OPEN: Several years ago, the Country Gazette in Franklin, Massachusetts had this listing in its classified section: “Unknown item for sale. We know it’s valuable; we don’t know what it is. If you can identify it, we’ll sell it for $250.”
APPLY: Now isn’t that interesting? They had no idea what this thing was. But they knew - somehow - that it had value. AND they realized that (only someone who knew what it was) would understand how valuable it truly was.
YOU AND I HAVE VALUE. The world may not know what kind of value we have … but that is because – only the one who created us really knows what we’re worth.
David hinted at this in Psalms 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
I. The Bible repeatedly declares that every individual on earth has value
Every person that has ever been born has been born with the potential to do great things.
God has created each one of us with the ability to change the world we live in.
That’s what God told Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” - Jeremiah 1:5
BUT, in our culture, there are those who don’t believe we are created with any inherent potential. They try to convince us that we don’t even start become valuable… we don’t even start to become truly human until we are born
Up until that time, a child is called a “fetus.” It’s considered to be a collection of tissue that can be tossed aside if it inconvenient because it doesn’t have the quality of being truly human.
ILLUS: However, according to a report I read last year (2003), science has begun to challenge that presumption. New scanning techniques known as 3D and 4D scanning have revealed amazing pictures of babies inside the womb.
These pictures offer new insight into an unborn child’s behavior. The techniques have captured images of “fetuses” yawning, blinking, and sucking their fingers. They even seem to smile and cry, and move their limbs at very young ages. (www.sky.com/skynews, September 12, 2003)
ILLUS: Photographer Michael Clancy – was once “pro-choice” advocate, but he quickly changed over to being pro-life when he filmed the operation of 14 week old “fetus” – named Samuel Armas.
Samuel was being operated on in his mother’s womb to correct a condition known as spina bifida. But just as the doctor was closing the womb, the little child’s hand reached out and grabbed the doctor’s finger.
Clancy said that it was this action by a 14 week old “fetus” that made him realize that this was indeed a child. (Chuck Colson, on Breakpoint 4/2000)
Pro-abortion advocates have gone even further than just saying the fetus is a mass of inhuman tissue. They’ve argued that if a child faces the potential of deformity or social misfortune then parents should seriously consider aborting a child. If the child has the prospect of growing up physically or socially impaired, abortion rights advocates would point out that these factors as good reasons for a “fetus”… to be torn from the womb.
They reason: Such a child would have no chance to have a “good life.” Such a child would have no true value in this world.
ILLUS: One person has put together a series of examples of how this thinking would play out
Case #1: There’s a preacher and his wife who are very, very poor. They already have 14 children and now she finds out that she’s pregnant with the 15th. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending an abortion?
Ø This child grew up to be John Wesley, one of the great evangelists of the 19th century
Case #2: The father is sick with a bad cold, the mother has tuberculosis (TB). They have four children. The first is blind, second is dead, third is deaf, fourth has TB. She finds that she’s pregnant again. Given their extreme situation, would you consider recommending an abortion?
Ø This mother’s 5th child was named Ludwig van/ Beethoven
Case #3: A white man has raped a 13-year old black girl, and she became pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending an abortion?
Ø The child of this raped black girl became a great black gospel singer named Ethel Waters. She was often a featured performer for Billy Graham.
Case #4: A teenage girl is pregnant. She’s not married. Her fiancée’ is not the father of the baby, and he’s concerned. Would you consider recommending an abortion?
Ø You might recognize this child as the son of Mary from Nazareth… Jesus Christ
The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that…
Every child has value
Every child has potential
Every child is created in the image of God and is filled with possibilities.
ILLUS: There’s an old song I used to sing with my youth group that went this way:
I am a promise, I am a possibility
I am a promise, with a capital “P”
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And if I listen I can hear God’s voice
And if I’m trying He’ll help me make the right choice
Cause I’m a promise to be anything God wants me to be.
II. Every child that is born has the potential to do great things for God.
God tells us that when we become Christians, we become “… God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
How soon does God prepare those "good works" for us to do? Paul wrote - that these “good works” that God had prepared in advance for him to do were planned from his very birth: “… when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” Galatians 1:15-16
The Bible repeatedly tells us… we’ve been born with potential. This is an uncontestable reality.
(…pause…)
BUT… from the day of our birth until this point in our lives, the question is not: do you and I have potential.
The question is – do we believe we have that potential? Do we believe we have that kind of value?
ILLUS: Norman Vincent Peale wrote that “Once - walking through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong - I came upon a tattoo studio. In the window were displayed samples of the tattoos available. On the chest or arms you could have tattooed an anchor or flag or mermaid or whatever. But what struck me with force were three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh, Born to lose.
“I entered the shop in astonishment and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese artist, ‘Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, Born to lose, tattooed on his body?’
“He replied, ‘Yes, sometimes.’
‘But,’ I said, ‘I just can’t believe — that anyone in his right mind would do that.’
“The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and in broken English said,
“Before tattoo on body, tattoo on mind.’” (Power of the Plus Factor by Norman Vincent Peale)
· That was the mindset that Jeremiah struggled with.
God tells him: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
And, how does Jeremiah respond?
"Ah… I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." Jeremiah 1:6
In other words… sorry God, I don’t have the potential to be used by you. In fact, I was thinking of going down to this tattoo parlor and having a tattoo put on my chest…
III. Jeremiah suffered from a condition I call “spiritual near-sightedness”
ILLUS: You know what near-sightedness is don’t you? I’m near sighted. Usually, I wear contacts, but this morning I wore my glasses up in the pulpit. Without my glasses on, I can only see about so far (hold hand out from face about 2 ft.). When I don’t have my glasses on, everything becomes blurry and out of focus. As I look out upon you this morning, without my glasses you look like blobs of human tissue.
People who suffer from SPIRITUAL near-sightedness can only see so far. They can only see what is in their immediate area. God is out of focus. His power is blurred for them. And, as a result… they can only see their own abilities, their own strengths and their own weaknesses.
They’ll see problems or needs… but they’ll say:
· I can’t do anything
· I’m too uneducated
· I’m too poor
· I’m too untalented
Just like Jeremiah we say to our God - I’m but a child in my spirituality and I can’t do much.
But God responds: Quit looking at this as if it all depends upon you!
Look with me to Jeremiah 1:7-9 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.
ILLUS: Wishing to encourage her young son’s progress on the piano, a mother took the small boy to a Paderewski concert. After they were seated, the mother spotted a friend in the audience and walked down the aisle to greet her.
Seizing the opportunity to explore the wonders of the concert hall, the little boy rose and eventually explored his way through a door marked "NO ADMITTANCE."
When the house lights dimmed and the concert was about to begin, the mother returned to her seat and discovered that her son was missing.
Suddenly, the curtains parted and spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway on stage. In horror, the mother saw her little boy sitting at the keyboard, innocently picking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
At that moment, the great piano master made his entrance, quickly moved to the piano, and whispered in the boy’s ear, "Don’t quit ... keep playing!!" Then leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around to the other side of the child, and he added a running obligatio. Together, the old master and the young novice transformed a frightening situation into a wonderfully creative experience.
God was telling Jeremiah… you don’t have to do this on your own.
I am with you.
I will strengthen you.
I will protect you.
I’ll never leave you.
I’ll never forsake you.
On our own nothing is sure. Nothing is certain.
But Jesus said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Luke 18:27
What God was basically telling Jeremiah was this:
"You have value. You have potential… because I (God) give it to you.
I formed you for a purpose, and IF I (God) formed you for that purpose then I’ll give you the strength to fulfill your task.
Peter recognized this when he wrote: “… If anyone serves, he should do it WITH THE STRENGTH GOD PROVIDES, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ... 1 Peter 4:11
The cure for spiritual near-sightedness is corrective lenses. Spiritual glasses that focus on God and see what He is capable of providing
IV. Lastly, if God has a goal/objective for my life… how can I fulfill it?
How can I be the type of man or woman that God created me to be?
ANSWER: You prepare yourself.
Just like Dave who gave our communion meditation this morning, or Barb who told us about the Mexican ministry of Garnet Calzedo. They prepared themselves so that they could minister to you this morning by sharing the goodness of God and the example of great Christians.
How, then, do we prepare ourselves to be used by God?
Paul wrote Timothy and said: In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, HE WILL BE AN INSTRUMENT FOR NOBLE PURPOSES, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21
So, if we want to be used for God in a noble and holy purpose we need to prepare ourselves by cleansing ourselves. We need to cleanse ourselves of
o worldly ways of talking
o and worldly ways of treating others around us
o and worldly ways of thinking
In short we need to cleanse ourselves of sin. And we start that cleansing with becoming God’s children
Admitting that we are sinners
Accepting that Jesus can cleanse us of our sin
Deciding that we don’t want to live like that anymore
And that we want Jesus to have total control of our lives
And then allowing ourselves to be buried with Jesus in the waters of Christian baptism
Until we allow ourselves to do this with our lives we’re still like the people that had that unknown object. They knew it was valuable, but they realized that it had no value to them. It’s value was only realized by the one who knew what it was.
So also, you have value but that value can only be fully realized by the ONE who truly knows who you are. Your creator, your savior, Jesus Christ.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
· Formed For A Purpose - Jeremiah 1:4-1:10
· Accept No Substitutes - Jeremiah 2:4-2:13
· The Smell of Sin - Jeremiah 5:20-5:25
· If I’ve Got It Why Can’t I Flaunt It? - Jeremiah 9:23-9:24
· The Effect Of Judgment - Jeremiah 10:17-10:25
· Time To Decide - Jeremiah 15:15-15:21
· Planning For The Future. - Jeremiah 29:8-29:14
· A New Hope - Jeremiah 31:31-31:35
· Knowing God’s Phone Number - Jeremiah 33:1-33:3
· You Can’t Tell Some People Anything - Jeremiah 44:1-44:30
