Chuck Larsen

If you ever watched Tom Hanks in “The Terminal,” you have an idea of what it means to be “unacceptable.” He plays a citizen of Krocotia (A fictional place, I think) who has flown to New York on a personal mission, but when he checks into customs at JFK, he’s informed that civil war in his home country makes his passport invalid. To make the long story short, he ends up living in the terminal for 9 months while they attempt to straighten out the mess. Each day, he stands in line to have his application to enter New York approved, but each day, his paper is stamped as denied. The counter agent stamps his application form with a stamp in red that reads, “Unacceptable.” That happens day after day.  Having a red stamp on the application to enter New York identifies him as an undesirable person, not fit to enter the country.

If you’re like me, sometimes you feel like your application is stamped the same way: “Unacceptable.” It doesn’t take too much for us to feel like we don’t belong. But Paul, in Romans 15:7, tells us that “God has accepted” us. We are acceptable to him. But not only are we acceptable, we are valuable!

As we were cleaning out Kathy’s Mother’s apartment after her passing some time ago, we found an heirloom broach that came over from Austria with Kathy’s grandmother. It must date back before the turn of 1900. It’s not pure gold, silver, or any other precious material but appears to be plain plastic. But it’s a valuable item because it connects us to our heritage. Kathy cherished it, not because it was gold or silver but because of who’s it was.  It was valuable to Kathy, as we are valuable to God.

We are his prized possession. John, the beloved apostle, tells us in 1 John 4:4, “But you belong to God, my dear children.” The thing that makes us valuable is the fact that God loves us. It’s not because of anything natural in our character. It’s something about God’s character. Just as Israel was the object of God’s sovereign choice, so too is every believer today.

Moses explained this truth to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7:6. He writes, “The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Why did God make this choice? Moses continued, “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you.” Just as there is nothing externally valuable about the broach, there is nothing externally valuable in us. What makes us so precious is not our intrinsic value. It is only the value placed on us by God’s love. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 7:23, “You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to Him.” God so loved us that he bought and paid for us with his most precious possession, His only begotten son. Isaiah 43:4 speaks to us as well as Israel; “God says, ‘You are precious to Me.’”

Proverbs 23:7 in the King James and the New King James translation says that as a man “thinks in his heart, so is he.” This verse has been the subject of much debate by scholars, but I believe the truth is that we act out what we truly think “we are” at the deepest level. Hypnotists make a living by making their subjects act in a way inconsistent with who they really are. One Hypnotist applied his practice to four people at the same time on a stage in a crowded theatre. Each was “put under,” so to speak, and told they were a chicken, duck, dog, and cat. When he brought them out of their slumber, one clucked and scratched at the floor, one quacked and nodded his head up and down, one barked and chased a ball, and one meowed and rubbed against the hypnotist’s leg. The audience roared with laughter. When he brought them out of their state, they were all embarrassed at how they were told they behaved.

My point this morning is that Christians are often hypnotized by the world, the flesh, and the devil. We act out in ways that are truly inconsistent with who we really are. We are acceptable. Because of rejection from others in the world, we often act like we’re unacceptable. The truth is “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (See Ephesians 1:6) We are acceptable to God. We are also valuable. In 1 Corinthians, Paul focuses on that reality and tells us that we are bought and paid for by God. We are His prized possession. But because of mistreatment by the world and others around us, we often lose sight of our intrinsic value to God and act out in sinful ways. Isaiah 54:10 tells us that “the mountain and hills may crumble, but My Love for you will never end, so says the Lord who loves you.” The world, our flesh, and the arrows of Satan often cause us to doubt God’s love and concern for us, leaving us to search for love, as the song says, “in all the wrong places.” We have been hypnotized by the world, the flesh, and the devil in many ways.

Gary Smally and John Trent wrote, “We all desire relationships in which we are accepted, valued, and wanted. We desperately long for this esteem from our peers but seldom experience the “real thing.” Countless stories are written about teenagers who accept life-threatening dares in the hopes of being accepted by their peers or business people who compromise their integrity and ethics to join an elite inner circle. We read of men and women who are driven to succeed because they believe the lie that says their value is determined by the quality and level of their performance. …For the Christian, none of this futile struggle is necessary because we have been chosen by God before time ever began. We belong, we matter, we have been accepted. No longer outcasts or second-class citizens, we are part of his family.” You are acceptable! You are valuable! And you are lovable because God says so!