Are We Worth It!
Jesus, His Encounters (7)
I Am Jesus – Message 35
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God. – 1 Peter 1:18-21
Good morning… I want to start off our time together today with a little pop quiz. When I was in school I just loved pop quizzes, didn’t you? QUESTION - how many here loved and did rather well on pop quizzes? How many hated them? How many freak out & froze up whenever those 2 words were spoken? BUT HEY – don’t worry, I think you’ll do pretty good on this one…
OKAY – on this table I have several items arranged in groups of two… Now the items in each group are kind of the same but at the same time they are different. AND – what I am going to do is to show you each group one at a time and then ask you to write down in your notes the item that is the most valuable, that is worth the most… Does that make sense? AND – if it doesn’t, don’t worry because you will quickly see where I am going once we get started.… NOW – as with all pop quizzes there are 2 rules, # 1 - don’t call out the answer and #2 - don’t look at your neighbors paper…
Item #1 Item #2
One dollar bill One hundred dollar bill
Penny Dime
Plastic ring Diamond ring
Can of Spam T-Bone steak
My car key Ms Laurie’s car key
Mellow Yellow Mountain Dew
Mirror (you) Cross
OKAY – now let’s grade our quizzes… If you said that item #2 was worth the most in each group give yourself a 100… AND – for those who wish to debate the Mellow Yellow – Mountain Dew question… or the Spam – T Bone question. I’ll be glad to talk to you after class…
THIS MORNING – as we continue taking a look at the people that Jesus met we are going to discover a truth that if we get it… WILL – radically and completely change our lives forever. GUYS – I am so not kidding here… [Tim, Laurie…]; IF – you believe… IF – you embrace… IF – you take to heart the truth that this 7th encounter of Jesus will reveal… YOU WILL – experience; more joy, more peace, more contentment, more fulfillment, more confidence and less fear… THEN – you could ever imagine.
TODAY’S – message is called, “Are We Worth It?” QUESTION – have you ever wondered about or doubted your worth?
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
- Luke 23:32-43
Prayer…
(From Max Lucado…)
Several years ago a couple of guys broke into a department store in a large city. They successfully entered the store, stayed long enough to do what they came to do, and then escaped unnoticed. NOW - what is unusual about the story is what these guys did. They took nothing. Absolutely nothing. No merchandise was stolen. No items removed. But what they did do was crazy.
DO – you know what they did…? INSTEAD – of stealing anything, they changed the cost of everything. Price tags were swapped. Values were exchanged. These guys took the tag off a $395 camera and stuck it on a $5 book of stationary. They took the $5.95 sticker off a paperback book and stuck it on an outboard motor. They went around and repriced just about everything in the store…
NOW – the next day the store opened as usual. I MEAN – all the employees showed up for work and the customers began to shop. AND – for 4 hours no one working at the store noticed that anything was wrong… Four hours! (NOW – I bet they did some basic common sense training after that…) YES – during those 4 hours some people got incredible deals and others were ripped off big time… THOUGH - it’s hard to believe that this actually happened, it did…
YES - the value of things… what things are worth, really got messed up in that store… AND – do you know what, if this messed up value system was limited simply only to retail stores it would not be so bad… BUT – the truth is like in that department store, someone has snuck into our world (into the human race)… stayed long enough to accomplish what they came to do and left unnoticed.
AND – what they came to do was to switch the price tags on the value and worth of people, such that the definition of worth, of value, of being significant is all messed up… YES – there is no debate the enemy has successfully created a value system that causes most people to look in the mirror and see SPAM rather than T-Bone steak made in the image of Almighty God.
NEVERTHELESS - I am convinced that everyone here, wants to be significant… YOU want, who YOU are and what YOU do, to count, YOU want YOUR life to matter, YOU want to be important (at least at some level…) I MEAN – think about the dreams you had when you were small, think about the things you fantasized about & pretended to be… Most boys dreamed of being a hero; of hitting winning homeruns, of scoring winning touchdowns, of flying in space, of winning gold medals, of leading their platoon to victory…of being the President…stuff like that.
NO ONE – desires to be insignificant - no one wants to feel like their life doesn’t count… No one sets as their goal in life, to feel like they don’t matter… BUT UNDERSTAND – if we use the world’s standards, very few of us, will ever measure up, AND even if we do, we won’t measure up for long.
FOR YOU SEE, BEING SIGNIFICANT in this day & time, is like climbing a greasy pole – EVEN – if you happen to make it to the top – you won’t stay up there for long. AND - before you know it, you’ll slide right back down to the bottom, to the valley obscurity… QUESTION – what makes someone or something significant in our day and time?
