Any real estate agent worth half his or her salt will tell you, that your house is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. Fair enough. So how do you tell what you’re worth in the scheme of things? Really?!
IT’S NOT ABOUT MONEY, DUMMY
That Abba song, most of us know it, Money, Money, Money, is one of the catchiest songs of the last fifty years I reckon. The first verse starts off like this:
I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That’s too bad
In my dreams I have a plan, If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball …
Hey, that’s the dream isn’t it? To have enough money not to have to work at all, or at least, not have to work as hard as we do. To be able to take life just that little bit easier. There’s not a one of us who hasn’t wished that at some time in our lives.
But this desire for money goes a lot deeper than that. There’s something about money, or should I say wealth, that taps into our sense of identity. The Chorus of that Abba song gives us a hint. It goes like this:
Money, money, money – Must be funny – In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money – Always sunny – In the rich man’s world
All the things I could do – If I had a little money – It’s a rich man’s world
You see for most of us, having lots of money is about more than just being comfortable and not having to work so hard. For most people, it’s about being able to play in that rich man’s world, being one of those rich, beautiful people. Nowhere else do you see this, on a day–to–day basis more than in the car that some people choose to drive.
I remember one of those financial gurus on television, a guy by the name of Paul Clithero, once saying, that from a financial perspective, you should buy the cheapest car that your ego will allow you to. It’s true – people buy cars as an expression or an extension of who they are. If I drive a car worth this much, with this brand’s logo on it, that’s a statement of my wealth for everybody else to see.
We want money because in a sense, it’s a scorecard, as Donald Trump puts it, of our success. It’s a tangible measure that tells other people (and ourselves) how successful we are according to the world’s measure.
And when money starts to define our identity and our sense of self–worth in that way, that’s when it becomes dangerous. Very dangerous. Because at that point, it becomes an idol, it becomes something that we worship and pursue and sacrifice for. And money, as it turns out is a terrible master.
We saw last week on the program that according to God at least, money can end up causing you a great deal of pain. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10:
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
The alternative, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5 is this:
Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you”.
And you see it’s in that second scripture that there lies a very clear, a very distinct choice for you and me today. To what or to whom do you look for your self-image, for your sense of worth? To money and all that it buys – comfort, power, recognition, wealth; or to God who will never leave you or forsake you?
Which one do you trust more? Which one is going to be more reliable and dependable and faithful and fruitful? God or money? It’s a stark choice. You can’t look to both to discover your identity.
You can’t trust in money and in God, because at that point you become a dog with two masters. One says go, the other one says come, which one are you going to listen to? Which one are you going to obey?
Jesus knew that. Which is why He put that stark choice before the people He was speaking with, He said:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be … No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 24)
Can I ask you something? Where do you go for an identity check? When you’re kind of figuring out what you’re worth, or where you fit in the big scheme of things, or how your life’s going … what mirror if you will, do you turn to, to look at yourself through? Do you kind of look at where you are in life and what you have, to get that assessment?
Yeah, well, you know, it’s pretty good. I’m 42 now, and I have a nice house, okay bit of a mortgage, but I’m paying that off. I’d like to get that new lounge, but the dining suite is really nice. Yeah, I’m happy, kind of, with my marriage, the kids – well, they’ll turn out okay, I think. And yeah, I think my salary’s pretty good, given where I’m at.
Is that how you reckon up your success? Or are you more interested in your walk with the Lord, in revelling in the grace that you have in Jesus Christ, in tackling this particular sin that you’ve been struggling with through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, in taking another step of faith, another step of sacrifice to follow Jesus?
Come on, which one is it? How do you take stock of you? Because that’s going to tell you what’s the most important thing to you. And for the person who is wrapped up in wealth and money, if that’s what’s most important to you, then you know that you’re struggling with your self-image. Because enough is never enough. Your desire for wealth can never be satisfied by more wealth. And so the inability to be satisfied eats away at your self-esteem.
Back in the 18th century, a man by the name of Jonathan Swift said this: A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
That sums it up in a nutshell for me. Because when money reigns in your heart, it pierces you with many pains. It robs you of who you really are.
