So, I have been sick the last few days, so if
I don't shake your hand or give you a hug, I'm
looking out for you, I'm not trying to be rude.
Also, I did tell Phil, like this is the first
time that I've been out of the house and doing
stuff. four days maybe. So I told Phil, if I
pass out up here, the notes are on my screen.
Just come up and just keep rolling, okay? But
seriously, I'm super excited to start this new
series called Priceless with you. It is no secret
if you've been here since I've been here that
I've spent the last year or so challenging us
as a church family. I will blame that on my personality
type. My Enneagram is the challenger. I like
to push boundaries and I like to pull people,
pull more out of people than they're used to
being pulled out of. I think in another lifetime,
probably I was a coach because that's just, I'm
not good with just being content to be how I
am. I feel like there's more. There's more to
every person. There's more we can be doing. There's
more we can be. And so I have been challenging
us a lot. But I do feel like as a minister, I
need to also encourage. And I also need to help
people understand that while there is more to
you, while you have been made for more, that
what you are is also just fine. That what you
are is still good. And so I want to encourage
you, and the way that I'm going to do that is
by starting with a question, and the question
is, what am I worth? Now that's a question that
most all of us have asked before. Maybe we've
asked it in different ways, and many of us have
never actually said that out loud, but we've
asked the question, what am I actually worth?
And when we ask that, we're not asking what our
net worth is. We're not asking what the bank
says or what the life insurance policy says.
We're asking, what am I? What is Donovan? What
is this person? What is this person that lives
in a community that is a citizen, that is a family
member, that is a father and a husband and a
brother and a son? What am I worth? Because there's
a moment, and I think everybody in this room
has had this moment. Where you do the math on
your own life, you start looking at your life
and you don't really like the number that comes
back. For some, that moment came at a young age.
Maybe you didn't make the team or nobody sat
with you on the bus or in the lunchroom. Maybe
you waited all night and your mom or your dad
didn't come home like they said they would and
that night turned into weeks and then those weeks
turned into months. For some people, this math...
starts coming later where maybe you were a somebody
at work. You were really, you had the position,
you had the prestige, but then you retired and
the phone stopped ringing and nobody seemed to
need your services anymore. And it turned out
that the world kind of keeps spinning without
you. For some of you, it comes when or came when
the kids grew up and they moved off and the house
got quiet. For some, it came when your body quit
doing what it used to do. You used to be the
one who carried things and who would fix things
and who would solve any issue, but now you need
a little more help than you're actually able
to provide yourself. And some of us, some of
you are sitting here this morning, and it isn't
a moment that you've had, but it's the constant
reality of your life where you sit and you look
at yourself and you ask yourself, what am I worth?
Because you've never in your life felt like you
were worth much of anything to anybody. And so
we start this series called Priceless. And over
the next few weeks, we're going to be asking
the question and answering the question from
a few different perspectives. But really, the
question is simply, where does human worth actually
come from and who defines it? What are you worth?
What is your neighbor worth? What is that person
that you can't stand worth? And what is the person
that the world has written off worth? But to
do that, to answer that question, we have to
start with ourselves because we can't believe
the right thing about anybody else's value until
we believe the right thing about our own value.
So let's start with this question today. How
does a person get to where they say, I am worthless
and actually believe it? Because believe it or
not, there are people in this room right now,
and you may be one of them, that you believe
that you don't have much value, that you are
worth less, that nobody really needs you, that
if you were gone today, that everything would
be just fine. In fact, it may be better if you
weren't here. And so I sit here and I ask, and
working with teenagers helped me with this, because
I wonder, how do you get to the point where you
feel like you're not worth anything? Like, I
had a pretty rough upbringing, but I never once
thought I wasn't worth anything. Like, I never
thought that I was worth less. Now, I thought
I was worth less than other people maybe, but
I never thought I was worthless. And so how does
somebody get there? Well, here's how. We live
in a culture that assigns value the way a store
assigns value. And unfortunately, we've all bought
into that. We've all bought into this idea that
if something is better than the next thing, or
if people want this more than they want that,
then it is worth more. And really what it all
boils down to is it's comparison. What it boils
down to is we compare ourselves to other people.
