Sermon

Priceless | Donovan Rillion | Price Defined

Blairsville Church of Christ

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  1. So, I have been sick the last few days, so if

  2. I don't shake your hand or give you a hug, I'm

  3. looking out for you, I'm not trying to be rude.

  4. Also, I did tell Phil, like this is the first

  5. time that I've been out of the house and doing

  6. stuff. four days maybe. So I told Phil, if I

  7. pass out up here, the notes are on my screen.

  8. Just come up and just keep rolling, okay? But

  9. seriously, I'm super excited to start this new

  10. series called Priceless with you. It is no secret

  11. if you've been here since I've been here that

  12. I've spent the last year or so challenging us

  13. as a church family. I will blame that on my personality

  14. type. My Enneagram is the challenger. I like

  15. to push boundaries and I like to pull people,

  16. pull more out of people than they're used to

  17. being pulled out of. I think in another lifetime,

  18. probably I was a coach because that's just, I'm

  19. not good with just being content to be how I

  20. am. I feel like there's more. There's more to

  21. every person. There's more we can be doing. There's

  22. more we can be. And so I have been challenging

  23. us a lot. But I do feel like as a minister, I

  24. need to also encourage. And I also need to help

  25. people understand that while there is more to

  26. you, while you have been made for more, that

  27. what you are is also just fine. That what you

  28. are is still good. And so I want to encourage

  29. you, and the way that I'm going to do that is

  30. by starting with a question, and the question

  31. is, what am I worth? Now that's a question that

  32. most all of us have asked before. Maybe we've

  33. asked it in different ways, and many of us have

  34. never actually said that out loud, but we've

  35. asked the question, what am I actually worth?

  36. And when we ask that, we're not asking what our

  37. net worth is. We're not asking what the bank

  38. says or what the life insurance policy says.

  39. We're asking, what am I? What is Donovan? What

  40. is this person? What is this person that lives

  41. in a community that is a citizen, that is a family

  42. member, that is a father and a husband and a

  43. brother and a son? What am I worth? Because there's

  44. a moment, and I think everybody in this room

  45. has had this moment. Where you do the math on

  46. your own life, you start looking at your life

  47. and you don't really like the number that comes

  48. back. For some, that moment came at a young age.

  49. Maybe you didn't make the team or nobody sat

  50. with you on the bus or in the lunchroom. Maybe

  51. you waited all night and your mom or your dad

  52. didn't come home like they said they would and

  53. that night turned into weeks and then those weeks

  54. turned into months. For some people, this math...

  55. starts coming later where maybe you were a somebody

  56. at work. You were really, you had the position,

  57. you had the prestige, but then you retired and

  58. the phone stopped ringing and nobody seemed to

  59. need your services anymore. And it turned out

  60. that the world kind of keeps spinning without

  61. you. For some of you, it comes when or came when

  62. the kids grew up and they moved off and the house

  63. got quiet. For some, it came when your body quit

  64. doing what it used to do. You used to be the

  65. one who carried things and who would fix things

  66. and who would solve any issue, but now you need

  67. a little more help than you're actually able

  68. to provide yourself. And some of us, some of

  69. you are sitting here this morning, and it isn't

  70. a moment that you've had, but it's the constant

  71. reality of your life where you sit and you look

  72. at yourself and you ask yourself, what am I worth?

  73. Because you've never in your life felt like you

  74. were worth much of anything to anybody. And so

  75. we start this series called Priceless. And over

  76. the next few weeks, we're going to be asking

  77. the question and answering the question from

  78. a few different perspectives. But really, the

  79. question is simply, where does human worth actually

  80. come from and who defines it? What are you worth?

  81. What is your neighbor worth? What is that person

  82. that you can't stand worth? And what is the person

  83. that the world has written off worth? But to

  84. do that, to answer that question, we have to

  85. start with ourselves because we can't believe

  86. the right thing about anybody else's value until

  87. we believe the right thing about our own value.

