The Value Of You

The Value Of You Jude 1:17-21 Brothers and sisters, have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever been so tired of this life that you've prayed God would just hurry up and take you onto the next? What do you do when you're so tired of this world that you wish Jesus would just come back already and bring heaven with Him? What are you thinking, and what are you doing when you're done with the ways of this world? Because let's face it, everybody will get tired, busy, burdened, and burnt-out at some point in life. And then everybody starts looking for answers to do just the opposite and live a relaxed, relieved, and rejuvenated life. I mean, walk into any bookstore, and you'll see entire isles of self-help books. And all these self-help books have one thing in common - they all begin somewhere along the lines of your poor self-worth and how to increase The Value Of You. Millions of dollars are made every year from people buying books telling them how to successfully change their lives. But isn't it ironic how the best-selling and most stolen book that's been teaching how to successfully have a life change, the Bible, has been disregarded and devalued year after year? By life change, I don't mean how to get richer or accumulate more stuff. As one Greek philosopher said, "Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold. Happiness dwells in the soul" (Democritus). Your worth is not measured by how much money or possessions you have. Your identity is not found in your fortunes. The one thing that is valued the most is The Value Of You. You are of great value because you are a living soul. Jesus taught about the value of a soul when He asked the question, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). As one of my favorite authors, Paulo Coelho, puts it, "I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called the body." If I took a $100 bill and asked everyone here who would like it, I'm betting every one of your hands would go up. If I was to take that $100 and crumple it all up, I bet every one of you would still want it. Even if I took that $100 bill and stepped on it, I'm sure all of you would still raise your hands. Why? Because even though that $100 bill had been through a lot, it never lost its value. The same applies to us when we go through difficult trials. Even when you've been through a lot, abused, and stepped on, you have never lost your value to God! Even if you've gotten all dirty with sin and regrets cover you like mud, God does not consider you chump change. God will not nickel and dime you even if you've been through so much that you can't seem to straighten out or erase the wrinkles of wrongdoing that's accumulated in your life. Every crease, every fold, every wrinkle, tells a story unique to you. You may have hoped some of those creases weren't there, but it doesn't diminish The Value Of You. In fact, it does just the opposite. With every wrong decision. With every question left unanswered or answered too late. With every temptation, every regret, every loss, everything left undone, with every sin committed, God is rich in mercy and loves you because The Value of You, your soul, cost Jesus His earthly life so you could live a heavenly life with Him for eternity. Even when it looks like your entire world is caving in around you. Even when none of your hopes and dreams came true. Even when none of your prayers have been answered, folks, there is still good news: The Value Of You is great in the eyes of God. You are of great worth, brothers and sisters. You are a living soul, and God still wants you! And what God has, God wants to share with you! Now that's great news! When you believe in Jesus Christ, not only do you relocate from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, but you become children of God, and "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). Your value is great in God's eyes. But what do you do when you start forgetting The Value Of You? What happens when the pressures of life start pushing in on all sides? Well, Jude reminds us that you must keep growing in the knowledge and love of God, even when you're weary of this world. Jude was the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus. In a world of selfishness, slander, and division, Jude preaches "Mercy, peace, and love" (Jude 1:2). And if you start to care for "the cares of this world" (Mark 4:16) too much, or you start to question The Value Of You, Jude provides us with an answer. Verse 17 says, "Remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold." Jude is telling us not to forget what the apostles preached. For us, that means opening the Word of God. They warned about "scoffers," people who would make fun of our faith. Scoffers don't view life from a spiritual perspective; they create divisions. No matter how small, these divisions create opportunities for the devil to sow discord, disunity, and doubt, thereby providing a way for The Value Of You to feel worthless, especially in view of Christ's perfection and our sin. As verse 19 says, "These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit." In addition to following the apostle's teaching, which is reading the Bible, Jude calls us "dear friends" and gives us 3 points to prevent you from feeling worthless. First, you must "build yourselves up in your most holy faith" (vs. 20). This means, don't be a stagnant Christian: Grow! You must keep reading God's Word. Keep studying your Bible. Keep praying. Don't use your position as a Christian to look down on others, but live as "a servant of Jesus Christ," as Jude called himself. Christians, we need each other. We're made for relationships, relationships with God and with each other. "Building yourselves up" is done both individually and together. Individually you must stay a disciplined disciple through different means of grace such as prayer and Bible reading, but we must also do this together through worship and service. So keep growing spiritually by reading your Bible and acting on it. Second, you must "pray in the Holy Spirit" (vs. 20). That is to pray with a spiritual mindset. You need to spend regular time with God in prayer. