Amen. So being a guest guest speaker,
there's always like a question of of like how, how you know
how, how, what can I bring up to you guys so that I can make a
point something that you know, brings you some kind of
nourishment or inspiration or can I do I say something that's
controversial, that's pointed and I chose for the kinder,
gentler message today. OK, so I think and because
here's the thing, like I even though I'm a pastor, that
doesn't make me necessarily a professional at these things.
Amen. It doesn't necessarily mean that
I don't struggle like you do. Being a pastor doesn't
necessarily mean I'm an expert at these things or that I
practice them so much better than everybody else.
It's some simply not true. There are certain parts of the
Bible that I've known my entire life and yet I continue to
transform to struggle. And one of the things that for
me is difficult is this idea of your identity, yourself worth
right at the core of who you are.
The question is, who are you? Who are you?
OK, so when you get pulled over, you know, the police asks you
for your driver's license because they want to know
quickly, who are you, where you live, where you coming from?
And my driver's license, you look at it says I'm 6 feet, 175
lbs. I used to be like 2/10 of praise
God, I lost some weight. Potter just described me what I
do. You know, I, I am a hospital
chaplain at a major hospital and then I am also a Hospice
chaplain on the site. But these are not my core
identity, OK? Our core identity has to do also
with our self worth, right? So one of the questions is what
do we do? A lot of us here who have jobs
or careers, what do you do? I don't know, when you guys meet
someone new, often that question comes up, right?
Like, what do you do? And when I ask somebody what
they do, I, I find two different reactions usually coming from
them. Either one is 1 of like pride.
Oh, like, well, you know, I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor, right?
And, and then it's kind of like thinly veiled humility, but you
know, they're very proud of what they do for sure, right.
And then there are those who are like, not so proud of what they
do, right? Oh, So what do you do?
Oh, you know, I'm, I'm doing Uber right now or like Uber eats
or, you know, they look crestfallen a little bit.
They're kind of like their demeanor guys kind of goes.
Some of them don't have jobs at all, Like, oh, I'm currently
unemployed and I say, no, you're in between things.
I'm sure you'll find something. I try to make them feel better.
A lot of us have this tremendous pride about what you do with
your life and good for you. No doubt.
That's awesome. Some of us have a lot of pride
or identity comes from being a parent, right.
I realized that once I had my my daughter, my first born at
Reagan, my life was not my own. I realized, holy smoke, right?
There was just so much. And now that she's getting older
and she's she recently just got into a really prestigious
program. Do you see what I just did
there? I slipped in my pride as a
Korean parent, right? But I got to tell you, I'm the
least Korean parent. As a Korean parent, I received
so much trauma. So did my wife for my parents
that we promised that we would not withhold our love because my
kid got a, a minus. OK, we, we are so like trying so
hard for Reagan to grow up without that kind of pressure.
But the weird thing is she's putting that pressure on
herself. OK, so she's getting into these
programs and we're like, I can feel a little bit of my pride
going at first. This is the funniest part.
When she got into the program, my wife and I were like, are we
sure that's not a mistake because she needed to pass a
test and then lottery in. OK, so you got to pass that test
1st and then you got a lottery. And then in that she got picked
from the lottery. We're like, I don't know if she
really got in. And then then she got placed
into like the highest math class.
And my daughter takes after me. We don't like math, so I don't
know how that happens. So she's doing algebra at 6th
grade, which is too mind blowing to me.
My wife and I were like, I don't, I think they may have
made a mistake. That's how we're thinking of it,
right? But some of us for sure, we get,
you know, we get this pride going about what our kids
accomplishments are. We name Job kind of like how I
did in front of you guys right now, right?
Some of us are really prideful. We get our identity out of the
gifts and talents that God has given to us.
Some of us are very musically inclined, like our brother
Potter. You know, some people are really
good at speaking in front of people.
