WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 So, I have been sick the last few days, so if 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:06.019 I don't shake your hand or give you a hug, I'm 00:00:06.019 --> 00:00:07.940 looking out for you, I'm not trying to be rude. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:11.699 Also, I did tell Phil, like this is the first 00:00:11.699 --> 00:00:13.960 time that I've been out of the house and doing 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:17.769 stuff. four days maybe. So I told Phil, if I 00:00:17.769 --> 00:00:20.050 pass out up here, the notes are on my screen. 00:00:20.129 --> 00:00:23.850 Just come up and just keep rolling, okay? But 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:25.870 seriously, I'm super excited to start this new 00:00:25.870 --> 00:00:31.100 series called Priceless with you. It is no secret 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:33.579 if you've been here since I've been here that 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:36.159 I've spent the last year or so challenging us 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:40.579 as a church family. I will blame that on my personality 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:45.219 type. My Enneagram is the challenger. I like 00:00:45.219 --> 00:00:47.380 to push boundaries and I like to pull people, 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:50.159 pull more out of people than they're used to 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.399 being pulled out of. I think in another lifetime, 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:55.960 probably I was a coach because that's just, I'm 00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:58.920 not good with just being content to be how I 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:01.280 am. I feel like there's more. There's more to 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.280 every person. There's more we can be doing. There's 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.159 more we can be. And so I have been challenging 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:10.099 us a lot. But I do feel like as a minister, I 00:01:10.099 --> 00:01:12.840 need to also encourage. And I also need to help 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.700 people understand that while there is more to 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:19.519 you, while you have been made for more, that 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:23.560 what you are is also just fine. That what you 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.019 are is still good. And so I want to encourage 00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:28.859 you, and the way that I'm going to do that is 00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:30.920 by starting with a question, and the question 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:35.640 is, what am I worth? Now that's a question that 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.680 most all of us have asked before. Maybe we've 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:40.719 asked it in different ways, and many of us have 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:42.599 never actually said that out loud, but we've 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:45.299 asked the question, what am I actually worth? 00:01:45.790 --> 00:01:48.269 And when we ask that, we're not asking what our 00:01:48.269 --> 00:01:50.370 net worth is. We're not asking what the bank 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:53.049 says or what the life insurance policy says. 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:57.150 We're asking, what am I? What is Donovan? What 00:01:57.150 --> 00:01:59.950 is this person? What is this person that lives 00:01:59.950 --> 00:02:02.430 in a community that is a citizen, that is a family 00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:05.250 member, that is a father and a husband and a 00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:10.449 brother and a son? What am I worth? Because there's 00:02:10.449 --> 00:02:12.870 a moment, and I think everybody in this room 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:16.110 has had this moment. Where you do the math on 00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:18.050 your own life, you start looking at your life 00:02:18.050 --> 00:02:20.289 and you don't really like the number that comes 00:02:20.289 --> 00:02:23.490 back. For some, that moment came at a young age. 00:02:23.590 --> 00:02:25.909 Maybe you didn't make the team or nobody sat 00:02:25.909 --> 00:02:28.310 with you on the bus or in the lunchroom. Maybe 00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:30.490 you waited all night and your mom or your dad 00:02:30.490 --> 00:02:32.870 didn't come home like they said they would and 00:02:32.870 --> 00:02:35.469 that night turned into weeks and then those weeks 00:02:35.469 --> 00:02:39.469 turned into months. For some people, this math... 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:42.469 starts coming later where maybe you were a somebody 00:02:42.469 --> 00:02:45.569 at work. You were really, you had the position, 00:02:45.729 --> 00:02:48.469 you had the prestige, but then you retired and 00:02:48.469 --> 00:02:51.530 the phone stopped ringing and nobody seemed to 00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:54.729 need your services anymore. And it turned out 00:02:54.729 --> 00:02:57.629 that the world kind of keeps spinning without 00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:01.689 you. For some of you, it comes when or came when 00:03:01.689 --> 00:03:04.990 the kids grew up and they moved off and the house 00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:08.990 got quiet. For some, it came when your body quit 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.469 doing what it used to do. You used to be the 00:03:11.469 --> 00:03:13.550 one who carried things and who would fix things 00:03:13.550 --> 00:03:16.770 and who would solve any issue, but now you need 00:03:16.770 --> 00:03:18.889 a little more help than you're actually able 00:03:18.889 --> 00:03:22.949 to provide yourself. And some of us, some of 00:03:22.949 --> 00:03:25.830 you are sitting here this morning, and it isn't 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.789 a moment that you've had, but it's the constant 00:03:28.789 --> 00:03:31.909 reality of your life where you sit and you look 00:03:31.909 --> 00:03:35.569 at yourself and you ask yourself, what am I worth? 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:39.580 Because you've never in your life felt like you 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:43.400 were worth much of anything to anybody. And so 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:46.919 we start this series called Priceless. And over 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:48.979 the next few weeks, we're going to be asking 00:03:48.979 --> 00:03:51.780 the question and answering the question from 00:03:51.780 --> 00:03:54.039 a few different perspectives. But really, the 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:56.879 question is simply, where does human worth actually 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:00.680 come from and who defines it? What are you worth? 