Wanted: Dead or Alive (a sermon)

In the old western movies you always knew someone had done something terrible when their face showed up on a poster that said “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” And usually there was a reward offered to anyone who could bring the person in.

Most everyone desires to know that they are wanted. Not necessarily the kind of “wanted” that would put them on a poster with a bounty on their head! But everyone desires to know that they are “wanted” as in valued.

Did you know that people are valuable to God and to Satan? When we understand what makes us valuable to God we begin to learn the value of every other person on earth as well. And we begin to value our Saviour...

People are extremely valuable to Satan because:

1. Satan can’t create, but people can pro-create for him

Isaiah 45 - God made all things. That leaves Satan out of picture. There is no other being that can create something out of nothing.

Satan can swell the number of beings in his rebellion by encouraging sexuality beyond its intended parameters. Can’t you see how everything from chewing gum advertisements to clothing styles keeps our sexuality in the forefront of our minds? Some, religions even, call it a sin to use birth control methods. (multiply!)

Among believers, Satan still manipulates our procreating ability by keeping the Christian parents too busy to train their children to resist Satan. By surrounding the children with influences that have nothing to do with the reality of God (video games, cartoons, sports...) the children are less likely to ever seek to know who God is or even think about Him. Satan can easily put them in touch with just the ones who will train their minds for his purposes. In this way Satan can vicariously “create” just the people needed to fulfill his plans. We’re a commodity.

2. Satan can cause hurt/pain, even death to a part of God through people

In order to forgive our sins, God has to deny His feelings of hate for sin. In a small scale I relate to this in remembering how I had to deny my feelings of repulsions about my Grandma’s gangrenous bedsores in order to clean them out and put the dressing on. It cannot be pleasant for God to see all the horrible things we do to each other; all the terrible results of our rebellious lifestyles; the chaotic, cruel world that has come to be because of our disregard for His laws of love and life. But He still looks on this ugly scene with compassion and deals with our sins. He swallows down the cup of His wrath in order to forgive us and make a way of escape. It kills a part of God. You know that He died for our sins.

For all of eternity God will carry the marks of His suffering. He promises us that He will wipe away all tears from our eyes. But He says of Himself:

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” Isaiah 49:15,16

Speaking of the time when we will be in Heaven the prophet Zechariah wrote: “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” Zechariah 13:6

For eternity God will miss those people who chose to never see His face again. Satan values people as a means to cause God eternal pain and heartache.

3. Satan can transform anyone of us into his agents; we’re so vulnerable

We are valuable to Satan because we are such pushovers. It doesn’t take much to tempt us. A nice fatty meal and an entertaining TV show and we are guaranteed to be useless to God for the rest of the night. A few disrespectful words and a frown from our spouse can tick us off for the whole day and spread the ugly attitude to everyone we come in contact with.

We are valuable to Satan as his agents to spread lies, negativity, judgmental thoughts, irreverence, dirty thoughts and just about anything else Satan wants us to do, often without even realizing it. We are no match for his trickery. He deceived Eve, and he can deceive us. That’s scary to think about, isn’t it!?! Praise God for the armor of God and the Holy Spirit! We’ll look at this more...

Bottom Line: We are wanted by Satan because he can use us for his selfish desires and plans. He wants pawns for his worldwide game of chess. He cares not whether we live or die, as long as his purposes are being carried out.

People are extremely valued by God: (how do we know? because...)

1. We were created by the God of the universe!

Think about it, when God created Adam and Eve, was somebody there twisting His arm? Did God HAVE to make us? No, He wanted to make us. He wasn’t following some manual for creating... ok, step 4... oh, gotta have a man to take care of the plants and animals - a gardener and zookeeper. No, God made everything for man. His goal in creating the earth was to make a place for the people He wanted to create. He had us in mind all along. We were a “planned pregnancy.” He desired to create us. He WANTS us!