You know, some people are are really good at making money or
your accounts are really big. So there's like, it got all
these talents and gifts and you derive a lot of pleasure out of
that. You know, at my age, I just
turned 50 not too long ago, and I haven't played basketball in
something like 20 years. And my friend, some of my
friends who had, you know, they were really good at basketball,
man. I mean, they're just so good at
it. And now they're blowing knees
and Achilles, they're pulling and stuff.
And that's like that. That part of their life is
slowly slipping away. The pride of being such a great
athlete. Or how about this, Maybe some of
us have have your identity in Christian morality.
You have this blessed gift of having a great moral compass.
You seem to be always doing and saying the right things, right?
And so that kind of leads some of us into Christian ministry
where we get a lot of identity and self worth in serving God.
You're known as somebody who serves the church or does things
for church or you once did. And so that can even be your
core identity. But these are all beautiful
things for sure, all beautiful things, but not your core
identity. I'm here to tell you two things.
One, you are God's masterpiece and #2 you are God's beloved
child. That's the point of my 2
messages today, right? And so Tim Keller, my second
favorite Pastor Tim, you got that, OK, You're awake.
Your identity is received, not achieved.
Pastor Tim Keller said your identity is received, not
achieved. You guys hear that and I wish
I'd made that up. It sounds so amazing.
That's such a great line. If you remember nothing else
from this message, I hope that you remember this.
Your identity is received, not achieved.
So much of our lives is conditional upon achieving,
especially for a lot of us who are for Asian American families,
who, you know, it's, it's constantly striving to achieve,
to make something of yourself, to bootstrap and and perform at
a high level. Some of our jobs, you guys are
some of us are coming into a performance review, right, where
the manager gets to tell you some things that you can work
on, right. And you, how do you feel about
that? You know, in front of the
manager, like, oh, yeah, thank you.
Yeah, I'm so grateful. But when you leave, you're like,
Oh man, right. And like your, your raises, your
promotions, your place in the company is all, you know,
predicated on this achieving. And so we're right.
When you wake up in the morning, your first thing that you think
about is getting things done, especially for some of the young
parents. I that's a lot of kids in this
family in this church. And I love that sound of the
kids running around with aunties and uncles saying hello.
And I just love that vibe. So God bless you on that.
But some of us were parents like it's like hit the ground and
running. You got to do, you got to feed
yourself, you got to feed the kids, you got to protect the
kids, you got to dress the kid. Everything, everything is
performance based. And then on top of all that,
there's this constant feeling like nagging feeling like you're
not doing enough. You're not such a great parent.
You wish you could be a better parent, but in Jesus, your
identity is received, not achieved.
Amen. So number one, the first thing I
want to say is you are God's masterpiece.
Ephesians 210 says this. For we are God's workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for good works, for we are God's
workmanship. That word workmanship is also
translated masterpiece or craftsmanship.
And so each and of us in this room is basically we are God's
masterpiece. Did you know that when you are
gone from this earth, there will never be another one like you?
There's another weird word of saying that that's that means
you're one-of-a-kind. Amen.
And when I think of that word masterpiece.
And by the way, this word workmanship in Greek is poema,
which is where we get the word poem, which is an artistic or
skillful written work, right? That's what a poem.
I'm not a huge poem guy, but I do that does sound very amazing
and beautiful. But this is the idea of
something artistically made, skillfully made, beautifully
made. When I think of masterpieces, I
start thinking of paintings. Do you guys do that?
And the painting that I think of most is Van Gogh's Starry Night.
And I brought it from my house actually today.
Yeah. You guys know this one, right?
This is probably one of the most famous.
I'm going to prop it against this mic stand.
This particular painting has deeper personal meaning for me
because on one of my my first real dates with my wife, who
were my girlfriend at the time, we went to the MO Ma, which was
in New York, and it was a target free Friday.
So we got in for free, which makes the date even better.
And so this starry night, Vincent van Gogh is kind of
close to my heart as being, you know, just a a very novice
newbie at art. I'm not going to pretend like
I'm sophisticated. But Van Gogh, I don't know if,
you know, this was a was it was a Christian.