So then, let me ask you – who or what is it that reigns in your heart? To what extent is your identity wrapped up in what you have, or what you aspire to have? Can I say, these are tough questions to ask ourselves because the lure of wealth has it’s tendrils wrapped around many a human heart, gripping it in a vice-like grip, holding it captive.
But these are the questions we need to ask. If God asked you to sell up everything and follow Him to some far-flung part of the world and start again, live in relative poverty and serve Him without any worldly recognition, how would you answer Him?
I know that one’s making just the odd person squirm. Come on, how about you? What really matters to you? What’s valuable to you? Which master are you serving – wealth or God? You can’t serve them both.
And the reason I’m posing these rather awkward, rather inconvenient, rather probingly rude questions for you to ask yourself today, is that God wants to set you free from any hold, any power, any control that the false idol of wealth has over you.
Jesus came to set you free, remember? And when the Son of Man sets you free, you are free indeed!! Remember?
He loves you enough to use this message today, I guess, to put these questions before you. To share God’s Word and challenge you. Because the only way that we gain true freedom, is discovering our true value. And our value is in Christ.
And that … that is something that money simply cannot buy.
VALUE IS DETERMINED BY PRICE
Over the years, I’ve bought and sold a few different houses. As a buyer, inevitably what you want to do, is pay as little as possible for the house of your dreams. I mean, why would you possibly want to part with a single penny more than you have to, to get that house. And so, depending on the market, you negotiate.
If the market’s a little bit flat, if the house has been up for sale for a few months, you put in a low offer, and hope the vendors will accept. And if they don’t hopefully they’ll meet you somewhere between their asking price and what you offered.
On the vendor’s side, well, when you’re selling, you always believe that your house is worth more than what the market does. It’s your house after all. You’ve put your blood and sweat and tears into decorating it and making it all that it is today. It’s personal. And so often vendors can be just a little bit unrealistic about the true market value of their property.
But, as every real estate agent will tell you, it’s only worth what someone is actually prepared to pay on the day. That’s how value is determined. The market value equals the price that someone else is prepared to pay for your house.
So let me ask you this – what’s your market value? What are you really worth?
The world out there often wants to discount your worth. The world out there tells us what beautiful looks like, what talented looks like, what successful looks like, what wealthy looks like, what popular looks like. And I for one have never been able to measure up to all those images of what I should look like. How about you?
As a result, we end up with self-doubt, feeling inadequate because we can never measure up. Self-doubt is an awful thing. I don’t mean that we should all be proud and full of ourselves. Not that. But delighted with who we are, realistic about our limitations, prepared to learn and to grow and develop for sure – but being comfortable in the skin you’re in.
Are you comfortable in the skin you’re in? Do you like who you are? Or are you a walking bundle of insecurities? Chances are, if you’re not comfortable with who you are, what you’re capable of and what you’re not capable of, you’ve been listening far more to what the world has to say about you, than what God has to say about you.
And the first thing I want to share with you is that you are worth, what someone else is prepared to pay for you. And here is what God was prepared to pay for you, through Jesus. Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 to 8:
… who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.
The matchless death of Jesus on that Cross! Now if Jesus were just a man, that would be stunning enough. But although Jesus was a man, He wasn’t just a man. He was much, much more.
One of my favourite songs of all time is the Michael W Smith song Above All. I can’t sing it, but have a listen to the words of the first verse and the chorus:
Do you get it? Do you see what you are worth in the eyes of God? He gave His Son for you. Not just a man, but the very Son of the Living God who is above all things. Above every power, above the whole creation, above all our wisdom, and every kingdom, and every wonder, and all the wealth and treasures the earth has. Put it all together – there is literally no way to measure what Jesus is worth.
And it was this Jesus, this very one, who was crucified and laid behind a stone. It was precisely this Jesus who died, rejected and alone – for you. He took the fall – for you. This Jesus whose worth is immeasurable placed you above all else. Even above Himself.
Do you know what that makes you? Absolutely priceless. Do you get it? What the world tells you you’re worth, what other people tell you you’re worth doesn’t hold a candle to what you’re really worth!
And Jesus didn’t just use words to tell you what you’re worth. He showed you what you’re worth by allowing Himself to be nailed to that Cross, to take the fall for you, to pay for your sins, so that you could spend eternity with Him. That’s how much He loves you! That’s how much you’re worth!
