October 16, 2020
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Some of us are a little "old school." We still pay our bills with an envelope and a stamp and mail it in. At least we pay our bills. I know what it is to need a stamp; you've got something that has to be mailed - could be an urgent bill. You've got spoiled by having electricity in your house, and you really don't want to see what it's like without it. Your electric bill is due, the check is written, the envelope is addressed, and you can't find a stamp. But something that happened during a recent election has to be the ultimate postage desperation. An absentee ballot arrived with an unusual stamp on the envelope; a picture of an inverted World War I airplane. The news report said that stamp may very well have been a rare collector's item worth $200,000! Postage rates might continue to go up, but this is like out of control!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wasting What's Worth So Much."
The sad thing is that somebody pretty much wasted what was worth so much. But that was just a stamp, and maybe money that got wasted. What's tragic is when a person makes that mistake with their life. And, sadly, many people have no idea what they're worth. They live like it with choices that cause them so much hurt, so much disappointment and so many scars. If you don't know what you're worth, you go through life just settling...settling for whatever love, whatever pleasure, whatever acceptance you can get. Usually at a high price tag to the very worth you're trying to find.
Cindy was like that. She'd never had many dates or a lot of male attention. She called me one night because a guy she'd dated two or three times wanted her to have sex with him. She valued her virginity, but she didn't want to lose the one guy who made her feel wanted. I gave her what she called for - I gave her reasons to save her virginity. Frankly, it didn't do much good. When he threatened to leave, she agreed to have sex with him. She called back a couple of weeks later. The guy had gotten what he wanted, and he dumped her, leaving her feeling more worthless even than she had before.
One sad example of the kinds of compromises and bad choices you make when you don't know what you're worth and you're trying to find it. There's only one person who can really change that, and that's the One who gave you your worth in the first place. The Bible says you are "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).
See, it breaks your Creator's heart when you trash the masterpiece He made when He made you. That's what our sinning does - all those countless times we've said or done things that defy God's laws. The selfishness, the angry things, the hurting things, the dirty things, the things that are more important to us than God. All those choices have cut us off from the One who gave us our worth. And only He can get us back to Him. You discover your worth when you open up to God's amazing love.
Love described in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 5:9. It says of Jesus, "With your blood You purchased men for God." That's how much you are worth to Jesus - the shedding of His blood to get you back. It was the only way the death penalty for your sin and mine could be paid; someone who had no sin, taking our punishment for us. That's what Jesus did for you on the cross, and that is how much He loves you.
And that's why what you do with Jesus is so important. Without Him, you'll never experience the love you were made for. The forgiveness He paid for. The heaven you hope you'll get to. But He's come to you today, where you are, to offer you an opportunity to begin a personal love relationship with Him, if you'll turn from the sin that He had to die for and pin all your hopes on Him. He is, after all, the only One you can totally, totally trust.
I'm praying you'll reach out to Him this very day. And I'm going to just continue to pray that you'll go to our website. Because that's where you will find the information that will help you through what God's Word says, to be sure you belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
Jesus loved you enough to die for you. Why not live for the One who loves you the most, and discover how valuable you really are.