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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skiff Heitzig. How does the world value people. What is the standard that the world uses to say you? R Valuable.
Well typically You know the answer. Typically It's either outward beauty. or personal wealth. or accomplishment, status. Because that is true, that's the reason we find ourselves comparing ourselves with other people.
Are they more beautiful than I am, less beautiful than I am? Do they have more or less finances than I have? Have they accomplished more than I've accomplished? And because that is true, we are constantly giving worth and value to ourselves. Based upon the value and worth of other people on that scale.
According to one survey, Only 13% of American women consider themselves to be pretty. 28% of American men think themselves to be handsome. 94% of American men would change something about their looks if they could. While 99% of American women would change something about their looks if they could. Follow-up question.
How does God value us?
Well, a very, very different set of standards. God looks at us through a different lens. The Bible says that God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. the powerless things of this world to confound the mighty. And the things that the world despises, God has chosen.
There's a billboard campaign. I've seen it in several cities. It says, we buy ugly houses. I like that sign. It's just one of those campaigns, marketing campaigns, that was done right because.
You look at it, and then you look at it again, and you never forget it. We buy ugly houses. It was the brainchild of a man named Ken DeAngelo who decided that he would look for properties that are run down. He would fix them up, resell them. To investors or to first-time homebuyers, and also beautify the neighborhoods around him.
We buy ugly houses. Listen. God has been in the business of buying ugly houses. long before any real estate investor ever came along. Look at chapter 1, verse 18.
Knowing. that you are not redeemed or bought, purchased. With corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received. by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
He indeed was foreordained. before the foundation of the world. but was manifest in these last times for you. Who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory.
So that your faith and hope are in God. That is God's plan. To buy up and to transform Ugly houses. Broken lives. Those with an aimless conduct.
that they have received. That is God's plan, and you and I fit into that plan. How's that plan working out?
Some of you will remember back to a TV series many years ago called the A-Team. It's since been made into a movie. Anybody remember the A-Team?
Okay, so the head of the A-Team, it's this special forces, ex-Special Forces guys. The head of it is a guy named Hannibal Smith. And when everything works out the way he's planned it, at the end of the show, his catchphrase is. I love it when a plan comes together.
So does God. And God has a plan. And I want to share with you out of this passage five aspects of God's plan for us. That includes your preciousness. Your predicament.
Your price Your predestination. And your part. in this plan. Let's look at your preciousness. Notice it says in verse 18, the word redeemed.
Just look at that word. That's the key word of the whole passage. You were redeemed. The word redeem means to set free by paying a price. It's a term that comes from the slave markets of the first century.
When somebody would go in where people were put on parade. In chains. And a price would be given. To set that slave free, for that slave to come home with the new owner or to go out on his own. to set free by paying a price.
It also was a Greek term, a technical term for Paying money to set a prisoner of war free.
Now the fact that money would be spent in this transaction Showed that the owner places value. on the slave. places value on the prisoner of war.
So the idea, the term redemption, infers value. In other words, Simply put, You are precious. To God. The old house is worth saving. God redeemed you.
The love of God. What's the most famous verse in the Bible? John 3. For God so Loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Does not say, for God was so ticked off at the world, he sent his son to punch everybody out.
He loved the world. The essence of God's character, besides holiness, is love. Twice in 1 John, it says, God. is love.
So easy to say, so hard to believe. I'm convinced most Christians Have a hard time. Really? Believing and experiencing that God values them. and that they are precious to him.
Dwight L. Moody, that pastor evangelist from Chicago in the 1800s, once got out his concordance and looked up every single reference to God's love. And at the end, he said, There is no truth in the whole Bible that ought to affect us as much as the love of God. The reason we struggle with it, with God loving us the way we are. Is because it's so foreign to us.
God's love is so diametrically different from human love. Human love. is object-oriented. It's discriminate. That is, I see something I like.
And I get it for myself. That's human love. It is based on the object, object-oriented, it's discriminate. And I would add a third characteristic: it's temporary. I like it today.
Will I like it tomorrow? Or if I'm a child, I like it now, but in 10 minutes will I like it. That's human love. God's love is different. God's love is Subject-oriented, not object-oriented.
It's based on him, not the object. It's subject-oriented. It is indiscriminate. And it is eternal.
So it's very, very different. It's based on God's character. There was once an American tourist who was in Paris, and she went into a little trinket shop and she bought a bracelet. It was very inexpensive, it was cheap. It's a few dollars, 20-some bucks.
