Kingdom Parables: Do You Know How Much You're Worth?

How much are you worth? Not your salary or your net worth — your actual value as a human being. In the first of a new series on kingdom parables, Pastor Josh used a pair of designer pants, a ten-dollar note, and a hundred-dollar bill to dismantle everything we think we know about value — and rebuild it from Genesis.

The Treasure and the Pearl

Matthew 13:44-46 — two mini parables back to back. A man finds treasure in a field, hides it, and in his joy sells everything to buy that field. A merchant finds one pearl of great value and does the same.

The punchline is simple: the kingdom of God is so valuable that when you truly see it, you'll pay whatever it costs. And there is a cost. Some Christians fall into the trap of thinking it's all automatic — God's sovereign, he'll handle it. Theologically nice, biblically wrong. God invites us into the journey. It takes sweat, blood, time, money. Jesus said take up your cross daily. What part of that is automatic?

"The question is not whether there's going to be ease or suffering. The true question is: Is it going to be worth it?"

Four Kinds of Value

Imputed value — value imposed from outside. A speaker at a recent conference told the story of his wife's Maison Margiela pants. Five hundred dollars. What makes them worth that? Four little stitches. His mother-in-law, doing the washing, saw the stitches and thought they were leftover price tags. She cut them all off. Five hundred dollar pants became school uniform overnight.

Or money itself. Pastor Josh held up a ten-dollar note and a hundred-dollar note and asked a boy named Asher to pick. He picked the ten. Maybe he likes blue. But it's all plastic — the value is imputed, agreed upon. We decide what it's worth.

Perceived value — how the world sees things. Beauty sells. A beautiful person is treated as more valuable — that's just the honest reality. Even food: Pastor Josh's wife will drive two hours and wait two hours for a great restaurant. He'll eat last night's leftovers cold from the fridge because the microwave isn't worth thirty seconds. The concept of beauty itself was completely different a hundred years ago. Perception changes. Value shifts.

Functional value — something works, so it's valuable. But only if it's useful to you. Moving from Epping to Bowral meant clearing out a house full of perfectly functional stuff. Printer, table, heater — all working, all useless to them now. Put them on the street with a sign. Next morning, most were gone. Their rubbish became someone else's treasure.

Then the question: a hundred-dollar bill or a bottle of water? Easy — the money. Unless you're dying of thirst in a desert.

Absolute value — and here's where it all turns. Is there anything with innate value? Not imposed, not perceived, not functional. Just is valuable?

"That innate value is called life."

You Were Valuable Before You Did a Thing

Baby Eleanor in the congregation — a few weeks ago she was sick and the whole church prayed. Why? She can't clean. She can't earn. Zero functional value. But if someone harmed her? Everything changes. Because life has absolute value. That's what Genesis established. When God breathed into clay and it became a living being in his image — it changed the value system entirely.

This is what Jesus keeps pointing at. Eight billion pearls. Eight billion treasures. That's how the King sees it. He saw the treasure nobody else valued and paid everything for it.

"Do you know the name tag on your soul? You will know how much was actually paid for it — it's Jesus."

The gospel maps directly onto all four types of value. Imputed: sin separated you from God, but Jesus died and his worth became yours. Perceived: we spend every day evaluating ourselves — especially in marriage, where you feel your value undermined by the way your spouse speaks to you. Pastor Josh told the story of a Korean woman, once famous for her beauty, who was burned by a stalker. She felt worthless — same person, same life, but the perception changed. Until she realized God doesn't see the surface. He sees through it. Functional: the world says you're only valuable when you're useful. But God flips it. You're already valuable — now you work. The calling came first. The walk comes after.

What Sanctification Actually Is

"Sanctification is nothing but this: what used to be valuable to you is not valuable anymore. And what used to be not valuable — through Jesus, you start to see that you value something you didn't use to value."

Even Pastor Josh's wife confessed recently that she doesn't value expensive things the way she used to. She had a supernatural talent for picking the most expensive item in any store. But as she's grown closer to God, her value system shifted. We're all created to need to feel valuable. If we can't get it from God, we chase it through achievement, association, or accumulation. That's what sin does.

Challenge: Whose Kingdom Are You Living In?

A shepherd on the Gold Coast was struggling. Someone left the church and it felt like divorce — pouring in week after week, only to be rejected. "Is it worth it?" Then the next day, a baptism. Testimonies. And the answer came back: this is why we do what we do.

The King is telling you what the kingdom looks like. But maybe you've been living in your own kingdom with yourself on the throne. Jesus is saying: come to my kingdom. See what I see. Value what I value.

There are people in this room struggling with their own value. Single and wondering if anyone wants you. Gaslit by the world about your worth. Sitting here today hearing a gospel that can change all of it. God is saying: let me show you what I know about you. Let me show you why I paid everything for you.

When you abide in Christ and carry his value system, there will be love and joy you'll never experience anywhere else. Because the world doesn't see this value. But God does.