Uncommon: Uncommon Value
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: When you belong to Jesus, you have uncommon value because you were not only created in God’s image but have been purchased by Christ’s blood.
Looking for the Special
Finding Someone of Value
No Greater Worth
Looking for the Special
We are all looking for a place where we can feel special and belong.
Proverbs 19:22 ESV
“What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar.”
This is the theme of so many of our popular movies and works of literature.
A recent study by the Fuller Youth Institute resulted in the book:
3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager book by Kara Powell and Brad Griffin
Identity - Who am I?
Belonging - Where do I fit?
Purpose - What difference can I make?
A recent seminar with Andy Jung of the Fuller Youth Institute noted that:
Harry Potter was filled with these three driving questions.
So were movies such as Shang-Chi
and Encanto…
*We find that the same questions are in the transition of empty-nesters.
“There is something so valuable about human beings that not only may they not be murdered, but they can’t even be cursed without failing to give them their due, based on the worth bestowed upon them by God. The image of God carries with it the right to not be mistreated or harmed.”
-Timothy Keller
Yet even further than the value placed on every human being because they were created in the image of God, what does God say about people that he’s called his own - who have been adopted into his family through their repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ?
God foreshadowed his answer regarding his people through the prophet Isaiah who ministered about 700 years before Jesus:
Isaiah 43:1-7 ESV
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. "You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.”
There is no other savior for your emotions, mental state, sense of security, value and your very life, but Christ alone.
Through him alone were you made (John 1).
We have all sinned and become broken vessels.
Through Christ alone can we truly be redeemed, made whole and saved (Colossians 1:16-20).
The truth is that if you have put your faith in the perfect life of Christ, his sacrificial death at the cross for your sins and his triumphant resurrection from the dead for your eternal life, it is evidence that you are called by God and special to him.
As Jesus said,
John 6:44 ESV
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
If you feel that drawing to Christ today, it is the very same tugging to which Jesus was referring - God drawing you to repentance (a change of mind, and thus, direction) and life in Christ.
Finding Someone of Value
When you find Jesus, you find life and the value that he places on yours.
From what do you attempt to derive your value?
Is it Christ-centered or others-centered?
If you try to derive your value from anyone or anything other than from the immutable, benevolent Creator to whom you belong when you turn to Jesus, you will forever be a ship without an anchor.
About eighty years after Isaiah, God continued his ministry calling people through the prophet Jeremiah who hailed from a priestly family.
This meant that he was around the things and people of God, but still saw the ways that they were looking to other saviors to make them whole.
Jeremiah 2:11-19 ESV
“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. "Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey? The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant. Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way? And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord God of hosts.”
The value of anything comes from who made it, the quality of the design and how much you are willing to pay for it.
You were fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139:14).
Yet sin marred God’s beautiful design.
God settled the question of value by giving the life of his perfect Son, Jesus, to pay the price to make atonement for your sins and mine at the cross.
The power of Christ’s resurrection calls us not only into the forgiveness of our sins, but an eternal, restored life of infinite worth in Jesus.
When the three aforementioned issues (questions) are settled in your heart by God’s grace and not your merit, you are free to love and serve others with the same grace of God.
You are no longer a leech trying to suck life from others, but become a life giving source (Proverbs 10:11).
“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
-Timothy Keller
No Greater Worth
There is no greater worth than relationship with Jesus and living for his eternal Kingdom.
Matthew 13:44-46 ESV
“"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
God’s Kingdom is the only thing that answers the three questions with benefits that last forever.
When we come to Christ, the three questions are answered in this way:
Who am I?
I am a child of the Most High King of all Creation - God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth (I John 3).
Where do I fit?
I am a part of the body of Christ, and therefore have an indispensable role in his family, the church (I Corinthians 12).
What difference can I make?
I am an ambassador for Christ and am effectively a minister of reconciliation between loved ones and God, calling people out of God’s wrath and the cracked cistern existence in which they’ve lived into the forgiveness of sins and the abundant life of Christ.
"Christians will not, interestingly, benefit society if they’re just like everybody else in society. We’re not going to benefit a society filled with self-actualisers unless we really are different, unless we do believe Jesus died for us, unless we do believe that we live through the self-sacrifice of the great Jesus Christ, and therefore we’re going to live by self-sacrifice. You see, unless we are shaped deeply by that, then we’re really not going to be of any kind of benefit."
-Timothy Keller
Let’s cling to the mercy of God found at the cross of Jesus Christ, and through his grace, live a life empowered by the uncommon value that he placed upon us when he gave his life for us.
May we forever praise him in response and point people to the only one who can truly mend and make their souls whole.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher