Get a $20.00 Bill and ask someone how much it is worth and would anyone like to have it.

Take the bill and crumple it into a tiny ball.  Ask if anyone would still like to have the twenty-dollar bill.  After they all say “me!”, Remind them that it is now crushed and wrinkled.  Ask – “Does it still have value?”  “How much is it worth now?” …  “The same as before?!”

Ask if anyone has ever found money just lying on the ground.  Give them a moment for them to tell where and what value of the money they found.  Ask – Was it clean?”  “Was it still worth the value that was printed on it when it was made?”

In the beginning, God created us in His Own image.

Genesis 1:27 – “So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”

God created us… In His image…But…

Sin (our disobedience, our not believing & trusting what God said and Who He is) caused us to become damaged and His image in us distorted.  We became crumpled just like the money.  We became dirty like the money you found.

Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
And although sin made us no longer look like God, and it caused us to be separated from God because He is Holy, it never changed our worth and value to Him.

Romans 5:8 reminds us that “But God demonstrated His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

God does not just throw us away because we are no longer perfect like Him. We matter so much to Him that Jesus came and died to provide a way back to God for us!

He offers us the gift of His grace – the gift of His image in us again through Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 2:8-10
“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works so that no one can boast.  For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”

So when Satan tries to tell you that you messed up too bad for God to ever forgive you much less love you…remember the object lesson from the crumpled money.  It never lost its value or worth, and neither have you to God.  He is our loving Father waiting with open arms for us to return to Him for forgiveness and to be made new!

Ronnie and Christie Bruce