And he came from actually a family of pastors.
He himself actually thought about going to seminary,
realized that's not his thing. Aren't we so blessed that he
didn't? Right.
And I don't know if you guys
know this, but he considered this painting a failure.
Yeah, I want to ask, how many of us in this room right now to 1°
or another sometimes wrestle with that feeling of being a
failure? Yeah, but Ephesians 210 says we
are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
We all masterpieces, never to be duplicated again.
You are one-of-a-kind. That's what makes this painting
so priceless. You cannot put a price to this.
Why? Because it's one-of-a-kind, it
will never be made again. And I don't want to downplay
this, but it is nothing compared to who you are in Jesus, Amen.
You are a masterpiece. Turn to your neighbor and say,
hey, you're a masterpiece. It sounds funny, it sounds
incredible, it is unbelievable, Amen.
Which is why we all struggle with the idea.
We struggle because it's so true and it feels so cheaply had not
so not cheaply had. Ask your mom, was it easy to
have you OK? Or the way that God created each
and everyone. Psalm 13914.
This is awesome. It says I praise you because I
am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.
David had a real deep appreciation for the human body
and what it could do, what it does, how it restores itself,
how it repairs itself, how each morning it is able to be
refreshed. You know, there is so much we
don't understand about the human body.
I'm a hospital chaplain, so I get to see all the floors of the
hospital. You know, the nurses and doctors
who are in different departments and units, they don't actually
cross over to other units unless you're a floater.
But as a chaplain, I go to all these.
I go to the EDI, go to the ICU. I go to the NICU.
I go to all these places. And one of the things that's
really astounding to me is how little medical science can do.
Don't get me wrong, The technology is amazing, OK?
Like, now I've seen, you know, X-ray machines.
You know, back in the day, you had to go to the X-ray room.
Nowadays, the X-ray come to you. Is there anyone in the
healthcare industry here? You guys will know what I'm
talking about, right? Nowadays they push this, the
X-ray machines, these things are like 20-30, forty, $1000, and
they come to the room. So technology is amazing, but in
terms of trying to make sick people, well, sometimes it's
just like you just got to wait it out.
They give you some medicines and this and that.
And especially where I'm working in the ICU, there's just such a
sense of hopelessness there. There's so little the middle
size understands and can do. My point is, is that you have
been fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator.
Amen. Yeah.
There's so how intricate and complex our bodies are.
And in Hebrew, this word fearfully is yaray.
Yaray. This word has this essence of
awe, reverence and deep respect. But how many times, brothers and
sisters, do you look in the mirror and go, man, amazing,
right? None of us, right?
Every time you guys are looking in the mirror, something is
wrong, right? A freckle, A pimple, a hair out
of place, right? We're always condemning and
shaming ourselves when we're looking in the mirror.
We don't have this deep sense of reverence and respect.
But think about how little your input was asked for when you
were made, right? When God created you.
You didn't ask for your height, your weight.
You didn't ask for how many fingers or toes.
And all of this is so wonderfully made, marvelous and
extraordinary with. And then not just that, that's
just the human body, right? But think about the things that
that that make up who you are character wise, personality
wise, your talents, your passions, your intellect.
OK, I got it. My daughter Reagan, she's like
really into crafts right now. She's into little ducks, so
she's hot gluing ducks on everything.
Went to Disneyland and she put ducks on her ear, mouse ears.
And it turned out to be a good thing because she lost her ears
on the ride. And then when she came back,
they're like, which one is yours?
The one with the ducks. And she was immediately able to
get her ears back. And then my little one, she's
not so much into her crafts, but she loves to dance, right?
She's watching all this BTS, you know, black, pink, and then you
know, Huntrex, you know the whole that golden song, right?
EJ and them. And she's she, she can memorize
all the lyrics. She's only 6.
