P1 2020 WHAT IS YOUR TRUE VALUE?

Click here to watch the entire sermon.

Seeing Life Clearly: Understanding Your Purpose and Value as God's Creation
When you have 2020 vision, you see things with clarity - the way they really are. Without it, things become blurry and distorted. Just like how the right prescription lenses can transform blurry vision into crystal clarity, looking at life through the right lens can help us see our existence as it truly is.

We all perceive the world through lenses, often called worldviews. Your worldview is comprised of your fundamental beliefs, assumptions, value systems, and attitudes. If we want to see life as it really is, we must look through a biblical lens.

What Does the Bible Say About Who You Are?
Genesis 1:26-27 provides our first biblical lens: "Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them."


The first biblical lens through which we must look to see life clearly is this: God created you in His image. Seeing life correctly begins by seeing yourself as God's creation and His image bearer.


How Does This Differ From a Secular Worldview?
A secular lens suggests you weren't created at all - you just happened as a result of natural processes. According to this view, you evolved from simple organisms that came from nothing, eventually becoming human beings after millions of years.


In contrast, the biblical lens clarifies a different reality: you were created by God and designed to bear His image.

What Makes Humans Unique as God's Image Bearers?
As God's image bearers, humans are unique from all other creation in several ways:

We have free will and moral reasoning. While animals make decisions based on instinct, humans can make decisions that defy instinct in favor of a greater good. We can make moral choices that may even cause great self-sacrifice.

We can create and appreciate beauty. People can create and appreciate music, art, and technology in ways no other creatures can.


What Are the Implications of Being Created in God's Image?
There are two incredibly important implications of this biblical truth:

Implication 1: You Have Purpose
One of the great shortcomings of evolution is that it has no goal except survival. An evolutionist might try to tell you how you are here, but they don't attempt to answer why you're here.

Consider the difference between a natural rock formation and an oil pump. The rock formation resulted from natural processes, while the oil pump was designed and created for a specific purpose. Similarly, you were designed and created by God for a purpose.

What is that purpose? Isaiah 43:6-7 tells us: "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." In a general sense, your purpose is to glorify God. We were made to reflect the Creator in His creation.


But your purpose also has a specific sense. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says: "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." Your specific purpose is to steward your unique gifts to glorify God.


No one can glorify God exactly like you can. The mathematical odds of another person being exactly like you are astronomically small - 1 in 10 to the 2,685,000th power. That's vastly larger than the number of grains of sand on Earth (7.5 x 10^18) or even the number of atoms in the universe (10^82).

Life works best when you live according to your design. If you want to find satisfaction, fulfillment, joy, and true success, discover how God made you and then figure out ways to glorify Him with that design.

Implication 2: You Are Intrinsically Priceless
A secular lens says your value is determined by what you're able to achieve or contribute. According to this view, some people are worth more than others, and some might even be considered worthless if they can't contribute or achieve.

But according to the Bible, human value is not earned or acquired - it's innate and intrinsic. Something's value is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for it. Romans 8:32 reminds us: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"


When God set out to buy you back from sin, He paid His best for you. You're worth Jesus to God because God literally paid Jesus Christ for you. And He did this "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8), not because we deserved it or had earned it.


Life Application
How do you see yourself? Do you perceive your purpose and value with 2020 vision using the Bible as a lens? Or has a secular worldview blurred your vision?


The Creator knit you together as a unique, precious creation for a purpose - to make Him known. But before we can make God known, we must know Him personally.


This week, take time to reflect on these questions:


Am I viewing myself through the lens of culture or through the lens of Scripture?


How am I using my unique design to glorify God?

Do I truly believe I am intrinsically valuable to God, regardless of my achievements or contributions?

How might my life change if I fully embraced my identity as God's image bearer?

Remember, you can't make known what you don't know. Seek to deepen your relationship with the Creator who designed you with purpose and values you beyond measure.