Our Worth to God, Part 2

Well, thank you, Mr. Blakey. Very beautiful. Very thought-provoking. I don't know if you can see it, but for those of us in the front row, we can see that Mr. Blakey has bright red socks that kind of matches bow tie. I heard that both of them require AA batteries, so I'm going to go ahead and do that. Thank you so much for special music today.

For this sermon, I'd like to continue to prepare for the Passover this year by examining, as we can call part two, of our personal worth, what is our worth to God. And then I would like to follow up the next time I speak on a subject that actually has the same roots.

It's just a different reaction. Next time I would like to talk about pride, vanity, and be honest with you, most of it is generated by the same feelings of inferiority and a lack of self-worth. It's just with pride and vanity, it's the carnal reaction, the mask, and hide the worthlessness we feel inside that causes us to be vain and act in proud ways.

But that is a topic for another time. So I'd like to ask again, what is our worth to God? When God looks at you, when he looks at me, what does he see? When you candidly look into the mirror and examine your own heart and your own mind, what do you see and how do you feel about yourself? Let's begin by returning to the scripture that I ended with last week, and we'll pick it up again, Romans 8 and 28.

And we will examine this scripture, Romans 8 and 28. As we continue to discover and build upon an understanding of what our worth is to God, as a recap, remember that a part from God, all humanity, as Job said, is a worm. Actually, worm is the second part of the scripture. His first part was that humanity, human beings are maggots. That doesn't sound very appetizing, I know. But that is what he said in scripture. And apart from God, we know, as God told Adam, you know, from dust you art and dust you will return.

You were made out of mud, you'll live for a while, you'll fade like a leaf, and you'll return into degenerate matter, just like the matter that I created before I breathed life into you and gave you animation. That is what you are going to return to. And sure enough, human beings, one by one, throughout history, that exactly has been what has happened, and that is why we all need a Savior. And that Savior, of course, is Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.

But when we are converted and we receive God's Spirit, everything changes. God's view towards our worth changes because we become his precious children. Because his son Jesus Christ is residing in us, God always looks positively upon anything in which Jesus Christ's glory is residing and is radiating and is present in. Romans 8, 28, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

It was God's purpose to call you in this life. I don't know why. I don't know why he called me. There's nothing special about us. But God, in his divine purpose, decided to call a few people during each age of human history, knowing that most of the people who would ever be born and live and die would have a final chance way down the road as part of God's plan, pictured after the end of the Feast of Tabernacles.

But you and I, according to God's purpose, were called in this lifetime, at this time, to understand his will for us as human beings. Verse 29, For whom he foreknew, because he's God, he's the Alpha and the Omega, he could look down history and he knew when we would be born, he knew what we would be like, because he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, speaking of Jesus Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So we are to be conformed to the image of his Son in the way that we think, hopefully in the way that we act, as we develop and grow the mind of Jesus Christ. I like the phrase in the New Revised Standard Version, it says that he might be the firstborn among a large family. And that's what Jesus Christ was. We are part of that large extended family that all started when Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb, the new life. And how encouraging that should be. Verse 30, moreover, whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

I want you to notice a couple of things. Number one, he says present tense. He does not say will be justified. He doesn't say will be someday glorified. This is how God views us.

It's present tense. He also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. Why? Because anything that has Jesus Christ dwelling in it reflects the glory of Jesus Christ. And what then shall we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? So why would we be against ourselves?

Why would we allow shame and guilt and the mistakes that we've made in the past to self-sabotage our lives? Why would we allow our negative attitude to become our biggest enemy?

I'd like to read this from the translation God's word for today, verse 30. He also called those whom he had already appointed. He approved of those whom he had called and gave glory to those whom he had approved of. What can we say about all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

So Paul is telling this congregation in Rome that God approves us. God is for us. He personally chose us. We were part of his wonderful plan. Let's drop down now to verse 36.

Paul continues, as it is written, and he's going to be quoting from Psalm the 44th chapter, as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. I have a lot of days like that. It's just like everything goes wrong. I feel like I'm beat up and pounded from every direction in this world. And of course the world doesn't look at us very positively. Now, in Paul's time they literally faced martyrdom. So when they used a phrase like we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, it's because Christians were actually losing their lives because of their belief. But our culture is getting to that. Our culture is getting to the point where the mockery and the attitude towards those people who believe in the God myth, like you and I, are ridiculed, are mocked, are considered stupid, are considered the dregs of society, just out of out of touch with reality, out of touch with modern science. That's the attitude that so many have towards people who believe in God today. Verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created being. You know that Satan is a created being? What's he saying? He says even Satan himself shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Again, I want you to notice the positive confidence Paul has in the people of God, in the people whom God had a purpose for, in the people whom God has chosen. He does not believe that they are weak, pathetic failures always on the verge of falling away. And as a pastor, a pastor has to be aware that there are two powerful messages the church has to preach.