And I'm looking at her and like my wife and I are like, I don't
know if that comes for you or from me, but just amazing how we
have these different talents and gifts and passions into a
physical body that builds, restores and repairs itself.
We are God's craftsmanship, one-of-a-kind and original.
But you may say, oh, John, Pastor John, I don't feel like
an amazing masterpiece. I'm not doing well in school.
I'm not Maybe I'm you're not doing well in your job or, or
marriage, or maybe a lack of a marriage.
You're looking to get married. I've made so many mistakes, you
may say, or you may say. I've been hurt so much by
others. But none of your failures and
mistakes and hurts changes how God sees you.
You are his masterpiece. Allow me to share this one
illustration. It's a special form of Japanese
art. It is the art of imperfection.
I'd be impressed if anyone knows what this is.
Anyone know what it is? Very good.
Who said that? Very good.
That's right.
It's called Kinsugi, OK. It's basically art of
imperfection. Is beauty out of the broken.
OK, So basically it's a way of restoring broken pottery.
And the way they restore it is with this rare SAP of a tree.
And SAP is another word of saying blood, OK?
It's like the rare blood of trees.
And then what you do is you dust it with gold.
Now here's the crazy part. Once the broken pottery is
restored, it becomes more valuable and more beautiful than
before. Amen.
Yeah. And who is that?
That's you and me, brothers and sisters.
Our sin in our hurts, in our wounds and our mistakes are
restored not with tree sapping gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
A new creation is what Paul calls it, right?
We are new creation in Christ and He is so close to those that
are broken hearted, the imperfect, the misfits, that's
you and me. But God sees us as a
masterpiece. Isn't that good?
OK #2 who are you? What is your core identity?
Number one, we said you are God's masterpiece in Christ
Jesus #2 who are you? You are God's dearly beloved
child. Have you ever thought about this
question? Like what is the point of all of
us? Like why are we here?
Why did God create us? Why did God create us, right?
It's so that we can go to church and read the Bible and and pray.
Some of our holy rollers can go to like, you know, morning
service, you know, like if you're really holy.
And so God created us so that we could do all these things for
him. That is not why God created us.
God created us for the same reason why families want to have
children is to share their love, right?
Is to create a family. God created us to build a
family. Amen.
First John 31 says this. See what great love the Father
has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God
and that is what we are. That is your core identity.
Says read it again. See what great love the Father
has lavished on us that we should be called children of God
and that is what we are, our core identity.
It's not wrapped up in what you do with your life.
It's not how much money you have.
It's not how handsome or beautiful you are.
Your core identity is in Jesus because of his great love for
us. We are his children.
And I love this word lavish. Do we use, We don't use this
word that often, but I love it. I love this word lavish.
It means basically spending or giving more than is necessary to
give in excess or extravagantly. OK, when I think of lavish, I, I
think of my brother-in-law. He works for Disney.
So we get the, we get a chance to go to, to Disneyland and
pretty often I, I would say more often than we should actually
get real tired. But so we went this past Friday
and every time we go, my, my brother-in-law, he, you know, he
lets us in, you know, which is a great gift upon itself.
But then, you know, he, he buys us food and with my daughters
that we go into a store and he buys them whatever they want in
the store, not whatever they want, but within reason.
And to me, that feels like so much like, like lavish love,
right? I feel like a parent's job is to
unspoil their children and uncles and aunties are there to
spoil children. You see what I'm saying?
And and they just, he just lavishes on them with all these
extravagant gifts. Here's the thing.
How did the Father lavish us with great love?
John 316 We all know it. For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son. Amen.
He lavished his love in this. Because here's the thing, love
causes us to give, OK? Love causes us to give.
The greater the love, the greater the give.
I remember when my grandparents were still with us.
Oh, yeah, we go visit them and then when we say, oh, we have to
go, and then my grandmother starts opening up a bag and
starts throwing in whatever she sees around her, a bag of
peanuts and like Bengay or like whatever's around, right?
