Value

Engage

I find myself, fairly often suffering from what has been termed ‘imposter complex’. Maybe you haven’t dealt with this, but I have found myself in a room and you feel inadequate for the task at hand. That you aren’t valuable enough to be in the position that you are in.

Pious Attitudes

If we are to have a right heart attitude we find ourselves with the David

Psalm 22:6 KJV 1900

6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people.

That is the language of piety though, isn’t it, and even more so the language of false piety. That we are worms and that we are nothing. Before God that is certainly true.

The song “I Can Only Imagine” asks the question of what it will be like to be in the Glory of God, some day. I expect the experience, at least at first will be a lot like what Isaiah experienced. Isaiah was in the midst of God in the throne room of God and his first reaction is recorded In Isa 6:5

Isaiah 6:5 KJV 1900

5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

And I fully expect that will be how we encounter God when the time comes. With great fear and trembling, and an exclamation that we are undone. That we are ruined before a holy and just God.

Truth

But there is another concept I think we pay far too little mind to. The term used for it, in Latin, is “Imago Dei”. We get this from Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

There are two words I want you to focus on here. Image and Likeness. it is easy or us to sandwich these ideas into the same concept, but God chose two words and is conveying two things about how he made man.

In his Image

First it says that we are in His image. Look at how this same word is used in Numbers 33:52

Numbers 33:52 KJV 1900

52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

That word image is the same Hebrew word. It literally means a cut out of something. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, its the word is translated imago but sometimes statuas, like statue.

What is astounding is that throughout time men have been creating likenesses of their false gods. They chop down wood and they form images, they make them solid or plate them with gold and place alters before them. All the while they themselves are the image, the statuas of All Mighty God.

In his Likeness

But we have also been created in the likeness of God. And that is different than being in the image of God. We find this same word In Isaiah, in a very familiar passage

Isaiah 14:12–14 KJV 1900

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

I will be like the most High. With the word image we are talking about something that only has the same form as something else, but here we find that something different.

My wife Kate and I went to a flea market several years ago. And at one of the booths they were selling a very familiar looking permanent marker. The grey one with a black cap and cursive writing on the side. But upon further inspection, what was written in cursive was thew word “Shoopie.” The marker at the flea market had the image of a Sharpie marker but it didn’t have the likeness. It lacked the quality.

When Lucifer says he will be like the most High, he isn’t saying that he will look like God, but that he will be like God. He will have a certain likeness that were before reserved for the Godhead. We can’t confuse likeness with sameness as the cults do, but while it isn’t explicit in scripture what this likeness is, it is clear that it’s there and foundational to our creation.

And so it must have roiled the devil when man was created in this likeness. So much so, that we are introduced to him in Genesis as he brings about the corruption of that likeness. And so sin, is like graffiti painted over a work of art, marring the beauty of the original creation. And so fallen man unable to see the beauty through the corruption, doesn’t value the artwork.

Tension

Many today would argue that people have no value greater than animals, that we are in essence just animals ourselves. Jesus on the other hand said

Matthew 10:31 KJV 1900

31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

But let me tell you about that ‘more value’ for a minute.

I grew up collecting all sorts of things that a boy in the 80’s and 90’s was supposed to collect. Baseball Cards, Garbage Pail Kids, Comic Books, collectable card games (way before they were mainstream) and I even had a stamp collection and coin collection for a while. There were always price guides for that stuff. I specifically remember looking up the value of my baseball cards in the Becket Price guide, finding my card and scanning across to the value. But what I found out, is that you couldn’t sell a baseball card to a baseball card shop for the value in the book, and I remember feeling that was a huge disappointment. I learned a lesson we first find written by Publilus Syrus in the 1st Century BC “Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it”

If you and I are going to have a right understanding of what our worth is, we have to consider what someone was willing to pay for it.

Romans 5:8 KJV 1900

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That marks our value. As crude an illustration as it is, The Lamb’s Book of Life is like our price guide. When you find your name you follow the little line across the page and can read the value, and written there, it says “The Blood of Christ”

Application

That tells us some things. Growing up, I remember we heard over and over again about self esteem. Now it is an absolute truth that there are many people that do not esteem themselves well, and their lives would be dramatically improved if they esteemed themselves better. As Christians we tend to push back on this notion of Self Esteem, because often it leads to over esteeming ones self. When self esteem is taken too far, people grow to be spoiled and proud and ultimately they put themselves over God.

But we have to remember that the church is given a mission statement by Christ. The great commission:

Matthew 28:18–20 KJV 1900

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Ministry is about people. It is extremely discouraging to preach to an empty room.

Paul in the book of Romans, addresses them saying in Romans 1:8-12

Romans 1:8–12 KJV 1900

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; 10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established; 12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Ministry can be summed up in what we read in verses 11 and 12. Verse 11 exposes the heart of a preacher. Paul longed to see the Romans because he wanted to be a blessing, to impart a spiritual gift to them. When someone sits down for hours with their Bible and their commentaries and lexicons and systematic theologies to prepare a message its isn’t for their benefit alone. Now, of course, they do get the benefit of more greatly understanding God through study of him. But the study and preparation is done because the preacher wants to impart some spiritual gift on his audience.

That should be the case, really for any ministry a church has. In preparation for planting a church I started reading a lot of books and listened to a lot of podcasts on the subject. A statement that was made, somewhere along the line is that portable churches, churches that meet in a school gymnasium, or some other space that someone else owns. Those churches tend to have websites with pictures of the people that make the church up. Churches with a building tend to have pictures of the building as the focal point of their website.

It’s an unavoidable necessity that a lot of time and money goes into the facilities of a church. But what motivates and what we think of when we think of church, can’t be the building if we have correct priorities. It has to be the desire to impart some spiritual gift on the people being ministered to.

Paul in v12 says that he wanted to see the Romans, not just to impart a spiritual blessing, but to be encouraged. That is what comforted means. He wanted to be encouraged, and he wanted them to be encouraged by his visit.

For Paul, his brother and sisters in Christ weren’t just valued by God, but they were of great value to him as well.

Action

When we look at each other, what value do we put on what we see? What value do we put on ourselves?

It’s the same problem, at it’s core if we are not valuing others or if we don’t value ourselves.

When we can’t see the value in people, in our church family, it is because we are failing to see the image of God through vandalism of sin.

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I want to tell you, I have greatly valued you, and being your teacher in this class for the last 10 years. That feeling of imposter complex kicks up in me, because you are so valued by God, that it is privilege that is beyond me, to be entrusted to open up God’s word, week after week, and attempt to impart some spiritual gift…some truth from the word of God.

I hope, that I have been an encouragement to you. You have certainly been an encouragement me. And I will miss you every week I am not here with you.