On Friday morning, I went over to Kroger – and I walked past the magazine rack… There were more magazines than I cared to count… NOW - I imagine if many years from now a historian was to come across these magazines, they would conclude that people whose faces were on the cover were significant people, important people – people whose lives mattered …
AND - as a scanned the covers; I saw such faces as; Jennifer Aston, Rene Zellweger, Paris Hilton (she was on a bunch), George Clooney, Brittany Spears, Oprah, Jessica Simpson, Tom Cruise, Mike Vick, Ladainian Tomlinson, Orlando Bloom, Mic Jagger… A saw a guy on the cover of Luxury Living (Matt Jones) I had no idea who he was (so I flip through the magazine… former QB for the Arkansas Razorbacks who is now making 11 million to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars)… IN FACT – I saw a lot of people that I had no idea who they were… and some I think were on the cover just because they looked good.
I am holding in my hand week’s People Magazine.. AND - I imagine that if you have you picture on the cover of People magazine or if they put an article about you somewhere in here….you must be pretty significant. (Briefly thumb through the magazine… by the way I don’t any of you guys are in here)
OKAY - BACK to our question – what makes someone significant? Well according to the standards of this time & culture… ACCORDING - to the new pricing system created by our enemy (the evil one) you are significant;
IF – you have a lot of money (@ least a million – but a 100 million would be better…)
IF -- you have a huge house
IF -- you are physically attractive, And…
IF – you are able to do what society deems as important like; hit a baseball, throw a touchdown pass, slam dunk a basketball, star on the big screen, or perform before 1,000’s in a concert hall…
QUESTION – do you feel valuable? Not just when you are in this room… BUT – do you feel valuable; Monday morning? Wednesday afternoon? Friday night? DO – you feel valuable; at home? at work? At school? AND – if you don’t feel valuable, why don’t you? IS IT BECAUSE;
• You don’t have enough money
• You don’t have the right career
• You’re not good looking enough
• You’re not smart enough
I love what Steve Arterburn writes in his book, “More Jesus Less Religion”
Too often we base our self-worth on what the world views as valuable. The world thinks that money is a barometer of value, and if we do not have it in great amounts we feel bad about ourselves. Physical beauty has almost become a religion unto itself, and those without it feel no value in a society that judges by the looks on the outside. In this age of technology, IQ is often used to determine who is to be esteemed and who is to be shown the basement.
It is difficult for most of us to measure up. And the more we focus on the world’s standards and values, the more negative we feel about ourselves.
YES – our world has a; twisted, perverted, up-side down view on what is valuable & important… AND LISTEN – this messed up value system is not without effect…
IT - causes us;
• To live a lie
• To pursue
• To pretend
• It causes us to miss or forget what it is, that really gives us value
UNDERSTAND - it’s not;
• What we do
• How much we have
• How well we perform
• Or how good we look
THAT – determines our worth, or our value… AND – the encounter that Jesus had while nailed to that blood stained cross 2,000 years ago reveals the source of our true value and lasting worth.
NOW – we don’t know all that much about Him… ALL – we know is that he was a thief. What he had stolen or how long he had been stealing we don’t know. WE don’t know why he became a thief. Was it because his Father walked out on him before he was born and he grew up poor? Did he only steal from the Romans because somehow he felt justified in taking from them, because of their occupation and cruel oppression of his people? Did he steal out of need or did he steal out of greed?
NO – there is a lot we don’t know about this guy… BUT – what we do know is that one day he; got caught, got busted, had a trial (the jury found Him guilty)… AND - on a Friday 2,000 years ago he found himself on cross right next to the Son of God. I like how one author words it;
If anyone was ever worthless, this one was. If any man ever deserved dying, this man did. If any fellow was ever a loser, this fellow was at the top of the list. Perhaps that is why Jesus chose him to show us what he thinks of the human race.
QUESTION – just what does Jesus think of the human race? What does he think of you [Tim…]? AND – not just when things are great and you are doing good… BUT – have you ever wondered what Jesus thinks of you; when like the thief on the cross have been; caught, busted, tried and found guilty.
ONE – Friday 2,000 years a thief;
• Woke up as the sun began to rise
• Left his prison cell
• Walked up a hill
• Carried a cross
• AND – just like Jesus at 9 am, was nailed to it…
NOW – we don’t know if he had ever heard of Jesus before this day. Maybe he had heard Jesus speak. Maybe he had witnessed a miracle or two. Or maybe word of this carpenter prophet who eats with sinners had reached him too. AGAIN – there is a lot we don’t know about this guy…
BUT – we do know, that as he hung there in his own pain, at first he treated Jesus just like everyone else… UNDERSTAND - like the Pharisees and religious leaders, this guy hurled insults at the king of glory. Imagine that. Picture that. A crucified thief joining the choruses of others, mocking and attacking your Lord.
