Our Father and our God, we worship You, we bless Your holy name, we give You glory, we give You praise, we give You adoration. Thank You Father Lord for who You are to us, thank You because Your eyes are upon us day and night; Father we thank You because You love us with an eternal love and that was why You sent Your only begotten Son to come and die for us on the cross of Calvary, and as we celebrate Him at a season like this, Father we pray Lord God Almighty that the reason why He came will not be lost in the name of Jesus.
Father we know You are watching us, You are watching our every move, and Father we know that even as You care for the little sparrows, You care much more for us because we are made in Your image, we are made in Your likeness and You love us with an eternal love, that was why You sent Your Son to die for us, Father we say thank You, be exalted oh Lord, be glorified oh Lord.
In this service, take Your place, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I want to appreciate our father in the Lord, the PICP for this great privilege to minister this morning, and I pray that all of us will hear the word, we’ll celebrate, our hearts will be lifted up at a season like this because of the worth and the value of salvation that Jesus Christ came at a season like this to give to us in the mighty name of Jesus.
So the topic I’ll be talking about, just an exhortation for us as we go into this Christmas season, for us to celebrate with understanding, to celebrate with joy, so that when we celebrate Christmas, we know the reason why we are celebrating. So this morning, I’m going to be talking on ‘My Worth and My Value’; what is my worth in the eyes of God? What is my worth and my value?
So what is worth? When you are talking about what I am worth, what am I worth? Sometimes we talk of worth in terms of money, in terms of material things, but this morning I’m not coming here to talk about material things; I know the people in the finance sector, and I will not even attempt to go that way because our father in the Lord, the PICP, Pastor Mbulu, Pastor Oyedeji, the people in finance talk about net worth, what is your net worth? Your net worth is the value of all your assets (I’m sorry if I miss it) minus your liabilities. So what are the assets that we have? The greatest assets we have as believers is our salvation, that is the greatest asset that we have, and that asset did not come cheap to us, salvation did not come cheap to us.
In celebrating Christmas, we know that the precious blood of Jesus was the price that was paid for us to have salvation. So we need to remember why Jesus came at a season like this, He came to take away our sins; every man born of a woman, from Adam was born into sin, into unrighteousness, and the Bible tells us that the soul that sinneth shall die.
And so we were destined for eternal damnation and death, eternal separation from God, until God in His infinite mercy, wherewith He loved us while we were yet in our sin, Christ died for us, and He shed His precious blood on the cross for we that were far off to be brought near, to become joint heirs with God, to become accepted in the beloved, to become co-heirs with God, to become children of the Most High. He said before, you were nobody, but now you are accepted, that is what Jesus Christ said.
So what is this price that Jesus Christ paid for us? What is the worth, the value, what am I worth to Him? What is my value to God? I’m worth a lot because of the price that Jesus Christ paid. You know when we sing about the blood of Jesus, the power in the blood of Jesus, we are saved by the blood of Jesus, we are healed by the blood of Jesus, there is deliverance in the blood of Jesus, there is salvation in the blood of Jesus, we sing about the blood of Jesus, Bible scholars tell us that this blood, this precious blood was shed for us in seven different ways;
The first way like we are told in the garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22: 43 – 44, Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was in agony and He was praying in agony wishing that the cup would pass away from Him, and the Bible tells us that His sweat like blood was coming out of Him; that agony was because of you, was because of me, and being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground, praise the Lord!
The second way we are told is that He was scourged 39 times; 39 times, He was whipped with – the way they described the scourge is something that has spikes so that when they beat Him, His flesh will come out with it, He was beaten with spikes with blood coming out, He was scourged in a form of whipping and He was in excruciating pain that brought out blood.
Isaiah 53: 5 tells us, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed”. So He was bruised, He was beaten that blood came out of Him.
Number three way that Jesus Christ shed blood for us: a crown of thorns was placed on His head. If you see the picture of the crucifixion of Jesus, everyone who has watched The Passion of Christ before, you’d see that crown of thorns and blood was coming out. Imagine having a crown of thorns and the thorns were piercing His head and blood was coming out. You can see what Jesus Christ went through for you and for me, are we not precious? Tell yourself, I’m precious.
Number four way that He shed blood for us is that His hands were pierced with sharp nails. If you see that picture, they put nails on His two hands, very big nails to nail Him to the cross and blood came out.
Number five way was that they put His feet together. Imagine putting two feet together like this and piercing with nails and blood came out.
Number six, His side was pierced with a big spear, and blood and water came out. Let’s look at John 19: 34, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water”.
