Know Your Value
Take out a new crispy $10 bill and ask the students or congregation what you are holding . Ask if anyone would like it. All would raise their hands. Then take a another $10 bill out of your pocket that is dirty and crinkled up and ask what you are holding now. Ask if anyone would like to have it. All would raise their hands again.
Each one of us is so valuable! We were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Just like the $10 bill didn't lose its value and was still worth $10 no matter how dirty it was, so too our value doesn't change even though we may have gotten dirty with sin. We need to look at ourselves through God's eyes, knowing that we are loved, we are chosen, we are the most precious creation of God!
Luke 12:6-7 says "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God." If God does not forget about the smallest of his creations, he certainly is not going to forget about you his son/daughter.
In 1John 3:1 it says "Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." We are his children made in his image.
The problem isn't us losing our value (child of god), it's us not realizing our value at times.
Just like the $10 no one minded when I asked the question would you still take the $10 that was all squished up and dirty because the knew the value. The value does not diminish because of the circumstances it was in. It could be a crispy new $10 bill, an old one that is a little ripped, one that is a different older design, one that has been used a lot or a little. They all are worth $10.
My prayer is that you live with the knowledge of knowing your true value and don't let someone else or your circumstances dictate what your value is. The $10 only gets its value from one place: the US Treasury when they printed it. If I told you that the $10 in my hand is actually $5 you wouldn't believe. In that same sense, don't let others or the devil fool you about your true value.
The Search for Ultimate Satisfaction
At the 2016 Golden Globe Awards, actor Jim Carrey took to the stage to introduce the nominees for Best Motion Picture Comedy. But his speech was more than just an introduction to the nominated actors; it was, in fact, an introduction to the inner searches of his soul. While he began with a personal introduction, it quickly turned into a painfully honest critique on man's search for meaning.
So after being introduced as "two-time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey," he proceeded to crack a couple self-aggrandizing jokes about what it’s like to be a two-time award winner.
Carrey remarked,
"Thank you, I am two-time Golden Globe winner, Jim Carrey. And when I go to sleep at night, I'm not just a guy going to sleep. I'm two-time Golden Globe winner, Jim Carrey, going to get some well needed shut-eye. And when I dream, I don’t just dream any old dream. No sir. I dream about being three-time Golden Globe winning actor, Jim Carrey — because then I would be enough. It would finally be true, and I could stop this terrible search for what I know ultimately won’t fulfill me.”
Everyone laughed at what Carrey said, and with nearly five million views on YouTube, people are still laughing. But the source of his humor is the truth it conceals: He was joking about the absurdity of trying to find ultimate fulfillment, purpose, and meaning in the things of this world.
You can watch the video clip here.
Even the wealthiest, most successful people cannot find ultimate satisfaction apart from God.
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 4:10, ESV).
"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands" (Psalm 138:8, ESV).
Value Where There Is None
March 23, 2022 (UPI) -- Auction house Sotheby's said it expects to fetch up to $551,000 for an unusual item -- a receipt for a piece of invisible art by French artist Yves Klein.
According to Stoheby’s, “Klein sold numerous pieces of imaginary art, which he dubbed Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility, in exchange for a weight of pure gold, and he would issue receipts to the buyers."
Oddly enough, Klein (1928-1962) was considered a master of the artistic genre Nouveau Réalisme – New Realism. Yet there is simply nothing “real” about this.
The receipt in question was for a sale of a piece of imaginary art dated December 7, 1959. The receipt will go on auction April 6, 2022, and is expected to fetch the unimaginable price of over a half a million dollars.
Not everything “real” is visible or tangible. Take your soul, for example. It’s not visible or tangible. It can’t be weighed or measured or photographed. But it is, in a true sense, the most real thing about you. And that soul has immeasurable value.
Your soul – YOU – were worth the cost of the life of the Son of God, that you might enter into eternal relationship with God. Yet we don’t see the value, the worth in investing in that relationship.
While some would rather spend their resources on imaginary works of art, spend your time and energy exploring your own worth and destiny.
You were bought at a price! Own it!
“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20, NKJV).
"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36, ESV).