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Talk to God, but then sit in silence and give God the time to talk to you. Dig into God's Word, and you'll have a pile of prayers. Third, "keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." "Keep" is the central command here, and the first two points describe how this can be accomplished. "Keep yourselves in God's love" by building yourselves up, reading your Bibles, and through prayer. But don't be confused. To "keep yourselves in God's love" does in no part mean that God will only love you IF you do these certain things. What Jude is telling us is that God will love us regardless and unconditionally, but how we tend to place conditions on God's love. Allow God to search your heart and reveal anything getting in the way of your relationship with Him. When you sin, ask for forgiveness and the Spirit's strength not to repeat that sin. "Keeping yourselves in God's love" is living with an eternal perspective and in a close personal relationship with God. You will maintain a kingdom perspective on The Value Of You when you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you by "keeping yourself in God's love." And remember, "keep" is the central command because when those feelings of worthlessness and guilt start creeping in, it is only by living with an eternal perspective that you can understand The Value Of You. If you ever feel like you can't overcome, remember that Jesus has already overcome, and "wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." Be of good cheer, Jesus is coming back! But while you're waiting for Jesus to return, don't wait idly by but share the "Mercy, peace, and love" of Jesus Christ with others. Remind yourself, and tell others, that you don't need to bring anything to Jesus but yourself, because The Value Of You is displayed in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the neighborhood I grew up in, I can remember one time when I was very little when most everyone in the neighborhood wanted to get together at the local picnic shelter for a neighborhood picnic. The family that organized this picnic told everybody, "You bring your lunch, and we'll supply the lemonade." But, if you're like my family, when you got ready to pack your picnic, all you could really find was some baloney, a little mustard, and just enough bread to go with it. So you made your baloney sandwich, wrapped it up in a brown paper bag, and went to the picnic. When it came time to eat, you sat at the end of a table and spread out your sandwich. But the families who sat next to you brought a feast. The other families looked like they were good cooks and had worked hard all day to get ready for the picnic. They would have fried chicken, burgers, brats, baked beans, potato salad, homemade rolls, and even a big apple and cherry pie to top it off. That's what they spread out there next to you while you sat with your baloney sandwich. But then they said, "Why don't we just put it all together?" "No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't even think of it," you mumbled in embarrassment, keeping one eye on the burgers and brats. "Oh, come on, there's plenty of chicken and plenty of pie and plenty of everything. And we just love baloney sandwiches. Let's just put it all together." And so you did. And there you sat, eating like a king when you came feeling worthless. Not long ago, it dawned on me that God has been saying the same thing from the beginning. "Why don't you take what you have and what you are, and I will take what I have and what I am, and we'll share it together." I began to see that when I put what I had and was and am and hope to be with what God is, it was the bargain of a lifetime. Sometimes I get to thinking about how I share with God. When I think of how little I bring, and how much Jesus brings and invites me to share, I know that I should be shouting at the top of my lungs! But I am so filled with amazement that I can hardly speak. That's the hardest part of preaching; It's not what to say, but how to say what words can't describe. I know that I don't have enough love or faith or grace or mercy or wisdom, but God does. Christ has all of those things in abundance, yet He says, "Let's just put it all together." Brothers and sisters, the very root of salvation is health and wholeness. When you confess Christ as Savior, you're a child of God, and you become whole. The Value Of You is not in incompleteness, but in wholeness. Like that crumpled up $100 bill, it doesn't matter how many times you've been stepped on or folded over; you never lost your value. It doesn't matter what you bring, just bring yourself, because you are of great value. And as Holy Week approaches, let Christ's life and sacrifice be a continual reminder of The Value Of You. AMEN 2