Worth your Weight

Weight.

Oh man. I hate that word. It is a word that usually describes something we are measuring or comparing.

How much does that weigh?
How much weight do you lift?
*How much weight have you put on?*

How much... weight are you carrying?
I mean Spiritually.
How much weight?
How much "baggage"?

Oh we hate that word sometimes.

Another phrase we hate:


"I know."

Words that seem to echo throughout our consciences.
Words that we hate... and one minute later we love.

They are words of God. He knows everything, all our history, all of our biology, all of our hurts, triumphs, struggles, victories, pains, cloud nine experiences. He knows.

That can begin to weigh on us. The thought that the perfect God of everything knows all of our imperfections.

But the Good News is that we aren't defined by those things.
No... Because we are more than them. More than anything we could hope to become, more than anything we could hope to once accomplish.

Can I share something with you?

Girls, He refuses to allow his prized princesses to be enslaved to anything that makes her feel less than who she is.

Boys, He refuses to allow his crowned princes to be captured by those that would seek to diminish his birthright.

I know it's a struggle. I know it hurts. I know all about how enticing those temptations to cave can be...





It's heavy.

It hurts.

You think that the image on the internet will make you feel loved... and it does... right before it empties you.

Because sin is not just disobedience of God...

 ...It is a rebellion against your very own identity.

Or in other words:



What you do does not define you... 

...But who you believe yourself to be, defines...

Just. About. Everything.

It affects your perception.
It affects your attitude.
It affects what you do.






Sin weighs us down.

And in those moments where you begin to doubt that God could ever love you, that God cares about you at all. Those moments... Oh how I remember those moments.

And Oh how those moments seem to constantly creep up on me even now.

It's easy to feel worthless.

But our feelings don't define us... Jesus does.

So perhaps I need to retract that first statement... Jesus defines us, and THAT defines Everything.

And I hear it echo through the pages of history, I hear the reverberation boomeranging back from eternity...

"Son..."
"Daughter..."

"Do not forget who your Father is."

Your Father is redeeming this time. This time that is so hard, this time that stretches every fabric of emotion and makes you feel so useless... humiliated. How could anyone bear the weight of how dirty we feel? How used we feel? How would anyone understand or ever care...

And yet...

Your Father loves you, and I am telling you all this because your brother loves you too.  But even beyond that... You have another brother who wants to hear what is breaking your heart. He died for you. And rose for you.

His name is Jesus.
King Jesus.
Brother Jesus.

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
    or the son of man, that you care for him. You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
    you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
    in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. -Hebrews 2:5-18

Did you read that correctly?

Jesus was not ashamed to call us, brothers. And if we are brothers (and sisters, the Greek word meant both genders) then we are heirs with him. Co-heirs with Christ... Just like Paul wrote in Romans 8:14-17,

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Worth.

It is a fickle idea... Worth.

Google defines it as: the value equivalent to that of someone or something under consideration; the level at which someone or something deserves to be valued or rated.


In layman's terms, the worth of something is defined by what someone is willing to pay for it.

Friends, you are worth your weight.

You are worth every drop of blood that came from Jesus as he hung on the cross...



Not because of anything you have done to make yourself worth that.

But because he chose to pay that.

“The face Moses had begged to see – was forbidden to see – was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow....

“On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all thongs hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on – he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm – the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless – the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can hardly breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day and unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He FEELS dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.

His Father! He must face his Father like this!

From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shrivelling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped – murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten – fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you EVER held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk – YOU, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals and worship demons? Does the list never end? Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp – buying politicians, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves – relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, LOATHE these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?”

Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks down into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”

But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.”  

-An Excerpt from “When God Weeps” by Steven Estes and Joni Eareckson Tada

Our Father, redeemed that event.
Our Father redeemed that pain.

Our Father redeems.

God is a redeemer. It's what he does. And as you concentrate on the image that was just described, I hope you remember one thing.

Friends, you are worth your weight.

-------

Nathan Bryant

Is a student of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. Majoring in Biblical leadership and Missiology, he has a combined passion for church unity and discipleship in the global church. Nate is a crazed sports fan, he enjoys fantasy football and watching baseball with friends. He works as an Admissions Counselor at Ozark as well as assistant to the staff at River Run Christian Church. Nate is also a Starbucks addict. Yay Coffee!

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.
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