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:02.840 What is your neighbor worth? What is that person 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:06.240 that you can't stand worth? And what is the person 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:10.680 that the world has written off worth? But to 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:12.740 do that, to answer that question, we have to 00:04:12.740 --> 00:04:15.000 start with ourselves because we can't believe 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.019 the right thing about anybody else's value until 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.639 we believe the right thing about our own value. 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:23.300 So let's start with this question today. How 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:26.579 does a person get to where they say, I am worthless 00:04:26.579 --> 00:04:30.199 and actually believe it? Because believe it or 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:31.800 not, there are people in this room right now, 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.199 and you may be one of them, that you believe 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:36.420 that you don't have much value, that you are 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:39.959 worth less, that nobody really needs you, that 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.139 if you were gone today, that everything would 00:04:42.139 --> 00:04:44.720 be just fine. In fact, it may be better if you 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:48.220 weren't here. And so I sit here and I ask, and 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:50.360 working with teenagers helped me with this, because 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:53.579 I wonder, how do you get to the point where you 00:04:53.579 --> 00:04:56.920 feel like you're not worth anything? Like, I 00:04:56.920 --> 00:04:59.480 had a pretty rough upbringing, but I never once 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:02.100 thought I wasn't worth anything. Like, I never 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:04.879 thought that I was worth less. Now, I thought 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.920 I was worth less than other people maybe, but 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:10.639 I never thought I was worthless. And so how does 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:14.100 somebody get there? Well, here's how. We live 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:18.040 in a culture that assigns value the way a store 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:21.259 assigns value. And unfortunately, we've all bought 00:05:21.259 --> 00:05:23.720 into that. We've all bought into this idea that 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:26.540 if something is better than the next thing, or 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:28.939 if people want this more than they want that, 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:32.519 then it is worth more. And really what it all 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:35.220 boils down to is it's comparison. What it boils 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:38.459 down to is we compare ourselves to other people. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.459 And we sit here and we look at other people's 00:05:40.459 --> 00:05:42.399 walk. We look at other people's lives and we 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:44.819 say, well, they've got it made this way, or they've 00:05:44.819 --> 00:05:47.160 got these things, or they've got this friendship 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.060 and they've got these relationships and they're 00:05:49.060 --> 00:05:51.040 a part of these clubs and these social groups. 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:55.180 So they must be worth more than me. But that's 00:05:55.180 --> 00:05:59.699 the world's metric of value. I think of this 00:05:59.699 --> 00:06:03.920 book, the second book in C .S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. 00:06:04.489 --> 00:06:08.110 And in the book, there's this like angelic lady 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:12.290 figure. And she is described as like beautiful. 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:15.250 And like I said, angelic. So she is this larger 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:19.589 than life deity type being. And there's a human 00:06:19.589 --> 00:06:22.490 from earth. He's made it to this planet. I think 00:06:22.490 --> 00:06:25.990 it's Mars. But he makes it to this planet. And 00:06:25.990 --> 00:06:28.829 he is with this angelic woman. And he's being 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.870 chased and tormented by this Satan type figure. 00:06:32.410 --> 00:06:35.610 And this Satan type figure, he figures that he 00:06:35.610 --> 00:06:39.850 can maybe mess with the way that this woman and 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:43.129 this man's relationship is. It's not like a romantic 00:06:43.129 --> 00:06:45.889 relationship, just like it's a kind of a, he's 00:06:45.889 --> 00:06:47.709 trying to figure out where he is and what's going 00:06:47.709 --> 00:06:49.230 on on this planet because he doesn't know how 00:06:49.230 --> 00:06:53.550 he got here. And so this woman is very secure 00:06:53.550 --> 00:06:57.170 in who she is. She's like a lowercase g god, 00:06:57.370 --> 00:07:00.579 a goddess, I guess you would say. Well, the Satan 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:04.360 figure gives the woman a mirror, and she had 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:07.839 never once seen her reflection. She had seen 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.019 other women. She had seen other angelic -type 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:12.579 beings. She had seen other people, but she had 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:16.620 never seen what she looked like. And again, she's 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:19.120 described as this beautiful, angelic being, but 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:23.120 now she starts to doubt herself and question 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.939 herself, and she starts to feel like she's not 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:30.310 good enough. You see, comparison truly is the 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:34.470 thief of all joy. Comparison is what allows us 00:07:34.470 --> 00:07:37.730 to start thinking that we are worth less or in 00:07:37.730 --> 00:07:40.970 some cases that we are worthless. I want you 00:07:40.970 --> 00:07:43.430 to think about how the world defines worth. The 00:07:43.430 --> 00:07:46.089 world gives worth to people who can do things 00:07:46.089 --> 00:07:48.009 that other people can't do. If you can throw 00:07:48.009 --> 00:07:50.230 a football, if you can sing on key, if you can 00:07:50.230 --> 00:07:52.790 build a company up, you can look a certain way 00:07:52.790 --> 00:07:55.470 in a photograph, you are all of a sudden worth 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:58.189 more than everybody else. And so we look up at 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:00.930 those people, the talented, the accomplished, 00:08:01.170 --> 00:08:03.610 the wealthy, the beautiful, the famous, and we 00:08:03.610 --> 00:08:07.680 say, well, those folks, they have value. And 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:11.000 then we look down at our ordinary lives, and 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:14.300 we look at our own ordinary jobs, our own ordinary 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:17.519 faces in an ordinary mirror, and we do the subtraction, 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.000 and we start deciding that they're valuable. 