  88. So let's start with this question today. How

  89. does a person get to where they say, I am worthless

  90. and actually believe it? Because believe it or

  91. not, there are people in this room right now,

  92. and you may be one of them, that you believe

  93. that you don't have much value, that you are

  94. worth less, that nobody really needs you, that

  95. if you were gone today, that everything would

  96. be just fine. In fact, it may be better if you

  97. weren't here. And so I sit here and I ask, and

  98. working with teenagers helped me with this, because

  99. I wonder, how do you get to the point where you

  100. feel like you're not worth anything? Like, I

  101. had a pretty rough upbringing, but I never once

  102. thought I wasn't worth anything. Like, I never

  103. thought that I was worth less. Now, I thought

  104. I was worth less than other people maybe, but

  105. I never thought I was worthless. And so how does

  106. somebody get there? Well, here's how. We live

  107. in a culture that assigns value the way a store

  108. assigns value. And unfortunately, we've all bought

  109. into that. We've all bought into this idea that

  110. if something is better than the next thing, or

  111. if people want this more than they want that,

  112. then it is worth more. And really what it all

  113. boils down to is it's comparison. What it boils

  114. down to is we compare ourselves to other people.

  115. And we sit here and we look at other people's

  116. walk. We look at other people's lives and we

  117. say, well, they've got it made this way, or they've

  118. got these things, or they've got this friendship

  119. and they've got these relationships and they're

  120. a part of these clubs and these social groups.

  121. So they must be worth more than me. But that's

  122. the world's metric of value. I think of this

  123. book, the second book in C .S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.

  124. And in the book, there's this like angelic lady

  125. figure. And she is described as like beautiful.

  126. And like I said, angelic. So she is this larger

  127. than life deity type being. And there's a human

  128. from earth. He's made it to this planet. I think

  129. it's Mars. But he makes it to this planet. And

  130. he is with this angelic woman. And he's being

  131. chased and tormented by this Satan type figure.

  132. And this Satan type figure, he figures that he

  133. can maybe mess with the way that this woman and

  134. this man's relationship is. It's not like a romantic

  135. relationship, just like it's a kind of a, he's

  136. trying to figure out where he is and what's going

  137. on on this planet because he doesn't know how

  138. he got here. And so this woman is very secure

  139. in who she is. She's like a lowercase g god,

  140. a goddess, I guess you would say. Well, the Satan

  141. figure gives the woman a mirror, and she had

  142. never once seen her reflection. She had seen

  143. other women. She had seen other angelic -type

  144. beings. She had seen other people, but she had

  145. never seen what she looked like. And again, she's

  146. described as this beautiful, angelic being, but

  147. now she starts to doubt herself and question

  148. herself, and she starts to feel like she's not

  149. good enough. You see, comparison truly is the

  150. thief of all joy. Comparison is what allows us

  151. to start thinking that we are worth less or in

  152. some cases that we are worthless. I want you

  153. to think about how the world defines worth. The

  154. world gives worth to people who can do things

  155. that other people can't do. If you can throw

  156. a football, if you can sing on key, if you can

  157. build a company up, you can look a certain way

  158. in a photograph, you are all of a sudden worth

  159. more than everybody else. And so we look up at

  160. those people, the talented, the accomplished,

  161. the wealthy, the beautiful, the famous, and we

  162. say, well, those folks, they have value. And

  163. then we look down at our ordinary lives, and

  164. we look at our own ordinary jobs, our own ordinary

  165. faces in an ordinary mirror, and we do the subtraction,

  166. and we start deciding that they're valuable.

  167. I'm not one of them, so I must not be valuable.

  168. And I want you to notice something about that

  169. system. It's built on comparison, and it only

  170. works by measuring you against others. Lucky

  171. for us, though, the Apostle Paul saw this issue,

  172. and he addressed it 2 ,000 years ago. He says

  173. this about the people who are doing it. When

  174. they measure themselves by one another and compare

  175. themselves with one another, they are without

  176. understanding. They're without understanding.

  177. He doesn't say they're mean. He doesn't call

  178. them arrogant or proud. He says they're ignorant.

  179. Or as Greg and Tim would say, they're idiots.

  180. They don't get it. They don't understand. They're

  181. measuring their worth in a foolish way. And this

  182. is an issue. Paul sees it and he says they don't

  183. understand. That their worth isn't about what

  184. they look like up against the next person. That

  185. their worth is from something else. And the other

  186. issue with the world system is that the world

  187. likes to move the goalposts. Like, think about

  188. what was considered beautiful today was not considered

  189. beautiful 40 years ago. And what was considered

  190. beautiful 40 years ago was not considered beautiful

  191. 40 years before that. What was considered really

  192. good at some, like, we think about music, right?

  193. Popular music today would have gotten thrown

  194. in the garbage 50 years ago. And rightfully so.