One is to preach the gospel. We tend to call that the Ezekiel warning message. That's a message of repentance. It's a message that you've got to clean up your act and turn to God.

But a talented pastor should have the other message as well, and that is preparing a people.

Because when a people receive God's Spirit, it changes everything. And worship services each Sabbath should not be failure reinforcement therapy. People should come to the Sabbath and positively learn the ways and the values and the laws of God and not be beat up every Sabbath and not told how bad they are. That is not the purpose of what the church is supposed to be doing.

Again, notice the positive confidence Paul has in the people that God has called. He doesn't think. He doesn't warn them every week. He doesn't pick on them in another problem. And he doesn't constantly think they're on the cusp of constantly falling away. He states that because of Christ in us, when Christ is in us, we are more than conquerors. Let's go to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 28.

If you'll turn there with me. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 28.

2 John chapter 2 and verse 29.

The Apostle John was inspired to write. A very disappointing in his life. A very mature man, mature in the faith, an elderly man. He says, And now, little children, abide in him, that when he appears, you may have confidence and not be ashamed of you for him it is coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness, now that's not our own righteousness, which we found out last week, is like a bloody cloth. But this one who practices righteousness is imitating the values in the life of Jesus Christ. That anyone who practices righteousness, does what God approves, is born of him. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Beloved, now we are the children of God. Not some day, not some pie in the sky, maybe some day, if you just do everything good enough, if you're just righteous enough, if you do enough good works, you might someday be called a son of God, a child of God. Now, he says in verse 2, Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

It hasn't been revealed what my role and what your role will be for all eternity in the family of God.

What we do know is, after he was resurrected, he had eternal life.

We'll be given that. He was spirit being. That is certainly something we will be like him, because we'll see him as he is. He had the ability to transcend matter.

His disciples were meeting together in a closed room, and he walked through a wall and said, well, greetings, everyone! I mean, these are characteristics of a spirit being.

So we know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he, speaking of Christ, is pure.

So every day we continue to grow. We continue to put on the mind of Christ.

We continue to develop those fruits that Mr. Dillingham talked about, that are so important, the kind of fruits that Jesus Christ mentioned and expects us to have, I'd like to read verse 2, again, from the translation God's word for today.

Dear friends, now we are God's children. What we will be isn't completely clear yet.

What we do know is that when Christ appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

So all people who have this confidence in Christ keep themselves pure as Christ is pure.

I'd like to focus on that phrase, confidence in Christ.

This is the same man who said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

That's confidence. The confidence isn't in our own weak, limited, feeble human abilities.

The confidence is because Christ dwells inside of us, and along with Jesus Christ is a wonderful gift.

The gift is the Holy Spirit, that same power at God's command who fashioned the universe and all matter that we see in the world today, that same power resides inside of you and inside of me.

What a wonderful understanding. So again, our confidence is not in ourselves or our feeble, weak human abilities.

Our confidence is in Christ who is within us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let's go into Psalm 37, verse 18, because once again I would like to contrast a person who is intent on evil and who lives apart from God, a contrast of that kind of person and how God views his children. We just read where John said, we are the children of God now, not someday now. Psalm chapter 37 and verse 18. We'll see this contrast between one who is apart from God and one who is considered God's child because they have his spirit. Psalm 37, verse 18.

The Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. You know what your inheritance is? It's eternal life. That's the inheritance that you are given by Jesus Christ because of his sacrifice. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time. They won't deny God.

They won't deny Christ. No matter how bad their culture gets, no matter how evil the world becomes, they will continue to live God's way of life. They will not be ashamed in the evil time.

And in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. God says, I will protect them. I will bless them.

