Finding the Worth of Others

Youth retreat July 2013

Finding others worth

John 13:34-35 (HCSB) 34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is the starting point to help you find worth in others. We need to have a love for them! We need to stop picking apart a persons weaknesses judging them and we need to start building them up not tearing them down.

Matthew 7:1-4 (HCSB) 1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye?

See too often we make ourselves feel better if we point out the speck in someone’s eye while we have a log in ours. How can we find worth in someone else if we are looking at ourselves as worth more or if we see ourselves as worthless? We all apart from Jesus are lost and dying. None of us have hope or worth without Jesus. When we know the love of Jesus personally it becomes easier to love others and see worth in them. We know where our worth comes from. It does not come from where we live, what our house looks like, what kind of cell phone you have if you even have one, what your clothes you wear, what school you go too, and any other thing kids look at to see value or worth. See Jesus died for you and you, and you!!!!!! How much more worth do you need? How much more worth does the kid down the street need that dropped out of school and smokes weed everyday. See that kid doesn't know his worth because he has never been told that God sent His son to die for him and his sin. That his sins are forgiven and there is freedom waiting for him if he believes in Jesus Christ as his savior.

To find worth in someone is easy when you yourself know that Christ died for you.

Philippians 1:21 (HCSB) 21 For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

In this verse Paul is saying his life and reason for living is share the good news with the lost and broken and if threatened with death that would be gain because we would be with Christ. To those who don't believe in God, life on earth is all there is, and so it is natural for them to strive for this world's values—money, popularity, power,

pleasure, and success. None of these are of worth because in the end when you die you take none of these things with you.

It no longer is about us and it is about Jesus. God sees in us what we don't see ourselves but when we begin to mature and know Him in a personal way He gives us eyes to see the good and worth in others.

Our condition is most noble, being so loved that Christ was willing to die for our sake, which He would not have done if man had not been a most noble creature and of great worth. We need to share this with others to let them know their worth in Christ.

Romans 15:5-7 (ESV) 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

We think of ourselves as one person and what difference can one person really make. We must never forget that Christ is always with us his spirit dwells in us. Our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. When we do things that glorify God it makes an eternal impact forever changing the lives of those around us.

John 17:22-23 (ESV) 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Now this is Jesus speaking to his disciples. When we believe we become His disciples. Jesus is saying that the glory that God the creator gave Him he also gives to us and we become one with Him. In Christ we have worth because He is in us and we are in Christ. When Christ says He loves us our response needs to be to love others.