And we sit here and we look at other people's
walk. We look at other people's lives and we
say, well, they've got it made this way, or they've
got these things, or they've got this friendship
and they've got these relationships and they're
a part of these clubs and these social groups.
So they must be worth more than me. But that's
the world's metric of value. I think of this
book, the second book in C .S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.
And in the book, there's this like angelic lady
figure. And she is described as like beautiful.
And like I said, angelic. So she is this larger
than life deity type being. And there's a human
from earth. He's made it to this planet. I think
it's Mars. But he makes it to this planet. And
he is with this angelic woman. And he's being
chased and tormented by this Satan type figure.
And this Satan type figure, he figures that he
can maybe mess with the way that this woman and
this man's relationship is. It's not like a romantic
relationship, just like it's a kind of a, he's
trying to figure out where he is and what's going
on on this planet because he doesn't know how
he got here. And so this woman is very secure
in who she is. She's like a lowercase g god,
a goddess, I guess you would say. Well, the Satan
figure gives the woman a mirror, and she had
never once seen her reflection. She had seen
other women. She had seen other angelic -type
beings. She had seen other people, but she had
never seen what she looked like. And again, she's
described as this beautiful, angelic being, but
now she starts to doubt herself and question
herself, and she starts to feel like she's not
good enough. You see, comparison truly is the
thief of all joy. Comparison is what allows us
to start thinking that we are worth less or in
some cases that we are worthless. I want you
to think about how the world defines worth. The
world gives worth to people who can do things
that other people can't do. If you can throw
a football, if you can sing on key, if you can
build a company up, you can look a certain way
in a photograph, you are all of a sudden worth
more than everybody else. And so we look up at
those people, the talented, the accomplished,
the wealthy, the beautiful, the famous, and we
say, well, those folks, they have value. And
then we look down at our ordinary lives, and
we look at our own ordinary jobs, our own ordinary
faces in an ordinary mirror, and we do the subtraction,
and we start deciding that they're valuable.
I'm not one of them, so I must not be valuable.
And I want you to notice something about that
system. It's built on comparison, and it only
works by measuring you against others. Lucky
for us, though, the Apostle Paul saw this issue,
and he addressed it 2 ,000 years ago. He says
this about the people who are doing it. When
they measure themselves by one another and compare
themselves with one another, they are without
understanding. They're without understanding.
He doesn't say they're mean. He doesn't call
them arrogant or proud. He says they're ignorant.
Or as Greg and Tim would say, they're idiots.
They don't get it. They don't understand. They're
measuring their worth in a foolish way. And this
is an issue. Paul sees it and he says they don't
understand. That their worth isn't about what
they look like up against the next person. That
their worth is from something else. And the other
issue with the world system is that the world
likes to move the goalposts. Like, think about
what was considered beautiful today was not considered
beautiful 40 years ago. And what was considered
beautiful 40 years ago was not considered beautiful
40 years before that. What was considered really
good at some, like, we think about music, right?
Popular music today would have gotten thrown
in the garbage 50 years ago. And rightfully so.
But the world moves its goalposts. And so these
values start to change. Have you ever bought
something at full price? You didn't get a discount
or anything on it. You bought it full price.
Let's use shoes for an example, okay? So you
go to the shoe store. You find the exact pair
of shoes you wanted. They're not cheap, but you
wanted them. So you thought about it. You talked
yourself into it. You paid the money, and you
carried those shoes out feeling pretty good about
your purchase. And maybe this has happened to
you before, but after you buy the shoes, maybe
it's a week later, you're scrolling through Facebook,
and you see an ad, same shoe store, for the same
pair of shoes, but now those shoes are on sale,
and they're 50 % off. and you look at your pair
of shoes that you're wearing, and you're like,
so I paid $200 for these, but I could have got
them for $100 if I would have just waited. Well,
the shoes didn't change. Like, nothing changed
about the shoes. The shoe store didn't change.
But something happened along the way between
the day you bought them and the day they went
on sale that caused the shoe store to decide
they aren't worth as much anymore, so we're going
to mark them down so that more people will buy
them. See, the only thing that changed was the
price tag. And that's exactly what it feels like
to let the world tell you what you're worth.