  195. But the world moves its goalposts. And so these

  196. values start to change. Have you ever bought

  197. something at full price? You didn't get a discount

  198. or anything on it. You bought it full price.

  199. Let's use shoes for an example, okay? So you

  200. go to the shoe store. You find the exact pair

  201. of shoes you wanted. They're not cheap, but you

  202. wanted them. So you thought about it. You talked

  203. yourself into it. You paid the money, and you

  204. carried those shoes out feeling pretty good about

  205. your purchase. And maybe this has happened to

  206. you before, but after you buy the shoes, maybe

  207. it's a week later, you're scrolling through Facebook,

  208. and you see an ad, same shoe store, for the same

  209. pair of shoes, but now those shoes are on sale,

  210. and they're 50 % off. and you look at your pair

  211. of shoes that you're wearing, and you're like,

  212. so I paid $200 for these, but I could have got

  213. them for $100 if I would have just waited. Well,

  214. the shoes didn't change. Like, nothing changed

  215. about the shoes. The shoe store didn't change.

  216. But something happened along the way between

  217. the day you bought them and the day they went

  218. on sale that caused the shoe store to decide

  219. they aren't worth as much anymore, so we're going

  220. to mark them down so that more people will buy

  221. them. See, the only thing that changed was the

  222. price tag. And that's exactly what it feels like

  223. to let the world tell you what you're worth.

  224. One day, you're valuable to them. One day, they

  225. can't go on without you. One day, they need you

  226. in order to make it through till tomorrow. I

  227. think about like my kids, right? You have a baby

  228. and... Right now, if it's a baby, they need you

  229. for everything. They can't feed themselves. They

  230. can't put themselves to sleep. They can't change

  231. their own diaper. They need you for everything.

  232. But two years later, they need you for a little

  233. bit less. And two years from there, they need

  234. you a little bit less. And before long, you've

  235. got a 25 -year -old. And they don't need you

  236. as much. Maybe they call you when they need a

  237. little bit extra money. But they don't need you

  238. as much as they did. 24 years before. You see,

  239. things change. Your price tag changes because

  240. the world changes it. Time passes, something

  241. newer or more exciting comes along, and all of

  242. a sudden the world decides that you are worth

  243. less. But the truth is, nothing about you changed

  244. except your price tag. That's what you're trusting

  245. to tell you who you are. A tag that someone else

  246. can change whenever they feel like it. Now I

  247. want you to listen to what Paul says to a church

  248. that's facing a similar issue in Colossians.

  249. And so we're going to look at some different

  250. passages today, but these passages from Colossians

  251. are kind of our root for this lesson. So let's

  252. look at Colossians chapter 2, starting in verses

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  253. 6 through 8. And if it's underlined, I would

  254. love for you to read along with me. Therefore,

  255. as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk

  256. in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established

  257. in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding

  258. in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes

  259. you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according

  260. to human tradition, according to the elemental

  261. spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

  262. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive.

  263. When you hear the word captive, you probably

  264. think immediately of like a prisoner or like

  265. somebody that's been kidnapped, somebody that's

  266. been captured. Paul says there's a way of thinking

  267. out there, that there is this logic, there is

  268. this philosophy, there are these things that

  269. people will put in your brain that they will

  270. put in your heart and in your mind that can take

  271. you captive, that will throw a sack over your

  272. head, tie you up, throw you in the van, run off

  273. with you. And it's this invasive way of thinking

  274. that you get talked into. Paul calls it empty

  275. deceit. It's this hollow logic. What it does

  276. is it looks full, it looks enticing, but in reality,

  277. it has no weight to it. It's like a bag of chips.

  278. You know how you feel like you could just keep

  279. eating a bag of chips? I have this bad habit

  280. that if I get, it's like we buy the family -sized

  281. bags of chips, right? And sometimes I'll go home

  282. for lunch, I'll sit down, I'll make a sandwich,

  283. and I'll go and I'll get the family -sized bag

  284. of chips. And because I'm the dad of the house,

  285. I get to eat out of the bag. So I will just,

  286. also my hygiene standards are really good. So

  287. I get to eat out of the bag. So I'll put this

  288. family size bag of chips on the table. I'll finish

  289. my sandwich. And now I'm a little full, but I'll

  290. start eating the chips. And the next thing I

  291. know, I've eaten like almost the entire family

  292. size bag of chips. You want to know the bad thing

  293. though? I could keep going. But I look at the

  294. bag and visually I see that's not good. But like

  295. physically I feel like I could keep eating. And

  296. that's what I think of when I think of this empty

  297. deceit. Like it looks good. It looks enticing.

