How to Get What You Want: Value

When Jesus nears Jericho, a blind beggar refuses to be silenced. He cries out, not just for sight, but to be seen. Jesus stops, calls him near, and restores more than his vision. If you’ve felt overlooked or undervalued, this sermon is for you. In a world that ties worth to performance and opinions, Scripture announces a better truth: your value is secure in Christ. Come hear the voice that knows your name and delights in you.

We’ll look at how Jesus dignifies a man everyone else ignored, why “Self-worth equals God’s truth about us” is freedom, and how to listen to the Father’s voice above all others. Jesus sees and values you, so anchor your worth in God’s truth, not your performance or others’ opinions of you. 

Join us this Sunday to worship, learn, and discover belonging. Plan your visit: firstprescos.org/belong

Transcript

Our fall sermon series, How to Get What You Want,  is exploring certain needs and longings common to each of us.  When God created us, He placed within us desires that match His heart.  So, we want to better understand how we can get what we really want from the One who formed us and knows us best.  To do this, let’s look at today’s passage: Luke 18:35-43.

Can you think of times when you’ve felt overlooked or undervalued by those around you?  Perhaps someone hasn’t made an effort to see you for who you really are.  Or maybe you haven’t been treated with the value you know you possess.  I wonder how recently each of us has felt unvalued?  Or who here may be feeling this right now?  While you ponder that question, let me tell you a story.

Worthy Taylor was a wealthy nineteenth-century farmer who hired a young man to help one summer.  In the months that followed, Jim slept in the barn, ate with the family, and fell in love with Taylor’s daughter.  But Jim’s request to marry her was rebuffed by Taylor, who noted that the young man had no means to support a family and seemingly little future.

At the end of the summer, Jim moved on.  Taylor became even more prosperous over the next thirty-five years and eventually decided to replace his barn with a bigger one.  When he did, Taylor discovered Jim’s full name carved in the rafter over the hayloft where Jim had slept: “James A. Garfield”—by then the 20th President of the United States!

As we explore how to get what we want, we’re looking today at an area important to every one of us: Value.  Each of us longs to feel significant.  To be noticed.  To be treated with value by those around us.  When that doesn’t happen . . . it hurts, doesn’t it?

If someone asked you what contributes to your sense of feeling valued, how would answer?  In his book, Search for Significance, Robert McGee offers an interesting equation: Self Worth = Performance + Others’ Opinions.  When I came across this years ago, I shared it with the class I was teaching and asked how many believed that was true.  One woman’s hand shot up in the back of the room—but when she looked around and realized hers was the only one, she quickly lowered it.  

I remember thinking at that moment that she may have been the only honest person in the room.  For though we may not realize it, we tend to draw much of our value from external sources: what we have to offer to world around us, or what others think of us.

I saw a TV commercial for a car play on this years ago.  I won’t tell you who made the car, but it rhymes with Texas.  During the commercial, no words were spoken.  Just four sentences flashed across the screen, one at a time: 

You’re at a stoplight.  

It will last 20 seconds.

This may be the only time some1 sees you.  

How do you want to be remembered?

There was no reference to the car’s performance or cost; just what others would think of us in this car.

Now, if we’re honest, accomplishments and affirmation of others does feel good.  But what happens when either is absent?  Is this really where we want to draw our value?  Or is there a more lasting source we can cultivate deep within, that won’t change with our circumstances?

Today we read of one who was overlooked and undervalued by everyone around him, and how his life changed when Jesus noticed and valued him.  Luke 18:35-39

Jesus’ route intersected with this man’s territory, where he likely camped each day, hoping for generosity from those passing by.  This beggar had obviously heard stories of what Jesus could do, for he began crying out for Jesus’ attention after learning He was nearby.

This man’s shouts were so annoying to those around him, they rebuked him.  It’s possible that their words were punctuated by an elbow or a well-placed kick.  Yet this beggar continued to shout, trying to get Jesus’ attention.  Like most beggars, this man probably received little attention from those who passed by.  Yet he dared to think Jesus might notice him . . . and He did!  Luke 18:40-41

This beggar was on the bottom rung of society, yet he caught Jesus’ attention.  For Jesus always has an open eye and ear for needy people, like you and like me.  This man who’d been overlooked and undervalued by so many, was valued in this moment by Jesus, who commanded that the beggar be brought to Him.

Then Jesus asked an interesting question: “What do you want me to do for you?”  Couldn’t Jesus see this man’s need?  Or perhaps He prefers that we name what we need from Him.

If you heard this question from Jesus right now, how would you respond?  Our instinct, like this blind man, is to lead with the obvious answers: I want my pain to end; I want this relationship healed; I want to be in a better place in life.  But what about our less obvious needs that nag at us from within: the longing for hope, meaning, peace, or belonging; or to feel valued?  Is it possible we aim too low when it comes to what we ask for from Jesus?  