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:24.259 I'm not one of them, so I must not be valuable. 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:26.939 And I want you to notice something about that 00:08:26.939 --> 00:08:30.889 system. It's built on comparison, and it only 00:08:30.889 --> 00:08:33.850 works by measuring you against others. Lucky 00:08:33.850 --> 00:08:37.090 for us, though, the Apostle Paul saw this issue, 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:40.210 and he addressed it 2 ,000 years ago. He says 00:08:40.210 --> 00:08:43.909 this about the people who are doing it. When 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:46.570 they measure themselves by one another and compare 00:08:46.570 --> 00:08:49.309 themselves with one another, they are without 00:08:49.309 --> 00:08:54.049 understanding. They're without understanding. 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:56.799 He doesn't say they're mean. He doesn't call 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:00.000 them arrogant or proud. He says they're ignorant. 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.179 Or as Greg and Tim would say, they're idiots. 00:09:04.019 --> 00:09:07.960 They don't get it. They don't understand. They're 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:12.460 measuring their worth in a foolish way. And this 00:09:12.460 --> 00:09:16.659 is an issue. Paul sees it and he says they don't 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:21.179 understand. That their worth isn't about what 00:09:21.179 --> 00:09:24.039 they look like up against the next person. That 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.759 their worth is from something else. And the other 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:29.799 issue with the world system is that the world 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.960 likes to move the goalposts. Like, think about 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:36.879 what was considered beautiful today was not considered 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:39.659 beautiful 40 years ago. And what was considered 00:09:39.659 --> 00:09:41.919 beautiful 40 years ago was not considered beautiful 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:45.759 40 years before that. What was considered really 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:48.960 good at some, like, we think about music, right? 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.539 Popular music today would have gotten thrown 00:09:51.539 --> 00:09:55.700 in the garbage 50 years ago. And rightfully so. 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:02.940 But the world moves its goalposts. And so these 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:05.519 values start to change. Have you ever bought 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:07.539 something at full price? You didn't get a discount 00:10:07.539 --> 00:10:09.320 or anything on it. You bought it full price. 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:11.740 Let's use shoes for an example, okay? So you 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:14.259 go to the shoe store. You find the exact pair 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:18.379 of shoes you wanted. They're not cheap, but you 00:10:18.379 --> 00:10:20.259 wanted them. So you thought about it. You talked 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:22.159 yourself into it. You paid the money, and you 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:24.220 carried those shoes out feeling pretty good about 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:26.960 your purchase. And maybe this has happened to 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.220 you before, but after you buy the shoes, maybe 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:31.620 it's a week later, you're scrolling through Facebook, 00:10:31.659 --> 00:10:34.500 and you see an ad, same shoe store, for the same 00:10:34.500 --> 00:10:37.080 pair of shoes, but now those shoes are on sale, 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:41.419 and they're 50 % off. and you look at your pair 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:42.879 of shoes that you're wearing, and you're like, 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:45.679 so I paid $200 for these, but I could have got 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:48.519 them for $100 if I would have just waited. Well, 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.360 the shoes didn't change. Like, nothing changed 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.360 about the shoes. The shoe store didn't change. 00:10:54.379 --> 00:10:57.159 But something happened along the way between 00:10:57.159 --> 00:10:59.159 the day you bought them and the day they went 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:01.820 on sale that caused the shoe store to decide 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:04.000 they aren't worth as much anymore, so we're going 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.399 to mark them down so that more people will buy 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:09.759 them. See, the only thing that changed was the 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:14.059 price tag. And that's exactly what it feels like 00:11:14.059 --> 00:11:17.539 to let the world tell you what you're worth. 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:22.039 One day, you're valuable to them. One day, they 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.919 can't go on without you. One day, they need you 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:29.080 in order to make it through till tomorrow. I 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:32.759 think about like my kids, right? You have a baby 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:36.809 and... Right now, if it's a baby, they need you 00:11:36.809 --> 00:11:38.710 for everything. They can't feed themselves. They 00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:40.789 can't put themselves to sleep. They can't change 00:11:40.789 --> 00:11:43.269 their own diaper. They need you for everything. 00:11:44.169 --> 00:11:47.289 But two years later, they need you for a little 00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:50.250 bit less. And two years from there, they need 00:11:50.250 --> 00:11:53.149 you a little bit less. And before long, you've 00:11:53.149 --> 00:11:56.789 got a 25 -year -old. And they don't need you 00:11:56.789 --> 00:11:59.230 as much. Maybe they call you when they need a 00:11:59.230 --> 00:12:01.669 little bit extra money. But they don't need you 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:06.299 as much as they did. 24 years before. You see, 00:12:06.379 --> 00:12:11.139 things change. Your price tag changes because 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:16.500 the world changes it. Time passes, something 00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:18.960 newer or more exciting comes along, and all of 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:21.360 a sudden the world decides that you are worth 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.379 less. But the truth is, nothing about you changed 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:27.220 except your price tag. That's what you're trusting 00:12:27.220 --> 00:12:30.500 to tell you who you are. A tag that someone else 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:33.389 can change whenever they feel like it. Now I 00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:35.289 want you to listen to what Paul says to a church 00:12:35.289 --> 00:12:37.769 that's facing a similar issue in Colossians. 