How long he did these insults ring out from his lips? One hour? Two? Three? We don’t know how long.. BUT – we do know that the longer this thief hung on that cross next to the Prince of Peace the more things began to change in His heart and mind… CAUSING - this thug to look at the guy on the cross next to him… and NOT SEE, a man – beaten, slashed, torn, ripped a part, barely alive… with bones poking out through the torn flesh, with lungs grasping for air like a drowning man… BUT INSEAD – to see a King… "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
QUESTION – why did this man have such a drastic change in attitude towards Jesus? ANSWER – of what he saw and what he heard… UNDERSTAND – this thief had witnessed many crucifixions in his time but he had never seen anyone endure so much pain and cruelty… AND YET - display such strength, peace, power, control, love and dignity as Jesus did…
AND – he had heard many things shouted from the mouths of those nailed to those rugged timbers… BUT – he had never heard anyone show such concern for others; When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." - John 19:26 NOR – had he heard anyone say anything close to those 12 unbelievable words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
UNDERSTAND – the blood, the wounds, the suffering, the pain, the torn flesh, the cross, the insults, the broken body could not hide the glory of the Son of God. IN FACT – all those things revealed His glory! "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
THINK – about that for a moment… A thief, a sinner, a man who like everyone else had mocked and insulted Him asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom… NOW – if you were Jesus how would you have responded? (Let me tell you the world would be in bad shape if we were Jesus)… JESUS’ – response… "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
OKAY – let’s put down some stacks and camp out at that response for a moment… "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." AMAZING… I don’t think anyone saw that one coming… Not many would have written that line in the script… I MEAN - to this guys (a guy who moments before mocked him) to this guy’s crazy and outlandish request… Jesus said, ‘Sure, no problem, I will take you home with me to my kingdom… IN FACT – I will take you there this very day. CONSIDER – it done my friend.
OKAY – why did Jesus do that? I MEAN - what in the world did he have to gain by promising this thief a place of honor at the banquet table? What in the world could this thug ever offer Jesus in return… THINK – about it this guy would never;
• attend a church service
• lead a life group
• teach a class
• bring a friend to church
• attend a bible study
• put 10% in the offering plate
• have a QT
• keep the nursery
• show up for a workday
• feed the hungry
• sing in a praise or worship in the assembly…
NOW – the woman at the well that we talked about a few weeks back ago, I can understand. I MEAN - she could go back and tell the story of living water to her town. AND - the leper who we looked at last week, after Jesus touched him, go could and spread this news of the healing power of Christ. AND - the guy we looked at back on August the 14th who had been a cripple for 38 years could go & stand before the religious leaders and tell them that it was Jesus who made him well… BUT – this thief, what was he going to do? Absolutely nothing! AND – the woman caught in adultery could go and sin no more.
AND [Tim, Laurie…] – that’s the point. LISTEN – closely… Your worth, your value, Jesus’ love does not depend on what we do for him. IN - the eyes of the King who hung on the cross 2,000 years ago… YOU – have value simply because you are. UNDERSTAND - you don’t have to look nice or perform well. Your value is inborn. THINK – about that for just a moment. You have value, you are worthy of the love of God (Tim…) simply because you exist. NOT – because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are.
Get it? (got it) good… HEY – can I be honest with you for a minute…. I am not so sure that we really do get it… WELL – at least I know that I often struggle with being worthy, valuable and loved by God simply because I exist. THE - about me is that I so prone to be driven by performance… AND – on days that I perform well I feel like I am more valuable to God (do you understand what I am saying?) YES – sometimes I think that the things I do and the things I stop doing are what makes me worthy of the love of God. AND – as I said earlier this causes me to;
• To live a lie
• To pursue, the wrong things
• To pretend, I am someone I am not
• It causes me to miss or forget what it is, that really gives me value
THAT – is why I am so thankful that the HS inspired Luke to put to paper this encounter with the thief on the cross… BECAUSE – it is a powerful reminder that it’s not;
• What I do
• How much I have
• How well I perform
• Or how good I look
THAT – determines my worth, or my value… NO – my worth and my value rests firmly and securely on God’s unfailing, unconditional, enduring forever love for me… AND CHURCH – we need to; believe that, accept that embrace that and rest in that… God is madly in love with us… Don’t take my word on it take His…
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. You are precious in my eyes, because you are honored and I love you… the mountains may depart hills may be shaken, but my love for you will never leave you and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken. – Is 43:1,4; 54:10
This is what the LORD Almighty says: My love for Mount Zion (Steve) is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem (Steve)!
