Rev. David Holwick B (adapted from May 12, 1991, sermon)
Boothbay Baptist Church
Boothbay, Maine
January 27, 2019
Matthew 10:29-31
WORTH MORE THAN A BIRD
I. The value of life.
A. We all have some basic worth.
Your body contains enough iron to make a nail, enough sugar
to fill a sugar bowl, enough potassium to shoot a toy
cannon, and enough fat for seven bars of soap.
(Some of us, a few more bars, perhaps.)
Back in 1924 Dr. Charles Mayo of the Mayo Clinic calculated
the mineral worth of a 150-pound man was about 84 cents.
Today, your worth has increased - to $1.00.
If you sell your skin separately you can add $3.50 to that.
If you divide out more complex aspects of your body, like
bone marrow and DNA, you are worth quite a bit more.
#736 & #66131
B. The government values you more.
1) The Value of a Statistical Life.
a) When the government does something, it has to weigh
the cost and risks, especially to human lives.
b) In 2007 the Department of Transportation considered
forcing carmakers to install rear seatbelt reminder
systems in every car.
They estimated it would save 44 lives every year.
It would also cost carmakers $325 million every year.
It is worth it?
In 2007, they valued one human life at $6.4 million;
the seatbelt system would have been too expensive.
But this year they upped our value to $9.6 million,
so it might be worth it now.
#147
2) A further irony is that different government agencies put
a different value on your head.
C. How much do you value people?
1) Consider how much car insurance you carry.
a) Do you have it because you value the lives of others,
or because you want to shield your own assets?
b) We all value life - up to a point.
2) But when it starts to cost us, we reconsider.
a) Your young daughter gets pregnant and abortion may not
seem so evil all of a sudden.
b) What kind of words do you use that may devalue people
of different races, religions or economic class?
II. The world says we are worthwhile due to what we produce.
A. Some lives are more valuable than others.
1) In the aftermath of 9-11, the families of high-net-worth
victims got much more compensation than those of the
poor victims.
2) Health insurance companies factor in your age and "quality
of life" when considering the level of care they pay for.
3) Some apparently have little value.
a) With the advent of prenatal genetic testing, the
majority of embryos with Down Syndrome are aborted.
b) In Iceland it is almost 100%. In America, 77%.
B. Does the Bible also value people differently?
1) Leviticus 27:3-8 is often pointed to by critics.
The passage is talking about people who commit someone to
God's service, then redeem them (buy out their contract)
so they can come home. You can do it to yourself.
The redemption fee depends on their sex and age.
Top price - 50 shekels - is required for prime age men.
Old men cost less than a third of that.
Small children are worth only 10%.
And women in each category cost only half to two-thirds
of what men do.
So does God value women less than men?
It may look that way, until you consider what determines
the value.
The price is based on the heavy labor that is required for
worship: hauling firewood & water, handling big animals.
#66134
a) It has nothing to do with intrinsic worth of the person.
1> Consider that back then brides commanded a high
price in the form of a dowry.
2> Grooms were free. [or because wives were owned?]
C. Humans have a value that transcends our status or circumstance.
The young woman lost her father early in life.
She married only to have her husband pass away soon after.
She remarried, then her mother died within the year.
She was never seen to laugh.
She was continually pregnant and gave birth to seven children.
Four of them died as infants or toddlers.
They were born so frequently that when one died, the next one
took the same name.
The surviving children all bore the scars of smallpox.
After the birth of her seventh child, she herself died from
tuberculosis.
Before she died the lingering death of TB, her husband became
an alcoholic.
He drank up all their money and at one point she had to sell her
clothes to buy food.
He lost his job, and drank even more.
He was cruel and abusive to his children, and the little ones
were often seen crying by neighbors.
When the oldest became an adolescent, it became his job to bail
the father out of the local drunk-tank.
This son had almost no formal education and never learned even
simple arithmetic.
At an early age he contracted a social disease. (syphilis)
At age 32 he was completely deaf.
Chronic depression & paranoia robbed him of most of his friends.
He never married and had no children.
After months of suffering and pain, he died from pneumonia and
congestive heart failure.
If his mother had wanted to terminate this pregnancy to spare
him all this, would she have been justified?
(Congratulations, you just killed Ludwig von Beethoven.)
#2418
Beethoven might seem a little dated.
Here are some people whose mothers were advised to have
abortions, or even changed their mind at the clinic:
Football star Tim Tebow
Singer Andrea Bocelli
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers
Teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber
Singer Cher
Actor Jack Nicholson
Pope John Paul II #66200
III. Bible says we are valuable because God makes us so.
A. God created us in a wonderful way. Ps 139:13-16
1) Even those who have a limitation or handicap, or ugliness
or low mental ability, even those who are extra sinful
are still valuable in God's eyes.
