God’s Outlandish Value System

Reading — Luke 23.33-47

Tony Campolo tells an outlandish story about two guys who broke into a large department store undetected. While they were there, they didn’t steal anything, in fact nothing was taken. What they did do was change the price tags on everything in the store. I mean a $400 camera was $5. A $6 paperback book $1,500. An outboard motor was $7.95. A box of stationary was $275. They repriced everything in the store.

Still a more outlandish thing happened the next morning. The store opened and it was business as usual. Customers began to shop... Things went along normally for almost four hours before store officials noticed what had happened... Four hours. For four hours some got terrific bargains, while others got ripped off. For four hours everything in the store was under a false value system.

Question!... Do you find this story hard to believe? We shouldn’t... We see the same thing happening everyday. We are constantly deluged by a distorted value system. We see the most valuable things in life sold for pennies while the cheapest smut goes for millions. A book of daily quite time devotions sells for today for $6.50. And tonight a thirty second commercial on the superbowl, selling alcohol, will go for hundreds of thousands... A minute for a million. A New Testament can be purchased for less than three bucks. While the budget for a smut TV show is in the millions.

You see, we do it everyday... We change the value.

• A businessman defends his illegal practices by saying, let’s not confuse

business with religion and ethics. We live under a value system that separates

business from ethics and that’s bad.

• A distorted value system allows a man who is non-repentant to stay as the

president

of our great country.

• Politicians are controlled by money and power rather than constituency.

• A stock broker trades his integrity to peddle inside information.

• Parents trade their children for career.. Or to just keep up with the Jones.

• Preachers carry on an affair with their secretary or counselee.

• A housewife hides her addiction to alcohol.

• An otherwise highly respected church member engages in gossip and church

power plays.

• Some of us trade God’s time.... Worship time... Devotion time, for personal

pleasure time.

On and one we could go.

• Why are priceless Biblical principles trashed, while senseless human

standards are promoted?

• What causes us to elevate the body and degrade the soul?

• What causes us to pamper the skin with $35 creams, while we pollute the heart

with $4 videos?

What causes us to participate in such OUTLANDISH behavior? The answer is that our values are messed up, someone has broken into the store and changed the price tags. Cheep thrills go for top dollar, and the value of a human soul is at an all time low.

• And we have no standard of faith and practice.

Church, this is all you have to do to destroy:

• A nation,

• A community,

• A church

• Or a family unit.

• Or standard to live by.

I mean, if we all are products of evolution, then there is no reason or rhyme to our existence. Life is meaningless, and human life is worthless.

The second verse of such thinking has given us such things as:

• Homosexuality,

• Adultery,

• Abortion,

• Euthanasia,

• Infanticide.

• Assisted suicide

I mean who is to say:

• That a husband can’t walk away from his wife and children?

• That we can’t lie to and steal from one another?

• That we can’t step on one another or kill one another to get what we want?

Who is to say we can’t cheat on our taxes?

After all, it is your value system against mine. You live by your truth and I’ll live by mine. Church,

• If there is no ruler,

• No compass,

• No lighthouse,

• No absolutes,

• No truth,

• No principles of right and wrong,

• No standards,

• No correct ethical behavior,

Then all of life is reduced to weekends, paychecks, and cheap thrills. If God does not exist then everything, and anything goes, and nothing really really matters any more. Is this where we are tonight?

You see, here is the bottom line, if man has:

• No destiny,

• No duty,

• No standard,

• No truth to live by,

Then he has no worth... No Value. We are worth no more than a tree, a rock, a cat or dog.

• If there is no reason to be here,

• If we are just an accident,

Then there is no value to human life. So then spotted owls, manatees and whales are worth as much as human beings.

The second message from Satan in our world, is that worth is determined by appearance and productivity.

• We have come to accept that we have value if we are pretty.

• We have value if we can pitch a no hitter,

• Can catch a 40 yard pass in the end-zone.

• Or if we can slam-dunk a basketball.

• We are more valuable if we have a DR. before our name or Ph.D. after it.

• Our value increases, if we have a six-figure salary or drive a BMW.

You see, in our world today value is measured by two criteria, appearance and performance.

You do know where this kind of thinking, this kind of value system is leading?... Don’t you?.. Watch it... Here it comes.

• You can abort an unborn child, if it is deformed, unwanted or is

inconvenient. If it is not pretty.

• You can practice infanticide, the killing of infants, if they are not going to be a

productive element in society.

• You can practice euthanasia, the extermination of the terminally ill or the

aged, who can no longer contribute productively to the betterment of society in

general.

• If one doesn’t feel like his life is worth living, you can opt for assisted suicide.

The determination for living is made on the quality of life instead of being

made on the sanctity of life.

This kind of reasing leaves little hope for:

• The unborn,

• The disadvantaged,

• The aged,

• The uneducated,

• The ill,

• The poor,

• Or those considered unattractive.

Now I hear what some of you are saying, brother Randall, this may be how the world thinks, but not we in the church. You see, we too have been affected. We too have allowed the world to squeeze us into its mold. This kind of thinking causes us to court:

• A young, good looking couple,

• A bank vice-president,

• Or a Wal-Mart executive

Into becoming a member of our church... While a man in overalls, on the back seat, is ignored. It allows us to hug and pamper clean pretty children and reject dirty faced ones. It can happen right here in this church. And it does, and it does. Satan can change our value system . Satan has broken into the store and changed all the prices. And God is saying, Stop it, Stop it, Stop it!