Finally, Jesus Christ bled inside because of the rejection by His Father. At that time when He was on the cross and the sin of the world, the sin of humanity from eternity past to eternity present was laid on Him, and because God cannot behold iniquity, God turned His face away from Him and He was rejected and He bled in pain because His Father rejected Him at that moment because of us.
In Mark 15: 34, He cried, My Father, My Father, why hast thou forsaken Me? So you can see what Jesus Christ went through to give us an inheritance, to give us a place, to make us people of value, people that are valuable to Him; He went through all these because of you and because of me, why don’t you say one more time, thank You Jesus.
We are valuable because of the price that Jesus paid for us; our value is because of the heavy price that Jesus Christ paid to bring us to salvation. So when we are celebrating ‘Felix navidad’, we are doing all those things in this season, let us know the reason why we are celebrating was because God gave His best for us at the season like this so that we will not be lost eternally in the mighty name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
But in spite of this value that God has placed on us, this important value God so much loved us that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, some of us look at ourselves as nobody, we look at ourselves as worthless, ‘I’m a nobody, I cannot amount to anything’, while God has placed us high and His eyes are watching us like on the sparrow, and He’s watching out for us, He’s rooting for us, the angels are celebrating we here on earth – somebody is showing us the picture, that is the crown of thorns, He was beaten, He was humiliated, you can see the cross, you can see how He bled, He was sentenced to death, He bled and died to take away our sin, praise the Lord.
We are not grateful for who we are in Christ; our destiny in Christ, we are not grateful; we are looking at ourselves as if we own ourselves, if God did not spare His own Son but He delivered Him for us, what else can He not give us? Is there something God cannot give us? If God can give us His best, His only begotten Son, what are we looking for that God cannot give us that we are thinking that we are worthless, we don’t amount to anything? Is it because of marriage? Is it because of children? Is it because of job? Is it because of money? Is it because of employment? Is it because of connections? What are we looking for that is not making us joyful at a season like this?
When I was preparing this, the Holy Spirit was telling me some people are not happy this Christmas season, they are looking at themselves, what have I achieved? There is nothing happening in my life, I’m not anything, I amount to nothing, what am I celebrating? I’m bringing this message to let us know that we have a lot to thank God for, we have a lot to celebrate, don’t look at yourself, don’t look at your value through your own lenses, through your own eyes, look at your value the way God is looking at you very precious. Tell yourself ‘I’m precious, I’m precious to God’.
There’s a young man in the Bible who looked at himself as worthless, a dog; in fact he said to himself, how can the king send for me, a dog? How can somebody liken himself to a dog, that young man is Mephibosheth, he’s a grandson of King Saul; because of what happened to him, he was lame on his feet, he had a disability and so the housekeeper or the servant of the king took him away and he was in Debar, one obscure place, and so when King David became king, he said is there anybody in the house of Saul that I can show kindness to; they said there is one boy but he’s lame, and when the king sent for him, Mephibosheth come, Mephibosheth said in 2nd Samuel 9: 8, how can the king send for me, a worthless dog.
Are you looking at yourself as worthless? “And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am”? No dog is here in the name of Jesus. you are valuable, I am valuable to God, I’m somebody of value, I’m of inestimable value, I cost Jesus His blood, so I cannot look at myself as a dog, as a nobody, as somebody that is a layabout, no, the blood that was shed for me is so much precious, so I’m not a layabout. Say ‘I am not a layabout, I am somebody’, so shall it be in Jesus name.
The children of Israel also, in Numbers 13: 33, when Moses told the twelve spies to go and spy the land, go and look at the land that we are going into to see how the land is; ten of them came back with a bad report, they said the land is huge, the land is big, there are many giants in the land and in our own eyes, we look like grasshoppers; but Joshua and Caleb said no, we are able to possess the land because we know who is backing us, the One that was able to part the Red Sea and we saw His power passing the Red Sea, He’s able to deliver us from ordinary giants in the land. But the other ten did not remember what God had done before, they are looking at their present situation and they are saying we are like grasshoppers.
Some of us cannot remember the goodness of God again, let us just cast our minds back, the deliverances of God, the mercy of God, the protection, the blessings of God, but because of this present situation you are going through, you are saying you are a nobody, where is God, God is not available, that is not true.
