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Sermon Illustrations: Value
Anecdotes
An iron bar costs $5. If you make it into horseshoes, it’s worth $12. If you make it into needles, it’s worth $3,500. But if you make it into balance springs for watches, it’s worth $300,000! Your value is determined by what you make of yourself.
Imagine a bicycle on sale at around $300. Suppose the world's oil reserves were totally exhausted, and the motor car became obsolete overnight. How much is that $300 bicycle going to sell for now? $500? $700? $1000? $1500? Whatever it is, you can rest assured that it won't stay at $300. It will now be valued at much more because, whereas before many people weren't interested in that bike, now everyone needs it because it's the only way they can get around. It's the same bike, but a value has been set on it from outside itself. Whereas previously, you might say, "You're kidding! $300 for a bike?" Now you're bragging: "Hey I got it for only $700!" It's the same with us. We are the same people whatever our works, but God has set a value on us according to His own love, and not according to our works.
Quotes
When God measures a person, He places the measuring-tape around the heart and not the mind. Augustine
If everything which a man counts valuable is on this earth, then he will leave this earth reluctantly and grudgingly; if a man's thoughts have been ever in the world beyond, he will leave this world with gladness, because he goes at last to God. William Barclay
I now value all things, only by the price it will have in heaven. John Wesley