You Matter Series: Part 4

You Matter To Me

 

 

Here’s what we’ve talked about during this series…

 

1.  Your Life is Significant – There’s a reason you’re still here.  Grace sees your past but is concerned about your future.  Forgiveness, fear and doubt are to be expected, but not obeyed – Kevin Carroll.  God’s grace is big enough.  Your past doesn’t define you.

 

2.  You Have Purpose – You’re special.  Your life can make a difference.  Born with a purpose.  Fulfill that purpose.  You Matter.  God wants to use you.  Your past doesn’t define you.

 

3.  You Matter to God, this church, to me. – He loves you.  He cares for you. Wants to touch your life.  You are worth investing in.  Identity is not found in the world but in Jesus. Your fulfillment will come from Him.  Your past doesn’t define you.

 

You Matter To Me

 

Matthew 13:44-46 (NLT)

44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.

46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

 

It seems that many people struggle with Identity – “Who am I?”

 

• Do I matter?
• Does my life make a difference?
• Does anyone even notice me?
• Does anyone really care about me?

 

I wonder how long that treasure was hidden in the field.

• Apparently the owner of the field did not put it there or he would never have sold the field
• Before he could gather the treasure, he had to buy the field.
• He had to invest in it.
• He had to make his taking of the treasure legal
• No one could accuse him of taking what didn’t belong to him.
• But he was no dummy either.
• He knew a treasure when he saw it.
• And he was willing to do whatever he had to do to get it.

 

But understand, Jesus is telling us a parable here.

• He’s teaching us something about the Kingdom of God.

 

The treasure Jesus is talking about is not money or gold.

• It’s people.
• Jesus values people.
• That’s what the Cross was all about.

 

And thru this parable He’s showing us what you have to do in order to reach people.

 

He said this man went and sold all that He had and bought a field.

• He sold everything.
• His house
• His land
• His livestock
• Everything he owned
• Why?
• That’s how valuable the treasure was to Him

 

• He understood the value of what he had found.

 

I wonder how many people walked past that treasure before the man found it.

• I wonder how many times it was walked over
• Or walked around
• Or ignored

 

• How many times did the treasure wonder if it would ever be appreciated again?
• Would it ever be of value to someone again?
• I wonder if the treasure at some point might have developed an identity crisis.
• Does anyone care about me
• Does anyone value me
• Does anyone even notice me?

 

See Jesus wasn’t talking about silver or gold

• He was talking about people.

 

Understand something…

• “Not having a strong sense of self or struggling with identity issues may lead to depression, anxiety, and other psychological health problems in addition to even physical health problems.”
• All of which lead to Spiritual problems

 

• When a person doesn’t know who they are in Christ, they have issues.
• It’s a whole other sermon, but we need to begin to figure out who we are in Christ.
• What our purpose is.
• And how much He cares for us.

 

Can I say something right here – “You Matter To Me.”

• I care about you.
• I pray for you.
• I worry about you.
• I’m not preaching to put anyone down here today, I’m preaching to lift you up.
• You have value
• You have worth
• You mean something to me

 

See, we live in a world where people are struggling to find themselves.

• Trying to discover who they are.
• What their purpose is.
• Why and if their life is significant.

 

I’m going to suggest something here for a moment.

• What I’m talking about right now may not make any sense to some of us.
• You may have had the right parents,
  • The right teachers,
  • The right mentors that have helped you in your life to find out who you really are
  • And to give you the self worth that your life needs to be fulfilled.
  • But understand most people deal with some sort of insecurity.
    •  Some sort of self worth issues.

 

And I’m not here today to really talk about our own personal needs really,

• Except to say that most all of us have them.

 

But what I hope in the next few minutes to help us understand are the needs that other people have to finding their purpose and self worth.

 

 

Now we all know that these things can really only be found when we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

• But I wonder if the people we meet throughout our days and weeks feel like they have value to us.

 

I wonder if they know how much we care about them.

