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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What would you do for twenty dollars?

Let me ask you this question, what would you do for $20? I have done some really stupid things when offered $20 and I am certain that some of you may have as well. I believe also that if I asked people in this room to attempt something for $20 that they would do it.

So people are willing to do a whole lot for $20, but let me ask you this… what would you do for a penny? Twenty bucks is a lot, but in our culture, a penny is almost seen as worthless. You can’t even buy a gumball with a penny!

I think we often look at people in that same way. We see some people as twenty-dollar bills—the ones who have it all together—and we would do anything to be accepted by them. Then we see other people as ten-dollar bills, fives, ones, quarters, dimes, nickels, and even some as pennies. Let me ask you, have you ever looked at people that way? You might not admit it out loud, but I bet there are some people you treat like pennies—like they are not worth your time.

It’s crazy, but Jesus came into a world full of twenties, tens, fives, ones, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. In Jesus’ time, there were people called the Pharisees, and they were the very definition of twenty-dollar bills. The Pharisees had it all together, and everybody went out of their way to impress them. There were also pennies back then, too. They were the outcasts of society, the people everybody went out of their way to avoid. If there was ever someone who could come down to this earth as a crisp hundred-dollar bill, it would have to be the Son of God. Now, listen to the crazy thing—check out Philippians 2.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8

Do you get this? Jesus came to Earth not as a hundred-dollar bill but as a penny, and a scuffed-up penny at that! When He did this, He completely changed all the rules. Now there are really only two kinds of people: Those who know they are pennies, and those who are pennies but think that they are twenty-dollar bills. I know you are thinking, “You're calling all of us 'pennies'—that isn't very encouraging.” Well, the fact is we are pennies. We all mess up, we’re limited, we’re stubborn, we get sick, we die. Set us up beside the Eternal Creator of the universe, the Holy of Holies, the Almighty, the One who holds the stars in His hand, and you have to agree—we’re pretty much pennies! But think about this for a second: The God of the universe says you are worth His only Son dying on the cross for you! Wow! So here’s the deal: If a perfect God is willing to go out of His way to love us and reach out to us, even though we’re pennies, how can we ever look at another person and think we are too good for them, or they are not worth our time?

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