I will keep them in the palm of my hand. Verse 20. But the wicked shall perish. This is talking about someone who is cut off apart from God, who has not been called, who has not received his spirit. The wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadow, shall vanish in the smoke. They shall vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not repay. Remember, we spoke last time about those ways of life. A give or get. What he is basically saying here is that the wicked gets. That's all they think about. The wicked borrows and does not repay. They take away your dignity. They take away your income. They try to use you and manipulate you in any way that they can. But in contrast, it says, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. You see, they give back. They give the one another. They give to their community. They are givers. They're merciful. Verse 22. For those blessed by him shall inherit the earth. What a wonderful promise that is. But those cursed by him shall be cut off. Verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And he delights in his way. That is, God delights in the steps of a good man. And, of course, we know that our righteousness is because of Christ in us. Verse 24. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I'm going to give you another translation here that is actually closer to the original Hebrew. Again, this is from God's word today, verses 23. A person's steps are directed by the Lord, and the Lord delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be thrown down head fast, because the Lord holds on to his hand. Now, I'm a grandfather. Have you ever seen a parent or a grandparent holding on to the hand of a small child as they're struggling to walk? Doesn't the loving parent firmly hold on to that child's hands as they struggle to take those steps? When that child slips, whoa! Aren't they saved because of the tight grip on the hand of mom or dad, and holding them up and protecting them from falling flat on their face? Well, absolutely, brethren. The loving parent holds firmly the child's hand as they struggle to put one foot in front of the other. Doesn't a parent take great joy in seeing their small child take the first baby steps? Absolutely. And so does God. That's exactly how God views us in our struggles with the flesh, in our struggles with our carnal human nature. He's holding on to our hand because he loves us. And yes, we'll stumble. Yes, we all make mistakes, don't we? We're human. We will stumble, but God will make sure that we don't fall head fast, are thrown head fast down onto the ground because he delights in the way of a good man.

Let's now go back to Psalm chapter 149. Same book, chapter 149.

Psalm chapter 149, verse 1.

The psalmist was inspired to write, Praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise in the assembly of saints.

Let Israel rejoice in their Maker. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Let them praise his name with the dance. Let them sing psalms to him with the timbrel and harp.

And actually, this is the kind of attitude that we should have when we come in to worship our great Creator on the Sabbath day. We need to leave all our cares and worries behind because, unfortunately, when the sun sets tonight, they'll still all be there waiting for you.

So why carry that burden on the Sabbath day? Just let it go for 24 hours and rejoice and sing praises to God's name, and be with his people. Verse 4, For the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

It will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud in their beds. Brethren, God isn't disgusted with us. He doesn't hold his nose. He doesn't cover his eyes at our presence. He doesn't sigh at us like he did the evil, godless generation in Noah's day, where he saw that evil was continually on their minds, and he went, that is not how God looks at you and I.

Loving parents don't require their children to be mature in order to enjoy them. I have grandchildren.

They're not perfect. They have flaws. I still enjoy them every step of the way, every stage in their lives. I enjoy them, though they are not perfect. In a similar way, God doesn't wait for you to reach spiritual maturity before he starts loving you. He loves you. He enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development. Brethren, God isn't mad at you. He's mad about you, and he's waiting for us to turn to him. He's waiting for us to draw closer to him and show that love back to him that he has so graciously given to each and every one of us.

I'd like to discuss something that I have heard on and off for 40 years that I find very disturbing.

It's a statement. It's a phrase, and I don't even know if people really mean it or if it's just an attempt to appear humble. Nonetheless, it's very disturbing to me. I hear this comment occasionally, and what's disturbing about it is it's an insult to the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in his children. Let's go to Matthew 25, verse 14. A very disturbing statement that is not biblical. It is unbiblical, undoctrinal, and it denies the power of God's Holy Spirit in us.

The statement that I'm referring to is, I don't have any talents. I don't have any talents.

This is the parable of the talents. Matthew 20, chapter 25, and verse 14.

Now, I've covered this in great detail numerous times, so it is not my focus here and my intent to go through each of these three individuals in great detail about their spiritual characteristics or lack of them. I just want to point out one simple thing. It says, For the kingdom of God is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods, that is, the goods of the man traveling to a far country. This represents Jesus Christ, delivered his goods to them, and the one he gave five talents, another two and another one, each one according to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey. Then he would receive the five talents, went and traded with them, and he made another five talents, and likewise he who received two talents, two more also, but he would receive one, dug it in the ground, and gave away the Lord's money. So let me ask you a question regarding this parable. Which man received no talents? Well, the answer is everyone. Everyone in this parable received a talent.