One day, you're valuable to them. One day, they
can't go on without you. One day, they need you
in order to make it through till tomorrow. I
think about like my kids, right? You have a baby
and... Right now, if it's a baby, they need you
for everything. They can't feed themselves. They
can't put themselves to sleep. They can't change
their own diaper. They need you for everything.
But two years later, they need you for a little
bit less. And two years from there, they need
you a little bit less. And before long, you've
got a 25 -year -old. And they don't need you
as much. Maybe they call you when they need a
little bit extra money. But they don't need you
as much as they did. 24 years before. You see,
things change. Your price tag changes because
the world changes it. Time passes, something
newer or more exciting comes along, and all of
a sudden the world decides that you are worth
less. But the truth is, nothing about you changed
except your price tag. That's what you're trusting
to tell you who you are. A tag that someone else
can change whenever they feel like it. Now I
want you to listen to what Paul says to a church
that's facing a similar issue in Colossians.
And so we're going to look at some different
passages today, but these passages from Colossians
are kind of our root for this lesson. So let's
look at Colossians chapter 2, starting in verses
6 through 8. And if it's underlined, I would
love for you to read along with me. Therefore,
as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established
in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding
in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes
you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according
to human tradition, according to the elemental
spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
He says, see to it that no one takes you captive.
When you hear the word captive, you probably
think immediately of like a prisoner or like
somebody that's been kidnapped, somebody that's
been captured. Paul says there's a way of thinking
out there, that there is this logic, there is
this philosophy, there are these things that
people will put in your brain that they will
put in your heart and in your mind that can take
you captive, that will throw a sack over your
head, tie you up, throw you in the van, run off
with you. And it's this invasive way of thinking
that you get talked into. Paul calls it empty
deceit. It's this hollow logic. What it does
is it looks full, it looks enticing, but in reality,
it has no weight to it. It's like a bag of chips.
You know how you feel like you could just keep
eating a bag of chips? I have this bad habit
that if I get, it's like we buy the family -sized
bags of chips, right? And sometimes I'll go home
for lunch, I'll sit down, I'll make a sandwich,
and I'll go and I'll get the family -sized bag
of chips. And because I'm the dad of the house,
I get to eat out of the bag. So I will just,
also my hygiene standards are really good. So
I get to eat out of the bag. So I'll put this
family size bag of chips on the table. I'll finish
my sandwich. And now I'm a little full, but I'll
start eating the chips. And the next thing I
know, I've eaten like almost the entire family
size bag of chips. You want to know the bad thing
though? I could keep going. But I look at the
bag and visually I see that's not good. But like
physically I feel like I could keep eating. And
that's what I think of when I think of this empty
deceit. Like it looks good. It looks enticing.
But it doesn't really fill you up. It's kind
of like dessert. There's always room for dessert.
I don't know why that works, but you get tricked
into believing that you can take on more than
you really should. And this empty deceit, it
tricks you because it sounds reasonable. I want
you to think about it this way. Nobody in this
room, nobody who's ever doubted themselves, ever
sat down and decided, you know what, today, I
think I'll let a stranger at the grocery store
define my worth today. You know what, I'll let
the co -worker that, you know, that... Who cares
about their... I'll let them decide. my value
today. Nobody ever decides that that's what they're
going to do. It just happens a little at a time.
These subtle messages on the TV screen or on
social media telling you that you need more or
that you're not doing enough. The only thing
you hear from that miserable parent or relative
who no matter what you do, they can't seem to
be proud of you or happy for you. You know what
I mean? Like these people, these thoughts, these
circumstances that take you captive. And Paul
says, don't let that happen to you. Do not let
them take you captive. You have been taught better.