00:12:37.830 --> 00:12:40.629 And so we're going to look at some different 00:12:40.629 --> 00:12:43.909 passages today, but these passages from Colossians 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:46.950 are kind of our root for this lesson. So let's 00:12:46.950 --> 00:12:49.830 look at Colossians chapter 2, starting in verses 00:12:49.830 --> 00:12:52.129 6 through 8. And if it's underlined, I would 00:12:52.129 --> 00:12:54.309 love for you to read along with me. Therefore, 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:57.309 as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk 00:12:57.309 --> 00:13:00.330 in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:03.450 in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:06.509 in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes 00:13:06.509 --> 00:13:11.029 you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according 00:13:11.029 --> 00:13:13.909 to human tradition, according to the elemental 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:17.769 spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:24.610 He says, see to it that no one takes you captive. 00:13:25.169 --> 00:13:27.149 When you hear the word captive, you probably 00:13:27.149 --> 00:13:29.870 think immediately of like a prisoner or like 00:13:29.870 --> 00:13:32.029 somebody that's been kidnapped, somebody that's 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:35.080 been captured. Paul says there's a way of thinking 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.000 out there, that there is this logic, there is 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.200 this philosophy, there are these things that 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:42.379 people will put in your brain that they will 00:13:42.379 --> 00:13:45.039 put in your heart and in your mind that can take 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:47.980 you captive, that will throw a sack over your 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:50.139 head, tie you up, throw you in the van, run off 00:13:50.139 --> 00:13:54.759 with you. And it's this invasive way of thinking 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:59.580 that you get talked into. Paul calls it empty 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:03.539 deceit. It's this hollow logic. What it does 00:14:03.539 --> 00:14:06.179 is it looks full, it looks enticing, but in reality, 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:08.940 it has no weight to it. It's like a bag of chips. 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:12.460 You know how you feel like you could just keep 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:15.320 eating a bag of chips? I have this bad habit 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:19.600 that if I get, it's like we buy the family -sized 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.980 bags of chips, right? And sometimes I'll go home 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:25.379 for lunch, I'll sit down, I'll make a sandwich, 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.220 and I'll go and I'll get the family -sized bag 00:14:28.220 --> 00:14:32.379 of chips. And because I'm the dad of the house, 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:36.720 I get to eat out of the bag. So I will just, 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:39.620 also my hygiene standards are really good. So 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:43.019 I get to eat out of the bag. So I'll put this 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:46.200 family size bag of chips on the table. I'll finish 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:49.960 my sandwich. And now I'm a little full, but I'll 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:51.860 start eating the chips. And the next thing I 00:14:51.860 --> 00:14:55.740 know, I've eaten like almost the entire family 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:59.039 size bag of chips. You want to know the bad thing 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:04.279 though? I could keep going. But I look at the 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:08.120 bag and visually I see that's not good. But like 00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:11.080 physically I feel like I could keep eating. And 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:12.879 that's what I think of when I think of this empty 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:15.799 deceit. Like it looks good. It looks enticing. 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:18.659 But it doesn't really fill you up. It's kind 00:15:18.659 --> 00:15:20.860 of like dessert. There's always room for dessert. 00:15:21.419 --> 00:15:24.080 I don't know why that works, but you get tricked 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.720 into believing that you can take on more than 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:29.299 you really should. And this empty deceit, it 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:31.779 tricks you because it sounds reasonable. I want 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:33.720 you to think about it this way. Nobody in this 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:37.539 room, nobody who's ever doubted themselves, ever 00:15:37.539 --> 00:15:41.220 sat down and decided, you know what, today, I 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:43.480 think I'll let a stranger at the grocery store 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:47.980 define my worth today. You know what, I'll let 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:51.370 the co -worker that, you know, that... Who cares 00:15:51.370 --> 00:15:54.679 about their... I'll let them decide. my value 00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:57.480 today. Nobody ever decides that that's what they're 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:00.700 going to do. It just happens a little at a time. 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:03.659 These subtle messages on the TV screen or on 00:16:03.659 --> 00:16:06.000 social media telling you that you need more or 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.740 that you're not doing enough. The only thing 00:16:08.740 --> 00:16:11.200 you hear from that miserable parent or relative 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.399 who no matter what you do, they can't seem to 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:17.039 be proud of you or happy for you. You know what 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.100 I mean? Like these people, these thoughts, these 00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:23.049 circumstances that take you captive. And Paul 00:16:23.049 --> 00:16:27.590 says, don't let that happen to you. Do not let 00:16:27.590 --> 00:16:30.490 them take you captive. You have been taught better. 