Where You Fit in God's Plan - Part A

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 kicked off at the world he sent his son to punch everybody out. He loved the world. The only character besides holiness is love.

Many people are so concerned with how they look, they miss out on what really matters most in life. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Skip shares how you can find your true and lasting worth in the God who loves you unconditionally. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you break free from anxiety and experience the peace Jesus offers.

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800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in 1 Peter chapter 1 as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. 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 include 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 redeemed 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. It 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 was a few dollars, 20 some bucks. It had amber and different things in it, but she liked it and she took it home and 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 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 of 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 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 anti-hydrogen. It makes things like plutonium, gold and diamonds seem like dirt in comparison. The estimated value of anti-hydrogen, the price tag, $1,771 trillion per ounce.

To get our little minds around that, that's 1,771 followed by 12 zeros dollars per ounce. But there's something far more valuable than anti-hydrogen. You. You.

You are. You to God are more precious than anything. That He would pay the big bucks to get you.

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 received by tradition from your fathers. 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 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 have 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 is 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 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 fiancé 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 lifeblood of the Son of God. And God was willing to pay it, and Jesus was willing to go through it. That's why Vance Havner, the one time sent it 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.

Whoa, 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 is 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. And 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.

It would feel good, lamb skin. 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, in 1 John chapter 1, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses a man, a woman, from all sin. That's how you get rid of sin stains. The precious blood of Christ. Something on my heart, and I've noticed it for years. The blood of Jesus Christ is being depreciated by many people and many churches will want to make it, they don't want to mention the blood of Christ.

They want lots of happy songs, you're okay, I'm okay. But even seeking to remove any reference to the blood. There are churches to have a concerted effort to remove from their hymnology, their song books, any reference to the blood of Christ. Because for a long time now people are saying, we don't want another bloody religion. We don't want this old fashioned gospel blood dripping places. One female theologian by the name of Dolores Williams said, and I quote, I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all. I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping down and weird stuff like that, close quote. Ah, she is so wrong and here's why.

I'll give you an example, I'll give you an illustration. True story, years ago two trains collided that took the lives of several people. One was a commuter train filled with people.

The commuter train stalled on the railroad tracks. A ways off but coming toward the commuter train was a high speed freight train. Because the first train stalled, a conductor was sent out with a flag to weigh the second train down to get it to stop. The train came around the bend but was still moving at a pretty good rate.

Though it had slowed down, it did not stop. And just before impact, the conductor in the freight train jumped out and saved himself. The trains collided, body parts strewn everywhere, people died. Trains like pretzels were spread all around the countryside, high impact.

The investigation that followed brought a court case. In the courtroom, the conductor of the freight train was brought in to ask why he would jump out of the train to save himself but didn't stop the train. And he said simply, I saw the flag but the flag that was waved was a yellow flag. Which in the train business means slow down, it does not mean stop. I saw a yellow flag, I slowed down, I didn't have enough time, I bailed out last minute and there was a collision. So they brought the flag in that he wove and that was exhibit A.

Indeed, this flag that was one time bright red had faded due to sun damage over time and now had turned a dirty yellow. The church that at one time had a bright red gospel, that gospel has faded and it saves no one. And we do people a disservice, in fact a worse disservice than waving the wrong kind of a flag for a commuter train when we don't tell people the truth about hell and heaven and how to get to heaven. That kind of a gospel will save no one. The blood of Jesus Christ needs to be front and center because it is in the Bible over 300 times the word blood is mentioned. If you don't like a bloody book, get a different one than this. It is mentioned 300 times, blood atonement is centerpiece in this book.

We need to get back to that truth of the great old hymn written by Robert Lowry in the 1800s. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

That's the price. That's Skip Hytzen with a message from the series Rock Solid. Now here's Skip to share how you can keep this broadcast going strong connecting more people like you to God's word. We live in a fallen world and it seems that our world is growing darker with each day. But God calls us to be lights pointing people to Him. That's why we hope this ministry is a beacon of light that leads many people to our Savior Jesus Christ. And we hope that you'll partner with us to take the message of Jesus to this fallen world. You can do that right now through a gift today that keeps these Bible teachings coming to you and others. Here's how. Give us a call at 800-922-1888 to give a gift today.

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