Wearing Our Crowns: Embracing Dignity and Worth

you my friend were made to count you were made to make a difference to have an impact to make the world be a better place than it would be without you now of course I can't do that on my own you can't in The Fellowship of the withered hand on the one hand we celebrate personal inadequacy I am not able but at the same time I was not meant to work all by myself but to work together with God he can't so I think I'll let him [00:19:37]

dignity is a real important word and it has to do with that deep sense of worth and value that belongs in a unique way to every single human being as I understand it the philosopher manual Kant said that dignity is the value or the worth that a person carries that makes them Irreplaceable other objects can have a price attached to them cars worth so much a house is worth so much but not people people are an end in themselves [00:60:14]

Now by contrast the Bible teaches that every human being has dignity Irreplaceable worth because we were made by God and loved by God and Jesus would constantly teach about this sometimes in kind of humorous ways don't you know that sparrows are sold too for a penny and yet I tell you not one of them can fall from an S except that God sees and God cares so don't worry you are worth many sparrows [00:205:51]

Paul says when he writes to the church at Corinth you know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize run in such a way as to get the prize everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last we do it to get a crown that will last forever that's the enduring crown [00:326:23]

but to become the kind of person who knows God to be changed from within that's the crown that will last and then in first Thessalonians Paul writes to the people who are there for what is our hope our joy or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes is it not you indeed you are our glory and joy you are our Crown friendship relationships with other people other people in my life that I love and who love me that's the crown [00:382:19]

when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the Crown of Glory that will never fade away there's a Crown of Glory coming your way now glory is the Excellence of a thing when it exists in the Purity in which God made it where I'm standing right now a couple days ago there was a sunrise and it was one of those mornings when there were clouds dotting The Horizon and so they were pink and orange and it just made you want to sing or weep to look at it [00:466:08]

and the friend sent out a text with a picture of it that said the heavens declare the glory of God when we see great Beauty C.S Lewis wrote about this not only do we admire it love it wonder it we went somehow to participate in it to be bathed in it to be part of it and that's the promise here the Crown of Glory there will be a goodness and a moral beauty that will be revealed in you that's part of the crown and we're working on that right now [00:503:05]

and for you to be fully alive today to be awake and aware and alert and grateful and know what's going on that's the crown so this is the dignity here's the here's the invitation for today wear the crown you have great worth see when when you and I understand our worth not just affirm it intellectually but when it gets into our bones and into our hearts and into our wills and into our thoughts and into our feelings then I'm not easily threatened [00:557:09]

then my ego is not on the line then I don't have to live in fear about what other people think of me because I have dignity before God I have bestowed worth so I think if I won't use names but you a young student just beginning graduate student what you do today matters immensely you have dignity I think about you a coach who has had to struggle with cancer so that you're not able to coach anymore your words impact the lives of other people [00:587:49]

and the way that she looked at her partner the dignity that she saw in him the worth was ennobling and inspirational scrown and everybody that you come in contact with today way back in the day there was a commercial where somebody would eat a piece of bread with a kind of butter or margarine on it and then there would be this trumpet Fanfare and they would wear the crown see the crown and then give the crown [00:655:23]

when the saints are gathered around God and they lay their crowns Before the Throne an old hymn holy holy holy talks about that image casting down their golden crowns and the idea here of course it's not about you know um uh wear a gold hat it's about praise Glory admiration Wonder instead of trying to collect more and more of it I give it away I lay it down especially for God we're the crown see the crown give the crowd make today count [00:688:58]