And now here's what I want us to understand about
our situation this morning. And it's not just
simply to stop believing the lies. It would be
really easy for me to get up here and say, hey,
stop believing that. But that's not what Paul
does. Paul doesn't just tell them to think better
thoughts. He actually calls their attention to
what's happened to them. So I want you to see
what Paul says in Colossians 3, verses 1 through
4. If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind
on things that are above, not on things that
are on earth. What Paul is saying is, When you
came out of the water, when you gave your life
to Christ, you were baptized, you came out of
the water, you didn't just get forgiven, you
got transferred from one market into another
one. Essentially, the old scale, the way that
the world would judge your worth and your value,
the way that you might have judged your worth
and your value in that old life, that has no
jurisdiction over you anymore. You died. to that
way of thinking. You died to that logic. And
where does Paul say your life is now? He says
it is hidden with Christ in God. And it's bound
for glory. I love that. Like your life is not
sitting on a shelf where the world can walk by
and calculate a price and decide to discount
you. You're not up for appraisal. Your life,
your value is hidden. It's held. It is stored
somewhere where the world cannot reach in and
discount it. The world has no jurisdiction over
your worth. And so when the world tells you what
your worth is this week, and it will, it will
try to at least, you can respond back to it with
the truth. You don't have any say. You don't
have access to that kind of definition of my
life. In Romans 12 too, Paul says it plainly.
Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind. You know what conformed
means, right? It's like if I pour jello into
a mold. Do people do that anymore? Jello molds?
Hopefully you still do. I don't like jello, so
I don't do that, but hopefully you do because
it's cool. But so like when you pour jello into
a mold, it's liquid, but then it sets, right?
And it comes out in the shape of the mold. And
I can remember as a kid, like for Halloween,
we'd get like the little cheap plastic molds
at the store, and we'd do like the pumpkin, you
know, the jack -o' -lantern jello molds, or for
Christmas we'd do, for some reason, we could
just do jello molds for everything, right? I
think we did an Easter bunny jello mold one time.
But that's what happens to a person who lets
the world define their worth. You pour yourself,
you pour your life, you pour your thoughts and
your abilities and you pour everything about
you into a mold that the world will shape and
decide what you are and what you're worth. But
what Paul says is don't do that because you're
not like them. And the truth of the matter is
if we are in Christ, as Paul says, we are a new
creation. We are not like the world. And so we
don't do what the world does. We don't judge
ourselves like the world does. So we don't get
into their little jello molds. You see, that's
what happens to a person who lets the world define
their worth. But what Paul is trying to get us
to do is stay away from the molds we used to
pour or we used to be poured into and instead
become something entirely different, which leads
me to the point of today's lesson. If we understand
that the world doesn't get to define our worth,
we have to ask the question, who does? If the
person next to me doesn't get to define my worth,
if my spouse doesn't get to define my worth,
if my employer doesn't get to define my worth,
if my friend group, if my social group, if my
church doesn't get to define my worth, then who
does? Well, I feel like that's a pretty Sunday
school answer. But let me ask you a different
question then. Same question, different way.
How does anything get to be valuable? You've
seen it happen before where maybe somewhere in
your family there's an item that really isn't
worth anything special, but it's worth everything
at the same time. I have a guitar. It's actually
in my office. I have a guitar that is not worth
much at all. I mean, it is, I could probably
sell it for 20 bucks, and that would be just
because somebody wants a guitar and they don't
get them for free. But for me, It's valuable
because my grandpa gave it to me. And I'm not
giving it away. I would not sell it. I actually
have two guitars that my grandpa gave me. And
one of them is worth a little bit more, but they're
not worth anything as much to the next person
as they are to me. Because my grandpa gave them
to me. Maybe it's a quilt. Maybe you've got a
quilt that if a stranger walked through your
house or they walked through an estate sale,
they saw this quilt on a table, they would walk
right past it. Maybe it's faded. It's a little
worn out in some places. And you probably couldn't
get but five or ten bucks for it. Now, I wrote
this, and then I realized, like, quilts are pretty
expensive. So, yeah, just go with me, okay? But
so you couldn't get much for it. But for you,
you would run into a burning house to get that
quilt because your grandmother made that for
you or your great -grandmother made it for you.
And you know when she made it and for what occasion.
You know the story behind each square of the
quilt. To the stranger, it's just pieces of fabric
stitched together, but to you, it is so much
more because you know who made it and you know
why. You see, our worth. Just like the quilt,
just like my guitar, our worth comes from who
made it or who gave it to you. And y 'all, that
is the entire argument of the Bible about you.
In Genesis chapter 1, we are told that God made
us, he made man, he made woman in his own image.
That we are not some chemical accident, that
we're not just some anomaly, that these atoms
collided and this all just randomly happened.