You know there is this song, Victoria Orenze, she said ‘I get backing o, I no dey walk alone’, do you have backing? Who is backing you? So, I have God the Father, I have God the Son, I have God the Holy Spirit backing me up, so I don’t have grasshopper mentality; tell yourself, I don’t have grasshopper mentality, I am valuable, I’m a man of value, I’m a woman of value, because Jesus paid a price to give me value so that my head can be held high, anywhere I go, I’m a child of God. That credentials alone open doors for us in the realm of the spirit, say thank You Jesus.
I’m valuable to God because of my cost, He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son for me, so that I can become a member of His family, and an inheritor of everything possible in His Kingdom because of Jesus, say thank You Jesus.
I’m valuable because of who I am. Who am I? I am made in God’s image and God’s likeness, the Bible says I was chosen before the foundation of the world. I’m valuable because I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. I’m valuable because Bible says I am engraved in the palm of His hand; when God is looking at His hand, He’s seeing me. I’m valuable because His eyes are always upon me much more even than the sparrows.
I’ll give a testimony; many years ago, more than 10, 15 years, I traveled to Israel and to Egypt for pilgrimage, so we were privileged to climb to the tip of Mount Sinai; because of the steepness of the climb, we climbed all through the night and it took several hours to get to the top of Mount Sinai.
You’ll find a small stone and a very big stone, it was very steep, at a time, I could not continue, so I had to get a camel to part of the way until it could no longer go; so we climbed to the top of Mount Sinai, we saw the sunrise in the morning, it was an awesome experience. But when I got to the top and I was praying, I was in awe, as the sun was coming out, it was as if I saw a big eye looking at me and this song came to me, His eye is on the sparrow and I’m looking at you’, praise the Lord!
And so everywhere I go, I have this confidence that God is looking out for me; His eye is on the sparrow and I know He’s watching me, He’s watching you, His eye is upon you, wherever you go, whatever you are going through, He’s watching you; and He’s watching you not so that you can fall, He’s watching you so that even when you want to step your foot on the stone, He will not allow that foot to be steep on the stone. He’s watching you so that when evil is coming, He wades off the evil. He’s watching you so that He can make provision for you even before you know you have a need; the provision is already made available even before the need arises, that is how awesome our God is, why don’t you clap for Jesus.
I’m valuable because of what I can become, because this is not my bus stop, is the journey still far? I’m valuable because even God is taking you by the hand and He’s taking you to that place of destiny, so don’t look at your present situation as if nothing can come out of me, I’m a dog, I don’t amount to anything, no, you are valuable to God, His eye is upon you and He’s taking you to the place of your destiny, and you will get there in the mighty name of Jesus.
Why do I say that? Because He told us in Jeremiah 29: 11, He says He has a great plan for us, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”. So what is that thing that you are expecting? God says I am thinking about that thing you are thinking about; if it is in the will of God, He says, I’m also thinking about it, so don’t count yourself out, don’t write yourself off, celebrate this Christmas with confidence like Victoria Orenze “I get backing”, I know who is backing me up, Satan, you are joking, why?
This present situation is just temporary because God is giving me an expected end, so I’m going to celebrate this Christmas, I’m going to come this evening for carol service, I’m going to celebrate the fact that I’m somebody of value, I’m somebody that Jesus Christ came to die for to give me value, praise the Lord!
Why am I celebrating? Isaiah 43: 4, you can see how precious we are, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life”. He says you are precious in my sight; it’s not only those honorable in Abuja o, tell yourself I’m honorable, and I have loved thee, therefore, even when you are supposed to die in an accident, God will allow somebody else to die because He says I will give men for thee, and He will give other people for your life because of how precious we are, so shall it be in the name of Jesus.
How then do I reciprocate this love? This value that God has placed on me, how do I say thank you? How do I appreciate Him because of this value, this investment of God in my life? I need to show God I’m an asset and not a liability; I’m an asset to Him and to His Kingdom because I appreciate what he has done for me; one of the ways to do so is to be a soul winner. This season of Christmas, it’s not about eating the rice and the chicken alone, but we also need to tell somebody even if it is only one person.
The wise men, when they came to honor Jesus when He was born, the Bible tells us that they brought gold, frankincense and mirth, they brought gifts; so we are not only bringing gifts of money or dancing or celebration, this season, to appreciate Him for giving us value, for giving us Jesus, let’s also give Him a soul, even if it’s one soul this season to say I treasure what You have done for me and I know the reason why You came is so that none should be lost so that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
So this season, what I’m going to do is that I’m going to give you a soul, how many of us will give Jesus a gift this season? You are going to give Jesus a gift of a soul, one soul; even if it’s to send message on your family WhatsApp platform, on your school WhatsApp platform, to send a video, to send something, just share this good news that Jesus Christ did not just come so that we can – that baby became a man up to 33 years and He shed His blood for us on the cross of Calvary to give us value, to give us worth so that we can also bring others to the kingdom.