00:16:31.590 --> 00:16:33.870 And now here's what I want us to understand about 00:16:33.870 --> 00:16:36.490 our situation this morning. And it's not just 00:16:36.490 --> 00:16:39.330 simply to stop believing the lies. It would be 00:16:39.330 --> 00:16:41.149 really easy for me to get up here and say, hey, 00:16:41.190 --> 00:16:43.970 stop believing that. But that's not what Paul 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:45.830 does. Paul doesn't just tell them to think better 00:16:45.830 --> 00:16:48.149 thoughts. He actually calls their attention to 00:16:48.149 --> 00:16:50.149 what's happened to them. So I want you to see 00:16:50.149 --> 00:16:52.789 what Paul says in Colossians 3, verses 1 through 00:16:52.789 --> 00:16:56.509 4. If then you have been raised with Christ, 00:16:56.870 --> 00:17:00.049 seek the things that are above where Christ is 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:03.450 seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:06.230 on things that are above, not on things that 00:17:06.230 --> 00:17:20.160 are on earth. What Paul is saying is, When you 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:23.720 came out of the water, when you gave your life 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:25.579 to Christ, you were baptized, you came out of 00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:28.299 the water, you didn't just get forgiven, you 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:30.680 got transferred from one market into another 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:33.759 one. Essentially, the old scale, the way that 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.660 the world would judge your worth and your value, 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:38.759 the way that you might have judged your worth 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:41.640 and your value in that old life, that has no 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:45.160 jurisdiction over you anymore. You died. to that 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:48.119 way of thinking. You died to that logic. And 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.779 where does Paul say your life is now? He says 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:55.059 it is hidden with Christ in God. And it's bound 00:17:55.059 --> 00:17:58.869 for glory. I love that. Like your life is not 00:17:58.869 --> 00:18:01.569 sitting on a shelf where the world can walk by 00:18:01.569 --> 00:18:04.309 and calculate a price and decide to discount 00:18:04.309 --> 00:18:07.829 you. You're not up for appraisal. Your life, 00:18:07.950 --> 00:18:10.950 your value is hidden. It's held. It is stored 00:18:10.950 --> 00:18:13.869 somewhere where the world cannot reach in and 00:18:13.869 --> 00:18:19.000 discount it. The world has no jurisdiction over 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:22.460 your worth. And so when the world tells you what 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:25.019 your worth is this week, and it will, it will 00:18:25.019 --> 00:18:27.599 try to at least, you can respond back to it with 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.900 the truth. You don't have any say. You don't 00:18:30.900 --> 00:18:34.220 have access to that kind of definition of my 00:18:34.220 --> 00:18:38.480 life. In Romans 12 too, Paul says it plainly. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.480 Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:46.859 by the renewal of your mind. You know what conformed 00:18:46.859 --> 00:18:49.279 means, right? It's like if I pour jello into 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.559 a mold. Do people do that anymore? Jello molds? 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:55.140 Hopefully you still do. I don't like jello, so 00:18:55.140 --> 00:18:56.799 I don't do that, but hopefully you do because 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:59.200 it's cool. But so like when you pour jello into 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.980 a mold, it's liquid, but then it sets, right? 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:05.809 And it comes out in the shape of the mold. And 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:07.630 I can remember as a kid, like for Halloween, 00:19:07.730 --> 00:19:09.670 we'd get like the little cheap plastic molds 00:19:09.670 --> 00:19:12.509 at the store, and we'd do like the pumpkin, you 00:19:12.509 --> 00:19:15.049 know, the jack -o' -lantern jello molds, or for 00:19:15.049 --> 00:19:18.109 Christmas we'd do, for some reason, we could 00:19:18.109 --> 00:19:20.670 just do jello molds for everything, right? I 00:19:20.670 --> 00:19:23.509 think we did an Easter bunny jello mold one time. 00:19:24.289 --> 00:19:26.910 But that's what happens to a person who lets 00:19:26.910 --> 00:19:30.759 the world define their worth. You pour yourself, 00:19:31.019 --> 00:19:34.039 you pour your life, you pour your thoughts and 00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:36.359 your abilities and you pour everything about 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:40.180 you into a mold that the world will shape and 00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:43.480 decide what you are and what you're worth. But 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:46.799 what Paul says is don't do that because you're 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:49.500 not like them. And the truth of the matter is 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:52.440 if we are in Christ, as Paul says, we are a new 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:55.680 creation. We are not like the world. And so we 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:57.359 don't do what the world does. We don't judge 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:01.299 ourselves like the world does. So we don't get 00:20:01.299 --> 00:20:04.680 into their little jello molds. You see, that's 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:06.980 what happens to a person who lets the world define 00:20:06.980 --> 00:20:09.460 their worth. But what Paul is trying to get us 00:20:09.460 --> 00:20:12.680 to do is stay away from the molds we used to 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.019 pour or we used to be poured into and instead 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:17.819 become something entirely different, which leads 00:20:17.819 --> 00:20:21.019 me to the point of today's lesson. If we understand 00:20:21.019 --> 00:20:23.799 that the world doesn't get to define our worth, 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:28.319 we have to ask the question, who does? If the 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:30.460 person next to me doesn't get to define my worth, 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:32.519 if my spouse doesn't get to define my worth, 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:34.839 if my employer doesn't get to define my worth, 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:36.960 if my friend group, if my social group, if my 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:39.460 church doesn't get to define my worth, then who 00:20:39.460 --> 00:20:42.519 does? Well, I feel like that's a pretty Sunday 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:46.299 school answer. But let me ask you a different 00:20:46.299 --> 00:20:48.720 question then. Same question, different way. 00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:55.779 How does anything get to be valuable? You've 00:20:55.779 --> 00:20:58.220 seen it happen before where maybe somewhere in 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:00.859 your family there's an item that really isn't 00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:04.880 worth anything special, but it's worth everything 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:09.480 at the same time. I