That's not the truth. First of all, it's not
what scripture says, but like if you just need
scientific proof, go do some research. Science
says that's not what happened, okay? So we weren't
an accident. We were intentionally made in the
image of God. You were made on purpose by somebody,
capital S, in his own image, and that is where
your value comes from. That's where my value
comes from, and that's why the world cannot touch
our value. They cannot define it. They don't
have the right to. And I want you to listen to
how God talks about what he made. In Isaiah 43,
verse 4, God's talking to his people, the Israelites,
and so I want you to see how God feels about
his people. Because if you can understand how
God feels about you, maybe it'll help you understand
your value. You are precious in my eyes and honored,
and I love you. God... looks at his people. He
looks at you, regardless of your stains, regardless
of how faded and worn out you might be, regardless
of your age, what you've done, where you've been.
God looks at you and he says, you are precious
in my eyes. I love you. And this... that God
is giving to his people, the Israelites, this
isn't, they're not on their best day here. This
is not them and like, they're doing great, they're
honoring God and everything is great. No, no,
no. This is one of their worst moments. But God
looks at his covenant people and he says this
about them. And if you are in Christ, I need
you to understand you have been brought into
that family, that covenant family, and that is
God's word to you, that he is. He loves you.
He is in love with you. He sees you as precious,
as priceless. Or maybe if that's not enough for
you because you're like, well, that's the Old
Testament. I want you to see what Jesus, the
Son of God, says in Luke 12, verse 7. Why? Even
the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear
not. You are of more value than many sparrows.
And this comes after Jesus is telling this crowd.
of nobodies, these poor people, these working
class people, these people that are constantly
overlooked, overworked, and stepped over. He
looked at them and he says, hey, you might worry
about what you're going to eat, what you're going
to drink, where you're going to sleep, but don't
the sparrows, don't the birds of the air, doesn't
God take care of them? Well, look at you. God
knows every hair on your head. If he sees you
as precious, I promise you, he cares more about
you than those birds. And if they don't have
to worry about anything, what do you have to
worry about? You see, Jesus is telling us that
God cares enough about us that he has counted
the very hairs on your head. I love my kids.
I will never, if you've seen my kids, you know
they've got full heads of hair. I will never
sit down and try to count every single hair on
their head. I love them to death. I'm not doing
that. But God, he knows every little detail about
you. And even still. He says, you're valuable.
You're priceless. Serious question, are you ever
going to hear the world say that about you? Is
the world ever going to tell you that you're
precious? Is the world, is the screen, is social
media, is the news, are they ever going to look
at you and tell you, I know every little detail
about you and I find you to be lovely? Is the
marketplace, is the employer ever going to say
I love you and nothing could ever change that?
No. So why on earth do we still let them define
our worth? See, creation isn't even the strongest
thing that God has said about your worth because
you can make something and you can still walk
away from it. I like to write songs. I've written
several songs that I wrote once and I've never
looked at again. They're stuck in a notebook
somewhere. You know why? Because they weren't
that good. And so I just don't care about them.
But I've also got songs that I've written that
I'll go and I'll just play all the time and over
and over and over again. Why? Because I love
those. So you can make something and still walk
away from it. You can build something and lose
interest, but God didn't create us and walk away.
Like this isn't something where God created the
world, set it on spin, and just walked away from
it. So there's another way to know what something
is worth, and it's the way that we actually settle
it. Well, it's the way that we actually realize
in the real world. So you don't find out what
a thing is worth by asking what it's made of.
You find out what a thing is worth by watching
what someone is willing to pay for it. So I can
look at, you know, this beautiful home that you've
got. And you may think it's great. But I might
look at it and say, oh, maybe I would pay $100
,000 for it. You're like, this is a quarter of
a million dollar home. No. Which in today's market,
you'd be like, yeah, that's awesome, right? But
like, so. We can look at these things and say,
no, I don't think they're worth the same thing
that you think they're worth. So you find out
what something is worth by watching what someone's
willing to pay for it. And if you've heard nothing
I've said all morning, because I'm sure I don't
know what I've said, some of this might be rambling,
but I want you to hear this, because this is
the most important thing I'm going to say this
morning. 1 Peter chapter 1. You were ransomed
from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers.
not with perishable things such as silver or
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,
like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Not silver, not gold. Peter says God looked at
the currencies of this world. He looked at the
way things go in the marketplace, and he looked
at all of this, and he saw. that the things that
we spend our whole lives chasing, the things
that we let assign our value, he saw that those
things weren't enough to purchase his people.
