What Do You Value Series

Changing the Climate

What do you value most in life? What would you be willing to sacrifice everything for? Is there anything? Many of us would have sung that hymn: All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give, but how true are those words for us as we sing them!

God has a purpose and plan for every person and for Him to be able to use you to His fullest desire, each of us have to prioritise what matter most, in other words we need to clarify our values, weigh up what is important to us and then bring them into agreement with our actions.

JOSHUA 1:8 (NIV) Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

We must realise that what we value affects our life. They control everything in our life.

v Our values affect our stress levels. When our values are unclear, there is confusion. When our values are in conflict, it’s because we haven’t clarified what’s important and what’s not. The result is stress.

v Our values control our success in life. Every time you make a decision, you’re filtering that decision subconsciously or consciously through what you value. If your values are right it will lead you to growth, success, development. If your values are wrong, you’ll eventually crash and burn. What you think is important in life not only effects your stress, it also effects your success.

v They also effects our salvation. Jesus said that it is possible to be outwardly successful – financially, socially and every other way – and be spiritually bankrupt on the inside. He said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”

And listen! Your values can and should affect the people around you, hence the title of my message today.

How many of us have come home from work, school or wherever, grumpy as anything, having had the worst day ever and seen our mood affect those around us! In simple terms, that is how much your values can affect others also.

Today, I want us to look at how you live a value-based life?

There are four things that you need to do:

v Choose your source.

v Clarify what’s important.

v Change your lifestyle to match what you say with what is really important.

v Check yourself daily to see if you’re continuing to say and do what you value most.

1. CHOOSE YOUR SOURCE

Where are you going to get your values from? This is very important because the source of your values will determine the quality of your values. For instance, would you consider the New Zealand Herald a good source for values? How about TV talk shows?

Where do we get our values? We get them from a lot of places:

Parents, peers, magazines and books, from music, from society in general.

But today, one major value giver IS the media. The average New Zealander watches about 1000 hours of television a year. That means by the time you’re 65 you will have watched TV for 9½ solid years.

Sadly, if you went to church once a week for your entire life, that would only equal four months of spiritual teaching. Four months compared to 9½ years – tell me where you’re getting your primary values?

1 John 2:15-16 (NKJV) Do not love the world or the things in the world……For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world.

1 JOHN 2:15-16 (Mes) “Don’t love the world’s ways – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him.”

This was written about 2000 years ago and it’s still relevant today because the world’s values have not changed. The world has always had three basic values in life. These 3 things are what the world says is important.

v Pleasure. Pleasure is a primary value in this world. (the lust of the flesh)

v Possessions. (The lust of the eyes)

v Prestige. That is: power or position or popularity. (The pride of life)

If you ask most people, “What do you want out of life?” They’ll say, “I want to have fun…. I want to be happy … I want to feel good.” That’s different ways of saying pleasure. We live in a pleasure-obsessed culture.

Possessions. Isn’t it true that we often fall into the category of buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t know! For many people self worth is based on their net worth. Possessions is the second value in our society.