  298. But it doesn't really fill you up. It's kind

  299. of like dessert. There's always room for dessert.

  300. I don't know why that works, but you get tricked

  301. into believing that you can take on more than

  302. you really should. And this empty deceit, it

  303. tricks you because it sounds reasonable. I want

  304. you to think about it this way. Nobody in this

  305. room, nobody who's ever doubted themselves, ever

  306. sat down and decided, you know what, today, I

  307. think I'll let a stranger at the grocery store

  308. define my worth today. You know what, I'll let

  309. the co -worker that, you know, that... Who cares

  310. about their... I'll let them decide. my value

  311. today. Nobody ever decides that that's what they're

  312. going to do. It just happens a little at a time.

  313. These subtle messages on the TV screen or on

  314. social media telling you that you need more or

  315. that you're not doing enough. The only thing

  316. you hear from that miserable parent or relative

  317. who no matter what you do, they can't seem to

  318. be proud of you or happy for you. You know what

  319. I mean? Like these people, these thoughts, these

  320. circumstances that take you captive. And Paul

  321. says, don't let that happen to you. Do not let

  322. them take you captive. You have been taught better.

  323. And now here's what I want us to understand about

  324. our situation this morning. And it's not just

  325. simply to stop believing the lies. It would be

  326. really easy for me to get up here and say, hey,

  327. stop believing that. But that's not what Paul

  328. does. Paul doesn't just tell them to think better

  329. thoughts. He actually calls their attention to

  330. what's happened to them. So I want you to see

  331. what Paul says in Colossians 3, verses 1 through

    Colossians 3:1–4

  332. 4. If then you have been raised with Christ,

  333. seek the things that are above where Christ is

  334. seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind

  335. on things that are above, not on things that

  336. are on earth. What Paul is saying is, When you

  337. came out of the water, when you gave your life

  338. to Christ, you were baptized, you came out of

  339. the water, you didn't just get forgiven, you

  340. got transferred from one market into another

  341. one. Essentially, the old scale, the way that

  342. the world would judge your worth and your value,

  343. the way that you might have judged your worth

  344. and your value in that old life, that has no

  345. jurisdiction over you anymore. You died. to that

  346. way of thinking. You died to that logic. And

  347. where does Paul say your life is now? He says

  348. it is hidden with Christ in God. And it's bound

  349. for glory. I love that. Like your life is not

  350. sitting on a shelf where the world can walk by

  351. and calculate a price and decide to discount

  352. you. You're not up for appraisal. Your life,

  353. your value is hidden. It's held. It is stored

  354. somewhere where the world cannot reach in and

  355. discount it. The world has no jurisdiction over

  356. your worth. And so when the world tells you what

  357. your worth is this week, and it will, it will

  358. try to at least, you can respond back to it with

  359. the truth. You don't have any say. You don't

  360. have access to that kind of definition of my

  361. life. In Romans 12 too, Paul says it plainly.

  362. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed

  363. by the renewal of your mind. You know what conformed

  364. means, right? It's like if I pour jello into

  365. a mold. Do people do that anymore? Jello molds?

  366. Hopefully you still do. I don't like jello, so

  367. I don't do that, but hopefully you do because

  368. it's cool. But so like when you pour jello into

  369. a mold, it's liquid, but then it sets, right?

  370. And it comes out in the shape of the mold. And

  371. I can remember as a kid, like for Halloween,

  372. we'd get like the little cheap plastic molds

  373. at the store, and we'd do like the pumpkin, you

  374. know, the jack -o' -lantern jello molds, or for

  375. Christmas we'd do, for some reason, we could

  376. just do jello molds for everything, right? I

  377. think we did an Easter bunny jello mold one time.

