Worth

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When I first heard that Teen Challenge was coming to NL it was an exciting day. A day that birthed Hope. When I heard the news that it is a facility to help women, I have to tell you I was over the moon excited.
Now that I live here in CBS and find myself next door to a place with such hope, potential and wonderfully amazing ladies I am awestruck.
In thinking about the Atlantic Women’s Center, specifically you ladies I was given a word - WORTH.
Today’s society is all about having high end things isn’t it. We like luxury! We like fine things, designer labels, we may not be able to afford them but there is a pull in that direction. There are some people who won’t wear something unless it has some type of label, designer, or sports name attached to it.
There are people that find their value in these things. Some not all just need that status to find that they are worth something. So many searching for their value, their worth.
The greatest lie that people are believing today is that they are worthless.
As women, we are often the first to swallow the pill of worthlessness. Believing that we cannot do enough to improve ourselves. We allow ads, Hollywood, the fashion industry and on and on to influence greatly our level of confidence and overall vale.
This morning, I feel that we need to take a few minutes to think on this and hear what God is saying to us.
Psalm 119:33–40 NLT
Teach me your decrees, O Lord; I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word. Reassure me of your promise, made to those who fear you. Help me abandon my shameful ways; for your regulations are good. I long to obey your commandments! Renew my life with your goodness.
Psam 119:33-40
1 Timothy 6:17 NLT
Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.
There were two friends talking about business and one man who had just gone public with his stock in his company. One man commented and said “I wonder what he is worth now?” In most of the world worth is determined by wealth.
But if we take money out of the equation what something is worht becomes a very different question.
Is something valuable because it is useful?
Is it valuable because it was able to bring pleasure or prestige?
Is it valuable because it is truthful?
In the Psalm the writer says “Turn my heart toward your statuses and not toward selfish gain”
Turn my eyes away from selfish things or worthless things.
On the day of judgement all our worldly possessions will seem like worthless things.
The Bible gives us the good news of complete forgiveness of sin and guaranteed eternal life. What is of more value than that?
When I think of us as women I truly believe that we need to be reminded to see value from God’s perspective, because worshipping wealth remains a powerful attraction or worshipping other gods like (addiction, fame, looks, relationships) takes away from the place that God needs to have in our lives.
Matthew 6:24 NLT
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
We are often misled by the voice of our culture. The world is, led by Satan, gives identity, purpose and worth to a woman only as it is purchased or earned. Worth has to be bought. And the currency is beauty, talent, intelligence, wealth, education or even rebellion. The world system bases identity on worth based on accomplishment.
I want you to ask this question for a minute:
What does God, my creator, say about me as a woman?
How can I draw my identity from what God says and not from lies?
God tells us that he made woman and designed us in his own image.
We are like Him in crucial ways.
We have emotion, creativity, relational skills and decision making abilities. We are female for a reason and there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with being male either, please hear me in that. But there often times that we feel less than, inferior or even weaker.
Every woman has great worth as does every man.
illustration:
Titanic - when it went down in 1912 the available lifeboats were designated for use by first-class passengers, even the male first class passengers! How shocking! In the Titanic museum the survivors are listed by the category of their tickets on the ship! Very few third-class passengers survived because the ship’s officers mistakenly thought they had less value than the first-class passengers. What a prejudice of wealth!
Women and men have exactly the same worth - they are made in God’s image with equal value. Together they show the God who created them better than they do alone.
Out of nothing (Hebrew word bara) God created male and female in his own image and likeness.
God not only gave women inherent worth, he also gave them assigned worth by giving women important things to do in life. Take a look at Genesis:
Genesis 1:28 NLT
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Fruitful

When we hear this it is not only have babies, there is more to this than that. Hear me there is nothing wrong with motherhood. It is the best, hardest, most rewarding and challenging job I have ever held.
But scripture says be fruitful - to increase - to fill - Three words that speak of enlarging ones life and influence. Genesis author uses three Hebrew words parah, rabah, male these words express the meaning of growth. Primary growth through procreation, don’t overlook this important role in the life of a woman but it does not only mean motherhood. I believe another part of this means mentoring - pouring out of you into someone else.
Women are natural nurturers. God wants us to invest in people, especially the young. God, who is himself fruitful, plans for his people to be fruitful too.

Subduing/ruling over the earth

The earth was made to serve us
Psalm 115:16 NLT
The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity.
God put it in our DNA we were made to rule. So here we need to take up the challenge to start with your own domain - start with yourself. Know who you are, who you are meant to be and where you are meant to influence. Get to know you and don’t take on other people’s ideals of who you need to be. Look to God to help you figure out your identity in Him.
That is what is wrong in our world today, everyone is looking to other people, things or even substances to fulfill their identity. When we are His image bearers, we need to find ourselves in Him.
We need to get our lives in order and then influence others to do the same.
Revelation 2:26 NLT
To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To them I will give authority over all the nations.
There is hope for ya! There is something greater coming and this comes to the victor, align yourself with Him and authority over the nations! Wow what a reward!

God also assigned worth to us to be a partner to a husband.

There is worth for us in marriage. The first woman was hand-made by God from the side of Man to be a helper suitable to him. Hear me here. We are helpers not servants or slaves.
The language of scripture is “ezer” helper and this is a strong word, one that is even used of God Himself. It means being able to assist someone in accomplishing his goals, to strengthen another, to encourage a man in tasks and calling.
Then there is another word used “knegdo” which means that this helper is very much like the man but different in crucial ways so that she can partner with him.
She is a helper not servant. She is same but different in other areas. There are things that Adam could do that Eve could not and things that Eve can do that Adam cannot.
God made a counterpart for Adam, a partner to help him. Adam responded pretty excited about this partner:
“this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”
He was delighted, thrilled, overjoyed! He called her issah - woman in verse 23.
Women since have found a sense of worth and value in their partnership with their husbands.
This morning know this:
Matthew 6:26–27 NKJV
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
Matt.
God values women. God values you. You are of great worth to Him. When the enemy comes knocking trying to make you think you are nothing and no good. Hear these words.
Isaiah 43:1–4 NLT
But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom; I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
1 Peter 3:18 NLT
Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
He never forgets our worth therefore we should not either. No matter how devalued woman are, no matter how discarded you may feel, nothing can lessen the immeasurable worth that you have in the heart of God. He values you. He values us!
Conclusion:
The greatest evidence of the worth of a woman is that God our Redeemer considered us valuable enough to send His one and only Son to redeem us from our fallen condition because of His love for us. It cost God everything to save us, but He did it because of our great value.
In spite of our sin, God wanted relationship with us and he provided the way through His own Son’s sacrifice. He sent His son to the cross because of our worth to Him.
We were dirty, ungrateful, and unresponsive. We were ignorant of God and His purposes.
Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Seeing ourselves and others as God sees us is living in truth.
Not the truth the world and our culture sees but God’s truth.
Yes women are sinful, frail, and shameful at times but we are made in His image with inherent and assigned worth and with a value so great that the Lord Jesus Himself died for.
Matthew 6:26–27 NKJV
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
The next time you hear the chirp of a sparrow or see one flying around, remind yourself that the most common of birds is important to God and so are you. It’s that truth that brings encouragement and hope.
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