- Zech 8:2
• God calls me by name
• I am precious in His eyes
• His love for me will never be shaken
• God his consumed by His love for me
YES – I know that all that has to be true because God said it, But it is still so hard for me to get… To really understand how powerful and strong God love for me is… AND – I am not alone in this struggle to grasp the love of God. That is why God had Paul write these words…to the church in Ephesus;
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
– Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)
Do you see what Paul is saying about the love Christ has for you?
It is deep, wide, long, high and understanding His love give fullness of life and power!
LISTEN – the most important for you to try to get is the great love that God has for you!
IN - his book, Abba’s Child, Brennan Manning talks about guy named John Eagan. John was an ordinary guy and a high school teacher in Milwaukee. He spent 30 years ministering to youth and struggling with seeing himself worthy of the one is able to perform miracles with nothing more than spit and mud. BUT – during an 8 day spiritual retreat, his spiritual director said something that pulled it all together, rocked his world and gives you & me something awesome to chew on…
John the heart of it is this: to make the Lord and His immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth. Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. God’s love for you and his choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.
Later that evening John wrote in his journal…
We discussed it. The basis of my personal worth is not my possessions, my talent, not esteem of others, reputation… not kudos of appreciation from parents and kids, not applause, and everyone telling you how important you are to the place… I stand anchored now in God before who I stand naked, this God who tells me, “You are my son, my beloved one.”
Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.
God’s love for you and his choice of you
constitute your worth.
Accept that,
and let it become
the most important thing in your life.
MAN – that is good stuff… Let God’s love and his choice of you define your worth…
HEY – let me ask you a question… has anything I have said today shocked you? I don’t think so. I MEAN – people who go to church talk about God’s love all the time.… One of the first songs we learn to sing as child was “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” and one of the first bible verses we memorized was more than likely, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son…”
BUT – even though we have read it, heard it, taught it, memorized it and sung about it for years… It is still hard to see ourselves as one radically loved by God. WHY – is that? I MEAN – why do we who know that; we are loved by God, chosen by God and valuable to God, forget… AND – what do we need to do to remind ourselves..
LET – me try to illustrate the answers to those questions with a story.
A stressed out Christian went to the desert father to seek some help… Nothing in his life seemed to working. The more he had , the more he achieved the more frustrated and afraid he felt. He lived with a nagging sense that no matter what he did it was never enough.
The desert father listened closely to the man talk of struggle and disappointment to lead the Christian life. We he was done the desert father went into his cave and came out with a basin and a picture of water. He said, “watch as I pour the water into the basin…” The water splashed on the bottom and against sides of the basin. The water swirled all around the basin but then he began to slowly settle down. Eventually the surface became so smooth that the man could see his face reflected in the still water.
As the man stared at the now visible reflection of himself, the desert father said, ‘That is the way it is when you live constantly in the midst of others. You don’t see yourself as you really are because of all the confusion and disturbance. You fail to recognize the divine presence in your life… AND - the reality that you are radically and totally loved and valued by God slowly fades….
Do you see what the desert father is saying? If you are going to be able to define yourself as one radically loved by God. If God’s love for you and his choice of you is going to determine your worth. If you are ever going to be able to truly accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.
You must on a regular basis pull away from the world and it’s appearance and performance driven pricing system SO THAT you can hear the voice of God speak to you… IT – is only when we pull away from the splashing of the world’s value system that we will hear the God, the voice of love.
Mike Yaconelli the cofounder of Youth Specialties tells about the time he was in a spiritual black hole… he was disappointed and discouraged about life, himself and his ministry… SO – he took off to a retreat center in Toronto Canada… Mike writes…
It took only a few hours of silence before I began to hear my soul speaking. It only took being alone for a short period of time for me to discover I wasn’t alone. God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life, and I couldn’t hear Him. But in the stillness and solitude, His whispers shouted from my soul. “Michael I am here. I have been calling you, but you haven’t been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove yourself
2,000 years ago a thief on a cross had an encounter Jesus and this encounter teaches you that you no longer need to prove yourself by appearance and performance… BUT INSTEAD – you need to;
Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.
God’s love for you and his choice of you
constitute your worth.
Accept that,
and let it become
the most important thing in your life