Next question. Who gave the talents and whom did they originate from? In the parable, the man traveling to the far country represents Jesus Christ. It says they were his goods. They were from Jesus Christ. He gave talents to individuals. No one received zero talents. So please, brethren, can we please stop using this false, undoftial phrase that I don't have any talent? Please can we stop grieving the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us? So why is the discussion of self-worth so important? Why am I heart-big on this for two sermons? It's because how we view ourselves in our own worth and how God views us affects our view of life. It affects the daily decisions we make, the life decisions that we make. We shouldn't question our worth. We should never question our love of God towards us. Your sense of worthiness or your sense of deservedness shapes your life by creating expectations, by creating tendencies. If we don't understand the change that is to take place at conversion, we will continue to feel worthless, useless. We'll feel like we're a failure. We'll feel like we're a worm. We may incorrectly think that humility means thinking poorly of ourselves or bathing in an attitude of worthlessness with little confidence or faith in ourselves or the abilities that we have. And in reality, everything changes.

Nothing could be further from the truth. With God's love and Him working in us, we should have great confidence in ourselves and faith because Jesus Christ can give us the strength to do what we can't.

He gives us the ability to make up for where we fall short in the tasks that we need to do, and the things that we need to perform in our relationships with other people. He can fill in the gap. Self-worth is not a mere trait. It's a perception with our minds, and that perception becomes reality. And it begins to affect the daily decisions we make. We begin to sabotage our lives. We begin to sabotage opportunities because deep down we don't think we're worth it.

We're not worth a good opportunity. We're not worth a good break in life. We're not worthy of God's blessings. We begin to think and dwell on that, and it unfortunately has negative consequences throughout our life. Let's see an example of a man who was called. That verse, chapter 12 in verse 3, the most humble man on earth in his day. And humility is a wonderful quality. It's a godly quality. Moses had a lot of wonderful traits, but he too struggled with not understanding that when God's presence is with you, your life is a game changer. Let's go to Exodus chapter 4 and read about this event. The story of Moses when he was called by God to go back to Egypt, and Moses frustrates Yahweh with this discussion. He angers God. And if I have not mentioned it before, I might add right now that angering God is not a career-enhancing experience. I do not recommend it.

Exodus chapter 4 and verse 1. God is saying to him, you need to go back. I know 40 years here in this wilderness. You're 80 years old. You're probably not exactly feeling like taking this big change in your life, but I want you to go back and I want you to rally the Israelites and tell them that I'm going to bring them out of Egypt. We'll pick it up here in verse 1.

Then Moses answered and said, But suppose, ifs and buts, but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose, they say, the Lord has not appeared to you. So the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? He said a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground, and he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. But we don't have any question about how courageous Moses was, do we here? I have to be honest with you. There are snakes in my yard.

And ever since a little boy, I don't have, in most cases, I don't have problems with snakes. I usually do pick them up by the tail, and oftentimes in our yard, knowing that Mrs. Thomas will just freak out like crazy if she sees a snake. When I see a snake in my yard, I will usually get it, pick it up by the tail, and throw it into the woods. Well, a couple of years ago, I saw a snake that was like five feet long, and even Mr. Thomas jumped on the tree stump. I was like, whoa! So I can understand, this was not a little gardener's snake here. This was, you know, his staff was probably five to six feet long, so this was an imposing reptilian-looking little creature. And it says, and he fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. Why, his advice, I might add, rather than the other end. And he reached out in his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. Two miracles! This isn't all miracles. This is two miracles. Miracle number one is he throws the rod down and it becomes a snake. Miracle number two is, once again, the snake becomes a rod.

So this is pretty impressive. Verse five, that they may believe that the Lord God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. So what's happening here? Well, Moses is questioning God, and Moses is too focused on his own weak limitations.

He's talking to the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all things. He has just seen two incredible miracles performed in front of his face. Yet he has these human limitations. He uses phrases like, what if they do not believe me? What if they don't listen to my voice? And God performs a supernatural miracle in the form of turning his rod into a snake and back again two miracles. And this is done to show Moses that, you know, I want you to begin to get this message, Moses. When my presence is with you, you're capable of great things. Do you get it, Moses?

Because of who I am, when my presence is with you, you're capable of great things.

Maybe God, even sensing that the light hasn't gone on yet in Moses's head, continues.

