What is Your Net Worth?

 

In Junior High and High School we begin asking ourselves the lifelong question, “What is my net worth, as a human?” We continue to ask ourselves this question and the only difference between a middle-aged person and a high schooler is that we picked something many years ago to hang our worth on. Now we’re either trying to convince ourselves that we’ve done well enough and we have value or we see that area fading and crumbling and we begin to feel worthless.

Well, if we try to measure our worth, what are our options, where do we go? The first, of course, is money and stuff. Even Proverbs 14:10 tells us that “The poor is disliked even by his neighbor but the rich has many friends.” So we look at what we’ve piled up and look at each other’s clothes and purchases and other things that money gives and, if we’re honest, we measure some people of higher worth or lower worth than others, including ourselves. But the question is – is that number what you’re worth? If you lose your money or possessions is your worth gone? Are all the poor of the world worthless? Well, of course not.

The other area we look at, which is insanely popular, is our physical bodies, and we measure our worth that way. Things like beauty and attractiveness but also strength or fitness, sports or artistic ability – something physical that we have is where we try to hang our worth. But is that really what you’re worth? I mean think after all that everyone, in the end, gets old, gets weak, gets sick, gets less attractive. So do we all lose our worth as we pass our physical prime? 

Something else we often hear, even from Olympians, who are both attractive and successful on the world’s highest stage, is that none of that was worth as much as the family that I have. So maybe your worth is tied up in the relationships that you have. But as an example, let’s say some cool guy wants you as his girlfriend and that gives you a sense of worth. But what happens when he breaks up with you? Are you suddenly worth less as a human? You know, we often think we are, which is why, when our human relationships of any kind crumble, it hits us so hard – because we thought that’s where our worth was and our meaning in life.

So, with these three examples and any others we look at of things in this world that we would use to measure our worth, we see that they are all false. It’s not the truth. You could take anything else you could come up with and look at people with a lot or a little and see – that cannot measure human value.

I want to give you two real measures of your net worth, according to God’s word. 

The first one is this – God created you with immeasurable value, because you were made in his image. We’re told that in Genesis 1, right at the very beginning of the bible. After God makes all the other animals and things that were just earthly, he then made something different. Something eternal, something creative – and that creativity can take many different forms, a relational being with feelings, and it was moral – able to choose to do what is right or to do what is wrong. And when God created that and placed that incredible, valuable being on this earth, you can see why nothing around here we can pile up or look to, to measure your worth!

So when I look around, maybe in a busy place, and I see all levels of wealth or lack thereof, all levels of physical beauty or lack thereof, and even the close relationships that you can observe, here is something that’s helped me. I picture a glowing ball as the eternal soul, just as a picture in my mind. This is residing – but is hidden – in every decaying body, all the decaying clothing, all the decaying wealth, all the broken relationships. The soul is the only thing that will last and is made in the image of God, that’s incredible value all around. And the rest, the trappings on the outside, is just dust on the scale of worth. So that’s the first one.

The second place to look and measure your value is this – God purchased you at an immeasurable cost, which was the life of Jesus. So here’s what I want you to think about. God makes each of us with infinite value, in his image. We then rebel against him, just as the first humans did, and we say, “No, I value the things on this earth more than you. I want to find my life, my worth, here.” When we do this, we explode our relationship with God. It’s broken, and there’s an enormous crack in our souls. Now, God could have left us there, he could have said, “Fine. Go for it.” But God looks at all our glowing eternal souls, that are chained to anchors of sin, dragging us to the bottom of hell, by our own choice. He graciously unhooks the chain of each person who will believe in him and in his love, and he hooks those chains to his perfect son, Jesus, instead of us. And Jesus is dragged down instead.

This is how God put it in 1 Peter 1:18-20 (NLT),
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

So, when you catch yourself measuring your net worth, I encourage you to go ahead and measure. But remember – it can’t be measured by anything in this world! Instead, see the eternal image of God stamped on you, hiding inside. Who cares what happens to the rest! And remember that Jesus – freely to you – but at immeasurable cost to himself, paid to ransom and heal that soul. 

Now you’re ready to answer my question – what is your net worth?