 

• What have we done?
• What have we sold?
• What have we pushed aside in our own lives to say to them – You Matter To Me?
• I’m going to spend some time with you
• I’m going to take you for dinner
• I’m going to sit and listen to your story
• I’m Interested in you
• You’re not just an object to me
• You’re not just an interruption in my life

 

The man in the parable sold everything he had to get to the treasure.

• What are we willing to give up to reach the people around us with the greatest message the world has ever heard?
• Jesus Loves You.
• Jesus Cares.
• You Mean Something To Him!

 

 

Look at vs 45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.

46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

 

• How many people looked at that pearl?
• How many people said it’s not worth very much?
• How many other merchants ignored its value.

 

But to this merchant it was worth more than everything he owned.

 

• Why the difference?
• Why was it worth more to one person than it was someone else?

 

• I think they all saw how valuable it was, but only this man was willing to go out of his way to own it.

 

I wonder this morning,

• Do the people in our lives know how valuable they are to us?

 

Let me just tell you, if you don’t pay the price for the pearl, someone else or something else will.

• Again, we’re not really talking about pearls we’re talking about people.

 

There’s a saying that is a bit over used, but it is very true.

• “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
• People need to know whether or not they are valuable to you.
• This is important for us to understand if we are talking about Reaching The World.
• How are we ever going to reach them if we are not willing to sell off something in our lives to reach them?

 

In John 4 we find Jesus risking His reputation and the future of His ministry to go to Samaria to speak to a woman who had had 5 different husbands and who was living with a 6^th man at the time.

• Someone other people passed by
• Someone other people looked down on
• Abandoned 5 times
• Someone I’m sure had an identity crisis.
• Someone I’m sure felt worthless
• Someone I’m sure thought her value was zero.

 

But then Jesus goes out of His way to speak to her.

• And not only speaks to her, but ministers to her and talks to her about her life and her relationship with God.
• He let’s her know, “You Matter To Me!”

 

Do you know what she did when her conversation with Jesus was over?

• She went and told the heads of the city about Jesus.
• She went and told everyone she knew about the One who was concerned about and who knew about her.

 

This woman became an evangelist to Samaria – a place where a great revival broke out later in the book of Acts.

• Everyone else walked past her
• Everyone else ignored her
• No one else thought she had any value.
• But Jesus knew her value.
• He knew that in this abused, rejected and discarded little lady was a revival for the city of Samaria.

 

“The currency of a mentor is not money, it’s time.” – Mark Hill

• How much time are we willing to spend with that person?
• How much of our time are we willing to invest in order to bring them to Jesus.

 

We need to understand how valuable it is to other people to know that they matter to us.

• “You matter to me”

 

This world has an identity crisis going on.

• It’s wondering if it has any value
• It’s wondering if anyone really cares

 

If we’re going to reach them

• We’re going to reach them because we care
• We’re going to reach them because we’ve shown them how valuable they are to us
• How much they matter to us.

 

People aren’t interested in how much Bible we know.

• They aren’t interested in whether we believe this way or that way.
• They are interested in knowing whether or not we care about them.

 

You Matter To Me.

• Do you know what’s going to happen when the people who think they have no value to us find out that we care about them?
• We’re not going to be able to put them all in here.
• We’re going to have to go to 2 services.
• We’re going to need more ministries and ministers to meet their needs.

 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but it’s already happening.

• There are people sitting here right now who are here because someone did more than invite them.
• They encouraged them
• They loved them
• They went out of their way to let them know they have value.

 

There’s some people sitting next to some people here this morning and that’s pretty cool.

• That’s what this is all about.
• Someone saying to someone else, “You matter to me!”
• “Come share something with me that has changed my life.”
• “Come share something that is turning my life around.”
• “Come enjoy the touch of God that I feel every Sunday morning.”

 

• You have value
• You matter to me!

 

We need to realize the worth of others.

• Our pasts do not define us.
• And their pasts do not define them.

 

You can’t value them if you are judging them.

• If all you do is look at all that’s gone wrong in their life, you’ll never see what could go right.

 

When you look at others – see hope, see possibility.

• They matter.
• Stop looking at their past.
• Stop limiting their worth.
• Stop seeing what they can’t do and see what they can do.

 

Let them know, You Matter To Me.

 

 

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