  378. But that's what happens to a person who lets

  379. the world define their worth. You pour yourself,

  380. you pour your life, you pour your thoughts and

  381. your abilities and you pour everything about

  382. you into a mold that the world will shape and

  383. decide what you are and what you're worth. But

  384. what Paul says is don't do that because you're

  385. not like them. And the truth of the matter is

  386. if we are in Christ, as Paul says, we are a new

  387. creation. We are not like the world. And so we

  388. don't do what the world does. We don't judge

  389. ourselves like the world does. So we don't get

  390. into their little jello molds. You see, that's

  391. what happens to a person who lets the world define

  392. their worth. But what Paul is trying to get us

  393. to do is stay away from the molds we used to

  394. pour or we used to be poured into and instead

  395. become something entirely different, which leads

  396. me to the point of today's lesson. If we understand

  397. that the world doesn't get to define our worth,

  398. we have to ask the question, who does? If the

  399. person next to me doesn't get to define my worth,

  400. if my spouse doesn't get to define my worth,

  401. if my employer doesn't get to define my worth,

  402. if my friend group, if my social group, if my

  403. church doesn't get to define my worth, then who

  404. does? Well, I feel like that's a pretty Sunday

  405. school answer. But let me ask you a different

  406. question then. Same question, different way.

  407. How does anything get to be valuable? You've

  408. seen it happen before where maybe somewhere in

  409. your family there's an item that really isn't

  410. worth anything special, but it's worth everything

  411. at the same time. I have a guitar. It's actually

  412. in my office. I have a guitar that is not worth

  413. much at all. I mean, it is, I could probably

  414. sell it for 20 bucks, and that would be just

  415. because somebody wants a guitar and they don't

  416. get them for free. But for me, It's valuable

  417. because my grandpa gave it to me. And I'm not

  418. giving it away. I would not sell it. I actually

  419. have two guitars that my grandpa gave me. And

  420. one of them is worth a little bit more, but they're

  421. not worth anything as much to the next person

  422. as they are to me. Because my grandpa gave them

  423. to me. Maybe it's a quilt. Maybe you've got a

  424. quilt that if a stranger walked through your

  425. house or they walked through an estate sale,

  426. they saw this quilt on a table, they would walk

  427. right past it. Maybe it's faded. It's a little

  428. worn out in some places. And you probably couldn't

  429. get but five or ten bucks for it. Now, I wrote

  430. this, and then I realized, like, quilts are pretty

  431. expensive. So, yeah, just go with me, okay? But

  432. so you couldn't get much for it. But for you,

  433. you would run into a burning house to get that

  434. quilt because your grandmother made that for

  435. you or your great -grandmother made it for you.

  436. And you know when she made it and for what occasion.

  437. You know the story behind each square of the

  438. quilt. To the stranger, it's just pieces of fabric

  439. stitched together, but to you, it is so much

  440. more because you know who made it and you know

  441. why. You see, our worth. Just like the quilt,

  442. just like my guitar, our worth comes from who

  443. made it or who gave it to you. And y 'all, that

  444. is the entire argument of the Bible about you.

  445. In Genesis chapter 1, we are told that God made

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  446. us, he made man, he made woman in his own image.

  447. That we are not some chemical accident, that

  448. we're not just some anomaly, that these atoms

  449. collided and this all just randomly happened.

  450. That's not the truth. First of all, it's not

  451. what scripture says, but like if you just need

  452. scientific proof, go do some research. Science

  453. says that's not what happened, okay? So we weren't

  454. an accident. We were intentionally made in the

  455. image of God. You were made on purpose by somebody,

  456. capital S, in his own image, and that is where

  457. your value comes from. That's where my value

  458. comes from, and that's why the world cannot touch

  459. our value. They cannot define it. They don't

  460. have the right to. And I want you to listen to

  461. how God talks about what he made. In Isaiah 43,

    Isaiah 43:4

  462. verse 4, God's talking to his people, the Israelites,

  463. and so I want you to see how God feels about

  464. his people. Because if you can understand how

  465. God feels about you, maybe it'll help you understand

  466. your value. You are precious in my eyes and honored,

  467. and I love you. God... looks at his people. He

  468. looks at you, regardless of your stains, regardless

  469. of how faded and worn out you might be, regardless

  470. of your age, what you've done, where you've been.