have a guitar. It's actually 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:12.720 in my office. I have a guitar that is not worth 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:16.440 much at all. I mean, it is, I could probably 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:18.440 sell it for 20 bucks, and that would be just 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.740 because somebody wants a guitar and they don't 00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:25.180 get them for free. But for me, It's valuable 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.039 because my grandpa gave it to me. And I'm not 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:31.140 giving it away. I would not sell it. I actually 00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:33.259 have two guitars that my grandpa gave me. And 00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:35.519 one of them is worth a little bit more, but they're 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:40.079 not worth anything as much to the next person 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.640 as they are to me. Because my grandpa gave them 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:46.559 to me. Maybe it's a quilt. Maybe you've got a 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:48.839 quilt that if a stranger walked through your 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:50.660 house or they walked through an estate sale, 00:21:50.779 --> 00:21:52.960 they saw this quilt on a table, they would walk 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:55.930 right past it. Maybe it's faded. It's a little 00:21:55.930 --> 00:21:59.890 worn out in some places. And you probably couldn't 00:21:59.890 --> 00:22:02.950 get but five or ten bucks for it. Now, I wrote 00:22:02.950 --> 00:22:04.910 this, and then I realized, like, quilts are pretty 00:22:04.910 --> 00:22:08.890 expensive. So, yeah, just go with me, okay? But 00:22:08.890 --> 00:22:12.430 so you couldn't get much for it. But for you, 00:22:12.549 --> 00:22:16.509 you would run into a burning house to get that 00:22:16.509 --> 00:22:19.349 quilt because your grandmother made that for 00:22:19.349 --> 00:22:21.230 you or your great -grandmother made it for you. 00:22:21.710 --> 00:22:24.329 And you know when she made it and for what occasion. 00:22:25.269 --> 00:22:28.529 You know the story behind each square of the 00:22:28.529 --> 00:22:31.549 quilt. To the stranger, it's just pieces of fabric 00:22:31.549 --> 00:22:33.829 stitched together, but to you, it is so much 00:22:33.829 --> 00:22:36.490 more because you know who made it and you know 00:22:36.490 --> 00:22:42.950 why. You see, our worth. Just like the quilt, 00:22:43.009 --> 00:22:45.029 just like my guitar, our worth comes from who 00:22:45.029 --> 00:22:47.930 made it or who gave it to you. And y 'all, that 00:22:47.930 --> 00:22:50.309 is the entire argument of the Bible about you. 00:22:50.390 --> 00:22:54.529 In Genesis chapter 1, we are told that God made 00:22:54.529 --> 00:22:58.289 us, he made man, he made woman in his own image. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:01.539 That we are not some chemical accident, that 00:23:01.539 --> 00:23:04.319 we're not just some anomaly, that these atoms 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.640 collided and this all just randomly happened. 00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:09.740 That's not the truth. First of all, it's not 00:23:09.740 --> 00:23:11.859 what scripture says, but like if you just need 00:23:11.859 --> 00:23:14.339 scientific proof, go do some research. Science 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:17.859 says that's not what happened, okay? So we weren't 00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:21.480 an accident. We were intentionally made in the 00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:26.210 image of God. You were made on purpose by somebody, 00:23:26.289 --> 00:23:30.289 capital S, in his own image, and that is where 00:23:30.289 --> 00:23:33.990 your value comes from. That's where my value 00:23:33.990 --> 00:23:37.930 comes from, and that's why the world cannot touch 00:23:37.930 --> 00:23:41.710 our value. They cannot define it. They don't 00:23:41.710 --> 00:23:44.589 have the right to. And I want you to listen to 00:23:44.589 --> 00:23:48.730 how God talks about what he made. In Isaiah 43, 00:23:49.130 --> 00:23:52.309 verse 4, God's talking to his people, the Israelites, 00:23:52.509 --> 00:23:56.329 and so I want you to see how God feels about 00:23:56.329 --> 00:23:59.289 his people. Because if you can understand how 00:23:59.289 --> 00:24:02.009 God feels about you, maybe it'll help you understand 00:24:02.009 --> 00:24:07.950 your value. You are precious in my eyes and honored, 00:24:08.049 --> 00:24:19.029 and I love you. God... looks at his people. He 00:24:19.029 --> 00:24:22.250 looks at you, regardless of your stains, regardless 00:24:22.250 --> 00:24:25.210 of how faded and worn out you might be, regardless 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.789 of your age, what you've done, where you've been. 00:24:27.809 --> 00:24:30.529 God looks at you and he says, you are precious 00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:40.160 in my eyes. I love you. And this... that God 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:42.180 is giving to his people, the Israelites, this 00:24:42.180 --> 00:24:44.420 isn't, they're not on their best day here. This 00:24:44.420 --> 00:24:46.759 is not them and like, they're doing great, they're 00:24:46.759 --> 00:24:48.599 honoring God and everything is great. No, no, 00:24:48.619 --> 00:24:51.220 no. This is one of their worst moments. But God 00:24:51.220 --> 00:24:53.680 looks at his covenant people and he says this 00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:56.059 about them. And if you are in Christ, I need 00:24:56.059 --> 00:24:58.059 you to understand you have been brought into 00:24:58.059 --> 00:25:00.720 that family, that covenant family, and that is 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:04.460 God's word to you, that he is. He loves you. 00:25:04.539 --> 00:25:07.220 He is in love with you. He sees you as precious, 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:11.319 as priceless. Or maybe if that's not enough for 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:12.259 you because you're like, well, that's the Old 00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:14.160 Testament. I want you to see what Jesus, the 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:18.319 Son of God, says in Luke 12, verse 7. Why? Even 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:21.740 the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:25.160 not. You are of more value than many sparrows. 00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:27.940 And this comes after Jesus is telling this crowd. 