She just loves us so much. She just, or she'll still take
out a bunch of like Korean food and start stuffing into bags
because the greater the love, the greater the give, right?
And in our father, he gives us his most precious thing.
It doesn't say that God had ten sons.
It says that he had one son, and our Father in his great love
gives us the most precious one and only son.
That's what we celebrate Christmas for.
We can say happy holidays blue in the face, but we're all
trying to say Merry Christmas, Amen.
When we all celebrate God's greatest gift, which is why
we're giving gifts to each other, because we're remembering
how God gave us his most precious gift.
Amen. Yeah.
The greatest gift of all. That's why we're giving gifts to
each other. You ever thought about that?
Why are we giving gifts to each other?
Yeah, it's because we are remembering God's gift to us.
If you guys know who Tony Dungy is, he's now a commentator, but
he used to be a Super Bowl winning coach of the
Indianapolis Colts and once. I don't know if you guys know
this, but he's a big Christian. He's a believer.
He said this. If God were to ask for my son in
exchange to save the world, I would have to say, I'm sorry,
Lord, I cannot give up my son to save the world.
But that is what God did. He gave up his son so that we
might be saved. Think about that folks for a
second, especially those of us who are parents in this room,
right? What parent would willingly give
up their child to die for someone else?
I'm a pastor and all, but I'm sorry, that's not something I'm
going to do. I will not give up my child for
someone else. But that's exactly what God does
for us. Romans 5 says very rarely will
anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good
person, someone might possibly dare to die, right?
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we
were sinners, Christ died for us.
Amen. That means what does that mean?
That's that means that God did not send Jesus to die for us
when we were doing really good, morally upright and virtuous
things. He died when we were at our
worst. The amazing thing about this is
this, and we don't actually run across this anywhere in the
world. Only in God do we find this word
unconditional love, unconditional love.
This gets thrown around a lot, but basically what it means is a
fancy way of saying God loves you no matter what.
Amen. No matter what, no matter what,
He cannot love you anymore or any less than he does right now.
Amen. Isn't that good?
You can read your Bible backwards and forwards 100 times
and come to, you know, every. There's no religious or virtuous
thing can you ever do that makes God love you more?
Amen. Gosh, on the other side, there's
no sin that you can do as much as you do that making God love
you any less. Hey man, imagine trying that at
your work. I'm going to go to work when I
feel like it. See how that works out, right?
I think you just do whatever you want at work.
Never. It's always conditional.
Every single thing is conditional.
Even in schools, everything is conditional, right?
Don't go to class. See how that works?
Stuff is exactly what I did in my life in high school.
I got kicked out of high school because I ditched so much.
I didn't end up graduating high school.
You're looking at probably one of the few Koreans.
I'm a Unicorn, guys. OK, You've not met a Korean guy
that did not graduate high school?
I have a GED. It's not the same thing.
It's a good enough diploma, OK? I should have just taken my
freshman year and just get it out of the way.
And I went to junior college. I went to UCLA.
OK, So my children, friends here.
Little misled crowd. OK, Yes.
You're good at football. Good for you.
All right, Good for you. OK.
All right. But what it means is that no
matter what, God cannot love you anymore or less than he already
does right now. In fact.
In fact, it is a love so great and amazing it takes 66 books to
tell us of his love. Essentially, the Bible is a
giant love letter. Amen.
It's a giant love letter, isn't it?
Isn't that nice kind of like frame it that way instead of a
religious book on got to read my Bible, right like blue in the
face right all the past telling you to read your Bible.
But when I tell you that truth be told, the Bible is a giant
love letter, kind of changes things, doesn't it?
Kind of reframe it. It's not religious anymore.
It's relationship. Imagine if your mom or dad died
and wrote you a letter before they died.
Would you read that letter? How would you treat that letter?
Is that, you know, when I have time, you know, I'll read it.