Think of it! The God of the whole universe, the owner of every star and galaxy in the universe, the Lord of thousands times ten thousands and thousands and thousands of angels, the Ruler of an unknown number of worlds... He wanted to create you. Now that puts value on you that nothing else in the the world could!

If an ugly old painting that is just a bunch of dark blue and mustard colored dots swirling around in a formless mass, is worth millions of dollars because some man by the name of Vincent van Gogh painted it, then think how valuable we must be since we are created by the Almighty God, Creator of all that exists!

2. We are redeemed by the Son of God - Jesus Christ

Isaiah 43:1-7 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine...vs.3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour... vs.4 Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you... vs.7 everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” Fear not, forI have redeemed you.

We are so valuable to God that He sent His beloved Son, His second self, to redeem (exchange, buy back) us from Satan. John 3:16,17

Jesus claims us as His own. He wants us! Philippians 3:12

One of Jesus’ last prayers to His Father was “that they may be with Me where I am” John 17:24 He wants to be with us! We are valuable to Him.

3. We are being transformed by the Holy Spirit into useful, awesome people

God sent the Holy Spirit to make us His heirs: those who will inherit eternal life; rather than let us be the disposable pawns of Satan. Galatians 4:67

Because He loves us, God sends the Holy Spirit to wash and renew us, transforming us... Titus 3:4,5 God could have started over! But He values us enough to patiently work with us. A typical Iowa farmer has a farm dog. If the dog chases the chickens instead of rats, and digs holes in the yard, and barks all night, the typical Iowa farmer will get rid of the dog and get another one. Typical Iowa farmers only value dogs as working animals. If they don’t perform correctly they are out! But when God works with us, He doesn’t start over. He retrains the “bad dog” - He doesn’t just get a new one. He takes the time to teach us and show us a better way, to train us up into beautiful, useful people. He loves us to much to just get rid of us and start over.

The production of the Holy Spirit, the result of His work in us, makes us loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, good, faithful, meek, temperate people. God values us so much that He sent the Holy Spirit to remake us to be useful and awesome people, if we will let Him! This is just the opposite of being vulnerable to Satan. We’re in God’s hands here. The God who wants only good for us.

Bottom Line: We are wanted by God because He enjoys blessing us, and giving of Himself to us, and training us into a never-ending life of purpose, adventure, and joy.

We have seen that we are the ones who are wanted: dead or alive. God wants us; He values every person. Even Satan wants us, for his own plans of course; nevertheless he values every person.

So how valuable are people to us?

Do we value people as Satan does? Are they valuable only as much as they fit into our plans? Or do we value people as God does? Are they valuable to us because they were created by the God of all the universes? Are they valuable because they are people we can bless? people to give ourselves, our time, and our affections to? people to teach and train into the never-ending life of eternity with God?

In closing:

I thought of Someone else who was “wanted: dead or alive.” It was Jesus. The Pharisees wanted Him dead of course. And the disciples wanted Him alive so that they could sit next to Him on His throne. But there was one person who wanted Jesus dead or alive - that was Mary Magdalene. When Jesus was alive she wanted Him; she wanted to be near Him and listen to Him. She wanted to serve Him by washing His feet with precious ointment. Remember when she sat weeping by the empty tomb after Jesus died? She told the supposed gardener that she wanted His body so she could care for it properly. She wanted to serve Him even when He was dead. She wanted Jesus dead or alive because she valued Him as the most important Person in her life.

Do we value God that much? Is He the most important Person in our lives?

May we accept the value God has placed on us, and the value He has placed on every other person on earth.

Father in Heaven, we barely comprehend how valuable we are to You. I know Satan would like to destroy this knowledge because he knows that when we feeling unwanted by You we will turn to him for belonging and feeling wanted. Please point out the evidences of the value You place on us. Please convict our minds of this truth.

And may we learn this not merely for our own sake, but for the sake of every person on earth - that we may value them as You do, and live accordingly. We ask in Jesus name, amen.