Last Sunday morning we noted Jesus standing between two contrasting personalities;

• Between Simon the self-righteous Pharisee

• And an unnamed sinner, a woman of the street.

Tonight we see Jesus, not standing, but hanging between two contrasting personalities,

• Between a thief who has no intentions of repentance

• And one who has a broken contrite heart.

Go with me now to the summit of a small hill outside the city of Jerusalem.

• It’s almost noon,

• A crowd has gathered.

• A detail of Roman soldiers stand talking near three crosses,

• Some women can be heard weeping nearby.

A high ranking Jewish official walk by and says, Look at Him, He saved others, but He is powerless to save Himself... Hay there, if you be the promised Messiah, come down off that cross and we’ll believe. Hum..., Well, I guess not. And he walks on. Then a Roman soldier offers Him wine on a stick as we hear him say, if you are King of the Jews, save yourself.

Then one on the cross begins to speak, yes, if you be Messiah, save yourself and us! Then the other man has his turn. Stop it!... Don’t you fear God?... Don’t you see, we are dying because we deserve it, because we are sinners, because of our behavior, but this man has done nothing wrong. Then he turns to Jesus, raises himself up by straining against the nails in his feet long enough to get one more breath and says, remember me when you come into your Kingdom. Jesus responds, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.

OUTLANDISH!

At that moment:

• The sky goes black,

• The sun stopped shinning

• And the veil of the Temple was supernaturally torn in two, from the top to the

bottom.

I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. Pretty outlandish... Right? An outlaw, an ex-con, asking God’s Son for eternal life. I suppose the only thing more outlandish is that, as far as we can determine, the request is granted. I mean this man deserves to go to hell... Right? But he got heaven. A common thief swept through the pearly gates.

This is not the only time such an outlandish thing has happened. It happened over and over again during life of Jesus, and during the early years of the church.

• There was the adulteress woman, forgiven and told to go and sin no more.

• There was a cheating, conniving tax collector who was saved after being call

out of a sycamore tree in downtown Jericho.

• There was the town outcast, married five or six times, at Jacob’s well.

• There was the prodigal son, welcomed home, forgiven after he had wasted his

father’s money in wild and lose living in a foreign country.

• There was a self-righteous Pharisee, who was told to be born again of water

and spirit.

• There was the street lady at Simon’s house, forgiven of all her sins.

• There were the soldiers at the foot of the cross... They too were forgiven.

• Then there was Peter, who denied Him, not once, but three times yet he was

reinstated and allowed to use the keys of the Kingdom in Acts 2.

The good news is, these outlandish occurrences didn’t end with Jesus’ death or his ascension into heaven.

• On the day of Pentecost, some of those responsible for having Jesus killed were

forgiven in the act of repentance and New Testament baptism.

Not only were they forgiven they were added to God’s Kingdom, the church.

• In Acts eight a sorcerer named Simon was saved.

• In Acts sixteen a Philippian jailer was saved.

What do you suppose God is trying to tell us with these outlandish narratives of forgiveness and salvation?

• God saves criminals!

• Jesus died for sinners!

While we were yet aliens, ungodly and ugly.... While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Church, we have value, not because of what we are, how we look or what we’ve done or can do. We have value because God is and what He has done and continues to do for us. We have worth because we are twice God’s, once by creation and once by redemption. Our worth is inborn, built in. A person is worth something because he is a person created in God’s image and God died for him. That’s why a crucified crook, a thief is sweep through the pearly gates in our text. Perhaps he had heard this itinerate Galilian preach, maybe, he had witnessed his miraculous works in Capernaum. But something told him, I’ve never been in better company anytime, anytime. So he says, any chance you can put in a good word for me when you come into your Kingdom... Please.. Awe yes, the response... Consider it done.

Again we ask, why did Jesus do that? Why give this desperate desperado a place at the banquet table of eternity? I mean He was not attractive, he certainly was not productive, he was a criminal, he had no potential, he was dying.

• The woman at Jacob’s well could go tell others.

• Zaccaheus had money.

• Nicodemus had political clout.

• John Mark and his mother had an upper room.

But this thief had nothing.

You see church, God’s love never depends upon:

• What we have done,

• What we are doing,

• Or what we have the potential of doing,

Not at all. In the eyes of God we all have value, worth because we are made in His image and because He died for us. We need to catch a glimpse of this church.

Here is the bottom line of our lesson tonight, when we get down to it, none of us are worth anything because of:

• who we are,

• What we’ve done

• Or because of our potential,

But who He is. What He has done for us, and the potential we have by His living and working in us.

Church, it is not our righteousness that saved us but His. Isn’t that what our New Testament says?

• We are saved by grace through faith.

It makes me smile to think there is an ex-con walking the golden streets who knows more about grace than a thousand preachers and theologians.

No one else would have given him a prayer, but in the end that is all he had and he took advantage of it. Here it is!! If he can be save, so can I in all my ugliness and sin. No wonder they called Him Savior.

Tonight you have an opportunity, like the thief, to come to Jesus. Let Him save you. How? How can we be saved in spite of all our sins?

When the Kingdom came in Acts two, Peter said, repent and be baptized. Acts three says repent and be converted. Ananias told Saul to, arise and be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord. Paul tells us that, we become children of God by faith, for as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, have been clothed with Christ.

You see, God’s grace is extended to us one more time. One more time, each of us have an opportunity to make things right between us and God, between us and others. Will we be like this thief or will we join the world in making fun of Jesus? God’s forgiveness awaits our response... OUTLANDISH!

Randall Caselman