For while you were still weak, just at the right time, Christ died for you. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for you in that while you were still a sinner Jesus died for you.
Much more surely then, now that you have been justified by his blood, will you be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while you were his enemy, you were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then much more surely, having been reconciled, will you be saved by his life. (Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 10)
He thought of you, He thought of me, He placed us above all else, not because we loved Him or honoured Him, but because the exact opposite was true of us and He saw us, He knew us before we were born, and He knew how desperately we needed to be forgiven and to be reconciled back to God.
So whenever you feel inadequate, worthless, simply not able to measure up to the images of beauty and wealth and success that the world tells you you should measure up to, whenever you start to discount your worth – my prayer is that you will believe what God says about you through the Cross of Christ above and beyond the lies of this world!
It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar. Then two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?”
“Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three…” But no,
From the room, far back, a grey-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loosened strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As a carolling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice,
And going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand.
What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of the Master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine,
A game — and he travels on.
He is “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
I know that you sometimes look at yourself in the mirror and you think to yourself – I’m not much. There’s not too much to me. But remember, God often, almost always in fact, chooses plain, ordinary looking people to achieve amazing things for Him. Okay, the odd person may be really good looking, God bless them. But the rest of us are just, well … we’re ordinary.
Take Jesus for instance. Jesus, the Son of God – if you’d been God, what would you have done with Jesus’ body? Would you have made him tall and good looking, with a striking, imposing physique? I think I probably would have. But listen to what the prophet Isaiah says about this coming Messiah. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 2:
He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
That’s Jesus we’re talking about – and look at what He achieved. And after His crucifixion and resurrection His scars were something He didn’t hide, He showed them off. John chapter 20, verse 27:
He said to Thomas, “Put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
Jesus put His body on the line for you and me. It was His earthly tent, which He used, plain and ordinary and unimpressive as it was, to glorify God.
What an example. What a powerful Word, to set you free from the ridiculous, devilish destruction being wrought through the false understanding of your own self-image.
Jesus came to set you free. And when He sets you free, you are free indeed. How about it?
Let me end this series where I began a few weeks ago, telling you about the picture on the front of that book that I’ve written called – How to Receive a Whole New Self-Image.
I really hope that you avail yourself of the free copy that I’m offering you today. Not just to read the powerful truths of God’s Word in the book, but to gaze on the image on the front cover. The image is one of an apple core, chewed down and reflected in a mirror. But the reflection isn’t of the mangled apple core; it’s of a complete, full, red, healthy, perfect apple.
To me a picture is always worth a thousand words, ten thousand words. And that truly is what God sees in us. Okay, so you’re not perfect, so life has taken a chunk out of you, its toll on you, physically and mentally and emotionally and spiritually; and you think you’re a whole bunch like that chewed up apple core. Done with. It’s over. God can’t use me.
But what God sees, isn’t the mangle apple core, all spent and washed up. What God sees in you, is who He made you to be. What God sees in you, is the image that He can restore you back into, your original image. A perfect, whole, beautiful you; the you that He made you to be.
That’s why He sent Jesus. That’s why He’s calling you today to stop listening to what the world has to say about what you are worth and what you’re not worth, and start listening to what He has to say about you.
And that’s why He wants you to put your complete trust in Jesus so that He can mould you and shape you and polish you and restore you back into His original image.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. God isn’t done with you yet. He has so much more planned for you, and when one day that plan runs out, He is going to bring you back to Himself, perfect and pure and restored – to spend the rest of eternity with Him.
But that’s only going to happen, if you place your complete trust in Jesus. That’s only going to happen as you let God’s Spirit change you from the inside out, as you bow your whole life down to Him, to let Him have His way with you.
I am believing that God is starting something mighty and new in you today. A new work. A work of powerful transformation that will bless you beyond measure. Be blessed as you receive God’s Word.
Above all powers, above all kings,
Above all nature and all created things,
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man,
You were here, before the world began.
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones,
Above all wonders the world has ever known.
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth.
There’s no way to measure what you’re worth.
Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone.
Like a rose, trampled on the ground.
You took the fall and thought of me. Above all.