Furthermore, the Lord said to him, now put your hand in your bosom. And he put his hand in his bosom. And when he took his hand out, behold, his hand was leperous like snow. Pretty powerful miracle. Don't see that too often. And he said, put your hand in your bosom again. So he put his hand in his bosom again. And what happens? He drew out of his bosom and behold it was restored like his other flesh. Then it will be, if they do not believe you nor heed to the message of the first sign, God says, which was the rod and the snake, that they may believe the message of the latter's sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, then here's your trump card. I'm not even going to show you this, Moses, but here's a trump card. Take water out from the river, that is the Nile, pour it in on the dry land, and the water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land. So God, in his instructive here, trying to get the light to come on in Moses, performs a supernatural miracle in the form of turning his hand leperous and healing it to normal again. This is also done to show Moses that when I am with you, when my presence is in you, is with you, is around you, you are capable of great things. God says, and finally, there's more awesome supernatural power where all that stuff came from, like the ability to pour water and dry ground and it becomes blood.

But I don't know what had happened to Moses. He obviously is not feeling a deep sense of self-worth.

Maybe it was the last 40 years. It had to be quite humbly to be raised and go in the environment of Egypt, a civilization with reading, a civilization with culture, and then to leave that, to flee, and spend 40 years trying to step around sheep poo poo. Maybe it was that experience that he just did not have a whole lot of confidence in his worth, in his ability to do what God was asking him to do. But God says, again, with my presence in you, your mere human limitations can be transformed by the power of God. Verse 10. Then Moses said to the Lord, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither since, neither before nor since, you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. The Hebrew word kind of means heavy, meaning he wasn't quick-witted. He knew that when he went and faced Pharaoh and Pharaoh's prime minister and very high class intelligent people, they would be quick on the tongue and they probably, verbally, would put him into a box and humiliate him. And he said, look, I am slow of speech, I am slow of tongue.

So the Lord said to him, because by now God is beginning to get a little frustrated, he said, Moses, who made man's mouth? Am I missing something here, Moses? Who created the human mouth?

God says, I did! I created the human mouth. So please stop waffling and listen to what I have to tell you. He says, who makes the mute, the deaf, and the seeing, or the blind? Who created the structures in the ear, the ear canal, and the structures in the vocal cords, and the structures of our eyes and our optic nerves? And who made all of these abilities where when they're working, we see when they're not working, we don't see or hear or taste or touch? Who created all of that?

God says, I did! That's what he says. Have not I the Lord? Verse 12. Now therefore, go! Stop making excuses! Go! Stop waffling, and I will be with your mouth. By now, God's probably saying to himself, your mouth seems to be working pretty good to me at this point. I tell you to go and you sit here and argue with me. I think your mouth's doing quite well on its own. Thank you.

And I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say. I'm going to read verses 11 and 12 from the New International Version. The Lord said to him, Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf for mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I the Lord? Now go, and I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. So again, I want you to notice what God tells Moses.

Your human limitations are not important because I am with you. My presence is with you. I'm going to teach you. I'm going to assist you in the tasks that you need to do. But you know, unfortunately, Moses doesn't get it yet, and he's going to anger God by continuing to insist on how unable he is, how worthless he is, how unable he is, and the eternal is frustrated because Moses is degrading the power of God. But God doesn't appreciate that. Verse 13. But he said, Oh, my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Moses is saying, Please send someone else. In spite of all miracles, right?

We've seen all these miracles. God's trying to reason with him. It's not connecting. So God says, All right, I'll try another tactic. I'm going to put him in a corner. He says, Send someone else.

And says, So the anger of the Lord was kindled. He said, Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?

I know that he can speak. And look, he's also coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. At least until you tell him what the two of you are about to do.

He will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth.

And I will be with your mouth. We're going to cover all the bases. Before you say anything else, Moses, I'm going to be with your mouth. I'm going to be with his mouth. And I'm going to teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your mouth and with his mouth. I'm sorry. So how she shall be your spokesman to the people and he himself shall be a mouth to you and you shall be a god to him as a god. Meaning because of this rod you will have wisdom and authority that you will convey to Aaron.

Verse 17, and you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall do the signs.

Well, to use a modern term, Moses pushed God's hot button because he was demeaning towards the power of God in him. He was offending God. Are we offending God because of false humility?