It had amber and different things in it, but she liked it and she took it home. When she was trying to go back to the United States, they stopped her at customs and looked it over and demanded that she pay a pretty hefty price. tax, duty to get back in the country, which Raised a red flag. She took it to a jewelry shop to get it appraised. The jeweler looked it over and said, I'll give you $25,000 for it now.
Took it to another jeweler shop. Offered her $10,000 more, $35,000 now.
So she said, okay, so what's up with this little bracelet? Why do you think it's so valuable? I didn't spend much for it. The jeweler said, come closer. Gave her the magnifying glass, and on the back of that little trinket bracelet was the inscription.
From Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine. That's why it was so valuable. It wasn't valuable because what it was made of necessarily, or the era from which it came, or even that it was given to Josephine. It was Based upon the subject that gave that. It was based on the identification of a famous person named Napoleon Bonaparte.
Your value. Comes from the fact that you are loved by the God of this universe. That's sh your preciousness to God. Scientists have discovered what they say is the most precious substance in all the universe. It's very rare.
used only for research purposes. called antihydrogen. It makes things like plutonium, gold, and diamonds seem like dirt in comparison. The estimated value of antihydrogen, the price tag, One thousand seven hundred and seventy one trillion. dollars per ounce.
To get our little minds around that, that's 1771, followed by 12 zeros. Dollars per ounce. But there's something far more valuable than antihydrogen. You. You.
You are. You to God are more precious than anything that He would. Pay the big bucks. To get you. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition.
Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps reach more people with God's word, changing lives through clear, practical Bible teaching. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful and inspiring resource from Skiff's wife, Lenya Heitzig. It's her book, Reload Love, Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds. This remarkable book tells the true story of how God took Lenya's heartbreak over suffering children in war-torn regions and turned it into a global movement of compassion, melting down bullets to build playgrounds and bring hope where it's needed most. Request your copy of Reload Love when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skiff Heitzig.
Call 800-922-1888. or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.
Now let's return to today's teaching. Before we get to that, we have a little bit of a problem, which brings us to the second aspect of this plan, and that is your predicament. Notice what it says in verse 18. You were redeemed from your aimless conduct. Receive by tradition from your fathers.
Do you know what aimless means? It means without aim or Better put. The wrong aim. You were aimed in the wrong direction. You were going the wrong direction, and consequently, your life was empty.
Unsatisfying, vain. Tasteless, you might say. And this is true of even the most prominent and wealthy and famous people. I was reading an article about Elvis Presley. The week he died, he was in a hotel room in Las Vegas.
And he wrote a letter, and parts of the letter he said, I feel so alone sometimes. Which is curious because years before that, he had actually written a song. called Heartbreak Hotel. Remember that song where I feel so lonely? He said, I feel so lonely.
And what was sad to me is that he actually became the caricature in the song that he had written about. He was in a hotel. He died that week. He said, I feel all alone sometimes. Actor George Clooney said.
I'm lonely. I can't sleep. I've used cocaine even though I hated it. But long before the king of rock and roll or that actor, there was another king named Solomon. Who summed up his whole life by saying vanity, vanity, all is vanity, or emptiness, emptiness.
Everything I've tried in life is empty and tasteless. That's aimless living. That's exactly what Peter is writing about here. Jesus said, What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world? And he loses his own soul.
Solomon did that. That's the futility of an unredeemed life. But Look closer. Your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. When I first read this, I was around 18 or 19 when I first remember reading this passage.
And it was as though Peter was writing directly about my life. I came from a very traditional church background. I received a tradition from my fathers. A church tradition. I wasn't saved, but I had a tradition.
And since then, I've met many people who say, I was raised in the same tradition, or these are the traditions I was raised with, so that when we were younger, We would ask things like, Dad, mom, why do we do this? It's our tradition. Yeah, but is it right? But it's our tradition.
Now, you might say, well, what's wrong with people's traditions? Nothing. Unless You are trusting in those traditions to save you. Then it's wrong. They may be good.
But a good thing can become a bad thing. if it keeps you from the best thing. That's what Peter's writing about here. You know, basically, there are only two approaches to God. You might say there are only two religions in the world.
If you studied world religions in college and you've studied all the different nuances between this country and that country and this belief system and that. You might leave that class and think, boy, there are so many different ways people have to believe. I beg to differ. Let me give you the cliff notes to that class. Let me give you the irreducible minimum to that religions class.
There are only two religions in the world. Only two ways to get to God, two approaches. Number one, the religion of human achievement. Number two, the religion of divine accomplishment. You could take every single world religion and place it in the first category.