00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:30.880 of nobodies, these poor people, these working 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:33.099 class people, these people that are constantly 00:25:33.099 --> 00:25:35.640 overlooked, overworked, and stepped over. He 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:37.720 looked at them and he says, hey, you might worry 00:25:37.720 --> 00:25:39.119 about what you're going to eat, what you're going 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:40.920 to drink, where you're going to sleep, but don't 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:43.160 the sparrows, don't the birds of the air, doesn't 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:45.980 God take care of them? Well, look at you. God 00:25:45.980 --> 00:25:48.960 knows every hair on your head. If he sees you 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.160 as precious, I promise you, he cares more about 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:54.440 you than those birds. And if they don't have 00:25:54.440 --> 00:25:56.640 to worry about anything, what do you have to 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:01.730 worry about? You see, Jesus is telling us that 00:26:01.730 --> 00:26:04.990 God cares enough about us that he has counted 00:26:04.990 --> 00:26:07.789 the very hairs on your head. I love my kids. 00:26:08.869 --> 00:26:11.609 I will never, if you've seen my kids, you know 00:26:11.609 --> 00:26:13.490 they've got full heads of hair. I will never 00:26:13.490 --> 00:26:16.690 sit down and try to count every single hair on 00:26:16.690 --> 00:26:18.690 their head. I love them to death. I'm not doing 00:26:18.690 --> 00:26:24.549 that. But God, he knows every little detail about 00:26:24.549 --> 00:26:29.420 you. And even still. He says, you're valuable. 00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:34.640 You're priceless. Serious question, are you ever 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:38.640 going to hear the world say that about you? Is 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:39.960 the world ever going to tell you that you're 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:44.000 precious? Is the world, is the screen, is social 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.259 media, is the news, are they ever going to look 00:26:46.259 --> 00:26:49.140 at you and tell you, I know every little detail 00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:53.799 about you and I find you to be lovely? Is the 00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.319 marketplace, is the employer ever going to say 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:58.880 I love you and nothing could ever change that? 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:06.640 No. So why on earth do we still let them define 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:13.539 our worth? See, creation isn't even the strongest 00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:16.279 thing that God has said about your worth because 00:27:16.279 --> 00:27:18.579 you can make something and you can still walk 00:27:18.579 --> 00:27:23.079 away from it. I like to write songs. I've written 00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:27.599 several songs that I wrote once and I've never 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.480 looked at again. They're stuck in a notebook 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.460 somewhere. You know why? Because they weren't 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:35.819 that good. And so I just don't care about them. 00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:38.279 But I've also got songs that I've written that 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:41.500 I'll go and I'll just play all the time and over 00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:43.519 and over and over again. Why? Because I love 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:46.650 those. So you can make something and still walk 00:27:46.650 --> 00:27:48.670 away from it. You can build something and lose 00:27:48.670 --> 00:27:51.730 interest, but God didn't create us and walk away. 00:27:51.930 --> 00:27:54.109 Like this isn't something where God created the 00:27:54.109 --> 00:27:56.549 world, set it on spin, and just walked away from 00:27:56.549 --> 00:27:59.930 it. So there's another way to know what something 00:27:59.930 --> 00:28:02.589 is worth, and it's the way that we actually settle 00:28:02.589 --> 00:28:05.509 it. Well, it's the way that we actually realize 00:28:05.509 --> 00:28:08.410 in the real world. So you don't find out what 00:28:08.410 --> 00:28:10.710 a thing is worth by asking what it's made of. 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.799 You find out what a thing is worth by watching 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:19.220 what someone is willing to pay for it. So I can 00:28:19.220 --> 00:28:22.160 look at, you know, this beautiful home that you've 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.099 got. And you may think it's great. But I might 00:28:26.099 --> 00:28:30.500 look at it and say, oh, maybe I would pay $100 00:28:30.500 --> 00:28:33.019 ,000 for it. You're like, this is a quarter of 00:28:33.019 --> 00:28:36.079 a million dollar home. No. Which in today's market, 00:28:36.259 --> 00:28:38.480 you'd be like, yeah, that's awesome, right? But 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:41.039 like, so. We can look at these things and say, 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:44.019 no, I don't think they're worth the same thing 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:46.400 that you think they're worth. So you find out 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.220 what something is worth by watching what someone's 00:28:48.220 --> 00:28:50.019 willing to pay for it. And if you've heard nothing 00:28:50.019 --> 00:28:52.740 I've said all morning, because I'm sure I don't 00:28:52.740 --> 00:28:54.700 know what I've said, some of this might be rambling, 00:28:54.819 --> 00:28:56.700 but I want you to hear this, because this is 00:28:56.700 --> 00:28:58.799 the most important thing I'm going to say this 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:03.240 morning. 1 Peter chapter 1. You were ransomed 00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:06.599 from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.700 not with perishable things such as silver or 00:29:09.700 --> 00:29:12.680 gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, 00:29:12.900 --> 00:29:16.319 like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:22.039 Not silver, not gold. Peter says God looked at 00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:24.099 the currencies of this world. He looked at the 00:29:24.099 --> 00:29:27.240 way things go in the marketplace, and he looked 00:29:27.240 --> 00:29:31.700 at all of this, and he saw. that the things that 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:33.799 we spend our whole lives chasing, the things 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:36.779 that we let assign our value, he saw that those 00:29:36.779 --> 00:29:39.500 things weren't enough to purchase his people. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:42.539 Now, truthfully, because there's like a sacrificial 00:29:42.539 --> 00:29:44.720 system, right? There has to be some perfect in 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:47.720 order to make some imperfect people whole. And 00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:49.900 so God looks at this. He says, none of that is 00:29:49.900 --> 00:29:53.079 enough for what I'm buying. You see, the price 00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:55.539 for you and I to be free, to be free from the 00:29:55.539 --> 00:29:57.940 painful reality, the scam of a system that is 00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:00.119 this world, the price for that was the blood 00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:04.380 of the Son of God. That's our worth. The word 00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:07.819 ransom means that there is absolutely a price 00:30:07.819 --> 00:30:10.559 demanded, that there was a price demanded for 00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:12.799 us to be freed from captivity, but there was 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:16.079 no price too big for God to pay for his children. