allows this testing so that we will be able to, not only become patient, but build perseverance as well. James 5:7-11 says that we must be patient. Let’s read it together. Write this verse down and remember it when someone says that God tells us that Christians are to have this life of plenty and wealth, nothing ever goes wrong with them and if it does then their faith was weak. That’s a very dangerous place to put God. We should be wary of those who say God is like that, when His word specifically warns us of the complete opposite, and how to overcome the trials you WILL face. Patience cannot be learned in times of plenty or when everything goes your way. Neither can perseverance be earned out of this kind of life. But, in spite of hardship, we find an incredible peace in our Lord because of the strength we find in Him in those times of difficulty. It is in Christ where we find JOY in the midst of learning patience and the developing of our perseverance. This is a strong measure of your worth by the weight (wait) of your patience.
Bearing with each other in love – Sometimes, it feels more like a bear than it feels like love, doesn’t it? When was the last time your love for your spouse was like bear on your back? Probably for you guys, it was this morning when she wasn’t ready to go on time. And for you ladies, it was when you were late to get to the car because he wouldn’t help get anything for you. Well, maybe that’s just me. (Love ya, honey!) But, love can be a very hard pill to swallow. When that honeymoon period wears off you’re faced with the brutal reality of real life. She doesn’t always have make-up on and he doesn’t always smell so nice. That sound he makes when he eats gets on your nerves after a while. And the way she snores when she really is having a good night’s sleep is just unbearable. But, that’s exactly the kind of “bearing” Paul is talking about here in verse 2. We have to bear with one another in love.
These attributes of our calling: Humility, Gentleness, Patience, and Love-Bearing, are essential to the Christian life as measures of our worth. We can hold each other accountable to the Word by these attributes of our calling. Another way to measure our worth is by how well we keep a bond of peace.
2. By keeping a BOND OF PEACE through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is our Guide, Comfort, and Intercessor. We can trust the Holy Spirit!
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can’t you guys get organized like that?"
In the same way unity can be something that is much harder to obtain than illustrated with Lucy. There can be union without unity: tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline. By the way, don’t try that to see if it works, just take my word for it. Sometimes it gets this way in church. As small a church as we are right now, you would think that unity wouldn’t be a problem. But, simple things like the placement of the flowers gets some of us all riled up. That’s not unity of the Spirit. The church can, no it WILL, be an unstoppable force if we are united in one Spirit with a bond of peace.
Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.
A.W. Tozer asked this question in light of the unity we should have if our focus is in the right place. “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ’unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
How true of us could that statement be if we were all looking to exalt Christ without pretence or selfishness? Issues, like change, flowers, pew arrangement, the color of the carpet, music style, evangelistic approach, etc., etc., become non-issues when our focus is Christ and His desire for His church.
Our doctrine is not going to fail because it is God’s, but our unities in the church will if we let things like tradition and personal taste break the bond of peace that the Holy Spirit was sent to keep in God’s church.
A third way we can measure our worth is by watching how much we are growing in our walk with the Lord.
3. By watching our GROWTH in the Lord
It is not Godly to remain childlike in our faith. We have a responsibility to grow spiritually.
Let’s look at verse 11-13 again in our text. (READ) We must become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Say it with me. (Repeat)
Have you ever been to a big aquarium, like at Sea World or something? One of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium. I think this is true for several other reptiles as well. But, sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of around eight feet. That also happens to some Christians. I’ve seen some of the cutest little six-inch Christians who swim around in a little puddle. But if we will step out of our little comfort zones and walk out into the great big ocean of ministry around us, only then can we become great. God has so much work for each of us, yet we confine ourselves because we refuse to mature in the Word, in our walk, and in our ministry. Stop missing church! I mean it, Stop missing the meeting times that the church plans. Nothing should be more important than growing in Christ. I say that with the authority of God’s Word, not my own. Some of you look at me and say, “Who is young little punk to tell me what I should be doing with my time?” Hebrews 11:25 tells me so. In the end it’s not me you have to settle with. I may be only 27 years old and still growing in Christ like you, but when I hear God telling me that I need continue to grow up, I understand that I am supposed to listen. And, I am supposed to share that understanding with you, as my brothers and sisters in Christ. I say this not because I want to make you feel inadequate or unworthy in any way, but so that you will know the level of adequacy and worth you should attain. We must become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I do this because I love His church. I love you as my fellow siblings. We have a great Father. God has in store for you something great. It is our responsibility to leave the nest and find it. Don’t miss church. You are worth something here, because God says so. Your growth happens here because God says so. You are able to do anything through Christ who strengthens you because God says so. We are to measure our worth by our growth in Christ because God says so. We are not to miss meeting together because God says so. We are here to grow and build each other up in love because God says so.
(SAY IT WITH AUDIENCE)
“I am worth something to the Lord, but I can be worth more.”
We measure our worth these three ways: by showing attributes of our CALLING, by keeping unity through a BOND OF PEACE, and by watching our GROWTH in the Lord.
Conclusion: We GROW and BUILD ourselves up in love.
Who gives us the power to breathe; the power to work; to talk, to love, to grow? Is it someone or something that we never will be able to touch, feel, or hear? No, our God is very real and personal to us even today. He remains that way through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we don’t make an effort to acknowledge the Holy Spirit or use Him in our lives to measure our walk with Christ, we will miss the most important ingredient to our spiritual growth. God wants each of us to grow into mature Christian people, able to discern His will for our lives, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can accomplish this through doing the things Paul instructed the church in Ephesus to do. Keep in mind that there is no set pattern for growth for each person, as we all have different weaknesses and areas that we need improvement. But, the Holy Spirit in your life, active and alive, will be able to help you discern the growth pattern God is waiting to direct you in. If you want to have the Holy Spirit available to you through baptism into Christ so you may attain the kind of stature and growth God desires from His children, come.