That is the value that we can bring to the table, the Lord will give us grace to do so this season, before the end of the year, one soul, one or more to say thank You for saving my soul, the Lord will give us grace to do so in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number two way we can reciprocate this love as this year is going out is by the lifestyle that we live, the kind of life that we live; it’s easy for everybody to say I’m born again, in Lagos, everybody is born again now, even the cars are born again but how come there are churches everywhere and the society is still corrupt? How come all of us come to church, we go for programs, the whole town is full of programs but the society is still corrupt, what is going on? It means that we are not walking the talk; it means that our lifestyle is different from what we are professing; it means we are naming the name of Christ but we are not departing from iniquity. So our lifestyle should tell Jesus this season, You did not die for me in vain, I’m going to change; I know I claim to be born again but my life is not showing that I’m born again, I’ve gone back, I’ve backslidden many years ago; I don’t find pleasure in reading Bible, I don’t find pleasure in praying, I don’t find pleasure in coming to church, I’ve gone back; this season you can return to Jesus as a gift and say I want my life to be pleasing to You, the Lord will give us grace to come back to our first love in the mighty name of Jesus.
What else can I do as this year is winding down and as we celebrate Christmas? We need to be sober, we need to be reflective, we need to appreciate God and then we plan for tomorrow. You have a sense of self-worth, I’m important, it’s not until you have a title that you are important, you are important because of Jesus; so don’t go around trying to hide, trying to have a low self esteem as a nobody, no, you are somebody precious to God; you have a spirit of ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’, why? Because I have backing, I’m not walking alone, tell yourself I’m not walking alone.
You are very special to God, chosen from among the billions of people on this earth, and Bible says we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; let’s look at 1st Peter 2: 9, the Bible is telling us who we are, if we don’t know, let us know who we are, people of value, people of worth, people that are precious to God, so where you see ‘ye’, put yourself, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”.
I am chosen, I’m precious, a royal priesthood – a priest ministers to God in prayer, ministers to God in the study of the Bible, that is who I am; I’m holy, that is how I can thank God for sending Jesus to me, it’s by being holy; He says I’m peculiar, I’m not ordinary, I’m special, why? So that I can show forth the praises of Him who called me out of darkness, who shed His blood for me so that I can come into His marvelous light.
So I’m very special, I have a mark of royalty, I’m not ordinary, so don’t look down on yourself because things are not working for you today, as long as you have Christ, your tomorrow will be alright, praise the Lord!
What do you need to do? You need to show gratitude for where you are now. I’m not where I want to be, but I’m not where I was, I’ve moved; how many of us moved this year? We’ve moved forward; so where you were at this time last year is not where you are now, God has moved you forward, whether spiritually, financially, emotionally, in your family, your children, you did not pay any hospital bill this year at all, you did not sleep in the hospital, no hospital admission, you did not bury anybody this year, you did not pay any undertaker this year, you are alive today, we need to thank God for where we are now and it’s all because of Jesus.
And then what do we need to do? We need to be positive about tomorrow; even in the face of hardship, the disappointment, whatever we are going through, we need to be positive about tomorrow, why? His eye is on the sparrow and He’s watching you, He’s watching out for you, He will not allow you to fall, He will not allow you to be stranded, He will not allow you to lack, He will not allow you to be sick, no diagnosis of cancer, no diagnosis of any form, why? Because you are special to God, you are precious in His sight, praise the Lord!
As the choir will come forward, we’ll just take a song and then we’ll begin to make some confessions, and that song is a song that we all know from that Bible passage that we just read, ‘I’m a chosen generation’; let’s all rise up to our feet and we want to make a confession of who we are, 1st Peter 2: 9.
[Altar call]
All of you should make this confession; say I’m special, I’m valuable, I am loved, I am not confused, I am not stranded in life, I am not walking alone, His eye is on the sparrow, He’s watching me, He’s looking out for me, He’s meeting my needs, God gave His best, He gave His only Son for me, there is nothing He cannot give me; go ahead and ask Him those things that you want Him to give to you; if God can give you His best, there is nothing that He cannot give you.
Begin to ask Him, He’s listening; He’s eye is upon you and His ears are attentive to you, begin to ask Him; if you can give Jesus your best, there is nothing that you cannot give me, begin to pray now.