  471. God looks at you and he says, you are precious

  472. in my eyes. I love you. And this... that God

  473. is giving to his people, the Israelites, this

  474. isn't, they're not on their best day here. This

  475. is not them and like, they're doing great, they're

  476. honoring God and everything is great. No, no,

  477. no. This is one of their worst moments. But God

  478. looks at his covenant people and he says this

  479. about them. And if you are in Christ, I need

  480. you to understand you have been brought into

  481. that family, that covenant family, and that is

  482. God's word to you, that he is. He loves you.

  483. He is in love with you. He sees you as precious,

  484. as priceless. Or maybe if that's not enough for

  485. you because you're like, well, that's the Old

  486. Testament. I want you to see what Jesus, the

  487. Son of God, says in Luke 12, verse 7. Why? Even

    Luke 12:7

  488. the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear

  489. not. You are of more value than many sparrows.

  490. And this comes after Jesus is telling this crowd.

  491. of nobodies, these poor people, these working

  492. class people, these people that are constantly

  493. overlooked, overworked, and stepped over. He

  494. looked at them and he says, hey, you might worry

  495. about what you're going to eat, what you're going

  496. to drink, where you're going to sleep, but don't

  497. the sparrows, don't the birds of the air, doesn't

  498. God take care of them? Well, look at you. God

  499. knows every hair on your head. If he sees you

  500. as precious, I promise you, he cares more about

  501. you than those birds. And if they don't have

  502. to worry about anything, what do you have to

  503. worry about? You see, Jesus is telling us that

  504. God cares enough about us that he has counted

  505. the very hairs on your head. I love my kids.

  506. I will never, if you've seen my kids, you know

  507. they've got full heads of hair. I will never

  508. sit down and try to count every single hair on

  509. their head. I love them to death. I'm not doing

  510. that. But God, he knows every little detail about

  511. you. And even still. He says, you're valuable.

  512. You're priceless. Serious question, are you ever

  513. going to hear the world say that about you? Is

  514. the world ever going to tell you that you're

  515. precious? Is the world, is the screen, is social

  516. media, is the news, are they ever going to look

  517. at you and tell you, I know every little detail

  518. about you and I find you to be lovely? Is the

  519. marketplace, is the employer ever going to say

  520. I love you and nothing could ever change that?

  521. No. So why on earth do we still let them define

  522. our worth? See, creation isn't even the strongest

  523. thing that God has said about your worth because

  524. you can make something and you can still walk

  525. away from it. I like to write songs. I've written

  526. several songs that I wrote once and I've never

  527. looked at again. They're stuck in a notebook

  528. somewhere. You know why? Because they weren't

  529. that good. And so I just don't care about them.

  530. But I've also got songs that I've written that

  531. I'll go and I'll just play all the time and over

  532. and over and over again. Why? Because I love

  533. those. So you can make something and still walk

  534. away from it. You can build something and lose

  535. interest, but God didn't create us and walk away.

  536. Like this isn't something where God created the

  537. world, set it on spin, and just walked away from

  538. it. So there's another way to know what something

  539. is worth, and it's the way that we actually settle

  540. it. Well, it's the way that we actually realize

  541. in the real world. So you don't find out what

  542. a thing is worth by asking what it's made of.

  543. You find out what a thing is worth by watching

  544. what someone is willing to pay for it. So I can

  545. look at, you know, this beautiful home that you've

  546. got. And you may think it's great. But I might

  547. look at it and say, oh, maybe I would pay $100

  548. ,000 for it. You're like, this is a quarter of

  549. a million dollar home. No. Which in today's market,

  550. you'd be like, yeah, that's awesome, right? But

  551. like, so. We can look at these things and say,

  552. no, I don't think they're worth the same thing

  553. that you think they're worth. So you find out

  554. what something is worth by watching what someone's

  555. willing to pay for it. And if you've heard nothing

  556. I've said all morning, because I'm sure I don't

  557. know what I've said, some of this might be rambling,

  558. but I want you to hear this, because this is

  559. the most important thing I'm going to say this

  560. morning. 1 Peter chapter 1. You were ransomed

    1 Peter 1 chapter mention

  561. from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers.

  562. not with perishable things such as silver or

  563. gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,

  564. like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

  565. Not silver, not gold. Peter says God looked at

  566. the currencies of this world. He looked at the

  567. way things go in the marketplace, and he looked

  568. at all of this, and he saw. that the things that

  569. we spend our whole lives chasing, the things

  570. that we let assign our value, he saw that those

  571. things weren't enough to purchase his people.