Today and every day, He poses this same question to you: “What do you want me to do for you?”  While we instinctively focus on earthly needs, what we really want often lies more deeply within.

This blind man wanted his sight; but first, he wanted to be seen by Jesus as our Lord passed by that day.  The same is true of you and of me: we long to be seen, valued, and loved.  Yet we live in an indifferent world that too often overlooks and diminishes what we have to offer.  We’re left wondering how we can experience the sense of value that we really want.

Self-worth = Performance + Others’ Opinions.  In the long run, that’s not going to do it.  We need a different source of value that’s lasting and unchanging.  So, I invite you to consider an alternate equation from McGee: Self Worth = God’s truth about us.  And what is God’s truth?  As Max Lucado puts it, “In the eyes of the King, you have value simply because you are.”  The one who saw value in a blind beggar who was frequently overlooked and in this case ridiculed by those around him, sees lasting value and potential in you that’s too often missed by others.

Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis was once asked what he thought just before diving from the high platform.  His response: “Even if I blow this dive my mother will still love me.”  Do you know that God feels the same about you?  He declares, “I have called you by name; you are mine.  You are precious and honored in my sight, and . . . I love you.” (Is. 43:1, 4)  Friends, you possesses a lasting basis of value that has nothing to do with external factors.

Can you believe this?  Can you understand that you have value to God simply because you are?  I hope you can . . . because the alternative can be incredibly wearying.  In his book Who Am I and Why Do I Matter? Chris Morphew writes this:

The world is full of voices telling you who you are, and who you should be.
 Voices telling you that you don’t measure up.
 Voices telling you that you need to prove yourself.
 Voices telling you that if you just buy this new thing, or have this new experience, or … maybe then it will all make sense, and you can finally be that happy, fulfilled self that the world keeps promising you.

And it’s exhausting, right?
And, more than that, it’s a lie.

But the incredible news is that Jesus offers you a better way

Though there’ll inevitably be moments when we feel overlooked or undervalued by those around us, understand that God will always delight in who you are.  In light of this wonderful truth, let me encourage you to do two things:

1. Be honest about what’s been fueling your sense of value  

How much have you been allowing external influences to shape or diminish your feelings of significance and worth?  If your sense of value isn’t grounded in a good place, don’t you want to know this?

2. Listen to God’s voice more than voices around us or even what we tell ourselves

As we go through life, we can pick up negative attitudes about ourselves from others: perhaps from a demanding parent, a former spouse, a hard to please employer, or someone else.  Without realizing it, we allow their perceptions of us to shape our own self-perception 

            I saw this years ago while ministering in McArthur Park in Los Angeles.  I still remember one conversation with a homeless man, whose face was caked with dirt.  When we told him that God loved him, he responded, “I really don’t know why He would.”  I sensed his answer was likely shaped by years of others’ negative messages.  Learn to listen for the voice of your heavenly Father who loves and values you even on days when others’ approval is lacking, or when you’re not sure you even like yourself.

Every one of us longs to feel significant and valued.  We can choose from two equations:

Self Worth = Performance + Others’ Opinions or Self Worth = God’s truth about us.  There’s a very big difference between the two; please don’t settle for the first, when you can draw from the second.

‘Twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer
 Thought it scarcely worth his while
 To waste such time on the old violin
 But he held it up with a smile.

What am I bid, good people, he cried
 Who’ll start bidding for me?
 A dollar, one dollar – now two! Only two?
 Who will make it three?
 Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
 And going and almost gone – But no

From the back of the room came a woman
 And taking the bow and tightening the strings
 She played a melody pure and sweet
 As sweet as an angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
 With a voice that was quiet and low
 Said What am I bid for the old violin?
 And he held it up with the bow.
 A thousand dollars, one thousand—now two!
 Only two?  Who’ll make it three?
 Three thousand once; three thousand, twice;
 And going, and gone! said he.

The people cheered and some of them cried
 We don’t understand.  What changed its worth?
 And the woman replied,
 The touch of the master’s hand 

And many a man with life out of tune
 Battered and scarred by sin
 Is auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd
 Much like the old violin.

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine;
 A game – and he travels on.
 He’s going once, he’s going twice
 He’s going and almost gone.

But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
 Never can quite understand
 The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
 By the touch of the Master’s hand.

Can you picture yourself as an old violin, battered as you may feel, held in the hands of the Master?  Can you understand the value God sees in you, that He wants to affirm each day of your life?  Keep letting our Lord reinforce the beauty He sees in you, and reveal it in new ways.  As you do, you’ll experience the sense of value that you really want.