Now, truthfully, because there's like a sacrificial
system, right? There has to be some perfect in
order to make some imperfect people whole. And
so God looks at this. He says, none of that is
enough for what I'm buying. You see, the price
for you and I to be free, to be free from the
painful reality, the scam of a system that is
this world, the price for that was the blood
of the Son of God. That's our worth. The word
ransom means that there is absolutely a price
demanded, that there was a price demanded for
us to be freed from captivity, but there was
no price too big for God to pay for his children.
That's what priceless means. It doesn't mean...
Nobody ever put an evaluation on you. It doesn't
mean that nobody ever said you were worth or
you cost this much. What it means is when it
was time to pay up, the only thing in the universe
big enough to cover it was Jesus, and God paid
it anyway. Now, I want to be careful here. What
I don't want to leave you with is just the idea
that you're valuable, you're special, you're
enough, believe in yourself. This isn't one of
those feel -good sermons like that. What I want
you to hear is I want you to know what you actually
are, to know what you've done, because you know
who you are and what you've done. You know what
you're capable of, what you're incapable of.
You know the thoughts that go through your head.
You know the person you've been. And any message
about your worth that requires you to forget
all of that is not good news. It's not. Because
if you forget the bad, then Jesus coming and
sacrificing his life to forgive you of the bad
doesn't make sense. So I don't want you to have
this nice little feel -good buzz of, that's so
good, God loves me. No, I want you to understand,
we are bad people. We have done bad things. We
have been bad places. We've said bad things.
We have hurt people. We have sinned against God.
What makes it so special, what makes this good
news truly good is knowing that God doesn't care.
He would purchase you back anyways. And see,
that's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5,
8. God shows his love for us in that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after
we cleaned up. Not once we became worthy. Not
once we figured it all out. God knew exactly
what he was buying and what it would cost. And
he went through with the purchase anyways. See,
this is somebody who knows exactly who you are.
He knows exactly who I am. And he paid full price
with no hesitation. Only a good God could do
that. And see, the world will try to price you.
They'll move the price tag. They'll change the
number. And if you let it, it will take you captive
before you even notice. But we have a maker.
We have a creator. We have a purchaser. who says
our worth comes from him, not from our condition,
not from our performance. And our maker defines
our worth by paying a price far greater than
what we could ever imagine, far greater than
we deserve. And he bought us back at the cost
of his own son. So maybe there's a voice telling
you that you're worthless. It might be the world.
It might be somebody in your family. It might
be a friend. It might be your own voice in the
middle of all of the chaos that is your life.
I want you to hear this clearly. That voice is
lying to you. You are not worthless. You are
not worth less. You are priceless. And so today,
I want you to stop letting the world deceive
you. Stop eating the bag of chips, this empty
deceit, this hollow, shallow philosophy. If you're
sitting here this morning and you've never given
your life to Jesus, then I need you to hear me
clearly. The price has been paid for you to have
a full, abundant, substance -filled life. Nobody
is asking you to earn it. Nobody is asking you
to purchase it. Nobody is asking you to do things
in order to get it. We are simply asking, and
I'm begging you. to just receive it. It is a
free gift. I don't know why we're so resistant
to taking free gifts, but it is a free gift.
Just receive it. And if you have received it,
but you've drifted, you didn't lose your value,
you just changed who you're letting define it.
I need for all of us to remember that our value,
our value is only defined by one person, and
that is God. It's not me. It's not you. It's
not the people around you. The only person who
can tell you what you are worth is God. And if
anyone says anything other than what God has
said, they're lying. It's empty deceit. Do not
be taken captive by it. And so this morning,
no matter where you're at, if you've been taken
captive or if you've just simply never received
this good news free gift, of being purchased
by the incredible, perfect, precious blood of
Christ. Whatever you need, we invite you to come
now as we stand and as we sing.