How I Learned to Value People

People seem to be more divided than ever and it breaks God’s heart. I want to share with you how I learned to value people and build on common ground. My hope is that you will feel valued and learn to value others, and instead of dividing, you will learn to encourage people to come together. 

1. My Father’s Example
John 3:16 (MSG) says, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

The first challenge in our generation is that we’ve lost our way in the area of values. Second, because we have lost our way with values, we’ve stopped valuing people. But valuing people is essential to helping them find God. We need to learn to value everyone, not just the people we like or agree with.

The greatest advice my father ever gave me was, “If you value people and unconditionally love people, you will always have people who want to follow you.” 

My father was living a life of valuing people, and as he got older, he valued people even more. 

2. My Evangelism Awakening 
In my first little church in southern Indiana, I was introduced to a man in the hospital named Jim. I’d visit Jim every two or three days and we became genuine friends. Jim told me once he got out of the hospital, he would come to church—I was so excited. The only problem? Jim died before I shared my faith with him. This was an awakening because I realized I put the church above my faith. Coming to church doesn’t change a person’s life—coming to Jesus changes a person’s life. 

Upon viewing Jim’s body, I prayed to God, “God help me to share my faith effectively. Help me value people enough to keep them from being lost.” By the time I was 29, I had the tenth-largest church in America. I never asked for that—I just asked to value people. 

3. My Zig Lesson
As a young leader, I tried to get everyone on my team and get them to follow me. I heard Zig Ziglar say, “If you help people get what they want, they’ll help you get everything in life that you want.” Zig taught me about serving others which helped me value others. Serving others became a huge priority in my life and still is today.

4. My Hot Stove Lesson
I once hired a young leader—I loved him, equipped him, trained him, and poured my life into him, only to later discover he betrayed me. I thought to myself...instead of embracing people, I’ll hold people at a distance. After about six months, I realized if I isolated myself from people and didn’t value them, they couldn’t hurt me. But the bad news...they couldn’t help me. So I made a decision to let them in, to take the walls down. 

Value people right where they are. Don’t allow a bad experience to become a lifetime experience. 

5. My Enron Lesson
During the days of Enron, my publisher wanted me to write a book on Business Ethics. I responded, “there is no such thing as business ethics. There is just ethics. You either have them, or you don’t. If you have them, they work in business.” 

Great values are greater than any law that could pass. You can make a law in the land, but if you don’t have good values, you’ll still break it. It starts on the inside—it starts in the heart. 

Galatians 5:22–23 (TPT) “But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.”

6. My Crossover Experience
The day I realized my books were reaching non-Christians more than Christians, that became my goal, to reach lost people. Jesus was moved with compassion when He hung around lost people—He realized they were sheep without a shepherd. You don’t gain compassion for lost people in church or prayer groups. You gain compassion for lost people by hanging out with lost people. 

The closer I get to people, the more I love them. The farther away I am, the more I judge. 

7. My Jesus Walk
If you want to be Christ-like, it begins with valuing people. 

When Jesus saw Zaccheaus, He invited him to lunch. Everyone in town was appalled because Zacchaeus was a crooked man who stole money from people. They all wondered why Jesus had lunch with a crook. But that’s who Jesus came for, lost people. 

Religious people want to write sinners off—Jesus wants to write them into His story. 

This article was adapted from “How to Value People” by Dr. John Maxwell. Check out the full message here.