  572. Now, truthfully, because there's like a sacrificial

  573. system, right? There has to be some perfect in

  574. order to make some imperfect people whole. And

  575. so God looks at this. He says, none of that is

  576. enough for what I'm buying. You see, the price

  577. for you and I to be free, to be free from the

  578. painful reality, the scam of a system that is

  579. this world, the price for that was the blood

  580. of the Son of God. That's our worth. The word

  581. ransom means that there is absolutely a price

  582. demanded, that there was a price demanded for

  583. us to be freed from captivity, but there was

  584. no price too big for God to pay for his children.

  585. That's what priceless means. It doesn't mean...

  586. Nobody ever put an evaluation on you. It doesn't

  587. mean that nobody ever said you were worth or

  588. you cost this much. What it means is when it

  589. was time to pay up, the only thing in the universe

  590. big enough to cover it was Jesus, and God paid

  591. it anyway. Now, I want to be careful here. What

  592. I don't want to leave you with is just the idea

  593. that you're valuable, you're special, you're

  594. enough, believe in yourself. This isn't one of

  595. those feel -good sermons like that. What I want

  596. you to hear is I want you to know what you actually

  597. are, to know what you've done, because you know

  598. who you are and what you've done. You know what

  599. you're capable of, what you're incapable of.

  600. You know the thoughts that go through your head.

  601. You know the person you've been. And any message

  602. about your worth that requires you to forget

  603. all of that is not good news. It's not. Because

  604. if you forget the bad, then Jesus coming and

  605. sacrificing his life to forgive you of the bad

  606. doesn't make sense. So I don't want you to have

  607. this nice little feel -good buzz of, that's so

  608. good, God loves me. No, I want you to understand,

  609. we are bad people. We have done bad things. We

  610. have been bad places. We've said bad things.

  611. We have hurt people. We have sinned against God.

  612. What makes it so special, what makes this good

  613. news truly good is knowing that God doesn't care.

  614. He would purchase you back anyways. And see,

  615. that's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5,

  616. 8. God shows his love for us in that while we

  617. were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after

  618. we cleaned up. Not once we became worthy. Not

  619. once we figured it all out. God knew exactly

  620. what he was buying and what it would cost. And

  621. he went through with the purchase anyways. See,

  622. this is somebody who knows exactly who you are.

  623. He knows exactly who I am. And he paid full price

  624. with no hesitation. Only a good God could do

  625. that. And see, the world will try to price you.

  626. They'll move the price tag. They'll change the

  627. number. And if you let it, it will take you captive

  628. before you even notice. But we have a maker.

  629. We have a creator. We have a purchaser. who says

  630. our worth comes from him, not from our condition,

  631. not from our performance. And our maker defines

  632. our worth by paying a price far greater than

  633. what we could ever imagine, far greater than

  634. we deserve. And he bought us back at the cost

  635. of his own son. So maybe there's a voice telling

  636. you that you're worthless. It might be the world.

  637. It might be somebody in your family. It might

  638. be a friend. It might be your own voice in the

  639. middle of all of the chaos that is your life.

  640. I want you to hear this clearly. That voice is

  641. lying to you. You are not worthless. You are

  642. not worth less. You are priceless. And so today,

  643. I want you to stop letting the world deceive

  644. you. Stop eating the bag of chips, this empty

  645. deceit, this hollow, shallow philosophy. If you're

  646. sitting here this morning and you've never given

  647. your life to Jesus, then I need you to hear me

  648. clearly. The price has been paid for you to have

  649. a full, abundant, substance -filled life. Nobody

  650. is asking you to earn it. Nobody is asking you

  651. to purchase it. Nobody is asking you to do things

  652. in order to get it. We are simply asking, and

  653. I'm begging you. to just receive it. It is a

  654. free gift. I don't know why we're so resistant

  655. to taking free gifts, but it is a free gift.

  656. Just receive it. And if you have received it,

  657. but you've drifted, you didn't lose your value,

  658. you just changed who you're letting define it.

  659. I need for all of us to remember that our value,

  660. our value is only defined by one person, and

  661. that is God. It's not me. It's not you. It's

  662. not the people around you. The only person who

  663. can tell you what you are worth is God. And if

  664. anyone says anything other than what God has

  665. said, they're lying. It's empty deceit. Do not

  666. be taken captive by it. And so this morning,

  667. no matter where you're at, if you've been taken

  668. captive or if you've just simply never received

  669. this good news free gift, of being purchased

  670. by the incredible, perfect, precious blood of

  671. Christ. Whatever you need, we invite you to come

  672. now as we stand and as we sing.