A Treasure Worth Treasuring
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
All the intro stuff & change in schedule coming up.
Alright, I want to start out like this. I don’t want to show you what I’m preaching just yet…but I want to show you what inspired me to preach this message tonight…
Show Owl City Video
Our savior…taught in Parables. There’s at least a couple reasons why he did this…
To help illustrate truth once the parable was understood.
To cause those that would desire wisdom and truth to seek after it.
And our scripture today…and the the scripture this song was based on…is one of those parables. A short parable, but certainly a meaningful parable.
Let’s read it together. Turn to..
Read the scripture…
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
You know…i was just mowing when I was listening to this song…first time i heard it…and it moved me.
Why? Because every so often you need to be reminded and inspired…
And that’s why I’m preaching it tonight to you.
Look, I know that most of you in the room would say you want the treasure…that you’ve given your life to Christ and have received and are continuing to receive the reward..
I would say that about my life as well.
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to be reminded of our reason for joy…and we don’t need some good ol’ encouragement about what it looks like to have the treasure of Christ in our life.
And I think this is the perfect message to end our spring semester on…because it’s the type of message that prepares you for the summer. It’s the type of message that should inspire you to shape your summer around making sure you stay walking with Christ and building a life around him…
This is the type of message that you need to make sure the awesomeness of summer, and the possibility of so much fun, travel, time with friends, time outdoors, extra work, extra money…all the things…don’t sway you from Christ.
This is a motivating message that keeps you having the right perspective.
And i’ve got three main points for you tonight, that talk about having the right perspective.
So let’s get into it.
Title: A Treasure Worth Treasuring
There are lots of things we treasure in life and I spend half my time as a preacher and pastor trying to get you to make sure you’re treasuring the right thing.
Not fame, and fortune, and success…but the real treasure.
Treasure the treasure (v. 44a)
It’s the only true one that exists…
Now what is the treasure?
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure”
Matthew used the Kingdom of Heaven like the other gospels used the term “kingdom of God”…
Because Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, would have been received better, but means the same thing…meaning, the Kingdom under which God is the king of all the citizens…those that are in the kingdom BELONG to God.
So when Matthew says “kingdom of God” he means heaven…and he means the way to heaven…which is…the gospel. Guys, the gospel is the key to the kingdom. Belief in the life, death, resurrection of Jesus is the literal key that opens up to you the gates of the kingdom of God. Matthew is saying…entrance into becoming a citizen of God…entrance into the kingdom….essentially the key to that kingdom…is like a treasure.
And we know it’s the only true treasure…
Because scripture reveals that…
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Because if you’ve seen it…you know it.
Experientially…those of us who have tasted the goodness of the Lord, are able to tell of the goodness of the Lord…are able to feel how his will and his way…and his word feel like true color compared to the muted colors of everything else.
So we know it’s the only true treasure…but that’s not all this parable reminds of…
Not only should we treasure the treasure because it’s the only true treasure…
And God gives it to us freely…
“…which a man found”
It’s just lying there…he did not work to bury it there…he did no work to find it…it doesn’t say he was out treasure hunting…it just simply and matter of factly says that the man found it. Which means…it was put there before him and it was made accessible to him.
And I’m not preaching anything you don’t know…
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
So we’ve been reminded of what the treasure is…how it’s been presented to us…and our application is the point we’ve already stated…treasure the treasure.
Let it stir your heart…let it inspire you…
How do you do that?
1) Spend time doing it. Time out of your day. Time out of your week. One hour a day. One day a week.
2) You make sure your actions reflect your heart, and your words reflect your heart.
All things i’ve covered before and even this semester, so I won’t go any further in that…so let’s continue.
So what do you do when you’ve found it?
Know How to Handle it. (v.44b)
“and covered it up”
The man knew how to treat it. It sounds weird but he buried it…but why?
Could be a couple reasons. And I believe these reasons articulate well the two types of people who could be hearing this message right now.
1) He knew that the proper way to claim it would be. and so he was doing what he must.
You see, it was actually common for treasure to be buried back in this culture….
Explain this.
There are some in the room who may need to just know how to handle it. What’s the proper way to receive the treasure. What’s the way to guarantee that the treasure is yours to keep. If that’s you…let me tell you the way…
2) It was too vast to carry it into his own land or life.
It was such an amazing thing…such a massively big and phenomenal treasure that he couldn’t possibly carry it away…and to try to take just part of it would be not recognizing the the treasure for what it truly was!
It’s entirely possible that he recognized that this amazing treasure didn’t belong in his life…but that his life should belonged to it.
Like the song we just listened to…he says..
“And then, full of joy, I said goodbye to my shack
It wasn't much of a home, so I never looked back
And I never questioned the choice I happily made
I said I need that field, whatever it takes”
This song so accurately describes this parable…because what it describes is a treasure so amazing, so phenomenal, so vast…that it can’t possibly fit into your old life…but demands a new life..
And this statement is a statement for all of us. Do you see the connection?
Jesus is the treasure…the gospel is the treasure…belonging to God is the treasure…and it’s a treasure so vast, so phenomenal, so amazing…that it demands our whole life. Not the other way around. We don’t try to fit it into our old life…we fit our new life to it.
And so the application for us…the reminder from this parable is…
Cease the futile attempt to force fragments of treasure into your current existence—bending, reshaping, and chipping off a little bit and fitting it into your life bit by bit. Instead, let the treasure you've discovered become the very foundation upon which you build and shape your life.
To use less of the illustration and to say it as it is…
Stop fitting the gospel to your life…and starting fitting your life around the gospel.
So what does that really mean and why is that so hard to do? Because of the cost of living our life around it.
That’s our final point for the night.
Count Its Cost (v.44c)
As in…it’s a treasure worth treasuring, and you need to determine how to handle that treasure…and part of learning to handle it is understanding what it’ll cost to have that treasure.
And what will it cost?
Everything.
“Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
The cost is great.
How is it possible? How is it possible to come to the point where you are willing to sell all that you have in order to receive the treasure that is the Kingdom of Heaven?
How can we make sure we aren’t like the rich man that approached Jesus?
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
But it’s full of joy.
Think about the lyrics from that song again…shack.
How do you make sure it remains joyful? Messages like this.