Are we offending God because we think that we are worthless? Because we think we don't have any talents? And we are demeaning the power of the Spirit of God that resides within us? Are we frustrating God's Spirit by limiting its ability to influence us, to change us, because of a negative self-attitude? As I mentioned before, brother, in our sense of self-worth tends to influence whether we choose to learn lessons quickly and move on or brood about our mistakes and repeat them. Here's what tends to happen to us depending on our perception of our worth in the eyes of God.

If you feel you have worth to God, you tend to make productive choices, and you have a can-do approach to life. And when you fall, as we all do, you fall, you make mistakes, you get up, you brush yourself off, you consider what happened because you want to learn a lesson from it. You don't brood about it, you don't dwell on it 20 years later. You process what happened, why I did this to myself, what is the lesson to be learned? You file it away in your mind palace. Use the term from Sherlock.

Alright, in my case, the mind shed. You file it away in your mind shed. In case you need to recall it at a later time, and you move on in life and you just move forward. You have a can-do approach to problems and opportunities because Jesus Christ dwells within you. If you feel you have worth to God, you tend to make positive choices. But if you feel unworthy, if you feel undeserving, you tend to make self-destructive and limiting choices. You feel, because of a self-fulfilling prophecy, that eventually everything's going to go wrong. Every little problem is going to grow into a big obstacle. Every good opportunity, every good thing that could happen to me is going to fail because, after all, I'm not worthy of good things happening to me. I'm not worthy to be blessed. Love self-worth also influences our actions and our potential. Our subconscious attitudes can sabotage us so that things just don't work out well. And we start saying, well, I'm unlucky at times. No, we're not unlucky. It was just a self-fulfilling prophecy. We imagined it and thought it and convinced our minds of it first, and sure enough, it came to happen. Sometimes we may think that, well, God is punishing us. We're in reality, we're punishing ourselves through self-sabotage, through beating ourselves up, through putting ourselves down constantly. And as we discover our God-given worth, we come to see that life is tough enough without self-sabotage. There are enough trials.

There are enough challenges without us piling on to all the things we are dealing with in life by tearing ourselves down, by being negative towards ourselves. I'd like to talk about the proper use of guilt. This is important for parents as well as those of us for adults.

Guilt is only an effective short-term motivator. Holy Spirit properly uses guilt to prod us to do something we're negligent to do. And the thought may come in, you know, you really should do this, much like Mr. Dillingham mentioned today, and that snow packed around his neighbors. You know, you really should be the Christian, be the adult here, and remove the snow by that person's car. That's the Holy Spirit prodding us. And it does it if we're negligent to do something we should do.

But brethren, it's effectively only used as a tool to get us to change or reconsider something that we're doing if it's never intended to be a long-term motivator because it isn't.

Scientific studies have proven over and over again that after a while, harboring shame and guilt leads to frustration and hopelessness. Then that grows into despondency, and finally that grows into depression. It's only a short-term tool and motivator to get us to do something we need to do. If it isn't processed, if guilt isn't processed and released by repentance and accepting God's grace, it becomes actually a demotivator and it emotionally paralyzes the person who is living in guilt. A person who is living in guilt is paralyzed, locked into that guilt, held down like a burden, like a weight, a millstone around their neck because of reliving and feeling the burden of that guilt in their lives. So if we're feeling this way, what can we do?

How can we overcome our feeling of worthlessness or poor self-image? In conclusion to the sermon today, I'd like to give some things that we can do to overcome a feeling of worthlessness or poor self-image. Number one is realize and accept the fact that we have these feelings and they are not biblical. As with any problem, it all has to begin with us no longer living in denial, no longer making excuses, but saying, yep, that's me, hit, you know, hit the nail on the head, that's me, that's a problem I have, that's where I'm struggling with. If you don't get the number one, all the other stuff, you might just might as well take a nap and I'll wake you up in nine minutes. I mean, it's just that simple. Realize and accept the fact that we have these feelings and they are not godly, not biblical.

