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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Wyatt Allen Weekend

Wyatt Allen

Priceless Treasure: God Loves Even the Worst Sinners

Jailhouse Religion: My Personal Testimony From Prison to Pardon

In Search of the True Church: My Personal Search for the Remnant Church

All right, it's my pleasure to be here and I am glad to see every 1 of you.

As he said, my message tonight is going to be called Priceless Treasure.

Now, tomorrow morning, I'm going to be sharing a message called Jailhouse Religion.

And it's my message, it's my personal testimony.

It's my story of how I became a Christian, and how through many years, many years, Almost a decade and a half, I was incarcerated, locked up in prison, and that's where I found the Savior.

And so I look forward to sharing that story with you tomorrow and how God did many miracles along the way.

And then tomorrow afternoon, I hope you can come back as I share with you my journey into Adventism.

How I discovered that this church, of all the churches in all the world, is the church that God wanted me to be part of.

And so I look forward to sharing that message with you as well.

I appreciate the invitation to come to share with you, and I pray as I share that God would speak to you, God would draw you close to himself.

I want you to know that God loves you very much, and I believe that with all my heart.

I've not met a soul that God did not love.

Before I share, I once again want to talk to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, I want to come humbly now in the name of Jesus, asking for your grace and mercy tonight as I present about that love that you have, not just for us, but for every precious soul in this whole world.

May we truly understand the estimate that you place upon every being, upon every person that your son died for.

Use me tonight and open our ears to hear your voice in Jesus' precious name.

Back in 1963, This was shortly after JFK was assassinated.

Frank Sinatra's son, called Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped.

In fact, it was here in California up at Lake Tahoe, he was kidnapped and there was a ransom that was being demanded.

The ransom, that's Frank Sinatra's father there, the ransom was being asked for $240, 000.

Now, Frank Sinatra was a wealthy man, and so certainly he had the money to be able to pay it, and these 3 men that took the son were certain they could get the money.

Well, by the way, do you know how much $240, 000 is worth back in 1963, how much it's worth today?

Yeah, somebody I think sounded $2.4 million.

But sure enough, he pulled the money together and he worked actually with the FBI.

They actually took pictures of all the bills.

Here's the case with all the money in it.

And they delivered the money, had everything set up just right so the money would be delivered and so that he could get his son back.

Can you imagine just in that moment, Frank Sinatra, how he's feeling?

Imagine how his mother, Nancy, is feeling.

Now, Let me back up and just say, was Frank Sinatra a good person?

I mean, by anybody's estimate, the guy was blasphemous.

I mean, he was very, I mean, he made fun of Christianity.

There was nothing really holy about the man at all, but he loved his son.

In fact, he was at Lake Tahoe to get ready for a big concert of his own.

2 wicked people by Christian standards, there's still love there.

And the father was willing to put an estimate on his son.

Would he pay the 2.4 million or the 240, 000 in those days?

Now if somebody took your son and asked you for that much and you don't have it, you can't give what you don't have.

So sure enough, they paid the money and they let the son go.

She is so very happy to have her son back.

That's the question I want us to be thinking about this evening.

I'm not talking about how much money they have in the bank.

I'm talking about what value do they have in your eyes?

You know, this world doesn't really estimate us very highly.

I mean, those who teach the theory of evolution says we're simply no greater value than dust.

We're just here all random by random chance.

This man here, Ian, he goes to sell his everything on eBay, including his own life.

I don't know how much he fetched, but I did find this guy, I don't know his name, but he fetched $1 for his soul that he sold on eBay.

He got a winning bid of a dollar for his own soul.

My question is, are you worth more than a dollar?

Like, where do you stop in your estimation of how much you are worth?

You're saying you don't, you don't stop, okay.

But this world seems to convince us that we are not that valuable and we actually can increase our value by things we do to ourselves.

Some cultures tell us that you're more beautiful if you have long necks or big lips.

And we look at this in those ears and think, why would people do this to themselves?

It's because they've believed a lie that they're not amazing just the way they're created.

That you have to do things to yourself before you can become beautiful.

Now I'm not here to tease or make fun of these people.

They've believed lies, yes we believe lies too.

Maybe not this drastic, maybe not this outward, but are we more valuable than these people put estimates on themselves?

They think that this is what's gonna make them beautiful.

This is what's gonna make them looked at, be looked at and appreciated.

Now, some people do it more subtly, they think less clothes, more skin, torn jeans.

I mean, the culture defines what fashion is, and fashion is what basically says, this is what I believe I need to wear to be accepted, to be liked, to be loved.

But sometimes It's not so much what we put on as much as what we live in.

Are we more valuable if we have a mansion or a nice car or plenty of money in the bank.

For some people, it's their profession, right?

They feel like they're not going to be accepted or gifted or considered wonderful or valuable unless they have some title behind their name.

They attach their worth to what they have and not who they are as an individual, but rather some position.

And You know, those going to school here perhaps may have aspiration and ambitions.

Series

Wyatt Allen Weekend

Priceless Treasure: God Loves Even the Worst Sinners

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

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The Key to Finishing the Work

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Sound Doctrine