You know, let me let you know. Let me just let me put this away
while I'm doing other stuff. No way you would cherish that
thing, right? You start memorizing and quoting
it, right, wouldn't you? You understand my illustration
right now, right? Why we're always saying we need
to understand the word of God and read the word of God.
Why? Because you won't know God's
love unless you read the love letter, Amen?
Isn't it a way better frame that way?
Because now you don't have to feel condemned or guilty, You
know, if you only read a little or read a lot, it's OK.
Just read what you can, Amen? But you got to get the love
letter in you, otherwise the world is going to crush your
spirit. You guys hear what I'm saying?
You go to work, you go to schools, you go to all these
things, and you're constantly being measured, right about how
well you do. And that's not who you are,
Amen. You are a child, precious child
of God. That's the truth.
And if that gets inside of you, the love of God, and to the
degree that you let it get in you by personal worship, by
prayer, by singing praise right and letting it get in you, two
things begin to happen. OK, Number one, right, You
stopped searching for praise and affirmation from the world,
Amen. That's powerful.
OK? Number two thing it does is you
don't get offended as easily, OK, You take criticism, OK, all
right, that's something to work on.
I got you right. But when you forget the love of
God inside of you, the core identity, and you let that bloom
inside of your heart, real deep, real deep and the criticisms and
the weaknesses, the things you got to work on, it doesn't mean
so much. You see what I'm saying?
It's like one of the things I remember when I was watching K
dramas and by the way, I'm old enough to remember like the
original Cage. I'm like bullish again, like
Tutu. Anyone know what those you guys
don't even know what those are, right?
I don't think you were even born then.
OK, OK. But those are like the original
Cage dramas. I remember watching this and
like, after a while, I start to feel like this.
Like, I start to feel like I can't measure up to these
people. These are like, the most, like,
spotless human beings ever, right?
Like they're carrying their grandma 50, you know, 50 miles,
You know, like, they're going to do any of this stuff, right?
Like, you constantly measure yourself to other people, do you
not? You know what happens when you
compare yourself to other people?
We talked about this years ago, right?
When I was at your retreat. When you compare your life to
other people, two things happen. Either 1.
You get proud you're doing better than them, right?
Or you feel bad because you're not doing as well, right?
It's awful. It's an awful game.
You cannot win, OK? But when you get filled with the
love of God, you know where yourself worth comes from.
It's not how much I make or what kind of car I drive or how big
my house is if I have a house, right?
It's about God's love for me showing through Jesus Christ.
Amen. When that happens, then you feel
so much lighter and happier and joyful.
That's called the fruit of the Spirit.
Amen. Isn't the more we understand
God's love, the more we appreciate God's love, the more
we let it get inside of our hearts, the more bulletproof you
become. Isn't that great?
The side of the, what happens in all of this is we become, we
become bulletproof and the world does not, is not able to touch
us and harm us the way it used to.
All right. My, my, my wife has friends, you
know, who are doing very well in life, OK.
And, and I don't know if you have this phenomenon happening
to you where maybe you're not doing it as well.
And you can't go with them when they're going on vacation, some
of these extravagant vacations, you know, they're going to a
five star resorts and they're inviting us.
But we all know back of their minds and back of our minds, we
ain't going. We simply can't afford it, you
know? And if, if I were, if, if, if
my, my, if myself worth my entity identity was all wrapped
up into how much I make as a provider, I would feel so bad,
right? I would feel awful.
I wouldn't want to kill myself, right?
But I don't. I'm like, yeah, have fun, you
know? That's great.
You know, I'll see you back around here.
Some parts. We'll go to San Diego or
something, or something I can afford, you know what I mean?
But so easily you, we are all made to feel lesser than because
we can't keep up with the Joneses.
All right? And if you ask them how they're
doing, they're probably thinking on another level.
You see what I'm saying? Oh, we're only going to this
five star resort here. But my other friend, they're
going to tell you that, you know what I'm saying?
It's like the goal post keeps moving.