Number two is go to God in prayer and ask for guidance and wisdom to see yourself as God sees us, only as God sees us. God loves us enough to have died for us. Accept God's grace and let go of the negative feelings because as long as you have those feelings, they'll hold you down. They will hold you back from your potential. Number three, plan a personal Bible study with the topic of how God views us once we are converted. Don't go to the Old Testament and make a Bible study on what God thinks of man apart from his Creator. Got it! We got that one already. We understand that man is but a worm. He's a maggot. His righteousness is like a bloody rag. We got it. No reason to make a study on that, but you can make a positive Bible study on how God views his children once they receive his Spirit. Number four, challenge these negative thoughts when they enter your mind. As I've said before, and I will continue to say, our thoughts lie to us every day. Do not ever assume, because you're talking to yourself, that you're being honest with yourself. My brothers and sisters in Christ, Satan, the father of lies, is the one who plants these kinds of limiting, limited negative thoughts into our heads. With his Wi-Fi network, he is the one who drudges up all of that old stuff, all of those feelings of inferiority, all of those feelings of worthlessness, and says, there, chew on this for a while, dwell, and think about this for a while, because this will put you in a funk, this will make you negative, this will freeze you from being able to achieve any potential in your life. Dwell on this. So number four, again, is challenge those thoughts. When you get that thought, say, no, that is not right. That's not true. And number five, make an effort to catch and stop these feelings. The important thing is not to leave a void. Nature abhors a void.

You have to replace these disapproving thoughts with something else, something positive, or they'll just come back. You have to replace them. And I suggest memorizing some positive scriptures that reflect what God can do for us, what God does within us. Matthew, chapter 28, verse 20, for example, Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. God's there. He's dwelling. His power, His presence is there with us. How about Romans 8, 39? No created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing that's ever been created can separate us from God. Romans 8, 31, what shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? God is on our side. Who dare challenge God's children? Why should I sabotage all the good things that God is offering me? The analogy that I used with the cruise liner. We need to understand that Jesus Christ paid the price, and He even paid the price for our guilt and our shame and our negative feelings. Second Corinthians, chapter 12, and verse 9, Paul said, my grace, speaking of something God told him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So we're struggling with our own human limitations. It are those limitations that we need to understand.

It's those limitations that reveal God's strength because He makes us more than we are. God fills in to gap. My strength is made perfect in weaknesses. Our weaknesses, all of our human foibles, pull us down, but the Spirit of God pulls us up and reflects the glory and the strength of God.

Here's number six. Ask a friend or your spouse to gently point out to you when you're turning self-destructive with a poor attitude. And I said gently, friend or your spouse, someone whom you're very close to, ask them kindly when you get in a rant, when you start talking that way, when you start talking negative, you start talking self-destructive, you start talking about how worthless you are, what a failure you are, that that friend or that spouse gently points that out to you.

Thank them and learn to sense when you're turning negative about your worth to God. Begin to catch yourself. That's an important key, important step in overcoming it. And number seven, daily remind yourself that Jesus Christ died for us. He believes in us. He gave us His Spirit as a gift, and the Father calls us His children, and He loves us. Let's go to our final Scripture today, John chapter 15 and verse 12, some of the final words of Jesus Christ on the eve of His death.

John chapter 15 and verse 12. We often read this on the Passover because it is so encouraging.

Christ said in John chapter 15, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends, something Jesus Christ would soon do for you, for me. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you to let us develop the mind of Christ. 15. The longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. God loves us so much that it's not a master-slave relationship, even though it deserves to be. He says, I have called you my friend, a close relationship, a deep friendship, an abiding long-term relationship. For all things that I heard from the Father I've made known to you, and you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.

Brethren, we're not here by accident. We're not here by a mistake. We were called by the Father, and we were appointed as part of his plan, as part of his purpose, for us to follow him and to become his children. But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. These things I command you that you love one another. So, brethren, the way that God looks at us is vastly different before conversion, apart from God, and after conversion when we have received his Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God transforms us because of what Jesus Christ did for us by sacrifice and because Jesus Christ lives in us through that Spirit. The Father chooses to see us as his beloved children filled with the righteousness of his Son. No longer should we live in shame or guilt from our mistakes.

No longer should we beat ourselves up. No longer should we feel worthless or inadequate.

It's Jesus Christ that gives us worth and gives us glory. Many, many years ago, the ancient patriarch Job once said in chapter 25 verse 6 regarding man's worth, apart from God, he said, How much less man who is a maggot and the Son of man who is a worm? And apart from God, that's what all humanity is. But if we're struggling with our own self-worth, and even if you're not convinced after these two sermons to begin to look at yourself differently and to begin to realize how differently God looks at you, even if you're not quite there yet, I hope you will remember the phrase of Winston Churchill who said, We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow worm.

So, brethren, even if we're struggling with a full appreciation to our worth to God, let's at least start with the understanding that we are a glow worm, that we are a light to the world, and the power of God is helping us to shine and to give Him glory, because to God belongs all glory. Have a wonderful Sabbath.