Give it all away Part 2

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Intro:

Last week we saw Jesus tell a young man to sell everything that he owned, and then follow Him.

That encounter still makes us highly uncomfortable today.

While the call to "give it all away" in the literal sense is not something that is universally binding on all believers, including us today.

I’m not telling you that Jesus wants you to give away everything that you have

But, the truth is that following Jesus always involves sacrifice and costs each of us something.

We have to be willing to let go of whatever it is that is keeping us trapped and unable to fully follow Jesus.

One of the primary reasons that we have such a difficult time letting those things go, is not simply because we value material things too much,

but because we do not fully understand the treasure that we have in Jesus.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased." -- CS Lewis

This idea didn't start with Lewis, Jesus gave us this same idea through the picture of a parable.

Matthew 13:44–46 NIV

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44–52 (NBC): These two parables, he parable of the treasure and of the pearl belong closely together,

and they are here to illustrate to us the whole-hearted response which the kingdom of heaven requires;

no sacrifice is too great, and no other concern must stand in the way of it.

But we must notice the phrasing in which this parable is given

It’s not of a negative ‘giving up’ but of joy and fulfillment.

There is something about the kingdom of heaven which makes extravagant and radical action the only proper response.

So during this time there were no banks or safes or anyway to keep valuables safe

So what would often happen is treasures were buried for safekeeping.

The most likely circumstance envisioned here is that of a peasant who, while working the field of a wealthy landowner, found the treasure but covered it again so that the landowner could not claim it for himself.

The peasant then invested all his own resources into that field to procure the treasure.

So, stories of finding lost treasures naturally circulated among the poor;

Jesus uses the story line to stir his hearers to seek for a treasure far greater than any on earth.

The other parable was around the idea that divers sought pearls in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and some pearls could be worth the equivalent of millions of dollars.

Jesus’ hearers were probably familiar with this basic story line

So men would spend their lives and all that they had in search of these treasures

And so when we think of these parables parallel to one another: One parable is a man stumbling on a treasure, the other is a man intentionally seeking one out. 

Both share the same response, they are willing to sell everything they have to gain the one thing they desire.

"So the point of Matthew 13:44 is that the kingdom of God is so valuable that losing everything on earth, but getting the kingdom, is a happy trade-off. Or to be more personal and specific, we can lose everything with joy if we gain Christ. Don’t miss the word “joy” in this verse: “In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” The loss of all things is not sad if we gain Christ." - Piper

The problem is, many of us want to have the treasure in the field without having to let go of anything.

We think we can have Jesus and not “sell everything,” or perhaps far more dangerous, we can have Jesus but not have to give up anything.

This is primarily because of two problems.

We value what we already have far too much of.

We value what we are offered in Jesus far too little.

When we find a treasure like God’s Kingdom, the cost to follow becomes insignificant.

This means the parable isn’t so much about what we’re willing to give up to gain the kingdom but that the kingdom is worth losing everything to gain it.

Now, we must ask ourselves the question: When it comes to the kingdom of God, is our response like these of the parable?

Because I believe far too often, rather than seeing and joyfully embracing the treasure that is knowing and following Jesus, we wind up simply getting "religious".

Religion is a way for us to control God on our own terms.

You don’t really want God to be in control or a part of your life, but you also don’t want him against you, so you do what you have to do to keep him contained.

Lucy going to obedience school. When he gets in the girls way or annoying the girls say climb

How often do we tell God to climb?

God, I want you to keep me healthy and wealthy so you stay over in your corner and do that for me

And God says “I’m not so concerned about your health, I’m more concerned about your heart, how about you abide in me, rest in me, be holy like me, love like me.”

And we go, yea God that’s too much. Now you’re getting in the way

So, it’s like you put God in time-out.

Religion is where you do the minimum requirement to pay God off and keep him from being against you.

That’s not repentance. That’s not joy.

God is not interested in people who get involved in Christianity to keep him off of their back.

He is interested in those who see in him a treasure of greater value than anything else on earth and gladly leave everything else to possess him.

Following Jesus means that you may not be sure where Jesus is leading you

You will often doubt if you’ll even have the strength to obey,

But you recognize that Jesus is the one treasure you’d never want to be without.

Philippians 3:7–14 NIV

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Why is it that we struggle to see this kingdom prize?

Why is it that we struggle to live our lives like the men in the parables

Willing to sell it all to have Him

Willing to give our lives to understand Him

Willing to give it all away?

Because we give to what we value

A man who value’s his wife and family, will give of himself for them

A person who values their business, will work hard days and long hours to make it succeed

A person who enjoys a hobby will sacrifice time and money to participate in it

And when it comes to kingdom things here is the reality:

We value what we already have far too much.

We value what we are offered in Jesus far too little.

And i’m preaching to myself here,

But how silly of us, with a heavenly perspective, to love the things of this world over the King of this world

And so, the challenge of this series isn’t really for us to give everything away

The challenge is, value Jesus the way Scripture tells us to and the way He deserves to be valued and everything else is going to take care of itself.

So, yes we can sit here and debate how much you should be giving away

How much you should give to the church

How much you should serve

How much you should sacrifice

But the reality is, whatever number we put on that, is always going to be too much for you, until you value Jesus appropriately

So, until we are willing to give it all away, we aren’t going to be willing to give the right amount away

Jesus isn’t so much concerned with the dollar amount that you give

He isn’t so much concerned with the time that you spend serving

He isn’t so much concerned with the items you give away

He’s more concerned about having a people who are sold out for the gospel of Jesus and seeing His kingdom come and His will be done

So my hope and prayer is not that cornerstone would have all the money and all the volunteers and all the seats filled

My hope and prayer is that it would have people filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, who see Jesus the way He ought to be seen and valued, and are willing to do whatever it takes to spread that treasure to the world around us