You Are Incredibly Valuable

1 Corinthians 12:21-24, Ephesians 1:23

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Hey, did you? Did you see who’s here? Like, yeah, they’re here. That that that person who. So that the really important person, the really valuable one, like the MVP, they’re here.

I am talking about you. You are incredibly valuable. Now I know you might be thinking, well, I haven’t really done anything to earn a reputation for being valuable. And, well, actually, you’re right. There’s nothing you can do to earn your value. If you were thinking, Yeah, actually, he is talking about me, I’ve done some pretty valuable things. Well, I hate to break it to you, but the reason why you’re valuable is probably not what you’re thinking.

To help us understand the way God looks at value. I want to take us to First Corinthians Chapter 12, and in First Corinthians Chapter 12, there’s a section where God is speaking through the Apostle Paul and he’s talking about the church. So all Christians. And he’s using this image of the body of Christ. And this is what he says. So it starts in verse 21 of chapter 12

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. (1 Corinthians 12:21-24)

If you look through that section. And as I look through it in the original language, when it talks about the parts that, you know, are not normally treated as are looked at as unpresentable, it actually the word means like ugly. And it seems like the ugly parts of the body of Christ are actually the really beautiful parts. And they actually get special honor and special treatment. It seems totally upside down to us. But according to God’s standard, the way he values people doesn’t match the world standards.

If you think about the gospel, though, that makes sense because God doesn’t want us to come and perform for him. He doesn’t need us to be especially like do good things for him. Actually, he meets us in our sin and it’s there that he comforts us with the gospel. And the gospel is actually something that looked really ugly. Jesus dying on the cross. This is an ugly scene.

This is where God’s love was on display in the greatest way. This is where we see that Jesus laid down his life and took the penalty for your sin and mine paid for it in order to set us right with God. So God’s standard for value is very, very different. Now, does that mean we should go around and claim, well, I’m the ugly part of the body of Christ that makes me better than you. That’s not the point. The point is that our value actually isn’t in anything we do, but our value is in simply being part of the body, part of Christ.

See there’s this incredible thing that the whole idea of being part of the body of Christ, it’s not just a picture. It’s a reality. I want to take it to the first chapter of a Ephesians, to the last verse. And in this section are Paul again as his talking about Jesus and how he is above everything and talking about the power at work in Jesus. But then he goes on and he talks about the body. So the church and he says

the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:23)

That the church is the fullness of Christ, the ideas of being an extension of Christ. How does Christ fill the world? How does Christ work in the world? It’s through the church. You are an extension of Christ, which, if you just soak that in, is just mind boggling. Remember in the Old Testament you think about the temple or the tabernacle, and there’s that holy place that people couldn’t go into. Only a priest could go to one time of year when there were sacrifice because sinful people can’t be in the presence of holy God. Well, Jesus, God himself, you are an extension of him. How can that be?

Well, he has laid down his life, died for you, and risen again to so make you right with him. That through faith in him, you are a holy place of God. You are a dwelling place of the Holy God. You are an extension of God Himself in the world. What could be more valuable than that?