You see what I'm saying? You achieve one and then it
keeps moving forward. You're never able to be content
with what you have. And Paul actually says
contentment is great gain. Think on that for a second.
Contentment is great gain. You know, we just celebrated
Thanksgiving. I wonder how many of us are
really, truly appreciative for the things that we have.
There are people in the world who wish they could be you.
They dream about it. I wish I could be in America.
I wish I could be in California. I wish I could be in Torrance.
Here that just constantly keeps going.
But but for us, it's so easy when we don't have the love of
God within us, then we begin to derive our identity from all
these different places that the world tells us we need to have.
We need to look like this. We got to drive that car.
We got to have, you know, all these, these accomplishments,
you know, So yeah, I didn't, I didn't graduate high school, but
I got into UCLA, right, Right. And I was like so happy.
And then once you get a certain time, like nobody cares what
school you went to. Really.
Nobody cares. Like my entire life, I thought
my whole I did it, I thought my destiny.
I thought when I got into UCLA, my whole life would be like, oh,
yes, I finally made it. My life is going to be like easy
from now on. Nobody cares.
And in this day and age, it
seems to me like the colleges mean less and less, you know, as
time seems to go by. My point is, of course, is that
if we do not receive our core identity from God, we will begin
to have core identities that are faults that are around us.
There is only one place that is God's love, which is
unconditional, which you'll always have.
God's love is totally opposite from the world where love is
totally conditional. People love you only if you're
beautiful, rich, accomplished. We chase the love and approvable
of people rather than soak in the amazing love of God that is
always available to us. Amen, always available to US.
One of the trippy parts of of Mark in the very beginning,
there's a story where Jesus comes up out of the water and
this it says the heavens tore open and the spirit came upon
Jesus like a dev note. And then there was a voice.
I said, you are my son whom I love, and in you I'm well
pleased Jesus hadn't done anything.
This is the first chapter you see that how Jesus's heart was
so full of God's love and affirmation that it made it
possible for him to walk through life and eventually go to the
cross for us and then come back for three days later to show us
that it's not the end. I'm going to wrap this up with a
final story from one of my favorite Christian authors, name
is Philip Yancey. He's not theologically deep, but
he tells really great stories. And so here's one of the stories
and we'll finish today. I quote, I remember few of the
many sermons I have ever heard in my life.
An exception being the only sermon I heard preached by an
Ian Pitt Watson, a professor at Fuller Seminary.
His sermon had one point, not 3, which may explain why I still
remember it. Some things are loved because
they are worthy. Some things are worthy because
they are loved. Pitt Watson began with examples
of things we love because of their inherent worth.
Gorgeous supermodels, gifted athletes, brilliant scientists,
priceless works of art. Then he mentioned an object of
no intrinsic worth that was greatly loved regardless.
He told of his daughter Rosemary's rag doll.
Dirty, threadbare, but the most precious of all her possessions.
Like Linus with his blanket, Rosemary could not bear to face
life without her rag doll. When the Pitt Watsons relocated
from Scotland across the ocean to America, each member of the
family carefully selected what possessions to bring along.
Rosemary chose just one article, her rag doll.
When she replaced misplaced the rag doll in the airport,
Rosemary became so distraught that the family considered
postponing their flight. Found at last, the doll had
magical powers to calm the little girl.
It had little worth in itself, but much worth in her eyes.
Pitt Watson proceeded to make the biblical application.
God's love, thankfully, is not based on our intrinsic worth.
It comes by grace, a priceless yet free gift that bestows worth
on the most unlovable object. Some things are loved because
they are worthy, and some are worthy because they are loved.
Theologically, we fit the latter category.
In the words of Saint Augustine, by loving the unlovable, you
made me lovable. Let us pray.
And I want to give you guys just a few minutes to connect with
the the love that you have been waiting for your whole life.
It is love of God in Christ Jesus.
You are God's masterpiece. You are God's dearly beloved
child.