Human achievement. People believing that by their traditions, their practices, their sincerity, their good works, they're going to make it to God. That's the religion, the approach of human achievement. But the only way that God says he will be approached is the second category. And that's the approach, or if you will, religion, for lack of a better term.
the religion of divine accomplishment. It's not what you do, it's what he's done. It's not what you work towards, it's the work he has given. And done on the cross. It's not what you earn, it's what you receive.
That's how you get redeemed.
Now that takes us to the third aspect. of this plan. And it's your price. What did you cost? What is the price tag that God was willing to pay to get you to heaven?
Look at verse 19. With the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without blemish. and without spot. That's how valuable you were.
If a young man walks into a jewelry store with his fiancée and he wants to buy a diamond ring, which is always a mistake to do it together. And here's why. Because the first question the jeweler is going to ask the young man is what? How much are you willing to spend? That's a trick question.
Because she's standing there and she's going, yeah. How much are you willing to spend? How much am I worth to you? Because he's thinking in his mind that Crackerjack ring looks mighty fine. And she's saying, not going to happen.
The Hope Diamond is the most expensive diamond in the world, $250 million, it's estimated at. 45 carats of a blue-hued gemstone.
Well, he might feel That's what she's worth to me, dude. You'll never be able to. Even come close, don't even think about it. But You do have to set a price. You know what you cost?
Everything. You cost We cost the very life blood. of the Son of God. And God was willing to pay it, and Jesus was willing to go through it. It's why Vance Havner, the one-time Senate to the United States chaplain, said: salvation is free.
But it is not cheap. God gave his very best. Years ago, Alan Shepard, one of America's great astronauts who walked on the moon, one of the few men who did. Was interviewed and he was asked: when you were up in space looking back at the earth, what thoughts were going through your mind? Listen to his response.
It's a sobering feeling. To be up in space and realize that your safety is determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract. That's a whole different way of looking at a space travel. I am here and will get back. Based upon the lowest bidder on a government contract.
Listen, when God purchased your soul, He didn't go for the lowest bid, He paid the highest price. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Why is it so precious? Why is it so precious? It's so precious because Jesus Christ is the only person who never sinned.
Never sinned, lived a perfect life, never committed a sin. Notice what it says. He's without blemish. and without spot. Blemish is an inherent defect.
A spot is an acquired defect. That's imagery to simply say He was not born in sin. He did not commit a sin. Without spot. without blemish.
Now most of you know that In the Bible, in the Old Testament, especially, lambs were used for redemption. Lambs were used for substitute.
So that you wouldn't die, a lamb would die. It goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 4. When Adam and Eve blew it, God took the skins of animals and covered them. And most scholars believe it was the skin of a lamb. Would feel good, lambskin.
In that case, it was one lamb. For one person. As time goes on. In the Exodus of Egypt, in the Passover. They were to take the blood of a lamb and put it on the lintels and doorposts of their homes.
In that case, it was one lamb for one family. As time went on, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23, on the day of atonement, the high priest would dip the hyssop in blood of a lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and the whole nation would be atoned for.
So you have one lamb for one person, one lamb for one family, one lamb for one nation. Then you get to the New Testament. John the Baptist sees Jesus coming to the Jordan and says, Check it out. Behold. The Lamb of God.
who takes away the sin of the world.
Now it's one lamb. For one world, And the reason his blood is so precious is it is the only antidote to the sin virus for the whole world. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Joseph Parker. said an extreme condition demands an extreme remedy.
Until you see that you are doomed and damned apart from Jesus Christ, you will never truly count his blood precious in your sight. It's precious in God's sight. Is it precious in your sight? Consumer Reports, you've all heard of that. They put out a great little book.
called How to Clean Practically Anything. Very practical book, how to clean practical anything, and solvents are given for different substances. For example, Glycerin will remove ballpoint pen stains. Boiling water is all you need for berry stains. Vinegar will take care of crayon stains.
Ammonia will handle blood stains. Alcohol will take away grass stains. Hydrogen peroxide will remove magic marker stains. Bleach, mildew stains, and lemon juice will eradicate rust stains. But there is nothing In the book?
of how to get rid of sin stains. But there is in this book. There is in this book Uh Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heidzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. And this month, we'll send you Lenya Heitzig's powerful book, Reload Love, Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds, as our thanks for your gift.
This inspiring story shows how God can turn bullets into beauty and how love can transform even the most broken places into beacons of hope. Give now at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skip-Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection now. Of the crisis.
A castle. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