2) Jesus says that God loves even generic birds - how much
more he values us! Matt 10:29-31
B. God loves each and every one of us. John 3:16
1) He knows the details of our existence.
a) Our thoughts and desires.
b) The number of hairs on our head.
2) Since God values us, we must value each other.
C. Some are easier to value than others.
1) Everybody loves drug addicts, don't they?
About two years ago, Jonathan Hayes was driving his pickup
truck in North Carolina while high on heroin.
He overdosed behind the wheel, lost control, and hit another
vehicle.
Two-year-old Mason Richardson was inside, and he died on
impact.
Masons' pregnant mother and two others were in the car and
all of them were injured.
However, no injury was as severe as the broken heart of Mason's
mom.
When the fire department and EMS arrived, they found Jonathan
passed out from his heroin overdose.
They administered Narcan, a drug that counteracts heroin.
It saved his life.
This was the fourth time Jonathan Hayes had been saved by
Narcan in the previous six months .
Also, since 2009, he has had 14 criminal cases filed against
him.
This latest one is the second degree murder of a toddler.
Should Jonathan Hayes have been revived?
One person commented, "It's a shame that he was given a second
chance to live today; the little boy didn't get one at all."
But consider another resident in Jonathan Hayes's city.
Mike Page is a former heroin addict, and is personally involved
in helping other addicts recover.
Page has been revived with Narcan three times in his life.
What if they had refused him after #2?
#66132
2) Christians believe in justice.
a) We believe God will call all people to account.
1> On the Judgment Day, everyone will get what they
deserve.
2> Except for Christians - we get what we don't deserve.
A> That is what grace is all about.
B> We get better than we deserve, so we should
treat others better than they deserve.
b) It is not for us to judge people.
1> Our duty is to love them and to lead them to
forgiveness and salvation.
IV. Actively value others.
A. Esteem people.
1) Many doubt their own value.
2) Point out something about them that you appreciate.
3) Remind them of the special way God has molded them.
B. Get to know those who are different.
1) It is a human tendency to value those who are most like us.
a) We value our own family, our own countrymen, our own
race.
b) We don't have much exposure to those who are different.
2) It takes an effort to get to know those outside our circle.
a) Have you noticed at church potlucks, everyone sits
with their own family and friends?
b) One year we told people to sit at the table that
represented their birthmonth.
It forced people to mix. They hated it at first, but
but they adjusted.
Every Christian should expose themselves to the poor,
the unlovely, the fallen.
1> Volunteer at a food pantry.
2> Join Faye in the jail ministry.
3> Befriend someone who is a refugee, or someone of
another faith.
c) Christians need to make an effort to lift people up.
1> It is our spiritual mission in life.
2> In the end, you will get a rich payoff.
V. You can add more value to your own life.
A. Life is more than breathing in and out.
1) Jesus says he came to earth so that we might have
abundant life. John 10:10
2) That is not just eternal life in heaven, but a
full life here on earth.
3) Are you experiencing that life right now?
B. God values you as you are.
1) He accepts you right where you are, warts and all.
2) But he also wants to take you to a higher place.
a) To give you a life that has joy and meaning and is
based on godly principles.
b) He wants this so much, he sent his son Jesus to
this earth, and the whole world devalued him
by humiliating him on a cross.
c) But Jesus overcame that, and death itself.
1> He can help you become a person that is a blessing
to others.
2> Choose to live that kind of life.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 147 “How The Government Values Your Life,” Newsweek magazine,
January 11, 1988, page 40.
# 736 “Still a Bargain at $6 Million,” by Donald Campbell, Kindred
Spirit newsletter (Dallas Theological Seminary),
December 1988, page 2.
# 2418 “Justifiable Abortion,” derived from various biographies of
Beethoven.
#66131 “What’s the Body Worth?” by Dottie Hawthorne, Outreach Librarian
of the Mayo Clinic Libraries, January 14, 2010;
https://liblog.mayo.edu/2010/01/14/whats-the-body-worth/.
#66132 “Is There a Limit On Saving a Life?” unknown author,
November 23, 2016, <https://www.arrowpassage.com/limits-on-narcan/>;
edited by Rev. David Holwick.
#66134 “Are Women Worth Less Than Men?” by Larry Farlow, May 26, 2015;
https://larryfarlow.com/2015/05/26/does-leviticus-27-teach-that-women-are-worth-less-than-men/.
#66200 “12 Famous People Who Were Almost Aborted,” by Peter (no last
name given), December 16, 2014;
https://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/12-famous-people-almost-aborted/.
Also see the article "Rescue the Weak & Needy" by Louis Platt in
Discipleship Journal #32, March 1986.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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