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:20.319 That's what priceless means. It doesn't mean... 00:30:20.700 --> 00:30:24.000 Nobody ever put an evaluation on you. It doesn't 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:27.059 mean that nobody ever said you were worth or 00:30:27.059 --> 00:30:29.779 you cost this much. What it means is when it 00:30:29.779 --> 00:30:32.319 was time to pay up, the only thing in the universe 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:36.720 big enough to cover it was Jesus, and God paid 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.440 it anyway. Now, I want to be careful here. What 00:30:40.440 --> 00:30:42.779 I don't want to leave you with is just the idea 00:30:42.779 --> 00:30:44.980 that you're valuable, you're special, you're 00:30:44.980 --> 00:30:47.849 enough, believe in yourself. This isn't one of 00:30:47.849 --> 00:30:50.309 those feel -good sermons like that. What I want 00:30:50.309 --> 00:30:54.670 you to hear is I want you to know what you actually 00:30:54.670 --> 00:30:58.210 are, to know what you've done, because you know 00:30:58.210 --> 00:31:00.650 who you are and what you've done. You know what 00:31:00.650 --> 00:31:02.630 you're capable of, what you're incapable of. 00:31:02.670 --> 00:31:04.650 You know the thoughts that go through your head. 00:31:04.710 --> 00:31:07.509 You know the person you've been. And any message 00:31:07.509 --> 00:31:09.869 about your worth that requires you to forget 00:31:09.869 --> 00:31:13.980 all of that is not good news. It's not. Because 00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:16.700 if you forget the bad, then Jesus coming and 00:31:16.700 --> 00:31:18.920 sacrificing his life to forgive you of the bad 00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:22.579 doesn't make sense. So I don't want you to have 00:31:22.579 --> 00:31:25.799 this nice little feel -good buzz of, that's so 00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:28.059 good, God loves me. No, I want you to understand, 00:31:28.279 --> 00:31:31.660 we are bad people. We have done bad things. We 00:31:31.660 --> 00:31:33.799 have been bad places. We've said bad things. 00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:35.900 We have hurt people. We have sinned against God. 00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:39.240 What makes it so special, what makes this good 00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:43.930 news truly good is knowing that God doesn't care. 00:31:44.549 --> 00:31:49.549 He would purchase you back anyways. And see, 00:31:49.650 --> 00:31:51.789 that's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5, 00:31:51.869 --> 00:31:56.150 8. God shows his love for us in that while we 00:31:56.150 --> 00:32:00.269 were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after 00:32:00.269 --> 00:32:03.349 we cleaned up. Not once we became worthy. Not 00:32:03.349 --> 00:32:05.769 once we figured it all out. God knew exactly 00:32:05.769 --> 00:32:08.789 what he was buying and what it would cost. And 00:32:08.789 --> 00:32:14.180 he went through with the purchase anyways. See, 00:32:14.259 --> 00:32:17.079 this is somebody who knows exactly who you are. 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:22.299 He knows exactly who I am. And he paid full price 00:32:22.299 --> 00:32:26.119 with no hesitation. Only a good God could do 00:32:26.119 --> 00:32:29.160 that. And see, the world will try to price you. 00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:32.119 They'll move the price tag. They'll change the 00:32:32.119 --> 00:32:35.579 number. And if you let it, it will take you captive 00:32:35.579 --> 00:32:39.720 before you even notice. But we have a maker. 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:44.470 We have a creator. We have a purchaser. who says 00:32:44.470 --> 00:32:47.210 our worth comes from him, not from our condition, 00:32:47.509 --> 00:32:50.089 not from our performance. And our maker defines 00:32:50.089 --> 00:32:53.289 our worth by paying a price far greater than 00:32:53.289 --> 00:32:55.069 what we could ever imagine, far greater than 00:32:55.069 --> 00:33:00.269 we deserve. And he bought us back at the cost 00:33:00.269 --> 00:33:03.869 of his own son. So maybe there's a voice telling 00:33:03.869 --> 00:33:06.130 you that you're worthless. It might be the world. 00:33:06.230 --> 00:33:08.210 It might be somebody in your family. It might 00:33:08.210 --> 00:33:10.630 be a friend. It might be your own voice in the 00:33:10.630 --> 00:33:12.670 middle of all of the chaos that is your life. 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:16.640 I want you to hear this clearly. That voice is 00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:20.720 lying to you. You are not worthless. You are 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:24.839 not worth less. You are priceless. And so today, 00:33:24.900 --> 00:33:27.759 I want you to stop letting the world deceive 00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:31.079 you. Stop eating the bag of chips, this empty 00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:35.599 deceit, this hollow, shallow philosophy. If you're 00:33:35.599 --> 00:33:37.440 sitting here this morning and you've never given 00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:39.359 your life to Jesus, then I need you to hear me 00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:42.099 clearly. The price has been paid for you to have 00:33:42.099 --> 00:33:46.759 a full, abundant, substance -filled life. Nobody 00:33:46.759 --> 00:33:49.759 is asking you to earn it. Nobody is asking you 00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:52.799 to purchase it. Nobody is asking you to do things 00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:55.720 in order to get it. We are simply asking, and 00:33:55.720 --> 00:33:59.299 I'm begging you. to just receive it. It is a 00:33:59.299 --> 00:34:01.900 free gift. I don't know why we're so resistant 00:34:01.900 --> 00:34:05.619 to taking free gifts, but it is a free gift. 00:34:06.339 --> 00:34:09.539 Just receive it. And if you have received it, 00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:12.420 but you've drifted, you didn't lose your value, 00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:15.500 you just changed who you're letting define it. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.960 I need for all of us to remember that our value, 00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:24.059 our value is only defined by one person, and 00:34:24.059 --> 00:34:27.829 that is God. It's not me. It's not you. It's 00:34:27.829 --> 00:34:30.570 not the people around you. The only person who 00:34:30.570 --> 00:34:34.130 can tell you what you are worth is God. And if 00:34:34.130 --> 00:34:36.750 anyone says anything other than what God has 00:34:36.750 --> 00:34:41.389 said, they're lying. It's empty deceit. Do not 00:34:41.389 --> 00:34:44.050 be taken captive by it. And so this morning, 00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:46.389 no matter where you're at, if you've been taken 00:34:46.389 --> 00:34:49.269 captive or if you've just simply never received 00:34:49.269 --> 00:34:53.420 this good news free gift, of being purchased 00:34:53.420 --> 00:34:56.340 by the incredible, perfect, precious blood of 00:34:56.340 --> 00:34:59.179 Christ. Whatever you need, we invite you to come 00:34:59.179 --> 00:35:01.139 now as we stand and as we sing.